One word...

pneumonia

I'll be back once the meds kick in..

Nancy

would you like a sneak peak...

Into my sewing room?  We have been here since the end of October and I still don't have everything the way I want it...although I can sew.. and am trying to make an effort to clean up between projects..

Just as you come into the room is my wall o'stash..  I don't have a huge stash.  I used to buy whenever I saw something I liked...When we moved here I gave a big box away to some great friends...  It was nice fabric, but my tastes have changed and it wasn't being used.  I know it went to good homes..
I now buy fabric for a specific project or I will buy yardage on sale...

Look to the right and you will see my ironing station.  Hubby built  the big ironing table and those wire basket shelves are just sitting in there..  I really need to recover it...Tomorrow I am off to the big city for a doctor's appt and will stop by Joannes..I have a coupon...  And over there to the right of the photo is my wall of embroidery including a counted cross stitch of a quilting bee that my daughter made for me about 7-8 years ago.  And underneath is my book shelf.

This is my new wall O'Quilts.  Can you see where my taste changed? LOL  I started out my quilting career with Pat Sloan and even went on a McCalls quilting cruise where she taught one of the classes... I still love her patterns, I just use modern fabric now!  The antique table was in our breakfast room in the other house and I refuse to part with it.  This is where my friends will sit and sew with me...as soon as we get Rich out of the house (he has been home far too long!) ...I have two oak chairs that are supposed to be glued up by now!   And I guess I need to get all those quilts off the table.  All those are tops waiting to be quilted!  YIKES!

This is the main sewing area.   I have so much more space to spread out!  And I love my two banquet tables... My sewing machine sits in a SEWEZI table. I love it...

This is the cutting area..  Another banquet table up on bed risers.  I am tall (used to be 5'9", probably now I am around 5'8") and I get such a back ache when I cut at a normal height table... Underneath the table is a set of drawers that right now is mostly empty... And the shelf above holds a lot of collectibles...and really just stop looking at all the crap on the floor on the left there...  I DO clean up between projects, BUT I clean up right before I start a new project...NOT after I am finished with one.

So other than the design wall which is the remaining wall that's my sewing room... It's big...23'x17' but remember...I have been married 40 years..I started by sewing with a featherweight (didn't  know they would someday be collectible or I would have kept it!) on the kitchen table of a one bedroom apartment.. I have sewn in apartments and houses, bedrooms and basements, kitchen tables and tables in the corner of our bedroom...

And today I did sew...

I finished the sleeping bag for the second granddaughter... Princess...what else?  I also cut out a pair of panties for the doll but didn't have any lace for the legs so those are on hold until tomorrow...

I REALLY think this word thing might be working!!

Nancy

It might be working...

The last few days I have been focused in the sewing room...  Our Modern Quilt Guild has a free table set up each meeting.  We bring anything we think someone else might be able to use...  Last Saturday I found a quilt block...

Our illustrious leader must be working on a cute quilt as I fell in love with this block and snatched it up...I heard later it had turned out the wrong size for the quilt.  Well, it turned out exactly the right size for these...

 
I found the free tutorial at A Spoonful of Sugar..  If you have always shied away from zippers this could be the tute for you.  She has wonderful large photos of each step... I dare you to make just one!
That one on the right now has a home in my small purse and holds packets of Splenda and Sweet-n-Low...  The one on the left is sitting on the shelf in my Christmas Cabinet...

I then turned my attention to some birthdays that are coming up...  One is next week...

These are for Ava's Baby Alive...

A full set for Abbie's Our Generation doll... I still need to make the sleeping bag and pillow.

a couple of diapers cut out for Baby Alive... I found the pattern here at Happy Together.. I added a 1/4 inch seam allowance and will use two layers of flannel..  I love that these can be used for any size baby doll..

I have also been very busy in the kitchen.  I have found a lot of new recipes on Cooks Illustrated and after my 14 day trial period on their website, I bought a years subscription.  We also get their TV show on Tuesdays on our local PBS channel.  I love their recipes.  Every single one I have tried has been excellent.  We bought filet mignon for the first time in 40 years last week..and followed their recipe for cooking...It was PERFECT!!  I used their coconut cake recipe and it was PERFECT!  Last week the show was about shrimp...I love shrimp but every time I cook them they get rubbery... Not any more.. last night I made stir fry with shrimp... it was YUMMY!!

Tonight, dinner is going to be Brown Sugar and Bourbon Pork Shoulder..with potato pancakes...  ok..to be fair, I got the recipe for the pork shoulder from a guy in the grocery store yesterday.  I was looking for Enchilada seasoning (for another recipe) and he picked up two packages of McCormick Brown Sugar and Bourbon Marinade.  Hm... I asked him (so unlike me to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger in the grocery store!) if it was good and he told me he used in on Pork Shoulder and it was wonderful...and then told me the secret..."use two packages for a 4 lb roast and add some rosemary to the top of the pork when you bake it" he said..   I snapped up two packages and ran to the meat department..  I will however check out the potato pancake recipe on Cooks Illustrated cause I know it will be perfect...

And yesterday afternoon I had another addition to the sewing room...

My Focus Board!!  You know I think this "word thing" might be working!! 

Nancy

FOCUS...

That is my word for the year...  I have never  picked a "word of the year" before...and maybe that's why I don't seem to be getting much done...  I am determined to make a lot of our Christmas presents this year.  To that end, I have decided to add a new board to my Pinterest...and would like to invite anyone that wants a present this year to add a link to it...  (oh, guess I need to say that you will also had to have been on my list this past year!)...  So I need a place to hide all those presents...mostly so I won't give them away early...LOL  ..  I tried to help our son carry this up from the basement the son and the husband to carry this up from the basement and into the sewing room. 

But why stop there?  I got Rich to do some quick carpentry..and I now have storage for my rulers..

And inside I will hide all the presents...I do think I will need a child lock on there..

And on this MLK holiday we did some more work on the house...you can read about it here..

And I did a bit of sewing...

a robe for an 18 inch doll made out of a vintage sheet

and a pair of PJ's for the same doll with a matching bib..

and Rich and I are working on a little something special...

just a little sneak peak...

And there is going to be lots of sewing over here in the next couple of weeks.  I joined the RedBirdBee, a shoot off of my Modern Quilt Guild and got the first block last Saturday...It's gonna be a pretty fun one to do... I'm not sure if we can show photos or not...need to check with the Queen Bee...  I also have some more doll clothes cut out...

And last Saturday was my Mom's 82nd birthday.  We had a party with cupcakes and ice cream and all the kids, grandkids and cousins...

Me, my Mom and Ava my grandchild.. Mom is holding the pillow I made for her bed.

This is Mom and Stepdad , Me (dark purple sweater) with the rest of my sisters, brothers and their significant others.

Nancy

All done...

Today I finished the little sleeping bag and pillow and a pair of PJ's for Baby Alive... I finally got to use my snap setter for the pj's..  The sleeping bag was a quick tute over at Love Bug Living.  This isn't a blog I follow, but found a photo pinned on Pinterest...  I love Pinterest... I changed one thing on her tute.  When I added the elastic I put both pieces on the left bottom side.  When I think of a sleeping bag, I always remember folding the bag in half long ways and then rolling it up...so that's what I did...just kind of guessed where to put them and they work perfectly...

So, now this baby has 2 sets of clothes, 1 pair of PJ's , a sleeping bag and a pillow.  I will add a Gift Card and am done with one birthday... and I'm early!!  Her birthday isn't until the 25th..

I added a little detail around the bottom of the top and the bottom of the legs...

Hope she likes them...

Nancy

off my bucket list...

 A bit of chain piecing...

A little hand applique...

Ta Dah!!  

I made this 20 inch pillow for my Mom..  Her 82nd birthday is this week and there is a birthday party this Saturday.. cupcakes, ice cream and punch...oh my!!   This is my first Dresden Plate and I don't see any more in the future..I didn't have trouble sewing the blades...but did not like doing the hand applique around the outside... I am glad I did this one..it will look nice on her bed...


and I can cross it off the bucket list...

and then I made these...

 

These are teeny, tiny, pain in the ass, doll clothes I made for one of the grandchildren... Another first..That black top is my first knit t-shirt... I confess I have never sewn knits...and it looks ok if you
are nearsighted. don't look too closely..  I have a bib and a fleece blanket to make and then will start on doll clothes for the other granddaughter..  They both have birthdays coming up soon and both got new baby dolls for Christmas...

Another item crossed off my bucket list..

Nancy

The Last Design Wall Monday of the year...

*

Fa La

La La La

La La La La

!

Well, it's all over... the presents are unwrapped and you have leftovers falling out of the refrigerator..  Now comes the fun part!  You get to reclaim your sewing room!  Mine turned into wrapping central and a warehouse of wrapped presents..along with storage for the extra table and chairs and at one point two bicycles were parked in there..

So here is my design wall today...

That wrapping paper needs to be put away for another eleven months..  On the right is a charity baby quilt...Sometime in the last few weeks I put the blocks together so now it needs quilting..  And the blocks on the left are part of a quilt that I started back in September at a sew-in.  The pattern is by  Kristy who is president of our Modern Quilt Guild in St Louis... It was featured on Moda Bake Shop..

It always takes me awhile to get back into the pattern once I have left it for awhile..So far I have pulled the finished blocks out and separated the other pieces I have.  Today I hope to get back into the pattern and figure out where I left off...lol  

So I will leave you with a photo of the tree right before we had to wake up the son and his girlfriend so they could open presents...it was 9 am and even though we had turned up the sound on the TV...Opened his bedroom door and let the dog in...there still was no sign of life...  Finally I went in and said "Merry Christmas, get up!!"...lol  Then I let him go to her room and wake her up...(yes, we are a PG family, no co-inhabiting til married) ...  Everything was a hit..

Ha...see that big red plastic bag on the right side?  Have you ever tried to wrap a body pillow?  I could not find a gift bag or box big enough, so I just stuffed it right back into the target bag and tied it shut!!  The son opened the body pillow cover and could not figure out what it was... I finally told him that the other part was in the bag...  He liked it then... lol

I of course was spoiled by Santa...A bird feeder to hang outside the sewing room window, a GC to a great local quilt shop, a Garmin. new wallet and a Flat Screen TV for the sewing room...which I have decided to return.. I have a perfectly good TV and I would love to have a DVD player...Now that I have a real library I plan on utilizing it to borrow some good movies to watch while I sew...

The grandkids gave us a selection of games they enjoy to keep at our house...We got Jinga, Sorry and Phase 10.    Can't wait to have a game night! 

And I think the grandkids all loved their presents... They were all here on Christmas Eve...I decided that this year we would have a Mexican food buffet... We would eat and then open gifts... Then we realized "someone" had forgotten to put the chicken enchiladas in the oven! LOL  So we popped them into the oven for 40 minutes and changed the plans...we opened WHILE dinner was cooking...

And we had Birthday Cake for a special grandson who turned NINE!! on Christmas Eve...Chocolate cake, chocolate icing and sprinkles baked by his Great Aunt Cupcake..  

So that's it for 2011...no more design walls this year... On to 2012!!

Nancy