Tuesday, December 9, 2014

2014 Christmas Ornament

Today was filled with lack of sleep, scraping ice, driving, fun, laughter, making new friends, crafts, and a short search for Chocolate Covered Lay's Potato Chips!

My day started out at 2:30am when my pup decided she needed to go outside.  It was raining and icy so I wasn't sure what the rest of the day had in store for me.  I tried to get back to sleep, but alas, I ended up flipping through QVC, HSN, and some advertisement for a blower that I think I might need to get.  Perhaps everyone will receive gifts from QVC this year - who knows!   LOL

The alarm went off @ 5:30am and I pressed SNOOZE!  I did not want to wake up - AGAIN.  I always wonder why I'm MORE sleepy when my sleep is interrupted during the night.  I finally got up at 5:45, took a shower, got dressed, kissed my honey goodbye, scraped the sheet of ICE off my car, and drove to Herndon to meet a former co-worker for breakfast at the Silver Diner.

After breakfast, I walked through Kohl's and then headed west to see some friends.  We spent a good part of the day visiting, having lunch, and working on this wonderful project that is now proudly hung on my craft tree! I have a tree in our Kitchen that is for HANDMADE items only.  There aren't many items on it yet because I just added the tree in 2013 and don't really get many homemade items.  I better start making some ornaments, huh?  HA HA

Well, here's my first handmade ornament of the year.  THANK YOU to all the ladies who made this ornament adventure lots of fun.

I'll be making more of these... - WHO WANTS ONE?


Who knew a styrofoam ball could be so pretty!  This was the process.

The finished product!!  I added little flowers with sparkle, and a gold ribbon to give it a more finished look.

The ELF showing off the new ornament AND his brand new Jacket for this cold weather.

oops!  Almost forgot; if you're wondering about the Chocolate covered Lay's Potato chips….  One of my friends posted a very convincing video on FB regarding this product today.   I thought I would go on a mission to find these chips and see if they are really that good.  I visited 2 Walgreen's (where they were previously spotted) and couldn't find them, the workers had never heard of them and I chalked it up to it was just not meant to be!  If anyone tries these chips, please do let me know how they taste.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

APQ - 118 Sweet Dreams

Kelly Ann's Quilting Shop (www.kellyannsquilting.com) in Warrenton participates in the All People Quilt 1,000,000 pillowcase challenge.  Trying to get to just 50 for this holiday season, I just washed and folded 118!!  The thankfulness as I was folding each one and thinking of how these will brighten someone's day at the shelter or the hospital was a little overwhelming, but in a good way.

So today, I'm thankful for all the people who took time out of their busy lives to sew one or multiple pillowcases to add to our donation and I'm thankful that this local quilt shop takes time out of normal business activities to help those in need.

Make it a great day!



Tuesday, December 2, 2014

GRAND ILLUSION MYSTERY QUILT - 2014

Attempting my 1st Mystery Quilt!  Thank you to Bonnie Hunter, who designed the quilt and the fun ladies I'm in a local group with who will keep me on track...or at least provide some laughter and ideas while I stumble through this.

*Information on Grand Illusion Mystery quilt is located on Bonnie's Blog @  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/grand-illusion-mystery.html

*You can see all the other blogs and projects linked here - I'm #237!  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-1.html

*FB - there's a "support group" called:  Quiltville's Open Studio

*Our local support group is also on FB and the coordinator's blog is #183. :-)
http://iquiltem.blogspot.com/



This should be an interesting experience...

Let's Begin...

Ready to get this mystery started!

Here are my fabrics:




Here's what is keeping me energized while locked in my room:

 
 
Here's a peek at the first few blocks....
 

More to follow...I think I can, I think I can....
Loving this so far!  Thanks Bonnie.
 

Friday, November 7, 2014

Quilters' Quest 2014, Day 1

www.quiltersquest.org

For the past year I have been part of the quilters' quest team getting ready for this year's event which is from Nov 7 - 16.  Today and tomorrow I am just another quester driving to visit all 10 shops, find scavenger hunt items, get my passport stamped and win my finishing bag.  Today we covered 4 stores.  The crazy cousin, material girls, cottonseed glory and bear's paw.  Due to a little late start, the distance between stores and TRAFFIC, we didn't get to 5 shops as planned but will try to make up time tomorrow.

We ended in Gaithersburg, MD and had dinner at Uncle Julio's.

If you are friends with me on FB you'll see a few photos from today's adventure.  I don't have the mobile app to upload pics here just yet.  Shout out to Dara who reminded me I should be posting pics of the projects I'm doing!  Give the pup a hug from VA!

Getting some sleep before the drive tomorrow.  Until tomorrow...






Friday, June 20, 2014

BALI Bag day


First Bali bag class today!  Instructions were for a modified bag (smaller), however I decided I could make the full size bag with no problem. Then the pre-class prep instructions came regarding sewing and ironing the 2 1/2 inch strips.

After about 2 hours, I thought...perhaps that smaller bag would be better after all.

No! I decided to do the actual pattern and that's what I'll do!...and off to class I went.  1,440 inches of fabric, 2 bags of nylon rope, lots of "un-sewing", multiple bobbin refills, a sore wrist and lots of laughs later I was able to complete 1/2 the bag.

Homework includes to finish covering the rope with fabric, complete the bag and have it ready for lining and handles by Wednesday.  Should be a fun weekend :-). I did learn some new tricks so shouldn't be a problem.

Thank you to Ashley at Great Harvest in Warrenton for a most excellent BLT, the ladies in the class, Kelly Ann's Quilting for hosting the class, and a special Thanks to Lynne for her bag lady teaching skills.  Without her I would have never started this club.

Thanks Lynne!! :-)

Friday, June 13, 2014

First Embroidery Project - GAIL PAN

Thanks to Kelly Ann's Quilting shop and GAIL PAN, I have picked up ANOTHER habit called embroidery!  We had a wonderful visit with Gail during her time here in VA seeing her projects, buying her patterns and learning lots of good techniques.



http://gailpandesigns.typepad.com/

http://kellyannsquilting.com/EventCalendar/EventDetails.aspx?ItemID=268&mid=7&pageid=24

DEAR JANE PROJECT

Yesterday I obtained my DIAMOND certificate for my "Lisa's Gone Wild" Jane and my GOLD certificate for my "Lady's Got the Blues" Jane.  Not all the blocks are scanned in yet, but you can check out some of them on the Dear Jane Page.

:-)
http://bogeysplace.blogspot.com/p/dear-jane.html

Thursday, June 12, 2014

It's Never Too Late to Start Again...

Good evening. I started this blog a LONG time ago and didn't quite know what to do with it.  I think I have some fun things to share in the coming days, weeks, months.  Stayed tuned.

Tonight, I hosted a "Virtual" Thirty-One Gifts party via Facebook.  It was a fun experience and folks go to attend that live all over VA and in MD.  It was fun; just too bad we couldn't see each other.

 
 
 
Karen Cuomo Thompson's photo.
 


-Extend a smile to a stranger; you never know what a difference you'll make.