What’s on the Frame

This quilt is for Ginny’s grandson, Brandon.

These were the starter blocks from earlier this month

His birthday is March 8th, so we were really pushing to get is done.



Ginny had the fish print and a couple of blues, so we built the quilt around them.

I tried to make a water movement in the quilt lines and Brandon’s name is quilted in stitches, also!


I love the turquoise water bubble she chose for the backing!

The binding is all that is left to do. Yea! This my third quilted finish for 2011.

I was able to make a couple of squares for the March Block Lotto ~ come see tomorrow what the new project is, I'm loving this one . . . .

Happy Quilting!

Thrift Store Iron

I said I'd share...

We saw this neat old iron at a local thrift store on Friday afternoon, but it was priced $20. It was in a glass case, so I had to ask about it to get the price. The girl who was waiting on me said that it would be on sale on Monday, half off. Okay, I'll wait for half off.

Well, better than that, it was 75% off, and it was still there! *vbg*
I always try to say, if the Lord wants me to have it, it will still be there. (okay, sometimes that doesn't work out for me, but acceptance is a lesson, too.)

Iron lives at my house, now....

This makes me remember a t-shirt I saw on a Fons and Porter show:

"Irony is the opposite of wrinkly"

On sewing today:

• Ginny and I worked on her ocean blue quilt top, it's 2/3 done.

• I'm still working on my border.

• School tomorrow, see ya!

Happy Quilting!

I Could Get Used to This. . .

Oh, how I love a Monday off from school! I am hoping for a sewing day, but it's 9 a.m. and so far I've cooked breakfast, packed Larry's lunch (he reminds me that most jobs do not close for a holiday such as President's Day- gee, sorry Dad - not really *vbg*), washed and put away the dishes (okay, so the dishwasher did the biggest part of that!), and read and commented on a few hundred blogs (oh, how I love that!). I still need to get to the thrift store, (if I get what I waited to go on teacher discount for, I'll share later), go to the grocery store and then...I'll sew.

I did take these photos to share today. This is a rocker that Happy brought to me from the Virginia homestead. We grew up in the Air Force, which is to say, we lived in many places, and our Dad traveled to even more.

The small picture shows both rockers.

Happy took one on with him to his home.

I cannot help but think of him when I look at mine :-}

This was one of two rockers that Daddy purchased on an extended trip to Peru. He said he watched these "monks" spin the wood with a bike pedal style lathe, and they would hold a string with their hands and teeth, and spin the ribbed designs into the wood.

Is it true? I do not know. You'd have to know my Dad, I grew up with stories from him like, "...When I was a little girl...", or, "...Back when I rode horses on the open range with Tex Ritter..." ...no kidding, Daddy had the best stories.

Both chairs are in good condition, probably because there are other chairs more comfortable, lol. In our folks home in Anchorage, Momma had stylishly decorated with one of the rockers on display on top of a closet in a tall foyer entryway.

My photos were actually waiting on me giving the wood a good cleaning and conditioning, which happened this Saturday (finally!). My chair is now sitting in our computer room. I think this makes seven rockers in our house. WOW. Yea, I love rockers.

No one is sitting on one right now, does that make us off our rocker...? Okay, moving on....



While outside in the beautiful morning sun, I took advantage of the setting to take pictures of this latest project.

I was trying without success to make a fancy border, but I think I'll go with simplicity, and that way I'll have a finish, and not another UFO.

Oh, and February has been good to me in the giveaways, I'm so tickled! Big thank yous to ~

Cyndi of Blue Bird Swing ~ or, wait, is it Blue Bird's Wing? I'm gonna have to ask that question!
Cyndi did my prize with a cute presentation, she only showed the empty basket, and then she filled it daily. Look closely, and you'll see her doggy Noah in the chair ~

Doris from Threads of Conversation gave away a charm pack ~ Woo, Hoo! Oh, and go see her first quilt, it's a whole cloth quilted by her, from her teen day, it is an incredible accomplishment.

I and a few 1000 blogging quilters out there was entering the blogs giving away Kim Brackett's newest book, Scrap Basket Sensations. I love her projects, I knew I would save up to buy one, but I entered each day at each blog participating in the wonderful projects of Kim. Thank you, I won from Karen of Nana Girl Quilts! Karen made several of the projects in Kim's book, and displayed them around her own home, just lovely. You remember Larry's Blue Kitchen Sink was from Kim's last book....

Well, can you believe I've been at this for more than an hour, I'd better get moving, and I hope you can make the most of your day, too. Happy Quilting!

Valentine's Day 2011

I'm enjoying a day home, we are out of school for 2 Mondays in February, one for Lincoln's Birthday, and the other is for Washington's Birthday, or President's Day. Either way, I'm home and happy!

My sweetheart Larry is at work. He's feeling much better, has been keeping his weight down, and his energy level is s-l-o-w-ly increasing, bless his heart! This year we will celebrate 35 years married, and I'm glad to have such a love. Our celebration of Valentine's Day will include home cooking, my really thick spaghetti sauce is his favorite, so it's cooking as I type.

Pokey's Really Thick Spaghetti Sauce
I'm not a real measuring person on this recipe, so do as you wish...

in a skillet, brown and stir until cooked and crumbly:

• 1-2 pounds ground beef
• 1 pound Italian sweet sausage, casings removed
• 2 coarsely chopped white onions
• 3-5 stalks chopped celery (I've even added 1 chopped carrot, chopped zucchini, or 1 diced bell pepper)
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon each basil flakes, and oregano

Add all to a large pot. For the sauce ingredients, add all this to the pot:

• 2- 14 ounce cans stewed tomatoes (I crush these in my hands, removing peels and tough tops)
• 2 or 3- 14 ounce cans mushrooms (because we love 'em)
• 2- 24 ounce jars Newman's Own Sockarooni Sauce
  
• more garlic powder, oregano, and basil
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• sometimes I add 4 ounces sliced pepperoni

Cook all to blend the flavors. Serve with a green salad, cooked spaghetti noodles, and garlic bread. The leftovers are great to pack for lunches....

I recently won a sweet mug rug from The Adventures of the Empress of the Universe. You should go meet this gal, she has some serious talent at making these mug rugs, and mine is beautiful! The heart at the top of the post is from this one, too. Always nice to meet a new blogging friend.

I was hoping to work on a finish or two, but that new roll of Amy Butler was calling my name, so here goes....

And because I want to join in a couple more giveaways in the quilting community, go check these out:

• Stash Resolution has a 6 fat quarter bundle of "Delilah". The deadline to enter is Wednesday, February 16, at midnight EST.

• Thearica of Pigtales and Quilts is having a sponsored giveaway from the Quilt Depot. A nice blue shopping bag of goodies is the prize, come see. Date giveaway is 02/20 at noon EST.
• Edited to add: Sew Fun Quilts has a one day giveaway: Red charm squares for Valentine's Day, I'm in for red!
  

That's it for now, I think I'll go back to stitching!

Sewing on a Sick Day or Two

I'm home from school, this is going on week three of "asthmatic bronchitis" stuff, no fun. I've finally given in, and am staying home from school a couple of days (mostly due to not having a voice to teach, and the frequent 2-3 minutes of coughing fits.)

So, the positives ~ there are positives, people ~

• I've read and commented on a LOT of blogs,
  
• even entered a few giveaways, oh yes!
• all caught up on the 1000+ posts right now
• laundry, and most of the cleaning is done (between rests!)
• afternoon naps oh, I could put that into each day
• a bit of creativity too, yea!

For Ginny, this was an easy quilt idea for her grandson #2.



I was at school playing with teacher stuff, can you tell, lol.
We had already decided "easy" had to be the theme, and had cut her four prints into 5 inches by WOF. Yawn. This was too boring to me. (maybe it was the stamps...)

So, these came from a couple hours of play time, and about 4 more fabric selections. That meant pulling out one of the original pieces, we all do that, though, right? These are 12 inch squares, I think she'll like how quickly that size block works into a quilt. We picked a royal blue for sashing, I think that will be best in a boy's room, but the white looks nice....

I also got some of the string hearts done for the Block Lotto. I think they are a bit of a challenge, but I'm glad for the try. I entered only 2, I've a plan for these four.

Today, I'm going to see about using the leftovers of the string hearts.

Did you see the cute metal stamping at Karen's? Well, Larry is helping me with stamping some washers for my second graders for Valentine's Day. These are our washers, but her bookmark, I don't have one done that far yet. (you may need to click to enlarge, the washers say "LOVE")

And lastly, a new arrival from a sale at Fabric. com, this Amy Butler is going to be teaming up with the gray below it...well, dreaming about them together for now, anyway.
Hope I'm not sharing it too early, I may go ADD and jump to something else...
because you notice I haven't slipped it out of it's ribbon yet-yikes!

See ya'll soon!

This is a pincushion I made for Momma years ago, and have it back now.
Do any of you remember this tiny patchwork strawberry print
some 20 years ago? I loved it, and added the
strawberry emery onto the basket.

I Won!

I won 30 blocks in the block lotto, boy, oh, boy!

And the block for February is cute, too....

These are not mine, but you can see these and more at
Sophie's Block Lotto, come see!