First Fall weekend

Today is the 2nd official day of Fall, which means that I feel I have used some restraint in waiting a day to make something pumpkin :) grin.  This morning I baked a couple loaves of pumpkin bread with a cream cheese swirl.  I found the recipe last year on Pinterest and made it a couple times.  This year, it's just as yummy!


So yesterday I had planned on going to a scrapbooking thing but it was cancelled.  What's a girl to do?  Hmmm.  Get a pumpkin spice latte from Starbuck's and go to Joann's.  There is a new store opening in town so the old store is having a liquidation sale because they won't be taking any old stuff to the new store.  Which means everything is 75% right now!!!!!  I mean, really, how could I NOT go?  It was packed in there!  I came away with some fun fabric, lots of thread and a bunch of other stuff for like 35 doll-hairs!
I bought some ribbon to finally finish the Steeler's wreath I started last year!  This is actually 2 wreath layered together. 



Went home, finished the quilt top I'm working on. (pics later when said quilt is finished) Today I finished the back and have called it good.  Thursday night I'm going to take advantage of the tables at another scrapbooking event to baste the layers together and then most likely quilt it all up next weekend!

On a side note, I had bought a book on cd on a whim at the library book sale and have really enjoyed listening to it while sewing!  Now I know why hubs likes the audio books so much.  Talk about multi-tasking. 

green Friday

I've started the weekend pretty well, I think.  I woke up super early for me - like 7am!  no alarm.  I made a wreath for my friend Jan.

I really like the way the "O" on this one turned out. I let her pick which one she'd rather have, this one or the first one and she said it was tough to decide because she liked both for different reasons but ended up picking this one. I think I might take the "O" off the first wreath and make another one like this one. Need to buy more poms.

While walking out to the craft house I noticed some pears on the ground near the pear tree out back. I figure that must mean they are ripe? They don't feel soft yet so not too sure. I was looking up pear recipes in my Ball canning blue book to see if I might can some up?
After cleaning the office I met Jan and Charese the fairy princess for lunch. We checked out a new restaurant that just opened that is an Indian restaurant. It was sort of funny because I am a very picky eater, but I am keen to try new things. Charese had told Jan she was worried about going there because she thought I wouldn't be able to find anything! The thing that as long as there is a veg dish without a white sauce I can usually find something and be happy. I can report that the restaurant was delicious. Service a little slow but I'm sure that was because it was PACKED and they are very new. I'm happy for the owners that it seems to be very popular!
After that I drove over to one of the retirement homes where there was a blood drive happening and gave blood. Not my favorite thing to do but I am happy that it can help people. Apparently this year they are pretty low on donations so I felt even better about not wussing out :)
What's everyone else up to this weekend??? Anything fun and exciting?

better late than never weekend update

And so, what have I been up to?  A little bit of this and a little bit of that!  I actually finished this project last weekend but didn't want to share it until the recipient had rec'd it so as not to spoil it.  I signed up to do a swap on swap-bot for quilters.  I have been wanting to make a mug rug forever so thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try it out.  I made up a little pattern for the mini dresden plate, I can't find the exact tutorial that I followed to make the pattern, but this one is sort of close.  Basically you make a circle and divide it in 4 then each 4th divide into 3, cut out a wedge and then shorten a little and add seam allowances.  I decided Fall colors because I thought that would be appropriate.  And because I love fall colors :) 

Then I was looking around Pinterest and came across a type of wreath that just made me swooon!  I thought, I have to make one!  They are made with giant mesh ribbon.  I looked all over our little berg and the widest ribbon in the colors I wanted were 2.5".  So this is the first wreath I made.  The colors are for the Oregon Ducks.  Around here you're either a Ducks fan or a Beavers fan.  I'm not really either because I don't watch sports, but I do like to put up a wreath! 
I liked the way the first wreath turned out but couldn't really get over the other kind with the super wide ribbon.  I googled "deco mesh" and turns out it's 21" inches wide!  Dang dude!  And, since I am super impatient and did not want to have to wait for shipping I thought of tulle.  It's super cheap and wide.  So, I followed the same basic priciple and gathered a bit, pinned it down and then every 12 inches or so gathered and then pinned about 3 inches from the first spot.  I had a bunch of yellow ribbon left from the first wreath so I added that.  I'm not thrilled with the "O" but, eh, it needed something.  I used foam backed with cardboard and just glued on some poms. 

The first wreath I gifted to Karlie and the second one is going on my front door!

Now for the super exciting find of the whole weekend!!!!!  Um, okay, so my whole life I've had this sort of fantasy of living in Maine.  Somewhere on the East coast and living an LL Bean kind of life.  Part of that life would include sitting around in Adirondack chairs near a lake just gazing out or reading a book with a glass of sweet tea.  Not that sweet tea is an East Coast thing, I think it's more of a Southern thing, but hey, it's my fantasy :)  So, I walk into the Hospice thrift and I'm browsing around and sometime after I got in there these chairs were dropped off......green chippy Adirondack chairs!  Eeeek!  Two of them with $4 marked on each one.  Double eeeek!  Of course that store only takes cash and you can use a debit card if it's $10 or more.  If you know me at all you'll know that I sure wasn't going to pick up $2 worth of stuff to be able to use my debit card and I never carry cash!  Bah.  But, I was at the store at 10:02 the next morning when they opened with cash! 

Here's one of them, I really should have swept off the deck area for the pic, sorry!  But, you get the idea!  I'm debating sanding them down to the wood and sealing them.....or just finding some sort of sealer to keep them chippy.  I already know what my Mom with say - leave em chippy.  I just don't always love chippy though, it makes me feel unkempt for some reason.   Anyways though!  I LOVE them!  l.o.v.e.
Sunday I went to the quilt show at the fairgrounds.  I haven't really been to a quilt show before and I'm not sure how I felt about it.  I certainly appreciated the workmanship and the stitching was perfect.  That's kind of it, though.  Too perfect.  There were a few quilts that were just gorgeous, beautiful colors and some originality.  There were a lot of traditional quilts, cutesy quilts, and some kind of plain ones.  I didn't see anything my style really.  Not that I have a particular style I don't think?  It made me realllllly want a real quilting machine.  I love my little singer, it's really worked hard for me.  And really, who has 4 grand laying around for a sewing machine??? not me, that's for sure!
This Saturday there's a scrapbooking thing, that should be fun!  Not sure what I will work on yet.  Maybe cards again?  It will be nice to chat and catch up with the ladies.

Keeping cozy

So, Thursday it literally snowed alllll day long!  Even with all that snow, the roads have not been too bad, mostly clear - hooray for snow plows!  This is what my car looked like when I went out to warm it up:

Brrrr.  Yesterday June and I took it easy, as we did today too.  Who am I kidding?  We'll probably chill out all weekend :)  So, what have I been working on?  You'll remember that I tried my hand at the single wedding ring, and was not too thrilled with the results although the ladies at work thought I had gone mental.  So, I tried the tutorial, quilt-a-long from Comfortstitching, the pickle dish.  Results very similar to the wedding ring square (circle?) but a little bit more user friendly.  Only tricky thing was pressing the seams away from the white - the seam automatically wants to go to the white part!

I haven't quilted or anything else yet, but here's what I have so far.  I have a nice bit of advice for someone trying the paper piecing type thing - I used old Joann's flyers for my templates.  The paper is easy to tear away once you've gotten done with it, and it's kind of like recycling a bit :)  So, what do you think?  Not comletely round, but not bad.  There is one spot that didn't want to match up, and I'm going to try reaaaalllly hard to not point it out. 

I put up some Christmas decorations this morning as well, that's always fun to do!   A couple weeks ago Jan invited me over to scrapbook, but I just couldn't scrapbook so I worked on this wreath instead :)  I think it turned out pretty good!  I LOVE these vintage deer and pick them up at the thrift or wherever whenever I can and thought it was pretty much perfect to do a little Christmas wreath vignette.

What about you?  Have you started to put up decorations yet???  Getting in the Christmas spirit?  I pretty much listen to Christmas music all year long, mostly Bing Crosby, so I'm thrilled that it's the proper season to listen to Christmas music!

In other news, I noticed that Beverly Lewis has a new book out!  I'm hoping that the library will get it.....or I might even break down and buy it! 

weekend finishes

okay, so this post is for my Mom, to show her what I've been up to this weekend.  So, Friday night after the laziest day ever I worked on the quilt a little bit.  Mostly just made more leaf and stem squares.  This is what I have so far:

I was thinking about it, and it turns out that I don't think I'm going to add in butterflies in with the large flowers.  Instead, I was thinking I'd border the "garden" and then do a little border of tiny flowers alternating with little butterfly squares.  Then, maybe another border?  Who knows, I'll figure that part out a little later probably.  You can see June's little paws down in the righthand corner, isn't she cute?  I know she sooooo wants to lay right on the squares, but she knows she'll get in BIG trouble.  Heee, hee.

And, I finished up this wreath this morning:

of course, I don't actually watch football, or even really know what's going on!  In fact, I'm just hoping it's still football season!  lol.  It's a little confusing because on facebook my bf Jeannette keeps talking about baseball games, but I haven't heard about the Superbowl yet, so I'm pretty sure I'm good.  But, all said and done, I love the Steelers!  Pretty much have to since my Mom is from Pittsburgh and I still have family back there!  All growing up I just knew that I loved them.  One of the trips back there, right before my Grandpa died, we were in town when the Steelers went to a playoff game, and boy howdy!  you've never seen anything like the love and loyalty Pittsburgh has for "da Stillers!"  Seriously every single person had either yellow and black or some form of Steelers clothing, flag, jewelry you name it on. At the Carnegie museum there was a yellow and black scarf on one of the dinosaurs outside.  A dinosaur at the airport had a "terrible towel".  Very cool.

So, now I'm wondering where to hide tonight while it's "trick or treat" time.  I just don't do the whole Halloween thing.  I mean, yes, I decorate.  But, since I was little I've always hated trick or treating.  I felt funny going to strangers houses and asking for candy.  I felt weird dressing up.  And, candy is bad for teeth.  So, frankly I just don't feel like advocating the whole candy begging shenanigans.  That sounded really harsh!  Really, it's just awkward to be home and not have bought any candy to hand out and I don't really want to listen to someone knocking on the door and feel funny about not answering, you know?