Happy Friday!

It's been a busy week and I didn't get a lot accomplished today, but did turn on my Bernina and  did a little quilting that turned into a ....... Pillowcase!!!  :)

 So I made about 24 HST in green and pink!  And just sewed them together lined up one after another.  Then I wanted some green between the pink and the HST's so I added a 2" piece of green on the bottom.  Then I sewed it to the 10" piece of fabric for the cuff.  I added the pink accent band and then attached everything to the body fabric.  I love it! 
I would love to figure out how to make that band go up instead of down, up towards the band vs. down towards the body. 

Here's the back.  :)  I try to make the back as neat as the front.  Comes from my Mennonite quilting teacher!

And here's the whole case.  I think it's pretty neat!  :) 

And the 6 I've made so far.  I'm going to have to start mailing these away or giving them to friends here in town!!









Went out for dinner last night with a friend and ate way too much, in fact ate so much that I was still really sluggish this morning.  Didn't feel good until about noon.  Had some fresh strawberries for breakfast/lunch and will have a salad for dinner.  Eating out is filling, perhaps I need to make a bigger effort to bring at least half my food home for lunch the next day. 

Ok, I might have time tonight to make another pillowcase, have to figure out what I want to do, it's got to be different than what I've done so far!  :)

Have a great day!  God Bless,   Anne

Busy Week....

Yesterday I sewed for about 9 hours with just small breaks to get up and move.  Unfortunately it wasn't quilting sewing!  And today I sewed for more than 6 hours.  Again, it wasn't quilting sewing.  :(

We had a glorious sunset tonight, so I ran out and tried to get pictures, but it wasn't nearly as pretty by the time I got outside, but I have pictures!  Enjoy!  :)

You know, I'm thrilled that the Mexican Bird of Paradise come up pretty much on their own and come back year after year and spread their own seeds!   I love flowers, but one thing I don't really enjoy is gardening.  It's dirty and buggy and sweaty and I'd rather be doing laundry or dishes or something else...  But I'd also love to have some container tomato plants, maybe next year.  ... hehehehe

It was a beautiful day today, but within the next week it's going to be in the 90's pretty much every day.  I KNOW we need rain, but I'm hoping that the Monsoons are late this year, I'm just not looking forward to the humidity.   Right now it's nice, so I'm going to enjoy my deck before it's unbearable!  :)

Have a great Wednesday y'all.  God Bless,  Anne

I've just got to share!!

I'm sure y'all are sick of my pillowcases, but I made 2 more!!  I love these things.  Something tells me my Granddaughters are going to have lots of cool pillowcases and my friends too!!  :)

I like this one.  I've had that print fabric for a very long time and never could figure out what to use it on!  So here it is, a pillowcase!

 The yellow band isn't quite perfect, but hey, once I use it I'll never notice!  :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this fabric!  I've been hoarding it for a long time, more than 5 years I guess.  I have quite a bit more of it so will put the rest of it up for a quilt.  

I made the accent band 1.5" instead of 2" for variety!  :) 

My 5 creations!  :)
You know, why buy expensive patterned sheets, solids with home made pillowcases will make for a very attractive bed!
Actually I have a few sets of plain colors, and these will look fabulous! 
I've already put out the fabric for the next 3 pillowcases. 
And I found a pattern that uses fat quarters!  Should be fun.  Actually I've found a lot of different patterns, and I'm going to make at least one from each pattern.  :)   A pillowcase can be used as wrapping for a gift too, how much fun would that be?  :) I just noticed that I made the cuff on that last one a bit wider too! I really enjoy making these, it's so quick!  The most time consuming part if picking out the fabric.  :)

Alrighty then, gotta get some beauty sleep, I have a ton of stuff to sew tomorrow!  Have a wonderful week and God Bless. Anne

I'm having fun!

I have had fun today.  I've made 2 more pillow cases.  I'm getting a bit faster at it, and more used to measuring. 
Ok, pictures!!

  

See, this is the second pillowcase I made.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE bright colors.  I've had this fabric for a while now and just never found a good use for it.  Well, now I have!  

See that black band, I figured out how to put that little embellishment strip on it! 
I love this one, wish I had enough material to make a second one just like it, but I don't.  But that's ok, since it's only me and the dogs sleeping on my pillows!

This is just so cool that it kind of just blows my mind a teensy bit!  align, roll, pin and sew!

And here's my 3rd one!  I had just exactly enough of this fabric left after making a swoon block out of it!
I love it!  A little less bright, but I do like it!

Fun!!

All three of them!

Look how skinny the first one is!  I did use some "less expensive" fabric on that one, hum... me thinks it shows!!!

And just because they are so pretty!  The annual blooming of the Mexican Bird of Paradise bushes.

 A little closer up. 
I was outside with Rudy a bit ago, and heard a strange noise that I had to stop and think about.  Then it dawned on me that it was bees buzzing!  There were TONS of bees darting in and out of these blooms. They draw not only bees, but I'll see some humming birds here soon too.  In fact, it's time to get out my hummer feeder and get it filled!


That's pretty much it for today!  Have a great Sunday, God Bless,   Anne

Another first!

YES, I made a pillow case today!  hehehehe   Again, I know, it's an easy thing that everyone does and blah blah blah.  :)  BUT I have never made one before.  I was bored  (goodness knows, I have no reason to be bored, I have so much I could be doing, but it's not creative!)  so I Googled "pillowcase tutorial" and got a ton of hits.  the VERY FIRST one I clicked on was  HERE   and so I got the PDF file and read it and a lightbulb went on and SHOCK, I understood it!  heheheheheh
So I made a pillowcase!

 I didn't want to use some of my more expensive fabric and screw it up.  I hate to waste fabric!
So I picked a pinkish maroon fabric that is pretty good, and a patterned fabric that I've had around for years.  I have no idea where this paisley fabric came from, but it might be as old as my kids! 

I did the "roll up" or "burrito" method of putting the cuff on the large piece of fabric.  This leaves no seams visible to the eye between the cuff and the body of the pillowcase.  Pretty nifty if you ask me, but then I guess no one has asked me!  :)

See, cuff on the fabric and no seam on either side! 
I love this!  HOW COOL.  :)

Yes, I tend to get a little excited sometimes!

 Didn't take a picture, but I did french seams, so there's no edges of fabric anywhere on my pillowcase.  :) 
I've done french seams before, back when I made clothing, but it's been a very long time, but it came back to me easy peasy!  :)

And here's my finished pillowcase. 
Do y'all have any clue how much fabric I've got?  A TON of fabric.  I see it now, I'll have 10 pillowcases for every set of sheets I own.

Actually, this probably sounds dumb, but I think I have most of the pillowcases for all the sheets I've had over the years and all the ones from the sheets my kids had when they were young!  When sheets would die, the pillowcases usually were just fine.  So I kept them.  How many times did we need pillowcases that didn't match sheets?  Camping, retreats, overnights for the kids, a pillow for the couch, etc. and so forth.  So I really do have a ton of pillowcases, but these are prettier than most of the ones I have!


Ok, must make more pillowcases....  :)   If you are on my Christmas list, guess what you are getting?  *grin*
And for the grandkids and yikes, I can make Halloween cases and Christmas cases and oh, this boggles the mind!

Have a great day!  God Bless!!   Anne

I made a tote!

I know, it's silly to get this excited over a tote, but I made one!  When I was in high school, I made all my own clothes, I even made a floor length wool winter coat (buttons only!!)  yet the thought of making a purse/bag/tote scared the heck out of me.

So Glen  of Quilts and Dogs, offered to walk me through a tote tonight.  What a gal! 

Ok, this was so much fun, and so funny all at the same time!  She ended up sending me 36 email messages and 5 attachments.  I sent her 33 email messages and 3 pictures.  We were burning up the internet tonight!

 Then she was telling me that my mail was bouncing, so I was at my domain and in the server mailbox and looking for bounced emails or emails that were stuck in the email system and nothing, nada, not even one! 
So she sent me detailed emails.

And then all of a sudden it started clicking!  YIPEE!  You know, I swear I had an almost perfect GPA in college, yet it seemed to take so long for it to click, but I'm sure glad it did!  hehehehehe

 This is the fabric I picked.  It's by Moda and probably 5 years old!

Making the corners for the box bottom!

more corners!

TADA!  My tote.

Inside out, it's reversible!  Now how cool is that?  hehehehe

Inside out with the outside in.  :)

With the outside out and the inside in! 


Thank you so much Glen, I had a blast, even with the email glitches! 

Glen has the patience of a saint, I asked some pretty stupid questions tonight!!

Hum.... I see more totes in my future!  And in my friends futures too.  I have a lot of fabric that I can make totes from! 

It's Friday night and I'm tired.

I've been up since waaaay too early.  But hey, sometimes Sug just wants me to wake up!  Then of course she goes back to sleep.  ARGH!!

Phone starts ringing early, so good thing I'm up. 
Ran to town, to the bank and then to get a hair cut.  It's been warm here, over 90 quite a few days already, so my hair has gotten to shoulder length and of course, I'm putting it up on the back of my head to get it off my neck.  Hate long hair in the summer!  So I went to see my fantabulous barber Sandy and she washed my hair (doesn't that feel wonderful??) and then cut a bunch of it off.  It feels sooooo much better. 
I've never had "good" hair.  It's fine and it's fly away and it's straight as an arrow, and I've had more bad haircuts in my life that I can even count or remember!  I get a wonderful haircut every time I go see my friend Sandy, she's just got the touch with my hair.  Finally, but heck, I had to be an old lady before finding someone who could cut my hair!!!  :)

Then I went to our little store and got some fresh fruit, strawberries and some honeydew melon and some fresh greens and yummy! 
Had refried beans for lunch, I LOVE refried  beans!  Just out of the can, heated up with some cheese melted on top.  And of course, some hot taco sauce on them.  Yummy!
Had fruit for dinner.

We've had a couple of really wonderfully cool (in low 80's) days here.  But the dust blowing around and the wind, though the wind could have been much worse.  But I love these nice days. 

And just spent a couple of hours trying to make my computer behave.  Hate when the computer decides to be cantankerous! 

So, I'm going to go and re-read the instructions my friend Glen sent me on how to make a tote!   She thinks I'm funny because I'm terrified to make a purse/bag/tote!!  And I am.  Never mind I made a floor length wool coat in high school, purses and totes scare me half to death! 

Have a great weekend everyone!  God Bless.  Anne

Yes, I'm still alive!

Would someone please tell me where April has gone?  It's over in a week, and I have no clue where it went.
I got my next piece in the Cotton Robin I'm doing, and it reminded me that I FORGOT ALL ABOUT THE one I have here to put on another border!  ARGH!  I cannot believe that I didn't get this done 2 or 3 weeks ago. 
Anyhow, I spent most of the afternoon putting my borders together and then sewing them on.  I like them, they are pretty cool looking.  Of course, I can't show them until everyone has received their finished quilts. 
I have never in my life pieced a border before, but I have now, 2 of them!  And it's not all that hard, but I did
do a little bit of praying when I put this one together! 
I was trying to see if I could introduce some more color into this little quilt, it's very cool, but there's not a lot of color in it.  And I'm usually all about color.  :)
It's supposed to go out by the 25th, so I may take one more day to look at it and ponder it and see if I come up with any ideas to put some more color in it!

And now I have a very cool quilt that I must sandwich up and back and quilt.  It's on the smallish side, and that's a very good thing for me!  I'll sandwich it and then put it up and look at it for a week or so, so much fun! 

Life here is good.  The weather is warm now and that's just wonderful.  A week ago it was COLD again, but that only lasted for a day or three.  :) 
Dogs are doing well.  Rudy is a very good boy.  He's pretty smart too.  He will 'tinkle'  on command and 'make a doodle' on command for me now.  Magick did that for me, must be a poodle thing!  The greyhounds just look at me like I've lost my mind and walk away and ignore me.. and yes, I did try to teach them to go on command, but no go.  :)  I have a table next to my front door.  It's full of socks and undies!  Rudy always grabs something out of my laundry room when he goes out!  So there's a stack on that table because I take it away from him there.  Silly little boy.  Sug is doing a lot of playing with Rudy and she's even seeming to come out of her shell a little more now that Lulu's gone.  I love her dearly and hope she stays healthy for another year or so.  My Cali was 15 when she left, so that would be about 2 more years for Sugar.  :)

Ok, gotta fix something to eat and then it will be just about time for last turnout and sleep!!  Yay!! 

Have a great week and God Bless.  Anne

It's a Friday!

Lulu came home today.  A friend picked her ashes up at the vet's and brought them to me.
She fit into her beautiful urn without a problem. I always feel so much better when they come home.


Started the day off without water.  The guy down the street was sure it was a dry well. (we have a huge well that about 10 of us share) I guess an Eeyore thing with him.  Actually it all turned out ok and all is good.  :)
We could probably use another tank (or whatever on earth they are called) but for the time being, it's all good.

First came Phantom, then came Cali and thirdly came Lynch
And heeeeere's  Lynch

 

Lynch is a BIG boy with legs to the moon.  He was a FAST racer.   Every spring and fall at the National Greyhound Association in Kansas (I believe) they have what's called spring and fall nationals.  Folks bring their hounds and they have some racing that doesn't count, it just showcases their talents or lack there of.

My sweet boy was FAST FAST FAST!  And he sold for something like $23,000.  That is a LOT of money.  The person who bought him took him to a track in West Virginia.  The best track in the US.  And Lynch didn't break maiden, he wasn't racing very fast for some reason.  Ok, from there he want to a track called Dairyland Greyhound Park to race.  There he was in a night time race and instead of turning a corner, the ran straight into the far rail.   He was hurt, and put back together and then after some down time he went to Geneva Lakes Greyhounds Park.  There at Geneva Lakes his trainer, Lynn, thought that there was something wrong, thought maybe he had a detached retina due to the accident. So they sent him to the best canine eye vet there was.  And welll... not good news.  He didn't have a detached retina.  He had PRA, progressive retinal atrophy. And he was going blind, and quickly.  Within about 2 weeks, he was neutered, got all his shots and got his teeth cleaned and was retired in my house!  And what a boy he was!
Handsome and once he got used to us, he was very frisky!  He eventually was about 85 or 90 pounds of sweet wonderful boy.  You know the old joke:  Blind humans have seeing eye dogs, what do blind dogs have, seeing eye humans?  YES, emphatically YES they do.  I was his eyes.
When he went outside in the mornings, he went to the middle of the yard and he'd hold his head up and sniff and sniff and sniff, and he'd turn and sniff and turn and sniff... then he'd put his nose to the ground to make sure no unknown or unwanted creatures were in HIS yard during the night.  In the house you would never have guessed that he was blind!

He was blind by age 3. He also had pannus, cataracts and glaucoma.  This boy didn't have a chance with his eyes.  I have wondered if I should have had his eyes removed when he was young, it would have been 

easier, but then who knew.  But I miss him a lot, he was a very gentle soul and a wonderful 

boy.  He was only 11 when his back end gave out and he left me. 

Ok, gotta get some sleep.  :)  God Bless, Anne

Not a good day... bummer...

I was supposed to go out for a 'girls day out' with a friend.  She and I usually go out in the fall since we both have fall birthdays.  Well, last fall her son was very ill and they had lots of problems with him and we never got to go out, we tried and she kept having to cancel.  And I was fine with that.  Her son is disabled and bed fast and is the most delightful happy soul you've ever met.  I just can't say enough good things about him and his parents.  Great folks.  Anyhow, she was supposed to pick me up about 11 this morning.  About 20 after 10 she called and I couldn't understand a word she was saying for the first two sentences until she calmed down a bit... finally realized she was crying.  Her old horse was down, she'd been off her feed for a day or two and now she was down.  And they needed to find a vet quickly.  I was able to call another friend with a horse and got his name and called around and got his number and he was able to come to their house to check out their horse.  And unfortunately the mare was put down as she was very old and very sick.  My heart is hurting for my friend.  I KNOW how much she loved this horse and I know how sad she is right now.  They have another horse who is about the same age and thankfully she's doing ok, but as we all know, these things can change in a heartbeat.  We'll try again next week or the next week. 

Miss Lulu's ashes are at the vet's office and I need to get to Benson to pick them up.
I was looking through files on my computer today and found some wonderful pictures of my greyhounds and my Magick the Wonder Poodle.  (not sure why I call him that, but I have since he was a little soul)

 

 We'll start with Phantom.  He was my first Greyhound.  The above picture is so funny.  I 

was vacuuming and so I stacked the beds up in the butler's pantry while I vac'd the family
room and the kitchen and the hallway.  Phantom took advantage of all those soft beds
stacked up and made himself right at home!  These greyhounds are all about comfort!

 See that black dog in the lead in the #1 racing silk?  That's my Phantom.  He raced
until he was 4.  He retired when he broke his right rear hock. (a fairly common racing
injury) But you know, he finished that last race on 3 legs.  Tenacity at it's finest!

 See the big dog on the little dog bed?  Yup, they love comfort, and all comfy beds
are for the greyhounds, even when their butts hang off the beds!

 A picture of Phantom here in Az.  Just being comfy.  Isn't he gorgeous?
Most black greyhounds go grey very early.  Phantom wasn't one of them!
He had very few white hairs on him when he died at age 12.  I miss him.

 And here above is Phantom modeling a pink princess collar.  Doesn't that look say
"Mom, I'm not a girl and I don't want to wear a pink collar, please get it off!?"  He
looks embarrassed to me!

 After Phantom came Cali. She was a smiler! Cali lost her happy home due to divorce. 
She was being crated 23 hours a day.  She came into my home like a diva and took over and became the queen very quickly! She was the play police and would even put the toys away.  Gee I miss her! 
I had to teach her to do steps.  I learned that you don't wrap the leash around your hand when teaching a dog steps.  She jumped and pulled me ass over teakettle down about 8 steps and I landed on my but (after doing a complete flip!) on the cement pad at the bottom  of the steps.  She landed in the grass.  Many greyhounds tend to go too fast and when their feet can't keep up with the steps they jump.  And I'm lucky I didn't break something.  I was quite sore the next day!

 She was such a pretty girl, and there was no doubt when looking at her that she was a girl!

I have always called this picture "Driving Miss Cali" I loved

the way she put her butt on the seat and sat like a lady!  She'd gone to a meet and

greet with me and we were heading home.  This was right after I got my Excursion.

I do miss her so much!

Enough for one day!  Tomorrow will be Lynch and Frasier.  :) 

Have a good Thursday and God Bless.    Anne

WINDY, it must be spring!

It is VERY VERY windy outside today.  I really wouldn't want to be on the road, esp. in my big SUV.  From what I've seen, there have been some accidents on I-10 up towards Tucson due to the wind and the dust storm. 
And yup, there is a dust storm.  Rudy and I went out, he had to potty and I wanted to get some pictures.  He was loving chasing his toy, it was going to the ends of the yard with this wind, with very little effort on me throwing!  But we got full of dirt and really couldn't stay out long.  Sugar looked out and dug her heels in and looked at me like I was CRAZY if I expected the queen to take her royal self out into that wind and dirt!

 

That up above and down below is the pasture behind me.  And it's mostly just a vision of dust!

 I can't believe that plastic bag is hanging on that barbed wire fence. 
It was almost standing on it's head during a wind gust!  This wind is fierce!

And I was surprised, Mr. Rudy was fearless!
He just wanted chase his toy when I'd throw it and bring it back to me

and start all over again.  We both are full of dirt!  ICKY!

What a day!  But I've been busy and yet to turn on a sewing machine in the house!  Hope you are having a great day.  God Bless, Anne

How things change!

Since my precious Lulu is gone, things have changed around here.... a lot!
Rudy and Sugar get along very well.  Sug loves him and always gives him a good sniff when he comes in from outside.
And he, of course, is always happy to sniff her!
If I take Rudy out and Sug knows we are outside, she stands in the house and howls.  No, she doesn't want to come out, she wants us to come in.  Have I mentioned that she has SEVERE separation anxiety?
And if y'all remember when I got Rudy, it was because both of the greyhounds had separation anxiety and couldn't live as an only dog.  BOY and I glad I have Rudy here!  It has made all the difference in the world for Sugar.  He allows her to function.  And she loves him apparently and plays with him and snuggles with him if she can!
When I take Rudy out for his "mid" walks... "mid morning,"  "mid afternoon," and "mid evening" tinkles, we play. I throw the stuffie and he runs after it and brings it back in.  He will do this over and over until he's exhausted.   And of course, you've heard that saying... "A tired puppy is a happy puppy."  And yes, my goal is to wear his little behind off.  :) 
The treats I've been giving Rudy have been re-called, so the company that makes them is refunding my money for them, and that makes me happy.  Actually the ones I have been giving Rudy are not the ones that have antibiotics in them but they are still refunding money.  I gave Rudy the duck ones and it's the chicken ones that are "contaminated."  So I'm guessing we'll either get a check or one of those cards with the refund on it.   I swear by those treats though, Rudy would do most anything for a little taste of that dehydrated duck jerky! For now we are using some treats we get from the dollar store.  Rudy likes them and Sugar is wild about them.

 Sugar in Ohio.  She loves toys and here she's decided that the toy box
makes a wonderful and cushy bed!  You can see the plastic handle
right at the lower edge of the pic and center.  Silly girl!

 Sugar coming up the ramp to my deck!  Look how much her color
has faded and how white her muzzle is.  She's such a great gal!

My baby boy!  Thankfully Rudy is here and keeps Sugar grounded!

A friend and I went to Willcox tonight to get Dairy Queen.  We both got a Hawaiian Blizzard and boy oh boy was that thing good!  And it was a large too.  Yummy.

Ok, that's it, heading to bed, I'm practically falling asleep at the key board! Night, and God Bless,  Anne