nancyquilts

I believe I promised pictures

2007-07-28T17:20:00.000-04:00

When I went to my brothers wedding a few weeks ago I had plans to shop hop my way across Texas and Louisiana on the way. I had my list of shops with maps on how to get to them and had figured where I could fit in 2 or 3 of them along the way depending on how my time was going finishing up with the shop in Vicksburg where we were planning to go after I met up with Susan. WELL best plans and all I ended up leaving almost 3 hours later than I'd planned which barely left me time to get to Vicksburg in time to pick up Susan where she was being dropped off by her son. By the time we met up and got her stuff transferred to my car and drove to the quilt shop it was about 5 minutes until time for them to close so we didn't even bother going in. I worked in retail long enough to know you're not always the most welcome customer of the day when you come in right at closing time! And even if that hadn't been the case we would have felt rushed and wouldn't have been able to enjoy our shopping.

Oh well. There's worse things to miss out on so we pulled our bottom lips back in and went on with the rest of our plans for the evening. We met up with our older brother, had a lovely supper at a local seafood place, and stopped by the dollar store for some playing cards to while away the evening with.

Next morning we got up, went out for breakfast, and then back to the room to play cards until it was time to get ready for the wedding. We were sitting there having just dealt the second hand when Susan said, "You know the quilt shop probably opens by 10 and we don't have to leave for the wedding until around 12:30. if we'd thought about it ahead of time we could have run back into Vicksburg (about 20 miles away) for breakfast this morning and been at the quilt shop when they opened." At which time we both looked at the clock (which said 9:30), looked at each other, laid our cards down and told our older brother he could either stay or come with us but we were going shopping! LOL!

I'll leave it up to Susan to tell you about her purchases but these are mine.
First up is this grouping. As is my normal habit if I shop with no particular project in mind I like to wander around a store until a particular fabric grabs my eye and then pull co-ordinates to go with it. On that day the caladium fabric is the one that caught my eye and hooked me in. Not knowing what I was doing with it I did my standard 3 yards of the focal fabric and 1 to 2 yards of each of the go withs. 2 of them are 1-1/2 yd cuts and the others are a little over 1 and almost 2 as that was what was left on each of those cuts. I've since found a pattern I think will be nice made from them. Just have to finish up a few other things first before I can start cutting.

These items also followed me home. The fabric on the top captured my fancy. I don't know why but I just had to have it. I love the colors which might show up better if you pull the picture up bigger. Don't know what I'll use it in but one day I'll find the perfect use for it. I bought all the had which was around 2 yds.

The purple and lime green print on the bottom was - once again - bought just because it's purple and lime green. I'm not sure why I've been drawn to that color combo lately but since this is the second purple/lime piece I've bought in the last few month I have a feeling I'll be collecting those colors for awhile and have already started looking for a pattern to use them in.

And the cat pattern of course had to come home with me to join all the other cat patterns I have waiting their turn to be made. Surprisingly I could not find a single cat fabric in the whole store except for a few of the 30s prints. Can you imagine that? A quilt shop without cat fabric!

So that was it for the shopping trip. And I haven't sewn a stitch since I returned although I did just set my machine up on the kitchen table so I can sew tonight. I have a top about half assembled from the cat fabric I bought on my shopping trip I talked about a few months ago. Hopefully I'll have that top to show tomorrow. I'm hoping that will jump start me back into a quilty mood as I've sure not had any motivation at all lately.

And if you've stuck with me thru this long post I'll also share a picture I took a few days ago. This is a vacant lot just down the road from me. We see deer here all the time but usually just 2 or maybe 3 at a time.

2007-07-23T06:52:00.000-04:00

I knew the day was bound to come. I've been blocked from blogging from work. Not only can I not post I can't get to any of your blogs. When I try I get a notice that "interpersonal relationship and personal sites are blocked". :-( :-( :-( So I guess you'll be seeing even less of me than before because I did most of my reading/commenting at odd spare moments at work. I did discover that I can still read thru bloglines BUT the pictures don't come up so what use it it if I can't SEE what you're talking about! Oh well, I've been expecting it as "personal sites" were blocked a long time ago as was yahoo mail, gmail, etc.

This was a 'Harry Potter" week. :-) First David and I saw the 5th movie on Wednesday. It was good. Not as comprehensive as the book but then I didn't expect they could do justice to the longest book in a little over 2 hours! I do enjoy the movies but the books are sooooooo much better. Then Saturday morning I was at our local Walmart shortly after they opened at 7am to get my copy of the last book. I got home around 8, started a load of laundry, sat down to read and didn't get up (except to swap clothes from the washer to the dryer and use the bathroom) until around 5 pm when I finished the book! And then just because I didn't feel like doing anything on Sunday - I read it again! This after spending the last few weeks re-reading the other 6 books so I'm pretty much Harry Pottered out. LOL! I enjoyed the last book very much. It was all I had hoped it would be but that's ALL you'll get out of me cause there are some unfortunate souls who haven't had the chance to read it yet. :-)

There has been absolutely NO sewing going on here in a very long time. My sewing room is a mess and the table is piled high with fabric I've been gathering up from around the house. Guess I should find some time to put it away and maybe I'd be able to set my sewing machine up again. Not that I really have much time but I'd sure like to go back to at least sewing a few seams a day if nothing else. I spend about 2 hours a day (including travel to and changing in and out of my swimsuit) at the gym. Sure does cut into my "ME" time but right now that's just the way it has to be. And I've gotten so addicted to it I really do miss it on weekends when I don't go! I'm not sure if I've lost any more weight as I only weigh at the beginning of each month. But I FEEL better. A LOT better! And I have more energy and stamina so even if the pounds aren't dropping I know I'm getting healthier and the pounds will follow in their own sweet time. Now add no blogging except at home and that will cut into my sewing time even more. So don't expenct much in the way of quilty content for quite a while. If I have anything to share it just might have to be the small section of a block I manage to get done that day instead of the whole block. LOL!

I did get a picture of the fabric I bought when Susan and I had retail therapy in Vicksburg a few weeks ago but I left my camera cord at work so can't download them here to share. In fact when I tried to post those from work Friday is when I found I couldn't blog from there any longer. Gotta remember to get that cord today so maybe pictures to share tonight.

Better get to work. I'm trying to go in at 7 so I can get off by 3:30 or 4. That will at least get me to the gym an hour earlier so maybe that will give me a bit of sewing time in the evening if I can get home by 6 instead of the almost 7 it has been lately.

Meet Timmy (Tammy?)

2007-07-18T11:35:00.000-04:00

This is Timmy(Tammy?) Isn't he(she?) cute? David says NO MORE INSIDE CATS! Timmy (and Nancy) have other thoughts on the subject. :-) We'll see who wins.

Absolutely NO quilty content so skip if that's what you're looking for. :-)

2007-07-17T09:04:00.000-04:00

Thought I'd better check in again. I know I promised pictures of the booty from when Susan and I had retail therapy in Vicksburg but you're assuming that after 9 days I've unpacked the car. Which I haven't! I do have to unpack it tonight so I can take it to the shop tomorrow so maybe pictures in a day or so.

But I do have pictures to share. I believe I promised pics of new kitties. :-) First let's set the stage.
This is Bo. He lives next door. Isn't he pretty?

These are 2 of the latest litter of kittens to appear. Bo tried to deny responsibility but since all our toms are black or gray we're not buying that. Think we should sue for child support? LOL! Unfortunately as beautiful as they are they are totally wild as they were pretty good sized before we got the first glimpse of them. There were 5 in this litter. Which brings us up to 14 kittens!!!!! And of the whole bunch only ONE is tame. A little yellow/white lad(we think) that David has named Timothy or Timmy for short. If he does in fact turn out to be a girl then that'll just get changed to Tammy.

I went shopping yesterday for a birthday gift for a co-worker who turns 50 next week. (BIG EVIL GRIN!) Really it's not TOOOOO bad. Especially since I turn 50 in January and he has assured me he WILL remember any and all tackiness heaped upon him at his party. LOL! Can't show a picture of what I bought just in case he reads my blog. (I don't think so but as he's been shown stuff on it before I can't say for sure he doesn't read it.) But I can show off MY new desk toy. A new stress reliever to join my slinky. (I mean WHO can be stressed when playing with a slinky?)

Isn't it pretty? But not as pretty as what's inside. :-)

I'm really surprised I was able to get as good a picture as I did with just holding the camera lens up to the eyepiece. I guess I lied as this kinda DOES have quilty content. As the sales clerk was ringing up my purchases she commented that these fascinated her because she was a quilter and thought these would make wonderful quilt designs! I laughed and told her I was a quilter too and had always been fascinated by kaleidoscopes. I just love the color and texture. And if you don't like one pattern then just a quick turn and you have a whole new look. I'll admit I didn't get too much done yesterday afternoon as I spent too much time playing with my new toy. :-)

Tomrrow I'm going to take a day off to run errands in the AM and then in the afternoon my hubby and I have a date to go see the new Harry Potter movie. :-) We haven't had date day in a LOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG time so it's way past due. We do try to eat out somewhere nice every few weeks but it's not the same thing as holding hands in a dark movie theatre. LOL! Which unfortunately will probably be filled with screaming kids who've been dropped off by their parents at the "movie day care". But I'm not going to let that spoil my time. And I will break my diet for popcorn cause what's a movie at the theatre without popcorn. LOL!

Guess I'd better get back to work and get something done today since I'm taking tomorrow off. That is IF I can leave my new toy alone. LOL!

I'm still here!

2007-07-12T08:34:00.000-04:00

Thought I'd better make a short post to let ya'll know I'm still alive and well. Just not doing any sewing right now. I have been shopping a few times and as soon as I get some pictures taken I'll share my booty along with the stories that go with them.

Got my brother married off. On 07-07-07. Sure hope that "lucky" day is indeed lucky for him. I have my doubts bout this wedding as the bride is much younger (20+ years) than the groom but that's their business and he'll never hear of my doubts from my lips. As long as he's happy - which he does appear to be - then I'm happy. Heck he's just a big kid who never grew up himself so maybe it is a perfect match. I hope so. I am dissappointed in his 2 daughters who couldn't be bothered to show up for the wedding. I guess I didn't really expect them to but they should have shucked their disapproval long enough to do the right thing and at least make a short appearance. But I have to agree with Susan who said, "I sure hope their daddy remembers this next time either of them want him to fix their car!" He's not one to really hold a grudge but it's gonna take him a long time to get over their slight and I'm just sorry he had his day spoiled in that way.

I continue to go to the gym. I've been doing PT 3 times a week and "graduated" yesterday from that. i/e: I've used all the visits that insurance approved. :-) So today I join the gym so I can continue. I was talking with Bruce, the owner of the gym, yesterday who was telling me so many people finish their PT and then don't continue on with their exercise. I'm thinking what a waste of the money spent on the PT if you don't plan to follow thru! I assured him he would see me there 3 to 5 times every week. And that in fact I was there because I went to my doctor and asked what form of exercise I could do to help me in my weight loss efforts but that wouldn't hurt my bad joints. She immediately suggested water exercise and then we decided what I needed was guidance in setting up a plan that would work for me and that I'd stick with. So she set up the PT so I would have supervised exercise for a few weeks that I could in turn continue on my own. Bruce has advised me to continue with the water exercises for another month to 6 weeks at which time he thinks I should do pool exercise 3 times a week and work out in the gym 2 days. At that time he'll have someone work with me to show me the ins and outs of the machines and explain how each work and what muscle groups they benefit so I can get the best workout to help me become more fit. All this for $35 a month!

Better get busy as my co-worker is on vacation this week so I'm trying to do what has to be done of my job and hers and falling behind on all if it!

Taking a short break

2007-06-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

This is just a short note to let you know I'm taking a little break from blogging. I've been trying to do other things at home besides sitting on the computer so I've not even taken it out of it's case but a time or 2 in the last week. I do skim thru my bloglines during breaks at work so I can keep up with you all but have had very little time to leave comments.

I've been going to the gym 3 times a week doing water aerobics and have lost another 3 lbs in the past 2 weeks. A definate improvement over the 10 lbs lost in the first 3 months of my diet! This more than anything else has made me see I have to be more active and spend less times on the more sedentary tasks I normally spend my free time on.

I've been doing a little sewing so when I come back in a week or so I should have things to share. Oh and we have more new kittens! But the pictures are at home so you'll have to wait for those too.

My younger brother is getting married on July 7th so I'll be making a trip back home next week and I'm sure Susan and I will find a little time to get in some quilty trouble. :-)

Have a lovely couple weeks and I'll probably be back in mid July after I get back from the wedding.

Happy Anniversary David

2007-06-18T12:43:00.000-04:00

It was 30 years ago today that I promised to love and honor you and what a fantastic 30 years it's been! Yes there were hard times in there but I think we came thru them with a stronger love and respect for each other than if it had been smooth sailing for all those years. I can't imagine anyone else I'd have wanted to share my life with besides you. I love you so much and look forward to many more wonderful years together.

Blocks 4-WV and 2-S

2007-06-16T23:25:00.000-04:00

I got up early this morning and made my next 2 blocks. The Weather Vane

And a Crow's Foot for my Sampler.

Besides these 2 blocks there was no sewing done today. I did decide on the pattern for my cat fabric I bought yesterday. And played with my siggie blocks a bit. But in the spirit of trying to balance my life more I opted to do household chores instead of sew all afternoon.

I have a bad habit of focusing on one thing to the exclusion of everything else. Mama was the same way. She'd spend HOURS in the sewing room and burned more meals from starting something and then going to sew "just 1 more seam" and would remember only when smoke filled the house. It's a wonder she never burned the house down! She did burn a hole right thru the bottom of my best soup pot once. A thick bottom cast aluminum one. I'm not quite that bad but only because I have a timer and I set it so I won't forget I have something cooking.

I've focused so much on sewing lately the house is a MESS! Not a filthy, disgusting, looks-like-you'd-catch-a-disease-from-it mess. But I've only done surface cleaning for a while so lots of things have gotten overlooked. Like cobwebs in the corners and dust on the ceiling fans. And the science experiments way back in the back of the refrigerator. I even took the curtains down yesterday and washed them! Now to get them hung back up. Today's project was the kitchen table. It tends to get piled high so we have to shove stuff over to eat or I'll eat in my recliner and David at his desk in front of the computer. Yesteday when I was out I bought flowers for the table and told David the table was off limits for laying stuff down. Wonder how long I can keep it this way. I give it MAYBE a week. LOL!

Tomorrows task is the ironing. I HATE to iron - unless it's fabric of course! But if I can get it all caught up and the laundry too then maybe I can make myself deal with each load as it's done and by doing a load every day or 2 I should be able to keep up with it. So early morning will find me making my 2 blocks. Then it's on to the ironing and I'm sure a nice nap tossed in there somewhere. Gotta have those priorities straight after all. :-)

A very nice day

2007-06-15T21:08:00.000-04:00

This was my last vacation day this week. I had planned to take all week off. Ended up working Monday and Thursday. Had PT that took up a large chunk of the middle of the day Tuesday. And David was home on Wednesday so that did away with any plans to play.

So I decided to make my last day one just for me. And what better way to do that than....... Yep. You guessed it. RETAIL THERAPY! LOL!

Gerline's quilt shop is a LQS about 50 miles from my house that I've been wanting to visit for quite some time. But since it's in the totally opposite direction from anywhere I usually go I've just never managed to get there. Well since today was mine to do with as I pleased it pleased me to go check them out. So I printed out the directions on how to get there and off I went. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find it as it's on a little country road a couple miles outside town. But they make sure you can find them cause they have plenty of signs pointing you in the right direction. And as you drive up you can't miss them with this quilt draped over the fence at the corner of the drive. BTW see what I mean by "little country road"? That's the road in the photo NOT the drive.

When you pull in the drive and park you're greeted by this lovely view. I'm not sure why but the exterior of the shop appealed to me a lot. LOVE that rusty tin roof. It's just perfect in the country setting.
Now in case, like me, you're not much into "country" let me assure you that despite the country setting she has plenty to offer us bright/bold/batik loving people. If you don't believe me just take a look at what I found!
Well to be honest the green didn't come from there. I did buy a green but once I got to the car and was looking thru my purchases (doesn't everyone pull it all out of the bag as soon as they get in the car? LOL!) and realized while I did like the fabric I bought it just wasn't the right color to go with the cats. But more about that later as the adventure continues. :-)

Ain't those kitties PURTY!! It's been a while since I've worked with my beloved brights. So when I saw these kitties I just knew it was time to make a bright fun quilt just for me. I'm not saying I don't like the quilts I've made this last few months as I've explored new colorways/fabric types. But sometimes you just gotta go back to what really makes your heart sing and for me that's always gonna be bright jewel tones. And when those brights are cats well that's even better. I have a vague idea of what these will become. Just need to let the idea simmer a bit and maybe work it up in EQ. It's not like I don't have plenty going already that this one can't simmer until I get my design just right.

Now just in case you're thinking this was an awful restrained purchase for me you would be wrong. Cause these lovelies also followed me home. :-)The lt silver batik on the left is for the background of one of the batik kits I cut earlier in the year. It's so hard to find good light batiks and she had several really nice ones. Well she had a really good selections of all batiks too but the darks/brights aren't as unusual to find as a really nice lite. The green/blue/yellow dots is the one I bought to go with the cats but the green isn't really anywhere near the right shade. But that's okay. Cause remember the spirograph fabric I bought a few months ago? It looks GREAT with it. So something will come of them later in the year I'm sure. The dark red fossil fern is to replace a piece that I've finally used all of. And the lime/purple polka dot is for - well just because it's a lime/purple polka dot! The book is one I'm using as a springboard for the design of my cats. I'm not using one of the patterns from the book but will be doing a variation of my own inspired by the quilts shown in the book. The pattern I bought because I thought it would be a good one to showcase a novely print. (Like more cat fabrics. LOL!) And the brush I bought for cleaning my sewing machine.

And to conclude my report of a wonderful visit to a new-to-me-store here's a picture of the very nice lady who helped me with my purchases. I'm sorry to say I didn't get her name so I don't know if she's Mrs. Gerline or if Gerline is her first name. I do know that she's a very nice lady who I will go visit again.
Notice the big smile. You'd smile too if someone had just dropped the $$$$ in your store that I dropped in hers. :-)

Now on to part 2 of my day. Since I was already in Giddings and it wouldn't be much out of the way to go home thru Brenham I decided to make a mini shop hop of the day and go to Stitch Havenwhich is another store I rarely get a chance to go to when they're open. It's only about 25 miles from my house but again in the opposite direction in which I normally travel. As you can see not only was I able to find the perfect green to go with my cats a few other items managed to follow me home.
The blue bonnet fabric is the same one I used for my siggies for the recent blogger swap. I sent what I had left to Cynthia as a hostess gift. Then decided it would have been perfect to use for the border of my siggy quilt. But when I went back to the store I originally bought it from they were out. So you can imagine my delight to find it here. Then I found the Ladies Art Company Block Tool. I thought it would be useful in helping me select patterns for my sampler quilt. Plus I thought it was cool. LOL!. And my last purchase was a kit for a small 9-patch quilt. I mostly bought it because I liked the fabrics and the red paisley print that was included for the border. I may or may not use the pattern from the kit. This is one that I'll save for when I need something quick and easy that doesn't require much thought to make.

And that concluded my mini shop hop. I did find out that there was another shop in Giddings that I'll have to check out next time. And there will be a next time as I think I'm going to take the Weather Vane quilt I'm currently working on and the Sampler quilt I'm also currently working on to Gerline's to be quilted. Her prices are reasonable and her work is nice. And her turnaround time is usually about a month so that's much better than I thought it would be. So maybe I'll finally have a couple quilts that I can use on my king bed. It's about time!

Why does this result not surprise me at all? LOL!

2007-06-15T03:19:00.000-04:00

You Would Be a Pet Cat

Independent and aloof, you don't like to be dependent on anyone.
And as for other people, you can take them or leave them. You often don't care.
You live your life by your own rules. And you have deep motivations that no one truly understands.

Why you would make a great pet: You're not needy or greedy... unlike other four legged friends.

Why you would make a bad pet: You're not exactly running down to greet people at the door

What you would love about being a cat: Agility and freedom

What you would hate about being a cat: Being treated like a dog by clueless humans

What Kind of Pet Would You Be?

Block 1-S

2007-06-13T16:14:00.000-04:00

No I've neither gotten confused about the block number I was on nor about the fabrics I was using. I figured since I'm making a sampler out of the Sunshine collection why not start with the weather vane block (while I can remember how to piece it!) I really like the way this turned out. 1 block down - 24 to go. This one will be set 7X7 with a simple framed square block as the alternate blocks using the white prints in the centers and the blue bubbles as the frame. Then the whole thing will have a narrow inner border of the blue bubbles, an outer border of the floral stripe and the yellow bubbles will be the binding. As planned it will finish at about 104" square. Plenty big enough for my king bed. And another one that will have to go out to be quilted!

I've been looking thru some of my books for block ideas. I'd kinda like the blocks to be a bit more difficult that what I usually do. So no 9-patches or churn dashes allowed. Maybe. I'm always subject to change my mind at the drop of a hat. LOL! But I'm enjoying the weather vane blocks so much done block by block that I think I'll enjoy trying some of the more difficult blocks for my sampler.

I really think one of the reasons I'm enjoying the one-at-a-time blocks is I get to see a finish for every block. Rather than doing zoom-zoom piecing where you have to do all the steps for all the blocks before you start putting them together. BORING.....And should I get bored with these I can always finish the quilt off at a smaller size just using the blocks I've completed. I know, sad to be considering that this would turn into a UFO. But I do know myself so well.

And never fear I haven't put away the other weather vane blocks. This was just a pause from working on them. And I might kinda alternate blocks for both quilts depending on my mood. We'll see.

Block 3

2007-06-13T09:16:00.000-04:00

Okay the majority of ya'll asked for them as they're completed so here's block 3. There will probably be a block 4 today also as I'm taking another vacation day but I have other things I want to accomplish around the house so if I do another it will be this afternoon or evening.

First things first I need to go get the tractor from the far other side of the property where it ran out of gas last time I used it and get some of the mowing done. It takes so long to do all of it I'm trying to do a little bit every few days. And about time I finish it's time to start all over again. Which is why we've started putting fence in to put some goats on about 3/4 of the property. Let THEM mow it. Much cheaper than buying tractor gas at the price of gas these days!

More kitty pictures. :-) As you can see from the gray blur they're some fast little suckers!

2007-06-13T00:34:00.000-04:00

Sorry ladies. Another day with no new block to show. And I even had a vacation day but no sewing went on. What I did was go to my first appointment with a physical therapist to work out an exercise program that I can do that won't make my joint/back pain worse. My doctor wants me to do water aerobics but supervised by a PT for 6 to 8 weeks. Good thing my insurance pays for this! I'm going 3 times a week and had my first session today. I did well considering I've had a mostly sedentary lifestyle for several years now. After I end my official sessions I think I'll be joining their gym. $35 a month for unlimited access and it's a month-by-month membership with no yearly fees and no contracts to sign. Not a bad deal for a nice heated pool to work out in.

After I left the gym I bought my first swimsuit in at least 25 years. Actually I bought 2 since I'm going 3 times a week for now and maybe more often in a couple months. I would have bought them before I went but this wasn't set up until late yesterday and I just didn't have time. So I had to use one of their suits today which was so TOTALLY unflattering! Good thing I had a coupon for Catherines as swimsuits sure have gone up in price in the last 25 years! I could have bought a LOT of fabric with that money. LOL!

I do think I'm really going to like this. I really used to love to walk - even bought a treadmill for those days I couldn't walk outside. (You've seen it hidden behind that pile of junk in my sewing room!) But with my back problems and joint problems it got where it was just too painful to walk. Which saw me become even more sedentary and contributed to a gain of 75 lbs. in the last 2 years. In line with taking control of my eating I've decided it was time to find some type of exercise I could do so when I had my 3 month check up yesterday (down 10.1 lbs!) I asked my Dr what she would advise and she wrote me a prescription for PT. I'm sure hoping that with adding exercise maybe at my next 3 month checkup I can report a 20 lb. loss. Time will tell.

It's all JoAnna's fault!

2007-06-11T23:57:00.000-04:00

No new block pictures tonight as I got home around 5, unloaded/put away my groceries, sat in my chair, and woke up at 8 to the sounds/smells of David cooking supper. Taco meat for burritos for him and a taco salad for me. What I do have to share is a picture of the scrumptious new fabric I got in today!This is the result of my fabric binge I alluded to on Saturday. And it's all JoAnna's fault! BTW, she's another new blogger who you need to go check out if you haven't discovered her already. Really nice quilt photos and cats too. What's not to like? :-) Anyway on Friday she talked about seeing the Sunshine collection from Moda everywhere she looked and how she found a great deal at Desperate Quilters, a new-to-me store so of course I had to go check them out. And of course I bought some. I mean look at them and tell me how I could NOT have purchased these beauties! She also talked about the fast service and let me tell you she wasn't joking! I ordered these Friday morning, they were shipped Friday afternoon and I received them Monday morning! Of course they are located in Texas which cut a good day off the delivery time but also meant I had to pay sales tax. Although I do usually make sure I order from out-of-state stores so that not paying tax pays for the shipping I'll definately order from them again.

Back to the fabrics. :-) I bought 1/2 yard of each of the 3 yellows/blues/greens. And 1 yard of the 4 whites and the white and yellow dots on the right of the photo. The floral stripe is a bit over 4 yds and was one of their end of bolt specials and will be the borders. There's 3 yds of the blue dots. This will be the sashing and probably thin inner border and maybe binding. Whatevers left will make pillow cases and maybe a pieced back. These will be made into my sampler quilt. To be started after I finish the Weather Vane I'm working on now. Or maybe to be made along with it if I decide I just can't wait to cut into these beauties. :-)

Block 2

2007-06-10T12:20:00.000-04:00

And NO I'm not going to subject you to a post for each of the 36 blocks! But while making this block I got thinking and it's the thinking that inspired the post. The block picture is just eye candy. :-)

So what lightbulb moment did I have to make me stop stitching to blog it? I've discovered I LIKE making just 1 block at a time. Taking my time to make each piece work together just right with the next. NOT doing the normal zoom-zoom piecing I usually do. Not stacking the like pieces from 20 blocks and doing all those steps at one time. But making 1 single block at a time. I REALLY dislike making HST. I hate marking the lines, sewing on both sides, cutting apart, pressing, and trimming to size. I do it because I like the accuracy I get when done this way. But multiply those steps by all HSTs in 20 blocks and I get overwhelmed. And usually put my project aside for awhile - if not forever. But when done 1 block at a time all the work to get nice HSTs isn't quite a chore. And I have to say both of these blocks are about as perfect as I've ever made a block. Not 100% as there are a few spots that don't match exactly but finished size wise I can drop my 12-1/2" ruler over them and neither one is more than 1/16" of an inch off at any place.

I'm not saying I'll never do zoom-zoom piecing again as sometimes you just need to see quick results. But there will be more 1-block-at-a-time quilts in my future.

The Bad Quilt MeMe

2007-06-10T10:17:00.000-04:00

I haven't done one of these in a long time and this one looked fun. Feel free to play along and don't forget to let me know so I can go see how bad a quilter you are too. :-)

I found this at The View from Here too which is a new-to-me blog. I enjoyed reading her archives. Not a lot of quilty content but a pleasant read. I'll visit again.

The items which apply to me are in bold italics.

*******
Made a quilt with no knowledge, no skills, and no understanding that either are needed

Created an abomination and (at the time) was proud of it

Created a quilt that was so hideous it made people or animals go blind

Had relatives throw a quilt you made outside in the muddy yard for the dogs to chew

Used severely mismatched fabric weights when piecing, for example, heavyweight denim and lightweight cotton

Didn’t pre-wash fabrics and later had them bleed all over the finished quilt

Used badly mismatched needle and bobbin thread

Puckered seams

Misaligned pieces

Ugly colours

Polyester fabrics that pilled (mine didn't pill)

Thick, scratchy polyester double knit fabrics

Batting that bearded up through the fabric

Free-motion quilting whose stitch size changed radically from stitch to stitch

Huge bird’s nests of bobbin thread that clogged the throat plate of the machine and broke the needle

Cluelessly attempted to stitch with a broken needle for several moments, thus perforating the quilt

Made stitches big enough to put your big toe through

Quilting lines that were about 6″ apart and allowed the stuffing to migrate and bunch up

Finished quilts that weren’t “square” and/or were badly blocked

Quilt tops that wouldn’t lay flat, that had a “volcano” in the middle or perceptible ripple

Backing that bunched up while quilting, leaving a portion of the batting uncovered

Hand-tied a quilt with heavy crochet or regular yarn, which required a really huge-eyed needle which left giant holes in the quilt

Erroneously equated a quilt with a blanket, and “finished” the edge of the quilt with a blanket stitch using scratchy acrylic yarn.

Had to use pliers to force the needle through the quilt, yet didn’t understand that this might be a sign that something was fundamentally wrong

Backed with a 100 thread count bed sheet. (Extra points for polyester)

Quilted with fishing line

Bled/sneezed/spilled coffee (iced tea) on a large section of quilt while making it.

Had people compare your quilt to one they saw at Wal-Mart

Finished a quilt (top) and only then realised that you hated it

Gave a quilt to someone and had them be speechless - and not in a good way

Trimmed loose threads on a gift quilt at the last minute and cut a hole through the top

Sewed one or more fingers to the quilt, then had to carry the sewing machine and quilt around the house while looking for a screwdriver to remove the needle

Created appliqués with satin-stitched edges, which after a shamefully brief time became frayed-edge appliqués that flapped their way free of the quilt
*******

Oh dear! in reading back over this it doesn't sound like I'm a very good quilter does it! At least some of those go back 35 years and I can plead much improvement in the meantime! But sadly some are very recent so I have a loooooooong way to go to perfection. But I'm having fun!!!

Block 1

2007-06-09T22:18:00.000-04:00

1 Weather Vane block done, 35 to go. I'm pretty pleased with it. Hopefully by the time I make the other 35 I'll still be pleased. I know some fabric combos won't please me as much as others but I think as a whole it will look nice. And just in case you're real observant, no that green dot on the edge is not in my photo below of the fabrics. It's also an April Cornell from her Poetry line that I had in my stash already. I thought it looked nice with the others and added a bit more light to the mix as I've decided to leave out the cream print at the bottom and save it for the border.

New fabric and a new project

2007-06-09T15:02:00.000-04:00

Remember those fabrics I bought in the first few hours of this month right after I finished my LAST no buy month? Well they came yesterday! Aren't they yummy? They're from the Sonnet Collection by April Cornell. I think I could just buy her whole fabric lines sight unseen as so far I've liked everything she does.
My intention was to make a sampler using these fabrics. The stripe across the top was to be the sashing/border, the cream print across the bottom was to be the background and the others would be used whereever they fit in the block patterns I was to choose. Best laid plans and all that - I'm going a totally different direction. LOL! While looking for patterns for my sampler I ran across a block I've been wanting to try (but don't ask me the name cause I can't think of it right now and the book with the pattern is in the sewing room.) So okay maybe I'll just use this pattern and make the blocks scrappy using the fabrics I bought. The fabrics between the stripe and cream print are each 1/2 yd cuts. the 5 on the left are 1 yd cuts - my reasoning being they would be used as accent fabrics to the others in the sampler blocks. While sorting fabrics and trying to come up with fabric combos to use with this block I got the bright idea to cut 2 full blocks from each fabric and then mix and match the pieces/parts around in the final blocks. Keeping the stripe set aside for sashing I have 18 fabrics that will give me 36 blocks which set 6X6 with sashing and a nice border will give me a quilt that will be big enough for at least a good topper size for my king bed. This will probably be a long term project that as long as I see steady progress I'll be happy. But I don't expect to sit and sew it start to finish without working on other things at the same time as I know I'm too easily distracted. And in line with my new "no rules" I'm not going to even say I have to make 2 blocks a week or anything like that. It will get done when it's done. But it WILL get done. :-) And probably this month. And when done it will have to go out for quilting a it will be way too big for me to try smooching thru my sewing machine!

I've cut all the 1/2 yd pieces and look what I have left from each.
That's a strip about 5-1/2" X 32" and a couple of scraps I can cut squares or bricks from. Not bad for having bought the fabric with no idea of how much I'd need of each. Now of the 5 that I bought a yard of I'll have 1/2 a yd more. But one will probably be the cornerstones for the sashing and another will be a thin inner border and another the binding. So when it's done there shouldnt' be much of any of these pieces left to go into my stash.

Think I'll take a short nap and then we need to run to town for a few items. I should finish cutting when we get home and maybe get a test block made. Then tomorrow I have to put it aside and finish up the last 3 rows on my row swap so I can get them in the mail Monday. I'm taking a few days vacation next week and have no plans other than to play for 3 days. Maybe I'll finish my blocks then. And maybe I'll work on something totally different. Whatever it is you can be sure it will be whatever makes me happy at that moment. LOL!

BTW, I made another order yesterday. :-) Just couldn't resist and have no guilt whatsoever about it. That group WILL get made into the sampler and is probably a much better grouping for a sampler quilt anyway. The story about that purchase later when the fabrics come in.

It's all about having fun!

2007-06-06T06:56:00.000-04:00

Or it should be - about having fun that is. Aren't hobbies supposed to be fun? So why do we impose so many "rules" on what should be a stress buster not a stress giver? We all do it - or at least most of us do. We play games with ourselves.

"I won't buy any fabric this month." But the first hours of the next month find us placing a large on-line order. And that's okay because it's a new month? If you have too much on May 1st and don't use a significant amount during the month then you STILL have too much on June 1st. So why should it be alright to practise indiscriminate buying 1 minute after midnight when it was "forbidden" 1 minute before. I don't know about you but the quickest way to get me to do something is to tell me I can't! So then we expand our games and say, "well I can buy borders/backings/binding/ backgrounds." So those 40 yards are okay to purchase but the odd FQ bought just because it's pretty is an illegal purchase! And when we do cave and buy the FQ we feel guilty? Guilty over buying a $2 FQ!!!! I don't know about you but there's lots more important things to stress over than a $2 impulse purchase!

"I'm only going to work on UFOs" Another game we play with ourselves. One that's guaranteed to make me want to work on ANYTHING but UFOS or will make me just work on nothing at all. I'm thinking what's the use in having a stash that you aren't "allowed" to use because you can only work on UFOs? Almost as bad is the "I must finish 2 UFOs before I can start a new quilt." Again guaranteed to make me just do nothing.

"I have to make X number of charity quilts before I can make one for myself" or "I have to make one for everyone I know before I can make one for myself." Why should everyone else be put before us? You know what? I DO NOT HAVE A QUILT FOR MY BED! Yes I have quilts I sleep under but not one to use as a pretty covering for my king-sized bed. And my DH slept under a RAG for the longest time before I made him a new quilt all his own. Now how sad is that? Which is why the rule around my house now is, "If David likes it - it's his!" Doesn't matter who it was originally intended for - it's his. Cause what could be more important than making a quilt for my love?

"Every quilt has to have a purpose." Why? Can't we just make a quilt for the fun of testing a new pattern or technique or just because we want to play with pretty fabric? The first thing David usually asks when I show him a finished top is "who is that for?" Well - nobody in particular! And that's okay. Every quilt DOESN'T have to have a purpose beyond the joy it gives the maker in the making. And if it's NOT giving you joy in the making then STOP MAKING IT! Which leads me to the next "rule".

"I have to finish everything I start". Even if it's a total screw-up that isn't turning out anything like we thought and is causing us a whole lot of stress. We still think we have to finish. And feel guilty when we put it aside to work on new, more fun, things. Why should it be so hard to accept that not everything needs to be finished. It's okay to give away, toss away, repurpose a quilt.

I could go on and on listing the rules we set for ourselves but then I'd be late for work. So what has this rant/ramble let to? My new resolution to only do what pleases me. No more rules. No more games with myself. I'll work on what I want, when I want. And this extends to my blog which is one reason I dropped from the rings. That's just a whole nother set of "rules" to have to follow. And as someone said in an email they sent yesterday, "I'm glad to see you've dropped out of the rings, "at our age" the only drummer we need to be following is our OWN, lol. The expectations we put on ourselves when we join these things is darn-right stressful." And she was 100% correct!

So from now on - it's all about having fun!

And as a PS if you're wondering how the first group of kittens is doing, as you can see they're doing just fine. :-)

Quilt (top) in a day

2007-06-05T23:23:00.000-04:00

So much for visiting all the blogs on my bloglines today. Instead I decided to play. Figured just because I would be stupid to drive a car while taking my meds didn't mean I couldn't use a sewing machine. I mean falling asleep while sewing never killed anyone!

Remember the row swap I was working on a few months ago. The one where the rows are due like now. Well I still have 3 rows to finish! So I went to clear off the sewing table so I could work on them. I mean they're even all cut out just haven't been motivated to work on them - or anything else for that matter - lately. But did I work on them? NOPE! I'm such a slug but I have a perfect excuse! Really I do.

Now let me set the scene just a bit. A while back Shelina was working on a 4-patch stack-n-whack. And then someone else did one (Judy maybe?) Now I've always loved the look of the SNW but didn't want to do the fiddly stuff needed to make the blocks. But I figured I could do a 4 patch so filed the idea away in my mind for one day. Okay now fast forward to today when I was cleaning off the sewing table. Among the fabrics waiting to be put away was this really great butterfly fabric I bought on clearance at an online shop back in late Dec or early January. It was an end-of-bolt sale and this piece had about 54" left. I had no idea what I would do with it but is sure was purty so I bought it. Yep - hopeless I am! Anyway so I was putting away fabric (and doing a fair amount of stoking and petting too as I'm sure you do when you handle your fabric. :-) And as I was petting this piece telling it how pretty it was and not to be afraid of the dark stash closet because one day I'd find the perfect pattern for it and it would be made into a beautiful quilt and that the cabinet was the best place for it to be in the meantime to protect it from the dangers of light and cat hair. And all of a sudden I looked at the print and thought how cool it would look made into the 4patch SNW. So I checked it out good and determined that I had almost 5 repeats of the print. Hhhhmmmmm just need 4! Also on the table - with 2 totally different groups of fabric that had been put aside for other projects were the prefect green for sashing and purple for setting squares. Since I had plenty of the green for this project and the other one it was set aside for I felt okay in stealing enough for the sashing and first border. The purple was with a group of fabrics pulled for a project that stalled before being cut so was being put back in stash. And I have just enough for the backing and binding after cutting what I needed for the setting squares. At this point I'm thinking this quilt was meant to be with everything falling in place like it was. So what else could I do besides stop everything else and make this quilt!

Ironic isn't it that on the day I decide to drop the stash quits and stashbuster rings I decide to make a quilt totally from stash. This will bust all of the butterfly fabric except a few largish scraps, all of the purple and about 1/2 yard of the green. Not sure what I'll do with it. A wall-hanging, table topper, baby quilt for a little girl or maybe a lap quilt for a lady in a nursing home. Doesn't really matter where it ends up but that I had fun in the making of it.

A new directon

2007-06-05T09:32:00.000-04:00

It's time for me to take stock in my life and move in a new direction. I've asked to be removed from both the Stash Quilts and the Stashbuster blog rings. I've loved my time with these rings and feel I've made many new friends thru them. But I've used/given away stash to the point I don't feel I really fit in the stashbusting phase of quilting any longer. And this blog has become more an "everything else about my life" blog than a quilting one. I will continue to visit you and hope you'll stop in to see me too. You'll just have to bookmark me or add me to your blogreader instead of finding me on the ring.

In addition to dropping out of the rings I've dropped all my mail lists except a small private one I've been on for years. And that one I've gone nomail on for the summer. It's time for me to spend more time doing quilting and less time sitting in front of the computer talking/reading about it.

Changing emails yet again to a gmail account seems to have fixed my problem as I've received all comments left since I made the change. Thanks to everyone who left a test comment to help me test it out.

I'm also testing Google Reader as I've not been happy with bloglines for some time. The last several posts I made took over 12 hours to show up thru bloglines. And some of you still don't show up. So far I've added my Top 20 to Google and like the way it works and their format better. So if you've been unhappy with bloglines you might want to give Google Reader a shot.

Enough rambling from me this morning. This is a "muscle relaxer" day - meaning NO DRIVING - so I'm home today. Since I'm pretty much confined to my chair I figure this is a good time to go visit my whole bloglines list (all 180 plus of you!) and catch up/comment on what you've been doing.

new email

2007-06-05T01:06:00.000-04:00

Well changing email addresses from the blogmail one to the stashbuster one let more messages thru but still only about 50% of comments are going to my email. So I've changed again to a gmail account. Surely google will let messages from their blog accounts go to their email accounts without thinking it's spam. I did a test comment and it immediately went thru. Now maybe I can once again reply to your comments.

Ny new email address for blogging will be ntcoleman@gmail.com. I'll still answer mail to the other 2 addresses (assuming GoDaddy lets them thru) but for the most part this will be the address you should write to. The few of you who I've given my work address can also still use it if it's during a work day and you need a response fairly quickly.

Comments

2007-06-04T13:18:00.001-04:00

How odd! I was going around the rings leaving comments and all of a sudden nobody's comment pages will come up! Guess I'll have to try again tonight. Just know that I am aware I've been a comment slug lately and did try to rectify that today! I am trying to be better as I love it when people leave me comments. Not that I'd stop posting if ya'll stopped commenting cause I mainly do this blog as personal journal. Sometimes I like to go back to my earlier posts to remind myself what I was doing last year or even last month at this time. But the comments are icing on the cake and I know I sure can't expect you guys to comment here if I don't remind you I still read your blogs by commenting there.

Another stroll with camera in hand

2007-06-03T18:58:00.000-04:00

Still no quilting going on so feel free to skip away if photos around my home bore you. :-)

Got up this morning and this is what I saw when I looked out the door toward David's shop.
They belong next door. Our neighbors are out of town for the weekend and looks like they found a way out of the pasture. I can't chase them to get them back in and they've pretty much stayed in our yard or the neighbors. And why not with so much to eat. David sure wished they'd wandered over to the other side of the yard and worked a bit on the creek bank but guess they had plenty to eat without venturing that far. Not sure what they were looking for in the shop though. Hopefully not trying to eat it! Never can tell with a goat. :-)

When taking the picture of the goats I noticed the cannas off the back side of the shop porch are blooming. I love cannas. They remind me so much of home and the big canna patch beside the porch of Mama's house that goes back to the days when my grandparents lived in the house. In fact I can't ever remember them NOT being there. One day I'm going to dig me a bit from that patch so I'll have a little bit of "home" here in my new home in Texas.

When I turned around from taking the picture of the cannas I found a Fluffy cat lounging in the Wandering Jew. I love that stuff. I got it as a couple cuttings from a friend about 4 years ago and planted it in a planter around a tree in the backyard. It now spills out from the planter and is about 10-12 feet across. I keep it mowed back to that size or it would take over the yard. It's also Fluffy's current favorite place to sleep. He comes in to eat and immediatley wants back out to go lay in the jew patch.

Can't leave you without more new kitty pictures now can I? :-)

Happy Birthday Scott!

2007-06-03T03:24:00.000-04:00

I was getting ready to shut off my computer when I realized what date it is. It's my nephew, Scott's birthday! (Susan's oldest child.) While I have many pictures of him as a baby they're not among the ones that have already been scanned into the computer. So this one was taken this past November at Daddy's funeral and is cropped from a larger group photo.

Happy Quarter Century, Scott. Your Aunt Nancy loves you very much!!!!

I WON, more new babies, and email problems

2007-06-03T02:25:00.000-04:00

First things first. I WON!!!! Leah had a drawing to celebrate her 200th post and I won a yard of her fabulous hand-dyed fabric! How cool is that! I've really admired her hand dyes and am so excited about winning this one.

Second - new babies!!! Kinda hard to see when they have a "camouflage kitty" for a mommy but we have more new babies at our house. There's 4 of them and they're about a week old. Right now they live behind a gate propped up next to a tree which isn't the most secure place for them but that's not the poor little Mama's fault. See my tractor has been sitting in the back yard for 2 weeks. David was going to replace the ratty old seat last weekend but it rained all weekend so it didn't get done until today. The shredder stays hooked up and was dropped all the way to the ground. She thought WOW this is a great place to raise babies. Solid iron on 3 sides and low to the ground so most things couldn't get in the one open end. Unfortunately the tractor had to move today and with it their nice home. Luckily David saw them when I raised the shredder to back up. He hollered at me to stop just before I backed over them! Luckily I had enough room to pull out forwards by cutting real sharp.

I took the tractor out and made a few rounds to check out the new seat (wow! MUCH more comfy that the old one!) and when I got back she was moving the kittens to their new (hopefully temporary) home. There are 2 yellow/white, 1 black/white and 1 gray/white. The mama is feral. Born at my house to a Mama passing thru. She's never been tame but isn't wild if that makes any sense. You can't pet her or anything but she doesn't run when you come near either. Sure didn't like me messing with her babies but I'm hoping by them getting my scent when they're small they'll remember it when they get bigger. Some times that's all it takes to tame a feral kitten.

Third - if you've tried to leave me a comment or send an email thru my blogmail account you probably got a returned mail message. For some reason GoDaddy has decided that 90% of everything coming into that account is spam so doesn't let much thru. I've changed my email settings to go to another email address. If that one doesn't work either I'll just get a gmail or yahoo account and use that for blogmail. Hopefully it will work now as I've missed getting the comments in email. It's so easy to miss one otherwise and very hard to reply when needed.

I had plans to get some sewing in today but ended up doing other stuff and probably won't be able to sew tomorrow either. But it won't be long before it'll be too hot to work outside and there are a few home maintenance issues we need to deal with before the heat sets in. Then I can go back to sewing. :-)

It's very late and I need to get up very early to try to beat the heat on the tasks we must get done tomorrow so I'll bid you all good night.

I DID IT!!!!!

2007-06-01T09:50:00.000-04:00

Barely but I did it! I had planned a vacation day for today. And to celebrate my successfull no-buy month I had a little quilt shop hop planned. Best laid plans and all that I ended up having to work today. :-( So my 2am insomniac moment this morning found me pushing buttons online. And a gorgeous group of fabric will appear in my mailbox next week. NONE of which I have a plan for. :-( But they sure are purty and I'm not even upset with myself. Am I hopeless or what? LOL!

Hopefully my next post will have pictures of stuff actually getting done. We'll see as I'll be working a lot of overtime in the next few weeks so I don't know how much energy I'm going to have for anything besides being a couch potato. But think of all the OT $$$ I'll be making that can be spent on fabric! Yep hopeless I am. :-)

Days 24 thru 29

2007-05-30T10:33:00.000-04:00

Just 2 more days!!!!! I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. Even though I want to rush out TODAY and find a tower of that Moda Fabric Darlene showed today. Wonder if my LQS will take a post-dated check???

I don't have much to report for the past week. My sewing machine hasn't even been set up in a couple weeks. I have worked a bit on a hand project but I'm saving that subject until it's finished. Not only have I not sewn anything my sewing room is a mess again. And I don't even have the excuse of lots of working outdoors as it's rained, rained, and rained some more. Mostly I've just sat in my chair and read a bit, stitched a bit, slept a bit, and played a LOT of stupid computer games. This will pass and I'll get back in the mood to sew. Sure has made it easy for my no-buy month when I haven't had the motivation to work on much. :-)

I will get my act together and do a bit of picking up in the sewing room tonight. It's not as trashed as it was before but could get that way VERY quickly. And the table is covered with fabric I'd shoved in boxes in the closet when I was cleaning before. I've been taking those boxes and folding the fabric. Now to just get them put away. And I've also cut down a good size box of scraps into strips/squares/etc. Hhhhmmmm - guess I haven't been as much of a slug as I thought. I do want to get back on track by this weekend as I've set aside the summer months to whittle down some of my UFOs and would like to get a fresh start on June 1st. And I'll mostly continue my no-buy. Meaning I'm going to limit myself to what I need to finish those UFOs with maybe a FQ bundle or jelly roll thrown in just because. :-) I've decided these are acceptable purchases for me as I know I'll eventually use them in my scrappy quilts. What I DON'T want to get back in the habit of buying is the 1 to 2 yard "just because it's pretty" purchases that sit in my stash for years until they become "what was I thinking!" purchases. Yes it will mean I'll have to purchase border/backing fabric for my quilts but that way I get fresh, NEW fabric for those instead of dofer fabric. It's a plan. Subject to change tomorrow on my whim. :-)

If you read my other blog, Nancy Cooks and Gardens Too, you might notice I haven't posted there in a long time. That will change in the next few days as it will become my food/diet blog. So if you're interested in watching my journey into weight loss and better health - with I'm sure a LOT of pitfalls along the way - then feel free to follow along. Just so you know I'll be going back to strictly low-carb as it was what worked best for me before so if you're the type who thinks that to be an unhealthy diet then I ask you to keep your opinions to yourself and I won't bombard you on your blog with comments on how unhealthy I find low-fat/high-carb to be. Specifically I'll be doing Atkins induction phase as the variations of low-carb that allow more carbs DO NOT work for me. And just so you know I have the complete support of my internist, my primary care physician, AND my Rheumatologist all 3 who have independently of each other suggested this to be the best diet for me to get my weight down and thus help control my multiple health issues.

I have done it before and know it can work. I lost over 40 lbs before AND dropped my cholesteral back down to near normal levels without medication. Then I had to get off it when I had gall-bladder surgery a few years ago and had problems eating just about anything except mashed potatoes and applesause and gatorade. And I just never seemed to be able to get back on the low-carb bandwagon. Which in turn saw me regain that 40 lbs. plus another 35 on top of them.

Well enough of this whiny ramble. These posts will move to the other blog and this one will revert back to quilting and the occasional odd photograph. :-)

Days 19-23

2007-05-24T08:42:00.000-04:00

Just 8 days to go and I've still been a good girl. Of course it helps that I've been REALLY busy at work and haven't had the energy to shop after I get off. In fact I haven't had the energy to do anything at all so mostly I've just worked and slept. This will pass but the rest of this week and most of next week will be more of the same. So if you don't hear from me again I'm okay - just tired!

I'm way behind on my blog reading. And moslty I'm reading thru bloglines and not really having the time to actually go to your blogs to leave comments. So I haven't forgotten you just not had the time to come visit. Hopefully I'll catch that up on the long weekend. But there are many projects both around the house and quilty planned for my 3 days (plus I might be taking work home too) so I probably won't be getting much computer time in.

Because a post is boring without a picture, this is the contents of a goody package I received in the mail from Nadine. You might remember that I sent her some Lily of the Valley fabric and this was her thank you.

Love that cat fabric (and I didn't already have it!) and the welcome kitty is now hanging in my office with my other cat things. The buttons have been put with my collection of cat buttons. Yes I do have a collection of cat buttons. LOL! Those will go on a special project one day. Just haven't found quite the right project yet. Again Thank you Nadine for these lovely things. Isn't it just amazing how everyone knows to send me cat stuff? LOL! A few weeks ago Finn sent me some Heartstrings blocks and also included a wonderful cat fabric that is slated for a special project very soon. I thought I had a picture of it on my thumbdrive but I guess I never took one. I'll have to remedy that soon as this fabric is soooooo cool! Be watching next week for it's project as I hope to do it this weekend.

Better get to work. I'm the only one here this week and it's a payroll week so I've got a LOT to do. If I don't talk to you again, have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

A short stroll around my property

2007-05-19T09:09:00.000-04:00

Okay so George got his cuddle and I toddled up to the sewing room to sew on a bit of binding. But when I opened my shade and saw this view I knew I needed to grab my camera and share this with the rest of you.

Tnis is the view I saw from my sewing room window. Unfortunately it will be gone soon as I have to run the tractor through it this weekend. You can see where I already ran a few rounds through last weekend. But it's almost head high in spots so if I wait any longer I won't be able to get through it even with the tractor.

Just some pretty wildflowers I passed in my walk. :-)

More of those beautiful flowers. A scene just like this inspired a project I started on retreat last year. The same one I bought the green/yellow spirograph fabric a few weeks ago for the backing. I really do need to find the tote that has that project and finish it as I just love this green/yellow combination.

The Fluffy Boy who accompanied me on my stroll. :-)

Mama Kitty who came to meet us as we headed back home.

And to complete our photojourney - a little kitty peaking up at me from between the boards on the ramp. Curious about the goings on while safe in it's little hidey-hole.

Days 16 thru 18

2007-05-19T07:23:00.001-04:00

3 more days down. I did visit JoAnn's again. This time for batting and backings for the 2 heartstrings tops I have waiting to be basted. I'm discovering I CAN just shop for what I need in the immediate future. Once again I slid past the FQs on sale for 99c. Not without a slight hesitation - I mean who would know, right? Well I would know! So no pretty new prints for me this time. Just the 2 backs and 3 bats I went in for. And you know what? It DOES get easier each time I go. I just think about all the fabric I already have and all the UFOs waiting their turn to be finished and I'm able to turn a deaf ear to the cries of all the wonderful fabrics saying, "take me home. You know you want me. Come on. PLEASE........"

I haven't sewn a single stitch all week! Well not on the sewing machine but that's another story for another post. Anyway, I've had such trouble with my feet swelling that by the time I get home I need to spend my evenings with my feet propped up. So no sewing machine for me. I do hope to finish up the other donation quilt this weekend. I'm going to go work on it for a bit when I finish writing this. But as soon as David gets up I'll have to stop as we have a lot we need to get done this weekend outside. It's supposed to be a beautiful day with unseasonably cool (less than 80) temps so we need to get this project out of the way before the summer heat wave hits.

So what will I be working on this weekend? I'll be tearing down this lovely (NOT!) shed and trying to find a place for the stuff inside.
We inherited this beauty along with another even crappier looking shed when we bought the place. The other one has long since been torn down but this one houses our well. Along with a whole bunch of stuff that was put in there 9 years ago when we move here and has been rarely or never looked at since. So most of the stuff will hit the trailer for a dump run this afternoon. Once we tear this beauty down we'll be replacing it with a larger one that will house our 4 wheelers, lawn mowers, tiller, garden tools etc. All the stuff that is currently in THIS beauty.
This one sits at the end of the driveway. In the exact spot where we need to build David's new shop. So instead of building another equipment shed elsewhere on the property we decided to get rid of that orange eyesore and put a bigger shed in it's place that would hold all our extra stuff. So that's what's up for the weekend. Destruction and mayhem! I love the destruction phase. There's something very satisfying about tearing down an eyesore that's plagued me for years. VBG

I'll leave you this morning with another shot of those cute little kitties. :-)
For those who asked, Yes, they are feral. Kinda. The Mom is a stray who's lived here on and off for about 4 years. VERY friendly but not one to stay around all the time. I suspect she has other "homes" she rotates with. We usually get her when she has kittens that are getting ready to start eating on their own. Smart mama. She knows where the all-you-can-eat buffet is located. LOL! Sometimes I'm able to tame the kittens, sometimes not. These I suspect will be in the not category as there are 5 of them. It's been my experience when they have so many siblings to play with they're less likely to look elsewhere for attention and a playmate. And I just don't have the time and energy right now required to even try. I know that some of them won't make it. And the ones who do may or may not stick around here. If they do I'll feed them. If they don't another one will show up to take it's place at the food dish. Sad I know but that's just the way life is here in the country. Not that I don't usually try. 3 of the 4 inside cats I have right now were feral born to stray Moms. The 4th was himself a stray who I'm currently trying to type around as he's laying on my chest right now trying to get me to stop typing so he can get a proper cuddle. LOL! So I guess I'll stop here and cuddle George a bit before I start my day. There's worse ways to start a day for sure. :-)

Days 14 and 15 and new residents at my house

2007-05-16T07:21:00.000-04:00

First things first - 2 more days down with no fabric bought except what was required to finish a few UFOs. That's half the month down. :-)

Second - just look what I found on my porch this morning when I opened the door to toss George out!
Ain't they purty?

Since I don't have anything quilty to show for my past few days how about a REALLY old one? This is one of my very first quilts made in the mid 1980s. My second finished one to be exact. I made David one with navy plaid squares alternating with light blue solid squares then this one. His has long since fallen apart and been tossed. Then I made this one for me and it just doesn't seem to be able to die! It's relegated to the trunk of my car and gets brought in to wash about once a year which is why it's inside right now. Say what you will about poly fabrics but the backing on it and the solid green squares are both poly and are as bright as the day it was made. The cotton fabrics haven't held up as well although the yellow solid and yellow gingham aren't in too bad a shape. But that green calico is in shreds at spots. I hang onto it more as an example of how far I've come than anything. And I do still love that color combination.

Last a picture of an odd sight in my office yesterday. My friend Mary stuck her head in my door and whispered, "Get your camera. You're gonna want a picture of this!" These are a mechanic and a truck driver - neither one very computer literate - attempting to hook up a new printer. I don't think the IT department is in danger of either of these dude's taking their jobs any time soon. LOL! (BTW, I finished installing the printer!)

Days 9 thru 13

2007-05-13T18:59:00.000-04:00

Did ya think I got lost? Or did you even miss me? I've been really busy the last few days and haven't taken the time to write. Still being good with the fabric diet. Nothing bought except the binding and backing that I already fessed up to last week.

Since I talked to you last I've managed to finish 2 UFOs. Yep you read that right. That's TWO UFOs quilted AND bound in less than a week. That's a record for me since I'm usually good to get 2 quilts quilted and bound in a YEAR! It would have been 3 but I'm not quite finished with the 3rd and probably won't get it finished tonight. I have time but I'm just TIRED! My neck and shoulders ache and both say NO MORE!!!

First I finished this.
Did the last of the quilting Friday and just finished up the binding. All it needs is a label and it's ready to go to Kansas.

Then I finished this.
I should have been working in the other quilt to go to Kansas but it was Mother's Day weekend and I was missing my Mama so I wanted to work on something that would make me feel more connected to her. The first time she came to visit me after I moved here she helped me choose some of the fabrics that went in this quilt. We started with a couple of the orientals and added a purple a blue and a green. Then a few months later I was browsing the vendors at a quilt show and found a FQ pack that co-ordinated with them and bought those too. And there they sat for about 5 years when I decided to see what I could do with them. I added a few more FQs and made this YBR. Even put the borders on right away. And then it sat for another few years until I decided to use it to practice handquilting baptist fans. So I basted it and did about 1/2 a row. And there it sat for almost another year. I decided last week that it would be better off machine quilted and DONE than sitting another 4 or 5 years waiting for me to finish hand quilting it. So I bought a nice varigated purple thread when I went to JoAnns last week. Then Saturday morning I picked out the quilting I'd done and in about 4 hours it was quilting and bound and ready for me to sleep under last night. And it was nice to wake up this Mother's Day morning under a quilt in colors that Mama loved and fabrics that she helped me pick out.

So the other quilt will be finished in the next few days and the package will go off. Maybe a few days later than I had intended but when I woke up Saturday morning it just somehow seemed right for me to finish the Oriental YBR this weekend instead. After I finish the other Kansas quilt I'll be basting and quilting the kit quilt I finished recently. I'm really trying to not let new projects sit around long enough to become UFOs. We'll see how long I can keep that up. :-)

Day 8

2007-05-09T07:55:00.000-04:00

Quick post as I need to get out the door to work.

Well I made it 7 days. Day 8 found me at JoAnn's buying binding for the 2 quilts I'm trying to get out this week to the tornado victims in Kansas. Couldn't find any pre-packaged stuff in the color I needed so I bought 1-1/2 yds of a nice rust solid that will be enough to bind both of them. I THINK 1-1/4 yds would have been enough but I'd rather have a little bit extra than not enough. I didn't quite make it out with just my binding fabric but I wasn't too bad. Got the fabric to back a UFO that I want to quilt next week and the thread to quilt another with. So I'm not counting these as cheats. I truly had nothing that would work for backing of my quilt and I did not have anything close to the proper shade of thread to quilt the other with. And I walked straight past the 99c FQs and didn't even slow down to look. I won't say I wasn't TEMPTED but I did resist. So a big WAHOO to me for that!

I'm not counting this as a cheat since these were necessary purchases of items needed to finish up 4 UFOs. All of which will be done in the next few weeks. And this is what I'm attempting to control my spending at. Just the purchases that I need to work with for the next week or so. My stash really isn't all that big anymore and I'd like to keep it that way. Besides my scraps (that I could use steadily for several years and not see the end of!) I really only have enough fabric to make maybe a dozen more co-ordinated quilts. And that's about how I want to keep it. That way I get to use new fresh fabrics for my more controlled fabric quilts and will have my scraps when I'm in an anything goes mood.

In addition to my Joann's purchases I went to Half-Price Books. It's in the same shopping center as Harbour Freight Tools where I was supposed to meet my sweetie after work. Since I get off earlier and he had to drive in from another town I had a little time to kill. I was good there too. Just bought 2 books both with little fun quilt projects that I think are the only thing I'm going to work on this summer besides finishing some of my UFOs. These will give me the opportunity to work with something fun and quick so I don't get bored with only working on UFOs. And at around $5 each they were cheaper than a couple magazines.

As we got home late (after 9) and I wanted to watch American Idol and House I didn't get any sewing done last night. Hopefully tonight will be more productive.

So that's how my day went. What about yours?

Day 7

2007-05-07T23:16:00.000-04:00

A whole week with no new fabric. So far so good BUT tomorrow I have to go somewhere to get some quilt binding. So wish me luck!

Wanna see a rare sight around my house? Even rarer than borders on my quilt tops? Look at this!
Yep that's the sight of a quilt being smooshed thru my sewing machine and QUILTED! It's only been basted for 3 years so it's about time. LOL! And it's not some little wall-hanging either. This is a largish twin/smallish double. This and it's companion will be going to the tornado victims in Kansas. The companion quilt has been quilted for several years except the borders. Now this one is also quilted except for borders. I'll get those borders done and the bindings on over the next few days so I can get these mailed out before postage goes up Monday.

I just did quick in-the-ditch stitching around the blocks but my new machine did them beautifully. No dragging of the quilt on the bed and no tension problems. Now to see how it does on free-motion tomorrow as I think I'll do a simple meander in the borders.

I really don't enjoy machine quilting and use the excuse that I'm not good at it to not finish my quilts. But you know if I never do any how will I get good at it? And I did rather enjoy myself tonight. So I'll be quilting more of my own quilts this summer and probably donating them locally or to special circumstances like the Kansas tornado victims. I'm really committed to finishing some of my UFOs this summer and not just to top stage. I want to be able to call myself a quilter and not just a topper.

Day 6

2007-05-07T00:03:00.000-04:00

Another day - another dollar saved by not shopping.

Not as productive a day as yesterday but they don't all have to be that way so I'm happy. I did get the letters done for Susan (shown in my last post). I did get a bit of that mess folded and put away. Not all of it but enough that it does look a lot better. And I did some more strip sets for my Chinese Coins but that's about it. Took about a 4 hour nap. Boy THAT felt good. :-)

I knew I was going to forget something in last nights post. When I went to pick up the mail yesterday afternoon I found a lovely package waiting from Bea. If you remember she had a little contest when she sent her Siggie blocks in for the swap. She highlited each one with a bit of blue. But one that she called her Super Siggie had a bit of another color. The person who could email her with the correct color won a little prize. And mine had GREEN on it so I received this lovely egg pincushion and piece of fabric.
And how cute (and appropriate!) is that card. In her note she writes, " It's just an egg-pincushion and some fabric for egg yolks." JUST an egg-pincusion!!!!! I remember when she showed her little tutorial on her blog on how to make them and thinking I needed to make on for myself. And now I don't have to. Thank you so much, Bea. I just love it! And the fabric. My sister will tell you that I use that color often cause it make the other colors pop so this will go nicely with my collection.

Several of you asked about the pattern I used for the quilt I posted yesterday. It's called Crossed Path and is one of the Strip Club Patterns. When I bought the kit the pattern was folded inside it so it was a mystery what the kit was for. All I knew was that it was a nine-patch variation that would make a lap sized quilt cause the clerk told me. But I loved the colors in the border fabric and the jelly roll so I bought it figuring if I hated the pattern I could always use the fabrics for something else. The pattern can be purchased on line for $5 from Quiltin' Tia Quiltworks. Clicking on the store name will take you directly to the page to purchase the pattern from. It's a great pattern and I can see myself using it again but using my own strips next time. Done in red/white/blue it would make a nice quilt for Quilts of Valor. Or it would be great done just really scrappy.

It's late and despite my long nap this afternoon I'm tired. So off to bed I go. See ya tomorrow.

For Susan

2007-05-06T11:58:00.000-04:00

As I promised your letters are done and it's not noon yet. :-) I didn't add any extra background around them as I don't know exactly how you'll be setting them in the border so I'm sending the extra background fabric.

They ended up pink and purple with a blue background. No matter how I played with other colors the greens and yellows just didn't play nicely with the others. And since your blocks don't have a "background" I thought it would look funny to have the only white in the quilt to be the background in the letters. So I chose this pretty light blue. I hope that's okay cause they're already done now. I would have called you and asked first but I didn't think you'd want to be woke up at 6am on Sunday morning. :-)

Got lots more I want to do today so I'll check back with another progress report tonight.

Day 5

2007-05-06T00:45:00.000-04:00

Well I've had a busy day today. What about you guys?

First I finished this.

Susan showed the one she made yesterday and it made me think about mine and how close to finished it was. THEN I noticed I was 3rd from the top of the UFO Queen list on the Stashbuster Yahoo group. SO I put the borders on this and did a simple in the ditch quilting, turned the back to the front and stitched it down for binding and that's another UFO DONE-DONE! Okay so it's maybe not done all that good but it's a wall-hanging that won't see a lot of rough usage so I'm happy with the way I finished it off. And did I mention it's DONE!

Next I finished this.
I'm VERY happy with the way this turned out. And can I direct your attention to those blue things on the sides? Those are borders! Me the original border-challenged girl put them on right away! Maybe there's hope for me yet!

After I finished that I decided to take Vicky's advice and piece a back rather than submit myself to the challenge of only buying one backing at the LQS. It hasn't been pressed yet so it really is flatter than it looks in the picture. I'm really not much of a pieced back person and since this took me over 2 hours to do I probably won't be doing many more!

And just look at the mess it made in my clean (mostly) sewing room!This will get cleaned up Monday as I have more sewing that must be done tomorrow so I can get it in the mail Monday. First thing in the morning, Susan, I promise I'll be working on wonky letters. Then I need to finish the last 3 rows for my row swap so I can get them in the mail before postage goes up. In fact I have LOTS of things to prepare for mailing so I need to get all that done tomorrow too.

And lest you think I've forgotten my Chinese Coins I got a good number of stripsets done by using them as leaders/enders for my other sewing today. Just need to get them cut apart into the 6" wide strips.

And that's it for today. I was going to go visit a bunch of you tonight but it's late and I'm tired so I'm going to pack it in now. Sweet dreams. :-)

Day 4

2007-05-05T11:27:00.000-04:00

Another day passed with no purchases made. I didn't even twitch a little when I had to go to the grocery store that's located in the same shopping center as JoAnn's. LOL! So far I really haven't been tempted but I MIGHT go to the LQS Tuesday to pick up backing for the quilt I'm currently working on (the kit I bought last week) as I really do like my backs to co-ordinate with the fronts. And remember BACKINGS are allowed. Then again I might just see if I have enough of a nice creamy TOT that will blend with the ones in the front and just use it. Or maybe piece a back from several. We'll see.

This is a preview of my current project. Ya'll would be soooooo proud of me. When I couldn't sleep at 2am this morning instead of internet shopping I sewed together and attached 2 more rows of this quilt. I should be finished with the top in about another hour so that's where I'm headed as soon as I get off this computer. I would have probably finished it early this morning if George hadn't been such a "helper" cat. See what I have to deal with when I try to sew!

But who could resist giving him the loving he wanted so I figured the rest could wait until later and we headed back to bed for a nice cuddle and a nap.

Better get at it as after I finish this top I have wonky letters to make for Susan's project and the last 3 rows to finish for my row swap. So those are my plans for this weekend. What are you working on?

Prayer request

2007-05-05T10:22:00.000-04:00

Patty at MorningRamble has made the following request that we all say a prayer for her little granddaughter, Mei-Ling.

"I Have A Favor To Ask
This morning I was thinking about the 1,100 + hits my blog had yesterday. Imagine the amount of prayers that would be going up for Mei-Lings complete healing if every single blogger that read my blog would post a prayer request on their blog, with a picture of the baby and asked every one of their readers to pray for the baby and to add her to any and all prayer lists they know of and add this request to their blog too. Amazing amounts of people all over the world would be praying, thinking good thoughts, etc for little Mei-Ling.
If you would do this, feel free to copy and paste a picture of her from my blog and put it on your blog. Let me know too, if you have added this to your blog, I would love for Melanie and Casi to see it.
There is so much power in prayer and belief."

Dear Father, I add my prayers to those of everyone else that you heal little Mei-Ling and let her go home to her loving parents. And I pray that you wrap Melanie and Casi in the healing power of your love as they suffer the anxiety of wanting their baby to be healthy and at home with them and the worry about the enormous financial burden that has been placed upon their shoulders. And I pray for Patty and Emery that you ease the hurt they feel as they watch their darling little granddaughter struggle to adapt to this new world. And I also pray for Casi's family as this must surely too be weighing heavily on their hearts. Dear Lord, I ask that you please just bring peace to this family that has had such a difficult time these past few months. These things I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Day 3 & We have a winner!

2007-05-04T10:15:00.000-04:00

Day 3. Nothing bought. Again not even tempted even when I went to Wal-mart I didn't even go near the crafts area. Not that I buy much Wal-mart fabric but when I've gone on a fabric diet before I've found myself wandering the fabric section just to look and touch fabric. :-) But not this time. I grabbed my cat food and personal items and was in and out the door in less than 10 minutes. That has to be a record or something!

I did a little sewing but not on either of the projects I'm working on. I mostly sat in my chair like a lump until I made myself go spend 5 minutes in the sewing room. Rather than mess up something when I really don't feel like sewing I pulled my nickle squares and started sewing them together in pairs. Did this for about 20 minutes and I have a nice size stack waiting to be pressed. I think these will just be sewn together into a simple couch quilt with MAYBE an applique border. that depends on how much effort I want to put into it when the top is done. I know this is technically a NEW project but it was either work on it or nothing so I'm gonna count it as sewing therapy and not a new project. LOL! MY rules I can change them if I want. :-P

Then I started pulling fabric for a project my sister wants me to help her with. another new project but an important one and it's not mine so I'm not gonna count it either. she needs wonky letters for a special project and doesn't know how to make them. I could point her to the tutorial and make her do them herself but I'll help out by doing them for her as she'll be busy doing the rest of the project. And I'll still point her in the direction of Tonya's tutorial cause they really are fun and easy to make and I think she'd have fun doing them herself sometimes. Or maybe not cause she's way more anal about matchy things than I am so it might just drive her nuts to do the wonky stuff. :-)

thank you for all your well wishes for my back problems. I thank you for your concern and hopes that my cleaning/organizing didn't in any way contributed to it. They didn't. It's an ongoing thing so I'm used to it and most of the time I simply ignore the twinges. But then sometimes it decides to remind me to take my meds and sleep for a day or 2. I usually don't take the meds cause they give me major brain fog and I just can't function to work properly. but sometimes i just have to take them and muddle thru the day the best I can and hope I get everything done that absolutley HAS to be done. Ironically what set it off this time was the simple act of swapping clothes from the washer to the dryer. And in another twist of irony my sister hurt hers last week while ironing. Hhhhhmmmmm....... Sound to me like the Turfitt girls need to quit doing laundry doesn't it?

Oh, yeah. You want to know who won my little contest don't you? Well I had 29 comments left on yesterday's post. I put all the names in a hat and had my friend, Mary, pull 1 this morning. And then just because why not - I had her pull another while she was at it. :-) So my TWO winners are Carole and Quiltingfitzy. Ladies email me your mailing address to blogmail@nancyquilts.com and I'll get your prizes out on Monday.

Day 2 and other stuff

2007-05-03T09:51:00.000-04:00

So how're ya'll doing? I made day 2 without buying anything. Of course I was home with a bad back so I didn't have the opportunity to shop. :-) Well I guess I could have done internet shopping but spent the day instead catching up on blogs. I didn't make many comments as I was dozing in and out all day and reading in odd minutes but I did visit everyone. And if I'm going to keep my vow to myself to only work on UFOs this month I need to stop reading blogs cause you guys are working on some AWESOME things right now and I find I want to do every single one of them myself!!! Which could be why I have so many incomplete projects to start with. :-)

I did do a little sewing between naps. I mean you can only lay down so long before that hurts worse than the pain you're laying down to relieve. So I'd sew a few seams, read some blogs, then rest a bit and repeat the cycle. Doing that I was able to get about 1/2 of the top assembled from the kit I bought last week. It's turning out real cute. I think I'm going to like this one. Pictures later in the week when I get the top finished. And I used my Chinese Coins as leaders/enders so that project also progressed a bit.

I noticed as I went to post this note that this is my 250th post! So in the spirit of what seems to be becoming a tradition in blogland I'll draw names from everyone who leaves a comment before I put my next post up tomorrow morning and the winner will receive a little something from me.

No Buy - Day One

2007-05-01T23:10:00.000-04:00

Day one - didn't purchase a thing. Wasn't even tempted. :-) Which wasn't bad since I didn't have the best day and we all know how prone to retail therapy I am when I have a crappy day. LOL! Of course I didn't do any sewing either. Nor did I do any more cleaning in the sewing room. Basically I came home, ate supper, watched a little tv (gotta watch Idol and House) and I've been vegetating in front of the computer every since playing stupid computer games. And now I'm going to bed. Tomorrow is another day and maybe I'll feel like getting something done.

So how did ya'll do?

May Stash Challenge

2007-05-01T04:40:00.000-04:00

Judy has issued a Stash Challenge for May. The Challenge is to make something - using fabric from your stash - to honor your Mother or Grandmother. This one will be easy for me.

Saturday I started this quilt in honor of my Mom whose birthday would have been on Sunday. It's a chinese coins quilt using a purple fabric (from Mama's stash!) for the sashing, borders and backing. Mama loved purple in any shade so it was easy for me to pick a color scheme for this quilt. I just pulled my 1-1/2" strips and pretty much anything goes except for the ones that just totally clashed with this fabric (bright reds, orange, florescent blue). The pieced strips will be 5" finished and the sashing probably around half that. I'm not sure how big it will end up being. I'll probably just keep making strips until I either run out of 1-1/2" strips or the sashing fabric. And since there's 7+ yards of it I'll probably run out of strips first.

And I'm not even breaking my vow to only work on UFOs in May as I did start this on April 28th. LOL!

For Nadine

2007-05-01T04:09:00.000-04:00

May 1st is Labour Day in Belgium. On this day they also give lily of the valley, as a lucky charm to the ones they love. Nadine has asked us to post pictures of any lily of the valley fabric we might have. Just happens I do have one. Funny thing is it's not the one I went looking for. The other was a bit thin (from Hancocks and not some of their better stuff) and I think it must have been in the stuff I gave away last year.

So Nadine, this is for you. Literally. Send me your address and I'll send this FQ to you. Happy Labour Day!

Great Fabric Depression of May 2007

2007-04-30T16:39:00.000-04:00

Vicky has issued a no-buy challenge for the month of May and I've decided to join with her. Anyone else up to the challenge? "Rules" are pretty simple (and flexible!). No new fabric except for background, borders, backing, and binding. Vacation purchases are allowed. Just so long as you don't call it a "vacation" when you go to the next town over for the afternoon for the express purpose of visiting a quilt shop. And heck if you REALLY want it bad enough to bend the rules that far then I guess we'll even allow those type "vacations". LOL! Quilt show purchases are an exception as these are once a year events and besides who can resist the vendor mall at a quilt show? The purchase of a fabric for which you've been actively searching for months and run across on a sale table and there's only enough left for what you need are allowed. Basically if you don't feel like it's a cheat then it's not. :-)

Those are the rules for the official challenge. (Did I leave anything out, Vicky?) For myself I'm also extending this to cover all quilt-related purchases. No books, magazines, patterns, thread, gadgets, etc. I certainly don't need anything so I'm going to see if I can put a halt to all those extra impulse purchases I seem to be making a lot of lately.

In addition I'm only going to work on UFOs this next month. If it's not at least mostly cut out before midnight then it's off-limits for the month of May. I have sooooooo many projects going (almost 100!) that I need to see the numbers go down a bit instead of steadily up!

So who's up to the challenge. Are you brave enough to attempt a whole month without buying fabric? Can you curb your impulse to start 14 new projects next week? Come on. If I can do it anyone can!

Wonder how many kits I can cut tonight before midnight..........

Monday morning checking in

2007-04-30T10:27:00.000-04:00

I didn't get much done in the sewing room because I spent a good bit of Saturday working outside and most of Sunday recuperating in my chair! I did get the blocks made from the kit I bought last week. Just have to find a few minutes to lay them out on the bed and arrange them. No design wall so I have to either use the bed or floor. My poor aching body wasn't up to the floor and David was in the bed when I wanted to work on this so it got put aside for another day.

NO cleaning done. But I figured I deserved the day off. At least I didn't go backwards. ALMOST as I made a bit of a mess as I was sewing but I did make myself pick that up before I went to bed last night.

Oh I did get that box of fabric and scraps dealt with so I guess I did do some cleaning. I can now get into all my strip bins and not just the few at the top.

I also worked on some chinese coins for the Heartstrings project. They had an in person and virtual retreat going this weekend. The quilt I make from these blocks will be dedicated to my mom. She should have celebrated her 75th birthday yesterday. You know at one time I thought 75 was REALLY old but now as I near 50 I find it's not so old at all. Happy Birthday, Mama. I miss you every day but on days like yesterday it hurts so much more. You were taken from me WAY too soon.

More retail therapy!

2007-04-27T17:55:00.000-04:00

Evidently I don't need the excuse of a crappy day to buy, buy, buy. Cause today was a wonderful day. I only worked half a day and my office all went to lunch. We were celebrating Administrative Professionals Day a few days late. But we were all able to be there today so we didn't mind the delay. :-)

Anyway. I really was headed home straight from the restaurant. Really I was. But my car had another destination in mind. It drove itself straight to JoAnns! And since I was there anyway and had $60 of their gift cards in my purse I figured I might as well go inside and see if maybe I could find a few nice white-on-white fabrics cause I'm REALLY low on those and with my upcoming fabric diet I wouldn't be able to get any for a month.

As you can see from the photo I was able to find a few nice whites. Got around 4 yards of each so I'll have enough to do the background for a few quilts from if I decided I want a co-ordinated background. And as you can also see a few other goodies followed me home too. :-) I just couldn't resist the FQ grouping. The ones in front are all FQs and the one across the top is 1/2 yard. Don't have any idea what I'm going to do with them but aren't they yummy? And I got a new magazine and a pack of rotary blades. Can't ever have too many of them and they were 40% off. And my gift cards covered almost the entire purchase. And now I should be set for my no-buy month. If my car will just quit driving me to fabric stores that is!

See I have still been working!

2007-04-26T21:26:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to prove to my chief naggers that I HAVE still been working. That pile in front of the plastic drawers is a bunch of scraps that I'm currently cutting up and some larger pieces that need folded and put away so it isn't as bad as it looks. The fan I bought a year ago and it was still in the box. Took me all of 3 minutes to put it together once I pulled it out of the pile. I guess next I'll tackle one of those laundry baskets of stuff.

And, Vicky, I don't know if this picture shows it or not but the wrapping paper is still there. Believe it or not it has a legitimate use in the sewing room. I'll be making clothes soon. And I usually have to alter patterns to fit me properly. I've found wrapping paper to make MUCH better patterns than tissue paper so when I get a pattern altered the way I like it I make a permanent pattern from the wrapping paper. SO THERE! :-P

It's all Shelina's fault!

2007-04-25T22:55:00.000-04:00

I had kinda a crappy day today. Nothing bad just a lot of work came in because I didn't get a package from another office for the past 2 days and it all came today. And my carpal tunnel was flaring pretty good along with my shoulder. So hours spent on the computer adds up to a lot of pain. So what do I normally do when faced with a bad day? Why RETAIL THERAPY of course!!!

I really did try to resist. I passed the turnoff to JoAnns even though I have $60 worth of gift cards in my purse from there. I passed the turnoff to Hancock's even though this is their last week and whatever's left is now 85% off. So maybe I can ignore the call to spend, spend, spend. But then I found myself passing the turnoff to go home too. And I drove straight to the LQS. As I was driving I told myself I was just gonna get a dozen FQs to feed my need for fabric. After all I'm going on a fabric diet with Vicky for the month of May so I won't be able to get another fix for awhile! And don't I DESERVE it for all that hard work I've been putting in organizing my sewing area? Your durn tootin' I do!!!!

Now if you're still with me I'm sure you must be wondering where Shelina fits into the mix. Well I'll tell you. :-)

Several months ago I was in the LQS and saw this really cool fabric that looked like spirograph designs. And I considered buying some but since I didn't have a use for it I was strong and resisted. Then a day or 2 later Shelina had a post about toys from her childhood and one she mentioned was a spirograph. Which of course immediately made me think of that fabric. So every time I've been to the LQS since then I've looked at that fabric. Have I mentioned it's in their sale room so was 30% off (40% if you took the rest of the bolt).

A while back I promised to send Shelina something. I'll admit to being a major slug when it comes to getting stuff in the mail. Ask LindaJ. She's still waiting for the box of stuff I've had packed up to send to her! So as I head to the LQS I got thinking if they still had any I might get Shelina a little of that fabric as an, "I'm sorry" for promising something and taking so long to carry out that promise. So straight to the sale room I went when I got there. And they had it in a lovely blue/green. Oh and also in green/yellow. HHHM..... that would be perfect for the backing of one of my UFOs that's green and yellow with a touch of orange. So I picked up that bolt too. LOL! Aren't they pretty? :-) Now remember this was 30% off (40% if you took the rest of the bolt). And there was a little over 3 yards of the blue so of course I took the rest of the bolt. Shelina gets about 2-1/2 yards as I did cut a bit off for myself. :-) And the yellow had 11 yards. Hhhhmmm.... I just need 6 or 7 to do the borders/backing for my project. But you know what? Yep that's right! I bought the whole 11 yards! So LindaJ gets 4 yards of it also as an "I'm sorry for being a mail slug!" I think it's so neat and she can either keep it for herself if it's something she would like or use it in a WTIL quilt.

I bet you think this is the end of the story, right? WRONG! I also saw this quilt kit. Yeah I know, I'm the original Miss-I-don't-buy-kits but I really liked the blue fabric they had for the border. And remember my whole house is blue but I'm trying to mix some quilts with other bits of color in them to liven things up. And this will make a really nice summer throw for my couch. So I bought it! It has the pattern, fabric for the setting squares, border and binding and one of those neat Moda Jelly Rolls for the blocks. Again, ain't they purty??? So for the lady who has almost 100 UFOs and 3 more rows for my row swap and a couple more really-need-to do-them-right-now projects in the works bought a kit. And guess what I'll be working on. Yep you guessed it. I can't help it. It's a sickness.

Happy Administrative Professional's Day!

2007-04-25T11:30:00.000-04:00

I remember when it was just Secretary's Day. Now it's Administrative Professional's Day. Funny thing is I still do the exact same job as an Admin as I did as a secretary. Just a fancier title. And a LOT more money. LOL!

Our office was planning to go out for lunch but one supervisor is out of town for a meeting and our mechanic had to go on a service call. Mary and I talked about it and chose to wait a few days until we can all go together. (Besides it won't be nearly so crowded then.) So our trucking supervisor just came in with these. Aren't they lovely? :-) I like the flowers but I just LOVE that hot pink vase. I'll have to keep this filled all summer. I love to keep flowers on my desk. Most weeks when I go to the grocery store I buy flowers for the house and my office. Cost me about $10-$12 a week but sure does brighten up the place. And I've got the guys around here trained that flowers are ALWAYS an appropriate gift for any occasion. :-)

The big sewing room clean up - days 3 and 4.

2007-04-23T21:47:00.000-04:00

First thing I want to thank Vicky and Fitzy for their daily emails nagging me to put in my 30 minutes. I'm not sure I'd have done anything Friday night or tonight if I hadn't know I'd have to admit to these ladies what a slug I'd been. :-) So here's where I stand now.

First thing. Yesterday I didn't get much done. Didn't feel good plus everytime I sat down I had this to contend with.Just look at that sweet face. Could YOU have slung it down to go clean? I DON'T THINK SO!!!!! But during the 30 minutes or so George DIDN'T sleep on me yesterday I managed to clear the rest of the junk from in front of the stash cabinets. So now I can get in them to put away some of that fabric that's laying all over the place. But I ain't showing the inside just yet cause it's REALLY messy in there! Let me get the outside if the room clean first THEN I'll start straightening and organizing my stash.

Tonights project was the sewing table. I did do a little of this yesterday. Cleared all the stuff from the bottom shelf so I could put my sewing machine there when I'm using the top for cutting. I finished it up tonight after supper. Now I'm ready to sew again which makes Nancy a HAPPY gal. :-)

All that's left now is THIS unholy mess! And baring illness it should all be gone by the weekend. I plan to work on it for 5 minutes everytime I go into the sewing room until it's done.

I have about an hour before bedtime so I'm off to the sewing room to bond with my sewing machine. AFTER working on that corner for 5 minutes that is. :-)

Can you see a trend here?

2007-04-22T11:13:00.000-04:00

You might have to click the picture up bigger to see it. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Did you see it? I buy very few patterns choosing to get my ideas from online sources or from books and magazines or I just make them up as I go along. Okay so I'll also admit to looking at a picture of a quilt and saying, "I can do that without a pattern." And I do! But there are a few patterns I've come across in recent years that I just couldn't resist buying. As I was gathering my patterns from where they've gotten scattered to all over the house I noticed a definite trend here. Except for the 4 Atkinson Design patterns and 3 other assorted scrappy patterns I have these are the rest of my pattern collection. And have I made a single one? NOPE! But one day.....

Done for the day

2007-04-21T21:11:00.000-04:00

Boy I'm whooped!!!! The room in general still looks horrible BUT the storage areas are organized with a place for everything. As I work in the rest of the room I'll have a place to put the stuff instead of just stacking it neatly and still not knowing where anything is when I need to work with it.

The shelves at the top and side of the closet now hold UFOs along with my serger and the bucket of strings. As you can see I still have room for more Ufos. Which is a good thing cause I have a WHOLE lot more in totes in the shop. :-) And I can fit one of the totes on the floor under the shelves and another on the floor on the other side of the closet.

The rolling drawers hold most of my gadgets and gizmos. And my serger thread, elastic, bindings and other stuff like that. And my makeup and jewelry and generic office supplies.

The drawers above my stash cabinets now hold my assorted squares, bricks, and piano keys. And most of my thread. The shoeboxes above the drawers hold my nickels and other assorted odds and ends.

Last I did a bit more arranging on the shelves so I'll have plenty of room for my books and magazines as I start to gather them from around the house. And I still have room for more shoeboxes of FQs, etc. If anyone wants a hot stock tip - buy STERLITE! Cause as many of these boxes as I've bought it has to be making a lot of money. :-)

And that's it for today. Tomorrow morning I'll probably clean off the sewing table and move the last few items from in front of the stash cabinets so I can do some sewing again. But that's all I'm going to do tomorrow. Cause I want to spend some time out in the sunshine and fresh air. So I'll think I'll hop on my tractor and spend a couple hours mowing the other lot. That always relaxes me. :-)

The rest of the room will be done 15 minutes at a time. But at least now I'll have a place to put stuff away as I finish cleaning. By next weekend maybe I'll even be able to unfold the treadmill. :-)

Sewing room - Day 2

2007-04-21T09:56:00.000-04:00

This is what I've accomplished so far this morning. There is no before picture but think about that picture with the treadmill in it and this closet looked MUCH worse. It's about 2' deep by 7' long and was PACKED! I tossed 2 large garbage bags of stuff plus a large bag of clothes to go to Goodwill. Plus a laser printer (that didn't work!), an old scanner, and the backup to my backup sewing machine (which will go to Goodwill) Just look at all that storage space I've cleared up!!!!! And if you look REAL close you might catch a glimpse of my kitty helper. :-)

So now, do I move the UFOs in there or do I put all those shoeboxes of scraps in there? My first inclination was to put the UFOs there. But if I ever have any hope of finishing some of them I think I need to have them where I can see them. At least maybe a dozen of them. That wouldn't be too overwhelming. And the rest can go in totes on the closet floor. In fact if I remember correctly the shelves on the side of the closet were set to a height that my big totes will slip under. So it's decided. A dozen UFOs go in the sewing room, the rest go in the closet. Back to work for me.

Sewing room, Hidden Treasure, Siggy Swap, and Thinking Blogger

2007-04-20T21:43:00.000-04:00

Thank you Fitzy for today's nagging email. :-) I came in tired. Sat in my chair to chill out at the computer. Checked my mail. Found your message. And promptly went up front and got to work. About an hour later this is what I have. Would have been about 15 minutes if I hadn't kept stopping to look at stuff. :-) It's a start.

Yesterday
TodayI haven't vacumned but I did sweep. And I notice I left stuff under the tool box so I'll go get that before I go to bed. Now I can get in the closet and I think I'll do a little tossing in there in the morning. That way I can utilize the shelf space in there better and get some of the overflow from the sewing room put away there.

You asked to see photos of things I uncovered as I found them. Today's find. A wall hanging I started about 2 years ago. It's finished except for the applique in the center of the block. It will have one of those ying/yang type applique tulips out of the 2 fabrics at the bottom of the picture. You know the kind. Cookie/cutter look with one fabric echoing the other with the opposite colors in each place on the left and right of the piece. I know. Not a good explanation but I can see it in my mind. This will be my play piece this next week. I truly will take me a few hours to finish the top and a few more to quilt it and that will be a UFO finished DONE-DONE. Which is a good thing since I'm creeping to the top of the queen list on the Stashbuster Yahoo group.

I got my siggies in and found a wonderful surprise when I started looking thru them. See that one by itself on the bottom. It's from Bea at Capricorn Quilts. She had a little contest going. She added a bit of blue color to each of her blocks. Except one that she calls her SUPER-siggy. That one had a bit of another color. The person who emails her with the correct color gets a little prize. And guess what? Mine had GREEN on it! And she has confirmed that to be the magic color so I WON!!! WOOHOO!!!!!

Last for tonight's long rambly post. Melzie nominated me for the Thinking Blogger Award. WOW that floored me as I don't consider myself to be a thinker. I'm more the figure-it-out-as-I-go kinda person. When she named me she said, "Nancy is friendliness personified. She always takes time out for a personal word or encouragement." All I can say is, "WOW!!" Those few kind words mean more to me. Melzie, than you can imagine. I'm not sure if you realize it cause I'm told I don't come across that way online but I'm PAINFULLY shy and introverted and it just amazes me that anyone finds any interest in what I have to say and show.

Now on to the task of nominating 5 more people. I've thought about this a lot and I've decided NOT to do this. How can I pick just 5 people who inspire me. I have almost 200 blogs on my bloglines list and I get something from each and every one of them. Plus I'm a major softy and I just can't stand to hurt someone's feelings by leaving them out. Which is one reason you don't see my bloglines list on my sidebar anylonger. Because I subdivided it into groups. I just don't have time to read everything that's posted every day AND leave comments too. And leaving comments is very important to me as I'm a comment junkie myself and love getting feedback on the things I post. Some days I can only check a few blogs and others I have time to read everything. So I have a favorites list of about 20. These I go check out every time they have a new post. I still might not have time to always comment but these are the ones I want to read first when I have a few spare minutes throughout the day. These ladies are very special to me and have been the most inspirational to me over the past almost year. These are the ladies I feel would be good friends in person if we were to live near each other. But I really do treasure the other 180ish ladies so rather than have anyone KNOW they aren't on my top 20 I chose to remove the list from my blog. Kinda silly I know but I always was the peacemaker in my family and I really can't stand to hurt someone's feelings.

Okay so now you all know something wierd about me. LOL! Or at least you do if you made it all the way to the bottom of this post. :-)

2007-04-20T09:41:00.000-04:00

Well yesterday I neither cleaned any more or did any sewing. Well I did move the stuff off the washer so I could wash a couple loads but since I just set the basket down on the floor I can't really call that cleaning, can I? LOL! Evidently I was sicker that I thought and ended up sleeping most of the day. But I do feel soooooo much better today so I'll take Vicky's advice tonight and clear the stuff from in front of the closet and stash cabinets. It's a start.

I had to laugh at Leslie's I-spy comment. You have a good eye but you either missed the 6 pack of beer or were too polite to mention it. LOL!!! It will go out this weekend. It's after all over 3 years old - don't ask! but the other things you mentioned have to stay. The cat litter bucket holds strips and strings for Heartstrings blocks and the fryer box holds fabric waiting to be folded and put away.

And the treadmill is a symbol of what was and hopefully will be again. I love to walk but it's not safe to walk the roads out here where I live. No sidewalks and fast moving traffic not to mention the dogs running loose all over the place. so I used to do 3 miles a day on my treadmill. That coupled with the low-carb diet I was following enabled me to lose almost 50 lbs. Then I was knocked for a loop by the statin drugs I was taking and ended up with major muscle weakness in my left leg. Bad enough that I can barely walk around the grocery store or Wal-Mart without my leg trembling badly and trying to give out on me. Thus started the upward spiral of my weight. The muscle tremors are not nearly as bad but the excess weight is still making it difficult to get the exercise I need so I'm doing as much as I can and trying to push myself to do more and more each week. And one day I'll be able to use that treadmill again. Maybe not 3 miles a day but I'll be happy with just 1/4 mile for now. That is once I get cleared out around it so I can give it a try again.

Row swap

2007-04-19T12:32:00.000-04:00

I think I'll leave you today with a much nicer photo than the ones I shared in my last post. LOL! These are the rows I've received so far in my row swap. I have 3 more rows to make and hopefully I'll get them done today so I can mail tomorrow. I'm home with an ear infection which is making me dizzy enough I don't think I should drive but hopefully I'll be able to sew without any problem.

The top row are the Square in a Square blocks I made. Row 2 was made my Marilyn. I think she said the blocks are called Tea Leaf. Row 3 are Grandmothers Fans made by Barbara. Row 4 Flying Geese from Colette. Row 5 Jacob's Ladder from Barb. And Row 6 are Bear's Paws made by Trish. The Bear's Paw is the "official" block of our group so I'm glad Trish made these single paws for this swap.

I have 3 more rows still to come and then I'll set them with 2" black sashing between the rows followed by a 2" black border all around and a 6" piano keys border with Square-in-a-Square blocks in the corner. It will end up about 64X86 so it will be a nice nap size to curl up under while napping in my chair.

Nancy's NON-Creative Mind!

2007-04-19T11:38:00.000-04:00

Okay I can't believe I'm showing this but here goes. Be gentle as I'm baring my soul to the world. Or even worse than that pictures of my sewing room in it's current state of utter chaos!! PLEASE believe me when I say the whole house does NOT look like this!

You might ask why on earth I'm willing to show this disaster to the whole world? Well it's because all of you are going to be my conscious! Cause you'll all know that until I show pictures of a clean, neat, organized sewing room that probably means it sill looks like this. So I want you to nag me EVERY day to go spend at least 30 minutes working on it. Ya'll can tag team if you want but SOMEBODY needs to email me (blogmail@nancyquilts.com) EVERY DAY with a reminder to clean up this mess. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!

First we have a view looking from the door. Straight ahead is my tool box where I keep some of my bits and pieces nearby so I don't have to hunt for them when I sew. At least that was the idea. The reality is the bits and pieces are still scattered everywhere so I still have to hunt for what I need.

The door you see to the left of the picture is the closet. We won't even go there! Oh, right, we CAN'T go there because of the junk piled in front.......

Next is my sewing table. It's supposed to fold up nice and neat when it's not being used. I don't think it's been folded up since Susan and I put it together last spring. LOL! And I promise it does NOT usually look like this. It's usually the only thing that I keep clean in there as no matter how bad everything else gets I HAVE to be able to sew when I want to! But for now it's the only table in there so it's been called into service as a sorting spot.

THIS is the worst spot in the whole room. Can you even SEE the treadmill behind that stack of junk? And it is mostly junk. Stuff that doesn't belong in there that has just been thrown out of the way - mostly when I threw a fit cause I couldn't find what I needed for all the junk in there! The plastic drawers between the sewing table and the treadmill hold my strips. A different size per drawer starting at 1-1/2" going thru 4-1/2". On top of them are the boxes of assorted sizes squares, bricks and piano keys. Except the nickles. They're on the dryer right now.

Next we have the shelves in the corner. These hold some of my books. I need to do some re-arranging so I can get the rest of them there and not scattered all over the house. The plastic shoeboxes hold my larger scraps. Anything from 6"X12" up to almost 1/3 yard. These are what I play in most often. :-) Anything smaller than this is cut into strips/squares, etc and anything larger is stored in the stash cabinets with the larger cuts.

See that table. That's an old Montgonery Ward's sewing machine. It's the only machine I've ever had that I could do decent meander quilting on which is the only reason I keep it around. Not that I can USE it right now for all the stuff stacked on top of and around it. I'm hoping my new machine will do a nice job of machine quilting. If it does this will probably go to Goodwill.

Next we have my stash cabinets. I can't get far enough back to show the whole wall so I'll show them top and then bottom. As you can see I have LOTS of things to sort my stuff neatly into. It's the execution of that task I seem to have a problem with. LOL! Also notice the CLOSED stash cabinets. I used to have all my fabric on open shelves but with 4 cats in the house it's just better to keep it where they can't wallow all in it and knock it all over the place. By now I think you'll agree with me when I say I can make a big enough mess all by myself without any cat help!

Next I guess I'll show you why I can't show you the stash inside those cabinets. Cause I can't open them for this pile of stuff stacked in front. :-( And YES that is my new sewing machine sitting there looking so sad........

Last in our tour is a view looking from the sewing room to the laundry area. As you can see the mess has TEMPORARILY spilled out into the laundry area. Which WILL get cleaned up today as I need to do a load or 2 of laundry so I don't get behind.

Well now you've seen MY shame. How about sharing yours?

2007-04-16T06:24:00.000-04:00

I notice it's been a week since I've posted so I guess it's time to check in.

I have made a bit of progress on my Hour-a-Day but I'm still way behind. Mostly because I've finally got disgusted with the state of my sewing room and have stopped sewing and am spending my time TRYING to get it cleaned up and (at least semi) organized. It was so bad I only had a small path from the door to the sewing table and I just mostly ignored the mess as I happily created more mess. But it had gotten to the point I couldn't hardly stand to go in there for all the mess. Attempting to work in so much clutter really is paralizing.

So far I've bagged up and tossed THREE large garbage bags of stuff from there. Much of it stuff that didn't belong there anyway and some of it bits and pieces that I'm being honest with myself and know I'll never use. A few UFOs that I know I'll never finish and really aren't useful to send to a charity to finish. LOTS of old magazine. Some quilting but mostly a bunch of cooking/gardening/diet ones. Steno books with notes from quilt ideas that I know I'll never get around to. LOTS of patterns printed out from the internet that I also know I'll probably never make. And a large grocery sack of small crumbs of fabric I was saving to "someday" make a crumb quilt. Well you know what. IF I ever get around to making a crumb quilt I bet I'll have lots more bits and pieces saved up again. LOL!

I still have a LOT to do in there but it is showing progress. I've managed to clear a spot to the bookcases and have put away the books that were stacked everywhere and the plastic shoeboxes that hold my larger scraps. (less than 1/2 yard but larger than about 6"X12".) All TWENTY-SEVEN boxes of them! And that's just the ones that have been neatly folded. I have 2 copy-paper boxes of assorted fabric that I've gathered up from around the house that needs to be folded up. Some of it larger cuts that go in the cabinets but I'd say at least another 3 or 4 shoeboxes full of the scraps. Guess when I get back to sewing I need to think about making a few scrap quilts, huh?

Hopefully I'll finish this week as I have sewing plans for this upcoming weekend. I have 3 rows left to make for my row swap. I kinda got sidetracked from them. One row I cut out and then lost the pieces which kinda took my momentum away. :-( But I found then yesterday so I need to get that row done. And another wanted red and gold with the reds pre-washed. I finally got around to washing those fabrics yesterday and the burgundy and blue requested for the last row. So I'll probably take a few minutes tonight to go ahead and cut those rows out and maybe take a few cleaning breaks each night to get them made. Then this weekend I want to finish up the hour-a-day and get the last two Heartstrings tops from my birthday blocks made.

After that I'll be putting my quilting away for awhile as I do something I swore I'd never do again. SEW CLOTHES!!!!! NONE of my summer clothes fit me any longer and I just don't see spending a bunch for a whole new wardrobe when I'm trying to lose weight. So I went to the Hancock's going-out-of-business sale (where the fabric is now 70% off!) and bought fabric for 2 skirts and blouses. And I'll take the $35 of JoAnns Creative Cash cards I have and get a few cotton prints to make skirts to go with some t-shirts I bought. That will get me thru the summer with the few things I have that still fit.

Speaking of the Hancock's sale. I will be going back this week and probably stocking up on border/backings. I'm REALLY low on larger pieces and at 70% off I'd be really stupid not to get a few things I know I'll use in the next few months. Surprisingly they have quite a good selection of quilt fabric left. But then what they have was the $7-$8 stuff so maybe that wasn't cheap enough yet for the serious bargain hunters. But at 70% off (80% if you take the remainder of the bolt) that's only $1.40 to $2.40 per yard.

This post has got rather lengthy so I'll hold the rest of my ramblings until tonight. But since a quilt blog post is rather boring without a picture I'll leave you with another quilt going to LindaJ. This is the Faux Log Cabin I made about 6 years ago. I love it but still in 6 years haven't quilted it so it will go to the Boy's Ranch.

Hour-a-day

2007-04-09T00:42:00.000-04:00

Well I didn't quite get my homework completed for the HAD project but I'm close. Just have the final 2 corners to put on the blocks then trim them down to size. I'll get that done tomorrow night and will just have to be a day behind until I can catch up next weekend. I wasn't really planning to do the HAD this month but I really like the pattern. And I had the 9-patch blocks already started with another project that I cut way too many squares for so I figured why not. With the addition of the navy w/white stars to the red/white 9-patches it will make a nice patriotic quilt to donate to one of the organizations collecting quilts for our wounded servicemen.

I'm discovering my stash is getting really low on larger cuts. I had a lot of trouble finding the blue for this quilt. I finally remembered I had a backing piece that was navy with small white stars. I think there was about 5 yds in that piece so I'll have some leftover but I can always find a use for the extra 1-1/2yds later. I'm also discovering I have very few white background fabrics left. I had about an equal amount of cream/tans as I did whites. Now my cabinet is full of the creams and I had trouble finding a white with enough on it to do this project. Guess I need to hit the quilt shop for backgrounds before I go on my fabric diet with Vicky in May. Of course since gift certificates don't count I could always use my JoAnns Creative Cash cards I get for using my JoAnns credit card for all my gas/groceries/etc. and any bills that takes a credit card. I pay the card in full every month and usually end up with $15 to $30 worth of gift cards each month. Keeps me in thread and batting and rotary blades with a bit left over for the odd FQ here and there.

Weather rant

2007-04-07T17:00:00.000-04:00

Okay those of you dealing with snow can just click away now cause you're gonna think my complaint is piddling compared to what you're dealing with. But gosh darn it look at this!You see that? It's sleet!!!!! In South Texas on the day before Easter! Yesterday I was running my air conditioner and today it's COLD!!!!! Jeez, don't be talking to me about global warming........

2007-04-07T15:13:00.000-04:00

For your viewing pleasure today - the blue Heartstrings top. This is all the blue blocks I received plus some of the ones I made. I have enough blocks left to make 2 more quilts if I make them a bit smaller with alternate settings. I'll play with those over the next few days and see what I can come up with.

I will get to sew most of the weekend since the weather is not co-operating with our outside plans. Gosh Darn I'm just heartbroken over that. LOL!

We had to run to town yesterday to get fence posts (for the fence we can't put up now cause it's raining) and when we got home there was this little feller just a cursing away up in that tree in our backyard. You could tell he was cursing from the tone of his voice. Why he was cursing becomes evident when you pan out and see the broader picture. :-)Poor George. He tries but he just can't catch that pesky squirrel. Especially since he won't climb a tree anymore. Not after he spent 3 days stuck in a tree 2 years ago and ended up being blown out by a fire hose! After that his tree climbing days are over. LOL! That's also when he moved inside. Not a bad life for a stray, huh?

2007-04-06T09:58:00.000-04:00

For those of you who celebrate Easter - Happy Good Friday. My company counts today as a holiday so I have a lovely 3 day weekend. :-) Mostly it will be spent doing a bunch of stuff in the yard and house but I did get up early this morning and put together the 1st of the Heartstring tops from the blocks that were sent to me for my birthday. Sure was strange to NOT have to fight Sam off the top to get a picture. :-( But eventually I'm sure one of the others will step up and take the position of Chief Inspector of the Quilt Quality Control Department. As you can see, Charlie did try to help with the assembly process. At least SHE calls it "helping" when she tries to curl up in it as I'm sewing the rows together.

I looked out my window this morning and saw I had a visitor. He lives across the road so in a bit I'll go see if anyone is home so they can come put him up. If not he'll just spend the day eating on my other lot and they'll come get him when they get home. It's happened before and he rarely wanders out of my yard. I have LOTS of nice green grass for him to eat and his pasture is pretty bare so he knows a good thing when he sees it.

I just had to share this photo of the sunrise I took on my way to work yesterday morning. Don't you all wish you had a morning commute this lovely? You have to pull it up full size to appreciate the full beauty of the sunrise over the cow pasture with the wildflowers at the edge of the road. It's so beautiful some mornings I just have to stop for a minute to appreciate the beauty of it. And just take a look at that sky! For those who thought I was a bit odd to choose pink, purple, and gray as the colors for my Row Swap just look at that sky and you can see God thinks it's a pretty good color combo too!

2007-04-03T12:06:00.000-04:00

Four more quilts going to LindaJ.
This one is a Road to Jerico which ironically is one of the blocks in Judy's new Hour-a-Day project. Also ironically it was made back in 1999 or 2000 when I was a member of Wrap Them In Love, the organization that Linda works with, with the intention of donating it to that group. I made enough blocks for 2 quilts but then couldn't decide if I was going to make 2 nap quilts or one larger one. As you can see I did get one half of the blocks sewn into a top with the others waiting their turn. Still don't know if they will be 1 or 2 quilts but now that will be for Linda and her group to decide. :-)

This is Boot Scoot Boogie. It was made during a One-Day-Quilt-Frenzy 5, 6, 7 years ago. Can't remember when. It's the same pattern I used with my grape fabric for Judy's Use The Stash Challenge in February. It's been put together in 4 sections because I had planned to quilt each section and then join them. They were to have been finished with a narrow red border and a wider green one. I'm sending the green fabric along with the quilt and Linda can decide if she wants to re-do the sections and get 2 smaller quilts out of it or put them together into 1. Either way there is plenty of the green fabric to make the borders of 2 quilts and maybe the back of at least one.

This one was also originally made for WTIL. The pattern is called (I think) Rising Star. Again originally I made enough for 2 smaller quilts but decided to put them together into 1 larger one.

This last one is way too feminine for the Boys Ranch but she can save it for the next time she needs quilts for the girls. The pattern is Hidden Wells.

I really do like all 4 of these tops but just how many quilts do David and I need? So rather than sit unloved in a cabinet (waiting another 5 to 10 years to get quilted!) off they go to brighten the lives of 4 youngsters who might need a bit of cheer.

I have 1 more that I haven't shown that will go to Linda along with several UFOs in various stages of completion. The last quilt is my Cat Weave I did a few months ago. I pulled it out a few days ago to put the borders on. But David and I have always jokingly called this "Sam's Quilt" and right now I just can't stand to look at it. So Linda will get it along with the fabric for the borders. It's a nice quilt in "boy" colors so it should do fine for the Boy's Ranch.

2007-04-02T20:53:00.000-04:00

It is with much sadness that I report the passing of Sam, Chief Inspector of my Quilt Quality Control team. I found him in the yard when I came home. Looked like something, probably a dog, had gotten hold of him. :-( One of the dangers of having indoor/outdoor cats. Sammy-Boy, you will be missed.

Play day

2007-04-01T18:21:00.000-04:00

I started out with the best intentions this morning. I was trying to clean up some of the mess in my sewing room and was sorting some bits and pieces that had been put back to strip up into scraps. I ran across this long skinny stripe with rabbits and carrots that had been given to me with a bunch of other saleman's ordering swatches and was trying to figure out how best to strip it up to get the most use from the fabric. And then it occurred to me that you know Easter is next weekend and I've never made an Easter wall-hanging and it does have rabbits on it that COULD be Easter Bunnies. So OF COURSE I had to stop cleaning so I could start on it right away. LOL!

It had 3 full stripes so I cut it apart between them and inserted the words "Hoppy" and "Easter" using Tonya's wonky letters. It's not perfect but I'm happy with it so that's all I care about. I did say I was going to be doing more small, fun things didn't I? Just didn't mean to stop in the middle of cleaning and make a wall-hanging. LOL!

2007-04-01T15:03:00.000-04:00

This is another quilt top that is going to LindaJ. I made this in the summer of 1996. Not a very inspiring quilt but it will keep someone warm. Those of you who know me will be shocked to see those dark Debbie Mumm prints. But back then my house was very "country" and the colors worked well. Then before it was finished I moved and my home now is so NOT country this doesn't work well anywhere. Honestly I thought I'd given it away several years ago but found it in the back of the closet when I was cleaning out a few months ago. This is actually one of my oldest UFOs. And now it's outta here!

Today's photo. Bluebonnets may be the harbinger of spring in Texas but I grew up in Mississippi and we didn't have any bluebonnets there. From there the buttercups are what I remember most fondly. I loved to pick and smell them and delighted in that bit of yellow pollin that stuck on the tip of my nose. So I've really been enjoying this patch of buttercups by the gate at my office.

And because I haven't made you suffer thru a cat picture for several days, here's Fluffy doing what all cats do when a paper bag hits the floor. :-)

2007-03-31T11:10:00.000-04:00

One more post this morning before I sign off. The other was getting too long so I decided to split this topic into it's own post.

You might notice I've deleted the photo blog I had started and the cooking/gardening one will probably follow. I've decided it's too much trouble to keep up with multiple blogs so I'm only going to keep this one. If it gets to the point that the majority of my posts are not quilty enough to remain in the quilt rings then I'll ask to leave with no hard feelings on either side (I hope!). We'll see how everyone responds to the new format before I make that decision. I know I do enjoy seeing bits of everyone's life besides their quilting so maybe you guys won't be so bored with those bits of my life I decide to share.

So here's today's photo. (Actually from Tuesday but I never got it posted.)After several gray dreary days it was nice to get a warm, sunny one. One my way home I noticed these turtles sunning themselves on a log. Sometimes I think it would be nice to be a turtle with nothing better to do on a warm, sunny afternoon than to sit on a log and soak up the sun. :-)

2007-03-31T10:17:00.000-04:00

Seems like I was correct when I said I'd only be posting about once a week. :-)
There really hasn't been anything quilty going on to report on in the past week. Haven't sewn a stitch since I finished the Turning Twenty top. I have done some cutting of scraps that were piling up and I've cut a LOT of kits from my batiks. Besides the Turning Twenty, the Lucky Stars, and the Framed Squares I've cut a Bricks and Stepping Stones (which will be used as a leaders/enders project while sewing the rest); a Morning Star, a Chunky Churn Dash; and a Gratitudes. Some of them I still need to cut the background and sashing if they use a single fabric but I have all the scrappy bits cut. Next I need to get the fish appliques cut that go on the Turning Twenty and then I'm cutting a Sister's Choice. That will be EIGHT quilts cut from my batiks and I'll still have enough for 2 or 3 more!!!!! And we're not talking little quilts either. Except for the Chunky Churn Dash which is a largish lap size, the rest are at least twin with 2 of them being king (the framed squares and Gratitudes). I'm looking thru my books and magazines for a few more patterns to cut the rest of the batiks into. I've decided this year I'll be using up my batik stash and will no longer buy batiks just because they're batiks to make a "someday" batik quilt. That's how I ended up with all the batiks I have now! For now I'll finish the Fish, Lucky Stars, and Framed Squares. The other will be done this year in between finishing up UFOs and working on other stuff.

I think I'm getting a bit bored with large quilts so rather than get burned out on quilting you'll probably start seeing more small things from me. In between working on UFOs and the batik quilts I have plans for some fun little pieces to keep my enthusiasm up. While I really do like making bed quilts I need to remind myself everything doesn't have to be large. It IS possible to make wall-hangings, or table runners or just a single block in a frame or turned into a pillow. If nothing else it'll mean I have a never ending supply of gifts to choose from for all occasions. Or pieces to contribute to my guilds annual Bluebonnet store. Plus it will give me a chance to try new techniques without committing to a large project. Which is one of the reasons I have so many UFOs to starts with. Maybe if I didn't think everything had to be bed sized I'd get some stuff finished before I got bored with it and moved onto something else. We'll see.

Because a quilt blog is kinda boring without pictures, and I don't have anything recent far enough along for photos I'll be sharing pictures of some tops that are going out to LindaJ this week. I've had them pulled to box just never got around to taking pictures until this morning. First is a Galaxy Star done in a swap about 8 years ago. I do like this little quilt but really don't have a use for it and it would be a great quilt for a little boy. It's not very big so I almost didn't send it but it I'd rather see it keep a very small boy warm that just sit in my cabinet unfinished for 8 more years. Along with the top I'm sending the rest of the fabric I used in the border. It more than enough to back this little quilt with so Linda's group may opt to use something else for the backing and save this yardage for another quilt. However they think they can best use the fabric is fine with me.

Turning Twenty

2007-03-24T22:49:00.000-04:00

I finished the Turning Twenty top that will be the background for my fish appliques. I rather like it as it is but David has decided this will be his quilt and he wants the fish so fish he will get. :-) It's not often he shows enthusiasm for one of my quilts so when he does I like to encourage that any way I can.

Break time is over. I'm headed back to the sewing room now to work on my Lucky Stars. I should get the blocks finished tonight. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a picture of the finished top.

2007-03-23T11:46:00.000-04:00

Just thought I'd check in and let you know I'm still here and plugging away on my Lucky Stars blocks. I've been carving out 30 minutes here and there in the mornings and evenings and it's amazing how much I've been able to accomplish in those little bits and pieces of time. I have all 20 blocks almost finished and hope to have a finished top by the time the weekend is over.

I probably won't be posting here but about once a week for a while. Mostly when I have something photoworthy that pertains to quilting. I've started 2 new blogs and will be moving most non quilt related posts to them. You will have to suffer thru the occasional gratuitious cat pictures but for the most part the focus of this blog will be quilting.

I've started a cooking and gardening blog. I started it because I wanted a place to talk about 2 of my other passions that don't fit the scope of this blog. And while it doesn't bother me to make an occasional off-topic post I really think I should keep this blog mostly on the topic of quilting as set up in the Stash Quilts Ring guidelines.

I find I need to really focus on my health right now and with that in mind I'll be growing a vegetable garden for the healthy veggies and as a way to get in some exercise. I'll also be posting what I'm eating there with recipes and updates on my health/weight issues. Again all things that just don't fit the scope of this blog.

I continue to carry my camera everywhere I go and the resulting photos will be posted on my photo blog. To give you an idea of what you can expect here's today's photo. This was taken this morning beside the driveway at work. I just love it when the bluebonnets bloom.

HAPPY QUILTING DAY! (a day late)

2007-03-18T07:39:00.000-04:00

Thank you for all your kind words during my computer woes. I hope all of you learned a lesson from my mishap. SAVE EARLY, SAVE OFTEN! And, Debbie, we already tried to recover my data by making the old drive a slave but David couldn't get anything at all off of it. But thank you for trying to help. It was a great tip just didn't work for me. :-( Okay, no more gloomy computer woe posts. What's lost is lost and no sense crying over it forever.

Did you all have a Happy Quilting Day? I did. :-)

This is what I worked on. I spent the day cutting out my Batik Lucky Stars and got this sample block sewn. Plus the star points for half the blocks. I bought the pattern to make this last year just never got around to cutting it out. Now I can't find the pattern! But it's a simple enough pattern to figure out on my own so this is my version. Mine finished at 15" per block. It will have a 2" border of the background fabric followed by a piano key border. I'm using the border pieces as leaders/enders while I sew the blocks so the borders will be mostly done by the time I'm ready for them.

I have very small scraps left from 20 FQs and a 4" strip left from the 2 yds. of background fabric. And the star points are 2 nickels each cut from 20 more FQs. Add the fabric for the framed squares I did last week and the Bricks and Stepping Stones I also cut out and that's a LOT of batik stash busted. I want to find another pattern to cut up some of the rest of the print batiks and then whatever's left gets cut up into my strip/square/brick bins. The TOT ones will be blended into the rest of my stash and that will be a whole shelf cleared out of my stash cabinet. WAHOO!!!

I continue to work on my the rows for my swap. I went to the LQS Friday to get fabric for the last 2 rows. Barbara requested red and gold and I didn't have anything I considered gold. So I picked up 4 gold FQs and 4 red ones. I do have a bunch of reds but these looked so good with the golds I had to get them. And Tammie requested burgundy and blue. Now blue I have tons of but - burgundy? - exactly WHAT shade constitutes burgundy? I thought I knew exactly what I needed but when I got to the store everything was either too red or more maroon-ish than I was looking for. I did pick up a couple FQs so hopefully they'll work well with whatever the other ladies choose. I was really surprised because I thought this would be an easy row but it's turning out to be one of the toughest for me to pull fabrics for.

You won't believe how good I was at the LQS. I bought 11 FQS - ALL of them for the rows - AND NOTHING ELSE! I did look around but I just wasn't tempted by anything. I've been having so much fun playing in my stash - in particular with my scraps - that I had no desire to buy anything new. You just can't have any idea how sooooooo unlike me this is! I just looked at all the pretty fabric. Petted a few of them. VBS. And walked out of the store with exactly what I went in for and nothing else. Hurt my shoulder trying to pat myself on the back. :-)

I did see several really pretty fabrics that not too long ago would have followed me home. But I'm so into scrap quilts right now that I'd rather make my tops from my scraps and THEN go to the quilt shop to find borders. And I will have to purchase for borders as I've busted most of my stash of larger cuts. But that's fine. It means my stash is working down to be more usable for me with the scrappy quilts I like to make. I think my purchases at least in the near future will consist of FQs and maybe a few 1/2 yd cuts of prints and TOTs to liven up what I have and no more going into the store, buying 2-3 yds of a focal fabric and 1-2 yd cuts of a few co-ordinates. I rarely make quilts with just a few co-ordinating fabrics so why do I keep buying the co-ordinating groups of fabric? If I find a pattern I want to make in a limited fabric palette then I'll take the pattern to the store and buy the fabric I need. Paraphrasing something Bonnie Hunter once said, "It can wait at the quilt store until I'm ready for it! It might be on sale now and probably gone when I go back but they'll have another equally gorgeous fabric that will work just as well."

I wish for all of you that you have as much fun with your quilting as I'm having with mine. :-)

2007-03-16T05:37:00.000-04:00

First thing. Those of you who have sent email since I got it set back up. I can receive but not send so please be patient in waiting for your response. All of my GoDaddy account info was in my email that was lost and I can't access my accounts to find out what the outbound mail set up is. We figured out the inbound so I am receiving mail just cant send. I have a message out to them but since I'd never changed my email on file with them and can't remember the username/password I used when I set the account up, I'm waiting for them to decide I really am the owner of the domain before they'll email the info I need to my current email address. A pain but maybe I'll learn to keep better records/backups now. LOL! In my defense I did think all my email was being routinely backed up on our server computer but for some reason the email was missed when the backup batch files were re-built a few years ago so I have nothing more current than August 05 and the GoDaddy account was set up in Oct 05. I've also lost all my EQ5 project files. I have the old EQ4 ones which is the majority but anything I've done in the last year and a half is gone. Which includes a series of patterns I was dabbling with in the thoughts of maybe publishing them. :-( Again, I thought they were in the back-up batch file but they weren't. On a plus side I do have all the documents and pictures so all is not lost. The pictures I think I would have cried to lose. The others are merely an inconvenience but I'd really have hated to lose my pictures!

Two more rows. The top one is for Marilyn She asked for blue/green/purple. The bottom is for Charlotte who wanted "cool" batiks. Just 2 more to go and they both require a trip to the danger zone. Yep I have to go to the LQS and we all know I have a problem coming out with just what I go in for. LOL! Wish me luck!!!

Here's a taste of what else I've been working on. There are 36 blocks here. I've just shown a sample because I don't have room to lay them all out to show. They measure 12" finished. I took 8-1/2" squares of printed batiks (the ones that weren't just TOT) and framed them with 2-1/2" strips of the TOT ones. Nice and simple but it shows of the designs in the batiks. I haven't decided if I'll lay them out side by side like this or sash them with black using bright corner stones (that I have plenty of just from cutting down the scraps from the blocks.) If I use 35 of them set 5X7 laying them side by side and frame them with a 2" black inner border then about a 6" outer border I'll end up with a nice largish twin. But if I set them 6X6 with the black sashing and 6-8" of borders then I end up with something around 100 inches square which would make a nice bright summer quilt for my king bed. I'm leaning this way but it will mean sending it out to be quilted as I'm NOT going to tackle a monster that sized in my little DSM!

Today's gratuitous cat picture. :-) George and Sam enjoying a bit of sun on the porch after several days of dreary, rainy days.

2007-03-15T08:58:00.000-04:00

This is just a quick post to let you know I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. I've been trying to stay off the computer on the weekends and then the hard drive crashed in my computer Monday night. So no computer at home until David installed another one yesterday. And I lost all my email so if you were waiting for a response from me write again. Linda J. if you read this please send me your address again. I never made the mailing label for the box I have ready to send and now you're address is lost with the loss of all my email.

On top of that a pipe burst in our well-house early Tues. morning so we've spend the past 2 days getting that fixed and the water back on. Had to remove one wall of the shed to get to it so we could do the work. In the pouring down rain!!!!! But it's done and we know have running water and flush toilets again. Boy was I glad to come back to work today after 2 days at home dealing with that mess!

It'll be a busy day here at work for the rest of the week so I'll talk to you again this weekend.

PS I have done a bit of sewing in the midst of the mess. 2 more rows for my swap and a set of framed square blocks from some of my batiks. And I've cut more of the batiks up for 2 more quilts. Right now I'm cutting kits. Whatever batiks are left when I finish will get blended with my regular stash as they'll mostly be the TOT ones left.

See ya in a few days.

March Stash Reduction Challenge

2007-03-10T01:49:00.000-05:00

A few days ago Judy issued a new stash reduction challenge for March. Her challenge is make something using the most predominant color in your stash. Well my most predominant something isn't a color but a type fabric. BATIK fabrics. For 16 months I got a group of 12 batik FQs every month. It's been over a year since I quit getting them and I haven't cut so much as a single square from any of them. So it's time to bust that section of my stash. I've had a few plans for some of it just never got around to cutting them so nows the time. I'm having a batik cutting session this weekend.

The blues/greens/aquas in the front will be pieced togehter. Maybe as a Yellow Brick Road or a Turning Twenty, or just hodge-podge. The resulting top will be used as a background for an appliqued fish quilt. I'll be taking some of the brighter fabrics from the stacks in the back and appliqueing tropical fish on it. Some singles, some in schools. With probably some seaweed scattered around for them to swin thru.

The back stacks have been sorted by type. The 2 stacks on the left (under the cat who BTW appeared there in the short time it took me to wak up the hall, get my camera, and walk back!) are one color. I'll be cutting a Lucky Stars from them using the pale yellow you see in the top of the far right stack as the background. The third stack is made up of pieces with multiple colors but no strong pattern. These are the ones I'll mostly be cutting the fish from along with some from the first 2 stacks. The 4th stack is made up of pieces with a definate pattern. These I haven't figured out a use for yet but I'll be going thru books/magazines to see what I can use them in and getting them out of my stash. My goal is cut my batik stash by at least half. Once I've done the batiks maybe I'll be ready to tackle the Orientals. :-)

Another row down.

2007-03-09T23:30:00.000-05:00

This is for Sammie. Can you tell Sammie likes purple? And they are all purple not blue like the picture looks. You ladies would love Sammie. Besides being just the sweetest person you could ever meet she's a big time collecter of fabric. You just THINK you have a stash. I'll let you in on a little secret if you promise not to tell her husband. Sammie has a storage building just to house her excess stash. Not a little shed in the back yard mind you, but one of those offsite rental storage rooms. Boy wouldn't you like to spend an afternoon digging thru that? LOL!

Today's offbeat photo. In the little country subdivision where I live there are 7 small lakes. Ponds really but they call them lakes. Every year when the ducks migrate back and forth there always seem to be a few who decide maybe this would make a good year-round home so they stay. This little lake is right beside the mail boxes so often I'll sit and watch them for a few minutes in the evenings when I'm on my way home. I love it when they dive for whatever they're diving for and all you see is a duck butt sticking up out of the water. :-) Click on the photo so it comes up bigger and check out the second one from the left.

Can you believe 3 days in a row?

2007-03-07T00:17:00.000-05:00

This row belongs to Trish. It's still Thimbleberries but not scrappy like the last row. Again, I like the way it turned out even if it's isn't my normal cup of tea.

Today's oddball photo. :-) These cows tickle my funny bone everytime I see them. They have some fancy highfalutin name that I can't remember and am too lazy to go look up. But most folks around here just call them "Oreo Cows". How's this for having your "Oreos and Milk" all in one nice neat package? LOL!

First row done

2007-03-05T23:31:00.000-05:00

WOW! New posts 2 days in a row!!!

I put in my hour tonight working on the first row for the row swap I mentioned yesterday. Colette and Trish both requested Thimbleberry fabrics for their rows. In case you haven't noticed I am so NOT into Thimbleberries. But if I can inflict pink/purple/gray on them I can do make myself use TB fabrics. LOL! Last month I ordered a selection for the swap and tonight I made Colette's row. Colette likes scrappy so hers is more "anything goes". Trish likes more co-ordinated quilts so hers will have a more limited palette and a different arrangement. I should be able to do hers tomorrow night. I do quite like the way this turned out even if it isn't quite my normal style.

NO this isn't my car! I was waiting in the car yesterday for David to come out of Best Buy and I noticed these 2 cars a few spaces down. For some reason they struck me as funny. Kinda a "Daddy Car/Baby Car" kinda picture. :-)

Checking In

2007-03-04T23:59:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I last posted so I figured I'd better check in. Things continue to be busy at work and home and I'm mostly staying off the computer at home so I haven't been around to see all of you in a while. I do read thru bloglines but that's just not the same as coming to visit and commenting. I guess I'll just have to carve out a bit of time each night to visit with a few of you at a time. I had planned to at least go around the rings tonight but it's late and I have to get up early in the A.M. I will catch up one day!

As you can see I've been doing a little sewing. Making friends with my new machine. :-)
I belong to a small online group called the Material Girls and we're starting a row robin swap. With a twist. You don't send your rows around. Just make them and send them straight to the owner. After you post a picture so the rest of the participants can see what you've done on each quilt. I've chosen to make Square-in-a-square blocks for my rows. The blocks above are the ones I did for my quilt. I chose a color scheme I've wanted to try for a while just never got around to. Pink, purple and grey. And I really like the way these blocks came out. 8 of them will get sewn into the row. The other 4 will go in the corners of my final border which will be a piano key border using a whole bunch of pink/purple/gray fabrics.

Remember the fabrics that followed me home last month? Well I've finally started my blocks using them. I pulled a purple from my stash for the 4th color and am making a Card Tricks quilt. This is one of my favorite patterns and I've never made one. Not even a single block! So it's about time. All blocks will be the same and I'll probably sash with the pink background print so the cards will float in the background. Not sure what I'll do for borders. I'll worry about them when I get the blocks made. I cut them all out last week and made the one sample block. I'm thinking about making one block each morning when I first get up. That way I know I'll get at least a little sewing in each day. :-)

I've also got my red heartstrings blocks that were sent to me for my birthday sitting beside the machine and will start assembling that top this week. A few more people have said they have blocks ready to mail but I have more than enough red and blue blocks to go ahead a make a quilt of each and any more blocks that come in can go in subsequent quilts. Hopefully by next weekend I'll have a picture of at least a finished top.

What do you do with a new $800 sewing machine? Well if you're a cat you use it as a pillow. LOL! George seems to have made friends with my new machine. Doesn't look all that comfy to me but then cat's have been know to sleep in some really strange places.

It's late and I have to go in early tommorw so I'd better get to bed. Sweet dreams, ladies. :-)

I'm still here

2007-02-22T09:53:00.000-05:00

Just wanted ya'll to know I'm still around. Just VERY busy at work and trying to stay off the computer at home so I can get other stuff done. It's so easy for me to just veg out in front of the computer at night. So that's a habit I'm trying to break. Which means my bloghopping/commenting is at a minimum right now. When I get some things settled at home I hope I'm able to manage my time to be able to blog AND cook/clean/sew/garden. In the meantime blogging/email is what has to slide. I do get around the ring every day when I have bits of time at work but rarely have time to leave comments. And I go thru my bloglines every few days but mostly reading thru bloglines instead of going to each individual site. Again, hopefully that will change but for now it's how I have to balance things.

I did go to Hancocks again yesterday to get a bolt of muslin for Heartstings blocks. And besides a pack of wool for some folk art stuff I've been wanting to try that's ALL the fabric I bought. Wasn't even much tempted. I did originally have a few bolts pulled (good black/on/blacks that are hard to find). But I kept looking at this sewing machine. And I'd wander around. And then go look at the sewing machine again. And ended up putting the fabric back and buying the machine. I've been wanting one with the features this one has and my Kenmore is now over 8 years old and I have no back-up machine so thought it was time to treat myself to a new one. And at $320 off the original sale price I almost couldn't NOT get it. So for better or worse I have a new machine. That has a simulated hand-quilting stitch. And a walking foot and darning foot and 1/4" foot. And needle up/down. And a "turtle" speed. And a button-hole applique stitch. And lots of other built-in fancy stitches including 3 different alphabets so maybe more of my quilts will get a label now. It's a Singer. Can't remember the exact model right now. Hopefully I'll like it as much as I've liked my Kenmore. I'll get it hooked up tonight so I can give it a good workout this weekend.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2007-02-14T15:38:00.000-05:00

If I had thought to bring the cord for my camera I could share a photo of the lovely roses my sweetie bought for me. He knows I'm not a big fan of red ones, much prefering the other shades. So he sent a dozen long stemmed in an assortment of yellow, white, pink, and coral. Just beautiful. Thank you, David. :-)

Ya'll will be happy to know that I've already come up with a plan for the lovely fabrics that followed me home last week. I pulled a purple from my stash to go with them (see at least I'm busting a LITTLE stash. LOL!) and I'll be using them to make a card-tricks quilt. I've wanted to do one for a long time just never quite got around to it. The pink print will be the background and sashing (so the "cards" will float.) The lt red and the purple will be on opposite sides with the green and blue on the other sides. Now I have to see if I can find something in my stash for the borders. If not I'll think of something. I have a few other things I'm working to get finished up on during the upcoming 3 day weekend and then I can start on my cards.

A few of you commented on my self-imposed 30yd penalty. This is a deal I've made with myself. If I buy fabric that I do not have an immediate need for then for every 1 yd I buy I must give away or immediately (within a month) use 3 yds. So 10 yds in = 30 yds. must go out. Gotta reduce the stash somehow this year. LOL! With that in mind I've boxed up some UFOs to send to LindaJ along with some stuff that is suitable for backings for kids quilts and a few other odds/ends I thought she might be able to use for WTIL. Ironically several of the pieces were purchased with WTIL in mind way back in 1999-2000 when I was a member of their Yahoo group.

Our local Hancocks fabrics is closing. :-( I hate that as I always liked them better than JoAnns. I had to pick up some cream for the center of my siggie blocks (bought white last week. Didn't read the instructions!) so I went to check them out. They've just started the close-out sale so are at 20-40% off on their fabric. Mostly 20%. I bought the remainder of a bolt (8-1/2 yds) of Kona Ivory. On sale for 20% off, plus another 10% for puchasing the last of the bolt. I figured since I didn't have a nice cream in my stash I could justify the purchase. I'm thinking I should probably go back and get a bolt of muslin for Heartstings foundations before they get picked over. Ya'll would be proud of me. As tempting as it was I didn't even look thru the other fabric. Just picked up my cream and a few asst. quilt books (at 20% off). And since I have a Hancocks's credit card that paid rewards until last month and I had a stack of the $10 coupons I'd not used that have to be used this month. My purchases were almost free. AND I have a few more coupons left that I still need to redeem that I had left at home. I'll use those to get the bolt of muslin. So that will be free too. Doesn't count toward fabric purchased if it's free does it?????

I've been bad. :-)

2007-02-08T21:56:00.000-05:00

But I'm not really all that upset about it. LOL!
I went to the LQS this afternoon looking for bluebonnet fabric for Cynthia's siggy swap. I wanted something that would represent the area I live in and couldn't think of anything more appropriate than bluebonnets. And I also needed a nice white to use for the signature part as I'm all out of good white muslin. I found these pretty bluebonnets and a solid white moda. Then I couldn't decide what to use for the accent fabric in the block. I finally settled on this yellow (it's really more a sunshine yellow that shows in the photo). I think it sets off the blues and greens in the other print very well. Since these are for a swap I'm letting them slide on my "no fabric" challenge so this isn't where I went bad.

THIS is where I went bad. When I was wandering around looking for the bluebonnets this pretty pink print just jumped of the shelf into my arms. I told myself I'd just carry it around and pet it while I was there and then put it back when I left. Yeah, maybe in some twisted alternate reality world! In this world I found myself actively looking for go-withs. LOL! As you can see I caved and have now added 10 YARDS to my stash!!!!!!! And fabric that I have no idea what I'm going to do with at that. SIGH!!!! The one in the back on the left is a dark green and the one in the back on the right is a rich deep blue. The colors didn't show up very good in the photo but take my word for it, they look luscious!

Now to find a pattern to use them in right away so they don't sit in my stash. AND I can't forget the 30 yd penalty I have to pay for buying fabric without a specific-right-now-need. I'm allowing myself 1 month to use penalty yards so I guess I'd better get cracking if I want to use that 30 yds myself instead of giving it away! And I think it would be best if I stayed FAR away from the LQS for a little while. Don't you?

Ta Da!

2007-02-06T22:41:00.000-05:00

Well it's done. That grape fabric is now out of my stash. Thank you, Judy, for the push to USE my stash instead of hoarding it. I have just enough left to make a pillowcase using the grapes as the main fabric, and a purple cuff. Oh and the leaves for the lining. And there's enough of the purple for the binding. I'll go ahead and make those tommorow and then anything left gets cut up into strips/squares/bricks. NONE of it will go back in my stash.

Notice something strange about it? Something you don't normally see on tops I show? I'll give you a hint. See those purple things on the side? Those are BORDERS. LOL! I'm the worlds worst at letting things sit waiting for borders. And why? They really only took me about 30 minutes tonight to put on. But for some reason I seem to be border challenged. So that's something else I'm trying to work on this year. Putting the borders on before I pack tops away awaiting their turn at quilting. And I'm going to make sure they're put away with backing and binding folded with them so I'm not searching for those things when it's time to quilt.

Now I can go back to my red/white 9-patches. I'd like to get those tops finished this week so I can get them in the mail. And move on to the new Hour-a-day. So many projects. So little time.

February Challenge Quilt

2007-02-03T23:21:00.000-05:00

Judy posted a Use The Stash Challenge a few days ago. February's Challenge is to choose a fabric that has been languishing in the stash begging to be made into a quilt but for any number of reasons it's never been given the chance. And USE it! Cut it up, sew it back together and have at least a completed top before the month is over.

The fabric on the botom of the photo with the grapes is the one I chose. I bought this at a fabric shop that went out of business in 1995 or 96 so it has to be older than that. I just loved the colors but have never found a pattern I wanted to use it in.

A few years later, I was in a swap of leaf fabrics. The leaf print in the middle of the second row was one I bought to swap. But when I got it in I realized it looked really good with the grape fabric. Both are Hoffman fabrics and are at least 5+ years apart but look like they could have come from the same collection. So I decided I wouldn't send that leaf fabric for the swap but would save it to go with the grapes. So now I have 2 wonderful fabrics sitting on the shelf waiting for the perfect pattern. Shortly after that I was in JoAnns and saw the piece in the last row and thought it would be great as a background or at least a backing to go with the other 2 so I bought about 6 yds. of it. Then last fall when I was re-organizing my stash I pulled the blue solid to go with them but still had no idea what to do with them.

This is where I have a problem using my special fabrics. Not in that I hate to cut them up and use them but I keep thinking I have to find just the right special pattern to use. Well today I decided it was time to quit looking for the perfect pattern and just cut them up and use them. So I used a simple pattern called On Flamingo Pond (real name Squares and Stripes but this was a "Frenzy" quilt so had to have a Frenz name.) It's just squares and rail fences alternating but looks wonderfully elegant done in these fabrics. I altered the pattern a bit and pulled a green TOT as the 3rd rail fabric instead of using the grapes there. Just to tone down the busyness a bit. The purple in the 3rd row will be the border. This is leftover from the borders I put on another quilt and is a bit over 2 yds by 24" wide. So I can just cut my borders lengthwise and have plenty. The finished size will be around 61" X 79". A nice lap/nap sized. I was really shooting for a bit larger but was limited by the number of strips I could get from the green fabric since I only had 2/3 yd of it. And it couldn't have been but a few inches longer anyway because of the length of the border fabric I have.

I'm pretty pleased with my progress and should have pictures to share tomorrow. And when it's done, back and all, it will bust around 10 yds from my stash. And I'm STILL going to have a yd of the grapes and a half yd of the leaves left for another project. LOL!

Happy Tuesday!

2007-01-30T09:47:00.000-05:00

Good morning! Is everyone having a wonderful day so far? I am! Why you might ask. Well because I FINALLY got a good FULL nights sleep last night! I can't tell you the last time I slept all night without waking up 3 or 4 (or more!) times. And often I'll find myself awake for a few hours and then just as I'm sleepy enough to go back to sleep it's time to get up. :-( I'm not sure why I slept so good last night but I'm not going to question it. Just going to bask in being alert during the day for a change. LOL!

I had another package arrive yesterday. This one from Suze. Thank you so much. This brings me 4 blocks closer to my goal of 2 completed quilts. :-) I also want to take this time to thank all the people who made blocks in my and my Dad's honor who sent their blocks directly to the Heartstings organizers. I sure didn't mean to leave them out of my last post! Unfortunately I didn't think to be making a list as they posted their blocks on their blogs but I hope to be able to rectify that in the next week. I'm slowly going around my blog list and noting any that sent directly. I really do appreciate the ones you made just as much as I do the ones that were sent to me. I truly don't care where you send your blocks or even if you keep them to use locally. My only goal was to get more blocks made for the project.

Yesterday Judy posted a "Declaration of War..on the Stash" on her blog. This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately so her post was very timely. I won't be following her steps exactly but with a few modifications I think I can reduce my out-of-control spending habits.

Judy's war strategies and my thoughts on how I can incorporate them to MY personal War on the Stash:
(1) I will not buy fabric! No reason! If I need fabric for a special project, it comes from the stash or I choose another project.

Okay I KNOW there's no way I won't buy any fabric at all. For one thing I don't have the stash to pull from the Judy does. After all I did give away a good 1/2 of my stash last year. And used a goodly amount. AND find that I have very few "light" fabrics making it hard to pull fabric just from my stash. So what I plan to do is only buy fabric that I absolutely NEED for a project that I'm CURRENTLY working on. Or to use in a swap/group project where a specific fabric is required. Not just to fill a hole in my stash. Not just because it's pretty. But because I have a RIGHT NOW NEED for that fabric. And I'll only purchase what I need with maybe 1/4 yd. extra for squaring up and miscuts and to have a little bit left for my scrap bins to keep them fresh.

To keep myself from pulling a pretty fabric from my stash and saying, "Oh I have NOTHING that will go with it so I NEED to buy the rest of the fabric to make this quilt" I PLEDGE TO USE OR GIVE AWAY 3 YARDS FOR EVERY 1 YARD I PURCHASE. Now this does not include fabric purchased for backings as I have very few large cuts and really do like my backings to match or at least look good with the front. And it does not include those fabrics for a swap where a specific fabric is required. But it does include borders and backgrounds and bindings. The "B" words that are usually a freebie on the Stashbuster Yahoo list. Because I do have a large selection of backgrounds and plently of stuff big enough for borders I think I can go this year without NEEDING to purchase those items. And I have to use or give it away right away. Which means if I only purchase what I need the other fabric in the quilt can be part of that 3 yards. So if I purchase 3 yds to be used in the front of the quilt. And I use 10 yds total. Then that means I used 7 yds from my stash. BUT I owe a 9 yd penalty for purchasing fabric. So 2 yds has to be given away OR used immediately in another quilt. One way or another I'm GOING to see a reduction in stash this year. LOL!

(2) I will not sit at the computer and browse the quilt shops online. And, if my friends try to "meg" me, I'll just be strong and I'll just say NO!

Okay, THIS one I can follow. To start with I have NOT participated in the FabShopHop this month. And will go drop myself from their email list so I'm not even tempted to try. And as I get emails announcing wonderful sales I'll go remove myself from their email list. And during those 3am insomniac moments I won't browse online quilt shops but will instead surf around the quilt blog rings and use that time to catch up on everyone. Which should leave me more quilting time during the "normal" waking hours when I spend way too much time on the computer that could be better spent in the sewing room.

(3) I will not stop at quilt shops. If I don't need anything... why stop?

I'm with you 100% here. It does help that the only quilt shops in my area are 25+ miles away. One is about 10 miles from where I work but I really don't care for it very much so rarely go there. And I really don't have a problem with the regular fabric stores like Hancocks and JoAnns. I've had a Hancocks credit card for years and every 2 or 3 months get a $10 fabric cash certificate which I use for thread, rotary cutter blades and batting. Hancocks has discontinued their rewards program so I've just applied and received a JoAnns credit card and will use those reward cards for the same type purchase. I put all my groceries/gas/misc. purchases on this card and pay the balance in full each month. Which lets the reward add up quickly and keeps me in "free" batting, blades, thread, etc. Which reminds me I have 3 or 4 of the Hancocks certificates that will expire next month that I need to use. So time to stock up on those extra items.

(4) When I'm making a quilt, if I pull a fabric from the stash that works, I will not let that little voice inside me say "But...if you use it, you will not have it!" I will be brave and I will cut those special fabrics!

Again not a hard one for me. I love using my special fabrics. And don't even mind using them up. Because I know there will be more special fabrics coming out all the time. And mostly because I inherited several hundred yards from Mama that she loved but never got around to using. And since they were not fabrics that I loved I ended up giving most of it away. So I've seen first hand what will happen to MY precious fabrics if I die without using them. They'll just be something my loved ones have to deal with as my sister and I do NOT have the same taste in fabrics and David is likely to just use it for shop rags!!!!!!! I want to use my special fabrics myself and not have them become a burden on my loved ones when I'm gone.

And I'm going to add a (5) and (6) to my war strategy.

(5) I will not spend every evening after work sitting in my chair in front of the computer. I WILL spend at least 1 hour each day ACTIVELY doing something quilty. And to help with this I've gone digest on my mail lists and will have to just depend on bloglines to let me know when the blogs have been updated. I just don't have time to go around the rings all the time AND get other things done. Something has to give and I really need for it to be computer time.

(6) Because I'm the type who really NEEDS an incentive I'm paying myself $50 per month for each month I don't make an illegal fabric purchase. And another $50 if I have no fabric purchase at all. And for every finished top I'll pay myself $10 and for every finished quilt I get another $10. And $10 if I used stash fabric for the whole thing (back included) And another $10 if that finished quilt was on my UFO list on January 1, 2007. These funds will go in a special account that will be used for special quilty events like major shows or retreats. But most will go to purchase an IRA each year. The IRA will be my "401Q" fund (Q for quilting) and will be used for quilting purchases when I retire. This way I won't feel the NEED to stockpile fabric for retirement as I'll have funds to purchase fabric that appeals to me THEN, and not be forced to use fabric that has been out of date for 20+ years.

I'm going to make this retroactive to January 1st since the only fabric purchase I've made this month is legal within my guidelines. (It's needed for a row-by-row swap that requires Thimbleberries and I have NO Thimbleberries in my stash. ) Wish me luck and help me watch my $$$ grow into a nice, healthy 401Q. Heck I can already add $30 for last weekend's completed quilt ($10) that was a UFO($10) and was finished 100% from stash($10). And can add $50 in 2 days since I've not had an illegal fabric purchase. Not a bad start to the year. :-)

Heartstrings Blocks

2007-01-27T23:20:00.000-05:00

What you see here are 52 blocks for the Heartstrings project that were sent to me by friends around the world for my birthday and to honor my Dad on what would have been his birthday. I want to thank each of you so much for helping to make this an extra special birthday. I still have blocks coming in so it will be a couple weeks before I start to assemble tops. I'll easily be able to do a red and a blue one by using some of the blocks I'd already made. And any of mine that are extra will get sent in to swell the block kitty. Or if I'm close to enough for another quilt I might request enough blocks to finish it out.

I had a really cool picture of all the envelopes scattered over my table but just as I was posting it I realized that anyone could enlarge the photo and get not only my home address but the home addresses for many of the ladies who sent me blocks. Since that's NOT something I want to put out on a public blog I didn't post the picture. So you'll have to trust me. It was COOL! LOL!

So far I've received blocks from (in no particular order- just whichever package my hand touched first as I was making my list):
LindaJ
Vicky
Mama Koch
Tami
McIrish Annie
Giusy
Pam G.
Fiona
Cher
Pat P.
Carol E.
Carolyn
Quilt Pixie

And if you're trying to figure out who Pat P. is - she's a lurker who follows my blog and wanted to help out with the project. I've had a few other non-bloggers respond too and I think this is just wonderful. The more the better. And if anyone else wants to find out how they can participate in the Heartstrings project I have a link on my sidebar to the groups website. NOT the Yahoo site but an independent site that has been set up because so many people responded to my call for blocks but said they didn't want to join another group. So the group leaders decided to create a website that anyone could go to and get block guidelines and information on how they can be a part of this wonderful program.

When I put out my call for blocks it was for blocks only. I was not hinting for little gifts for me. The blocks were to be my gift and will be made into charity quilts. Probably for my local sheriff's office but I'm still researching sites to donate to. Anyway I'm just trying to say I wasn't asking for and truly never expected to receive any extra gifties. But I did and want to say thank you to Pam for the lovely post its. How did you know I LOVE fancy postits? I hate using the plain yellow ones and always buy a few cute ones whenever I go buy supplies for work. I've already taken them to work or I'd show a picture.
And these lovely items were sent by Quilt Pixie. She's currently working on a piece using these cat panels and shared some with me. I actually have one of the companion pieces that goes with these so I've already been auditioning fabrics to go with them. I'm going to make a small wall-hanging to go on the wall beside "my spot" in the living room. And check out the wonderful postcard she sent. And the kitty buttons and the ribbon roses. Those will be used as embellishments on the wall-hanging. I'm really itching to get started on it BUT this is my weekend for Christmas sewing. And I'm about half finished with the blocks for the first Leukemia quilt for Clare so I really want to get those finished before I start another project. HOPEFULLY next weekend I'll be playing with my kitties.

1st UFO finish of the year!

2007-01-27T22:43:00.000-05:00

Who'd have thought the UFO Queen list for the Stashbuster Yahoo group would be moving so quickly!!!!! I started Jan 1st at #32. As of this morning I was at #5 and with the reigning queen abdicating today that put me at #4! When I joined the group I knew it would be February before I could really address my UFO problem as I had several other things going that really needed to be done first. So I was happy to see myself relatively low on the list. Hah! Seems like most of the list had a UFO that just needed a very small amount of work to finish so they could get themselves to the bottom quickly if they needed to. And I do have a few items that fit in that category. Problem is I'd decided at Christmas that I was tired of having all this Christmas fabric and no quilty Christmas stuff to decorate my home. So I decided to devote the weekend closest to the 25th each month to turning some of that fabric into items that we can enjoy during the Christmas season for years to come. But I also promised myself when I joined the UFO challenge that I would NOT be queen at any time during the year.

Now you see my problem? This is the 25th weekend but if I didn't want to be Queen I needed a UFO finish this weekend. So what to do? Well what else but to look my UFO list over and see if I had a Christmas item that could be completed this weekend. And guess what? I found one. It's a small table topper made of log cabin blocks I made for a swap in late 98 or 99. Then for some reason I ended up not sending these sets in and a few years later I put them together into a top. Which in turn sat for another 4 or 5 years until today. And you know what? It only took me 1 hour to sandwich, quilt, AND bind it. And now it's DONE-DONE! Okay so I did just roll the backing to the front to bind (which I do often). And the quilting is just in the ditch around each 5" block. Not perfect by any means. But it looks nice. And it's DONE! LOL!

Now tell me why I let something sit for 5 YEARS that only took me 1 hour to finish? Probably the same reason I had no finishes at all last year. Because I'm too easily distracted. Always something else comes along that I just HAVE to try and things get shoved aside. I wonder how many other items are on my list that would only take me an hour to complete? It's tempting to go look. BUT that would be distracting me from busting some of my Christmas stash this weekend so I'd better hold that thought maybe for next week.

2007-01-19T09:03:00.000-05:00

This is just a short post to let you know I'm still here just very busy. I did have 2-1/2 days off due to ice this week but chose to spend my time cutting a bunch of scraps that had accumulated into assorted strips/squares/bricks instead of vegging out in front of the computer. Then I finished the 20 blue Heartstring blocks. And then cut a BUNCH of 1/2 yds and smaller red fabrics into 2" strips for Heartstring centers, 7-1/2" squares for a quilt I'll be working on this weekend, and 5" squares that were promised to Paula a LONG time ago and more 5" squares for another project for me. And I've been cutting 7-1/2" white squares to go with the red ones. I'm making a scrappy nine-patch top for Clare's Leukemia project. I figured if I was going to make blocks I might as well just make a whole top. And then I misfigured the number of squares I needed (forgot I'd get 2 blocks from each set of red/white squares!) so now I have enough cut for 2 quilts. And depending on how sick I am of working with red/white when I finish the first she might just get 2. LOL!

I've started receiving birthday blocks and wanted to thank Cher, Pam G., Linda J., Vicky, and Pat for the lovely blocks they've sent. It's soooo exciting to check the mail each day. I thank each of you ladies again for helping to celebrate my birthday in this special way.

And I also want to thank Morah for the loverly CAT fabric she sent me. And believe it or not I did not have this one. Also I realized last night that I never publicly acknowledged a few gifts I received in November. My only defense for my bad manners is they both arrived the day before Thanksgiving which was the day my Dad died. So please forgive me Amy and JenClair! Amy was cleaning out her stash and sent me a BUNCH of cat fabrics. None of which I had! And JenClair sent a really neat art piece and wrist pincushion. Both of which I love very much! I've had to hide the pincushion from George cause for some reason he seems to think it's a cat toy sent just for his enjoyment. I've caught him twice jumping up on the table (which is a BIG no-no in my house!) to snag it. Thank you JenClair, Amy, and Morah for my lovely gifts. They all came at a time when I really needed a pickup. :-)

I'm really far behind on my email and I'm not sure I've sent the instructions to everyone who requested. Please be patient with me and I'll try to get that taken care of tonight.

This has turned out to be not such a short post after all so I'd better get back to work. Have a lovely day. :-)

Thank you

2007-01-09T09:30:00.000-05:00

I want to thank everyone who made a block for my birthday and those who also made one to honor my Dad on his. I just can't tell you how much this means to me. If everyone who's indicated they're sending blocks directly to me makes just a block or 2 I'll have enough to add with my 40 to make 2 quilts that will be donated locally. And if I'm short a few blocks I'll just request what I need from the kitty to make up what I need.

For those of you who've offered and are waiting for me to send the instructions. I'll send those tonight. I've not been feeling well so I've gone to sleep pretty much as soon as supper was over the last few days. Please be patient with me and I'll answer all your emails soon.

Ironically after asking ya'll to sew along with me on my birthday I did NOT get any blocks sewn at all this weekend. I spent most of Saturday trying to keep up with email and catch up with blogs. SLOWLY I'm working my way down the list. Problem is with the holidays over and everyone getting back into their normal routines you ladies are getting quite chatty again! I hope to get thru the rest of my list this week. Then I can start all over again this weekend. LOL! Sometime in there I'd like to actually SEW something instead of just reading about what you ladies are doing!

And Sunday I wasn't feeling very well so it was a lazy morning. Then David and I went to town to run a couple errands and have an early birthday supper. Afterwhich I found myself sleeping in my chair for the rest of the evening/night. I do have 20 blue blocks prepped and ready to start so I'm going to get on those tonight when I get home while my supper cooks. Then I can go to sleep in my chair after I eat with a clear conscience. :-)

At some point I really need to get started on a UFO cause the ladies on the Stashbuster list are finishing things at an alarming rate! I started out at number 32 on the list but at the rate they're going I'll be queen in a few weeks! good thing I have one small UFO that just needs a bit of quilting and the binding to be finished. Now if I can just find where I put it.....

Made it around the ring!

2007-01-06T14:46:00.000-05:00

I made it all the way around the Stash Quilts ring and actually COMMENTED. Something I've been so bad about not doing since I started using Bloglines. I've decided I really hate Bloglines. It doesn't give you updates on everyone and it's too easy to just skim the posts thru their browser and not comment and read the other comments. And it's too easy to not notice that someone hasn't been posting. It just really takes away from the whole blogging experience. So I'm not going to depend on it any longer. Heck I didn't even know we had another member to the ring until I ran across her in my travels around the ring. So I'd like to give a big WELCOME to Carol at Brown Quilts. I don't even know when you joined us and apologize for not having been to visit before.

For those of you on my sidebar who are not part of the Stash Quilts ring - I do promise to make sure I visit each of your blogs at least once a week if not more often. I'll just have to see what kind of balance I can do between personal life/working/quilting and blogging. I'm sad to say blogging will have to remain at the bottom of that list as the others really need to take a bigger priority in my life. But you all are very special to me so I will find a way to make time for you each week. Just be patient with me as I try to find a perfect balance between what I WANT to do and what I NEED to do.

Please help me celebrate my birthday

2007-01-06T11:22:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is my birthday and I'd love to have a gift from each of you. :-) The gift I'd like is for you to make string blocks for Mary's Heartstrings project. She has a link on her sidebar to the Yahoo group that was formed for the project. Or if you don't want to join the group just email me and I'll send you the guidelines for making the blocks and my address to mail the completed blocks to.

All I'm asking is that everyone who reads my blog on a regular basis to make 1 block for my birthday. And if you'd like to make more that would be great too. In fact for the first 20 people who are willing to make 12 blocks I'll send you 1 yard muslin for your foundations and 12 red or blue strings (your choice) for your center strips. Just be one of the first 20 to email me your mailing address and I'll get those packages out next week. (Now isn't that a sneaky way for me to bust some stash? LOL!)

So what do you say? Do you love me enough to make just one string block? And if you really love me maybe you'd also join me in making a block in memory of my Dad who would have celebrated his 82nd birthday today. I have 20 blue center strips and muslin foundations all prepped and ready to sew in his honor this afternoon.

2007-01-04T10:04:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to thank everyone who inquired about Fluffy. He FINALLY went yesterday! Must have heard me say if he hadn't gone by this morning back to the vet he went. LOL!

I'm still plugging away on my 15 to 60 minutes a day. I've got 8 more string blocks done except for the final strip on each corner. And that will give me 20 with red strips in the center to go ahead and send in. Then my next 20 will have blue centers.

I've also pulled a UFO to be working on. A bargello based on Bonnie's Scrappy Bargello but with all strips-sets using the same fabric so each fabric will continue across the quilt. It was cut out several years ago when I went thru my stash of bright FQs and cut everything up for several quilts. This will finish about smallish twin size. Not sure what I'll do with it. If it doesn't look too girly it may go to LindaJ for her Boy's Ranch project. If it does it will go to my guild for their ongoing girl's home project.

And I continue to plug away on my 3" 9-patches as leaders/enders. My little stack is steadily growing. One day - maybe this weekend - I'll take pictures of the way I'm doing them as I had some interest in how to keep them straight done leaders/enders style. It's really simple as I'm doing the method where you get 2 9-patches from 2 squares of fabric but I can show it so much better than I can tell it so you'll have to wait for pictures.

Breaks over - gotta get back to work.

2007 - A Blank Slate

2007-01-01T19:26:00.000-05:00

I sure didn't mean for last nights post to be such a downer. :-( That's what I get for posting late when I'm tired and a bit upset.

Poor Fluffy STILL hasn't pooped but she sent him home anyway. Said he was freaking so bad there at the clinic that stress was just adding to his problem. She's hoping that after going in and removing some of the "stuff" that being at home he'll relax and be able to go. We'll see. He is at least much happier now. And we've had a bit of a cuddle and snooze together so I'm happier too. :-) BTW he sure better be glad I REALLY love him cause you can imagine the cost of 3 days of emergency vet care on a holiday weekend!

Okay so enough of that. 2007 is a new year so I'm just going to put aside the bad from 2006 and concentrate on having the best 2007 that I possibly can. Like I've said before NO GOALS. I just plan to do what makes me happy at the time and hopefully it will make me happy to finish up some stuff in the next 12 months. I do hope to be able to motivate myself to sew at least 15 minutes each day. And to start the year off the way I hope to continue I've been working on string blocks for the Heartstings charity project. I pulled a handfull of strips from each of my 1-1/2, 2, 2-1/2, and 3" bins and just had fun. I managed to get 12 blocks done this morning. Boy these sure are addicting. I plan to make these during my 15 minutes when I don't feel like doing anything specific. And when I get 20 finished I'll send them in. These are the 12 I did today.
And AS USUAL these 2 pictures were taken about 30 seconds apart. Sam seems to have a sixth sense telling him when I lay quilt blocks out. Cause one minute he was sleeping up front and the next he was on my blocks. LOL!
Not that Sam has an exclusive as a quilt "helper". I was sewing along, reached for another strip and encountered fur. LOL! Charlie just couldn't understand why she wasn't allowed to wallow in the strips.

2006 - A Retrospective

2007-01-01T00:25:00.000-05:00

2006 hasn't been one of my better years. I set myself some goals last January 1st. and by the first of February I'd stomped all over every single one of them. LOL! So I've learned my lesson there. NO GOALS! I did not finish ONE SINGLE QUILT in 2006. Started a bunch and even got a lot to finished top stage. But nothing to finished quilt stage. Hopefully 2007 will see completed quilts. If not at least more completed tops and less new half-done projects. I joined the UFO challenge on the Stashbusters Yahoo list. I thought I had approx. 80 UFOs. I keep thinking of more and as of tonight my total has grown to 91! And I'm pretty sure there are more. These are all things that have at least had some cutting done all the way up to a quilt that has been quilted for several years except for the border. How sad is that!

Besides the lack of quity progress I've had some health problems this year that continue to plague me. And have indirectly contributed to a significant weight gain this year. :-( So while I'm NOT making any resolutions I am attempting to change my eating habits. I'm going back on low-carb. It worked for me before and I can't even remember why I quit. I just know I felt much better and my bloodwork looked much better when I left sugar and "white" foods alone! And I'm trying to get in as much exersice as my back and hips will allow. Which isn't much but anything is better than what I've been getting. And I know it will get easier the longer I keep at it.

We were robbed in the spring. While they only got an old laptop computer that wasn't worth more than a couple hundred bucks, a bb pistol, and an old pocket knife, still they broke into my home. They violated my space. And hurt 3 of my cats in the process! And that still pissed me off more than anything else they did or could have done.

We had a set back on our building project and have had to change our focus. But that's not exactly a bad thing as our new plan is one that realistically we can build ourselves and save about half the cost over what we had originally planned for. Meaning I probably get my quilting machine by mid summer! (Keeping my fingers crossed that there will be no large unexpected expenses between now and then!)

I lost my Dad the day before Thanksgiving. It was past time as he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's with all the health problems that go along with it. Such a sad thing to see my Dad who had been such a vibrant person in his shell of a body and with his lost mind. So I'm truly grateful that he passed and has now joined Mama in Heaven. But I miss him so much. Just like I still miss Mama. And probably will for the rest of my life. But life does go on and I just try to focus on all the lovely memories I have of them both.

And now just to end the year off "right" - my poor Fluffy-boy has been at the vet's since yesterday morning. He couldn't poop or pee! She put in a catheter and got some of his bladder emptied. And then he got it mostly out so she went ahead and removed it. And he's peed twice on his own today so she think that problem is fixed. But even after 2 enemas and 2 days of strong laxatives he still can't poop. So tomorrow she'll have to try more drastic measures to relieve his compacted bowel. In the meantime he's really freaking out being in a cage with strange people around and dogs in nearby cages barking all the time. The poor vet really didn't want to keep him another night cause he's so scared but she didn't want to send him home until he's pooped either. And I don't want to bring him home until he can. Cause once I get him home there's not way I'm getting him back in that cage if he had to go back! LOL! In fact before I bring him home she's supposed to go ahead and give him his shots, etc that he's due in February so I don't have to try to get him back again so soon.

So not a great year like I said. But I don't want to leave you thinking it's been ALL bad. Because it's had a few golden moments. :-) Best of all were several very nice visits with my sister. Which is something we've not had for several years. Then a few very timely Random Acts of Kindness from blogger buddies. A significant raise early in the year that has enabled us to do some things that we've alwasy wanted but never been able to afford. I went on my first quilt retreat. We paid off our credit card debt. We bought David a new car. We paid off MY car a few weeks ago. Almost a year early! We paid off our land. Also a year early. So we only owe for one car (which was only financed for 3 years) and our home (which we're paying double payments and should be paid off in about 4 years instead of 11-1/2). And I got a greenhouse for Christmas. I've wanted one for years but something always came up that we needed the money for. It's a little 6'X 8' but that's all I wanted. It's plenty big enough for me to start plants for my garden and to winter over a tomato plant or two. And not so big I'll try to overplant and then not be able to take care of everything.

And I sure don't want to forget to add to my list of "good things from 2006" the many new friends I've made out in bloggerland. I might not leave many comments lately but I do visit every few days and truly treasure each of you. My wish for you all is for a happy, healty, productive 2007.

Lunch was wonderful!

2006-12-22T14:20:00.000-05:00

Lunch was wonderful and now I'm so full I need a major nap! And if you're reading, David, you can just guess what you're having for supper tonight. Me I don't think I'll be eating again for the next several days. LOL!

Sweet P asked how many people I was cooking for. It would have been 8 but one of the guys wasn't able to come in.

quiltingfitzy asked for the recipes for the corn and squash casserole. I'm hapy to share since they're not MY secret recipes. LOL! I call the corn J. Cody's Corn after a BBQ restraunt in Bryan, TX called J. Cody's. Their ribs and brisket are both pretty good. Not the best I've ever had but not the worst either. But what kept me going back was their corn. I love the creamy texture and slightly tangy flavor and kept trying to figure out what was in the sauce. Definately not a cream sauce and not sour cream either so I thought maybe one of the white cheeses although it didn't really taste cheesy. And of course they won't give out the recipe because it's a "secret". One day my friend, Mary, was reading the paper and someone had written in to the food editor asking if she could get the recipe for "that corn they serve at J. Cody's". Her answer was that the owner never gave out the recipe. But that if you were to saute some diced onion and jalapeno in about 1/4 a stick of butter. Then add a couple cans of (drained) whole kernal corn. Then toss in about 1/2 block of cream cheese that had been cut into cubes and stir until the cheese melted that she was pretty sure the writer would be happy with the resulting dish. DING, DING, DING!!!!! So THAT'S what the secret ingredient was. I was close with cheese but cream cheese has a whole different taste and when mixed with the corn it doesn't really taste like cream cheese. So now I make it myself and haven't been to J. Cody's in a while. Which is probably why he doesn't give out the recipe. LOL!

I have tweaked it a bit over the last couple years. This is what I use now.
3 cans whole kernal corn (drained)
1 can cream-style corn (not drained)
1 whole fresh jalapeno, seeded and diced into small pieces. Use 2 if you like it hotter)
a couple stalks of green onions, sliced.
1/2 stick butter - the real thing
salt and pepper to taste.

Just heat it in a saucepan until the cheese is all melted and it's warm thru. When making it for a pot luck type function or for things like my meal today I transfer it to a medium sized crock pot and let simmer on high a little while (30 min to an hour) then I turn it on low until we're ready to eat.

The squash dressing is an adaptation of a recipe I got from a lady named Joan Mershon on the FidoNet NationalCooking Echo back in the mid 90s. (Anyone else remember the days of bulletin boards?) Somewhere I have her original but it's been adapted over the years so I can't really remember what called for. My adaptation is:

2 packages of Jiffy Corn Bread Mix (plus eggs and oil per package instructions)
2 to 3 lbs. summer squash (about 6 to 8 small to medium) I use yellow or zucchini depending on what is the smallest, most tender I can find that day.
1 medium onion, diced
a couple ribs celery, diced
a couple tablespoons butter (to saute vegetables in)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
4 eggs
about 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Make corn bread mix according to package directions. When done cool and crumble into small bits.

Slice squash. Cover squash with water and cook until tender. Drain squash reserving cooking liquid. Mash squash.

Saute onions and celery in butter.

Mix corn bread crumbs, mashed squash, onion/celery/butter, soups, cheese and eggs. Add liquid drained from cooking squash and mix together until the consistency of oatmeal. A bit lumpy, a bit soupy. Bake in a large casserole at 400 for 45 minutes to an hour.

The original recipe and most of the ones you'll find on the internet use velveeta cheese. And in particular Mexican Velveeta. But my sweetie doesn't care for foods that are real spicy and as I rarely have Velveeta on hand I use the grated cheddar which I is a staple in my kitchen. Also the cream of chicken/mushroom soups are interchangable. If I buy the ingredients specifically to make this I use a can of each but since I don't have chicken in my pantry that often and mushroom is another staple in my house I often just use 2 cans of the mushroom.

Believe me this might not sound all that appetizing but it's the dish that I brought the most of and the one I'll barely take any home! They were going back for 2nds and 3rds of it. It really is yummy.

Stuff

2006-12-21T14:40:00.000-05:00

I'm waiting for FedEx to show up so I can finish my payroll. They were SUPPOSED to deliver before 10:30 am this morning but here it is almost 2pm and the package is still listed as "out for delivery" on their tracking page. I know they're backed up for the holidays but you think since we pay lots of extra $$$ for Priority Overnight shipping we'd at least get the package before Noon! Oh well, ranting about it won't help. I'm sure there's other stuff I could be doing but my mind is so focused on finishing payroll that I'm drawing a total blank. And I know just as soon as I drag something else out here she'll come. So I'm gonna ramble here for awhile. :-) Feel free to leave now if you don't want to read boring drivel. LOL!

I had such big plans for this past weekend and this week. I was going to make goodies trays for co-workers. I was going to sew for a bit each day. I was going to get my house cleaned up for my company next weekend. Did any of it get done? Nope! And why you might ask? Well you see 29-1/2 years ago I married my dear husband and best friend, David. And we promised to share equally everything that we owned. What was mine was now his and what was his was now mine. And we vowed to stay together always. In sickness and in health, etc., etc. Well it seems like David took that sharing equally stuff and in particular the "in sickness" part and got them a bit mixed up. He was supposed to SHARE his personal possessions and STAY TOGETHER in sickness and in health. Instead he decided to SHARE his SICKNESS with me! He had a really bad cold/flu thingy last week. Bad enough that he missed almost 3 days of work which he NEVER does! And Yep I got it just in time to spoil my weekend/week before Christmas plans. So no goodies trays, no sewing done, and in particular a house that is NOT in any kind of shape for company. Heck it's not in any kinda shape for anyone. Hopefully the health department doesn't read my blog or they'll be out hanging a condemed sign on my door. LOL!

Now here I am with one more working day before Christmas and no co-worker gifts. :-( Not that they dont' understand but I still wanted to do something special for them. So I'm cooking ham and homemade rolls and green beans, and J.Cody's corn, and squash casserole and I'm feeding them all lunch tomorrow. And everyone has responded with enthusiasm over the idea so I'm thinking if it all goes off without a major hitch it just might become a holiday tradition. Sure beats worrying about what to get everyone. And if there's one thing I'm good at it's choreographing a meal so that everything comes together at the same time. Helped in part by 3 slow cookers that will be filled with the veggies when I get to work in the morning so they'll all be ready by noon. Cook the ham tonight and assemble the squash dressing. Before I go to bed set up the bread machine with the stuff for the rolls so the dough will be ready when I need to work with it in the morning. Put the dressing in the oven as soon as I get up. Cook it about 30 minutes to get it cooked about 1/2 way and transfer it to a crock pot to finish cooking at work. Have rolls ready to go in when the dressing comes out. Get dressed while rolls cook. Put green beans and corn in crock pots to cook when I get to work at 8 and we'll be eating by noon. Drinks to be provided by the company and desserts by co-workers.

Gotta go. Fed Ex is FINALLY here!

Project Count

2006-12-16T21:26:00.000-05:00

I've decided to join the UFO Challenge on the Stashbusters list so it was time to once again get a total of current projects. :-) I took last years list and updated it the best I could as most of my UFOs are in totes in the shop. Blogging sure helped there. All I had to do was go thru my archives for this year. LOL! I dropped a lot of projects off last years count, either given away or abandoned. But I added a lot of new projects on so my count is almost the same as last year.

31 completed tops waiting to be or in the process of being quilted
43 projects that range from all cut to just need borders
8 hand-piecing or applique projects

This is a total of 82 projects. Up 2 from last year's 80. LOL! I really do want to finish some of these this next year. And I mean really finish them, quilted and all. Done-done as it's called on the stashbusters list. Which is why I'm joining their UFO challenge. Because I like making tops but not the quilting so much so once I finish a top in my mind it's done. But since I'd like to have finished quilts instead of a stack of tops I think maybe the challenge will give me added incentive to totally finish a few this year. We all know I'm not good with goals and deadlines so I'm not setting a goal for myself of X number of UFOS that I want to finish. I'll finish what I can. And most definately will add new projects too. And that's okay as long as I finish at least a few of the old ones. And maybe a few of the new ones too. Finished all the way. Done-Done.

2006-12-16T13:40:00.000-05:00

I've not been a very good blogger lately but as I haven't been doing anything quilty it would be rather boring to post each day saying, "Well I went to work. Then back home. then I fixed supper. Then I sat in my recliner and promptly went to sleep. Add in a few loads of laundry done and that was my week. This weekend I'm making candy/cookies for co-worker gifts and hoping to get the house cleaned a bit. I'm not looking for spotless. Just not quite so nasty will suit me fine. LOL!

I'm so ticked at myself! David got a call from our Mortgage company Thursday saying they hadn't received a payment since October 4th! That's odd since I not only pay my payment each month I also send almost double so it will be paid off much quicker. So I called the bank. Yep all checks had cleared the bank. So I get copies to fax. Turns out when I typed up the vouchers I entered the account number wrong on the first month. And since at the same time I copied and pasted and printed a bunch of them out I also had the wrong account number the 2nd month. And would have a 3rd month too as I was getting ready to mail the January payment that day! So now we have the hassle of getting our money moved from someone else's account to ours! Up until then our payment was automatically sent out from our bank. But we changed banks and haven't got the online banking set up with the new account. Oh well, it will get worked out and at least they have been sent proof that I really did pay those payments. And I dug around till I found the real printed vouchers from the Mortgage co. (instead of the PDF ones they have on their website that you have to fill in) and got my January payment sent. Plus filled out the voucher to have the payment automatically drafted. That should ensure this mixup never occurs again.

Hopefully I'll have quilty content for you to read next week but I wouldn't count on it if I was you!

2006-12-10T11:20:00.000-05:00

Okay so I have to leave you with another cute cat picture. :-)

I removed the Log Cabin quilt top from the sofa and VERY carefully folded it up so cats wouldn't wallow all over it. I laid it down, went to the kitchen to get a bottle of water to take with me to the sewing room and when I came right back to get the top this is what I found. Guess it's got the Fluffy seal of approval.