How have you all been doing this Memorial weekend?  Again we have been busy around here, my sister came out and helped me go through all my sewing stuff.  I went through all my fabric and she was so kind and folded it all, organized it all, in color, theme, and fabric type.  My sister is folding it on my new cutting counter.  I'm so excited about that feature in the room.  We ordered 3 base cabinets and put them together and we plan to use a counter top for the top.  We still have to order that.  I still have a few piles around that I have to go through yet and find a place for, and other odds and ends that also need to find a home, but all in all it's done, and I can't wait to begin to sew again.  Later when my loom is down there I will show you that, we just haven't moved it yet.  The one thing I like about the set up I have is I can move my sewing machine table out of the way and lay out my quilts on the floor to get them ready for quilting.

It's been a rainy, gloomy, cloudy weekend, and yesterday morning we lit a fire in the fire pit and sat around it before we headed to Madison to have lunch with my sister, who then took off for home from there.  Since we were there we headed to the store to get some things for the sewing room and the barn.

We had such a productive weekend and got a lot of things done.

I hope Y'All had a wonderful Memorial weekend.

Last Friday I traveled to Milwaukee Wisconsin to attend a Women of Faith event.  My cousin who has attended these events for years had invited me to go along with her.  I had such an awesome and amazing time.

I can't wait to go again.

Another awesome and amazing thing, well maybe not amazing, but it is awesome.  Is the shell lamp that I had the idea for, but Jim helped me put together, at least the electrical part of it.  I found two old jars tucked away in a box in our basement back in Illinois when we were packing up.  I decided to keep them not really knowing what I was going to do with them.  I also didn't really know what I was going to do with all the sea shells we collected when we were on Sanibel Island.  The jar is old and a bit rusty, but I don't care it has character.

I just love things that are awesome and amazing.

Don't you?

This winter I took a "no sew" applique class in town.  Yes, I'm into classes, they are fun, it gets me out, and I learn things I've not done before.  All I had to do in this class, was trace, cut, and iron, it was that easy and so much fun. 

I hung it in my hallway this winter and loved it so much, that I decided to get another one for the spring and this one I did over the weekend, while Jim was outside chopping wood and keeping the boil going on the evaporator, I was inside working on this.

First off I had to read the pattern, I hate reading instructions, but read I did.

The fun began, by tracing the pattern,

then iron and cutting came next.

Placing the pieces and more ironing, which was really the fun part, you can see it all coming to life. 

The apple tree is budding out,

and the apple blossoms are in full bloom.

I had hoped to put this one in the same frame as the winter one and just change them out every season, but this one is a bit smaller.  So I had to find a new frame, which I like better anyway.

Here's the dilemma for me.  I plan to make a summer and fall one. 

Do I keep them all up or change them each season?

What would you do?

It's done,

and 

it's finished,

and I'm so pleased with the results and just in time to still use it before the warm weather comes and I want to have a nice Spring/Summer purse.  But, after all this work I just might use it in the summer too...who knows.  This wool yarn felted very fast and I did 95% of it by hand and when my arms gave out Jim took over, then about the last 5-10 minutes I threw it in the washing machine.

Now on to finishing the next project. 

Speaking of wool, on Saturday when we came home from our breakfast outing, Jim had to shovel the driveway and sidewalk.  When he came in, he cleaned up and pulled out his wools.  I can't remember where he got the wool pants...I think he ordered them from somewhere either on-line or a catalog.  He looks like a "lumberjack" to me, all he needs is a pair of suspenders.

We got a wonderful surprise on Friday, our daughter Erin came home for the weekend.  She hitched a ride with a cousin who lives in Minnesota too, who was coming for the weekend and offered to bring Erin home.  Erin starts a new job on Friday...Yeah!!!!!

The Church clothes get changed and comics brought out waiting for Sunday dinner to be served.  It doesn't matter what age they still love those Archie comics. 

Our dog Sadie is in "heat" or "season" right now and if she comes in the house she has to wear something on her bottom.  She knows when we take out her "diaper" that she's coming in the house.  The kids are so mean...they call her "diaper girl".

Well that about sums up my weekend chit~chat.

You all have a wonderful day today.

We woke up this morning to a cold frosty world.  Just the kind of morning to think about getting some projects started.

I have so much to do this year.  I have a long list of projects that I want to do and I plan to get them all done.  We have a wedding this summer to get ready for and two new grand babies coming.

My finished neck cozy.  I haven't worn it yet as I really like the scarf I made.  I'm thinking that this will really go well with the coat I wear to Church.

I have been needing to get a calendar for my sewing room.  I'm not sure why I need a calendar in the sewing room only that I like to have one there.  But, since I have so many projects that I want to get done, I thought that having a calendar would be good to keep me on track with getting them done.  Quite a few of of my projects actually have deadlines to get done by.  I found this calendar to make over at this cute blog called "knick knacks & ric rac".  This is my version of the calendar.

I also didn't want to put a permanent picture on the calendar.  I want to be able to change the picture each month.  I also put a piece of 8X11 card stock on the back to make it sturdier and I put some pretty paper on the top half instead of leaving it just plain white.  Then I added clear photo corners so that I can change the photo easily enough.

I think I'll go and make another one for my office.  

I re-did our downstairs bathroom.  I'm not totally finished with it yet, so no pictures yet.  I have to either get a new vanity or redo the old one.  I might try to redo the old one into something like I did with this shelf.  Sorry, I didn't take a before picture of what the shelf looked like before I started, the bare wood.

I found this kit at Michaels.

I started out with the base coat. 

After it dried, I sanded it all down in preparation for the top coat.

After painting the top coat on I had to wipe it off right away, and not let it dry.

This was how it looked as I was still wiping the top coat off.

Now, I'm always too critical of what I make.  But, I think it turned out pretty nice.  I even found a few things at the re-sale shop to put on my shelf.  I'll only show you one item as the other item is sitting on a cabinet that I found.  That's for another post.

This cup I have been eying up.  After doing the self I thought of this rose cup to put on the self.  Whew, it was still there when I went to go back to get it.  

There she is.  I'm not sure yet what to put in the vase.  I thought it would look good up there too.  I have no window in this bathroom, so my pictures won't come out the greatest.

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday.

Judy