Poor Dog

You will have to click on the picture to see it in full size view. The story behind the picture is that Grace decided to take Buddy for a walk around the yard. When I agreed, I didn't realize it meant she would be driving the Barbie Jeep and Buddy walking beside. The picture is what I saw when I looked out the bedroom window.

I love my little girl. There is never a dull moment with her.

My story for tonight is that I got her into bed. She really doesn't like being in her room by herself. I've been working really hard to keep her out of our bed. She announced that I should spend the night with her in her room. I said I thought that would be acceptable. The next comment was what made me smile. Well Mom, how about Tuesday? Does that work for you?

Have a great night!

Cliffhanger

I'm addicted to the crazy police shows on TV. I watch all of the CSI episodes. I record Criminal Minds and Numbers. (OK, I'm addicted to Dancing with the Stars too, but I don't tell very many people about that little secret. :-) )

My title relates to Criminal Minds last night. OMG - last nights episode was very disturbing. I had pig dreams the entire night. Not a good show to watch right before going to bed. I don't know if I'm going to be able to wait until next season to see what happens. AAAHHH.

Our swimming pool opened last weekend. We had to go last night. Grace tells me the water was very warm. Yeah, no way I'm getting in. I refuse to put a swimsuit on. Guess I really better get busy and start doing some real exercising. Walking the dog 3 times a day just isn't cutting it.

I can hardly wait for the long weekend. We will be outside doing household projects. I am hoping to hit the girl cave at some point. There's a couple of projects I would really like to finish up. Oh and a wedding veil that needs to be made. I found some AWESOME instructions on the the net, that make me think I can take on anything.

Have a great day!

Kitties & Coffee

Well the pictures aren't in the order I thought they would be. Oh well. This is a wall hanging that I got at the show on Friday. You can click to make it larger. Cracked me up. When I showed my husband the finished top today, he didn't think it was near as funny as I did. Oh well.

This is a picture of a quilt that I did for a lady at work. She pieced the top and I quilted it and put the binding on it. She said she is using it on top of a table for a bridal shower this upcoming weekend. I bought some thread at the show and really had problems with it breaking. I switched to something I picked up when in Iowa and it worked great. I have the same quilt kit and now I can't wait to busy and make it.

Last but not least, our kitties. They were trying to get up high enough that Buddy (the dog) couldn't get them. Buddy's bed is on the chair because he was tearing the stuffing out of it. His new favorite thing to do with everything. I keep telling myself he's still a puppy, be patient. AHHH. Shiner is in the bed and Sissy is at the bottom of the pile. Sissy is on the quilts that I've been sewing binding on. Pretty comfy.


Have a great week!

MQS

All I can say is WOW. There were some INCREDIBLE quilts at the show. I've decided that I want to quilt like Janet Fogg when I grow up. Not like it's going to happen any time soon, growing up that is.

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I posted 115 pictures out there that I took today. Okay, so I have an issue. I would have taken more, but I thought that it might be overkill. The whole time I was walking around, I could hear my step mom in the back of my head - PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. I know that my skills could become so much better, if I would just take the time to practice. It does all come down to time (which for me, there is never enough).

I can't show the pictures of what I bought, well because I will get in a LOT of trouble. :-)

Playing with the machines was a lot of fun. I'm really impressed with the new Gamill Mid-Arm and the Babylock Jewel. Those were the 2 that I had the most fun with. Very excited to find out though that Nolting came out with a micro-drive attachment. I don't know if I will EVER get into the itty bitty tiny stitching, but the drive was TOTALLY cool.

So, stitch regulators - I can't decide if I'm a convert to them. I had fun playing with the machines on regulator mode. Since my machine doesn't have a stitch regulator, I've learned the feel and have become pretty consistent with the stitches. The regulator was fun though. For some reason I wasn't afraid to do things like feathers and crazy curly Q's, which I am on my machine. Don't know why, but I am. Anyhow, really weighing that whole thing.

One last story for tonight. If you are on Facebook (I am), did you know there is a Marketplace application? I just found it the other day. Very cool concept. The bad thing, I was selected by some goon to see if he could pull of a scam. To me it sounded like wire fraud. He wanted to buy one of my quilts for his "client" in Malaysia. The goon, as I so nicely refer to him, said he would send me a money order for more than the amount of the quilt, but then I was to wire the remaining money elsewhere. My response, probably not the most politically correct, Yeah, I'm not OK with that. Give me a money order or use PayPal or take a hike. Guess what, haven't heard from the goon again. Nice!

Well, big weekend. I have a quilt to quilt tomorrow for a lady I work with. Bridal Shower in the afternoon and a wedding veil to make. Oh yeah, and new stuff that I bought today, to play with.

Have a great weekend.

IMQA

Taking the day off tomorrow and heading to the IMQA quilt show. I can't wait. Just up the street from the house, so it's fun not to have to drive very far to get there. If I were so darn lazy, I probably could walk.

I will be on the look out for blogger quilts - Anita from Kentucky, Deb from Florida (those are the only 2 I can think of off the top of my head).

Speaking of head, allergy season has kicked into full gear. I'm ready to go to bed because I'm tired from all the sneezing. I wish I had the nice dainty girl sneeze (aachoo). But no, I have the monster, I'm going to sneeze my head off sneeze (AAAAAACCCCHHHOOOO). The Kleenex box does not stray far or maybe it's that I don't stray far from it.

Oh well. Have a great night. Check back tomorrow for pictures.

Books, Books & More Books

Thank you Kimberly Jolly (Fat Quarter Shop). Kimberly sent an email about gift certificates for Mother's Day, which is nonchelantly forwarded to the wonderful husband. Guess what I got for Mother's Day? Why yes, you're right, a gift certificate. So I did a little shopping. I think I now have all of the books by Heather Mulder Peterson.

I happened to find another Jelly Roll or 2 1/2" strip book and had to have it. Very very cool quilts. Can't wait to get busy.




Last night was guild. Julie Jenkins came and talked about the Square in a Square technique created by Jodi Barrows. I'm hooked. Had to get the ruler and 2 books. Made my first block tonight in about 5 minutes. I can't wait to get sewing this weekend.

I'm off to bed. Have a great night.

Just thought I would check in this morning. All is well. Mother's Day was great. Grace & hubby took me to Ingredient for breakfast. If you ever get the chance to go there, do. It was wonderful. I had an omelette where I got to pick the ingredients (those are the best), some totally awesome breakfast potatoes and coffee. Grace got a HUGE pancake with her choice of 3 toppings. She thought syrup needed to be one so she ordered double and then looked very confused when the girl told her syrup came with the meal. Hubby got a breakfast pie with his choice of toppings. We were in and out in 40 minutes, which was nice.

I got a gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop, so I had to a little shopping this morning. I bought 3 Anka Treasure books. Now I'm going to be impatiently watching the mail box. In perusing the website, I was excited to see there is a whole section of Christmas charm squares, jelly rolls, etc. I can't believe I'm going to say it, but I'm ready for the Christmas sewing to start.

I was able to spend some time futzing around in the girl cave yesterday. No sewing, but lots of ironing and cutting. There are 2 large totes full of scraps under my quilting frame. I've decided that I need to start cutting the scraps into 4.5" through 6.5" squares as well as 2.5" strips. I managed to clear out the patriotic fabric and cut the remnants into strips and get those all nicely folded in a plastic shoe box. Then I cut strips from some other large pieces I found at the bottom of the tote. The rest has been ironed and ready to be cut up tonight or sometime this week. Hopefully with all of this cutting, I can get some of my mess cleared up and the mind reeling to start some new projects.

Tonight is Grace's last dance class, so there will be a recital. Can't wait.

Have a great day!

Done Whining...For Now

Ok, so that was some serious whining, now that I've re-read that last post. Felt a little bit better getting it off my chest. I'm going to make a list and get busy. This week I will finish up the big stash of bags that I've been making for Brandi and then get busy with my list of To Do items.

Back to quilting content.

This is what I've been working on. Now that I look at the picture, boy is it ORANGE. The fabric is from a kit that I purchased to make a "beach blanket". At the time I really liked the pattern, but the more I looked at it I decided that I didn't really want to use the fabric for that. So I decided to make up something and see how it looked. The blocks are 10 3/4" (although they should only be 10 1/2" - the elusive quarter inch seam). I was trying to have the colors read light to dark and then twist the blocks in the opposite direction. I found the border fabric on the 1/2 price rack at one of the LQS. It's one of the oranges in the blocks. I'm not so sure that I like it next to all the blocks. Probably will have to stare at it for a while longer. I keep thinking that would rather go with a light blue or light green border instead and then just use the orange for the back.

It's dreary this morning. Good sleeping weather. The weather forecast says it should be in the high 70's by afternoon and then storms tonight. Everything is so incredibly green now. I love Spring.

Last but not least, I must share Buddy pictures. He accompanied Grace and I to the time trial even this weekend. Yeah the guys did great, times were good, but the dog was the talk of the event.

Have a great day!

Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!! Where the heck did April go??? I'm truly at a loss as to where the month went. I'm afraid that May and June, for that matter, are going to go just as fast.

I'm going to continue on this month with the Spring to Finish Challenge that Jacquie threw out in April. Hopefully I can get a few more things finished up. Or maybe even a new project started and finished.

Do you ever feel like you are neglecting everything? That's how I'm feeling right now for some reason. My house is a wreck. I managed to vacuum a little over the weekend. The floors need to be mopped and I'm just not sure when I'm going to get to them. We have a wedding coming up with lots of family coming to town. Trying to get some painting touch ups scheduled, but I'm not sure when I'm going to get to it. Our kitchen needs to be repainted, but it's currently a nice shade of red, so that means priming and then probably 2 coats of paint. UGH. We took out a hot tub from this alcove area we have outside our kitchen / hearth room. That needs to be landscaped, but first we need to remove rocks and put some more dirt in. Yet another UGH. I just can't seem to get motivated to do anything. The weekends are full and that darn job of mine is putting a cramp in my time. I guess I shouldn't complain about the job because I have one and there are a LOT of people without. A month off would be nice though. Do you think I can still have the pay and not have to use vacation???

So on that note, have a great evening and sleep tight. I'm off to brush my teeth and go to bed. I'm going to put my head under the pillow and worry about it all tomorrow.