Hope yours was Merry!

We had a wonderful Christmas. I was so thankful that today was Sunday and we could go to church and continue the celebration.

Praise - that our Heavenly Father would send His one and only Son to the world to save us. That HE is the reason for this season.

Prayers - for the lady from our church who will hear what the doctors have to say about her diagnosis on Monday at 1pm. The family is emotionally raw right now although they are leaning on the Lord and the church family has come around them to support, encourage and love them.

A finish, some decorations and a repair

I finished the last of the 6 aprons that needed to be done before Christmas. This one is also for an eight year old girl. Her mom wanted it sized a bit larger so that she could enjoy it for a few years. She loves pink and black. I hope she loves this;


The reverse side (two aprons in one!!)


I was having some trouble with my machine, I just could not get a beautiful stitch. I was pulling my hair out! Good thing the hammers are kept out in the shop because that was my next means of repair. Hubby even came in to take a look but could only offer sympathy. I dug out my other machine, a Brother and hoped that the stitch would be good enough for top-stitching. That is all I had to do to finish the apron and get it sent on its way. Hallelujah!!! The stitch looked great, the machine sewed like a champ. I top-stitched the apron, got it packaged up and went to bed (very early this morning!!)

While I was busy sewing yesterday, College Girl was hauling the Christmas decorations out of the shop and the garage. She did a great job decorating the house a bit.



She even put a small lit tree on the counter in the kitchen with all my little cookie cutter ornaments, the teeny rolling pin, sifter, colander and spatula. We still don't have the big tree, but hopefully tomorrow or Saturday for sure.

Long winded repair story ahead -
So Thursday is the day that the sewing machine repair guy from a podunkier town drives to our podunk town and works out of the little craft store. I thought they opened at 10. I woke up just before 9 (hey, I stayed up till the wee hours!) and thought to give them a call to see if their hours were on a message at least. If I couldn't get the machine fixed there I would have to drive 1.5 hours to the Bernina dealer, but they were OPEN!! The repair guy was there!! I asked to speak to him and he said he planned on leaving in about 45 minutes. I told him to hang on I would be there just as fast as I could. Oh my! I had to get dressed, do SOMETHING with my hair, get my machine packed up and drive the 30 minutes to the store. I got there about 47 minutes after speaking with him on the phone. He was waiting for me. I showed him my test piece of fabric and the rows and rows of AWFUL looking stitches. He opened up the bobbin compartment, took out the bobbin case and said, "Well there's your problem. Look at how loose this thread is. This little screw needs to be turned." WHAT??? That's it?? WHY was that not one of the options in the trouble shooting section of the manual. Have I ever mentioned that I think the manual is SORELY lacking? I think I have mentioned it. Anyway, it is. Sorely lacking. The repair man didn't even have his tools with him today (he forgot them when he went back into his shop to get something else) but he was able to tighten the screw with his fingernail. He then stitched a couple of rows, adjusted the top tension (which I had fiddled with endlessly last night) and sewed two rows of GORGEOUS stitches! I almost grabbed him and kissed him. I asked him to solve my buttonhole problem then. He attempted to make a buttonhole and I was actually glad that it FAILED for him too. That elimated the possibility that it was all my fault. He tried to update it but the manual that he had was, say it with me, SORELY LACKING! You got it! I told him no worries as I had no buttonholes in my immediate future and I would bring it back in after Christmas. I said I would call him at his shop on a Wednesday to make sure he had his tool and a better manual for the buttonhole problem. I got out my wallet and was ready to empty it at his feet and he said NO CHARGE! Merry Christmas. I can hardly wait to sew something!

Praise - College boy is FINISHED with this semester!! The repair man was able to fix my machine.

Prayers - College Boy plans to drive home tonight after a filmfest. 6 Hours, in the middle of nowhere for most of the trip. Dark, snow, mountain pass, ice, deer, elk.

Another finish

and yet still more to do.

I loved working with Moda's Bliss. It's so cheery! This apron is for an eight year old girl.

This was a combination of two different patterns since I didn't have one that would do the trick.

The buttonhole foot on my machine would NOT work. I've had this problem before and was able to overcome it but this time I couldn't. The thing is, I attempt buttonholes so infrequently that I forgot all about the problem when I took my machine in. Wahhhhh! THEN I had the worst time sewing on two buttons. BY HAND! It was all a thread problem and when I switched threads things went smoothly.

Praise - College Girl is HOME for Christmas break! Lady from church still does not have a firm diagnosis but she seems to be handling it all well. She is in a wheelchair at this point.

Prayers - continued prayers for the lady from church. College Boy has one more final and then a 6 hour drive home on snowy roads, sometime Thursday night.

One more project...

FINISHED!

I didn't have enough of the coordinating print that I showed in my WIP post to make the waistband and ties. I decided to go with all one print. Meadowsweet 2 by Sandi Henderson for Michael Miller.



Not a great photo, taken at night, w/flash. But I wanted to get it packaged up and ready to go out the door with hubby in the morning.

Praise - lady from church has improved some with blood transfusions and will possibly go home today.

Prayers - lady from church is not out of the woods, waiting for test results/diagnosis could take up to 5 days.

Made some progress

It's late. Wait, I think it is early. Either way I need to get to bed but I wanted to post what I have been able to check off of my WIP list.

3 Aprons
2 Pillowcases

I'm linking up to Quiltstory's Fabric Tuesday!

I feel as though I am a day and a half behind my schedule. Must get some sleep. Must catch up.

Praise - College Girl had her final final today and is finished with fall quarter! College Boy had his first final today.

Prayers - for a lady from church that has been admitted to the hospital for tests, blood transfusion. Prayers for a diagnosis, comfort & healing.

Sew it up {WIP} Challenge

Lisa over at Vintage Modern Quilts is having a little Work In Progress challenge. List what you need/want to get done this month, either works in progress or things on your TO DO list. Work like crazy. Report back at the end of the month with how much you accomplished. I have a long list and so why not have the extra motivation? ( I was not able to put the little challenge logo here for some bloggity blog blog reason).


So here is my partial list (LOTS of pictures to follow)


Finish sewing this apron. Mostly Hoffman fabric that a friend chose and bought a few years ago (too many to remember) and asked me to sew for her.



Turn this Freebird fabric into an apron for a young teenager friend of mine. Switched out the ric-rac to a green one - I think.




Sew this Songbird fabric into an apron, for a different young teen friend.

Meadowsweet 2 fabric for yet another apron! Again for a friend, who has been waiting a long time for an apron from me.

I didn't post sooner because I was waiting for some packages to arrive so that my list would be complete. NO MAIL was delivered on Thursday. Well that just never happens so I asked hubby what the reason could be. He thought maybe it was because the plow had left a big berm of snow in front of our mailbox. Phooey on that! I was surprised that the mail carrier did not come to the door with the mail then. No notification or anything. Hubby cleared the snow that night.

Friday when hubby came home this is what he had for me. It was all in our box along with the regular mail!! Can you believe that all fit in the mailbox?? It's a good thing it was all fabric and didn't mind if it was folded and mangled just a bit.

Packages with return labels from Over the Rainbow, Today's Quilting, Desperate Quilters, Beaver Creek Quilt Company, Cotton Charm Quilts and an Etsy seller. I was so excited that they were all home that I didn't even open them up that night. I just enjoyed the pile of parcels. All addressed to me.

But finally I did open them and they contained such lovely fabrics.

Bliss for a Christmas apron for a little girl that lives somewhere in CA. Her mom and I are online friends.

Fandango for a border for a quilt - that will be an AFTER Christmas project, but on the list for this month.

This fun Alexander Henry 2D Zoo fabric, along with the Riley Blake dots will be made into two pillowcases for the brothers of the two teen friends that are getting aprons. I never know what to make for the boys. They are also young teens but I'm hoping they get a kick out of the quirky animals. The Terry Atkinson zippers are for some purse projects that probably will not get done this month.

Some Michael Miller Lil Plain Jane fabric also but I can't for the life of me get the picture to load, for a Christmas apron for another little girl. I think she lives in Wisconsin or Illinois. Another friend from cyberspace. The fabric I'm using for the reverse side has not arrived yet. (MORE MAIL!)


HOPEFULLY I will get to use some of this;

to at least get a flimsy done in time for Christmas.

Whew! All of that is on my list and there are a couple of things that I can't even show you here! :0 Yeah, so do you wonder why I'm even on the computer at all?? I do.

Inclunded in the mail but not part of my WIP challenge;
Martinique dots and some Mettler thread. There is also a charm square that they included with my order. This is slated for something but not anything that needs to be done this month.

Finally,in the pile of mail was this from Kelly at Cotton Charm Quilts. I won this in a drawing on her blog. No plans for it for this month. I'll be looking around for ideas though.

Sorry about the wonky spacing and such on this post. Blogger just does not want to cooperate with me tonight. I need to get back to my sewing machine.

Praise - Open House where hubby works went VERY WELL today! College Boy did great on a recent presentation and his latest film assignment.

Prayers - Finals! Tests, projects, papers.

Friday Finishes

Just a quickie post to show that I DO have something done for Amylouwho's Friday Sew & Tell.

This apron I showed in the last post but it was technically done this week. Apron #1 for one of College Girl's roommates;

Apron #2, for second roommate was finished and mailed off this morning;

Don't the aprons show much nicer when a lovely model is posing with them?? It is so difficult to show off an apron when it is on a hanger and against a wall.

I have another post coming up very shortly - my WIP list for December. I'm slowly chipping away at it.

Praise - College Girl found out that she passed her big WEST E test that she took in November.

Prayers - both kids have so much to study for and get done in the next week or two. Praying for their stamina and health.