TENTH SQUARE

Here is block #10. I believe I showed it earlier but will show it again for the ones who did not see it.

Lazy day today. I went out to Michaels and Marshalls. Found a nice black fitted cardigan for those cold days in Florida and a nice belt to wear over it or with other tops. At Michaels picked up just 2 small things I needed. Nothing special. Came home and worked on the beaded front of the purse,. Seems like this will never be finished and my island top will be covered forever. Thank goodness this kind of stuff doesn't bother Harv. His office and big screen tv are in our loft upstairs so he just heads up there. I really am hoping a couple more days of stitching and I should be able to see my head above water.

POOL FASHION SHOW

Friday turned out to be another beautiful day and it was the fashion show/luncheon fund raiser for my daughter's pool group. It is a private pool in their neighbourhood of Inverness and you have to become a member and buy into the pool to join. It is run strictly by a volunteer group (daughter included) and hence the fundraiser. It is an old pool and is always in need of something being updated. They have a lot of fun there, barbecues, birthday parties, etc. Sue and the 3 boys are over there almost every day when the weather is good for at least an hour or so of swimming. Most of the boys friends belong also so there is always someone to play with.

She invited me to the luncheon with the fashion show modeled by the members and the fashions were by Carole Anderson. She apparently is doing her clothing now in home sales and has over 2500 fashion directors all over the country.

They had decorated the pool and some of the gals made box lunches so once the food was paid for the profit from the lunches was all theirs. The gal who was doing the fashions was going to donate a percentage of the amount of clothing sold. It looked like most of the gals bought something. I did not because they were fall fashions and it is off to Florida come Oct. for me. They also were selling raffle tickets and she donated a sweater from the collection as a prize. There were 2 others - one a basket filled with beauty products and the large basket pictured in the wicker flower holder (not included in the prize). My daughter won the cardigan sweater and she will order her size and she will get it when the clothing arrives. It was a nice afternoon and fun was had by all.
Hope they made some good money.

The pics are of the pool, the tables, decorations leading into the grounds, decorated dress form and box lunches, the table with 2 of the gifts and the large basket in wicker.

The first pic is of my daughter. The pants she bought for them were all 35" inseam and even though Sue & one other girl were 5' 7" and 8" they had to pin them up so if they look strange at the bottom of the legs that is why.

BEAUTIFUL WEATHER

We finally have some beautiful weather in the 70's and low 80's but by Sat. it is back to the 90's for the next few days. I did a post last night and posted one pic twice. Clever me I tried to delete the one pic and deleted everthing. A few blue words and that was the end of posting. Well here I am to try again. I told you I got energized by the great weather and cleaned all the windows on the first level of our 2 story house. I used a squeegee combo thing with a great sponge on one end and a rubber squeegee at the other end. It works great with a recipe a window washer gave me with ammonia, rubbing alcohol, tad of dish soap and water. It really gets everything off. When it cools again I will do upstairs. The windows up there flip in so the outside and inside can be cleaned from the inside. I don't use the squeegee inside - too messy.

It was so nice Harv took his laptop outside and spent 3-4 hours sitting on the deck. Even went back out with his 5.30 cocktail and a book he is reading. He has been housebound this summer with the high heat. In Florida in the winter he is outside almost every day for what he calls his 15 minutes of sunshine. I took a pic of him then noticed my little step stool was still in the garden at the kitchen window. Ignore it.

I took a few pics of flowers on the deck and side yard. They have done amazingly well considering the terrible heat. The beauty of living in the shade is they do not dry out like in that hot sun. Well I will try and post my few pics and try not to delete them again.

SQUARE 9

Summer is fleeing and our 6 grandkids are all back to school today. Friday my daughter has invited me to a fashion show to benefit their pool. She is going to be modelling in it so I certainly must be there. Good to get back to doing things together now the boys are gone all day and before she gets too busy in her school volunteering. She spends a fair amount of time there.

Here is square 9. The beauty of this one is the beading you see in picture 2. I used delica beads with a gold glint and it i so pretty in person. Pictures cannot do the beads justice. I absolutely love using delicas for the sparkle they give off that no other bead seems to do.

Pillow finished

Just a fast post to show you that I finally finished the pillow that sat in a drawer for a few years. I showed the needlepoint canvas a couple of months ago and when Sue & I went fabric shopping for her bathroom I found this trim. I used some no wale royal blue cordouroy for the backing and because the pillow is really not very big I decided the fringe should be larger then just a 1" fringe. I found this and because it went well with the blue in the flag I grabbed it without really looking at it too well.
When I got it home I saw it was not meant to be finished inside the pillow edge but had to be sewn on the outside. I made and finished the pillow then sat and hand sewed it all around. I am going to take it to Florida and put it on the sofa in Harv's den if it looks good there. Otherwise who knows. Maybe one of the grandsons might like it. At least it is another UFO finished. Still have many more.

It was hard to get a good pic of the fringe because it is so floppy. Why a Great Britain flag pillow? I have always loved England - not necesarily London but the beautiful countryside and my Mother was born there near Birmingham. My husband would give you another reason for me to go there. The potteries in what he says is the ugliest part of England but where else do you find Wedgewood, Royal Doulton and all my other favorites.
He used to gripe but always took me there - good guy.

Why oh why do the pictures turn. 1 turned - 2 ok. There has to be an answer for this.

BEADED PURSE FRONT UPDATED

As a change of pace I thought I would show the progress I have made in the last 2 days on the front of the purse. It is far slower going then you would think it is. I have a large 7' island in my kitchen. Well ever since I started with the purse class well over 6-7 weeks ago my island has been covered in the works in progress. In the middle I have my violets which look pretty alone and that is the key word "alone". Now one end is covered with a large piece of thick poster board and the other end covered with a large white tray with the beads I am either using or will use eventually. The reason I can't move it until the front is finished is because I would never be able to match them up again if I put it all away. I am basically using size 11, 8 and 6 size beads with many other larger beads, leaves, etc. for ornaments. The peyote stitch keeps being added on as you branch from one side to the other. I love doing the peyote in the size 8 and 6 but the 11 are harder. Now that I am branching out it is more fun. I am limiting my time to 1 - 2 hours at the most as I think when I first started I did too much and I suffered for it with back and neck muscle pain. Beading in my lap like I do on CQ is easy and you are not leaning forward like you are here. You can't do this in your lap because of the different sizes and quantities and color of the beads. Here are some pics of what I have added since I last showed it. draft 5:47:00 PM by FredaB Delete
Edit View BLOCK EIGHT

BLOCK EIGHT

Here is another set of pics of block 8. I missed the daylight yesterday so waited to take them outside this afternoon. I should mention that the pretty rose on the tatted piece I made in a class with Helen Gibb at the Omaha CQ retreat 3 or 4 years ago. You hold onto stuff long enough you will find a place for it.

Went to water aerobics this morning and then this afternoon had a Dr. appt. to set up for a colonoscopy. We just talked and he explained all what he would do and I have a date for Sept. 3 at 11 am at Alexian Bros. hospital. I guess I won't be blogging on Thurs. night.
They have a new to us way of doing it now. He has you drink just half of the stuff in the afternoon and then he said to set the alarm for 1am and then drink the other half. He said they find doing it this way makes for a much cleaner area then if you do it all at once. I wonder how much I will get to sleep after the other half goes down. This group of doctors have 3 different locations where they do the procedure. He walked me out to the desk and I turned to him and said where would he be doing this. He misunderstood me and looked at me kinda strange and said where I do everyone - up thru the rectum. Talk about a misunderstanding. I don't know who was more embarrassed. The girl on the desk just doubled up with laughter. This is one they will probably talk about for awhile. He probably thought this women is really dumb after I have spent 20 minutes or so explaining everything she asks me this. You gotta love them.

REWORKED CHRISTMAS ITEM

When I looked at the pics on the blog I did not like the look of the little girl just sort of stuck on top. Also my friend Pam Kellogg of Kitty and Me suggested a bit more glitz with some sequins. Well Pam this is for you. I added sequins with crystal beads and then went threw my cordings and found some I can use. I just used tacky glue and glued it around to frame the pic. Much better. I did print this and when I looked the bottom looked thicker on the cord and it was just because I did not press down on the bottom cord. I have now and it looks better. Also just frayed the two little ends and crossed them over. Whole new look. Hope you all like this better.

CHRISTMAS SWAP

I signed up for Jillayne's Christmas swap. We were to make 5 - 5" square Christmas designs that will be hung to make a 5 piece wall hanging. They could be made of fabric, paper, knitted, whatever as long as they were 5" square and christmas design.

I chose to work with fabric and decided to make them in the same manner I used for the flower square. I used bits of lace and made the background fabric. Then I found a Christmas pic of a little angel in a fur trimmed coat. In order for it to stick to the bumpy lace background I first adhered it to a heavyweight piece of muslin then used a heavy weight double sided adhesive fabric. After that I tried to bead around the little pic but the small beads got lost in the lace pieces and the larger beads looked too heavy so I just left the pic alone to speak for itself. Instead I used the larger beads- a size 6 irridescent bead in 4 colors. They don't show up too well in the pic but look pretty in person. Just a bit of sparkle. The last step after all was sewn down was to back it with a 5" square of heavy felt like batting that I had used in purses. It just gave it a finished look on the back covering the sewing, etc. Now I just have to make some labels, print them out in fabric and attach them to the back. Also have to tack on some little white plastic rings on each side of the top for hanging. They can remove the stitches if they do not want to hang them that way.

I hope whoever gets them likes them. I actually made 6 with one for myself. This way I will have 6 to hang. I can see them hanging from a small rod at the top and attached to a wide ribbon hanging down. They have to be in BC, Canada by Sept. 1 so will be mailed next week. I know Diane Knott is in this swap and probably other gals whose blogs I read.
Will be fun to see what we all receive.

FINALLY SQUARE 7

I tried to post the pics earlier today and they were still doubled up. I ended up changing from the right hand column to the middle and they came out single again. The only problem is most came out sideways but at least you can see them singly. Enjoy.

SQUARE 7

Our weather here remains in the 90's and no end in sight until next week. Then they are saying it will cool down to the 80's. At least it is good swimming weather for the pool.
Sue returned with her family from Mexico and they all had a great time except for our 7 year old Luke. He missed the dog, didn't like the food and wanted to go home where they spoke "American". He was one happy little boy to get home. Strange little people the younger ones. things that impress the older ones certainly didn't impress him. Sue always has a neighbour boy that she hires to come in 3-4 times a day to feed Bauer and walk him or I should say run him. He is a big dog. It is better for him then the kennel and it gives the boys a chance to make some good money. It is a high paying business. She uses neighbours or sons of her friends that she knows she can trust and that their mothers will be there to make sure they do what they are supposed to.

I should say that on block 6 a few people commented on the feather so I think it will become permanent and also commented on the butterfly. I did not crochet that. It was a corner of a hanky. I do that quite often if the corners are pretty. Block 7 has another hankie corner and when it is sashed I think it will need a little something else as it looks bare but will wait until then to do it.

Keep cool folks as this heat seems to be all over the country.

I have posed the pics 3 times and they keep coming side by side (2 together) and then another side by side and one down along the printing. I have never had this before and don't know how to fix it. Can anyone help so I can post the pictures as usual? Will try and see what happens tomorrow. Sorry about this.

SQUARE 6

Here are the pics for square 6. In pic 2 you will see a real feather sitting with the embroidered and beaded one. It is not permanent - I just laid it there to see what I thought of putting it there. I have a couple and maybe a smaller one will be better. I will do a lot of tweaking when all the squares are done and the sashing sewn to them.I have a lot of little pins, etc. that I will add on where I see I can use them. The good part of posting them on the computer is I get to see them also and can then see what looks good and what does not in my mind.

MaryAnne of MagpiesMumblings asked me if the butterfly sitting on the rose was a pin. It is a button with a shank on the back. I actually sewed it down because I knew I wanted it there. It was too small to sit alone but good I thought on the rose.

FRAMES

Here are the pics of the frames. will post another sqare tomorrow.