A funny..

When going through the pics in my phone to find that tree pic, I found this one in there. Forgot all about it, but it makes me crack up every time I see it, so I thought I would share. This is my son, Joe, holding one of our chickens. Joe is always taking oddball shots of things and I never know just what I might find as a screensaver. Hope it makes you smile, too! Now, back to sewing part 3!

Slowly but surely

I am slowly but surely getting the steps done for the Mysteries for Relay quilts I am working on. Here are pics of blocks 1 and 2:



On this second one, I decided to mix it up a bit and used a dark for my background instead of a light. I haven't peeked ahead, so I hope it works!
Autumn is definitely here. That and winter are probably my favorite seasons. Up here in western New York, you don't hear many folks say they love winter and the snow, but I sure do! Makes homes seem so warm and cozy. Besides..who doesn't love newly knitted warm socks?? I will post pics of the socks I am working on tomorrow. For now, here is a little taste of autumn:

Never ever get distracted while using your rotary cutter!!

Sigh..my intent was to follow all day long with the Mysteries for Relay myster quilt. I plan on making two twin size quilts along with the clues, but knew I would have to catch up since I just signed on last night. I was cutting the fabric this morning while watching the Gilmore Girls with my daughter. BIG MISTAKE. Never ever use a rotary cutter while distracted!!!! I managed to cut off the entire end of my finger from the middle of the nail down. A few hours at urgent care, 5 stitches and a 10 % chance of it reattaching and I am home. I am a diehard, tho. Soon as the painkillers kick in..I am persevering!! Will follow up with reports on where I am with the quilt and with the really disgusting looking, painful finger

Starting a new mystery quilt tomorrow

Tomorrow morning I am starting a new mystery quilt. For a $10 donation to Mysteries for Relay (the money goes to fight cancer) I get to participate in 2 mysteries designed by Marge Gordon. From what I understand, her mysteries are always wonderful! Why not join me for a fun mystery quilt AND to help fight cancer??!! If you are interested, click on the button on the left and make your donation. They mysteries are only $5 each, but since you have to make a minimum donation of
$10 on the site, Marge will allow you to participate in 2 mysteries!!

Wow! 2 new quilt patterns and a give away!

Check out Green Fairy Quilts to see the great 2 new quilt patterns! There is also a Fabulous give away on there. Winner is picked on Thursday night, so be quick!

Tackling something new and scared to death!

Alright..in just a few minutes, I am going to tackle my first attempt at free motion quilting and I am scared to death! I've been practicing away on a scrap sammich, but the thought of starting on a real quilt is nerve wracking!! I'm sure it'll be fine..sheesh..even if I do it horribly, what's the worst that can happen? I'm going to be doing it to Hannah's Loopy Over You top and I know she won't know the difference (or care)if it's not how it is supposed to be. I can remember feeling like this when I did Tom's sampler quilt in March..that was the first time I machine quilted at all! Alright...enough procrastinating. Say a prayer for me...and the quilt! lol

Turning over a New Leaf

Have you ever looked at yourself and wondered how it got so out of control? It seems like almost every area of my life I have let backslide. The house is a mess and unorganized, checkbook isn't balanced, lots of UFO's, etc. I have let friendships falter, I'm yelling at my kids too often, spending too little time with the hub and worse of all, I have't stayed very close to God. How does all this happen? When does it all sneak in and why does it take so long to notice??
I don't even know if the answers to those questions matter to me right now. What IS important is that I regain control. I am a chronic list maker, and boy, is my list going to be a long one! First is to get right with God. Nothing else in my life will go right if I don't have that put to rights. Besides, without His blessing and help, there is no way I can tackle the rest!
I am going to start going from room to room, top to bottom and scrub everything, get rid of lots and keep it up until this big old house is DONE!
A big part of our lives here is trying to live more simply and with less. I want to be known as "the cheapskates"..those that do everything possible as frugally and as "green" as possible.
So, now this blog is going to chronicle these efforts as well as my quilting. I will post frugal tips that we are using, progress reports on the cleaning and organizing,etc. I hope you don't mind! Also, I would love to hear any comments or tips that you use!!
I did get the Loopy over You quilt pinned today (Patrick is sick so I had to leave work and bring him home from school...poor poop)so will have finished pics to post soon as well as the directions. Sorry for the long post, but I felt posting all this would help me to be accountable to myself to get these issues under control.
Happy stitching!

Today's accomplishment: pinned Loopy over You quilt top

Frugal tip: Stay home! No temptations to spend at all if I am home! It also has me spending time where I should be spending it then...at home with my family!

Border #2 and done!

Woohooo! Yup..I am much happier with the plain borders. I am a sucker for a dark narrow border and then a second border. Never noticed that until now. I guess I like how the darker inner border frames the center. Anywho..here is the pic. Obviously I didn't get it written down yet, but I PROMISE to have that on here this week!If you click on the pic, you can get a little closer view of it.


Hannah is the happy recipient of this quilt..soon as I get it quilted that is! She picked out the blue fabric ages ago for me to use in her quilt. She really, really loves it!

Border #1

Well, I spent the past couple of hours designing a border that would finish the loops on the edges. Got 2 sides of it on and HATED it. It was just too much. The center is busy enough so I am ripping those borders off and going back to plain borders. If I had enough of the lighter control color, I might make one more row on the side to complete the dark rings, but I don't, so I am just going to leave it as it is. Sigh..back to the ripping out.

Hard headed

Thank goodness I am so hardheaded! I took a nasty spill yesterday (yes, I am THE klutz of all time) and rolled my ankle and hit the back of my head on the corner of my cement wall. OUCH! Today I have a nice goose egg, a slight headache left and a little nausea. Sigh..could have been so much worse. So, yesterday I just rested, but today I spent the morning deep cleaning the kitchen..walls, ceilings, floors, cabinets, etc. Just did it very slowly. You know how it is..moms are not allowed to get sick or hurt! The youngest two kids were with me when I got hurt and they were so scared and worried about me, so I am going on as if nothing happened so they don't panic anymore.
Anywho, just half an hour more, then it is up to the sewing room..FINALLY! The whole world can be going to hell in a handbasket (or my head can FEEL like it is) but if I can play with my fabric, life is good!! So, hopefully I will have the finished "Loopy over you" quilt top pics up in awhile and then I will start on writing up the pattern for those that were interested. I have to say that that surprises me. I like the stuff I make and/or create, but never in my wildest dreams did I think anyone ELSE would be interested in them. I hope some of you do make this quilt. It was so easy and even as I was making it, I was thinking of a million other versions of it that I would like to do! I would love to see your versions of it.

Another step closer!

Last night I finished sewing the "Loopy over you" quilt blocks together! Now, I really, REALLY like how this is turning it out. I am already envisioning this done in soooooo many different ways and colors. Tomorrow night will be deciding on how I want to do the borders. So many ideas in my head, it is scary! Here is the newest pic..and yes, I still plan on having the directions, pictures and fabric amounts posted here this weekend. At least it will be if I get it finished!!

I took this pic late at night, so the colors aren't great in it, but good enough for now, I guess!! Happy stitching and God's blessings!!

Aww..the end of summer

Well, tomorrow is back to school for the kids. I can't believe Hannah is in 10th grade, Joe is in 11th and Patrick is a senior this year!! Where did the time go? I just hate this growing up nonsense. We spent this afternoon clothes shopping and then ice cream for a treat. Pumpkin ice cream is now in season..woohoooo!
Going to work on getting the blocks together tonight for the Loopy top. It really needs a new name. Any suggestions?
On a side note, I had a pepper smile at me today. Wish I had taken a pic of it. Cut it open and inside was a big old smiley face staring back at me! I even made Hannah and Joe come look at it. Gotta love vegies with a good attitude!!

Labor Day

Well, I spent the day just puttering around the house with the family and working on a new quilt top. I went ahead and made 30 blocks my scrap loopy top and this is how they look laid out:

Here's another shot of them laid out a little bit differently:


What do you think? Honest answers preferred!!

Opinions please!

Well, I haven't gotten much sewing done so far. I have been rewatching the entire Gilmore Girls series with Hannah at night lately. Today my inlaws came over and spent the day and we had a nice relaxing day just sitting, chatting, playing badminton and of course...LOTS of eating! When everyone left, I finally got up into the sewing room. I started a new quilt top that I am not even sure what the name is. I saw it once and I am trying my best to make it like I remember it. Course, I am usually lucky if I can remember what my own name is. I love how the pattern is turning out, but I am not sure if I like one of the fabrics. I am making this mostly scrappy...the neutral backgrounds, the light rings and the dark rings are all scrap fabric. I wanted to have some constant in this, so I am using a darker blue and a pattern that has a lighter background but the same blue in the pattern ( I know it is hard to see that pattern in the pic). I thought if I made those areas scrappy, I would lose the rings. I like the darker blue, but I am not sure about the other one. What do you think? I really want to keep working on this, but don't want to make any more blocks until I decide. Oh..and can you see the pattern of the interlocking rings? The pattern that I am trying to recall was done in only 5 fabrics, so I am not sure scrapping this up is going to work. Any opinions welcomed!!