Wuthering Heights

I think it is about 25 degrees outside, wet, damp cold and just miserable. But I just spent the most wonderful two hours, buried under a heated blanket with a box of tissues watching Wuthering Heights on Turner Classic Movies. Yep, the original version from back in 1939.

OH! It is my most favorite movie,, I own it on VHS and still, when it comes on tv I have to drop everything and watch. Oh Kathy, My Kathy!!

Heathcliff!!

It is soooo romantic with unrequited love... and on a cold damp wintery nite,, it was just perfect.

Now I'll go wipe my eyes, kiss my husband and browse some blogs...

I've seen Wuthering Heights,, all is right with the world.

Do You EQ?

Electric Quilt ( EQ ) has a new tag for our blogs,, I use EQ all the time! I'm not an expert for sure but I love working with deisgns, fabrics, and I almost always use it to see if what I think I have is really what I'm going to get...
If you don't EQ,, check it out! http://www.electricquilt.com/


no, I don't have anything to do with the company but it's a great software package to use to design quilts

Using up the Fabric

You know how the stores always put the Christmas fabric on a good sale after the holidays -- I have so much Christmas fabric that I usually don't look ( why don't I just use it???!! ) but I saw some that was full of Santa's and thought it would be great as a One Block Wonder. Yep, I'm still making those and find them so much fun! You really never know what you are getting and that, to me, can be great fun!

Well,, I only bought 6 repeats so I knew it wouldn't make anything very big but I just wanted to play, anyway,,, but LOOK!


I am really tickeled with what I have! I want to do some more tweaking but I'm happy! Look real close,, Santa is wearing a leopard print someone on him,,, LOL!

So, this is what I'm thinking,, right now it is roughly 46 x 37 ( not all the seams are sewn together so of course it will get smaller ) I have a really big dining table and this would be great on it for the holidays...
I flipped the picture and I think I want to make a seperation in the middle of the design seperating the darker from the lighter parts,, like a slash from left to right slanted across the design. Then put a red sashing in there, I want to square up the two sections,, make a big border around all of it and maybe put some of the extra hexs in the border somehow.... aarrrgghhh,,,
I know what I want but it's hard to explain..

anyway, big table, good size table runner... like it?? any ideas??

What would you do with these Santa Hexs???

Dreaming of the Beach

A few months back, my bee decided that we needed another swap to make quilts all alike - and someone had the idea of using the pattern Beach Cottages Isn't this just as cute as can be! So, we all used the same backgrounds for the houses ( each row has a different blue ) and we made 12 houses each then swapped. It's us to us to make the trees, cabanas and sun and finish. I've been working on mine this week, well sorta with other stuff, and I think it's going to be really cute! Makes me want to go to the beach... dip my toes in warm water and drink mai tais all day... dream on!

So, this is my first row, just on the design wall, not sewn yet. House #1 is very special. One of my buds took a picture from a year ago or so, shrunk it tiny and put it in the window of the house - pretty cool!! I really thought that was a great thing to do for our quilts.

I don't know if you can enlarge this enough,, but we are all there! On the beach, dipping our toes and drinking mai-tais... aaaahhhh the life of a quilter!

More later...

A Giveaway, A Sale, no not me

Browsing around on blogs is lots of fun, but sometimes I stumble on places that can get me into REAL problems! I found on this blog a giveaway and a SALE! YES a BIG Sale... Check out the blog for Suzanne Early,, she is closing her shop and everything right now is 30% off,, plus she is having a contest to win stuff.. I'm a sucker for winning! I LOVE to win!

so, check it out and you might find some good stuff that you don't need but really, really, really want!

Suzanne’s Great Big Giveaway (and sale)

Quiltathon - Sunday update

I have been working diligently on the colorful quilt I started this week and it is finally finished! Still has to be ironed but the top is done, no borders on this one, and I'm thinking a dark blue binding - just to give it a finish..

I'm glad this is a happy colorful quilt, I need it in my house today cause you see, the Cowboys died... a poor hard miserable death

my poor husband, a die hard Dallas Cowboy fan, is moping around here like his life has just been sucked dry... the Cowboy's got their fannys beat - really really bad!

enough said about that subject - I'll plug in my head phones and he can mope all he wants

so how is your Quiltathon going?

Quiltathon Weekend

This is the quiltathon weekend with Judy Laquidara at her blog Patchwork Times. It is always fun to think of sewing along with a lot of cyber friends and see what progress is going on.

I was lucky that today was also our Saturday bee so I got to sew with friends for real! Of course, that scamp tirane already posted pictures of what we were doing at her house! So you might as well click on her name and see what we were doing.

I have the Atkinson design that I'm working on, trying to finish up the blocks...

I took the center blocks ( with the star and background) to trim up - do you know how hard it is to concentrate when everyone is talking!! I kept measureing and verifying before I cut ( don't you just hate to cut a completed block wrong! ).. sometimes I just stopped, turned around,,, and talked cause after all,, it's a quiltathon with friends, right?!?

This is a couple of the blocks I have ,, not quite completed, there is still one more sashing to put on.. but they are bright and happy blocks! ( that might have been tirane's opinion )

tonite I want to complete the blocks and maybe lay them out to see how to position them... Tomorrow I want to work on a baby quilt and this and that and that and this,,, oh heck! maybe I'll take a long hot bath and do nothing!

enjoy your evening, give a hug to those you are with..

later gater

Order and Disorder - what to do with scraps

Order and Disorder,
originally uploaded by manu/manuela [PC lunatic].

I was browsing around on the Four Twin Sisters site and was looking at their alphabet and found this on the page - somewhere not sure where,,
but how cool is this! I'm always wanting something to do with scraps -- no, I don't want to copy her design that wouldn't be nice,, but something like this would be great!

gotta get those scraps outta my room!

whatchathink?

Sunday Morning Catchup - and the sun is shining!

Yep, the sun is out, it's a beautiful day! I have been so tired of being cold! In Texas, they just don't seem to build the houses to accommodate cold weather, maybe not enough insulation and the slabs are right on the ground so the cold creeps up thru the concrete, thru the carpet into my feet - makes my toesys chilly! I'm so sorry for everyone that has had the big snow storms - I just hope everyone was toasty warm!





It's been a busy week. I'm still working on the Quiltville Carolina Christmas mystery quilt... AND I've been working on a Terry Atkinson design, Lucky Stars it is super easy! I had purchased a group of fat quarters to make this quilt,, golly about 2 years ago! Thought it was about time to get this one done. The background fabric is a mottled light blue/darker blue/pink ( this is it,, it's not as bad as it sounds! )
see, mottled but it looks good with the rest of the fabrics -- aren't these beautiful!

Yep, that is a small block from the Carolina Christmas in the middle of the Lucky Stars fabric..
Anyway, I'm not a speed demon but there is ALOT of chain pieceing going on so why not work on two quilts? The colors sure won't get mixed up ! See my pile of completed chains from Carolina Christmas

I have to break in here...
My husband's office is next door to my sewing room/computer room and he has the tv on to some awful info-mercial about TOTAL GYM.. I'm hearing these people talk about "all you have to do is get on!" and they lost all sorts of weight, inches, they are beautiful and everyone loves them now... Get your Total Gym NOW for the small monthly payment of $big dollars for the next 30 years... Get it NOW! and you too can be skinny, beautiful and loved@!

what a bunch of ..... well, you can fill in your own words.

Wonder how many people are going to order this miracle machine? Should I feel guilty for sitting on my duff - not moving - relaxed - and fluffy? I do a little. Am I doing anything about it? I should. Will I order the wonder machine? NO way! got a treadmill, lifecycle and weight machine in our ""bbrrrr cold"" garage. I should use that.

Sorry, I digressed,, back to fun stuff! ( and I'm turning off his dang tv! )
Back to quilting, where was I? Oh yes,, chain piecing ........... and this my chains for Lucky Stars I got eveything all sewn, then sat in front of the computer and watched tv shows on Netflix while I pressed ( should have been on the darn machines, getting skinny!) So that is where I'm at ... ready to sew one last seam on the Christmas quilt then I can lay out blocks, I can chain piece some more on the Lucky Stars and will have blocks close to finished -- gee I'm good!

gotta go fix brunch,, eggs, sausage, english muffins - all 'very' healthy! ( see me grinning!) for the DH - he has his "feed me" look on..

It's Not a Mystery Quilt any Longer

I'm not usually a mystery quilt quilter,, I like to know the path I'm following then if I want to make a detour, I can. But this year I thought "Why Not",, it's only fabric and golly gee! I have a ton of that!

So I decided to join in on the fun at the Yahoo group apocketfullofmysteries@yahoo.com and do their mystery quilt. I picked out my fabrics, you can see them here http://quiltramblings.blogspot.com/2009/12/im-sucker-for-mystery.html and waited for the clues. Well, I was good! I stayed on the track and didn't detour. I didn't even wait until they got finished and started mine ( that is sorta like reading the last chapter of the book before you are even half way done - yep, I'm bad about doing that, too! ).
Anyway, this is what I ended up with.. the border seems to blend in with my wood fence! so here is a picture that shows the colors better.. Even after finishing the quilt, I like my colors. Not sure I will do this pattern again, and I have to come up with a name. I added the dark purple border - that was my only detour! This is crib size, about 35 x 35 and I think I'm going to try to quilt this one myself.. LOl OY VEY!!! That should be fun. It will probably be a charity quilt - hope they don't mind my inexperience in quilting!

I have it sandwiched and I even found a yard of fabric with these same colors in it so I centered the backing around that yard ( shucks, no picture )

Wish me luck on the quilting!!

For other mysteries,, I think I'll skip to the last chapter of the book and see if I like how it ends ...

Christmas Surgery ( for a dog toy )

Webster came to me and said "Mom! You have to fix my toys! The stuffing is falling out and they just don't play good anymore. Please Mom! Fix my toys!" ( this is Webster, a Schnoodle (schnauzer and poodle mix ) in bad need of a clip. )
Yep, one of the seams had come apart and the stuffing was loose. Bet that was pretty yucky to be carring around in his mouth! It was also pretty yucky to be holding...
But, I persevered ... I could try to hand sew it back together or see if my trusty Janome would do the trick ( I was all for the machine - I'm not big on hand sewing )

So, I got the treasured bone toy and stuck it under the presser foot,there wasn't much stuffing left so it squeezed in ok,,, ( he is being patient with me! ) set the zig-zag stitch and stitched it once, twice, and went back over it again for good measure! Here it is, all fixed!

( yep, told you! icky! ) Mom's a hero! He was so happy, I couldn't get him still to get a good picture, and the bone toy is in his mouth,, but this is a happy Webster! It's wonderful to be able to please so easily!

I thought I was done... OH NO! Another catasrophe! The tiger toy has lost a leg...

I'm in the kitchen and he brings me his other pride and joy, the tiger toy,,, minus a leg! "Please Mom! Can you fix this one too??!!" Well, what do you say to a face like that? Of course, I'll fix the ( icky ) tiger! ( ah ha! I get to be a hero again! ).
So tiger toy, Webster and I go to the sewing room,,, hhmm,, how to get this thing attached with out having to hand sew... The leg just fell off?! I think someone might have been playing tug of war with White Dog ( aka Big Dog, aka Dexter),, don't you? Well, I tried the trusty Janome again, even put on the zipper foot so I could get close, but it just wouldn't work. There was too much stuffing and it wouldn't fit under the presser foot. Yuck,, hand sewing!
But, I'm Webster's Mom, I must be strong!

I did my best, stuck that foot up in the opening,, stitched it with a blanket stitch once, twice, three times for good luck. Voila! a whole and complete tiger! I couldn't get a picture of Webster's joy,, he wouldn't stay still long enough...
aahhh,, the satisfaction of being a hero!

What was Dexter ( aka White Dog, Big Dog ) doing through all this?? He was in his normal spot in the middle of the pillows - pretending to be sleeping - or maybe waiting until the tiger is fixed to start playing again!

Merry Christmas - the Party is over

Nine o'clock Christmas evening,, I'm tired. Don't you think the build up to Christmas sucks a lot of energy? I got to stay in my jammas until about 330 today when I thought that I had better get ready for my 430 family arrival ( should have stayed in jammas! hey~! it's family! ).
I baked a spiral ham, had fresh green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, sauteed sweet potatoes in butter and brown sugar, rolls, salad... there wasn't a whole lot of cooking... but I'm beat!

We got snow yesterday, not like the east coast, thank goodness, ( and I say this cause Texas can NOT handle snow like that! We freak at flakes ! ) but we did get about 1-2 inches. It was sure pretty coming down.. and I can guarantee that I was SO happy to not have to get out in it! It was beautiful from the inside and the news was full of car accidents because of it. Like I said,, Texans do not do white precipitation well..


Tomorrow is the other half of the family, and we go to their house! Enchiladas for dinner, yuuummm! I made my granddaughters these fleece throws,, this one is for Destiny, she is 7 and very much a girly-girl

and this one is for Lexi,, hot pink describes her to a "T",, oh! she is 3 years old too,, can't wait to see what the years bring! They are so soft and nice.. I have made things like this from flannel and ragged them but never fleece. Super easy!

These are from a McCalls pattern and measure about 4 foot tall by about 5 feet wide. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the loose legs... maybe I put them together wrong, the arms should be attached to the legs more than they are. But they are nice soft fleece, double pieced so they should be warm when the girls are wrapped up in them. I sure hope they like them!

Time for bed,, more fun and excitement tomorrow.. but first, another piece of ham

Merry Christmas Eve

well, the elves are behind but MY work is done! I have all the presents finished ( oops, I lied, the label has to go on the quilt for my son, but that's a piece of cake ). I have to run to the store, again!, for something to finish tomorrow's dinner.

Would you believe that DH insists on wrapping the grandkids presents!?! I said "Sure! Go ahead!" but he is the 'elf' and hasn't started yet. I'm not worried, he has all day!

I stumbled on a great giveaway at Susan's Needlemagic blog. Check it out,, some pretty nice things are in the giveaway basket!

Today I get to sew and stay inside - would you believe that we had 75 degree weather yesterday, all sun-shiny and bright. I even had the back door open! Today! they are predicting snow, 40 mph winds and rain... sorta like the government,, you just never know what to expect.

till later.
enjoy your day!

Video of the Day

where were these guys when I was putting up my tree!
enjoy

Movie Watching

I decided that I needed a little bit of indulgence today,, ever feel like that? It's cold ( well, 47 degrees and that is cold to me here in Texas! I know, I know,,, that is n.o.t. cold...) and overcast and just a generally yucky day. I was a good wife first, I cleaned, ran an errand and even took a batch of cookies I made yesterday ( they are yummy, too! ) to my MIL.

Then, the boys and I ( the two, four-legged kind of boys, gray one is Webster and the white one is Dexter ) crawled up in bed, wrapped up in quilts and watched Julie & Julia. I have had it here for about a week and just never got around to watching it. Chick flick - husband wasn't interested. that's ok,, I like movies by myself - well, not by myself cause the boys are there, but they aren't watching, are they? no, they take naps and scooch up next to me and try to push me off the bed, and.... well you get the idea.

Have you seen it yet? I really enjoyed it and recommend it - Meryl Streep is great at anything she is doing. Maybe I liked it so much cause I like to cook, wish I knew more about really cooking ( with a capital C ). One of my goals in life is to go to a school to learn how to professionally use knives. Crazy goal, but I want to learn.

The kind of cooking that I do is SO not like Julia Child - mine is the quick cook -- the "get it on the table, fill up the belly, clean the kitchen - whew! done! ( reminds me of a cowboy roping a steer at the rodeo - you know, when he has the steer's legs tied and he thows out his hands? ) " kind of cooking.

But people in my world aren't into hollandaise sauces, or beef spelled boeuf, geez they don't even like La Madeline's! So, cooking like that would be just for me and I have enough trouble keeping weight off!

Anyway,, I was sorta thinking that cooking to Julia/Julie is like quilting is to those of us who love it so much. It's our form of expression. It's a way to let people know we love them, we care about them. It's our therepy ( and cheaper than a shrink, no matter HOW much fabric you buy! ) and it keeps us sane. We can make beautiful, artistic statements about how we are feeling, whether it is happy or sad, scared or lonely.

It is like cooking... only our quilts last longer and the clean up is easier!

Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday season... time to go rope a steer -- uuhhh,, make dinner.