Blocks are Finished!

It's been a slow two weeks around here with quilting. We have all been sick with a very high temperature and just passing it from one to the next. All four of us have had it but not at the same time so it has been a little crazy. Taking care of 1 kid, then Rich, then I had it, then J got it. Now I think we are done. I also scrubbed all the walls and the house down, hoping to combat some of these germs. It has also been in the 50's the last two days so we had windows open, airing out. Today it was only 45 and rain so I didn't open up as much as I would have liked!

But finally the blocks for T's quilt are done. Now I can put the sashing in it this week and hopefully get some backing in the next month or so. I think this is going to turn out really well and I hope he likes it. I mentioned I found this guitar fabric and am building his quilt off this. Well, it is going to have the purple, orange, blue, green and pink squares in it. I have 6 guitar squares and the rest will be plain. The sashing will be the blue material. He wanted simple, and he picked out this pattern so off I went with it.

So next week after I get this sewn together I will go back to my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler and something else, but I am not sure what. I have material to make a black and white quilt and 2 jelly rolls for a pattern called Strip Poker, so I am sure it will be one of those.

Tonight J is at a hockey game playing with the band. He went to school today miserable because if you don't go to school then you don't do anything extra at night. T and Rich are playing Lego on XBox and I am going to do some blog reading and then read my current book "Middlesex". Tomorrow I will be working on T's quilt and then we have a baseball fundraiser tomorrow night, a night at the races, that I don't really want to go to but I am. Sunday I don't believe we have anything planned!

Hope everyone has a good weekend and stays dry!

C'Mon!!

Hey everyone! I need 4 more people for my PIF! There have to be 4 of you out there lurking (in the us/canada) that want to play! Its so great and so much fun, just think you get a little something and then just have to give a little something in return. I know there is someone out there who wants to play with me!! Send me a comment.

Meghan at Quilted Life and Comfort Cove Designs, Send me an email letting me know yours. And I will send you back one with some questions I have for you! Thanks!!

Tri-M

Tri-M is a music honor society that has a junior chapter for 7th and 8th grade. J was inducted into the honor society last night. So we went to the ceremony and there were (I kid you not) 28 kids there. Of those 28 about 14 were second year members being congratulated and 14 were new inductees.

Now, here is my question...the invitation said "Semi-formal". To me that means that the boy needs to wear a tie, no jeans etc...so Rich and I dressed as follows:

Doesn't he look good??

We were the ONLY parents dressed that nice! I was floored. Half the kids were dressed in their school clothes. Most of the parents had on jeans and sweatshirts. Now the invitations were these nice engraved almost wedding response looking things. Don't ya think that meant it was supposed to be a little fancier?? Ok, but whatever, the whole thing lasted less then 20 minutes. We were home within the hour...

J has on the red tie.

So that was our night, I am off to blog read (finally catch-up) then do some sewing and cleaning. I am giving the house its spring cleaning so it will be done!

BTT and Pay It Forward

Todays post is kind of a mishmash....

First Booking Through Thursday

“How do you arrange your books on your shelves? Is it by author, by genre, or you just put it where it falls on?”


Well, there is no order, none whatsoever. There are books everywhere. We hav 6 bookshelves, 2 that are tall, and have 5 shelves and 4 wiht 3 shelves. They are all full. Each son has a tall case in their room, there are 2 small cases in our room, one in the living room and one in the family room. Plus a box of books in the basement that I keep meaning to take to donate to the library or somewhere. The only books that have a certain spot are my classics and those are on the top shelf in J's room. Why because they are....


Then the second part of today's post. I joined a PIF back in November or something at DaisyQuilts (Hi Robyn!) and then yesterday my other friend Terry (Hi Terry) posted one, and I joined hers. So now I need 6 people, yes, 6 people. and I know there are 6 of you out there who want to do this! And if there are more than 6 of you, Terry needs 2 more! I know there are people out there who want to do this! So leave me a message and we will play!

Side note: I always thought that you listed your PIF when you received your gift, but seems like people aren't doing that so I am listing both and if you join you will receive a handmade gift from me within a year and you have to pay it forward to 3 people! So C'mon everyone - join the fun!!!

February Finish

I finally got the binding sew on my quilt so I have my first February finish, and it will probably be my only one! The pattern is called Country French and the pattern is by French Fantasy Designs. I used the Kashmir II fabric line (I think by Moda) and the backing is just a green that I found at JoAnn's that I really like. I like this quilt because of the colors, love this fabric and it is a large lap so it will cover me from head to toe. I did simple quilting in the ditch on it rather than get too fancy or stipple it.

And I have been working on T's strips for his quilt today. I have all the other colors sewn into four strips and have them cut to sew into squares, just pink and blue to go. So hopefully this top will be done in the next week or so....

Its been a slow week for quilting this week again. I fell again yesterday and am really sore today. It was a pretty bad fall and I have several LARGE bruises on my body today. Rich was home today with a sinus infection, and because he snores like a freight train I didn't get much sleep last night. But hopefully the quilting will pick up a bit here. I am going to an open house for a cleaning company tomorrow that supposedly pays like $20 an hour....yeah, nuff said. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I need to find something!

Ice Ice Baby

Today J and I went into town to check out the Ice Festival Carvings. Every year here they have an Ice Festival and people come into carve ice into these beautiful statues. We did not get to see any of the carving, maybe next year, because we had too many other things going on this weekend. But when we got there and just as we got out to walk up to the square (yes, we have a town square, with a gazebo) it starts to snow, and not just little snow but these big huge fluffy flakes and the wind picked up a bit. It was cold, but worth it. There were about 88 pictures on my camera when we were done, but here are our favorites!

Pink Panther

J playing Harp

Pineapple

Penguin

Palm Tree

The Leg Lamp!!

Kangroo knits (outside LYS)

True Love

Flutterbys

No sewing today, book club tonight and we will be staying warm! Hope everyone had a good day, back to quilting tomorrow!

Belated Valentines

I borrowed this idea from Jacquie at Tallgrass Prarie Studio, and my boys loved it! I did mine a little differently and used bags and then used scrapbooking paper for the hearts. The two little bags are T and J's. The large bag is Rich's. I left them out on Friday night so they would see them when they came down for breakfast in the morning, J of course missed his and T actually raved about it! I thought for sure he would be like "whatever" being the typical 14 year old boy, but he loved it! He must have thanked me 30 times. And of course Rich loved his. His has a few more hearts and some "personal" things that only he would understand in it, along with the normal stuff. My thought is that I can make more hearts and leave them periodically and they will know exactly what they mean. And will have a place to store them.

Yesterday was spent mostly on the couch for me. I ended up having a temperature of about 102 and was just miserable. I did take the boys to the ortho and then took T to the drs. He banged his elbow at the game on Wednesday and hasn't really been able to grip anything since. But it is getting better and the Dr. said it is just a contusion and tendonitis. Coach won't let him practice till he sees the dr. so that is taken care of. Then I spent the day sleeping for the most part.

I did finish my book for bookclub this weekend (which is tomorrow). It is Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. It is coming out as a movie so that is why it was picked. I am going to start the first Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants next. And of course all my TBR and challenge books!

Today T and I are going to my BFF Krissi's for her and I to sew and the boy will hang out with her daughter. J is at a rabbit show with his mom and Rich went to his Dad's to get our taxes done. I don't expect Rich back till about 7 or maybe later tonight. Tomorrow there is no school so J and I are going to go check out the Ice Festival that is this weekend in town. They have a whole bunch of ice carvings up so we are going to go see the work. I will definately post pictures, there are always some really neat ones! Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day and is staying warm!

O-H-I-O

Is this not the coolest? It is on a barn near our house and I just had to have a picture. I love it!!!

And my sweater is done - it just needs to be blocked. Any suggestions??

Thanks MOM!

And some basketball pictures. We aren't winning but we are actually starting to play like a team so that is good. In fact our last game was close, and Wed they played the 7th graders (which these pictures are from) and played really well...

No sewing or quilting lately, just some cutting of some material, but I am really excited because I am going to see my BFF Krissi on Sunday and we are going to do some sewing!!! Yeah!!!

Hope everyone has a good weekend, hopefully I will get some sewing done!

Rain

That is what has been happening here. Yesterday was a beautiful 57 (F) degrees and today it is dreary and raining. It is still warm, around 50-55 but rain, and not a drizzle, but a steady cold wet rain.

This is what our yard looks like now:

Front Yard

Backyard

The neighbors ducks were out playing in it but swam away when I tried to get closer for a picture so I will have to see if I can get one later.

No sewing really happening, I have been job hunting and enjoying after school basketball and other activities with the kids. T had a game last night and they lost by 2, it was a really good game though and they are actually starting to play basketball versus looking lost. We have a make-up game tonight from a snow day and then we have a 4-H meeting so it will be busy tonight.

Yesterday I did make Rich a seat cushion for his tractor. He hasn't had one in at least 6 months and I kept putting it off but here it is. It is not the best, but its for the tractor so who cares what it looks like!

Hope everyone is staying dry and safe!

Bags, Blocks and Basting

It has been a busy and productive weekend for me here. I spent yesterday morning cleaning the house. Then I got down to business on this bag:] I made a great little wallet to go with it, but forgot to take a picture of it!

After that I finished up Lonesome Dove. What a great book, I loved it. I cried more than once during the book. It was just incredible. Definately earned a 5 (top rating) and is definately on my top 10 for the year (its only February!), but it was so good! It is definately up there with my other favorites like Gone With The Wind, and East of Eden.

Rich was at work and they had a huge water break so I had to play in some online poker tournament for him while he was working. I didn't do too bad, but not well enough to make some good money!

Then today I did more laundry, and basted this quilt.

I hope to get it quilted this week and then I can take it with me when we go to Rich's parents next Sunday and do the binding in the car. I get carsick if I read so this may be a good thing to take!

After that several more blocks for my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.

Tonight, some blog reading and on to my next book, which is probably going to be "We Need To Talk About Kevin". I have to read it for one of my sidebar challenges and might as well while I have it from the library. Next Monday is book club so I also have to read "Revolutionary Road" by then.

Rich is at a baseball meeting, they are lining up their teams for next year. We don't know if we are going to have a team and he may or may not coach. He says this every year, but he always coaches and we always in the end have enough for a team. So we shall see.

All the snow in the area is just about gone. Its mostly where it was pushed up when we plowed and it was warm this weekend (in the 40's). Now if only the grass would turn green and we wouldn't get any more snow!

Have a good night and stay warm!

Quiet Night

It has been a fairly quiet day and night tonight. I haven't got much sewing done. Yesterday I spent the day working on Hippology (study of horses) for our meeting last night. I am taking 8 kids down to Columbus in April for a competition and we meet every week to study about horses. Then today I met my mom at Jo-Ann's and came home. I have been pretty much reading Lonesome Dove all day and am loving it. I have about 200 pages to go and just stopped for a bit. Rich is playing XBox and the boys are at their mom's tonight. Tomorrow it is suppposed to be in the low 40's and rain. Just what we need with all this snow, rain so we get some mud!

Hopefully tomorrow I will get some sewing in, I am sure I will so I will show my progress either tomorrow night or Sunday. Have a good weekend!

BTT, an award and a question

This morning it was -17 when Rich got to work. Why did we have school? Those poor kids out waiting for the bus (including mine, since I didn't realize it was so cold outside!)

Have you ever been put off an author’s books after reading a biography of them? Or the reverse - a biography has made you love an author more?

I don't recall ever being turned off of an author or more into an author because of their biography. I love to read biographys but they don't usually influence me in one way or another. I just like to find out more about their lives and their experiences.




I recieved this lovely award from Lola at and Sew On:

It means: "This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are extremely charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Thanks so much LOLA!!! I appreciate it! I have to pass it on and I can't decide who to pass it on too so I pass it on to everyone who reads my blog!

And a question, some of you read my sister's blog and have seen this, My grandma is going to Australia and New Zealand. So the question we all have is are there any great magazines, quilt shops in Sydney/New Zealand, special fabric that is only available in Australia, yarn??? What do you recommend for her to bring us home? We really (mom, sister and I) DO NOT want to get a t-shirt or something that we aren't going to use! LOL! We have to be specific (grandma is 82 or some years young. (If you ask her she is 29!) so help - give us suggestions! We need a detailed as possible list by next weekend! Thanks so much all you Australian/New Zealand bloggers!

Stay warm!

4 blocks and a start

So much for not starting something new....

I found a material last year that had neon guitars on it and picked up some for T to use in his quilt. He decided he wanted a basic 9 patch type quilt, so I am actually making a 12-patch. Same concept, just bigger. So I made these blocks yesterday:

and am going to turn these fat quarters (plus a blue and pink) into the same...they will all have the black, just different colors. I have most of the strips sewn together and am getting ready to cut them to sew into squares. I need to find a blue and pink to go with these.

I also want to do the sashing in the blue so I need to find something on a bolt, not just fat quarters. I also made 4 more blocks for my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. They are getting easier, but they are not coming out at 6.5" but more like 6" and I am a bit confused as to what size they are supposed to be. Some papers say 6" and some say 6.5" is that finished or unfinished? I figure though as long as they come out the same size, why worry??

And lastly, a picuture from last night's basketball game. We lost, 24-22 in OT. One of our guys scored a 3-pointer right at the buzzer to tie it up. Very exciting, since we were losing 19-7 at the half!

Oh, and it is snow....AGAIN!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Stop by mom's blog to wish my dad a Happy Birthday!

I Love you!