Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Charlie Brown Christmas Trees

Okay, so this is last years tree. A Charlie Brown type Christmas tree. Its the price you pay for waiting until like the 12th or 15th to buy a tree. Last year we had a two year old in the house, so I didn't put many ornaments on the tree. This year, I have a three year old, and will have NO ornaments on the tree. This year's tree has a ton of paper chains made by the kids, a ton of lights and some red velvet bows. That's it. I'm too worried about my much beloved ornaments being destroyed. This year's tree also looks like a Charlie Brown tree. Part of the problem is waiting so long to buy the tree, but the other part of the problem is the 14 foot ceilings (last years tree is on the short side of the room, so it isn't noticeable as much). A 6 foot tree is just dwarfed by the size of the room. The guy at the garden center told me the BIG trees always get sold out BEFORE Thanksgiving. I'm sorry, but if I put a live tree up that soon, its going to be dead long before Christmas. I'm seriously starting to think that maybe I need to get a fake tree (perish the thought).

Testing Beta

I just switched to the beta blogger. We'll see how this works. I just trie dto comment on one of my previous posts, and it wouldn't let me. Fingers crossed :-)

Thursday, November 30, 2006

My goal for the weekend

 

My plan for the weekend is to work on this project. Back in July or August?, Carol sent me some fabrics: an orange, a black, some grey, a bit of beige with the idea that I should make a block or blocks or a top to donate to Wrap a Smile. Right away, I cut out and sewed triangles and 4 patches, but they never got made into blocks. I laid them out to see how they would look, and suddenly, I had two friends checking them out with me (Peanut Butter is the orange one, Buddy is the other one). So in the next few days, I'm going to have a stay at home retreat and put these blocks together. I hope. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Preparing a surprise

 


This is my Mom (and me)in New York when we saw the Radio City Christmas Spectacular a couple of weeks ago. Next month, my mom turns 60. My dad got this idea that he should have a big surprise party for her birthday. So for the last two months, my dad, my brothers and I have been working on this party, which will take place on Saturday. We're going to have probably close to 100 people at the party. The biggest deal of the whole thing is that all of Mom's sibilings will be at the party. It has been probably 15 years since they have all been together at once. There are 7 of them (and my Mom is the oldest) scattered all around the country: one in Oregon, one in Nevada, one in Florda, another in Maine, and the rest all here locally. The 4 from out of state are all flying in Thursday and Friday and staying for a few days. I'm sure that Mom will be suprised by the party, but seeing her brothers and sisters will be the biggest surprise of all. Posted by Picasa

Monday, November 27, 2006

Vermont in Fabric



One of the big things for 5th graders in our local elementary school is the "State Reports", they have to do two of them during the year. Thing One, of course, chose to do Vermont for the first of her state reports. Among the parts of the report, they need to do a couple of free choice projects, either from the suggestions given or a project of their own invention. One of the suggested projects was a monochromatic collage in the shape of the state. She thought this sounded good, but instead of using pieces of paper, she wanted to make it into a sewing project. Approval was given by the teacher, and we began our pillow project. I did cutting with the rotary cutter and ironing, Thing One did the sewing and the arranging and designing. She used the methods of fabric collage in Melody Johnsons Fast Fun Fusible Art Quilts book, with an atlas giving us the outline we needed. In the end, the project was finshed without any big problems. Tomorrow is her presentation of all the reports, the maps and her pillow project. I'm just so happy that she is excited about quilting and sewing.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

And on a quilty note....



Last week I pieced this top from donated blocks. I decided not to think about them too much and not fuss with them on the design wall for long. I slapped them up there and moved them around for about three minutes then sewed. I gave myself about 3 mintues to look for a border fabric and found this one, which was long enough for a border, backing and binding. Its not necessarily a great choice, but it works. Finished is better than perfect. I hope to quilt it this weekend.

I also managed to bind 4 quilts in my pile. Only another 8 or 10 to go! I need to get the bindings machine stitched on so that when I'm sitting and watching tv I can just hand tack the back part of it down. I've tried doing it with a zigzag by machine but I'm just never happy with it done that way.

Sorry for all the multiple posts, but I'm still trying to figure out Picasa and how to upload in Blogger, how to use the picture software and all this stuff. I'm starting to get the hang of it a little. Another 5 years or so, and I might have a half a clue! ;)

Its not my idea of fun, but....

 

So a few days ago, Thing One had her birthday party at "the coolest place ever!". A rock wall climbing party. Well okay, not what I would think a 10 year old girl would like, but the party was a HUGE hit with my kid and her friends. Here she is climbing near the top of one of the walls with two of her friends. This gym is incredible, they have 23 places to climb the walls and one rope wall thing to climb. They are all harnessed in and strapped onto the rope things, it seems pretty safe. All I know is that they had a blast. Posted by Picasa

Happy Thanksgiving!!



Happy Birthday Dad!

Thanksgiving is now over, let the Christmas madness begin! I'm getting set to go out shopping at 6am tomorrow morning with Thing One in search of a Nintendo Wii. Wish me luck. I swore I wouldn't go anywhere near the mall, but apparently I'm going to be there when the doors open. Lucky me. Honestly though, it is the only thing that Thing One asked for as a gift other than a few little things, so I am going to do my best to make her happy. She undesrtands that she might not get it for Christmas, but will eventually get it when it is available.

Today was a day of too much food, too much family togetherness and way too much rain. Thank goodness at least it was rain and not snow. I made the turkey here at my house, along with the stuffing and we went to the in-laws for dinner at 12:30. After we left there, we stopped home for a few minutes, then went off to my parents for dinner again at 5 (I only ate desert and my kids ate Peanut butter sandwiches at my Moms). We celebrated my Dad's birthday today as well. Once we got home, hubby and Thing two left for Vermont for the weekend.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Donyell

 

Here is my favorite furry friend (just don't tell the other 3 that they aren't my favorite). He's in the kitty hospital tonight for the third night, and I am missing him a lot. Donyell is 14 years old and is in the hospital because his thyriod levels were very high. Right now he is there because on Tuesday, he was injected wiht Radioactive Iodine as a treatment. Instead of needing a pill 2X per day for the rest of his life, there is about a 99.something% chance that this will cure his problem. (Fingers crossed). The only reason the kitties have to stay in the hospital for three days is to monitor radiation levels and protect the humans from any residual radiation.

I get to pick him up tomorrow, and I'll be so happy when he is back home.

I would have put this in my other post from tonight, but I guess Picasa will only allow you to put one picture in each post. The BLOG THIS part of PIcasa really needs a notepad where I can cut/paste stuff into my post. Of course maybe I'm just doing somethign wrong? Any thoughts? Posted by Picasa

Off to see the show!

 

Okay, not until Saturday, but I'm excited. Thing One, my Mom and I are going on a bus trip Saturday. While there, we'll be stopping at American Girl, Times Square, looking at the tree in Rockefeller Center and of course, seeing the Christmas show. Thing One has never been to New York City, and neither Mom nor I have been in years and years.

Yesterday I made three tops. Don't get too excited, it wasn't as great as it sounds. One was a preemie quilt made from 5" squares, one was a 38" square lap quilt made with 3" squares, and the other was a kids size quilt (40X50) made with blocks that other people made a while ago. No pictures today since my camera battery is dead and I'm too lazy to go find the cable. Maybe tomorrow if I get thru my list of 500 things to do. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Okay, so now I'm going to try using Picasa to upload a picture. I've been told that it might make things easier for me, so we'll see. How surprised was I today to find that Picasa was already installed on my computer, thanks to DH and Google Pack! LOL.
Lets see if I can manage to post that picture of those contrary wife blocks that I mentioned earlier today.

 

I did do my celestial block for the AIDS quilt last weekend, it is off to the lady putting the top together. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture because my digital camera was in the wrong state at the time. I figure I'll get a picture when the whole quilt is finished. I ended up doing redwork type embroidery in multi colors: a man in the moon, Saturn, earth and a bunch of stars. Posted by Picasa


A very rainy November day in New England. At least it isn't cold, I'd hate to think of how much snow all this rain would be!

I spent the weekend working on Contrary Wife Blocks that I had kitted up a few weeks ago. In all, I made nearly 50 blocks. I took all the ones with yellow in them and tossed them onto the design wall, and I'm pretty happy with how they look. I do need one more with yellow, then I'm good to go with this this top. I have enough to make at least one more top after this.

Friday, November 03, 2006

November



Long weekend here, kids in our town have Monday and Tuesday off for teacher workshops and election day, then they have Friday off for Veterans day. Short week for them.

And here it is, finally:



This is the August (September?) Hour a Day challenge, in a smaller size. I'm still debating about if I should keep it or donate it. I am very pleased with how it came out. Thanks, Judy, for the idea and the pattern.

I didn't do any quilting today, running around dealing with my poor sick Kitty, Donyell. He is 14 years old and has hyperthyroid. In two weeks he'll be getting a radioactive injection that will almost certainly fix the problem.

My quilting project for this weekend is to embroider a block for a local community quilt. It needs to be a celestial theme, so I am going to do a moon and stars. The quilt will be donated to a person whose life is affected by AIDS. Hopefully I'll be able to get a picture of the completed quilt when it is on display after December 1st.

Beyond that, I need to work on the 12 quilts that need bindings.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Testing Testing

http://f3.yahoofs.com/users/41c0e950za13c9469/fcd5re2/__sr_/9fe6re2.jpg?phIEBTFBBGv3VdV5
I'm going to try and add photos now. We'll see!

Monday, September 18, 2006

Monday...

This past weekend, Thing One and I went to a quilt show! It was in Bennington VT, at the local high school, and was hosted by the local guild: The Quiet Valley Quilters. This is the second time I've been to this show, and I've really enjoyed it both times. There were a lot of really nice quilts, a consignment booth with quilts, fabrics etc for sale by the guild, lots of vendors from the upstate NY, NH and VT area, a nice lunch provided by the guild and a daily lecture by Paula Nadlestern. We had a very nice afternoon, and I had some retail therapy: a couple of patterns, a book and a yard of fabric plus one fat quarter.

I am continuing to sort and fold my stash, and I am making a big pile of fabrics that need to be cut. I think I'll never finish.

Also, over the last few days I made a couple of Union Square blocks for my guild's Winner Take All raffle next week. Blue and yellow, 9".

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Back in a routine

Dance started again today at our studio. Hopefully now, we can really get back into our routine.

Between the dance classes and a conference with DDs teacher, no quilting happened today. I did spend a few minutes refolding and sorting fabrics in my stash. I'm using Bonnie's suggestions and I'm cutting all pieces smaller than 1/2 yard into strips, bricks and squares. Well, almost all of them...I think Novelty and holiday fabrics I'll keep smaller (fat 8 and fat 1/4s ) for now. Bigger pieces, I'm folding around my 6X24 ruler to make them sit neatly on the shelves. I hope that will make them behave.
Maybe once Ido that I'll be able to find what I need.

This all started because I was looking for a few oranges to make a little pumpkin wallhanging, but things are so disorganized I couldn't find any oranges. Oh well, maybe I'll just go for some retail therapy tomorrow!

Monday, September 11, 2006

Fall is in the air

This weekend when I was in Vermont, I noticed that some of the leaves are starting to change. That means only one thing: not long before the leaf peepers start to invade my peaceful weekend retreat. We'll be sitting at our one traffic light waiting for the lines of cars to pass thru town, including me of course.
Yesterday was the second weekend of the month, so I spent some time quilting for Sunshine. I don't just do it because it is the second Sunday, but I try specifically plan for it. This weekend I made 8 blocks for Carol's color family challenge. I had a solid yellow, solid red and solid green, so I put each of them with a novelty print and made a simple counterchange block. All together I made 8 blocks. Unfortunately, that was the only sewing I did this weekend. I will share pictures as soon as I ever get my DH to move my photo software from my c drive to the d drive. I'm going to badger him about it this week.
Tonight I went to Lavendar Ladies. Lavendar Ladies is a non-guild that I belong to here in town. We do all the fun things that a guild does without any of the business meeting stuff, so it is more fun. Usually someone shares a project that they've been working on and demonstrate it to us. This time, Mia showed us a project she is working on with soem fused pumpkins and vines, and she showed us a variation she did with stars for the Veterans Hospital. Someone else showed us a adorable pieced pumpkin they made from a kit. I am going to make that pumpkin so I have a Halloween thing for my front door, but I took a quick look in the stash, and I don't see enough orange, so I think I'll have to make a trip to the store tomorrow.
I've started working on sorting my stash by color, folding it neatly and cutting small (less than half yard) pieces into strips the way Bonnie described on her website. Its going to take me a long time.
Tomorrow, the kids and the DH start dance. It is the studio's 50th anniversary year, and there is going to be a lot going on.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

One Hour a Day Quilt Project

So last weekend, I decided to play with Judy L's idea of spending one hour a day working on a specific project that she suggested. Of course, I can't follow the rules, so instead of working on it for one hour every day until it was finished, I worked on it like a crazy woman for two days to get all the blocks done (12 instead of 20 because that would make the quilt more the size I like to do). All the blocks are done, and now they are awaiting sashing, cornerstones and borders. So in the spirit of boosting the American Economy, I went shopping for border fabric. Okay, so shoot me. I didn't have anything at home that I could get to that seemed to work with the very red-violet blocks. This weekend, I'll try to get the rest of the top together, and if all goes well, I'll quilt it too.

Other quilty things accomplished last weekend:
* more Contrary Wife blocks
* some 6" friendship stars to send to Ann, who will use them in crumb quilts for Sunshine
* 4 blossoms and buds blocks (from quilterscache.com) to send to Janet who will make them into quilts for Sunshine

Of course I didn't do the bindings on the several quilts waiting to be bound, the blocks for my guilds raffle at annual meeting or anything on the huge pile of UFO's sitting near my machine.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Okay, so its been waaay too long since I last posted. I promised myself that I'd blog at least 2 X per week, and it hasn't happened. But ya know, with two munchkins, life gets busy. At least I have had some quilting time in there, and I'm not going to give up some of my precious quilting time to blog (though I will try to do better in the future).

Anyway, since my first entry, I decided to make some contrary wife blocks to send to Carol from the Sunshine group "In honor of Bev". The requirement was that they be 9" and have red triangles in the center. I started making the blocks and had so much fun doing it that I just kept making more and more of them. Soon I had 24 blocks and I just had to put them together to see how they would look. Then I 'had' to quilt it. Ultimately I decided that it would make a great 4th birthday present for my niece, Rebecca. Then I felt guilty that the blocks weren't going to the kids they were intended for. So I made another 10 blcoks and sent them off to Carol.

The next weekend (Memorial Day weekend). I just had to sew something, and I had an opportunity to do so. I decided to pick the Hourglass 2 block from Quilterscache.com Since I was feeling patriotic, I made 9 of these blocks in red/white/blue thinking that they'd make a nice 'man' lapquilt for my guild's community service project. The blocks were sort of blah, but when I put the sashing and cornerstones they looked a lot better. I managed to get the quilt finished and bound in time to hang it outside on the porch for Memorial Day.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Getting Started

Okay, so I guess after all this time reading everyone else's quilt blogs, its time for me to get with the program and start sharing my quilting adventures!

I've been quilting for about 15 years now, and I am obsessed. Okay, lets just admit it, I'm a fabriholic, but I've been very good lately, and I've virtually stopped buying fabric. Now if only I could find some more time to actually make my fabric into finished quilts rather than UFO's, I'd be all set.

Today I got a project off my back and out of my house finally. My parents are both members of the Elk's club, and their lodge had it's 100th anniversary in 2005, so Mom decided to make a commemorative quilt. A bunch of people got together and made blocks, Mom assembled it all and I quilted it. Now Mom has to do the binding, sleeve and label so that it can hang at the local historical society. I just did some simple meandering on it. I didn't think to take a digital picture before I dropped it off at Mom's house tonight, but I'll try to get one later.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and sit down and do some actual quilting of my own. I'm always optomistic, but things rarely work out the way I hope. We'll see.