I Finished Something!

I was beginning to wonder if I'd finish anything anymore...I'm too good at starting things.  But I did it, I finished my brother's pillow.  Wendy had generously shared a DARLING design, and I knew it would be perfect for my brother...I also knew he needed a new neck pillow.



It has an overlapping back, but I think I overstuffed the pillow, boy was it hard to stuff it into the cover.  It's filled with shredded foam, which is why it looks so lumpy, but it feels lovely!  I also should have done a flange around the outside, but it's done and it's not getting improved upon.

A couple of things I just started, oh boy....yum yum yum....

A gorgeous pattern from Michelle, it's her own and I just love it...this will be for my mum, she wants it very badly, so I'll have to make another for me!



I've picked out the fabric for it, and forgot to take a pic.  Trust me, it's perfect.  And I also started.....



From Michelle at The Raspberry Rabbits!  This is Irish Blessing No. 1, which tells me there will be more, hooray!~  I've picked out the fabric for this one too, a jelly roll of Dandelion Girl that I won from Jan - so pretty!



It's sure hard to unwrap a jelly roll, but I'm glad I did, the fabrics in this are just gorgeous.  I can't wait to get this done and show you.  Of course, mum wants this one too.  Sheesh, can't have anything, lol!

So I will be stitching my little fingers to the bone, because there are other projects in the works too.  Which is driving me crazy.  I need some finishes.  My sewing room is a right mess, and I think I need to take some time to get organized...maybe I'll do that today.  I hope your day is productive too!

Miss Smarty-Pants

That's me!  That's what I feel like, anyway.  I managed to put pages on my blog, yippee!  A small thing but it feels like I just climbed Everest.  I think mentally, I did.  Tutorials on one page, free patterns on the other, I'm happy dancin'.

Yesterday I looked out the kitchen window, and saw this reflection on our garage, I thought it looked just like an owl -



We still don't know what it was reflecting off of.  But kinda neat.  I have some things to show you soon but I need to get pics....I keep forgetting.  My youngest son starts driver's ed today and I'm WAY more nervous than he is.  What I wouldn't give for a car with dual controls!

I've also been enjoying the Quilt Festival, although I'm not getting very far very fast - so much to look at and enjoy!  Have you popped over for a peek yet?

Blogger's Quilt Festival

If you've clicked over from Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome to my blog!  For all my regular followers, sorry, you're going to see this quilt again, lol.  I wasn't going to enter Amy's festival this year, I couldn't think of a quilt to enter - then I remembered this one.



This quilt was an entry in Kelly's Bling Challenge.  I had never used bling on a quilt before, and I quite loved it!  I used a crystal applicator to attach the crystals, and it's very addictive.  Great fun.



The shapes of the flowers were leftovers from my big Sis Boom quilt.



The shapes looked like flowers to me, so I ran with it.  Jennifer's fabrics are just wonderful and I didn't want to waste any pieces!  The large flowers and leaves have hand-embroidered detail, although it's hard to see.




I wanted the quilt to be asymmetrical, but I think I might have made it a little too wonky.  Still, I like it, and have even started a new one.



I hope you're enjoying the Festival, I know I am - a huge thanks to Amy for her great efforts in putting this on!!

Portholes Revisited

I think I've resolved the pinterest issue, boy I've spent so much time on the computer doing techie stuff lately - not my forte.  I've also been playing with Google Docs today.  Not enough chocolate in the world.

I've been doing my Portholes pattern again, I had done it as a table runner but decided I want it as a wall-hanging.  So it will be vertical instead of horizontal.



I added some flowers [french knots].  I used to make french knots the normal way, wrapping the needle 3 times, but Jenny of Elefantz shared that she only wraps once.  I decided to try that, and I really like it.  For one thing, it's much faster.  The knots seem more like flowers to me.  I'm not very good at them, but I'm sure I'll get better with practice.



What do you think?  Should I add more flowers to these two portholes?  I like the look, but I'm undecided if there should be more.  This one, with the flowers in the window boxes, I really like as it is.



Close-ups - see?  I'm not very good at the french knots, but I love them.






Now I need to get off this computer and find something to eat - you shouldn't blog on an empty stomach.  I hope you're all having a wonderful week - I'll be by to visit you later tonight!

Testing One, Two, Three...

Just uploading some images, to make sure Pinterest is working on my blog again.









And a couple of pics of mum from Mother's Day.....don't you just want to poke her little belly?  I think this is my favorite pic of her EVER.



And mum with John and Sam.



Now I'm going to publish and try to pin something.  All this technology makes me want chocolate.  Lots and lots and lots of chocolate.

Almost Normal

Yay, I'm walking!  Not very well yet, but I'm walking.  Good thing  - I think I've posted more in a week than I normally do all month.

I had borrowed my son's computer chair to roll around the upstairs, so my regular chairs got moved out of the way.  Poor kitty wasn't happy about not being able to get on my table [hadn't been able to clear it off], so she sat here for the longest time, glaring at me....



Poor thing.  My friend O'faigh had a "name the bunny" contest on her blog, she made the cutest prim rabbit and I suggested Dimity, after the Aunt Dimity series of books.  In the book, the heroine has a stuffed bunny that Dimity made and O'faigh's bunny reminded me of the books.  Look what O'faigh sent to thank me...so darling....



The cutest needle-felted purse, and a Christmas panel that is destined to become a table runner.



Look at these little flowers, aren't they sweet?



Thanks O'faigh, I love it!

The Quilting Gallery is having a Quilts For Mom contest this week.  I entered one I made for my mum a few years ago for Mother's Day...



There are some really, really gorgeous quilts there, and you can vote for FOUR this week.  I'd love you to vote for mine, but only if you like it enough to want to - go browse and vote for your favorites, you'll be astounded at the talent and the stories.  Link is here.

Finally, I came across this picture this week and it reminded me of that big spider dangling from my hair....

Have a great weekend, and Happy Mother's Day!

Vintage Sheets?

Today was such a pretty day...



I love those great big puffy clouds, at least until this happened...



Just some off and on rain, it was nice!  I got a whole 3 hours of sleep last night with my foot, but it's better tonight.  Thank you for all the good wishes!  I have my son's computer chair, it's on wheels, so I can get to the bathroom a bit easier now...I don't think I'll be walking on my foot for at least another few days.  Very tiresome.

Do you use vintage sheets in your quilts?  Michelle at Mrs. Sew & Sew is doing some posts from other bloggers about it, quite interesting!  You know I LOVE using vintage sheets, and I am not alone.  Go check out her posts and add your opinion!  Then scroll down and check out her Dresden plates, so pretty!!!

Finally, Debbie from Woolen Sails did something so sweet, for everyone that left a comment on one post she gave away a free epattern to them.  I picked her Spring Chicks, available here, I can't wait to get to Joann's and get some homespun fabrics - I'm going to do it in applique - so cute!!!!  Thank you Debbie!!!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play my 314th game of Solitaire while I watch Mr. Bean....

Did You Know....

that your heart doesn't really stop when you have a big black spider dangling from your hair?  It just does a couple of somersaults then goes BAM BAM BAM BAM until you kill said spider.

If you need me in the next few days, I'll be sitting here with my frozen veggies - [no ice in the house] -

I swear my feet are magnets for every heavy object in this house!

Sewing With Glue

I thought I would show you how I'm doing my rick-rack handles on my Sand Pails.  I'm really having fun using my glue stick!

The first thing I do is pick a color of rick-rack for the pail.



Then, with a washable marker, I draw an approximate line of where I want the handle to go - I'm not stressing over it, I'm just quickly drawing and it doesn't have to be perfect.  This is a WONKY quilt.



Measure how much rick-rack I'll need.



Then holding the glue stick between my knees, I run the rick-rack over the top, sliding it around so it doesn't make a deep rut [did that the first time, what a mess].



Lay it on the line I've drawn on the fabric - the glue keeps it in place and stops it from twisting.



Then I find some matching floss, and stitch it down.



These are going really fast.  I just need to find the motivation to sit for a few hours, this is what I have left to do...



Walmart had these glue sticks, 2 in a pack, for .25 last year during the back to school sale.  That's when I STOCK UP.  They're great for sewing because they stick right away, and wash out completely.

I was also going to show you my two indispensible tools.  One is a small, adhesive leather thimble, available from Kelly at I Have A Notion here - and the other is a rubber finger cot from any office supply store.




The finger cot helps me pull the needle through anything, and saves my hand.  The leather thimbles last and last, and I can't stitch without them anymore.

I was downloading the pics for this post, and a gorgeous bird flew into my apple tree out front and started showing off.  I just knew the minute I put the card back in the camera and got up, he'd fly away, but I did it anyway.  He stayed put, I couldn't believe it!  Anybody know what kind of bird he is?





Not too bad of a pic for going through four layers of glass, lol....gosh he's pretty, I'm so glad he enjoyed the photo shoot!

Have a great week!

May The 4th Be With You

Happy National Star Wars Day!

Not a lot going on here in Allie-land.  Slowly stitching, reading lots of good books, reading lots of good blogs *G*, not much else new.  I was scrounging through my fabrics and found some quilt blocks I had started, from Gwen Marston...the quilt is called Sand Pails.  I had stopped production when I realized I didn't know how I wanted to do the handles of the sand pails.  I pulled them out, and tried some rick-rack that Carrie had sent me....what do you think?



I LOVE it.  I'm going to do them all with rick-rack.  And it's pretty quick stitching it on by hand!  I spent the morning cutting the rest of the backgrounds for the pails.

The rain has stopped, and the sun has appeared, a lovely evening here.  There was a lot of flooding to our north.  I hope all my Michigan friends are dry.  I'm going to go sit and do nothing, we went out to eat this evening and I'm stuffed.....doesn't this look good?



If you're ever in the Livonia, MI area, Leo's Coney Island is on the southeast corner of 8 Mile and Farmington roads - next to Jimmy John's.  The Greek salad is wonderful!

I hope you all have a very yummy weekend!