Asking for prayers

Didn't do any sewing last night, which is typical for me on Mondays. However, I really should have been sewing because I needed something to keep my mind occupied. Darling husband called in the afternoon when he got to work to tell me that his company is laying off another eleven workers. This is getting really scary. I pray that he does not get caught in the layoffs, and I'm asking everyone for their prayers also. I know a lot of people are going through this and I will keep you all in my prayers also.

Darling daughter came up to the office and we went to lunch together. We ended up at the Mexican restaurant here in town. Pretty good stuff but now I'm paying for it! Haven't had that greasy food for a while and it's getting back at me. Agh.

Here's a close up picture of the quilting on the back of the purple pinwheels. It's nothing special, but it works. I remembered to bring the quilt in for my coworker, in case she comes in this week. If not, her baby shower (which I am not going to) is this Saturday and another coworker will take the gift there for me.

I just love that digital camera. And I love that sd card/chip/whatever it is. I like the fact that I can put the chip in the camera, take a picture, then put the chip in a card reader/writer that plugs into a port on the computer. It's like having part of my computer in my purse at all times. That and the flash drive make me feel like I still actually have a computer at home! I use the kids' when I need to.

Productive weekend

This weekend was a pretty productive one for me. Friday I sewed some of the triangles together for the blue pinwheel, then Saturday I actually put them all together and quilted and bound the quilt! I was sewing for about six hours Saturday. Loved every minute of it. Sunday we took the quilt to darling husband's coworker and got to see the baby. He's so tiny, for six months.

I also finished the purple pinwheel for my coworker. I meant to bring it to work today to leave at her desk in case she drops in, but of course I forgot it. I'll bring it tomorrow.

My mother would like to give double delight to a friend of hers for Christmas. I am going to do some free motion quilting on the old singer, and if I can get that down on just a baby quilt top, I will move on to the double delight top. I am just a bit nervous about it!

My trip to Paducah is all up in the air now. My friend, Donna, has to have surgery the beginning of the month and she may not be able to go with me. The lodging is all paid for. I don't know if I can get a refund, or if I want one. If she can't go, I have a couple options. I could invite someone else, I could cancel, or I could go to the show in Chicago instead the week before. Or I could go alone, although that might not be much fun.

Friday

I am so glad it's Friday. This week was not very good at work. It seems when I don't have a good week at work, I don't have a good week sewing at home. I have worked on the binding on the purple pinwheel quilt. Not quite finished, but it won't take much longer. That baby isn't due until the end of April.

Sunday darling hubby wants to go to his coworkers with the blue pinwheel. This is a picture of how far along it is. I'm hoping to get a lot done on it tonight and tomorrow. Was thinking of going to visit my grandma but she is getting company from the other side of the family, so that will give me more quilting time.

Making some tilapia fillets for supper tonight. I guess I'll fry them.

Just an ordinary day

Not much to blog about today. I sewed over half of the triangles together when I got home from work and also sewed on the purple pinwheel binding. I have about one third of the binding left to sew on.

Darling son went over to one of our friends last night and put a part in his computer for him. I am so proud of him. He does things like this for adults without asking for anything in return. He is in the senior play at school. It's coming up pretty soon. Tonight he is working.

Darling daughter went to her boyfriends house tonight. She says that his parents like her. I'm glad. Both darling husband and I like the boyfriend. It makes thing easier, that's for sure.

Went to the funeral home tonight. My friend's mother in law passed away.

Made saltesa sausage for supper. Daughter made her spinach cheese dish. It was a good supper.

Two hundred triangles cut

Yesterday on my lunch break I went to the park and sat in my car and sewed the binding on the purple pinwheel baby quilt. Didn't get it finished but it won't take long to do, really.

Last night I spent an hour in the sewing room cutting triangle pieces for the next pinwheel quilt. It is going to be blue pinwheels and a little bigger than the purple one. The purple one is 4 x 4 pinwheels. The blue one will be 5 x 5. So I cut out 200 half square triangles last night. First I used the shape cut ruler to cut 4" strips of fabric. Then I used the easy angle ruler to cut the triangles. This really is a neat tool. I forget I have it sometimes, like when I made the purple pinwheels! I made squares then marked them and sewed and cut. Using the easy angle is so much easier - less steps!

You can see in the picture a scrap of paper in the corner by the ruler. That is how I 'think'. I will jot down notes and measurements when they pop into my head. Then I seem to have all these scraps of paper with ideas on them! After I make a quilt, sometimes I will clean up the instructions and file them, but more often than not, I just file them. They wouldn't make sense to anyone but me anyway.

Sunday night we made home made pizza's for dinner. I have a really good recipe for pizza crust. Everyone seems to like it and they all get to make their own pizza's with what they like on top of them. The dough recipe makes five regular sized pizza crusts. I ate about half of my pizza and put the rest in the fridge. All day yesterday I kept thinking about going home and having a piece of it. Really craving it. Well, I get home and there isn't a single piece of pizza in the house! Now, we all ate about half of our pizza's on Sunday night, plus darling daughter's boyfriend was there and left about half of his pizza. My darling husband and son ate what was left and took it to work with them! AGH.

Last night I had two small pieces of round steak. I got out the griddle and got it searing hot. I put a little oil on the steaks and some steak seasoning I have been wanting to try. It was real peppery, but very tasty. After I seared the steaks, I put them in a gravy I made from onions, green peppers, and mushrooms that were cut up and leftover from pizza night, and from beef stock. It made a nice gravy. I also made some mashed potatoes from red potatoes. I like to leave some of the skins on when I use the red potatoes. It gives them a fuller flavor in my opinion. And I opened a can of corn. We had a nice dinner.

Don't know what we are going to have tonight. Darling daughter is coming up for lunch and she is going to hit the grocery store afterwards. She is cooking tonight.

I have the purple pinwheel with me because I thought I was going to be alone at lunch and was going to sew on the binding some more today. It's probably a good thing I'm not going back to the park today because yesterday I almost brought home a stray dog from there. It was the cutest pup, looked like a doberman or a rottweiler, real skinny and limping on one of it's back legs. I guess someone dumped it. I hate that people do that. Now, I really am not a big fan of dobies or rotties because of their mean reputation, but I also am someone who believes that the majority of the dog's personality comes from the training and treatment it receives from it's owners. I did not take the puppy home, because we have two dogs and two cats. We can't afford to take care of another animal right now. But I really wanted to...

At the bottom of the picture of the blue triangles is one of my omnigrid rulers. I thought that it was lost for the longest time. Couldn't find it and I had looked everywhere. Well, this past weekend I dropped a spool of thread and it rolled behind my sewing table. When I reached for it, there was the ruler, standing upright between the table and the wall. I'm glad I found it, because it's a handy size. Not too big and not too small. I did buy another one after this one had been missing for a few months, but it wasn't exactly the same size.

A good weekend

This was a good weekend. I didn't do a lot of sewing, but had company. My mom and grandma come on Saturday around noon and stayed until 8. The whole family went out to eat, then the kids went their separate ways and dear hubby and I visited with gram and mom.

After they left, dear hubby and I went to Wal Mart to pick out fabric for the baby quilt for his coworker. Well, Wal Mart has pretty slim pickin's of fabric these days. We were hard pressed to find four fabrics that worked together! Ended up with these pictured, plus added one from my stash. The one picture by itself will be the backing fabric and the four together will be what make the pinwheels.

I was able to finish the quilting on the purple pinwheel baby quilt and sew the binding down on the machine. I need to hand finish the binding on the back now. I brought it to work today to sew on during lunch. I think I'll go to the park and sit in the car while I sew it on. Probably not get it done in one day, but I'll make a little progress.

Haven't really been dieting, but haven't gained any back. I looked up online that 3500 calories make a pound. Well, if I can exercise enough to burn that much, logically I should lose a pound. My treadmill shows how many calories are burned each session, so if I can burn 250 calories a day, in 2 weeks I should lose a pound. Hopefully.

Darling son is getting so close to graduating high school. I am really ready to be done with high school. Ready for both kids to be in college. I think it will be a lot less stress. At least I hope so.

Darling daughter is almost finished with her first year of college. Wow. That went fast! She is doing well and moving forward toward her nursing degree. She is spending a lot of time with her new boyfriend. Darling husband and I like him. He seems well mannered and respectful.

I have told both of the kids that during the summer they need to have jobs (darling son has one already) and that they should put half of their paychecks away for when they are in school. Dad and Mom will help out, but they need to do more on their own.

Dear hubby is still working on the machine at work that he bumped to. He was worried for a while that there would be more lay offs, but now they are talking about bringing the four laid off workers back within the next couple weeks. I really really hope they do that. Not just for those laid off, but because he wants to be back on his old machine. Of course, there is no telling what management will do next, especially in this economy!

Saturday morning

Went out last night with my friends for dinner. Didn't do any sewing but plan on getting some done tonight. Mom and Gram are coming at noon and we are going out to dinner and will come back to my house to visit for a while. Depending on how long they stay, dear hubby and I may make a trip to Wal Mart to pick out baby quilt fabrics for his coworker. I'm setting a goal to have that baby quilt done next weekend. We can take it over to their house and see the baby then.

Darling son has to work today at 3 and darling daughter is leaving for a moto cross event at that time, also. She probably will stay the night with some of her college friends, so I can sew late tonight or early tomorrow (the sewing room is right next to her room).

Sunshine on a Friday afternoon

It's a little cooler out today than it has been the last couple days, but it's still very nice for the first day of Spring.

I don't know what has gotten into my darling husband. A few weeks ago out of the blue he offered to take me to the fabric store 45 minutes away. That was a nice unexpected trip that I enjoyed. Today, while I was on my lunch break, he sends me a text message asking how much of the baby quilt I have done for his coworker. They were adopting the baby and bringing him home today.

Well, I was planning on giving them the Mosaic Tiles quilt I made during that one mystery. I didn't have it quilted yet, but the top was finished. I told him that and where to find the top. To my surprise, he was already in the sewing room. This in itself is really strange...

So he finds the top and asks who the purple pinwheel top is for. I tell him and he comments on how nice it is. Am I getting the hint yet? Sigh. Dear hubby, would you like me to make a pinwheel quilt for your coworker instead of the Mosaic Tiles? Oh, this made him so happy. Yes, that's what he wants. He even offers to take me to the fabric store tomorrow. Wow.

I mention that I can get what I need for it at Wal Mart and I could probably get the material before I come home from work today. There's a bit of silence and then darling husband says "since it's for my friend, I'd like to help pick out the fabric". Oooookkkkkkaaaayyyyy. Who are you and what have you done with my husband?

Tomorrow morning we will both go pick out fabric. If we have enough time in the morning, that is. We may have to wait until Sunday because my mom and grandma are coming over and we are going to lunch around noon with them.

Another nice day

These two little guys sit by my sewing machine and help me sew! hee hee. Darling daughter picked them up at an art fair at her college a while back. They are a touch of whimsy just to remind me not to take myself so seriously.

The last couple of days have been really nice, weather wise. Today it's a little cooler, but the sun is shining and everything looks fresh after last night's rain. Looking forward to Spring starting tomorrow.

I though I would go upstairs and finish quilting that baby quilt the last day or two, but when I have gotten home from work I have been pretty worn out and just collapsed on the couch. Seems if I force myself to go upstairs, I get a lot done, but if I don't, I just veg out in front of the t.v. Maybe this is just lag from the time change or season change. I do sew a lot on the weekends, usually. Although this weekend I might not, because my mom is coming down for a visit. She stays at my grandma's an hour away, but we usually get together either at my house or gram's.

Darling daughter is going to some kind of motor cross sports thingy this weekend with her new boyfriend. Don't know what darling son will be doing.

Maybe part of my problem is that I'm concerned about dear hubby's job. There was a flitter of a rumor that they may have more lay offs in the works, and that is pretty scary. I know I must be worrying about it because I have that tightness in my neck, especially when I go to bed and try to sleep. Not good. Been using my trusty rice bag at night when I go to bed. That is the nicest feeling - that warmth molded to your neck or shoulder, wherever it hurts. It helps me fall asleep.

I should make up a rice bag or two for my mom when she comes this weekend. She liked using the one I had when she was here last time. My coworker that I gave one to a while back still raves about it, especially once a month!

Such a pretty day today

It is such a pretty day today. I know spring hasn't officially started however I'm going to enjoy this beautiful day.

I started quilting that baby quilt last night. Since the person getting it is done working now, I don't know when I will see her to give it to her, so I want it done asap and ready to go. I'll get it all wrapped and bring it to work so that whenever she stops in she can pick it up.

The quilting is real simple, just straight lines in the ditch about 4" apart going both directions. I'm using the one light fabric (not in the border) for the backing of the quilt. And I'm using the one medium fabric (again, not in the border) for the binding. When it's done I'll post another picture.

This quilt would be a nice one to make and try and sell. I'm tossing that idea around.

I didn't have a big enough scrap piece of batting to use in one piece and I really didn't want to cut into a brand new batt, so I pieced one together using a large zig zag stitch. It works just fine. And it was a batting I don't normally use that I had leftover pieces of, so that worked in a couple ways. Got rid of it, and didn't cost anything.

Last night I made breaded veal parmesan with spaghetti and garlic bread sticks for supper. The spaghetti sauce was left over from a few nights ago and I picked up the rest at Aldi. For being a discount grocer, I ended up spending $70 there yesterday! Agh.

Tonight darling daughter is going to make a chicken stir fry for supper. I'm really looking forward to it. Since she will be cooking, I should be able to get the baby quilt finished. Then I should get on the one for my husband's coworker. She is adopting a baby and may have him at the end of the week.