Pictures, and the crazyness

Hello All,
What a funny time of life! So much going on!
New Job, well not a new job, just a new place to do the same thing.
Recent loss of family member, with a quick trip home to be with my family.
I found out yesterday that i will be a Grandmother in February!

I took a few pictures of my daughter and I while we were travelling.
And, we grabbed a day at Disneyland!
Here are the pics!

This is Kathy

This is me.

Pluto and the girls at Goofy's Kitchen

Kathy and I with Alladin.

Hopefully sometime this week I will get a chance to actually quilt that quilt, I practiced a bit, and decided that I will start with a stitch in the ditch approach.

That should be fine for the first one. :)

I also cook...

So the other day, OK it was last week. I got the bountiful basket and it had Swiss Chard in it. So to the computer I went, and looked up what to do with it. I do this often since expanding my vegetable purchases through the Bountiful Basket. I found many recipes, and decided to cut it and cook it with Italian seasonings and Bacon! Man it turned out so good it was all consumed right away. Here is a picture of it on a plate, Thank You Cindy!

I recommend participating in The Bountiful Basket program. It is a fantastic deal, and it expands the palate!

Pictures!

Hi all!
I figured out that I don't have to try to upload photos from my phone of my FINISHED quilt top! I have a camera in my computer. Duh! Anyhow, I have to say this has been really fun, and I am looking forward to my first quilting experience! I will be machine quilting. I have a new Singer, and I am so very happy with it!
Now to figure out how to upload the pictures to the Blog!

 These pics are the first I took, not great on the color.

 These ones show the color better, and some of the detail.

I am pleased with my first try at this fun new craft. I bought "minky" in black for the back, I am hoping that it is not too challenging to machine quilt!

I plan to practice a bit before trying it out

Later today, after work I will be basting this with safety pins. I welcome any and all comments!

When I was choosing fabric I didn't think the orange would POP quite so much. The floral was the "base" that I used to select the other fabrics.

The Beginning of the Quilting Frenzy

Welcome to my Craft Room

I have no room at home for my crafts, so they reside in many different places. Including bedroom, living room, garage, and now my daughters house ( More on that later.) 
My favorite crafts are: Sewing clothing, crochet, knitting, spinning wool, and my new one quilting! 
I have stayed away from the quilting, knowing that I would probably LOVE it, it would be expensive, and because my sister was "The Quilter". 
I do not keep many of my finished products, as I love to see my projects used and loved by those I make them for. 

I did not intend to start quilting, but I Love crafting stores, as does my daughter Kathy, she and I went to a little store here in the "Wild West" of the Bakken Oil Boom. We met a really nice woman working at the Ribbon and Rail, and we were visiting around the cutting table. Dangerous place for me to be with extra money in my pocket! Anyhow, while visiting I was looking at the fabrics near me and found one that I really liked, then I just had to try to make a palette with that as the base. Soon the girls noticed what I was doing with the fabric, and the help and encouragement followed. I left that day with a stack of fabric, and a plan to try my first quilt.

The Log cabin was one that I thought I would try, Straight lines, and no points to match up, thought that would be good for a beginner. While looking for some directions, I found a magazine with a beginner quilt pattern that was easier. 
I began to cut out the pieces. The cutting was quite "fiddly" as I often didn't hold the ruler well enough, and had drifting "whizzy whacker" (otherwise known as a rotary cutter). I had to cut several pieces over. Eventually I got better at it, and my pieces were much straighter later. 
I sewed the blocks together, after ordering the pieces how I wanted the blocks constructed, then I found out how messy I had cut those pieces! Trimming where i needed to, I got the squares together, and found that they were too big! So, I ever so carefully lined the squares up on the mat, and centered them, then trimmed them all down to size.
Sewing the blocks together went smoothly, although my 1960's hand me down strong Kenmore was having some trouble with the beginning of the seams, bunching up the top tread under the start. I planned to clean and oil it prior to further use.
While looking for a book on amazon, the Sale Products came up, and of course they cater it to what you have been looking at, so I saw a sale on a new sewing machine, and It has everything I think that I will need, including the extra work space table and ALL of the presser feet I want, and some I have no idea how to use. I did, I bought it for myself for my birthday.
Sewing the blocks into strips went like a dream on the new machine, and I got through sewing the strips together with just a few twisted seams. I did not fix any of them, I am leaving the mistakes in. I will not be giving this quilt away. So now my blocks are together. several places the seams don't quite match up, but I am pleased. It is a good start for one who is teaching herself, and hasn't learned any tricks yet. 
I am enjoying the sewing, and seeing it come together!  

Here is the start of yet another hobby! Yikes! when will I find time to work?

I will take, and post pictures of what I have so far. 
Soon I will write about the knitting projects I have on the needles, and the yarn I have spun.

Happy Crafting!