Friday Check In

In between running around and doing some babysitting this week, I have managed to get some stitching squeezed in here and there. 

My daughter's family is having their family pictures taken next week and asked if I could make a gray dress for their little one.  I LOVE sewing children's clothing so I jumped at the idea.

 

For this little one.

A few of the grandchildren needed their Halloween treat bags for trick or treating so I did up some simple little bags for them.

The children's school auction is coming up in the middle of November and I made a couple of items for the silent auction.

Embroidered ornaments for a Jesse Tree

While the little ones were here this week they found a neat looking "leaf" bug on the wall.  All were quite impressed with it!

When my children were little we had a great toy that they spent hours playing.  Some of you may remember it - the Red Raven records with the mirrored carousal.  I brought it out for the kids this week and they enjoyed it as much as my own children did.  The records have characters on them that the mirrors reflect their movement as the records revolve.  One can enjoy the antics of the Three Blind Mice or Santa Claus Coming to Town as well as many others.  I do think the children were as intrigued with records as they were with the mirror activity.  Everything is digital for them.   

The "tornado" who really just wanted to get his hands on the records.

The weather has cooled off considerably this week.  It makes for some good evenings for warm, cozy fires and extra blankets on the bed.   Thankfully, there will be no snow in our future. 

Life Continues to be .....

.... a lesson in learning.   I entered another year of this learning business this week and it has been remarkable what I continue to learn.  Lesson # 6,000,000,000 or so is that Scrub*bing Bubbles bathroom cleaner does not make a good substitute for hairspray.  Duh!   It amazes me what I will do when I am not paying attention.  My advice is to NOT give it a try.

All in all, it has been a terrific birthday week with kids and grandkids popping in and out as well as many friends and family sending good wishes.  I am so blessed.

We spent the weekend with our son and DIL who live a couple of hours away.  They live in the wine country so it is always fun to see the wonderful fall colors in the vineyards at this time of the year.  Harvest is well under way and we watched one truck delivering the picked grapes for processing.   Machinery always fascinates me so I was intrigued at all of the workings there.  Our son works in the industry so it was great to get the inside story about how this all becomes wine in the end.

There is a large migratory area near them for the Monarch butterflies.  They tend to arrive around this time so many are being spotted around town. 

My creative side has been busy this week with Halloween.  Have you ever made a football costume?  I'll share a picture when I get the little one in it.  I hope it works as planned.

I finally finished the stitching for the Christmas stocking.  All I have left now is to make it into the stocking.  One down and one to go before Christmas.

Have you ever given thought to how many scissors you own?  Thearica asked that question on her blog.  I remember my mother hiding her sewing scissors from us when we were growing up.  My dad did a lot of traveling and he would bring her the beautiful Swiss and German scissors.  Now I understand why she hid them!!  I have scissors EVERYWHERE and decided to get a rough estimate.

Kitchen and office scissors.

Kid's scissors.

Pinking shears, embroidery, dress shears, buttonhole scissors and all else found in my sewing area. 

That is a total of 45 and I didn't count the thread nippers or the ones in the garage.  LOL 

Go ahead.....I dare you to count how many you have.  Once you do, post a picture of them and you could win a nice pair of Gingher scissors on Thearica's blog sponsored by Ken's Sewing Center. 


   

A Lost Week

The past week I have been battling an upper respiratory infection and my head has been in a fog.  Needless to say, there has not been a lot of productivity from this end.  The one thing that I did get finished was my needlecase for the Sewing With Friends Swap.  Since it has arrived at my swap partner's house, I can share it with you.

Ida has a pet turtle, as do wee, so I took off on that idea.  I really had fun creating this little guy.

.......but, best of all, look at what Ida made for me.  I just love how elegant this crazy quilt needlecase is.  She did such a fabulous job on it and filled it with all sorts of terrific goodies.  I love how personalized it is with the "M" on one side and the cowboy boot (Ida lives in Texas) on the other.    This has been such a fun group for swapping.

I was really glad to see Kate start up her newest swap - ALQS8.  I LOVE the way this swap is run and I have been thrilled with each round that I have been a participant.  This one is for a mini quilt so check it out and join in if you are interested. 

I had a really fun win arrive in the mail this week too.  This was from Jamie at Busy Bee Quilts .  Isn't the emergency thread kit a great idea?  It's all the colors that you are constantly needing.  Of course I love the jelly roll and look forward to using that in the near future.   Thanks so much, Jamie.

Since I have spent the better part of the week sitting around, I did make some great progress on my Christmas Stocking.  I am now onto the outlining stage.

One last small project that I tackled was another friendship bag.  The colors don't show up well, but it is in purples, blues and pinks.

Company and Goals

The days are just never long enough these days.  The days, weeks and months slip by too quickly.  October is here and it is time for setting my October goals. 

We enjoyed our house guests from England so much.  While the "guys" were away golfing most every day, Irene and I stayed home and quilted ... and quilted ...and quilted.  They will become grandparents for the first time in a few months so her goal was to make a baby quilt and a quilt for their own bed while they were here.  She loved my Granny's Flower Garden Quilt and decided on that pattern for their bed.

This was a quilt pattern from an old Quiltmaker magazine.  We did this one with a Minky backing and it feels so heavenly.

Then we managed to get a few more done as well.  A simple, but fun baby shower gift...

.....as well as a double Irish Chain.   This one still needs the last two rows attached before she can quilt it, but the other three are done up until the binding.  She even had to buy a new rolling suitcase to get these and plenty  a little more fabric home with her.

 

We even took some time out for retail therapy.  Trainers (tennis shoes) and some NYD jeans were on that shopping list. 

During that time we celebrated our newest granddaughter's Christening with our oldest granddaughter and grandson as the godparents.

We headed down to San Diego with our house guests for a business meeting and enjoyed some beautiful and relaxing weather while we were there.

Now....it is back to real life and back to some goals for October.  I have chosen to finish the Christmas stocking that I started last year.  I am not sure I will be able to finish it, but it HAS to be done for Christmas.  I put it aside last December when I knew there was no chance of finishing it by Christmas.  Wish me luck!!!