Happy Birthday to me! :o)

I had a follow up eye exam this morning and when I got to work, this is what I found....

Roses, balloons and this yummy HUGE cupcake!

Our coworker is out today so my boss said she was just waiting and waiting for me to get here to see my goodies. I felt so special when I walked in. She did good. OH....and she gave me a card with a hundred dollar gift card to Joann's in it. Woohoo! I have coupons stacked up and now I can go buy replacement blades for my rotary cutter and a new Cricut cartridge and some pretty decorative paper and some new notions and some cute flannel and.....okay, I guess you get the picture.

And speaking of pictures, on the way back to the office from the eye exam, I had to stop and take a picture of our California sky. Can you see the snow-covered mountains in the background? Let me get a little closer....

I love living here. Even will all the crackpots...refering to last nights episode of American Idol taped in Hollywood. Man, there are some crazy people in this world, aren't there? Anyway, I love it here after a good rain. We get green hills, the mountains are covered with snow and usually, we get some blue skies. Sometimes they have that beautiful tan "haze" but today it was fairly clear.

Last night, after my girls went home, I sat and worked on this table runner for my friend Neena. This is a kit she bought and I'm still not quite sure how I got to making it for her (because she does sew!) but here I am. I had a stencil and used my Juki to quilt it. I tried to use my Pfaff but the tention wasn't cooperating. I decided I didn't want to fight with that all night so I pulled out "old reliable" Juki and it worked perfectly. The "machine" worked perfectly, but the quilter has a little to be desired. Oh well, that's why I'm practicing.

I did a little loop-de-loop on the borders and will trim it, put the borders on and tack it down. I'm so close, I can feel it!

My girls are coming over tonight to make some cards. They asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I know they don't have much money and I really don't "need" anything. Stephanie suggested coming over to "play" and I told her that would be a GREAT gift! We might just make repeats of the cards I did with Neena but if there's anything new, you know I'll share it! :o)

Seeing Red....and Pink!

These are some of the cards me and my friends made when we got together last Sunday. This first card was made with an individual stamp called Like-o-meter I got from Stampin' Up! For the base of the thermometer, we used SU Epoxy brads. We thought they added a nice touch to the base of the thermometer. The little dangling hearts I got at the craft show for $1.00 for small baggie of about six. They were the perfect touch to this simple card for our hubbies. Mine is on the left, then Sherrie's, then Neena's.

This is one of the other cards we made. Neena only had peanut M&M's and they are a little too big for these little heart cups so we could only get 4 in there. I won't tell you how many we ate. They obviously were just the right size for our mouths!!!! lol

This next one is similar to the cards shown above but I waited to make these at home and AFTER my trip to Target to get smaller M&M's. Neena said they look really cute with the teeny ones. I bet they look cute with cinnamon red hots too!

This is the last card we made at Neena's but it took a little "homework" too. The glittery cardstock we used for the background is a new paper from SU. It's so pretty and it's double sided so you hate to cover up the side you're not using but what are you gonna do? :o) The little heart that we used was white. I wanted to use vanilla so it sort of matched. I used my Cricut machine and the Doodle Charm cartridge to cut out a new heart and pink scallop behind it. SU has a scallop cutter but you need to use it with the Big Shot or Sizzex. I knew I had a scalloped heart on one of my cartidges so I set up my machine and BAM! I got-ir-done! Sherrie and I also found little "jewels" at the craft show for 99 cents a page. We used them on our cards as a little embellishment. Can you even see the small rhinestones on this card? I think I'll give this one to my mom.

And last, I did this one last night. I used a piece of cardstock from a pack of paper I got at Tall Mouse. One of those big packs with single sided paper!! Go Tall Mouse for knowing you only need one side at a time. DUH! lol And the little hanger is one of the brads I bought at the craft show. They are so darn cute and I knew I had a onsie stamp in my sets. The first one I found was about 1/2" and way too small and then I found this one. It's perfect. This will go with the nursing cover I made.

Okay, I'm on a roll. I think I'll do a few more cards with the candy cups because you know, Valentine's Day will be here before you know it. And I know several people who don't have a sweetie pie so I'm going to send them a little love in the mail.

Finally, a little sewing!

I tried to make the little nursing cover up I mentioned yesterday for my neighbor's baby shower gift. Sometimes flying by the seat of my pants works and other times, it doesn't. I had not seen one of these cover ups in person, only saw a small picture online so I wasn't aware they are just fabric and not lined or quilted. Well, I quilted the first one I tried and it's more like a diaper pad. Too thick and not pliable to hug mom while she nurses. When we were at the craft show Friday, I saw the pattern in a kit at the Tall Mouse booth so I bought it. The fabric was adorable so that clinched the deal.

The pattern is very easy to follow and I finished the gift last night in just a few hours. It would've gone quicker but I had the tv on and took a few phone calls. :o) The couple is having a little girl and this fabric was perfectly cute with pink hearts and flowers. (Hopefully, she won't be riding a scooter right away.) lol

It has an adjustable strap that goes around mommy's neck, has boning in the front so it naturally curves away from the body so she can see the baby and has a flannel pocket sewn across the bottom for things like nursing pads, binkies, etc.
Since I posted working on this, a nice on-line buddy wrote me and said there is a free pattern available, so if you are looking to make something like this, the directions look the same. Here's the link.

CHA....ching

You can't keep a good shopper down. That's my motto! I had a fractured molar and had it pulled on Friday but did that stop me from going to the Anaheim Convention Center to shop til I dropped? No, it didn't! lol Friday and Saturday of this week was the CHA Craft Show. CHA stands for Craft & Hobby Association and boy did they have the craft and hobby departments covered at this show!

My friend Sherrie came and picked me up and with my 800 mg ibuprofen in my purse, off we went. :o) We walked a mile just to get to the door but it was worth it. We all got a pretty red and white Michael's canvas bag. Ohh la-la, we love red! They had the new Cricut machine that cuts frosting like buttah! They were doing a demo and had make-it, take-its with a cupcake you could frost and then make a cupcake holder, wrap it in cellophane and carry your treat with you. We didn't get there until after 4:00 p.m. and it closed at 8:00 so we didn't stop to do any make-its. We were afraid we would miss something!

As it was, we missed a lot! We barely made it half way through the convention center. Our last stop before we were drug out kicking and screaming, was this booth. I will share a link to their site when I get home. I'm sure their website is on the package from the cherry stamp set I bought. Look at the adorable cards they had on display!

Did you click the picture to make it BIG so you could see the details? They do great cards! So Sherrie and I both got the cherry set and Sherrie bought the one with this donut and saying. Simply adorable! (Don't you want to lick it? lol)

And if that wasn't enough, we went over to my buddy Neena's house on Sunday to make Valentine cards. I didn't finish mine so I'll try to get that done tonight and post a few pictures. Dang, I haven't touched my sewing machine either. So much crafting.......so little time!!!!

Long drives and back to sewing...

I'm back from San Diego. My sis and I went on Thursday and got back Saturday. Thankfully, the skies were blue and we didn't hit any rain on the drive home. My mom should find out tomorrow if and when she'll have gallbladder surgery. She's doing pretty well and though we were sorry to miss Road to CA, there will be other quilt shows and it was good to take care of our mom.

The blue skies didn't last but it's okay. We need rain in Southern California! My sister drove home on Sunday morning and hit a little bit of rain right before getting home. I took this picture out my front door yesterday, MLK Day. I had the day off, which was nice to play catch up after being gone. It was pouring and the wind was blowing pretty hard. I don't know why that darn old tree in my front yard won't blow down, doggone it! I call it a Dr. Seuss tree. I wouldn't mind it but it doesn't have many leaves. Looks sort of sorry. lol We're due to have more rain tomorrow and a really big storm on Thursday. Should I call Noah? :o)

I sandwiched two quilts yesterday. Well, one quilt and a table runner. I'm working on that UFO list! But I've got a "code in by doze". :o) A stuffy nose and chest congestion so when I felt like I needed to sit down for a bit, I worked on my BOM. This block is from November. I am behind due to the holidays so I'll try to chip away at it a little during tv time in the evenings.

I started stitching on the table runner tonight and got it anchored but didn't take a picture of it. This is the other quilt I got sandwiched.

I think I'll just stitch in the ditch on this one to keep the kaliedoscope effect. It'll have to wait until I'm done with the table runner though. Better go get back to that!

H - E - L - P!!!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness, is anyone else buried.....in projects, in fabric, in life???

Okay, it's really not that bad but sometimes that's how I feel (and how I look). This is me on the floor in my sewing room. (The bins of fabric in the closet were probably a hint that I wasn't in the kitchen, eh? lol)

We are doing a UFO Challenge on our Yahoo group site, Backporch Friends. We've done it the last few years and it's helped several of us "collectors" to get at least a few UFO's done from our vast list of projects. At the first of the year we list 15 projects that we would like to get done. But first, you have to FIND your 15 projects. As you can see from the photo, I did find them. They were buried in bins, bags, the closet, the spare room, under the sewing table. I've got my list made of mostly tops that need to be quilted. There are a couple of projects that need borders but mostly they are "ready to quilt" projects. And here they are:

1. Christmas Trip Around the World - probably my oldest project from before I was a "real" quilter
2. Christmas Snowman flannel top - kit from Orange County Quilt Guild show 2009
3. Cozy Cottage Charmer - charm pack from Cozy Cottage, simple on-point setting
4. Delectable Mountains 30's - from a swap on Sew Many Swaps?
5. Birthday Table Runner - pattern I bought a few years ago. Half way through with satin stitching.
6. Richard's baseball quilt - retreat mystery. Quilt aka/Sasquatch Quilt :o)
7. Star Studded quilt - from class too many years ago
8. Bread & Butter quilt - yellow and white kaliedescope blocks, BPF swap.
9. Floral BOM - tops been done for a couple of years. Can't decide on quilting
10. Batik BOM - ditto from above
11. Red Pinwheels - top has been together for too long waiting for quilting. It's JUST pinwheels!
12. 30's four patch wall hanging - needs a border and maybe the "A" word around it.
13. Neens's Table Runner - needs to be quilted
14. June Lake wall hanging - snowballs and nine patches. I "might" attempt to hand quilt this one but I'd like to finish it before I'm 80 years old! LOL
15. Fruit Mystery quilt - from CA retreat

Do me a favor. In about two weeks, stop by and ask me if I've done anything yet? Thanks! :o)

Among the missing...

I know I've neglected my poor bloggy-blog but I have good reason. My mama's been sick. This picture is from her big whoppin' 80th birthday party about a year and a half ago.

She's having trouble with her gallbladder, and infection and ulcers. She's on lots of meds to kill the infection and if all goes well, in about two weeks, they'll do arthroscopic surgery to remove her gallbladder. I went to visit this weekend and stayed with her while my sister Virginia ran errands for groceries and mom's medications. She's doing pretty good right now but she's getting some side effects from the prescriptions. And oh, those prescriptions! Virginia and I did up a schedule of what to take when. It's crazy. It looks like some Special Ops plan for the military!! Boy, it's a toughie when our parents are sick and we are from the "working class".
I will be going back with my older sister to visit this weekend. We're having to cancel out of going to Road to CA, our major huge CA quilt show but missing it because of mom is a pretty good reason.
I hope I will have something quilty to share with you all sometime soon. Til then, keep those machines a hummin'!!!

Belated Happy New Year!

I hope you had a nice New Year's Eve and New Year's holiday. We had some friends over to play games NYE and then headed downtown Fullerton, where they close off the streets and have a variety of things going on like train rides for the kiddies, bands, food booths, etc. It's called "First Night in Fullerton" and it's got a nice fireworks display at midnight. This is a picture off my camera.

This picture is from the Fullerton city website. It's quite a crowd that shows up.

On the sewing front, I laid these charms on my design wall just to have something to look at. My quilt projects and tops are all buried from stacking stuff up for the holidays. So right now, I'll leave those on the wall for inspiration while I working on some valances for my daughter. The charms will probably be a quilt gift for a friend. I mixed two Moda charm packs called Cotton Blossoms and Wuthering Heights. I didn't know if they would look together but I was pleasantly surprised.

Off to sew while I watch my new movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. :o)