Once Again

 Yep, I'm back. Mr. Cowboy finally allowed me to back into my little studio to play.

This video is about a junk journal that has a bunch of space to write or even do some drawing. With spring close, this is a great journal to get out in nature and do something fun.

A Little Romance

 Hi everyone!

I'm back with another junk journal project and also another practice run with the video making and uploading or is it downloading?!

So one of my girlfriends gave me several vintage type photos to play around with. Here's what I have done so far. I'm thinking this one would be great for a couple on their honeymoon or someone on a romantic vacation to place their little mementos as keepsakes.

So this journal needs more work but at the moment Mr. Cowboy has requested that I step away from my habit to help him with a tractor fix.....hummmmmmmmmm!  Until next time😁

Junk Journaling Again

 Here I go again. Hi everyone. Please allow me to practice on you all with my first attempt to video one of my latest junk journals. I am not good with the direction of turning the journal the correct way. Please use kind words with your critiques. And thanks in advance.

OMG!!! It's October Already?!

 Hi everyone! I've been missing in action for some time now. Don't ask what I've been up to cause, really, I haven't been doing much of anything except avoiding TV as much as possible.  Of course Mr. Cowboy has suggested that I cook more lunch, dinner and snacks during the hay season. I assured him that I'm doing my best in that department....hehehehehehe

Eclectic Me is still around though. Here's my absolute favorite  police lip-sync video.  I'll tell you why I love it so after the video.

I hope you got some giggles from watching. I liked that there wasn't "one" theme song for the whole video and each department was showcased doing what they liked. My favorite part was the K-9 unit performing to "I Believe I Can Fly." I laugh when that comes on every time. 

This delicious salad was the last of my "summer" salads.  Mr. Cowboy certainly enjoyed it.

While walking around in my backyard, I spotted this...(top view)

It's a mushroom. My imagination was immediately thrown back to my childhood when tiny people lived under mushrooms.  Anybody remember those times?

Grandma's lilies gloomed for the final time until next year. I love looking that this amazing process.

Finally, my Cousin Thelma gave me a pinch off her Four O'clock bush about two months ago. I've babied my little portion and finally go it rooted.  Love it!!!!!

What's everyone been up to these days? I'd love to hear about it. And hopefully I'll post more often.

Take care and be care!

Eclectic Me

Here's an inspiring song to our doctors, nurses, EMTs, military and anyone else that I've not named who are on the front lines working to us.
I salute you and pray for your safety.
Take care.
And remember, we are strong TOGETHER!!!

Eclectic Me

Greetings All!
I'm back with another look into me world.
First, I hope everyone is safe and well wherever you are. This Covid-19 thing is nothing to play around with.
Mr. Cowboy and I are "hunkered" down (this is a Texas term) in place with plenty of food, games and honey-dos' to take care of.

Eclectic Me #3 - Here's a wonderful song by a great performer - Gregory Porter. Take a listen and enjoy.

What An Iron

 

This is a Coleman's Model 4-A iron which was popular because of the "BLUE" handle. The irons were made by the Coleman company in Wichita, Kansas from 1929 - 1948. The one above belonged to my grandmother. The little container on the back of the iron held "white gas" or alcohol or Coleman gas. You would need to light the iron using a match and then adjust to flame.

Watch the video to see why I will "never" attempt to light mine.

 

VIDEO



So Soothing

I don't know what's wrong with me these days but sewing is the last thing on my mind. It's not like me one bit. Even mom is a little concerned but I'm just not interested. The other day Mr. Cowboy and I were near our pond. He was cutting a hay field so I wondered off to a nearby tributary to a creek and videoed  the following. I could have listened it that for hours.

I suppose I'm reflecting about my life and family or I'm just being lazy. Whatever, I'm enjoying these wonderful July days. Remarkable, the temperature is about 88 degrees. Unheard of in Texas in July.

Bargello! My First

I went on the Internet searching for a design for another donation quilt for Hands2Help

 and ran across a fantastic tutorial video about how to make a simple bargello without all the fuss over yardage, numbering and basicly ..... over thinking everything. Above is my finale,machine quilted and bound which measures 47 1/2" by 49".

I chose fabrics from my stash and even managed to throw in the color "blue" which I don't usually use at all. I couldn't believe how easy it was from watching the video, to choosing the fabrics, which BTW I added an extra fabric right off the bat. I've hardly ever followed, to the letter, a pattern.

This is what I call, one block. I made four block all together.

Here I've sewn the fabrics together then into a tube and then cut accordingly.

Here's a close-up of the fabrics I chose.

The following video was my guide into the world of bargello which I will be visiting again very soon!

Emmanuel

Norman Hutchins & JDI

Christmas

So, I Was Sewing When....

Got a few minutes? You're going to want to hear this one. So I was sewing up a storm on a secret project for October (a little hint below) when Mr. Cowboy texted me that he needed help with something. He doesn't usually ask for help with many things so I knew this must be important.

So I shut off the machine, turned off the iron, changed into my work clothes, jumped into the Jeep and headed for the pasture.

Now those who have followed me for the past few years know that I DO NOT like certain things (critters) but I won't list them at this time. 

I drove slowly thru the pasture, bypassed the "mud" hole that I got stuck in back in the winter...nope, Cowboy has yet to fill that in.....rounded a corner and this is what came into view....

Three "wild" pigs in Cowboy's hog trap. Two females and one crazy, hyped up, angry male that kept charging at the fence. Now, you may be wondering what I'm thinking about this time......well, let's just say that I was eyeing Mr. Cowboy like he was crazy because he was instructing me to back the trailer up to the gate of the trap so that he could maneuver the shoot into place. He was barking orders at me so fast, I could hardly think straight. 

The 3 little pigs (pun intended) were squealing and grunting and charging the fence. And did I mention that they can jump really high. That was scary to see. I'll have nightmares about jumping pigs which was pretty close to "pigs flying!"

Finally, Cowboy got the trap door open and had me manning one of the trailer swinging doors with a rope to pull it closed. Did I mention that those doors are very heavy and you really have to pull like mad to get them to catch!!!!!

So, with that all firmly pictured in your minds, now comes the really hard part. Mr. Cowboy starts prodding the piggys towards the trailer area, attempting to have them load into the trailer.....this is not easy and those pigs are mean and fast.

By this time he and I are sweating buckets. My hands and arms are getting tired from holding the rope in the ready; Mr. Cowboy is not happy that the pigs are not willing to get in the trailer when.....the male broke into a mad run towards me (OMG) then into the trailer. He went in so fast that I didn't have time to shut off the section he ran in to and he almost went back into the trap but I was bound and determined that that was not going to happen. I was screaming at the top of my lungs No! No! No! This gave me extra strength to get that section closed but me loud voice frightened off the two females. Oh' brother!!!!!  Ten minutes later the females went in, we got every area closed off and Mr. Cowboy and I collapsed onto the grass laughing and sweating but happy it was over.

The pigs are off to somewhere far away. I hope never to have to help with that sort of thing again.....EVER!

2013, What a Year!

What a wonderful year 2013 was.

I got into making mug rugs and could not stop myself. I loved making and giving them away.

I made a few quilt tops and actually machine quilted a couple.

This past Autumn, I was inspired by a little boy whose mom was worried about his inability to speak. One day, and I'm not sure about the entire thing, he heard Katy Perry's "Roar" on TV or radio and he began to listen and sing to it. Needless to say, his mom was over the moon about it.

I heard about this on TV and was overwhelmed and of course cried like a baby because I thought we don't know what can touch or help another person...and wasn't it great that a song could awaken a child and give a family hope.

I decided to put Katy's song to my 2013 slide show. I hope you enjoy the show.

Who knows what I'll get into in

2014!!

From My Garden-BOW

 

Fresh Green Beans

 

We're almost done with "From My Garden"....just one more block with a little surprise next week.

Stay tuned!!

 

 Watch this wonderful and quick recipe for fresh green beans...YUM!

In These Shoes - Free Designs & Tutorial

Some of my commenters asked about my designs for the wall hanging I made earlier this year. So as promised, I dug out the designs and am posting them today.  I did not fine the words "In These Shoes" and I don't at the moment know where I have that but will keep looking. If I can't find it, I will think of someway to reproduce and post it later.
This is how my life is these days...........sigh!!

As you can see, these are fairly simple line drawings. All I did  was trace off the various parts of each shoe onto my favorite adhesive, Steam-a-seam, press those onto the various fabrics I'd chosen, cut the pieces out then fused them onto my background fabric.

The following videos and photos demonstrate the process.

 

As you can see in this photo, when you trace, press, cut and arrange your design, it is the reverse of the drawing. Just be aware of that little fact if you are wanting your design to be in a certain direction.

 

I traced a circle on the section that I wanted to use, then cut it out.

 

Update on the words...............found them!!!!

REMEMBER when tracing the letters .... make sure the trace them letters face down because if you do not do it that way, the letters will be backwards.....believe me I've messed that up plenty of times.

Remember, turn page over so that it's face down when tracing letters.

I'd love to see and/or hear about those of you are making these fun designs.

I made a  round mug rug. It's not a very good one because I didn't use bias binding.....I know shame on me. The rug doesn't sit flat....sigh!

It is up for grabs if anyone wishes to participate.

This is "NOT" the Thursday mug rug give away.

All you'll need to do to get in on this give away is mention your favorite color in the comment. That way I'll know who wants in and who is just leaving a warm comment.

I apologize in advance for the non-flatness of the rug. 

I'll announce a winner August 29th.

 

 

 

 

 

Things Texas Revisited

A new blogging friend asked about the patterns to my "Things Texas" quilt. I had to think really hard about where those patterns were. It took me a couple of weeks to dig them out. I decided to re-post about the process and share the patterns with anyone who's interested.
As you can see from the photo, there are lots of what I call blank spaces throughout some of the designs. I am linking to my tutorial about how to do this particular process. It's a bit time consuming but well worth the effort.

• Below are the patterns I used. Just right click on each page then copy and paste them into you own document. You can then enlarge each pattern to your desire.
• I chose fabrics that would show off the silhouettes.
• I used Steam-a-seam or Heat-n-Bond as an adhesive backing on the black silhouette fabric.
• Note: One thing I failed to mention in the last video is that I had removed the adhesive before the final placement and pressing.
• After pressing the silhouettes into place, I stitch the raw edges into place stitching as close to the edges of each pattern as possible.
• The videos were made in August 2009 where I mentions a silhouette give away of that cow. Well obviously that was years ago but I do have a little surprise this August 2013. Scan down to the bottom of this post to see what's up.

 

The tiger is an example of another way to use an image as a silhouette and use more colors to jazz up the image.

It is my give away design for this particular post.

It is unfinished in that I have not stitched it down, never got around to it so it landed in my UFO box......LOL.

If you are interested in this unfinished block measuring

 approximately 12 1/2 inches just leave a comment and mention

 your favorite

animal

 and it's that easy!!

 

 

 

How to Fold a T-Shirt | Martha Stewart

I love this short video on how to fold a T-shirt. Sure wish I'd known this when I was growing up. My job at the time was folding dad's under-shirts, as they were called then.

Pop, Pop, Pop

That's the sound I heard just before I grabbed my camcorder and began filming around 6PM.

Yep, that hail.... pea sized hail but it sounded much bigger and very scary. I thought it would break my windows.

Great House Cleaning Music

For me, that is.
I can listen to the video over and over during the Christmas holidays until the vacuuming is done, the mopping and even dusting and lose a couple of pounds as I dance and swap to it....... just saying and sharing!