Happy Halloween - 10/31/15

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! -

This is the perfect day to -

And BOB would like to add -

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Design Wall Monday - 10/26/15

DESIGN WALL MONDAY -
Check out all of us who link up with Judy L. -
At Patchwork Times on Mondays.
We have some awesome stuff on our walls!
Well, THEY do - ME - not so much sometimes - ;))
===


On my wall today -

Some half-put-together -
Quarter Log Cabin Blocks -

Using a jelly roll from my stash -

And a pattern by Liz Katsuro at Jelly Roll Fabrics - HERE - ;))

Since my last post a couple of weeks ago -

I spent some time reading -

Finished "American Sniper" -
Chris Kyle's autobiography -
Definitely worth reading -
Makes you appreciate the sacrifices -
That our military makes on a daily basis -
If you don't already - ;))

I spent some time writing -

Worked on "American Grandma" -
MY story -
For what it's worth -
Got up to my first year of college -
Still have to go back and fill in some blanks -
But got most of it down on paper - ;))

I spent some time cooking -

Yeah - I know -
I don't LIKE to cook -
I don't like spending HOURS making something -
That is gone in 15 MINUTES -
But I CAN cook -
And I DO cook -
For those I love -
And I had some company over the weekend - ;))

And I sewed a little - ;))

Life is good - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

American Grandma -

At the bottom of my last post -

I added a bit of personal stuff -

Which I don't normally do -

And I said that you should feel free to skip it -

Which most of you probably did - ;))

Now I want to add a bit more to that post -

So feel free to skip this one, too - ;))

===

I'm still reading Chris Kyle's story - "American Sniper" -

And was discussing it with Grandson #1 -

Who was with me when I bought the book - ;))

He had seen the movie and thought the book would be good -

And it is - most definitely - ;))

Anyway - when I told Grandson #1 that I had decided to write MY story -

He gave me a "thumbs up" -

And before I could tell him the title I had chosen -

"American Grandma" -

He made me laugh - ;))

He said - "Can I be in it?" - ;))

Well, considering the fact that he was the one -

Who made me a "Grandma" for the first time -

Yeah, I think he's going to be in it - ;))

He's been a "regular" on Grandma's show -

For the past 20 years - ;))

Gotta love that boy -

And I most certainly do - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Design Wall Monday - 10/12/15

DESIGN WALL MONDAY -
Check out all of us who link up with Judy L. -
At Patchwork Times on Mondays.
We have some awesome stuff on our walls!
Well, THEY do - ME - not so much sometimes - ;))
===


On my wall today -

The Quarter Log Cabin Blocks -

Using a jelly roll from my stash -

And a pattern by Liz Katsuro at Jelly Roll Fabrics - HERE - ;))


When a breeze blew them all off the wall -

I got them back up -

But didn't bother to put them in order - ;))

I have A LOT more to make - ;))

The strips are sorted -

And some are sewn together -

But that's about it - ;))

Still haven't finished anything on the other walls - ;))

I keep getting distracted -

You know -

Checking the mail -

Paying the bills -

Getting groceries -

Fixing something to eat -

Checking blogs -

Sleeping -

And reading - ;))

=====

The rest of this post is personal so feel free to skip it - ;))

=====

Reading -

I have a Kindle and have been downloading free stuff - short stories and such lately. But when I went to Sam's last week - I bought a REAL book. I LOVE REAL books - I LOVE the smell of them - and I LOVE the feel of them. Anyway - I bought "American Sniper" - the Chris Kyle autobiography. I know that I will never see the movie - BOB doesn't do movie theaters and barely knows how to find them "On Demand" - and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about so I bought the book.

I like his style - very readable.

And I know that he died - but I don't know the whole story - yet.

Anyway - as I was reading - I flashed on Grandson #2's reaction when he first saw our wedding picture a couple of years ago -

“That was YOU, Grandma!”

“Yeah, honey, that was me. I wasn’t always old with white hair.”

Reading Chris Kyle’s story made me realize that everyone has a story. Some are far more interesting than others - of course - but they are stories just the same. Mine may be of interest to someone - but then again - maybe not.

No way to tell - unless I tell it - is there?

My grandchildren - and even my children - for that matter - don’t know all of the stories that I have in my head. They may think that they do - but they only have bits and pieces. There is way more to me than what they know - or see. I am 68 years old now - but I wasn’t always old with white hair. I was young once.

It’s funny how certain things had to happen in a certain way and in a certain order to get me where I am today. I think that's true for all of us. “Back to the Future” comes to mind. Change something in the past and it will change everything in the future. As much as I would like to go back to correct some of my mistakes - if I did - I would be in a totally different place today. And - except for the fact that my husband died recently - I like where I am - thankyouverymuch.

Since my personal/private draft is not for general publication -
I will use real names -
So that my grandchildren and family know to whom I am referring.

Obviously if it were ever to be published for the general public -
The names should be changed -
To protect the guilty -
And the privacy of everyone else - ;))

I think I'm going to call it "American Grandma" - ;))

If you were to write your story -

What would you call it? - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Two Epic Fails -

I was sorting though some stuff -

Trying to get a bit more organized -

Key word "trying" -

When I happened upon two Epic Fails - ;))

Epic Fail #1 -

Dimensions Needlepoint -
#2117 - Unicorn Fantasy
Designed by Timothy Glenn -
16" x 14" without mat
(c) 1979 Dimensions, Inc.

And -

Epic Fail #2 -

Floral Pillow -
Alice Peterson Hand Painted Canvas -
(c) Brentwood Designs - #6050 -

I still have the cover sheet and unused yarn for the Unicorn Fantasy - so I can give proper credit to the designer - but the only thing I have on the Floral Pillow is the canvas that says (c) Brentwood Designs - #6050 and an instruction sheet with the name - Alice Peterson Co. across the top. I had no idea what the name of the project is - or who the designer might be - until I found a link - HERE. It appears to be the same design - but I certainly did not pay $64.99 for it at the time - ;))

Each of these Epic Fails has a story - but first let me explain that since I am Left-Handed - I needlepoint UPSIDE DOWN in order to get the stitches to slant in the proper direction. It seems to me that the canvas is printed with a Right-Handed stitcher in mind in that the design curves are slanted from the top right to the bottom left and would look jagged if the stitches were slanted from the top left to the bottom right. Probably one reason I don't needlepoint much any more - I don't particularly care for stitching something UPSIDE DOWN - it would be much more enjoyable if I could watch it come together as I was working on it. But they were portable and didn't require a sewing machine - so they served their purpose - ;))

Unicorn Fantasy -

I bought the Unicorn Fantasy as a project to work on while I waited for my husband to pick me up from work. We had one car at the time - I had the longest commute - so he would take me to work in the morning - go to his job - and pick me up when he got off work. I had a lot of time to kill and needed something to do - and the Unicorn Fantasy was that something - ;))

It took me a LONG time to finish it - and when I did - I gave it to a co-worker - whose father had a dry-cleaning store - to get it blocked for me. I waited and waited for it to come back to me - and when I asked the co-worker about it - he told me that they had lost it. He apologized - but that didn't do me any good. It took me FOREVER to do - and they LOST it!! BOB was pi$$ed (still am) - but there wasn't a d@mn thing I could do about it. I think I kept the cover sheet and the yarn all these years to remind myself that I did actually make it - even though I can't show it to anyone - ;))

Flower Pillow -

I really liked the design on this one. I liked how the flowers along the sides and in the corners all pointed toward the center. I may make an appliqued pillow top with similar flowers someday because I think it is THAT cool - ;))

As I said above - I have the instruction sheet - one part of which states -

Do not be discouraged when you find your canvas distorting as you work on it.
This is normal and can be corrected by blocking when the piece is finished.

I made a BIG mistake - I believed them and didn't use a frame - ;))

When I finished this one - I gave it to a friend to block for me. She tried - she REALLY did - but this is the best that she could do. I may try to block it again myself - or I may make it into a diamond shaped pillow - haven't decided yet - ;))

One thing though -

You can bet your sweet bippy -

That I will use a frame -

The next time I needlepoint something -

Considering all of the luck I've had with "blocking" the finished project - ;))

So -

Have you ever had an Epic Fail -

Or is it just me? - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Design Wall Monday - 10/5/15

DESIGN WALL MONDAY -
Check out all of us who link up with Judy L. -
At Patchwork Times on Mondays.
We have some awesome stuff on our walls!
Well, THEY do - ME - not so much sometimes - ;))
===


On my wall today -

More Quarter Log Cabin Blocks -

Using a jelly roll from my stash -

And a pattern by Liz Katsuro at Jelly Roll Fabrics - HERE - ;))

I finally got the Cottage Wall Hanging bound and labeled - ;))

The quilting is wonderfully imperfect -

And seems to scream -
Which BOB thinks is somehow appropriate for the season -

"I am definitely home-made!" - ;))

Then I got another bunch of blocks on the wall - ;))

I'm running out of room on this little design wall -

And both of the hallway design walls are covered in tops -

So it looks like -

This girl has some quilting to do - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -