Happy Halloweenie!

Ahhhhh....the joys of Halloween. Our small town does a Halloween Extravaganza at the Township Hall. I love small towns. They set up barbecue areas and supply hot dogs, apple cider, popcorn. Everyone comes out and participates. I'm treasurer of our Chamber of Commerce, so I spent the evening standing in the rain giving all the kids (and parents) popcorn. I was wet and freezing and had a blast. I love this stuff. All the kids just make me smile. My daughter, who we adopted when she was seven, never wants to try anything new. She's just very shy. She's 14 now and yep, that's her in the pic. I have never been shy. We are total opposites, probably due to our early childhood differences. I push her to try everything. She ended up having a wonderful time. She just loves it when I push her to do new things and it makes my heart soar to see her come out of her shell. She's adorable too btw. But I'm still soggy.......

On the quilty front, I did make some blocks today. It's from another website and I don't really know procedure to give credit where credit is due....so here is where I got it. http://www.myquiltblog.com/nancyrose/4624/myquiltblog.com/nancyrose/4624/

She's awesome and I love her blog too! Several of you bloggers have become a part of my everyday life and I feel like I even know some of you. Seems so strange, but fun.

This is "Ethel", my machine. It's a Viking Sapphire 830, named after my Grams who passed away just a few years ago at the ripe age of 98. She quilted her entire life, by hand. No machines used for any part of it. Seemed only fitting that I name her Ethel. I don't know what to name the frame/machine. With all the thread breakage, she may end up named OsamaB. Think that's fitting? OK....I won't go that far and I'm sure I'll figure out the problem at some point. Just frustrated right now. No matter where I set the tension, I can only quilt about five minutes and....needle thread breaks. I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong, just don't know what as of yet.

It's so odd to be moved to the living room. I've lived in this house 5 or 6 years and never used that room. I have this wonderful family room that's big and all windows and bright. Beautiful hardwoods that I had put in this past summer and it's just always been "my" room. Pay no attention to the mess in there, as it was when we were having the floors installed and nothing was where it was suppose to be. Those two pics are only half of the room. I just can't show my office part due to my disorganized desk. It's bad. And now....this room belongs to everyone. Fine...I'm sharing! But I don't have to like it.

I guess that's it for the ramble. Did you all notice that General Hospital is on my television?

Any suggestions for a name for the frame/machine would be great.

Later,

Regina

Quilting, Sewing Kits, Praise

I've become addicted to 30's prints. They just make me so happy. So...of course...I ebay-ed. And got lots of fat quarters. Six months ago, I didn't even know what a fat quarter was. I used the Yellow Brick Road Pattern and here's the top. Hanging all kitty-wambassed on my wall. But...I love this one. I have to add borders and then...I'ma quilt it!!!

I made these "sewing kits" for Ladies Day at my church. Each year in the fall, we have a Ladies Day and it's amazing. We have breakfast, and singing, and speakers, prayers, skits, lunch. It's the most wonderful day of the year for me. This year, my third Ladies Day, I jumped in head first. My friend Val and I did breakfast, crepes, muffins, fruit. Then my daughter, Cyn, was in the skit and I was the "soundwoman". She also did some singing, so we had lots of rehearsals for both. And each year we give everyone a "favor" to remember the day. I volunteered to do that also. The theme for this year was Patterns for Living. Sewing kits seemed to fit. I bought medicine bottles from Walmart. Made pincushions to hot clue to the tops. Lots of basting there. Then I added a button, spool of thread, saftey pin, and on a piece of cloth a straight pin and a needle. I made 220 of those bad boys and loved every minute of it. My other friend, Jan, made the labels for them. A little sewing machine pic and the words..."A day hemmed in prayer is less likely to unravel". As always it was the best day. There is something very special about 200 women singing praises to the Lord. It moves me beyond words and I just thought I'd share a bit of it. And yes....under the sewing kits is a little table runner I made last week. And...only 48 weeks till the next Ladies Day...and I can't wait ....
Happy quilting....
Regina

Pinnacle/Janome 1600p dbx

Been a while already....my how time flies. I'm adding pics of my new frame and machine. Learning to use a frame and how to blog at the same time may be more than I can handle. (lol) This is the first quilt top I made. My friend, Sharon, from church, agreed to teach some of us how to quilt. Little did she know what a monster she was creating. So....I've been moved to the living room and am giving up the "family" room. Something about how it's suppose to be for the whole family ... not just my sewing adventures. I was kinda taking over in there. But that room is over 500 square foot and has hardwood floors ... so easy with all my threads everywhere to clean up. But .. that's over now. I'm relinquishing it back to them and I hope they all feel guilty about it. (they won't)

And...now I have two of the same pic here and can't figure out how to remove one....so double your pleasure, double the fun!

So...there you have it. My new passion is growing. Happy quilting to all of you.....