next quilt

My Daughter has requested a quilt to take with her to college. and since I have this tendency to put stuff off, I have gotten started on it. well I have some block cut ready to sew, and she decided on the pattern.

This is going to be what the block looks like when I get it done, its a 12 inch block. Now I just have to sit down and start sewing!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nature Window Pine

Look what my mom did for me while I was getting my last Chemo treatment. Now my birdies have a bit of "tree" around the tray I keep to hold the knocked out seed. Thanks mom I am sure they will love it

DVT

Due to a condition that I have right now, (see my cancer blog) I can't really do any crafting/cooking. So I am going to suspend this blog for a short while. I will however, be posting on "The Dragon" on a fairly regular basis. Please keep up with me there.

I should be back to doing creative things within two weeks as the swelling leaves my hand. I have a quilt that I am ready to get started on, so I am chomping at the bit...

Thank you for following!

My Humps MY Humps...LOL!

No I'm not singing again, I'm crocheting. For the Linus blanket I am working on right now I wanted a shell pattern that would lie flat, not be all ruffly. So while My mother-in-law and I sat waiting for my treatment to be over she helped me work this pattern out.

R1- SC, C, SC, C REPEAT
Slip into beginning stitch to join.

R2- Chain 1, (Skip to second chain space, DC 7 around chain space, skip to second chain space, slip stitch) Repeat

I am using Lion Brand "Home Spun" yarn. its soft and silky and the 7dc, make a nice "finger rub" spot this should make a great project linus blanket as soon as I get it all edged.

Skip Stitch Blade

This is a skip stitch Blade. It goes on a rotary cutter.

This is what it does

So that you can do this.

Handy Little Gizmo. Don't go looking for it at Joanne's! It can only be purchased from Project Linus.... Right here

ONLY $10

the wine rack

This wine rack has been in my family since I was a small child.I have moved it COUNTLESS times. Until this sewing room reset, It has just been "ornamental" with pretty stuff on it.

It still needs some work, but i am trying to make it more "functional" you can see I put my "purple hound" Basket on it and i have finally found an excellent use for it! I have UFO sewing projects in it. so if i need a sewing project that's where I go, at least untill I empty it.

On the top is a Jar of buttons I am intending on filling to the top, And a Gourd Basket My Cousin Cheryl made for me when she was here last. I don't have anything in it yet, but I am thinking maybe pincushions because I have so many of them and I keep wanting more... Why is that?

I see I still have a bottle of sparking grape juice from my wedding.... it was gross back then wonder how bad that will taste now? I guess flylady dictates I still need to throw that out.

ON the bottom shelf are 6 totes..... those hold my notions. yea six totes of notions. one with ribbons, a big one holding rickrack and bias tape, another big one holding zippers, one holding assorted lace and things like that. and a tiny one is empty. I may empty a sewing box into that one.

I had someone ask me how I had so much rick rack and so many zippers.... Well that goes to my second hand shopping my favorite second hand store. so many people are clearing out the collections of sewing things since not too many people do it anymore. when I find a good stash I snatch it up. Now I actually have a place to put it all! but for now i have had to stop collecting rick rack and zippers. I simply have all I need.

See the purple shopping tote under the rack? that came from my local 5 and dime, when it went out they sold everything. I bought this to keep my mending in. so if there is a pair of jeans that need a mend, this is where they go till I get to it... right now its empty.

And that's the new use for the wine rack

My sister suggested keeping rolls of fat quarters in the bottle slots, but its far to dusty and cat hair-ish in this part of the house. and my fabric would get dirty to quickly.

Any other neat suggestions?

Veterans day

Macrame Plant hanger

One of my chemo nurses and I got to talking. We have time to do that since they have to sit with me and administer 3 of the 4 drugs at small increments over say, ten min each with a syringe.

and I told her that I knew how to macrame. She has been looking for a plant hanger. So I made her one.

mini peanut butter blossoms

Everyone loves the typical peanut butter blossom cookies. peanut butter cookie with hershey kiss smushed down in the middle of it.

well we have this thing for Hershey kisses... we eat them. so we never have any just laying around.

but chocolate chips are always in good supply. so we make our blossoms mini sized and just put one chocolate chip in the center. you feel like you can eat 5 without guilt cuz they are cute and tiny.

My pic shows them strait out of the oven, we have 2 and a half dozen cookies on one regular sized tray and baked they come out about the size of a quarter. just another way of using the peanut butter dough that was so big! Here is that recipe again!

Sewing totes

As promised I said I would post as the re-organizing of my sewing room comes around I would keep you updated!

Well these are my fabric totes, they are inside my pantry. They have one drawback... If I need to get into the far end of my pantry to get my fish tank hoses and ladder, I have to move them all out. That is just pull them out. small price to pay to have all of my fabric at my finger tips!

I have them organized to fabric color, and type. The top tote is purple scrap. Yes, I need an entire tote for purple scrap. The tote below it is whole pieces of purple.

I have one tote that is scrap of different colors, and those colors are organized into different colors in gallon zip lock baggies. it took me all day, but I found fabric I forgot I had and its just oh so nice!

Finished Quilt

The quilt is all done. I finished the binding and now its packaged and ready to ship to the newest Mommy and Daddy I know. This gift is for precious Sophia. May she grow to love the color purple.

Homecoming dress

Well the night has come and gone so I guess I should post Michelle in her homecoming dress. I really should have done this a week ago. Sorry it took so long! and if you think that is a big smart-alec grin on her face it was. the first pic i took she ended up turning her head and looking at the TV. the second i took she didnt smile... so by this time she just wanted it over.

thumbprint cookies

Oddly the peanut butter cookies that we made for 11/3 post did not hold up so well. or more to the point i am one gallon of milk down and no cookies!

so we decided it was.......


Oh we cut them A bit thicker, rolled them into balls and put some strawberry preserves into a fingerprint, and a whole new cookie out of the same HUGE batch I froze! with no time at all into it! Eat your heart out Pillsbury ready made dough!


Here is that recipe link....

OFF to the Quilter!

My sister has agreed to quilt my baby quilt on her new quilt frame for me. She has just gotten her quilt frame, and shes just learning how to do it. But you know what since this is the first quilt top I have ever done, she still knows more about it than I do! and this is a FAR SUPERIOR job than I could have done in the time that I have before my friends baby arrives!

Peanut butter cookies

This is my peanut butter cookie recipe. It is HUGE! when peanut butter goes on sale I buy an extra jar so i can make these. normally around this time of year. I make "tubes" in waxed paper and freeze a good portion of it. We normally only bake 2 dozen.

The ones in the freezer we use for Christmas cookies throughout the end of november and the beginning of December.

We use it for:

Peanut butter blossoms
(Hershey kiss cookies)
Peanut butter surprise cookies
( these have mini snickers bars hidden inside)
I can also use it in a cookie press

and of course just the simple double fork cross.

One hint though you better have a very big bowl!

Peanut butter cookies:
3 1/3 cups peanut butter
2 2/3 cups butter flavor shortening
6 eggs
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of baking soda
6 to 7 cups of flour add it until it is not sticky and you can roll it into a ball

the cookbook says it yeilds 100 cookies... i have never counted them

One More Border

I thought i had this Quilt top finished but the more I looked at it, the more I thought it needed one more border. it has its imperfections. and if you cant see them i am certainly not going to tell you! but now its dropped off at the quilters to become a finished quilt.