New Quilting Tool

I hadn't planned on getting on the "quilting tool tutorial band wagon." I'm not the most experienced or confident quilter. However, I thought I'd share something with you that is a really great quilting tool. I have to get a number of blocks finished, which involved flying geese. The method I'm using today is the tried and true sew two magic corners on a rectangle and voila! You are done. I do have these and plan on trying them when I have a few extra minutes. Like any self respecting quilter, I love gadgets. I am so impressed with the people who dream up these wonderful tools and techniques that make quilting so much more interesting, as well as easier.

I usually use a different tool to help me speed sew magic corners (and half square triangles), but alas, I couldn't find them. What does that say? My sewing room needs some serious organization! Anyway, I grabbed my Clearly Perfect Angles tool. I hadn't used it before so I was anxious to see how it worked.


You can purchase them from New Leaf Stitches. Their web site even has some awesome videos showing you exacty how to use them.

The thing I love about these is that they are acrylic and cling to your sewing table with no tape. They are thin so there is not "bump" and are completely repositional. You cut out a small area for your feed dogs and away you go.

You can chain stitch to your heart's content without having to pin. Just keep the point of your square on the middle line and ZOOM ZOOM!!!

See how flexible the material is? You can even leave them in place all the time while you are doing other sewing. They won't move or get in the way. How cool is that!!?!!

I have more than one sewing machine so I'm marking mine so I know which one goes with which machine. This one goes with my Bernina 1090 and my other one will go with my Bernina 440. Hey, I need to buy another for my Singer Featherweight!

Duck, duck.....

I went towards the bay area the other day, away from the valley in California where I live. This is where I ended up.


There were beautiful flowers! This is Spanish Lavender. Our lavenders are not this far along yet.

Beautiful roses.....



Ponds with HUGE Koi Carp.....

Lots and lots of ducks. They were very tame and not afraid of people.

Since it's spring there were lots of mommy ducks with their babies. They are adorable.

This little fella was one of my favorites. He was not afraid of anything. He liked jumping from the rocks and exploring the pond by himself.

There were white swans....

...and black swans. So beautiful and graceful.

Water features and stautues...

... and even a guest wanting lunch.

Was this at a park? Was it a botanical garden? No, it's a shopping center in Danville, California! It's just beautiful. I wish we had something like this closer to home. But it's only an hour or so away so I want to go back.

I hope your day is as lovely as mine was.

Your prayers are needed...

Please continue to pray for our troops that are in the Middle East. We just heard on the news that there has been a shooting at the Kabul airport. Eight of our troops were killed as well as one contractor, all shot by an Afghanistan military pilot. These were our sons, daughters, husbands, fathers, wives. My son has come home safely, but this still grieves me to my core.

Easter Blessings

"At the breaking of the Easter dawn

may the Risen Saviour bless your home

with grace and peace from above,

with joy and laughter,

and with love

And when night is nigh,

and day is done

May He keep you safe from all harm."

Keeping An Eye on Things.....

I'm so lucky to have a watch dog. I'm just not sure if she gets the entire watch dog "thing", though!

"Maggie! You're supposed to be outside patrolling, not lounging!"

"Mom, you do it your way, I'll do it mine!"

*The pictures over the bed are paint by numbers that my mom did years and years ago. The picture to the right is myself and my daughter, Dory, when she was just a little one. She's in the family picture in the previous post, far right. Time sure does fly by! The two darling embroidered pillows were made by Becky from Sweet Cottage Dreams.

*One of the commenters asked if I made the long pillow. Nope! That was a gift from Becky as well. Roselady, if you email me I can ask Becky if she made it or purchased it.

Welcome Home

Last weekend we had a bar-b-que at our house with family and friends. Not only were we celebrating our son's return from deployment, but it was our daughter's birthday as well as our grandson's birthday two days previously. We had a blast with lots of great food and fun. My niece just took a cake decorating class and volunteered to bring dessert.

She made a strawberry cake for Dory and Redmond's birthday. She didn't know that strawberry was Redmond's favorite. Boy, was he happy!

She also made a chocolate cake complete with rolled fondant for Aaron's homecoming cake. Thanks, Jamie, you did an awesome job!

Here's the entire family. It's the first time we've all gotten together to take pictures like this. That's my Mom in the middle, along with her three children and their spouses as well as her five grandchildren and her five great grandchildren!

How cool is that?

If you are counting children in the picture, you come up with one extra. The little guy in the black shirt in front on the right is the cousin of a family friend. He was so excited to be there he wanted his picture taken as well. So we made him an honorary cousin! Welcome to the family, Jacob!!!

Also, you may wonder where Maggie is as she's not in the family picture. Every time we have a bar-b-que at our house she goes to the local kennel to play. She's a "flight risk" and with everyone going in and out all day I am so afraid she'll get out and be down the road and halfway to L.A. before we can catch her. So she misses all the fun, but I feel so much better not having to worry about her.

In The Garden....

Aahhh......

SPRING!!!

*The pictures are from my back yard except the beautiful white dogwood. Our local Kaiser Medical Center has an entire grove of them planted!! How amazing is that?

Decorating

I was over at my sister, Janice's the other day and snapped a couple pictures. She has a beautiful home that is filled with wonderful antiques.

She collects hand mirrors and has them beautifully displayed...... in her hall bathroom! It's one of the prettiest bathrooms I've ever been in!

These are just so pretty.

The brown bottle on the left was made by one of her children in the 70's. Remember when we used to do those? Get a glass bottle and tear little pieces of masking tape and put them all over it. Then use brown shoe polish to make it look like old leather? Boy, that takes me back.

She has also started a nice little collection of vintage children's bowls.

This is a very old iron fireplace surround that is also in her bathroom. The little girl in the picture on the right is our mother.

I'll take more pictures of her home periodically to show you. She has quite a talent for staging little vignettes, although she doesn't think she does. Her home is amazing.

Maggie's In The House!

If you haven't figured it out by now, my Maggie is one SLS (Spoiled Little Scottie)! I'm terrible at keeping her brushed so I take her to the groomers every other Tuesday for her "spa day." She gets bathed and brushed and all gussied up. Then about every six weeks she gets groomed. That way she doesn't get tangles, something Scotties have a tendency to do, which can hurt when they are combed out. We're fortunate to have such a wonderful pet groomer about a mile from our house. They have a huge grass lawn out back where the dogs can run and play and not have to be on hot cement in the summer. It's also where I board her when I need to. I take her down for play dates to get her out of the house when I get my carpets cleaned and it's only $10 for the day. She has also stayed there for a week when we were on vacation and she had just a wonderful time. Part of the day they let the dogs play behind the counter. Maggie has her regular set of peeps that she plays with and doesn't even miss me......sniff!!!

This is Amy her groomer. Some days I think she loves her more than she loves me.

This is how Maggie greets me when I go pick her up.

Maggie and her peeps.

These dogs are so happy and well loved. It's fun to see all the different breeds. But I do love my Scotties!!!

My Attempt At Making Bread

Note to self: When using the mixer, make sure it's turned off and not set to high before plugging it in. Especially if you have stuff in the bowl!

This picture does not even come close to showing all the bread dough that went flying all over the kitchen and myself. I'm still finding it places!!!

As soon as I make bread that actually turns out and doesn't destroy my kitchen I'll show you pictures.