Four Seasons Table Cover Update.....Here Comes the Sun!

Forget yesterday - it has already forgotten you. Don't sweat tomorrow - you haven't even met. Instead, open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift - today.--Steve Maraboli



I now have all the trees in the Four Seasons Table Cover appliqued down with a blanket stitch and got the Sun made..............

 This is a closeup of the house between the two trees of winter.  I put a Christmas tree in the window and, Hey! Who is that coming down the chimney???

You might have also noticed the sun is now sewed down.  I found a beautiful embroidery pattern to use for the middle of the sun and then just used a decorative stitch for the rays.......

  I also added some more embroidery to the sky.......the little bear in the Spring House is now flying a kite.......

And there are some ducks flying south for the winter........

I still want to add some rain clouds somewhere....and some more embellishment around the houses......some spring flowers, maybe a bee hive and I think some fireworks in the Summer sky for 4th of July...........and then it will be ready to finish!

I have, once again, committed myself to another presentation at my local Imaging society.  This one is due on March 9 so, at some point I am going to have to ban myself from the sewing room and buckle down to doing some research............I still have a swap item to make but, hey......ya'll know how good I am with deadlines......right??  LOL............

Ok, I'd better get to bed now..........lots to do tomorrow before its back to the grind............so I will just say, Ta-Ta for now.................

  

 

Wonderful Gifts!

“Time is more value than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”     ― Jim Rohn

Gosh I think I promised to show you the gift that my Sister gave me when she got back from her travels and I think I said I was going to post it last week......ummmmmm.........well we have been busy embroidering???

So look at this gorgeous needle case that Irene made for me.....

 See how it opens up!  And lots and lots of room!

Isn't this the prettiest thing?  My very First needlecase!  Thanks, Sis, you know how much I love it!

I belong to a swap group with a great bunch of creative ladies.  We swap every two months so we are not overwhelmed and have plenty of time to send our swaps to each other.....well look at this beautiful mug rug I received yesterday from my swap partner, Linda..........

 I had raved about Linda's bird appliques and look at this sweet singing bird and the beautiful flower on the side.........such precise quilting too!  
I explained to my son what a mug rug was for......"you put your cookies, for example, where the flower is and your coffee cup where the bird is so you don't mess up your table"........he looked at me and said out loud what I was thinking....."like you would really do that, Mom?" 
I can't imagine covering this beautiful thing with anything, let alone a coffee cup or cookies!  LOL........Thank you, Linda, I am in love with this..............Even the back is beautiful!

I am still working on the Four Seasons Tablecloth............adding embroidery to it before I put the backing on so I will head up to the sewing room and say Ta-Ta For now!  Talk to you next time with some photos of the Four Seasons Table Cloth.......................

Some Birthday Finishes and I made my Sister do something!!

Renew, release, let go. Yesterday's gone. There's nothing you can do to bring it back. You can't "should've" done something. You can only DO something. Renew yourself. Release that attachment. Today is a new day!---Steve Maraboli



I have been glued to my new embroidery machine since I got it and this week I worked on some Birthday gifts for my Sis......I wanted to make her a year's worth of hanging kitchen towels so she would have one for every season.......

need I say that she loves Sun Bonnet Sue???  Missing from the photo above, is Sun Bonnet Christmas.............The fun thing is that since I still needed to make her I waited for my Sis to come over to show her my new toy and together we started making the Christmas embroidery and now guess what????? I have "made my sister" get an embroidery machine!  LOL........(turnabout is fair play??)

 Some of the Sunbonnets from my machine are all embroidery like Christmas Sue, above, and some I have used the applique technique like 4th of July Sue, below.

I still need to finish making the hanger for Christmas Sue so I am headed back upstairs to my sewing room....tomorrow I'm showing you the cool needlecase my Sis gave me yesterday!

So I'll talk to you tomorrow.....Ta-Ta for now!!

 

A border and Another Tree Done as Oz Awaits.....

Always concentrate on how far you have come, rather than how far you have left to go. The difference in how easy it seems will amaze you. --Heidi Johnson


I had originally wanted to put a road border in my Neighborhood Table Topper but couldn't really find the fabric that was perfect.  Irene found some for me and it really does look like a road in parts of it but I decided it just wasn't going to work..... (thanks anyway, Sis)

So just today I was looking at the fabric I had added temporarily when I did the embroidery in order to sandwich it into the hoop and I knew they had some of the same pattern in different colors at Hobby Lobby so I decided to use that fabric line with a different color for each season:

 I didn't want to cut any of that extra fabric underneath until I have it all sewed like I want it....I sometimes have the tendency to get a little ahead of myself and end up with a piece that is cut too short.

 And here is the first tree of Autumn.....

isn't that the cutest little pumpkin cart?  (The second tree of Autumn was the one with the Turkey.....so, in fact, I made the second tree first!  LOL....)

And I had to take a little peek over at my Oz Stash/Tote......it is just waiting patiently while I spend all my time with the Neighborhood.....

Don't worry, My Pretty..............I'll be back!

Off to work....Ta-Ta for now!

 

 

 

I think I'm in Love........

Magic exists. Who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wildflowers, the music of the wind and the silence of the stars? Anyone who has loved has been touched by magic. It is such a simple and such an extraordinary part of the lives we live. --Nora Roberts




So I am still ga-ga over my new embroidery machine and I have decided to have it help me make my House Block tablecover....ok first thing is I'm going to start calling it my Neighborhood Tablecover since I won the blocks at the Neighborhood Block Party this year......

I have all the trees made and I decided this would be a 4 seasons tablecover..............I still need to applique most of them but if you look closely you can see that each season has two trees, with each of them at a little different stage of that season.......(you might have to stand on your head to see Spring and Summer....lol)

 Now if you look really closely at the first tree of winter you will see some of the additions my new toy has made.......

 

The snowflakes embroidery is done as an applique and the snowman is embroidered directly onto the quilt top!  Talk about being scared!  Since getting the machine I have sort of messed up a couple of pieces because of trouble with the stabilizer but I am learning a few tricks as I go.....so I decided to be brave and put the snowman straight onto the quilt top...........I did run into a tiny problem on one part but was able to fix it without ruining anything.....phew.... 

My machine is busy working on the 2nd tree of Autumn right now and I will post that photo in a few minutes..............One of the things I am finding out is that I need to add more colors to my embroidery thread stash.  The machine came with red, yellow, and blue, and I have bought 12 more colors but find I still have only one shade of blue!  Ah well....back to the store.............

 Ok the second tree of autumn is done and here it is!

 Ta-da! and Gobble Gobble!

Ok I am off  to try to get at least one more tree done and then get ready for work tonight so I will say TaTa for now...........talk to you next time.....................

 

 

Embroidery Addiction and House Block Table Cover Update....

 You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you. --Sri Ram

I am finding more and more things to test out my new embroidery machine............I added a little bit to the New Year's mini wall hanging I made last year.........but first I want to show you the my progress on the House Block Table Cover.......

 I decided to make it a Four Seasons quilt so here are my ideas for the trees.......there will be two trees for each season with just a little difference in the two.......Notice that the sun is hotter in the spring and summer???  I downloaded some embroidery patterns of clouds and birds and kites and other stuff that I hope I can figure out how to add to this.......stay tuned......

And, yes, I have a new addiction.....I have been playing with my new toy and here is the little bit of embroidery I added to the
wall hanging I mentioned earlier.......

 I am still learning new things it seems like daily with the embroidery....I actually hooped this crooked in order to get the slanted lettering and then found out that the software I have will turn the lettering 45 degrees.......(duh).......and it also enlarges  so I could have resized the pattern to get a little larger greeting.......ah....the learning curve on new things..........

Well I guess that is all for now......I have still not returned to Oz and made any flowers this year but I invite you to go check out the other pretty hexagon flowers at One Flower Wednesday.



Time for bed.........so see you next time.....Ta-Ta for now......

 

Getting my Mo-jo Back.....

  

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.  ---Harriet Tubman



I worked on a couple of projects today...........still enjoying my new embroidery machine and learning some new tricks along the way.  I found a web site that has lots of patterns that can be downloaded and many of them are free!  I ran into a bit of a problem at first because my machine wouldn't recognize many of them but it turns out that they were just too big.  So I found a free software program online that can resize them and save them in a smaller size that my machine is able to use!  So here is my latest creation............

 

I am still loving to make the hanging towels and now with the embroidery they are even more fun!

I also have been working on the table cover using the house blocks I won last month from Beth Shibley's Neighborhood Block Party...............

oops...just realized this photo is a bit blurry........but you get the idea of what I'm trying to do......

I actually won 9 blocks but I am saving number nine to make a Grinch Christmas Wall hanging..............

 

I guess that's about it for my creativity today.....time to go to bed and get some rest for work tomorrow...........I will be showing you my progress on the table cover and hopefully it will stay in my WIP pile and never make it to the UFO pile!
Talk to you again soon.....Ta-Ta for now..............



 

Blogging hangup in 2013.......

I don't know what it is but I just can't seem to get my blogging momentum going in this new year.......it is already February and I am at least two posts behind my self-imposed "two posts per week" goal with only 6 posts in January.....................in fact, last year I didn't have one month that I posted less than 7 times!

And not only that, but I am behind on my One Flower Wednesday hexagon flower posts too..........I've not done one single flower for my Oz Wall hanging this year!  (well since that accounts for one post per week I guess we know why I'm behind?)

Ok, enough whining..................I have been playing a little with the embroidery machine and trying to work out a few kinks with that.  I have an embroidery project finished but can't show it to you yet......so, instead I will show you this quick little project I did last night just in time for Super Bowl.............

Love these fleece throws....tied this one up in less than an hour.  I had ordered the fabric online and it was delayed a day when UPS forgot it at my local distribution center so it barely came yesterday!

I did want to give you a heads up reminder I will be having a  2nd blogiversary comes this month and I will be treating you all to a blogiversary giveaway so stay tuned.  I want to thank you for continuing to follow me....I appreciate the encouragement and love hearing from you!

Well then.....nothing left to say but Ta-Ta for now.....see you next time!