Introducing Everly Mae #3

Here is my latest little granddaughter, born yesterday weighing 7 lbs 9oz. This means that I will have 4 great granddaughters by the end of 2016!! Another grandson and wife are having a girl in December!! Wow, this has been an explosion for new babies in my family..And each and every one of them are so stinkin' cute!!

Another cutie, she has lots of black hair under her little hat..she and mommy are doing fine..Sew until next time, have a great day!!

She Has Arrived!!

 I would like to introduce my first great-grandchild, Josie Sue..she is beautiful. She came into this world on Friday at 6 lbs. 13 oz, 20" long. She has lots of black wavy hair and so pretty. Of course, I am partial to this little one. I think she is perfect in many (all)  ways.

Here she is with her new granny, my daughter, Susan.

 And here she is with her old granny, me!!  My grandson tells me that Josie Sue loves her little blanket that I knitted for her..it sure is great for cuddling!!

And I guess I better get out the knitting needles again because I have 2 more great grandkids coming in 2016...Until next time I hope you have a Stitches kind of day, it was great!!!

It's Happening Again!!

Yes, that's right!!! I am going to be Great Grandmother again! This makes #3 and this little one is due about the middle of September.  #1 is due February 27th, just about 2 weeks to go, it's so exciting! Baby #2 is due about the first week of August.   Both of my daughters are going to be first time grandmother's and that's exciting for them..   Our family is growing fast..Sew until next time, have a Stitches kind of day!!!  Yippee!!

Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side-My Art Quilt

I am entering my quilted portrait of my Dad, the Sailor at .Amy's Creative Side Quilt Festival  I have not entered anything in the Quilt Festival previously so thought it would be a fun thing to do. There are many categories and many beautiful quilts for our eye candy. Sure hope you will hop over and check them out. Here is Dad's portrait quilt...He was about 28 in this picture and  in World War II. He lived to be 98 1/2 and lived on his own until the last few months. We lost him in January 2012 and I still miss him a lot.

I Honor Veteran's Day

ARMY-Korean War, My husband, Jerry, 1935-1997

NAVY WW II, My Dad, 1913-2012

  And all the veterans, past and present, that defend our country and keep us safe and free!!!

 Sew until next time, have a Stitches kind of day....

The Fair...and Weddings!!!

I've been missing on here for over a month. I haven't been hiding, not on a trip but just plain lazy about blogging, I guess. I will attempt to catch up a little today. Here is a picture of my Quilted Village hanging at the County Fair. A couple of ribbons attached themselves to the quilt. First was the blue ribbon and second was a purple ribbon. It was awarded the Judges Choice for the best item in the Machine Quilted category. I was pleased..

The Quilted Village

My Baskets and Bunnies

Ring Bearer Pillow for Grandson's Wedding

Corner of Pillow

I made this pillow for my first grandson wedding on July 6, 2013. Hand embroidered on the wrong side of ivory satin. The corners were pieces of the straps from the bride's dress. She took the straps off and wore the dress strapless..

This was the first of my grandson's weddings this summer. Number 2 was on August 3, both weddings were beautiful and were lots of fun. The days just didn't last long enough.....

There was just so much going on the past month and a half, that blogging was the furthest thing from my mind. I hope I can get back in the grove now and make some entries here on a timely basis...Sew until next time...Have a Stitches kind of day....Bye for now.....

More Embroidered Tea Towels, Kitties This Time

Gee, I am surprising myself with another post so soon, it's only been 2 days since the last one but I wanted to show you the other set of embroidered tea towels that I just finished on Saturday for the bridal shower on Sunday (yesterday).  Yesterday, we (7 of us) traveled to Humphrey, NE for Jenna's bridal shower..she and my grandson, Jordan, will be getting married on August 3rd..Jenna's Aunt and cousins hosted the shower and of course, Jenna got many nice gifts. Here are the pictures of the tea towels, and I believe I got the free patterns from the Needlecrafter site again.

On this set I added the corner fabric again but this time I just went straight across the top instead of curving. I learned something from this, it was much easier to tuck the ends of the rick-rack under at the edge of the towel with the curved top. The curved top would be my choice from now on, if I decide to use the fabric. I do think it adds to the towel but I'm wondering what will happen to it, if the towel needs bleaching to take out some stains?  I think Oxy-clean would be my answer for that.  Oh well, I need to get busy here and get the ring-bearer pillow finished this week, (that's my deadline) for the July 6th wedding. It will be here before we know it!!!  Sew until next time, have a Stitches kind of day.........................

She's Home!!

 Here she is coming up the ramp at the airport...I am so grateful she is home after being abroad since the first of January. She went to England to study at the University of Birmingham for a semester.  She had a wonderful experience, loved her flatmates, did a lot of traveling, saw so much and hopefully passed all of her exams!!! I am still hoping she will write more on her blog about her travels and experiences, some good and some not so good.  We all welcomed her home with open arms...

They Left On A Jet Plane........

 

My grand daughter, Abby, decided that she wanted to study abroad for a semester, so she applied and was accepted to the University of Birmingham in England. It was associated with a type of exchange program, I think.  There were 2 other gals from the University of Iowa that were going also, but they backed out a few weeks ago. So my daughter and son-in-law decided to accompany Abby to England..They left yesterday afternoon and I tracked them on a flight tracker and I see that they have arrived safely. They have rented a car and now I worry about them driving on the left side of the road!!!  It's a mother's and grand mother's duty to worry, right???  Today I am feeling rather solitary, I guess. It's been a whirlwind having all the activity over the holidays with family and now everyone is leaving to go some place, back to school or work or traveling.  Abby will be in England until June 15th so I hope she doesn't get too homesick. We will talk by Skype and that will help her and the rest of us too.  I hope she has a wonderful experience and makes some great friends. I miss her already!!! Her parents will be back home next week sometime and I will be happy when they return also. Sew until then, I hope I have many Stitches kind of days...and you too!!!! 

Granny Aprons

These are the 3 aprons that I made for my two daughters and daughter-in-law for Mother's Day...they liked them!!!

98 years, 7 months and 4 days

I guess you might say that I have been on a roller coaster ride for the past several weeks and just haven't had much interest in posting anything here. My Dad passed away on January 17th at 98 years, 7 months and 4 days old. He had lived alone since my stepmother's passing a little over 3 years ago but just a couple of months ago he began having some problems. Mainly, he was losing his ability to swallow, got very weak and ended up in a care center for a few weeks and then got pneumonia that finally took him. We were very lucky because he was still sharp as a tack and made his own medical decisions that affected the end of his life. It doesn't matter what age your parents are when you lose them, does it? It is always a hard time to go through but I just count my blessings that we had him as long as we did. I have to remember to Celebrate his life as that is what he would want us to do. Now we are in the process of going through the household things, cleaning, sorting and deciding what to do with the mountains of accumulations.  It's one thing to lose an elderly person but to lose a young one is even harder to understand. On January 2, my husband's cousin passed away very suddenly at 36 yrs of age, leaving his wife and a 5 week old baby, their first child, to survive. That was so sad and so you can see that January was not a good month for me and my family. I hope I can post again soon with a more upbeat subject and something more uplifting but I felt that I need to post this so those of you who follow me, would know why you haven't seen me for a while.  Sew until next time, take care of yourself and yours.  

Thankfull for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is beginning here for me. Two nephews are coming with their families to share Thanksgiving with my family.  One is coming from California and the other from Oklahoma, they are brothers and we haven't seen them for 5 years nor have they seen each other in that long. So we will really have a lot of catching up to do, whew, it's going to be fun. They will leave early Friday morning to drive to Lincoln, NE for the big Iowa/Nebraska game and then leave from there to go home on Sunday..we only get to see them a very short time, but we take what we get and enjoy it!!..Well, I have to close now and get ready to go to the airport, I'm really excited to see the "kids". They will all be here this afternoon.. (The postcard is a very old one out of my grandmother's postcard book)

Sew until next time, I hope you have a "Stitches" kind of day!!!

9/11 Not Forgotten

I watched most of the specials on TV on 9/11 and thought they were done with reverence. The new memorial looks wonderful and something we can be proud of for years to come and I hope that it will bring peace to the memories of all who were lost. I made a wall-hanging for my son in the month after 9/11 and want to show it to you now. My son is an Omaha Firefighter and I just knew when I saw this free pattern on the internet that I had to make it for him. It still hangs in their living room today, it's getting a little faded around the edges but still instills patriotism in those who see it. I hope you like it.  Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day.

Eleven thru Fifteen, Again the Civil War Blocks

London Square

Yeah, here are 5, I repeat, 5 more blocks....we've had tons of rain lately so you can guess what I've been doing!  I really want to get caught up on these blocks and there are 26 posted now, 27 will be posted on Saturday so I have a few more to go.  Above you see London Square, a neat little block..

Louisiana

Here's Louisiana, done in a couple of my favorite colors, lavender and purple..not the best picture in the world but you can see at least part of it.  ;-)  Below is my Little Blue Basket, love it!  I had to have the handle on mine, it's just too hard to carry a basket without a handle, isn't it?  I love basket patterns..

Little Blue Basket



Fox and Geese

Fox and Geese, what can I say? I'm not quite sure what is the Fox and what are the Geese, does anyone know?  And maybe it really doesn't matter. Not one of my favorite blocks, I think it came out rather ho-hum.

Fort Sumter

I like how this block came out although it doesn't show up that great in the picture. It is a rather dark block so it didn't photograph too well.   I'm not real newsy today but I do have something that I want to brag about.  My 10 year old grandson pitched a no-hitter night before last. Any of you baseball mom's and grandma's will know that it is something to brag about..Well, I think I'm headed back to my sewing room today as our heat index is supposed to be 106-110 and that's way too hot for me to work outside..I hope you have a Stitches kind of day...Sew until next time....Stay Cool!!!

Yesterday was a special day!!

Me and Dad - his 98th birthday

As of yesterday, my Dad has lived in this world for 98 years. It is just hard for me to imagine, living that long and having so many memories.  He said  "it's just another day" but we didn't think so!! My son, and 3 grandsons and myself went to have lunch and birthday cake with Dad. He is still in his own home and lives alone, although family members and friends stop by frequently and check on him. I know my sister brings him dinner most every day. His mind is sharp and he still has his sense of humor, we are just lucky to have him with us after 98 years...I hope he has many more days to share with us..Yesterday was a Stitches kind of day for me!!! 

A Laughing Matter!! ;-) ;-0 !!

I don't know if I can write and get this across to you or not but I will try...Today I was at my DD house (she had back surgery a couple of weeks ago) planting some flowers for her and my 23 year old grandson was digging up the dirt a head of me so I could get the flowers in. Well, my "beloved" (and I truly mean it) SIL was afraid the GS was going to hit a sprinkler head so he decided to turn the sprinklers on to mark the heads.  BUT I was sitting on the ground and just happened to be in the line of fire (water) when it came on. Needless, to say, I got wet. I'm yelling at my SIL, Mike, Mike!! I tried to lay low to the ground, hoping the water would go over me, duh!!! That didn't work so I rolled over (picture this in your mind) to get up on my knees and got blasted from the back and when I got up, I sort of got it from the front. My glasses were completely covered in drops and everyone was laughing so much they were crying. I thought my DD was going to undo her back surgery, she was laughing so hard. It was not a pretty scene, just wish someone had recorded it so we could have sent it in to America's Funniest Videos..I'm still laughing when I think about it and it will be something that comes up in conversation in our family for a long time, I'm afraid..It was an eventful afternoon to say the least!!! I had a "Stitches" kind of day for sure!!! sew until next time..keep dry!!!

Happy Mother's Day and Grandma's Too!!

And Grandma's too... While we honor all our mothers
with words of love and praise.
While we tell about their goodness
and their kind and loving ways.
We should also think of Grandma,
she's a mother too, you see....
For she mothered my dear mother
as my mother mothers me.
Author Unknown

I just wanted to take a few minutes to honor Mother's and Grandmother's on this special day.  I'm a Mother (3X) and Grandmother (8X), roles that I will always cherish. We had a nice brunch this morning up at my oldest DD's house and I received some lovely gifts....but the real gift was just being together as a family. My youngest DD wasn't home today but she will be here next week for a graduation celebration..I got her beautiful card yesterday with a gift certificate to one of my favorite stores so I think I'm about the luckiest Mother around today. Blessings to all of you and I hope you are having a "Stitches" kind of Mother's Day....until next time.  Enjoy your day!!!