Meet me in NYC?

I haven't had any sewing time since last week and I am getting antsy to sew. I opted to clean the downstairs all day on Sunday and cook. I even cooked again this morning, crockpotting it up for dinner. Do you use your crockpot? I love using mine, especially in the fall and winter, or on extra busy days or ...oh heck, I just love my crockpot! I'll try to remember to photograph tonight's dinner, Asian Beef, from A Year of Slow Cooking. I love her sight and have made several dishes from there.

As you all know I am going to NYC on Oct 17th for the week. I can't say I just found Bumblebeans, but I think I re-found her. Have you visited her blog? LOTS of modern inspiration going on over there. They have a new blog too called 15 Minutes Play. Check it out. You know how much I love strings and scraps so I am in heaven here.

Victoria, of Bumblebeans and I are going to meet up when I am in NYC. She has graciously offered to spend a little time with me and give me some tips as to where to go and what will be fun to do too. I am looking forward to meeting her. Not many days left until the trip. In the mean time I am waiting to hear if I progressed on to the next challenge in the McCall's Design Star contest. Keep your fingers crossed and I'll let you know when I know.

Now if anyone else wants to meet up in NYC let me know.

Lots to Tell

I had a very eventful day and night. First of all the a/c man came and we are now the proud owner of a brand new Carrier air conditioner. We are poorer, but MUCH cooler!! DH went into work for awhile and after he got home I went over to PTM's to play. The first thing up on the adgenda was for me to teach her how to post to her new blog. I think we spent about an hour working on her blog and getting her set up to use Bloglines. If you have a minute please go over to her blog, Quilting, Friends and Family and welcome her to Blogland. I know she will be thrilled to have someone comment and to know that there really are some wonderful new friends she has yet to meet just waiting to be a part of her life. She is a sweetheart and you will not be sorry to make friends with this amazing woman!

I also received my new shoes only to realize they are a size too big,*sigh*. So I re-ordered them in the correct size and am sending these back. On the up side, I REALLY like both colors!! More on that when the new ones arrive and I can show you them on my feet.

So that being said, I also traced my mermaid onto my background (I forgot to take a photo to show you this, I will do tonight). This is the beginning of the doll quilt I am making for the Belleville Arts Council Auction. More on this later. PTM and I went out to dinner and I had an amazing salad and so did she. We were off to pick up our friend, Cori (Crazy Quilt Girl) and then headed to quilting. Cori ended up basting the chenille blanket I want to make, thanks for that Cori! I bet her fingers will be sore tomorrow!! I worked on the next embroidery in my little kid series, again, I will have to take pics later. Then I took Cori home.

This morning I woke up to a new addition in the house. A baby peacock (or hen). Isn't this baby so adorable??

It is a Silver Pied Peacock and when fully grown will look like this:



In the second photo you can see what the females will look like. We have no idea if ours are male or female. My DD1 bought some hatching eggs and so far we have one baby with 3 more in the process of hatching out today. I'll keep you posted!





I need to post again later for the Charming Girls Quilt Club but since I am at work, I need to go and do some work!

New to me Blog

Hey I just found a new to me blog. Lynne and I have been commenting back and forth for the last few minutes. She just happens to be having a fabulous give away (but please don't go over there and leave a comment or anything because I want to win!!!) Hurry on over and meet her and her friend that happens to have a fabulous shop. Gwen also has a wonderful blog that you should stop by as well. Please tell them I sent you so they know I was telling the truth about how much I like their blogs.

OK while shamelessly plugging of shops is happening let me remind you again that my good friend, Cori, has a spectacular shop of Moda pre-cuts and yardage along with some patterns. Go on over and check her out. Her shop prices are really reasonable too. Can you let her know I sent you too? I was just there on Friday shopping and bought a bolt of the Moda Basic white to try. I want to see if I like it more than the Kona white, which I really love, raveling issues and all. So stay tuned and I will let you know when I get around to using it!!

Is there anyone out there that might like to test a pattern or patterns for me? (Besides PTM, who I am already counting on using). I am really going to try to do this soon but know someone else needs to try it and make sure I make it easy to follow and to make accurately. Let me know.

Jaybird Quilts Blog

I found a really cool place where they post many of the giveaways going on in Blogland. It's over at Jaybird Quilts. I am going to put their button in my sidebar but you should go and check them out!!

Guess What I Can Do?

Well, I am so very excited about the changes going on in my life at the moment! I have been wanting to lose weight and now I am making the changes to make it happen. My DD1 and I joined Weight Watchers on Monday. My friend, PTM, joined a gym and did a weight loss challenge and now she has convinced me to do the same. So I went with her last night and I am going to do the challenge with her again. She was the winner and lost over 25 pounds!! She looks fantastic. My hero!! So with the extra time I am off from the CL group this month I will be living at the gym. Wish me luck!

Last night after the gym PTM and I went back to her house and she showed me how to make the no exposed seam pillowcases. I am so excited about that! Here are my first 2. Notice how I forgot to pay attention to the fact that the fabric is directional!! What a dummy I am sometimes. Oh well, they are going to be donated so it is alright. I cut out 15 other ones and will get busy sewing them tonight or Friday night.

In addition, PTM is helping her mum move from a big house to a smaller one in Canada. Her mum had LOTS of these "Crown" canning jars. Many of them have the dates stamped on the bottoms and are from the 30s and 40s. She gave me 2 of them and interestingly, they have glass tops with metal screw rings. Some of the glass tops have the crown on them and some had rings. I took a big one (the one on the right) to put spools of thread in. Too cool, thanks PTM!!

Now I thought I would share a blog I just found that I LOVE!! It is Kerri and the name of the blog is Lovely Little Handmades. She has a wonderful blog and a fabulous ETSY shop Called Sew Deerly Loved. Please go and check her out and tell her you came from my blog.

Well I have to run so have a great day!

New Blogger

We all remember it, the day we decided to blog. For some of us it was a long time ago and for some of us not so long ago. One of my CL's has decided to join in on the blogging fun and has started her own blog. She doesn't have much up on her blog yet but it would be great if you have a minute if you would just stop over at her blog and say "HI" and welcome her to the wonderful world of blogging. The bonus is that she will then be able to come and visit all of your wonderful blogs too!! Her name is Sharon and her blog is Shortyz Quilts.

I am hoping that the next installment of My Neighborhood will be up after the holiday weekend. Mary is going out of town and is going to try to do it after she gets back, Thanks Mary!!

I worked on binding the Aqua and Brown quilt last night and my left shoulder is just killing me. Do any of you get that? If so do you have any suggestions to make the pain STOP!!??

What's New?

Funny you should ask that! I just received 2 new (to me) books in the mail. One is by Piece 'O Cake. It has some really fun quilts inside. Remember the one from my post about Sauder village with the pieced wheels? Well, I found out that it is in this book. But it looks kind of difficult. Annemiek, was it difficult??


The second one is by Material Obsession. If you haven't found their blog yet you need to go right now. Go on what are you waiting for? GO!! There are some marvelous quilts in this book. i have emailed one of the gals from MO and she is so nice! The shop is in Sydney and she is originally from Ohio! Imagine that, a transplant! Truly fabulous work. You won't be sorry to go there and visit for awhile.

Here is my latest Material Obsession. I have all my disappearing 9 patch blocks sewn and cut. last night I made the little top. I am planning on doing the borders and the back tonight so I can hand it over to LTW tomorrow. We will see how it goes.

DH has been into lots of "healthy, natural" cooking lately (making his own butter, making yogurt, making all kinds of bean things etc) so there are larger messes than usual in the kitchen and I am usually the one cleaning them up which takes a lot of time, I have to say. I need to plant my pots of flowers too and such it is such a beautiful night, I may do that tonight and maybe not the quilt. We shall see.

I don't know if I told you this already but my friend, Cori, now has a blog so you really need to go and visit her. She is also on Twitter and she has a fabulous online quilt shop where her prices are very reasonable! Again...go now and visit her! RIGHT NOW!! Tell her I sent you and go forth and stimulate the economy!!

WONKY HOUSES RULE!!

I know that many of you are making "My Neighborhood" which is a wonky appliqued house quilt that I have designed. Well, I found a new to me blog that has embroidered wonky houses as a BOM also a Shabby Roses BOM. Go over to see Jenny and tell her I sent you!

Now for a funny photo. Here is Jack in Kelsey's garden trying to decide if he needs to go after the gigantic black and yellow bumble bee! This is a "before" picture of Kelsey's garden. I have not planted any annuals yet. I will show you how beautiful it can be when I get it all planted and it has a chance to grow a little bit.


The same for the back of my house. Here are all the perennials waiting for the annuals to be planted for some more color!


Well, I should have some nice things to share tomorrow. I have decided to make a quilted post card to go with the baby basket quilt. I need to quilt it and finish it, hopefully tonight.

Go and check out Jenny's blog her stuff is awesome!

New (to me) blogs

OK, I just found 2 more fabulous blogs. You *have* to go and check them out! (Especially YOU, Annemiek). The first one is : Quiltsalot. She has finished a Pie and Tart quilt that will knock your socks off, seriously, it really will, I am sock-less as I type this. Go, go now...then come back and tell me what you think.

The next one is Cabbage Quilts. Check out her Wheel of Fortune quilt using Kaffe Fasset fabrics. Her applique is really amazing too. Again, what are you waiting for, you just got my personal invitation, go!! But come back here again too. = )

On a quilty note, I did get another row of Karen's quilt finished last night before the lax game. All quilting will probably stop for the weekend since I will be cooking and cleaning.

For those of my friends that celebrate Easter, I hope you have a blessed Easter! My kids will all be home for the holiday and we will have lots of great food too. Should be a good weekend.

BTW...check out this fabulous give away here for 30 FQ's! WOW she is so generous!!!

Happy Easter, Bauk, Bauk!!


Photo taken from the web.

Also over the weekend

My friend, Suzanne, that lives in Texas is always so nice and keeps DS supplied in UT wear. For those of you who don't know, UT played in the Fiesta bowl and these beauties arrived from Suzanne on Friday. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH SUZANNE!! You are the BEST! I'm not sure how much if at all she ever followed MSU but I am turning her into a covert Spartan fan too!! As soon as I get a break in the lacrosse action I will be scouting for some MSU basketball t-shirts to send off to Texas! Second in the nation is still pretty awesome!!



The same day I received the shirts, I received this amazing gift in the mail from Michelle. I remember commenting on her owl fabric and look what showed up at my house!! Aren't they just the cutest?? She sent a nice note and apparently she sent this as a pick me up to reward me for my hard work cleaning my dad's house. What a sweetheart you are Michelle. My Blogland friends have been so kind and supportive of me! I appreciate all the wonderful people I have met via my blog!

LTW had given me this whole cloth quilt and told me to color it ala Irena Bluhm so here is my first attempt at doing just that. I really like how the leaves turned out but need to do some fine tuning on the pumpkins. I decided to add some darker shading and ended up not liking it so I "erased it" using a q-tip. The colored pencil seemed to blend but when I put the textile setting stuff on it all the dark lines showed up. Oh well, it has been fun to experiment with and will still look OK when I'm finished. Maybe a wall hanging or maybe a giveaway...??? Who knows, but it needs to be finished. See how much trouble I can get into when I am avoiding working on the quilt for Karen??

This quilt was made by one of the ladies in my second quilt group, the one at Cherry Hill Village. I am putting it up so you can see the amazing quilting done by our famous LTW. The front looks really cool, especially the curly wool on the lamb!

But the back is where the amazing quilting shows up. All hand guided. Many starts and stops and many thread color changes. She sure does fabulous work!!

My friend, Cori has an online quilt shop. I called her and went by and picked up a couple of cut fabrics from her. I got Sweet and Soiree. They are such beautiful lines!! Go to her online shop and check out her stuff. (Also listed in my sidebar) She charges less than some of the other Moda cut goods stores online and her customer service is the BEST!! If you order be sure and tell her I sent you!!

Yesterday our lacrosse game was canceled so I thought I would stay home from the CHV group and work on Karen's quilt. I had layed it out at the church on Tues night so it was ready to sew the blocks into rows. I am so happy to *finally* be done with those blocks!! I got 2 blocks sewn together when one of the CHv ladies called. "I have a quilt from X I could drive it to you or what are you doing tonight?" No it's OK, I'll come and pick it up, *sigh*...so much for my planned evening. I did manage to get 1 row done, woo hoo!!! We have lacrosse tonight and again on Sat and both are home games so we will see how much I get done (oh yes, and it is Easter!! so I will have the entire family over, guess I better get cleaning, ugh!)

BTW I follow Kellie's blog and she has the cutest Honey Bunny tutorial over on her blog. You should go and check her blog out too. Her work in truly inspiring! I will be making "Honey" for sure!!

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!!

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.

One More Thing

Hey, I forgot to tell you about the great new Australian designer I found. Her name is Lynette Anderson and her quilt patterns and stitchery patterns are so cute and fun! Go check her stuff out. I mean like right now. Why are you still reading this?? GO!!