Halloween!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween! It will be a quiet one here in our house. Both of my girls are home from school sick, so there will be no trick or treating for us. I'll enjoy the Halloween Parade and party at school, then hand out the goodies to the kids when I come home. It's a beautiful fall day and perfect weather for the little ghosts and goblins! Enjoy!

Brilliant!

We're babysitting our son's dog this weekend while he's in NYC for an advertising conference. I locked Max into the laundry room so he could eat his dinner without being bothered by our dog, Sam. I guess when he finished, he decided he needed a cosy place to relax...but the litter box??? Not such a smart boy...the next place he visited was the bathtub!

I'm working on a few quilty things and knitty things this weekend...hopefully I'll have a finish to post next week!

Polka Dots!

I came home from the quilt show and made this little bag. It's a QuiltSmart pattern called the Smart Bag. It's too cute...I can see some changes I'll make in the pattern the next time I make it, but it was so easy!

Sunday Afternoon

Just a quick hello...I don't have any pictures to share, in spite of the fact I went to a wedding and a quilt show this weekend! It's been fun...the son of friends was married on Friday night in a beautiful ceremony. The groom is in the Marines and was told to report for training with no leave...the wedding almost didn't happen! But, the Marines kindly gave him the weekend off so he could get married, the honeymoon is on hold.

Today a local guild had their show. To my surprise, a large number of quilts were hand quilted! It was nice to see as the last few shows I'd been to, very few entries were hand quilted. I did run into a friend who owns a local shop...The Village Quilter. She's just taken the store online, and started a blog, so stop by and say hi...tell her I sent you!

I'm off to the sewing room...

I hate shopping...

Shopping has to be one of my least favorite things to do. Admittedly, shopping for yarn and fabric is fun, but for clothes? That's the worst! Last Friday morning, I decided to empty my drawers and closet and get rid of everything that didn't fit. I was brutal...when I finished, most of my drawers were empty and except for a few pairs of capris I bought over the summer and a pair of pants I bought 2 weeks ago, it was all packed into bags in the garage for DH to take to Goodwill this week. Back in April, I started going to Weight Watchers and I've lost over 20 pounds. I've gone from a size 12 to a 6 and from XL to M. I held onto a few big sweaters that I can wear over jeans. So, since I'm starting back to work next Monday, I NEED CLOTHES!

I have been all over South Jersey shopping and have only managed to come up with a few pairs of pants and 3 sweaters. Maybe it's me, but I really don't like the clothes that are out right now. Really, do we need to wear high waisted tops that make us look pregnant? Very cute on the younger, skinny girls, but I've been there and done that and don't want to look pregnant ever again! So, I'll be wearing my new, smaller pants and my big baggy sweaters for awhile! I don't want to invest too much because I intend to lose another 10 to 20 pounds.

Maybe I should knit a sweater? I finished the socks shown above on Saturday night. Within minutes of coming off the needles and having the ends woven in, my 13 yo daughter had snagged them and put them on her feet. Apparently she likes them. Yes, those are her feet in my new socks! I think I'll let her keep them. :o)

Still Challenged...

And this is what happens when you use the "baby blocks" setting!

Challenge

I played around a little, it's amazing what a difference color makes! Since I don't plan on making it, I chose some more challenging borders. This was fun to do and I'm sure I'll play again when I have a chance! Thanks Judy!

Top Finished

This quilt was a bear to wrestle through the machine while putting on the borders, it's quite big! The quilt top is on my queen size bed and I have plenty of room on the sides for it to hang over and even can do a pillow tuck!

I had planned to use all the leftovers for the back, but it's not nearly enough. I'll save that for the binding and maybe some pillowcases. I have a bolt of light purple fabric that I've wanted to use up...I'm thinking it would be fun to have on the back. What do you think???

Southern Summer of Socks

Yes, I know that I'm heading into winter, not summer, but this seemed like too much fun to pass up! I've joined a Knit Along called the Southern Summer of Socks. I have a pair of socks that I started back in January and didn't touch again, until I found this knit along. Now I've finished the first sock and I'm knitting the heel flap on the second! My personal goals for this are:

1. Make a pair of socks with each of the 3 skeins of sock yarn I bought last November. I bought 6 all together and I'm almost done my 3rd pair.

2. Knit socks in a different pattern that the 3 pairs I've knitted! I started with an online tutorial and have made all of my socks the same. I like plain socks but don't want to make another boring pair!

3. Learn to make toe up socks.

In other news, I had my follow up at the doctor and everything is fine, so I can return to all the things I used to do...cleaning, grocery shopping, gardening...guess my vacation is over! :o) My doctor suggested that I try a low dose estrogen pill to see if it will take the edge off the menopause symptoms. She said it was my decision whether to stay on it or not, but I should at least give it a try. So I will. Next week...

Sneak Peek...

I've got half of the center of the sampler quilt together...here's a preview!

A Very Mary treat...

Yesterday the most delightful prize package arrived in my mailbox! I'd been visiting "A Very Mary Design" and had entered a contest on her blog. Mary Ann is a very talented lady, you should check her out! She had a drawing and I was the lucky winner...she sent me a variety of treasures. I love them all, but my favorite has to be the paisley letter C...I'll have to find a great way to display it in my sewing room!

I'm putting together the sampler quilt, I can't wait to how it looks! Hopefully pictures of that in the next day or two.

I have a question for you...I'm seeing the doctor this coming week and have to make a decision on whether to go on Hormone Replacement Therapy. For those of you who have been through this, is there anything specific I should know? I've done a lot of research and although I was leaning toward trying not to take it, I'm reading that it may be beneficial to me to go on it. Any insight, thoughts or comments would be appreciated!

Warning: Actual Longarm Quilting Content!

The time has arrived and I stepped back to the machine today...it felt so good! This quilt has some serious issues which need to be worked out with the quilting. The piecer wasn't a beginner when she pieced this, but she had never made a quilt that was this challenging. She also taught herself applique with it. She had trimmed all of the quilt blocks when she realized that she trimmed them all to the finished size! So she added a narrow black border around each one.
None of the blocks seemed to fit in the way they should have. There is a lot of fudging on this quilt! While quilting the diagonal lines, I noticed that there are a lot of intersections that don't quite match up. She originally planned to hand quilt this, but decided her hand quilting skills weren't quite up to it.
It's not the most technically sound quilt that she has made...and she's made many since. But it is the one she's most proud of and I'm glad that I'm finally going to be able to finish it off for her...because she's me!

Glorious Weekend!!!

The weather was beautiful which made a trip to the Jersey shore a delight...

Atlantic City was off in the distance...

A day spent with friends around the bonfire...making s'mores!

Time spent with my daughter and her best friend...

Roses in their final blooms to greet us at home...

And the Phillies won the National League East!!!!!!!

Does it get any better than this????