Miss Loreen's Schoolhouse

While "grazing" the internet....

I went to the Viking Husqvarna website and found lots of free embroidery designs to download.  Here's a picture of one of the designs.

 Just click on the the link to go to the Viking website page for free designs.  There are lots to choose from along with free projects.  It doesn't matter what embroidery machine you have as long as you have software to convert the design to the format you need.  It's very generous of Viking to provide so many free designs! Most sewing machine companies have free designs on their websites.  Check out your favorite sewing machine company when you have a chance!

Happy embroidering!!
loreen

 

Back from Houston!!

What great fun Houston was!!  Here's a few pictures for you to see.  Hopefully, they will give you a feel for the area I visited or maybe some of you will remember this area and think back to when your last visit.  The weather went from very humid 90 degrees to very breezy 70 degrees then back again in a matter of days! 

There were all these little "earths" around the area of the convention center painted with different themes.  Since it started raining, I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked to show you.

The first day I arrived I ate lunch at a little outdoor restaurant next to this fountain.  There was a live band playing the blues and the weather, while not perfect, was nice enough to enjoy after being in my car and hotels for several days.

Even though I took along a project to work on, of course, I didn't get alot done.  Did most of the cutting and that was about it.  I was too busy looking at all the displays of wonderful fabrics and projects.  As usual, I wanted to do everything I saw that suited my fancy.  Don't we all!  I brought a few projects back with me but you'll just have to wait to see what they are when I start working on them!!  Isn't that just plain mean of me!  Ok, ok, I'll see what I can post in the meantime!!

Here's a cool picture looking down from the floor above to the Houston Quilt Market/Festival. It's through a bubble window.  The large people in the picture are the reflections of those standing next to or around me.  They are not giant posters hanging from the rafters!

I will post more pictures over the coming days for you to see and put all of them in an album to browse through.  Just wanted to get a few pictures up in the meantime!

It's time to get back to the projects at hand but first I need to clean my sewing room.  I've just dumped stuff everywhere it seems.  Don't we all need to stop every now and again (probably more often than that) and just clean, sort and put away??  I think I'll take a few pictures of my sewing room before I clean it up so you can see we are all in the same boat together!  I've decided it would probably be a good idea to make a list of the projects I need to complete for Christmas presents so I can get those done.  I'm trying very hard to keep this projects as simple as possible.  Instead of quilts, I'm sewing table runners, placemats........things that are not so time consuming.  It will feel nice to be able to cross a few things off the list during the course of a week.

I must check in with Donna to see if she has her Bunny Hill BOM's completed.  How about the rest of you??

Happy sewing,
loreen

Trip to Houston

Ok, off again I go!  This time to Houston, Texas.  My travels, though plenty, have always been up and down the east coast of the United States and a couple of trips to Tennessee over the last year to visit my son's school.  This was a pretty easy drive since I stayed on Interstate 10 most of the way.  Changed to Interstate 12 for awhile then back to I10.  No big cities like Atlanta, Washington, DC, New York City or Boston so this was a breeze!  I am at the Houston Quilt Market and staying close by.  Here's a couple of pictures I took before I was rained out.

I may have more pictures later if I can take any inside the event.  For the most part, pictures aren't allowed except for your own use and not to be put on the internet.  I will just have to tell you all about it and, hopefully, show you some of my projects if I pick up some good ones! 

I brought a sewing project with me...found a quilt in a magazine that uses alot of scraps so I thought it would be a good time to use up all those fat quarters I bought when my eyes were closed.  You know the ones I mean......  I bet you have a few of those too!!

Trip to St. Louis

In August, I took my son to school in Tennessee. I'm not sure if "took my son" would be correct since he was following me in his own car but you get the idea.  After spending some time with my son and getting his school stuff squared away, I traveled up the highway (24, I think) heading for St. Louis. I had to make a gas stop along the way.  Since I had been through more than a few states to get where I was, my credit card company decided at that moment to stop any further transactions on my credit card.  Here I am in the middle of nowhere and I do mean nowhere and my credit card gives me trouble.  So being the all-American than I am, I whipped out another credit card and starting pumping gas into my thirsty vehicle.  While pumping gas, I happened to turn around trying to find something to look at and what do you suppose I saw??  On the other side of the street, also in the middle of nowhere, was a big sign for Hancocks of Paducah!!  Imagine that!  I was in Paducah, Kentucky, home of the annual giant quilt festival.  Isn't it amazing what you can see if you just look around while filling your gas tank. Of course, it wasn't the right time of year and, of course, I didn't have time to go investigate the fabrics at Hancocks at right then but I did stop there on my way back from St. Louis.  Can't say that I was all that impressed once inside.  It was nice with plenty of fabric to look at/buy but I was on a mission to get some good red fabrics and only found one.  At least I can now say I've been to Hancocks of Paducah!

Here's a picture from my St. Louis trip.  I made sure to get the arch as proof I was there.  It's very pretty at night when it is all lit up.

After leaving St. Louis and stopping at Hancock's of Paducah, I headed back to Tennessee, spent a couple of days with my son and then headed home.

Happy sewing,
loreen

Where have I been??

Ok, ok.  I apologize for being gone so long from blogging.  I've been traveling, getting Mom moved, taking care of my aunt's house and time just got away from me. 

I've started back sewing, having bought a new sewing machine so I'll have a few projects to post when I get back from the trip I'm on now.  Working on a Christmas table runner that looks like packages with bows on it.  Really cute!  Also finishing up my pumpkin quilt that is already posted in my projects album.  I'm trying very hard to get some of these things all finished which can be a bit boring but always feels like an accomplishment when the last stitches in the binding are sewn.

Donna has been busy keeping up with the BOM from Bunny Hill Designs and I'm waiting for her pictures to post for you to see.  They are really cute!!

My son's gone to Tennessee to start school at Middle Tennessee in Murfreesboro.  He's a junior and having a great time because he gets to take all his music related classes (majoring in sound engineering and music production).  That was one of my trips.....helping him get his stuff (guitars, amps and all) up there and getting settled in.

I've got to get new pictures of my sewing buddy, grandson Caspian, on his album as well.  Geez, didn't realize how far behind I am!!

Keep sewing,
loreen