Feet Friday

I haven't had a Feet Friday post in ages!

We were in Seattle last weekend and while waiting for the ferry I had to visit the little girls room. Afterwards I sat down.....crossed my legs..........and noticed something. Yup, you guessed it........trailing toilet paper stuck to my foot. Embarrassing. My family never noticed so I'm hoping no else did either. :)

Working on the Longarm

I've rented a longarm machine several times to try my hand at all-over quilting. I'm not great at it but adequate enough for kids quilts or those really busy quilts where you can't see the quilting anyway! :)
Yesterday I tried doing some custom work for the first time. I picked what I thought would be a very simple design to do in the plain 6 inch squares.

I know it's not easy to see in the picture but I will tell you that those ovals are suppose to be pointed not rounded. Some look good....some look yucky. It was hard and time consuming.
I will just do a plain straight line through the pieced blocks here at home on my sewing machine. Not sure if I will attempt custom work again or just concentrate on getting better at free handing all-over patterns. My money for custom work will be better spent on someone who has the talent and experience.

I appreciate the work of talented long-armers so much more now. Thank you, ladies! You rock!

Seen in a Museum

Some things are just creepy. Just sayin'! :)

Design Wall Monday

I have done a Design Wall Monday post before.....back in July....and my wall has finally changed! That other quilt is off, quilted and ready for it's binding. Pretty fast for me. Since this meme is still going on over at Patchwork Times, I decided to post what's on my wall again. I found this collection of fabrics at Leavenworth last June while on a quilt retreat. I've been waiting for the "perfect" pattern to use them in. I wanted something that used big pieces of the fabric so I could see a lot of it. I found one called Birdie Big Blocks that you can see at Cabbage Rose Quilts. These circles will have cute birds in them...and that's it. Simple. Easy. Fast. I'll be able to enjoy the bright colors this winter when it's gray and dull outside.

I am not a knitter

Nope...I wouldn't consider myself a knitter. I dabble in knitting but I am not a hard core knitter. I don't dream about yarns or projects to make like I do with quilting! But there is something about this time of year. The color and textures of fibers.....lovely. I'm safe if I stay out of yarn stores. Kinda like staying out of the bakery department when you're trying to lay off doughnuts! :)

Anyhoo. Last week I went with my daughter-in-law, Faith, on a fabric shopping expedition. She wants to learn to quilt and asked me to come along to help. Any good quiltaholic worth her salt would jump at the chance....so I jumped......and danced....and clapped! As it turned out my daughter, Jennifer, was also able to go with us. Extra fun. We went to the Kingston shop but nothing caught her eye there so we headed to Bainbridge.

First we had to fuel up at the Blackbird Bakery....home made soup and bread....so nummy.

Here is Faith with her new lovelies. Gonna be a beautiful quilt.

What does this have to do with knitting, you ask? Well......just across the street from where the fabric lives is a very scrumptious yarn store. Bad move. See some of the lovelies that live here?

My eye caught a pattern for a cowl made with silk yarn blends....oh man, its so soft. And this non-knitter could actually do it cuz it was a super easy pattern. So I bought the stuff. Not too bad. But then I went back. And I saw a pattern for the cutest ruffly scarf....so feminine.....easy enough pattern. So I bought the stuff. And then I eyed come cute variegated yarn for a child's hat....a pattern I already conquered. So I bought the stuff. Whatever! I really need to stay away....I have ZERO self control.

And just cuz.....here are some pics of a few other things I love excessively!

We bought swords for the grandsons and Liam insisted he needed a helmet. Hubby made a couple of paper hats to be helmets.

The wild grandson, who as you can see, gets into everything! Literally! :)

Life is full.

Yummy for your tummy!

I was surfing blogs the other week and came across a recipe for homemade Snicker bars. Oh boy.....it looked so good! I copied down the recipe, bought all the ingredients and waited for the cooking mood to strike. Last night hubby decided he had waited long enough and just made them himself. Dang I love it when procrastinating pays off. Hee, hee.

I'm not sure exactly where this recipe originates. Some blogs were saying its a Taste of Home adapted recipe....most didn't say. All I know is you have to make some. The recipe makes a 13x9 pans worth.....perfect for sharing.

Yum, yum!

A New Passion

~ Passion requires focused direction, and that direction must come from three other areas: your purpose, your talents, and your needs. ~

Our son has a new passion.....it's Mixed martial arts fighting. Ya know, that fighting where pretty much everything goes? The fighting that makes a Moms heart skip a beat! He loves to tell us all about his training.....how he passed out cuz he didn't tap out in time.....oy vey! I do have to say that while it's a bit hard to hear stories and see bruises, I do *love* seeing him excited!

He hasn't had a fight yet but he did have a submission wrestling match. I couldn't bring myself to go watch (not ready yet....but some day) so I grabbed some photo's from the match he won to show ya.

That's what I get for putting him in Tae Kwondo! LOL! You go, Dan! I love ya.

Bloggers Fall Quilt Festival

Amy at Park City Girl is hosting another online Quilt Festival. I always seem to stumble upon these things after the fact but this time I am in time to participate! Barely....today is the deadline. :)

We are suppose to blog about a quilt we've made. I decided to show a quilt from this year but they are all still just tops. Oh well....tops are all I've got.

This is the "Cowboy" quilt I made for Liam, our oldest grandson. We gave him all cowboy themed gifts last Christmas and I wanted to follow up with a cowboy quilt for his birthday.

This pattern is called Fresh Linens and is from the book, "Let the Good Times Roll". Fast and easy.

This is a close-up of the block:

I even found some dancing fabric!

There are over 600 entries in this online quilt festival. Lots of beautiful quilts to see and fun stories to read about. Go read a few.

My First Hat

I knitted my first hat! It's a child's hat that I made for my grandson. I figured I'd start small, in case it was too hard for me. :) The beginning part was easy peasy.....just knitting in the round.....no pattern, no thinking. But then it was decreasing and double pointed needles and things got smaller and smaller. I felt like my fingers were sausages! I used a chenille yarn so its super soft. Cute, huh?

The only "model" I could find around here with a small head. LOL!

Apple Fun

We have 6 apple trees and this year the apples are abundant. I don't make jelly or sauce or bake pies so there are lots of apples for giving away....no way eating an apple or two a day would ever come close to using them all up! :)
The grand kids were over last weekend and they love going out to pick apples. I think they'd eat them all day long if we let them.

Here they are enjoying the treat of fresh picked apples:

Happy Birthday, Jennifer!

"A daughter is a little girl who grows up to be a friend." ~Author Unknown

Today is our daughters birthday. Our first born. The one who as she ages makes me feel old!

As I searched for photos to use in this blog I discovered that I rarely, if ever, took a picture of her alone on her birthday. I got shots of the cake and shots of presents and shots of friends but rarely just her. Oh well. Here's a small trip down birthday memory lane.

This was the day she turned one. The dress she is wearing was crocheted by my Grandma Dickerson. But the best part of this photo to me is how young my hubby looks. Good golly he looks like a child....no wonder the "older" folk thought we were too young! LOL!

I love you sweety.