And to all a good night!

Last years Rock Band was still the hit this year. It's so much fun to see the kids of all ages play together.

The littlest elf is now 5 weeks old.


Singing his first Christmas carol.


The vinyl children enjoyed the day too.
Tasha - a sweet little girl.


And a couple pics from last year:

Deidre - named after a kindergarten friend.


Kids peeking.


Now off to bed. I'm pooped and I'll need energy to hit the fabric sale.

Hasta manana.

Happy Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve. How are you feeling? A little relief along with anticipation? I hope you have a wonderful, relaxing Christmas and lot's of fun and merriment too.

My daughter will get her quilt tomorrow. It will have two sides with the binding stitched down and I'll finish the other two tomorrow. Just in case I can get it done before she wakes up it will be put in a gift bag. I can't wait to see her face.

Here's a pic of the front, a close up, and the back. I had the quilter do a popcorn pattern in turquoise thread and it came out so nice even on the dark border. Even the back is fun. When I went to make the binding I couldn't find the fabric that matched the border and had to run to the quilt shop. Well, when I got it back from the quilter I found the extra fabric I had bought for the binding - it was on the back. Geesh. Insanity.



I'm so proud to have used almost all scraps for the front and back except the border/binding fabric.

Now I'm looking forward to getting back to blogging, the fabric sales at the quilt shops on Friday, new projects, a new year, and a fresh start.

Contemplation

This post is from the 19th but I forgot to post it. Not a surprise. I'm sticking it in here anyway along with an update.

Well this has been an interesting couple of days. My internet was out, the camera I used to take pics that I was going to post a couple days ago is acting up and they have to be retaken, I went to the quilt store to buy binding but forgot a piece of the border fabric, went to the grocery store and forgot to buy lunch stuff for dh and had to make a second trip back, etc., etc.

haha I'm just going to laugh at it all and chalk it up to trying to get too much done in a short period of time. Bet you know what I mean. What happened to the organized and together person I used to be? The person who had shopping/making done by mid-November; who planned little parties for the kids and trips to see the lights; who decorated right after Thanksgiving? She's in there somewhere and I wish she would come back. Next year maybe...

One thing I did decide was to name my granddaughter's quilt "Contemplation". Why? I contemplated throwing it in the UFO pile. I contemplated throwing it in the trash. I contemplated how happy I was when dgd was born, how much we disagree on things now that she is 20, how much money I'd have if I had a dollar for every stitch I've ripped out of the thing or put into it (which is about equal), if the piece of fabric from her new baby brothers quilt looks right in it, and contemplated whether or not she'll like it. (Which I told her she could not like it and that would be okay. She will get something different in a few months.

On a very bright side, my daughter's quilt is quilted and ready to be picked up. I know she'll like it because she asked me if she could have it but I told her I had sold it. The binding fabric is ready to go. It might make it to the finish line.

Oh, and they had 40% off Christmas fabrics yesterday and I bought fat quarters of Merry and Bright. They were out of the reds so I'm on the hunt for some or all of them.

And, I bought three purses for gifts plus some slippers and gloves as stocking stuffers and it was only $20.41. One purse alone was regularly $68. A deal like that can't be beat! And the purses are cute.

Woo hoo! Woo hoo!

Do a little cabbage patch dance. I got a quilt to the quilter's! And she said it will probably be ready Thursday or Friday. It's dd's square in square. I meant to take a pic of the back before I took it over but forgot. The back is all pieced from leftovers. Kind of fun. She's using turquoise thread. Eeeek! Hope it looks good on the dark outer border. (DD won't care. She'll just love having her very own first-big-quilt-made-by-mom-especially-for-her quilt.

I'll have pics of projects I've been working on tomorrow. Been getting all kinds of things finished up. Well, it seems like it. Or maybe I'm just happy to have a quilt being quilted.

Til tomorrow...

Check out Freda's Hive

Wow! A one year blogaversary with a week of give-a-ways. And at such a busy time of year! You'll enjoy reading her blog so give it a peek.

http://www.fredashive.blogspot.com/

A new UFO almost

Quilting, Christmas decorating, furniture rearranging, shopping. Who has time for blogging? Time to stop and get a grip. Time to breathe and let December ease on through. Assume lotus position - ahh-ohm, ahh-ohm. Doesn't that feel better?

Instead of blogging I've been working furiously to get my granddaughter's quilt finished in time to go to the quilter. But - ICK. No, major ICK. I just don't like it. The pattern put together just totally turns me off.

It really was going to be stuffed into a drawer but my sister talked me through the stuff it stage. This will get done one way or the other. Too much money and time has gone into it and I just don't want another UFO.

So I've spent today disassembling the darn thing. Some of the blocks can't be used because I had added the corner units and cut the background off. I'm putting it on the wall to try to salvage as much as I can - 19 blocks out of 30. I'll have to make one more block for the quilt. There is a plain square substituting for it in the pic. The others will be used as a purse or something - who knows.

The colors in the top photo are the true colors. My camera batteries were low and I could only get the funky color in the bottom pic.

This is where it was going. I had almost changed my mind about the pattern but had kept changing my mind on everything so "forced" myself to go with it. What happened? It's way too busy. Feels choppy. Bad mix of fabrics. Was going to use just one fabric throughout for the corners that make up the square but went with the mix and it was a mistake. Maybe I should have gone with my intuition from the beginning and used a different pattern. Really, I dislike it so much that I'm pretty embarrassed to show it. But maybe someone else will learn from my error.


Here is one of the new options. Took the corners off of the ones that hadn't been cut so it's no longer an octagon. The squares make it calmer. It won't make it to the quilter on time and it might not go to my dgd.


Why the heck is this thing giving me such a problem?

Checklist

X Turkey almost done.
X Stuffing warming.
X Potatoes ready to mash.
X Rolls rising and ready for oven.
X Cranberry sauce cold.
X Martinellis chilled.
X Pies ready to eat.
X Tables set.

Now where the heck are the grandkids who insisted they wanted to eat at 11 or 12? They better be thankful grandma loves them.

Have a Happy Turkey Day!

Basic math

Sally is making a quilt for her granddaughter. It is a quilt from a recent magazine. The block is simple but you have to piece it in the correct order. Sally makes 2 blocks on Tuesday night and screws them up. Sally makes two more blocks Tuesday night and they come out right. Sally makes 2 more blocks on Wednesday morning and again screws them up. How many blocks does Sally have completed? How many minutes has Sally wasted? How many pins is Sally going to use to pin everything together to make sure she does not screw up again?

a) Sally should pay more attention
b) too much info
c) 2
d) all the above

Bonus points: If Sally needs 30 blocks for her quilt and makes 6 blocks each day but screws 4 of them up each time how many days will it take for Sally to have 30 blocks.

a) 15 days
b) who cares because Sally will just throw it all in the UFO pile and give her granddaughter a gift certificate
c) Sally should go to the fabric store for retail therapy
d) all the above

Mooommmm! They're laughing at me.

I'm telling, if you don't quit laughing at me. I can too get everything done before Christmas! I mean it! Quit laughing.

Just because I STILL don't have the baby quilt quilted, just because I STILL don't have the backing pieced for the square in square and have it ready to be quilted, just because I'm STILL cutting out my granddaughters full/queen top doesn't mean I can't get it done. Plus an exchange gift, plus a runner for mom, plus cookies, plus shopping, plus, plus, plus...

I hear you! Quit it. Stop laughing. I mean it!

Mooooommmm!

The tester block without final corners put on to make outer circle.


The stack - 30 blocks in all - they're pretty big. Oh, my gosh I just remembered that I haven't planned the borders!


A happy girl because she has clothes on and so many don't. Note to self: finish dressing vinyl children for the holidays.

One track mind

Baby no name Maximillian aka Max just a couple hours old - 8.5#, 21.5". Look at the head of hair!


Kisses, hugs, and squeezes from grandma little one.

Our little guy arrived

After 23 hours of labor my d-i-l gave birth to an 8 1/2 pound, 21.5" baby boy this morning. He took his dear time about it and did not arrive on his great-grandmas birthday but he is darling and I wish I was there to squeeze, kiss and cuddle him. They still have not decided on a name. I'm giving them space today to form their family but tomorrow I will be "demanding" more photos, statistics, info, and a name! I think ddil will not be in a hurry to add a sister or brother after having a natural birth. Eeek!

In honor of his finally arriving I prepared his quilt for quilting. 'Bout time. Bad grandma.

Sitting here waiting

for my new grandson. Looks like it will be today on my mom's 80th birthday. They are in Oregon, I'm in Arizona. :( Pains are 7 minutes apart. How much longer do you think?

Giveaway and what's been up

You gotta check out this giveaway at the Old Red Barn Co.! blog. She's giving away three (yes, 3!) quilts. Wouldn't that be a great holiday gift for yourself? If you can't enter, great! Maybe that will give me a better shot at one of them. (Little greedy thing going here.) And I have my eye on one in particular.

Now, what quilty stuff was going on this past week? Nothing. Don't you just hate those work frenzies followed by lulls? I want work frenzy all the time. Guess you need down time to think, chill, do the domestic thing, deal with reality.

I did do other somethings though...

• Thursday - spent about 8 hours organizing the garage somewhat - what was I thinking?
• Friday - Fall Festival at the school
• Saturday - picnic party
• Saturday night - sleepover with 4 giggling girls (I swear they are louder than a large group of boys),
• Sunday still had girls
• Monday - sick kid home from doing too much all weekend
• Tuesday - everyone leave me alone or else! where I proceeded to tear up 3 rooms in the house and called it reorganizing except I haven't put it all back in a logical place
• Wednesday - quilt group potluck (unbelievable amount of food) and visit/lecture from Patricia Knoechel.
• Which brings us back to today - I'm at a standstill. Was supposed to go do a little sewing this morning but I'm like a deer in headlights. Just can't seem to get moving. Economy worries. Should have gone sewing so I would shut off the brain for a bit from reality. KWIM?

We thought we were going to welcome my son's baby-boy-to-be yesterday, but, no, the little guy is refusing to make his entrance. They are now thinking his name will be Max (Maxwell or Maximillian). His quilt is still not quilted. Yup, at a standstill. I need a poke with a straight pin.

Maybe quilty stuff tomorrow...

Next up

Fabrics for my next top-sewing frenzy.

All but three are from the Bistro line by Moda.

I love, love, love these colors. The whole Bistro line is just warm and creamy and gorgeous.

Wouldn't these be great as a bag?

Just looking at them makes me want a cup of coffee with an almond biscotti.

Oh, yeah, the quilt

With all the excitement of the election yesterday I totally forgot to post a pic of my finished quilt top. So here it is along with the top of hubby's head.

It is 79x96, made from scraps with the exception of 4 yards of fabric - 4 fat quarters bought for the snail's trail quilt and used in this one too, 1/2 yard for the inner border, and 2 1/2 yards for the outer border. The inner border is a bold green and the outer is actually bluish-purple. Not the best pic but I did it in a hurry a few minutes ago.


and a close up (the two little yellow dots are pins - don't you just want to take them off?)


I'm happy with it. :)

Four generations of voters and a wannabe voter

I'm so proud of my grandson and granddaughter. My granddaughter turned 20 in September, my grandson 18 in September. They both registered to vote and they both voted. I'm so proud of them both for getting involved and voting for what they believe in.

I'm proud of my mom too. She will be 80 later this month and she also listened, learned, and voted.

Then my 10 year old daughter asked me questions, watched the debates, and listened in school. If she could have voted she would have and I think she would have been an informed voter.

My son, well, he wouldn't have even considered not voting. I can not tell you the number of lectures I've endured from him about becoming more savvy with what is going on in our government and the world stage. He really keeps up with this stuff.

Oh, and you too, hubby even though you voted for the wrong person. LOL I'm just glad we won't have to argue about this for another 4 years.

I love you all today and every day and am very proud of you!

Monday - so far

The inner borders are on the Square in Square. I'm not going to take a picture until the outer border is on maybe later today or tomorrow for sure. I think this will be the quickest I have ever cut and pieced a top - less than two weeks!

It's true that I had a goal to finish four UFO projects by the end of October. Two UFO's were completed, two little projects were started and completed, and two big projects cut out. Not sure if I'm ahead or not. But, two other UFO's were pushed to that near completion step. The Peace banner needs binding and the Special Day banner needs to be quilted and bound. All in all I'm not unhappy with my progress. Actually rather proud that I completed what I did.

There was a little sidestep again this a.m. after putting on the inner border of the square in square. I feel another scrap quilt coming on. Scrap quilts are my ultimate favorite type of quilt. The more fabric the merrier.

Here's the near future project to use up scraps and a nice older red that's been in my stash...

A little change

Trying to play around with a "November" look. Can't seem to get my font back for my title. I'll be crazy by the time I figure it out but I will one way or the other.

Grrr...meanwhile chant with me - change is good, change is good, change is....

Square in Square almost together

I have about 20 more seams to sew and this top is together. I will have to look for some border fabric but it won't hurt the pocket as much since this was scrap and on-hand fabrics.

On Wednesday my dd was looking at all the blocks and asked if I would finish it for her birthday. Had to laugh because her birthday was the next day (yesterday). Lots of non-quilters think we can whip them up that fast too though don't they?

Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of going to an informal get together of quilters. They meet once a week to sew, chat, and munch. It was so nice to be around others who love fabric, sewing, and quilting and just the female yakkety-yak. Thanks Suzanne for inviting me! and I look forward to coming again.

Got a start on putting the square-in-square blocks together there. Then yesterday afternoon while the cake baked I hung the warm n' natural on the wall and laid out the blocks. Tried not to think too hard on what was next to what but with only 12 purple I wanted them spread out. DD walked by when she got home from school and said "this is for my room. These are the colors I love". She doesn't know that it is for her for Christmas. I'll have to see what she thinks of the snail's trail as it's pieced before I decide which to give her. Caught her looking at the picture of that one and she said she liked it too.

Maybe she will be a quilter one of these days. It warms my heart to think she might be.

Back to sewing and finishing up Halloween prep for my little ghoulie.

If you "do" Halloween, have a fun night. If not, I hope you have a quiet, peaceful evening and no t.p. in your trees. :)

Melody

Just a little side step...

Did I get the baby quilt quilted you ask? Ummm, well, uh, okay fine! No, I didn't. However, in my defense, the day was not wasted. More on that below.

Got the baby quilt out, got the backing out, got the Warm N' Natural out. All was ready to go and then BAM - quilter's block. Is there such a thing? I'm sure there has to be. Just could not decide how to quilt it. So I hung it up in the hallway just outside the sewing room door so every time I turn around I would see it. Believe it or not I think it worked. I realized that each dog block needed to be quilted in it's own way. Each looks like someone took a picture, framed it, and now it's sitting on the desk to be admired. With that in mind I decided to let each block speak to me as I get to it. The frames will have zig-zag or swirls or just outlined stitched. Just whatever it says it wants. The border will be "whatever" too when I get to it. Guess you could say my plan is to have no plan.

So on the backburner again until tomorrow. But hey, I'm not going to feel too bad. The baby is due any day and they still have not decided on a name.

Now for the "not wasted" day...

First, two quilts were cut out to save me from pulling, ironing again, etc. all those fabrics. I wanted them used up. Here's the Snail's Trail waiting to be pieced. Might add a few random purple snails but we'll see. Total coincidence that they are sitting by a diffuser that says "peace". haha


See the little girl sitting by by those pieces? She and her two sisters are a bit upset that they've been ignored so much and she was letting me know it. I caught one of the girls on a chair trying to find snacks while I was busy sewing. Unfortunately, the cupboard is bare so a trip to the grocery store is on the agenda for today.


What was I doing while ignoring the kids? I stitched Square in Square blocks until my eyes were squared off. Out of 72 blocks all but 17 are done. Those 17 just need the 2 large pieces stitched on. That will be done after this post. Here are some of the blocks laid out. Not the final positions.


Now here is my take on these blocks:
Cons: 1) a pain in the butt to cut from scraps; 2) boring with a capital B to sew, just no challenge at all

Pros: 1) lots of scraps are finished up, gone, finito, outta here, YAHOO!; 2) quick to piece - no points to match up; 3) nice and random with no thinking in regards to colors other than making outer pieces all blue, all green, all purple; 4) no pinning, I don't think I pinned anything at all which adds to the speed of piecing.

Even though I didn't like cutting it I would do it again to use up my scraps. Here is the birds share of those scraps. I'd say there is probably a yards worth of little pieces. :( But you just can't save it all or use it all. And, in looking at an old 2001 magazine last night I saw some of these fabrics in an ad so they have been hanging around long enough.


Couple other thoughts on this quilt. I was going to do just greens and blues then thought it needed one more color so I cut out a bunch of creams from scraps. The creamy ones didn't look right. They appeared too countryish alongside the modern lime/turquoise pieces. Now I have a nice stack of pre-cut creams to use elsewhere or maybe I will cut out browns from scraps and make a lap quilt. (That brown fabric is the back of the baby quilt).


I then cut out purples and I think the small amount of purple blocks not only works well with the blue and green but it will add a bit of interest and spark.

I ran out of the long pieces of green but had enough 4.5" pieces left that I sewed a couple up and used it as a long piece. If this hadn't happened at the end I might have purposely done other blocks this way just because it would be less boring to sew.


Also, since I was using scraps in blues and greens I used "scrap" bobbins. Any bobbin with blue or green thread on it was used to piece these blocks. Now many are cleaned up and I'll do the "buy two spools" tip.

Well, this has gone on long enough. Now to finish off those 17 blocks. Then I'd better do the "real world" stuff. Poo - I wanted to sew all day again today too.

Until next time have a fun and productive day.

Melody

cut and cut and cut

This past week I didn't sew at all. I only cut. It is a ton more work to cut a quilt from scraps than yardage. BUT it's done and there are now two ready-to-piece tops sitting on my cutting table - one a full and one a queen. Or is it two full? Can't remember now.

The strings are neatly stacked for a string quilt so maybe I've cut 3 quilts this week. The really small strings are going to be thrown outside for the birds to (hopefully) use in their nests. Could you imagine how pretty their nests would be with quilt scraps wound through them?

My hands and arms are really aching. Part from cutting the fabric and part from trimming my mom's orange, grapefruit and fruit cocktail trees, pulling weeds, and raking... OUCH!

I REALLY need to get the baby quilt quilted. I was almost a grandma again this weekend and the quilt should be in Oregon waiting for baby, not here. So tomorrow I'm going to stay in baggie flannels, drink coffee, and quilt the baby quilt.

Decision made - green/aqua

I'm doing both - haha - the snail's trail and the square in square. Figured since I was cutting I may as well cut both.

The main one is the snails trail and I've cut 30 blocks out with 40 to go. The other quilt will be cream and aquas/teals with green centers. I liked the black center but decided I wanted to keep it light.

I'm going to use up these greens and blues that have been in my stash for ages and not have all those little 6-8" pieces laying around for a few more years! Although I did save the little strips for a future strippy quilt. That's my grandma's fault since she always quoted that depression era saying "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without". Translation: save it all.

Pretty good start since this all just started yesterday. I feel good!

Now if I could make a decision on a pattern using the Asian fabric dgd picked out.

Snail's


Square in square


Future strippy (yeah, right - maybe 10 years from now)

Planning a greenish lime and aqua/teal quilt

I have two quilts to make for Christmas gift-giving. Both are in the planning stage. The main requirements are both patterns need to be simple so they will sew up quickly and both need to use as much fabric on hand as possible.

For the green and aqua/teal the September Fons & Porter had a snails trail quilt in the perfect colors. The other pattern I'm looking at is in the Fall Quilts and More issue. Both are simple enough to work up fast. I'm leaning towards the snail's trail pattern at the moment. I love that pattern and it will be fun to do in a big mix of fabrics.

So I pulled fabrics in the colors needed and was quite surprised to find how much of this mix I actually had. Made a couple sample blocks of the square in square with two different center fabrics. Not sure about either. The room the quilt is going in is quite green/aqua already so the quilt might need more black or cream in it.

Here's a few pics of the room, the fabrics, and the Splashes of Color pattern samples I worked up. (I've been thinking of it as Square in Square). I'm thinking the border may need to be more plain and there will be an inner border too.

If you have any thoughts please leave a comment. Opinions definitely welcome and appreciated.

Current bedding:

Curtains:

Little funky accessory with wall colors.

Square in Square blocks with two different center options:


Stash fabrics 1:

Stash fabrics 2:



I'm a procrastinator and work best under pressure but even I know a decision can't be put off much longer if they are to get finished.

Melody

Another giveaway - Halloweenish

So many giveaways from so many wonderful bloggers. Check out Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe here and enter to win a Halloween surprise.

What fun!

Pigtails and Snails quilt give-a-way

Wow! What a generous give-a-way and she has second and third place prizes too. Check out the quilt and her blog here.

It's too cute! I think she will do well with this pattern at the Houston Quilt Market.

Got motivated and finished something!

One of the requirements of the quilt group I'm in is to make two little preemie quilts. One of the local hospitals let us use a room to work on our projects and the groups way of saying thank you is to donate these little quilts to cover the isolettes. The group provides the kits for us to assemble and complete.

The pink fabric has a simple little flower so I chose to mimic the design and did free motion quilting. Got brave and used a pink thread to make it show up a bit more. I used my walking foot and eyeballed the X across the larger blocks. They came out pretty straight.

It was a quick little project today and best of all I can cross a project off the list!

No pics - just yakking

Wow. I can't believe a whole week went by without posting. Last week was a run, run, run week and I barely had time to catch my breath. My energy was gone.

I'd walk into my sewing room, straighten a few things up, look at my pile of projects, and walk back out. Made a decision to sign up for a couple work days at a local quilt shop. No distractions are needed to get things done sewing-wise. It's $5, I think, to use a table and it will be money well spent. Signing up is on today's to-do list.

The weather changed - finally cooled down and it's been too hard to resist being outside. Supposed to be back in the low 90's later this week but I think we've finally reached the turning point. YAHOO! We went to a Fiesta and enjoyed the chilly air, listened to music by local bands, and watched dancers of all ages. Forgot my camera though. :(

Along with the weather change maybe my medicine changes will help with energy too. I saw my dr. last week about feeling run down. I have an underactive thyroid and have been on medicine over 20 years. My doctor (I just loved her and really miss her) left the HMO and I was assigned a new doctor. After my bloodwork "new doctor" lowered my medicine dosage. Then a couple months later she lowered it again. I kept saying it doesn't feel right, I'm tired all the time, etc. She insisted I was fine.

Finally, after a whole year I'd had enough. Changed my HMO doctor, made an appointment, and went to it armed with research info which in part said you do not just treat according to the bloodwork but according to how the patient feels. Well, my new-new Dr. really listened and he raised my dosage. It's been a week and I'm starting to feel more energetic again. My mood seems better too.

My point of this non-quilt info is to say "stand up for yourself if you feel something is wrong. Change your doctor, do your research, tell him you know how YOU should feel, and fight for it. Doctors can be wrong and who knows your body better than you."

Looking to getting more accomplished this week...

Melody

Do it yourselfer - aka a new fan

I'm a do it yourselfer type person. Mix that with a good dollop of impatience and I'll try to repair what I can around the house. So years back I decided to put shelves up above one of my work tables in the sewing room. And since I knew I wouldn't be putting heavy things on it I didn't use anchors. It held quite nicely to display dolls and whatever.

Unfortunately, after a few years I forgot that there were no anchors in the drywall to support the shelves. One day I was sitting at the table on my laptop and crash! I mean CRASH! Everything came down on my head and lap - books, dolls, storage bins, scrapbook supplies. The worst of it was the heavy shelves, brackets and rods themselves. Fortunately, my daughter wasn't sitting at the table and my Mom was far enough back not to get hit by anything. At the first crack I had bent over to protect my laptop. Duh.

A few cuts, scrapes, and bruises later taught me a good lesson... let your husband do it. Haha. You thought I was going to say be patient or use anchors or something really deep didn't you. Nope, now I just nag my hubby to death until he does it. (Don't tell him I admitted to nagging please.)

So it was quite a surprise yesterday to find a new ceiling fan had been installed without even asking. The old one shook, wobbled in wild circles, and was horribly noisy. It felt like it was going to come down at any moment. Maybe he was afraid I'd try to change it or maybe he remembered my kitchen sink repair or the shelf installation. Whatever the reason it sure feels cooler than the other one and looks so much nicer. And he even cleaned up the dust and insulation mess!

What a nice guy. Hmmm, and looking at the picture I just remembered that I wanted to remove the popcorn ceiling. Nag or just do? ;0

Enabling, new goodies, a fun website and a smidge of sewing in between

This past week did not include much sewing but it did include a bit of light shopping.

I did work on the little Halloween quickie quilt to feel like something was accomplished. Did a bit of quilting around the motifs so all that is left is the binding. I might just use it as a little table mat. I could not think of anything cutesie to embroider so put "black cat, orange pumpkins." I showed it to my 9 yr old and she just laughed at me. She said in that boy-you-aren't-real-smart-tone that kids that age can have that there was only one orange pumpkin and the other is red. Hmpf! One is just a very dark orange bordering on red. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



Made a trip to Joann's where I bought lots of interfacing. When I got home a new flyer was in the mailbox with, yup, you guessed it, all interfacing 50% off mid-month. Figures.

Bought a new book
and found several quilts that I'd love to make. Oh, oh, more projects. You know how it is! Forgot a few of the things I went for but sometimes I think this is the brains way of making sure another trip is in the near future.

Online, a member of the Yahoo group I lurk in shared a fun website http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/ with lots of freebie patterns, swaps, etc. The Family Dirt section is pretty funny. I'm sure we all have stories like these to share but she was brave enough to put them in writing.

While surfing online and going back to some of the same sites to look at some of the same patterns I found I could no longer resist this one from http://www.crabapplehillstudio.com/.

I thought it would make a great take-along project. I'll use the cream/tan something for the background like in the pattern and will have plenty of time to decide what color to use for the flying geese. Finish goal: the end of October next year. Oh, and this pattern arrived incredibly fast!

Since I was on a pattern shopping binge I decided to get this one by Lori Smith too. You can find her patterns at http://www.frommyhearttoyourhands.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi.

No real plans for starting it yet. I love the colors she used in her quilt and the stepping stone blocks in between. Check out the fat quarter patterns on her website. I think it would be easy to get addicted to just doing these little quilts.

Also, a big thank you to Melissa at Cornbread and Beans Quilting for sharing a great prim website http://www.primitivepiecesbylynda.com . Lynda has wonderful areas to explore on her site. I wish I could go to Houston Market to see her quilts in real life. I definitely see a project coming on from one (or two or 3) of her patterns.

Well, that is enough enabling for one day. Hope you check out all the links. They are all well worth a look.

Melody

The last couple days...

Monday I added another year to my age. I have no problem with that considering the alternative. The biggest surprise is waking up some mornings and feeling an ache or a pain here and there without a real reason for it. I mean, in my head I'm still 29 but the body is constantly calling me a liar. My daughter now knows my real age but it was so nice when she was little and told everyone I was 29 (and I was deep into the 40's). Maybe I could convince her to say 39 now instead of one of those 5.. numbers.

Mom took me to lunch at Panda Express. Little did I know that hubby had planned on making dinner (total shock). Well, haha, he brought home a bakery cake and a frozen lasagna. He called "dinner's done". Got to the table, no plates, glasses, or anything extra. Dinner was just that - lasagna and cake. I was a good girl and said nothing and just counted it a plus that I didn't have to cook. But, ugh, what a combination of food that day. I've never told him I don't like bakery cakes when he is nice enough to bring one home. But I did tell him that dd could make a cake next year. Subtle hint.

Now to quilty stuff. Recently I've been working on UFOs and made the binding for my large Christmas quilt on Monday. But decided I didn't like the binding and got disgusted and put it all away. So today I felt the need to make something new. Couldn't be something big because it would end up a UFO. Sure don't want another of those darn things.

Decided on something Halloweeny and pulled out Angels Among Us by Nancy Halvorsen that had a calendar quilt in it. The October one was just the right thing.

A couple of hours, fabrics from the scrapbag, fusible web, and a bit of buttonholing and here is the almost finished mini quilt:


I'll add the kitty's face tonight and maybe a kitty-pumpkin saying and do a quickie quilt job. Ahhh, these bouts of instant satisfaction feel so good.

Now, just because I felt like uploading pictures here are a few of the dolls from last year dressed up for Halloween. Tonight dd and I are going to sit down and try to fashion some costumes for some of her vinyl children.

That's me on the broom.


Bitty Bethany wearing a dress made from a pattern by biscotti725 on ebay:


And here is Leeann wearing a dress from that same pattern.


Back to playing (and laundry). Dinner is leftovers so plenty of time for more playing this evening.

100th post give-a-way for Quiltergoingbananas

Check out this fun blog and leave a comment to be entered in her give-a-way. Lots of eye candy to enjoy.

http://quiltergoingbananas.blogspot.com/

Help needed - Asian fabric

My granddaughter and her boyfriend met me at the quilt store to pick out fabrics for a quilt. I was quite surprised that the girl who wanted orange and brown gravitated towards the Asian fabrics, found one she fell for and would not put it down.

Her excitement grew the more she looked at it. She said the bed could be on the floor, there could be a low table to sit at and drink Saki (until I informed her of what it is), she could use Feng Shui when doing her room, paper lanterns, etc.

The point here is she loved the fabric. Then they saw photos of kaleidoscope quilts and loved those. Eeek. I've never used Asian inspired fabrics and have not made a kaleidoscope quilt before.

Does anyone have any advice or know of any websites that I could look at quilts using Asian fabrics or kaleidoscope quilts? I've googled but keep getting a random picture here and there and I'd like to look at lots of them.

If it comes down to it I will use it for the backing and use matching Asian themed fabrics for blocks on the opposite side. She could use either side then. I bought 10 yards of the fabric. One definite good thing is Asian fabrics were 30% off and I bought the rest of the bolt so got an extra 5%. Super price. Also purchased a couple other matching fabrics then got burnt out and left. Have a few more days to go back and get 30% off any more contrasting fabrics I might need.

All advice or suggestions welcome.

Here's the Kona fabric she chose:

Frankenfinished!

He's done and ready for Halloween. One UFO down and 3 to go for my end-of-October goal. Isn't he cute? I mean scarey? Haven't washed him yet to get that nice puckery look that Warm-N-Natural gives and to get the chalk marks out but I was so excited to have him done after being a UFO for over 10 years. (Insert red-faced smiley). He will get a button or two or three down his shirt after being washed.

By the way, if you don't have a walking foot you should get one. It's one of the best investments I've ever made for my machine.

Snow White

and all her friends are here right now - Grouchy, Grumpy, Moany, Whiny, Pouty, and a few other unmentionable names so I've not been in the mood to post.

I have been working on quilty stuff though in between the above visitors. And looking at quilty magazines. I've finished 10 or 12 quilts in my head just flipping through them.

Can't find the cable to upload from my camera either. Hence, some of the names (and lack of posts).

And dh really made me mad but I won't go into that. Just think when your dh made you mad and you will understand. More names.

Plus, you should see the unbelievable mess my dd and her friend made in her room. You would feel sorry for her me, no her, when I inform her she has to clean it tonight. Names, names, names. I'd bet my camera cable is in there. But why?

It must be time to throw a temper tantrum again so they will hear me.

In my hallway - 19 Sept 2008

Nothing new. I dug through them and just couldn't decide. Besides I'm tired and felt like playing with my dolls.

But, here is my Kish Lark Little Lady. She borrowed a dress that doesn't fit her. But she was in a mood and this fit it. She's demanding her own Halloween costume and I'd better get to it if I don't want to hear her whining. She just doesn't understand that I only put this on her to see where to make adjustments. She wants it NOW.

I can see they are all going to start up about Halloween and Christmas outfits early this year.