Company & Tuna

So, I was sitting around this morning enjoying my day......thinking about what I wanted to sew on this time, picking out thread colors, tone on tones, even cleaning my machine.....when the phone rang.....it was at this point that the little devil on my left shoulder whispered....don't answer it.....yes that sounded like a plan........but that silly phone just kept on ringing........the good angel on my right shoulder whispered.....what if it's your mom or the boys....they could need your help..........evil angel chimed in with........but this is your day to do whatever you want.....remember???.....

What a dilemma.....to answer or not to answer, that is the question.

Unfortunately, I answered the darn thing to the following conversation.....Mom..."Uh, we're going to have company in a few minutes, do you have anything 'they' can eat".......Me....dead silence...followed by a bumping noise where I'm knocking my head against the nearest wall.........Mom...."Are you there?"........Me...bad angel whispers.....made some static noise and hang up....followed by good angel....she'll know..........!#~$%^&*(}~......Me...."Yes mother, I'm here"......unfortunately whispered under my breath...........

Long story...short......mom brought some cousins up to my house to visit (mom doesn't cook for herself very much these days...that's my jog..which I really don't mind) because they hadn't seem me since I was a baby.....boy have they been out of touch......anyway, I made Tuna Salad.....

Yummy & Quick Tuna Salad

chop half an onion

chop one Delicious Apple ...2 if you really love them

boil and chop 2 eggs

chop one jalapeno pepper (optional)

chop one half bell pepper

2 large cans Tuna in water, drained

mayonnaise

1/2 cup chopped pecans 

Mix everything except mayo, well in a large bowl.

Add several tablespoons of mayo....I really can't tell you how much. It's as desired.

Salt & Pepper to taste.

Serve as sandwiches with chips or over thickly sliced tomato...Yum!

I would show you the end results but the cousins ate it all up.

OMG!  Enough said.

First Border Plus New Project

The first border is from the same 2 1/2" squares that I swapped with my wacky buddies. I'm thinking of placing a 1 1/2" black border next, followed by a floral border which I have not chosen yet.  Maybe I need  to visit my local quilt store.......hehehehehehehe

As most of you know, a few months ago, the Wacky 6Pack lost one of its members to cancer.  We often think about Jerri and her great antics.  The woman was truly something else.  At our retreats we drink to her and laugh at all those great jokes she told.

Jerri and I bought our Janome 11000s at the same time from the same store.....actually Jerri talked me into buying the machine...(that's my story and I'm sticking to it)....

Anyway, I've had the wonderful machine for a little over 2 years.  I was exclusively using it for embroidery until my wacky girlfriend Annie (no blog....can you believe that) told me that I really needed to start sewing on it.......I did as she demanded.......LOL....and yes, it sews like a dream but embroidery is a passion of mine, it's in my blood.  I've become an embroidery addict and frequent MANY embroidery sites....some of you know how that is........

Where was I.......oh yea, back to this wonderful machine....Annie mentioned that I should be able to stitch out photos with it.......that was months ago......okay, so I had to allow the thought to stew a bit.  I decided that my first project would be dedicated to my friend, Jerri.  I found a picture, fiddled with the shading using Picasa 3 (don't ask, it's a photo storage thingy from the net), scanned the image into my Janome design thingy, added stitches, blah, blah, blah, blah........and stitched it out.  See the steps below and if you really want details of each step....let me know, cause that will have to stew in my little, pea brain for awhile.

The final measurement is 5 inches by 7 inches.

Recent Apron Swap

As some of you may know, I'm an avid apron swapper......my grandma wore them, as well as all my great aunts.  In my twenties thru forties, I was not in the habit of wearing them but picked it up again when I retired.  I've found several apron swap groups but fell in love with one in particular.  Val is the hostess of  Hot Mama Apron Swap and always seems to come up with some fabulous themes.

This past theme was Pin-up girls.  Above are the goodies that I received from my swap "angel."

I love quilting and machine embroidery but I also like to do other things such as the apron swap. I think it keeps me on my toes and inspires me in the quilting world.

Progress

During our embroidery retreat, our hostess, Brenda (no blog) talked about the "plop & drop" method which she defined as stitching out  embroidery designs and sewing them together without adding extra blocks or borders.  She said to think outside the box........I realized, I've always thought outside the box....more to the point....."What box!"

Remember this little quilt from a couple of year ago....

The Fruits of my Labor is progressing nicely. I'm using some of those one thousand 2 1/2 inch squares that my "wacky" girlfriends and I cut and traded as a challenge last year.  Those girls really keep me on my toes.  My next step is to continue with the squares as the first border, then come back with a wider border of some sort....so stay tuned.

"Home Round Robin"

Here's my center block for the Stay At Home Round Robin hosted by Kate. I figured this would be a great way to sharpen my skills with something not so taxing. I can't wait for the next round. If you'd like to join in, there's still time.  Just pop over to Kate's blog for instructions.

If you're over 40 and loving it, pop over to Java's and join in the fun of being over 40!!!

The Fruits of My Labor

Since the embroidery retreat, I've been playing around with a few designs.  So far these 3 (peach, tomato and apple) are what I've managed to stitch out.  Each one takes about 2 hours.....yes, 2 hours.......there are a lot of thread changes but the results is magnificent.

I love searching for designs on the "net". My favorite sites are:
embroidery library
ann the gran
molly mine
advanced embroidery designs

Just to name a few!  Where do you look for great designs?  I'd love to know.

Machine Alley

As I said earlier, we all had a blast at "A Nimble Thimble" over the weekend.  This wonderful quilt shop is located in Tyler, Texas and is owned by a sweet lady, Katie Hartner.

If you're ever in Tyler, pop in to the store and take a look around.

I thought I do a little show & tell about the various embroidery machines we all were using.

First up is the Pfaff 7570.  This machine is roughly 10years old and requires memory cards to operate.  I, also, have this machine but now use it strictly for sewing.

Our instructor, Brenda, owns this one. It's a Janome Memory Craft 300E stitches out some nice designs. It is computer compatible, meaning you can purchase designs via the Internet, transfer them to the machine or a flash-drive to be stitched. 

Next is the Janome 10000.  As you can see the screen is displaying several folders which have designed stored in them via computer, flash-drive, etc.

The Janome 11000 (this one is mine) is, of course, computer, flash-drive or memory card compatible. I really love my machine. I've only tapped the surface of its many powers.

This is a Brother Disney Edition. Note the large screen for easy viewing. Also computer, flash-drive and memory card compatible.

This is the "big boy" of the machine embroidery world at the moment. A couple of ladies were operating their babies with ease. It's the Bernina 830.  It has a very large hoop capacity and of course, is compatible with everything.

Finally, we have the Bernina Artista 730. Again compatible. 

You will find that all the machines nowadays are compatible for ease of downloading and using designs from the Internet.

To Tyler We Go

Nobody can pack a vehicle like Kathleen can. Five of us piled into Kathy's suburban after Kathleen carefully packed all our stuff.

BTW, no laws were broken in the process of loading or unloading our embroidery machines.

The setting up begins!

Isn't this a great little quilt....see those horses.....they're all machine embroidered. So are the borders.  The blocks are then highlighted with half square triangles.....I love this quilt!!!

I was working on a cute the "Hearts" series from Molly Mine.com.

This giraffe was scanned and digitized by lady who said that it was her first time ever attempting this.

I'll post more very soon.

Spinning Star

Spinning Star link

This little quilt has been in my collection, unbound, for several years.  We had a wonderful teacher come out to your then guild to teach us this method.  Now, it's easy to find the pattern on the Internet, which I've linked to above.
I'm about to go on a little road trip with my quilting sisters. We'll be machine embroidering for 2 full days. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures with my new camera....it's a Sony like my old one but of course it has new features and a much faster snapping response.
  My phone will be off so there's no chance of outside interference.....LOL.....

As Recommended - Mini Quilt

I really appreciated everyone's recommendations for the mini quilt. Here's what I've come up with and am very happy with the outcome. I enlarged the trunk of the tree and used a darker fabric.  Note the trout in the claws of the eagle and I widened the lake to flow off the border.  So now, it onto pressing and stitching down or maybe just framing this baby.  A friend saw it and loved it and of course has asked to have it.  Thanks everyone!

Band Boosters

The band quilt is quilted (Kathleen), labeled and delivered. It was a labor of love and alot of fun. The label was my attempt at drawing. When I taught school, part of my job was teaching art to the 4th graders.....anyway, I used a Pigma pen to draw and write the information for the label.  I think it's neat to make a label that fits with the theme of the quilt, thus the lion, our mascot.

Portrait of The Real Thing

Portrait come to life.  Ayden paid me a visit today for lunch.  At nineteen months she is counting to 6, signing words and asking the big question....."WHY?"  She loved her portrait that GoGo made and decided to pose with some persuading from her mommy.

Mini Quilt

Before you weigh in, I know, I know......the eagle is too big and I promise to make him smaller another day....LOL.......sigh..........but what do you think about the overall scene????
I've gotten great feedback from my FaceBook buddies; Gene, Cindy, Needled Mom and others, so now, I need more help.  Picture the eagle smaller with a trout in its claw.....do I need something different for the eagle?  Also, notice the foreground tree (that was my clue, Gene, that the eagle was too big....LOL) does the tree need more, less, something else????  I've also placed sawed tree parts around the lake and I extended the water to flow off the scene......any improvements there????  In other words.........
HELP!!!

Dedicated.....To....The One I Love!

Tragedy struck late yesterday afternoon.........it happened so suddenly that I had little time to react.......one moment it was sitting on my cutting table.............the next........B A M............it had landed awkwardly on the cement floor.........What you might ask, am I talking about??????????.......................Why, my can't live without, always with me, very precious

CAMERA - Sony Digital Cyber-shot

See that very blurry picture of the project I'm working on?????............No, I'll bet you can't see it very clearly...........that's because I had to take it using my webcam..............booooo whooooooo.....big fat tears.....followed by some choice words...#!$%~^&!*~()~~_)!(*&&^!%........then a giant SIGH......and more tears.
So, I'm dedicating this post to my beloved Sony in preparation for the next camera......Farewell old friend!

Stay At Home Robin

Kate is hosting a "Stay At Home Robin".........what is that?  Well, I'm sure we're all familiar with Round Robins where a group of people make their own center blocks then pass their blocks around to each person who that borders are added. By the time you get your quilt back, you'll have your center with several appropriate borders.
Kate's idea is to do everything yourself but on a very small scale.  If you're interested, pop over to her blog, scan down to July1st to read the instructions and ideas.
This is a great way to use up some of those scraps that keep piling up.

More Fishing & Vote For Me

You may remember the block I entered in a contest last month.  Well, I loved that one so much I decided to make one for myself but I've added a few things that were impossible to add to the smaller block.  See that frog with his sticky tongue about to grab the dragonfly......that's new.  This time I have 2 dragonflies and more cattails and I placed a worm on the hook instead of an artificial fly.  At the very bottom of the block, I've added the shoreline.  This is to become a small wall hanging.

Things Texas, one of my original mini quilts is entered in the McCall's Quilt Design Star Contest.  If you get a chance, please use the link to pop over and and take a look at all the wonderful entries but vote for my little quilt ....... Things Texas.

thanks, in advance!

All Done Branching Out

Just finished my first portrait of Ayden. I am sort of pleased with it.....LOL....you know, we are always our own worst critic. I'm not giving up on this wonderful technique and am already planning my next try.  Many thanks to Gene, a wonderful blogging friend, who has an excellent artistic eye.
I really appreciate all comments which helps in the learning process.
I hope everyone has a great weekend and a save one, this 4th of July!