Happy weekend

It's Saturday and the weekend is shifting thru my fingers I worked 1.5 hours of overtime this morning and then got a haircut. I have done mundane things like laundry and taking down the Christmas tree. Better late than never. I was able to obtain the Raspberry Chocolate Chips for the pie I make every year at Thanksgiving. The chips will go in the freezer until November. I improvised for last year and it was just okay. This is one of my son's favorite pies so he did enjoy it.

No sewing so far this weekend. I am going to finish a lamp for dining room. I am trying to clean each room. This weekend is the dining room. I need to cover a few more Styrofoam balls to go in the mason jar base. And put the trim on the lamp shade. Then I need to find the timer for lamp. I come into the house thru the dining room at night and the light switch is on the other side of the room and the light on garage goes out before I can get to light switch in the dining room.

I have finished the first step on the JK Project and tomorrow I am going to the yarn store to see what I can find on the clearance table for the next step in the project. Use fancy yarn. I have an orange fancy yarn that does not go with the pink and softer colors that I have been using in this project. I like scrap quilts but that is ridiculous.

In stitches,

Judy

Happy Tuesday

I slept the entire night with the lights on and I will probably do it more than one night until I am sure that there are no more bats in the house.

I have pulled out another project from the UFO stack in the sewing room. Someone gave it to me and now I am hand quilting it. I have left it at work to do in between calls. It is better than playing games on the computer.

We had snow last night and this morning. About an inch. Life is always interesting in Ohio. The weather changes daily.

I have decided to do the Friday Night Sew In in February. It is the weekend of my son's birthday and I will not be seeing him for his birthday, maybe I will make something for his apartment and take it with me when I visit him in March for my birthday.

In stitches,
Judy

Monday Design Wall

There is nothing on my design wall. I am still working on my Christmas quilt. Actually, it is the components of a quilt. I am doing a bunch of it by hand while at work. I have made some bowtie blocks, nine patch blocks, and a couple of half square triangles. But nothing much to show for it.

I did have some excitement in my day today. I came home today and was starting to cook dinner and opened the blind over my sink and something fell into the sink. A bat. It ended up in the disposal and zip it is gone. All the lights are on in house right now and I will sleep with all the lights on until I am sure that there are no more bats in my house.

Check out Judy L's blog to see what's up the other gals.

In stitches,

Judy

Stash Report

I have been working on several projects at the same time. But I have not added or subtracted any fabric from last week's report. I am not sure if that is good or bad. I have been hand piecing 4 inch 3-D bowtie blocks. I average about 10 a day in between phone calls at work. I am in a call center and I need to stay busy and in my chair 8 hours a day. I do not have any of the blocks here at the house.

I have been working in the sewing room today. I am looking for new ways to get a handle on my stash. I found some old shelving that I used in my previous house. Recycle and repurpose. Still not ready for photos yet.

Used this week: 0 yds
Used yd to date: 4.75 yds.
Added this week: 0 yds
Added yr to date: 2.25 yds

It appears that I am still in the black with my stash!!! Check out Judy L's blog to see what the rest of talented gals are up to!!


In stitches,
Judy

Saturdays are for Sisters

I have three sisters all younger than me and we all live in the same general area. We try and do something together at least once every couple of months schedules permitting. Yesterday was the day we all had clear schedules. We decided on lunch and a movie. Becky my middle sister ended up not feeling well and had to cancel. We ended meeting at Patty's house in Kentucky and did lunch at Bob Evan's and a movie at Newport on the Levee. We saw It's Complicated and it was a riot. Then on to Barnes and Nobles to gaze at the books. Everyone bought something. I eneded up with a cookbook on bread making and a set of reduced mugs.



We went back to Patty's to retrieve our cars and Patty helped with my blog. It certainly looks pretty. I took a peak at hers and though she has not posted anything on it the background is looking sharp.



I do not think I will be doing any sewing today. I am working on decluttering the sewing room. I then may do some more cutting. I have scraps that need to get under control. I did work on a baby quilt using some of my scraps but still not making a dent in the scraps. Someday!!!

In stitches,
Judy

Life is good!!!

I found my glasses last night before I went to bed. They were on floor in the basement under a pillow near where I was using a ladder to fix a lighting issue. No need for an eye exam or new glasses right now. That will happen next month.

I had a small group quilt meeting tonight. The group is called Piecemakers and we had a lesson on paper piecing. I went along as an observer only. I want to add paper pieced trees to my Christmas quilt. I am averaging about 10 bowtie blocks a day at work. Tomorrow I am moving to my next permanent desk at work. We will be off the phones setting up our desks and computers. That will cut into my quilting time. Oh well.

Tomorrow is Friday!! I hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

In stitches,
Judy

Glasses part 2

I have an appointment after work for an eye exam and to start the ball rolling for new glasses. I have been two whole days without them. The places that my friends have suggested I look for my glasses keep getting wierder and wierder. One gal suggested looking in my cleavage she seems to find her glasses there from time to time. I checked no such luck.

I have put together another handful of bowtie blocks at work today. I have an idea for the layout of this quilt but these little 4" blocks are going to need some company to make a quilt. I will bring them home this weekend and see how they look on my design wall.

I am getting together with my sisters this weekend and Karen is bringing her rendition of the JK Project and I am bringing mine. We are going to draw another idea out of the bag and go forward. I am going with the theme "Have you seen it?" I need a theme for a quilt or at least an idea of how it is going to turn out before starting on it.

I am changing desks again at work. Now instead of being right next to the bathroom I will be near the break room. We shall see how that works out. I will be back with the rest of my department I had be straddling two departments and now I am back in my primary department and I really like it. I will get a big desk like I have now. Yeah!!!

In stitches,

Judy

Where are my glasses

I have lost my glasses!!! Not a good thing for this near sighted gal or for the rest of the world as I drive to work for the second day without them. I have prayed to St. Anthony the keeper of lost things and still no glasses. I have one more spot to look for them at work tomorrow and then I am guessing it will time to get new glasses. Yipee!!

The lights are all out in the basement along with the freezer but there is a long extension cord from one working outlet to the freezer. The sewing machine, the shop light above the sewing, the computer and the TV still work. I have not checked the washer or the dryer. I have a lead on an electrician.

I still have 3 blocks to finish for my baby quilt. And I need to work on the JK Project. I have selected yet another UFO to work on. I found a bag full of 2.5" Christmas fabric squares and now I am hand piecing them into 3D bowtie blocks. I want to make a quilt for Christmas and have decided that I need to start now in order to get it done in time for Christmas 2010.

In stitches,

Judy

Monday night

I was excited to get my blocks done but there were a couple of things just under the surface that needed my attention. My dryer door does not stay shut. Last night I tried duck tape to keep it closed and I think it might have worked if there was not this smell permeating in my basement. That funky hot smell. There was one light not working right near the computer. So after I took my laundry out of the dryer and hung it on the line and finished my blocks, I got out the ladder and took a look at the light fixture. I took out the bulbs and the recessed light felt warm. I then decided the best form of attack was to shut off all the lights in that part of the basement. I did that and was able to sleep all night. I can still sew as the light above the sewing machine is plugged into the wall. Yeah!! Now I need to add an electrician to the list along with a dryer repairman.

In stitches,

Judy

Design Wall Monday

This is what is on my makeshift design wall. These are some of the blocks from my Quiltathon project. I need a total of 30 blocks and somewhere along the way I miscounted and now I need to make 3 more blocks. Check out Judy L's blog to see what everyone else is working on!!!

In stitches,

Judy

Quiltathon Sunday

The results are in and I did not get as much done as I thought I would. I did not get started until after noon. I did get a load of laundry done. Yeah!! My dryer door does not stay shut so I had to hang this load in my basement. Then I looked for and found my disk for EQ5. I was able to install it and now I'm going to be dangerous. I could not install EQ6 some error message about resolution. I will get somebody in my family look at this in the future.

Then on to the sewing machine. I saw a quilt on someone's blog early this morning. At 2AM. I wish I could remember whose blog it was but if these blocks look familar thank you. I had decided to make a Kid's Komfort quilt which is a charity quilt that our guild makes. I needed to make 30 8" blocks using 2.5" squares and strips. Some serious stash busting I could see in my future. Since Christmas, I have misplaced my bag of 2.5" squares, so I cut the required number for this quilt and started sewing squares and strips together. I need to sew one more strip on the 27 blocks I made in order to have an 8" block and then I need to go back and make 3 more blocks for where I miscounted. So there will not be a picture tonight as I have to get to bed in order to get to work in morning and Mondays are the busiest day of the week in the mail order pharmacy.

So go check what the other quilters are doing on Judy L's blog. I hope there are lots of pictures for inspiration.

In stitches,

Judy

Stash report

So far so good. I did not go near a quilt shop this week. I did buy one skein of cotton yarn to make a dish cloth for my sister after I used a bit of the yarn for my niece's binoculars. I gifted some fabric to a friend this week



Used this week: 2.5 yds.
Used year to date: 4.75 yds
Added this week: 0 yds
Added yr to date: 2.25 yds.

So far I am in the black this week. Check out Judy L's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

In stitches,
Judy

Adventures in Babysitting

I went to Kentucky to babysit Vincent and Lily my nephew and niece. Ages 4 and 7. This is Lily's ear and the back of Vincent's neck. And a picture of Ben the cat who slept with me. I was bundled under some polar fleece and he thought I looked like I need a sleep buddy. They are a hoot. We started the evening making homemade pizza. I burnt it. Badly. Plan B for dinner a trip thru the drive thru at the Golden Arches just a few blocks from my sister's house. Then we worked on calendars my mom bought for them. Blanks pages that needed the months and all the numbers put on. We are good until July. But the gigles and the laughter was wonderful. Betime was no problem. Lily slept in her bed and Vincent slept in his parent's bed.

Saturday morning was homemade chocolate chip pancakes. Yummy!!! Then it was craft time. We made Oobleck. I found it on the internet. You mix one cup water with 1 1/2 cup corn starch and some food coloring. It is slimy to start with and the more you mess with it gets to be a flowing liquid and the longer it sets the thicker it get. And then you mess with it some more and it goes to flowing liquid. Lily liked it and Vincent did not like it because it was slimy. And his mom did not like the texture and his dad did not wan to touch it at all.

We made cookies that came from Market Day. Christmas cookies. We tinted the sugar ourselves--yellow, blue, and green. Red sugar came from the kitchen cabinet. And lots of chocolate chips. I only burned one pan of cookies. All the cookies stayed in Kentucky. A good thing for my diet. The kids really enjoyed cooking and baking. And the craft. Next time they will come to my house for an overnight and we will find other cool things to do!!!

In stitches,

Judy

Quiltathon

I had such high intentions with the Quiltathon but I seem to have fallen flat on my face. I spent Friday night and most of Saturday babysitting for niece and nephew. We had a blast but I got very little sewing done. Here we they are making homemade pizza for dinner. Of course, we had to go to plan B the Golden Arches, as I burned the pizza. In my defense, I was cooking in my sister's oven and I was not used to it. I also burned a pan of sugar cookies on Saturday. I brought some hand piecing along to work on if the kids entertained themeselves. They did finally went in the bedroom to play and I was able to get this much done. I will be getting up early on Sunday and hope to get much more done. Check out Judy L's blog to see what others are getting done.

In stitcehs,

Judy

It's Thursday

There seems to be a lot to do after work today. I need to get ready for my babysitting gig in Kentucky. I have secured an early out at work. Yeah!! I have been to the store to get a few groceries. I have had my nap!! With all the things I needed to do tonight I thought it most prudent to take a nap. I feel very rested and I have been able to finish most everything I need to do. I have made the pizza crust from scratch, gathered the pizza toppings and cheese in a bag for transport. I have everything I need to make Oobleck. And I have thought about packing. I will do that in the morning.

I finished my scarf today at work and of course, it warmed up to above 40 and the scarf was not needed. I got 2 four patch blocks done for my new quilt which I hope to have the top put together by the time the weekend is over.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!!!

In stitches,

Judy

Hump day

It's Wednesday!!! I did not get to the sewing machine tonight. I spend most of the evening on line with a friend from work who is having a tough time. I have almost finshed the scarf I have been crocheting this week. When I finish the scarf I will start hand piecing my next quilt. I am going to do most of it on my machine but it will be easy to start by hand and I like hand piecing.

Tomorrow I have to start packing for my overnight at my sister's house. I am staying with her kids while she and her hubby go to Pennsylvania for a wedding. We will be making Oobleck, pancakes, and pizza from scratch. And cookies from a kit I have in the freezer at work. And ice cream which is always fun. And we need to do a craft of some sort.

I am hoping to spend the rest of the weekend at home sewing. I want to finish this quilt that is still in the early stages. My creative juices have finally started flowing and that is good thing. I thought they were going to be stuck forever.

In stitches,
Judy

It's time to quilt

I have found the quilt I want to make. It is in the current issue {March 2010} of McCall's Quick Quilt. It is called Soft and Cozy. It is made out of flannels. I am not going to be using flannels as I do not have enough of them for a quilt. I am going to be using a bunch of my 2.5" strips. It is going to be strictly scrappy in nature my favorite kind of quilt. It is also going to be bigger than the one in the magazine because I want to be able to cuddle under the quilt once it is finished. Pictures will follow.

In Stitches,

Judy

Design Wall Monday

It's week 2 and there is nothing on my design wall. In fact, there is no design wall in my sewing room. I am still having trouble getting motivated to sew. I did start a crocheting a scarf for me. It is blue and soft. I think I will need another skein to finish it. I also inherited a fat quarter for my 30's quilt that I have yet to start. If we do not have to work overtime tomorrow night, I am going to do something in the sewing room. I can work in the sewing room and watch the Biggest Loser.

I am babysitting in Kentucky this weekend and need to start getting my stuff together. We are having home made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast on Saturday and homemade pizza for lunch. I have found a cool craft project for them to work on and I have a cookie kit to make and decorate cookies. Cool thing is that I can leave all the stuff at their house. No extra mess at my house. I do need to get some blue paste food coloring as I promised Vincent to dye his milk blue the next time I saw him.

In stitches,

Judy

Week 2 Stashbusting

It's week 2 and I have very little to show for it. I did purchase 2.25 yds of fabric and it is already finished. Yeah!!! I bought some nice purple polar fleece to put in my car as a blanket for the cold weather.


Used this week: 2.25 yds
Used year to date: 2.25 yds
Added this week: 2.25 yds
Added yr to date: 2.25 yds

So far so good. Check in with Judy L to see how everyone is doing in 2010.

In stitches,

Judy K

The sewing wall

I seem to have hit a sewing wall. I want to sew but for some reason I cannot. I have so many idea running around in my head but nothing concrete. Every day I get home from work I am sure that will be the day I will get to the sewing machine but it has not happened yet.

In stitches or not,

Judy

It's the weekend

Just when I thought I would be able to come home to my sewing machine, I got a chance for overtime. And I am not going to turn down overtime. I ended up with a 12 hour day and I am doing 8 more tomorrow!!!

The snow is still here. And it appears to be staying for awhile. In order for the snow to melt it needs to get above freezing or the sun needs to be out or it has to stop snowing. I would like sun and above freezing but I do not think my opinion counts.

I did finish another dish cloth while at work today. And I have started another. I need to take my camera to work to get pictures of the ones I have finished. I am hoping to get to the JK Project this weekend.

In stitches,

Judy

White death part 2

White death has come and gone. I think I got about 4 inches at home and much less at the office. I went to work early enough to miss the morning snow and it was snowing when I left to come home but the roads were ok and I had new trouble getting home. If the road crews continue to treat the roads overnight, my commute tomorrow should be no problem.

Two of my sisters are teachers and they both had snow days. My youngest sister, Patty, had no school but her kids did. Now that would be awesome. My third sister drives country back roads to work and she had some trouble getting home. She couldn't always find the road. But everyone is home safe and sound. Tomorrow is another day.

This weekend is going to be a sewing weekend. I have several projects I want to start or finish. Especially the JK Project.


In stitches,
Judy

White Death

White death is coming here tomorrow. That is what the weather people in this area call snow. Schools have been delayed and there has been a run on milk and bread at the local grocery stores. I am not afraid. But I have made some plans. I have bought melting compound to put in my car in case I get stuck somewhere. I have a new piece of polar fleece to keep warm in I get stuck somewhere. And I am carrying my extra snow shovel. Tomorrow I will bring my car broom into the office to unearth my car at the end of my shift. I am not afraid. I will get up earlier than normal and take my time on the roads in the morning. My mother is sure it will pass us by. I am not so sure.

I hope that everyone has a safe Thursday and watch out for the White Death.

Cooking

I cooked this weekend. I made homemade soup. It does not have a name. I started with a bagged soup mixture from the local Amish store. The directions said add carrots, celery, cabbage, onions, and ground beef along with the mixture and water and simmer. I had to improvise. I used what I had on hand. I used onions, garlic, carrots, tomatoes, ham, water and the mixture. The soup is yummy along with drop garlic and chees biscuits. I also made spaghetti sauce. It is an awesome recipe that came from niece via my sister. I have been using the spaghetti sauce as pizza sauce. I have made homemade whole wheat crust and top it with the sauce, onions, turkey pepperoni and cheese. It is soooo good!!

I have not done any sewing this week so far. All overtime at work has been cancelled. I should come home and get down to business in the sewing room. I have promised my sister that we can go to the next step with the JK Project. I have not finished the first step yet. Maybe tomorrow night.

In stitches,

Judy

Monday Design Wall

I don't really have a design wall. So I am using my sewing table and a piece of muslin to simulate a design wall. This is a wall hanging I made several years ago to honor my son who is deceased. I will be adding a border to this and then hand quilting it. This is the year to work on UFO's in my sewing room. Check out the our talented ladies at Judy L's blog.

In stitches,

Judy

Stashbusting

This is my first entry into the real world of stashbusting, where someone is going find out how much fabric I have. I already know that I have too much fabric. There is fabric in the sewing room and now there are tubs living on my pantry shelves in the unfinished side of the basement. I have not purchased any fabric in about 3 weeks but I am open to fabric gifts. I inherited my sister's stash when she gave up quilting for painting and drawing.

Week 1
Fabric purchased: 0 yds
Fabric used: 0 yds
Total fabric:0 yds

So far so good for 2010. I need to shop from stash before I shop anywhere else. I am currently working on a Kid's Komfort quilt using some 2.5 x 4.5 pieces I found on a shelf in my sewing room. Also have found a hand quilting project in a bag. And I promised my sister to finish the first leg of our JK project this week. Check out Judy L's blog to see what everyone else is up to.

In stitches,

Judy K

Happy New Year 2010

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year!! I spent mine at house. I called my children about 10PM wished them Happy New Year and went to bed. I signed up to work today and needed to be awake for the day. We weren't busy. (No big surprise) and I came home early and put chicken and dumplings in the crock pot and went to the basement. I need to get started on my basement mess. It has become a catch all. I am planning on taking baby steps to get the whole are straigtened and organized.

January goals

1. Finish at least one old project a month. I have tops that need quilting and tops partially pieced. I have fabric set aside for projects. I need to get busy.

2. Do at least one charity quilt each month with my scraps. It is for Kids Komfort and it does not need to be fancy. A good way to practrice my machine quilting skills.

3. Work on the JK project. My sister and I are doing a project together. We have a bunch of prompts in bag to help us decide where to go with our project. We pick a prompt and interpret it and go from there. The only thing is we are using two different mediums. She is using a canvas as she is likes to paint and draw and I am a fabric artist. I will keep you posted on how this is working out. I promised her I would work on this project soon.

4. Finish a fabric book for my ex husband. This is the only gift I did not get done for Christmas 2009. I have compiled pictures of our late son to transfer into a fabric book. I had my son and his wife help with the project and all that got done was running out of blue ink for my printer. That problem has been solved.

There are other goals that I need to accomplish like getting more exercise and eating better but those are unwritten goals that cannot crossed off a master list. They are ongoing goals. I am also crocheting dish clothes during our slow times at work. It helps me keep my sanity and sometmes my tongue in check. I have probably done about 30 of them in the last 6 weeks and my aim is to keep it up until I get some of my quilting projects to the point of hand stitching the binding.

In stitches,

Judy