Getting close

I have the back, top, and label completed for the Packer's quilt.  It's ready to be loaded onto the longarm!  Hoping to get it started this weekend.  Not real sure how I will be quilting it, yet.

Mary and I Skyped for a bit last night.  She is working on a Fall quilt with some pretty Autumn colors in scrappy blocks.  The scrappy blocks will alternate with solid blocks of material.  It's looking real nice.

Made chili yesterday for supper.  The night before we had tacos, so I used the leftover taco meat for the chili.  Not sure what we will have tonight.  Thinking I might make something on the grill.  Nick will probably come over after lessons, so I should pick up a couple portabella mushrooms if I'm going to grill.

Wash it up

Last night I threw in a couple loads of the material Donna gave me into the washer.  I liked the way it came out, so I'm going to try and wash the bigger pieces before adding them to the stash.  I'm thinking if I set the cut scraps outside in the fresh air they might lose the smoke smell enough to be tolerable.  It seems they may already be losing some of it, just by being in my non smoking house.

It really is a lot of fun to paw through this huge bag of stash...  :)  Such silly little things make me happy!

Back of Packer's quilt in progress

I am so glad I found that panel with the football field!  It looks so neat, surrounded by the football fabric.  Next I'll add some of the fabric with the Green Bay Packer logo's on them.  Add a label and then it's onto the longarm it goes!  Whee!

More scrappy goodness

Sunday afternoon I got a call from my friend, Donna.  Her aunt had passed away some time ago and she and her sister were cleaning out their aunt's sewing room.  Donna offered me some scraps and other goodies. 

She ended up giving me a huge garbage bag full of scraps, plus several rulers, a cutting mat, rotary cutter, and notions (including bobbins that fit my machine!).  I haven't even started to go through the bag of scraps, but am really looking forward to diving into them. 

It was a good weekend for me and the stash.

As we were going through the scraps, there was a box they thought was just more material, but it turned out to be several finished quilt tops!  I'm glad they saw what they were before they gave them to me or the thrift store!  Donna and her sister were so happy to get those tops.  They will have nice reminders of their aunt once they have finished quilts.

Early bird

Got up before 8 this morning.  I had places to go and people to see!  Went to the vet to get Ivy's flea meds.  Then went to my friend who is out of town's house to take care of her cat.  Aldi was my next stop for fruit and chicken wings.  That's what's on the menu for tonight - bbq chicken wings on the grill.  Menu subject to change...  haha.  After that I ran past Johanna's place and picked up a few pieces of hickory wood to try and give the wings some extra zip when I grill them.  She gave me a zucchini and a couple yellow squash.  They may end up on the grill tonight, too. 

After I got home and put the groceries away, Ev and I went outside and I started cutting the brush behind the garage with the little electric chainsaw.  Had to stop when it got too warm out, though.  Hope to continue working on it tomorrow morning.  It's looking better already, though.

Now I'm going to head upstairs.  If it's too warm, I'll just get the a/c going and come back down for a bit, otherwise, I'm going to keep moving on the GBP top.

Hope you are having a wonderful Saturday!

Score!

My oh my, looky what I found at the Salvation Army Store!  This is over 27 yards of fabric!  22 pieces were approximately half a yard and 16 were a yard or more.  There were also some pieces not a half yard that I didn't even include in the count.  All quilter's cotton, too!  And would you like to know how much all this quilty goodness cost?  Total, with tax, $21!  For 27 plus yards!  Wheeeeeee!  Approximately .78/yard for the math geeks.

I never get this lucky at Salvi.  My coworker went there at lunch and called me saying they had fabrics in bags and did I want her to send pictures of it.  I said sure, not really getting my hopes up because I've seen bags of fabric there before, but it was usually old polyester stuff.  When I saw a sample, I hightailed it over there and snatched up about a third of what was on the shelf.  Had to limit myself due to funding, but I'm totally satisfied with my purchase.  Then I told my friend who works across the parking lot, Sandy, about it and of course she had to go and get $28 worth!  She commented that the gal checking her out said she was the second person today to come through her line with a lot of the fabric!  Sandy told her it was her friend, and she also told me she saw another lady grabbing up the rest of what was on the shelves.

So tonight I got on Skype with Mary and sewed for a while (Marla, if you are reading this, you really need to get on Skype, too!).  Managed to get quite a bit done on the GBP quilt.  Hoping to get more done tomorrow, since Ev has to work.

Layout

Here's some doodles of the layout of the GBP quilt:

Visual aids really help me keep things from getting confused when I am putting together a top!

Hot, hot, hot

Was too hot to iron the GBP blocks upstairs yesterday.  I didn't want to bother trying to cool the room off just for that, so I brought the iron and blocks into the living room and spent some time pressing them.  Now they are all ready to be sewn into a top!  Going to play with ideas for the layout and then get down to business.

Made blt's for dinner last night.  Just didn't want to sit outside and grill.  Tonight it might end up being take out from the Chinese restaurant.  Not sure yet.

Skype and Sew!

Mary and I had a good two hours worth of visiting and sewing - 223 miles apart!  It was a nice visit (via Skype!) and I was able to get a lot of sewing done.  I have all of the Packer quilt top blocks done.  All 80 of the blocks need to be pressed again, then I can sew them into a top.

There was some ground chuck in the fridge that needed to be used or froze, so last night I made burgers on the grill.  Yummy!  I also put a foil packet with potatoes and onions on the grill so we had a little side dish and didn't have to heat up the house at all.  Hardly any dishes dirtied, too! 

Not sure if it's going to be BLT's for dinner tonight or grilled Italian Sausages or Brats.  Will ask Ev and see what he is in the mood for...

Secret recipe

Here's a pic of my grilled chicken and baked potatoes!  That's four smallish sized boneless chicken breasts that I grilled last night.  I put two kinds of dry seasoning on them.  One was a combination similar to the one that Emeril uses and the other was a garlic and herb combination that I bought at Beechy's in Arthur last time I was out there.  After grilling for a short time, I started brushing them with melted margarine.  Oh, they were so yummy!

I had started grilling right when I got home last night and was in the house by 6 p.m.  The grill is situated in the shade on the patio, but it was still pretty warm outside.  Tonight I have some ground chuck that I want to make burgers with on the grill.  Hope it's not too horribly hot outside this afternoon.

Did do some sewing last night.  Spent an hour sewing the one side of the sashing material on the packer's blocks.  There is only sashing on two sides because of the way the blocks will be set, so as soon as I get the second side done, I will be ready to assemble the top.  I also pressed the blocks, so they are ready to run through the machine again.  It's pretty warm up in the sewing room right now, so I usually only spend an hour at a time up there.

Light it up

On Saturday I needed to go to Lowe's to get a couple Father's Day gifts.  While there, I took a look at some of the shop lights they have available.  I need to get another light for above the longarm.  These old eyes don't see like they used to!

Well, Lowe's has one light that I liked, but it did not come with the bulbs.  So, for the cost of the light and the bulbs, I could get one cheaper at Wal Mart with the bulbs.  That's the route I think I will take.  It's not something I have to do immediately, at least.

Weekend Stuff

I was planning to go to Arthur, to the Amish community, this weekend, but that plan got changed.  Now, I'm thinking that tonight I might walk Ivy up to the park where the town's annual homecoming is going on.  There are food booths, rides for the kids, a beer tent, and a band.  Might even be bingo.  I think Ivy would stay pretty mellow sitting by my feet if I were to play bingo.

Ev and Nick have a motorcycle ride planned for tomorrow and Johanna is working.  Hope they are back by 6 so we can all go to the parade together.

Best laid plans...

Last night after work I planned to make a pot of soup and then trim up the edges of that raffle quilt.  Well, I got half of that plan done.  I did make a huge pot of soup (why can't I just make a small pot?) with vegetables and beef.  It was done by 7 so I had a bowl.

Then I was tired.  It was only 7:30 but this lousy cold or sinus stuff is trying to kick me down, so I thought I would just lay down and take a nap.  Well, laying down for a nap at 7:30 p.m. turned into going to bed for the night for me!  I woke up every 4 hours to take another sinus pill because the drip was making me cough, then I went right back to sleep!  I slept for 11 hours last night!  Felt pretty good, I have to say.  Guess my body needed it...

So, the raffle quilt has to have the binding done by Thursday and I have yet to begin it.  Maybe tonight I can get some of it done.  But I do have to go to the funeral home tonight and then the funeral tomorrow, so who knows?  If nothing else, tomorrow afternoon I will be home and will get it done.

Sometimes they come back...

The church quilt has returned.  It is a bit of a time crunch, because it needs to be done by this Thursday, but the lady who was going to hand sew the binding isn't able to get it finished.  So, I'm going to go ahead and put a machine binding on it and call it done.  No big deal and won't take very long.

Life goes on

Last night I received a call that my long time coworker passed away.  She had been on medical leave since September and this was not unexpected.  It still has me a bit out of sorts. 

White or Gold?

I was auditioning fabrics for in between the square in square blocks.  The top is a white on white material that I thought of using and the bottom is a patterned material that has a hint of goldish color to it.  The vote from a few people said use the patterned material, so that's what I went with.

It was very close when I cut the strips.  I needed 40 2-1/2" strips.  When I was done, I had a scrap strip about an inch wide!  So I just made it....  Can't make any mistakes and waste any pieces!

Mary and I did a 'Skype and Sew' last night.  Mine wasn't really sewing, it was cutting those pieces, but that counts!  It was kinda like sewing with someone there, and I really liked it.

Choices

I finished putting the orange on the blocks last night and was auditioning fabric for in between the orange and green bordered blocks.  The one I wanted to use, I didn't have enough fabric.  So I was going to use this brown, but now I'm rethinking it.  I'm thinking I'll use a white, maybe. 

And of course, I'm nervous now about the orange color.  When I look at this picture it is just so off from that yellow in the Packers material.  It was the closest I could come to it, though, so I went with it. 

I have all 80 square in square blocks done now.  Tonight I need to decide on the next fabric and start cutting it. 

A little of this and that

Here's the pound cake I made yesterday.  It was very good and made the house smell good while it was baking!

It's not a pretty cake, at least mine wasn't, but it did not need icing at all.   I think it would have been very good with some strawberries and whipped cream on it, too!  If you are interested in making it, I found it at All Recipies:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Country-Pound-Cake/Detail.aspx It's called Country Pound Cake, and one of the tricks to it is to start it in a cold oven.  Next time I make it, I think I will make it in several smaller pans.

Ev and I worked on the railing on our front steps.  This is how far we got:

I'm very pleased with our progress so far.  The next step is to put the spindles and then the handrail on.  Even if that takes a while to do, as of right now at least I have a railing to hang on to!

During my lunch hour I stopped over at the thrift shop.  Found a couple of pictures I really liked.  This one, even though it has birds on it, struck me as very calming and peaceful, so I bought it and hung it in my office.  My office can use a good dose of "calming" on most days!

When I was little and my uncle would come to visit, he would take me out to a pond to feed the ducks.  That's what this reminds me of.

Tonight is Quilt Club over in Staunton.  I promised Sandy I would go, so I'm hoping the weather cooperates.  It's been raining on and off today.  Then I want to be home by 8 to tune in to Quilt Cam on Bonnie's website!

Yesterday when I did Nick's laundry I noticed the hem of his khaki pants was coming out in both legs.  We were all sitting around watching the hockey game, so I just hand stitched them for him.   I don't mind doing that kind of thing once in a while, but my old eyes just aren't what they used to be when it comes to that close work.

Yeah, Nick brought his laundry to me this weekend.  Now, for quite a while he had been doing it himself, but this week he asked me to do it.  It doesn't bother me when I'm going to be home anyway.  I think every piece of clothing that kid owns was dirty!

Bits and Pieces

This weekend we have been doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  We started working on the banister railing on the front porch steps.  So far we have the four posts up, but had to stop because of the heat.  We are waiting until the steps are in the shade this afternoon and we can continue, unless it rains.

Also been working on fixing a leaky hot water pipe in the basement.  Have tried a few things but they didn't work.  The pipe is in an odd space (aren't they always?) so replacing it would be a challenge.  Hoping this last fix works.

Going to do some sewing here in a bit.  Working on the Packer's quilt and making some progress on it.

This evening we are going to Tilley's for supper.  They had their big smoker going and we really like what comes out of it.  Smoked chicken, pulled pork, brats...  Yum!

Yesterday I made some nice pork chops on the grill.  They were an inch thick and turned out very nicely.  Also made a small batch of potato salad and corn on the cob.  Good eats!