More Blessings My Way Come

I've lived through pain and hard times in my life, but I must say I've had a very blessed life through it all.
This is just another blessing in my book. Someone was going to throw this sewing machine away because they didn't want it anymore. I was asked if I wanted it. I went to see it before making a decision and just jumped up and down when I saw it was a Pfaff. (A wonderful brand for decades.) I definitely wanted this to go home with me.
We don't own a truck so my husband has a friend with a truck and they went in the cold, misty rain last Saturday (Jan. 30, 2010) and picked it up. It was a real nasty day for weather. A wonderful day for me.
My husband goes along with anything I want, but his friend wanted to know what tha heck was I going to do with this machine. I said, "I don't know, but I'm sure there's a reason it fell in my lap." Another of our friends came over and put a new cord on it. I spent last Sunday cleaning it up, oiling, and playing with it. Bonding with it ya know....
I was able to download a copy of the original manual and it helped me find all the spots to oil. (It's a German made machine, and some of the oil spots are marked with "Oel.") Cute huh? There are about 25-30 "Oel" spots and I was careful to only use 2-3 drops like the manual said. Well... after I put everything back together, the machine just wouldn't sew very well. The manual stated not to over-oil. After spending an hour or two trying to figure out what was wrong, I gave up and went in the house. I told my husband I'd messed it up, and he reminded me if was free and not to worry about it.
Before I went to bed, I had to just check it one more time. I went over everything I did and had forgotten my new machine does everything automatically (nearly) and on this machine, you have to dis-engage the motor (turn dial) to wind a bobbin. Geeze.... I tightened that dial up and popped in some fabric. The G-Force pushed me away from the machine. Un-believable! It's so powerful and sews so fast. It does zig-zag and other stitches that I haven't played with much. It sews perfect.
I am one lucky chick-a-dee. I'll tell ya. I know God has a plan for me. I just have to figure out what it is. So I have a perfect little spot in front of the window for the machine. I'll just have to sew myself a seat-belt so I can sew without rolling away. It's too funny...but true.
I wanted to buy an industrial machine about four years ago to use in my tote-bag business. I just never found one and I had stopped making the bags after I went to work. Now...I'm getting in the mood to give that a try again. We'll see.
I'm always flip-flopping between sewing and stamping. Now that I finished the mini-quilt, I'm ready to get back to stamping for a little while. Whoo-hoo!

If you read this far... I sure do thank you for putting up with me.

Thanks for stopping by.

Debbie

Valentine's Mini-Quilt Wall Hanging

This post is for my 'blog cheerleaders", Jo and Trena. I hope you get to see this. I know...I'm a terrible blogger. I stay busy in my little "strawberry cottage" crafting away. I just don't make a lot of pictures of what I make.
I found the free pattern on the AccuQuilt Web site. I didn't have the heart dies from AccuQuilt, but I used my Cricut Expression to cut out the different sizes of hearts required. I ironed the Heat n Bond Lite (Sewable) onto my fabric before cutting. I left the backing paper on the fabric, but I think I should have removed it before cutting. I'll try that next time. There were a few little spots that I had to cut with a craft knife, but it didn't take too long.
I didn't want to buy any more red fabric to use around the outer edges of the quilt, so I just used one of the scallop stitches on my machine to stitch around the outer edges.
I also cut the square too small and had to add a 2" strip around all four edges. Geeze... I know the rule about measure twice-cut once, but no one mentioned the 'memory' part. I forgot from the time I started measuring and cutting, what size I was making. Any hoooo... I added the strips then stitched right next to the stitch line. It turned out kinda cute.
My quilting is a little crooked...I was just 'eye-balling it' and should have marked the fabric with something. I used another cool "stipple" stitch on my sewing machine for the quilting lines. Love...love my Brother SE-350. (Jo.... are you sewing up a storm on your SE-350 yet?) hum? I wanna see projects too!
I have plans to sew more thingies... not sure what they'll be just yet.
Take care my blog cheerleaders! Maybe I'll get better at blogging this year.

Leave the love here.

Thanks for being you!

Debbie

My Day 12 of Tim's 12 tags of Christmas

What a cutie! This was the most difficult of the 12 tags for me to make. The roses were a challenge. I have to thank Tim for that because had I not followed his blog I wouldn't have tried making roses. I love how they turned out. I didn't have any grunge paper but I used two different card stocks. One was thicker than the other, but they worked equally well. I didn't have enough of the "blingie" gemstones to make the flourishes that I needed, so I used Stickles glitter glue and made little dots. I hope you can see them in the photo.
This was such a fun challenge for me. I think I'll now try to follow some other blog challenges to stretch my brain out of it's comfort zone. Woo-hoo!

If you've been following along with me I sure do appreciate it and I hope you've enjoyed it too.

I'm off to make a Birthday card for a friend and then out to dinner in her honor.
Have a great evening!

Day 11 tag of Tim's 12 tags of Christmas

Yeah!! I'm on the home stretch with my tags. This one was the easiest so far and I hope the one for tomorrow won't be too difficult for me. Woo-hoo!
I cut the cute deer our of white card stock and cut a 'shadow' from red card stock. I embossed the white deer with black flourishes then inked it up with red distressing ink from Ranger.
I stamped some very small images then colored and punched them out with a 1/2" circle punch. The I glued the image behind a clear stone that sort of magnified the image a little bit. Then the stones are glued in the middle of each Prima flower that I colored with my Copics.

I hope you are enjoying this journey with me. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Have a great weekend! I'm off to watch Harry Potter with hubby and granddaughter.

nite!
Debbie

My Day 10 of Tim's 12 tags of Christmas

WOW! This one was a doozie! I just love it though. I was able to use a lot of my Copic markers on this tag. It also has heavy duty aluminum foil on it. I didn't have the things that Tim used, so as usual, I had to improvise. How cool is that?
I had to stamp each letter on some of Tim's grungeboard that I found at Hobby Lobby. I used my 40% off coupon and picked up a package of plain grungeboard sheets. It's a very thick flexible chipboard type material. It's sort of like a rubbery chipboard material. I had to cut each letter out with an X-acto knife. It took me about 45 minutes to stamp and cut each one out. Tim used die-cut grungeboard letters, but I improvised. I know he doesn't like to use a craft knife but I enjoy using one. I glued the letters to the tag, then glued the aluminum foil on top of all the letters on the tag. I had to gently smooth out the foil around each letter using a round end of a wooden stick thingie I have. (I have no idea what it's originally used for.) Then I colored each section with a Copic marker. I used a black one to trace around each letter for an antiqued look. I just stamped a snowflake and cut it with my knife. I glitterfied the snowflake but it's wet right now, so it probably doesn't show up well.
I think the tag turned out pretty cute. What do you think?

Well... I'm super tired and ready to call it a night. I sure do appreciate you stopping by my blog to see what I'm up too.

Have a great night and Happy Friday tomorrow!

Debbie

My Day 9 tag of Tim's 12 tags of Christmas

This tag just touches my heart. That's my granddaughter 10 years ago. I still call her 'baby-girl'. She'll never be too old for me to call her that. I love this picture of her. She loves Christmas so much. She loved Frosty very much at the time. She had to hug him everyday and talk to him. So sweet and precious! I treasure the memories.
So.. I guess you can tell I love this tag. It may not be just like Tim's but the idea is the same.
How sweet. I colored the metal items with my Copic marker. The film strip was one that I cut up. The little pictures are from Tim's Web-site. He gave us permission to use them. He has a film strip ribbon available for purchase, but I had to improvise. (It's been like a treasure hunt to see if I could find something in my craft house to use for my substitutions.)
Let me know what you think about my sweet little tag for day 9. Thanks again for stopping by my little blog.

Take care and have a great evening.

Debbie

Our cat...Mr. Whiskers

Mr. Whiskers came to live with us in September. He dropped by one day and wouldn't leave. So, we decided to keep him and took him to the vet and spent a small fortune to get him healthy and neutered. Poor baby has a right front paw that had been broken at some time in his little life (he's about one-year-old) that causes him to hold that leg up when he walks or runs. The doctor said it would never be better, but gave him a cortisone shot. We have since moved him into the house. Not exactly what we wanted to do, but we've fallen in love with him and treat him like a little kid. He's got it made. He lets us know when he wants to go out and guard the yard. He just sits around looking at everything, then he comes back in.
He doesn't bother the tree...but I did leave off the ornaments from the very bottom of the tree just in case.
He's getting fat and has gotten very frisky since his surgery in October. We thought it'd slow him down, but geeze... he likes to play hard and sleep hard. He makes this chirping sound (for lack of knowing what to call this sound) instead of meowing. It's so funny! He only meows when he wants to come back in the house from being cold. Cracks me up.
I thought I'd share the picture I made this morning of him under the tree. He was smelling of the presents but so far hasn't had much interest in them or the tree. He'd rather play with a little stuffed toy or my granddaughter's dirty sock.
So if you come visit us, you may have to walk over a dirty sock or a playful cat. He will grab your feet if he's wanting to play.
Do you have any idea what the 'chirping' sound is? I don't know how to explain it, it's not a purr, but this little sound from the inside. Crazy...

Gotta go now.... thanks so much for dropping by. Hope you are enjoying my 12 tags of Christmas. I think I'm going to make a display board to put them on. I better get on that tomorrow. Maybe I'll share it here.

Have a great evening!

Debbie