New quartz countertops!

I am doing a happy dance because my countertops are now installed. After four long months of waiting, they finally are here from Italy and in place. The new sink is so nice and deep; I'll now be able to wash all of my large pots and pans without cocking them sideways. I have wanted a sink like this for 26 years! Please rejoice with me!!! Here are a couple of shots so you can see how much nicer they are than the lovely plywood counters we had.

I am working fast and furiously on finishing up my Christmas stitching. Here is a picture of some flour sack towels I embroidered for my small group members, a SIL, and one even for myself for my new kitchen. I forgot to take pictures of some golf towels I did for my BIL and a scarf for an "adopted" niece. Oh, well... I'm trying to stay out of the way while my countertops are finally being installed. Dingo is having a nervous fit with all the noise and commotion, but I am delighted! I'll post a picture when everything is cleaned up.

I finished up the aprons for my SILs today. PTL!!! Here are pictures of the finished aprons. Carrie is quite the pie baker and Lie likes to make breads and rolls. I hope they enjoy using these aprons. (Gobbi said he would take them back if they don't, but I don't know what HE would do with them!)

Some new projects

With Thanksgiving behind us, I have been getting serious about my Christmas stitching. Here are some of my latest projects--Thanksgiving turkey tealight covers, an apron for my SIL, a fleece blanket for another SIL, and some free-standing lace ornament for some of my nieces.

All of the cabinets are in!

At last, all of the cabinets are installed! On Tuesday Mr. T came over to help install the rest of them. Since then we have been working on getting the drawers in place and all of the handles on the drawers and doors. There is still a lot of work to do-countertops, backsplash, flooring, lighting, etc. The templating for the countertops is scheduled for next Thursday. After that it will take, I'm told, another ten days to two weeks. In the meantime, the plywood is working. Maybe we can start a new trend?! Good-bye old cabinets!

I finished up the "Rouse House Turkey Bowl" hats while on vacation in Cincinnati. The Rouses were blown away by them! I am so glad they loved them and also very happy that they are completed. We will look forward to going seeing them in use at Thanksgiving. I just adore that four-letter word "DONE"! Now it is back to work on the kitchen renovation. I still haven't recovered enough from our vacation to check out the aftermath of the flooding in the basement from the combined effects of hurricanes Katia and Lee. I don't think there will be too much permanent damage, PTL!

Some kitchen cabinets are finally installed!

We have been working diligently on the kitchen for the past few days. My cousin-in-law arrived late Monday night and painted the kitchen yesterday. This morning Gobbi & Dennis started installing cabinets and worked on that project until Dennis discovered water was flowing into the basement. All kitchen work came to a quick halt and we all got busy downstairs trying to stay ahead of all the water coming in through the walls. The ground is so saturated that the basement was the only place left to go.

Late this afternoon Pam and Dennis went to visit a friend and Gobbi and I got busy on the cabinets again. Here are a few pictures of our progress. My contributions to the install were removing a glide from the bottom of one of the cabinets, holding the over-the-refrigerator cabinet up while Gobbi installed it, and holding the doors while they were being put in place. I am such a good

helper! On the one picture Dennis is checking the level. It was about then that the guys discovered that the house wall was not straight! The corner cabinet was fudged a bit to get things to line up, but I think it worked out well after all. The final picture was what the west end of the kitchen looks like with the pantry and uppper cabinets installed.

Rouse House Turkey Bowl hats

I have been working on a project for my SIL. Every Thanksgiving morning her neighbors host "The Rouse House Turkey Bowl" for the neighborhood. There are two teams for touch football. Last Thanksgiving we were there to watch the game. SIL suggested that I make hats for the two teams so we could better tell who was on which team. Today I completed the first black hat. I will also be making orange ones. The colors represented are the Bengals and Anderson Twp. high school's team colors, so we thought they would be appropriate. I nixed the idea of embroidering a small turkey on each hat--too labor intensive! The pattern for the hat is from Patti Pierce Stone.

Angel flying to Nova Scotia

I haven't been doing much stitching lately, but yesterday I sent an angel I made on Sunday to Nova Scotia. A digitizer requested angels for one of her testers whose husband had passed away. They had no children, so the widow is pretty much alone. The angel is from C-Some Stitches and stitched out beautifully.

Oh, my! It has been almost a month!

Yes, a month since I last posted. During that time I have been busy in physical therapy trying to get back the use of my left hand following carpal tunnel surgery the end of February. My crazy body decided to build up scar tissue in all the wrong places in my hand and wrist. That caused all sorts of pain and other problems. As of this past Wednesday, I finally feel like I will regain the full use of this hand, PTL!

"Baby" crocheted-edge fleece blanket

Tomorrow is our Project Linus quilting bee and I found several blankies in the closet at church to take along. I found this little, plain blankie and decided to add some embroidery. I think it is really cute! What do you think? The design was a freebie from Hatched in Africa.

my, how time flies!

I can hardly believe that almost a month has flown by since I last posted to my blog! It has been so hot lately that I don't even have to light the grill to do my meat. Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. 8-D

Since I was on a roll with embroidering dish towels and the like, I decided to do a bunch more. I ordered six more Dunroven House dish towels from The Sewfisticated Stitcher; I really do like these towels. I also discovered a set of three red striped dish towels, as well as a few microfiber towels and a set of really plush hand towels that cried out for embossed designs. Attached are pictures of my output. The colors are a bit off because I took most of them down in the basement. The lighting is not great down there, putting it mildly.

Forgotten Tea Towels

When I was hunting for the jumpers in my stash, I found four tea towels I forgot I had. As most stitchers know, we often forget just what is in our stashes that at one time we meant to use. I also dug out some variegated thread and thought the towels would be a great place to use it. I really like the look it gave to the stitching. The first set are designs from Dainty Stitches; the second set is from Designs Sew Fine.

The finished towels are going into my box of finished projects to give as gifts. It's nice to have things in stock for those unexpected occasions when one needs a little something to give to someone.

A Jumper for Sandy

My friend Sandy has lost over 100 pounds in the last couple of years and I wanted to do something special for her 70th birthday today. I bought two denim jumpers in two different sizes because I wasn't quite sure what size she is in now. On the one I did a yellow butterfly from Brother and the other a daisy spray from Nita's Place. I hope she likes whichever one fits her. The pictures aren't the greatest, but I was shooting them late last night when I should have been in bed.

New type of edging for fleece blankets

I watched a Nancy Zieman video where she used the "fancy" blades on the 45 mm rotary cutter to make edging on fleece. I thought I would try it out on a little blankie for my sweet Gabriel. It is hard to believe that he is now a two-year-old! I think I like the look.

Blanket for Brayden

Yesterday I finished a blanket for a friend's grandbaby. He lives near the shore, so I know he'll be a water baby. Since the fleece is rather thick, I experimented with using organza as an underlay. I think it turned out well and will keep the fleece from coming through the design. (I hope!)

And some more

And here are a few more. 8-) The gold metallic butterfly really is much prettier than it looks on the picture. I think it was probably my favorite blanket to do.

More Pictures, finally!

Here are a few more pictures of blankets that I did for Project Linus. Some that I had planned for Japan will be used for the burn camp this summer instead. It turns out that we were low on fleece blankets for the burn camp. Due to the tenderness of the children's skin, we can only send fleece. Either way, Japan or the burn camp, the blankets will be used and loved.

Blankets for Japan

The national office of Project Linus was asked to supply 10,000 blankets for the victims of the Japanese earthquake that took place last month. I have committed to making 10-12 blankets. Here is a picture of the first one. Since our former exchange student from Japan loved shoes, I have been working on at least three for the women who adore shoes.

St. Patty's Mug Rug

Last week I quickly made this mug rug for a friend who loves all things Ireland. It was an in-the-hoop project and one I will probably make again sometime.

Two of my NJ girlfriends and I enjoyed a day at the AQS Quilt Show in Lancaster yesterday. We shopped and looked unitl we just about dropped. Today my feet are really upset with me for wearing them out!

Project Linus Make a Blanket Day

Saturday, February 19, was PL's MABD. I finished four fleece blankets that I had cut a few months ago and took them along to Landis Homes where our Lititz-Lancaster chapter holds its quilting bees. My job at these gatherings is to serge the quilts together in our assembly line to finish the quilts. The job was so much easier this time because I was using my new (used) Baby Lock serger. My old Bernina serger always gave me fits with all of the thread tearing and rethreading I had to do. If you are planning to buy a serger, Baby Lock with its air-jet threading is the only way to go!

Attached are pictures of the two blankets I embroidered. The other two were printed fleeces so I don't have pictures of those.

I am recovering nicely from the two surgeries I had this month. Hopefully by the time nice weather arrives, I will be able to get out and enjoy it. 8-D

UFOs finished!

I found a couple of sweet UFOs that I forgot I had. Now they are finished and can go to our Project Linus Make a Blanket Day later this month and then passed on to the hospital for two more babies. Knitting projects are tops on my list while I am recouperating from knee surgery to fix a torn meniscus. I have an afghan up next that I started ages ago and then lost the directions.

Today's project

Since I don't like making jelly during the hot and humid summer months, today was the day to make our black raspberry jelly. With DH's help, we made three batches or 21 jelly jars filled with delicious home-grown and homemade jelly. Ummm!