APPLE BLOOSOM TIME IN PARADISE

Spring in paradise also brings Apple bloosom celebrations.  Parades, food fairs and carnivals all descend on our little city.
 Sorry for the cell phone pictures, but those girls just skoot right along.

 Zoe marching with her drill team.

                                  Keeping her smile

 

      

BJ, shared a bracelet she had gotten for her darling grand daughter, when I saw it I knew it would also be perfect for Zoe.

You will want to visit SWEET NOTHINGS and meet and love BJ,  I will be writing more about her in the future because she inspires me. There is so much I want to tell you about how she touched my life and didn't even know it, I think it is time to tell her.

Spring in Paradise

How can you tell it is spring?  For one the never ending wind.   

Two-- Spring means flowers and grand babies

             Otto, is about to get you
                with that water pistol.

                                          Looks like Blake has found his weapon on choice.

it was good it was a warm day, those kids had nothing but fun soaking each other.

Always a good day when you can share it with family.

Mystery Quilt- Step One

I signed up for another adventure of doing a mystery quilt.  This is to be a scrappy quilt, since I have no idea what I am doing, I do not know what scraps to chose.

 So, I have cut my many hundreds of blocks and am waiting for step two.

My friend Linda, who is a quilt expert, suggested I put the pieces in baggies.  Thank you for the idea Linda, I actually do have the baggies marked.

Now, if only my next step would arrive in my email box!!

ADD A FLOPPY HAT- A RE-POST

I hope I am getting you excited to get in the sewing room and whip something up.
With spring time and summer not far behind, it is a perfect time to make some hats to go with every outfit. That will keep the sun off of our precious girls.
I really love making this hat:
Because summer is coming I am re-posting, to give you time to make those summer hats.

Floppy Hat Pattern

Step One: Measure the child’s head at angle hat will be worn (Picture 1). This one measures 19 inches.

Step Two: Cut a 2 inch wide band of knit fabric or ribbing the length of child’s head .The more stretch, the easier it is to sew. I just used a t-shirt knit. Sew the short ends together with 3/8-inch seam to create the hatband. Try on. It should not be too snug or fall off the child’s head. It should be comfortable. (Picture 2).

Step Three: Take the measurement of the child’s head (circumference) and divide it by 6.28. This will give you the radius. For example, 19 inches divided by 6.28 equals 3.02548 inches. I rounded this up to 3.1 inches. Do not round down or the hat will be too small. Find the measurement of the radius on a compass (in this case 3.1 inches) and draw a circle on your pattern material (I use interfacing) (Picture 3).

Step Four: Leaving the point of the compass in same spot, move the pencil point out 2 ¼ inch and draw another circle (Picture 4). This becomes the brim pattern.

Step Five: With point of compass still in place, move pencil point out 1 inch and draw a third circle. This will be the hat crown pattern (Picture 5). This is what you end up with (Picture 6).

Step Six: At this point you should trace the two inner circles (which is the brim pattern) onto separate interfacing so the brim and crown each have their own pattern.

Step Seven: Next, cut out one crown and two brim pieces. The brim pieces should be interfaced with lightweight fusible or non-fusible interfacing (I like fusible, see Picture 7). Set the brim pieces aside.

Step Eight: Divide the band and crown pieces into eight equal parts with pins (Picture 8). Pin right sides together at pin marks (Picture 9). Sew with ¼ inch seam stretching band to fit. If your band doesn’t stretch enough you can gather the crown slightly with your fingers as you sew (Picture 9a).

Step Nine: Turn right side out and try on (Picture 10).

Step Ten: Put brim pieces right sides together and sew ¼ inch seam along outer circle. Trim and clip onto seam and turn right side out (Picture 11).

Step Eleven: Divide brim (inner circle) and band into eight equal parts with pins. Pin the two together at pin marks (Picture 12). Sew with ¼ inch seam with band on top (Picture 13).

Step Twelve: Zigzag or serge this raw edge (Picture 14).

Step Thirteen: You can cover the seam with flexible trim or rickrack as I did here (Picture 15). I just used fabric glue but you can sew it on if you want (sometimes I omit step 13 all together).

Step Fourteen: Try on hat. Brim can be turned up in the front or left down. Embellish as you please.

"How will you get better today?"

When I saw that statement, it stopped me in my tracks.  I love it, what a wonderful attitude to take up every day.  
I have not had the best attitude lately. I have recently been diagnosed with macular degeneration, that alone came as a shock but finding I need a shot in my eye every month did nothing to improve my attitude.
Add to that my last visit didn't go well, and I had lost ground.
So, how will I get better today?   What will I do to make this day the best it can be?
I will call an end to my pity party, I will make each day better then the day before. 

Fun little project

This was such a fun, quick little project.
After pricing special picture frames I thought how hard could it be??  So I picked up a frame at the dollar store, went to Hobby Lobby for the 3D stickers found in the scrap book department and put it all together!! 

There are several different types of stickers so I plan on making more special picture frames.

Sundog

With no clue as to how to describe a sundog, I will just give the definition.   
I describe them as amazing and I missed another one last night. 

Definition:
Sundogs are visible when the sun is near the same horizontal plane as the observer and the ice crystals.  As sunlight passes through the ice crystals, it is bent by 22 degrees before reaching our eyes, much like what happens with 22 degree halos.

Way to technical for something so amazing.  

So much to do

Spring, I love it.  The hills are green and the wild flowers are every where.  God is so good with all the beauty we have.

Spring is a good time for me to get some projects done. Not sure spring cleaning will make it on the list, probably not.  

I need to make some headway on this quilt!!

Another quilt.  Looking forward to putting this one together.

Just a glimpse of what I am planning.