Quilting The "Bliss"

I'm working on one of my UFO projects--Checkerberry Bliss.  I'm hand quilting it---eeeeeek----that may take a while.  The way I figure it, I'll start quilting the center area, and see how that goes, then when I get to the fancy borders, I may just keep hand quilting, or I may want to machine quilt them.

Right now I'm enjoying the process, so I'm not going to worry about it.

Sooooo........I'm back to bending needles again.  Wa-hoo!

Below is the pic I was going to add to the last post--this one took 2 1/2 minutes to upload, which is better, but still too long.  I'm not sure, but I think they've been messing with Blogger again--I know the image upload window is different, and it's worse.  Sheeeeh!

Anyway this is the other end of my sewing goodie basket--odds and ends.  It doesn't look as organized as I'd like, but that will come.  At least I have most of my gadgets together in one place now.  Needles, chalk markers, quilting gloves, pin cushions, bobbins, etc....I know they're all in there somewhere.

It really is nice to have it altogether in one place now.

Sewing Goodie Basket

I started a goodie basket for my sewing gadgets.

I have a container with scissors, pencils, a compass, bodkin, needle pullers, etc...

 Next I have a container with my quilting gadgets in it:  marking pens, and pencils, applique glue, water to spritz, a thing-a-ma-jig to help pin baste with....those sorts of things.

I had other plans for this post, but seeing that it is taking so long to upload pictures--5 minutes for this last one---I am going to stop now.

GRAND DAUGHTER'S GRADUATION PARTY

Our oldest grand daughter, Brittany, just graduated from High School.  We went to Iowa to celebrate this great event with her.  We are so proud of her--she is such a lovely young lady.

Our youngest daughter, Erin, made the cupcakes, and Jen and I helped her with the assembly of them--about 75 cupcakes altogether.

Our oldest daughter, Jen (mother of the graduate), got lots of help--including her MIL who is a great cook--she made the Mac and cheese, and three dips.  Erin made two kinds of cookies along with all those cupcakes, I carved the watermelons while Jen orchestrated the whole thing.  The guys grilled the Hawaiian marinated chicken on sticks.  Jen also had baked beans, chips, and fruit kabobs.  Britt made the watermelon punch.  The meal was delicious to the max, and beautiful.

There were about 60-70 guest that came and went for about four hours.  There were several yard games, and a picture booth which Erin took pics of everyone with props like hats, lips, mustaches, funny glasses, etc. ----lots of fun.

They borrowed a tent for the food tables.  It was a nice day, and a storm blew up after it was all over.  A wonderful day for our grand daughter to remember.

Handwork and Loss

Well, I made another bug.  I did the handwork on this one over at my sister, Alice's house. 

This picture was taken before I did the beading work on the ends of the pull cords, and adding the button eyes.

Here is a pic after adding them.  I made the cording from twisting embroidery floss.

You can see a close-up of the beads here.

I LOVE MY NEW CAMERA!  (How cool is this close-up!?)

 

I've been helping my sister, Alice, while she is recovering from back surgery.

She is also going through the difficult time of losing her husband who passed away recently--pray for her.  Dale will be greatly missed. He leaves not only his wife of 25 years, but 8 children, many grandchildren, and great grandchildren.  They need prayers as well.

Mom's Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

What a wonderful day. 

Wonderful family, wonderful food--fun too, and no trip to the hospital this year---yeah! 

And look what I received!!!

A new camera---woo-hoo!  These pics were taken with it.  I'm soooo excited.  Some mighty sweet cards too.

My family is so sweet--I am so blessed. 

They fixed a wonderful meal:  Roast, potatoes, carrots, homemade rolls, salad, deviled eggs, angel food cake with many toppings, and I'm probably leaving something out, but yum!

I had to come home and take some pics of my flowers.  Columbine, and.....

my hollyhocks are blooming.

WOW! This is a great camera--and it's not fussy like my old one. 

Thank you, sweet family.



Traveling Sewing Kit

I made a new traveling sewing kit:

I used plastic canvas inside the fabric pockets, and added black felt (by hand) to the insides.  It is stitched together by hand with an elastic cord and button for the closure.

I think next time I should possibly cut the plastic canvas into strips for the flap portion only, so it would lay down a little more nicely.  I could stitch between the strips with a row of stitching to hold them in place.  Just an idea.

All I need now is some folding scissors, and it will be complete.

It has white thread, black thread, and tan thread in the kit, as well as a tape measure, pins, needles, and a safety pin.  There are some buttons as well.  A fun little project.