Hard at work....

The other day while DH was watching FoxNews and searching ebay, I decided to try my hand at sketching a little quilt. I have it all sketched out, figured yardage and block sizes and yesterday got sewing ...

Here is a sneak peak.


I bought this fabric for a diaper bag that never got made. There are 24 blocks made out of little less than 2 yards of fabric. Today I am off to see "Bride Wars" with my sister. We will then do a little fabric shopping for another couple of yards to go with the blocks.

Hope to show the finished top next week.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

I spent today making a charity quilt. I have a whole bucket of polka dots and decided to just cut and stitch. I still have a whole bucket left. How does that work?

I used the last of the bread tonight and made garlic bread along with Chicken Parmesan and a side of spaghetti. YUMMY!!

Tonight while DH listens to FOXNEWS, I will work on my next redwork block.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

The last 10 days....

Where have I been the last 10 days? Let me think back....

Last Saturday we took off to our youngest granddaughters first birthday party. She really liked her cake. She liked it so much she needed a bath afterwards..
Her sister helped her open her gifts and play with them. We got her something that has pieces, makes a lot of noise and takes 4-D batteries. I love toys like that.




I was hoping to go to a local quilt shop, but the party started at 2pm and the quilt shop closed at 3pm, so that didn't happen.

I have been working on my redwork blocks, doing some charity blocks using some of my brights stash and teaching the neighbor girl how to do redwork. I have also been taking many trips to the eye doctor and Monday I was told that my right eye was totally healed up and I just have to be weaned off of the steroid drops now. I will always have a small hazy area but it does not affect my eyesight so I am thankful. I do have to pay attention and get to the eye doctor much sooner if I notice symptoms returning. Apparently once you have herpes simplex in your eye, it is very likely to return. Live and Learn...

My latest finished redwork block....





Today was a snow day as we got about 6 inches, so I decided to bake. The last 2 desserts (new recipes) I have made have been total flops. Even DH wouldn't eat them and he is pretty easy to please. Today I made a lemon bundt cake with lemon glaze and it smells great. I know it will be good as I have made it before...

Then I decided to make some veggie soup. I love this stuff and will eat it for every meal until it is gone...


Now, I have always been just a wee bit envious of Judy. She makes her own bread. I love bread. I used to make a lot of it when we were first married and it was cheaper to make it. Then I started having kids and working and it wasn't as easy. Judy even has a separate blog for cooking. She is something else. I first read about this style of bread making at her blog and then this morning I read about it again on Motherload. Three seconds later I was HERE and I should have the book by next week.

So while I wait, I decided to pull out that great Christmas present I got.



and make this....




Um...did you notice that more than half a loaf is missing?? Yea, 3 teenage boys, sledding down the street and then hot chocolate and half a loaf of warm bread with butter....LOL

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

The Mystery Continues....

So far, so good. These are my mystery blocks for my Quilt Guild. November, December and January blocks are due tomorrow. I was really afraid I wouldn't have mine done, but here they are... This is one of each month. Each month you make the same block multiple times. According to BEV!!! we can't use matchy, matchy fabric. We must use scraps. That is hard for me to do. I try each month to close my eyes and just pick, but alas I confess I do move things around a bit. Sorry BEV!!! I am mixing up the fabrics within a block so I am trying...

I also made some bread Friday. A couple of days ago, my oldest daughter was telling me about some beer bread mix she had purchased from Simply Tasteful. At $4 a box, it was fairly expensive and she really liked it. Google to the rescue. I found a recipe here that you can print out. Here are the ingredients.... I don't buy beer very often so I thought I would at least buy something I would drink in case I didn't like the bread and ended up with 5 extra bottles. LOL



Dump all this together and you get this....


Bake for an hour and you get this....


It's a sweet bread and very dense. Would be good with a hearty soup.

DH and picked up Abbie yesterday and kept her while daughter and hubby went to his Christmas Party. Yes, it's the middle of January and it was his Christmas Party. We have to take her back today. OOPS!!! Is 7:40am and I hear her stirring.. Best go get her up for some breakfast and snuggling before we have to take her back..

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Quick Giveaway Alert

We all like to save the environment.. Jane4Girls is giving away a set of 5 reusable grocery totes.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

A New Year deserves a Clean Slate.....

Over the holidays (ok, way before that!), my sewing room was a dumping station. DH Santa gifts were all in there hidden behind clutter, I was finishing up some Christmas presents and it just got worse and worse. Yesterday, I decided I had had it...It MUST be cleaned. Here are some before and after photos. What a mess... to see all the horrible mess, double click the photos to make them bigger.

This is my ironing table and cutting table. My DH made both of these for me about 5 or 6 years ago. I am tall (5'9") and these fit my height very well. He is very handy to have around. The shelves underneath the ironing table hold some of my fabric, mostly folk art colors by Pat Sloan. I love her color combos. Isn't this a mess? Now I did take all the stuff off of those shelves above and THEN take the photo, so it looks worse than it was. Those shelves above run around my entire sewing room. They hold a ton of stuff and are another Pat Sloan invention. Well, she didn't invent the shelves, just where to put them...

And the cutting table after. The gray container on the left hanging on the wall holds all of my hand embroidery thread. DH made the ruler/scissor holder on the right. The black metal thing in between is a paper holder. I am not really even sure what is in there now. The white bucket above holds my Mystery Quilt blocks.

And the ironing table after. I decided to hang all my swap postcards so I can see them everyday. Aren't they cute?

Here is where I sew. I used to have a HUGE sewing table that you can see HERE. DH made that also, but it has served it's time and it was freecycled. This table is portable. It has wheels. I can load it up and take it to retreat. It's a SewEzi table. LOVE IT....See it HERE. Hopefully this table won't get clutter like the old did, but I have realistic expectations and I am sure it will. -sigh-
So before

and After - Not much difference. I do like to use those Command Hooks. They will stick anywhere and when you want to move them, they come off clean. No marks on the wall. I have two totes hanging there. Both were gifts...I LOVE them. I use them. All the time..

Bookshelves are notorious for clutter and mine were no exception. This holds most of my mags and books, my Kona for hand embroidery, some special knick-knacks. It was OUT OF HAND!!!

Much better. And when does a UFO stop becoming a UFO? When you make it a curtain!! I need to line it so it doesn't fade.


This is the forth wall. Just a wall, but boy can it get crazy...


Ah, much better.

A full view.....


I think I need to sew and make a mess!! LOL Hope you enjoyed the tour...

Off to work on my calendar quilt. You can see the beginnings hanging on the design wall in the after photo of the bookshelves. Yes I am a week behind. While I was cleaning I found a piece of fabric that Pat Sloan mailed me when I was making a calendar quilt a long time ago. Think I will add it to this one....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

I've been a good girl....

How good, you ask?? So good that the ulcer in my right eye has completely closed up!!! YIPPEE!!! I have been so diligent with my eye drops and oral meds. Now we are waiting for the roughness to ease out a bit and I will get to start on steroids which will completely heal the sucker... Can we hear an AMEN!!

I couldn't believe my eyes (ha, pun intended) when I woke up this morning and slowly opened my right eye to find out that there was no pain... I am so thankful for the healing. I have done some laundry, cleaned my closet and was going to make sompin a little sweet, but I don't have any frosting so maybe tomorrow.. Unless someone has a good chocolate frosting recipe? I have baking chocolate, butter, confectioners sugar, milk and probably anything else I might need, but maybe not since I have never made homemade frosting.

Anyway I am so happy to be healed, I am willing to make HOMEMADE FROSTING... and I think some retail therapy is in order. LOL Tomorrow...when the hubby is working from home.
Cause I don't have an eye appt tomorrow. Yea!! I don't go back until Thursday!! Or maybe I will clean the sewing room? I was in the middle of that when the eye took me down, so I could hide in there tomorrow and clean...

Or maybe I will work on THIS. I kind of am two days behind...

Thanks for all the nice comments and concerns. I really appreciate it.

Can't have a post without photos, so here is one I snapped over Christmas. Grace, Jackson and the Rock Star... don't ask me what Jackson is doing, he's 6.



Happy sewing,
Nancy


PS - yesterdays post was a joke. I only drove to the eye dr and didn't have a flat tire.

PPS - The coconut cupcake recipe is easy peasy. White cake mix and add a big ol handful of coconut before baking. Vanilla icing and then dip in coconut.....I have two left I am saving for DH dessert tonight.

My flat tire....

Yesterday I had a flat tire on the interstate. So I eased my car over to the
shoulder of the road, carefully got out of the car and opened the trunk.

I took out 2 cardboard men, unfolded them and stood them at the rear of my car
facing oncoming traffic. They look so lifelike you wouldn't believe! They
are in trench coats, exposing their nude bodies and private parts to the
approaching drivers.

I started to change my tire, and to my surprise, cars started slowing down
looking at my lifelike men. And of course, traffic started backing up.
Everybody was tooting their horns and waving like crazy. It wasn't long
before a state trooper pulled up behind me.

He got out of his car and started walking towards me. I could tell he was not
a happy camper!

"What's going on here?"

"My car has a flat tire," I said calmly.

"Well, what are those obscene cardboard men doing here by the road?"

I couldn't believe that he didn't know. So I told him,
"Hello-o-o-o-o-o, those are my emergency flashers!"

Sorry no photos, do you have any idea what images appear when you google "flashers"?

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

MERRY CHRISTMAS....a couple of weeks late

Today is our Christmas celebration with my in-laws. Of course first thing this morning I made my trip to the eye doctor. This is getting ridiculous and fairly expensive. I have a $30 copay every time I go. With scrips I am up to almost $250 for the week. Nice huh?? Guess I won't be doing any retail therapy next week.
The news today was better. The ulcer has almost healed over and after talking it over, we have decided that this apparently started last Dec. or even earlier. I went to my annual Endocrinologist appt Dec 3rd. I complained of dry eyes. He prescribed Lacri-lube each night. It's a thick Vaseline ointment that soothes the eye overnight. It worked for a few days and then my eye (and my right eye was always the worse)would start feeling dry again. Then a couple of weeks ago, I went to my general practitioner complaining of large infected lymph nodes in my neck. According to her they "were very impressive" and I was put on an antibiotic. The lymph nodes cleared up fine. Now thinking back we think that I actually had the beginnings of Ocular Herpes Simplex in December. If we would have known it wouldn't have gone quite this far. Live and Learn.... The eye doctor sees me again on Monday and has hopes of seeing the ulcer completely healed... Keep your fingers crossed for me..

Can't have a post without a photo, so here are the coconut cupcakes I baked for today. Don't you just love the red and white striped cake plate? A regift from my sister. The cake plate came with matching mugs and 6 white dessert plates and 6 red ones. I love them


Happy Sewing,
Nancy

The Tortoise and The Hare....

Remember the old folk tale about the tortoise and the hare. The hare could go faster, but spent so much time running around and wasting time that the tortoise won the race....
I feel like the tortoise. I have to use antibiotic eye drops 4 times a day and for about an hour afterwards, I have clear vision with no pain. So, I sew....slow and steady for four hours a day... The other times I sit on the sofa with eyes closed and listen to the TV. BORING!!!! But I am determined to finish the project I started on Monday.. Want a sneak peak??

At our Quilt Guild Christmas Party we were all given a yard of fabric. I was handed a (beautiful) piece of purple with sparkles. I quickly traded with the lady behind me for the green you see in the photo. We are to make anything we want to and bring it to the May?? meeting... I will show a photo when it's finished. I think there are very few members that read my blog...

So today I was back at the opthomologists office. The eye is better than yesterday, but not as good as she thinks it should be. She also thought she saw something in there yesterday, but with all the redness and irritation she wasn't sure. Today she tells me that I may have HERPES in my eye. I didn't even know you could GET herpes in your eye...I am really glad DH was there to hear it straight from her. Can you just imagine the phone call and quick explanation I would have to give? LOL Then I realized I would have to take the script to the pharmacy!! YIKES!! Now everyone in the pharmacy is gonna think I have herpes!! And not in my eye!! I tried to sit still and not squirm in my chair and then made sure I said something about the INFECTION IN MY EYE!!! Sheesh....why couldn't I have had something simple...

So it seems my time is up, eye starting to hurt again.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Disclaimer - in no way am I trying to make light of Herpes Simplex. It's all in fun folks....

A quickie post ....

Just a quick post to say I will be off-line for a few days. I just got back from the opthomologist and I have an ulcer on my right cornea. I have antibiotic eyedrops 4 times a day and another lubricant eye drop 6 times a day. I had to type up a schedule.. and I think it will keep me a bit busy. My eye is also very light sensitive and it hurts to have the computer on. AND I have to see the opthomologist every day this week.

I am still working on my Calendar Challenge quilt. I have the first 7 days done.
I don't have a photo, but if you go here you can see a lot of them and mine is down there somewhere...and it's not too late to start your own!

Also Gail Pan has asked us to spread the word about her BOM for 2009 and you know we can't have too many of those.... So click HERE... and bookmark the site so you get all the months...

See ya in a few... (when the eye heals)....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

One eyed.....

Remember the old song? One eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater?? Yes, I am old...
Well, yesterday and today I have been one-eyed...not sure what is going on, but my right eye is all red and watery and hurts like a son of a gun.... I don't know if there is something in there or what... it's very light sensitive so even typing this on the computer makes it water and I can't possible think of sticking a big magnifying mirror and bright light near it to get a good look.

I will leave you today with some photos of the bagels? I made Saturday. Another Christmas present I got was a Kitchenaid Professional 600 Mixer. Um...can you say complete surprise? My sister is SO JEALOUS!! She is the cook/baker in the family. I do enough to get by with...

The batter all ready to go....




Here are the ingredients for the bagels, ahem....along with a stray banana and some krispy kreme donut leftovers...
The first mixing of the dough...the first rise...shall we take a peek?

the first "hint" that maybe something isn't right.... the water bath....
Yea, these are supposed to be bagels. Don't they look more like pretzels? Yea, that's what I thought... guess I will try again.

They did taste good, although the next day they were really, really, really chewy and the dog wouldn't eat a bite...I found his at the top of the steps and then he slept all afternoon. Guess the chewing wore him out...

Need a challenge for 2009? Come over to Rachel's and join us in making a quilt this year, one day at a time....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

End of the Year roundup.....

Oh, I know. It's January 2 and I am just getting to the year end round up... Well, better late than never...

We had a wonderful Christmas and then the next day DH came down with a virus. He was sick for about 4 days, which led to the house being a mess. Two days ago I decided to get crackin.... We took all the Christmas decorations down (well, I kept my jingle tree up as we have one more Christmas here on Jan 10th) and then got busy with one of my great Christmas presents.

Hoover Carpet Cleaner

Three days later....all the carpet is Hoovered and fresh. This even got up all the tar (yea TAR!!) which came in on DH shoes...

Then I got this little bee up into my bonnet and decided that my sewing table was TOO BIG FOR MY ROOM...No matter how I moved the furniture around it was still the same. TOO BIG....How big was it?? Big enough that it took DH and the Rock Star and tools to remove it from the sewing room...lol
I was nice and freecycled it to a lady that will use it for her knitting machine. She was thrilled to get it and I was thrilled to wave goodbye... (do you freecycle?, search yahoogroups for a freecycle in your area)


EDIT - I found a "before" photo... see all that big table does is gather STUFF....





So now my machine sits on this while I wait for DH to make me a smaller permanent table. We have already designed it. I will post photos when finished.

More roundup is some of the winnings I collected over the past few months....

The first is a booklet of patterns and a bonus kit from Pimp Stitch....



This beautiful bag was hand made just for me by Katie over at The Adventures of Curt and Katie Mulder

She has the cutest little one, Rylie...she is such a sweetie and I love reading about her adventures. Thanks Katie! I love the bag... Want one of your own? Get it HERE... If you don't see one, email her and she will make you one...

Then last, but not least I won this pattern from Lynette Anderson. She is one of those fabulous Aussie designers... She is also the designer of the Noah's Ark BOM. I really need to get going on those...


And last but least a few new patterns purchased for the new year....


cause I don't have enough on my to-do list...LOL

Back to the sewing room now...I just joined a challenge over at Rachel's. I started a couple of years ago and got side tracked when we moved and all. I have those strips somewhere...Want to join? If there are at least 25 of us she will set up a blog just to post photos and such. Come on!! One strip a day...we can all do it...

Happy Sewing,
Nancy