Reminiscing and Dinner and a Movie

My cousin Meghan has a thing for Granma. She thinks that the old lady can do no wrong! Well, she probably can't, but Meghan has put her on such a pedestal and Meghan acts like she knows everything that Granma does. At Thanksgiving dinner this year, Aunt Linda started talking about a casserole that Granma used to make that she calls Dinner in a Dish. Uncle Doug mentioned several time that he hates it because she uses peas in it, but talking about Dinner in a Dish brought up other memories.

Granma did a lot of cooking and canning when Granpa was still alive and they were still in the big house with her garden in the back. She would buy tons of corn and then everyone who could would gather and cook the corn and then cut it off the cob and put it in bags to freeze it. Some aunts reminisced about their fond memories of this, but Uncle Doug and I agreed that it was a huge pain in the butt and not one of the more pleasant jobs. Not that I actually did any of the work, but it just didn't appeal to me to help with the work when I was a wee one of 12. Or whatever.

Granma also used to make homemade strawberry jelly. It was wonderful! That is one thing that I miss. My sister has tried to duplicate the jelly, but from what I can remember she never had luck with the first few batches and I haven't tried any recently to know if it's gotten better. But she wouldn't be able to duplicate the efforts of at least 3 adult women slicing, cleaning, cooking and canning truckloads of strawberries in one day.

And, yes, I stand by my measurements here. There were tons of corn to be shucked, cleaned, cooked, shaved off the cob and stuffed in a freezer bag or container and truckloads of strawberries and it all had to be done in a day. Or at least it always seemed like it all had to be done in a day.

*Sigh* Good times.

So, Meghan was upset because she didn't remember Granma's jelly. She had never had Dinner in a Dish. She has been deprived of these wonderful Granma creations. I think that she was on the verge of tears.

Then, we got together again for brunch early in December and I am sure that Dinner in a Dish was brought up again to be flaunted in front of Meghan. Then, we got together for Christmas and it was the same thing. "Oh, Mom, this leftover turkey would be wonderful for Dinner in a Dish," teased Aunt Linda. Again, Meghan sulked. (Not really, but doesn't it make for a good story so far?) All the teasing aside, it was a good Christmas meal!

Granma got some movie tickets for Christmas and her birthday and she treated some family members and me to Marley and Me with dinner to follow. Since I had to work at the shop, I hurried to the theater once we closed so that I could get a drink to help keep this nasty cough that I have developed under control for the movie. I thought the movie was pretty good!

After the movie, Granma waited for us all to gather outside of the theater and then informed us that we would be going back to Linda's house because she had dinner ready. "What'd you make?" someone hollered from the back of the crowd. (Really there was a crowd of 12 of us all together.)

Granma just smiled and said, "Dinner in a Dish."



Here's Meghan trying it.


"Granma, this is goo-oood!"

She said that she would need to get a bigger helping, but she never went back for it. Hmmmm....

And here's me with my little Spud-ly! Can you believe that it took 3 shots to get a good picture?



Claire was there with her friend, but they were hiding in the bathroom all night so I didn't get any shots of her.

And here is another one of Spencer. We told him that we get the best shots of him when he doesn't pose because he 'over-poses.'

A Happy Post!

Last week was Claire's tenth birthday. I went over for dinner and presents. Here is the birthday girl.



Now, the boys were not interested in the cake, or they were a little jazzed up after eating it, and they danced a little on camera. They had apparently just watched the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie and the chipmunks do a little dance. Here is Spencer showing how the dance goes.



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And here is Ethan's interpretation. Try not to giggle too much!



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Oh, yeah, and I am actually sewing!

Happy Holidays!

Some great pictures

A week before I went on retreat, I was at my sister's house and saw the family. I took some pictures, but I have been enjoying them before posting them here.



Matt was very excited that I got him the entire series of MASH on DVD. I know that I should have opened it up and watched some of it first since I did have it for a little while before he returned from being stationed in Korea, but I never got around to it. He was pretty excited to see that! And he enjoyed pointing out the different vehicles on the pillowcase that I made. And Spencer was excited to see the Star Wars pillowcases - I might need to try and find more of this fabric because I was very shocked when he grabbed it from Matt and exclaimed, "Star Wars!!!!" I knew that he liked the Indiana Jones movies, but most of us in the room didn't have a clue he liked Star Wars!

I had gotten the boys a couple of Joann's quilt kits and put the quilts together for them. When I handed Spencer the Spiderman quilt, he held it up and said, "This is a BIG pillowcase!" And Ethan saw Spencer's quilt and wanted to know where his quilt was and then he carried it around most of the night.

Spencer has lost 4 teeth and has a couple growing back in. He didn't have any that are currently loose for me to test though.

July Monthly Accomplishments

July was a very busy month. Reading through my list, I really got A TON done!


Here's the list:

1. Finished piecing the block and assembled the top for the Wagon Wheels quilt. Also made the binding.
2. 3 blocks for the Block of Month that I am doing through Best Friends
3. Completed a Cars quilt from a Joann's kit for Ethan
4. Completed a Christmas quilt top and prepared the binding. I bought it because the Santas reminded me of my grandparents' house at Christmas when I was little. When I showed my aunt and grandma, they totally agreed!
5. Finished a very old UFO - Mom's Halloween Big Shirt
6. Watched part of the Pajama Quilter Reloaded DVD and practiced quilting designs a lot on a white board.
7. Loaded, quilted and buried the thread ends on Hip to be Square, formerly known as the first Stash Pot Pie. I also got the binding attached and completely sewn down. It just needs a label now.
8. Completed a Spiderman quilt from a Joann's kit for Spencer
9. Fixed Bubba when he was acting ornery from over-use and wanted to suck the fabric in when I wanted him to cut the threads.
10. Completely finished the fruit table runner and place mats. I just had to finish hand stitching the binding down on most of the pieces.
11. Completed the entire top of the Lover's Lane UFO. When I started, I only had one block of 20 completed and about 15 4-patches and half square triangle units of 180 each that were needed for the top. I got all of the units done, the blocks assembled and the entire quilt with borders put together. I also have to say thanks the members of Quilted Chaos, the Guild small group that I belong to. They helped me lay out most of the blocks when the units were finished. Thanks so much, Ladies! I'm so glad that you could have a hand in helping me with this quilt! (Note - See pictures of my sweat shop here.)
12. Quilted a funky block Kid Komfort with meandering loops and sewed the binding on. Am still working on stitching the binding down.
13. Stitched a binding down fora quilt from one of the Guild small groups that is going to Alaska. The quilt, not the small group. :)
14. Finished the Lover's Lane top! I know that this was mentioned before, but it was a HUGE undertaking with all of the piecing and ironing that had to be done!
15. Quilted a blue Kids Komfort
16. Completed 4 of my secret projects. Well, I finished 3 and Patrice 'finished' 1. When I post about the projects, this will all make sense. I promise!
17. Finished a paper pieced star block for Heather.
18. Oh, and I got in 160 hours of quilting/sewing. How cool is that? I didn't win the July Challenge, but I still did A LOT!!!

Other non-sewing items:

1. Picked up a gooseneck lamp for Squiggy. It's wonderful to be able to see while I quilt!
2. Tried the ice cream at The Dip. It's good! I'm in trouble!
3. Got my shirts that I ordered with our July Challenge logo on them. Very cool!
4. Picked up a large white board to practice my quilting designs on.
5. Worked at the St Jude Dream Home selling tickets at the open houses for 2 afternoons.
6. Read D is for Deadbeat and E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton
7. Read The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen - great author!

So, it was a very, very productive month for me! August is looking like it will be almost as productive! I am going on a retreat next weekend for 2 days. I have already started thinking about what I need to get done before I leave and what I should take with me. Decisions, decisions! :)

Don't forget about the Finish it Up Month this month! Read about it here and come and join us! And if your not already a part of the Prolific Quilter's Yahoo Group, join us here!

Bubba, is that smoke???

I think that Bubba has been overworked the past week! Dangit! The thread cutter is not working. When I sew on something and then push the button, it cuts the thread, but then sucks it down into the machine and when I pull the fabric out, the fabric puckers a little and the thread pulls. Bummer! I put a small quilt together for Spencer and it was so hard to not hit that thread cut button. I eventually figured out how to take the needle cover plate off and cleaned out the back part of the machine in hopes that it would help. It didn't. :( Anyone have any ideas? I can't be without a machine right now so taking it in for service is out of the question.

Anyway, here is the quilt that I made, start to finish, last night.



It was a Joann's kit, but I removed the plush and replaced it with a solid color flannel. And the front sticks to the back fairly well so I didn't even do any quilting on it. I think that Spencer will love it!

I only got 3 hours and 15 minutes in last night. I had to get my things together for my class tonight at Best Friends. I have to get there a little early to but the last bit of fabric that I need and the next BOM kit. I can't wait to see how my fabric choices look in this quilt!

Weekend excitement

It's about time that I got around to posting about last weekend!

On Friday night, I ended up sleeping after my long week at work. I needed that! Saturday morning was going to be spent quilting and that didn't happen either. I straightened the house up and tried to catch up on blogs reading.

Saturday afternoon, I watched the kids. Ethan was sleeping when I got there so Claire put in Enchanted and we watched that while Spencer played on the computer. Well, Claire watched the movie and I worked on stitching the binding down on the Spools quilt. Nikki told m that the night before Ethan had taken a nose dive off of the couch....




And he got 8 stitches. It didn't slow him down a bit!

Once Ryan got home, I stopped at a couple of stores and tried to find noisemakers that Amy, Lynn and I could use for our cheering on Sunday. I was successful and found some clappers and some noisemakers that you blow into. Then, I treated myself to IHOP for dinner. I realized what time I had to be there on Sunday morning so I was in bed y 10:30.

On Sunday, Amy, Lynn and I volunteered at the Flying Pig Marathon. We volunteered with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at a Scream Team that was at mile 12. We had to be there at 7 AM! Here are a couple of pictures before the race started when we were 'fresh!'





This was the guy in first place and then the second and third place runners at that point. They were very serious!





We also had a TV news crew circling us from the air fora few minutes!



It was very interesting cheering for the runners. There was a guy who ran past that looked like Dr Paul from my dentist office, but I wasnt for sure. Then, I remembered that the main dentist, Dr Steve, from the office is a runner and I started looking for him. A few minutes later, Lynn and Amy distracted me and I turned back to the road in time to see the back of Dr Steve's head. At least, I am pretty certain that it was Dr Steve and I yelled, "GO DR STEVE!" Hopefully it was him and he heard me! I also tried to look for Maria, a fellow quilter, but I didn't see her. It was very neat to see all the people running, including the 2 people on their cell phones! Unbelievable - "Hey, what's going on?" - "Not much, just running a marathon!" hee hee hee

After the last runner went through, we decided to hit IHOP for breakfast and talk about our chapter plans. Then, I headed out to Maddy's to work on one of the super secret blocks. We got them done. And I took pictures of the boards that we are using for our Penny Wars. Each chapter in the state has a nurse or doctor kit to put their pennies in. And Maddy wanted pictures to send in to headquarters to have an article published about how much we raised and how great of a fund raiser it has been.

Retreat Wrap up and Recuperating

Saturday night, Kim and I decided to take our iPods to bed with us in hopes that we would be able to block out some of the background noise and get to sleep quicker. It worked. I set up iPercy, my iPod, to play a more subdued album and the next thing I knew, it was 7:45 and people were talking in the room. Kim was supposed to have gotten up early so that she could leave by 6 AM to get back to Cincinnati to help clean up an art show, but she overslept. We then watched her pack up her personal items from the room an discussed appropriate excuses. Once she heard one that she liked, we headed out to get ready for breakfast.

At the end of breakfast, Brenda reminded everyone that they would need to settle up with me for the amount that they owed for the weekend, but that they should give me about 45 minutes to clean myself up. After I showered, the next hour and a half were spent trying to piece a block and give people their amounts and record checks and cash as it was given to me.

Next, it was time for pictures before lunch since most everyone was leaving just after lunch. Here's another one of my with the iron. We're both beaming! :)



Here's me and Jen.



And here's the group of the coordinators and our buddies. Front row (left to right) - Maddy, Carol from Dayton, and Kay. Middle Row - Kathi, Shirley, and Carol from Kentucky. Last row - Mary, Jen, Me, Maryanne, and Brenda. We had to stand there for about 4 cameras worth of pictures!



Before lunch, Jen and I had decided that we would take our time leaving and not pack up and rush out like everyone else was doing. We could stay until 2 (Brenda told me later that it was 4, but we said 2 on our form) and Jen wanted to get her Surf and Sand blocks done so we stayed until 2. I didn't get much done. I was there for more moral support for Jen to finish the ironing. And to say Bye to everyone as they were leaving. And then Jen and I took our time packing up and getting everything into our cars.

We left the Center at 2:30. I was very sad to see Jen turn left out of the parking lot as I turned right to go back home alone. :( Mike kept telling Jen that their dog Holly missed her and was waiting for her so I sent a text later that I was now the one with the Jen Withdrawal!

It took me just over an hour and a half to drive home and pick up the dogs along the way. They were very excited to see me. When we got back, they did their business in the yard and then we came in and went to bed. After 4 and a half hours of sleep, we woke up and I made some phone calls and made dinner. I unloaded the car and took my boxes, bags and other stuff upstairs so that I could put it away on Monday morning. I think that I ended up going to bed just after midnight.

On Monday morning, since I had taken the day off of work, I was able to lounge around and relax. After the lack of sleep and then excitement from the weekend, I was so happy that I had taken the day off! After breakfast, I started putting my things away. Let me tell you - it was so much easier with the spare bedroom being organized to put everything in the appropriate places. It didn't take me long at all! I was able to move things around in my sewing area and then I decided that I should pull the steamer iron out and test it out while I sewed. I followed the quick instructions on the box - fill it with water, turn it on, adjust the settings and iron.

I had a couple of smaller quilt kits from Joann's to make for the boys - Spiderman for Spencer and Cars for Ethan - so I decided that I would iron and cut the fabric so that I could sew it together when I was ready. The ironing went great. It pressed the hard seams out of the cheap fabric really well. The cutting did not go as well. The instructions left a lot of be desired and there was not extra fabric for mistakes. After cutting 2 pieces, I gave up and threw both kits in a box.

I decided that I could work on other projects and continued to sew and iron until about lunchtime and then I broke for lunch and blog reading. I thought that I should turn the iron off and maybe check the water level since there is not a visual sensor on the container. As I let it cool down, I would unscrew the knob a bit and let out some steam. After about 20 minutes, I was able to take the knob out and there was a piece of the o-ring left on the container. I went back and read the real instructions and it said something about being careful to not over-screw the knob in. Doh!! I blew it! I couldn't use the iron anymore because it would give off steam when the water started getting hot. So I turned to the Internet to order replacements or find the size so that I could go to Home Depot and buy some replacements. As luck would have it, they have a box of replacements that fit it well enough and the problem has been resolved!



And I have plenty of replacements for next time! I will have to add this piece of equipment to my list of things to take on retreats so that I can have enough, just in case!

That is it for the retreat wrap up. I leave you now with a slide show of all of the retreat pictures and some that Patrice sent. She got some great pictures of the other side of the gym from where I was.





2008 St Jude Quilt Retreat

And a slide show of all of the donations from companies.



2008 Retreat Donations

Enjoy!

Miscellaneous items

I have quite a few pictures from March that I never got around to blogging about so they are all going to go into this post.

There was an evening where the weather was awesome! It was after the last big snowstorm and before all of the rain that flooded my basement. I took an hour walk up to the park by my house and when I got home, I opened the backdoor to let some fresh air in. Max stood and looked out the door the entire time it was open!



The week before Easter, I took some Easter decorations out to my sister's house and saw them one evening. Ethan had pneumonia and wasn't quite himself, but he was very content to sit on my lap and eat a popsicle and then he let me get him ready for bed. He was very excited when I saw that he had a big boy bed. He loves his cars and the movie 'Cars' and he has some wall stickers stuck up over his bed. He is also using the animal pillowcase that I made for him for his birthday!



Spencer's room also has a fresh look. He has Spiderman wallies all over. He has 2 beds in his room and one is Superman and one is Spiderman. It's too funny that Spidey is hanging over the Superman bed!



On Easter, after we ate, the kids wanted to watch Enchanted. Aunt Carol and I wanted a nap. Spencer climbed up with me and all was well until he decided that he didn't have enough of the blanket and kept pulling it off of me. But I was able to catch a few zzz's anyway!

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Today is my 29th birthday ... again! hee hee hee

I have already been told by my mom that she "read between the lines" from this post and has ordered me a subscription to Mark Lipinski's Quilter's Home. I am very excited and can't wait for the magazine to start meeting me at my mailbox!

I don't have a very specific plan for my day. I have to go to the BMV and get the tags for my car. I have decided to take myself to IHOP for breakfast. Yum! And then I am going to run to a friend's house to see her and take her a casserole since she had minor surgery yesterday. I hope to stop at my quilt shop because I get a birthday discount and I could get my backing for the Star and Nine patch quilt. I also have a couple of gifts to get for other quilters' birthdays. I would like to work a nap in at some point. And I have a date at 7. I am really not sure what I am the most excited about - shopping at the quilt shop or IHOP! ;)

My BIL came over last night with the kids and we worked on cutting up the carpet in the basement. We got everything cut up and took out the least wet pieces to the dumpster. We had to set up about 6 pieces so that they could drain more and I will have to carry those out today. I will also need to get a dehumidifier within the next couple of days because it feels really damp down there. I feel much better about the situation now that we got a lot of the crap out of the basement. A lot of stuff that I felt bad about throwing out before, but once it got wet it was not worth trying to clean it up. The next step will be putting everything back in it's place.

It was great playing with the kids a little. Ethan was sick earlier in the week and is feeling much better now. And Spencer wanted to make sure that I had something for them for Easter! Of course, I have great things for Claire and Spencer and I will need to get some 'rides' (cars) for Ethan. I guess stopping for that should be added to my list of things to do today.

Well, I better get to enjoying my day!

Pictures from Christmas

Spencer got a clip-on tie for Christmas. He wore it for a while on Christmas morning.

And here is Spencer and me in chairs that the kids got. He did his goofy smile!

Here is Spencer showing off the tag in his pants. They said Made with Love by MIMI. I think that the kids thought that was neat.

Here is Claire with her pants and pillowcases.

Here is my tote that I got from my parents. They ordered it and had it shipped to Nikki's so that I would have it to open on Christmas.

And here are the pictures of the I Spy quilt being opened.

Here is Ethan looking at the quilt. He wasn't feeling well and we had to work hard to get him to open anything.

And here is the finished I Spy quilt. It's much easier to get a picture of a large quilt when you have someone to hold it up! And you don't have to fight to keep the dogs off of the fabric while it's on the floor!

Results from my mini-retreat

After my last post, I ended up running up to Joann's to get some items from the big Veteran's day sale. I got some fabric to make pants for Claire and some of the thread that was on sale. I went to the close Joann's, but they didn't have anything that I wanted so I had to go to the larger one about 20 minutes away, but I was able to find everything that I needed. Here is the fabric that I bought to make pants and matching pillowcases for Claire.





I was able to get all of Claire's new fabric washed and now I just need to iron them and then cut out the pants and pillowcases.


I had gotten 3 different fabrics for Spencer to make pants and pillowcases, too. I was able to get all of them cut out. Here are his fabrics.





I was also able to finish ironing all of the Project Linus fabric that I had bought a while ago. I still need to take the fabric and cut them into 1.5-2 yard pieces for the blankets and then make the quilt sandwiches so that my chapter can start tying them together. And Maisy had to get into this picture.





When I had gotten back from Joann's, I put Knocked Up into the DVD player to watch while I worked. Unfortunately, I got too involved in it and couldn't work on anything while it was on. Luckily, I didn't feel the need to nap afterwards so I was able to keep working once the movie was over.


I finished my first block for the Best Friends's 2 Buck a Block Block Of the Month that started in October. I really like the colors - I could've picked either this color combination or navy blue and white. The other accents for the cream and burgundy is chocolate so I will really like that! The other thing about this BOM is that when I go back in to the store to get the November block, if I take the October block, I can get a discount on a cut of fabric. Very much worth the cost to get the blocks!





I also worked on a Easy Striped Table Runner using a pattern by Karen Montgomery. It's a free pattern off of the web and the table runner is very easy to make and uses border fabric. The hardest part is cutting the lengths of fabric to be identical. If you go to the link, you can download the pattern and make one of your own! Maryanne, one of the ladies that we quilted with in Cleveland, did a lesson to show us how to make our own. I mentioned the runner at my small group Guild meeting and they all wanted to learn how to make their own. Since I was going to show the small group on Monday, I needed to have one made so that I could show the ladies what to do.





Once I got done with the table runner, I still had time to watch some TV and keep sewing, but I couldn't really figure out what I wanted to work on. I decided to keep working on the kid's quilt that I am making for Christmas. It's an I Spy quilt and I had spent time in Myrtle Beach fussy cutting all of the pieces. I started piecing the center when I was in Cleveland and I had gotten all of the center and one of the borders totally pieced and got the outermost border laid out. Sunday night, I sewed the outermost border pieces together. Now, I just have to iron the outermost border and make sure that all of the squares are even and then cut the solid border strips and start putting all of the borders together on the center. I am very surprised at how easy this quilt is going together - the hardest part was the fussy cutting.