Just a quick post

I have been ordering Wool from Margie of Hungry Hook Primitives and got my last batch today.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciated Margie’s diligence in helping me get just the right colors I was needing.  She over dyed many pieces especially the Teal ones to get it just right. THANK YOU MARGIE!

The top bundle is ‘Jadeite’ that she has been holding for me for quite some time until I could get the Teals (bottom 3 bundles)

Love these Golds…especially the Herringbone on the bottom

I needed some Army Green – she did a great job getting this bunch right – it is darker than it is showing up

Today I finished up my Candle Huggers and will ship some off to Patti tomorrow and pack the rest away for my show – that’s a start anyway…then it’s on to sewing a wholesale order and then back to my own sewing for the show.
Here’s Two new ones I designed…I keep them simple because the price is low and even if some look real simple there’s lots of stitching for a $12.00 hugger.

 

Tomorrow we have a funeral to go to for the daughter of a former neighbor of ours when we lived in Janesville.
She is only 47 (same age as our oldest son). She battled Cancer for Two years.
Our children grew up together until we moved away – Even though we had all boys and they had all girls they still played together.
It was the kind of neighborhood where you all were the same…young families, just built our homes and enjoyed each other’s company.
Most weekends we were all together as families at one or the others house – there were 5 of us families that were the closest.
So we will go say our last goodbye to Judy.

I have to giggle when I see this picture…this is how great they all got along – this was in 1977.
They were all over at the Wills house and came knocking on our door and this is what they had been doing … dress up!!!!  (not sure where our oldest son was but I’m pretty sure he would not have put on a dress)
The quality of the photos isn’t very good – sorry…

(From left)  Janel Will, our sons Brett and Dan and Judy Will who passed.

Update on Brett…he came home yesterday and went to bed and slept for 5 hours, woke up for dinner and slept for 5 more hours.
We took up a chair for him to sit in for in the family room – their furniture is very overstuffed and sits deep so he would not be able to get in/out of it.
We have a few extra chairs that were in the upstairs bedrooms so one of them would work out great…sits straight and regular height from the floor.
They had their choice of 3 and took the blue one.

 

Not sure how I came across this link but someone on Pinterest someone has a board for ‘blogs’. Go check it out…there are some on there I’ve never heard of and they are wonderful. 
http://pinterest.com/txsue/blogs-to-follow/

Thanks for visiting and have a great week/weekend.

Karen

Book Into A Play, Old Barn, Customers Penny Rug, My Son

Goodness I just don’t know about blogger…I started a post and GONE!    Frustration!!!

Have you ever seen the cover of a book and just knew you had to have the book…happened to me.
I am on Wanda Brunstetters mailing list for her website and a few weeks ago she announced her new book “The Half Stitched Amish Quilting Club”.  So I bought the book on Amazon for my Kindle…It’s hard to put down…some of it’s fun/funny and some of it’s a life lesson – all around good reading.

ANYWAY….The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club is being made into a musical play.
It will open August 24, 2012 at the Blue Gate Theater in Shipshewana, Indiana, and will go through December 8, 2012.
You can purchase advanced tickets by clicking here.

You can check it all out on her site:   http://www.amishquiltingclub.com/28

A bit of a synopsis of the book:
”Amish widow Emma Yoder's first quilt class brings the most unlikely people together. there's Star, a young woman yearning for stability; Pan and Stuart Johnston, a struggling couple at odds in their marriage; Paul Ramirez, a young widower hoping to find solace in finishing a quilt; Jan Sweet, a rough and tough biker doing some creative community service; and Ruby Lee Williams, a preacher's wife looking for relaxation when parish problems mount. But as these beginning quilters learn to transform scraps of material into beauty; their fragmented lives begin to take new shape with the helping hands of each other and the healing hand of God.
Join the club of unlikely quilters who show up for Amish widow Emma Yoder's quilting classes. A troubled young woman, a struggling couple, a widower, a rough and tough biker, and a preacher's wife make up the mismatched lot. But as their problems begin to bind them together like the scraps of fabric stitched together in a quilt, they learn to open up and lend a helping hand. Is this what God had in mind to heal hurting hearts and create beauty from fragments? “

You can also sign up to win this prize package!
http://www.amishquiltingclub.com/_modules/form.php?id=25
And here’s what you could win:

• Transportation for two to Shipshewana, IN (see contest rules and regulations)
• Beautiful two-night accommodations at the Farmstead Inn
• A gift basket in his or her hotel room upon arrival
• A delicious family style meal for two at the famous Blue Gate Restaurant
• Tickets to the premiere of Half-Stitched the Musical (based on book)
• Lunch with New York Times bestselling author Wanda E. Brunstetter
• A carriage ride for two into the Shipshewana countryside
• The winner will arrive on August 24, 2012 and will leave on August 26
• The winning name will be drawn on June 29, 2012

So on to other things…it’s raining here – a great day to stay in and sew on my work.
Need to send some Candle Huggers out to Patti for a show she wants to take them to the middle of May.

Our youngest son Brett had back surgery on Monday – I sure don’t know what is happening to my boys – their backs/necks are giving out on them.  What did I feed those kids!!!
He had the L 4 and 5 discs fused. The discs were completely blown out and the space between them was huge so the bone grafts/fusion was large.  I pray for him for a fast and complete recovery although I don’t believe he will be able to go back to the job he had.  He operates a large Caterpillar and the bouncing will undo everything the Dr. fixed.
We were up there all day of the surgery on Monday and then had to leave before he got back into his room…I had my 2nd shot in my lumbar in the SI joint so we had to come here to the hospital to the pain clinic.
But we went up last night and our middle son Dan came along and he took a picture of Brett with his phone…it’s kind of dark though.

Poor Brett looks so frazzled.  Doug went and got him a malt before we left – one his favorite things.
He comes home today but I’m so surprised they didn’t put a waist brace on him…they stress strongly not to twist, reach or bend…can you imagine how difficult that is to get in and out of bed and even a chair???  My heart goes out to him.

We have been going back and forth to Janesville to visit my aunt who is very ill and always pass this really old and dilapidated farm/house.  It dates back to the late 1800’s and has been a landmark we always love to see coming into Janesville.  It will be no more…they are ready to burn it all down.  For years I’ve been going to take pictures of this place, mainly for the corn crib…it’s unique and stands so proudly…a part of history will be no more.  Now some of you may look at this and say ‘good riddance’ – for me part of our home town will be gone.  We’ll miss seeing this every time we get to this bend in the highway…it has just ALWAYS BEEN THERE.
If you click on the picture you can see the old vines that once grew on the side of the corn crib…they are even dead.

Sad to see it go!!!!

Needless to say I have lots of work ahead of me sewing Candle Huggers…I decided to do an assembly line and not just a few at a time.  In the end I think I counted 48 of these buggers.
I didn’t feel like working upstairs in the craft room so I set it up in the dining room – made it a bit more fun than being stuck up there all day long.  Kind of had to move the house around a bit to accommodate me – brought in a lamp….a different chair.  Oh…I did not take these pictures. (actually, I was getting the different chair when he snapped the pictures – think it should have been him carrying the chair, ya think!!!)
I think Doug has finally gotten the idea to take pictures now – he thought I needed Blog Fodder!  He trains well don’t you think!!!

Although I did take this picture…as usual Lola has to be where I am – so she curled up on the end of my workspace.

I had a special order from a lady in Canada for a 33 inch Penny Rug with horses…she chose the colors after I sent her some horse designs she chose what she wanted…I am not one for horses in my house but I think it turned out quite nice.  Hope she loves it.

The horse was just a sillouette but after laying it on I thought it looked a bit ‘flat’ so I added the black touches…I do think it gave it for life.

I see my following is getting close to 1000 – do you think I should have a giveaway if and when I reach that number????
May take awhile but I’ll start thinking.

Thank you all so much for all your support for as long as I’ve had my blog you have been wonderful, fun and faithful blog friends.

Blessings to all.

Karen

Tuesday’s Display Chain, photos

I’m a day late (well, that’s not unusual now is it?)
Misi over at http://1890gablehousemusings.blogspot.com/ host’s a Tuesday Display Chain and this weeks theme is:  “A Crafting Secret Exposed”

My contribution this week is using Brown Paste Shoe Polish.
I had some faux pumpkins I purchased at JoAnn’s a few years ago and they were extremely yellow orange and bright so this past Fall I got out my trusty wax shoe polish and gave them a good rub down.

The two of them left not done, right finished

All finished and displayed

I hope you learned something new from this display chain this week…I know I have after reading everyone else’s tips.

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On Sunday we received our CD from church of our granddaughters confirmation from a couple weeks ago…goodness the photographer took some fun shots…he just kept clicking and although lots of them are silly we enjoyed looking at them.

 

No, I wasn’t smelling her flower – the photographer said something funny to Emily and she cracked up and it was infectious
 

This is the picture that will be going in the church directory…we have finally joined a church we like!!!!

Brett’s family

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I have a difficult time growing flowers because of the neighbors Black Walnut trees (there is something in them that kills many, many plants and food bearing plants).
So last year I bought some Marsh Marigolds – said they can grow almost anywhere especially in shade which is all we have.  They were very tiny last year but this past month they exploded…I wasn’t sure about the growth but they spread and that’s perfectly fine because we can’t seem to grown much else.  I love yellow and these have a very delicate flower

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Last Saturday we stopped at a consignment place in town here and she had some ‘new’ items for sale – one being this Americana table square.  I like the quality of it and it’s even quilted. Not sure where it’s going to find a home at but probably in the screen room.

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Please check out Lori at http://farmhousenotforgotten.blogspot.com/ and read about how some people are pirating our designs and patterns…she along with some others are trying to put a stop to this…it’s just not fair to those of us that are trying to make an honest living from our craft.
If you would care to grab this button and put it on your blog and websites it would be so helpful. 

 
Thanks for visiting and till next time be happy and stay safe

Karen

 

Just a fun day!

Not a lot going on in my world right now…rather quiet and that’s perfectly okay.
Sometimes I have so much going on it overwhelms me.

I have been taking time to finish up my existing orders and then it’s designing time.  Yeah….can’t wait to have the time to create.

Oh I have to tell you – I was asked by Patti Leitzel  from Porch Sitting Time and Brickhouse Crafts Primitives in Millersburg, PA to carry my products.
She received a large box of them on Thursday and replied back that she loved them…THANK YOU PATTI…good luck selling.

Thursday was a play day here…we had our youngest grandson Aidan and Emily and Joe…it was one loud and busy day to put it mildly…Aidan did nothing but run, jump, play and laugh – but that is GOOD…never seen that little guy cry!
So I will leave you with just a few photos…nothing else to report on.

Naturally at almost 4 years old they have to be their own person…remember last weeks post??  So he walks in with his Camo coat and sunglasses

Before they went outside to play they did some ‘food prep’ play – Aidan was the grill master. Notice the gloves?  This is another one of his ‘THINGS’ of late.  He wears his brown gloves whenever he can (he’s such a silly fun boy)
The two rooms were a total mess but at least they were playing…not whining about what to do.

 
We had lunch and then went outside for some fresh air and bike and scooter riding.

 
 
 

 
 
 
So there was our Thursday…full of fun and laughs the whole day.
Aidan got a hold of my camera and took lots of pictures…this one is a fun one – Emily and I decided to do some cheesy smiles for him…he’s always say ‘say cheese’ even if he’s getting his picture taken.
Emily and I were going to plan a luncheon for her 8th grade graduation that I’m giving her and a few of her friends that are graduating with her in June…but there was just no quiet time available.  Next time…then I’ll share with you what we came up with. 

He got one of Lola but I think he had the zoom on so you can see it’s very blurry

And then the ‘hmmmm’ shot of gram – with his finger over the lens – which was most of the time.

And his play grill…he sure does make me giggle
 

Has anyone found a good on-line photo program?  Picnik is not going to be anymore after the end of April and I will miss it so much for the collage feature it has – especially for our blog headers.

Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll be seeing you around blog-land
KAREN