Projects

A Sneak Peak At The New Baby Quilt

These are the blocks, all laid out on my bed so I can see how they look together. I still need to sew the sashing and borders on. I am loving it! I tried to lay them out approximately as far apart as they will be with the sashing strips. I go in the bedroom and sew when I get frustrated working on the website. Yes, still working on it, tweaking things, and getting the FabGrandma Reviews side of it working. It is easier getting the review one done because of all the things I learned while doing this one, but it is still a pain in the part I sit on!

We had to go to Tuscaloosa again on Monday for yet another appointment for FabGrandpa. The VA is checking every part of him, one thing at a time. This is all good, but dang, it is soooo time consuming. He is scheduled for a colonoscopy next week, then another appointment at the end of February for the doctor to give the results all the tests.Then another appointment with an eye doctor for another test. I think Fabgrandpa gets a diploma when he has the last test, ha ha ha ha!

On Tuesday, we went to Greensboro to get new batteries for the truck. It has been taking several tries to get it to crank on cold mornings, and after thinking about it for a minute, we decided that we got the existing ones when we were working in Texas, so that would make them six years old. No wonder they are worn out. So, $207 later, she’s cranking up on the first try every time.

Also, while we were in Greensboro, I asked around to see if they had a food bank, and they do, at the local Habitat For Humanity office. I went in and talked to them about what I items I had to donate, and they referred me to a woman in town who is on a gluten free diet and would be glad to receive them. I’m going to meet her sometime next week.

I finally got a direct deposit I was waiting for this week. It was supposed to be here the first week of January, and I have called several times over the past few weeks trying to find out what the problem was. They finally figured out what the holdup was, and I saw the deposit in my account yesterday morning. So, I could finally call the airline and get a ticket for FabGranddaughter Sarah to come to visit us in March on her spring break. I can not wait! She’s flying to Atlanta, where we will pick her up and go to our hometown. Her dad, step-mother, brother (the FabGrandson Michael), and half-brother (the FabGrandson Owen), are all coming from Maryland. We’ll spend a week in a motel, doing fun things. It’s going to be great!

Oh, if you want to win a gift pack from Maniszhewitz, go to FabGrandma Reviews and make a comment. I’m giving away three prizes. The products are kosher and gluten free, but they taste really good. Anyone would love them. Sorry, United States residents only.

0 Shares

Moving Is Such Hard Work!

Karen · 12 Comments

When my children were growing up, we moved 17 times in 5 years. I was a divorced mother of three trying to make ends meet. A lot of the time, that meant moving to a cheaper place, or moving in with friends for a while. We learned to pack up quickly and how to load the car (No, I didn’t have a truck) so that we could make the least number of trips possible to get the job done. Sometimes I did all myself, and sometimes I had help. It was always easier with help.

Moving my blog from Blogspot to a hosted website has been a HUGE job. And don’t think I have done it all myself. I don’t know enough to do it all by myself. To start off, Gayla from MomGadget has given me great encouragement. We “met” through the internet a couple of years ago. She was one of six women who were blogging on a group site called “Seven Babes A Blogging”, which is now defunct. They had one guest blogger each month, hence the Seven in the name. I was the guest blogger over there for the month of December, 2007. Just the fact that they let me blog with them was a huge encouragement to me, as I felt like I was playing with the big girls by doing that.

Then in November of 2009, I ran into her again, (online, of course) when she was looking for writers at MomGadget. I signed up and, and that sort of opened the door for me to ask her some questions, and before you know it, we were getting FabGrandma.com built. Gayla gave me advice on how to go about purchasing a domain name and how to get it hosted (I had no idea where to start). She installed my blog and Studio Press Lifestyle Theme you see here (the theme is the how the blog looks to you, purty, huh?). And she did it all in about two days. I was soooo impressed with her service. Thank you so much, Gayla.

After Gayla got through with the initial software installation and configuration for me, FabGrandma.com was all ready for me to move in. So, I got here, and I couldn’t believe how much room I have over here! At the old site, I only had one “room”, much like living in my travel trailer. There was only so much I could do over there. Not that I need a mansion, you know, I just wanted more room to move around, more places to store my ideas. And boy do I have that here! Just look at all those pages and linky things! But, it still had some “decorating” and remodeling to do. And I had no clue what to do or where to start!

It’s not that I didn’t know what I wanted. Oh, no! I have been thinking about and planning my new website for a couple of years. I knew EXACTLY what I wanted it to look like and what I wanted it to do. I just didn’t know how to do it. So, the next step was to just start. I worked on it for almost a week, many hours a day (good thing I am unemployed right now.) And I got it looking more and more like I wanted it to. All that work involved teaching myself some basic html, from HTML Basic. It’s like trying to learn German a phrase at a time.

At the end of the week, I was at a place where I had gone as far as I could go, but it still didn’t look like I wanted it to look. As I was sitting here wondering what the heck I was going to do about it, I remember a young man I had “met” online a couple of years ago. Brandon lives with his lovely wife in North Carolina. He has been reading my blog for a while, and has corresponded with me on several occasions because he is interested in the fulltime RV’er lifestyle. I emailed him and offered to pay him to do some work for me on here, with a list of what I needed done, and asked him how much he would charge me to do the work. I knew from reading his blog that he was looking for a way to earn some extra money, and I wanted to help.

Imagine my surprise when he emailed me back, and said that someone had done him a kind deed recently, and he would do this thing for me as a “pay it forward” kind of thing. What a nice guy! And thank you, Brandon, because the work you did was exactly what I needed done. You should go into the web design business.

So, here it is, brand spanking new! I think the majority of the work is done. I am just giddy with excitement. Take the grand tour and let me know what you think!

0 Shares

Hurray! I Got Some Sewing Done Today

Karen · 15 Comments

I have so many projects to get done that sometimes I don’t know where to begin. I made a rule for myself a couple of years ago that I have to finish one thing before I can start another, because I had gotten into the habit of not finishing things. I would make the quilt top, but not follow through with putting the layers together and quilting the project. Since I made that rule for myself, I have finished lots of things.

I DO still buy fabric, and cut things out before I finish the project at hand, but this just gives me something to pick up and sew. Today, I finished sewing the star pieces together for the Star of Bethlehem quilt I am making for Seth and Sarah.

If that looks familiar, it may be because I am making one very similar to it for Becca and Ken. There is only one fabric that is different in the two quilts. These are king size, and I am sending them out to a long arm quilter to be quilted. My sewing machine won’t handle that big of a job. Here is a photo of Becca’s quilt ready to go:

Yes, I was working on it in the maintenance shop. I had to clean of the work bench and tape some plastic on it to have a space big enough to work on. Sometimes I go to a quilt shop and use the tables in their back room. I have never been turned down for doing that, as long as they don’t have lessons going on at the time.

I had bought some yellow and purple fabric for the new baby’s quilt when a month or so ago:

But then this cute cute girlie girl fabric came in the mail last week:

So now our new little missy will be getting this purty fabric called “OH, Cherry, Oh” for her first quilt from her FabGrandma. I haven’t decided on a pattern yet, but I think I am going to let the fabric tell me what to do. I got what is called a “turnover”, which is a pack of 40 pre-cut triangles, and three 1 yard pieces. I love those pre-cuts–they make it so easy to get started doing something.

0 Shares

It’s A Girl!

Karen · 7 Comments

Remember back in the dark ages when we old grandma’s were having our babies,and we had to actually wait until we woke up after the delivery to find out if we had a boy or a girl? Sigh…

We found out yesterday that our newest FabGrandchild is going to be a girl. We are all so excited and can hardly wait until May for her to get here. The proud parents, my son and his wife, are still debating names for her. I’m just calling her Baby Girl until she’s named.

I was so happy to know there is going to be another FabGranddaughter, that I drove 35 miles to Tuscaloosa yesterday to go shopping. OK, we also had to go get FabGrandpa some new pants, but seriously, I couldn’t wait another minute to look at girlie girl baby clothes.

Isn’t that just the most adorable outfit?

And ooooooooo

ahhhhhhhhh! cutie cute cute! You know Fabgrandma is going to be sewing for this girlie soon!

0 Shares

FABrics I Love

Karen · 8 Comments

As you may have noticed, I love to sew. I mostly make quilts and crafts, but have been known to sew a little bit of clothing every now and then. One of the reasons I haven’t been sewing a lot since I started living the RV lifestyle, is that I am always in remote locations where there is not a decent fabric store within hundreds of miles.

The internet has come to my fabric rescue! Over the last year or so, I have found quite a few sewing, quilting, and fabric blogs, and I read them every day, and drool over all those fabulous fabrics the writers of them are using in their projects. One of my favorite fabric blogs, True Up, is hosting a MEME where they want you to show your 10 favorite fabrics of 2009.

Since I didn’t get into internet fabrics until last summer, I missed out on some that debuted earlier, so some of the ones I am listing here may be older than 2009, but I still love them.

My most favorite fabric I found this year (but probably came out earlier than that) is the Fairy Tip Toes collection by Tina Givens for Free Spirit Fabrics. When I saw it, I fell in love with it, and searched for three weeks before I found it online to buy. I haven’t cut it yet, don’t know that I ever will, but I HAVE it and that is what matters most to a fabric-aholic like me!

My next favorite is called Large Whimsy from Pillow and Maxfield for Michael Miller Fabrics. I am making myself a quilt using the brown/green/turquoise colorway. I already have the pieces cut and ready to sew.

There are just so many beautiful FABrics out there these days, it makes me wish I had more storage room for it. I have only a wicker trunk to keep it in, though, so I have to be very selective on what I buy.

And I used two fabrics from the Meadowsweet Collection by Sandi Henderson for Michael Miller to make a dress for my FabGranddaughter, Sarah, for Christmas:

Here are some things that are in my list to get in the coming year, that is, if something new doesn’t come along that I love more!

Echino Fall: for Kokka Fabrics

Far And Away by Heather Ross for Kokka Fabrics

Hushabye: by Tula Pink for Moda Fabrics

Goodnight Monkey: by Erin Michael for Moda Fabrics

MoMo Odyssea: for Moda Fabrics

Full Bloom: by Bari J. for Windham Fabrics

Brandon Mably: for Westminster Fabrics

Girly Girl: by Patricia Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics

And for reasons I don’t have to explain, I love these two cute fabrics:

Travel Trailer: Michael Miller Fabrics

Happy Campers: by American Jane for Moda Fabrics

I don’t know how many of these gorgeous FABrics I will actually get this year, but oh, isn’t it wonderful to dream about them?? Oh, and I see I have gone fabric crazy again, since they only asked for my favorite 10. Hello. My name is FabGrandma and I am a fabric-aholic.

0 Shares

So The New Year Is Upon Us

Karen · 12 Comments

Now that 2010 is here, I am spending my day making a list of goals for myself. I don’t make resolutions. A “resoulution” is an “act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure..”, and what I am doing is by no means a determined course of action. I find that in my life, setting out on a course of action usually leads to something other than what I started out to do. So, if I set goals instead, no matter what course of action leads me to the desired result is ok.

Some of my goals are simple, direct things that accomplish a specific task:

I want to clean up my computer, and by that, I DO NOT mean dusting off the screen. I want to get rid of files no longer needed; bookmarks that lead to pages that make me wonder why I bookmarked them to start with; organize folders in some kind of order that make sense, and put the ones I use the most at the top of the list. If I accomplish that, it will make my days infinitely better and help me save time.

I want to get organized in my life. I do so many different things that I sometimes just get overwhelmed with the list. I want to make myself a schedule, so that I have an hour a day to write; an hour a day to sew, an hour a day to play, and an hour a day to exercise. (Not that putting the hour a day on my calendar will actually make me do those things…)

I want to get a tripod and learn to take better photos. If I had done that last year, this photo of the gorgeous blue moon rising over Payne Lake on New Years Eve would have been better than this:

Other goals may prove to be a little harder for me to do, but not starting to work in that direction will assure me that they won’t get done:

I want to move my blog to a hosted website with my own URL. I have some very specific and some other vague goals for myself for this blog, and have already started working towards them. I want it to be the most Fab blog, ever. (Now how is THAT for a goal???)

I want to get my Etsy store up to date, and get all the purty things I sew listed on there for sale. I want procrastination to be a thing of the past.

I have a goal to get all my gluten free recipes sorted out, typed up, and presented in some type of cookbook, whether it is an e-book or a printed one. There are other gluten free cookbooks out there, but I am a southern girl who cooks in a “southern” way. I want other gluten free cooks from the south to feel comfortable in the kitchen, making all those mahvelous southern comfort foods we grew up on, minus the gluten.

I want to make myself a quilt with these fabrics. I have already started it, by cutting all the pieces. All I have to do now is the sewing (HA! that’s easy to say!) I have a baby quilt to make, and a couple of other big sewing projects that I want to finish by spring, but of all my goals, this one will probably be the easiest for me to accomplish.

So, there it is, out there for public consumption, and public scrutiny. Making these goals public will put me at greater risk of completing them. What are YOUR goals for the year 2010?

0 Shares

I’ve Been Sewing My Brains Out

Karen · 14 Comments

Since I’ve been buying so much fabric lately, I figured I better get busy sewing some of it up. After a trip to the Hobby Lobby in Tuscaloosa, the quilt shop that I found, some online fabric shopping, and then the trip to Joann last weekend I finally have enough fabric to complete several projects. (Did you think I was going to say I had enough fabric? A girl can NEVER have enough fabric.)

A dress for my granddaughter

and a blue dotty skirt, too.

and another ruffled skirt with horses. (She loves horses.)

A zippered bag for my daughter, Becca

and a tote bag to match.

Pink and green tote for Emily

with a matching zippered bag.

Becky gets yellow and black

and here is her zippered one, I love this one.

Patchwork in aqua, turquois, and purple for my friend Gaelyn.

and one for the little girl who lives down the lane. Ha ha ha, not really, but for Emily’s niece.

And of course she gets a matching zippered bag, too.

Brown, pink, green, stripey dots for my daughter-in-law, Sarah.

A Christmas apron for my mother

Another tote bag for my sister. I have one more little bag to make, and I will be done with gifts. Then I can sew for fun. Yay!

Check out all the other handmade goodness at Everything Etsy.

0 Shares

I’m Turning Into A Bag Lady

Karen · 5 Comments

My fabric shopping trip last week included some heavy-weight interacing so I could make some tote bags for my daughters. That stuff is expensive! But, I got enough to make four bags. I have two of them finished already:

Greens, blues, and browns for Becca.

Pinks, greens, and beige for Emily.

The pattern I used makes three sizes. These are the medium sized ones. That large bag would hold a Volkswagen, I think.

And I have yellow and black sitting there waiting to be sewn, for Becky. I don’t have fabric yet for Sarah’s, but will have it next week. OOooo, I get to go fabric shopping again!

0 Shares