UPCOMING PROJECT

I just got through making six Christmas potholders.  I had such a struggle with them.  They were larger and the pocket was so hard to position right.  I decided I was through making potholders but I guess not.  No more Christmas ones though. I am going to be making 24 potholders (12 sets of two.) of the style I have pictured above. These are much easier to make. Why am I doing this?
         Donna joined the Red Hat ladies and in April they need to bring a gift for each person at their luncheon. Donna says most of them bring candy but she wanted to do something different.  There are twelve ladies. We finally decided the potholders would be the easiest. I think we probably have enough material. Donna will buy anything we need, bias tape, insulabrite. I will just be doing the embroidery and Donna will assemble them all.  This will definitely keep me busy. There are a lot of designs to choose from so each set will look different. I suppose something will come up in one of the new magazines that I just have to make.
         Maybe I will get my machine for it's maintenance in the Spring.
          Update on the potholders.  I am making 13 sets of two.  Donna forgot to count herself.

PIN CUSHIONS

I have been working on pin cushions. There are 10 designs.  Here are three of them I have made. These pin cushions are very easy to embroider but are a lot of work to put together. I plan to keep some and to give away some. I am keeping the Lady Bug one for myself.

I am showing two of them again as these two show bees and bee hives. I am giving these two to a friend that collects everything she can find with bees and bee hives on them. The center one is for Donna and she has that by her sewing machine. Donna is also going to have one with strawberries on it. The rest we will just use for decoration until we decide to give another one away.

WINTER STORM

Friday, December 14, 2018

    yesterday our power was off for about 35 minutes around 1 pm.

     Then at 2 pm our power went out and we did not get power back until 11:30 pm. There were big windstorms knocking down trees everywhere.  Thousands of people were without power.

     When the power went back on, I checked the refrigerator and the chest freezer.  The food seems ok.  The carton of ice cream in the refrigerator freezer was a little soft but had not melted at all.  Everything seemed pretty frozen in the chest freezer.

     It was very warm yesterday.  It got up to 61 degrees here.  I was not surprised about the storm.

     We kept warm enough.  We were able to read our kindles.  We had a couple of LED flashlights and could see pretty good.  I am so used to sleeping under my electric blanket I had a hard time falling asleep but finally did go to sleep.

CHRISTMAS EMBROIDERY

I finished these squares for Donna.  She is going to make them into a small wall hanging.

I have now done six Christmas potholders and these squares.  I am now working on pin cushions. There are 10 designs for the pin cushions. I want to make all of them.  I have embroidered 7 so far.  They still need to be stuffed with poly fill pellets.  Two of the designs I will be giving to a friend. The two I am giving her have bees and bee hives on them.  She collects everything she can find with bees and bee hives. One has lady bug designs on it. I am going to keep that one for myself. These pin cushions are so easy to make.  I can always make more if I need to.

CHRISTMAS POTHOLDERS

Donna wanted some Christmas potholders.  Here are two that are finished and two in progress.
I will be making two more potholders and then I have two other projects I need to finish.

CHRISTMAS WALL HANGING

Fireplace Santa

This is a project that I made a few months ago and I had set it aside.  Donna finally sewed it together. The squares are made from fleece.  I had never worked with fleece before.  It was a little more difficult for me.  It was not perfect but now that it is hanging on the door it looks pretty good.

THANKSGIVING

We had a nice thanksgiving

Just a couple of pictures of the group of about 28 people counting all the little ones running around.

I think everyone had a good time.

RUNNER FOR THANKSGIVING DINNER

A closer view of the designs

I made 20 squares for this Fall table runner for Thanksgiving. Donna made three runners from them for the large table and two smaller tables.

We are having thirty people including David and me coming for Thanksgiving dinner. 

FUN IN SEQUIM

OUR OWN LITTLE SEWING RETREAT

The first weekend of November Debbie came to spend time with us in Sequim.  She had some embroidery projects she was working on.  Donna was helping her.  We had such a nice time.  It was fun watching my daughters.

We have an extra table now and all my threads are in plastic boxes by the closet door.  You can see we have floor space.

Donna has a nice area now. She had been in the darkest corner.  Now she has good lighting.

Debbie decided to help rearrange our sewing room.  Our sewing room has been a disaster for a long time.  Debbie and Donna put in hours taking everything out and then put things back in a reasonable order. We basically had no floor space.  After all their hard work, we can now walk around.  Most  everything is on shelves or in drawers and looks nice and is within easy reach.

I have the sewing table by the window. That is probably selfish of me  but  I do more sewing than Donna.  

CHRISTMAS COASTERS

Just a little fun project that I have been working on.  These coasters were easy to make.  As it turned out I am glad they were easy.  I managed to injure a tendon in my right arm.  A few years ago I did that to my left arm.  It takes about a month or a little more for it to be completely healed. I was still able to work on these coasters being careful how I move my arm.

Here is a picture of how my arm looks now.

MY LAST COUSIN

Mildred May (Merriam) Shoeman

My cousin died on September 24th, 2018 at the age of 97.  She was born April 19th, 1921 in Mitchell, South Dakota. She was the daughter of Edward Justin and Bertha Lora (Field) Merriam.

Bertha was my mother's sister. My mother Lois (Field) Vetter was the youngest of the sisters. My mother and her sisters and brother were all born in Modale Iowa.

Jan Shoeman Peterson put an article about my cousin on Facebook a couple of days ago.  I sent a comment giving my condolences and said I would like to have known my mother's family.

Jan sent me this comment. "Thank you, Shirley. I wish we had lived closer so we could have known our fellow Field cousins.  You remind me so much of my grandmother.  The family resemblance is so strong."

In my generation, there were finally just four of us left. My cousin,Jean Baker Armstrong in Ennis, Montana on my father's side. She found my name in records that another cousin, who had passed away, had kept. She found my phone number and for about a year before she died we visited on the phone frequently. I was glad to have had that contact. She died a few years ago. She was about two weeks short of her 90th birthday,

Elsie, my sister and I and my cousin Mildred were the only cousins left after Jean died.
Then my sister, Elsie, died the day after Christmas in 2017. Elsie had a lot of health problems but did live to be 88.

Now I am the last one left of the Vetters and the Fields of this generation.

THE LAST SUPPER

This beautiful project lis done at last.  It was a lot of hours but it turned out so great.  Thanks to Donna for assembling it.

Ducks at Kerrie Blake Park

I have been going to the park on nice days while David is walking.  It is fun to watch the ducks.

NEW FURNITURE FOR DOWNSTAIRS

New lift recliners for David and me

I love that I can get out of the chair without struggling. The control raises and reclines the chair.  I am working on which is the best position for me.

WOLVES

I love looking at pictures of wolves.  The top picture of this wolf is the last counted cross stitch embroidery picture that I made. I love the realistic look.

     The wolf on my bed is one that I have had ever since Debbie took me to Washington D.C. after Clayton died. It is quite realistic too for a stuffed animal. Noah was quite young the first time he saw it on my bed and he thought it was real.  He started screaming and was really scared.  A year later when he saw it he just threw it off the bed. 

     There is a very good pattern of a wolf in the Anita Goodesign patterns that I might make. It would just be a small wall hanging.

QUILT IS FINISHED

my quilt is finally on my bed.  

I posted this picture on Facebook.  I got a lot of nice comments.
Still working on my wall hanging of the last supper.

This is a few squares that are not sewn together yet to give you an idea of what it will look like.

QUILT IN PROGRESS

 picture on my blog of my Big Blossom Quilt

Still have to get the backing and the edging on. The backing will be   close to the same color as the quilt and the edging will be yellow.

NEW PROJECT

First square of "The Last Supper"

I have been waiting since Anita Goodesign announced the pattern for the Last Supper to be released in March.  The magazine with the pattern disc came a few days ago.  I bought all the material for it and I was so excited to start. I got discouraged when we started looking for threads.
     I have a lot of threads but I was still short at least 80 colors.  Donna and I spent the better part of two days coming up with substitutes. We were able to match all the colors pretty close.
     I was really discouraged for awhile especially when I started reading the instructions and looking at how many different colors are on one square.  There is so much shading that it takes a lot of colors.  I did get the first square done.  I am now on the second square which takes 18 different colors.
     Now that I have finished one square I am a little more encouraged. When I get this project done, for me, it will be a masterpiece.
     In the meantime my quilt is not finished yet but is taking a back seat for a bit. So goes my life, the world of embroidery.

SNOW AGAIN

There is still snow on the ground from Sunday and it is snowing again.  The snow has not been melting very fast as the daytime temperatures have been so cold.  It is a little after 3PM and it is 31 degrees.  I don't think this snow today will last very long as it is supposed to start warming up by tomorrow.

I was looking way back on my blog at when I was still at Debbie's and we had measurable snow on February 26, 2009, March 7, 2009, March 9, 2009 and March 15, 2009.  It was not a pleasant time.

SNOW IN FEBRUARY

Snow on Sunday, February 18th

I woke up to snow.  Church was cancelled.  The temperature turned really cold.  My weather station said the low was 23 degrees.  It is now 1:30 pm on Monday and it is only 31 degrees outside. Tonight is supposed to get colder.  We will see how that goes.

MY TURMERIC STORY

Turmeric capsules and Turmeric liquid

For some time I have been having pain in my knees, especially when going downstairs. I have been using a joint health pill but was still having a lot of pain.  David said he heard vinegar helps so I decided to look up home remedies. Vinegar was not one of them but I ran across information on Turmeric. It is supposed to help with inflammation in the joints. Turmeric is in the Ginger family. There were other benefits listed also.  It sounded interesting but I did not really give it any serious thought.  

Actually I had completely forgotten about it until a few days later when David and I went to Costco.  I could hardly believe my eyes when we saw this huge display of Turmeric. The one I have pictured on the left which is the capsules. I started taking them and in a few days my knees were not hurting.  The problem with the capsules was that I came very close to choking on them several times so I stopped taking them.  In a few days my knees were hurting again.  We were going to do some shopping and David said I should get some applesauce and open the capsules and take the Turmeric with the applesauce.

As it happened we had a couple of things to get at Costco.  I know this sounds like an unbelievable story but right next to the display of the Turmeric capsules was a new display. The display was liquid Turmeric. I could hardly believe it. The bottle is big and it is a two month supply. A little measuring cup comes with it. The liquid is an orange flavor and since you take such a small amount it tastes OK.

I am so happy I started using Turmeric.  I wondered when I first bought it if it would really work but at least for me it does.  When I was taking it my knees didn't hurt and when I quit for awhile I had the  pain again.  My legs still don't work like I would like them to but at least at this point in my life my knees don't hurt.

EMBROIDERY TIME

Debbie and Donna laying out my quilt squares

Debbie came over Friday night and stayed part of Saturday.  I am always so happy when she can come over.

Debbie brought her Brother machine over so she could get help for a project she is doing.  It will be so special when she gets it finished. 

I finally have all the squares and strips and small blocks done for my Big Blossom quilt.  Donna and Debbie helped with the trimming and then brought the squares downstairs to see how they would look on the bed.  Right now I call this project " quilt in a basket" as I have all the pieces in a basket.

Donna and Leif are leaving on a short cruise Monday and are spending tonight at Debbie's.  When they get back we will start working on getting the quilt together.

I just realized I had not put this picture on when I wrote about Anita University. I loved that we could be together.

Picture of us at the Anita's University

ANITA'S UNIVERSITY (formerly called Anita Goodesign party)

Drawstring bag and kitchen towel

Treat bag

Quality Sewing in Silverdale

Our Embroidery Event was on January 13th and 14th.  

Debbie, Donna and I attended.  Debbie was only able to be there Friday.  I really enjoyed it.  I got pretty tired but it was fun.  We always learn something new.

Above are some of the projects we worked on.

Donna and I stayed at the Best Western in Silverdale on Friday night.  First the key card would not work so  I stayed by the bags until Donna got it reset.  Donna went to the pool while I stayed in the room and watched my favorite soap opera her laptop. When Donna got back I realized the beds were so high that there was no way I could get on the bed.  Donna called and got a stool for me.  It was still a little tricky getting in and out but I made it.  My biggest problem is that I have to get up so much in the night. The hotel has a live band on Friday nights so that kept Donna awake for a bit.

We were served a nice lunch both days.  We were able to see the upcoming patterns on a screen while we were eating.  There are some exciting patterns coming up. The one I am really looking forward to is a pattern of "The Last Supper" which is a copy of a painting.  It will not come out until March. That is going to be a masterpiece for me to do. I need to try to get my quilt done so I can start on that.

NEW YEARS DAY -----2018

Covered bridge wall hanging

                                          

It is still hard for me to realize that my sister is gone.  Things change and that is the way of life.

The best thing for me is to stay busy.  I am blessed that I have so much family around.

I finished my Covered Bridge project.  I love looking at it because the colors are so beautiful.  Fall is a beautiful time of the year.

Now I am working on the Big Blossom quilt for my bed. I am working on the 13th square right now.  This will keep me busy for awhile. There are 63 squares altogether.