February Accomplishments or lack there of

I think this might be my month with the least accomplishments ever. It's not a good feeling. =(

-3 Valentine's Day Postcards
-Valentine's Day Pillow Case
-Started Eclipse Quilt
-Quilted and Bound my Black & Bright Block of the month quilt
-Kristie's Quilt - Assembled the top, added borders, quilted, bound and shipped off.
-Quilted a Fleece Blanket for Holly and tried Dwirling for the first time.
-Purchased a new mattress....it's freaking wonderful!!
-Made 2 blocks for my Moda-U Quilt and assembled the top.
-Assembled and Quilted "A Bit Askew" for my Aunt Karen.
-Ripped a CD-ROM Drive apart, fixed it and re-assembled it.
-Made the big switch from a Dell MP3 player to a more mainstream iPod Nano.

The Magic of Photo Shop

What a fun evening I had!! I sewed a scan 1/4 inch around the outside of the quilt. I figured it would help to keep distortion at a minimum since there wasn't a border to keep the quilt squared.

I was afraid of quilting "A Bit Askew" because it was all batiks and I haven't had much luck quilting batiks. I typically get a lot of skipped stitches. On my frame I've been using 100/16 Topstitch needles. Michelle uses 90/14 Topstitch needles and suggested for the batik/monofiliment thread combo that I try a 90/14 Metallic needle. She's so smart; I don't call her the Machine Whisperer for nothing!! The truth is, I'm afraid of 90/14 needles on the frame now because I've gotten so comfortable with the larger 100/16's. I get anxiety the moment I put them in. Sure enough...broke one before I even got started. With Sulky Monofiliment in the top and Bottom Line in the bottom I took off on my Dwirling adventure. I will say it was a little hard to see because of the monofiliment.

After a few rows, the phone rang. It was my mom and Aunt Karen wondering if I was quilting and if they could come over to see it in the works. AK was amazed at my set up. They left and I went on my merry way. When I was a few rows from the bottom, I noticed my tension was screwed up. I had to rip out about 4 rows of dwirling which I've got to say were no big deal because of the monofiliment.

Once I cut it off the frame I ran over to my Grandma's house; it was 11pm. They were all up, waiting to see it. Even Mike whose eyes normally glaze over when I finish a quilt remarked how cool it looked.

Here's a picture of the back, it was really hard to photograph because of the lighting and the light background. In the end, the quilt measures 39 x 64 and even with all this quilting it only took 3 bobbins of Bottom Line Thread.

Then, I couldn't resist, I pulled a picture of my Aunt's fireplace that she had sent me and I photo shopped the picture onto her wall where she intends to hang it. Oh, and there's nothing in the fireplace, I had to look myself! It's a reflection of her dog laying on the carpet a few feet away.

Tomorrow I will put the binding and hanging sleeves on and then it will fly off to Arizona where it will be hung. =)

Only the Picture Is Askew

It ROCKS!!! I LOVE IT!!! Sigh, I guess I'll just have to go visit it. In the mean time....I MUST make myself something similar. Now to pick out colors. Maybe a wallhanging for my cube walls.

My quilt holder is in bed so I had to put it on the floor and I couldn't snap the picture at a good angle. You'll just have to wait until it's quilted to see it upright!

I'm planning on quilting it tomorrow after work. Anyone have any ideas for me? It's going to hang above a fire place so the quilting isn't exactly going to be seen. At the same respect, I don't think swoopy stippling would work well with this since it looks more geometric. I don't know if Dwirling would do it? Just something to give it some texture. Thoughts? I could go side to side/up and down depending on the block but I'll need to quilt the side to side blocks first, then I'd need to take it off the frame and flip to so that I can do the up and down blocks. Not sure how well that would work.

Sew...I have this friend...

I won't name any names, but I've got this friend who will be 32 next month. She's going through life looking for "Mr. Right." There's this guy; we'll call him George, who works in her building. She smiles at George every chance she can get and he smiles back, but he's always walking with the women that he works with so she's yet to strike up a conversation with him. She's been networking to find out more information about him. She found out that he's 27 and she thinks that this is a huge age difference.

I keep trying to tell her that if she were 21 and he was 16 it would be an absurd age difference but at 27 & 32, five years is not that big of a difference. By 27 he's most likley out of college and has quite a few years of living on his own under his belt. It's obvious that he's holding down a job.

I think that she at least has to at least meet him and talk to him to find out more about him before she writes him off. Why live with a "What If?" He might be a very mature 27. I mean heck, she could meet someone who is 32 with the maturity of a 17 year old.

Quilters...what are your thoughts? Does she need a nudge in either direction?

By the way...she dared me to post about this probably thinking I wouldn't do it!!

I'm Screaming it from the Rooftops...

My friend Vera did an awesome job at Dwirling on a quilt she just did for a customer. You've simply GOT to go see it!!!! (Click on her Name) It's freaking AWESOME looking!! Thank you Pajama Quilter for teaching us these wonderful techniques!! I'm going to call myself a groupie. I wish you had a blog or a yahoo group because I'd join for sure!!

I forgot yesterday that I wanted to mention a goofy Newspaper Insert that I found on the kitchen table in our lunch room at work. I grabbed it just so I could blog about it. Here's exactly what it said (Minus the phone number & company name):

Attention: Sewing Machine Owners

$14.95 Special

I have been repairing sewing machines for

30 years and am well qualified to repair any

make or model sewing machine.

I will be in your neighborhood this week

and because of this I will stop by and clean,

oil, and adjust your machine for only $14.95

Call (414) xxx-xxxx

TODAY for this offer.

This is a regular $39.95 value.

XYZ Sewing Machine Service

CALL FOR APPOINTMENT - 24 hours a Day

Ummm, is anyone besides me laughing hysterically? Ok, if you're local - it's not any place that I've ever heard of. It is listed...but that address...well I think it's actually a Midas Muffler Shop. If only it were a legit business, the 24 hours a day thing could save a lot of stressed last minute Christmas sewers. But honestly, come to your house? I don't know, something about this whole thing just doesn't seem quite right for $14.95. Sure, we have repair men come in to fix large appliances but do they even come 24 hours a day unless it's an extreme emergency like a furnace in -30 degree weather? If you had a really large long arm I can see a house call but do you really trust $14.95 worth of work??

Maybe this is a legit company but the way the ad is written...it's not something I'd call about, that's for sure!! If the company is "supposedly" local to begin with, why use the ruse of "I'll be in your neighborhood this week."

I guess I'm too loyal to Frank's Sewing Center to take this any too seriously but it reallllllly made me laugh!!

Life's Not Sew Askew After All...

Mike made a yummy chili tonight for dinner and while we ate we watched CSI. Have I mentioned lately how addicted I've become to watching CSI episodes? The original set in Las Vegas is definitely my favorite followed by New York and well...if nothing better is on I'll watch Miami. Another one of my favorite shows is Crossing Jordan but I think I read that it got cancelled.

Looking back over my blog over the past week I realized how picture poor it has been. Hopefully this will make up for it. I'm typing my blog while listening to my Norah Jones radio station on Pandora. They just suggested Indigo Girls. WOW, I completely forgot about them. This thing ROCKS!!

My ears are askew. I swear the inside of one of my ears is way smaller than the other. My right ear can wear an ear bud like nothing doing. My left ear, it's constantly falling out and driving me nuts.

I spent a few hours tonight working my my Aunt Karen's art quilt, "A Bit Askew." I really thought I'd have a hard time with these strips being all wonky and I'm actually LOVING the process. I could actually see using up my own scraps this way for charity quilts. I bet you never thought you'd hear that come out of MY mouth!! I wouldn't mind making an art quilt for myself. Maybe I'll do a mini for my long cubical wall at work. I think it's going to look really sharp above her fire place.

I'm making 28 blocks set 4x7. I am working on all of the blocks at the same time, but 15 of them were the right size for cutting down and the other 13 still need a few strips attached to each one. I should be able to add those strips and assemble the top tomorrow night. How cool is that?

Here's a few of the blocks before they are cut down:

Here's a picture of what the wall hanging is shaping up to look like so far. I can't stop looking at it on the floor.

I'm beginning to be afraid of quilting this one. What was I thinking? I have problems quilting batiks and this quilt is ALL batiks!! Moron!! I guess I'll just spray it down good with silicone spray and hope for the best. I was thinking of quilting it with monofilament but now I'm not so sure that's too hot of an idea.

I thought I'd post a picture of our new computer area in the living room. For those of you who have been to our house, it's perpendicular to the couch - back where my sewing table used to be. Now we just need to get the big honkin desk out of my sewing room and then I can finish re-organizing my room.

Michelle wanted to see a picture of my cute little iPod. I attempted to take a picture of it in my hand so you could see just how tiny it is. It's not the best shot but it works. When I had seen them online when I was doing research, I knew by the dimensions that it was small, but WOW seeing it in person I was just floored at it's size. Now, if anyone wants to start a pool on when the first time I misplace it and how long it takes me to find it again; I won't be offended because honestly it's just a matter of time!!

Actually, I just held the ipod up to this picture and the above picture is it's actual size. How funny is that?

I guess things are a bit askew after all. I noticed earlier that my pink ipod and my pink blue tooth headset for my cell phone are two totally different pinks. Yeah I know, if that's the worst thing I've got going on, I'm doing pretty good. LOL. No, really it's just something silly I noticed and said out loud just to get an eye roll out of Mike.

You may or may not have noticed, but my Blogoversary is coming up, as is my 600th post. I should hit both around the same time. To celebrate, start watching for contests and giveaways! You never know when one might pop up!

Migraine Monday

Blech, I stayed home from work today; another Migraine hit. When I was dealing with my horrible migraines 2-1/2 years ago I remember hearing the term "Cluster" where you may get a bunch of them in a row but it really isn't one long migraine. I have a feeling I'm in a pattern like that again. No Thanks...let's stop this before it really gets started. I've learned to deal with migraines here and there...but days in a row are horrible. I slept until 11:30 and then got yelled at for not calling Mike to let him know that I stayed home. I'm honestly surprised that I remembered to call my boss. I was in bad shape.

When Mike got home from work he moved the computer out into the living room in preparation for the guy from Circuit City's Fire Dog to come and set up our wireless Internet. He was here over an hour and a half. Yeah, I admit defeat, I would never have been able to get it done. Our keyboard and mouse were shot so Mike ran out to Target to get new wireless ones. They're really nice. I'm soooo glad the Internet is now up and running.

While the guy was here I got the fabric for AK's quilt cut. I doubt I'll start it tonight because my sewing room is all messed up. One of these days we'll be able to get the old computer desk out of my sewing room, then we can move the frame to the opposite wall and I can finish putting my room together the way I want. But, in the mean time I'm hoping to get AK's quilt done this week.

The guy from Fire Dog also told us about an online Radio service called Pandora. It's free and you can type in an artist that you like and then it will play the songs from that artist while inter-mingling other songs that it thinks you may like based on some of the music that you've chosen. I really like it so far. I haven't heard a song that I didn't like yet. For example, if I type in Norah Jones, it will play other artists that sound like her.

I finished burning all of our Napster purchases to cd-roms, and only have one left to rip onto my laptop. I also used our external hard drive to copy all the music from our desktop computer onto my laptop so that I can go further with setting up my iPod.

I was watching a Fons & Porter episode and learned something new that I wanted to share. If you're doing applique where you sew your piece to interfacing, cut around the piece, and turn it to iron it down before appliqueing it, instead of using a straight scissors to cut around it, use a pinking shears so that all your slits are already made on the curves so it will turn more smoothly.

That's my night. Now I'm taking it easy in hopes that I don't have another migraine tomorrow.

Aunt Karen's Art Quilt

Today my Mom, Grandma, Aunt Karen and I went to the Patched Works to search for fabric and a pattern for an Art Quilt that Karen would like for above her Fire Place. We pulled batik's to match the colors in her living room; blue in a rug, tan in the rug and walls, brown in the furniture and red/black in some of the furnishings.

The pattern that she chose is "A Bit Askew" by Blue Underground.

Now I'll work on getting it cut and sewn this week. AK goes back to Arizona on Sunday. If at all possible I'd like to send this back with her so that we don't have to ship it only a few days later. It should go together really quickly but in the mean time I'm going to have to wait to quilt Moneik's quilts. If I can stay focused this week, hopefully I can get all three done.

After the fabric store we went to see my Uncle Bob. Last month he was in a pretty bad car accident so he's currently in a rehab facility and just had a hip surgery. He's not going to be able to put any weight on it for about 3 months.

I've been working on restoring the music that I managed to delete when I had my migraine and burning our Napster purchases onto CD-rom's. One thing I've learned...always make a back up cd of the songs you purchase. Even though we've purchased them I've found about 30 songs that the copywrite holders have pulled and we can no longer record them. Lesson learned, that's for sure!

This morning I spent a good amount of time playing with my new I-Pod. Filling it, organizing it, things like that. I'm LOVIN' it. I even subscribed to a few pod-casts. I headed over to my Dad's to shorten a few pairs of pants. We talked about iPod's for a while and I actually learned a few things from him. I also borrowed the book that I bought him a few years back about iPods. I came home and I got hit with THE WORST migraine that I've had in a long time. I was also messing around with settings in i-Tunes and realized all of my music was funneling into a photo's folder. I tried to move it and had no luck. In my migraine state I managed to delete all my music. At that point I went to lay down...it was 5pm.

I was supposed to go out with my friend Ruth, and I slept right through it. I woke up around 10:30. I still felt pretty nauceous but I decided since my music was gone off my laptop I might as well work on putting the new CD-RW drive in the computer so that I could burn all of my Napster Music onto CD's through the desk top and then rip them back onto the laptop through i-Tunes. Well...our computer didn't like that drive so I decided to get industrious. I took apart the original CD-RW drive. Yes...took it completely apart one layer at a time. I figured I didn't have anything to lose, it already was broken. I had managed to get a label stuck inside. It peeled off of a cd-rom. I found the label, put the drive back together, still have a few screws laying around but it's back in and it DOES work!! Wahooo. I might not be able to install wireless internet but I can handle ripping apart a cd-rom drive!!

Man Oh Man, I've always known to vacuum the backside of a computer because of the fan BUT holy crap, the front of the system came off when I needed to pull the cd-rom drive out. EWWWW, you wouldn't believe what came out of there. It was freaking nasty. I never would have thought to open the front of the computer to clean it.

It was 3:30 am by this point so it was time for bed.

Fabulous Friday!

I'm quickly posting this before I get thrown off the internet!!

As if it's not bad enough to have internet problems, I also have MP3 problems. A few years ago when I started out with an MP3 player, I bought a god awful Phillips Player. It was a nightmare of an experience, I could never get it to work quite right with my computer. In the end we gave up and Mike and I each got Dell DJ's; I picked up a 5GB and Mike picked up a 20GB. They were fabulous. Mike and I both LOVED them. Unfortunately they were unable to compete with iPod's so Dell stopped making them. Mike's model sold far more players so Dell has kept up with the bios files. Mine wasn't so lucky. When MusicMatch player got absorbed by Yahoo Music, Mike's was compatible, mine was not. I could no longer add or remove music. When I got my laptop, my laptop is Vista instead of XP and that surely isn't compatible. I also have a smaller 512MB Dell Ditty that I use specifically for downloading audio books from the library. I LOVE listening to music. I've been really sad that I can't add or remove music to my player. I've been stuck in time so it was time to start checking out my options.

We've been buying music all along through Napster so Mike and I were reluctant to switch over to Ipod. But now, since I've had two bad MP3 player experiences, I wanted to make sure I went with a brand that was going to keep being supported. I went with a pink 8GB iPod Nano. Of course, now I have to burn all of my purchased music to cd's and then rip them back into iTunes. I'll have to come up with a system for doing this. Gack...it's going to take a while.

While we were at Circuit City we also made an appointment with FireDog for Monday. It will be worth it for them to come and install our wireless internet. I just can't take the frustration of it. This is the first time I'm ever admitting defeat on a computer application.

At 11:00PM my mom and I went to the Air Port to pick up my Aunt Karen. She's staying with my Grandma for the week since my Aunt Kitty is going on vacation. This next week we'll be busy, she wants to make aprons and we're going to pick out fabric for an art piece that she wants to hang above her fireplace. She also started talking about maybe a quilt for her guest room. We'll see what we can all get accomplished this week!!

Audio Books

Internet Access at home is still Hit or Miss. So if I seem to disappear, don't worry about me...too much. =)

I realize that audio books are a convenience, but why are they SOOOO expensive when that has to be a much cheaper media than printing the books? Especially when you want to download one?

You buy a paper back book in the store for $6 to $12. I read it, my Mom reads it, most likely it gets passed to a few more people before we call it "done." A downloadable audio book...$22 bucks! Now, if you do this through iTunes, they know you can't share it.

Now, I can see if you're purchasing it at the store. Most books are 6+ discs. Harry Potter books; some of those are 17+ discs. There's a lot of packaging, a lot of shelf space. But we're talking about digital media here.

I do get a lot of audio books through the Wisconsin Library Consortium which are free and downloadable for 7 days. But honestly...how can a person like me get through an audio book that quick? And of course, they don't have the best selection.

Seriously though, why are downloadable audio books sooo expensive? There's no overhead there.

Anyone have a clue?

Internet Access

I was so excited when I got home, Moneik's quilt tops arrived along with a Willow Tree figure that she had stashed in there for me. I was sooooo thrilled! I've always wanted a Willow Tree and neither Mike or my Mom have ever picked up on that. I've even pointed out the one I wanted. Giggle...Moneik picked up on that all the way from South Dakota!! I love her! So here she is, the Angel of Friendship (Can you see me smiling from ear to ear?):







So, I never ended up setting up my wireless internet. I had so many problems with it in the beginning, it was just too confusing for me so I continued to use my neighbors. All of a sudden last night I couldn't find anyone's to get onto. Again I tried to set up our wireless. OMG, I cannot get this stupid router to work to even TRY to set the wireless up. It's driving me mad. Between that and the fact that Mike hasn't run any scans or diagnostics or defrags on the computer since I stopped using it in December...hello people, you've got to maintain a computer, not just leave it to it's own devices. So if you hear less from me for the next few days, that is why. You think I'd spend that time quilting instead right??



NOT!



I tried last night. I got my machine on my frame, wound the bobbins for Moneik's quilts, put the machine on top of the new carriage. O-M-G, ummm, where are my cords supposed to go? I feel like I need a curtain rod on the ceiling so that they can move back and forth. If I leave them down there will be lots of drag. Where is my light supposed to clip on? Where in the world is my speed control box supposed to attach? I knew it was going to be a little higher, but come on, if I adjust the rollers, my middle roller is just about going to touch my handles. Plus, right out of the box my grips were way damaged. I contacted the company I bought it from since they are the only one selling this upgrade; they told me to contact The Grace Company. Ok, wait, hold up here...isn't that why I ordered it from you in the first place? Had I known I could go directly through Grace for it, I would have. Had I known someone else sold it, I would have gotten it through my dealer instead.


So I was beyond frustrated. I think I just need a fresh approach tonight. I'm going to remove the rubber grips since they're FUBAR anyway and just put that medical wrap stuff on like I had on my other one. Now, if only I can find that stuff in Pink instead of Purple, I could be truely happy!! But I'll stick with the purple if need be because it will match Moneik's quilts! =) With the medical wrap, I should have no problems attaching my speed control. If I put some around the area I want to attach my lamp, that should work too.

Then in the midst of all of this, Mike wants me to go outside to look at the moon. You know what? It's -5, colder with windchill and it looks the same as the last time.



Yep, it was 9:30 and I went to bed. It was easier than staying awake and being mad.

Politics - Get out to Vote!

Today is our primary in Wisconsin so I urge you all...GO VOTE!!

That being said, I really HATE discussing politics. I avoid it at all costs. My Dad can go on and on and on and well, ON. I grew up with it so I know when to tune it out, smile and nod. My husband...can also go on about politics. Yeah...keeping them out of the same room or making them promise not to discuss it...because I HATE listening to it especially when they're on different ends of the spectrum belief wise. I won't even debate my husband on politics. Typically we just vote, cancel each other out and go on with life.

I just had a customer call in today and instead of the typically banter on the weather the question was, Who are you voting for? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That's like asking the balance in my checking account. I don't KNOW you, do you really think I want to get into a political discussion with you? NO!!

But, we do have a good tradition. As a kid we voted as a family. Even before I was old enough to vote, I still went along for the process. Now, Mom is in our same district so the three of us always go together to vote and then go out for dinner.

Ramblings

What does one do with a 66" Square Quilt (Moda U Sampler) once it's quilted? It's too big to be a wallhanging on one of my walls, it's too small to play nice on the couch since I've got to have longer quilts so I don't have to fight as much with the dog. I'd make it into a shower curtain but I'm thinking...that would be one heavy shower curtain. Then I was thinking, I could make it into a curtain for my closet in my sewing room. Mike took out the sliding doors because I lose my balance a LOT and one day while I was quilting on my frame I lost my balance and fell into the doors, popping them off the track. Now the track will need to be replaced but since I continue to fall into them we decided it was better to remove them. I figured I could make a curtain since the only things in my closet are quilting related. Would this quilt be to heavy for that? I was thinking more like two pieces so that they could be pulled back like curtains when I'm going in and out. This is one piece. Sigh. Ideas? Giving it away is OUT because I LOVE it. So don't even suggest that!!

Why does my husband admit that he won't fart in his new truck because he doesn't want it to smell but is more than happy to fart on our new mattress? Anyone want to touch this statement? Sure, I could have said "pass gas" to be nice but I needed to give it more punch.

I pulled out the electric knife tonight to cut pieces off our old memory foam mattress topper. You should have seen the look on Mike's face. Why aren't you just using the scisssors? Huh, apparantly he's never seen it done. It would have never occured to me to just bring out the scissors for foam!! Whiz Bang and I was done. I cut two pieces, the rest will go to my Mom for Murphy. She now has a 4 inch mattress in her kennel. I pulled out my fleece remnants and basically just sewed enough together until I had a large enough pouch to insert the memory foam in. She also had a cheapie bed that hangs out in the living room. She moves it around a lot on her own which is a hazard to Mike and I. It's just filled with fiberfill so if you step on it in the middle of the night you go sliding. I pulled that out, inserted a 4 inch wedge of memory foam. Then in the center of that since it was doubled over I put bits and pieces of fleece to make it lumpy for her. She seems to like both so far. Eventually I'll make her a pretty cover. I'm actually just thinking of fleece and tie the edges. I HATE the ugly cover that is on right now. Then it can be cut off and tossed if necessary.

I was going to sew tonight but that notion left me while Mike was in the sewing room playing online poker so I sat on my arse browsing through quilting magazines instead.

Yeah!!! My Moda-U Postcard Quilt is ready to be quilted!!

Well, by this time tomorrow night I should have this baby quilted. Oh wait...I maybe need a day or two to decide what color thread I want to use and if I'm going to do an overall stipple or attempt something else? I don't know, what do you guys think? If it's not going to be stippled, then I'll probably wait a while to finish it becuase I'm going to need some serious practice time on doing other things!

I'm thinking possibly a light pink thread for the quilting? Or should I go with a light green?

I will say, I LOVE how the piano key border turned out!!!! That's the first time I've ever done one of those and I prepared just enough to cover all four borders. Then of course Mike was already in bed and I begged him to get out and be my quilt holder!! Thanks Honey!!

So, the ladies on Saturday were joking around that by Sunday Night I'd have it quilted and completed. It's not completely done, but it is pretty close!!!

Sewing Away on a Sunday

You probably all are thinking that I fell off the face of the earth. Really, I haven't. I just haven't had time lately to comment on everyone's blogs. I'm hoping to get to that later tonight.

I've spent most of my day today working on my Moda-U block of the month quilt. I realized that one of my blocks was the complete wrong size. I think it was off by a good 1/2 inch. I'm pretty sure I mis-printed my Triangulations paper when I made the 1/4 square triangles. It's ok because I didn't like the colors in the block to begin with. This is my new block number 7.


Here's the old.

The green was just much too overpowering in the original. I like it a lot better with the lighter green.

Here's my top all assembled. Now it only needs borders.

It's getting a piano key border but I thought it needed a little punch before that got added so I put a narrow burgundy border on.


Now I'll cut my binding. Then I'll take all of the leftovers and start sewing together the piano key border. I think it's going to look really nice once it's all together. Hopefully I'll have another picture to show before the end of the night.

Block of the Month at Bits & Pieces

This morning Mom and I went to our Block of the Month at Bits and Pieces. We were supposed to be starting our new quilt but the patterns haven't come into the shop yet so we'll start next month instead. So, we hung out at the shop. I took my little machine along and my rulers and such so I could make my last block and then cut up my finishing kit.

My last block turned out rather nicely. It will be dead center in the quilt.

For the finishing kit, there's 12 square in a square blocks and 12 flying geese blocks. I got them cut, the lines drawn for sewing and pinned. Then I just packed up and hung out. We had SUCH a great time. Kelly was in just a hilarious mood, we laughed non stop for almost 4 hours.


I decided to pick up the Happy Hour book by Atkinson Designs that Moneik was talking about earlier in the week. I can't wait to make a few of these patterns.

Mike went to the vet to pick up Murphy's food and my mom was feeling guilty that he had to do that for her. As a joke I just said, "He doesn't mind, at this point he's just happy that you're not coming to live with us (Regarding the three mini strokes that they originally thought she had had). Seriously, I've never laughed so hard!


When we left we were going to stop at Jo-Ann's because it's been a while since we've been in there. The parking lot was completely packed, we couldn't even find a spot in the lot so we left. We headed over to Patched Works so that I could pick up the March/April issue of Quilter's Home. Then it was time for lunch so I asked my mom what she wanted. Her standard weekend response is, "I don't know" which is actually similar to my typical response about food; you can tell we're related. To get an answer I told her we were going to Noodles and Company which she's really not fond of. She needed to get new ink cartridges for her printer so we were going to hit Walmart. Again, the parking lot was packed and there was not a spot to be found so we took off. What was everyone doing out? Freaking out about the storm that we may or may not get tomorrow?


When I got home I made my first pass through Quilter's Home. I immediately flipped through to find Moneik's comment and there it was on page 7. I thought the article on Miss Pronunciation was fun. Too bad they didn't list Gingham which seems to get mispronounced more often than not! I really enjoyed the article, "Is it time to divorce your guild?" I don't belong to a guild but I am a part of a few Yahoo groups and there are times you just have to say enough is enough and unsubscribe. The Spring Arrivals; more fabric is always fun to look at. I already have a few of those pieces in my stash. The Rosie the Quilter line by Andover I already own a few pieces of....AND a sweatshirt. I LOVE Rosie!!! I really, really love the Bahama Breeze pattern on page 84. It really looks like something that I would enjoy making. Sigh, just another project to thow on my pile!!

Mike, my mom and I went out for dinner and when we got back I started working on my square in a square blocks so I could begin assembling my quilt.

Of course, we were laughing so hard while we were at Bits & Pieces earlier that I miscut some of my sage squares. I decided to piece the remaining ones together and guess what, you can barely tell AND, once it gets in the quilt and it's quilted no one will see it unless I point it out!! My pencil is pointing to my seam.

Mike also assembled my new carriage for on my Gracie Frame today. I can't wait to try it out but I have to finish something up first. If I can get my Moda-U quilt done, otherwise on Tuesday Moneik's quilt tops will arrive and I can get those quilted. It already seems so much smoother of a ride!!

The couch is obsolete

I've been home now for 45 minutes. This mattress is the bomb!! I got a memory foam pillow; an actual pillow shaped one; Mike got the u shaped one. I've been using the u-shaped type for years so I wanted to try something new. Anyway, I'm able to sit up in bed, against the head board with my single pillow behind me and I'm really freaking comfortable. I may never leave the bedroom again except to quilt. I'm so enamored by this mattress that I haven't even opened the box to my new No-Flex carriage for my Gracie Frame yet.

I think there should be memory foam couches.

I tried to take a nap and I'm wide awake. I can always take a nap; except for today! On the other hand, it is MUCH taller than our old mattress. We'll have to keep an eye on Holly. If she struggles too much, then we'll just have to modify our frame or get her stairs.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Today when I got to work there was a My Little Pony valentine on my desk from Nikki. How fun is that? It really took me back to when I was in grade school when you would tape the brown paper lunch bag to the side of your desk to collect your Valentine's.

Mike and I have this long standing joke about the "Burning Ring of Fire." My card from him was a singing card that playing. We went to dinner at our local "joint" Hawg City.

We discussed that maybe when we got our Economic Stimulus check this spring that we should buy a new mattress for our bed. We went to look and well, we're early; it comes tomorrow!! We got in on one of those no financing for 15 months deals so we'll just bust it up into like 12 payments and put that entire check towards it once we get it. We had discussed getting a new mattress from time to time; it's been 9 years and I think ours has been uncomfortable for about 8 years! We bought a pretty inexpensive one at the time and it SUCKS!! We've had two of those different memory foam toppers on it, they slide around and it's just not good. I spend half my life sleeping on what I think is my side of the bed and I'm actually half off the bed. Mike spends half of his time only on half the topper and half of the crappy mattress. The only one really comfortable is Miss Holly. We've both got bad backs so it was time to make a change.

It really cracks me up how we went in, decided and were out in about 30 minutes. Same with Mike's truck. We were in and out. Yet, on the $35 purchase of a new bed skirt I had us hit 3 different stores and about an hour with me complaining about alot of the skirts costing more than my Kohl's sheet sets!! Then again, if I went to buy a set of sheets now, my teeth would probably fall out from shock. I think I've only ever purchased one set and that was for my twin sized blow up bed. The rest were wedding gifts, flannel ones for Christmas gifts, came with bed in a bag type sets.

Any-who, we splurged. We're getting an honest to goodness Tempurpedic Memory Foam mattress. It's even coming with Memory Foam Pillows. That will be new to Mike but I've had that type of pillow for years now. Our biggest drama at the moment is the fact that someone we live with is getting older and this set up will be 3 inches taller than the current bed. I hope my old girl has some ups left otherwise we'll be getting her stairs. (Which we all know I'll end up running into every morning - maybe I should sleep with shoes on!!)

Back to the Bed skirt...it's off white and it's stippled!!!!! How PERFECT is that? I gotta say, my stippling is better and theirs is probably computerized.

I do have plans for our memory foam toppers that are on our old bed. First things first, I know two doggies with old bones that would LOVE to have them in the bottom of their kennels. We'll cut up a few pieces so that when they start to smell, out they go. I figure I can cover Holly's in fleece. Not sure if we'll do Murphy's in fleece or something piddle proof. The poor man has accidents from time to time because of his diabetes. Needless to say, he'll probably get the most of the memory foam, I'll just keep a couple pieces for Holly.

Here it's Thursday and I really haven't spent any time quilting this week. =( Tomorrow my no-flex carriage is coming too. So I can get that put together.

Above all, I can't wait for bedtime tomorrow night!! Oh, and when it comes, we're supposed to jump on the bed to wake up the memory cells. We'll be three little monkey's jumping on the bed....one fell off and hit her head (that will be me)... Anyone else remember that nursery rhyme?

A Side of the Itchies

Honest to god, how far can this Nut allergy of mine go???!?!?!?! Just put me in a frigging bubble and be done with it.

Oatmeal cookie, two columns away from a peanut butter cookie.

Not at all safe. I itch. Hands, thoat, face, scalp.

Happy Valentine's Day. May you not get a case of the itchies.

!!!!!

You Are An Exclamation Point

You are a bundle of... well, something. You're often a bundle of joy, passion, or drama. You're loud, brash, and outgoing. If you think it, you say it. Definitely not the quiet type, you really don't keep a lot to yourself. You're lively and inspiring. People love to be around your energy. (But they do secretly worry that you'll spill their secrets without even realizing it.) You excel in: Public speaking You get along best with: the Dash

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

You know what's funny about this? I DO over use the exclaimation point. I've actually been waiting for Diane to call me out on the carpet about it. Between that and my constant use of elipseses I must be driving her completely mad!!

Wowzers!!

It's always fun to read about blogging post milestones. My dear friend Jill just had her 200th post and is having a give away on her blog so go check it out. She's also been receiving donations for a quilt retreat at the end of April. The retreat benefits St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. There are still plenty of openings so please, please, please if you are in the general area sign up for this fantastic retreat. I'm going and I just can't wait!!

Some days I'm just not that bright...

This will be a boring post without any pictures. Gosh, isn't that exciting? NOT!!

This morning as I was leaving for work I couldn't find my shoes. I always leave them at the top of the stairs because they're wet when I come in the door. I ended up wearing a pair of my Mary Jane crocs instead. It's -1 out, but it's for one day, no biggie I rationalize.

At lunchtime I was torn. I didn't have a lunch. Go across the street to McDonalds and take the easy way out or since I'm out anyway just go to Walmart and pick up lunches for the week. I decided the responsible thing was to go to Walmart. Those Mary Janes? They've got holes. Walmart Parking Lot was slushy, dirty and very wet. My feet? Soaked! Freezing! In addition to the lunches I bought new socks. My shoes are plastic I rationalized, I can dry them off with the dry part of said wet socks. ONLY MY SOCKS WERE DRESS SOCKS AND NOT EXACTLY ABSORBANT. Sigh. Giggle. Shake my head at myself. Good thing I bought a 5 pack.

While I was there, I did get another rolling cart from Walmart. They have these wide 3 drawer models for $15. I bought one last week figuring it would be perfect under my frame. I discovered it would also be a good height to be under my cutting table. I decided I would put my stash in my two rolling carts. I should have taken a picture. In fact, I still might. I'm really stash poor. Which is a good thing. But the stash I do have is quite amusing. It's either by project or fun stuff for pillow cases. It's not exactly a stash one can pull from to start anything!
I do have a lot of fabrics that will work well for Miranda Day Bags which is fabulous because my class is coming up next month and I should have a few bags in different stages of togetherness.

I recieved my box from Bayside Quilting in the mail. I actually bought myself a Quilting Sweatshirt. I guess I've officially gone over to the dark side. It's red and says Bayside Quilting on the front. But on the back....it's got ROSIE THE QUILTER!! I just love her. I think she's freaking adorable!! While I was at it, I bought myself some of the Pink Rosie the Quilter fabrics that I will make into a Miranda-Ish big bag. I've been looking for the right kind of bag to transport quilts in when I take them for show and tell. Backpacks are difficult because they get narrow at the top. I think what I have in mind will fit the bill.

I got my sewing room sorted out a bit, had Mike move my thread holder from the door in my old sewing area to the door in my sewing room. I still need to put all the thread that I've been using back in it. I've accumulated a box full. Pull this spool for this project, maybe this, this and that for another project. Nope, wrong color. You know it goes! Next thing you know 20 spools are hanging out in your sewing area.

I got to sew for a bit. I made it a half hour on my charm pack challenge. I've got to change to a different foot because my accufeed foot is just way to large for a project this small. I also was sewing my blocks together for my Eclipse quilt.

Hopefully tomorrow I can start to dig out my cutting table which is truely a mess. Somewhere beneath all the cutting table rubble is Maureen's Miranda Bag that I still need to finish up. It's time to unearth it and get to work.

Oh, my shoes...were right there in the bedroom. When I rushed home on Friday night after work I went directly in there to change and headed back out again wearing my comfy weekend shoes. At least my toes will be fine tomorrow!!

Dwirling like a Whirling Dervish

Yea!! I just finished Dwirling on a fleece blanket for Holly. It was one of those pre-cut jobbies from Jo-Ann's. Yeah...my two pieces wern't exactly the same size!! Oh well, just for the fur kid so I made do. This was my first try at dwirling and I really had a lot of fun. However, in the fleece you can't see how big my stitches are, if it was on an actual quilt, I'd probably have a hard time keeping them all small enough because it goes so quickly. I was just zooming back and forth. I used sewfine in the top and bottom line in the bottom. Only one thread break. That combo is a keeper, that's for sure.

Yikes! When it's on the floor it's a lot more square than the picture looks! I think it's all the way it's tied; Mike and I were working from two different ends (It's for Holly...he'll do anything for Holly). =)

I can't wait to Dwirl again soon!!