Almost Ready

Well I've had some really productive days lately.  I'm doing the pre-vacation cleaning and wow does my place look good right now.  YAY!  I have everything ready for our vacation except the last couple of things and bathroom stuff that you throw in at the last minute which will be tomorrow morning.
I should have taken some before shots but I have a clean somewhat organized sewing area -

My sewing area/room is in our Arizona room that is also our extra storage - but most of our storage is my sewing stuff - uh oh.  :)  

So Since I was such a good girl and got so much done ahead of time I guess that means that today I can work on sewing projects.  I have a binding to finish on a baby quilt and some stitching on a couple stitcheries that needs to be done to finish my goals for the month - But I will work on them in the car and on the trip.  Today I am doing prep work on a wool project that has been on my list for a long time.  That way maybe I can take it for hand work for the trip as well.  And then if I get that ready who knows what else I can work on.  :)    I'll show pictures later.  

Have a Blessed day!  

Lynn 

Wrapping up

Well we've got some Birthdays going on. Today is my baby girl Chantaya's Birthday, she is 31 today - I had her when I was 8,  Ha Ha.   Here's both my girls - Birthday girl is on the left. This was taken at our going away party almost a year ago, that Chantaya was running around trying to get everything done.  And everybody was trying not to cry.

Then in a week, it will be my Dad's 80th birthday.  We will be traveling back to Oregon and celebrating that with him.  His birthday is on the 3rd, he always said he came out to see the fireworks.  We are having his party on the 4th so double celebration.

Here's my Daddy.  Last year right about the time I retired we went over to his place on the coast and met up with my Sister and Brother-in-law and put together a pre-fab shed for him.  this was taken after we got done.  

We are trying to get everyone in the family there to help celebrate his birthday.  Chantaya will be coming, but will not be able to bring her two children. We will miss them. :(  My Nephew and his wife will be coming too with their almost 3 year old twin daughters that Dad hasn't seen in person yet.  So that will be very special.  It's been over a year since I've seen them too so I'm sure that will be fun.  I made them little dresses with matching zippered purses and little pouch purses - I will be wrapping them up later.  

So I'm working at wrapping up presents, and wrapping up my goals for the month.  We'll be leaving in the next couple of days so need to wrap it all up and hit the road.  :)  

I'll be posting my finishes for June and then listing my goals for July - but since we won't be home until a few days into July I really need to make the list short.  We'll see how that goes - haven't done that yet.  :)  

 Have a blessed day - I'll be packing and cleaning and wrapping.  

Lynn 

Not Forgotten

I am so happy and pleased to have this as a finish.  I need to get this mailed to Oregon to arrive by July 20th and didn't think I would be able to finish this quickly but happy I did.   This is going  to be auctioned off to raise money to help women get out of sex trafficking.  You can read a little more about it in my June goals post here.  I am not a natural sketch artist, however I did draw this, then I painted the scene on white fabric and then quilted it.

Here is a picture of the back that shows a little more of the quilting detail.  

I'm just waiting for the quilt hanger and then I'll ship it out.   :)
Thanks for stopping by - have a blessed day.
Lynn

Little Purses

Today we had an open sew at the local quilt shop. We do this on the 3rd Saturday and have a potluck lunch.  This month we decided to make a coordinated effort and did a salad bar where everyone brought a couple things that would be on a salad bar.  It was very yummy and very filling.
I was going to work more on the Auction quilt but Sheri the shop owner had some ideas about some of the quilting and wanted me to wait until she could show me... however today she didn't come it only her husband - which never happens.  So I made little purses for my Great nieces.  And I think they turned out so so cute.  Annette the lady that owns the cottage showed me how to make them.

After I got done with these I started working a "Kimber Pillow"  A few of us re making some of these.   They are Bench Pillows and you make covers for each month that you can change and decorate with.  

This is the one I started today - 

I'm not going to put the words on I'm going to add a few fireworks or something instead.  Today I got the squares pieced and put on the back ground edges.  Then everybody started packing up - so I did too.
Tonight we are going to a Tanya Tucker concert at one of the local casinos.  So I guess that's all for now.
Thanks for Stopping by - Have a Blessed day.
Lynn

Cheese Please

Well I did it again - another week goes by - but I'm still getting things updated more than I did last month so I guess that goal is met.  Nice when I can make my own rules huh?  I'll post the good stuff first then go into the cheese part later.
One of my goals this month is to have the "Not Forgotten" Art quilt 90% done.  This is a quilt that I am making to be auctioned off to raise money for Lighthouse Ministries that is helping women get out of sex trafficking.  I am not an artist so the drawing of this was pretty challenging, but I did it.  I'm using the painting techniques that I learned when I did my Dragonflies and Cattails class, and  got the painting done yesterday. I then got the borders on and sandwiched it to do the quilting,  I did a couple of the outline quilt lines last night but needed to stop.   This is what I'll be working on today and then more on Saturday.

I will be attaching a sleeve and including a quilt hanger with it.  I'm excited at how it is turning out and hope the quilting goes as well.    I'll keep you posted.  :)

Next - I'll  warn you - you can stop reading now if you want -  The rest of the post is my Whine hence the "Cheese Please"  the following images are not cute little images of pretty little quilts or fuzzy little animals.  It's of   Ouchies.

I'm having trouble with my hand stitching right now. Want to know why?

I'm not the fastest in the west with hand stitching and embroidery but I normally do okay.  However - I had a fight with the garage door and I think it won or got some good blows in.  We don't have an automatic garage door closer right now and  I couldn't reach the handle to close it.  So I grabbed the crack between the two panels to pull it down just enough so I could grab the handle..... NO!!!!  When I pulled - it came the whole way down.  I had to grab the handle with my other hand and open the door to pull my fingers out.  They were flat.  OM Goodness it hurt.  I did not cuss, I did not scream.  I did not cry.  In fact, I was so calm that my husband did not realize how bad I was hurt until later, when he looks at it and said oh wow that looks really bad.   I said I showed you when it happened and you just told me to go get ice - he says - but you were so calm.  Hmmm.  Next time maybe I need to scream.   No for some reason I do that calm thing when I'm really hurt.  Now give me a paper cut and I'll let you know.  LOL.

 Remember the warning?

Doesn't look too bad except my husband started calling me "Thumbs" because the middle finger looked like another thumb.  :)  Now almost 3 weeks later, my finger is pealing and I have a scab on the side of my finger nail.

I warned you.  

Several people have asked it I'm going to loose my nail - don't know, guess time will tell.  Anyway this is my middle finger on my right hand.  Which is the finger that I push the needle with.  I have started pushing it with the ring finger - but it has slowed me down a lot.  It isn't extremely painful anymore - but it has numb spots like it's asleep, and each day it wakes up a little more.  

So there is my Whine.  I am having trouble finishing certain things like Mystery Monday because of the binding.  Trouble doing the stitching on the Vintage Kitchen block(s).   So I guess we'll see how I do on the goal list.  I sure I'll get things done and I'll be fine - but I just wanted to share my ouchies.  

Hope you have a blessed day, 

Lynn 

A week of catch up

As always - the time flies by and I wonder how that happened.  But I am really trying to blog more so I need to get caught up with what all has gone on.
Well I've actually had a lot more time at home this week than normal and some more time with my honey, but since I spent so much time playing with hubby I did a lot less sewing.  Oh sad ... huh?  :)
Okay so what all have I been up to?  Well - a week ago to day we went to a movie - San Andreas - it was a really good movie.  Very action packed and yet had a good story.
Monday - we had 101 errands to run. Needed to go talk to the furniture store about some furniture that was not holding up - check, Go to Home Depot to check out some items we need for our on going fixing things - check.  Then we stopped at Sam's club, checked out a few things, made an appointment to get my eyes checked.
Tuesday - I had my normal open sew at the quilt shop in the morning, then in the evening I had the guild meeting for Stitch N Rippits.
Wednesday - I went to my eye exam and ordered my glasses and I was so happy to find a affordable and easy solution to having my bifocal sunglasses with out two frames and two lenses.  They have these new Magnetic clip ons.  They are so great and you can't even tell there is a clip on.  Yay!!!
Thursday - Is my once a month cards day.  I have lunch with the girls and then we play cards.
Are you seeing a pattern here - No Sewing yet... Oh No!
Friday is sew day at the cottage.  - But before I headed there - I went to a doctor appointment with my Hubby and then he took me out to breakfast.  So by the time  I got to the cottage there were a lot of people there and not really a place to set up a machine.  I needed to get some sashing and backing fabric for the orphan blocks that I'm making into charity quilts.  Then I tried to work a little on some hand stitching got about 3 inches of needle turn applique done - but then needed to leave to get a pedicure - first one in about 7 months.  My hubby looked at my feet and said who are you and what have you done with my wife.   ha ha ha
Saturday - Sewing glorious sewing.  ha ha . I took a class that my friend was teaching at the quilt shop. It was an Art quilt with birds.

Here is mine.  I still need to tack down a couple more of the branches and then frame it.  But I think it turned out pretty good.  It was a lot of fun and I learn some new techniques.
And now we are at Sunday.  Well today hubby and I headed to Vegas, it is about an hour and a half from us.  He had a gift certificate for Bass Pro Shop and wanted to check some things out.  I have so much fun walking around in there too.  We spent 2 1/2 hours walking around.   :)
That took a bunch of our day up so we drove home - grabbed a hamburger and now we are kicking back and watching some TV.

Have a Blessed day - hopefully I'll talk to you soon.
Lynn

Field Trip

I had a wonderful day - it was an adult field trip ha ha..   

I went to Rosemary's then Cheryl and Aggie picked us up and went to the quilt shop for "Strip Club" that was good. Then we left there and drove to Kingman and went to a new quilt shop that is up there.  Nice stuff - but I'm trying not to buy too much right now.  Then we went up into the mountains above Kingman to a resort to have lunch where we took a picture of all of us. 

 Here you go you can meet some of my friends.  Aggie is in front of me.  Behind me and continuing to the right  Patty, Karen, Barbara (behind Karen) Rosemary, Ronni, and Cheryl. 

So there is some of the gang I sew with and this is the crowd I sew with on the 3rd Saturdays, and some that I went to the retreat with last February.   

Then after lunch - we went to Barbara's house cause she is selling a long arm machine and Patti wanted to look at it and Cheryl was getting a hair cut cause Barbara is a Beautician.  So That also took a while so we all visited and hung out there. When I grow up I want to organize my sewing room like this lady.  Everything is in a project size bins - labeled, and in wooden shelves made especially for the project bins.  She has a huge table that her machine sets in so the sewing surface is the whole table.  Wow  it's awesome.  :)  

Anyway it was a not sewing day but a fun day and relaxing day.   I am so task oriented I don't always let myself relax and do stuff that doesn't have a purpose.  Today was one of those days and I actually let myself enjoy it and didn't once try to hurry it or look at the time.  

Hope your day was good too,

Have a Blessed day,

Lynn 

Soup in the Kitchen

We eat a lot of soup and even though it's summer in here in the desert and temps are over 100 F degrees we still eat soup and salad almost every day for lunch.  So since this is the only day I'm going to be home this week I figured today would be a good day to get some cooking done ahead.  Some batches were bigger than others, but I still made 5 different kinds.  I made Cabbage Vegetable Soup, Chicken with rice and vegetables soup,  Fideo Soup,  Chicken Tortilla, which we had for lunch with a salad -  

I don't actually put tortilla's in mine so but other than that it's close. And then tonight for dinner we had one of the other soups, Navy Bean with Ham.  One of my favorites.  :) 

I made some Garlic Parmesan toast to go with it and yes we had another salad.  

I froze part of the soup and left some of it out for us for the next few days.

So after all the cooking and then the clean up  I mopped the kitchen floor  and then I worked a little more on the baby quilt. I quilted some details into the lion's mane and the tiger stripes.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to do in the body of the elephant so I think I'll just do a meandering.  

So that was my busy day.  

Hope you've had a blessed day. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Lynn  

Undercover

Today I was working undercover secret special agent type of work.  Okay quilts rarely solicit that type of security - but when you are making a special secret quilt for someone and you don't want it to get out - It's kinda James Bond like right?  LOL  Okay I don't think in a million years this person reads my blog and I don't have it linked to my face book so I don't know how it would possible get out or back to the person  BUT I don't want to take any chances.  So - all I can say is, I got together with a bunch of my quilt friends to make a quilt for someone (No I can't tell you who) and this is the quilt we are making - It will look similar to this - (lots of little squares) 

And we had fun, is that cool or what?   So I was there from about 10-4 and even though I wasn't working on my own stuff any day of sewing is a good day.  right?  
Tomorrow is an open sew workshop for the CRQ guild - but since I have and will be gone every day this week I might just stay home and try to do some sewing here.  Hmm we'll see.  
Friday is open sew at the cottage and Saturday I have the strip club at the quilt shop and then a few of us are going to lunch and see a new quilt shop that is in the area.  Fun Fun.

Thanks for stopping by - leave a comment if you can,  and have a blessed day -
Lynn 

Lions and Tigers and a UFO

Today was open sew at the quilt shop so I got my table runner from yesterday sandwiched and ready to quilt. Then I got the binding already to go, but I needed to stare at it for a little while so I knew what I wanted to use for a quilting design.  So I set that aside and pulled out my baby quilt that I have been quilting. I have to say I haven't done a lot with panels I get them because they are cute and then I don't know what to do with them.  But this has given me a whole new love for them.  Now that I'm really working on my free motion quilting, it has been a blast to quilt all the little parts of this panel,  I worked more on it today putting detail in the palm leaves and the coconuts.  This is how far I got. 

Here's the detail of the leaves and trees.  

I came home and buried a bunch of my thread tails.  Wow how do you get so many.  Next I will probably do the birds and then the lion and tiger.  I haven't decided what I want to do in the body of the elephant yet.  Hmmm..  

Okay now to update on the UFO Buster for this month  - Here is the picture of the quilt called " A Little Porch Time". 

This is how much I have done, which is my starting status.  I will update as I go along. My UFO Busting goal is only to make progress on it so anything added and I'll have that goal met.  :) 

I think I will try to do the hands, they will go next to the churn dash blocks.  That way that will finish the left section. I wanted to pick something for hand work for our trip.  If I can get some prep-work done this would be perfect since I'm doing it needle turn.  Then again we're not leaving on trip until 27th of the month so not sure.  Something to think about.  

Thanks for stopping by,

Blessings,

Lynn 

Mystery Monday

I am not sure why I look forward to this so much - but it's just fun.  It's a mystery, the anticipation of a surprise - what's it going to be.  :)  Yup - it gets me every month.  

And as I draw out the anticipation for you......  You're saying alright already what was it.  Well I'm not telling - ha ha .   

Okay here you go.  - It's a  Table Runner with Cathedral Windows. They were so easy.  :)  

Mine was made out of batiks and I picked a couple of batiks out of my stash for backing and binding, but we'll see.  I'm planning on working on it tomorrow at Open Sew - that and more quilting on the baby quilt for my husbands golf buddy. 

And today was the day that they picked the random number for the 2015 UFO Busting from All People Quilts  so #6 picked and on my list that means -  "A Little Porch Time" Here is picture of the quilt.

I have the 1st section going down on the left done - house, flowers, and churn dash blocks. So I will continue on from there.  This is my UFO to make progress on this month.  I have been working on these projects on Fridays when I go to the cottage. 

Tomorrow I have open sew at the local quilt shop.  I want to finish my table runner from today and then work on the baby quilt.  I'll let you know how I do. :)

Blessings, 

Lynn