Thursday blahs ...

Last night was viewing photos in a quilt group I belong to. Lo and behold there was a Double Delight posted amongst those photos. Whaaaaaaaaaa It was a beautiful quilt top! Since I had already seen the mystery, I went and checked out Bonnie's group. Whaaaaaaaaaa ... beautiful quilts again. Then I went to Bonnie's site. Whaaaaaaaaaaaa ... hers is fantastic. My golds aren't all the same color as in ALL the other quilts! I was ready to throw in the towel, let me tell you! Was physically sick for a moment. Even wrote to the entire group about my mistake. Then I played a little free online bingo and went to bed ... lol lol lol

Tomorrow will be another day, they say. Well today is that tomorrow. Still not too thrilled with the blocks so far, putting on thinking hat. Size -X small ... little brain here. Will see what I come up with in the next few days or so. Bonnie designed one heck of a beautiful quilt. Leave it to me not to read instructions fully and to be gong ho with throwing out fabric on the table and greedily grabbing the rotary cutter.

Step 3 started but long ways of being finished ...

Step 3 of mystery: Make 130 9-patches ... ouch! Got 20 of them done today ... hahaha Slow going for me, not good at these blocks. Am pressing seams open so perhaps that slows me down a tad, too. Not sure how many more I will get done before bedtime. But I will "git er done" eventually. 130 of these are a LOT. Let me see, this is Jan., come back in late Feb. and they may be completed ... lol lol lol Bonnie used pink in her quilt (I haven't peeked at the quilt!) according to the fabric requirements. I have some pinks but oodles of red that I would like to use up. Then I could go out and buy more newer reds ... lmao!

Oh, someone asked about the peg board. Said it looked flush to the wall. It isn't. There are ½" spacers (they look like a drinking straw was cut up into pieces) in the back on each screw that helps bring it out from the wall thus allowing you to put in the hooks. It did the trick. Love that peg board!!!

Past time to feed the "pups" so off I get from here to feed them and then maybe do some more 9 patches. Don't think I will get many done tomorrow. Christmas tree and stuff comes down. I leave it up until the 13th for my brother Charles who passed away on this day six years ago. He sure did love Christmas. And I used to be nearly a fanatic about having the tree down before the new year rolled in. Habits can change due to life. Miss you Charles. Love you forever.

Got a peg board in sewing room!

Today Jimbo put up a peg board for me in the sewing room. Already full ... lol Think I need some more positioned around this room. WOW ... can't believe how much stuff I have. At least this part of it is off the cutting table! Now I won't have to spend time looking for this or that ruler. Am tickled with it. And a lot of thanks goes to the ladies at CyberQuilters! I had asked about the board and many of them replied. Thank you ladies from the bottom of my heart. Here's a picture of it. Was off a broken sheet of peg board and it is a little dirty in spots. Paint will take care of that. Will do it when weather is nicer outside. Like a couple of more months ... lol lol lol

Still working on Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt. Finished up step 2 the other night. Went to Joann's today and got some more reds for it. And also looked for a 3½" square ruler. NOPE, they were all out! Grrrrrrrrrrr But did pick up some Fons&Porter directional arrow pins. They should come in handy enough.

Step 1 of the mystery. Had to do 120 square in square blocks. It was a struggle at first. Am used to paper piecing this kind of block. But I am wanting to learn more on how to do machine piecing so labored away at these blocks. Was to use the Easy Angle ruler to cut the triangles. Well, I couldn't find the blasted ruler so gave up looking and cut them the regular way. Made life twice as hard for me as I was later to find out. Not only did I have to make a crease ½ way to lay the first 2 side triangles had to make it again with the last 2 triangles. Now I can find that ruler and any other I have thanks to that peg board ... hahaha

Step 2 of the mystery. Same as step one (another 120 blocks) but with gold/cheddar center and all the triangles are done in same color. By this time I had finally found the elusive Easy Angle. Wow ... blocks went so much faster!!! Squaring up in 1 and 2 I had to do my way with the Omnigrid ruler. Bonnie said to sqaure them up with the Easy Square, Jr. I tried but never got the hang of it. I sure do use the Jr. though to square up ½ square triangle blocks! Wouldn't know what to do without it when making those blocks.

Happy Belated New Year!!!

Time has gotten out of hand. Way behind in posting. Whew, glad the holidays are over!!! Christmas was okay. Had to work, though. So got up EARLY to open gifts before heading off to the job. Got 5 quilt books (which I ordered or bought way before Christmas ... lol ... but didn't look inside). 3 Judy Martin books - 1. Cookies 'n' Quilts, 2. The Creative Pattern Book and 3. Scraps.

Then the other 2 are Woven Quilts by Anna Faustino and A New Twist on Strips 'n Curves by Louisa L. Smith.

Also got a new digital camera which I took the pictures of the books and you can see I still need to learn how to use this new camera ... haha Had the old one for so long and this new one is more complicated. At my age complicated isn't fair.

Oh! And the last day of December a Sew and Vac place was having a gigantic sale on some sewing machines. Guess what I got!?!?! A PAFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not all that fancy of one, but one that should last for some time. It's a Quilt Expression 2046. Been doing some sewing on it. Working on a Bonnie Hunter's New Year mystery quilt called Double Delight. So ........ will be doing LOTS of blocks with the machine ... haha

And I also got some thread and needles while at the sewing place.

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.