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.

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.

Vacation - Daily task

While I was in Florida, I looked for the alligator that lives in the canal behind my parents' house on a daily basis. One day, he was in the lot next to my parents' house and was sunning himself just out of the water.





Since my camera isn't the greatest at zooming in, I used my parents' camera and took a couple of pictures from inside the fence. I should have walked to the other side of the canal. I probably could have gotten a couple of shots at a better angle.

And using their camera just reaffirmed that I need a new camera!! :)

Stash Report Week 9, 2012

I'm home - safe and sound. But I did acquire a cold on the way and am feeling a bit under the weather. I was hoping to get a couple of posts written yesterday, but it just never happened. Heck, I am still not even unpacked and I head back to work in the morning!

I did get the 3 yards of fabric from Connecting Threads when I got home. I was hoping that it would match what I already have, but it doesn't. It is a bit yellower than what I have been using.



I'm hoping this week to get caught up. I have pictures from the quilt show to post and my February accomplishments. Hopefully, I can have the energy after another good night sleep!

Fabric added this week: 3.00
Fabric added YTD: 11.17

Fabric used this week: 0.00
Fabric used YTD: 36.91

Net Fabric Used: 25.74

Still in the black! Woo hoo!!

Heading home

In the morning, Granma and I are heading home. It's a few days later than we expected, but my mom ended up in the hospital on Saturday afternoon and underwent surgery Sunday morning and Monday afternoon. Since we were supposed to leave on Tuesday, we just postponed a few days. Mom was home from the hospital on Tuesday evening and has been resting comfortably while bossing me around asking me for help. I'm glad that I was able to stay on and make sure that she is doing well. And now that she is feeling better, Mom can worry about us driving home through the weather that has been popping up through the Midwest.

In any event, I was able to make a couple of shopping trips before the hospital trips took over and I have replenished my stash of Crocs! I will be set for the next year!



But, I have not gotten my fill of this. I am going to miss all the white and black pups and I think that they are going to miss me, Granma and the strange red pups as well.



And with that, I am off to bed... sniff, sniff!

Christmas Deliveries!

When I got home from work today, I had 2 boxes in the mailbox! I was expecting one from Regina and totally surprised by the second from my parents! I will be seeing them in a few weeks and figured that they would hold onto whatever they got me to give it to me in person. Considering the hellish week that I had, both boxes were nice surprises and a great way to end the week!



I opened the Merry Valentine's box from my parents first. Dog toys right on top and boy is Maxie happy!



I am going to have to tell him that this is the only alligator that he can play with!



Marvin the Martian goodies, an unstuffed Hermie the Dentist, and doggie PJs.



And Mom put together another calendar for me with the help of Walgreen's.



She added the quotes to the pages... Maxine Rules and Max Drools



Toe Jam and Bug jars.



Too much Christmas, Too much New Years and Here comes 2013.



This is too cute and I can't wait to take it to work and hang it up! Here is the page that shows all of the months.



And Max is just tickled pink with the gator!

Monthly Accomplishments - October 2011

What a month! It’s just amazing what you can get done when you have a retreat to prep for and a retreat to attend!

1. Finished the quilting on Regina’s Sunny Lanes quilt
2. Midget blocks – 19, 20 and 21
3. Got Max’s leg all healed so that I could go on retreat and leave him with a dog sitter
4. Finished the Argyle Holiday top and made Binding
5. Made 4 take along bags for the CMQG’s sale
6. Assembled the Bug jar quilt top and made the binding - l
7. Took youngest nephew to “Jingle Bells” for lunch. Also known as Taco Bell.
8. Started taking Vitamins including a B Complex and have acquired a tremendous amount of energy!
9. Made 2 take along bags to deliver at retreat
10. Machine stitched binding to a charity quilt
11. Quilted the blue quilt for Regina
12. Went to retreat and got lots done and met some great quilters!
13. Stitched all the purple appliqué on the Which Witch? blocks and started working on the boots which are now called Bitches’ Boots. Seriously – did you see all the detail on the boots?
14. Sewed my raffle quilt blocks
15. Did all the top stitching on the Doodle Bugs car blocks 
16. Cut out and began stitching pieces for an Ohio Star Challenge quilt. 
17. Only picked up 2 cuts of fabric and a pattern from Shipshewana!! 
18. Made some 4 patches and collected some from others for Regina’s 4patches4hope project.
19. Loaded and began quilting on a secret quilt. ;)

Books

1. The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith
2. A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard
3. Fatal by Michael Palmer
4. The Crossroad by Beverly Lewis
5. The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen
6. Rescue by Anita Shreve
7. Desperate Measures by Kate Wilhelm

Gosh, I hope that I can get this much done in November. I'm hopeful because there will be a 4 day weekend for Thanksgiving! :)

Buzzin' Along

Last weekend, I wanted to get so much done, but I ended up sleeping a lot. I was still battling the exhausted feeling on Monday and Tuesday and decided to try taking a multi vitamin and extra vitamin B. I started these on Tuesday and WOW! What a difference! I felt almost perky within an hour or so of taking them.

This morning, I was awake at 6:45 and when sleep didn't return immediately, I got up and started sewing! Completely unheard of for me on a weekend morning when I didn't have a reason to be up before 9.

I had to meet my sister around 10:30 to take care of my youngest nephew for a couple of hours and I watched his soccer game and then took him to Taco Bell, or as he calls it Jingle Bells. He got a trophy, a drink and a gift bag with cookies and Halloween goodies and he was so excited because there was a pencil in the bag!

After swapping Ethan back to my BIL, I went to Meijer for a big sale. I saved almost 50% this trip which is pretty good because I didn't have a coupon for everything and I didn't spend too long preparing the coupons that I did have. But I got some goodies for retreat. Woo hoo!

When I got home, I fully expected to be ready to crash for one of my 2 hour weekend naps, but I wasn't really falling over tired. I was a little wore out, but I put the groceries away and then sewed. Don't get me wrong, I still needed a nap eventually, but it was only one hour! Not sure if it is definitely the vitamins, but as good as I am feeling right now, I am going to keep taking them!

After my nap and an awesome dinner, I put the final stitches in the bug jar quilt top!



Here is a close up of a block and the sashings. I fussy cut the horizontal sashing on the bias so that it would look like a shelf.



I really like how this turned out and I can't wait to get it quilted and wrap a nephew in it!

And now, I think that I am going to work on a couple more bags! It's just fantastic to have the energy to keep training for my quilt retreat that is in less than 2 weeks!!!

Design Wall Monday - 10/10

Great weekend! Even though I did A LOT of sleeping, I still got things done around the house and in the studio.

I finished the SIS top and made the binding. I think that I am going to name this Argyle Holiday.




Friday night, I had my nephew's over and Spencer had fun laying out the bug jar blocks for his quilt.



And Ethan was excited to see some cars for him. He just wanted to take something home with him RIGHTNOW so I will have to get to work on his blocks.

Drumroll Please!!!

I'm ready to do the big unveiling of my newly renovated quilt studio!! Mind you, I'm not ready to show off the new bedroom, just the studio! lol

But first, I want to share some interesting statistics about what has happened.

Days elapsed since idea was first broached on blog - 175
Days since work was started - 103
Days since I started working only on the bedrooms - 46
Rooms where painting occurred - 7 (wow!!)
Gallons of paint used - umpteen
Gallons of spackle used - almost as much
Old outlets and switches swapped for fresh, clean ones - 15
  Ones done by me - 10
Trips to Home Depot - countless
Trips to the dumpster - at least 5
Times I borrowed my neighbor, Aaron - 2 (well, 3 if you count the consultation)
Number of naps taken on the luxurious new mattress - just by me? Or do the dogs' naps count?
Breakdowns had during the process - 1 (yep, just the one!)
Number of times Maxie had breakdowns - too many to count (The poor dog just couldn't deal with all the work going on.)

Knowing that I have a great space that makes me want to sew... PRICELESS!!!

And without further ado...

Here is the door to the studio and the wall that is to the left of the door. My sewing desk is partially in front of the door, but until I start sewing at it, I am not sure if I will need to adjust it's location. It works where it is for now. And I put the rocking chair in front of the TV by the window and while that just feels awkward to me, there is not really another place for it.



Here is the Stash Wall! I was worried that the TV would be sitting too low , but it is at a great height for sitting at the desk or on the bed.



The hope chest is between the door to the bathroom and the closet and I hung my thread rack and 2 ruler holders above it. It's nice to have all of that out of the way! There are still some spools of thread left over and I have a smaller thread holder, but I am not sure if I want to hang it up as well. I also have some current projects on the hope chest. I think that the chest will still be my staging area for now.



Looking into the closet, I have some scrap containers on the floor by the wall because they wouldn't fit on the bookcases or under the bed. It was actually my nephew's idea to put them in the closet! And of course, the GO is in there, too. At least until I can find better spots for them.



Here is the other side of the room taken from in front of the TV. The massive design wall and the oh-so-comfortable and way too tall bed!



And of course, room for the iron and ironing board! Can you tell that Max loves having his own bed in the studio? Maisy is just 'meh' about it, I think. :-D



The only thing missing is window treatments and a dust ruffle on the bed to hide the clutter underneath. But I still need to decide on what I want the window treatments to look like before Granma and I can make them.

So.... What do you think???

Design Wall Monday, 8/22

Today, I am going to show off my new design wall! My cousin and aunt helped me out with setting it up. The original plans that I had didn't work out as expected, but the design wall is still on the actual wall so that is good.

Friday after work, I stopped at Joann's and Home Depot for my supplies. Unfortunately, my tiny little car wouldn't fit the pieces of the foam insulation board and my neighbor wasn't in the area so I had to make due - boards cut in half and then tied to the top of my tiny little car. *sigh*

Before my family got here, I trimmed up the pieces and taped them into pairs. Once we got back from dinner and ice cream, Meghan and I set to work taping the pairs into 1 big piece and wrapping it with batting.



Max was afraid of the squeaking of the boards until I was sitting on it.



Once we were done playing, we added loops to the back of the board with hot glue gun and a bit more duct tape...



... and then hung the design wall onto the actual wall with command hooks. I then threw up my Midget blocks since I had them handy.



So far, things are working well. The design wall is still hanging! I'm excited to get some new blocks made and up on the wall to see how it works. :)

Design Wall Monday, 8/15

My first design wall post in almost 2 months!

Friday night, one of my nephews spent the night here and he picked out the bug fabric that he wants me to use for his bug jar quilt.



He even had to tell me which fabrics he wanted to have 2 blocks made from. And he wants to tell me where to put the blocks in the quilt once I have them done.



And yesterday, it was cool and breezy here so the pups were able to enjoy the new mattress and an open window!

Design Wall Monday, 4/18

Yesterday, I was able to get the flamingo quilt assembled while enjoying a TV and some fresh air! I was going to start working on the Maxine quilt which is going to be the same design, but thought I would just give up on sewing for the day.

This is based on a design that the quilt shop I used to work at used all the time to the point that I wondered if they would ever move past it to anything more creative. It's a good pattern to use for panels, but not much else.





This quilt is for my mom in Florida and I am sure that her little dogs will get some use out of it. So Maxie had a message for them!



I don't know if this was an "I'm on your quilt" message or an "I have toys that squeak" message. I think either would be appropriate. :-D

Stash Report Week 11, 2011

I fell off the wagon... Big time! Since a lot of fabric was on sale at Joann's last week, I figured it would be the perfect time to go and get what I needed for a quilt for Mom and a quilt for a family friend. I have plans to cut this fabric out today so it should be busted for next week's stash report, but this week's report is taking a hit.

These are the fabrics for mom. The only new fabric is the row in the middle. The pink at the top and the flamingo fabric was on hand for years and I had plans to make pajamas out of them for mom. Well, now that she is in Florida, she no longer needs flannel pajamas.



When I was in Florida, Mom found this Maxine fabric at the quilt show that we went to and wanted to make a throw for her friend. I said that I could use the panel and make the same pattern for both of these quilts. The black multi colored dot is the backing.



I had hoped to make it home in time to start cutting up the Maxine quilt, but it was a long day.

Fabric added this week:13.00
Fabric added year-to-date:13.53

Fabric used this week: 0.00
Fabric used year-to-date: 21.32

Net Fabric Used: 7.79

Still in the black! And can you believe that I had only taken in just over a half a yard  up until last week? I'm shocked!

Yummy Goodies!

While in Florida, I talked my mom into making me Lemon Meringue cupcakes. They were a little tedious, I think, and she ran out of parchment paper and had to improvise for the meringue tops, but they were really good! The recipe came from the Fab Shop Hop last month.



She also made home made sherbet with fresh pineapple, papaya and mangos. It was wonderful and paired really well with the cupcakes!



And as long as I had either of these, I had a friend that I couldn't get rid of. lol



She made it kind of hard to type!