More of State Flower Blocks

I don't have a lot to show for almost a month away from blogging, but I have been working hard on my state flower blocks. Each block takes about 3 hours on the embroidery machine, and a little time to finish the borders and some computer work, so it has been time consuming. I am caught up again though, yeah! I am making two quilts, so I have double everything. I added a little extra to Iowa and Nebraska, as my mother was born in Iowa and my father in Nebraska. I just wanted to make mine scrappy, but as I was adding sea shell material to Illinois, I thought that it would have been nice to use fabric with the state flower from each state as it's border, or maybe even fabric with the state birds. Oh well, I don't think that I'll be making a third one. I have 24 of the 56 blocks done, so I have a long way to go, but I'm getting there.

DH and I haven't been doing so well on our walking, as my daughter has had the flu, and DH has had some sickness also, but we did see this fellow on one of our walks. I don't know why, but he seemed to be fearless and let us get within about 2 feet. Mockingbirds are our state bird, and I'm rather partial to them, so I found it very exciting.

Walking

DH and I have been doing well for us with walking. We walked 2 miles yesterday and today, and even ran a little. Those muscles haven't been stretched in a few years, and I jokingly told DD who is also walking with us that I thought my behind was having an attack, but I think it was just my unused muscles rebelling. We walk by the lake, and had really nice breezes so it isn't too hot. The pictures are a picture of the light on the dock refecting on the lake, and one of the ugliest squirrels ever. He is homely from his head to his scraggly little tail. He was enjoying his dinner though.

Tampa Race

This past Sunday was a lot of fun. DH and I got up early and drove to Tampa to a state park to watch our son and our 2 grandsons run in a 5K race. They all did well, and I got to take pictures of the race and the way Florida really looks, or in many cases, with the advent of civilization looked.











It felt really good to be out in the cool and humidity of the spring morning, and made me feel like I may try to get in shape to do some walks or in my wildest dreams maybe a run. That is a long way from a physical possibility at this point, but could be a goal.
This second picture was a tree that I liked, and the third I just liked how the palm tree looked from the bottom looking up. Odd, but kind of neat.























Here is my son's oldest son just after he finished the race.











His youngest son wasn't far behind. His oldest doesn't run but does a lot of outside work and surfing, so he is in good shape, and the youngest amazed me, as he hasn't done a lot of running either, and has fought asthma most of his young life. I was very proud of them. My camera didn't cooperate when my son crossed the finish line, but he did well and was happy with his results. He has run in the past, but had gained weight and just started back running three weeks ago. He has been battling a lot of pain in his legs, but he has kept at it. (sorry, I haven't been able to delete the duplicate picture)
























Here's the youngest getting a much needed rest.















More of the real Florida. The sun was still coming up.











These are the Wragg boy's, the oldest boy is DH.












My oldest grandson won this stainless steel mug for winning in his age group. His brother wasn't too far behind, so I think he may have won if they had had a prize for his age group.











All in all it was a very nice day, and I've volunteered to be the official photographer for any future races. I just hope they are all shady and cool like this one. (not likely in the Sunshine State)
We finished off the morning with a nice leisurely breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and then a long visit on their porch.

A Few Little Things

My goodness, I can't believe it's been a month since my last post, bad bad blogger. I was going to blame it on my grandson and his visit, but he was only here for a week, so I guess that pops my balloon. The first picture is of him and his girlfriend and her children, they are quite a nice little family, and it was fun having them here. He's from Florida, but she is from Pennsylvania, and this was only her second trip out of state. She liked her visit well enough to consider moving here with him later this year. The children are my first little things, Ethan is 3 and Savanna is 2, and they were quite fun to go be tourists with. We went to Sea World and Old Town with them and it was fun to be around such little ones.
The next little thing is my new netbook, an Asus 1000he, it's just 10.2 inches and the battery lasts up to 9 hours. I think that it will be nice to take places and just to drag around the house. I will need my glasses, but I need them for books and labels and everything anyway, so that won't be any problem getting used to. It only weighs 3 pounds and will fit in a pocketbook (unless you carry little ones).

Here's my little Featherweight with the little pincushion that I won from A Redneck Dingbat Quilter. She had a fun word game on her blog, and I was fortunate enough to solve it. The pincushion is adorable, and just the right size for my machine.

I got this small wallet to hold my new carry in my purse camera. I have a camera, but it is so large that I find I either don't take it with me or get it out when things are going on and I got this one to have with me and ready to take pictures when they present themselves. No excuses now.

I'm still gearing up to quilt my little girl quilts, I just keep procrastinating. One of these days I'll have pictures of finished quilts.

Homely Quilts, But Been Busy

First of all, I went to my LQS and they were having some of their fabrics on sale for $5.00 a yard, so I treated myself to a few miscellaneous yards. I don't have any plans for the fabrics except for the one on the right which I got for the bindings on my children's quilts.

Speaking of my childrens quilts, I have all the preperations done, and hope to actually baste and quilt them soon. I used the Super Sized Nine Patch from Quiltmaker and just made them a bit bigger (kids are from 2 to 6). As my title suggests, they are homely, but colorful and hopefully that age group won't be too fussy.

Here's my other homely quilt. I decided to participate in the Quiltville Super Bowl Twist, and then decided to make it bigger and make it for my Grandson, the only one out of fourteen who has actually requested a quilt. I had bought some fabrics to make him a lap sized quilt a couple or three years ago and so used that fabric for the borders. It was never my taste, but was the colors he had requested at the time. Back then, he was living by himself, and now he is living with a girlfriend, so this will hopefully turn out well enough that he'll like it. It is huge, about 92 x 105, so I'm waiting to try quilting it after I finish the baby quilts, and hopefully by then I'll have my courage up.

This last picture is the beginning of my little wallhangings for the Pay it Forward. If I don't get anyone else, I may make pillowcases for hospitals instead. I'm not going to let it stress me, if I don't I don't, at least I tried.

DH and I drove about 90 miles to see the Sandhill Cranes en masse, and found out that there had been about 7000 and they were down to about 200. Sadly, we didn't see a single one, although one time we did hear them. We enjoyed the ride together though, and while we were out we had lunch at Cracker Barrel. Sometimes I get a craving for a "good" hamburger, and now I know where to find one. Cracker Barrel makes a very good burger.

I hope everyone is safe. Like everyone else, I worry about the fires in Australia, and am saddened by the tragedy of it.

Giveaway and Sand Cranes

Jo from 'Home Sweet Home' is having a 100th post giveaway, and her question is, "what are three crafty things you can't live without". Very thought provoking and hard to narrow down three, but I came up with my machines, my iron, and my rotary cutting tools. What are yours? If you go to Jo's blog and let her know and post it on your blog, you'll be entered in her giveaway and you'll also be able to congratulate her on her wonderful blog.



If you follow my blog you probably already are aware that I love the Sand Cranes. I was very excited yesterday to have five in the field behind my house, and it was like they waited for me to get my camera, and then they stayed there as long as I liked to have their pictures taken. Notice the cow watching in the background, that can give you an idea of how big the birds are, they are really tall, and I think that they are beautiful with their red heads.
I got to spend the afternoon yesterday with my DD, we went to Ikea, it was her first time, and she couldn't believe how big the store is. I told her it was like 2 Targets. We didn't make any major purchases, but got a few little good deals. I got a new chair for my sewing room and after I get it put together I'll take a picture of old and new, and you'll see why I needed a new one. After we walked and walked for about 2 hours or so we went to Bahama Breeze, my favorite restaurant and had a really nice splurge. We had the Roasted Cuban bread, which is toasty bread with sweet tomatoes and basil on top, then a fruit cup with I believe mango sorbet, and shared the lobster, shrimp pasta. It was more than enough for both of us, and truly did have shrimp and big pieces of lobster in every bite. It was a very nice day with my daughter and we both enjoyed the time together.

Preperation for Pay it Forward

If you read my blog, you probably have noticed that I stick pretty much to easy, and that's ok, but for Pay it Forward I would like to try something a little different. The little quilt below is about 13 inches by 15 inches, and is from a book that I got by Debbie Mumms. It is appliqued Easter eggs, and is the only applique that I have done to this point (except for a little heart on the back of a quilt that I accidently made a hole in). I think it's kind of cute, but I decided that I needed a little more knowledge.

Today I checked out the website for our LQS and they were having several classes, one of which is for the little block below. It is part of a quilt that they are doing a block a month, but I only have to do the one block if I want to. I think that if it turns out nicely, it might be an idea for the Pay it Forward, if not, at least I will have a little more knowledge and hopefully will have enjoyed my class.

We bloggers sacrifice for our blogs. My DH is always getting onto me about climbing on stools and chairs and such, and I'm glad he wasn't home tonight. I have a little ladder about 2 feet high, and when I was trying to get the Easter egg quilt off the top shelf of the closet I took a tumble and things were flying everywhere. I broke the bottom shelf on one of my bookcases, but luckily not any bones. I'm dreading what might ache tomorrow though.

Pay it forward

Here I am, out of my comfort zone, but "when we're green we're growing, and when we're ripe we're rotting". That's one of my favorite quotes, and I guess that now's one of the times to grow. Amy is taking part in the Pay it forward, and while I was thinking about it her's filled up, and one of the participants is Amanda. I thought awhile, but Amanda still had a slot, so I gathered my courage and signed up. ***Correction, I just went to Amy's blog to get her link, and she only has Amanda so far, so I'm asking for Amy and Me***
The rules for the Pay it Forward are like this:
1) Three people will be chosen to participate when they leave a comment on this post asking to join (I'll obviously choose the first three)
2) You then agree to post a similar announcement to this on your blog, asking three more people to join in, etc
3) You will create a hand-made item for your three people sometime over the next 12 months.
If you are like me and have been a bit afraid to participate in things in blogland due to lack of confidence in your skills, you have a whole year on this one and only have to make 3 gifts. It seems a good way to jump in and get your feet wet without a quick deadline or any rules except to make 3 gifts and send them to people that you like and who like you well enough to follow your blog and sign up with you. It seems like a fun way to get started.

Kolbie's Quilt and DD Fabric

Kolbie's quilt top is finished, and now I need to get it basted and quilted. First step will be to watch the video on basting with the boards again, and then when I get that done, I have 6 tops to baste including this one and the one that I made for my 3 year old granddaughter. After that, I will need to watch the DVD that I bought on machine quilting and see if I can do better than last time on my FMQ'ing.

Isn't Kolbie a cutie. My favorites are the one where she looks like she's about to cry, and the one after it where she is asleep on her mama's hands.

My daughter called this morning, she Tabitha and Micah were out doing errands and wanted to know if DH and I would like to meet them for lunch. We did, I had a very good salad with grilled chicken, cranberries, pecans and feta cheese, and we enjoyed the outing and the company. When we got home I was a little disappointed not to see my package for the DD fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery, and then when I opened the screen door the package tumbled out. DH and I liked them all, his favorite is the dark blue in the top corner, and I think that they, along with some scraps that I will probably add in, will look nice together. I hope so anyway. I'm not a patient mystery doer, so even though I haven't started yet, I have looked at all the clues, and I must say, I think it is a pretty one. I wasn't so sure about my Orange Crush, and now I love it, so I think this one will be a favorite right away.

I have a full sized laptop computer, but I have been very tempted to get one of the little 9.8 inch, 2 pound Acer's. It seems like it would be nice to have to carry around the house and to take anywhere that I might go. I was wondering if anyone has one and if they like it. It's hard being a gadget person, and being enticed by technology. The one I am interested in is here.

Happy New Year

This morning I have been busy and a little productive. Long story, but due to a bit of drama between x-wives etc., I decided that I wanted to make DD's fiance's DD a quilt. I had some prequilted fabric, so I did a little machine embroidery with her name, and used some assorted leftover binding, and now it is out of the washer and dryer and ready to be delivered. Not fancy, but she is in kidergarten and probably not too hard to please.
I also took a few pictures of my more organized stash (and I use the term loosely as it isn't a very impressive one) The top is my batiks and some smaller mostly half yard pieces. The middle is assorted colored and neutral larger pieces, and the bottom is children and baby fabrics.

Below is my backing stash, I bought several oxford cloth sheets and some flannel sheets from Land's End and am going to see how they work out for backings. I had one done with a sheet at the LA'er with her permission, and it turned out nicely, I'm hoping that I can do it, too.

The still a bit messy picture below is actually the shelf above my backings, and it is my scraps. I always thought that I had mostly pinks, but it seems that I have more blues and purples than pinks. I never would have known if I hadn't tried to make some order from the chaos.

This is just the side view looking in from the closet door. I still have a lot of organizing to do, and that will be done as I put away Christmas decorations. I think that I also need to get rid of some things, but that won't be easy. I can't stand the mess though.

This is a not very good picture of the fabrics that I have ordered from Thousands of Bolts. They are for Bonnie Hunter's mystery, and I'm anxious for them to get here. The email says January 6th, and I'm sure I'll survive.

I am supposed to do the Shakespeare in the Park with an internet friend, and these are the fabrics that I purchased for it about 4 or 5 years ago. They are still intact except for one piece of fabric that I robbed and replaced with another similar one. I just need to take Nike's advice and 'just do it', as for some reason it scares me. She has already started hers and has a couple of snail's trail blocks. done.

Sorry to have gone on and on, if anyone is still with me, I can imagine that your eyes have glazed over.

I wish all a Happy New Year.