How Much For That Doggie in the Window?

Lillea is a rather obnoxious little Yorkie. Over the winter we usually let her hair grow to help keep her warm. Spring comes and with it, a haircut for the dog. My husband is normally the one who takes the electric trimmer to her, but he is rather busy. I decided it was high time she had her haircut, so I gave her one on Wednesday. She doesn't look too bad. She has a few places that need a little trim, but overall she looks pretty good. The haircut doesn't help her attitude much. They are very loyal, loving dogs, but she really isn't too sweet to our kids or visitors. She is nine years old. It is so funny because she still looks like a puppy to me. We love her in spite of her shortcomings!

Senior Scrapbook Almost Done!

I have been trying to finish my daughter's book before my trip. I only have 3 more pages to secure and get in the book. It is pretty thick, so I don't have room for much more. Just thought I would put a few of the layouts on here. The pics are a bit blurry. The plastic was definitely throwing my camera off, but I didn't want to take them all out of the plastic protectors. Have a great Friday.

Stuck on You

I have already made one of these pin cushions for your wrist, but this one is for my mom and I made it with velcro instead of hot gluing it down in the center.  This way she can remove the center pin cushion if she wants and sit it on her sewing table if she likes.  I also used ribbon instead of a flower as an accent around the cushion.  I think it is kinda cute.  Then I thought that a finger pin cushion would be handy every now and then.  I used a wooden disc and sewed elastic thread into my circle of fabric.  It basically pulled itself together after I put in the stuffing.  I then hot glued it to the disc and then hot glued an elastic band to the bottom of the disc. These are inexpensive and would make really cute coordinated gifts.

Sew Mama Sew Big Giveaway!

If you don't follow or frequent Sew Mama Sew, you should definitely visit the site this week. They are hosting a giveaway all over sewing and crafting blogland. There are 100's of places giving away some pretty awesome stuff. You have to enter soon, so go over and check out the 3 lists of giveaways. There are people giving away sewing supplies (like yummy fabric), knitting/crocheting supplies, hand crafting supplies like stamps, and patterns for free. I wanted to get in on the action, but didn't quite get the "how-to" down before it was too late. Maybe next time. I will probably have a vintage pattern giveaway when I get back from my trip.

A Little Bit of Doodlin' If You Please

I really love my Doodle Stitching book, but alas have had very little time to spend with it. Last night I decided to sit down and tackle two stitches. I chose the threaded running stitch and the fly stitch. They are both pretty easy to do. Actually the writier of the book makes them all look easy and she gives excellent instructions. I used 6 strands of floss. Most of them use the full 6 strands. I wondered how this curling stitch would stay in place and the answer is -it doesn''t. You can still physically move the thread under the straight stitches. It is nice to be able to even everything up at the end, but unless I was going to frame my work I would be a bit apprehensive to use this stitch on something that gets a lot of wear. I doubt I would use it on a quilt unless I could anchor the running stitch after I was done. It is very pretty and on something framed, I would use it in a heartbeat. The fly stitch is used to make stems for flowers. I haven't added the blooms to my flowers yet. I hope to do more of this on my trip. Thought I would give you a peek.

Paisley Purse Done!

I finished this today and will take it to my sister this weekend. Can't wait to see her. I decided to do a knit flower knot instead of the cotton lining flower. I may make an extra so she can switch them out. Pretty fun for the summer though. I used the tutorial on Ruffles and Stuff to create the bag.

Rally Day Reserve Champion

Katy and I spent the morning and early afternoon at the 4H Rally Day for our area. She went to participate in the Fashion Revue because she was Grand Champion for our county in her sewing unit. The girls from all of the counties were judged individually and then the entire group did a fashion show. There are many talented girls in these groups. Katy ended up getting Reserve Champion for her unit. That is so exciting! She may enter her skirt in the county fair now. We will see. She looked so grown up in her outfit today. I am very proud of her!

Simplicity pattern 2599 finished-sorta

I finished sewing this up tonight, but I am not really super happy with the fit. I love the feel of the shirt, but I will not sew sheer, slippery material again for a while. The armpits hung too low, so I used my serger to take up the shoulder seams some. That helped! My problem now is that taking up the shoulders threw off the button closure in the back. It bubbles just a bit when it is looped over the button. I will have to work on fixing that little problem. It is noticeable enough that I probably wouldn't wear it without a sweater or something else over it. I like the length of the shirt. Not so long that it makes me look any shorter than my whopping 5'2", but long enough to help hide the hips and tush area. It would probably be much easier to sew in a linen or gauzy shirting material. The pattern was pretty easy, just difficult fabric!

A Frock By Friday

A Frock By Friday Grosgrain is having another sew along! Not sure I will be able to participate this time. I have school planning going on and my trip and my daughter's graduation are quickly approaching. The nice thing is you can print off the pattern and instructions and come back to Kathleen's blog for the tutorial when you have time for the project. She is so good to answer any questions you might have. If you haven't looked at her blog, you really need to.

Dirty deeds!

It is time to plant!  Hopefully this weekend I will be putting in my tomatoes, squash, zucchini, corn, cucumbers,etc.  My husband and son shoveled all that lime on our 75 X 95 garden and now he has tilled it all in (he is so sweet and handy) and that dirt just looks and feels so good under your feet( thanks to our tractor Misty).  I can't wait to have fresh veggies out of the garden.  We have some strawberries turning red right now.  Should be ready in a few more days.  I will hopefully post  pics once we harvest some.  I have straw down along with mulch in those beds to keep the weeds at bay.  If the weather permits, we will have all of our seeds and plants in this weekend.  I wanted them all in before I went on my trip with my mom.  The new barn pad is coming along nicely too.  Almost level now and then we have to have the footers poured.  All these big jobs.

Things and Stuff: My First Giveaway!

Things and Stuff: My First Giveaway! Check out this blog for a giveaway.

Great Serger Book for Beginners like Me!

I bought a book on serging at Half.com the other day and it came in. I wanted a book that would tell me more about the basic serger stitches and also deal with different fabric weights, etc. This book is really good. It is easy to follow and understand and I hope that I will be able to use my serger for more projects and in different ways once I get some of this information ingested. I really do love my serger and it makes projects both neater and faster. If you are looking for a beginners book with plenty of clear cut info you might want to check it out. Another option would be to check with your local extension office. Ours has books you can check out and go through before you actually make a purchase. You can also get this book at Amazon and look inside at samples. There are many reviews there as well. Just some helpful hints!

Wrist pin cushion

Ruffles and Stuff had many guest tutorials during their Mother's Day salute, but one of my favorites was this wrist pin cushion. The tutorial for it is here http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2010/04/guest-tutorial-with-tea-rose-home.html

I made this one today within about 15-20 minutes. The hardest part is getting enough stuffing in and getting the outside edge of the circle to completely cover it up. You want to make sure the circle is really nice and round, without humps on the sides. It is a pretty simple idea that yields very cute results. I would like to get some nicer flowers to use and some pretty linen. I just had the red flower on hand and the cute vintage button, so that is what I used. I think vintage hankies and napkins would make gorgeous ones! Will definitely make more of these.

Future Barn gets a start

We have this really old tobacco barn right in front of our house. We had to tear down half of it in order to build where we did. It is seriously falling down now. What used to be way above our heads, now conveniently "hits" us in the head! It is on its way to a dismal death. My sweet husband has so many cool tools, but no dry, organized place to put them. Like most men who own tools (and lots of them), he needs a BIG barn. He loves it when we drive by places and the barns are bigger than the houses. He and my son have marked off a roughly 60X50 barn on the other side of our driveway. Today a friend came out and did some land work and my husband was finishing the job tonight. He just loves big machinery. If you asked him what he would like for his birthday or Christmas or Father's Day, he would give you answers like-- a dump truck, a skidloader or a portable saw mill (which he now owns). He is so funny about things that run, have big engines and make lots of noise. I will be so glad for him when he gets his new barn! He works so hard to provide in so many ways for our family and I just love to see him smile when he talks about his new barn! I will post whenever we get started on the actual building.

Perservering with the Purse

Well I started my sister's purse last night and did most of the bag work. I even folded all the pleats and pinned them. Then I realized that I did not have the fabric to do the handles or the border. I made a trip to Hancock Fabrics today and thankfully they still had plenty of the outer bag fabric. Of course I picked up a few other totally necessary items while there. Here are a few pics of my progress. Hope to finish it by Thursday. The orange and white is the lining.

The Oh Dear Frock Grosgrain Giveaway

The Oh Dear Frock Grosgrain Giveaway

Summer scarves

I made two of these neat summer scarves within 30 minutes tonight. I love the knit material for both of these.  It keeps you from hemming the scarf-which means it goes much faster! My mother-in-law's birthday is next week, so I thought I would give these to her for a gift.  I found the tutorial at Ruffles and Stuff, but it is really on Dana's blog here http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-summer-scarf.html.  I have also made some quilted potholders for her for mother's day.  Hopefully she will like her gifts as much as I do! 
I get to see my mom later this month, so she will get her mother's day gift from me then.  Hope she had a great time at the Chop House tonight.

By the way, check out the dress form that those scarves are hanging on (smile).

Church trip to the Creation Museum

5:15 am is EARLY! We left this morning and headed for the Creation Museum in Petersburg,KY. You can take a visual tour here. http://www.creationmuseum.org. It is a great facility and would be an excellent place to take people who don't know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. The movies are all well done and we had a really nice time today. I will post some pics tomorrow of our visit. I think the dinosaurs were really extraordinary! Hope all moms have a blessed Mother's Day!

Strawberries, Blackberries and Apples--Oh my!

Loving all this fruit in bloom and starting to grow. It makes me think of homemade strawberry jam and blackberry cobbler, not to mention apple pie. The sweet tastes of summer that our great God provides!

Quilt top DONE!

I finished sewing the rows together today and now I will have to decide what I will back it with. So excited to be learning how to quilt!

Look Ma-My First Quilt!

Well I finally bit the bullet and started sewing together a charm pack I bought. I decided that 32 small squares would be a great way to learn. I also love that they were already cut to size! I am not done sewing them together yet, but not too many more rows. Those FBC quilters will have a lot to teach me on that retreat. I feel pretty confident sewing the squares together. I was so nervous to just start the crazy thing. Pretty fun so far. This will be my quilt in training. I am hoping to learn to do some hand quilting on the retreat. My mom says you "get addicted" and I think that could happen pretty quickly.

PS I got the call and my dressform came in today. Get to pick her up tomorrow-Yippee!!!

New York Scrapbook Pages

My sweet daughter's graduation is coming up too quickly and I really want to finish her scrapbook before the 28th. I decided after mowing LOTS of grass today, that I would try to put a couple of pages together. Not my favorite layout, but they are ready to add to the book. This is the first time I have ever used Stickles. Pretty neat stuff, but it does make your page swell up a bit. Hopefully when it dries, it will lie flat in the page protector. I love Bazill metallic paper. I bought black, white and silver to do this layout.

Simplicity 2944

My youngest daughter wanted me to buy this pattern well over a year ago. My oldest daughter (18) was looking through my patterns the other day and really liked the View B dress for her white/orange polka dot knit fabric. I made her cut out all the pattern pieces last week. Today I cut the pieces out of her fabric and sewed it up in about 1 hour. There are only 4 pieces and I was able to serge everything but the gathered fronts. I cut it out for a size 14 girl and the crazy thing fits me right now. Once she tries it on, I will use the serger to adjust the side seams and shoulder seams to fit her. That dressform will be so handy!!! Overall the pattern is pretty cute, but this knit is so thin, she will have to wear a full slip. It definitely has more shape on than it does here on the hanger. It looks rather large and frumpy hanging there. It would be great pajamas or a nice bathing suit cover up. Lots of possibilities. I think if the knit was a little sturdier, it would not be quite so big. If you are looking for a simple knit spring/summer dress pattern, look no further. (Dress is not hemmed)

Simplicity 2599-The Sheer Possibilities!

I am progressing on my cute tank pattern. Working with these sheer materials is really quite difficult. I have managed to gather my ruffles and pin them in place. I serged the back seam and have it ready for the zipper. I really like using the serger on this material. It is much neater and easier to do. Depending on how the rest of it goes together, I would love to make one of these out of a floral chiffon. The patterned material makes it a little difficult to see the progress, but just thought I would post anyway. Should get my dressform this week!! It would be convenient to have right now for this project.