This 'n That

This picture is the view (from my beach chair) of our lake. We live in a lake community, unfortunately we do not own lakefront, but we do have access to 5 different lakes. We haven't been getting to the lake as much as we'd like to lately, between other plans on the weekend and weather that doesn't always cooperate, but it is nice to get there when we do. One of the lakes is much bigger than the rest and is suitable for kayaking, rowboating, canoeing, sailing, etc.

This is another of those weekends that we will not get to the lake. Yesterday we had the fire dept. picnic and then headed out to Pennsylvania to a goodbye party for my nephew and his wife who have been stationed in Okinawa (sp?) for the next 3 years. Today and tomorrow we have been invited to BBQs.

All I can say is it is probably a good thing summer is over. I have to get back to some serious quilting. My wishlist of projects to do gets longer by the day. In addition, there are quite a few people on my 'to make quilts for" list - my nephew who is graduating college, his sister, who just graduated high school, their parents who are celebrating an anniversary this year - my SIL "hinted" that she would like a quilt for either her birthday or anniversary this year, also one of my best friends "hinted" that she would like one too. And last night at the goodbye party the same SIL asked me to make her a totebag for Christmas (maybe she's given up on the quilt!).

First, though I have to get my bag for Linda's bag swap finished and mailed. I am a little behind on that one but I should make the deadline! It's a good thing I have a quilt retreat and a week's vacation coming up in a few months!

Grown Up College Students?

A few weeks ago I was going to a baby shower and made up a quick little blanket from flannel and minkee. DS and his girlfriend were here and fell in love with the minkee - "oh, make me something with that!" they begged. So about a week before they left for college, DS's girlfriend saw some flip flop fabric that I had lying around. (She is the recipient of the flip flop quilt I showed a couple posts ago). She asked if I would make her a pillowcase for her body pillow out of minkee and the flip flop fabric.


This was right about the time I posted about the quilt shop being open only till 5 during the week. I wasn't able to get the minkee until the day before they left for school and there was so much else to do the pillowcases didn't get made. But I finished them this weekend and they are being shipped today. Oh, did I mention that it was originally supposed to be one pillowcase for DS's GF - but when we went to the quilt store to get the minkee, DS saw the dinosaur fabric above and asked for one for himself too.

Have a pieceful day!

Noah's Ark BOM

I've been meaning to post about this for awhile... and now that I've added the link to my sidebar I guess this is as good a time as any!

I've gotten a bit of a late start but I finally began working on Lynette Anderson's Noah's Ark stitchery block of the month. They are small blocks and they are so very cute. The rabbits are month 1. I am hoping to get caught up on these quickly. Click on the button on my sidebar to got to Lynette's blog and see the other months' patterns. She also links to others who have finished the blocks.

Have a pieceful day!

It's Finally Done!

My oldest UFO is done - well, ready to send out to be quilted anyway, close enough!!!!!


It is hard to see with the brown decking but it has a brown border. This is only half of it, it is queen size and the other half is draped over the deck. I adapted a tip I saw on someone's blog last week - sorry I don't remember whose it was - to measure for the borders I draped the quilt over the deck railing - no crawling around on the floor! The original tip that inspired this used her stair railing but I live in a ranch so the deck had to do. It worked really well and I'll continue to use it until the weather prohibits it. This UFO was literally 18 years old. The blocks were from a block party at a guild I belonged to. After I finished it I thought to myself "hmm, I wonder how old the next oldest UFO is?" I checked out my list of UFOs and was glad to discover that the next oldest is only two or three years old!

Oh, and in case you are wondering what that plant is in the container on top of the spackle bucket - it is DH's grapevine. A few months ago we went to a wine festival with friends and on the way out someone was selling grapevines. Now, this thing looked like a stick - no leaves, nothing. So DH bought one and brought it home and believe it or not it grew! It still isn't that big but it did grow. I'm thinking that in about ten years or so he should be able to make me a glass of wine!

Have a Pieceful Day!

End of summer?

DS and his girlfriend left for college this morning. I guess it is technically the end of summer for them - back to the books! Somehow though I think college is more like four years of continuous summer! Especially since they go to school down south - it stays relatively warm (compared to here!) all year. It's definitely a flip flop kinda life!
Speaking of which...(real subtle segway there, huh? LOL!) here is a pic of the quilt I made for DS's girlfriend last year when she was starting her freshman year of college. She is a big fan of flip flops so it seemed appropriate. This year I picked up a flip flop doormat for her new off campus apartment and she left today with a promise that I would make a cover for her body pillow from flip flop fabric and minkee and mail it to her next week. Unfortunately I couldn't get to quilt store until yesterday to get the minkee.

Am I the only one who gets annoyed by quilt stores not having night hours? or does your LQS have night hours? I'm curious. I know a lot of my quilting friends have full time jobs and yet none of the local quilt stores have hours conducive to working women. Yes, the most local shop is open on Thursday evening but the rest of the week they close at 5. Just curious.

Have a Pieceful Day!

Changes!

I've spent the better part of the morning editing my blog. I still can't quite find a color I really like for the background but maybe once I find a quilt I really like for the header it will be easier. As you can see I did put a quilt in the header. I haven't done it before because I don't really like the header being that big and I can't really figure out how to make it smaller. I am not fluent in html. Can anyone give me some tips on how to make the header smaller without using a completely different template?

***Edit*** - Thank you to all who commented on how to change the size of the picture. I could have sworn I tried this when I started my blog and it hadn't worked but I guess I either didn't try it then or was doing something else wrong because it worked this time!

Some of the changes I did manage to make by myself were adding more blogs to the list of blogs I read - I have about 150 blogs on my bloglines so I could not put them all on my sidebar but I did update with a bunch more than I had. There are more to go but I ran out of time. I also finally added some links to swaps, etc. I am participating in and made a few other small changes.

Last night was the Tricky Tray at the fire department where DH is a member. Our little firehouse quilting group made this lap quilt to be donated for one of the prizes. A few of the quilting ladies were in attendance last night and bid on the quilt but none of us won it. It actually went to my neighbor up the street. I was glad it went to someone I knew and she seemed thrilled to win it so I would rate it as an all around success.

I forgot to take a picture of the prize I won last night- it was a poster frame with about 15 instant lottery tickets taped inside. It was the most bid on prize and I was lucky enough to win it. So far I won $22 from the tickets. DH went and cashed them in for me this morning and got half of the winnings in new tickets - so there is still a change of winning big!

Driveway? or Used Car Lot?

We are halfway through the week of having all three kids home and this is what my driveway looks like:

8 cars total! Mine, DH's, DD#1's, DD#2's, DS's old car, DS's new car, DS's girlfriend's car and my neice's car (she came to visit for a night). It was so crowded this morning there was no where for the woman we carpool with to park her car! Any of you that have had kids come and go to college can just IMAGINE what my living room looks like this week. DD has brought all her stuff back and DS is gathering stuff to take with him. On top of that I might as well install a revolving door because someone always has a friend (or 3 or 4) stopping by. It is really great to have everyone home and I know I'll miss DS and his girlfriend when they leave, but it will be nice to get the house back to normal.

I did have a package waiting when I got home today. I've been wanting to get the tumbler and thimble templates that Megan, Kathie and Mary have blogged about, so I finally ordered them along with a dresdan plate template also.

I plan on cutting shapes from scraps and when I have enough I'll start putting them together. I like long term projects that are intended to be long term projects - so much less guilt when they turn out to be long term projects!

Have a pieceful day!

A little progress

Despite the best of intentions I didn't get my oldest UFO finished this weekend - too much going on with having all three kids home at once. I'm not complaining though, as Anna noted on her blog, before you know it they are off on their own for good. I did get my package in the mail with the border and backing fabric I ordered.

The best part was I got it on sale!!! I had bought one fat quarter a while back. It looked good in the store but I wanted to see it up against the blocks. It looked good when I got it home but the store is 2 hours away and I never got around to calling to have them send it to me. Last week when I got some progress made on the oldest UFO I pulled out the fat quarter to see what fabric line it was and did a search on quiltshops.com. I found it in a bunch of online stores and one if them had it marked down to $5.95/yard. How can you beat that when you are ordering 13 yards?

So I got the borders started. If I don't get them finished until after DS gets on his way back to college next week - that's okay. After 18 years in UFO status, can I really get impatient now? LOL!

Cheryl at Polka Dots and Rick Rack is having a giveway for her one year anniversary of blogging - so check it out and while you are there check out the pics of her brandy new baby grandson Luke!

DD is coming home today!

I'm so excited! After graduation college in May and spending the summer in Myrtle Beach, DD#1 is headed home. She should be here within a few hours. For exactly one week I'll have all my babies home, then DS heads back off to college.

Yesterday was DD's friend's baby shower. I am also friends with the grandma to be. Another friend and I made some things for the shower... candy lollipops, hershey bars with customized wrappers and a baby carriage fruit bowl.




This is DD's first friend to get married and have a baby - I guess there will be many more to come. It seems like just yesterday was MY baby shower!

Have a pieceful day!

I've fallen and I can't get up!

Ok, so I fell off the "I'm going to post every day" wagon. For some reason this week I was exhausted and went to bed by 8 or 9 every night. I'm afraid not much of anything got done around here, including posting to my blog. But I'm back now and determined to do better!

Karen nominated me for this award!
Thank you Karen! The rules are that you have to link back to the person who gave it to you, put the logo on your blog, nominate 7 other recipients and put their links on your blog. There is no way I could limit the list to 7 and if I listed all the blogs that inspire me this post would be a mile long! So if I've ever commented on your blog consider yourself nominated!

Have a pieceful day!

Is the Weekend Over Already?

Why is it Saturday and Sunday seem to be the shortest days of the week? I don't know if its because it is summer or what but the weekends just seem to go faster and faster! Maybe it just means we are enjoying our weekends more - as in time flies when you're having fun!

Today DH and I went to a local winery with one of the posse and her DH. We go to this particular winery every 3 months or so. They have a wino club and every three months we go to collect our quarterly selections. We saw this guy wandering outside in the grass and occasionally in the pavillion where the wine tasting was.



We usually have a much bigger group and make a day of it but today it was just the four of us. Mary belonged to the club first, she and her DH got me and my DH to join, then we brought another posse member, who then brought her son and his girlfriend, and so on and so on... I guess our group is getting large now as even the winery staff today asked where the rest of our crowd was!

Have a pieceful week!

Rainy Saturday

I made some good progress on my oldest UFO today. We had thunderstorms so it was a good day to stay inside and quilt. I also ordered my border and backing fabric for it and as luck would have it - it was on sale! No pics of that yet but here is a pic of a version of the BOM I showed yesterday. This was from a quilt show. The pattern is from Piece O'Cake. I'm still not sure if I'll do all 12 blocks or maybe only 9.


Hopefully tomorrow's weather will be better and we can get some time at the lake - that's after the wine tasting we are going to in the early afternoon.

Have a pieceful day!

A Pieceful Evening...

Tonight I had a pleasant surprise - a few hours alone at home - all to myself! I worked on my oldest UFO and watched What Not to Wear. Its so nice to have the house to myself once in awhile - doesn't happen often though!

Last night I worked on my ongoing applique project. These are the first two blocks...




This was a block of the month but it has changed to more like a block of the year! I am working on block 3 now. Each block is 20 inches and has a LOT of applique. As I am not the fastest appliquer and I don't have time to sew every day, it takes me a long time to get each block done but hopefully I can stay on a roll with these.

Have a great weekend!