Busy Week

It sure seems weird that today is Oct 1st.  It just seems time flies so I must be having fun.  This week has been busy busy busy.  Thursday and Friday were sinus headache days but we did get the new door and Billl got it up and is working on the trim.  Saturday, we met our friends George and Evie for breakfast and then putzed around at the flea market.  I bought some tomatoes and a silver ankle chain.  The vender did give me a small trinket.  I stood there and matched all this earrings that were just in a big pile.  I found a little flower with stones in it that I thought would look great on something.   It was about a half inch in size.  Don't know what it came off of but I liked the little stones.  I told him I wanted it for no more than .50 cents.  He said oh I am going to give that to you.  It was a good deal for him since Evie bought a couple of pairs of the earrings I matched.

Sunday I went to the quilt show in Asheville with 3 other ladies.  It was a nice show and I did not buy much, so easy on the pocket book.  I worked on a quilt that I had started last time I was here in the evening.   I did not realize how tired I was until I got home and sat down...Then it hit me.  It was a very nice show and I saw some really lovely quilts.  I saw the lady Ann Holmes who taught the class the last time I went to the Tacoa retreat.  She has a new book out and I bought her book.  She has a very unique way of building her quilts.  She does not sew anything until the quilt is ready to quilt.  Very nice lady.

We changed cable companies and the installer came today.  I went to town and found Bella's dogfood and then went to one of the many thrift stores and bought a small decorative bowl for a dollar.  I saw some "yard art"  that I would like to make for my flower beds.  We shall see what comes of that.  I also finished the quilt top I had been working on from last time.  I really like it.  I took a picture, but I think I will wait until I can get a shot in the light before I post it.

It has rained here all day which made it nice for me to sew.  I don't think the TV guy thought it was nice since he was setting a new satellite and burying cable in the rain.  I felt bad for him, but he said he was used to it.  It is supposed to rain again tomorrow.  The rest of the week will be busy also.  I have Tuesday techniques tomorrow and then lunch with my friends that are here which is always nice.  Wednesday, I am going thrift store shopping with my friend Pam and Thursday, I have a class at the quilt store.  Friday, we leave for my Dad's and Bill is picking up my sister at the airport on Thursday and she is going with us.  I will have plenty of time to "rest" there because there is nothing else to do.  Well, watch for the picture of my quilt top.  Tomorrow, I dig in my box and see what I want to finish next...hopefully, before I see something at Tuesday Techniques that I want to start.  Til we meet again...

A Day Older...a Dollar short

We have been home a week today.  I have celebrated the birthday that allows me to not be a dollar short or I hope not.  It is funny, I don't feel so compelled to blog at home as I do in NC.  It just seems I have so much more going on here.  I had lunch on Wed with some very good friends.  I would have loved for my very special friend to have been available, but she could not make it.  Her birthday is tomorrow and I hope to get to see her.  We shall see.  My yard is full of weeds  that have not been pulled and my house is a mess. Oh well, could be worse.

My orchids are blooming and beautiful.  I will take a picture as soon as a few more open.  They are wonderful.  Hopefully, they will last a long time.  I bought 2 more today, just could not help it.  Not much to say except it is hot.  Until we meet again.....

To Atlanta and then the road back to Grandma's...

We took Jason to the airport today...was not near as much fun as 5 hours in the car fabric shopping.  Today,  Emily sewed the rest of her squares together and finished the main part of her quilt.  She is such a little smarty.  If she continues to sew, she will pass me and Lisa in a few years.  She was already drawing her next quilt before the evening was over.  She is so proud of herself and I am too.  We are going to Tuesday Technique and she is going to show her quilt tomorrow.  She still has to put borders on it, quilt it and bind it..

I worked on the polka dot quilt and Lisa started a new quilt.  I got the outside corners of my yellow, blue and teals sewed on.  I should have some new pictures to share soon.  Until we meet again...

Shop Hop finished...on to sewing

We finished the last shop on Friday in Waynesville and then headed to Asheville to pick up Lisa's winnings.  It was actually a nice selection of sewing and quilting stuff.  She had 12 fat quarters, 3 magazines, 3 patterns, 5 spools of thread, and a few other small notions that I cannot remember.  She was happy and considering it was probably well over $100 in quilting stuff, it was worth the drive back up.  We did a family day and we all went.  Bill nor Austin was especially happy with the family outing but Jason seemed to manage it fine.  He drove and got a haircut while we were in one of the shops.

Emily got to pick out fat quarters every time she went to one of the stores with us so she was happy.  We came home and she wanted to make a quilt.  I cut some of her fabrics into squares and then we decided she could go through more of my fabrics and pick enough to make a quilt.  She is a little buggar.  I was afraid to pull out any of my favorite fabrics because she was eyeing some I was not ready to cut.  We finally gathered enough squares and Lisa cut them for her and we helped her arrange them into a quilt.  This afternoon, I gave her a little lesson on the featherweight and she started sewing.  She did not want to go to dinner so I stayed home with her and we continued to sew.  She caught on pretty quick and she got all her blocks sewn into rows.  I pinned and pressed for her.  She did look so cute sitting at the sewing machine.

 Lisa and I worked on our new candy cane table topper in between pinning and pressing for Emily.  We got the blocks sewed together and the two rows sewed.  Just have to put the stripping between the rows and the borders on and the top of it will be finished.  We probably won't quilt it until we get home.  It is cute.  You can make it double sided and put a Christmas tree setting on the back side.  Don't know if we will get to the Christmas tree part.  I think we both are going to just put a backing on it and make the Christmas tree topper later.  I will post a picture when we get the top completed.

Tomorrow will be a quieter day and I suspect I will be helping Miss Emily finish her quilt top.  Until we meet again...

Laundry...bathroom cleaning...putzing

The kids went rafting today which made the house really quiet...except for the washer and dryer running.  I showered, washed four loads of clothes, scrubbed the sink, toilet, shower and shower curtain.  Then I did play with in my scraps a little this afternoon.  I am trying to figure out how to sew triangles into the border of an X quilt that I am working on and hope to finish.  I am adding a floating triangle in the border and had to really tax my mind to figure out how to get everything to fit.  I have not tried it yet but will soon.  I am also trying to get more of my scraps cut into strips and sewed into blocks.   My smallest block is finished at 1/2 inch.  This makes a 4 patch 1 inch by 1 inch.  Don't know what I will do with them but I like them.  It is fun sewing.  Who knows, I might just start doing miniature quilts.

I should be working on my polka quilt but was just not in the mood.  My great nephew had surgery today to remove head gear which moved his mid face out.  It has been a long haul for him.  Now, he can get back to a normal life of playing and riding his bicycle after they fly home from Dallas tomorrow.  He has a lot of swelling but everything went well.

We are going to the last Quilt Shop on the NC Shop Hop tomorrow.  It will be a trip to Waynesville and then on to Asheville to pick up a prize Lisa won on Monday.  Hopefully it will be worth the miles to pick it up.  I am holding out for one of the sewing machines they are giving away or one of the baskets of fabrics and patterns that each of the 14 shops were giving away.  Oh well, if I win it will certainly be a first.  Waynesville quilt shop is the last shop and we are making it a family day.  Bill and Jason are just sooooo excited to go.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTT. hehehe!

It was nice this afternoon and we sat on the deck and watched the birds...quiet and peaceful.  Our time will be ending soon so it was nice to have a couple of evenings that it has been cool enough to enjoy the deck.  Not much to share today.  Until we meet again...

Shop Hopping along...

Monday, Lisa and I went on a quilt "shop hop".  We hit 5 quilt stores across NC and one in SC in one day.  It was pushing to go to that many.  We hit the local shops today and tomorrow we will try to pick up 6 more shops mostly in SC.  The farthest is 2hrs and 40 minutes.  There are 14 shops in all.  Each shop designs a block and a quilt from blocks from all the shops.  They sell their block and you get a block at each store.  Here is the quilt Lisa and I will probably make with our blocks.  It was designed by one of the local shops, A Stitch in Time.  The picture is at an angle to get the best color.  The actual colors are much brighter.

The quilts in each shop are all very pretty and if you want to see them, go to NC shop hop 2012.  None of the pictures do the quilts justice, but they are all much brighter.

We bought a magazine with a pattern for a candy corn table topper and decided to make it while Lisa is here.  We picked up the background fabric today and then spent a good hour going through all my scraps and fabrics here to make the candy corn.  We needed 12 oranges, 12 yellows and white.  Guess we will buy 2 more yellow pieces tomorrow.


As we looked through all my scrap bins of fabric, Miss Emily was shopping for pieces she liked.  Tonight, she laid all those scraps out and said she was going to work on her a new quilt.  It was cute how she laid all those different size pieces out to fit together.  She did a good job finding a hole to put the fabrics in to sew together.  Lisa and I both suggested she let one of us cut the pieces into squares and then sew them together...she finally agreed.  

Lisa won the daily prize at the Asheville quilt shop on Monday and we will need to go back to pick up her prize, maybe next week.  They told her it was fat quarters and magazines so that is fine with her.  We have Waynesville and the other 6 other shops in SC.  It will be a busy day tomorrow...but fun.  


Gotta go to bed so I am not tired for all that fabric "eye candy" tomorrow.  Until we meet again....

My new stove...whoopeeeeee

I know it might seem odd to be so excited about a new stove but I am.  It isn't even a top of the line.  It is self cleaning.  Let me explain.  When we bought this place, there was an old stove in here that was majorly disgusting.  The grease was thick and the whole thing could be described as just "yuck".  We had gone way over budget within the first 2-3 weeks in the remodeling so Bill told me to live with this stove.

It took me about 2 days to clean it where I could stand to turn that ugly baby on to even think about cooking.  Well, I could have lived with it till it died if it had not been for those crooked burners.  They were bad.  This ole stove never new the meaning of level.  Don't know if you realize this but when you have a pan sitting on a crooked burner nothing cooks like it should.  One side burns because all the juices run to the other side.  If it is a big pan, only part of the pan sits on the burner and the other half of the pan is sort of on the burner and stove.  I fussed constantly and absolutely hated to cook anything on it.  Well, 2 weeks ago, we went to Lowe's and ordered a new stove and they delivered it Saturday morning.  It is just a plain ole flat top stove.  I did insist on self cleaning and the flat top.  Nothing else is fancy but guess what?  I can put a pan on it and it is level and cooks evenly.  The oven light works and the bottom is not all rusty and the glass in the door is not all yuckey.  It is beautiful.  Well that is my big news today.

Evie and I cut fabric for the outside edges (corners) of the polka dot quilt yesterday after the stove was delivered.  So now to just sew up all those squares...only 9 but so many little pieces.  I have the first block done and I hate the white corner.  Don't know if I will take it off and replace it or not.  Just don't like it.  Here are pictures of the first square.  I don't like the white with brown and pink dots.  I was limited to the fabrics that I brought with me for the corner pieces.  I bought a few more pieces and Lisa brought me some additional dotted fabric for the borders.  Each square will be a different color in the corners, pink, green, yellow, orange, red, blue, teal, purple and maybe white.  Have not decided on the white yet.

I hung our hummingbird feeders out yesterday and within 30 minutes, a little bird was getting a refreshing drink.  They are wonderful to just watch them flutter around the feeders.  There seems to be a couple of birds that are very tiny.  I think they are babies.

Jason and Lisa and the kids arrived today.  It was good to see them all.  I do miss them when we are here.  Austin and Emily got their bug catchers out of the basement and headed out to catch bugs.  Yes, they have to bring them in to show the catches...yuck.  We saw bats right at dusk and of course there were lots of lightning bugs that the kids were trying to catch.

Lisa and I are going to "shop hop" tomorrow to Asheville area.  We shall see how it goes.  Until we meet again...

Quiet on the home front

Monday was a busy day or so it seemed.  My friend Evie and I sewed on our polka dot quilt, went to a guilt meeting and BBQ lunch.  I cut more pieces to the polka dot quilt and I am working on putting all those circles together.  I will post a picture when I get the first completed block done.  This could be a life time project.  However, I love it so far.  It too is very scrappy which I think is becoming my favorite type quilts.

Today, I took my completed quilt in for show and tell at a Stitch in Time.  I wondered if people would think I was nuts to sew all those scraps, but they really liked it.  I had lunch with my friend Evie and Sharon and then picked Bill up for a trip to Big Lots...whoopeeeeee.  I just love taking him to the store.  We probably bought $20 worth of snacks.. some healthier than his chip snack.  We also bought Bella her own bowl stand for up here.  She ate her food tonight so I guess she liked it.  Bill has been trying to finish painting the house that we started in March.  My wrist is too sore to help him but it is too hot for this ole "QUEEN" anyway.  It seems like Florida here because it rains a little, the sun comes out, it rains again, sun comes out, road steams up, etc.

Had me some good ole fried chicken tonight.  I was going to make some white chili and the smell of all that chicken just grabbed hold of me and was screaming buy me, eat me, gain some weight, increase your cholesterol.  yes it was a loud mouthed chicken.  I think it has probably been a year since I have succumbed to that finger lickin' temptation.  I should be good and plump if I do that very often.

My friend Jean went to the house today and took some pictures of my blooming plants.  She sent this to me. This is supposed to be nite blooming cerus but It does not seem to open any further than what you see.  I had about 15 blooms a few months ago and went out every night to see them open...skipped one nite and it was all over.  I still think it is a cerus but maybe a different species.  Anyway, I like it and the pot has gone crazy.

Hopefully, I can post a completed square of the polka dot quilt in the next couple of days.  Until we meet again.....

When life gives you scraps...or Confetti

When life gives you scraps, make a quilt and you can call it confetti.  I have finally finished my scrappy 15 minutes of play quilt.  It is one of the most fun quilts I have made because it was totally mindless.  I have not made the label yet because I haven't decided on the name of the quilt.  It so looks like a bunch of confetti.  I got the idea from "15 minutes of play" blog.  I have always thought of the quilt as the old saying "when life gives you scraps".  I love the quilting that Butler Country Crafts did for me on it.  Jeanne always does a wonderful job and she is reasonable and the turnaround is pretty quick.  I always recommend her to my quilting friends and relatives.

In some ways, I feel it is so representative of what life gives you many times through out your life...scraps.  However, it is so how we handle the scraps as to the outcome of our situations.  The outcome can be bright happy confetti or maybe just trash or lots of pieces of ugly fabric.  I chose to make something I truly love and that is this scrappy quilt.  The top has been done for quite awhile and I just added the binding this week...finally.  The best part is the top was made totally from scraps from other projects.  Some people do throw these scraps away.  The frugal part of me just has to keep them.  Any thing smaller than an inch goes to a lady in our guild that makes dog beds for the humane society and for dogs who are trained to work with blind or handicapped people.  This makes every piece of my fabrics used and not going to the landfill.  So this type of work is very GREEN.  Here is a close up of the quilting.  I hope it is big enough for you to see the pattern of spools and needles and thread.

It has been a busy week.  My friend, Evie and I have pulled our polka dot quilts out of the UFO pile and we have almost all of the center piecing completed.  Each block has 148 pieces sewn together in the block and there are 9 blocks.  Then the borders and the original pattern calls for applique in the borders.  The quilt could have as many as 1500 pieces if you do all the applique the pattern indicates.  I have not decided if I will follow the pattern or change the pattern for the borders..I would like to finish it in this lifetime.  Hopefully, we will get the squares completed tomorrow.  Pictures when I start sewing the pieces to squares.

On Tuesday, I went to "Tuesday Techniques" at A stitch in Time quilt store. Maxine, owner of the shop,  always shows a cute project or a usable technique.  I had lunch with some of my Florida friends and then ran to grocery store to pick up some things we needed.

On Wed, I spent the day with my friend, Elva.  I helped her do an embroidered label and she helped me cut some fabrics.  The day got away from us and it was nearly 5 when I left.  Happy July 4th.

I putzed around in the thrift stores with three old friends and three new friends on Thur.  We were all able to find bargains.  Mine was an apple peeler slicer for $.50, 5 yards of quilt store fabric for $5.00.  Wasn't a bad day and spent less than $20 including lunch.

Friday, I picked up here in the house, ran the dust mop and washed 4 loads of clothes.  Cannot remember what else, but that was enough.

Saturday, we went to the craft show and two quilt stores over in Maggie Valley.  It was hot and I was drained and tired when we got home.

Today, I have not hit a lick at a snake for the majority of the day.  Being outside worked up my allergies even though the pollen count was not very high, my head was ugly this morning...whine whine whine.  It has been a good week and I always feel good with a project is complete.  Until we meet again....

Hot weather is making me so lazy....

Gees, it is hot outside.  It must be 100+ out there today.  It feels like Las Vegas.  If you have never been to Las Vegas in the summer, then let me explain what it feels like when you walk out side.  Turn your oven to about 400 degrees, wait 10 minutes and then stick your head in...only for about 2 minutes because that is about as long as you can stay outside.  The humidity is so different here and in your oven, that you don't really "sweat"...you just get red faced and hot feeling.  At least my hair is not sopping wet like at home.  Ok, I have whined enough.

We went into town today to buy a ruler that I had left at home.  After that, we decided to look around one of the thrift shops.  I found a very old piece that is appliqued.  It is most amazing because it is only about 10" big.  I could not believe how much work someone put into this little piece of circular fabric.  Some of the applique pieces are only about 1/4 inch big.  There are over 300 pieces appliqued on the circle...and they did not even have good drugs back then.  The piece also has embroidery through out it.  The person must have had the patience of Jobe plus some.  I am going to wash it in some quilt soak and maybe have it framed.  I cannot imagine sewing this small.  The first picture is a full on picture and the second is a close up of the center.  It has one little place where it is coming apart...other than that, it is in very good condition.

The family member who donated it must have no idea of the time and effort put into this little baby.  For the most part, you must look hard to see the stitches.  The applique is very good quality.  I am excited about this little treasure.  Just had to share while it was on my mind.  Until we meet again....

Lazy day for me...

Today was a very peaceful lazy day.  I did not hit a lick at a snake all day long.  We even ate out tonight.  I helped Kallie with her quilt.  She has all the blocks sewed together and most of the rows sewed together.  She will have to stitch about 5 more rows and that part will be completed.  The next step is to sew the borders, quilt it and bind it.  It will probably take from now until Christmas to get it completed since she is not with Brad and Jennifer all the time.  This is a partial picture of what she got completed.  For the first time, she did pretty good.

I did the pinning, pressing and part of the ripping for her so that she could get most of it completed while they were here.  I will start my sewing projects after tomorrow.  I did not feel comfortable sewing with her since she had never sewed before...to much risk of her sewing a finger.  So I did not accomplish much this week other than enjoying Jennifer and her family.

Anyway, I cannot wait to get started on my sewing projects.  I also need to do some work in the yard here since most of my plants were weed wacked with the weeds.  I won't do much because my wrists won't take it.  I just plan on planting some seeds in some of the pots I have here so maybe I can enjoy watching them grown.

I brought Tababua tree seeds, plumera seeds from one of my plants, some purple spikey plant seeds that I cannot remember the name of right now, black eyed susans, cone plant seeds and sunflower seeds.  I had planted a lot of sunflower seed up by the road before we left last March...but a freeze came about a week later and froze them.  I might plant them again if I get it done this weekend.

It is supposed to be really hot here over the next few days so seeds should not have an issue sprouting.  Although it is supposed to be really hot, it is going to be in the 50's at night.  That is all for now....until we meet again.


 

I'm baaackkkkk

January, the last time I blogged seems like such a long time ago.  How time flies when you are having so much fun...yardwork, housework, clearing all the dead plants and junk off the patio.  Those are the fun things I have been doing.  I have not touched my sewing machine since March when I made a swirly strata table topper.  It was fun to make and I plan on making a patriotic and Halloween one at some point.

Jen and her family has been visiting us and I am teaching Kallie how to make a quilt.  We picked out fabrics at home to match some 5 inch squares that I have bought for her.  She has been learning the term "rippit".  She has gotten quite proficient with the seam ripper.  I could win a ripping contest for sure because I am the champion.  It seems I never have to "not" rip out seams when I am sewing.  I have helped rip some of her seams and I have done her pressing and matching up rows.  It would have been easier if she had just sewed all the squares random but it was my bright idea to lay them out in a pattern so that has been fun...keeping all the rows in order when we have ripped.  Ripping is just part of quilting so I figured she needed to learn that along with the sewing and matching seams.  She is about half way through with the rows.  Hopefully, we can work on it a lot tomorrow so she can at least get the top finished and then I will quilt it for her.  Jen can help with the binding when I get it quilted.

Kallie, Jen and I went to the Tuesday Technique sewing demo today.  The lady who taught the swirl strata table topper was there and showed a Christmas tree skirt using the same type technique.  Maxine showed a prairie point ornament that was really cute.  I have seen them before and made a pine cone ornament similar several years ago.  The Christmas skirt which could also be a table topper was really pretty and I am going to have Lisa bring my ruler when they come.  I love the quilt that was  shown last week.  Here is a u-tube video that shows my next quilt.  I picked the fabrics from my stash.  Hopefully, I will get the piecing completed next month.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sII20q7IrtQ

Maxine the owner of the shop is such a sweet and helpful person.  I am sure it is a lot of work to come up with something to demonstrate each week.  I enjoyed seeing several friends that I have not seen in a couple of months.  We all went to lunch at the Gazebo after the demo.

Bill and Brad have been weed whacking the yard.  We have a whole yard full of thorny blackberries.  Most have not turned black.  When you look out, all you see is red berries.  They whacked a lot of them.  I went down and picked some for Cooper and Kallie yesterday.  Kallie did not care for them but my little berry boy loved them.  He had them again in his yogurt tonight.  I wish they were not so thorny and I would pick a bunch to make a cobbler.  Maybe when more ripen closer to the outside edge, I can get enough.  They are good to me.

I guess I have to be in the mood to blog so maybe I will try to be in the mood more...until we meet again...

This week in a nutshell!

It is an amazing thing but you really can't put much in a nutshell.  A walnut shell of course would hold more than a pecan shell unless it was one of those giant paper shell pecans.  In that case, you could probably get more in a pecan than walnut shell.  Just in case you were wondering how big my nut shell is in size.

This week has been quiet.  I have been working on my polka dot quilt.  I finished all the paper I had printed and left the last group at home.  That is what packing at midnight the night before we leave will get you.  I think when it is done, I am going to be seeing big dots everywhere.  There are almost 900 pieces to it and it only has 9 squares.  Some of those pieces finish at .5 inches by 2 inches...quite small.  The pattern is similar to a New York Beauty.  Tomorrow, I have to decide which unfinished project I want to do next.  Decisions...decisions.

The weather has been really cool and nice for me.  It snowed about an inch and a half on Monday night and the wind chill factor was -10degrees.  It was actually about 16 degrees with a 35 mph wind.  I loved it and Bill was shivering.  It is amazing how we have switched places in the temperature department.  It was beautiful the next morning with the sun shining on the snow.  It looked like it had little diamonds in it.  The last couple of mornings have been really cool, but it has been nice in the afternoon.  Today, it got up to 56....practically a heatwave.  I thought about taking my kindle out on the deck to read...but decided to sew instead.  Here is the truck with snow.

Bella has turned into a traitor with Bill.  He fussed so much about getting her and now they have bonded.  She has dumped me for him since I took her to be fixed.  I guess dogs are sort of sensitive about those sort of things.  As you can see she is quite comfortable inside Bill's jacket.  Aren't they so cute?

I went to the thrift stores with my friend Pam today.  I bought 2 pairs bigger jeans...POOOOH.  Who wants bigger jeans?  I also got a long sleeve shirt, flannel sleep pants for Bill and a pair of cotton sleep pants for me.     We also stopped by one of the quilt stores and I got a new pattern and 1/8 yard of polka fabric.  That is pretty good for me in a quilt store.

I am thinking of baking another pumpkin bread...the only thing stopping me is that bigger pair of jeans I bought today.  Until we meet again.......