Here's a Peek at My Week

April 23rd - April 30th

Welcome Spring! 

The pecan trees are leafing out in Oklahoma and that means no more freezing weather!  The tulips are blooming at our home in Pennsylvania (where my husband works) and the Azaleas are blooming at our forever home in Oklahoma.

Mom and I planted tomatoes, cucumbers and squash in our storage container garden. The plants receive water from the bottom using PVC pipes and a reservoir system.

I've been wanting to raise bees for several years now and in February I ordered all the needed supplies and the Bees. My bees arrived this week! I was so excited! It reminded me of the excitement I had as a young child at Christmas time. The Bee introduction to the hive went well and I'm anxious to look inside to see if the Queen has been released from her cage. I'm impatiently waiting until tomorrow afternoon to accomplish this task!

The Bees in their shipping package

The chickens are enjoying the Spring weather and I'm enjoying their increased egg production. Roscoe the Rooster is a new addition to the flock (adopted from a neighbor this winter).  He does a good job of protecting the girls but is a bit aggressive toward humans. I do my chores with my Rooster stick in hand for protection. I have to say though our relationship is getting better but we still are in the adjustment phase.  I'm trying to figure out if Roscoe is jealous of me or I'm jealous of him since the girls have been solely dependent on me for their needs since their chick days. 

I've been playing with the Free Trial version of Wilcom Hatch Embroidery Digitizing Program and I'm really loving it!  I've waited, did my research and have pretty much decided I'm going to purchase the program. It's user friendly and not as expensive as some of the other brands on the market.

  

I digitized these owls from a picture of the above fabric panel. It was my first real attempt with the program after watching the awesome tutorials. 

 I know I need more practice but it sure was dog-gone easy to do. 

This I'm going to make...soon. The guild I attend is doing monthly door banners. Members meet before guild and we receive the instructions and pattern for the monthly banner and have a show and tell of banners for the previous month. The banners are designed by one of our talented guild members. I'm looking forward to this banner hanging on my door.

This was on the sewing machine this week. A friend asked me to quilt, bind and embroider a label for a baby quilt. Cute quilt in Orange and Black....OSU colors.  

Hope your week brings happiness and peace.

Happy Sewing! Happy Living!

Black Tie Boogie - My Day!

My day is finally here. This has been such a great Blog Hop and I hope you've enjoyed seeing all the great projects...I know I have! It's hard for me to pick my favorites! Thanks Vickie and Mdm Samm for the time and effort that has gone into this successful Hop and giving me the opportunity to "strut" my stuff!

To begin....I have so many roosters and chickens it's absolutely ridiculous! I have them as figurines, vases, and plates and bowls. They are stuffed, made from sea shells, metal, ceramic, cloth, yarn, glass, wood, and paper. My collection goes from lamp shade toppers to tape dispensers! Some are funny, some are new and some are very old. I recently had to box up...(that is, use several boxes)... a number of them because I was over-run with chickens and roosters.

So....I've added more to my collection for this Hop....go figure! I thought I would make something useful and not just something to sit around waiting for me to dust it. So....I did some pot holders.

This first one was an applique design from EQ7.  It was really easy to do, very few pieces, and I machine appliqued it.

I used the circular attachment for my sewing machine and was able to stitch a perfect circle around the design. I picked one of the decorative stitches from my machine. We should all experiment and use those hundreds of  decorative stitches more. Play around and give it a try! 

For those who read my postings know how much I love to use my Serger. So for the edge I did a serged narrow rolled hem! 

A few more of my roosters welcoming the new addition.

With Thanksgiving knocking at our doors here in the United States, of course I had to do Thanksgiving potholders too!

I like to do machine embroidery so here is a happy Tom Turkey waving at you and wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!

And a closer view...over 45,000 stitches.

I again used a decorative stitch from my sewing machine to stitch around the design and a narrow rolled hem from my Serger.

 Oops....lets look at Tom Turkey again......

He hung around a little too long!

Thanks for visiting me today during the Hop and hope you continue to have fun visiting  the other participants scheduled for today:

Stitchin by the Lake

Georgia-Girl Quilter (You are here)
In the Boon Docks
More Stars in Comanche

The complete schedule can be found HERE

Have a great week.

Happy Living! Happy Quilting!