Prairie Stars Sampler Blocks Month 2 & 3

This is my Black & Batik Sampler block for month two.  I don't really like the colors in this block. They just messed with my eyes and head when I was sewing, still do!  I might remake this block with different colors since it bothers me so much. The Tri-Rec Ruler was used to make this block. At least all my points are close and it came out fairly square (not the picture) but the block.

Ouch, my eyes hurt! 

I finished my Black & Batik Sampler block for month three just in time to go back to the quilt shop and show it to get my next set of fabrics for block number four.  I really need to start working on these a little bit sooner.   I like it a lot better than the colors in month two!

Here is block number three.

I really enjoyed making this one.  Lots of fun!

My granddaughter was my assistant for this one.  She handed me pins and I held her hand and we guided the iron together as she helped me press seams.  Not too long now before I will be teaching her how to sew.  I figure by the time we get to the actual sewing I will have taught her all of the basics.  She just loves to help.  If I have to rip a seam out, she loves to pull all the tiny little threads for me - and who likes that job (not me)?  I love my wonderful quilting helper!


You might notice the Earthy blocks are missing.  Well, I didn't get them finished.  Month two just needs a couple of seams - like really a couple of seams.  And Month three needs all of the seams but it is cut.  What I really need is more 'ME' time!  Oh, and since everything is in disarray because of the next item some things just have to wait. (And in this case it's a good thing)!   

The soon to be new quilting/sewing room has been painted and has new carpet - I am so excited!  Can't wait to get everything moved in.  More to come........

Have a great weekend,
Karen

Latest Projects

I've been able to get to my sewing machine and sew but I didn't realize I hadn't posted since before Christmas.  Oh my goodness, before Christmas.  That was a loooonng, long time ago. As a matter of fact, it was just two days in to winter and two days before Christmas. Wow!  I could come up with all sorts of reasons, the dog ate my paper.....no! that won't work on a blog site!  Hmmm, let's see the sewing machine ate my work, that's it!  Nah, I just got so busy with other things, quilting, creating a church website, housework, family, taking care of my grand kids (mostly the latter - definitely not the housework!) that I didn't take the time to attend to my blog.  The good news is I did actually do some quilt and sewing things.

I have been doing a Sampler Days Quilt with a local quilt shop.  Each month I show up and as long as I've done my block for the month I get a new one.  I chose a quilt with a black background and vibrant bright batik colors.  I practice the block with more 'earthy' colors first.  This way when we are all done at the end of the year. I might have two quilts.  Below are the first months blocks.

Everything is cut and beginning to sew on first block for Earthy colored quilt.

 

First block for Earthy quilt!

 Both quilts use such distinctly different colors yet I really like both of them so far.  I chose the Black & Batik because it was so vibrant.  The Earthy is actually from a layer cake I have.  I will post which one in a future post.  I just love working on these.

 

All cut and starting to sew on Black & Batik quilt.  I love these colors!

First block for Black & Batik quilt!

This is a pair of tights my GD had.  She pulled them out to put on one morning and they had a hole in the toes.  She didn't have anything else to wear with her and it was too cold to go without them.  So, Nana to the rescue.

 I cut off the feet grabbed the lace (right side of the picture) that I'd had since her Mom was a little girl and.........

 

With a quick seam around the bottom we had tights with lace around the bottom. 

They looked real cute on her but I forgot to take a picture of them on her. Oops!

 

 

Almost forgot, I am getting a new sewing/quilting room.  We started work on it this week.  It will be awhile before it is done.  So very excited!

Have a great weekend!
Karen

Mail surprise, Teacher gifts and Special Ornaments!

I said I would be back the next day with more about decorating the tree and what came in the mail for my birthday but caught a nasty cold virus and it slowed me down a little.

 For my birthday I got this wonderful package in the mail containing this.......

I just opened the box...a GO! Cutter....Yipee!!

The goodies in the box, plus the family bought me several dies including the holiday die, bird die, and mats.

My grand kids needed teacher gifts and I thought it would be fun to make the gifts so we made these cute little ornament trees for their gifts.  The kids had a lot of fun making them.  My husband calls the Suess trees because they are rather whimsical, bright and colorful.

The whimsical gift tree!

My GD working on her tree.

 The grand kids love what we call "projects"  any time I say "Do you want to do a project?"  they know we are going to make something fun!  I love it, it keeps them busy and they use their hands, hearts, and creative minds to make something.

GS working on his tree.

The completed trees, what fun!

 We decorated our tree a couple of weeks ago for my birthday.  The grand kids did most of the decorating which was great fun.  I wanted to show some of my favorite ornaments that my Mom made - she is very creative.  It's where I get my artsy, fun, creative side.  I love to do anything creative.  I do think my Mom is better at it but I love to do it.  Here are few of the ornaments she has made over the years.

In the first years of our marriage my Mom made this 7" Christmas tree using costume jewelry as the decorations.

This snowman couple is 2" tall and sit in a tiny gift bag on our Christmas tree.

 

My favorite is this tiny little bear Mom crocheted when I was expecting one of my kids.  He always has a place near the top of the tree.  Love him and love my Mom!

Hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures of a few of my ornaments and the grand kids teacher gifts.  Just in case I don't make it back on here in the next couple of days.  Hope your Christmas is blessed and filled with JOY!

Peace,
Karen

I'm back and I've been busy!

Wow! I haven't posted in ages.  I have taken two vacations!  One with DH and one with DH and some great friends we have known since before our kids were born. Our kids are now in there 20's and 30's and we both have grand children.  They are the type of people that you don't see for quite some time but when you get back together you just pick up where you left off like it was yesterday.  So, much fun and so much laughter - at least the two of us girls (the guys just look at us like we are crazy)!  It was so good for me! No one will ever know just how much it meant to me but the laughter alone was good for the soul.  Needless to say, it was a short but wonderful vacation.

I've worked on a couple of projects.  This cute zipper bag is one patterned after one I saw on the Crafty Gemini.  She has amazing tutorials.  This one here was much larger, you just can't tell from the picture.  It was for my Mom - she loved it!

 

This one was for me. I use it everyday. It's a smaller change purse or business card size.  See the business card?  It is for a friends card company, as in Christmas, Father's Day, Easter, Thank you, Birthday cards, etc.  It's called  RLPCo.  for  Red Letter Paper Company.  It's a wonderful Christian company.  The link is to her Blog and you can link to her store from there.  Check it out and maybe you can get some last minute Christmas cards!

 This is a pillow my GD and I worked on together.  She picked all the colors for the strips and told me exactly how she wanted them.  Then we drew the butterfly and put it together.  Fun project!

She loves to have her picture taken.

Playing with the new pillow!

 Whenever a stuffed animal gets a hole in him/her, he goes to Nana's stuffed animal hospital (aka Nana's sewing room) for surgery.  This bear had just had successful surgery on his neck.  The grand kids were happy to get him back so they could give him lots of love - I got a big hug, too!

All fixed up and ready to play.

 These are the current fabrics I'm using in a project I'm doing.  Anyone know where I got the fabric?  It might surprise you.

So, that's a little of what I've been up to.  I will add some more (hopefully) tomorrow about decorating the tree and what came in the mail for my birthday!

Have a pieceful evening!
Karen

Memorial Day

Memorial Day 2012

I haven't been on my blog in ages mostly because I'm so busy with the grand kids.  With the end of the preschool year came one preschool graduation and countless parties for the grand kids.  They had such fun.  Here's the "graduate" all decked out and excited because next year he is a Kindergartener - Yipee!

For my granddaughter's end of the year preschool party I made these butterfly snacks. 

I may have made them but the directions/recipe can be found at:  bake decorate celebrate!  They were a big hit with the preschoolers.  A word of caution, it is a lot of fun to make a few of them but a lot of work to make over 30 of them.  It's kind of tedious putting all those sprinkles in those tight spots and not getting them all mixed together but the end result was very rewarding.  Also, I didn't use chocolate melts I used dark chocolate chips (Nestle' Toll House) and white chocolate chips (Ghirardelli).  Tasted amazing! The butterflies shown have dark chocolate bodies and white chocolate wings.  I made two all dark chocolate ones with the florescent sprinkles and they looked really good.  Of course, I ate those ones!  I have an obsession, a craving for, I can't live with out, a small thing about dark chocolate.  If you do make these the directions say to do everything all at once.  I found it was better to put together the parts first.  In other words make the body, attach the wings and antennae and then put them in the fridge to set.  When they have firmed up (and hopefully haven't been scarfed up) fill in the wings and put on the color (sprinkles, mini m&m's, cinnamon candies, etc.).  Have fun!

I will try to blog more but life has a way of keeping us busy. I do have a request:

A young man in his early 30's who is the son of friend's of ours was diagnosed with cancer yesterday and will start chemo on Wednesday.  His name is Erick and we are asking for prayers from all who can pray for him.  We've known him since he was a teenager and we are praying for Erick and his family. Thank you to all of you.

God Bless,
Karen

My 6 1/2 Month Twirly Skirt

Yes, you read that right, it took me 6 1/2 months to make a Twirly skirt.  My own design and I'm sure it looks just the same as every other one out there but I'd like to think it is special.  I started it back in August see here and worked on it again here and then it got shoved under put away neatly under some other fabric!  Well, my dear GD's preschool was celebrating St. Patrick's Day early on Wednesday and she had to have some green on her and she loves to wear skirts and dresses. So, naturally I stayed up late and finished the skirt Tuesday night. She loves the skirt and I got the best hugs for it!! 

The 6 1/2 month skirt!

The happy recipient!

Giving it a twirl!

Have a wonderful weekend and a great St. Paddy's Day!

 

 

 

 

 Karen

Making Charm Square Four Patch Coasters with my special helper!

My granddaughter and I made these fun Charm Square Four Patch Coasters on Friday.  I found the instructions in several locations.  All you have to do is search for Charm Square Coasters and you will find a bunch of tutorials.  I combined several tutorials to make ours. 

Front of Coasters

Back of Coasters. She really wanted to use this fabric!

We had so much fun.  I let her pick out the colors and she did a great job.  We made them for her Mom (my daughter).  She couldn't wait to give them to her.  She helped turn them inside out (see below in progress) and poke out the corners (we used a wooden chopstick).   They go together real fast so its a great project with a little one. Loads of fun and a great gift idea!!!

My granddaughter with her coasters.

Great start to the year. Hope yours is going well, too.
Have a wonderful week,
Karen

Merry Christmas!

A picture with my grandson.

I just realized I haven't posted in six weeks. A lot, happens in six weeks. Thanksgiving, my birthday and today we are celebrating the most important one - Christmas!  I love celebrating Christ's birth.   I use to work for a church and it was such a wonderful time of year to work in the church.  Listening to the children rehearse for the children's pageant, the innocence and wonder in their eyes.   Listening to the hymns and carols coming from the distant choir room as the choir rehearses.  I don't attend it often because I just can't stay awake that long but I use to love the midnight candlelight service - so spiritual and uplifting (now we usually go to an earlier service)!  

I hope that wherever you are and whatever you are doing you have a beautiful Christmas day with family and friends!

Peace to you all,
Karen