Oh-oh-oh...The Sun is Shining....

and there is hope for me again (as Third Day would sing). :o)

Happy Saturday! True to His word...the joy does come with the morn'. It's a glorious day today! And wow...I've already been busy!

And it's not even NOON! I've cut and sewn and pressed binding for two quilts AND pieced the bullseye blocks and now have them sewn in to pairs! These two quilts will be together in no time! YAY!

Hope you all have a great Saturday!

Missing Dad......

Missing dad tonight.......so I thought I'd introduce you guys to him. My Dad. Being the proverbial "Daddy's Girl", I always..ALWAYS thought my dad was the most handsome man ever. Quite the looker huh? ;o)



He always had a smile on his face...and was so full of piss and vinegar, as some would say. Anyone that knows ME....and appreciates my warped and witty sense of humor should know that I got that entirely from this man.

And even during his trials with this horrible disease we call cancer....he was still so trying to be optimistic....and still with a smile. The picture above was taken several days after he had his esophagus removed. Still the smile............this is my dad with Tania...his wife of 17 years...his soul mate (not my mother). Truly they were soulmates. I just love her to pieces. So this was taken in 2004....when the battle began.

And here's my wonderful, handsome, horribly-missed dad just a week or two before he left us. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do without him here. You would not know from this picture that he was just 62....that this was just 3 years after he was diagnosed. The disease was devastating and he fought the hard fight...for 3 years. Oh how I wish he never had to endure the battle.....but I thank God that he's at peace and not having to fight it anymore. I love you Dad.

Another Saturday Night...and I Ain't Got Nobody...

okay..that's not true! LOL Were you singing with me? LOL Hubby and Jake are off fishing and camping for the night...and *I* have had the entire house to myself (well, except for the two boys (dogs)) all afternoon and night! YAY! :o)

So WHAT did I do with myself, you ask?
Well....I popped open a cold one
(as seen in the photo) and got busy! I got all the bullseye blocks cut apart, all the while jammin' out to Third Day. That darn WIRE cd is so awesome and completely rockable!

But back to quilting! I did get all the blocks..all NINETY SIX BLOCKS cut apart in to 1/4s. Then I made the mistake of stopping to admire my progress and take a break. UGH! Breaks are NOT good sometimes! And today was one of those times! I got completely sidetracked. Ended up mowing the front yard, doing some laundry, catching up on a TON of blog reading ...

have I ever mentioned I'm completely addicted to several blogs and HAVE to read them daily? It's true. So true! So yeah...and then I got sucked in to CNN with the horrible ending to the pregnant mom in Canton, OH saga.....and finally tore myself away from the TV.

After enjoying a wonderful dinner of spaghetti with a lovely topping of lemon juice, lemon zest, and red pepper flakes, the dishes are done and here I sit again in the living room! With this lap top in my lap. I'm thinking of picking up a needle...but not sure if it will be of the knitting variety...or the sampler stitching variety! I think sampler tonight....it's been a long time!

So in case you were wondering..the blocks still
look like this........................

There's ALWAYS tomorrow.....
(are you singing again?)

Almost the weekend again!!!

*WHEW*!!! Almost made it through another week...it's almost the weekend! It's been a crazy and busy week in commercial insurance. Fun times? I think NOT!!! I can't wait for the weekend again! :o)

Here's some more pics of my wool roving projects from last weekend! This is my leftover wool roving "egg"



Lovely don't you think? ha! A little plain and fuzzy perhaps.......but then I sliced it in half and sliced a little bit off each end and this is what I found.....These are the "bottoms" of the pincushions...........

And THEEEEEEEEEEEEESE are the OTHER sides!

Do you not love them!?? I just was THRILLED with all that glorious saturated RED RED RED and the other funky colors. But was THRILLED with the RED!!! I once purchased a similar style pincushion at a quilt show a few years ago....it was okay....but rather plain in color....so these are so much more up my alley!!! And the best part....no more wool roving! This and the felted wool balls used up ALL of it!!! Now, granted, I may be so inclined to purchase some more to make MORE pincushions and balls, but it's one of those things that I really don't want piling up in the sewing room! I have enough in there already! So last weekend with the wool roving was a success!

Upcoming weekend plans include cutting apart the Bullseye quilt blocks and starting to sew them back together again.....and of course the standard house cleaning, errand-running, and hopefully I'll also squeeze in some knitting...or maybe some crocheting...I have a cool pattern for felted slippers and they're crocheted instead of knitted....but you can't tell once they're quilted anyway! So I may start on those as well. We'll see!

Okay---the eyes are saying time to drift off to dream.....in TECHNOCOLOR no less...with lots of RED!!!! :o) Sweet dreams!

And WALAAH!

The felted wool balls are done! Notice Emmitt....ever inquisitive....checking them out. He's obviously admiring the funky colorations and the way all of the yummy dyed wool roving melded into fabulous color combos!

You'll note in the picture above.....the little guy took an immediate liking to the smallest of the bunch...the runt of the litter, if you will.....a lovely red and eggplant combination. Now, I thought I'd be a good momma and play fetch with Emmitt and his favorite wool ball. He loved retrieving and bringing it back....retrieve...drop...run....retrieve....drop....run...etc. When we were finished, I put his fav' ball up on the table by my chair. You'll notice in the next photo...the photo of the lovely balls all nesting in their new home inside a pottery bowl....Emmitt's fav' is missing. That's because when I turned my back to go downstairs, he snatched it off the table and ripped into it! So....no more lovely red and eggplant ball for Emmitt or for the pottery bowl! :o)

Stay tuned....I've taken all the leftover dyed wool roving and made one big huge ball that I'm going to slice in two to make a couple pincushions...if it remains a size large enough to cut in two! I'll post pics when it's done. Then my wool roving felted ball days are behind me and I can move on with no leftovers in the quilt room! YAY! Happy Saturday!

TGIF!

Wow! Now THAT's an original line huh? :o) Give me a break here....I wanted to get a post in but really have nothing new and wonderful to say! LOL Actually---I suppose I kind of do! I'm working on making some felted wool balls right now...as we speak....they're in the washer....I hope they turn out cool! I'll be posting a pic soon!

I hope everyone had a great week and that you have fabulously wonderful and creative weekend plans! The hubby just left to go fishing...I just uncorked a bottle of Shiraz and am awaiting the outcome of my first attempt at felting! Hubby doesn't understand WHY I want to make felted wool balls. I say to put in a big bowl. And he again mutters "Why?" and I say "Because just LOOK how cool all of these colors of wool are!" and he looks completely befuddled. I let him know it's okay---it's really not something he has to understand or approve of. Just another creative avenue I'm traveling down! LOL You can imagine what sort of pruned up facial expression THAT drew from him! Oh well. Have I *EVER* mentioned how completely and totally opposites hubby and I are? That's a whole OTHER post or two...or three...million.

Is anyone else out there in blogland married to their total opposite? Or maybe you USED to be married to someone that you had nothing in common with? No shared interests? If so, spill your guts. I wanna know how you either A) made it work or B) decided enough was enough! LOL You can always email me privately for that too if you'd rather not post all that here! LOLOL

Stay tuned for felted wool ball progress..............

Happy Monday! Weekend Progress Report

Happy Monday! Is there really such a thing when you're stuck in a job that's not particularly creatively fulfulling? *sigh* Probably not, but I tell myself the current paycheck helps me afford my hobbies so then it's a LITTLE easier to stomach...but I tell you what...commercial insurance just isn't all that interesting to a creative spirit such as myself! :o)

In any event, it was a great weekend! For once it didn't seem to particularly fly by!!! Saturday was a leisurely day...spent a little time on the bullseye blocks. Sunday spent MORE time on the bullseye blocks (above) and have all 96 through the first "round" and now about half are through the second "round". It wouldn't be so time consuming except you go in and trim away from the backside on each block after each circle is sewn. I think the quilts will look old and mellow...at least I hope so!

Then, last evening I finally pulled out Abigail Parish and worked a little bit on her. Not much, as you can see from my progress here. But a start is a start is a start! LOL

Tonight...I'm knitting. I *LOVE* knitting. Seriously...I'm completely infatuated with it right now. I've even been paring down the sampler stash because I just want to knit knit knit! So I've been listing some stitching stash on Ebay and have been drooling over yarns and such!

Today I got my K's Creations rug hooking frame. YAY! I can't wait to start a few rugs too! I'm seriously worried for my sampler stash, because I love wool and all things wool! LOL People that know me know I already have a nice start to my "WALL OF SAMPLERS" (say in a big booming movie-announcer voice), so I've really pared down to a select few samplers that I *MUST* stitch, and who says they have to be stitched NOW...or even this YEAR! I have plenty of time for knitting, and rug hooking, and quilting, and stitching. Oh yeah...and needlepoint. I picked up a cool Maggie & Co canvas for cheap cheap cheap. It's a Picasso style..kinda funky...I think it's cool. I'll post a pic when I get one taken of it. Of course this means I need to get fibers for the needlepoint canvas...and the needlepoint shop is right by the YARN shop! Oh glory ! LOL Thank goodness there's no needlework/cross stitch shop anywhere near here! Makes it easier to make do with the stash I have!

Man...this is a rambling post! Time to say bye! BYE! Have a great week!

Happy Saturday to everyone!! Just piddling around the house today...in and out of the sewing room...in and out of the laundry room....typical Saturday stuff! Hope everyone's enjoying their day!

p.s. Isn't Emmitt just the CUTEST?? I really love him! :o)