Snowed ........

Last night it snowed here ... brrrrrr and grrrrrrr ... was cold and slippery early this morning. Thank goodness Jim is still on vacation so I didn't have to walk to work ... LOL Took some pictures while at work. Crud, the one of the store with lights on didn't come out so well but you can get a glimpse of what it looks like.

While still with camera took a few pictures of the inside of the little store. This one is looking out from behind the register.

To the right of the register ...

And now standing away from the counter looking in from the doorway ...

Later in the morning thought of taking a few as I stand at the door looking out down the street ...

Then I thought to take a picture of the houses close to the store and just as I was doing that a car pulled in the driveway blocking my view ... lol Never did get a chance again to snap any more pictures so all of these will have to do. Bring back old memories Karlene and Linda? hugs, love you both and miss you at the store!

Tonight ...

Almost 10pm ... finished with a table runner that I've been working on for my friend Eddie ... and NO thanks to the damn sewing machine. Every 10 minutes the monitor on it went partially blank and it stopped sewing!!! And here I thought for a fleeting moment that the blasted contraption and I could bond. Yeah, right, sure. I want a PFAFF!!!! Bah hum bug on this Bernina.

Any how after shutting off and turning back on, got the table runner done. Friend will get it either tomorrow or Tuesday. She's been asking my why I haven't finished with the mystery. Couldn't tell her I stopped that to make her something ... lol Guess I'll get back to the mystery now. IF the good for nothing machine co-operates. Call to dealer seems to be on my agenda rather I want it to or not.

Up late ...

Been sewing and surfing and emailing. Did sew a Carol Doak ornament pattern. That was fun. Wish I had more time to do more of them. Perhaps next year. Surfed around looking for something but never found it. Guess I could have done another ornament for the time it took me to surf ... haha Emailed two different companies. One owes me for returning an order that was not meant for me in the first place. I had to pay $9.28 to ship it to them! The other one owes me a magazine or either give me back the 2 yr. subscription I paid for. Paid $29.97 for the subscription and I have yet to see any magazine in the mail box. I ain't made of money. I will sandblast their name/names on here if I don't hear anything from them. I have been patient. Am talking about since Oct. that they've owed me!

Picture of the Carol Doak ornament/gift tag. Turned mine into a gift tag.

December already!

2nd day of vacation and where in the world did November go, for that matter where did all the months of 2008? Man, I must be getting old and time slipping by. Still working on the mystery block.

Have been searching on the net. Table I have been wanting for a L O N G time is getting closer, I think ... lol Called them today but no one was in. Will try again tomorrow. It's the SewEZi ! I've read nothing but great reviews on this table. So am thinking that all those people can't be wrong. Don't have a clue as to what I will do with the sewing table I have. Not enough room in here to have both and not enough room in rest of home to put it. It's been a good table all these years, just my wants have changed and I no longer want the sewing machine to sit on top of table. Perhaps will put a sign up at store and see if anyone cares for it.

That's about it for this writing. May be back later on today. Have left over turkey in crock pot cooking away to make a stew from it. Have the pups food cooking, also. Guess I better head back to the kitchen and see what else is needing to be done in there ... haha
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Back again ... nearly 9pm ... pups have been fed, dishes washed, some laundry done ... and most of all ... living room Christmas tree is up and decorated!!! Got a picture of it, bah hum bug, didn't get a nice one taken. Maybe too dark in there or something, or either it's hard to get a good picture of a WHITE tree ... lol lol lol Pretty in real life, though.

Unit B of mystery completed ...

Ta Da ... got the B units done today! Now to sew them together. That should take ... ummm ...
forever ... lol lol

Unit A of mystery completed

Just now finished up unit A of the mystery. Yipee Skippy. Moving right along, slowly, but surely. Maybe tomorrow after work I can finish with unit B? Big question mark. After I get home tomorrow I will be off for 10 whole days!!!! Don't have anything planned, except playing bingo ... haha Do hope to get some sewing done and the Christmas tree up and stuff like that. And, oh yeah, mail off Christmas cards! Perhaps I can be early this year, for once, in doing that.

Here's a picture of what I finished up tonight.

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Kind of late in wishing a happy Thanksgiving but am wishing one to y'all. Hope yours was a fantastic one. Mine was Wednesday since I had to work Thanksgiving day. And man alive, I did work. Store was busy! Kept me on my toes. And the day was long, too. Was up at 5:30am and never got to bed until 12:30am. Glad it's over ...lol Now to get the OTHER big holiday out of the way ... whew Is it January yet? hahaha

Oh, that little mystery is on hold for the moment. Hoping to get back to it pretty soon.

Paper Panache mystery

While reading email Sunday after getting home from work, one of the online yahoo quilt groups I belong to someone posted that Paper Panache had a block mystery going. Went and took a peek. Lots of little pieces and units to the paper pieced project but I printed out all copies, scratched my head for some time figuring how C went together with A and B then set to work ... lol It will be my 1st mystery with them. Now if my color choices stink to high heaven Unit C is all you will see of this myster block. Unit A and B has more pieces to them so they aren't finished yet. It is now nearly 1am Tuesday morning and I better get off here and head to bed. Jimbo will be up bright and early tomorrow morning wanting to play bingo! Anyhow, here's a picture of Unit C.

Another check book cover and ...

Couldn't post this picture earlier in case my sister visited the blog. Didn't want her seeing what she was getting in the mail that she didn't know about ... lol Well, it got delivered to her today so now can post the picture. She called to let me know she got a surprise today. Know the post office said she would get it either today or tomorrow. Glad she got it today, though. She seemed to be thrilled with it. It would have gotten to her a lot sooner but when I finished it and put it in envelope Jimbo came down sick so couldn't ask him to mail it for me. Had to wait until he felt better. Better late than never ... haha

After finishing that and still in sewing mode I went to work on a table runner for my friend Eddie. It's a "quilt as you go" pattern from G. E. Designs called Madison Square. Since Halloween is just around the bend did it with Halloween fabric. Finished putting the binding on last night and took it to work with me today. At an appropriate morning hour called her from work and asked if she was coming to the store ... lol Am sure that peaked her interest. The front ain't all that bad but man, I managed to get a dang pucker on the back side. Didn't even notice the boo-boo until putting the binding on. Oh, well, back side is suppose to always be down and out of sight ... lmao!

Sewing some more

Well ... I finally did it! Bought a check book cover pattern at Joann's Monday after playing (and losing) at bingo. It said it was a one hour pattern. Yeah, right, sure. Perhaps if I made a 1,000 of them then I could get it down to close to the allotted time. Anyhow, I started on it. Quit when I came upon one of the steps. Had to write to a yahoo quilt group to ask about fusible web, duh is me. Tuesday started again on it, that is after playing bingo (I won! $75 bear ... hot doggies) and grocery shopping and all. With the acquired knowledge from the group I went in search of the Steam a Seam I just knew I had. That took about 1/2 hour to find! Grrrr It was getting late, but had all done except the binding. This morning, Wednesday, I got it done, done, done. Am I going to make another? Not sure at the moment ... lmao! Even though I was having so much trouble with the blasted little thing it was still fun to make it, I must admit.

Going Green ...

Recently started "going green". Bought some cloth bags from Wal-Mart and been using them. Now since buying those bags have paid attention to other stores having their own. I, for one, am not going to buy a bag from each and every store. Went to Safeway with Wal-mart bag ... lol Hey, there you get 3 cents off your purchase for using your own bags (a bag costs 99 cents, so 33 times going to Safeway will buy one bag ... haha). Not sure if I was frowned upon for using "another" stores bag but got to thinking about it. Had some orphan blocks scattered around here so got a few out and sewed them to front of the bags. Now no one will know what store they came from. TA DA ... problem solved. 1. Used up the orphan blocks. 2. Hid the identity of what store the bag was bought from.

Carol Doak has started a new BOM ...

And I am doing this one. Did one or two blocks from her last Block Of The Month and then gave up. This one I am hoping (fingers crossed) to do each month. Life, work (blah) and everything else seems to get in my way of sewing a lot of the time. Okay, yeah, I know, spend way too much time at the bingo hall or on the computer or ... or ... or

Some new stuff for home

Ordered a rug. Finally got it and think I like it. But now not sure if I like our couch. May have to do some looking around for a new couch ... lol One of these days will change the blasted blue carpet that's in the entire house. Don't like it at all. Blue isn't exactly my favorite color except for blue jeans ... haha

Found a rooster at Safeway the other day. Sure did remind me of when sister and I were growing up and how one of Daddy's roosters ran after her, she fell and the rooster pecked her to tears. So just had to buy the bird.

Yesterday went with my friend Eddie to pick her husband up after he docked his boat. While there visited the peacock pen and we gathered some feathers from around it. Small and medium ones. I proudly and gingerly were carrying them back to the van. Owner of the place saw them, said he had some large ones and went in his house and got some for me. This is what I did with them. Looks pretty nifty down the hallway.

Finished Carolina Crossroads

Finished with Bonnie's mystery. I sure can't take a good picture! Border appears black, but it's a dark blue with tiny stars scattered around on it. At least there's a picture of the finished top. Took me long enough. Sure don't have a clue how I am going to quilt this monster. Got to thank Bonnie for helping get some of the blues out of my stash!

teeny tiny messy sewing room

Figured while I was snapping a picture of the half sewn center of Bonnie's mystery quilt I would keep going and take a few pictures of my computer/sewing room combo. It's a mess but that is the normal state in this room of the house. Took the door off the closet and put the computer desk in there. Took door off going into the room to put stash cabinet in that little spot. Making do with this little room.

Half of center sewn

Little while ago finished sewing together half of the center ... woohoo This quilt is going to be bigger than what I thought ... lol Bonnie said 80x80 and guess I didn't comprehend what that meant. Still not sure how I'm ever going to quilt this! Would like to have a long armer do it but they will probably throw me out the door with all the bumps and lumps I have in it so far. Think next quilt I do am going to press open all the seams! Someone in the group said they are going to tie theirs. Never tied one before, but sure am thinking something similar to that, like tack it here and there with pretty buttons or ribbon ... or or or ... hahaha I will come up with something. This is NOT going to be a UFO. Went looking for some dark blue fabric. Think I have enough of it to make the inner border. Next time I go to store am going to buy the entire bolt (or whatever they have left on it) of that fabric! It's the blue fabric that you can see on the ironing board. And can you tell I am running out of space on my itty bitty "design" wall?

Another sewing off and on day today. Started step 7 and got some of the "round" blocks done, then just had to start putting some of the mystery together on my design wall to see how it will look. It'll pass ... lol Now to find someone who likes blue! And it doesn't look like I have even made a dent in my blue stash. Darn.

Bonnie said something about a mystery in April. Thinking this one will be a blue quilt, too. I just will never know how I obtained so much blue when it's not my favorite color to begin with. A lot of it is Jenny Beyer fat quarters so thinking that is where it all came from. Haven't figured out how to quilt this or what border will go with it. That will come in time, I suppose. I know I don't have anything in stash that will do the trick. More shopping ... yahooooo Oh, it appears my "round" blocks are outshining the stars in this quilt so am contemplating on calling the quilt: Going Round and Round on Carolina Crossroads.

Rotary mat and wolf fabric

Did pretty good at shopping today. Got a pretty fabric from Walmart that may go with some horse fabric that I got for Christmas. And then at Joann's got 1 yard of white and 1/2 yard of pink fabric. Trying to build up my stash in both of these colors. And then .... I got a rotating mat!!! Been wanting one for a very long time. Used 40% coupon since the blasted thing was $36.99 in the store. Mat should come in handy with paper piecing and also this companion angle ruler that I've been using with Bonnie's mystery. Sure wish I had had it about 2 weeks sooner.

Also got some of the prettiest wolf fabric I have seen in some time. Got the last that was left on the bolt. About 1 3/4 yards of it. Jimbo said he would stop at the Joann's in Everett on his way home Thursday night to see if that store had any of it. He liked the material, too.

Step 6 is finished ... yahooooooo

Finally, finally and finally ... lol ... I have completed step 6 of Bonnie's mystery. Got up mighty early and started sewing away. There is now 16 Ohio blocks finished, 16 half star blocks and 4 quarter star blocks done. Whew. Think I need to change my name to RIPPIT ... sure have done a lot of frog stitching today! But that's okay, too. Learning as I go along and that is always a good thing.

Now I think I will take a small break and then see how much of step 7 I can get done before bedtime ... hahaha Really have enjoyed today. Jimbo wasn't as happy I don't think because we usually go play bingo Mon. mornings, drink the free coffee and lose our alloted money. There is always tomorrow morning, though.

Step 5 completed

Got step 5 out of the way. Whew. For some reason these went slower than the 9 patches for me. This picture is off centered. Went to take another pic and the batteries in the camera died. They are now being recharged. The ruler that Bonnie said to make these hourglass blocks are in the middle of the 100 blocks here. Like this new ruler. Now onward and forward to step 6! Bonnie posted step 7 (the final step in this mystery) already but am trying NOT to look at it ... lol lol lol

Yeehaw ... step 4 is done

I did it! Got step 4 of the mystery done. Yes, I know, I'm behind since step 6 has already been posted ... lol Step 5 should be interesting, get to use a ruler I haven't used before! Bonnie suggested the Companion Angle so went to Joann's and got one.

Step 3 finally done

Finally managed to get step 3 of Bonnie's mystery finished. Now on to step 4 ... lol

Don't know if I'll ever be able to catch up to the rest of the folks working on this quilt.

Step 2 of the mystery. 100 9-patch blocks! Whew, they are small but got to say I enjoyed putting them together! Mostly been a paper piecer and doing a quilt the "normal" way isn't as bad as I thought.

Bonnie Hunter's mystery Carolina Crossroads

Step 1 of Bonnie's mystery quilt. Had a blast making these! My rendition of the Carolina Crossroads will be scrappy in green/blue, pink and white/cream.

New Year ... time for new things

I've gone and taken the plunge. I've created a blog! lol Hope to use this spot for all my quilting stuff, be it spur of the moment blocks, tops or completed quilts and such. Joined a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt group at yahoo.com and a lot of ladies there have blogs so I thought I would try my hand at one. The mystery so far is FUN!!! We are all doing it as Bonnie does hers. Makes one feel like a tester! Okay, must admit, not a great sewer (still learning all the aspects of quilting) so hoping to be able to hide all my bad parts when it comes to showing the finished project! Have 3 Chihuahuas and if I have to will plop each one on the bad parts of the quilt and command them to "SIT" until picture is taken.