It has  been a few long years since I have been on my blog.

I am back to my sewing, canning and enjoying life.

I love making small pillows and this is one of my latest that I have already sold.

All my pillows are originals.

Valentine's Day and chocolate

Like so many of you I ate lots of turkey and pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

Then came Christmas with ham and all the trimmings. Don’t forget all the candy that was given out as gifts, in stockings and at party’s.

The New Year will soon be here and with my resolutions to exercise more. I have got to get rid of all this extra weight I gained over the past two months. My pants are a little tighter and I can hardly button my shirt over my big fat belly.

So I will keep to my exercise and cut out sweets until that dreaded day in February.

Valentine’s Day. Here comes all the chocolate from our loved one’s, children and friends.

Now you tell me how am I ever going to get rid of all this weight that I have gained over the past few months!

I will eat all my Valentine’s Day candy and hope it will be gone within a week. Then I can get back to my exercise and keep my New Year’s resolution again.

But wait, Easter will soon be here with candy eggs and peeps. I give up!

Pumpkin bread saved my life

I was eating lunch with four friends today at the senior center. This elderly man ask if he could sit down with us beautiful ladies. Of course, we said “yes“.

He got to telling us a short history of his life. His wife had died and he was alone in this big house by his self. He had been thinking about killing his self.

He then told us that he started to talk to God.

He ask God “ what can I do with my life”? God answered him and said “make pumpkin bread”

He started making pumpkin bread and would either give it away to anyone that had know money or sold it for $3.00. He then used the money to make more pumpkin bread,

He then ask us if we wanted male or female bread?

None of us did not know how to answer him, “ so I finally said “what do you mean male or female?’. Of course our minds was heading to the gutter.

He said “ if it has nuts it is male, if bread does not have nuts then it is female. We all had a great laugh this day.

We never know when we meet a stranger what they can contribute to each of our lives.

Now every time I eat pumpkin bread I will always think how pumpkin bread saved a mans life.

Moose pillow

Picture was taken by my husband of a bull moose. He came across moose when he was out walking.
He could not get a good shot with his camera. Moose stood still just for a few seconds for him to get this shot.

I had homespun fabrics left over from another project and decided to make a small pillow using them. Someone gave me a piece of fabric that was a moose print and I thought these would go good together.

Looking through my box of buttons I found the moose button that I had bought about two years ago.

I seem to keep making my craft items with animal fabrics. It is one of my favorite themes to use.
I do have flower prints and keep telling myself that I will use those next time. But as usual I keep going to my animal prints.

Western horse pillow

I have been making western pillows this week. This one I listed on my etsy site.

Made apple turnovers for my family this morning and did they eat them up. I don't no if they was hungry or if apple turnovers was that good.
I cannot give you a recipe as I just made it up as I went. I did use  apples that I canned last year. Hope to can more this year. Apple trees seem to be bearing good. Lost our plums to frost so want have any to make jelly with.

Our garden did not do good this year as we had a late spring. I will not have anything to put up but a few tomatoes and bugs got into most everything else.
I have been checking paper to see if anyone has anything for sell from their garden. I think most everyone had the same problem as my family.

I am just thankful that we can go to the grocery store and buy food.

Montana mountains

This is a picture that I took at Lee Metcalf Refuge. Notice the beautiful snow on mountain!
Not many water fowl on lake the day I took picture. You will have to look close to see the two geese in picture. They are setting on lawn  on the left hand side.

Grandmother's flower garden quilt

I am working on a grandmother's flower garden quilt. I have a friend that has made several over the past years and decided I need to make one. This pattern is a little different than the usually quilt. How long will it take me to make? I have no idea! I like to make quilts by hand but they do take a long time to make. I still sew a lot of my quilts on my sewing machine. With the economy the way it is and so many people out of work I have not been selling to many quilts so have cut back on making them this year. Have been amking doll quilts and table runners. I did buy a pack of wool batting to make a quilt for my husband and my bed for the winter. Have not decided what pattern I want to use. Really need to get started on that. I will have this quilt machine quilted. This has been a very busy summer and I cannot believe it is almost over with. Planted a garden to can and freeze a little food but cold weather got most of crop. I did manage to can a few things. Need to make more cherry preserves. What I made last year is all gone. Someone in the family liked it. Have been doing a little traveling with family seeing local places close to home.

Breast cancer greeting cards

I have a friend that is fighting breast cancer. I made a personal card to send to her and decided to make a several cards for breast cancer patients and put on my artfire site. I will be making more cards in the coming weeks.

My cards are OOAK and I inclosed a beautiful poem on seperate paper in card.

Leaf gift tags and scrapbooking tags

Cleaning out boxes of crafts that I had made I came across gift tags. I decided to make a few new ones and this is the first set that I made.

It is fun to come across things that one has forgot about. A few things I think," what was I thinking". Others I think, " wow, these are really nice".

Siamese cat and his toys

Here are new pictures of my Kitty Cat. First picture shows him setting on his scratch post. His favorite toy to play with... is a rope. He also likes to hide under a chair while I toss rope to him. I will slowly pull rope out... and he will grab rope... and hold onto it. Maybe pretending it is a snake! He has lots of toys... that I made and bought... but he likes this one simple toy the best. Notice those claws! Second picture... is him setting on back of couch... waitng for my daughter to come in door. Kitty cat sets and waits... on her to come in at same time each day. I don't know who taught him to tell time! He comes and gets me up... at the same time each morning. I get up, feed him and then he goes back to bed. No, I do not go back to bed... by then I am wide awake. Kitty Cat was a stray... that took up at my house. I could not find who he belonged to . Kitty Cat is a wonderful pet... and I am glad that he found us. He was full of worms ... and so skinny that you could see his back bones. I don't think he would have survived much longer outside. We think he jumped out of a car... and the owners could not catch him. He does not like loud noises... and we believe something scared him and he ran. He was used to riding in a car. Now only time he gets in car is to go to vets. He seemed to be well taken care of. We could tell he was used to having his claws cut and his ears cleaned. Did not have fleas, which is very unusual. Guess he was so skinny... from not knowing how to hunt. Now he stays indoors... and does not go outside. So he has a good life now. At least we think so.

How to make a clay pot soldier

This is probably an old pattern and I am sure there are lots of them listed on the web. Most of us do not make things like this but it was a lot of fun. Also had good food to eat.

Several of my friends and I got together today and made these cute little soldiers. You start out with a clay pot in what ever size you want. Size can be from a 2” pot to a 6” pot.

Some of the girls are going to make larger solders to set on their porch.

We started out with the 2” posts and some had 1” pots.

You will need a ceramic glue for gluing the pots together. Ask for this glue at Jo-Ann’s or Michael’s. I do not know name of glue as one of the girls glued my pots before class.

Acrylic paint, cheap paint will do. You will need black, red, blue and white.

Paint brushes. Gold ribbon braid, white felt fabric to cut out hands, black ribbon for belt.

You can add anything that you want to make solder your own. Lots of paper towels and water to clean up.

Start at top and draw on eyes, mouth, and nose. Paint eyes with black paint. Dot 2 little dots onto eye for the sparkle in his eye. For the nose and mouth I used a thin pen.

You can paint a mustache or put red cheeks on.

Paint the hat black. Paint chin strips on.

Paint his shirt red, pants blue. Add gold buttons to front of shirt with paint are gold paper.

Free cut the hands and collar from felt. Glue on.

Glue belt on and glue a gold ribbon down each side of leg.

These was so easy to make. A few of the girls want to make larger pot people in different themes and seasons for their porch.

Moose doll pillows

Moose doll pillows. Listed on my Artfire site.

Fabric rose

Fabric rose. I made this one with a rose bud. It is hard to see the leaves but there are two leaves on rose. I think it is gnome approved. I am making these to go on a pillow.

Iris fold greeting card.

I made this iris fold card using origami papers. I like to make greeting cards using different mediums. I call this card Beautiful Day. Card listed on my Artfire site.

Cowboy western quilt

I bought this fabric several years ago and never knew what I wanted to make with it.

I had made another quilt using this pattern and decided that is what I would use this fabric for. I thought it turned out nice.

See this and other quilts on my Artfire site.