I have gotten busy and finished up a few projects lately that I have had on the back burner while we worked on the shop ceiling.  One of them was my quilted ironing board cover.

I am really happy with my quilted ironing board cover.  It fits so well and is a joy to iron upon.

I like the way it looks and plan  to make another one in brighter colors.

See how well it fits although I think I will add an inch or so to the pattern next time.

I finished another knitted scarf.  This one is a gift.  Really like the colors in this one.

Got my little tea quilt completed this week.  It’s not my best work, but I was in a hurry to get it finished.  Still like it though.  Now I am starting on a coffee quilt.  Not to be confused with another quilt I showed you I had started.  I always have several quilts going at a time.

Now cue West Side Story music and look at all the prettiness.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty,

I feel pretty and witty and bright

It’s a pity,

any squirrel who isn’t me tonight.  Yes, White Tail is staying around and actually posing for pictures.  I keep him/her fed well so he/she will stay around.  Don’t want it to wander into the street.   Such a pretty squirrel.

Now there’s that rainbow squirrel coming around. Something strange is happening here at the Craig house.  Bye.

I love Valentine’s Day.  I have loved it since that first day in elementary school when we  decorated shoeboxes and set them on our desks in preparation to getting lots of Valentines from our classmates.  Of course, back then, we got to celebrate the day in the classroom.  I don’t know if the powers that be consider it politically correct to celebrate a day of love.  There might be some unloved people who might be offended.  I hope not.

Anyway, I looked forward to the day with much excitement.   Mom would take me shopping for Valentines to pass out to my classmates. Big decisions had to be made as to what kind we would buy.  Then we would take them home where more big decisions were made on who would get which Valentine in my collection.  The cute boy would get the most lovey dovey one, of course.  My best friends would get the best ones in the lot.  People I weren’t too fond of would get the smaller Valentines. There were always a few that were smaller than the others.  Everyone in my class got one, though because no one was to be left out.

The big day would finally arrive and I would dress up just a little better that day. I wanted to look pretty for the boys. Yes, I was boy crazy even in elementary school.  I took my precious Valentines to school and put one in each student’s box.  We all would then have to wait until the last hour of the school day for the Valentine’s Day party.  Some years my mother was in charge of bringing cookies or cupcakes and a drink.  My mother always went all out in making pretty decorated treats for all of us.  I still have her heart cookie cutters and use them every year.

We were all excited and could barely contain ourselves waiting for the party.  It’s a wonder we got any school work done that day.  Then our teacher would tell us to put our books away and we knew it was time.  Our boxes stuffed with Valentine love were brought out and we began to look at each one deciding if the person who gave it really “loved” us or not. Gee, I wish I still had those Valentines.  They are probably collectibles now.  Then we were served our refreshments and ate happily all the sweetness that had been prepared for us.  Our teacher would always have a couple of games for us to play.  Then the bell would ring and the party and the school day was over.

I would hold tightly to my Valentine box on the school bus home and as soon as I got there I would open the box and look at all the pretty Valentine cards again.

As an adult, I have received my share of Valentines cards, but usually I am the one who sends them rather than gets them.  I knew I was not marrying a romantic when my husband to be brought me a box of chocolates the day after Valentines Day.  They were cheaper you see!  He has more than made up for that faux pas in the years of our marriage.  He may not always send flowers, but I know he loves me when he builds me a quilt ceiling in my shop or a chicken coop for my planned chickens or lets me get another lab puppy like he is going to this year, I hope.  The most romantic and sweet thing David ever did for me was when our daughter was born.  My mother was taking care of our sons while I was in the hospital and David bought her and me both a dozen red roses.  I just loved him for that.  Of course, I always said my mother liked David better than she like me!    They always got along really well.

I have always felt badly for husbands whose wives expect them to go out and buy them something for Valentine’s Day. I don’t expect anything and then I’m not disappointed.  Anyway, why is it just the husband who is expected to treat the wife?  Why not the other way around?  I don’t know any personally, but I do know there are women who get really angry if their husbands or boyfriends don’t buy them something expensive or at least get them flowers.  One year I told David I did not want to be one of those women who expect her husband to buy her flowers or a gift for Valentine’s Day.  Guess what?  That year I got flowers and a card.  Was I happy?  Of course, but I really didn’t expect them.

This Valentine’s Day I wish you all love.  You are loved whether you know it or not.  I know I am loved by someone who was willing to die for me.  Jesus.  If no one loves me, I know He does.  I know there are many alone on Valentine’s Day. Don’t ever feel that you are not loved.  I love you and wish you the most wonderful day ever.  Love someone, hug your dog, cuddle a baby, give a smile to a stranger, they might need it.  Happy Valentine’s Day a few days early.  Bye.

Whew, the last few weeks I have been sewing and quilting deprived as I worked on my big, fat project which I disclosed to you on my last post.  But this week I have been sewing up a storm and enjoying every minute of it.

When we had a quilt shop several years ago, I carried a lot of Debbie Mumm material and quilting books.  I have a lot of them myself.  This is one of them. See that cute Tea quilt in the background?  I have wanted to make it for years, but the time never seemed right.

This is the one that was in the book.  I like the colors, but I had a Valentine type one in mind.  I have some fabric called Pamkitty and Pamkitty Love that I have used in several projects. I love the colors in these fabrics.  So bright and cheerful.  So that is what I used in the first quilt picture in the blog.  I haven’t quilted it yet, so will show you when it is completed.

This is a block from a small quilt I started this afternoon.  I am just designing it as I go along.  This is Pamkitty Love material also.  It is so vintage looking.  I hope I get it done before Valentine’s Day.

I have been doing some baking also.  I made a yellow cake this week.  I used a box cake mix, gasp.  Really, I like a yellow cake made from a box mix rather than from scratch.  When I was growing up, I made so many yellow cakes.  There was one called the one, two, three, four cake, I don’t know why now, but I made them all the time.  My mother made everything from scratch.  No cutting corners with her.  When I discovered box cakes after I was married I very seldom made cakes from scratch until lately again. Anyway, I didn’t want to put icing on it so I beat up some whipping cream with a little sugar and a couple of tablespoons of homemade strawberry preserves.

Added a couple of drops of food coloring to make it pretty.  Left a little on the beaters to lick.  Did I say a little?  Hmmmm.

Put a small dollop on a piece of cake.  Did I say a small dollop?  Let’s just say I like a little cake with my whipped cream.  It was so good.

Add a dollop to a cup of coffee and oh, man, you have died and gone to heaven.  And you tell yourself you better walk an extra mile today.

Now for my tutorial.  Have you ever looked for a pretty ironing board cover?  I never can find one I like.  When Martha Stewart was in Kmart, she had some pretty ones once in a while and I have ordered Laura Ashley ironing board covers from Amazon.  Lately, there is a dearth of pretty ironing board covers.  I saw a homemade one on a blog I read and thought to myself, “Self, you can make one of those.”  So I set right in to trying it.   First I made a quilt big enough to fit my ironing board.  You could use an old quilt if you have one around you don’t mind cutting up.

Next I taped several sheets of newspaper together to make the pattern.

If you have a husband or any man will do, you will have him turn your ironing board upside down on the newspaper and draw around it with a fine point marker.   I then marked an extra three and a quarter inches to the pattern for the lip of the ironing board and a one inch turn under.

If I make another one, I will add an extra inch to work with because my cover just fit the board. That would be an extra four and a quarter inches.

Next I turned under a one inch casing for elastic. See that pretty flowered backing I have on  the back of my quilted cover?  That’s from a sheet I got at a garage sale for one dollar.  Can’t beat that.  I didn’t turn under the raw edge as my quilt had been made with heavier batting than I would generally use for this, but it was what I had on hand at the moment and I couldn’t wait to go buy some more. This edge won’t show anyway, so it’s really not a problem.

Next you measure around your ironing board to cut your elastic.  I just taped one end to the board and walked around the board holding the elastic until the two ends of the elastic met and I cut it then.  It took over three yards.

I mark both ends of the elastic so I will match the right sides when I sew them together.  Using a safety pin, run the elastic through the casing.  This is where it gets a little hard.  If you don’t have a lot of hand strength, which I don’t, your hands become very tired trying to get the elastic to run through.  I enlisted my good husband and it took us both to pull and tug the elastic, but we finally got it done.  I am thinking of another, easier way to put in the elastic, but I’ll tell you about it when I make another cover.

This is not the finished product because I forgot to take a picture of it.  Suffice it to say, it fit beautifully and stays on better than the store bought covers.  I plan to make more in many colors because I do a lot of ironing and like to do it on pretty covers.

This is what my old  cover looks like and see, it doesn’t stay on very well.  I find that often with store bought covers.  No matter how much you stretch them and work with them, they just don’t fit your ironing board very well.  If you like making things like this, it is a fun, easy project.  I had it completed in a couple of days and I was working on my quilt during that time also.

It’s the month of love, so love the one you’re with, find someone to love, love your dog, cat or rabbit or just love your neighbor as yourself.  Bye.

I have been teasing you about my big, fat project for several months now.  Okay, I have to admit to you there isn’t a big, fat project…..

Gotcha!  there really is and today is the day I will show it to you.

When we moved into this house 36 years ago we didn’t have a garage.  We decided we needed one if only to store things.  Some of my family came down and helped lay the concrete floor and David built the garage all by himself.  I went away for a weekend to visit my parents with the children and when I came back the garage was done.

It is a two and a half car garage.  Who in the world has half a car to park?  We parked our cars in it occasionally, but it really became a place to change the oil, store stuff and for David to have a place to work on projects.

Fast forward a few years and we  enclosed the garage because we just weren’t using it as such.  When we closed our quilt shop several years ago, we thought we might sell fabric out of our little shop so David put in new lighting.  The shop never happened and the building became my quilt studio.  David’s section kept getting smaller and smaller until he now has just a little space in the corner where he stores his tools.

I was working at the time and I wanted a heated place to work so I had a small furnace put in my studio.  Then we put in an air conditioner, a refrigerator and a microwave.  Suddenly, I was almost living out there sewing and quilting and listening to my talk radio shows.   I refused to have a telephone there to disturb me.  Still don’t have one although I do have my cellphone with me sometimes.

The shop is completely insulated, but for years we just had insulation batts exposed in the ceiling.  I didn’t like it, but I lived with it.  Then we decided to put in a bead board ceiling. Well, since we do everything ourselves almost, we tried to put the ceiling in together.  It didn’t work.  I have no upper body strength and had to hold the boards up while David took forever to nail them.  We finally gave up when we knew we couldn’t work together on that project.  So, for years, I have had a partial bead board ceiling which wasn’t attractive.

See, it really is ugly.  It’s been like that for years because we had other things to do.

Last October we took a trip through Tennessee to look at barn quilts  A lightbulb went off in my head.  There was something we could do to make the ceiling look better.

We bought David this new toy.  His big yellow compression machine.

I happened on this wonderful book on Amazon and bought it. I will have to tell you about Carrie Hall sometime. She was an amazing woman.  I also poured through this great pattern book for inspiration

We began haunting Lowes for two by two boards.  Every Lowes we visited we cleaned them out of these boards, but we still had to order one hundred and forty more of them and we still are seven short.

Then I got out my acrylic paints and went to work.

I began to paint quilt blocks.

And more quilt blocks.

Quilt blocks began to take over my shop.

I really loved some of them. This is my favorite.

Every nook and cranny of my shop had quilt blocks stacked up.  My sewing and quilting suffered tremendously.

Meanwhile, Bonnie and Belle began snout painting our back door.  Isn’t it lovely?

Then the real work began.  This wonderful man had a big job ahead of him, but he now had his new compression nail gun and he went to work.

He began nailing row after row of the boards onto the ceiling.  He said if he hadn’t had his compression nail gun he would have quit after the first few boards.  Man, I’m glad we bought it for him!

Each board made the ceiling prettier and brighter.  I was so happy.

Some of the corners didn’t quite match, just like on some of my quilts, but with the warped ceiling David had to work with, I think he did a great job.

Now I love looking up at my ceiling.  It will be fun working in my shop and coming in each day and seeing our handiwork.

Like I said, we aren’t quite finished.  Waiting for our last seven board to arrive to paint.  We need to paint and install molding around the ceiling. Then I am going to paint walls and the concrete floor. That won’t get done until Spring and I just could not wait a moment longer to show you what we have been doing.  Hope you like it.

Well, now you have heard about my big, fat project.  Hope you weren’t disappointed.  Now it’s on to the next project.  Bye.

Okay, I am almost finished with my big fat project.  I will not have it completely done, but I am busting to tell you about it.  I am going to give you a little hint here today and Monday I will reveal it completely.  Here is what l have had in my shop for weeks.  Two by two foot square boards.  One hundred and fifty of them to be exact and we had to buy some more because we ran out.

I have had a great time working on this project and am kind of sad it is almost done. I want to keep going on and on even though it has taken up so much of my time the last several weeks. I am truly amazed at how well it has turned out.  Before I give it away I will stop talking about it!   I’m sure you are on pins and needles just waiting.  Ha.   See you Monday.  Bye.

If you remember, in September I started a big fat project.  I have kept it concealed for David’s and my eyes only for months.  If you know me, I cannot keep a secret very well.  Once I was asked to help with a surprise birthday party for a man in my church.  He and I taught Sunday school together.   I told his wife I wish she hadn’t told me it was to be a surprise because I have an awful time keeping a secret, especially when it’s a nice one.  I want to shout it from the rooftops.  I had a horrible time each time I saw him to not say, “Are you ready for your party?”  I didn’t and the party was a surprise although the man told me he thought I was acting strangely for a while.

Anyway, the big reveal will soon be here.  I can’t wait to show you what we have been up to.   Remember that word, up.

Meanwhile, here at the Craig house we have been discussing chickens and what kind to get and how many.  We can’t have too many, but six or eight might do.  I am thinking of names for each hen.  Names from the Bible, I think.  These will be religious chickens.  At least I hope they will religiously lay eggs when they get old enough!

The coop is ready.  Now all we have to do is wait for Rural King to bring in the chicks.

Here’s to keeping secrets and naming hens.  Bye.

My son just got me set up with a new blog site. I am going to be playing around with it for a while, but this is what I have come up with so far.

Hope you will like the new look, but I am not guaranteeing that the blog look will stay the same. It’s kind of like quilts with me. I am always starting a new one. Since I will be doing all the designing myself and I don’t know what I am doing, there may be some surprises.

Anyway, I will be telling you stories about growing up on an Indiana farm, you will be reading some of my diaries(don’t expect me to let you see the juicy parts!), reading stories I have written for my grandchildren and just reading about my life in general.

So get ready for the ride. It may be bumpy some days and other days it will put you to sleep. Bye.