Hello out there!

Wow, it's been almost a year. Last December I had a tummy tuck and had a hard time recovering. But, recovery is long over and the work looks great! It inspired me to drop 8 lbs and I'm active and feel good. I also met a wonderful man and have fallen in love! YAY for me! And, I haven't sewn a stitch, other than to take in a dress and hem my daughter's pants. I haven't even looked at my blog for the longest time. But, now, I'm feeling the itch to get back to it and finish up some projects.

I did a kitchen spruce up project this summer and will make curtains. I have a couple of quilts that are done but need to be quilted. I'm gonna get to it and post again. I'm donating a sewing machine to our school, too. It's my grandmothers old machine and since I have several at home, I want to share the wealth.

BTW, here's a cool post I found and would like to share. Hope you're all well out there and having fun! BadSkirt

Second Finished Quilt!

Here I am quilting the stacked coins quilt. I used large paper clips and bicycle clips, and had to sling it over my shoulder, in order to feed it through the machine. I still don't have the confidence or skill level for stippling so I channel quilted it. It took many hours, including about 6 hours to bind it--I forgot how long it all takes! Here it is finished and ready to wrap. I love the way it looks! But, I realize now that, although I love lots of white on quilts, it's probably not a good idea for small children's quilts. Oh, well! On another note, I tried my hand at bag making and I made this buttercup bag. I love it--it's so cute! It's a very easy pattern, too. I'm going to make several more but I'll use heavier fabric and enlarge the pattern as the bag is very flopy and way too small for me. It's still really cute, though!

My first finished quilt in 8 years!

Well, I finally did it--I finished a quilt! Hurray for me! I made the quilt for my friend who just had a baby boy and had worked on the Obama campaign in our town. It's an Obama Baby Quilt!!! I did straight line quilting and tried free motion quilting writing out the baby's name (Ayende) and words like dream, love, hugs--along with quilted hearts and the date. It's not perfect but I learned alot along the way.
I learned that you have to control your machine speed and work on moving the quilt evenly as you free motion quilt. I still haven't figured out what to do when the bobbin runs out. Those areas looked messy so I free motioned hearts over them. I feel much more confident about finishing up the other quilt tops I've done. And, the best part of making a quilt--giving it away!

Yay--I'm sewing again!!!

Wow, it's day 48 of surgery recovery and I'm feeling great! I was feeling out of sorts for a while even though I had no complications. Just recovering is tiring. But, hurray, I'm feeling back to normal. I did some sewing. I made this class set of juice pouch pencil holders for my class. The kids love them and they're a simple to make way to encourage creative recycling.

Everything old is new again

I guess the new frugality isn't all that new. People have always been refashioning clothing. Check out this post at UnsungSewingPatterns . Seems you could buy a pattern and have instructions for cutting it out from other clothing! Hmmm... great idea!

Amy of parkcitygirl is hosting a Blogger's Quilt Festival October 9-16. Just pick any one quilt you've made and blog about what it meant to you. There'll be prizes involved, too. I just love prizes, don't you!?! On another note, it's day 35 of my surgery recovery and it's all great. I'll post a pic soon.

I've been recovering from surgery...

Well, I haven't posted because I've been recovering from surgery and haven't done any sewing. I had a nip tuck on August 19th. These are the before and after pictures, taken from my iPhone. The after is 18 days after a lower face lift and eye tuck. Yes, I know, it is an unnecessary vanity surgery. But, after losing a lot of weight I felt my face kind of fell and, you know, when your favorite dress is too big you give it a few stitches, insert a couple of darts, and boom, you're back in business. That's what my surgeon did for me. I'm now at day 27 and less swollen than in this picture, but you get the drift. It is a big change. Overall, I'm happy with the results. It was not painful, but it really isn't for the faint of heart. It kind of messes with you when you look in the mirror and you're swollen, or you feel that you don't look like you. Now that the swelling is down, I look like I did in my 30's and I'll be 49 in a few months. I admire people who sew and my surgeon, Dr. Jeanette Martello, is the best. You can't even see her tiny stitches around my ears! And her bedside manner--to be admired! Oh, well. I hope you all don't think it too weird. I know it's vain. My excuse--I'm cuban. We're a bit vain!!!