Today's post

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I've been busy as a bee

Slacker, that's what I am when it comes to blogging. But on the other hand, I've really been busy.

I made myself a back pack.  When we fly one particular airline, we only take a back pack. Yep, we are cheap and the back pack is free. So I wanted one with out all those compartments. 

I found the two fabrics at Hobby Lobby. I used Bosal In-R-Foam plus double sided fusible stabilizer. You iron the fabric to both side and then I quilted it. This was probably the funnest part of making the bag.

I used an imitation suede on the back of the straps (hobby lobby too). This keeps the straps from sliding off your shoulders.

It features a zip pocket all the way across the front. Two pull cord pockets on the sides. There is also a zip pocket inside.

I'd love to share the pattern with you, but it's only in my head. I just winged it. It turned out great.

I did make one major mistake.  Can you figure out what it is?

I flipped it the wrong way. So my back pack is wider than longer. But hey, whatever, it works, I just have to widen my shoulders!

This is a project I was asked to make for my great nephew. He will soon turn 5.  These are his super heroes t shirts. It is for a body pillow. It took longer to cut them up and position them, than it did to sew it. I used one of his daddy's t shirt for the cuff.

The blacksmith has been busy too, teaching the young. Ethan was so excited to get a personal lesson from the master.

Here is a quilt that we finished at St Margaret's church a couple of weeks ago. It was another fun one to quilt! Good job Judy and Elaine holding it up!

Ethan gifted me with this hand made split oak basket for the blacksmith giving him a lesson. I love it!

I finished (grandbaby #5), Logan's sock monkey quilt. I mailed it to arrive at his house, the day we arrived.

This is my donation for our blacksmith conference 2015. My friend Deanna took our program and digitized it into her computer embroidery machine. Enlarge the picture to see what a great job she did.

The colors from the bottom up, represents the color of the metal. It goes from black, red, orange, yellow and white as it heats up.

It is best seen on the back where flames are quilted.

I stitched our logo by machine.

I leave you with our newest grandson's Easter picture! Hopefully my next post will be our trip to Florida!

Grand baby #5 is here

Logan William (William is after my late father) made his arrival almost 2 weeks early. He arrived  Easter morning at sunrise. 

7 lbs. 10 ounces. 20 inches long. Everyone is doing fine. They were home 36 hours after his birth.

Easter bunny had come a day early at their house. Big brother Connor is now driving in style.

Easter at our house, included frying some delicious fried chicken. The blacksmith was a little under the weather so Jeremy took over for his Dad.

The kids did some egg hunting. 

Easter included the lamb cake. As much trouble as it is for me to make this, holy week is probably not the appropriate week to make it, if you get my drift. 

Danish twist is an Easter tradition too, here it is before the icing was on.

Easter gifts too were part of the day. We then did some facetiming with Sarah and Rusty and the boys in Florida. Boys, I am going to have to get use to BOYS.

To finish out our day, Lizzie pulled her first tooth.  She summed the day up pretty good as she exclaimed "today was a good day, Easter, a new cousin and the tooth fairy!"

Life is good.

Here's a few pictures from the big family get together on Good Friday. There were many gallons of fish fried, a gallon of frogs, hush puppies, and french fries. Always good 
carry-in food too. 

The evening was topped off with a bonfire.

Life doesn't get much better.

#16 but who's counting?

Yes it happened again, I was given this beauty.

It's a 1961 singer Rocketeer model 503.   Our friend Jim is downsizing and offered to me. It even came with all kind of accessories including this box of cams.

You can use two needles and sew with two threads for some beautiful decorative stitching.

This vintage Singer oil can was in one of the drawers.

The blacksmith gave it a well check.

It was ready to sew.

I went to see Jim the next day and took him a small thank you gift,

Deer sausage and homemade cookies!

Sew on ~ ~ ~

This is how I FELT

Perhaps you remember when my friend Pattie gave me this 1904 Singer 15K machine. 

This is how it looked when I got it.

Today it shines like new. Look at that fly wheel, I never knew you could get it back to almost new. Thanks to my friend Phil, he is the man when it comes to restoring my machines. Sadly some of the decal had been abused. This happened when a previous owner wrapped a cloth around the machine and used it as her pin cushion. Yikes!

Now compare the before and after of the case. All I did  to restore it was some denatured alcohol and lots of elbow grease. 

So to show my appreciation to Pattie, I decided to make a penny table runner for her. 

I checked out pictures on her facebook page and tried to match the color of the newly remodeled kitchen at her cozy little cabin in the woods. 

This felt work was so much fun. I went to Pinterest . . . big mistake!

I got hooked. 

In the past two weeks I have made all these needle keepers. It's a small 3 inch square book. Most of them have 4 felt pages to hold your sewing needles. I've already shipped some to Alaska and Minnesota!!  

These are $12 each and the cheapest I've found to mail them is $5.05, regardless of how many.

These are also needle keepers. They open into a circle. They are $6.00 each.

On Friday, I asked the blacksmith to make a spool holder for me. I had spools of ribbon uncurling all over my sewing table. This is what he came up with. 

Here's a close up. . . 

Did you know Easter is just 47 days away???

So that is how I FELT!!

Visiting good friends

We always have a good time when we go to Hamilton, Missouri to visit Margie and Phil. When we arrived in town a little before 2 o'clock on friday, the blacksmith dropped me off at Margie's work. After she wrapped things up for the day we took off for Missouri Star Quilt Co. We had stopped at two quilt shops on the way to find sock monkey fabric, but no luck. (Ben Franklin at Macon and Hueffmeier's Fine Pines Quilt Shop in Brookfield)

At Missouri Star Quilt Co. I was successful. We are expecting grandson #4 in April. I think he needs a sock monkey quilt. After we left Missouri Star Quilt, we might or might not have gone next door for Blue Bell ice cream . . . 

Saturday morning after a breakfast of sausage, fresh eggs, homemade cinnamon rolls, and coffee made with freshly ground beans we took off for Jamesport, an Amish community. The weather didn't cooperate but it was still fun visiting many of their businesses.

We stopped at Jamesport Harness and Supplies. I'm not a horse person, but I can still appreciate the beautiful saddles.

However the spurs fascinated me the most.  Lighting isn't the best in these businesses as there are no electric lights. All stores feature propane lights.

Margie and I posed for a picture in a beautiful Cinderella horse drawn carriage.

If we had waited until Sunday to go (although they would have been closed) we could have tried this sleigh.

One of my favorite stops was at Oak Ridge Furniture shop.  Their furniture was some of the best I've seen. Of course throwing a barn quilt in there now and then didn't hurt either. The other half of the store was fabric, books, rugs, clocks, and barn quilts in all sizes for sale.

What about this bar stool?  Unique isn't it. But it was very comfortable.

Then there was this barn quilt!!!

They had rag rugs galore and very reasonably priced. But do you think I could find 2 almost alike for my mudroom?  NO!

They had tons of beautiful fabric. My only suggestion is take a flash light, especially if it's a cloudy day. Those gas lights aren't very bright.

The blacksmith debated about buying this dictionary. In the end it came home with us. Surprisingly enough when we got home, he had received a letter from a cousin in Adorf,  Germany. There were some family history documents in German. So it will get used very quickly.

I found this 11 lb bag of dried mangoes for only $16.  My Mom will love it!

Late Saturday afternoon, the snow started coming down. This picture is taken through the kitchen window, I only wish you could get a better look at their beautiful mules!

Coco was worn out. You should have seen her walk on her hind legs,  jump through 2 hula hoops, and even give high fives for miniature marshmallows!
 

She was as sad to see us go, as we were to leave good friends!

THIS is what we drove away in . . . 7-8 inches of snow. We made the trip just fine, highway 36 was clear, however it did snow and/or rain on us the entire time home.

It's always great to get away for a few days, especially with good friends.

Life is good.