Priorities

How do you like my handsome prince with his magic wand? (I'm sorry Mike, this is just too cute not to share.) He goes around the house blessing things. That's the only thing I can think he is doing cuz he isn't getting the cobwebs that are on the ceiling! And he isn't making everything nice and shiny clean and there are no piles of money or folded laundry anywhere to be found!

We made it home from Arizona. It was a challenging trip. I had issues with "people". We are walking through the Las Vegas airport. Crystal is pushing Elliot in the stroller, I am packing his car seat, we are walking side by side. We are on our way to the other side of the world for our connecting Southwest flight--that's another rant for another time maybe. I am not a small woman, I am packing a car seat. "People" can't see me! I am dodging "people" and finally decided I am not going to do that any more. I don't know how many "people" rammed into the car seat. Not one of them said excuse me or I'm sorry or I'm an idiot and I'm not paying attention to what's going on around me. It was kind of fun when they almost fell over and it made us laugh! Oh how I love "people".

This is my friend's BOB quilt. We named it BOB so we could remember which order the borders were to be put on. Black, Orange, Black. Well, I can only quilt up to 104 inches wided and BOB is 102"! BOB is a BIG boy! so he didn't get borders so he get black binding instead. He got the last of the quilting on him yesterday afternoon and BOB is now super dooper beautiful. Today he will get his binding.

I have been getting a little bit done. But mostly I have been visiting with my daughter, loving on my grandson and going on a little shopping trip or two. Yesterday we picked up Miss Taylor so Elliot would have someone new to chase around and this is her last long visit before school starts next week. My grandkids are growing too fast! We made a dash into Joann's and then out to lunch.

I'm out of here, I'm going to cut some binding and maybe get it stitched together and pressed before the household wakes up.

It's going to be super quiet here next week. Maybe I'll get a car seat and go to the airport!

Greetings (for the final time) From Arizona

I am happy to report that I made it to Marana. I am also happy to report that Crystal and Elliot will be coming home with me on Monday and Ernie will come down on the 31st to help move their stuff north.

Oh Baby, It's HOT, HOT, HOT! Yip, this is the desert. Right now, at 9:45 pm, it's 91 degrees outside. No Thank You Very Much! I like our cool nights.

It rained for a few minutes yesterday, put on a powerful thunder and lightening display. When it was finished, everything dried out and it got hot again. Sorry folks, this isn't like the Pacific Northwest and you can have your hot summers. I will miss the nice winter though. I guess if we wanted to, we could winter down here but I kind of doubt that we will.

Today Crystal, Elliot and I went to the nicest quilt shop. It's called Cactus Quilt Shop. We walked in and holy wow! Quilts everywhere, dolls everywhere, wall hangings, mini quilts. Fabric!!! Crystal wishes she had discovered this treasure a lot sooner. So do I! I left some money there today to make up for the times I didn't. Now I have a few more projects to add to the list. (The list is getting long!)

We came home, ate some lunch and then packed up a few boxes of treasured possessions. It really reinforced my plan never to move.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching Crystal pack up her fabric stash. I had my eyes wide open just in case she found a piece she didn't need or want. Brat Child, didn't want to part with anything! Guess I'll have to help her set up her new sewing space to see if she still loves everything.

I spent a little time this evening working on my redwork embroidery project. I haven't done any embroidery for a long time. I forgot how much I enjoy it. This is my first redwork project. And I am loving it.

Hopefully my little update will keep people (Mike) off my back. I am going to go read for a while, then sleep for a while. I think we have big plans for tomorrow.

Playtime

I've spent this morning playing on the computer instead of getting my other stuff done. I've been noticing all of the "signatures" on the blogs and of course, I want one too.

So I have my very own, not so original, signature that was created at My Live Signature . It's free and it's fun. What could be better than that??

I spent yesterday in front of my sewing machine working on some blocks for a swap. I love the look of black background but it sure is hard on my eyes. I have my little lamp set up by my machine and the extra light bounced off the white bed and drove me crazy. So I got out my featherweight which is black and couldn't buy a good quarter inch seam! I spent a good share of time ripping out what I had done and that puts me in a mood!

So I got myself some lunch, watched some mindless TV, went for a walk to the dumpster and the mailbox (2 more free samples!!!), chatted on the phone with Taylor and then went back to the Viking in a better mood. (I'm going to work with the featherweight today and get that 1/4" seam allowance marked!) I have all my blocks done until I get some more of the dreaded black fabric. I made a couple cutting errors (stupid lines on the ruler moved on me!) so I am about 5" lacking to complete my project.

Now I am off her to have myself a good day. You do the same!

Fun With Farbic

I am having so much fun being able to go to Quilt Party with Sonya on the first Thursday of the month. After Thursday's presentation on thread and needles, I left there totally inspired to play with my machine and my threads. But that will have to wait for a few days. I have more important work to do. The Miss needs new clothes for school and Gramma's in the mood to make some.

I left picked up Taylor and we headed for Joann's to get fabric for some school clothes. How much fun it is to shop with someone who loves everything. She loves fabric, "string" and zippers.

This is her cute dress made with a flower print batik and a crinkly hand dyed (well it looks hand dyed). She loves it. We have fabric for another dress and a shirt.

Then we spotted the denim on sale for 50% off. How could we go wrong there. We got some awesome shiny denim and then found some with pink stars embroidered all over them for short pants. Then we picked up a couple pieces for jeans. She is such a skinny minnie that it's hard to find jeans that fit her in the hips and waist and are long enough for her legs.

We had fun taking pictures. We tried to take some like Aunt Jen would but Gramma needs a better camera and lots more practice. Our outside pictures were the work of a soon to be super model.

Then I got started on my huge overflowing scrap basket. You know the one that you "are going to get to as soon as you have a few minutes". Then you cram more and more into it. I have run out of cram room! I needed a plan so I went to my 2 favorite people for inspiration and boy howdy did I find it. I can't do a complete redo like Patty did but I can get my stuff organized.

I read Patty's blog and Bonnie's Scrap Users System and couldn't wait to get started. I have a garbage can of itty bitty pieces, a big bin full of strings and my rubbermaid containers are all nice and neat on their shelf full of their fresh cut pieces. Oh, I still have a half a basket to cut up but it isn't cram packed like it was and I should be done with it Sunday or Monday. Heck maybe even tonight. Who knows!

Another Finish

I went to bed last night thinking of quilting. I know not to do that. The night is extremely short when I do. I heard Hubby leaving at 4:45 this morning and I was wide awake soon after. I finished quilting this Quiltville Chunky Churndash yesterday. I trimmed it and it was laying on the quilting frame waiting for the binding to be put on.

If you recall from my May post, this is my quilt from our fall retreat Ugly Fabric Challenge. I've had the top finished and the binding ready for a few weeks and just needed to decide on a backing. Since I have been on a quilting frenzy, I just went to the stash, picked a piece of fabric, made a back, picked my pantograph, Rhapsody by Jodi Beamish, found a perfect verigated thread got it done.

When I went to Quiltville to grab the Churndash link, I looked at the picture of Bonnie's quilt and she had done Rhapsody on hers! I couldn't believe it. I love Jodi Beamish pantographs and when I am looking for a new one, I look at hers first. I just ordered a new one and am not so anxiously waiting for it to arrive. (But I have to wait to use it because the thread that is in that order is for my next project.)




The binding is stitched down by machine. When I did the Wicked Easy baby quilts, I found the perfect stitch to use for bindings. There is no one that recieves my quilts that cares whether the binding is finished by hand or by machine. And if they do care, they don't get to keep the quilt! So there! I am all about getting my pile of tops made into quilts and this is the fastest way for me to move on to the next top.

The mail will be here in a few hours, hopefully my package with the thread will be there. I am now going to get the backing loaded on for Sonya's BOB quilt. Then I will work on something else until the mail comes. What if my package isn't there.......not to worry. I have other things to work on.

Time to get started on something else. Maybe I'll put some clothes in the washer before I forget that I have a few domestic things to do today!