Snow Lady

Here she is.. now she is stuffed, has her applique'd hearts, birdhouse and lil' birdy. Her nose is probably a little big for her face. Now I have to figure out the scarf, arms (twigs) and mittens. She may be a little lumpy, but she's kinda cute too!

 

Building a Snow Woman

 
I needed a new project, so I dug in the patterns and printouts that I've collected over the last few years and found a pattern for a Snow Woman. She will be about 2 1/2' tall when she's finished. And stuffed.

Here she is all flat and lifeless. I'll post as she progresses! L

New Purse

 
I love being asked to make something to give as a gift. Last week my sister asked me to make a bag to give to a friend. I knew right away what fabric I would use.


This has some pockets inside, and the buttoned pocket on the outside also has a zipper.
To be honest, I'd like to keep this one...

Something new

This weekend brought some new thoughts. First, a friend was asking me how I liked our new home. He caught me at a weak moment, and I confided that even though I love the house, I was tired of being cold all the time. Since he has a heating and air conditioning business, he knew all the right questions to ask. Then proceeded to tell me that there is a little known fact about thermostats that I needed to check out. After taking some notes, I went home and took a look at my thermostat. I can't exactly tell you that all thermostats do this, but, if your furnace is only blowing for a few minutes, there is a fix and it will run longer, saving you money and keeping your house warmer. I wonder why they don't really want you to know that?

I think it's just so the repair people can make more money. Just another reason to be thankful for all the friends that I have.. the heating/ac guy, the plumber, the lawn care man, the car guys, etc. There's alot to learn~ but I'm always up to the challenge!

Finished Wall Hanging

 
I finished it today. I'm quite pleased with the end product.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we decided to help serve a meal at our church. They advertised for a few weeks that we would deliver meals to people who weren't able to get out, or they could come to the church to eat or take home a meal for the holiday. This was a joint effort of all the churches in our community. We boxed almost 200 hundred meals for delivery. I don't know how many folks came to the church to eat, but there were quite a few. We got to eat after we were done serving, and I have to say, the food was great!

Somehow, though I missed having my girls for the holiday, I felt like this was one of my favorite Thanksgivings.

Dr. House

Do you watch the show "House"? I like to once in awhile. He's a little edgy, and it's interesting to see all the things he tries before he really gets the diagnosis correct.

Anyway.. over the weekend, Mike was taking a book off the shelf, a pretty good sized hardback book, and he dropped it on his foot. I had a feeling that he broke at least one toe, so, later he took off his socks and sure enough, the middle toe was swollen and purple. Looks like he will lose his toenail.

He hobbles around like Dr. House. I even got out a cane for him!

Funny conversations

Today at work we were talking about the funny things that have happened over the years in the office. I said I sure wished I'd kept them written down, they might make an interesting book. The thing is though, sometimes you have to know the people and personalities involved to really see the humor in it all.

Anyway.. it's fun to laugh at work isn't it?! It's the best part of the day when that happens. There are so many folks out there that don't have jobs and things to brighten their day. I'm feeling pretty fortunate.

A Christmas Project

I've wanted to do a Christmas wall hanging for awhile, and I found this pattern in a clearance pile at a quilt store in Marion Indiana, I think it was called "SewBiz".

While I thought I was following the directions, I realized that I messed it up at one point. But, since I can't explain how, I guess you will either be able to see it.. or it doesn't matter. I kind of like how it turned out regardless, so, I'm not about to rip it apart to 'fix' it.

For those that don't sew, it's called a "Log Cabin" pattern.

 

The big question is..

Hubby is laid off his job. If I were out of work do you know the place I would go? If you don't, you haven't been reading this blog for long! Haha.. Erin.. you know where I would be don't you?? Especially since I have enough air miles on my cc to go for free.. so the big question is this...

I wonder why Mike doesn't fly to Hawaii for a few weeks and enjoy the warm weather?? I know I would.

Baby it's cold outside...

It's only November, and it feels more like it's January. I know the global analysts all say we are experiencing global warming, so, I would like to ask.. why is it 15-20 degrees below the normal temp for this time of year? No, I don't want to diminish the importance of the subject to those who believe it to be true, but, sitting here in Northern Indiana, it's a little hard to buy into right now. I see the photos and news clips on tv, but, I wasn't there 100years ago.. what do I know for sure?? There were no movie cameras and photos were all black and white. They can make all the claims they want to, but, I know from first hand experience that the news media does not always get all the facts right.

First Snow

We had our first snow accumulation today. And even though I am not ready for winter, I missed most of the fall because of our move, I really enjoyed watching it fall. So fresh and white and it makes the air feel so clean and crisp. Kind of like a gift after losing all the colorful leaves. I was watching out the patio door while cooking dinner tonight, and decided to take a few photos. I really like how this one turned out. You can see the flakes falling down ever so gently.

Louie wasn't particulary impressed with it though. Guess it was a little cold on his precious paws!

Stocking

 

It's past time to begin thinking about Christmas projects, but, I've been in a "slump" of late, and hadn't started anything for the season. Today, I decided it was time to sew. I found this cute little pattern on Eleanor Burns website. I have alot of christmas fabric scraps so, I made one. I did enlarge the stocking by 1" all the way around. It was very easy, it only took about 2 hours start to finish, including taking the photo.

Adventures

There are a few observations I made as we were moving all our things from one house to the other that I thought I would share.

1. Nothing goes as planned. We said we would give ourselves 3 weeks to move. It's now been 5, I think, and we still have stuff in the garage at the old house.

2. The first thing I noticed in this house was the water pressure is weak. To say the least. It takes a good 30 minutes to fill a small bathtub.

3. You will find things that you don't remember having, forgot where you put them, or thought you threw away years ago.

4. If you are a pack rat, KNOCK IT OFF! You will regret it. How can one family of 2 people and 3 cats have so much to box up??

5. I bought a brand new Maytag range. Don't believe it when the tv commercials say that the Maytag repairman is bored. He's been to my house 2 times already. My brand new oven didn't heat up beyond 260 degrees.

6. The cable/internet/phone guy came to hook up the cable and internet. And although, the customer service person said they would hook all three things up at the same time, the guy couldn't or wouldn't hook up the phone. Just one more day I had to leave work early for a service person who says they will be at our house between 8:00 am and 5 pm. Thank goodness for flexibility at work.

7. The phone was hooked up, only to not work for 3 more days. Here we go again....

8. They reset the phone, and it work for one day. I've about given up on the phone. Now I know why people have given up their land lines.

9. Halloween in town is different than Halloween in the country. In the country, you might have 5-10 little kids, who you know all the parents and they have told you in advance that they will be bringing their kids by for candy. In town, every kid in a a 20 block radius comes to your house even though they don't know you. We handed out candy to over 100 goblins, princesses, various animals, jedi, spiderman, batman, etc before I ran out. Next year, I'll be more prepared. It was kind of fun though.

10. Over all, it's been a good thing. Lot's of hard work, but, hopefully worth the effort. When we were doing this, I should have written things down that I wanted to write about as I know there were many more observations than this. Somehow, now that we are pretty much finished, they don't seem as important or life changing as they did at the time.

I'm back!

Well, the last month has been full of adventure! First we had a family vacation, which I've already posted about. Then we began to move into our new home. Everything is here now, though it felt like it would take forever to get that accomplished.

Moving. It's hard work. Especially for people that like to "collect" things. I'm a pack rat. So is Mike. We also have an apartment full of things of Erins.

I'm ready to settle in and get things back to normal!

So.. back to the sewing room!

My Family

Originally uploaded by meetthesouthworths

I've been gone for awhile, we went to visit Erin and Tad in Kona Hawaii. Karissa and Josiah went too. We had a nice family vacation. At the end of the trip, I realized we hadn't gotten a photo of all of us together, as Tad had to work while we were there. So, I found a kind looking womat at the airport and asked her to take a photo of all of us. In the front: Karissa, Me, Erin, in the back, Josiah, Mike and Tad. A photo to remember!

Done and ready to mail

This is probably the quickest little quilt I've ever done. One week start to finish. I had to add some white flannel to the backing piece Erin & Tad sent, as my top was slightly bigger. I have the quilt in the mailer and I will mail it on Monday.

Finished Top

 

I ended up staying up last night until the blocks were all sewn together. This is the finished top. Of course I have to put the batting and the backing on, and quilt it, then put on the binding. I think it turned out really cute. I hope baby Drew enjoys his quilt.

36 Squares

 

Here are the 36 squares needed to put together Britt's baby (Drew's) quilt. The next step is to square them off so they are all 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" blocks, then sew 4 of those into a main block, that will make them about 12 1/2" square.

After that I will make the quilt top. It's going pretty well. Erin and Tad like it! YAY! I'm really hoping to get the top done before we go to Hawaii next week. Then I can finish it up when we get back and mail it off to the new baby. Baby was born this week. His name is Drew Michael Bensman. I don't have a baby photo or I would post it.

The first block finished

I had to adjust this pattern a little, because when I went to cut the pieces, they weren't big enough to allow for any monkeys to remain "whole"!

Suprisingly, all went pretty smoothly even with the adjustments.

Tags

 
I ordered some tags for my purses and other projects a couple of weeks ago. They came in the mail today.

Co-ordinating fabric

 
This is the fabric to help pull the print together for the baby quilt I'm about to start.

A new project

Arriving in the mail today were three very cute fabrics. Erin has asked me to make her sister in law a baby quilt. I haven't picked out a pattern yet, but, I have a couple things in mind. And, though these will be the main fabrics, I will add either some batiks or solid colors. The monkey and frog fabric will be the front, and the "Noah's Ark" flannel will be the back.

I think this will be really cute when it's finished!

I will post some photos here of the progress. Can't put them on flickr, just in case some one sees it before she is supposed to! :)

Meet Sawyer

 

Sawyer Thomas Boszor, born September 3, 2008. Weighing in at 7lbs 5oz. He's my greatnephew.

The new house

 

We want to put the plants in the divided spot that runs between the driveways. I have seen this plant growing in this area, I just don't know what it's called. We took the picture in Montana when we were on vacation a couple years ago. We thought it only grew there, then we got home and saw them here.

Can you name this plant?

Mike and I want to plant this flower at our new house. Do any of you know what it's called?

Another Bag done

I've been working on a purse for my sister in law. I wanted this one to be "special" because she is special to me. She is the kind of person that when you need something, she practically knows it before you do, and is offering to help. I love that about her.
She has so many talents too. Decorating, flowers arranging, taking an ugly garage sale item and turning it into a treasure. These things are all very inspirational to me!

Paisley's are her favorites right now, so I picked this pink paisley with her in mind. Then I started out with the basic bag that I made for myself last time. Next I wanted a unique flap for the bag, so I made a quilt block.

I hope she will like it!

Moving

Hubby and I have been considering a move for several years. We've talked about the kind of house we would like to have, and honestly, I kind of figured that it was a "pipe dream".

The criteria went something like this:
1. The right price of course, and we are very conservative on prices! (Big problem!)
2. I wanted to move into town for reasons I won't go into here.

3. He wanted a bigger yard, and a woods. (isn't that a conflict with #2??)

4. Laundry on the main floor.

5. Basement

6. Big enough that we don't have to sell our collectibles, yet not so big we can't afford heat and air conditioning.

7. 2 Bathrooms

8. A room for my sewing stuff

9. Place on the property that he can run his ebay business with out it being all over the house. (i.e. a separate garage)

These are a few of the things we wanted, I'm sure there were more at the time.

So, off and on we would drive by a potential house and critique it with out even stepping foot inside. Most were put in the negative column. There was one house we really liked, but the owner wanted so much for it that we thought it was ridiculous.

Then we called the realtor. The owner of this house had dropped the price into the "almost reasonable range", so we made an appointment to look at the house.

It met the criteria. Has a small area that is almost "woodsy" in the back yard, which is 1/2 acre by the way. It is in Town, has a separate garage.. and 3 bathrooms. The laundry room is just off the kitchen. Who would have thought.

We made a non-committing verbal offer that we were sure they would laugh at, but, come back with a counter offer. Yet, they didn't. They accepted. We met again to go over details.

We are buying a house. We are moving in a few weeks. I can hardly believe it.

Meeting Friends

Today I traveled about an hour and half to a city south of me to meet with some online friends to sew. These are gals I've met in the Quilting_in_Indiana yahoo group.

In order, if I remember correctly, are: Wendy, Darlene, Judy, Joni, Linda, Liz and Sandy S.

We chatted about our kids, the good times and bad, discussed quilting retreats, local govt issues, our jobs, husbands, and sewing. We went to lunch where Dan Quayle used to eat tenderloins and a special cheeseburger the diner now calls a "Quayle Burger". The food was plentiful, tasty and reasonably priced.

Then we walked down the street to the County Courthouse, where they were holding a 100 year birthday celebration of the building. They had a farmer market, an antique car show, then inside they had cake and ice cream. The Courthouse has some beautiful artwork painted on parts of the ceiling and a huge dome with stained glass windows. Too bad I didn't have my camera when we were out on our "field trip".

Oh, and we did get some sewing done too!

Things I've learned this week

1. Don't go to Redi Care just before school starts. You will have to wait in line for a really long time before you get to see the Doctor. Reason: Every school kid in the county will be getting a sports physical.

2. Cats can give you poison ivy/oak/sumac. They carry the oils on their fur, you pick them up, the oil gets on your skin. X amount of days later you are digging it till it bleeds.

3. Taking prednisone for above mentioned poison ivy/oak/sumac can give you "rosy cheeks" and hot flashes. Not fun when it's already HOT out.

4. Organizing a class reunion is not an easy task. You don't know where these classmates have disappeared to. You don't know what the married names of the female classmates are. The classmates that are supposed to be helping don't answer emails or phone calls. They want a reunion, but, sadly, I'm worried that when it's all said and done, they will not be happy with what was planned, yet they didn't make the time to help organize. Yes, this may be may last attempt at class reunion event planning. We shall see.

5. Lilac bushes need to cross pollinate. I did not know this until a fellow walking neighbor told me so. The neighbor across the street from her pulled their bushes out, so, now she's worried that hers won't bloom. Is it true? Please do share.

6. The lovely little boy kitties that I adopted at the animal shelter one year ago now think they need to be "territorial". One is bullying the other. Why can't cat's just be friends?


When I decided on this title for this blog entry, I know there were more lessons learned. The prednisone is working on my memory I guess.

Untitled Purse Project

I've been making purses alot lately. So, I made up my mind that I could make one with out a pattern telling me each step of the way. So, I got out my handy sewing tools, including a new sewing machine foot I purchased, called a "cording" foot. I made some cording to trim out the bag, started cutting, then started sewing. This is the end result. I have to tell you, I'm fairly pleased with myself.

Of course all bags patterns have a "name" but this one doesn't. If you have a good suggestion for one, please leave it in the comments!

Wylie Coyote

 

About 15 years ago I started a new job at the LaGrange Town Hall. Working in the Town Hall can be an interesting thing. You get to know the people that make your town what it is, including the Police Officers. There was one officer that was always very intimidating to me, his name is Oscar. I thought he was mean and scary to be honest. One day he pulled up to the office as I was walking in and I looked in the police car only to see a large size Wylie Coyote sitting in the back seat. That gave me a whole new picture of who Oscar is. Police officers demand respect by the very nature of their jobs. They get up each day, knowing that even in a small community, something really bad could happen to them while trying to "protect and serve". But seeing this stuffed animal in the back seat of the cruiser made me chuckle.

Oscar and I became friends after that. And we talked about the turning point in our working relationship many times. This last May he retired from our Police Department and I asked him what happened to Wylie. I don't remember what he told me at the time, but apparently he left him in the Marshal's office. This morning one of the other officers walked in my office and said "I heard you would appreciate this" and pulled the animal from behind his back.

I have to admit a little tear came into my eyes. Wylie Coyote might be retired from the Police force, but he now has a prominent spot in my office with the Beanie Babies.

Love Birds

These little applique'd birds were really fun to make. I probably wouldn't have done them on my own, but, when the girls on SewGoodFriendsdecided to do a swap, I decided to join in.

Louis, my baby

 
Haven't shared any photos of Louis lately, so, here's some that I took this afternoon. We have a new camera, and it's fun to play around with it.

Louis is a willing subject. He doesn't always look right at you, but this time he did pretty good.