Another block and the girls in my life.

I had a great weekend and I just wanted to share a few pictures as to the goings on in my world. On Friday night after dinner with some great quilting friends, Jen dropped me at home and came in to say hello to her little sister Maggie. Oh my Maggie was so thrilled to see her. She is such a happy puppie. They played for a couple of hours and most of the time it looked like Maggie was kicking Jen's butt.

Saturday night Jen and Holly came over to play with Miss Maggie. Again Maggie was thrilled to be able to play with her happy family. Maggie just always looks up to Holly and looks like she just worships the ground she walks on. A little snarling here and there but in a playful sort of way.

While the girls were playing Jen and I were watching the Olympics and picking out the next round of blocks for the barn block series. I got to pick out a bunch of blocks and I'm not sure in what order they are going to be in. One of my all time favorite quilt blocks is the BEARS PAW. I have always loved that block and never made it until now. I'm so happy with my results and now I can't wait to make another one. At some point they will be in the barn series.

We survived Christmas

It seems like we wait all year for Christmas to come and then in the blink of an eye it's over with. I actually had thoughts of taking the tree down yesterday but decided instead to move it from in front of my window to the corner where it's more out of the way.

Maggie Mae celebrated in style. Christmas Eve we spent with my good friend Debbie and her parents. She was such a good girl and we had a blast. I brought home one very sleepy puppy. Christmas day the two of us slept in a little and then it was time to get up and let the celebrations begin. In the afternoon Jen and Holly came over and then later on Mike joined them. We had such a lovely day. Absolutely no drama of any kind, just a peaceful day. Holly is getting along better with Maggie and I think we'll see some playing going on in the near future. Of course Holly brought over some huge raw hides to chew on and the little one who has her own mini raw hides decided to take on the big ones and she did. I've found nothing so far that she's afraid of or won't tackle. OK there is one exception, I vacuumed yesterday and she his under my bed and fell asleep.

Now it's time to start thinking about next year and start sewing. My daughter gave me the coolest gift ever. She made me a coupon book full of different things from piecing backings together for me to quilting quilts and cutting out kits. I just love it and think it was a terrific idea. By this time in life we all pretty much have what we need or want so something homemade from the heart is really the best. I'll just leave you with a few pictures of Maggie on Christmas.

A great day sewing.

I just had the best day sewing that a person could have. Not only did Jen come over with Holly to sew but my sister Kitty came to sew with us too. A lot of sewing got done in my livingroom. I'm actually working on a SCRAP quilt. For those of you who don't know me this is way out of my safe zone. I don't do scrappy and never have done scrappy. Well I do now. I'm doing the Peaches and Dreams that Regina 1I sucked Jen into doing. Sorry, no picture until the top is done. I did however get the blocks made and assembled and the first two borders on and the third one goes on tomorrow. Then I have to start making the blocks that will be another border and then I think it gets two or three more small borders and it's finished. This scrappy business is very nerve wracking.

Christmas is over

The Christmas season is over and again we all survived it. I had a great Christmas Eve spent with my two best friends. We started this tradition the first year that I was alone and have done it most of the years since. We get together and have dinner, exchange gifts and in general have a great time together. This year was no different. I had made my two friends each what is called a Stitch N Chicks bag. Both were loved and that always makes me feel good. We even sat for a couple of hours and played Yahtzee which I hadn't done in probably 30 years.

Christmas Day was spent with my daughter, Jen. My girl is so good to me. For Christmas this year she took some of my quilt tops I had made and quilted them for me. Then all I had to do was put the binding on them. I had decided to give my Mom the BOM quilt that I had been working on and Jen kindly quilted that one for me too. She brought it along on Christmas and I put the binding on so I could give it to my Mom. Needless to say Mom loved her new quilt. Jen had made Grandma a wallhanging and a table runner that she also loved. We ended up tracking her down at my sisters and spent an enjoyable afternoon with her family. I just love Christmas's that aren't stressful and this was one of them.

Take your purse it's hurting my ass.......

So what do all of you think this statement and Jen have in common? So today was to be my nice relaxing day to just be home and sew NOT......... I got a call first thing this morning from Jen and my brother had been in a bad car accident last night. OK we'd go up to the hospital after our BOM and see how he is doing. Fast forward to about half an hour later when Jen comes to pick me up and tells me she slipped and fell on the ice by her garages. When her feet went out from under her she didn't fall straight on her tailbone but off to the side of it a smidge. So we go to BOM and she's already starting to be very sore and stiff. We leave BOM and head for the hospital and by the time she's getting out of the car she's a hurting machine. In we go and find my brother. They were getting ready to take him for an MRI of his hip because when they move his leg there all kinds of grinding sounds. They xrayed him on the ER and they don't think anything is broken but he's in considerable pain and isn't moving. So fast forward to we're leaving the hospital this afternoon and on our way out we pass a ladies room and I tell Jen I'm stopping in. She goes to sit down so of course I give her my Miranda to hold onto. I come out and she's standing there and says to me " take your purse it's hurting my ass". Apparently it was just heavy enough and with her purse the weight was pulling and it was making her sore ass even hurt more. Off to our complexes office we go so she can finally file an accident report with them and then she dropped me off. Anyway all day I kept telling her she had a broken butt. Tomorrow she's going to go to the walk in clinic since it's closed already and have it looked at.
More later. I just think it's funny that she's the """BUTT"""""" of my jokes.

This and That

I was reading posts tonight and realized it's been a while since I last posted. It's been one very long week at work. It's Friday and I survived. One of the ladies in our office had a bad cold a couple of weeks ago and of course I caught it. I haven't had a head cold in years and I could go the rest of my life without another one. It's hard to believe that a person can blow their nose as much as I have these last days. Yesterday alone I used almost an entire box of kleenex. Needless to say there has been no quilting done here this past week. I've been coming home from work and going to bed. The other night I was in bed by 5:45. I think part of the problem is it's really cold at work. I've been sitting the last couple of days with a fleece throw on my lap to help keep me warm.

Anyway I thought I would share this picture with all of you. The blue quilt is the raggy flannel quilt that I made for Jen for Christmas. The pink quilt is the yellow brick road that she made for me for Christmas and the start of my Miranda bag Jen made me. One of these days I need to get serious and make myself a flannel quilt, hmmmmmm seems to me I have some flannel in my stash and I think it's calling out my name.

It's going to be very cold here this weekend so I'm staying in and hopefully getting some sewing done. I'll report back in if there is progress made. Stay warm everyone and remember to root for the PACKERS this weekend.

Life with Miranda

I've had my new Miranda Day Bag from Lazy Girl for a couple of days now and thought I should write about my experiences with her. For any of you who don't know my daughter Jen made Miranda for me for Christmas. I got to pick out her main fabric and that of course was lots of fun. Anyway the first day I used her I had everything in her and only used her pockets with just two little bags in the center of the purse. I was leaving for work and had my lunch, keys, gloves and only two hands. OK throw the lunch in Miranda and out the door I went. Stopped and picked up breakfast on my way to work. I was in the drive through lane and when I went to pay the nice lady at the window commented on my purse and asked where I bought it. I beamed and said my daughter made it for me for Christmas. She wanted to know if my daughter would like to be adopted? Then on to work I go. Now I have my purse with the lunch in it, my breakfast in a bag and a large soda. OK the breakfast bag goes in the Miranda too. In the door I go and one of the ladies I work with spots Miranda. Wow this bag is popular. Everyone has to look at her, hold her and of course look inside of her. They are all amazed at how much room she has and yet how organized it all is. Later the ladies in the office get a chance to look her over. She's an instant hit there too. Everywhere I go she gets looked at. My hair stylist tonight wanted to know if Jen was taking orders. The only thing I need to make is something small just to put my change in. I have a habit of tossing my change in the bottom of my purse and I don't want to do that to Miranda. So, life with her has been awesome. Thanks Jen, Miranda is very popular.........

Our day in Iowa

Jen and I left my apartment around 7:20 Saturday morning headed for Michelle's in Iowa. We were headed for a fun day of sewing with our new dear friend. The internet has made such a difference in my life. A little history first so bear with me. Back in about the late 90's I was first introduced to the internet one Christmas break from my work. Jen showed me how to get on and I went right for a quilting chat room. I spent the next week late into the night chatting with ladies who had the same interest that I did. Soon we started to bond. Little did I know then that all these years later we would still be the best of friends. Little by little we started having get togethes and soon we were sharing so many events in our lives. Weddings, funerals, divorces, graduations and mile stone birthdays were just a few of the things we shared along with our love of quilting. Now fast forward many years and there's a whole new group of you out there who have become part of my family. Back to our travels. The trip went really quick and it didn't seem like it took us that long at all to get to Michelle's. OK I have to admit that in the end Jen fired me as the map reader. Down to her quilting room we went. Let me just tell all of you that Michelle has the coolest room for quilting. Well actually throughout their house you see all of her quilting touches so beautifully displayed. Jen's quilt was the first one on the frame and soon she was quilting away. I had taken a table runner along to work on but I was just fascinated watching and learning as she quilted. Once hers was done off we went for some lunch and a tour of the town. We saw all the sights and even where Michelle and her husband Louie work. We stopped off at the car show and found out they had taken a second place in the Harley that Louie had rebuilt. Back home we went and on the quilter went my quilt. Let's start out by saying that this was a dream come true to me. I've wanted to quilt on a quilter for so many years and here I was doing it. Well, I'm not that talented after all. I just don't have a rhythme. I can't stay on one "pattern" so I was all over the place trying all kinds of things and in the end, yes, I had quilted a quilt on the frame but it looked like I was on an acid trip. Oh she's done alright but I have a long way to go. If I could just get the rhythme of a pattern then look out world a new quilting monster will be born. Before long it was getting late and we had to leave. This made me sad because we had so much fun at Michelle's house. She is such a gracious hostess and our time just flew by.
We loaded everything up and out we headed. It was around 9:30 when we left and we had a long drive ahead of us but since we're both used to being up late on the weekends it wasn't bad at all. I got to be in control of the MP3 player so we sang our way home. We made a couple of quick pit stops. Once we pulled into a McDonalds for something to drink and then across the street for some gas. Gas is so much cheaper in Iowa so we took advantage of that. Then one more stop down the road because now Jen had drinken the big soda from McDonalds. I was waiting in the car and I see this young man come out and pass infront of the car and well he was dressed rather strange. He had on these old fashioned pants with suspenders, an odd shirt and he was carrying what appeared to be a small pouch like we used to keep marbles in. He got in a car and I didn't think another thing of it with the exception that I thought maybe he was part of some musical group. Jen comes out and gets in the car and before we back out we see an older man pass us and he's got these same odd pants on and these long things that go from below his knees to his shoes and she says "hey he's dressed in civil war pants". I look over and he gets in the car with the younger man and they had a large trailer behind them and it's a civil war enactment group from Wisconsin. Well for some reason at that time of night I guess you had to be there because we laughed like crazy. All rest of the way home all of a sudden she'd just say to me " he had civil war pants on:. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we were home in no time at all. We unloaded my stuff and played with the dogs a big and then Jen made me sit at the kitchen table and start drawing patterns to go over and over again so I get a rhythme for quilting. I'm hoping that someday this comes to me easier because I honestly can't wait to try another quilt.
Today I've done nothing but watch TV. Now it's time to forge for food and I have a vacation day tomorrow and some appointments tomorrow but then I can do whatever it is I want to do.
Don't forget to check out Jen and Michelle's blogs they have pictures of our day and watch Jen's movie about me.

Todays the big day

I'm so excited. Today is a big day for me. Jen, Maureen and I are going to the big QUILT EXPO in Madison. I've never been to a big quilt show before only the smaller local ones. And the highlight of my day is I"m going to a lecture by ELEANOR BURNS. I'm so excited, she is my favorite and she's the one I learned to quilt by. I have my digital camera, a book of Eleanors I'm hoping to get her to sign and some signature blocks just incase. I'll be back tonight once we're back home. Time to run to the magic money machine before we leave. Talk to all of you later.

Saturday's sewing

Today was the big sewing day at my Mom's apartment complex. We all had fun and there were several of us there. My Mom, Jen, Me, Maureen and my sister Kitty and her daughter Keri stopped in to watch. There were only a few ladies who stopped by to see what was going on and they were friendly. We shared the big community room with a group who comes in to play cards, they were friendly at all.

Alot got finished today. A couple of Project Linus quilt tops that my Mom did. I think her number is up to something like 10+. I finished another flannel raggy quilt for Project Linus. Kitty finished her baby quilt she's making and started to quilt it. Maureen worked on her mother in laws quilt and her and Jen worked on our BOM getting them put together. Since there was no real turn out I think next time we'll either sew here or at my sisters.

After we were finished Jen, Maureen and I grabbed a quick dinner and called it a day. Jen came over and brought Holly with her. We sewed quite a bit tonight. We made coasters, she worked on her BOM and has most of it put together and it's FANTASTIC and I finished my Halloween door hanging and made coasters. Then I started cleaning out my sewing drawers. I want to organize better and label the drawers so when I"m looking for something I can actually find it without searching. Now it's time for bed and I'm tired. Tomorrow is another sewing day and I think I"m going to do my BOM and make a Lazy Girl purse, the Veronica. Stay tuned for the next episode of Snippy Sews.

Cindy (Peony the House Elf)

COMMENTS
Sunday, September 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by luv2quilt
Ok, didn't any of you take a camera? Let's see some pictures!!! Glad you had a good day. Sorry your efforts didn't turn out the way you wanted, but you tried. Have a great day sewing on Sunday! Love, Michelle

Sunday, September 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
I hope to see a picture of Veronica when she is done! What fabric are you using? I hope your sewing day goes well and think of me here cleaning. :-( I could use my own Peony the House Elf but until then I guess I am my own house elf again :-( I don't like cleaning. Have fun today and know that I am wishing I could be sewing with you. Maureen http://www.myquiltblog.com/MaureenQuilts/

Sunday, September 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Cre8tiveQuilter
HOw come you didn't mention the raggedy edged coasters? LOL

Sunday, September 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
Raggedy Edge Coasters ?? Those I would love to see ,please post a picture ,come to think of it why not raggedy edge placemats ?????

Sunday, September 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by lori
Ok I'm not taking the blame this time ,I did sign in for the last post Honest LOL

Sunday, September 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by cowgirl4ever
I am really looking forward to not having to play military anymore.. I love my job but the last couple weeks have been pretty frustrating.. I read about all the fun that you have sewing and want to be doing it myself.. frown... Soon though.. soon I'll have a normal job Heather

Saturday

Saturday was quite a busy day for me. I started out running to Jen's house because Michelle and Louie from Iowa were riding up for a visit on their motorcycle. Maureen was the next one to get there and then in rode the bike. It was so good to see them all. My only regret was I had to leave after about an hour to take Murphy in to have a glucose test done. Everyone should be happy to know that his numbers are down to 219 YIPPPPEEEEEEE. Then it was back home to my house to wait for my friends Debbie and Marge to come we were going to celebrate my birthday. We had a very good time and went to of all places Bakers Square where I had to miss the lunch earlier with everyone else. Just so Jen and Maureen know I had something different for dinner. I had terriyaki chicken stir fry it was fantastic and of course triple berry pie alamode. Then it was off to WalMart to just walk around for a while and then back to my house. I got a gift card from Joanns from Debbie and a great Storage jar from Marge. We had a really good visit and then it was time for bed because I was so tired.
Cindy



-Cindy (Peony the House Elf)
COMMENTS

Sunday, September 2, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 51050
It sounds like a busy day, but lots of fun. Rhoda

Sunday, September 2, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by luv2quilt
It was SO good to see you...I wish you could have stayed longer! I'm so happy Murphy is better. I will pray he keeps it up. Have a great Sunday! Michelle

Sunday, September 2, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jillquilts
Hooray for Murphy!! I am glad that his numbers finally stabilized!

Sunday, September 2, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by lori
So glad to hear Murphy is doing better .That pie sounds so yummy ,I can almost taste it LOL Sounds like you had a very nice day with your friends .

Sunday, September 2, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Cre8tiveQuilter
Too funny that you ended up at Baker's Square!!! Glad you had a good day. -Jen http://cre8tivequilter.blogspot.com/

Sunday, September 2, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by CountryQuilter
Sounds like you had such a great time. I am so glad that Murphys testing went better this time. Kristie

Sunday, September 2, 2007 - Jealous!
Posted by born2quilt
I am jealous you guys are able to get together. Anyone in maryland want to hook up anytime? Stephanie

Monday, September 3, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by MaureenQuilts
Cindy: We missed you once you left to take Murphy to the vet. I am so glad his numbers are coming down. YEAH MURPHY! I hope his numbers keep coming down to normal. Umm I think on Wednesday night you will have Triple Berry Pie Ala Mode. I'm psychic. LOL Maureen