The Trip to Chicago

I had a wonderful time with the Matt and Jessica this weekend. They really are well behaved and it was a such a treat for me. We didn't leave quite as early as planned due to a flat tire on Julie's car. Better hers than mine, huh? The good thing is that Jason lives just a few blocks from me and he came back over to rescue his sister and change her tire, after just dropping Jessica off here. Finally, we were on our way and made it to the Museum of Science and Industry without too much trouble. The favorite part of it for the kids was the Flight Simulator. There's a video camera inside and we were able to see them during their ride. They enjoyed the airplane also. Here's Matt posing for a shot on the plane.



The trip from the museum to our hotel - 38 miles - took about 2 hours. Bumper to bumper traffic for all but the last 15 minutes or so. How many times did I hear, "Are we there yet?" I have no idea, but a lot. Finally, we arrived at the hotel, got checked in and went upstairs to get dressed for the water park. Oh-oh, Jessica didn't have her bathing suit. She thought she packed it! I called the front desk to inquire about shopping locally and was told they have swimwear in the gift shop downstairs. So, down we go, to buy her the most expensive swim suit she has ever owned. But, after that long drive, I was happy to not have to get in the car and drive, who knows how far, to find a store and then, hmmmm, how many stores have swimsuits on their racks at this time of the year in Chicago?

Saturday morning we headed over to LegoLand. A nice place to visit with a walking tour and also a train ride tour. Of course, lots of Legos to purchase also.



Then we headed up to Wisconsin to the Jelly Belly Factory and the Mars Cheese Castle. We came home with lots of Belly Flops (irregular Jelly Bellys) and Cheese Curds.

Back to the water park for more fun and even the hot tub and a glass of Merlot for me. Then dinner again from the Pizza Hut/A&W which is located right inside the park.

Sunday morning bright and early we were up and on our way back downtown to the skydeck of the Sears Tower. After that we walked to Garrett's Popcorn shop to get some special ordered carmel corn for Julie.



The last stop was, of course, Fair Oaks farm to get some ice cream. The line inside for cones stretched the length of the building, so we bought a couple pints and headed for home.



It was a great weekend for me and I hope we made some lasting memories and that Matt and Jessica enjoyed their Fall break.

The Updated "Short List"

Here's my progress so far:

1. Brown quilt for Matt - needs quilted and bound - Finished quilting last night 1/2/13
2. Red quilt for Granddaughter Jessica - needs quilted and bound
3. 1600 quilt for Step-granddaughter Sarah - needs borders, quilted and bound
4. Stockings for Jeff, Dane and Calise - these need to be done by Thanksgiving! - Finished and gifted 11/22/12
5. Quilt for Baby Drew - it's just blocks on the design wall now
6. Quilt for Ashleigh's baby girl - needs quilted and bound - Finished and gifted 1/2/13

So, that leaves me with numbers 2, 3, and 5 to finish. Oh, and the binding of Matt's quilt.


I have one of Janet's quilts ready to load tonight and then I'll probably relax and hand sew binding.

Exhausted!

Whew, I'm tired! I spent the afternoon with Julie, Matt, Andrew, Elizabeth, Angie, and Marla at the Covered Bridge Festival in Mansfield, IN. We had a great time and I got some nice fall decorations, some kitchen gadgets, a christmas gift, and ate way too much yummy food. Matt and Marla took a helicopter ride and I have a video of it, but it's on my camera, which is in the other room and I'm too pooped to go get it right now.

Before I left this morning I worked on Carole's quilt and I'm pretty happy with how it coming along. The blocks are a Norma Sharp Chantilly Lace block pattern and the sashing is called ribbon candy, I believe.

CONGRATULATIONS

First, a big round or applause to my grandson Matt. He won a 1st Place Blue Ribbon Medal in the Hendricks County Solo and Ensemble Competition on Saturday. His performance included the song "Candle on the Water" from the Walt Disney movie Pete's Dragon. I wasn't able to attend, but hope to see the video real soon.

ATTABOY, MATT!!



Second, my son Jeff, a Staff Sergeant in the US Army, has just completed ANOC training at Ft. Sill. He was awarded the Distinguished Honor Student Award in his class. Here he is pictured in Iraq about 2 years ago. It is one of my favorite photos of him.

HOOAH JEFF!!

Matt's Carmel Latte

While shopping at  Back Door Quilts in Greenwood for my birthday outing with Julie and the kids last summer, I told Matt, my 16 year old grandson, to pick out a pattern for a quilt for his bed. This is what he chose:

It wouldn't have been my first choice as it's a bit too...... I'm not sure what the correct word is.
The end result is fine from far away, but there is just too much going on up close for my liking.

I purchased only a few dark browns and the rest came from my stash. I didn't follow the pattern as it calls for you to make a strata and then cut out only six 6.5" blocks on the diagonal from it. That seemed like a huge waste of fabric for me. The amount of fabric suggested on the pattern is way too high, 13-15 yards!

So, I cut up an old phone book and strip-pieced all the blocks and them trimmed them down. The outer row of blocks was to have been strip pieced blocks cut in half, but I chose to use the border fabric. The pattern doesn't call for a border, but I wanted it larger than 76" x 76" so he could use it on  his full-size bed.

I quilted it with Square Spiral and the backing is a mottled light brown flannel.

This pattern is up for grabs to the first person that says they would like to have it. Just leave me a comment and I'll get it out to you.

Yes, I'm Thankful!

So thankful for my wonderful family!
I had a great time at Julie & Jim's on Thanksgiving Day, enjoyed a wonderful meal with my children, their families, my ex-husband, his wife, brother and sister. I got to meet my grandson's lovely girlfriend, Kelsey. I think she's a keeper, Tony!

Yes, we slept for a couple of hours Thursday evening before heading out to Toys R Us along with the hundreds of others who thought the Greenwood store was the only one to shop at. NO, we did not get into that long, long line, but instead headed to Walmart to use their price match guarantee.

After some breakfast at Denny's, we headed to Old Navy. The rumor was, they were to open at 3AM. It was cold outside and I for one didn't want to stand outside for 30+ minutes in the 30 degree weather. Unfortunately for the hundreds standing in line at Old Navy, that store didn't open until 5 AM.

We decided to go to Penny's for their 4 AM opening. We got some fantastic deals and I think we were out the door with our packages before 4:30. Back to Walmart for their 5 AM sales. I bought myself a new Kodak Printer so I don't have to keep buyiing cartridges every 2 months for my Epson. This printer is supposed to be the easiest on the pocketbook when it comes to ink refills. Lots of other great deals too, like a Cabbage Patch Doll for Elizabeth. Then, of course, I went to Joanns on Saturday to buy some doll clothes patterns. Speaking of Joanns, I wasn't able to get to Joanns on Friday to pick up the rowenta iron on sale before they ran out. I was pretty sad about that, but as luck would have it, their website was down and they are honoring doorbuster prices through today, and maybe even tomorrow. So, I called last night and was able to order it and got free shipping too.

Andrew is very much into trains, Thomas the train to be exact, but most any train catches his eye. When I saw that Target had gingerbread trains last week, I knew that I had to buy one. Friday night while we were waiting for our pizza to arrive, Matt, Andrew and I assembled this oh-so-cute gingerbread train.



Here's Andrew and Elizabeth just before I left on Saturday. I certainly did enjoy my little vacation with them, but I was very tired Saturday night and didn't to much of anything when I arrived home.

My Daughter, The Quilter, Part 2!

The last post was all about the quilts she finished and this post will be about her. Love you Julie! I think she looks just cute as can be. I know she is getting uncomfortable, but there's just 3 more weeks to go, until Andrew, Matt and Tony have a little brother or sister. We discovered last night that it is pretty hard for her to quilt from the front of the machine. It's a good thing she wanted to do pantographs.


I have been watching the blog of another mom expecting about the same time as Julie and wanted to take a picture of Julie to see how they compare. Pretty much the same... don't you think?

Thanksgiving 2008

Dan and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Elaine and Jerry's home in Columbus, Ohio, along with Jeff and Dané, my grandson Matt, and my ex-husband Jack. The first order of business was the wedding quilt. They were pleased with it, I think and I was certainly proud.







The actual dinner was yummy. Elaine and Dané are wonderful cooks and we were all stuffed when we got up from the table and the pumpkin-walnut pie had to wait for several hours before we had room to enjoy it with some coffee.



Here's Jeff, Dané, and her parents


Jeff, Dané, and Jeff's Dad, Jack


I gave Elaine the Christmas Star table runner that I finished the binding on in the car on the way to their house. It looked just perfect on their table.



Saying goodbye is always hard for me, so we made a rather speedy exit before I really let the tears fall.

Thank you Jerry, Elaine, Jeff, and Dané for a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Stashbusting Report - 9/16/08

Whoops, I'm late with this one.



Fabric Added This Week - 5 yards (To make a basketball quilt for Matt)
Fabric Added Year to Date - 91.125 yards

Fabric Used This Week - 7.75 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date - 301.75 yards

YEAR TO DATE NET TOTAL: 210.625

The Perfect Sunday Afternoon!

Look who I got to spend time with yesterday:

Andrew seems to like his I-Spy quilt. Can you tell that he wouldn't hold still?


Elizabeth was content in my arms for a little bit, but not for long. She was hungry and once she had a bottle, she drifted off to sleep. It just doesn't get much better than this:


Andrew was very fascinated by my appliqueing and I had to be very careful where my needle at all times. I know he likes to watch his mom at the sewing machine and he has always liked to watch the longarm.



He's pretty good with the crayons, too, and they have the coolest toys and puzzles for kids these days. I was very entertained also.



Darn, I didn't get any pictures of Matt, who spent most of the afternoon in his room on the computer.

How sweet is this?

I spent the afternoon at Julie and Jim's while they went out for their anniversary. Here is Elizabeth trying on her new dress and hat that Nana made for her last night. It's been a long time since I've done any garment sewing and it was certainly enjoyable. She wore the hat all afternoon.

Matt and I assembled Andrew's basketball center and then he spent some time with an Ipod, or maybe it was a game. He is quite the young man now and so helpful with the little kids.

Andrew's new basketball center.

Here's the back of her hat....cute, huh?

Before I left for home the kids had an easter egg hunt in the front yard. My phone battery was dead, so I didn't get any photos, but Julie said they would send me some.

What a Wonderful Day!

Not much sewing or quilting going on for me yesterday, but, I did have a wonderful day.

Julie and Marla went to the Home Show in Indianapolis to see Kate Goslin, of Jon and Kate Plus Eight, and I had the pleasure of watching Elizabeth, Andrew and Matt. Now I know why Julie doesn’t get much quilting done. Watching those babies is a full time job! But what a wonderful, rewarding job it is. I had so much fun and I hope they did also.



Can you tell he really likes to watch SpongeBob Squarepants?

All packed up!

Ready to head out to Shipshewana in the morning for our annual retreat. I'm sure sleep will be limited tonight as I will be thinking of all the things I may have forgotten to pack. I packed more projects than I will ever get done, but it's better to pack too many than not enough. Heaven forbid, I should have to go shopping at Yoder's or Lolly's. LOL

I'm taking fabric to work on: some custom baby burp cloths and the leftover fabrics will be a baby bricks quilt, a pumpkin bib for Calise, a baby quilt for Nick's new little baby, Drew, who was just born on Monday, black and whites for a 1600 quilt, a wallet to finish, an iron caddy, Matt's brown quilt, and a t-shirt quilt. I should have taken pictures of it all before it got packed, but I'll take photos as I finish these projects.

Let's hope the rain stops before we take off in the morning.

If you're reading this and coming to the retreat, I'll see you tomorrow!

If you live near Shipshewana, come by the Farmstead Inn and say hi. We'll be in the conference center, or we might be at JoJo's having a pretzel!

4-Patch Stacked Posie is Quilted!

I finished the quilting on the 4PSP last night and spent a couple hours knotting and burying threads.


That part is still not finished, but I moved on to the next project. I loaded a special quilt last night and started the quilting on it. I don't have permission to show it, but a peek of it is on the sidebar >>>

This afternoon I will be driving to Clayton to watch Matt and Andrew while Julie and Jim celebrate Julie's upcoming birthday with a night out. We plan to visit Red Robin for dinner and make some cute turkey treats. I must remember to take my camera!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON MONDAY JULIE!

Quilt As You Go!

Yesterday I tried out a new technique on Mabel. I wanted to make a quilt for my grandson Matt for Christmas, and have been collecting basketball prints for a while. I bought 2 yards of sports themed fleece at Joanns ($2.99/yd) and loaded it, pinning the cut edges. I placed a 6" strip of basketball novelty cotton on the fleece, right side up. Then I placed a 3" strip of flannel on top of it and activated my horizontal channel lock and stitched from one side to the other. I smoothed out the flannel and placed another 6" basketball fabric strip....right side down and repeated the stitching.





The strips didn't go to the edges of the fleece so that I could sew a vertical border when finished. I guess I could have done that a little at a time as I went, but I didn't think of it until right this minute. Instead, I took it to my Janome and stitched the side borders on.



I squared it up and stitched the binding onto the back and will bring it to the front and maybe hand stitch, or maybe by machine. I stitched it to the back because I don't care to handstitch on fleece.



Then I made him a flannel pillowcase to match.

My Short List

Vicky over at LA Quilter and Carolyn over at Lakeside Quilting are holding hands and starting a project they call The Short List. I plan to have most, if not all, of my customer quilts done by December 1st, so I can work on some of my own projects.

1. Brown quilt for Matt - needs quilted and bound
2. Red quilt for Granddaughter Jessica - needs quilted and bound
3. 1600 quilt for Step-granddaughter Sarah - needs borders, quilted and bound
4. Stockings for Jeff, Dane and Calise - these need to be done by Thanksgiving!
5. Quilt for Baby Drew - it's just blocks on the design wall now
6. Quilt for Ashleigh's baby girl - needs quilted and bound

Doesn't seem like a very short list, but I think it's do-able!

Some Family Time in November

Here is some of what has been going on around here besides quilting.

In November I went to Ekron, KY to my granddaughter's and we made a trip to McDonalds, her favorite place.

Julie, Matt, Andrew, Elizabeth, Kathy, Jessica, Sarah, Robbie, Bella and I attended the Annual armed Forces Fish Fry. Dinner was great, but of course, I ate too much! I sponsored a table in Jeff's name, so it was like he was there with us.

Here's the quilt I donated for this event. It only raised $55, which saddens me.

Julie celebrated a birthday this year with a little party and Liz came home with me for the night. We made a trip to Chuck E Cheese for dinner and a little fun.

Back at home to put together some new puzzles. She sure is good at them.

Julie's birthday flowers, ordered from FTD online and delivered Fedex.
I'm very happy with this purchase!

Julie made this pecan pie for Thanksgiving using her grandma's recipe. It was yummy!

Kendra and Tony taste testing cupcakes for their upcoming wedding.