Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all!!!!

I am having a great Mother's Day and hope everyone else is doing the same.  Breakfast this morning with Jeff(husband) and then off on another drive to wherever we end up.  Actually, we just headed north down one of the main thoroughfares in OKC until it turned to gravel and then headed east. I forgot to pick up my camera before we left, so no pictures )-:  Saw lots of green pastures, farm ponds, cows, horses, birds, and large, large houses.  It was a very relaxing drive and enjoyed the countryside sites.  We arrived back home around 12:30pm to visit with Ashlee and Dominic for Mother's Day. Around 3pm headed to my Mom's house to visit with her.  Got back home around 5:30pm. Jeff had a meeting to go to and I am home now,  checking emails, blogs and enjoying "me" time.

Last Thursday (May 6) was my birthday.  I have never really thought about how old I was until this year.  I turned 58 and that sounds old when you say it. However, I have always thought of age as being just a state of mind, so even though it sounds old, in my mind I am not old, 35 years or so...lol.  Anyway, I had a great birthday day. I did things I wanted to do...painted the nursery room at Ashlee's home, for my new granddaughter, who will arrive around July 15.  Light pink is the color. Again did not have my camera so no pictures. When we get it all finished I will post pictures.  Birthday dinner was Mexican food(my favorite) with friends. It was a great birthday.

I received some very special gifts from An American Primitive Gathering, the ebay group I belong to.  Chris sent me these wonderful goodies.

She does awesome needlepunch and cross stitch work and I feel very privileged to have received some of her pieces.  Her ebay ID is mysticalprimitives. If you get a chance, go look at her listings. 

Kathy sent me some beautiful pieces of wool, along with a hooked flower pin that is gorgeous.  Some wonderful colors of DMC floss and a "primitives" shelf sitter.

I will be going to rughooking camp in a couple of weeks, so Jeff said he would just give me money to spend on rughooking patterns, wool, wool, and more wool.  I said that sounds great to me. Never can have too many patterns or too much wool.

Friday was my hand applique class. I have appliqued before, but decided I wanted to take a class to learn some new tricks and shortcuts. I enjoyed the class immensely. Will be doing 4 blocks out of "Baltimore Basics" by Mimi Dietrich. Here is the first block I have ready to start stitching.

Now, I am more of a primitive type person-reproduction fabrics, muted colors-but sometimes you have to get out of your box and try something new.  The fabrics I used are batiks.  I will probably just do the 4 blocks and make a wallhanging or put each block in a picture frame.  I did learn some new techniques that I can use in my primitive quilts and stitcheries.

What a busy week ahead! Rughooking on Tuesday. Serger class on Wednesday. Sewing Club on Thursday. Monday and Friday morning work at the office and then afternoon exercise workout. Hope to find some garden time also this week. Still need to plant some flowers. The weather has been so strange. Today it is actually pretty cool. Supposed to rain this evening. It has been overcast all day and it does look like it's getting a little dark in the west, so maybe it will rain. Could use it. Garden is starting to look  a little dry.

Well guess I better get back to my stitching. Would like to finish the first block so I can start on the second one.  I will try and post each block as I finish it.

Wishing everyone a blessed week. Give someone a big hug. Always keep smiling.

Blessings....patijane

So at some point......

I do have to clean the house. It seems like it has been ages since I really, really cleaned the house. I mean I HAVE run the vacuum and dusted in the last 6 months. Cleaned the bathrooms when they needed it and kept the dishes washed up in the kitchen. But I have not done some deep cleaning in quite awhile. So today I started...been at it for a few hours and think I might be done for the day...LOL. I have finished one room, actually the front bathroom, the one that no one really uses much..but it is now spic and span in case company comes over. I figure it might take me more than a day to get the whole house done. You know, I have to stop and check emails, check blog posts, go outside to see what's going on, check the flowers, come back in and decide I would rather be hooking or sewing. So I think I am done for today. There is always tomorrow.

Over the past couple of months I have been working on some projects so I will show you what they are. First I go to the Prairie Quilt in Hennessey, OK for Saturday Sampler once a month. Here are my finished blocks so far:

 I finished up two challenges from An American Primitive Gathering group I belong to. First one was an adaptation by Kelley of an antique quilt block design.

 Second one was a background challenge by Maria Barton of Star Rug Company. She drew up a pattern and then challenged us to use a background color we had not used before.  I chose mustard. We received wooly worms of the color we chose from all who participated in the challenge and used them in our rug. It was a lot of fun and I think I might choose to do mustard or a light background again soon.

I finished the little stitchery this past weekend while at a women's conference with my Mom.

I also finished a quilt top for my daughter, Ellena. Just need to piece the back together and quilt it. Hopefully, it will be finished when she and the boys come in June.

 And last, I have two rughooking projects I am working on.The first one is a pattern one of the ladies in our rughooking group gave me. She wasn't going to do it and I thought it would be fun to use all my leftover worms.

The second is the 2010 LJ Fibers Rug project. I have almost finished the first part. Laurie sent out an email this week that the second part should be here sometime next week.  I haven't hooked anything this big before, but it is going to be beautiful when I finish it. The dots on the rug are straight pins marking places I need to fill in a little bit more.

Oh, I almost forgot. We had a swap on AAPG of textured wooly worms. These are the worms I received.  Aren't they wonderful! I love the colors and the textures. Can't wait to use them in a hooking project!

Well, I guess I better get back to doing something besides sitting in front of the computer.  Think I will hook a little on my penny rug.  I hope everyone is having a great day.  The sun is shining here, but we are having wind with gusts to 40mph.  Weatherman is talking about rain tomorrow evening.  Enjoy your day whatever you may be doing.

Blessings.......patijane

Happy Monday!

The Bradford Pear trees are showing their white flowers and today was our first really nice day outside with warm temperatures and a light breeze. However, I spent most of it inside working.  But that's OK. Soon I will be able to spend more time outside.

March has flown by and soon it will be April 15th. Tax season deadline will be past and maybe more time to spend at home instead of the office. Still first quarter reports and such to get done, but hope to have a week of fun before starting again.

Jeff and I worked a couple of all-nighters last week.  I think I survived them better than he did. I like to stay up late, late. Seem to get more things accomplished. Anyway, when I wasn't helping him I was working on some projects I have started. First is a very, very easy "I Spy" quilt. Got each block sewn together; now just need to sew the blocks together and then I will have the top complete.

 Also got this one put together...a kit I bought last summer.

I also got to pull some loops on my latest rughooking project.  It is the 2010 LJ Fibers Rug project. LJFibers.com Almost finished with the first part. The next part should be here sometime in April.

A couple of weeks ago Linda of http://thewoolcupboard.blogspot.com/ was giving away some hooks she had found to hang hooked rugs. Well, I won!  Yes, I was so excited. Well, today when I got home the hooks and some beautiful wool had been delivered by the postman.  Thank you, Linda so much.  I have never seen any hooks like that, but know they will work great to hang my rugs. The wool bundles are beautiful and can't wait to use them in my next applique project. You are the best! 

I also have been working on two challenge projects from the group I belong to, An American Primitive Gathering. I finished the background challenge on a hooked rug by Maria Barton and almost finished the antique quilt pattern challenge by Kelley. I can't post pictures right now, but will do so when it is OK.

Well guess I better get back to work.  Hope to pull some loops before heading to bed.  Have a great week and enjoy the weather and time with family and friends.

Blessings.....patijane