After the Holidays!

It has been quite a hectic week, which I am sure it is for most of you. Christmas has come and gone and we have been going out for rides and hanging out with the boys. I have had no time for sewing this week, the day ends too soon and I am catching up at night.

We had a nice Christmas Eve with the kids, always more fun with little ones around.

Christmas Day was spent at the kids, and Ivy's friend and her kids came for dinner. We had fun playing computer Pictionary, lots of laughs. Alex had fun decorating a Gingerbread man with Bella.

Another day we took the boys out for a few hours. We got the boys new shoes and spent some time at the beach.

I also got a new camera, this one is a fixed lens that goes up to 600mm, so more zoom, but not true zoom. It isn't as sharp as my other cameras, but a lot lighter and easy for me to carry. It will be nice for when we go on hikes and biking.

I took a photo to test it out, usually I cannot get birds in the trees too well.

We also went to the lighthouse and I got a few shots to test her out. This boat was out in the ocean, you can tell they have a fresh haul with all the birds.

And the lighthouse, up close.

On the way home, we stopped at the bay campus to see what is new.

Today we had the boys again. We took them to the beach for a few hours and they had fun collecting glass and shells. I hope you had a nice week and may the new year bring you blessings and good health.

Friday Finish and Giveaway!

First I want to say, I hope all of you in the storm's path are safe and stay safe, clean up is where a lot of accidents happen. I am posting early, just in case our power goes out. We are at the end of the storm, but it only takes one power line to hit the whole area.

Another thing I was wanting to ask, are any of you having a hard time posting in the comment section. I cannot comment on a lot of posts, unless they have a security button, so I do read the blogs and keep up, but cannot comment.

So, what I am wondering, for you that have a problem, what computer are you using and what browser. Trying to find a common denominator and hopefully we can fix the problem. I am on a Mac book pro with safari.

This week I have been dragging, camping and the boys wore me out, lol. I decided to do some simple stitcheries from Kathy Schmitz's monthly club. I reduced the designs and some of the stitches and made a little sachet and Christmas ornament. I have two more to do, but I got distracted this week.

My distraction is a new design, I got inspired finally!  A fun new design for Halloween with a nautical theme.

So, now for the giveaway. Please leave a comment if you can, if not, email me with the answers to my question and I will put the names from the comments and emails into a drawing. The winner will get a copy of my new design, which is a Pdf file, so open to everyone. I will pick a name next Friday and announce the winner, that night.

Hand quilting!

I finally finished all of the outline stitchings in the blocks and strips and now I am stitching around the appliqués. I decided it needed it and as you can see on this piece, it needs something else in the empty spaces? I was thinking of adding some scattered words, of encouragement?

It is not as cockeyed as it looks, it is lying on the couch.Yes, I forgot to take out the pins. I used iron on batting, but added some pins to the middle of the block to keep it from shifting.

And this is my red buddy, he knows I want to take a nice photo of him and he sits on the branches and looks at me, all the time, but the minute I get the camera out, he hides. I guess he is camera shy.

Two new visitors came today. They were shy too, but I was able to get a shot of them while they rested in the neighbor's tree. With the warmer weather, it seems our area is filled with birds and today it was a cacophony of songs.

Christmas Pillows!

I have been working on gifts for Christmas and this time I made a couple of pillows.
The peace pillow is a design by Lisa Bongean. The kit was gifted to me by my friend Sharon, it was fun to work with a kit and not have to think about what to use.

The second pillow is a pattern by Nancy Conn and was a featured pattern in the new Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine. Tonight I am working on another pattern from the book, in a punch needle piece.

Then I refinished one last halloween pillow. I had it made and sewed it backwards and resewed it backwards the second time, this time I got it right, lol. The pattern is by Tiffany of Primitive Blessings.

More paper cuttings and a bird ornie

I spent most of my night cutting paper again. These ornaments are usually hung with a string, but I put them in the tree for display. Plus it is late and I am too tired and lazy to string them tonight;) These are from a book by backstreet designs. I hang them from archways and windows, they are great decorations since they are light and can go anywhere.

I also made candy canes. I used red and white pipe cleaners that had a glitter in them. I twisted the two stems together, then folded it and twisted again to get the look that you see. Then I put them in some tea and a bit of java spray which blackens them a bit. Love how they came out and so simple to make.

The wonderful prim snowman ornie was made by my friend, Kelly (Kanknchester).





I made this bird last year, looks great on the tree. It is from a pattern by RK Creations. I used ticking and sewing around the outside edges to give it that frayed look. I buy real ticking and then tea stain it before I use it.