A Little Sister Time!

Only a few more weeks until my little granddaughter will be born.  With that pending (major) event, my sister Isabel asked me to come and visit her this past weekend.  She wanted me to bring supplies to make Christmas cards.  She thought if I didn't come now, there would be grandbaby oogling, Richard would be home for his visit and then the holidays and all the activities that go with them.  So, she was right.  It was now or never.  Big sisters are so smart.  :o)

 

Isabel lives in beautiful Ojai.  When I go there, I drive the back way through windy roads because it's so beautiful and picturesque.

 

 

There is this nice spot at the top of the mountains where it overlooks the valley.  I've seen just about every time I go visit.  I think it's just beautiful.  It was a beautiful weekend with warm weather and blue skies.  

This is the Christmas card I will send out this year.  I CASED it from a card on splitcoaststampers.  I changed it just an itty bitty bit because I didn't have the same greeting stamp or the little slider for the ribbon.  I like it though and added little rhinestones to add a little somethin'.  If you want to see the original, you can see the original here.  

 

 

Isabel had a lot more cutting to do than me so I had some time to work on a little Halloween goodie that I had also found on the internet.  It was on a blog here.  She references the original post so you can see a few different samples if you want.  I was going to give these to my sewing buddies but with Halloween falling on Thursday, our sewing night, I won't see them so I gave them to the neighbor kids.  Lucky kids!!!  lol

 

 

And last night I finished up the little table runner I started from fabric I got up in Lake Arrowhead a few weeks ago.  I made this one smaller than the sample in the store because the borders were so big.  I think I have enough fabric to make another one.  Woohoo!  Tonight I got it sandwiched and ready to quilt since we had very few Trick-or-Treaters.  Ashley took care of the kids at the door so I could get it layered together.  Hopefully, I'll get it quilted this weekend.



Off to bed.  Where does the time go???

Saturday Sew-in Status

You'd have trouble saying that with a lisp, wouldn't you? :o) Just a quick check-in between putting away all of my supplies and doing some housekeeping.
This is our little favor that our friend Neena gave us yesterday. It is so cute with the little 'bat owl' on the outside. On the inside was delicious cuts of Stampin' Up! ribbon in new gorgeous colors, some pretty decorative brads and watercolor cards with the cutest kids on them. I should've taken a picture of the contents but once I put it back inside, I didn't want to mess up the ribbon again. I think I'm just pooped from all the work yesterday. It wasn't so much the sewing, but moving an entire sewing room to my friend's place. But soooo worth it~

Susan went to visit her mom about a month ago and brought us treats from the Quilter's Hall of Fame in Marion, Indiana. One was a cute little finger pincushion and the other was a book with historical quilts and quilters who have made it into the Hall of Fame. I didn't see my name in there so I guess I better get busy!!! lol

Susan worked on some beautiful Fall placemats, which I didn't get a picture of with some of the leftover fabric, she made these cute table runners. I think they took her about an hour. A really simple pattern where you cut a 10" strip of each of the fabrics and sew them into a tube. I can't remember the rest cuz I wasn't paying that close attention.

I was working on these......

And these....

They are from charm packs I bought at Cozy Cottage on the quilt run this summer. The long ones are for me and my middle daughter and the shorter two are for my oldest and youngest daughters. I still need to add black borders to them and I think I'll use a stripe on the bias for the binding. So, I better get my room put back and busy or this will just be another UFO and not done by Halloween!!

Pending Delivery....

Last night I printed up a label for Neena's table runner and got it tacked down. I wasn't going to add a label since it's a runner but thought since it's not for me, I should add one. I just used Word and found a nice background and added a text box. It wasn't perfect but works with the vines on the backing fabric. I'll give it to Neena tonight and then it can decorate her dining room table.

I also played on EQ6 on Tuesday night and created a block that I'm thinking about using for a swap with my online gals. I wasn't sure how it would look so I printed up a pattern and stitched up last night and it stitched up perfect so now to decide on some guidelines!!

My first 2010 finish!

I'm sure I said it before but this was a kit my friend Neena bought and (again) I'm not quite sure how she got me to make it for her because she owns two sewing machines and all the paraphernalia! But it's done and I'll give it to her tomorrow night at TNT (Thursday Night Therapy). :o)
This is the beautiful backing fabric. Pretty stuff, huh?

And I just had to share this cutie-patootie with you. My co-worker Becca gave me this ADORABLE little cut out from a local craft store for my birthday. Isn't it cute? The cherry and the sign both have some glittery chunky stuff on them that make them sparkle so pretty.

For now, they're sitting on my little hutch by the back door. I think I'll try to clean a little clutter in the kitchen and find a special place for it on the counter.

Last night I worked on my BOM stitchery a little bit. I am SO far behind. Wait til I get a hold of Peggy and Robin for talking me into that! LOL I'm working on November and I saw in my checking account and February was just debited. Yikes......

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)