Change of Plans

I've been cutting and getting my fabrics ready to go to my friends retreat in Virginia and I leave tomorrow. While doing that I did come across my Christmas fabrics that I was going to use for a Log Cabin quilt but have since decided to do a Slash and Dash by Jackie Robinson with the Christmas fabrics.

Above you can see all of the strips I cut and then sewed the greens, reds, etc. into one continuous strip to do a string pieced star. Looks like a lot of fabric doesn't it? Well, it's really only 2.5 yards according to my rough estimate and match. But at least they're all ready to go when I'm ready to start sewing.

In the last few days---

And last but not least is a quilt for my new great niece. This is a cheater quilt but I hand quilted it with pink perle cotton and it looks really cute. The light isn't too good on this picture, don't know what happened. Still have to handstitch the binding on but other than that it's done.

And here are some bibs I made for my granddaughter and my great niece and nephew. Have had the flannel panel for a couple of years and thought I'd better make it up before the kids get too big for bibs.

Here's a fall table topper I made from a website. It was a mystery. Think it might look great in Christmas colors.

I Spy

And last but not least I've been in a cutting frenzy. I'm going to a retreat with my friend who lives in Virginia. It's a "stay-at-home" retreat. You go to the retreat place and sew during the day but you get to go home a sleep in your own bed. I'm really looking forward to it and have been cutting away to get my pieces ready to put together "Faceted Jewels". LOTS of pieces!

There were some ladies at the retreat making placemats and these Christmas tree napkins. I had the pattern for the napkins last year and even bought fabric to make them but never did so when I got home I decided to make a few. And, if you'll look closer, you'll notice I made some tiny ones that will make great ornaments.

At the weekend retreat another lady was making this quilt. It was much bigger than this but I thought I'd start out with the dog. Not sure what I'll do with it now and I know you can't see the fabric really well but it kind of looks like our beagles we've had in the past.

Here's the picture of the I Spy quilt I mentioned in my previous post.

I made a bunch of these cute little pumpkins to fill up this fall basket I had. They're really easy and used up a bit of my scraps.

At a retreat we had last weekend with a bunch of friends I finally got my I Spy quilt together. The retreat was wonderful as the weather was great and the place was right on the water. A wonderful weekend.

Here are a few pictures of my Cady that I took when I was out there helping them move. She is such a cutie

Ornament Swap and Block of the Month

Just got back from visiting my brother and his family and then on to my dad's in south Florida to help him celebrate his 93rd birthday. Had a good time at both places.

The picture on the left is an ornament I made for a swap I'm in. You make one for each person in the swap. I made hine of these little fellas. I love to color and this was a fun one. I stitched them on to felt and added a hangar.

The picture on the right are blocks I made for a Block of the Month club I belong to. Each month you make two blocks and you will win a group of them during the year. If you'll notice, two of the blocks are sewn together wrong... the upper left and upper right ones.

Maybe I'll figure it out someday

Maybe someday I'll figure out how to post the pictures that go with the right paragraph. I go to the edit page but just not sure how to do that. So if you're visiting this blog you may have to scroll way down to see all of the post.

Also have been straighteninng up by fabric.....

What I've been doing!

On the right is one of the Linus quilts and on the left is a picture of the dog quilts. Below is the Cowboy quilt.

Well, after starting to sew again, I've been going through bags and fabric and sorting out things I want to take to our Counrty Store at our guild retreat next month and dohave quite a few things. I even went through my X-stitch stuff and have some patterns and things from those drawers too.

I've finished two Linus quilts and two dog quilts for my brother's dogs. Will be visiting him in a week or so and he loves his dogs so thought that would be a good hostess gift. I also made the Cowboy Quilt which is really a lesson in recycling. The cowboy fabric was a skirt I bought at a thrift store...lots of fabric in the skirt. And the half-square triangles made into pinwheels came from other blocks that I didn't like in a quilt so I took them apart and reused them. Also used a big of blue-jean fabric. Nothing new was used for this quilt so it really is a "green" quilt. It's for my daughter's girlfriend's son who loves cowboys. Very retro fabric!

I've been trying to finish up quilts that are almost done and have about ten to be quilted. Some have backings ready to go and I've even cut batting for them...just need to start quilting them.

I've also been doing some X-stitch. Years ago I had done some Mary Engelbreit X-stitch and was going to put them in a quilt. Well, I unearthed them and decided to do a few more smaller ones to go with it and then I'm going to put them in a quilt and put them on the twin bed for when Cady comes to visit me. I think she'll love the pictures and the colors.

Finally home

Well, after being gone from home for four months I'm so glad to b

home and among my own things. This is what I've been doing since I returned home. I finished making some blocks for a black/white/poison swap. I made bowties and friendship stars.

The second thing I've been doing is finishing up putting my books and patterns in order and making a catalog of them. Hopefully I'll be able to keep the books in order.

Our guild quilt show is this Friday and Saturday and yesterday I helped check in the quilts and toady and tomorrow I'm going to be helping hang the quilts. Hopefully the show will be a great success. The quilts that are hung so far are fantastic!!!

My mom, GG and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium yesterday. The day was beautiful and there were lots of boats out on the bay.

I really enjoyed the aquarium. I got to touch a starfish and I saw all of the sardines swimming around in a tank...it looked just like a picture from one of my books. And here is a picture of me sitting in a clamshell. It was lots of fun and I can't wait to go back!!!

What have I been doing?

I've been in California for quite awhile but did get a change to go the big quilt show in Paducah, KY with my quilting friends. They picked me up at the Nashville airport and we had a great time. Even though Paducah was planning on being flooded and some of the venues had to be changed, the quilt show went on. We sayed at a great place in a really nice house right on the lake in Grand Rivers, KY. I rode home with my friends to Alabama and got to stay home for a couple of days before Phil and I flew back to California for Cathi's and Cady's birthday parties.

And here is a picture of the star of the day. She wasn't too excited
about her crown but did finally get a picture of her sort of smiling and being happy. The birthday party was a huge success. It was held in a county park under some nice trees and right by a babbling brook. After the party we went wine tasting to a nice little winery only a couple of miles from where we're staying. Here's a picture of the beautiful table Cathi set for the party and all of the work she did... Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!!!

How cute is this?

Pretty darn cute!!!! One of Cady's teachers fixed her little "palm trees" as Cady's mom calls them. Just wanted to show off my cutie pie!!!

Holy Cow!!!

Holy Cow!!!! Can't believe it's been so long since I posted here. Well, not much new happening here except that we're (Cathi, Cady and I) are now in northern California staying with a friend until they can move into a house. They've made an offer on one just across the street from the one she grew up in....how funny is that?!?!? It's a short sale and they're waiting on approval from the seller's bank. Hope they get it, it's really nice and has about 2 1/2 times the square footage of their present house. Of course if they get this house it means that I can get rid of quite a bit of stuff that's being stored in my house.

Cady and I have been having fun. We play every day and she's really close to walking now! She started her day care yesterday and here's a picture of her with her new friends having snack. And here's another one of me ready for my first day of "school" (day care). And don't you just love my new shoes?

Breakfast choice

Seems like she just couldn't find the right flaavor of oatmeal for the morning.

from Cady

Here I am eating my VERY healthy lunch...avocado and carrots and I ate it all by myself. I'm also drinking my milk out of my tippee cup all by myself.


Here I am pointing to my shoes. My GG thought I might need to wear shoes when I go to my new daycare when I move so she dug out these shoes from one of my drawers.

Cady's new Walker and Cell Phone

Here's Dan putting Cady's new little walker
thing together and the next picture is of her
enjoying it. I think it is really going to help her
get the hang of walking.
The other picture is of Cady and her new
pink cell phone!!!

Caged!!!

from Cady --Here is how I'm locked in when they put me in my room. But really I like playing in there because I can crawl all over and play with my toys and pull all of my books off the shelves. But my mom fooled me and took all of the books that I'm really not supposed to be playing with now and packed them away. I really devour books....literally...I chew on the corners so now all I have is the chip board kind of books...the really hearty ones!!!

Hope you can see Cady's two top teeth and look at her curly hair, she got that from her mom and her blue eyes from her dad.

Here's what we did today!

Cady played in the garden for awhile and then

read for awhile and listened to her "radio" that only has classical music.

Cady loves playing in her room with all of her toys.

What I've been doing---

In the top picture here Cady and I are at the park and she love the swing. Please disregard the graffitti on the swing! She loves being outdoors and in the swing she loves the wind blowing at her face and threw her hair....what there is of it.

from Cady: In the second picture I'm on the patio in my pack-n-play and I'm wearing my new leg warmers. It's really a nice day here in Southern California.

from Cady: In the last picture I'm trying out my new walker. I'm still not very good at it but I'm sure with a bit of practice I'll get the hang of it!

Click here if you want to see the pictures of me in the half-marathon. I'm in the orange long-sleeved shirt. Later I'll post a picture of my daughter and I right after the finish line.

Here's what we did today!!!

We had a great time at the park today. The weather was beautiful and Cady was really warm in her cute little sweater. She loves the swing!!!

She also loved getting in the box that her diapers came in.

Surf City Half-Marathon

Here's the medal I got for finishing the Surf City Half-Marathon in Huntington Beach, CA today. I took the place of my daughter's friend who couldn't make it so I wasentered in the female 30-34 group. My stats were:

Overall: 12911/13256

Women: 8075/8357

Female 30-34: 1315/1342

Place in race: 13037

Time: 3:43:49

I am really sore and during the race my hips hurt really bad but I kept on walking!!! I was very proud of myself that I finished and I was really glad to see that finish line!

Santa Ana Winds

This is a picture of how you should dress when going for a stroll in Southern California in the winter and the Santa Ana winds are blowing. It was REALLY cold!!!

Las Vegas Bound

Am in California now visiting my granddaughter and her parents. I arrived on a Wednesda and on Friday we left for Las Vegas for the weekend and had a wonderful time. Was great seeing all the new casinos. It had been about 15 years since I had been there and lots of new things to see. Cady loved all the lights and the people. Everytime someone got on the elevator with us she would give them the once over. And one night on the monorail she stared some guy down.

However, let me explain the picture. On the way down, in the middle of nowhere, I told Cady's mom and dad that she had pooped. They asked if we thought we could wait awhile before we changed her. I said, "how far?". They said 50 miles. I said "no way!" And then the "aroma" got to all of us and we pulled off an exit where there was nothing and pulled to the side of the road. When we took Cady out of her car seat there was poop all over. It hadn't got on her car seat but it was all over her clothes and up her back and down to her ankles. We got her clothes off and put them in a plastic bag and used LOTS of wipes. We stood her on the trunk of the car buck naked and finished wiping her down. In the meantime there were a few cars and semi trucks passing by. It was really pretty funny and I'm sure she'll really enjoy this story and picture in about 15 years.

Boomeranged Home

Here are the first blocks that were made for me and I especially like the one where she fussy cut the center block. Was wondering what everybody would make and so far I am really pleased.