Oh, my......

Today is a "banner" day.. of sorts. Today is the day of my first Social Security check. (I am one of those who chose to start receiving it as soon as I am eligible.) I face this day with mixed feelings.....glad for a tiny bit of "extra" money, but.....wondering how the years passed quickly enough for this to be possible!

So....here is a little a sneak peek of Jessi's sewing project in progress. I will post the finished project in another day or two. (It's further along than these photos show, but not far enough for me to show it completed.) She seems to love using the sewing machine. I have it on the slowest speed and she has done well keeping a 1/4 inch seam using my foot with the guide on it. She has learned where to stop to pull out pins and also does a nice job of using the needle down/up button! Her project is going to be a small table topper....Halloween fabrics on one side and a fall print on the other side. She picked the fabrics from my stash and cut the pieces on the GO cutter!

Monday sewing goals.....

I am having big-time sewing withdrawal. Since the first grand arrived on Aug. 12, I've not touched my sewing machine at all. I had a couple of hand projects to do, but I only got a total of maybe 90 minutes done on one...not even enough to show yet. SO....I just had to go in and look at my "stuff" last night and tell myself what I will do on Monday. (Can't start, though, until after the packers come and pack up our master bedroom and bath under my supervision...so the work can begin on repairing the roof and ceiling damage done by the falling tree a few weeks ago).

Here is what I hope to do after I am done with the packers.....

Get the 12 signature swap blocks done (have 4 completed so far and the rest mostly done)...Put the brown print border fabric on my friend's family quilt. (I have the border cut...just need to sew it on).
Make myself a new pillowcase out of this fun ladybug fabric and this fun green fabric....because I've had a rough couple of weeks and some stressful ones yet to come (with the house repairs) and I deserve a fun pillowcase like that...don't you agree? LOL If I get really lucky, maybe I can even pull out another project and work on that, too!!! Yippee...sewing machine....I'm almost back with ya.......

Tea towel fun.....

After looking at Nanette's blog and her tea towels the other day (and hearing from many others elsewhere about tea towels), I got a couple at the LQS yesterday. I kept it simple at first, but I want to progress to doing some like the shop samples with cute applieques on them. This is a photo of the first one I did.....little jingle bells and holly on it. You can click on it to see it enlarged and see the little jingle bells a bit better. I like it and think I am now bitten by the tea towel "bug!!! NICE gifts and fun to do and look at in the kitchen, too. The ones at the LQS are extremely nice quality....and I'm looking forward to buying more of them soon.

Christmas is coming too fast....

I'm thinking I may not be the only one who thinks Christmas is approaching a bit too quickly? How does that happen every year? I have Christmas gifts that aren't even started yet....a sewing room that is topsy-turvy with things I brought home from the retreat and didn't yet put away as well as things left out before the retreat....and we are in the midst of some painting inside the house. Today is a busy day with two church music events (handbell choir that I'm in and which is playing for the first time this a.m. and then a folk group practice at noon).

The painting needs to be done after that.......then I need to figure out where to begin to tackle the sewing room clean-up so I can get some serious sewing done SOON. I think one of my New Year's resolutions will be to do my Christmas 2009 sewing in JANUARY!!! Maybe then Christmas in 2009 will not come around too quickly for me?