A Funny Kid and A Winner

Our son and his family came for Thanksgiving.  So much fun!  Andrew, who is "about to turn 5" in his words, was ready for bed when he discovered he had forgotten his sleeping companion. He came running in to me and said, "Grandma, where do you keep your stuffed animals?"  After all, everybody keeps stuffed animals, right?  :)  And what Grandma doesn't?  I happened to have 2 teddy bears in the closet, in case of emergencies!

The winner of my giveaway on the Black Tie Boogie Blog Hop is Carolyn from Sew. Darn. Quilt.  I've e-mailed her and will be sending out her two charm packs next week.  Congratulations Carolyn!

Black Tie Boogie - Today's The Day!

Today's the day I get to show you the projects I made for this hop - and I have to say this has been one of my very favorites!  I love this idea that Madame Samm came up with and the great way Vickie has handled the organization chores for us.

It's been simply gorgeous here on the lake this year so it was hard for me to stay in and sew....just look at this beautiful scene I'm blessed to see outside my window.

I started out a bit slow even though I had several things in mind when I first heard about this hop.  I was in Missouri visiting my sister when I ran across a panel in a quilt shop there that I knew couldn't be passed up.  It was for this cute apron:

My friend Sandy agreed to model it for me but I promised not to show her face.  :)  This one is for my sister because she has, and loves, 22 chickens!

With this panel came another smaller rooster off by itself on the panel and since "waste not, want not" I made it into a simple pouch with a velcro closure for all my hand embroidery/quilting/applique needles.

You can see it here peeking out of my grandmother's sewing basket.

I just thought this was a pretty picture with the sun shining in the patio door and right onto Mr. Rooster.  :)

Then I dug back into my stash and UFOs and came up with these placemats.  I had bought this fabric about 3 years ago at a shop in Greenwood, Arkansas but had put off cutting into it.  I do love these!

I was visiting the local quilt shop one day and saw some more really cute chicken fabric and couldn't resist.  Truth be told, I didn't try.  :)  I needed a simple machine cover that I could just toss over my sewing machine so this is a rectangle, quilted, with ric rac added.

But my favorite project of all is this quilt called Hip Chicks - it just makes me smile every time I see it.  :)  The hair and legs are ric rac and the beaks and wings are prairie points.

I have a new computer and I just learned today how to do this so you're getting an extra picture 'cause it made me smile!  Going from a PC to a Mac definitely has a learning curve - a steep one!

Have you ever seen anything so cute?  :)

If you've made it this far be sure to leave me a comment. I've got a couple of charm squares from Free Spirit that I bet someone would love to have.  Just one comment will do and yes, I will ship internationally.

Here's the schedule for the rest of his hop - so many great stitchers to see and so many wonderful projects to crow over!

November 25

Stitchin by the Lake

Georgia-Girl Quilter
In the Boon Docks
More Stars in Comanche

November 26

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much?

Marjorie's Busy Corner

Bumbleberry Stitches
Words & Stitches
Quilting, paper piecing and crafts

November 27

How Art you?

Living with Purpose

Sew many yarns

Grandmama's Stories

November 28

Celtic Thistle Stitches

Crafting 365 Days

Hill Valley Quilter

Thimblemouse & Spouse

November 29
Sew Incredibly Crazy

Lixie Makes It

The Quilted Cat

Sew We Quilt

Baby It's Cold Outside!

So thankful to be sitting in front of the fire tonight! I sure hope that winter storm stays away from us!




It's been such a pretty fall here...freezing rain, if we get it, will ruin this beautiful scene!




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Black Tie Boogie - Day Four

Here's another great group of bloggers - you don't want to miss a one!

November 22

Vroomans Quilts

Meadowbrook

Janes Quilting

Black Tie Boogie - Day 3

Here's today's schedule - enjoy!



November 21

                                          Pigtales and Quilts ~ Happy Birthday Thearica !

Just Let Me quilt

Quiltscapes

Life on the Farmlet

Black Tie Boogie - Day Two

Didn't you just love all the posts yesterday?  Look who's posting today!

November 20

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Seams To Be Sew

Robins Fabric Nest

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

Black Tie Boogie - Day One

Ya'll know how I love Blog Hops and this is one I couldn't have resisted if I tried!  I love roosters, my sister loves chickens of all kinds and I had a cousin, now deceased, who collected roosters.  A couple of years ago I made this quilt which hangs in my dining room most of the time:

My day isn't until the 25th but I know you will want to visit all the participating blogs so you don't miss a thing.  Here's the schedule for today:

November 19

Selina Quilts

Sew Peace To Peace

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

The Quilting Queen Online

Marla's Crafts

Be sure you comment on all their blogs - it's just the nice thing to do - and also on the sponsoring blogs:

Sew We Quilt   (Madame Samm)

More Stars In Commanche    (Vickie)

In addition to being nice you also will get the opportunity to win prizes!  And who wouldn't want to win a great prize?  And then crow about it?  :)

What a Great Find!

Down the road from me there's a neighborhood shop that's been there for years and years.  The owners are friends from church and I've known them since the early eighties.  This little shop reminds me of the old General Mercantile, except without the food.  They sold all kinds of craft stuff, cake decorating necessities as well as specialty pans for baking, wigs.....yes I said wigs, tee shirts and costume jewelry and they serve as the neighborhood post office.  Recently one of the owners had some heart issues and they downsized by giving up half their store space and lots of their inventory.  Now they are getting rid of their craft stuff because it seems people aren't buying their craft stuff there - probably at the chain stores.  They carried DMC embroidery thread and had the normal cabinets to hold it.

I'm sure you've all seen these - each drawer has slots for the different color threads.  I was lucky enough to be there when they emptied one and got to buy it - and turned it into a button holder!

Is that perfect or what?  :)  Now I'm anxiously waiting to see when they might empty another so I can buy it too.  I might even put embroidery thread in it!

A Transformation and a Question

I was at the beauty shop last week not getting my hair cut....well, that sounds crazy doesn't it?  :)  I'm trying to let my hair grow a bit since I kept it a couple of inches long all summer and now it's getting cold out and so is my neck.  I remember years ago my husband's grandmother saying in the car, "Close the window, the breeze is making my neck cold."  I thought that was the craziest thing until I got to be, well the age I am now.  Anyway, while not getting my hair cut I was sitting in a chair waiting and had my feet on a small stool the beautician keeps there for short people to put their feet on while drying their hair.  I commented that I needed a stool like that in my bedroom but hadn't had any luck finding one.  I just wanted a small used one I could recover and the flea  market I'd been to the week before was fresh out.  Or maybe they'd never had one, what do I know.  To make this long story a bit shorter she gave me one she had but couldn't use because it didn't slide under the dryer chair - too tall.  What do you think?

Not bad, right?  It's a little taller than I wanted but it works....I have a rocker there where I like to sit in the mornings doing my Bible study and prayer time.  Now the only things I've ever recovered have been chairs and they were easy peasy.  Turn them over, remove the screws holding the padded seat on, put new fabric on, staple it underneath, put the seat back on the chair, put the screws back in, turn the chair right side up and there you have it.  Much to my surprise....I turn this stool over and there are no screws.  Nary a one.  I have no idea how that padded top is held on there.  No.  Idea.  So I improvised and made a "throw" for the top.  I love this fabric - it's part of a line of fabric I also used on my pillow shams.

And since I'm a quilter at heart, not a reupholsterer (is that a word because on my screen it's underlined in red), I quilted the top.

Now for the question part of this post.  The corners stick out.  It's not horrible but I wanted them to drape.  Are they sticking out because I put batting in the whole thing?  Or for some other unknown reason?  And whatever the reason is there a way to fix that?  Without taking the whole thing apart I mean.  Because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to take it apart.  Hmmm, not pretty sure, real sure.

Another Girls Weekend

One of the greatest gifts God can give us is girlfriends.  Can I get an Amen?  No matter our age, no matter our circumstances....girlfriends are the glue that holds our lives together.  Oh yes, I know family does that too.  But for women it seems to me that girlfriends are the icing on the cake.  Cake is good by itself, but with icing cake is just so much more!

I have all kinds of girlfriends.  Friends I go to church with, friends in my neighborhood, friends I stitch with, friends I work with.  But in the end, old girlfriends are just a special breed.  Once a year several of my elementary/junior high/senior high girlfriends come to my house for a weekend.  Those of you who've been reading my blog for several years have seen them before.  These women are so special to me.

Do you still see old girlfriends?  If you don't I highly recommend you look them up, get together, have coffee or a coke and do some reminiscing and laughing and even crying.  It's good for your soul.