I'm Home!!!!

DH and I returned to our home yesterday (Sunday) about 1:30pm from Seattle. It was a very long trip. Fabric Damage was done in Phoenix. No pictures yet. Sister's house was packed. It took 2 trucks; a 26 footer and a 24 footer, 2 auto transports and a 5x8 Uhaul pulled behind Sister's Honda CRV. One auto transport had our Mom's 2007 Mustang and the other had Sister's F150 4x4 Pickup. Lots of adventures just getting on the road 12 hours late on last Tuesday. We got to Seattle Thursday night about midnight. Friday and Saturday were spent unloading the trucks and getting them turned in. I did get some pictures of Mount Shasta in California. I will post them later.

This morning DH and I were putting MIL's tires in her car to take to Les Schwab for the seasonal switch. I threw my back out and am in absolute misery. No sewing for me for a couple of days. It even hurts to breath. LOL. I know that I will be better in a couple of days. The last time this happened was in 2003. Took a couple of weeks to fully heal. This time I will see my chiropractor as soon as the pain subsides a little.

Zorro was happy to have Mom and Dad home as were all the cats.

Pictures later. (I keep saying that, but it hasn't happened yet.)

Out of Service/Out of Time

I got my strips mailed out for the Red and White Challenge Swap today(Monday actually). No notes in with it, no fancy wrapping. Sorry Ladies. Maybe next time. I have run out of time.

It is 1:30 am and I am scrambing to get out the door by 2am to Seattle then to Phoenix. I will be off the air until Nov 23. Helping sister move back to Seattle.

Pictures when I get back. We plan on doing a little fabric damage during the trip.

Be safe everyone.

Fort Hood, Texas

I am not sure I have the words to express my feelings about the recent events at Fort Hood. Mostly, I am just stunned. Stunned that a soldier that has NOT even been deployed would run amok and kill fellow soldiers.


The names of the 13 were read and lifted up in church today along with their families.

Chief Warrant Officer Michael Grant Cahill (Ret.) (62), Cameron, Texas
Maj. Libardo Eduardo Caraveo,(52) Woodbridge, Virginia
Army Staff Sgt. Justin DeCrow, (32) Plymouth, Indiana
Capt. John Gaffaney,(56) San Diego, California
Spc. Frederick Greene, (29) Mountain City, Tennessee
Spc. Jason Dean Hunt, (22) Tipton, Oklahoma
Sgt. Amy Krueger,(29) Kiel, Wisconsin
Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka,(19) West Jordan, Utah
Pfc. Michael Pearson,(22) Bolingbrook, Illinois
Capt. Russell Seager,(51) Racine, Wisconsin
Pvt. Francheska Velez,(21) Chicago, Illinois
Lt. Col. Juanita L. Warman,(55) Havre De Grace, Maryland
Spc. Kham Xiong,(23) St. Paul, Minnesota

May you rest in peace in God's great mercy. Amen

Halloween Costume

I am very late getting a post on Halloween. I seldom decorate the house for any holiday. But... I do make my kids' Halloween costumes. My youngest son is 15. He wanted to be Zorro for Halloween. So Zorro he was. A Zorro costume needs a fancy shirt, cape, hat and most of all a mask. The mask was probably the easiest to make and was the very last item I made at 3am Friday morning October 30. Yes, I pulled an almost all nighter getting my son's costume made so he could wear it to school that day.

First the Hat. I used McCalls 4805 and made view C without the feather. I used a bit of gold braid instead. For some reason, it took me 4 days to make it. Of course I have never made a brimmed hat before. Felt, really stiff stabilizer and satin lining with wire in the brim

Next I worked on the blouse. Another renaissance type shirt, this time Simplicity (3758). Slippery satin and lots of gathers and I shorted the ruffles some due to not paying attention to cutting out the main body of the blouse so didn't have enough width on the ruffle. The grommets were fun. I used very old buttons on the sleeves. Zorro picked them out because they looked like ying yang to him. The pattern went together easily, but had a strange way of doing the underarm. It is possible that I just plain screwed it up. But, I kept telling myself that it is just a Costume.

The cape turned out just plain gorgeous. Black velveteen and fully lined with a heavy satin. The cape is very full and swings and twirls nicely. I used another Simplicity pattern (2499). I still need to properly finish the hems as I just serged them to get it done.

For the mask, I did a search on line for half mask patterns. Found one for kids to color and cut out. I simply changed the size of when printing and made a couple of other changes and cut it out of left over felt from the hat. A couple of ribbons sewn to the ends and I was done in 15 minutes, at 3:15 am. Sewing all that black was very hard on the eyes, but don't you think he is quite dashing? Check out more photos at my webshots account:

A New Journey Started and a Challenge Quilt

I have been wanting to start a blog for a couple of years now. Many things got in the way, but mostly I was just scared. I actually had to get my sister to help walk me through the set up. She blames her learning to quilt on me, so I will blame starting a blog on her. :)

While I have lots that I want to talk about, I need to talk about the challenge that I entered. Allyson over at Fat Cat Quilts really likes this red and white quilt that she saw on a recent trip. Nicole from Sister's Choice Quilts also really likes this quilt. The two of them collaborated and come up with the idea of a challenge quilt and a fabric swap to boot. I fell in love the quilt also and decided to join the fun; Quilt and Fabric Swap.



I've got my fabrics bought and washed. I now need to get them ironed and cut to send out. I'm excited. This is my first swap. I also had to purchase the book that the pattern is in, 40 Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts, by Evelyn Sloppy. There are a lot of quilts in that book that have serious potential as I like scrappy quilts best.

Next time I will tell all about my family, vocation and my 10 cats.