The Saga of the Pillow

This is the story of what happens to people that can't say no! This story can also be called "How to make a pillow in 100 easy steps!

Step 1: Take the needlepoint out of the hoop (see yesterday's photo). Notice that needlepoint fabric is too small to be the front of the pillow. Lisa had provided a 12 inch pillow form. The fabric was about 7 inches at its widest point.

Step 2: Make several frantic phone calls to Nina (at work!) and my mom. Needed ideas on how to expand the front to cover the front of the pillow. Got suggestions ranging from applique it on a bigger circle (Yeah, right!) , add strips around the outside (this is what I did)or to do 4 pieces like Drunkard's Path blocks around the outside to make it bigger.

Here is what I ended up with -

Step 3: Make 2 (yes, 2) ruffles - each about 100 inches long to start with. Here I am sewing down the green accent ruffle.

Doesn't look too bad , does it?

Step 4: When trying to make the ruffle out of the pink plaid fabric, decide that it is too thick. Now you get to put in little quarter inch pleats all the way around.
Step 5 - After sewing the pleated ruffle to the back circle, sew the front to the back. Yes you will be sewing through 6 layers of fabric. Can your machine handle it? Look pleased with your self when you turn it right side out and it looks cute!

Step 6 - Put the provided pillow form through the opening into the pillowcase. Please remember to have left an opening! Shockingly, I did remember!

Step 7 - Be even more shocked when your carefully pieced pillow case is too big, instead of too small like you were expecting! Now what do you do?

Step 8 - Get in your car and drive to Walmart only to discover that they do not carry pillow round forms. Get back in your car and drive to the sewing center, where they cheerfully exchange your wrong sized pillow form for a slightly too big pillow form. Wrestle to get the pillow form in to the pillowcase.

Step 9 - Go home. Sew up the opening by hand.

Step 10 - Take a nap.

How do I get myself into these things?

CALLING ALL PILLOW MAKING EXPERTS! I NEED HELP!!!! A sweet lady came up to me at church about a month ago and said, "Sarah, I hear that you sew." This phrase has never led to anything good. It never turns out that someone wants to learn to quilt. It is usually that they need something mended. Anyway, Lisa says she has this needlepoint thing she made when her oldest daughter was just a baby (about 25 years ago) and it used to hang in her nursery. She wanted to turn it into a pillow. Lisa is the mom of Peter, who I gave this quilt to. Peter was diagnosed with cancer right after we moved to Auburn and I thought he needed a quilt to cuddle up under. From all reports, he loves it and won't let anyone else touch it! So this bag of stuff has been sitting here staring at me for over a month now. The pink plaid is for the back and the main ruffle and the green plaid is for an accent ruffle. My only question is how well the heavy fabric is going to make a ruffle or if it is going to have to be more like pleats. Does that make any sense? If anyone has any suggestions, I would be glad to hear them!

Today I did manage to finish quilting baby quilts #3 and #4. I am in love with the blue and white quilt. I see more two color quilts in my future. The white just makes the blues pop. Unfortunately the white was the only white in my whole stash.

Speaking of stash, today is day 16 of my no-buy resolution!

I am off to watch "The Wedding Date". I went on-line last night and reserved "Pride and Prejudice" (Colin Firth version) and "Sense and Sensibility" from our library. And "The Christmas Quilt" from the Elm Creek Quilts series. And a quilting book I hadn't seen before - I think a 2004 yearbook from American Quilting and Patchwork. Aren't libraries great?

Sunday night

Today I wanted to share this sweet baby quilt that Nina made for my baby #2. We didn't know it would be Ian when she started it, but I think the colors work for a boy or a girl. She will have to explain how this pattern worked. All I remember is that she told me that you don't cut the threads between the chain stitched pieces until the top is all done. Does that make any sense? Maybe she can explain it better than that. Anyway, this was before we had our long-arm machine - so she started to hand quilt it! Because she loves me so much! After Ian was born, Nina mentions how slow the quilting is going and I tell her that my mom was looking for something to work on during the three weeks they stayed with us to help out. So my mom volunteered to finish the quilting. So now I (or more properly, Ian) has a quilt made by Nina and his Grams! I treasure this quilt.

I didn't get as much done as I had hoped to yesterday. I got one baby quilt quilted and another one about half done. I finished the second one this afternoon and started piecing the backing for the third. There is no school tomorrow but we have a busy day planned. We are moving Stacy into his new office space. Yeah! Now he can't complain that he has no where to work. And then at lunch time we have a birthday party for a little girl from church. I am hoping to get some more quilting done in the afternoon.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I am off to sew for a few minutes while the kids watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Saturday morning

Ahhhh! Saturday morning! Too bad hubby can never seem to sleep later than 7 am. So he is dressed and waiting for our friend to show up to work on the spec house next door. Wandering aimlessly through the house. I tell him "You can hang up my little curtain rod in my sewing room, if you need something to do." So he does! Now I can hang some of my cute little quilts right over my sewing table.

The quilt there right now is actually more of a wall hanging - how appropriate! I started making these stars blocks out of Sally Schneider's Scrap Frenzy book. She calls these stars "Bard of Avon". I love the stars but they take FOREVER to piece - I would guess maybe an hour and a half each. Much too long for my taste! So the quilt ended after 4 blocks. It makes a cute little wall hanging or table topper. Each block is about 15 inches square. And of course, it is blue and yellow, so what is not to love? When I was quilting this piece, Nina and her mom both tried to convince me that I really DID want to make it into a bigger quilt - but neither one of them bothered to volunteer help piece the stars!

Today I am trying to get as many of the baby quilts quilted as I can. Stacy (DH) made me stop the machine while he was hanging up the curtain rod. He thinks it is way too noisy. I think it just drowns out the rest of the ruckus going on in our house! Kind of peaceful! The kids are going to a b-day party this afternoon so I will have a couple hours of uninterrupted quilting time!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The fabric that wouldn't end

Yes, I have already made two baby quilts out of these same fabrics, but I had leftovers...still. The fabric would not be used up. It kept growing and growing. I think the little 4 inch squares were reproducing at night. This top finally used up the last of the bright yellow print. It has no rhyme or reason but it is bright and I think some kid will like it. I hope!

Now I have four baby quilt tops sitting here, taunting me. They are saying "Where did all your good intentions go?" They know I have to clean up my end-of-the-year paperwork mess before I can get around to quilting them. My sewing room/office is tiny. The huge Hinterberg quilting machine with its ten foot table takes up over half the room. And then there's the sewing table and my desk and the computer. You get the picture. I started to organize all of our 2005 paperwork to make room for the 2006 stuff. But I didn't quite get it all put away. So - I guess I know what I should be doing this afternoon!

What's everyone else up to?

The Giant quilt that ate my bed

Here is the promised picture of my huge quilt! At the foot of the bed it hangs to the bottom side of the mattress where the side rails of the bed frame are. At the head of the bed it is folded back about 18 inches. On BOTH sides, it hangs all the way to the floor. And we have a pillow top mattress - padding on both sides - so it is extra, extra thick. My husband is beginning to wonder if I am capable of making a quilt that actually fits our bed. They are usually about 6 inches too short in width. Or like this one, way too huge. This would be the perfect quilt to have to share with someone who hogs the covers! No way they could steal this whole thing away from you!

Never a dull moment!

Last night Ian had a run-in (literally) with another little boy at church. The other boy ended up with a big knot on his forehead. Ian's lip started bleeding again - which freaked the other little boy out! I had to assure him and his mom that Ian has been previously wounded! Later last night I was talking to Ian, when I noticed his front tooth is suddenly back where it belongs, instead of pointed backwards. I made him let me feel it and it was loose! UGH! So I spent the whole night tossing and turning, worried that he was going to have that tooth pulled. Back we went to the dentist office this morning. He took another x-ray and said that everything still looked o.k. He said he would not be surprised if the tooth turned dark. The tooth seemed a little more stable this morning so he said we should just watch it for a few weeks. I am thinking about buying Ian a football helmet with one of those mouth guard things! Do you think he would wear it 24 hours a day to make me happy?

I managed to make another baby quilt yesterday. Nice and bright! I have enough of the four-patches made to make another one the same size.

I am going to make myself work on rescuing my bedroom from the piles of laundry which seem to be multiplying daily. If I can get it all cleaned up, I will take a picture of the huge quilt on my bed. It is quite comical!

Update on Ian

We took Ian back to see the dentist this morning. The swelling on his lip is down from yesterday but still looks bad. The dentist did an x-ray of the tooth roots that got knocked out of place. He said he did not see anything broken! Yeah! He also said they seemed to still be firmly attached so they probably won't fall out on their own. If the pain lasts for more than a couple (!) of weeks, he said to come back and he would check Ian out again. He also put him on some antibiotics just to be safe.

Poor Ian hasn't been willing to eat much of anything. He ate some ice cream Monday night. Yesterday he ate a snack bag of Doritoes, broken into TINY little bites. And he ate several bowls of Jello. Last night he ate a huge serving of mac-n-cheese. This morning we went to the store and stocked up on ice cream, mac-n-cheese, yogurt, and noodles. Ian doesn't have any body fat he can spare so I hope the pain subsides quickly so he will start eating more.



I got the borders put on the four patch baby quilt. The blue isn't exactly the right color - but it is close enough! And I didn't have to go buy anything for this quilt! YEAH! Hey - I have made it 11 whole days with no buying! And I haven't had any withdrawl symptoms!

A little about my day...

Today was a "boys will be boys" kind of day. Actually more like "Boys will trip over anything available and hurt themselves." I know Nina has a lot of those days around her house! She has already been witness to one of Ian's lip busting events! When he was two he bit through his lip and through the skin below his lip. He has a cute little scar right below his lip. Today he tripped over who know what and whacked his mouth on the seat of a dining room chair. UGH - so much blood! He knocked two of his top teeth backwards - but not out. The dentist looked at them and said to bring him back in a few days when his lip isn't so swollen and he will x-ray them to see what he did to the roots. He said if they develop an abcess he will have to pull them. He may have to sedate both me and Ian for that! Poor little guy has a HUGE swollen lip. Hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow.

I also got my four patch top put together. It is not quite as big as I was expecting. It will need a big wide border to be a useable size but I think it turned out really cute!

Ok, off to bed for this weary mama!

For lack of anything better to share....

Over on DebR's blog, she shared this meme to day. In case you don't read her blog regularly, she is TOO funny.

Here goes:

Four Jobs You've Had:
1. Loan Officer at a large credit union in Tampa
2. Accounting officer for School of Architecture at an IVY league school
3. Accounts Payable department (yes I was the whole department) at a large medical clinic in Seattle.
4. Mama to two sweet kids. (Can you tell what my favorite job is?)

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over:
This one is kind of hard to narrow down to just four.
1. Pirates of the Caribbean
2. Gross Pointe Blanke
3. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
4. Serendipity

Four Places You've Lived: (Again, hard to narrow down! These are not necessarily my favorites.)
1. Rockford, IL
2. Gainesville, FL
3. New York City
4. Seattle, WA

Four TV Shows you love to Watch:
1. CSI - the original
2. House
3. Numbers
4. Clean Sweep, Clean House, etc....

Four Places You've Been on Vacation:
1. Montreal
2. London, Rome, Florence, Venice, Pisa, Bern, and Paris (all in one 3-week long trip)
3. All the Laura Ingalls Wilder hot spots (with my family when I was 14)
4. Columbia River Gorge in Oregon/Washington (with my parents right before I got pregnant with DD.)

Four Websites You Visit Every Day:
Besides all of my favorite blogs I also hit these sites -
1. USA Today
2. JigZone
3. Some random on-line quilt store to look at things I don't need!
4. Auburn University

Four Of Your Favorite Foods:
1. Shrimp
2. Cheesecake
3. Strawberries
4. fresh pineapple

Four Places You'd Rather Be:
1. asleep
2. out of debt
3. lighter, weight wise
4. Quilting

Four Albums You Can't Live Without:
1. Toby Keith's "Unleashed"
2. The Very Best of Sting & the Police
3. Dixie Chicks - "Fly"
4. Billy Joel's greatest hits

Four People You'll Pass This On To:
1. you
2. yes, I am talking to you.
3. no, don't look behind you
4. yes we really are interested in your answers!

OK, I have bored you enough for one night. I am off to sew for a few minutes before heading off to bed.

Alive and better in Alabama

I heard from my one loyal blog reader (my sister!) today that she thought I must be dead since I had not posted in a few days. Friday I woke up with a headache and no voice. I got up, picked out school clothes for DD, packed her lunch, and went back to bed. DH got up and got her ready and took her to school for me. I stayed in bed ALL day, sleeping for most of it. I woke up this morning feeling much better. The funny thing was last night DH walks into our bedroom and asks whats for dinner and tells me that I didn't take anything out to thaw! He nearly got beaten to death - if I had felt just a little bit better!

Thursday I got the binding put on the blue trip around the world quilt and got it half put on the hot pink quilt. So this morning I finished putting on that binding, put on the label, and delivered them to the sewing center.

I spent about an hour last night trying to organize the boxes in my sewing table. Spent some time cutting scraps down to Bonnie's suggested sizes. Came across a gallon size ziplock bag full of 3 inch squares leftover from this quilt. I am making the left over squares into four patches which I will alternate with a solid white square. I'll show a picture when I get the top together.

I also decided that I no longer have any interest in this quilt. So I am going to cut my losses and finish it up into something maybe lap sized instead of bed sized. I already have enough of the pinwheel blocks made to finish it up. I had put this away in August because I got tired of it. I found the pieces in the bottom of my scrap box yesterday and decided that I am still tired of it! Anyone else have UFO's out there that they just can't face?

Well, I need to go get DD out of my tub before she floods my bathroom and get DS into the tub to soak off a few days dirt! How does one little boy get so dirty? Don't bother to answer that! I know its because of the lovely yard full of beautiful red mud in the lot next door. I can't wait for that sod to go down - hopefully in the next week or so! Yeah!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Can you handle this much pink?

Growing up with bright red hair made me have an aversion to certain colors. We have already discussed my avoidance of all things orange. Now I am admitting my aversion to pink. And red, for that matter. I do not own a single piece of red clothing. The only thing I own that is pink is such a pale pink I would barely call it pink. How many times can I use pink in one sentence?
This is all to say that this is a very "Maverick" piece for me. Way out of my comfort zone. Notice I had to put some blue in there to be able to get through it. Being pink AND such wild prints was a real departure from my usual comfort zone. Yes, blue and yellow. yada yada yada.

Anyway, this is the last Project Linus top sitting here, so now I get to get pieceing again! Yeah! First I am going to make myself get the binding put on these two so I can take them in and drop them off.

Right now, its time for lunch and a nap. I told Maddie she needed to take a nap today because we have bible class tonight and then when we get home she wants to watch "Mythbusters". And then she has to get up early to go back to school tomorrow. She, at almost 7, is addicted to science shows. On New Year's Eve, they were running a Mythbusters marathon and she loved it! She also loves to watch Zoom on PBS as soon as she gets home from school.

First quilt of the new year!

Today I got this quilt loaded on the machine and quilted. It is going to the Project Linus contest at the sewing store. The contest ends February 18th. I know my chances are slim to win the new machine but it is fun to make baby quilts. They are quick and easy. If I try something new and don't like it, it doesn't take that long to finish! I also loaded the hot pink top onto the machine and got the backing pieced for it. I am hoping to get that one quilted tomorrow. Then maybe I can whip out a couple more tops before February 18th.

I have given up hope of getting the house perfectly clean while everyone is home from school. Maddie goes back on Thursday and DH starts again on Monday. He has been home for a month. The classes he teaches (architecture) do not have final exams, so when classes are over, he's done. So he has been home since December 6th, asking me "what's for lunch?". Go open the frig and see what you can find! I do enjoy having him around more than usual but I am ready for a little quiet time!

Time for bed!

My brilliant husband

Thanks to my brilliant DH, here is a simulated picture of what the whole quilt will look like. He was able to take the photo of the quarter of the top, play with it for about 3 minutes in photoshop, and produce a picture of the entire top. Cool! I knew I kept him around for a reason! I like it better than I expected. What do you all think?

Too pink, even for a tutu!

I found a picture of a baby quilt I liked on-line and then replicated it in EQ5. The picture above is 1/4 of the top. Not sure if there is enough contrast between the floral print and the lightest pink (looks almost white in the picture). Not sure if I am going to like it or not. If I don't, it can become a Project Linus quilt and I can start over! I wanted to use the dark pink where I am using the floral print, but I didn't have enough. I'll show you the whole thing when I get it done.

What is everyone else up to?

One day down - and no purchases! (no laughing please!)

Adding to Nina's stash (and a little for me too!)

Today is "Share pictures of what I bought on our trip" day! Aren't you excited? I know Nina is!

This lovely purple print looks batiky but isn't really. ($2/yard) - for Nina.

This fabric is really kind of a periwinkle color. I loved the bands of flowers going through it. ($2/yd) for me.
I know, I know - it's blue! But aren't the fish wild? $1/yard. for me!

It's batik - its wild - its for Nines! $1/yard.

Its orange! Guess who its for! Nines! The dark spots are kind of purple and there is a leaf print all over it.
This purple with butterflies is for Bekah and Eva, in hopes that their mama will make them some cute summer dresses! There is about 5 yards of it. $1/yard!
And last but not least, another batik. It has the same leaf print all over it. The color ranges from dark, dark green to purple to some yellow spots. Again, $1/yard.

All in all, I got 18 yards of fabric for $24. That's $1.33 a yard. Not too bad! Hobby Lobby gets quilt store quality fabric because they are not a "chain". I guess all the stores are owned by one family - they are not franchised out? Anyway, they have nice fabric and when they put it on clearance, you can't beat their prices!

Today , I am going to try and get the christmas tree un-decorated and put everything away. We aren't sure what you are suppose to do with your tree. Do the trashmen come and take them away?

Hope everyone is getting some quilting time in!

No, I have not disappeared!

We have returned from Tennessee and are home for a while! Do you hear the relief in my voice? I have had too much time sitting in the car from Thanksgiving until now. My BIL came home sick from work yesterday so we went to a motel last night. Mostly so we wouldn't get his creeping crud, but also to not inflict him with the extra noise of two more children on top of his own three. Since my parents are currently living in a 28 foot travel trailer, we could not go stay with them. DH had finished painting both stairwells, so we decided to head on home this morning. We kind of dilly-dallied along the way. We went by OpryMills mall for about an hour so DH could check out the bike shops and then drove to the south side of town and had lunch at "My Little Italy". Yummy pizza. By the time we got to the south side of Birmingham, we needed a potty break so we stopped at Hobby Lobby! Found lots of cute fabric on clearance! And to those of you that are wondering about my purchases, IT IS NOT THE NEW YEAR YET!!!! My DH asked the same question! Actually over half of it is getting sent to Nina! Haha! Some of it is even ORANGE!

We are all thankful to be home. Now we get some time to relax before DD and DH go back to school at the end of next week.

To keep this quilty, here is a picture of a quilt made by DH's great grandmother. I saw two quilts folded up on a shelf at Thanksgiving and asked Aunt Judy what they were. One was this quilt with pink appliqued flowers. The other is a brown and red Irish chain made by her husband's grandmother. Both quilts are in excellent condition and have obviously been well loved and cared for through the years.

Today's surprise accomplishment

My mom called a few weeks ago, asking if I had any girlie baby quilts that did not have a purpose. What a question! She knew of course that I had the pile of tops waiting to be quilted for the Project Linus contest. Anyway...She really wanted to give a long time friend a quilt for her new grand-daughter. Mom and Linda have been friends since my dad was in college. What makes me feel old is that I have memories of the birth day of the new mother. I was seven. I remember we went to the hospital to see her in the nursery. I know there are lots of people out there that can say the same thing about me making them feel old, specifically my mom!

So we decided on this pink quilt. And of course she wanted me to quilt it! I am taking it to her to bind. I put it on the machine this morning, thinking maybe I could get it quilted tomorrow afternoon. But the kids played outside for a while this morning so I got about half done then. And tonight their bedrooms had to be cleaned before Santa could come and then baths had to be taken, so the quilt got finished!

Can I share with you how much I love using the last of something? Like using a spool of thread until it is entirely gone? Or piecing together pieces of leftover batting to use on this baby quilt? I think it give me a sense of finality that I don't get from my house cleaning and laundry! My mom is probably thinking to herself "what house cleaning?" You didn't know I could read your mind long distance did you?

Time for me to go to bed so Santa can come. He may get stuck in the mud around here. Definitely no snow here - but it has been raining since about 6 pm.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

I want to wish all my blog-land friends a very merry Christmas. May you be surrounded by good friends, good family, and good food. Hope everyone has safe travels wherever you may be headed.

We are having Christmas day at home, by ourselves! Wow, we must really be adults! Then on Monday we will head up to Tennessee to be with my parents and my sister's family. My parents have big plans for DH - he gets the fun job of painting the high parts of the stairway since he is the only one in the family with out a fear of heights! What they do not realize is that his fee for painting high spaces is double what he charges for his architectural services!

We were overcome with insanity today and actually went to the mall for about an hour. We had lunch in the food court (yummy!) and then the kids went in search of presents for mommy dearest! We made it out alive and came home to take a nap!

DS was cuddling in bed with me last night and I asked him what he wanted for christmas. He told me a wanted a "real" gun and an electric guitar. I am not sure what he thinks he needs a real gun for! And an electric guitar? I told him he needs to start on a regular guitar and then once he has mastered that he can move up to an electric guitar. (And yes, he is getting a guitar.) I see a noise-filled house in my future! How can it get any noisier?

Anyway.... hope you all have a wonderful christmas and I hope Santa brings you what you wished for!

I actually did something quilty!

Today, I let myself take a time-out and sit down to sew on the binding on the quilt Nines gave back to me last week. She's right - it is HUGE! Last night I bought the cafe clips at Home Depot and got hubby to put them up so I could take this picture. As you can see, my curtain rod that is about 9 feet high - is still not tall enough to show this quilt in its entirety! Now if this doesn't cover my whole bed, I am just going to give up!

I decided to call this quilt "Land of Lincoln", in homage to the log cabin blocks and the birthplace of yours truly! Lots of wide open spaces in Illinois! I had forgotten how flat Indiana and Illinois are until we were driving across the wide open plains covered with snow, last week. I expected Alabama to be flat but it is actually really hilly, nice gentle flowing hills. Birmingham is the ending point of the Appalachian mountains.

I tried to get a couple of shots to show off Nina's quilting. She did beautiful feathered wreathes in the open spaces. And then kind of McTavishing in the other spaces. I LOVE IT! Especially because I know Nina quilted it just for me!

The pictures should be clickable. The quilting will be more visible in the larger pictures.

Thanks again Nina! I will always cherish this quilt because we both had a hand in making it.

Mimi's Frosted Cookies!

Today I decided to share with you one of my oldest Christmas related memories. My grandma, Mimi, made these cookies every year at Christmas time. They are a very simple cookie with pecans chopped up in them and powdered sugar frosting. She always made the frosting pink and a light green. I assume she was going for red and green for Christmas. We have had a variety of colored frosting over the years. One year my mom made my DH some orange and blue frosting (Go Gators!). Today, DD wanted purple frosting. Not so easy to do. We kept red and then adding blue but it kept staying this mauvey color. Oh well - she was happy!

Here's Mimi's recipe -

Mimi's Frosted Cookies

Combine:
1 cup margarine, softened
5 heaping tablespoons powdered sugar
1 tsp. water
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup finely chopped nuts

Chill 15 minutes. Roll into balls. Make thumbprints in each. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 - 15 minutes. Frost with powdered sugar frosting.

Frosting:
Melt 3 tablespoons margarine. Add 3 tablespoons of milk. Mix in powdered sugar until you reach a thick frosting consistency. Add food coloring if you like.

Here's to grandmothers and sweet Christmas time memories!

I have returned from the frozen north...

Otherwise known as Wisconsin! I had forgotten what it is like to be cold all the time!

I want to thank all of you for your kind words and your prayers. My paternal grandmother, we called her Mimi, passed away Tuesday morning after suffering from a massive stroke Monday night. She would have been 80 in January. My grandparents celebrated their 62nd anniversary in November. 62 years together! I can't even begin to imagine being together that long. They got married when she was 17 years old and he was a soldier getting ready to be sent off to serve in WWII.

Mimi quilted, but unfortunately I don't have any of her quilts. I do have that box of unfinished blocks that I shared with you a while ago. She used to make me and my sister all kinds of doll clothes, both for barbies and for bigger dolls. Me and my sister had these twin dolls that were almost life sized. My mom has them and all their clothes at her house. It is fun to see our daughters playing with them now and remember Mimi making all the cute clothes for them.

We are all thankful that she died quickly and painlessly. She went into a coma almost right away. She was in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's but she still knew who most people were. I am very glad that she had not gotten to the stage where she did not recognize my grandfather. I think that would have broken his heart.

Even though we were sad to have to make the trip, I was thankful that we got to see several special people along the way. We stopped Tuesday night in Louisville and spent the night with friends. Once we got to Wisconsin we got to see my grandfather, aunts , uncles and cousins, several of whom I hadn't seen in a few years. My whole family was able to stay with my Aunt and Uncle who live in Whitewater. This is an uncle on my mom's side of the family. I have two uncle Larry's - my mom and dad each have a brother named Larry! Kind of a "this is my brother Darryl and this is my other brother Darryl!" Anyway - the aunt and uncle we stayed with are very fun to be with. We call my aunt "Auntie Dimento" because she is so silly! Me and my family stayed in the basement. My sister and her family were in one bedroom and my parents were in the other spare room. Luckily we all like each other - pretty much!

And on the way home, my sweet husband let us stop for lunch with Nina and her DH and three of the kids. We met at the restaurant where me and Nina would go when we would go shopping in Indy. Joe's Crab Shack! Yummy! As Nina said, our visit was WAY too short, but at least I got to see her for a little while. Maddie (my DD) and Eva (her DD) both seemed to enjoy seeing each other again. Maddie is exactly five days older than Eva. Both of our families moved to Muncie when the girls were about 6 months old. Luckily they like to play together as much as me and Nina do!

Nina gave me lots of goodies, which she has already showed you part of! And she returned my HUGE quilt, which she quilted for me. Now to get the binding on! The quilting is beautiful! I will take pictures of it when I get the binding done. I am trying to talk DH into letting me put those cafe curtain clips on the big curtain rod in our living room, so I have a good place to hang huge quilts to photograph. She also gave me some beautiful yellows and blues, half yard cuts. And she gave me a charm bracelet, with an Eiffel Tower charm on it. So cute. Now she has guilted me into getting her Christmas presents finished and in the mail! We both said that seeing each other was the best Christmas gift we could ask for!

Enough of my rambling! I am off to bed! Thanks again for your kind thoughts and prayers.

Look what I did today!

Today I woke up in the mood to quilt. I already had the backing pinned on so all I had to do was load the top on and get going. I did a BIG meander and got done fast! I had about 280 inches of binding already made from coffee quilt #1. I usually always over estimate the amount of binding I will need - by a lot, obviously! I went ahead and added 40 more inches just to be safe. Got it all machined on by about 1 p.m. Even the label is on!!! Since I have no patience as far as giving gifts, especially really good gifts, I went ahead and gave it to DH. He loves it, especially when he saw that I had used all the coffee scraps in it. He also likes the name - "Leftover Coffee". DH usually makes one or two pots of hot coffee per week. The rest of the week he drinks the leftovers as iced coffee. This is where the name comes from and the fact that I was able to use up most of my leftover coffee fabric scraps.

I have heard from a lot of people about my NO-BUY resolution for the new year. See yesterday's post if you have no idea what I am talking about. So far it looks like Joanne, Judy, Sharon, Finn and me are ready to take the no-buy vow. Not sure what would happen if we did buy something "illegal". Maybe that's where the quilt police come in to play! Anyone else want to join us?

An Early New Year's Resolution !

First of all, this is my 100th post! Who knew I had so much to say? No comments from the peanut gallery please. I want to thank all of my faithful readers, both of you! And of course I need to thank all of the other Mavericks - you all are such a big inspiration to me. You make me want to get out of my quilting rut and try new things.

Which leads me to my second point. After reading Judy and Bonnie's recent posts about our out of control stashes and piles of UFOs , I have decided to make a NO-BUY commitment for 2006. I am going to use the same guidelines as the yahoo group "Stashbuster" uses. No buying allowed - except for the B's - backgrounds, borders, or backings, binding, and batting - needed to finish a project. I really have enough fabric to last me a while, really I do. If I could just get my brain to remember that fact. If I got busy making stash quilts, I bet I could use up most of my stash by this time next year. Wouldn't it be wonderful to not feel guilty when I go fabric shopping?

Anyway... anyone who wants to join me is more than welcome to. I would appreciate all the encouragement I can get.

Does anyone else have any quilting New Year's resolutions they would like to share?

Christmas arrives at the Norman House

Yes, Luke Skywalker was here to help set up our tree. You can never have too many Jedi masters around!


Christmas finally arrived at our house today! We got our act together and went to the Christmas tree farm this morning. What fun! We found this beautiful 8 foot tall tree, cut it down ourselves, and hauled it home. The tree was only $34.50 - and as DH said it is Fresh and from Alabama! We were a little worried we would get the tree home and it would look dwarfed in our living room. This room has 11 foot ceilings and very tall windows. But the tree was just the right size. We got our eclectic collection of ornaments put on it. For some unknown reason one string of lights has decided to blink this year! Too bad we have no presents to put under it! I'd better get busy!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

More cute kids!

OK, if everyone else is going to show off their cute kids, I am too! This is Maddie (going on 7) and Ian (4.5). They are my sweeties! I spend most of the day chasing Ian around trying to steal kisses.

As far as quilting, I managed to get the backing for DH's coffee lap quilt pieced and loaded on the machine. I am hoping to get going on the quilting tomorrow. I also applied 19 feet of bias binding to another project I am working on (not a quilt). Can't share any more info because they are going to certain people that I know will read this. The binding went much quicker than I expected - probably because I did not have to first make the binding and then sew it on. I bought the premade stuff. Much simpler!

It has been overcast and drizzly all day. Good day to stay in and sew!

More kaleidoscope quilts!

I thought I would share the kaleidoscope quilts that I have made. This one was made out of a cool Hawaiian print fabric that I found at JoAnn's. It was the second one that I made. Me and Nina made a total of about 4 of these kaleidoscope quilts in the span of one week after I learned the method on Simply Quilts.

This is the very first one I made. It was made out of a wild floral print that I found at... WALMART for $1.00 a yard. I know you are all shocked and appalled! I didn't want to waste expensive fabric on something I wasn't sure was going to work. It turned out to be kind of a strange size - kind of long and skinny.

This one with the olive green background was made with a fabric that looked like Italian plates, artichokes and other veggies on it. You can see the fabric better in the second photo. I also used the fabric as the backing. That way I can show people what I used to make the kaleidoscope blocks. No one ever believes that all these different looking blocks can come from the same fabric. This quilt I gave to my MIL, who uses it underneath a tablecloth as a pad for her glass top table. UGH! I know she loves the quilt but ....

The Quilt Nina mentioned

Here is my very first quilt, the one Nina mentioned in her latest post. What Nina did not mentioned was that the other lady who was one of the "teachers" in our little quilt class wanted me to go out and buy all new yellow and blue fabric, because the first strips I cut were not perfectly straight. Nina said no, we can make them work. Nina is the queen of easing things together! Me and Nina were almost ready to pull our hair out trying to figure out the triangles in the border. What a pain!

I want you all to know that I feel just as lucky to have Nina for a friend as she thinks she is to have me. This mutual admiration society is so much fun! Now if we could just move Indiana a lot closer to Alabama we would be all set!

Look what showed up at my house today!

I went outside this morning to find this large box on my front stoop. Inside was this little sewing machine for my daughter, from my grandmother. As you can see, it is called "Dressmaker", but I would hate to even think about sewing a dress on this machine. It is SO noisy! But of course, Maddie is thrilled with it. It comes with its own carrying case and bobbins, thread, seam ripper, scissors, etc. The knob in the center is for adjusting stitch length. There is a button for the light, one to make it go faster, and one to make it go/stop instead of using the foot pedal. Maybe this will get her addicted to sewing too! If she sticks with it, I would love to buy her her own featherweight for her 16th b-day. I should probably start saving my money right now!

It's done and out of here!

I finished the binding and the label for "We're singing the blues!" on Saturday. We hosted the college age bible class last night. Our preacher usually teaches the class so I talked his wife into coming along too. When I handed her the quilt, she said "What's this?". I told her it was a quilt for them and she said "But I didn't want to cry tonight!" When we unfolded it, she said she loved it, especially because it was blue! David (our preacher), refused to look at it because he didn't want to start crying!

This label was made using an iron on outline that you then go over in fabric marker. I also used some fabric crayons to color in the flowers. This was the first time I had used the fabric crayons.

Here is a close up of the BIG meandering I did. Goes nice and quick!

Some old projects to share

Since I haven't done anything quilty in a few days, I thought I would share some old projects. I was hired to make this purple quilt for my sister and BIL to give to their niece as a high school graduation present. Guess what her favorite color is! This led to a lot of left over purple fabric which eventually got made into the baby quilt below.

This little wallhanging or tablerunner was made for my daughter's school's auction last year. My sweet SIL bid on it! I told her I would make her one for free if she would just ask! Nina did the quilting on it for me!
I made these batik blocks to go with some blocks Nina has started. We were going to make a quilt for her nephew's high school graduation. We thought he needed a cool quilt to take off to college. After we started this one, we discovered that the boy's mom was making him a quilt. Up until this point, she was only a collector of fabric. So now Nines has a nice collection of batik blocks!