Flowers for Me

My sweet hubby sent flowers to me for Valentine's Day. We also bought a new dishwasher after ours died. It was installed on the day of snow (Feb. 12) and was such a messy day. A pretty day...but messy. Hey the dishwasher is great. It's so quiet we had to go in the kitchen and listen to be sure it was running. Yep! It's that quiet.
Oh... and my hubby also bought me a harmonica. Yeah... I've always wanted to learn how to play one. After just a few days of practicing I could play 'Oh Suzanna'. How funny! I tried to learn from You Tube but there were so many different instructions I just bought a book. It has been the most helpful. My husband couldn't believe I could play something in just a few days. The bad thing is that if I practice in the house my cat will come up and bite me on the arm letting me know I sound like an ally cat or something. He bit me twice the first time I played around him. He doesn't like it at all. He runs after he bites me. It's true and I've tried it more than once. He is my coach letting me know I'm not ready to go public yet. So... I just go to my craft house and play to my heart (lips) content. You can get out of breath doing this ya know. I am following the book and must practice everyday.

The first snow picture is the view from my front porch. It had not been snowing for long and it piled up quickly. I thought it was beautiful but we don't get snow very often. You can see it didn't stick to the streets.

The second photo is the view from a window in my craft house right where the Pfaff sewing machine is sitting. What a beautiful sight. Yeah...the snow looked beautiful too!
Hope you enjoyed my treats today. I have been stamping cards but not made any pictures of them.
I have a new toy I may share in the next day or so... if you are interested.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a supah dupah day tomorrow!

Debbie

Sweet Treats

I guess better late than never. Did I tell you I was a lazy blogger?

I thought you might like to see what I made for the grand kids for Valentine's Day. Cute little pizza boxes. I found the template on splitcoaststampers.com. I forgot to make a picture of the boxes open with the chocolate truffles inside. Yum! Easy little boxes to make.
I used some beautiful digital paper that I purchased from Gina K Designs to cover the outside and line the inside of each box. I cut the round hearts and the word 'love' using Gina K papers with my Cricut Expressions and the Sure Cuts A Lot software. The long skinny hearts were cut using a Sizzix die and machine.

I hope you like my little boxes and if you have questions please let me know.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

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