HANDbag, fish hat and sheep fur!

Whew! It has been a busy couple of days. I finished quilting all but the border on my nine patch quilt yesterday morning using Diantha's little bitty Kenmore sewing machine. I'm still afraid to try mine since it messed up so badly! Eventually I will have to but for now I'm still using hers!

I have lots of pics to share today though, despite no actual "quilting" unless you count my newest handbag! I traced my hand and machine appliqued it then sewed antique buttons on the finger tips for nails. I love it, Diantha says it looks like the Corpse Bride severed hand. Bah! LoL! Speaking of Diantha...
Last night (Fri) she asked if she could try making a bag. I had a strap that was just slightly too short for me to use (by about 2 inches). She dug through my scrap box and pulled out some coordinating fabrics and all my her self, with no help from me but verbal instruction pieced her own little tote bag! It turned out GREAT! She did such a good job quilting it too! I'm so proud of her!!

I went over to Mom's today to return the girls and she said her friend Marion had sent some things and there were 2 things for me. One was the most incredible fish hat!! She had made one for her daughter and posted it on her blog a few weeks ago and I being a smart mouth, said I love it and where's mine, I like red! I didn't think she'd actually take the time to knit me one! I am in awe! This hat is SO AWESOME I CAN'T STAND IT! It is knit from the gorgeous Red Ryder BB Gun yarn my Mom had for sale at Christmas. I loved that yarn. I drooled over that yarn. Now I have a kick ass dead fish hat. Pardon the language, it just has to be described like that!!

Marion also, being an ANGEL, sent me some wonderful romney wool! OMG, I can't believe it. I hope she won't be offended (oh please don't, oh please!) that I dyed it already, LoL! It was a nice light tan color, perfect for dying. I am getting more and more addicted to this spinning thing and I have been wanting to try my hand and dying wool and it was just too much temptation! I have been looking at batts on etsy that were black and lime green so I took 2/3 of the wool she sent me and dyed it the most awesome bright, alien lime green. I used Mom's drum carder to card it with some of the solid black merino I bought a while back and suddenly I had the alien batt I was wanting!!

In the bag of wool there was a little bit of a gorgeous emerald merino. I took the other 1/3 of the tan romney and dyed it a great watermelon pink. I carded that with a little bit of the black merino and then finished it with the emerald merino and suddenly I had a watermelon batt! I can't wait to spin these up. I have 2 bags I need to do in the next couple days--little ones though! and then maybe I can start spinning! Ooooh, I can't wait.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Marion! You are AWESOME!

In regular news my dh goes back to his "normal" shift at work, which is 2:30pm-10:30pm. He had worked this shift since right before Jeremiah was born until 2 months ago. He doesn't seem to be too excited, I think he was starting to like being home with us in the evenings but I am. When they work them 7 days a week it's not too great, we don't get to see him (awake, LoL) a whole lot but they aren't working them that much right now and I think it will be great to get back to our old routine. It will be a blessing if in no other way than simply being on the same sleeping schedule!

I feel so blessed today. I got to spend time with my sisters, then whole family. Saw my MIL this morning for an hour or so and she is wonderful. So great with me, my kids, my husband. Such a blessing in itself. My hubby has tomorrow off, we can spend together doing anything or nothing. No plans. I just have this peace feeling tonight, it is so nice. I know this is already long but I have a Newsboys song stuck in my head and I'll share some lyrics:

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the Power of Christ in me
From life's first cry, to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell nor scheme of man
Shall ever pull me from His Hand
Til He returns or calls me Home
Here in the love of Christ I live