A little (big) set back...

Saying goodbye to Keith didn't go quite as we had planned. The Sunday before he was set to leave I started not feeling well. Monday early morning I thought that I was feeling better but after the drive down to San Diego what ever was bothering me kicked in. That made for a fun ride home by myself let me tell you (Not Really). After about 5 more days and goodness knows how much cold medicine I went into Urgent care to find out that I have Bronchitis again. I just hope that this isn't going to be a December ritual this will be the 2nd December in a row.

As you can imagine I haven't felt much like sewing. I made it to only one half of the christmas workshop at the quilt shop. So I have a really neat Christmas Bargello table runner that isn't finished but it will be before Christmas. I am determined. (Update its christmas and its still not finished but Keith and I will be celebrating everything when he comes home so hopefully by then)

Finals for my classes are this week so I will be focusing on that with a little sewing here and there. I have several swaps that I am behind on and need to get out as soon as I can get them done. (Update finals are done and I have registered for the next semester.. hoping it goes as well as last)

Tonight I still didn't feel much like sewing but I was able to get some FSL Reindeer done for some of my swaps and get some templates cut out for some other projects. (Update that was all I got done with some other things that came up I just didn't make it. Sorry swap buddies I will be sure that what I send is special.. Life just mowed me over this year)

Paula's Sewing Challenge

Any one up for a Challenge? A little friendly competition to get the creative juices flowing? Then you should pop over to Paula's Sewing Challenge Blog. She has announce bi-weekly challenges to get more crafters to post about their projects.

I don't know about you but I'm in!! Anything to 1. Get me sewing 2. Get me to post about my finishes and 3. Use fabric from my stash sounds like a good idea to me. Right now I'm focused on Christmas projects but as the challenges change I'm sure that my focus will change to. So head on over to Paula's corner of the web and tell her what your working on.

Thanksgiving

Well with Thanksgiving over and Christmas fast approaching I guess its time to get moving on all those christmas things that I wanted to get done but haven't touched. Though I will have to take a slight pause so that I can finish homework for this week and to say good bye to Keith. This week he will be departing for another deployment and I promised him that I would keep up the sewing so that we might be able to start our own Etsy or Ebay shop with all the things that we have created with the embroidery machine or been able to sew and customize. He's excited and were not looking for much just to make a few extra dollars here and there.

My brother, his wife and my new nephew noah were here yesterday but will be heading back home today. This is what we worked on yesterday so that I could show off my new machine. They are sucker covers:



They work up really fast and easy and can be found at Designs by SiCK Embroidery Library (the link can also be found in my side bar). If you search sucker alot of different designs come up these are just the few that we decided to make.

Then I had ornaments that I had to make for the shop to show for our E-Club (Embroidery Club). If I hadn't mentioned it before I lucked out and got offered a job working at the local quilt shop Quilters Quarters. Its a nice friendly little shop located in Handford California or you can visit us here online. I will be taking over leading E-Club starting in January and cant wait. Here are the ornaments that I made and we will be making at our next E-Club meeting.

You can find these designs at Embroidery Library under minitures or by clicking here. I actually found the instructions here also at embroidery library. In talking to the ladies at the shop we feel that the minatures could be enlarged just a bit and look better in the snow globe. You can do that easily with your embroidery machine or software. I found the plastic ornaments at Michael's Arts and Crafts but I'm sure with a little searching you can find a good deal online as well. The sparkly grass was holiday basket grass that I found at the $1 store. Hope I have sparked you interest!! Happy Holidays!!

Project Pictures

Well I promised to share pictures of the projects that I had done in the last couple of days. One isn't complete yet I have some finishing touches still yet to do but I can show the other two. Here is the first. Its a USB stick holder. With the new machines I can take the designs straight from my computer and put them in my machine.

Here is a picture of it open. You can barely see that the pockets are numbered. I should have choosen a darker green. I love the way it turned out and will be making more for some friends.

You can find the designs for this at A Design in Stitches or a bigger version at Embroidery Project. They have some great designs. You can see how they stitched out. Don't miss their Black friday sale all designs are $1 on both sites. They are a mom and daughter that share their passion.

And last today for now I have Baby Closet organizers. I saw these and thought that they were adorable. There are actually more to the set but I only made 6 of them. They just hook on the closet bar like at the store and help the new mom organize clothes as to size. I know I didn't give my brother and sister all the same sizes. I gave them alot of 12 month and bigger and Noah turned out to be small so they have a ways to go for those.

The designs for this can be found at Designs by Sick. As you can tell I am having loads of fun with the new machine. Now to get to my 3 Christmas swaps as well as the Christmas Ornament swap that I have been meaning to work on. With so many more possibilities its hard for me to decide what to do. Until later! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Been a while...

Goodness I have alot of catching up to do. I have no clue where to begin. Well my last day in the Navy was November 12th. So I am now a civilian. I am also finishing up my first semester at Columbia college and getting ready to sign up for the second. I will be getting a much needed break from school because I have a lot of stitching and planning to do.

So lets catch up.. Last week Keith and I got this super fantastic deal on a Viking Diamond. Yes I already had 2 embroidery machines but they both only stitched a 4X4 area and it was driving me crazy. There were so many other projects that I wanted to work on but couldn't because my hoop area was too small.

So here it is: (Well the box anyway)

And the embroidery attachment:

And here I am super excited about the hoops that came with it (and of course the mess behind me but that has since been made worse and cleaned up):

And here are the first couple of projects that I worked on:

Its a wine bottle wrap that I found at Embroidery Library. You can find the design for purchase here and the entire set here. They have really good prices and I am pleased with the way that they stitch out. If you get the chance look at the projests they are pretty easy to read and they have a lot of great ideas. I just realised that I never took a picture of the second project or the others after that so until the next post!! My quilty friends and family are going to get some great gifts this year. I will be sure to let you know where I find my designs.

If you get a chance check out Designs By Sick there is a link in my sidebar. They have great prices and have daily freebies that you can get to check out the designs to see if you like them.

Friday Night Sew in!!!

Ugh... Where to start. I knew that Friday night sew in was this weekend, but thought that I was going to be making the drive to Fallon, Nevada to spend time with Keith. Well as with anything else plans changed and I ended up making that drive last weekend instead of today. So this week I oficially started leave pending seperation from the Navy and I have take the new found time to be lazy of course but also get some much needed cleaning, and organizing.

My goal is to have the house clean an as much of the things that were laying around either put away or thrown away before Keith gets home. I am planning a few nice dinners for when he gets home since shortly after Thanksgiving he will be leaving for deployment.

So lets get to the topic of this post... FRIDAY NIGHT SEW IN!!!





So lets all get together and get sewing!! I'm not sure yet what I am going to be working on but I have been cleaning up and making room in the sewing room ALL day.. so after a little more cleaning.. some vacuuming and the some decision making I will be getting to that sewing I have been wanting to do for months!!

Here is a little glimpse of what the sewing room looks like now.. I thought I hd before pictures but I can't find them.. well I am off to clean, eat my dinner, pick a project and sew for the evening ... ENJOY!!

Looking for....

So I'm home from San Diego got lots of great information about how to write a resume and get a job etc. But before I can do that I have to finish some classes and try to get into the VA work study program. Since both colleges that I need to take classes from are already in the middle of classes I have to wait until the next session.

I have been walking around today looking at what I can work on in the mean time and I found this super cool fat quarter bundle. I know exactly what I want to do with it but I need to find the perfect pattern. Does anyone know if a good throw size quilt that uses fat quarters? I have 16 fat quarters that I want to split in 2 piles and make a his and hers throw. I think that it would be something nice for Keith to come home to.

Well last week I had a bit of time to surf the net and I found this:

you can read more about it here. I know that I am starting a little late but I can't wait to see what the designers talk about. Looking forward to catching up.

A Case of the Mondays

I am going to have to admit I have a case of the mondays.. Just not feeling the interacting with the rest of the world. Class is over and my package has been sent to the medical board in Washington DC for them to decide my fate so I should be excited right? Happy that I have some free time after work so that I can craft and create to my hearts content right? I just feel BLAH!!

All I want to do is go back to bed. Keith will be out to sea for just shy of a month and I have the house to my self to clean and re-arrange and try to continue to put away and organize things. For the most part things are put away we are just tweaking the last of things. Okay that is not completely true we have alot of things that are on the garage waiting to find a place in the house.


We'll see how productive I am while Keith is gone.

Strip Club Quilt Anyone??

I am having some troubles... trouble getting back into the swing of things and getting back into my sewing room. I have done alot of re-organizing and have almost every thing put away in its own spot.

Now to get back to the sewing.. I obviously can't sew for as long with out some major breaks because of my arm but I need to get back in there and start busting some stash. Is there anyone out there that is in love with Strip Club Patterns? If you haven't heard of them before they are Cozy Quilt Shop's exclusive line of patterns. Cozy is located in San Diego California. The shop and the ladies that work there are awesome. If there is one thing that I miss about San Diego its that shop, the friends that I have made there and being able to go to strip club saterdays for my free pattern. If I could take them with me everywhere I would.

I have several strip bundles from Cozy and countless patterns. I'm curious anyone out there interested in working on a cozy quilt with me? They are super easy and the instructions are step by step... like a mystery quilt but with out the mystery.

I have 2 thoughts.. I can work on one that I have already started (as long as I have unpacked the pieces already and have them all) or I can start a new one in the hopes that some one out in blog land will want to play too and will help cheer me on.

Ok so here are the 3 that I have already started and will need to get all the parts back together..


The above pattern is called "Gift Boxes" and mine is not this colorway. The shop has actually changed things since the first time they did this pattern. The first time it was very pretty fall colors and nice warm flannel. That is what I have half sewn in a ziplock bag some where.

This one is called "Cactus Wreath" I love it!! I started this one prior to going on deployment what 2 years ago now? Maybe even before I transferred here to Lemoore so it has been in the works for a while.. I think all the strips are cut to size and just need to be chain pieced. Not sure if I have the background fabric for this though so it may have to wait a little until I can get some.

This one is called "Cross Walk to Paris" and I am not completely sure what stage it was left in. What I do know is that I started sewing this on a machine that I no longer have so I may have to re-sew a bunch of things to make them fit together nicely.

And Last this one is not started yet but I have the fabric for it. Keith picked it out because it was his favorite oriental fabrics. I believe we changed things up a bit.. the background will be a deep blue purple and the smaller squares will be cream. I think that the thin black border might be red and the outer border black but I'm not positive. I let Keith pick out what he wanted and I know I thought that we were good on the color combo's but I will have to see what the measurements are to know what was supposed to go where.

So who wants to sew with me? We can have an online get together maybe chat through messenger.. watch some movies in the process.. listen to a book on disc? This coming weekend will be the last weekend that I have before Keith gets home. Hes home for a little while and then I can do all the sewing I want on the weeked for another month or so while he is gone again.

Christmas in July

Well I have seen several Christmas in July Sales and things going on online so I don't feel so bad about my holiday post yesterday. I have decided to do some searching on the net for some ornaments that I could make up and put away. Here is the first...

The pattern for this cute little star can be found at Craftideas.info I can see so many things that can be done with this.. like instead of a straight stitch hem a cute embroidery stitch. Or maybe an embroidered name? Oh and if you stitch them cross point to cross point they would be a cute banner or garland... Just changing the fabric would give you different looks as well.

For those out there that love snowman here's an adorable snowman made out of terrycloth:

This one will take a little more time than the star but its still really cute and I don't see why you couldn't use some left over fleece. Pattern for the snowman can be found here.

If your like me not only do you sew but you do a wealth of other crafts so for the crocheters out there I found this:

As a kid I remember having crochet candy canes on the tree. These aren't exactly like the ones that we had but nothing is like mom makes right? Mom is always unique and special in her own way. The pattern can be found on the Learn to Crochet site.

Here is a Mini christmas Stocking. Again we had stockings on our tree as a kid but they were knit and not crochet.

This one would be cute in reds and greens or maybe blues and silvers? You could put a couple of mini candy canes in it. If you can crochet grannie squares your golden. You can find this pattern here

Well this is a start. I unpacked and re-organized my yarn last weekend and I think that I have some green and red with silver through them and some white yarn that would be perfect. Well I hpe that I have given others some ideas.

This weekend will be spend putting away somethings.. 2 boxes is the goal.. writing out baby shower invites for my sister in-laws baby shower and possible working on some goodies for that. First I have to wait for the water heater repair guy and then another repair guy that I am going to leave secret since mom reads this. After that the weekend is mine.

12 Days of....

Well summer of course!! I know the last post was all about December and I promise not to beat you up with the holiday countdown yet. But I have still got to blog and get those creative ideas flowing or the holidays will roll around and I will have nothing completed and I will keep myself up to the wee hours of the morning trying to complete things.

Last year I gave Keith goodies for the 12 days of xmas. Mind you they had nothing to do with the actual 12 days it was just like his little advent calendar leading to our first Christmas as a married couple. Keith seemed to be more excited about the special ornaments that he got and I liked to see him smile like a little kid as he put the ornaments on the tree. So this year I will be on the look out for some more of those special ornaments because those I can pull out everyday and snap a picture and send it to him while he is gone. I thought that we could pull the small tree out and put it on the table to decorate for our celebration when he comes home.

So with that in mind are there some special ornaments that you have made for your family that you could share with me? Have you seen any neat ornaments online? Let me know... and I will keep you posted as to what I find or make. This is I think #1 on the list.. (Isn't it cute?)



They didn't have a female sailor though so I will still be on the look out for that. You can find the above ornament at Ornament Shop.com as well as several other adorable ornaments for your pets, anniversaries etc.

Did you know?....

That there is only 168 days until christmas? Well for the rest of the world anyway. For my family its about a month shy of that. We plan on celebrating a bit early so that we can include Keith before he leaves for deployment. It will be just a little celebration probably between my parents and Keith and I.

Never the less.. I have been having issues to get motivated to do or make anything so I guess the time would be to start working on things now so that some of my projects will be ready before he leaves. I assume that he and I will do some celebrating when he comes back from cruise as well because we will have missed Valentines, his birthday, Easter and my birthday as well as Christmas and New Years. Not exactly sure what I am going to do for them but I have almost a year to figure some of it out.. Smiles.

So I guess I'm here to figure out where to start. My projects for this year need to be kind of simple so that I can get them done. Not to mention he will be gone alot between now ans when he actually deploys so I can work on them while he's gone and it will be a suprise. So what should I make? I'm thinking about making a valance from car/ nascar fabric to put above the garage window... What do you think? Last year I gave him some craftsman chairs and a craftsman table that looked like this...

I think that making a valance for that window would sort of complete his man cave out in the garage what do you guys think? There are some of the old metal signs that we have picked up various places for the walls and I am going to look into a nice clock for the wall.

Wow 1000th post...

Not mine of course.. lol.. maybe someday. But Jill has reached her 1000th post and she wants to celebrate with everyone so pop on over and check out her blog and her give away.. Shes got some great prizes just waiting to go to their new home. Go check her out by clicking the nifty button below. She has great pictures of her project and her puppy dogs are so adorable.





Congrats Jill!! On hitting 1000.

There are people out there looking for heros....

Good afternoon bloggers! I hope that everyone is having a good Thursday. I know that mine feels like it has been really long.

So I was looking for some ideas on the internet and ran across an interesting website. Its called Wish upon a Hero. Now if you haven't seen this site before its really pretty neat. You'll have to read all about it at the link posted above but its all about caring for others and letting people out there know that you care. If you choose to join the site you will of course have to create a login but having a log in allows you to 1.) Make a wish for everyone to see that maybe some one out there will have the ability to make it come true. and 2.) grant wishes to other people to show them that you care.

Its really easy some wishes are as simple as I wish for ideas of things to send my husband on deployment (this is how I found the site) and then others are actually items like a lady wished for someone to help build a fence in her yard for her foster puppies.

Now with most of my friends being crafty type people and I have never known any of you to not help some one in need if you can. I'm passing on this website. It could be something as simple as a card to let some one know that you care.. smiles

How about it? anyone interested in becoming some ones hero with me?

Appreciating Moms....

Good Afternoon everyone!! Goodness I have been so out of the loop with my blog. Hopefully after all the appointments and receiving a final decision from the navy things will slow down for me and I can focus more on being creative and less on the stressful things in life.

Have you heard?? Regina is having a give away!! She is giving away a yummy cook book in support of the American Cancer Society in honor of her mother who is currently going through chemo. Thoughts are with your mom Regina as this is a topic that hits close to home in many ways.


I myself am a supporter of ACS but also of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in support of my Mom. Every year the navy gives me the opportunity to donate funds from my paycheck to charities that I choose through a program called the Combined Federal Campaign. Every year for as long as I can remember I have always donated to ACS, The Lymphoma Society, and the Epilepsy Foundation.


So here are some heart felt thoughts going out to all mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends and other realitives that have been affected.

Who Knew?

Who Knew that you could meet so many interesting people through blog land? A friend and fellow blogger Jill was asked to review a book on her blog. In return she gets a copy of the book to keep and is giving away a copy on her blog here.

As I was taught last week in my Transition Assistance (to help me become a civilian again after being a sailor for 12 years) its all about networking! Who knows what kind of opportunities will come your way.

So Hop on over to Jill's Blog and Check out Sandra Dallas' new Book Whiter than Snow.

Been Busy

Good morning blog world!! How has everyone been doing lately? Things have been busy here in my circle of the world. I have been getting paperwork together to send to the Navy Medical board for them to make a decision as to if I can continue my navy career. The Orthopedic Surgeon believes that they will make the decision to separate me so with that being said I have had several appointments with college counselors. I am currently enrolled in a business course and have been told that it is quite possible that I could graduate with my BS in business with a minor in accounting in 2 years .. less if I work on some transfer courses at the junior college.

Keith is gearing up to start the tedious work up cycle before leaving for deployment so I will be helping him getting ready to go as well as putting together a plan to work on things at the house and my craft things. I'm hoping that if I keep myself fairly busy that the time that he will be gone will go buy pretty fast.

Ok so back to this business class. We have a class project and I think that it will be super fun. We are writing business plans. Keith and I have talked about this off and on and I know what kind of business I am going to write about.. But I need your help... I am going to open a Quilt Shop!! And I need your help deciding what to name it. This is of course just for my class but who knows maybe some day I will be come a successful quilt shop owner and you can say that you helped me name it.. smiles.

Until later,

Been MIA from blog land.. but with good reason.

Good evening everyone! Well I know that I have been MIA for a long time. I haven't forgot about my blog friends out there I promise. I have been busy with things other than sewing. If you haven't read things Keith and I were looking for a house. We put in a bid on one house that I blogged about in a few previous posts but we were out bid. Disappointed Keith and I sat back to re-evaluate and decide if buying a house was really the thing for us. After a lot of thought we decided to put a bid on another house. It had come down in price and it was actually the first house that we had wanted but because it was priced so high that it was not feasable for us. Things worked out and we have been going through the paperwork process to buy this house.

Well tuesday May 4th we were supposed to be able to pick up our keys that didn't happen we actually closed on the house about a week later. I am really excited. Mom and Dad came up to help us move. Mom and I tried put things away while the boys are moved the heavy things in the morning since Keith had to work still. Mom is still not able to walk very far or for very long but she and I did some grocery shopping and she walked more that few days than she had since her surgery.

So that is in a nut shell what I have been working on. The begining of march I had some health issues that pretty much sucked the life out of me but I think this new house is really going to turn things around.

My brother and his wife are now expecting their first child and Mom and I have offered to throw the baby shower. Right now mom and I are just talking about the hand made decorations like the diaper cake for a center piece and all the things that we are going to attach to it to decorate it.

Stay tuned for pictures of the latest embroidery machine pictures... Mom and I think that they will make a great addition to the diaper cake decorations. Pictures of the new house will hopefully be around soon to. We have some but its so bare that we need to move things in first smiles


Today I plan on wirking on installing the blinds that keith and I ordered... Shh don't tell him.. I hope that he won't be upset.. but I figure with a power screw driver I will be set.. should be easy. Afterall I tore apart and put the fridge back together ..

Extremely Rough week

Well it has been an extremely rough week for me this week. I finished some blocks for my Silly Gals swap on Tuesday and then the week went down hill from there. Do to this weeks events I think I forgot to take pictures of my blocks so I'm not sure I will be able to show them. I will retrace my steps to find my camera to check one more time though as the blocks have already been mailed. I think I have finally wrapped my brain around everything that has happened and am going to try to slowly move on. I had a list of things to try to get done last weekend that never happened .. maybe this weekend I will be able to bounce back from that.

I did cheat on the stash report last week (I never wrote one) So this week I will confess to the fabric that was bought last week with a purpose in mind and then hopefully this weekend I will be able to use some of that stash so that my report won't suffer so bad from it.

Until later

Update on the House

Just wanted to post an update. There were at least 2 bids put in on the house ours and 1 other. The bank counter offered saying they would take the best and highest.. We took that as to mean that the other bid and ours were so close that they wanted to try to get us to bid more. Keith has worked out all the numbers and has sent them back to the Realtor so we will be signing paperwork again this afternoon and then waiting to see who had the better offer.

Bids have to be in by tomorrow at 1pm so with any luck by friday we should know whether we are still looking or if we need to start packing things to get ready to move.



Any way back to the pictures of the house... Look at this one for a minute..

Do you see the wicker baskets above the bar area in between the beams in the ceiling? Well to be honest the are going to get pulled down.. they look like some that my mom had when I was a kid.. But I can see something else very different there.... I see six special quilted pot holders hung there for display. I think I have a couple already but would really like for Keith to help in the decorating so I might just have him pick some fabric and I will make some special ones.

Prospective New House

Keith and I have been thinking about and looking into buying a house since before he left for deployment. We have been looking and can't even count how many houses that we have looked at. We put in a bid on one about a month ago (The day before my surgery actually) and was out bid by some one else. That in it self may have been a blessing in disguise because Keith found a really nice older home on about and acre last friday. We put in a bid this morning and have been told that we should know by next week if our offer has been accepted.

If it gets accepted there will be a bit of saving coming our way just so that we can be prepared in case the navy does seperate me for my arm. I have told Keith that I will do what ever it takes to help make ends meet even if it means getting 2 part time jobs here in town, and or even doing the ebay/ etsy thing if need be. Every little bit will help even if it doesn't seem like it. That extra $20, $30 or $50 can be put towards utility bills, storage, car payments you name it.

So I think I will be alot better with my stash reports here in the future using ALOT more than I will be purchasing. I have alot of Kits and fabric set aside for specific projects in the hopes to limit the things that I inpulse buy.

So are you ready to see some sneak peeks of the house?

This is the front of the house. The grass looks lot greener in real life and there is a big gravel drive through or round about not sure what you would call it.

Here is a picture of the fire place. Looks like it will keep us toasty warm in the winter.

Here is the view into the Kitchen not a whole lot of counter space but we will manage (if our bid goes through)

And part of the back yard. There is a small pool and spa its almost like a little resort area with a patio area and then a sun type area. Over all really nice. We'll see.