Here is a meme I've seen a lot lately, but most recently on Kate's blog.
you can only use one word to answer each question -
One Word
1. Where is your cell phone? desk
2. Your significant other? working
3. Your hair? annoying
4. Your mother? missing
5. Your father? incredible
6. Your favorite thing? offspring
7. Your dream last night? absent
8. Your favorite drink? fresca
9. Your dream/goal? retirement
10. The room you’re in? office
11. Your ex? supportive
12. Your fear? water
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? alive
14. Where were you last night? home
15. What you’re not? work
16. Muffins? okay
17. One of your wish list items? list
18. Where you grew up? Utah
19. The last thing you did? dinner
20. What are you wearing? clothing
21. Your TV? neglected
22. Your pet? murphy
23. Your computer? laptop
24. Your life? content
25. Your mood? bored
26. Missing someone? always
27 Your car? jeep
28. Something you’re not wearing? noneya
29. Favorite Store? fabric
30. Your summer? hot
31. Like someone? yes
32. Your favorite color? depends
33. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
34. Last time you cried? unknown

Weekend Overview

I thought I would catch up on quilty stuff for the weekend. I made 3 more receiving blankets, and 31 more burp bibs for a total of 56. I know this seems like lots, but lots of people are pregnant. I finally got up the nerve to quilt the magic vine top I made last year. I've been staring at it forever and feeling chicken, and so yesterday I bit the bullet. I used stencils for the wreaths in the setting blocks, and free handed the feathers in the border. I just went around each of the flowers in the flower blocks. Of course I poked myself with a pin and bled on the white border, so it has been laundered already. I have the hardest time getting good pics of quilting, any suggestions?



Here is the finished top from Bonnie's quiltville mystery quilt, Carolina Byways.

Murphy Seizure

Last night I had a scary experience. My dog, Murphy, had a seizure. I've witnessed lots of humans having seizures, but I've never seen my dog have one. Last September my dh saw him have a seizure, and I called the vet. She didn't seem too concerned. She told me her Mom had a dog that had a seizure twice a year his whole life, and that he was really fine, but dogs just have seizures sometimes. She didn't think I needed to bring him in to see her unless he had them frequently. Then she would consider meds. So, this is actually his second one. It lasted about 4 minutes, and his postdictal time was about 15 minutes. He vomited afterwards, twice. I'm sure this is tmi, but I want to document it for my own use. He hung out right by me all night, not unusual, and he seems fine this morning. Any good vibes you would like to send his way would be great!

Four Season's Winter Quilt

It's Here! It's Here! Every day I stop at the post office on my way home from work to check for the little swap quilt. Not there, not there, not there... But today after an extra long and hard day at work, It was there! I hurried home and told myself I could open it as soon as I shoveled the snow drift out of the middle of the driveway. Then I put away the groceries, threw a frozen pizza in the oven and while it cooked I opened the package. LOL Just kidding, you all know I ripped it open right there in the post office. I was so excited to see it in my po box. Luckily I was the only person in the post office that time of night. LOL The quilt was made by Julie H. from Firefly Lane blog. It is too dark here to take a picture of it, so I've stolen a picture from Julie. Here is the back. It is hard to see, but the fabrics she used are gorgeous, and glittery just what I had requested. Also the blue edge is 3 dimensional that surrounds the patchwork center. I don't know what that is called, but it is really cool. I can't wait to add this to my growing collection of doll quilts on my wall. She also sent a really cool retro looking key chain. Its so strange too, because I had the same key chain for about 7 years, and just last month my daughter lost my keys when she had borrowed my jeep to go snowboarding, so I was in need of a cool new keychain. Thanks Julie, and also a big thanks to Margaret for hosting the swap.

Doll Quilt Swap II on About.com

Ginger is hosting a second doll quilt swap on the about.com quilting forum. I participated in the first one a received a great little quilt. I definately was in for the second swap as well. Each time I've participated in a doll quilt swap, I have a difficult time sending the cute little quilt off to someone else, and have wished I'd made a matching quilt for myself. This time I did! I'll start off with the little blocks. I used a block pattern from the book Prarie Children and Their Quilts. It finishes at 4 inches.



I put them together wish 1 1/2" sashings, and then a beautiful blue border. I mainly used batiks, with the exception of the background fabrics in the actual blocks. Here they are together, and all finished.



And here is my wall of doll quilts so far. I'm still waiting on my winter quilt from four seasons quilt swap, and then I will still receive one from this swap also. Yay! I love these little quilts.

Wonky Feather Quilting

I've been practicing this wonky feathers quilting that I learned on my pajama quilter DVD, and I think I'm finally getting it nicely. This is a quilt made by someone I know. She had embroidered all the blocks, and then I sewed them together, quilted and bound it. She hasn't seen it yet, but I think it turned out great!

Here's the front


And the back.....


I've also been making more baby quilts, they are quick and fun!

Dwirling

I received my pajama quilter dvd the other day, and I finally got a chance to try the dwirling technique on this baby panel I had in stash. I think I paid a dollar for the panel last year on a clearance sale. Anyway, it turned out really cute, and just in time as I found out yesterday I am going to be a grandma! (not Nellie) Quite the surprise. So here's the first picture.....


Here is the front


this is a fun technique, and I love how it turned out!

Since Christmas

I've been busy busy, and haven't blogged a thing. Let's play catch up here.
Here is Nellie opening her Advent Calendar on Christmas morning. I think she loved it.

And.... here is Al opening his Christmas Quilt later in the day....

These are blocks I've been making as leaders/enders for round three of Krista's framed four patch swap, soon to be posted on about.com quilting forum.

I finished hand piecing my second Dahlia, here it is....


I've been playing along with Bonnie's mystery quilt, Carolina Crossroads, and finished catching up on the steps friday night. I'm all set for the next step to be revealed this week.

I received a quilting instruction dvd yesterday in the mail by the pajama quilter, Dawn Ramierez, and tried her wonky feathers quilting on this quilt yesterday....




Horrible lighting, I hope the quilting shows up in this picture..


I quilted this yesterday also, it is a crib size quilt.




Here is the back of it


I also quilted this little lap sized quilt up this morning


Last week I quilted and bound the penny pincher 9 double four patch quilt, and mailed it to my neice Ashley, in Missouri. I hope she received it, I haven't heard from her.

I sent Emily the beautiful turning twenty quilt made with the Fuscia fabrics, mailed that this week also, hope she received it, I haven't heard from her either. hmmmmm quiet little neices I have eh?
I've been working on this today, it will be for Enid, (great neice) she needs a big girl bed quilt, all she has from me is a small crib size quilt.

I think that catches me up, except for the yummy chicken enchiladas I made this morning. One dish will go to my in laws tonight for dinner, one for us here for dinner, and two to freeze for later. Yummy!

Dahlia Quilting Finished

I love this wallhanging. I worked very hard to hand piece the Dahlia. Several people I know have indicated "Hand piecing deserves hand quilting". I have never hand quilted a thing in my life. I thought I would give it a try. The ladies on the about.com quilting forum gave me great directions on how to do this. I sandwiched, I basted with pins, I bought the right needles and thread. I tried, I really did, but It looked horrible! And..... I kept thinking to myself, hand piecing deserves pretty quilting, something I knew wouldn't happen if I quilted this by hand. My son saw me trying and said, "Why are you riding a bike when you own a cadillac?" LOL He was right. I took apart the basting with pins and the quilting I had attempted and put it on the handiquilter, and machine quilted it. I like how it turned out and that is what matters truly.




Here is the full picture



I finished the center Dahlia of a second Dahlia Thursday night. I had used the scraps from this one to make the second one, but they are in a different placement.
I haven't taken a picture of that one yet.

Advent Calendar Fun?

A while back (18 months or so) I received an Advent Calendar panel from a quilting pals swap. It is cute with cats all over and lots of gold glittery looking threads. My dd saw it and asked me to make it for her. Of course, I said sure! That was a while back (17 months or so) LOL. I have looked at it several times, and read the instructions, and then procrastinated making it. Until today! Each day I read Kate's blog and see her advent calendar item for the day, and think, I really should get to that Advent calendar for Nellie. Anyway, it is done! PITA but done! And..... I went to the dread Walmart and bought a gold curtain rod hanger thing, and some pretty gold wire cord to hang on the curtain rod, and lots of candy to put in each day, including a marshmallow Santa for the last day. Enough chatter, here it is, and I like it! Amazing!
(now for the rest of the bag of goodies.... teehee)

Catching Up

Here is a top I made using some of those men's shirts from the Goodwill store. I used the shirts in the star blocks. I am thinking this may need a border out of the alternate square fabrics.



These are the segments I have done so far for Bonnie's mystery quilt, Carolina Crossroads. I haven't done the 3rd step of 100 more 9 patches, minus the red squares. Maybe tomorrow, I will get going on those. She said we have 2 weeks, so I am procrastinating. Yes, I do procrastinate...... sometimes.....

Four Seasons Quilt Swap

I have almost finished my quilt for this swap. I need to sew the binding down by hand, otherwise this little quilt is finished. Honestly, I'm not sure I love this quilt, maybe it will grow on me, as right now I am tired of looking at it. It looks very simple, but it took me a long time. I don't know why though. If I still don't like it in January, I can make something different for the swap.

What Holiday are You?

I saw this on Sophie's blog and although I don't always do these things, I thought I would this time. Here are my results.

You Are Easter

You are an optimistic, hopeful, and genuinely sweet person. Sensitive and affectionate, you are easily touched. You love nature, animals, and anything cute or cuddly. For you, every day is a new chance - no matter what happened yesterday. What makes you celebrate: Almost anything. You love most holidays and celebrations. At holiday get togethers, you do best as: The peacemaker. You can prevent any squabbles that might break out. On a holiday, you're the one most likely to: Remember to include everyone

What Holiday Are You?

Mystery Quilt Started

Bonnie has started a mystery quilt VIA her blog. I have finished the first step. Making (100)
3 1/2" square 3 rail fence blocks out of red and blues. Red is in the center, and blues on the outside. I'm hoping to make a bit bigger quilt than she has planned, so I made 120 of these units. I hope that is enough.

Another Addiction?

I've often read on Bonnie's quiltville site about her addiction to buying men's shirts and cutting them up for quilting fabric. Today, for fun, I went to the local goodwill store, and one other thrift store. The goodwill has half off a certain color tag each week. I looked through all the xxl men's long sleeve shirts and found some with the Pink tag, 1/2 price this week. They were $3.99, so at half off I got them for about two bucks. The second thrift store, I found xl short sleeve shirts for $3 each. I think all together I spent about $28. Here are my finds.




Those first two on the left are my favorites, beautiful cranberry colors. I also bought the ugliest woman's dress for $2, but I think it will make a nice red in the quilt, its on the top right in the picture below. The two lights just below the red dress are beautiful creamy colors in true life, the stack on the left are actually pretty blues. My photography today is certainly lacking.

I am so thrilled!

I participated in a swap called Twisted Mystery. Each participant sent in a bag of fabric to the hostess, who then drew names and sent the fabric out to a different participant. Each person made a quilt/wall hanging out of the mystery fabric they received. Then we all sent them back to the hostess. No one knew who they were making for, and no one knows who made their quilt yet. But..... the quilts have been posted online, and I know which one is mine. It is so AWESOME! I can't wait to see it in person. I'm showing the picture the hostess had on her webshots, as I can't wait to show it off.

Soup's On!

I love soup! I love soup with garlic cheddar bread from the Great Harvest Bread store by my work. I took the turkey and made soup base from it, and salvaged all those yummy turkey bits, added some celery, onions, sage, and two cans of cream of celery soup for good measure, some salt and pepper and voila I have soup. Well the start of it anyway, the day I take it out of the freezer and cook it back up, I will add a package of Kluske noodles. (love them)



All packaged up for the freezer



I love having a freezer full of soup, just ready to pop in the crock pot before work, or defrost quick after work. I'm getting pretty stocked up so far, chicken soup, turkey soup, beef barley, pepper rice, and gypsy goulash, oh and pork and beans for dh. I'm not a pork a beans lover myself.

Catching Up on Pictures

These are two quilts I finished last month. I have somehow failed to put them on the blog. My friend Peggy is trading me quilting time for binding time. I really do not like doing bindings and she does a wonderful wonderful job on them. I have quilted 3 quilts for her, and she has done the binding on 4 quilts for me. I owe her time. She hand stitches the bindings down, and does wonderful corners. Anyway, here is the quilt from the penny pincher 7 swap on about.com quilting forum.



And here is my quilt made from the Batik Framed Four Patch Swap, also on about.com quilting forum.




I finished the pp8 swap quilt also, but Peggy has it and is finishing up the bindings. I'll post when I get it back. That one is for my mother in law for Christmas.

Okay, Now I'm done with it for today!

The bargello kept calling my name, telling me to add the borders. Who am I to argue with the quilt, or the quilt voices.
So, I added borders. I used a funky red fabric someone had shared with me. It goes great with all the other odd fabrics in this quilt everything from paisleys to jalapeno peppers. Gotta love it.

What to do today?

This morning I was sort of at a loss of what to do today. Having 4 days off from work in a row, is kind of fun, but also, a lot of time to fill. LOL I started my day by making up about 9 more of those crumby hot pads, I used 4 crumb blocks for some and then about 5 orphan blocks from another project. They went together quickly.

NOW WHAT? I had cut up noodles I had swapped on the about.com quilting forum this past year and had sewn the first round of strips together, but decided to go ahead and finish this top up today. I used Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Bargello pattern from quiltville.com to make this lap sized quilt top. I really think it needs a border though, but I am sick of looking at it today, so the border will have to wait.