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....