A few things I've worked on this week, and a cute chick

Last week we got about 8 inches of snow. We are expecting a few more inches tonight, but it won't effect me since I am off for the week!! Schools were closed for the storm here in the picture, which meant another day of sewing and movie viewing (Ken and I watched The Hurt Locker and Julie/Julia--he did not like Julie/Julia though. I thought it was ok.)Remember my babies? Look at how big they are. These chickens are so cute and friendly that they actually like to be picked up and carried around. As soon as they are let out of the pen, they run right over to the house and call me!

Today's project was this quilt for Evy. It was so easy and quick to put together. I thought she would like the colors and fabrics and I was right.

The picture below is a hand-embroidered piece I started in a class. At night when I am watching tv, I enjoy working with my hands on a quiet project like this one. The flowers and leaves are all wool. I love wool! I have to decide if I want this to be a wallhanging with pieced blocks around it (red and white) or if I want to make it a pillow. I am doing a series of these for each season, so maybe I will make up my mind after I have the next one done.

Valentines Apron and wallhanging

I got an order for six aprons a while back and thought I would get working on them this week. I gave her two this week and will do two more next week when I am on winter vacation. Since Valentines Day is coming soon, I thought I would make her this one and I made one for me as well. Mine has a plain red waistband instead of the stripe. Once in a while I get the Quick Quilts magazine and this was a quilt featured a few years back. It was a snap to make and I have been using it for a few years during February. That same year, there was a cute one for Easter too, which I made and use for the spring. I am an instant gratification person with my sewing projects sometimes and these quilts are a perfect way to get that feeling of accomplishment. The Valentines quilt is not quilted or anything, but I hang it up anyway.

Runner finished! (Not quilted yet though)

This morning after I got home from church, I got started on the table runner. I was going to make it square, but in the end it would have been too wide for the table, so it became a runner instead. The blue fabric framing the pieces is one that I bought many years ago and have loved it all this time!! I am finally out of it though:( but it has been used in many fun projects. The Valentines fabric is from a little shop up in the Adirondacks by my sister-in-law. Kenny got my little Featherweight out of the attic today so I could put the runner together while the embroidery machine was busy making more doilies. I have four done now and have two more to go before I move on to another size.

All together the runner is almost as long as my table, so it will be the centerpiece for a few weeks with nothing else. This week I will quilt it using something from the embroidery machine disks I have been collecting over the years.

My trusty little Featherweight is in the background. This is the machine I take to classes and to my friends' houses when I am not making something by hand. I got it on Ebay before they were out of my price range!! Now it seems that everyone knows how cute and durable they are.

More Valentines and some lace!

This is a lace doily I made tonight on the embroidery machine. I am planning to make several sets of linens for my dining room table this year. The first set will be in pinks and blues. The table runner I made a few weeks ago will be a part of that one. These doilies are small and will be used for wine glasses. The white you see in the background is a stabilizer that is water soluble. Once they are all done, I will sit them in water and it will dissolve!! Amazing! I have several different sizes to make. Here is the third design for the Valentines Day table mat I am making this weekend. He is so adorable. Here is the final piece for the table mat. I am thinking of making this as a square-ish design that will be in the center of the table. When I was with my sister-in-law a few weekends ago, I got some cute Valentines Day fabric squares that I can use between the embroidery blocks. Tomorrow I will make it and see how it goes.

Today we did NOT stay home all day as planned. Ken was bored from sitting around all day yesterday, so we went to the big Fishing and Hunting Show at the coliseum. It was really a great show and we saw some friends there, so it was a fun day. Tomorrow we are going to some tackle shops in the afternoon...Poor Ken and Rob are just wasting away thinking about how far spring really is! Especially today and yesterday with temps in the teens and ice in the air!

Valentines Day is coming

I just had to capture this picture of our little Penny sleeping between the two babies!! She does not carry them around like Millie does, but I guess she likes them.

She likes to pose for a picture too!

Right now, I am working on a table setting for Valentines Day. Kenny got me these embroidery designs for my machine as a Christmas present. They are so cute. One of the things I am making with them is a table mat for the dining room.

This is the one I made tonight. Each design uses about 20 different color threads and they take a few hours to stitch out. Since I can do other things at the same time, it's not too bad. There are two more designs on the disk and I will do them this weekend since we have no real plans because Kenny is feeling a little under the weather. It'll be a good time to just hang out at home and do nothing but cook and sew.

New table runner

I took a class to make this table runner at the quilt shop last week. There is no new fabric in this piece since I am using up the stuff I already have (that should only take about 2 lifetimes) and trying to make things that will coordinate for each room. Normally I make things with colors and fabric that I just "have to have" and then nothing goes together, but I have a lot of gorgeous items. Not too useful when trying to tie a room together. So this year most of my projects will be made to match or go with something else in my vast collection. One of the things I want to do is make several sets of table linens for the kitchen and dining room. This is part of set one. The tablecloth will be rose color and there will be runners for the other tables in the room that will go with this. For the tablecloth, there is an amazing set of Polish folkart designs for my embroidery machine that I will use when I get started.

Close-up of the end of the runner. This was ridiculously easy to make, but fun!!

Christmas Quilt and an unhappy accident

Yesterday was a lazy New Years Day here. We were sitting by the woodstove watching WWII specials on the Military Channel when we heard a loud bang. I looked out the window and saw Rob's car looking like it had been moved closer to the woods.

A kid driving to work smashed into Rob's parked car so hard that his own car spun around into the opposite direction. Rob's car was parked with no one in it, so there were no injuries here, and thank goodness the kid driving was not hurt either. We think he was texting or something because he just ran right off the road without even skidding into the car. He skidded after he hit Rob's. Turns out he was driving on a permit on top of everything else. Rob was not very happy with this all since it is his first nice car and he is still paying for it, but at least insurance will cover it and he does not go back to college for a month. We can make-do until then if he needs an occasional car to use.

This is a Christmas wallhanging that I literally finished on Christmas Day!! I have it hanging by the window so we can see it from all over. It is not quilted yet, but at least the piecing and applique are all done. It was a nice piece to work on.

It is snowing here again. We had no real warning about it and it has been snowing all day. Got another 4 or 5 inches on the ground, so Ken is outside cleaning it up for us. The dogs love it!!