almost autumn

The calendar may say it's Autumn, but here in Texas we're still seeing some warm days.  Granted, upper 80's is not as hot as 100+ degrees, but I'm ready for highs in the 60's or 70's.

My neighbor wanted the twin bed frame I refinished, so since that's out of the way, I now have a new twin bed.  I may get a headboard at some point but for now like the flexibility of putting it wherever I want it.  I started out with it away from the wall, then decided flush against the wall is best for now for when Elise sleeps over.  I'd like a chenille bedspread, so that will take some looking.  In the meantime, I've got a quilt over it for a cover. 

Since it's that time of year, I made a couple of pumpkins for decoration.  Only have one to show, because Elise took the other one home.   This was really a stash buster...used a piece of fabric about 10"x20".  Click on the "pumpkins" link if you think you'd like to make one.

You may remember that last couple of years I've participated in the 12 Days of Christmas swap over on the HGTV quilting/sewing forum.  I debated whether to do it this year, and decided I will.  I've gotten a good start on it, and still have a few weeks to get finished.  Of course I can't tell you what I'm making, but you'll be seeing pics of everything around Christmas.  I like that I should be able to complete all of them with fabric I have on hand.

Guess that's it for now.  Have a good week all.

its been awhile

Time manages to slip by, doesn't it?  Let's see...

In the past month, Elise turned 4!  As she likes to tell me, she's a big girl now.  :) 

 She celebrated with the new and improved version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey, which was Stick the Freckle on the Pony (or something to that effect).

And there was a pinata too.  That thing was huge!

I've been working on the string quilt-as-you-go.  Overall I'm pleased with it, considering this is my first time with this method.  I can see myself doing more.   I changed my mind on what I thought the layout would be, and went with this design.  It's a little tedious joining rows together, but when I consider that it will be totally finished without quilting a huge top (or sending/paying to have it quilted by someone else), it's worth it.  And I can see ways to make the next one a bit easier.

Here's a picture prior to joining the top two rows to the bottom section.   I really need to put side borders on for some more width, but I'm somewhat ready to leave it at this size.  I'm setting it aside for a week or two to see what I decide on.

I found this twin bed frame at a garage sale, and thought it might work to replace the crib/toddler bed. 

I refinished it by sanding, staining, and varnishing.  It was pretty dry and rough, but good wood.

So here it is.  Came out fine, and I got it in the room.  Then I decided it was bulkier than I wanted, and gave it to my neighbor.  Ah well, it was a nice project, and Elise enjoyed helping with it.


There's a lot to say when I don't post for a month, isn't there???

Last but not least, I made a couple of Barbie dresses this week from free instructions on the internet.  They had more cleavage than I particularly wanted, so they both were turned around and put on backwards.  They're wrap dresses, so it worked fine.  :)

Okay, that's it for now.  Have a good week everyone. 

mug rug, strings, and Christmas

Well, I've been a bit busier these days on my quilting.  But first, I need to show the mug rug I received from the Country Fair Mug Rug swap last month.  Really cute, and City Sandie did a fine job.  :)  She was also nice enough to tuck in a little extra...a western book marker, and a quilt pattern.  There are some really nice ladies on the HGTV quilting and needlework forum.

Lately I've been in a mode of wanting to use up some of my stash.  I've got a bag that I've been tossing strings into for a few years now, and its bulging.  Strings are strips of fabric left from other projects, or maybe even cut on purpose, usually from 1-2.5" wide, and various lengths.  I've been wanting to try a quilt-as-you-go quilt, and started out with blocks that were 12.5" square.  My original thought was to make it 3 or 4 squares wide by 4 or 5 squares long, and add borders.  This was my original layout, before I had all squares complete.  I could see it wasn't going to be big enough to do quite what I wanted.

So I expanded to the idea of 24 squares, making it 4x6 squares.  Then I ran into a design opportunity.  I didn't have enough of the fabric for the blue center strip, so I decided to work with some of the blocks having a burgundy center strip, allowing a design to show up.  I also added in another blue fabric for some of the center stripes, and scattered them through so it looked planned.

You'll notice the burgundy in the 4 center squares, and also in the four corners.  They're not sewn together at this point, because I'll be quilting each square individually before joining. 

Here's some of the squares that are quilted.  The blocks with one color in each square are the back side, and of course the strips are the front.  I'm just doing simple quilting on it since I'm not comfortable with free motion quilting.  A lot of people stitch in the ditch along each strip. but I really didn't want to mess with that much stitching.

I hope by this next weekend to start joining them, and getting the border prepared.  Oh, and remember I said the blocks were initially 12.5" square?  Now they're 11.5".  Funny how that works out, isn't it?  Little glitches here and there as I learn what I'm doing called for a modification.   No biggee.  My strings, my quilt.

I have another string in progress, but this one jumped out in the lead.  I hope next time I'm back to bring you up to speed on the other one.  

Before getting the string quilts started, I made a Christmas tree skirt.  It's not quite in the league with the one I made Angela and Robert, and I really don't want it to be.  That one was pretty special to me.  However, I like this one too, partly because I used some of my Christmas fabric stash.  As I put in some angel squares, that particular piece of fabric had a little note attached that it was purchased in the mid-90's, 1994 or '96 if I remember right.  Where's it going to go?  I don't know yet.  I don't put up a tree anymore, but I'm thinking it might make a nice gift to someone one of these days.  A lady on the HGTV forum gives tree skirts for wedding gifts.  I'm thinking that might be a possibility.  Or I may just use it as a little table topper.

  The pic with no borders might show up a little sharper.   Don't know yet how I'll quilt it, possible just a cross-hatch.

Guess that's it for now.  Have a good week!

another mug rug swapped

This month over on the HGTV message boards there was another mug rug swap.  The theme for this one was country fairs.

I had several things in mind when I embroidered the 1^st place ribbon, and started off with the idea of a crazy quilt pattern to get in chickens, cows, horses, fruit/vegetables, sewing, and cooking…whew!  As you can imagine, that was just too busy looking for me to be able to pull off on a little mug rug.  Instead, I just looked at my western gal, and pictured her big win in the rodeo. 

I have to say that fairs are near and dear to my heart.  My dad was one of four year-round employees at the Antelope Valley Fair and Alfalfa Festival in Lancaster, California.  Yes, I was raised in southern California.  In fact, his job as the maintenance man provided us with a house on the fairgrounds, so I grew up playing among the barns, grandstand arena, and even learned to drive a car on the streets of the fair.  Later on, I worked in the office 3 or 4 summers while going to school.  Can you picture all the little entrant cards for every pie, cake, jar of jelly, and who knows what else…all typed by hand because we didn’t have computers back in the late 60’s.  That was part of my job. 

As a youngster, I followed in my sisters’ footsteps, and entered a Chocolate Vinegar Cake in the junior division.  I was so proud of that first place ribbon.   From what I understand, it’s also known as a depression cake.  Whether because the original instructions call for making three depressions in the dry ingredients to add the wet ingredients, or because it didn’t use eggs and is inexpensive to make, your guess is as good as mine.   This recipe actually makes a small cake, maybe one layer or an 8x8x2” square pan.  It’s moist too.  (Now I just mix in a bowl and put in cake pan, but this was the original version)

Chocolate Vinegar Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Sift dry ingredients into ungreased 8x8x2” pan

1 ½ cup flour

1 cup sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa

½ tsp salt

Make 3 depressions with spoon in dry ingredients, and add these:

1 tsp vanilla                1 Tbsp white vinegar              6 Tbsp melted butter

Pour 1 cup water over all, stir together until well mixed.

Bake 30-35 minutes

Note:  batter will be thin

 In other news, Robert had a birthday this past week.  I think he was about 2 or 3 in this picture.  Time just keeps flying by!  I went over and stayed with the kids while he and Angela went to dinner.  I took my camera, but we got busy with "projects" and I didn't get any pictures taken...darn.

 Elise was over the other night and we made some cookies.  She's turning into quite the little helper.  :)

That's it for now.  Have a good week!

quilting, game-ing, and me

The baby shower for my friend's daughter Cara was yesterday, so now I can show the quilt I made.  I had made a quilt for Cara's first baby about 8 years ago, and I understand she wagged it around for years.  I can only hope this little one will like his as well as his big sister liked hers.

And here's the back side.

For a closer look, you can see I took the little characters on the front and added to the back.

It was a fun little quilt to make.  I've not had a lot of experience with fmq-ing (free motion quilting), so I did a cross-hatch quilting on it, going in diagonal lines across the quilt in both directions about 3 inches apart.  I was pleased with how it came out.  

In other news, this has been a relaxing summer.  One thing I enjoy is an "occasional" game on my computer.  :)   One of the games is Chuzzle, and I like that it has a Zen mode that just allows you to play without a lot of obstacles in it.  I'll play for awhile, then move on to something else, and when I return my score picks up where it left off.  Well.....I hit 1,000,000 points recently!  I don't know how long this particular game has been going on, months I'm sure, but now I'm working on two million. 

I've also managed to play catch-up on some taking-care-of-me chores this month.  I've been to the dermatologist and had a few spots frozen off, had my routine mammogram and colonoscopy, and a well-checkup with the related blood workup.  I'm happy to say that everything is fine.  Well, I've not heard on the mammogram yet, but should in the next few days.  I figure there's nothing critical or they would have reached me by now.  So, by getting this all done I was able to mark off a big check on my to-do list. 

That's it for now.   Have a good week!

birthdays and gnomes, oh my

July is rolling right along, isn't it?

Lily's birthday was this past week, and she had a roller skating party to commemorate turning 11 years old.  Needless to say, a good time was had by all.  Its been years since I've been to a roller rink.  It was nice to see the little supports like you see that Ashlynn has in front of her.  While Elise and cousins Cage and Echo couldn't quite maneuver it real well, it was a big hit with several of the kids who were still new to roller skating.

I participated in another mug rug swap this month, and the theme was "In the Garden".  I had in mind to find fabric with gnomes on it, but no luck.  However, in my search this pattern for a paper pieced gnome kept popping up.  I've done very little paper piecing, but decided to give it a try.   Here's the pattern's picture:

I was really pleased with how it came out.  In fact, I had to make another one so I could have one too!  

These little guys have different hats, beards, and bindings, otherwise they're pretty much the same.  Not knowing quite how to choose which one to part with I put them in a sack and pulled one out.  My swap partner got the white bearded gnome, and I've kept the gray bearded fellow.  I used a batik for the background, and really like the shaded look.  It sets the tone for being in the underbelly of the garden, don't you think?

I liked the paper piecing so much I can see more of it in the near future.  First though, I have a baby quilt to complete for an upcoming shower.  You'll see pictures of it in 2 or 3 weeks.

That's it for now.  Have fun summer days...

more stuff

I decided I wanted to paint the bedroom that Elise sleeps in, also known as the toy room, and for a long time my "office".  I painted it a few years ago, but can't say I was ever completely satisfied with it, plus I didn't like the popcorn ceilings. 

Since Elise has a bit of a claim to the room, she helped choose the color...purple.  So in the color family, I chose Behr's Lavender Bouquet for 3 walls, and an accent wall of Lilac Bloom.  As it turns out, the accent wall was just a shade or two darker, so it's not really a noticeable difference unless you happen to paint a bit on the other wall by mistake (ask me how I know).   

Elise wanted to help, and she happened to be staying with me for a couple of days shortly after I scraped the popcorn ceiling and got some cutting in done.  We got her set up with a brush, and she enjoyed herself. 

Previously it had been yellow, and most of the wall accents were in wood stains, or darker colors.  I decided I wanted it air-ier, and painted most of them white.  I have a bulletin board on another wall that will eventually get painted.  I lucked out on the curtains, finding 4 sheers hanging in a closet that I had forgotten about.  The clock was a garage sale find that I also painted.   Nice to have this project done.  And I won't be scraping anymore popcorn ceilings. 


I forgot to post a picture of a storm cloud that came up on my trip to Arkansas recently.  Shortly after I took the picture just outside of Greenville, it poured for several hours of my trip.  I've always said that I can count on a rain either coming or going when I go to Sue's.  I thought these clouds were amazing.

Ashlynn had her birthday party last weekend, 7 years old!   It was fun, and while I didn't get any particularly special pics, I got enough to get a feel of the activity. 

Elizabeth sent me a picture of one of Elise's adventures.  She went with a friend, and took a ride just sitting in the chair...it had a video and the chair shook at appropriate places.  I don't know that she knows quite what to think of it!

Well, that's the "stuff" in my life this time around.  Have a good week everyone.