Summer Wall Hanging

As Summer comes to an end I thought I would share this machine embroidery wall hanging I embroidered way back in 2013 when I first brought my Janome 12000.

It sat in my sewing room unfinished until this summer when I decided to make it into a wall hanging.

I used two 1930s fabrics I had for the borders and a striped binding.

The cute clothesline is a built in design on both the Janome 12000 and 15000 embroidery / sewing machines.

I added the title and text.

I can’t believe that that tomorrow is September 1, 2020.

Fall will be here soon. 

Saturday Morning Coffee on My Screened In Porch

 It’s Saturday morning and I’m having my morning coffee out on my screened in porch.

When we moved from Pennsylvania back to Ohio, I told my Hubby I had to have a porch like we had in Pennsylvania.  

A couple of years ago I invested in good outdoor furniture for the porch.

It is unbelievable how much outdoor furniture can cost if you want it to last.

My dear friend and designer Susan helped me select the furniture and the outdoor rug.

I actually bought more than I needed for the porch so I moved two tables and two chairs inside for my Great Room.

The piece I love the most is the chaise lounge.  

The cushions are very thick and deep and it makes all the pieces very comfortable.  

I had landscaping done around the deck and porch a few years ago along with landscaping lights.

My niece lives with me along with her two rescue dogs, Jewels and Lucky.  

Today is overcast with the sun shining through once in awhile.  

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

My Lori Holt Cozy Christmas Quilt

 A stormy morning here.

But I think the worst has passed as it’s lighter out now.

This winter while in Florida at my quilting cousin’s house, I started working on this adorable Lori Holt Cozy Christmas quilt.

Lots of pieces to cut out for the appliqués.  

I used some of Lori Holt’s fabrics and the rest came from my cousin’s fabrics.

I machined appliquéd with a blanket stitch in black thread using my cousin’s Janome sewing machine.

I designed my own deer as I thought the original looked more like a pig than a deer.

I love the colors of my sashings.

Outer border sewn on in Lori Holt’s fabric.

Backing in three fabrics.

Finished quilt. 

I just love it!  

Doggie Blanket for Jewels

Doggy blanket for our Jewels.

 I machined embroidered a paw print in milky fabric and embroidered Jewels’ name.

I love this paw print and bone 100% cotton fabric.

The back is purple minky fabric.

I free motioned quilted the bones on the finished blanket.

I think Jewels loves her blanket.

What a sweetie!

Party with Patrick Cruise 2017

My cousin and I took a quilting Caribbean cruise in February 2017. 

 It was hosted by Patrick Lose, a fantastic designer.

So we stitched up this door wall hanging .

    I like the bright colors.

You haven’t lived until you iron and/or sew on the ocean moving with the waves.

We worked up several projects when not in port.

Our quilting/sewing room all set up for us.

Patrick was a great instructor.

And here’s our ship.

And our balcony.

This was my first ever cruise but later we took another New England cruise on the same ship.

We had a lovely time but were glad to head back home.

Crocheted Coasters

 

While I wasn’t blogging the last couple of years,  I crocheted these cute coasters.

I crocheted some in colors for each Holiday...Easter, July 4th, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

And in colors for Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Some to match the colors out on my screened in porch.

Can you tell I love R.E.D.!

I just love this outdoor rug and it’s bright colors.

My grandnieces love to collect these coasters and carry them around when they visit me.

Orange and white one...

And St. Patrick ones too.

They are so easy to whip up and fun to make new color combinations.

Even Peppermint coasters. 

Hope you enjoyed my little coaster show.

Good evening!

My Liberty Trike

 

Last year I purchased a Liberty Trike in hot pink.  I just didn’t feel right on my old two wheel bicycle so I decided to try a three wheel electric bicycle.  I couldn’t be happier.  This year my nephew set up a charging center for me that has worked out very well.  After my ride I just plug in the battery to charge it up for my next ride. I’m thinking of have a license plate made with the title “Pink Lady”.  

I’ve bought some neat accessories for it.  A water bottle holder that is easy to reach while riding.

An easy grip for the throttle while using power.  No more tired hand.  And excellent mirrors.  Plus I have a gadget to attach my iPhone too.  I love to listen to Amazon Music and/or Apple Music during my rides.

And a new gel seat cover makes the ride so comfortable and smooth.  So far I have almost 400 miles on it.  It comes with 5 speeds.  It’s a little hard to petal without some power at least for me.  I usually set it up at speed 3 and petal to get some exercise.  I ride around my neighborhood and try to do 3 to 4 miles each time.  I love this trike and so enjoy it.  It makes me feel like a kid again.

Crocheted Snowmen

 

Happy Saturday!

I haven’t posted my crochet projects the last few years so I thought I would show you my Snowmen I crocheted for family and friends.  It’s a free pattern from Repeat Crafter Me.  

I think I crocheted about 30 plus of these two years ago.

A friend suggested I crochet one with earmuffs so I did.

And my cousin suggested I do a pumpkin one.

What do you think of my little Snowmen?  I still haven’t crocheted any for myself.  But I will one of these days.

My Butterfly Bush in Bloom and My Birdhouse Quilt

 Hello!  It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Ohio.  So, I decided to sit out on my screened in porch for lunch on my very comfortable chaise lounge chair.  My Butterfly bush is in full bloom this year.  I had three planted five years ago but only one has survived.

Isn’t it pretty!

I washed out my birdbath and watered my flower pots.  It is a warm sun and I had to come back into the air conditioning. 

I’m hand sewing the binding back down on my birdhouse quilt.  I had it professionally quilted by a quilter friend.  I tried to free motion quilt it but the weight of the quilt made it too hard to move on my Janome 15000.  I suppose I could have tried using my sit down quilter machine but felt that Karen could do a better job and I wasn’t wrong because it turned out beautifully.  Actually I had her long arm quilt four of my quilts.

This is before I sent it off to Karen when I was pinning it to try free motion quilting.  I just love red and blue and white backgrounds.  I’m amazed I made this quilt.  I spend the winters with my cousin, Rozann, in Stuart Florida.  She is so very talented and a very experienced quilter along with her quilting buddies.  I have learned so much from her in the last three years.

When we moved in five and 1/2 years ago we had Time Warner cable put in (now Spectrum) and the rates just keep going up and up.  We had four cable boxes installed and one is a DVR.  But with streaming becoming so more popular I found I wasn’t using all the cable boxes so I have returned three of them and just kept the DVR one in my Great Room.  I’m not ready to leave cable yet but I am thisclose.  We had surround systems installed in our Great Room and downstairs Media Room.  Plus a receiver and different remotes that go with it so it has been a learning curve understanding all this technical stuff.  My hubby was so good with any technology I left all that to him. Can’t do it now though.  

I bought some Bluetooth earbuds to use in the Great Room just to discover my receiver doesn’t work with it.  I would have to upgrade to a different receiver.  It does work one way but only with cable - not with my Amazon Fire Stick for streaming.  So, maybe next year I will look into upgrading the receiver.  I love to stream.  I have Amazon Video, Britbox, Acorn, Hulu and through family I also have Disney + and Netflix.    It is so refreshing to watch other countries programs especially mysteries and law and order ones.  

Well, that’s all for today.  I’m this close to finishing the binding on the Birdhouse quilt.

First T Shirt quilt

 Long time since I’ve blogged for many reasons.  I hate the “green box” that shows up on every post.  I’ve tried to get rid of it unsuccessfully even asking a blog professional for help.  If I post from Bloglovin’ the “green box” doesn’t show up but the post also doesn’t show up under my blog in Blogger.  So unfortunately that horrible “green box” is still there.  Update:  I contacted Blogger and they told me what HTML code to remove the green box.  I’m so happy it is gone.

The main reason I haven’t blogged in the last five years is that I’m a widow now.  I lost my beloved hubby four months after we moved into our new retirement home in 2015 that he had built for us.  I couldn’t do many things that I enjoyed in the past.  And anyone who has lost a love one knows how hard it is to face everyday alone.  So many things to learn and take care of that my sweetheart handled so well.  I have to “googled” everything to figure out all the technical issues.  Luckily, I have family and friends for support but it doesn’t fill the emptiness and longing for my hubby.

The house and hobbies keep me busy.  I have a cousin who is an experienced quilter and she has introduced me to the world of quilting.  If I haven’t learned so much from her, I wouldn’t have tried to do a T shirt quilt.  A family member going off to college this month asked me to make one for her.  With the COVID 19 it took forever to get supplies...knit interfacing etc.  I was able to find an excellent video on the steps to make this quilt plus use my niece’s heat press to apply the interfacing.  I tried to free motion quilt a few blocks but had so much trouble controlling the weight of the quilt to move it, I ripped it all out and continued using the dual feed foot (walking foot) on my Janome 15000 and that worked liked a dream.  All said and done I was very pleased with it.