Happy Halloween!

Before I left for California on the 20th, my sister and BIL arrived on Thursday. My sister gave me my birthday presents so she didn't have to mail them. No complaints here for early presents! Look what she gave me! Two pairs of scissors with fobs she cross stitched. The fobs are so tiny! The sampler fob is 1" square! She bought the scissors with the wooden scissor cap in Alaska when they went on cruise.

Then she made me this fabulous needle book and added my signature skull to the design! It says "October nights bring Halloween frights."

They also gave me a bottle of my favorite beverage.

I was back home on Friday the 27th, but I was either too tired to didn't have time to post. I went to California to visit my brother and SIL and to do some sewing for them. Originally, I was going to make drapes, but the project was more involved so we switched and I made cushions and pillow for the breakfast nook. The first JoAnn's we went to was just awful - the store was a mess and the fabric selection was bad. We went to another location and it was a very nice store. We found a great selection and walked out with almost everything we needed.

I made these two pillows with this embroidered fabric. I made piping out of the same fabric for these

These two with a quilted fabric. Used purchased piping for these

Made the pillow with the bird fabric shown in the center. I used the green fabric from the large green pillow in the back for the piping and made the two cushions to sit on for the bench. I have two more of the big green pillow to make. I just ran out of time.

In the evenings my brother and SIL would come up with more fun projects for me to do. I put a new zipper in my SIL's favorite travel bag.

Made a tutu for Joie for Halloween

I helped my brother with a couple of house items. Held pieces in place for screwing together a frame for a gate and helped him hang two coat hook racks. He would have had me help more, but I needed to sew.

Since I got home I have been sewing together a few of the blocks for the I Spy quilt. I have four of the blue blocks sewn and the missing fifth one is almost done.

I also fixed a fitted sheet that was always too small.

Tomorrow I will post about how well my brother and SIL fed me and show you some the of sceanery. Saturday was Trick or Treat here. Several of us gathered at the end of one neighbor's driveway to hand out treats. I brought my fire pit and we had music playing as we watched the end of the Notre Dame game and the start of the Ohio State gave on a phone.

We had about 10 kids show up. The alien costume cracked me up.

Cookies, cleaning, and a little stitching

I have been busy and I haven't gotten much sewing done at all. My hair appointment on Tuesday took way to long; there were two other clinents she worked in which caused me to have to wait. Wednesday was all about baking and cleaning. My sister and her husband are coming into the area so when they come to visit today I have pan banging chocoate chip cookies for them. It takes a while to bake them so I did some cleaning between the trips to the oven to bang the pan.

Before the cookies I did walk over to the neighbor's to collect his mail; he is away on a work trip then I stopped to look at my zucchini plant to see if anything was still growing. There was a nice sized zucchini and a couple more about three or four inches long. The weather is suppose to be in the 60's next week so maybe those other two will get a bit bigger.

I had trimmed back my lavender a month or month and a half ago and I noticed last evening I have another blooming.

I have gotten a few stitches in a piece of linen for one of the patterns I bought on the Tour de Stitch.

I am going to be off work for pleasure for the next week or so. I probably won't be posting until the 30th.

Project bag and little cross stitch done.

I don't know why I was so tired when I got home from work yesterday, but I was. I had to push myself and I got this project bag done. It is a gift.  The person likes platypus and the fabric from Australia.

I finished stitching this little piece last night and got it mounted in the card. It is addressed so I just need to get to the post office to mail it.

What I got done

It was a busy weekend! I did the jacket done. I made this for traveling as I put zippers on all the pockets so I could keep stuff secured. There are two inside pockets and two large outside pockets. I sewed the inside pockets on first so the outside pockets would cover up the stitching lines.

I hemmed two pairs of pants and made a batch of brownies for a fellow at work for his birthday on Monday. That was Sunday.

Saturday I decided I wanted to go on a road trip to one more cross stitch shop for the Tour de Stitch. It was an easy drive on the non-highway roads and it only took about an hour. This shop - Just Stitching - had lots of beautiful models and loads of charts. I was looking for fabric, but they didn't have much to pick from.

I bought two pieces of linen and a chart.

On my way home I stopped at Michael's to see if they had any Rit Liquid dye. I think I will have to give a shot at dyeing my own hand dyed fabric. I have dyed fabric before with Procion dye, but the Rit is a bit easier to use and to play with. Michael's had a good selection and it was a good deal with a 30% off coupon. When I got home the package with the coats was sitting at the front door. Eddie Bauer had a sale and I order two different sizes of the same coat since I didn't know what would fit and I could take the other one back to the local mall store and not have to mail it. Neither one fit, but the fellow that waited on me helped me find one that did. I got one with lots of pockets, rain resistant, and lined for winter walking. It had a two-way zipper and a hood too. I am all set for winter. I have been just wearing a lightweight rain jacket with a hoodie underneath for most of the time. If it was very cold, I would wear my son's Notre Dame Starter jacket I bought him when he was in either middle or his first year in high school. I make him buy a big size so he could wear it a long time because it was an expensive coat! Yes, it is a men's jacket. They just fit me better.

Watched some football both days and that about rounds out the weekend.

I'm glad it is Friday!

Last evening, I worked on the jacket and the sides are now sewn. The ribbing cuff will be next, a piece or ribbing at the hem, and band that goes from the hem to the neckline, buttonholes in the band, then buttons. So in other words, it is almost done. LOL!!

I made another blueberry lemon cake last night. I gave some to another neighbor, took three pieces to work for the boss to take home to the wife, and kept a couple pieces for me. I will be making more of these in the future for sure!

It is hard to say what I might get done this weekend other than that jacket. Have a great weekend!

Problem solved

First thing I did when I got home from work is mow and trim the grass in the front and sides. I didn't realize how long it was until my neighbor mowed his. As I was trimming I saw this little fellow - yes that is a praying mantis. I nudged him out of harms way.

I had the yard done in an hour then headed to the kitchen to make a pot of soup for lunches. That killed another hour and it was 6:00 before I got down to the studio. After laying the sleeves on top of each other to try and figure out what I was going to do to fix my boo-boo, the sleeves were so close to being the same shape at the top I decided to just put them in the jacket. Now if the fabric was a woven fabric, this solution would not work. Being that I am working with a knit I could get away with it being a little off. I only had time to sew the sleeves in, but I am making progress!

The ricotta lemon blueberry cake went over well at work. We had to wait until mid afternoon to dive into it.  We were waiting for the birthday boy to take the first piece. There was still over half the cake left when I left for the day, but most of the guys were out in the field working. When I came in this morning, there was only one piece left. One of the foremen who had been working all night came in to do some paperwork this morning. He had eaten my baked goods before so I told him he ought to grab the last piece of cake.  He took a bite and said "Fantastic"! The birthday boy was bragging to his wife last night how good the cake was and she asked him why he didn't bring her a piece. I guess I will make another cake tonight and make sure I bring something that he can put a piece of cake in so he can take it home. He says she does not bake so giving him the recipe would never produce a cake! LOL!!

Another cake and Geeze I messed up again!

When I got home from work it was up to the kitchen to make the birthday cake. I added a little glaze to the top just to fancy it up a bit.

Then it was dishes and gathering up and putting out the recycleing and trash for pu today. I spent a few minutes on the jacket. I got the fronts sewn on to the back correctly this time.

So now I can sew the sleeves on - WRONG! This is what happens when 1. you have a project sit for years and 2. you get in a hurry. I wasn't thinking on Saturday and sewed the two halves of the front sleeves together and the two halves of the back sleeves together. Geeze! That won't work. And the seams are topstitched down! That is six rows of stitching I need to rip out so you know what I will be doing tonight. Hopefully this is the last big mess up I make or I won't get this jacket done by next week.

Layout is much better

I channeled Wanda last evening after her suggestion about moving some of the pieces around to improve the checkerboard look with the solid blue patches. I think it looks much better. Thanks Wanda!

Next, I wanted to bake a cake using my new Lodge 10.25" pan; yes, I bought another piece of cast iron. I got the recipe for a Ricotta Lemon Blueberry Cake in an email from them and thought it would be a good choice for the boss's birthday. I had walked across the street yesterday to get the ricotta from the Italian market, so I then had everything I needed. The cake turned out great and the house smelled wonderful. It was an easy cake to bake. I took half of it and gave it to the neighbor; I didn't need to eat the whole thing! I will make another one tonight for the boss's birthday tomorrow. I might make a little lemon glaze and add some streaks of it across the cake just to jazz it up a bit. I love this little pan and have another Lodge recipe for a cookie made in the pan which will be for another fellow's birthday next week. Leave me a comment if you would like me to email you the recipe.

While I was upstairs in the kitchen and looked out the window and saw Mom with the twins. It is amazing how fast they grow!

I received my order from Hancock's of Paducah. I think I am done buying quilting fabric for a while. I wasn't planning on buying any flannel since I have lots that is partially pieced for 9 patch blocks, but it was only $4.99 a yard and it's the good stuff! I love all these blue plaids and they will make some beautiful 9 patch quilts! I bought the orange piece just because! LOL!!

Everything I bought was marked down. I bought these to make baby quilts.

The two fabrics on the left will be for project bags and the two on the right go in my stash of reproductions.

Then I just had to get more of this fabric since it too was on sale.