Some Valentine Love

I've been thinking about how to decorate my mantel for February with a Valentine's theme.  I bought a huge X and an O and have been looking around Pinterest for ideas for how to finish them.  I found some adorable free Valentines fonts and decided to make a little something I could frame.  I used a word processing program and wrote I love you! many times and then changed the font for each.  Once I used all my new fonts I copied and pasted them until the page was filled.  Then I found a free clipart heart and there you go!  

Valentine Love

Blessings,

My New Thread Rack

I saw this thread rack quite a while ago and have been wanting one ever
since.
                 

One day my daughter and I were at JoAnn's and saw this thread rack that was originally $30.00 on sale at 50% off. It had a couple of loose boards so I asked if I could get any additional money off and got it for $7.00!  

 I took it home and transformed it into this!

I took off every other row, turned them around so the dowels went straight out, and hot glued them in place.

I had a heck of a time trying to get out the staples that were holding the wood on so I bought a strip of molding for $3.00 at Home Depot, cut them using a little saw, and hot glued the pieces to fill in the sections where the other rows had been. I took off the two pieces of wood that they had for standing it up since I was going to hang it on my wall. Then I spray painted the whole thing white.

 Now there are 6 rows across horizontally along with a place for the matching bobbin underneath. 

Before I got my new Viking I used a Singer which I loved but the zig zag wasn't working.  It only had TWO bobbins. They were a special type of bobbin and even when I ordered the ones I needed they just wouldn't work correctly so I would have to unwind and throw away thread all the time. I have to tell you I am pretty excited about buying extra bobbins for my machine and never having to change the thread out on a bobbin! :)

Here's to happy sewing!

Blessings,

Sewing Room Art

Fooling around on the computer last night trying to find some cute prints for my new sewing room and I came up with this. I uploaded it to Scribd (link is below) which I've never done before and could not figure out how to get the picture below without doing a screen shot. Days like this I really miss my daughter who would say "Mom, you just do this!" :) I don't even want to tell her that yesterday morning I probably spent 2 hours adding my rss feeds from our imac to my macbook. There must be an easier way... 

If you like it, feel free to download.   Any day spent sewing is a good day.  Sewing machine clipart compliments of the Graphic Fairy!

PS.  I decided to make one in lime green.  You can find it here.

Blessings,

Kathleen

Something is Brewing...

Two things actually. One is a surprise birthday party for my dad who is celebrating his 80th birthday tomorrow. There has been quite a lot of planning, cleaning, cooking, rearranging of furniture, and movie making going on over here! I was even able to find Happy 80 Birthday balloons at our local party store! My dad's siblings are coming in from out of town so he will be really surprised to see them!

The other thing brewing is a new batch of vanilla. I usually start a batch in May that is ready in December for Christmas presents. This year I decided to make a batch that will be ready in June to give as favors at our annual family reunion that my husband are hosting here in Maryland. It is really easy to make and taste so much better than store bought.   

1.  Ingredients - 2 1/2 gallon bottles of Vodka & a half pound of Madagascar Vanilla Beans.
2.  Cut the Vanilla beans lengthwise.
3.  Place cut Vanilla beans in a gallon size, glass jar. 
4.  Pour the 1st bottle of Vodka in.
5.  Pour the other bottle of Vodka in.
6.  Put the cover on and let brew for 6 months.

Ok, while the Vanilla brews I need to go finish 1 more tray of Baked Ziti for the party tomorrow!

Blessings friends!

2012 in Review

I've been reading lots of blogs the last few days with round ups of their year. As I was thinking about how creative I had been over the last year I wasn't coming up with much. Then as I was looking back on some of my posts I realized that hey! I did actually accomplish something this year and besides that I took 5 college classes and managed to get A's in every one. It's been a year full of challenges and change. My daughter graduated from college in May and moved to Pittsburgh in October and in November my husband was forced into an early retirement! 

This year I managed to do the following:

I made two table runners - one was a wedding gift for the daughter of one of my wild thread friends Dian and the other one was a fall runner that that I had wanted to make last year! I made a cute pin cushion as a gift for my friend Chris, one baby quilt for the daughter of one of my mom's friends, and six mug rugs as gifts for my aunts. I made a queen size quilt for my daughter as a graduation present that includes blocks made by my friends in my quilting group. I made a 'thankful' quilted picture, painted a tree for my family room wall, made a design wall for my new sewing room, started on a Snoopy quilt for my good friend Melanie, and FINALLY added my sweet daughter in love Megan to our Snowman family.

Praying that you have a blessed new year filled with all the things that make you happy.  Make time for the things that matter: family, friends, neighbors, and the strangers you meet along life's way. Love deeply, forgive quickly, laugh often, be kind and gracious, and pray for others.

Blessings,

My New Design Wall

I know not everyone has the luxury of their own sewing room but if you do you might want to consider making yourself a nice design wall. I purchased a 4 by 8 sheet of insulation at Home Depot for under $10.00. I had to cut mine down to about 6 1/2 feet because of an intake vent high up on the wall. I just measured it and cut it with an exacto knife.  First I bought a package of batting and put in on by taping in on the back with duct tape however I was not happy with it.  It was too fluffy and I wanted it to be more like felt or flannel. I took it off, went back to JoAnn's and I bought batting off the roll. It was very wide so I only needed a yard and 3/4's. I laid the foam insulation on my dining room table, laid the batting on top, and then trimmed it so it was about 4" longer on all sides than the foam sheet. Then I rolled one side up, used spray adhesive on the foam and then rolled out one ended, smoothing as I went. Then I repeated for the other end. 

       

I used duct tape on the back to anchor the edges before it was hung on the wall. My husband hung it for me using nails with a washer into the stud.  

I took a circle of batting (actually the corners that I trimmed from the batting as I was taping it to the back) and using a small screwdriver I just carefully pushed the edges under the washer to disguise them!

Different view of the design wall.   I still hadn't covered all the washers when I took this picture.   

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy and healthy new year!

Blessings,

How About Some Font Love?

I know I am a little crazy but I do love fonts. I came across Font Squirrel this morning and have been downloading to my hearts content. I am actually on a hunt for a manuscript font that has a tail on the q for a bingo game at the Montessori school where I work. I have not been able to find it so I will keep searching. Here are a few I downloaded today. Fun right?!

Hope you are enjoying the holidays! 
Blessings,