More shop hopping

We had two more shops to go and these were the only things I bought at Sew Together in Richmond.  They were 50% off!  I love the Pumpkins gone wild line!  Good thing I didn't need a lot cut as the woman cutting was the slowest cutter I have ever seen.  Really, I mean it.  She was very nice but really really slow and God help you if you let her fold your fabric!!  

We were late because of the stop in Fort Gratiot (and the slowness of the checking out and cutting) so we got to Quilt-n Friends in Sterling Heights and were the only ones there.  The shop workers and the owner could not have been any nicer!  I got this jelly roll for 50% off too!!  As we were getting ready to leave and everyone was in the bus she turned out the lights and we all laughed then she turned them back on again and waved to us with a huge grin on her face!!
I bought these there too intending to use them for Amy's quilt (and I actually have used them already!)
So after our big adventure we were finally on our way home!  I forgot to tell you that I had a severe head cold that began on Friday and I was so drugged up because you know I was NOT going to miss this day of quilty goodness!!  I am, BTW feeling much better now although I am somewhat concerned that my brains have been replaced by snot.  We'll see!!

I had placed an order with eQuilter that showed up of Friday before the shop hop which was quite good since I wanted to bring the focus fabric for Amy's quilt with me.  I also had a discount coupon so I ordered the 2 fabrics shown here for the stash.  Someday I will make a King Arthur quilt for ME!!
So the focus fabric is in the center and all of the new fabrics I bought for Amy's quilt are around it.  I am so excited to begin it!
Let me tell you a little secret, I began Amy's quilt on Tuesday when I stayed home with this blasted cold.  I designed it on my trusty graph paper and boy am I glad I have that to refer back to because it is a little complicated.  I pulled some additional fabric from my stash to use and so I should have enough without buying any additional fabric.  I realize that I don't have a lot of purple but I am hoping I can use what I have without buying more.  When I get a little farther along I will show you what I have.  The quilt calls for 80 blocks and I have almost half of them finished!!  It is really turning out to be a spectacular quilt.

I have to make soup for another fundraiser and then some pumpkin pies for my friend from Brazil that loves pumpkin but will not be here for Thanksgiving, so probably not much sewing tonight!  Maybe I'll take a picture of the food! LOL.

I was a Shop Hop Virgin!

I have been so busy at work with the quilt raffle that I have not posted (I think it did not help that I have been really sick either!  So now I will be catching you all up on what I did on Saturday.  I went with my friend, Charlotte, on a 7 stop Shop Hop!!  I was a Shop Hop Virgin, but no more!!  See me there on the left in the green??  Char is next to me.  We picked up the bus at our LQS Bits and Pieces.  They had bagels and juice ready for us as we boarded the bus too.  We had to be at the shop at 7:30am!!  All Aboard!!!  C'mon and I'll tell you (and show you) what all I bought!  
We all had to bring a canned food item to each shop and the shops would give us a charm pack (that they made up and was supposed to be all Christmas fabrics but some weren't) and a Christmas charm.  There was also a scavenger hunt and if you filled it all out and brought it back to Bits and Pieces you got the pattern for the Christmas quilt that the charm squares were for.  Each shop also had a pattern of some sort, ie table runner or something that you received with your food donation.  Each shop donated the food to their local food pantry.  They also had a bean bag toss and there were three holes in a tree.  Two were worth $5 and one for $10 off a $25 purchase.  If you missed you still got a coupon for $2.50.  In addition there were raffles at each shop every hour! (I didn't win, but several of my friends did!)
The next shop was the Quilting Season, in Saline, MI.  I had a list and some of the things on the list included blues, greens and purples for DD2's friend's quilt.  I got these rich looking fabrics while at the Quilting Season. ($10 off here)
Oh...and this adorable Halloween print.
On to Lake Street Mercantile.  I love this shop!  Look Anna, more red and whites for the star quilt you designed for me!!
And more aqua for Amy's quilt (DD's friend).  How cool is the "rain" fabric?  That one was for pure stash enhancement!


Remember the owl bag from a recent post?  Well here are 3 more fabrics from the same line I used for the bag.  I can see a whole flock of owls now, how 'bout you?? ($10 off here too!)
Next Stop...Aunt Nan's Fabrics in Oxford.  I bought these for a friend as a gift.  They are so pretty.  I hope she likes them as much as I did!!  Who do you think they are for?  Can she guess?

IDK why I loved this little birdy fabric so much but I did and I just *needed* to have some!  Of course that blue and the companion dots came along for the trip, *le sigh!*
The fifth stop on our trip was to Sew Elegant in fort Gratiot.  A LONG way from home!  The weather was slushy and nasty.  It couldn't decide between snow and rain!  We got our lunch on the bus on the way to this shop.  Jimmy John's YUM!!  The store was a little small for how much quilty "stuff" was stuffed inside.  I loved that they had so much fabric, but we were supposed to be here only for 30 minutes and that was NOT enough time to look around!  Plus the ladies cutting (bless their hearts) were very, very slow at cutting!  No, joke, I waited almost 30 minutes to check out and there were only 4 people in front of me!!

One of the things on the list included companion fabrics for a  panel I bought for another gift (I'm not sayin' for who = )  Noticing an aqua theme in this post?

More fabrics for Amy's quilt.  ($10 off here too, woot, woot!!)
I was all finished and had paid and everything when I saw the Creepy Owl fabric and I had to have some.  I had never seen this before.  There were hundreds of bolts on sale and this was one of them so I got a yard for $3.50!  Plus those other 2 cute Halloween fabrics.

For those of you who know me this should not surprise you at all that I bought this adorable cat panel.  (I am owned by 5 cats!)  I had just seen a pattern in a magazine (Now I have to try to remember which one!) using this pattern and I thought I would never be able to find the panel, go figure, right?  Now I have the panel and no pattern!!  I will find it eventually (I hope)  any clues would be greatly appreciated.

I have 2 more shops to tell you about but I have run out of time.  I will post more of the trip soon!  Until then, let me know if you have done a Shop Hop before!

It's that time of year again!!

What time of year you ask?  Why time for the U of M department of Pathology quilt raffle!!  I am showing you some photos in the Cardiovascular center of how we had them up and displayed on Thursday and Friday.

If you go to the department's website you will be able to view each quilt in full view and up close.  Those photos are so much better than mine!  The beautiful lone star was made by my friend, Robin and you should see the quilting LTW did on it!
My friend's Yuki and Judith made this sampler and LTW quilted each block differently!
This lighthouse quilt has light houses from Michigan cross stitched on each block.
The one on the far left was done by a woman who's boyfriend had a liver transplant and was so grateful!  It is a beautiful quilt.  See the green and white one?  That is the Spartan quilt!
These 2 are just awesome!  The Christmas one has lots of embellishments including a cameo on her blouse and earrings on her ears!  The kids one on the right was  BOM from a quilt shop in Saline.  It is simply a stunning quilt!!
Here is the Big Ten quilt that was a joint effort between me and 4 other women.  I appliqued all the centers and cut the blocks into "kits".  Then we all got together one afternoon and made the top and we gave it to LTW (who also made some of the blocks), so it was a very productive afternoon!  The big M string quilt you have all seen on my blog in the past.  The U of M fight song was quilted into the quilt!!  the little Jack-O-Lantern is a Buggy Barn design and just as cute as can be!
If you are interested in purchasing tickets they are $1 each or $5 for 6 tickets.  You can go to the Pathology web page and fill out and print out tickets.  You can send them to me in the mail.  The money goes to patient families at the U of M that are identified as being in need by the social work department.  If you are interested, please send me an email for my mailing address and I can tell you who to make checks to.  Each quilt has a number assigned to it and you choose which number you want your ticket to be for, one number per ticket.  So it is like 43 little raffles!!

In this economy every dollar counts to help those less fortunate than we are!  C'mon you know you want to help, and maybe win a beautiful quilt in the process!! (Maybe one I made!!)

What Did You Do Last Night?

I had a really good night last night.  I got home and went to quilting at the church with the ladies.  A few months ago a really nice man named Jack came to us out of the blue and donated a lot (I really mean A LOT!!!) of fabric and notions to our church group.  In return he had this Sunbonnet Sue quilt top that his mother had done and he wanted our help getting it finished.  So since the top was already finished I got a back sewn and took it to LTW to work her magic.  I can't believe this is how it turned out!
She stitched around every "SUE" inside the applique with clear (smoke) thread using the same maroon thread on the back as she used for the "Sam's" and the quilting around each block.  The quilt turned out just beautifully!  Two of the CHV Quilters (Lucy and Pauline) volunteered to sew on the binding and hand stitch it down for him also.  Well, Jack and his wife came to the church to pick it up last night and they were just thrilled with it!  Makes my heart glad, I tell ya!
As I stepped outside at the church to speak with DD1 I happened to look up an saw these beautiful, ice covered, berries!  Aren't they beautiful?  I went back inside to get my camera and the CL's were asking me why I needed my camera in the dark?  I told them to take a picture of the beautiful berries, of course.  Well, that meant they had to follow me outside and see them for themselves.  The photo doesn't really do justice to how beautiful they really are though.
I worked on binding the Secret Santa gift I have done now, but alas, I can't show you the gift until after Christmas.  I have quite a few things now to send overseas, I am getting excited to wrap and send my package.  I have several overseas packages to get together for friends in Europe too.  In fact I am off to buy some things for them today, if I get a chance.  

I am going on a Shop Hop to 7 different shops this Saturday with my DF Charlotte.  I have been making a list of things I would like to get for gifts and for the next year's Big Ten quilt so we will see how I do.  We are taking a bus with a lot of other women and we need to be at the bus at 7:30am and we return around 8pm.  It will be a long and glorious day of shopping!!  Hopefully I will be able to share what I buy.  I won't be able to show what I buy for gifts until after Christmas but maybe some other things.  

I have been trying to come up with an idea for a quilt for DD2's friend.  She had asked me to make her a quilt using aqua, green and purple and black.  Sure, right, that's gonna be an easy one, right?  NOT!  So I was going through some magazines a week or so ago and found this amazing pattern in a Fons and Porter magazine that I had saved.  It was perfect!  I will use this fabric for the outside border (ordered from equilter)  It has all the colors in it.

This is the pattern I found.  I will not use the batik throughout the whole quilt like they did in this quilt though because the fabric I choose is not black enough for that.  I will use plain black.  I will need bright blues, greens and purples for the strings to go with the blacks.  I love some string piecing and thought this would be an easy one to get finished by christmas.  Although I really need the focus fabric to be able to pull the colored fabrics and I am trying to wait patiently (really hard for me to do!)  According to the tracking on the package, it should be at my home on Friday, which is really good because I want to be able to take it with me if I need to to fill in any gaps from what I already have that may go with it.
I am interested if anyone else has made this quilt?  It is done with string piecing on a foundation (which is super easy, think St. Pat's and the "M" string quilts) so I think it will go quickly.  If not, I will save it for a graduation present in a year, lol!

I'm Still Here

Just in case you were wondering, I have not fallen off the face of the Earth! I have just been super busy. Lacrosse registration is this week on Wed and I have loads to do before then. I have finally gotten some quilty stuff finished so thought I would take a minute and share what I have done. I managed to finish all the needle cases I had cut out for the craft show, yeah! Then I made labels for several quilts and bindings, so that's another tick off the list. Then I had started this cute owl on Wed at CHV Quilting. I got him all stitched down and then made the bag he was supposed to go on. I just love him! I was thinking of giving him away but have decided that I just can't part with him.


So there you have it, that's what I have been doing. Now I am asking for your assistance. My daughter, Kelsey (DD2) has a very good friend that is trying to get chosen to be on America's Next Top Model. There is a website with all 20 of the girls chosen from the Detroit area. You need to go to the site and vote for Dani20. I would appreciate you telling as many people as you can to go to the site and vote for her too. She grew up 2 doors down from us and was Kelsey's BFF until she moved. (Not far, still in the same community). They have recently reconnected and are becoming friends all over again. She is a sweet kid and wouldn't it be great to help out someone we know? I knew I could count on you for help!  You can vote once per day, so stop wastin' time and go vote already!!

Oh yeah, let me know what you think of my owl! = )

I have been BOOED!!

Jeanne from luv2stitch has "booed" me.  Here is the sign to prove it!  I love Halloween!!  Even thought I have not decorated I am still looking forward to handing out candy tonight.  I love seeing all the little kids.  I promise to decorate next year!  Now I need to "boo" some others so I am going to list you here.  Take this photo and post it on your blog and consider yourself "booed"  (No candy though, sorry)

Kim       Saska

Faith     Natalie    Annemiek   Dot

OK guys, no go forth and BOOOOOOO!!!!

Here is an example of one of the wine vests that we are making for the Christmas craft show.  One of the women, Kim, is a HUGE Ohio State fan so she made some of these.  I am not an OSU fan but I like how this turned out.  Great job Kim!
Here is a little table topper I finished yesterday.  I used up some of my left overs from the FS quilt.  No the bigger version is not finished yet but it is ready to sew into rows and I am hoping to get to it this weekend and get it all put together.  LTW is going on a cruise (I don't know why she thinks she can take a vacation??)  so no hurry for another week.  I am not sure what I will work on after this one is finished.  What do you think of this little beauty?  I really like it.  It is even nicer in person, the flash washed out some of the color.
Here are the wet and dry ingredients of the Apple Hill cake I made yesterday.
All mixed together.

TA-DA!!  The finished cake!  I brought it to work today as we have a lab meeting and I thought it would be fun to share.  I will let you know how people like it.  The recipe is over at Kim's.
I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween weekend!!  Be generous to those little trick or treaters (big ones too)!

Thursday sPam

When I email with LTW she always calls it sPam (since my name is Pam). Isn't she so clever? I am sorry I have not posted much this week but it has been a mixed up kind of week. DH was in Las Vegas all week and is due home tonight. That is a good thing. Halloween is tomorrow and I love that holiday. I didn't decorate this year and my friends can't figure it out. One even told me it must be the end of the world beginning, lol. Boy I sure hope I am not the one that starts that!!

I was home from work today because I didn't feel very well. I think I need some time off of being around "people". Is that wierd? Last night I was getting ready to go to CHV and quilt when I had to speak with the woman in charge of the Christmas craft show that the CL's are entered in. It was not a pleasant conversation and that was not the best way to begin the evening! She thought we had promised her a quilt to raffle off at the church. We had asked for her to waive the booth fee and then told her we would be able to give her a quilt but she didn't want to do that so we told her we would discuss with the group and get back with her. LSS, we forgot and she never contacted us again until last night and the show is in a month (first Sat in Dec). Now, I *know* I could make something nice but again, she never confirmed and she assumed the answer was yes. I feel that if we paid our fee like everyone else we are not obligated to donate something so big as a quilt for the raffle. I know there are a few other donations but no one is donating something so big. So we would be out our fee, the cost of making the quilt and the lost profit from selling said quilt. Understand that the church does not give us any money to do what we do but they let us use the facility to meet and we give quilts to people that are ill in the parish. We also donate a quilt each year to a sister parish as a personal favor to our priest. Well, this woman was soooo angry with me she actually hung up on me! What would you do?

So I think all the stress made me feel ill today. My head hurts and so does my throat, ears and stomach. I guess I will survive. I made the Apple Hill cake Kim had on her blog and am taking it to work tomorrow. I took some photos and will post tomorrow. (Cord is at work). I also worked on a little making a little quilt from the scraps of my FS quilt. I'll show you that tomorrow too (yep, I need some way to lure you all back!)

Anyway, Supernatural is about to begin so have a good night and I will post more tomorrow!!

Spartans WIN in the Big House!!!!

I could not believe it when my son's lacrosse coach called me on Sat morning to ask if we wanted 2 tickets to go to the University of Michigan's "Big House" stadium to watch the rival MSU vs U of M football game.  What?  Are you kidding me???  My son was THRILLED!!  Of course you might think he called a buddy to go but the first person he called was my DD2 (the one that goes to MSU) to see if she wanted to drive down from East Lansing to Ann Arbor.  What?  Are you kidding me??  OF COURSE SHE WANTED TO GO AND WATCH THE SPARTANS WIN!!!
Two tickets to the BIG game ...free from coach

Gas to Ann Arbor...$45

Food at the game...$25

Opportunity to watch MSU beat Michigan in the BIG HOUSE...PRICELESS!!!

Final score 35-21

Speaking of MSU I got my quilt back from LTW last week and look at the block "S" she put in the white blocks.  Cool huh?
She was able to put the same "S" in the small MSU blocks too.
I took this while it was blowing in the wind but you can see how big the white and green MSU squares are.
We have our own rivalry in our house too.  The orange cat rivalry.  Now on the left you see Aiden and on the right, Jack.  Aiden (and all the other cats) really does not like Jack and there you see him pushing her buttons to see if she will leave and he will get the couch all to himself.
I was binding my Spartan quilt for the quilt raffle and settled on this for the name of the quilt.  PRICELESS!!  Who knows how long it will be before it happens again.  The last time MSU beat U of M at their stadium was 18 years ago, so I need to savor this victory.  This makes my quilt a memorable one don'tcha think?

How was your weekend??

Happy (Belated) birthday to me!

Say what?  I know right?  My actual birthday was in July but I was unable to connect up with my BFF Ellen until last night!  She recently went on a cruise and was gone for quite awhile.  It was an amazing cruise.  She knows how much I love my "weird shoes" (her words not mine) so she bought these cute leather slide-ons from   Morocco.   Aren't they the cutest little things??

You may recall the last birthday present she gave me.  No?  Well does the ugly quilt ring any bells with any of you?  Remember her wanting me to work outside my comfort zone?  Well after having to endure an entire year of my saying "Don't ever do that to me ever again!!!" she gave me this beautiful Halloween quilt all cut out and with the pattern!!  MUCH better!!  WHEW!!  I LOVE it!  although there *are* a lot of flying geese in the pattern, lol.  I know I'm never happy huh?  Seriously, Ellen, I love it!
We met at Carrabba's for dinner and this is what I ordered, pasta Weesie.  I was a little afraid it would be Mrs. Jefferson, but whew, dodged that bullet.  It was amazing.
Ellen got this one.  Raviloi stuffed with chicken and spinach and cheese...YUM!
We had a long catch up at dinner.  It's funny even though we have not seen each other in awhile it made no difference in the conversation.  Our daughters have been best friends since they were about 9 or so and swam together.  Ellen is the person responsible for getting me into some serious quilting.  She and I love to travel together too (I usually do all the driving and planning) but she is great company and we have a lot of fun together!

As I was walking out the door to meet her last night this is what I saw as I was leaving so I had to snap Mosen's picture.  Isn't he so cute?  It just made such a cute picture with the hat in the background.
I have to make the second MSU binding tonight, the binding for the M string quilt and the binding for the pumpkin patch.  I will probably sew down the binding on the MSU quilt and label it to bring in on Monday.  Of course it is the BIG MSU vs U of M football game on Saturday too so I will be glued to the TV for that!  I am also hoping to help my friend Debbie cut out some squares for a quilt for her son's wedding.  (So people can write on them).  We have a 7 on 7 lacrosse tournament all day on Sunday so that will be a long day too. 

What does your weekend hold?

What do you want? (warning political rant)

People ask this question all the time.  What do you want to eat?  What do you want to do today? and so on.  I'm asking what kind of country do you want to live in?  Capitalist or Socialist?  So you can see where this is going and if you are not interested in politics I suggest you come back another time!  

I, like Dot at Rantala Rags, am sick to death of the main stream media not giving fair coverage to the McCain-Palin ticket.  Please take a minute and visit Dot as she has a very interesting article worth reading on this subject.  She is right and so is the article.  As Sean Hannity says, this is the year that journalism will be declared dead.  If half of the things the Obama ticket is doing were being done by the McCain ticket they would be crucified by the main stream media.  The whole thing makes me sick!

If I wanted to live in a socialist country I would live somewhere else.  Socialism does not work.  Just look at the socialist countries.  Oh sure, it may work for the first generation when you and I will keep working because that's what we know but eventually the generations wise up and realize that they get the same whether they work or they don't and then the system fails.

Do you really want the government to run your life?  Are they better equipped to tell you how your money should be spent?  I read something recently that went like this:

A man goes out to eat and notices that his waiter is wearing an Obama button.  The man orders, and eats and has excellent service.  When it comes time to pay the bill he tells his waiter that while he has received outstanding service, because he wants to spread the wealth he will be giving the tip he would normally have given to the waiter to the homeless man outside.  The waiter is furious and the homeless man is happy.  Is this really how we want our country preserved for our kids and grandkids?  I say no, in fact I say HELL NO!!  

I want my kids to have the same America I had growing up.  The pie we take from is not finite.  Capitalism works.  We have the greatest nation in the world.  Why do you think everyone wants to come here and be like us?  Why are other countries holding us up as what they aspire to be?  Our people are great, our country is truly the land of opportunity.  

It is time to make a statement about what you want, for yourselves and your children and your children's children.  Don't take this lying down!  Go out and vote, make a difference.  (But please remember to vote only once = )  I don't want to hear anyone out there complain about the outcome if they don't vote.  Nor do I want to hear anyone that votes for Obama to complain about getting *exactly* what they vote for.  Joe the plumber is right!  Obama is not right for this country.  

Remember Your Mother's Fancy Aprons?

Well, I certainly do!  My mom and dad would have Christmas parties for their friends and my mom would put on these beautiful (although in retrospect not really functional) aprons.  So the CL's and I are busy preparing for the Christmas Craft show at the Church.  I was at JAF a few months ago when I thought about those aprons.  I decided to check out the "fancy" fabric.  Well some really beautiful fabric was in the clearance section.  It was still a little pricey for me for a craft show where I don't keep the money, so I hatched the fabric until all clearance went 50% off and snapped some up.  Now you have to understand we have a wonderful woman in our group that makes beautiful aprons.  I *thought* I was going to get to it myself but instead handed the "fancy" fabric over to our apron whiz, Janet.  Here are the first 3 aprons she made.  I think they are fabulous!  Wouldn't these be great for a party, like Christmas or New Year's eve or something?  How fun.  Great job Janet!



So Janet asked me how much we should sell them for.  I said $35, what do you think?  She does a beautiful job on the stitching.

Last night was crazy!  I went to JAF to get some iron on velcro (amazing stuff that) and then home.  Machine sewed the binding on to my MSU quilt (no I have no photo of the quilting yet but it is great, LTW put block S's into each block, but you will soon see for yourself!).  Threw it into the car and drove to T.C. Gators for a lax "fun"raiser dinner and 2 meetings.  One was supposed to begin at 5:30 but one of the people was late so we got a late start.  I had promised the lax coach that I would eat with him and his kids and he came in and we were not finished with the meeting (that *she* was late for) after about 10 more minutes I excused myself and went to eat with my son and the coach.  Then the person I needed to meet with for the second meeting came around 6:15 and we went over some more lax stuff (she is the treasurer).  I ordered food, it was not the right food so sent it back, tic toc, what don't they understand about "I'm on the clock!" *Finally* got my food, wolfed it down and was heading out (about a minute to 7pm, when the CL quilt group begins at 7pm!)  As i was leaving one of the lax dads stopped me and asked if he could give me a sign for my yard (he is running for trustee), sure walk to my car with me.  Left for the church and luckily it is close by.  Walked into about 20 women.  By the time I got a minute to catch my breath and looked at the clock it was 8:30 (ends at 9).  Began cleaning up and left the church around 9pm.  Got home, pet the cats, checked on DS and began making caramel brownies (I'll take some photos today so you can see them, they are super easy and super yummy!! )  for my friend's daughter that will be coming in to work today to help me with something.  Checked email, and fell into bed around 11:30.  Jack decided he *needed* some kitty lovin' around 3:27am (yes, I looked at the clock) so he was right on my face biting me and head butting me and purring really, really loudly (no DH was not home so just me and Jack).  Went back to sleep, finally and woke up at 5:50am to begin this lovely day!

Please let me know what you all think of the aprons.  Am I right to think they will be big sellers??