It's Tuesday! Oh no.

I got nothing today.
Nothing

No Midget
No pictures

Nothing.

BUT, I do have my smile!  And my happy go-lucky attitude :D

Off to a Cross Country banquet I go.

Hand-project Sunday

This morning, Cassie and I went shopping for clothes!!!! We BOTH needed some.  And even though I reallllllly didn't want to go, I knew we had to.  In the end, we each came away with two new pairs of pants and half a dozen tops.

Then......

I'm trying it again!!!

Remember when I attempted to crochet a rug for the first time?

Sure, as that post shows, the rug's life started out fine....but it didn't take long for it to start getting extremely wonky and wouldn't lay flat!  So I stopped and set it aside.

After watching some YouTube videos today, I'm trying it again.

{{Do you like my Green Bay Packer apparel too?  The 'comfy pants' are new today {even though you can't really see them}} :D

So far, so good.  

Now that dinner is finished (eggrolls--YUM!)), and the girls are taking showers, I plan to put my feet up with an evening of DH's choice of TV shows (football, probably), and I'll continue with the rug.

Paul was busy today too, making lefse.  I'm not a die-hard fan of it, but I certainly will enjoy a piece or two with some butter, cinnamon and sugar :)

Also, Candace and I enjoyed some PhotoBooth time!

I'd like to know what she's thinking in this picture!  Great shot for a caption contest.

A perfect image for the upcoming Halloween spookiness.  

Happy Sunday everyone!

Golly, this weekend flew by :(

Orca Bay and Hawaii Sunset; two colorful quilts!

After about three hours of quilting, I was ready to give it a rest with about half of it complete.  It's at least up, off the floor now.

So then I broke open Ann Marie's package!  WOW!!!!!  LOVE LOVE these colors!

And the back!  Super awesome rotational symmetry!  Oh Ann Marie;  you and I have so much in common.    I tried out some threads and decided on a stand-by blendable taupe color.....

...but I only had a little bit left on my last spool.  Naturally, I had to stop everything, and take a quick trip up to the quiltshop!

And, of COURSE, more than just a backup spool of thread was purchased!

I figured, after making two green/purple/orange quilts lately, I had to replenish the dents in the stash.  Gosh, I love these three colors together!!!!

Once back home, I was no longer "feeling" my quilting frame, so Andee's package was opened straight away :)  Fun, fun, fun Hawaii Sunset units!  {{And DOGGIE TREATS for Shadow!!! Awwww.}}

Since Bonnie was on quiltcam, I sat and joined her for a couple hours of sewing.

All of Andee's 9-patches received hugs by some inner borders...

and then a couple of a few blocks were pieced.  My favorite 9-patch:  the white one in the upper left corner, with the mustard center!  LOVE LOVE that little touch of a 3rd color in the 9-patch!

My Rainbow Strings were rearranged to the upper area of the design wall;  every month was completed except for the "neutral" month.  That string block may still happen;  either that or maybe I'll do something stringy with neutrals for sashing units.

Candace swiped the camera to take some pictures of all the activity outside today.  The sun was brilliant, yet still a very chilly day!  Low 40s (??)

Last weekend, Paul added some bells to the goats' collars.  Goodness golly, they are a hilarious duo!  They just come-a-runnin' whenever anyone heads outside.  If the girls simply crack open the door to peek out, they try to nudge and head-butt their way inside.

And Paul....?  I'm not really sure if he was cleaning or making a mess!  It's that time of year when he (I would say 'we,' but we all know that's not extremely truthful) tidies up the yard and garage to prepare everything for the winter season.  He worked on organizing and storing the potatoes into the root cellar, among other things.

Golly!  7:26 PM!  Where did the day go?

The girls and I are sitting with a movie;  nothing else much planned for tonight.

Motivation in the form of packages

MORE packages arrived this week!  I'll admit that Ann Marie's package was EXCITING to see, and it took me a moment to figure out what it was.  (It's been awhile Ann Marie!!!)  Remember when she won my "Free Pantograph Quilting" giveaway for my 1000th post?  She's taking me up on that offer now :)

The other smaller package is Andee's swap units for Hawaii Sunset.  

I haven't opened EITHER of them yet!!!  Trust me, I want to, but I'm trying to keep an incentive for staying motivated today in my quilting room.

And my Orca Bay has been on the quilting frame for MONTHS, untouched!  Ann Marie's package was the right motivator to get me back at it in order for me to open it up for HER quilt.

Cassie is at volleyball practice until 11:00, and the other two are watching a Saturday morning movie.  I'm off to get some quilting done.

Omigosh! I'm sewing on a school night (again)

You bet'cha folks!  Tuesday evening, and an hour was spent downstairs.

Some tidying and organizing of my Omigosh Leader-Ender area was addressed by pressing all the 4-patch units that have been collecting over the past few months (during the few times that I actually HAVE been quilting).

They surely are teeeeeenie-tiny.  Omigosh!   {{what a fitting name!!!}}

Some strip-sets for the 9-patches were pieced and pressed as well.

Someday, this quilt may see a finish.  For now, it's simply my leader-ender.

Tiny Tuesday Midget #35: Butterfly

Midget #35 was suggested to be completed using paper-piecing; you can see the line segments pictured in the upper left corner.

Ummm......no thanks!

Instead, I appliqued the wings and body to a 5" square.  Why bother with all those paper-pieced sections???

However, now seeing this completed in a picture, I think I'll stitch a 'seam' with some black floss in order to see the wing top/bottom sections more clear.

WOW! Nearing the end of October already.

Tick-tock-tick-tock.

Squishy surprise! and some hunting seats...

Oh Angela, Angela, Angela!  THIS was the package of goodies I received in the mail on Tuesday;  completely by surprise(!) with a note from Angela saying, "I thought you could use these with your Midgets."  So, yesterday morning, I dug into the fabrics for Midget #35:  stay tuned on Tuesday.

A friend needed some dear-stand seats redone, so he contacted me to see if I could "work some magic."

This one pictured wasn't the worst of 'em; the worst was literally only the 3 straps held together by some completely tattered pieces of black fabric;  no stuffing left what-so-ever!

After a day's worth of trimming, measuring, sewing..... I think they turned out pretty A-OK.

Thankfully, the friend also approved!  He is "extremely happy" with the results!

So...Sunday.  Most of the laundry was finished yesterday.  We have the in-laws visiting us.  (They arrived yesterday around 1:30PM).  The muffins are done.  I think.... Mother-in-Law and I are going to head downstairs so she can see EM in action.

Happy Sunday.

Tiny Tuesday #34: Rocky Glen

Midget block #34 tackled (and posted just a wee bit early)

Hmm....looks wrong, you say??

Well....that's what I thought too.

So, I checked and rechecked the "units" to find out where my mistake was.

You see that I have the 4-unit correct, right? (pictured 2nd from left)

It turns out---it wasn't exactly my mistake. 

It doesn't matter how you "rotate" that "unit" around......it ain't gonna match the final block :\

This was an excellent reminder to look through and check out patterns on your own;  sometimes mistakes are made in published patterns.  Oh well.  In the big "finished" picture.....**shrug**.... It is what it is.

A family weekend

Yes, my blog has been very silent the past few days.  We've been up in Ashland, WI--just getting away and enjoying some time together with family.

Cass and I started the dismally misty Saturday morning out by running a 5K together (at least up until mile 1.5).  She kept going at a decent pace, while I backed off and enjoyed the rest of the race with some walks.  I kept saying that my excuse was going to be that I wanted the top male 10K'er to pass me by the time I crossed the finish line, but.... he never did.  I guess that means I did okay :)

The rest of the day, we did absolutely NOTHING!  We sat in the living room...relaxed... and watched one chick flick after another on the Hallmark channel.  

And then this morning, at 9:30, the three girls and myself headed out to the woods for a lil' nature walk.

We tried to find the perfect "leaning log" for a picture, and we thought we did... until Candace sat down.  LOL.  It was quite a giggle fest!

We found another one, but the girls were more interested in walking across it than having a picture taken on it. :)

Eventually, Paul caught up with us...and we continued to hike around for the next hour or so.

Any hunter knows what this is!  Nice Buck-rub.

AND we eventually found the perfect log for an impromptu family picture.  Who needs expensive photographers and fancy-schmancy outfits for family pictures?  

As always, I hope you found your enjoyment over the weekend as well.

Can you believe it's the middle of OCTOBER!!?!?!

Tiny Tuesday: #33 Merry Go Round

I dusted off the paper-piecing skill for this one;  it took a couple of attempts before I remembered the correct direction to place the fabrics!  A few seams are a teeny bit off;  no biggy for me.

Rainbow Scraps and Embroidery

"Brown, Brown, Brown"  -Professor Higgins

October is Brown month in Angela's 2012 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  A string block was pieced up...

...and added to the design wall of random projects.  

EM had some work to do today;  some towels for an upcoming wedding gift.  I still need to add the Family name to the dish towels.

Clara is the little girl of the lady getting married at the end of the month;  I couldn't leave her out of the gift-receiving :)

EM also did some other projects, but they are in the dryer right now;  I embroidered my name on a hoodie of mine;  just playing and trying things out.  Lesson learned:  turn the name upside-down, so that when the hoodie is down, it's right-side up.  

 You know what everyone else was doing while I was sewing and doing up the laundry???

:D

I think the girls' friends are going to stop coming over.  Every time someone visits, we Paul puts them to work.  Pictured here....Katrina (in the fuzzy bear hat).... is helping out with the potatoes.

A visitor just knocked on the door.... so I'm off for now.  

Happy Saturday.

Sewing on a school night!

I haven't been down in the sewing room for over a week---wowsers!  But today after school, I was able to completely catch up with my grading... and the girls rode the bus home... so all the Homework and chores and dinner were completed at a decent time.  SO..... I worked on some feedsack towels I bought last week.  Our set is getting quite tattered;  I suppose after 14 years of marriage and use, it's time to replace them!

I'm not much of a "cow" person---or any kind of theme, for that matter.  But these guys were cute....and FREE.

All the while EM was working away, I tinkered around with some the Hawaii Sunset units to piece together the first block.  

But now that EM is finished.....it's time to get to bed.  I started down here at 8:00 with intentions of ONLY putting in one hour's worth of sewing.

Psht!

:D

Happy Almost-Friday.