Halloween Friday

It's Halloween today. We have nice weather for the trick or treaters. I didn't get too many last night, but I'm guessing I will get more today than yesterday.

I had to go to Springfield yesterday for meetings for work. I took advantage of the trip up there to go to JoAnn fabrics and use the gift card I received for my birthday. I also used several coupons on my purchases. Ended up saving a ton of money and getting some things I have been needing. Didn't get much in the way of fabrics. I bought two packages of the batting I like but Wal Mart doesn't carry anymore. Also bought some rotary cutting blades, sewing machine needles, a new ruler, and a new marking pen. I did buy a bundle of five coordinated fat quarters in neutral shades.

We had stir fry for dinner last night. Don't really have a clue what we will be having tonight. Nothing is jumping out at me.

Weekend Update

I managed to squeeze in a couple hours of hand quilting on Tennessee August and even a little machine piecing. I sewed together five rows of blocks for the green shirtings 16 patch. Now I have to put the rows together and figure out some kind of border.

We worked on tiling the bathroom floor over the weekend. It is almost all tiled, with the exception of around the toilet. Since the mortar takes 24 hours to set, we had to do it in steps. Have to be able to use the shower, etc. while we are tiling, since we only have one bathroom! I'm hoping next weekend will see the completion of the project.

I started quilting Tennessee August!

Last night I started quilting on Tennessee August. I have a stencil with four hearts that fits into the squares nicely. I started quilting in the squares and like the way it looks. I'm using a burnt orange color thread. I think I will also quilt lines a quarter inch from the seams of the 4" squares, but not along the four patch seams.

I made the monte cristo sandwiches last night for supper. Tonight I am either going to make meat loaf or cabbage rolls. It depends on if my son is going to want to eat early or not. The cabbage rolls would take a while to cook.

It's day ten of our bathroom remodel. Here's a summary (keep in mind this is an 8'x8' bathroom and we are using 12" tiles):

Day 1: Pick up concrete board from lumber yard.

Day 2: Cut concrete board and fit pieces, puzzle fashion, to floor.

Day 3: Remove and replace toilet (the only reason this was completed in a day was because I absolutely refused to be without a toilet overnight). This step was completed at 9:30pm. Toilet leaks at water inlet and where tank is bolted to bowl. Put towel down and go to bed.

Day 4: Tighten bolts to correct leaks.

Day 5: Screw down concrete board to existing floor.

Day 6: Husband congratulates self on completing this step.

Day 7: Husband rests.

Day 8: Husband rests some more.

Day 9: Draw one line on floor dividing it in half.

As I said, this is day 10. If this tile isn't down in the next few days, I'm going to put it down myself!

Senior Night

Last Friday night was Senior Night at the high school football game. The football players, cheerleaders, and band members all get honored at the event and are announced and walk onto the field with their parents before the game. Two of the cheerleaders made a 'guitar' sign for my son. He looks like he's in hog heaven standing between two pretty cheerleaders! By the way, that's only part of the band uniform! They have bibbers under their full uniform and it wasn't time to suit up yet, so he was still in just bibbers. He has the uniform top in his hand! He has really long hair and it's pulled back in a ponytail in this picture. I'm so proud of him and how good of a musician he is! He is now giving guitar lessons after school.

The hamburger stroganoff was okay, but not my favorite last night. We are going to have baked chicken breasts with mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner tonight. yum.

Coal Train

This has absolutely nothing to do with quilting, other than the fact that waiting for one of these trains delays my getting home to sew!

I took this picture out of my car window last night on the way home from work. These trains are really long and really slow.

Coal mining is a big part of the economy in our area, although it is waning some at this time. These trains load up at the mines, then go to the power plants. Okay, there's another connection: the coal makes electricity to power my sewing machine! ha ha.

Oh, and for any Route 66 buffs, these tracks run along side Route 66.

I did get over to the Salvation Army Thrift store yesterday. I bought six men's cotton shirts all in fall colors, and I also bought a sweatshirt for my husband to wear. The shirts are for quilts. I washed and dried everything last night. Tonight I'll cut up a couple of the shirts. I should have enough shirts now in that color scheme to start a quilt. I think the sweatshirt was brand new, or very close to it. You can't beat the deals there. If you have the time to poke around for a while, you can really come up with some bargains. And even if you don't have a lot of time, you can get some deals! I went on my lunch hour.

The chicken and dumplings were good last night. Tonight I'm making a hamburger stroganoff for dinner.

Baby Blanket Finished

This weekend I wasn't able to sew in my sewing room much, but I was able to finish the binding on a baby quilt. I put my initials in the corner on the back and the year. That's as far as I got on a label. This quilt is just getting put away for now.

I also made a few yo yo's and sewed some together for a wine bag. Nothing big, but I did do some sewing.

Today is Monday and that means the Salvation Army Thrift store has new items for half price. I'm thinking of going over there at lunchtime. I need to get more orange and brown cotton shirts.

Made sausage tortellini soup Friday, ham and bean soup Saturday, and lasagna last night for dinner. Tonight I have chicken and dumplings in the crock pot.

I may start hand quilting Tennessee August this week. I have a stencil with four hearts interlocking that would be nice for the quilting. I'm not sure I want to make that many curves, though!

You can see some of the quilting detail on the back of the baby quilt in this picture. I crosshatched the center with rows about an inch apart. Along the borders I quilted inside the triangles, then in rows along the outside edges.

Friday Musings

Last night I cut binding for the baby quilt I recently finished hand quilting. I attached it to the top with the machine, and now I've got it started sewing down the binding on the back. The quilt measures about 44" square. I thought that would be a good size to lay on the floor for a baby to lay on. It's bright colors with some pinks in it. I told my husband when it was done it was going to be put away for our first grandchild. He said yes, if it's a girl! So I'm taking the hint and I'm going to put together a top in 'boy' colors. No rush (hopefully), since neither of our kids are even remotely thinking of having babies!

I have been lurking on the Nolting chat site, gleening bits and pieces of information from Nolting longarm machine owners. I would dearly love to be ablt to afford a longarm machine right now. I am forming a plan of action so that within six years I can purchase one and do some home quilting. I would like to be able to have my own business and quilt for others on it after I get good.

I even bought Linda Taylor's guide to longarm quilting. I have read the book a couple times now and keep paging through it. Pretty soon it will be so worn out and drooled over I won't be able to read it! ha ha.

Thursday Blues

I just don't feel like I'm running on all cylinders today. We have had a tragedy on my step father's side of the family. Although it is not directly related to me, the sorrow carries over because of the circumstances.

I have been doing a lot of hand quilting. I finished the baby quilt I was working on. Tonight I'd like to put the binding on it with the machine, then hand finish it.

Sunday, Donna and I went to the church hall and basted quilts. I had two to pin baste and she thread basted one of hers. Tennessee August was one that I pin basted and darling daughter's graduation quilt was the other. I plan to hand quilt Tennessee August and machine quilt the graduation quilt.

I'd like to get to work on machine quilting the graduation quilt this weekend. Then I should make a decision on what type of graduation quilt to make for my son, who will be graduating this coming spring.

I also have been cutting up some shirts to start another quilt with. This time I'm using orange, rust, and brown. Not sure what design I'll make. What I'm trying to do is cut up two shirts a night until I have all I need. I've been buying the shirts at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. I try to only buy shirts that are half price that week. Each week the store has one color tag that is half price.

Last night I made shrimp scampi for supper. It really was quite easy. I just boiled some spaghetti noodles to put the scampi over. The scampi was butter, garlic, onion, and shrimp. I sauteed the shrimp. They were just frozen guys from Aldi, but were they ever good! mm mm.

Tonight I'm going to make veal parmesan for supper. I bought some breaded veal patties at Aldi today to try. Hope they're good. My dear hubby loves veal but it's difficult to find anymore. Not politically correct, I guess.

My husband took a few days off to work on the floor of our bathroom. He is putting down new tile and also putting in a new toilet. Both these revisions are sorely overdue. I can't wait to be able to flush the toilet more than once in an hour if necessary! (it took our old one that long to fill!)

Backing Colors

Here are some of the colors going into the backing on the graduation quilt. I had a backing all pieced and my darling daughter did not care for it one bit! So I'll save it for another quilt and make a new pieced back with colors she likes.

They say it's my birthday...

and it is! Happy birthday to me! I plan on going home after work and cutting some muslin squares to go with the 16 patch shirting blocks. Since neither my daughter or son have remembered yet that it's my birthday, I will probably be making dinner first. Now, if my daughter remembers, she may offer to make dinner. hee hee hee. I went to Aldi on my lunch hour and bought the fixins for a chicken stir fry for supper. Usually I purchase the chicken breasts uncooked, but today I splurged and bought precooked chicken. Less work for me tonight.

We are all Chicago Cub fans at our house. The past two games have been real heartbreakers! My brother and I have been texting each other words of encouragement today because both of us are getting a LOT of grief at work from non Cub fans! Since he lives closer to Chicago, with a good amount of White Sox fans, he's getting it a lot worse than I am, although the Cardinal fans in my office are by no means quiet!

Last night I made saltesa pork sausage, baked potato wedges, and frozen peas for dinner. The saltesa comes from a local catering company located a couple towns over. It's a short drive, but their hours are only until 5 on weekdays, so I have to go there straight from work if I want the sausage. Sometimes they have it in one of the local grocery stores, but it's always a gamble.

We had a breakfast spread here at work yesterday. Three of us have birthdays in the same week, so we usually go together and make a meal. I made breakfast burritos, another made a hash brown casserole, and another made baked french toast with peaches. Plus we had orange juice, fruit, and bacon. I was so full from breakfast I didn't eat lunch!

After piecing the back for my darling daughter's graduation quilt, she didn't like it! Argh. She wanted something less busy. So I have some nice big pieces, 18x18 (from fat quarters, mostly) that will go together nicely for a backing. I need to get on that and put it together. I took a picture of her rummaging through my stash and was going to post it here on my blog, but when I told her that she got upset and was adamant that her picture not go on the 'net. So I'm honoring her wishes.