DK5 Review

One of the online stores I love to buy from submitted a request for  product reviews, articles, and how to projects.  Well I couldn't help myself and jumped right in.  Here is my review for DK5:

Get back to the Cheaper, Easier Way of Doing things

Did you give up on spray adhesive?  Or perhaps you avoid using it because you don’t want to have to clean up over spray?  I understand exactly.  I first found DK5 at Allstitch.net and I’m so glad I did.  It’s easy to use on many surfaces and I have even have found an excuse to use it away from my sewing room.


Just a little spritz on a clean cloth and another spray on whatever needs cleaning and then wipe them both together.  Rarely will you need to wipe more than once.  Long gone are my days of a sticky workspace.  Do you sometimes set up the roll of stabilizer as a shield to protect your work area so you don’t have to clean that part too?  I know, I’ve done it.  My hoops had so much build up they would leave adhesive on my embroidery machine as they would move, but not anymore.  DK5 is so quick and effective, I am able to easily remove all of the accumulated gunk off my sewing things with only a couple of wipes.  I found myself with nearly full can looking forward to an excuse to use it. 

I spray baste all of my quilts on the floor and use newspaper to keep the spray from getting on the hardwood, but sometimes a bit of spray ends off the edge of the newspaper in spite of my best efforts.  So I just reach for a clean cloth and my DK5 and it’s clean.

Whenever I see a bit of lint accumulating on my sewing machine needles I remove the needle and give it a spray of DK5.  I let it sit on there for about a minute and then I rinse the needle under running water and allow it to dry.  I have prolonged the life of many needles by doing this.

I have also been known to spray my templates with a bit of spray adhesive to prevent shifting.  I have found this is especially helpful on new templates.  When I’ve finished cutting my fabric, the template is covered in fabric lint.  DK5 cleans my templates so beautifully that I can put them away mess free.

DK5 is a great product to have around the house, in fact when air conditioner installers came to my house they used spray adhesive during the installation and got it on the paneling as well as my door.  I was really concerned at first but then I remembered my DK5.  I did a little spot check in a corner and when that was fine I used it on the messy over spray.  The entire mess came right off.  Perhaps they should be taking DK5 to job sites with them.

If you’re concerned about the smell it is completely negligible as there is a slight fragrance at first but it clears quickly; certainly faster and much less intense than the actual spray adhesive.  So why not be done with the mess? Grab your adhesive, tear away stabilizer, and pick up a can of DK5.

All Pups Great and Small

While I'd intended this to be a quickie project it got stalled for a while in the handyman department.  Now it's out of there and ready to be hung within reach of my sewing machine.

I collect straight pins; I have some that are over 100 years old at well as other more modern ones. I have added them all to a large bit of embroidery I made over a year ago now I think. It's really interesting to see where we've come from with quilting pins. From metal pressed flat and then folded upwards to make a pinhead, to flat head pins dipped to make a larger round head, to now having my personal favorites - our flat head pins.

Yet with all of these I still have the simple harder worker crystal head pins on my shopping list. Why? Well those are the ones that can go under an iron! We're not going to talk about the plastic ones I accidentally melted...

When I was little I used to call my mother's pins circus pins. They were all the colors of the big top and always reminded me of a party. These were short 1 1/4" pins. Aren't you glad we have longer pins to work with now?

What do you collect? That's a question often found on getting to know you lists. I feel like straight pins aren't something most people can relate to. Lucky for me there is always some thing else wanting to collect dust in my house, then of course are those things - the ones someone else thinks I should collect.

The Quilts of The Great American Teach-In

Yesterday I finished up the second quilt for the second teacher in Jessica's class.  Both panels were printed by Spoonflower.  The first was my radial gradient attempt.  That didn't work out so well and the gradient was lost in a sea of dark navy and purple.  They agreed to reprint it with a solid background for me which while I was terribly disappointed I was grateful to them.  The first was such a mess I was certain I couldn't use it, but the waste not want no person in me decided I should try to salvage the first for the teacher's aid.  That way no matter what happened to the second panel in shipping at least I would have one quilt as I promised the children.

I appliqued a pieced block of the school right over the owl.  It took rather a lot of time to get it just right, including but not limited to the hand stitched playground you see above, so this has a children's novelty backing.

The second one arrived just before I could affix the binding on the first, sadly I was rather burned out at that point so all I could think was UGH more work!  The solid background was darker than I thought it would be.  I had been shooting for a light blueish teal and ended up with more of a primary blue.  I'm so glad I kept it light so the owl would be clear.  I hand quilted around the outlines of the owl which gives him a bit of a fuzzy look.

As I only had one yard of the flannel I'd hoped to use as backing I went ahead and did a diamond on the back.  While neither of the quilts from Spoonflower were what I was looking for the children's crayon art work came out beautifully and I love that it's completely washable.  If I find myself making another quilt of this type I will certainly refer Spoonflower.  Multi color gradients could print quite nicely but a range of a single color I would not recommend.  The owl's eyes are a brown black radial gradient and those turned out just fine.

I'm all done shopping and nearly finished wrapping, and the cold front has just made it's way here, so I'm ready to settle in with a cup of hot coco.  From our home to yours, we wish you a joyous and peaceful holiday.

A Pocket For Corduroy and School Stuff?!?!?!

Jessica is four now and that means things like school supply lists (I received my first one as a parent two days ago, more on that in a jiff). Backpacks, clothes for her first day, as well as Friday Spirit Day Clothes. It's really feels like a lot to do before the month is up. After I made my first pair of boxers, for my husband, I learned tags are there for a reason, so I always put in at least a scrap of fabric so the wearer gets it on the proper way.
So what do I do? I go on a tangent looking at little girl jumpers. My all time favorite line in the Harry Potter movies -to date- is Ginny saying "Mummy, have you seen my jumper?" I adore the way she accents that! My mom offers up her pattern from when my sisters where little, which I promptly alter to make pjs. Not bad for an deviation from the pattern, if I do say so myself. Everyone knows it's very important for children getting ready to start school to have new "jam-jams!" LOL, right! Yes, that's a Purple Punch Vera Bradley Backpack, Jessica's auntie loves her very much!
As for that school supply list, it says EVERYTHING must have the child's initials on it. Want to take a guess at my daughters initials? JR! Right, like I'm going to cover her things with that. So JCR it must be. I had a fight with the embroidery machine about it. The embroidery machine won, but I got my way by turning the flywheel by hand 1198 times - one turn per stitch, now there is a workout for you. DH started calling around about the sensor the machine needs (of course we don't have a part number!) and the only quote he was able to get today was $90 to start and any parts needed would be on top of that. I know, Eeegads! Of course my sister tells me after I did all that that she could have had the kind people at Vera Bradley do embroider it for me.

I'm a first time mom, I can't help myself. Since I am also armed with the knowledge that I'm a last time mom, it's really important for me to do everything right, can't you tell? Jessica's school supply list says "12 pack of crayons". As a child of the 80's I know there are two kinds of crayons. The good kind made by crayola, and the bad kinds made by everyone else. Even today I find this to be true in every pack of crayons I come across. Like a good little mommy I go online and type in "12 pack crayola crayons" I can have 12 boxes of fill in the blank number of crayons made by crayola. I can have 12 crayons all the same color... Or I can buy something else. Melissa and Doug are making plastic ones now... That seems wrong, like somehow you'd have to press harder or something I dunno. Then I found another place P'kolino. Their own website doesn't show the crayons as being available (only the colored pencils), which makes me uncomfortable.

So here's what I've learned. Most 12 pack crayons (including the lumber crayons believe it or not) are not round. In theory preventing them from rolling, and allowing for a better grip. Another thing about crayons that my super artistic daughter taught me is that washable is the best. Crayon isn't fun to try and get out of anything... So I'll be hoping for a box of triangle washable Crayola's! I will have accept the yoke of "one of those parents who can't follow directions". Because if I order something online and it's wrong... Grrr...

"A Pocket For Corduroy", while not the first book of the dearly beloved little bear named Corduroy, the pocket one is the one we own (you try having oodles of voucher money at a paperback bookstore that is going out of business and see what you buy!) After reading that book the other day Jessica insisted on him having his own pocket (I selected purple fabric to sew on, just like in the story). No photo of him as he's tucked into bed with my little one this evening.

Today is my 6 year wedding anniversary. I had it all planned out. I was going to give DH a Bobby Flay Reversible Double Cast Iron Griddle, and then we could enjoy bacon and pancakes for breakfast. Well Kohl's was out of them, so we'll have to save that for another day. So since I have vested interest I hope all of you had a great day. Because that's all that mattered anyway.

Sickin' Allergies

Yesterday Jessica was running a fever, so we had a "mommy hold me" afternoon on the couch. She can be so cuddly sometimes. Of course today she is off to the races again, picking flowers and playing dress up with a pair of "pretend" glasses that she has.

I thought I was coming down with it to, runny itchy nose, etc. So this afternoon when I cleaned up the kitchen a bit (you know how all that can fall by the wayside when you don't feel 100%) I found a glass of chocolate milk. Yep warm. EEWWWW. There is nothing I am more allergic to than milk gone bad. As a child I couldn't even have pizza or ice cream, but as an adult the allergy has settled into an extreme sensitivity to all "turning" and spoiled milk products. The smell alone will chase me down like a pack of wild lions. So turns out I wasn't sick at all. Just as soon as I'd finished cleaning up the kitchen I was right as rain again.

Father's day was good. Jessica was so excited this year. I used a sponge brush to brush tempera paint on her hands which she patted all over the paper we wrapped the quilt in. In my dreams my husband is a man of many words, in reality not so much. So he said what he always says about my quilts "looks good".

In complete contrast, the other week my cousin was shown all around my sewing area by my DH when I wasn't home. Later she told me how proud he is of all that I do and all that I create.

My sewing machine is okay, but of course the embroidery unit is awaiting a visit to the repair guy. Since today seemed like a cluster of bitter grapes I decided to put it off till tomorrow. After all maybe tomorrow will be a bed of roses.

Just enough

I made it, with just enough fabric and just enough thread for the ABC embroidery for the baby quilt I'm working on. It's even cat approved. Tiny our dear one just had to check it. As for the thread... The dark purple-blue you see is about how full my spool was when I started, and the teal of course is all that is left. I figure that means I'm on the right track and it's "meant to be".

This quilt is headed for baby boy TJ, who hasn't even been born yet. He will be the first child born to one of the teachers my sister worked with last year at the elementary school.

I'm planning to space out the ABC's with a "filler" fabric, something nice hopefully with a blend of blue and teal. I'm guessing before the border is added it will be about 50"X60". A nice sized baby quilt. So don't worry about the upside down letters, they will all be cut apart soon anyway. Embroidery Tip: It's easier to embroider on bigger peices than smaller ones. So when you're doing a project like this cut the fabric after you embroider. As a bonus that way you only have to "true up" once as well.

Another Baby Quilt

Yes, you read that correctly. I'm working on another baby quilt. This one will have the entire alphabet embroidered out on it. I just love the greenish-teal on the white. The white fabric from my neighbors scrap/leftover pile. It's about 1/2 a yard of apparel fabric. It feels rather like minki, though I very seriously hope I wont have that much trouble with it.

In spite choosing nearly a full spool of polyneon to embroider these 5.5" letters with I'm still running quite row. With 10 letters left to go I am certain I will need another spool. Madeira thread isn't available locally so that will be a post haste order going out hopefully this weekend. At least the company I like to order from it has my color (1888) available in cones as well as the spools. I don't want to have a run like this again. It's crazy how fast those little spools can go. Not to mention going faster as it gets closer to the center. But you already knew that didn't you?

My pain levels have been quite high even waking me up last night out of a blissful sleep. I suppose it must be the stress of all that has been happening lately. At first I was delighted to learn a chipper rental would only be $140, but then there are fees, rental insurance in case it it stolen from your property, deposit, etc. It all adds up very quickly. So I'm not certain how that will work out.

I hope you all are enjoying spring and living stress free, why not take a minute and tell me about it? The good, the bad? It's always nice to know someone is listening.

And Then there were 15!

At least 12 hours ago I sat down to work on the little dinos for the front of the baby quilt. My pea brain tells me scattered embroidery with charms between... Size uh hu, yep, need 15 Dinos. Sounds great it's going to look awesome.

After I finish stitching out the first two or three dinos it hits me. Even at only 15 minutes a dino, I'm going to be here for HOURS! I explain it all to DH and what does he do? He tells me how great it will be when it's done, how appreciated it will be, how special. Awww geee, he must know my buttons. Before I go any further I need to explaining... That 15 minutes to embroider something? That's the time it will take the sewing machine to embroider the dino but no matter what my stop time i.e thread changes, broken needles, ect isn't included.

About the time I'm halfway in I'm figuring this little quilt will have about $100 worth of embroidery on it. Right, and no one will ever know. I hope they love it. Personally I love the little green guy on the bottom left with the big red heart. A little guy for everyone. The pastels I found nice and sweet also.

My supply of embroidery thread is getting lower and lower... I even RAN plumb out of red. That's okay though. I figure my next order of thread will have about 20+ spools in it. Good thing where I buy Madeira thread has great rates!

Tonight at bed time Jessica asked me if I would stay awake. She always asks this and I always answer the best I can, because even moms have to sleep sometime. "Honey I'm going to sew a bit more on the sewing machine and then I'm going to bed to watch TV. For reasons only known to a 3 year old she thought that was funny. Nearly laughing me out of her room funny. But after sitting at my machine all day... Granted something I enjoy... I feel the need to veg, "be still like vegetables, lay like broccoli."

March Row Done

Such a wonderful day to get things done. Today I wrapped up my March assignment for the row robin. On each side I have embroidered line work of snow covered towns in golden thread. On each side of the center I have a north pole this way sign, and in the very center is Santa's Village complete with Mrs. Claus placing a scarf on a snowman. Most all of these patterns came from Sew Teri-fic, and I just love it. Mrs. Claus has beautiful patterning within the thread on her skirt. It's so pretty I found myself wishing I could be Mrs. Clause, lol if only for the dress! This is the detail shot of the center before I sewed it on. The theme for this row is Christmas with Santa - Scrappy Style. I just loved working with the applique embroidery, what fun to dig in my scrap bag, and for these little houses any little piece would work! FYI the line work town came from Embroidery Designs. But it's a big design and filled my 6"X10" hoop completely. This row took 11 hoopings of embroidery and I think the finished product makes it well worth it.

My new baby Orchids arrived today and have been escorted outside in a temporary arrangement until DH is feeling better. Seems he caught some sort of nasty stomach bug.

Cherish those you love. I am currently reading "Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul", which my neighbor gave me by way of her cousin. The little story I am holding with me today has the following line, "but that can't be why, I'm adopted." and the momma says "I always forget". Isn't that wonderful? May your day be filled with Sunshine and Happiness.

Tip of the Moment

This is a cheater's tip. Sometimes when you're using a satin stitch or embroidering and the tension isn't quite right the stupid little bobbin thread likes to rear it's ugly head. To fix this you loosen the tension and viola beautiful sewing. But if you're just doing a little thing, and you don't want to rip it out to resew. Simply take a Sharpie of a matching color and gently color those little threads.

For me it's always the black that wants to show, nothing like a bit of marker to cover it up. It's not perfect, but the stuff I colored a couple of months ago still looks nice and black.

Tea for three

I made plenty of progress on my curtains today. I find myself surprised that I completed six of the seven needed. No hem for now, I wont do that until I know where they will hang and how they will hit. Putting them together was a bit of a pain in the beginning, but once I got the routine down they went just like clock work. I'm planning a seasonal center for the long wall, so I have a bit of embroidery still to do.

Each panel is between 15" and 20" depending on the size required. Even the cats pitched in to help Tiny from a box at my elbow and Sunny from the corner, by the end I was draping the curtain over him just to run the last two seams through.

Jessica was running a low grade fever this afternoon, hopefully she will have a good night's sleep and feel better in the morning. Last night I twisted my knee seemingly doing absolutely nothing and after a day of dealing with it now its popping. It would seem everyone here could use a good night's rest. Wishing you all the same.

Two Bowls with one Quick Zip

I love when things work out. I've been battling an ear infection this weekend, and didn't think I'd be up to figuring out something to make for dinner when I found Garbanzo Bean Soup tucked away in my freezer. A little bit of thawing and a nice healthy meal right at my finger tips. Jessica ate two entire bowls, granted her servings are small, but hooray! She loves everything but my mac and cheese, which isn't very good anyway.

Last night I made an emergency repair on Jessica's pj's, when they had been run through the Serger a small spot missed being sewn in. No I didn't make they they were a great Clearance deal at Gymboree. They are already covered in snowflakes, but because of all the embroidery I've been putting on my sister's jeans to repair them, Jessica thought her repair should also have embroidery on it. No great sakes I have an snowflake that stitches out in 2 minutes, it matched so well you can't tell it from the screen printing that was already on the pants. It made her happy and that's what counts.

Since the Hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004 my kitchen upper level cabinets haven't had doors on them. Rob made doors for the bottoms but never made it to the tops. It's on the list of things to do and take care of, but something else always seems to come first. For a while now I have had an embroiderable tea pattern set stitched out, with no real plans in mind. Well I have decided I will make curtains with them. Nice and homey, someday we'll get around to making the glass ones I'd like but for now it will be nice. Look for those in future posts.

Tuesdays

Oh My oh My! For dinner tonight we had Corned Beef, Boiled Cabbage, and wild rice. A a teen I would have never dreamed of wanting. Yet I have made it for years and I just love it. It's so simple and goes in the crock pot without a speck of trouble or bother. YUM!

While I served up seconds for DD "So this is love" from Cinderella played. That is such a beautiful song. A perfect example of classics standing the test of time.

Today I found that I can buy a mug embroidery blank from allstitch for only $1.50, I'll be adding at least two to my next thread order. They have a snowflake ornament blank for about the same price. I might need one of those as well.

The Row Robin Ladies are doing wonderfully, each row adds a facet to the first making it even prettier than before.

A couple of nights ago I taught myself how to purl when knitting. I've been trying to pick it up for a while, but DH got the swing of it first. I think it will add just the right touch to the scarf I'm working on. Though it would help me make progress if I moved it off the kitchen table!

Speaking of the kitchen table I completed 10 of the embroidered labels for the 2008 that means just two more to make. They look so nice stitched on the corners. Since I will have all that extra space leftover in my hoop I'm planning on making a little pot mitt with all the information on it, for the group's Hostess. I hope she likes it. I'm planning on using two layers of heat resistant batting. I hope it will be enough, of course if it still feels thin I throw a layer of flannel in there as well. I don't think it's worth using the water soluble stabilizer on the top of muslin. With a more expensive delicate object it would be worth the extra steps, but there was no noticeable difference in the muslin stabilized with two layers of 50 gsm stabilizer, and the muslin stabilized with 2 layers of 50 gsm + the water solvent stabilizer on top.

Scooba Doctor

I am an original owner of the 1st ever Roomba, how's that for bragging rights? It always did an okay job, and when Jessica was little she loved to sit in her baby swing and watch it go round and round. Well a vac for entertainment will soon loose charge and it wasn't to long after that that the original Roomba became robot trash, sad I know. But I never begrudged it. I always felt like it had worked hard and deserved to retire.

Then came the Scooba. Oh boy oh boy oh boy... And those are not good boys! The directions say you don't have to sweep first, but trust me you do. It would make me crazy watching it blow the dust bunnies around. Before to long the Scooba ate it's first battery. We called irobot and they told me the directions on the battery were wrong and I needed a new battery. They sent me a new one. Well the new one never worked like the old one, so I called them again. This time the man told me to keep my battery in the freezer when not in use and that perhaps it would be best to charge it before using it. Well trust me I do not know ahead of time that at 3 pm I'll want to wash the floor. I was not a happy camper, but I did it anyhow. Well of course this one started to go bad as well, that made me really mad, because even in the freezer of all crazy things to keep a battery that powers a floor cleaning device.... etc. you get the picture.
Well "footmarks" (barefoot prints) on the wood floor make me a little crazy. So as of late, DH and I have talked about buying a new battery for it. So I set about seeing what I could see... It would appear that the new battery will run about $95, this one is a different type of battery and should not give me the fits the old ones did. Meanwhile, Scooba has sat all this time and I could really use another pair of wheels on hand, those run about $12. To stall off that $100+ bill, I cleaned the Scooba all up today, and DH set it to charge. Tomorrow we will put it to work and see how it does, but in the mean time it's parts are spread all over my counter.

No quilting today, but I have started work on my pin cushion i.e. fancy pin display. I embroidered a meerkat on it, and it says "All Pups Great and Small" a play on the word "pins" of course, the meerkat even looks a little pregnant, so isn't that special?

A Plan and Everything for the Plan

Happy February! Most everyone I know is happy to shake the dirt of Jan. and leave it behind them eagerly looking forward to a new month still bright with the possibilities. As for me I am looking forward to have a little spending money in my pocket, perhaps to buy a little fabric with, but for now I have some eye candy to share with all of you.
This is the current layout plan for the apple quilt. It will involve a bit of seam ripping, but I think the black on the diagonals will suit it just fine. That leaves me with four squares of apple fabric and four squares of embroidered apples. And a deficit of 8 blocks for the completion of this quilt. I'm not sure how it will work out. I'm hoping it will come to me as I purchase a bit more black and sew together a bit more of the layout. I have also added another block to my sampler. This was a nice looking block from a BOM so of course I couldn't help but go ahead with the pattern. Aside from planning a Dresden plate and or a Grandmother's fan, I will also be sewing a circle block into this Spring Sampler of mine. So be on the look out for those.
A couple of copyright issues have arisen on the Quilting Board, so I will be posting my personal creation, the April BOM (block of the month) right here first. Yes, that's correct a previously unpublished Elizabeth Rogers original will appear right here for my follow bloggers to see. Look for that sometime later this month.

I have also begun to process a concept for my Charity Quilt 2009. This one is destined for a suffering young child, as I have heard quilt lore that if an ill person sleeps under a quilt. The quilt having been made of love will heal the sleeper. This is to be a large Carpenters Wheel in Shades of Purple. I look forward to working on it.

Now before I depart I would like to offer my congrats to my Row Robin ladies. I have had confirmation from all but one that their rows were sent out by our Jan. 31st deadline. Kudos to all of you. As we embark on the second row look within yourself for the answers that lie within.

Try it again Ernie...

Mending has been the topic for me for the past two days. I seem to only get one or two things patched up in a day. Slow and steady for certain. This is a Kitchen Dish Rag that had earned itself an early hole. I honestly didn't feel like the rest of the cloth was that worn so I did a bit of embroidery to repair the hole. High time I did a little fixing for myself. I also did the embroidery work on this t-shirt. Rob hated a couple of them I'd bought a while back because they where to tight in the neck, so I inherited them by default. In the past I'd just stretched the collar a bit to make it not so tight just before wearing (I'm so refined yes I know, haha). So when this shirt earned it's first tiny hole I just embroidered the daylights out over the thing. Honestly it's quite comfortable now. I was worried about the neckline plunging to much and so I moved the entire design up in the hoop. Clearly I didn't need to do that. Jessica discovered the Minnie outfit I made for her the other day. Doesn't she look so pretty? Since yesterday DH has been hard at work digging out the roots in our septic tank. What a large nasty smelly pain. It's fixed now, but not before Fios had to come out and rewire our line because they buried it right on top of the septic so as soon as DH started looking for the corners of the tank. SNAP. They had put us on the list for tomorrow, but after a THIRD phone call they moved us to this evening. You don't realize the problems of having it all together until phone, Internet, and tv all go out. Good thing we have a great movie collection.

Well wait, Verizon does have to come out tomorrow anyway. My fios line is just laying on the grass right now, hey I'm not complaining at least it's working, but someone will have to come out and bury it tomorrow. That will be DH's deal, as I'm hopefully off to the biggest quilt store in all of Florida! Rainbow's End Quilt Shoppe, here I come!

News on that big corp interview DH had, but I'm not ready to share yet.

I finished my scarf, but I don't know how to cast off yet, so no final phone just yet.

Jessica's Check up

As much as I wanted to I can't seem to bring myself to label this post with what my daughter said at the doctor's office yesterday. You might worry about me.

So dd went to the doctor's yesterday, we needed her shot records and they wouldn't give them to me. Which was crazy because they were up to date. I thought there was a law about that? Ahh well, so we went. First off to the scale, It's a tiny little thing only about 2 feet high, with a silly simile on the stainless steel. The step plate is "bubbly" as though to be silly on your feet. Well my daughter takes one look at that and stops dead in her tracks.

"Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not DYING! I'm not DYING!" She screams, "Did she just say..." says one of the CNAs standing there. Her daddy and I glance up from trying to get her on the scale. "Yes, she did" we say together. We did manage to get her on the scale with her shoes off. Silly again since then were those foam clogs that weigh about an ounce, and most likely added more insult to the injury. 30 pounds that's my big girl. It was so bad at this point the nurse takes us off to the room and measures Jessica on the exam table like a baby.

After that it was smooth sailing, she's been talking about it ever since. Any why not, in spite what they'd told me she didn't need any shots!

Today I have the blue quilt in the sewing machine! Oh it thrills me to have it there. I'm quilting a exponentially growing diamond over it, and I'm going to quilt back in some of the blue borders. I'd say in one day I got it about 80% quilted. Not bad for a full size quilt. Of course I will have photos when I'm done.

My knitting is only 24"! That's half way, but it means I need more yarn. Hopefully a way to get it will appear, so I can send it before Christmas like I wanted.

My handmade Angel doll made it's way north and has been received. Apparently I didn't dress her well enough and the new owner thinks she needs a quilt. I thought angels could regulate that stuff without clothing, but what do I know?

My sister has assigned me another pair of pants to embroider, so when my arms became tired today I looked at designs. I have plenty of ideas of what not to do. Hopefully what to do will come to me soon.

DH and I have been playing an old GameCube game. We once beat it, but since it has been collecting dust on the shelves. We pulled it out I guess two years or more ago, but Rob played it without me, so for me to play I had to use his character and that's no fun. So this time around we have rules. No playing without the other, unless you're bringing your character up to the level of your spouse, and no playing unless Jessica is in bed. Regardless of animated blood and violence the music is a bit on the creepy side. It's a nice change of pace. But it had me going to bed a bit later than normal, maybe that explains the sleepiness I'm feeling?

Tomorrow is our Secret Santa Christmas Party on the Quilting Board. I'm certain that will be loads of fun. Did I mention that my Santa lives in Spain? Her work is simply amazing. A pox on the $20, a part of me hopes she invested just a tiny bit of time into making me something. Oh where is the big happy eye smiling face when I need it! LOL. I also invested time over money, more than a little time, as I hand stitched... Okay no more hints until tomorrow. Our party starts at 4:00PM so pictures of the gift I sent and the gift I received with post after that. DH has been keeping my package put up and away somewhere. I don't know where, hopefully he will give it back so I can open it tomorrow.

Butterfly Bouquet Done! (flimsy)

Butterfly Bouquet Quilt Top is done! I think it looks so pretty, and quite a bit like I measured for the drop, (that's the part that hangs off the bed) but I didn't it just turned out that way. Those are indeed rosebud blocks that traverse around the center, I used the measurements I remembered from Eleanor Burns "Quilt in a Day -Egg Money Quilts", but somehow they weren't the correct measurements so one bud is a bit more "bud-like" than the other. Ah well, I bet you wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out. Here you can see the the Redwork I did along the sides, yes my redwork is blue, but since this is the "blue quilt" I thought it would look just fine. Each corner has a butterfly, just as the butterflies appear over the center of the quilt. You can just see this one here on the bottom corner.

The center says it's made for my sister for Christmas so she can have flowers everyday. If you've been reading about this quilt, you know I've had various pitfalls along it's creation, just think how happy I am to see it laid out this way for the first time. Now the Butterfly Bouquet Quilt was intended to be a two sided quilt, from the moment I started the second side, so here is a reminder of what the first side looks like. It's so pretty in it's own right I hate to call it a back. I saw a wall hanging using this style of charms and lattice, and I really do like it. It creates an amazingly quick quilt, with the longest efforts going into selecting the fabric and cutting, which since the pieces are 17.5" is no big deal. I would be more than willing to say that this side of the Butterfly Bouquet Quilt would be perfect for a beginner.

I wrapped up this morning after I spilled my coffee all over the sewing machine case for the Brother, of course the foot pedal, disks, the manual - all sorts of important things were inside, the coffee managed to run into the storage compartment as well, but I'm here to tell you I'm so very glad the sewing machine WASN'T in it's case! I'm not sure what the rest of the day holds, hopefully the creation of some FSL (free standing lace) is in the cards.

Croke!

Today I am a frog. I was one last night, and this afternoon too. Where the handsome prince to break the crokie-ness of my voice? My DH? He's not a prince so the kiss didn't work. Mean little sniffle-ing bug. Everyone in my house has it now. It's even settled in Rob's lungs, so please spare him any happy thoughts you might have. He's prone the pneumonia, so it's a constant fear when something like this happens. Since I don't have to talk to blog I can feel free to share my day with all of you.

First things first. The reveal. I made all 12 rosebud blocks, only to discover I really needed 15 or 16, so I'll have to get on that tomorrow. Here is the layout plan. The embroidery at the bottom is white on white and will go all around the quilt. I'm thinking about a blue border between the white of the basket and the natural muslin of the rosebud blocks and then a second between the rosebuds and the embroidery. DH thinks perhaps the center white background should be cut down a bit smaller and that I should add more butterflies. What does everyone else think? I'm personally inclined to agree with him, hopefully now that I've found some more freebie butterflies that wont be a problem. As always you can click on the image to see it better. I encourage this because you can even see the details of the white on white fabric in this photo.

Tonight I'm showing off my daughter as she headed for bed. She is sporting the pj shorts I made for her, aren't they darling? I'm afraid they wont fit her much longer. Why is it she seems to out grow the things I make so quickly? Is it just that I love them more? Oh no her teeth aren't really like that, she just enjoys being silly for the camera. If you click on her you can see those big baby brown eyes! Whoever would have dreamed that my hazel eyed husband and my blued eyed self would have a child, the namesake of a Green eyed woman grow up to have brown eyes?!?! Oh well there's no more denying it now, hazel maybe, blue never, and certainly not green.

What do you see?

Here we have Chains... What do you see? Do you see scraps of fabric strung together or do you see the beauty of the blocks they will become? I was working on the rosebud blocks chaining them all together, when I discovered what a pretty pile I had in my lap.

The pants are done. I washed the stabilizer out and added some sequins, I think in spite of my struggles they turned out nicely. Remember I didn't make the pants. I just fixed them with the new embroidery, the embroidery you see on the front leg is original. Do you see the front pocket detail? I'm very pleased with that, I took out the chain o' sequins, and replaced them with beading. The sequins I then used on the back detail.


As an extra I have included my most recent bib, which is sort of a "reclaim" project. Together with the "backs" of the ones I'd made before.