Life is good!

I've been a tad busy lately.  I was fast and furious working on this:

 

for my granddaughter who is due December 8.  We had her baby shower the first of November so I had to get it done.  Then I gave it to her at the baby shower.  But I took it away from her to take to my quilt guild (Lorain County Piecemakers) meeting and to take to a lunch we were having with friends.  I gave it back to her last week. 

 

Well, it's a good thing I did because yesterday she did this:

 

 

Mariah Marie was born December 6 at 1:33 p.m. after 13 hours of labor on my granddaughter's part (this was her first one).  The last picture is of me and Mariah.  My daughter and I were Karley's coaches and helped her push at the end.  So I was very tired in this picture but very happy!  Mariah weighs 7 lbs. 1 oz and is 19 inches long.  She is just precious and looks just like her mom did when she was born (I helped my daughter with Karley's birth as well).

 

 

So, life is swell.  I've been busy making Christmas gifts including quilts for my grandsons!  Yikes!  So I had a little bit of a reprieve.  But boy was I tired when I got home.  I hadn't had more than 2 hours of sleep since I got up Friday morning at 5:00 a.m.!!!  So when I got home after being at the hospital most of the night Friday/Saturday and all day Saturday I put my jammies on, ate some dinner and went to bed at 6:30 p.m. and slept straight through until this morning (Sunday) at 8:30 a.m.!!!!  Then today I went to my grandson's 6th birthday party so I am one tired camper.  Back to crafting tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

And here is a picture of my Christmas cactus - it bloomed right after Halloween!  But this is the most blooms I've had on it since I first bought it!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Char





Happy Fall...er...almost Winter!

It's been a while since I've been on here.  I have been one busy bee!  Since my last post we went to Tennessee to visit family.  Then came home and started working in the yard until hubby's back went out.  Then road trips with my friends.  Found a wonderful new quilt shop in Sandusky Ohio called Mabel and Ethel's.  They sell a lot of civil war fabric and some wool!  Yay!

I've also been working on my Jane Harris sampler.  Then when other projects come up that gets put to the side.  So tiny progress being made until after Christmas.  The Halloween cross stitch on my blog is one that I finished in a weekend.  I framed it and gave it to my daughter.

I've been working on a baby quilt for my granddaughter and it needs to be completed by this Sunday for her baby shower.  I am almost done.  It turned out bigger than I anticipated so I've been hand quilting a little each day.  Now I'm quilting the sashing and the border and it will be done!  Whew!  But my hands are not liking me!  It done and baby shower over because I need to start my Christmas gifts.  Gulp!  But at least I have everything I need for what I'm going to make.  Thank goodness I'm retired or I'd be in big trouble.

Speaking of Christmas gifts...  In July I cut fabric for what I had planned the Christmas gifts to be, then had to finish some quilts for our guild's quilt show in October.  So the original Christmas gifts got put to the side.  So, they will now be for next year.

Here are some of the quilts that I entered in the show:

Our guild doesn't award ribbons which I am thankful for.  I need to sharpen my skills on hand quilting.  There were some really nice quilts and, of course, I didn't take my camera.

So, I've been retired for a year and two months now.  The first year was the hardest.  Too many things came up that I wasn't aware would happen once retired - such as my "retired" prescription plan sucked!  I pay more for my prescriptions now - especially at the beginning of the year when there are all those deductibles.  Sigh...  Then my hubby qualified for Medicare so that was fun trying to figure all of that out and which supplemental plan to purchase and which rx plan to use and so on.  And now here we are back to that time of year of open enrollment.  Also, I didn't plan for my sister to die and that was totally unexpected (she is younger than me but has had several strokes and a 5 by-pass heart surgery).  Then after we got home from the memorial my brother ended up having a 5 by-pass heart surgery - he is also younger than me.  After he got home from the hospital by dad ended up having a slight heart attack!  Too much at one time.  I started feeling like maybe I should go back to work...but I quickly talked myself out of it!  LOL!  Then the holidays came and went and for some reason - even though I had more time to prepare - I was not as prepared as I usually am for the holidays.

I have come to the conclusion that I need a routine.  I'm too out of sorts, off track, out of sync - whatever way you want to describe it.  I didn't routinely clean my house each week, I didn't routinely pull weeds in my gardens - I was just kind of out of it.  So my plan this year is to get back on track, come up with a plan to clean my house room by room and then keep up with it.  My craft will always be a work in progress - I clean it, then I start a new project and then it's a mess again so I clean it again and - you get the picture.  I'm sure you all have that problem. Ok, maybe not all but a good majority of you do.

I have always been wanting to get back to rug hooking.  I had sincerely thought that maybe it just wasn't for me.  And then what would I do with all that I make?  Then I realized that the reason I've been dragging my feet rug hooking is that the patterns I picked out were not really what I was aiming for.  I realized this when I went to my friend's son's graduation party and saw how she had incorporated her rugs, mats, etc into her decor and that's when I knew I had been picking the wrong patterns.  So I will attempt to finish those that I've started, get help with the binding, and then move on to the things I want to decorate my home with.

Well, enough about me... what's up with you!?!

Thanks for stopping by!

Char

 

Warm, cold, sunshine, snow...oh, and foot surgery!

Hi everyone!  Just thought I'd pop in to touch base.  Here on the North Coast in Ohio we've been have a roller coaster ride with weather.  It's been snowy, then warm, then rainy, then cold, then more snow...you get the picture.  Yesterday we noticed that robins were all over the place - all over our yard, our neighbor's yard and the yards across the street.  I think that the robins that didn't stay over the winter are back.  Now if I could just see a red-winged blackbird I'd know that spring is one it's way!

On March 14 I had surgery on my foot - a plantar fasciiotomy(sp?).  I'm recovering well.  Finally got to take the ace wrap and gauze of this past Saturday.  My foot was very happy.  Just have a bandaid on the incision.  I get the stitches taken out April 4.  I am able to walk on my foot a little bit with the help of a walker which is a huge improvement from when I had my left foot done.  Then I was non-weight bearing for the full three weeks.  I have pushed on my heel and no pain so it seems the surgery was a success.

I've been working on cross stitch.   It's the Jane Harris sampler.  I don't know what I was thinking when I ordered it.  The size clearly says 20 x 19 but in my mind that menat 8 x 10! LOL!  This thing is huge!  I have the perfect place for it when it's done.

Have a great day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Char

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all have a nice day - whichever way you happen to celebrate Valentine's Day.  We were going to go out to lunch but they are finally here to fix my broken furnace.  Last Friday the furnace went out - turns out the heat exchange was broken.  So they rigged it so we would have heat and then ordered the part.  It finally came in and they're on their way to fix it.  Wednesday the brakes went out on my husband's truck so it is in the shop and we're waiting for them to call us that they've fixed it so after the heating repair people leave we'll go pick it up.  This retirement is going to make us go broke!  It's been on big expense after another ever since I retired six months ago!  I'm hoping and praying that this is the last of the huge expenses! 

Meanwhile, the small quilt talks group I belong to issued a February small quilt challenge.  Most of the group made theirs into mug rugs or pin cushions.  I decided to make 4 and make this quilt which is 20 x 20.  I'll be taking it to my daughter's tonight for them.  They have little kids and will happy with the heart themed wall hanging.  I also made them some Chocolate Chip Cookie cheesecake.  It's from a recipe that I got off of Facebook!  It's super simple and very yummy. 

The pattern is a spool quilt with the heart worked in to it.    The smaller border looks crooked in the picture but in real life it is not.  I think now that I should have picked lighter fabric for the two because they don't pop as much.  I enjoyed making it and it went fairly quickly after I figured out the first one.  The pattern was designed by one of the women in the group and another woman did a picture tutorial.



Here is the recipe for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake (sorry I didn't take a picture!):

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake

3 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 rolls chocolate chip cookie dough

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In large bowl beat cream cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla until well mixed. Put aside.

3. Slice cookie dough from one roll into 1/4 inch slices. Arrange slices on the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 glass pan. Press together so there are

holes in the dough.

4. Spoon cream cheese mixture evenly over top of dough.

5. Slice cookie dough from other roll into 1/4 inch slices. Arrange on top of cream cheese mixture.

6. Bake 45-50 minutes or until golden and center is slightly firm.

7. Remove from oven, let cool. Then refrigerate. Cut into squares when well chilled.

 

Hope you enjoy it!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Char

Cabin fever, winter blahs, whatever you want to call it....

...I've got it!  Even though I've been getting some crafting done, including projects that I bought many years ago, I just sick, sick, sick of this weather!  I was just thinking that I don't remember winter being so dreary and had an "ah ha" moment.  Of course it wasn't dreary!  I'd leave for work and the sky would just be beginning to lighten.  When I'd leave for home it was kind of dark - but by the time I got home, cooked dinner and ate it was dark.  All day long I was inside under florescent lights so it rarely felt dreary.  Nine times out of ten I just ate my lunch in my office while checking out facebook or rug hooking daily or emailing family/friends.  So, again, I didn't realize how dreary it was outside because I was rarely out during the day!  Today is sunny but COLD!  Brrr!  A whopping 23 degrees according to my car thermometer.

So here are a few things that I've started on and either finished or getting ready to finish...

This is a pillow case I made for my daughter.  She collects pigs.  About two or maybe even three years ago my friend, Sharon, and I were at a fabric store in Bettsville, Ohio called the Door Mouse and I found this fabric so I just had to buy it to make a pillow case for my daughter.  I finished it in about 1 1/2 hours.

 

Also about two years ago I saw this panel in a Nancy's Notion's catalog.  It came as a wall hanging kit so I bought it.  When it came I looked at it and thought "how pretty!" and then put it away.  When I cleaned/organized my craft room I found it.  When I put things away I put all the projects that I've bought fabric for or kits that I've bought on the top shelf in my pantry in my craft room.  The other day I was tired of working on my cross stitch so I pulled this out and had the top sewn together in about two hours.  The next day I started marking it for quilting and finished the marking the day after that.  Then it sat in my craft room for a couple of days until Saturday when I pinned it together and brought it out to the living room to quilt.  The bad news is that when I ordered it and when it came in I thought it was pretty - now I feel it's just "okay" - I'm not crazy about it but I don't dislike it either!  I plan to hang it in the kitchen.  However, the Small Quilt Talk group I belong to issued the February small quilt challenge which is a spool with a heart in it.  So, I went to my pantry and started picking out fabric to make this challenge with the thought that if it goes together quickly I'll make one for my daughter and one for myself...we'll see... 

 

So, no cross stitch has been done, no quilting has been done but the fabric for the quilt challenge has been ironed.  Maybe I'll get back in the groove tomorrow!

 

 

If you live in a cold climate - stay warm, stay calm, eat chocolate - spring is only 6 weeks away!  If you're living in a warmer climate...  I'm jealous!  LOL!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Char

A project finished and work in progress

Hi all!  I hope you're staying comfy.  I hope you've been able to get some crafting done.  So many of us are experiencing cold weather.  I know it has helped me get a lot done.

 

 

The picture below is the January Small Quilt challenge.  The pattern is Bear Paw and the quilt is 20 x 20.  I joined this group late in the year last year.  I did the October challenge which was a Maple Leaf.  I used it as a small table runner.  Each month we are issued a "challenge" and the pattern is picked by the moderator, Kathy Tracy.  It is usually from one of her books and often a free pattern she posts.  It was very easy to put together - went fast.  I am pleased with the results!

 

 

 

 

Below is my work in progress.  I ordered this sampler from McIntosh Samplers after seeing it on one of your blogs.  I apologize for not remembering whose blog I saw it on.  i ordered it from McIntosh Samplers (www.mcintoshsamplers.com)    This person did theirs in blue and I really liked it.  But when the pattern came it was red.  So I went out to buy the floss and aida cloth (it's a 14 count - I've never worked with linen).  I only bought one skein of each color which was in the blues (the pattern comes with the colors for the blue sampler or the red).  Then I put it all away and forgot about it.  Once I cleaned my craft room I put it where I'd see it and eventually - two weeks ago took it out and started on it.  But first I had to go buy more floss (it's a 19 x 20).  

Not sure why the pictures aren't coming up all that clear but you get the drift.

I believe if you double click on it you'll be able to see it better.

This is what I have completed so far.  Sorry there are two pictures showing the same thing!  This is the third time I've tried to do this post so I'm not messing with it!  LOL!

I hope you enjoyed your visit with me.  I hope you stop back again!

Thanks!

Char

Cold, Blowing, snowing!!!!

Hi all!  I hope you had a nice New Year's Eve and and great New Year's Day.  We managed to stay up until 12:30 watching the Times Square activities.  New Year's Day we ate the pork and sauerkraut.  Today we took the Christmas decorations down, took a nap (hubby and I) and just sat around reading.  I have frozen homemade lasagna heating up for dinner.  I straightened up my craft room so I could get that Jane Harris sampler ready to stitch.

I took these pictures so I could send them to my family in Tennessee and Mississippi.

 This is a vew across the street from us.

 I was trying to capture the blowing snow in this picture.  This is to the south east of us.

This is our front porch.  Of course we didn't put the snowman away just yet.  And I have colored lights on my Christmas tree that will need to come off but it might be another week before we do that.

 This is an adorable Christmas tree and balls that my friend from Manteo North Carolina made for me.  They are made with styrofoam balls and jute.  The "star" is a small starfish glued onto a pin and stuck in the tree.  I LOVE it!

 

This is a little bit closer view of the tree. 

 

Hope you're all doing well and staying warm and safe!

 

Thanks for dropping in!

 

Char