Online COMMUNITY!

I just LOVE the on-line community - making friends all over the Earth is a tremendous joy. Yesterday an on-line friends' friend surprised me with 4 skeins of #10 crochet cotton. It's a lovely Ecru and will make some beautiful doilies! And this "new friend" lives right here in South Carolina! SMALL WORLD! It's the little joys and surprises that make life worth living. I'm thinking the puppies on the card are hers' as it's a beautiful hand crafted card too. They are SO ADORABLE!

Today my energy seems to have returned - had a good nights rest and I'm sure that has helped. I'm still planning to get another 8 or so of the paper pieced blocks done today but before I jump back on those I want to work up a "sandwich" with the cat quilt top I made to use in the car when we are traveling as sometimes Scott freezes me to death. Once the sandwich is made I will be able to get the quilting done on it between rounds of paper pieced blocks so that I don't get overwhelmed by either project. I'm using some CRAZY quilt cat fabric I bought off Ebay years ago for the backing fabric and I still have another 2 to 2 1/2 yards left that I'm thinking a prairie dress for Abby would be adorable.

It's good my siblings had girls for me to sew for or I'd feel "girl" deprived. I did make clothes for Greg when he was little and when he was a teen I made a Matrix pleather coat - WHAT A JOB THAT WAS! Now the only sewing I've done for him is blankets and uniform adjustments. They grow up TOO FAST! Time I guess to focus more on sewing for myself and quilts. 

I guess I better get back to the sewing machine and basting spray.

SO - what did I accomplish?

So while I was away from the computer what did I do? Not nearly as much sewing as I'd thought but I did get a daily walk in with Amelia (dog) which thrilled her to pieces. And we will do it again today and this time we will have Scott with us as he doesn't have any work for the rest of this week.

I've enjoyed lighting a candle in the kitchen in the evenings - a nice "Fall"-ish scent.

I did sew some and pre-washed some flannel for some PJ's for Greg. I don't take chances with cotton's; I don't want to put in a lot of work and they have them shrink like crazy and not fit him when I give them to him. He is a PJ bottom wearer - not FULL PJ's. I think most young men go for the bottoms only. I am thinking about making him a robe for this winter since we will be keeping the thermostat low to save money - we will just have to layer up. When I was going through my patterns for PJ bottoms I went ahead and pulled ALL PJ related patterns. I had no idea that I had this many and this was only the adult patterns and not even all of them. CRINGE! OH well at 99 cents and $1.99 it's not like I spent a complete fortune on them and I can use them over and over with care.I plan to make myself some sleeveless nightgowns. I just don't like sleeves on them as they always seem to twist on my arms and cut of circulation so I wake up to a "dead arm" usually hanging over my head and face and freaking me out.














OK! So now to what I did get made. I finished Tesla's quilt so now he has something to lay on in the sewing room while I am working so that he will stay off my current project - I hope. And I made Abby a dress (This is part of her Christmas present). It was super easy and turned out really cute. It's made of corduroy and in such a super fun print.

Took a "Back" break

Literally I took a break from a lot of things the past few days or went along very slowly as I hurt my back pretty good and couldn't do anything without wincing in pain.

Today I am feeling a good bit better - I still wasn't able to sleep in my bed last night but got some good rest in the recliner. Yesterday I pulled out a project that I started awhile ago and have it nearly finished. It's a scrapbook for someone and I have 4 more to do. These will be surprise UN-BIRTHDAY/UN-CHRISTMAS presents. I can only post a peek... I want to keep it as much of a surprise as I can.

Last night I trimmed all the 2 inch blocks that I had sewn from the bits left from the trimming of the turning 4-T blocks so they are now ready to be sewn into small pinwheel blocks for a border around the center block that I had created last week from the rest of the trimming bits. Now I'm trying to decided which brown to use as a border around the center block; I like them both but am letting them sit on the cutting table for awhile and walking by and looking at them under different light levels throughout the day to see which one I like best. It's really silly though that I'm even concerned at all because this will be a quilt for my cat not a real decor piece or a gift. But I think he deserves the added attention I'm giving this decision.