Rainbow of Colors

It's amazing what can be accomplished on a long road trip....especially when husband prefers to do all the driving.

I finished the small color wheel embroidery project over the Thanksgiving break.  Contributing to this accomplishment is the fact that my Mom spoiled me by doing all the cooking and playing with the grandchildren.  I cooked a little bit.

This left me with lots of time to embroider while riding in the car on the long drive to and from and watching college and NFL football on TV over the Thanksgiving weekend.  I have an idea of what I want to do with this piece of embroidery, but I am also open to suggestions.  Do you have any?

Can you see the detail of the stitches?  My camera wouldn't focus on just one stitch.  I wanted to show my favorite.  It is the raised chain stitch.  If you look closely, you will see it in red at the bottom corner of the picture, as well as in dark purple and light purple.  Other favorites are the wheatear stitch and the zig zag chain stitch.  All of these stitches as well as many others can be found at the Hand Embroidery Network.  I also had to get creative with the division of the colors.  I accidentally used a permanent fabric marker to draw my lines on the fabric.  To hide the lines, I did a serpentine stitch (not sure that is the technical name) using both of the colors that meet in each section of the color wheel.  If you look closely, you will see the backstitching in the red with the purple weaving in and out.

As I've mentioned before, this is  FUN!!!!!   My original plan was to take the large hoop project on the trip, but we were tight on space so had to settle on just taking the little one.  I am itching to work on the large one but will probably have to wait until after the holidays.

Have an amazing day!!!!

Sew & Tell Friday #8

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving!!!  Anyone braving the crowds for Black Friday?  Not me.  Only did it once...hope not to repeat the experience.

On Monday, I finished the third coin quilt.  If you haven't already, you can click here to see how I solved my too short sashing issue.

This Friday as part of Sew & Tell Friday, Amy asked us to share some of our yummy Thanksgiving recipes.  Here is a family and friend favorite:

Sweet Potato Casserole - The Mississippi Cookbook

4 cups cooked sweet potatoes                                           1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 cup butter                                                                       1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups sugar                                                                      1 1/2 cups evaporated milk

4 eggs, slightly beaten                                                       1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Add butter, sugar, beaten eggs, spices, milk and 3/4 cup coconut to the cooked potatoes.  Save 1/4 cup coconut for topping.  Mix well.  Pour into greased 7 1/2 by 12 inch baking dish.  Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup coconut on top.  Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.  Serves 10.  NOTE:  RECIPE STATES BAKE FOR 35 MINUTES.....MY OVEN TAKES MUCH LONGER...SO ALLOW FOR EXTRA TIME.

I forgot to take a picture of the casserole until we started eating...oops.

Enjoy!!!!  Check out all the other Sew & Tell Friday finishes and recipes by clicking on the sidebar button.

Have an amazing weekend!!!!

Happy Turkey Day!!

Wishing all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!  I hope you are sharing a beautiful, thankful day with family and friends.  Many blessings to you and yours!!!

Have an amazing Thanksgiving!!!!

Wonderful Wednesday!

Moonlight on the Madison

If you look closely, you'll see a rainbow.

Have an amazing day!!!!!

Goodies in the Mail

Look what arrived in the mail!!!!

The giveaway prize I won from Anka's Treasures was waiting for me in my PO box.  Inside I found three of Heather Mulder Peterson's books.  I've already bookmarked several great projects that I can't wait to start.

Heather also sent some of her new Wildflower fabric and a pattern sheet.  I love these fabrics!!!!!

I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get a little overwhelmed with my seemingly never ending always growing list of things to do before the holidays-Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I may have to rethink some of the due dates of my projects...as in 2010 rather than 2009.  UGH...not a pleasant thought.

I'll be hitting the road soon...blogging from Mississippi...sending Thanksgiving blessings your way!!!

Have an amazing day!!!!

No More Coins

The third coin quilt top is completed.  Hurray!!!

This is what it looked like before adding the top and bottom borders.  Do you remember the problem I had with my strips not being long enough?

Can you tell how I worked around it?  In addition to reducing the length of the coin strips and eliminating one row of coins....

...I added these little strips in the corners.  I had planned on adding an additional border to make the quilt bigger, but decided it is big enough.  To be honest, I was just ready to be done with it.

Another Moments picture to show the pieced backing...note the mess visible when no zoom used.  I used a blue fabric in my stash along with four fat quarters of Picnic Parade.

The binding fabric originally was to be some Picnic Parade dots, but then I discovered this roll of leftover binding strips from the Horizons batik quilt....already cut, sewn and pressed!!!

I am behind in my blog reading...hope to check out all the Sew and Tell Friday posts along with other favorite blogs.  Have an amazing day!!!!

Sew & Tell Friday #7 - Sort Of

I haven't read the fine print of the Sew and Tell Friday rules (grins), so not sure if this counts. (Actually, I am sure it doesn't.)   If not, you can go here to see where I did finish my waverunner quilt top.  Make sure you check out all the other Friday finishes...click on the Sew and Tell Friday button in my sidebar.

I guess I should have known better, but I really did think I would have this third coin quilt top pieced to show you today.  I had everything ready to go, and then realized my white sashing strips were not long enough.  (This could be a Moments picture...the dirty floor...stack of papers in the corner...)

The sashing is fabric from my stash.  I did not want to have seams in the sashing so I cut the length of my fabric.  Turns out, it's not long enough.  I'm thinking no problem because the other two were rather long. I'll just make this one shorter.  But then I realized that unless I want it narrower, the strips aren't long enough for the top and bottom.  After stewing over it for several hours, I came up with the idea of using the print fabric in the corners....joining the white side strips and the white top and bottom strips.   Depending on how that turns out, I may then do an outer border using the print fabric to make it longer.

Anyway, it is all in my head....even though I'm not describing it properly.  I'm not sure if Amy is having Sew and Tell next Friday or not, but either way, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Have an amazing weekend!!!

More This and That

Do you remember when I blogged about winning three giveaways in one weekend?  I received one of those in the mail today.  Here are the green and blue strings blocks from Allison,

and the extra strips are shown here.  Thank you again Allison!!!

I am done (for now) with my Waverunner quilt top.  The more I work on it, the better I like it.  However, I really need to put it aside for now and work on other projects.  At the moment it is about 40 inches square.  I can't decide if I should stop now or add more blocks to make it bigger.  What do you think?  40 inches is too big for a wall quilt (at least in my house) not to mention the colors don't go with my decor.  In our house, it's all about lap quilts for snuggling and TV viewing.  What do you do with this size?  I also thought about adding a very wide border to make it bigger, but can't picture a fabric that would work.

I needed a break from the coin quilts, so I started piecing a pumpkin table runner.  I realize I missed Halloween, but I'm thinking it might work for Thanksgiving.  I got the idea here.  This project has made me realize I don't have a lot of orange fabric.  We are FSU Seminole fans here and tend to avoid that Gator orange;-))

And, last but not least, I am giving away prizes to the seven people who commented on yesterday's post. This giveaway is to celebrate my 50th post, Thanksgiving...which is only a week away... and to share my good fortune of being on the receiving end of giveaways lately.  Thelma, Mary, Dee, Susan, Cara, Marls and Penny look for an email from me today.  I need to revise my prize idea....I wasn't expecting seven commenters yesterday....Wonderful Wednesday usually only rates a couple ;-))  Also girls, hope you don't mind if I get your prizes to you the Monday after Thanksgiving....things are just a little crazy around here trying to prepare for that big day.

Have an amazing day!!!

Wonderful Wednesday!

This Wonderful Wednesday marks my 50th post.  Any ideas for celebrating?

My thinking place.

Sometimes I share my rock.

The view from my rock.

Can you blame me for "dreaming of Montana"?  Have an amazing day!!

Making Waves

I was determined to finish the waverunner quilt top today.  I would have too if I hadn't promised myself and others to remember that thing called Balance.  Ugh!!!  I guess another word for it could be reality....as in the reality of doing laundry, picking up my kids from school (they don't allow them to stay overnight...grins), attending my son's soccer game, helping with homework, countless other tasks as I'm sure you can relate.

This is it on the design wall...along with a bunch of scraps.  I'm not totally (not even a little) in love with it, but I like it more than when I first started. Victoria was very helpful in her encouragement and suggestions. Thanks Victoria.

I know if I put this aside, I will never bring it out again. It's not that I don't like the wavy blocks.  I think I am unhappy with my color and fabric choices.  One day, I'd like to try this again in other fabric.  For this one, however, it's got to be completed this week.  The quilting may not get done right away, but I am determined the quilt top will be finished soon.

You can see I am trying to use all the scraps I can in order to complete this quickly.  Still not enough...guess I will be sewing more strips....AFTER the soccer game.

Have an amazing day!!

Balance

You would have thought my husband and some of my friends had read Friday's post about Balance.  The concept kept coming up all weekend.  I won't go into all the details, but let's just say my house is now clean, and I have several coffee and lunch dates scheduled with friends this week as well as girls' night out Friday for the highly anticipated release of New Moon!!!!!

I guess I needed the lecture and guilt trip.  So, even though I didn't get to sew much this weekend, look what I found while cleaning my office.  It's like when you find money in the dryer, but way better!!!  I forgot that I had all these charm packs.

I had wanted to finish the waverunner quilt this weekend, but the picture above is all I accomplished...three lousy strips sewn and ironed.  Note to self:  It's all about balance...remember.

I did work some on my color wheel embroidery project.  This is what I did on the large hoop.  I have to say this is one of the funnest projects I've worked on in a long time!!!!  No pattern...no rules...no deadline.  I can just sit and stitch whatever comes to mind in whichever direction I feel like stitching (as long as it is the correct color).  I did this while watching football.  I had my HEN printouts and learned new stitches along the way.  Try it!!

Have an amazing day!!

Sew & Tell Friday #6

Another Friday!!!  At this rate, Christmas will be here way too soon.  I'm not ready.  Of course, it doesn't help that for every item I can scratch off  my To Make list, I add two or three more.

The Coin Quilt #2 top is completed.  Another grainy photo as it is dreary and raining here.  I pieced the back for this and the first one, and they both are ready to go to the longarmer.  I did not bother taking a picture of the backs.  I plan to mail these two quilts off today.  I had hoped to mail all three at once, but I think it is better to get these two in the mail.  If all goes according to plan (and when does that ever happen?), I can mail the third one Saturday or Monday.

You can get a better idea of the green fabric I used for the sashing here.  As I mentioned before, this was my daughter's suggestion, and I am so glad I listened to her ..... this time.  She has been home sick with a fever.  She is feeling so puny that she didn't even have an opinion or express an interest in how this quilt was coming along.  Poor thing.

Above is another Moments picture.  Thelma had asked if I ever slept, and someone else made a similar comment.  I have been sleeping, but I have not done laundry, cleaned my office, gone grocery shopping or other important household duties.  I have canceled lunch with friends (although today was because Ally is sick) and basically become anti social.  I really need to learn balance.

Click on the Sew & Tell Friday button and see all the finished projects.  That's what I plan to do...along with catching up on all my other blog reading and replying to emails.  Enjoy your weekend!!!!

Beware of Dog

Here is my guard dog Max.  Doesn't he look vicious?

He just got a bath and is wearing his reindeer bandana.  A little early for reindeers, don't you think?  Max keeps me company, follows me around the house, naps with me and doesn't talk back.  He is a sweet lap dog...until the phone rings, the doorbell rings, a neighbor walks by, kids feed the ducks across the street, etc....and then...beware of dog!!!

Here is a sneak peek at the second coin quilt I am making.  I took my daughter's advice and went with a green for the sashing.  The colors are hard to see in this picture.  I plan to share the completed quilt top tomorrow for Sew and Tell Friday.

Amy at Park City Girl is hosting a fun color wheel embroidery stitch along project.  I prepped two hoops of fabric because I thought this might be a fun project to share with my daughter.

Our family took a road trip the other day, and I played around with the stitches a little bit while my husband was driving.   Unfortunately, he was getting tired, and I had to drive back home which meant no more stitching.

I am so totally hooked on this project that I scrapped the 7" hoop for a 17" hoop and more colors.  I printed a bunch of stitching directions from Hand Embroidery Network.  I highly recommend this website.  It is full of great information.  They showcase a stitch a day with detailed step by step instructions with close up pictures.  Amy also has a link to HEN on her website.

It is not as easy as you might think to choose sixteen colors out of all the DMC embroidery floss colors available.  Amy helped quite a bit by listing the colors she used.  I would have copied hers exactly except that I messed up when drawing my lines (was too lazy to redo) and came up with a different number of sections in my color wheel.  Click here to view Amy's project instructions.  From there you can link to her previous posts regarding her color wheel project.

See you tomorrow for Sew and Tell Friday.  Have an amazing day!!