Friday, January 29, 2010

Off to Girls Winter Get Away Weekend!

Hello!

We have been super busy this week, with home inspectors out at my parents old home, and moving motorcyles, a golf cart and other misc items in the garage, good news the garage out there is clean as it can be! The bad news, our garage here is packed and I mean PACKED! Next week we need to move out the dining room table and chairs we bought for that house to make it look a little like a home, instead of a house!

The buyer has a list of things he wants fixed, so that will keep hubby busy for a day or 2.

But now to the exciting news! This is the big weekend! Girls Winter Get Away weekend!
Me and 8 of my quilting friends leave tomorrow at 9:30 AM -- hit 4 -5 quilt shops on our way to the Bed and Breakfast and then we sew, eat and laugh til Noon on Sunday!

I will have lots of show n tell come Sunday night!

Keep warm, it is below zero here tonight I can't wait to hear what you did this weekend
thanks for stopping
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Valentine Party and Gas Leak!!

Good Morning

Well yesterday sure did not go the way I planned. My parents old house had a gas leak, and hubby had told the gas man on Thursday this and the man said it was before the meter and that someone would come out and look at it. We were there on Friday all day cleaning out the attic and garage... and you could smell gas when you were near the front door. So Saturday AM I called Nicor and asked when they think it might be fixed, since there will be a home inspection on Monday at Noon. Well you would have thought I called in a fire! The lady at Nicor explained to me someone would be there within the hour and they might have to turn the gas off, I asked for how long, she said she had no idea....well now this might create a HUGE problem since we have the water etc on, and it is below freezing and I am thinking frozen pipes etc.....SO off we went to that house, about 45 minutes away.......of course Nicor had come and gone and fixed the leak!! But hubby wanted to get the golf cart running......and I swept the basement and garage......7 hours later hubby still working on golf cart and finally it is RUNNING!! We went without the trailer, since we did not have a chance to unload that from Fridays packing up of the garage. SO good news it, house is perfect for inspection, ok at least we think it is, we can pick up golf cart next week.....bad news, my sewing time was very limited.....

Here is my Schnibbles X - rated, I did get all the rows sewn together - today I just need to sew them together. I love the colors!



I had this tablerunner pieced, it is a quilt as you go from the BOM last weekend, so I fused the hearts on and I still need to blanket stitch around them and bind...something else I can get done today...



I hope you had a great time at the party....I sure wish I could have party'd all day.....but that dog gone Murphy's law got in my way!

Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Friday, January 22, 2010

Dead Batteries!

Good morning!

I was planning on showing you photos of all the neat things we bought yesterday for the Garden Center I work at, but at the second vendor we bought from my batteries died! So I have to get new batteries today so I can load the pictures.

It was a fun day, so much to see at the Merchandise Mart, WOW, somethings so fancy, so pricey, it is crazy, can't believe in this economy people actually can afford some of the things we saw.

The city is a crazy place, we saw some of the most unique people there, people really are very interesting. I am not a city person at all. But a few hours in the city really makes me appreciate the small town I live in and the country life I have chosen.

Did you get any sewing done yesterday? I did not even go into the creation station yesterday.
This afternoon hubby and I are heading out to my parents old home and packing up as much of the garage as we can.. Hubby like to refurbish motorcyles, and little honda trail mini bikes, so I think he has 1 motorcyle and 5 honda trails out there along with our golf cart. Hoping to get 1/3 of the items out of the garage today. Then we have to put up smoke detectors and a few other tweeks, should not take more than 1/2 a day today. So I am going up to my creation station now to start the day off right.

Have a great day
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Thursday, January 21, 2010

What are you working on?

Good Morning!

So what are you working on? Is it something new or a UFO?

Since I joined the Valentine Sewing Party - I decided to make this Schnibbles X-Rated, so yesterday morning I pulled out Valentines day fabrics and reds and pinks....here is my pile




Then I got them all cut out....I so wanted to sew, but we had to go and sign that contract for my parents home...so off we went and ran errands til 5:30 last night.

That is all I got done yesterday, now today I am working so I won't get a thing done today. But I have hopes for Friday!
Off to get ready
Thanks for stopping by have a great day!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Fall Mini and More

Good Morning!

Here is my fall mini swap I mailed out yesterday. It was to be mailed by the 18th but with the holiday, the PO was closed on Monday. I have to admit I love this so much I cut out 2 more. It was just a 12 inch block with a one inch inner border and then a 2 1/2 inch outer border. But a perfect little quilt for fall. I think the next swap that group is doing is Winter. I think they are behind a season.




Yesterday we did get an offer on my parents home I am trying to sell, but in this economy I accepted an offer for much less than I should have. It really bothers me that people are low balling the prices so much - I understand the economy is bad but the offer was over $40,000 lower than the original asking price, and $14,000 lower than the current price. And we started at $179,000 so in my eyes that is a huge deal this guy is getting. But what can you do. I do need to move forward. So I sure hope this goes thru with all the inspections this guy wants done. Hubby and I spent the last 2 winters there rehabbing the enitre house, we gutted it down to the studs, we have a lot financially invested in this and a lot of hard work, and sweat went into this and to give it away, just makes me a little mad. But as my aunt used to say, this too shall pass.

Onto a happier subject...did you sign up for the Valentine Sewing Party? What are you going to work on. I found the perfect pattern in the creation station yesterday....X - Rated by Schnibbles. It is a quilt of X's - it calls for a charm pack,but I have a lot of valentines fabrics. I am going to gather them up today ...so I will post a photo of my project tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, I am actually working for 1 day tomorrow, my boss is taking my and my co worker downtown to the Merchandise Mart to shop for things for the Garden Center! Really looking forward to it. Never have been there, so I am excited to see what they all have.. I will take my camera so you too can see it. Hard to believe it will be April 1st soon and it will be back to work. When my boss called the other day, he asked if I was keeping busy, I told him I am not sure how I will be able to fit work back into my schedule! He laughed, if only he knew how true that statement is :)

Well off to the creation station and play with my fabric for awhile
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Valentine Sew In

Good Morning

Yesterday I did take hubby to the Dr, he has a little stomach virus and is on some antibiotics. Seemed to be doing better last night, thank God.

I was surfin around the web this morning and found the Valentien Day Sew In Party for this Saturday Jan 23 --click on the link and join! OR check out this link:
http://cottoncharmquilts.typepad.com/charmingchatter/2010/01/youre-invited.html#comments

It should be a fun day, I still have to get my Valentine table runner done that I got the pattern for this past weekend, but have not gotten to yet. Also want to make some hearts like these:
http://notjustnat.blogspot.com/ She makes hearts out of thrift shop finds. Check it out.

Sorry no pictures today -- I was so glad to hear about everyone who feeds the birds and squirrels.

Take care and thanks for stopping in!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Monday, January 18, 2010

A complete Finish and Nuts for the Squirrels

Good Morning
I finally finished my first UFO of 2010 --I started this back in Feb of 2009. Got it bound and labeled yesterday and it is hanging up. I only have about 78 UFO's to go! Keep positive 1 done!



I love to feed the birds, I even went to a birding seminar a few years back. So I know what bird likes what, and Blue Jays love Peanuts so does Woody my Red Headed Woodpecker, and of course so do the squirrels! I have these 2 adorable squirrels and they are fearless, the dogs bark and carry on and they just keep eating. Here is one of them. They know exactly where the peanuts are. Cute isn't he? Click on the photos to enlarge you can really see his little face!





Here he is getting a drink, hubby says it is like a bed and breakfast for the animals here. I have a sweet littile downy woodpecker that enjoys the suet, and if it is low or empty he makes a sweet little noise, and my sewing room is right about the dinig room, so I can hear him when I am up there and I will run down and refill for him. And they say animals are stupid. Not around here!



Did not get much done yesterday, hubby still sick, today he is going to the Dr, even if he is kicking and screaming. 2 days of being sick is enough.

Enjoy your day!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Fall Mini Swap

Good Morning!

Did you get a lot done yesterday? I really did not, I went to the BOM and we got an AWESOME free pattern from the Sweet Pickins club, but when I got home hubby was not feeling well -- I think he has the stomach flu, he thinks he is dying, so I needed to tend to him and not really sew. I did get a block of embrodiery done from last years Christmas quilt Gail Pan designed. One more to go and I can get that done.

Back to the tablerunner from the BOM it is a quilt as you go and used HUGE rick rack...I am hoping hubby will get to feeling better today so I can get one done. Currently he is laying down telling me how sick he is. Honestly if men did not dwell on it, they would feel better quickly, well that is just my opinion.

Friday in the mail I got my Fall Mini Swap! I LOVE IT!! Deborah did such a wonderful job, it is a crazy quilt pumpkin and I just love it. I can't thank her enough. Here is a picture of it.




Isn't it beautiful? And she also did a nice label.



I will post a picture of mine, I just need to finish the binding and I am going to try to get that done tonight during Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters.

Other than that nothing really new, lots of fog this morning and it is really damp here, hoping the sun will come out today.

Well you have a great day and thanks for stopping in.
Talk to you tomorrow!
Happy stitches
Dorothy



Saturday, January 16, 2010

Friday Night Sew In Results

Good Morning!

How was the sew in? Did You have fun? I sure did, but I did not get as much done as I wanted. But I guess I will still have projects for the next sew in.

I did get my heart wallhanging quilted!! I did not have the right red for the binding so I will get that this morning at the LQS BOM. I can bind it when I get back this afternoon. This has been a UFO since 2009 (a whole decade ago!!)



Then I also had these penny pockets from the Happy Zombie Blog, I made a ton of these last year and found these cut out, so last night I finished those first. These will make cute little Valentine day goodie bags for my quilting buddies!
Well I hope you had a fun time at the sew in. I sure did, stayed up way too late and got up at 5 this morning to get ready to go to the BOM. So I am off.....tomorrow I will post about the great gift I got in the mail yesterday.
Happy Stitches!
Dorothy

Friday, January 15, 2010

TGIF!! Friday Night Sew in!!

Good Morning!

Well today is FRIDAY!! And tonight is the Friday night Sew In? Are you signed up?? I am ready! I am going to quilt and bind a valentine wallhanging. And maybe finish up some other things.

What did I do yesterday you ask?? Well our BOM group gives a monthly challenge that we need to complete to get our name in a $100 drawing in September. This months project was a project folder here is mine...





And here is the inside.....It is nice but alot of work - I would have rather sewed up a tablerunner or something, but it is a challenge and it was a challenge putting in 3 zippers, so I am happy I did get it done.

Yesterday hubby wanted to take a ride to a larger library than we have in our town, you know our small town charm is wonderful, but the library is the size of the gas station in town. So we drove 30 minutes to a large wonderful library! It is so nice to see shelves of quilting books, these are a few that I picked up. I started the Stash Envy book last night, it is a cute book of short stories, that so far have made me smile.


Well I am off to get a few things done today so I can be there on time tonight for the sew in!
Hope to "see" you there!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy


Thursday, January 14, 2010

More Organizing and a Finish!

Good Morning!



I hope you are having a great day! It has warmed up, about 32 degrees yesterday WOW it is a heat wave.



I have been busy in the Creation Station the past few days fine tuning it a bit. I am in a few groups on line that are having BOM this year and I have found a few BOM on line I would like to do and I thought..How Can I be a bit more organized this year? Well in my cleaning I found this expanding folder with several pockets. I labeled each pocket with the website or Yahoo group and then put the patterns in there. Hopefully I can only print 1 of each this year not 5 of each. It even had a pocket in the front where I have a list of swaps I am currently in. Lets see how this works out this year.







Now I took all my books off my bookcase and went thru and the piles papers that I collected when I cleaned. Sadly I have 3/4 of a full size garbage can full of paper that was mostly duplicates, gosh that is not very green, even though I have it in my recycle can. So I now have a cut little plastic set of drawers - labeled with what the contents are...Spring/Summer, Fall/Winter, Tablerunners, placemats and Potholders, Stitchery and Quilts just to name some of my drawers. And the best thing is this fits perfectly under by sewing table, to be honest it has been there 2 years EMPTY -- but now it is working to its potential. Isn't it cute!




Now you are probably wondering, what the heck does her book case look like? Well here it is all clean



So that is what I did Tuesday night and yesterday. This is what I completed this morning! I was up early 5 Am and finished this pillow


I am off sew some more today - I hope you enjoy your day too.
Are you sewing Friday night at the sew in? Over 100 people have signed up - should be fun! Come join us!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy



Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Something new and fun!

Good Morning
I did not have time to post the last day or so -- my friend with 2 little girls across the circle (we live on a circle) had someone make them beds for their American Girl Dolls and she asked me Friday if I would make a simple doll blanket for the beds, OK so I got a little carried away....I thought it would be fun for the little girl to have a pillowcase to match the dolls. so here is the pillowcase.



Hers is the dolls pillow and matching pillowcase! I figured this out on my own and it is a great size for the doll.

Here is the quilt and the pillow on the bed. Now if you were a doll, wouldn't you want to take a nap here. I also made a little muslin mattress -- only with 2 layers of batting, but it makes it a bit softer for the doll. Hubby said it looks like a thin mattress, I had to remind him it is for a DOLL!


And here is the entire bedding package. The quilt and 3 little toss pillows for the beds.

The girls were thrilled with these. Oh and if you are asking about the second set...I did make 2 and I made them both the same so there would be no fighting about who's is who's.
So there you have it, that is what I have been doing the last 2 days.
I promised to show a picture of my other "Ugly" PInk block from the Stasthbusters group...here is it. I don't really think Pink is ugly....the one fabric with the grape leaves was questionable in my mind...but it is turning out nice so far. My favorite neice is going to have a little girl in March, so I think I will finish this and it will be a great Christmas gift for her.




I hope you are having a good day. Today we are having my friend Susan over for dinner, her hubby is traveling this week. So I am looking forward to that.

Then I have to get my project ready for the Friday night sew in , click on the link on the side. I think there are over 50 people involved so far. It should be fun.

Happy stitches
Dorothy






Sunday, January 10, 2010

Little Chilly This Morning

Good morning!
WOW - when I let the dogs out this morning it was -3 windchill - 18. Believe me that will get you moving in the morning!
I belong to the Yahoo Group Stashbusters and they have an Ugly Quilt challenge this year, use Pink fabric to make a block each month - well 2 blocks in Jan, Feb and March and then 1 block til Oct and then finish the quilt in Nov. I like pink --- so I don't really think this is ugly, but this block was a bit challenging. I don't know what happened to the picture of my other block, I will post that later. But here is the first one


I also belong to the Yahoo group Quilted Table Toppers and this was our Janaury project, I have 3 of these made, so quick and easy. They will make cute little gifts for friends this valentines day.

Since I am off this winter and seem to have a lot of time on my hands and I have been organizing like crazy, this is what I did one morning last week. I had 3 medium size containers of greeting cards, I had bought them at thrift shops, garage sales etc. So I went thru them and put them in stacks, birthday, blank note cards, thank you, valentines, Easter, etc... Then I dug out an expanding file folder and labled the tabs, then I went thru the cards and now I have 2 medium size boxes of misc cards and envelopes to sell at my garage sale and 1 very nice folder of cards, return address labels and cute little stickers. It will be so nice - that when I need a card I can easily take a card from my folder and mail it off, in the correct size envelope, a dream come true!!
Also a few of my friends are couponing -- we saw a lady Coupon Mom on the news, she does have a website too. Well yesterday, DH and I spent about 1 hour printing coupons and preparing out list! Well we are very happt to say, we save $74.32 on our grocery bill! We still spend $72 -- but that was a fabulous savings and we do have a freezer full of meat again. With the economy and both of us off in the winter that really helps us. Give it a try, we were amazed!
Well off to sew for today
Happy Stitches
Dorothy

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Fabulous Find at an Antique Shop

Good Morning
We were out and about yesterday running some errands, I pulled into a parking spot at one of our usual stops, but a few doors down from where we normally park and the sign said Barnyard Antiuqes, I told hubby to go to the normal place, I will check out this NEW store -- he told me Don't get lost -- apparently there have been times that I go into a store like this an spend what he considers to be a long time and then I am classified as "lost"....men..
So I went in and was looking around and THERE IT WAS -- this adorable little quilt block! The price was $2 -- it is 12 inches and it is adorable! I am going to put setting triangles on it and make it a doll quilt. This is all hand done. It has 2 little places that need to be fixed and yes the stems don't all go under the flowers but that is the charm to it. What do you think, isn' it precious? Now here is the best part, I said to the owner as I was checking out, gee when did you open? Sit down for this....they said 7 YEARS AGO! And I thought they were new! Oopps! I will be checking them out again:)


Here is a picture of my Valentine Tree in the front hall.... I need to valentineize the whole house, but this is as far as I have gotten. It sure does brighten up the area with all the Christmas stuff packed away.

I got a kick out of one of the comments about going out after a foot of snow, I love to be out after a snow storm, really not many people out and I love to see the fresh snow on the farm fields, everything is so pristine and perfect looking. I know some people stay in, but even take a walk after you get a snow fall, you will see such beauty you have never seen before, it is magical. But you better dress warm!! I remember when we would go snowmobiling, everyone was so far ahead of me, but I just poked along and was amazed at the scenery, and I would let the snowflakes fall on my glove, one more beautiful than the next. Hubby and his friends thought I was nuts, they just could not see all the beauty I could. But all in all we really had fun doing that.
Happy Stitches, I am off to work on some projects today!
Dorothy

Friday, January 8, 2010

Friday Night Fun

Hi everyone!

Well today I ran out to my parents old house and removed all the snow, hopefully this house will sell soon! Yesterday we got 10 - 12 inches of wonderful snow. I really love snow. It is so pretty. I cleared our driveway at 7 AM and hopped in my Mountainer to head over to breakfast with my quiltting friends -- only 1 did not come because of the snow, I understand - the roads were bad. Then we head over to the bank basement for more sewing, and chatting - A few more did not make it there, but the 6 of us who were there had a great time. Laughing and stitching. I have a few photos but I will have to put them on tomorrow. Today DH wants to run some errands and is patiently waiting for me.
BUT I had to tell you to check out Heidi's blog http://handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com and sign up for next Fridays Sew in. You sew on Friday night at your leisure and them post your pictures on Saturday on your blog, sounds like fun and she is even offering a few prizes I think.
Check it out. I have lots of sewing to do, so I figure it is an excuse to get up in the creation station and create!!
Happy stitches!
Dorothy

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Before and After

Hello

I have been cleaning and organizing and more cleaning and more organizing......The pictures posted in the reverse order I wanted. So you get to see clean first, that is better -- you probably won't have a heart attack when you see how bad it was, and it was bad!!
This is my sewing area...all clean and ready to get sewing..

This is the corner area, I still need to go thru those patterns, but that is not near as bad as it was, wait til you see how bad it was......ARRGGG you will say
Here is my ironing area - quilt on the ironing board is my first UFO to tackle this year.

Here is my cutting area! So nice and ready to be cut on. While cleaning I found several new blades for my rotary cutters -- I thought I was out of them. Glad I cleaned.


Here is my closet -- I moved the smaller shelf into it, that used to be in the sewing room, but it works much better in the closet. See the House -- that holds all my novelty fat quarters, I got it at a garage sale last summer for $5 -- hubby had to fix 2 hinges -- and it is now a perfect Novelty Quarter House!


OK here is the bad pictures, this is my sewing area BEFORE I cleaned -- it was a mess - I am surprised it did not tip over.


Here is the cutting area -- just where in the world was I supposed to cut here?!?!?



And this is the mess that was on the floor -- wich is all nicely and neatly put away.


There you have it --- I am done with my sewing room, I am going to be able to create some wonderful creations this year, if only I remember where I put everything!!
Happy Stitches
Dorothy







Saturday, January 2, 2010

Packing Up the Christmas Stuff

Good Morning

Today is the day the rubbermaid totes come out and the Christmas items go back into the basement til November. I will leave out the snowman-- til the middle of February and I will start bringing out some Valentines things, I found a wallhanging I started last year that needs to be quilted for Valentines day -- maybe work on that tonight.



Normally Jan 1st is the day we take it all down -- but yesterday I had to finish my NYE Mystery. I got that done around noon yesterday and then we went to the Thrift shop, it was 50% off day, I only got a cute Mary Engelbriet large mug that I will use for a planter or pencil cup.

I have also been cleaning and organizing the sewing room -- that will be complete today too!

Look for pictures tomorrow.

Well I have about 26 hours of work to do today, so I better get moving!!

Happy stitches

Dorothy

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!
I sure hope 2010 is a good year for all, those who need work find it, those who are unhealthy get healthy and those who are unhappy, find happiness. You know what they say, Life is a Bowl of Cherries, full of pits. Hopefully this year you will get no pits!

Hope your New Years Eve was fun and safe. Ours was very nice, I got up before 7 this morning, so I could participate in the New Years Eve Mystery on Quilt Talk, and here is 1 block. I sewed til 2 and the Hubby wanted to run some errands so we got back around 6 and I started sewing again, I have 22 out of 24 blocks done and I am done for the night.

One final 2009 picture for old times sake, we were out and about this week and I spotted this Gingerbread house, so I had to take a picture. I am thinking of having a Gingerbread Party next year and everyone who comes brings a candy to decorate with and we all share. Lots of time to decide on that.
So do you have your resolutions made??? I just want to de-clutter and get some UFO's finished. I figure 24 can be completed this year, that is just 2 a month, so once again I will start completing them. I am starting with 75 this year! Once again I have too many.
Check back by the end of the weekend, my Creation Station is getting reorganized and so far I am 1/3 of the way there and it looks great.
Well off to bed, this weekend will be busy, want to finish my NYE Mystery and pack up the Christmas decorations.
Best Wishes for 2010
Dorothy