BIZY BIZY BIZY.............

Wow, I've been BIZY!  I don't know where the time goes.....unfortunately, it's not bizy with sewing or crafting - yes, I've done some.....photos to follow.  But just busy in general.

So, here are my latest creations:

This is just a flannel blanket - a receiving blanket.  Its soft, and large, so it will last a long time, and it should be useful.  Jenn liked it.  She wanted to steal it for herself.  I won't be surprised if I see her with it then!  

These are the diaper burp cloths I made.  I did a lot of searching online, and just did it from what I read.  One FQ will make 3 covers for the center of the diaper.  I didn't want to cover the entire diaper.  Only 3 of them are flannel - I told Jenn to see if the flannel ones work better flipped over as I've read that the diapers can be slippery and come slip off the clothing.  We'll see.  If you flip the flannel ones, and use the flannel against your body, and use the absorbent part of the diaper facing the baby, it can work too.  I told her if she finds that works, then I will put flannel on the backs of all of them.

Remember this blanket I made?  It has an applique in the corner.  The applique is one I printed on my new printer - the Epson Stylus NX125.  Theordora asked me if I have done anything with the printer - so far, I've done this applique, and I've done 3 quilt labels.  I haven't used any of the quilt labels yet....silly me didn't put anything on these little baby blankies. 

 

It's kind of difficult to tell from these photos (I'm usually taking them as I'm running out the door to deliver the stuff), but this applique came out beautiful.  It was easy to use.  I can't wait to see if it washes up ok.  I used a really HOT iron to set the colors, per the directions on the sheet I used.  Then, instead of running it under cold water, I used a cold water, wet washcloth, and I set that on it, removed it after it was damp, then ironed again to dry.  Hopefully, that worked!

SO...........the answer is YES, I love my new printer, and I can't wait to do some more on it.  When I'm just printing out regular stuff, I use my Kodak printer.  So I can't answer the questions about the ink quite yet - I don't know how fast I'll go thru the ink.  I do know that it says to use it often enough that the ink doesn't dry up and some people have had problems with the print heads on them.  But I've had that problem with my Kodak printer also.  So we'll see!

Here is the back of the blanket which I didn't take photos of before.  Again, I did it before running out the door to deliver it to Jenn.  I just did straight lines for the quilting, following the stripes on the front, and then folding the flannel over and doing the binding that way.  It was SEW easy.  :-)

I also worked on some invites for the baby shower, and then Jenn decided she didn't like them (for reasons I won't state here).  Just chalk it up to hormones. LOL  So I tried a few other designs and but they also didn't work.  She found some online that she likes.........I found some in the Hallmark store that I like better.  I will decide whether I will use the ones I want, or the ones she wants.  Heck, she shouldn't even be getting involved! LOL.  

Lets see........oh right - I spent hours and hours on the ripping out of the pinwheel quilt.  Since I'd used the machine and my machine quilting isn't that consistent, there were many tiny stitches.  I ended up buying 2 new rippers. The first one I bought, the metal ripping part was too large for the tiny stitches.  I went back and found a nice, ergonomic one, that really IS nice to use, and it has a much smaller ripper part, and that worked really well.  Yesterday, I was having some trouble with my foot, and I just wanted to sit with it up - and I finished the ripping - finally!  YIPPPEEE!  I had to wash the fleece I was using for backing because of all the threads sticking to it - because I had used spray baste and the threads were all sticking.  I haven't taken the fleece out of the dryer yet - when I took it out of the washer, it still had tons of tiny threads stuck to it.  I'm praying that they came off in the dryer.  If not, I'll have to pick those off.  So keep your fingers crossed for me!

OkHere is a link to her page.  There are five books in this series, and I've read three all ready!  I will be sad when there aren't any more....Sisters Choice; Endless Chain, and Touching Stars are the three I've read already - but I didn't read them in order.  LOL.  It's ok tho - you can pick any of them up and the books all refer to different characters, but, each book is about a different set of characters.  So you CAN read them out of order.  The other two books in the series are: Lovers Knot and Wedding Ring.

Besides all of this stuff, and my regular stuff like volunteering with Evan at the hospital a couple of times a month, I have been crocheting a baby blanket (of course), I'm starting to knit a sweater for myself (in beautiful purple cotton), and working on my Mystery Quilt from Kelly Ann's Quilt shop who also had a blog (gotta figure out how to get the link here....).

I also have had to deal with fleas.  Yeah.  I am not real good about using the Frontline on the dogs, and have NEVER used it on my cat, indoor cat that he is.  Well, I guess it's the heat this summer, but the fleas (along with the huge horse flies, the mosquitoes and whatever else you can think of) are out of control!  I found ONE flea on Evan.  I put the Frontline on him and haven't seen anything since.  That was 2 weeks ago.  I put some Frontline on little Gabbi too, and found one little tiny flea walking on her 2 days ago.  I took Leo to the vet because he has been vomiting more than normal, huge hairballs coming up, and he started having diarrhea.  So we get to the vet, and I take him out of his carrier, and what do I see?  Flea dirt (eggs) all over him!  I was embarrassed and devastated!  OMG.  I couldn't stop picking the eggs off him and I even got a couple of fleas off him.  I was SOOOOOOOO upset!  I got some Frontline for him too and a flea comb.  We came home and stripped the bedding and washed what could be, and vacuumed everything in the house.  I also spent a lot of time combing Leo out and getting everything off him I could.  I'm keeping him combed as that will help the hairball situation also.  I was given meds, one to settle his tummy, and another one to give him for the hairballs.  They are helping.  No more runny poo and no hairballs in a few days.  Thank goodness!  No sign of live fleas, and no eggs either.  I'm praying I got it all.  But I tell ya - we go outside to potty and when I get the dogs back in, I do a sweep of their bodies!

So other than that......life is good.  I'm going to have a few days where there is nothing coming up - and I'm grateful.  I'll try not to make it so long in between blog posts next time.  I have lots to work on up in the sewing room.  I want to get busy on the Mystery Quilt - I'm running a month behind right now.  Once Sept arrives I need to go to KA's and get the Sept clue, then make it.

Thanks for reading my blog and as usual, comments are welcome.  Spammers, not so much!