Beautiful Weather

I decided today was finally the day to pressure wash the house and get it looking nice for fall and winter. I spent four hours washing and now my hands and feet are killing me. But boy it looks so good. I just need to wash off the porch furniture and then the evening porch sitting will begin.

Here's an update of my latest knitting project.

August and today:

This is a Hitchhiker shawl/scarf. Love it!

End of Summer

School has been in session for over a month! Time has flown and I've once again abandoned the blog. Here is an date of a few projects.





























Cast on my first sock, made dining room window treatments, a little cross stitching and a random quilt project.

Poor Little Blog

I've deserted you! Actually, no one really reads this blog and it's just for my pleasure. LOL

But I need to get back to blogging and posting pictures of my latest projects and my journalling. I have uploaded photos from my phone and will make this post very photo heavy.

These are some of the things I've worked on in the past few months. I'll post summer project updates later.

Checkbook Cover

This project was easy, I took apart a "purchased" fabric checkbook cover after it had seen it's better days. I used it as a pattern, following the stitching and folding lines and soon had a new cover!

I finished Suburbs quilt and it is at the longarm quilters!

 I started a toe-up sock, my first ever and I'm halfway to the heel.

I started a new applique quilt but ran out of the right color threads. I've purchased more colors and I hope to get back to this project soon. I've also been making little ditty drawstring bags for my knitting. While in the bag mood, I've taken apart a few older stitching projects that were in tuck pillows and some frames. I've begun making project bags for my needlework. I haven't finished those yet, so no pictures to show.

I made this little cutie for a dear friend's first birthday. My mom made lots of these when I was growing up and I found a freebie pattern online at Lil Blue Boo  and I love him. I left off the crown and quilted the frog. I got the idea from Fat Quarter Shop's video Baby girl loved the frog! He got cuter after I pinked the edges.

Last year at this time my hair was between my shoulder blades, very long and I didn't realize how aging it was until school pictures were taken. I started cutting it then and it kept getting shorter and shorter until you see what happened two weeks ago. Love it!

That's enough updating for now! Off to enjoy the day!

March Journaling

Quilting has happened and a little knitting. I've perfected my cobbler recipe.
This week I celebrated 50! I'm claiming the whole week a celebration and I'm on spring break.

I also added another latch on my sewing desk.









- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Journal - March 4 - 9

I've written this post three time using Blog Press. It really doesn't like to interface with my camera! We will see if this post works.

I've almost finished Charmed Garden. The extra fabric arrived and I thought I was almost finished. I noticed I needed another border of white but I had cut down to my last 2" strip making the first round of borders. The fabric had been in my stash forever and no way of finding more. I dug through stash and found another white on white in the same tone, so I'm going with it.


I was out of true white on white fabric and I needed it for my Suburbs quilt. I made a run to Joann's. I will start cutting strips this week. I can't wait until Uncle Sam visits me and these last three quilts can go to the long arm quilter. :)

I've also been doing a little knitting. But again, BlogPress isn't playing nice. I'll post photos later.

Journal - March 3

Snow day and I've spent it quilting.






I spent part of Sunday deciding on four patches and then making quilty snowballs. I've been watching YouTube Missouri Star Quilt Company's tutorials. This is one of their quick charm quilts.

Today, I've made blocks and sashed them. I had to purchase more fabric for the borders and I've decided on a pieced border as shown in the tutorial. I also cut the pieces for my next quilt - Suburb by Cluck Cluck Sew. Can't wait to start on it tomorrow!

Journal - March 1 & 2

This weekend I finally finished up two projects.






It felt like it took all day Saturday to get these borders pressed and measured. Very simple borders and I really need to work on more than slab-oh-border designs.

Sunday was church and cold drive home. The temp dropped 10 degrees on my thirty mile trip. Cold rain fell all afternoon. Icy roads cancelled school for Monday.

Weekend Journal Report

The last two weekends I've had something to journal and didn't!

Two weekends ago I spent Saturday at a great inservice at the Tennessee State Museum. They have a new exhibit on TN slavery with a spotlight on the Wessyngton Plantation. John Baker, a descendant of slaves from Wessyngton, spoke on the plantation and his journey into genealogy. He was very interesting as were the other speakers and activities.

I spent the rest of the weekend with my friend Elizabeth. She was exhibiting at the National Needlework Association's market. We had dinner both nights and I helped take her exhibit down. I loved spending time with her and her son.

Last weekend I dog sat my nieces.





It was my brother-in-law's birthday and they took a little trip. I left presents behind. :)






Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Journal - Feb 24

Made a delicious looking blackberry cobbler. It is cooling as I type.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Journal - Feb 9-11

Sunday - lovely day at church and then home for an afternoon of tv and knitting. I splurged on a new iPad. Oh my!

Monday - Work and Olympics

Tuesday - Work and more Olympics!!

Journal - Feb 4-8

This has been a calm, quiet week. Very little to report. I made a nice roast early in the week and have not done much knitting or quilting. Maybe today will be a quilting day. Tonight I have Rising Above and right now a very very light snow is falling. 

We were supposed to wake up to an inch but apparently the snow gave out as it made its way to us. It gained a little boost and now a little is falling for the next few hours. The temperature is supposed to rise and it will all melt this afternoon. But right now my yard doesn't even look like it's falling. I would really like a pretty snow.

Journal - Feb 3

Snow day!! But no snow. :(  I really want some snow and a lot of it. Tennessee has had cold weather, but not much precipitation.

I spent the day in my sewing room working on a tshirt quilt. I've had the tshirts for 6 years and it is time to get this quilt finished and off to it's recipient.

I also did a little ripping on a hat and I'm going to do a couple of rows on sisters hat remake.

Good day!

Journal - Feb 2

Today the groundhog saw his shadow. More winter for us??

Typical Sunday with church and  a little grocery shopping. Watching movies for the afternoon.

Saturday Feb 1

Did the laundry and lots of reading. Watched a few John Wayne movies. :)

Texted with sister about her hat remake. Hope to finish it Monday. May have to mail it to her so that she can wear it while it's still cold. We really need to see one another face to face more often!!

Friday Jan 31

School and worked the ball game gate.

Journal - January 29 and 30

I'm so over the cold weather. We've gone extended days in the teens. I'm tired of leaving my water dripping constantly. I'm tired of fearing frozen pipes. I'm tired of the continuous running of my heater.

I'm very thankful for my warm home with a garage. I am very very thankful that I don't have to get into an extremely cold car first thing in the morning. 41 degrees seems to be the coldest my garage has been. It the coldest my thermostat has read when I start the car. Driving to work in 4 degree weather is a little startling. I was so shocked Tuesday when I got in the car and it was 16 degrees. I stayed cold on most of my drive to revival. Wednesday the sun was shining and even though it was cold, the sun had warmed the interior of the car.

I'm also thankful for warm coats, hats and scarves. I'm so happy I learned to knit and have been wearing my own creations. Now I just need to learn to make socks and gloves. Maybe by next winter.

Journal

Jan  25

Saturday a day of knitting and rest

Jan 26

Church and then a nice afternoon at K's with baby Katie Belle. Sewing and catching up on family!

Jan 27

School

Revival at The River - Code Blue with Dave Edwards

Jan 28

School

Revival at The River - I'm only doing two nights of revival. Wednesday is for the youth and it will be standing room only. I would rather a kiddo have my spot and hear the Good News.

Journal - January 24

Normal day - had great Chicken Delight for dinner.

Journal - Jan 23

Went in an hour late. Just a normal day.

Journal - Jan 22

Snow day 

Very cold. Had lunch with Jeff and Denise. Did a round at Walmart and came home to put a new closure on my desk. Used the good old DeWalt!!! Sewed a couple of rows on the tshirt quilt.

Journal Jan 21

Made cinnamon rolls with the extra dough. Very yummy. Back to school. But huge temp drop along with precipitation sent us home at 12. Spent the afternoon reading.

Journal - Jan 19 &20

Jan 19

Great morning at church, I wasn't working media and I sat in a different part of the worship area. I was closer to a speaker than I'd been in months. I could really hear the music and it was awesome! A quick lunch and I decided I was going for a Sunday drive. I really took the long way home and drove out to an area near the lake and I think I may have found a new "peaceful" getaway. It is only 25 minutes from the house and I used to make the drive all the time because is was near my parents farm. But yesterday was the first time I remember driving to the boat access area. The water was so quiet and green yesterday. I will have to go back again.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at my friends house and played with baby Claire. Nice day!

Jan 20 

I spent the day reading and trying to make bread. It hasn't done a lot of rising and I'm really thinking it won't turn out the greatest. I'm going to make a stomboli for dinner using the dough. I'm going to put a twist on it and use a tex-mex filling. We'll see how it turns out. I also did a little productive sewing today. I made a new ironing board cover for my pitiful ironing board. It is extra wide which is great for quilting but hard to find a new cover. I could have ordered one from Amazon but I decided to whip one up myself. I love it!

Journal - January 18

It was a stay at home day. I felt crafty and was ready for some instant gratification. So I made a quilt caddy which you can see in the post below. That took up the morning and after a quick lunch I spent the afternoon knitting on a scarf. I've been working on this scarf for a while. I keep putting it down to work on other projects. I want it to get really long for two reasons, one - I'm a large lady and really need extra length and two - I want to tie it or wear it looped. I've got a lot of knitting left to do, I want to double the length that it is right now. I've already knit a hat to match!

Quilt Caddy

I decided I wanted to do something crafty today. As I was going through Bloglovin', one of the bloggers I follow posted a little machine quilt she had made out of orphan blocks. I've been wanting to make a caddy for machine for quite some time. So I Googled quilt caddies and looked on Pinterest. I found lots of tutorials and one suggested using two fat quarters and simply turning the end up for the pockets.

So I measured my machine to see if fat quarters would be wide enough. My machine is only 16" wide, so a fat quarter would be perfect.

After my quilt room reorganization, finding batting scraps was oh so easy! But naturally, none of the scraps fit. Some were the size needed for baby quilts, so I didn't want to cut into those and this one was just a wee bit short. It was also long, so I thought I'd pull a Bonnie Hunter and piece my batting. Then I remembered I'd be cutting the width to make the pocket and this piece was just right. I cut off the length and use it for the pocket batting. 

Next I decided I really wanted to quilt the entire caddy. I've not done any machine quilting for quite some time and I really haven't done any cross hatch quilting because it looks so boring. But I decided this was a great practice piece and I drew my lines 1" apart and away I went.

Really don't like how Blogger lays out photos!! So I'm trying a new editor.After cross hatching, I decided the pocket needed to bedifferent, so I drew horizontal lines and quilted it. I knew I wanted to be finished today, so I machine sewed the binding front and back. I don't really like the look on the back. I won't be using this method on a quilt.

Final product  - Love It!

January 17

Oops, forgot to post this last night.

Two hour snow delay for school. That's great but my awesome worship leader and drummer were coming to FCA to give a devotion to the kiddos and do a little slammin' worship! Luckily, I caught Jimmy before he made it to Cookeville. Bless him, he was coming from Livingston - hour away, on his birthday! Again Awesomeness right there.

We had a surprise baby shower for a coworker after school and then the snow really started falling. But it was over by the time we all made it home. Supposed to be a cold, snow shower filled weekend. Which probably means just a lot of cold for us.

January 16

Work - busy day, proctored tests for a district competition. Took all day and then the internet went down and we have to wait until tomorrow to upload! A little stressful, but the kiddos did well.

I then went shopping for a baby shower present and home to watch American Idol!

Harry Rocks is all I can say!!!

Journal - January 14 & 15

I'm finding the journal is great when I've actually done something. But the days I go to work and come straight home, there really isn't anything for me to write about.

I did stay later at work today to administer the FBLA test. But that is really the most excitement I had.

Good days!

Journal - January 12 & 13

Sunday - church, lunch and quiet day

Monday - Quiet day at work as well, students were ready to get to work for the most part. We were notified of a coworkers death. Karen had been out almost all of the fall semester and passed away Saturday. We didn't know she was back in the hospital. Sad day. Funeral is Tuesday and visitation is just before the service.

Journal - January 11

Quiet Saturday. Watched a movie and did a little knitting. I kept dropping stitches and having to rip out. I am hoping I don't do it again.




Spent the evening working media at Rising Above's monthly worship service. I really love working with this ministry.

Journal - January 10

First day back from winter break was a good day.

Went out for dinner and ended up being joined by friends Mark and Kathy. They were being seated right by me and so we joined and had a nice chat with dinner. Came home and watched Donovan's Reef with John Wayne. Nice evening.

Journal - January 8 & 9

January 8

We managed to have a professional development day. The temperature went into the low 30's and I finally turned off the water. I'm sure my bill will be high next month.

After the PD day, I went for Mexican for dinner and after reading through my blogs on Bloglovin' I found a post about this scarf. The original was made with variegated sock yarn. I didn't have any but I had self striping and I started the scarf. So far I'm loving it. I learned two new decreases and I can't wait to see how it turns out.

January 9

No school. Not enough ice melted. I went to work anyway and have my 8th grade class planned and xeroxed for the next unit and I have the next 10 lessons for world history planned but do not have the parts and pieces ready. I'll work on that tomorrow.  We do have school tomorrow. My fish pond is still solid ice and I didn't think to take a picture when I went out to check on it an hour ago. I hope to put more stitches on my scarf tonight.

Journal - January 7

Today was another very cold day. We had professional development at school. Made it in with no problems, very thankful the roads were ice free.

Home and reading Believing God by Beth Moore. I'm also doing the devotional that goes with it as my devo for the year. I have it on all technology so that I can access it anytime and have zero excuse for reading daily.



Sweet kitties fill my evening.

Journal - January 6

No going to work today. Snow and temperature was too much for us southerners.

I've read on a few books, stayed on my iPad and phone too much. Curled up with the kitties for a little while. I did laundry and ran dishwasher to keep water flowing. I fear frozen pipes. Right now the kitchen sink is dripping. Single digit temps really aren't fun.

Work is scheduled for tomorrow. Need to plan a warm outfit because I know the empty schools will be cold.

Journal - January 5

Woke up early enough to make it to first service of church! I really like doing that when I'm not running media for the services. Out by 10:30 and off to shop at Sam's. Ate lunch at El Corral and then tucked into the house and played on my computer or read for the rest of the day.

Evening rolled in and the cold finally began to slide in, rain started and turned to a quick snow. In-serviced called off and we have an extra day off. Temp supposed to be in single digits tonight. I've decided to also post books I read during the year. Probably will only post new reads and not rereads. I tend to reread favorite writers. No knitting, really having trouble with hands after knitting so much. :(

Journal - January 4

Today, I decided to take apart a hat I knit. I didn't like the fit. Then I searched Ravelry and found a pattern I liked - The Bowler. I knit the hat in around four hours, I'm a slow knitter and it probably would have taken a faster knitter two hours to stitch the 30 or so rows. I extended the hat just a little and it was a tight fit. So I blocked it and hopefully it will be a little bigger when it dries.

I also made a large pot of veggie soup and cornbread. The kitties have laid beside me all day, it's very cold and we are expecting a couple of inches of snow tomorrow evening. Monday the high is supposed to be around 7, very cold for TN. Teachers are supposed to go back to work Monday, but we will have to see what the weather holds for us. The weathermen can't make up their mind on anything but the cold.

Journal Jan 3

In order to catch up and I'm doing three days in one.

January 1 - spent the day going shopping. I really don't like shopping for clothes. I'm a fat girl and shopping just really emphasizes that in my mind. Yes, I need to do something about it. More about that in later posts.

My sweet sister gave me a gift certificate that I spent and now I have a few new additions to my wardrobe.  I also had to purchase more yarn for a hat I was making. I finished the hat late this evening.

January 2 - continued to enjoy my winter break. It was supposed to snow and all day the winds howled, but very snow fell. I read a little and continued my marathon of West Wing watching.

Rearranged the living room, not really liking it, but don't have the desire to put it back. I'm adjusting and maybe that's why I don't like it. The kitties love being able to lay on the back of the couch and the fact that I have freshly washed quilts and throws for them to curl up on.

January 3 - continued to clean in the quilting room. Finished cutting the last blocks for the baby quilt. Now I just have to add borders - again. Hopefully, I'll like them this time. I also ironed the top of the second baby quilt that needs another border. I have a third baby quilt that needs to have the quilting finished. Three babies in my world and if I don't get busy they will be in elementary school before they get their quilts!!!!

Tonight I'm working the basketball gate. Need to be at school by 4:45. Will dress warm, it's very cold out and that means the wind coming through the open doors will be fierce!

Techy Journal

I follow Susan Branch and read her blog regularly. She wrote about the blizzard that hit the Cape Cod area where she lives and she talked about keeping a daily journal. Nothing really deep, but just enough to remember her daily activity because time goes so fast.

My momma kept a 2 yr calendar in her purse and used it to jot down the little things of life. I tried to keep all the ones I could find when we closed her house. I ran across the last one she kept while cleaning out my quilting room this winter break. The notes were short - phone call from Carmen or met Jackie for lunch. Little things that mean so much to me now. I realize I don't have children to treasure these and that if I started my own, sis would just have more stuff to sort and to throw away.

So I'm going to use this blog as my record keeper. In knowing me, this may only be done for a few weeks. But I'm hoping it strikes a cord with me and becomes a great habit. If this becomes too intimate or private, I'll keep the posts unpublished. But I'm excited to give this a try.

It doesn't mean I will post only journal items. I'll still post about things that strike me and my crafting projects. I can also never have enough posts about the kitties!