Our Branch of the Family Tree :)

I'm going to take a moment to share my beautiful family with you all.

It started with just the 2 of us and now there are 12!

This gorgeous man and I started dating 35 years ago this month.

We survived the hill tops and valleys of life and I can

honestly say that  I love this man more each day 

and couldn't imagine my life without him in it!

And look what we have to show for it :)

The 6 most precious grandchildren EVER!!!

These are my "boyz" :)

Can you believe that they actually asked me to make them ties to wear?

And Elijah, the oldest,  wears his almost daily.....even with a t-shirt!

They are all so different and so wonderful!

Our handsome son and his beautiful wife and their fabulous "tribe" :)

Our beautiful daughter and her handsome hubby and their adorable little ones :)

I am so thankful to God for every second of every day

that I get to spend with my family :)

Just sharin' the love :)

Just wanted to share a lovely "find" for those of you who love cross stitch like I do.

I stumbled across an awesome website called Crazy Annie's Stitchin. She buys out inventory from closed shops, out of print charts and overstock. She sells them at huge discounts! Right now she's having a sale until the 31st that every chart you buy, you get one free! I got these 10 charts for only $14.00 and $2.50 for shipping! I probably would have paid that much for just one or two of these. (Yes I know that 7 out of 10 are snowmen.......I'm a bit obsessed!)  I placed my order on the 25th and I received it today (the 28th). She sells fabric as well and embroidery supplies too! She has Lizzie Kate, Bent Creek, Prarie Schooler and much more! I can't wait to get started on these!

It's Quilt Sandwich Time!

I finished the quilt top for my aunt's quilt this morning and I have to say that I am going to have a hard time parting with it! I love this fabric so much. I need to think of something to do with it for my home too :)

Right now I need to sandwich this quilt

and start the hand quilting.

I'll need to pick up a few more colors

of Perle cotton floss to match.

 I haven't decided yet exactly how I want the quilting to look.

So far this quilt has been a "let's see how it goes" project.

No pattern - just wingin' it :)

You can read more about these embroideries here.

Learning to quilt has definitely been a fun adventure and one I'm sure I'll continue for a long long time :)

 

Friday Night Sew In #6

Last night was another Friday Night Sew In. Every Friday night is pretty much a "sew in" for me because the men in my family gather and smoke cigars on Friday nights which leaves me to sew the night away. But it's nice to know that one Friday night each month, there are other crafty ladies doing the exact same thing :) This time around I started work on the quilt top for my Aunt's quilt. I've been dying to make a log cabin quilt and because the embroideries that I found in my garage from 37 years ago were an odd size, I decided that the log cabin would be perfect to feature them in the center. The finished size of each center turned out to be 5" x 7". I fell in love with these fabrics from Robert Kaufman. They are from two different collections, Daisies & Dots and Treasures & Tidbets. I loved the way they co-ordinated and the way they highlighted the colors in the embroideries. I bought some Kona cotton in "Snow" for the sashing. I finished 9 blocks last night so the sashing will have to wait for next week. I can't wait to get this all put together :)

I need.....I need.....I need......

Has anyone ever seen "What about Bob?" I'll admit that I've seen that movie WAY too many times! In our family we tend to use lines from movies in our everyday conversations. Well this week I have so many incomplete projects that I keep thinking of the line from that movie where "Bob" tells Dr. Marvin......."Gimme Gimme Gimme.....I need....I need....I need!!!!"

So here it is 9 Saturdays from Christmas Eve and I need all kinds of little things to finish up my projects this week. I made those 7 pacifier bags last week and I still need to get some snap fasteners before I can list them in my etsy shop. I made this cute little corduroy jumper for Sofie and I need 8 large buttons to finish it.

I have these 2 Christmas ornaments that I'm working on, but I need some Crescent floss and I don't have a needlework shop anywhere close, so hopefully today I'll get that and I can finish these up.

And I'm starting on 2 little jackets for my grand-daughters for Christmas. I have the fabric washed and ready to cut. But I need to get 1 1/4" button covers.

Hopefully next week I won't be so "needy" :)

I love it when a project is finished :)

I had these 7 pacifier bags and leashes all cut out and ready to sew, but I've been putting it off. Not really sure why......

Today seemed like a great time to get them sewn so that I can list them in my shop tomorrow.

Good thing too, because I just sold my last girlie set about 5 minutes ago :)

Guess I better cut out some more girlie fabric...

Pin it!

With Christmas just a few short weeks away I'm trying to think of some fun items for my Etsy shop. I stitched this little angel and then made her into a pin cushion.

I'm hoping that someone either loves cross stitch like I do, or has someone on their Christmas shopping list that loves cross stitch :) Either way works for me!

Now I have to decide what this little guy is going to become........

Boo to You!

 I probably should be doing something else today, but I found myself suddenly inspired to make this Halloween Mug Rug. The fun Halloween print fabric was included in a giveaway I won a few weeks ago over at The Sunflower Patch (Thanks Celynn!) and the "boo to you" patch came in the mail yesterday from my Sweetwater Label Crew  for October. I love getting new labels and patterns every month! These fabrics and the label just seemed to scream out to me that they needed to get together :) I cut the body of the spider out of one of the scraps and then embroidered on his 8 legs and the thread he's hanging from. I went into my scrapbooking ribbon stash for the skeleton twill tape. This was a fun little project. Perfect for today when I really don't feel like doing too much of anything :)

Stitchin Season :)

I may have mentioned this before, but I tend to get bored easily. I think that's why I have multiple hobbies. I go for a few days or weeks deeply involved with something and then from one day to the next, I'm on to something else. A few weeks ago I went through serious withdrawals when my sewing machine went in for service, and now it's here and ready to go and I haven't done much sewing. I've been stitching instead. I finished the little tea pots yesterday. This is the top piece for a wooden tea caddy that I have on order. As soon as it arrives I can assemble it and I'll post pics of the completed project. I have also completed the embroidery pieces that I found in the garage that I started when I was 10 years old. I'm going to start cutting the fabric for the quilt that these will be a part of and hopefully finish it in time for Christmas. If not, my Mom is traveling to Germany again in April and she can take it with her and give it to her sister when she's there. I showed these to my Mom to ask her about them last Sunday because I noticed that some of the stitching on the boy was so far superior to the stitching that I had done, so I needed to know if she had done it or my grandmother had done it. She said that my grandmother had given me these patterns to stitch and that my mom had done some of the stitching on the boy. Now this gift will be even more special for my aunt! 3 generations of women in the family have had a part in this quilt for her. I love things like that!

10 more Saturdays.....

Oh my gosh! I almost freaked out when I realized that there are only 10 more Saturdays until Christmas Eve! Last week was a blurr of activity and today I'm just relaxing and doing some cross stitching. Sometimes you just need a day to recover :)

A Tiny Hat & A Nutcracker :)

Yesterday I enjoyed my stay-at-home-all-day-in-my-pajamas-rainy-day extravaganza!

I made this little hat for Evie. I used McCalls M4682 view D and then added the big flower that I made myself.

Little Evie is so petite that I had to use the x-small size

 and make it even smaller :)

I can't wait to see her little face in this hat!

I also finished up the Nutcracker ornament. I found the pattern on ebay and since so many people have emailed me about the pattern, I've included a link HERE.

I felt that he needed a bit of "bling" so I used some gold seed beads to embelish his uniform before I stitched him up.

You can never have too much sparkle if you are going to be a Christmas ornament..right?

It's going to be hard to part with him and I really want to make some of the other ones included in the pattern, but I've misplaced it. I'm sure it's here somewhere.

Probably under a stack of fabric in my craft room.

But I'll look for it another day :)

I love rainy days!!!

I'm so excited that today it's raining outside

and I don't have to go anywhere!

 I get to stay home, enjoy some hot tea and sew sew sew!

 Maybe my whole rainy day love goes back to my elementary school days. We'd stay inside during our lunch break and play board games and "Heads Up 7 up" with our teacher :) Living in So California we didn't have many rainy days so it just always seemed special to me!

I have a few projects to work on today.

I haven't sewn anything this week at all!

*gasp*

I know....right?

I'll be making a hat & mittens for my tiny little Evie. They are headed for Michigan this week and she'll need to keep her little hands and ears warm :)

I cut out 6 new pacifier bags and leashes for the shop that I'd like to get listed this week and I purchased my 2 Christmas fabrics for the Charming Christmas Fabric Swap that I need to cut into 5" squares.

Should be a fun day!

Happy Birthday Mom :)

Saturday was my Mom's 75th birthday. We all woke up early and headed to Laguna for family portraits at La Paz Park. It's been 3 years since the last time we did photos like these and since that time our family has grown a bit more :) My Mom's little family tree has grown to 17 people and we had so much fun taking pictures. I can't wait to see them when Ian, our awesome photographer has them ready for us! After our photo shoot, we all had a picnic lunch and headed to our homes for a few hours. Later everyone came by my house for a BBQ, cake and gifties!

Mom looks happy, don't you think?

The little boys are always close at hand to help out with the candles :)

I guess she liked her quilt :)

Happy 75th Birthday Mom!

I love you!