Tractor quilt

My sweet grandson loves to go to my brothers farm and ride the tractors.

So I decided to make him a tractor quilt for Christmas. I embroidered the tractors...each a different color...  the quilt top is done...ready for quilting.

I started machine quilting it today. It is the first full size quilt I've tried to quilt on my home machine. And I must say, it's quite the challenge, but after some rolling I got several rows of stitching done. .

Christmas Stockings

I decided that this year I'm going to make Christmas stockings for my family... I hope to have all 8 done by Christmas. I'm currently working on #4. I'm using the Falling Snow Stocking by Jennifer Hoel. Here are the 3 I have done.

Nov. 3rd

 Day 3... I'm thankful for my crafting talents. Knitting, sewing, quilting, etc. has given me tons of hours of enjoyment and has opened many doors of friendships.

Blue Bear Baby Quilt

One of this weeks goals was to finished the blue bear baby quilt. It's not perfect by any means. I tried to free motion quilt it but kept breaking needles... so part of it is just quilted with my walking foot. 

Monday goals for this week

My goals for week...

1. Finish stocking #4
2. Cast on stocking #5
3. Finish bear baby quilt
4. Baste tractor quilt
5. Knit 2 inches on mitered square baby blanket
6. Get stuff ready for quilt retreat.

What are your goals for the upcoming week?

November 2nd

Day 2 of thankfulness... today I'm thankful for my precious grandbabies.  David and Isabelle.

Month of thankfulness

Day 1... today I'm thankful for new beginnings...moving forward...putting the past where it belongs... behind me.

Won't you join me ... comment below.

Moving Forward

So October is gone. It was a very emotional month for me. A wedding and two funerals...

BUT... as someone said recently,... all of that stuff is in the PAST ... and I'm not moving that way....I'm moving FORWARD..

 I have wonderful memories of the wedding and are looking forward to many years with my new daughter in law.

I have cherished memories of my two friends who are now resting in God's arms... but I know neither of them would want me to mourn them.. they would want me to smile, laugh, and move on enjoying life.

So that is my plans.   Starting with a new job.. Wednesday will be my first day of work at the local Carson's store. I will be working in the mens wear department. I'm excited but also a bit hesitant. I haven't worked out side of the home for a few years.. and honestly I've enjoyed being able to do things without worrying about keeping a schedule... kind of flying by the seat of my pants, so to speak.  But it will be nice to have my own money again !!!!!

So today, the first day of November 2015, I'm grateful for new beginnings... for moving forward...

No words necessary.... just beautiful

Wedding.......

 Beautiful cake.

 Exchanging rings.

 Mothers carried sand in.

 Groom and best man.

 Groomsman and maid of honor

 Official best man and matron of honor

 First dance

 Pouring the sand

 Vows

 First kiss

 Mother of groom dance

Father and son discuss things before wedding

Pictures not in order.

Beautiful day.

Wedding day

Joseph Daniel... born 2/24/83..is getting married today... my oldest but still my baby... so proud of the man he has become....

Stop by tomorrow for wedding pictures....

It's too small.....

So I finished sewing my dress last night.... so proud of myself... I put it on..... and it is tight...so tight I couldn't sit down comfortably in it.   I am so disappointed. The dress looks amazing ..the fabric worked great with the pattern... I was very careful when sewing it.... but IT'S STILL TOO SMALL.

So what now????  Well first thing tomorrow morning I'm going to go to Joanne Fabric and see if they have any more of the fabric.... if they do, I'm going to get another couple yards and come home and see if I can tear the dress apart and  remake it but enlarge the pattern .
If they don't have the fabric, I'm going to get something else and make the same pattern only bigger....

I AM DETERMINED TO MAKE THIS DRESS .... somehow.

The Wednesday before...

Three days until the wedding...... I'm ready... to my knowledge I don't have any thing to do except show up for rehearsal Friday evening and the wedding Saturday afternoon.

Today, well I'm feeling better... UTI is clearing up ..thank goodness. I hope to sew some today... baby quilt #1... for soon to be great grandbabies....  no pictures yet. But soon.

I haven't knitted much more on stocking #3... still on foot ... I could finish it in an hour or so.... just haven't had the mojo....

Some days are just blah.... no mojo for anything.... do you have days like this? If so how do you get over them ? Do you just push through them ??

Any advice is welcome!!!!!

Wedding week.....

It's finally here..... Wedding week. Next  Saturday night, October 24th, is my sons wedding. So needless to say, there's a lot going on here this week. First and foremost is to finish my dress....yes you read that right,...I am the mother of the groom...and my dress isn't done yet. Am I just or what???

I looked and looked for a dress that I liked... but didn't want to pay boo koo bucks for one.... couldn't find one I liked that looked good on my ....well let's just say..my robust ....body. ( yes I had planned to lose weight and be thin for the wedding...but that didn't happen) ... so I decided to make my dress..... and typically me.... procrastinated..until now... the week of the wedding....yep I'm a bit nuts..... ok just say it cause I know you are thinking it... I'm crazy.... I will show some pictures after the wedding.

Until next time....

Happy Fall Ya'll......

It's a beautiful fall day here in Central Indiana. Fall is my favorite time of the year.  While out doing some nursing home visits today I saw these beautiful mums.... aren't they just stunning?

Back to reality

So vacation is over... had a absolutely wonderful time with my mother, sister, and nieces.. Perfect weather, great location, great company and wonderful memories made.  Then there was today....

Well, let me back up... last Saturday i got a text message from a friend which told me that a dear sweet friend was put into a local nursing home because she has stage four cancer. I hurried over to see her, Linda is her name. I was totally shocked when I saw her. She looked really bad.

Linda and I haven't really known each other for very long, maybe 3 years but we have become very close. She is older than I am, so she became like a second mother to me. Honestly I could talk to her about things that I couldn't talk to my real mother about. She helped me through some rough times. I have grown to love her very deeply.

So today I went to see her again. Boy was it hard to see her so weak and in bed. What a way to get back to reality ....

I hate it. Truly, honestly, deeply hate it with my whole being. Why can't a cure be found? How can modern medicine be so advanced but no cure for cancer be found?? How many great people must die before a cure is found? And why does Linda have to be one of them?

I know I can't be that only person who feels this way..... cancer has touched so many lives.... ruined families, orphaned children, widowed spouses, etc. I don't hate things,,,I don't believe in hating things.... but cancer....I hate.

I'm terrible

Why do I keep this blog open when it's obvious that it is not a priority in my life.... because if it was, I would be writing more, posting more, being involved more with it..

High hopes... that is what I have. I know you have heard all of this before... how I'm going to do better blah blah blah.....

So how do you stay n focus?? Seriously I want to know. Is it a daily planner that helps... to do list...to don't list .... the timer method.... help me out here people... tell me your secrets.....

Let's see this week I've babysat 2 days for my granddaughter.... went grocery shopping, went to knit group, and spent time sewing and knitting .... but what I haven't done is.... cleaned house.. ( actually I have done a bit this morning but honestly I'm not getting much done ) ... went to visit my aunt in nursing home.... went to check on a friend who isn't feeling well...... did not go to another friends to watch shows after she kindly invited me.... and the list of didn't do /haven't done goes on and on....

Why?? Am I lazy ?? Yes I am...I admit it. Do I sit in my recliner way too much..yes I do.

Like today.... I've been piddling and doing odds and ends around the house... but honestly I'm having to totally force myself to do it... I'm being totally honest here.. my body wants me to go lay across the bed and take a nap.  But of course if I would do that... I'd be farther behind on everything.

Time management is that the key... getting to bed earlier.... I'm sure that would help too.  

HELP ... 

New phone.... High hopes

I got a new phone.... A smart phone.. It is a lot smarter than I am. But I can do so many cool things with it....such as write a blog post....now I can't say that this new technology is going to help me write more...but hey it won't hurt .

I've been knitting a lot.... I know no surprise there.... But I've decided I need to make some plans for fall.... So I'm going to make a list of things I want to complete before the end of the year.

Right now I still have the list in my head.... It's very lonely there.... So I plan to get it written down and make a post here so that I can be accountable to you all .

The list will include all my goals...knitting, quilting, crocheting, and a few odds and ends like journalling, house cleaning, and reading. So look for it soon.

I've also been thinking about doing a video podcast.. I watch a lot of them..and want to do my own. I've tried in the past but only did 3 or 4 episodes.... but now that I have the new phone ...which takes great pictures and videos... I want to try it again. I have actually recorded an episode but it never made it online..I wasn't happy with it.

So starting a podcast is one of my fall/end of the year goals.... stay tuned.

I'm looking for....

Attention: Lost motivation..... if anyone finds mine, please return it ASAP.

Good intentions pave the road to hell..... not sure who originally wrote this statement....not sure if I completely agree with it or not..... but I can certainly understand how it works.

Have you ever made a list then forgot it ???  Have you ever made a list and the whole time your writing it , you are thinking to yourself that there is no way you're going to complete it ?   I'm guilty of both on multiple occasions.....

I have so much that I want to do....but no motivation to do ANY of them. You would think that I could at least finish one project this week.... not happened yet.....

How do you all stay motivated? How do you stay focused? Help !!!

Day one......again.

So after I wrote the post yesterday, I decided....what the heck....I'm going to do it.....meaning I was going to give my January goals another go.... so I went and dug out the journal I was using....and yes it had dust on it..... and I flipped through it..... wow did I ever have some  extremely ambitious goals for 2015.... no wonder I failed.... so after reflecting on it some I decided maybe I should set smaller goals... so I decided to try weekly goals.. so I sat down and wrote up my goals for the week of June 1st:

 1.  Finish chair cushions
 2.  Order yarn to finish baby blanket
 3.  Clean bedroom
 4.  Update bullet journal
 5.  Finish pink baby vest
 6.  Go to knitting group Tuesday night
 7.  Go to sewing group Monday night
 8.  Go to church group Wednesday night
 9.  Cast on baby booties
10. Finish first green sock. Cast on 2nd on.
11. Machine quilt baby quilt.
12. Post in blog at least 4 times (3 plus this one)

So whatcha think ...can I do it ??? Do you have goals for this upcoming week?? What are they?

Have you noticed......

Have you noticed that I'm not very good at this whole blogging thing? Well, I sure have..as a matter of fact...I'm horrible at it. You know how in December of every year, you think to yourself that the new upcoming year will be so much better...that you are going to be more organized, more together, and get more accomplished...and you start making a list of all the things you  going to do..... start a blog, post 3-4 times a week, keep a journal, get all your projects done, etc. Oh the high expectations you have for yourself.... you even go out and buy a nice new journal to use, put a calendar in it, write birthdays and anniversaries in it because you just know that this is going to be the year that you start sending out cards and such...... oh and you actually do it for....what maybe a week.....two weeks... heck maybe a month....but then you miss one day....maybe your not feeling well, and think..well that post will have to wait till tomorrow..but guess what...tomorrow never comes....and you get behind.....and then you get depressed because you've failed again...so you stop all together...you stop making the to do list because you know you won't do anything on it...you stop going to your blog page because it just reminds you of your failed attempt to be organized.....then 5-6 months later you are goofing around on line and somehow your account dashboard pops up....you see your blog...you go back and read your post..it brings back all those high expectations you had for yourself..... so you think to yourself....hey maybe I can get back on track....maybe I need to get that journal out and dust it off ....maybe just maybe I could make some of those goals become a reality..... so you think..where do I start.....hey maybe a blog post ...maybe if I write this all out there will be someone out there in blog land that will read it and say to themselves....that sounds exactly like me..I did the same thing...I can relate to what she's saying... maybe we can help each other....help keep each other accountable....so ARE YOU THAT PERSON??? Can you relate to any or all of this?  Is it possible to get back on track? If so, how? Where do I start?

Had to get old Trusty out.

I've had sewing machine trouble...... my hubby bought me a new Singer for Christmas. I've worked with it the last three days and just could not get it going. So yesterday I called the Singer Sewing Company and talked to a really sweet gal named LouAnne. She had me preform a couple a test on it. No luck it still would not sew. So today I packed it up and mailed it to their customer affairs department. They are supposed to send me a replacement of equal or greater value. 

So today I got my old trusty Brother machine out and set it up again. 

I finished my January Block of the Month that I'm doing from the Pat Sloan website. 

 I also sewed up three blocks for my local quilt guild, that will be put together with other members blocks and the donated to the local domestic violence shelter.

Hope you all have a great weekend !!

Until next time, 

Day of Rest

I hope you all are enjoying this beautiful day of rest. 

One of those kind of days.....

We all have them! You know the ones....the days where NOTHING goes the way you want it to. Today was one of those days for me. Last night before bed, I wrote out my Saturday to do list. Just normal things really, but it included taking pictures of my 2 main knitting projects and my quilt blocks that I have been working on the last few days. Did it happen.....nope. So the post I had planned for today, well, it ain't going to happen today. Boo !! I'm not starting my blog out very well. Am I ??

Have you ever had days like this ??? I'd love to hear about them. Leave me a comment and tell me about your day.....good or bad !

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog. I am so happy that you have stopped by. As you can tell, this is my very first post, my introduction post, so let's get to it.

My name is Sue. I live in central Indiana, thus the name Hoosier Stitcher. I am a craftaholic, and no, I do not need a 12 step program to help me with this issue, because honestly I don't want help. I love crafting and that will never change.

I knit, crochet, sew, quilt, cross stitch and embroidery. Stick around and I'm sure you'll see a bit of all of these. More some than others. I am a jumper when it comes to my crafting. One day I may be knitting and the next day I may be cross stitching. And just to warn you in advance, there will be post where I write about several different projects in one posting.

Over the next few days I will be posting several of pictures of my works in process (Wips). In the post I'll be giving you a description of the the project and some background on what the project is for, or why I felt the need to start each item. There will be knitting, crocheting, cross stitch and quilting projects. So I hope you will come back tomorrow to see my first Wips post where I will be showing you my current knitting project and my current quilting project.

Until next time,

 Sue