This and That

I know that I have not posted for awhile but a lot has been going on around here and not much of it quilty! I trust that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. It was small but nice here. My DD1 had to work so it was a little strange without her. Last year we had some friends from Japan and from Brazil for dinner but this year just the fam and my dad and sister. My DD and DS wanted to know where all the other people were? That made me laugh. I told them that my boss and his wife had invited them first so I was told I had to call my friends that night and invite them for next year, which I did. Kids are funny aren't they?

I gave 3 kits to my LAQ friend, Liz and her parents made 3 crazy rail quilt tops for donation to the Methodist Boys Home (MBH). They have embraced the project (which is what I have the CL working on too) and have finished 25 tops to date. Go folks!

I had quilting with the CL this past Wed and we had a very big turn out. We have attracted several new quilters which has been great. Interestingly enough one of them told me that she was from Indiana. When I asked where...you'll never guess...Madison!! That's where DD1 lives!! How odd, huh? Well, I had to go to the church office and found out that one of my CL's had passed away the day before! It was so sad. I had just seen her 2 weeks ago. She has been unwell for some time but I had no idea she was so ill. I collected money for flowers and ordered a beautiful basket of white roses, larkspur and carnations. We all went to our quilt room and selected a quilt to give her family too. It is the first CL to pass on since I have taken over the group. I had a really hard time with that. Sorry to be so sad, but it is good to talk.

On a better note. Laxy, the dog, is adjusting to life in cat central. She was spayed on Tuesday and seems to be pretty much back to normal already. I wish I could bounce back so quickly.

Well, I GTG as DH and I are off to Shipshewana to shop and spend the day together. More later...

INTRODUCING...

I am very proud to introduce you to the newest member of the Lincoln household...Laxy!






Isn't she just adorable? A friend of ours from lacrosse had her follow her home. They have been trying to find if she has an owner but so far no one is stepping forward, so they began looking for a home for her. The vet thinks she is a lab-german shepard mix, but she is not really all that big. She is housebroken and walks on a leash like a dream! Of course all five cats HATE her!!! I have to tell her "NO KITTY" when she goes for the cats. She came home with Thadd and I last night. So here's how this happened. We had the 7 on 7 tournament last week and heard about the dog. My friend send an email with these photos of her to us (and many others). When my DH called from flight school I asked him how he felt about a puppy? Now, I would not even consider it if she was not housebroken, not enough time to do that but since she came that way, so much the better! DH may want to try to train her for hunting, we will see. She likes to ride in the car and hopefully she will like to go for boat rides. DH and DS are thrilled beyond belief! Let me know what you think of her!!

Judy's Cat Quilt

These photos are from the quilt I made for my friend Judy that has bone cancer. I met her last night for dinner and gave her this quilt. I did some of the applique and the ladies in my quilt group at the church did some of them. Liz my LAQ did the quilting. Judy was thrilled with the quilt. I would like to know what you all think of it.



Here are a few close ups of the individual blocks. I especially love the ones with the mice on them.














This is the label I designed for the quilt. Notice the pinwheel stamp!


Here is a gratuitous photo of Aiden and Mosen sleeping that I took recently. Aren't they cute?


I have to work the quilt raffle for the next 2 days so probably won't get a chance to post. I have a few photos of the back of the Big Ten quilt and the label that I will share when I get a chance. Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Baby Quilt

I have been so busy for the quilt raffle showings that I have not been near my computer for awhile. We had the big 7 of7 tournament for lacrosse on sunday too. That was taking up a lot of time so now it is the raffle (and probably thanksgiving, since it is always at my house!) I did manage to finish a panel baby quilt and I sent it to Liz. I will show you the photos once I get it back all quilted up! It was the Thimbleberries "Wiggles and Giggles" panel with a bear and a bunny. Maybe some of you know it. I just bordered it with a blue star border and then a second border with rectangles. I found a nice blue stripe flannel for the backing. A good friend of mine sent me a shower invite (Dec 9th) and I was so suprised as neither of her boys are that old. Apparently the 19 year old is *that* old and now there is a baby. I guess it is not the end of the world but him mom is pretty upset. I hope the quilt helps!

I found these pretty fabrics and thought they would make a nice baby quilt too. Our lacrosse coach and his wife are expecting a baby in Feb and the lax moms will be having a shower for them. Any suggestions for a pattern? I really want to work on it soon as the shower will be in Jan. I am open to any ideas, mine seem to be coming in fits and starts right now.




Isn't this mouse adorable??


I don't know if you remember the woman friend of mine with cancer that has no family only her two cats? Well, I *finally* finished putting together, and binding her quilt. I am meeing her tonight for dinner at the Olive Garden to give it to her. She had tumors in her jaw, bone cancer. She said one of the tumors is not responding to treatment, so I would appreciate you keeping her in your prayers. I will post that quilt once I remember to bring my cord to work = )

I had to see the dentist yesterday to have him replace a filling that had cracked. They ended up giving me 3 shots to make my mouth numb. It was awful! My jaw is so sore today. It is difficult for me to eat too (I guess that is no great loss as I need to lose some weight anyway, lol). Hope all is well with you and send me some ideas for that baby quilt!

Just a funny Aiden photo for you to enjoy!!

U of M Quilt Raffle/ BIG TEN Quilt

It's finally done! We finished the top awhile ago and then we got it back from Liz, the LAQ genius. As you can see in every block she did a star pattern to quilt the block but the best part is that in the sashing around each block she wrote (using thread) what they cheer at each school. You might think this an easy task but it was not. I did not know what they cheer at some of the other schools so what to do?? Well I went on my facebook account and randomly selected students from the places we didn't have and asked them, of course! The guy I chose from Northwestern actually emailed me back telling me that his mom was a quilter and that what we were doing was great! (I have to say everyone I contacted did get back to me with whatever the chant was from their school). I thought some of them rather interesting. Like for Penn State they say "We are...Penn State". And Purdue says, "Boiler Up!" and Illinois says, "ILL...INI". Interesting, fun facts to know and tell, hahaha.

Then I threw in a few close ups of the corner stone where we used the logo in a 4 patch and when we didn't have enough for 16 (only 11 schools in the Big Ten) I appliqued the Big Ten logo in the square! I love the way the Big Ten block came out too. I appliqued all the logos in the block. I also did all the center appliques for each block and Iowa and Penn state win the prize for being the most difficult to applique! Note the amazing Liz's BIG TEN quilting in the border of the quilt too. She even drew the football in free hand! I would sure love to hear what you all think of this quilt.

U of M Quilt Raffle

It's that time of year again. Time for the University of Michigan department of Pathology quilt raffle. This year we have 33 quilts donated (only 23 are up on the website as of right now but I'm working on it.) The deadline for submission is Thursday so I know I will be receiving quilts that late. They will have to be photographed and the writeups done and then they can be put on the web so please be patient! If you have not seen our raffle quilts before you are in for a treat. There is certainly something for everyone there. This is the website address

http://www.pathology.med.umich.edu/charity/quilts/quilts.html

Please take a minute to go and look at the quilts. Tickets may be printed from the website but money and tickets need to be mailed to the address provided. Tickets are one for $1.00 or 6 for $5.oo Money goes to help patient families at U of M that the social work dept have determined as being "in need". Last year the quilts raised $11,000 and we were able to help out 11 families with $1000 each. So even if you don't win a quilt, you are a HUGE winner in the eyes of a family that benefits from your donations. We will mail quilts to those that are not here that win so no worries there.

Now what are you waiting for?? oh, yeah, me to finish putting up the rest of the quilts, hee hee hee! It should be done by Friday, ticket sales begin on Monday. No time like the present to start looking now though. Please let me know what you think of the quilts we have up and remember us for next year if you are up for donating to a good cause!

Recipe

It has been such a busy time around my life lately. I have been asked for the recipe for the Cat Poop Cookise so I thought I would share it with everyone. I did not make it up but I don't remember where I got it from. See previous post for photos.

Here is the recipe:

Cat Poop Cookies

Chocolate Ingredients:

1/2 c honey
2/3c Butter
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract
2c Whole wheat flour
1/3c Cocoa powder

Gingerbread Ingredients:

1/4c Honey
1/4c Molasses
2/3c Butter
1 Egg
ginger, cinnamon and cloves to taste

Mix Ins:

Coconut (tapeworms)
Chocolate chips
Butterscotch chips
Peanut-butter chips
Ramen noodles, cooked (round worms)
Corn
Peanuts

For chocolate ingredients:

Microwave the honey for about a minute or until it bubbles, add the butter, egg, vanilla extract whole wheat flour, cocoa powder and mix well.

For gingerbread Ingredients;

Microwave the honey for about a minute or until it bubbles, add molasses, butter, egg, and spices.

Add mix-ins as desired.

Chill dough for 1 hour in the freezer or several hours in the fridge.

Roll dough logs of random length and diameter of cat poops.

Bake at 350degrees F for 10-15 minutes or until done.

Serve in a NEW cat litter box on a bed of grapenuts (cat litter) with a NEW cat litter scoop.

I hope you all enjoy them!!

More from HP-07

These are the last pictures from the party. These first ones are of the Haunted gingerbread house my DD1 decorated. I got up early and stuck all the pieces together (they need an hour between each "gluing" to set) and she did the decorating. I think it came out just darling!




These are my cat poop cookies. Served in the grape-nuts "cat litter" and litter box. Complete with a pooper scooper! Unfortunately no one and I mean no one ate a single one! There were 2 kinds of "poop" chocolate and gingerbread, made with whole wheat flour and honey.

I made this pumpkin, really a Jack-O-Lantern, cake. It was a from scratch pumpkin flavored cake. It is a wonderful recipe!! no one cut into that all night either, so I ended up bringing it to work on Monday.

I made this mummy out of cheese logs. DD1 used the pastry bag with thinned down cream cheese to actually create the mummy. Again no one would eat him!

This shows The whole desert table.

Here is the actual food table. Can you find the "vertebrae" on the platter??

These are some friends from work. Who dressed up like work dorks?? They did!
Ahhh here is me as a vampire with my friend "Cher" aka Shelby (the one my DD! was named after and she is DD2's Godmother.

Ahhh here is me as a vampire with my friend "Cher" aka Shelby (the one my DD! was named after and she is DD2's Godmother.

Here I am trying to feed off of my friend Hiro. He is a visiting MD from Japan. He and his wife, my friend, Yuki, are here for 2 more years.

Karen, my friend from Brazil, and me. She is working on her post doc in our lab. She is such a sweetie and was TOTALLY fascinated with Halloween since they don't have it in Brazil

Karen and Hiro (I wonder who did Hiro's make-up since Yuki was still in Japan visiting??)

Aren't they so sweet? It is Karen again with her boyfriend, Cory.


All in all it was a great night!! The party moved outside into the gazebo in the back yard. My DH put the heaters on the propane tanks and we were quite comfortable in the slightly damp, chilly night. just purrrrfect for a Spooktacular Halloween evening!