Things I bought at the 3 different shops yesterday and using my new camera

Here's what I bought on my shopping trip (small shop hop) with my new friend. I'm also trying out my new camera and just getting used to it. So far, it's pretty easy to use...we'll see...
Here's everything I bought yesterday from all three shops. I bought a Dora the Explorer beanie baby doll for my granddaughter. And the green ball is a Chritmas candle holder. The only other thing that's not sewing related was the two brown boxes to the left are Jim Shore Texas Star Nativity Christmas ornaments...I don't want to take them out of the box because I'll never get them back in the box to give away. Sorry....Everything else is sewing/quilting related. It was so much fun to find goodies for the sewing baskets I plan on making...
Of course, not everything is a gift for others. I bought me a new foot for my machine and some thread to let her play with.

A Wonderful Day

I had a lovely day today...I met a fellow blogger, Swooze, at a local quiltshop. I had met her one other time long ago (before I came to know Blogland) at the quilt shop. I had been reading her blog and I made a post about tatting at the Senior Center. She contacted me and we got to talking. We met up today officially as fellow bloggers and went to visit three different quilt shops. I did some Christmas shopping, we had a lovely lunch at a new tea room together and shared some laughs. Lots of fun and I hope we meet up again soon and get to play together again. I had a great time.

I did do a little Christmas shopping for myself after we parted. I had been looking at the ads and did some price comparisons. I went to Wolfe Camera and bought me a new digital camera. I've been wanting and needing one for quite a while and with my new grandchild coming in December, I decided now was a good time. I am letting it charge right now and will play with it tomorrow. I'll take pictures of all the goodies I bought at the quilt shops and share my finds with you. Now, I just have to make some of those cute fabric baskets from the Pink Penguins blogsite and fill them with the goodies I bought for my quilting friend's Christmas gifts. I'll try to do those tomorrow too. Vera over at Seams to Sew and Quilt made some and used a solid fabric instead of the 2-2 1/2" squares. I think I'll do some this way and get them done a little quicker. Until next time....

Black Friday, grandkids and a new quilt shop

I hate that name...I know what it means but it does not make me think good thoughts. I went out in the year's past and I decided this year I could do without the crowds. I kept my grandson and his parents went out shopping at 3:00 in the morning....isn't that ridiculous? I don't need anything that bad! I don't care if they were giving things away...I like my nice warm bed too much for that.
Unfortunately, my grandson, (he's 5 years old) did not want to sleep last night. I let him lay down with me so I could calm him down. We watched a little TV and turned off the lights. He finally fell asleep but so did I. He is little squirmer and I got kicked out of bed by him this morning and he wasn't even awake.... I got up and enjoyed some quiet time with a lovely cup of coffee and a good book before the little tornado woke up. Ah, being a grandma...it's so much fun! I love it but I sure like when I can send them home for some quiet time too. Now, back to quilting! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Tomorrow morning, I'm meeting a friend and we're going to a new quilt shop I've never been to...Oh boy, I'm ready for some inspiration...I'll let you know how it goes, til next time....

Tatting Tuesday

Last night I went to the Richardson Senior Center for my tatting group. Lots of fun and fellowship with some wonderful ladies. I think I'm picking it back up again but it's a slow process for me. One of the lovely ladies named Lucille showed me (or should I say tried to show me) how to do the split ring...That is hard!!! I did do it but I can honestly say I have not mastered it, YET... I'm going to watch the video and work on it some over the holidays. I do like the looks of the split ring. Lucille showed me a very pretty bookmark she had made using the stitch and a beaded cross on the end. Too cute. Maurie showed me a tatting book she bought off Amazon and I fell in love with the book. I went home and had to buy it. I ordered it from Amazon last night and can't wait to get it....The doctors are letting us off early today and I'm going to go home and start some of my cooking. Maybe I'll get to work on some of my tatting or quilting today too. Until next time....

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and get to be with all your loved ones and have lots of good food and share some good times together.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all...

(Here's a link to other Thanksgiving clipart)

Too much to do--Embroidery-miscellaneous

It's that time of year/season when there's too much to do and not enough time/energy to go around. I have so many things I want to do but can't get to them for having to work on something else that has to be done too. This is when I keep telling myself, breathe, relax, enjoy what you're doing and you can go on to the next project or thing on the list. This is when I wish I could clone myself so my clone can do my responsibilities and chores and I can just play. Now, when the scientist come up with that one, I'll be the first in line....I'm a list person as some of you know. When I get stressed, I tend to make lists more often so I can prioritize what needs to be done. It also helps me de-stress to do this as I usually realize I'm not as behind as my mind makes me think.

Last night, while my Bernina and I were embroidering, I started making my projects list for the end of the year. I had forgotten how much fun it is to embroider and watch the designs come out. I am working on my new Grandbaby's quilt. There are cars, school buses, stop signs, yield signs, etc. My new grandbaby is a boy if you can't guess. He should be here soon. Around the first week of December and I finally decided on a quilt pattern...Talk about procrastination! I work better under pressure, what can I say? Anyway, here I am in my sewing room, watching the machine embroider, loading/reloading thread as necessary, hand quilting on my friend's quilt and making lists as I think of things.... I like to multi task. Here's the pattern I am using for the quilt. It's called Happy wheels and is an AuntyM Design pattern...Lots of fun. I am not doing the pattern exactly like this. I will be changing up some of the blocks. I'm not going to be using the black nine patch blocks or the gray/black for the roads. I will be using some nine patches in blue, yellow and green ...I'll post a picture of mine when I'm done. I'm using her designs for the cars and kinda playing it by ear. this picture is off of her website and below that is a link to her other patterns....she has some really cute things. Check her out. Her designs are really cute.




http://www.auntymdesigns.com/html/happy_wheels.html

I have several blocks done and I'm just going to play around with the layout before I reveal. Come back and see what my quilt will look like later...

I also worked on some Christmas embroidery for my ASG Sewing Group. I have to make something with the embroidery designs and of course, I'm thinking of a small quilt to use as decoration. I did all the designs last night and now to decide what to do with them....More to think about. I'm going to take a break tonight and go to Tatting. Until next time.....

Hand Quilting

Well, I'm back to hand quilting again. My friend Shirley asked me to finish this quilt for her son. It's been at her house for more than 10 years. It was pieced by her MIL and she started hand quilting it but never finished. She was making it as a wedding gift for Shirley's son but he's never gotten married....The MIL passed away and Shirley (not being a hand quilter) just put it away and planned on getting it finished but....It is a wedding ring quilt and is very lovely. Shirley wants to give it to her son and it doesn't matter if he's married or not so she asked for my help. I am so enjoying quilting this. I am now more than half-way done with it and hopefully I can get it finished this week during the Thanksgiving holidays. She told me there was no rush and that she did not expect it to be done very quickly and I could do it in my own time frame. I told her not to expect it before Christmas but I am going to surprise her with it. It would be very nice to give it to Shirley this quickly. She has the binding ready and can bind it and give it to him for Christmas. What a lovely gift, a quilt from your Grandmother....

I will post a picture of it when I finish quilting it...til next time....

Grandkids and Gas prices

We went over last night and had dinner with #1 son and sweet DIL. When I walked in my two sweet grandkids came running and yelling, Grammy, Grammy..I got big hugs and kisses...Isn't it so nice to have children/grandchildren that love you like that? I so enjoy getting greeted like that. My kids used to do that when they were little and it sure stirs my heartstrings for them to do that. I really love those babies and I am looking forward to another one soon. When they ran up to me Alayna had a Santa hat on... I said oh, it's a Santa elf....Brandon looked at me and said, no, Grammy (as he was pulling the hat off of Alayna), it's Alayna! I laughed at them but thought that was just too cute! I guess we all think our grandchildren are cute but I just had to share that...


On the way home from work yesterday, I stopped for gas and paid $1.78 a gallon! Wow, what a bargain. The gas station was full with people waiting...I wonder how long the prices will be like this. I hope til after Thanksgiving anyway.

Tonight is Guild night so I will see what all my other quilter friends are up to.
Til next time....

Christmas is Coming, Christmas is Coming!

Ok, you might say it's a little early to start this but I just can't help myself. I went shopping last week and the stores are already decorated for Christmas. I have started my Christmas shopping already and am already deciding what to make for Christmas gifts. I am getting so excited! I told all the family we are toning down Christmas and not buying as much this year but that doesn't mean I'm not going to make things! We have a new grandchild coming in time for Christmas and that means I am busy working on a new quilt. I have decided to make aprons and tablerunners too. I am not making big quilts this year except maybe finishing up one that I'm working on for Josh. The Orange Crush has the borders on now and I think I will have this one quilted so I can give to him for Chrismas...I am tatting and knitting and maybe I can get some little tea towels done too. We'll see. Too much to do and not enough time. I'm going to have to start a to-do list and prioritize what needs to be done. Hmmm, I'll have to think on this and decide. I know I plan on enjoying myself and not stressing out over anything...Relax and breathe and start singing Christmas songs...til next time.....Ho, Ho, Ho......

Weekly Update

Wow, last week is gone and I did not get to blog anything. I was on vacation but it really wasn't a fun vacation. Monday and Tuesday was spent clothes shopping, shoe shopping, getting the dog groomed and just general errands. I had a Medical Seminar to go to on Thursday and Friday and I had to get ready for it. We (my husband and I) drove down on Wednesday to Houston for me to go to this seminar. He went with me and he was going to play golf and just hang out while I did the work thing...I am so glad he went with me. OMG, Houston traffic is awful! I thought Dallas was bad but boy, Houstonians drive way faster than Dallasites. I have lived in Texas my whole life and this was my first trip to Houston. I drive Dallas traffic every day and have forever. I worked in downtown Dallas for 20+ years and now work off of Hwy 635 and Central...It takes me about an hour and 15 minutes to get to work on a normal day so I am not new to traffic but....we stayed at a very nice hotel that was on the Hwy 59 close to the hospital where my seminar was. I did not sleep at all while I was there. The traffic noise at nighttime was unbelievable! The traffic never stopped. I was very glad to come back home and get some rest. I think I'll stay away from Houston for a long time. Nice people but too much for me!

I went to a Memorial Service for my friend that passed away last month. Marianne was flown home and buried in Michigan but the family decided to have a Memorial Service for her down here for all the friends...The service was very nice and afterwards, all the family and friends were invited to the quilt shop that she had worked at. The quilt shop shut down for business and served lunch and refreshments to her family and friends and we could just talk and visit. She would have really enjoyed this. This was so nice of Shelly and David to accomodate the family and friends like this. We will all miss Marianne's smile, laughter and great sense of humor. Goodbye, my friend....

Yesterday, I was able to sit down and do a little sewing. I finished, that's right, finished the intermediate quilt. I finished all the quilting on it and put a hanging sleeve on it too. I think it turned out very lovely. I so enjoyed working on this quilt. I also finished the quilting on the beginner quilt and I'll bind that this week too. Oh boy, two finishes in one week. I'm going to hang the intermediate quilt in my living room and admire my work for awhile. My older son told me awhile back that I should not hang quilts on the wall. He didn't like me decorating with them....Oh well, he'll just have to get over it.

Tomorrow I go to my tatting class. Oh boy, can't wait....Tuesday tatting. I'll update again later. Til next time....