Back in the groove.....

As you know I took the summer off from working and teaching. I have been back to work for a few days and today I taught a class! it was fun. It was the Pinafore bag by me and my sister. super easy and fun to make. here is Saundra with her cute bag.....
Maurene with her beautiful bag - (she used the same fabric as my sample!).....

and Cindy with her cute bag with the super secret pocket! LOL......

And Carol who's last name is the same as my maiden name! no relation though.....

And who came into the store? Penny Sturgess! the designer of great bags! she has been in magazines, designs fabrics for lakehouse and extremely nice! she is holding one of her new designs - Veronica! way too cute in plaids. Mardi will be teaching that bag. I just might have to take that class. I just love that bag.

Anyway, thanks ladies for a fun day. oh, and they got all there bags done. yeah!!!!!

it feels great to teach a class.......

enjoy,

Lorene

The Latest on Construction....

well, like always I have mixed up the pictures..... sorry..... here all the cupboards are installed except the sink cupboard. they haven't delivered them yet...... here are the guys installing them......

this is Mom's little family room. the tile matches the rest of the house....

here is the floor in the bathroom.....

her new pantry shelves......

The tiling in her shower is almost finished.....

Mom is coming over this afternoon to see everything. the painters hopefully will be here tomorrow. fingers are crossed......

Lorene

Thank you Penny!!!!!

Hi everyone! I have these 2 big closet sliding doors in my sewing room. I have looked at them forever trying to figure out what to do with them. I tried using the 3M strips to hang flannel. I want a design wall. I even bought pink flannel to do it. well, it didn't work. the 3M strips are NOT made for hanging fabric. sigh...... so I took down the flannel......

I have a cricut expression, that I don't use enough. with the remodel and organizing and getting rid of lots of stuff, there just hasn't been time for card making and scrapbooking. While looking at my closet doors - again - the light bulb came on! Yeah!!!! my doors have these paneled areas. what would happen if I put some vinyl on the panels? I could put quilty things! my first thought was yardage info. I can never remember! so I started looking for fraction fonts. hmmmmmm, I would need to spend big money on fonts to get what I want. hmmmmmm, what to do? then I thought of Penny Duncan! HERE - she can do anything with Sure Cuts Alot!!!! So dear sweet Penny came to my rescue. well, when Penny sent me the new file, all the fractions were all together. I wasn't sure how to separate them, so Melissa came to the rescue! so here is the first try with vinyl. I can see I needed it to be a little smaller. but it still looks pretty good! any suggestions to put on the other panels? LOL!
Thanks Penny and Melissa for helping me!!!! It was a fun adventure!

Basket Blocks

OK, remember a few days I posted some blue and gold blocks with LOTS of half square triangles? here is the beginning of the 25 basket blocks I need to make. oh wait - 24 more! I have all the bottoms of the baskets done and I have all the handles on the tops. so I just need to sew the two pieces together. I can see another top in my future!

Lorene

Construction continues......

Mercy, so much has been happening, so here is a little catch up on the progress.......
the new shower area..... My new laundry area. the cupboards are from the old laundry room. they fit!!!! our contractor wanted to do the tiling for us. I really like it.

These are the new closets in Mom's bedroom. they go the whole length of her bedroom.

this isn't a good picture, but they are smoothing the floor to her new living area (our former 3 bay of our garage).

Here is the big o' cement truck, I had to take a pic for the grandsons. wish they could of seen it.

they are really working fast! I think it is really coming along. this week, they will be tiling the floors......

Lorene

UFO Sewing

well, the guys are busy building away. Inspector came and passed everything! YAHOOOOO....
and me? I am sewing away..... I am working on a UFO from several years ago. I seem to say that a lot. but I have a lot of old UFO's! this one is from my birthday fabric from Thornberries. very pretty blues and golds. the pattern I started was Baskets in the Briars, from the book Butternut and Blue - threads of the Civil War by Barbara Brackman and Karla Menaugh. Now, I like Civil War fabrics. I have a few in my collection. is just not my favorite. I am trying very hard not to buy CW fabrics. but I am making this quilt. and shortly I will start Civil War love letters, and I am doing a Dear Jane in redwork. hmmmmm, maybe I like CW fabrics more than I think...... anyway, here is the first block. I made 16 of them. 288 half square triangles. Now, I had all the half square triangles done and placed in a bag. none were squared up. I think that is why I haven't finished it. so I have been spending time squaring up those 288 squares. plus there is a basket block with a total of 200 more half square triangles. those are all squared up and I have started to sew those together. I like the book because it gives a lot of history about the civil war and what inspired each project in the book.

I think this quilt is going to be bigger than I thought! in a day or two I will have the baskets done. Yeah!! it's getting closer to being finished. thanks Thornberries gals for my birthday fabrics.....

Lorene

More construction.....

so much progress has been made this week. it seems like a whirlwind! I have to say Daniel and his crew have been wonderful! they clean up everything every night before they leave. they are trying to be so considerate of us. they apoligize all the time for the mess and noise. I didn't realize how loud it would be. very unsettling. thanks guys!!! you are doing a great job!
now for the pics.... this is the new wall for the garage. now we have just a two car garage. this is the beginning of Mom's new pantry.

new home for the new water heater. we were hoping not to have to replace it. it is 13 years old. I think it lasted longer than it should have.....

here is part of my new laundry room. the guys hooked up my washer and dryer so I can do laundry this weekend. thanks guys.....

this is where the kitchen will be. so you can see all the lovely plumbing. you can also see the grand canyon going through the floor.

this is the new entrance to the garage.

this is the entrance into the apartment.

this is the wall behind the new bathroom. again another grand canyon. I didn't realize it would be so involved. I guess there were a lot of things I didn't realize. Monday the inspector comes. then they finish drywalling, and then the cement! hope the grands can come when the cement comes so they can watch the big truck do it's thing.

I think I need to go and sew a bit to calm and soothe me. LOL....

Lorene

Finished UFO's

OK, here is a better picture of the memory quilt. Jody Driver quilted it for me. Great job Jody! thank you..... this quilt is a sample I made last year for the shop. so now it is DONE! YEAH!

so 2 more done. and it feels soooo good!

Lorene

Our last day in Vegas

I was trying to find a place for breakfast in Vegas that would be on our way out of town. There are a gazillion places to eat in Vegas. there are buffets, restaurants, fast food, big money, little money, everything!!!! so while looking online I found the Omelet House. they had really high ratings. I talked to my friend in Vegas and she had lots of good things to say. so we had a go at it. OH MY GOSH!!!! a small omelet is 4 eggs and a large omelet is 6 eggs. they have pumpkin bread, banana bread, toast, english muffins. to choose from. there must have been over 2 dozen different omelets. would we go back - oh yeah! After breakfast everyone left for their homes. we decided to go home through laughlin. the traffic was pretty congested on the dam. As we went through Searchlight, there was a casino and McDonald's. Nevada has the strangest combinations of slots and stores. it always makes me laugh. this was a gas station, McD's, a convenient store, a small casino, and gift shop. one stop shopping! we stopped for a few minutes. we left we more than what we had when we went in!

Home safe and sound with lots of wonderful memories! happy anniversary Mom and Dad!

we love you.....

Lorene

Construction has started! Yahoooooooo

As you know I have been waiting all summer for the remodel to begin. sigh.... I go back to work this week. so Bruce and I will taking turns babysitting the house. but e are excited to finally get started. I have floaties in my house from all the dust. some of the smoke alarms have been going off! the cats are going crazy and very worried from all the noise. Me? I am cutting and sewing, life is good! LOL!

this is looking from the garage to the hall. no more wall! back in the corner is where the water heater's new home will be. that's also going to be my new laundry room. here the guys have taken out the garage door and are framing for the new window!

this is a better picture of the hall. they are moving the wall on the left to make the laundry area bigger.

This is a trench they have to dig for all the plumbing.

I know, not very interesting, but so exciting for us. things are going pretty fast. lets hope it keeps going that way. what will tomorrow bring? surely more cutting and sewing for me! LOL!

Lorene

Dinner at Macayo's

Again, I have so many pictures. so I am just going to share some. I have been working on this quilt since last summer. I will do another post so you can see the quilt better. it's a picture of Mom and Dad in the center. it has star blocks surrounding it. the center of the stars are family pictures. they were soooo surprised. Mom never let the quilt out of her hands. she held it all the way home. I think they both liked it. Now, since Mom and Dad eloped, they never cake a cake. so we had them do all sorts of firsts. BTW, the cake was from Cake - Nothing bundt cake. click on the blue link to go to there site. we had carrot cake and red velvet cake and all I can say is YUMMO!!!! so good. and the wonderful thing is they have a place in Scottsdale here! Yeah! I can have more......

Now the next two pictures should be reversed. My wonderful, lovely children felt that their grandparents needed some toys to celebrate this wonderful occasion. Lee was the one to present the basket. the basket was full. My parents were so excited to get a present! You can see their reaction when they realized what it was. I was going to share pictures, but, well, there was a lot of edible things. and edible tassel things, and edible underwear type of things. you get the picture. well, kiddos, you made them laugh!

I bet you didn't know there was a Macayo's in Vegas! My parents LOVE Mexican food. yummy!!! AND I bet you didn't know that Macayo's is celebrating 50 years! so the restaurant was decorated with 50 years signs and balloons. we thought at first they had decorated for Mom and Dad celebration! Thank you Macayo's!

Lorene

Wedding Pictures

here is the best looking couple. I really admire my parents. They do everything together. they work in harmony together. I know they have been married for 50 years. they have had a long time to practice. but they are very good together. here is the whole family. I can't remember when we had a family picture! Ronny, Cindy, mom, dad, me and dean. a pretty cool family.......

here are the guys........

here is my Aunt Gloria, Mom, Dad and my Aunt Joan. my Aunts are my mom's sisters..... when those 3 get together, be prepared to laugh! They are so funny.

There are so many more pictures. I might share some down the road......

Lorene

Oh no! a owie!!!!

I can't believe I did this! I haven't done anything like this since I was a teenager..... sigh..... I was quilting on my HQ16. I couldn't get my needle up, so I am poking around the needle with my finger. I push the needle up again and it came down and through my finger! what was I thinking? it looks like a snake bite. that sounds like a more adventurous story doesn't it? I cleaned it very well. it is just a little sore. it didn't stop me from hand sewing a binding on! LOL! anyway, machine is fine, I am fine, my pride not so much..... onto the next adventure.......

Lorene

Gunner man is 3!

Our little Gunner man turned 3! I can hardly believe it. we got him a sit and spin. he loves to go in circles and go fast, so this seemed like a perfect fit! I wrapped it in "Cars" wrapping paper and he saw it as soon as he walked in the door. he started carrying around the big box. he just new it was for him...... enjoy.....

I didn't get the pictures in the right order.... oh well.... but our little guy loved his present.....

we love you Gunner man!

grandma and grandpa H.