a month of sundays

in good hands

2012-01-01T00:01:00.003-07:00

“The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

i have some questions to answer and thoughts to think and things to do that won't wait any longer ... i will be gone for a while ... take care

tebow time

2011-12-31T21:09:00.000-07:00

LuLu loooooves the Broncos ... but i dunno WHO could have taught her that...

if i could...

2011-12-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

baby, i'd give you my World...

for NoJo

for Gumdrop

for Corbadoo

for Peanut Butter Cup

for LuLu

for Keeper

kwilt kwitic

2011-12-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

trimming trees

2011-12-17T08:30:00.002-07:00

second (and final, officially - but prolly not around here) FNSI for december ... i FINALLY got around to piecing the trees for Over the River...

oh autumn treeee ... oh autumn treeee

how are thy leaves so solferino

and now i need to take a moment to thank the on-line thesaurus for another word for the color purple (even though the leaves and branches are more puce than a moderate purplish red - the word puce is not nearly as poetic or fun to say as solferino, right?!?)...

the trees will finish at 3 inches by 9 inches and they are gonna be the bookends for the OTR embroideries...

it was NICE to not have to work on the teetering tower anymore ... it did occur to me that my grandkids prolly don't look at this blog - and i could post pictures of the actual quilts before the solstice ...... but not today ...... today i am going to watch this little person...

Gumdrop's wish for christmas

dance dance dance!!!

tiny tim

2011-12-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

finito

2011-12-10T17:31:00.001-07:00

what i didn't do for the first FNSI this month...

over with ... done ... finished

because the very last stitch of the very last binding was taken on thursday evening ... late ... very late ... too late to want to get up on time the next day...

but they are finished and ready to go live somewhere else...

woo hootie hoo!!!

so ... friday night was open ... i could work on any thing in the Great Pile of Stuff and not feel guilty about neglecting the quilts for my precious grandbabies bless their little hearts ... HPV not the virus or OTR or the Ghastlies or the Shepherd's Bush stockings or the Northern Lights blocks or the Hot Flashes blocks or Snow Days or Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage or the peppermint blocks or the snow angels or the scrapbook pages for Michael Myson that i have to have finished by august or i'll flunk motherhood or the double wedding ring quilt or or or or or or or...

i dunno ... just thinking about the stuff i have started ... and the stuff i want to start ... and the stuff i don't even remember ... well ... it made me tired ... so i took some ibuprofen and went to bed...

and today has been filled up with Auntia's 25th birthday bless her heart ... she is waiting to use the computer so she can post about her own FNSI which was much more productive than mine lemmetellya so i'm gonna go cut another piece of birthday cake and drink a cuppa sumpin sumpin

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

MELISSA!!!

counting crows

2011-11-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

teetering tower of what was i thinking?!?

2011-11-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

or...

what i did for FNSI...

tell me again whose bright idea this was?!?

for the past few days i've been sewing the quarter of a gazillion stars into borders for six quilt tops ... last night i spread them out for measuring and found myself wondering when the floor moved so far away?!? ... then i ripped flannel, and sewed the backs together ... i WAS gonna cut the bindings and sew those together, but i'd had enough of flying flannel for one night so i watched Grimm instead of doing anything productive ... i guess i oughta get the batting together for that tower of doom, huh? i have enough for the three smallest tops, but the others will require twin-sized batts...

hmmm ... batting and thread doesn't go on sale till Black Friday...

that's a legitimate excuse for ignoring them for a few days, innit?!?

seeing stars

2011-11-05T17:25:00.001-06:00

i have never had much will power when it comes to fabric panels ... i'll buy a panel of just about anything ... i have panels stashed all over the house ... and when i sort through the Great Pile of Stuff, i almost always come across a panel or two...

or ten...

anywho ... the last time i sorted way back in early spring i found six panels that have a similar theme which must remain unnamed onaccounta it's a secret ... and i knew that by christmas i would have six grandchildren ... i made some notes in my quilt journal and sketched out a border that might be okay for all of them ... and went to work making flying geese...

a few months ago i posted a picture of a gazillion flying geese ... and now those flying geese are a quarter of a gazillion stars...

how many?!?

seriously - i did the math!

hey ... when did it start being november?!? and how the hedoublehockeysticks am i gonna get six sumpins made by christmas?!?

baneling bridesmaid

2011-10-27T19:47:00.000-06:00

bird brain

2011-10-26T19:52:00.000-06:00

turkey jerkey

2011-10-25T19:49:00.002-06:00

quarter back

2011-10-24T19:40:00.000-06:00

oh no!

2011-10-23T19:46:00.001-06:00

two and ten black birds

2011-10-22T20:24:00.001-06:00

Mama Spark is participating in a Geese in a Ring block swap and i followed her link to the pattern ... i thought that it was a waaaaaay cool block, but i needed it to finish at 6 inches instead of 12 inches ... i spent waaaay too much time trying to draft it on graph paper before i gave up and whined to Mama Spark and Auntia ... both of them suggested resizing the pattern using the Wonders of Modern Day Technology ... now why didn't i think of that?!?
short answer - i'm a technophobe ...
so i put on my big girl panties and came up with...

crows or bats?!?

a circle of black birds ... it's just a skosh on the short side of 6 inches finished ... that'll do

but i didn't let myself work on it till after i'd finished those pinwheels...

spinning wheels got to go round

i needed 44 ... 48 at the most ... there are 64 in that pile ... you know the story about the old lady who swallowed a fly?!? and who knows why she swallowed that fly?!? well, that's me ...... the old lady, not the fly

did you see Auntia's Northern Lights blocks?!? they are pretty doggone awesome ... and the Wintergraphix bits and pieces that she is putting together - wow - it makes my eyes cross just watching her, lemmetellya...

cut, mark, pin, sew, press ... repeat

2011-10-22T09:10:00.000-06:00

this is what i worked on for the Friday Night Sew-In...

pinwheels, pins, bits, pieces

i was hoping for larger piles of spinning wheels and smaller piles of flat tires ... sigh ... Sven the Viking ground his teeth when i hit a pin full-on ... he was so aggravated that he made all the lights in the house dim ... that pin won't be holding anymore seams that need sewing, lemmetellya...

witchy woman

2011-10-21T19:38:00.003-06:00

sour puss

2011-10-20T19:36:00.001-06:00

dragon's gold...

2011-10-19T19:35:00.000-06:00

on edge

2011-09-30T18:12:00.000-06:00

and just under the wire ... september's Hot Flashes BOM is On Edge...

mine

and so am i ... i had all month to put that block together, but i waited till now cuz it's never too late to do a mediocre job ... Auntia already had hers finished...

Auntia's

i am liking the Shades fabric less and less and i am ready for this Block of the Month to be over...

Sheri the Shop Owner's

i could not bring myself to put those two fabrics together ... neither could Auntia ... after i finished mine, i realized that the blue would have been okay with the yellow part of the red Shades say what?!?

Sheri the Shop Owner taking roll call

and i'm sure pretty sure that everyone else at the meeting will not have strayed from the path like we did ... i guess we are rule-breakers cuz we were the only ones to redraft last month's block, too ... do you think that The Quilt Police nudge each other when we walk into the room and whisper neenner-neenners in each others' ears? meh ... i don't think i care too much ... anywho, the meeting for october is tomorrow morning and the Wonder Woman bag is packed and ready to go...

we interrupt this program...

2011-09-24T15:58:00.002-06:00

to bring you this breaking news...

i think that the embroidery for Over the River and Through the Woods is done...

there we are - toolin' down the road in our truck, stocking hats on our heads cuz it is COLD outside

and i think it is pretty doggone cool...

headed for home

i am loving the wing at the back of the house that has every little thing we need for creating...

our house is a very, very, very fine house

i thought it was done a few days ago, but then i remembered the missing element...

tacky, tacky, tacky

and now we will continue with our previously scheduled program...

barn raising

2011-09-20T18:01:00.001-06:00

the barn done been raised...

it will not always be summer; build barns

Hesiod

most barns are used for horses and other livestock, right?!?

well, my barn is gonna hold horses of a different kind - a shiny collection of classic muscle and pony cars, and maybe even a couple Chevy and GMC trucks...

if i'm gonna dream, it's gonna be big!

The barn really smelled like a barn with all the hay.

Dakota Fanning

a great wind is blowing

2011-09-19T18:26:00.007-06:00

and that gives you either imagination, or a headache.

Catherine the Great

a loooong time ago, i bought a weather vane ... not an ordinary weather vane with a rooster or a pig pointing in the direction of the wind ... my weather vane is a dragon ... a copper dragon

i had and have no place to actually put my weather vane ... the gazebo i was going to build, complete with a cupola on the top, and my weather vane on top of the cupola, has been eaten several times by the Economy and Poor Choices ... and so my copper dragon is packed away in a box in the garage ... but when i started stitching Over the River's embroidery, Opportunity knocked...

north by northwest

and i actually opened the door before it went away ... this is the pattern's original weather vane...

what IS that?!?

i think my dragon is waaaaay cooler ... maybe tonight i will finish stitching the barn - that door is getting lonely...

Weather forecast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning.

George Carlin

mission accomplished

2011-09-18T06:00:00.002-06:00

Twist of Lime has gone to live with the Keeper...

Keeper and Twist of Lime

each of my four granddaughters now has a pink and orange quilt to call her own...

and now ... about those two boys?!? i dunno ... i don't think pink would be a good choice ... but orange might be ... after all, we do live in Bronco country

under construction

2011-09-17T13:26:00.001-06:00

last night was the FNSI for september ... i put on my tool belt and put up some fencing...

that oughta keep 'em out

then i planted a bush by the side of the house...

it looked bigger at the nursery

pruned a few trees ... and shut the barn door...

gonna hafta fix that latch

which seems kinda silly since the barn isn't even built yet...

front and center

2011-08-31T06:00:00.004-06:00

of a work in progress...

samhein sunset?!?

this is what the purple practice posted previously was practice for ... and it was NOT the walk in the park that i thought it would be, lemmetellya ... i had a devilish time keeping the sides on the straight of grain ... i pieced a bunch of different sizes of grey and green strips for the cemetery yeah, well, it is SUPPOSED to look like a cemetery - that's my story and i'm sticking with it and put them all together - there must have been hundreds of little tombstones ... when i asked,

"well, Auntia, what do you think of my cemetery?"

she answered with,

"that is a LOT of dead bodies!"

so i guess it's a good thing that i wasn't able to use all of them, innit? next up is a moon between those trees ... Applique, thy name is fill in the appropriate four letter word.

fdlfcfitd*

2011-08-30T20:04:00.000-06:00

*friends don't let friends choose fabrics in the dark

cuz this is what happens...

yikes! where is Auntia when i need her to just say no?!?

bleck ... the pattern is from the book Winter Trees by Jane Kennedy

the fabrics looked okay together when i pulled them from the stash ... it was about one in the morning and i was using a flashlight ... okay ... okay ... OKAY ... that isn't quite true - but it WAS after a very long day and i didn't want to waste any of my blue sky fabrics on a trial ... good thing this one was just for practice, innit?!?

and then there were none

2011-08-27T19:45:00.000-06:00

the last time i posted about the Pink and Orange BOM blocks, there were four completed quilts and 24 leftover blocks ... now there are six quilts...

twist of lime

irish gelatto

and no more blocks...

woo hootie hoo!!!

the next time i start a BOM and i get the ridiculous idea to make all of the blocks and their alternates times three in another colorway ... will someone please smack me upside the head?!?

wee piggies

2011-08-20T21:02:00.000-06:00

i didn't accomplish anything of note for the Friday Night Sew-In ... and no one wants to see a picture of nothing ... however ... this picture...

which little piggy had roast beast?!?

is too sweet, innit?

those are my newest granddaughter's little toes ... her daddy (Earth Science) painted them ... and i think that is pretty doggone awesome

gotta good reason

2011-08-17T06:31:00.003-06:00

we've reached the halfway point of the Hot Flashes BOM ... this month's block is called Flushed, Sweat & Tears...

mine

Auntia's

the pattern calls for 16 flying geese and lottsa two inch squares...

Sheri the Shop Owner's

which made me flush and sweat and want to cry ... i looked at Auntia and rolled my eyes ... she rolled her eyes back ... neither of us wanted to try matching all those points if we didn't have to ... we started redrafting the block in our notebook with square-in-a-square to replace eight of the flying geese, while Sheri the Shop Owner continued with her demonstration ... Auntia drew a paper-piecing pattern for the square-in-a-squares cuz mine always turn out wonky and made copies for both of us to use ... and we used rectangles instead of squares for all but the four corners ... i'm all
for taking the easy way out

is that hercule poirot?!?

2011-08-16T22:00:00.000-06:00

nah...

it's LuLu

after scarfing down a boston creme pie toaster strudel

I think, monsieur, that little admission cooks your gander.

from Death in the Clouds

is that what i think it is?!?

2011-08-01T18:02:00.032-06:00

i looked out of the patio door and saw this...

now everyone knows that i love me some autumn leaves, but...

it's only the first of august!!!

no more baby blues

2011-07-31T06:32:00.000-06:00

SSBOM Hot Flashes for july ... the block is called no more baby blues...

mine

and, once again, no blue in a block named after the blues...

Auntia's

when we went to the meeting on the first saturday of july, Sheri the Shop Owner had the demonstration board all set up for the SS Neutral BOM which everyone knows is the second saturday of the month ... that was a short meeting, lemmetellya ... no demonstration and no sample block and the Shades fabric strips weren't in their cute little plastic bags ... both of us decided to use just the dark green Shade strip instead of the lime green strip...

Sheri the Shop Owner's

i'm not sure about the modulation of the phrase ... is it supposed to be

no more baby blues ?

or should it be

no more baby blues ?

and, seriously, shouldn't there be just a smidgen of blue in the block?!? i'm just sayin...

male menopause is a lot more fun than female menopause. with female menopause you gain wait and get hot flashes. male menopause - you get to date young girls and drive motorcycles.

author unknown

good golly

2011-07-30T18:35:00.001-06:00

ms. molly ... those paper-pieced leaves really DO exist...

leaf fall! we have leaf fall! 35 minutes past the hour!

and their little acorns, too ... they were in bits and pieces in little ziploc bags till i had a marathon git-er-done session a week or two ago ... and now they are in a bigger ziploc bag, waiting patiently for me to get back to them and theirs...

say what?!?

2011-07-23T21:19:00.000-06:00

last night was FNSI...

i embroidered...

the left side of the top embroidery for Over the River and Through the Woods

i can't believe that i signed up for more trees - you'd think i'd have learned my lesson with HPV not the virus...

i am changing the pattern a bit is anyone in shock?!?

i didn't want it to be a winter scene, so i traced it with lines that are not drifted with snow...

we don't need no stinking snow drifts

and i replaced the horse-drawn sleigh with a truck from Snow Days another Crab-apple Hill pattern...

does this fender make my butt look big?!?

the truck was too small and was facing the wrong way, so i traced it ... and reversed it ... and then Auntia enlarged it for me

instead of black floss, i'm using DMC #154 very dark grape for most of the stitching ... and a little bit of Wildflowers #077 royal jewels for what should have been fields of snow, but is gonna be strewn leaves instead i was gonna write leaf fall, but Auntia says it's strewn leaves...

and the background fabric is not what i originally chose last year ... i didn't buy enough background fabric for the embroidery and the paper-pieced leaves ... so i ordered what i thought was the same fabric, but was actually a bit more gold and more than a bit darker ... which meant that i still didn't have enough of either fabric for the embroidery and the paper-pieced leaves ... so i used both fabrics randomly shudder for the paper-pieced leaves...

i dunno ... i think it will work ... maybe in a year or ten i will have a thanksgiving quilt...

Thanksgiving, man! Not a good day to be my pants.

Kevin James

a to z

2011-07-17T20:04:00.002-06:00

you gotta go check out what Auntia has on the design floor ... go ahead - i'll wait

is that not awesome?!? she finished embroidering the candy cane letters on friday night (after stalling on the letter "P" for months and months) and sewed the sashing on each of them last night ... i think it is absolutely amazing!!!

we took a little break and went to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon this afternoon ... my arm is bruised from being squished every time Bumblebee was on screen ... and Sam Witwicky wasn't the only one in tears when it looked like the big yellow guy was gonna be assassinated, lemmetellya ... i'm just happy to finally know the REAL reason for the Race to the Moon...

When you're finally up on the moon, looking back at the Earth, all these differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend and you're going to get a concept that maybe this is really one world and why the hell can't we learn to live together like decent people?

Frank Borman

incentive

2011-07-01T01:00:00.002-06:00

in·cen·tive

Something, such as the fear of punishment or the expectation of reward, that induces action or motivates effort.

adj.

Serving to induce or motivate: an incentive bonus for high productivity.

this is a little stack of incentive...

and none of it is for me

for Auntia to work on the rest of her PPSSBOM blocks ... after i showed her the candy cane fabric, she finished the last three paper-pieced blocks and embroidered for a few hours on her candy cane letters ... so i ordered the rest of what she needed for her quilt top ... washed it ... dried it ... folded it...

my work here is done...

The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

Robert Frost

big spender

2011-06-30T19:15:00.001-06:00

my garden gloves weren't doing what they're supposed to do ... thistles and thorns were getting through - making me bleed and swear ... i went to squash bugs or slugs and found that their nasty little bodies crunched and oozed their way onto my hands ... and forget about crumpling a dried clod of manure mud - all over the inside and not the outside ...... time to buy a new pair...

my trusty old friends in all their bug-squashing glory ... and The Replacements

why oh why did they stop making working gloves for less-than-manly-sized hands?!? why?!?

but i couldn't find the same brand anywhere ... i need work gloves, not mamby pamby pretty little knitted cotton fluffy things that can't handle bug-squashing and thorny weed-pulling ... those fancy gloves in the picture were as close as i could find to sturdy leather gloves with an extra patch of leather on the palm that didn't swallow my hands ... Auntia found a pair that she thought would work for her ... and she told me that i can have her pink gloves that have never squashed a bug or pulled a thorny weed and are practically brand new and are just like my old blue pair - woo hoo!!!

and suddenly it's hot! too hot to mow ... too hot to clean ... too hot to garden ... and way too hot to cook or bake ... so we've been slopping together sandwiches or frying an egg or two ... and missing comfort food ... and then we stumbled across a farmers' market that had a little tent canopy over some promising looking bread ... and they were offering free samples...

white chocolate lemon bread ... heaven in a loaf, lemmetellya

oh. my. gawd. i didn't even ask how much - i handed over some money and didn't count the change ... Auntia and i waited till everyone was taking a nap before we cut into the loaf because it is too. good. to. share.

and this week i went to the same farmers' market and bought two loaves ... and they were worth every doggone one of those 1200 pennies, lemmetellya

and then i started getting complaints (mostly from myself) about the toilet seat ... sigh ... in a moment of wanton, willful and reckless disregard for the state of the economy i bought something that other women my age only dream of owning ... a new toilet seat

the falling leeeeeeeaves

2011-06-18T10:15:00.002-06:00

drift by the windooooooow

the autumn leeeeeaves ... of red and gooooold

i looked up the lyrics - i always thought it was my window, not the window ... which means i've been messing up the lyrics to yet another song all these years .... yeah ... we won't even talk about desperado

i have been drafting leaves for the awesome quilt that i finally get to start working on cuz i couldn't find a paper-pieced aspen leaf and cuz i didn't want to pay six dollars each for a maple leaf or an oak leaf pattern ... i always tell myself that i have more time than money ... well, i guess i am willing to work for 29 cents an hour cuz that's how long it took to save twelve dollars...my oak leaf
i messed up one of the blades of the oak leaf and had to reverse sew and redraft it - but i think i have it fixed ... i have a pattern for an apple leaf table runner that i was gonna use cuz i have apple trees in my yard and it wouldn't be cheating too much ... but i really wanted to make aspen leaves cuz they are the only gold i've found in colorado ... so i changed the apple leaf block from a triangle to a square, and then messed around with rounding it out...do you recognize the maple leaf's fabric, Thelma?
maple, oak, aspen and acorn ... nothing is ever easy
and i even managed to put petioles that's stems for those of us who are botanically challenged on each of the leaves ... last night's Friday Night Sew-In was all used up by the time i tested out the oak leaf and acorn ... i dunno if i will ever again try to draft a paper-pieced design ... and i have an even greater respect for those who make it look easy cuz it ain't, lemmetellya...

altogether ookey

2011-06-16T20:15:00.002-06:00

i love packages from Desperate Quilters

this came in the mail today...the NEW Ghastlies
and this...the OLD Ghastlies
in smoke ... and in natural (for Auntia) ... there was squealing, lemmetellya ... i love those knitting witches ... and the look on the maid's face - she'd like to take that bell and put it where the sun don't shine ... and my favorite little girl with a hammer ... this one is gonna be for me and i think i may have a plan ... and it ISN'T an irish chain...

yo, Amy ... whaddaya think?!? do you have yours yet?

If minutes were kept of a family gathering, they would show that "Members Not Present" and "Subjects Discussed" were one and the same.
Robert Brault

moody blues

2011-06-13T17:27:00.006-06:00

tuuuuuuesday aaaaaaafternooooooon

i'm just beginning to seeeeee ... now i'm on my waaaay

oh ... right ... not those Moody Blues ... which should be required listening - i'm just sayin'

the Hot Flashes block for june is moody blues ... but it isn't blue...mine
as a matter of fact, there isn't even one little bit of blue...Auntia's
in any of the three blocks that i have seen...Sheri the Shop Owner's
i dunno what the dealio is - seeing red is blue - but moody blues isn't ... what's up with that?!?

something unusual happened at the meeting ... one of the BOMers intentionally sat by me (this never happens ... i am too rowdy ... and opinionated ... and disruptive) and asked me for my name...

dianne...

we call you the mother and daughter.

we?

all of us who get together ... we were talking about your blue and white quilt ... and we call you the mother and daughter.

oh ... well ... i am dianne ... and this is Melissa ..... but there are three sets of mothers and daughters here...

no way!

way! the EA-Team are mother and daughter, and Hoarse Whisperer and Church Basement Lady* are, too...

i had no idea!

that's cuz they don't make spectacles of themselves ... i'm just sayin' ... is your block pink? my block is pink and i think that Melissa should have changed kits with me cuz hers is periwinkle and she knows that i love periwinkle but she actually hid it from me cuz she didn't trust me to not use the blue and leave her with the pink and it's kinda sad when your own daughter doesn't trust you with a kit, innit? sheesh - and then she made the mistake of actually telling me that she didn't trust me to ... wait ... wait ... where are you going?!?

*i did not say Hoarse Whisperer and Church Basement Lady out loud ... i didn't point, either - i nodded in their directions ... i am not totally asocial

breakfast of champions

2011-06-11T19:03:00.002-06:00

if i get any behinder ... well ... i just might catch up with myself

let's see ... where did i leave off ... memorial weekend ... three days off ... what to do ... what to do ... oooo! i know!!!

first, start with a nutritious breakfast...Auntia - in her Pirates of the Caribbean mouse ears - and breakfast - Whoppers and Butterfingers and Dots
and follow it up with a little break...ooooo!!! air conditioning and Hot. Men. inside!!!
stop for a little sight-seeing...Auntia and Captain Jack Sparrow - why do sweet young things always go for the bad boys?!?
and then do it again...Thor ( the movie, not the sewing machine) and Dots and Raisinets - who could ask for more?!?
and when we weren't gorging on candy and gawking at the silver screen, we found time to honor our dead...lives well-lived
and visit the living...Little Nonnie (on one of her better days) and Auntia
and clip some wings...a gazllion flying geese, give or take a dozen or two

i cooked hamburgers and hot dogs with fire and mowed ... Auntia planted and watered ... we cleaned and laundered and weeded ... and laughed a lot and cried a bit and talked ... and laughed some more ... a sip or two of wine ... aaaaaahhhhh!!!

pink or blue?

2011-06-07T21:09:00.001-06:00

pink!

look who decided to join us a few days early...a new little dark-haired beauty
being born can make a girl soooo tired
my baby girl holding Earth Science's baby girl
and Auntia is in love all over again...

sleeping beauty

2011-05-25T19:30:00.005-06:00

when it was time for nap, LuLu used to sleep in a play yard also known as a playpen by politically incorrect people ... like me in my room ... there are always warning signs when a little one is getting too old for a play yard ... when you walk into the room and the kid is buck naked with clothes, toys, blankets and binkies tossed over the side ... when you walk into the room and find the kid with one leg thrown over the top of the play yard, and the other leg soon to follow ... when you hear a loud thump and the kid comes running down the hall toward you, yelling

i do it myself!!!

we might have noticed one or two ... or three of those signs last week ... so we used a 50% off coupon at JoAnn's to buy a Tangled nap mat for LuLu ... Auntia decided that the nap mat pillow wasn't fluffy enough, so she made some pillowcases ...but we didn't have extra pillows to stuff them with for LuLu's first nap...aaaaawwwww!!! my little LuLu is soooo doggone cute!!!

she fell asleep anyway because...

there is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience
French proverb

hormonal derangement

2011-05-22T06:00:00.000-06:00

not that anyone here would know anything about raging hormones...

have i ever told you about the time when a sullen, hormonal teenager and an emotional, hormonal pregnant twenty-something and a worn-out menopausal, hormonal forty-something all lived under the same roof? this roof, to be exact ... sometimes i wonder how we all lived through it without our heads spinning in circles and spewing pea soup on the kindly priest...

anywho ... this month's Hot Flashes BOM block is hormonal derangement...mine

my little kit was cut from the same bolt of Shades fabric as Auntia's...Auntia's
and i tried to get her to trade with me cuz periwinkle blue is way more awesome than pink even though i do love pink, too but she has developed super powers when it comes to not hearing my whining ... Sheri the Shop Owner made the blocks with Shades fabric and with batiks...Sheri's Hormonal Derangement blocks
i like this block ... but it will finish at 15 inches and i think i would like it better if it was Thelma Sized to a 9 inch block

i am taking copious notes in a Wonder Woman spiral ... and we are keeping our pattern and kits in a Wonder Woman folder ... so Auntia decided that we needed a Wonder Woman sumpin to keep everything in one place...Wonder Woman ... Wonder Woman
all the world is waiting for you
and the powers you possess
in your satin tights
fighting for your rights
and the old red white and blue
make a hawk a dove
stop a war with love
make a liar tell the truth
stop a bullet cold
make the Axis fall
change their minds and change the world

you're a wonder, Wonder Woman ... but i cannot even imagine an island filled with hormonal Amazons

herd of birds

2011-05-21T06:00:00.003-06:00

last night was the Friday Night Sew-In and it was for the birds...

no blue skies around here the past few days ... maybe i should have waited for the leaves to dry a bit
i've been piecing flying geese for the past couple of weeks ... after some slicing and dicing and a bit of heat those became these...gaggle of geese ... herd of birds
i am not too keen on the idea of trimming a gazillion little birdies, lemmetellya

i worked on HPV not the virus a bit, too...no paper-piecing patterns for tombstones?!? seriously?!?
i couldn't find any patterns for tombstones, so the Little Red Hen had to do it herself...a bit morbid, innit?!?
i had never tried to draft a paper-piecing pattern before ... they'll do, i guess

maybe today i will get the grass mowed and some of those weeds pulled ... yeah, like that's gonna happen when i have a gazillion wings to clip

inquiring minds

2011-05-12T09:11:00.001-06:00

wanted to know...

yes, there IS a person sleeping under and over those quilts - but it is NOT me cuz i wouldn't be able to get back up again if i slept on the floor ... it is Gumdrop ... she made that nest and slept in it for a couple of hours ... her hair was a mess when she woke up...

Seven of 9 is the seventh of 9 sets of blocks from BOMs that had been, have been, and are waiting to be made into quilts - which makes for a waaaay cool name...

i asked the EA-Team if i could take a picture of their Hot Flashes blocks and they said sure, just keep us outta the picture...Andrea's is on the left, Edna's is on the rightand a closeup of Edna's - the background is blacker than it looks in the picture
i dunno why they didn't want to be photographed cuz they are nice, neat, clean, attractive human beings with terrific senses of humor cuz they think i'm witty and funny - bwah ha ha ... Edna did say something about not wanting to be made infamous on the InterNet...

Auntia's Given Name is Melissa ... we DO know that Auntia is like saying aunt aunt ... when NoJo was a little bitty guy, he thought that he was speaking spanish if he added "ah" or "oh" to the end of any word - he also had/has two Aunt Melissas - so he differentiated between the two by calling our Melissa Auntia Melissa and the other Melissa Auntie Melissa ... and it stuck cuz now all of our Melissa's nieces and nephews and a few other kids who aren't related but oughtta be call her Auntia ... and so do i most of the time ... she also answers to Lace and Liss and Mah-lissa ... and Dinner's Ready...

and just in case you were wondering about the weather it has rained here for more than 24 hours ... i knew that if i watered the grass, it would rain ... i'm just glad that we didn't take Auntia's car through the car wash because then there would have been a deluge ... and i'm really glad that it is rain and not snow cuz i don't have to shovel rain...

is it naptime yet?

2011-05-06T06:00:00.001-06:00

i love naps ... i would take a nap every day if i could ... Gumdrop hated taking naps when she was little and i would tell her that someday she would wish that she could take a nap but time would tell her no...is anybody home?!?

and that is why spring break was invented...
the quilt on top is named Butterfly Kisses and it was the first quilt i made for her ... and the next one is Mellow Yellow ... then there is the Pooh Bear nap mat that she outgrew four or five years ago ... and Space Exploration (another Stack n Whack that everyone saw coming and avoided taking possession of - so it lives here with me) is under it ... perfect for taking a nap on a chilly spring day...

I usually take a two hour nap from one to four.
Yogi Berra

mental pause

2011-05-05T07:45:00.002-06:00

was the Hot Flashes BOM for april ... the Shades fabric is soooo thin (kinda like a cheap sheet) that the camera's flash was reflected off the floor behind it when i tried to take a picture, so i put last month's block under Mental Pause...mine with brown

and of course you can see the other blocks a bit around the edges...Auntia's with black
there is a quilter in the meeting after ours who is making her blocks with a black background - i didn't get a good picture of it cuz they were actually behaving in their meeting - but you can kinda see it draped over the back of the chair...Sheri is demonstrating construction of the Hot Flashes blocks in another fabric line for the 2nd BOM group
most of us thought we needed to use cream or white backgrounds with the Shades fabric, but it actually looks pretty doggone awesome with black ... not awesome enough for me to start over, but Edna (the mother part of the other mother/daughter team ... you know, the ones who are almost as much fun as Auntia and i are) has decided to redo hers in black ... maybe i will get a better picture at the meeting on saturday morning...

two sweet

2011-05-01T06:00:00.001-06:00

my baby girl and my grandbaby girl...
Auntia (the aunt) and LuLu (the niece) smooching
both of them were having a good hair day - bwah ha ha!!!

size doesn't matter

2011-04-30T21:31:00.005-06:00

Auntia took pity on me and helped take out all of those tiny little pieces of paper from the paper-piecing of Paper-Pieced Saturday Sampler BOM while she watched (and i complained about) American Idol ... Annemiek was right - it DID look like it had snowed indoors - little bits of paper everydamnwhere ... and snippets of thread, too ... all over me, all over Auntia, all over my bedroom ... sheesh ... i went through an entire lint roller, lemmetellya ... and then it was time to trim it for the borders ... i squared the outer edge and left the extra fabric on the setting triangles so Auntia could decide whether or not she wanted them to float inside the inner border or force me to meet a gazillion more points ... but she decided that she doesn't want any borders at all...

what?!? no borders?!?

no ... no borders ... it doesn't need borders.

whaddya mean it doesn't need borders?!? of course it needs borders ... it's only 51" x 74"!!! that's not big enough!!!

big enough for what?

to wrap around you! to keep you warm! to sleep...

i'm not gonna sleep under this one ... i'm gonna hang it on a wall and look at it ... the size doesn't matter.

no, no, no ... that's a myth perpetuated by men who...

i am not gonna use this quilt ... i am gonna look at it ... it is just the right size and it doesn't need borders.

and so ... Paper-Pieced Saturday Sampler BOM is ready for quilting ... but it needs a name cuz PPSSBOM is awkward and not waaaay cool...

Seven of 9

is as done as it's gonna be till i save enough pennies to have it quilted cuz i am not even gonna try to quilt it myself...

pressing matters

2011-04-27T17:52:00.003-06:00

to press

or not to press?!?
when i am working with bias edges, i usually don't press ... and i usually regret it ... but when i DO press ... well, i always regret it ... so i didn't press this time till i was finished with all of the sashing for the setting triangles ... the top was spread out on the floor and Auntia said...
i'm really, really glad that i don't have to press that...

who said you don't have to press it?!? if it's gonna be yours, i think that's the least you can do...

i am NOT pressing that mess - you should have pressed as you sewed.

yeah ... well ... maybe so
and maybe no...

it was an intense hour with Ensign Ro*, lemmetellya ... i tried using steam - till i realized that i was making a mess of things - and then i took three steps back and ran into the baker's rack that holds the tv ... counted to ten ... took a few deep breaths ... thought some more bad words ... and tried again...Paper-Pieced Saturday Sampler with setting triangles and sashing
and without too many more bad words Ensign Ro and i smoothed the beast ... and now i get to pick out all of those little pieces of paper-piecing paper cuz i have no more excuses...

*Ensign Ro is our Rowenta iron - i know that she is a Bajoran cuz of all the wrinkles

smarter than a fifth grader?!?

2011-04-25T15:50:00.001-06:00

i decided that i have too many BOMs and not enough quilts, so i got out these...

Paper-Pieced Saturday Sampler Blocks of the Month
and the embroidered teapots and teacups that i've whined about for the past year ... and i redid the math ... i have no idea why i thought i needed 24 embroidered blocks ... i knew i wanted to set the blocks on point and that i would have 24 paper-pieced blocks of four across and six down, with embroidered blocks for the alternate rows ... i wrote about the setting in my quilt journal but i did not make a diagram which would have shown me in graphite and graph paper that i needed fifteen embroidered blocks, not twenty-four ... sheesh ... i could have stopped whining nine teapots ago ... anywho ... i put all the blocks on the floor and asked Auntia to arrange them the way she wanted cuz this one is for her, too and brought the sashing strips that i've been putting together for the past two weeks cuz i messed up the math on them, too downstairs...four and twenty paper-pieced blocks with five and ten embroidered teapots and a gazillion nine-patch corner stones
and made this much progress before i'd had enough for one night...whose bright idea was this?!?
i don't know why i always underestimate how much time it's gonna take to put blocks together ... this was not a one day project ... i really need to get better at doing the math

no, i am NOT smarter than a fifth grader

shot of sumpin sumpin

2011-04-25T12:55:00.007-06:00

do these blocks look familiar?!?Auntia and tequila sunrise

remember these?!? after i finished mellow yellow and dream maker and daisy duke i still had 36 blocks left from the pink and orange BOMs - tequila sunrise (for Auntia - cuz she's an Eagles fan and cuz the middle block in the top row looks like an umbrella drink to me) used up 12 of them ... Auntia wanted a spring-weight quilt, so i used Hobbs Thermore ultra-thin batting and quilted loops all over it with variegated pink thread ... just 24 blocks to go

do or do not

2011-04-22T19:13:00.006-06:00

there is no try...Auntia's Yoda quilt ... too many Yodas there can never be

a few years ago i made lots and lots of kaleidoscope quilts ... people in my family actually started to hide from me so they wouldn't be saddled with one ... but Auntia actually wanted hers cuz her favorite Star Wars character is Yoda and i bought lots of Yoda fabric...Yoda flannel - whodathunk?!?
and when it was time for the actual quilting i was kinda weary of the little green guy - so i decided to quilt it with one of my favorites...R2D2 getting whacked by Yoda's light saber
i wouldn't want to have to choose between R2D2 and Chewbaca in real life - but in the quilting world R2 was probably easier to continuous line quilt...what is THAT supposed to be?!?
i simplified a drawing from a Star Wars coloring book okay, i confess, it was actually from MY coloring book and i still don't share it with anyone and quilted row after row ... it was one of my better machine quilting efforts which just goes to show you how low my standards are and a lot more intense than the loops and swirls i have been quilting lately ... anywho ... that was august of 2008 and i named it Do or Do Not
cuz there is no try

sooo last year...

2011-03-29T19:28:00.005-06:00

today is Mr. Husker's sixty-oneth birthday ... i thought i would celebrate by showing the picture of him seeing What A Wonderful World (that's what the naming block says, but it will always be Mr. Husker's Homestead inside my head) for the very first time...what is that in that corncob?!? is that a ... it IS ... you just HAD to get CU in there somewhere, didn't you?!?

i think that it is safe to say that he really does like his quilt ... he put it on top of their bed - even though those greens and reds do not play well with the rest of the mauve yes, mauve room - and won't let my sister change back to the bedspread ... sometime during the first week after his birthday, she found him lying on top of the quilt, knees up to his chin so his toes wouldn't get scraped on the cows' button/ear tags...

what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks are you doing?!?

huh? what?!? i was trying to sleep...

get off of that quilt!!!

why?!?

get off of that quilt! you don't sleep on top of quilts!!! you sleep UNDER them!!!

but ... it's my quilt ... i didn't know there were rules...

well, there ARE!!! now get off of that quilt!!!

but ... it's my quilt!!!

GET. OFF. OF. IT.

grumble ... mumble ... my quilt ... mumble ... grumble

p.s. - if you click on the blue letters, you will be able to see other pictures through the magic of links

jimmiejams

2011-03-27T14:58:00.010-06:00

this month's Saturday Sampler Neutral BOM meeting coincided with pajama day at The Quiter's Studio ... 25% off the total purchase for showing up in pajamas by 9am ... Auntia had to drink a LOT of coffee to get going that morning...uh ... you have pinwheels on your head ... didja know that?!?

and she was willing to go out in public in her jammies...her dawgs are barkin'
she even ironed them so they would look nice ... but that's not all ... she ironed mine, too...yes, yes ... i can be bought ... but i ain't cheap!
i don't think i will be doing that again ... i just about froze to death cuz those jammies aren't that warm when they're not under a couple of quilts, a velux blanket and flannel sheets ... and those once-pristine pink fluffy slippers picked up a lotta dirt off the floor ... i'm just sayin'

duck ... duck...

2011-03-27T14:52:00.002-06:00

duck ... duck ...

GOOSE!!!

that's all?!?

2011-03-19T16:45:00.005-06:00

this is what i ended up with...blue baby afghan for Whatisit if he is a boy and bindings for the last three pink & orange BOM quilts

after starting with this...four rounds left on the little blue afghan and a pile of binding fabric
i use the pink sticky arrow to show me what round i am supposed to be working on ... it moved off of the last page of instructions ... back through the first page ... and onto the middle of the second page...flashback
i wasn't sold on making a big yarn doily and calling it an afghan, but flashback
will be my fourth one after it is finished ... so i guess i like the idea more than i thought i would

and that's what i did with my friday night ... yep ... that's all!

seeing red

2011-03-17T19:20:00.010-06:00

but not really...

on the first saturday of march, we went to the first Hot Flashes meeting at The Quilter's Studio ... this BOM has the same rules as the other BOMsSheri's Seeing Red block and the Hot Flashes pattern
$5 fee for the first kit
watch and listen to the demonstration on how to make the block
show up at 9am on the first saturday of the next month with a completed block - and the new kit is free (no, there is no such thing as a free kit ... or kitten ... but it is fun to think that we're getting something for nothing)
don't show up or show up late and/or without a completed block and pay $5 for the new kit
the BOMer is required to buy the pattern and the background fabric

Auntia and i are sharing the pattern ... she chose a white-on-white fabric with big bubble-looking spots for her background ... my background is white-on-white asterisks
yeah, asterisks
lots and lots of **************'s
cuz i've been through menopause and it ain't for wimps, lemmetellya!!!

this is the reason that i wanted to make the quilt with TQS's BOM kits...Auntia's shaded black fabric
the fabric that The Quilter's Studio will provide is Shades by Kinkame for Clothworks Fabric and it is pretty doggone cool ... it changes shades from selvage to selvage ... but fat quarters would have only half of the shading and that means the dreaded "Y" word
yardage
i love fabric ... yards and yards of fabric ... but i don't want to buy yards and yards of Shades because...
there are at least 17 different colors and i would have to have them all
the fabric looks really cool, but it feels kinda ... icky
TQS cuts fabric off the bolt with a rotary cutter and straight edge instead of tearing it on grain ... by the time the fabric is straightened, it is usually an inch or two short on each end
so instead of buying 1/4 yard and having 9 inches of fabric to work with, i have to add another 1/4 yard to be sure that i have 9 inches after it is straightened
and so in these uncertain economic times once monthly BOM meetings it is

Hot Flashes is a waaaay cool pattern ... each of the twelve blocks is named for the fun experiences of menopause ... this month's block is called SEEING RED ... but the kits don't have red fabric in them...this is MY block
TQS chose to use blue and brown ... Auntia doesn't like the brown, so she bought 1/2 yard of black Shades...this is AUNTIA's block ... and yes, we DO need a new ironing board cover
i tried ... i really and truly tried ... to let the shading fall where ever ... i guess random just doesn't work for me

half of the BOMers didn't show up ... so you'd think that the rest of us could have played nicely together, right?!?
nope.
there were fifteen empty chairs - but Ms. ISellBerninas had to sit behind us ... sigh ... the good news - we are not the only mother/daughter team ... there are two others ... and one of those two teams is almost as much fun as we are ... bwah ha ha ha!!!

tomorrow is FNSI ... and i have lots to work on

cuzzin' up a storm

2011-03-04T22:45:00.006-07:00

Auntia and i are going to the new Saturday Sampler BOM meeting at The Quilter's Studio tomorrow morning ... i hesitated to sign up for yet another BOM
cuz it eats up so many saturday mornings
and cuz it is a long drive there and back again with gas prices climbing higher
and cuz i find myself waiting till the last minute to put the required blocks together
and cuz i have finished only four of the nine quilts that i've started with BOMs even though i've participated in only 4 sets of BOM meetings
cuz you surely don't think that i'm not gonna make the required and the alternate blocks in another colorway, do you?!?
and cuz some of the people who attend the meetings are not a lotta fun to be around
and cuz some of them are downright mean-spirited
and cuz i don't really need to make another commitment right now
and cuz ... well ... just cuz...

but then i found out that we're gonna be making Hot Flashes ... hmmmm ... well ... all righty then ... i guess i can do that ... and it will be a whole lot more fun than the current Saturday Sampler BOM of neutrals shudder that Auntia talked me into signing up for ... i'm giving my neutral blocks to her cuz she likes beige shudder and has plans for a coffee quilt or sumpin'...

anywho ... i did manage to meet up with Peanut Butter Cup and give Daisy Duke to her...oh look!!! see the little monkey in the background?!?
she didn't want to stand in front of the quilt for a picture ... or behind it ... or to the right side ... or to the left side ... no ... she wanted to be in it...Daisy Duke and Peanut Butter Cup - don't they make a lovely pair?!?
which is why i made it...

preemptive multitasking

2011-02-19T08:42:00.004-07:00

it isn't just for computers anymore

it was friday night and i crocheted...preemptive crochet - for babies yet to come
and prewashed the fabric that may become the rest of HPV not the virus...from preemptive shopping on Black Friday at the FQS whilst halloween fabric was 50% off ... and preemptive color-catching
and we made a quick trip to The Quilt Store for Camelot fabrics the new Jason Yenter line and the book ... but they didn't know if they were gonna carry the line or not ... so we did some preemptive on-line shopping...
oops - no pictures of on-line shopping, but there was a bit of it going on, lemmetellya

dinner was spaghetti and garlic toast ... dessert was marshmallows ... times flies whether you're having fun or not!!!

last but not least

2011-02-17T19:38:00.001-07:00

i placed the last stitches in the last HPV not the virus stitchery today...Toil & Trouble Employment Agency

as i was taking the picture, i realized that i hadn't posted this one...Potting Shed ... for potting pumpkins, not pot
it was stitched before the end of last year - but was misplaced in the Great Pile of Stuff till a week ago...

i thought that i didn't really care when or even if i finished the HPV not the virus embroideries ... i was stitching cuz i like the pattern and cuz i like to hear the needle and thread go pahwoosh and cuz it is fun ... but when i took the last stitch i was really, really happy ... joyous, even ... and i realized that it is more than just funpahwooshingness ... i finished stitching it ... and it may actually be a full-grown quilt someday ... pretty doggone cool, huh?!?

tomorrow is this month's FNSI ... and i won't be embroidering HPV not the virus - ha ha ha!!!

Singe, Harry, Willie, Josh and the world's biggest marshmallows

2011-02-14T18:53:00.002-07:00

look who's all dressed up with nowhere to go...Singe Dragonheart - he's MY man!!!

my dragon in shining armor ... i love Singe ... i really, really love him!

his new suit was a birthday at the end of last month gift from Auntia ... and she gave me these incredibly awesome lovelies...five paper-pieced Harry Potter blocks!!! and a Hogwarts Express journal!!!
the journal is gonna keep track of her ideas and plans and thoughts for the Harry Potter quilt that she is making for me me me me me me... pretty doggone awesome, eh?!?
and she gave me a Willie Nelson CD and Planet Earth DVDs, too!!! i took a picture of them, but the covers are too shiny ooo! shiny!!! to see...

and the m&ms gave me these goodies...marshmallows, a lunchbox and Josh! good gosh!
i love my Dots lunch box - it will make a great keeper of treasures ... i have never ever seen such humongous marshmallows in my entire life - and that's a loooong time, lemmetellya ... and now i think that i shall go and listen to Josh crooning and Willie strumming, whilst i sup upon huge marshmallows...

bound too bee

2011-02-11T10:00:00.004-07:00

there's been a binding bee frenzy around here, lemmetellya...

the Eff Quilt, and 2 baby quilts ... 592 inches of binding at $.25/inch for a total savings of $148 - ha ha ha!!!
the Eff Quilt needed to be outta here and, after waiting more than a month for a certain someone to hand sew the binding to the back, i caved and did it for her ... i think i'll negotiate some kind of trade with her for the $76 worth of binding inches - maybe breakfast in bed or sumpin - ha ha ha!!! ... the small quilts are for baby girls...pink camo crocheted afghan - i HATED the yarn - and a bassinet-sized quilt
Little Miss Baby Girl For Sure will enter the World on Valentine's Day and her great-auntie dianne sent those little squishies to keep her warm ... the other baby quilt is a bit bigger and is temporarily named Vice Versa and will be joined by a mostly blue flimsy that will be temporarily named Versa Vice cuz some people could make life easier for a nonna, but choose not to ... i'm just sayin'...

and ... drum roll please ... i finished this...i HATED this yarn, too
and i hope that no one ever asks me to crochet another non-flat thing again ... ever

not counting the Eff Quilt (which i only did about 40% of and Auntia's 60% rounds up to 100%, right?) that is ... uhmmm ... a total of eight things so far this year to cross off the to-do list ... not too shabby, eh?

binding my own business

2011-02-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

i had no idea there were people in the real world who bind quilts for a living ... no, seriously ... i really did not know ... i found some price lists to peruse ... for just 25 cents per inch i could hand over a quilted quilt and the binding fabric and receive a completely bound quilt ... wouldn't that be sumpin'?!?!?

anywho ... i finished these three quilts that have been waiting to be quilted since last june...Mellow Yellow and Dream Maker and Daisy Duke ... done!!!
and gave the two on top to these little punkins...
Gumdrop with Mellow YellowLuLu with Dream Maker
the bottom one Daisy Duke is for Peanut Butter Cup ... they are 56 inches by 70 inches for a total of 756 inches of binding ... and every four inches i would tell myself

you just saved a dollar!!!

and when i did the math, i realized that the binding would have cost $189 ... hmmm ... do you think i oughta go shopping?

i'm just sayin'...

press 1 for English

2011-01-22T18:06:00.002-07:00

press 2 for German ... notdyrftig
press 3 for Dutch ... mager*
press 4 for Italian ... per meagre
press 5 for French ... maigre
press 6 for Spanish ... magro**

one

mea·ger (mē′gər)

adjective

thin; lean; emaciated
of poor quality or small amount; not full or rich; inadequate***

Origin: ME megre <>megre (Fr maigre) <>macer, lean, thin <>makro- <>māk-, long and thin > Gr makros, long, OE mæger, meager

Brit., etc. sp. meagre mea′·gre

and that*** about sums up what i accomplished for last night's FNSI...
small amount ... inadequate
a little bit of embroidery on HPV (not the virus) and two corners of hand stitching down the back of the binding of LuLu's quilt...

sigh ... i'd blame it on Molly's comment on my last post (hi Molly!!! please don't stop coming here - i promise to be bad!!!) ... but in real life, i actually am a lazy sluggard who kicks back a bit too frequently ... bwah ha ha ha!!!

*Annemiek
**Traveling Man

eye of the wolf

2011-01-20T22:30:00.003-07:00

last november i posted about a quilt that i started for Auntia's christmas present ... i had a few flying geese made and i didn't think there was any possibility of it becoming a full-grown quilt by december 25 ... there was too much to do - christmas baking and christmas decorating and christmas card writing and christmas shopping and christmas present wrapping and christmas program attending and all the christmas stuff that fills up the month of december...

i made pizzelles one cold morning - and that was the extent of my christmas baking ... i hung the christmas wreath on the front door and changed the flamingo into his santa outfit - and that was the extent of my christmas decorating ... i couldn't find the christmas cards that i bought the day after christmas last year - so Auntia gave me some of her leftover cards from the past few years and i managed to write my name and address a few very few times ... christmas shopping was almost nonexistent and Auntia wrapped the few presents that we did buy and might have paid for by next christmas ... i did manage to attend the two winter programs that three of my grandbabies were in although the last one was a close call since i didn't know about it till the evening before the day of ... and when i wasn't doing christmas stuff and daily stuff - i worked on Auntia's quilt...

and i actually finished it in time for christmas morning...
rollo and pack
the backing is a wolf-print flannel ... thousands of amber eyes staring at me while i was sewing down the binding...i've had enough of wolves, lemmetellya
but they did inspire the name...every breath you take and every move you make
i'll be watching you was my last finish for 2010 ... Auntia was my last finish for 1986

tomorrow is january's FNSI ... woo hoo!!!

bombs away!!!

2011-01-19T09:15:00.002-07:00

waaaay back in march 2009 yeah ... i know i blogged about the signature wedding quilt that i made for Mrs. Moth ... and i said that the rest of the story would have to wait ... i didn't really expect it to take another two years to actually have a finish to the story and to the 63 leftover blocks ... anywho ...... i sewed the blocks into a 7x9 rectangle, added a purple dragonfly-print border, cut and sewed together the backing pieces and the binding pieces, bought a batt and some purple thread ... and stowed it all away under the quilting frame ... and they sat there for the looooongest time ... but now they are all together - quilted with loops and bound with purple flannel ... i used the original test block which i found hiding out with a bunch of other orphaned blocks for the naming block ... folded it all up and wrapped tissue paper around it ... found a box that it would fit in yeah - quilts usually fit in baby butt wipes boxes - they're not just for baby butts, you know - and Auntia wrapped the box in pretty wrapping paper ... today is Mrs. Moth's birthday ... and i actually had a gift finished on time if you don't count the other two birthdays that she's celebrated since i first started working on this...

what do you call a group of dragonflies? a swarm? a fetch? a nuisance?dragonfly squadron - yeah, like the movieMrs. Moth and her birthday quilt ... and LuLu
Dragonfly Squadron is my first finish for 2011 ... Mrs. Moth was my first finish for 1978

All good things arrive unto them that wait - and don't die in the meantime.
Mark Twain

sisters of the not-going-anywhere-dressed-like-that pants

2011-01-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

it was quiet

very quiet

too quiet

and this is what Sister Mary LuLupants and Sister Mary Leahpants were doing...

whatcha got there, Sister Mary LuLupants?

nonna ... nonna ... Sister Mary LuLupants is throwing the squeaky ball in the house!

now it's my turn, Sister Mary LuLupants!

she's never gonna share that squeaky ball, is she?

well, it took her long enough to see the light...

I am your substitute teacher, Sister Mary Elephant.
Class, attention.
Attention, class!
Class!
SHUT UP!!!
Thank you.
cheech & chong

1-11-11

2011-01-11T18:41:00.003-07:00

the last time i posted was soooo last year ... i was waiting for Auntia to post about her christmas present - but she said that she is waiting for me to post about my christmas present ... so here goes
this...

it's a beautiful tree
is what Auntia gave me for christmas ... well, she gave me other stuff, too, but this is the one thing that i really, really wanted
here's the back...i LOVE this fabric - it is sunday-morning-sipping-coffee-whilst-sitting-in-the-oldmanleather-chair fabric
and the name...which i didn't get cuz i hadn't ever heard that song before - so she downloaded it for me
i have wrapped myself in this lovely, lovely sunday morning quilt every sunday morning since christmas and i love it more than words can say!
and these..."i'm an OGRE! you know, 'grab your torch and pitchforks'"
Shrek
are what santa (if you don't believe, you won't receive) brought me ... i'm stylin'

spouting off

2010-12-31T20:14:00.004-07:00

LuLu wanted to
way down yonder where the dolphins play

where you dive and splash all day

waves roll in and waves roll out

see the water squirting out of your spout
Raffi

wish you and yours a peaceful, happy, healthy new year!!!
from me, too...

half-baked fruitcake

2010-12-18T18:17:00.005-07:00

last night was the second FNSI for december ... unlike Auntia, i didn't get an early start ... i know, i know, i know that it was the one week anniversary of her 24th birthday, but jeez-louise enough already ... anywho ... i worked on the last of the embroidered teapots for the PPSS BOM quilt...

we're three little teapots - short and stout
that's 24 of them and i am done ... and the next time i get a brilliant idea that involves paper-piecing and embroidery, would somebody please smack me upside the head?!?

last year i fell in love with Figgy Pudding by Basic Grey for Moda ... but i waited for it to go on sale at my lqs and missed out on all but the peppermint/brown/ice blue ... so when i found out that this year Basic Grey was gonna have Fruitcake, i ordered a layer cake and two charm packs, sight unseen ... i really should have waited ... fruitcake is okay, but it ain't figgy pudding ... anywho ... i had the precuts and bought a bit of yardage so i could make christmas packages with the layer cake and a smaller version with the charm packs ... except i didn't really like making the christmas package blocks and i was sure that making twice as many of the same block with 5 inch squares instead of 10 inch squares was not gonna be something i'd ever make myself do ... so i decided to try out the Lil Twister that Auntia bought for me with some of her shop hop winnings on the charm packs ... i sewed 81 of the charms together into a big square with a three inch border all around and then started whacking away with a rotary cutter and the Lil Twister ... we don't have a design wall, so i cut and sewed one row at a time and ended up with this...it looks wavy cuz i was too tired to straighten it out on the floor
which is kinda cool considering that the pinwheels didn't require cutting any triangles or matching any points even if i am not all that crazy about most of the fabric ... i like these little guys...think they're getting dizzy?
they look like little snowmen marshmallows swirling around in a cup of hot chocolate ... anywho ... i worked on the twisted fruitcake last night after i finished embroidering the teapots ... i was ready to put on the outer border of my one and only figgy pudding fabric...bleck!!!
oh. no. that is not gonna work ... so the little flimsy is folded up and put away till i finish with the layer cake blocks - maybe there will be a bit of border fabric left for twisted fruitcake

the oven timer just went off and now i am gonna go eat a big piece of chicken pot pie cuz that's how i roll

what would YOU do?

2010-12-11T16:17:00.008-07:00

well ... Mr. Modem seems to have had a change of heart ... and i'm gonna post a picture or two

Auntia said that she wanted a white chocolate raspberry cake for her birthday ... i tried to tell her that raspberries are outta season and if she really wanted a white chocolate (seriously?!? white chocolate?!? why bother?!?) raspberry cake, she should have been born in summer ... anywho ... i had to go to the store to buy the raspberries and cake mix and frosting and white chocolate chips... and that's not counting the eggs and oil and flour and oven time
after a gazillion trips up and down the same aisles looking for things i don't normally buy like white chocolate i realized that it was getting really, really late ... it was dark ... and cold ... and i knew that when i made it back home i still had to bake the lasagna and make a salad before i could start in on the cake ... and there was the FNSI list to consider...
i took a quick walk around the bakery and found this...white chocolate (check) raspberry (check) ... gasp ... already ready
i felt like John Quinones ... what would YOU do? trim a quilt or bake a cake ... trim a quilt or bake a cake ... so i kept the cake ingredients in the cart ... and added the already-made but incredibly expensive cake, too ... then i went home and told the birthday girl who was busy ignoring the sinks full of dirty dishes that i'd decided to splurge and give her a fancy bakery cake instead of a homely, homemade one ...... seriously, what would you do?
trim the quilt and eat the cake!!!

thor ... thumb

2010-12-11T01:00:00.002-07:00

our Internet connection has been in the toilet for the past week and i haven't been able to blog or read blogs or surf or spend any money online wah wah wah ... our local DSL provider says that a new modem will be the answer to our connection problems can you tell that i am not convinced?!? and it will arrive on monday give or take a week or two... posting tomorrow for FNSI is iffy cuz i have to beg and plead with our link to puh-lease let me finish my online work ... so i am going to schedule this to post tomorrow morning, even though i am writing it today and some of it hasn't happened yet...

december 10th is Auntia's 24th birthday ... by this time 24 years ago, i knew i had given birth to a screamer ... to celebrate, Auntia slept in ... and then we went to renew her learner's permit ... i know ... i know ... believe me, i know that she is eight years overdue for upgrading from learner's permit to license ... anywho ... per the sign on the door the first office that we went to has been closed since august due to budget cuts ... i was suspicious when we called the listed number to find out what their hours are and it went to a disconnect recording - even though it is still listed on the Colorado DMV general information number ... i guess budget cuts have affected being able to update recordings, too ... anywho, armed with the address for one of the five offices that are still in existence to serve a metro area with almost 3 million people, we went searching for 500 malley drive in Northglenn ... who knew that there wasn't enough money in the budget for Northglenn to put block numbers on street signs ... i considered going home to Yahoo map the address but then i remembered that the Internet connection is iffy ... so we drove around Northglenn for a while and finally spotted a sign in a rundown-beat-up-seen-better-days strip mall that said "driver licence" ... i guess it's the best that our budget-deficit state can manage even though licensing and fees have done nothing but go up and up and up ... i sat down and waited while Auntia stood in line to get a number ... sat down and waited for an hour ... number was called ... stood in line for another 20 minutes ... information was exchanged ... sat down ... name was called ... money was exchanged ... stood in line for another 20 minutes ... picture was taken ... stood around some more ... name was called ... learner's permit was handed over ... i can't think of a more exciting and fun way to spend a birthday than listening to over a hundred peoples' life stories about why they need their licenses reinstated/renewed/issued ... there are privacy laws for the line at the pharmacy cuz we wouldn't want some dude to be embarrassed when he's picking up his erectile dysfunction pills - but if your driver's license/state id/learner's permit has seen better days, the whole world gets to hear all of the sordid details ... okay, nuff said about that

by the time we were finished it was past lunchtime and i asked Auntia where she wanted to go for lunch...
Taco Bell
groan
Taco Bell is okay for fast food when i don't have anything else to do but hang around the loo for the next day or two, but a birthday lunch oughta be ... well ... more ... like sitting down and having my food brought to me ... and the dirty dishes taken away ... a refreshing after-dinner mint would be appreciated ... but it was not my birthday ... so i sat through the drive-through line at Taco Bell and bought her the Chicken Enchilada Grilled Stuft Burrito Combo ... then i took her home and she opened her presents which are almost all quilt-related and she watched John Cena's guest appearance on one of the stoopid talk shows that have replaced soap operas for daytime television ... the rest of this is gonna be what i HOPE happens, since it hasn't happened yet...

earlier this week i finished quilting the "eff" quilt , took it off the frame, and Thor has been loaded with Auntia's christmas present ... i am gonna try to get some of it quilted if Auntia can get her Thumb to agree to go near enough to thread some bobbins ... and i'm gonna help Auntia trim the "eff" quilt ... i am also gonna work on one of the embroidered teapots ... and maybe i'll make a bit of progress on the twisted fruitcake ... i have to bake and frost a cake, too ... and sing happy birthday to her

rule of thumb

2010-12-05T06:30:00.003-07:00

this is Thor...i used to believe that Thor's last name was Svenson ... but now i know that he is a member of the Batrastardson clan
this is the flimsy that Auntia loaded onto Thor's quilting frame...oooo!!! Lakehouse Hydrangeas!
to quilt for Michael Myson ... she loaded the bobbins and threaded Thor ... she put on her ear buds and started to stitch ... i was in the magick shoppe working on some fruitcake christmas packages ... i heard the usual colorful words that are muttered whenever one of us is trying to get Thor to cooperate ... i didn't pay much attention ... i was rocking with the Steve Miller Band when i heard an urgent
can you come help me?!? please?!?
i sighed and muttered
coming
can you hurry?!? please?!?
i'm coming! okay ... what?!?
could you please help me ... my thumb is stuck on the machine
your thumb is what?
my thumb whimper ... is whimper stuck ... on the needle whimper whimper... please help me!
oh ... my ... gawd...
there was Auntia ... leaning over the quilting frame ... with her thumb impaled on Thor's big fat needle...that is one big fat needle!!!
all the way through my baby girl's thumb ... i took hold of her hand and slid it down and off the needle ... and cut the thread that was embedded in it ... and followed her up the six stairs to the kitchen ... i pulled out the thread and held her hand under cold running water ... rinse and squeeze ... rinse and squeeze ... again and again and again ... the bleeding stopped and i turned to take two or three steps to get a kleenex to wrap around her thumb...
thump ...
thud ...
thwack...
i turned back to find my baby girl crumpled face down on the kitchen floor ... i carefully rolled her over ... her eyes were open and i said
what hurts, baby girl?
my thumb!
okay ... what else?
my head!
she closed her eyes ... opened them ... and groaned
and now i know that
1) when Auntia faints, it is with her eyes open and she talks just like when she's asleep
and b) i should never leave her alone with Thor Batrastardson
and thirdly) i need to make her sit down with her head between her knees if she has been injured ... even if she insists that she is okay

she is bruised from head to shoulder/elbow/wrist to hip/knee/ankle ... and her thumb hurts ... she is refusing to go anywhere near Thor and this is a direct quote doesn't care if that effing quilt ever gets effing quilted cuz she effing hates it...

the fingers must be educated, the thumb is born knowing
Marc Chagall

crunch time

2010-12-04T06:00:00.004-07:00

LuLu and her very own pile of leaves
crunching, crinkling autumn leaves
spiraling, swirling in the breeze
Julie Perkins Cantrell

twofer

2010-12-03T19:32:00.004-07:00

there are gonna be two Friday Night Sew-Ins this month

the first one is next friday
december 10, 2010
and the crowd goes wild cuz that is
my baby girl's 24th birthday

and the second one is the next friday
december 17, 2010
and the crowd goes wild again cuz that is
the one week anniversary of my baby girl's 24th birthday

mmm hmmm...
december is all about Auntia

guest blogger III

2010-12-03T06:00:00.007-07:00

a go knee off the feet

these are Michael Myson's Bronco crocs
he wears them every time the Broncos play a game of NFL football
they are his lucky Bronco shoes
he wears lucky Bronco underwear, too

maybe Michael Myson oughtta try the left shoe on his right foot and the right shoe on his left foot ... or maybe his lucky underwear isn't so lucky and he needs some new underoos ... cuz

the Broncos are 3-8

we know all about the agony of defeat

nope ... not yet

2010-12-02T20:09:00.004-07:00

thank you for the quilty love for neat ... sweet ... petite ...... i gotta say that Blogland liked it a lot more than i did ... i was more than ready for it to go live in someone else's world

still can't bring myself to put pen to paper or, rather, fingers to keyboard and write about the drama and trauma shudder

Kim asked, so i'm gonna show how HPV not the virus is coming along...Hester's U-Pick

is stitched ... and...Spooky Lou's Quality Pre-Owned Brooms
is stitched ... and of course there can't be a used-broom lot without a service department...bristle lube while you wait ... yeah, i've heard that one before
i dunno where the first picture that i took of the service shop went it's probably in digital hell ... so i took it again in incandescent light which isn't very green of me but CFLs make my stomach heave and it looks kinda orange but it isn't in real life ... anywho ... that's ten buildings stitched ... and two more to go ... sigh

neat ... sweet ... petite

2010-11-30T12:19:00.008-07:00

it didn't get finished in time for halloween ... but the Ghastlies did make it off the quilting frame in time for thanksgiving...really awful photo - yes, those are my good shoes...another one - even worse

... the backing is black flannel even though it looks grey in the picture and i soon found out that black flannel is a major lint trap and the roses are quilted with bright pink thread...neat ... sweet ... petite
...and this little quilt (40-something by 60-something) has gone to live with my sister ... Auntia has loaded the frame with our first BOM sampler ... she promised one of her brothers a quilt from the BOM blocks last christmas and was determined to finish in time for this christmas ... but then she bonked her head on the one exposed bolt of the quilting frame and didn't touch it again for a couple of weeks...

there was a bit of drama and trauma over the thanksgiving weekend that involved Thor the Viking MegaQuilter that lives on the quilting frame, his gigantically thick needle, Auntia's thumb, the needle-down button, a bit of thread, and the kitchen floor ... but that is for another post ... when and if i ever see the humor in the situation...

tgifnsi

2010-11-20T17:57:00.008-07:00

yesterday was the Friday Night Sew-In ... last month i ran afoul of the underside of the quilting frame and called it an early night ... so this time around i stayed well away from the frame and did some hand embroidery...is anyone else getting sick of looking at these teapots?!?
the teapot's outline was already stitched and my goal was to finish the butterflies ... but they looked like they needed a place to land - so i stitched until it was finished ... i'm supposed to stitch two teapots each month in order to keep up with the PPSS BOM blocks but i was a slacker last month and didn't finish any ... so ... now october's are stitched and even if i don't embroider november's teapots, i won't be behind till december 1 - bwah ha ha and november's are ready to go...
then i sewed a bit on the flying geese for Auntia's christmas present...32 of these little puppies
and they are ready to trim ... it's okay if i post about it since she already knows and has accepted the fact that it will not be a full-grown quilt by december 25 and, in fact, chose the fabric line ... so ... no surprises for you, baby girl!
i have been putting it off for months because i'd kinda had enough of wolves but luckily for Auntia the fabric just happened to be among the stuff stacked up against my bedroom wall that has to be cleared out so my bedroom can morph from a stash closet back into a place to actually sleep so i can make room to paint next spring and hang the new shade that has been in the closet for six years now and whatever else needs to happen...

guess i oughta start another list...

would you like some cheese with that?

2010-11-19T08:24:00.006-07:00

a real man is his woman's best friend

he will never stand her up
and he will never let her down

he will reassure her when she feels insecure
and he will comfort her after a bad day

he will inspire her to do things she never thought she could do
and to live without fear or regret

he will enable her to express her deepest emotions
and give in to her deepest desires

he will make sure she always feels as though she is the most beautiful woman in the room

he will enable her to be confident...

sexy...

seductive...

and invincible...

no

wait...

i'm thinking of wine...

that's what wine does...

never mind

tonight is the Friday Night Sew-In ... time to hunker down and stitch

i guess so

2010-11-12T07:01:00.025-07:00

it snowed on tuesday

and again yesterday
so i guess i was the major holdup

aw come on - you know it's always all about me

and since you asked here are the particulars about the quilt

the quilt is 103 x 103 inches square and it really is square ... the pillow shams are 28 x 28 inches square or, rather, they started out square but the cording around the edges made them a little rounded ... there are 20 small blocks in the quilt that are 9 x 9 inches without the black borders ... the flying geese which started out being birds but decided to be mountains are 1-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches and there are a gazillion of them ... each of the small blocks are quilted with a columbine in the middle ... and there is a columbine in the center of each of the set-in squares of the morning star i wanted Julie Kramer Cole type animals ... each of the mountains has a quilted aspen leaf ... and the morning star which i had envisioned quilted with a circle of life mandala has flaming rays bursting out from the center

sixteen of the small blocks are from the 200ummm5 i think Rocky Mountain Quilt Fever Shop Hop ... we'd never shop hopped before and it took us all of the three days to make it to fourteen shops - ranging from Boulder to Layfayette to Westminster to Broomfield to Wheatridge to Centennial to Parker to Colorado Springs to Evergreen to Littleton to Englewood to Denver but not in that particular order and we covered over three hundred miles ... now three of those shops have combined into one - and all but six of the others have gone out of business not because we haven't done our part to stimulate the economy ... anywho ... the theme was Women of Colorado ... each of the shops selected a famous or infamous woman with roots in Colorado and designed a block to represent that woman's life ... fourteen shops ... fourteen women ... fourteen blocks ... and each with a story ... eventually i am going to post about each of the blocks and the women that they represent cuz it means that much to me ... fair warning ... but not this time

Auntia used 12 of her Women of Colorado blocks to make this wall hanging...which is now quilted and bound - but is STILL not hanging on a wall
and she gave me the two that were left after i begged and pleaded ... the other four blocks that i needed to fill out the borders represent the four seasons...winterspringsummerfall
and now ... i'm gonna get started on whatever it is that i think i have to do today...

were you waiting for me?!?

2010-11-06T18:47:00.023-06:00

waaaay back in may i posted about the quilt

i said that i wanted it quilted
and bound
and on my bed
before the snow started up again in the fall...

well...

it is fall...

november, even ... usually we have had at least one major snowstorm before and often on halloween ... but not this fall ... halloween was a gorgeous day ... daytime temperatures have been in the 60s and 70s ... there has been frost in the early morning hours, but very little rain ... and no snow ... and i think i know why ... Spirit was waiting for this...i've been through the desert on a quilt with no name
i took the quilt to Kristy, the longarm quilter, and asked her to work her magick on it ... this is what she came up with...no feathers ... we don't need no stinking feathers
and i got really crazy and asked her to quilt the spirit guides that i was working on back in june, too...growl andstomp
and i think they are pretty doggone amazing ... i took the pictures while the sun was shining brightly in the sky this afternoon... curse you, Hercules - i wish you would poop in your own yard!!!
and after i picked them up i noticed a fresh pile of little dog poop nestled in the grass...

so now the quilt and the spirit guides are out of the washing machine and spread out on the drying racks ... and then they are gonna have a tumble in the dryer ... and get all squishy ... and they are gonna be even more awesome ... i might even put them on my bed ... and sleep under the quilt when it finally begins to snow...

okay, Spirit...

i'm ready...

i'm just sayin'

bungle in the jungle

2010-11-03T21:15:00.008-06:00

remember those jungle BOMs that i whined about for a year? and i said that they were gonna grow up and be a quilt by september? and then i put them together into a flimsy and didn't post about it again?
yeah ... well ... that was in june
on september 26 i gave the completed quilt to my niece...Mrs. Izziesmom and Bungle in the Jungle (and Princess Itty Bitty)

to celebrate our divorce anniversaries ... she likes it ... and it was worth all the whining ... especially since i didn't have to listen to me ... i might even make another jungle quilt someday ... there are still lottsa animal prints in the stash ... i'm just sayin'

beware!!!

2010-10-31T15:05:00.006-06:00

i don't know who created this ... but
isn't it brilliant?!?
don't text and fly - bwah ha ha!!!

have a safe and happy HALLOWEEN!!!

Parthenocissus quinquefolia and Gleditsia triacanthos

2010-10-28T18:12:00.008-06:00

it has been cold and frosty the past few days ... and windy ... so most of the leaves have fallen to the ground and then back up again on accounta when it is windy it is really windy ... and when i look out my front door i don't see this anymore...keep , keep bleeding leaves

my across-the-street-neighbor let a virginia creeper grow up his honey locust tree ... the vine turns a brilliant blood red amidst the chartreuse leaves of the tree when autumn comes around...
it looks like the tree is bleeding out ... and that makes the only words that i remember to Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis start playing inside my head ... on auto-repeat

you cut me open and i
keep bleeding
keep, keep bleeding love
i keep bleeding
i keep, keep bleeding love
keep bleeding
keep, keep bleeding love
you cut me open

it has been ... distracting

twisted sister

2010-10-16T09:42:00.009-06:00

last night was the Friday Night Sew-In ... let's hear a woo hootie hoo!!!

i actually managed to get the rest of the teapots traced so no more whining about that and ready to embroider ... then i scooped some dinner outta the crockpot and scarfed it down ... and looked around for something else to do that did not involve embroidery ...... a couple of weeks ago i loaded this onto our little quilting frame ... but i ran outta threaded bobbins after the first few inches of quilting any excuse is acceptable ... Auntia loaded more bobbins ... i'd forgotten what the quilting plan was ... so it's been sitting there waiting for me to remember ... which i did ... so i started quilting a few of these...is that supposed to be a rose?!?
and then i decided to get fancy and quilt a few little buds in the middle of some squares ... uhm ... errr ... not the look i was going for ... so i started to unquilt the gazillion stitches from the top side of the frame - but i couldn't quite get all of them - so i crawled under the frame ... and twisted the wrong way ... and that was the end of stitching for me last night cuz my back was growling at me like this...get that thing off my head or i'll ... i'll ... i'll throw my slipper at you!!!
except more loudly...

quack up

2010-10-13T00:01:00.003-06:00

three women died together in an accident and went to heaven ... when they arrived at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter said

we only have one rule here in heaven - don't step on the ducks!

so they entered heaven and found that there were ducks everywhere ... it was almost impossible to not step on a duck ... they all tried their best to avoid stepping on a duck ... but, alas, one of the women accidentally stepped on one ... along came St. Peter with the ugliest man the woman had ever seen ... he told her

your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend all of eternity chained to this ugly man

it wasn't very long before the second woman stepped on a duck ... St. Peter - who doesn't miss a thing - came along with another very ugly man, chained them together, and told her

your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend all of eternity chained to this ugly man

the third woman did not want to spend eternity chained to an ugly man ... she was very, very careful not to step on a duck ... and then one day St. Peter came up to her with the most handsome man she had ever laid eyes on ... he was tall and dark and very, very hunky ... St. Peter chained her to the handsome man and left without a word ... the woman said

i wonder what i did to spend all of eternity chained to you?!?

and the handsome hunk of a man replied

i don't know about you, but i stepped on a duck

which under where

2010-10-11T18:30:00.008-06:00

and so ... speaking of Kim ... she goes to thrift stores and comes home with treasure after treasure after treasure ... remember the motion-activated witch that cackles and flashes her red eyes when someone walks by? Kim took the old hag home and cleaned her up, dressed her in a red velvet dress and then asked for suggestions on an appropriate name ... something kind of original and/or catchy ... and i thought

well, that leaves me out - i got nothin'

and went on with the day ... but i kept thinking about Kim's witch ... and thinking ... and thinking ... all of the regular old witch names kept running through my head - but nothing original and/or catchy

for weeks before the baby shower i was continually making mad dashes to JoAnns/Party City/Bed, Bath & Beyond ... and i was thinking about Kim's witch as i was walking through the parking lot at JoAnns for the umpteenth time ... i was so distracted trying to come up with a name for the poor witchy woman that i almost walked smack into a parked car ... sheesh ... something original and/or catchy for a witchy woman dressed in red with red eyes who cackles ... red ... rose ... cackle ... cackling ... rose ... CACKLING ROSIE ... YES!!! not so original, but kinda catchy ... and i told myself

go directly home ... do not pass go ... do not collect $200 ... go home and comment before someone else gets inspired and beats you to the punch

cuz i'm kinda competitive that way ... but i hadn't even made it into the store and i didn't have the stuff that i needed for the shower

Auntia ... Auntia can make the comment for me!!!

so i took Auntia's cell phone that she insists that i take with me whenever i go somewhere without her outta my pocket ... and then i couldn't figure out how to call Auntia ... i couldn't remember how to dial out and forget using the address book thingamabob ... i walked into a concrete pillar while i was growling at the phone ouch and told myself

finish the stupid shopping and go home

... and then i left without getting everything i went in there for because i was just SURE that someone else would beat me to the comment...

well ... no one did ... beat me to the comment, that is ... and Kim liked the name Cackling Rosie ... and she sent me a package in the mail...attorneys at law? holy crap ... what have i done now?!? Sacramento?!? oh yeah ... that's right ... Kim works with attorneys ... whew!
with all of this...goodies galore!!! and a postcard from Minnesota (cuz neither one of us is there)!!!
i turned over the ribbon-tied package on the right and found...hey ghoul friend! the pattern! in the flesh ... or, rather, in the paper, as it were
the pattern for Hey Ghoul Friend! oh ... my ... good ... gosh!!! i just sat and stared at it in wonder ... and then i realized that i could smell chocolate...
oooo!!!
and inside the ribbon-tied package were all of these wonderful wonders!!! not just any chocolate ... thick bars of emergency chocolate and chocolate broomstick fuel! and ... and loooook! how incredibly cool is that?!?
the witch's underwear fabric that i have searched for on the Internet and at every fabric store in a fifty mile radius for months and months! in my very own pile of goodies!lottsa trims ... and even some buttons!
and i took the trims outta the bag and held them for a while, too ... so many of my favorite things all in one package ... how did she know?!?

faa

2010-10-03T08:28:00.015-06:00

i started to read blog posts this morning and stopped when i read Kim's ... she is so creative and organized and quiltically prolific ... she can take just one little hour long nap ... we all know that if i take a nap it isn't gonna be for just an hour - i might wake up sometime the next day ... and then tidy ... and sew ... and tidy some more ... all evening ... and take the time to blog about it before she turns in for the night ... i was especially intrigued by the two hour break that she took in the middle of tidying to put together an entire quilt top...

maybe ... just MAYBE ... if i took a two hour break from cleaning the magick shoppe and SEWED i wouldn't have so many surprises the NEXT time i decided to tidy up ... i found the stack of apron fabric (again) yesterday...future aprons of america
and i said to myself

self - these here aprons ain't never gonna get did if'n you don't stop doin' other stuff and git 'em done

and then ... and then i went outside to mow the lawn ... but first i had to rake rotten apples ... and cut back the tree that decided to grow toward the magick shoppe's window ... and prune back some of the barberries that were growing toward the sidewalk ... and pull some very tall weeds that were taking over the wall ... and water the garden and planters that Auntia planted last spring and both of us have lost interest in ... and then put all of the tools away ... and sweep the drive ... and hose down the door mat ...... i dunno ... maybe i don't really want to make those aprons ... maybe the fabrics will get lost in the shoppe again ... and the next time i find them i will heed the voice inside my head ...... or maybe not ...... and maybe ... just MAYBE if the voice didn't sound like Jed Clampett i would be more inclined to listen to it

bless her heart

2010-09-26T06:00:00.005-06:00

i did not write this poem
and i do not know who did write it
so if it was you
thank you for summing up what i should have done loooong ago...

he did not like the casserole
and he did not like the cake
he said the biscuits were too hard
not like his mother used to make

i did not perk the coffee right
he did not like the stew
i did not mend his socks
the way his mother used to do

i pondered for an answer
i was looking for a clue...
then i turned around and smacked him
like his mother used to do

the same ... but different

2010-09-21T19:30:00.001-06:00

i wanted this pattern from Crab-apple Hill in the worst way ... so Auntia gave it to me for christmas last year...Over the River and Through the Woods

and i was ever so grateful ... and then i looked at it again and decided that i didn't like the colors which, i am sure, surprises everyone cuz they are neutral shudder and dark double shudder ... so i decided that when i started stitching - it was gonna be brighter and lighter ... and i wanted it to be more autumnal ... and i didn't like the words cuz my grandmother lived in california and it was over the mountains and through the desert ... and i didn't want the sleigh cuz i've never even ridden in a sleigh so why would i want to stitch one ... and 51 x 57 isn't big enough...
so ... brighter autumn colors ... with a different layout ... and not exactly the same stitchery ... and bigger
sigh
i wrote down the fabric requirements and kept the yellow sticky with me till i forgot to take it outta my pocket and washed it with my jeans for months...

when i saw Saltbox Harvest i knew i had found exactly the right fabric to autumn up the quilt ... and when we went shop hopping i looked for a charm pack of Saltbox Harvest so i could do some more planning ... Auntia found the perfect fabric for the embroidery and i took the bolt over to the charm packs and placed those lovely Saltbox Harvest prints on my chosen background ... and i thought

bleck - i don't like it. i don't like it at all. maybe i need a different background? wait ... what is this? Awesome! seriously? isn't this the one with the panel that has a sq uirrel shudder? i hate squirrels. it can't be the one with the squirrel. oooo! i really like these fabrics! seriously, i really do love these fabrics! this can't be the line that has the squirrel cuz these fabrics are .... well ... Awesome!

Awesome by Sandy Gervais
and so i bought the charm pack ... and i bought enough of the background fabric for the embroidery ... and i took it home and put them with the pattern...doesn't that background look like it was made to go with the charm pack?!?
oh ... wait ... it was made to go with the charm pack!
and then i went to the lqs that is closing its doors forever and found some yardage that was marked down a bit...
oooo! it's even prettier when it's in big pieces!
and i really, really liked it ... but ... why are there stars in the middle of the quilt instead of around the edge? and there are still those troublesome words ... what if i take out the middle embroidery ... and move the other two stitcheries to where the stars are ... and piece leaves for where the stitcheries used to be...ooo! batiks! i knew i would find a reason to buy batiks!
and keep the flying geese ... but make an outer border of stars for the top and bottom ... and i still want to replace the sleigh with a ... uhm ... five window wrap around pickup truck ... Auntia is collecting the supplies for this Crab-apple Hill design and it has a pickup truck that i could use ... and i'm gonna need more fabric...fat quarter bundle - score!!!
so i splurged and bought the fat quarter bundle ... this is the second fat quarter bundle that i've allowed myself to buy and it is ... well ... Awesome!
expensive, but Awesome!
a luxury, but Awesome!
frivolous, but Awesome!
and now i have everything i need to start ... except embroidery thread
and time