Go Box!

Do you have a Go Box? What, you ask, is a Go Box?  To me it is a project I can grab and go and know that for the most part I have things I can sew.  I was up babysitting Ellie because Aimee was out of town for work and not sure when she was coming back and Kevin was joining Pat and Brian at the beach house.  They were going deep sea fishing.  So, I grabbed a sewing machine and its box of accoutrements and one of my project boxes.

Here's the details of my "Go Box."  I have several plastic Artbin boxes I purchased from JoAnn Stores when they were half price. I keep current projects in the boxes so that I can just grab and work on a particular project.  Currently, Bonnie Hunter's mystery, Easy Street, from a couple of years ago is in 2 of the boxes.  One has all the pieces I've made, up to clue 7.  The other has the leftover fabrics.  I decided just to take the units box and see what I could do with it.  Hum, not as much as I thought.  I was able to piece one section of a finished block.  I had also put in a few other small projects which I did first. I'm happy to report I have 10 lottery blocks done for the October retreat.  

Here's part of one block.  I like that gray with it.  Except that's the ironing board.  Not to worry, the next pieces are black and white units and somewhere in this quilt there is some gray.  These colors really have a lot of zing!  If I finish this quilt before November I might start the new mystery that Bonnie Hunter starts every Thanksgiving.  We'll see.  


Ellie was a lot of fun to be with although, I did take her to day care.  She wore me out!  I wish I had half her energy.   Here she is being her cute self! 

And now the vacationing men .... 

This is the fish dinner we enjoyed.... Pat and I shared this one little fish with fresh homegrown tomatoes and a roll. (It was very tasty but I was still hungry after eating it!) We have quite a few more fish to enjoy.  I've never had such fresh fish. 

That's it from me today.  I'm linking up with Fabric Frenzy Friday.

Happy Quilting All! 

Let Me Introduce

Natalie Anne

 born July 18th

7 lbs 14 oz. 

Proud parents

Jenny and Brian Lang

And the terrific big sister

Sophia Eloise 

Happy Quilting All

Vacationing and Celebrating

Wow, could it be possible?  That young man I met in English class at the University of Southern California has been my friend and husband for 39 years? Yep, we are celebrating 39 years of marriage. Wow, but I thought I was just a teenager a few moments ago! 
We've been having a wonderful time hanging around in Lancaster, Pa after spending a day and night with Kevin and Aimee and another with Jenny and Sophia.  Brian's working in Virginia not far from our home.  Go figure.  

Last night we stayed at the B. F. Hiestand House in Marietta, Pa.  Innkeepers Dallas and Pam were so very hospitable.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.  And, Quincy, their beautiful yellow lab was a great gentleman greeter.  If you are looking for a unique stay in the Lancaster area consider visiting B. F. Hiestand House, a wonderfully maintained Victorian mansion.  Pat and I spent a lovely couple of hours on the wrap around front porch chatting with other guests and drinking wine.    


Today we spent most of the day driving around Lancaster County visiting quilt shops.  I think we hit 5 of them and by the fifth one I was getting tired and Pat was probably exhausted.  I hope he had as good a time as I did.  Monday I'll share my finds with you.  We were also able to find a couple of tables to go with some rockers we ordered at home... same recycled milk jugs.  Once the chairs come in I'll share some pictures.   


We shared the tomato we picked while still green from our lone plant that is growing on our deck.  We figured we couldn't leave the tomato for a week -- the birds would have gotten it for sure.  So the tomato was carefully placed in the back cup holders of the truck, brought in to both Jenny's and Kevin's houses.  We remembered to bring it with us when we left for Pa.  And, it was the highlight of our lunch. A little cheese, a few crackers, the tomato and half a banana... a perfect easy picnic lunch.

We are now up near our house in Greentown, Pa.  We both knew a visit to Kundla's for barbecue chicken was absolutely necessary.  As usual, we had to stand in line for a while.  As we shuffled forward we came in sight of the grill filled with chicken halves. All the meat is barbecued on big grates.  Below is one of the two men it takes to flip the chickens. Another grate is placed over the top of the birds and both the bottom and top grate is turned over.  Yummy stuff!  Can't you just smell that good barbecue smell coming off these grills? 

We added cole slaw and beans with sodas.  Yummy stuff for sure!  There's Pat waiting in the sunshine for our chance to order.  

Thank goodness they give out big napkins and even bigger wet clothes for cleaning up afterwards.  When we lived here we would buy several chicken dinners and freeze them.  They were great to pull out when I didn't want to cook and so darn reasonable.  

Tomorrow we are headed to Bethel Woods, formerly known as Woodstock, to attend the 50th anniversary concert of the Beach Boys.  Should be a lot of fun. Then Monday we're loading up some wood that came from our property here...red maple.  I'm sure Pat will make something wonderful from it.  Hum, maybe a quilt ladder?  Then it will be back to Jenny's for a few days and on to home and newly refinished floors.  

Some knitting is getting done but no quilting although it has been in my mind as I was shopping!  

Happy quilting all! 

Design Wall Monday 5.28.12

Another week zoomed by and I didn't get a lot of quilting/piecing done.  We are about to embark on a kitchen remodel (starts Wednesday) and everything has to be out of cabinets in the kitchen, hallway, and laundry room and a bathroom.  

The piecing I got done or at least a start on is a set of batik rail fence blocks.  These will be swapped at the FCQ Retreat I am going on starting this Friday.  We are to make blocks that have only cool colors in them or only warm colors in them.  I've finished more of the cool colors than the warm colors at this point. I did buy fabric for this swap as I have some batiks but not a whole lot of them.


I've gotten some things done on Ruthie also.  I finished one baby quilt that I will be donating to Country Piecemaker's charity.  No pictures to show you of that.  Then I loaded Heidi's quilt made by the Bee Quilters.  She went first and had us make big wacky log cabin blocks.  With 12 people in the group and large blocks she ended up with a nearly queen size quilt.  I am hoping to finish it and take it up when I leave Thursday. I'm using my spiral groovy boards and it is looking great with that pattern.  This is going to be a fun, colorful quilt.  

Week of May 21, 2012

Finish quilting twin charity quilt for FCQ√

Start quilting Heidi’s quilt√

Pick up old Bernina from spa week… not happening for a couple of weeks.

Take dogs in for check ups√

Cut out projects for retreat at beginning of June √some done

Cut Scrap Squad #3… not started at all…

Get baby quilts done on Ruthie if possible√ one done, one to go

Not too bad especially since I didn't mention empty kitchen... 

Week of May 28

Finish Heidi’s quilt

Remove everything from kitchen cabinets

Pack up 3 projects for FCQ retreat

Make block for 1800 block of the month

Trim twin charity quilt and bind

Trim baby charity quilt and bind

Travel north safely

Finish one of the stars tops, hopefully both 

I will be up in Maryland a few days beyond the retreat helping Jenny.  Brian will be down in Virginia most weeks for about 4 weeks for work.  Bummer.

I'm off to take some more things out of the kitchen and stash somewhere else.  I'll be posting pictures during the remodel but not a lot at the first.  And, just to add to the chaos around here we are having our floors redone while we are on vacation in mid June.  FUN! 

Don't forget to stop by Patchwork Times to see what is showing up on design walls around the internet.

Happy Quilting All! 

  

Birthdays and Hurricane

 We celebrated Sophia's first birthday between the earthquake and the hurricane.  


We didn't get out of the house until 11 am because we had to do some hurricane preparedness things.  The biggies were consolidating the freezer and piling lots of ice around our food.  Filling a tub with water so we could flush our toilets if the power went out. And, securing the out door furniture and potted plants. 


Here's some of the earthquake damage in Mineral, the closest town to the epicenter. We drove right through Mineral to get to Jen & Brian's house. 

This manor house is known as Cuckoo (I have no idea why -- I never can read the historical markers fast enough as we drive by...)  It was shown quite a bit on local news.  There were cracks on some of the inside walls also.  We saw a lot of crumbled chimneys on our drive up. 



When we got to Jen's house we pitched in to help them get ready for the birthday girl's party on Saturday.  I decorated another batch of cupcakes. Aimee brought up her cupcake tree so they looked nice. (Although I think I need remedial frosting instructions...) We helped get their house hurricane ready -- they were likely to have more problems than we were.  And, we chopped and diced and etc to get the food ready for the party. 


The birthday girl took a good morning nap and was ready to party! Sophia, Jenny and Brian are getting ready for Sophia to have her first cupcake -- with frosting! 




She didn't go wild for the frosting -- although she did eat some of it and the cupcake. 


Folks needed to get home before the hurricane was scheduled to hit Maryland so everyone was gone by 3 pm. 

    

Here's Aunt Aimee crying with Sophia over the Ravens jersey Uncle Kevin got her. She liked the toys much better. Her nana bought her the cutest little Vera Bradley purse.  Keep an eye on your Mommy Sophia, she might want to use it too. 

She really wanted to check out the baby in this photo frame that Grammie and Grandpa got her and fixed up.  

We left a bit before 3 ourselves.  The drive home was mostly uneventful until we got about an hour from our house.  Two or three times small branches slammed into the windshield but didn't break it.  Scared the dickens out of us though.  Then one decided to drop on the roof.  I thought for sure it would leave a dent in the car but Pat couldn't find one.  The wind picked up and the rain wasn't all that heavy so we really didn't have that hard of a time.  Of course, we went country roads rather than face I 95.  It's always a mess. 

As we turned into our street we were stopped by a tree on the road but luckily we could get by on the left side.

And the final "kick in the pants?"  We had no power.  Evidently it went out around noon on Saturday.  And, darn it, it didn't come back until about 11 am on Sunday which was a lot sooner than we were told to expect it.  Thank goodness we had made the preparations before we left.  I have two book lights and lots of rechargeable batteries so we read our books and went to bed early.  Next morning we banged on our neighbor's door early so Pat could plug his coffee pot in --- they have a generator.  Hum, we may want to look into getting one of those.  Although 24 hours without electricity isn't too bad.  

I spent part of this afternoon getting the binding on a quilt so that I can hand stitch it tonight.  I've got another one ready to pin the binding on and get it sewn tomorrow.  I'm working hard to get more quilty things finished so I have used as much fabric as I bought this month.  Remember this lovely field trip? I'm within 2 yards of using as much as I bought.  I'll have to see if I can finish a few more things before Sept. 1. 

Happy Quilting All!   

How Old Is Too Old?

Fabric that is...

            while chatting with Jenny and Brian this weekend I mentioned I had made my own bumper pads before Jenny was born.  And, that led me to comment that I still had some of the fabric left in my stash.  Brian's comment was it was way too old to have sitting around still.  So, what do you all think?  Is a 30+ year old fabric too old to keep in the stash and use?  

Yep, it's a calico.  No ultra sounds unless there was a major issue so we didn't know if we'd have a boy or a girl so the room was done in browns and yellows.  Which at the time I liked. I still like this calico although I don't think I've used it in any of my recent scrap quilts.  Hum, maybe I should cut a piece to put in the big scrap quilt that is currently on the back burner while I do some little projects,  although I am still using the borders as leader/enders. 

I loaded this stretched star quilt on Ruthie today and got it quilted in about an hour and a half.  Just large free motion stippling.  I cut and pinned the binding tonight but will be sewing it together tomorrow. 

I guess I wimped out on my goals for last week.  There wasn't much on the list: 

     • Sew on 2009 Bunny Hill BOM A Tisket, A Tasket.

    • Finish Sophia's sweater.

    • Load something on Ruthie. 

    • Enjoy a safe trip to Maryland. 

I did all but loading something on Ruthie last week. 

Here is a short goal list for the rest of this week.

    • Finish the stretched star quilt -- make & sew on binding. 

    • Finish a surprise doll quilt... it needs to go in the mail to Heather ~~ waving at you up in Canada.

    • Add a border to the Valentine's Quilt.

    • Make the backing for Super Duper Easy quilt, Mysteries for Relay #13.    See the top here. 

Hum, I may need to redefine the word SHORT.  I was pleasantly surprised to realize it wouldn't be all that hard to put together the backing for Super Duper once I found some fabric.  In fact, I was able to find enough of one fabric to use.  It won't take long to quilt although it won't be as fast as the stretched stars.  

Happy Quilting All!  

Welcome to Sophia Eloise

Sophia Eloise is here!

Proud Mom and Dad with Sophia

'

Amazed Uncle Kevin with Sophia less than an hour old! 

And the details: 

Born Monday, August 23, at 8:25 pm.  

6 lbs, 14 oz. 19 " long 

Everyone is doing very well. 


We'll be up here for another night and then will head home.  Needless to say, no quilting is going on! But I'm thinking about little dresses, little sweaters and darling little hats!   


Happy Quilting All!  

July Stashbusting Report

July Stash Report

Fabric Acquired: 1/4 yards

Fabric Used: 4 3/4 yards

Net Fabric Used: 4 1/2 yards

Year To Date Report

Fabric Acquired: 25 3/4 yards

Fabric Used: 29 1/2 yards

Net Fabric Used: 3 1/4 yards

Yippee. Snoopy Dancing here! I've used more fabric than I acquired. (And, it was given to me rather than me purchasing it, if that makes a difference. Thanks Fran.)

This is short as I am going to go grocery shopping with Jenny now. I'm spending a couple of days with her while Brian went to a wedding in Ohio. She's a month a way from her due date so didn't want to stay alone.

Photos and more of what I've been up to in the next few posts.

Happy Quilting All!

A Week Passed?

I was shocked to see a whole week has passed since last I wrote... Parts of it was busy, parts not so busy.

On Wednesday we drove back down to Maryland and stayed at J & B Bed and Breakfast and dinner for that matter. Jen and Brian are always so accommodating. Raggs got to stay and play with Kona. Thursday we got up and traveled the rest of the way to Powhatan. Where we had lunch at a fabulous Mexican restaurant. Sorry, can't tell you the name but can tell you we've eaten there twice. (Did I mention we really like Mexican food?)

Our plan that day was to go through the home inspection. Yikes, he was thorough but we were very happy to find out there wasn't much wrong with the house that couldn't be fixed fairly easily. I spent time measuring things and doing a little mental furniture placing. I recorded colors in my little notebook.

For the most part I like the way the house is decorated. Most of the rooms have borders at the top of the room. Here's one in one of the guest rooms. I'm not so happy with this room with its rose carpeting. The border will have to go . . . eventually. The carpet won't be as easily replaced as it is new. However, I think I have a quilt that will work with the color.

This is the border in the other guest room. (Our kids like to come together hence, the two guest rooms.) I don't have any quilts that will match this room. One of the walls is painted red, if I remember correctly. I like it so maybe a new quilt will be forthcoming.

One of the things that sold us on the house was the rooms upstairs. Two bonus rooms, one already set up as a studio or craft room. That blue thing in the middle is a cutting table. What looks like a red wall is actually painted corkboard (a couple of pairs of pants are hanging in front of it.)

Here is a corner workstation with a built in place for a sewing machine. (Yep, a checkbook was left out on the desk while the home was being shown... strange.) And, notice the peony in the vase. There is a beautiful peony plant in the yard and probably a dozen rose bushes. Wash those vases, I'm going to have flowers in the house again!

And, then there is this nice long row of shelves. A place for everything and everything in its place. Well, that is the plan at least. However, there are no closets so everything will be in sight.

I have begun packing up a little in the sewing room with the type of storage in mind. I have mixed feelings about all of these built ins. I like to have two sewing stations available. I want my big board up somewhere. And there isn't much room for that. And, I know with this much surface space available I will probably cover it several times over. But, I tend to keep my fat quarters in short baskets so this will be perfect for them. I'll have to decide whether I want my yardage in here or whether it will be on my shelving unit in the other room. Ruthie will be in the other room with the shelving unit. One of the things I like about that is my fabrics are at eye level. Yikes, it might be too tall. I'm not sure it will work here because the walls bend (so to speak.) And, I'll need to pay attention to how much sun comes in and at what times.

One thing I know is I will need to live with the room for a while before I know whether it is wonderful, workable or needs some modification. It does provide a wonderful amount of storage although not necessarily where and how I like it. But, I am adaptable.

Our return to J & B's was uneventful. We were there in about 2 hours, 45 minutes even at the end of rush hour. Raggs had behaved himself. (Phew, I was worried about that.) Friday we drove off to PA to get serious about this move. I am still sewing... hey, a girl has to have some fun. I've packed a few boxes. Luckily we don't have to pack the whole house. I just want to pack my studio so I know where things are when we unpack. I've also been going through boxes of papers from when I was a Media Specialist. The recycling bin is seeing a lot of that stuff. I am keeping some papers and books that would work for young story times. You never know what I will feel like doing in the future.

Now it is time for breakfast and to begin another day of sewing and packing. Hopefully more packing than the three boxes already done.

Happy Quilting!

And the Cake Please

Jen and Brian asked Pat and I to come for dinner and stay with them yesterday on our way back from Virginia. (Ooops forgot to mention we made a quick trip to Virginia more about that in future blogs.) So, we got there a bit before dinner. And, then Aimee and Kevin arrived. The big family dinner was all about a big announcement. It was baby's sex announcement night. But would Jenny tell us? No -- we had to wait through dinner prep, dinner, and clean up. She had made a cake for dessert and dyed it either blue or pink. Except, she covered it with white frosting so we couldn't even peak. I did a finger check when I got there but evidently she didn't spill food coloring on her fingers when she made the cake. Rats. We all had to wait for the cake cutting.

And the baby is

a GIRL

Aimee brought two presents one for a girl and one for a boy:

Did I mention that Aimee is a fingerprint expert with the FBI?

Kevin and Aimee were leaving for Costa Rica early this morning. Lucky folks Aimee bought a jacket to match Kevin's so they could find each other easily in the rain forest. Sounds like they'll have a great time.

So PINK is the color of the day, week, month year. And, maybe some turquoise, yellow, peach, lavender, purple...

Pat and I went to Sauders Fabrics on the way home today and I went wild buying fabric. Oops. I needed some for the string quilt I'm making. Of course, the prices are so good there I bought a "little" extra. I am so not looking forward to my next Stash Report. I'm out of town so much this month I can't get much done but I've been doing some serious shopping! Fun NEW fabrics.

Tomorrow back to quilting! Happy Quilting Everyone.