Ta-Da!!!! Let's celebrate with a Giveaway!

Presenting Cathedral Stars. Quilted, binded, and ALMOST labeled. It will be delivered next weekend to my Dad, who requested me to make a quilt for his VFW's (Veteran's of Foreign Wars) raffle at the end of the month. (Is it bad to want to win the raffle yourself?!?!?) *snicker*





The binding was sewn on last night and finished with hand-sewing this morning; the label will be added tomorrow once it's made. So, what better than to celebrate with a tiny giveaway?!?!! When cleaning up today, I came across a pile of extra 2" strips I used for the 4-patches.
To be given away: 10 2" strips of jewel-toned fabric. Simple rules: leave me a comment on this post telling me what your favorite "sewing gadget" is. Drawing date: Sunday, January 11th, 9:00 PM (Central time zone; Chicago)


Here are all of the rulers I own; my favorite purple handled scissors, and my lovely yellow OLFA rotary cutter. Quilting now-a-days; it's a given that just about everyone uses a rotary cutter. My FAVORITE tool: THE EASY ANGLE RULER! Since Bonnie (quiltville.com) introduced it to me with Carolina Crossroads, I have used it for MANY of my quilts! It mades HST's SOOO easy! (hence the name, huh?)



Back to family now.......
After putting the last quilting stitch in last night and trimming off the excess, I decided it was time to have some fun with Cassie. She has been begging and pleading since Wednesday to put together her "Build-a-Bear" puppy that she got from Julie.
She unpacked it all, and got everything ready; she cut her own string, measuring it out on the cutting mat; she sewed using a straight-stitch to piece the front/back together. The pattern was quite easy for her to follow since there were pre-"punched" holes along the edge for her to sew through. Do any of you remember those cardboard sewing "forms"?...they had holes along the edge and then you used colored (or plain) shoestrings to "sew" up/down through the holes....they usually were in the shapes of animals. Anyway, this reminded me of those.
Being a "sew-mom" (get it??? kinda like "soccer-mom"??? HA!) (okay, stupid, I know....)
Anyway....being a sew-mom, I reinforced the stitches by zipping it under the sewing machine before turning it right-side-out and stuffing it.
In the end, it turned about darn cute! She hasn't let it leave her side since we finished it! She even took it fishing with her today when she, Candace and DH went ice fishing.

Today, after finishing CS, I headed to the LQS to show it off to Deb, owner. I purchased many 1/4 yard cuts of the jewel fabrics, so I wanted her to see it finished. What a DREAM job---Working in a quilt shop! When I arrived, she was working on another store sampler to hang. The shop was quiet. We chatted, talked about Bonnie's site (I'm still trying to convince her to look at Quiltville.com----afterall, just LOOK at what can be accomplished...*pointing to the top pic!!!) :0)
Anyway, I was very good today and only walked away with 2 half-yard cuts of fabrics; both intended for DoubleDelight. HOWEVER, I am YET AGAIN deliberating on when / IF I'll be doing the mystery. (chuckle).
After leaving the Quiltshop, I had 100% intentions of getting home, and digging right in to DD! But, I first decided to tidy up a bit (hence, when I found the giveaway strips), and a little bit more tidying...then I figured I set the timer for 30 minutes of "scrap-busting" to tackle the piles of scraps on the floor (1st photo) and in the basket on the floor (2nd photo). Afterall, I DID set a New Years Resolution to "tidy" the sewing room. Well...30 minutes turned into 60...90...120...240...360!!!! YES! SIX HOURS of "tidying" and "scrap-busting!" Caitlyn was enjoying a couple of Barbie movies downstairs with me and the other two were fishing with DH, so.....!

Yeah...*GASP*! I KNOW! And sadly-----I STILL have some more to go! The basket has been emptied and everything nicely ironed and folded amongst the stash. The fat-quarter bin has moved into its 2nd drawer! :0) And.......I CAN SEE THE FLOOR! Caitlyn even said..."Mom, why is it so clean in here?" *giggle!*

I don't know if I'll feel motivated to finish up the "tidying" tomorrow. No biggy, if not. BUT, I'm still thinking that rather than start the mystery (now), I want to cross off Oklahoma Backroads OR Scrappy Irish Chain off my WIP list.

OH! That just reminded me! I can write in my FIRST finish of 2009 (even though half of it was done in 2008.)

Okay---I suppose, time to pay some attention to DH (even though he's watching the FB game--it went to overtime!) Colts vs. Chargers: I'm not partial to either one more than the other.

Grrrrrrrr!!!! WHO is the math teacher?

Argh! I need a TIMEOUT! Good thing it's time for lunch so I had a reason to leave the machine!

The morning was running smoothly ONCE I finally logged off and got to work. The girls were preoccupied with cartoons when I headed downstairs, so I was able to piece all sections together AND fill in the missing quilted sections all rather quickly. Moving to the borders, I started doing the math calculations......
the center was measuring JUST over 74", so I figured 74" as the finished center. Since each of the 4-patch pieces are 3", I figured 25 per side (25 x 3" = 75"), and a black corner stone to finish it off. So, since each side needed to be 75", I cut 1.5" strips so I could have my 1 inch border needed.........

The first border strips were being put on when Candace decided to join me, playing "TENT" with the quilt under the table. A while later with all borders on (and the girls getting a bit antsy), I put Candace and Cassie to work. Cassie had the job of stacking the 4-patches into piles of 25 to see how many more I needed to piece. Would you believe that I had EXACTLY 100 4-patches??? The exact amount I needed......HA! Unbelievable!


Cassie helped me lay them out to make sure they were "randomly" placed without duplicate colors next to each other. As she completed the first side's layout, I took them to the machine while she worked on the others......

lalalalala.....give or take----15 minutes later I was laying them along the edges of the quilt....
and...

ummm....

*scratching head*...

WHY are they NOT fitting?!?!?!?! I'm about 2" inches OFF?!?!? Huh????


Okay.....now go back and reread.....
the center was measuring JUST over 74", so I figured 74" as the finished center. Since each of the 4-patch pieces are 3", I figured 25 per side (25 x 3" = 75"), and a black corner stone to finish it off. So, since each side needed to be 75", I cut 1.5" strips so I could have my 1 inch border needed.........

Do YOU see my mistake!?!?!!?!?
Once it finally sunk in to my head WHAT I did!?!!?! UGH! I only needed 1 inch TOTAL as "inner border", which means I SHOULD have divided that amount in half to be EACH side border! GOSH!
However, knowing now what those measurements needed to be, I would NOT have made a border that small.....so.......

I'll "fix" it up by adding (or removing?) whatever amount I need in 4-patches........AFTER lunch and AFTER I've simmered down....

*shaking head*...
((Chuckling))

Live, sew, and learn........

One more day, maybe? Cathedral Stars...

Morning everyone! Up bright and early today--couldn't sleep anymore after 5:00, so rolled out of bed at 5:15, made some muffins and coffee, logged in and read all the latest Quiltville posts, and am finally loggin in to update the blog with yesterdays' Cathedral Stars progress.

I started the day by sandwiching the corner pieces, so I could get the quilting rolling! I don't really know how long it took me; I just threw in a movie (umm.....I "watched" so many today, I can't remember all of them, but some titles were "Legend" (OLD Tom Cruise movie), "Ice Age," "Happy Feet," "Matrix," Devil's Advocate", "Constantine.") Hmpf.....I didn't realize how many Keanu Reeves movies I had! I also have "Lake House" (THE BEST chick flick ever, BTW).......

Anyway.....there were a few quilting "gaps" that I needed to correct from yesterday (er---Wednesday!). A few of the 4-patches didn't have the swirly quilting because I wasn't sure what I was going to do with some of them as they neared the border, but...that was solved once I laid the top corner and the middle section together and "studied" the patterns. Around lunch time, I had the top and middle sections MOSTLY complete, with only the outer black triangles to go yet. So, after lunch, I browsed through some quilting magazines to see if I could find a quilting motif. Ya know....Quiltmaker is one of the BEST magazines when it comes to sharing quilting motifs. Just about everyone of them has motifs printed that can be traced instead of JUST the "quilting placement diagram" that does us NO GOOD if we don't actually have the motifs. Duh, right?

Anyway----I found TWO that when put together worked nicely. Then the next hour consisted of figuring out how to get the design onto the fabric. In the past, I have used an X-acto knife with some of that quilter's template material. But that is SUCH a pain in the butt! Not only is it difficult to trace/cut curves with an X-acto knife, but then I had always used some quilter's pens to trace/copy those designs to the quilt top. Ugh! Tedious!

Brainstorm----I traced the patterns onto the template material. Then, I installed a size 90 needle into the machine (I NEVER use needles that big, but I had a "sample" from when I bought the machine.) And I punched holes into the template material, kinda like dot-to-dot.


I have read in a few different places about the "pounce" idea -- well, the HOMEMADE pounce ideas, anyway. In one of Grandma's quilting books, the lady suggested using cinnimon (how DO you spell that??? I keep getting the red-squigglies-of-death) or cornstarch, depending on the color of fabric. In a recent quilting magazine, a reader wrote in this little tip: "Cut a circle/square of fabric about 4 inches and fill with cornstarch; tie up together to be used as a pounce."

Well, I didn't use the fabric pounce, I simply sprinkled the powder on the template and rubbed it in the holes. Also, I only had a small bit of corn starch left, so, what else does a mother have on hand? Baby powder.

It worked beautifully! And SO MUCH quicker than any other method I had been thinking of.

So, then......once I had the corners marked, I started quilting away using the Jewel toned verigated thread. (Okay...there's another word that I have to practice spelling because I have the red squiggle yelling at me again!) However, once I had the first triangle completed, I didn't like how it looked! The yellow part of the thread stood out SO MUCH compared to the rest, and well....it just didn't look that great to me. So.....RIP! Then....I figured RED to bring out the red from the HST, but that was just TOO BOLD! RIP!.......It would have been nice to have had a rich burgandy thread, but I only had bright red---*shudder!* So...back to my thread stash.

In the end, I chose a medium blue that blends nicely, yet is light enough to appreciate the pattern. At 9:50pm, I finally packed up for the day----off-n-on, I put in probably 10 hours today (yesterday.) WOW!



At this point, I have the top and middle section completely quilted and pieced together. I had to muscle the joined quilt under the machine to fill in some swirly quilting to keep the quilting uniform once the sections were brought together. It wasn't too bad! The bottom corner piece is ALL quilted, and will be joined to the main body today (Friday). I'll need to fill in the quilting gaps once joined, but then I'll be done with the majority of the quilting. Next---borders. I'm planning a 2" red border, followed by a pieced-border using the UMPTEEN bazillion left over 4-patches I have. I got a little gung-ho sewing them and have just about enough to make a pieced-border. I just have to whip out 4 more, I think, to finish it.

So.....there ya go.
Happy Friday!

RIngin' in the New Year...

Other than the USA time zones, just about everyone has rung in the New Year already. Angela (soscrappy) is half an hour away (Julie---you too???); I am one-n-a-half hours away; Andi (The Modern Diary) is 2- OR 3 1/2 hours away. (Arizona and New Mexico time zones always confuse me---I know one never changes, but the other does.

Anyway...Angela wrote her post tonight laying out some of her New Year's Goals and Resolutions. (Yes, Angela! I have read it, I'll get around to commenting tomorrow) I had already been thinking about some goals (also) while putzin' in my quilting room tonight. However, those will be mentioned a bit later. First, a catch up on the day.

I awoke at 6:15am with my alarm, and went "NOPE!" and put my head back down. DH had his turn with the nasty lil' bug throughout the night, and I am a VERY light sleeper, so ..... everytime he got out of bed, I awoke as well. So, by 7:30, I finally drug myself out of bed just because I KNEW today was a day to accomplish a lot! I scheduled daycare for the day for ALL THREE GIRLS; I had the days to blow yet before the year ended---nothing like saving it for the last day. So....yada, yada, breakfast, dressed, driven, and I was back at home, ready to tackle Cathedral Stars by 9:00. It took me all day (with a 2 hour grocery & other shopping break mixed in), but I have the middle section quilted. I putzed this morning (boy...I must like that word---I say it a lot) with how I was going to actually quilt it all. I decided on vertical stitch-in-ditch lines with red thread, splitting the red/black HST; I used a decorative stitch 1/4 inch inside the white triangles using white thread; I used a swirly-vertical-loop using "jewel-toned" verigated (sp?) thread. DH and I decided NOT to visit families this weekend after all, so I am going to relax on my original deadline a bit. However, I HAVE set a goal that I finish Cathedral Stars before starting Bonnie's new mystery.

Oh yes, which, BTW, I HAD completely decided that I WAS NOT going to take part in. Seriously---when I went downstairs tonight, I started digging through my stash, which then turned into cleaning, organizing, and ATTEMPTING to find fabrics from my stash that would "fit the bill." (Pictures coming shortly to show the disaster area my Quilting "studio?" has turned in to. HOWEVER, I am proud of my newly created "Fat Quarter" bin....really...look....

Anyway, but 7:00pm, I had finally decided: I was NOT going to take part in the mystery. I couldn't find any brown in the amount requested---I had 1 yard cuts, but no 1 1/2 cuts. I had a few FQ's that I could put together as "scrappy" browns, but....well....I'll admit....there is a collection of browns/pinks/lights that are in this FQ drawer that I'm having a hard time digging in to.....YET. I'm still waiting on a perfect pattern.

Anyway----ironing, folding, restacking commenced, which is when I started thinking of 2009 goals.

OH WAIT!!!! 10:59 for me........3 - 2 - 1 --- HAPPY NEW YEAR ANGELA, CANDACE, and all others in the Eastern Time zone.....


Anyway---so, one of my goals (HA!!! We'll see if it happens!!!) is to FINALLY try to make sense of my chaotic sewing room. WOW! It is ALMOST 1 full year since I threw the room together downstairs; turning it from the "collector-of-all-excess-house-"junk"" to my "make-shift" sewing room. I don't think it'll ever have "real walls," which is fine by me, BUT I do want to make good use of the space as well as have ALL my stash nice and neat and organized.

Yeah.....well......then.....after finding a basket of non-ironed, but washed, fabric.........I think it was "Someone's" way of saying, "Amy, you MUST take part in Bonnie's mystery." Because......there IT was. A beautiful, 2 YARDS WORTH of brown with tiny pink diamonds. I don't remember buying it, have no idea how long it's been in the basket WAITING to be ironed (probably since about June!!!---Remember that post???---I just spent 5 minutes trying to find it, but I give up---it must have been BEFORE June!)

So, yup.....here are the colors that will be used for the Double Delight Mystery ONCE I start it. I MUST finish the Cathedral Stars FIRST before I dive into this one. I MUST be disciplined enough!!! (oooohhhh...but it's SO HARD NOT to start a fun, new, exciting project at the same time everyone else is!!!!) But check out that Shopko fabric price ticket! Please recall that I have only been in "serious-obsessed-quilting" mode for about a year and half, once I inherited my Grandmother's stash. Well, CLEARLY this baby is from her stash---I can't even remember when Shopko sold fabric!!! I was a kid, for sure, and that's 20-30 years ago!

Okay, OTHER 2009 goals
1) OF COURSE, running must be discussed. I hope to get my butt in gear starting TOMORROW to workout (running, weights) at least 20 minutes everyday (excluding ONE day/week--most likely Sundays) to get myself back into training shape. By February 1st, I hope to start training for a Half-marathon in May; and beyond that, I still hope for PR's in all my races. My years are starting to tick away, so I won't have much longer anymore to MAKE those PR's!

2) OF COURSE, quilting must also be discussed. I'll admit that I'm going to take this one right from Angela; I have 10 WIPs/UFOs listed; I hope to tackle one of those a month in addition to other "surprises/projects" that will come along. Other than that, I just hope to keep turning out projects to have people enjoy, whether they be someone I know or as given as donation/charity quilts.

Having said that, I already know 2 quilts that need to be made in 2009. Julie, (my runny buddy gone astray) was home visiting her family and stopped in at the house tonight to give some C'mas gifts to the girls. I showed her the Cathedral Stars, and she brought up the "blue quilt" yet again and how she was going to steal it from me..... This "blue quilt" that I call Scrappy Hearts - Blue was made years ago before I really was obsessed with quilting. It is only tied-not quilted. The HSTs NOR squares line up AT ALL! ; the backing is torn in 2 different spots. Yet, everytime she is at the house, she HAS to mention it and threaten that she is going to steal it away. It's MY baby; in fact, I'm wrapped up with it on my lap as I type-----So, yes....I HAVE to make a lap quilt for her similar to this one.

Also, her sister, Nikki, has taken over as our family babysitter (ever since Julie went off to school). Nikki graduates this year, so it's a GIVEN that a Graduation Quilt will be made. I have a beautiful pattern picked out---it's more perfect for a wedding, but still beautiful! I'm not completely decided on that pattern yet, or not, so.....hmmm.....an idea JUST came to me! Maybe this DoubleDelight mystery could work for one of them....

So, how am I ringin' in the New Year? ....

Bloggin'; wrapped up in a quilt,; rockin' in my glider while DH flips through stations on the TV. It really can't get much better than this relaxed life----unless, of course, if I could get off my butt for a brief moment to make some lemon-flavored Green Tea.

14 minutes left for me. This post took some time to type up; I was disturbed for a few moments, though, when DH snuck up on me (well...TRIED to....!) He had been resting on the couch since 7:00, fell asleep, and when I came up at 10:00, I found him all tucked in and cuddled up in bed already. How romantic, huh?? :0) Then, he stirred....I HEARD him even though he INSISTS he scared me by sneaking up! Come on, dear! You're talking to a TEACHER here! We have EARS like a Hawk has eyes!

Alright---I suppose I can go cuddle up with DH! (giggle)

Happy New Year everyone! May 2009 bring much joy and lots of life for you!

Ugh---The bug showed it's ugly face!

Yup--it WAS inevitable!

I know all of you were hoping for me NOT to end up with the bug, but come on.....after playing nurse to three vomiting girls for the past week, there was NO WAY of avoiding this beast!
Ugh--I promise not to whine and moan too much, but I simply can not STAND that ewwy nausea feeling! It's been a night of tossing & turning & moaning & ......well, ....... visiting our bathroom on more than one occasion. I can't even really tell you if I slept at all.


I know different parts of the world have different "remedies" for soothing ill individuals and getting them back on their feet. I grew up with sipping on "Sprite" or "7up." Both are clear carbonated drinks; lemon/lime flavored. Most people say to avoid Coca-cola or other "dark" sodas, however, there was one time when I drank some Coke and I felt better very shortly after that. I suppose that makes a bit of sense since there have been documentaries on Coke "eating through" an American penny and different types of metals. What bug would stand a chance? We have some 7up on hand because of the past week, thank goodness! Typically, we don't have soda in the house---gosh! I'm gonna be one of "those moms" that never allows her children to drink pop! *chuckle* Nahhh....it's just too expensive, and my girls would rather drink Milk or water.

Anyway, so today will be a lounging day. The Cathedral Stars is almost ready for quilting. Backing was pieced last night before wrapping up at 9:00. When I came upstairs, DH was amazed I had called it an "early night." I wasn't feeling well already; tired and drained. I guess my body was already preparing for what was coming.

I have had some wonderful response to my Quilter's Block request. I will spend some time this morning playing around with drawings in a notebook as well as some research online for some motifs. IF I finally find myself with some energy and not feeling I need to stay curled up in the fetal position, I'll make my way downstairs to put the sandwiches together.

I think there will definitely be a much needed nap coming later, too.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Cathedral Stars---"Quilter's block"

We all know about "writer's block," but I am now faced with "quilter's block." I am working on putting the diagonals together and started brain-storming about how to quilt it. I am stumped---flat out have NO IDEA how to quilt it.

I only know that I'll be quilting this in 3 sections---one upper corner (that you see pictured top left), one lower corner that will be the same size as the upper, and a middle diagonal section that is 3 diagonals wide.

I'm hoping some of you may have some tips/ideas for me so that by the time I get the diagonals sewn and the 3 pieces sandwiched, I can start quilting away and finish this baby in time to start Bonnie's DD New Years Mystery. Perhaps some of you know some sites that have different quilting designs on them that you could share with me?

THANKS for any suggestions!

(Note: You can click on the picture to enlarge it)

Tomorrow is another day...

WOW! Three posts today! I go days on end sometimes with NOTHING, and then....BAM...3 in one day! Ahhhhhh.....'tis the joy of vacation time!

Well....I'm convincing myself that tomorrow is another day; these final seams will just have to wait until then. I was able to get back downstairs, OBVIOUSLY, once DH arrived back home and dinner was over, to work on these 36 star blocks.

Typically when I sew, I either throw a "mindless" DVD into the player or turn on my iPod through the radio to give me background noise. Lately, I have been listening to the Twilight Score over-n-over-n-over...... but tonight, I thumbed through my collection of VHS's that have been collecting dust in the extra storage lately. Jen gifted the girls and myself a DVD/VHS player for C'mas, so now I'm able to watch those lovely VHS's downstairs. So tonight, I pulled out TWO great classics......"Dirty Dancing" and "Grease".

Tomorrow, I hope to make some big progress on Cathedral Stars, as long as the doomed-to-catch-bug stays away from my system.

Candace was doing so well after 5:00. Then....*sigh*.....at 8:30, she once again vomited. She gets the privilege of sleeping in Mom-n-Dad's bed tonight....towels covering her section of the bed. I am hoping that was the last episode, but....*shrug*...no one can ever tell.

Happy Sunday night! And Happy Vacation week to all of us teachers out there :0)

Long "catch-up"; another sick child

Well folks, I had complete intentions of working on my Cathedral Stars today. This is the quilt that my Dad requested for his VFW (Veteran's of Foreign Wars) Quilt raffle at the end of January. It (OF COURSE) is one of Bonnie's patterns and I fell in love with it. When my dad requested a raffle quilt of me, I knew this would be the perfect pattern.

Anyway, I worked on some of the piecing yesterday, and I had hopes to complete all blocks today. I worked for a couple hours this morning before realizing I needed more 4-patches. (See the "missing pile" in the stacked ready-to-piece blocks? DUH! I forgot about those!) Anyway, I made it this far before needing to break for lunch. Then, just as lunch was finishing, it was lil' Candace's turn to be hit by that nasty dreadful bug!!! Sadly, and unfortunately, she is not old enough to understand the "make-it-to-the-toilet" concept, so I had some cleaning up to do. The first "round" wasn't so bad, because it was on the hard-wood floor, but the second round happened in our carpeted bedroom. *sigh* She has FINALLY fallen asleep in our bedroom, so I thought I would take this time to catch up on our Holiday Fun.

Cassie was also hit with the bug on Christmas morning, JUST before Santa came to pay a visit. (Since we were at my parent's, we had Santa make a special trip to Grandma's house.) He arrived at 9:30am, and Cassie used everything in her to stand for a quick photo before bolting to the bathroom. Sadly, her "episode" lasted much longer than Caitlyn's 5 hour ordeal----Cassie was finally feeling better after 12 hours. And when we finally made it home, the first toy she wanted to play with was her Easy Bake Oven that was given to her by Aunt Jenny (my SIS). She made a small batch of Sugar Cookies. (VERY SMALL BATCH!!! SIX cookies!) But they were very delicious!

I think the best present for me this year was my new camera, given to me by my sis, BIL, and parents. It is smaller than my other one, and I love how this camera handles close-ups AND the lack of red eye! Seriously----even WITH red-eye features on other cameras, none have done this well. Caitlyn and I ALWAYS have red eyes......But not now :0)







DH's (Paul) favorite gift was a Dual Basket deep fryer, given to him by my sis, BIL and my parents. When we visited his sister's on Friday, he opened it up and turned her kitchen into the China Buffet! He made batches upon batches on egg rolls and wantons! One thing you need to know about his sister, though, is she is an EXTREME health fanatic. Everyone kept joking with her if she would ever be able to recuperate from the fact that so much grease was present and used in her kitchen! The second picture shown here is Paul cleaning up OUR kitchen! Naturally, he (we) needed to use his new gift at our house, as well. So we were making some chicken strips, onion rings, and cheese curds when he opened a cupboard. A package of something-er-other fell out and plunged into the hot oil, splashing it ALL OVER--INCLUDING on DH's arm!!! He's this "big-ol-tough-guy", so he refused to put any ointment on the burn---thankfully it doesn't appear to be completely all that bad. We are just very thankful that the girls were not in the kitchen at the time! Besides---the other "good" thing is that my kitchen got the mopping it needed!


Candace actually was dressed perfectly to help out Dad if needed. This is SUCH an adorable "Pet Doctor" costume that my parents gifted her. Her nametag even says "DR. CANDACE." How adorable!!!!!!



Another hit of the Christmas presents is "Moon Sand." I hadn't known too much about it, but the box says "better than play-doh. It doesn't dry out and easy to clean up." Well........after see these masterpiece-makers at work, I sure HOPE it's easy to clean up!!!!!




Candace's 3rd birthday was celebrated over the weekend as well, since we aren't going to have a get together prior. She will be 3 on January 4th. Pay no attention to the half-eaten birthday cake :0) My niece's birthday was also celebrated the night before, however Candace was sleeping at the time, so we weren't able to get a pic of her blowing out her candle. Another "hit toy" for Candace was her Potty-Chair baby. Candace has only shown SLIGHT interest in potty training, so my sister and I talked about getting gifts to help promote it. This doll is so blasted cute! She says when/if she's thirsty, tired, and that she needs to go "potty." She "slurps" when taking a drink; she "farts" sometimes when she's on the toilet; she gurgles and turns her head side-to-side when her teeth are brushed. Technology now-a-days is absolutely amazing.

Here is my sister, Jen, that spoils ALL of us!!! She doesn't have children of her own, so she DEFINITELY is "Favorite Aunt Jenny!" She and I often chuckle about the panties that we wear. We both have admitted to only have "seasonal" underwear---for one simple reason! Once holidays are over (Easter, Halloween, C'mas, etc), the "seasonal" underwear always go on sale!!! Here is this year's collection of panties! *giggle*




Oh yes----yet another HIT! The table-top Foosball table, given to DH (and family?) by Jen.








On the other side of the family, (DH's side), here are the oldest cousins! Cassie, our oldest, and then Westin (middle) and Walker (right). Both boys are the oldest children of DH's sister (the one who is the health fanatic!) :0) Westin is in 8th grade, while Walker is 4th. While we visited on Friday, they spent some play-time outside giving snow-mobile rides around the house.




**TIMEOUT**
*sigh*
Short interruption----round 3 just made an appearance. Ya know.....it IS inevitable that I WILL get sick after nursing three children through their vomiting spouts, REGARDLESS of how much soap and hand-sanitizer I use.



These last few shots are me playing around with the camera. Pictured with Caitlyn is my mother. TYPICALLY, she hates having her picture taken, but I must say it's much easier to get pics of her when she has a grandchild on her lap. The "sepia-toned" pic of Candace is a fun feature. However, most photo-software programs have that feature, so having it on the camera isn't so special. Still neat though........

DH is out fishing for our supper right now. The deepfryer will be making a presence again in the event he comes home with LOTS of bluegills or other panfish. YUM!

I hope to make it back downstairs sometime today/tonight. I hope to finish the entire Cathedral Stars quilt this week so I can deliver it to my parent's when we visit again next weekend for Christmas #3. (My MIL's side of the family is planning a get-together next Saturday.) And, KNOWING that it's inevitable that I will get sick, I want to be sure to use my non-sick time as wisely as possible :0)

Happy Sunday......

MOTIVATION! Finally!

Whoo-hoo! Finally a day off where motivation wasn't lacking! I started downstairs around 8:00 this morning with high hopes of cutting into my new fabric from Friday's purchase. HOWEVER, those fabrics are mainly being reserved for the Cathedral Stars donation quilt I am planning to make for my Dad's VFW. BUT, here they are-----



and here they are after being washed and dried. I REALLLLLLY debated with myself on whether to wash them up since they are only 1/4 yard each, and we ALLLL know what happens to fabric after being washed and dried. FRAYYYYING! However, these colors are so bright, and I plan to use 100% cotton white as the background, so I didn't want to risk any bleeding, so.......washed they were. (OH! You see that basket behind the pile on the floor? That is what still is in need of ironing from the donations from my mom's church).

And neatly ironed with much of the fraying cut off.









Before starting on any ONE project, I began the day by sifting through yet MORE donations from my mom. This time, however, she purchased them purposely for me while at an auction a few weeks back. Many of the fabrics are "homey" browns, flowers, etc. But there was one red "star" fabric that would be PERFECT for Andre's Out of this World quilt. (See below)



Ooooo-----and check this baby out! Stashed at the bottom of the big box was this gem. I'll set it aside---maybe putz with adding some more blocks, borders, and donate it to Mom's church???






Anyway, after playing through those fabrics, I finally dug into the yardard for Andre's Out of this World quilt. I'm using a midnight-blue-star fabric and white, with bright colors for the stars. After about 3 hours, 96 half-square white/blue blocks were made and 96 quarter-square/half-square white/blue/bright blocks were made. (And in case you like numbers----that equated to about 576 dog ears to be cut!) That brought me to preparing lunch (chicken-noodle soup, ring bologna and grilled cheese sandwiches). PERFECT for a cold, rainy Fall day :0)

Anyway, then I was faced with a dilemma. In order to start piecing some blocks together, I needed table space. However, Derek's Storm at Sea final square-in-a-square sashing blocks (errr.....PIECES of those blocks) were taking up the space. SO...I buckled down, took a deep breath, and just FINISHED piecing those buggers! Yeah---at least they are done now. They really were beginning to be a major guilt-trip on my mind everytime I went downstairs this week. I just didn't have the heart to plow through them though. Anyway, so pictured here are the two blocks needed for Out of this World and Storm at Sea sashing squares.

Naturally, since I finished all the blocks for Derek's (Storm at Sea)quilt, I might as well lay them out on the floor so that THAT space can be freed up for Andre's (Out of this World)quilt. I sewed two rows together, and said...."Nope---I'm done!" They aren't that fun to piece----uh-oh! BUT...soon....I'll have to get them sewn----I need that floor space!!!




Finally, before coming upstairs to make supper, I whipped out one quick block for Andre's quilt. I've made this pattern before for my nephew, Zach's quilt. I think the colors chosen this time will once again be perfect for a 13 year old boy :0)


Supper is almost ready----Meatloaf and fried potatoes. I'm so hungry!!!
It's almost 6:00----holy buckets! Where did the day go??? *grin*

I hope to head back down later tonight once the girls are in bed. My parents are up for the night, and I don't think they'll be offended if I head off to my "quiet" space :0)