Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Sept. 18, 2012

I'm kinda here.

I had such high hopes of accomplishing so much yesterday, but much like the day before and the day before that, not much was done about it. As I sit and either sew at my sewing machine, or start to do any hand sewing, of which there is a lot to do, I start to thinking and talking to myself as there is no one here to talk to but my cats, and they just look at me like I'm crazy, lol.

Sometimes I hear still in my head all the negative things that have been said about just about everything I have done in the 20 or so years. Whether it be cross stitching, crocheting, candle making, soap making, woodwork, bead work, and now my efforts of sewing and quilting. 

Alas it brings me down as I go over what people have said, people I admire, look up to, and proud to call my family and my friend. When this begins, it brings me down, and I get into this funk of, I can't do anything right, no one is going to like it.. Etc. etc.
And it takes a lot to bring me out of it. Now I sit here amongst the material and scraps and the makings of quilts, table runners, pillow shams/cases and I have to wonder if I am up to going through it all again, to be criticize harshly by those who receive these items that I pour my heart into, thinking of all the warmth and comfort it will bring to those who I love. I try to think of good things, and good thoughts, but still its there in the back of my mind niggling at it.


Oh well, I suppose I should go and do some pondering, and some more meandering around the house get some laundry done and the dishes and the.. ugggggggg ;-) .

Monday, September 17, 2012

Sept. 17, 2012

O_o Ohhh boy.

I started messing around in back of blogger and yea now everything is out of order. 
Sorry about that. But I am trying to set this up like I have seen others. 
SOOO this may be all screwy for a awhile until I can get it all figured out. :D 

Now I think I will go and do some machine sewing. as to what I am working on, well its another quilt top, for another sister of mine. 
Now just in case they happen to come over and see what I am reading, I will tell ya, I have 2 sisters that are younger than I am, I have sisters that have been my friends for years. Sisters by blood and sisters by choice, I just won't reveal which sister gets what until they have received them.  

So just to iterate what all is being worked on. Pictures please. 
This one is a Victorian Floral, which I did as a mystery quilt at the Missouri Star Quilt forum it was fun, I was gone for the last 3 weeks of it so had to have the moderator email that last 3 weeks of instructions. Now all that needs to be done to it, is make a quilt sandwich, hand quilt it, as I can't afford to send it out to be quilted, and my domestic machine is to small to handle it. This is for one of my sisters, she will also get a dresser runner and pillow shams to match. 



These are called Pinwheels, I made around 40 or so of them, may need to make more, right now I am cutting half square triangles to go along 4 sides of them, needed to make it bigger than what I have and then I will add some sashings to them. These finished out at 5.5" they will hopefully be around 8" square when finished up. This will also be going to one of my sisters, along with a dresser runner and pillow shams to match. 

I have not decided yet on if I am going to just piece the backings of these quilts, or buy a whole piece to put on them. I do need to used up alot of the material I have in my fabric stash. Sooo we shall see. 

June 24, 2011

Crocheting and Sewing

Sewing and crocheting either way you look at it, its two (2) different ways of being creative.

Grandma gave me the love of crochet, by using just Three (3) stitches, that I use numerously even today. to create baby blankets, lap blanket, pot holders, coasters, or granny squares. A chain stitch (ch), a single crochet stitch (sts) and a double crochet stitch (dbl)

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Sept.16, 2012

Itttttts a Raining 

Here in Central Texas, a very nice slow steady soaking rain which we need desperatly.

Sooo what do you do when your partner in crime decides to wake you up at 4:30am. Grumble, and get up out of bed, stumble my way into the kitchen, make coffee, go to the bathroom.
Coffee's done, sit down and have a cup of coffee and a cig. contemplating how I'm going to make it through the day.

Yes I smoke, its a nasty habit, but I do so like anything else that I do, you can either deal with it, or just ignore me (which I am used to anyway). But I digress, I made BLT's for breakfast this morning, it was quick simple, and ohhh so easy to do when your half awake..

I have pictures of my hand quilting area, but I need to upload them from my camera so I can post them.

When I logged into my computer each morning the first place I go to is a forum for quilters.
Which then leads me to the daily deal . I love it. :D the second place I usually hit up is
quiltville and Bonnie Hunter, just to see what is going on in her world.
Then onto fb to check on family and friends, while there I usually do play a couple of games, go and check on my Damsels Creations page and to check on the Oklahoma Wildfires that I also help to admin on.

And to be honest not much sewing has been going on, I have been in a funk, one I have a hard time getting out of. I'm so far from my family and friends, kinda just stuck here. With no way out at the moment, and I scare myself into thinking that people are not going to like what I make them.
So I have been talking to myself about it, and have come to the conclusion that I will make what I like, send it to the recipient with a note saying if they don't like it, they can send it back, and I won't bother with making something else for them again. ehhhh maybe, depends on how nicely they ask me. :P


Soooo I'm gonna get off here and kit up some stuff I want to do..
Happy Quilting

Monday, September 10, 2012

Sept. 10, 2012

Alot to learn

Blogging is a whole other ballgame, one I am going to commit myself to learn. I hope I don't mess this up to badly.

In the meantime Bonnie Hunter has issued a challenge for all us quilters, sewers and other needle workers.

1 hr a day, to do only hand work. Thats all, lets see if we can all get some of those Projects done this month for National Sewing Month.
Oh yea, I need to show where I do my hand quilting at. hmm yea let me get to that in a little bit.
Its a bit messy and crowded at the moment :D :P
Has been machined quilted, just waiting to put the binding on.
For one of my sisters. It was a mystery quilt, top done, needs to be hand quilted and binding added.


Boyfriends quilt. Had to add another 6 or 7 " on 3 sides for him.
 These are two of the many I have to do hand sewing on. Along with my boyfriends quilt that is on my quilting hoop now.

Sept. 10, 2012

New beginnings

Wow it has been almost a year since I posted anything at all here.
Lets see what have I been up to besides 5' and running around barefoot every chance I get.

I have been working on sewing and quilting. Sewing little dresses for my grand daughters which they received this past April when I was in Iowa for my youngest daughters wedding.
Quilting now thats been a fun one.

I have learned a few things while learning how to put quilts together.
Some good some bad,
Not everyone likes hand made gifts, 
Some folks will put you down just because they can, its either from jealousy or insecurities.
Some folks think that machine quilting is cheating. But its not.
I have recently learned how to FMQ ( Free Motion Quilt) on my little Janome Harmony sewing machine, I can do the table runners, mug rugs ( coasters), place mats and other small projects. But I have only taught myself only the meandering stitching. I need to learn how to do others with my little machine.
A look at a meandering free motion quilting on a table runner and the table runner completed.
I think I did pretty good.