Would ya look at that

Looks like we might be in for some icky weather. We do need the rain though.

Hey! Did I show my finger where I burned it on the top element in the oven? This is three weeks later. I don't think it's ever going to heal.
What? You don't care about that junk. You want to know who the winners are? Huh! Okay, be that way.

The winner of the cat apron is..... Are you ready for it?
Can you read it? It says Annie! Congratulations Annie!

Now the hand attached to that terribly hairy arm reaches in for the mystery suprise winner....
Can you read this one? It says...Mona! Congratulations Mona!

Send me your address ladies. My email is in my profile. I'll get these marvelous gifties out toot-sweet.

Thank you everyone that played along. Don't give up on winning. June's give-away is just around the corner.

P.S. Somebody please send Nair.

Better late than never give-away

It seems like I promised a give-away and then promptly forgot about it. Shame on me.

This one's going to be quick with the drawing to be held tomorrow, 5/31 (I'm trying to stick to the once a month thing).

Up for grabs, one very cute (if I do say so) cat themed apron. One side is cats of all different colors and the reverse is "Meow" in black on white.


The next goody is just a little something from the sewing room. It could be a spool of thread, a package of needles, or a whole box of stuff. I'm not sure yet, but don't let that keep you from entering.

Now, go leave a comment so we can put your name in the drawing.

Thrifty fun stuff

My neighbor across the street had a garage sale a couple of weeks ago and I picked up these pieces of silver hollow-ware for $5.
These two pieces match.
This one is really heavy.
This one is destined to be a pin keep. See his crooked little bottom.
The same garage sale and $1 later, I brought home this mirror and brush. I think the handles are celluloid or something similar.

I found this sweet old suitcase at the thrift store. The lady checking me out said I'd probably need to put grey tape on the handle. I kind of chuckled and told her I'd probably leave it alone.
I'm sure I can find something to store in it.
Everyone needs one of these. I think I'll make a new liner, one that's not quite so shiny. Right now it's holding prewashed fabric. Wouldn't it be cute holding a bunch of old aprons or table cloths.

Sew-a-thon results

I wish I had more to show you. I feel like I spent most of my time fussing with the serger or picking out stitches. I emptied two spools of thread and that made me feel like I accomplished a little bit.

This is the little quilt I made to practice free motion quilting. The good news is, it's not my machine that's the problem. It's me and I just need to practice.
Quilt along week 5 block. This is my least favorite block. It gave me ten kinds of fits. I also sewed up 5 more joining blocks for the Seeing Stars quilt. Now I've got one joining block for each star block and feel caught up.

I can't show you the apron I finished, because it's going to a friend and she might visit.

I drafted pattern from an apron I picked up and started sewing it together. It's nearly finished.

I didn't get to the baby blanket or the many other things I wanted to work on. Somehow 12 hours of sewing just isn't enough.

A sewing I will go

Careful orchestration and a little bit of luck came together and I have the whole day to sew and craft. With any luck I'll have tons of stuff to share this evening.

The clock starts now: 8:30

Have a great day!

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig

I hope everyone had a happy, safe, and enjoyable Memorial Day.

This little fellow was a frequent visitor at our campsite.Heading out to do some fishing.Just look at the concentration on his face.Lookie there! A walleye.Back at camp a flowering weed growing in the brush. We had a good time for the most part. It was too hot, too windy, and too crowded. We would have had a much better time if Sir Pukes Alot and his band of Foul-mouthed Fellows hadn't been parked next to us. At one point DH went and told them to get quiet. Oh well.

Mom and I got a bunch of bird watching done and lots of visiting. We both read until we ran out of books. Tragic!

We're glad to be home.

We're off!

Well, not quite. DH still has to come in, have a shower, and hook up the boat. Then we're off.

We're going to the lake for the weekend and hoping to do a bit of relaxing (me, not him) and a lot of fishing (him, not me). We took the trailer up last night and dropped it and my mom off. Poor mom, abandoned for the night and a day. I hope she's loving the peace and quiet.

I want to wish each of you a safe, happy, and festive Memorial Day weekend. See ya!

Quilt along week 4

I used two of the new fat quarters that I picked up last Saturday. I've almost given up trying to get points to meet correctly. This one seemed really bulky in the center.

Oklahoma in my laundry

When DH put these on last night at 8PM they were brilliantly white. So white they made your eyes water.

This morning, they're a lovely terra cotta color. Good old Oklahoma dirt color. How they got in this shape involves a 15 foot hole, a 12 inch water pipe, a geiser, the hours between 10PM and 2AM, and a striptease in the backyard. I dunno, I was asleep.

This stuff has invaded my laundry. I don't care for it and I can't seem to get rid of it. It stains anything within it's grubby reach. I've bleached, pre-soaked, and still it has it's death-grip on my husband's socks.

I need a wiser woman to tell me how to get Oklahoma out of my laundry. That, or where can I buy socks by the gross?

Working on current projects

I finally got this quilt in the frame and have started hand-quilting it. Until I get my machine figured out, machine quilting is out of the question.

I've printed off the new block in the quilt along, but I haven't started it yet.

It seems like the days are going so fast. Before I know it I'll be back in class (June 3) and won't have much time to work on stuff.

The good news is that my house is still clean from the great cleaning binge.

Field Trip

We went on a homeschool field trip this morning to the local air and space museum. Unfortunately, most of my pictures are a big fat blur. I think it had something to do with the sensors along the ceiling and the lovely blue floor. Of course the lighting might have something to do with it as well.

Adventures on Saturday

I received a gift card to Hobby Lobby for graduation and it was burning a hole in my pocket.Now I have a few new toys. I picked up the fat quarters for the Stars Quilt-along and the larger cut is for the backing.

Mom and I were dropped off at Hobby Lobby while DH headed for Bass Pro. Now you know that's going to take a while. Once we were done at HL, we strolled down to Hancock Fabrics to see what kind of trouble we could get into. We finished there and still no husband so we walked out to the plant sale in the parking lot. Mom found two gorgeous hanging baskets and I found a banana pepper.

I finally just called him to see where in the heck he was and when he would be around to pick us up. A little bit. That was my answer. We ladies ended up waiting in front of an empty store, visiting, and admiring our purchases. To be fair, he lost a lot of looking time driving across town and back. Still, I think next time, we'll drop him off and then go shopping.

Enjoying my time off

This morning the boy and I finished up his math for the year and then spent the rest of the morning outside. We filled bird feeders, talked, and admired flowers.

The daylilys are starting to bloom. Those two white buckets contain baby trees started from seed. One is an Oak of some sort and the other is a Black Walnut genetically modified to grow fast at some college up North. My memory is bad today and I couldn't tell you which college if my life depended on it.

I have onions, squash, cucumbers, peppers, and radishes up from seed. My little tomato plant has tons of grape tomatoes on it right now.

After lunch we went down and did a few honey-do's for my mom and then ran around for a bit.

Right now I'm listening to DH work on the boat. It appears to involve a bunch of hammering, stapling, and swearing. I don't think I'm going to see what's up. I'll just stay right here.

Enjoy the day. It's been a beauty.

Quilt along - setting/joining blocks

This is what I chose for my setting blocks. One block down, eleven to go.

I had trouble cutting straight for some reason (I think I have a warped ruler) so I ended up cutting stacks of four blocks at a time and then sewing them together. It took me forever, but at least they're straight.

Other happenings...I'm changing my Etsy shop name once everything up is expired. I have a new name registered and no product. This time around, I'm making enough stuff to stock it before it ever opens. Exactly what I should have done last time.

Before this month gets away from us we need to have another give-away. I'm thinking two prizes to commemorate graduation. Sound good?

I hope you all had a great week and are looking forward to the weekend.

Quilt along week 3

I noticed that Amanda Jean has the joining block directions up so I printed them off. I haven't decided what I want to use yet for the colored pieces. I suppose I could go ahead and cut out the background pieces.

Hello world

I had the day off from any kind of obligation other than to myself and it has been marvelous. I'm rested, relaxed, and ready to tackle the world tomorrow.

I still plan to share pictures and stories from graduation, but I need to stew on it a bit more.

Mom and I hit the garage sale to end all garage sales on Friday. Oh my goodness at the goodies. Looking back, I wish I'd bought more, but that would have broken my new rule. Any new stuff has to tell me where it's going and what it's purpose will be or it doesn't come home.

This bed told me it would like to live in my downstairs guest room.

I also picked up these two picture frames, two small saucers (not pictured) and the glass relish plate. I love dishes like this and use them so I didn't feel bad bringing it home. Ditto with the picture frames. I have my parent's wedding picture that I think will fit one of them.
Until today I had avoided being bitten by the tea cup bug. I found all three of these today as well as the pretty table cloth.

This cute little table needs some TLC and then it's going to live in the upstairs guest room. I love the shape. We saw this Saturday afternoon at the thrift store and I didn't get it. This morning I went back and I could hear it calling me when I walked in the door.

This pretty fabric was found at the super sale on Friday. There's a full yard of the pink and almost a full yard of the blue.

The new quilt-along block is up as are the joining blocks so I guess I'd better print them off and get busy.

Or, I could go caress my new tea cups. Real live bone china. It's a beautiful thing.

Happy Mother's Day

I want to wish all of the mothers out there a very happy Mother's Day. I hope your day has been wonderful.

To my mother, thank you so much for all of your help and encouragement over the last 41 years. I love you.

Quilt along week 2

Week 2 is done.

I finished this one up Thursday night. Again, I truncated a couple of points, but I'm not going to worry about it. This is my point learning quilt.

I'm gradumacated

Hey, that's what the card says.

Seriously, it's all over, but the company going home. I'll have a few pictures once I get them downloaded.

For my next degree, I think I won't walk. It's just too hard on this old woman.

Company is coming! Company is coming!

One if by land, two if by sea.

Okay, I'm over it. Seriously though, the first bunch should arrive sometime tonight and instead of posting to this silly blog I should be scrubbing bathrooms. (Hi, Mom!)

My mother has been over every day this week, whip in hand (joking), to help me get ready. More than anything she's helped keep me motivated by just being here and visiting while I cleaned.
Here's the dining room from H-E-double hockey sticks. You can see the top of the table and the floor. It's amazing!

I must say, with the exception of the computer room and our bedroom, my house is sparkly clean and I love it. Now I just need to maintain it.

Speaking of sparkly, I noticed a slug trail in the laundry room this morning. That makes two mornings this week. Ugh! I really dislike slugs.

In crafting news, there isn't any. I haven't done my star block yet for week two. Maybe I can do it tonight if I get the bathrooms done and shopping completed.

We got about 3-1/2 inches of rain over the last couple of days. I'm glad to see it since that means I don't have to water. I'm worried about graduation day though. I'm praying it doesn't rain then.

Okay, I'm off to scrub toilets. Don't I lead a glamorous life?

The ugly pot

Isn't really a pot. It's a jardiniere minus the base.

I always called it the ugly pot and loved it as a kid. I'd never seen anything so exotic looking. I would sit and look at the colors and the cobalt blue was always my favorite. For as long as I can remember, the neck has been held together with wire and the chip in the rim has always been there.

My granny had this pot in her closet, probably to keep it safe from kids. We kids would get into the closet and sit on an old army footlocker stacked with quilts and pretend we were riding a train. This pot was where our train tickets were deposited. Such imaginations.

Mom told me that she could remember it being on her grandparent's farm when she was a little girl.
The bottom is marked T.F. & S L(d) England.

A little sleuthing on the internet told me that this was the mark of Thomas Forrester & Sons Ltd of the Phoenix Pottery, Longton, Stafford-
shire (1883-1959). Piecing together what little we know about it, Mom and I think it's probably from the late 20s to early 30s.

The ugly pot proudly sits on the treadle of my granny's sewing machine. To say it's fragile is an understatement. While dusting it the other day I noticed that the entire bottom is loose and could come off at any time. Over the years bit and pieces have come loose from the sides and so I try to handle it as little as possible. I fear that one day I'll go in and the entire thing will have crumbled to dust.

It's only Monday

The house cleaning saga continues. At a quarter to 10, I'm finally done in the living room. I told you it was going to be a floor to ceiling affair. I'm tired. I'm about to head downstairs and give the living room down there a quick once over.

In other news, the Baltimore Orioles are becoming less shy and visiting more frequently. I still haven't seen a single hummingbird.
Oh yeah, I finally got my little garden in too. Two kinds of onions, two kinds of squash, two kinds of peppers, radishes, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I can't wait.

Sleep well for tomorrow we tackle the dining room from H-E-double hockey sticks.

Busy, busy

Company cleaning has begun. Graduation is in 6 days.

Mom came over yesterday and helped me clean the upstairs guestroom and add a few things in the downstairs guestroom. Mom even did my dishes and loaded the dishwasher. I feel so bad when my mom does stuff like that. By the time we were done I was pretty whipped.

Today I've spent the day in the laundry room, catching up on laundry and cleaning. DH has almost all of the patio furniture painted. He power-washed the patio this afternoon and now the concrete is sparkly. Somehow, this just wasn't on my high priority list, but he feels like he did a good thing so who am I to complain.

Tomorrow the living rooms are being tackled. I'm sure it's going to be a blast. Floor to ceiling drudgery is more like it.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday.

Baking on Saturday

This is the last of the embroidered towels. I'm kind of sad to be done.

Yippy! It's Fiday

What's more special than Friday? Why a Friday with no "r" that's what.

Could it possibly be our missing "r" that Ms. Ducky is cleaning?