Perfect timing, Quiltmaker

Hmmm....sometimes I wonder about how life works.....

Seriously, just today in the mail I received a padded envelope from Quiltmaker with a letter stating they were going to use my submitted photo of one of their patterns, AND a complementary copy of the Quiltmaker edition. *shaking head, chuckling* This timing is just too weird with all the emailing throughout the day......


Anyway----what's even BETTER?!?!? It's the same edition that Bonnie has her article and pattern in! Woo-hooo! It shall be treasured forever. *insert dramatic music* : My First publication.......

Okay----8:25pm. Time to head downstairs to putz for an hour.

Playing hookie & Quiltmaker magazine

Yup..yup....I'm a bit "under the weather" today. Don't get me wrong----I could have made it through the day without bending too far over backwards, but they way I figure---why spread even the simple "head-cold" germs around when I have sick days to spend??? So, I'm kickin' back with my feet up today, reading another book recommended by my 8th grade girls----actually I just finished it. "The Hunger Games". 'Twasn't as good as "Twilight", but still held my interest to the final page.

I received a message from the Quiltville group wondering if a photo submitted to the "sew and tell" page of Quiltmaker was a quilt made by me. We emailed back-n-forth a few times so I could get a description of it, and SURE SHOOTIN! It's the Ramblin' Aunt Sukey pattern I made for Cathy back in August. I submitted the photo via email in October to the magazine, and received a "Thank you " email in return, but I never was given the impression they were going to print it. Huh! Kinda cool, yet, makes me wonder a bit. Now I need to get to newsstands to get a copy of the magazine to read the fine print. I recall not too long ago when Bonnie was a bit frustrated with some "Copyright" issues, and I'm no where near that upset or livid, YET I am a bit saddened that the magazine didn't clearly inform me they were printing it. I ordered a subscription to the magazine, but it obviously hasn't begun yet since I have not received the Jan/Feb issue, so this "self-publication" would/could have completely gone unnoticed. And THAT is was saddens and frustrates me.

Okay....enough about that.

Last night was a visit to the Public Library. Santa makes an annual trip to the library to read "T'was the Night Before Christmas" to the kids and then the good ol' classic of sitting-on-lap-sharing-Christmas-gift-wishes.



Even Candace was courageous enough to have a picture taken with Santa.

Okay----'tis lunch time, and afterwards, I'm contemplating whether to take a nap, or to head downstairs for some hopeful "non-guilty" sewing.

Happy Tuesday

I - AM - DONE (and then some...)

It's official! All anticipated Christmas gift quilts are now completed! Pieced, quilted, bound, and labeled!

One last time, I will walk through the list.....

Masha's Wonky Nines. Started August 18th; Finished November 9th. I had 4 blocks left over, so I whipped up an 18" pillow for her today, and I CAN NOT believe I didn't get a picture of it..DUH!

Andre's Out of this World . Started: October 5th; Finished November 24th.

Isaac's My Blue Heaven. Started: October 16th; Finished: November 9th.

Jan's Family Gems. Started: October 25th. Finished: December 7th.

Patti's Christmas Stockings. Started AND Finished November 26th. (Yeah---THAT was a fast quilt to make!) When I made it, I didn't have anyone special in mind---I just wanted to "have fun" piecing. One thing lead to another, and the quilt was complete!

Scot's CountryView Camo. Started: November 11th; Finished: December 14th. The story behind the name: Scot is DH's boss, and his company's name is CountryView Log Homes----so it fit nicely to the Camo quilt :0)




Ron's Old Tobacco Roads. Started: August 29th. Finished: December 14th.








Derek's Storm at Sea. Started: September 14th; Finished: December 14th.








AND----I EVEN have been able to finish the top (Class Act)for the Quilting Class that I have been asked to offer, as well as a supply list and cutting list. The deadline for the description is tomorrow and I've been able to put that together. The "finer points" of what will be taught can be figured out later.








So....there ya have it! All are wrapped up and under the tree except for Ron's and Derek's. I need to find some boxes at school tomorrow that will fit them.

NOW, Cathedral Stars is looming on the horizons; 126 4-patches are already made. I can't wait to see that one come together!

Happy Sunday!

Runnin' (?) in a winter wonderland......

Finally, mother-nature has decided to have our landscape look like winter :0) I was (still am?) planning to get together with a couple of ladies to run 2 miles at 2:30 today.....but....well.....Those are some HUGE flakes coming down right now!

Scot's camo quilt (officially called Countryview Camo with DH's assistance) was completed yesterday; label yet to be added today. Tonight will showcase a final pic.

Ron's Old Tobacco Roads quilt's binding was just completed 5 minutes ago; label already sewn on; all that remains is to fix the corners, which will be next on the list once I finish the blog update.

Derek's Storm at Sea quilt is half quilted, using a "wave-like" vertical meander. That will be next on the list after OTR corners. I hope to check ALL the C'mas quilts off the list by the end of the day, with a Grand Finale slideshow tonight on my blog.

So...then....without further ado.....time to get stitchin'!
Happy (snowy) Sunday!

1000 apologies!

My goodness golly! No genuine excuses here other than simple "different priorities" over the past two weeks.

I AM sorry that my postings (and checking in on others' postings, for that matter) have been so non-existing over the past two weeks. My followers know that LAST week it was due to my obsession with Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga; this week---well, it's PART due to Twilight (a sorta-kinda 5th book posted on her site) AND new book "my girls" have recommended (The Hunger Games) which I'm still not so sure about----I'm only a chapter into it. AND then on top of all of that, I HAVE been faithful to a certain extent towards my C'mas project responsibilities AND I have also needed to take two evenings to put a "rough draft" of a quilting class together since my school's Community Education Coordinator wants me to teach one and the deadline for brochure printing is Monday. SO----I needed to put a top together to have a sample photo, AND to get an idea of how many sessions/duration of each session will be needed.

So----my evenings have usually ended around 11:00 - 12:00 the past two weeks, and I just haven't been putting "blogging" in the top 5 "things-to-do" lately. Please forgive me---I WILL be checking in with everyone tomorrow night for sure! I'm making it a date!!!!

Oh!!!! Speaking of date!
My husband is taking me out tonight to dinner and a movie.
alright, alright---so I kinda TOLD him he was----he didn't really ask

What movie, you ask????? *chuckle*
AS IF you need to ask!!!

*nod-nod*
Yup....."Twilight" again, now that it's in the theater in OUR town (tiny little blip on a map, so we never get the big movies until a couple of weeks after debut). Yeah---I went to the movie last weekend with my babysitter, traveling down to a city 30 miles away, paying $7.75 per person. Our theater only charges $6.00, and I suppose it's only fair ????

Anyway----so I am off to pick up the babysitter. We have a new girl (sweet little Freshman) lined up tonight; not old enough to drive, so....... Cassie is excited to "meet someone new"; the other two don't really know what to think. They don't understand why Nikki (normal babysitter) isn't coming........


Happy Friday!

Returning to quilting....

Once I finished breaking dawn, it was time to for lunch----cheddarwursts (nothing too fancy).

Then, since C'mas is still looming and I decided to spend every free waking moment lately immersed in the fantasy world of Stephanie Meyer, I figured it was finally time to return to quilting.

I made progress on Scot's Camo quilt, to the point the top is ALMOST complete. I think I'll add 15 more inches of "borders" on the top and call it a pillow tuck. So far, it is 78" by 83". I will NOT be quilting this baby since it is mostly a heavy denim/flannel combo of camoflauge fabrics. It will simply be tied, so once the top is finished, the complete "finishing" won't be that far off.

I also have Derek's Storm at Sea awaiting quilting, which SHOULD have been completed this weekend...but.....well......*snicker* other things took priority :0) 'Tis alright, though, because once his is quilted, I have met all my goals! (and THEN some!)

Remember that Christmas Stocking quilt from last Wednesday???? I've decided to gift it to a coworker, an aide to our Special Education department. Without her, I would really be concerned for these kids---she has such a huge heart!



So----for the later part of the afternoon, I decided to tackle creating the labels for all the quilts, and have sewed almost all of them on. They all resemble Jan's Family Gems label, however, hers was the only one I added a "special message" to.

I suppose I'll tackle some hand sewing; I still have C'mas Stockings binding to sew down, as well as Jan's and Ron's Old Tobacco Roads label. Oh----and I STILL need to fix the corner's on Ron's OTR yet too.

The movie Bean is coming on at 6:00 and I figured we'd make it a family comedy night tonight. Perfect!

Happy Sunday

Life may now commence...

I have a strange urge to share with my blogging world the exact moment when I feel my life can once again return to normal, if that truly will ever be possible after having submerged my entire being into the trials and hardships of Bella and Edward.

My goodness! Even from my words appearing on the page, I can tell how extremely this Twilight series has had the utmost affect on my life.
(Okay, maybe I *AM* being a wee bit melodramatic there!!!!)
For the past 9 days, every free moment of my time has been emerged into such a fantasy, wishing that some part of this world could actually be true. It has only been a few moments since I have read the final words from Stephanie Meyer, closing her fourth book, breaking dawn, with the words of finality. The End.

I can only hope that sometime in her life, before she reaches her deathbed, that she will reconsider and decide to open yet another chapter into this amazing fantasy world.

Until then, I can only hope and hold onto the wonderful story that she has shared with us.

If you have not read this series, I strongly share my opinion that if you allow yourself, you will also find your life slightly changed from the experience.

I love this story.
And I can't wait to read it again

Guilty Pleasures!

Sorry folks, but my life has been put on standby! My 8th grade girls.....I tell ya! Those girls have me HOOKED and OBSESSED with this series. I have been VERY dutiful during my working hours at school to ensure I had NO HOMEWORK to take home every night, solely so I can read, read, read!




Sure enough, Monday morning, I hit up my "Twilight-groupies" to see if anyone could loan me a copy of book 2 - New Moon. Whew......THANKFULLY a student did! SO, Monday night, until midnight, I read, read, read, and almost near finished it!




So, Tuesday rolled around, and I was "hunting down" a copy of book 3 - Eclipse all day long. FINALLY, at the end of the day, the rumor spread enough, that another girl (not quite in the "groupie-bunch" came to loan me her copy. Ya see, most of the "groupie girls" have a copy of book 3, but many of them are still reading it too. So, Tuesday night.....I read, read, read :0) *duh* However, by 9:45 my eyes were SADLY closing due to my late night the night before.


Yesterday rolled around, and I hunted down a copy of book 4, THINKING that I'd be finishing up Book 3 and I wanted to continue right away. However, I actually decided to join real-life for a little while and worked on putting a puzzle together with Cassie. So, I only was able to put about 2 hours worth of reading in last night........

However, I am expecting a copy of book 4 to hit my desk today from the same girl who loaned me book 2. She is still in the process of reading book 3, but I ASSURED her, I would finish 4 before she finishes 3! :0)

Anyway-----needless to say, I have done NO QUILTING. My life shall return to normal soon, though :0) Honestly....I don't know HOW readers could wait for the next books to come out if they were reading them once directly published!

Happy Thursday!