Texas Weekend!

This weekend we went to Texas to see my daughter and family.  We started the day Saturday with going to a game to watch Paige do some cheerleading. She's in first grade and this is her second year cheering already.  The girls are so cute and do a fantastic job.  Paige likes it but would much rather be on the field playing.  She plays soccer and really likes that.

Their team is improving so much.  When all teams start--the kids ALL chase the ball.  This year the team is passing and really working well together.  She is amazing--such a great little player. Here lately, she has been the goalie and hardly ever lets a ball go by her.  She also is a little cheerleader and we got to see her cheer at another game.  So cute.

We were suppose to see both kids play in their soccer games.  Jake's was canceled though because of soggy fields, disappointing, but we did get to see Paige's.

This is a photo Julie had taken earlier. We were sorry we couldn't see him play this time!  It's tough on grandparents that live away from their grandkids.  We are fortunate that we see them as often as we do!  Julie does a good job of keeping us up to date with pictures of what we do miss.

We also went to the new COWBOY STADIUM in Arlington.  Wow, it is big.  The Star War Concert was being held and it was great.  The orchestra was fantastic and those huge screens are HUGE.  What everyone says about them is true.  The picture is crystal clear, high definition--amazing.  The football games there have to be unreal!

We also attended a "Hogwarts Festival" held nearby which was pretty cute.  A lot of high school students made this a very fun fall event for kids of all ages!

Of course we tried a new restaurant--"Pazzo's".  A very good pizza place.  Always get to try something new when we go there.  When you live in a small town of 5000, you get pretty tired of the same old thing all the time and I love to try new things!!

Window on the East finished!

Today I put the binding and label on this wallhanging.

(My pictures are looking very fuzzy and it's not my camera--it must be some setting I have wrong.  If anyone can tell me what the problem is, I'd be eternally grateful.  It is so frustrating! )

Anyway, back to the wallhanging.  Even though, it turned out okay,  I will NEVER make another one.  When I purchased the pattern at the shop hop a few months ago, I thought it was so cool.  Then I got it home, opened it and discovered there was 13 pages of instructions in this tiny little package.  AND, it had 16 mitered corners!  Got that figured out and then came the quilting.  Another struggle, but persistence paid off and it is DONE!!  Scratch one more project off my "to do" list.

Ultimate Embroidery Seminar

Today two friends and I attended a seminar at my LQS on Bernina embroidery products and projects! It was very informative and I learned a lot. Being a new machine embroiderer, the information they gave on the different stabilizers was especially useful. Lots of really cool projects, too.

Of course, I wanted everything. And of course, everything was 20% off, but I restrained and paced myself. One great, but inexpensive thing I did get was an "Embroiderer's Wand", original price $2.50. You use it for scoring paperbacked stabilizer, which I need because I used scissors last week and got a little carried away and went through the whole stabilizer--not good. Another use is to to poke back thread loops to the back of finished pieces, if needed. Now to find a handy place to keep it without loosing it. Then on the other end of the price range for me was the new "Variegated Garden" OESD designs. Can't wait to use that!

But before that happens, I need MORE thread. No one told me I'd be buying thread forever. I found out today that Isacord has more than 378 colors. All these beautiful designs takes lots of shading and it seems like they try to use every shade that is possible. I will just take my time to build my inventory. : )

It was a fun day and to top it off, I won the first door prize! I received a free class of "Scrap Therapy", which I have been wanting to attend anyway. It helps you cut your scraps up into manageable sizes for specific pattern pieces. Looking forward to getting organized.

Misty, yucky day--so it's a BAKING DAY!

Today it is just one of those days, not raining, just misting and chilly--enough so you don't want to do anything. So it's time to go to the kitchen and bake.

I decided to do pumpkin bread. It just makes the house smell so good and it IS good.

The recipe is one given to me in 1966 (I know, I'm so old) by a co-worker in the office where I was working. She was a fantastic baker and shared all her terrific recipes. It's very easy and quick.

PUMPKIN BREAD

3 cups sugar
1 cup salad oil
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin or one can
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cup flour
2 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla
chopped pecans, optional (But who wouldn't want them)

Mix together and bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until done.
Makes 4 medium loaves.

9-Patch Pizzazz

Today I finished the binding on my 9-Patch Pizzazz quilt. Woohooo!

In March, a friend and myself are giving the program at our guild on nine patch quilts and what you can do with them. So I am trying to come up with some different quilts to do so. This one was really interesting because you use a big print (sometimes you just can't CUT into that fabric) and cut them into 6", 12", or 6" x 12". Then you make 9 patches that travel across the quilt.

I used "minky" (that wonderful soft stuff) for the backing and then had it quilted with red thread. Kind of scary--but it turned out really nice, I think. I really should have made it bigger, but it didn't happen.

Some of the quilts, I've got down is a sudoku, wonky, split nine, curvy nine patch, disappearing 9-patch, double 9-patch, and stretched 9-patch. If any of you have any ideas for other nine patch quilts, please let me know.

Embroidered all-occasion cards

The last couple of days I've been experimenting with my embroidery module by making cards. It's been lots of fun and they are so cool!

I've used several different papers trying to decide what I like best. The vellum is nice and the mulberry is okay but you can't have too many leaves or whatever in the paper because it distracts from your design. I like just the colored papers with small designs on it best. What's really nice is being able to use up some of my old scrapbook papers.

I think I'm making Christmas cards this way. Guess I'd better get started, it will be here before you know it.

Halloween Banners!

Julie, my daughter that lives in Texas has made the cutest Halloween banners! She is having a Halloween party and decided to make this banner. So cute!

Well, she overestimated the amount of fabric she needed and so far has made FOUR. They are about six feet long. She's selling them for $30, plus postage. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll get you in contact with her. I think she did a fantastic job and love the fabric she chose for them.

Anyone need Halloween decorations?

Kayley's First Quilt

My granddaughter, Kayley, turned seven years old in September. We started in August to make her first quilt. She lives in the same town as me and I see her and her younger sister very often. Kayley is one month older than her cousin in Texas and when she saw that Paige had made a quilt this summer while she was visiting, decided she wanted to do it, too!

She and her sister, Lyndey, come to Nana and Papa's every Wednesday evening for supper and an evening that always includes a "Plan B". A "Plan B" is a project of some kind, usually crafty, but sometimes can be a park excursion, games or if Nana and Papa are tired--a movie of their choice.

So, we went shopping for fabric and began her project. She loves pink and purple, so we found some fabric with butterflies she liked and began her quilt. Most of the Wednesdays, we sewed, while Papa entertained Lyndey, four years old. I basically, did the same as I had done with Paige, showing her how to use the sewing machine. I didn't trust them with rotary cutters yet, so I did all the cutting, but they did do the pressing. She did very well, just like Paige, BUT, those girls are not alike. Paige is quiet and Kayley is NOT! She talks all the time while she's sewing and then stops to talk. She took twice as long as Paige in her sewing. At the end, when Kayley was sewing the rows together, she got stuck a lot and didn't like that part at all. I tried to tell her to keep the fabric folded in her lap, but she couldn't manage that part very well. She was glad when it was done and I hope she forgets that part. I had her sign a label and I got the quilting done! So two granddaughters' first quilts done and Nana has three years before Lyndey is ready to do hers! I may need the time! : )

4-Patch Stacked Posies

Today I finished putting on the binding on this king size quilt. It took me over 5 hours just to do that. I have tried putting it on by machine but I just can't get it to look like I like it. I don't mind doing it by hand at all, so I just watch tv and do it.

I'm really pleased at how the quilt turned out. All the blocks are made from the border fabric. Just three fabrics in the whole quilt and I fell in love with that fabric when I saw it last year. Yes, that was LAST YEAR. I got all the blocks done, sewed them into rows and then decided I needed to make the quilt bigger. By then, the fabric store I had bought the fabric from had sold it all. So I got online, found some and finally got it done as big as I needed. Another project finished!!