Baby Blankets

I embroidered some baby blankets for a friend who's niece is having a baby soon. I think they turned out really cute.

Darn Raccoons, why do they have to be so cute!

Last year I bought a trap to catch our stupid Raccoon, but every morning I woke up looked out the window and the trap was sprung, but no Raccoon so I finally gave up. Yesterday I thought I would do a little tweaking to the trap and give it one more try and low and behold, I caught a Raccoon, unfortunately it was a baby Raccoon and its Mommy and sibling were frantic. Here he is right before I killed him.................................................just kidding!

Here is the mommy and other baby after I reluctantly let the baby out. I just couldn't do it, they are so cute and I felt so bad. They were watching from our tree when I let the baby out and apparently they didn't see where he ran which was on the other side of the pond. They spent a long time searching for him.

Now I feel bad, but I'm sure they will reunite soon. They just wreak havoc on my pond every night and they drag stuff all over the lawn. But I didn't realize it was a family, I thought it was just one ( I wasn't going to kill it, just relocate it). I guess we will just have to live with them.

Everything I have read about trapping Raccoons say that you need to euthanize them, that relocating is illegal and ultimately more cruel, but there is no way I could do it, I would have to take my chances and relocate them and hope they thrive. I don't see any way to catch all of them, so I am going to give up and just let them have at it.

Break it to me gently

I added a link to my "My favorite links" tab called "Break it to me gently". When I was down in Alabama last month I found an old cassette tape that I had recorded for my Mom of me singing back in the early 90's. I had this cheap little Karaoke machine and I sat down one day and sang my own mix of songs that my Mom liked and taped it, then sent it to her. The next time I came to Alabama to visit every time we would go anywhere people would say, "Oh, I loved your tape!", it turned out my Mom had played it for anyone who would listen, it was pretty embarrassing. Anyway, I asked my brother Bob if he could record it onto the computer as MP3's, and he did and then he posted this link of one of the songs. You can tell it is an old tape, but I think he did a good job with it.

Dress for Wedding

I am going to a wedding on Saturday for Craig's cousin Taryn, and I decided to make myself a dress to wear. I took a day off of work today and got busy sewing.

Here it is from the side, I added a few embelishments that weren't part of the original pattern, like the buttons on the sleeves and the embroidery.

I just tried it on, and I knew it would fit because my dress form and I are exactly the same size, well maybe I have a few pounds on her. I love to sew for myself though because I can alter the pattern and make it fit perfectly.

I haven't decided if I want to add more embroidery around the bottom, I don't want it to look over done, I am going to add some swarovsky crystals to it though, but that will be tomorrow nights project.

Baby Ben's Quilt

I finished my quilt for my nephew-to-be, Ben, earlier this week. He is due in August, his shower was today so I can now post the quilt. This first pic is of the quilt on the frame.

Here it is finished and ready to go! I saw this quilt somewhere on the internet, I think it is called "Strip Twist", but I added my own twist by adding sashing between the blocks. I used my Accuquilt Go cutter to cut the 2 1/2" strips.

I did a meandering star pattern for the quilting.

I gave it a washing to shrink it up and soften it, I use a ton of starch when I quilt. I think it turned out really neat.

Sewing Table

I bought this sewing table almost a year ago at Joann's on a great deal. It folds up so when I am not using it I store it under my cutting table. It also has a table extension in the back that comes up when I need even more space to work on, in the pictures it is down. The side table can be used for a serger. Anyway, I had always wanted my sewing machine set into it, but it was just made for it to sit on top. But thanks to my wonderful, talented and skilled husband, my machine is now set-in to it as you can see.

He is so clever, he made a template out of a scrap piece of wood, clamped it to the top of the table and routed out the space for the machine and then installed a shelf below for the machine to sit on. It fits perfectly! I am in sewing heaven now! I am actually working on a quilt as I write this.

Ironing Board Cabinet

I have been wanting an ironing board cabinet in my craft room for a long time. I found this one at Lowe's and I decided I wanted the optional light and outlet in it. This is the wall where it will be (actually it is the only wall left where I could put it).

This is a recessed cabinet, so I cut out the wall and discovered it had an electrical wire running through the middle of it that ran from the switch to the outside light. I pondered how to deal with it for awhile when I decided to just run a new wire from the switch inside the wall to just above the cutout, I had Craig route out a groove in the stud on the opposite side to run the old wire up and then I spliced it and the new wire together in a junction box up above.

I ran a separate wire from the load off of the outlet below the cabinet and fished it up the wall to run to the new outlet/light combo inside the cabinet. You maybe asking yourself (or not) why wouldn't I just use the existing wire that I spliced earlier, well the reason is that the new outlet/light combo uses a timer and my outdoor lights would turn off as well when the timer would go off, so it had to be wired directly from the other outlet.

Here it is all done. The ironing board swivels left and right and then closes up nice and neatly. Another weekend and another successful project completed. Maybe next weekend I will actually sew.