Surviving so far!

It's been just over 3 weeks since my brother and his dog moved in with me..... 168 days, it seems like! There has only been one instance of blood drawn between the dogs. Lula was excited to have a new friend... Stewie was excited to ignore all things smaller than him.

Things are moving along with the renovation... I think. Cabinets have been ordered, a new contractor acquired, counter tops chosen but can't be measured until the cabinets are installed. Flooring and carpet have been ordered. It's really all a waiting game at this point. Next, I have to shop for lighting, sink, faucet, tile for the back splash....

I had another BOM class for the Ohio stars Deb Tucker rulers BOM. This is March's block.

And this is all three blocks so far.

My friends Barb and KT came over to sew for National Quilting Day and I assembled this top. I have decided to just had 4 borders and not do a pieced border, but I haven't started those yet. This is my #1 BOM for the year.

I also got awesome news in February that my AC unit was no longer functioning so on my birthday last week, I got a whole new system. Happy birthday to me!

Last year, I found the S'mores snack balls at Aldi's and ran into the store a couple of weeks ago to see if they were back. They were! And I found this cheddar and caramel popcorn mix. I grabbed all of the S'mores balls and a couple of the popcorns. They will be much enjoyed at retreat next month!

I am working on getting myself set back up with my machine and space. It's been tough, but I am hopeful that I will make some time to sew this weekend! No more blog breaks!

I am linking up with Lynette for BOM's Away.

Stash Report Week 16, 2013

Nothing new to report this week. I haven't been sewing because I have been working on cleaning up my basement in preparation for the Avante.

I should have taken some before pictures, but here are some pre-delivery pictures. I have only made 1 trip to Goodwill, but I think there will be another one in my future. My neighbor Tim came over and helped me move some things around. This week, we will get the sleeper sofa out - that is what is leaning up against the back wall behind the vacuum.



There was a lot of organizing of the other odds and ends and my big pieces of batting are in one spot and my smaller pieces are in another. I have a chest of drawers that is now filled with quilting items instead of stamping items. :) There are 2 pieces of fabric tacked to the ceiling to drape and hide what is under the stairs. I am going to change those out to something lighter so it will brighten the place up a little. (Mom, if you are reading this, the covering towards the back is the couch's slip cover we talked about last week that you couldn't remember what we did with!)



I have a few more things to go through and a few more trips to the dumpster in my near future, but I am very pleased with how it is shaping up and Tim was very pleased to have a full basket to take home with him!

After a bit of a rest, some of the neighbors and I went to the local watering hole for refreshments. I got my hairs did Friday night and needed to show it off on Facebook. So Timmy and I took a picture.



So no change in the stash report for this past week.

Fabric added this week: 25.44
Fabric added YTD: 31.91

Fabric used this week: 0.00
Fabric used YTD: 16.88

Net Fabric Used: -15.03

After the cleaning spree, Lula was exhausted!

Gardening Condo Style

Last year, I searched for snap dragons to plant in front of my condo and I couldn't find any! I tried getting a pack of seeds and sprinkling them around, but nothing grew.

I vowed that this year, I would get the supplies to plant them from seeds inside and transplant them to the ground when I was ready and could plant everything else.

Two weeks ago, I made a trip to a local all in one store and got the peat packs and containers and some seeds. They didn't have snap dragon seeds so I picked up a few others. And last weekend after the Southern Invasion left, I prepped the peat packs and planted seeds.



I have been watching the containers, but I didn't think that I would have any signs of life until this Saturday. I was shocked when I saw sprouts on Wednesday night! And this is what I had on Thursday night!



One tall sprout in the container on the right and four packs with sprouts in the container on the left. One pack in the left container actually has 2 sprouts (at the bottom of the picture)!

And this morning, I took this picture. I guess that some seeds are doing better than others.



I'm very excited about this and I need to get back to the store to see if I can find the snap dragon seeds now. I can't wait to keep nurturing these sprouts and peat packs and see how everything turns out! And later today, I am going to try and find some snap dragon seeds. :)

New Entry Door

There was some excitement around my house yesterday. I got a new entry door and storm door installed by Home Depot.

Before from the outside.



And from the inside.



The installers were a married couple and they were super nice. The wife was concerned about keeping things clean and keeping drafts from getting in the house. They called to me when they were finished with some steps to let me take pictures.

The view from the inside after he got the door out.



It was a very sunny day, but with a biting wind and it was pretty chilly. By the end of the day, Deanna looked like she was sunburned so I am sure the wind whipping between my building and the next one were rough on her. But she smiled the entire day!

I had some damage to the subfloor which I was aware of, but it was worse than my dad and I thought.



After they removed the door, they put up plastic to keep the win out of the house. I got this picture because it reminded me of ET! lol



Tom installed a cedar board and then they put some kind of tape over it to help prevent water from settling. Deanna is showing that they put the tape up the wall and down towards the stoop to help direct water out towards the stoop.



And the finish from the outside.



And the inside. For the deadbolt, I got one with a keypad so that I can close the door and it will be locked when I walk the dogs. Now, I won't have to worry about taking a key with me. Woo hoo!



Everything looks great! I will need to paint the inside of the door and the new trim that they put up around the door, but that can wait a few weeks. As long as it is done before guests arrive in April! :)

And the dogs were going crazy. Lula doesn't like to be away from me if I am in the house. When I take garbage out or clean up dog poo, she stands at the door and tries to get out and cries a little. Yesterday, I ended up taking her upstairs with me because she was crying so much and I was trying to get Maisy to stop barking and quiet down herself. I took a video... Poor babies!!

Thanksgiving workday

My parents were here for Thanksgiving and my mom and I planned a workday for my dad so that I could get some things done around the house that are beyond my abilities. They came by on Friday and brought their dogs so that they could meet Lula and see how their dogs got along with the my new addition. We are planning ahead for vacation in 2013 to make sure that my dogs can still come with me and 'visit' the entire family.

While Dad worked on changing out an outside light fixture to a motion detector fixture, Mom got to see Lula who was more interested in sniffing behinds the new dogs. Also on the agenda was fixing the shower faucet, adding a remote to a ceiling fan and replacing the front screen door.

Dad and I made a trip to Home Depot and Dad decided that I should just replace the front door and the screen door since there has been some water damage to the door frame and he wouldn't have time to replace the screen door. We also stopped at Skyline so that he and mom could enjoy their cuisine.

By the end of the day, the light fixture was changed, the shower was fixed (and the water pressure is amazing now!), the ceiling fan remote works and a date was set up for measuring my door.

Oh, and the dogs were all friends! Max, Maisy and Lula graciously shared their toys with the intruders other dogs and no blood was shed.

Jasper has 1 brown and 1 blue eye. He was not having a very good time this trip even though it was a warmer than usual week. He has seizures and they are playing with his meds. Here he is with Fat Daphne and Max in the background.



Jasper really likes the sunshine and he may have been missing that at my sister's house where my parents stayed.



And Maxie was tuckered out at the end of the visit.

Some Accomplishments

This week, I almost had a meltdown about everything that I have to get done, but then I got a message to just let things go and if they get finished, great! If not, great!

I discussed my Dresden Plate quilt plan with Regina and I think that I have a workable pattern in my head. Quilting is still up for discussion, but getting the quilt done is a #3 priority right now.

Number one priority is getting a quilt quilted for Heather. Today was my self imposed due date and I might just make it! I have been practicing a new quilting design and I started on the quilt last night. Here is the first pass. (If you want to see pictures of quilting almost immediately, follow my Facebook page. I try to post pictures of new designs and new quilts on the frame before I really get going on the quilting.)



Double loops! I got the idea from one of Angela Walters books that I ordered from Amazon and had delivered in the last couple of weeks.



These books are great and I can't wait to try more of the designs on future quilts!

I also spent Thursday night finishing this wall hanging. The 80th birthday party is tonight and when I delivered it yesterday, my co-worker loved it.



And as if getting through half of the priority #1 quilt last night wasn't enough, I stayed up way too late cleaning and sorting through fabric and other stacks of paper and the house is looking pretty good this afternoon!

Max has been helping with the bugs that have been getting in and I think that tonight, we will dance with the vacuum cleaner before bed.

Busy week!!

This week ended up being very busy for me and with this throat crud hanging on, I didn't have much of a chance to rest and recuperate. Or even start planning for the quilt retreat that is in less than a week!

Monday night, I went to dinner and Joann's with Heather from the CMQG. I gave her the quilt back that I finished and we talked about new projects while we ate. I can't wait to get started and then to be able to show it off! It's all very good and exciting! I also picked up this fabric for the next Scrap Squad quilt.



I have been so busy, that I haven't even had a chance to pull out scraps that I can use with this new fabric. I was hoping to get it all squared away so that I could get it finished on retreat. Time is flying by so I need to get on it!

Tuesday night was a Board meeting for my homeowner's association. I am still waiting for some responses to items that were discussed even though I did say that things should be in the mail by Friday. How funny is it that a survey on the management company came to me instead? How fun it will be to fill that out!

Wednesday, I did a presentation on Precision Piecing at the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild meeting. And dinner with Barb and Lucy before the meeting. Woo hoo! But it was another late night getting home.

Thursday, I came home from work and napped on the couch after I ate dinner. Then, I dragged myself to bed at 8:30 and finished Death Perception and tried to go to sleep. And then I was wide awake until after 11. UGH!!!

Between Thursday and Friday, anytime I coughed it felt like my head was going to explode. Thursday night was pretty rough and I decided to take a mental health day on Friday to try and recuperate a little more. I took things easy, got something quilted, got things organized for Saturday's yard sale and then headed out to my sister's surprise birthday party. I took the quilts to the kids that I finished in the summer and I think they all liked them. Ethan rolled himself up in the quilt like a taquito! I stayed and chatted and came home exhausted.

Today was another yard sale. I didn't do as well as the first one in August, but it was worth it all the same. Well, except that I was distracted by bringing Lula out and my phone got dropped on the ground and the screen shattered. sigh... But since things were not moving out as well as I had hoped, I took a lot of pictures of what I had out and spent the rest of the day listing things on CraigsList. I have already had a few emails and it sounds like there are some people interested in buying. So at least I will make what I need to for the replacement screen and new phone protector that I will be buying in the next day.



So hopefully, tomorrow will be uneventful and I can start pulling kits together for retreat and get some things moving along. And my email will be pinging constantly from people wishing to buy my stuff!! I'll keep my toes crossed so that I can keep stitching!

Productive Friday

Today, I finished quilting the Route 66 quilt. I used a light yellow Bottom Line in the bobbin and a brown and tan variegated Connecting Threads thread.







And now, I need to trim the quilt up, make the binding and attach the binding. I plan on getting this all done tonight so that I can work on the hand stitching of the binding tomorrow.

Tomorrow, there is a yard sale at the condos so I am hoping to have all of this organized and ready to be set up, too. It's mostly all craft stuff, but I need to get it organized and priced tonight so I am not stressing about it while I am setting up tomorrow.





Wish me luck!!

Monthly Accomplishments - July 2012

I can't believe that I haven't posted my July Accomplishments before now. I've had my list ready for 2 weeks!

1. Spent a lot of time watering grass and flowers at the beginning of the month (by the end, I just didn’t care anymore!) 
2. Had a sewing day with Barb and Lucy after they won new sewing machines
3. Added borders, Angelina bubbles and cauldron applique to Scrap Squad #3 Old Gory
4. Quilted the third Scrap Squad, attached the binding and label and wrote up my blog post for Quiltmaker
5. Quilted Strip Twist for Gillian
6. Got fabric for quilting samplers and then messed up on the quilting and started ripping rows out - 
7. Finished the binding on the Doodle Bugs quilt 
8. Made BOM blocks from 2009 Mystery BOM from Fat Quarter shop - #5, #6, #7 
9. Midget blocks - 37, and 41 and 42 
10. Saw that butterflys finally found my butterfly bush 
11. Finished the second sleeve for my sweater 
12. Bought fabrics for new projects

Books read

1. Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye - Victoria Laurie 
2. Cold Hit - Linda Fairstein 
3. Injustice for All - J. A. Jance 
4. Trial by Fury - JA Jance
5. Ties that Bind - Marie Bostwick 
6. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay 
7. Life Without Parole - Clare O’Donohue 
8. Better Read than Dead - Victoria Laurie

Such a better month in all accounts!

Late in the week update....

The last couple of weeks have been bonkers!! I didn't realize that it had been a week since I posted until I got ready to write the book review earlier. UGH!!

Work was crazy last week with it being our year end and the beginning of this week was hectic. I wanted to get out of the office by 3 on Tuesday so it meant a bit of a rush to get some things done.

Tuesday night, the city set off fireworks at the park up the street from my condo and we had a block party with food and drinks and the neighbors. I was able to leave work early to get to the store and pick up some last minute things and then come home and start setting up with my neighbors. It was hot as hell out there, but I think we all had a great time.

Of course, that meant that I didn't post anything for Tiny Tuesday. I didn't even make a block!

My evenings have also been all about watering. I keep trying to get the dogs to pee in the shaded grass in the common area and they keep trying to sneak past me and pee in the full sun grass directly in front of my condo and Kim and Aaron's condo. So we are trying to keep the grass well watered and repair damage that they did back in May. This means that I am watering about an hour each morning on the weekend and at least 20 minutes every night. Did I mention that it has been hot as hell? Luckily, there isn't much grass to water considering the condo living.

And I haven't been able to walk the dogs since Monday morning. It has just been too miserable at night and pretty humid in the mornings. We will get back to it eventually.

On the bright side, I think that Lula realizes the issue with the heat and hasn't been sending me memos via puddles and piles on the floor!

And speaking of Lula, there were some fireworks being set off after the city fireworks. I was in the process of taking the dogs out and only had Lula out to visit with everyone and she freaked out when something went off. My neighbor thought that he could help her cope so he held her tight and was talking soothingly into her ear when another one went off and she freaked again. She ended up pooping on/right next to him. Poor girl! So we recuperated on Wednesday and she got to rest a lot!

This weekend, I have plans on getting at least 1 quilt quilted and finishing up the Scrap Squad top. I have all of my tools ready to go and I am excited about finishing the top and seeing how it turns out!! And I am pretty sure that I know what the quilting plan is for it, as well. I can't wait to show it off!

I have to remember to take some more pictures, but here is one to show how happy Lula has been. She loves the basket 'o dog toys and had it about half empty before I piled everything back into it. She is just a bundle of energy and would play for hours if there was someone to toss a toy for her!

Monthly Accomplishments - May 2012

I am so late on my list for last month. UGH! I thought that I had already done it, but oh well... Here is it now. :)

1. Made some Midget blocks - 34, 35, and 36
2. Completed Ladder of Success, the second Scrap Squad quilt by adding the borders, quilting it, finishing the binding and gifting it to Joanne at work.
3. Assembled the Doodle Bugs quilt by working on the 4 patch parts, assembling the quilt, and adding the borders
4. Quilted a retirement quilt
5. Got a bunch of plants and planted them all
6. Picked fabrics for my third Scrap Squad quilt and started cutting them
7. Went to visit Regina in NY and took lots of pictures with my new camera
8. Worked on the Which Witch blocks
9. Knitted on my socks

And books read...

1. I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman
2. I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
3. Final Jeopardy by Linda Fairstein
4. Likely to Die by Linda Fairstein

Happy Saturday!

This week was such an odd week due to the holiday on Monday and driving back from Regina's on Tuesday. Even though it was a short work week, it was a week from hell with so many people seeming to suffer from HUA Syndrome.*  And due to Friday being the first day of the new month, I had to stay until 7:30 to get all of my new assets set up. My company's fiscal year end is June 30th so June should fly by though with all the year end things that will need to be done.

When I got home last night, I wanted to curl up and knit with the pups, but I forced myself to try and clean and straighten until 10. Once I started, I couldn't stop! I just have my GO and sewing machine to bring upstairs and I will be all unpacked from my trip. I even got pictures of things that I brought home with me so that I can show in another post.

Thursday night, I got a couple of bags of mulch and spread them around the flower beds. Living in a condo with landscapers, they usually lay out all of the mulch in April (this year March due to the mild winter), but since they removed a tree, they didn't mulch that area. Since I got everything planted and have been watering, the ground has been splitting and cracking and I thought that mulch was needed. I got the mulch spread with about an hour to spare before the rain started Thursday night and lasted through most of Friday.

This morning, I took my pruners out and cleaned up some of the plants and I took my camera for some pictures. When I got home from NY, most of the blooms were gone so there is a lot of green while I am waiting for new flowers to bud and bloom.

This is the new bed where the tree was. There is a butterfly bush in the center with a couple of perennials and annuals in the outer part of the bed.



This is the area to the right of my front door. There was a large evergreen bush that my neighbors and I pulled out a couple of weeks ago. It has made a huge difference in the appearance of the whole area! I planted a delphinium and a sky pencil as the main items in the bed and got a bit of coreopsis (I think) from my friend at work. There is a bare space in the bed and what seems to be an empty hanging basket where I put snapdragon seeds. They were just sprouting when I came back from New York so I am hoping to have some actual plants in a couple more weeks!



This is the area to the left of my front door. The large bushes are burning bushes and will get a trim in late June or July by the landscapers - I really hope that they don't do a lot of damage to the flowers when they do this, but it is usually inevitable. :(  I have 2 new astilbes at the top left, a couple of spider plants, fuchsias, New Guinea Impatiens and dianthus (lower left corner).



I love the fuchsias!! My neighbors probably thought I was a little nuts crouching around the flowers in my night pants! lol The fuchsias and the impatiens are blooming like crazy so I am happy that something it working out there!



I have Gerbera Daisies in the new round bed. I was going to get pictures a couple of days after I got everything in the ground, but something came along and ate the flowers off one of the daisy plants and it still doesn't have any new blooms coming up. The other one had 3 flowers when I planted it that finally died and now 2 more are open and growing.



When I was looking for filler, I found these little plants that were pink instead of a green. Of course, I snapped them up! I love them!! I have them in the beds and some in the pots, too. You can see how pink the leaves are in the pot picture.



And lastly, I got these little plants with a soft pink flower and as the flowers age, they turn a bit of a salmony color. There is also plenty of red, purple and cream salvia (back left in picture), but most of the plants are between very good blooms. I trimmed off spent flower stems this morning so I am hoping that will help.




Sorry about all the pictures! I couldn't decide what to leave out!

Right now, I am going to start some laundry and throw the Doodle Bugs quilt on the frame.

* Head Up Ass

Tiny Tuesday - 5/15

I did not make a block this week. I had planned to make it Monday night and then I got a wild hair and decided to shop for some flowers and I ended up getting home later than I had planned. When I got home, a group of neighbors came over to see my flowers and plants and I asked one of them about removing a bush next to my front door. I just meant like later this week, but he pulled out his ropes and chains, hooked up the tree and pulled it out of the ground within 20 minutes. Woo hoo!! And after all that effort, everyone hung out and drank some beer so I of course had to join them. It would have been rude of me to leave them outside of my place to go inside and sew, right?

And then tonight, I spent the evening prepping the 2 new flower beds I have acquired so that I can actually plant my plants.

So those are my excuses for not having any new Midget blocks to show. As penance, I have decided to have a little giveaway for anyone who links to a post below showing off any blocks they have made recently that are smaller than 9". They can be any kind of blocks - Midget, 4 patches, crumbs, you name it! Just tiny blocks smaller than 9". Just link to a blog post below and I will draw a name on Friday night.

I'm thinking that the prize will be several FQs and/or regular quarter yards of fabric in a colorway of the winner's choosing. And I could probably find a magazine to throw in as well.

And since we are talking tiny blocks, I laid out my Midget blocks so far and took a few shots. I think they look awesome, not that I'm biased or anything! lol





So remember to add a link to your blog post about your tiny blocks for a chance to win my penance! :-D