Cobblestones Update

Yeah, I'm moving slow on this but yesterday was one of those days where I got distracted at every turn. Here's a picture of the first 2 rows of this quilt. I really like how it looks so after I get a little New Years Eve cleanup done I'm going to go back in and assemble a few more rows.

So, what's everyone doing for tonight? Hubby and I are going to have dinner out and then go to a movie. We haven't decided on whether we're going to see Nine, Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, Up in the Air or The Blind Side. I like movies with a lot of music and dancing so I know I'd enjoy Nine. I think I'd be fine with seeing any one of the movies so once we eat we'll go to whichever one comes on next. How's that for scientific planning?

I hope everyone has a safe evening and a Happy 2010!

Peggy

Cobble Stones Update

Gotta love Christmas break from school. You can get up and move at your own pace and either clean, cook or sew. I did a little bit of everything today. I did some running around in the morning, made a BIG pot of spaghetti sauce with meatballs and sausage then after lunch i did laundry and sewed these 30 blocks. They are the Cobble Stone blocks that are the main part of the Fig Tree project I was working on yesterday. Now, I need to read the next step to see how to do the assembly. Stay tuned.......

What Have I Been Doing All Day???

You might ask what I've been doing all day....certainly not shopping/returning any gifts that's for sure!!! NO ONE in my house needs to do any exchanging this year YAHOO!!!

BUT, I have been sewing. It's nice to be working on a project that has no deadline....

I joined the Fat Quarter Shop's Fig Tree Club back around September I think. It's a 4 project club so I figured I could manage. I got the first kit a few weeks back but with the holidays I just could not even open the package...but I did the other day, and actually cut into it. This project is called "Cobble Stones". It looked like a fairly simple project but man o man, there is a lot of cutting and also a lot of line drawing. There are 120 4 inch blocks that need half square triangles on 2 corners. Here's about 1/4 of the blocks that I have done so far...........the fabrics on the left and the small 2 inch squares are all connector pieces and then there are 71 2 x 2-1/2 in pieces of all the printed fabrics that go with it too....as well as the rest of the 120 blocks. I still have a couple of hours of work to do on these blocks so stay tuned to my progress.

It's been raining like crazy here in New Jersey today so all the snow we got last weekend is virtually gone. School is closed so I'm off until January 4th so I will be sewing like crazy I hope...

Peggy

Could it be my birthday every day?

Could it? Could it??? I am having the absolute best day....Flowers from my hubby which are beautiful read and white tulips with candy canes mixed in, a platter of cookies from my neighbor Rose, who actually works with me, and some wonderful half yard pieces of fabric from my friend April, who I work with too....I also received soooo many emails and text messages wishing me a great day that it will be hard to wake up tomorrow and not have it be my birthday...so, for anyone out there that likes to give presents, I'm extending my birthday to the 23rd also :)

Here's a peek at April's fabric selection....

The 3 fabrics on the right are Heather Ross mermaids, fish and seahorses. The 2 on the left have selvages but are written in either chinese or japanese and have a "different" feel to them. The top fabric is orange and pink snails and the bottom looks like princess and the pea. Who knew that April was listening to all my ramblings while she sat so quietly in work by my desk? Not me!!! Thank you April!

OH, and in case you NEED to know, the fabrics were ordered from Fabricworm. She has a website and an etsy store. I may be emailing her to get info about those 2 cute fabrics on the left.

Peggy

An Early Birthday Present

I feel awful. I got this early birthday present last week but didn't post about it because my camera was not charged so here it is now...better late than never. Michelle made me the cutest pillow, sent a box o turtles (YUM) a fat quarter of donuts fabric and a tea infuser with the cutest purple dotted teacup as the handle.....The pillow matches my red chair perfectly don't you think?

Oh, and just so you know...the TURTLES were YUMMY!!!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Yes siree Bob, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in my house... I came home this afternoon and found two wonderful boxes on my kitchen counter from two of the bestest quilting sisters ever. I had the Bareroots pattern with the customary fabric and floss all packaged up in a cute handmade bag, a wooly ornie, candlemat, mug, M&M's and a tree ornie all from Michelle along with a cute Christmas card with her and her family on it. The next box was from Robin and lemme tell you, spoiled again...candle mat pattern with floss and woolfelt, ornie, candy, note cards, journal, candle warmer and a homemade scarf...

These girls really spoiled me......

Thank you girls............... PS: The scarf is for my birthday tomorrow....

I can't stop looking at all the goodies...I'm so blessed to have such wonderful friends.....

CRUNCH

My poor car got crunched this afternoon :( My daughter was on the Parkway when the girl in front of her stopped short because someone had cut her off. My grill and hood are a mess but I think the car is driveable. Neither girl was hurt, so that's a good thing but now comes the process of dealing with the car insurance company....YUCK!

Snow, snow and more snow

The darn snow would not stop....hubby said at 7am it was still snowing this morning so we have had 24 hours of straight snow... Here's a picture of our 18-20 inches out front. The kids have decided that this snowblower is not sufficient for Poppy, no siree bob, Father's Day is going to be bringing him something a little more substantial.

We never know when we'll get hit in NJ so we need to upgrade just a bit since our driveway holds 5 cars across and 2 deep.

Oh yeah, and the good news...School is closed tomorrow!!! YAY. I can finish shopping and get a little sewing done too.

The final 2 finishes for 2009

I think these might be the final 2 finishes for 2009....I think, I'm not sure since there are 12 more days left.........First we have a little tabletopper I made this afternoon. I know I have one that I've used in the past but for the life of me I can't find it so when my daughter asked me the other day when I was going to put the red, white and blue one away and pull out something Christmasy I realized that it was missing and I'd have to make something else. My creative juices weren't flowing so it's just simple but I like how it looks and it goes great on the coffee table.

Then I put the last 2 rows on this quit that is called "Picture This" from the HAPPY HOUR book by Atkinson Designs. I had a fat quarter packet of all these black/white/turquoise fabrics and when I cleaned out my cabinet I found a lot more so I made the quilt in Queen Size and will give it to my daughter for her birthday on May 1st. It feels good to have a jump on a birthday present when I should be worrying about Christmas presents but heck, a gift's a gift....

Once I get it quilted I'll get a better picture of it.
I didn't have any "quilt holders" to help hold it up so I had to take what I could get and just lay it out on the floor.

Now to clean up my sewing room and put all the scraps in the bin, fabric away and shut the iron down.

How's everyone enjoying their weekend?

LOOKIE what we woke up to today

Guess what we woke up to this morning???

I do LOVE the snow but was kind of hoping for a snow day from school :) But, I'll take what I can get when it comes to being shut in the house and able to sew all day.

This first picture is the front of the house. Where the heck is the street????

Below is a the back yard.....YIKES, we're not going to see the grass and pool till June!!!

We only had one problem with the weather this morning and that was when my daughter was leaving the house at 7:30 to get to the salon for work and she slid and hit the light pole while trying to get on the

Garden State Parkway. Thankfully, the car has minimal damage and my daughter is ok, but she sure was scared.

So, what is everyone doing today???

Peggy

An Early Christmas Present

I LOVE getting early presents for ANY holiday so when I came in from work the other day and found a priority box out front I really got excited. After seeing that it was from my friend Christie in Fort Knox, Kentucky, I knew I couldn't open it right away because I hadn't mailed her gift yet. Some of the girls I go to retreat with in Indiana decided to do a one on one holiday swap with a $20 limit....Now, you know with a $20 limit you have to be creative and I think Christie was. I had a hard time sticking to the limit because everything I saw I wanted to buy..... So, I finally opened my box this morning because I shipped my box out Priority earlier today. Here's what I got.

Christie's without a sewing machine right now so I got a purple knitted or crocheted scarf (i'm not sure which it is) plus some candy, fabric, a tea mug filled with candy, a ME journal and a skinny santa. I'm thrilled with what I got so a big THANK YOU goes out to Christie....See you in May at retreat girlfriend!!!!

Peggy