FAB--ulous Bday

I tell you, I have some FAB-ulous friends, local ones and long distant ones. Truly a blessing to me in more ways than you will ever know.

This year we 5 FAB friends are taking turns celebrating our birthdays with one another in a virtual format. Probably the hardest part is gathering 5 busy women in one spot long enough. Since we also planned to sew, Saturday was best. But first I got to open those presents that had been arriving at my house all week. Wanna see what these talented pals made for me? These did not post in the order that I opened them but that's okay, I guess.

Here we have a bag made by Pam out of my (our) beloved 30's prints. The pattern is in a past issue of "Quilts and More". I know this because I had plans to make one and have the magazine. I had admired one that she made one before---she called it a diaper bag, LOL. This is the back side. Tons of interior pockets in there!

Pam suggested that I put something in the bottom to stiffen it up a bit. I have just the thing----a piece of acrylic she had cut for us some time back for another purse project. It is the perfect width. It is cut about a half inch short but once a slip cover is made for it, it will be fine! I have some of the Connecting Threads "Mama's Cotton" yardage so I can probably even match the flavor of the purse.

And look at this cutie front! Itty bitty prairie points, dimensional yo-yo's and cool buttons! She made a matching wonder wallet as well.

Cher sent the cute kitty card with some "seed money" for a trip back to the PNW. Sister's maybe and/or we all go up to BC to see our pal Norma?? Life happenings got in the way of a homemade gift and time ran out but she sent something for me to open anyway. What a sweetie!

Look what Pat made for me! She had told me earlier this summer that she was considering making me a button-up wall hanging to go with the ones I am making and asked which ones I liked. I forget what I said other than maybe August's and I liked the "My Cat" one. Source: Joined at the Hip and then scroll down to BU #25. I love that she personalized it to make the cat look like my tuxedo kitty Skyler. The groups of 5 fish is significant too along with some of the fabrics.

You might be wondering "what's with those clips at the top?" I had suggested if she made a button up to just leave the top edge open and let me put in the loops so they would match up with my button placement. I just pinned it on the base so I could see how it was going to look.

That explains the little bag of goodies in this next shot. Unfortunately I didn't see the note to open it last of the three wrapped packages but it all made sense once I did what I was told. Open the long skinny one instead, LOL

Pat sent the yardage to make the loops for the Skyler hanging as she was not sure if I preferred them to be turned loops or how you do purse straps. I got the leftover thread and buttons along with the leftover cutie blue 30's print that she made to cover the thermos bottle she sent. Going green with a thermos bottle instead of more plastic for the landfill. Notice the lovely hand made cards as well.

And here are my goodies from Norma! She made me a mug pinafore to organize the sewing tools---from 30's prints. Designed by a Canadian designer and I think she said a pattern distributed at a shop hop.

Next to it, you see a mug carrier, also in 30's blue. Again, a "go-green" idea for quilt guild meetings where you use your own mugs instead of plastic or stryofoam cups. There are pockets all around it too so I put some single serving drink mix packets in there along with stirring spoon, a packet of gum. Norma said she also sticks her guild name tag in hers so she is never without it at the meeting. Good idea! She found the pattern in a Australian quilting magazine.

The other goodies----yummo, coffee crisp bites. Love 'em and as far as I know you cannot get them in the States. The birthday card also contains a violet applique wall hanging pattern. She sent me a few novelties for my long term "I-Spy" project along with a Quiltmaker CD with some quilting patterns. The yardage has three kinds of candy on it---jelly beans, dots and another Canadian favorite candy Allsorts. Basically it is black licorice with other flavors added to it-----that I can find at one of the local Rite Aids, surprisingly.

From there we moved on to the sewing portion of the party. . Pam was also working in a patriotic theme for hers alternating red and blue strips---her top is completely done as of last evening and I saw the picture of it. Norma was working in a fall theme and has told me she is close to done. Pop on over to her spot and she may have it posted. Cher was working with yellow strips we sent her for her granddaughter's "yellow quilt " but making it more her quilt than the pattern shown. Pat had tried the pattern once and didn't care for it so I told her she didn't have to make one like this. She re-purposed her strips into an Amish Stripe instead. She shows her starts of the blocks on her blog a couple posts back---see link above.

Pictured of course is mine. At that point I had all but the last 8 strips at last joined in pairs and laid out on the bed. I have since finished up the pairs and some of them are joined---"twosies to foursies". The lower 1/3 of the quilt is sitting on my pressing/cutting table. It shouldn't take too long to finish up as those seams only took me about 30 minutes including pressing.

We have some lightning rolling in so I may need to wait to power up the machine. First rain we have had around here for a while. Unfortunately DJ was doing a little raking out in the spare lot while there was some cloud cover and burning the stuff on the burn pile----yard waste, the old mail box post, the boards DJ just removed from the shrub area out front that we want to re-do. I think he got a little wet on the way back to the house.

And sew it goes around here-----thanks for stopping by!

stitching away

A little update on D4P. Top half is done, all the blocks are now sewn. Row 5 is done along with half of row six. It should together a little more quickly now since all I have to do is join blocks, not piece them. Woohoo!

When I took this picture, I still had 4 more blocks to finish up.

I took time out to clean out the machine, change the needle and do up a pile of bobbins. I had noticed that the machine was skipping stitches especially when it came to the joins-----grrrr. It may need to go in for servicing yet but got to try the simple fixes first, right?

I've been busy today but not necessarily at the sewing machine. DJ and I teamed up to clean up our two box fans and a small one that I use in the bathroom. While I had the vacuum out, I did the floors too. The other big project was cleaning some of the stuff out of my car trunk or what DJ affectionately calls my "office on wheels". I decided that I no longer needed to haul around the file box of old handouts and got it down to one file box instead of 2. Then took all the paper stuff to the recycle bins. It opened up some space in the trunk which is good. (Got some things for you, Teresa next time I see you, LOL) I also backed up a bunch of my files to disc as I do periodically.

Other than the usual stuff around here----Thursday I was goofing around with the "new to me" TV set up and needed some help with getting the DVD player to work. I tried all the menus and look at both manuals to see if I could figure out what to do, mulling things over for a good chunk of the afternoon. Finally I gave in and called DISH. Turned out it was not really DISH's area so they suggested I call tech support at Philips for some assistance. I think I finally figured out where to turn the TV but he affirmed said my assumption was correct. The setup button worked and I am in business. Woohoo again! I have never figured out how to go about recording on that thing, ever and still don't know BUT with the present DISH DVR set up I don't need the Philips to work for anything but playback and setting the clock. Hopefully that is the end of electronic muddling on my part.

So tomorrow I get to open my packages with the FABS--the birthday partying continues! Two of them arrived today so I am set.

I plan on starting to sew the background bits on my Skinny Strips shortly after I get up and wait for the others to come online and we can gather on IM chat. Looking forward to it..........

And sew it goes. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday

Yep, another one has rolled around but I feel like I have been celebrating for a week, with more to come.

The quilting group met yesterday back in our usual location. My pal Marilyn was able to come to the meeting and I had offered to pick her up. She made me a birthday cake! It is easy for her to remember what day as her son and I share it but Ronnie was getting a cheesecake. I got chocolate cake with yummy icing and purple flowers! You will just have to imagine what it might have looked like since we cut into at the meeting and I told the girls to take some home if they wished.

The girls were also so sweet to give me some bday spending money. I feel funny being singled out this way since we don't celebrate every one else's bdays in the same manner even if I am the group leader. Still, it is kind of them to do this for me. I will have to give some thought to how I will use this gift.

I thought my friend Teresa might be joining us for lunch so we did a sandwich run and went back to eat at the church in case she made it. There are 8 of us with bdays spanning from May to September so next time, we will be off to Olive Garden to celebrate those summer bdays for sure! Not that we need much of an excuse to go to Olive Garden, LOL.

Monday, I had taken some small appliances over to the thrift store. You may remember my saying that I subscribe to the theory of "something in, something out"? 4 in 1 grill in so electric fry pan, etc out. I had to drive around to the back of the building for the guys to unload my car and I spotted their exercise equipment back there. DJ's exercise bike is missing a few teeth in the gears and is probably not long for this world so I told him I would check and see if they had some at the thrift store while there. Nothing, at this time that looked like a possibility.

BUT they had a little TV for $25 bucks that had a far better picture than mine. As you can see above, we didn't come home empty handed. Part of my bday on the "spend down" bday money plan. I can't have too big of a set in here as space is limited so this is perfect. We totally forgot to ask where its remote was but any universal remote would work if you can get a code to enter according to brand. Don't really have to have a remote for the set in any case but for set color, brightness, etc.

Bless the tech support at DISH for walking me through the set up! You just can't plop in another TV and expect it to run--- silly me! They needed to have me pull up an on screen menu, scroll left and right, up and down manually with the channel and volume buttons to auto program in some channels plus give me a code for the remote. I am back in business with a nice sharp clear picture. I am pretty sure now that the DVD player is what is causing the intermittent picture cut out, not the rest of the set up. I don't need the closed captioning but I cannot figure out how to shut it off. That option is grayed out on the DISH programming menus and I don't see it listed on the Magnavox menu screen options. Oh well! The old TV? To the thrift store or there is a chance Marilyn's mom might want it.

Saturday the FABs and I will have my virtual bday party gathering on IM so I can open the quilty gifts they have made me. Pam and Cher have had their turn. I'm in the middle. Pat and Norma both have fall birthdays. One tantalizing package is already here, waiting and the others are on their way. I should give the mail person a "heads up" as she is going to be pulling in the drive and honking a lot this week, LOL. THEN we are going to sew together! Project: Skinny Strips that I recently finished kitting up. Should be fun!

Now you can see why I said in the opening statement that I have been partying all week with more to come? DJ and I will go out for lunch in a bit at a place of my choosing---and eat more of that yummy chocolate cake.

I plan to sew a bit on my Disappearing 4 patch today. I made enough blocks last evening to finish out the 4th row--24 blocks, in other words and joined into rows. I am currently 1 block short of two rows (11 blocks) for the bottom two rows---the duplicate blocks that are pieced. LOL, if I had not been recording one program and wanting to watch the season finale of "White Collar" I would have kept sewing and might joined rows 3 and 4 and then joined them to rows 1-2. Neal and Peter won out!

And sew it goes around here---------

Lazy Sunday afternoon

I think that I will take a cue from my Skyler and take it easy this afternoon now that I have the tenative menu planned and the groceries laid in.

With yesterday's sewing I have 32 of the 48 blocks I need for the QOV completed. I think I will take the day off from machine work though. The hand work on the Overall Bill blocks that I recently button hole appliqued is on today's "list" and maybe some embroidery or hand quilting on my Bird Brain Santas if I feel like it.

After we ate lunch, I mixed up a packaged mix of pound cake. It smells pretty yummy at my house! Even though I do have a birthday coming up this is by no means, "birthday cake". Everyone knows I do NOT make my own cake, LOL. I couldn't find any already made in the store bakery so made a pound cake in a loaf pan. I wanted to try the chocolate panini recipe in my 4 in 1 grill manual which calls for sliced pound cake (with Nutella and sliced strawberries on the inside) I WILL track down a from scratch recipe that doesn't require a tube pan---just not today in the interest of time.

The Bread flour is out because I promised DJ homemade pizza tonight. I like the crust recipe from the Prepared Pantry the best. Trust me, I tried about 7 different recipes in my quest to learn how to do yeast bread type stuff last year. I, more or less, follow their recipe for Veggie and Sausage Pizza subbing my own topping choices. Sometimes I let the crust go thru a little bit of a rise once it is rolled out. If you prefer a whole wheat crust, I can heartily recommend Perfect Pizza Crust from Taste of Home. I probably will just get the kitchen cooled down when I will have to heat it up again baking pizza, LOL.

And sew it goes------thanks for stopping by!

a little progress

At this point I have 20 blocks done of the Disappearing 4 patch (D4P). Most of this was completed on Wednesday as we had a lot of thunder rumbles going on yesterday. I don't sew if it is storming or lightning near by.

Shown are the twelve non--duplicating blocks that I joined into the upper 2 rows or 1/4th of the quilt. The blocks go together fairly quickly considering that there is a fair amount of seam matching. So far I am liking it. Seam matching doesn't scare me, LOL--that is a basic quilting skill learned long ago.

I will admit to pulling two centers apart just so I could keep a few of the directional fabrics going the same way. LOL, it may come up again. Block placement is purely random in that what comes up next in the block stack. My plan is to sew thru the box till I hit the bottom and setting any duplicates aside (those in the box lid) and then repeat the color sequence in the bottom rows.

Actually, I am never one to want to agonize about color/block placement much. I am not fond of the move one and then have to move 6 more----ugh. It is what it is, scrap bag yardage sewn into blocks that will make a quilt top will eventually be on a bed at the Veteran's Home. You think anyone will really notice that two brighter blues are in the same vicinity??

I have a birthday coming up next week and DJ got me the 4 in 1 grill that I had requested. In a way it reminds me of the griddle that my mom used to have that you could open up all the way and lay it down flat to make pancakes. With 6 kids in the family by the time one batch was done, you were ready for a 2nd one. The poor cook couldn't keep up with demand. That still happens around here. DJ gets started on some menu items---pancakes, omelets, quesadillas, etc, etc---and I catch up, LOL.

But anyway, you can contact grill, panini press, open grill and switch out the plates to the griddle ones. The top of the appliance tips to accomodate larger items. I ordered a used cookbook on Amazon for recipe ideas though I suspect that the George Foreman grill would be similar in say, cooking chicken. Spend down plan for the birthday money, dontcha know? There is also a blog called Panini Happy that will probably be a great go-to source. I haven't fired it up yet, mostly because I am waiting for some chicken to thaw for a Saturday meal. I already know that I want to try it on a Cuban Sandwich next week since I have some leftover pork tenderloin slices up in the freezer.

And sew/so it goes around here..............thanks for stopping by! Skyler want me to play with him and I will oblige, happily.

WIP Weds

Wednesday finds me in day two of cutting. Mainly I am still kitting up the components of Skinny Strips but I need to do the same for the bowtie medallion I drew up yesterday. Both tops will be part of my QOV donations for the veteran's home due to open up next spring/summer in Pell City.

I had cut thru the blue basket recently and cut strips and squares for both projects. The pattern calls for 32 1/2 inches lengths of the colored fabric and jelly roll width. Since the quilts are to finish in the 60 x 90 I cut mine 3 inches instead and surprisingly with the changes, I need one strip less than the pattern calls for. Yesterday I trimmed those down to size and cut bias binding from a RWB striped fabric. Today's goal: trim the white background down to the 21 inches I need.

For the bowties: yesterday I cut the red I want to use for the bowtie 3-D knot. I originally found this pattern years ago on Debby Kratovil site but here is a good tutorial from Bear Creek quilters blog, thanks to a Google search. I can't begin to tell you how many I have made since 1) I finally figured out how to do them since the original graphics had me stumped 2) started making donation quilts. But anyway, I cut a pile of 3 1/2 inch strips of the white that need to be sub-cut. Goal two for today. (I had a pile of creamy white cut already but those won't go to waste. See number 2 above, LOL)

The July button up applique is finished as of Monday evening but since I used matching thread, it doesn't look appreciably different. I'll get its glamour shot when it is finished and hanging. I don't feel much like prepping to quilt or quilting either my two wall hangings today, I think I will swap out machines and pull down my Disappearing 4 patch blocks to get that project moved forward. QOV projects on my mind, I guess.

There is today's plans in the quilting department. No pressing home tasks need tending or outside errands so I am staying inside and away from the heat and humidity as much as possible.

Design Wall Monday

Wow, how did it get to be August 1st so quickly!

I got "Summer's" buttonhole applique done yesterday afternoon so back it goes on the design wall till I am ready to baste and quilt it. Check one thing off the quilt "to-do" list.

I started on another project right after that but Skyler was insisting on sitting on it. I took the hint, LOL.

And here he is, being helpful with the kitchen floor mopping detail. Mostly, I think he just curious about why the stuff is sitting in the living room. Why is the food by the couch?

He picked out one of his two favorite chairs. You know which ones right away since I have tried, with little success, to de-hair the chair pads. Normally one sits right under the window so he can sit and sun himself. The other is a guest chair that NO guest would ever want to be seated on unless they like their rump covered with kitty fur. It is pushed up under the table and he thinks we don't see him there. I threw the towel over DJ's chair pad to keep Skyler from starting a hair collection on it. I don't have to worry about my chair---I provide the padding there, LOL.
Last night I got the stars appliqued on the July Button Up before Skyler appropriated the area behind the machine. This morning I did one of the 5 flower stems and 3 leaves before heading in to mop. Slowly but surely I am getting the job done.

Since I still need to cut the background pieces for the FAB birthday party this month, I may start pressing that. I need a stand up job between the sit-down sewing. Goodness knows, I don't want another whole day of ironing fabric. Maybe if I spread it out a bit, it will help---or prolong the "agony"

It is going to be a hot week according to the weather dude. 100 for a high one day and no chance of rain on the horizon. YIKES! Good time to stay in and sew, right?