** Up-DATED***Where did the week go??

Wow I can hardly believe its been a week since I last posted!! Well all I can say its been a busy week here on the Oleo Ranch. I had to go purchase a reconditioned wash machine.. because mine went out right before I went to CA for Grandma Peachy's Birthday. I should have done that on the last days off .. but I was sort of waiting on the snow to melt and the yard to dry out a bit. You would squish up to your ankles in the mud around here. I almost made it until the soil dried a bit..... But oh no the silly horses ran out of hay and I had to have some brought in... My yard and barn yard look like someone turned it into a dirt track.

The ruts are about 8 inches deep. I am so up set. I will have to either have dirt hauled in or have my brother bring over his little Bob cat and do some leveling work. It's so bad ..... if you wanted to get a riding mower over the ruts you couldn't. They are just too deep. Its that bad. Maybe I will have to take a photo tomorrow and post it here on this entry.

I did do one fun thing this week....I figured out my owl block for the block swap on Pins. I also sat down and designed a new sewing tote that I want to make for my self. It will be awesome!! So awesome I am going to try and make a pattern as I go along ;)Speaking of Pins there is an Annie Doll Challenge up there right now in the Fun with Annies Group. If your not a member and want to play along.. run over and join in on the fun. We would love to have you ;)

Ok now for the good part of the post. I went to the discount fabric shop and purchased some fabric scraps. I love getting those.. you purchase them by the pound. These are left over bits from the quilting classes. Some of the bits are just shy of a fat qt but most of them are strips and tri-angles. I find they are perfect for working on those patch work items ;) This way you get a lot of different fabrics for those small projects that you need only and inch or two piece. NO one wants to cut up a yard of fabric or a ft qt for that small amount.
Here is a photo of all my bits that I purchased. I even purchased one of those shoe holders to put them. I posted a great way to store your scraps a while back and it was using this method of storage ;)

Ok now here is the really really good part of the post.

Raise your hand how many of you have purchased one of these for your Quilting rulers???
This is known as a Gypsy Gripper.. cost about $19.95.These are very nice ;)



Well being the frugal shopper that I am... I decide not to purchase this sweet gripper.. it's just a tad out of my budget. Instead of purchasing a Gypsy Gripper..... I was standing in the isle at Wal-mart ... what did I happen to spy...

This
I said to myself I wonder if this would work for a handle for my ruler???
So I purchased one and low and behold...
here it is...

It works perfect.... and it only cost me a small sum of $2.73. Now that's a bargain that anyone of us could afford. It was a tad tricky getting it on the ruler. I don't know you might have to have some man help.... It was very difficult.... you had to moisten the suction cups :) Other than that it was easy peasy. If you spent the total cost of the nice Gypsy Gripper on these...you could have one of these grippers for each of your rules :)