Quilter's Christmas Party

I have so much to tell you all since Wednesday. On Wednesday we had our Quilter's Christmas party. We all brought an appetizer or dessert and a gift for exchange. Here we are all eating.

There was a log of great food. I made a hot buffalo chicken dip and it was AMAZING! If anyone is interested in the recipe let me know and I will post it.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2-8oz packs of cream cheese softened
1 cup ranch dressing
1 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded co-jack cheese (save about 3/4 cup to put on the top
2 cans white chicken, drained and broken up
several dashes of Franks Red Hot or Buffalo sauce.

Mix cream cheese, ranch, sour cream and hot sauce together until smooth. Add cheese and chicken. Mix well. Pour into a prepared pie pan, sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 F until bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips.


Apparently the gift of the evening happened to be the turning mat as there were 3 of them!

PTM was doing some binding for a friend of mine and I managed to snap a few photos of the beautiful Boston Commons quilt. Stunning isn't it?

My work Christmas party was going to be on Friday so I ended up taking the day off so my DD1 could use my parking pass to part at work. I ended up going over to PTM's to sew and that would be our Friday "night" sew in. I was going to work on cutting out the red and white fabric for my basket challenge quilt. This is what my accomplishments looked like.

I need a lot of 3" squares for my project. I had to press all the fabric before I could cut it so what I managed to get done was cutting all my 3" strips. Two hours and 2 piles of strips. This ensures I will be going back to finish cutting and then put it together. I think PTM ordered a pattern to work on so she can do the challenge too. I'm sure she'll keep you posted!

PTM also finished binding the Origins baby quilt so I can now label it and send it off to France, YEAH!! LTW did a great job with the quilting too. You can especially see her beautiful work from the back.


I have lots of photos to put up from my work party too as well as the fun day I had today but it will have to wait. I hope you are all getting ready for Christmas. I had planned to bake this weekend but those plans have now changed. We are getting a new furnace on Monday so I have to help clean space for them to actually get to the furnace tomorrow. I think I will be baking on Monday when they are here putting in the furnace. I am hoping to get some wrapping done though. How are your Christmas preparations going?
XOP

An Amazing Give Away

You heard me right. Just in case you haven't made it over to PTM's blog yet to view it I decided to show you what you can win. Trust me when I say you need to take a minute and go there, you won't be sorry. OK. twist my arm to show you what's up for grabs.


Aren't they amazing?? They are all hand embroidered by PTM. She does amazing work too. She even did some embroidery for Anne Sutton over at Bunny Hill, THATS'S how good she is. Not only that but you can take them and using the Yellow Brick Road pattern make this:

So RUN don't walk and go and visit her blog, answer her 2 easy questions and voila, you will be entered to win these 8 amazing blocks!! Tell her Mama Spark sent you (maybe she will give me an extra entry! ; 0

We Clean Up Pretty Good

I told you that I would show you what my sewing room cleans up and looks like didn't I? It is really my living room but is usually covered in my sewing stuff. If I stand by the front door and look to the right and then to the left this is the view.

I have this fabulous marble top table and I usually cover it with my DH's Santa collection.


Then last night I walked into the room as I was heading up to bed and happened to see Hallie under the tree. It was night time and I thought I would try the night time picture mode on my newly fixed camera to take a photo to share with you all. Isn't she cute?

Look at that old tree skirt would ya? I made it when I was first married and had no idea how to do quilting, so it was tied. The fabrics are kind of old but I still like it. I really should make an updated one. Maybe it will be on my list for next year!

I got my Origins Plus quilt back from LTW today but no time to take a pic. I dropped my Bernina off for a cleaning and tune up today too. I managed to get some Origins for the binding on the quilt while I was dropping it off. Then I went to the gym for Body Pump. Came home, ate the bean soup I made yesterday and baked some chocolate chip brownie thingies for the Quilter's party tomorrow night. I need to get a small gift for the party tomorrow, so will probably stop at JAF on the way home to do so.

For now I need to get into bed before I drop. Have a good evening.
XOP

Thrift Shop Finds

I forgot to tell you that after working out on Saturday PTM and I went to the newest Salvation Army thrift shop. This shop is HUGE. We must have spent 2 hours in there. I went right for the vintage sheets section. I actually found some nice pillowcases. There were some amazing ones on opening day but I didn't buy them and of course now they were all gone. I also found some My Little Pony fabric too. SCORE. They were having a "blue tag" sale too so anything with a blue tag was 50% off. Some of my pillowcases were in that sale!!

PTM bought a wool blazer I think it was dark green and a tan jumper, also wool. She is going to be collecting wool to use for some projects. I found 3 or 4 silk dresses. They were cheaper than buying silk by the yard so I may start stalking the silks while PTM stalks the wools. Then we can play together with our finds. I heart my BFF.

I also found this adorable little dog. Lefton, I think. I saw 2 little girls that were also Lefton pieces but they were damaged so I left them. They were only 99 cents too! Too bad. Isn't this dog adorable?

My favorite find was this Madona. Her face is so sweet I just couldn't leave her at the shop. The top of her hands were broken off but I bought her anyway. DH told me to glue a little boquet of flowers into her hands and I think I will do exactly that! How could I resist that face??

I saw a sign that if you are over 55 you get 25% off every Wednesday. I think someone I know may have to stop in on Wednesdays from now on!! I will just have to tag along and see if she can help me out by sharing that awesome discount!! I bet she will, what do you think?

Off to bed for me soon. I just found out that I have to drive DD1 to the airport at an ungodly time tomorrow, 4AM!! She is going to my nephew's wedding in the Riviera Maya. Nice for her with all the snow and cold we have here.
XOP

Friday Night Sew In (FNSI)

You may remember that I was supposed to be going to Chicago today, but things changed. I decided not to go. Instead I took the day off and went over to PTM's to have a sew in day/night. I wore my comfy clothes and so did she. I brought the chicken, bread and some reduced fat chips, she made the chicken salad. DH got up at 4:45 so of course did I, but after he left and DD left at 6:00 I went back to bed. I think I finally got up around 8. Called PTM and asked what time I could come over. By the time I gathered all my projects together I got there around 11, not quite as early as I had hoped, but I spent a long time looking for the things I wanted to do.

First up work on that Origins Plus baby quilt. I just needed to sew a few more blocks. I sewed them alright, but the seam allowance was not right so I ended up ripping them all out. As luck would have it Cori came over to have lunch with us and she helped me unsew. PTM was doing some binding work for a friend of mine and she was showing Cori the quilt. I think this is the only photo I took of them all day!

Beautiful quilt but even more beautiful friends! As it turns out I could have left them as I decided to cut all the blocks down to 5" in the end. Live and learn. Anyway, I did manage to get this top finished and got the back cut too so it will go off to LTW's on Monday. YEAH, one thing crossed off the list!!

Next up was cutting out Moda Bake Shop Charming Stars quilt. Although as I type this I realize that I cut it out as written and I will need additional snow if I make it bigger. Well there is always next Friday to cut out more! Anyway, I did manage to complete what I set out to do for that project. I will be using Dream On by Moda to make this quilt.

YESSS another thing to cross off the list!

Cori came over and joined us for lunch. PTM made some awesome chicken salad and some amazing egg salad. I forgot to take photos though so you will just have to imagine. Cori stayed and, like I already said, helped me with some un-sewing and just spent some girl time with us. It was so nice!

I managed to get the setting triangles and the sashings cut out for Between Friends, finally.

We ordered Chinese from our favorite place, Chopstick House and her DH was home and we all ate together. PTM managed to finish hand stitching two more of my cardinal wall hanging bindings and hanging sleeves down for me too. She did a lot of hand work. Here are the wall hangings all finished.

I got a call from my DH and they ended up coming home as the weather was so bad in Chicago so as it turns out, I am glad I didn't plan to go to Chicago. I ended up being way more productive at home and spending way less money!!,

If you get a chance go over to PTM's as she is having an amazing give away. I mean AMAZING!!
Thanks for the fun day and night PTM, you are the BEST!! You too Cori. Oh, I almost forgot, Cori gave us our Christmas presents. I got a bottle of wine and PTM got a really cool tin but the best part was the coupon for our choice of either a jelly roll, layer cake or 4 charm packs!! Like I said before, I have the BEST friends don't you think?

OK off to the gym!
XOP

Thursday Night Dinner

Yep, this entire short post is in tribute to my wonderful DH and his amazingly mad cooking skills. We had an entirely homemade dinner on Thursday night. He made the most amazing garlic knot rolls. Two people came to pick up quilts and BOTH of them told me how wonderful my house smelled (due to the garlic rolls).

My friend, Cori (Crazy Quilt Girl) told me again yesterday how amazing they smelled so I told her I took a photo and she said, "Of course you did". But of course I wanted to share them with my peeps, right?
Then DH took the rest of the minced up garlic and spread it all over the beef before cooking it. I made mashed potatoes and made some beans and corn and we feasted like kings! This was my plate!

YUM!!

I need to post about my amazing, amazing Friday soon too. PTM, Cori and I did the FNSI (Friday night sew in). More soon...
XOP

I Heart My Friends

I had probably the worst day I have had in a LONG time in the lab yesterday. I could not do anything right. I'm NOT kidding. It was such a screwed up day I even ended up leaving an hour late. I can't even remember a day where so many things went wrong. SHEESH! I called PTM on the way home and she convinced me to meet her at the gym. Wow, just what I needed to let off some steam from my day.

Then I arrived at home and there was a package there for me from a dear blogging buddy of mine. She has had a worse year than I had a day, but she took the time to send me a gift. This is the same friend that you lovely people donated money to help. As an update, she and the DH are splitting up and she is staying in her house with her daughter. YEAH her!! She is so grateful for all of you helping her. She wrote me the loveliest note telling me how much my support of her meant to her. It was so sweet that I teared up as I was reading the note. Look at what she sent to me that she made with her own 2 little hands.


Look how cute she had packaged it. It was in a little tin and wrapped in a tissue paper pattern. How clever of her right?

Then I went over to my friend Cori's house with a woman from the Wed night group to shop. She is such a sweetie. I picked up some Dream On charm packs and my friend got some Pure to go with her layer cake.

I realized that I have some of the best friends in the world. When I got home DH had homemade chicken noodle soup ready and waiting for me for dinner. Awesome friends and awesome hubby.

Tomorrow, instead of going to Chicago. Until just a little while ago, none of the other wives was planning on going so it was going to be me, DH and the other 3 pilots. A little weird. Plus I still need to finish decorating and cleaning. Christmas is coming and I still have a LOT I would like to do. So tomorrow I will be spending the day with PTM. First, Gym, Thrift shop and then lunch with her and Cori. Then we are going to spend the day together sewing!!! The Friday Night Sew In is tomorrow so we are going to make it all day and into the night. I am so excited.

Life is good!
XOP

What to do, What to do?

Did you ever watch a situation unfold and not really be able to do anything about it? I fear a dear friend of mine is being taken advantage of. Do any of you have "friends" that seem to just be one sided friendships? They never call you, they always ask favors of you without returning them, that sort of thing? I think I'm seeing that happen to one of my friends. I have told her of my observations so she is aware and I think she agrees that it is happening. So my question to you, dear readers is, what do you do about it? I think she wants to remain friends but friendship should be a give and take not just a take. I just feel so bad when I see someone I care about being taken advantage of. Do any of you have any suggestions??

Some Musings

I just have a few things to say tonight. First, can you believe that I blogged every day in the month of November? Then, so far I have only missed yesterday this month. I'm pretty excited about that! It is not always easy to do that. I don't have any photos so I understand if you just skip over this post, no photos is boring, right?

Anyway, on the Christmas decorating front, I managed to get over half of the boxes unpacked!! YEAH me!! I also cleaned as I put up decorations. I had about an hour from the time I got home until I had to leave for exercise class. I told myself I would work until Glenn Beck came on and then I would change and get ready to go and that's exactly what I did. I went to the Body Pump class tonight and it kicked my butt!!

I got home and DH had been called away to fly but then the flight changed so he came home, but he did not have a chance to cook for me, bummer! I had a sandwich and that was A OK with me! Then I got an amazing phone call from the place I sent my little PNS camera. They told me that my camera was fixed and coming home!! I am soooo happy!! I love my camera and I really missed her. I know that most people don't send their PNS cameras in to be fixed but I LOVE my camera. I have actually bought this camera twice!! I loaned it to my DD2 and it was stolen, so I found it and bought it again. LOVE IT!! So I was so excited to know that it is on it's way home. Maybe I should put it in a rubber case so if I ever drop it again it won't break.

I have some other things to talk about but it will have to wait until tomorrow.
XOP

Blocks Made and Caught Up

I have been on this computer wayyyyy too long this morning afternoon already so this will be short and sweet. I wanted to share with you the layer cake block 3 that I finished.

I can't say that I have been as excited about the Layer Cake blocks as I was the jelly roll blocks. I am also making another one of those at the same time so, since I had to put my machine away, I made block 3 and 4 of the JRQAL blocks and I love how they came out!!

The fabric line I am using is Soiree by Lila Tueller. I am planning on giving one of these quilts as a graduation present to my niece. I still have some baby quilts to get on when Christmas is over. I will have to get right to work! Also a wedding quilt for someone.

Ok, no more procrastination, must go and decorate (EW). Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!
XOP

My Saturday

Ok...I know I told you that I would take a photo of my sewing room before I picked it up but I forgot until it was all cleaned up, so oh well. This am I met PTM at the gym, we worked out for a half hour. I came home and worked all day cleaning and rearraging the house to make ready for Christmas stuff tomorrow. Before all that though, I won a contest online at Paula's Sewing Challenge. Here is what I won, an apron, dish towel and a cupcake pot holder.

I thought I would show you the place mats I got for my gift at the party last week too.

More tomorrow, including the blocks I made today so stay tuned!
XOP

Plymouth Piecemaker's Christmas Party

I belong to a quilt guild called the Plymouth Piecemakers. Our Christmas party was last night. I got all gussied up (no pictures though ), grabbed my dish to pass (Caeser salad), my gift (a Cardinal wall hanging) and PTM came and picked me up. we got there and PTM asked me if I had my quilt blocks. In a mild state of panic I responded, "oh crap, I forgot them!" So one phone call to DH and DS brought them to me, thank goodness!!

The party was held in the basement of a church where we usually meet but it looked really festive. Here was my place setting. The recipes were from the food people brought last year.

The gift table and the door prize table

The food was delish! Here is what my plate looked like.

I managed to snap a quick one of PTM with her mouth full, LOL. Isn't she just so adorable. I could eat her right up!!

You saw my reindeer blocks and PTM made a set also. You got your name in a drawing as many times as the number of blocks you made up to 3. PTM's reindeer was jumping over a rooftop, SOOOOOO cute! Here are ours side by side on the block table. First PTM's then mine.

She was smart, she packaged her buttons I sewed mine on! Good to remember for next time. Here's a close up of that adorable house top block.

Through out the year we had to answer some questions. The woman running the party assigned points to all the answers and the person with the most points got to select a gift first. Guess who that was? Yep, PTM!! She was so excited, jumping up and down like a little kid. She selected a gift that was a perfect fit for her. I did not, however remember to get a picture of either her gift or mine! I got 4 matching place mats in Christmas fabrics. Very festive. The woman that selected my Cardinal wall hanging was just thrilled with it. WHEW!
We had show and tell with Christmas projects and the past president, Rosemary, shared this Christmas stocking that she made for her granddaughter. I thought it was striking!

The entire stocking was done by hand. Amazing huh?

It was a nice evening but another night of no sewing. I came home, watched the Vampire Diaries (DVR'ed) and went to bed. My plan for today is once home, cut out my LC and JR blocks and maybe sew them if time, before going to the gym. DH an I may be going to Holly on Sat, but I will try to get to the gym in the am first. Not sure though as he has to fly on Sunday so he may want to be home. Speaking of him, we were sitting in the family room watching the Vampire Diaries when he pipes up with, "Hey, do you think you can get next Friday off?" Me, "Probably, why?" Him, "Want to spend the weekend in Chicago?" Me"Um YES, of course I do". So we will see how that works out, I will keep you posted. So much for getting my Christmas decorating done! PAH!
He has to go in for either a crown or root canal today so we may not be having our usual date night tonight. How will you be spending your Friday night?
XOP

Secret Santa Christmas Swap

I got my Secret Santa Christmas Swap gift in the mail today. It came from Carol Lewis from Carol's Craft Blog. It was an awesome table runner and some cherry cordial M & M's. Lookie!

I love the sawtooth stars and the quilting is exquisite! (Done by Mary of Quilt Hollow)

Carol, I can't thank you enough! I love my gift. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Lest you wonder, my gift went in the mail today. It has a long way to travel though so I hope my deer fly swiftly!

Last night was quilting with the Canton quilters. Many are working on their Layer Cake block 3 blocks. I meant to work on mine but instead ended up helping everyone else do theirs! I am hoping to do mine tomorrow. I really need to get on that and the Jelly roll block too. I took a photo of some of the group's second blocks so you can see how they turned out.


My friend Cori went with me to the meeting and then we left early and went back to her place for our "Wine Wednesday" night. I heart Wine Wednesday and I heart Cori too! Go visit her at her online quilt shop.

The Plymouth Piecemakers party was tonight but that will have to wait until tomorrow, I'm really tired and need to go to bed now.