Label Making and newest Embroidery

Hey there, want to here a funny story? OK, well, this morning I was all dressed and ready for work. I went downstairs and was getting ready to go when I put my hands on my hips. Not in an angry way but with my fingers facing my back, when I felt something *odd*. It was kind of crusty and I wondered what I had gotten on myself. Quick trip to the potty to take a look ... and EWWWW. The top of my my pants were covered in CAT BARF!!! GROSSSSS. *SIGH* I guess that happens when you leave your pants lying around (on the divan next to the bed) and you have 5 cats that make it their mission to sleep all over any piece of your clothing that touches a horizontal surface. Quick change into new pants and off to work, whew, crisis avoided!

On to some fun stuff. A little while ago I bought some custom made labels with my name and a small logo on them. It was a twill tape and said "Mama Spark's Quilts" followed by a wee kitty that I designed. I have only used them once so far and they were a little expensive but I love using them on certain projects when I don't want a huge ole label. There has to be a better way, right? So I went online in search of a custom rubber stamp. I found a fantastic place and sent in what I thought I wanted. Here is what I got back. The stamp is about 3" so the tape will be about an inch and a half when folded over and inserted into the binding.

I have some fabric ink stamp pads from Versa Craft that I have used with the stone stamp my friend Yuki made for me. She is the first one to give me the fabric ink pads too. I have looked and found some bigger pads and will be ordering them in several colors to use. The wee kitty has a heart on it's chest so I may have to try to figure out how to make that part red. I'm pretty sure I can figure out how to do that and I have some red pads already. I am going to purchase my own twill tape and make my own labels! Brilliant, right? I'll keep you posted. The online site I ordered from was fabulous to work with and the cost was very reasonable.

Last night was the CAQG meeting. I love the Wednesday night quilters! One of the ladies brought her DGD along. She and her folks have moved back to MI from Las Vegas. Papa lost his job so they moved back home and literally back to her home too. She and her DGD seem to be adjusting. Her DGD is such a sweetie. She sat next to me all night while I worked on my embroidery. I was showing her how to do what I was doing and I had her choose the colors of the clothes for me. Please realize that my stitching is far from perfect but I am happy with how it came out. I will be tracing the next one tonight (I hope). I asked DGD if she would like to try one and she likes horses, so I have a horse to trace for her tonight too. This is what my little boy turned out like.

I know, I was supposed to show you when it was "in progress" but DD1 borrowed my transfer cord and did not return it to me until this am, ARGH!! Anyway he is finished now. The next one will be a little girl.

We are getting ready for some severe thunderstorms. Can't wait!! It's almost time to go home and then to the gym and then to my tracing!!

Weight Loss Progress

I have some good news...I lost another 2.6 pounds according to the WW scales. Yeah me!!! I also went to the gym and did the treadmill for 30 minutes and then did Pilates for an hour. I never feel bad in Pilates but boy was I sore this morning!! When I weighed myself on my scale at home this morning it says I lost another pound, but I am posting the weight loss from the WW scale so that one will have to count next week.

I have been asking my friends for any of their Kaffe Fassett scraps. I need 2.5 x 5" pieces, so if any of you are feeling generous, send some KF lovin' my way would ya? I have a project in mind but just need some additional scraps. One of my friends gave me this fantastic pile yesterday.


Pretty cool huh? Now never fear, if you see some you have too and you are sayin to yourself, "Darn it, she already has that one", I can always use more! Really, it's true!! I need a lot of scraps.

Also, I have told ya'all that I am having trouble sleeping, right? NO?? Well, I am and it really sucks! I am lucky if I get 4-5 hours of uninterrupted sleep a night. YAWN, JK... Anyway, I discovered a magic little helper that is natural. Melatonin! I take one about 1-2hours before bed and like magic I fall asleep and stay asleep. When I remember, dang it, now I need to work on that. Where was I going with this? Ah yes, so Sunday night I forgot to take it so I was tossing and turning so I just got up. I decided to work on my embroidery (to try to catch up to PTM). Here is what I got done.

I just have a bit more of the basket, the arm and the ground and this one will be done! Course, I went to bed around 2am and was up at 6am for work. The weird thing about this no sleep thing is that I really don't feel tired all day. You would think will all this exercising I would sleep better but alas it is not helping!

Tonight I go back to the POKE-N-STAB group (the church ladies, CL's for short). Part of me is looking forward to it and part of me is not. After the month long break I realize I don't miss it as much as I thought I would. Now I need to pray about this and see if God is calling me in another direction. All signs are pointing that way. Do you believe thing happen for a reason? I do and so far several things have been pointing me away from that group. We will be going over their surveys tonight and we will see how that goes. I have some prior comittments as far as quilts promised that need to be completed so I am there at least until the summer.

Thanks for stopping by and peeking in at my life!!

More potential quilts!

Here are a few of the hand embroidered blocks I got from Liz. They were done by her mom. Each block is 18" and there are 12 of each design. So here are my setting ideas. For the moose I thought of a double nine patch or the block called Rosebud. The double nine patch is a nine patch and 5 of the patches are also 9 patch's. It kind of looks like the border in the block and looks a lot like cross stitch. The Rosebud pattern has ALWAYS looked like moose feet to me!

For this one I found a block called Bear Tracks at Quilter's Cache. It is the bear paw with the claws pointing out. If I use both the moose and the bear one I may do the "feet" of each animal on the diagonal marching across the quilt. What do you think of that?
These fun little guys are not hand embroidered. Liz did them on her embroidery machine and asked me to design a quilt around them. The colors are so bright and fun! I am thinking of setting them with "crazy quilt" blocks around them or building a wonky, crazy quilt-esq type of thing around each of them. I think either could be fun. Give me your suggestions.
This beauty was hand stitched by Liz's mom. There are 12 of them and they are 18" each so BIG. So delicate! I am thinking to set these on point and alternate with large half square triangles that are surrounded by hst, or not, I haven't decided yet. They would be a pastel and white (or white enough to match the flower's background. Any other suggestions?
I trimmed the 32 green strings I have for the St. Pat's quilt. I took and did a color diagram of the clover quilt but I am having a bugger of a time uploading it here for some reason. I will post this and try again so you may see it and you may not!

Have a happy and productive weekend!!

Well, I wish I could take credit for getting the picture here but Liz the whiz saved me again. She had scanned this in and sent it to me as a pdf which I could not post (is there a way, I will have to investigate) and sent it to me as a jpg which is what you are seeing here. Hurrah for Liz! The string blocks are either all greens with a clover print in the center or all green with a wow print in the center (which will be turned to form the 4 leaf clover.) Let me know what you think.