Perpetuating the lie...........

there is a nasty rumor that it is always raining in Washington state....it is true...........or at least a lot of Washingtonians would have you believe...well not a lot but maybe some.......we have been here almost 19 years and it has grown by leaps and bounds since we have been here :) And in an effort to keep more people from moving here...well someone must have started the lie cuz there are days like this too...wish I could have caught the blue of the sky cuz this isn't even close....it was a beautifully blue...tried to fix it on some software but couldn't catch it with that wtithout making it look way fake...so trust me on how blue it was

Instead of enjoying the sun outside I have been playing in my room.....I can see the sun does that count????
Had a friend who wanted me to do a blanket with the name of her great niece? to be...she bought so much extra material that I made a couple of burp cloths too

had to include all of the bunny to make it count

and then sewed these together...using a handy dandy binding tool.......or at least that is how you make the strips and then sew them together...I am such a non-waster of fabric that I couldn't cut off the top and bottom to make a straight line.....so my ingenuity kicked in and I sewed the two strips together and then cut them from that.......so that there are straight edges without any wasted material....aren't I clever?

tomorrow want to get some material for the strips in the middle and sides.............oh and just had a binding idea..........yikes my brain isn't gonna sleep tonight :)

Completeness...

Well it is finished...took the final stitches yesterday sewing the binding down by hand after I had put the serpentine stitch around the binding but it didn't totally put it down...so I hand stitched the thing down too.....

back of the quilt............where you can see the embroidery

Here is Reese...boy she needs a haircut but don't want to give her one.............took this as a before picture so when her locks do get cut off she will look like a totally different dog

Sweetness...

Had a friend over and she helped me take pics of the puppies today...they are 3 days old today....and we got this sweet picture...love how mom is checking out her baby and making sure all is well....

here are all of them....don'tcha just love a bite or two of chocolate????

seeing as I already did two posts will wait till tomorrow to show the finished 'class' quilt...just have to sew down the binding

Befores and Afters

It is officially feeling like spring today.....well kinda sorta...supposedly it is the warmest day of the year so far...I have 56 degrees on my thermometer but am sitting inside where it says it is 62 and I am cold...ha...and for the "ice queen" that is not normal :)
Working on my website and figured I would post these before and after pictures of the dogs faces before they got cut and after they did....they were really getting scruffy and I had hurt my knee so took them to the groomer to get a new doo...
Lucy with her top covering her eyes :)

wow she does have beautiful eyes when you can see them :)

now talk about no eyes...not sure Zoey has any...you for sure can't see them right now

wow.....amazingly big eyes when the hair isn't covering them :)

Bailey wasn't looking quite as scruffy but she got the chop too

what a difference a few hairs can make

and then poor Cody....I had clipped around his eyes cuz his hair grows so fast right there....so he wasn't looking as bad....but

His eyes almost look human here :)

And Cassidy who looks a bit bearish here :)

much better :)

and then there is Reese....who is a pup and I am having trouble thinking about cutting her cuz her color will change totally when all that sable puppy hair is gone :(

What I did today ;)

What a lucky person I am that I get to do what I love doing ;) So much fun to be able to play......
With the business of this fabric it is hard to tell what is actually going on...but I finished my class...note that I didn't say finished the quilt :)....we did the last of the embroidery on the strips today...was going to sew on the ruffle and binding but just not feeling like it right now...
Love the things I learned in the class...I am so not a class person so this was different for me...but am glad that I took it...will try and get a pic tomorrow of the whole thing done

here is the back of that busy piece of fabric...aren't those feathers cool........

here are the yards of ruffle to be sewn on to complete the quilt

next up on the drawing board....oh wait I have one other one to finish the embroidery on...but not sure what I want to do so I might just take a pic tomorrow and then finish it when I know how I am going to finish the borders

tools, froggies and sneak peaks

Ok....my favorite tool right now is this handy dandy really large hooper...was struggling with my hoop staying still while I tried to push a quilt into the hoop in a somewhat manner that I wanted it to go........tried this at class last week and it was amazing how quickly I could actually hoop the quilt...so I was hooked and bought ;) sigh :)

Wanted to make something new...again :) so got out this Girlie Girl fabric and figured would just do the plain charm...nothing fancy just sew the squares together.............

this is how it turned out.....the borders and binding are from the fabric that I got from winning that charity contest........thanks again Shawna at 1 Choice 4 Quilting. Because the material was a bit funky and fun I wanted the embroidery to be also....so did flowers all over it and a froggie in the middle

Here is a larger shot of the back.......truly funky ;)

Here is the froggie that I spent part--well a lot of the afternoon digitizing...he looks better on this side than on the other cuz wanted to turn him a bit and turned him a bit too much so he didn't go exactly where I wanted him too :) Thanks to Cyndi at Stitch, Stitch, Stitch for the pattern. It is meant to be hand done but...........then I couldn't have done what I wanted to...and isnt that more important??? ME? :)

and a blurry sneak peak at the other quilt I got the top done on....again the border fabric is from my quilting win from Shawna

What to do, what to do...........

Dilemmas...don'tcha just love them? Well in this case I do....it involves choice..well I guess that is always the case isn't it? Man am I getting philosophical? Yikes...that is dangerous :)
The first one was which kit if I won would I choose...well that actually wasn't a hard choice...love blues and yellows together so chose this one below. But...I didn't win...at least not yet :) Shawna at 1 Choice 4 Quilting is having another drawing...she is so generous it amazes me :) She is doing a Quilting book club and is giving away a kit of choice to the winner....PICK ME!!!! Whew...with that said..........you can go see the two quilt kits I didn't choose over there....or if you are adventurous you can go to both her sites...be warned...you will find fabric that you love for a great price. On that site she also has details of the giveaway...so go and check them out.........
The second dilemma was which picture to post first...well guess Shawna won :)

Now on to daily life....
I stayed home and sewed all day yesterday...after church that is :) Well guess it wasn't all day sewing cuz I was perusing the web to find a fan pattern that was already digitized so I didn't have to do one myself...........and imagine that hours just flew by as I tried to make a choice of what to choose...hum...do I hear the trappings of another dilemma? But I did make a choice but you have to scroll down to see what it was :)
Wanted to start simple here so put a flower in the white on white squares then wanted something in the 9 patch too so I just made a star and put it in there....ok...nothing fancy or really worthy of too much talk but it worked

Here is the back where you can see the pattern.....I actually combined the two so that I didn't have to rehoop as much...they need to make a super duper extra gigantic mega ultra hoop so I could do the whole thing at once...or at least a couple more squares at a time........hum....sounds like a problem for a counselor to solve...me that is not the hoop size :)

Here is my favorite of the day...I had both these tops sewed waiting for finishing touches...actually had most of the embroidery done too but wanted something for this border that I made specially big for something big.........worked and worked to get it the right size, then used my handy dandy new skills of hooping to get it place right......so basically all I sewed yesterday was the border embroidery and the bindings on both quilts........whew...tired out :)

Here is the feather pattern I chose...a bit big for the smallness of the other pattern but I am happy with it...gotta learn by practice I guess :)

now on for the more nostalgic picture....while at Disney they have a drawing clinic (?) and it has a specific name that evades my brain right now....we drew Pluto....loved how they taught this....not too bad and I am not by any means an artist but was happy with pluto...he resides on the cupboard beside the picture my granddaughter gave me from Christmas

Have a great day and thanks for checking in on me ;)

This is what 12 looks like...

This is my first granddaughter to hit 12..........wow where has the time gone? Seems like only yesterday she was born...This is making me too old..............next year there will be two teenage grandkids...YIKES!


Daddy and daughter..........love this picture of the two of them.......

The hit gift..this is what she really wanted ;)

ride like the wind little girl...no she doesn't have a cast on her foot...she made one duct tape boot...and wore it...she had the other one made and on today

now that truffle was decadent...........nummy!!!

three of the 4 granddaughters...the other one is just a wee babe in Japan...haven't seen a recent picture of her :)

Izzy taking someone for a walk :)

And as you can see the height difference is a bit...Pippin just laid down and these two were playing tug-o-war with the leash...well Izzy was at least.....Pippin? Monkey in the middle?

For some of you who helped Aaron get this Ipad....Thanks again....it is really helping him communicate in ways that we never imagined

Tomorrow will put another giveaway on the blog post :) Someday I am gonna win one of these things......well I guess I did win one but want to win more...I WANT IT ALL !!!! :)

Out of the ordinary....

For me to win anything is very unusual.....but I entered my name into a giveaway from a site that does things for charity....I make baby quilts (really cuz that is the size I like to work with :) ) for the hospital my hubby works at...and various other things I do...anyway...all that to say I was one of the winners in the giveaway...........and Shawna from 1 Choice 4 Quilting had donated a gift certificate for the drawing...How lovely of her.......
When I got my package I got this lovely printed congrats and a handwritten congrats on a thank you card....

got two congrats from Shawna....her customer service is wonderful!!!! Not to mention that I won a gift cert from her.....Her prices are good and it was so hard to choose...kept adding and deleting...but think I am headed there again soon

Here is the stack that I chose with my gift certificate

aren't those turquoise fabs pretty?????

Moda lines...girlie girl and hideaway with the one in the middle being something else.......but it has light grey dots on it

White on whites...can't have too many of those huh???? You can't see them good but you can when they are in front of you

Here is what I did yesterday at class.............I did that all by hand.............NOT! :) My handy dandy new sewing machine did it........next week we do the flowered section with feathers and put on the ruffle......can't wait to see it finished.......

When done will show the back too :)