Things I love that begin with the letter "V"

Well, this is not something that begins with the letter "V" but it is how my morning began. A few summers ago when DD1 worked with me in the lab we would enter the parking structure and it is gated. So we would play "Arm or No Arm". Some mornings the arm either into or out of the parking structure would be broken as you can see in the photo below. This morning the arm to let people into the structure was in the "No Arm" status.



Now on to the letter "V". I found the blog Infinity More Monkeys, by Jennifer recently and she is assigning people that want to play along a letter. You get your letter and have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter. Mine is "V". So here goes.

1-Very crazy friends:

I went over to my friend Mary's house last night because it seems like it has been an age since we have seen each other. She and her DH have a condo in Fla and well, who wouldn't choose Florida over Michigan in the winter. But I digress. So I had a birthday gift for her (her bday was in Jan) and it was an Ohio State wine vest. Here is her DH modeling it for her!!

I love my crazy friends, helps with down time, (LOL, right Mary??)



2-Vicki:

Vicki is my older sister. I love her very much. Even though I hardly ever see her anymore. She was born mentally retarded and now suffers from several mental illnesses. She lives in a group home about 4 hours away from where I live.

3-Violets:

I love violets and violas. They are such happy flowers. I love that they have faces and can grow anywhere. I have them all over my back yard! The violets invaded from the woods.

4-Violin:

I love the sound of the violin. DD2 played it for many years. She is a sucker for that instrument and probably wishes she had not given it up. It's funny but I always think of her whenever I hear the violin. Her favorite music as a tot was the Nutcracker Ballet. And her favorite video was Fantasia (can you imagine a 3 year old watching that movie over and over??)

5-Vacuum:

Just ask my family, I am a freak about vacuuming. I love my vacuum! (Actually I love DD1's vacuum the most, but someday I will own that kind).

6-Vikings:

I love Vikings. They are my heritage. Most of my family on both sides are from Sweden, with a little Irish and Welsh and Scottish. All the Celtic nations! I've posted about this before but Dupuytren's contracture:
A syndrome where your fingers curl up and a hard knot forms in the palm of your hand, is often found in people with Viking heritage. Both my grandfather and father had this. So we come from good Viking stock!!

7-Velvet:

OK, so what's not to love about velvet? It is so luxurious and fabulous. MMMMM, velvet!

8-Vixen:

The BEST reindeer ever or who I like to be sometimes, giggle!

9-Vintage:

I love, love, love vintage stuff. I have lots of vintage furniture at my house. I own a lot of vintage linens and a few vintage quilts. Vintage is awesome. (Will I be vintage since I am turning 50 this year??)

10-VACATION:

The BEST "V" word of all! Speaking of which, I am going to be going on vacation with LTW on Wednesday of next week. We will be at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show from Wednesday until Saturday. I am so excited! We are both taking a class with Marsha McCloskey on Feathered Stars. LTW is in the 2 day class and I am in the 1 day class. I am really looking forward to the trip.

Anyway, I don't know how much I will be able to post while I am away so hopefully I will have some more posts before we leave but I will be sure to take lots of photos!!

Oh yes,a BIG thank you to Amy at The Calico Cat for helping me to learn how to upload from Flickr!!

My Neighborhood BOM

I don't have any new photos but I do have some photos I borrowed from a couple of people who have joined in on the "My Neighborhood" BOM that I have posted.

First up is Faith at Nutbud Quilter. She has the first 2 blocks finished and here they are:

Great job Faith!!
This one came from Carol at Attic Windows in Grand Rapids. (I can't post the link as google is being difficult righ now) Isn't it so cute??
So when are you going to join in the fun and make a global community with us??

Give away and a new blog

Hop on over to Superior Threads blog and leave a comment for a chance to enter for some free product. I was unable to leave a comment tonight so hopefully that gets fixed so we all get a chance to try to win.

Also I found a new blog that lists quilting blogs. I asked to be included and they did include me! YEAH!! You should go and check it out. The blog is neat and they have a lot of blogs I didn't know about.

What happened over the weekend?

Funny you should ask! I had a busy weekend. DD2 came home on Friday and we went to see "He's just Not That Into You" It was a really cute movie. Sat morning we got up, DH made us pancakes and the DD and I drove to U of M to watch her friend, Kara, swim in the Big Ten Championship meet. After the meet we met Kara and her parents at Zingermans. They are a woonderfully, fantastic deli. So before we ate I gave Kara her quilt. She looks pretty happy don't ya think??

I had to put the word "Hope" on this quilt to donate to Relay for Life at our church.
Since it was already quilted I used fusible and stitched around it by hand. I also put the binding on. The blocks were donated and one of the CL's put the quilt together, but I finished it!
In addition, I got the Chubby Chicks quilt all put together too. I love this quilt!!
I really loved how the flying geese border math was already done so it actually fit together like it was supposed to. WHEW!! These chicks are just so adorable!!
Now on to the more mundane:

Stash report

Amt Added this week: 4.5 yards
Amt used this week: 10.25

Stash busted YTD: 45.75

Weight loss this week wasn't, LOL. I was very bad. I gained 1.4 pounds, bummer. I resolve to do better this week. I hope you all did better than me!!

Oh Happy Day!!

Maybe I should have said Happy Night? (Not whatever YOU are thinking either, DH was out of town). The shop I had DH take my Bernina to (Bits-N-Pieces) called last night and she was ready for me to go and pick her up. *Insert Happy Dance Here* YEAH!! So what was wrong? I hear you ask? The plastic hook inside where you insert the bobbin and case broke. Yep that's right it BROKE!! Now these machines are not cheap so how come they put a plastic part that could break in a spot where a sharp object would be hitting it?? Who knows. I do know that I had Jay (my favorite repair guy) replace it with a steel one. It cost a little bit more but I don't think it will need to be replaced for awhile either.

I brought Kara's quilt and my Texas quilt to show the shop owner, Julie. She has taken some of LTW's business cards but had not seen any of her custom work. So that was fun to show and tell. Then we 3 (me, Julie and Jay) began talking politics. They already know my political viewpoint so it was safe to talk with them. I ended up there talking with them for over an hour!! Then Jay, bless his heart, carried my machine out to the car and asked me where I got my
"nobama" bumper sticker and if I ever see another one would I get it for him. I said "sure" and we laughed. Since DH was overnight in NC it was a fun way to spend some time.

Speaking of fun...Mary will soon be posting the next installment of MY Neighborhood. So hurry right over there and get the next patterns!! If you click on the house link it will take you directly to her website with the patterns. Go on now, get going!!

I also found a cool Ric Rac site from Very Mary's Blog. You may *need* t0 go there and check it out. Who knew there were so many colors?? Now they just need to work on a search and the different widths!

Ok so I also held a quilt hostage last night. kind of exciting, right? My friend Charlotte, was coming over to pick up a quilt that I had gotten back from LTW for her. Well, Charlotte had my last 2 chicks that I needed to have to be able to put that whole quilt together. Well, what's a gal to do? "They don't have their feet and legs yet." She said. "I'll put them on", I said. "but you can't have your quilt until you bring them to me", I said. So she did! Now I should be able to put that quilt together this weekend.

DD2 is coming home tonight and we will be having her favorite thing that I make, chicken pot pie (from scratch) for dinner, then going to see "He's just not that into you". A friend of hers gave her that book when she and her long term BF broke up, before she went away to college. They were going to different colleges. It helped. We said that if it became a movie we would go see it together. So TONIGHT! Then we have Big Tens for swimming tomorrow am to watch her friend Kara swim. She is such a sweetie. I really like her mom too and will get to see her and go out for lunch with them both after the meet. I will get to give Kara her quilt on Sat too.

What are you all doing this weekend?? Hope you have fun!!

New Hair!!

I just thought I would share my new hair cut with all of you. I HATE pictures of myself but here you go. I like it better this morning now that I can style it myself. I want to grow it out to one length so the "bangs" are still growing.

I really like the back too. I asked my stylist, Melissa, to help me out with my HUGE amount of gray hair that is growing in too. I want to let it come in but I really wanted it to blend with the rest of my hair. So she gave me a few ashy colored highlights and everyone at work today just thought the gray was the highlights too!! SUPER!! Thanks, Melissa.
I am so happy with how it turned out. I just had to share.

No quilty news today. I was such a slug last night. I did receive a phone call from a woman that works in the religious ed office at the church asking for a quilt to donate to Relay for Life. She wanted the word HOPE somehow incorporated into it. *Of course she did* right? Cuz that's no extra work or anything. So about 6 months ago or so a man came to the church quilt group to donate a ton of fabric and tools from his mother that had passed away. I have been slowly going through the bags and having some of the CL's put the quilts together that have blocks made. I just got one back from LTW that was a chrun dash and it came out quite well, so I thought of that one immediately. BUT...no "HOPE" on that quilt. So...I came in to work today and spoke with my friend, Robin, who is a graphic artist and she made me the letters so I can copy them. I will use sewable fusible interfacing and sew it to the fabric, cut and turn the letters. This will allow me to hand applique the letters to the upper left top of the quilt in the border. I even managed to find the same pink fabric that is in the churn dash to use for the letters!

Now, speaking of Jack, (the man who brought us all his mom's "stuff")...One of the CL's suggested that we take some pictures of the quilts we have finished and make a little photo album for Jack. I think that is a wonderful idea. So next week I plan to photograph what we already have finished and start with those. As we finish more I can add them. That way if we give some away, I will already have pictures. neat, huh?

Monday, Funday!

Yesterday, Monday, I took LTW to the Lake Street Mercantile quilt shop. They were having a sale on red, white, and blue fabrics. I was bad, but she was badder! I bought a yard of the blue you see (teal really) and a half yard of that bicycle fabric. How many of you remember that bike? I had that Stingray bike with the banana seat and those handlebars. Mine was purple and the seat was sparkly. I may have to see if I can get a photo next time I'm at my dad's (yes, he still has that bike!)

Silly me, just ask LTW and it magically appears!!
I bought a pattern too but need to take a photo of it to post. It is the most adorable little birds. I have no idea why I am so suddenly smitten by birds (chicks, birds, owls, whatever!!)


Lest you think I was just pining away with out my Bernina (sniff, sniff, I MISS her) I was not. (Or not totally) I finished hand sewing around my chicks (the ones I didn't give out to the CL's to do) and I got all of mine finished. They will probably not be happy with me but whatever! I needed some hand work to do, right? They are not perfect but they got better as I went along. Here is how they are going to be set. Isn't this the cutest pattern?

I have quilting with the CL's tonight so will see how mad they are at me for finishing them. I just want them done so I can assemble this quilt and have it ready for the quilter ASAP. It is not due to it's home until next January, but I want to cross it off my list (wait, is it on my side bar list??) If it isn't I am going to add it so I can cross it off!! I actually have a second one made to do for myself so I should add that one too. *sigh* how does this list keep growning??

Stash Report and Loser Monday

I have nothing to report for the stash report. I won't count it as out of the stash until I send the top to LTW and since I have not sent anything, nothing in and nothing out.

Weight loss Monday:
I lost 3.8 pounds for a total now of 12.2 pounds total. Yeah me!!

I am working on Karen and Cory's quilt and got 2 more blocks finished. I am also working on the Chubby Chicks pattern for the St. Patrick's quilt give away for 2010. I decided on Sunday that I would make the pinwheels and flying geese for the pattern and then do a few more blocks for K &C's quilt. Well, apparently my Bernina had other plans. I began sewing and was humming along nicely when all of a sudden I ran out of bobbin thread. No big deal, I wound some bobbins and popped one in and WHAT??? What is this tangled mess of threads?? Unthread the machine, replace the bobbin and let's try this again. What??? Still tangled threads?? *sigh* This sad senario repeated itself until I finally realized that she needs to go to the shop and have Jay look her over. I tried everything I know how to do but to no avail. MAJOR frustration. Now I have another little machine that I take along places but there are things I can't do on her (Like blanket stitch) or interesections. I *can* do those but the little edge on the 1/4" foot makes going near pins difficult. It also lacks the Angler, which I really really love for HST. I had received a perfectly clear (like the angler) for Christmas so I put it on the Janome and did a little sewing. But my heart wasn't in it. I took out the chicks and did the blanket stitch by hand around some of those. Actually around a LOT of those. My fingers are sore this morning. I asked DH to please take my machine in to see Jay and have him fix her. He is being a good sport and will go first thing. I need her back by the end of the month as I am taking a class in Indiana the beginning of March ( with Marsha McCloskey) to learn feathered stars. Keep your fingers crossed for me!! *sigh* it's always something, right??

Valentines Surprise

I promised pictures from my surprise and so here they are. My DH took me to the
Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor. It is an indoor rain forest and desert. He packed some food, told me to bring my iPod and that's all I knew until we pulled into the parking lot. We used to take the kids here when they were little. He told me he wanted me to be warm (as it was snowing and cold here). As you walk in there is this mangrove pond with Koi in it. It is really beautiful and these photos don't really do it justice, but you get the idea.

Here we are. You all know how much I hate my picture being taken, but another couple asked us so I thought I should say yes. I just love his beard. He will only keep it in the winter, says it's too hot and itchy in the summer.
Venus Fly trap.
Jack-In-The-Pulpit, we have these groving in our woods behind our house too.
I thought this cactus was neat. Up close it looks like dew on thesurface. It reminded me of a starfish that you would find in the ocean.
Just a close up of a cactus in bloom.
I thought this cactus looked like salt water taffy. Did you ever get it in the flat strips?
Cocoa beans. Mmmmm chocolate!!
How many of you knew that bananas grow upside down?
It was a very nice time. Even nicer that he thought it up all by himself! After 25 years that's something special!

Valentines Day

I hope everyone out there had a great Valentines Day. I had quilting with the CL's for a Quilt-till-you-wilt day that got cut short by my DH. Come home at noon he says, we are going out togehter, he says. Sigh, really, I say? Where? It's a surprise he says. I still need to upload the pictures but will share that later today.

In the mean time, Faith from Nutbud Quilter is the first one I have heard from that completed block 1 in the My Neighborhood BOM. Isn't it too cute? I love the hearts for Valentines day!! Great job Faith.

If any one else out there is playing please send me a photo or a link to your blog! We all want to see how your neighborhood comes out!

Superior Threads Give Away

I was blog reading and found that Superior Threads has a blog, oh yes they do! I just LOVE their threads, especially Masterpiece and So Fine. If you go to their blog you can enter for a $50 gift certificate. So you should do that right now!! Oh, never mind, don't bother, I'm going to win anyway!! JK, LOL!! After you check out their blog go to their website and check out their amazing threads!

FINALLY!!! My block of the Month is here!!!

I have finally figured out how to get the patterns up for the houses in "My Neighborhood". I had Leigh Anna Voigt make the button on the left sidebar. If you want to play along go ahead and grab it and put it on your blog. Please let me know if you are making the blocks. If there are enough of you I will make a list.

Mary Johnson was kind enough to allow me to share some space on her website to host the PDF's of the houses. Apparently you can't upload PDF's to Blogger...who knew? well, Mary did, that's who! So if you click on my button it will take you to Mary's website and the patterns of the first 2 houses.

The patterns are NOT reversed for fusible. I did mine in fusible web. I did mine in a free form style but I drew out the patterns exactly as they are on my quilt. If there is something you don't like about my house, please feel free to change yours and make it YOUR own neighborhood!

Hey maybe we will get a global community going!

I will post (or ask Mary nicely to post for me) 2 houses each month from February on. There are 24 total houses. The block size is 8.5 inches (8.0 finished)

So have fun and send me photos of your houses!! This could be a lot of fun!

A HUGE THANK-YOU to Mary and Leigh Anna for making this happen!!!

Loser Monday

I am going to get the business stuff out of the way first. Loser Monday:
I weighed in a whopping 2.8 pounds lighter this week!! That's a total of 8.8 pounds total lost so far. I'm pretty happy with that.

Stash Busting Report:

I was so sick that I didn't use much up. I am continuing to work on Karen and Cory's Anniversary quilt but won't estimate the yardage until it is finished. I did put all the cut pieces together and realized that I needed a few blocks of 2 colors so had to order 2 1/2 yard cuts, boo!!
So here is the report:

Added this week: 2 yards
Used this week: 0 yards
Used YTD: 40.5 yards

Now on to the rest of the weekend! I managed to finish the designer Mystery block 8. I like this one a lot!
My DD1 came home this weekend and she and my DH love to play WOW (World of Warcraft on their computers (I HATE this game, NEVER encourage anyone you care about to get involved, it is a total time suck!) Well, when DH plays on our regular computer, Autumn begs to be picked up and lays on him like you see her here.
This is the first time she has done this same thing while he was on his lap top!
How can they sleep like this??
Here is DD1 *trying * to play too, and Laxy is "helping" her out. The dog just loves her and follows her all over when she is home. she even cries and whines at the door anytime DD leaves the house. Poor Laxy, it's just us regular family from today on!
I leave you with this life imitating art photo. I just thought it was too cute with Autumn laying on the quilt below the cat laying on the quilt art done by NA Noel.
You should check out NA Noel's at, it's fabulous!

Last Week

Wow, am I ever behind! I left work on Wednesday and WHAM-O!!! Boy did I get SICK!! I had a fever, chills, headache, runny nose, congestion and cough. I was miserable. I went to bed and didn't leave it until late Friday. So on Thursday, during the day I had lots of kitty heaters helping to keep me warm and sweat out the illness. Here you see Jack. I usually sleep on the left of him and DH on the other side of him. He *always* lays here and he stayed with me all day and night until I got better. I had to laugh, once when I got up to go to the bathroom. DH had put his bag and the laundry basket up onto the bed with the cats. All 5 cats were in bed with me!! I went downstairs and got my camera so you get to see into my bedroom. From the foot of the bed you can see everyone. Mosen is in the laundry basket, Hallie is looking at the camera, Autumn (calico) behind her and Aiden (orange tabby) by Hallie. If you look toward the pillows you will see Jack, sleeping where you saw him in the previous picture between the pillows. (Try not to look at the mess) = )

I had been working on this quilt for my DD2. I gathered all the white squares that everyone signed at her HS grad party and then had to figure out how to set them. I designed this. Her HS was Salem (blue and white) and her university is MSU (green and white) both are symbolized with a block "S". I was inspired by the fact that I did a similar thing for her grad party inviges, only I made the "S" half blue and half green with her senior picture in the center. If you look closely, you will see the blocks are signed by friends and family. I called it "Patches of Wisdom" for Kelsey. I need to get this one to LTW now. I am backing it with a Spartan flannel.

Last week I won a drawing from Pat, at Bell Creek Quilts. (No, Pat, I didn't forget, but I was so sick). The drawing was to celebrate her 1 year blogiversary, or birthday, as Pat says!) Happy birthday Bell Creek Quilts!! So These are the packages I received.Filled with ~sixty 6.5" novelty squares, chocolate and a darling FQ of Valentine fabric!! Also an adorable Jim Shore card with a nice note from Pat.
MMMMMMM, Dove chocolate. (Don't worry losers,(fellow dieters) I only ate one and gave the rest to DD1)
Thank you Pat for the wonderful surprise!

I have lots more to post about but I will put it in another post.

Question

OK...I'm trying to figure out how to make it so when I upload the house drawings you will be able to click on them and download them to your computer to print them off along with the color photo.  Anyone out there that can help me with this??

Stash Report a Day Late

I figured out the numbers for the Stash report so here goes:

Added this week: 6.5 yards
Used this week: 15.5 yards

Used YTD: 42.5

Probably more importantly I am actually finishing some of the quilts on the list on my sidebar.
I finished the back for the "S" quilt. I hope to get photos of the "S" quilt tonight!!

Super Bowl Weekend

I will get the business of Monday posted first and then on to the fun stuff.  

Weigh in was on Friday and I lost 2.2 more pounds for a total of 6 pounds so far.  uh...good think I don't weigh in on Mondays, LOL, the Superbowl food was too good.  Although my stomach is really upset this day from last nights food.  I need to stick to my regular diet!

Stash Busting Report.  I need to do this tomorrow.  I left my binder at home that has all the info in it!  So, I will post that info tomorrow.

I put the borders on "My Neighborhood" this weekend on Saturday.  Isn't it pretty?  I will take it to LTW on Thursday after I show the CL's on Tues and the CHV ladies on Wed.  I also drew each house for a pattern.  There are 24 houses.  I am going to get LTW to scan them and then I will post 2 each month for a BOM for all of you to do.  I will get close ups of the houses I did so you can see what I did with them too.  Sound like fun?
You can see that the cat inspector was hard at work to make sure each pattern was accurate.  I had the house on my light box and Hallie wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly!  Only the best for you guys!
I haven't talked much of the "S" quilt I wanted to make from the graduation squares I had from DD2's HS graduation (3 years ago now).  I finally decided what I wanted to make with the squares.  I designed a BIG block "S" to be done in the white squares.  I then split the quit diagonally from the upper right corner to the lower left corner through the "S".  The left side is done in all blue squares and the right is done in all green ones.  Why you ask?  Well she attended "S"alem high school and now attends "S"tate.  Salem's colors are blue and white and State's are green and white. (I hope this makes sense!)  I had laid it all out a few weeks ago and so I pulled it out on Sunday to see if I could finish it.  Done!!  Now I just need to make the back and get it to LTW.  Again, I want to show the ladies so it will go with the other one on Thursday.  

How was your weekend??