I forgot...

to take pictures of this little quilt that I made in a swap for Andrea. Of course I realized it once the package was winging its way to Wales! This is a Jo Morton pattern, machine pieced and hand quilted. I also included the book and a bag of chocolate covered pretzels from my favorite chocolate shop for her. I think she liked them. :o)

I'm so glad she posted pictures that I could borrow. Thanks, Andrea!

New Beginnings...

This year has gotten off to a busy start...lots of drama around here! Andrew has moved back home now that his lease is up, so he'll finish out college as a commuter. Ellen has decided she wants to change her major in college...and change her college! We're in the midst of a new college search.

The boss's luck has held out once again. Last weekend, while in Chicago, he was riding in a cab. Another car hit the cab, pushed it across the street and it knocked down a pole holding a traffic light. Just as in his previous accident, he escaped with a gash on the head and some sore muscles. He's a lucky man!

In the meantime, I've been working lots of hours. I have found a little bit of time to quilt for customers....

and I've started Anne Sutton's new Basket Block of the Month...

I've cleaned my sewing room so I can get started sewing without having to find the table underneath the mess....

And I've pulled fabrics for some new projects...including a few from Jo Morton and a new quilt for Ellen.

So, that's what I've been up to...how about you?

Swaps

Quite awhile ago, Andrea and I decided to do a swap, making small quilts for each other and having them mailed by October. After several mutual delays, she beat me and her swap arrived first. I'm so glad it's here...I love it! Hand embroidered and quilted...Andrea does beautiful work! Thank you, I will treasure it.

The boss was busy making things for me too. My son needed an ironing board and iron because he has to wear dress shirts to his new internship. I gladly gave him my 25 year old ironing board and bought a new one. I looked at all the larger ironing boards, all the while telling the boss what I really wanted...a big board. He offered to make one for me...I think we spent more time shopping for a board I didn't want than he did making this one! I love it, it makes it so much easier to iron yardage and the top pops off so I can iron clothes. Not that I do much of that!

My Pfaff is in the shop, we took it to Fabrics on the Hill in the beautiful Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. I'd never been there before and it was fun to shop in the little stores along Germantown Avenue. My favorite had to be Penzey's Spices...it smelled delicious and I had a good time in there!

Now I'm off to work...

January Rush

Back in May, when I was hired by Weight Watchers, they told me that gradually, I'd get a few meetings to work, but come January, I could work whenever I wanted. And they weren't kidding! I'm amazed at the number of new members that have been coming through our doors and at the amount of extra help we need! I'm enjoying the extra hours...I love my job!

Unfortunately, a few things have had to fall by the wayside, my blogging and quilting being two of them. I did finally finish the quilt I made for my friend as a Christmas gift.

I thought I'd be binding it on Christmas Eve, but she was away. I had plans to meet her for lunch yesterday afternoon, so there I was, late on Thursday night, finishing up the binding!

She loved the quilt, so it was all worth it!

After my lunch and gift giving, I went to my nephew's new house to help clean. I'm so excited for him...he's 24 years old, did well in college and is now moving up the corporate ladder at a major retailer. He closed on his first house yesterday...an adorable cape, with a built in pool and jacuzzi. We cleaned the kitchen, dusted the walls, vacuumed the floors, cleaned the bathrooms and generally got it ready for him to move his belongings in today. This afternoon, the Boss and I stopped by with a case of Hoegaarden as a housewarming gift. Yeah, I'm a good aunt. :o)

Happy New Year!

From our family to yours!

Christmas has flown by and it was wonderful to spend the time with our family. We've had a houseful since Christmas and have loved having everyone here. Andrew has gone back to his house now, but we still have Grace, Ellen and Ellen's boyfriend Jarred here. They'll be heading back to school on Friday. I'm hoping to do a little stitching tonight while waiting for the ball to drop...I haven't done any sewing since I finished that last customer quilt! I have been knitting a little...I hope I can finish the scarf for Ellen before winter is over.

I wish all of you a healthy and happy new year...filled with the people and things that you love.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a wonderful day, filled with the people and things you love. Have a blessed Christmas!

Counting down...

When the kids were little, we always took pictures of the boss pretending to hang them on the tree. We decorated the tree on Saturday and according to tradition...Andrew tried to hang his girlfriend Liz on the tree! She was a good sport and let him... Saturday evening the boss's sisters came for a visit. Rhonda (on the sofa) is here from Arizona and we hadn't seen her for quite awhile. It was good to catch up!

She brought her son, Noah, along with her...it was only the second time I'd met the little guy. He's a cutie! We corrupted him though...this was the first time he ever played with a Gameboy!

He loved it so much, he took it with him to keep himself entertained on the flight home! Of course he warmed up to Grace quickly, which led to tickle fights....

In the midst of the preparations for Christmas, I haven't made it into my sewing room, but I did cast on a feather and fan scarf for Ellen, in her favorite...hot pink!

The pattern can be found here. It's very simple and is working up quickly...I hope to have it finished before Ellen returns to school on January 2nd. I've had all the kids home for a few days and the boss is done travelling for the year. It's been strange to have so many people in the house...and to have to cook! I'm loving it...

I hope you're spending your holidays with those you love!

Coming Up for Air

Here's a gratuitous dog playing with his pepper picture so you don't remember that I haven't been here for over a week...
I've finally finished the last customer quilts of the year...

A shot of the back....

And I've attended the staff Christmas party for work. Now, here's a dilemma...when you're asked to bring a dessert to the work meeting, and you work for Weight Watchers, what do you bring? I settled on these little Snickers pies from the Hungry Girl website, which were quite easy to make. Take a regular size Snickers bar and cut it into 10 pieces. Put each one in a phyllo cup...

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees...

Let cool and serve. They were pretty good...and only 1 point each!

The Christmas tree is up (but not decorated), the cards are mailed, the gifts are wrapped...so now I get some time to play in my sewing room. If I don't come back in a few days, send chocolate!

December Ramblings...

I'm finding it hard to believe that it's December already! I've hardly started getting ready for Christmas yet, the decorations are still in the attic, although a few presents are bought. I picked up Christmas cards over the weekend, but the task of writing them out seems daunting!



The Thanksgiving holiday around here was fun. After the high school football game in the morning, I met my son and the boss at Ott's Tavern. It was the first time Andrew had been home since he turned 21, so it was our turn to take him out and buy him a beer. Life certainly feels different when you can go drinking with your kids! Afterwards, we headed to my parents' house for a delicious dinner of Crown Roast of Pork and all the trimmings. On Friday I cooked a turkey...what fun is Thanksgiving if you don't have leftovers? I didn't get the camera out all weekend...I'm just not a good blogger!



During the week I had painted my laundry room cabinets black...wish I could find the before pictures...these cabinets were hideous. Now that the doors are back on, with new hardware, I can't believe I waited almost 10 years to paint them...what was I thinking?





I've been doing a lot of customer quilting...here's a sneak peek of the quilt on the machine now. This one should be done in a day or two, then I'll only have two more customer quilts to quilt before Christmas. After that I will quilt the quilt that I'm giving as a Christmas gift. Why do I have a feeling that I'll be binding it on Christmas Eve?







About 2 weeks ago I spent a day at the hospital, having a biopsy and other procedures done. Yesterday I found out that everything is fine...no cancer, no tumors...and that with the proper medications, I'll be fine. Now that the stress is relieved, I'm looking forward to the holidays. I feel like I just received the best gift I could be given...anything else this Christmas will just be icing on the cake!

Happy Thanksgiving...

Wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving, filled with the things you love. We'll be heading to my parents' tomorrow, where we'll feast on Crown Roast of Pork and all the trimmings. My two older kids are home from college and I'll be cooking the big turkey dinner on Friday for my family and some of the kids' friends.

I'm still waiting for my test results. The nurse said they haven't come in yet and I've decided to put it out of mind for the holiday, after all, don't they say that no news is good news? Things have settled down at my daughter's school as well. It turned out that a student bought a starter pistol, at school, from two other students. He was talking about it with a friend on the bus and a girl overheard them and reported it. The friend took the pistol and threw it in a lake near his home. All four boys were taken into custody and the pistol was recovered from the lake. We're all thankful that it wasn't something more serious!

Thank you for all of your kind comments and emails! Enjoy the holiday...

Waiting...

Sometimes, don't you wonder what it is that gets you through the waiting? I've needed to be distracted for the last few days as I wait for test results. I spent the better part of Monday in the hospital having a biopsy and other procedures done. I never realized how cranky I could get if I'm not allowed to have caffeine or food in the morning. I could have cried when the wonderful nurses brought me a pack of Lorna Doone's after surgery...they were heaven! To keep me busy while waiting to leave for the hospital, I started making these...

Last night, while still waiting for results I put them together into this...

And since I'm still waiting for results, the borders will probably go on today!

I've also started my Christmas quilting, not that I'm doing much this year, so this was finished last week....

And now it's waiting for the customer quilts to be finished so it can have its turn on the longarm.

I'm back to work today, but will anxiously be awaiting word from my daughter after school...yesterday there were rumors swirling that there would be a shooting at her high school today. There was a strong police presence there this morning, many parents kept their kids home from school today. I've just talked to her guidance counselor and all is well so far.

I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have quilting to get me through...

What gets you through?

Happy 21st Birthday, Andrew!

Although I'd swear that just yesterday, he was running around on his little legs, tormenting his sisters, somehow my little boy has grown up. He has been a blessing in so many ways to us and we're very proud of the man he's become. Happy 21st birthday, Andrew! Love you...

The Most Dangerous Game...

Grace, my 14 year old, had to do an English project on a short story and she chose "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. As an aspiring film director (she attends a technical high school and her major will hopefully be Television and Digital Media Production - we'll find out if she was accepted this week), she thought it might be fun to make a stop motion movie...using Legos! She is quite proud of her first attempt...and I have to say, so am I. I could never do something like this!

I'm still sewing...pictures later!

Stitching Angel Revealed

I received another package from my Stitching Angel about a week ago and haven't had time to share it with you. Danielle Tebb from Country Threads magazine in Australia. The gifts from her heart and hands are very special. Thank you, Danielle!

I've had little time to sew, but have started putting together this quilt...

The nine patches are several years old and I hadn't found a fabric for the alternating blocks that I liked. I picked this blue up in Lancaster a few weeks ago and it does pull all of the blues together, but it's quite loud. I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

I'm planning on doing some sewing for Christmas this weekend. Hopefully I'll be back soon with something to share.

Starbucks...

I wonder if they'll let me have tea instead of coffee. I'm going to go find out. Can you?

The blues...

Sometimes the quilt design is so striking that it needs the simplest quilting. This quilt was so intricately pieced that a simple swirl design in a pale blue thread was all it needed.

It reminds me a mosaic tile floor...just beautiful! I wish I had the patience to make a quilt like this!

Phillies Win!!!

Way to go, Phillies!!!

World Series Champions!!!

photo from ESPN

Play Ball!!!

Go Phillies!!!!

Saturday in the rain...

Saturday morning found me on a train platform, heading to one of my favorite places....
Friends of mine had flown in from distant places to spend a few days in Lancaster, then in Philadelphia. I couldn't join them in Lancaster, so we made plans to get together and do a quick tour of the historic sites in Philly. The weather was horrendous and it poured all day, so I didn't take many pictures, but did get one of the Liberty Bell. We also saw Carpenters' Hall, Independence Hall, Washington Square, Elfreth's Alley, the Betsy Ross house...all the important places!


It was a great day spent catching up with some of my favorite people...

Deanna from Arizona and Becki from Florida

Mary from Texas and me...from Jersey!

And throughout all this I've also been making time to watch our Phillies in the World Series...it's a great time to be a Phillies Phan!!!

Things should quiet down this week and I'm hoping to find time to sew, I haven't played with fabric in about 2 weeks. :o( I picked up my guitar today for the first time in 3 weeks, so will need to spend some time practicing before my lesson on Thursday. Hopefully, life will get back to normal now!

I've jumped off...

the hamster wheel that has been life for the past few weeks, and hopefully things will quiet down now! One of the highlights of my Lancaster trip was a visit to the Ephrata Cloister in Ephrata, PA. It is the home of one of the earliest religious communities in the country, established by German Settlers. The state of PA acquired the remains of the cloister in the 1940s and began a restoration of the remaining buildings. The grounds were beautiful and I could understand the feeling of peace and the closeness to God that these settlers must have felt when on this land. It was breathtaking.

Back in Intercourse where I was staying, the People's Place Quilt Museum was featuring quilts from Fons and Porter. Seeing the contemporary quilts after seeing all the Amish quilts was almost jarring. The techniques were so different, but each type of quilting is beautiful in its own way.

After spending time in the museum, I went downstairs and spent some time (and money!) in the Old Country Store. I made a few additions to my Jo Morton collection of fabrics...now to find the time to play with them!

It was a wonderfully relaxing trip which was good, because the time since I came home has been insanely busy. Between working and quilting for customers, we had a few events come up unexpectedly.

On Wednesday morning, my son participated in a forum discussing the Amethyst Initiative at Rowan University. Two students were chosen to discuss the pros and cons of the Initiative and Andrew was on the pro side, arguing that there should be a discussion on whether the drinking age should be lowered. I was incredibly proud of him as he was the only speaker with a dissenting view and the other speakers were rough on him. He was fully prepared with statistics supporting his view and all of the other speakers congratulated him on his strong argument and his willingness to be the lone supporter. He did a great job.

Another unplanned surprise came in the form of a desperate call (while we were at Andrew's forum) from Ellen saying she was horribly homesick and could she PLEASE come home for the weekend. So Thursday afternoon I was heading to the Philadelphia airport to pick her up. It was wonderful to have her home and she looked so much happier when I dropped her off at the airport this afternoon. And I had one more fun event this weekend...but that will be in my next post!