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.  

❤️Happy Valentine's Day❤️

Valentines, Hearts and Love!

With our move coming up next month we have been very busy.  

My poor blog has been neglected.  

There just isn't enough hours in a day now to do it all but hopefully once we are moved and settled into our new home our routine will return to normal.  

I did managed to finish my last "Party with Patrick" project due at the end of February.  

It's an adorable Valentine Table Runner, "Love Is All Around" by designer Patrick Lose.  

I had fun choosing the fabric fat quarters with different Valentine themed prints.  

This runner had 12 machine embroidered appliquéd hearts to sew.  

I used a cute pink backed fabric I bought in an Alaska Quilt Shop several years ago for the binding.

  

The runner is so colorful in it's pinks and reds.  

I loved using two different white background cherry print fabrics in the design.  

It really made the red hearts pop out. 

I have started breaking down my sewing/craft room and packing all the stuff away.  

I have 7 large plastic bins of fabric and 8 of yarn.  

I was surprised I had more yarn bins than fabric. 

But then again I have been crocheting longer than machine embroidering.

I hope you have a very Happy Valentine's Day!

I did!

Hubby surprised me with three Valentine Pandora charms!

One charm is a heart with "I Love You" lettering and the other two charms have cute jeweled pink hearts all over them.  

Love Is All Around Our Home!

  

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Ready for the Ride

We have snow on the ground with more coming the next few days.  

I wish I could ride Rudolph to sunny Florida.  

I kind of rushed sewing up this month's "Party with Patrick" wall hanging,

 "Ready for the Ride".  

Things are heating up with the new Ohio home.  

We FINALLY have dates for the two final walk-throughs and the closing in March. 

I will have to break down my sewing machine to take back to Ohio before the closing because it's too precious (to me) for the movers to move. 

  

We're packing our pickup truck for another trip to Ohio before the closing in a few weeks. 

I never knew I had so many baskets.  

They are lightweight but would be awkward to pack into boxes.  

So we stuffed them together into plastic bags and loaded them into the bed of the truck.  

We also packed most of our larger picture frames.

We want to pack the pickup truck today before the snow comes.   

At least with the house stuff we are moving ourselves.  

This trip to Ohio will be shorter.  

We have made all selections for the new house except for the closets.   

It should be looking pretty good with cabinets, counter tops, plumbing, electrical finish work and tile done or almost done.

  

Off to pack some more.

Keep warm!

  

Zippered Little Christmas Bag

Still sewing Christmas projects at Embroidery Club this month.

What can I say…I love Christmas!

This is a zippered bag (an Anita Goodesign pattern) that can be completely sewn in-the-hoop!

And the design graphic and lettering can be changed easily to another holiday or event if you have embroidery software.

I love the holly fabric in red and green.

The back of the bag is in the red holly fabric.

Here you can see me stitching it out in the hoop.

The zipper is already done.

The only stitching done out of the hoop is sewing it together.

I can't wait to sew up some more of these cute little bags.

The pattern comes in three sizes too.

This is the smallest size.

I just may make several of these for Christmas this year for the girls in my family.

Anita Goodesign's collection also included a zippered Sewing Blackboard Bag (video here).

Watch the video it is so neat to see this little bag sewn in-the-hoop.

Since I used fabric instead of felt I had to double the fabric on the front and back and fold over at the zipper so no raw edges showed.  

I am having so much fun machine embroidering!

Thanks for visiting!

My Santas!

   Santas are everywhere here at Teacup Lane!

This one…

I worked his beard in white pom pom yarn!

And his buddy…

For his beard I added three chains between each single crochet.

Two are better than one...

And finally this Santa…

I've had this Christmas Santa fabric panel for years!  

I started free motion quilting it last year.  

I was hoping to finish it in time for Christmas this year but I don't think it will happen. 

But it should be ready by next Christmas!

I used my recently purchased beading foot to attach a string of red beads on Santa's reins.  

I didn't have enough to do all of his reins so I will have to make trip to the sewing/ craft store to buy more beads.  

I have more Santas coming!

Remember when I machine embroidered pillowcases this year in redwork?

This is the Santa one.

These will be put out on our bed next week. 

I found a delightful free crochet pattern called Country Christmas Doily that I'm working on now. 

You are suppose to work it in 100% cotton THREAD with a small steel hook.

I tried…I really did…but I can't handle small hooks and thread.

Luckily I found some thinner cotton yarns in my stash that are a joy to crochet with and I can't wait to share this Christmas project with you! 

All this R.E.D. is making me happy!  

Chilly Willy

Today's the first day of December!  

I have to get busy with our Christmas cards and draft up our annual Christmas Letter.  

Luckily our Christmas shopping is done just have to wrap the gifts this week. 

"Chilly Willy", the November "Party with Patrick" project, is finished.  

Chilly is an adorable snowman wall hanging. 

I had this textured "3D"ish creamy white colored plush fabric on hand called "Minky".  

It looks like snow. 

It's perfect for the snowman. 

I haven't been feeling 100% the last few days so the house is a little messier than I like.  

My biggest headache is paper.  

What to do with it.  

And where to file it.  

My dream is in our new home - because we will have a separate office there - is that all incoming mail will go into the office for processing and NOT into my kitchen as it currently does!  

Anyway that's my dream. 

Kitchen is for food and office is for paper!

My messy little office spot in the dinette.

And I plan to keep my yarn stash in the new home's lower level hobby room so that will eliminate storing yarn in a bedroom.  

Sewing and yarn stash will be in my area of the new hobby room!

Our goal is to have a more clutter free home in Ohio.  

Of course our current home is in a state of disorder with sorting and packing going on in different rooms in various stages.

I have resigned myself to accepting the state of affairs when one is getting ready to move.

We are still a few months away from moving but I will be glad when all of this is behind us.

Now to get busy on that Christmas Letter!

Have a lovely week! 

Ghostly Greetings…I Know I'm Late!

Yes, I know Halloween is over.  

But I'm a little bit behind finishing my "Party with Patrick" project for October. 

It's this adorable wall hanging called, "Ghostly Greetings".

  

It's appliquéd without stitching down the edges of the appliqués.  

I did blanket stitch just the moon appliqué and I tacked down the bats, ghosts eyes and the towers so I didn't have to worry about the spray adhesive coming loose.  

And those are the tiniest windows on the tower.

I had adhesive all over my fingers trying to tack them down.

I finally stitched them down with yellow thread.    

The top layer of the wall hanging has black netting fabric placed over the appliquéd body to give a misty, murky feeling to the dark night. 

I used black felt for the rock/castle, bats and ghosts' eyes and mouth.  

I tried to give the ghosts a more 3D effect by layering batting and white fabric together.

The back is a cute Halloween flannel fabric I received as a gift from my sewing store.  

And I love the fabric I used for the binding.  

It just pulls the colors together and makes the wall hanging POP.

  

It's hanging on my refrigerator as I type this...too cute to set aside for next year just yet. 

   

Thanks for visiting me!

Late Summer Sunflower Place Mat & Home Stuff

Are you ready for another "Party with Patrick" project?  

This cute placemat was fun to stitch up. 

I liked the colors of the sample so I picked out similar ones.  

I had purchased an Anita Goodesign Quilting Box Set and found the cutest sunflower design to use with this placemat. 

 Using my TruEmbroidery software I duplicated four of the sunflower quilt designs into my largest hoop to machine quilt down the yellow and green fabric strips. 

It didn't turn out too badly.

I also stitched a set of four sunflowers down the green fabric strips in green thread although it doesn't show up as much as the yellow stitching.

The binding is filled with small yellow sunflowers on a blue background.

And there she is…my "Late Summer Sunflower" placemat.

My sewing machine will be one of the last things packed!

I started to pack some of my collections for our move to Ohio.

Two thimble collections are done and just one more to do.

I have some small knick knacks I will also pack rather than have the movers do it.

We just returned from another trip to Ohio - this time to have the electric rough in walk through the lower level.

We will have excellent lighting in our hobby area.

Our electrician is great to work with and he has a good crew working for him.

Did you notice the cupola is up on the garage roof?

The ten foot garage doors are in and they will be painted a mahogany brown color to match the front door.

Next week the insulation is scheduled to start and the following week is the start of the drywall.

More will be coming on the new home.

We have selected the light fixtures and flooring but haven't signed off on either yet.

So many decisions.

I can't decide which type of counter tops to go with in the new kitchen….I love the look of Carrara marble but want to have something that is more durable than marble.  Maybe we can find something similar in either quartz, Corian or granite. 

When we were in Italy we drove by the mountains where Carrara marble was quarried.

It looked like snow!

It was beautiful.   

OK…now to get back to packing here at our current home.

Have a lovely Sunday!