Llama, Llamas, Llamas

I hope you had a lovely Easter if you were able to celebrate with your family. This sweet little lop eared bunny and plant were a gift from my godchild and her family and her pets. :-)

 My sewing machine was pleasantly surprised to have gotten a workout lately. I wanted to make an oversized project bag to accommodate my large 11x17 Q Snap frame.  

 

 

I also made a matching grime guard and a bitty board. What is a bitty board you ask? Well, it is a tiny version of a design board. Still confused? Wondering how they are used? Then head on over to Lori Holt's Youtube episode where she explains how to use them and how to make them. Quilters please take note: the designs boards are geared to you, so definitely check them out.

 

 

 

I enjoy making project bags and finding fittings to make cute zipper pulls.  This little llama charm was perfect for this project bag.

Let me share this poem from Ogden Nash. . . 

The Llama

 

The one -l lama, 

He's a priest;

The two-l llama,

He's a beast.

And I will bet 

A silk pajama

There isn't any

Three-l lllama.

 

I remember pointing out to my English teacher back in high school that we do indeed have 3-alarmers when we have serious fires. (Note to those not from this neck of the words. We sometimes drop our "Rs" when we speak; we also sometimes put them in when they should not be there. :-)

A llama tip . . . Kimberly Jolly of The Fat Quarter Shop in a recent floss tube talked about taking her children who were on spring vacation to a ranch with all kinds of animals including llamas. While feeding the llamas, the guide warned Kimberly and her children that whenever a llama puts his/her ears straight back, get out of there quickly as the llama is about to put his/her head back and spit!!! That's your tip for the day; file it away in your memory bank. :-)

Readers have asked what weight vinyl I use in my bags. I use vinyl with the green printing sheets from Joanns. Their vinyl comes in various weights, but I find this the best weight for my bags.

Here's Emma after her Thursday trip to the groomer. 

St. Colettas School is just down the road from the groomer’s shop, so I stopped in there to see their new shops and to learn when they would again be accepting clothing items and other items for their thrift shop. The new shops are boutique-like, and I found two items. This small gold frame will be perfect for a cross stitch piece.

I also picked up this tiny Campbell Kids item which I will use for a sewing kit. I couldn't help thinking of my mom who said when she was little, folks would say she looked like the Campbell Soup girl.

Oh, one more thing, WHOOPIE, I received my second vaccine shot this morning!!!!!!!

Have a wonderful week. Stay safe and stay creative.

Llama Drama

The one-l lama; 

He's a priest.

The two-l llama:

He's a beast.

And I will bet

A silk pajama

There isn't any

Three-l lllama.

                                                                                     Ogden Nash

One of my little cousins, Miss T, loves her stuffies: especially elephants, giraffes, and llamas. I purchased the "Little Llama Softie" pattern from Jennifer Jangles Etsy shop. When I was taking this photo, Miss Emma came over for a closer look. (BTW . . . Emma is sporting red, glued-on jewels on her ear tips after a visit to the groomer on Tuesday.)

I finished the final hand stitching on this little llama last night while watching a wonderful movie, "Christmas in Connecticut" (1945) starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan. It's one of my favorite holiday movies.

My baking is done and I just have a few more presents to wrap. Now on the eve of Christmas Eve, Emma and I wish all our readers a Joyous Christmas . . . Happy Holidays to all!!!

Cute Animals and Supermarket Sweep

Hi everyone! How are you doing today? As promised, I'm going to try to post as frequently as I can  something to make you smile during these strange, stressful, difficult days.

Have you seen Wellington??? The internet has fallen in love with a rockhopper penguin who resides at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium. With the aquarium shut down due to the coronavirus, the penguins were allowed out of their habitat to explore. The video is short, but please take a moment to view it as it is guaranteed to make you smile. Click HERE. Personally, I'd like to have his keepers follow him around for at least a half hour. He's precious!!!

And speaking of cute animals, here is a teddy that I made for my young cousin Trixie who loves acting. She was to perform in a children's theater production over the weekend, but the shows were cancelled. Fortunately, the dress rehearsal was filmed, so I hope to see that.

At our last Ladies Lunch, I had Trixie, her sister, and their friend stuff teddy bears that I was donating at my guild. Trixie loves stuffies and asked if I would make her one. She picked this purple flannel from my stash. When our guild members make them to be donated, we do not embroider faces or add buttons since we don't know how old the recipients may be, but I did both for my favorite little actress! On the bottom of one foot, I embroidered "BREAK A LEG" and added stars. :-)

You may see the llama that I made her for Christmas two years ago HERE.

So, this morning on CBS This Morning it was suggested that we keep a diary/journal to help us deal with the stress. I knew supermarket shelves were becoming a bit empty, but yesterday I saw that for myself. I waited until late Sunday afternoon before heading to Roche Brothers on Quincy Avenue. The parking load was not crowded, so I donned my disposable plastic gloves and headed in to mainly get some milk and corn beef. Oh my goodness!!! There was milk, and I was able to pick up a few things that I needed, but I was surprised to see the items that there had been a run on. There was a not a drop of bottled water. What's up with that??? I understand the toilet paper and paper towels as I, myself,  have been buying them, but it was startling to see all the completely empty shelves on that long aisle. . . except for the notices asking customers to only purchase two paper product items.  I wasn't looking for any of the following items, but it was interesting to see that there were no eggs, frozen pizzas, not a crumb of bread or English muffins, no bleach or other cleaners, etc. People seemed bemused by the situation, but not overly upset. I returned home and cranked up the drawbridge of my castle where I will now stay for the foreseeable future. [Another supermarket, Stop and Shop announced this afternoon that they would open their stores on Thursday morning from 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. to accommodate customers sixty or older. No one younger will be allowed to shop during those hours.]

Here in Massachusetts new steps have been taken. Restaurants have been closed except for take out. Libraries, museums, gathering places are closed. Meetings have been cancelled. All schools in the state are closed for three weeks at this point.

The Dow Jones dropped 3,000 points today.

One last thing . . . this afternoon at a coronavirus press conference, the President was asked how he would rate his handling of this crisis. With a straight orange face with white circles around his eyes, he responded that he would rate his performance a ten.   God help us all.

Be kind to yourself and stay safe.