Wasteland Wallowing

Pillow Covers and Round Robins

2012-02-08T22:07:00.001-06:00

I made my first pillow cover for the Stocking Swap this weekend and quilted it while watching the Superbowl. This is my version of a cone flower pillow that I had seen on All People Quilt. When I first saw that pillow, I loved it, but didn't bookmark it so I had to hunt for the link so I could post it. However, it stuck in my mind and this is my version. I think they are both whimsical and I love whimsical things. I don't know if I will include this in my Stocking Swap or not. It may have to live here with me.

my version of a cone flower pillow

The back of the my pillow has a strip of fabric because I didn't have enough fabric - no, that's not the truth - I didn't cut out the fabric the correct way and when I discovered my mistake, then I didn't have enough fabric. This fabric is definitely directional so I could either add a strip or two or having everyone turn their heads to read the words on this pillow. You can plainly see what I decided to do. The strip of fabric is one that I rejected for the leaves because it was too similar to the flower base.

back of the cone flower pillow

Once the cone flower pillow was done, I got on the computer and started looking for more ideas for pillows so I could reference them here and everyone could have some inspiration from those pillows. However, I got the inspiration. I found an owl pillow made by Darci on flicker that I pinned to my pinterest board. (sorry, I can't find it again to give you the link) Then, I immediately had to make this pillow. I don't think I am obsessed with owls, but I sure have made a lot of owlish items here lately. I LOVE this little pillow!! He is just adorable. I haven't really decided if is a boy or girl owl, but since I have mostly boy dogs, things usually get called he more often that she. I even sometimes tell Fiona what a good boy she is or to go outside and be a good boy. I am a horrible mother. Anyway, back to this pillow. It goes together fast and easy and was a ton of fun. The "hood" "flap" or whatever you want to call that peaky point on the owls forehead is not attached to the pillow and flips up and down. That may have to be tacked down later so it will stay in one place.

I have been a busy, busy bee in the quilting room this past week. I finished quilting the rest of this quilt. I like how I quilted the heart centers. The only thing left to do, is to sew down the label on the back. It will have to wait until tomorrow night during TV time. Plus, I really don't have anything else lined up to work on tomorrow night.

Below is a close-up of one of the hearts. Thank goodness you can't see any stray pink marking lines from the heart rays. I think those are on the other end of the quilt.

My Bee Friends group are starting a wall hanging round robin this month. So, I made two different blocks and now I can't decide which one I want to use. I like this one below. It is very modern using Kona solids - even though the colors are waaay off in this picture. I drew out the blocks so I could paper piece the corners and center squares. The star points are free pieced so they aren't even or perfect.

This cake stand block is what I first thought of for my robin center. I wanted a 5 inch block, but couldn't find one. I drew it out on a graph card (I will talk more about these in a future posting) and thought I had everything down perfect. However, when I sewed it all together I really, really lost my bottom tips. I took it apart, made the white setting triangles a little larger and sewed it back together - - - and I still don't have my points on the bottom row. I have thought about starting all over, but I really don't want to do that. I think I may go with this block anyway because I really, really like it.

I may get to use both of these blocks if we don't have someone in our Bee Friends to make up the 4th spot in our third group. I could live with that. Even though it means that I will be working on two round robins, plus everything else I am doing, but it would be interesting to see what both these blocks inspire in someone else.

February Stocking Swap

2012-02-05T13:15:00.000-06:00

It's February and time for our next item on the swap list, a pillow cover. This months goal is to make a pillow cover for a 14 inch pillow form. To tell the truth, I have only made one pillow cover, that I can think of, in my life. I really messed up on the back part and desperately need to add a button or two to hold it together, but I still love my pillow.

Wonky Log cabin pillow

After reading through a few blogs about making pillow covers, I have compiled some measurements that will help us to get our pillow cover backs to come together - right now, over me - sorry, the Beatles just snuck in there. I haven't tried this out yet, that is what I plan on doing today while watching the Superbowl, so I will let you know for sure if these measurements don't work. The front of the pillow should be cut about 15 inches. You need to cut two backs 15" X 10" to make an envelope style back. I don't think that is the right name for the back. However, I can't come up with any other name off the top of my head. You know the type of back - the kinds that overlap in the middle of the pillow so you can slide your form easily inside. I will be posting more about pillow covers for this month, later. Now, I want to see what I can come up with in my quilt studio.

Weekend Works

2012-01-29T23:37:00.000-06:00

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted this quilt top. It was to be the background for my Ogallala retreat quilt. I put up some of my elements on the wall and decided that I really didn't like it. The background, which I was trying to make subtle, was just overwhelming the top completely. I left it all on my wall and walked away. I didn't know what else I was going to do. Tonight, I put up the rest of the orange curly cues and some yellow dots and I think it has come together.

It definitely needs more yellow dots, but I didn't want to put them up there yet. All of it is just pinned and I am not sure if I can get it down in one piece to iron everything on there. I used steam-a-seam 2 and I should be able to just press them on there, but I ironed it to my fabric before I cut it out and I think I took all the sticky away. I really need to read the package directions before I use a product. Tell me what you think. All of the symbols have a different meaning and some of them I can only have a set amount. I am going to move the third "flower" from the top left up a little bit, I think that's the one that fell off and I just slapped it back up right before I took the picture. I may need to make one more open leaf for the bottom left, for some balance, maybe. This is definitely a work in progress.

What else have I been working on this weekend? I made 5 more bags using Jenni's tutorial . If you haven't had a chance to check it out, click on the highlighted words and it will take you to her website. I also made this pin cushion from Bari J. Click on her name and it will take you to her blog. Scroll down and look on the right side for the pin cushion tutorial. I don't have it completely finished in this picture as you can tell by the pins sticking out the side, because I want to stuff it a little bit fatter. I don't have any more stuffing here at the house, so I will have to pick some up tomorrow after school. This is a large pin cushion. It measures about 4 1/2" X 4 1/2" X 2 1/2". I will add a button in the middle when I get it all stuffed. I copied down how to make this pincushion several months ago and finally got around to making one. I thought it was going to be harder to make than it was. It went together rather quickly and easily. I can't wait to try this one again.

What else have I gotten into this weekend? Well, since I am still trying to work through the quilt at the first of this blog, I don't want to start anything new, so I found this partially quilted top and finished quilting it. Well, I thought I was finished, but I think I want to add some more quilting to the middle of the hearts. I had previously quilted in a shiny purple metallic thread, the rays coming from the hearts. I just remember the thread breaking over and over again. I didn't want to machine quilt anything else it was soooo frustrating. I will show the rest of this quilt when I have it all finished. If I remember correctly, these hearts were leftovers from an online block exchange that were just laying around and I made this top with them.

The rest of the weekend accomplishments will have to wait to be shown until I take down the retreat quilt from the design wall.

Rugs and Bags

2012-01-25T21:03:00.001-06:00

The last of the mug rugs have been completed for this month. I re-did the rugs to go with this mug and I am much, much happier with this color combination. I have two mugs just like this so I made two rugs.

This last rug and mug combination was a great find! I found them in the Christmas clearance isle with a bag of stale marshmallows stuck inside. I just pulled those things out and threw them away and now, I have the perfect mug for a teachers gift or for someone that likes to draw. This mug is a portable chalkboard and even comes with it's own stick of chalk. So, of course the perfect rug had to be a larger chalkboard, bordered with a red/black and white plaid and either letters, numbers or both appliqued on the "board". The picture below is an example of just one of the three rugs I made.

Not only have I been making mug rugs, but I have also made some of these wonderful bags. They are a little bit addictive and I have no idea, at this time, what I am going to do with them. If you get a chance check out Jenni's tutorial and make some bags for yourself or your friends.

Mug Rugs Revealed

2012-01-22T12:18:00.000-06:00

It has been another crazy, busy week at school and doesn't look like it will let up for a couple more weeks. However, the good thing is that I get to come home and sew in the evenings. I have been working on making some mug rugs for the stocking swap.

Here are my two tic-tac-toe mugs (they call them hugs and kisses) and the two mug rugs I made to go with them. they also come with a marker so you can actually play the game on the mug! When I saw them at Tuesday Morning I fell in love with them and knew that I wanted to make mug rugs for them. I pieced the grid and then appliqued the x's and o and the words. These are machine bound in the same black and are about 5 1/2" X 9".

A closer look at the mug rug. I know I could have made it easier if I had just appliqued the grid, also, but I didn't want to do that. (actually, I didn't think about it until I had already made the entire two rugs)

My Maxwell House coffee mugs get a solids rug with a pocket on the right hand side. This one is a little more narrow - measuring about 4" X 8 1/2" - but this is a slightly smaller mug so it fits it. The colors are pulled from the pictures on the mug. I didn't want this one to be too complicated, even though the right side is a bit too plain. I don't know the exact purpose of a pocket on a mug rug other than to put this packet of coffee in to give it as a gift -which is my intention. However, I had seen someone else on the blogs - can't find exactly where, but I did see it more than once - make a pocket on their rugs and thought it would be a great idea to try it.

Here is the mug using the rug with the coffee snug in it's pocket. Okay, too much rhyming for today. I have a few more rugs to get to today, but before I leave, here is a the link to one that BeeBee made for the swap. If any of you want to share what you have made and want me to link it here, let me know or you can link it in your comments. Great job Beverly!!

Quilt-in Background Top

2012-01-16T23:21:00.000-06:00

This is what I have worked on all weekend. Well, not really allll weekend. I did take a couple of naps and played games on the computer and read blogs and finished a book. So, I don't want you to think I slaved over this one quilt top. This small top - about 36 inches square - is the background for some applique. Back in September I attended the Ogallalla Quilter's Society's annual fall retreat. The proposed project for that retreat was applique. Since applique is not really one of my favorite things, I decided to work on another project or three. However, watching people at the retreat work on this project, I found it really intriguing. I loved the concept, the story and the meaning behind the pieces along with the designer, Cinde. My friend Kathy and I decided that we needed to do a project, also, but we would wait until the January quilt-in at our guild. That quilt-in was this past weekend.

Kathy got to the church with a sketch of what she wanted to make and an armload of her hand-dyed fabrics that she recently snow and ice dyed. (way cool stuff) She just jumped in - which we learned at the first of the school year is her nature (can you say North?) - and began working on her quilt top. She got it all put together before we left Saturday afternoon. (sorry, I didn't take a picture of it. Maybe she will send me one and let me post it here later, hint, hint Kathy)

I showed up with my folder of the design elements, a couple of tubs of fabrics to choose from, another stack of fabrics that might include a background fabric and some steam-a-seam 2. I also arrived with no clue as to what I really want to do. My original intention was to use the light blue as my background. However, Friday night I had changed my mind and decided I wanted a pieced background of subtle monkey wrenches. (or churn dashes) I left the quilt-in Saturday with the middle squares put together. Today, I added the borders. I didn't know I was going to put those on there, but Saturday night while eating dinner I saw the two fabrics (waiting to go in the wash) and decided they would be the perfect borders for this quilt.

Now, I am making and cutting out all of my elements. Hopefully, I will have everything ready to go later this week and can begin the designing. Even though the quilt top could stand on it's own right now, it's just a work in progress, but I am pleased with my background.

Clarification

2012-01-12T22:59:00.000-06:00

I am glad that all your comments show up in my e-mail and then I can reply to you from there. I replied to one person, but then thought that the rest of you may have the same idea she had and I needed to make a public comment. However, for some reason, Blogger is not letting me see or make any comments. Soooo, here is what I wanted to say about the Stocking Swap:
I won't match up anyone until December, just to be on the safe side. I would hate to have my "partner" sign up now and then drop out along the way. That would mean I wouldn't get a stocking and that is just not fair. So, I decided that only those left playing at the end will be matched to ensure a fair and equal trade.
To me, that is the only way to do this kind of year long swap. Also, since I have listed everything from the beginning, if you want to work ahead or if someone joins in around June, it is all just fine. the only thing that really matters, is if you have it all finished in December. And that you have fun doing the swap.

So, you won't swap your mug and rug now, keep it in a safe place (or box) and then add to the collection every month. In December, you will pack up everything and mail it to the person, whose name I randomly draw for you. I hope this helps clear up my muddy directions.

Hope you are looking for that fun mug and pulling fabric to make a coordinating rug for it to sit upon.

Let it Snow, Again

2012-01-09T17:46:00.000-06:00

You never know about the weather in west Texas. A couple of days ago it was in the upper sixties/lower seventies and today - - - today we have another 6 - 8 inches of snow on the ground and more falling.

This was taken about 15 minutes ago over my back fence. You can't see the snow falling in this picture due to the angle of my camera.

This picture - taken 25 minutes ago - is out my back window and you can see how hazy it looks with the snow coming down. Little bitty snow flakes now. The flakes were big and fat on the way home from school.

Yes, we did have school today, but unlike every other school district around us, we were there all day. Most of my students weren't, but I was. My largest class of the day (83% there) was this morning when there was only about an inch of snow on the ground and the roads were slushy. I ended the day with only 28% of my class at school. I had no students at all from one of the high schools. (I teach students from two different high schools and they bus over during the day for my class). When you live in the desert, anytime it gets really cold here, attendance drops. Add in some snow (okay, a lot of snow today) and attendance is practically non-existent. We just aren't used to this. This has been our third major (more than 4 inches) snow storm in about one month. We had a large one in early December where we got to stay home and have a snow day. We had a beautiful white Christmas for the first time in about 18 years and now, another white day. Like most of the students, I am hoping that our school district calls for a snow day tomorrow, but they don't make those decisions until about 4 o'clock in the morning. So, I will have to wait until tomorrow to know if I get to stay home and sew or not. Oh, well, I will get up early to find out tomorrow.

Speaking of getting up early, I read until almost 1:30 this morning finishing a book and then the dogs woke me up at 2:30 barking. My first thought, was great, they are out of water. But, no, it had started raining and Taegan is afraid of thunder storms. So, they all joined in to wake me up. (except Irish, who slept through the entire night. Being deaf, has it's rewards)

Previous picture of Taegan sleeping on the floor

Now, it wasn't thundering, mind you, but Taegan knows that thunder and rain go together and so, when it starts to rain, he panics. I got my phone, set the alarm clock, grabbed a quilt and layed down on the couch to snuggle with my scardy cat dog. I also got McCallum and Fiona in the snuggling deal.

Fiona and McCallum out in the snow today. They would look at me and then I would start to take their picture and they would turn their heads.

Once Teagan was comforted and had moved out of my arms to the other end of the couch, I went back to my bed - much more comfortable than a couch with three dogs laying on you. However, the alarm went off really, really early and I am looking forward to an early night tonight and hoping for that snow day tomorrow where I can crawl back into bed and sleep for a couple extra hours.

edit: school just got cancelled for tomorrow! This is unheard of for them to cancel this early (6:00 p.m.) but I guess too many parents had complained and we are expecting more snow overnight. I am glad that I don't have to even set my alarm clock tonight. Enjoy . . .

Owl Pot Holder

2012-01-08T13:59:00.000-06:00

I made two owl pot holders this weekend. I got the pattern from this Sew We Quilt posting by Bea . I thought they were really cute and wanted to give them a try since one of the items to make this year for the swap was a pot holder. I messed up the first time in layering them for the final finishing since I didn't really read through the entire posting. Yes, I thought I could figure it out myself, I was wrong. After I sewed all around one of the pot holders, I started to turn it and found out that it was going to have the batting on the outside instead of the cute owl. I had to rip out those stitches, re-layer the correct way - no, I figured it out, I didn't go back and look up the original posting, and re-stitched around the outside. I hand stitched the turning opening closed and stitched around all the appliques. I had planned on changing colors for each applique item, but thought that I would just keep these for myself and used the light pink that I already had on my sewing machine to do the zigzag stitching. It doesn't look too bad. I did notice that the handle was not completely sewn in to the seam since I had to take it apart and put it back together so I just zigged over that - remember I had already decided to not give them away, so it didn't matter what it looked like. And yet, it's still not bad! I only have one finished to show. I will get the other finished this evening. This is a cute, cute pattern and with a layer of insul-bright and warm and natural I can't wait to use it in my kitchen.

January's Stocking Swap - Mug and Rug

2012-01-08T13:39:00.000-06:00

January's Stocking Swap project is a mug and a mug rug that coordinates.

When the mug rug craze was sweeping the blogs a couple years ago, I loved the idea. However, I always thought that the rug should go with a mug. Two years ago, I found this wonderful penguin mug in the Christmas clearance and picked him up for cheap. He needed a rug to make him the perfect gift, so I made one that coordinated with him. Now, I am not an artist and before you think that I drew that penguin, let me say, Au contraire, Mon Ami. I took a picture of my mug and printed out the picture. I then had a template of the penguin. I did fudge a little on his eyes, mouth, feet and bands on the hat, but those are just snippets and easy to cut out. It was harder to try and make them exactly like the picture because I did try that first. The words "mug rug" are just free form writing with my sewing machine - over and over - to make it darker and stand out. You could even write it with a pencil and go over your writing to start off. It's not hard to do, but not necessary for this swap.

I still have this mug and it might be the one included in this swap or I could make rugs for any of the following mugs in my gift closet. I have had two of these Maxwell house mugs in my closet for far longer than I care to admit. They were part of a package I got one Christmas, but not really my style. I thought they would have been a great gift for someone else, but yet they still sit in my closet, just waiting for that perfect someone to go home with. I think a nice blue, gold and white mug rug with a traditional pattern might just fit this mug fine.

Notice it still has a package of coffee in the mug. That might be a great idea to include with this swap. A small sampling of your regional coffee. Or a couple of your favorite tea bags (in their own little gift bag?). What about a package of hot chocolate? Something to think about, but not part of the swap, just a little extra.

Here is another mug that I picked up on clearance, can you tell that I have a mug fixation? I picked 4 of these up on sale with the express purpose of making mug rugs for them. A couple of months ago I sat down and made two mug rugs to go with these and when I was finished with the rugs, I got a mug out and, they didn't really go together. My mind had an idea that this mug was green and yellow. . .it's okay, but not exactly what I wanted either.

I think I will be making these over again this month to get the perfect (for me) mug rug for that particular mug. I may have to find a mug that goes with this rug since it is already made!

Another mug that I have in my closet that, yes, again, picked up on clearance, is this tic-tac-toe mug. It was such a cute idea that I couldn't pass it up. Here again, I got it just to make a mug rug for it and give it as a gift. This mug comes with it's own marking pen that erases off the mug so you can play the game over and over. The inside of this mug is a deep red and on the back has a description of how to play the game. When I saw this mug at Tuesday Morning, I could just picture the mug rug with a tic-tac-toe game in progress. I think it will be a fun rug to make.

This is the coffee mug I am drinking out of this morning. It will not be one of the options for the swap, but I may just have to make a rug to go with it. This one is part of a set of four that I received 10 or 12 years ago from a co-worker. The mugs are over sized and perfect for the large mug setting on my Keurig along with my flavored cream. I can just picture little grapes on the rug or maybe just these muted colors and not an exact replica of the grapes. Like I said, this will be a fun month to play with making mug rugs. I have several options, as you can see. Someone is getting a mug and rug for Christmas.

Let's Get it Started . . .

2012-01-07T14:38:00.002-06:00

Sing along with me if you want. Let's get it started in here. . . Are you ready? Welcome to all the new readers and followers for joining in on my blog and this new swap. Like I said before, I think this will be a fun project for the year and a great swap surprise.

The Stocking Swap
Each person makes and/or purchases the item designated for that month. In December I will ask for all participants to e-mail me their snail-mail address. I will randomly assign you a partner and you will send your stocking full of goodies to them. You, in turn, will receive a stocking full of goodies. All I ask is that you use good quality fabrics and do your best work. Since you don't know who you will be trading your stocking with, be mindful of the appropriateness of your items. (nothing too risque, etc.) You can choose to have a theme to your stocking (for example: Apples - then everything in your stocking has to do in some way with apples OR a color: blue - everything is a tint or shade of blue) That is your choice. You don't have to have a theme, but for some people, that may be an easy way to play this game.

Expand your skills and broaden your vision with this swap. If you try a new pattern, make a couple of different versions. Then select the one to give for this swap and keep the others to give as Christmas gifts. This swap could help us stay ahead of our Christmas gifting, if we make more than one of the same item each month.

So, here we go. . . . THE STOCKING SWAP

January - a mug and coordinating mug rug
February - Pillow cover for a 14" pillow form (just the cover, not the form)
March - 2 matching pillow cases (for a standard bed pillow)
April - a pin cushion and a package of your favorite pins
May - a table runner
June - a bag - any type and size
July - The Stocking (Christmas in July!)
August - an ornament
September - a journal with a made cover and a nice pen
October - Pot holder (be sure to use and insulation)
November - a book
December - candy and nuts (no stocking should be without these on Christmas morning)

There you have it. All the requirements for The Stocking Swap. Each month I will remind you here on the blog what to make along with some ideas. My next posting will be about January. Have fun with this project and if you have friends that you want to join in on the fun, send them to my way. (If they don't read blogs or even Internet, doesn't mean they can't join in the fun - you can be their go between person) Enjoy!

New SWAP!!

2012-01-04T16:05:00.002-06:00

I have come up with a great idea for a December/Christmas exchange. For now, I am calling it The Stocking Swap. The premise is very simple, you make and stuff a stocking, then swap it for someone else's stocking in December. Simple!

"But that is just so boring."

"We've done that before."

"Why would I want to participate in that, especially since it's January."

I know, I hear your comments even as I type this.  If that is all there was to it, then I would agree whole heartedly with you. Yes, it's a stocking swap, but it's more than that. It's a game and a challenge and you will get back a wonderful stocking full of surprises.

"Now, putting it like that, I  am a little more interested, tell me more."

The game will be ongoing throughout the year and at the first of December you will send me your mailing address, (don't worry, I don't expect you to remember that far in advance, I will post on the blog when to send it to me) At that time, I will put the name of everyone who is playing, in a hopper and randomly assign who your swap person will be. (This way, only the people who are playing will make the exchange. You will definitely get a stocking and not get shafted if your "partner" decides to drop out)   You won't know until it is time to make the exchange who you are making your stocking for. You may get a stocking from person B and send your stocking to person E.  (So you have to be prepared for shipping costs if for example you live in California and your swap person lives in Virginia. However, your swap person may live next door to you, you never know. It all depends on who is playing) Similar to the Blocks of the Month "game" there will be something to add to the stocking every month.  You will know what the addition to the stocking is before you start, so if you get behind, you can catch up or even work ahead if you know you are going to have an extremely busy month. It all has to be finished by the exchange day in December.

Okay, this is sounding interesting. Since I am going to know what I need to put into the stocking each month, I can work ahead if I find the perfect item. Or, if I get really busy during the summer months, I will still have a couple months to make those items I didn't get done during July. I'm with you, now what?

Now is the time to let me know if you might be interested so I can get a preliminary count of who might be joining in on the fun. If you want to wait until you know exactly what you will have to do each month, I understand. Sometimes it is better to be cautious than to just jump in feet first. My next post will have all the directions, etc. I am just trying to narrow down and finalize the list. I hope this interests you and you join in on the fun with me.

Retreat Quilt Top finished

2012-01-02T19:39:00.003-06:00

My 9 block version of the retreat quilt with two borders. It measures about 52 inches square. A nice lap quilt size or table topper. Thanks to Seth, one of my students for being the holder so I could take the picture.

I am working on my BOM from the 15 minutes play site. I noticed this past weekend that a picture of the finished top is due by January 18 (It is probably supposed to be the finished quilt, but if I can get my top finished by then, I will be lucky. I made the first 6 blocks and then stopped. I made two more on Friday or Saturday and last night I made a bunch of fabric so I could make two more. This one should have 12 blocks in all and then I will have to get to figuring out how I want to put it all together. Thank goodness we have MLK day off so I have a nice long weekend to work on it. I will post more pictures later, but just to remind everyone which one I am talking about here is an old pic.

I am using batik scraps (because you know you can't throw those away) and gray backgrounds from dark, dark (rose) to really light (upper right star). Even though I made the rose block the wrong size (I think I cut 6" instead of 6 1/2" . I will add a border around it or put it on point maybe. I really need to make all twelve blocks before I come to a decision. Gotta go sew -

Blocks, Soup and Burp Cloths - not in that order

2011-12-30T20:16:00.000-06:00

Finished four more burp cloths so I am done with that for a little while. I then moved on to the Blogger's BOM that is going through Jackie at Canton Village Quilt Works. I have drawn out the four patterns onto gridded cards, written down all the cutting information and which number the block is and who designed it.

I have even color coded some of them with the area and then the directions in the same color so I can keep it straight in my head.

After reading many of the quilter's blogs, I, too, have decided to make two of each. I also made that decision after I made the first one with a white Kona background and I thought it looked too blah. I made the second one with the green print and liked it a lot. Once I put them on the wall together I decided to make one with a green print background and one with a white. (or at least they had to have those fabrics in them. Below are my version of the four current patterns available (that I know of). I love the Kaffe fabrics that the designers were using and thought about making mine totally out of those fabrics, but I like the mix of some Kaffe, some modern and some traditional fabrics. This one will be a fun one to watch grow in the coming year.

Today I went out to lunch at a new place in Midland called the Harvest Cafe. A co-worker recommended it to me last week so I decided to try it out. OH MY GOODNESS!! I have fallen in love with the Baja Chicken Enchilada Soup. I could take a bath in that it was soooo delicious. Now I am going to have to experiment and come up with my version of that soup. Unbelievable. I can't wait to go back and get some more. Unfortunately it will be at least a week or more before I can return. If you are in the area, go try out their soup! I highly, highly recommend it. (If it would have been okay, I would have totally licked the bowl). Those of you that know me know that I am not this blown away with soup - even though I have a few favorites, {Jason's Deli - Broccoli Cheese; Campbell's - Split Pea and Ham; Homemade - Tortellini Soup}(Okay, maybe I do like a few soups) Anyway, . . .

Wow - something major must have happened out on JBS and 42nd or somewhere near there. There have been sirens blaring and honking through that intersection for the last 3 or 4 minutes.

Anyway - back to the soups and the Harvest Cafe. Stop in there and have a cup or a bowl. I would love to go along with you, if you can wait until the new year. Enjoy -

whew! I went to spell check this thing and thought that I had totally erased the entire posting. Thank goodness for auto save!

Retreat Quilt 2012 - first view

2011-12-28T15:39:00.000-06:00

Here is my quilt top so far. I finished my 9 blocks and just couldn't go any further. I tried, I really did, but my mind just said STOP!!! Yes, it was almost that loudly. Once I put these blocks together, I felt better and have been able to work on other things while auditioning fabrics for borders. Sometimes it's good to listen to your brain when it tells you something. Or at least it is for me. I did nothing for a couple of days because I really thought I needed to make 20 blocks for a lap quilt, but this quilt had something else entirely in mind for itself. The fabric that is on the right side trying out for the role of outside border has since been replaced by another fabric that works much better. Once I have that fabric on, I will take another picture of the finished top. This is the quilt I will be teaching at our retreat in February.

I have made a couple of blocks for the Blogger's BOM. After the first block, I have decided to change the background fabric and need to re-make that first block along with the other two blocks. These are 8 inch blocks so I may be making two of each pattern. I may need to make more or come up with a way to put them on point. I guess I will wait until the end of the monthly blocks to see how they set them before I make that decision. I have 8 more months for that.

I have also made 4 burp cloths and have another 4 cut out and ready to sew together. It seems like almost everyone I know is having a baby!! (or at least 6 people I know. Actually I know of 7 at this time that are preggers and one that delivered early - before Christmas.) I used to have a stash of baby blankets, etc. on hand to give as gifts, but I guess I sold most of those a couple years ago at the Bazaar and now I don't have anything!! It has been on my brain to make some more blankets, but, you know, it was stalled by that quilt at the top of this posting!! Now that I have it all cleared up, I am up and running on the other things I need to get done. Now, off to do some sewing - until next time.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T13:41:00.002-06:00

The snow is starting to melt and every once in a while I hear a loud boom! It is sliding off the roof in large chunks and hitting the roof over the back porch. I jump almost everytime! At first I thought someone was out dumping trash or throwing snowballs, but all is fairly peaceful outside (except for the cars going down the alley looking at the lake and park behind my house). I have put in all the new numbers from my sister and nephews new Christmas phones from Santa, read several blogs, my e-mail and facebook comments. Played a little bit of Garden of Time and now I really need to get moving and on with the day. Hope everyone is enjoying a very merry Christmas!

I'm not Dreaming it's a White Christmas

2011-12-24T12:15:00.000-06:00

Here's the view out my home office window! It's been snowing since last night and is still coming down in large flakes even as I type this. Most of you don't know how rare this is for us. I can't remember the last time we had snow for Christmas. It usually doesn't snow here in the desert until January, if at all. We have had two really good snowfalls already this year. The year of the drought. It's great to not only see the snow, but look at the lake! It's full once again. Remember this picture from this summer? Okay, I can't seem to find the picture I took this summer. It was probably that one that I deleted just a little bit ago of my screen, looking out the window. I thought I had another one besides that one. Okay, let me describe it for you. Looking at the current picture, everywhere you see water, was brown, dried up lake bed. I mean, everywhere. There was no water at this end of the lake. You could walk across the lake bed and I saw several people do just that! Where you see white snow, picture it as dry, brown grass. No rain, equals dry grass. The bushes along the fence are purple sage, but with no rain, all you have a gray leaves - no purple flowers. It was a bleak picture outside my window for many months. The good thing about being so busy this summer was that I didn't have time to get depressed looking out my window.

Now, is the time for me to get busy sewing. I have three classes I am teaching in the early spring and one lecture I have to prepare for. Thank goodness, one quilt top is totally finished, but it still needs to be quilted, if there is time. I now have 9 blocks done for my retreat quilt and am debating whether to stop there or continue on to 20 blocks. I have a few blocks done for my lecture quilts and need to add to those and put them into tops at the very least. Finally, I need to finish my Inspiration quilt top and decide if I have time to get it quilted before April. I have bits and pieces done, but nothing finished. I can't blame the computer for distracting me since I haven't had it for several months. I just need to focus and get going. I need to set a plan, work on one thing at a time and not let other new projects distract me. HaHa!! I am always distracted by the new and fun project which is why I have such a nice collection of quilt tops. I have quilted several quilts lately, but those are the small tops, some of which have been sitting around for more than a year. (10+ years for the color wash quilt) edit: oops! didn't realize I hadn't posted pics on this one. Made the center many, many years ago. Then several years ago, I added the border. I was planning on making a pillow out of it, but then I decided how to quilt it and put a hanger on it so now, it's a small wall hanging. See it hanging off my yardstick? I came up with that system so I could photograph some of my small quilts.

Okay, I know, get off this computer and go get busy. But, first lunch! Now to decide what to have? This may take awhile.

I'M BACK!!!!

2011-12-16T21:54:00.004-06:00

My computer is back! I don't know if you remember or not, it's been forever, but I killed my computer. I took it to our tech person and she was able to save and store all my info, but didn't have the time to work on my computer and suggested I have the students in our computer tech class work on it. I agreed and finally, finally I have it back. They had to wipe the hard drive and re-install. Then re-install when that crashed again. It took them forever to get it done, but it is finally back and I am on-line once again.

I have soooo much to show you and don't even know where to start. I need to download a bunch of pictures I have been taking because while I don't have computer to play games on every night, I have been sewing! So, lots of goodies to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. That's all for now, just a tease for tonight.

Jack-O-Planter

2011-11-07T09:31:00.001-06:00

Our Bee Friends Quilt Group has a "stay at home" quilt retreat 4 times a year. I know I have mentioned it before, but I just love those weekends. We start at 3:00 on Thursday afternoon and go until 3:00 on Saturday afternoon. We held our fourth and final one of the year, October 27th - 29th, right before Halloween.

My friend, Gerrie, brought a bunch of quilt patterns, marked down to one dollar, that were in her daughters garage sale, but they didn't sell. She offered them to us for free, if we would just take them. So, being the nice friend - who, by the way, doesn't need anymore patterns or junk in her house - I went over to look at what she had. I looked them over and said "no, thank you", but the more we stood there and talked, there were two patterns that kept calling my name. So, I said I would take them. This was on Thursday night. This pumpkin pattern kept yelling at me to make it so, that night when I got home, I reached into the batik buckets and pulled, without really looking, a bunch of batiks to make this quilt. Did I tell you that this pattern was done in dark wools? It was very country/primitive looking, but there was something about it that I liked. I don't really know why I pulled batiks, that wasn't the plan before I got into my quilt studio, but that is what I came up with for this quilt. After school, when I got to the quilt-in, I started drawing off the pattern onto the paperbacked fusible I also pulled Thursday night. There were some fabrics that didn't work at all and some that only a bit of it would work. I wanted the background to be a darker fabric, but I didn't have enough to make it work and it really wasn't dark enough for me. This blue fabric was the only other piece that was large enough to use as the background. Then, I went from there, selecting one by one the fabrics I was going to use for each piece. The only one I re-did was the middle of the eyes. The second color was going to be that dark orange and then the little bit was a dark blue and there just wasn't enough contrast. Everything else stayed the same as what I haphazardly decided on, even the mouth - which I thought was too busy, but after adding the stitching for the teeth, it needed to be that dark. Of course, once I ironed it on, it was staying there no matter what.

This is really not the final picture. I have totally finished it. Yep, bound, hanging sleeve and label! Amazing, I know. It is ready to put out next year. It also has these curly lines of perle cotton stitching that twirl out from the jack-o-lantern and some buttons. It is really cute and I thought I had that picture, but nope, you only get the partially finished product. At least it is a better picture than the previous ones and it, too, was taken with my tablet. So, now I have a cheery halloween quilt to hang. I have also finished the top from the other pattern - oh, wait, the funny part of this whole thing? After I started working on this quilt top, Gerrie decided she really liked the pattern and took it back to make her one, also!! I told her I would sell it to her for one dollar, but she wasn't going for that!

Two new small quilts

2011-11-03T14:57:00.000-05:00

Over a year ago, my friend Kathy and I joined an Art Quilt Guild in Lubbock. The first meeting we attended we made a wonderful black/white top. I don't have mine finished to show you because I am not sure what exactly or how exactly I want it to be. It was a lot of fun to make and just to be sitting in that room with about 14 other art quilters was inspiring. Then, with the scraps and other things we made a couple of other projects. This is one of the projects. I used the leftover cutout pieces from my black fabric and made some more of that pattern in other colors. I put it on a lime green background and there it was for almost a year. A couple of weeks ago I decided to make it into a quilt. I had fun quilting around the edges and off the edges. It is bound in dark purple and is about the size of a sheet of paper. (I don't have exact measurments.)

One of the assignments from that day was for strips and one shape. I made this next quilt top and invisioned fish swimming among the reeds and seaweeds in a lake. Everyone else that saw it just went, "yeah, that's good." They couldn't see my vision. After I quilted it, my friends thought it was wonderful. Of course, now you can clearly tell that those black blobs are actually fish. It all makes sense now.

Okay, I can't make this picture turn the way I want so just turn your head to the left to see it the way it is supposed to be seen. It is also about the size of a piece of paper.

McDuffy Quilt

2011-11-02T09:58:00.000-05:00

this isn't a very good picture and I apologize for that. I am still a little bit in limbo computer-wise, but I am trying to make a go of it between several electronical devices. I e-mailed this picture to my school computer three days ago and it finally showed up today. It's a little bit slow, but that is probably due to needing to be re-charged. Who knows. I will try and do better in the future. (If I can figure out the new high tech devices)

this quilt is my version of the schnibble McDuffy. I have loved that pattern since I first saw it and now I have finally gotten around to making one. A couple of weeks ago, Midland Quilter's Guild, held their bi-annually quilt show. that is where I picked up the charm packs, Etchings. I loved the front of that pack and flipping through the stack, I thought it would make a great quilt. After opening up the packet, I realized that there were a lot - - I mean a lot - - of light colored fabrics. I don't usually work with light colored fabrics so putting this together was a bit of a challenge for me - not piecing it - that was simple - just dividing the lights from the darks. there were more lights than darks so some of the fabrics are both a light and a dark depending on which other fabric it is paired with. I like the look of this quilt (sorry again about the poor quality) it might be turned into a baby quilt for someone since I have about 6 friends and family that are pregnant and due sometime in the early new year!! It's baby crazy here now adays. Be looking for more from me in the near future since this isn't the only picture I e-mailed to my school address. I am back to blogging! It feels soooo good. Now it's back into the kitchen for me and my students.

a quick check in

2011-10-24T16:20:00.001-05:00

I know it has been forever since I have posted, but I just wanted to touch base here and let you know that I am still alive and quilting. School has become busy, busy, busy. We are in labs 2 or 3 times a week and that means trips to the grocery store. The good thing is, last week we made focaccia bread for the first time and it turned out pretty good. They had never made a yeast bread before. I had never made that recipe and it was good, but needs some tweeking before we make it again.

The good news is volleyball is over for me for the year, unless there are playoff games they call and ask me to work. One of the basketball coaches wants me to keep his books, but I haven't told him yes yet. I keep putting it off and thank goodness he didn't ask on Friday.

This week we were in the lab today - didn't go great, burned cookies, yucky brownies - just not a good day to bake I guess. Tomorrow we are serving lunch for 24. Then on Wednesday we are serving finger food for a series of meetings held here at our school. We made some mini muffins for that today. Tomorrow will be extremely busy!!

I have been working on quilts. I even have the pictures to post, but I killed my computer. Thank goodness our tech person here was able to save everything to one of her computers and I am hoping our computer class can find the problem and fix my machine. I am going to have to make the trip to Best Buy in Midland to look at getting a laptop. Too bad our Best Buy here isn't open yet. Well, gotta go put the cooled muffins and cookies that made it up for the night. I may work some more on my hexagon quilt top this evening since I can't play games on my computer! (by the way, I am writing this at school which is why I don't have any pictures)

Whisper and Retreat

2011-10-02T17:41:00.000-05:00

Last posting I talked about my whisper quilt. Even though I have to top completed, I still haven't had the time to quilt it. I really need to get on that since I have to have it finished in 13 days. I will share with you a little bit of the quilt I got from Kathy.

Then I will share part of my quilt.

Sorry, that is all you get to see at this time. I shouldn't even be showing that much, but I couldn't keep it all a secret, now could I? Last weekend was the Ogallala Ceta Canyon Retreat and my friends Kathy and Gerri and I headed out on Friday making the long trek to our getaway. Of course I planned on getting away much, much earlier than we did, but I really overslept and then I wasn't completely packed and the car wasn't clean and well, let's just say about 2 hours later than planned, Kathy and I were on our way. Which, it turned out was not a bad thing since Gerri was leaving about the same time we were and we got to meet up in Lamesa. However, the quilt store there was closed. Neither one of them have ever been to that store since she has been closed every single time they are with me and we stop there. I, on the other hand, have stopped there quite a bit. She has great prices on her fabric and some wonderful new and clearance items. I seem to always find a few things to purchase. Next time we will have to call ahead of our trip and make sure she will be open when we get there. Too bad we didn't do it this time.

Since that quit store was closed, we headed on up to Lubbock to the Bernina store - yes, we purchased a few things - and then Sugarbaker's for an early lunch - okay, since I was running late, yada yada yada, it was about lunchtime. Gerri went to Sugarbaker's and ate first. When we called to find out where she was, she had already ordered and we were already purchasing so we both stayed where we were. Then we swapped. Lunch was good as always, but the Italian Cream Cake was exceptional!! Since we were already in Lubbock and not going to make it to Ceta by 10 - hah - we decided to schlep on over to Rachel's. yes, we all found goodies and whatnots there, too. We enjoyed sitting at the counter getting our fabric cut and chatting with the employees. Then off to Plainview for a Sonic drink and a stop at the Wal-mart. I know, we have a Wal-mart here, but you know how you have those last minute items you forgot and this is the last stop along the way to pick up any of those items. We shopped and found some wonderful things that we just had to have - S'MORE GOLDFISH!!! Have you tried them. YUM!!

Now a few more hours and we are at Ceta Canyon. It looks like we are some of the last to arrive. There is a table for two and Kathy and I grab that one. Gerrie had already put her stuff down on a table with another friend, Pam. It wasn't right next to us, but we don't usually sit really close together anyway. We need an excuse every once in a while to get up and move and not sitting close is our excuse. Here is a picture of Kathy with her winning challenge quilt. The Challenge was to make a small quilt with a "Calendar Holiday". She chose Johnny Appleseed's birthday. Yes, it's on her calendar. Maxine doesn't celebrate it on my calendar, though. I loved her use of a pair of jeans with a hole it that she used to make Johnny's jeans with a knee hole. It was very clever and I was so proud of her when her quilt won.

This is one of the quilts I worked on while there. Like I have said before, I have been wanting to make one of these interlocking crosses quilts for quite some time. I have read about them on the blogs for over a year now and I finally decided to just draw one up and make it. This is some of the fabric that I was cutting and cutting the last couple of weeks. This quilt is made up of 4 1/2 inch squares. 196 squares to be exact!! I can't believe there are that many squares, but there are. It went together really fast. Much faster than I thought it would. It would have been faster if toward the end I hadn't sewn some of the rows together wrong and then had to take then out and sew them back together correctly. I really like this quilt and plan on making one or two more. I thought I was giving it for a baby gift, but I think I might just keep this one all to myself. At least for now. Anyway, it's not quited and may not be for a few years the way things go around here.

Quilt top Done!

2011-09-20T11:21:00.000-05:00

I am still cutting fabric. However, I took some time out to work on my Whisper Quilt this weekend. I can't show any pictures - one, because I am at school and don't have my camera with me and two, because it is a secret! That's why it is called a whisper quilt. This is how it all started. In April at the Ogallala Quilt Festival, I saw a display from a quilt group out of New Mexico called "Whisper Quilts". (Or it could have been Gossip Quilts or something else entirely, but for this purpose I am calling it Whisper Quilts) The premise is you have a group (4 - 8 people) (we had two groups of four) and person number one gets a picture from a magazine (we had my sister in Arkansas pick the pictures, seal them in an envelope and mail them to me and I handed them to the first person in each group) The first person makes a quilt based on their interpretation of the picture. (they only have one month) They then send their quilt on to the second person who makes a quilt based on their interpretation of person # 1's quilt. They give # 1 their quilt back and they pass their quilt on to # 3 and so on and so on. You only get to see the quilt from the person in front of you. Only the first person gets to see the original picture. When everyone has had a chance to make their quilt (must be finished - quilted and bound), everyone brings their quilt to display. There are only 3 people in our group this time and 4 people in our second group because we wanted to get this done before the holidays. We will display our quilts in October.

I am so excited! I have my Whisper quilt top finished!! I only need to quilt and bind it before the 15th of October. I can't believe how fast it all came together for me. I would love to do another one - and may - someday.

Scrap Organization and Blocks

2011-09-11T23:24:00.003-05:00

This past week I have been reading blogs whenever I have gotten the chance. Which hasn't been very often. I have a few blogs that I read first and then if I have more time I go a little deeper on my list. This weekend, I had a bit of that free time and was going through my list and one block really, really caught my eye. I got to this blog in a round about way. So, let me give credit to the blogs - I was reading up on what Quilt Dad is doing when I noticed that during October there is going to be a Quilt-Uberfest. I picked a random name off that list, Amy Logsiger - October 5th and went to her blog, Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts. Wow, I have been to this blog before. I have always liked what she has done and I don't know why I didn't have it bookmarked. Reading through, I came upon her posting about the Japanese + and X blocks. I was transfixed. I love this block. I need to make this block. I clicked on a link that led me to another link and now, I can't tell you where I found the tutorial on this block. I have tried to backtrack - I had to backtrack to even write this posting, saved it, looked, write, saved it, looked, etc. Just so I could bring you all the information I could, but alas, this is it. I made four blocks yesterday and put them up on my design wall. I sewed them together already and think I will make it into a pillow.

Even though I really like this and it uses up my scraps, I think I need to have a lighter "background" like in the ones on the flicker group. I think it is from here that I followed links to the tutorial, but I can't figure out which magic website got me there.

Last week, or the week before, I made a 15 minute play block for the basics quilt. I just hope it's not too late to get it to Victoria for her quilt. It has been hanging out on my wall ever since it was finished. I need to go over to 15 minutes and see the rules/guidelines for this one and send it off.

This is what I have been up to the last week in that extra free time. Cutting fabric. I am getting ready to go to the Ogallala Ceta Canyon retreat. I plan on working on my quilt for the retreat my friend Kathy and I put on each year.

This is my year to teach and I designed the block below. You can read more about this block here. Since it is made up of lots of scraps, I have been cutting my fabric into squares. You can see my boxes for a few of the sizes on the cutting station. I have squares from 5 inches to 1 inch. I don't know what I am going to do with the one inch blocks, but I will do something. They have been talking to me all day and I am thinking 9 patch or something like that. A 9 patch block made with 1 inch squares would only measure 1 1/2 inches!! That is crazy. I may just have to make it and play with my other size squares. However, that is in the future. For now, I need to get this quilt made.

Just Organizational Stuff

2011-09-05T22:58:00.000-05:00

I have added another shelving unit to my quilt studio. I had to move the ironing board out to put the shelf in and now I don't know where to put the ironing board! This shelving unit isn't as large as the other three or as tall. I am not sure it will hold everything I need it to, but I will keep it until it crashes down. In the clearing out process, I have started going through a box of quilting stuff that has been sitting by the ironing board for several years now. I have discovered some round robin quilt tops from over 10 years ago when I was part of an online quilt chat group. I have also come across several orphan blocks, more quilt tops, some batik blocks that I really, really like and can kind of remember making. There are 8 of those blocks. Five of the blocks are put together from 4 separate paper piece blocks and the other 3 are the log cabin style. I just need to make one block in a log cabin style to have a nice wall hanging or center section of a larger quilt. I will try to get a picture of them this week so you can see.

I have spent the evening and parts of this long weekend cutting fabric (okay, and being really, really, lazy and playing games on the computer, too). I need to clear out some boxes and put all my squares in them to get more organized. I already have boxes that have strips - 2 1/2", 1 3/4" and 1 1/2" - all in separate boxes. I also have a tub (larger than a box) of multi-size strips. Right now I use my tub to make spiderweb blocks. Now that I type this, I need to get back to this sometime in the near future. I also have separate boxes of 2 1/2" squares and 5" squares that also includes some charm packs. I have a little, bitty, box (it's actually a recipe box) for my 2 inch squares. I have squares cut from 1 1/2" to 5". I went on a retreat a few years back where the teacher told how she cuts her fat quarters into squares and strips getting them ready for later use. Since then, I have been trying to get some of my larger fabric scraps and random fabric in fat quarters and 1/2 yards cut up ready for scrap quilt use. I am trying to clear out some of my older and ugly fabrics. Well, I just wanted to put something down here since it's been over a week since I posted. I will try to get a few pictures up here on Wednesday. I need to get back on a system both here and in real life.

Liberated logs and baskets

2011-08-28T00:26:00.000-05:00

I have been wondering and trying to decide what and how I was going to teach my scholarship class at Ogallala this year. I took two classes from Gwen Marston - Liberated log cabins and Liberated Baskets. When I was discussing this with my mother, she came up with the wonderful idea of using the log cabins for the basket. ding, ding, ding we have a winner!!! I made two log cabins with orange strips (different fabrics in each) and made one yellow cabin. These were all from the scrap pile that I use to make "fabric" with for my intuition quilt. I pulled some brown fabric from a stack of fabric that has finally graduated from the pile by the sofa and made it up the stairs and into my quilt studio. I had thought I was going to use it for squares in the 6 inch square swap from a couple of weeks ago and decided that I didn't want a solid brown. It's no really solid, but kind of muddled. I used a different teal fabric for the handles on each of the baskets and sashed it with a brown/orange/yellow/green fabric that for some reason I really, really like. (I have been on a brown/orange kick for a little over a year now). I was going to make the border a large strip of that fabric, but decided that it needed a kick. So, I went through my teal drawer and pulled a fabric that has little bitty silver strips in it. The selvage says the fabric was made in 1999 so it is a bit on the old side, but I am so glad that I have it because it works perfectly here. Now to decide how to quilt this baby. I want to have a completed quilt for my project instead of just a top like last year. Now that I think about it, the year before I had three - count them - three completed (that means quilted and bound!!) quilts for my solids class. Last years wasn't quilted because I couldn't ~~decide~~ . . . . okay, I won't lie, it wasn't quilted because most of my tops aren't quilted.

See What I Won!!

2011-08-20T11:48:00.000-05:00

When I have time, I participate in the Le Petite Challenge over at A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion. My goal was to participate every month, but some months I am a lot more busy than others so that hasn't happened. However, last month I found some time to make the schnibble entitled "George". It was a monkey wrench quilt and since that is one of my favorite all time quilt blocks, I knew I had to make it. I immediately ordered the pattern from Quilt Taffy and started looking around at all the charm packs I have acquired in the last couple of years (began picking those up last year for the schnibble challenge with the same two blogs). I found a couple that I wanted to explore the possibilities of background fabrics that might work with them (and also what I had on hand since I definitely didn't have time to go to a store). I found two that I kept going back and forth on and decided to wait another day before making that decision. I put it all aside and worked on a block for 15 Minutes Play. That's when I found it. The "George" pattern. I already had it!! I could start on this immediately if I wanted and I so wanted to do that. I picked up the one fabric that was in the lead (in my head - it wasn't an actual race to see who could be made into a quilt) and started cutting. I cut, I sewed and I finished it in plenty of time to enter it into the parade, but then life got busy and at the last minute - after checking the blogs to see if the parade had already started, I e-mailed it to Sinta at Pink Pincushion.

It's not the best picture, I know, but it was taken quite late at night. (or, it could be I am a horrible photographer) I really like that I used a darker blue fabric for my background. It makes everything else stand out. The inside of the wrenches are a variety of blue fabrics from the charm pack. What all this rambling and going on is all about is . . . everyone that entered that parade won!! I couldn't believe it. This quilt (okay, top only) didn't win the big prize, but since there weren't very many that entered that month, Carrie of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co (who designs the Schnibbles patterns and this quilt) decided that they were all winners and wanted to award us with a layer cake. YEA!!!

My package arrived this week, but having a full week of inservice has slowed me down a bit and I didn't get pictures made of the prize until now. I was really shocked when I received my mailing. I was a little on the fat side for a single layer cake and the reason for that was . . . it was two layer cakes and a pincushion kit!! BINGO!! What a great package to open.

This first one is Strawberry Fields by Fig Tree and Company

The second one is Maison De Garance by French General

Both are Moda Layer Cakes

This last one is an absolutely adorable snowman pincushion by Primitive Gatherings and designed by Lisa Bongean. It will finish only 4 1/2" X 5 1/2" and includes everything but the threads to do the embroidery and blanket stitch and the sand to fill it. (I will also need some kind of fusible, but I have that)

Needless to say that I was very, very excited about my package and want to say a big THANK YOU to Sinta and Sherri for hosting and coming up with such great challenges and a huge, huge THANK YOU to Carrie for providing prizes each month and especially for this past month. thank you.

Scraptastic!

2011-08-18T20:50:00.000-05:00

Our Bee Friends Quilt Group got together this past weekend for our third quilt-in of the year. It was decided several months prior that whoever wanted would cut 149 light and 149 medium/dark - 6 inch squares and trade to make really scrappy 1/2 square quilts. I signed up to do this project. Well, we all know how busy my summer was and I got my lights cut before Thursday night, but not my med/darks. I took that fabric with me to the quilt-in knowing I had a few hours before we had to trade and I might just get all my squares cut. Thank goodness one of my friends was a little bit late getting there that night because I finished right as she was walking in the door. WHEW!! Just by the skin on of my teeth I got all my squares cut and ready to trade. However, before I even went that night I had decided that I didn't even want to make another 1/2 square quilt. I have made one or two of them at other retreats and even though I like the looks of those quilts, I was ready for something different. I was sitting at the computer working one night and knocked off a stack of papers that really, really need to be filed. After I picked them up and stacked them again - what? I don't have the energy or time to file them now! I have other more important (and fun) things to do - like playing games on the computer or reading blogs - which is probably what I was doing when I knocked that pile over. Anyway, in that stack was one of those patterns you get in the mail along with a solicitation for a quilt book or new magazine or to join something quilty. I had saved this one sheet because I liked the look of that quilt. I wasn't sure I would actually make it, but I could use it as an inspiration. All it needed were 6 inch squares in light and medium/dark fabrics - hey, we are trading those at the quilt in. Also, I needed 1 1/2 inch strips. I have a large box of those since several of my recent quilts needed that size strip. I am set!! In brief, easy terms here is how you get these blocks. Cut your 6 inch square diagonally once. Sew your 1 1/2" strips to the cut edges of your block. Square up your block. Now, the pattern says to square them to 5 inches, but I have been able to square mine back to a 6 inch block. Here is what I have put up on my design wall so far . . .

There are a lot of repeats in there since when we exchanged, I picked up two of the same fabric blocks (we went around the table several, several times before we decided to pick up more than two - we were tired after going around about 6 times!) This will look even more scrappy as I put in more fabrics. I may have to make a couple of smaller quilts rather than a large one. We will see how this all pans out later.

The New Year Begins and other things

2011-08-10T20:41:00.000-05:00

Back at school for two days and already I can tell that it is going to be an "interesting" year. I am going to hope for the best, but we will have to wait and see what this year holds. I am looking forward to my classes and what I am teaching, it's just the higher ups that are causing a dislike.

Last week, being the only week to have completely off for the summer - no outside work - I planned on sewing, sewing, sewing and I got very little done. I took a nap almost everyday and was a lazy bum for the most part. I had lots of dog and me appointments - grooming, vets, doctors, etc. and got the majority of them taken care of. I have a few more on my calendar for this month and I think the dogs are taken care of for a bit. I really needed to cut my 300 - 6 inch - squares for our exchange tomorrow night and I got 150 light squares cut and ready to go, but I have to cut my darks tonight. That may or may not happen. It is thundering outside and I think I have more than the usual one dog afraid of the storm. I may have to go back downstairs and cuddle with a couple of them to reassure them that the storm is not going to get them.

A couple of years ago, a major thunder and lightening storm settled over the top of my house. Being two story it seemed that it may come through the roof at any time. This was at 2 in the morning and Taegan, Irish and I were fast asleep. Then BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!!! Taegan was up and on top of me so fast that I couldn't figure out what was going on. I thought someone might have broken in and he was protecting me, but no, he wanted my protection from the storm. He had never been scared of storms before, but that was a scary one for sure. Ever since then, if it is thundering or there are fireworks or other loud noises going on outside, he comes running for his momma and either climbs in my lap or sits as close as he can get for my protection. That one storm really scared him. He was probably fast asleep at the time and it scared him awake. So, tonight, he has the other dogs stirred up and every time the thunder booms - not very loudly, but still a boom - he starts barking and the others join in with him. I think Irish is just telling them to be quiet, since he managed to sleep through that storm a couple of years ago.

Tonight is the final competition night on So You Think You Can Dance and guess what? Our Fox station is not working! BOO!!!! I was looking forward to watching them dance tonight. I am hoping that I can watch it later tonight on the computer. I may have to wait until tomorrow night. : ( That show is one of my favorite shows to watch.

Well, so much for my rambling on. I did take a picture of one of the only things I got made last week. It is part of a new quilt design. I had originally planned on this being a two color quilt and I wanted to see what it would look like using scraps. I also want to see if I could make this block without getting technical and writing out all the directions, sizes, etc. Because if it didn't work, I didn't want to be out all that wasted time when my time last week was spent . . well, you know, you read all the way down to here, now didn't you. I love a good nap. I really like the way this turned out. I can't wait to make the rest of the quilt or at least a baby quilt using scraps.

Le Petite Challenge - George

2011-08-01T17:55:00.000-05:00

Now that I am finished with all of my jobs this summer, well almost - still have to fill out all the paperwork for the externship, but I am waiting on the owner of the restaurant to find some time. Hopefully on Wednesday this week. Anyway, now that I have nowhere I have to be, I don't want to do anything. I am not in the mood to quilt. It may be that I really wanted to have this quilt top finished and quilted by now, but I just couldn't make myself get in there and baste it so I could quilt it. Here is my "George" quilt from the Le Petite Challenge. Featuring "Portugal" by April Cornell for Moda with a blue Kona background. I don't know which blue though. I did find some time to work on this in the month of July. I really like this quilt top. It's small - Le Petite - but it makes a big statement. I really need to crop this picture so you don't see the "table runner" next to it.

That "table runner" was started over a year ago - maybe even two - and since I really don't like to make table runners, I was going to make it into a full size quilt. However, I only did a bit and got bogged down in stitching all the stars on the squares - I even reduced the number of stars by half - and I never got back to it. When I was pulling batik scraps from off my cutting table and the surrounding area, I found the box that this was in. It still has all the fabrics pulled and in the box with this top. I used some of the scraps from this box to add to my block of the month challenge and saw why I haven't worked on it in awhile. The blocks I have finished are the exact same fabrics that are already in the quilt! I need to make more stars, add in more batiks and . . . finish this quilt top. But first, I need to cut 6 inch squares for our Bee Friend's scrap swap. I need 145 light squares and 145 medium/dark squares. I know it won't take long to kick those out, but my cutting table is over run with stuff. So, I am going to have to cut on my small table - which is okay - but it also has fabric on it from at least two different projects plus leftover bits of George! Gotta go clean that off.

Done, Done, Done!!!

2011-07-24T02:03:00.000-05:00

I am done with my summer externship!! Thanks to all the employees - managers, waitstaff, S. A's, kitchen crew, prep, cooks and dishwashers and the owner for putting up with me for the four weeks of my training. I learned a lot, got some great insight into what it takes to run a successful restaurant and catering company. I got lots of ideas I plan on implementing into my kitchen at school and how I want my students to run our restaurant. It was a lot of hard work, sore, achy feet and lots of sweating!! That kitchen is extremely hot and having over 100 degree weather almost every single day that I was at work was not fun. Everyone said that working char - the steak grill - would be one of the hottest places to work, but I beg to differ. At least working char there is a place you can stand to catch some cold air. In the kitchen working the line or expoing there is NO cold air! It is just hot all the time. I know I am going on about it being hot, but I am one person that thinks the hottest it should ever get is 72 degrees! I am all for 40 degree days, everyday. I am a cold weather person. I am not one of those that relish the heat and laying out on the beach soaking up the sun. I am all about the mountains and cold running rivers and opening up the windows and let the cool breezes blow through. So, needless to say, I was miserably hot this summer and I wasn't even out in the sun!

I have one more week of summer volleyball league - if they want me back since I have been gone so much of it this summer. Then, I have an entire week of NOTHING!!! before I have to head back to school for a couple weeks of inservice training. I can't believe it is almost August. School will start back - with students - in 4 weeks. Incredible. My summer has really been packed with working, conferences and family reunion, but mostly working. I am one of those rare teachers this summer that is actually looking forward to school starting so my life can settle into a slower routine. Even though my life is not that slow. Along with school, the restaurant, possibly a coffee bar, and quilting. I will be keeping the books for Permian's volleyball team and possibly - depending on who the new coach is at OHS - keeping OHS's books, also. So, for the first few months of school, my life will be as full and hectic as my summer has been.

I am heading to Staples tomorrow to purchase one of those calendar notebooks so I can keep up with all my coming and goings. The more I think about it, my life may not slow down until NEXT summer!

Great Food

2011-07-13T09:43:00.000-05:00

What is it? Shrimp and Grits. I had never tried shrimp and grits before, but have heard a lot about them in the last few years. They are one of Paula Dean's favorites and she even had another chef challenge her in her magazine. At least I think that was what that article was about. I didn't read the entire thing and it was several months ago. I digress. Shrimp and Grits. Last weekend I got the privilege of attending the Culinary Educators Conference hosted by the Texas Restaurant Education Association and the Texas Beef Council. It was awesome!! I learned so much and got to practice a lot of what we were learning. Wonderful conference. One of the best I have ever been to and I hope to go back next year. Enough gushing - on to Shrimp and Grits. Like I said, I had never had theses before, but they have become really popular recently. We had the honour of having the executive chef from Sandra Bullock's restaurant, Bess, in Austin, come and demo for us. She made and served everyone this wonderful dish. Along with her husband who is a chef/teacher at Escoffiet - another culinary school in Austin. We were at Le Cordon Bleu. Even though we ate and cooked most of the weekend, this is the only picture that I took. Period. I didn't take any other pics the entire weekend. Okay, what is in this pic? White cheddar cheese grits topped with spiced grilled shrimp, bacon, chives and a red wine vinegar gastric. Delicious!!

Nighttime sewing - Challenge block gone awry.

2011-07-13T09:29:00.000-05:00

I got out of work early last night and found some time to sit and sew. I decided to make the newest block of the month from 15 minutes play. I read through all the directions and started in to sewing. Cut out some reds/pinks/oranges/purples for my flower portion and rummaged through the scraps to see what I could use for the leaves. There were some greens and blues, but not in big enough strips so I just sewed them all together to make that 7 inch square that was needed. I cut out my background - going with the darkest gray on this one. Got the leaf elements done, made the stem and now it is time to square up and put this puppy together. Decided that it would be easier to make my squares with a 6 1/2" square ruler so I got it out, cut all the squares the same size, sewed it together and it went together like a dream. One of the easiest blocks to make.

I was happy with the look - even though the stripes on the leaves are going differently than what I wanted, it was still okay. I put it on the wall with the other blocks and . . .

It's a lot smaller than the other blocks. What could have gone wrong? I did everything right so something was off. Maybe the sizes. No, 6 1/2 and 6 1/2 sewn together is 12 1/2 so that was correct. What could be wrong. WELL, let me tell you. That 6 1/2" square ruler that I thought was 6 1/2" square? It is only a 6 inch square ruler!!!!! Why would I have one like that in my stack of rulers? I know it's an old one and I even thought last night while I was cutting that I needed to get a new one since this one was looking all ratty tatty and the edges were a bit sliced, but still, you would think I would know better than to make that big of a mistake. I was too tired to do anything about it last night and after sleeping on it I may just leave it smaller. I am going to "sash" this quilt together anyway, so the "sashing" around this block just needs to be a bit larger. Who knows, I may just have one or two more mess-up-small-size blocks to go with it.

You may be asking yourself why I put "sash" in quotations like that and it is because even though I know this quilt will need some separation between the blocks that sashing provides, it may not be a typical sashing. So, I put the word sash in quotes to show that it probably won't be a single strip of fabric and the blocks may not be set in straight rows/columns. I don't have an idea in my head how to put this quilt top together because we haven't done all the blocks. Who knows what else is in the works for this block challenge. It has been fun making all the blocks though.

Sewing Time Again

2011-07-02T15:10:00.000-05:00

I finally found some time to sit and sew!! I planned on doing more this summer, but I have been really, really busy as those of you that know me can attest to. I have this entire weekend off so I sewed and watched videos yesterday, put them in the mail this morning so I can get some more in the series - True Blood, season 3 from Netflix, I only saw the first disc yesterday. I can't wait to get the next ones.

Sew, back to sewing - I worked on the blocks of the month challenge from 15 minutes play and made the three newest blocks. This first one is called, Beacon Lights. I wasn't too sure about it when I first saw it on the blog, but it has grown on me. I was worried about my center block with the large patch of purple left of center, but in the picture, even though it stands out some, it doesn't look as bad as I thought. And, with all the blocks together - see end of post - it might just blend in with the blocks, especially if I use a large chunk of that fabric in a later block. I am not changing it like I wanted to at first. After making each section of this block I started piecing it together and it just wasnt' working. I thought I had cut things wrong; the directions were off, I didn't know what was going on. Then I realized that I needed to square up the quarter square triangle blocks to 3 1/2" and it was amazing how easy the block was to put together then. some of the blocks were as much as 1/2" off and when you put two of them together it just didn't fit!

I made this Cactus Flower block first and had to find a green that I wasn't going to use a scrap piece in the made fabric. When I squared up the stem/flower body part, I didn't really center the stem and it is a little bit off, but if I hadn't pointed it out to you, you might not have even noticed. Here again, I wasn't going to go back and fix the problem. I am letting everything stay as is for now.

The last block I put together last night was this courthouse steps. I knew when I saw the block on the blog that I wanted a red center. That is what the old log cabin blocks used for most of their centers. However, I didn't plan on reversing the made fabric and the background until I realized that I was going to have to make some more fabric if I wanted to make it the original way since I didn't have enough for 2 - 12 1/2" strips. Here is where I had to piece the background fabric in the 6 1/2" strips to get enough fabric to work. Thank goodness this background fabric has a little print to it or it would have stood out and been very noticeable if I had used the first gray fabric. I can't even see where the seams are in the picture. Each of the two side pieces are pieced 2 times. One of the solid squares from one of the two blocks above is also pieced, but just on one of the corners.

Here are all 5 of the blocks on the wall together. I was worried about not having the same background fabrics on my blocks, but with just these two fabrics it is not too bad. I have several more background fabrics selected that I am going to use for the next blocks. I think the one I used last night was probably the lightest gray I got. It will be fun to see them altogether at the end of the year - I think we are doing this for a year, I am not sure, though. I will have to take their picture somewhere else since my bulb burned out on my halogen and I only have 300 bulbs left and not the 500 that was previously in there. (I bought a bunch of bulbs on clearance several years ago and am down to some of the lower wattage bulbs. I could go to the store and purchase some new ones, but why? That would mean braving the crowds this holiday weekend and I just don't want to do that. I would rather sew which is where I am heading soon after I go back downstairs and check on the dogs)

Summer update

2011-06-21T07:32:00.000-05:00

I finally had time to just sit and read through all of my favorite blogs. It has been quite awhile since I have had that big of a block of time. Of course, having my dogs wake me up at 5 in the morning has really helped make that time. It is just a little past 7 now and no, I haven't been reading blogs for 2 hours. I am considering going back to bed for a couple of hours since tonight may be a late night. I have finished my two weeks of working for the Barn Door - half way through my externship - and have moved on to the first week of summer volleyball league. Last night was quite hectic. The first couple of hours was spent getting everyone organized and where they should be. First night with the junior league parents who are venturing out into the world of volleyball and summer league is always hectic.

I haven't been in the sewing room much lately, just to busy. I have added a stitch or two here and there, but nothing is completed or even close to being completed. I got a lovely little batik square from Helen in New York and some great batik scraps from Ellen in California to go into my pieced fabric challenge blocks from 15 minutes play. (no pictures of these) There have already been two more blocks posted on 15 minutes play that I need to catch up on sometime in the near future, possibly tomorrow since I don't have to work anywhere for the first time all summer. Okay, I don't work on Sundays either, but it will be the first middle of the week non work day since Spring Break. I am getting my hair permed later that afternoon and I do need to call about my phone and see if anyone can come and fix it that morning, but other than that I don't have any plans for Wednesday other than sewing. Next posting I will hopefully have a few pictures to add to the post.

What's New?

2011-06-13T20:56:00.000-05:00

Even though I am not getting to sew and quilt as much as I would like this summer, I am plodding along and doing a bit here and there in my spare time. I have an idea in my head about a future quilt, so I drew it up, traced it, cut it out and put it together to see if I would like it. It's not totally what I wanted, but it looked good so instead of tossing it, I made it into a little wallhanging. I had fun adding the nose, eyes and eye lashes through my quilting. I learned alot making this little quilt. First of all, make sure you add the iron on adhesive to the wrong side of the fabric. Both the eyes (both pieces of both eyes) and the face itself are the backside of the fabrics, because I wasn't paying attention. After ironing the wonder-under to the right side of the purple fabric that was to become the face, I kept telling myself to not make that mistake again. I cut out 4 pieces of fabric to make the eyes and I ironed my adhesive to the right side of every single one of them!! argggg!!! I used them anyway. I think that maybe the eyebrows, which I had left out of my original drawing, are from some of that same fabrics. The tongue was also not on my original drawing. It just needed something else and that open diamond looked like an open mouth and therefore needed a tongue. Like I said, not perfect, but it works and has actually quilted and bound with hanging triangles so the future owner can hang it on their wall.

I saw a quilt on Basket Full of Scraps and fell in love. My favorite all time block is the Monkey Wrench, aka hole in the barn door aka churn dash. I love this block. I once made my sister a quilt using this block and lots of plaids. It is still one of my most favorite quilts I have made, even though the quilt is probably long gone. So, when I saw that quilt on Basket Full of Scraps I knew I had to make it. I recently took a liberated basket class with Gwen Marston and this quilt was the perfect combination for me to make. So, I got started by making my fabric for the basket.

Then I began making my little churn dashes. I made the two on top first. They are on the small side. So I made the three on the left a little bit larger. Even though I thought the two on top were too small for this quilt, I may enlarge them with a few strips of fabric and use them. We'll see what happens next. I am liking the direction this is going, but it is not jumping up and down with excitement and letting me know that I am on the right track. As a result, I will plod along and make a few more blocks to see what direction this will lead me.

Summer Job

2011-06-08T22:06:00.000-05:00

It's going to be a very busy and hot summer. I can tell that I am not going to be sitting in my nice air conditioned home much the next couple of months. That means that I may not be sewing much either. I am hoping to get in to the studio at least once a week, but you never know. For those of you who don't know, I am doing an externship with a local restaurant. When I signed up, I was told I would work about 30 hours a week for 4 weeks. I have already worked about 18 hours and that may not seem like a lot now that I have written it down, but I have had the privilege of being cut two nights so I was scheduled to work 6 more hours - the bad thing for me is that I still have three more days to go!! I am only half way through my work week!! I AM EXHAUSTED!! Already. It is hot, hot, hot in the kitchen and when you are moving all the time, I bet I have sweated off at least a pound or two! that is the good thing. The bad thing is that I haven't been cooking yet and I know it will be much hotter around the stoves. I think they have fans running on those people. I have been working where there are no fans. I try and move to the coolest spot when I get a chance.

Tonight I think the manager felt sorry for me and he cut me 2 hours early and bought me dinner! I worked 7 hours today! (yea, it was supposed to be 9) I am not used to this! Restaurant business is hard, hard work! I knew that, but I had only seen it as a cashier or waitress. I am getting to see it from all sides in the next few weeks. I am almost looking forward to working summer volleyball where I basically sit for 8 hours at a time. As long as the air conditioner is working in the gym, it's relatively cool. Well, I am off to the showers, and hitting the hay. It's back to work tomorrow morning to assist in hosting for a few hours and then split shifting at night. busy, busy, busy!!

So, if you don't see quilting stuff up here for awhile, you know what I am doing.

Design Wall Monday, May 30, 2011

2011-05-30T13:59:00.000-05:00

Yea! I remembered to post my Design Wall Monday actually on a Monday! This is for Judy's Design Wall Monday and today, here is what is on my wall.

The top left are liberated log cabin blocks from a Gwen Marston class I took in March. I just got them out and put them on the wall this weekend. The bottom gray blocks are ones I just finished from the monthly block challenge over at 15 minutes play. The right side of the wall has a "table runner" that one of our guild members taught last summer. I don't like to do table runners so I was going to make mine larger so I would have a lap quilt. There are supposed to be stars in every large square, but I thought there were too many stars in that quilt and haven't put them in. The extra pieces I could have added way back when, have all the same colors right next to each other and that is probably why I haven't added them. I found this last week and started going through everything to see where I go next with this project. One thing I know is that I need to machine applique more stars on squares and cut out some more fabric. Hopefully I will have the top finished sometime this summer. That is if I don't start on something else which we all know I will. Go see more Monday walls over at Judys' blog.

15 minute monthly blocks - May and June

2011-05-29T21:04:00.000-05:00

I finally decided to make the block of the month for 15 Minute Play blog. The above block is the one for May. First you have to make enough fabric (about 9" X 15"). Then you cut it into the parts you need, cut your background, then piece it all together. It is a really stunning block. I wasn't going to make one, but every time someone finished one and posted it to the blog, I loved it. I had a handful of batik scraps laying around that I have wanted to play with for a couple of weeks, but just haven't done anything with them so I thought to myself, okay, this quilt is going to be from batiks. The background will be pastels/lights and the made fabric from scraps and bits and pieces of my batiks. Now that I have a semi plan in my head, I wrote down what size blocks and a brief description of how to put this block together and started in last night. I pulled a darker gray out of my stash for the background, but didn't like it as well - okay, it hadn't made it into the drawer yet, it was laying out waiting to go into the drawer and I saw it and picked it up. There wasn't enough contrast so I knew it wouldn't work. I opened the batik lights drawer and wow I have a lot of pale yellow batiks. That is all I could see when I first opened the drawer. I rooted around and found this gray. I love it. The star just jumps out from the background. My camera was downstairs, so I knew I would wait to post it until today. This morning I got on the blogs to just read through and noticed that June's block tutorial had already been posted. How did I miss that? I don't know, but I did. Maybe I didn't think of it as being the June block and thought of it as just something another person posted. I don't know. Anyway, I copied down the directions for this one, gathered all the bits and pieces I didn't use from the May block, added some more fabric so I had just enough to cut out my squares for the made fabric section.

The triangles of the background was simple, just squares cut in half diagonally. I cut strips for the other ones and followed the directions, but the first pieces didn't turn out right. I measured and measured and it still didn't turn out right. So, with the second strip I decided not to cut it first. I would sew on the made fabric triangle and then trim the background at the right angle needed. That worked great, except for two of my triangles I sewed them on the wrong way. Thank goodness this batik doesn't have a definite right or wrong side. I simply unsewed, flipped the background piece and sewed it back on the correct way. That was a simple solution, but it took leaving the house and going to get a coke for my mind to think clearly enough to figure it out. The frustration and the fact that I don't have cokes here at my house is what sent me out on a Sunday afternoon for a coke at my Dairy Queen. I really don't like getting drinks on the weekend from there. Don't get me wrong, it is my favorite place to get a drink - especially during happy hour which is one of the only times I go - but on the weekend is when all the new people start working and some of them don't have a clue! I try and be patient and I know they probably don't like the people at the window telling them that what they are doing isn't correct, but come on! I know how much my drink is at happy hour - I buy one almost every weekday. So, don't tell me it's ____ when I know it's ____. At least this one today after giving me the same price twice and I kept saying no, that's not right, had the decency to say, well, let me see. She finally figured out what was wrong - her helper that took the order didn't put the discount in the computer. Poor thing, she even had to re-make my drink because she didn't do it right the first time. That happens all the time with the new people. They don't listen to you tell them what you want. They just hear part of it and then move on to making what they thought they heard. Okay, climbing off my soap box and getting back to my quilt blocks. This second one, the pinwheel hasn't been squared and trimmed. Below is both blocks next to each other on my wall. Looking good. This will be an outstanding quilt when all the blocks are made.

The Summer is about to Hit the Fan!!

2011-05-28T09:26:00.000-05:00

Okay, no picture of the grill. Although it was a nice big grill and trailer with a metal awning so you don't have to stand in the sun to grill your burgers, it wasn't anything really outstanding, awesome, unique. You have just looked at the picture and gone, "that's a grill, nice". See, no wow factor.

The lunch went well, except for the wind blowing the plates and napkins around. It was only about 85 to 90 while I was out there around noon for lunch. We had 3 awnings to keep the sun off our bodies, but you couldn't stay out there for to long or you would completely melt. It felt really good coming back into the building to cool off. Needless to say, not liking the heat much, I wasn't outside all day. I also had classes that I had to take care of. Next year we will do it before the 100 degree temps start clocking in. Yesterday we set a record high of 106. Today, it is supposed to be 110!! Thank goodness for central air conditioning. I am going to a ladies luncheon at my friends church. I know what I want to wear, but I have got to find that little black button that fell off the shirt during shipping. Thank goodness I found it in the packaging, Now if I can figure out exactly what I did with it. I thought I left it on my dining table which means, since I couldn't find it this morning, that Taegan might have eaten it thinking it was leftover crumbs. I know he has been up there a few times lately since my stack of mail has gotten knocked off 2 or 3 times in the last month. Plus, I came down the stairs and he was laying on top of the table. I don't know how he gets his fat little body up into the chair to even get on the table, but he does.

As soon as school is out I have the weekend before I start one of my summer jobs of working for a local restaurant. I spoke with the owner on the phone yesterday and he said he was going to start me in the kitchen. That probably means I will be washing dishes for a couple of days. Which is totally okay. This is supposed to be a quick 4 week immersion into the restaurant business. I have to go in next week to find out my schedule, what I need to wear and fill out all the paperwork. I will be working two weeks there, then I start summer volleyball, my other summer job, going to family reunion, the food expo, culinary educator's school, more summer volleyball, another two weeks working at the restaurant, finishing up summer volleyball, maybe going to see my friend get her 40 year teaching award in Dallas and then a day or two off before starting back to school. Sounds really busy, but I also have to put in there somewhere, quilting, reading, cleaning the house and garage and mapping out the next school year and what I really want my students to learn. WHEW!! That is a busy, busy summer. I am so glad that I am not going to have to go back to school early, because I don't know where I would fit that in! Well, gotta go find that button and get it sewn, put some rollers in my hair to make it pretty and get ready for that luncheon.

I spell checked this post and it says I misspelled trailer and yesterday - what? I have it spelled exactly how spell check is trying to make me change it to. I don't think it likes that I had already corrected those words right after I typed them wrong the first time. It also doesn't like my dog's name, but that one I know it hits every time.

Winner and Life, but on to the next 100

2011-05-26T22:11:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone that commented (or tried to) to my last post. It seems that a couple of people had a hard time posting a comment or either didn't want their comment available for public viewing, so they e-mailed me personally. Thank you for that. So, since they took the time and trouble to actually find my e-mail address I couldn't leave them out of the count, but I don't know what number they would be, so I couldn't do a random generator to pick the winner. Hmmm what to do? The next best thing of course, old school! - literally. I wrote out all the names on slips of paper and had one of my random students - he had come up to my desk to get some lotion, that means he volunteered to be the chooser. I jumbled them all up over and over again and told him to pick one. He studied them carefully - they were all folded and he couldn't see any names - he asked what it was for - he knows that I have them, on occasion draw for jobs, recipes, seats, etc and wanted to make sure this was a fun drawing, meaning that he wouldn't be stuck washing the dishes - after getting all the information I was going to give him - just draw one, it's for me. for my blog. for a giveaway. JUST DRAW ONE!!!! He finally came up with one that he deemed would be the winner and the name that he drew ...... drum roll please.......... Ellen! congratulations you are the winner of this fat pack:

I still have your address in my e-mail files - yeah for keeping the good old e-mails - and it will be on it's way to you tomorrow. Congratulations! This was fun. Be on the lookout for more giveaways in the future. I won't wait another 100 posts before I have the next one.

Now on to my life. School is winding down and finals are here. Am I ready? NO! Do I have my final made out? NO! Do I have to give one tomorrow? YES! Okay, it's only one student so I am okay with not having it completely finished. I can give her the practice test as her test, it doesn't have to be the same as the rest of the class. She is my only senior in a class of predominately sophomores - yes, feel very sorry for her, she has put up with a lot this year

Since our district is trying something new this year and having the seniors in the afternoon classes take their exams early (6 days counting weekends and Memorial Day) I won't feel bad if I don't get another exam typed just for her.

This is me telling myself that it will be okay and won't be a problem.

Okay, I think I may do that. I will try and get the other exam finished tomorrow morning, but if I don't, I am okay with that.

I know, I really should be typing it right now, but it's almost my bedtime and I don't want to go downstairs, out to the car and get my thumbdrive and the practice test, come back upstairs, plug in and start typing. Just too much work and not enough night ttime left. You are also asking, why wouldn't you get it typed in the morning? Well, we are hosting lunch for about 100 tomorrow and it is being run out of my kitchen. I am not cooking - thank goodness - but all the "stuff" is in my restaurant/kitchen/refrigerators. We are having hamburgers cooked out on the grill. Not just any grill, but one made by our welding classes. It apparently has it's own trailer so it can be hauled around. It apparently is massive. They say it is larger than the last grill they made and it was almost the size of a Hummer. It was made to resemble a train and had a bell inside of the cab. Really cool. I will try to remember to take my camera with me tomorrow - and new batteries - and get some pictures. The welding teacher is coming over to cook, our other foods teacher has had her students cutting tomatoes and onions and baking some cookie - she knew I was busy so she didn't ask me to do anything and I am sooooo glad. I will help her set everything up tomorrow morning. Okay, she totally cheated and used store bought dough, but it's the end of school of everyone. We are all busy and having this lunch was a crazy idea, but it will be a fun time.

Busy? Whatchoomean busy?

Well, in the last three weeks we have done a dinner for 21, lunch for 16, a retirement party for 200 and today, a breakfast for 16. Plus, I only have two more days to get everything washed and put away for the summer!! (tomorrow is included in those two days!) I am hoping I don't have to sweep, scrub, squeegee and mop the entire kitchen by myself along with washing and putting away all of those dishes. That is one reason I am totally okay with using the practice test as the real test and not re-typing the entire thing. There is just tooo much to do in one week especially when three days of that week we are not even in school. whew! Busy, busy, busy!

100 and a giveaway!

2011-05-22T20:52:00.000-05:00

I can't believe this is my 100th post. If you will post a comment I have a fat pack of fabric to send you. I don't know what it will be yet, but I do know it will be one of my fat packs from the store. It will all be a surprise!

Now, for the reason for this posting other than it is my 100th. I just finished making another wall hanging. When I started this, I planned on giving it to my assistant director and may still do so, but it didn't turn out like I thought it would. I wanted the vase to blend and I think it blends way too much. Here, look at the picture and let me know what you think.

Now that I am looking at the picture of the quilt, it might not be so bad. I have always wanted to try my hand at making those roses/flowers and they are a lot of fun. It was interesting putting them into the vase. I really had to use my 15 minute play skills that I have learned to get them to go the way I wanted. I am glad that the background has a lot of visual texture to it since it has been pieced and re-pieced. The leaves are appliqued on and I really wanted 5 leaves, but one of them just didn't make the cut and I don't want to re-make one leaf so it looks a little blank on the right hand side. However, after all my criticism, I kind of like it. Flat, but interesting. It may just make it to her office, yet.

Now, back to the giveaway. (by the way, this is my first and if all goes great, it may be the first of many) Answer this question, please: What color is your favorite go to quilting color? What I mean is, which color do you always gravitate towards in the store, when choosing fabric to start a project, when you look around your stash is there one color that is more dominate? What about which color do you find hard to work with? Is there just one, or do you have more than one?

I tend to lean more towards the greens and pinks. They are my two favorite colors and I love them in combination. My least used color is probably tan/cream. I don't have a lot of those colors because to me they seem colorless. I love color and tan and cream seem to not have any color to them, in my opinion. Now it is your turn. I will try to pick a winner by Wednesday.

99 and counting

2011-05-11T21:46:00.000-05:00

This is my 99th posting! I can't believe it. Stay tuned and I will try to do a giveaway on my 100th posting. I have never done one of those. It will be fun. Now to think about what I want to give. . . .
In my spare time, I have been playing and making fabric. I am still working with the same set of scraps that I have been playing with for the last couple of projects. I know it seems like there is a lot in this grouping of fabrics, but there really isn't. I think I have a couple of pieces that are about 5 X 14 and they only started out maybe 8 inches larger all around? Maybe not. Wait a minute. This is getting toooo technical. How about this. I have the first cuts from this selection of fabrics and that is what I have been playing with. From the first play, here, to the hexagons, here, and now these two. I started sewing fabric together with the plan of making a quilt 9 X 12 for the AAQI, Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative ( http://www.alzquilts.org/ ) as part of Victoria's challenge from 15 minutes play blog. So, I sewed and sewed and cut and sewed, you know how it is and then I saw this solid purple laying there so I picked it up, cut it into 1 1/4 inch strips, cut my play fabric into 1 1/2 inch strips and made some log cabin style blocks. Not bad, but it needed something. Cut some 2 1/2" squares from the play fabric, add the purple then the play fabric on two adjoining sides and now, I have a block that is the same size and it makes it interesting. I put together the 6 blocks I had and . . it's too long. I don't want to cut it off then I would lose the pattern so I knew I wouldn't be able to send this for the AAQI. hmmmm I will sleep on it. Next night I made 6 more blocks which meant making some more fabric since I had used up almost all that I had made the previous night. Sewed it all together into a 3 X 4 block wall hanging and I think I am liking this as it is. However, you will notice it is still up on the wall so that may mean there is more to come on this one. My mind may not be finished with it.

So, with the leftover 1 1/2" strips I put together this little friendship bag. I had to cut some extra strips from the other fabric, not all the strips are from made fabric, only about 8 of the 16 are made fabric strips. Anyway, I saw on someone else's blog somewhere and it stuck in the back of my mind - quilted flowers. How wonderful!!!! I wanted to do some so here was the perfect place to practice. I stitched 4 on each side along with a leaf or two on each of the stems and some grass at the bottom of the stems. I don't have a picture of the bottom of the bag - I don't even have a picture of the finished bag, but it is finished. I really wanted to show the quilting details so here they are:

I think if I keep practicing my machine quilting will one day be decent. I still spaz some on this freemotion quilting.

I got a phone call from our fashion design teacher and one of her students was working on a quilt - just a simple 4 patch with sashing - anyway, the teacher knows that I am a quilter (she is not) and asked if her student could come down and I could help her out. She had all the blocks made, some a little wonky which I loved, but unfortunately they were not intentionally wonky. I instructed her on how to cut her sashing and what she needed to do to adjust for those wonky squares. I can't wait to see what she gets accomplished this week. I hope she has enjoyed the process so far and is a lifelong quilter in the making.

While I was showing her what to do, part of my class - who had an assignment and should have been working - were watching and listening (who knows - more quilters in the making? maybe?) So, one of the boys asked if I made quilts - I chuckled - told him yes and asked if he wanted to see them on my blog. "what? you have a blog?" To them I am an old woman even though I am not yet 50 and it is amazing that I can even use the computer, i-pod or cell phone. He made a comment about spending all my time on the computer blogging and I corrected him. Told him that I hadn't been on in awhile, but that I needed to blog tonight. He asked that I blog about him. So, other than what I have already said about him, here is his own paragraph.

Jeremy

Long Posting and Lot's of Pictures!

2011-05-03T20:58:00.000-05:00

I received my 12 x 12 challenge quilt from my ~~trade~~ swap partner - can't say trade since since I send to someone else and we aren't trading quilts. It is from Helen who lives in New York State. It is a BIG Apple and has the New York subway map on the back. It is wonderful! Now I need to send mine off to my partner. I also need to send off my signature block to Victoria. I made this first one and while I like it okay, I don't like how I had to piece the background to make it meet the size requirements

Which allowed me to create this one. I truly love this one. Can you say that about your own creations? Mom's say it about the children they create, so I am going to say, yes. Okay, now that I have analyze that, I can say, I love this one!! I started with the same background fabric as above, but used the back side of the fabric for the center. I made the sides the same width as my middle block and knew that I was going to do my funky star thing, but I wanted it outlined. I first did the light blue and then went back and added the red on top. I layed it all out and nope, didn't quite meet what I wanted so I took a leftover red bit of fabric and snowballed two corners of the center square. Looks good. So, let's do all four corners and put it together. My original thought was to have the corners of the star block to be a totally different fabric - still a blue floral, but different, but it was too distracting and I decided to go with the same background all around. After everything was sewn together, it was too small. ARG! What else to do? Make more of a statement with the borders and cut the star block even smaller so I can add more light blue on the outside. I really, really like how this one turned out. Added my signature in the middle and off it goes tomorrow to Victoria for her quilt.

Since I had out the pen and I needed to send off the 12 X 12 challenge before May 16th I needed to make a label. Below is the label for my quilt and it is sewn on and ready to go.

I know that I told you all about the Ogallala festival back at the first of April - wow one month ago - time flies when you are busy, huh? Anyway, I took Yvonna Hays, Dashes and Patches class and here is my quilt without the final borders. I have it layed out with the top and bottom border strips, but they aren't attached. I don't know what fabric I am going to use for the final border. My friend Molly was pointing to fabric after fabric saying this one or that one should be the border and I agreed with her on everyone of them. Problem is, I don't have enough of any of those fabrics to make a border and I can't find them on the internet! I have had them in my stash for so long - or I got them on clearance - that nobody has them anymore. I know that I want to do a large print floral in these colors. I am thinking something by Kaffe, Phillip or someone else along those lines. Now, I have to just find that perfect fabric that will set this off to perfection.

I know this blog is getting long, but just hang in there with me just a little bit longer and I will be done. I haven't posted anything in over a week and I didn't want to break it up into three or four posts one right after another, so here goes the rest. The quilt below is my friend Kathy's Manzanita tree. I love her fabric choices in this one. The leaves - glass leaf shaped beads!! They were expensive, but I think they were totally worth the price because they just make this quilt!

Kathy took my Divide and Conquer class at the Ogallala Festival and after making all of her blocks she decided that they were just tooo wild for her and she couldn't stomach them right next to each other so she grabbed up some brown fabric that was just laying around her quilt room and she sashed those blocks. It is perfect! I love it. It just adds a new dimension to this pattern/quilt. Great job Kathy!

These last two pictures are what are on my design wall. I am - okay, don't faint or anything - actually doing English paper piecing. I am enjoying the work and don't know exactly how big I am going to make it - probably not too large - but, you never know. I wasn't ever planning on doing more than one or two hexagons ever in my lifetime so - you just never know.

This last picture is fabric that I made this past week during little bits and spurts along with off and on during our quilt in with Bee Friends. I don't have any idea where or how I am going to use this and it may morph somemore before I use it since I really think some areas are quite large. I know that I am going to cut it up to use it again, but . . . stay tuned!

I pushed the spell check button, but nothing is highlighted - I hope it is all spelled correctly. If not - it's the computer's fault!

Nightly Play has Come to an End

2011-04-25T20:10:00.002-05:00

I left off the story last time with two borders on my nightly play. Even though I like things off kilter and two borders, I knew it needed something else, but didn't know what. I was also quickly using up the two pieces of fabric I had made and was limited on the burgundy fabric. I cut long pieces for the sides and thought about doing some more sawtooth borders, so I used some of the left over pieces and made a bunch of little sawteeth. That means that that border is not quite as wide as the other two, but I like it. It balances. So, what if I don't add anything to the bottom piece. Just leave it alone?

I think I am going to like that. I just need to make sure I have enough fabric to add in the corners and it's looking good.

Now, if I have enough burgundy left to border around the outside and it is finished. Well, the top is, it's not quilted yet. I am not sure how I want to quilt this one. So I may leave it for later this weekend.

Design Wall Monday 4/25/11

2011-04-25T20:04:00.002-05:00

First off let me start with what is on my design wall for Design wall Monday over at Judy's blog. Go see what everyone else is doing. Come back and see what else I am going to blog about.

The Wallow out my Window

2011-04-20T17:59:00.002-05:00

I showed pictures of the "lake" behind my house all frozen over earlier this year. Well, here is the url to see what the lake has looked like for the past month or so taken by our local newspaper. http://www.oaoa.com/sections/article/gallery/?pic=2&id=63848 It has been very, very dry here. Today, the water level is coming back up since the city turned on the water pump. It has even come up some since I have been home this afternoon. I wish I had taken a picture like I had planned a couple of days ago to show how really sad and dry it is out here. I don't know where the city is pumping water from and I don't really care at this point. There aren't any buffalo to wallow in this old stomping ground, but the ducks are wallowing in their newly filled lake tonight.

Playing a Little Each Night

2011-04-19T22:18:00.003-05:00

I played last week! Almost every night last week I came home and played on the sewing machine. I got the quilt from the Ogallala class, Dashes and Patches, center part pieced together. Now it only needs the two borders and it will be a completed top. I thought I took a picture of it on my bed, but I guess I didn't. I will take one as soon as I put the borders on it.

I also pulled out a bag of batik scraps and started playing. A couple of nights I just made fabric. I got two fairly large pieces (over 12 inches square) and thought about cutting them down and using them for a new 12 x 12.

Then the next night I cut them up and made saw tooth borders. FUN! That was all for that night.

Now I need to decide about a center. What do I want for that? How about a star? TaDa! A star is born! That was all for that night. There is more to come.

yucky asthma

2011-04-16T07:05:00.003-05:00

Back in February at our retreat, my friend, Kathy, had such problems with her asthma and had to take breathing treatment after breathing treatment. At the time, all I could think about was how long it had been since I had to take one. Sometimes I forget that I even have asthma. Everyday I take my Advair and Accolate and Zyrtec and that totally keeps my asthma under control. Well, this week has been a little hard for me to breathe. I don't know if all the smoke in the air from the surrounding fires has taken it's tole on my lungs or what, but last night I had to break out the breathing machine and take a treatment. Wow. What a difference. I was still coughing a bit, but it was different. I wasn't coughing up my lungs. However, I forget how that medicine can knock me for a loop. Not having had any for 6 or 8 months that first dose kind of zones me out. It makes me a little bit jittery and really sleepy. That can be a good thing if you are home and don't have to go anywhere which I didn't except to bed. I got up again at 5 this morning and took another treatment. My lungs are screaming at me. Maybe if I had broken down earlier this week and taken care of my lungs a little bit better and not tried to solely rely on my little rescue inhalers I wouldn't be so bad now. Do any of you do that? Put off taking medicine, going to the doctor, taking care of yourself until you are really, really sick and your body then starts to shut itself down so it can heal? I was so busy this past week that I knew I couldn't be sick so I pushed myself and now, this weekend, my body has taken over and is telling me I have to take time for myself. To let my lungs heal and my body and the meds to do their magic. So, since I need to slow it down, I am going to work on making another 12 x 12 for the 15 minute play challenge and just see what I can come up with. I have pieced some fabric together the last couple of nights and now I am going to cut it up and play - quietly and peacefully while drinking my coffee. (it also helps with the asthma)

My First 12 X 12 Play Quilt

2011-04-13T21:31:00.002-05:00

It's finished - well, almost - the only thing it still needs is a label. No, the picture isn't crooked, the house is. I did it that way on purpose. This is my 12 x12 for 15 minutes play. However, I think I made it 12 1/2" all the way around instead of 12". Oh, well, I don't think anyone will return it just because it's a little bit bigger. I had so much fun making this one that I may make another and then decide which one I send to my secret (from you and her/him) until it is time for all of us to mail our treasures. THEN, we get to see what our secret person made for us. I started this one before I got my person's name and can't decide if they will like it or not. That is why I may make another one and then at the last minute put one in the mail. I am lurking around his/her blog and think that this one may fit in with their house.

Believe it or not, I don't have any quilts on the wall. WHAT!! I know! Crazy, huh? I take that back. I do have a quilt hanging in my front entryway from a wall mounted quilt rack. So, I guess I can't say I don't have any quilts hanging on my walls. You would think that I would have lots of quilts everywhere, but I really don't. I don't even have one of my quilts on my bed. I have a quilt that I picked up in a store (I really, really love it). It was on sale and I couldn't have purchased the backing fabric for what I paid for the entire queen size quilt. It was crazy inexpensive and I really, really do love this quilt. {I have to tell this story on myself - every year at our Ogallala retreat we put out a quilt on our bed and Saturday afternoon, we have a quilt show and everyone walks around all the rooms and views the quilts. Well, I had purchased this one on the way to retreat one year and when I started making up my bed, I realized that I had left the quilt I planned to put on my bed at home. What luck! I just opened up the package, took off all the tags and voila! My bed quilt. Everyone loved it and thought I had made it. I couldn't lie and told everyone that commented about the quilt, the truth.}

I would still take that quilt with me to retreat if I didn't feel so guilty about not making this perfect quilt. Here's the part where I should go in there and take a picture of it to post here, but I am tired and don't really feel like it right now. (Not really. Okay, yes, I am tired, but in truth the dogs sleep on top of that quilt every night and it needs to be laundered this weekend. So, maybe I will one day post a picture of the "great" quilt.)

Ogallala classes

2011-04-08T19:16:00.005-05:00

I just posted this on 15 minutes play. This is only part of what I have been working on this week. It is made mostly from scraps leftover from the following quilt.

This is part of the quilt class that I took from Yvonna Hays at the Ogallala Quilt Festival this past weekend. The pattern is called Dashes and Patches and consists of 12, 9 and 6 inch churn dash blocks and 6 and 3 inch 9 patch blocks along with plain fabric fillers. I saw a quilt made from this pattern last year and knew I wanted that pattern. When I saw that it was offered as a class at festival, I signed right up for it. I now have the first three rows up on my design wall - minus the last block since I can't stretch over my cutting table to put it up. I plan on sewing those rows together tonight unless I am totally distracted by piecing my own fabric out of scraps. (15 minute play) Here are samples of my students work in the class I taught, Divide and Conquer. They all did a great job. I can't wait to see what their finished quilts look like.

Spring Break

2011-04-07T05:11:00.004-05:00

Mom and I went to Nebraska over spring break and took a couple of classes from Gwen Marston. Where we met some wonderful people that welcomed us into their quilting world for the week. We liberated ourselves, our baskets and our log cabins. (sorry, no picture of my baskets) We got to watch a row quilt next to us add on some liberated baskets and admire the people she had made and incorporated into this quilt.

We had a great time and even though people thought we were crazy for driving to Nebraska (only the people in Nebraska thought we were crazy - Texans know that driving for 14 hours in two days is nothing! We drive 3 hours one way every Friday for a football game - what's 14 hours for a quilt class?)

February's Retreat

2011-03-23T21:34:00.008-05:00

After at least two posts with no pictures I may totally overwhelm you with the tons of pictures in this post. Way back at the end of February my friend Kathy and I hosted our 7th annual (or maybe it's our 8th?) retreat at the girl scout camp at Mitre Peak. One of the reasons we love to go there year after year is the beauty of the west Texas mountains . . . .

And sunsets - even though this picture is beautiful, I couldn't get my picture to look anything like the sunset that night no matter how many pictures I took. It was really breathtaking. Lot's of purples, pinks. This picture is showing too much blue and there really wasn't much blue like that in the sky. . . .

and wild life that walks by the windows of our workroom. This year it was only turkeys.

There was a family of wild turkeys that came by at least once a day. We counted a minimum (they were always moving and you didn't know if you counted one twice or not) of twenty turkeys. One large tom turkey kept heard on all the others not letting them come close to us even though you could tell that that wanted to, especially after we threw out some bread for them. They didn't get it that day, but it wasn't there the next day so somebody feasted that night. See him in the picture below keeping watch? He really was a large bird.

This year was Kathy's turn to teach and she taught a scrappy, scrappy Jacob's ladder quilt. Below is a picture of my mother's quilt. It was the only one I had on my camera even though I thought I took pictures of more quilts. If you look closely you will notice the lovely blue painter's tape. One of the bad things about this camp is that you can't put up any flannel backed tablecloths so we have learned that you can put up each individual block with painter's tape and if you are really good, like my mom was below, you can see what your quilt might look like all sewn together. I love the color combination in her blocks. It has a warm inviting feel to it.

I didn't work on that quilt this weekend because I wanted to try out a new pattern. Over the last couple of years, this retreat has kind of been my time to work on new patterns. The quilt I am teaching at Ogallala in a couple of weeks was made at our retreat last year. I have just finished writing the pattern for it and can't wait to introduce it to everyone.
This year, I was working on my mess up of a version of a quilt I saw on the blogs. However, I liked my mess up; so I played with it at this retreat. I am not totally satisfied with the way it looks yet so this is not the end of this quilt top. I haven't had a chance to play around with it since I have been home, so stay tuned on this one. It may be something totally different when I am done with it. Below are two settings for the blocks and then a lot of them up on the wall just to see what it will look like.

That fabric, (can't remember the name of it - let me get back to you on that one) has a lot of pattern and it definitely overwhelms these blocks. The may need to be sashed and that is one thing I am going to look at when I get the chance to put them on the wall here at the house.

Okay, I have had a rough time getting my pictures to do what I want them to do - (note to self: next time just download one picture at a time so it will be easier to move them around.) and it has gotten past my bed time so I will leave you with the last of the "wild" life I saw when I was leaving the camp to return home. I just had to stop and take pictures since they were almost close enough to reach out and pet. They were a little annoyed that I stopped my car, rolled down my window and took their picture. However, it was nice of them to all look into the camera and say cheese.

However, he was not really happy that I was disturbing his Sunday lunch and a chat up with the ladies. Look at the frown on his face!

Cherry Cream Coke!!

2011-03-22T20:39:00.003-05:00

Another two weeks have gone by without a post from me. I have got to get better. I come up here - my computer is on the second floor - with the intentions of blogging and then get sucked in by the games! OOOOHHHHHH the games!!!! Tonight, I can't play the games until I blog. (my rule tonight) so, here is today's blog posting.

Those of you that know me, know that I am a frequent visitor to Dairy Queen during their 1/2 price drink happy hour(s). I love - okay, that little bitty "love" just doesn't cut it. Let me try again I *****L O V E ***** (better) me some cherry lime diet coke. It took awhile before they could get it right every time I ordered, but after a couple of years, the oldies already know what I am going to order. Some days when the line outside is way to long, I will go inside to get my "fix" and the drive thru window girl will look up, see me come in the store, make my drink and have it ready for the counter girl before I even order. That is how dedicated - I mean addicted - to the DQ cherry lime diet cokes I am. Anyway, getting back to today, I left school and made my way to my favorite DQ (hello grandview DQ) and there is a tremendous line. I am car number 8 from the speaker and after sitting there for three minutes and not moving - I and 4 other cars (6, 7 and 9) are on the street - I decide that I will go to Target, get some stuff and head back later for my drink. Didn't happen. I spent so much time (and money) in Target that it was way after 5 and the drink specials are over. Even though I love my drink, I am not always willing to pay the big bucks to get it.

Okay, fine, I will go home, eat leftovers and drink water. It's better for me and I really need to start drinking more of it. I come out from Target heading home and realize I am close to Weinerschnitzel. Right then I decide that I had leftovers for lunch and I want a corndog. You know what goes well with corn dogs? Well done onion rings from Sonic. Still planning on drinking water I decide that if I am going to eat all this bad for me food, I might as well order a cherry coke - I don't like their cherry lime diet cokes - and the order taker asks if I want cream with that. WHAT!! I grew up drinking cherry cream cokes. When I first moved to Odessa, nobody - I mean NOBODY - even knew how to make a cherry cream coke. When I would order it, they would just say, "What?" Like they had never heard of them before. "What?" I got tired of hearing that so I would just order a cherry coke and a small ice cream cone and mix my own drink. (that was how Mr. Burger used to make them - with real ice cream, yum) I grew weary of having to mix my own,(plus if you don't drink down enough coke before adding just a bit of the ice cream, you will have a nice foamy mess in your car)so then I taught the people at Walter's how to make them for me. Those workers all quit or weren't at work when I would go by to get a drink and I was stuck either mixing my own or going without. I went without. UNTIL TODAY!! I am sitting here with my cherry cream coke, remembering the good old days of riding my bike to the Dairy Mart in Idalou, Texas on a hot summer day and drinking a delicious cherry cream coke.

Now if I could just make it upstairs with my camera next time so I can download pictures of my retreat and classes with Gwen Marston. Look for that in upcoming blog posts I will try to make it sooner than two weeks.

Cycles go round and round and sometimes straight

2011-03-07T21:27:00.003-06:00

I know it has been forever since I have added anything here. I have hosted a quilt retreat, am getting ready to head out to a couple of quilt classes by one of my favorite quilt makers ever and I am trying to get my life cleaned up, picked up, straightened up and back together again. Sometimes it is just too much and all I can do is just one thing at a time.

Speaking of straightening up, I guess I really need to do that because I have been catching myself straightening things everywhere I go. The notebook on the front desk at school - just perfectly in line with the edge of the desk. The staplers and tape dispenser on my desk at school, just touching the desk calendar with the 3 hole hole punch just touching on the other side. The boxes of cake mix today at the store. The library books lined up along the edge of the shelf just perfectly straight and even. Then I come home to chaos!! I don't won't to line anything up. Or else I am totally overwhelmed with everything that needs straightening, cleaning and picking up.

My Intuition is not working right now

2011-02-20T13:25:00.004-06:00

Now to make this section squared off I am adding one more piece and then I think I am finished. I need to make this one fit in on the angle with the top piece. So that means more grabbing and sewing. There, got it now to see what size it needs to be

Boo Hiss!! It is way too long and I don't think it is square at all. I thought I squared it up correctly. Maybe the other side isn't square? That is a possibility. However, here is the question of the day: "Do I want to add more to the right hand side or do I just cut off the majority of the bottom of the left side?" Another question is: "Is this the same size as the top part or do I need to take a bit off the side? If I take some off the side, then which side do I take it from? Do I just need to add some to the top if this is too big?"

HEADACHE!!! I have looked at it, added a pink strip between the two sections since I think one of them is not exactly square and I have measured the top part. It is smaller than this bottom part. The good thing is that I didn't put a black/white strip on the right hand side of the top part and can add on there if I want. The bad news is, that I am not going to get this done this weekend since it is wider than it is long and I will definitely have to add some to the bottom right side to get it at least as long as it is wide, if not longer. So, back to the sewing machine.

In the meantime, while I was contemplating this quilt, I made a few blocks for the dot, stripe, plaid request from Victoria. Here are a couple of the blocks I will be sending on to her for the donation quilt. Wait, those aren't correct. I have since slashed across the larger one, it was looking like two halves just sewn together, and added in a different corner piece. I have also made another block this morning as a delaying tactic to working on the Intuition quilt.

Last section

2011-02-18T19:50:00.002-06:00

I just posted over at 15 minutes play about the latest section of my intuition quilt. Go over there and enjoy what I have to say about it. I would have had the pics up and blogged about last night, but the camera and my computer would not get along! Sometimes they can be soooo very persnickety.

The 4th Quadrant

2011-02-14T22:13:00.006-06:00

I think I am going to combine the 3rd and 4th quadrant into one large section OR I may call this one the third quadrant and make the 4th quadrant a bit smaller in width. Anyway, here is what is on my design wall as of 10:15 Monday night. A little late, but better late than not at all. If you want more Design Wall Monday postings go to Judy's blog here. If you want more information about this quilt then stay with me a little bit longer. This section is part of the bottom half of my intuition quilt with 15 minutes of play blog. I should have been taking pictures of this as I worked on each part of this section, but my camera was in the other room and I would put it up on the wall, then make a decision, take it down and sew it, put it up, etc., etc. All while watching tonight's Castle (can I just say, Nathan Fillion, yum!) So, I spent a bit more than the "15 minutes", but I got this entire section put together and am pleased with the results. Now, to measure the top half and see how much more I need to go to get this whole top put together. However, now it is past my bedtime and I must get off here and go to sleep. More on this later.

February's Le Petite Challenge

2011-02-12T13:43:00.009-06:00

This is my version of the newest Le Petite challenge, "Sweet Spot." I know, it's early. I know, I can't believe it either. Last month's challenge I finished late on the 31st. This month, it is the 12th and I am already done. What the heck? Here's the deal. I haven't worked on any other quilting project since I began pulling fabrics and cutting on the 5th and every time I made it up to the studio to sew, I worked on this quilt. Nothing else. No Intuition quilt, no blocks for others, nothing. Now, I don't want you to think that I have eaten, slept and breathed this top, because, that is not the case, but I was totally focused - in the studio - on getting this one done before the deadline. I might even have it quilted - hahaha - okay, now I am lying to myself about that - I should say that I would like to have it quilted and bound before the end of the month, but I would also like to finish up the intuition quilt and move on to the monochromatic challenge. Oh, yes, there is also a little thing called retreat and working on my newest quilt pattern. and, and, and . . . Anyway, back to this quilt. When the newest le petite pattern was posted on Pink Pincushion, I really liked it. I knew I wanted to do something modern, but also a little different from the pattern. I pulled out some Kona gray and 9 fabrics that have a more modern feel to them. I drew out the pattern on a graphing index card, figured out what size I wanted the blocks to be and started in almost immediately. I made one block to test out my plan and then it was off to the races. For some reason, I ended up with 10 star blocks. How did that happen? I only pulled 9 fabrics, didn't I? Oh, yes, that test block. I guess I pulled an extra one for that, but since it goes with the others and since I don't know what I am going to do with the back, I wanted to use all the blocks on the front. That is where this whole thing took a turn for the "different". I only added double borders on two sides along with the one block cornerstone. I thought it was finished, but then I decided it needed to be set with a final gray border. I sewed a 2 1/2" strip along the border sides and a 4 1/2" strips along the non border sides. Perfectiono!(she says, kissing her fingertips on her right hand and then waving her hand in the air) I really like how it looks.

Okay, I said that I hadn't been totally engrossed in making this top, I also have been keeping up with some of the blogs and one of them, 15 Minutes Play, had a posting about disappearing 4 patches. I read that posting, went to the makers blog and read that posting and still don't understand how to cut the blocks. That didn't stop me, though. I sewed 4 - 4 1/2" squares together into a 4 patch. Then I cut 1 inch to the right of the middle seam, turned it a quarter turn and cut 1 inch away from that seam. That looks nothing like - wait, one block looks like it may be part of the what I want - Nope. Can't figure it out. So, I took my pieces, turned a couple of them around and swapped them, sewed them all back together and voila! (another kissing hand thingy) here is my version of the disappearing 4 patch block.

That worked, now let's make another one and see what we have - Crash!! I just knocked off the drawer that holds my keyboard. I have done that before, but this time, I also took out the side support. I am not sure that this can be fixed. Back to the quilt blocks holding my keyboard in my lap. Here is two of them together. This doesn't look anything like the wonkiness of the other one, but I think it has potential, "we believe in you" sorry, flashing to Pretty Woman.

Ahh, I have gone back to the site and discovered that she cut one inch on both sides of each of those seams. Leaving, for the most part the middle section together. I am going to just have to ask her for a pictorial tutorial on exactly how she made them wonky. Or, I may have to sew some more blocks together and try it for myself.

Miss Fiona Lake/design wall monday

2011-02-07T06:25:00.009-06:00

Here is the newest addition to our growing family. This is the one that my neighbor brought to my house thinking it was one of mine. It wasn't at the time, but since I have had her a couple of weeks, I have seen no evidence of an attempt to find her, she came without a collar and has apparently been well taken care of up until now, she is now mine and has the name: Fiona Lake. I have always named my dogs with a first and middle name. Her middle name is because she was found over here by the lake. I have found that she really doesn't like to have her picture taken. I would call her name and she would turn her head away or tuck it under the pillow! These are the best two that I had that weren't blurry from her turning her head so fast. Our Miss Fiona is a bit camera shy.
Below is a picture of my two other shi tzus. You can see why my neighbor thought this one was one of mine. She looks a lot like my Irish and when they are walking side by side, even I have a hard time sometimes telling them apart. She is fitting in great with all the boys and is even teaching McCallum, the yorkie and the baby of the bunch , to mind his manners.

Here is what I have up on my design wall today, Monday, January 7, 2011. I am working on my le petite challenge for February. I have all the center blocks done and sewn together and I am currently working on the borders. I am not sure if I want to do the same as everyone else, so I am playing with scraps and trying to figure it out as I go along. I also miscounted and made an extra block. I thought I was being so careful, but I guess making one block ahead of cutting out the rest, threw me off. I can't decide whether to put it in the corner of on the back. I will have to see after I play a bit more. I am going to finish this one earlier since last time I almost missed the parade. I was putting that final border on the last day of January. If you saw my quilt in the parade, you will notice that Sinta took my picture from my blog with only the three sides attached. It really looks better now with all four sides. To see more design walls on this Monday (or any day) just go to Judy's blog and check it out.

P. S. Dinner was great out with my friends. We had a lot of fun at Johnny Carino's for our monthly get together. There was gossiping and good times had by all!! I now have a new favorite for Monday nights. Their family platters are on half price and I got food for several, several meals for less than it would have cost me for one. I love a bargain!!

Oh, the weather outside is . . . Delightful!!

2011-02-03T14:16:00.004-06:00

Yes, it is. Even though we have snow on the ground and the temperature is 16 degrees with a windchill of 3. I don't have to get out in it!! School was cancelled today. Hopefully it will be cancelled tomorrow, also since it hasn't gotten warm enough to thaw out the ice on the roads. I think the ice will be worse tomorrow since the heat from the cars/people that are crazy enough to be out and about will melt the snow/ice. The temp will re-freeze it immediately and then - poof - more ice and more danger. It is crazy here when there is snow and ice. Since we rarely see it the people in this community don't know how to drive on it . They still go their 50 or 60 miles an hour in a 35-45 zone and decide at the last minute that they are in the wrong lane and zip across three lanes of traffic to make their turn on the other side of the road. (no turn signal to boot!) I don't like to get out if I don't have to on days like this just because I know the crazies are out there and I am glad that I don't have to today.

Here is a picture out my upstairs window of the lake yesterday afternoon. I have never, in the 9 years I have lived in this house, seen the lake frozen over. I mean, completely frozen over.

This second picture is from this morning with a layer of snow over the top. It is beautiful, but crazy. It was 79 degrees on Monday!!

Thank goodness I went to the store Monday, with all the other people that live in this town! I just put on a pot of beef stew in the crock pot and can't wait until tonight when it will be ready. Unfortunately I didn't have enough beef broth to put into the stew so I cheated and used chicken broth and a little bit more beer than I had intended. That was interesting. Going to the 7-11 and purchasing beer. I asked the clerk if there was a smaller one that I could purchase individually than that large 32 ounce (I think) can, but there wasn't. I think he thought I was not all there. Of course, I probably wasn't totally all there since I had just spent a couple of hours fighting the crowd at the grocery store.

Now, on to playing in the quilt studio to work on my intuition quilt. I almost have the third quadrant done. I need to take some pictures of it so I can blog about it here and at 15 minutes play.

Mug Rug 1

2011-02-01T23:07:00.006-06:00

Finished a mug rug to go with this new mug I purchased. It was on clearance for 25 cents!! I made the mug rug to go with it mostly from scraps from my scrap pile and from some pieces I pulled from my stash. So, for very, very little money I have my first Christmas gift for next year. To get the penguin almost the same, I took this picture of my mug, printed out four copies of the picture, cut out each of the pieces I needed, traced them onto heat and bond light, ironed them onto the fabric choice and built my pieces from there. I sewed the strips for the background, layered my penguin, stitched around all the parts with red or black thread, added the mug rug in black thread - over and over and over to build up the color, put a binding around it and called it a night. Well, almost since I am still awake and blogging about this.

See how cute they are together? Sorry about the shadows, but it is almost midnight here and I am doing this with just my overhead and one lamp. You will just have to trust me on this one, they are cute together.

Spam . . . Food or Friend(s)?

2011-02-01T10:01:00.004-06:00

Spam Box? Blogger has enabled spam detection for comments and I should look in my spam box. hmmm. This begs the questions, "Is this box blue with yellow letters?", "Does it have a winter home in Hawaii?", "Can I mix it with potatoes and onions for a type of hash that I can smother in ketchup?" sorry, got a little carried away there. It was bringing back childhood memories. With 4 growing kids, my mother had to find nutritious and filling meals on a budget. That was one of our favorites. Believe it or not it was good. (I can't believe I said spam and nutritious in the same paragraph)

Okay, I will look in my spam box, if I can find it to see if I have any other comments from all of you that I might have missed.

On to the reason for this posting, I know you were all sitting on the edge of your seats just waiting to know if I had to go to school today or not. The answer is ... yes, I had to come to school today. :-( Before you feel too sorry for me, remember, that I am going to have very few students today due to one high school keeping all their kids on their own campus for testing and since it is cold - bitter cold for us since it was 70 yesterday and today it is currently 17 degrees with a wind chill way, way below that. (probably into the single digits or below - I haven't looked lately) We have had a touch of snow, but it is very dry since we haven't had any rain or moisture in over 48 days (I live in the desert - ie: wasteland) until last night. (got sidetracked) Anyway, since it is so cold, a lot of people here won't go out in the cold. Some of the students that did come to school today came in with only a sweat jacket on - NO COAT!! No gloves, no hat. (Sweat Jacket - a jacket made from sweatshirt material that has a zipper up the front and a hood) I really shouldn't' say anything since I ran from my car to the school carrying my coat and sweater in case I get cold in the building. Silly girl. Almost time for my one student to arrive and yes, I am blogging from school today for the first time. Nice to know that I can, but it makes it hard to post any pictures since they are on my computer at home and un-accessable here at school.

MonAmi Top Finished!

2011-01-31T22:00:00.005-06:00

The Mon Ami top is finished for the Le Petite challenge. I have finished (not quilted) all of the challenges on time so far. YEA ME!! I don't think I have ever done that. I don't like to put my creativity on a deadline and it is a struggle to get everything in on time. If I were just doing this one challenge, it would be different. However, I was working on 4 different things during the month of January and this is the only one totally completed. The Intuition quilt is in progress and flowing very nicely. I just need to take this quilt off the wall and put back up the bits and pieces for the lower quadrants of that quilt. The next thing I was going to do in January is the Monochromatic quilt from Patchwork Times. The color drawn was yellow and I found a bunch of nice yellow FQ's on clearance at The Quilting Patch in Midland. I came home, cut them into fat eights to share half with my mother. Unfortunately that is as far as I got on that one. I do have to say that I wasn't' planning on making the entire quilt in one month, only about 8 or 9 blocks. Then, at the end of the year, after making that many blocks from each color drawn each month, I would put them all together in a single quilt. So, all is not lost on that one, yet. The color has been drawn for February and it is violet. I can make both sets of blocks and be back on track this month. (Plus the new challenge quilt, the intuition quilt, the retreat quilt, writing the pattern for my class quilt, etc., etc., etc.) I am really hoping that it rains and freezes all night so that they will cancel school tomorrow and I can stay home and quilt. That would be wonderful. Except tomorrow was already going to be wonderful in the fact that the majority of my students weren't going to be there anyway. Drats!

Design Wall Monday Posting Early

2011-01-30T22:22:00.003-06:00

Almost!! I almost have my Mon Ami quilt top finished for the Le Petite challenge this month. I only have to put on one more border and I am done! I didn't think I would make it to the first of February, but I think I will. I can get that border, which is already cut and ready, sewn on tomorrow. I know, you are asking, "Why aren't you sewing it on now instead of blogging?" Because I can type faster than I can pin all those seams. I have been pinning each seam so that it lays flat and let me tell you, that is a lot of pins! Well, here it is, so far. I am also doing this now so I can post to the Monday Design Wall group tomorrow.

To see what everyone else has on their design wall Monday, go to Patchwork Times.

A Visitor Has Come Calling

2011-01-24T20:30:00.002-06:00

My doorbell rings around 7:20 this evening and it is my neighbor. She is holding a dog that looks soooo much like one of mine, that I start counting heads to make sure they are all there. One, two . . where's the third? I look at this dog she is holding to make sure it isn't mine and . . . nope. Not one of mine. However, it looks so much like my two older ones, that it could be mine. My neighbor and I talk and since the night is really cold - if there were moisture in the air, we would be getting snow right now. It has been predicted, but no moisture - no snow. Or at least that is my take on the weather. I am not a weatherperson, so don't totally 100% trust me. (like we would 100% trust a meterologist!!) Anyway, long story short, her dog as passed, they don't have a kennel or food, I have both, the dog is staying the night with me. We went across the street to a lady that has some gray dogs, but they are schnauzers. I take little miss in the car and go down the street to a neighbor that has a dog similar to my Irish to see if they had gotten another one, but no, not their dog. (Great note is, I think I can talk them into taking her if we don't find her owners in a couple of days) The husband had to do a double take when he saw me with her in my arms. He thought it might be his dog, also. it really is weird how all 4 of these dogs - my two, their one and this one, look so very similar. So, I am the crazy neighbor lady with 4 dogs. No, I am not keeping all four.

Design Wall Monday

2011-01-24T06:18:00.003-06:00

Here is what is on my wall(s). I actually have two walls going. I have the first two quadrants of my intuition quilt sewn together and I am working on the next two quadrants.

I can't decide if I want one large section or two separate sections for the bottom half of this quilt.

Liberating Weekend Quilt-In

2011-01-17T10:05:00.005-06:00

This weekend was our first Quilt-In of the new year. Long ago, our quilt group voted not to have a traditional quilt retreat and instead we would have a stay at home retreat. We start at 3:00 on a Thursday and go until 3:00 (or longer) on Saturday. You sew when you can make it, come and go when your days are like that and run home to feed the dogs, family or just pick something up that you left. Even though we could, if we wanted, stay all night, we all elect to return to our beds and come back in the mornings. It has been a wonderful arrangement. Sometimes we have a planned project, but our favorite time is when we work on our own stuff. This weekend I worked on my Mon Ami quilt for the Le Petite Challenge. I have been meticulously squaring up every half-square triangle and it has been slow going. I should have never done that to the first one, because it turned out so perfect, that when I didn't square up the fourth one, I decided I didn't like how it looked and have gone back to squaring each one. Let's see that is 8 HST per block at 25 blocks that is 200 - 2 1/2" hst's!! I haven't even gotten to the sawtooth border yet! With having to finish up finals and getting my grades in for the semester, our meeting on Saturday, feeding the dogs and working on a rwb block (more later) I only got 10 blocks totally completed. I have the other squares sewn, but not squared. I still have a couple of weeks to get this done. If I sew a little bit each day, it will be finished in no time. hopefully.

Pictured below is my friend Diana's quilt she made in Debbie Caffrey's Stir Fry class in December. She used blocks leftover quilt blocks and made some during the year when I suggested patterns in our newsletter. She is having the best time quilting it. Just doing whatever the block speaks to her - machine quilting, hand quilting and tying. She is even going to do some machine embroidery on it! It was fun to watch her and Molly work on laying it out and fun to see the top as she quilts it.
Molly brought this quilt to show me because of all the bright colors. I love it!! Not only because of the brights, but because it is all blocks that are liberated and wonky. Molly and Diana made similar quilts using all the patterns from Gwen Marston's Liberated Quilt books. To hear them talk about their process, they each have the books, now, and they get on the phone and sew and quilt at their own houses, together! Too funny. It is a beautiful quilt. They were both jealous when I told them I was going to be taking classes from Gwen in March. I just love wonky and liberated stuff.

Speaking of which, I made a funky star block to donate to our ROTC raffle quilt. I had to add borders to get it to the right size. I had never made lopsided funky stars inside a funky star before. I was inspired by a couple of blocks from Molly's quilt. I will have to make a couple more of these for my stir fry quilt - still haven't blogged about that yet - just to have some more fun.

First Design Wall Monday

2011-01-17T09:57:00.003-06:00

I know I am jumping the gun, but I really have been wanting to participate in Design Wall Monday this year and this is the first one I remembered. So, here is what is on my design wall. I will blog more about it and the process at 15 minutes play in just a little bit. This is the second and third quadrants of my intuition quilt.

For more Design wall inspiration go to Judy's at Patchwork Times.

Playing around

2011-01-11T20:01:00.008-06:00

I have been working on a couple of quilts and ideas this week along with trying to still fight this "flu/cold" bug. I finally went back to the doctor today and got some more medicine. I am a little afraid to take it with all the warnings on it "may cause diarrhea", "may cause diarrhea up to one month after taking this medicine" (what?) "do not take within 24 hours of taking ....vitamins" Scary!!! I should have taken two doses by now, but since I take a daily vitamin, I haven't taken any. I am tempted to call my doctor back tomorrow and ask for something that doesn't make me sick in a different way than what I am now.

I have had my hair up in a ponytail for the last two days (except to sleep) and when I took it down tonight I shook it all out and felt wild. I wondered what I looked like. So, I picked up the camera that was right in front of me and took a picture . . .

LOL!!! I need some lipstick/lip coloring. They are extremely pale. However, I think it looks like an art picture. I like the eye peeking out. I may change my picture on facebook. My mother hates the picture I have now, I doubt she will like this one any better. Look for her comment below and see what she says.

I have been playing almost everyday for at least 15 minutes and this is what I have been working on since I last blogged. I am still in the middle of the intuition quilt project. I did one quadrant then took time off and stitched together some scrap strips into a rail fence quilt. Since it was all in the same pile on the table, I thought I might use that as one of the quadrants and put the other section back up on the wall. hmmm. Not sure about that yet. They will definitely swap sides if I do use it.

So, I started on another section. Pulling in some of the same fabrics and playing. Here is from two sessions at the sewing machine.

I found some more of those 9 patch blocks and put them on the board all together. I am going to go in there and move them all around here in a minute and break them up. I don't like the entire block, but may leave some of them together.

I put the intuition aside last night while I was watching the BCS game (TCU should have been playing in that game.) Personal comments aside, I started pulling fabric to make the Mon Ami from the le petite challenge for this month. I plan on working on this at our quilt-in starting Thursday. I decided to make it out of solids and I am happy with the choices I have made.

I was so excited that I just had to make one block just to get me started. Only 24 more to go. Now, off the computer and back to the intuition quilt.

Really, really I do

2011-01-06T23:27:00.004-06:00

It is really, really late and I really, really need to get to bed, but I wanted to show you what I did tonight. I took all those orange, pink, yellow and purple leftover strips and sewed them into sets of 4, cut them into 8 1/2" squares and put them up rail fence style on the wall. Wouldn't you know it, I am one block short. I am so glad that I took the time to cut 2 1/2" strips from the leftovers. I pulled them out of the box and made another square. I really like this. it is about 32 inches square. At least it should be, I really didn't measure it. It may have to have a border on it to make it larger, but I am enjoying it up on the wall.

The other thing I did was go by the Quilting Patch in Midland. I had to go to Midland for something else and since I was in the area. . . I was just going to see what they had gotten in new. I really hadn't intended to purchase anything unless it really screamed at me (okay, I am going to bed in a minute. Really is stuck in my head and I need to get it out!!) They were having a massive sale on fabric. Their clearance fat quarters were only 80 cents each!! Can you imaging? I pulled out 12 for the monochromatic challenge spoken about previously. I pressed them and cut them into fat eighths and I am giving half of them to my mother. (Hey, mom. Look at what is coming your way sometime soon) Here are the fabrics layed out on my ironing board that I am going to use for the yellow challenge. Not a bright in the lot. This will be interesting.

For all of you out there wondering if I bought out all the fat quarters, the answer is no. I only purchased 20 of them. Some to go with another quilt, a couple of purples and a couple of wilds that I just had to have to make the numbers even. I didn't even spend all of my twenty! Now, I am really, really going to bed. Night all.

Still Sewing on. . . ditto

2011-01-06T23:21:00.003-06:00

Here is what I just posted on 15 minutes play.

When I went to bed the turquoise borders were 5 inches wide. The next morning I got up and thought that they were too wide and that was the problem. They swallowed the inside of the quilt. So, I folded them under to about 3 1/2" and voila much better.

Measure, cut, sew and I have borders all the way around that I am pleased with.

I unearthed some half square triangles left over from two different quilts and put them up on the wall. That is as far as I can go tonight. Notice that the pinwheels have temporarily disappeared. I know you all liked them in the border, but I just really felt that they weren't supposed to be there for some reason.

I don't like those half square triangles on there at all!! Even turning them around didn't help. This time I pulled a darker pink strip and added it to the side, but I miss-cut the booger - did I mention that I have the flu? that is why not much is getting done during the day and this top is taking soooo long. It's the pits to be on vacation with the flu, but at least I am working on a quilt. anyway, the dark pink border has been miss-cut so I put in a little pinwheel to fix it. then the outer border just came along with all those leftover 9 patches and pinwheels. I don't really like the fact that the pink strip pinwheel and the outer pinwheels kind of match up, but I am not taking it out or moving the strip. I can live with that.

If you have one pink strip you really need another one, so I put it on the bottom, it came attached to the orange strip from the stash pile.( Remnants from another quilt.) Since I didn't want it to go all the way across the bottom, it meant that I was going to have to unsew the right hand border, add another block and pinwheel to make it look like the pink just came in and turned the corner. I like it a bit off kilter like this.

Do I leave it or try to balance it out with something on the top and left? I pulled a black and white striped strip out of the pile and I don't want to say voila again, but . . . voila!
I thought I had a picture of that strip sewn on and trimmed up, but I guess I don't. I am thinking this might just be one quadrant of a larger quilt. It's only about 32" X 34" so it's small. I will start just playing with what I have left of my scraps. Yes, I unearthed some more and my pile is growing. They are calling for me to make more house blocks.

More Intuition

2011-01-05T21:49:00.005-06:00

Not bad, three days - wait it's 4 days, that is borderline. What am I talking about? One of my new year resolutions is to blog more. While two blogs in six days is not bad, it's not what I set for myself and I will need to add two more blogs by Saturday. Hey, that's not as bad as I thought. I think I can do that.

I have been working on my intuition quilt along with going back to school on Monday. I have got to get home before 5 o'clock the rest of this week. It cuts into my sewing time when after I get home I have to take the dogs out, feed them, water them, feed me without their help, watch Jeopardy! :) and then come upstairs to read blogs, facebook and e-mails. By the time I get to the sewing room it doesn't leave me much time to sew. Good thing I am working on my intuition quilt for 15 minutes play. Let's see, where did we leave off? Oh, yes, thinking about adding some color block borders.

It needed the pink to be repeated and brought out some more, so I picked up a strip, hoping that I would have enough to go all the way around. it didn't work out that way and I had to add in another pink fabric strip from the pile. Doesn't look too bad since they are almost the same value. I don't even notice it now. I cut up some teal/turquoise fabrics into random widths by 5 inches and placed them around the top. Looking good. But, I still need to bring out some of that white from the middle so I pulled all the extra pinwheels and pieced some teal fabric to both the top and bottom so I could put them in the border and

I don't like it. It looks too forced. I pull them back out and leave it alone for the night. It doesn't look right, but I can't figure out what it needs. Maybe tomorrow.

2011-01-02T11:49:00.008-06:00

My tree quilt made it into the parade of tree quilts over at A Quilting Life, but looks so - I don't know any other way to say this than blah. It really does need a border around it to help it sparkle. I originally wasn't planning on adding a border, but now I am going to have to go back and put one on. I really like the ones that have a narrow border, a border of the background fabric and a wider border in another print. That is going to be on my list of things to get done in January. (along with about 20 other things)

Of those (20) things to get done is to work on the Intuition Challenge that I am currently contemplating the next change/addition while it rests on my design wall, maybe join in on the yellow challenge from Judy at Patchwork Times. Either she or her husband will draw a color from a bag of color possibilities and that is the color of the month. For January it is yellow. You are challenged to make a monochromatic quilt using only that color. You can use any tint, shade or vibrancy of that color. Sounds challenging and intriguing doesn't it? Want to join in the fun? I am also considering making a mug rug for the Sew I Quilt challenge. In this one, all you have to is make a mug rug that screams "you". Well, I might be able to do that especially since I saw Glen's pig that she made into a table runner. I love that pig and can't wait until I have the chance/take the time to play around and make my own version of a pig. I think that may scream "ME" in a mug rug. I think I will stop now with what I want to get done and go back downstairs and do some more laundry.

Project Intuition Quilt Challenge

2010-12-30T21:59:00.004-06:00

I have decided to do the challenge project with the 15 minutes of play blog. Here are my pictures so far. I think I added too many pictures all at once and the up loader is being a bit slow. While we are waiting, here is the story. As you know I have been cleaning off the top of my cutting table so I can actually use it if I want. I have been cutting larger pieces of scrap fabric from leftover quilts into squares ranging from one inch to 5 inches. (see last post) ooh, yea! pictures have loaded. The one below is of most of the leftover scraps and strings from a pile off the cutting table. You might recognize some of the fabrics from previous quilts. I used the bits and pieces to make these blocks to put up on the wall along with some 9 patch blocks from several, several years ago. I know, the picture isn't the best, but you can kind of see some pinwheels, logs and those 9 patches along with a house and some other things all put together from the scraps. After sewing some of the one inch strings into log cabins (see on the wall) I took what was left over and made the blocks in the next picture and kept putting them together and finished the day with what is on the arm of my sewing machine. Now, don't think that I have been doing all this in one day. No way! It has been a totally space out project. Matter of fact, I had all the blocks on the wall 4 or 5 days before Victoria made her challenge. After reading it, I decided that this is what I am going to do with all those blocks. So, then the below blocks came into being.

I have played off and on for the last two days making a little and leaving it on the wall or small table then coming back and making a little more. Just playing around with what I have in my pile. I put some of it together at lunch today and put it on the wall, moved items around and then just walked away.

I liked some of it like the log cabins down the side, but not all that white. I know that it is going to need some more white somewhere so the initial white of that pinwheel doesn't stand out so much, but not all together like I have it on the wall there. This evening I went back into my studio and looked at the wall and just took the blocks down and played some more. Another house, another 9 patch something else on point. That's the ticket. More and more and voila here is what I have on the wall when I finished tonight.

I kind of like this one. I am going to have to sleep and let this one simmer for awhile on the wall and see where we go from here. I may have to pull out more scraps from the large tub and see what needs to be added. Working on this reminded me of when I worked on another quilt - one of my favorites. It is made in this same vein. I will blog about it in the near future. For now, my brain has been pieced to numbness and I must go see what the boys have gotten into while I sewed away.

After Christmas Sewing

2010-12-27T18:25:00.007-06:00

I have been sleeping alot this past week. Trying to get well and back to feeling much, much better. I think I am on the right track, but it is taking a bit of time. I tried to run errands and go to the grocery store today, but got so exhausted after one stop I just picked up some lunch and came home. I guess that I had totally worn down my body this fall semester and am in need of this rest. I only have little less than a week to get back up to speed, so I really need to settle in and work on that and on getting the laundry done. I really am about to run out of clean clothes.

So, when I have been awake, you saw one of the things I made one day while I was playing around with the scrap fabrics from my cutting table. (the Merry Christmas quilt from the last post) I have been trying to clear it off and get the scrap fabric cut into squares or strips so they can be easily used in scrap quilts. I go anywhere from 1 inch square (you know for those tiny quilts I sometimes get the urge to make) up to 5 inch charm squares. I won't let myself go any larger, yet. Now I need to find a place to put these little squares so they will be accessible and not get tumbled around in another scrap box. LIGHT BULB!!! I see two empty recipe/index boxes right here on my desk. What a great way to store these squares. I have several more at school that I have collected that students have left behind. They now will have a home in my quilting studio! What a great idea! Thank you light bulb.

Now, on to two other things I have worked on during the holiday. The place mats that still aren't finished. I just need to hand stitch the binding on two! that's all. Just two of the 4 place mats and they will be all finished.

The other thing that I just finished today and that was because I decided to go ahead and add the flower to the front and then I decided to hand embroider some extras to help it pop a bit more. (yes, it is hand appliqued. Thank you for asking)

it is a Kindle cover. I was going through Moda Bake Shop looking for a quilt that used two honey buns (because I finally found another Arcadia by Sanae for Moda honey bun - yea me only $12!!) Anyway, I was looking through and this is one of the patterns that came up that uses honey buns. Well, how fortunate. My sisters and I got my mother a kindle for Christmas. How much fun would it be to make her a cover? So, I got out my box of 1 1/2" strips - what? I am not using Arcadia for this! - and got to sewing. There are parts of this pattern that I liked and parts that I didn't. One of the things I had to do differently was that I had to draw out my own applique patterns. I tried to download them, but since it had been published so long ago, the site where they are housed wanted me to sign up and pay for membership. I didn't want to do that, so I wasn't going to add any applique. Then this morning I woke up and decide to play around with some card stock to see if I could draw the pieces to my liking. They are definitely not perfect, but that is what I like about them. the second thing is that the pattern calls for a 3/8 inch seam when sewing on the binding. I didn't take into consideration for the extra seam allowance when I turned the corners so my corners are not very good. Nowhere close to being near perfect. Matter of fact, I haven't had any perfectly mitered corners since Gerri's birthday quilt. (feeling great remembering those perfect corners!) Again, I am drifting off subject. Even with those two things, I like the pattern and am going to have to make at least one more. They go together really quick and if I knew more people that had Kindles I might could make some and sell them. Of course, I may have to make some severe changes to the pattern to be able to sell them. I will have to check and see. Wonder if my nephew would want/use one for his NOOK or think it was too girly? yea, you're right-probably too uncool and girly for a 17 year old. (I promise I wouldn't put the flower on the front of his!) We'll see....

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T14:52:00.001-06:00

Here's hoping everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year.

Christmas Cold (Flu that is)

2010-12-22T09:16:00.003-06:00

I had such big plans for being off work for two weeks. Sewing, cleaning, quilting, reading. None of this (or at least very little of this) is happening. What is happening is a major head cold. I can't remember the last time it was this bad. Major, major sinus pressure, headache and chills. Which also comes free with fever, runny nose (when it isn't blocked) and sore throat! Yuk, yuk, yuk! And all right here at Christmas time. I crawled out of bed yesterday and went to the doctor. Got a shot and several meds to help me get through this bout of "flu". And before you can ask, I did have the flu shot(first time in 14 years), but I am sick anyway. Today is worse than yesterday. Sure am glad I went to the doctor yesterday.

I drank the last of my water yesterday and had to go refill all my bottles this morning. For those of you that don't know about Odessa water, you don't want to drink it straight from the tap. It really does not taste good at all. The majority of the residents in Odessa either have an RO system at their house or buy their water from the store and then re-fill their gallon jugs. I don't have an RO system at my house so I have gallon water bottles that I take to one of the windmill water stations around town and periodically fill them up. Unfortunately for me, I had been putting off filling my bottles until this week. Since I was already out and about, I stopped at Mickey D's and picked up some breakfast to bring home and enjoy. I sure didn't feel like cooking or even eating much, but it sounded good at the time. I ate a little bit and shared some with the big boys then ended up throwing about 1/3 of it in the trash. It's hard to eat when you have to breathe and eat through your mouth. I think I took a couple of naps sitting at the table trying to eat breakfast! It is crazy how tired I am. I could just doze off anywhere. Unfortunately, I am only getting a few minutes rest here and there. It's the breathing thing. doze, sneeze, sneeze! If I could just breathe I could sleep and let my body heal itself, but I can't breathe!!

I still have to quilt my tree from my previous post and am working on cleaning up the cutting table so I can spread it out and baste it for quilting. I need to finish the binding on two place mats - Note to self, next time to make the binding bigger so you can just turn it over and machine stitch it down and not have to do it by hand. I am headed into the quilt "studio" to see how much work I can get done today before I give it all up and decide to crawl back into bed for an hour or so nap. I watched "Despicable Me" on Monday so I think I will put in "Shrek" for todays entertainment. And, to go along with that and because I am tired of blog posts with no picture, here is a look I get all the time from Taegan:
oops, lost it, hold on, wait for it, wait for it . . . oh foo, I am going to have to go find it once again. back in a second. Okay, here it is:

If you can picture a gray shih tzu with these large black eyes looking up at you. That is what I see all the time. Just like this. (except with those changes I just mentioned)

Tree top done

2010-12-18T14:43:00.004-06:00

here is the top for my le petite tree challenge. I need to lay it out and baste it. I plan on putting some beads on it to decorate it after it is all quilted. Stay tuned and for the final product, hopefully before Christmas.

I am currently working on some placemats. But for now, I need to take a nap so I can cheer on our Idalou Wildcats as they play in the state championship game for the first time ever!! Go Cats!!

Edit: OOPS! I forgot you could see the blocks behind the tree. That block is a cakestand block from our year-long-prepare-for-December-stir-fry-class with Debbie Caffrey. More posted later on that class/quilt

Just Talking - No Pictures

2010-12-15T22:13:00.004-06:00

Just a quick blog here. I have been wanting to check in, but life was very, very busy last week. My culinary class along with the hospitality and fashion design classes hosted our Holiday Showcase to our friends and faculty. We made lots of food and goodies while our fashion design teacher decorated the restaurant. It was beautiful!! I just wish I had remembered to take my camera with me that day. Thank goodness my mother brought hers and took pictures. Unfortunately, I don't have copies of them to share, but I will as soon as I can.

Now that life has slowed a little bit, well as much as it can at this time of year, I have been able to sew. I finished the binding on "The 3 Crosses" quilt for a friend - see previous post - and added a label on the back. It is now ready to go. I have 2 secret santa parties Friday morning and I only have one gift made- note to self, take a picture of gift before you wrap it - and have absolutely no clue what to do about the other gift. I will have to find something tomorrow for sure. It's not that I am lazy and don't want to shop. I have looked. okay, only a little bit, but I have looked. I just don't know what to get her. Something will come up. I mean, it has to, right?

For the first party tomorrow morning, I have to make cinnamon rolls. I am making the fun and easy rolls that my sister shared the recipe for and I have improved upon where you put them in the oven over night and turn on the oven in the morning and voila! beautiful, perfect gooey cinnamon rolls. The only problem is that if I do them at school and leave them overnight it will be about 16 hours before they are cooked. That is not good. Way to long to proof in the pan. We will have huge cinnamon rolls and dough that has possibly jumped ship (pan). The solution? I will make them at home and take them to school with me and put them in the oven there. I just hope my oven is large enough to hold the huge pans overnight. (little bitty oven here) I may can cover them and put them on the counter top. I will have to find the recipe and see what my options are. I just know that I can't make them at 3 Thursday afternoon and expect perfect cinnamon rolls at 7 the next morning. Lots to do tomorrow and the dogs are barking - literally, along with the neighborhood dogs. I will share pictures, etc. in my next posting.

DONE!! well, almost

2010-12-06T21:19:00.003-06:00

Just finished this quilt for a friend of mine that recently became an ordained minister. I didn't get to go to her Ordination ceremony since it was more than 12 hours away, but I have had this quilt in my head to make for her since she told me about the ceremony.

I have been seeing everyone else's cross block quilts and thought it would be fun to make one of those quilts and then this came up and . . . couldn't have been more perfect. I free motion quilted it using the pebbles quilting since I wanted the crosses to really stand out from the background even more than just the color jumping off the quilt. All I need to do now is finish stitching down the binding and the hanging sleeve and add a label. Then I can mark this one done. I think I have caught up with most of the quilts I have had in my head for a few months.

UGG!

2010-12-04T08:53:00.001-06:00

Home sick from work yesterday and I got in a little bit of sewing between naps. I took some left over strips from my liberated quilt and cut them up and sewed them back together to create two large mug rugs. they are a bit on the large side - almost small pot holders really except they don't have any insulated batting in them. Maybe they should have. Anyway, I am going back in there to do some more sewing until I can't keep my eyes open any longer and must take another nap. I added a dark brown border around the Butter Churn quilt and I am liking it better. Now to decide on the final border on it and to get ready for Debbie Caffrey's Stir Fry class this weekend. Got to get well for that and our Hospitality Showcase this next week. I will post pictures later.

Another quilt a long finished

2010-11-29T17:19:00.003-06:00

here it is, another quilt-a-long finished top. This one was with That girl...that quilt. I changed mine up a bit, then I was bored with that and changed it up some more. I like the look of it now. It has a kick to it that it didn't have before.
Now I just need to make a back for it, quilt it and bind it. That's all. Ha! It will probably live in a stack for awhile and then move to a hanger in my closet and then, when it is really old and dusty, I might remember to get it out and quilt it. Maybe it won't follow the same path the rest of my tops have followed for years. Who am I kidding? We are talking about me here. The queen of "a lovely collection of quilt tops". Gotta run - just found a pattern for my next quilt top to live in my closet and I've gotta get sewing on it.

Le Petite Second Top, Butter Churn, done

2010-11-28T16:36:00.009-06:00

Second post of the day. I know, there was a drought on my blog and now it seems to be raining!

I have previously said that last year I "joined" in on the year of schnibbles and made the first couple of schnibbles and then life got busy and I only made one or two more after that. I also, never figured out how to get them posted to the blogs that do the parades so I gave up. This year, they are doing a new challenge called, Le Petite. I have done the first quilt, Paganini, and blogged about it here. This is the second of the projects (okay, third, but I think the first one was optional and even though I need a new ironing board cover, I just haven't gotten around to doing that yet) This one I tried to find a pattern for, but the one store I looked at was sold out and I really wanted to get started on it. So, I just printed out a picture of the quilt and saw how simple it really was - just a modified Jacobs Ladder and Monkey Wrenches along with some half square triangles. A cinch! I decided on my block size - 9" and that determined how large to make the half squares on the outside (2/3 the size of the block - 6")

Here is my next Le Petite quilt top, Butter Churn:

After going back and looking at Sinta's quilt top, I am definitely going to have to put some borders on this one. I thought I was totally finished with it, but I guess I am not completely done.

Food - enough said

2010-11-28T16:13:00.004-06:00

Finally got my pictures to download out of my camera. I thought I was going to lose them forever! I don't know about all of you, but I have had a couple of really hectic weeks, up until this week, that is.

At school, we had an advisory lunch, advisory meeting and a luncheon for 40! That last one was a bit scary, but we did it! My kids pulled it off. We plated and served almost 40 people. They were an hour late getting into the restaurant than what they had previously told me, but thank goodness for my hot/hold we were able to serve a great meal when they finally arrived.

a couple of days before that, I got the chance to go to Frisco to their culinary showcase. The students of Friso and Wiley teamed up and created a wonderful menu of delectable items that was beautifully presented and served. It was a wonderful experience to get to go there and view what they are doing and see the possibility of what my students will one day soon, be doing.

Here are some pics of the food: Okay, I thought I uploaded my pics. Let me try one more time. I don't think I was patient enough for them to completely load last time. Here we go: This is what we were served:

Butternut squash soup with cinnamon creme fraise (don't know if that is how it is spelled or not - pronounced fresh) with caramelized shallots

Field Greens with cranberries and sugared pecans with a round of fried goat cheese

Braised short rib with root vegetables served over blue cheese polenta (which was very creamy and wonderful)

and last, but not least - and my favorite of the night even though everything was simply delicious - apple dumpling with cream and a caramel sauce. Just let me say that I have never liked cooked apples and apple dumplings until this year when my mother made me some of the Pioneer Woman's apple dumplings. This is my next favorite apple dumpling recipe. Speaking of which, I need to e-mail that chef and ask for the recipe.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and I didn't make you, too hungry!

Birthday Quilt

2010-11-14T10:04:00.002-06:00

I made my friend a birthday quilt last night and wanted to share it with you. She celebrated her 70th birthday with a fabulous tea party given in her honor by her daughters and granddaughters. It was a blast! The table decorations were unbelievable. I wish I had my camera there just to take pictures of the decorations. There were 4 large tables and each table had a different vignette. One had a collection of old hats on stands. Ours, had glasses, boas, jewels and lots of bling, bling, bling. Table number three had little tea sets and large tea sets and bling. The fourth table had clear glass ware and candles. It was all beautiful. What more can I say, but if you are going to have a party, these are the people you want to come in and decorate. Very professionally done.

Friday night before the party I got a picture of a quilt in my head that I needed to make for my friend. However, I was told - I think - by the birthday girl herself not to bring a gift. So, I didn't make that quilt. However, when I got to the party, almost everyone had brought her a gift. Well, that did it. I was just going to have to make that quilt and take it to her. So, I made it yesterday and here is a picture of it. It has perfect binding on it. I mean, my mitered corners have never, I mean, never been so perfect in my life. You can't tell where I started and stopped this binding because my connection is perfect. I am so proud of all the things I have learned from other blogs, friends and teachers and they have finally come together on this quilt binding.

Happy Birthday my friend and here's to many more and more perfect bindings for the both of us!

Geodes

2010-11-14T09:37:00.003-06:00

Last weekend I went to the Midland Gem and Mineral Society Show. I have been wanting to go for a few years, but other things had been happening at the same time and it always got pushed to the end of the list and I never got to attend. This year, I put it at the top of the list and it was the first thing I did Saturday morning. If you will recall from a previous post, I was out quite late at the sit and sew in Andrews with my friend Kathy and didn't get home until 1:30 a.m. or so. I just want to say that I love minerals and gems. I have always been fascinated by the colors and texture and just love the finished product, even though I don't wear much jewelry anymore. I love opening an oyster an pulling out the precious pearl. I have several I have collected when they used to have them at the South Plains Fair in Lubbock.

I took a jewelry making class in college and purchased some loose tourmalines in solid pink and solid green. I put one in a ring during that class and found out that I will never become a jeweler like I always wanted to be since I can't stand the sound of a file on metal. Nope, not going to do that again.

About 8 years ago, my mother and I went to Montana to dig for sapphires. I have a lot of loose - mostly un-cuttable - sapphires. I have a few that I need to get heat treated and cut, but will have to send them off back to Montana and I would rather spend my money, at this time, on fabric. But, one day . . .

As a young girl, we always had geodes in our house. When we would go to Colorado, my dad would pull over on the side of the road and we would pick them up and then take them to someone to cut them for us. I just loved waiting to see what beauty these ugly round rocks would reveal. Let me tell you, my dad almost always picked a winner. We had some of the most gorgeous geodes I have ever seen - even to this day, displayed on bookshelves around our house. Well, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to purchase some rocks and have them cut open for me while I waited that wonderful Saturday morning. I picked up a rock, set it down, picked up another, set it down. Then walked off. I didn't need to buy any rocks. I don't need to spend money on this. Remember, I like spending my money on fabric. Well, as you can see below. I not only bought one. I bought three! They are all different and unique in their own way. I plan on giving a few away as Christmas gifts so others can share in the beauty.

I knew this one would have something unique about it because on the outside of the rock, you could see where it may have shifted in it's formation. It is amethyst even though this picture doesn't show it's true beauty.

This one I kind of went, hmm. I wasn't really impressed with it at the show, but when I got it home and pulled it out. WOW! I really like it. It is a very dark smoky quartz and has some crystal shards that have stacked themselves to create a little mountain inside. Beautiful.

This one has crystal quartz, with shards of crystal laying on top. Small, but pretty. My least favorite, but still beautifully unique.

Irish and Taegan and McCallum, too

2010-11-08T19:16:00.007-06:00

"Mom, we want what you are having. What, it's not Irish and Taegan food? But, we still want it. See how sweetly we sit? See how sweetly we bat our beautiful eyes? "

McCallum, "Hey, you guys, get me out of here! Mom, if they get some extra food, I want some."

"Please, Mom. Don't let McCallum out. We still want some food, but please don't let McCallum out."

"Those guys are no help. I am never getting out of here."

Sit and Sew @ the Sewing Cottage

2010-11-08T18:36:00.004-06:00

Friday night was spent in the company of my friend Kathy at the Sewing Cottage in Andrews. Norma, the store owner, had a sit and sew from 6 to midnight. Since Kathy and I had gone to the Midland one a couple of weeks before, I called her up and suggested we try this one, also. This time I would definitely take pictures of everything that was going on. Well, turns out, Kathy and I were the only smart ones to take Norma up on her all night sewing fun. And what fun we had. Can't wait until the next one! We will definitely be dragging more of our Odessa group up there to join us. We talked, and sewed and ordered pizza which Norma's daughter was brave enough to go and pick it up for us. (apparently that was an education no one would have wanted).

As I said, we talked, even when we slowed down enough to eat. Of course we had to have our cokes from Stripes or we wouldn't have even been able to begin sewing.

Here's mine next to my ugly bag and my eye glass case. I really need to make a prettier bag. I was experimenting with the zipper and putting it on like I had seen in a TV show, but couldn't exactly remember how to do it. It works, but it doesn't look great. I keep using this bag since it is so handy. One of these days I will make another one that is much prettier. What's in it? All my little things that I need when I am on the road (even when I am not on the road. It sits in a partially opened drawer next to me when I sew at home) Oh, yes, you did ask what was in it. . . extra needles, wound bobbins, screw drivers, buttons, seam rippers, pens and markers. Everything a quilter or her friend might need.

speaking of bags. Here is Kathy's cute carry all bag.

she carries all her sewing stuff in there and has for quite awhile now.

Here is my purse.

Not looking so good. Today, I even discovered that my tote bag that holds all my school papers is ripped. I guess I will be getting two new bags this week. Or next. Or maybe even when we are off for Thanksgiving. Yea, that is probably the only time I will have to go to the store and even look at bags. My two have served their purpose.

I am sick of my pink bag. I bought it this summer when the purse I took to conference was WAY to small. I couldn't add anything to it and I had a hard time zipping it closed. That meant that I was carrying my cameras around with me along with my notebook and water bottle. So, quick trip to Target and I purchased this messenger bag. Worked great all the way through the first 6 weeks of school. Now, it is WAY to big. Nothing stays in it's place and everything falls to the bottom. Good thing that flashlight we got at the Ogallala retreat is still in there. It comes in handy when I am trying to find something.

This is what Kathy worked on after she finished up her retreat quilt. Sorry, can't show you pictures of it until our retreat. (What I really mean is, I didn't take a picture of it when it was all done)

Those are the greens she cut circles out of so she can put together project bags for her girl scouts. They are making yo-yo's into a tree. It is a really cute project, but we will all have to wait until next year to see their finished product since Norma and I talked Kathy into waiting until then to make them. The girls were only going to have about an hour or less to start on them in the meeting and Kathy expected them to take them home and finish the tree. How many of you would have finished your yo-yo tree when you were in 8th grade if you had never made a yo-yo before? "Not I," said the fly. So, that is why she is sooooo ahead on her Christmas project for next year. Now she has plenty of time to look for those little metal stars to go on the top.

In the next post I will show you what I worked on all night. It took me most of the time to just cut everything out. Plus eating, shopping, talking, looking around the store and of course talking.

Time and New Projects

2010-11-03T21:14:00.006-05:00

I have been sewing a little and lazing around a lot! I need to get into the sewing room, but by the time I get home, feed the dogs, check out facebook and play a couple games of bejeweled blitz - okay, a lot more than a couple, it is almost time to go to bed. Where does the day go? I know I am getting out of school later than I have in 8 years and I am even sometimes staying later than that (4:30/5:00), but it really seems like there is no time to do ANYTHING!! At least I know what I am wearing tomorrow and it is clean. I need to do a couple or 4 loads of laundry. Do things ever pile up for you like this? Laundry, kitchen, refrigerator, puppy, trash? It's a never ending cycle. I think I will take a break from it all and go to Andrews for a sew-in Friday. Maybe I will get more done at this one that I did at the one in Midland. I have enough to keep me busy, I just need to work on it.

This past weekend was our Quilt-in with our Bee friends group and I worked on my quilt-along with That Girl - That Quilt. I saw her drawing and just started out on my own not waiting for her instructions. Sounds like me, huh? I was not liking it and still am not totally sure about it. I haven't found the layout I want or the spark that will send it over the edge. So, I won't be working on that one on Friday unless it comes together in my head tomorrow.

Also on the blogs, I am doing the layer cake quilt along with moose on the porch. The first block pattern came out Monday so I printed it off and need to make it. I am not using a layer cake with this one, but am using 12 fat quarters I picked up at the Andrews store almost a year ago. I must have been saving them for just this occasion.

I am also doing the la petite sew-along even though I didn't get my paganini into the parade. [didn't know how to do it :( ]You have all seen it before, but I will post it again.

I didn't add the wavy border or cut out the wavy border. I like it just the way it is. (can you say chicken?)

Now, for le petite, there is a new pattern, but the one store I looked in for the pattern was all out. So, I printed out a picture of the quilt and I am going to make it using larger blocks. The top consists of churn dash (my favorite), jacobs ladder and half square triangles. How simple is that? I love the way it is arranged. You will just have to wait and see unless you go to one of the websites and check it out for yourself.

Well, it is almost 10 and bedtime once again. See how time flies?

Math my Way

2010-10-24T18:16:00.003-05:00

This is what I have been working on since last night and most of today. I used the abacus block from the block party blog. For some reason, my blocks weren't even which made for a bit more wonky look, but I like it even better. It is about 30" X 39". I don't plan on adding anything else to it even though I considered adding borders. I think I will quilt it and bind it in the hot pink to add a little extra zing. It is made using stash fabric and Kona Ash and Kona ? (hot pink? - I don't have my color chart here in front of me). The picture could be a little bit clearer. I probably should have used a flash, but I had on all three of my bright lights and it didn't look like it was giving shadows, but I guess it did. Now to decide on what I will be working on this weekend at our Bee Friends Quilt In. I know that I have a lot of UFO's that I could be working on, but which do I want to do? That is the question of the week. One of them needs to jump up and say, "me, me. Finish me!"

Drats!

2010-10-23T14:36:00.003-05:00

I took my camera with me last night to the first ever girls night out at the quilting patch in Midland, but didn't even get it out of my purse to take pictures. There were about 11 of us there and everyone with a variety of skills and talents. One lady was making embroidered Christmas ornaments with her new embroidery machine. Another was working on her crazy quilt blocks that she did with her embroidery machine. One lady was just sewing down her binding on a cute monkey quilt she made for her grandson. When I saw her, I thought, I could have brought my quilt and done that. Because you know I had the hardest time trying to decide what to take with me to work on since I had already finished my Paganini schnibble top. I used Sultry by Basic Grey and Kona Chocolate for this top.

Now all I need to do is make a back, sandwich, quilt, bind and label. that's all.

Back to Girl's night out. One lady was working on heart blocks for women who had had a mastectomy. They were shaped like a heart and fit under your arm pit to help give relief and some added pressure. Those were cool. I wished I had copied her pattern. I will have to look on line and see if I can find it. Kathy finished her tree blocks for the row quilt group and worked on her top for our retreat. Which, by the way is scheduled for February 25 - 27, 2011 at Mitre Peak. More information later on that one. I made my heart blocks for our upcoming workshop in December. The name of which has completely left my head just now. oh, well.

Now, I need to make one or two more blocks for our December meeting and I will be totally caught up with our assignments.

It's Friday!

2010-10-22T12:56:00.002-05:00

yea! I can't wait. My friend Kathy called the other night and asked if I was busy Friday. Of course I had volleyball, but might be willing to cancel. What did she have going on? The Quilting Patch in Midland was having an all night (well, 6 - 11) quilting fun. I e-mailed and cancelled my volleyball and Kathy signed us up and we are going to go sit elbow to elbow and sew, sew, sew! It will be loads of fun. I will take my camera and take plenty of pics so you can see what everyone worked on while there.

Mr. McCallum

2010-10-16T12:50:00.002-05:00

I finally decided on a name for my new baby and it is McCallum. He had to go to the vet this morning. He has this sort of asthma cough thing going on especially when he is running around or eating too quickly. So, I called and they were going to squeeze me in since he is coughing. I had to leave him in the car and go in and register. Then I had to sit out in the car with him until a technician came out to get us. They take this precaution with puppies because they could be very contagious and cause all their other animals to get really sick. So, we watched the other dogs and cats go into see the vet and McCallum chewed on my fingers and shirt buttons and sleeve cuffs and enjoyed the cool morning. Once we got in he was feisty! He wanted to check everything out. He wanted a snack - we were on the cat side and they were cat treats, but the tech gave him a couple anyway. He wasn't' too sure about them once he got them but eventually ate them. I am glad that we got to see my regular vet - you never know when you are a walk-in/squeeze-in who you will get to see. He doesn't have kennel cough! Yea!! However, he does have swollen tonsils and is on an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory drugs, but no fever. She said he is very healthy except for that and looked good. That was a relief.

I have tried and tried to take a good picture of him, but he always moves at the last second and blurs the picture. Maybe soon I can post a better one of him because he really is a cutie pie and I don't think he will have black hair for much longer. As my vet said, "he has great reverse highlights."

Saturday's Sewing

2010-10-09T20:47:00.004-05:00

I have been sewing and watching some football today. Here is the layout I decided to use with my fan blocks from the Ogallala Ceta Canyon retreat.

The instructions called for 8 fabrics for controlled blocks and 16 for a more scrappy look. I only intended to make 1 fan block so I grabbed up a stack of fat quarters that I had laying around. I had picked them up at a quilt store on the way to family reunion a couple of years ago for a dollar each. They were a great find. I am usually not a fan of the fan block and machine applique, but I wanted to give it a try. I ended up making 10 blocks. They were fast and easy. My choices at that point were to make some more blocks or stop. Since I was running out of the black fabric. I stopped there. I knew I could just make a 9 block quilt/table topper or use them as the middle of a larger quilt or I could make more blocks later. I decided to make some funky stars since I didn't need a 12 1/2" square of black to make those. I made several 6 inch stars and tried putting them all over and around seeing how I liked it. I didn't. So, I made a 12 inch star. Still didn't like it. You see how my Saturday has been going? I didn't make any blocks today. I just played with the placement. Over and over and over until I came up with this one. Now, I need to decide if I want to add any more. I am thinking not. Not even a black border. I think I will leave it as is and call it done. 36" X 48"

Here is the other thing I have been working on this Saturday, my blocks I made in our Art Quilters Guild back in the spring.

I couldn't decide whether to offset these blocks or mirror them. I am pleased so far with the results. Our past challenge for the Ceta Canyon retreat was black and white and one color. I was going to get this made and add in some dusty rose fabric somewhere. I may still add in the rose color. Or, I may add in some more fusible pattern in the borders. It needs to stay on the wall and grow on me a little bit more.

What have you done this Saturday? Now it's time to take the baby outside again for the 4th or 5th time today. He is getting really good at doing all his business outside. Also, my other two are tolerating him a bit more everyday. Well, they are at least not running off after 1 second. Now they are up to 4 seconds. Baby Steps.