Busy, busy weekend!

Unfortunately, it involved little sewing. I did get the center of the 100 Blocks magazine quilt done and I did hem Joe's pants. Does that count? With any luck I will get upstairs tonight to do some more sewing, but at this rate, I wouldn't count on it. This was a cleaning weekend. There is not a part of my house that doesn't sparkle and shine! All the laundry is done, and I even did the grocery shopping. Remember..I shop once a month, so there is a lot of planning involved in it. It really does save me tons of money to do it this way. The fewer amount of times you enter the store, the less you will spend! It cost me a tiny bit over $300 for groceries for this month. Not bad considering there are 6 adults here! That includes all food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc. EVERYTHING. I got my coupons in order this morning and made a stop at CVS. This is what I got:

That is $105.96 worth of stuff. I paid $13.57 for a savings of $92.39. Yay! I also got some canning done. I did 8 pints of pinto beans and 8 pints of Great White Northern beans done:

Last night we had Taco Bell Mexican Pizzas for dinner...made at home, of course:

Dinner tonight is southwest soup and home made whole wheat bread...pics to follow when they are done being made!! So, this has been a great weekend. I still have to do the cooking for the month, but I think that will wait until Tuesday since I have to can the leftover soup tonight. After that, hopefully sewing!! Hope you all had a great, productive weekend!!

Quilt League progress

Yay! Tonight is Wednesday quilt league and just when I needed it, inspiration struck! I wanted to finish up my Snowballs in Spring swap block quilt top, but wasn't sure what to do with the borders. Well, I decided to go along the lines of one of my favorite quilt designers, Edyta Sitar, and do some applique. Here is what I have come up with so far:

I think I am going to stop adding things here. I kind of like it the way it is. Everything is ironed on, but not stitched down yet...that comes next. The butterflies are from my blog friend, Cheryl. She sent me a baggie of butterfly parts ages ago and I just knew I had to incorporate some of them on this. I did have to cut them down a bit to suit this size top, but I love them! Thanks, Cheryl!!! Once I get these stitched on, I will decide if I am going to add anymore or not. Now, off to decide if I keep working on this, or be good and work on a few more test blocks. Decisions, decisions!!

Talk about GORGEOUS!

Last night I acquired a beauty of a sewing machine. It is a Singer Treadle..not sure if it is a model 12 or 13 yet, and according to the serial number, she was made in 1882! Can you imagine??? After I clean her up and get a new belt on her, I will be sewing on a machine that is over 130 years old! I love my Janome 6600, but I can't imagine that in 130 years, she will still be working. I love EVERYTHING about these old machines. If they could only talk, the stories I bet they could share! How many women bent over these machines, sewing clothes for their families, quilts to keep them warm, etc. This one I got off of craigslist. She was asking $100 or best offer, and when I saw this beauty, I knew she was worth every penny. I offered her $90 and she took it. So, for $90, here is Pearl.....so named for all the mother of pearl in lay she has on her:

As much as I love the new technology, you have to admit, no NEW machine has the charm and looks like these old girls do. Today is quilt league and I am still working on a quilt I can't share :/ Hopefully Pearl was enough eye candy for you today and I hope I have something I CAN share with you soon!!!

A little more on my plate

Well, I just couldn't resist! Marge at Mysteries for Relay has a new mystery today! I LOVE her mysteries and am so excited to start this one with her! You can click on the link over on my sidebar for more information on how to join us. It's not too late!! Here are my fabrics all cut out and raring to go:

Hoping to start on the first sewing step soon. However, I am using my "half and half" method of working today..do a little sewing, then a little cleaning. Seems to be pretty effective for me for getting what I NEED to get done and what I WANT to get done actually done! lol I also am working on the blocks for a "can't show you" quilt made out of the test blocks for 100 Blocks magazine. I HATE sneakret projects! I could really use your advice on this and I so hate not being able to share. Oh well, just means I need to get moving on some other things I CAN share with you!! Back to work....catch up with you later!

Sewing with Shellie

We got sewing around 11:30 this morning. Shellie brought the TimBits, of course! I need to get a pic of the goodie basket she brought me...filled with fabric, magazines, a fabric zip up bag she made me for toting my sewing notions around, some sewing notions and the best ever...Circus Peanuts for me to munch on! We got right to work today (the fact that the quilt shops were closed helped us a LOT! lol) First I worked on a test block for 100 blocks magazine. Swear it took me forever to get that done. Then I started trying to figure out what to do with the Snowballs in Spring swap blocks. Just when I started getting moving on that, I got an unexpected visit from my daughter and a friend of hers. While chaos reigned for a while during the visit, we got no sewing done, but it was fun to see the kids. Then we got back to sewing and made great progress. By the time we finished up at 5:30, this is what we got done. Shellie got her wall hanging almost completely appliqued and ready to quilt:

I got the swap blocks all put together and just have to decide on borders now:

Not a bad day of work..made even better by all the chatting! Can't wait until we can do it again. In the meantime, I am hoping to have my Wednesday night quilt league this week and will hopefully get this little quilt all finished up.

Scattered me

Yup..that's me..scattered today as usual. Can't seem to focus on any one thing, so working on a little bit of everything today. I got some errands done, pieced together the backing for Geese Crossing and pulled fabrics for another top I want to work on. I will use it as a leaders and enders so really doesn't count as starting something new! (Or so I tell myself! lol) I decided to pull box #3 and see what project that had in it for me to work on. Here it is:

I love this box the best because hub bought me these chocolates just for the tin so I could reuse it! lol Love that man!! Here is the surprise project:

37 6 inch blocks from the Snowballs in Spring swap last year with the Cobbled Court Quilt Circle! Love these blocks, but have no idea how I want to set them yet. Think I will go get a loaf of bread going while I think about it. More updates later!

First finish of 2012

Finally got to quilting the baby quilt this morning and it went by quickly. I just echo quilted around the balloons. What was so weird was being able to bring it outside and lay it on the grass to take a pic of it in January!! I really found out how important my quilt league night is to me and getting things done. This past month, I didn't stick with it and got near to nothing done. So, starting this week, the Wednesday night quilt league is back in effect! One whole evening of nothing but sewing. Yay! I have lots and lots on the back burner that I hope to finally get caught up on. Today is a cleaning/sewing day. Not sure how much else I will get done, but I will take anything! Tomorrow Shellie is coming over for a sew in so hopefully will get tons done since the quilt shops will be closed and we can't buy any more! lol I am keeping track of how much I spend on quilting to the penny this year. I know some people worry about how much stash they have, but that is not a concern to me..the cost is. So, we will see how I do. I have been asked to teach a class on my Geese Crossing quilt (YIKES!! Me...TEACH??), so instead of grabbing the next box, I will have to get this quilted so it can hang in the shop first. Then I have to figure out fabric amounts, how to teach...I don't think I can do this! Here is a reminder pic of Geese Crossing:

Okay..off to work I go!