Can You Help?

My friend Terry's [from Terry's Treasures] husband had an accident at work and the family is facing some difficult days ahead - a long and stressful recovery. Laurie from A Yankee Quilter is organizing a block party to make a quilt for the family. She's looking for 9 1/2" blocks from quilters, and will enter your name into a draw for a jelly roll.

Please pray for Terry and her hubby as they go through a very difficult time. And make a block if you can!

HeeHee....I'm First!

First to blog about our day, that is. We went to the American Sewing Expo today. I got to meet a couple of fellow bloggers and they are awesome. Pam from Mama Spark's World, and Mary-Kay from Quilting Junkie.

This is Pam on the left, me in the middle, and Mary-Kay on the right. I wish you could meet these gals in person, they're a lot of fun! I told my hubby I was going to meet them, and he thinks we're all stalkers. *snort* Men.







I went with my friend Cathy [an annual event!] and my other friend Kathy came too. No pics, no blogs....I'll have to work on them.



Aside from meeting some exceptional bloggers, the show was a disappointment. Our favorite vendor wasn't there. The show was smaller. Way too much empty space. Cathy and I decided next year, we'll skip it, and try to get to Houston instead.



I did find some treasures. This vendor had .99 fat quarters, and yards were [I think] $3.







I couldn't resist this book, it was on sale for $3? $4? It's lovely.







On the back:







I love all things nautical.



The deal of the day was this.







36 skeins of variegated DMC floss for $10! And my favorite thimbles to use for hand sewing, which is the main reason I go to this show - it's the only place I can find them.



My favorite fabric purchases were these [sorry for the bad pic]:











Now I'm exhausted and I'm going to go rest!

Just A Few Things + Portholes

Snippets top is done! I'm so happy.

My back is yelling at me so I'm going to sit and stitch the rest of the day. Here's a sneak peek:

I need to rest up for the Expo tomorrow, ya know. I hope I can sleep tonight.

A few people have finished their Portholes and shared pics. I think Jenny finished hers first; she made a gorgeous beach bag for a friend. The wave quilting is awesome!

Peg made a wonderful table runner. Don't those colors just scream summer! [She lives in Australia.] Beautiful, Peg!

And Carrie stitched towels for her daughter - love the fabric borders! What a nifty idea, Carrie, I love them!

You all did such wonderful projects! I'm so thrilled that you liked my designs. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone - I know I will, lol!

Second Verse, Same As The First

Not a lot going on here that I can blog about. Still sewing the machine embroideries [will they ever end] and Snippets is looking pretty forlorn on my design wall. This coming Saturday is the big American Sewing Expo and I am beyond ready. My friend Cathy and I go every single year. We only go for one day, and we've never done classes - but you wouldn't believe the mileage we get out of that day.


The most exciting part of this day, though, is that I'm planning on meeting up with Pam from MamaSpark's World! We don't live too far from each other, but haven't had a chance to get together yet. And *gasp* she's never been to the Expo!

This year, the first thing we want to see [aside from Pam] is the new Sashiko machine by Babylock. Now, I'm a Viking girl, through and through, but this machine is AMAZING. It's the first of it's kind. Click on the Sashiko link and watch the video. Make sure all beverages are away from the keyboard. This machine perfectly replicates the hand stitch!

I finished my project for the Hug Swap. Can't show the whole thing but here's a sneak peek.





I'm stitching up a design right now that will be a freebie here on my blog. I hope you like it. It will go with the design I created for the Hug Swap, which you can't see yet. *G* That's why Snippets is so forlorn.

Have you seen Jenny's new set, In My Garden? It's been printed off, along with her Seasons and various other stitcheries she's created. I just need to find the perfect fabric - I think a charm pack for the applique. I need to finish up the last Shabby Roses blocks too, before the next one comes out - yikes! I either need to stitch faster, or take her pencil away til I'm caught up!

There was lots more I was going to tell you about, but it flew away as I was typing. So ta for now, I'll be back after the Expo, hopefully with lots to share!

Game Night?

Yesterday, I mentioned I'd been to a church rummage sale. Normally this church has lots of sewing related goodies, and I clean them out. Not this time, though. But I did find these:



I thought they were all intact, but the Monopoly game is missing its board. Otherwise it's perfect. Originally it was the graphics that attracted me to these, but I want to try them all with my boys. We like games.

I also found this great linen towel. Yes, I'm Irish.



This is the only sewing stuff I found, but that's ok. I found it before anyone else did.



I love vintage buttons, and these were much cheaper than the antique shop. For everything I got, I paid a whopping $2.

I had to go to the fabric store after this, I needed some fusible fleece for a project. While I was there, I spotted a book I've been wanting since it was first released. It was 30% off. I walked around and around the store with it, debating the wisdom of spending that much on something non-food related.....times are hard, ya know......but in the end, wisdom prevailed and it came home with me.



It's jam-packed with good stuff. I know I'm going to learn a lot from it. Once the projects that are cooking on all my burners are done, I'm going to dive in and start creating.

No sewing has been happening this week, other than 2 projects I can't tell you about. I've also been busy helping my friend Cathy with an enormous project she has going on. I spent the weekend at her house cutting fabric....and you know those new shoes I have? My feet and back didn't bother me a bit! That is some kind of miracle.

Don't forget to go to Among The Gum Trees and enter all the give-aways!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

A slight change on my blog, I'm sorry to say - I've had to enable comment moderation, thanks to a stinky commenter. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'd rather that than have you read them.

Pics tomorrow - went to a church rummage sale today, yippee! Might even go back tomorrow!

And a ps - because of my post title - does anyone remember David Bowie? He was my first love.

There's A New Blog In Town

Among The Gum Trees, a brand spankin' new blog by NINE Aussie designers, has launched! If you love hand stitching and darling projects, be sure to check them out. Brainchild of Jenny of Elefantz, this is a wonderful new place where the designers will be offering free designs, and news of their latest releases. LOTS of free new designs are coming! And each designer will be having a give-away. You can enter them all!

One of the designers, Paula, has launched a wonderful new BOM, Life's A Hoot. You can click on the button on my sidebar or her name, go to her blog, and click the Life's A Hoot button on her sidebar. That will take you to her site to download the pattern.

I need more hands to keep up with these gals - they are so talented!

Joy, Frustration, and A Reply to Barbara

Last night, I was surfing around, answered some emails and read some blogs, when suddenly I couldn't get anywhere. Turned out our internet was down throughout the house. Just as I was getting ready to do this blog post, too. Hubby called our provider's tech support, and they had him on the phone for almost 2 hours, checking settings and all kinds of things I'd never heard of - and after all that time, finally realized the internet was not only down in our entire city, but it had been reported BEFORE we called. They realized this at 1am.

I know I'm getting older, I hope I'm not turning into a crochety old lady - but it seems like all the intelligent life has left the planet. At least in the work force. I guess we're just all busy quilting.

On to joy. I recieved my parcel from Diane yesterday, from her blog give-away last week. What a treat! She sent a truly lovely parcel. Her birthday, and I get the gift. Look and see:



The candy is gone. I had some for breakfast and the rest for dessert last night. Chocolate is not safe with me! She sent a couple of orphan quilt blocks, one of which is destined to become a placemat, a couple of charm packs [she has LOVELY taste in fabrics!], and the sweetest little Christmas stocking made from a vintage quilt that her grandmother made. The stocking brought tears to my eyes - you can tell the quilt was very well loved, it is so soft. I hung it on a peg in my sewing room and there it will stay.




Thank you Diane, I love it all and would love to go fabric shopping with you - you have superb taste in fabric! Go check out her blog and see the post she made about her grandmother's quilt.

And now, a reply to Barbara. She had left a comment on my last post about the embroideries, and I'm sorry Barbara, but I had no way to email you. You came up as a no-reply blogger, so I thought I'd answer your comment here. I did try the iron-on stabilizer, and the puckering on the embroidery was just as bad. I went to the dealer and tried everything - consulted all the experts and tried all kinds of stabilizers, all to no avail. The designs are just too dense. I thought about taking them into my software and reducing the density, but I'm not that familiar with the program and the thought of testing and tweaking all those designs made me crazy, lol. With all the layers I have now, the stitch-outs are the best I've had, so I'll just grit my teeth and stick with it. I must say I've NEVER had so many problems with any embroidery - I'll not do these again. I even took one design down to my girlfriend's, to see if it stitched out any better on her machine, but no. Thank you for reading and commenting, Barbara! I appreciate your help!

I'm off to finish reading my blogs - didn't get to last night. Have a wonderful weekend!

Lest You Think I'm Slacking....

I'm not. Not really. I'm trying to get things done. Especially now that the babies are home and purring. I've been doing a lot of this:



These designs are from Embroidery Library, and they're not playing nice. They're puckering. I'm using quality quilter's cotton, light-weight fusible interfacing, a cut-away stabilizer, and a tear-away stabilizer. All sprayed with quilt basting spray to minimize the fabric movement. I did contact EL, and they suggested I use canvas - a canvas quilt? I don't think so. But I'll get them done if it kills me. Am I the only one who hates quilt basting spray? I think I get more in me than on whatever I'm spraying. *cough cough*

So far I have this many done.



Plus the one I finished today, which took THREE BOBBINS.

I also got Snippets on the design wall -



and started sewing them together! Now if I can just get my points to line up. Points are the bane of my existence.

One more thing. Jenny of Elefantz did a post where she mentioned a book called Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle. I fell absolutely in love and looked at my library website - they had Sew Pretty Homestyle, so I got that, and the Christmas one is now on hold. Where have these books been hiding? I want to make everything in them! Thanks Jenny, I didn't have nearly enough projects to keep me going. *SNORT*

A Perfect Day

Today, we got to meet our friends in Port Huron. You might get sick of hearing about Port Huron - but it's where my mah-velous sewing machine tech lives, so I take my machines there, and today I got to pick up my other one after her spa treatment.



And of course, since it was so sunny and beautiful, we did a lot of sitting by the river, watching the boats and ships.



We couldn't go there without stopping by our favorite diner. Dinner was yum, wish you could've joined us! This beauty was parked outside.



While we were sitting idly by the river, I looked up and saw a man walking toward where we were sitting. He was in full scuba gear. I watched in disbelief as he went to the rail, put on his flippers, climbed the fence and fell in! I'd never seen anyone dive in that river before - the currents are so treacherous. We walked over to the railing and stood for awhile, hoping he'd come back up safe and sound. While we were standing there, I looked down the river where it meets the lake, and thought I was seeing things - it looked like an old Chevy convertible was coming down the river. Um, yep, it was! It was a car/boat. I want one. Badly. I also want a zoom on my camera.....*stomps foot* This was the best picture I could get.



See? I need a camera. Please feel free to tell my hubby that. Loudly and with vigor.

After we got over the shock of seeing a car cruising down the river, scuba guy came back. We got into quite a conversation with him - he told us about all the fish down there. There were some bigger than our boys! I'd like to see a picture of that, you'd never get ME down there.

After dinner, we went for a walk along the marina. Lots of pretty boats.



Past the drawbridge.



And I fell. Just to my knees and nothing was hurt but my pride. Why does it always happen in what feels like slow motion? I don't remember it taking so long when I was young.



Got my partner for the Hug Swap today, oh boy! Have to pick out some fabric for that. Also, I found out about a new BOM starting soon, look on the sidebar for the Sweet Nostalgia BOM - it looks wonderful! I've been thinking I need a new project or two. *rolls eyes* But who can resist that?

Oh - came home and opened my email - I won Di's giveaway! Is that not the perfect ending to a perfect day? Thanks Di!!!! Have a GREAT weekend everyone - for you in the US, enjoy the holiday!