Day 279 - Finished Fringe Quilt

It is officially finished and boy and I glad!!!

Ready for the church sale!

Some more changes in the basement too and it is very exciting.

We put up dry wall in the laundry room and it

looks so very different I can hardly stand it!

The wall on the left is new drywall.

Moving all of the sheetrock allowed me to see a wall

in the basement that I haven't seen in at least a

year!  Have to fill the holes in the wall and then

polish it all with Old English...it will be a fun job.

Day 278 - Odds N Ends

I worked on my Little Ideas file today.

Also made two little perfume bottles for the dollhouse.

Pete was hanging out in the basement studio too.

The most exciting event of the day (besides giving blood) is

Michael cut and installed the rest (7) of the light fixture covers in the basement!

Day 277 - Finished Project!

Finished a beaded picture that I have been working on for a long time.  Just have to decide if I will frame it or mount it on a stretcher frame.

Pete kept me company laying on a clean pair of Daniel's work pants...

Watched an interesting movie tonight called "9".

Would love to try and make one of the "rag dolls" that starred in the movie.

It was an interesting watch.

Day 276 - In a lull.....

Another frustrating night at crafting.  I replace a broken lobster clasp on a necklace and then went to make a stretch bracelet and all of my cord was too thick.  Force the beads on and then with all of the crimp beads I have none of them were big enough to fit both of the stretch cords into...YIKES...tried to find a little link to repair another necklace and looked through EVERYTHING and couldn't find one the right size...ARRGH..

High point of the day- my son is home this weekend from school in Hibbing and we got to visit a bit tonight.

Day 275 - Patterns

Worked on making some patterns for a doll that I have had
my eye on making for a while.  We will have to wait and
see when I get a chance to make her!

Day 274 - Beading

Finished the necklace and
 made a quick bracelet and drop earrings out of leftovers.

Day 273 - Beading

Just a bit of time after work today and some time
 spent at Michaels office tonight.

Started a 3 strand necklace.  Still have some more beads to add
 and then I have to figure out how long to make each strand...
Here is where I am at as I finish up

the evening and call it a night.

Day 272 - Misc.

I cut some blocks and strips for future quilts.

Also worked on the fringe quilt fixing spots that came apart in the wash....

and I had company.

Day 271 - More sore hands- is this worth it??

Well I have spent about 6 more hours

 cutting this fringe for this quilt. 

Did get it all cut and here is how it looked.

Close up what it looks like.

Then I washed it and dried it.

Close up.

Oh, and the added bonus of dryer lint...

Plus there are some spots that the seams came apart so now I have to

do some additional sewing on this.

I will never, ever do one of these quilts again for any reason.

Too much mess and way too sore a hand from fringing...

Glad it is just about out of my life!

Day 270 - Fringe Quilt and sore hands

I finished sewing the church fringe quilt together tonight.

Here is an upclose of what the seams look like.

I have spent 2 and a half hours now sitting and "fringing" and have

completed the entire outer edge of the quilt and

 5 rows going one way.

Boy, does my hand ache already.

You can see the rows that are done and the opposite

rows that are not fringed yet.

Day 269 - Craft Group

Lovely fall evening for crafting in Andover.  Tonight Carol got another page done for her "Fall" tree book, I worked on a piece of cross stitching and Lois cut out orange "carrot" noses for a couple of winter quilts that she is going to make.  Verna was unable to make it to group tonight.  It is 1:00 am and I have to start work tomorrow morning (Friday- YEAH) at 7:30 am. Must get to bed.

Day 268 - Fringe Quilt

Sewed up the rest of the rows for this quilt.  Then was able to get rows 14-9 sewn together.  There are threads all over as this sheds so much being homespun fabrics.  It is not going to be a very large quilt either as I didn't have many colors to add to the squares I was given and those were brights.

Oh, this is a skewed view as the little paper tags

 are actually on the left hand side of the quilt...

Day 267 - Fringe quilt

It is hard to work on something that you don't really like...but I forced myself to sew a bunch more of the strips for this quilt.  Now they are in a pile on top of the wastebasket. 

Two interesting things today:  got my hair cut tonight and the gal said that she was going to iron it as she was bored...what an odd look- me in straight hair- I have never seen that before! The other thing was that I downloaded Skype (took me half and hour to get it figured out with lots of help from my daughter) and she and I got to visit in person!  Boy was that fun especially for someone who lothes being on the phone this was great!!!

Day 266 - Loose ends

No photo tonight as I was finishing up loose ends.  Decoupaged the bottom of the last church birdhouse, painted a 3rd coat on a mini birdhouse, tried making a dollhouse rug out of some home dec fabric samples (just had to cut and fringe it).  Also cut some card fronts out of old cards and made an attempt at making some perfume bottles for the dollhouse out of beads.  Couldn't get the right combination to make them look right so will have to try again.
Perhaps tomorrow will be a more sucessful day.

Day 265 - Gift bags

Made 13 gift tags to put on the gift bags and

now they are done!

Day 264 - 10 Gift bags done

Got the last 6 bags done and then tonight I realized that they all need a gift tag on them too!
Will try and do those tomorrow.  Lovely fall day - did lots of raking of leaves and cleaning up
the deck for winter.  Enjoyed a new fire pit with relatives in Apple Valley this evening with some
Door County wine... Minnesota living at its best.

Day 263 - Christmas Angel Bags

Finally got a start on these Christmas bags for church.  Found a bunch of sayings only got 4 done but starting is the hardest part.  Will complete the last 6 tomorrow.

Day 262 - Outdoor Wreath

In getting ready for winter in Minnesota many outdoor decorations need to be updated before being tucked snugly away for winter.  One of my gate wreaths needed serious work so brought it inside to take a look.

I took everything off of it to give it a fresh look...

Wired some new greens on and it is ready for next spring!

Another note:  Do you remember that grilled cheese sandwich

that had the face of Jesus on it?

Look what I found in my soaking crock pot-

A happy face!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 261 - Paper Minis after a long hard day at work

Tough day today...non-stop phones, faxes and charts with the bonus of screaming children and being short staffed...
Couple of paper minis tonight and yes, I used the wrong kind of glue for the roof of the house.  I was pleased with how simply the book of ME Fabric Samples went together this time- this is #2.

This is the back side of the house and pages of the book.

Pete was enjoying the Christmas bags this morning.

Day 260 - Church Quilters

Another meeting tonight from 6:30 - 9 pm.  I finished cutting out the angels and Julie ironed them onto the brown gift bags.  Now just some writing to do around them...

Day 259 - Christmas Gift Bags

Began the process of making some Christmas gift bags for church.
 I have cut out some angels and stars so far.

FYI:  These are cut out of fabric with Heat and Bond ironed to the back of the fabric.

Eventually, I will iron them onto solid gift bags and then decorate the bags

with some Christmas writing/sayings.

Day 258 - Church Quilters Group

We had a full day of sewing today from 9 am - 3 pm.  I only stayed until 12:30.  I spent my time measuring, cutting up and covering the cut edges of retractable metal tape measures for a holiday project for our church bazaar.  A tedious job but someone had to do it!

Day 257 - ME Minis

Friday night and couldn't wait to try a couple of these minis.  They are all Mary Engelbreit but not quite to 1 inch = 1 foot scale but cool none-the-less.
Seeing them up so close it looks like I have to trim the handle of the carry-all bag a bit. The little table had some measurement problems but the book of Fabric Samples turned out cool.   I think I have 3 more fabric sample books to make and all have different patterns of her fabric in them! 

I put the fabric sample book on its' side so you can see that there are actual

pages inside the book!