Time

Time has flown for me since my last post, but not in a very 

good way. My Dad passed away on the evening of December 30th.

He had been slowly fading from us, but I didn't realize he was so close to his last day on Earth. 

We quickly got new tires on our car, bought chains and took off on a 1500 mile road trip through 4 passes to make it back for his services.

It was a pretty cold trip, but the snow stayed at bay for most of the trip. 

The day we laid him to rest was freezing and windy, he had a 21 gun salute; he was a Korean Veteran. 

At the end, when they presented my oldest brother with the flag, & the sun came out. 

To me, it was Dad smiling at us.  

Life is bittersweet like that.

The road trip back home was a little more harrowing. We woke to snow & ice, dodged more snow, decided to keep driving while the passes were good and made it home before the snow really flew and the pass in WA was closed.  Whew!

We had an angel guiding us home. 

Goodbye Dad. 

Happy Mail!

Coffee? or Tea?

I am a tea lover and one of my favorite tea blogs is 

Tea With Friends

Angela does book reviews, talks tea and cookies,has delightful tea sets and is just a

really fun blog. She had a few giveaways during December and I was the lucky winner of this one~

Tea inspired cards, napkins and a really cool cellulose cloth that I am currently using at my machine as a mug rug. :-)  Thank you so much Angela!

In the winter instead of coffee lattes, I am all over Chai tea lattes!  Yum!

I have even hooked hubby. LOL Shhh--don't tell him I told! :-)

I hope you had a very merry Christmas!

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!!

Secret Sewing Reveal

One of the secret projects I worked on was this fun quilt 

by Joanne who blogs at Canuck Quilter.

The minute I saw the pattern I knew I wanted to make it Christmasy!

 

This is Starlight Plaid~~

 

The hardest part was trying to get a good photo! The red is actually a stripe. :-)

I didn't get it quilted for Christmas this year, but it is on the top of the pile of tops I need to get quilting. ;-)

Check out the pattern at Joanne's shop while it is on sale~

CanuckQuilterDesigns

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!!

 

 

DECEMBER!!!

Ok, I was yelling. LOL How did it get to be December already??!!

I am so behind!  And I know I have been neglecting my blog too. I really want to blog more... maybe if I planned it out a bit~?  How do you get yourself to sit down and blog often?

I have been busy! And DH caught a whopper of a cold, which gave him an ear infection.  He did get the flu shot but the cold caught him before the shot had time to take full effect.  I had gotten my shot earlier than him, and although he tried to share, ;) I managed to only get a 3 day cold. Lost my voice a bit and it left as quickly as it came on. Yay!

So I sent the grandkiddoes aprons for their holiday 'helping mom bake'. ;-) I even included a little jar of sprinkles, smaller utensils and cookie mix and frosting. LOL Not sure if Mom & Dad appreciated the frosting, but how else will the cute sprinkles stick? :-)

The embroidery design was from a Kimberbell class I attended. I made the aprons ahead of time using kitchen towels.  My DDIL sent me a photo of the kids in their aprons and they fit perfectly! Yay!

The nose is sparkly vinyl :-)

 

I have also done a few pattern tests that I cannot show you yet. I embroidered a bunch of hand and flour sack towels, but I guess I forgot to take a photo of them too. :-o 

 

This gorgeous panel is from PB Textiles and I won it in an Instagram giveaway.  Pinch me!!

I love it and hope to be stitching on it once the house is decorated, cookies made, a few gifts finished... sigh... you get the idea. ;-)

That's all for today but I will go take photos of those towels for next time!

Until then~

Happy Stitchin'!!

Agh! Time!!

Where has half of November gone already!?

I know I have been busy, but really?

I have finished a couple pattern tests~ to be revealed.

Acquired a new member to my sewing machine family~

Isn't she a beauty?

She was virtually free. I just need to find a case or table.

It is a Singer 99K made in Clydesbank, Scotland in 1954. 

She has been cleaned, oiled and is ready for some fun!!

I am hoping we can find a table that DH can modify. ;-)

I have also been swapping string blocks~

We had 12 participants and everyone gets to choose what they want their blocks to look like. Not particular fabrics, but 'looks'... blues, patriotics, 30's looking etc.  It is always a lot of fun making blocks for the other swappers! But I always have the hardest time deciding what I want my blocks to be! LOL  This time I chose all reds and I am excited to cut them up for something fun. :-)

My youngest DS purchased his first home this year and we have been slowly cleaning out his bedroom~ you guessed it!! I am getting a sewing room! Of course, I am keeping the bed in the room in case he wants to spend the night sometimes, but otherwise it is going to be my room. I have more to do but it is slowly coming together. :-)

What have you been working on?

I have a long list of things I want to get to before Christmas, we will see how it goes...

Until next time~

...which I hope is sooner!...

Happy stitchin"!

A Little Machine Fun~

I love my embroidery machine!

Whenever I find the time to 'play', I take full advantage. ;)

Last week I found some extra minutes in my days and did just that!

I started with towels~

Designs from Julia's Needle Designs

 And then I went to making Halloween tops for the grandkiddoes~

Designs from Itch 2 Stitch

More tops~

Itch 2 Stitch

And then a couple more towels :-)

Design from Embroidery Library

Next in line, I want to work on some Christmas gifts~ its never too early! LOL

What is under your needle this week?

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!!

Retreat!!!

Generally what happens at retreat, stays at retreat. :-)

But I went to a really fun one last week and can't stop thinking about all the fun I had!

One of my friends brought Wonder Woman sunglasses and we had to test them out on our 

way to dinner~

LOL there is so much reflection that you can barely see our star headbands. :-)

My friend totally surprised me with an early birthday party where I was gifted Wonder Woman sheets, pillowcases, a big fleece Wonder Woman blanket, socks and a mug among lots of smaller items.

I was totally spoiled! And now have a retreat bedding 'go' bag. :-)

I helped with the mystery class at the retreat. We had 84 retreaters and 54 mystery class participants. Pre-retreat, I cut the fabrics and made kits for every step.

I think everyone's projects turned out wonderfully! My only regret is that I didn't get any group photos. I sure hope the mystery makers enjoyed the project as much as I did!

This is what we made~

The pattern is called the 'Catch-all Cutie' by Teresa Weaver @Grateful4joyNpeace Designs

We did have to eliminate one zipper pocket to make it a more do-able project in the allotted time we had.  It has pockets to hold all your supplies and then zips up closed for travel. Very fun!

 

I also managed to get some 'secret sewing' done and will have to show you that at another time. 

Until then~

Happy Sewing!

PS. I am sorry but I had to turn on comment moderation again because I was getting spammed with junk. :-(