digging around in my sewing room

Last night I worked on my blocks for next months guild meeting. Hearts of course, for Valentines day. This is the hearts in progress.........

yes I do sometimes drink and quilt. :-)

Explains a lot doesn't it?

Here are my hearts today. See the drink changed.

Then my quilting ADD kicked in and I started rummaging around in my sewing room.

Look, I found a box of apple fabrics. I remember starting to think about planning to do an apple quilt several years ago.

See the cute little Minnie Mouse picking apples? that was from an overall set that Miss V wore........... at age 2. She is 15 now. I think I should get something done with this huh?

I also came across my very first attempt at block of the month.

I thought it was a fabulous idea at the time, these big flower blocks are 12 inches, so at the end of the year, or so I thought, I'd have a quilt all done with hardly any effort. All I needed to do was whip one out each month as they came out online.....

I was diligent. I was focused.

For three months......

I even found the extra green and blue fabrics I had used for the first ones, I really thought I'd get caught up at some point during the year.

So I even printed out all the directions..........

And put them in page protectors, and if you click on the picture you might be able to see the date.............

1999.

The saddest part is I did this with the previous year, and the next 3 years of patterns. All in binders, but not ONE lousy block to show for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's almost spring in Wisconsin! You can see the deer moving around!

No, I didn't take this picture, but I couldn't resist showing it off anyway!

Things that begin with the letter T

My buddy Gizmo gave me the letter T for my list. So, here goes

My favorite holiday. Thanksgiving. Here is our table from this past year.





Tom Selleck..............


he starts with T.






ahhhhhh Magnum...........





And here I am with my very own version of Tom. Perhaps you can't see it as well as I can? Well, a few years ago the resemblance was more marked. My favorite cousin always thought my Jim looked like Tom. It became a bit of a joke. I'd get letters addressed to Tom's wife.




Triple Irish Chain! An all time favorite!











Trip around the world. One of the first quilts I made. Not actually the one in the picture, in case you thought I was published or something.


The first one I did is not so vibrant anymore since I made it for our second God daughter.






Tiger Lily!

And Trees.

I love trees. Trees with leaves, trees with needles and pine cones. Bare tree branches against the sky.

All the colors..............

Multiple updates

I gotta admit, it's been pretty freaking cold here in Wisconsin this weekend.


Anyone who has spent some time in the northern areas will understand the term "snot freezing cold." That's what we had.

Fortunately I am pretty good at entertaining myself indoors.

I did walk on the treadmill- I discovered that it is possible to eat cookies while doing this. I'm pretty sure that statement is going to get me kicked out of General Geranium's diet challenge...........

I also had a request from a coworker.

See the photo at left, she got a new bedroom ensemble and decided that pillow shams are not worth the effort. She had seen some of my table runners however, and thought that a runner for her dresser would be a good idea. It is a good idea, but that shiny fabric is a royal pain in the patootie. I had to keep stopping to put on lotion, then wait for it to dry so I didn't snag that fabric on my dry hands.

Then I organized my scrappy strips..............

I tried to get them in color families. I'm trying to decide if I want to just sew them together higgeldy piggledy, or if I want to do strip blocks.

I had about 81 bajillion other pieces that I sorted into bags to bring to my next local guild meeting for the sharing table. Hopefully someone will decide they are a useful addition to her stash. Anyway, then the guilt will be gone from my overstuffed scrap drawer.

Then I made a set of grocery bags for a late Christmas present.

For once it's not that I was that far behind. I had made this couple a nice Christmas bread, but they are from out of town and we weren't home when they stopped by so I finally decided that mailing the bread wasn't as good of an idea as making some bags. I hope they agree!

I had ordered some Lavender from an etsy shop and luckily that came this weekend. I made a few sachets from some of my scraps before I purged them all.

then I made some kitty toys with some catnip I had laying around.

It was sooooooooooooooo funny to see Zeller getting so excited and lively! He is such a laid back sort of guy. You could read that as lazy I suppose

He really loved this thing

We tried to get him to share with Cassie, but he's bigger and he decided that sharing was not in his vocabulary.

I finally had to confiscate it and put it up on a high shelf. It needs to dry out a bit too!

It pays to Wine!

Remember the wine bag?

Well today at work I exchanged it for...........

These!!!

A nice girl I work with on occasion at the hospital makes her own wine. Check out her label and you'll see what she is like! Her favorite Disney character is Tinkerbell- well I forgive her for that one. But she has the attitude for it and her labels show it!

I can't wait to try one of these tonight when I get home from choir and handbell practices. See that cat on the shelf? That's is the best behaved cat I have. Don't even get me started on the two "Highness's" that live with us, I don't want to remember what they did on the poor dogs bed yesterday. Suffice it to say that I found out putting a dog bed in the washing machine has a low rate of success. The dog is not totally on my happy list either for that matter. She came running joyfully down the driveway to meet me last night dragging her AIRPLANE CABLE lead. She broke the AIRPLANE CABLE! So far she has gone through 3 "indestructible" dog leads. I have my eye on some nice tractor chains in the barn, but Jim might get a bit miffed if I pull them off the tractor tires this early in the season..............

This and That

Well I did it, I bit the bullet and cut my square in square blocks and sewed them back together, and they sure are scrappy! But I like it! Now I have to figure out what to do for sashing so they don't fight with each other. I need a solid or a tone on tone and I don't really have anything in my stash, which is a bummer since I didn't want to have to go buy something new. I'll have to think about that for a bit. And that is exactly why I have so many UFO's. That "set aside to think about" problem..


Here in Northeast Wisconsin the pack ice is coming in. There are huge chunks and ice bergs of it all along the shoreline. I love watching it.
Which brings me to my next thought that flitted through my head.
Do any of you who are not in the snowbelt realize how much money snow costs? Other places the precipitation comes down and runs off into rivers or lakes or the sewer system. Here in the northern areas it comes down and we have to move it around. Isn't that the funniest thing if you think about it? And it costs to move it out of the way! Just our church has already spent nearly $20,000 to clear the parking lots and sidewalks! And the snow season is far from over! I heard that Milwaukee has already spent upwards of 4 million! Good thing the snow also brings in tourist dollars huh? So, that is our expenses here, what do you southern people have to spend your tax money on?
I have also been trying to do a few bags every week to keep up with my stash of bag fabrics.
This is the first in a series of wine tote bags. For the next ones I plan to make wine bottle bags to go inside so we could go to our favorite winery and buy a few bottles and not have them clink into each other.




And here is a Valentine tote..........

And another..............

And that's it for this and that tonight.

Diet update Monday

See this, this is me.
Stop laughing!
Really, it's me! Flori! Kim!! Cow guy!! it really IS me.
okay no it's not.



but, see these? I was surrounded by cookies on Sunday. I worked the Family Sunday at the Energy Center where there were literally hundreds of cookies for refreshments.
I did not eat any of them!
I walked almost 5 times this week.
I ate breakfast every day.
I did not drink enough water. You know, it's hard to drink enough water when it's really cold outside. Does gallons of coffee count? It's made with water............. yup, I'm sure that counts.
enough diet update!!!!

Saturday!! Yippeee!

Well, here is was/is Saturday, snowing again, and I'm home alone. What could be better??
I know, any normal quilter would have cut tons of blocks, or sewed up several UFO's, or slept in? Or I could have cleaned the house.
Nah, no one around to complain, so I watched movies all morning!




Chevy Chase in the National Lampoon Vacation movies! I know, what does that say about my taste? It says I love the insanity of it all and I laughed in all the right parts! Weren't the 80's a great?



I also baked bread! well, I measured stuff into the machine and viola! 58 minutes later I had fresh bread and the house smelled good.
And please do not tell the red geranium drill Sargent, but I ate a big piece too. It went great after all that popcorn I had while the movies were playing.............. fiber. yeah yeah, fiber!

Then I did do some sewing. I had this pile of mug mats ready to stitch...........

Which I turned into this pile of mug mats to be trimmed and turned. I love the confetti effect of the corner snips. I think I should have saved it for next New Years because the "confetti canons" Jim brought home were pretty wimpy, even though we are still finding pieces of it all over the house.

And here are the finished products ready to give out to people at my work sites.

I think I'm ready to tackle the scrap blocks now............

No School

No, not another snow day, this time it's time off for cold weather. Seriously. I'm sure some of you southern people can't believe it, but our wind chills today are ranging from -35 in the east part of the state, to -47 near the Minnesota border. So, by school policy -- school is closed!
unfortunately most businesses are not. oh well, another pay day right? It's hard to get a picture to demonstrate cold, I typed in cold temps online and a thermometer picture of -3 showed up. Hah! That's just chilly in our neck of the woods! I couldn't find one that read -15 so I pulled these wussy pictures just so you would have something to look at. I suppose I could have taken a picture of myself in my long johns, pants, shirt, sweater, 2 pair of socks, boots, parka, scarf, cap, gloves............. but I figured I wouldn't fit in the frame with all I'm wearing. You'll just have to imagine what a lovely fashion show it is! Lest you think I'm overreacting, I grew up with this in northern Wisconsin, and bare skin can frost bite in less than 10 minutes with this windchill.
So, who wants to come visit me??? I'll make coffee and hot chocolate and we can sew indoors where it's MUCH nicer!!1

nothin much

yeah, nothin much new. We got more snow. Big surprise huh?
Tonight I pulled Jim and Sarah - his tractor out of the driveway ditch. The first couple of times it wasn't too friendly out there, what with the cold, the wind, the snow, the darkness and the blinding tractor lights......... But actually we are getting kind of good at it. I'm not sure how much of a good thing that really is though. Instead of Jim trying to yell directions above the wind and tractor and truck engines, we- and by we I mean he- decide which way I am going to pull and then he turns off Sarah's lights when he wants me to stop. Much better than yelling, believe me! Before you ask, his tractor is a Ferguson................ Get it? SARAH FERGUSON? Just a little country humor.

I haven't been doing much big stuff in the sewing room, but I did manage to get these two totebags together. The strawberry one is for Miss V to give to a friend. And the Sudoku is for my favorite aunt.
other than that it's back to thawig out frozen toes and wishing for a fireplace.................

diet challenge update

The Red Geranium, aka "Drill Sargent Red Geranium Sir" says we have to do a Monday blog on our diet challenge. Here's my version of abefore picture.

Okay, My goals for this year revolve around adding healthy habits more than dieting, though I'm currently cutting back on sweets and chips.

But, my big goals are to eat breakfast everyday, and walk at least 5 times a week. On the breakfast front: I only missed ONE day all week. I've been eating oatmeal every morning. It's easier than I thought, I just stick a hand full of quick oats in a bowl or mug, add water and microwave for 60 seconds, then I add dried fruit and cinnamon (and sometimes some brown sugar) and teeny bit of milk if it's too solid. I really don't care for milk. So I just put a bit in to make it squishier. Easier than I thought it would be.

My next goal for this year is to exercise regularly. This was easy in the summer when I would just take the dog for her walk every day, but now with the yard and roads covered in ice and snow it's not so good. I have been using the evil treadmill however, and I did reach my goal of walking 5 times this week!

Oh and I did skip the sweets. Not because I'm so great, but because Jim hid the truffles for me, and he took care of them. sigh.

I mean, YAAY!