Retro Fabric

I tried Joanna's method when I made the acorns.  I talked about the method yesterday, and I found the tutorial.  The reason I couldn't find it on her blog was because she posted it on Sew Mama Sew.  Click on that, and you'll find it, if you're interested.

I absolutely love this method--it takes all the frustration out of applique.

I just drew some acorn parts on freezer paper, cut them out, and painted on the starch around the seam allowance, folded and ironed it.

Next, after popping out the double freezer paper cut outs, I glue basted them in place.

Stitching them down only took a couple of minutes.  The cap of the acorn was made of loose weave cloth so I spray starched it first.  If I had tried to needle turn this it would have been extremely hard and would have looked terrible.

I don't seem to be sticking with a color scheme, so I am making it a little too gaudy for my taste.

I am embroidering semi-fancy stitching down the seam lines now.  I think I will add embroidery veins to the leaves, and maybe a little definition to the acorns--we'll see.

This pic shows a close up of some of my embroidery.  I am enjoying it even though I'm not crazy about the colors.  Erin said she liked the retro fabric I used in the base of the project.  It does take me back in time to the Good Ole Days.

Fall Journal Cover

New Project--Apple Cores are boring the living daylights out of me, so on to something else.

Another Journal Cover.  (I bought 5 Composition Notebooks when the school supplies were on sale last month.)  A friend gave me her material and I sorted it into wovens and knits & silky-lacy groups.  I also sorted the colors into groups.  I just had to get my hands on some of this material, so I cut several strips and one 12 by 27" piece, then started stitching the strips on the big piece.

Next, I drew some leaves on freezer paper, cut them out, pinned them on, and started hand needle turn stitching.  I do enjoy applique.  I wanted to try a method I found on some one's blog where you iron the freezer paper on the right side of your fabric, pin it down, and then needle turn stitch them down.  I'm not sure I like this method.  I want to try Joanna's method next.  I tried to find her tutorial again, but got tired of looking for it on her blog, but basically it's double freezer paper cutouts ironed to the wrong side then cut out larger with seam allowance.  Spray starch (from a small container that you have sprayed starch into) brushed on the seam allowance, and iron the seam allowances folded over the freezer paper.  Gently remove the freezer paper, and iron again.  Stash them in a baggie until ready to glue baste them down.  It's then ready to stitch down without pins catching your thread as you sew, and no needle turn involved, just pleasant stitching.  You don't have to cut holes in the backside to get the paper out either.  It's a lot of prep work, but worth it, in my opinion.

I want to add some acorns, and special embroidery stitching on the seams of the back ground.  Hopefully, I can trim this one up right and not have to add binding to the edge, but who knows that might improve this cover as it did the last one.

This may need more embellishment than I have planned so far, but we'll see.

I just fuss with it until I'm satisfied---seams to be the method of operation I enjoy most.

Two Birds With One Stone

Two posts in one day; have I lost my mind?  I am in trouble.  With all that was going on yesterday, I forgot my Father-In-Law's birthday.  Yikes!  I have another busy day today, but will need to do something for him.   I'm so bad at remembering when I get real busy.  What to do?  Bake a cake?  No, I know: Best Double Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever.

Along with a card and some flowers for my MIL should help get us out of the dog house.

My sister, Alice is having a Dummy Rummy--Potluck tonight, so some of the cookies can be for that also--two birds with one stone.  Along with this....

Shepherds Pie--All I need to do is pop it it the oven to warm it up and melt the cheese.  Yeah, cooking's done.  Now I need to stick the cookies in the car, so I won't eat them.  I'm so bad.



I Have A Finish

It's nice to have a finish on a sewing project.  Now I can get back to the Apple Cores; maybe this finish will carry me while I work on the apple cores.  Apple Cores are The. Slowest. Project. Ever.

Every time I work on curved piecing it's labor intensive, but especially so on handpiecing; it was nice to finish something quickly.

Look at my creeping thyme I started in March---it's a Woolly Mammoth.

I may need to stick this in a bigger pot to winter over.

It's officially Fall now, and it's cool.  Nice.

We went to my nephews football game last night, and they won 35 to 8.  Fun, fun.  Going back to the car was not fun---I was walking between cars and didn't see a curb--down I went.  I had lots of layers on which protected me somewhat, but I groaned in bed a lot last night--taking a spill when you are older--NOT NICE.

LEMONADE FROM LEMONS

Well, I got distracted while working on this project and made some boo-boos.

First, I cut the batting too small, and didn't notice until it was already quilted. 

Second, I sewed the lining on in the wrong place, and trimmed it, which made it too short to stitch the pocket flaps down. 

After thinking about how to fix it, this morning I decided to disguise the area where the quilting stopped too soon with some black and yellow patchwork squares.  To fix the shortness of the cover, I added black binding to the top and bottom.  It's been machine stitched down, but I still need to hand stitch it to the back side.  Then I will hand stitch the pocket flaps in place.

I was just flying by the seat of my pants when I started this, and didn't stop to measure as much as I should have.  I like it better with the black fabric added to it, so I'm glad I made the boo-boos.

I'm going to my sister, Alice's today for Craft Day--I will work on this and Apple Cores.  I'm taking Tuna-Egg Salad Sandwiches to go with her Potato Soup.  My niece Niki is bringing crumbled bacon for the soup---that's just what I know about--I'm sure there will be more food from our other nieces.  Niki always brings dessert too.  Yum!



JOURNAL JACKET

I started a new quick project.  Apple cores are getting old, and I need a break from them.

This project gives me a chance to used my new applique pincushion.  The leaves of the applique are actually leftovers from cutting out the apple cores.  I also wanted a Diet Journal to keep me accountable for what I eat.  That always helps me to not pig out.

Needle turn will be my applique method here on the leaves.  I love the bright colors.  I found the yellow-orange fat quarters at Wally World yesterday.  I have pieced a background of material that's 12" x 30" or so, and I will quilt the center portion that fits on the outside of the composition notebook when my applique is finished, but not the flap-pockets, because I don't want any thickness on the inside of the flaps.

So much fun! 

My Leviticus study is coming along nicely.  It's a tough one, but really deep, and I love that.  This week our study focuses on holiness---it should be real good.  Last week it was about the priests and comparing them and their duties to christian's as New Testament Priests---very interesting.

BULL RIDING

We went to see Professional Bull Riding Saturday night with our daughter Erin.  It was pretty interesting.  We got our tickets kind of late so we didn't get the best seats in the world, but we really liked where we were sitting because we got to watch the behind the scenes moving of the bulls.

In the picture below you can see some of the bull pens with a ton of gates.  Moving them around was pretty tricky business.  We could see three cowboys back there opening and shutting gates while protecting themselves from the bulls.  They had to move them from their pens to the shutes to be ridden, and back to their pens afterward--it was quite an orchestration.  I think I enjoy this more than the bull riding.

The first guy out of the shute nearly got trampled when he fell off of the bull--scarry!  Erin didn't get a picture of that.  Here's one she did get though.

Another one here.

One bull was too mean to ride so they had to let him out to get him back to his pen.  He didn't want to go back into the shute either.  The guy on the horse had to lasso him and have his horse pull him back into the shutes.  It was all very interesting.  He had to lasso about 4 or 5 different bulls altogether, and he never missed either.

Puppet Curtain and Garden

Two of our granddaughters (Celeste and Jeff's two youngest daughters) had birthdays, and I must show you what Erin made for them.

She made it out of a curtain panel, isn't it adorable?  She got the puppets off of Etsy--they're cute too.

We got them clothes and toys.  One of them wanted a hoola-hoop, so I tried my hand at it.  It's been a long time and I was very rusty, but Erin knew how to do it quite well, humm, who knew!  I must add--Jeff did it around his neck---now there's some good exercise.  Evelyn, who got it, does a real cute hula without the hoop.

I took a quick stroll in the garden with my camera this morning.

My zinnias are quite tall--shoulder height to me--I had no idea they grew that tall.  This is the new bed we worked on back earlier this summer, and added lots of compost.  I haven't grown zinnias in many years.  These are from the seeds my sister, Donna, gave me for my birthday in January.

The dahlias are doing quite well too.

The elephant ears are huge--taller than me--and I'm 5'8".

I trimmed them up again yesterday, to get rid of the scraggly leaves.

It has turn off cool here yesterday.  Tuesday we set a record high for that day, but I don't remember what the high was, but it was near 100.  It's suppose to be cool all week--yeah!  It's in the 50's right now.  Fall came suddenly.

Orange Potluck Labor Day

For our Labor Day meal we had a potluck with our Missouri kids and grand kids.

Here's what I made:

Peach and pineapple cobbler with Ice Cream,

Sweet Potato Oven Fries, (I took the picture before I  baked them)

Chicken Enchiladas,

and BLT Salad.

Most of my food was orangish, and when Erin got here she brought Mac and Cheese, and made the comment that all our food was orange.  When Celeste and family got here Erin asked her if her food was orange too, and it was, kind of--Grandma's Spanish rice and cookies.  Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of their food when they got here.  It was all good, and I enjoyed it all, maybe a little too much. 

And lookie here--My new Bible Study for the Fall---I'm so excited. 

I picked my book up this morning---love it!

Fall is officially here for me; I have my Fall Bible Study, and the weather has cooled off.  I made it through the hard month of August; the heat has been stifling.  I know it's not Fall yet, but it's close, and I'm soooo ready for it.

Joplin Ball Game

We went with my sister and her family to my nephews football game in Joplin Saturday night.  I asked my daughter to take pictures on her phone for me, and here they are.  It was a warm night.  I get so excited at ballgames.

Here they are before the game doing warm-ups or something.

It was a beautiful night.   It was on ESPN, so the game lasted longer than normal. 

I went a long time without eating, so my sugar got too low, but I survived.  My sister gave me some candy--thank goodness.

I don't remember the score, but my nephews team won; it was 40 something to 20 something, I think.

I brought my quilt to sit on, but next time I want to take a seat with back on it--that, and food!

It's been a long time since I've been to a high school ball game.  It was fun, and I'm old.