Pillowcases

 My Mom and I sew together quite often, sometimes I get her into things.......like pillowcases!

 We did these last winter and now they are finally getting mailed to the Indian Reservation north of us in South Dakota. I did give some to a family that had a house fire last winter too.

This last pic is ones that I'm keeping, everyone has new pillowcases except me and Mom so we both kept our favorites.
  This blog is a great way to keep track of my sewing...............but all my pic's are on my new phone..........someday maybe I'll learn how to put them on the computer...............

Valentines Day

 Take a look at my Valentine's day present from Kevin. Well before anyone says he's not a romantic let me tell you I got breakfast at McDonalds, a trip to Bomgaar's and he let me pick out my own presents! Yes I wanted an anvil, no I'm not crazy. (ok maybe a little crazy) I'm ready to do more with my beading and jewelry so I needed bigger and better tools. Oh I even got icecream on the way home, it was a great day!

 I love to string beads! I bought a box of beads from the Goodwill a few years ago and I have been slowly using things out of it. The long necklaces are the same beads in two different colors. I did add a few extra to the red/gold set to make it longer. The pink necklace has a chain on the end that I took off of something else because I didn't have enough beads to make it long. I custom make my necklaces to the length I like so I don't usually add extenders to them. I like my designs to go all the way around my neck so they look good from the back too.

The first three bracelets are the same beads, just set three different ways. I like working with natural stones and glass, these are shell. The last bracelet is bright pink, I just like that color and wore it last week with a shirt to match. Since I work everyday in an office I am learning business casual and I wear at least one piece of jewelry everyday. Usually something I've made. I'm not sure why I have to wear business casual cause two days last week I wore baby slobber and snot. Oh I love kids with colds!

Christmas gifts

 I got a few gifts made this last year, my nephew's in their hats and scarves.

My niece Amy is modeling her little niece's new "Elisa" hat. Rylee wasn't around for the gift opening so Amy was a good sport and let me snap a pic of the hat on her head.

 Blogging has taken a back seat to life this winter. I've done so much and taken so few pic's..........well I'll share the few that I do have and try to be better in the future.

Wanda's B-day

 I just finished this quilt top for my MIL's birthday the 10th. I made the blocks on the embroidery machine and took them to my Mom's house to make the top. Somewhere between home and there I lost one block, didn't realize it until I had it almost all put together, so I put it away while searching for the block. Never did find it so last week I made another block, it's the one with her name on it in the bottom right corner. Then I forgot I was going to make it 3x4 not 4x3 as in the picture, so I added top and bottom 4 patches to add a bit of length.

 I had a 2x4 inch piece of white/blue fabric left when I was done with my design change.

I'm hoping to get the quilting done sometime this week or she will be getting a quilt top for her B-day. It's 48x67, a great size to cover up with in the Lazy Boy. I know cause I sat down and tested it out after I got the top assembled. Sometimes that's the only way to know if somethings good while sewing, test it out and see for yourself.

Something finished

 My granny square baby afgan has been an ongoing project. I only worked on it during TV time. I like to make the blocks but the assembly is a real struggle for me. I have a quilt planned to match it eventually........

 I made two masks the other night, finished up backing and elastic bands today at my Mom's. I think I'm sending them to my daughter, maybe she needs to wear them at college?

Last weekend I whipped up this Fall wallhang. Thanks to my Mom and her binding I hung it in my hallway tonight. I was kind of going for a banner but it's just not skinny enough to be called that. I liked that it was an afternoon project and I could quilt it on the regular sewing machine.

Friday

 I have Fridays off with my new job most of the time now so today I played a little. I have a bunch of jewelry I've been meaning to make for a long time so today I spent a couple hours and this is what I came up with. The top one is a bracelet for Halloween and the red heart and key are for Sara. She picked it out a long time ago on one of our shopping trips, I finally got around to making it for her.

One the left is jalapenos, on the right is hot peppers. I ran the hot peppers thru the food processor so I didn't have to touch them much, there is nothing worse than pepper/skin contact! Got 6 jars of each done.
 

Halloween

 Just a few of my new Halloween decorations. I bought these cool posters at Dollar General last year for a buck each but I really didn't want to hang posters in my kitchen. So I found frames that I could reimagine into wooden signs. I really planned on painting them black and mounting the posters but I laid them on the frames over the original artwork and liked it.

The top painting was a ship on the water with the sunset in the background. The second was an old Home Interiors plaque. I hung them in my kitchen and hallway, nobody has made any comments yet so I'm thinking either they never noticed the change or they just know I'm weird and hang pictures of zombies in my house just because. (or that second pic is a selfie)

I'm tossing it

 I'm tossing this quilt. Gone, get, goodbye.  My son Brad trashed his Christmas quilt.

 I was being a good Mom and doing his laundry, well I was washing what was in the laundry room anyway.....after a wash and dry this is what I found.

 I love my son and I'm not going to kill him or anything but............

 Well this is why when I say I give a quilt away it's gone. Not mine and no matter how it's used it's not a reflection of the maker. So whether it's a dog bed, floormat, paint tarp or a furniture pad it's gone.

Not going to say a thing to him...........but.............nope............not............a..............thing..............

Last project

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to decorate for. I love spooky and cute so when this fabric was being ordered at the Quilter's Candy Shoppe I said I would put together a table runner and throw size quilt from the line. Well with being so busy at work, then no patterns at the Shoppe, etc....I finally got a sample made this weekend. I'm sure there will be kits made sometime in the next week or so if your interested........I don't think I will be making any more samples for the Shoppe so now it's time to make things for myself!


On another note, I am no longer at Fed Ex. No more long hours and slick roads. Oh I did say I would work Saturdays at peak but I'm thinking by then I will welcome the extra cash for Christmas. I really did like the job but it was just to far away from home, no one should be on the road for 14-16 hours. I am getting to old to work 60-70 hours a week.    I got a job with Central Nebraska Community Services and the Early Head Start program. I am now a Family Consultant and working with family's that have birth to three year olds. It's 40 hours a week, 10 hour days with Friday off if that's what I choose. Benefits and only a half an hour drive! I've made it thru my first week and so far so good, next week I will start meeting family's and doing lots of paper work!

I really enjoyed my three day weekend and got a few things done so now that I found my camera again maybe I will share them on here. Ok I'm off to work on tomato's and peppers!

Foody Weekend

 I had a few things from the garden to add to my baked beans so I decided to make a huge batch. Oh my did I overdo it! Kevin helped me can over 10 pounds of dried beans, I had four of these pots on the cooktop. Half of the baked beans are made with navy beans , one forth pinto beans and the other fourth is plain pinto beans. I started out trying to make something similar to Bush's Baked Beans but I mixed up that recipe and one to make sweet and sour sauce so I just started dumping and mixing and hoping for the best. I will have to wait to make the S&S another time as I'm out of green peppers now. I printed off 4 or 5 recipes this morning early of things that sounded good, then I went back to bed. So this afternoon I read the papers then started chopping............oh well the beans  tasted good when I finished.

 Kev also put a pot of applesause on to cook while 5 quart of beans were processing.

 He also broke out the giant canner and we put 20 jars in it. Tried to keep some of the heat outside.

 I will end up with 30 jars of beans! I think this will be plenty for just the two of us this coming year. (Kev suggested pint jars next time)

 I have two large trays of chives drying and ready to pop into the freezer. I'm hoping I use them better out of the freezer than dried.   The cukes in the bowl will have to wait...........I'm tired!

These jars are called Cowboy Candy. Pineapple with jalapenos. I did add a few onions cause my guys like them. I made to much sauce and my peppers really shrunk up so if I ever make them again I know to really pack the jars.
  We enjoyed steak and corn on the cob cooked on the grill for dinner while waiting for the canners to finish and it's been a marathon day of NCIS on the TV. Now if the last 5 jars will finish cooling so I can take them out of the canner............I can go to bed.