A Lovely Lugubrious Day

Click here for music  just don't forget to come back!

 It would be such a perfect day for staying home, curled up with a book and a cuppa tea or sewing, maybe a little of both! This song, along with Singing In the Rain, always gets stuck in my head on days like this.  Since I am working both jobs today, I won't be doing any sewing or reading until after 8:30pm. But hey! I am getting paid to be here and I will enjoy this day! I do love rainy days!

'Tis Thursday and I actually remembered to take Teacup pictures before leaving the house! A lovely stack of teacups- these were hanging on the plate rack, so the saucers were not in reach- I really need to put them in reach.

It is also the end of the month and I did *not* get to quilt my runner last night.

The pattern is Verna's Garden
from Moda Bake Shop

  #1 the batting I got at the thrift store yesterday was small pieces rolled inside a pillow size piece- not big enough for the runner.

  #2 After I got home from the Kings Kids Awards Night- I was exhausted! It was fun and the Kids worked really hard this year. I am so proud of them. Tired, but proud!




The Christmas Train is at the Station



I did, however, find something I started a while ago that I finished for a Christmas present! This little box used to be a Cricut Cartridge Box. I don't keep my cartridges in the boxes, but couldn't bear to toss such a nice box out. I used scrap book paper, stickers, hymnal pages and graphics from The Graphics Fairy and a wee bit of Mod Podge to cover it. I am sure Jo will be able to use it for her drawing pencils or something!



I used it to carry my squares for Aunt Sukey's Block



NewFO Challenge

I also started a NewFO - Kristen over at Meadowbrook is making 366 blocks in a year and I loved Aunt Sukey's Block, so I decided I *had* to make a table topper.  I just got the squares cut at 2 and a half inches and realized I forgot to add the allowance for the HST's- I do not think my block will be 12 inches, unless of course I decide to start over (probably not happening)- I may have to convert it to a 10 and a half inch ish block :) I did sketch the topper and write down which squares and hst's are needed- I do so love graph paper!

Tomorrow, we shall see how much I get done after work tonight.... maybe I'll have a friday finish? I also have some Memorial Day Picnic Pix to share. If I don't get anything done I'm sure I'll find *something* to talk about! :)

Thank You to Karen at Sew Many Ways
for teaching me how to make my signature!

Enjoy your Thursday!

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more teacups, be sure to visit:

Rose Chintz Cottage* Antiques and Teacups* The Rosemary House*
Lady Estelle's Tea Corner* Denise's Delights*
Faith Hope And Cherrytea* Beautiful Clutter* Martha's Favorites*
Breath of Fresh Air* Lady Linda Teacup*
Gracious Hospitality* Atteatude and Chocolate* Teacups In the Garden*
Letters from the Northwest* A Delightsome Life*
Poetry in a Pot of Tea* Lady B's Time for Tea* Romance of Roses*
From This to That*(hey that's me!)
Fabby's Living* Art Books Tea* Tea, Friendship and the Fine Art of Card Making*
The Nest at Finch Rest* Rose Walk Cottage* Christine's Home and Travel Adventures*
Just Cats*Rosewalk Cottage*
Two Cottages and Tea* Tea Cozie Cottage* Breath of Fresh Air*

Might I borrow your foot?

Photo from NiteOwlTX

Wowza- Last week I was MIA because I was having way too much fun entering giveaways from Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day Week. There were over 500 giveaways and I only made it to about 300! They are having another Giveaway Day in December and I will definitely start the entering sooner. (I didn't start until Wednesday.) I may even have a giveaway here!  In the midst of all that fun, I won FIVE giveaways! I will be sharing all the details right here when I have the prizes in my hot little hands. ( much easier to take the pictures that way!)

In other news, I received the notice for "my" day on the Red White and Blue Blog Hop- I am scheduled for  Friday, July 13th. I will be having a giveaway that day for sure! I already have my  Red White and Blue Blocks in Progress. I told my friend she couldn't have her birthday present because I had to get "unfinished" pictures of it for the hop. :)

They have started a Gang over at Art Gallery Fabrics!  A Fat Quarter Gang! If the first post is any indication, this is going to be hilarious and sew much fun! Check it out here!

Tonight Sherman and I will be feverishly finishing my project before the Christmas Train leaves the station tomorrow! I was going to quilt it last night and discovered the only piece of batting I had was too skinny and piecing it would require alot of pieces. I didn't really want to have to have a quilt in the middle of my quilt. Hopefully, I can find some during my lunch break, or I shall be finding a quick project to whip up in its place :) UPDATE at 4:47pm: I found some batting at the Hope Chest Thrift store- I think it will work! We shall see when I get home from church tonight!

 Sherman and I are getting along splendidly now that I have figured out some of his quirks and borrowed AbbyDoo's (excuse me "Louisa's" AbbyDoo had to name her machine too) 1/4 inch foot. Hence the title of this post. For some reason, Sherman didn't come with one and according to the fine folks at Brother's customer service, he wasn't supposed to. Poor guy, missing his foot! Not sure why Louisa came with one since Sherman is the exact same machine.  AbbyDoo is using a 1/2 " seam allowance for her raggy edge quilt so graciously allowed Sherman to borrow Louisa's foot until I get one ordered.

AbbyDoo and Louisa chain piecing with 1/2 inch seams.
Sistermine is chain piecing HST's with Shubal (her Singer)

whoops and a win

WHOOPS!!

Here it is Friday and I have been having way too much fun entering over 300 giveaways over at Sew Mama Sew! (I didn't even get to two of the giveaway pages)- I had my teapot all ready to be photographed and got caught up in the fun. So sorry!

I did win the May for Me "Charming GiveAway" from Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting! I got to choose my colors for a charm pack- I picked Ocean Blue and Cream- I wasn't expecting to receive my package until the weekend but I actually got it on Wednesday! Marcia also included  postcards which are sew utterly cool!  



This teapot came from my pattyfriend who moved way to far away!



The ocean blue is Perfect for my "Ocean View" quilt that I am working on! I needed the cream just because but it may end up in Ocean View- I don't know yet!

Marcia has some great stuff in her shop be sure to check it out!

the front squares are for Ocean Blue- I just love these colors!

In other news- Sunshine Boy has been drawing a Cinderella Mural- I just love the hoity toity horse and the driver's funny face! Can you see the magic sparkles around the coach?

I will be posting more of this mural next week as well as the Photo Scavenger Hunt results.

Have a Great Memorial Day Weekend- Thank you to all who have served so that I can be free!

Thursday - Tea Cups and Ta Da's

Hope you are having  a wonderful Thursday!

Be sure to visit these blogs for more tea cups:

Rose Chintz Cottage* Antiques and Teacups* The Rosemary House* Lady Estelle's Tea Corner

Denise's Delights* Faith Hope And Cherrytea* Beautiful Clutter* Martha's Favorites* Breath of Fresh Air*

Lady Linda Teacup* Teacups In the Garden* Letters from the Northwest* Gracious Hospitality*

A Delightsome Life* Poetry in a Pot of Tea* Lady B's Time for Tea*

Romance of Roses* From This to That* Fabby's Living*

Art Books Tea* Tea, Friendship and the Fine Art of Card Making*

The Nest at Finch Rest* Rose Walk Cottage* Christine's Home and Travel Adventures*

Just Cats* Rosewalk Cottage* 

Atteatude and Chocolate* and of course our wonderful Hostess Miss Spenser*

Ta Da!!!!

Sending  Love Table Runner

I used snaps to attach the envelope
because I wasn't sure how well my ink
would stand being washed

 This runner was made for my CaMom who keeps us stocked with fabric and supplies and machines. I am teaching MySweetMommie, SisterMine and AbbyDoo how to quilt, so everyone had a hand in creating this. MySweetMommie chose the colors to match CaMom's Tiffany lamps. We wanted it done for CaMom's Birthday but we ended up ready for Mother's Day instead. We made it to represent all the love sent back and forth between Illinois and California via phone calls, internet, snail mail and occasional airplane rides.

Envelope tutorial is from Dread Pirate Rodgers

Linked up to Sew many Ways and Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Surprise Packages



Hmm... I wonder where I got my smile?



When I arrived home late Friday night after partying with MySweetMommie, I found a tag on my door from the UPS man stating that he had a package and had to have a signature so he would be back on Monday. I *knew* there was a surprise coming from UPS but I didn't know what it was and now I had to wait 3 whole days to find out what it was. Thankfully I had a busy weekend! I had to work a different shift on Saturday so after work Saturday night I prepped all the goodies for Mother's Day Dinner at Nelle's and Sunday morning I managed to get up early enough to bake the Key Lime Pie from Pioneer Woman and put the Chicken Alfredo Pasta Bake in the oven. I have never ever used the delay timer on my oven before but it worked GREAT! The Pasta Bake was ready when I arrived home, I took it out of my oven and ran over  popped it in Nelle's while we waited for the breadstix to bake. I will definitely be using it more often!

After lunch we played a crazy game of trivial pursuit. The sun shining on the game board inspired me to make a Trivial Pursuit style quilt, so I took a picture and filed it my "Someday I need to make one" file in my brain, and I am going to pin it on Pinterest so I can find the idea again. 

 Anyhow, I am rambling- Back to Mr. UPS man- Monday morning was spent on the phone with the cell phone company (for an HOUR and a HALF!) being shuffled from one rep to the next (grrrr snarl, COUGh! ) I had to explain the problem to each one, I now have my phone's serial number memorized. I was beginning to think they wanted me to talk to every employee in the building. I was coughing and blowing my nose and feeling horrible and trying so hard to be patient. I think the problem is being fixed but it was not a fun process! ( the poor reps probably didn't think it was fun either)  Sorry, I'm rambling again- I got off the phone and was playing around with my red white and blues for the blog hop and I heard the beautiful big brown truck at the end of my driveway.

My friend told me I should have
Mr. UPS bring me a daughter next time,
but I think  *that* might make people talk!

He doesn't pull in to my driveway because it is long (like this post) and I can see that he has a good sized box and it is pinkish- When he finally gets up to the house, he apologizes for not being able to leave it on Friday - (I love living in a small town.)  I told him I was going to teach the cat to sign for my packages. Can't you just imagine it...

What did Mr. UPS bring me? He brought me a new brother!- Wait a minute--- those come from the stork don't they?

© Dixie Allan

not *that* kind of  brother! This is the brother that Mr.UPS brought me:

I named him after the cartoon characters
Sherman and Mr.  Peabody

I'm not sure why... but I like it!
 My Simplicity machine is Simple Simon.

It was a good thing I had already told Sistermine that I wasn't coming over- I couldn't leave my new brother home all by himself on his first day!  I stayed home and played with my new toy! I worked on an improv log cabin and made a Red White and Blue block.

you will have to wait for the blog
hop to see the whole block

 I have a teal/blue quilt floating in my head but have yet to find the perfect fabric- I have a couple in mind but I'm not seeing what I want. Thank you CaMom for the wonderous surprise! Sherman, and I will have alot of fun together!
 

Can you tell I found a photo editor to replace picnik?
Check out PicMonkey It's way too fun!
This effect is Daugerreotype- I love it!

 Tune in tomorrow for more adventures with Sherman, a teacup and CaMom's  tablerunner!

Teacup Thursday/ Friday Finish

 Teacup Thursday  FRIDAY
and a FINISH!!!!

It is finished and on the road to California and my cream and sugar bowl are also "on"  the Road to California block :)



Can You see the Sunshine in the purple square?



Here is a sneak peek.   Of course I can't show you the entire thing just yet because it's a Mother's Day gift and probably won't arrive until Tuesday. I will post it on Wednesday for sure!

There is a Give Away over at It's Sew Kiki

and at Maureen's    There are a few more giveaways on the sidebar -be sure check them out!

Have a pulchritudinous Mother's Day Weekend!

Tips from friends!

Don't you just love it when a handy dandy tip from a friend really and truly works? Sometimes the tip works but not quite the way you thought it should. Sometimes it just doesnt work AT ALL.   I have been working on a project with Sistermine, AbbyDoo and MySweetMommie and I can't wait to show you the finished product- of course that means I have to finish the product first.... It is nearing completion and the tip I got from SewCalGal (I think it was in Leah Day's Video) is the reason that my free motion quilting went smoothly (which is amazing in itself) *and* I made cool loop-de-loos and squiggles with out fighting with my machine! I can't wait to try it on Granny's Domestic Bliss- this will definitely help with the "writing" on the borders.  I still don't have the opened toed foot for my machine and just used my zigzag foot- which means I can't really see where I am going, so the smaller hearts aren't quite right - in fact one kinda looks like a bird instead of a heart.

the larger hearts were MUCH easier to see



"I am sure it was supposed to be a bird-
 I actually meant to do that"



 On the whole, I had a lot of fun stippling and squiggling and looping- there was no growling or snarling (well, I did snarl *a  little* when the bobbie bobbin ran out) I always seem to type my name when typing bobbin- bobbie  did run out ...of energy and had to go to bed. LOL

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you the tip- careful now- it is an incredibly difficult thing to do and very technical- are you ready? Here it is!

"set the stitch length to zero"

Now wasn't that hard? *giggle* - then you can go forward and backward and side to side and don't have to shove the whole quilt back and forth through the arch 842 times! I didn't even drop my feed dogs. I can't show you the whole project yet- tis a Mother's Day gift, but here are a few peeks at my fun FMQ! Be sure to check out SewCalGal's Free Motion Quilting Challenge- I haven't joined the challenge, I am just watching at the sidelines, but after last night's fun I may have to jump in! She also has alot of other cool stuff on her blog and she has Shamu on her banner (which just makes her even cooler!!)

Tea Cup Thursday has been moved to Friday- I forgot to grab a cup before leaving the house!
But you can visit these others who remembered!

Rose Chintz Cottage* Antiques and Teacups* The Rosemary House* Lady Estelle's Tea Corner

Denise's Delights* Faith Hope And Cherrytea* Beautiful Clutter* Martha's Favorites* Breath of Fresh Air*

Lady Linda Teacup* Teacups In the Garden* Letters from the Northwest* Gracious Hospitality*

A Delightsome Life* Poetry in a Pot of Tea* Lady B's Time for Tea*

Romance of Roses* From This to That* Fabby's Living*

Art Books Tea* Tea, Friendship and the Fine Art of Card Making*

The Nest at Finch Rest* Rose Walk Cottage* Christine's Home and Travel Adventures*

Just Cats* Rosewalk Cottage* 

Atteatude and Chocolate* and of course our wonderful Hostess Miss Spenser*

Yester Year WIP

It Happened in 1968 

• North Vietnam and Viet Cong troops launch the Tet offensive
• Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
• President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968
• Earthquake in Sicily
• Redwood National Park is created in California to protect the Giant Redwoods
• Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy marry
• The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is dedicated
• Boeing 747 made its maiden flight.
• NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission
•  Allen K Breed invents an air bag that deploys and inflates automatically on violent impact using nitrogen gas.
• Apollo 8 orbits the Moon, becoming the first manned space mission to achieve the feat.
• Dr. Christian Barnard performs the first successful heart transplant.
• US Explodes experimental hydrogen Bomb.
• The Emergency 911 Telephone service is started in the USA which provides a single number for reporting emergencies and is manned 24 hrs per day 365 days per year
• ATM First Philadelphia Bank installs the first automated teller machine in the U.S. 
• The first Big Mac goes on sale in McDonalds costing 49 cents
• The Beatles create Apple Records and record "Hey Jude" as the first single on the label
• The CBS television news magazine program "60 Minutes" shown for the first time
• Cleveland Fabric Shop changes its name to Fabri-Centers of America, Inc. and changes shop names to JoAnn Fabrics
  
• Beverly starts her Gingham Rick-Rack Log Cabin Quilt



All the strips are cut for me- its almost like getting a jelly roll



Fast forward to 2012 as

           Bobbie attempts to complete Bevy's Gingham Rick-Rack Quilt!

I actually haven't started stitching anything yet, but plan to do some this weekend! I really love the gingham fabric with the faux rick-rack and will probably add some real rick rack to the finished quilt/quilts! Thank you Christine for the challenge!

Have a Great Weekend!

                               TTFN! Bobbie (who is still trying to make a cute signature line)

PS. the date may not be exact- I think Bevy said she started this when she was 16 or so.

Also I was trying to find the cost of fabric in the 60's but didnt come acrross anything, so if anyone has a link please let me know. All my info came from: http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1968.html

Kitty in the Window

Kitty in the Window



Have you Hugged your cat today?



Today is Hug your Cat Day! So it is fitting that my "ta-da" is my "Kitty in the Window" Wall hanging! Sunday afternoon, I took two of my King's Kids Girls out to lunch for filling our star chart up last year. One of the girls mentioned that she wanted to have kitty decorations in her room and the wheels in my head started turning... This fabric would be purrfect for a little girl!  So, after dropping the girls off at home, I started this little wall hanging on Sunday afternoon, and finished it up on Monday evening. I almost had the block finished before church Sunday night but it just needed *something.* I found the fat quarter of the orange polka dots while MySweetMommie and I were shopping on Monday- and I had the block in the car so I could match the colors.  I think it gave it just the right oomph! I added blue rick rack and some boring buttons. Miss Christa loved it.  I have plans to make a matching pillow for her as well.

the improv log cabin  block is so much fun to make



quilting on the back





My other "ta-da" is this set of baby blocks that I made on Saturday. I added plastic in between the layers of one of the blocks to make it crinkle and added a bell inside another. All of the fabrics have fun textures too. The parents liked the blocks- the baby is only a week old so we will have to wait to see how he likes them. :) Stanley liked them- he thought his job was the official cuddliness inspector .

 Word of the Day

Main entry: pulchritudinous [puhl-kri-tood-n-uhs]

Part of Speech: adjective

Definition: beautiful

  

This Teacup belonged to my dear Amyfriend's grandmother. It is one of my most treasured cups. It is so feminine and springy. It is  very pulchritudinous. I have another cup with a similar design that I received at our Ladies Spring Tea. It has the same border, just different flowers in the center. 

Speaking of flowers, my irises are full of buds and some of them look like they are kissing. I've never noticed this before but thought it looked neat.



My irises seem to be growing in a circle



two of the buds on two of the plants
look to be connected

Also participating in Teacup Thursday:

Rose Chintz Cottage Antiques and Teacups The Rosemary House Lady Estelle's Tea Corner

Denise's Delights Faith Hope And Cherrytea Beautiful Clutter Martha's Favorites Breath of Fresh Air

Lady Linda Teacup Teacups In the Garden Letters from the Northwest Gracious Hospitality

A Delightsome Life Poetry in a Pot of Tea Lady B's Time for Tea

Romance of Roses From This to That Fabby's Living

Art Books Tea Tea, Friendship and the Fine Art of Card Making

The Nest at Finch Rest Rose Walk Cottage Christine's Home and Travel Adventures

Just Cats Rosewalk Cottage 

Atteatude and Chocolate and of course our wonderful Hostess Miss Spenser

Have a  delightful day! Tomorrow I will hopefully be posting a yester year WIP....

Bobbie :)