Ella's Incident

ELLA REPORTS: I had a BUSY Tuesday evening. All my people were here to see me! (They ate dinner but I know it was all about me!) I got pretty wound up, I admit. As it happened, the yard lights didn't come on correctly - which caused my incident.

Not my fault!

As you see from this morning's picture, the birdbath ran into me and made a huge crash. Whew, that spooked me and Grampa.

It was later that Grammie discovered my injury. Oh, my goodness - I was bleeding. The grams fixed me up. They were happy my eye was not hurt. I got my special bear (saved for just such occasions) and went right to bed. I might have a scar, you know.

I am staying at the gram's camp for 3-weeks. My masters are growing some nice green grass in their back yard for me. I liked the other grass just fine oh, well. I need to keep the grams busy.

The grams's park is still a gold mine for me. I scored another record yesterday - 6 very new tennis balls. I found one today as well but I didn't care for the smell. I refused to touch it. A girl has to be careful with all those flu germs going around!

TTFN ella mae

Misc Projects & Luck

This funny little bag has a great story. Driving back from Texas, we went through Miami, AZ an old mining town. Dave was showing the kids the historic part when -- lo and behold a quilt store appeared. The car quite naturally wanted to stop! What a sweet guy, he went with me to browse. A very nice lady chatted us up! Dave spotted a Jelly Roll (the 2" strips of coordinated fabric rolled up). He wanted to know what it was and if I had one. (No I did not.) The owner explained the whole idea of these strip sets to him. He really wanted me to have one. Turns out the little box I bought had two jelly rolls that made two little bags.

I love the colors! I sent the second roll and pattern to my sister in Texas. Dave is proud of his expanded sewing vocabulary - Jelly Roll. Up to now he knows fat quarter and add-a-quarter ruler.

My linen skirt is a simple drop waist pattern, Simplicity 2609. This really is a cute pattern, even better than it looks on the pattern. I fell in love with this sheer, light-weight linen. It has a nice drape. I had to line it with a little slip. I used a nice, thin knit from Christine Jonson's fabrics.

No I didn't make the linen blouse. Just dumb luck, I bought it on a sale rack for about $5.00. Washed it, ironed it and hung it up. I happened to noticed it matched my skirt perfectly. I'll probably put a belt with it. I'll post another picture when the outfit all comes together.

Catching Up

Our annual sewing retreat is always the highlight of the long, hot summer! Three days, two nights of sewing anything, anytime, all the time with about 75 kindred souls. I had so much fun, apparently didn't get my camera out nearly often enough. This is Karen. Head down...hard at work - you go girl.A couple of visitors dropped in to visit their Mimi. Colton and Kaiden are not interested in sewing. But they certainly appreciated the snack table!

I swear these food pictures were taken at the request of others! Our group may be a bit fixated on the fab food provided by the Embassy's Chef Steve. I was so hungry I may have been shaky - hence the blur. This is just the little salad bar to go with the made-to-order pasta bar. Oh...wow!

Below is Donna's demo on folding a t-shirt. Yes, we all saw it done on You Tube but could we master it? No. Well, obviously Donna did her home work -- can you do it?

Finally, a couple of projects I worked on at the retreat. The pillows match my already completed wall hanging. Everyone in our group make a Wild Flower wall hanging. I should have taken a picture of each one because they are all very different and beautiful.

Ms Witchy was pretty time consuming but she is really a cutie. Carole made the Gingerbread Man. And yes, our choices give you a clue to our different personalities!

The skirt was actually finished after the retreat - I'm not so sure I like how it hangs. Too fluffy for me, I suppose.

The fabric is a yummy embroidered linen. Probably the wrong hand for this skirt pattern. Any advise is appreciated.

Nothing then everything!

You know how it goes ....you go along and nothing much is going on when bam! You have ten things on your plate! We are leaving for Texas in a few days. It's a family trip and guess who gets to go.....right, Ella Mae Lynn Louise. (That's her name for when we are really serious.) She is counting the days and packing her toys. See how busy she is?

As soon as we get back it's the BIG sewing event of the year - our sewing retreat - "The Sew-In." This is the 14th year that I have attended. This is a pile of a few things that I have to take with me.

I've have completed a couple of projects lately. Below is my wild flower hanging, which I may have shared before. It is now hanging above my bed. I'll be making matching pillows at the sewing retreat.

I just finished this skirt, McCalls 5431 . The fabric is a linen blend which I love. But...the waist just does not fit right. I dread taking it apart again but...looks like that is looming in my future.

Sewing in Pine

Last Sunday our little sewing gang hit the road. Our retreat was to Pine, Az where Bettye has a wonderful cabin with a fabulous sewing room.We spent a few days just sewing like mad. On the trip up, we saw some patches of snow! It was cold the first day but later we ate lunch on the deck! Great food, friends and fun sewing! What a great time we had.

Below you see Bettye, Leslie and Jackie making some important decision!

Carole finished the cutest purse. The pattern is Bow Tucks Tote, developed by a local designer, Penny Sturges. What a great fabric choice Carole made.One of my projects was this little, paper pieced wall hanging. This pattern is called Misty Pine - how perfect is that? I purchased this pattern a couple of years ago when we were on a road trip to Glacier National Park. Deer County Quilts is in Seeley Lake, Montana - wow what a beautiful store. Such a fun pattern, I may have to get more from this designer, Jeri Kelly.

Finally I can show the tote I made for Aunt Mary's birthday. She received it a little late but she was very happy with it. She is such a dog lover - this fabric just called out to belong to her. I used the Bow Tucks Tote pattern the same as Carole's. Penny Sturges writes very good directions, she is a local designer. We met her when she taught a class at an ASG workshop. Click on her link to see more of her patterns - Quilts Illustrated.

Is it fall yet?

Where did the week go? I was under the weather so it seemed to drag but here it is Saturday! Thank goodness I felt great yesterday! The regular Friday night, family gathering moved from our regular Mexican haunt to Lis Doon Varna, an Irish Pub. http://lisdoonvarnapub.com/. What fun! "Our authentic Irish pub was designed and built in Ireland before being shipped to Peoria, Arizona and reassembled by Irish craftsmen." The place is really charming and it was jumping with fantastic music - bag pipes and all. I wasn't too crazy about the food but the kids got me to try muscles on the shell. Not too shabby! I think I would try that again.

I finished a table runner and matching napkins this week. No picture yet because I just put the fall runner on the table. I also hung up one of my favorites "Frankie" and a little wall hanging I made way before I had my fancy machine. Hopefully my fall decorations will help move our temperature down a little. It would be nice to turn off the a/c.