Sunday

I made a big turkey dinner today. I'm still on my points and have lost 8 pounds. I feel pretty good about that. I have been walking on the treadmill and walking the dogs outside. Today I'm not going to exercise because my back is hurting. I'm going to give it a rest for today but intend to get right back on track tomorrow.

Saturday night

Not feeling too good. Stomach troubles. Sewing room too far from the bathroom to do anything in. Hopefully tomorrow. ugh.

Wednesday

We have some cold cold temps again. Tonight, on my 8 mile drive home from work, it snowed, it sleeted, and there was freezing rain. Lovely.

I didn't cook tonight. Nick and Ev are having Subway sandwiches. I had a can of soup, a salad, and leftover lasagna. It was a good dinner for me and the guys are getting what they want.

I stayed on my points today and I also did 24 minutes on the treadmill. My short term goal is to get to 30 minutes and stay there for a while. Then I will up the intensity level.

Nothing quilt or block related today to post. I need to pick out a nice fabric for the sun in the partial trees and sun block.

Okay I'm not going to be a downer...

Here's the sketch for the treetops and sun block. There will be one 6-1/2" square of light blue sky material, one snowball block with yellow or orange and light blue corners, one 3-1/2 x 6-1/2" light blue, and three flying geese blocks with green and light blue. They will connect with the trunk blocks in the block below them.

I made a big spinach lasagna tonight for supper. I didn't miss the meat in it at all. I put a lot of mushrooms in it. I actually stayed within my points today, even thought I went out for lunch and made lasagna and garlic bread for supper. I only was on the treadmill for 16 minutes. At least it was something. I got interrupted during the treadmill and really just couldn't get back into it.

One of my close friends lost her job today. I feel badly for her and wish there was something I could do for her. The job market right now is just terrible.

Bad Monday

Not going to get into my bad day on my blog, but suffice it to say it was not a good day. Didn't do any sewing or designing, but I do know that the final block in the wall hanging will be treetops and sun.

Still doing okay on my points. Made turkey sausage for dinner with noodles. I also did 20 minutes on the treadmill today.

The temperature has dropped and the wind is really blowing. There was some snow today, which I like.

Tomorrow I'll try to be more upbeat. Will try to get the sketch of treetops and sun done tomorrow.

Sunday night

Not much going on today. Did some shopping today at Wal Mart and Aldi. Mostly got groceries. Made a really good chicken stir fry for supper tonight with some lo fat shrimp egg rolls. It was a low points meal and really tasted good. I've stayed on my points this weekend and I'm just ecstatic about it. I also did 20 minutes on the treadmill.

Didn't do any sewing. I just seem to be in a rut. The times I want to go up and sew, Nick is sleeping in there on the couch. I had wanted to sew yesterday then Ev ended up staying home so I didn't get upstairs then. And I doubt tomorrow I will sew because Mondays are just too tiring at work. Oh well, I sew for fun, it's not a job.

Saturday night at home

Here's a picture of the partial trees block. The final block will have the tree tops and a block representing the sun, I'm thinking. I'm also not real sure about the four patch unit and the fact that it's supposed to represent a field of flowers. I considered putting another lake, but that might be too much.

I pin basted the charity baby quilt today. I finally put some of my village houses in the porch closet. I was actually able to get to the porch closet because I started cleaning the porch. I filled three big garbage bags and two boxes before running out of steam. There are a couple boxes of books that I'm going to have Nick take out to the car tomorrow so I can drop them at the thrift store Monday. My friend Donna wants to go through the boxes first, which is fine.

My poor old pooch is really having trouble with her back legs. It makes me sad to watch her try and get up on a chair and have her back legs just tremble or give out all together.

I have stayed on my points today, woohoo! This is a really big deal for me because weekends are hard for me. I want to graze all day long. I also got on the treadmill for 17 minutes. I'm getting there....slow but sure.

Nick had to work tonight. Everett was supposed to go in but the plant called him off. So there went my night alone to sew. Oh well, I'm not complaining. I did get a few little things done at least.

Johanna and Ben took Johnathon to the races on ice at the family center. I sure hope the baby is good for them. I would think it would be too loud for him, and for Johanna even. She really doesn't like loud noises.

I made another batch of dough today from that book Judy L. recommended on her site. Wow, is that the best ever. I made pizzas last night using it for the crust and they were really wonderful.

Long week

Okay, so it really was a short week because I didn't work Monday, but it felt long to me! I haven't done any sewing tonight, but intend to go put the block together before the night is over and post a picture either later tonight or in the morning when I get up. Darling Son has been sleeping in my sewing room because it's warmer than his room. I already warned him that Saturday morning I intend to go up there and sew so he may have to move his butt out of there in the morning.

I made homemade pizza tonight for supper. Then Darling Hubby calls and tells me that's what he had for his break time at work. ugh. Well, there's a frozen container of something in the freezer I can make for him. Just wish I hadn't gone through the trouble to make the pizza....oh well.

I bought a new Swiffer wet jet today. When Darling Daughter moved out she took the battery pack from mine because she found one in the closet without a battery pack and thought, well, I don't know what she thought, but I was not happy. Anyway, I bought myself a new one and it's better than the old one. I have a lot of the pads and cleaning solution, so now what excuse do I have not to mop the floor...?

I stayed on my points today! This was a banner day for me, actually. I went to lunch with Barb and Megan to Ruby Tuesday's. I had water and the salad bar. Zero Points! This was a big deal to me, because it took willpower not to put cheese on the salad and not to put other goodies on my plate, including the really tasty croutons they have on the salad bar. I actually ordered the veggie mini burgers and just had them put them straight into the to go box for Darling Son.

I also got on the treadmill for 16 minutes tonight. I'm getting there.... Trying to get season one of a t.v. series I've never watched so I have something to watch while I'm on the treadmill.

Cut it up

Here are the pieces I cut for the Partial Trees block. They are as follows: from the green and white fabric cut one 3-1/2 x 12-1/2 rectangle, four 3-1/2 x 3 rectangles, and one 6-1/2 x 6-1/2 square. From the brown pieces cut two pieces 3-1/2 x 1-1/2. From the two pieces of pink florals cut two squares from each floral at 3-1/2 x 3-1/2.

Today I stayed on track with my diet. My friend at work wanted to go to lunch today but I didn't go. I can't go out and be tempted on the third day of my diet because I know I would cave and have something I shouldn't for lunch. I explained it to my friend and she totally understands, thankfully! That's one thing I have to say, I am blessed with great friends.

I had a really good sandwich for lunch that I made before work. It was diet bread, ham, turkey, cheese, lettuce, mustard and fat free mayo. Good stuff! For dinner I had a baked potato with fat free sour cream and salsa on it and a grilled cheese sandwich made with low fat cheese and diet bread. Also had some pickles. I have enough points left to have a cup of ice cream later! Yummy!

For Darling Hubby, I put some beef in the crock pot this morning with potato, onion, and cream of celery soup. Darling Son can have veggie egg rolls or veggie chicken nuggets when he gets home from work.

Wednesday Night

Here are the fabrics for the Partial Trees Block. The two floral prints will make up the four patch block.

I have a stiff neck tonight, so I won't be typing long here. Don't know if I slept funny or what, but it's really aggravating.

Today is my second day of counting points and exercising. I did well on the points, even saved enough to have ice cream this evening. I think I might just have to make that a rule: always save at least two points for ice cream at night! I walked for 12 minutes on the treadmill. Not much, I know, but I'm going to work my way up to a decent amount of time.

Darling Son and Darling Daughter went to a late lunch together today. Wow. A year ago they were at each other's throats, now they are going to lunch together! What a difference a year makes.

Block Diagram for Partial Trees

Here's the partial tree block. The tops of the trees will be in the final block next week. The four patch block is supposed to represent flowers, so choose some happy tiny floral prints for it. I'll be posting the fabrics tomorrow. The greens and tree trunks will be the same as in the other blocks.

I started counting points for weight control again today. I have to do this. It's extremely unhealthy for me to be at this weight and I have to lose it! I also got on the treadmill for 11 minutes. I would like to work that up to 45 minutes or more a day.

I made a vegetable stir fry for supper for Darling Son and I. Going to make Dear Hubby sausage and eggs. I was going to make veggie stir fry for Son and pork stir fry for Hubby and I but I mistakenly took sausages out of the freezer this morning instead of pork chops! It worked out okay, though. I made a loaf of bread tonight, too. Judy Laquidara has a blog, www.patchworktimes.com and talked about this book with instructions to bake bread easily every day if you want to. Well, I bought the book yesterday and made the dough. Tonight I baked my first loaf and was very pleased with it. I was especially pleased when I gave Darling Son a chunk of bread and he said "wow, that's good!" That made me feel really good!

Decisions, decisions...

The next block will be grass and partial trees. I have not completely decided the layout yet, but will have a sketch for tomorrow's post.

I was musing to myself about this wall hanging and got to thinking I must be making it because I want to live in the woods. There is no house in the wall hanging. I had considered putting one in at the beginning, but decided against it.

Went to Border's today and got a cookbook I had been wanting. Then went to visit Darling Daughter for a while. She didn't have school today and I didn't work because of MLK day. Came home and made a pot of chili.

Sunday afternoon naptime

Yesterday I was able to get the Raising Cane rows sewn together. I need to cut the borders and add them now. The original pattern just calls for one 7" border but I think I'm going to add an inner border or two first.

Darling Daughter and her boyfriend came by today and went with the rest of us over to my dad's for dinner. It was my sister in law's birthday so we had a meal at noon over there. It was nice to have both my kids around at the same time for a change. Darling Son has gone to work, the other two have gone home, and Darling Hubby is napping on the couch. I'm in the process of taking down my winter village, but it's time consuming and boring, so I'm taking a break. Thinking about taking a nap, myself!

I know it's probably not a very interesting show to many quilters, but for some odd reason I like watching that show 'Ax Men'. Well, when I was taking my village down and putting all the trees away, I said to my hubby that I should be on that show! Goofy, I know. I like that show, and I liked that show 'Ice Road Truckers' when it was on, also.

I took a couple of dips over to Dad's. One was a simple Rotel tomato and Velveeta dip in the mini crock pot. The other is a taco layer dip. Here are the layers (spread out in order listed on a cookie sheet or platter):

1 can refried beans
8 oz pkg cream cheese combined with 16 oz sour cream and 1 pkt taco seasoning mix
16 oz salsa
shredded lettuce to cover
1 chopped green pepper
1 bunch chopped green onions
1 tomato diced
1 small can sliced olives, drained well
2 cups finely shredded cheese

You can change this up, omit things, add things, whatever you want. The key is to have the mixture of cream cheese, sour cream and taco seasoning mix in it. It would also be good with a layer of taco meat or even some black beans. It's good with Tostito's Scoops. So is the Rotel/Velveeta dip!

Well, the comfy chair and electric blanket are calling my name! Gonna take nappies now and worry about dinner later. Dairy Queen chicken strip basket sounds good...

Lake Block completed

Here's a picture of the Lake Block, back and front. It's a pretty simple block. I just sewed the 2-1/2" squares to the corners of the rectangle representing the lake and trimmed and pressed.

Today I have been doing some other sewing also. I put the Raising Cane blocks together into rows and intend to sew the rows together yet tonight.

Darling Hubby is working overtime today. We are going to have rueben sandwiches tonight for supper. They are such and easy sandwich to make and really tasty. My version deviates from the "correct" recipe for a rueben. I use Buddig brand beef instead of the traditional corned beef.

Here's my recipe for Rueben Sandwiches:

For each sandwich, use one two ounce package of beef, one slice of swiss cheese, and a small amount of well drained saurkraut, right from the can. Butter the outsides of two slices of rye bread. On the inside of the bread, spread a thin layer of thousand island dressing. Begin with a layer of meat, then kraut, then meat, then cheese, and finishing with meat. With buttered side of the bread to the outside, grill the sandwich until lightly browned and cheese has begun to melt nicely. Serve with a good dill pickle and chips! yum!

Friday Night

We had a busy day today. Darling Hubby finally has his own wheels! We got a 1997 Ford F150 truck. He is really really happy. I am too because now I don't have to worry about bumming rides or anything. Since Darling Son started back this semester he isn't home every day to take him to work. A little less stress, that's what it amounts to. And we can all use a little less stress...

I'm going to be putting the Lake Block together tonight and will post a picture soon. Just wasn't sure what my plans were for the evening, so I hadn't been up in the sewing room yet. This is a three day weekend for me, so I'm really looking forward to some sewing.

Darling Daughter and her boyfriend may be stopping by tonight. She wants to see Daddy's truck, I know. It will be nice if she does stop. I still have her birthday present to give her!

Going to pick up a pizza shortly. Not cooking tonight.

Mom has her phone again. I'm really glad and I know she is too.

Thursday night

I didn't do anything on the Lake block tonight. All I have to do to put it together is sew the squares to the corners of one rectangle and then sew the rectangles together. Just didn't have the energy tonight. I made a simple but good dinner. I fried burger patties, then took them out of the skillet. Then heated a can of beef broth and a can of mushroom soup in the skillet and added the meat patties back to it and let them simmer for a while. Made some mac and cheese to go with it and then some deviled eggs just because I felt like it.

Lake Block pieces prepared

Okay, here's the pieces for the Lake Block. One 6 1/2" x 12 1/2" green on white rectangle and one 6 1/2" x 12 1/2" dark blue rectangle. Four 2 1/2" green and white squares. Turn squares over and draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner.

Tonight I made a quick dinner. I browned a pound of ground beef and sauteed an onion with it.

Then I boiled some macaroni noodles. I added them to the meat and onions, with a can of tomato soup, half a can of milk, and whatever cheese I had in the fridge. Tonight it was some velveeta, about 4 ounces, maybe less, cut in cubes.

Just mix all the ingredients together. Add salt and pepper and you have a good one dish meal.

I decided to use all white and green material instead of adding some of the pink floral. That may or may not go into the next block. We'll see.

My mother got her purse back! All that was missing was the cash. She was very lucky to get it. I thought it was a goner.

I'm glad I have challenged myself to make one block a week this year. It's not much, but it has forced me to not be lazy!

Fabric choices for Lake block

Here are the fabrics I plan to use in my Lake block. I'm not sure yet if I'll use the flowered print, that's still a design decision in the works.

I got a perm and a haircut tonight, so I didn't feel like cooking. Stopped and picked up chicken dinners for Darling Hubby and myself. Got Darling Son some cheesy fries. Read a Christmas book of Debbie Macomber's. It was short and sweet, titled "When Christmas Comes".

My friend Lori gave me some clear containers with lids that salad comes in. I'm going to use them to sort through and organize my scraps. I hate to admit it, but I haven't been in my scrap tub in ages. I'm itching to be fondling all those scraps. And I'm determined to throw out those materials I simply do not like! Especially those horrid diamonds in orange and some other awful colors.

The fire whistle in town blew three seperate times tonight, indicating a fire emergency. Two of the times it blew were while I was at the hairdresser and the third time was a couple hours later. When Darling Hubby called from work at lunch, he said all three times were for the plant! Fortunately, it was because three different sprinkler heads had popped because of ice. The plant makes cardboard boxes, so you can only imagine the horror it would be if a fire were to break out...

Block diagram for lake

This is a super simple block. This will be my Lake block. I'm going to use a darker blue for the lake than I used for the sky. Tomorrow I will put up the materials.

I'm tired tonight, which is normal for Mondays. I think I might be getting a sinus infection. Sure hope not. I'm going to give it a couple days to go away, but will call the doctor if it's not gone soon.

Darling Son is on the hunt for superglue. He dropped a box on his laptop keyboard and a couple keys popped off. I hope he's able to fix it with superglue but if not he'll have to have it fixed somewhere.

Darling Daughter has some kind of bug working on her too. She's been sick for a while and now most of the gunk is in her head too, but it's making her nauseous to boot. This has been a bad season for sickness.

Mom's new phone came today. I programmed it for her and am sending it to her tomorrow.

Sunday night, week two

Just a quick post tonight. Still very cold here. Cooked a pot roast today to try and warm up the house some. Put up plastic on more of the windows. Hopefully that will help with the heat bill. Every little bit will help.

Church this morning was moved from our church to the other Catholic church in town. The same priest does Mass at both parishes. Our church is having furnace problems. I sure hope they get fixed soon because it's only two blocks away. Of course, the other church is only a few blocks more.

Darling Son is working tonight. Tomorrow is the first day of his second semester of college. He had better get good grades this semester. Darling Daughter starts tomorrow also. Haven't seen much of her lately. Kinda hurts that she doesn't bother to keep in contact.

A few posts back I showed the walker bag I made from Gram for Christmas. As I suspected, after seeing her reaction, she hasn't put it on her walker. Just like she didn't use the quilts I made her. Why do I bother?

Next weekend we are going to car shop. We'd really like to find a good used truck, but I don't think there will be any in our price range. We have to get something because my husband is driving me nuts without a car.

Tomorrow I will post the block for this week. Stay tuned!

Late Saturday Night

I don't have any quilting to report on today, although I was home most of the day today. Instead of quilting, I made clam chowder, grocery shopped, visited a friend, put plastic up over half the windows, baked a cherry pie, and stripped the bed and washed all the linens. Then I sat down in my big chair and started reading a book. Next thing I know, it's 11pm and I've been asleep for hours in the chair! I must be getting old.... Anyway, tomorrow I really have to get upstairs to sew. Sew much to do, sew much to do!

Pine Trees Block is Finished!

Here's what the pine trees block will look like when assembled. I have put a picture of the front and back, so you can see which way I pressed the seams. I assembled the block by putting together the flying geese units and trunk unit for the tall trees, then put the sky block and small pine tree together into a row. Then I sewed the rows together. Finished block should measure 12-1/2" square. But you know what? This is YOUR block and YOUR wall hanging. If it's off a bit so what? When we have all four blocks of the wall hanging done, we can square them up to be uniform if we have to. I am not stressing over this and no one else should either. This is for FUN!

It's pretty cold out today. I think it's around 10 degrees. brr. Good day to stay inside and sew! I did end up going to work yesterday and today, despite the weather. The drive home last night was tense but I'm hoping tonight won't be as bad.

Mom called this morning and said Gram was getting out of the hospital today. That's good news. I talked to her for a while last night. She said she was looking forward to a good night's sleep, as she hadn't been able to sleep very well recently.

Darling Hubby didn't eat much of the almost stuffed pepper dish last night. They had a catered dinner at work as a safety reward. I never know if he's going to eat or not anymore. Being on second shift, sometimes he comes home hungry and sometimes he doesn't. And with Darling Son not eating meat right now, it's not easy to make a meal for everyone to eat. Darling Hubby needs something that will reheat and still taste good, Darling Son needs vegan, and I need EASY! ha ha.

Tonight a couple of my friends are coming over for pizza and games. I need a girls' night...

Over the weekend my goal is to get the top quilted on the charity baby quilt. Then I plan to sew the blocks into rows for the Christmas Mystery quilt.

I have drafted the block for next week and will be making a test block so I don't repeat this weeks'measuring error! And while I am talking about the upcoming blocks, I do want to mention that I am not a big fan of applique or paper piecing. You probably won't see ANY paper piecing blocks demonstrated. There may be a few applique blocks, but they will be simple. I did one applique quilt in my life and I think that might be my limit. ha ha.

Tomorrow I'm going to put some clam chowder in the crock pot. It is a very very easy recipe. I may have posted it eons ago on this blog, but it's worth repeating, so here it is:

Creamy Clam Chowder

1 quart half and half

2 cans minced clams

1 stick butter 1 onion

3 cans New England Clam Chowder

2 cans Cream of Potato soup

Saute onions and drained clams in butter. Put all ingredients in crock pot, stirring well to mix, adding salt and pepper to taste. You may add some of the clam juice from the minced clams if desired to make a thinner soup. Allow to cook on low for 4-6 hours. If your crock pot cooks hot, watch for signs of scorching.

This recipe came from a cookbook my dad had gotten from work many years ago. It was a compilation of recipes from company workers. I have adapted it to fit my families tastes. I do not add any of the clam juice, preferring to thin it out if necessary with milk. It usually does not need thinning out. I don't add any salt, as the soups, being processed, already contain a lot of salt. This soup is great with a loaf of good bread. But what soup isn't?

A slight error...

Okay, it's a learning experience for me... The last post said to cut four pieces of the green and white material at 2-3/4"x3-1/2". I have edited the post to read the correct measurement of 3"x3-1/2". I apologize for this and will try not to let it happen again. I'm going to try and get a week ahead of myself so that I can work out the bugs before posting! Hey, I'm human...lol!

Moving forward. Here are the pieces being assembled. To assemble one flying geese unit, I drew diagonal lines on the 3-1/2" squares. Then I sewed to one side of the rectangle, trimmed, flipped, and finger pressed. In my case, I used half a clothespin for the pressing. It works pretty good and I didn't have to pay for a fancy wooden pressing tool! That's it sitting on the big blue square. After sewing and flipping the first half, sew the other side on the diagonal line, trim and flip and press. Actually, I sew just a thread to the sky portion of the units, to allow for material while flipping. Press to the sky (bottom unit).

To stitch the trunk unit, it's pretty simple. Using a quarter inch seam, as for all seams, by the way, sew a 3-1/2"x3" green and white unit to the 1-1/2"x3-1/2" unit. Press seams to the green and white units.

I made a dish called 'almost stuffed peppers' tonight for supper. It was pretty simple. Browned ground beef, onions, cut up pepper, garlic, diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and instant rice. The recipe came from www.allrecipes.com and I thought it was quick and easy.

My grandmother went to the hospital this morning because she was having trouble breathing. She is staying overnight.

Woke up to about six inches of snow this morning. My drive in to work wasn't bad, but the drive home was awful. The roads were drifted over and frozen in spots. Not good at all. I was very glad to get home.

I fall to pieces...

Here are the pieces of the pine trees block. There are 4 green pieces that measure 3-1/2"x6-1/2", 8 blue 3-1/2" squares, 1 blue 6-1/2" square, 2 brown pieces measuring 1-1/2"x3-1/2", and 4 white with green pieces measuring 3"x3-1/2".

I'll put the darkest green on the base of the tree and the lightest on the top. The blue represents the sky. I'll be drawing diagonal lines on the small blue squares and sewing them to the green rectangles.

Today is Darling Daughter's birthday. I called her during my lunch break at work and sang Happy Birthday to her. I hope she had a nice day.

We are supposed to have some snow move into the area tonight. They are predicting three to six inches. I hope we get lots of snow. I love it!

I made a spinach lasagna tonight for supper. Made a simple salad and garlic bread to go with it. Now, Darling Hubby needs to have MEAT at every meal, so I put some Italian sausages in the oven to cook. My friend showed me how to cook sausage like this and I love it. You just put them on a rack over a cookie sheet to catch the grease. Bake at 350 until done. About half an hour, but I check with a meat thermometer.

My question of the day: Does everyone's Labrador lay on the couch with their paws up in the air on their back? I swear I have the weirdest dog... I think she must really be content and trust us.

It ain't easy being green...

Here's a sampling of the green's I want to use on the pine tree blocks. The one on the far left, with mostly white in it, may be the ground portion of the trees. I mean the two rectangles on either side of the trunk. I'd like to find a white with a little blue similar to the green and white for the sky portion of the block. Tomorrow I am going to cut the pieces out when I get home from work.

I think this is just going to be a small wall hanging sampler quilt. Maybe just four blocks. I need to start small so that I keep motivated and finish the project.

I am making a chicken dish that is kinda like beef stroganoff with chicken instead of beef. Campbells had recipe online that I'm loosely following. Going to have steamed broccoli and egg noodles with it.

Today was the first day back to work for me after a 12 day vacation. It wasn't a bad day. It was busy, which helped.

Tomorrow is Darling Daughter's 20th birthday. Wow. I remember the day she was born...of course. Her boyfriend bought her diamond earrings for her birthday and gave them to her last night. They were very pretty (she sent me a text picture). I've never been one for jewelry. I have my wedding ring and another simple band that I wear. That's enough for me. I did tell Darling Husband that I would like another simple ring for our 25th anniversary in a few years. And if I get it, that will be nice, but if not, that's okay too.

Darling Son isn't home from a music audition. I am not quite sure of the details, but I think it was with someone who plays for a living. I'm not too thrilled about this because his job right now is to finish school.

Block diagram for pine trees

Not sure if this will make sense or not, but this is a diagram of what I want my first block to look like. It will have four flying geese units in it measuring 6-1/2" x 3-1/2", two trunk units measuring 6-1/2" x 3-1/2", and one sky unit measuring 6-1/2" x 6-1/2".

Not unpredictably, the trees will be green and the sky unit will be blue. Tomorrow I will share my fabric selections for the block.

Bean soup update: Wow! Best soup I've made in a long time! Also made some cornbread in a cast iron skillet in the oven, and for dessert I made some bread pudding with raisins.

I did get on the treadmill for 10 minutes today. It wasn't much, I know that, but it was something. And it's a start back in the right direction.

My silly dog really had some separation anxiety last night. She would not let us out of her sight, even at bedtime. She wasn't satisfied until she got UNDER the covers with Dear Hubby and I. Now, this wouldn't be too bad if she wasn't a Labrador who weighs 80+ pounds! The minute she was under the covers she fell fast asleep, snoring within minutes! Now, this was funny, and I didn't mind it, but she is not going to make a habit of this! I think she just had really missed us while we were at Mom's.

This week's block is...

A pine tree block. I will be making a tree block, using flying geese units for the tree and rectangles for the trunks at the bottom. Since I want this to be a square block I am thinking of making the block with one tall tree and one short tree in it. I tried to make a picture on paint of it, but was unsuccessful, so I'm going to draw it out and take a picture of the drawing and upload it later.

Until then, here are a couple pics of the walker bag I made from my grandmother. I'm not sure how she felt about it.

I have a pot of ham and bean soup cooking on the stove. Today is my last day off before I go back to work, so I thought I would make a nice pot of soup. It smells really good. I've got navy beans, ham, bacon, canned diced tomatoes, ham base, carrots, celery, onions, and parsley in it. Yum.

Sunday night, week one

This will be the first full week of 2010. I have decided that I would like to make a sampler quilt. I have plenty of block pattern books to choose from. I'm going to start slow and set the pace to make one block per week.

I know myself. I do not do much on Mondays when I get home from work. That said, I think Mondays will be the day of the week that I announce what block I will be making for the week. So tomorrow I will let the cat out of the bag for this week and iron out a few details. There is going to have to be some rhyme and reason to the sampler and the materials for each block will have to play well with each other. I will be working from my stash fabrics for these blocks.

Today we came home from my mom's. We had a very nice visit. It was also nice to get home. I'll be glad to sleep in my own bed tonight.

My Darling Hubby decided to taste Limburger cheese today. None of us will soon forget this experience, especially him! ha ha ha. His reaction was very comical, while tasting it, and for the rest of the afternoon! Needless to say, he is not a fan...

Day Two, New Year

Okay, so it's not the most creative of titles for a blog post... My brain isn't being real creative right now. Still at Mom's and overdosed on food. Ham, lasagna, potato salad, cookies, cheese and crackers, beans...too much good stuff. Going to have to get on the treadmill when I get home for sure!

Joined another mystery quilt group. They do six mysteries per year. There is a $5 donation request for cancer research for each mystery you want to participate in. I think that's a great idea. I wish I was creative enough to do something like that for diabetes research.

I'd really like to do something quilty on this blog every day of the year. I can't start until tomorrow because I'm not home, but I've got a couple ideas in mind. Possibly a block a day or a block a week. Going to decide what to do on the drive home tomorrow.

Day One, New Year

Drove to Mom's today to celebrate the holidays with her. We will have our Christmas tomorrow afternoon. Mom made a really good lasagna for dinner. I made some bagna caulda. If you didn't grow up eating this stuff, you would probably think it's disgusting. It's a hot dip, Italian in origin (we are not of Italian heritage) made of butter, garlic, anchovies and cream. It is heart attack city and so very tasty! You dip bread or cabbage or celery in it. Everyone in the house has to eat it or you can't stand to be in the same room with anyone who has eaten it! It stinks so good...haha.

Didn't do any sewing today, of course, but I did look at the final clue for the Christmas mystery. I'm not sure I like the final layout. When we get back home I'm going to lay it out on the bed as they mystery suggests, but I'm also going to rearrange the blocks and see if I find a different layout I like better. Either way, I have all the blocks done, woohoo!