Merry Christmas & Mystery Step 5 & Just Catching Up

Hello!

Merry Christmas!  I know I am a few days late on that greeting but it has been one busy couple of weeks.  First of all I got a nasty cold - so I did not even get my normal overload of cookies made.  But I did manage to get my niece Annas quilt back from the quilter and bound for her for Christmas.  She wanted a queen size and it is on our king size bed here so it is plenty big and it is the quilt I taught in beginning quilting this fall.   She really loves it so I am glad I got it done for her.  She asked for a new quilt about 2 years ago, I just love when they want something that I make, really makes my heart smile!
 

I did finish this UFO - a gal at work wanted to give a quilt to her little neice, and she wanted pink and green, so I had this in my UFO stack,  it needed borders, quilting and binding but I did manage to get it to her on the Friday before Christmas and she was thrilled and I was too -- another UFO done!!
 

Christmas Eve was a little quiet at our house- kinda nice so I was able to get Part 5 done of the Easy Street Mystery.  - I really like the way this quilt is coming together, I have this part totally done and I have part 2 totally done, but the other parts are not completely done, but at least all pieces are cut and I can work on it this weekend when I am off for 4 days!!!
  

And last but not least Poochie and Rudy wanted to wish  everyone in blogland Happy Holidays!  Here is Poochie Christmas morning waiting to see what Santa Paws brought her!!
  

And here is Rudy -- looking cute on his new dog bed with his Santa hat on!   They certainly do have a good life!

I hope you had a nice holiday and are looking forward to the new year, I know I am.  Our Christmas was great we went to our niece Annas and she totally spoiled me, she gave everyone a stocking filled with goodies -- mine had lots of lip gloss, nail files and face and hand creams, little perfumes, it was awesome!  And we had a great day at her house!

Well I better go and see if I can get something done in my sewing room.
Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Stitches!

Dorothy

Mystery Step 3 and Quilt Shop Visit

Hello

How was the weekend?  Mine was very productive.  Dear Hubby wanted to have some BBQ at one of our favorite places on Saturday we took a 2 hour drive and got to stop at one of my favorite quilt shops!

But before I show those goodies, I want to show you Part  3 of the Easy Street Mystery -- I completed part 3 this morning, I started sewing at about 7:15 and finished around noon today!  So excited to actually have 1 step totally completed!!  I have about 150 of step 1 done, and 68 of step 2 done.  So I still have some work to do but I am getting closer to my goal of completing all my parts.   I am using Pink where Bonnie is using Turquoise, I did not really have any turquoise in my stash and I have pink so I thought it would be pretty and I am please with the way step 3 has turned out.   Are you doing the mystery?  How are you progressing?  

 OK now onto the quilt shop -- I needed to get more black and whites for the mystery, so far I have only bought 2 1/4 yards for this mystery  - I am very happy to be using some of my stash for this quilt.

I forgot to take a picture of the fabric I got but I did take a picture of my new patterns.   I love the little stockings, they had samples made up of this wanted to get some done today but it just did not happen.  I di get this months Schnibbles pattern and a table runner pattern.  And the Lazy girl pattern is going to be perfect to hold my phone.  Again I wanted to try to make some of those today but Dear Hubby wanted to take a ride to Harbor Freight Tools  and I was hoping to go to the Salvation Army but they were closed today and it was such a cloudy rainy day I was glad we made just one stop and came home.  He got some toys he needs for his garage projects.
    

This Gingerbread house is made of paper mache and is decorated with a wreath full of fake gumdrops -- It is huge and was on display in the window of the quilt shop.  I think you can order the plain houses on line  I have not had a chance to look but I might try this after Christmas -- because it was adorable.

Well tomorrow is a work day - so I better go to sleep!

Thanks for stopping
Happy Stitches
Dorothy   

It's Christmas Time!!

Hello!

Or shall I say MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Tonight was our Jingle Bell parade in town and you guessed it Santa Arrived!!  The parade lasts about 10 minutes and the final vehicle in the parade carries ----you guessed it  SANTA!!  Such a fun filled evening, almost everyone in town shows up for the parade, free hot chocolate and cookies and the tree lighting ceremony.  

This year we have a new Snow People display  - the snow people faces open up so  you can put your face in there and take pictures, very clever!
 

After all this we went out to dinner at a place I had gotten a Groupon for and it was very nice.
Tomorrow I plan on sewing on the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt.  Check back Sunday for some sewing results!
Have a great weekend!
Happy Stitches and to all a good night!
Dorothy

Mystery Part 2 and more

Good Morning!

It was one busy week last week, last craft show of the season.  My little town has a craft walk and I am involved it that at a friends house, so between finishing projects and helping at the show I was busy and to bop it off I had a bunch of friends over on Saturday to go to the shows and then to lunch at the little tea room in my town.  A really fun time!

Then on Sunday I had to make my reindeer Candy Canes for Hospice, they do BUNS Baking up Nice Surprises -- 3 times a year and for the December BUNS I make these -- They turn out cute and the put so their little face is peeking out of the bag -- I hope it makes the person who gets the bag smile.  So Sunday I worked most of the day on these -- I made 132 - At any point there are 120 - 140 people in Hospice in our county.  Dear Hubby dropped them off for me on Monday.  

 Here is what they look like on the entire candy cane -- It is a Martha Stewart Pattern.  Really simple to make

 And now on to the Mystery Part 2   - I still have a ways to go but all of my geese are cute and I have some done -- hope to finish them up between tonight and Friday night.   I really love this mystery.  It is simple and I am keeping up so far so good.

Well today is a work day -- I hope your having a good week!
Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Thanksgiving Weekend Wrap up

Hello

Did you have a good weekend?  Hope your Thanksgiving was a good one!  We ended up staying home Dear Hubby was not feeling good at all - he has an upper respiratory infection. 

I had a very productive weekend  -- I decided to work on Bonnie from Quiltville newest mystery Easy Street -- here are the fabrics I picked out -- she is using gray where I am using the yellow -- I like a little cheery quilt and I am pink instead of torquoise.  I think I will be happy with this quilt, I love all my fabrics.  

Here is part of part 1 -- we need 192 4 patches and I have almost 100 done and the strips sewn together for the additional 4 patches I need to make.  -- I like it so far -- we get a new clue every Friday -- should be fun!
 

I did alot of decorating -- and cleaning -- here is my little gingerbread house village -- my mom and I made the 2 on the ends -- they are unfinshed bird houses -- she painted them and we glue on all the decorations.  I have added some other items like the cone trees - and I need to make a runner for it to be on.

    

Here is my gingerbread tree -- it is a 4 foot tree and it is in the dining room -- full of gingerbread people -- I just love it.
 

Here is my Christmas Village this is just the center of it, I could not get a good photo of the entire village -- it is in our entry way.  I just love looking at it and making my story -- this  year there are 2 ladies on a bench quilting outside the quilt shop -- such a story I can create about them.  It is nice to use your imagination.

  

 I did go shopping at 4:30 on Black Friday -- I made several stops and got everything on my list and saved so much money -- here is my best deal $47.99 for 82 piece Onieda silverware set at Kohls -- they say it would sell for $159.99 -- I don't really think so  -- but not only did I get the great price, I got $5 off with a coupon and 15% off with another coupon and I am so happy with it -- our silverware really has become so mismatched over the years and this looks so nice in my clean drawer!

    

  And of course it is the House Walk in my town - starting Thursday and I am going to have my items on display at a friends house.  Here is something I finished up this weekend -- Love those faces.

And I decided to make some stocking stuffer type items, these are decorated Hersey Bars -- I saw something like it on Pinterest.  So I got these done this afternoon.

I did get our big tree up also and all the fall stuff in the basement and the outdoor Christmas decorations up too!  Dear Hubby finally felt better on Saturday so we did go out to dinner -- it was nice to go out - and so happy he is feeling better.

Tomorrow it is back to work - next 4 day weekend in 4 weeks!

Happy Stitches
Dorothy 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good Morning!

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Turkey day!  Our plans have changed a bit, we were going to be heading to Dear Hubbys family in Iowa for the day -- but he is sick, coughing and hacking sick, the had called the Dr on Wednesday for a Z-pack but it does not seem to be working as quickly as we would like.

So plan B - we will be staying home and I will be doing some sewing and decorating for Christmas.

I hope you have a great day!

 

Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

  

Next Truck

Good Evening!

I just saw this  posted and I just told Dear Hubby this will be what the back of my next truck looks like!  I just love it!!

 

Have a good evening

Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

Friday Night Sew in and Saturday's Card party

Good Morning

WOW it is has been awhile since I have blogged!  Lots going on -- Last Saturday my Sister in Law in Wisconsin had a Card Making party -- I went with my other sister in law who lives about 1 hour away from me and then off to Wisconsin we went!   We had a blast!  Here are the cards I made -- Leslie (my sister in law who had the party) PRECUT everything we needed.  That was so AWESOME!  We made 10 cards 2 of each you see here and then she even had a few more pre cut so we will be making those on Thanksgiving when get together with more of the family in Iowa.     

Last Sunday I was in a a craft show at the local high school -- it is one of my favorites to do -- I split the booth with one of my friends and it is non stop people that I know all day long  -- fun to catch up with everyone.

This past week, the computers at work were barely working so it made for a long week, and Dear Hubby was celebrating his first week of work off for the winter by starting to clean the garage -- organizing his tool bench winterizing the tractor, the edger and rototiller and Saturday was my day to help him clean it out -- we started at 6:30 AM yesterday and finished up at 4:30 yesterday afternoon -- we moved everything out -- swept and vacuumed -- yes vacuumed the garage -- Dear Hubby has a shop type vac that he just got and it mounts on the wall with a huge hose so he was in hog heaven using his new vac!  We pitched a ton of stuff that no longer works and rearranged  so after trash day I can park my truck in the garage for the winter -- that will make life a lot easier this winter - no more scrapping!

Friday night was Friday Night Sew in and I headed to Quilting Moms house -- she is one of my best friends moms and she is an extraordinary quilter - and my friend goes to her moms every Friday for dinner and sewing, so I was lucky enough to be able to join them on Friday night -- I need to go more often,  because it was a blast and certainly the right thing to do, since I was going to be helping in the garage all day Saturday!

So here is what I accomplished -- in between eating and laughing and talking -- The Bee in Your Bonnet Row 6 -- I only have 3 rows done so far -- I am doing them in no particular order as you can tell.  I was just happy to get a row done -- well almost done I have to add the top and bottom white fabric to it.
    

d

Then last night Dear Hubby and I ran some errands and of course we stopped at JoAnns -- he was THRILLED!! LOL - and I bought some white tulle -- I am going to make a wreath today -- I saw some at a craft show awhile back and have been thinking about making some -- so today is the day!  But I have another story while at JoAnns -- this lady in front of me in line had a bill of $85 the clerk asked her is she had any coupons for some reason this lady as nice as she was must have just landed her from Mars -- because she had NO Coupons -- I know how crazy is that -- well I happen to have 2 flyers and my bill was not going to be that much so I said -- I have a $15 coupon if you would like to use it -- she was so thrilled to save $15  -- and it sure made me feel good to help someone.
 Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

Remember to Vote today

Good Morning

Remember today is a very important day -- Voting day!  Please vote!

 

Then when you watch the results tonight, make a quilt -- in 2008 a friend and I made our election night quilts -- I made a bow tie quilt as I watched the results.  This year I am going to be working on table runners for a show this weekend.  

Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

Happy Halloween!

Good Morning!

Happy Halloween!!   One last day of showing off some of the pumpkins!  I hope these are not repeats, I had all my photos on the desktop and then put them in a folder so I knew wich ones I used.  But Dear Hubby put them all in a different folder!  So what's a girl to do!

Here is a funny pumpkin -- eating this hotdog!  to funny!!

Here is an entire pumpkin town!  Check out the rainbow in the background.

And here is a scary spider!

Have a happy and safe Halloween!
Happy Stitches!
Dorothy 

More Pumpkins!

Hello!
Just like I promised...more pumkins!

First here is a weird photo of a pillowcase I made for my nieces little 2 year old daughter, that should give her nice and sweet Halloween dreams!

Then for her little boy who was born in March -- I made a Halloween bib -- got these mailed off today and she will get tomorrow -- really pushed this to the limit this year -- next year I need to be better prepared.
My sister in law emailed me a cute pattern for Halloween - I need to print it and made a few and put them aside and then I will be ready earlier next year :)
    

 Now back to the pumpkin parade!!
Here is a snowmand and I think Dr Seuss

A trio of Piggys 

This Dracula is really a good scary pumpkin

This is too funny -- A witch in the box and it looks like she just popped up!!

I thought this Frankenstein was a neat pumpkin and the witch on the left is neat too!

Well check back tomorrow for more of the Pumpkin Parade!
Be safe East Coasters! 
Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

Class Quilt, FNSI, Pumpkins & More

Happy Sunday Afternoon!


How have you been?  I am going to try to better at blogging again -- getting into a routine with the new job so it should be easier to find more time and since it is cooling off finally in the 40's during the day -- so not much to do outside and lots more I can do inside!!

I was teaching a beginning quilting class and they wanted to go BIG!  So here is my top that I got done during the class, it fits our king size bed, but it is actually going to be quilted and given to my niece who I promised a quilt to 2 years ago -- I hope she likes it.   

Well this past Friday was Friday Night Sew In -- I started some projects on Friday and worked all weekend on projects and here is what I have almost done -- I got 2 of these tall and skinny snowmen done, I just have to sew the binding on tonight during the Amazing Race and the World Series.
    

I also got 2 of these candle  mats done, they are out of recyled wool -- I have a few more cute out so I will be working on these this week  - They will be going to the craft show this next weekend.

  

Here are a pair of potholders I made for the Halloween Potholder Swap on Flickr -- love the witches boot fabric.
 

And now onto my favorite Holiday -- Halloween -- It was Pumpkin Fest in the town next to ours and here are some photos of some really neat pumpkins -- not too worry I have more pumpkin photos to post this week -- and a few more projects      The one is a cute Beach Family of Pumkins -- some folks are too darn creative!

Here is the Purrfect Pumpkin  a trio of Black cats!

Did you say send in the clowns?   Here is a cute Clown Family - I bet they all got out of one of those little clown cars -- LOL

OH and here is the Head Clown!!!  Too cute!!

This one is my favorite  it is a bouquet of pumpkins --  the vase is a gourd and the little pumpkins are the flowers TOO CUTE!
 

Well that is all for today!  I hope you had a great weekend!
Check back tomorrow for more cool pumpkins!
Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

Friday Night Sew in?!?

Hello

I just check outed the gals who host Friday Night Sew In and it is postponed til next Friday ....Bummer - I am teaching the last Beginning Quilting class tonight and I thought when I get home I would sew --still going to do that - got lots of projects to work on...

What are you working on tonight?

Happy Stitches
Dorothy  

Catching up with you!

Good Morning!

How have you been??  Life has been crazy busy here!  I did a fantastic craft show the last Thursday in September, so prepping for that I was not able to blog much.  And October has been crazy busy so far too.  Last weekend I went to Craft Camp and left on Friday and returned late Sunday night so I could go back to work on Monday AM.   I did teach classes on Saturday -- I taught these 2 cute wool journals, I got the red wool fabric for $4 for 2 yards at a quilt show we had went to back in September.  This is the snowman journal - lucky I have the sample because I sold all my kits :)

 This is my flower journal -- great for garden notes - I sold half the kits for this one, but I think I might make up a  few more of the kits and give them as gifts to fellow gardeners. 

 Then I taught a quick postcard class, this is one of the cards I made -- I also had a snowman, gingerbread boy and cardinal postcard -- it was a fun weekend.  

    

This past week I was nominated for President of Garden Club -- I was the only one nominated so I "won" - it is a good group and it should be pretty stress free, it is a good group.

This past weekend it rained most of the weekend, we ran errands on Saturday and yesterday I got some household chores done, not much sewing :(  Hope to get to that tonight after work!

So what have you been up to??

Happy Stitches
Dorothy  

August Schnibbles!

Hi!

How are you doing?  WOW this has been a really busy month -- and it was supposed to be quiet and I was going to get lots done, well that plan FLEW out the window!  The Garden Center I work at was going to close until Sept 8th and I was really unsure what was going on with it, it has not been making money and next year they will be tearing up the road in front of it during the spring/early summer - traditionally a busy time for the garden center.  SO I thought maybe I should look for a job, I usually do look in the the winter and temp or do something, but a real full time year around job is hard to come by.  So I applied for a couple of jobs I found on Craigs list and GUESS WHAT?!?!?  I got a new job!  I work for a large landscape company and I handle the bids for the company -- very interesting and busy job.  I started on the 22nd.  Great news, I work full time March 1 - Dec 1 and Dec 1 - Feb 28 I work 4 days a week, perfect since Dear Hubby is off in the winter, this way we can do on little get-a-ways and stuff.  The hours are perfect too, 7 - 3:30 -- I am really very  happy to have found a job and the news gets even better when I talked to the owner of the garden center, he told me after the end of Sept it will be closing -- not enough business and the traffic issue is just too much.  So I am very happy that this all turned out good.

SO I did have my Schnibble top done early in the month and was thinking about quilting it later in the month...and as you guessed it - later never to here - so here is my Schnibble Dimestore version all done, it just needs to be quilted.  Lucky for me I did Christmas colors so I do have some time LOL!

Dear Hubby has a cold so with the rain coming in this weekend, looks like a good weekend to get some things accomplished!
Waving to all the parade people!!
Happy stitches and thanks for stopping!
Dorothy

FNSI, Winner and just an update

Good Morning

Can't believe August is flying by -- I have been home since August 5th - the Garden Center closed until Sept 8th -- and I have been one busy bee.  The first week, I worked in the yard and gardens each day -- spread 25 bags of mulch - edged trees, garden beds and did massive weeding.  My garden club had a garden walk that week and our house was on the walk, so everything looked fantastic and a good time was had by everyone and it was so nice to see the other gardens.  I have lots of new ideas.  Then the weekend of August 11 was Dear Hubby's birthday weekend, so we took off for the weekend.  So nice to get away -- and it was the first full weekend I have been off since late March.  Off course we took the fur babies with us and here they are on Sunday morning at the hotel -- Poochie loves to read her sports section and then Arts & Entertainment!  She is an avid reader!!!      

And apparently once she read the Cubs had lost another game, she just did not know how she was going to make it thru the day!!! LOL And Rudy is waiting for the paper or at least wants to read it along with her!!  We went to a Hawaiian type buffet on Friday night and get a lei - Rudy was thrilled to wear it the rest of the weekend!    
 

 

Thank you for all the nice comments on my blocks for the Christmas Blog Hop -- The Winner for the mug rug is Nancy Biggins - I will send you an email and get your address so I can send off the mug rug.  Dear Hubby is going to put my patterns out there today -- he is a wiz at this computer stuff and I just could not get the PDF files to load up.  It was very frustrating!!

Friday was Friday Night Sew In and I worked all afternoon and evening on my 2 projects,  This is the Mystery Quilt form I think McCalls Magazine they had published this year -- I had most of the parts done just needed to sew it together. I really like it and can't wait to quilt it - I am thinking of getting an off white inexpensive comforter the the bed and then just putting this on top of it, we have a king bed and it fits across but not up and down -- and I am off of this fabric.  So that seems to the an answer for using this quilt.

    

 

And I also worked on the Dimestore Schnibbles which is the Scnibbles of the month - I have all my blocks complete, I am doing a Christmas Theme -- the centers are little ginger-breads on the red  centers and a cute snowman face on the  green centers.  Today I hope to get the top done.

 Saturday I set up at a local Flea Market / Farmers market since I have cleaned my sewing room last week, I had lots of goodies to sell, and tons of finished table runners - got rid of some stuff and I will posting so things on Etsy in the next day or two.

I hope all is well with you and thanks for stopping!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy