How was your weekend?

ZOOM ! Where the heck did the weekend go? Here it is Sunday night ALREADY !!! When I get home from work on Friday, I always have great aspirations for Saturday and Sunday ...... then, before the laundry pile is caught up and the groceries are put away, it's Sunday night and all my delusions of grandeur (aka Martha Stewart Syndrome) have gone down the drain! So, other than laundry and groceries (and piddling around on facebook and reading blogs ..... I know ..... THAT's where a chunk of my weekend went!), I spent WAY too much time trying to get caught up on .......

.......last week's PAPER WORK for the day job (so what else is new , UGH!)

Good thing I had my "power lunch" to keep me focused !

......AND , of course, Daisy was "helpful" as always ! (her jobs consist of sitting on any paper I need to write on AND shredding/ playing with all others)

......in spite of all of the afore mentioned drudgery, the MBIAJ Sewing, Quilting and Design Dept is happy to report that they did manage to squeeze out a few minutes of the weekend to work on something new .... (not quite moving at the speed of light, however)

AND, last but not least on this MBIAJ Weekend Update is just a teeny tiny bit of exciting news from these nice people ...... :) P.S.) I'm trying to figure out this new system here on blogspot .... everything seems to run together ..... sorry ! Be back soon ! Toodles, Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Handmade handwriting fabric (in small doses)

So, what do you do when you can't find what you need .... you make it right? (or attempt to!) Well, I LOVE the look of handwriting (hate the fact that "they" might discontinue teaching good old cursive handwriting in school .... I learned cursive from nuns .... and it was serious business let me tell you !) ANYWAY, as I was saying, I LOVE the look of cursive handwriting and wanted it on fabric. I have seen "handwriting " fabric somewhere (don't remember where) but I didn't really feel like searchinig for it and thought "how hard can it be ? I have fabric, I have a pen, and I can write" so ......










here it is ... well, it's nothing that I would show Sister Victoria (I think I got a "C" in penmanship as I recall) but ......






....in small doses I think it'll look OK. (I just wrote out the words to the song "Swinging on a Star"). By the way, ironing freezer paper to the back of the fabric stabilizes it and makes it easier to write on . Also, the pen I use is a Millennium pen ......found it at either AC Moore or Michaels I think.

AND, speaking of the art of handwriting,





how about Moonbeams Boy Evan's latest art of doodling ..... aka "this is a boring class"










....pretty cool !











Guess he was bored to tears !!!







Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Piddling around with petals

Well, we here at MBIAJ Headquarters are just now emerging from our Easter candy hangover ....how about you ?

Anyhow, the MBIAJ Sewing Dept has had their eye on ......




this GORGEOUS pillow on the cover of this issue of STITCH magazine for the past few months !!!! LOVE that pillow !!!! SO.......







......lots and lots of pretty colored wool felt petals have been cut out and now....








....I'm trying to figure out how to arrange and assemble them (because, as usual, I'm not exactly following the directions in the magazine, which of course would make my life much simpler ......)

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

What's in your Easter basket?

Happy Easter weekend everyone ! Looks like the Easter Bunny (aka Kitty) has treated herself to a basket full of pretty fat quarters ..... almost as good as a basket full of chocolate bunnies and marshmallow Peeps! .... ALMOST as good ..... cause we all know NOTHING is better in your Easter Basket than chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps !

P.S.) that pretty fabric is "Juicy Blossoms" by Simon + Kabuki from Quilting Treasures

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

SUCCESS !!! (finally !) ....Easter Stitchery ....the PDFing pattern (ta da)

Well, after an unbelievably ridiculous number of hours and days trying to figure out how to insert a PDF file into my blog ...... here it is .......(DRUM ROLL PLEASE !!!!) The silly, simple little pattern for my

















Easter Stitchery pattern .......taa daaaaaa!!!

Now , just like at the Academy Awards, I feel I must thank a few people for helping me with this (and keeping me from ripping out all of my hair!) ..... first of all, my son Evan (what would we do without the teenagers and their tech support ! Although I could do without the sighing and eye rolling !) Next, a big thank you to Miss Pam Kitty Morning who had the key to the whole puzzle for me when she told me blogger doesn't support PDF's ..... she told me to use Google Docs ...... THANKS PAM !!! I did not know that (and I did not know what Google Docs were until the teenager, Evan took 2 seconds to show me ). AND I must thank my blogger pal Amanda who suggested I ask Pam in the first place ! Thanks Amanda !

OK, now I have to go write out the step by step instructions on how I did this before I forget !!! (and then I need a REST !!! This was EXHAUSTING trying to figure it out !!!)

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Easter stitchery pattern and pdfing incompetence !!!

Well here it is 6 days BEFORE Easter and the MBIAJ Stitching Dept is actually FINISHED this little stitchery/applique thing ...... SIX DAYS BEFORE Easter !!! (as opposed to our usual 6 days or months or years AFTER the holiday or event .) Still haven't figured out just what to do with it, but at least the stitching is done!
AND, the original plan was to also post this as a pdf stitchery pattern ..... have been struggling to figure out just how to do a #*%#* pdf file for the past 4 days ...... feel like I'm oh so close but yet so far from FINALLY figuring out just how to do it ..... and I'm sure it's so easy a kindergardener could do it ....... grrrrrrrrrr.
(any tips would be appreciated !)

Anyhow, decided it would be fun to link up with the Small Blog Meet Up over at Lily's Quilts .....

Be back soon (hopefully with a fully functioning pdf of this stitchery pattern !)

Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)