Being irresponsible

I'm supposed to be reading applications for admission to our university. Instead, I've been checking out all the blogs on the SEWMAMASEW giveaway list. I go to see what they are giving away, but get sucked into all their creativity and scroll through post after post after post (which is the point, right?). Where has the time gone? Why can't I focus on what I'm supposed to be doing? Why does this darned job have to get in the way of what I'd much rather be doing - quilting and reading about quilting and talking about quilting. Grrrr.

Anyway, if you have more time than I do, and you haven't yet gotten on board with Giveaway Day at SewMamaSew, be sure to get there by Saturday.

Never again!

I've been quilting during lunch this week, and I am happy to announce that I have finished quilting my flannel juvenile quilt, #2 of the 3 projects I committed to do with the New Year's Eve UFO Challenge. Once I get the binding on, hopefully this week, I can cross this one off the list.

Here's what else I'm going to cross off the list - hand quilting with super high loft batting. NEVER AGAIN! While I like the LOOK, the process was miserable! What was I thinking? The batting is taller than my needle. Now I know. And I think this will be a great quilt to put on the floor for a baby to roll around on - it certainly provides the necessary softness and insulation from the cold floor. I'll post a photo once the binding is on.

I leave you with this - a letter to Santa that my 7-year-old wrote this year that I found while cleaning the kitchen. At least now I have something to work with. (I've corrected his misspellings to make it easier to read - any misspellings you find are mine, not his.)

Dear Santa,

How have you been? I've been fine. Will you give my mom and dad earplugs please so they don't have to hear us (him and his brother) argue? Can you give my grandpa a coffee maker cause he likes coffee? Can my brother have a Tony Hawk Skateboard cause he likes to play? Willl you give my dog bones? Can my brother have a pocket rocket? (what the heck is that!?!) Can the factories have lids so the air is not polluted anymore? Can you stop people from driving animals off cliffs and not eating them, or killing the endangered ones and killing them for no reason? Can you get people to stop smoking? Will you get people to recycle and stop landfills? Can you get people to stop murdering each other and make love and peace through all civilizations and not war? And make little stuff appreciated? (uh, I think he actually knows what appreciate means... AND he spelled it correctly!) Let people who are poor have food and shelter and water for life, and clothes?

(finally he gets to what HE wants - and what a list it is! Two full pages of stuff! I won't wear my fingers out typing it all, but he closes with...)

Books about history, science, social studies and nature. Quilting book cause my mom likes quilting. (That's right, kiddo, you've got your priorities straight!) Can I have an Amherst College Basketball cause my dad lost his?

Santa, I'd like everybody to get what they'd like for Christmas. I love second grade even when it is easy. (OK, quite the nonsequitor)

Love, Jason

Five heavenly days

It is over entirely too quickly, but it sure was fun while it lasted. Five whole consecutive days off for Thanksgiving!

Wednesday was pretty low-key - some housecleaning because I hosted the meal (for 15 people) this year, some time hanging out with the kids, a bit of quilting done on my flannel juvenile quilt.

Thursday was great from start to finish. The kids helped me prep for the meal,

while the food was cooking, there was a raucous game of Taboo going on.

(the thinker is my brother, with his girlfriend on the right and my mom on the left)

(the beauty facing the camera is my younger sister who is pregnant for the first time - yay! She is high fiving my cousin's wife - their team kicked my team's butt! Twice!!)

The food was great - after all that work you'd think I'd take a photo, but I forgot. All but 4 people spent the night; I'm so glad we finished our basement - with all this room, you couldn't even tell there were 11 people engaged in synchronized snoring here that night.

On Friday, we moved the party over to my mom's house where we played dominos and bid whist (we LIKE games in my family - and we are VERY competitive). On the way out the driveway, I checked the mail, and I had packages from both Victoria AND Becky. I brought them with me to open at my mom's - I wasn't about to wait until I got home to see what goodies they had sent me. And when I got to my mom's there was yet ANOTHER package for me - a box of ties from my sister's boyfriend.

Victoria and I swapped some 4" squares. I asked for some of her bold, modern prints - the kind of stuff I feel you can't find around here, and even if you could, I'm not sure I'm brave enough to buy it. Boy, did she deliver! I can't wait to use these in something. Thanks, Victoria!

Then Becky had a whole mess of scraps she was looking to unload. Of course I sent her my address. Here's 22 pounds of scraps, sorted - first, some Christmas fabric, some patriotic fabric, some black & whites which I've pulled aside for a project I need to finish up, some orphan blocks, a piece of flannel that will make its way directly into my buzzsaw quilt, and some small scraps waiting to be cut to size.

Then, strips, lots and lots of strips!

Finally, some yardage, a pile of juvenile and a pile of non-juvenile.

Here are some of my absolute favorites. Thanks for sharing, Becky!

Saturday and Sunday, I vowed to not leave home. My husband's team had an away game on Saturday afternoon, so I listened online while I finished up my Gail Pan blocks and put them in a frame from Angela's Country Scrap Quilts. Another Christmas present done. (Oh, and they won the game - yay!)

Then, today I just couldn't resist those strips from Becky. I pulled out some of the brighter ones, tossed in a couple strips of my own, and started my version of that quilt I found online while in the hotel in Cleveland last weekend. I'm not sure about a border yet, but I love it so far - any suggestions?

One benefit of working with those new scraps is that I was able to get some cut into my scrap sizes (1.5" to 5") as I sewed.

Then tonight I sat down with my kids and watched the last two episodes of Gilmore Girls. We began watching over the summer, and we made it through all seven seasons. Well, Jason and I did. Donald is usually asleep halfway through any episode. Jason, however, is riveted. At the end, I was starting to feel a little weepy, and I glanced over at my son and he was wiping his eyes. That is MY son, Mr. Sentimental. I sure do love my kids.

I am so thankful for time spent with family and friends and time to pursue my passions. And also thankful that there are only 3 weeks until I get some more time off to enjoy them all again!

I did it!

I finally caught up reading everyone's blogs. Boy, you guys sure have been busy! Now, I guess it is time for me to get busy. (Yeah, right, like I'm ever anything but busy!) Tonight was Cub Scouts after work. We worked on our tools acheivement. What a hoot, my co-leader and I holding up a tool and asking the kids what it was called, hoping they knew since we had both already forgotten. You know, it was also very interesting that tonight, the fathers accompanied their sons when usually it is the mothers who come with them. I guess they heard that it was going to be tool night. We used hammers and screwdrivers and painted and made a big fun mess. Being a den leader sure is a lot of work, but it is so much more fun this year since I am involved in what is going on.

Off to finish my fourth Gail Pan block - Joy. But I leave you with one last giveaway:

Wouldn't you love to win 12 fat quarters of this luscious fabric from Retromummy?

We won!

Last night's game went MUCH better, and we are heading home with a win. The kids and I are still in the hotel - I wasn't about to drive home 7 hours in the dark, and besides, we haven't taken full advantage of the pool yet. Once our breakfast is digested, we'll be back in the clorinated water for the third time. So I had a few minutes to catch up on blogs. I was reading blogs for hours last night - I am so behind. But look what I have found!


This winter giveaway with flavored coffees, fun socks AND flannels from Thistledown and Co.

A Thanksgiving Giveaway from the Faithful Quilter

A conglomeration of fun stuff including batik fat quarters from SewCalGal

Truly, I won't just be posting giveaways, but what else is a gal to do from a hotel room? Home tonight, and only 2 days of work this week. I hope to get some stitching done soon.

One loss, but many chances to win

I'm in a hotel room outside Cleveland. Good thing, too, because if I were at home, I would be so tempted to start a new project that I just found online -

Isn't it lovely? There is a tutorial here.

So, why am I in Cleveland, you ask? My husband's basketball team is playing in a tournament at Case Western Reserve University this weekend. We lost last night's game quite badly, but still, I found reason to smile. Jason dressed up so he could help out the trainer with water bottles for the players and sit on the bench. Doesn't he look tiny next to these guys?


Anyway, losing depresses me, so I came online to see if there were any giveaways I could try to win. Here's what I have found:

a $25 gift certificate for FABRIC here

five patterns here

2 fat quarters here

A beautiful shadow trapunto mini quilt here

The pattern for this beautiful quilt which includes embroidery (which those who follow me know is my latest craze!) here

Oh, and I am supposed to share a quote about my beautiful life. I chose a quote by John Burroughs: 'I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see." Of course, I would amend it to add "all the quilts I want to make"!

Coordinating fabrics OR a Christmas table topper here

a 2010 Artbra calendar here

Hand dyed fabric here

And a conglomeration of stuff - fabric, books, patterns, etc. here

OK, that's enough, right. No need to be greedy. Now, to catch up up what you all have been doing.

Fabric Envy

You ever look at someone else's fabric and say, "Wow! What great fabric. My fabric is boring compared to theirs!" Happens to me all the time. As someone who feels this way, I probably shouldn't agree to swap fabric, because then I am bestowing my "less fabulous" fabric on someone else.

V at Bumble Beans is looking for some fabric scraps with white in them. As scrap queen of the Shenandoah Valley, of course I wanted to help her out. But come to find out, I don't seem to have many scraps with white in them either. And when I laid out the ones I found, and compared them with the photo of her scraps on her website, my initial thought is, "Man, she's going to hate my fabric."

Maybe not. I'm sending it anyway. Hope you can find something of use in there, V.

I am proud of myself for making progress on some Christmas presents last night. I always WANT to give homemade gifts, but I always wait until the last minute and don't get them done. Well, this year, a tight budget is forcing me to give homemade gifts. Last night, I finished 5 of 6 Crayon Totes that I am making for my friends who have small children. (If you are a friend with small children and you are reading this, act surprised on December 25th.)

I am assuming that they are like me, and have a little bit of everything in their purse to entertain children in Doctor's offices, while waiting for food to be served, etc. The only problems are 1) the inside of my purses are always marked up from the crayons and 2) I spend much more time underneath yucky restaurant tables retrieving dropped crayons that I would like. I saw these Crayon Totes on another blog, and decided to modify it for my own purposes. (Don't go look at the photos on the other person's blog - again, her fabric is much cooler than mine!) My Crayon Totes hold just 8 crayons, enough to keep my kids entertained, but few enough so that it doesn't take up too much room in my purse.


If I were to make them again, I would hope I would be less lazy and would match my thread to my fabric. I told myself that using the thread in my machine would provide a nice contrast if it was visible, not thinking that all my mistakes would be that much more visible. Oh well - live and learn.


I'm not sure what I'm going to do for my kids this year for Christmas. Some of their favorite gifts in the past have been this kitchen that I gave Donald last year and that he uses to prepare meals (strawberry soup and lemonade) nearly every day,

this pedal-operated police car that is streaked with white where it has taken the paint off our doorways (while it leaves black streaks on the hardwood floor - sigh),

and of course, Thomas the Train.

I want to come up with something else that they will use almost daily as these cherished toys are used, instead of something that is loved for a week, and then forgotten for the next year. Any ideas?