Shopping is DONE..

Well, almost.. I met my sister at the mall this morning and we took advantage of some of the sales. I even bought myself a few new things... I finished buying for the Rock Star today. The grandkids are done, the grown kids are done, exchange gifts are done.... Just have to buy for the hardest person on the planet. The Hubby!! He is not into sports, we get books from paperbackswap, his hobby is furniture making and I don't buy wood! So I am asking for links or he will end up with coal under the tree...

Oh, I just glanced over at him and he has his laptop on and is making a wish list on Rockler...good for him! Point, click and buy...the best kind of shopping there is..LOL

I have two Christmas parties this week, and maybe some of you are starting the rounds and need a quick, different punch idea?? My sister-in-law made this for Thanksgiving and we really liked it....

Bubbly Cranberry Punch
2 cans (16 oz) jellied cranberry sauce
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 (1 liter each) ginger ale, chilled.

In a large pitcher or punch bowl, whisk cranberry sauce until smooth. Whisk in juices. Just before serving, stir in ginger ale. Add ice cubes. Yield: 3 1/2 quarts.

Enjoy!!

Nancy

We weren't going to.....

Black Friday....brings shudders to me brain. I remember very well standing outside ToyRUs, at 4am, in the cold, when the girls were little and dolls and must haves were on sale... I really kind of liked it then. Of course I was a wee bit younger then too...

This year the Rock Star WORKED Black Friday. He works at Circuit City and is their number two top seasonal seller. This is the perfect job for him. He is a tech junkie and loves talking to people about cell phones and video games and lap tops and other stuff I don't understand.
He went to bed last night at 7pm so he could get up at 2am, to leave by 3am, to be at the store by 4pm for the store to open at 5am. (He worked Wednesday night until midnight putting stock out for today) He was actually looking forward to today. I roused at 2am to make him a hot breakfast before he left (fried egg sandwich). He got off at 1pm and he is now sound asleep... His band plays tonight at 8pm so he is gonna be tired tomorrow.... and he works at 7am....poor kid!!

I checked all the ads yesterday and decided there wasn't anything I needed, so of course by 8:30am hubby and I were on our way to Wal-Mart LOL.... We didn't get anything though. Just like the ads, nothing was really needed.
We headed over to Lowes to get some stain for a project he is working on and ended up buying an artificial Christmas tree. We have always had a real tree. My hubby hates artificial trees. I was ok with the real tree, but hated the fact that we paid so much for a tree and could only have it in the house for a week before it would start shedding needles and making a mess. And for the last 4 or 5 years the trees haven't smelled like trees. They have absolutely no smell at all. So now we have a huge box in the living room and Sunday we will spend the day putting up the tree, lights and decorations. I am psyched. No needles to vacuum up, no water all over the carpet, no nasty tree to try and get rid of.... and the decorations can be enjoyed longer than a few days....

Off to the sewing room...

Nancy

Happy Thanksgiving....

From my house to yours....

Nancy

Life on the internet....

Life Magazine has loaded tons of photos from their archives onto the internet. CLICK HERE to access these. There is a search box if you are looking for something in particular. There are three pages of quilts.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

I'm cooking.....

Today is prep day. I am not hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, but will contribute to my sister-in-laws table. There will only be 6 adults and our sweet baby Abbie this year. One daughter and one son-in-law works. I am in charge of

Hot Rolls Done!
Fried Corn Done!
Homemade Applesauce and Done!

It's all packaged ready to go and there is a HUGE NOTE on the fridge.. Hopefully we won't take off and leave it all here....LOL

I won't have leftover turkey, so I braved the grocery store today and got a bone in turkey breast. I will cook that on Saturday and since no one in this household appreciates a good hot turkey dinner (sheesh, what is with these people!) I will freeze the turkey for sandwiches.

I am off to the sewing room. I want to try and make Abbie some fabric blocks.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

More quilt show....

"It's Hip to be Squared" hand pieced, hand quilted and owned by Daphne Hedges.







30's Row Quilt pieced by the 30's group for Jane Lee.


This quilt had no information listed. Click the close-up photo and look at that quilting. Whoever quilted this wrote words into the sashing along with dragonflies, butterflies and more. Very well done and I am sorry I can't give credit to the owner/quilter..




Scrappy Diamonds (she named it "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend") owned by Julie Alesburg, I love the modern fabric...very cute.














And to finish off this quilt show, two very well done applique wall hangings.... Please double click on the photo to read the information on each quilt. For someone who doesn't do this type of applique these were amazing..














Yesterday I took off at 9am to get a haircut. I fully expected to be back home by 10am at the latest. Instead I headed down to Target. Santa, being the nice guy that he is, visits every Christmas. Oh, we don't get to see him,(he's way too busy for that!) but he drops off an extra red Santa bag filled with surprises for the great-grandkids. This year there are 6, plus 1 due next June. It's Great Grandma's (my Moms) job (her idea) to fill the bag with two gifts for each great grandchild. As I walked the toy aisles I was struck that she really needed to be doing this, although she always manages to get one of us to do her shopping and wrapping. So I called her. She met me and we went from K-Mart, to lunch (meeting up with my working sister) and back to K-Mart and then to Wal-mart and on to Target. I didn't get home until 3:30pm, but her shopping is all done. I still have to wrap it, LOL, but that's ok. I think it was good for her to get out and help pick. She seemed to enjoy it. I wonder if she was as tired last night as I was. LOL

Today I am going to work on a couple of Christmas gifts.... maybe there will be photo's tomorrow....

Happy Sewing....
Nancy

Quilt Show.....

The three of us started out at 9am to drive 90 miles west to a quilt show put on by the local quilt guild. First though we had to stop at Cracker Barrel for Mom's French Toast for them and coffee and toast for me. The show was really nice although there was an lot of stuff packed into that room. There were lots of vendors, Liberty Homestead, Son Shine Seed Co., Everything you Needle to Hand Quilt, and more....
I was tempted to purchase some more hand embroidery patterns, but wisely decided I have enough projects going for now. I did get a couple of pieces of fabric. One a 30's print in orange and green and a white with scattered small black dots I plan to use as the background of a stitchery...

Here are some quilts I found particulary interesting...

Names and information under each quilt.....


Nine Patch owned by Sandy Moritz

Sampler owned and hand pieced by Paula Stogsdill

Friendship Quilt owned by Martha Eberhard made by members of the guild.

Rachels Reel, Adaptation of a Jo Morton pattern. Started in 1992 and put aside until 2006, finished in 2007. Hand appliqued and hand quilted by owner Margaret Heller.

My Version of Super Mario owned by Velma Dykstra

I have some amazing photos for tomorrow's post. Come back and see them...

Happy Sewing...
Nancy

Great Tutorials....

I love tutorials and I love bloggers that give them away for free...so it was with great excitement that I found this tutorial on this blog. I started last night cutting out all the pieces, made the block and got it quilted and then this morning I finished it. Took all of maybe 2 hours from start to finish...

This is the greatest invention...a cell phone/camera/whatever charger basket. There is a little rectangle for the cords to go through. The tutorial is very well written with photos and everything. I followed it step by step and ended up with a Christmas Present.... YIPPEE!!!

Wouldn't this be great for a college student? a friends desk? put it on the table in the entry and keep everything there including keys, cell phone... so many ideas? I might make some more...




Tomorrow I am heading out of town with a couple of friends to a quilt show...
Hope to have lots of photos for you...

I dreamt about a quilt pattern last night and want to head upstairs to attempt my dream...

Happy Sewing..
Nancy

I love houses......

and looking at house plans and since I won't be going back to college to be an architect, I drool over house quilts..... so I will be running over HERE to win some goodies.....
Wanna follow me??




Happy Sewing
Nancy

The last retreat photos....

Here are some more photos of retreat....eating, sewing and our room....










Judy is having a quilt-a-thon this weekend. It is deer season so DH is gone, the Rock Star is working and I am SEWING....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Retreat Quilt Show...PHOTO HEAVY

Here are photos of most of the quilts that were either started, worked on or finished during Retreat. I forgot to mention that this retreat was hosted by Louise Georgia owner of The Quilted Fox. This was my 7th year attending and Miss Nancy's first. I won't comment on the quilts, just enjoy....

The first quilt is one that has visited us for the past 3 or 4 years. It is Louise's quilt and that is her on the left. It is absolutly stunning in person and believe it or not it gets yet another pieced border...






















Aren't we a diverse group???

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

THE WINNERS......

We had such a wonderful time. For three days we ate, stitched, ate, stitched and ate. Along the way I took some photos and we talked... Monday we left at 9am and Miss Nancy's DH drove us there, helped us unload and took off. I thought he was going to stay for lunch, but he must have encountered a bit too much estrogen..LOL

We set up our machines and as soon as lunch was over we zoomed...............

This is what Miss Nancy finished...

Sunflower TicTacMo... and that is Miss Nancy on the left!!

1 Christmas tablerunner....

Closeup, cause it has faux binding and you would never believe that unless you see it up close. She cut it to make use of the fabric. Too much math for me!..lol
shoot. Just realized you can't see the faux binding, duh!! Well, click on that other photo to see the faux binding. We love the words FAUX BINDING!!

1 table topper....


And this photo shows why Miss Nancy didn't get anything else finished. We need to start calling her Miss Nancy Pin.... See she PINS...EVERYTHING!! She took it back to her room one night and did all this pinning. I swear we counted 100 pins in that little table topper....

Drum roll please.....Miss Nancy's winner IS.....

Anonymous dated 11/8/08 at 6:58 p.m. (but you aren't Anonymous, you're BEV) ...Email me your address and I will send it on to Miss Nancy....

Now it's MY TURN.......
Here is what I finished....
Bits and Pieces "no name" pattern #271. for my Mom for Christmas. Since bringing it home I have decided to add two borders, but that was after so I am counting this as a finish.
UPDATE - The pattern is by Mountainpeak Creations and it is called "Bits and Pieces". You can find it here




A Checked Tote bag...

A Polka Dot tote bag....

Red, White and Black Yellow Brick Road for me... these are the fabrics from my blog header...

And yet another tote bag....

So that is 5 finishes for me...

And my winner is
Linda
Send me your address and I will get your cute fabric in the mail tomorrow...

So that's all folks....Thank you all for guessing. Come back tomorrow to see a fabulous quilt show... I have photos of ALL the projects by the other 21 retreaters.....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy