Cuddle time with Daddy

We all love Rocky's day off. . . here the boys get some quality time with Daddy.

Embroidery card

It came today and Thank God it works.  I had a scare.  I could write to it, but my machine wasn't recognizing it so I was freaking out.  I called the support line and the tech immediately said I needed a different card.  I explained that the Manufacturer assured me that this card would work.  She said that they just misunderstood what I was asking.  I was starting to really freak, but I kept her on the line and explained that it wasn't the reader/writer but my Embroidery machine that wasn't recognizing the card, she asked if I had the correct hoop size set.  DUH!!!! One simple change and voila I can now embroider designs I download from my PC :D!  I'm estatic.  Here's a test.  I decided to emblish my plain jane thread/scrap trash bag.

Hair Cuts

First of all I'm suprised that these shorts still fit.  I made these for them when Mardie was 3 months old. . . something's not right about that picture, but it's making me want to make them some more shorts.

We cut their hair. . . I couldn't get them to cooperate.  Mardie was really mad at me for putting any clothing on him at all and Charmie picked up on his mood.  We're probably going to cut Charmie's a little lower in a few days.  We cut their hair with the same guard but since Charmie's hair has so much texture and curl it's much longer than Mardie's.  We'll whack his down two more guards and it should be about right.

Charmie Builder's House

Charmie and Mardie both love Bob the Builder.  Here's one of Charmie's house creations.  He's getting much better at stacking these blocks up. 


Here's a better angle of the base.

Done for our date!

Rocky and I have had the blessing of my parents to watch the boys on Monday nights so that we can get a date. . . This is our 2nd one and it's been awesome to know that they are safe yet "forget" them and just be with Rocky. 

Here's the sweater ya'll.  I was hoping to have it done for this date night and luckily I finished it up just in time.  I was literally weaving ends as Rocky was putting the boys into their carseats to go over to my parent's house.  It's has a relaxed fit.  I did no ribbing so the hems at the neckline, waistline, and sleeves have a gentle roll.  I won't be washing this puppy in the machine any time soon!

Here's a better shot of the sleeves and bottom.

Puzzles Puzzles everywhere!

I love it when I find out something new about something old. I've had my sewing table for a few years now. Since before Charmie was born actually. My latest addition to the space it gives is an extension table for my new sewing machine so that I can sew larger objects easier. Upon adding my extension table I was running out of flat surfaces to work on though. You see I had my sewing table always open, and on top lined up my embroidery machine, my sewing machine and then my serger and spool rack. . . that doesn't leave leftover space, and with the use of my extension table I really didn't have enough room. I don't want a new table, just the one I have to work, so something had to go!
Rocky is going to mount my thread rack on the wall. . . but when I remind him he's not able to do it and it just doesn't come to mind for him otherwise so on my desk it sits. When I'm sewing I use both my sewing machine and serger so moving one of them off the table really didn't make sense either. My embroidery machine is the one that has to kick the curb but where could I put it? I've been vainly searching for a case but since it's deeper than a sewing machine it wont' fit hard cases that I've found and I didn't want a soft case for "storage". With so many people using this room I could imagine something falling onto it or being dropped onto it and damaging it.
I forgot I have a large cubby space on the right side of my sewing desk that I had put my binders of patterns into. . . I used to put my serger into this cubby, but never my sewing machine. I tried it and IT FITS!!!!!
I'm so estatic, now I don't have to buy a case and it's close at hand for when I need it. Yeha!
Now if I can just get that thread rack mounted. . .
sewing table closed

right side open with embroidery machine! :D

And the anticipation builds. . .

Here I go again having a long stint between posts and it's eating some people up, you know who you are! It's been a good couple of days to do other things. . .Well to be honest I did finish up a long knitting project, that I REFUSE to post due to the fact that promptly after finishing it, I decided to felt it a tiny bit and of course didn't do it by hand or use a test swatch so I ended up with a child's sized version. . . It was a shrug, very generous sized, but now it's barely a tube for my arms and it only comes past my elbows. I'll have to see if it fits my 7 year old Niece.
Anyway I've been using this time to sell things on ebay and make a little $$ to buy some supplies. I've logged way too many hours on ebay.com, amazon.com and half.com researching and obtaining books on quilting, sewing, serging, sewing machine presser feet, my embroidery blank memory card, and some other accessories. I'm getting ready to play. I'm waiting on some more deliveries this week so I'm kind of stuck until they come.
So I decided to return to another craft that I have supplies in abundance for, my knitting. I pulled out some stash yarn that I had gotten from my wonderful sister months ago. Moda Dea Cache Gypsi print. It's a bulky thick and thin 3 ply with one of the plys being a metalic thread. I'm drawn to metalic lately for some odd reason. I designed the pattern myself and started last Thursday. It's coming along so I'll be posting it soon. That's all for now, I've got to get some sleep before the boys wake up!

Well I'd like to know where, you keep the notions?

I got a great deal on some sewing machine feet for my machine from a local eBay retailer and wanted to have a home for them. I've been looking for something functional yet pretty to keep my sewing machine, embroidery machine and serger accessories in but couldn't find anything that I liked in the store. I have a few compartmentalized tackle boxes but they loose functionality when the things that I need to store just don't all fit into the same size case. I took a couple of ideas from things that I saw and made this up: It's a book style case, with 4 pages, and 86 vinyl pockets of varying sizes. I'm not currently planning to take this anywhere so it's not as though it needs to be super secure, but if I travel with my sewing accessories I will do it in style!


Here's a shot of inside the first two pages.

And here are the back two pages.

It's hard to tell that the accessories are in vinyl pockets, I guess I did a great job eliminating glare with my camera, but if you look closely you can see that there is stitching outlining the accessories.
Here's a matching zippered pocket for things like my pencil other marking instruments, and a few notions/accessories that I don't mind rubbing together. Now if I could just figure out how to make a sewing machine tote that was as sturdy as the commercial ones I'd have a matching set!

The new bike

Rocky and I decided to get Charmie a dirt bike when he was old enough to balance on a two wheel bike. . . Well that lasted less than a year until we found this one.  Here's Charmie's new/used dirt bike.  He's so excited about it, he was helping Rocky wash it.  Mardie was excited too, but he is too little to get the whole "washing" concept.  We decided he could come out and play after the washing was done.
He would have been smiling more, but he's really cold. Rocky ended up finishing up the washing and sending Charmie in to get dry.

Mickey Mouse

I was in the office either checking email, or sewing or on the phone. . . I can't remember when Charmie comes running in asking for his pants.  I explained that he didn't need them, but I would get up and get them in a minute. . .

Here's his solution for the getting of the pants.  He showed up literally 3 seconds later wearing his undies on his head.  He'll hate me later for taking this picture, but I couldn't resist.  He's just too cute!

Quilting, my next new thing!

Well after getting my new sewing machine and being tempted by friends (you know who you are) to quilt by seeing their creations I decided to try my hand at making a thing or two.  I've tried quilting before, once or twice when I was much younger and never took it up as a hobby to continue.  That may have been because I was doing it all by hand.  From the looks of my house as I type this post I can't be taking this up now, I've got some major cleaning to do today when I wake up!
 

But here it is.  My first wall hanging quilt.  I made the design myself.  From the size of the over all piece and interior components to the bead work.  I'm very fond of beads :D.  It measures 39"x21.5".  I used metalic thread to quilt with though you can't see that from this picture.  I used decorative stitches in two areas though once again you cannot see that from this picture.  I guess I should have taken closeups but it's so late at night.  I just wanted to get it posted.  Blog pressure.

I've got a few lessons learned from this second/first quilting venture. 

• Try decorative stitching out on a sample quilt, or small area, it's a bear to rip out of a large area if you decide it's to fussy.



• Beads left uncapped will find a way to spill EVERYWHERE! So put the cap on when not in use.



• You can never pin enough for quilting.



• What looks good on paper, doesn't always look good in fabric, especially when the paper is black and white pencil drawing and the fabric is full color.



•   Finally, quilting is much more fun when you can share.  Thanks J and K for all your tips, hints, and encouragement.  I couldn't have done it without you guys!
  

My new trash can

Now you see it!

Now you don't

I know it's simple. . . basically a muslin bag with a binder clip to attach it to my sewing table. No rocket science here, but I needed something for all of those little bits of fabric and thread I generate while sewing. I didn't want a large trash can I am trying to REDUCE clutter! And since I won't be putting any food or liquids inside a fabric bag is perfect. I have this thing for my serger that catches the clippings that's a fabric bag and it gave me the idea. This one is about 5 times the size of that one though and it's accessable whether or not I'm using my serger. I used the rest of the muslin scraps from making my serger cover. I didn't see a need to embelish it. It's invisible most of the time when the door is shut. It's just what I needed. :D

 

Mardie is still a messy eater

So I decided to use some flannel that I had to sew them some bibs.  The fabric was sitting in my stash, unused, I originally intended it for diapers.  I sewed a few dipes, but decided I'd rather buy them than sew them.  Maybe now that I'm liking sewing again that will change.  I used fold over elastic for the binding on most of them (black), one has fleece binding (red) and three are serged on the edge with wooly nylon (blue and green).  I really like that method and will have to find some other things to apply it to.  I used my metal snaps. . . I'm wishing I had a snap press.  I may have to do some research or buy a snap setter for my metal snaps. cuz this was way too hard!

Mitts for Charm

Here Charmie wears his mitts.  The colors in these photos is correct. He couldn't wait for me to finish.  He was so excited to watch me sew and kept asking me about everything in the sewing room.    I asked if he wanted his name or stars and he said stars so that's what is running around his mittens. I did have a selfish motive, Someday Mardie may grow into them and if they say Charmie. . .I finished them about 30 minutes ago and he's still wearing them, LOL.  He is trying all these things like opening doors and picking up stuff with them on, it's hilarious. 

Here's M wearing his mitts.  He just woke up so he's not his usual smiling self. And though he let me put them on, and seemed fascinated with them, he quickly managed to take them off. Both pair fit perfectly deformities and all!

 

Mitts for M

Ok, I'm not sure what's going on with the funky color, other than the fact that I don't have very good lighting in my office and the sewing machine light was shining from the side, these are really a much brighter green, and the stitching is much brighter too, and of course the cover for my embroidery machine is not pink!

They are slightly deformed.  I'm still learning this variable speed control thingie and stop and start button, and I don't pin, LOL.  Also something funky happened when I was monograming Mardie's name.  I think I should have used stabilizer due to the fact that the fleece is so bulky.  But Here are some little mittens for my sweet sweet kitten.  I need to make a pair for Charmie too. 

It came today!

Here's my new Sewing Machine, Kenmore 19606.  It's similar to the Janome MC 4900 QC. . . Janome makes Kenmore.  My 20 year old New Home machine, also in the Janome family was sewing strong. . . and loud, and somewhat finicky so I decided it was time to upgrade from it's 11 stitch functions. 

I love how quiet this machine is.  I need to go to the library to figure out how to use some of the decorative stitches and specialty feet.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it had more accessories and warranty coverage than what I could find on the Sears website.  I have read some reviews that are more indicative to what I received.  Sears would sell more of these first of all if they had them in the store for demonstration purposes and secondly if they represented them truly online.  I bought it sight unseen from my Sears store.  After the rep assured me that I would have 30 days to try it out and still receive a 100% like tender refund if I was not satisfied I figured I didn't have anything to loose.  Sears was also running a sale and then some rebates and financing offers that really made it a good time for me to buy.

I've been selling on eBay and Amazon.com to earn the money to pay for it and I'm almost 1/2 way there.  I'm hoping by the end of the month I will be all the way!  Worse case I'm planning to be there by the end of February.  So after a break for the last 2 days and tonight from listing and listing and listing, it's back to the grind tomorrow!!!

This khaki piece of canvas was the only scrap I could find that was solid and not a print in my stash during nap time so that I could try out some of my stitches and see them.  It's not very good.  It's rather heavy for the speed and adjustments I was using but it gave me a rough idea of how much I was going to love my machine.

OK, so much can happen. Freaky huge photos, baby getting woke up and refusing to return to sleep for hours. Many many things. . . I'm back for a minute to finish this post.
Yes K, I've got letters :D Here are two close ups of the available stitch menus. The first 13 stitch functions are on the keypad of the machine in the pic above. Then the rest are selected in either mode 2 or 3 or monogram mode.


And finally here's a little bit of playing with some plain muslin. My serger was so dusty without being covered. . . I know that the stitching is not perfect. I was just playing. No pattern, no plan, just messing around.

I think I'll be posting more and more sewing posts because it's much more fun with my new machine. I have a few projects in mind, and with my office clean I've got the room to work and do some things. I'm still knitting, and occasionally crocheting so I will be still posting those types of projects too, and the usual sprinkling in of an odd craft here and there like jewelry making, or painting or something.

New Year's Resolution. . .

Just kidding. I used to try to do them, but they don't resolve me to do anything. A week after I compose them I've forgotten not only what I wrote down, but where I wrote it. I won't do that to myself. It's so depressing to look back at that piece of paper and think of all of the things I wanted to do but didn't for whatever reason.
Nah, No New Year's Resolution. But I am going to make a goal for January 2006, just like I did for the last 2 months.
This month my goal is to have listed all of my eBay and Amazon stuff to sell. With Amazon it sells, when it sells, so I can't say that all of that stuff wil be gone by February, but I will have at least listed it by then. I have 2 reasons: First I need to continue to declutter and simplify and some of this stuff I've been holding on to for too long. It's just collecting dust and I need it to be either sold and making me money or given away and used by someone who will use it. The 2nd reason is that I want to buy something and need the $$.
So here I go. I have a lot ahead of me for this goal, but I think it's attainalble if I stay focused.

I did it!!!!

I can't believe it. . . I got down to the wire and just on the last day of the month, last day of the year finished it! My office/crafting studio is finally cleaned and organized. (I still have eBay/Amazon stuff to sell, and a file pile to go through for 2005 files but that's normal for the end of every year!)

I'm talking about the fact that all of my yarn and fabrics and other supplies are organized, My floor and sewing table are clean and ready to go for a project, and if someone wanted to come into this room for something I wouldn't be embarrassed! I've conquered the room, and at the end of the month, I won! I'm liking this goal for a month thingie because it's much more attainable to reach success. It doesn't feel like a huge life change, but at the end of the month my goal is a habit after all that work through the month so whether or not I plan to, I continue with my goal. Plus it feels good to do it still. Now I just have to decide what the goal for next month will be?????

My closet with the doors removed. Yarn by type, fabric also by type, wips bins, scrap yarn and scrap fabric bins. . . a collection of stationary and office supplies that I forgot I even had, scrapbooking supplies, my knitting machine, and of course my pink project bag!

My sewing table with my embroidery machine, Sewing machine with it's recycled sweater cover, serger, cone thread and some embroidery and quilting threads, a million notions, some extra canning jars that may store future notions, quilting mat, folding chair and iron.

The other 2 walls are my bookcase and desk, I cleaned them up for the most part too, other than the eBay stuff and file pile mentioned above. I didn't think anyone really wanted to see a bookcase or a desk. . . if you've seen one, you've seen em'all! You'll just have to take my word for it that I've cleaned them!

I would eventually like to clear more and have less clutter in here. I guess as I ebay and file stuff that will happen naturally. I'm just tickled pink that the floor is clear, and that I can access my desk or chair without having to move something first!

I hated the last purse I made

And I really really needed a replacement. But I didn't have $$ to invest in any that I liked. I searched for a while for a deal but I couldn't find one that was worth my $$ so I decided to make my own. I had these batik quilt squares from an eBay auction from almost 2 years ago that I had not used. I wanted to make something spectacular from them but was unsure as to what that might be. I also had some brown mini cordaroy fabric left over from another project. After finding these while searching through my stash I decided I would patchwork the squares and then quilt them. I had so much fun making up the design for my quilting work. I've never done anything like this before and it was really fun. This is the finished product. I'm so much happier with this purse. I don't know who I was trying to fool by having an oversized purse. It just resulted in lots of stuff getting lost and lots of frustration on cold winter days in parkinglots searching for my keys. . . This bag has no pockets I planned it that way! I'm going to be making or buying a purse organizer so it's all good! As it is though all of my stuff fits perfectly so I doubt I would have any problems with anything getting lost. I guess that remains to be seen though.

Christmas Day

Charmie and Mardie were overwhelmed to say the least.  They enjoyed lots of (too much) candy and of course all of their presents.  Their distended cheeks, drooling chins dripping with candy and how they are clutching these presents says it all to me. We had to pry them from their hands to get them to open the rest of their stuff and that continued on with each gift!  This CD and DVD were just stocking stuffers. . . they hadn't gotten to what was under the tree yet, lol.  To only be a child again!

Grandpa and Grandma Ray were with us for this gift exchange.  We later went over to my brother-in-law and sister's home for a Christmas Day meal with their family and gift exchange from my family!  Too bad I didn't have my camera to take pics of that feast and the mele' that ensued when 4 kids were tossing paper and packaging every which way.  This year's celebration of Christ's birth has been filled with family, fun, and fond memories.  It is a true blessing to share this time with each and every family member. 

Christmas Eve Dinner

We had 2 holiday meals this year for Christmas.  This is the first.  At our home.  Everyone is in the picture except for me and Rocky's mom. . . We were both taking pictures.  We had a nice meal of Turkey, Duck and Ham with sides of Sweet Potato Cassarole, Stuffing, Green Bean Cassarole, Rolls, Cranberry Orange Rellish, and Mac-n-cheese.   Yum.  We did the meal potluck style so everyone contributed something.  To me that's really neat because everyone can do something that they are really great at.  Rocky and I decided to not try to undertake a Turducken this year, though we thought about it long and hard. 

Namesakes

Here Charmie sits with Grandpa Charlie and Mardie is held by Grandpa Martin their namesakes. 

Daddy's belts

Both boys love to play with Rocky's belts.  Here they are at the entry to my office.  They can go no further because there's a baby gate preventing them, but they wandered in with the belts and their diapers so I had to get a pic.

With Grandma Manuel

Charmie and Mardie with Grandma.  I try to snag pics like this whenever I get a chance.  It's not often.  Neither boy likes to really be held for any period of time and when they do, they are so quick it's rare that I can get my camera in time before they jump down.  They had just gotten up from nap and needed some snuggle time with Grandma!  I think my mommy would agree it doesn't get ANY better than this!

Stalking. . .

OK, I know that Stocking is the correct spelling but when your 2-1/2 year old is prancing around the house wearing on his head a stocking cap you knitted, his on one leg the Christmas stocking that you just knitted, and on the other his baby's first Christmas stocking all at once and nothing else but his training pants stalking is a pretty good descriptor!  It's even funnier that I came out of the kitchen and found him like this.  All of these items were put away in their respective homes.  He could get to them, but it's not like I had them gathered together or gave him any instruction!

Mardie's stocking

I just finished Mardie's stocking.  I just need to figure out what I'm going to do to personalize them. 

less than an hour hat

After making the stocking I started looking at the patterns I had for my knitting machine.  I found some that I want to try and one of them was this hat.  It took between 30 minutes to an hour.  I'm still learning on my machine.  This is only my 3rd project.  Rocky liked it and wants one.  I want to make one for each of my Ray boys.  I think this one will end up being Mardie's.  Though I intended it for Charmie, and followed the pattern, it's a little smaller than I wanted.  I will make his and Rocky's bigger.  I need to figure out a way to add ear flaps to this one so that I can tie it onto Mardie's head.  That's the only way he'll wear it.

Like some of the other times I've tried to get Charmie to model for me I had difficulty getting him to pose and be still.  Here he's taking a picture of me with his photo ring.  And in the other one he was turning to run away!

Stocking full of inspiration

My crafty friends Jennifer and Christi have inspired me.  Jennifer made a beautiful hand quilted Christmas stocking for her son Mycah and is working on a second one for her daughter Trinity.  She recently started sewing and quilting and I've seen some of the garmets and housewares that she's made and they are awesome.  Especially for someone who just started. 

Likewise my friend Christi has wanted to branch out from recently starting sewing into needlecrafts and has picked up knitting.  I was exposed to crafting as a child so learning the concepts comes easy, but for someone who hasn't been exposed it's so impressive to me when they learn and start making things.  Christi found this tool called a Knifty Knitter that is like a loom for knitting.  She's been making hats and scarves and I think from what I've seen they are really cute. . .

All this creativity reminded me that I've been wanting to break out my knitting machine and get busy but haven't so I decided to search for Christmas stocking patterns and knit one for each of my sons.  They don't have stockings.  Last year they shared the "baby's first" stocking that had been up for each of them, but this is neither of their first Christmas so they needed a real stocking. 

Here's Charmie's, I'm still trying to decide how to personalize it.  I will be working on Mardie's probably tonight if I have the time.  I used wool blend yarn.  The stocking is over 2 feet long.  It will hold plenty of Christmas goodies!

 

The most beautiful serge I ever did see

I have had some problems with my serger. Not that it's broken or anything. Not that I couldn't use it for finishing edges that I didn't want seen, but it was just really making ugly serges. The stitching was really loopy like I took my thread, unwound it from the spool, threw it on the cut edge and used my sewing machine to try to stitch it down. It was so loopy that when I opened the seam it would show the stitches like a set of railroad tracks. I was frustrated and fed up, but not worrying too much about fixing it due to the fact that I wasn't really trying to sew or serge anything important. A mend here and there. . . a hidden seam that was already sewn by my sewing machine and just needed to not ravel.
Well Saturday I got fed up. I mean I had 2 courses at college in tailoring and garment construction. I should be able to serge a pretty seam. I was honestly being lazy about it. I whipped out my little Janome book and turned to the pages describing the incorrect serge seams and how to correct them and lost my ability to read or discern differences. It was like being a preschooler all over again and looking at the screen as the song plays, "which of these things is not like the other, which of these things is not the same. . ." I was lost. After studying it for what seemed like hours and comparing it to my seam and not finding a good match I decided to pick the closest one and try to achieve perfection using that adjustment. I had to serge about 50-100 seams on scraps before I quit and we went to get our Christmas tree. It was not working. It seemed like no matter what I did it was not fixing the problem. I was really disturbed about it now, I mean what's a girl to do when she's done all that she can and the serger is still possessed?
Well in the afternoon my sister came over, and as I was explaining the problem, and showing her my proud pile of serged seams I looked and noticed that one of my threads was completely out of the guide for the lower looper! Hallelujah! In all of my concern over adjustments I neglected to just see if it was threaded properly in the first place.
I realized that the last time I rethreaded I just did a quick job of it and possibly missed some other steps so I retraced them all. . . made sure every tension was threaded through, every guide had yarn in it. etc.
And then voila! I produced as if it were magic the perfect serged seam. I felt like an idiot that it just took a few seconds of being careful to negate a whole morning's worth of work. But I had a beautiful seam!

Our Christmas Tree Tradition

Rocky and I, mostly Rocky due to the fact that this wasn't in my family traditions from the past, but I have to put me too, because we are married and one. . . decided this year to start a new tradition for our family to go and pick our own Christmas tree with the boys. Since this is a new tradition for our family Rocky did the research and found Pinetop Tree Farm off Majolica road in Salisbury. We drove over and took a tractor/hay ride out to the tree groves and after walking around for a while we found this beaut. Our tree. It was the shape and size that we were looking for. It's an Eastern White Pine. It has long needles. This tree has a differnt look from the trees that I've seen as Christmas trees in the past. I'm used to the short needle variety. It's very soft and has a nice pine smell. Rocky and Charmie cut it down together. Then Rocky shook off the excess needles. We brought it home, set it up and dressed it with lights, garland, ornaments both old and new and even some home made cinnamon spice ones. We had a great day!

Pinup girl

Here's a pincushion doll I made tonight. I have no pincushion and really needed one. Though my pins don't roll due to their head shape they are a mess to pick up from a smooth surface. If I make another I'll give her a better skeleton, but she will work for now just fine.