Three delights, patterns, concert, quilt shop trip

 Aren't they great!  Unless you sew or quilt or are in to vintage things, (otherwise junk to some), you won't understand my glee. I have been looking for these for years and I found them last weekend with my junkin' friend! The original prices on these patterns, which are complete, was 15 to 35 cents and I paid about 95 cents for each.  That certainly is inflation, but patterns today are as much as $15.00.  Who knew?  Michaels had the frames on sale for $5.00 and they were exactly what I was hunting.

So framed on my wall in the sewing room, next to a small quilt, they are perfect and I love 'em.
We went to a concert this weekend and even we sat in the nosebleed section, it was well worth it.
Barrage 8, a stringed group of 8 plus am amazing drummer, consists of 3 men and 5 women on violins, violas, bases and some other instruments.  They were so very talented and so full of energy, which explains why the gals were so thin.  Really it was an enjoyable evening.  If the weather holds, and that is always debatable, I am off to a quilt shop adventure this week.  I am so needing it!

"A multitude of small DELIGHTS constitute happiness. ~ Charles Baudelaire

Good Friends

 Well, this is a good friend isn't it? I had a friend from Colorado come and spend 4 days with me this week and my little Spencer above was getting a belly rub and airing out, but totally his guest was enjoying the belly rub.  She has no critters at the present, but loves my furkids.  Just couldn't resist this picture.  It truly is a Dogs life at our house.

This is a project we have been wanting to do and it finally got done.  She loves barns, having grown up on a farm and barn quilts are so interesting that we both wanted to do one.  Of course we don't have barns, but we purchased some weathered wood pieces and found patterns from quilt sources and below is the process and finished pieces.

 She chose the Ohio Star block and I chose the Wyoming square which is a similar pattern.  Each state does have a quilt square by the way.  We marked the pattern off on the wood and decided what colors we would each use, marking with tape.

 The wood was not smooth, so we used sponge brushes that could be thrown away if needed.  These projects went much easier than we anticipated.  We went over to another friend's home to actually paint these and she has a  room set up in her basement which was perfect for this and she made lunch for us also...Thank You Mary.

 I should have flipped my picture below, but forgot and my good friend chose only the two colors above, but this was a very successful venture.  I say this  only because not all of our attempts at projects are as easy.

I have known this friend for 50 years and consider myself so very lucky that she is among those "good friends" that I have had the privilege of knowing.  We have made so many good memories over the span of that many years.  (the footprint on the floor is actually one of her grandchild) She had her grandchildren help her paint her floor. Love it!

"I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all."     ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Other things

 This is just a collection of things we have done over a period of time.  The Mr is working on a leather cuff and between us, we adapted a pattern from a picture I saw.  We have a Tandy shop here so embellishments are available to look at and I have picked a jeweled piece for the center.  I haven't totally decided if I want it painted (the feathers) or if I want him to stain it.  Leather cuffs are really in style and several people are making them from tooled belts.  However, we have the leather in stock and can design just about anything, size, tooling (thanks to the Mr) dye color etc.  I think he has done a great job! Will post the finished cuff later.

This quilt is one I made several years ago, but the real score is the quilt rack.  Our quilt organization gave us an opportunity to grab some items, fabric, batting, and books at a meeting last month and I scored this brass quilt rack for $5.00.  Turns out it belonged to a quilter I know so that makes it extra special!

 Another score are the tall candle sticks.  Actually they are turned pieced from a staircase as one end was cut at a slant, but the Mr. again came to my rescue and with trusty saw (one of the few tools we kept when we moved) made them level again.  They are quite large and I painted some old jar lids to put the candles in and chose to leave the original finish on them for the time being.  What I noticed later is that they actually are not a matched set...one is a bit larger than the other, but I am OK with that.  These too, were a $5.00 purchase at a shop here at Christmas.

This week, I have a friend coming and we have a painting project planned.  She loves old barns and pictures of old barns.  But she also wants to replicate a picture of a barn quilt.  We have purchased a weathered board plaque and will post pictures of our projects later in the week.

I have just taken banana bread out of the oven, finished a batch of chocolate biscotti and have a pineapple upside down cake started...can you smell the goodness?

The Mr.

 We have some very good friends who camp, travel, guide and hunt.  We don't get to see them as much as we would like, but they did stop last week and we met them for a late lunch,   This funny looking piece of leather above is an ammo case which has obviously been damaged (by a dog).  Dogs like to chew on leather and we have even given scraps to dogs to chew on for their enjoyment and it keeps them busy for hours.  But they don't really realize that not all leather which beckons them should be chew toys.  Some time ago the Mrs. asked if my Mr. might be able to re-lace it as it had come apart and had been temporarily been "fixed" with heavy line.  This is, she informed us, had a great deal of sentimental value and she would not trust it to be sent through the mail.  So after hunting season, the holidays and their trip to the west coast for a few weeks, she hand delivered it to us.
The Mr. does wonderful leather work and she trusted him to repair it as it was.  He could have made a new one easily enough, but since she specified that this was special, he was able to repair it as best he could without compromising the original piece.  Below are the pictures of the damage and the finished ammo case.
 

 The little curved missing piece, and unlaced side piece along with a small tear in the flap are "doggie damage".

 The Mr. hand stitches using the existing holes and uses the vise below, with a piece of wood inside the case to support the case while in the vise.

 The finished case below, without adding extra leather and the little tear in the flap was repaired hopefully, it will stay repaired.  The Mr. did a beautiful job and we have a few more projects in mind now that we are settled and have our work spaces up and running. Just need to get it back to her, but not through the mail.

"Friendship is a sheltering tree." ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A new case....

 So I have been watching a lot of murder mysteries...old ones that I probably saw but have forgotten, but this is not a mystery case.  I do love them and have begun to read about Miss
Fisher's murder mysteries, since I can not longer see them on the telly.  Why oh why, can't we just pick the channels we would like to view?  With all of the other advances in technology, this should be a given.  In fact, I love the fact that I can access these books on my I pad from the library now.  That is technology I like, and I can even check out magazines and keep them forever so I do not have to change my address on subscriptions as we seem to move way too often.

   I have gotten away from my intended post.  I have a featherweight Singer sewing machine that I truly love and as old as these machines are, they can be refurbished and sew like little trucks.  As the name implies, they are lightweight and perfect to haul to classes or guilds or wherever you need a little truck of a machine.  Mine is about 70 years old and young at that.  However, the cases which are wood and covered with a dark sturdy fabric, don't always wear as well with age.

 I discovered that the fabric could be removed and a wonderfully constructed wooden case under it could be refinished.  It took me a week to get the fabric off as it was glued very well and left a very unsightly picture.  I was not prepared for all of the work, but with muscle, sharp razor, and lots of sanding, I have a beautiful case.  Mine was in great shape (no loose boards or missing hardware) The top picture shows inside lid, and then the inside bottom. Faintly stamped the bottom of the dovetailed case was "Made in Canada".  The construction is amazing.

I decided on a darker stain and my intention is to paint something on the case, hopefully in the next week or two, but not sure exactly what I will do. 

"May you discover your own special abilities and contribute them toward a better world." ~ Charlene Costanzo