The "in-between-the-holidays" lull

Mr. Wonderful is at the gym, being so good at his workouts, he has worked out 3-4 times a week for the last ten years. I started a couple times, and oozed out of it. He loves it and never gets tired of it...

But since he's occupied, and not on his laptop, I'm taking the opportunity to play on it for a while...tee hee. My poor little puter has issues, and my "techie-geek" son worked on it for a while when he was here for the holidays. It works in spurts now, I can milk my cows on Facebook if I log in through Mozilla, and I can read blogs through AOL, but can't post anything. He wants me to back up all of my pictures and files and then he can "start from scratch" whatever that means. He said my files are corrupted, but I've known for a long time parts of me were corrupted, I just never told anybody....tee hee While on my blogging hiatis, I managed to get 4 Linus Project blankets done,,,I tried my hand at the raggy quilts, and while I love the fact that I could use up little pieces of batting, I'm not too sure I did it right. I freehanded hearts in the blocks, and oh, my, it was so easy, I was afraid I was doing it wrong...but it looks ok, and I personally know a few little girls who would love these little blankies. Not my favorite way of quilting, but I hope the ladies who run the Linus Project in my area find a home for them, anyway.

I also got three raggy rugs done. I have the most awesome cousins, and I wanted to give a little something to them for all the support and love they have given me this year. Cheryl, Rainy, and Lorie, I love you!

Santa's job was lighter this year, due to the economy, so Mrs. Claus had a lighter job, too. None of the grandbabies recognized him this year, but his watch almost gave him away...good thing Papa thinks fast!

Rachel, from Country & Cosy at http://countrycosy.wordpress.com/ sent a little squishy all the way from Belgium! She is such a precious person, loving and giving. Her eye candy alone is worth the click! She included some hand-dyed threads from Gloriana Threads, and (how did she know?) I've been eyeing some blackwork designs here http://www.sebadesigns.com/ so I'm dying to try it out. They even have some freebies, if you want to venture over and see.

I have been given a box of quilting magazines by a friend who's aunt passed, and she was a beautiful quilter. Most of them are "Quilt" magazines from the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's. If anybody is interested in some, let me know, I'll share, or I'll swap, what ever you'd like.

The quilting community has given me so much joy... the love and support of beautiful people all around the world is astounding. So, I am wishing you all have many blessings and much love for the New Year.

xoxo

lyn

I've given up...

...on pinwheels, I love the movement they give a scrappy old quilt, but couldn't make up my mind on what to do with them,,,

So, I took all of my 240+ "leaders and enders" and ironed themand sorted them so I would not repeat the same HST in a block, I was very careful!and I squared them up, and I squared them up....And, yes, then I squared them up....and put them together,,,,and I STILL got two of the same HST in one block (probably many blocks) ok, I happen to have a nifty little "unsewing tool" for just such an occasion. Guess what I'll be doing this evening?

Does anybody know the name of this block? I have seen it, but I never knew the name. You all know I'm pattern-impared, so I cannot follow by all the beautiful patterns out there, (maybe that should be my next goal) I have to "see" it, then I can figure out in my head how to make them. It's a pain, but I can live with it. I could not find my way out of my own kitchen with either a pattern or a recipe,,,I sew and cook by feel.

Last week, we had the girls, and we are acostomed to finding little notes around the house that say "We Love you" and sweet little girl sayings...But I was intrigued when I saw this one on the buffet, to: world

from: Liberty

"I bleavan fairy's"

so, I'm spreading the word,,,now all the world knows, Lib,

Hope all your fairy's are as precious as this one!

lyn

Just a little stitching

I have not been completely lazy, I have sewn a few things, this little quilt was for a fund raiser that my SIL Kathy was puting together. A family in upper New York lost 3 daughters in a car accident, so I sent a quilt and a lot of prayers. I took the girls to a little quilt show just north of me last weekend, and they were so impressed! They oohh-ed and aahh-ed all over the quilts. They voted for their favorites and had such a hard time making up their minds.

But, boy the minute we got home, they wanted to do crafts right away, they were so inspired! I didn't want to get the sewing machine going because we had Jonathan, who is two, and is more interested in pushing buttons than sewing the fabric, So, we crocheted,,,and we crocheted!

Until it became too quiet! I looked in the toy room, no baby, I looked in the family room, no baby,,,I was getting nervous! the girls found him in the living room....Jonathan had almost fallen asleep in the corner with Cubbie. Thank Goodness for Cubbie, she is a better babysitter than Granny is!

This week, the girls are still stitching, one way or another, so I've made up my mind that we are going to every quilt show we can, just to keep them interested and maybe,,,just maybe,,,they will someday be so moved, they might finish a project!!???!!!

The weather has been cool here, lately, which I love! high 60's to mid 70's. But today was back to normal, and got up to 80. Humid. Sticky. My tomatoes love it!

Hope all your babies have loving dogs to cuddle with!

lyn

Tea parties on the Deck...

...are the most fun when you have little girls in dresses, wearing Granny's high heels, and party hats, Our summer is going so fast, I cannot believe July is half gone already!!

We have cooked out, we have had kids on skates, bikes, boats, and parades, we have done all the beaches, and we have ***giggled.***

And in between all that, I even managed to put a few stitches in a quilt or two. This is one I putzed at for about a month, it started out to be just a project, I had scraps and have always wanted to do a Double Irish Chain, so I slooowwwlllyyy worked on this one.

We have had so much company this summer, that it took over a month to finish it, but I love it now that it is done. the scrappy look is so appealing to me.

And I wonder if finn recognises any of her scraps? She knows I love scraps!!!

And, how do you like my $1.00 headboard? When I bought it at a yard sale, it was broken, and some of the finials were missing, Mr. Wonderful about had a hissy fit!!!! This thing was UGLY!!! But I saw the potential, so I took two legs off a broken stool for the missing finials, cut some one by fours to replace the legs, and slapped some black paint on the whole mess. I love it, but Mr. Wonderful is mortified when I tell everybody that it only cost $1.00...I'm so proud of my thriftiness, and he is sooooo proud of my efforts, but God forbid that I tell anybody how cheap I am!! tee hee...so don't tell anybody, okay? It will be just our secret.

Hope all your finials are glued on tight!!!

lyn

A stitch in time...

Granny and Papa have had the blessing of the two oldest girls the last month or so, and Granny has had enough children to know that a busy child is a happy child... So, we do a lot of crafts at Granny and Papa's house. The three oldest grandchildren are boys, and when they were younger, I taught them how to stitch, too. Now, they are teens, and do not want to be reminded how much they LOVED to stitch!!! But the girls will carry this love all they way through life!! (that is Granny's wish!) So, we drew our pictures,
Then we taped them to the window, and it did not matter to Liberty that hers was up-side-down, but Elly would have had conniptions if hers was taped wrong. We traced our pictures, and we were soooooo happy!
No peeking,,,,you have to wait!!!
Our fingers were so nimble, our needles flew!
Have you ever seen such concentration???

Our work in progress...now all Granny has to do is figure out how we want to finish them, and we'll let you see the end result when we're done...

Hope all your needles are flying, too!

lyn

Marshmallows, Hobo Pies, and Kids, OH MY

I have come to the conclusion that the best part of camping is the food, and the unlimited caloric availability. S'mores,
and can you just smell the cherry pie in this little baby here? HMMMMM life is good.

And then it's off to the pool (16 thousand times a day when the kids are with us) and my beach bag was drenched after two trips. I pulled out my crochet hook, gave up on the idea of a basket, and made a better bag, one that would dry faster....

Granny's got a brand new bag! All the other "Pool Grannys" were ooohhing and aaahhing over my bag! I have orders for at least three more!
So, we played Strawberry Shortcake, we colored, we dodged raindrops, and we sang till our voiceboxes were raw, and we just about gave up and went to town to rent some movies, when all of a sudden, the skies became clear, the Lord smiled down on our campsite, and three nice little giggling girls (and a most hilarious boy) ran up the hill and asked Liberty if she wanted to play...(my Lib is on the right)
We were truly blessed with these kids, and they had such good Moms!

Now we are home, and Libbee is back with Mom and Dad, and Granny and Papa are rested, looking forward to Elly's turn!

Hope all your weekends were full of giggles and catapillers!

lyn