A little of this, a little of that and a little advice.....

This morning DH and I headed out to go to a couple of Auctions. The first one started at 10am and although they had some good prices going, I really didn't see anything I needed or wanted (except for a box of linens, but it was going to be an hour or more before they got to that table). The second one didn't start til noon, but we dropped down there at about 10:30am and all they had was some red plates and bowls I would have bid on, but we would have had to wait 1 1/2 hours before it even started. So then we hit two Flea Markets on the way home, but they were crap. Junk with a capital "J". Stuff I wouldn't sell at a garage sale.

So a wasted morning.

I found this recipe at Linda's blog. I couldn't find a flank steak in town yesterday so I bought a london broil. Hey Linda, is that the same thing? Or does flank steak go by some other name here in the midwest? Anyway, it is in it's ziplock and marinating away.Will throw that on the grill tonight and add a sliced tomato salad and veggie. We aren't much for potatoes at this house, but boy we can certainly go through the bread, and I found some wheat rolls on half price yesterday. DH is happy with red meat and couldn't care less what I serve with it. He will only eat the meat.

My birthday is in a couple of months and I want a small sewing machine to take to classes, retreats and quilt guild.

So I want one that does a nice blanket stitch, has needle up/down and hands free (knee lift) would be a bonus. I am not looking for any particular brand but do want one that is light weight.

Any ideas????

I have a purse commission to finish today, then hopefully I will get some blocks sewn together. If not, Judy is having a Quiltathon this coming week and since Rock Star starts summer school Wednesday and DH is out of town on Thursday the timing couldn't be better.

Did you go to summer school when you were a kid? If you did, then it's because you failed a class. There was quite the stigma attached to summer school. Now summer school is something the kids sign up for and look forward to going. They can take sewing classes, pottery classes, the bus runs it's regular schedule so working dad's and mom's aren't inconvenienced and if that wasn't enough our school district PAYS you to go to summer school. Rock star will earn $100 for perfect attendance in his American Government class in summer school. This is a required class. If he takes it during the year, he wouldn't get paid. What a deal!! And he can fit in another elective class during the year. WOW!!! I wish I could go to summer school.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Todays progress....

I had a couple of hours in the sewing room this afternoon.. I got all my "wifely" duties done including letting the rock star drive me to the local grocery to get pizza cheese. If you live near St Louis, you have most likely heard of Imo's pizza. It is indescribable. And if you are from St Louis, you don't ever say Pizza behind Imo's. You just say Imo's and everyone knows what you are talking about. Imo's now markets their special cheese and we can only find it at one store around here. My favorite is fresh thin sliced tomatoes and Imo's cheese. That's all. I love it. Of course DH and rock star will add pepperoni and DH will add bacon and anchovies....UGH!!

So back to the sewing room. I have ALL the blocks done for TicTacMo.


24 plaid blocks
16 alternate blocks with 3 light color blocks
15 alternate blocks with 4 light color blocks
4 corner blocks

Hopefully sometime this weekend I will get a chance to sew some blocks into rows and then some sew some rows together.

Anyone in St Louis want to see Sex in the City? My sis wants to go, but can't find anyone to go with her. She says I need to go even if I have never seen the TV show. Uh no....sorry....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Yes Linda, it is Amazing.....

Linda posted this link this morning.
Go, be amazed at the photos and please click on the video at the bottom of the page and watch him machine quilt.

Back later with an update on the Christmas quilt. Need to do some wifely things this morning, like cleaning out the fridge and grocery shopping...ugh!!

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

It takes a Village.....

and a door, and a fan and Carole King on the cd player.... to drown out the noise coming from the "guest/music room". Ah summer..kids home....and NOISE!! Did I mention that he brought home the bass electric guitar from school to practice for Jazz Band next year?? Yea....now we have 2 electric guitars, 1 LARGE amp, 1 acoustic guitar and a keyboard... Are we nuts?

I sewed for about two hours today and got a lot accomplished. Yesterday's project is now here.....


24 blocks 16 side pieces and 50 parts of blocks

This morning, I woke up the Rock Star at 8:30am and told him we would leave in about an hour to get his radio unlocked and run other errands. He idea was he would drive to the car dealer and get the radio unlocked, drive me back and then I could drive back into town and do my own errands. Uh NO!! We will use YOUR gas to do errands.
He is a new driver so I planned it so we could make mostly right turns....(which helps the screaming!) So off to the car dealer where they didn't even charge me for unlocking the radio that locked itself when DH fixed some front end wiring. (some dealers charge $30 for this). Then to the Post Office, the Pharmacy, the grocery store and the quilt store.

I survived....and so did he...

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

I got to sew.....

The rock star is out of school until June 4th when summer school starts. He decided to take American Government this summer instead of next year. He thinks it might be easier, his class schedule next year won't be so hard and our school district pays $50 to each student that passes a summer school course. Since he will go to session 1 and 2, he will make $100. Great! And it gets him out of the house!! YEA!!

I have asked him for the past 3 days to clean HIS room, HIS bathroom and the guest room (otherwise known to him and buddies as the "HIS music room". Today, I finally gave him a deadline. Why do kids need a deadline before getting anything done?? It's not like the rooms were trashed! Well, the bathroom was a filthy mess and he doesn't even seem to notice. sigh.... So today he did two of the three rooms. two, which I guess is better than none, but he says he will do his room tonight after we go to bed and he will clean and watch tv. I hope he realizes he can't run the vacuum after 10pm. Oh wait, he's a boy....he won't even think about the vacuum. Silly me!!

Today was Redwork at the LQS. No one else showed up, so I bought the backing for the next Christmas quilt, came home and decided to start piecing.


(Hey LOOK!! Can you see my new ironing board cover in the background? I found some purple and white stripe in my stash and it looks so pretty.)

All I have to do now is add a side piece to each middle piece and start putting blocks together and then rows together...shouldn't take more than a couple of days.
This is the second TicTacMo which is a Teri Atkinson design. The other one is already at the quilter. Each 5 year old grandson will get one for Christmas this year.

Tomorrow is MAMMOGRAM DAY in this household. Have you had your Mammogram this year?? Be good to yourself and schedule yours today....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

spammer....

A spammer visited me the other day, so I have had to change my settings. I won't be allowing anonymous comments anymore.

Sorry,
Nancy

They Named Me Marjorie......

I just finished reading this book. It all started here with Tracey. I am the 16th reader of this same book. I LOVED IT and read it over this past weekend. I couldn't put it down. I first heard of this book's journey over here and promptly emailed her to get on the list. The book is a hard-to-read story of the fascinating (and unfortunately for this little girl) true story of one little girls life and her ride on the Orphan Train. This child had such

The book now goes to Amanda. Have everything caught up Amanda, as you won't get anything done once you start reading. lol

If you want to be on the list, email Carol E.. I am sending it on it's way today. Goodbye Orphan Train!!

Nancy

a tree grows in..... (oh, I forgot, I don't live in Brooklyn)

Is this a good spot?

A 15 year old needs to learn how to dig a hole. You never know, in college they may ask him to dig a hole somewhere, sometime, someday.

Dad says "I will hold it and you will add all of the heavy dirt."
Oh, what was I doing? I sat on the porch and said "a little to the left, now a wee bit to the right". Well, someone had to do it!!
So it's done. And a good job, rock star..

Of course, after all of that strenuous work, I came in and checked up on my blog friends. I clicked on Sunshine's Creations and what to my wandering eye do I discover? A great recipe for cobbler. Hm...the brownies were finished off yesterday by the rock star when he was supposed to be cutting the grass. So, off to the pantry and I have everything for this recipe. Ok, there are only 3 ingredients, but I had all three!!
Before the oven.....

After the oven.....

The guys are on the way to the store to get vanilla ice cream to top it off.

I am off to have some cobbler and ice cream and then retrace a Winter Wonderland block. I had it all traced, but something must have happened, bacause some of the designs weren't lining up right. I rinsed all the blue marker out and will start over.

Come back tomorrow. I have a great book report to share with you..

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

a day out.....

Friday DH decided we needed to take a day and GO!! We left around 8:30am and went by the dealer to pick up the VW. I had to take back the 08 Jetta, but was happy to get my bug back. We headed down to the Art Museum to check out the two quilt exhibitions.

There were three rooms of fabulous quilts. (no photos allowed) For $2 you could rent an IPod with preloaded narratives by museum curators. It was well worth the extra money, especially since the exhibit is free on Fridays. There were pieced, appliqued, painted and whole cloth quilts from the 1800-1900's. A smaller exhibit was of Missouri made quilts.
Then we headed over to the Museum of Natural History. Ok, just found out it's NOT the Museum of Natural History as that would be about NATURAL history, like dinosaurs. It is the Jefferson Memorial or something like that. WHATEVER!! It's not like a bunch of you are going to actually get on mapquest and try to drive there. Sheesh!! On the way to the Art Museum we had seen a billboard advertising a special exhibit on Lee and Grant. My DH is a nut about the Civil War and with our last name of Lee (no relation has been established yet to THE Robert E. Lee) we thought he would like to see that. I am NOT a civil war fan, but heck he walked around with me in the quilt exhibit so what was I to do...

The exhibit was interesting (although not free unless you are a group of school kids) and I did find some things interesting. They had a tea set that was presented to Grant (or maybe it was Lee?), some of the uniforms and a very annoying lady that was reading all the little signs out loud!! Why do people think others can't read??

This is one of the old street cars from St Louis. They are talking about starting a line up again between Forest Park and the Delmar Loop. Now that would be interesting.

Then on to Blueberry Hill for yummy burgers with sauteed mushrooms and onion rings..... Then a ride home with the top down....

Great Day!!

Yesterday and today I have been working on a purse pattern. Remember THIS POST and the black purse? I have been carrying it, but had a BIG problem last week. Since there wasn't a closure on it, I actually LOST my ATM card when it fell out of my purse into the back seat of the loaner car. (had to retrieve that on Saturday). So I decided to go by Hancocks and see what kind of purse closures they had. I bought one and did some changing of the pattern and made these!!



The orange one didn't get the closure (cause I made it before the trip to Hancocks), but the black one got a great closure.....

If you look at this photo really, really close (like click on it and make it bigger), you will see that I sewed it on wrong side up. DANG NAB IT!! Now I have to go rip out two rows of stitching and get it back in there the right way. BUT, I do like the closure and will use it again.

Off to look for some brown. I want a brown purse. I have some cream with brown dots but can't find anything to go with it. May have to check out the LQS on Tuesday am.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Noah's Ark and the St Louis Art Museum.....

I finished block 3 of Lynette Anderson's free BOM last night. I was lucky to finish just seconds before the finale of Grey's Anatomy started. I can't stitch with my glasses and can't watch TV without them so stitching in front of the TV means DH watches something he wants and I listen to something (insert anything to do with ghosts, the Civil War or FoxNews here) I don't.

DH is off today and the next 3 days. He kindly asked me if I wanted to do anything special tomorrow since it is Ryan's last day of school and we will have the day to ourselves. I told him I would like to go to the St Louis Art Museum and see the quilt exhibitions. We also have to pick up my VW Bug at the car dealer. They were replacing a trim strip that fell off. I am not too keen on giving the loaner car back. It is an 08 VW Jetta and is very comfortable and plush. IF (just if) I HAD to trade cars, this is the one I would want. I have no hope of talking DH into this one. And I am very happy with my VW convertible bug.

So no sewing today.....well maybe I will get the strips sewn on block 3 and post a photo later.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

PS - Grey's Anatomy finale was the best yet!! Can't wait for next season. Did you notice I got up early this morning and got the strips on block 3.

Going Green....

I have finally jumped on the band wagon. I go to a local grocery that charges for grocery bags and I am not willing to pay the extra few pennies. I have one canvas bag I bought at Soulard Market last summer so I decided yesterday to copy it and make two more.

Ta da!! 2 more market bags.... so quick to make and very handy. I will keep these in my boot (as my father-in-law used to call the trunk) and use them for all of my shopping, grocery or otherwise. Want to go green too? I cut these 22 x 22 and cut a 3 inch square out of each bottom corner. That gives me a 6 inch bottom which is generous enough for cereal boxes. Straps are cut 2 1/2 inches wide x 25 inches long.
Basic bag making instruction was used. I did zigzag finish all the seams and top stitched the handles to give them more strength. Since I had the canvas in my stash it only cost me time.




Sorry for the dark photo. It has been sunny here for 2 days, so of course today is rain.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

update to challenge for my peeps.....

Sweet P emailed and asked if she could join the challenge. YEPPERS!!!

If the other 14 of you winners want to join, leave a comment and I will start a list on the sidebar..

Rules!! Who needs them?? lol

Use at least 3 FQ's from your Valori Wells winnings and finish a project by
August 12th. Send me a photo and I will post all the entries here.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Pregnant???

Baskins Robbins is giving away a free cup of their new soft-serve ice cream today to all pregnant women.... Click HERE, print and GO....


Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Challenge for my peeps.....

Back a couple of weeks ago, Valori Wells had a fabulous free fabric give-a-way. Luckily, Miss Nancy, Anne and I (along with 15 others) all won a set of 8 FQ's of Valori's new fabric line Olive Rose.

We talked about what pattern we could make of these fabrics and after emailing back and forth, I finally issued a Challenge. We are to use at least 3 of the FQ's, make something and have it finished by our August sewing day. Today I visited a blog (that will remain nameless so as not to give my idea away) and have decided what my project will be. I hope to start today.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Big Girls Don't Cry yi yi.......

They don't cry,
Big Girls don't cry.....

Especially when they go here....

to see this....

My sister bought tickets for us to see Jersey Boys Saturday afternoon. The tickets were second row mezzanine. The best tickets in the house (unless you were in the front row). Thanks Sis....the show was great!! If you get a chance to see this, GO!! It is worth it... My hands were stinging from clapping so much.

Today I decided to sew a bit. I didn't feel like working on the Christmas quilt I have already cut out. Didn't feel like cutting out the Christmas quilt I bought fabric for in Paducah. So what do I NEED!! A new purse!! of course...

This is a free pattern from You Can Make This. Sign up for the newsletter (which is free) and you too can download and print the pattern. It went together very quickly. It's a nice size, not too big, not too small and only uses 3 FQ's or I used 2 FQ and scraps. I will make this one again....

Tomorrow is quilt guild with installation of new officers and a carry in salad dinner. I have a dozen hard boiled eggs chopped and ready to go along with a light italian salad dressing.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Presidents Block.....

No, not THIS president. This Monday is the installation of officers at my quilt guild. It is a tradition to give the outgoing president enough blocks to make a quilt. She doesn't get a finished quilt, just the blocks.

We were given these instructions.

and a baggie of two fabrics. After much reading, cutting, sweating, pressing and stitching I ended up with this....


Don't look too closely or you will notice that when she sews this block to another she is going to lose a bit of the basket base. Shoot....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Giveaway Alert....

Carolyn is having a give-away....run over, read the rules and join in.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

HE'S IN.....

The rock star and his BFF (oh my gosh, I am in so much trouble if he reads this) made Jazz Band. We will be going out to dinner to celebrate!! His HS has the best Jazz Band....

My son is the one in front holding the guitar.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Name of Pattern.....

I had a few ask the name of DH's Christmas quilt. It is Weaver Fever by Jackie Robinson. There are multiple patterns and I used the Threever. This uses 3 gradations of 2 different fabrics and then a third fabric. I used 3 tans, 3 blacks and dark red.

Cleaned my Mom's house today and I am beat!! I didn't know it until late this morning, but our son is trying out for Jazz Band today. If he gets it, he will play bass electric guitar. I am really excited to hear. His HS has a wonderful Jazz Band that plays 30's and 40's swing music. So I am sitting on pins and needles waiting to hear (literally~)

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

A day of finishes.....

Today was my monthly sewing day with Anne and Miss Nancy. They wanted to make an embroidery bag and I decided to sit and do the hand sewing on the binding of DH's Christmas quilt. I now have 2 Christmas quilts completely finished, one at the quilters, one all cut out and one fabric bought and pattern picked out. I was going to be done at 5, but Sunday when I asked my daughter what she wanted me to make the baby for Christmas, she said "won't she get a quilt?". Well, I had asked her earlier this year and she said she had plenty of quilts and Abbie had just gotten the "Sweetie Tweeties for Abigail" so she didn't think she needed one. Apparently now she needs one, so one more to the list. I found this pattern by Barbara Brandeburg. I fell in love with it as soon as she showed it on her blog. I quickly ordered it from here. Yesterday that pattern showed up in my wonderful mailbox. (I love my mailbox) :- ) I love the colors, I love the fabric, I love the pattern. The blocks are BIG...19 inches big. This will be baby Abbie's quilt. I can't wait to start it, but it must wait it's turn.

Anyone else working on Christmas presents?? I need once great idea. Every year I make something for every female in my family. I have done pillowcases, make up bags, hot rice bags, plastic bag holders, hot pads, sewing kits, ummm did I miss anything Sis??? Now I need something for this year and would like to start next month.... There are 11 (maybe 12?). So please send me some ideas!!

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

PS, Anne and Miss Nancy finished their embroidery bag, but I sadly forgot to take photos....Just take my word for it, they are both really pretty and they did a great job....

I had a visitor today......

I was calmly sitting here on the couch, drinking my second cup of tea and someone rang the doorbell. I tried to ignore them, but they persisted and knocked. I yelled out "NO ONE IS HOME, GO AWAY". No luck. I had to answer the door.

Who was there??

The Quilt Police.....

I have been arrested. The arresting officer will stay nameless. They think they handcuffed me, but like Houdini, I have escaped. No details yet, but hopefully there won't be a huge fine. I will fight this in court. No court date yet..

happy sewing to you today.....I am going to stay away from the sewing room for a day and see what happens.

Nancy

The big time.....

Tonight is the big show.. My son's band is playing at a venue on the Delmar Loop. Look here, click on Thursday and his band is mentioned. He is part of Autumn Pilot. I will certainly take photos (and maybe earplugs,lol)

Also need to mail out my Spring Fling top. I have it all finished, just haven't blogged about it here yet. Need to get a photo taken, posted and off to the post office. It has been raining since yesterday, so the light isn't the best. I will have to try anyway as tomorrow is the deadline to mail. I received my last part of the swap. I got THIS one to quilt, bind and send to someone who gets to keep it. This is the first time I have been in a round robin where you don't get your own center block back finished.

Yesterday was my grandson's last day of preschool. So what's a grandma to do? I drove 86 miles one way to watch a 15 minute preschool program with 10 kids. Then drove 86 miles back. It was a wonderful 15 minutes of laughing so much I teared up.

And last, but not least. THIS was posted just this morning. A new BOM coming soon with the three things I love most. Applique, Stitching and Houses!!
Scroll down and watch the cute video of her inspiration. I can't wait.....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

She'll be coming around the mountain.....

ok, actually she came up the hill. I was so excited to look out the front window and see this.....

All I had to do was unlock the front door and walk across the street to get my mail. I LOVE IT!! No more driving up the hill or hoping the rock star will remember to grab it as he gets off the bus.

Speaking of mail, remember when I won all of these from KCQuilter. This morning I had a wee bit of extra time and decided to make the rotary cutter bag.

This will be for my Gracie. Who knows what she will keep in it. She's 6, so it could be anything from Barbies to cookies. I am not sure if I will make another one, that zipper and the set in ends were challenging to say the least. Well, wait a minute, now that I look at it, it is the perfect size for a roll of Girl Scout Thin Mints. Hm....no one would look in the sewing room. Yea, I might be making another one of these..

Yesterday I made this.

One of the ladies that works with my hairdresser was diagnosed with Leukemia. She doesn't have the best insurance coverage being self employed, so they are having a raffle to help with medical expenses. I told them I would make a bag if they wanted. I don't know when the raffle is, but I wanted to get it done and delivered.
It also gave me a chance to write down the pattern steps. This is the bag I am teaching next week and needed some notes. I have made approximately 30-35 bags and this is my own pattern.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

village idiots.....

Ok, my numbers are on the mailbox and they look really cool. It's amazing what an 8 and a 1 will do to elevate the fashion of a mailbox...lol I might take photos tomorrow of the mail lady coming up the road....that's how excited I am.

Of course there are always the village idiots..

DH and I put the top down on the beetle this afternoon to drive into town and get those mailbox numbers and the Sunday paper. On the way back we (ok, I) decided that we needed to go down the other subdivision street and see what kind of mailboxes others had decided to put up. There are only two streets here, so it didn't take long to realize that we live in a village of idiots.

A little background here... we live in a rural area. The mail lady sits on the wrong side of car and delivers mail on one side of the street. Yep, you guessed it. The village idiots on the other street all put their mailboxes in front of their houses, instead of putting all the mailboxes on one side of the street. My mailbox is actually across the street from my house. That's not MY UGLY GRASS in that photo. Ha, mine is worse....

Guess half the subdivision will be pulling mailboxes tomorrow night and getting them on the right side. Me? I will be sitting on the patio with another bud lite. There's one left. Can't wait....lol

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

2 years in the waiting.....

When we moved to this house 2 years ago, we were told we had to locate our mailbox at the end of the street. The subdivision was new and the rural mail lady wouldn't come through until it was 75% full. That changed last year when the developer went bust and took off with no warning with all of our association fee's.

It's all water under the bridge now....

Monday starts actual mail delivery in the subdivision, so this weekend I got

THIS..................



So exciting.. See that little yellow dot right down at the bottom of the front corner?? That's a flag...Yep....as soon as the mail lady opens the mail box door this little flag will pop up and tell me that she has been there. Isn't that COOL???!!

To celebrate, we are having home made pizza and I am on #2 bud lite....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

PS did you notice no numbers?? no name on the mailbox?? The package of numbers/letters we picked up were solid black..(unlike the photo on the front which showed black letters on a white background)..so back to the store tomorrow...

latest goodies....

I had to take my car into the dealer Monday and what is just across the highway? Hobby Lobby! So armed with a sale ad and a 40% off coupon, I bought these...


and with my 40% off coupon, I got some boning to use for this project. I think I will use the black on the left. Hopefully I can finish and take it with us to the baby dedication on May 11th. I have already used the two reds on the right side to make a take-along bag. I make and sell them at a local thread shop. I use mine for embroidery, but they are also good for applique and other hand work.

Then Tuesday, I got this in the mail from Treasured Threads. Check out that link. They carry a lot of the Aussie designers.




My son brought in the mail yesterday and these were in the mail....I won a give-a-way from KCQuilter


I think I have my work cut out for me.....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy