One Creative Family

Today brings placemats to the sewing room.  I will be doing some embroidery on them.  These will be for Christmas for my kids and then it is always good to have a little something on hand for “Just in case”.  Do you have those “Just in case” gifts laying around?  I learned by time my first child was finished with Kindergarten that it is good to have something for adults and kids.  Now I keep these little things in the linen closet.  Let me tell you a secret.  Grandkids, or mine, are not afraid to call and ask.  I don’t mind so today with it raining outside I will be making placemats and Sunday start on Peanut brittle.     Our biggest sale of the year is coming up in Sept and I make about 20 lbs of peanut, jalapeno, pecan, and jalapeno pecan brittle.

I think today will bring some kolaches.  Just have to get poppy seeds from the grocery store.  I will make poppy seed and apple kolaches and a few loaves of bread.  I love rainy days.  Makes me want to bake.  How about you?  What do you like to do on a rainy day?Our Brittle.

Yes, I thought I’d made my last doll and doll clothes years ago.  Until recently my youngest granddaughter is oly 17.  Last night Destiny and I got busy and made 2 “Bubble Guppies”  She loves watching this cartoon show and so we did our best.  I set her at the embroidery machine and she got to “Push buttons”. (She is 3 and loves buttons) while I cut a body out and stitched it up.  Ended up with a blonde and a blue haired one.  Blue is her favorite.  Here is one. This is what happens after 1 hour in the sewing room with a 3yr old…We did fit some gardening and finger painting into the mix.  Was a very busy day and Oh I forgot we had to fill the mud puddle just in case.

You know sometimes we (me)get so set on what is expected of an adult(turning65 soon) and forget to just be our silly selves sometimes.  Destiny this is something this grandma is going to remember to do more.  I want to embrace each and every goofy thought that come into my head.

I am trying to decide what to make next, but Destiny has asked for 10 (her magic number) more mermaids.  We will see if I get more made.  What is on your drawing board for today?  Next week?

I got busy in the yard yesterday and didn’t get to the computer.  I have the blisters to show for this.  Today I have started working on a wall hanging that I got while in Texas this summer.  It is a welcome wall hanging that is about 31×15 inches.  It is a mix of machine embroidery, applique and quilting so I thought I would work on it today.  It took me a while to get to it because I had an eye appointment and the eyes were dilated.  Not the easiest thing is to sew while blurry.  I got the quilting done on the background and the black and white blocks for the borders are almost finished.  This is what I am working on right now. Isn’t it cute?  Well time to get things ready for Destiny(granddaughter) for tomorrow.  Sweet dreams and till tomorrow.

This morning when I got home from Weight Watchers(yes, I watch my weight go up and down), Hubby was ready and we went Downtown Kansas City to the River Market and we got some fresh peaches and cream corn, bell peppers, and lots of spices.  I love getting my spices there, they are only $2 a scoop and each scoop is about 3 ounces or 81 grams. They have a richer flavor than what I can get in the stores and some that are hard to find in the local stores.  From there we went on a little road trip(about an hour east) to Waverly, MO and bought peaches and watermelon.  When we got home I put my spices in containers, cut up watermelon and in refrig. Then shucked corn, cut most off cob and bagged 10 quarts and in freezer, some whole ears in the freezer, and a few in the refrig for tonight.  Peaches are washed and in a bowl on the table.  I think I will make a peach salsa for dinner tomorrow night.  Some grilled shrimp and fresh corn.  Sounds pretty good.  I think I will have to make some fresh bread to go with it.

There is nothing like fresh vegetables in the winter. My husbands grandmother would cut corn off the cob and freeze then when she was going to cook it she put it in a pan with milk, 1 tsp of sugar, butter, salt and pepper.  When it had been cooking for a while she mixed in a rue of milk and flour to thicken and it was the best cream corn ever.  I loved the way she cooked and now over 45 yrs I have all her recipes.  Nothing like a dollop of butter the size of an brown egg.

All this done by 1 pm and now sitting with a cold glass of sweet tea(sweetner no sugar) and my computer.  Later I will move to the sewing machine.

What are you doing on this beautiful Saturday afternoon?  I will go outside and work in the back garden.  Where I got all this energy I have no idea, but it is great while it lasts.  You have a wonderful day and until tomorrow.

 

I have finished all my unfinished projects and am wanting to start something new.  I know I have gotten into a rut and now is the time for me to jump in and try something new.  The only applique quilt I’ve done is the Sunbonnet Sue too many years ago.  I am now looking thru my books to see what I have.  Any suggestions?  Hubby is planning on vacation and I will be spending a lot of time in the car(trip is from Glacier Nat. Park in Montana to Arizona) and I like to have something to do while riding.  I figure I can cut all the pieces before I go and put each block in a baggie and in a month’s time have a few done.

I decided one thing I needed were some new scissors and I fell I fell in love with them.  Stainless steel tailor shears and are so light and sharp.  I usually purchase Singer or Fiskers.  These were on sale and then Christmas in July another 20% off.  The shears started out to be $88.22 on sale for 74.99 then 20% off was under 59.99 plus tax.  I then got some applique scissors and spent less than the original price of scissors.  I am one happy camper.  I got these from my sewing machine store and they will replace them if anything goes wrong.  I like this.

Where do you get most of your supplies?  Box store? Quilt store?

Any suggestions on a pattern for next project?

Have a great day.

Today as I get ready to sandwich a quilt to do the quilting on my split rail quilt the tv is going on and I realized I am tired of all the negative we are hearing.  The bickering you have on the political scene.  I have noticed the commercials for people running for office aren’t telling you what they stand for but what how the other person is a crook.  Then on our local channel they are announcing how you can get “Unicorn spit” on some of your drinks.  ENOUGH.  It is even on facebook.  NO Television, NO Facebook today.  I will be putting my music on and live in lala land where all is good.  I find I am getting grumpy and need to back up and start over.

NOW here goes.  We are getting some much needed rain right now and it sounds so nice and tranquil lightly hitting the windows.  Almost like a wind chime outside.  This is the type rain that as a child we would be outside and play in.  This month has been a reflective time for me.  What I have decided is that we are a strong family, my children and grandchildren are there for us many times before we even realize it.  No matter how many miles are between my siblings and their families we are a strong and close family and are so blessed to have each other.

Now this quilt won’t get on the machine if I don’t stop writing and get to work.  Have a great day and hug that someone special today.

Saturday we had a great fair, until the thunder storm came thru.  We loaded things up and got home in time for the heaviest part of the rain to pass.  Alicia sold 3 of her baby dolls and is now making more.

She also had a Black Panther one that went quickly.  Her girls tease her that their house looks like some kind of strange hospital with body parts all over. Mary sold her defuser necklaces and Ashley our newest talent sold her wordage signs.  It was a very fun day.

Yesterday we got to play with Destiny.  Now she has 3 sets of grandparents and a few adopted ones, but Grandma Cathy & Grandpa “Cray Cray” Larry, has a pool and is teaching her to swim, Grandma Judy and Grandpa Jim, don’t let her outside to play because of bugs.  Now Grandma Jackie and Pop Gary, we go for walks, may walk and wave flags, beat pretend drums, what ever she wants.  Yesterday we turned the sprinkler on and spent 2 hours playing in mud puddles in my garden.  She had so much fun and this 3 yr old loved the “squishing” in her toes and fingers.  All in all I am a very Blessed lady.

Today starts with garden weeded, and now I am getting ready to sandwich my split rail fence and quilt it.  Then time to start some more projects.

What is on the agenda for this week?

 

Today is hot and humid outside I decided to take advantage of down time(car packed for craft fair tomorrow) to look thru some photos I’ve taken of Independence, MO.  Hope you enjoy.

Just a walk thru Bass Pro Park.

 

 

Last night I went to my Quilt Guild meeting and enjoyed it so much.  Our guest speaker was Erla from GE Designs.  She made some of the most amazing quilts with 2.5 strips.  She calls it “Stripology”. You can find her on facebook.com/gequiltdesigns, or Facebook.com/group/gudrunsquiltcrew.  I wanted to purchase a pattern of hers and her new ruler, but there was such a crowd around her that I decided to buy on line instead.

I have been working on a “Random Access Quilt”  It is a star pattern cut from several fabrics and you don’t use the same fabric twice.  Some places you use the same color twice, but this ties it all together.  The more I look at it the more I like it. Poor Hubby doesn’t like it. I need to go thru all my smaller pieces of cut into squares or int strips and clean up a few things.  That will be my Tues and Wed goals.  Won’t be going outside much as it is 8:40 am and on the way to 90 degrees by 10am.  You have a great day and stay cool.

This morning I took a walk around the yard to see what needs to be done outside.  This will be a short read and lots of photos.  These are from my yard.Enjoy your day.  Remember to take time to smell the roses.