Personalized Ribbon and More

I personalized some grosgrain ribbon to decorate Dena's birthday present.

I used June Tailor Print 'n Press to transfer a design onto the ribbon. The same process was used to make the label for the inside of the tote bag.

My sister-in-law, Pam gave me an early birthday present while she was visiting from North Carolina. It's a beautiful handmade Christmas ornament. Pam chose an ornament with one of my favorite colors...purple. I couldn't help but look on Google to see how the ornament was made...overlapping prairie points. Maybe a future project????

Now that the weather is cooler, the begonias are thriving.

They are just beautiful.

Knitting Tote

For her birthday, I made my friend, Dena, a tote bag to carry her knitting items.



The front pocket is a mini quilt.



Buttons and hand embroidery were used to decorate the pocket.



On the interior, one side and the ends have pockets. The end pockets will hold pens and knitting needles; the main pockets will hold other knitting needs.



The other side of the interior has a zippered pocket which covers the entire side. I found some beads in my collection to make a zipper pull.

Peach Jam

My brother and brother-in-law both gave us some tasty peaches. While shopping for groceries, I made an impulsive purchase...lite fruit pectin. Dieting is an never ending battle and low sugar jam sounded like a good idea.



I used the peaches and pectin to make some peach jam. It turned out well and the whole batch only has one cup of sugar. The consistency is a little different than regular full sugar jam but the jam is not lacking in flavor. Not bad for an impulse purchase.

Spool Wall Hanging

I made a spool wall hanging for my sewing room this spring. I finally have it on the wall.



The wall hanging has 12 spools of different bright (happy) colors.



Each spool is made up of 5 or 6 different fabrics.



Mary Lou, a member of my quilt group, quilted the wall hanging for me. She used invisible thread. The different sections of the spools have different quilt patterns and the small white border has circular pattern.

Ladybug Sewing Kit

We celebrated my best friend Linda's birthday this week. She has been making a lot of cute purses so for part of her present, I bought her "The Bag Making Bible". I have the book and think it has a lot of neat ideas for making bags.




Because Linda likes ladybugs, I bought her a set of ladybug sewing tools. The set had scissors, tweezers and a thread cutter to stick on the side of a sewing machine,


I created a ladybug to hold the tools.



Velcro holds the ladybug closed.



On the inside, there are sections for the scissors, tweezers, a needle threader and two other items. One side is padded to hold pins and needles.

Zucchini Patties

Earlier this week my best friend, Linda, gave me some zucchini from her husband's garden.



The nest day another friend, Pat, was telling us about her recipe for zucchini patties. Today she emailed me her recipe and a recipe which had been in the Saginaw News yesterday.




I used Pat's recipe, the first one, and made the patties for supper. They were very tasty, more like pancakes than I expected. I may try the other recipe when I want more of a vegetable side.

Trip to Spain

At the end of June, my daughter, Jenny, and I went to Spain to visit my other daughter, Angela and her husband Austin. This is a photo of Jenny, Ang and Austin in front of the apartment Ang found for us to stay in. (Most of the doorways we saw were very tall, had two doors and doorknobs in the center of the door.



Jenny, myself and Ang in front of a olive tree.



One of the nighttime views from our apartment.



The streets in the neighborhood we stayed in.



Austin is walking down a typical street in Madrid. Most of the cafes had outdoor seating. We paid a premium to sit outside...it was about 100 degrees during our visit.






One of our lunches at an outdoor cafe.



Plaza Major in Madrid.



Streets and cathedral in Segovia...a half hour train ride from Madrid.

Middle ages castle in Segovia.

Ceiling in a cathedral next to the king's palace in Madrid. (full of quilt ideas)

More quilting ideas in a ceiling in the castle.

Ang found some fabric stores for us to shop at. They sold mostly home decor fabric but I did find a cute renmant. I think it's cotton and it measures 25 inches by 104 inches...cost 2.40 euro. The fabrics all seemed to be very wide. I did see some fabric labeled for patchwork but it was not at all like the fabrics we use in America.

Ang and Austin were great hosts and we enjoyed ourselves.