Cherries

 My Mother in law has the nicest cherry tree in her back yard. I've been watching it for weeks. I really wanted to pick them a week ago, but they weren't ready when I was. This morning while picking up grass clippings I knew it was cherry picking time. I told my sister in law it was today or loose them, she said she'd pick them in the afternoon. Well after all my gardening and such I decided to head up to the house and see what they had left. LOL they hadn't even started! Lucky me I got an icecream bucket full before anyone came out of the house! Kevin came up with the tractor and we picked the top of the tree from the loader bucket. My sister in law and two nieces picked the bottom branches and what they could get from the ladder and climbing the tree.

 My Mother in law even called some friends from church and they picked after we were full!

 Three icecream buckets, two pots and a box and plastic 32 oz. glass is what I ended up with.

 I started washing, Brad ran the cherry pitter and Kev ate dinner.  I now have 3 gallons of cleaned cherries to put up tomorrow night. I decided to wait to finish because I got a call from work about filling in tomorrow. (oh and I need sugar and Amaretto) I also saved the pits and I have them in the dehydrator on low so they are usable for Hot/Cold Bags that I make. All the stupid bags I've made and I don't even have one in my freezer! Oh well now I can make a cute one for my headaches, boo-boo's and heat spells. Cherry pits hold the cold really well, in fact the most expensive Hot/Cold pack at the chiropractor has cherry pits in it.

Oh I love Summer harvest time!

Sunday

 My very first pickings from the garden this year! I have already made creamy cucumbers with chives and dill, it's cooling in the fridge for supper. I sliced up the peppers and covered with salt and vinegar and put in a jar for the guys to eat whenever. Kev is doing a lot of the garden work this year, I'm just an occasional weeder, or grass clippings gatherer. He has an irrigation system set up and it works really well until he pumps to much fertilizer thru and burns the plants. Yup....well they are coming out of it but I thought it was best to pick off the peppers to give the plants a chance to perk up.

 I love daylilies, I think I have 4 different varieties now, not sure but I like them all.

 Can you see that zucchini hiding? The plant is not very big yet but it's blooming and producing.

Oh and my helper Sammie was out today too, he walks thru the garden and steps on the plants for me....

Pencil bags

My Mom is always up for a special project when I suggest it. I saw on Sew for Kids that the June project suggestion was pencil bags for the kids on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Mom did all the embroidery while I did zippers and sewed up sides. She worked a lot faster than me so in the end she sewed up sides to help finish them up. I follow a blog out of California, North Hills Quilter, she is a prolific charity quilter and she decided to make skirts for Sew for Kids while her embroidery machine and quilting machine are both broke. She shared a link to the Sew for Kids blog and while reading it I decided I could do pencil bags fairly quickly and they were small enough to pay postage on to send.
  The denim is a pair of old jeans I didn't like the way they fit, note to self......don't use stretch denim again! My first bag is a bit wonky(yellow bottom right corner). Some of the bags have the word Pencil on the back, some on the front, just depended on where they got set on the sticky stuff on the hoop. We had a lot of fun matching thread to zippers and then finding ribbon to make tabs for the sides. Mom thought they needed something on the zippers for pulls so she took hair elastic bands and strung them thru the holes and tied knots so they would be easy for little fingers to unzip. 
  I really enjoyed our little project and I know Mom did too, it's fun having a sewing partner!  

3 yard quilt

 I bought this fabric in Texas a few years ago at a quilt show in Fort Worth. I took the time to visit the show while my friend Anna was doing horse things at the Will Rogers Arena. Oh my those ladies are amazing quilters in Texas! Well anyway this fabric has been aging in my stash at least two years so the other day while at my Mom's I pulled it out and cut it up. No I did not have a plan, no it was not a good day to pull measurements out of my head, oh and it really was not a good day to "just start sewing". I had a yard of each, so I thought I could cut strips and blocks out of it all.....ended up with enough to add borders after I sewed it all up. Who knew one plus one = two..............I thought one plus one plus one=two......nooooooooooo that's three. So this is a three yard quilt with just enough dark green to make an inside border and binding, wait.....that makes it a three and a half yard quilt.........

I was so proud of myself to actually get it on the quilt frame, until I finished and took it off, then I saw this. The thread jumped the bobbin and made quite a mess on the back. Well it looks like I'm keeping this one, but that's alright, I really like the fabric and it was interesting to make so now that it has a story it can live at my house. Nothing perfect lives at my house anyway.

Sewing afternoons

 I have been enjoying my time off by sewing in the afternoons with my Mom. I took a few UFO's, some scraps, and some batting along for some marathon sewing time. Stupid me whips out a project and stuffs it in a baggie all ready to take home and quilt so there really is not a lot of pic's to show off all my work from the week. I did manage to snap this pic of my new set of kitchen hanging towels. Don't look to close at my sewing, it's been awhile since I made these and I was out of practice! I need new towels in my kitchen, I have been using the ones left from my Aunt and Great grandma, they are in sad, sad, shape I must admit. ( I have to tie some of them to the handle because the buttons are missing.......or it's a mystery design on the front from so much use making it unrecognizable.)

 I have been sewing and sorting scraps the last two days. It started with a few pieces of leftover baby quilt and my how it's grown! If it was red, blue, white or yellow I threw it in. Mom suggested a large star so that's what I went with. It's 70x70 with borders. I made a blue back and it will get red binding of some kind, maybe scrappy, not sure yet.

I have blocks started for a second quilt with the same scraps. It will be a child size quilt I'm sure because I'm getting tired of these scraps and it's time to move on.
 

new bags

 I whipped up this little tote tonight at my Mom's. She gave me a charm pack awhile back and this is part of it, the brown stripe is gathered a bit for texture and I added a button closer at the top. The other side is different prints in the same colors.

Mom and I made a bunch of snap bags and the top one is mine, I love the coral/ peach fabric with the soft grey and cream print.  Mom also made a bunch of these book holder bags and she gave me one too. The romantic print is perfect for the summer season of reading. 

A few new things

 Here's proof that teenagers sew! Sara got the instructions on how to make knit headbands off the internet. She found a couple shirts in the goodwill bag and recycled them into headbands for myself.

 I finally finished this quilt top last month, only took a year of messing around..........not quilted yet.

 Oh and another top....not quilted yet.  This is Laurel Burch fabric, Christmas cats and such. It was cut with the 7 inch tumbler die. I love random scrappy tumbler quilts.

 This is Moda fabric, don't remember the name of the line but I bought a charm pack and 3 coordinating prints for borders and binding. Oh and the mint fabric for the background too. One of the few lines that I liked so much I actually bought it all from the line and didn't mix some random fabrics in. This is a $60.00 quilt top just in fabrics, that's a lot for me. I'm cheap!

This little panel is just one of the many I have ready to quilt. My Mom supplied the border fabric as the batik was perfect with the watercolor painted effect in the panel.  

  I am sewing more this month due to a flexible schedule at work and it's been fun to hang out with my Mom and just sew random things.....in fact I've sewn so many random things I really must buckle down and quilt a few of them, they are starting to pile up!

Prom

Sara had a great time at prom. My Mom did the flowers, the hair and took off the itchy beads under the arms of her dress. Thanks Mom, we couldn't of sent her out the door without you!
  I found the dress at the Goodwill for $10.00 and it fit perfect, I made the headband after seeing one in a store that cost $12.00. Well there was no way I was going to pay more for the headband than the dress so I bought cord at Walmart and Mom did her magic macramé to help me finish it. (so what I'm saying is my Mom made the headband to.....) Well I did buy the earrings......at a garage sale for $.50  oh and her sandals were cheap to and she's still wearing them every other day.  Can you tell I like to bargain shop and remake?

Sara Day

 Mom and I had a Sara day a few weeks ago. All Sunday was devoted to Sara and this is what we did.
  Took an old knit shirt I didn't wear and turned it into a skirt.

 Mom spent most of the afternoon ripping and patching lace into Sara's favorite jeans.

 Her skirt is made with a pair of jeans and an old lacy shirt out of my closet. Love the ruffled back.

So call it what you want, recycled, upcycled, revamped, boho vintage. or make do. We had a great day!

Wonky Star

I made this little quilt for a Shoppe sample, it is Wonky Star from Missouri Star Quilt Co. issue 4.
I believe its 54x67 or so in size. I thought we could use a kids quilt for Shop Hop this year and this was a perfect choice. Easy to put together and fun enough for a kid to use and abuse. I love that its great bright colors for either boy or girl and a decent size to drag around or use as a floor quilt for a baby.

baby quilt

I found these blocks at the thrift store and had to bring them home. My Mom made me baby quilts with these blocks when Kristin was due 25 years ago. All four of my kids used these quilts so when I found these blocks I knew I had to make another quilt.......for my grandbabies. No one in my family is expecting so I will just finish it up and stash it away.

machine is home

I am so happy my machine is home, only $200 to fix it. I didn't realize how much I used it until it was at the repair shop, then every other thing I wanted to do involved a fancy machine.....

Cowboy baby quilt

 Spike and I sewed up this little baby quilt the other day. I got the blocks from the thrift store and used scraps of light blues.

I used things I had on hand to make this quilt. No buying new is my motto this month!  (until I see something in Vegas on my vacation)

hats

 I have an obsession with hats............I love to make them......but never wear them.......guess I'll give them away.

 I'm also working on these granny squares, just a few at a time. When I run out of one color of yarn I move on to the next.

I finally finished this scarf, all that was left was the fringe. I made two of these and this one I'm keeping, just in time for spring.

Winter throw

Quilt group made these blocks a few months ago at their meeting. I made 7 blocks. Well what do you do with 7 blocks? So after setting them with plain squares I quilted it and mom bound it. I call it a FINISH! It now lives at the top of the pile of quilts from the last post. Some times finished is better than perfect.....

Sewing

 This is what's on my sewing machine right now, a small raggy quilt that needs washed so it gets "raggy" and soft. It's hard to see in this pic but it's a cute boy and dog print with just a touch of red in it.
  I have apple core blocks cut out of Cat in the Hat print. Oh my I now know I don't like curved piecing! I started out needing 7 pins for one curved seam. So long story short I told Luann at the shoppe about my curves and she proceeds to tell me some people can do that seam with 1 pin! Oh wow, challenge taken......I came home and worked on them until I could do it with 1 pin! Well after fighting with them I decided it's easier to do it with 5 pins and a lot quicker for me than stopping and pivoting every 8th inch. Well if I ever get it done it will be a sample for the shoppe.
  The blocks in the bag behind the machine are the leftovers from the apple core blocks, I had enough to cut tumbler blocks out. No hurry on that project, it's just an extra.

I cleaned out the quilts in the laundry room. Now they are stacked on my spare bed  in my "closet". These are the ones we don't use or I won't let the family use. Or seasonal quilts. I like to see them but I need a place to put them so they don't need washed so often. I'm thinking of just layering them on the bed or stacking them in the chair, I can't use the bed with the giant piles!

no more lime

 No more lime! One of the projects around here this winter was painting Kristin's old room in the basement. When she first moved to the basement it was yellow. Wow it was bright, after the flooding she decided to paint lime green, wowzer it was really bright then! So she went to college and about her junior year I moved Brad downstairs and her stuff upstairs. He didn't care one bit about color so I never got it painted for him. So after he moved out this last fall I decided to make the room a little more comfy for the kids and any guests we might actually get.

 Sara and I decided to do it on the cheap and use a color we had leftover from something else so now it's grey, the same as her room upstairs. (she has yellow and black and teal blue with her grey)

Kevin and Sara did most of the painting, he fixed the broken ceiling tiles and I hung purple sheers over the closet opening and the window. Moved Josh's bed in and two dressers, a desk and a wardrobe also. ( things the boys left)
  Brad sleeps downstairs sometimes now, or he falls asleep on my couch after watching TV with us  and this week Josh is home and enjoying having a room while home instead of a corner in the basement.

forgotten

 I made these for Kristin some time back, just realized I never showed them off. She's off in Washington state teaching and living in her own apartment now, I do miss her. I keep making her things in brown and turquoise with aqua and maybe a bit of dark orange thrown in. She has brown dishes she will move someday to her home(they live in my basement now) and I love to color coordinate things for her.