Quilting, quilting, quilting

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still alive and well!

The same Saturday night that I got the binding put on the pink and brown quilt, I also got the binding put on the scrappy quilt below. I am giving it to two friends that are getting married right before Christmas. Her bridal shower is tomorrow night. Hopefully, not too many college girls will be there - so they all won't start expecting a "wedding" quilt. (The two people getting married are in their mid- 40's.) This quilt was already done except for the binding and was just sitting there waiting for a good home!

Sunday afternoon there will be a baby shower for a lady from church. This family's oldest child is Ian's age - 5.5 years old. This one will be number 4! We are all excited because this one will be a girl - after 3 boys! This quilt was made from the leftovers from the quilt me and my mom made for my cousin's new baby girl. The only thing I had to buy was the pink for the border and the backing. I love the polka dots!

Naomi - DON'T READ ANY FARTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE YOUR CHRISTMAS PRESENT. Can you be trusted?

Today I got to sit down and piece a while. A few weeks ago, Susan posted a picture of a quilt her daughter had made and it had a great polka dot fabric in it. I had to get some for me and a friend - so I emailed Susan to double check that it had come from her store. When I called to order it, I happened to think to ask the lady if they carried Denyse Schmidt's fabric line for Free Spirit. They do! So I asked the lady to send me a variety of fat quarters in blues and greens. My sister is the one who turned me onto Denyse Schmidt - so I am using the fabric to make her a wall hanging for her dining room. Yes, it will match - her dining room is a lime green color!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

It's done! It's done! It's done!!!

Can you tell that I am just a little bit excited to be done, done, done with the pink and brown pineapple quilt? I was able to calm down and get the binding done this afternoon. Nina actually called me this morning and told me to just quit getting stressed out over stuff!

In other news, I made a batch of yummy muffins last night. Actually I made a double batch. 24 yummy breakfast muffins. See, maybe some of Nina's baking talents have rubbed off on me! I promised Nina the recipe - so here you go!

Coffee Cake Muffins

makes 12 muffins

Mix dry ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon (I added at least twice that!)

1/2 cup sugar (could do half sugar/half splenda)

Mix Wet ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt - low fat

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix wet and dry. Makes 12 miffins - 2 WW points each. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes.

How to ruin a binding in several easy steps

Nina asked how did I ruin the binding. It is very easy to mess up binding if you are stressed out! First, you sew it on with too wide of a seam. That means there won't be enough fabric to turn over to the back. Then you try to remedy the problem by trimming the seam a little bit, which makes the binding almost disappear on the front. The you also, accidentally, cut the fabric on the corner and leave yourself a nice hole when you flip the binding over. Then you give up and rip it all off and start over! I still wasn't able to face it again today.. maybe tomorrow!

Car update - DH and I went by the dealership this morning and DH asked if they had any new info. on the backordered part. The service manager said they would be checking on it sometime this morning and would give us a call. Stacy told him about my planned trip out of town and the service manager said they would get me a rental if the car wasn't done by Wednesday!! I called them at noon and the backordered part was supposed to be shipped today and arrive on Monday. And if everything goes perfectly, I WILL have my car back on Wednesday. The good news is that they are also fixing the driver's seat belt which was causing the airbag light to stay on and they are also fixing Maddie's seat belt, which locked in position as soon as you put it on. Honda warranties their seatbelts for the life of the car. Yeah Honda!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I am off to clean up the sewing room. It is currently about waist (or waste!) deep!

I should have stayed in bed...

This day has gone from bad to good to worse. The air conditioning on my 2002 CRV went out on Monday and we took it in to Honda on Wednesday morning at 8 am. Still no answers by last night at 5. They called this morning to say that the compressor was falling apart from the inside out and had totally contaminated the entire A/C system. The whole thing will need to be replaced. The Honda lady said that the service manager was willing to "help us" on this. BIG HINT that they know something is all their fault. He was willing to cover the parts (about $2000) and we would just pay for the labor (about $800). I told the lady "Thank you" and that it was a great offer but that hubby was going to want to talk to someone higher up the Honda ladder. He had already surfed the web and found out the '02/'03 compressor are widely known for self destructing! So I get off the phone with her and call DH and leave a message to call me a.s.a.p. About ten minutes later I get another call from Honda lady saying that the service manager had called their district manager and had been told to cover the whole thing!! Yeah!!!! They said it should be done next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Then this afternoon I decided to work on the binding for the brown and pink quilt. Let's just say that things have gone horribly wrong and I am ripping the whole thing off and starting completely over with new binding - TOMORROW!!! Do not try and put binding on when you are stressed out.

This afternoon I called Honda to tell them that I really need the truck back by Wednesday because me and the kids are going out of town on Thursday. The lady tells me that she had just heard from the parts department and they had gotten all our parts ordered but that one part was on backorder and there was no release date on it. In other words, they have no idea when it will come in. I calmly asked her what I was supposed to do without a car for an indefinite period of time. She said I could go rent one. I replied "That would be at least $40 a day out of my pocket." All she could say was "yes". I am going to try and talk DH into calling the manager and insisting that they either give us a loaner or rent us a car - especially since they can not give us a date the truck will be finished. Stacy had already said we could rent a car but I really don't think we should be the ones paying for it since the repair is something that Honda knows is a problem with their product.

Now you know why I need to go back to bed! It is DH's b-day so I am definitely going to make him take us out to dinner!

Can you see why me and Nines are friends?

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

A binding Saturday

Can you tell what I did today? Last night I got the brown floral fabric cut for the binding on the pink pineapple quilt and got the strips sewn together today. Then I cut and sewed the binding for this quilt. This is the quilt I am going to give to my friends as a wedding gift. And then the pink strips are for an outer border on a baby quilt. The baby shower is October 29 so I have a couple of weeks to get it done.

Did you notice that bright yellowy cutting board? I finally bought myself a new one this past week. After 7 years of cutting on the same one, the lines were worn off and it had some pretty deep valleys cut into it. This one is cool because it has the grid on both sides - so when one side gets worn out you can flip it over and keep going! The back side is a real pale pink.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

P.S. - Where are the pics of everyone else's laundry rooms?

The quilting is done!!!!

This morning I finished up the last of the quilting on Taylor's quilt!!! Yeah! In the wide brown border I did freehand loopy-loops and leaves and in the pineapple blocks I just did little petite loopy-loops. Someday I want to do beautiful quilting like Judy, and Darcie, and Bonnie, and Carolyn, and Nina, and........... But for now - loopy-loops work just fine!

After I finished the quilting, I got to spend 3.5 hours counting fundraising money at the grade school. UGH!!! It is amazing how parents can mess up such simple math! But it is done and the school will make about $10,000 for their new playground.

Nina said she wanted to see our laundry "rooms" - so here is mine. It is more like a big closet. Our cabinet maker had a couple of beautiful white cabinet that he had mis-measured and he sold them to us for a steal! The odd little nook at the far right is caused by the water heater closet out in the garage. I use it to store my vacuum. The closet has bi-fold doors that close it off from the hallway to my bedroom.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Yummy!

Here is a yummy fruit salad recipe.

3 chopped apples
1 can chunked pineapples with the juice (the can that is about 5 inches tall)
1 box instant white chocolate pudding - sugar free
1 small carton fat free kool whip

Mix it all together and chill!

1 cup = 1 point ( for any of you on Weight Watchers)

Not as huge as I thought!

I was a little concerned Friday night when I finished this top - that it was somehow it was going to be entirely too huge for a queen size bed. You remember this quilt, don't you? So yesterday morning I made up my bed and then threw the quilt top over to see how it fit. Perfect!

After spending several hours at the soccer field for pictures and a game, we made it home in time for lunch. After a quick nap, I managed to get the backing pieced and loaded on the machine. I ran out of steam after piecing the batting. Now I can go at the quilting without having to face several hours of other stuff first!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!