JONAH APPROVES OF NEW CAMPER!

Civil War Block from Saturday.

Eli playing with toys from the toy box in the new camper (5th wheel).  There's a cabinet under the refrigerator where a box fits perfectly.  I filled it with some books and toys for the grandkids.

Jonah was very happy with our new camper!  The cabinets above the table are filled with my sewing supplies and fabric.

He wanted me to take his picture, but then he would hide his face!

I'm using my little HST quilt on my bedside table in the camper.  I'm going to make one for DH's side too, but I think it will be 1" squares.

This counter top is perfect for doing my rotary cutting and ironing seams.

We have a little Christmas tree by the kitchen sink.

We can't believe there is so much storage.  Even with all the Christmas presents we packed, there is still more room.

Thanks for everyone's nice comments.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

ALMOST READY

Almost ready for Christmas!  All shopping is done, presents are mailed or ready to take with us and most baking is finished.  I still need to make spritz cookies - the favorites.  

Here is Jonah's shirt.  Since his Mommy and Daddy are both pilots, he needs a shirt with airplanes on it.  We'll be with them for several days before and for Christmas day and then will go to DS#2/DIL's for Abigail's 3rd birthday and to spend some time with them.  

I quilted the little HST quilt with clamshells.  I found it very hard to stay on the lines!  I think that's one big reason why I like free motion quilting best.  I originally saw this little quilt here and it was made by and sent to her from Kathie at Inspired by Antique Quilts.

You can see the quilting lines better on this one.

Don't work too hard getting ready for Christmas!  

ALMOST LOST IT!

Thursday morning, I was checking a few blogs and when I went to leave a comment on someone's blog, all of a sudden a message came up saying that my blog had been disabled due to a perceived violation!  I was shocked !!  I looked at their terms of service and didn't see that I had done anything wrong.  I was really upset, especially since I had not printed out any of it (and I knew someone would say, "I told you so!" - you know who you are - Hee Hee).  So I sent them an email and hoped I would get a response.  Well, I never did get a response, but on Friday morning I went to try to open it and .....  it opened!  I was so relieved!

It's not just that I lost my blog, but all the blogs that I have saved in google reader were gone and I would miss out on a lot of them, because I wouldn't be able to remember all of the names.  I thought, well, maybe I should just quit - it takes up a lot of my time, etc.  But, I really didn't want to do that.  I have learned so much from other bloggers and gotten so much inspiration.  So, I think I will start printing out my blog (unless I decided to get a book from Blog2print).  

I finished the donation string quilt for a teenage boy!  Yea!  I'll turn it in to my guild tomorrow night at our Christmas pot luck.

Here are the last four civil war blocks.  I'm all up to date on these and only three more to go.  I'm glad I stuck with it all year.  The hard part will figuring out how I want to set the blocks and finishing it.

We are just about ready for Christmas and looking forward to spending it with DS/DIL and of course, Eli and Jonah!  I hope you are just about ready too!

ELI'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Over the weekend we went to Eli's first birthday party!  I helped my DIL make the giraffe cupcakes (see picture below).  He is such a little cutie and he enjoyed his party.  He's taking a few steps at a time now and seems real pleased with himself!

These are some of the giraffe cupcakes!  Quite a production to make, but they tasted very good.

DH had some quality time with Jonah.  He is getting so grown up now - 3 1/2 years old!

Last week I finished a couple more outfits for Abigail's doll.  Here she is in her play outfit - overalls and a shirt.

I put the ladybug buttons that I won on her overalls.

Here she is ready for bed in her new nightgown.

It was so much fun making the doll clothes.  And our short trip for Eli's party was wonderful!  It rained all day on Sunday, but didn't dampen our spirits.  That evening we put ornaments on their Christmas tree.  We'll be going back there for Christmas, but are home now for a couple weeks.  I need to do a little more shopping and get some packages in the mail.  Plus bake some cookies, etc. etc.

MY GRANDMA'S BUTTONHOLE SCISSORS, and Christmas Sewing

A couple years ago when I was visiting one of my cousins, she showed me Grandma's sewing cabinet that she has, and in the drawers were a lot of Grandma's sewing supplies.  She said I could have something from the cabinet, so I picked these buttonhole scissors, which I remember seeing my Grandma use.  I blogged about them once before.  

A couple days ago I was getting ready to put in some buttonholes, so it made me think of these scissors.  

I made a test buttonhole first.

Then I tried the buttonhole scissors to cut it open - and it worked great!  Of course, when my Grandma used them, she didn't have a sewing machine that made buttonholes with the push of a button, so she would cut the buttonhole and then by hand using the buttonhole stitch, she would sew around it.

Here I am cutting open a buttonhole on Eli's shirt.

I got this "wheel" fabric somewhere in Montana last summer and decided to make Eli a shirt out of it.  Hope it fits.  It will probably be too big, which is OK.

We bought Abigail an 18" doll for Christmas and we heard she wanted one with long hair, because she likes to comb hair.

This doll was cute and I think the hair is long enough.  When we were looking for dolls, the Disney dolls didn't have eyes that opened or closed (and they cost more).  So I was looking for a doll with eyes that could close and she had to have long hair.

I didn't really like her clothes too much, so I made her a fancy dress.  Next, I will make her some play clothes - overalls and a shirt.

I'm having fun!  I loved to play with dolls when I was a girl and my Mom used to make doll clothes for them, so it kind of takes me back to my childhood.  Are you getting ready for Christmas?

GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS

Starting to, that is.  I have done some shopping.  This week I finished Eli's Christmas stocking!  Yea!  I put out a few Christmas decorations, including some wall hangings.  We won't be home for Christmas as we are going to be visiting 2 DSs and their families for Christmas and birthdays.  Eli is turning one and Abigail will turn three right after Christmas.  I have a little Christmas tree that I'm going to take in the camper, plus a couple other little decorations.

Not long ago I saw this little quilt on someone's blog and now I can't remember which blog it was - sorry!  Correction:  I saw the quilt here and Kathie from Inspired by Antique Quilts had made it.  Anyway, I couldn't resist making it.  The HSTs finish at 2".  Yesterday I basted this, plus another small quilt and also put together and basted the teen-age boy donation quilt.  I want to get it finished before we leave and I quilted about 1/3 of it.

I love to browse through antique shops and last week in Glen Rose, TX, I found a few little items.
An old wood box, a tea towel and a potholder.

The linen tea towel has a name sewn onto it - Mrs. W A. Perryman.  I love the unusual design.  I wonder how old it is.

I HAD to buy this potholder as it is exactly like the ones my grandma used to make, except she didn't make the scalloped edge.

In the mornings I go for a walk down to the pond that is about 3/4 mile from our house, I walk around the pond and then to home.  This pictures shows some of our fall color.  It's not as good as up north, but we love it anyway.  There are usually ducks swimming in the pond and sometimes a heron.

Thanks for visiting!

BOOK REVIEW AND SPECIAL GIFT

Valley of Dreams by Lauraine Snelling

Valley of Dreams is the first of a series.  I don’t know how many books will be in the series, however.  I enjoyed this book immensely, but the end kind of left me hanging.  While the story did reach a conclusion, it wasn’t a very complete conclusion.  Cassie grew up in the Wild West Show in which her parents were partners.  After they died, the remaining partner couldn’t manage it very well and it closed down, leaving Cassie literally out in the cold.  Along with two good friends from the show, she takes off looking for the valley that her father dreamed about settling in.  The story takes you on their search from North to South Dakota as they camp in the wilderness and hunt for their food.  Cassie discovers some interesting papers hidden in the Wild West Show’s wagon in which she is traveling.  I plan to look for the next book in the series and recommend the book to you as well.  If you are interested in reviewing books for Bethany House Publishers, go to their website and sign up here. 

I received this amazing gift from Love recently and I plan to hang it in the new camper.  Since I won't be able to take a picture of it in the camper for a while I decided I needed to post some close up pictures of it now.  This is a crazy quilt of the State of Texas and is wonderfully detailed.  Check out the following pictures of some of the sections.

Western Texas....

 Southern Texas....

 The Panhandle....

 Northeastern Texas....

I can't wait to hang it in the camper and when I do, I will post a picture of it on the wall.  I have an idea of where I might put it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Thanks for visiting!

A PILLOW AND OUR NEW CAMPER

Last summer when we were in Pennsylvania, I went to a small cross stitch shop looking for something for our new GS's Christmas stocking.  Instead I found a small cross stitch pattern with a log cabin on it.  I decided to make it for me and I finished stitching it last year.  Finally I got it made into a pillow.  The first picture is kind of dark but I think you can read the verse a little better - one word is light and doesn't show up very well in the second picture.

I made it into a pillow and it measures 12x12".  This picture shows up the HSTs a little better.  The fabric is red and green with pine branches on them.

We got a new camper and went camping in it so we could figure out how everything works and get anything adjusted before we take it on a longer trip.  We just went an hour and a half away to the town of Glen Rose, TX.  While we were camping I had some time to sew and I finished the cross stitching for Eli's Christmas stocking.  Yea!!  The stitches are tiny - 24 to an inch.  I don't think I'll do that again!!  Now I just have to make the stocking to put it on.

Here's our new (to us) camper!  It is a 29' fifth wheel and compared to our old camper, it is huge!  It is easy to unhook and hook up the truck so we can take side trips without taking the camper along.

Here is the bedroom with my new camping pillowcases and new homespun curtains that I made.

Little closer look at the curtains.

We can't believe how much storage space the camper has.  Plenty or room for my sewing supplies, sewing machine and anything else we want to bring.  It has a TV with a DVD player and a radio/CD player.  We love it and can't wait for Jonah to see it.  I hope he likes it as much as our other camper.

A FEW THINGS ACCOMPLISHED

This weekend I caught up on the Civil War blocks by making the last two of them.

I finally got enough string blocks to make a teenage boy's quilt for donation to the children's hospital.  Now I just need to remove the paper from the back, sew them together, quilt and bind.  I wonder when I will get it finished.

You will notice there are no feminine things in these blocks.  I had to dig deep to find more masculine fabric.  Uh Oh, I just saw a couple little flowers in the cow's mouths.  Hopefully, they will not be too noticeable.

Leaves are allowed, but not flowers (my GS let me know these things).

Here's the phone book paper on the back of one.  There are 63 8" blocks and the quilt will be 7 blocks wide by 9 blocks long.

I hope these fabrics will pass as masculine enough.  Hee Hee!  No pink or purple will be in this quilt.  Stars and golf bags are permissible.  Swirls are permissible.  There might be a couple tiny flowers on a block or two, but they are so miniscule as to not be noticeable, I hope.

This morning I got a pillow ready for binding and I'll show you that later.  No picture yet.    These pictures are taken with my iPhone, and are OK but seem darker than pictures taken with our old camera. Have a good week, everyone!