New Toy.....

My husband bought me a graphics tablet for the computer for my birthday. I spent yesterday afternoon playing with it and came up with some pretty neat abstract things.
I called this one "On Angel's Wings"

"Reflections"

"Tropical Flower"

And "Cancun Sunrise". My hubby and I took a trip to Cancun a couple of years ago. I woke up every morning and went out onto the deck of our hotel room to read and watch the sun rise over the Carribbean.

I don't claim to be an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought these looked pretty neat, so I thought I'd share them.

Back from Vacation...

We made it back this afternoon at about 4:30. We had a nice trip, but it is good to be home. We celebrated my niece Allison's 16th birthday. Here she is with the favorite of her 4 dogs, Sadie.

We also celebrated my niece Kayla's high school graduation. Here she is getting her diploma.

We went out to eat afterward and here she is, the happy grad.

Kayla and grandma.

They put this up on the screen for each graduate as they got their diploma. That is one of my favorite pictures of her when she was little.

Ahh, they grow up way too fast. Enjoy the little kid days while you can.

Updated graphics...

I finally got around to updating the graphics at my main "Merry Church Mouse" website. I updated the graphics on that section and the "Littlest Mice Reborns" section as well. I still have our adoption site to update. I have all of the graphics finished for it, but just haven't had time to put them in the site. That probably won't happen until I am back from vacation. Take a look and let me know what you think and if you notice any broken links let me know. I had a lot of fun making the new graphics. For a long time I was complaining to my husband that I could never find graphcs that I liked so finally he heard about a free program to download for image editing. It has taken me a while to get the hang of using it, but I feel like I am getting pretty good at it now. It is a nice creative outlet for me along with my sewing and other crafts, too. The program is called "the GIMP". Now I don't have to rely on someone else for my backgrounds and banners and such. I even made my own navigation bar buttons. :)

I'll also be taking a little break from blogging starting Wednesday. We are going on a short vacation to Illinois. My sister has two girls, one of which, Allison, will be 16 on Wednesday. The other, Kayla, is graduating high school on Friday. My birthday is Thursday, so it will be sort of a busy trip, but I am looking forward to seeing everyone. We will be returning Saturday and should arrive home in the early evening. I'll miss you guys, but maybe I'll have some things to show you when I get back. I plan on taking some crochet along with me in the car. Maybe the funny little triangle blankie.

Mail Goodness....And A Challenge....

Look what I got in the mail today from my sweet friend Amanda!

My birthday is next week, but I will be out of town for it, so she sent me a gift a little early. A pretty little stamped card and a quilted zippper pouch. It is even prettier in person than it looked online when she posted it in her blog a while back in her patchwork obsession series. It is perfect. I have been saying to my husband for weeks that I need a new makeup bag, the one I have is too big and I lose stuff in it too easily. I'm forever digging everything out of it to find what I am looking for. This one is a much better size. I absolutely love it! Thank you so much Amanda!

Now.... the challenge. I am looking for suggestions as to what to make with this.

I have about 4 yards of this fabric. Years ago my mother gave me several pieces of fabric and lots of scraps that she didn't think she would ever use. I am not particularly fond of this fabric, but feel like I should use it for something. I believe that it is cotton, but it has sort of a linen look to it. It looks like tan and blue in this picture (white balance was off in my camera, I guess), but it is really more of a gray and blue. Any suggestions?

Finished!!!

I finished my sister's quilt last night. I love how after they are washed they take on so much character. This actually looks like something from the thirties now.

I used blue for the backing.

It seems a little small in the picture, but I covered up with it last night while watching TV and it was big enough for me.

I hope she likes it!

Block Swap Fun and a Giggle for Your Tuesday Afternoon Amusement

I finished my blocks for the block swap on Saturday. We are only waiting for one more person and she has assured me that her blocks will be here soon. Then I can get them mailed out. The enthusiasm had waned a bit for this exchange with the months that had passed, but I received a bunch of blocks on Saturday and decided to get mine done as well. While I was sewing I was thinking about what I wanted to do with my blocks and a great idea hit me, so I am now very excited to see the last bunch of blocks and get started putting together a quilt top. I think these will make really cute quilts. Very bright and cheerful!

A young man rang my doorbell yesterday evening and handed me this flyer. You may need to click on it and enlarge it to read it. You gotta hand it to the young men for creative advertisement! It gave me a good giggle, I just thought I'd share it with you.

Happy Mother's Day!

Just a quick Happy Mom's Day to all you moms out there!

Thought I'd quick post this new picture I just received of little Ryan.

Quality time with the rotary cutter....

That is the agenda for today. I'd like to at least get my fabric cut for the block swap blocks. I also need to trim up my sister's quilt and cut the binding for it as well. If I can get the binding machine sewed on today that would be great, too. Then I can take it with me to Jason's mom and dad's tomorrow and maybe work on it some over there. I should be able to get my sister's quilt done in just about a week and half from start to finish. That's pretty good for me, not being home during the day and all. I even skipped working on it a few nights.

I have to make a dessert to take tomorrow and I have no idea what to take. Jason's mom doesn't eat chocolate, so everything that sounds good to me, she can't eat. LOL, I am a severe chocoholic. I have to make something that I can make today and take tomorrow because we are headed over right after church tomorrow and I have no time to prepare anything after church. I had thought about a berry cobbler, but that won't work because I can't bake it tomorrow. I think I need to haul out the cookbooks and see if I can find something. Maybe wander the store....

In other news, I have a new step-great-nephew. Ryan Heath Dodgen was born May 9th. 8 lbs. 1 oz. 21 1/4 inches long. Good sized little boy! I don't have any pictures yet as he is in Texas and I am in Minnesota. This is the little guy that I made the Winnie the Pooh quilt for. I am hoping everything is ok with him. I haven't heard any more than when he was born and his size. His sister was born a couple of years ago with a heart defect and didn't make it. His big brother, Drew is 6 years old and was very excited to be getting a brother.

I think I need a backpack...

I might have to see if I can come up with some sort of lightweight packpack to use for taking things back and forth to and from work. They are putting the street I live on through, so I will soon be walking to work most days. The bank where I work and the street where I live are one and the same, there was just an unfinished gap in it, now they are finishing it. Not great news as a homeowner as I am going from living on a dead end street to a through street, but it will be nice for walking to work and not much traffic for winter driving, too. It is just over half a mile to the building where I work from my house. It sure is a mess right now. This is what is going on 5 houses down from me at the end of our street. I took these standing in my living room. Isn't it lovely?

Grandma Shirley's Quilts

I simply must try one of these someday. Which one of these do you think would be easiest for a novice? Jason's grandmother's name is Shirley and she is commonly referred to as Grandma Shirley. I'd love to do one for her for her b-day or Christmas or something. She used to do a lot of sewing in her younger days and made Jason a quilt when he was younger. I think this would be perfect for her.

On the other front, my sister's quilt is now all machine quilted. I wonder if I will ever do anything other than free motion quilting ever again? It is so fast and relatively easy. I just swirl and loop and zig and zag all over until it's done. I don't worry about crossing over something I have already done or anything. I just go. Maybe it isn't what they teach in quilting class, but it's my way, it works for me and I think it looks fine. I tried something a little new to try and get more surface area for the quilt to lay on. I wanted to get the bed of my machine level with a flat surface. The desk I use for my machine is a computer desk with one of those keyboard pullout shelves. I tried setting the machine down on the shelf instead of on top of the desk. It made it at a better height for me, but I had nothing to the left to support the quilt. I need some sort of little table or maybe my ironing board over there just to support the weight. Hmmm...

Winnie the Pooh in Yellow and Blue....

All finished! I stitched the binding down Monday night. It took about 3 hours. I like this quilt a lot. It is the first and only one for which I have ever followed someone else's pattern. I found the pattern at quick quilts after following a link that Amanda posted back last fall sometime. There are some others there that I hope to try sometime, as well, but I really need to get back to my list of unfinished projects. I hope to get back on track with that in June after we get back from our trip to Illinois.
Now I just have to buckle down and get my sister's finished, at least to the point where I can do the hand stitching in the car if need be. I also need to do my blocks for the block swap. I have the fabric and I began cutting one Sunday afternoon, but that's as far as I got. But, if I did 32 nine patch blocks in one day, I think I can handle the 15 for the block swap! LOL I went to Gruber's to pick out backing fabric and binding fabric for my sister's quilt yesterday afternoon. I have just about half of the machine quilting done. Gotta love that free motion quilting without a pattern. just start swirling and looping around and away you go. I bought some "machingers" gloves, too. They do seem to help to hold on to the fabric. I just don't have a flat surface that is even with the bed of my machine, so the quilt tends to slip off easily. I am hoping to finish the machine quilting this evening, then it's binding and it's done!:)

Favorite quilt....

Amanda asked me what my favorite quilt was that I had made. I think it is a tossup between three different ones for different reasons.
This one for the colors. I made it for my niece Allison when she had scoliosis surgery last summer.


This one because it is the only one I have ever made by following a pattern. This one is almost done, just have to hand stitch the binding down. I made it for my brother's new grandbaby due the 18th of this month.


And this one because I had a lot of fun designing it and choosing fabrics. I love the trip around the world pattern. It is also the first time I tried freemotion quilting. Amanda should recognize this one.


I do like the new quilt for my sister. I really love the irish chain pattern. The fabrics are just not quite vivid enough for me. I like really lively colors. My sister will like it a lot, though. She loves all that vintage stuff and her living room is blue. Oh, and the blocks are 6.5 inch blocks (6 inch finished), to answer Amanda's other question.

31+32=1?

9x1=1?

31 of these

plus 32 of these

equal one of these....


While I can't say that this is my favorite quilt that I have ever made. I do like it fairly well. It went together fairly easily without too much fuss. I think it will look nice in my sister's living room. Now I need to pick out backing and binding fabric. Back to Gruber's I go. Probably not until Tuesday, though.
I think I need a nap now....

Moving right along....

I got a lot accomplished yesterday! Hopefully I can be almost as productive today.
Thought I'd share the idea I had for what I might make little Claire for her sixth birthday in August.
I was thinking of using one of either of these patterns.


With this fabric.

And one of these smocking plates, only the flowers would be done in red instead of white.



Which combination do you vote for? Keep in mind that she lives in Austin, TX and while it doesn't get nearly as cold there as it does here in Minnesota where I live, it does sometimes get down into the 50's there in the coldest part of the year. Her birthday is in mid-October, so she is heading into fall at that point.

A time to quilt....

Ok, so maybe it isn't ecclesiastical, but that is my agenda for the day today. My alarm clock kitties woke me up at 6:30 sharp this morning. (Their usual breakfast time during the week) So I figured I might as well get up and get busy while the house is quiet. J will probably sleep until at least 9 or 10. So I threw in the first load of laundry for the day, ate some pop tarts, looked at a new blog, (see the list of blogs on the side, Crafts Direct is a local craft store and they have started a blog with lots of cool stuff. I love that place, every time I go there it is at least an hour to an hour and a half before I can get myself anywhere near the door! LOL), and decided to make a short post before delving into my sister's quilt once again. I am about halfway done with the strip piecing. I am doing sort of a simple "irish chain". Really just a nine patch alternated with a solid white square. I have my doubts that I can accomplish it, but I'd like to have the top done this weekend. That's a tall order, but maybe, just maybe I might get there! I got inspired to make something for my niece, Claire's birthday in October from one of the fabrics. If I can find more of that fabric, I think I might do it. More on that another day. ;) For those of you who don't remember which fabrics I am using for my sister's quilt, here is a reminder.


Ok time for me to venture off into sewing land.......

Pictures...

I finished Mady's outfit Saturday. I left all the hems to fray in the wash. I did put a line of stitching above it so that it didn't fray up too far. I kind of dig this technique. Definitely a time saver. I started this project at about 4:15 Saturday afternoon, went out to eat, came home and started back in on it about 6:45 and was done by 10:30. I thought that was pretty good! I had already washed the fabric a while back, so that wasn't part of the time Saturday, but even so.


I made them some Shoe-Bead-Oos, too. Mady's sister, Claire has her little pre-school graduation this spring, too. Apparently she is the class valedictorian. I didn't know you could have a valedictorian in pre-school. She is reading a poem at the graduation. (Yes, I did say reading and she is only 5!) I wanted to send her a little something, too.


I also took this great picture of Sasha the other day. Apparently she wants to get in on the blogging action, too.:)

I got this picture in an email from my MIL yesterday. I thought it was sweet. This are my nieces, Lexi and her big sister Megan. Lexi adores Megan. At one point in time they asked Lexi if she wanted to get her ears pierced and she told them she wanted to get her teeth pierced, like Megan. Megan wears braces on her teeth right now. Kids say some of the funniest things sometimes! I'd love to hear some stories of funny things other people's kids have said or done.

On the crafting front, I got Mady's outfit done on Saturday, I just haven't had a chance to take pictures of it yet. I also started the binding for the yellow and blue quilt last night. I got it cut out and sewn together and pressed in half. I just need to get it stitched onto the quilt now. My plan was to have it to the point where I could do the hand stitching in the car on the way to IL if I needed to, but now it looks like I might have to fly to IL instead. Jason is really short handed at work and doesn't know if he will be able to leave for that long. It really sucks because it is stupid kids' irresponsibility which caused this and now J and I will have NO vacation together this year at all if he can't leave. GRRR! So, I'm super bummed right now about that.