Valentine embroidery

I pulled out the embroidery machine over the weekend and did a shirt for Hayden for Valentine's day. (click photos for larger view)



This was a fun design to stitch out but I somehow got mixed up on the thread color changes and didn't do the hearts quite as I'd planned.



I thought that the shirt with the tights would make a perfect Valentine's outfit. Sure is a lot of pink!



It's exhausting having your photo taken all the time!

Birthdays

Yesterday was my 59th birthday. Thus far in my life I haven't had issues with turning a year older but perhaps next year I might have a hard time with the age. We'll see.

I bought myself a gift last week - a so fugly they're cute pair of Danskos.



I suppose the socks in the photo just add to the fugliness.

I also got a surprise gift - a new laptop because my old laptop died, It wasn't even close to 60.

Check back with me in a year to see how I feel about turning 60!

It's sewn!

I finished stitching the blocks together for my Monterrey medallion quilt. Hayden has decided that she really loves this quilt and wanted me to lay it out on the floor so she could sit on it. (I don't know why blogger flipped these first 2 photos because they were not flipped when I took them. click for larger view)



She also wanted to count the stars.



She thought it would be fun to make "quilt angels" and was a bit disappointed when she stood up and didn't see evidence of an angel in the quilt!



Now I need to make a couple of pillow shams to match.

Monterrey Medallions & Baking

Last year some of my quilting friends decided to make a quilt called Monterrey Medallions. After seeing their quilts start to take shape I got to thinking that I might like to make it in a black and bright color combination. I finally finished all the blocks and laid them out to see what everything looked like.

This is a bigger quilt than I usually make (it's supposed to finish 90 x 90) and I don't have design wall big enough for it so had to lay it down on the floor. (click on photos for larger view)






I just laid it down on the floor without trying to arrange things. Obviously I'll need to move some things around so that the colors are more balanced. It's funny how some of the colors stand out more in the photo than they do in real life.

Wonder how long it will take me to sew the blocks all together....

Every once in a while when the grandkids are here we bake what we call a colorful cake. We use a regular yellow cake mix and put the batter in numerous bowls. Then we use food color to tint each bowl of batter a different color. The batter is then spooned into the cake pans and it makes a really cool looking cake when it's done.

Of course the highlight of the baking venture is licking the bowl and there were 8 bowls to lick!






We didn't have any canned frosting in the house so I made a traditional butter cream frosting from the recipe on the powdered sugar box. Noah asked me if I could make sure to get 'real' frosting next time I was at the store because he didn't care for the frosting we made. Times sure have changed haven't they??

Happy New Year!

It seems like it has been forever since I paid any attention to my blog. Maybe one of my New Year's Resolutions should be more frequent postings.

We had a lovely holiday season. Our Christmas tree was a bit bottom heavy after Noah and Hayden helped put on some ornaments. (click photos for larger view)



The kids were so excited about opening gifts that they were even happy about receiving clothing!



There's always such a mess of paper and ribbon.



True to form sometimes the boxes are more fun than the gifts they contained. Noah had fun decorating this box.



We had our holiday dinner on Christmas Eve and several good friends were able to join us. Everyone (almost) always tolerates the Christmas crackers and the silly hat each contains.






When Craig was a teen he used to make a time-intensive Black Forest Cake for some of our holiday dinners. He recently mentioned that it had been a long time since he'd made one so I decided to make it in his honor this year. It takes a couple of days and I'm no so sure it's worth all the trouble. The most time consuming portion is making the chocolate curls. This photo has turned itself on its side for some reason, so you'll have to use your imagination (or tilt your head) to get the full effect.




Now that the holidays are over, it's time to get back into my sewing room. It will feel good to get back to some projects.

Christmas Program

There is nothing as cute as a pre-school Christmas program. Hayden's was Friday and was darling.

When the doors opened to the chapel Miss H was the first in line to file in. She wasn't shy about it at all and marched down the aisle with confidence.



I love her in this photo.



The Santa hats disappeared after their portion of the program and we were glad to see that Hayden had not removed her bow. She just doesn't like wearing anything in her hair and would rather have worn the bow around her neck like a tie than on her head.

Embroidery

Since taking the machine embroidered/applique Santa class I've been inspired to do some more embroidery. I've had my Bernina 170 with an embroidery attachment about 10 years but never really did much embroidery. The machine requires the designs be on a Bernina card that is inserted into the unit. Over the years that technology has become outdated and most systems now use multi-format cd's and embroidery software.

A couple of years ago I investigated purchasing software that would allow me to join the rest of the embroidery world. The Bernina brand software is incredibly expensive and I didn't feel the expense was worth it for the amount of embroidery I expected to do. I did discover something called Explorations which is geared to the Bernina owner and was able to purchase it at a reasonable price.

I've been playing around with the software and was able to create this holiday themed monogram for Hayden. (click photo for larger view)



Just before I created this Chrystal and I were flipping though a magazine that featured mother-daughter aprons. Chrystal said she and Hayden didn't have any mother/daughter items and a light bulb went off. I used the same design to make Chrystal a sweatshirt too. (can't get this photo to flip properly so you'll have to tilt your head!)



It was fun to do these and I'm hoping that Chrystal doesn't think the one for her is too hokey.

Next up = some handtowels.

Graduation

Our daughter-in-law, Chrystal, has been working toward her bachelor's degree in Medical Technology from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, GA. The interesting thing about this program is that she was able to do most of her classes via distance learning. Yesterday was graduation on the campus and we were thrilled to be there to cheer her on.

Do you think she was happy to graduate??



Noah and Hayden were proud of their mother!



As were Craig ...


... her sister Heather ...


...and her mom Pam


After graduation we went to Paula Deen's restaurant, Lady & Sons. The food was wonderful - very filling but wonderful. Here are Hayden and Chrys at the restaurant.


The photo of Chrys and Noah at dinner didn't turn out so here's Noah after the graduation.



It was a wonderful day and we are so proud of her accomplishments.

Here comes Santa Claus

Several months ago my friend Janice & I were in a quilt shop and admired an embroidered quilt that was there to be quilted. It was a Jenny Haskins design. We were told that in order to embroider a quilt like that we would need to know how to do multi-hoop designs. Neither of us had ever done that so we signed up for one of their classes that teach how to multi-hoop. Cindy & Judy also expressed an interest in learning the technique so we all attended the class last Monday. Our project was a cute Santa. He required 9 separate hoopings.

Janice and I were able to finish our projects.



It wasn't a smooth project for any of us. Poor Judy had machine problems early on and ended up having to leave her machine with the shop for repair. The rest of us went astray at about the 4th or 5th hooping. After MUCH angst and some brainstorming (plus a good bit of unsewing) we were able to figure out how to get all the parts lined up. Cindy still has some stitching to go and Judy may have to start over now that she has her machine back.

I like Janice's darker background better than mine. You can't see the gold design on my fabric - it just looks kind of yellow in this photo. For some reason the photo makes Janice's Santa look bigger than mine, but they're the same size.

It was fun to do but I think I'll take a bit of an embroidery break before trying a Jenny Haskins design!

Catching up

I haven't had any good (or bad) photos to post lately so I've been neglecting my blog.

We spent Thanksgiving week with Jerry's sister, Annette, and family. They used to live in the SF Bay area but a year or so ago moved to the Ohio/West Virginia border. They have a beautiful home on wonderful grounds. They live in a really small town but do have access to a Big K-mart and a Wal-mart. I couldn't find any fabric stores near them so that area gets crossed off my list of potential home locations.

Annette & Allen have 2 daughters and also joining us was our other Ledbetter niece Niki (Jerry's brother's daughter) visiting from Southern California. Annette & Niki planned out a wonderful menu for Thanksgiving (I was the designated sous chef/dish washer!) They decided we'd graze the entire day. We started with appetizers before noon. An hour or so later was our soup & salad course.

Niki made a delicious butternut squash/roasted red pepper soup that she carefully plated for maximum impact.



We followed up with the traditional turkey a bit later and concluded the day with a late evening dessert session. All in all a wonderful day and pleasant week.

Monochromatic challenge

The art group I recently joined just had a monochromatic challenge. I came late to the group and didn't have much time to complete my piece. I had an idea but it didn't quite come out like I'd envisioned.




I used a quilt fuse type product to sew the 2" squares together as I couldn't see myself sewing all those squares in the traditional manner. I stitched the tree with a gray variegated thread and then used paint and inks to do the leaves etc.

All of the quilts were really cool. I neglected to ask permission to post photos of everyone else's quilts and deleted my earlier post that included those photos.

Art that Works

I recently joined a small art group called Art that Works (ATW) This group has been working together for several years and has had a number of really interesting challenges. They're at the tail end of a monochromatic challenge and I am working on a really small piece so I have something to reveal at the next meeting.

A year-long challenge has just started. We will make one or more pieces based on photos taken at the local historic site Charles Towne Landing; the original settlement location of Charleston, SC. As I understand it, the resulting quilts will be exhibited at Founder's Hall on the grounds.

A couple of weeks ago we all met up at the Landing to take photos. It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed our walk though the park. It had been over 20 years since I was last at the park and I was amazed at how different it looked.

There is a new (to me) modern visitor's center (click photos for larger view)



One of the things I love about the south is the oak trees - especially the ones that grow in interesting configurations.



We all thought this view of the stream looked like a marbling project.




I found some of the fencing very interesting.





There are a few replica buildings on the grounds



There is even a small zoo/animal preserve.






I have a couple of ideas for the quilt I'll be making. Hopefully I'll be able to translate my idea in fabric.

Field Trip

Hayden's pre-school class made a trip to West Farm yesterday. They had a busy morning of activities. (click photos for larger view)

She got to pick out her own pumpkin...


...which she and mommy decorated with paint and stickers



She got to feed the cow and the sheep




We went on a hayride



and she ran through the haybale maze



It's hard to get all the kids to pose for a photo



But more fun saying "CHEESE" when mommy is there.



At dinner we always ask the kids what the best part of their day was. When we asked Hayden what the best was for her she said it was the bouncy ball at the farm.








It was a fun day.