The angry iron!

It was a dark and stormy night......... Well, not really, but it was a little sinister in the sewing room today. Apparently when I was throwing around all the gratitude the other day, I may have hurt a certain small appliance's feelings. Ya know, I always sing the praises of my iron! Great steam, nice professional tip. All in all, great and consistent performance. Until today, Sunday evening, just when Black Friday weekend ends!! All weekend long, Jo-Ann had irons on sale. But tonight at 9pm, my beloved iron WENT NUTS. Heating out of control, red light flashing, not responding to my adjustments, and then..... burning my beautiful ironing board cover!!! The nerve! So, I unplugged it. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow. I can't live without an iron, I have tons of holiday sewing to do, and I am NOT in the mood to go BUY one. I'll keep you posted.

I am feeling thankful.

I am, of course, thankful for my family, my friends, and my health. But this week, I have made it a point to remind myself of all the other things I am thankful for. Like, garbage pickup and mail delivery. How cool is it to put our trash at the end of the drive and it just 'goes away'? And who doesn't love getting mail, like the occasional magazine, or maybe the Pottery Barn catalog? Sometimes I like to daydream that I live in the PB catalog!

And .........










I am thankful for all of my scissors. I just love scissors. They come in so many sizes and styles. I have more than you see in the picture but this is all that I had a picture of (remember? daughter in New York, borrowed my camera?).
These little silver Ginghers! Oh my gosh, I can't use them without thinking to myself, 'buttah, they cut like buttah!!'.





And let's give thanks for indoor plumbing. I mean, who doesn't appreciate a nice throne?








And thanks for all of the good books in the library. Freeee!! They are free, for you and meeee! And if you are lucky enough to have a cozy reading spot and maybe some chocolate while you read, then let's hear it...... THANKS!!!!

I am also thankful for: Pandora radio online, working appliances, job security, my Munki Munki pajamas, glitter, a good laugh, blue jeans, and fresh air.

I finally started my blocks for the quilt along at Don't Look Now. They are TORTURE!! Very time consuming to get the applique pieces ready for sewing. A glue stick is involved if that tells you anything! But my gosh this will be a beautiful quilt. I struggled and agonized over my colors, and then decided to go for lots of citrus colors. Oranges, lemons, and limes. Mmmmm!!! I can't show pictures yet because my favorite daughter (ok my only daughter) has my camera in New York. She's off to march in the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. She's a photography major but wanted to take my little camera with her. I sure hope I get it back. Soooo, I poked around in my computer for some pictures to post, and this is what I found. This is a mural painted on the wall inside the garage at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Isn't it pretty and colorful? I get to walk past it every day. I really think it would make a cool quilt or wall hanging. Makes me think I need more solid color fabrics in my stash. Maybe next summer I will dye some of my own fabric, then I can try something like this. I'm not sure why I have to wait until summer. I think of dying fabric as a messy outdoor project, but the fact is my daughter and her roomate and friends tie-dyed sheets, shirts, socks, and pillow cases last weekend. Maybe I'll consider trying my hand at this after the holidays. Ok, time to hit the sack and get some sleep. I'm going to get up early so I don't miss a minute of the parade!!

How about a little sneak peek?

I have been working on a Christmas wallhanging for MONTHS!! and I don't think it will be completely done this year. It's not my fault! It's a block of the month and I don't think the last two months' blocks will be available in time. But I thought I'd give ya a little peek anyway. I really love this design by McKenna Ryan and I can't believe I got the nerve to try it. Soooo, enjoy your little peek, maybe I'll share more soon. It just might have circus acts and other exciting fun!

I kinda failed.

I got this quilt done first, just a simple grid.

I love when I can just stitch straight lines from corner to corner with no marking. Easy peasy!

The second quilt took more time. Again, no marking, I just stitched curvy lines across, hoping it would seem like wind. I also put some circles in there, like swirls of snow, ha ha.

Then........... I got to the last one. I think I would have gotten it done today, but... the bobbin ran out, and when I wound a new one, the tension was bad. So I wound another one, same problem. So I took the machine apart and dusted out the lint, still off. Then I looked at my list of things to get done, and said phooey! It's more important to get the Christmas quilts done, one of them is getting wrapped up. That ol 'Storm at Sea' quilt can wait a little longer. Meanwhile, I need to go change the cat litter and take the garbage out and wash my hair and do some laundry. Hope you all had a productive weekend, or at least a fun one!!

Sunday morning update.

It's 10:40 am on Sunday and I have two of the three quilts quilted. I also have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to quilt the last one. I think I'm gonna make it!! Right now I'm simmering my oatmeal and making lists. List of eh-vah-ree-thang I need to get done today, grocery list, and list of thangs to get done this week. Wonder if I should put 'bind three quilts' on the list? I don't think I'll commit to that just yet but maybe. Yesterday nothing got done. Mr. Mathis and I went to the Towson U football game and then killed some time in Barnes & Noble before meeting Olivia, her boyfriend Jeff, roomate Jordan, and Jordan's brother Alex, and mother Bonnie for dinner at Red Robin. Had a great time and man you gotta love those RR burgers!! And doesn't that explain why I'm cookin oatmeal right now, hoping to counteract the red meat, bleh. Ok, it's time to eat the oatmeal and get back to work. Enjoy the pictures of the band, Olivia is the one running with the big flag in the back!! One is a Johnny Unitas flag (they are in Unitas stadium) and the other is a Preakness flag. This band is the ONLY university band going to be in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year! It's a very big deal and they are going to have a great weekend in NY. Make sure you watch the parade, they will be AFTER the Winter Wonderland float and BEFORE the Smurf balloon. They estimate they will be at the NBC cameras for their performance at about 11:43 am EST. Woot woot!! I'll post again later, hopefully with finished quilt pictures. Have a good day!

My goal for the week.

Oh boy do I have a a goal for myself. I want to have all 3 of these quilts quilted by the end of this coming weekend. I got them all sandwiched and pinned on Sunday and decided to 'git er done'! It's now Tuesday morning and I have to leave for work in 1 hour and 15 minutes. I haven't showered, dressed, eaten, or packed my dinner. BUT, I'll have you know that yesterday morning, I got one of these quilts done before I went to work at 3pm. No binding, but that wasn't part of the deal that I made with myself (it wasn't!! I'm serious! I wouldn't lie!!)

I made these two Christmas quilts on retreat last month. I saw the trees pattern in a quilt magazine that came the day before retreat. It was my mother's Quiltmaker magazine and since she was out of town, I swiped it and took it with me. Is that a felony? I gave it back, a little worn but it had all of the pages. I had to make templates for the trees and boy did I whine about it. Just ask my retreat friends. I hate templates, and all I had to make them was paper which was part of the problem. But I like this quilt so much, I want to make another one, maybe in yellow or green. I'm going to make plastic templates first. Hmm, guess I have to borrow that magazine back. This other quilt is a pattern called Couch Potato and boy do I LOVE it. It goes together so quick and easy but it looks a little complex. And it's a great way to showcase a fabric. I'm so glad I saved this great winter scenes fabric for just the right project!!

This last quilt is from a Kim Jallette workshop I took about 2 YEAR's ago. I always wanted to make a Storm at Sea and I had fun using my Kaffe Fassett fabric with it. Oooooh, don't you love the illusion of curves?! So sneaky! I got the inside of the quilt done quickly and then it languished for months and months while I pondered the borders. I agonize over borders some times. I'll have to get a book about borders. I know there's one out there. Anyway, I put the borders on at a retreat over a year ago I think, and then this poor quilt top ended up in the UFO pile. Poor little puddin, but you're about to be set free!! So wish me luck with my GOAL. I now have 50 minutes before I have to leave for work. Rats! But I'm pretty sure I know how I'm going to quilt the second one. I confess that I came up with my idea while I was in a kidney transplant last night. There was nothing for me to do for a while but watch, so I leaned on the cautery machine and daydreamed about quilt patterns. Wonder if I'll have a chance to daydream tonight? I'll keep you posted on my progress.

A Project Linus Quilting Marathon

I had a great day yesterday. I went to a quilting marathon to make quilts for Project Linus. My friend, Pat, organized it. One year ago her daughter and grandson died in a devastating car accident. Her family founded an organization in their memory to raise funds for charities. On this very sad anniversary, dozens of people got together in a local church and sewed up more than 60 quilts for the local Project Linus chapter. Non-sewers were happy to iron and pin and fix food etc. Children played and ate leftover Halloween candy. And dozens of beautiful children's quilts were made. It was a great way to spend a lovely fall day!

Sending Love, Cheer, and Prayers

I like to read a lot of blogs. Some are crafty, some are quilty, and some are inspirational. One blog that I read is Confessions of a CF Husband. It is written by Nathan about his life with Tricia who has cystic fibrosis. They have a beautiful daughter who was born prematurely just before Tricia had a double lung transplant. They live each day with faith, courage, and joy. Through Nathan's blog, I found Eva Markvoort's blog, 65 Red Roses. Eva also has cystic fibrosis and is now waiting for her second lung transplant. She is beautiful, brave, and talented. Eva struggles every day to stay calm and breathe, and while she does, she loves getting mail. Eva has created a wall of love where she displays her cards and mail. So I made her a card. I can't draw so I used fabric, and an easy fusible applique fish. I hope she likes it. Check out her blog and if you feel like it, send her some love for her wall.