Challenge complete...and a giveaway!

I started working on this quilt last night and got the half square triangles sewn together. Then, this morning, despite waking up with my migraine still there, sewed it together in under 1 1/2 hours. I see many more of these quilts in my future. I love this pattern! So fun and cool looking!

The rest of my day will be spent running kids places and grading lab books. Wheee, what a fun way to end the year :) Then, after dinner we have a tradition of ending the year with a family game night. We play all sorts of board games until one minute til midnight. We all get on the couch and jump into the new year and then run outside with pots and pans and wooden spoons and run around the neighborhood banging them and making noise yelling 'happy new year' and then run inside and into bed.

It's going to be a fun day.

Here's the giveaway. Just leave a comment on this post and you have a chance to win a 'kit' for this quilt. Different fabrics, but they will all be cut out and ready for you to sew your own 'Stretched Stars' quilt.

The background will be white and the stars will be lots of different colors cut with the Go! cutter.

This is great if you don't have your own Accuquilt Go! cutter. You will be able to see how great this cutter is.

I will pick a winner on Sunday, Jan 2 around 3pm or whenever I go insane from grading lab books :) Be sure to tell me your favorite color when you leave your comment. I will try to pick out scraps to match your favorite color when I cut the stars.

Good Luck!

Happy New Year!

Great resource if you have Go! cutter

http://www.accuquilt.com/assets/downloads/patterns/pdfs/MMQD-Go.pdf

another great resource for using all of the Go! dies.

This website has blocks and dies and I'm going to try to make at least one block a week and maybe even a whole quilt top each week so I really get the best use out of my Go! cutter. Just had to share what I found. I was looking for some patterns and stumbled on this by accident. The link on the accuquilt site is wrong and takes you here so if you go looking for this page, I don't think you wil find it.

New Year's Eve challenge

anybody want to join me in a New Year's challenge? I'm going to be working on this quilt tomorrow...

Stretched Stars to Go!

Except, I'm going to be modifying it to use the 6 1/2 inch half squares that I love and 6 1/2 inch blocks and it will come out bigger than the pattern calls for. But, hey, bigger is always better right?

Praying the headache goes away and that my eyes are back to normal.

Today I went in for an eye exam. They looked to see if the medication I've been on for years has affected my eyes or if my eyes are causing the migraines. Neither was the case. The eye doctor said that my optic nerves are weird. He thinks that it is a genetic thing. Thanks mom and dad. He took a picture so that in 20 years they can compare and see if they are still weird. He said that weird optic nerves are not a cause for concern, just something interesting.

My dad has his intestines in backwards. I'm sure there is a scientific name for that, but I like the name the eye doctor gave to my optic nerves much better...weird. Yeah. 8 years of medical school and that was the best he could come up with? I feel much better now...NOT.

So what are you going to work on for New Year's Eve? Out with the old, in with the new.

Getting a handle on UFO's

All the talk on the net about UFO's or UnFinished Objects has me thinking and looking at my unfinished projects differently. As I pull each project out and think 'how did you get shoved in a bag, stuck in the bottom of a bucket?' I try to analyze what caused me to stop working on this project.


Yesterday, I worked for several hours on a few UFO's and got them further along in their process. I found a whole bucket of tiny quilts. Most of these were given to me tiny. They are great for incubator quilts, but I just never found the time to finish them up. I haven't been to the hospital in a long time to make a delivery. My regular Volunteer coordinator retired a couple years ago and so I have lost contact with a good friend there. I never see the new lady and it just isn't the same walking in and dropping things off and not having anyone recognize you and say thanks. Most of the quilts we make nowadays go to bigger kids so the incubator quilts wait their turn for a trip to the hospital. They will go soon, because I have quite a few that Carla and her gang have given me. I just wish I still had a friend at the hospital to greet me. Sad excuse not to make the trip more often :(

Yesterday I added a border to one of these quilts and make it a bit bigger. Now it is more useable for a bigger baby. There were other crumb blocks I had started a couple years ago that I was making for cat quilts when my daughter volunteered at a cat rescue center. She doesn't volunteer there anymore so I just joined 6 of them together and now have another top ready to quilt.

I also pressed some strips and cut them (one set I cut wrong, so will have to think about how to set those) and have two more sets of blocks ready for the design wall.

I think there are about a dozen small quilts that are now out of the box and hung up and ready for borders or something to make them more useable before quilting.

This morning I have an appointment with an eye doctor through Kaiser to see if somehow my eyes are the problem with my increased migraines. Right on cue, I had a horrible migraine yesterday that didn't go away last night. While I hope they find something...I do not want to wear glasses!

God's promise

On a day like today, with a really bad migraine, it is nice to have a reminder like this. The sun was shining and it was raining like crazy and I came home from grocery shopping to this gorgeous rainbow in the sky. Thanks God. I needed this today!

Design Wall

So, my excuse for not finishing projects has been I have not had a place to lay them out. Well, I got this idea the other day to make a design wall and hang it over my fabric shelves. I thought it might help someone else out so here it is.

I made it out of PVC pipe, just four pieces and four elbows. Things I had in the garage from other projects. I never throw anything away. This was from my daughter's soccer banner way, long ago. I zip tied it to the top of the shelf unit.

I pinned some felt (2 yards) onto the PVC pipe and it is big enough for the quilts I make. I don't make full or queen or king :)

If I want to get to the fabric behind the design wall, I can just unpin the felt or pull it aside. It will encourage me to always have something up there and make me work harder to get my UFO's out of the way as well as work on more challenging projects I think.

why are they UFO's?

With all of the talk in blogland about UFO challenges, I got to thinking about all of my UFO's. I didn't think I had a lot of UFO's in my stash, but today I opened up a bucket and came across quite a few. It made me wonder why they are unfinished objects. What makes me start a project and then abandon it.

This was one such project. It is now a finished top. Once they get to this stage, I consider them done. It is now hanging on the rack, waiting its turn to be quilted and gifted to a soldier. It will most likely end up close to home, here at Travis AFB to a wounded soldier. I have two others waiting to be quilted and that will happen pretty quickly because I'm running out of tops waiting their turn. That scares me a little bit.

But, back to the question about why I start something and then not finish it.

I have lots of reasons actually and as I go through my projects, I'm going to start posting my excuses and then list reasons why I am finishing them.

This project was started more than a year ago, probably more like two years ago. I was on a real QOV (quilts of Valor) kick and cut out a whole bunch of these guys. I think I just got burned out on sewing the red/white/blue colors. I sewed all of the blocks, but then didn't put them together. I haven't had a design wall for about a year and so didn't have any place to lay out the blocks. I didn't want the same pattern touching so needed some place to lay the blocks out before sewing it together. I've pulled this one out many times thinking it would be quick to sew together and then realized I had no place to lay it out and put it back in the bag. I was also missing some pieces and figured they would turn up somewhere. Well, they didn't and I just sewed together what I had and am calling it finished.

Done is better than perfect and this one is done and ready to be quilted and gifted. Now, onto the next UFO.

I'll have to post about my design wall. It is pretty clever if I do say so myself.

I also quilted the quilt for my daughter's boyfriend's mom and plan to put the binding on tomorrow. I LOVE it. This one will be hard to put in the mail. I will definately have to make one for myself. My new banner is a sneak peek at it!

The 3 Plagues

This vacation will be forever known as the vacation of the plagues. I'm not sure which one has been the worse. First, there were the mice. Remember...they ate my nativity set? Well, I attacked them with traps. Lots of traps. I caught 7 of them all together and haven't seen them since. I think they told their friends this isn't a safe house anymore.

Then, there are the ants. I have ants in the bedrooms, ants in the living room, ants in the kitchen (the worse!) ants in the family room, ants in the garage--they ate the peanut butter out of the mouse traps, I think they are working with the mice. Ugh, the ants.

Finally, the cold virus. Yesterday I thought I was getting the flu. I already had a cold this vacation. My daughter brought one home from college. She is so nice. She shared it with me. I haven't been sick yet this school year. I think I have already had everything that has gone around at my school the past 10 years so I'm immune, but not to the new strain she brought home.

I just started feeling better and then yesterday my whole body ached. I thought for sure I would wake up this morning and have a fever. Nope. Stuffy nose and head. Sore throat. Another cold. What?

I even slept in until 8am. I never sleep that late. I must be sick. Yuck. I have too many things I want to do on vacation to waste it being sick. Bummer. Oh, well. At least I don't have to go to work today :)

Accuquilt Go! Obsession

I have to admit, I have a new love...it is my Accuquilt Go! fabric cutter. I was a little skeptical at first when I started reading about this new, expensive toy on the internet. I read everything and did as much research as I could and the more I read, the more I wanted to see one in person. Sure, I watched the videos on youtube, but it isn't the same as seeing one for real.

I went to JoAnn's when they were supposed to have a demo day, but my JoAnn's isn't a super store and they didn't have the demo as promised. I was very disppointed and frustrated when the sales lady laughed at me because I didn't know better.

But, still, I read and searched and wanted to know more. I entered every contest out there hoping to win one of these cutters because the price tag was just too much to justify getting one of these toys if they really didn't do what they promised they would.

Well, Let me tell you...they are just as good if not better than promised!

I have always had a fear of triangles. I have never been able to sew them well and they always come out crooked. I have always hated cutting scraps. I must have 10 buckets of scraps because I can't throw them out. I save them for some day, when I run out of yardage. That isn't going to happen in my lifetime, but you know, there could be WWIII and the government could call for everyone to give up their cotton fabric so they can make uniforms or something and then I would have to use my scraps.

Well, now that I have the Accuquilt Go! cutter, I'm cutting scraps! It is FUN!

I'm cutting 1/2 square triangles and I'M SEWING THEM TOGETHER! That's the first thing my mom asked me...are you sewing together these little tiny pieces you are cutting? And the answer is yes! And it is fun!

I have all these spools of thread I want to use up and all these pieces of fabric that I've cut so it is the perfect marriage of wonderfulness.

If you are still on the fence about whether or not to get a cutter, I would recommend trying to find someone who has one and try it out. Ask at a shop, ask your quilting friends, come to my house...call first, the house is a mess. I have one more excuse to not clean!

Start saving your pennies now. Empty a big pickle jar and put any extra change into it. Soon enough you will have saved for a new Go! cutter for yourself. It is worth it.

They are fun!

Catching up on quilts

With the hustle and bustle of Christmas and my daughter coming home from college and the Accuquilt Go! cutter coming into my life :) I haven't posted my quilting lately. I have been doing a little bit here and there. I have some of that 21 yards of backing fabric still left on the quilting frame and I need to get it off before I can quilt my daughter's boyfriend's mom's quilt and another quilt I need to gift here soon.

Here is one strippie and three Carla specials :) I probably have two more quilts from the backing fabric and then I can get the two gift quilts done. Maybe today? Maybe. First church and then a new phone for my daughter.

Before church I'm going to spend some quality time with my Go! cutter. I got all of those new dies yesterdy for Christmas and I didn't get to play at all. There was dinner to make and I'm helping my #2 daughter paint her room. Actually she is doing all of the painting, I'm just helping her move furniture. She is very ambitious. Two walls are grey, one is blue and the 4th is stripes of blue and grey.

The winner is...

It is time to pick a winner! I went to the Random Generator and typed in 22 and it picked out #10. Turns out that was mageez

Here's what she said:


mageez said...
I'm already a follower and this would be an awesome Christmas gift. Thanks for being so generous. If I win I'll have to find a way to pay it forward big time. maggie

Congratulations Maggie! I have already sent you an email to ask which die you want, the stars or the 3 1/2 inch half square triangle and I will get it in the mail on Monday.

I'm having a great Christmas. It only took us about 2 hours to open presents today.

I got a whole bunch of dies for my Accuquilt Go! cutter and I plan to try them out later. I'm working on a quilt for my daughter's boyfriend's mom. It is using the 6 1/2 inch half square triangle. I cut them all in about 30 minutes yesterday and sewed them together in under an hour. Something I never would have tried before getting the Go! cutter. My daughter arranged the squares into a pattern she liked and I'm sewing them all together. I have to take some breaks because my back hurts. I think I need to look at getting a better sewing chair so I can sew for longer periods of time. I can't wait until the top is sewn together to show you. It is going to be pretty. And there are a zillion extra blocks that are leftover that might just get made into a quilt for ME! Isn't that amazing? A quilt for me? Unheard of! I've never made a quilt for me. I'm not holding my breath you know because it probably won't happen, but just maybe since the blocks are already made and nobody knows but me and you and I might be able to sneak the project in...shhhhhh...Don't tell anyone :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

The girls are working on earrings I got as a project for them for Christmas. how fun.

Merry Christmas

From my house to yours, may the love of Christ fill your heard this Christmas season! May you find the true meaning of Christmas now and through the year!

Feeling Encouraged and Discouraged

I had my appointment yesterday at the Headache clinic. I left feeling very encouraged. The nurse spent about 45 minutes talking and LISTENING to me. It was really nice having someone try to figure out with me what is causing these headaches and try to figure out a plan of attack for how to deal with them.

Since I have a science background, I wanted to know the science behind how they work and what is going on in the brain. She took the time to explain the different types of headaches and how they are triggered and how they are treated and how they can't just look and see what is causing mine, but have to do these types of studies by trial and error with different medicines to get the right treatment.

At the end of the session, I left feeling really good that at least there is hope. She increased my daily medicine and told me that I would have to play around with my different medicines when I actually get a headache to see what works when. Sometimes I will have to take one thing and sometimes another. At least now I have a plan and strategy. She said that I am not allowed to suffer through a full day of a headache anymore. In the past, I would try one thing, imitrix or ibuprofen or tylenol/codeine and if that didn't work, just suffer. She said...no more. If one doesn't work, try something else. The reason my migraines go on for days is the brain is putting out too much of the neurotransmitter and I'm not getting rid of it and so the pain stays around or comes back once the pain meds wear off so the migraine lasts several days or weeks. I have to get the extra neurotransmitters out of there in order for the migraine to go away.

At least it all made sense to me.

I need to try an avoid the triggers that I can stay away from. She ran some blood work and one test came back low so they are going to monitor that in 2 months. She is also going to have my vision tested next week. The last time I went into the eye doctor he told me that when I turned 40 I would wake up one day and have bad vision :) Both my parents wear glasses as does my sister. I've always had perfect vision and wearing sunglasses gives me a migraine so hope my eyes are good!

Now for the discouragement part. I am fighting off the plague around here. Between the mice--mouse count up to 6, and the ants--in every room of the house, to a really bad cold that my daughter brought home from college, I haven't had one minute to do anything I've wanted to do this vacation. I know that everything has a season and this is the season of the plague and the rain will stop and the critters will go back outside where they belong and the cold will run its course, but I'm run down and tired. I THINK I have all of my shopping done for Christmas and if not, there are always the after Christmas sales. I really need to get to JoAnn's for some mats for the Go! cutter, but if not, those can wait too. They are on sale at JoAnn.com so maybe that is my best option right now.

ugh. I really want to go to the Christmas service tomorrow night. Maybe we will just have one at home.

Have you entered yet?

Don't forget the giveaway for the Accuquilt Go! dies I'm having. I know things are busy, but I don't want you to miss out :)

Be sure to leave a comment on the contest blog post, not this one to qualify. Contest ends Christmas day!

I'm off to the post office. If you don't hear back from me in a week...send a search party please!

A sad day

Today I went into the garage to look for the Christmas decorations and found out that the mice had gotten into my Nativity set. You can see from the beans on the ground here that I had stuffed them with beans to make them stand upright. I hadn't put them up well last Christmas and they were in an open bucket and the mice found them. I made them about 10 years ago and had made several sets and given them away as gifts to all of the kids' teachers. They smell so badly that I just can't save them.So, I set the scene up one last time and took some pictures so I will remember what it looks like so I can make it again. This time I will stuff them with plastic beads instead of beans!

And I learned a valuable lesson. If you value something, take care of it. Put it away when you are done with it and protect it from these little guys!

When I was cleaning out the garage, look who came out to see what I was up to! I took about 20 pictures of him as he watched me clean. He sure is cute!

We headed to WalMart and got lots of traps. So far in the hour since I've set them I caught one and there are at least 2 or 3 in the trash can in the garage. I have a big, empty 30 gallon trash can that they get into but not out of. I wonder how many of these guys are living with me. We live right next to a field and it hasn't stopped raining for days. Another big storm is coming tonight. Sorry, guys, there is no room at this inn. Tell your friends you are not welcome here!

Superior Thread

I LOVE Superior Thread! I've ordered from them in the past and they have great customer service. They ship fast and their products are Superior!

I just got an email today saying they have a new Thread of the Month Club, where if you sign up, you don't have to pay shipping for thread. I love getting free shipping!

Here's a link to their ad. If you need thread, you might want to check this out.

I'm wondering...Do you think I need thread?

Don't forget to enter the giveaway here!

Accuquilt GO! Die Giveaway day

Today's the day you've been waiting for!

The Accuquilt Go! Die giveaway.

Here's the rules again.

1. You must be a follower.

2. You must leave a comment and I need to have a way to contact you. Please be sure you are logged in or leave your email in your comment. Whenever I leave a comment, I always click on my name and see where it takes me. If it takes me to my blog, I know my comment is good. If it takes me nowhere, I know I forgot to log in before leaving a comment and the blog owner will not be able to get ahold of me :( I would hate for you to win and then I can't get ahold of you and you lose. I hate being a loser!

3. You are encouraged to visit Accuquilt.com and the Accuquilt Facebook fan page to see what all of the buzz is about.

4. I've decided this has to be a North America contest only. Sorry to the rest of the world, but I'm just not that great with customs and I know it costs me $1 to send a letter to Germany so can only imagine the postage costs to send one of these heavy dies half way around the world. I'm really sorry. I love you world, I just can't afford you :( I will ship to Canada and Mexico if you want to play along and you win.

5. Only one entry per person. If you leave more than one entry, you will disqualify yourself. If you mess up and accidentally leave a whole bunch of entries (cuz I've done that before, cuz I'm a big spaz) you can delete your own entry! There is a button that says delete, just click it! You can't delete anyone else's entry and I'm not gonna delete your entries for you :)

6. You get to pick from your choice of either of these two dies. Both of them are 5x10 and will fit the Accuquilt Go! the Go Baby or the Big Shot by Sizzix. I've decided that if I get 250 followers by Christmas at noon, I will give away BOTH of the dies. I will pick TWO winners. How cool is that? Wouldn't you like TWO chances to win? Tell your friends :)

Stars, used for applique. I'm not into doing applique, but I'm excited to learn how and cutting these with the Go! cutter sure is going to be easy!

Half square 3 inch finished triangles. I'm telling you a little secret here. I have a fear of triangles. But, since getting my Go! cutter, I have fallen in love with these things. The cutter comes with the value die (more on that later) and there is a 2 1/2 inch triangle there and I love how the thing cuts off the corners on it. It helps you figure out where to sew. If you sew too close to the edge, when you press, you know it. If you make too big of a seam, you know it. It is a teaching tool! I've also used the 6 1/2 inch triangle and made a whole bunch of squares now and am going to play today with the layout. I'm also going to build a design wall so I don't have to lay on the floor. After all, today I'm OLD and may not be able to get up again :)

Accuquilt is not sponsoring this giveaway. I am not sure why I feel it necessary to say this. But, I do. So, I wish you luck.

Be a follower, leave a comment, tell a friend, go play with fabric and check back on Christmas!

Accuquilt Go! Die Giveaway

For my birthday, on December 21, I'm going to have a Go! die giveaway. In order to get the dies I want for my new toy, I'm buying them by the lot on ebay. By doing this, I have picked up a couple of doubles. So, to celebrate by birthday, I'm going to give away a die to one lucky follower.

My birthday is on December 21. You have a couple of days to get ready for the giveaway.

Here's the rules:

1. You must be a follower of my blog.
2. You must leave a comment on the contest post, December 21.
3. You are encouraged to tell your friends.
4. You are encouraged to check out Accuquilt.com to see what all of the buzz is about!
5. You are encouraged to check out Accuquilt on facebook and become a fan. They just reached 8,000 fans and every time they hit another 1,000 fans, they have a giveaway. Every day until Christmas, they are having a giveaway of something on their fan page.
6. You get to pick which one of the two dies I am offering that you want for your very own. Each die is 5x10 inches and will fit in the Accuquilt Go! or if you have a Sizzix Big Shot, Cuttlebug or other similar die cut machine, these dies will fit! You just need a couple of shims (pieces of cardboard) to lift the dies a bit.
7. Only one entry per person please. Contest starts Dec 21 and the winner will be picked Dec 24.

I hope you take a minute to pop over to the Accuquilt.com site and check out the product.

They are not sponsoring this giveaway, I just love their product and have an extra die!

Happy Early Birthday to me!

I got this box in the mail a few weeks ago. Do you know how hard it was not to open it?

What could be inside?

Oh, how surprised I am!!!!

My Go! fabric cutter is here. My birthday is not until Tuesday, but I couldn't wait any longer. I am on vacation and I am dying to try out the new cutter. My friend Carla has a Big Shot cutter and some new dies that I got to play with for about 10 minutes last Sunday and it was so much fun. I wanted to open the box last night but my kids said I had to wait until my birthday.

I finally convinced them to let me open the box today.

Then, everyone started fighting about who got to use it first. I had to wait at least an hour before I even got to touch the thing! I almost had to send everyone to their room to clean so I could have a turn! My little guy who is 6 loves the thing. Even he can turn the handle and make it Go!

If you are on the fence about getting one of these things, I highly recommend it.

Now, to go out and get a silver sharpie so I can mark the dies so I don't have so much fabric waste.

How do you spell relief?

VACATION!

Yes, vacation started today at 2:13pm :)

Feels soooo good to be on vacation again today. I don't know how you people with real jobs can handle having to work until Christmas!

I have a lot of papers to grade in the next 2 weeks, but I plan to pace myself and work for an hour a day until everything is done. I think 16 hours will get everything finished up so that when I go back to work I can ease into finals and be ready for the new semester with no stress.

So far tonight I have quilted two quilts and taught my 15 year old daughter to knit. I'm working on a fish hat for my son. There is a website, deadfishhat.com where you can get a free pattern to make your own dead fish hat. My kids fell in love with these fish hats and now I have orders to make them as soon as possible. My little guy and daughter want the shark hats and my son wants the normal fish hat. I'm starting with the normal one because the shark is a variation of the normal and says, change this and adapt that. I'm about 1/3 of the way done with the first hat. I can work for about an hour before my hands start to cramp. I haven't knitted in a while so I have to build up muscle strength again. Maybe I will get the first hat done by Christmas. I have a lot of TV shows to catch up on and it is supposed to rain for 10 days straight! Ugh.

I've also not posted anything for the last week because things have been busy around here with Christmas concerts and school and my little one getting Strep throat last weekend and just general life. I did manage to quilt two more quilts during that time somehow. My goal is to have 100 quilts done by the end of the year so I need to get busy.

My birthday is on Tuesday and I can't wait to open my present. I think I will open it in the morning. My kids say no, but I'm the mom right? I have the whole vacation ahead of me and I really want to play with my new toy. I'm afraid that if I do open it, housework will stop and no grading will be done and all of my scraps will be cut in no time!

Sunday was Binky Sunday and I had a great turnout. Lots of people showed up and took all of the quilt kits I had cut out (70 of them!) and are going to sew them and bring them back so I can quilt them up. I got one sewn together--too much talking going on. When I am at home, I can sew a quilt top in 30 minutes. It took me 2 hours on Sunday to sew it :) OOps...

I need to have my daughter help me sort and cut more fabric for more kits. Good thing we have 2 weeks off and it will be raining so she will be home.

My oldest comes home from college on Monday. I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it!

Remember this quilt?

This is the music strippie quilt I made for my son's Christmas concert and silent auction. I wasn't sure I would get it finished in time. I had all of the CASA quilts to get done and the migraines to deal with. Well, I got it bound and done and took it to the concert last night. I put the starting bid as $5. I figured it would go for about $25 and I could buy it back and give it to my friend who is moving to Alaska next week. Her husband is in the military and plays the piano for the band. They travel all over the world and play for the troops. Not a bad military job. He gets to be safe and to entertain the military too.

Well, it was a very hot item in the silent auction. I couldn't believe it sold for $60! When my husband got to the concert he saw the price and said that I should make another one for the person buying it or I should run home and make a couple more to put on the table! He couldn't decide if the person was getting a great deal or spending too much money.

I felt a little guilty because I know how easy these are to make. And I felt a little sad when the lady came up to pay for the quilt. But, then she handed the quilt to her husband and he rolled it up and tucked it under his arm and I knew it would be safe. They walked around proudly and their daughter was tickled they won the quilt! My husband was sitting at the table when people came by and said all of the girls made a big fuss over the quilt. The boys just walked past and looked at it :) I've never sold a quilt before.

The money goes into my son's band account to help pay for all of his band expenses. He is in symphonic band and marching band and jazz band and drumline. He is also going to a band camp for State honor band we think in February and just found out that he made 1st trombone, 1st chair for NorthBay Honor band. All of these things add up to be very expensive! You want your child to be successful until you see the price tag associated with it :) Just kidding. He's worth it.

He was so cute yesterday too. He is the drum major and had to give a speech last night because my friend is the band booster president. Last night was her final night as booster president and my son gave her a card and thanked her for her service these past 2 years. He got up there and had such a deep voice. He used big words and sounded like a man! He didn't write a speech before he started talking and was saying some pretty funny things. He made me very proud!

MRI

So, I had an MRI today for my migraines. I had to go in on Monday to fill out the paperwork and they asked me a series of questions, like did I had a pacemaker or heart monitor or random metal in my eye? Really? Random metal in my eye? Like would I know if I had random metal in my eye? I wasn't so sure about that one. I told them I didn't think so but wondered what woudl happen if I did.

I don't usually watch House, the TV show, but have seen a couple episodes. I watched about 15 minutes of one where a lady was getting an MRI and they asked if she had any metal in her body. She said no, but she was trying to commit suicide. She had metal pins in her legs and when they did the MRI, the machine sucked the metal out of her legs. I started thinking that if I did have random metal in my eyes, it would suck my eyes out! I guess that would stop the migrianes!

So, I asked the technician today and he said that House has some problems, the least of which is the overexagerations. He said he has never seen a doctor come in to actually run a test on a patient. He said that iron workers and metal shop workers and people who actually work with metal might get a piece of metal in their eye, but someone like me who is just walking along probably wouldn't get a random piece of metal in my eye. Why don't they just ask if you are an iron worker then? Why do they have to scare you like that? They should have asked me if a sewing machine needle has ever broken on me! There's how I could have gotten a random piece of metal in my eye :)

But, my eyeballs didn't get sucked out of my head and I survived the MRI.

I had a terrible migraine today but I didn't want to take any medicine because I figured that if I got the MRI while having a migraine, they might be able to see the problem with my head better. You know, how when your car is making a terrible sound and then you take it in to get fixed and it won't make the sound? Well, my head certainly was making some noise today! Every trigger to get a migraine happened today. Stuffy room, overheated, donut, perfume sprayed almost right in my face, fire alarm went off, had to go out in the cold and rain, stress from the vice principal coming in to watch me teach with a migraine. Yeah, that will do it for sure!

I just hope they look and go Oh, here is the problem. Let's just do this and we will fix the problem. But not take my eyeballs out. That would be a bummer. Or make me exercise. That would be a bummer too. Or make me stop eating chocolate. Or make me stop quilting. Or get a real job where I don't get vacations every couple of weeks :)

Pajama Quilter's having a sale

If you don't have her DVD yet, you really need to put this one on your Christmas/Birthday/Hey, I am a Quilter and I really need to treat myself list!

Take a look! The Pajama Quilter, Dawn, is having a sale! What a great deal. 40% off her DVD! Pop over there and pick one up for youself, one for a friend and one for a gift for the next quilt guild meeting! You know you want to. And tell her Marilyn from North Hills Quilter sent you. She will probably say WHO? but tell her anyways :)

CASA party is WHEN?

I thought I had at least another week before the CASA party and Binky Patrol doesn't meet until next Sunday so when I came home from church this morning, I counted up the quilts I had here and there were only 11 of them left after giving 10 to a family in Dixon whose heat had been turned off and another 35 to the Ronald McDonald House in Sacramento. 11? That's not enough for the 66 kids who are coming to the party. When I talked to the lady who will be taking the quilts to the party, I said I had about 25. Yikes!

I had 5 quilted that need binding and called Rhoda who had 10, 4 done and 6 needing finished. Well, those made the 25 I had promised, but to get them where they needed to be in time is still a question to be answered.

My migraine got really bad today and I took a couple different things and now it is bearable again. I quilted up these two quilts, the cow theme is paired with a farm theme roll of fabric that came from somewhere. It was still wrapped in plastic and says there is 21 yards on the roll. That's a lot of quilts! I have about 15 quilt tops that will go with it and I think I can use it all up quickly. The hardest part about quilting for me is making decisions. I can take an hour to pick a backing, but once the backing is loaded on the frame, it takes about 10-15 minutes to quilt the quilts. With 21 yards loaded, I should be able to get these 15 quilts knocked out in no time.

This music quilt I did before church. I am planning on finishing it up and putting it on the silent auction table at my son's Christmas concert on Wednesday. I was a little bit in a panic to have something for the table, but it really doesn't matter if I get something there or not. Last year I didn't and everyone who was trying to sell something had a lot of fun. 75% of the profit goes towards the band account and let me tell you, Band is very expensive! My son wants to go to a honor band camp in February that is about $400. Maybe he should get a job mowing lawns or something :) Not really. We pay for the girls to play tennis, but it doesn't come all at once.

quilts for CASA

Today I'm sitting with a massive migraine. I was doing so well this week and then during church...BAM! I can't figure out a trigger yet. I'm trying to think and keep track of what I'm eating or smelling or how much I'm sleeping or stress levels, but there seems to be no connection to anything.

So, today I had grand plans to finish up grading and work on a couple of quilts for a silent auction this week for my son's Christmas concert at school and organize all of the quilts for the CASA party. Oh well. I will get done what I can and rest up for the week ahead.

12 skills?

If you could come up with a list of skills every quilter should have, what would they be?

Perfect 1/4 inch seam, 1/2 square triangles, flying geese, quilting feathers, stitch in the ditch

These are some on my list. I'm trying to come up with 12 things every quilter should be able to do and then I'm going to put those on my list for next year's resolutions. Every month, I'm going to choose one of those things and have that be my goal for the month. By the end of the year, my quilting skills will have improved a lot. And, if the goal is only for the month, I don't think I will be so scared to try 1/2 square triangles like I was this year. I even bought a special ruler for cutting the triangles and still couldn't bring myself to trying them!

So, help me out here. What do you suggest I add to my list. I'm off to search the internet to see if someone has already done the hard part for me and to procrastinate from grading papers.

three more

After taking the 35 quilts to school, I have room for more quilts and need to get some more of these tops quilted up. I've been working the last couple of days and have these three done so far. It is the weekend, so no telling how many I will get done. It is also grade weekend. Yuck.

A package came in the mail today and I'm like a kid at Christmas! I want to open it so badly. My birthday is only 18 days away. Do you think I will make it until my birthday? I'm not so sure. My hubby said that since I'm a grownup now, I shouldn't have to wait until my birthday to open my present but my daughter thinks I should wait. Let's see who will win the battle of the box!

I think I might be able to wait until Dec 17. That is my last day of school until vacation starts. Yes. I'm like a kid at Christmas and I am counting the days. Only 10 more days of school! Yipee!

Ronald McDonald House and Binky Patrol

Today I took 35 quilts to school to be donated to the Ronald McDonald House in Sacramento. Three of the girls in the picture here helped make some of these quilts. The girl in the red had organized the toy drive and will be taking all of this stuff plus more that couldn't fit in the picture to RMH tomorrow.

My daughter is in the white shirt and Carla's daughter is behind her. Rhoda's daughter is on the right in the front. All three of our girls help us in our insanity :) They got their picture taken today for the school newspaper. I called the two local city newspapers, but they were a little busy to come out. I'm going to be writing up the story and sending in this picture with the hopes they will use it for their feature articles. One paper said they would for sure use the article and the other didn't return my phone call.

It is exciting seeing all three of these girls excited about quilting! It is nice to pass my obsession (I mean love) of quilting on to at least one of my 4 kids. Someone has to take all of this fabric when I'm gone.

The blog comes in handy

The blog is like an online diary and photo storage. My daughter is applying for a scholarship and

I am having a terrible time finding pictures she needs for her application. Where to look? The blog of course! Type in the search bar at the top and it pulls up the blogs that talk about whatever I'm looking for and there are the pictures to go with what she needs. SO, the babbling I do often here isn't for you all :) Sometimes it is for me to go back to. I know I'm going to need to look back when I fill out my headache paperwork. There are about 20 pages of papers to fill out and no way I could remember every day I've had a headache in the last 3 months. No problem. I've written about most of them here on the blog!

So, these are the two quilts I got done after school today, headache and all :)

Hubby is really sick. He went to the doctor and saw the urgent care guy. The guy didn't look in his throat or feel his neck or listen to his lungs, but sent him straight away to get a chest xray to see if he has pneumonia. Nope, xray was clear so he declared him to have bronchitis and gave him three different meds to take. He can't talk and lost his voice yesterday but wasn't sick before that. Didn't instill too much confidence in my husband.

sew cute

This little cheater panel with Winnie the Pooh! I just did some butterflies on it and too cute!

Yesterday, Carla stopped by with 19 quilts from Rhoda that were bound and I gave her 10 more to take back. I'll probably be taking about 20 quilts to school this week for the Ronald McDonald house in Sacramento. I want to have some for the CASA program for Christmas. I'm not sure how many more I will be able to get done before break. We have 3 weeks of school and things usually get busy around here with Christmas concerts and grades and tons of labs this time of year. I'm not sure why we plan so many labs for this time of year, maybe because those are fun for the kids to do, but they sure are a lot of work to set up, clean up and grade :)

Tennis anyone?

I'm off to a tennis tournament with my daughter today. She is playing a girl from Minnesota :) I bet that girl is happy to be in California where the sun is shining and it is warm compared to back home! To me, it is COLD! I think it will be in the 50's today. I will be wearing my wool hat that I made for my trip to visit colleges with my oldest daughter. I will be wearing my down jacket. I will be shivering.

But, before we leave, I had time to quilt up this super cute Minnie mouse quilt. The back has Sesame Street flannel on it. This was the last of the flannel that I loaded. I only got 9 quilts from that big roll of flannel. I loaded a second batch, much smaller than the first so when I get home tonight I might have time to get one more quilt done for this vacation.

While it seems like I got a lot done, there is always more to do. I never feel like I am getting ahead or catching up. I'm always looking for ways to do things faster and better. That's why the Accuquilt go looks so great. It claims to cut things almost twice as fast as a rotary cutter. I'm just hoping that it lives up to its claims. So many things to do...so little time :)

Goin' Fishing

Ok, so not really fishing, but this quilt called for something in the red bars and I knew I had a fish quilting pattern somewhere in one of my many quilt design books. Just the ticket! Laura Lee Fritz to the rescue. I have several of her books. Each one is filled with many, many designs that can be adapted to fill a space or border or in my case one of these stripes. My fish don't look like her fish, but if I don't show you what hers are supposed to look like you will think I am a genius :) Check out one of her books from your local library, or better yet, buy one for yourself on Amazon or put it on your Christmas list.

And then last night, while waiting for the tennis schedule to update, I got this quilt done. Nothing fancy here, just some meandering and wiggles. But, it's done and that's all that matters. My son counted the tops waiting to be quilted and there are 49 more. 49 after all I've done this vacation! Wow, that's a lot. Plus the 72 kits I cut out. No time to rest. No time to chat. I've got work to do.

I'm an idiot

Got two more quilts done today and both sets of lab books graded. Yipee. I still have one more day of vacation, but I think that will be spent at another tennis tournament with my daughter. I hope I don't freeze!

Ok, so why am I an idiot? Well, there is a new foundation forming to raise money for my school district. Guess who got asked to be on the committee? Guess who said they would go to the meeting? Guess who went and was told they couldn't be on the committee because they are a teacher and teachers aren't welcome? Guess who got mad? Guess who is fighting mad and who is fighting to be on that committee? Guess who is an idiot?

If you guessed me for any of the above questions, you are smarter than I am. I just hate when people tell me I can't do something. Even if it is something I don't want to do. I dare you to tell me I can't clean my house. Go ahead. Ok, bad example. But tell me I can't eat pumpkin pie and Cheesecake on the same day. Go ahead...I dare you!

This quilt was done by Carla and quilted by me. The strips are 6 inches and 2 inches and then you just cut them 8 inches. Quick, easy, cute! This fabric was donated by A Quilted Heart in Vacaville.