stash bustin

This pillow is 21" square (my husband 'photoshopped' it to eliminate the dingy carpet background, he's color blind so I don't think he can tell how bright the background green truly is.) The block is one I made in a class a million years ago and then made into a pillow. Last year I took it apart (it was shabby and poorly done) added a border and quilted it with gold lame thread; then this week I made the pillow.

This is an updated photo of my 'art wall' The one that I will never disturb if I ever get it all folded. My husband suggested that I take it down and move it to an outside wall to increase the insulation in that wall.

Remember my list from last Monday? I've been adding to it; working on getting more couples engaged. I've even found a few more tops. Unfortunately some of them need borders; not my favorite step to quilting so those go back to the back burner. Do you suppose that I will be an expert at long-arming by the time I get these 15 quilts finished? By January? Think I'm aiming a bit high do you? I suppose it wouldn't hurt if a few of these didn't get done right away they have been sitting around for a few years already.

1.  Magnolia blossoms (80 X 80)
   
2. Noah's Ark Cheater (34 X 42)
   
3. Black Irish Chain (82 X 98)
   
4. String Christmas Star (86 X 108)
   
5. Block of the Month (68 X 88)
   
6. Twisted Star Christmas (46 X 54)
   
7. Austin's Quilt (36 X 42)
   
8. Rainbow Trip Around the World (52 X 74)
   
9. Gentleman's Fancy (86 X 86)
   
10. Strip 4-Patch (BABY)
    
11. Pinwheel (74 X 108)
    
12. Around the Twist with Tulip border (42 X 52)
    
13. Churn Dash (80 X 90)
14. Blue 7-sisters (88 X 70)I got lazy on this one; although I pieced the back I didn't press the seams open yet.
15. Trudie Hughes workshop (50 x 50) Another that needs a good pressing.

Unfortunately if I count these backs as yards out I can't count them again when they are finished... or can I? Since there are NO RULES to this stash busting why not count finished items as double the yardage? I mean count it twice; once when they get 'engaged' and again when they are finished; right?

Nice try, I couldn't even convince myself...

stash busting

in- 1 yard

(we are not counting the music collection fabric that my daughter brought to me that I had no control over :)). The double parenthesis look like double chins...I'm not saying I have a double chin though!

out- 12 gift bags 1/2 yard each= 6 yards

back of a pillow=1/3 yard

tablecloths-7 1/2 yards

total ~14 yards

old news and a surprise

School got out last Friday and my husband, the Scoutmaster, and my 2 sons (and the scout troop)  went Winter camping to a Boy Scout camp in Louisiana, Camp Edgewood. They had a great time; I had a great time although I didn't get done as much as I thought I would. They returned Wednesday afternoon. 

Thursday early evening our daughter, Melissa and baby, came to stay for a week!  It was a complete surprise for the boys...well almost and I didn't know until a couple of days before! We had Thanksgiving dinner at 7 p.m. It was great to have them come. 

I think I'm finally learning how to do this.  The only new recipe I tried this time was the 2 pumpkin dips. Unfortunately there was no clear winner on the taste testing. Some liked the cream-cheese one best; others the Fluffy one. (Roger liked the fluffy one best.)

Jeffrey made the chocolate pie; his first. We did a layer of truffle chocolate next to the crust; we'll do that again but actually follow a recipe this one had to much chocolate in it and is hard to cut.

Andrew made the sugar/cinnamon leaves for the dip. I want the children involved  and since Liz wasn't here to do the butter we did the pie and tortilla's. 

menu:

pumpkin dip

cinnamon tortillas

dressing

sweet potatoes

mashed potatoes

gravy

corn

green beans

lima beans (Melissa really likes lima beans)

turkey

cranberry sauce

rolls

orange juice with ginger ale

white grape with pomegranate juice

chocolate pie

pumpkin pie

dinner tonight

What's for dinner? CHEESY BROCCOLI SOUP!  My own creation although there are probably many comparable soups out there this is what I came up with. It's easy and fast.

THE INGREDIENTS;

1 bag of frozen broccoli

1 jar of cheez whiz

1 box of dry chicken noodle soup

powdered milk

THE STEPS:

1. Dump both envelopes of soup into your largish saucepan, add the whole bag of broccoli, add water to almost the top of the broccoli. I would put a little bit less water than what you see in the picture.
   
2. Simmer until the broccoli is almost done; it should be bright green still. Lower heat to very low or off.
3. Make a supersaturated powdered milk and water mixture: 1 cup lukewarm water to 1 cup powdered milk, mix together then add to the soup. 
4. Add the Cheeze Whiz; stir and let sit then stir until the cheese is incorporated.
5. Serve

Andrew had 3 bowls full the last time I fixed this; he even ate the non-flower pieces of broccoli!

p.s. I was surprised when 'largish' didn't come up as mispelled. It is a real word and even means what I meant it to mean...'somewhat large or biggish.'

mosaics

For 9 years, since my son died, I have been looking for boy angels.  I have found 1; this year at quilt festival I found a charm but it had been enameled in pink. They didn't have any not wearing pink pants so although I think it looked like a little boy I didn't think it would work. 

Imagine my surprise when I looked at my sister's new blog yesterday and there was a boy angel! 
Have I mentioned my sweet, talented sister? She LOVES to mosaic; For Christmas one year I purchased name plaques from her to give as gifts.The angel (using some of MY broken dishes)  she did for me for Christmas a few years ago.  I also have my street numbers on my front porch that I got a different Christmas.

Evidently I have never told anyone of my search for boy angels because she sold it to someone else!

Yep, it's gone.... I'm sure the next one will be even better; hint, hint; I think I'll send her a sample of his hair color. (When he was 2 I took him to the yarn section and chose a ball of yarn that matched his hair color. Red hair is not so red; it was more rust colored. Then I made him a Raggedy Andy doll with his own hair color.)

If you like these look at my list of subjects and click on it; I've more pictures there.

toothpicks

If you wondered what to do with your extra toothpicks from the party you gave last night look at the second photo on this post.

pumpkin dip

I was thinking of my son-in-law who loves pumpkin while I made this dip. I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin but this dip turned out delish. Easier than pumpkin pie but just as tasty. I think my daughter would earn brownie points if she made this for her man! 

I stirred it like the recipe said but had lumps; then dumped it in my food processor and then into a serving dish; save yourself some washing and start in your mixer or food processor. I have graham cracker breakfast strips to dip into it and plan on making cinnamon covered flour tortilla's to dip into it also. I'm really tempted to make the dip from the hungry housewife too and let the boys decide which one they like best and donate the rest to a party...

For my label I just had to put down vegetable. ;)

backs

I've been doing backs for 3 hours. I have 4 now ready to press; 1 was too wrinkled to sew so it gets pressed then sewn, then pressed again. 

I bumped into an old neighbor of mine and she wants me to quilt a quilt for her in February; maybe this business WILL work.

Good night. 

comments

Do you realized 67 people looked at my blog today; if 1/4th had left a comment think how happy I would be tonight!

projects on the pile

I've been taking unquilted tops and finding backs for them and putting them on a shelf so they are ready to quilt when the long-arm gets here. Here are my 'engaged couples':

1. Magnolia blossoms 80 X 80
2. Noah's Ark Cheater BABY
3. Black Irish Chain BIG
4. String Christmas Star BIG
5. Block of the Month 88 X 68
   
6. Twisted Star Christmas 54 X 46
   
7. Austin's Quilt 36 X 42

Here are some of my 'Singles' looking for partners:

1. Rainbow Trip Around the World 52 X 74
2. Snail's Trail LAP
3. Gentleman's Fancy 86 X 86
4. Strip 4-Patch BABY
5. Pinwheel 74 X 108
6. Blue 7-sisters 88 X 70
7. Around the Twist with Tulip border 52 X 42
8. Gingham Top BIG

Once they are quilted I consider them married. When they are bound and labelled they are finished.

Since my long-arm won't be here this week I will get more of these tops 'engaged.'

stash busters

This what I should have worked on this week; one of the few quilt block kit exchanges I organized years ago. I usually work on it one week a year/ maybe 2 weeks in the Autumn. But no sewing on it this year or last.

My stash-busting was a bust this week.

In-- 1/4 yard

out- 1/2 yard

I'm making gifts for an exchange but won't post a picture until after she receives it.

It's cute though and I may need to make some more of them for family....

pinewood derby

This is Andrew after winning the blue ribbon at the Pinewood derby almost 2 years ago. You could call this his happy dance. 

exercise guru

Y'all know how important exercise is to maintain or achieve a fit body. I have a new exercise routine out just in time for the holiday season. I started yesterday;

First choose a store; it needs to be big. Enter like you know what you want, forget why you're there, stride up and down in an attempt to have the merchandise jog your memory, decide to leave, as you leave the store remember what you need. It's important for your exercise routine that the item is located in the very back of the store, stride to the item, then purchase it. Enter the parking lot with no memory of having seen it before the intention to continue your exercising by race-walking up and down every aisle looking for until you get to your car. Be sure to repeat this at the next big store so that you will get the full benefit of this exercise routine.

Think how the big stores have contributed to our fitness level! Maybe we should all write them thank-you notes.

stumped again

I'm sure many of you would not have been puzzled by my boys' question last night; but I wasn't sure of the answer. For some reason (how DO boy's minds work?) they started by asking me if I liked concrete or asphalt better for roads  and why? We talked about the cost; concrete vs asphalt (I know concrete is more expensive but how much? why?) Then what is concrete or is it cement? What is the difference? I thought cement was the powdery stuff that glues the sand/gravel etc together to make concrete so I wasn't quite 'stumped' but I wasn't sure of my answers so I thought I'd check it out this morning.

my computer is back!

My stumped repair man wasn't as stumped as I thought. Reed to the rescue; it was just a matter of downloading something (at someone else's computer obviously) and then installing it; I think. While my husband was running around trying to fix our problem I was sitting next to my son in the library, trying to keep my eyes open, while he researched and worked on his persuasive speech for school. Consequently I'm not sure what actually happened.

Today is Sam's club party sampler. I need a few things and I'm planning on trying a few of their party foods; who knows someday I'll have another party to give.

I'm also committed to baking an apple pie for Andrew. I made the crust yesterday; it was a very strange recipe using a tiny bit of baking powder and vinegar for part of the water and butter and cream cheese instead of butter and shortening.

Then I have my exchange to finish....

Lets not forget that I need to fold more fabric...

And I NEED to make one of these snowmen.

crashed

Last night our computer crashed. It will do nothing. My repairman (son) lives at least 500 miles away and he is stumped to. My other repair guy (husband) is unable to do much until after Thanksgiving. So sad that you will not be reading my words very often. I am currently at the library but have no way to download any photos. I actually took one of my current projects; a stripe block. My little sister and I are working on; apart (I would say together but she lives in CO. which is a loooong ways from TX.)
I am spoiled and am unable to figure out some basic things on this computer. So Long I'll write again ..... someday.

again?

I had to post again, sorry.

 I had to resew some of this quilt. I picked out a couple of pieces so I could add the CELLO  fabric I found today! (My daughter, mother of Austin, plays the cello.) 

Went to the quilt shop and saw that they had there 25 fat quarters for 25 dollars (with coupon) and told myself I wasn't even going to look. I talked to my friend there and thought it wouldn't hurt to look at red conversation prints since I'm finished with the quilt that needed them...I looked, I saw this; I bought it. Then I had to pick out...oh I already said that. So can you pick out the new fabric in the quilt? (that's a joke.)

All morning I was beating myself up saying, 'I am a sick, sick woman.' (because of all the fabric-most people throw away the bits I'm determined to use up.) I don't think I'll ever get my fabric organized and if I do I may just declare the wall ART and never take any of it out and I will certainly NEVER buy another piece of fabric....

progress and Christmas bags

Progress is so slow but you can see an improvement. I've finished folding my fabric from my friend and have started adding mine. I started with purple; thinking it would be easy since I had so little purple. The problem with my purples was that they are in such little pieces; so a lot couldn't be folded. They should really be put in my scrap box of purples, but it is full.... so I have a small pile, in the living room mentally labelled 'what should I do with these?' 

My red's show my happy accident; I accidently got hold of my 3" ruler (instead of 3 1/2") and folded some reds. They fit on the shelf better so I'll use that ruler from now on. 

I divided the Christmas fabrics by red, green, blue, lights and bags. 

One Christmas 12 years ago we were getting our teenagers each a boom box and since they came in large boxes I didn't want to wrap them. Instead I took some of my Christmas fabric and basted them together into bags. The first year's bags have rolled hems, the next a regular hem with room for a drawstring; the more recent bags have no hems. I fold the top down and then tie around the top with a ribbon. (The ribbon is tied in a knot so it is harder to snoop but it takes scissors to open on Christmas morning.) After Christmas they go back into my fabric collection so if I wanted I could use them for a quilt.

Under the Christmas fabric is a pile of Halloween with Fourth of July then a few big pieces of Christmas fabric for backs.

My stash report;

In: 1 yard of black I bought to demonstrate to a church group how our charity quilt will look when we get started in Jan. Used on sample blocks. Generated excitement with the leadership so we will be doing this after Christmas. Hopefully it will teach a few women that they CAN quilt.

Out: Red scraps to make 13 additional blocks for Austin's quilt. 

austin's final top

Sewing along with Judy; I made 13 more red blocks. Then used them for the border. I've sewn more today than normal on a Saturday. So I guess it qualify's for the 'quiltathon.'

This is it! I hope Mel and Maddog love it. I'll quilt it when I get the long-arm. 

innova long-arm

I'm sure you are anxious to see my long-arm. This is a picture of the one at the shop without a quilt in it so you can see the whole machine. Look at the upper left and you can see the very bottom of the computer screen. It has a 12 foot table that will barely fit in our master bedroom. We can hardly wait; 2-4 more weeks.

rope training

Andrew has become very forgetful lately. A week ago Roger tied him to the refrigerator to help him remember to finish his loaf of bread. Today we did it again. This time he tied it around his neck (loosely) and when he finished his chore (taking the trash out) he could take it off. 

I like this technique better; tie the rope around his waist; the person that ties the rope (Mom) has to untie it. Not only does he stick with his task better; he then has to report that he has finished. 

I think I'll be 'tying up' my kid a lot in the future!

halloween

I know I'm late posting about Halloween.... I was just reminded by my craving to go dig out a piece of their candy when I realized that there was none. We had a different Halloween this year, the boys are getting a little old but Jeffrey put his band uniform on and vampire teeth and Andrew put on his Link costume that we pulled together last year. The grabbed their bags and went; 15 minutes later they are back all excited about a neighbor. Roger went back with them to meet the neighbor and they were gone about an hour. Turns out our neighbor has a great hobby; he restores vintage pinball machines and for Halloween he opened his garage and let the kids play on them. Consequently they got about 1 cup of candy each and it was ALL gone by the next evening. ;(  I did not get a single piece.

I like this new tradition.

p.s. Jeffrey did not go trick or treating barefoot; this picture was taken Sunday when I bribed got them to put their costumes back on for a picture.

yellow fabric

My Mother is working on Grandma's Flower Garden Quilt. I told her I'd locate and send her some yellow fabric. I located some and stacked it neatly and lost it. I hunted for 3 days and finally went through my stash again and sent her some different ones. I found the first stack of yellows last night and here they are.

If my Mother would choose which ones she wants I will send them but I realize it may be too late or she likes the ones I already sent better. She only needs 2-3 to finish her yellow blocks so I hope she LOVES what I found in my 'shop'. (The keys are for scale.)

Of course most scraps tell a story so here are mine; from the top down.

• from a quilt back
• ?
• I believe this is from my Grandmother's fabric collection
• scraps from my first maternity dress; 1978
• butterflies-very small piece- because my Mother collects butterflies.
• old fashioned ?
• sunflowers, because they make me happy
• scrap from the group of square dance dresses my Mother made when I was a child-I think.
• stripe-? (no story)

cub scouts

Just in case you think I only do quilts I am also the wife of a scoutmaster; a job in itself, and the cub scout committee chairman. Last night was pack meeting and we had our yearly disaster. I've organized this every year as the Webelos leader as a way to teach a bunch of first aid skills all at once. We've had a train wreck,  a plane crash and an Indian fight; all to set the stage for injuries that would need to be treated. Guess what we had last night? ... Not a hurricane; the boys did a puppet show about a train wreck (the little kids loved the puppet show-it went over better than the skits we have done in the past.)

 

I involved the 11-14 year old scouts; they each chose what they were willing to teach. We had 5 stations:

• stopping severe bleeding, first aid for shock, cuts and scratches
• poisoning by mouth and snakebite
• frostbite, nosebleed, and blisters on the hand and foot
• tick, chigger, spider bites, and bee and wasp stings
• burns, scalds and sunburn 
  

I've made 'blood' each year we've done this but this years was the best. White frosting tinted with red paste food coloring and some cocoa powder to darken it. I put a bit in ziplock sandwich bags and then just snipped the corner so it was easy for the scouts to dispense the 'blood'. I also put some white frosting in bags labels antiseptic for treating the injuries. I also supplied gloves, bandages (using fabric from Ailene), band aids, towels, tweezers, pen (for drawing a tick on the patients) and ice packs and a stuffed snake.

The past years we have had 6 stations but always went over our time so I eliminated the choking and Heimlich maneuver. It went very well and I hope the boys learned their stuff. I know the Boy Scout teaching the same thing 5 times learned their portion.

terrible; very bad recipe link

Several years ago I innocently attended a Relief Society meeting (our church's women's organization) and Amy taught us how to make licorice caramels. I hesitated to even taste them since I despise black licorice. I LOVED them. I crave them. I HAVE TO MAKE THEM. Last year we went to Idaho for Christmas; I took a tiny ziplock bag of black food coloring and anise flavoring and made them there.

Three years ago while visiting Idaho I went into a craft store and there on the register's counter were LICORICE CARAMELS.  So every time I visit I go looking for them. They are often out and I have to do without; since I don't dare make a batch unless I'm around many people that will help me eat them.

So you were warned, you do not want to try this recipe;

•  it will be one more thing you have to do every Christmas. 
• It will be 5 more pounds you have to loose after Christmas.
• One more pan to wash and
• one more jar of candy to hide until Christmas.

On the other hand if you want your 

• Father to look forward to your Christmas package and you want your
•  sons and son-in-laws to bless you and
• your husband to rave about your cooking;

 you'll bite the bullet and go ahead and make it.

edit: Since my success with the caramels I am often tempted to taste licorice. For Halloween I filled a few jars with black candy. Black Salty Swedish Fish, Twizzlers, Jelly Beans, Small Triangle Bat Ears; all licorice; all totally gross.

*2014 Since links have been know to break I decided to edit this post and include the recipe;
Licorice Caramels
2 c. sugar
1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 c. Karo (light or dark)
1/2 lb. butter
1/4 t. salt

Combine all ingredients in heavy saucepan and cook over med-high heat until 234 degrees, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add 1 1/2 t. anise flavoring and 3/4 t. black paste food coloring (Wilton's).

Pour into 11x7 pan lined with Saran Wrap. Cool. Cut into pieces and wrap with wax paper.

Enjoy!

scraps

So last weeks post about my 10 pounds of green sent me to the scales to figure out the rest of my scraps. 

• green, 10 pounds, 35 yards
• red, 7.5- pounds,  20 yards
• blue, 15.1 pounds, 43 yards
• pink, 8.1 pounds,  23 yards
  
• black and browns, 4.6 pounds, 11 yards
  
• white/lights, 10.6 pounds, 29.3 yards

total:  55 pounds 

total: 161 yards

OH, MY WORD.

accumulated this week: 0 yards

used this week: 0 yards or pounds

years taken to accumulate; 30

years to take to use up if I use up 1.3 yards per 2 weeks; 4.6 years

(*I dropped the decimals in my totals.)

Not as bad as I thought but I still need to weigh the purple, turquoise, and the orange and yellow boxes.

I spent my sewing time this week folding fabric and pairing tops with backs; but didn't actually sew them together. Trying to get ready for when my long-arm gets here.

30 years

It's hard to believe that Roger joined Exxon 30+ years. His anniversary was in May and it has taken him this long to decide and arrange for his lunch. He had a budget and then got to choose who to invite (he invited me and some coworkers). One friend from Baytown, that works downtown, also came. We met at Fogo de Choa, a South American restaurant. They brought me an interesting drink; they called it lemonade, but it was lime juice with ice and sweetened condensed milk..... I prefer lemonade. We ate lunch, listened to some roasts( (evidently Roger is going to write a diet book when he retires) then we went on to visit the manufacturer of my long-arm. 

work in progress

Every morning I grab a pile of fabric to fold for my shelves and work on it while the boys are getting ready for school (last year I was knitting mittens-I miss knitting mittens). Most of them need a bit of pressing to get them to wrap neatly around my ruler; then I pull them off and fold them in half. Then they get put on these shelves. Most of this fabric is a gift from Aileen; although I spy a few from my stash that have already worked their way in. My white on white fat quarters for instance and that lovely yellow with leaves.

working the polls

I worked most of the days at a voting spot...precinct. Helping people vote. Here are some of the things I was asked.

• Who should I vote for?  (I couldn't answer that...)
• How do I just vote for the president?
• Can I just put a check mark? (It clearly states to fill in your choice.)
• Can you help me? I can't find John McCain on this. 

One sweet (well I'm assuming he was sweet I don't really know) old man wanted to vote electronically but kept trying to treat the screen like it was a touch screen.

I would have liked to know who the young people were voting for. We had a lot that were voting for the first time. 

There were lines at 7; but none the rest of the day...well, I left at 3:30. Once in a while 1 or 2 would need to wait since we only had 2 electronic booths.

I enjoyed visiting with the other worker in the room; Ginger.

Sorry, no cell phones allowed in the precinct.

I'm going to quilt guild tonight; the boys have scouts. I think I'll have more fun! 

log cabin 4 for austin

Liz (dd) suggested that since this quilt is for the wall I could lay it out like this.  If Austin's mom prefers this layout it is do-able; turns out to be an odd size but it doesn't matter if it is to be his 'headboard' for the next 7-9 years. Although they may want to consider that subsequent children will need to have their name be 5 letters long also. Let me know what you think, Mel.

(Andrew is in there for scale.)

camporee

A week end ago (10/24) was a regional camporee. The boys were given the assignment of building a tower... in 2 hours. Due to information not getting to us Roger spent the 3 weeks before it getting the wood together. The boys met at our house or one other house and spent hours Saturdays and Tuesday evenings cutting logs to the right measurements. After teaching the boys how to lash in Scout meetings Roger and the other adults stepped back and let the boys do it. (The other troops had the leaders leading the work; here Jeffrey was in charge; the way a scout troop is supposed to work.)

The finshed tower is in video format and, as computer savvy as you know I am, I haven't figured that out yet.

poll worker

I just finished an hour course on how to work at a voting poll. Tomorrow I work from 8:30 -3:30. I learned some things but not a great deal and since I won't be opening or closing the poll I won't need half of the information. 

log cabin 3 for austin

So here is the alternate setting.  I like his name closer together better. The main thing I don't like is the lamb's head being cut off in the letter I. Notice the dinosaurs cut out of one of his uncles' shorts. The blocks are 6" so it will be 30 x 36 without borders....what do you think? is it better than version 1?

The additional blocks make it weigh 6.25 ounces; which works out to be close to 1 1/3 yards of fabric. (I measured and weighed 5 fabrics this morning and the average of those fabrics is 5.48 ounces per yard.)

Redoing the math I got 10 pounds of fabric equals 35 yards? So how did I get 2 yesterday and get 35 today? Check my logic out...please. There are 16 ounces in a pound so 10 x 16 = 160 ounces 

160 ounces / 4.48 = 35.714. That's a lot of green scraps!

stump the mom

Why do they call Wednesday, Wednesday? The answer is in Wikipedia, here.

new formula

So using my new formula; 1 yard weighs 4.22 ozs I can figure out how many yards of tiny green scraps I have and since I KNOW you are interested here goes. 10 pounds!So that means I have about 2 yards of tiny green scraps.  Each baby quilt takes only about 1 yard of scraps therefore that's 2 baby quilts. I don't believe it; I'm going to have to work harder on my formula. I wonder how may of my little scraps I can get Andrew to weigh for me?

stash buster report

another title could be;

log cabin 2 for austin

Judy over at Patchwork Times has been hosting a stashbusting report once a week all year; I'm just now joining since I figured out a way to figure out my yards used. I'm weighing them and having my 11 year old use his math skills to figure out how many yards I used. 

I weighed a 2.25 yard piece of fabric (I should weigh several pieces and get an average but we used only one piece) and got 9.5 oz. which works out to 4.22222... ozs per yard. Then Andrew weighed the blocks I made (more than pictured) and they weighed 5 ozs. So it works out to 1.19 yards of fabric used this week. Unfortuantely I purchased 4 fat quarters of red fabric with figures to use in some of those red blocks (actually not unfortuantely since the red blocks needed some pictures for the baby to look at instead of just tone on tones or flowers). I also purchased a back for an Irish chain I'm planning to long arm early in my long arm career; 3 yards of very wide fabric.

You may notice that this looks an awful lot like the quilt posted here. My dd is keeping the first quilt on the wall (it looks great there); since it is backed with minky I decided to make another quilt for the nursery wall. Hopefully then the minky one will come down and get cuddled by Austin. I really thought I was making the blocks just like the first; can you see the difference? I like the new version better. Tomorrow I'll post the other layout I came up with. 

another name!

I just purchased a .com name for myself! I'm getting so computer savvy (thanks Reed). It will take 3 days but then I'll start blogging about my long-arm business over at; thequilterupstairs.com. Is that cool or what!

new name

My business license was purchased last week in the name of.... drum roll here please....

The Quilter Upstairs. I've applied for a tax number; 3 weeks for that to get processed. So meanwhile I'm lining up some 

• charity quilts to make, 
  
• 3 Christmas panels I have,
• digging out some fabric from my Goodwill bag to use for my first try,
• finishing a Trip Around the World that will be great done with a pantograph, and
• Austin's new quilt.

Then I need to design the quilting for some more difficult things to finish; for instance

• a black Irish chain, 
• a strip Chrismas Star that NEEDS trupunto,
• and a white and blue 3" double 9-patch that will really show off the quilting, and
• the gingham quilt that will have ISSUES.

The Golden Needle suggested I stockpile some meals so I won't have to cook when the machine comes. What an excellent idea! So I have plenty to do for the next little bit... 

string star

Just wanted to post a picture of a quilt from quilt festival. I have so many small scraps that this could be made without buying anything except the background. I don't think I would do the applique though. (I didn't even see the applique until I looked at the pictures since the stars are so powerful.)

long arm

For some reason I can't sleep....We bought a long-arm quilting machine. It will be delivered in about 6 weeks. So how many quilts can I get ready to quilt in 6 weeks since I'll need to practice on my own stuff for awhile. It looks a bit industrial (their home page has a pink one pictured; mine is not pink) but it works great and is built in Houston so getting parts and tech support will be a breeze. We spent 6 hours going over the 3 main ones I had looked at and this one. I hadn't even looked at it before today. 

i'm late, i'm late

I'm getting ready to go to Festival again; I loaded yesterdays pictures and wanted to post another picture for Mom. And no, I didn't find out the price of the quilt.  It has 2 rows of muslin around each flower. 

Roger and I are going today to check out 3 long-arms. We made a spread sheet comparing the different aspects and want to fill in the gaps and make a decision TODAY.