WOW! Twice in one day!

DH just called and his flight has been delayed - so that means my delayed house cleaning is OK! I finished up Ian's train pillow case. It is such a quick project! Instant gratification!

Isn't this train fabric great? It is perfect for an older boy that still loves trains. Very realistic.


The french seams made this whole project so nice and neat. Here is my quick little tutorial on french seams. First off, you lines the raw edges up - RIGHT SIDES OUT - WRONG SIDES TOGETHER !!! This goes against our training as quilters, but you can do it! Sew a seam, about 1/8 of an inch from the raw edges. Press the seam just like you sewed it. Then press the seam allowance to one side. Then flip the fabrics so the right sides are together and the raw edges of the seam are hidden inside. Press.


Now you can sew another seam (right sides together) about a quarter inch away from the edge.

Open the fabric and you will have a beautiful seam with all the raw edges enclosed. After I pressed this finished seam to one side (the striped fabric) , I did some top stitching to hold the seam allowance in that direction.

Finished seam, all nice and neat!


Now that the pillowcase is done, it must mean that it is time for a nap!

Spring green

DH has been out of town for a couple of days and the house is a pigsty (according to DD who is sitting next to me reading as I type). Thursday was spent passing out fundraising products (cookie dough) to parents. Yes, all day. I was at the school from 8:30 until 4:30. Not my idea of fun. But I survived. Yesterday morning I got to spend time trying to round up volunteers for the upcoming book fair. Can you tell that I am in PTA? Next year I am going to be a vice president. I am hoping that means a lot less of the actual labor and a lot more supervising! Haha!

So housework has not been happening. Yesterday I did manage to load the dishwasher and do a couple loads of laundry. DH will be home around dinner time so today will be spent picking up the house. It is amazing what a mess the place can become if I don't make the kids pick up their stuff on a daily (if not hourly) basis.

Last night I did manage to sew the binding onto this quilt. The reason it got done so quickly after the one pictured in the last post was because I used the same fabric for both bindings. I had about two yards of binding left over from the first quilt. It is the same fabric that I used for the backing on the lime green quilt. So after trimming the green quilt, I took the leftovers and used it to make up the rest of the binding. Once again, I put the whole thing on by machine.

I also started on a pillow case for DS. I bought some train fabric about two years ago, meaning to make him a pillowcase, and never got around to it. Since I don't have a serger ( and I hate seams that unravel), I am doing french seams. It takes some time but it looks so nice and polished when you are done. I will post some pictures when I get it done.

In the January/February issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting they gave directions for making a quillow. It looks so easy and cute. It would be a great way to use up some stash! I think I am going to make a pink one as a birthday present for a little girl from church. She will be going to kindergarten in the fall and they have to bring a blanket or a towel for nap time. In case you don't know what a quillow is, it is a blanket (quilt) that folds up into it's own pillow case that is attached to the back, making it into a little pillow. I will show you my progress when I make it.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

More unsolicited advertising

Remember the beautiful quilt top made out of Denyse Schmidt fabrics that Susan sent me when I mentioned how wonderful the customer service is at her quilt store. I quilted it a while ago but it has been hanging out in my sewing room, hoping to be magically bound! Today I finally trimmed it and made the binding. Took me about two hours to make the binding and sew it on front and back (both by machine). I can't wait to cuddle up under it and read!

Thank you again, Susan! I LOVE this quilt!

San Antonio, anyone?

Does anyone out there in blogland have any suggestions for must-see things in San Antonio Texas? It looks like I will be able to go with DH in May when he attends an AIA conference there. We will be staying in the Riverwalk Marriott and probably will not have a car. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Look, Judy, I used it!

Remember back in the first part of February when Judy challenged us to go ahead and use some treasured piece of fabric? I decided it was time to use my hand dyed fabrics that I had been treasuring since last summer. This afternoon I got the last border put on this project. I like it! What do you think? What did you do with your treasured fabric?

Look, Girls! We are famous!

I got a ipod for Valentines day and have just discovered podcasts. Today I downloaded a quilting podcast from Annie Smith's Quilting Stash series called "Best of 2006" to listen to. As I am sewing along, listening to her lists of the best things from 2006, suddenly she says that one of her picks for best quilting blogs is "The Quilt Mavericks" blog ring. Imagine my surprise to hear that we are popular and a little famous!

So if you are looking for something to listen to while you are quilting, you can look on itunes for all kinds of cool podcasts.

2 hours ----- in one day!

Today I had the house to myself for a couple of hours and decided it was time that I get to sew! I haven't sewn anything in several weeks. Everything has been sitting there on my sewing table, just staring at me. It always seems like something else had to get done first. You know what? The dirty house isn't going anywhere - it can wait a while.

I was able to get this top pieced. It is going to be a lap quilt. The colors aren't exactly accurate in the picture but they are close. I am going to piece a few more flying geese for the border and then put them in a wide black border. I am going to quilt it with some varigated thread.

Monday night I am teaching a ladies' bible class. Usually our preacher's wife teaches but she has been asking for volunteers to help her out every once in a while. We are using a book about trying to manage our chaotic lives. The next chapter is called "Is your life a crazy quilt?" The point of the chapter is do you have a plan for your life (a pattern) or do you just take whatever is thrown at you (a crazy quilt). In general the author is saying we need to have goals! Anyway...how could I resist teaching a class that mentions quilts!

20 Yards of fabric

Do you know how much fabric will fit into a 11"x8.5"x5.5" box? One of the flat rate boxes from the post office. Let me tell you - it will hold about 20 yards of fabric. This came to me as a surprise - both good and bad. Good in that it means 20 yards is on its way to someone who will hopefully appreciate it and put it to good use it. Bad news in that such a little space holds that much fabric. That means that I have a whole lot more yardage in my stash than I had thought! I had better get busy!

I went through the stash this afternoon trying to pick out some fabric to mail to my aunt for her birthday. This aunt is my dad's only sister and the person who everyone says I look like. While I don't mind looking like her, I hope that I am as sweet and giving as she is. She has recently gotten into quilting. Her mom (my grandma that passed away a year ago) was a quilter. My aunt somehow got hooked on paper piecing. It is hard to pick out fabric for someone else. She recently had a new grand baby - Evie - so I picked out some things Aunt Faye could use for something cute for the baby.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Some thoughts on strep throat and V-Day lovies

Last week both of my kids came down with strep throat. We got them started on anti-biotics on Monday. So by Friday I thought I was safe - but no. My throat started hurting and Saturday I got to start on medicine too! After spending the entire weekend in bed, my throat is feeling better but I would still like to sleep all day!

Last Friday, before the strep hit, I made this little thing (the one on the right) for my niece for Valentine's day. It is about 6 inches by 7 inches. It is my hand dyed fabrics, fused together and then fused onto some batting. I did a little stitch in the ditch on my feather weight. Then I sewed the front to the back (right sides together) and flipped it around. Then to close that last seam I stitched around the entire edge, about an eighth of an inch in from the edge. DD like it so much that she wanted on too - so her's is the one on the left. The picture should be clickable for a better view.

I am hoping tomorrow to get to work some more on the flying geese quilt. I really like Judy's February quilt but I think I am going to hold off on it for a while. What are you all up to?

Wednesday's progress

Judy's good idea

When I was surfing around the Maverick ring yesterday, I was inspired by Judy's posts about using up her stash, especially about why we buy fabric that we LOVE and then can't bear to cut into it! Judy's February challenge to us is to go cut into that favorite piece and USE IT! This summer I dyed a pile of fat quarters. And then I dyed an even larger pile when Nines and I had our quilting retreat in Tennessee. These have been sitting there in a box, staring at me, begging to be used. But I couldn't bear to use them up. What am I saving them for? I was waiting for some divine intervention I guess.

So this morning I went and dug the box of my hand-dyed fabrics out of my closet and found a couple yards of black in the stash and set to work. I have been oohing and aahhhing over this quilt for some time. Sorry I can't remember whose quilt this is - if it is yours, leave a comment and I will add a link to your blog!

This morning I started working on the flying geese. As you can see, I got quite a few done. I haven't decided if this going to turn into a wall hanging or a lap quilt. Time will tell! Judy - thanks for the inspiration to finally use our prized fabrics!

Success

Yesterday was the baby shower. I got up and made the diaper cake. So far all the diaper cakes I have made have been for baby girls, so this blue one was a new twist. I love the turquoise and brown together. After a wonderful brunch of egg and sausage casserole, sausage balls, three kinds of cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit, quiche, and cute little Petit Fores, it was time to open the gifts. The mommy to be received lots of goodies, including some of the Pottery Barn bedding I was trying to match. She received the crib dust ruffle and a baby pillow sham. Finally came the quilt. She loved it - but I was worried it wouldn't match. But it went perfectly! The fabrics were different but the colors were almost exact matches. Not too shabby considering I was working from a two inch by three inch picture I had printed off the computer!

I have started working on another UFO. This one is going to be a surprise present for someone so I can't show any pictures of the work in progress. I finished up the blocks yesterday and got the rows put together. I have got four of the rows sewn together - 5 more to go.

DS was sick last week but we thought he was on the mend. DD woke up this morning with a fever and a sore throat. Now DS is complaining that his throat hurts again too. I guess we will go see the pediatrician tomorrow. DD gets strep throat at the drop of a hat. Fun times!

Babies, babies every where!

My mom was kind enough to do the handwork on the binding for me! All that is left to do is the label. The baby shower is Saturday. I am also in charge of making one of my world famous diaper cakes, this time in blue.

My family left a day early. Ian woke up in the middle of the night with a belly ache and then had a sore throat this morning. My nephews and niece are not good sleepers when away from their own beds. So all of this added up to them packing up and leaving this morning. Me and Ian have had a very lazy day. Watching TV, surfing the net, taking a nap. DH is bringing home pizza for dinner.

I also came to the realization this afternoon that I do not want to get into the habit of making a quilt for each of the kid's teachers for the next twelve years. Maybe for exceptional teachers - we will see. That will be two less quilts hanging over my head. I want to quilt for fun, not because I feel like I have to. Is that too much to ask?

Better go get the drinks ready. Pizza will be here in a minute!

Mom's bones are done!

I concentrated this afternoon on finishing the quilting on my mom's bones quilt and got it done right before dinner. I tried a new-to-me batting called Hobbs Heirloom Premium cotton batting. It is actually a 80/20 blend. I really liked it - it is a little puffier than 100% cotton. Had to adjust the top tension on my machine a little bit. When I emailed my mom the finished picture, her reply was "But the binding isn't on it yet!" Ha ha ha!

Now tomorrow I can concentrate on getting my house back to its formerly clean state before my parents, sister, and her kids all arrive at about 2:30. Right now I think it is bed time!

A Saturday spent sewing

Today I had big hopes of getting the house all cleaned up again. Then my better sense (or my lazy sense) took over and I decided to take a nap and then sew some. I finished quilting the lime green quilt and then got my mom's bones quilt loaded on the machine. I need to get her quilt done before they get here on Tuesday afternoon - so she can take it home with her - and so I can sweet talk her into doing the hand sewing on the binding of the baby quilt!

I wanted to work on something new and exciting. OK, maybe older and exciting again! So I dug out a UFO that is made from the scraps of a top I made for the owner of the quilt store Nines works at. Here is the original quilt.

And here is what I did with the leftovers! Nines - don't tell Tonya that there were that many leftovers! This wall hanging is about 60 by 30. I used almost every last scrap. Can you see on the two side outer borders where I had to add a piece of an alternate color to get enough to make the border long enough? I have got maybe a square foot of fabric left over. This was a quick little project. I already had the two main blocks done. I just added the sashing between the two blocks and then put on the outer border. Now - how to quilt it? I need my mom and Nina to lay down before they read this next sentence. Yes, i am considering hand quilting it. With those big stitches I saw over on another Maverick's blog. What do you think? Can I do this?

Quilting away...

I have had fun this week - quilting away. So far I have gotten two and a half tops done. The baby quilt is done. The Denyse Schmidt top that Susan sent me is done. The loud lime green top I made last summer is about half done. Maybe tomorrow I will even get my mom's bones quilt loaded on.

The only problem with getting all these tops quilted is that I will have a pile of quilts that need to have the binding put on them. As Nina will testify - binding is my least favorite part. I have got to at least get the baby quilt bound before next Saturday. Surely I can do it in a week!

A soggy Tuesday

DH has had a bad cold for the past few days. The only time he ever snores is when he is congested. Last night it was so bad that I finally got up and went and slept with Ian in his twin sized bed. Not much better. I had to sleep on the outside for fear of pushing Ian right off the edge. I should have just slept with Maddie in her double bed, but I was afraid Ian would complain because I had slept with her last time daddy was snoring! This is all to explain why I didn't get much sleep last night and why I felt the need for a nap at 9:30 this morning!

Yesterday I got the baby quilt top all put together and even found a cute blue striped fabric in the stash to use for the backing. That's three yards down - 1000 to go! After my refreshing nap, I got everything loaded onto my quilting machine. Quilting on baby quilts always goes so nice and fast. I just did a simple little meander with little loopy-loops. Very delicate looking.

I was so inspired by getting the baby quilt done that I went in search of a backing for the beautiful quilt top that Susan sent me. I found a huge piece of a green on green print that will do just fine. Kind of a grassy green color. Another 4 yards out of the stash! I got the backing pieced and pinned onto the machine this afternoon. My goal for tomorrow is getting this one quilted.

When I was rearranging my stash a few weeks ago, I cleaned out the cabinets over the washer and dryer. Any piece of fabric over about two yards went up in this cabinet. That way I don't have to dig through the regular stash for a piece big enough to make a backing out of.

Hhhmmm....what to work on next? Maybe, while I am in the mood, I should work on quilting all the tops I have sitting here.

No more complaining!

I got tired of looking at my own whining! So I erased it! I agree with all of you about that if you give a quilt as a gift - it is up to the receiver how they choose to use it. I want the quilts to be loved and used - even to the point of being worn out.

The in-laws left this afternoon. My house is still relatively clean. Tomorrow I am going to pick up a few small messes and then give myself the rest of the day to sew! The baby shower is less than two weeks away.

How is everyone's no-buying resolutions going? So far I don't think I have even stepped foot in a fabric store. Safer that way, no?

New things in the new year

See this lovely quilt top? My fellow maverick, Susan, had this top languishing in her UFO pile, unloved and guilt inducing. When Susan read my recent post about the Denyse Schmidt wall hanging I made my sister for Christmas (with fabric from Susan's store), she mailed this top to me!!! I am so in love with it! I can't wait to get it quilted and start snuggling up under it! My sister is trying to talk me out of it. Not going to happen, my friend!

This is the progress I have made on the baby quilt that needs to be done by the end of January. It is the same pattern as the Christmas one my mom made for me. The blocks are made from three different sub-units - a one patch (the light yellow in the pic) and a two-patch (kind of a rail fence) and a four patch. Then the two big blocks are nine-patches - one made from the 4-patches and the one patches - and one made from the two-patches and the four patches. Ends up being a very random look. I am liking it - and I hope the mommy-to-be will like it too!

I have gotten to sew more these past two days than I have in the last several months. Nice and relaxing. Definitely need to make more time to sew some each day.

What have you all been up to this new year?

It is a small, small world

In the continuing effort to get the sewing room organized, tonight I sat down and cleaned out my notions box. Lots of odd things were lurking in there. A single, lonely knitting needle. Bias tape from long-ago abandoned apron project. Several pieces of red felt from a x-mas class project 2 years ago. And the two AQS show books from the two shows I had quilts in.

I opened up the Paducah 2004 book and pulled out the judges' comments sheet. I read through it and glanced down at the judges' names. Julie Powell. Libby Lehman. And Gabrielle Swain, whose blog I often read when surfing around Melody Johnson's blog. How did I miss that before? Then when I was looking at the actual show book, I found the page my quilt was listed on and started reading down the list of quilts that were close by. Who should I run across but Deb R from over at Red Show Ramblings.

If you are interested in seeing the quilts I had in the shows, you can go read this post.

One of my x-mas quilts

I finally got around to taking a picture of the christmas quilt my mom made me. It is the perfect size to hang above my sewing table. So what if it is christmasy colors and it is already January? I gave mom the olive colored fabric with the polka dots on it. She was oohing and ahhing over it at Hobby Lobby one day and I managed to get a half yard of it for her without her noticing. Mom hand quilted it using Tonya's free-hand baptist fans. Thanks again Mom - I love it!

I worked some more today on reorganizing the sewing room. Getting rid of lots of scraps. Now I can't wait to get my new sewing table into the room.

I have had several funny comments about not buying any fabric this year. I consider my fabric stash to be a reasonable size. It all fits inside of a normal size bedroom dresser. But this is still way more fabric than I could use up in several years! I have already told my mom that she needs to call me before she goes shopping at JoAnn's. I also told my sister that she needs to take up quilting in a big way - so that she too can help use up this fabric! It is not that I don't love buying new fabric - but why buy fabric if I am never going to use it? I want to try and make several more Quilts of Valor this year. Does anyone know of any other charities that collect quilts for adults? Most of my fabric is more adult oriented.

Happy quilting!

New Year's resolution

Today is being spent reorganizing all my quilting stuff. My MIL is bringing me an old library table (36wide x 70 long x 30 high) that she used to have in her bedroom. After trying to decide where this table could go, I figured out that with a little reorganization, it would fit in my sewing room. The sad part is that it will have to replace the table my dad built me. I am hoping that the two side pieces (which the large shoe-box size plastic boxes fit perfectly in) will fit underneath the new table. I use the shoe boxes to organize current projects and notions.

Anyway.... in the process, I am reorganizing my closet, where the majority of my fabric is stored. Then that led to reorganizing the fabric in the cabinet above the dryer and I am sure that will lead to reorganizing the bottom of the pie safe!

I tell you all this in order to announce (again!) .....
NO FABRIC BUYING FOR ME THIS YEAR!!!

Who is going to join me?

Almost a New Year!

We are home from our trip north and have enjoyed just having time to hang out and do nothing! We were here at home for Christmas morning and the kids finally woke up around 7:30. DH and I were sure that we would be awakened by them at about 5 a.m. - but instead we were awake first! We opened our gifts here and then headed north.

The trip was going great - very light traffic - until we got to the south side of Nashville. There was a accident that happened about a quarter mile in front of us and blocked all four lanes of traffic. We sat completely still for an hour. After seeing no police coming (firetrucks and ambulances arrived right away) , all the traffic decided to try to do a 180 and drive the wrong way down the shoulder. We were in the far right lane and decided to stay still. We had already seen two tow trucks driving down the shoulder with cars that had had fender benders BEHIND us. It was pretty scary to watch people in the far left lane trying to turn across four lanes of traffic. Five police cars finally showed up to direct traffic around the remnants of the wreck.

The kids barely made it through dinner before wanting to rip into the rest of their gifts. First we played a dirty Santa game - where I somehow ended up with one of my great-aunt's quilts. (I will post a picture later.) Then when we opened our regular gifts, my mom had made me a lap quilt in Christmas-y colors. (Again - pictures to come!) The picture above is of the wall hanging I made for my sister. She is the one who first introduced me to Denyse Schmidt quilts. We both fell in love with her style and fabrics. This is made from Denyse Schmidt fabric that I ordered at Susan's store! I am hoping it matches the colors in her dining room.

We had our big Christmas dinner on Tuesday afternoon. We ate a lot but there was still a ton of leftovers. Unfortunately, my mom's frig decided to die at some point during the night on Tuesday - so Wednesday morning we had to throw everything out. We were all so sad! My dad kept asking if we were sure it was spoiled. The temp was above 80 degrees in the frig - I am sure it was spoiled! DH and I were still craving leftovers so last night we cooked turkey and dressing here at home! Yummy!

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's! We are planning to hang out here at home and be in bed before midnight. Yes, we live on the wild side!

An early Christmas

Ever since my kids got sick in October, I feel like I have been running in circles. There were several weeks in November where I had one or the other of them home from school everyday. Maddie was the worst - I was afraid she was getting pneumonia again, but she didn't. We are all on the mend now.

For Thanksgiving we headed to Arkansas and then to Nashville. On our drive up to Little Rock, me and hubby came down sick. By the time we got to bed that night, I was running 101.5 fever. We survived the week of travel and made it home safely.

Then came the start of the Christmas rush. I was the PTA chairperson for the school bookfair. I tried to keep my schedule open in case anyone called in sick and I needed to fill in. Amazingly, every single person showed up to work! The librarian said that was the first time that has ever happened.

The kids are now out of school and hyper! Yesterday we concentrated on organizing and cleaning Maddie's room. And today was Ian's turn. Ian feels the need to keep every little scrap of paper he has ever drawn on (a trait he gets from his daddy, the architect).

Yesterday, Christmas came early to our house. First of all, three packages arrived. One was from my mom - stuff for our stockings. One was from Stacy's brother and SIL - gifts for the kids. And one was from Nines - for me!!! Yeah!! She made me a lovely scrapbook of our quilting retreat at my mom's house! She is spreading her talents to other things besides quilting.

My DH also decided we each needed to open one gift. He claims he was worried he might have to exchange my present - but after opening the box, I think he just wanted me to be able to play with it! Ian was convinced it was a sewing machine because the box was so big! That would have been ok too! It was a lovely Dell laptop. It is so nice to be able to sit on the couch and surf the web!

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Hope everyone gets all of their christmas quilting done in time! Tomorrow I need to get a wallhanging quilted. Nothing like waiting till the last minute!

Presents in the mail

In today's mail, I received this lovely gift from my friend Jim - the solider who I made the star quilt for. He is a blackhawk helicopter pilot and has been in Iraq numerous times.

The paper says " Operation Iraqi Freedom, This American Flag was flown aboard a MH-60K Blackhawk on a combat mission in September 2006. For Sarah Norman , Your support of the troops, those injured in combat, my family and for me will not be forgotten. Thank you! Jim Boyd" In the bottom left is a small picture of Jim in front of his helicopter. In the right hand corner is a picture of his units insignia. He also quoted Aristole, "We make war that we may live in peace."

How cool is that?

Thanks for reminding me, Nines!

I did my usual morning routine - get up, check email, check and see if Nines had posted anything new. And she had! Reading her rather hyper post (and she claims to be off caffeine!) reminded me that I had not posted the picture of my friend Jim, the sweet man who I made a QOV for. Yes, I am the floating head next to him. Jim is due to be deployed to Iraq for a month sometime next spring. Then he is getting out. He has a extremely sweet family. Me and his wife agreed that if we lived closer we could be really good friends. Not that you can't be friends long distance!

My little guy is home sick today with a fever. Of course he doesn't want me out of his sight. I will have to convince him to come sit in the sewing room!

Hope everyone has a great day!

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!

A Friday night finish!

I got the pineapple top finished last night. I really like how it turned out. I am hoping to get it quilted this week. Wish me luck!

Almost there!

Yesterday afternoon I sat down for about an hour and worked on the borders for this quilt. As you can see I put a 2 inch brown border all the way around. Then on the top and bottom I put the rail fence border. Now I am rethinking putting the rail fence on the side too. The width of the quilt doesn't really need another 9 inches. So I am contemplating putting a thin pink border down the sides and then the wider brown border all the way around. Are you confused yet?

I am loving this quilt! Thanks again, Bonnie, for the wonderful pattern!

A quilt for a charity auction.

This is a quilt that I pieced over a year ago. I made one at the same time in greens - same fabrics just in green! Anyway, the green quilt I finished right away and took with me to Florida to a lady's retreat me and Nines went to. They had a auction to raise money for scholarships to help out women who were not financially able to come to the retreat on their own. Nina also made a quilt for the auction - one of the star quilts like we made for our soldier friends.

The blue top sat there in the "waiting to be quilted pile" for a whole year until I finally got around to quilting it in July.

The kindergarten here in town has a "family fun night" as a fund raiser every year. They have a silent auction and ask for donations for the auction. This blue quilt will be my donation. I put the binding on it on Monday. Why do I dread bindings so much? It always goes much quicker than I expected!

This is the back of the quilt. This lovely toile came from a friend of mine, Christie, when she was cleaning out her garage! She has a garage full of crafty stuff. Speaking of Christie, today we are having a girl's day out for her birthday. We are driving down to Columbus Georgia (about an hour away) and go to Hobby Lobby, and a quilt store called Sew much fun, and having lunch. We might also hit Sam's and the party store if we have time.

I really am going to quilt some this week!

I have been slowly but surely making progress on the pink and brown pineapple quilt. Last weekend me and my mom went out and found some brown fabric to make the border with, but now I have a crazy idea in my head that it needs more than just a huge solid color border. I am going to put on a skinny 1.5 inch brown border. Then I have taken all the left over 2 inch pink strips and pieced them into a rail fence type block which is three strips wide.

After this border I will put on another solid brown border. And then on to the quilting!

I have another good reason for getting this quilt finished - I need to make a wedding quilt for two friends that are getting married in December. Now usually I don't make wedding quilts. We go to church with lots of college kids and if I made each of them a quilt when they got married, I would have no time for anything else. But the two people getting married are an older (than me) couple. She has been married before and has grown kids. The groom I am not sure about. Anyway, they are both so sweet and they are both so happy. I have put the groom in charge of finding out what her favorite colors are!

Time to get busy!

Don't give up on me yet!

I am still here and still stroll through the blog ring, but since I haven't got to sew in forever, there isn't much to post!

This fabric was given to me by Maddie's 1st grade teacher. Her aunt is a quilter and is downsizing from a house to a small townhouse and is clearing out her junk. You all should be proud - out of the several garbage bags of stuff she gave me I only kept two things. The other piece is about 5+ yards of some Marcus Brothers fabric. You can buy either piece from me over on ebay. The mystery is what this fabric was going to be used for. It is cotton fabric, cut on the bias (in 20 inch wide strips) and ends up being about 15 inches wide about 9 yards long. Any ideas where this was headed?

My parents are coming for a visit today - so I'd better get cleaning!

Hello from Alabama!

Leah emailed me last night to make sure I was still alive. Yes I am still here. Just not much quilting going on and way too much other stuff going on.

After we returned from Tennessee a few weeks ago, school started. Ian has had a rough time adjusting but I think we might be over the hump. Maddie is loving her teacher.


Last week I made myself drag out Hannah's quilt. They moved to Missouri in July. She had the top put together and just needed to put the final borders on. I told her I would quilt it for her. So I got the borders put on and got it loaded onto the machine. Oh, the importance of quarter inch seams and a good ironing job. I had told her she needed to square everything up before she tried to add the borders. When she gave me the quilt before she left town, she said she was surprised at how wild the edges were! I think she finally understood what I was trying to say about being accurate. Anyway, as usual, the quilting really helped the quilt! It lays nice and flat now. I think it turned out great for her very first attempt at quilting! I hope she will keep it up. Her hubby is in medical school so I am guessing that she will have a lot of free time on her hands.

I have now returned to working on the bed-sized pink and brown pineapple quilt I am making for a little girl from church. I had the middle of the top pieced a few weeks ago and took it to show the mommy and the little girl. I mentioned something about laying it out on Maddie's full size bed to make sure it was big enough. Amy then says "Oh, did I forget to tell you that Taylor now has a queen size bed?" That is a important little fact that she had forgotten to share! I ordered a few more fat quarters of pinks (Pink is NOT a color found in my stash!) and now I am back in business.

Another Quilt of Valor

Saturday evening I got my QOV loaded on the machine. I am going to Nashville on Wednesday and want to be able to hand deliver the quilt to my friend Jim. Mom gave Jim her QOV quilt for his friend, Jeramy, and she said Jim got a little teary eyed. I am already worried what will happen when the quilt is for him! (Yes, I will make sure someone is taking pictures.)

Anyway, Sunday I got one pass quilted - loopy-loops and free-hand stars. This morning I finished it up. Then I had a very attractive offer to help me unpin the quilt. I can't refuse an offer like that!

This is the label from Jim's quilt. The quote is from the song "Hail Columbia" which was written to be performed at George Washington's inauguration in 1789.

I really like the flag fabric. Me and Nines found it at Hobby Lobby in Tennessee.