Snow Snow Snow what I look at

This is the latest snowfall that we got yesterday. This is what I see when I look out my livingroom window. We probably got about 8 new inches yesterday. On my way home from work I took all the parkways so I could have fun with my 4 wheel drive and be able to drive where they hadn't plowed yet. I think we're in for more snow tomorrow.

After Christmas

Well Christmas came and went and I can honestly say I'm tired and I'm glad it's over with. So, for the last couple of nights I've been really restless and I couldn't figure out why until last night. I wasn't sewing at night like I had been. I've been trying to keep everything nice and neat since my Mom will be coming back again this weekend. Well, tonight the heck with it. It's snowing like crazy out. The tree lights are on and I'm watching a movie. That does it I'm busting out the sewing machine and getting back to business. I had a few things that need to be finished and this is just as good a time as any to start up again.

Is everyone else getting back into the swing of sewing?

YAHOOOO I did it again

I know that to most of you this is an every day occurance but to me this wasn't easy. I finally have it figured out on my own how to add pictures to my blog. Bear with me if they aren't centered but I'm working on it. I just reached one of my goals for 2008, I'm ahead of the game.

Anyway I got this very pretty packet of charm squares from Jen and it's called " Through the Seasons" by Eleanor Burns. The colors didn't come out all that great but there are a total of 54 blocks in the package. Jen has the book so now I can look to see what I can make out of this. I guess I'd better add this to my to do list for 2008.

Hot digity I got a picture in my blog

I'm not really sure how I did it but it worked. Here is a stack of fat quarters, flannel from Moda called Holly Jolly that I got for Christmas from Jen. I think what I'm going to do is make a quilt using the pattern Yellow Brick Road. I just love these colors and the flannel is so soft. I've made two table runners for Christmas using the same Holly Jolly but in cottons.

Sorry I can't figure out how to turn the picture but atleast I got it in the blog.........YIPPEEEEE

Let the festivities begin

The tree is up, decorated.
The house is clean
The gifts are wrapped
The sewing is done
The decorating is finished

LET THE FESTIVIES BEGIN

Merry Christmas

Cleaning, shopping, wrapping, sewing

The Christmas cleaning is finished with the exception of the vacuuming that will be tomorrow. Everything has it's place and I must say it looks good in here even my spare room that I use for storage. The laundry is done and I'm ready for my overnight guest. It will be nice to have my Mom here for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I'm really getting excited about that.

The grocery shopping is done with the exception of tomorrow morning I have to run out for rolls since the store didn't have any this afternoon. I finished my Christmas shopping tonight at the book store so that's done. The paper is bought but I do need to wrap but it won't take me long.

With all of this done I'm going back to my sewing. I won't get a few small projects done but atleast I can finish one of the larger ones tonight. Everything is layered and I'm ready to FMQ. Even my binding is already made.
The Chex Mix is in the oven doing it's thing and the turkey is thawed. All in all I think I'm in pretty good shape for Christmas. I really didn't tink that I'd make it but I did. Right down to the wire. Back to my machine I go.

I hope everyone is finishing up their projects and feels as good as I do. MERRY CHIRSTMAS.

Christmas Cleaning, Mom, Decorating

Here it is Saturday well actually it's early Sunday AM and Christmas is quickly approaching. I've spent a better part of this evening cleaning my apartment and decorating for Christmas. See I went from having Jen, Mike and Holly over to having my Mom coming to stay for two days and my sister and her husband coming for Christmas dinner. The turkey is in the fridge thawing and I've been cleaning. Do you ever notice that while you're cleaning you actually start out making a bigger mess than you started with? That's what I have right now and if I can just take a few more minutes it will be looking really good.

Tomorrow is grocery shopping and then maybe a little sewing. OK I'm off to bed, night all.

What a scare from my Mom

As most of you know from reading my daughter Jen's blog we had quite a scare today where my Mom was concerned. I'm happy to report that she is resting comfortably at my sisters house. She slept most of the afternoon which she really needed. Mom is 88 and this past year has been pretty hard on her health wise. With the great support of Jen and my sister Kitty we've been blessed with another year with Mom. She has high blood pressure which caused 3 heart attacks this past February. When I got the call this morning at work that she wasn't feeling well and then another call that she was being taken to the hospital so many things run through your mind. I left work and headed to the hospital. When I got there I realized how really bad she actually did look. Her pressure was high and they had run tests and put a nitro patch on her and were monitoring her vitals. I was ever so glad to see Jen when she came into the ER. It means so much to me that she came to sit with us. I think in all the confusion this morning I didn't get the chance to tell her so. We've been blessed and Mom pulled through this one but I just know that one of these times we're not going to be so lucky. I'm constantly telling her I'm not done with her yet so she's not going anywhere. We lost my Dad back in 1999 and I'm still not over that.
So I just wanted to say to all of our quilty friends, THANK YOU for all of the extra prayers you offered up today for my MOM. They worked.
With all of that said I admit defeat and I'm not going to get the rest of my Christmas presents sewn. I think today's scare took the last bit out of me. Since I've been home from work all I've done is sleep. Fabric will get wrapped up and any other presents I was going out to get will be delivered when I get them. The tree has lights and that's good enough too. What is important to me is the love of my family and friends.
If I don't get a chance again I wish all of you and your families a very MERRY CHRISTMAS

T'was the night before Christmas, and the quilts were not made. The threads were all tangled, the cookies delayed. The stockings weren't hung, the pantry was bare,the poor weary quilter was tearing her hair.Stacks of fat quarters tipped over in streams.Visions of Log Cabins had turned into dreams. With what to her wondering eyes should appearthan a bus full of quilters with all of their gear.They went straight to work with just a few mutters,sorting and stitching and brandishing cutters.The patterns emerged from all of the clutterlike magic the fabrics arranged in a flutter. Log Cabins, Lone Stars, Flying Geese and Bear Tracks, each quilt was a beauty--even the backs. Her house how it twinkled, her quilts how they glowed. The cookies were baking, the stockings were sewed.Their work was all done, so they folded their frames they packed up their needles, without giving their names. They boarded the bus and checked the next address,more quilts to be made, another quilter in crisis. She heard one voice echo as they drove out of sight, Happy Quilting to all, and to all a good night.

I wish I could take credit for this but I can't. I found this on one of my other groups and just had to share it with all of you.

No sewing done here tonight as I laid down on the couch and slept for the last 3 hours. I'm going to admit defeat and wrap fabric and then take it back to finish projects. I just don't have it in me anymore this holiday season.

Christmas Coasters

For the last couple of nights I've been in Christmas coaster mode. I've finished a total of 23. Yeah I know it's an odd number but I still have a few more to make. Once I was done with that I wanted to start on the Kennel hanging that I was going to make for my grand-dog Holly. I had the panel and just couldn't find it. So now that my sewing area is straightened up I found the panel and all that I still have to find is something to use as a border and a binding. It's like the one I made for Murphy's eating area with cartoon type dogs on it. It's going to be hung probably inside her kennel for her to look at. Then it's on to putting together a quilt top for Murphy and a few other assorted Christmas presents. I have high hopes for the weekend where sewing is concerned. I hope the rest of you are winding down too. Of course then I have to decorate the tree, clean my apartment, grocery shop and do a little shopping and then of course wrap a few things and Christmas can happen. This year I decided to make a few of my gifts and keep things simple. I feel much better about that. I haven't been in any big stores and not a single mall and I'm a happy camper. I have however spent quite a bit of time in quilt shops picking out the right fabrics for my gifts. While I was straightening up my sewing area I came across a few things that I will finish after the holidays and put aside for next year.

Next Christmas

Last year Jen and I decided that we'd start in January and make one thing a month for the year so we'd ahead of the game for Christmas. Well, Christmas is coming again and I have nothing that I made ahead of time. So, as I sit here I'm going to raise my right hand and swear that this year I'm sticking to the plan. I'll need all of you to keep me in line but I need to do this. I've gotton so many great ideas from this group and I've kept them all. I figure if I just make things randomly I'll not only be ahead of the game but I'll have things ready when birthdays and Christmas come up. Is anyone else up to the challenge?????????

Work Christmas Party

Today was our Christmas luncheon at work. We always have a great time and really good food. We were all in the festive holiday mood which made it alot of fun. I was at Walgreens the other night and picked up a holiday hat. If you're familiar at all with the Grinch there is a character, Cindy Lou Hoooo. She wears this little hat with what looks like a pipecleaner coming out of the top like a spring. Well now I own one of those hats. On the tip of the hat is a white ball with two jingle bells. That was my head gear for the day. One of the other ladies in the office brought in an assortment of other things to wear. She had an elf hat on and I know that for next year Jen and I are going to make those. One of our other ladies had on a headband with a small Christmas Tree on it and another was a reindeer with antlers and ears. The reactions from everyone who was us was priceless. For the first time I saw my boss laugh and all she kept saying was she wished she had a camera. OK let me back up a bit on my hat. People everywhere always call me Cindy Lou so of course the Cindy Lou Hoooooo fit perfectly. After the lunch our boss gave all of us a popcorn tin, you know the ones with the different popcorn flavors in it. He had picked out two special ones. Mine had puppies on it and another ladies had kitties on it. His wife is such a sweet heart and she always makes each of us a box which of course she decorates and then inside are all kinds of goodies. She makes a great hot cocoa mix complete with the marshmellows and cinnamon hearts, always an ornament of some kind and candies. She's got to start these way in advance because she makes usually around 47 of them for our company plus she makes them for all kinds of people. Needless to say she's a stay at home wife with no kids. But we all look forward to her Christmas boxes. I hope to be able to take a picture and post it. This year she baked a few things for the box too. A little bread of some sort, cookies and a cup with nuts. Sometimes it's too pretty and you don't want to open it but we all do and of course we dive right in. For the next couple of days all we do at work is eat. Alot of the companies that I deal with and our buyer deals with send us all kinds of goodies. We're very big on tins of cookies, different candies, nuts and of course cheese and sausage boxes. We just put out a few goodies each day and it disappears.
For the first time since I've worked there they are going to have an after the holidays holiday party. On January 26th whoever wants to go will get together and we'll have dinner, a DJ and of course a gift exchange. It sounds like fun and since I get to take someone with me I think Jen is going to go with me.
I'd better get back to my sewing. I'm doing assembly line sewing of coasters for gifts. They aren't hard to make but they do take sometime. One of our ladies is off for the next two days so she got hers today and she was thrilled. So here's my question for all of you. When you give a gift of coasters, how many do you give?

Christmas gift and yo yo's

Tonight was every productive. I finished one Christmas present and then I got out my Christmas trees. I say trees because this year again I'm putting up these three little stick trees you know the kind you see everywhere. Anyway I have this corner where I put the coffee table and the three trees fit perfectly on it. It took me a while to "fluff" up the branches and I ended up taking off the lights I had left on last year so those will have to be redone this year. I was never the one to put the lights on the tree so this has been a learning thing for me for the past 8 years. Then I was restless so I started to sew my yo yo garland together. It's about 9 feet long for now since I still have more to sew on but that's for tomorrow night. Once the tree is all decorated I'll take a picture and post it. Hopefully all the rest of you will do the same so we can see how everyone else celebrates Christmas.

Christmas 4 Patch Flip

This is a picture of the 4 patch flip that I made some time ago but Jen quilted it for me for Christmas. Then all I had to do was add the binding and it's finished. She's now layered and quilted three of my quilt tops for me for my Christmas present. I love making the tops but when they get huge there is no way I can machine quilt them myself. Thanks to her Little Gracie and lots of Jen's hard work my tops are now finished and Murphy and I are happily using them. He is definetly a quilt worthy fur child. With each new one that comes in the house he seems to adopt it and thinks it's his own. He's been snuggled under quilts for days now.

PJ DaY

Today was my last vacation day for the year so I wanted to enjoy every minute of it. I declared it my PJ Day. I slept late, ate and then started sewing. I"m working on a Christmas present for Jen. She knows all about it so I can tell. I'm making her a raggy flannel quilt for Christmas. I started out with two blues from the Moda Christmas collection WinterWonderland and then I added two more to it. I now have a total of 12 yards of flannel cut into 8 inch squares and all sewn. My next step is to start sewing the finished blocks together and see how large this thing gets. I've been trying to think if I want to sew it together in some type of a pattern or just stick to two types of flannel on one side and two on the other. Whatever way it goes together I think it's going to be beautiful.

So I was going along nicely on my PJ day until around 3PM when I couldn't stand it anymore and had to take a shower and get dressed. Later on I had a great little nap and since then I've been watching senseless TV and now I'll go back to sewing a little more before I go to bed. I think all in all it's been a very successful day. I can't wait until January 1 when my vacation days start again and I'm back to having three weeks to use...........

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN

Today is a special day in our world, it's my daughter Jen's birthday. I can't believe that today she is 31. Seems like only yesterday she was this tiny little person and now look at the fantastic woman she's grown into.

Yesterday we sewed together until I was so tired I finally went home around 11:30. The plan for today is for me to either bake or buy the traditional lemon meringue pie that we have and then to spend the rest of the day sewing. Anyway I just wanted to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN.............

Cold and 3 Days OFF

It's cold outside and we're going to have more snow tomorrow. I'm already tired of the snow and winter just started. I'm not an outdoors person and I've never liked winter. I'm cold and tired already of tromping through the snow. It's going to be one long winter. If I was a squirrel I'd have a big bushy tail.

So, I have the next 3 days off. I had one vacation day left that I needed to use and there's lots happening at work so it was hard to set a date. I decided I wanted to add it on to either add it to a weekend or day after Christmas. My new boss decided she needs me at work the day after Christmas because she might be out of town, This is getting to be rediculous and I should be able to take my time off when I want it. Anyway on a happy note I added it to this weekend. I have grand sewing plans so I hope all goes as planned.

I started out the weekend at Jen and Mike's for dinner. Mike made so great shredded chicken and we had it on really big rolls. Then I proceeded to take a lovely nap on their couch. When I woke up the two of them and Holly were all in Jen's sewing studio because apparently I was snoring really loud. I'm home now and it's time to cut out a quilt that I want to work on tomorrow. I have a few things that I want to make yet for Christmas and since I sew with Jen I had to break down tonight and tell her what I wanted to make her because I need to work on it tomorrow and I'm sewing with her. We've had to cancel our trip to Iowa to see Michelle and the quilting ladies due to the weather. So instead tomorrow we'll go to the Patched Works for a fun time and then sew at Jen's. I also had a reminder that tomorrow Murphy goes in for a glucose test so we'll see how that is coming along.

Everyone stay in touch with what you're sewing this weekend. Christmas is getting closer.

How I spent November

I've been sitting here for the last couple of days trying to remember all of the things that I made during the month of November. Now the problem is I have a really bad memory but I'm going to give it a try.

1. Made the binding and put it on my blue and yellow quilt.
2. Made the binding and put it on my HUGE pink and green quilt.
3. Made the Holly Jolly table runner
4. Made another table runner, the name of which I can't remember.
5. Made two pillows for Christmas presents
6. Made one BOM block from our Friday group and I have one more to go so I can put together that quilt top.
7. Made the first two blocks for our new BOM.

Plus I've been making a few Christmas presents but I can't reveal at this time what they are or who they are for.

So that about sums up my November sewing. Next to most of you I've been a slacker.

Snow, Snow and more snow

Today is our first significant snow fall of the season. Our weathermen were predicting snow to start here around noon today. Well, since I don't trust them at all I didn't believe them. Over to my sisters I went to pick up my Mom to take her for her haircut. After that was done we stopped at Big Lots. I don't know if any of you have those in your area but what a different store that is. You name it and they have it and really reasonable. We must have looked around for two hours. We each bought a few things and when we were checking out I looked out the windows and the snow was just starting. Wow our crazy weathermen were on target for once because they said noon and it was 12:20. Off we went and our next stop was to have lunch and then to run a few more errands. By the time we were finally on the way to my house alot of snow had fallen, the streets were slippery and I was using my 4 wheel drive. It;s now 9:30 and it's not snowing anymore but now it's sleeting. I'm so glad tomorrow is Sunday and I'm home. Mom is spending the night and her and Murphy just went to bed. He likes to sle ep with her for a while and it's good because he listens to make sure that she is OK. I haven't written about her lately but we're having trouble with her blood pressure again. They've added a couple of more pills to try to bring it down. It likes to spike at night. Did I also mention that I want to make sure she's warm enough here so I have the livingroom heater on and the bedroom heater. It's cold out, it's snowing and sleeting and I"m sitting here quietly typing and I"m swetting. Oh well back to my chores I've been working on. Everyone have a safe evening whereever you are.