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.