Happy 2013 !!!!

Wishing all a Happy New Years!

Hope this year will be the best ever!

Hugs,

Mary Jane

:)

Merry Christmas Eve!!!!

:)

Still working on Josh's Christmas stocking. 

I'm finding that I really missed doing some 

cross stitch. Really enjoying doing this!

Trick or Treat pillow finished

Went to JoAnn's yesterday, and discovered that Christmas shopping is in full force!

It was jammed packed with shoppers!

I picked up a pillow form and was able to finish 

my Trick or Treat pillow this morning. 

It's now ready and waiting for next year!!!!!

Poor Skittles is looking a little sleepy! He'll be unhappy when I want to finish quilting 

my Sweet Dreams doll quilt!!! 

:)

Speaking of my Sweet Dreams quilt

here is a picture of the quilting I've done so far.

The blue marking my quilting pattern washes out. It is there

just to show me where to do my hand quilting. 

I'm finding it is slow going, my carpal tunnel in my left hand

is really bothered with the quilting. So I'm only doing a little at a time.

This was made from  a few leftover pink squares that I used for a baby quilt 

I made last year. Doll quilts are good ways to use up leftovers.

:)

Progress Report on the Christmas stocking

In the last few days I've made a tiny bit of progress on

Josh's Christmas stocking. I'm trying to build in some

of the main colors so I can go back and fill in the shading.

It's quite tedious and I have to count and double count

where the stitches go, but I'm having fun doing

cross stitch again.

In the last few days I've also finished the pillow top for my 

cross stitch Trick or Treat pillow. I had to go buy more 

purple for the back of the pillow as I didn't have enough to fit.

Unfortunately, I only have 18 inch pillow forms so I'll have to 

go get a 16 inch on Monday.

Then that will be done!

I also made myself two Christmas pillowcases. They are soooo easy to make,

I'm planning to make more.

I also made a doll quilt top and have that one basted and in

a hoop, and have started hand quilting in an all over pattern.

I embroidered "Sweet Dreams" across the top in variegated thread.

Shouldn't take too long, should be done sometime next week.

I'll try to put up a couple of pics of the pillowcases and the Sweet Dreams

doll quilt soon.

A New Start, Christmas stocking

I have made Christmas stockings for everyone in my immediate family. 

Even before my son married I made his girlfriend a stocking.

 I knew she was going to be a member of our family! :)

These stockings take an extreme amount of time to make so I don't make them lightly. 

You had better become a member of our family or you won't get one.

I am now working on another one for someone who I consider a part

of our family. 

This is the start of it. We'll see how long it takes.

Better Homes and Gardens had a series of these

patterns in their magazine in the "90's. I made one for my daughter, both boys

and my husband. I also made one each for my father and my mom, though

they were just the cuffs on their stockings.

 My sister made a stocking for me since I mentioned one time that the 

whole family had one but I didn't have a homemade one. She is so sweet!

This is the one I will be making for Josh. He is into hunting so this was perfect for him!

As you can see I've started in the middle working on the fireplace.

It is going pretty quickly, once I get started I don't want to quit.

The hardest part so far was stitching in the grid with sewing thread.

I am going to have to go and get a magnifying lamp for when I work 

in the living room. The light there is not the best for such close work.

This shows some of the patterns available in the magazine. I made the first one for my son. Haven't made the middle one yet, will do so if I ever have a granddaughter! :) And I would like to make the sewing theme one for me someday, even though I still have the stocking my sister made me. I'll have two to fill up with goodies! LOL!

and almost a finish!

In my last post I showed the cross stitch that I started and 

wanted to finish for Halloween. I didn't make it but will 

have it finished for next year.

I decided to make it into a pillow.

I put the cording on the other day and will be adding

a purple back today. Another finish!!! :)

I was able to have my sewing room carpet cleaned last week and so decided to clean out and discard a bunch of stuff I wasn't going to need any longer. I got rid of tons of old quilting magazines, some from the 70's and 80's. I am not planning on extending my subscriptions when they run out, I've been disappointed in the content published nowadays anyway. Same old, same old. I'm keeping some of the newer ones, but will go through them every year. I promise!!!! :)

I also finished a cross stitch project

I has started years ago. Found it in the clean up!

It was a pain in the you know what to make!

That is probably why I had it in the stash unfinished for so long!

I am a very good cross stitcher and have done some

complicated designs but this small one had

me pulling my hair out!

So glad it is done and framed!

It's a start..........

Spent last night and part of today

watching movies on Netflix and working

on my new cross stitch project.

I've been enjoying 

 oodles of "Mummy" movies, from

the mid-thirties to the nineties. What a variety!

Some are hilarious and some are really bad!

But they are fun to watch while 

stitching, and as an added plus,

no political ads!

:)

Lots of sewing going on!

Down through the years I've done several different crafts.

 A relative of mine calls me "crafty". I hate that term.

Whether or not you disagree with me, I find that 

term derogatory. At least in the way she meant it.

I love the art of the needle.

I've tried embroidery, cross stitch, needlepoint,

quilting, and clothes making. 

A great-aunt once taught me how to make lace with 

a needle, thread and rick rack. I wish I could remember how I did

it, I still have a sample I made over 35 years ago. 

I've spent a lot of time quilting in the past few years,

though lately I got hooked on paper crafting, mostly making

handmade cards for my mom. She seemed 

to enjoy my weak efforts at making the cards and I

feel I did make some advancement in making 

better cards for her. 

She passed away this summer and I've not really made

a card since. I hope to soon though.

Quilting has beckoned me back. I have a basement 

full of fabric to use before I die and I decided to get started

on using it up.

LOL!!!!

If you saw my basement you'd be laughing now!!!

Anyway I grabbed my "halloween" prints and made a few 

doll quilts.

This is an easy top, just squares.

Fun to put together while watching Netflix.

Love the spider prints.

Of course, I didn't have enough, so off to JoAnn's I went.

Love the spider web I got for the backing!

Here it is, all pinned up ready for me to baste it,

so I can hand quilt it. I folded up the backing so you can see it at the bottom of the photo.

While I was at JoAnn's I found this print and fell in love.

The fall colors are my most favorite colors, oranges, browns, reds, and 

 yellows.....swoon!!!!

I found the directions on making a pillowcase on the web somewhere and 

decided to give it a try. Very simple!!!!!! I'm going to make more

for every season of the year!!!! LOL!

And I've also been bitten by the cross stitch bug again.

I've ordered a pattern that I'll use to make into a pillow.

It shouldn't be too hard to make, seems simple enough and may even be ready by Halloween! :)

I don't remember where I bought it but if your interested just do a search for halloween

cross stitch and it'll come up in images.

So I'm off to my basement "craft room"!

:)

Pumpkin eating critter!

I went to get the mail this morning and found this!

Some thing has been snacking on my pumpkins!!!!!

The dirty little devil has taken a bite out of two of them.

And he is spitting out the seeds all over the driveway!!!!1

I've had this scarecrow for about 10 years and always

 put a a few pumpkins near him, and this is the 

first time that anything has actually decided this

was his personal McDonalds's!!!!

( I guess we should paint the mailbox

again, didn't realize it was so bad!! Oops!)

Maybe I'll have one of my boys set up a security camera to

catch this thief in the act!!!!

LOL!!!!

Doll quilts

I've been trying to use up some of my scraps. I cut some tumbler

shapes to make a few doll quilts. I don't want to work on

larger quilts at the moment as I have to hand quilt everything.

I tried to add a few white background prints in this grouping

but I eventually decided to just go with the oranges and 

blacks. I am very glad I did. I just love the colors! 

I think I overdid it on cutting out the tumblers though, I may

have enough to make about 3 more doll quilts!!!! LOL!

This one is 25 x 34 inches.

Family connections

This building has a family connection

 and a special place in my heart.

My great-great-great grandfather and his family 

had a jewelry and watch repair 

(and also some expensive knick-knacks)

store in this building from 1884 to about the mid 1960's. 

I vaguely remember going into the store with my mom 

when I was a little girl to visit my great-great aunt. 

It was a treasure house, but mostly forbidden place for me. 

A small child in a store of breakable knick-knacks was not the best combination!

 LOL!!!!

These aren't the best photos, I only had my phone with me.

They show how the newest owner has renovated the 

building to its former glory. She spent a lot of time

using old photos to get the place to be historically correct.

Using some of the same fixtures found in the building or 

having reproductions made. She saw us taking photos of 

her building and came out to find out why and was quite

pleased to find out that we were relatives of the original owners.

I think she told us that the large glass windows were original. 

They let in lots of hot and cold air so to keep the look of the windows

 they added new weather proof windows on the inside so she wasn't heating and cooling

the town!

 She explained some of the detail on the top floor, and how the buildings on Main Street each had

trim work to balance out the others. 

On this building there are carved hearts with scrolls. 

You can barely see the heart

on the right hand side at the very top in this photo. 

My brother was taking photos with a "real" camera, 

I'll have to check to see if he was able to get this detail.

Strange things you see walking down the street

Last week I was in a small rural town visiting family.

My siblings and I were checking out the 

"downtown" which consisted of about 2 blocks of storefronts.

We were going down memory lane looking at the town

where we spent many summers as children.

I was looking at the architecture of a town built

at the turn of the century. 

Beautiful storefronts, some have seen better

days and some have been lovingly renovated.

I stepped back to take a better picture with my 

phone and almost fell over this jeep.

I guess whoever owns this really, really loves

John Wayne!!!!

First Halloween card of the year

With the new found table space I found since I cleaned up my desk

 I decided to make a card.

I tried to use the scary trees I found in the Oct. 31st, and the Happy Hauntings cartridges

but they wouldn't work on so small of a scale. 

I found a couple of stamps and decided to use them.

Cutting around the images was a challenge, but I think it turned out ok. 

More organizing!

Since I organized my Cricut handbooks 

I decided to tackle the rest of the room.

My sister suggested putting the boxes of handbooks 

on a shelf next to where I sit.

Well, in order to do that I had to move two stacks of Thirties prints I had been using to make a quilt two years ago! I'm a slow mover, I guess. So I tossed them to the other side of the room (until I get a bin for them!)

 :)

 and tried out the boxes on the shelves! Perfect! Like it was made for it! 

I also decided to place my cutters there also. I am a very happy camper. 

Then I looked at the rest of the desk.

Boo Hoo! Gotta clean this up! 

So I dusted, tossed, rearranged, read a few interesting articles I found and reorganized to my hearts content. 

Voila! It's not perfect, but it will do until I have more time.

At least I can sew or make cards with out having to move junk out of the way.

Look! I see carpet!

And look to see who helped me clean! He slept the whole

day in his little drawer!

Now I have to clean the rest of the room! 

I won't show you pictures of the way it looks now!

Organizing my Cricut handbooks

I have made a mess in my sewing room.

 It is hard to do anything, sewing or paper crafting. 

I have to move one mess

over to make room for the other and

 then I have a huge mess on the floor, 

stacks of projects all over the place. 

So I decided to tackle one thing at a time to get myself more organized.

One of the first projects I want to tackle are my Cricut handbooks. 

I haven't been able to find a good way to store them 

without having them flop all over.

The binding wire on the top makes the books top heavy and 

they are wider on the top than on the bottom. 

Most of the time my books would flop over on top of each other, making 

it hard to find the right book when I want it. I know.... life is hard! :)

I also didn't care for the dividers I made 

using some old alphabet stickers

I have had for years and just wanted to use up. 

They didn't want to stay on the paper anymore.

 Begone!

 I need a new system!

So on the way out the door to Office Max,

 I threw them in the filing cabinet, er, garbage can!

My sister went with me to Office Max and

 I was afraid we would never leave. We could

both spend a whole day in there if we could. She came up with the idea to use a mini sorter in the baskets to help keep the books upright. Yeah! So we bought a couple to take home to try out.

Light bulb moment, while we were at a local craft store later in the day. 

Would the sorters work in a photo box?

 The plastic baskets were a little flimsy, so I bought a box to check out.

Well, when we got home we tried it out and it was a perfect fit!

The books stand up and the dividers work perfectly. This makes it soooo much easier to

find what I need in hurry.

So off we went to buy more of the mini sorters and the boxes. 

Ended up going to 3 different Office Max stores to get enough. 

And visited the craft store

again cause I wanted my boxes to "match". 

She put them in alphabetical order for me.

See how they are all lined up now?

Beautiful!

Thanks, Theresa!

:)