I Be Jammin'

I told you I got some other goodies from LTW's farm but I didn't say what. It was strawberries...LOTS of strawberries. She needs to clear out the freezer for the incoming chickens this weekend. I had strawberries coming out my ears, er I mean my freezer. Too many to even all fit in my little chest freezer. So what's a gal to do? When LTW gives you berries get busy and make some jam, of course. The berries were from her folks berry patch last year so luckily they were all cleaned and ready for me to work with. Ever try mashing thawed strawberries? It is not for the faint of heart, let me tell you. I decided to take out my trusty food processor and that was the BEST decision I made! I had stopped on the way home and bought some Sure Gel and and 24 of the 16oz jars. That should be enough right? Here are the humble beginnings

Next is the cooking stage. Very precise! Mr. Mama Spark was NO help at all! Men, sheesh!! As I was cooking the jam I was boiling water in the canning bath and boiling water to put the lids in too. Face facts I was "boiling" hot too, even with the A/C turned on!

I got one batch finished, yeah!!

Now I can finish using all those berries!
Sorry in advance for the "messy" pic but I was exhausted! Here are all 24 jars (yes I said 24) filled with delish strawberry jam. They are all processed and need to rest overnight. The whole thing only took 4 hours of constant work!!!

I'm not complaining though. I love me some strawberry jam!! I even tried the sugar free version so will have to let you know how that turned out. Guess what? I still have enough berries to make at least 8 more jars with. I don't have any more jars though so maybe I will start making smoothies with some of them who knows!

I received some fabric in the mail and will share that tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!!

Oh and BTW did you notice I added a new list on the left side bar? I am going to start listing tutorials that I like when I find them so I don't have to keep trying to remember where they were and I can tidy up my bookmark list too. Feel free to use them too! If you do let me know what you think.

Sunday's Farm Visit

On Sunday I went with my DH and DD1 to visit LTW's farm. We had a nice visit and came away with lots of "stuff". First you need to see how well my leaf lettuce is growing. The original plants were about 2" tall when I handed them over, now look at them!

And we have banana peppers already too! Plus have you ever seen an eggplant flower? I had not so here is a shot of that too.

And of course you know how much I love me some kitties and this one became my new BFF. His name is Rusty (DH thought it should be Cracker) and he followed me all around the farm. Even the Barn Swallows dive bombing him didn't deter his love for me. Right back at ya Rusty!!

We got to visit with the Polish chickens we brought the first time and they are doing well. The red rooster is such a ham!

He loves his lady hen too and here she is in all her om pom splendor.

Here is our old pal Megatron, the first chick we hatched. Look how big she is!

You can see Megatron and Fox (I think) in the pen with the Aracana mix chicks we got at another bird swap. Hopefully the mix birds will have some hens and lay colorful eggs. Anywhere from blue to greens. Easter Egg chickens they sometimes call them. They are adorable!

Two of the horses, minus the big black one.

DD1 with her peacock, Malik

The 2 Alpacas, Sam and Cole
Becky and Sunny

Now in this one you can see the back of LTW with the BIG dog, Sasha. This is actually looking out of the room where her long arm machine goes.

Here are the 2 goats together, Sunny and Oreo. They are so funny to watch together!!

There are more pics of our first hatchlings on my Flickr account so if you are interested, click the link on the side and you can see how they have grown too.
We took home 3 "heads" of leaf lettuce, 4 or 5 Banana peppers, some green onions and more frozen strawberries than I actually had room for in my freezer, but THAT is another story for another day!

I have a few photos of the inside of the farm, but need to run and actually get a little work done at my real job today, LOL!! Thank goodness they don't actually care what I do as long as my work gets done!

The Process Pledge

I have been thinking about doing this for some time and finally decided that I want to join in "The Process". What is this? Well if you click the button on my side bar you will be magically transported to the blog that started it all for a fabulous explanation. Basically, people that are involved will be sharing not only their finished quilts, but the process they used to arrive at said project. We all have a process, sometimes it's not that glamorous now is it? I think we can learn a lot from each other if we share how we arrived at the finished product.

I have so much to say but I don't want to bore anyone to death so I understand if you skip ahead. I received an email from a local shop owner. She has courageously taken on the role of Arts Council President and is looking for a way to generate revenue for the Arts in the community. Since she is a quilter and a quilt shop owner that's an avenue she is familiar with. She will be putting on a quilt show for one thing, she will also be selling some fabric that individuals will use to make a 12.5" block. I think the favorites will be chosen and the person with the most will receive some (or maybe all) of the blocks. You have to use the fabric provided but can put your own with it. I think that sounds like a lot of fun don't you? I think she should keep some back and make a quilt for raffle at next year's quilt show! The thing I am the most excited about is making doll quilts for an auction. How fun would that be? I don't know the size of the quilts yet but will let you know if you think you might be interested in making one.

So I went to bed last night dreaming of doll quilts. I had drawn up some and thought I would share what I have with you. Feel free to use one if you like it. I took a trip through the Flickr Doll Quilt Swap group and got sooooo many wonderful ideas!! You guys are incredibly talented!
Here are my ideas. Now don't laugh at my drawings, I was just putting down ideas!

I.was really taken by one that was done by Small Fox In a Big World's doll quilt of a Narwhal looking up into the water. It was so amazing! I thought I might be able to do something like it but swap out the Narwhal for a Mermaid. I had a Mermaid image I had used for a t-shirt 4 years ago for my DD2's swim team. I found it on the computer and here is what she looks like (disregard the names, they would not be there!)

I would embroider her if I used her. I have 2 friends drawing for me so I may end up with a different thing altogether. Just throwing out ideas at the moment. I have so many ideas in my head sometimes it hurts me! LOL.

As I was thinking about embroidering this I was thinking about the fact that I have a couple of baby quilts to make too so I decided to try to find some vintage style embroidery patterns (free if possible). Hello Flickr! There is a wonderful group called Hoop Love Vintage Transfers and on page 37 I fell in love!! In love with the little kids there.
These are the ones:

Couldn't you just see an adorable baby quilt made up of these embroidered cuties? I guess I need to get tracing and stitching, right?? Do any of you know of any other sites for free vintage style embroidery. Oh I wouldn't mind some fantasy and/or Halloween either! LOL
I will stop for now. I need to eat dinner and then DH and I are going to make strawberry jam from the 6 million berries LTW sent home from the farm with us on Sunday. Did I mention we went to the farm to visit all the critters? OH NOOOOOO, I will save that tale for tomorrow!! (There are LOTS of pics on my Flickr account if you want to go and see). Some of the patterns and a book I ordered came too but again, more sharing tomorrow!!

Dinner with Friends

I have a really dear friend that lost her husband some time ago. He was only 46 and had an aortic aneurysm burst. He thought he was having heart issues and drove himself to the hospital. She never made it to say goodbye. It was soooo sad. My kids called these friends Aunt and Uncle. I love her like a sister, in fact my eldest daughter is named after her. Well, Aunt Shelby has found a new love and we could not be happier for her. We will always miss Uncle Mike but I am so happy she has found someone that makes her happy again. They are getting married the day after my own anniversary! Friday night my DH just happened to not have to work and so we met them for dinner at Papa Vino's. Here is the happy couple.


It is always good to catch up with old (and now new) friends!

I thought you might like to see what I had for dinner too it was delish! Shrimp and scallops over pasta. I only ate half of the pasta, but the whole thing was so yummy!

I got up fairly early on Sat and went to weigh in. Down 2.8 for a total of 38.8 pounds so far. I am approaching the 40 pound mark and I am very excited about that. The rest of the day I went to the gym for about 2 hours for my classes, did stuff on the computer, went out to run errands and was just generally a blob. I hate those kind of days, really. Don't feel like doing much and then when you don't you feel guilty for not getting anything productive done!! ACK!

Today I am excited to go out to LTW's farm!!! DD1 went out there yesterday morning and brought back pics. The chicks are getting BIG. I will have photos later today. I promised I would go and help weed today. DH is going with me. It is good for him to get out of the house and help on the farm too. Then I am thinking BBQ with all the kids tonight to celeberate Father's day. Gotta dash!

On The Way Into Work

Yesterday I wanted to post about this but with already posting twice I figured I would save it for today. I work at the University of Michigan (U of M) and I graduated from Michigan State University (MSU). The schools are BIG rivals. You need to know that to appreciate what I am going to share with you. In case you are new to my blog you will also need this background info. I work in Ann Arbor Michigan. Ann Arbor is a very liberal community, I, on the other hand, am very conservative. Stage is set. Here is what the back of my van looks like.

I park in a large parking structure every day with this facing out so MANY people see it as they pass by. So not only do I have a HUGE Spartan "S" on my van I also sport a Nobama bumper sticker. You would think that this might be a problem for me or my van but quite the opposite is true. Yesterday I was getting out of my car and I walked around the back and was waiting for DD1 to get out and join me. I turned to my left and there was a man standing there which startled me a little. He proceeded to tell me that he drives by my van all the time and since he happened to catch me he wanted to let me know that I was courageous to be driving around with these things on my car and that he appreciated and agreed with my Nobama sentiments. I told him he was not the first person to say so and thanked him and told him to keep up the good fight.

It's interesting how much attention that bumper sticker seems to generate. One day a few months ago I was stopped at a light. I happened to look over at the car on my left and the woman in the passenger seat was gesturing for me to roll my window down. I did and she told me her husband LOVED my bumper sticker and wanted to know where I had gotten it. Makes me feel some of the "hope" BO was talking about that come November there will be a "Change" I can believe in!!

Christmas with Possibilities Book Review

I joined C&T Publishing's Creative Troupe for many reasons and one of them was so I could review books that I found interesting. You request one of their books and they send it to you in ebook form to read and then to review. You need to post several reviews in order for them to continue to send you new requested books. When I say this one, Christmas with Possibilities I knew this would be the first one I wanted to review. It's by Lynda Milligan & Nancy Smith, two people well known in the quilt world.

Let me just say up front, this book does NOT disappoint! It is chock full of a plethora of wonderful projects and beautiful illustrations. The directions are clearly written and one of my favorite things is that the applique templates are full sized, always a bonus. There were instructions for things other than just quilts too, like an apron, place mats, pot holders and table runners. The wall hangings and quilts were just amazing. All in all I would recommend this book to anyone wishing to make some Christmas projects either to keep or to gift. Outstanding book!

June and August Tisket A Tasket

Now back to quilty business! I got the embroidery finished on 2 more of the Tisket blocks. I must say I am so happy with how they are turning out so far. So without further ado here is June's block

Isn't it so cute??

I also managed to finish the embroidery on the August blcok:

I really like the striped cup cake papers and I LOVE my lady bug!!

I have fused September and October but have to stitch around them and then do the embroidery. That always takes so much time to do it well! I have 2 more blocks to fuse then all 12 will be fused. Maybe tonight? We will see. I have to get to the gym after work and then dinner, laundry...well you get the idea. I will have to see how much light I have left after that. Hope you are having a good day too. XOXO

Halfway There!!

I finally went out and bought some smaller shirts last night. I went from the XL to M!! Yeah me!! I thought I would show you the progress so far using actual pictures. Mind you be kine! I still have 40 more pounds to go but this is progress none the less, right?

And from the side:

And up close

So there you have it. This is what half way looks like!! I have some quilty goodies to share but will put this in another post.

Give Away

Ok, I love a give away as much as the next person. I don't usually blog about them even to increase my chances of winning (which I am not really sure about anyway as more people sign up, right?) All this being said, I am in love with this fabric. In fact, I love it so much I went to Kerri's ETSY and bought some! I am not trying to be pessimistic, but I rarely win anything and I dearly love this fabric. So if you are interested in just about the cutest fabric EVER go over to see Kerri at Lovely Little Handmades and enter her giveaway.

Times Two

I thought I would take a minute and show you what I finished.


Wanna see my leader and ender project so far too? Ok here ya go.


It's part of the Between Charming Friends quilt along that I joined. I have 1 16 patch finished and several 4 patches. If you click on the button, you can join in too. Mine will take awhile but I will get there and it will use up a ton of my blue and green leftovers!

That's it for now, over and out!

Hot AND Humid

So what do you do when it is hot AND humid outside? Stay in and sew, am I right? I went to the gym yesterday and found it was just so icky outside. I thought I wanted to weed, but no, alas those weeds may be defeating me due to hot and humidity, but I will get out there eventually!

DD1 got up EARLY and went to the bird swap (again) and got LTW a new goat, named Oreo. She dropped her off at the farm and brought these treasures for me when she arrived home.


Doesn't look YUMMY??? I am going to have some of that lettuce for lunch very soon.

Funny I happened to post yesterday about 12 Days of Christmas. I went out to the store for some milk and called Cori as I was leaving. You knew I could not resist the FQ bundle now didn't you? It just so happens that a 12 Days kit found it's way home with me too. I have no idea how that happened = ) OMG it makes me purr just showing you all this 12 Days goodness. Now if you want your very own kit or some cut goods hop on over to Cori's place and order it up. (You know you want to)

I ended up at the store for the milk and when I got home there was a package on my sewing table from...yep, THE FAT QUARTER SHOP!!! I signed up for the Mystery BOM made out of...wait for it...wait for it...12 Days of Christmas fabric!!!!! You may need to join me in this fun.
The packet on the left is for the first block and on the right is the finishing kit.

So I cut out the block last night and sewed it up today. I LOVE it and the really great news? I think I may have enough of the fabric left over from the block to make a second block for (now you need to keep it quiet) LTW. I know things are tight with the farm and having 2 mortgages so I am going to try to share so she can have some 12 Days lovin' too. Here is the block.

JRQAL Block 8 and stuff

I had a very eventful day yesterday. I ended up shopping with PTM and my friend Cori (owner of Crazy Quilt Girl online fabric shop) at a warehouse yesterday. I only made a few purchases and was kind of proud of myself! I drove over to Cori's house and got to "shop" in her fabric room, let me just say, *heaven*! All the new Kate Spain 12 Days of Christmas is in, both the cut fabric and some bolts and it is BEAUTIFUL!! Even MORE beautiful in person. You *NEED* to get some of this and I have a feeling it will sell out quickly. Cori's prices are some of the best on the web so RUN right over there and do a little damage! She also got bolts of Fresh Cottons in and that is a beautiful line too. I adore the polka dots in that line. Now off with you then come back and read some more here!!

As I said I was pretty restrained. Here are the 2 bolts I did end up buying. I got a bolt of interfacing to use to make a couple of t-shirt quilts and then I found the words. They are words from Snow White. Do you remember my idea for Storybook Owls? Well I want to re-make my spooky owls and use this as background for it. I can see it in my head now we will see how I can translate it to real life, LOL.


I had pre-ordered a CR ruler and think I will use it to make some of the Hexagons I keep seeing.

I had pre-ordered some patterns but the cat one was the only one that was not backordered. It looks just like my cat Mosen. I will do this as a wall hanging some day. (Notice I didn't say some day soon, LOL) I had recently seen a basket block like this and though it might be fun to make someday and so just picked up the pattern when I saw it.

Funny story, as we were walking around at the store, Cori came up and told me she was having trouble finding me because I look so different. I gave her the ??? face. She laughed and told me I look like her friend from 10 years ago!!! That made me feel good but then later, she and PTM were walking behind me and I heard them say "Look at how little her butt is now". Wow, makes me so happy!! Speaking of weight loss I lost 2.8 pounds this week. This makes up for the 2.2 gain last week. Now I have lost almost 37 pounds!!

Cori and I went to a new to me place for lunch, the Red Olive. The food was great! I had a chicken Caeser wrap and it was amazing!! They had a 2 page salad menu too.

When I got home I did some cleaning since DD1 was expecting a friend to come over and spend the night. They went to the bird swap today looking for a goat to be friends with the goat living at LTW's house, a peahen for Malik, the peacock they got last time, and some Aracana chicks (they lay blue eggs). I just heard from her and they got another pygmy goat and some Easter Egg chicks but no pea hen, apparently they didn't have any at the swap. So they are going to the farm and will deliver the goods. Hopefully they will take some pics so I can share with you later.

I did decide to do the next JRQAL block and here it is:

Again the whole directional thing comes into play but I like how it came out anyway, even if my flowers are all sideways!

Well, it is supposed to be how AND humid today, yahoo! We already turned the AC on for the day and it is not even 9:30 am!! I have to go and get ready to go to the gym for my class but will write more later. I will be going over to Cori's again today, I *need* the 12 Days of Christmas Kit and possibly the FQ bundle, she only has 4 of those!! But I will probably need a shower first!!

New Quilt Designer?

Maybe. I will need your help with this endevor though! I entered a contest on the McCalls website. It is for potential new quilt designers, wanna bees so to speak. I think I wannabe! So if you are so disposed and wouldn't mind too much taking a minute and going to their site and view my quilt. You will be able to vote for my quilt, I believe, after June 24th. I put up "My Neighborhood" quilt. Remember it? Well it looks like this:

If you are an aspiring quilt designer too you can enter the contest and I guess you can vote for your own quilt! Have fun looking and I am keeping my fingers crossed.

More Tisket Blocks

I went to quilting last night determined to get some of the embroidery finished on my Tisket blocks so I could share them today. I got 2 done in 3 hours! Wow I am SLOW at that, but none the less they are done. I won't put the buttons and bows on any of them until the whole quilt is done and quilted. Here is the first one I finished last night, I think it is March's block.

Then I did the May (I think it is May) block.

I only had the antennae on the butterfly to do on this one, haha. That stem stitch on the other one took me a long time! Not to mention all the lazy daisy and french knots. I am happy with how they turned out. I have 4 more to finish embroidering now and that will make 8 of the 12 blocks done! I hope to fuse the next 2 tonight. I was kind of surprised that it takes me so long to trace, cut, choose the fabrics, and fuse but it really takes me some time. Don't you just love the butterfly on this block?
I am interested on what you all think of these blocks too.

Between Charming Friends Quilt ALong

I know, I know. I have NO business joining in any more anythings. But I couldn't help myself. I am already doing this project, so it's not like I am actually starting anything new now is it? I got this pattern from a friend awhile ago and decided it was the perfect pattern to use for a Leaders and Enders project to use up the left over squares from my water quilt. So I am joining in the BCFQA. You should do it too.

I really like the pattern. I did not officially join up as mine will not be completed by the end of June or even July. It will be completed when it is done. I have really enjoyed using the blocks to make it work for Leaders and Enders. If you do not know what that is all about you should go and visit Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville. She has published a book all about it but she also explains it on her blog or website. Basically you keep some pieces that you have cut near your sewing machine. When you are finished sewing whatever you are working on and would normally either break your thread or use a thread bunny, you instead, pick up 2 of your pieces and sew them together. Go and press your primary project and then go back to your sewing machine. Therefore the secondary sewing was your "ender" and as you get ready to sew again becomes your "leader". If you continue in this way you end up with an entire second quilt sewn as you make your primary quilt! Ingenious, right? The only thing I have found is that, for me, I need to actually choose what I am going to do rather than sewing randomly.

When I saw the pattern, Between Friends, I knew this was the perfect pattern for me to use up the left over squares from my water quilt. Anyway, it looks like a perfect way to use a charm pack(s) depending on the size quilt you want to make, or to use up your scraps (like me). Let me know if you decide to play along!

I have to take some pictures of my Tisket blocks so I can share them with you. I plan on working on the embroidery part of this tonight so should be able to take some pictures to share with you all! I am soooo excited about how they are turning out.

In an aside, I was going to ride with my friend, Karen, to the shop hop to Shipshewana. Now my group has grown. I don't want us to all be packed into a car so we are driving separately. the good news is that I have Karen's cell phone number and hopefully we will be able to meet up IRL!!!! Bring your veteran's quilt with you too, Karen!! Even though we are not sharing a car I am still psyched to meet you!!!

Finally, I can post!

I have been trying all day to comment and then to post and Blogger was down. I HATE when Blogger is down don't you? I tried to communicate with everyone but noooooo. So I had to do real work, UGH. Then I came home and worked on my Tisket A Tasket blocks. I have 4 more blocks all stitched around and the next 2 fused. The fusing takes a long time. I am happy with how they are turning out but don't want to keep boring you with them so I will show them as I finish the hand work on them.

I was cleaning the garage recently when I came across a Handi-Quilter frame I bought a few years ago on Ebay. Now I have never even opened it and I really don't have anyplace to set it up in my home. So I was thinking that if anyone is interested in purchasing it please contact me. I paid $350 for it and it was right before the Handi Quilter II came out. Just send me an email and let's see if I can get it out of my garage and into a home where it will be used and loved.

Did You Survive The Tornados?

We had some vicious tornados that swept by us last night. They touched down about 25 miles away from us. There was at least one and maybe as many as 3! Scary stuff. LTW lives really close to where they touched down so I called her this morning to see how they weathered the storm. All is well at the farm. Thank goodness!

I have to tell you I did not have a good weight week. I gained 2.2 pounds! Curse the holiday weekend. DD gained too so we are going to work harder at being good this week. Wish us luck! In that vein, I went to the gym in the am and did a class. It was good, but I'm a little sore today. Then I decided to do some major cleaning again! I washed down all the cabinets, which took me about an hour and a half. Washed all the throw rugs, cleaned the downstairs bathroom and took the Murphy's Oil soap to the wood floor in the dining room and hallway to the bathroom. We did not have the air on so I was sweating up a storm! That was probably good for me too! Today it is cold and wet here so maybe I will finish the laundry and sew.

You will all be proud of me. I *finally* did it. I installed EQ6 and I am working my way through the tutorial lessons in the book. I ordered EQ7 so I thought I should learn 6 before installing 7.
It seems like I am spending so much more time on the computer lately though and not getting as much sewing done. Is anyone else having this as an issue? Between email, reading all the wonderful blogs on my Bloglines, Facebook, and Farmville and now EQ it just seems like I never make it to the sewing machine! Of course there is gardening, weeding, cleaning, cooking, laundry doing and spending time with the family going on not to mention a full time job. UGH. Someone actually told me I haven't been very productive this year. Thanks, I hadn't noticed. LOL so along with being better about what I eat this week, I am going to spend less time on the computer when I am at home. (I can do some of the computer stuff when I am at work, like email and read blogs, in between what I am doing at work.

Last but not least I will be joining my friend Karen on a trip to Shipshewana for their shop hop. She describes the trip way better than I could so pop on over to her blog and read all about it. She has one friend going with her and I may have LTW and PTM so we could have 5 of us going together! If you are in MI and want to join us for the trip just drop me an email and we will see if we can caravan or if you are already going, maybe we can meet up for lunch. If you are a reader of my blog and want to meet up for lunch there just let me know and we can meet for lunch. I figure there may be some from IN or OH that will be going on the Hop. I can email you my cell phone number so we can talk.

That's my report for now. Hope you all have a great day today and I appreciate all my blog readers!

The Cheeps

I want to take a minute to introduce you to the newest members of the family. Please meet
Fox, Megatron, and Optimus Pirme. We hatched these little beauties from eggs from LTW's farm!!! Megatron was born first. Then came Optimus Prime. Megatron kept trying to kill OP (hence their names) and OP just cries and cries if MT is missing. Then along came Fox. They are Polish chickens, not sure of the gender yet though. I am willing to bet MT is a rooster as he is kind of a jerk! Notice that Fox has a beard too!

Here is a good photo of Fox and it's beard. And MT trying to look all cute and innocent...


Anyway, enough chick photos for today. We are handing over the chicks to LTW after work today. They will go to her farm to be farm chickens. We have 9 more eggs in the incubator. Thanks LTW for allowing me to live out my farming fantasy!

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.