negative...

Update -

chest xray was negative... no broken rib... apparently just a large bruise...

I am SURE it will be fine by next Wednesday when I have ROAD TRIP plans...

Right?

Nancy

so....

there I was minding my own business...

and it happened...

Most nights hubby and I go to bed and read for about an hour.... well, I read for about an hour...he usually lasts about 10 minutes..

Sunday night was no different. I was laying on my back reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett.

Hubby reads on his right side. All of a sudden he rolled over to my side and slammed right into my rib cage... brought me to tears...and that doesn't happen very easily..
He finally convinced me to see the nurse practitioner this afternoon and she ordered a chest xray. That was 1:30pm so I kind of thought I would know something by now, but guess I will find out tomorrow if I have a cracked rib or not. The funny thing is that there is NO bruise! No swelling! No nothing! Just intense pain..and it's hard to sit or lay down. I even had to stop sewing this afternoon as it hurt to sit at the machine.
I did get all 9 rows on the red and white single Irish Chain and have it folded waiting to be quilted. It will have to wait until I get a commission quilt done. Which is already started after finally getting 10 yards of Kona Snow at Hobby Lobby yesterday with my 40% off coupon...

I'll keep you posted if you are interested...

Nancy
PS Kristin - this IS the true story no matter what you want to think.....
PPS - That's NOT my cxr up there... just a google image.

my booty....

on the left 5-1 yard pieces, on the right 8 fq's
free patterns for both

what can I say...the Thangle man made it look so easy and fun!

Pattern on the left goes with brown/green fq up there...
Pattern on the right is so cute and I know two little granddaughters
that would love this.

my favorite thread and since the LQS that carried it is closing I stocked up
.for now.

I sure hope there are instructions in there..


I could have bought more...but I ran out of steam.
Don't worry though... 3 of us have a road trip planned for next week.

Nancy

Friday in Paducah...

woke up at 3:15am
left the house at 4am
got to Miss Nancy's at 4:35am
got to the bus stop at 5am
got to Paducah at 9:30am

what a day! I loved every minute of it, even when my back was hurting and I couldn't walk any further and waved Miss Nancy off and said I would wait right here on the chair for her.

There were celebrity sightings...

pat sloan
I would show you the photo of Pat and I but as usual it turned out absolutely
HORRIBLE... my side that is. Pat looks great, I look like
something you would run screaming from... and it was still early. Don't even want to think
about what I looked like later..


heidi kaisand

She was so nice. Even though I told her I stalked her blog, she turned and smiled. I promised her I wouldn't show the first photo. It wasn't the most flattering..


an amazing red and white quilt

with an even more amazing stuffed edging..
an award winning quilt with an even more amazing back

at first glance this quilt looked like it had to have been paper-pieced with all those colors and the
black lines running through each one. No.. The fabric was a stripe and every frigging last one of those little suckers matched...

I felt sorry for this lady and not because she had an award winning quilt. When we walked up to her I noticed the name of her city on her badge. I said "Oh, I had relatives from Farmington" (missouri).. She said "oh no, I am from Flemington,Mo.. down by Bolivar". Oh, sorry.. I complimented her on her quilt and winning and as we walked away I heard someone say "oh, I have relatives in Farmington,,,," Poor lady needs to move to Farmington... I'm just saying

This is NOT a photograph. It is a quilt. And in person it was amazing. The quilting was
micro-stippled in multiple colors. Simply stunning.

We met the bus at 5:45pm.
stopped at a truck stop for some great Popeye's Fried Chicken (so not on the diet)
and I got home at 11:15pm and went straight to bed...
Of course I was too excited about my purchases to go right to sleep.

come back tomorrow. I will show you what I bought.

Nancy

design wall monday... 4-26-2010

This is on my design wall today....

I saw a pattern for sale on a blog...decided to search for a free pattern... and found this one. I won't link to it because the supply list wasn't correct. I don't have enough fabric to make the quilt as large as the pattern, so I will just keep going until I hit the end. There is another row hanging off the cutting table there to the bottom left...and I have a couple of more strip sets to cut and piece...

I had a wonderful time in Paducah Friday... I didn't buy as much as I thought I would. Not that I didn't try. I actually picked up lots and bought some... I have tons of photos....and celebrity sightings....

More tomorrow..

for more design walls go see the Mr Linky on this post over at Judy's house...

Nancy

wow.... and a winner...

I am so excited. You all sent me some wonderful places to browse for tutorials. I can't decide now so I am going to make a few, take them to the next meeting and let the retreaters (so not a word) vote. We could end up making more than one!!

Since the meeting is not until May... I let the random generator pick a number from all the suggestions....

And the winner is

#5 POKEY!!!

Pokey, if you will email me here I will get your Market Bag mailed out when I get back from Paducah....

Tomorrow Miss Nancy and I are taking a bus to Paducah... it leaves at the butt crack of dawn and I hope to get a nap on the bus before hitting the vendors and seeing all the award winning quilts...

I will take the camera and hope to spot some celebrities...

Nancy

Have you seen.....

a really cute tutorial?

Yesterday was guild day and as I handed over my check for our annual retreat I was told asked if once again I would have a cute project.... um....sure!

Now I need your help...

I can't find one... of course I really haven't searched and searched exclusive to everything else in my life... but maybe? you have seen a cute little something out there that would be perfect for us to make?

One year we made the cute baskets from Pink Penguin and last year we made my market bags and donated them to a Woman's Crisis Center.

So this year??

Let's sweeten the deal...

If you send me a link to a cute project and we actually use it...I will send you the market bag I made in that tutorial...

Nancy

so here it is...

I stumbled across this site a couple of days ago.. She has an Etsy shop and sells PDF patterns for paper piecing blocks. She also has a couple of full quilt patterns and on her website she has some free patterns.. This is one of her free patterns. As soon as I saw it I wanted to drop everything and ran to the sewing room. I was really hoping I would find one of those Kona charm packs on the shelf... hmm.... guess I would have had to order one..
So my second choice was a baggy full of red charms. hmm... not quite right either.
I found all these polka dots... did I say I really wanted to do this? Yea, so much so that I cut a 4 inch square out of each yard of polka dot.

I love the circular quilting... I used a splatter lid for the pattern... lol :- )

I would love to do 4 of these for a baby quilt... anyone pregnant?

Maybe I will look for that charm pack in Paducah... I need to make a list..

Nancy

edit - check the size of the paper piece block after printing. Mine printed slightly off square. I am sure there must be a secret and I will check her printing hints before I do a baby quilt...

ps edit - Here is where I found the inspiration for the quilting..

a sneak peak...

I am supposed to be making

2 diaper bags

1 baby quilt

a gazillion and a 1/2 Civil War blocks

So what AM I doing?

I hope to be finished tonight



Nancy

Let's make a Market Bag...my first ever tutorial

Pat has a challenge ahead of her to use 4 FQ's... You can read about the challenge here...



My comment was to make some Market Bags... Her comment? Show me how...



ok.. here goes...




My first tutorial.



What you will need:

1/2 yard fabric and your regular sewing supplies....thread, pins, sewing machine, rotary cutter, ruler etc.



Let's get started. Photo will show first then directions.


Press your fabric and straighten up the sides. It doesn't matter if your fabric is exactly 18 inches wide or not. Just so the sides are straight.



With the fold to the left, trim off the selvages along the top.



Now measure and cut 4 inches off across the top of the fabric. (the fold is at the bottom) This will give you two pieces of fabric 4"x18". These are the handles.


With wrong sides together, fold and press each fabric handle in half. Open up, fold the raw edges into the middle and press again. Fold in half again and press real good.



Now stitch down each edge of the handles. Set your handles aside. Let's move over to the bag body now.



To finish the top edge of the tote fold over 1/4 inch twice and press.



Top stitch across the top edges. I do a double top stitch for strength..


Now let's add the handles to the bag. Measure over 5 inches from each side and pin your handles as shown in the photo.


Make sure you don't twist the handles.


Stitch the handles on...



Fold up and do a nice X-stitch. You want nice strong handles to load up lots of fresh veggies..



OK.. we are almost done. With wrong sides together, stitch 1/4 inch seam down both sides.


Turn right side out and stitch 1/2 inch seam allowance on both sides. You just made a french seam!! oh la la...


Press and you are FINISHED....

Now go make another one!! If you use FQ's you will just have to stitch the bottom seam just the same way you did the side seams. No biggeee....

And look, look... Pat made one...you know... to try out the instructions...



She boxed her bottom...(sounds fun, doesn't it)and you can too... There are tutorials all over the internet to show you. I would show you, but I don't box my bottoms....

If you make one, I would love to see it...

Nancy

design wall monday... 4-12-2010

Judy encourages us to show what's up on our design wall every Monday. Even if there is nothing.

Today I have this on my design wall....



By the time I have it all sewn together it will measure 6 1/2 inches...

It should like this at some point.



I lost count of how many parts there are to this block. I have 12 finished and there are just as many sitting on the sewing machine waiting to be sewn. This is the 39th block of 121 blocks for the Civil War Love Letter quilt I am making for hubby. At some point this weekend, we I talked about decreasing the amount of blocks and thereby decreasing the size of the quilt. If I follow the book it will end up roughly 100 inches x 100 inches....that's one big quilt.... He thinks I am tired of doing them and just need a break. Maybe he is right so...

I have to have this block done by tomorrow evening. A group of us meet at a LQS to share our blocks, tips, funny stories etc... and tomorrow is the day.




oh, and tomorrow I got a little something up my sleeve...It will be a FIRST!!



Nancy

ah....more shopping

Yesterday a friend and I jet-setted to Mexico... we enjoyed the local food, the margaritas, the cute pool boys and laid in the sun with our eyes closed enjoying the breeze...

then I woke up....

Really, we did go to Mexico... Missouri... home of Homestead Hearth. It was a beautiful drive and I dominated the conversation...lol...and poof...we were there.

Photos aren't allowed in the shop as everything is copyrighted...so if you will close your eyes and read this it might give you a sense...

You walk into the front door and immediately must decide...right dull...left bright..

Yes, they have divided the store... Civil War prints and Daiwabo prints on the right. The dull side. Brights and 30's and modern (think Amy Butler and pretty florals and such) on the left.

Since the trip was specifically scheduled for the buying of Civil War prints we started on the right. I am NOT a fan of CWP..so I just started picking them up and stacking them up in my arms. V was a bit more selective.. One of the shop girls was nice enough to bring us a nice wire basket.. I kept saying my basket looked so dull...with all browns and blues and dark greens with just a hint of yellow and tan...so I wandered over to the bright side. V said "go towards the light!!" and I did.... I found a great pink for a diaper bag on order and some yummy lime greens with black... My basket finally started looking fun..

Here are the DULL side fabrics...


yea, yea, whatever... I don't like them, but need them for the Civil War Love Letters quilt I am making for the hubby..

Me likey these.....

enough FQ's for a bright baby quilt... anyone pregnant??



pink for the ordered diaper bag...I will pair it with a pale gray per instructions...



and there was a huge grocery cart of rolled FQ's for a buck... these are destined for some Christmas gifts...



Then we called my daughter to make sure the Mexican restaurant was still in business and V had a taco salad and I had taquitos... yummmy...and boring iced tea...no Margaritas...dang it.

Ok...you can open your eyes...now wasn't that fun?

Then we came home and got back to reality... getting a tow truck for the car of the girlfriend of the son. Actually at one time we had 1 tow trucks, then 2 tow trucks,then no tow trucks and then we finally had THE tow truck but that's a long story... and then Sonic for dinner...because it was that or pancakes..

Today the hubby gets back from New Orleans and I will be finishing the quilting on the Downy quilt for charity...

off I go... have a productive day!

Nancy
next time I will bring the camera and snap a photo of those pool boys...oh oh cutie patooties...

so sad.....(and happy too!)

Wherever we live we try to buy locally. When we moved to St Louis and needed new mattresses we went to a local store where they actually make their own mattresses and bought two.. I grocery shop locally, I use the local pharmacy, the local dry cleaners and well, you get the idea...

Today I visited one of my local quilt shops. Sadly, she has decided to close the store the first of May. No words about the economy, just that she is done and she and hubby would like to relax a bit..

Of course a sale is always good...

some sunshiny yellows...



some Wild Thyme...



what's better than dots?



ah some blue for a diaper bag and matching green...just because...



backing for the Chicken Quilt...


and a new ruler.. I hope it comes with instructions..



I will be sad for the shop to close. She is the only one in the area to carry Aurifil thread and that's all I use.

Nancy

Stella....

Look what the Easter Bunny left in Owen and Ava's basket... I am so glad the Easter Bunny only left candy here. Stella is only 7 weeks old.. she is so small we almost lost her in the grass..



Our Oliver wasn't too impressed...

We had a wonderful spaghetti dinner..Anytime the girls come for dinner they request Dad's homemade spaghetti sauce. Saturday, hubby showed me how to make it, so I think we will have it more often now. He really needs to bottle this stuff...it is THAT GOOD!!

Nancy

YIPPEE!!!

Remember this post?

I WON!!



Mama's getting a whole new bag!

oh yea...

Thank you to Geta and her Quilting Studio