Saturday, January 28, 2012

Hello world! It is Saturday morning and it is ....

Snowing! I can't complain though, we have had a mild winter so far. One week we are in the 40's and then the following week we have snow. Not bad, really not bad. But it does make me wonder about what our weather will be like this spring? Will have a spring? What will summer be like? Too Buggy? Since we are the Great Lakes state...we have lots of water, lots of water means ....mosquitos!!
So, what is the world up to these days? I got accepted into a 3rd magazine! I'm waiting to hear when I can say which magazine it is!! 
Yesterday I put 6 of my own little wall hanging size quilts on the longarm machine, Rosie. I made a large backing and away I went! One of the quilts is a shop sample for the village quilt shop. I will have to take pictures and post them. I used the new 120degree ruler by Creative Grid. I love this ruler and the units go together so easily!
Well, I'm off for now... have a great weekend everyone!!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Weight Loss and its FRIDAY!!

Its Friday!! And we finally got a little ity bit amount of snow! Just a dusting, which is ok, but dang honey, it is bitter cold temps out there...I want to stay home, but I have a few errands to run today. I will bundle up nicely to stay warm.
Yesterday I worked on a couple of designs, tweaking them so the colors stand out better or the block units make themselves known!! I have found that I continue to design in the same colors, even though I love so many other combinations! Why oh why do I do this....I'm gonna have to make myself come out of my comfy box and explore!!
Yesterday morning my son Chris was watching music videos and I heard Adel singing. I love Adell! Is it 1 "L" or 2 "LL"s? Anyway, I told Chris that I love her voice!! and her music. Well, what a wonderful son he is! He arrived home around 9:30pm from college class. He came down to my sewing room with a bag in his hand, here mom I got you something. What?!! What did you do? He bought me an Adell cd!! Oh my gosh! I gave him a big hug and thanked him over and over, what a great son!!! I put that cd in so fast...and you know it is hard to open up those dang covers! I could not get it open fast enough, I was so excited! Anyway, I jammed for a bit, dancing around my sewing room and just had a blast! I cranked that music up! Wow, thinking back, you know that is really not a wise thing to do...I woke myself up...it was time to wind down and go to bed.
Weight loss. I've been walking on my treadmill almost daily. If I can't get to the treadmill I'm making certain I do some form of exercise daily. I've lost 5lbs and that was just enough to put me in a pair of jeans I have not worn comfortably in a while...my goal....get down to a size 10.....Hopefully that won't take me too long. I'm not necessarily going to go for weight loss numbers, my goal is to be healthy, build my muscles up and be a little toned...I'm thinking I might go to a tanning bed, just to get some color...I'm so dang milky white!! a little color is ok, I have no desire to look like a piece of leather!
Happy sewing and Happy weekend everyone!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Good morning world!!

Good morning world! Today is going to be a great day! It is Friday!! I woke up thinking that it was Thursday, holiday schedules always throughs me off!! Tomorrow I have two friends coming over for sewing. I'm hoping that today I will have my quilt blocks all pieced, ironed, squared to the correct size....and best of all have the blocks put into rows!!! I need to get this quilt on the longarm machine and sent out to the magazine.
Last night my husband and I went over to our oldest son Joe's girlfriends home and had dinner with her and her parents. Abby made us a chicken dinner with curry, rice, brocolli and greek salad. It was delicious!!! Oh and she also made us chocolate moose with a candy cane for dessert. Just scrumptous! We had great conversation with them and Mr Lee, feel asleep in his chair by the end of the evening...that I ok, because my eyes were beginning to glaze over!! LOL My left back shoulder muscles were pulling so bad though, it was time to head home. After a great nights sleep, my back feels so much better.
They took pictures of us last night, I'm so hoping they don't put them up on fb!! I hate having my picture taken. It just shows how fat I am...ugh!! I know I need to loose weight, but you know, coffee with creamer just tastes soooo dang good...who wants to give it up in the early am? Not me! I need to figure out another way to loose some weight. I know I will be happier and my body will actually like to do what I tell it to do....like get out of the chair easily, or walk the stairs without my knees going "snap crackle pop"!
For your viewing pleasure....
Just wanted to add something to look at. I think I've already posted this quilt on my blog....I love this quilt, I need to make it, but it a "doosey"....
Happy Sewing!!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Behind the 8ball...lol

My goodness, I need to get on top of things! I have been extremely slacking when it comes to my blog. So today we are going to attempt to put myself back into my old routine.
My family and I had a wonderful quiet Christmas. Christmas Eve I made prime rib for dinner. I was thinking that I would not have to make a dinner for Christmas, but I was wrong....glad I thought that through before the actual day! My gang demanded that I make homemade macaroni and cheese casserole. I kind of gave it a "kick", I added pepper jack cheese to the mix! mmmmgood! My oldest son Joe, did not care for it, but the rest of the family loved it.
My hubby bought me the large 3 piece cutting board set for my sewing room. Unfortunately we had to return it. My tables, even put together, were still too small in the length....I was bummed. oh well.
Son Steve finished his Eagle Scout project on Christmas Eve!! Talk about cutting it close! You have to have your project completed by your 18th birthday, he turns 18 in less than a month!! phew, he made it! His project was helping to restore a historical church's outside lanterns and the side ramp. Now remember this is Michigan and it is cold here!!!! Yes, they were working outside to complete this project. My husband built a "dining tent" to protect the ramp that was painted. Lots of men from the troop donated their torpedo kerosene and propane heaters to help the paint dry. I'm glad this is finished.
Joe and Chris did very well with this past semester of college. This coming semester they are taking a biology course together...this will be very interesting....I'm thinking a little competition! we will see.....I do love that Chris is enjoying biology, becoming a doctor is exactly what he needs to do.
Our youngest son John wanted a new drum set for Christmas. We could not afford that, so he asked us to give him the cash that we had to spend for Christmas for him and he would find himself a new drum set along with taking $$ from his savings. Well, he found himself a used Pearl drum set that he loves!! I did not want to do the give me the money idea, but it was the right decision in the long run.
The kids band had two gigs last week. They did fantastic!! I love going to hear them play, I'm so proud of them!
Kate is back from NY. I missed her. She is such a beautiful young woman!
I heard from Quilter's World magazine this morning. My Double Dutch quilt which is featured in the latest issue Jan/Feb is on its way back to me!!! Woohoo!
Speaking of quilts, here is a sneak peak of my latest project:


What a mess!! Talk about using your scraps! These are all Hoffman Batiks from their 1895 collection.
I recently designed a quilt that I submitted to a different magazine that has over 7,000 pieces....don't even ask me what I was thinking!! That one will be a huge task for piecing and overcoming the "I'm now overwhelmed" feeling that I get when I have to tackle that big a of project!! But I hope I do get that one accepted to the magazine, I feel in love with the design.
Here is another block I came up with (the block on the left)...still working out the details with this one....
 My husband and I were driving home the other day from a day of shopping...I hate shopping....he loves it...go figure....anyway, I was telling him about a quilt...blah blah blah....and he for some reason threw out these words which are all names of other blocks but he came up with this funky name!!! " Flying Dutch Star". I cracked up and so did he! So this quilt is being named just that. I'm still working on the deminsions and straightening up the drawing, I had a hard time with getting my lines and angles to work with this block in eq7. So, what do you think? I'm submitting this pattern once I get everything worked out....but is filled with lots of small pieces...not 2 1/2" strips....this one might take a little more effort to piece. If you did not know, blue is my favorite color, just throwing that out there...just saying....
Well, I think I've caught this blog up....now lets hope I can keep it up!
Happy Sewing everyone!