Another finished top of half square triangles

I have been going though some bins in my sewing room as I am organizing things.  I found these half square triangles that I made with a charm pack of white and a pack of spring prints  a couple of months ago.
I am thinking of quilting it by stitching in the ditch and maybe some feathers in the boarders.
I kinda like the orange.  I am going to use pieces of the orange, pink and green for the back.

completed quilt top ready to be quilted

I finished the green and yellow chevron quilt I started with half square triangles.
It measures about 40" by 42".  I think it will make a sweet baby quilt. I am thinking of binding it with the blue.

fun with half square triangles!

When I was organizing some little boxes of fabric I found a stack of little triangles that I cut out with my Go Cutter several months ago.  I decided I would see what I could come up with.
I made some little half square triangles and put them together, worked on a boarder and tried to blend the colors. The half square triangles are 2 1/2 inches square.  This is on my design wall right now.  the boarders are not attached and I am not sure what I will end up doing with the corners.

my three boys

My DH and I have 3 Grandsons.
We love to have the them over for visits.  They are so much fun.  This afternoon we had the three boys here.  We ran around in the back yard, played with cars, ate snacks, ran some more
 ( this time in the house), played some cards, played with cars again and raced, ate some more, etc....  Whew!  Did I tell you that they are so  much fun. Oh, yes I did and they are!!!!

This is why we moved to Houma.  We did good didn't we?  We love these boys so much!

Ephraim is 2 this month, Reed turned 5 in October and Alden will be 6 in May!  

They grow fast, way too fast!

Quilting Bee November Block

I made this block for an online quilting bee I am participating in.  Very interesting block. It is the first time I make this one. It took about 45 minutes to do this one. It took long to do because I was determined to get all my points to match up right.  It was fun to make. The block looks crooked in the photo but the sides are really straight. For some reason I can not get a good picture of it.
I will be mailing it this week. I hope Nathalie from the blog Waste Land Wollowing blog   http://wastelandwallowing.blogspot.com/  likes it.  It is called Goose in the Pond.

New house - new house cleaning routine!

I am determined to keep our new home CLEAN and in order at all times.   I have come up with a routine and for the last 2 weeks I have been able to follow it pretty easily.

Here is my schedule:

Housekeeping Routine – takes about 20-30 minutes each day!

I.               After supper and before going to bed

-       Wipe down all kitchen counter tops

-       Clear sink and drain board of any dishes

-       Run dishwasher if it is full

-       Wipe front of dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator, stove & vent

-       Pass swiffer in kitchen

Every morning

-   Empty dishwasher

-       Put a load of laundry to wash, fold and put away 

II.           In the morning

Monday:

-   Wipe inside of microwave

-       Dust blinds and breakfast table and chairs

-       Vacuum and mop utility room, kitchen and breakfast 

Tuesday

-       Clean hall bathroom

-       Dust blinds and all surfaces in guest room

-       Vacuum and mop guest room, bathroom and hall

Wednesday

-       Dust blinds and all surfaces in living room, dining room & foyer

-       Vacuum and mop living room, dining room and foyer

-       Check fridge, clean (2 shelves and a drawer) remove spoiled food

Thursday 

-       Dust blinds and all surfaces in master bedroom and bathroom

-       Vacuum and mop master bedroom and bathroom

-       Change bed sheets, wash, fold/put away sheets

Friday

-       Sweep front porch and back patio 

Saturday

 -       Pass swiffer throughout house 

Sunday 

-    Go to church and enjoy a day of rest!

I have always heard that if you do something for 6 weeks, it becomes a habit.  I am going to make this routine a habit I know I can do it!!!!

New Home pictures

Happy Halloween.  October 31, 2013.

Today marks 30 days since we bought our new home.  The time flew by this month. We have everything  in place now and it feels like we have lived here forever. ( well almost everything - we still have a couple of boxes of family photos to go through.)
Here are a couple of pictures.

Front of house

                                                           

Front door.

Kitchen with breakfast table.

Dining room

More pictures later.  

We met several of our new neighbors tonight while loads of kids were Trick or Treating on our street.

Everyone has been so friendly!

I think we are going to really like living here.

Fabric Painting

My sweet friend, Jan is working on something new.   Her projects always amaze me.   Now she is doing fabric painting.  This is her grandson.  I can not wait to see this completed!

Sewing room ready for action!

It has been busy here in our new home.

I finally got my sewing room set up. I still have a few bins to go through but for the most part I am ready to start working on some projects.  A special thank you to my friend Jean for helping me get started on getting this room in order.  It took several days to get everything in place.

I have several unfinished projects that I am determined to get done before I start anything new.

Here are some photos of how it looks  now.

I had some space for a small design wall!  And my DH installed my new TV for me.

Still need to organize a little better by color but at least I can see most of my fabric. I was able to stuff my batting into that little corner. 

I have a nice view of my front yard out of that window and it provides some great sunlight.

Another view of the fabric wall.

Moving

This has been a busy 2 weeks.  My DH and I bought a new home in Houma and sold our house in Raceland. We started moving in on October 6th and as of last night, October 16th we are 95% all settled in. Not bad for 10 days of nonstop work.  It was a great feeling to get all of the boxes and things out of the garage so quickly.  We still have some boxes in the guest room and dining room but we are almost there!

I am so thankful that my two DILs helped unpack and organize my kitchen and a wonderful friend came over on Saturday and helped me get most of my sewing room in order.

Thank goodness we had a moving company move the furniture.  We are too old to be handling heavy stuff. My DH and I moved all the boxes and small items.

I am amazed at how much STUFF one collects over the years.  We brought about 10 pickup truck loads of items to our local thrift store while we were packing.  As I unpack I have set aside about 15 boxes of items to bring to the little thrift store near our new home.

We moved from a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house to a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home so I have to clean out and get rid of loads of stuff.  It gets easier with each box to pick out things to give away instead of putting them away.

 I will post some pictures of our new home later and I will post a picture of my new sewing room as soon as I get it in order.  I am almost all organized in there.

Getting Old!

This plaque says it all!

zebra quilt completed

Jan finished her zebra quilt.  This zebra is amazing.  Paper piecing overload.....
She did a great job with the quilting!

Amazing paper piecing!

My dear friend Jan is at it again.  She did this zebra paper pieced quilt.  It will be a beautiful wall hanging.  It is about 24" by 36" and amazing!  Hundreds of little pieces...

weaving again

I made another rug.  The loom keeps calling me!  It is so much fun.
This rug is 54 " x  22 ".
I am going to have to start listing these in my ETSY store.

Fun with my loom

I pulled out my loom this afternoon and decided it was time to  make another rug.
I used some black fabric with tiny white and orange dots on it and some light orange yarn.
I got the fabric at our local thrift store for $2. I had 3 yards of 60" wide silky double knit fabric and decided it would make a nice rug.  I cut it into 2" strips.

The rug is 22" wide and 50" long.  This yarn and silky fabric made a really soft rug.
I need to weave again soon.   This took me about 5 hours to complete.  In the photos the yarn looks yellow but it is really a light orange.

EQ7 letters

I have been playing with my new program.  EQ7.  I found their alphabet blocks and decided to give them a try.  Instead of using the colors they suggest on the program, I used only black and white.
Here are the letters I have managed to finish so far.  

I pulled out my old Singer to make these letters.  This machine has a beautiful stitch.

I have also been cleaning out my sewing studio.  I have several featherweight machines I have to sell.  This one is in excellent condition.   If anyone is interested in it please let me know.

And I have a Pennywinkle sewing rack I have to sell.  I have it on our local Craig's List site. We are moving and I need to reduce the amount of items I have in my sewing room. Boo Hoo!

Sewing class number 6

Today was the final sewing class at the public library in our small town.  We made flying geese.
They did a great job making their blocks.

What is EQ7?

I know all you great quilters out there know all about EQ7.   It is not a new item. I am just behind the times.
My friend, Jan,  has talked about it many times.   At our last quilt guild meeting it was announced that we would have someone at our July meeting introduce us to and show us some of the things EQ7 can do.   I was confused.....what the heck are they talking about, then I remembered Jan telling me about a computer program she wanted to get that helped you design quilts on your computer.
I decided that I needed to catch up with the rest of the quilters out there so I bought the program.
Now all I have to do is learn how to use it. I have watched a couple of the instructional videos it comes with and it does not look that difficult to do.
I am excited about learning how to design blocks, work with making paper piece blocks and how to set the blocks without having to lay them out over and over again on a bed or floor.
I hope I can learn how to effectively use it.
So, my adventure with EQ7 begins....I will try to post some of the ideas I come up with.
Wish me luck!

Here is my first try at arranging  some log cabin blocks.

I think this EQ7 thing is going to be fun!

Sewing class....Paper piece practice

We had class number 5 at the public library and this time I introduced paper piecing!  The students did a little house.
They had fun picking out the fabric and sewing on those lines!
Here is a photo of the class and their houses.

Sewing lessons at the library!

I have been teaching beginning sewing lessons at the public library in our little town every Tuesday for the past 5 weeks.  We have one more lesson next week.

Each week we learn a new quilt block.  This week we made pinwheels.

The students had fun making their blocks.

Paper piecing!

My friend, Jan is working on a deer....check out this picture of her progress so far....so nice.

A great Cajun Swamp Tour

I posted about this swamp tour a few weeks back but I just found a video that I thought I would share.  It tells all about the tour.  If you are ever in our area of Louisiana, you should take this tour.

Check out this video

http://vimeo.com/68708277

another sewing class

I had 4 students at today's lesson.
Here is a picture of the blocks they made.
It was so much fun to watch them pick out their fabric and make their blocks.

Still sewing

Finished these today!

Still sewing...two more rompers!

I have been trying to get these rompers finished so that E can use them this summer.  I completed these 2 and I have a couple more to put snaps in ....

cute cute cute......can't wait to see them on him.

I taught my first sewing class!

I volunteered to teach a beginner sewing class at the public library this summer.  We have class every Tuesday from 10AM to Noon for 6 weeks beginning today, June 11th.
I had 4 students today.  It was so much fun to share my love of sewing and making quilt blocks.
I told them I would teach them the very basics...
 - how to wind a bobbin
 - how to insert the bobbin
 - how to thread the machine
and
 -  how to sew a straight line.

I also told them that I would teach them to sew by making quilt blocks.  All you need to know is how to sew a straight line for most of the blocks out there!

They were all very enthusiastic about the lesson. We practiced sewing a straight line on some fabric. I had drawn lines for them to follow.

We did a simple "string" block.  I had some 7" square pieces of paper from an old phone book.   I cut out loads of strips of various sizes from a big container of scraps I had.
I had them select their own fabric.

Here they are with their blocks.  

I am hoping to have a few more next week.

still sewing

Here is another romper I made for E.
I have several more all cut out and ready to sew!
sorry the picture is a little out of focus!

Shorts for the summer and a blue romper

I made E a few shorts and a blue polkadot romper.  I finally figured out how to use  my sewing machine to put on buttons.
Did I mention that I'm a slow learner!  LOL

 I think he will have enough shorts for the summer.

Having fun sharing our little corner of the world!

Sue and I are part of the Bee Balm online quilting bee this year.  She lives in Australia and she mentioned on her blog that she was coming to the USA on a vacation.  I asked if she was planning to visit New Orleans.  She told me they would be spending a few days here so my DH and I picked them up at the train station on Sunday and had them stay with us at our home. On Monday we visited a couple of beautiful plantation homes on the river.   On Tuesday we took a them on a swamp tour and yesterday we spent most of the day in the French Quarter.  Today they are leaving to drive to Chicago and continue their vacation.  It has been wonderful having them here with us.  

Here are a couple of photos of the swamp tour we took.  If you are ever here in the New Orleans area the nicest swamp tour is in Gibson at the Bayou Black Marina.  His web site is

www.cajunman.com

Visit his site..there is a great video about the tour.

Black Guidry does the tour and he shares his knowledge of the swamp.  He also sings some great cajun songs.  It is a great way to pass a good time.

Black Guidry driving the boat!

Francis, me , Sue and Joe near the boat!

Sue and Joe waiting to start the tour!

One of the alligators we saw!

I will try to post a few pictures of the plantation homes and the New Orleans trip later.

A black and white scarf

I made a black and white scarf with my new loom.....It is 72" by 12"  .  this weaving is becoming an addiction!

Weaving Weaving Weaving......one more rug

I love my LOOM....
here is another rug
19" x 45"

recycled t-shirts

Another rug made with my loom!

I love weaving....really, it is so easy and so much fun.

I made another rug.  This one is about 20" X 45"
Made with recycled t-shirts and yarn

Isn't it neat?

Shirt for the birthday boy!

Our oldest grandson is going to be 5 years old at the end of this month.  My DIL wanted a shirt with the number 5 on the front and she told me the theme for his party will be Spider Man.
She gave me a black t-shirt and this is what I came up with.
I got the fabric from our local thrift store for 15 cents!

 Front of t-shirt

back of t-shirt