Saturday's show and tell !

I feel like I have been missing in action all week. We have had a gospel meeting at church this week so that means all our evenings are occupied. That requires getting Maddie to get her homework done as soon as she walks in the door. That's always fun! We had two couples over for dinner on Thursday so I was running around all day, cleaning house and cooking. Finally Saturday is here! AAAHHHH! The kids are playing outside and hubby is working on the spec house next door. I have the house to myself! So far today I have sewn for three hours straight! And talked on the phone to everyone I know, including Nines! She is having a restful or spiteful time in West Virginia!! Which is it?

Let's get to the show and tell part, o.k.?

Quilt top #1 -

I keep finding 2 yard pieces of fabric that are very girlie prints. All I can figure out is that I bought them several years ago, intending to make DD dresses out of it, and then got over that idea! Now that I need to consider making her dresses again, she is too old for these prints! So they are getting made into baby quilts for, you guessed it, Project Linus! If I had been slightly more energetic, I would have fussy cut this fabric so I could center the little figures in the alternate blocks. But that would have wasted ALOT of fabric and would have been a pain to do. So this is what I ended up with. I like how the nine patches look like they are floating on the background fabric, kind of like I appliqued them onto the background. Yeah, right!
Here is a close-up of the fabric so you can see how cute it really is.

Quilt top # 2 -

I was getting a little tired of nine-patches, so I decided on some rail fence blocks, but I had so much of the floral fabric, I decided to do some alternate blocks. Not sure what I think of this one, but it is done! This floral fabric was also supposed to be a dress, I think.

Quilt top #3:

I know I said I was tired of nine-patches, but I am entitled to change my mind! They came about because when I cut the rail fence blocks from the previous quilt I would have about 9 inches left over - the blocks were 11 inches. So I made them into 4 inch strips and then made the yellow/blue/yellow strips for the center. Again, I like the floating nine patch effect.

Another soggy day

I got complaints from the management (aka my sister and mom) that the picture I showed of Abby was not the cutest they had ever seen. So, is this any better? Here she is being kissed by my son. Truly kissing cousins. They are so sweet with each other, always hugging and kissing. We have a similar picture of the older two - Isaac is whispering something into Maddie's ear. If the management will send me that picture, I will post it too.

Today I got the binding put on the four patch. It is skinny binding. I found I had just enough (5) 2 inch strips in my scraps box. Usually I use 2.5 inch strips. I like the skinny look.

I also started on a new baby quilt top. Not much to show for it yet. Made lots of 9 patches today. Not quite as tiny as Bonnie's and Nine's, but they were on the smaller side. They will finish at 4.5 inches.

Need to go finish dinner. Yummy special chicken with orzo. The sauce the chicken is cook in is made with cream of chicken soup, mayo, sour cream, white wine, and grated cheddar cheese. It is one of my favorites. Hopefully it will be done soon!

# 3 finished!

Here is the last of the bright quilts, done! I still need to put the binding on the blue and white four-patch but hopefully that will be done tomorrow. I love all these little baby quilts. They are so fast and fun and most of them have been colors I wouldn't use.

My three-year old niece, Abby, called me last night. She wanted to know if I would make her a "too, too pink" quilt. I asked if she would like it for her b-day (in July) and she said no, she would like it for Christmas! I told her that her birthday comes before Christmas and then she said oh, ok. My sister is going to take her shopping for the pink fabrics (since I can't buy anything!). How can I resist a face like this?

Another soggy Saturday in Alabama

Today started off foggy and drizzly. Gray. This did not slow my kids down from wanting to go outside! I will admit it was nice and warm - probably about 70 degrees - but very humid! I sat down and finished binding the second bright quilt and put labels onto both of them. Yeah - 2 out of 4 done. Gathered everything up and headed out to run errands - without the kids!!!!!! Peace! I dropped off the pillow. Wanted it out of my hands as soon as possible. She loved it - thankfully! I was worried she would think I ruined her little remembrance of her daughters' childhoods. But she thought it was great! She paid me nicely and is insisting on taking me out to lunch next week.

Then I dropped off the two finished quilts at the sewing center and bought a little more red fabric for the binding on the third bright quilt. I also bought some batting. Speaking of the acceptable B's, me and my mom had a funny conversation about them the other day. I was saying that I was going to have to take Nines to the Stitcher's Garden in Franklin, Tennessee when we have our mini-retreat in June for our b-days. We are meeting at my mom's for a few days of sewing, shopping, eating, and gabbing. My mom has volunteered to watch the kids. Nina is still debating which of hers will make the trip. Anyway, if any of you have ever been to the Stitcher's Garden, you will be able to back me up when I say it is overwhelming. Fabric piled everywhere - barely enough room to pass in the aisles. But the staff seems to know exactly where to find anything you may want. I was saying that I didn't know if I would be able to go there and stick to my no-buy resolution. My mom said she would be shocked if I made it that long. Thanks for the vote of confidence! Then it hit me - B's are free purchases, right? Batting, backing, backgrounds, borders. This little retreat will be for our birthdays. Surely a Birthday fling is a freebie, right? OK, somebody agree with me please ! Come on! Birthday starts with B! If I make it all the way to June without buying anything, I may have to take a mini-retreat from my resolution! Especially if I get birthday money!!!

Nina always laughs at me when we have one of these girl's day out, because I tend to over plan them. Nina just sits back and relaxes because she knows I have googled everything, Mapquested it all, and have the day all planned out. One time I even googled quilt stores for Nines when she was going on a family vacation in north Georgia. I just figure why spend our day wandering around a strange town, getting lost, when we could look up a map, get to the stores quicker and have more time to shop! I have already started looking for "THE BEST CHINESE BUFFET IN NASHVILLE" for us to eat at in June. Chinese food or a nice little tea room with yummy chicken salad sandwiches is always a requirement for a girl's day out.

Since Nines shared the remains of her antique nine-patch, I wanted to share one of the ornaments she made for me using part of the quilt. She is right - the nine patches are tiny. Nines made me 5 or 6 of these - but this was the only one I could lay my hands on.

Another Friday afternoon

Where has this week gone? I think I spent most of my week in the car, running errands, going to the doctor, going to meetings. Today I have not left the house! This morning I sat down and put the binding on one of the loud colored baby quilts. Three more to go!

I just got off the phone with Nina. She had sent me a email saying she had laughed her head off at my pillow experience, so I called her to see if she was still laughing. She was in the middle of sewing something, which I am sure she will share later! Anyway, I got my whole kitchen cleaned while talking to her - a task I had been avoiding all week. Now it is all nice and clean - just in time for dinner! I am hoping DH will make pad thai for us. If you have never had pad thai and you like spicy food, you should give it a try. Stacy makes it with rice noodles and chicken. Yummy!


I was telling Nines about this cute colorwheel that Maddie painted at school last week. I am thinking of framing it and hanging it in my sewing room - to remind me that there are more colors out there than blue and yellow!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Did I accomplish anything or not?

Yesterday afternoon I went out to run errands. I try to combine trips into town when at all possible. It is only about three miles into town but it gets old after a while. So first we went to the post office to mail some envelopes and a small present for Nina. The line is out the door - literally. No problem - I can use the computer kiosk thing to mail the package. I go hunting for one of the flat rate priority mail boxes to put the present in. None to be found - without standing in the mile long line, that is. So I get one of the regular priority boxes - but that wants almost 7 dollars postage - more than the present costs! So we leave without mailing the box. Sorry Nines - we will try again today!

On to the library - which has called to tell me that "Pride and Prejudice" is ready for me to pick up. I get there and find out that the movie comes on 2 DVDs and they only have the second half for me. When you reserve it, it does not automatically reserve both halves - nor can you pick which half it does reserve. Talk about stupid! So now I have the second half of the movie sitting at my house, waiting for the first half to be returned. It is due back today, so I will keep my fingers crossed. I did check out the first DVD of "Horatio Hornblower", another A&E miniseries. We first discovered it late one night or early one morning when I was up nursing Maddie nearly 7 years ago. It is a really well done story about a sailor in the English Navy around 1800. We watched about an hour of it last night and discovered it was one we had not seen before.

I did manage to get a pot roast made for dinner last night. This is one of the few meals that everyone in my family loves. I am raising the world's pickiest eaters, Maddie much more so than Ian. Ian will eat just about anything if you call it steak - so most meat in our house is "steak"! Neither one likes veggies, but me and DH are very particular about which veggies we like. Maddie does LOVE tomatoes - which is strange because neither me nor DH like them. For me it is a consistency issue. The slimy stuff in the middle grosses me out!

Enough rambling about the oddities of my family's eating habits! Hope everyone has a great day!

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.