Balentimes..........................

"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere."    ---Agnes Repplier.



One of the things I remember best about grade school was getting a shoebox and decorating it for Valentines Day......then getting red construction paper and lace doilies to make  "Balentimes" to give to all our friends..............

 .....and today I am still making and receiving "Balentimes"....
last week I showed you the lovely Valentine Mug Rug I received from my swap partner, Sunny, and now that she has received the one I sent to her I will show you.................

 And here is my first project made with my new embroidery machine...............

 I am having fun.................and I am headed back upstairs to play some more so Ta-Ta for now..........................

 

I have a new toy!

  

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”― C.S. Lewis

For my birthday and for Christmas my family gave me gift cards which I used to get this wonderful new toy!

 This is the Brother PE500 Embroidery Only machine.....I figured since I have 3 regular machines I really didn't need the embroidery/sewing model.

So anyway..............my first projects will be a Valentine's Day hanging kitchen towel (see the 3 hearts embroidery on the white towel above?) and I already made my first quilt label:

I

 I was really looking for a machine to do my quilt labels quickly but my first label was not that quick since I had to program each line separately.....


If anybody knows about the embroidery software that works on this model so that I can make my own digital pattern, I am all ears!  I downloaded a trial copy of the Brother software but it doesn't let me save the pattern I made nor does it let me transfer it to my machine to see if it works......(of course I am probably doing something wrong....lol)  I have found some retail sites online that sell the patterns but, again, I don't know if they will work on my machine....there isn't a lot of info that I can find yet about specifications, etc.....

But I am still having fun with it so off I go again....I will talk to you next time so Ta-Ta for now.............

 



 

 

Americana Who???

“ Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. ”― Will Rogers


You all have heard me talk often about how my Sister "Makes" me do stuff.....but here's yet another.....well, actually two more things.....but I digress..........

 Well first of all she talked me into entering the Nancy Drew Blog Hop.....and I'm all done with what I made but I can't show ya'll til March 6.........

But next......I kept talking about making a tablecloth out of the little neighborhood House Squares I showed you on my last post that I won on Beth Shibley's Neighborhood Block Party......

My Sis reminded me that I still hadn't finished my Americana Tablecloth that was in my UFO pile.......(she quickly followed that remark with a reflection of how many things she still had in her UFO pile).............well anyway.....I don't know why but I pulled the Americana Tablecloth out and actually finished it!

  

 Tada!

So now my table will be ready for all the patriotic holidays this year!

Ah....I got some nice mail this week from one of my swap partners, Sunny...............look at this adorable Valentine Mug Rug.............such pretty pinks and love the eyelet ribbon.......

 

Sunny also included some Biscotti (which didn't last long) and some pretty heart buttons and a lovely handmade card.....Sunny and I had talked about how we remember making homemade cards ("Balentimes") when we were growing up and exchanging with all our little school friends..... Thanks, Sunny I love it all and, Yes, I will be your Balentime...

Ok.....one more thing before I go.........a sneak peek of my Nancy Drew Project and then I will say Ta-Ta for now................

 BTW....if you are interested in signing up for the Nancy Drew Blog Hop just click on either of the photos above......I believe there are still openings!  Ok then....see you next time........

I have a New Neighborhood!

We have to allow ourselves to be loved by the people who really love us, the people who really matter. Too much of the time, we are blinded by our own pursuits of people to love us, people that don't even matter, while all that time we waste and the people who do love us have to stand on the sidewalk and watch us beg in the streets! It's time to put an end to this. It's time for us to let ourselves be loved.---C. JoyBell




For the last two years I have entered Beth Shibley's Neighborhood Block Party at her Love,Laugh,Quilt blog and this year I was one of the winners!

Each year Beth hosts her Neighborhood Block party and all the quilters who enter make some sort of house block and send to her.  On January 1st she picks random winners for the blocks.  The number of winners and the number of blocks they win just depends on how many quilters enter......this year there were 4 winners who each won 9 blocks each............and here are mine!
 

  They are pretty adorable, aren't they?  I don't know who won the one I made, "House by the Bay"......I showed it to you on an earlier post.

I haven't decided how I will put the blocks together but I have some ideas..........for now I'm just enjoying looking at them.......

Tomorrow I am taking a short trip to New Mexico to visit Mom and Dad.  I saw them for Christmas but with so many people around it was hard to get a good visit "just with them".  Don't get me wrong......I wouldn't trade seeing all the family at Christmastime but now I just want a quiet, calm visit......

I am probably going to be a bad girl again with One Flower Wednesday and not have anything to show you this week but promise I will get back with it soon................

So I will say TaTa for now.....see you next time............
 

More Christmas Pics........

 You've got to take the good with the bad, smile with the sad, love what you've got, and remember what you had. Always forgive, but never forget. Learn from mistakes, but never regret. ---Unknown


Ok, as I promised................a post to show you "Hurricane Grandson" (I had already told my Son and DIL about the Christmas village and not to worry about him messing anything up because it was there for everyone to enjoy)

.....we started out "just looking".....

 But some things just weren't in the right place.......

and after he left...................here's what we had........lol......

He had lots of fun and things got rearranged a bit but he didn't break a thing!

Our Christmases have been spent in New Mexico for as long as I can remember........all my siblings (and their children too) try to meet there at Mom and Dad's house each year.  This year the snow started coming down on Christmas Eve.  This is the tree outside my brother's house.....

 

One of the Christmas projects I worked on this year was something I couldn't show you because "Somebody's Sister" is one of my best followers and I didn't want to ruin the surprise.....When Irene and I were in grade school we learned to read with Dick and Jane................Irene had really liked the pattern for one of the totes I made earlier in the year so I adapted the same pattern and made it taller for her........

 I also made her a little matching coin purse......

I think she likes it...............

Ok, I am writing this on Friday night as I get ready to start my work week so I am going to sign off for now and post this after midnight so it will be posted tomorrow............I will see you next time....so TaTa for now.......

Back to Normal???

 Hope is the destination that we seek. Love is the road that leads to hope. Courage is the motor that drives us. We travel out of darkness into faith   ---Dean Koontz


Gosh I haven't posted since before Christmas and I have a lot to show you but I have been trying to get back to "Normal".  When I said that to my Sis, she said, "Normal?  What is Normal?"
I'll have to think about that one.....
Anyway, with all I have to show you, I think I will put it on a couple of posts so you don't get bored overwhelmed.....lol.................
First off I have to show you the photos of my son opening his State Bird Dresden Quilt!

He loved it and I kept telling him I wanted to get a photo of him holding it up but we never got a chance so he promised to send me a photo when he got home:

 He says it is "so warm!" ......and looks great in his room....
I think I agree:

 
And I got some Quilty Goodness for Christmas too! My Sis made me this lovely sewing machine cover with beautiful paper-pieced lettering and additional personalized embroidery......

 See my name at the bottom!

 And it is pretty on the inside too....look at the lining!
 I love this cover so much and I was afraid I would be using my machine so often that I wouldn't get to use it so I opened up my Old Rockford and put it over Rocky! Now I will always have two machines ready to go and I get to use my machine cover all the time.  Thanks Irene.....I love it and I love you.....

Wait!  there's more............my beautiful DIL and her Mom gave me some more stuff!  I got this cool quilt tote and calendar from my DIL.  The tote also came with a traveling coffee mug....which I am already using.....so it isn't in the photo....lol

 Her Mom, Janice, sent these little quilted coasters......well, she called them "coasters" but they are the neatest little pouches that open up....I think they would make great jewelry travel bags!  thanks Sabrina and Janice....I love all my Quilty goodies!

Ok this post is getting a bit long so I will save some stuff to show you next time.......TaTa for now.............