Wow! The summer is gone!

Friday's high is supposed to be 28 and the low is in the single digits-YIKE! It was just summer. The good news is that I can finally dust off the old sewing machine and get productive again.

Colt and Minnie had a great summer-Minnie spent last summer in the humane society, so she especially enjoyed her time swimming, running and hiking.



< Now there's a happy girl!!!!!!! Her first time in water that wasn't a flooding, rushing river. She loved it and has become quite the swimmer. At first she would only wade in, now she jumps right in. Sad that a dog doesn't learn to swim until she's 2 years old-but wonderful that she will be swimming all she wants for the rest of her life.

Here's Colt taking a rest on the picnic table-hmmmmmmm..........does the bird dog realize there are several birds behind him?????? LOL! In his defense he just woke up, we had taken a couple hour hike earlier that day.

That isn't a cigar hanging out of his mouth, it's a raw-hide chewy. We let that sunflower grow right in the doorway-yup, we went around it all summer. We had several around the yard, we try to let them grow wherever they come up. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the massive amount of them we had around here, each plant had several flowers on it.

Happy Birthday Girls!

A friend of mine's triplet girls turned 11 on Monday. Their mother got them each a Nintendo DS-they've been asking for a couple of years. Those things are amazing-they can actually text each other-crazy. Anyhow, we did get them each a game but I really wanted to make them something. I know they all like purses and bags so I made them each a purse (tutorial here) with a matching coin purse. They just happen to be the perfect size to carry their DS'! and the little one can hold the games-man those things are tiny.

Aren't they adorable? Horses for K, Princess' for T and "Hippy" for A. They LOVED them! I wish I had gotten a shot of them with them on, they each slung them over their shoulder immediately and wore them throughout most of the party.

Happy Birthday Girls!

It's finished!

Actually, it's been done for a few weeks, I just haven't gotten around to taking any pictures.

I made this quilt to raffle off for a fund raiser I'm doing for a local youth home organization. I will be walking a half marathon on Sunday. I am going to try to break 3 hours, last year I did it in 3 hrs 10 min. I feel ready, but I'm bummed that I haven't dropped any weight in training. At first I did but when I started to increase my workouts I gained-and no, I don't think it's muscle, I guess I increased my eating or something-although it didn't feel like it. I'm really bummed that I didn't lose some weight as I have my THIRTY YEAR class reunion the following weekend! ACK! How did I get this old?

So, cousin P won the quilt-even though we did the drawing at one of my clients they claim it was rigged because family won-lol-sore losers.

I won these squares at a quilt retreat I attended about 3 or 4 years ago.

Didn't it turn out nice? Here is a picture showing the back-I just love this fabric. This is the first time I followed the directions on attaching the binding. I don't trust my hand sewing but everything I've found says you have to attach the front of the binding by hand-so I did. I hope it holds! I quilted it using multicolored thread, I don't know that I would make the choice again, I probably would stick to black, but I think it turned out nice anyhow.

Congratulations P!

One thing I learned with this quilt: If you can't get the tension right on a bobbin-dump it! It is not worth the time and potential damage to your quilt to keep trying to get it right. In the end you have to pull out all that quilting you did because it looks horrible. I don't know how you can wind 4 at the same time and one just doesn't work-but it happens-let it go!

She likes monkeys!

Yup, 50+ and still crazy about monkeys. Just when I think "enough with the monkeys" I see she is wearing a pair of monkey shoes, or has given one of her grand-kids something with monkey's on it. So, for her birthday I picked up some cute monkey material, then realized I had enough for several gifts (yes, I have left overs), I don't know what I'll do with the rest of it, perhaps a fabric bowl or box.

I've been wanting to make this bed caddy for quite some time, and still plan on making one for myself, but thought it might be a nice gift. Poor sis, she got my practice one.



I based it (loosely) on a pattern purchased - cheaply- from here - sorry, I can't find the exact one, I see they now have a bed caddy pattern for free, I may try it. The one I used is called a butterfly bed caddy, but obviously I didn't do the butterfly.

One reason I haven't made one for myself is because I know the two little monsters that live with us (pictures to the right) will pull it outside and rip it up, or at the very least pull the items in it outside and tear them up. The other day I found a pair of dh's underwear in the yard, with big rips in them-good grief, after 8 months you'd think he'd learn not to leave underwear or socks on the floor-serves him right!

Anyhow, here it is, hanging on my sewing table. I think I will make the pockets bigger when I make the next one, they aren't big enough to put a magazine unless you roll it. I like the little pocket in the front, perfect for the remote on one side and reading glasses on other.




Of course I had to include a purse and coin purse in the package. I really do love these purses-I hope everyone I've sent them to does as well.

Happy Birthday Sis!

How do they do it?

I'm very impressed how bloggers are able to post a few times a week. Although I'm sewing, and taking pictures, I just can't seem to get them from the camera, to the computer, to the internet.

Anyhow, I've been making these adorable purses! See the tutorial here.

The purple and pink was my practice one. I took this to a fund raiser I attended recently and LOVED it! I didn't have to worry about a big, bulky purse bumping everyone, nor did I have to leave it at the table and worry about someone pilfering through it. It is the perfect size for a checkbook, credit card, some cash, my keys, and lip balm. I need to make one less flashy, but I think I will get a lot of use out of it-perfect for shopping.

I made this one for a niece that turned 19 recently. I also made a little coin purse to go with it. A great gift, especially with a little cash tucked inside!

This one went to a niece for her 16th birthday-also with a bit of cash. How cute is that?

These don't use much fabric 2-6X17" pieces of fabric with the same amount of batting. It's also a great way for those of us new to machine quilting to get some practice in.

If you have a serger, I'd serge the edges together. Also, the little purse didn't really seem to match the quilted, bigger purse. So the first one I used quilted pieces. That was too bulky so I just "quilted" the next ones, minus the batting. I think it looks much better that way.

I have 4 more in progress for some little gals that have birthdays coming up.

Lucky Me!!!!!!

About 3 1/2 years ago I won these 12-12X12 squares.

I forgot to take a picture before I added the borders.

I was at a quilt retreat and we each received a little pile of fabric-already cut- and instructions on how to assemble our square. There were 24 in all, and they had 2 drawings for 12 squares each. The other was fall colors (I think). And I won these! I purchased some awesome fabric for the sashing, but once I had it home, I decided it was a bit too much (dh agreed). I then used blue and black fabric from my stash to border each square, and the fabric I purchased for sashing (thank goodness I purchased extra!) I will use for the back. I'll post pictures of the finished product (hopefully in the near future).

I am going to walk a half marathon in July, I will be collecting donations for a local youth home. I am going to sell chances on this quilt! I sandwiched it tonight. I'm not sure just how I'm going to quilt it yet. Since I'm a beginner I don't want to get too extragavent, but I'd like to (obviously) make it nice. It measures 54X72.

I think I love it!

Yes, that is Minnie's (once again) behind in the bottom left corner!

Colt is such a BRAT!

We purchased a gentle lead halter for Minnie a few weeks ago, and it works so great at keeping her from pulling we decided to get Colt one as well. On my way to our walk today I stopped and picked one up for him ($15) and I decided to put it on him in the parking lot of the store rather than do it at the dog walk place in case I had to make adjustments. It fit perfectly so I left it on him and drove the ~5 minutes to the trail.

When I opened the back of the truck and went to put the leash on him the halter was dangling around his mid-section! WTF???????????? Oh I see, he CHEWED it off his neck! in 5 minutes!



JERK!

I love him dearly (he's truly the funniest dog I've ever had) but I thought he was over this chewing thing. I told him I'm adding $15 to his tab. Hopefully I'll be able to somehow sew this back together.