Saturday Sewing with Friends

Yesterday was my once a month get together with my friends for sewing and chatting. The weather here is absolutely beautiful! and it should be since we were freezing our bee-hinds off last week! ( 19deg one day and 79 the next week, no wonder I'm sniffling ) anyway, tirane has this marvelous re-do to her house where our big sewing table/her huge kitchen table looks out wide french doors into the yard. She had them open and the warm breeze was coming in, the birds were a-twittering, the kitty Murphy was having little kitty dreams, I was with my friends sewing and all was well with the world. It was Marvelous!

So, you might ask, what were you working on Beth? Let me tell you --

The day before ( or maybe it was Thursday, can't remember, I'm old, have that disease CRS { can't remember stuff}) I was at work and noticed that my coffee mug was on a folded paper towel ( and to make it worse, I had used it as a note pad ) and I thought

"Self! You are in need of a MUG RUG! "

I had been eyeballing these on different blogs and remembered seeing patterns on FatCatDesigns ( don't you just love her stuff! ), and I had also seen a mug rug on another blog that I like. But I couldn't just make one without help, so I kinda told / asked tirane if she wanted to make one too! "Of course", she said and rose to the challenge. You can see her's here on her blog.

I waited until leaving Saturday morning to find scraps for mine, duh, hows that for planning - talk a friend into making something with you and then show up with no fabric :) ( they aren't but 6x9 so I only needed scraps ) and while driving to our meeting I remembered seeing the one that Ryan Walsh has a tutorial for on his blog, I'M JUST A GUY WHO QUILTS ( do you follow him? he has some really cool ideas ) and i figured that my scraps would be just right for that. I didn't follow him exactly but used the idea, and I loved the straight line quilting that I did ( got that from him! ). I'm just so proud of myself!! LOL tee-hee-hee

So go see tirane's mug rug ( and she is giving her's away - leave her a comment ) and here is
mine including my new insulated mug with purple band wasn't I clever to get them to match??? I love the fabrics I used, but wish I had left the green/white for the border only. OH well,, I can always make more !!

and the back of the rug - with my new purple insulated mug. I can just flip it over and have a different rug each day!

Nope, no contest here, mine is a keeper, but really, go check out tirane's blog and leave her a comment. She's giving away hers ( bless her heart ) and maybe you can replace your folded up paper towel with notes all over it for a real nice desk accessory - a Mug Rug!.

Sunday Morning Fun

Doesn't have a darn thing to do with quilting - but I just wanted to share how I got my groove back this morning. I'm not sure what he is saying, but the eye candy is wonderful!

It's the guy who does the Old Spice commercials Watch and enjoy! ( sorry, he stays dressed )

Grandaughters are Wonderful

Have you had the pleasure of teaching your granddaughter or daughter how to sew?

This is my 8-1/2 year old granddaughter with my Featherweight. A couple of weeks ago I got the pleasure of staying with her and her 4 year old sister for the weekend while their parents went out of town. The 8 year old was all ready for my stay with plans all made out. She received her first sewing machine for Christmas and she wanted ME to help her learn how to sew!! It's one of the battery operated child ones with the needle encased in a plastic cover so no one gets their fingers sewn together. OUCH!

Well, first off, no batteries for the machine - yep, could have run out and bought some but I had my Featherweight with me (( silly Grandma, did you REALLY think you were going to have time to sew! )) so I thought to self "Self, she is a very responsible young lady, lets show her how to stitich strips on my little Featherweight!"

She did most excellently! She kept her fingers away from the needle ( after I warned her about what could happen ), she kept the speed just finewith the foot pedal, and she kept the edges lined up like she had been doing this for years -

I was doing the happy dance! The best part, is SHE LIKED IT!! Maybe now I have someone that might like to learn how to sew! ( Do you see the visions of us sewing and creating together dancing in my head? )

Now how about that Bear kit, Granma! ( talk about a fast moving attention span! 4 longs strips of fabric and she's ready to move on). Ok, she gets the kit and of course opens EVERYTHING, including the sequin pack that goes all over the table - but I'm a wonderful Granma, remember, so I don't say one little word <> )
with concentration like this, it's going to be a great bear! but, alas, the attention span goes ZIP ( or maybe she just doesn't like hand sewing! ) and so the kit is put away, with sequins in a snack bag, so that she and Mom can work on it.

So where is the 4 year old?? There is a picnic going on, in the middle of the floor, with dolls and animals and colors and OH GOLLY, I don't know what that child has brought in. (But I'm a wonderful Granma and don't say a peep :)

Mom quilts a little too. She has a sewing machine and decided that for Christmas she was going to make rag quilts for about a bizillion people. ( yep, told her to come shop my stash before she went and bought anything - helped me by clearing out some stuff and helped her, too! )

Mom made them a rag quilt each for Christmas and I tried to take their pictures with the quilts

but one didn't want to pose and the

other, well, no camera shy here.

I'm not giving up on the sewing lessons! It was just too much fun. Maybe for her birthday, she needs a REAL sewing machine! ( and how about a kit already cut out just ready to sew) and an afternoon of her and I and sewing machines.

Retreat, Snow, and Flying Time

Geez, guess it was last week that we had our annual "get over the holidays" retreat. Always the first part of January, just to give everyone a breather ( I'm not saying what the breather is from, I'm just saying breather :) )
I couldn't go up until Saturday morning, and for the first time my buddy tirane93 got to go, too! We had a great time, there was 14 of us!

Well, ya'll know that at retreat you ALWAYs eat well, right!?! I thought I would start this post off the right way and show you some of the snacks that we induldged on Saturday. Yuum!! Homemade cookies, homemade brownies ( they were the bomb!), chips, candy - and ok, yes, there was veggies and fruit - if you eat a bite of fruit then you can go back for M&M's !

This doesn't count the delicious lunch and dinner we had - and OH MY homemade apple pie,, I'll go anywhere for that apple pie!

busy busy people. three people were finishing up Judy Neimeyer projects - I'm so impressed! I have one of her patterns that has all the pieces done, but I just can't quite get to the layout!
Another Featherweight user - you just can't beat it for a great straight stitch. I had mine with me, too!

Now for some works in progress -- this is one of the Judy N. quilts,, all oriental fabrics. Just beautiful!

isn't this lovely! I think she decided to make the inner border a dark green, instead of the yellow. I should have gotten a picture of that. I like the green much better than the yellow. It really worked well with the fabrics.

This is one of tirane's projects. Don't you love the colors!

This one was already finished, just needed the binding. Same pattern as the one above with the yellow binding - a great versatile pattern!

A great stack and whack -- the inner hex is the main theme of the fabric - look close! She said it started out as a small baby quilt and just kept growing! I understand!
I want to do this one - and I've a ton of black and whites!
And this one is just fun! A great way to use up some stash. Isn't it great to see such different things being made! Almost like our own private quilt show - and everyone a winner :)

This is the one I worked on. I bought this as a kit back in 1997 in New Mexico on vacation. I liked it then, but when I was working on it, I was questioning my decision. This is what happens, isn't it - we like it several years ago, but our tastes change and UUGGGHHH. I'm still thinking it will be a good charity quilt.

So where does the snow come in at?? Saturday morning was absolutely beautiful, in the 50's or 60's and sunny, just wonderful. But the weather guy kept saying that we would get rain and snow on Sunday. Ok, no problem ( and this IS Texas where the weather changes hourly ) we can go up on Saturday and come home Sunday before the weather gets bad. Saturday late afternoon, someone sees a weather report on the phone and it's now moved up to Sunday early morning! Yikes! I do not like to drive in snow and I really don't like to drive in rain -- so tirane and I came home about 10pm Saturday night. We were chickens. Here me cluck :)

I woke up about 4am Sunday morning to a good rain - and it rained until about 1130 that morning - then is snowed - it snowed until about 4pm ( I think we got about 4 inches ). I tell you, I was real glad to be in MY bed, in MY house that morning.

Love my retreats,

Love my warm bed on a cold rainy snowy morning better!

The second day of a new year

(photo from Flickr - ::big daddy k:: /Rich)

It's a chilly Sunday morning, even the dogs stayed in bed late - husband is still asleep and I'm lost in blog-land.. catching up, reading, oohhing and ahhing. I just love mornings like this when it's quiet, and peaceful. When a cup of hot green tea and my thoughts are my companions.

I see that a lot of resolutions are being made, a lot of resolutions to NOT make resolutions, a lot of UFO challenges, clean up the sewing room promises -- well, you get the idea.

Not ME!

Hadn't thought about whether I was gonna or not gonna make a resolution

Hadn't given a short thought to those UFO's ( after all, if I really really liked what I was doing, wouldn't I have finished it back then?? )

The sewing room is always a mess, it will stay a mess, I give up trying to organize it. There is just way to much stuff ( spelled c.r.a.p ) for it all to fit into my little room (( lol, that little room is 11 x 11 and also houses the computer - see, little room ))

Me - I'm going to sew when I want to, watch TV when I darn well please ( I have become addicted to Netflix instant watch ), browse the internet for hours on end, enjoy my grandkids when I get to see them and pet the dogs on a very regular schedule and take them for long walks.

My husband,, hhmm,. should I pet him,too, or take him on long walks?

To all of you with big plans - I applaud you and will cheer you on with loud applause of enthusiasm. I will live vicariously through you.

As for me,, well, I'm lazy, I'm happy with no pressure to produce, I don't want to meet a challenge in my home hours ( getting to work everyday can be a challenge! ) I don't want to compete or agree to deadlines.

I FINALLY figured out that I will NEVER live long enough to make all the quilts I want to make or use up all the fabric that I have bought. ( did I really say that??! )

I want to love and be loved
I want to enjoy my friends
I want to be a couch potato without guilt
I want to sew when the urge strikes


Wonder what thoughts the third day of January will bring?