Another Weekend Gone by Too Fast!

Hi All,
I had a nice weekend. Worked a bit in the MIL's condo cleaning out some of her stuff. A bit sad for DH but something that needs to be done. Note to self; GET RID OF STUFF AND DON'T KEEP A LOT OF JUNK!!! As I've said before, my MIL was not one to keep stuff but there's still stuff that needs to be gone through. Oh well, at least we had some "quality" time together! Ha-ha!!!


Took a trip to the fabric store Saturday to buy some more fabric for Juanita's quilt. I had to put together the quilt backing before it gets quilted. I finished that this morning and was very happy to do so. You may think the "quilt" is done when the top has been completed. No, you have to prepare the backing and then have it actually quilted. Once it's quilted, you have to put the binding on. It's a process but I really enjoy it. I'm going to the quilter tomorrow night to choose the thread color and the design that I want to have quilted on it. That will be fun too! All in all, it's a lot of fun making a quilt. It may take a while to be quilted but I'm not in a big hurry.


Of course, since the quilt was completed, as much as I can do now, I had to do another project. I saw these fabric boxes on Facebook and decided to try to make one (or two!)  I cut out the fabric and batting Saturday and started the boxes today. They came out so cute! They're not hard and they're so adorable. I can see a lot of these in my future!

I also finished my latest baby quilt on Friday night. It's a pinwheel design and was very easy and fun to knit. It's all ready to go to some lucky little baby girl! Now I just need to find a baby girl! Unfortunately I'm having a hard time getting the picture posted so I'll post it on FB.


Enough for tonight (my frustration level is very high at this point!)

Quilt Recipient Preview Date - October 1, 2014

Good morning,
I will be ready to reveal the recipient of my first full size quilt tomorrow, October 1, 2014! Stay tuned to see who the lucky (I hope they feel that way!) person is and the finished quilt top! I'm very proud of it and can't wait to have it quilted and see it totally finished! This one will definately be professionally quilted!

Check out my previous posts to see the quilt in progress.

I am such a tease!!

A "Quickie"

Good morning!
Just wanted to give you a "quickie" today. I just finished reading a great book; Not Fade Away by Rebecca Alexander. She's the sister of Peter Alexander, a correspondent on NBC.

She writes about her experience with Usher syndrome type III. This disease will leave a person blind and deaf generally by the time they turn 30. Rebecca tells how she copes with the disease, how it affects her life and everything that she has gone through. I saw a piece about it on the Sunday morning news and couldn't wait to read it. It was very inspiring and interesting to read about how she handles the fact that she is slowing going deaf and blind.

I highly recommend this book.

Why Crafts Are My Life!

Hello all,
I was thinking today about why I love to craft. As I've said before, I can't remember a time when I wasn't crafting something. From making potholders with a metal loom and elastic fabric or putting together scrapbooks, knitting sweaters to making quilts, I love expressing my creativity by crafting. I could spend my days creating works of art! I try to do as much as possible in the little time I have and enjoy sharing my creations with all of you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy sharing them!

In case anyone would like to take a look at my dear Sable, I would like to share a recent picture of her. She is 15 years old but in good health. Her blood work came back very good so we're happy about that. She is deaf and blind so we pamper her by cooking hamburger, chicken, steak and pork for her but she certainly deserves it. She's been a joy to us and we're happy to do whatever it takes to make her happy! She has us well trained!!!

Colleen's Sable

In case anyone thinks I'm not knitting too much, I present two projects. The first one is my latest pair of socks. I'm known as The Sock Queen at Woolly Lamb and I do enjoy that name! I think socks are my favorite things to knit. The second is a baby blanket that's halfway done. Not sure who will receive this but there are some little baby girls coming around soon!

Socks

Baby Blanket

So there you have it. My cherished doggie Sable and my recent projects. I hope you enjoy this blog and remember to keep on doing what you love - even if you can't do it full-time!

Happy Last Day of Summer... ; (

Hello friends,
Yes, we're closing in on the last remnants of a wonderful summer. We can't complain about really hot days this year! Some may be disappointed but I was very happy with our summer. It just seemed to go by too fast!

Well, I must say I had a wonderful weekend! We started out by taking our dear pup Sable to the vet. She's 15 years old, blind and deaf but is still our joy. I like to get her checked out to be sure she's doing well. Doc says she looks good and took some blood to check everything out. We'll hear from her Monday night.

We then took a ride to Milwaukee to see Gregory (and stop at the quilt shop!) He needed some food so we took him to Target and bought almost $300 worth of groceries! He should be set for a couple months now!!! LOTS of frozen stuff but at least he's eating! He walks enough to stay in shape so I guess he's in good shape!

Bungalow Quilt shop is exactly that; a nice yellow bungalow! The fabric selection was eclectic and very interesting! They also rent time on their long-arm quilting machine so if I ever FINISH a quilt top, I can quilt it! I did buy some very interesting fabric there. I hate fish, especially goldfish, but saw this fabric and could resist it. You may be able to see the bit of gold in the fabric.

Goldfish fabric

I also bought some very pretty "Paris" fabric at Bungalow quilting. Just not sure who would like it? : )

Paris fabric

I was happy to find fabric in my favorite color scheme. I hope to incorporate some of it into future BOM squares.

Sunday afternoon, after my regular Lucky Grill breakfast, my friend Sharon and I went shopping to Quilters Destination in Arlington Heights. Boy did we have fun. Everything was 20% off! I must say we didn't go too overboard! I bought a salmon colored fabric to go with my goldfish fabric. I also bought a beautiful French themed fabric to go with my Paris fabric. I think these will make some beautiful project bags!!

Goldfish fabric with lining fabric

Paris fabric with lining fabric

Sharon and I and several other customers bought the fabric below for assorted projects! It is new and I think pretty much depleted thanks to us! It is just too cute!

All in all, it was a great weekend and I have a lot of nice projects to work on! I'll post a few more pics the next time. 

Happy Halloween!

No, it's not Halloween yet, as a matter of fact, it's not even October! However, Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday and I love all things Halloween. I cut this project bag out over the weekend and couldn't wait to finish it. I am very pleased with it!

Halloween Black Cat Project Bag

Looking forward to Saturday because I'll be seeing Gregory AND going to Bungalow Quilt Shop in Milwaukee! Ok, ok, it is mostly Gregory but since there's a quilt shop nearby.... I have a list of what I need to get and some ideas of what I might want!!! 

On a serious note, I would like to ask everyone to say a prayer for my sister Kathy's husband Steve. He's having surgery tomorrow and I thought he could use everyone's good thoughts and prayers! 

Tomorrow is Open Knit Night at Woolly Lamb Yarn Studio! I have my bottle of wine and I'm ready to go! Oh, I will bring some knitting project to work on too! Probably my almost done socks! It will be nice to see my friends since I missed last week!

I'm planning to get back on track now with Weight Watchers. It's been an uphill battle for me recently and I need to get back to my losing ways! (Literally!) I miss my walks to the L but I'm also nervous about crossing the street since I almost got hit by a car twice! I don't want the third time to be the charm! So, I have to figure out a new way to exercise. We have a great FREE Fitness Center at work so I may just have to get sweaty in the am or after lunch.  All in the name of health and losing weight! I'll keep everyone updated on my progress in case you're interested! 

Enough for now. Tomorrow is Thursday and then one more day til the weekend!

What a Productive Weekend!

Hi all,
As I wrote last week, I was getting my hair done on Saturday. Roseanne did a great job and I loved it! Unfortunately, I neglected to get a picture. My husband said my hair "looked weird" but I loved it! Take it from me, I was very happy with the cut and color. Roseanne is great!

I did get a lot of sewing, cutting, etc. done this past weekend. I made my Candy Corn Wreath, a banner using candy corn fabric as well as other Fall fabric, put the first border on my special Fall quilt.

Candy Corn Wreath with Tulle! 

I also made a pennant banner with candy corn fabric along with some other Fall fabric.

Full Banner

Four different fabrics for my banner

Quilt top with brown border. 

I still need to put a wider border on but I'm not sure what color. I think it needs to be lighter; maybe yellow/gold, green, orange? I'm going to The Bungalow Quilt Shop in Milwaukee to pick out some fabric this weekend! It will be my first trip there since they opened earlier this year.  

I also chose some fabrics for my Block of The Month for August and September. I'm a bit behind but hope to get them both done before the end of the month. Another project bag is in the works too! It will be debuted soon! A small hint; it's a Halloween theme! 

One fun thing I also did was take my friend Sharon to Joanne Fabrics on Sunday. She's starting a sewing class tonight and needed fabric, scissors, thread, etc. We had a lot of fun looking at fabric and planning different projects. We checked out some patterns and bought several for future projects! Afterwards, we stopped at Starbucks for some Chai Tea.

All in all, a great weekend!

TGIF It's Friday!

Hi all!
There's nothing sweeter than 5:00 pm on a Friday! I just love the weekend! There's so much promise for the next two days; whether it's just relaxing or jam packed with things to do! This weekend promises to be a bit of both for me!

I'll be getting my hair did (finally!) on Saturday (photo to be posted!) I know that's not the highlight for most of you, it is for me! I'm going to Roseanne's Salon again - let's hope there's not as much rain as the first time I was there! The sky was black, the wind was blowing and the rain was falling HEAVILY! We sat and had coffee and granola bars (thanks Roseanne's Dad) and chatted waiting for the rain to stop! It was fun until I got to my car - 6 inches of water around it! I took my shoes off and waded through the water to my car and drove in my socks! Shhhh...  I wasn't going to ruin another pair of shoes to the rain!

I'm excited because on Sunday, I'm going to Joanne Fabrics to help my friend Sharon chose fabric and supplies for her new sewing class. Yeah! Another person to talk "sewing" with. Sharon is a very prolific knitter and I'm sure she'll become an excellent sewing person too.

My DH had an exciting week. He had jury duty and was actually chosen to be on a jury. Four long days later, the trial was over. He was very happy to be done but miserable because now he had to catch up on work! It was tough having both of us "work" until 5:00 and not get home til 6:00. Needless to say, dinners were dicey!

Not much happened for me this past week. I didn't work on any crafts at all! I was just too tired and/or lazy to do anything. Sometimes you just need to veg for a while. I really need to get to work on some of my projects! I hope to but at least one of the borders on my Fall quilt this weekend and
buy some fabric for the outside border. I decided what I was planning to use wasn't going to work out for me.

This is the quilt I'm working on. The first border (on the left) will be a thin brown one. I think I need to use a brighter golden color to brighten up the quilt. I'm very excited to finish this one up!

Well, as they say, the best laid plans. I have a taste for making something with candy corn fabric...we'll see what happens when the weekend is done! Enjoy your weekend!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Hello all!
Can you tell I'm NOT on vacation anymore? I just don't have the time or energy to blog too often!

Oh well, things have been pretty quiet lately. I did have a great weekend! Saturday we had a garage sale. It was a Park Ridge wide sale. There was close to 100 garage sale participants. That was good and bad; good that it brought in so many people but bad because there were so many garage sales. People would just drive by and look. My DH was insulted that our junk wasn't good enough for them to stop! ; ) Our neighbor also had her stuff out and I bought $11.00 worth of stuff from her! Ha Ha!!!

Baby Basinette

This is a gift I bought from my neighbor for my niece who is expecting a baby girl on New Years 

Eve! I also bought 10 puzzles for her when she's a bit bigger! Couldn't resist and my neighbor is so

clean I'm sure everything is better than when it was new! Thanks Linda!!

Some of our stuff...

We didn't make enough to retire but it was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed chatting and relaxing outside!

Sunday was the Bears home opener and my DH and son went with my cousin Janice's DH and their brother-in-law. I went to my Janice's house and we shopped at Loopy Yarns downtown, went to Starbucks where I had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season with her and walked around her beautiful neighborhood downtown.

I found the greatest little gadget at Loopy Yarn; they are circular needle tags to differentiate the sizes. Cute idea! Of course, I HAD to have them along with some highlighter tape and a BEAUTIFUL skein of brown Madeline Tosh sock yarn. I even talked to the owner about selling her some of my Project Bags there!

Once the boys got back from the game, we went and had a nice dinner together! All in all a great weekend.

Post Vacation...

Hi All!
Back to the old grind today. Luckily there wasn't too much crap to take care of at work. I figured last week would be a good week to take off because there wouldn't be too much going on. Good thing because my "Monthly" starts on Thursday!

My goal this month is to try to get back on track with my WW now. I've been on a rocky roller coaster for a while and it's time to get serious and put my nose to the grindstone! I started walking back and forth to the "L" and home again. I'm really going to try hard now to stay on track!

I managed to complete another one of my project bags tonight and wrap up a few more pieces of fabric I realized I forgot about. Sewing is my "diet" friend in that I try to stay busy making something in the evenings since they're my hardest time!

This is a duplicate of one I made previously. I have three more bags to complete! Then it's on to some Halloween crafts! Think c a n d y  c o r n!

Thanks for reading and following my blog. I hope you're enjoying it. Until the next time!

Labor Day - 2014

Good morning all and Happy Labor Day!
Today is the FINAL day of my time off. As I'm sure you gather by now, I really enjoyed my time off. Tying it into Labor Day made it that much longer but also made me think about back-to-school time.

Labor Day used to bring the, what seemed like, 3 day Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. I actually looked forward to the Telethon because I love Jerry Lewis! I think he is one of the best comedians! It also signaled the end of summer vacation and back to school. I loved going back to school and all that went with it; new shoes, new clothes, new school supplies and going back to see my friends and meet new ones! Those were the days when troubles were few; your only concerns were what you were going to wear and what your friends thought. (At least for me!)

Well, I did enjoy my Sunday and finally organized my sewing room! Of course, I hurt my back by bringing all of David's law books, etc. down to the basement but not TOO bad. I still have some organizing to do in the bookcase but I can now sew and leave my machine out all the time! Here's a pic!

I love it!!!

Of course, I could have a lot more room if we got rid of the bed but - baby steps! That's my motto in this household! 

We also went to the AT&T store and bought my DH a new phone! He finally came into the 21st century and bought a smart phone!!! Now just for him to learn how to use it! 

I christened my new sewing room by sewing my candy corn pillow cases! I LOVE my candy corn! Anyone who truly know me knows I LOVE candy corn; eating and....

So, off to get more stuff ready and organized for our garage sale on Saturday and prepare for back to work tomorrow! I do love my job and the great law firm I work for but man, I LOVE being home!!!

Until the next time! 

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Hi all,
Had a wonderful day today! After a great breakfast, we took care of some personal business and grocery shopping, I came home and sewed the two pillowcases and two table runners I previously cut out.

Christmas Table Runner

Mixy Matchy Pillowcases

Just need to press them a bit and they're done!

Later that afternoon I met some of the ladies at Woolly Lamb Yarn Studio to chat and knit. A nice afternoon of knitting and friendship. I also heard from my niece Heather regarding some candy corns I asked her to crochet for me. She is able to do so as well as make me a candy corn hat! I am SOOO happy! Photos will be shared! 

Of course, after church we ate dinner and I relaxed and watched Cedar Cove and then the sappy Hallmark movie afterwards! Life is good!

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION - DAY 5 - IT'S OVER ; (

Good morning!
Got so busy on Saturday that I forgot to let you know what I did on Friday. I was sad that my vacation was coming to a close but content with the fact that I had a great time and did a lot of the things I planned to do as well as some fun, unexpected things! I was also happy because the Sewing Bees were getting together on Friday for a BBQ and knitting day at Liz's house.

Ro, Gladys and I joined Liz and her DH Tony at their house for a BBQ lunch, chatting and knitting. We sat outside in their beautiful backyard, drank Margaritas, chatted and played with their adorable granddaughter Madison. After a delicious lunch, we went inside to Liz's beautiful cool house and relaxed. After a while we all started knitted and watched Bubble Guppies on Nick Jr. with Madison! It was a wonderful way to round out my vacation. Thanks Liz and Tony!

I wanted to get some pics but of course, didn't! Oh well! I ALWAYS forget!!!

I did do a bit more organizing of my fabrics and made more plans for my sewing room! Other than a few "Suzy Homemaker" duties, my vacation was over! But I really enjoyed my time off.

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION - DAY 4!

Good morning once again,
I hope you are enjoying these blogs as much as I'm enjoying writing them! My goal, once again, is to keep blogging as much as possible because I know I have some fans out there!

Day 4 of my summer vacation was planned for one thing but I got sidetracked with a new bright and shiny thing! Happens all the time! My DH and I took a ride to Costco on Wednesday so I could get a table to use as a cutting table until my "dream" table was found. I planned to raise it using those risers they have to raise a bed. I did that in the basement to raise my folding table. I was excited to find one there that was adjustable to 34 inches. That was perfect for my table. I decided to set it up and see how it was. I decided it was perfect and I wouldn't need anything else! So I went to Joanne's and bought a rolling cart to put all my supplies in. When I got home, a package was waiting for me on my  doorstep; my comic book cardboards had arrived! I was planning to use them to fold my fabric around and store. I am a born organizer and would love to be a professional organizer when I grow up! I took out all my fabric and started rolling. This picture is the finished product of my efforts. If you think this is a lot of fabric, you should see some of the craft rooms I've seen on FB; people have 2, 3 and 4 tall bookcases of fabric. Well, this constitutes about 90% of my fabric stash.

Isn't this so beautifully organized!

OK, organizing is a sickness but I won't apologize!

So, I  started planning and cutting out some items to sew; I cut out two mixy matchy cat themed pillow cases, two candy corn (what else?) pillow cases and two Christmas Table runners. (I also cut out something for my quasi American friend but that's a surprise for her so I won't show that!)

So, my day was pretty productive. I also sewed a bit of the "behind the scene" things for the 4 remaining project bags I have to sew. Of course, I did a few loads of laundry and cooked dinner! Suzie Homemaker am I.

To round out my day, I went to Thursday Night Open Knit at Woolly Lamb and had a great time knitting and chatting with my friends. All in all, a great day.

As for my sewing room, I'm planning to have my DH stop at Costco today and pick up another table. I'll use that as my sewing table and have the perfect sewing room. If only I could get David to take his bed! Oh well, I'm happy the way it is; I FINALLY  have my sewing room. Pictures to follow soon!

Off to do some laundry and organizing. Have I said how much I enjoy being home?

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION - DAY 3!

Good morning,

As I sit writing my blog and drinking a cup of coffee, I realize how much I truly enjoy being in my house. Sure, I'd love to go somewhere for a week and sight see, shop and relax in a nice hotel spa. But being in my home, all alone, doing what I want to do (even if that means doing laundry or cleaning out a cabinet!) I LOVE IT and I would NEVER get bored!

Ok, I didn't accomplish as much sewing as I wanted to yesterday. The only reason was that I was underestimating just how much work needed to be done! There's a lot of "fiddly" stuff that needs to be done behind the scenes before actually putting the bag together. However, I still enjoy doing them. I did complete 4 of them. Juanita, I use these bags for knitting or sewing projects. One of my friends from work bought one and she uses it for make-up. You can use them for anything! They are approximately 18 inches long and 14 inches wide. The bottom of the bag is flat and holds a lot of "stuff." They're made of 100% cotton fabric. Here are the ones I completed yesterday and some other ones I've already done. They are all for sale for $30.00 if anyone is interested. Just email me at cisaac5462@aol.com.

BAHHHH - sheep fabric w/ coordinating lining

Downton Abbey fabric - Lady Edith

Sheep with polka dot lining

View of lining

The three bags above depict what the bags will look like filled.

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION - DAY 2!

Good morning family, friends, fans!
Yesterday was my second day of summer vacation. The time is really FLYING! I can't possibly accomplish all I want to do but I'm going to try my hardest!

Yesterday I decided to bake a cranberry nut bread for my DH. He's been very supportive of my
Weight Watchers and has given up buying his coffee cakes (which I find very difficult to resist!) I thought he might like a slice of bread for dessert and made it for him. He hasn't had a chance to eat any yet but I'm sure he'll enjoy it! YUM!

After that, I started working on my project bags. Making these bags is truly a labor of love. There is a process and several steps to complete these 8 bags. My goal is to finish them today. I finished sewing them together and then making the gussets for each side (this is for 16 bags - outside and the lining.) I don't have a lot to show for this but believe me, it took me about 6 hours to complete this much!

I also managed to spend some time with the Sewing Bees yesterday. We all got together and did some sewing, cutting, chatting, eating and laughing at Ro's house. We have a great dynamic and everyone gets along and helps each other! It's a great group of friends and I love them all! We talked about a cutting table that we would like to have. I saw one on FB and fell in love with it. It has to be on wheels to roll around in my "Sewing Room" (aka - David's room) and this one fits the bill. I need to have someone built it for me and I think I may have a taker - we'll have to confirm this! This is a picture of it. Pretty neat, huh?

All rightee! Back to work for me. Put washing in dryer and off to the salt mines (i.e., sewing machine!)

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION!

Good morning!
I apologize for my prolonged absence! But here I am!

First and foremost I would like to pay tribute to my dear Mother-in-Law. After a "long run" of 95 years, Jennie Isaac passed away peacefully in her sleep. We were all shocked, however much her death was a forgone conclusion, it came very sudden and without warning. She is at peace now and happily arguing with Tom's Father, George!

This is a picture of my in-laws taken several years ago when our church published a book with pictures of the parishioners. A photographer came to the church and took family pictures. We all had our portraits done and this is the one Jennie and George took.

Funny story; after we had our pictures taken, the photographer asked us to sit down and talk about photo packages. My DH said "this is where they strong arm you to buy packages." Little did we know the person selling had only one arm. He said "well, I guess I really can't do that!" Oh well....

Thank you to all our family and friends for your thoughts and prayers. My DH is only now coming to terms with her passing and allowing me to announce via social media.

I am, obviously, taking a vacation week. During this week, I plan to complete (and maybe start?) some of my old projects. So far, I have completed the following projects:

Fleece "Monkey" baby quilt

Flannel "Rag" lap quilt

I also started making some of the tabs for my project bags. I plan to complete most of my already started ones this week! Here they are, all lined up!

As the week goes on, I'll post more pictures of my projects. Hopefully I'll get to half of them!

Enjoy!

Happy Monday!

Hello friends!
Weathering (no pun intended) the many storms we're experiencing now. We really need the rain as we had sod put in and don't want to water if we don't have to!

Well, I did manage to stay the same (more or less - give or take .2 lbs! Oh well, it's a lifelong habit.  I'm trying to get more walking in now that it's warmer. I really love to walk and it's my best exercise.

I finished my April square for my block of the month project. It's the white one on the top right hand side. I still need to choose my fabric for the May block. Maybe I'll audition some fabric for my readers to help me choose!

I also purchased a beautiful jelly roll and it was delivered today; Downtown Abbey fabric. This is the Dowager line. Very pretty purple colors. (Hard to tell in this pic.)

I also have been working on my green shawl and have my second sock more than half way done!

Hope you had a nice day and enjoy the rest of the evening.

Until the next time....