A Couple of Completed Projects

Here are pictures of a couple of projects I finished awhile ago. The little troll dolls quilt is a panel that I have had for years. When I found it this winter it just made me happy and I knew I wanted to get it quilted. It has brought back some great memories of my younger days. I hand quilted it and at this point I don't know what I will do with it. The embroidery quilt was a block of the month that I worked on last year. All of the little raggedy Ann centers are hand embroidered. I love the 1930's reproduction fabrics that were included in the kits.

Life has thrown our family a couple of curve balls in the last few days. So many times I wonder why God gives us challenges in our lives and I know that in the end it does make us stronger. I have no committments today and tomorrow and I really enjoy that. A huge part of me would love to lock myself in my sewing room and not come out for a very long time, but I know that can't happen. This morning I washed several of the windows in our house (the ones I don't need to use a ladder). I am taking a little lunch break right now then I think I will go in and wash the kitchen walls and then perhaps sweep the garage floor and maybe if I still have any steam left will clean out my car. Along with getting some spring cleaning done my ulterior motive is to be so exhausted tonight that I will crash when it is bed time.

A Weather Update

The winter storm hit us very hard last Wednesday night. Just yesterday and last night we lost all of the snow that was hanging in the trees due to high winds and warmer temps. That wet, heavy snow caused lots of problems for lots of folks here in northern Michigan. Many, many people were without electricity and some still are. The reports on the radio are that some may not have electricy until Friday. On the up side the temperatures have gone up and are predicted to be in the 50's today. I saw on the news the other night some electrical line workers here from Indianana strapping on snow shoes to go to find downed power lines. Fortunately we didn't lose our electricity. My heart goes out to those who did lose electricity and as a fire fighters wife I know first hand of the stress this kind of thing puts on line worker spouses and families.

On the upside today is the day we have our small group sewing at our "LQS". I baked a pan of date bars to share this morning and right now I have some granola in the oven - a new recipe from my sister. I had better go and get my sewing supplies packed for a fun day of sewing. Enjoy your day!

It's A Girl

Our newphew Josh and his wife Jill are expecting their first baby next month - and it's a girl. I attended the baby shower last weekend. I made 3 receiving blankets for the baby. I made some for our girls a couple of years ago and they said they really liked the size (I used 3/4 of a yard of soft flannel). I also made some burp clothes and really wished I would have had them when my kids were babies. I made a diaper/wipes carrying case and plan to make more of them. Thanks to JoEllen for sharing the pattern with me. While shopping at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago I found this pink camo yarn and I knew it would be perfect to make an afghan for the baby. Jill said the colors were perfect as that was the colors they were using in the nursery. And I love the idea of giving the baby a book instead of spending money on a card.

Quilter's Heaven

Today felt like Quilter's Heaven. I was able to spend most of my day in my sewing room sewing. Seems like most of the time there is laundry to do or other housekeepping activities that interfere with my day, but not today. Well, I did make breakfast and dinner and I took a little break to do some snow shoveling but other than that it was just me and my sewing machines. As you can see I had a beautiful view out my window, the snow is still hanging in the trees.

The UFO that I worked on was something that I had started probably a year or so ago at open sewing at Guild. The pattern was called Red Hot Stars, designed by Sharon Sebrow and was in a 2005 Quick Quilts magazine. Since I used blue fabrics I was thinking about calling the quilt Winter Blues but I don't mean it in a negative way. I started this quilt on our featherweight so I wanted to continue sewing on the featherweight. The pattern called for hand appliquing the stars onto the quilt. Although I like to do hand work I decided to machine stitch the stars down. At first I tried to do a button hole stitch on my Viking but it just wasn't working for me. So I put the walking foot on the Viking and did what I would call a top stitch applique. It was kind of fun going back and forth between machines. I plan to machine quilt this one some day, just don't know when yet. Now I am off to do some hand quilting for the evening. My husbands teases me that I have a rough life and I guess that I would have to agree with him!

March Snow Storm

This time the weather forecasters were correct. We got the major snow storm that was predicted. Yesterday just before the snow started to fall I went outside and shoveled off our back deck. I just went out and shoveled it again and measured 9 inches of snow in a 26 hour period. The snow was very wet and very heavy. A couple of times it even stuck to the shovel when I tried to throw it off the deck. All of the trees are still covered with snow and it is very pretty. We have been very fortunate and have not lost our electricity but I know that some of my family members and friends have been without electricity all day. The temperatures are starting to drop now so I hope everyone get their electricity back on soon.

With the heavy snow we had a very large branch break on one of our trees along with a few other smaller branches. I always hate to see this happen. On a good note I spent most of the day sewing and I loved it. I have a couple of pictures to post and will try to do that after dinner.

A Crazy Winter Here In Northern Michgian

The weather has been very crazy here this winter. We had very little snow all winter long. On Wednesday, February 29 we were hit with a major snow storm. We didn't measure here but I heard any where from 6 - 8 inches of snow, and it was a very wet and heavy snow. And it is predicted that another storm will be coming in later this afternoon with predictions of 8 - 11 inches. I say BRING IT ON!!! Of course for the most part I don't have to go out in it.

I always have fantasies of spending the winter inside in my comfy clothes playing with my sewing machine and my fabric. I haven't been able to do as much of that this winter as I would have liked. As soon as the Christmas holiday was over the absentee ballots arrived for the February 28th primary election here in Michigan. As Township Clerk I am the election administrator for Hillman Township. I have a list of permanent absent voters and I automatically send them applications for absent voter ballots before every election. I do not work full time in my office but once the applications go out I try to go to the office every day and keep up on mailing out ballots, especially those that need to be sent out of state. And then there is all of the work of getting all of the election equipment set up, tested and ready to roll. On Tuesday I worked as a precinct inspector (I can't do that when my name is on the ballot) and it was a 16 1/2 hour day. And of course I didn't sleep well the night before. So I welcomed the Feb. 29th storm with open arms. I was able to sleep in, stay home, d0 a little sewing, a little reading and also take a nap. Yesterday I went into the office for an hour or so, enjoyed lunch with a friend and then spent time in my sewing room. I had made up 42 Honey Bee blocks and have been machine appliquing the little wings in the corners. I ran out of the black fabric just before dinner. I had hoped to go to Alpena tomorrow morning for our grandson's 8:00 a.m. basketball game, then see about getting some more black fabric but now will have to wait and see what this storm brings. I have a couple of errands to run this morning, then I think I will come home and machine quilt a little table topper I made during a Guild workshop last fall.

Hot Off The Sewing Machine

I just finished these place mats. I started them in a class at Guild almost a year ago and had planned to give them as a wedding gift last June. Well, that didn't happen but they are done now. The picture doesn't do any justice for the beautiful greens, browns and reds that I used for the tops of the placemats. On the back I used the wine bottle fabric and I am thinking they could definitely be reversible. MMMM - maybe I will keep them for our table.