BOO!

Don't you just love Halloween??

My favorite Halloween memories -

My Mom making Chili and getting to eat while watching my sisters and brother getting their costumes on.

Finally being old enough to Trick-r-Treat after dark without a parent.

Getting popcorn and candy from the police in the neighborhood patrol cars.

My Mom had two bowls of candy, one was cheap penny candy for kids she didn't know, the other was HUGE candy bars for our neighborhood friends.

Stealing the pillowcase off our bed to hold the candy.

Running from house to house in the dark, sometimes on a SCHOOL NIGHT!!

The kid next door dressed as a TV set and the boy up the street dressed as a GIRL!!

Coming back home 2 hours later with half a pillowcase of candy and then having our Dad go through and steal all the good stuff..

Whether you are the giver or getter of candy, have a great time tonight!!

I will be sitting on my porch handing out Twix, Hersheys, Milk Duds and Peanut M&M's. If you are in the neighborhood stop by!!

Happy Howling Day!!

Nancy

Another redwork project

I finished my tea towel last night while watching (listening) to TV. Seems I can't watch TV without my glasses and can't stitch with them, so I let DH have the remote and just listen mindlessly to what he chooses. Except on Monday night when I watch "Two and half Men" and "Journeyman". Tuesday when I watch "House", Wednesday it's "Private Practice", Thursday "Survivor", "Grays Anatomy" and "ER". Um....the rest of the time he gets the remote. LOL

Today is Tackle it Tuesday over on the RedworkStitchers yahoo group. I had told them last week I wanted to learn to use my Triangles on a roll... so that is today's project.

PS. The redwork stitchery is part of Pat Sloans free stitchery series. www.quiltershome.com

A ticket, A tasket.......

We took a Market basket.....to the "almost, kind of" local(as in an hour away) Farmers Market. Soulard Market is in downtown St Louis and has been there since 1779 (just like the sign says, which is where I got the date, lol). I hadn't been there since forever and after we moved back here we kept telling ourselves we must take the rock guitarest down there. Today was the day. We dragged (drug? not really) the rock guitarest out of bed at the ungodly hour of 6am on a Saturday morning. He wasn't really excited about going, but got his pillow and ipod and slumped into the back seat. We went by and got my sister and took off. After some backsseat (and front seat) driving, we finally arrived and found a parking place in a really not too bad parking lot right across the street. A metered parking lot to be exact, but beings as it is a Saturday, didn't have to feed the meter. Yea! more money for fruits and veggies...

Some great pictures of the Market.....

THE saleman of the day...

My sister's bounty...

A passle of pasta....

A few good tangerines picked out by my sister and my hubby...

Oh, BTW, did you notice the title?? A ticket!!A tasket....That isn't a typo..

When we got back to the truck, we found a parking ticket on the windshield. Apparently we were the ONLY ones that didn't know you have to feed the meter on Saturdays. Oh well, it is $10 well spent. We all had a great time and will return before Thanksgiving for more goodies...

Then we took off about 5 miles down the road to Cherokee Street which is a couple of blocks of renovated old row homes and antique stores. My sister took the rock guitarest to the corner coffee shop and hubby and I took off to some shops. Did a lot of looking, but no buying.

All in all a great Saturday!!

Happy Sewing Day...
Nancy

PS....The rock guitarest said the Farmers market was "way cool".

Presents from Down Under......

Yesterday's mail brought me two presents from Australia. The first was a postcard from a friend that is visiting her son there. Nancy P. tells me that she has walked through a rain forest, held a Koala and has loads to tell me when she gets back. I am so jealous and can't wait to see photos and hear all about it!!

The second was a package from Leanne at LeannesHouse. She just finished the most beautiful butterfly quilt and had a drawing for some of her leftover fabric. I was one of 4 winners. How exciting is that!! Here is what Leanne calls "scraps"!?!?
These wouldn't go into my scrap bucket!! Included was a card showing two of her new patterns (I AM buying that redwork sampler) and a note from her. See the complete quilt over on her blog. (link on the right sidebar). If anyone knows how to make "names" into hyperlinks, leave instructions in a comment. I can not figure out how to do that!!



Today's project is some more of those calendar covers. Dinner out tonight to celebrate the "rock guitars" GREAT report card and tomorrow is another day.....

Happy Sewing Day!
Nancy

Sneak Peak Revealed

This is the little project I was working on the other day. It covers one of those hideous Dollar Store calendars. The little redwork stitchery pattern came from a Japanese Craft book that I found on ebay and HAD to have.



I will be making more of these calendar covers for some Christmas presents. I think there are some family members that would use them...

Happy Sewing Day!!
Nancy

Clean is GOOD!!

On Monday, Pat Sloan posted a "Change is good" over on her blog (http://www.patsloan.typepad.com/) and yesterday was Tackle it Tuesday on my Redwork Stitchers group on Yahoo.... so what am i to do???





My sewing room was a mess -




Now it looks like this!!



I love clean spaces....it gives me more creative juice, I can find my "stuff" and I want to sew, sew and sew some more.

Is your sewing room a mess? Take 15 minutes first thing and clean it up.... I know you will feel better.

Send me before and after photos and I will upload them onto my blog to inspire others.

Happy Sewing Day
Nancy

PS . The doll on the cutting table is my granddaughters. Poor baby lost her head in the grocery store (haven't we all?!!) and came to Grandma's house to get well.

Planning day.....

Today will be spent doing some planning for a new Redwork club I agreed to start at my LQS. We will be working on a pattern called Winter Wonderland by Crab Apple Hill Studios (http://crabapplehillstutdio.com/ .


I have six of the blocks finished and need to get number 7 at least traced to show them tomorrow. Last I heard there were only 3 ladies signed up although a lot more asked for an evening class. I don't know if these ladies already know how to stitch or if I will have to start at the beginning so I will have to be prepared for anything. This means packing up the traced block, untraced block, light box, all my stitching supplies and anything else I can think of. LOL

I also want to take some decorative items such as an old redwork tablecloth I got on ebay.

Thought I would show off more stitchery, but first a wee bit of history....

I started doing redwork when I was in 7th grade. We did what was then called "chicken scratch". You know, the cross stitchs over gingham...(wow, I am dating myself). It was a school project and I was a good girl, so I finished it into an apron. Did a little bit more embroidery as a Navy wife. This was in the early 70's, so most of it was large loopy flowers and peace signs on Navy Corpmans jeans...lol Then I put it away while raising 2 wonderful daughters. A little over a year ago we moved to a new town and one of the local quilt shops offered a free Redwork Club. I thought if I joined, I would not only get back into Redwork, but meet some new friends. I have done both!! The Redwork Club is a great bunch of ladies and we have a grand time.

Here is one of the first projects I did after I moved here. These hang in my upstairs hallway....





These were stitched using 12 wt Sulky thread and then I use crayons to color the little boys scooter and the little girls flowers. I guess they turned out ok.

Now to get planning and packing....

Happy Sewing Day!!
Nancy

Vintage Linen Update

Such nice comments were left yesterday about my Grandma Bernices Linens. Kim had a suggestion to use the pillow cases as pillow shams. I took the extra pillows off of the day bed in the guest room and here is the result....



I really like them like this so now I will need to replace the guest room pillows.
I also noticed after taking the photo that the white lamp on the nightstand doesn't look quite right in the room. It looks too modern for my 40's furniture. Wonder why I never noticed that before? Guess a new lamp should be on my shopping list.

I try to be a creature of habit and today is laundry day so I have already started the washer and dryer going.... with three people it shouldn't take me all day to do laundry, but it will. I also need to make a menu for this week. It's easier for me to know what to cook for dinner every night if it is posted somewhere.
Last night was Lasagne and French bread which my son enjoyed thoroughly...hope he will be equally excited tonight with Roast....lol

Happy Sewing day!!
Nancy

Vintage Linens....

To use or not to use....that is the question....

I was given a set of my maternal grandmothers pillowcases. She embroidered them herself and they are wonderful. Grandma Bernice was a seamstress. She could take two patterns and make one Prom dress. She made all of my Homecomeing outfits, from wool shorts (with knee socks no less!!) to wool blazers, skirts etc.. One year she made me two skirts, two pairs of shorts,wool lined pants and one blazer and they all coordinated. I was pretty stylish back then, at least for the 2 days of Homecoming...lol She passed away a few years ago and I wish I would have spent more time watching her sew when I visited. When she passed, my grandfather gave me quite a few of her sewing items.



When I changed the sheets yesterday, I put these on my bed. My room is grass green and white so these match perfectly. Now I want to take them off and put them back into the closet. I don't want us sleeping on them. I want to keep them nice and crisp. But what good will they do there? I can't see them in my closet.


I love vintage linens. I use a cloth tablecloth every night. They are all from the 50's. Most are red and white, some have a bit of yellow or black in them. I have three just for Christmas. Most of them I get from ebay, some came from auctions that my hubby and I used to go to before we moved. I have about 6 or 7 that are rotated as they get dirty.

SO....my question?? What do I do with the pillowcases? Do I keep them on the bed or put them back into the closet?

Happy sewing day!!
Nancy

Best laid plans and all that.......

So I have all the hand embroidery done on the basket wall hanging (see right photo) but after fusing all the pieces securely I found I don't have any dark brown sewing thread for the blanket stitching.... will have to search the web. I like the Gutermann 100% cotton and it is impossible to find in my neck of the woods. Hopefully I will find it at some online store.....

SO....I should be cleaning the sewing room, but I just swept all that stuff aside and started a new project. I belong to a local Redwork Club and we are to have a Christmas swap. Very few rules...no more than $5; doesn't have to be stitching related and MUST be red and white only. Here is a sneak peak at my project.



Can't tell you what it is as I don't know who will find me in blog land.

Happy sewing today....Nancy

Ava found.......

Thank to all of you that have left comments. I see this could become addictive.

I found a photo of the elusive Ava. This is my second oldest daughter with her daughter Ava......

Three of the four grandkids were in my nieces wedding at the end of September.



They did wonderful at the rehersal dinner, but the next day they became kids again. Jackson literally pulled Owen down the aisle and Grace became shell shocked and walked with wide eyes and forgot to drop any of the rose petals. LOL Oh well, it was a beautiful wedding.

It's a beautiful morning here in eastern Missouri....the sun is out and the neighborhood dogs are still sleeping so it is very quiet. I know that will only last until 10am when the resident rocker guitarest friends come over to jam in the garage. I will retire then to the sewing room (two floors up, door closed and radio on). I finished the hand stitching on my current project last night while waiting for hubby to fly home from Ohio and will do the machine applique and hopefully machine quilting today...

Have a happy sewing day!!

In the beginning

With some gentle (pushy girl!) urging from a blogger friend, I have decided to put pen to paper (or is it finger to keyboard?) . A bit of boring stuff about me. I live in a small town in eastern Missouri. Hubby and I have one son still at home (the rocker guitarest), two married daughters, and 4.5 grandchildren (which I will blog about shamelessly).....

My first two loves are hand embroidery and quilting not necessarily in that order....

My current projects are a hand embroidered baby quilt for that .5 grandchild due in February and Winter Wonderland. Both will combine stitching and quilting....