Sunday, December 27, 2009

Take A Deep Breath!

Has everyone survived the Christmas holidays? It was pretty hectic here but after it was all over with, I realized that things went rather well. We celebrated Baby's First Christmas with Lucy, my brand new niece. Have you ever seen a house full of people fighting over who gets to change a poopy diaper? lol Luckily she filled several diapers and just about everyone got a turn changing her. I have to say that I am super impressed by my brother-in-law and his daddy skills. I am also proud of my sister who always seemed short of patience while we were growing up but she has all the patience in the world for little Lucy.

I had intended to make quilts for my two cousins but that didn't work out too well. I have Emily's quilt mostly done. I still have to hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt. Nathan's quilt however, is almost a disaster. I made a few mistakes and I am now ripping out the machine quilting stitches from just about half the quilt. It's very frustrating but fixable. I felt terrible that I couldn't finish his before Christmas and I felt that I couldn't give Emily's to her until his was done. So of course, I went and bought a few presents for them to open on Christmas.


One of the puppies has wiggled his way into my heart. I'm keeping the one Nathan named Peter. We've been calling him Peter Panda. The kids have been singing the Peter Panda Dance song to him. If you have seen The Pacifier with Vin Diesel, then you know what I'm talking about. Emily loves that movie! He is already getting spoiled. He whines if I don't let him sleep in my bed.




My Mom is supposed to make a quilt from the Baby Genius fabric line for Lucy. I promised to help her make it since she has never machine quilted before. Lucy's room needed something to hang on the wall so I mimicked a few pieces from the fabric on canvases.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

I'm an Aunt!!

Lucy decided to come a month early! She is so sweet. I'm going to have so much fun spoiling her!

Here I am holding my Niece!


Little Lucy Mae!

I wasn't prepared for her to have her Baby's First Christmas this year so I've been frantically looking through all of my cross stitch patterns for an ornament that I can stitch for her.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Christmas Mail!



I got this cute scissor fob (the scissors are mine. They are just modeling. Hee hee) in the mail from Nicole this week! It's so cute! She changed a few of the colors around because she knows that I prefer purple over red. This design came from the Book of Ink Circles. That was very sweet of you Nicole, thank you so much!

Friday, November 27, 2009

Book of Ink Circles Progess




I was sick on Thanksgiving day and our internet crashed so I found myself with lots of time to myself. I was able to finish another square on my BoInk. I was going to work some more on the frame but I ran out of black floss. So, I used that as an excuse to keep working on the blocks. :)

This weekend, I should be trying to work on the quilts. If I don't wind up going shopping that is. ;)

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Puppies!





Here are the puppies! It's amazing how much they change as a few weeks go by. The adult dog is not the mother, it's Aunt Julie. She loves to play with them. For the most part, she has been very gentle with them. We are working on weaning them now.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Where Has The Time Gone?

Wow! It's been a while since I have updated my blog. Mostly because I haven't been working on anything lately. Until now that is. I hate it when I get so busy that I don't have time to make something. Stitching, sewing, painting, ect.. are the ways that I relieve stress and when I'm the busiest, that's exactly when I need to relieve stress! So here's what I've been up to.

Here is the quilt that I am making for my cousin Nathan. I have finished the quilt top!



I pretty much designed it myself, not that the design is real complicated. I wanted to leave the army, navy, air force, ect, fabrics in wide strips so that he could see all the details of the fabrics. It ended up a little bit longer than I expected but that should work out just fine since my cousin is super tall and still growing.

I added these cute stars in the corners to give it interest. I am quite pleased with how it all turned out and I'm sure he's going to love it.

Now I have to machine quilt this one and Emily's quilt (the one with the butterflies) before Christmas. If I have extra time, I may make a few pillowcases to match both quilts.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Quilt Top Finish

I have finished my future niece's quilt top. I purchased everything in a kit but as you will see, I have added my own interpretation to it. I love these colors! Very bright!

This is what theirs looks like.


And here is mine. I moved the blue squares up just a little.


And I added a small border. I just love stripey borders!


This is my first time to do mitered corners! I am so proud of how they turned out! It took a little while to figure out what I was doing but then it was super easy.

Progress


Isn't that sweet? The puppies are starting to open thier eyes now so it won't be long before they are running all over the place looking for things to get into. I will get some photos of them soon.


This is my progress on a baby sampler for my coming soon niece. It's Jungle Baby designed by Diane Arthurs. Oh, of course, I am changing some of the colors. Most of you know by now that I can't resist changing something on just about everything I make. ;-)

I have made decent progress on a baby quilt as well. I don't have the backing fabric yet so there's another shopping trip I need to make. Photos coming as soon as I finish the quilt top which will be soon.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Bonnie's Puppies


We have 5 puppies. 2 girls and 3 boys. Their temporary names are Rose, Morgan, Max, Buster, and Peter. I let my little cousins name them. I should be getting some better photos of them when they get a little older.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Bonnie Blue

We rescued another Basset about a week ago. We found her nearly starved. You could clearly see the outline of her ribs and backbone. She also had a bone caught in the roof of her mouth and it was really wedged in there tight. The vet had to remove the bone and she said that it had been there for a very long time. We also found out that she is pregnant and has heartwoms pretty bad. We can't treat her for the heartworms till after she has the puppies and is no longer nursing.

You can't really tell how skinny she is in this photo because of the way she is sitting.


This is her after a week of being fed and taken care of. She is starting to fill out more, although you can still see her ribs and backbone but not as much as before.

Here's her close up. She is a really sweet girl. We don't know what her puppies are going to look like or how healthy they will be but we should be finding out soon enough.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Baby on the Way!



My sister is going to have a girl! So now I have quilts and birth samplers to plan, start, and complete by January.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Vacation and BoInk

We went on a camping trip to Goose Island State Park in Rockport during their annual Hummingbird Festival. We were going to stay longer but, alas, it was not meant to be. On the way there, a big chunk of the siding on our camper broke off. We were lucky that no one was directly behind us on the road so no one got hurt. After we got there, we realized that the air conditioner isn't working. So, we think, well at least the wind is blowing in off the water and will help cool us off. Think again. As soon as the sun started setting, the wind stopped and the mosquitoes started. We stayed long enough to see a few lectures at the festival, buy a few t-shirts, and visit their local quilt shop and then we came home. We stayed about 3 days. At this point, all you can do is sit back and laugh. I would normally get a ton of photos but we didn't stay long enough for that. So, here are a few Seagulls and a pelican that I managed to get photos of.




I couldn't resist getting a photo of this little guy. He was posing so nicely for me and didn't fly away even when I got super close.


Here's my latest progress on BoInk. I would like to finish all of the black in the borders and frame before I get back to work on any more blocks. I don't know if I can make myself though. ;)

Monday, September 14, 2009

Emily's Quilt Top





I finished the top for Emily's quilt!! I added a border to add a little extra to the sides and because she wanted more "red" in the quilt. Next, I have to finished Nathan's quilt top and then I will have the quilting parts left. I have the backing fabrics so I have no excuse not to get these finished in time. Another goal done!

Oops! Edited to add: The pattern for this quilt came from McCall's Quick Quilts, September 2008 issue. The quilt was called "Berry Patch" but since I used butterflies instead of stawberry fabric, I'll call mine "Butterfly Field".

Monday, September 7, 2009

More Progress


Here's my progress on the "R" lady/fairy. So pretty!


And now for BoInk! I am really enjoying this piece.

I still don't know whether I'm getting a niece or nephew yet but I have picked out a birth record pattern. Hee hee! I'm so excited!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Old and New Goals

My goals for August were....
Cross Stitch Goals
1. Finish 1 block on my Open RR piece
2. Finish Earth Goddess from the 3 Ladies RR (Done)
3. Spend at least 7 days working on "Deck the Stalls" (Done)

Quilting Goals
1. Finish assembling the blocks for Emily's quilt (Done)
2. Locate backing fabric for Sis's Star Wars quilt ( Done )
3. Purchase backing fabric for Sis's scrappy quilt

I got 4 out of 6 done. I'm happy with that. :)

My goals for September are....
Cross Stitch Goals
1. Spend at least 7 days working on "Deck the Stalls"
2. Finish 1 block on Open RR piece
3. Choose and start on a baby birth record for my niece or nephew coming soon. (Hopefully we will find out whether it's a boy or girl soon)

Quilting Goals
1. Piece Emily quilt top
2. Piece Nathan's quilt top
3. Get backing for 3 quilts
4. Choose a quilt pattern for new niece or nephew

Friday, August 28, 2009

A Few Progress Updates


Here's my Dragonfly Sampler. I have more waterlillies to do and they are a pain to stitch but I love how they turn out.


Here is Nora Corbett's "R". I think her name is suppossed to be Rhiannon. I'm really enjoying this one.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Progress and Squirrels


This is my progress on Deck The Stalls for this month. I seem to stitch better on this as I'm watching the SciFi channel. So, here's another goal to be marked off of my list. :)


We've been calling her Gertrude "Gerty" the Squirrel. She was standing there waiting to be fed when I got this photo.


I couldn't resist catching a photo of our waterlillies since they were both blooming and looked so pretty.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Close Up Froggy



Here's a close up of the butterfly and the frog just in case you can't really see them in the other picture.

Some Updates!


I finished her! This is The Earth Goddess designed by Claire Crompton that went around as a Round Robin. She is from the book, Magical Cross Stitch and she was stitched on fabric from Enchanted Fabrics. I don't really recall what the name of the fabric was though. In the original design, the Earth is directly above her head but I decided to put a butterfly charm there instead. I, of course, then had to add a froggy and some dragonflies to her as well. This is one of my goals to be marked of the list!


This is my latest progress on BoInk.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Some Long Awaited Update Photos

Life has been a little crazy lately so here's a couple of updates.....

I just couldn't resist and I started another project. This is Letter "R" by Nora Corbett. I'm stitching her on Painted Spring Meadow Monaco from Enchanted Fabrics.


This is Mermaid Under the Sea. I have modified the mermaid's top to make her a little more modest since I'm stitching her for my little cousin.

In the meantime, I'm not really getting many of my goals for this month accomplished. Well, I guess it's not too late until September rolls around.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

My Goals

Hahaha! Well, I had planned to post my goals on the first of the month but I'm just now getting to them. Is that a bad sign?

Cross Stitch Goals
1. Finish 1 block on my Open RR piece
2. Finish Earth Goddess from the 3 Ladies RR
3. Spend at least 7 days working on "Deck the Stalls"

Quilting Goals
1. Finish assembling the blocks for Emily's quilt
2. Locate backing fabric for Sis's Star Wars quilt
3. Purchase backing fabric for Sis's scrappy quilt

I'm going to start with that. I know it's not much but once my cousins that I babysit start school, I will have more time to get more done.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Goals and a Progress Pic


This is all I got done on Deck the Stalls. I've been trying to work on it off and on all of this month. I get bored of this one due to the fact that it's all brown. I mean, all brown. I would feel the same way if it were all purple or all green. I need variety in the colors to hold my interest. I do like this design, it's rather beautiful but it's hard for me to stitch. But it does need to get finished so I'm going to have to make myself work on it each month.

And that brings me to this. I have decided to start setting some crafting goals for myself. I have to complete at least 5 quilts before Christmas and I have several cross stitch projects that I need to get done (such as Deck the Stalls above). Two of the quilts are for my little cousins, two are quilts that my Sis has pieced together but now needs me to put together and quilt, and I need to make a baby quilt for my Sis who is expecting a little one come Jan/Feb. I would like to stitch a baby birth record but I can't really start that till we know if the baby is going to a boy or girl. I would also like to get my cousin's stocking stitched so that I can then make one for the baby. Whew! That's alot of work! So, tonight, I'll have to sit down and think of my goals for August.

Monday, July 27, 2009

BoInk Progress


Here is the progress on my BoInk so far. The littlest squares were supposed to be done in red but since red is my least favorite color, I changed it to the purple. I often change something on most of my projects along the way. I don't know why, it just happens.

Here is a closer pic of what I've been working on lately. Next, I should work some more on the borders.