Playing with letters and embroidery

For a long time I have wanted our family name on an item. I dare you to find the name Harbaugh on anything. I am not counting football stuff; I know there is some football player with that as a last name, but that isn't the type of thing I want. So today, yes day off, I sat down and was playing with these letters. I had to enlarge some as they don't print out at the same size, but that is fine. I have my lay out and now I just need to transfer it to linen and embroider it, when I have time; that could be a while. Not sure if I want to do traditional redwork or put color in the flowers.

This is currently 6 inches tall and 36 inches wide. Once it gets a boarder buffer, I think that should be a nice size. Will probably be 10 inches by 40 inches, maybe a little more.

Just playing with abc's

If you would like to play with abc's, too, go here. It is kind of neat what you can come up with, with just a few clicks on the mouse. I did not take these photos of letters they are pulled off flickr from a mixer on the link above. Just type in the words you want to see where it reads "Spell," and have fun.

Z is for....

ZZZZZZ...... I finally caught some Z's the last two days. With school starting, and it being so far away, I spend most of my day driving to and from school or running errands in the other county. I have been getting about 4 to 5 hours of sleep per night. I made that up yesterday, and I will get some more tonight. I also did a little bit of tatting.

This is copy of a piece of tatted lace I saw at an antique store on Friday. I bought the spool of thread (at the same store). I just love the size of that wood spool of thread. Anyone who knows what size a shuttle is knows that that is very big spool of thread for $3.00, and I decided I would tat the pattern I saw instead of buying the lace. For some reason, I kept making mistakes on my rings and chains; I think it is from lack of sleep. Hopefully, the rest will look much neater.

The pattern is as follows:

Rings are : 4ds, picot 4 ds, 4picot ( with 1 ds between each of them), 4 ds, picot, 4 ds. close ring joins on first and last picot
chain: 4 ds, 4 picots (with 1 ds between each of them) 4 ds

I will add this piece to the 25 motif challenge; this will be item 10 for the challenge.

DO NOT USE THIS PATTERN TO MAKE THINGS TO SELL FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!!!!

Y is for ....

Yoyos.....819 yoyos to be exact!

This project was completed yesterday. It just sort of kept growing till I ran out of yoyos in this size. So, it has 819 yoyos, total, and I have 9 yoyos left that wouldn't work into this very easily.

Finished measurements are 21 1/4 x 41 1/4 inches.

X is for ...

X-tra yoyos made into a yoyo runner. Started on Sept 2; finished on September 3. You can also see one of my hex afghans underway, next to the bench in the yellow basket. I also made the braided rug you see in the bottom of the photo.

I had a bag of yoyos from swaps, and ones I made that were just collecting, and it seemed like they were spawning in that bag. They were not being used, so yesterday I decided I would make a runner out of them to use who knows where. I may add to it at a later time, or I may not. There is a diamond pattern in this mini quilt that is a cluster of four different hues in the same color family. These are laid out more as I would hexagons and not yoyos, but it makes a pretty close solid piece of cloth. I'm wishing I had done this with my daughter's blanket. Instead of having each yoyo only touch four other yoyos, here they touch six others. It would have made a stronger blanket for a kid, but since that started out as a table topper, I didn't know it would end up a blanket.

I had a hay fever sinus headache yesterday; that is what started this project. I wanted something to do that was quick and that wouldn't involve being outside at all.

W is for..

What are you waiting for? Sign ups are now! Head on over to the group's home page and get signed up for the block of the month swap on flickr. Below are some samples of the blocks that have been made and swapped thus far.Please feel free to check out the group just to see the pretty blocks made so far. You are welcome to join the group and not swap, too. If you happen to make the block, you are welcome to post it, even if you don't swap it.

V is for...

Visiting yoyos. These are all the yoyo's I have received so far for the swap at MJF. There are 5 more packages coming in the mail; I will post them as they come in. These are just visiting my home because I have to swap them out and send them back to the swappers, but it was fun to see them all for a short time.

1. the rustic cottage yoyos for swap, 2. pearlsandjeans yoyos for swap, 3. janetinva123 yoyos for swap, 4. levisgrammy yoyos for swap, 5. shannanstitches yoyos for swap, 6. patricia's yoyos for swap at MJF, 7. yarnmama's yoyos for swap, 8. shannanstitches yoyos for swap, 9. PlumCreekMama yoyos for swap, 10. carol sue yoyos for swap, 11. CKH's yoyos for swap, 12. PTH's and ASH's yoyo's for swap, 13. Mary Jane Lee yoyo's for swap, 14. cheryl's yoyo's for swap, 15. owwlady yoyos for yoyoswap at MJF, 16. suzyhomemakers yoyos for swap

U is for...

Up and posting photos again! Yes, I am a happy camper (to say the least) so what have I been doing?

We, my oldest daughter and I, have been making boa scarves for a Halloween swap over at MJF, ruoughly 14 of these.

I have also been working on the mini yoyo quilt and the normal cd yoyo quilt.

I have also been taking my oldest kid to school and taking care of the one that fell down the stairs and the one that got pink eye, who is also the oldest, while I wasn't posting pictures. I thought about taking a picture of her, the pink eye one, the first day of the infection. Can we say she looked like Quasimodo? Sad but true, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings by posting a picture of her that way, so I changed my mind.

I also made my block for quisic in the swap on flickr, the block of the month group. Since it is going to be mailed one day late, I also made next month's block for her, too, as an added bonus and apology. So she will get one Aug. block and one Sept. block.

T is for ....

Time to look at a new version of an old tried and true favorite: the Cathedral Windows quilt. Over at Hyena In Petticoats there is a tutorial, but it has a twist on the old favorite; it has batting in it. Check it out if you ever wanted to make this type of quilt. If you do make some, please add them to the flicker group about Cathedral Windows Quilts. You can also check out her old blog on paper string cloth.

S is for.....

September block of the month.

This upcoming month in the flickr group the block that will be swapped is the Disappearing Nine patch. Please feel free to check out the group and join in on the fun. You don't have to swap to be a member. If you are a great seamstress and don't need truing up, start with a 4-inch block. However, to get the desired block of 10 inches finished (10 1/2 unfinished), most people need truing up; so, start with 4 1/2 or 4 1/4 for fudge factor. I hope I can post photos soon; this is driving me a little crazy. I would suggest starting with 4 1/4; that is what I did. It's easy to do with little truing up but it is needed, truing that is.

This block is not mine; it is fairbanksfancygoods and she gave me permission to post this so you could see what the block looks like when done. Please check out her photos on flickr.

R is for...

Rock-n groups on flicker that I am a member of but not admin.

Q is for ...

Quite cute little girls. We went to a picnic with friends last night and did Karaoke in the park. Here is our daughter and one of the other little girls singing their hearts out. Pretty funny because neither one can read, so as you can guess they where making up their own words to the second verse of twinkle twinkle little star. Since my computer is still not talking to my camera, this was actually emailed to me from one of our friends after the picnic; sorry for the poor quality, but cameras on phones are that way.

We played a barter game there where every one brings items to trade. As you can see, my daughter ended up as a Harry Potter Pirate; not sure what that is, but she was happy about it, because her shirt is Kim Possible. Maybe it is a Harry Possible Pirate or something like that. This is the butterfly girl that tried to fly down our stairs head over heals. Hard to tell, but she has a shiner on her left eye from the whole thing. However, as you can see, in typical 5-year-old fashion nothing keeps them down for long. Even if mom had to say more than a dozen times, "Slow down; don't run you might hurt yourself again." I think I am more worried than she is!

P is for....

Pictures, or in this case, no pictures! My computer is not talking to the memory card of my camera, so this might take a little bit before I can post pictures again.
If you are into the tatting challenge, here is a site with a few patterns and lovely examples of tatting.

O is for....

OOOOHHH!! so pretty. This is the rainbow that I saw on the 18th of this month while I was at my daughter's soccer practice. It was actually a double rainbow, but the other didn't show up well in the photos. In the next photo you can sort of see the second one right over the telephone pole, the right most pole, arching the same way as the predominate rainbow. A few of the girls on the team were worried about getting hit by lightening because of the clouds. Click here to see a big version of this photo to see if you can see it, too. Once in new picture, click on it again for even a bigger image and better view of rainbows. Leave me a comment if you can see it, too. the weird thing about the second rainbow is the colors looked reversed to me. I have never seen one like that -- have you? I did a little bit of research on the reverse rainbow and that is normal; go here near bottom of page to find out more.

O is also for OUCH........Sorry I didn't post this yesterday like I had planned, but my 5-year-old daughter fall down our stairs and I had to take her to the doctor. She had 3 vertebrae out in her neck, 2 in her upper back, and one in her lower back from the whole thing. The chiropractor adjusted her, and she felt much better. He said it was good she was only 5, because their bodies bend easier (little kids, that is) than adults; other wise he thinks her neck would have broken from hitting the stairs three times on the way down. She sort of cartwheeled her way down with out putting her hands out to brace herself, so she now has a slight case of whip lash. He said if she had broken it where she wrenched it, she might have been paralyzed from the fall. We think she hit her teeth together each time she hit the stairs, and now her teeth hurt. Luckily, her tongue didn't get caught between her teeth because that could have been real bad, too. Long story short, I am very grateful all she has is whiplash and not being paralyzed.

N is for...

antique tatting, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

Number Nine in 25 motif challenge.

This is a photo of one piece of tatting that is in a salesman tatting sampler that hangs in my front room c. 1900.
Look at that price: 55 cents a yard. Wow, wish I could buy it for that price now!

Pattern starting with chain on left:

ch1: ch 4 picot ch 8 picot chain 8 picot ( future join place safety pin here to find this spot easily later), chain four

r1: 9 picot term 1 (join 5th picot to starting point)

**ch2: chain 5ds

r2: 9 picot term 1

chain3: 5ds( future join here*), ch 4, picot (future join), ch 8, picot , ch 8, picot( future join), ch 4

3r: 9 picot term 1, form join on 5th picot to first future join* on chain3** repeat

Please look at photo to see where joins are.

My other items for this challenge are here.

I used antique crochet cotton for this. Now, I wish I had not because it is a little too floppy for my tastes. Maybe I will do #10 with this same pattern but with tatting thread.
DO NOT USE THIS PATTERN TO MAKE THINGS TO SELL FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!!!!

M is for...

Motif #8 = finished

This is my edging, all done for #8 on to # 9 for the "25 motif challenge". This is just shy of 2 yards long. If you want to see the others I have done, go here.

Photos from salesman tatting sampler.
Pattern from the pink one; the blue and purple have a tiny bit different stitch count.

L is for...

Lovely sunrise and sunset views on the way to the campout and this morning from my tent.

This morning from my tent, around 5:30 I think.

In the car on our way to the campout; window open.

In the car on our way to campout; window closed.

K is for....

Kick the ball, a game of great fun for two little kids on a church camping trip. Last night we went with our church to a campout. It kept threatening to rain, but that didn't stop the fun of these two new friends.

We were not sure if we were going to wake up to a dripping wet tent or not. That didn't happen, but I didn't sleep well because three kids under the age of ten can do amazing things in their sleep to make mom and dad have no room in a tent.

Also at this camp ground was a humming bird feeder. Just an ordinary feeder that had somewhere between 8 and 14 birds hovering around it pretty much all the time this morning. I think I sat there for 30 minuets or more just watching them dance in the air.

I have seen lots of humming birds in my life as my Vavo has lots of feeders at her home. Hummingbirds are her favorite bird, but I have never seen this many at one time. WOW is all I can say. If you like hummers and want to talk about them check out this forum.

I tried to get them in photos, but I need to get better with the F stop to get any real good photos. Out of 50, I think I have 5 I really like; most just got deleted from the memory card. However, I never was able to get more than 8 in one photo; it was just amazing. When there are this many hummingbirds, it can be a very noisy affair because they were trying to claim territorial rights to the feeder. It was fun to watch.