knit cap

Hello Friends,

   I hope your holidays were wonderful.  We had a wet Christmas day but who cares! It was Christmas!

2010 is looming right around the corner and hopes are high that it will be a great year.

I have not had as much time to craft lately but did find time to knit this pretty roll brim hat.  Please pardon the makeshift hat stand.

I like the way it looks from the top.  The decreasing stitches used to shape the top makes a nice swirl pattern.

My father is currently going through cancer treatments and there is a basket of donated hats in the waiting room for ladies going through chemo threrapy.  Add one more.

Holiday Houses

Hello Friends,
     I have not been doing much crafting lately while I tend to my family but I do want to share something I made last year.

Oh, who is this handsome fella?  He's actually a wooden pin.  Thank you Stephanie for this clever idea! 

Appliqued tree with french knot ornaments and a shiny star on top.

An embroidered Menorah with tiny beads in the flames.

Clear beads around the roofline for Christmas lights!

Add some shiny star buttons and appliqued chimney smoke. A cozy little wallhanging!

This is going to hang on  the wall at a Weight Watchers center where I work. 

Fall embroidery

Hello Friends,

  We are on the cusp of winter and I am finally finished with my fall wall hanging!  Well, better late than never I suppose.  Many of you will recognize the wonderful pattern.  It was the first Friday Freebie put out by Kaaren of the Painted Quilt. 

I love it!  I did change it a bit though.  Instead of a backstitch, as specified by the pattern, I used a stem stitch ( I think it is sometimes called an outline stitch).  For you non-embroiderers out there I basically do a backstitch but instead of butting up against the previous stitch, I overlap halfway.  Uses more thread but that is how I learned to embroider eons ago and am comfortable with it.

It will only grace my foyer for a few days this year.  Christmas decor will be put up early next week.


On a different note,  please forgive me if  my postings become less frequent.  I have things going on right now that need my attention.  I will try to drop by and read your blogs as much as I can as well.  I am hoping I will be back up and running full force in a couple of months. 

Have a wonderful holiday season everybody!  Hugs, Rumi

Shichi-Go-San

Hello Friends,

In Japan people celebrate Shichi-Go-San (which translates to seven-five-three) on November 15th.  While not a national holiday, it is a day for celebrating children ages 7, 5 and 3.  Girls age 7, boys age 5 and both boys and girls age 3 are dressed in their finest kimonos.  They may be taken to the local shrine and some festivities.  Here I am at age 3. 

It doesn't look like I am  too thrilled with that head thingy.  It looks a little heavy.

Talk at you later,  Rumi

Little Embroidery

Remember to go to Barb's quilt giveaway. Picture of the wonderful quilt on my post yesterday!

A little embroidery to show you today.




A sweet little pincushion. I wanted it to have a romantic, nostalgic look about it. I found the perfect fabric in my stash. A little lace and pretty ribbon bow makes it complete.

Quilt giveaway link

Barb of Bejeweled Quilts by Barb is having a great giveaway. Stop by her blog and leave a comment!

Halloween party and completed quilt

Who is this ravishing creature? Why, it's Edna from "The Incredibles" movie. So stylish don't you think? Mr. Lucky spent alot of time sprucing up the basement for our Halloween Party. Here are some of our party guests.

Not all goulish goings on at our party. Look at these fabulous cake balls I made using Bakerella's recipe. Yummy looking huh! Well, they were delicious and a big hit with our guests! Thank you Bakerella!

OK, back to quilting. Here is the completed quilt that I posted about last week. The same quilt I posted about waaaay back in July. The machine quilter took 12 weeks to get it back to me. Hmm...must find another quilter for next time.

Here is DD holding up the quilt in our backyard. See her cute feet!


Closer look.

And the back. I was a bit dissapointed that the quilter didn't center the backing a little better but not having any personal experience with longarm quilting, maybe I am being too picky.

I made this for my DD to give to her good friend as a wedding gift. Well, they liked it so I am pleased.

Talk at you later. Rumi

Happy Halloween

Witches on a broomstick flying real fast
Ooh Ooh, Ooh Ooh, Halloween at last.

I cannot take credit for that brilliant piece of poetry above. It is actually words to a song that my daughter learned when she was in Kindergarten. Yes, that is the entire song. Easy for 5 year olds to remember. Sorry for the crooked shot of my little Witchie Poo.

Happy Halloween everybody!

Autumn Splendor

I both love and hate autumn. My yard has a bazillion trees. Look at the lovely fall leaves!
Ok, now look at my lawn!

Time to break out the rake. This time of year, raking leaves is almost a full time job! Well, I get some great exercise and my compost pile is happy as well so I guess I can't grumble too loudly--but I want to!! Waaah...

Boobie Cookies

Have you been to Bakerella's blog? There are some yummy things going on there. Awhile back she posted a recipe for Cowgirl cookies. Click here to see the post. Well, I had to try them. With October being breast cancer awareness month, you can easily find pink M&Ms in the stores.

OK, so here's the story. I didn't realize until it was too late that I had purchased peanut M&Ms instead of plain. Oh what to do. Do I turn off my oven and dash to the store for the correct candy or do I just make do with what I had? Well, I made do.

They were delicious! The peanut M&Ms seem like a good pick for breast cancer awareness month don't they? I rename this batch to be Boobie Cookies.

Pumpkin Pin

Hello Friends,

Nice crisp fall weather calls for a cute pin to wear on your shirt. I made this pumpkin pin a few years ago and love wearing it. Simple, really. Quilt a little pumpkin shape then pink the edges with your pinking shears. Add a narrow ribbon piece for the stem and couch a little vine. Glue a pin to the back and it's ready to wear. Mine is getting a little frayed so I may have to make another but it is good enough to wear today!

Binding corners

When I first became interested in quilting, I had neither the time or money to attend quilting classes so I taught myself to quilt by reading quilting books and magazines. I tell ya, there is some bad information out there to trip up the novice. For example, attaching binding. One source said to use 4 strips. Bind the top and bottom, then the sides.

OK, granted, mine looks very much worse than the book sample but I know now that this is not the way to bind a quilt! What terrible corners! This is how I do corners now. Do you do the same or do you have a different method that you like? First off, I do not trim my backing and batting until after I have attached my binding. I find this cuts down on the backing buckling while I sew the binding. The pin is placed 1/4-inch from the edge of my quilt top. Sew to this point and stop.


With the needle down, pivot the quilt clockwise. sew to the edge of the binding then backstitch.

Now turn the quilt 180* so you are in position to continue sewing the binding.


Line up the binding to the quilt top.


Backstitch and continue sewing your binding.

Once all my binding is sewn on, I trim the batting and backing even with the quilt top and binding. When you flip the binding to the back of the quilt, you get nice corners. By the way, for instruction on how to flawlessly finish attatching your binding, go to Stephanie's great tutorial on this subject! Now onto hand sewing the binding to the back.

I received this thread conditioner (along with other wonderful items, including yummy Samoan fabric!) in a giveaway I won from Barb at Bejeweled quilts by Barb. Like beeswax, it coats the the thread. Less thread tangling. Oh, must mention that it is resting on one of the wonderful coasters Jane sent me for participating in one of her block swaps. Love them! (ok gang, I keep trying to hyperlink you to Jane's blog but blogger is being fussy! Go see her at janesfabrics.blogspot.com)

A traditional over the finger thimble was always awkward for me. I discovered this ring thimble while in Japan. It fits right under the first knuckle of your finger.

You push the needle through the fabric like this. While I haven't seen metal ring thimbles like this in local stores, I have seen leather rings with a dimpled metal section. Maybe if traditional thimbles are not for you, you can give this kind a try. (yes, I know I should be using black thread but I didn't have any and didn't want to drop everything to run to the fabric store. The white thread forced me to really work at making my stitches invisible!)

OK, here is the completed corner. Much better than that first quilt corner I showed you! Alright, back to stitching the binding. I'll show you the completed quilt next time.

Talk at you later. Rumi

Indiana getaway

Hi All,
Mr. Lucky and I drove over to Indianapolis, Indiana for the weekend. Here is a shot from our hotel room window on the 10th floor. I believe it is a picture of the capitol building.

Also out that same window. Beautiful building, don't you think? Wish it was a bit clearer for you. Never good to take pics from a window; especially at an angle.

Panning down the same building.

Ok, why were we in Indianapolis? To go to the King Tut exibit at the Children's Museum. Of course, we were not allowed to take pictures of the exibit so no pics, sorry. I will tell you that it was very neat and I enjoyed it alot.

The museum was 4 stories tall and this massive Chihuly glass sculpture ran up the center.

Here is the middle

The top



And looking down to the bottom. Very impressive in person!

Indianapolis is a great town to visit. Saturday night, we had dinner and a pint at Rock Bottom Brewery and Restaurant then listened to a blues band at The Slippery Noodle. There is quite a good night life scene there. It was a fun time. Once again, I didn't take pictures so you'll have to take my word for it.

OK, next time I hope to show some craftiness. Talk at you later. Rumi

I'm back

Hello Friends,

We came home yesterday from a lovely trip. Mr. Lucky, our daughter, 2 friends and I started our vacation in Pinehurst, North Carolina. The boys played golf and the girls went into town for some shopping (mainly window shopping--I'm not a big shopper). I didn't bring my camera to town but did pick up a tourist's map. Pinehurst is a very pretty little village.

A couple of days later we headed south to Florida.

Mr. Lucky and I with Goofy at Disney Epcot. Do we look like tourists or what!

Great little "chef's band" These guys drumed on all kinds of kitchen utensils and were great fun to watch.

We also took a road trip to Naples and Ft. Lauderdale but sorry, no pics to show you.

Most of the trip was spent relaxing in the wonderful Florida sunshine. I did have time to get quite a bit done on Kaaren's Sept. freebie stitchery. I'll show you once it's complete. In the meantime, I thought I would share a tip with any new stitchers out there.

Many stitchery projects call for 2 strands of embroidery floss. What I like to do is take one strand of floss that is twice the length I need (about 35" is what I like to use).


Fold in half and pass both ends through the eye of the needle.

Take your first stitch but don't pull all the way. Come back to the underside and slip your needle through the loop.

When you tug to secure, you have a neat little starting point with no knot. This trick is wonderful for your cross stitch projects too; no more having to secure the ends in your first few stitches.

OK, all. Will talk at you later, I've still got unpacking to do! Rumi