Welcome Fall!

Happy Halloween!
OK, I spent the day yesterday cleaning out my old Halloween decorations! I had a great time going through of a lot of stuff and getting it ready to donate it to the Thrift Shop! I  My goal was to get rid of at least two of the 5 containers I have full of stuff. I accomplished that goal and more! I did put up some older and dearer Halloween decorations around the house. Some of them haven't seen the light of day in at least 10 years!  I know it's only September 9 but I feel like it's Fall! Of course, I haven't put out any of my candy corn decorations yet!

I found these old pins in my decorations. They have to be at least 15 years old! I have to figure out some way of displaying these pins. Maybe on a piece of black ribbon or black fabric? Updates to follow!

Can't remember why I bought them all except for my usual; why buy one when 6 will do! : ) I honestly think they are from several years ago or I bought them for the kids. I used to buy these types of pins when I worked at Woolworth 35 years ago! I had one for every season, holiday, etc. Not sure what happened to them all!


I also found several little figurines that my dear Mother made for me. I'm sure all my sisters received these sets too. She took ceramics for several years and loved making things for us. I also have a lighted ghost she made! This is the little vignette I put together with them all.

Now I know you are all waiting for the Floral Arrangement of the week at the Firm. Here it is! As you can tell, this arrangement also has put me in the Fall spirit. Very much a Fall floral arrangement!

This has been a fun project for me - I've really enjoyed posting these pictures. It's fun to share these beautiful arrangements with my blog friends.











I also did some crafting yesterday. After trying to figure out how to do paper piecing without getting frustrated, I finally found a great method. I watched a YouTube post on how to do it and really thought it was a great method for basting the fabric onto the paper. After cutting several 1 1/4 octagons using a quilting die on my handy dandy Sizzix cutter (from my scrapbooking equipment!) I was ready. I did the basting as shown and it really worked. As you can see, I have one flower made already! I also have several basted and are ready to make another flower. Not sure what I'll do with these flowers but I'm sure I'll figure out something! The bag is full of the papers I use in the center of each petal.








This is one finished flower. Each petal is on a one inch paper. It sort of curves upwards because I still have the papers in each octagon. You need to keep the papers in until you sew each side to another. I could take the center paper out because all sides are sewn but I haven't done that yet. You can't tell but the outside fabric is a beautiful color with gold thread through it. My camera doesn't take great pictures as you can tell and the lighting doesn't help either. I bought these two fat quarters at the new Quilter's Heaven location. I may try to applique the flower onto fabric for a pillow? The possibilities are limitless! Unfortunately my time isn't! DARN!!! 

I am really enjoying this craft now since I figured out how to baste the fabric onto the papers!







You may remember a couple months ago I told you about a block of the month my knitting friends and I were going to begin. We got together several times recently and finished our square for October! How convenient for me? DO you think that had anything to do with my desire to put up Halloween? This is the finished project. We all bought stands for ourselves so we can display each one each month!

We are so crazy about these squares. The next time we get together, we'll finish our November square and begin cutting fabric to do the December one! Once we figured out how to do them, we're going like gangbusters! The one thing we want to do at some point is free form quilting on each one. That's a bit scary to me but maybe I'll check out YouTube!

Of course, I've been knitting my spa washcloths. I don't want to bore you with more pictures. Suffice it to say I have many and am enjoying knitting them. I'm also knitting lots of stuff but will update you on my next blog.

Until then, enjoy this heat we're experiencing because before you know it, we'll be complaining that it's too cold and snowy!

 

Hump Day - Wednesday!

Good morning,
I was very surprised when I came home last night! I had a busy day at work and a long commute home due to some train problems. When I arrived home, a "SWEET"surprise from Germany was waiting for me - my dear friends, Mandy and Thomas sent me some delicious chocolates from Germany. They are so good - I'm not sure I want to share them!! I am very blessed to have such wonderful friends. It's a shame they are so far away!

I also received some good news from my brother. He is coming over tonight to cook dinner for us! Pulled pork, cole slaw and something else. It will be nice for my DH and I to come home and not have to worry about dinner! We will provide the dessert; maybe an ice cream cake roll!

I'm almost done reading my latest book Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy (not Finding Frankie as I thought - it's tough to be old!) It has been a really good read and I've enjoyed it immensely. I just downloaded another book onto my Kindle from the library this morning by Danielle Steel; Hotel Vendome. I'll probably skim it if it turns out to be a typical Danielle Steel book. I also got the latest Nicholas Sparks book; The Lucky One from the library last night. It's a two week loan book so I now have two books to read within two weeks! Oh well, I have a long commute every day and a lunch break so you know what I will be doing! I love reading! I also want to read a book my dear friend Mandy has recommended about Steve Jobs. So much to read and so little time! Just like my knitting and scrapping. Maybe I should quit working? : ) Ha-ha!! Then I couldn't afford to do all the above things! Luckily I love my job!

Off to work I go now. Still a few personal things I need to do before I start at 9:00 a.m. Have a wonderful day.

January 25, 2012 - I Return!

Back to the Blog! I am going to try to post in my blog every day this year - and include some pictures. I may bore myself to death (no one else reads my blog) but at least I can have a record of my year!

Knitting will always be my craft of choice so I will start with that. Brigitte, the owner of my LYS - Woolly Lamb Yarn Studio has a new website - http://www.woollylambyarn.com/ with tons of items to purchase even if you don't live in the Chicago area! She has started a new monthly project event. Each month we will have a new project of her choosing to work on. Whomever makes each project for each month will be entered into a drawing for a Woolly Lamb gift certificate at the end of the year! Sounds like a fun idea. Our first project, for January, is a pair of fingerless gloves using 2 skeins of Cascade 220 Sport Yarn. These are the Cables and Leaves Fingerless Mitts from the Cascade book "60 More Quick Knits" - Page 48. I am using a very beautiful shade of red for mine. There isn't much to look at now - picture to follow as soon as I get more completed!

My other love is quilting. I have one quilt that was professionally quilted but still needs to have the border attached. This is the Soduko quilt. It was so much fun putting it together. I really enjoyed this one.

I also have a baby quilt that needs the quilting completed and then the border done. Unfortunately time is fleeting and I just don't have enough of it! I hope to get these two completed this year - yes, I said this year! (Let's see how I do on this deadline!)

Scrapbooking has been put aside for the winter since it's very cold in the basement where my stuff is located. I'll be picking that up again this Spring - I still have to scrap Gregory's pictures from his semester abroad - don't we sound rich!!!

Life is good for all of us. I started my new job on January 3 and my son graduated from law school on January 15. It was a wonderful and very meaningful ceremony. Everyone else is well.

Until tomorrow.