Laurel's World in Wisconsin

My Doings

2011-04-09T17:30:00.000-05:00

Seems like I just posted, but I see its been several weeks. Sorry about that.

I've been really busy lately working on quilts, getting some rehab done on the house, and oh, yeah, work.

I got back two quilts from my long armer (actually two different ones). So here's a little show.

Here's my Christmas Irish Chain. I've never had a Christmas quilt before, so this one is rather special for me.

Full Sized Quilt

Close Up of Quilting with Christmas Bells

Detail of Chain

And here's the Trip Around the World quilt that I made from fabric that I bought when I was in Florida over Christmas.

Huge Queen Sized Quilt

Detail of Feather Quilting

The rehabbing on my house is going well, but slow. I decided I wanted my laundry area on the ground floor of my 2 story house instead of down in the unfinished basement. I happened across a contractor who lives about 3 blocks away (I love buying local), got good references for him, and talked to him about what I wanted to do. There was an empty hall way between my downstairs half bath and my family room. The hallway went to a door that went out onto the back deck. But since there's a big sliding door in the family room, I never used that door, and I thought I could remove the wall between the bathroom and hallway, and move the bathroom wall to enclose the former hallway and put a laundry area in the downstairs bath. The contractor has done 80% of his work, but now we're to the point of replacing the flooring, which I wanted to do anyway. I'm about ready to pull the trigger on that, then my painter will come in and paint the walls, the contractor's electrician will come in to finish the electric, and the plumber will come back to finish the plumbing. Then the contractor will replace all the doors (I've been living without a door on my downstairs bath for the past 3 weeks) with new 6 panel doors, replace the molding that we saved, bring the washer and dryer up from the basement and ta-da! I have been taking pictures of each step and I'll show it all when I've got it done -- before and after.

Tuesday I leave for Phoenix for some training and will return on Saturday. I've got relatives out there that I expect to be able to spend some time with and will do a little sight seeing. So I've got my sewing machine put away for a while between being out of town, etc.

Out in the flower garden, the snow is gone and the crocuses are coming up. I have little purple buds. The day lilies are being brave and are starting to peak their heads above the cold soil. The big maple tree in my front yard is starting the process of budding. When you look out at the landscape, no real green yet, just a hint of yellow around the edges of the willows. Nothing showing on my forsythia yet. But we all feel like Spring is finally on its way!

Update from Wisconsin

2011-03-15T06:51:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know its been quite a while since I posted anything. No excuses, except for a busy life. That, and it's a pain to upload pictures.

Last Fall I bought fabric for a Winding Ways quilt. I sent out 12.5 x 12.5 inch pieces to have them Accu-cut as I don't like to do templates. I got them back pretty quick and they have been sitting in a box since before Thanksgiving. I finally got them out to work with. Here's my first block.

I had to take it apart and put it back together about three times before everything matched up. I got about 15 more blocks done and then got bored and put them all away for a few months. I have enough blocks cut out for 56 blocks.

One of the reasons that I put the Winding Ways blocks aside was that I bought some darling flannel and was itching to sew up a larger baby quilt. Nothing fancy, but here it is:

Of course, I ran out of the pink border fabric for the last side and had to go back to the shop and buy another quarter of a yard, but now the top is done. I have the backing for it, so on Thursday at the church quilting meeting, I'll take it and sandwich it on the big tables.

I got my Christmas quilt back from the long armer, so I am in the middle of sewing on the binding for that, too.

The other big news around here is that I had the kitchen and family room painted last week. Its a dusky blue color (was white). Everything except the big furniture had to be moved out and was deposited in the living room (which made the living room VERY cluttered). Of course, now I've decided I need to replace the flooring in the two newly painted rooms so I don't want to put very much stuff back because I would just move it out again. Then I finally got a (good) quote on moving my laundry facilities to the ground floor instead of my unfinished basement, which would impact the flooring since we'd be moving walls. I haven't called the contractor yet to accept his quote to even find out his timeframe, so heaven only knows how long it might really be. So I'm figuring that the mess in the living room might be there for a month or so. I know it will all be worth it in the end, but in the meantime, it is kind of irritating.

We've had a few more snow falls that have fun (NOT) to manage. Today its beautiful outside: sunny and probably 45 degrees. I was out and didn't even need my coat! I'd like to think that we've seen the last of the snow (of course we have piles of it everywhere that are slowly melting), but then we all remind ourselves -- THIS IS WISCONSIN!

Because Inquiring Minds Want to Know

2011-02-14T11:53:00.000-06:00

Okay, so Saturday morning I was putting the borders on my Trip Around the World quilt and flicking TV channels. And I came across a cooking show that I had seen one other time and kind of liked, so I left the channel there. Have you ever watched Ciao Italia? I caught her in the middle of making Chicken Marsala with Mushrooms and thought I could give it a shot. Here's the hyperlink
Chicken Marsala

I like watching cooking shows while I quilt. Mostly because I normally don't watch like my life depends on it and don't have to worry about missing dialog if the machine is running too loud. I like watching football while I quilt for the same reason. If I'm watching a movie, then I end up backing everything up to catch what I missed while I was sewing and then the next time I get up (to iron a piece, or cut something, or just go to the bathroom), I don't come back behind the machine, but sit on the couch and just watch the movie and then don't get anything done. I guess that's the problem with sewing/quilting in the family room in front of the TV.

Anyway, try the Chicken Marsala. It was really good (even though I didn't use the parsley).

Chicken Marsala!

2011-02-12T19:18:00.001-06:00

When I went to the grocery store, it took longer to find the Marsala wine in the alcohol section than the entire rest of the trip. I finally asked, and after the customer service manager looked for awhile, we got the store manager and he came and walked right up to it. There were 4 rows of various wines and only ONE Marsala. But I got home, pounded the heck out of two chicken breasts, doubled the amount of mushrooms, and ended up with a very yummy dinner. DD ate all her mushrooms, all her noodles, and about 20% of one of the chicken breasts. Then asked for a PBJ. Oh well. So she's not a gormet.

Trip Around the World Top Done!

2011-02-12T14:53:00.000-06:00

This afternoon I got the top done for the Trip Around the World I've been working on for that past several weeks. I'm so pleased with the way it turned out. The pictures don't do it justice; it looks much cooler in person. What looks blue is actually a royal purple. Its another queen sized quilt. I do have any idea what I'm going to do for the back, so I'll need to figure that out before I take it to my long armer.

I don't have any clue what to name it. Any ideas?

I bought a Nook Color this week and have been playing around with it. I downloaded a few free books and also bought a couple from the Best Seller list. There's alot that this thing can do that I haven't played with, tho.

The weather here is finally above freezing. I'm hoping that some of the snow will start to melt over the next few days. I'd probably better put some salt down on the sidewalks so that the melted snow doesn't turn to ice overnight. I'd hate if anyone slipped and fell.

I'm thinking about making Chicken Marsala for dinner for tonight, so I guess I'd better get off the computer and go buy some chicken breasts and wine at the grocery store.

Blizzard and More

2011-02-02T17:44:00.000-06:00

Like most of the Midwest, we got socked Monday and Tuesday with more snow. Monday was the dreaded Lake Effect snow, then on Tuesday started the good stuff. I got off of work early on Tuesday to pick up DD. It didn't take me as long as I expected to drive home and since I had a few minutes before school let out, I went down to the harbor to take a few pictures.

Snow blowing off the ice flows towards the bluffs

Port Washington Light House drenched with frozen spray

Both school and work were cancelled for today, so after I got up and around this morning, I went out to clear the driveway. It was quite a lot of work since I had a 3 foot drift stacked up against my garage door and a 4 foot pile of snow courtesy of the snow plow at the foot of the driveway. I have a smaller snow blower (I can actually pick it up to put it into my car when I need to take it to the shop), so I had to use the snow shovel to reduce the height of the drifts and piles so I could blow the rest away with the snow blower. The sidewalks have to be done per city regulations (or else you get a ticket), and the snow there was up to the top of the snow blower housing. It was really tough going. I was out there about an hour; usually, I can snow blow the driveway in about 30 minutes.

But once I got the driveway done, I was able to come back in and QUILT! I worked most of the day on my new Trip Around the World and got the first half of the top done. I just took this picture and still have time for most of another quarter to go before the end of the day (I hope).

DD has gone for the evening to play with a friend, so I have the house to myself. What a luxury!

New Trip Around the World

2011-01-27T19:52:00.000-06:00

While I was in Florida over the holidays I went fabric shopping at the LQS (I know, shock, right?). At first nothing grabbed my eye, but then I saw this:

Gold and yellow are totally outside of my comfort zone, so I walked away from it a couple of times, But I kept coming back to it. It spoke to me. So I picked it up. It spoke to me some more. It said it had some friends that wanted to go, too. I just had to find them. So after much searching and adding and subtracting, here are the friends that wanted to come, too.

Originally, just the green and yellow friends came home to play. But there was some yelling and screaming and crying that they needed some of their purple friends. So a couple of days later, we went back to the LQS and found the purple friends.

No, the original inspiration fabric is NOT in the rainbow of colors. He said that because he's so special, he needed a special place. We negotiated and decided that he could be the main border.

See how well he plays with others?

I'm using the tube method and am ready for the tube seam on the first quarter panel. When I have that together, I'll take a picture and post it for you.

On a totally different front, I am keeping an eye on something I'm trying in the oven. DD and I are going to a Super Bowl party next weekend, so I'm testing an appetizer recipe. Its not too hard: bacon wrapped water chestnuts. They're in the oven and will be ready in about 15 minutes. I'll take a picture, but you'll have to wait until the next post to see it and find out how they turn out.

Have a great evening!

Midnight Snow

2011-01-21T20:27:00.000-06:00

Midnight Snow

I saw the sample of this quilt at my LQS and for the FIRST TIME EVER, wanted to make a quilt like the sample. They didn't have any kits or patterns, so I made notes, bought the fabric that they still had, came home and ordered the rest off the internet, and started this quilt between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I added the pieced border and I think its the first time I ever put a block on point. Earlier this week I finished it. Instead of taking it to my longarmer, I quilted it myself on my DSM. Not extremely happy with the quilting job, but happy enough not to tear it out. I'm keeping it and going to use it as a throw on the couch for the winter, even though its big enough for a queen sized bed (sigh).

Tomorrow I take the big Christmas Irish Chain top to my longarmer along with our church raffle quilt top which is going to be raffled off next September. I need to iron both backs tonight. I'll show you those as they come back home.

Next... I started cutting out strips for a new Trip Around the World from new fabric that I bought when I was in FL over the holidays.

Today the temperature was -8 degrees when DD and I went out this morning (me to work and she to day care since it was a no school day). Tonight when we got home it was -2. We're not expecting it to warm up any tonight or tomorrow. But a heat wave of 18 degrees is expected for the Bears/Packer game on Sunday.

Hope you all are staying warm! Go Bears!

Update from WI

2011-01-18T20:30:00.000-06:00

Not much going on. We're back to school and back to work. It's snowed a few times, and it's cold. It's 10 degrees F. That's Wisconsin in winter. We get used to it.

I guess the big news (at least at work) is the upcoming game of the Chicago Bears against the Green Bay Packers. Now, I've been a Bears fan for 25+ years. So I take some ribbing, but this week it has gone to a whole new level. Let's just say that we've all agreed to disagree. And that who ever wins this weekend, it will be the best team.

Last Saturday, while Green Bay was winning, I made a pot of stew. I know, I know. Not too exciting. But the last time I made stew (about 10 years ago), it didn't turn out well and I was very disappointed. This time, everything worked and fell into place (see what happens when you follow the directions?).

Stew right after I added the veggies - everything still bright green

Stew Done and Ready to Eat

The stew was so delicious. Of course, I didn't follow the receipe exactly. Nowhere did it say add 1 1/2 cups of red wine. But you know, if it's good enough for Beef Burgundy, it's good enough for stew.
Of course, I didn't really measure 1 1/2 cups of wine. I just uncorked the bottle, took a sniff to make sure it was still good, took a swig, and poured until I felt like stopping. But it was about 1 - 2 cups.

I'll have a quilt to show you later this week. I'm busy burying all the loose threads and hope to have a picture taken at my quilting meeting at church on Thursday.

Hope your winter is going well.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T09:36:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I'm a day late. DD and I drove back to WI from FL over the past two days and I didn't have access to my computer while on the road.

We had a marvelous time in Florida this year, even though the weather was a bit cooler than we would have liked. I even had frost (gasp!) on my windshield one morning. But it beats what we returned to last night. While unloading the car is was a brisk 16 degrees and a windchill of about -20. Well, that's what it felt like, at least.

So you want to see more pictures, huh? Well, okay, twist my arm.

Late Christmas night a storm blew through. So on Sunday (the day after Christmas), we went down to the beach to see if we could take some pictures of storm surf or storm spray.

Stump Pass State Park, FL

4-5 foot waves coming in from Gulf of Mexico

I was looking for a break water for the spray to blow up against, but didn't find one.

The next day (our last full day in beach territory), I went down to Boca Grand to take pictures. Boca Grand is an island that sticks out into Charlotte Harbor and its where a lot of rich people live. In fact, the day before, George H Bush and son Jeb and their families arrived on the island. They stay pretty secluded and I never saw them, but I might have seen some Secret Service people hanging out.

Boca Grand Beach 2 days after Storm

Entry Way to a House

The Boca Grand community is very interesting in that many people on the island get around on golf carts. You can see teenagers driving, elderly grandparents driving, all over the island. They even have their own roads to drive the golf carts on, parelle to the regular roads. Some of the other residents get around on bikes. So you have to be really aware while driving, looking out for the golf carts and bikes.

A Family of Bicycles

On Tuesday, we drove from my Dad's to my Mom's house. She lives about an hour north of Tampa. One of her Christmas presents was a big lap sized quilt that I made for her. I couldn't post about it earlier because she reads this blog (hi, Mom!). Its a Christmas color quilt that I even machine quilted myself. I made myself one, too, but in a double bed size. Its going to my long armer since I won't need it until 11 months from now!

On Wednesday afternoon DD, mom, and I went to the Homosassa Wildlife Park. Its part nature preserve, part zoo. Zoos generally bother me because I don't like seeing the animals caged up. But this park has many of the birds and water fowl in a non-cage area, so I don't feel so bad.

Two Swans A-Swimming

"And then Mabel said ......"

Sleepy Brown Bear

Wild Squirrel

Mom and DD

So we're home again. I'm sitting here in my heavy robe and slippers, sipping some hot chocolate, dreaming of the warmth of Florida (relatively speaking, of course). DD is still in bed (my bed, she had a bad dream) and I need to get going and start the rest of my day/year off. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to a happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-26T09:00:00.001-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas yesterday. We did.

Last Saturday (Dec 18th) DD and I (with Molly the golden retriever) drove from Wisconsin to FL to see my parents (divorced and in two different towns 2 hours apart) for the holidays. We've been at my dad's since our arrival Sunday evening and are having a great time.

On Wedsnesday we drove down to Sanibel Island. We went to the Ding Animal Life Refuge and mostly bird watched. Afterwards we went and had a lovely Mexican lunch, then found a beach to spend the rest of the afternoon. Sanibel does have lovely beaches, but Dad and I agreed that we really prefer our normal beach on Manasota Key.

Christmas was yesterday and it was a big success. DD was totally blown away with her presents (a cell phone and a DSi were the big hitters). I got a new camera (yes, I picked it out, but didn't have to pay for it, nor even wrap it!). The pictures above from Sanibel were taken by my old Olympus point and shoot. Its been a great camera for me for the past 4 years -- easy to stick in my pocket or purse. But I'd been thinking about getting a new "big" camera for a couple of years. I ended up picking a Canon Powershot SX 30i. Here's some pictures I took yesterday walking around my dad's place.

Taken from the street, about 40 feet away

Taken from the street, about 50 feet away

Hope you got everything you desired for Christmas, whether it was gift wrapped or the love and warmth of family and friends.

Snow Snow Snow

2010-12-12T16:42:00.001-06:00

Here's a few pictures that I took after snow blowing this afternoon. Hope you are all staying warm!

Our Lilac Tree Weighted Down with Snow

Snow Covered Cran-apples

Jared Done!

2010-12-08T07:23:00.000-06:00

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I got the call that Jared was done at my long armer. I immediately made plans to pick it up. Last week I added the binding and then on Saturday, I was able to find someone to hold it up for a picture. So here it is:

Jared is based on a Bonnie Hunter design. I don't know if I'll keep the name Jared or not. Right now its on my bed (total of 3 quilts and a comforter). I do love the more traditional designs.

Special Music at Church

2010-11-09T18:49:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday, DD (in the middle), one of her friends, and her band director were the special music at church. Both girls are in 6th grade and have been playing for about a year and a half. The director is a very special guy, directs all of the bands at the middle school, and can pick up and play about anything. He even gave the girls extra credit for their extra practicing and playing. Here's the video clip. Enjoy!

Another Month and Another Post

2010-11-07T08:31:00.000-06:00

Ok, just who exactly stole October? It was right here, just a few seconds ago. You know, October in all its colorful glory with the leaves lightly falling and sun spakled sidewalks. You remember, being able to go out for a walk without 3 layers of clothes. Well, goodbye, October. Goodbye. November is here and boy, is it cold.

And of course, the leaves are all still here. They're just all on the ground now. Yes, I will be spending my Sunday afternoon raking and blowing leaves. And probably one last round of mowing the grass. Then the mower will be moved to the back of the garage and the snowblower pulled to the front. Not much of an even exchange, if you ask me.

October was a very full month.

One of the best things that happened in October was that I joined a women's volleyball league. Now you may remember that I had double knee replacement surgery in April. It was very successful and I've been strengthening my knees/legs by walking (until it got so f.... cold that I couldn't do it without looking like the Micheline man). So I started in late August looking into playing volleyball. Well, I found a couple of leagues at a few bars, but most of them were wrapping things up 'cause they play outside in a sand court. I finally found an inside league, but they were full up. They took my name as a substitute, but I've never heard from anyone. Then I saw an ad in the weekly paper looking for women to play volleyball. I called right away and gave the guy my contact information. He told me a coach would be calling me to give me more information. I waited for 4 weeks, but finally someone called. So, we've now played 4 matches: won 2, lost 2. I have done okay considering I'm 50 years old and haven't played since high school. I've made some good plays and some bad plays. But no more than the average 20 year old on the team (who also played on a high school team). None of us old farts dive after the ball, so I'm not expected to do that, either. The league runs through March, so I'm looking forward to alot of good games and fun.

I've been quilting like crazy, but don't have any pictures right now to show for it. I've done two Christmas Irish Chain tops, one a throw for a present, and one a bed sized for me. I'll try to have pictures up soon.

Halloween was in October at some point and DD went trick or treating as an Amish girl. I grew up right in the middle of an Amish community (although not part of it), so I'm pretty familiar with Amish life and customs. So when DD and I went back last summer to Indiana where I grew up, I took her around to Amish country and she loved the whole back to nature idea. We happened across an Amish girls black hat at a craft fair and the idea took off from there. I bought her a pair of heavy black knee socks, an inexpensive pair of boys dress shoes from WalMart, and made her a dress and apron. Here she is.

Also in October, DD had a few days off from school, so I played hookey too (alright, I took vacation days). On Friday we went to downtown Milwaukee and went to the Discovery World museum. Its an interactive science museum right on Lake Michigan. Very cool (and I'm not much for museums).

DD lying on a bed of nails

DD in front of jellyfish tank

Petting Sting Rays (you can't see the rays)

DD has also been participating in gymnastics for the past 2 months. Its put on by the Parks and Rec program and she finished the last practice last week. She's better than the little kids, so they put her in with the other middle school and high school girls. It has made it very challenging for her.

This last picture is a video, so you should be able to click on it and see her on the uneven bars. No routine, just playing around.

So that was October. I'll try to get the pictures of my new quilts up before Christmas, but I can't promise!

Yes, I'm Still Alive!!!

2010-10-02T11:06:00.000-05:00

Okay, so September has come and gone and I'm finally posting. I've got alot to share, so get a cup of coffee, sit back, and relax.

On September 1st DD started 6th grade. She decided that she needed to dress up for the first day of school -- although I think she was the only girl wearing a dress that day. Here's our annual picture for the first day of school. She doesn't have her backpack because we had already gone and practiced the locker combination several times and left the backpack with the 10 tons of school supplies inside. The little white dots on the picture are the light rain that was falling as we got ready to go.

DD and I have gone to several Milwaukee Brewer games this year, all paid for by someone else: my company, the softball league, and a supplier. Here we are at the Red's game in September. They opened the roof for the game, so it got a little cool after the sun went down. We had a great time while at this game because we were in a luxery box and could easily get up for stuff to eat, check the football game in the lounge area, or go to the bathroom.

Earlier in September, we went to a sold out Brewers-Cubs game. It was at that game that I had to officially change my allegience from the Cubs to the Brewers. I've never had any Cubs clothing or other paraphanelia, but this year I bought both a Brewers shirt and a cap. But don't be thinking I'll give up my BEARS! I am deffinately not ready for the Pack.

In the middle of September we drove to Ft Wayne to visit friends and experienced the Johnny Appleseed festival. Apparently it started when I was just a girl, but I don't remember my parents ever taking us to it. DD and I had a great time, especially eating caramel apples. And it was great to see our friends.

Last weekend I went to my annual Quilt Camp Retreat in Green Lake, WI. Its held at the same church camp where DD goes each summer. The Quilt camp goes from Friday (I arrived around 11am) to Monday afternoon. This was my 3rd year to go. There were about 40 women there from all over Wisconsin, and one even brought a friend who flew in from Oregon! Wow! Most of us are veteran quilters, but we had a couple of newbies, including some who drafted her own pattern and made a complicated wall hanging for her home.

For the first 2 days I focused on working on a quilt that I'm making for DD. It will be a twin size to go on her bed. Sorry, no pictures yet. It is full of half square triangles, and by late Saturday evening, I finally ran out of the pre-finished (by me) half square triangles. I have plenty of fabric, but after all that time, I was ready to work on another project.

I had brought several other projects with me and pulled out my second priority, a Fall Wallhanging for my entry way. It is based on a panel that I cut apart and added to it and sewed it back together. I wanted something for Fall -- to last from September 1st until the Christmas stuff comes out. I didn't want it to be for Halloween or Thanksgiving, so a Harvest theme fits perfectly. I hung it this morning and with the pumkin and leaves I bought last year, I think the entry way table looks great! What do you think?

While at camp, I got up early Sunday morning to get a jump start on sewing. We sew in the camp dining hall which overlooks Green Lake. On Sunday morning, I took this great picture of the fog coming up off the lake. The fog wasn't there when it first became light, then came up off the water for about 45 minutes, then was gone again. Really cool!

Last night was Homecoming in Port Washington. We went to the Homecoming parade and the annual Chicken Roast that our church does as a fundraiser. We were ready to go to the football game when it started to rain. I had brought a big comforter to keep warm and had umbrellas, but since I knew the bleachers would be cool AND wet, we decided to skip the game and just came home.

Fall is deffinatlly here now. I went for a walk this morning and it was about 48 degrees. I had to pul the hood up on my sweatshirt and even tie it shut to keep my ears warm! Its not quite full color season yet, but maybe this coming weekend will be great. There are leaves on the ground and a cool bite to the air. We bought apple cider at the Farmer's Market this morning and I think I'll make hot apple cider with cinnomon sticks in it. Yummm!

Hope you've enjoyed hearing what we've been up to and I hope to be writing again soon.

Been So Long

2010-08-29T10:18:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how long its been since I last posted. Where did August go????? I guess we've been pretty busy, although I sure don't have much to show for it. Jared has made it as far as one border being added.

DD went to Scout camp early in August for an entire week. It was an unusual camping session called "All Around the World". There were just three girls in the "unit" and three counselors -- all from foreign countries. The theme All Around the World reflected the different cultures that the girls learned about. The counselors were from Australia and England. But they also shared cultures like China, New Zealand, Africa, etc. The girl made scones and wore their jumpers (sweaters) when it got cold. Pretty cool, huh? DD came home speaking in an Australian accent. Very funny.

DD (at right) at camp with friend and counselor

After DD's week at camp, she came home for three days and then we went back up to Scout camp with her troop for 3 days. We had 7 girls and 2 adults. I have to admit, that my stamina wasn't good enough to keep up with the girls on the trails. I was always lagging behind the group. The girls had a great time cooking outside, swimming in the pool or lake, learning new camp songs, and making new friends. But everyone was bitten by the making lanyards bug. By the end of camp, everyone tried it and made plans to make more.

Making Lanyards

After Troop camp was over, DD and I headed to Ft Wayne, Indiana to visit my best friend for the rest of the week. We had a great time running around and hanging out together.

Jennifer and DD

School starts in just three more days. All the supplies have been bought, new school clothes have been bought, and we've practiced the new locker combination a couple of times. We'll go back tomorrow to practice one last time and to drop off most of the supplies so DD doesn't have to carry them all to school in her backpack. If your school list is like ours, it probably weighs about 20 pounds!

Hope your August was as wonderful as ours.

Last Softball Game of the Summer

2010-07-29T20:15:00.001-05:00

Waiting on First Base to Run

Last At Bats

Playing in the Outfield

Last night was DD's last softball game. They had a great season and came in 2nd in the tournement. After the game they went out for ice cream.

Its hard to believe that we have only 4 weeks left of summer vacation. School in Wisconsin doesn't start until September 1st, so just another month to go.

Jared Progress

2010-07-26T18:41:00.000-05:00

During a very busy weekend, I found sometime to sew together the blocks and sashing for Jared. Its looking pretty good. I just need to add the borders, and I'll be done (with the top).

This past weekend DD's softball team was in their league tournament. So we had a game Friday night, two on Saturday (that had a delay from 9am to noon due to a soggy, wet field), and a 4th on Sunday. If the team was one of the top 2 teams, they would qualify for the Championship. Well, after the 4th game, we were 2-2, but so were 2 other teams, so off to the tie breaker (based on total runs scored, and not more games). We won the tie breaker and at 1pm on Sunday played in the Championship game. We played the #1 team (undefeated all season) and lost 6-3, But the girls got silver metals. And the Championship game was pretty exciting in that it was held at the "big field" with bleachers and a concession stand. Since they had a PA, they announced each girl at the beginning of the game, then when they came to bat and then again as they awarded the metals. I'm an awful parent; I forgot my camera and didn't get any pics.

After the last game (except that we have 2 more this week, just for fun), we came home and rested for a few hours, then we had a band concert at the band shelter. DD's 6th grade band played and sounded pretty good for kids that had only been playing 1 full year. DD is in the front row in blue, turned around and talking to her friend in the trumpet section. You can't see her face, its behind the music stand. The big girl next to her is in high school, kind of a teachers aid.

In case we weren't totally pooped (which I was), we then (its now 7:15 at night) went down to the Port Pool where the softball/baseball leagues had rented the big pool for the evening. DD swam with her buddies and I did one lap with my knees and gave up. It was too cold and my knees weren't ready for that kind of movement yet.

Today at work, I told my boss I needed a few days off to recuperate from my weekend and he just laughed. Have you had weekends like that?

My Summer Garden

2010-07-05T19:01:00.000-05:00

Many of you have vegetable gardens and are starting to reap the rewards. While I do have 3 struggling tomato plants (for DD, 'cause I don't care for tomatoes), my flower garden, which takes up 1/3 of my front lawn is going gangbusters due to the rain we've had this spring. Here's some pictures just to show off.

I hope your gardens look great, too!

Jared Progress

2010-07-02T08:07:00.000-05:00

Well, I have 9 Jared blocks done and laid out on the living room floor to see how I like it. I really like how the dark pink chains "link" it all together, but I see trouble brewing where I'll have to match all the blue points where the blocks meet. So I think I'm back to considering a sashing between the blocks again. I just saw another Jared where the sashing was the beige back ground color and I liked that it added space without throwing another color into the mix. I'm concerned if I have enough of the background fabric, tho. I'm pretty sure I know where I bought it (Banner Crafts in the next town over), so maybe since I'm on a vacation day I'll pop over there and see if they have anymore. All of their fabric is in the flat, so its a little harder to find things, but the quality is quite good for not being a LQS.

DD is in summer school every morning (mostly fun stuff: sand volleyball, band, choir, and math) until the end of July, so that helps out alot on the day-care bill for the summer. She just turned 11, so this is the last year of day care anyway. Her maturity is nearly to the point where I'm thinking of letting her come home everyday after school (in the fall) by herself, unless its a no-school day or an early release day. Some days she acts very mature, and some days she acts like she's still 2. I guess that's par for the course.

We're going to my dad's for the weekend as soon as DD gets out of summer school at noon. We spend nearly all our holidays with him, its good for both us and him!

Have a wonderful, exploding 4th of July!

Jared Progress

2010-06-29T07:16:00.000-05:00

Well, here's what I decided to do for my center square (boy, that sounds like Tic-Tac-Toe) on my Jared quilt. I've got 5 blocks totally together and 3 more 85% together. If I get to work on it tonight, I'll have 8 done. I'm not sure how many I'll end up with. I was thinking 12 (3 x 4), but I'm thinking of not using sashing anymore and letting the chains butt against each other. So maybe I'll end up needing more.

Regardless, I'm still loving this block and the fabric I picked.

Have a great day!

Need Your Opinion

2010-06-21T16:36:00.000-05:00

I started on a Jared Takes a Wife from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville.com site. I need your opinion on which fabric to use for the center of the star in my blocks.

Center is the same as the star "arms"

Star center is the same as the star points

Star center is a lighter shade from the star arms

(sashing is a darker version of this fabric)

Please leave your comment as to your choice. I need to start cutting centers in a day or two, so your fast response would be appreciated. Thanks!

Evan's Quilt Done

2010-06-21T16:23:00.000-05:00

While I was recuperating, the quilt I made for my nephew's high school graduation got quilted and when I got home all I had to do was sew on the binding. Yes, I got it done on time and presented it the day after his graduation. He seemed to really like the colors and he and his mother started talking about what color sheets he should get for his bed at college to go with it. So, I think it was a hit!

Back to Work!

2010-05-25T16:07:00.000-05:00

Well, after 7 weeks of double knee surgery rehabilitation, I'm back at work. I know you'll all wondering how much quilting did I get done. Well, quite frankly, not much at all.

I was in the hospital for about 1 week, then in a rehab facility for 3 weeks (and didn't even have internet access!). After I got released from rehab (boy, that makes it sound like I was in a drug rehab, but I can assure you that was NOT the case), I picked up the quilted top from my long armer and my sewing machine from the sewing repair shop where it was getting its annual loving care. Since then, I sewed the binding strips together, attached them to the quilt, and have been hand sewing the back of the binding down. Its about 3/4 done and only needs maybe 45 minutes of hand sewing and then it will be DONE! But life (as always) has been pretty hectic and I just haven't had time lately. Of course, the graduation was last weekend (but we didn't go), so I need to finish it this week so I can give it to him soon. I'll post a picture later this week.

I signed up for a swap over at Quiltville swap, so I know I need to get going on that very quickly, too.

I just wanted to let those of you who follow me know that I'm among the living and am getting my strength back from the surgery. It went well and the pain is much better and I'm working on my stamina.

Hope you all are having a great spring. My garden (although very neglected) looks great!

Quilt Top Done!

2010-04-02T17:42:00.000-05:00

This quilt is for my nephew who is graduating from high school later this spring. I'm hoping he'll take it to college with him. I created the layout (I know it's nothing original) in EQ, then executed the design pretty close to how I did it on the computer. I didn't realize it would be so big. I think its big enough for a full size bed. I had to go shopping for more black to do the last border (ah shucks, right?) and I think it turned out pretty cool. Sorry the bottom corners are cut off. My living room isn't very big (floor space wise) and I had to stand on the ottoman AND hold the camera over my head just to get this picture. I felt like one of those photo journalists who hold their cameras up when the stars go by in the hope that something will turn out.

I called my longarmer earlier in the week and she's on vacation until after I leave for the hospital. So once I get out, I'll have to give her a call and set up a time to go up to her place and give her the top and backing. I would just leave it on her front porch (she lives in a pretty isolated area), but I want to pick out and discuss the quilting pattern, so we'll need to talk face-to-face.

My surgery is in 4 days. Double knee replacement surgery. I'm getting kinda scared, but speaking quite frankly, I can't get around very well at all anymore, so this is the best decision. My boss isn't very happy about me having to take the time off, but he sees me hobbling around the office and I think that he knows that I don't have much choice.

Have a wonderful and blessed Easter and I hope your Spring comes soon (our crocuses are in bloom and there are tight buds on the trees, but that's about it).

Laurel

March Madness

2010-03-21T15:47:00.000-05:00

Okay, it's time for March Madness, but I'm not talking about basketball. I'm talking about everything else.

The weather has been wild. Two weeks ago we still had 6 inches of snow in the yard (see my last post). Then over the past 2 weeks it melted away. Last week it was great, in the mid 50's a couple of days! Yes, I said 50's! Then Friday night a cold front came through with some rain and on Saturday morning there was SNOW on the ground. Just a little bit that was melted by noon, but good grief! My poor crocuses can't decide if they really want to come out here or not. Today it looks beautiful; I was out at 7am with the dog, but haven't gone out again yet. Right now I can hear the cardinal singing his wonderful song.

Here's what I've been working on most of the day. This quilt is going to be for my nephew Evan, who is graduating from high school this Spring. It will be a twin size so it can go on his dorm room bed. I still have to sew the blocks together then add the borders. My goal is to have the top all done by next Saturday morning.

Earlier this week was St Patrick's Day. DD's 5th grade choir had a Celtic concert and toured the 3 elementary schools in town performing their concert. This picture was from the concert they gave for parents and family. Yes, I tried to take out all the red-eye, but it wouldn't all come out.

Another reason that I'm going through March Madness is that right after Easter I'm having double knee replacement surgery. My parents are coming here for two weeks (each and separately) to care for DD and the dog and when I get out of rehab, me. So this month I've been getting ready for that; everything from getting the house cleaned up enough for my parents to see, setting up appointments, taking the hospital's pre-surgery class, visiting the rehab center, changing dentist appointments, and just plain planning ahead.

In the meantime, it looks like Spring is finally here (even with its ups and downs), so that's the best part of March Madness (even if I think we might still get more snow). Have a great week!

March 1st Flowers???? Not Here!

2010-03-01T21:02:00.002-06:00

On several of my friends' blogs today in Northern IL, I saw pictures of crocuses and snowdrops. So I went out to check my own garden. I didn't find any plants fighting their way towards the sun. I didn't find buds starting to peak out of the warm ground. No, all I found was snow. I stuck my ruler down into the snow and you can see the tip of the ruler (see the 12 inch mark?) sticking out of the snow.

Granted, this area of my garden is where I snow blow my driveway clean and dump the snow, but even in the yard, there's still at least 6 inches of snow. Well, maybe come April we'll start to see the bare ground. But not March 1st.

Like Mother, Like Daughter.....

2010-02-28T14:34:00.005-06:00

This was a real quilty weekend for DD and me. Saturday was a quilt-in at the church for our small quilt group. DD had started a modified Trip Around the World at the previous quilt in and finished the top in just a hour or so. She had a lot of fun using the iron like a big girl.

Here's her finished top. She's so proud! I'll help her baste it and quilt it. She expects to give it as a gift to her cousin, but we'll see...

The rest of us in the church group started on our own trip .... our Trip Around the World raffle quilt. Here's the first panel after sewing all the strips together.

And here's how far we got. DD and I dragged our butts out of there around 9pm. Boy, were we ever tired. We want to get the quilt done by early summer so that we can start selling raffle tickets at the Farmer's Markets on Saturday mornings. Then the raffle will be at the end of September at our annual Chicken Roast (held Homecoming Friday).

DD is out sledding right now; I've got about another 30 minutes of time to myself, so I guess I'd better get off the computer and over to the sewing machine.

Can you believe that tomorrow is March 1st? Spring, come on!

Have a great week!

Carolina Christmas Top Done

2010-02-22T13:02:00.004-06:00

Well, it only took me two weeks to add the borders, but I got the top for my Carolina Christmas wall hanging done. I'm saving it to go to the long arm quilter next month with a couple of other tops that are already done.

Next project is a twin size quilt for my nephew's high school graduation. It will be black/white/red (he's into newspapers, get it?). I'm hoping to get the top made so that I can deliver all the tops at one time next month. I'm not sure about the pattern, so I guess I'm going to just wing it, for now.

Over the weekend, DD and I went to the Marquette Women's Basketball game. It was a Pink Zone game (everyone, including players, wears pink, in honor of breast cancer awareness). They had a really nice health fair that we did before the game. Here's a cute picture of three of the girls and the Marquette Golden Eagle.

Its snowing again (I know, its still only February), so I guess I need to go out and snowblow. There's only about 1 1/2 inches of snow right now, and its turning to rain. Very heavy, wet snow.

Have a Great Day!

February Update

2010-02-13T07:42:00.003-06:00

I have a wall inside my foyer that I've been meaning to hang seasonal quilts for years, but I never quite got around to it. I bought the fabric for a Fall wall hanging, and a Christmas wallhanging. Well, a few weeks ago I saw this fabric for Valentines Day and even though its a cheater panel, just think its the cutest thing. So this time I finished it in time for the holiday! Isn't it cute?? Whoopie!!!!

Not much going on here in Wisconsin. Just snow, like the rest of the country. I heard on the news last night that every state in the contiguous US (the 48 states) got snow this week. I mean now really folks. I heard even Dallas and northern FL got snow. Here in Wisconsin we got about 12 inches and the schools were closed on Tuesday. I snow blowed about 5 times this week. But today is clear and sunny (okay, its only 19 degrees) and looks like it will be a beautiful day.

I'm working on the borders for my Carolina Christmas wall hanging (see previous post). I got the first border on and am trying to decide how wide to make the next border. That matters, because I'm planning to put a star block in each of the corners.

But right now I'm off to go buy 2 new tires for my car. I've had to stop for air every day this week since the big snow fall and I don't want to get stranded somewhere.

Have a great weekend!

Bonnie's Carolina Christmas

2010-01-10T14:26:00.003-06:00

I've been working this week on Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Chistmas mystery quilt. Well, I cheated, so it wasn't a mystery to me. I decided that I really didn't want a big bed sized quilt (even though I have plenty of fabric for it). I switched around the green and the gold colors and it isn't as scrappy as the ones that she has done before, but I think I really like it. Let me know what you think. I don't think I'll sew together the blocks for another day or so.

Its been really cold here in Wisconsin this past week. And it snowed twice. I got the snow blower fixed so at least I didn't have to shovel by hand.

Other than the snow, cold, and the quilting, things have been pretty slow around here. We've just been busy getting back into the swing of things with school and work. Its amazing how resistant DD is about doing homework now that we're back from vacation. But grade cards are coming up in a few weeks, so when she doesn't want to do her homework, I remind her about the money she'll get when the good grades come in (and conversely, the lack of money if she doesn't do well).

Oh, yeah, the other thing going on is that we're selling Girl Scout cookies again. DD took the selling sheet to church this morning and did pretty good. But with temperatures in the single digits, we just couldn't find it in us to go door to door today. We've got several weeks, so maybe next weekend.

Hope everyone is keeping warm!

Last Finish for 2009

2010-01-03T10:39:00.004-06:00

I finished one last quilt while on vacation in FL. I started this Sisters Choice quilt at a Bonnie Hunter workshop that I took last June in IL. I chose teal and purple as my main colors -- not totally scrappy as Bonnie's work typically is, but some of my favorite colors. The background is totally scrappy beige neutrals. It has a pieced teal inner boarder and a beautiful purple batik for the outer border. I worked on it off and on over the summer and then finished up all the blocks while at a quilting retreat in September. I finished the top in early November and delivered it to my long armer with the wedding quilt. I picked a flower design for the quilting to echo the floral design in the border.

When I was in Florida, all I had to do was hand stitch down the binding, so that was something nice to work on while watching TV when the weather was cooler. I haven't measured it, but I suspect its about a full bed size.

Now on to Bonnie's Carolina Christmas Mystery quilt! Well, okay, it won't be a mystery to me as I peeked at each of the clues as they were revealed and know what the final results will be. But when she started the mystery on "Black Friday", I still had the wedding quilt to finish and a Christmas present to finish. They I was hoping to be able to work on it while in Florida, but I just couldn't find room in the car for my machine and all the other stuff I would need.

Back from Florida

2010-01-03T10:18:00.004-06:00

DD and I got back from our annual Florida vacation yesterday. We had a great time.

We left Wisconsin on December 18th and drove (ok, so I did all of the driving) to Port Charlotte (south of Sarasota), arriving on Saturday evening the 19th. My dad is in PC and we were there about 9 days. The weather wasn't as warm as in past years, so we only got one day at the beach and about 4 days at the pool. Plenty of running around and shopping for Christmas presents.

Here's DD playing on the beach. She always finds a little friend to play with and this year was no exception. They played in the sand digging holes that kept filling up with water.

Christmas morning at my Dad's house. He doesn't have room for a Christmas tree, so we just pile the presents in front of the TV. I don't know where she picked out this outfit from, but it was very colorful. DD was very excited to receive (as a family) a Wii.

After Christmas weekend, we drove up to my Mom's place in Homosassa (about a hour north of Tampa). We had a great time playing dominos and mom made DD a new nightie. DD has been very interested in clothing design and I wanted her to get a feel for garment construction. My mom is a great seamstress, so I knew that she had both the skill and the temperment to give those lessons.

Here's DD with my mom and step-dad.

Tomorrow its back to school and work for the two of us. Neither of us is really ready, but what can you do? We still have today and we're going to see Avatar and I'll work on a quilt (what else!).

THE Wedding Quilt

2009-12-08T12:12:00.000-06:00

This quilt is for my best friend's youngest son's wedding that is later this month. I bought the fabric back in June and started the quilt in September at a quilter's retreat. About half way through the quilt, I realized that I didn't have enough of the white background fabric. I went to 3 different shops within an hours drive of the retreat and didn't have any luck. So I started to work on something else until I could get back to the same store I bought the fabric at originally and get more.

I had this professionally quilted by Judy's Longarm Quilting in Mt Calvary, WI. She did an awesome job. I put the binding on just last weekend and now its all boxed up ready to give away. I worked so hard on this one and its really hard to give it away.

Jacob's Ladder Quilt

2009-12-05T12:03:00.004-06:00

I started working on this when my dad said he wanted a "blanket" to cover up with when he lays on the couch watching TV. Of couse, I said, "Blanket? You've got a daughter who makes quilts!" He just laughed.

So I went out and bought the fabric with him in mind, Benartex's Apple Cider Mill Road in greens and reds. Its a little Christmasy, which wasn't the plan, but these are also the colors in his couch, so it matches. It took me about 4 weeks, but I was able to get it done and give it to him for Christmas (which we celebrated on Thanksgiving since Dad goes to FL for the winter). Its a very generous lap/couch quilt.

I love it and will make one of my own one day.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T08:58:00.008-05:00

Ok, so its been quite a while since I blogged anything. I can only blame it on my lack of desire to sit in front of my home computer and upload pictures. The old gal (the computer, not me) is getting on in age and it takes forever to upload pictures from my camera. But Thursday I took pictures of my latest finish and wanted to show them to you.

About eleven months ago, my best friend asked me if I would make a Christmas tree skirt for one of her daughters who is newly married. I said yes, but not for this year (I was leaving for my vacation in like 10 days and had things of my own to finish). I told her I would be glad to make it in time for next year (now). We haven't talked about it since, but I kept it in the back of my mind and earlier this fall I saw a great sample of a tree skirt on Jen's blog (www.cre8tivequilter.blogspot.com) and was determined to make this one like that. Last weekend I was at my Dad's (tending him after he got out of the hospital from surgery) and made it.

It was easier than I thought. I had to order the 9 degree ruler off of Ebay because my LQS didn't have it in stock (where Jen works). But I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I'll see my best friend (and her daughter) next weekend and will give it to her then.

A few weeks ago DD and I were invited to go to a Green Bay Packer game. I'm not a Packer fan (I cheer for the Bears), but the tickets were for sky box tickets (inside, no cold bleacher seats, and lots of free food and drinks). So we went and had a great time. Even though we got slightly lost in Green Bay after the game -- they make a bunch of the streets one-way -- the wrong way for us -- after the game.

I took two quilt tops to my (new) long arm quilter last week. Yes, I know, I didn't post pictures before hand. I didn't even take pictures. Since I don't have anyone to hold up the quilts for me and they are both too big for the living room floor, I decided to wait until I get them back and then will take pictures when they're all done. I took "the wedding quilt" (quilt for son of best friend who is getting married in December) and my Sisters Choice quilt from my first workshop with Bonnie Hunter.

So I have been doing alot of quilting, just not taking pictures and posting them. I know, I'm a tease, but you'll just have to wait.

Happy Halloween!

I'm Baaaaccckkk!

2009-09-15T20:08:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I know I've been gone a long time. My only real excuse (other than the fact that DD and I went on vacation for a week) is that my computer is giving me headaches and I hate uploading my photos. Otherwise, I'd jump onto my blog while at work (during lunch, of course) and keep you all updated.

So, DD and I went on a great vacation in August. We drove from WI to Virginia. We spent 2 days in the Shenandoah Valley (highlight was tubbing down the Shenandoah River and having my tube spring a leak), 2 days in Virginia Beach, and 2 days at Williamsburg. It was a wonderful vacation. See some pix below.

Here we are at one of the scenic overlooks on Skyline Drive.

DD and a new friend playing in the surf at Virginia Beach. This was a couple of days before they closed the beach due to Hurricane Bill.

Here's DD at Williamsburg. We rented a costume (long white dress with a purple sash), and bought the hat. She's so cute!

The week after our vacation we continued to be very busy. On Weds we went to the Milwaukee Brewers game.

DD got a new T-shirt at the game. Of course, they lost to the Reds. I don't think they've ever won a game we went to.

Then that Saturday night 3 of my friends and I went to the Jimmy Buffet concert! I had bought the tickets back last FEBRUARY and even though I jumped on the phone the minute the tickets went on sale, all I could get were lawn seats. As the day grew closer, I fretted over what to wear and finally on the day before, went to the local Goodwill and found a men's Hawaii shirt for dirt cheap. I planned on layering it over a t-shirt as it had been a little cool lately (late August). When we got to the venue, it was cold and spitting rain. Temperature must have been in the 50's and when the stage lights lit up the audience, you could see the rain coming down at a 60 degree angle. Some people had been partying for HOURS, but we weren't that dedicated of Parrot Heads, so we only tailgated about an hour. But we had a great time in spite of the weather and in spite of getting carded at the liquor counter (did we have our ID's? -- No, of course not, who would have thought that these 4 women in age from 40-58 would get carded!).

No, that's not snow in the picture, just rain. But it felt like snow! So much for finding a Hawaiian shirt!

Then in September, DD started 5th grade. In our small town, 5th grade is the beginning of middle school (5 - 8th). So DD is now in middle school and sometimes wants to dress up like a diva in the mornings and sometimes just wants to hang out in comfortable clothes. Very interesting.

Here's DD on her first day of 5th grade.

Over Labor Day weekend, I attended Bonnie Hunter's class in Auburn, IN for her Boxy Stars pattern. Once again, we had a great time. I got 9 blocks done, just need 3 more.

Ever since I got back from Bonnie's class, I've been working on my Mini Summer Quilt Swap item. I finally got it all pieced and sandwiched last night. Tonight I hope to get it all quilted so that tomorrow night I can put on the binding.

Today I received this wonderful quilt from the lady who had my name.

It came from Marian in SPAIN! Wow! It is so cool and will look great in my entryway. She also sent a bunch of fabric and notions. Very cool gift. It really is inspiring me to get my items completed. Marian's blog is http://www.quiltandpatch.blogspot.com/. Check it out.

I'll try to post more often. Of course, I say that and I'm already planning to be out of town this weekend. But I'll post the picture of my outgoing Summer Quilt Swap quilt before I mail it.

Have a great weekend!

Look What I Won!

2009-08-08T19:06:00.007-05:00

I was so excited earlier this week to find out that I was the winner of Collaborate Again by Gwen Marston & Freddy Moran over at Michele's blog http://with-heart-and-hands.blogspot.com. The book arrived in the mail and I opened it when I got home late last night. It is really a beautiful book and very inspiring. I think this is exactly what I need to stretch and grow as a quilter. I've already thumbed through the book and have found several new ideas.

I've been working on my Sister's Choice from my Bonnie Hunter workshop I took in June. I finally got all my 9 patches done - 70 in all. Here they are. The blocks are all in the purple and teal colors -- two of my favorites. For the past week I've been working on the star points. I think I have about 60 done, which is only enough for 15 blocks. I ran out of yellow for my star points and have bought some more, but it doesn't match. So I guess this will be more scrappy than I expected!

A few weeks ago, we got the call that blueberries are in season in Michigan (where both of my parents grew up). So Dad put in our order and a few days later 30 pounds of blue berries were delivered to IL. I cleaned them and bagged them all up for freezing.

That same weekend was my Dad's 75th b-day. I gave him the Florida Shell quilt that I made last winter. He really seems to like it and has it packed in his stuff that will go south with him in November.

That's what's been going on in my life for the past few weeks. DD was at church camp last week. I quilted a few evenings, but didn't get nearly as far as I would have liked. Later this week we leave for our vacation in VA! We're both really excited about that.

I'm Back!!!!!!!!!

2009-07-18T16:56:00.005-05:00

Well, my computer is back to life so I guess I'll get back into the blogging groove. I've been pretty busy over the past couple of weeks, but I'll just give you the highlights.

At the end of June is DD's birthday and instead of having a big (expensive) party, I took her and two of her friends to the Milwaukee Zoo. The girls all had a great time and I managed not to break the bank.

For the 4th of July the family went out to Waukegan Harbor for their annual fireworks display. We had access to the docks and set up our picnic and chairs out there. The day was a little overcast and cool, but the fireworks were great. Here's my dad and my two brothers.

Last weekend we went camping over at Crystal Lake Campground. I did visit the quilt shop in town :) and then took DD and her friend to visit a winery. This winery is over 150 years old, and one of the oldest wineries in America. The grounds were gorgeous. We went on the tour (only $3.50 for me and the girls were free) which included a tasting.

This last week DD was at Girl Scout camp. Here she is in front of her cabin when I dropped her off.

On the quilting front, I haven't done too much. My mom sent some squares to put together into a flimsy for a baby quilt for Haiti and I did that one afternoon. I also completed another charm square bag. Today I'm getting back to the Sisters Choice quilt I started with Bonnie Hunter.

Summer seems to be going by way too fast.

Computer Problems

2009-06-30T14:15:00.002-05:00

It seems to be the season for computer woes. Now my home computer is getting into the act. I'm working to get it fixed (it doesn't want to be hooked up to the internet and has been acting up for a good 2 weeks). Hang in there and I'll be back soon!

Charm Bag Complete!

2009-06-26T06:02:00.004-05:00

I down loaded this charm bag pattern from Moda Bake Shop (thanks, Amandajean!) and put together this charm bag this week. This is a bday present for my niece, who just turned 14. Isn't it cute? I put a big pocket inside, a little cell phone pocket, and a clip for keys, etc (I hate trying to find my keys in the bottom of my purse).

It's been really hot here in Wisconsin this week. Not that I'm complaining, I'm a very summer gal. Dad called me at work Monday early afternoon to let me know he was coming up for DD's softball game. Since it was 15 degrees cooler here by the lake than at his house, he stayed 2 days. He knows that he's always welcome and could have stayed longer. The heat let up and now its much better (high of 85 today).

Today is DD's 10th birthday. She's still sleeping in, of course. For her birthday I'm taking her and two of her friends to the Milwaukee Zoo. She got her big present last night, a grown up digital camera. She went out and snapped pictures in the back yard: the flowers, the strawberry plants, the tomato plants, the hose, the dirty deck chair, the grass, and herself. We haven't loaded them onto the computer yet but its a Kodak, so I think its going to take great pictures for her. She'll take it to the Zoo today.

There won't be much quilting from me this week. My mom is coming up from FL and will be visiting next Thursday. So that means I need to start cleaning house, including all my quilting stuff that is all over the downstairs. Oh well, the house needs it anyway.

Have a great weekend.

Lots of Stuff to Tell You

2009-06-21T16:56:00.006-05:00

Since it has been a week since I last posted, I have a lot to tell (and show) you.

First, last Wednesday I attended Bonnie Hunter's "Sister's Choice" class. I would highly recommend her class (in fact, I'm signed up for a different one in September).

Here's Bonnie and I in front of her sample quilt.

Here's the four blocks I got done (I also have about 6-7 half done). Instead of the pure scrappy quilt, I chose a color controlled teal and purple combination. I'll be working on this quilt for the next month or so (at least I hope I get the top done before I see her in September).

I also got my Spring Blossom Mini Quilt Swap quilt done and out in the mail this week. Here's out it turned out. I ended up hand quilting it (which I hadn't done any hand quilting in about 10 years). I love the colors (and hope my swap friend does, too).

Last, but not least, I thought I'd share a picture of some of the flowers in my garden with you. These are Painted Daisy's in front of my Salvia. When I first planted them about 4 years ago, they were a good half a foot away from each other. Now they kind of grow together and since I love the hot pink with the purple, I'm leaving them that way. The white in the far right hand side is some field Phlox that is coming into bloom.

I'm now working on a couple of bags from Amandajean (and the Moda Bake Shop) as birthday presents that I hope to gift next weekend. Hopefully I can show pictures before they're gone.

Have a good week!

The Best Laid Plans....

2009-06-15T10:43:00.005-05:00

Well, my weekend sure didn't turn out like I had planned.

Originally, I had made camping reservations at a nearby State Park. You know, one of those places that you have to make reservations about a year in advance if you want to get in. But DD's Girl Scout troop had scheduled an outing at a big hotel with an indoor waterpark over in the Dells. So on Thursday evening (before I bought groceries for the camping trip) DD and I had a real heart to heart talk and she said she really wanted to go on the GS trip. Since the weather was supposed to be iffy, I wasn't going to fight this one too bad. So I cancelled the reservations (only getting back 50% of the money), called the GS leader and got DD signed up for the trip.

I was pretty excited about having about 36 hours to myself. I made plans to go to some movies and go out for dinner and get lots of quilting done!

Friday evening when I picked up DD from the day care center after work, she seemed pretty tired and admitted that she had fallen asleep on the playground (under the trees in some shade inthe grass). I knew that was pretty unusual, so I kept an eye on her. By bed time, she felt hot and after taking her temp (101.3) I warned her that if she was still running a temp in the morning, I would have to call the GS leader and advise that she was not going on the trip after all. Jr Tylenol was provided and off to bed she went.

I woke her several times in the night to take her temp and give her more Jr Tylenol. At 6am, her temp was back at 101.? and I told her that she wasn't going on the trip. Thank goodness, there was no big melt down. I think she knew she was really sick and although was disappointed, didn't feel like doing anything.

I took her to the doctor Saturday morning and although he took a strep culture (strep was in her classroom a few weeks ago), he said it was just some virus going around. Just keep giving her Jr Tylenol and some cough drops if she wanted them.

Her temp stayed down most of the morning and early afternoon, but by 3pm, she was running a high fever again. At bedtime, it was back up to 102. She went to bed in my bed for the night. It was a long night. At one point her temp was 103.5. I swore that if it went above 104 that we were going to the hospital, but it never got that bad. The poor kid kept asking if she was going to die!

Sunday morning, she was running a little temp, only 100.7. We stayed at home and by late afternoon, her temp was back to normal. The GS leader stopped by early Sunday evening and brought DD a stuffed animal from the hotel because she was so sorry that DD couldn't make the trip and was home sick. How sweet was that!

So I didn't get to see any movies (just some DVDs that I had at home). I didn't get to go out to dinner (I think I ate popcorn Saturday night). And I got very little quilting done.

The top is done for my Spring Blossom Mini Quilt. I just need to sandwich it and quilt it. It needs to be in the mail by Saturday. I hope I make it.

I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening cutting the pieces for my Bonnie Hunter workshop on Weds. I thought it would be no problem, probably take me an hour or so. Oh, no. I think I ironed and cut for about 5 hours. Now, I was watching the HBO mini series John Adams so I wasn't 100% cutting the whole time. But I thought I'd get a chance to sandwich the mini quilt and maybe even get most of the quilting done so that all I'd have left was the binding.

But, the best laid plans.....

Port Pirate Fest

2009-06-12T06:27:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday was Port Washington's annual Pirate Festival. Unfortunately, the weather was cold and rainy so the turnout wasn't as good as it has been in the past.

Here's the bow of the ship WINDY coming in to dock. You can go out on a tall ship and sail in Lake Michigan.

My friends come in from out of town and here's DD (on the left) and their daughter all dressed up for Pirate Fest. About 50% of the people who attend are normally in costume (think Renaissance Fair). The girls get a real kick out of dressing up with all their pirate garb.

Aaarrrrr!!!!!

This picture was taken on Friday when the weather was great and about 75 degrees. This is the picture of the harbor coming in to Port Washington from Lake Michigan. It was too bad the weather changed so much. I know that if the weather had stayed constant that alot more people would have come.

4th Grade Field Trip to Madison

2009-06-11T18:07:00.001-05:00

Last Friday I chaperoned DD's 4th grade field trip to Wisconsin's state capital in Madison, WI. Since I grew up in Indiana, I had never been to the Wisconsin state capital. I found it really a great place to see. Here's a picture of the front of the capital building.

We had a great tour guide (we were in a group of about 50 kids and 10 adults) who was very knowledgeable about the building, its history, and events.

The rooms in the 2nd floor wings had beautiful glass ceilings to let in the light. Of course, I saw quilt patterns everywhere!

This is the parquet floor in one of the conference rooms. Look familiar?

There were wonderful mosaics on the wall around the rotunda. This one was my favorite one; its Lady Liberty. Sorry the picture is so bad, I took it from about 100 feet away (across the rotunda).

This is the railing for the gallery overlooking the assembly room. See the "W" in the iron work for Wisconsin?

More wonderful architecture in the main area of the wings (2nd floor). Alot of natural sunlight with the glass ceilings and this clerestory.

After we went to the capital building, we went to the museum, then to the Cave of the Mounds just west of Madison. Pretty cool caves, easily accessible, and great colors and formations. Here's DD in front of some formations inside the cave.

And here's DD curled up on her seat in the bus for the trip back to the school. She took a 45 minute nap on the way back (so did her teacher and the principal, but they didn't curl up in the seat like she did).

It was a great trip and I'm glad I went.

Spring Bloom Mini Quilt Progress

2009-06-11T06:04:00.002-05:00

Here's where I am on the Spring Bloom Mini Quilt I'm making for the swap. I'm in the middle of blanket stitching down the applique on the flowers and leaves. I've got all the leaves done, now I need to do the flowers. Then I have buttons for the center of the flowers.

I have to figure out how to quilt it. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Look What I Got in the Mail!

2009-06-06T08:18:00.004-05:00

My swap parnter sent me a wonderful package this week all the way from Ontario, Canada!

I got this beautiful wall hanging, a really cool notions box, scissor fob, and pin cushion! She also included some neat stationary. Thank you so much Kaaren! Here's her blog: http://thepaintedquilt.blogspot.com/

I fianlly decided that the tulips just weren't working for me (I probably made about a dozen different layouts and wasn't thrilled with any of them, so I'm now working on an entire new design from the same magazine.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Need Help from You

2009-05-21T05:48:00.012-05:00

As you may be aware if you're following my blog, I'm working on a Spring Bloom Mini Swap project. I finally got the tulip pieces cut out and somewhat put together.

I've been planning on mounting them on the background fabric in straight lines, but I also kinda like the scattered approach. What do you think?

Of course, the scattered approach will be a big pain to applique'. Maybe I'll reduce the number of leaves.

We're going camping this weekend, so tonight I've got to mow the lawn, buy the groceries, pack food, pack suitcases, etc. So I won't be able to get back to this until Monday after we get back (assuming I'll have any energy).

What do you think?

Spring Bloom Swap Quilt

2009-05-15T17:34:00.005-05:00

Here's the fabrics that I'm using for the swap quilt. I love the colors. I picked them specifically because they remind me of tulip colors (one of my favorite spring flowers). The floral with the white background is for the backing.

I'm going to take the idea from this magazine example (McCalls Quick Quilts, I think) and modify it (no purple, and needs to be much smaller). All tulips. What do you think?

Well, I'm packing up to go to Dad's for the weekend. I'll get to use my new quilted tote!

Have a good weekend, all.

Quilted Tote Done!

2009-05-11T07:55:00.001-05:00

Here's my quilted tote, DONE! Well, I'm supposed to but a button on the flap for decoration, but will wait until I can find one I like (a wooden one to match the dowels, I think). The tote is huge, big enough to carry a couple of quilts in. It's for carrying projects to retreats and classes, so it has pockets for rulers and cutting mats and stuff. I'm so glad it's completed. I love the colors, so bright and warm.

I've got two projects that I need to start next. One is a wall hanging for the Quilting Gallery Spring Blooms Mini Quilt Swap that I signed up for. I received my swap partner's name and color preferences yesterday so I have some direction on which way to go. I have a couple of ideas running around in my head and need some time for that to percolate.

My other next project is using the Fruit Ladies fabric that came out a few years ago and make a throw for a friend of mine. I saw this fabric for the first time over Christmas this year. It really makes me giggle. Pictures of the fabric coming soon for those of you who don't know what it looks like.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T07:26:00.004-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to all of you.

Here's a picture I took in my garden Friday morning of my flowers in bloom. As you can see, here in Wisconsin we're rather behind on the garden. Some of my friends in Indiana are already seeing flowers on their strawberries, but here we're just getting daffodils (and the beginning of one of my peonies). In the upper right hand corner you can see what's left of my tulips. The deer got in my beds about a week ago and ate most of the tulips and the crocus. We have a herd of about 7 deer here in town that just go after anything they can get their hands on.

Here's my pink bleeding heart. Gotta love this sweet little plant. Its about 12 inches tall and every year I wonder if its going to come up and every year it does. I'm waiting for it to get bigger, but it seems perfectly happy at its current size.

I was home on Friday morning because the men came to install my new patio sliding door. My house is 40+ years old and the slider to the back yard was original to the house. Well, as we all know, heat efficient windows were not all that great in the 60's and that aluminum slider sucked enough heat out of the house to keep my back deck warm all winter long. So I bought a new slider and it was installed on Friday morning. Here's some (bad) before and after pictures.

Before

After

Ignore that deck that needs to get stained (again) this summer. Its something else on my list of things to do.

I'm very happy with the new door, although I didn't realize that the glass (super duper efficient) was going to be shaded (not clear glass). But it's wonderful and beautiful. I guess now I'll have to think about window dressings for it.

Busy Weekend Camping

2009-05-06T09:40:00.004-05:00

Sorry I haven't blogged all week. It's been really busy around here.

Last weekend DD (and a friend) and I took the camper out for our first campout of the season. We have a pop-up trailer that I pull behind my car. We went to a campground called Duck Creek in Pardeeville, WI. Nice, clean campground. It was too cold to go swimming in their little lake/pond, but we all had a good time. We went with our camping club. I like doing that because it gives me someone to hang out with when the kids are out playing somewhere and enough activities to keep us all busy, but not too busy.

Saturday morning the camping club had crafts for all of the kids and encouraged us parents to leave our kids with the adults in charge of the activity and leave the camp ground to go to the Amish shops in the area. Who I am to look a gift horse in the mouth? So, off I went, map in hand, to see if I could find a fabric shop.

I found the rug maker hard at work making rag rugs (she was weaving them on a loom - which was so cool -- I stood and watched her for a while) and then went back to the front of her store where she had fabric. She had all the Amish solids, in both poly/cotton blend and 100% cotton. I picked out a bunch of each and when I was ready she came and cut it for me. We had a really nice conversation about her business and how concerned the Amish community was about their businesses with the long, hard winter we've all endured plus the current economy situation. They wondered if us "English" would come spend money in the current economy. I think I did my share of stimulation! She had no electricity in her store and added up the bill by hand. Her store was an addition onto the family farm house.

Then I went to a hand-crafted wood furniture store. Wow! They had some really beautiful stuff that I would have loved to have. Unfortunately, my stimulation abilities didn't go quite that far.

Next I went to the General Store - they had lights, but did all their adding of the prices on old manual adding machines (not electric, nor battery charged). I bought some home made jam and some dried cranberries. The store was very busy and I had to wait in line about 10 minutes to get checked out.

After the General Store, I wanted to find the bakery. I had heard really good things about the baked goods from other campers and wanted to check it out myself. I found the location and knew I was in the right place due to all the cars parked out in the road and in the driveway. I was able to park in the driveway, up close to the house. When I walked up to the house I found out that there was a line about 40 people long just to get into the bakery. No wonder there were all those cars! I got in the back of the line and pretty soon there were people behind me and we were all talking about standing in a "bread line". Pretty funny. There was a lady a few people behind me that turned out to be a quilter and we talked back and forth about our quilts and quilting experiences. It took about 30 minutes to make it from the back of the line into the bakery. The bakery was in the basement of the farm house (a walk out) and the "store" section was a tiny space about 10 feet by 15 feet with shelves on 3 sides and a counter to get rung up on the 4th side. Behind the counter there were around 4 - 5 people constantly baking (men and women and older girls). They had about 6 different kinds of bread, cookies, pies, rolls, donuts, tarts, noodles, etc. I bought a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread (when I picked it up, it was still hot), 2 dozen oatmeal raisin cookies, and pan of cinnamon rolls, and a little raspberry turn-over tart. As I stood waiting for the person in line in front of me to get her items rung up, I saw a sign about another fabric store and the directions to that store. So now I had my next destination!

I went to the second fabric store; it had less fabric than the rug maker. But what was really interesting is that it shared space with a harness making/repair shop. The woman who apparently ran the fabric store must have been out because the man from the harness shop came and waited on me. It was obvious that he didn't cut fabric very often, although he did use a rotary cutter. Anyway, I talked to him while he was cutting the fabric and turns out he grew up in Indiana, too, about 50 miles from where I grew up. Small world!

After all this time, it was nearly lunch time and I knew I need to get back to the campground and find the girls and take back over my motherly duties.

The bad news is that even though I had my camera, I didn't take a single picture all weekend. I would not have taken pictures of the Amish out of respect, but I saw some really cool things that I would have loved to taken a picture of (I left the camera in the trailer). So this post is without any pictures.

On the quilting front, I sewed some more on the tote that I've been working on for the past several weeks. I think I'm almost to the assembly stage, so hopefully, I'll get it done on Saturday when I get a chance to work on it. More to come on that.

Spring Time in Wisconsin

2009-04-28T20:50:00.006-05:00

I was really looking forward to a great weekend and getting alot of outdoor work done, but after only 30 minutes of raking the front yard, I had to come inside on Saturday and then it started to rain. It felt like the Great Flood -- 40 days and 40 nights right outside my door. It really didn't stop all weekend. My sump pump ran off and on for 2 days straight (I guess that's a good thing, if it didn't run I'd have water all over my basement, right?).

But Monday morning before we left the house for the day, I snapped these two pictures of the flowers struggling in my front flower bed. Spring is trying to get here!

So since it rained all weekend, what did I get done? I finally got my cutting table all set up. I got rid of the piano a month ago and then last week I bought a long (72") folding table from WalMart. I set it up Saturday morning when the rain started and decided how much more height I needed.

Then one of my many errands later on Saturday was to the local hardware store. I love that place. They are so friendly and eager to help. When I walked in and (on purpose) looked lost like I didn't know what to do, I was approached by the owner who asked how he could help. I told him I needed some PVC pipe. He asked if I needed just pipe or fitting, too. I told him just pipe. He walked me down the aisle to the PVC pipe and showed me the various sizes he had. I quickly picked out which one was the right size diameter and told him I needed 4 twelve inch pieces. He cut it for me (for free) and then only charged me for the 48 inches, not the entire 10 feet of pipe we started with. I expected to pay for the entire 10 feet (which would have been a whopping $3.48).

So here's a picture of my cutting table, raised to counter top height. I've got storage underneath (okay, so they're empty so far) and lots of room for cutting and for laying out. I love it so far (except that my sewing machine is in the other room, 40 feet away).

Side Tracked Again....

2009-04-22T06:44:00.003-05:00

Last weekend while I was at my dad's house (he watched DD while I went to the quilt show), he mentioned to my DD that he needed a couple of kitchen dish cloths. His mom (my grandmother) used to make them and I've made him a few from time to time over the years. Now DD does know how to crochet, but I thought he'd want them this year (vbg) so I spent two evenings this week and whipped out two for him. They'll go out in the mail on Saturday when I can get to the post office.

Now back to the tote!

Quilted Tote

2009-04-20T19:47:00.005-05:00

I've mentioned that I've been working on a quilted tote. Well, today I thought I'd show you what I'm doing. Here's the pattern:

The last time I made a bag was about 20 years ago. I still use it, but I wanted a bigger one. This one is huge. Here's the pieced front. I have to quilt it next then start the assembly process. It is taking me a long time because I just don't work on it every night (and I've been gone the last two weekends).

I love the colors. It's my colors (pink and purple) plus some orange/sherbet colors. I can't wait until I get it all together. I am worried about finding the dowels for the handles. The LQS where I bought my pattern said I could find them/make them, but I was hoping for handles that had some finish to them (not raw wood). Well, when I get that far, I guess I'll worry about that then.

Chicago Quilt Show

2009-04-20T19:27:00.003-05:00

Okay, its been about 17 years since I last went to a BIG quilt show. And the Chicago show really delivered. I was wow'ed by the quilts. I saw. Here's some of my favorites.

I didn't take any classes. I just went and viewed the show and then, of course, shopped 'til I dropped! I didn't really spend that much, just the fact of being on my feet for about 4 hours straight and the intense amount of eye candy. I bought some FQ, a Jim Shorer figurine, a HQT cutting template, and a book. I was really surprised about the amount of booths and fabric that seemed to specialize in the reproduction fabrics. There were a lot of Civil War reproductions. So that meant a lot of dark creams and darker colors. I know I've seen them in the LQSs but I didn't realize it was that popular. Not exactly my cup of tea (no pun intended).

I really was dragging butt by the time I got back to my car and drove back home. And even today, 2 days later, my legs and feet still hurt. I guess I'm not used to walking around on all the concrete.

Easter Morning

2009-04-16T21:21:00.002-05:00

Here's DD on Easter morning after she has scoped out all the stuff that the Easter bunny brought. The biggest present was a pair of walkie-talkies that she can use with her friends. We don't do much candy. In fact, it's probably about time to throw out the Halloween candy that she hasn't gotten around to eating. The sugar just makes her too hyper (and she won't sleep for a week!).

Foster Park in Ft Wayne

2009-04-16T21:12:00.004-05:00

Now I know that some of you are running around in shorts and t-shirts, but those of us up north are wondering if it's finally time to put away the parka. Last weekend we were in Ft Wayne, Indiana visiting my best friend for Easter. On Sunday, it was so clear and beautiful outside I suggested that we go find some green and maybe some early flowers. We went to Foster Park and strolled around (the adults still had on their parkas) and did exactly that. DD slipped her coat off a few times so that we could take some pictures.

So okay, in Ft Wayne the daffodils were in bloom. No tulips yet. Here in Wisconsin, the daffodils are about 4 inches high. But the crocus are pretty. I have purple and yellow ones in my garden. Only the purple ones are blooming right now.

I can't wait for summer! Okay, I'll settle for spring, 'cause right now it feels like winter will never go away. I know this is typical Wisconsin spring (ie not much to show until May), but I'd like a little green, if you please. The lawn still looks brown/grey and the trees are still bare. Uhhhgggg! Come on Spring!

Erin's Quilt Done

2009-04-16T20:58:00.003-05:00

Before we left for our Easter weekend out of town, I finished the baby quilt I stared last week. I used a different kind of backing than usual. I think it was called "Minkee". It has a great, soft, knap, kinda like velour. When I bought it, I specifically asked how well it quilted and how it was to work with. I was told that it was fine, and maybe a little stretchy. Well, let me tell you, I won't buy it again. Fortunately I tried to do free hand quilting on a test piece. It would not move at all on my machine. I really had to pull to get it to do anything and I wasn't ready to go through all that. So I decided to put on my walking foot and just stitch in the ditch. That went very well. No puckers, no folds. But then I decided just to pull the back up over the front and stitch it down for a binding. Well, this stuff pulled and wouldn't lay straight and twisted. Uhggg! I guess I'll just stick with cotton from now on. :)

Guilty

2009-04-16T12:10:00.002-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted anything for a while. We were out of town for the long Easter weekend and also have plans to be out of town this coming weekend. I've been working on a quilted tote for a couple of hours each night (well, maybe I only work on it 45 minutes a night, but sit there looking at it while watching TV the other 1.25 hours).

I have pictures coming of last weekend, no quilts, just family & friends. Hopefully I'll upload them tonight (if I can beat DD to the computer after dinner).

Out of Town for the Weekend

2009-04-10T14:26:00.000-05:00

Just a note to let all my friends know I'm out of town for the weekend. Be back home on Monday.

Blueberry Crisp....YUM!

2009-04-04T07:24:00.002-05:00

Every summer I buy 40 pounds of blueberries from Michigan and freeze them. Obviously, we love blueberries. This morning I got up and made two blueberry crisps. One for us and one for the man and wife (as a thank you) who are helping Katie and I with her Science Fair project.

Can you eat blueberry crisp for breakfast? With ice cream? Hmmm........

What a Ham!

2009-04-03T09:22:00.003-05:00

DD got all dressed up last Saturday night to go to the YMCA for a 3 hour shut in for 3rd and 4th graders. They were supposed to have a DJ, so she got all dolled up and came down to model her outfit. She had a great time with her friends, but was rather disappointed that the DJ was cancelled.

Beatles Concert

2009-04-03T09:18:00.004-05:00

Weds evening I went to a Beatles concert. No, the Fab Four were not there, but all of the 4th graders at my daughter's school put on a Spring Concert. They all had to wear white shirts and black bottoms. When the curtain came up, the stage was dark and slowly started to light up. As one, all of the kids pulled the sunglasses out of no where and started to sing "Here Comes the Sun". We loved it. DD is right in the front/middle next to the little boy. There's about 100 kids in the 4th grade class. The music teacher made all the little ties, they were just pieces of black fabric with a safety pin at the top. So cute.

The kids sang seven songs, including "Here Comes the Sun", "Let it Be", Hey Jude", Blackbird", "Ob-la-di", and you guessed it, "Yellow Submarine". Most of the background music was pre-recorded, but one of the 4th grade boys accompanied the choir to "Let it Be" on the piano. He's very talented and the music teacher said he'd been taking piano for 4 years.

The Beatles were done before I really started listening to music, so I've never really been a fan of theirs. But DD has been so gung-ho about the Beatles that I said I would add some of their songs to our iPod. I do have the album "1" already and it's loaded on, but several of the songs that she knows aren't on that album. So I went on iTunes and was flabbergasted to see that the other Beatles albums aren't available for downloading. Huh.... So I went on eBay and found one that had the songs we were looking for. Should be coming in the mail early next week.

What was pretty cool was that before the concert started and people were still coming in, I stood up at my seat to look for another parent. I was amazed that I recognized 90% of the parents from other events, etc. Maybe not by name, but usually by their kid's names and it felt pretty cool to think that we've all be together supporting our kids for the past 5 years (including kindergarten) and that we'll continue to see each other for another 8 years. DD and I moved to this town when she was just 2 and we didn't know anyone at that time. Of course now I know people from church and other moms from Girl Scouts, dance, and gymnastics, but I hadn't realized that the school is such a big community within the bigger community. Pretty cool, huh?

Next week the 4th graders start learning to play the recorder (what we called the song flute in my elementary school days). I can't wait. :)

Erin's Baby Quilt Top Done

2009-04-03T09:16:00.002-05:00

I've been working on this baby quilt for the last couple of nights and this is what I've gotten done so far. I'm going to put a lavender border on it that matches the backing. I'll add the border before Sunday so I can lay it out for pin/basting at church after services.

I've just racked my brains trying to figure out where/how to hang my quilts so I can take good pictures of them to show you. I can't think of a single place in my house that has an entire wall that furniture isn't in front of. In past pictures, I've mostly just laid them out on the floor or on the bed, but I think that you can see so much more when they are hanging up (plus, there's not a lot of floor space and even then I'd have to vacuum up all the dog hair before I took any pictures). In the above picture, I have my DD holding it up. But she's not very big and even this baby blanket is bigger than her arms will reach. Oh well. Maybe its just another excuse for me to somehow get a sewing studio. Of course, that would mean adding on to the house...(vbg).

I'm already eying my next project. I bought a pattern and fabric for a really cool craft tote so I can carry around my quilting stuff. Fabric pictures to follow.

Erin's Baby Quilt

2009-03-30T20:28:00.005-05:00

Well, I started cutting out the fabric for the new baby quilt I'm making. Here's the fabric.

I didn't spend very much time over the weekend quilting. On Saturday I did hand sew on the binding onto my FL Shell Quilt (see previous post), but after that DD got up and we ran a bunch of errands and then I took her to go see Race to Witch Mountain at the movie theater. It was pretty good and I'm glad we went. We came home long enough for her to change clothes before I took her to a 3 hour shut in at the YMCA. She was pretty phyched to go and I know she had fun, but they discontinued a bunch of stuff that she was looking forward to.

And then it started to snow. And snow. And snow. It looked like alot as I was driving back from the Y, and I know that south of here got alot more, but when I went out to snow blow Sunday morning, there was only about an inch and a half. I started up the snow blower, but the snow was too heavy and wet and wouldn't "blow" anywhere. So I put the blower back in the garage and got out the shovel and had it done in about 20 minutes. Because there wasn't very much, it wasn't too heavy to lift, so it wasn't too bad.

After cleaning out the driveway, DD and I drove to IL to see my dad, who just got back from FL. We hung out with him for a little, then the three of us drove over to see my new niece, born about 4 weeks ago. I got to hold her for the longest time and even got to feed her! Such a sweet sweet baby. We all went out for dinner at Chili's and then took Dad back home and then DD and I drove back to Port Washington. It was a long day.

Florida Shell Quilt Done!

2009-03-28T09:39:00.003-05:00

Well, I just finished hand sewing on the binding on the Florida Shell Quilt. I really like the machine quilting I did. Funny thing happened though, when I had about 5 minutes of quilting left, my needle broke. I think it developed a burr and then the thread caught and pulled it out of alignment and so it hit the plate and broke. So I took the quilt off and was replacing the needle when I realized that I had forgotten to cover the dog feet (my feet don't lower, there's a plastic cover that goes over them). So I pulled out the cover and put it on the machine for the last 5 minutes. When I looked at the back after I was done, those 5 minutes of quilting really stuck out like a sore thumb. Adding the plastic cover made the quilt move smoother, but it also made the tension change. I never would have thought of that. Huh....

I'm not sure what my next project is going to be. One of the ladies at work had her baby last week and I bought the fabric for her baby quilt a few months ago, so I could start that. Or the only son of my best friend is getting married in December and I bought fabric for a wedding quilt for them. The baby quilt will definitely be needed sooner as we're going to have a shower for her at work (we were going to have it several months ago and her doctor ordered her to bed rest before we could pull it off).

Speaking of machine quilting, I ordered the Pajama Quilter video and Patsy Thompson's video, so I have some stuff to watch today and tomorrow. We're expected to have 4 - 7 inches of snow in the next 24 hours, so good thing I'll have stuff to do!

I have 4 Girl Scout quilts to put the binding on so I'd better get at it.

Have a good weekend!

Florida Shell Quilt Update

2009-03-25T07:05:00.003-05:00

Over the weekend I got the top for my Florida Shell Quilt put together. I think it is turning out pretty nice. I've been machine quilting is (meandering) for the past several evenings and am about half done. So hopefully, by the end of this weekend it will be done!

Of course, my dad left FL for his northern home yesterday, so now it won't go to FL until next fall. But I can always give it to him for his birthday (July), so it won't be all bad.

Saturday DD and I went to West Bend. They have a quilt store there that I had never been to and have been wanting to go (West Bend is about 30 minutes away). Although DD made the grumpy noise about going to a quilt store, the first things she did was say "there's no material here that are my colors!" I pointed her to the next aisle over where she found the brights. She picked out a backing fabric and was soon pulling out coordinating fabrics for the front. I bought her FQ of each of her fabrics and 2 yards for the backing. Maybe this weekend she'll want to work on it.

Sunday at church I made a final plea for someone to take my piano. I just never play it. I got it (for free) from the church about 5 years ago when they were replacing the piano with a new one. I had a notice put in the bi-monthly newsletter a few weeks ago and although I got a couple inquiry phone calls, nothing ever panned out. I was going to put it on Craigs List if necessary, but was a little concerned over who might be showing up at my door. Well, someone at church (who I know well) said they were interested and on Sunday afternoon her husband and DF came and picked it up. Now I have room for an official cutting table! I'm thinking of completing changing my dining room (which currently houses my computer and bookshelves and no dining table anyway) into a sewing area. But I think for now I'll just add the cutting table.

Last night was Girl Scouts and I had some quilts that I had bound to give back to the girls and got 4 more quilts that need the binding. I got a lot of complements from other moms on how excited the girls were to make the quilts. How fun is that! Maybe I'll put together a workshop later this summer and see if girls want to come and quilt some more. I think I could use the church so we wouldn't have to go out of town and we could just order in pizza instead of cooking. Sounds like an idea. Hmmm......

Have a good rest of your week!

St Patricks Day Fabric???

2009-03-16T22:12:00.009-05:00

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that I don't "do" green. I don't wear green (or yellow). I'm a pink, purple, blue type of gal. But I was scanning fabrics online last week and this green fabric called my name. Maybe it was just the Spring colors and we've been through such a dull grey/brown winter and my mind has been begging for some Spring colors. Maybe my mind was thinking ahead towards St Patricks Day (but I suspect not as I was so focused on the GS campout that I couldn't have told you that St Patricks Day was even this week).

Anyway, the fabric arrived on Saturday before we left on the GS campout and all I had time to do was bring it inside and leave it UNOPENED on the kitchen counter so that it didn't sit in the mailbox overnight. I opened it last night and fondled it fondly (funny that those two words come to mind) and realized that it had a bunch of green in it.

I often buy fabric in project sets (stuff that goes together) without any notion of what pattern or project I'm going to buy it for. It makes it very difficult to store it in my stash -- I want to keep the fabrics together (heaven forbid that I can't find the fabric that goes together later). I've started storing each fabric set in tubs, but now the tubs have taken over my living room. I kid you not! Now, many of them are shoe box sized tubs, but when you start to stack them 8 tubs high, they start to fall over.

I've got to do something. I have a plan, but its going to take some organization of furniture and stuff destined for the summer garage sale or Goodwill bin. And that will take me away from sewing. (big sigh) But I think it will be worth it. I might even (almost) have a sewing room when I get done.

Wonderful Weekend with the Girl Scouts

2009-03-16T21:32:00.004-05:00

What happens when you take 14 Girl Scouts up to camp and teach them how to quilt? You get 14 very different quilts and 14 very excited girls.

On Saturday afternoon 14 girls ages 9-10 and 5 adults went up to the local Girl Scout camp and as a main event, made quilts. I developed the lesson plan and bought all the fabric, batting, thread etc. We had 13 sewing machines so only two girls had to share.

On Saturday afternoon we discussed the history of quilting and I showed them some different designs of quilts (a Double Wedding Ring, a Log Cabin with applique flowers and vines, and the Trip Around the World that I made). Then after S'Mores we pulled out the fabric. Each girl got to choose her backing fabric first (there were 20 backing fabrics, so even the girl who went last got to make a choice), then we went in backwards order for them to pick their 42 6" squares for the front of the quilt. I was amazed at the different designs and the girls were incredible in their creativity.

Here are some of the designs laid out on the floor prior to any sewing.

I took each girl's picture with her layout and printed it out over night so that in the morning when we started sewing that she could duplicate her layout again (we had to pick up all the fabric because we had to layout the cot sized mattresses and sleeping bags so we could sleep on the floor).

The other adults were wonderful helpers, even those with limited sewing experience. And I think they all learned how to make quilts, too, even though they didn't actually complete one themselves.

What I didn't anticipate was that we would have so many machine problems. I pretty much ran from machine to machine fixing problems. I suspect that many of the problems were caused by user error, but a few of the machines were just flaky.

By the end of the afternoon, 6 girls had fully finished quilts and everyone else's quilt was at least pinned so that she could do the tieing and I will finish the edging of anyone who brings their quilt back to the next GS meeting. I brought three quilts home with me to finish the edging with the tieing already done.

My DD (the rainbow colored quilt above pictured sideways) is so proud of her quilt. She told all the kids at school today that she made a quilt over the weekend and asked tonight if she could take it to school to show everyone. I think she'll take care of it since she knows first hand how much work it was to put it together.

I got a quilt magazine in the mail today and was glancing through it while dinner was cooking. At first, DD was like, "oh, another quilting magazine" like oh, no, how stupid, but then about 15 seconds later she was leaning over it and saying, "oh, I want to see this so I can decide how to make my next quilt". I think she has the bug. So funny.

The weekend was a great success!

More About Girls Scouts

2009-03-12T14:44:00.002-05:00

Well, it's taken me a lot more time to cut all the fabric than I anticipated (of course, we've been out of the house every night this week with Camping Club meeting, Girl Scout meeting, and gymnastics). I finally finished the fabric last night around 11pm. Tonight after work I'm going to WalMart to pick up the rest of the things we'll need (batting, thread, pins, needles, etc).

I hope that tonight I can get the batting all cut out and get the felt shapes all cut out (see post below). I bought EQ6 so I plan to put together some simple blocks to give me the shapes for the felt. And of course, I still need to finish the laundry that I started yesterday (yes, I know I said I was going to do it on Monday, but it didn't get downstairs until Weds morning).

Then Friday night I'll put together the portable design board I'm making. I already pulled all of the magazines and a couple of books that I want to take. I still need to find all of my rulers.

Saturday morning I'll play with my new photo printer and camera and make sure they all work well together.

And of course, all of my own equipment needs to be labeled!

We're dropping off the dog at 12 noon on Saturday and meeting the other GS at 2pm. I think I will be ready. Uhhgggg! Anything else????????

Girl Scout Camp, Here We Come!

2009-03-09T11:32:00.005-05:00

Well, my company has come and gone and I even got some time Sunday afternoon to play with fabric. As you may know, I volunteered to teach DD's Girl Scout troop how to quilt and the campout is next weekend. So I've been buying fabric so that these 14 girls (ages 9 - 10) can make their own quilt. They all voted about what kinds of colors they wanted and so I went out and found fabric. Yesterday afternoon and evening I sat in front of the TV and cut all the backings out (1 yard long x selvage to selvage wide) and got about half of the 6" squares cut out. I hope to have the other half done tonight (although I need to buy groceries after work and do laundry). I'm waiting to hear back from WalMart about possible donation that I will use for batting and thread. Hopefully I'll hear today.

Here's what I have planned: (This is an overnight from Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon)

Saturday afternoon - evening
- 15 minutes of the history of quilts, discussion on types of quilts (whole cloth, pieced, applique, crazy, etc)

- 1 hour Design time - each girl will get to pick one of the backings, then find 42 (6 x 7) squares that she wants to use in her quilt front. I have a digital camera and will take a picture of each girl with her design to give her so that she can remember the layout she chose - with 14 girls, there won't be enough room for everyone to layout their quilts all at the same time. It will also give them a memory as I want the girl in the picture, too.

Sunday
- Sewing and quilting/tieing - there will be 5-6 adult women, including me, so I'm hopeful that I won't get too stressed out running from girl to girl.

Stations (since not every girl will have her own machine, some of the girls will need other things to do while waiting their turn and to give girls a chance to get up and stretch and do something)

Design a block - I'm making a small design wall and will have felt shapes cut out that they can design a block - squares, triangles, rectangles, etc. I'll take pictures from their final design on that too.
Needle threading - I'll have different sizes of needles and they will try to thread all the different needles and notice how hard it is for the ones that have really small eyes.
Measuring - I'll have a bunch of different rulers, including yardsticks, tape measures, etc. and they will have to measure and cut their own yarn for the tieing.
Quilt Books and Magazines - I'll bring a bunch of my own books and they can look at what the industry is doing.

The only thing that may be a problem is that I may be the only one with a walking foot. Since I'm planning to have the backing pulled up over the front and then sewed down, each of them will need that. I've thought about doing it pillowcase style and turning them inside out, but would need the walking foot for that, too, to make sure that the batting is caught inside. Any ideas? If I have to, I can do them myself on my machine in about 10 minutes each, but that would take alot of time in total.

I'm organized in my head, but know that I still have a lot of things to do before we leave Saturday. Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great week!

Time Away from Quilting...

2009-03-04T10:55:00.002-06:00

I've got company coming this weekend, so I've started to clean my house. I might be done in time for Easter (bg). I've let the house cleaning get really bad since Christmas and I need to get it under control. So quilting is going to have to go on the back burner for the next few days and until my company leaves on Sunday. Then its back to the fun stuff!

Florida Sea Shell Throw

2009-03-01T18:47:00.003-06:00

I got started this weekend on the throw I'm making for my Dad in Florida. He comes back up north at the end of March, so I have a real incentive to get this done quickly. I bought the fabric (Wilmington's Weekend Getaway) while in Florida during our Christmas vacation in December.

This throw will be a big one that he can pull over himself while napping in front of the TV.

DD had another friend spend the night Saturday night, so they have been very busy all day today playing on the computer. I laid out the blocks on the living room floor early this afternoon to look at how they would look and went back to cut out more blocks from the panel fabric. I came back 30 minutes later and the two girls were playing Barbie in the middle of the fabric. They weren't using the fabric in their play, just sitting on it and messing up the layout. I couldn't believe it. I know that lots of people have trouble with pets who want to be part of the action, but I didn't think I'd have that problem with a couple of 9 year old girls!

Otherwise, this was a much better weekend than the last one. Ran a few errands on Saturday (including a trip to the library where I came away with 20 pounds of books) and went to church this morning. Delivered a few more Girl Scout cookies to DD's customers and then took Molly, our 3 year old Golden Retriever to the pet store, which has a do-it-yourself bathing area. Molly loves to roll in other animals (mostly wild animals) poop, and with the deer and rabbits that roam in our backyard, she's been smelling pretty ripe. I couldn't stand it long enough to wait for an appointment at the groomer, so off we went to clean her up. It was a wild experience, but well worth the small amount of money it cost. And now she smells nice and clean.

Trip Around the World is DONE!

2009-02-28T15:28:00.003-06:00

I got up early this morning and hand sewed the binding onto the back of my Trip Around the World quilt. I stated this quilt in October at a quilting retreat and now its done! I had alot of starts and stops with this one, mostly between major steps (flimsy done, then waited 3 months to get it to the long arm quilter, back from the long arm quilter and waited 3 weeks before putting on the binding, etc). I think I'm going to name it Pilgrim's Trip (the retreat was at a place called Pilgrim Center in Green Lake, WI).

Here's a close up of the quilting. I'm glad I went and had a professional quilt it for me. I would have been just sick if I had tried to do it myself and screwed it up.

I'm really pleased with it. These are definitely MY colors. You know how it is, some colors just speak to you.

On to my next project, a throw for my dad in FL.

Need to Work on Something Else....

2009-02-27T10:16:00.002-06:00

I've spent several days working on some stupid HST using the Thangles paper method. Uhhhgggg! I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The first set I did turned out great. I was amazed. This second set has been awful. Same fabric, same size triangles, but the corners don't meet and at this point, I think I'm going to have to tear them all apart and put them together again, 'cause nothing fits together. And since that seems like alot of work, I just threw the whole thing into the bin I have for that project and got out something else.

I really want a good method for HST because I really want to do several quilts with those shapes and I thought that the Thangles BOM would be a good way to learn how to do them. I guess I'll have to figure out what I did wrong or find another method.

I decided to put the binding on my Trip Around the World quilt. It came back from the long arm quilter about 2 weeks ago and I really want to see it done. I took it with me to church Weds night for Ash Weds service and before the service I cut off all the extra batting and backing that was still attached. So now I have a clean item that I can manage on my machine.

I had put aside the fabric that I wanted to use, so it wasn't hard to find it and cut the pieces, miter them together and iron them in half. But do I have the right color thread? No, I do not. So a trip to WalMart is on the agenda for after work today to get maroon colored thread (we need dog food, too, so I am multitasking).

Yesterday I ordered EQ6. My dad bought me quilting software about 15 years ago (and 5 computers ago) that I enjoyed playing with. I have no idea what it was called or where it is now. But I thought it was time to be a little more creative so I ordered it.

Not much else going on this week. DD has a couple of long term assignments coming up: the dreaded SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT and a Ancestry project. I always hated science fairs when I was in school because I knew that my projects were really dopey and I never had a really cool one (well, the volcano one was cool) like some of my classmates that did electricity and stuff. I searched on line yesterday for some ideas for a 4th grade science fair project. Of course, I was doing it by myself, DD was watching Hannah Montana or some other show and wasn't interested in finding a science fair project because that's not due for another week and a half. Any ideas?

I'm hoping that this weekend is better than last and that I get some quilting done. I think when I get the binding on that I will start a new project. That will motivate me!

Lousey Weekend.....

2009-02-23T13:43:00.003-06:00

How come when you have all these great thoughts of what you're going to accomplish on a weekend, then the weekend comes and you don't get 10% done that you wanted to?

Saturday morning started out really good (although the weather was bad). Since I work full time, I don't let a little weather slow me down on running all my errands on Saturday, so as soon as DD got her butt out of bed, off we went. Ran several errands in the driving snow (did get to the re-sale shop and got 5 more plaid shirts), including picking up Girl Scout cookies that she sold and we needed to deliver. Got home, unloaded the car with GS cookies (which filled up my family room) and spent two hours sorting and bagging all the orders. Many of the cookies were to people at church, so we (okay, I) really wanted to get them all ready to take to church on Sunday morning.

After the GS cookies, I decided that I really needed to sweep the kitchen and other linoleum floors downstairs as the dog hair (we have a Golden Retriever) was really getting icky. From there it seemed only the right thing to do to run the vacuum on the rest of the downstairs. Housework has always been my downfall and Saturday was no exception. DD did help as she unloaded and then loaded the dishwasher.

About 4pm, I decided that I should go out and snowblow the driveway (it had been snowing a little over 12 hours and I had about 5 inches in the driveway). I got the snowblower running and on the first trip down the driveway my boot hit a patch of ice and I went down with a thud right on my tailbone. There was no windmilling of the arms, no real slipping, just a powerful whump as I landed on my butt. It was quite painful and as I was laying there in the driving snow in the late afternoon dusk, I wondered how long I would lay there before someone came to help me. I quickly realized that freezing to death would probably happen first, so I rolled over to see if I still had use of my lower extremities (I did!) and pushed myself back to my feet. I pushed the snowblower back up to the garage to get it re-started (it has electric start which means that I don't have to pull the cord, but I do have to plug it in and push the button for it to start). For some reason, a split second before I fell, the snowblower engine died. I got it restarted and proceded to blow the driveway. I fell a second time (same patch of ice), but I had time to twist when I fell, so I landed on my hip instead of my butt. So after 20 minutes of snowblowing and using the shovel where the snowblower won't fit (on my front porch and steps), I dragged my butt inside to proceed to whine about how bad I felt and that I couldn't go pick up DD's overnight guest because I didn't want to go back out and even sit in the car. DD called her friend and said friend's mom offered to have my DD spend the night at their house and even come pick her up.

I was in second heaven. I would have all night to myself! But could I sit there by the sewing machine and sew? No, only about 15 minutes at a time, then I needed to get up and walk around. So I got the one block for the Thangles BOM put together. Of course, I found an error in the directions for the block which means that the BOM kits I have do not have enough of one of the fabrics (its the 3 piece block in the upper left on the photo in the previous post). It should be aqua on three corners and brown only on one corner.

Sunday I picked up DD on the way to church. She had a total attitude (although she was good with her customers) with me and of course, by this time, the last thing I wanted to do was more GS cookies. But we finished and only came home with about 10% of the church orders unclaimed. Because she had mouthed off, she was grounded to her room for the rest of the day, other than homework that she had to get done and a dinner party that had been scheduled (with my friends). When it was her bedtime, I started to go upstairs to tuck her in and she met me at the top of the stairs and said she was okay and that I didn't have to come up stairs (remember, I'm still really sore from my fall the day before). I should have been suspicious, but I made her promise me she would go right to sleep. An hour and a half later when I was heading upstairs (my slippers make a lot of noise on the linoleum) she heard me coming and started making minor crashes and running around. So when I got to her room, she was in bed with the blanket pulled over her but the light was on and she still had her glasses on her face. I told her how disappointed I was and how I guess I couldn't trust her when she promised me something and what would Grandpa and Aunt Jennifer say when I told them what she had done. She starts bawling and I just ignored her and continued to get myself ready for bed.

This morning she asked me what Aunt Jennifer said. So now I know who she's worried about disappointing -- not me!

So that was my weekend. I'm still really sore and think I'm going to call it a day pretty soon and go home and take some more Aleve and maybe sit in a hot tub for a while. I don't think anything is broken because now it doesn't hurt to sit down (I DO have a lot of padding back there) and I think its just muscle aches.

Maybe I should be glad to be back at work....

What the Heck Have You Been Up To????

2009-02-21T06:44:00.007-06:00

Sorry its been so long since I last posted. Its been a very busy week. But I was thinking about you all.

Early in the week, I worked on these two pillowcases for my Dad. These are the first pillow cases I've done, so the experience was a new one. He actually picked out the fabric for these at a quilt shop I dragged him to last October. Yes, I know the main fabric is on sideways, but when I got down to cutting it all out, there wasn't enough fabric for two pillow cases if I wanted the design to go the right way (who knew when I bought the fabric that it would matter -- apparently not the lady who sold me the fabric and she knew that I was making pillow cases!). Anyway, these are going out in the mail today.

Last Saturday I went shop hopping and while at the LQS I picked up 3 block kits for the Thangles BOM that the shop is sponsoring. So here's the first block that I've been working on. Its a double block -- a block within a block. Two more to go before I put those away and work on something else.

The "something else" has been going around and around in my head all week. I've got loads of fabric that I've bought for the past 6 months with "projects" in mind. I'm thinking I'd better work on a quilt for my dad in FL before he comes back for the summer. I bought a bunch of Florida fabric -- shells, palm trees, etc, when I was in FL at Christmas time, so I'm thinking that those warm weather fabrics might help me out of my mid-winter blues.

Speaking of mid-winter blues, it snowing outside. Snowing SIDEWAYS!. I'm only about a quarter of a mile from Lake Michigan and the snow is blowing off the lake from the east. Now as most people in the midwest know, weather here comes in from the west, or sometimes from the south. But rarely from the east. It must be some kind of swirl coming back around off of the lake. And its not a diagonal. No, its pretty much horizontal. We're supposed to get 3-5 inches today up here north of Milwaukee. South of Milwaukee is supposed to get 5-7". Yuck!

Tuesday night I went to DD's Girl Scout meeting to tell the girls what we'd be doing at the campout next month (relax, the campout is in a winterized building). I showed them some quilts that I had done and showed them the sample quilt like they were going to make. They are really excited. There's 15 signed up. I had them fill out a questionnaire on color preferences and I was really surprised that many of them picked animal print and green! I have no idea where the green came from. Even my own daughter (who is a very pink and purple person) voted for green. So I've been looking at animal fabric both on line and in some stores. I talked to a lady in the fabric department at WalMart last night about them donating fabric or thread or batting to the cause. She told me to call during the week and talk to the department manager. So I guess I'll have to wait until Monday. But even if I get the fabric for $3.00 a yard, the fabric alone will cost almost $100. Plus the batting, thread, pins, etc. I know the girls have money in their account, but it just seems like alot. So I'm hoping to get a bunch donated.

I did hear from a lovely lady in GA who works for the GS and runs quilt workshops with the girls in GA. Wow! What a wonderful operation. It would be cool if this campout expanded that far, but I need to take it one step at a time. Here's the link to the group in GA. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OhSewEasyQuilters/

Later today we're supposed to go get DD signed up for summer softball and then pick up the Girl Scout cookies that we sold and get them ready for delivery. So we'll be out trudging through the snow and cold both today and tomorrow. Before I knew how much snow we were going to get today, I thought we'd drive over to Madison and check out the quilt shops over there. But with this kind of snow, I'd hate to get stuck 100 miles away from home, so I think we'll just stick close.

Well, that's all that's new in my part of the world. Hope you all have a wonderful, warm weekend.

Girl Scout Sample Quilt Done

2009-02-15T07:39:00.003-06:00

I got the sample quilt that I made for teaching the local Girl Scout troop how to quilt done. Here's the unquilted top.

And here it is all quilted. The blocks are 6" finished blocks. For the binding, I just pulled the back around to the front, folded it over and sewed it down by machine. I don't know what that method is really called, but I call it the diaper method. I had all the fabric in my stash, so it was just a matter of pulling it all together.

When I meet with the troop on Tuesday, I plan to give them a form to fill out for fabric preferences (ie pinks, blues, purple, animal, flower, etc). They will get to pick 2. Then I'll tally all the votes and depending on the turnout, get the fabric in the categories that got the most votes and pre-cut all the squares. Of course, when I made my sample I used the strip piecing method, but I think the girls will have more fun laying out different designs.

I don't think I'll worry about teaching them 1/4 inch seams. Not many machines/feet have good markings. Instead, I'll show them that its important just to have a consistent seam. I also don't think I'll make a big deal about making their corners meet. I want them to have fun doing this and not thinking that this is really hard and over their heads. Maybe I'll even do rectangles instead of squares (gee, does that mean I need to make a new sample?).

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. DD and I are going to a baby shower out of town today so not much time for sewing.

50's Sock Hop Party

2009-02-13T19:57:00.005-06:00

Isn't she cute?

Here's pictures of DD in her costume for the 50's Sock Hop party we went to last Saturday night. I got her costume last Halloween on e-bay when we bought her Halloween costume (she was a Japanese girl for H-ween). She has naturally curly hair, so it was really easy to make it do the up flip. She played a bunch of games and after dinner, danced and danced while the DJ spun the records (or CD's - I didn't get close enough to check it out!). She made lots of new friends (most of them under age 8) and I made friends, too.

We had a great time.

Bad Night....

2009-02-11T13:12:00.002-06:00

No quilting or sewing done last night. Instead, I got an email yesterday from DD's 4th grade teacher that we have a bit of a problem. Suffice it to say that our problem is HOME WORK and the HOME WORK is not getting done. So I spent 3 1/2 hours last night working on HOME WORK with my darling DD.

The most interesting part to me is that when I was in elementary school, I lived in Indiana. So we learned things about General Anthony Wayne, Battle of Tippecanoe, Salt Licks, etc. Well, DD has to learn about people I never heard of (Pere Marquette - okay, I know there's a Wisconsin State Park named that; LaSalle, Nicolet - okay, I know there's a High School near Milwaukee named that, etc). What I find is so interesting is that in today's society of very mobile families that the elementary curriculum is very localized in nature. Yes, 40 years ago when I was in 4th grade, the US was not as mobile. Now however, society is very mobile and how will DD ever need to know who was the first white man in Wisconsin? Is that any more relevant than the first white man in Indiana (and I have no idea who that was)? But a fully 50% of her grade for the social studies test is based on the names and accomplishments of these Wisconsin explorers. Very interesting.

Of course, I did get up early this morning and took the backing for the Bento Box quilt (which I had to piece and was sitting on the back of my couch for the past 2 weeks) and ironed it so that its ready to get sandwiched. I had to at least touch some of my fabric. I didn't want to get withdrawal or something.

Have a good one.

Teaching the Next Generation to Quilt

2009-02-10T09:08:00.003-06:00

DD is in our local Girl Scout troop. I've always been the mom who helps out with the camp outs and other outdoor activities.

Well, I volunteered to teach the troop how to quilt. So the troop leaders and I decided to take the girls up to the GS camp (about 1/2 hour away) for an overnight camp out with a major theme of learning to sew/quilt. I'm expecting that we'll have anywhere from 8-14 girls age 9/10. I have 3 machines, the camp has 4 machines, and we'll find out how many of the girls can bring their machines.

My plan is to have them understand the historical nature of quilts (I'll bring along a couple of my older quilts for show and tell), have time for them to do design work, then sew together a simple lap quilt and tie it. I'm hoping we can get it all done.

I'm putting together a couple of samples so they can see what they will be doing and so that I can get some votes on colors and fabric themes so I can go shopping for the fabric for them. I started the first sample last night after I spent about 20 minutes going through my stash. I found a fun fish fabric that I used as a backing for a baby quilt I made several years ago and some solids to coordinate. I need to get the sample done by next Tuesday for the GS meeting. Pictures to follow.

Any ideas or hints on teaching children to sew? Several of them learned basic machine sewing at summer school last year, so not everyone will need machine instruction. Also, has anyone hit up fabric stores (like Jo-Ann's or WalMart) for fabric for a project like this?

Thanks and have a great day.

Laurel

Whirly Giggle Done!

2009-02-09T07:01:00.006-06:00

Well, I got the Whirly Giggle quilt done last night. I still want to throw it in the washer and dryer to get some of the stiffness out (and let the batting crinkle up a little) and sew on the label, but its now a quilt by all other names.

Here's some close ups of the quilting. I machine quilted it free hand. I drew all the lines on using templates and then just followed the lines. I don't know if I'll ever get good enough to machine quilt without the lines.

Yesterday was great. DD and I played hooky all day; we didn't go to church and we stayed in our PJ's all day. That's probably why I got the quilt all done. Then at 11:30pm last night when I finished it, I went and did my taxes on line. So that's another thing taken care of.

Saturday was a busy day for us. DD had a friend spend the night Friday night and she had to be home for her piano lessons at 8am. So we were out of the house early. Ran a few errands and then had a pedicure (DD had her fingernails painted). The weather was great, so we picked up smoothies and then I dragged her to two quilt shops (in all fairness, she did have her DS - that's a game boy, not a son - with her). I was looking for one fabric of each of two lines that I bought earlier last week and hopefully, quilting stencils for the border of the Whirly Giggle quilt (I didn't find any of the fabric or stencils that I was looking for) Did quite a bit of damage at the first one and only bought a coordinating fabric at the second shop. We had a quick lunch in Cedarburg where they were having their winter festival with ice sculptures being carved on the sidewalk. I felt sorry for them as it was 50 degrees and everything was melting. We drove back home and ran more errands (WalMart and oil change). Then Saturday night we went to a 50's Sock Hop party with the Wisconsin Camping Association. DD was dolled up in a poodle skirt, saddle shoes, and a flip hair-do. She was soooo cute and had such a good time running around with the other kids (they had games for the kids). They had a DJ for after dinner and she danced and danced and danced! So much fun!

Well, I need to get back to work and take care of business.

Laurel

Whirly Giggle and the Tooth Fairy

2009-02-04T09:27:00.003-06:00

Sorry I don't have a picture of the Whirly Giggle quilt here today. I got all of the figures outline quilted and last night I started on the open white spaces. I decided I wanted to show movement with my quilting and thought of all those windmills turning. So I'm quilting circles in the white spaces as if the windmills are spinning. I had half of my kitchen dragged out to the family room auditioning plates, saucers, cups, bowls, lids, etc to make the right sizes for the concentric circles. I actually am using the top to a Phily Cream Cheese container for the smallest circle. Last night I got 6 of the 12 blocks done, so I should be able to get the last six done tonight. Then I'll just need to figure out how to quilt the borders. I'll post a picture when I get a chance.

I've been very busy at work this week traveling to visit suppliers. These are 3-6 hour trips (including travel time) so I haven't had a lot of time in the office getting that work done and now its piling up.

On Monday evening, DD lost a tooth while we were eating dinner. She had mentioned that she had a loose one earlier that day, but I figured we had a week or two before it would come out. But no! While we were discussing the plans to put the tooth under her pillow, she told me that some of the kids at school said that there was no Tooth Fairy and that it was just parents leaving the money and putting the tooth in the bottom of the garbage can. I asked her what she believed and she said she wasn't sure. So anyway, we did the whole ceremony with the tooth in the Tooth Pillow under her pillow. After she went to bed, I got a one dollar bill out of my purse and put it on my dresser so that I could swap it out later. Only I forgot to make the swap before she got up. The next morning she came running into the bathroom where I was getting ready for work and said "The Tooth Fairy didn't come!" She was nearly in tears. I said that maybe the Tooth Fairy had a lot of teeth to take care of last night and she just didn't get to our house. DD replied "No, I think she heard us talking about not believing in her and so she didn't come." So I suggested that we both say really loud "I DO BELIEVE IN THE TOOTH FAIRY" and maybe she would come after all. So we did and the Tooth Fairy came last night. So funny. Its only a matter of time before DD figures out that the Tooth Fairy, Santa, and the Easter Bunny are all the same person. She's 9 (okay, 9 and a half) and I've been waiting for that magic to disappear. So far, so good.

Have a great rest of your week.

I Love Saturday Mornings...

2009-02-01T16:24:00.004-06:00

It used to be that you would find me in bed on a Saturday morning until 10 or 11am (pre DD). But now I find its my favorite time all week. I can sleep in until 6 or 7am, get up and do whatever I want until DD gets up (yesterday that was at 10am). I had 4 glorious hours of uninterupted sewing time.

I got the Whirly Giggle top done and this morning I took it to church to baste (they have such nice, big tables there). So its already to begin the quilting process. I have two weeks until the shower at work, so I have plenty of time to quilt it and put the binding on. I'm so ahead, I've shocked myself!

Have a wonderful weekend all. We're on our way to a Super Bowl party for the evening (even if we don't care who wins).

Laurel

New Whirly Giggle Quilt

2009-01-29T06:54:00.006-06:00

Well, folks, its been a busy week here in Wisconsin. Still very cold, but no snow at least.

Work and life have been very hectic this week with something going on after we get home from work every night. Tuesday night was Girl Scouts and last night we had a chili pot luck at church (yes, yours truly took a big pot of chili and a pan of corn bread). So I have not had a lot of quality time for quilting.

Sunday I started working on the Whirly Giggle baby quilt that I mentioned in my last post. Given all of the problems that others have had, I thought I would piece a few blocks using scraps before I started cutting out my Butterfly Fling (jelly roll). Here's my first attempt.

I wasn't too happy with them, the arms seemed so stubby and I had to trim a bunch. I went back to some of the instructions and decided to add the extra 1/2 an inch width to the white fabric and try it on another fabric (maybe if it was one that I might use, I'd do a better job at it). Here's what I got.

I had to trim about an inch off of each side. Too much waste. So I looked at the other examples and the instructions again and realized that I was putting the wrong side in the middle; the other blocks have the narrow edge in the middle. So, okay, let's try that, and readjust the white fabric one more time. This time it worked and I've made 6 blocks total.

I like them on point so I think I'm going to go that route. I need to make a bunch more and then decide if I'm going to put plain blocks inbetween or not.

Have a great day.

Laurel

Flagstone Quilt Done!

2009-01-25T16:46:00.005-06:00

DD and I just got back from our weekend away. We went to the Holidome in Fond du Lac for some relaxing time. They have a great pool and hot tub. I had a gift certificate for a free night. We really enjoy being pampered in the middle of the cold, dark winter.

While DD was sleeping in this morning, I finished sewing the binding on my flagstone quilt. Its done! Ta-da! Here's a couple of pix.

Saturday we ran a bunch of errands before heading to FDL. One of those errands was to drop off the quilt top for a Trip Around the World that I finished back before Thanksgiving to the woman who will machine quilt it. The quilt is queen-sized and one of the few full bed sized quilts I've ever done. I've done lots of baby quilts, several wall hanging or lap quilts, but I think this is only the 3rd full size bed quilt I've ever finished. I didn't have any pix before I took it over there, so I shot a few of it draped over the quilting frame while we were discussing the various options.

I know it looks a little funny at this angle all bent like that, but there wasn't room to take a bigger picture.

Well, I need to start a baby quilt. I have a baby shower for a woman at work in two weeks so I'd better get cracking. I think I'm going to try the Whirlygiggle (windmill) pattern that everyone is talking about. I have a bunch of Moda's Butterfly Fling that I bought last fall that will be perfect.

Have a good week everyone!

Laurel

Blue Bento Box Quilt Top Done!

2009-01-24T08:16:00.003-06:00

We're getting ready to go out of town for the weekend, but I wanted to show you the completed top of the Bento Box quilt that I got done last night. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and love the pop of red.

Have a good weekend all. We'll be back Sunday afternoon.

Laurel

Friday at Last

2009-01-23T16:55:00.002-06:00

Well, its been a long week.

Last night I finished quilting the border of the flagstone quilt and machined on the binding. We're going out of town this weekend, so I'll take it with me to hand sew the other side of the binding down.

Tonight I'm going to sew on the borders onto the Bento Box quilt (see post below). I've decided to go with a red inner border and then the dark blue outer border (I went and bought another 1/2 a yard of the blue). I'll post the results soon.

Katie and I are pretty excited about going to the Holidome in Fond du Lac for Saturday night. We love the pool and just getting away. I won the free overnight stay last year and since it expires in two more weeks, I thought we'd better go now.

Have a good weekend, all!

Laurel

Thursday - Not Much Going On

2009-01-22T08:30:00.002-06:00

Well, all, not much action going on here in Wisconsin. The weather finally got warm (we're supposed to get above freezing today) and there's slush everywhere.

Tuesday night I went to a class on long arm machine quilting. I wasn't too surprised about what I learned, but it was rather anticlimatic. I guess I'm looking for something that doesn't exist yet: a quilting machine that will quilt the entire top without having to forward the fabric and can have continuous all over quilting. Like diagonals, etc. I'll use my $20 rental credit one of these days, probably on the Bento Box quilt when I get the top all done.

I have a blue and pink queen sized Trip Around the World top that I completed before Thanksgiving. I had hopes of quilting it myself on a rental machine, but after the class I've determined that I don't want to use it to learn on. The LQS gave me a name of a local lady (no shipping cost!) who does really good machine quilting and I'm taking the quilt top over to her house on Saturday.

Last night I didn't get any quilting done. I feel a little bit guilty, but I'm a big fan of the TV show "Lost" and last night was the season premiere. Its one of those shows that you really can't sit and listen to (and who can do 100% listening when the machine is whirring away) and miss the visuals. So I veg'ed in front of the TV watching Lost and enjoying myself. DD was playing on the computer in the other room (she's very active in Webkinz) so I just sat there watching my show.

Tonight I plan to finishing the quilting on the flagstone quilt and at least get the binding sewn on so I can do the hand work this weekend. Yes, I'm already thinking about the weekend and not focusing on what I have to do today.

Laurel

Flagstone Quilt 80% Quilted

2009-01-20T06:07:00.004-06:00

Here's a pic of the progress on the Flagstone quilt. The entire top (minus the borders) is stipple quilted. It was alot harder than I remembered it being (moving the quilt around on my little machine). And its taken alot more thread than I imagined. I've just about finished my second big spool. I don't buy thread in the cones 'cause I just couldn't understand that you could go through thread so fast. I probably have to add bobbin thread every 45 minutes or so. This quilt (unfinished) measures 70" x 47". Its a big lap quilt.

As to finishing the quilt, I've just got the borders to quilt and then the binding.

Tonight I'm going to a long arm machine quilting class at my LQS. I'm really excited to go and learn this. I have a queen sized Trip Around the World that I want to quilt on a big machine and the class provides the know-how and a credit towards the rental.

Looks like we've had a rest from the snow for the past couple of days and by tomorrow its supposed to get above freezing. Wow! A regular heat wave!

Take care and stay warm.

Laurel

Sunday Night....Ahhhhhh

2009-01-18T21:22:00.002-06:00

Well, its Sunday night, DD just got put to bed, and my flagstone quilt is about 40% (machine) quilted. The border fabric came in and I picked it up on Friday after work. I put it on last night and this morning pin basted it after church. It looks awsome. Pics to come after I get it off of the machine.

I still haven't decided what to do about the Bento Box borders, but I really like the pop of the red, too.

DD pulled a fast one tonight. Just before going to bed, she announced that she has a sore throat (there's strep going around her classroom; of course, she hasn't been there in five days). She admitted that she had it earlier today (when she went to the movies with a friend) and yesterday (when she went swimming at the Y with said friend). Funny how she didn't mention it before doing any of those activities. Oh well.

Back to the grind tomorrow. Hope you all have a good week.

Laurel

Need Advise Fast....

2009-01-17T20:07:00.003-06:00

Okay, friends and family, I need some advise. I sewed all the blocks together for my Bento Box quilt and now its time for the border. I'm not much for borders, DO NOT want to do a pieced border, just something simple. I went to look at my blue fabrics again to choose the border and I caught a piece of Christmas fabric out of the corner of my eye. So, here are the pictures, do you like the blue border or the red one?

I also thought about putting the red and the blue together (red first, blue outside) for a double border, but I don't know if I have enough blue.

Thanks for any and all advise.

Laurel

Saturday Noon

2009-01-17T11:59:00.003-06:00

Okay, I got the additional three boxes done. Here's the final layout I decided on.

DD was picked up an hour ago to go to the YMCA with a friend for a few hours, so I'll continue to make progress.

Now to sew the blocks together!

Laurel

Saturday.... Yeah!

2009-01-17T07:31:00.004-06:00

Its the weekend at last. This has been a very tough week between Arctic cold weather and my car problems. But its early Saturday morning, I've already taken the dog out (okay, I let the dog out and waited by the door until she was ready to come back in), DD is still asleep (and probably will be for 2 more hours), and its finally getting light out. Looks like we got more snow last night, so later on I'll have to go out and snowblow, again.

Here's a pic I took of a proposed layout of the bento box quilt I started. I think I'll make 3 more "boxes" today and have a 9 block quilt. I laid this out in the dark (I don't have good light in my living room) the other night, so I'll take another look at it in the full daylight hours.

My border fabric for my flagstone quilt finally came in so I'll be adding the borders to that this weekend, too. I want to get that all done today so I can take it to church tomorrow to layout and pin baste the layers. I don't have a big table at home, so unless its small enough to tape to my glass coffee table, I take my quilts to church where they have big tables set up in the classrooms. And after nearly everyone is gone, I pin baste my quilt. Usually doesn't take more than about 30-40 minutes. Of course, DD is usually impatient all that time, but I'll have her bring a book to read while I'm doing that.

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend and keeping warm.

Laurel

Cold Enough to Freeze Spit

2009-01-15T10:06:00.004-06:00

Well its -4 degrees here this morning and colder than a witch's ..... well, you know what I mean.

This morning when I let Molly, our golden retriever out, she went out and peed, then turned around and looked at me as if to say, "boy is it cold out here". I let her back in and she came without a hesitation.

Its so cold here that school is closed today. DD is at after school care for the entire day. She took her DS and all of her games and is very excited to have a day to play with her friends without the school part. Tomorrow is also supposed to be very cold, so we'll see if they cancel school two days in a row.

My car needed a new battery on Tuesday, then last night (Weds) the "check engine" light came on as I was entering our small town. Of course, the garage that I had the previous repair done was already closed for the night, so we drove up there this morning on my way to work. I didn't want to take any chances that something major would go wrong since its so cold out. It didn't look like they had very much work there this morning, so one of the guys was able to get right on it. He came back out to me about 10 minutes later (I only had time to read two sections of the paper) and said that the "EGR" pin had been stuck but that he cleared the problem on the computer and couldn't get the problem to duplicate itself. So, with no charge, I was on my way.

Last night I pieced 8 quarters of a new Bento Box quilt (I'm still waiting for the border fabric to come in for the flagstone quilt). I just used some of my stash of blue fabrics. I'll post pictures of the 8 mini blocks soon. Now that I have the method down (I had to figure out my own sizes, etc since I didn't have a pattern and just copied what I had seen in others' pictures), I should be able to put together several more tonight.

Keep warm and take care.

Car Trouble and Cold

2009-01-13T11:14:00.013-06:00

Well, the last 24 hours haven't been very good. After picking up DD at after school care and running a few errands, my car wouldn't start when we got ready to leave the nearby grocery store. With a storm front coming in (snow 3-5 inches) and brutal cold coming our way this week, we bought a few staples and a couple of luxury items (ice cream). But when I couldn't get the car started (whirr, whirr, whiiirrrr, whiiiiiiirrrr), I decided that it would be best to walk home. Its about 8 city blocks and took us about 20 minutes. I carried three bags and she carried one with her backpack on. She had forgotten her boots at school so she had to schlep through the snow with her tennis shoes on.

I called a friend who offered to come pick me up, go over to the grocery store and help me jump start the car. We worked on it for about 20 minutes, then she called up one of her friends (a guy) who helped for another 30 minutes. No go. So she brought me back home. By this time, its 9:30 at night, the snow is falling and blowing hard and drifting and its getting colder by the minute. I called a tow truck company and left a message for him to call me so he could pick up the keys to the car and tow it to the local garage. He never called.

So this morning, after snowblowing 4-5 inches of snow off the driveway and the sidewalk in 13 degree weather, I called the local auto repair garage and explained the problem. They, of course, needed the keys. I told them I had to walk DD to school (8 blocks the other way) then I'd walk to the garage and drop off the keys. So that's what I did. When I entered the garage the tow truck guy (who didn't call me back) was standing there waiting for my keys (its a small town). I walked home (5 more blocks) and waited for the garage to call me back and tell me how much this little adventure is going to cost me. Well, I got the phone call a little bit ago and its almost $300! Ouch! So they had to order a special battery (naturally) and are waiting for it to be delivered so that they can install it and call me and pick me up to take me back up to the garage so I can pay the bill and then finally go to work! Whew!

So while I've been waiting this morning, I've uploaded the software for my new digital camera that I've been using for the past 2 months and then uploaded all the pictures. So I hope I can now put the quilt pictures (what you've all been waiting for) on this post.

This is the blue, brown, & cream flagstone quilt I've been working on for about a week now. Its a lap quilt and I just need to put on the boards and then the top is done. The quilt shop where I originally bought the fabric offered to buy a bolt of the fabric I want and that should be available in the next day or so.

Here's another picture so you can see the fabrics a little better. The fabric is mostly from Moda's Bistro line. I used scraps from fat quarters that I had bought specially for a table runner I gave as a Christmas gift (the friend picked out the fabric/colors).

I have also mentioned that I was going to try paper piecing. I got the pattern off the internet. Its called Triple Star and is an original design by Marcia Hohn.

I like the block but have determined that I did not like paper piecing. It did make it tons easier, but I still had trouble lining everything up. So I don't think I'll make another of this particular pattern. What I think I will do is find other star patterns that I've always wanted to try and make 8 or so different star blocks using the same colors and then put them all into a quilt. But in the meantime, the block and all the fabric is back in a storage bin waiting for the day when I want to tackle that.

Hope you all are keeping warm and healthy.

Searching for Fabric

2009-01-09T16:11:00.003-06:00

Well, I ran out of some of the fabric that I'm using in my flag stone quilt and went last night to look for more at the shop I originally bought it (found 3 out of 4). So today I went to two other shops during lunch (in the snow storm!) and struck out finding that 4th fabric. So back at work I started calling around and found it up in Sheboygan. I only need 1/4 of a yard, so they are holding it for me for tomorrow morning to pick up.

Of course, while I was at the other two quilt shops today I managed to buy more fabric for my stash. And some batting.

I'm working on a paper pieced block. Its the first time I've ever used that method. I can't say that I enjoy it, but want to see what this block looks like finished. If I like it, I might make 3 more to make a mini quilt.

But tonight Katie (dd) is having a friend over to spend the night, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to sew.

Weds 1/7/09

2009-01-07T14:42:00.000-06:00

Last night while Katie (dd) was at Girl Scouts I worked on my flag stone lap size quilt. I don't know while I call it a flag stone quilt, it is not the right colors. The pattern just reminds me of a flag stone walkway. Hopefully, I'll post of picture of the Work in Process soon.

After Katie came home, I made a huge pot of chicken vegetable soup for tonight's Soup & Salad dinner at church. I tasted it and it sure was good. I dropped it off at the church on the way in to work this morning. Hopefully there will still be some there by the time I get there after work.

I spent my lunch hour today looking for a quilt guild. I looked on line and will be calling the shops near home to see what they recommend. The last guild I belonged to was in 1985 in the north Chicago suburbs. I can't even remember the name anymore.