BOO!!

Be safe......

Treats only, no tricks!

Here's a vintage crocheted pincushion given to me by my cousin, Lisa. Thanks, Lisa! It's pretty large.....about 5 1/2" tall, and has padding in the seat and back. I'm even wondering if it was made specifically as a doll chair and not as a pincushion, since it is so big. It would be the perfect size for Barbie. In any case, it's a cute idea. Someday, I'd like to make similar version in a smaller size if I can find the pattern. I'll add it to my "to do" list!

This may not look like much now, but these are baggies filled with about 800 quilt pieces destined to be small wall hangings. I've spent several hours over the past few days, cutting away, little by little, and I now have all of the pieces cut for 6 small wall hangings, each 15" x 20". And my plan is to have them finished for Christmas exchanges. I may have set myself up to fail, but I'll give it a shot. Once I get started, most of the sewing can be done with chain stitching, a huge time saver. As usual, I sure hope they turn out as they look in my minds' eye! To be continued......

This bright little dog was found on EBay. He was listed as a toothpick holder, but he has now earned the title of Pincushion. I thought the bone fabric would suit him well. What dog wouldn't love a hat full of bones? As I was working with him and stuffing the fabric into the hole, I heard a soft rattle coming from his head. I pulled the fabric out and spent the next 15 minutes trying to extract the "whatever" out of his head. Of course I had thoughts of money being tucked away for a rainy day.....maybe something of value since it had to have been specifically forced into the head cavity. Well...........

It was this! A wadded up list of baby items! It almost looks like a child's handwriting, as I don't think a mother-to-be would write "baby's" before all of these items. Maybe it was a list for Santa. In any case, it brought me a little excitement for 15 minutes!

Today, the 24th, I am officially a senior citizen. Yes.....it's my birthday and I've been around for 55 years. Not a bad thing, in my opinion, and I intend to take full advantage of senior citizen discounts.

I'm posting a few pictures to take you down memory lane....my own memory lane, of course.

This is my Dad, my Brother, and me. I'm about 5 months old in this picture. I think my Dad looks pretty proud! (Dottie....that's your wedding picture in the background!) Back then, there weren't many cameras around so there aren't that many pictures of me as an infant and toddler. I've inherited the photo box and have most of them in my possession. Every now and then, I enjoy a little reminiscing.
This is my Mom holding me. I'm between 3 and 4 years old in this shot. I have pretty clear memories of this age and remember the dress I was wearing and the paper dolls that are on my lap. Jr High School and pimples! I still have the brooch that I'm wearing and it's one of my favorite pins yet today. I was always very protective of my things and still have lots of items from my childhood tucked safely away.

Lastly, High School. This was literally decades ago! When did all of these years slip by?! I always loved school, from Grade School to High School. College.....not so much!

Well, now I look like my avatar on this blog. Whatever happened to my youth and good looks? Well, I got old and fat, I guess!

I want to thank everyone that helped me celebrate my birthday this year. Lots of cards, calls, good wishes, presents, and lunches. Birthdays should be celebrated, regardless of our age. And I think we need to share our birthdays with our friends and family, as we need their support to get from one birthday to the next. I consider myself blessed to have so many great, loving friends! Hugs and God's blessings to you all!

Aren't these pretty?! My friend, Penny, stopped by with the last of her summer roses. She didn't want them to just fade away without being enjoyed. We've had several frosts now, and all of my own rose bushes are taking a well deserved winter break.
This picture may look like the Psalm block that I've already posted, but if you had seen the first block up close, you would be able to see a big difference in the accuracy compared to this block. Last night, while watching TV, I took the first block apart, piece by piece, in an effort to save as much fabric as possible. No wonder this block is called "Patience." This afternoon, I cut new pieces for the areas that I needed to redraft in order to sew straight seams. The center squares went from 2 large squares to 8 smaller triangles, and the 2 side triangles became 4 smaller triangles. I really don't like to rip and redo, but now I'm happy with this block and will not hesitate to include it in my finished quilt.

After messing up yesterday's Psalm block, I received an email from the organizer suggesting that many of the pieces could be split in half in order to be able to make straight seams with no inset pieces. Well......duh! I'm not sure why I didn't do that, I guess I was just sticking to the pattern, as is. I have redrafted the pattern and will remake the block very soon.

With that thought in mind, I redrafted this Psalm block so that it did not have any inset pieces. It was going to be another really tough block and by redrafting and splitting 9 of the inset pieces into 18 pieces, I was able to make the entire block using straight seams. It involves more pieces and more seams, but ultimately, it makes a very simple and accurate block. Whew!

This is Psalm 85: 11-12. "Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest."

"Patience" is the name of this Psalm block and patience is exactly what it required. Today was not a great day for me and undertaking this block was a mistake. Since it didn't have many pieces, I decided to give it a go. With all of the inset seams, I ended up doing part of the block by machine and part of the block by hand. For whatever reason, combining techniques did not result in a smooth, precise block. It looks fair in this picture, but overall, I was not pleased with my work. Right now, I'll leave it as is, but someday I may give it another try.

This block was inspired by Psalm 37:4-7;

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him..."

Not much of a post today, but I thought I'd better check in. I met with my quilting friends on Thursday and this was the wreath on the welcoming door. Fall seems to have finally arrived in Indiana and we are actually seeing the leaves turn to wonderful shades of rust, orange, and gold......soon to be crunching under our feet. I know this sounds odd, but I enjoy leafless trees so that I can see the limb structure that's hidden under the leaves. I find that the most beautiful and interesting part of the tree. I'm loving the cooler temps and shorter days. Good weather for crafting, yet I've been so busy that I haven't done much over the last few days. I'm hoping to complete a project (or projects) over the weekend. Have a wonderful weekend!

Here's this week's Psalm block. Whew..... this one was tough to construct. I use Electric Quilt 5 (EQ5) to draft my patterns and this block came up with pieces requiring 43 and 47 degree angles on some of the pieces. Certainly, not your standard angles. I ended up using a combination of rotary cutting and template cutting to get all of the pieces cut. I'll bet I spent 2 hours getting the pieces cut and another 4 hours putting the block together. Sew....press.....sew.....press. All of the pieces had to be organized and laid out before making the block, as it's almost impossible to tell the difference between the 43 and 47 degree pieces. After all was said and done, I probably could have just used the standard 45 degrees and it would have gone together fairly well. When you are working with triangles and bias edges, you do have stretching and tweaking ability. Well, no matter. It's done and I'm pleased with the results.

I'm sure hoping that all of the upcoming blocks in this series won't be this complex. Maybe they will send a simple block every few weeks to give us an easier project. We'll see.

And this was my inspiration, Psalm 19:1-6. "The heavens declare the glory of God: the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech: night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech of language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat."

Although I have plenty of things to do today, I got sidetracked with a little Origami. Paper money folding, to be exact. I just Googled

"Origami money folding" and got several good options, many with complete directions. This one looked pretty simple...... it was....... and a good beginning project.

Wouldn't this be a cute way to repay someone or tuck it inside of a card? This was my first try, but apparently once you know what you are doing, you can plan the look of your shirt a little better. Using the other side of the bill would have made a totally different pattern. Maybe I'll move up to more difficult patterns some day.....or maybe not. :)

A sad note today. My sweet little Beta, Rokka, passed in the night. This is an old picture as his "redness" had grown even more striking. I know it sounds odd to grieve for a fish, but he was one of God's creatures and deserved a good life. He was acting perfectly normal yesterday, even eating as normal, but last night he was swimming in what I would call a frantic mode. Beta's don't swim very fast or jerky because of their large, draping fins. I knew this wasn't normal behavior, but I had no idea what to do for him. This morning, his fight was over.

Rokka had a sweet personality. He would come up and beg for food and whenever I walked into the room, he would rush to the front of his aquarium for attention. He never showed any fear of me, even from the start. I could work in the aquarium, rearranging things, or whatever, and he would brush up against my hand and swim in and out of my fingers. What a sweetie!

"So God created the the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds.....and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:21

Yes, Rokka was good.

Another dish cloth finished. This one has been sitting around on my coffee table for quite some time, patiently waiting for me to finish it. I got side tracked with sock knitting and put it aside. I bound off the edges this morning, wove in my loose ends, and gave it a quick hand blocking. Even though this is a simple project, it still feels rewarding to finally complete it. Plus..... it gives me less guilt to get started on new projects.

I'm going to cast on my other sock today and begin making the mate for my first sock. I'm hoping that most of my sock knitting lessons are still hanging around in my brain and won't be too hard to retrieve. I won't be posting a picture of this sock until it's finished, as it will look just like the first one (or at least that's the plan). So.......don't hold your breath on this one.....it may be months before it's completed and posted.

This is my second Psalms block representing Psalm 1: 1-3. "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditated day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers."

I chose fabrics that were blue or had blue in them. The darker blue represents the streams of water, the brown represents the tree trunks, and the lighter blue represents the trees. You can't tell much by this photo, but the lighter blue has leaves on it. I liked this because it shows leaves that are not withering and the blue indicates that water flows through the leaves, sustaining them. Same thing for the trunk fabric. It has blue running throughout. The outer gold fabric represents God, just as in my first Psalms block.

This was a fairly tough pattern because of the four inset pieces. I did this block by machine, even the inset pieces, and didn't have too much trouble. I find that if the inset pieces have angles greater than 90 degrees, I can still use my sewing machine by putting my needle down at the intersections and maneuvering the fabric. It's a bit of a tug of war, but if you take your time, you can make it work. Of course, this is the perfect block to hand piece, but I knew I wouldn't have the time for hand sewing.

I'll be receiving four Psalms blocks every month, so I don't know that I'll be able to keep up. For today, I can say that I'm up to date!

Block #10 in the Thangles series. I keep getting the block numbers messed up, but this really is block #10 out of 12 total blocks. This series will end in December. The blocks begin to look alike as we are using the same fabrics each month. Although they are similar, they do differ slightly in pattern and will look nice once they are set in my table runner. Oh, these are 8" blocks.





Quality Control has stepped in again to look over the progress of these blocks. Don't worry......... this rotary cutter has an automatic shield and Gracie can't hurt herself. When I'm actually slicing and dicing my fabric, I keep her out of harm's way.

Boo! Halloween is coming and here's a little bottle cap pincushion to welcome the little goblins!

Block #2 in this block of the month series. I didn't follow the pattern exactly on this block. I used their supplied fabrics, but did a little rearranging on placement of the fabric. The first block of this series was a 12" block and this one is a 6" block.....big difference. All they told us when we signed up for this series was that the blocks would be various sizes. Although I like different sizes of blocks, it does make setting them into a finished project more difficult. It will be interesting to see how things shape up over the year. Ten more blocks to go...........

My dear cousin Lisa came to spend the day with me on Thursday and she did not come with empty arms. Look at the goodies she brought with her! She's doing a little stash sorting and these were fabrics and items that she no longer wanted. Lisa is a great home decorating sewist and does beautiful work. These fabrics will make great purses, pillows,...... whatever. She also brought along three sets of purse handles and I already have more dish towels ready to use with them. The two Styrofoam eggs are the right size to make more fabric pine cones. Plus, some yarn scraps. There is enough of the white yarn to make a bigger project, maybe even a sweater.
So.......thanks Lisa! You didn't have to bring all of these goodies......just spending time with you was the best gift of all!

Here it is.......a completed sock! And you can actually tell that it's supposed to be a sock! This was a rough class but I would recommend that even beginning knitters give this a shot. I couldn't do it by following directions in a book, but having a teacher at my side, made it possible. We lost several students along the way, but it was just because they didn't break it up into smaller learning packages and they let it overwhelm them. Just look at my previous posts when I never thought I'd reach the end of this sock. Step by step, inch by inch, is the way to learn to knit socks. Of course, now I need to make this one a mate. I will need to start on it fairly soon before I forget how to do this. I did treat myself to some beautiful yarn today for my next pair, which I hope will give me the incentive to finish this one's mate. I truly am excited to have learned how to knit socks. There are many variations but I'll stick with this design, which is probably the simplest, and work my way up to other patterns. So.....the sock knitting saga ends and I'm really happy to complete what I thought was next to impossible!

There was a demonstration at one of our local sewing shops yesterday showing a simple, folded fabric pine cone using a 2" Styrofoam egg for the base. After she gave the demonstration, I won a kit with the supplies to make one of my own. (I suspect everyone may have won a kit.) This is the kit. An egg and 2" fabric strips. The other supplies that you will need are small head straight pins. Plus, of course, a rotary cutter, ruler, and mat.

This is the kit unfolded. In addition to the fabric strips, there is a 2 1/2" square that will be used on the bottom of the pine cone.

Cut your strips into 2" segments. You will need 49 of these 2" x 2" squares, although you could cut more if you wanted to make your pine cone segments closer together. I thought the 49 pieces were spaced just about right.

Take one of your squares and fold it in half twice. Just finger press this and all of the other pieces. Unfold and center this square on the top of your egg...the narrow end of the egg. Pin in place. This is just your beginning reference and the pin will be removed later.

Now you will begin to make your pine cone "needles". Fold a square in half (wrong sides together) and finger press.

Then fold each corner to the center and finger press. This is a completed pine cone needle. Finger press.

Use the folds on the base square to place your first row of needles. They should just follow the fold lines of the base square. Pin the raw edge corners of your triangles to the egg. These pins will remain in the egg.

There will be four needles on each row. After you place the first four needles around the base square, you will begin adding row after row of needles by centering each row between the preceding row. I dropped each row down about 1/4" while centering it between the two needles in the row above it. Continue adding rows of needles.

I'm about half way down the egg and my Quality Control Supervisor was called in to check my work. She approved and I continued adding needles, row by row, until I had come to the end of my squares and near the bottom of the egg. You should have about 2" of the bottom of the egg exposed.

This is the 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" square that you cut at the beginning. Do not fold this one, but finger press all of the raw edges toward the center. Use about 1/4" fold. This square will cover the bottom of the egg and give the egg a finished look. In the demonstration, she put a sequin on each of the four pins to finish it off instead of leaving a plain pin head.

This is the finished egg. Oliver has relieved Gracie as as my Quality Control Supervisor, but seems to be taking another break. (It's really hard to find a cat that doesn't take a lot of breaks.) You could use this pine cone as an ornament or just put several of them in a bowl. Different fabrics for different seasons. It took less than an hour to make this so you could turn out several pine cones pretty quickly. This same technique could also be used to cover a Styrofoam cone and make a Christmas tree. Simple and easy.....why not make a few?

This is a fun craft to try......melting records! You can use these as snack bowls and they can hold smaller items if you fill in the hole. You can buy a resin kit at most craft stores and use this to fill in the hole. I've used them for chips and candy, as is. They also make great gift baskets to hold your actual gift. I love looking for a specific record that I know my friend will like or you can look for the date that a record was produced or the movie hit the screen. Anything to make it meaningful to the recipient. Goodwill sells these for $.75, so your investment is small.
Just use your regular oven to melt these. They will begin to melt at around 250 degrees, but this can vary. Just watch the record. It only takes a few minutes to get soft. There are different ways to do this, but I like to melt mine centered over a large glass mixing bowl, open side up, and when it softens, push it into the bowl. Wear oven gloves or dish washing gloves. I like dish washing gloves because they are less bulky and give me better flexibility. The record will be hot (obviously) but not very hot. You only have a few seconds to work because the record will begin to cool and stiffen immediately after it's removed from the oven. The other way to form these is to slump them over an upside down glass bowl, then quickly remove them from the bowl, turn the bowl over, and push the record into the bowl. Although this may let you control the record a little better, I'm just too slow to get the record off and pushed into the bowl before it becomes too hard to shape. Another tip that helped me control the record was to place a large bolt in the center of the record to use as a handle. There is no easy way to grip and slide the softened record and the bolt gives me a way to move it towards the center if I haven't lined it up right. This won't make a lot of sense until you actually try to make one of these. I would start with a test record, not the one that you would like to use for your bowl or gift. As simple as these are to make, it's also easy to mess up and get your record stuck to itself. You can reheat and try again, but I haven't had much success with this. Making it work the first time around is the way to go. Have fun with these. Maybe you could put your Halloween candy in one of these! I forgot to add that if you are going to put food items in them that might be greasy or wet, spray the record bowl or just the label area with Krylon Clear, or similar. This will make your record label waterproof instead of soaking up the potato chip grease. ;)

As the heel turns...............my new soap opera. Yes, I turned the heel! This was no easy feat (feet, hee-hee) for me and I'm really happy that the worst part of making the sock is over. I'm now knitting the foot part which is a simple knit stitch, round and round, round and round, for 7" to 8" or so. Mindless knitting......the kind that lets your fingers go on automatic pilot and you can actually watch TV and pay attention to the plot. No stitch counting. I'm hoping to have the foot part completed by next Tuesday, the last class, and then learn how to close the toe. I'm just thrilled to have made it this far, as it looked like I might not make it to the home stretch when the class started. I'll post a final picture next week of what I hope will be a recognizable sock!

My first Psalms block. This one is Psalm 16:7, which reads "I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me".

I chose the darkest fabric to represent night, the red to represent my heart, and the gold to represent God.

This quilt will be made with fabric on hand except for the gold fabric, which will be the connecting fabric. Hopefully, I'll be able to use the gold fabric in each block if I can make it blend appropriately. I bought 5 yards of the gold fabric, which I hope will be enough. I may use it for borders or sashing as well, but I won't know until the blocks are finished and I plan the layout.

If you have an interest in this quilt series, "Quilting the Psalms", I also belong to two other quilting series that are Bible based. One is "Women of the Bible" (WOB) and the other is "The Names of Jesus". These are online Yahoo groups and are open to anyone. You will need to join each group with a short statement telling the leader why you wish to join. Then, on a weekly basis, you are given the week's lesson and pattern. Along the way, the participants post their blocks, their feelings while making the blocks, and how these studies have changed their lives, etc. It's a very rewarding study method that combines quilting with Bible study. There is no pressure to participate. In the WOB series, I've only made one block and we are on Week #35 out of 54 weeks. I just continue to read and print off the weekly lessons and will keep them for future use. You may join anytime and many women are on their second time through.

These links will have further information for you;

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuiltingthePsalms/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WomenoftheBibleQuilt/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuiltingtheNamesofJesus/

This project was found in the August 2008, Issue 93 of American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine. Page 52, to be exact. A simple purse made with two dish towels. When I first saw this pattern, I thought it looked like a cute little purse/tote and would be a quick and easy project. It was.These are my supplies......two dish towels and a pair of purse handles. This was another 1-hour project, from start to finish. My dish towels were not the size recommended in the pattern, but this doesn't really matter. Obviously, it changes the finished size, but that's OK. Wider or longer is not an issue. As I was looking at dish towels in the store, they were all different dimensions and I didn't find any that were the recommended size. BTW, this project was about $6.50 (plus thread that I already had). The dish towels were $1.50 each and the handles were half price at Jo-Ann's for $3.50.
This is the finished purse. My dish towel choice wasn't the best because the rose pattern on the towels is almost hidden. On the inside towel, the roses are crimped up in the handle and on the outside towel, the roses are on the bottom of the purse. Now that I have made one, I'll know what kind of pattern will show the best. I finished all of the raw edges on the inside with a simple zig zag stitch, just to keep the threads under control. This was not in the instructions, but it gives the purse a more finished look. Overall, I was pleased with the project and plan to make more. I think that this is more of a tote than a purse because the outside pockets are not that usable. They are loose and open so you wouldn't carry anything in them that was of much value. Good for tissues, comb and brush, water bottle, that type of thing. Things that wouldn't be sorely missed if they fell out of your purse. A decorative snap or button closure on each pocket section could solve this problem and even enhance the purse. Maybe later............

(This is the "before" picture, which was added 12/26/2008)

Do you love a bargain? We all do, don't we? It makes our heart race and we just can't believe our luck. This past summer, a friend and I found this chair (and 6 more of the same) outside of one of our Meijer stores, sitting on the curb area. They were originally from the food court, but that has been gone for several years in our store, so I suspect these chairs made their way into a storage area or a break room. Anyway, we went inside to find out what the deal was and they sold them for $1.80 each! I took two of the chairs and he took the other five chairs. These are commercial strength chairs and they must weigh 25 pounds each. Heavy duty steel frames and fiberglass seats. Once you get yourself situated in them, you can't just scooch in or away from the table without standing up, picking them up, and moving them forward or backward. They were originally black and red (black frames with red seats), but I cleaned them up and spray painted them white and tan. I'll try and get a before picture, as my friend has left them in their original condition. The seats could be removed and made into upholstered cushions but that's a project for later down the road. I just wanted to get them into my kitchen and put to good use. They look just great in my kitchen and are probably the sturdiest items in the house! They will be here long after I'm gone......Even Oliver approves! (Truth be told......if he can get his picture taken, he'll approve of anything!) This does give you a little idea of the scale of this chair. As heavy as it is, it's on the small side, similar to an ice cream chair. Perfect for my small kitchen.

My sock now has a heel flap. I had hoped to get over to the knitting shop and get some one on one instructions so that I could continue knitting. It just didn't happen this week and they are closed on Sunday and Monday .....which brings me back to the regular Tuesday class. Hopefully, I'll be able to stop in following that class and keep on top of things. I really want to complete this sock!