design wall monday... 5-31-2010

I cut this panel apart yesterday and it took me quite a while to read and re-read the story to make sure it was in the right order. The panel was originally printed for a book and I will make a quilt for charity.. I need to find a sashing fabric and border in the stash and then I found a print with the three pigs for backing... It will make a smaller size quilt, but hopefully it will keep some child entertained..

Want to see more Wall Design Monday? See Judy's blog.

I also got the back pieced for a commission quilt and will hopefully get that the quilter this week.

On the way back from retreat last weekend we stopped at a quilt shop and they had a wonderful redwork quilt on display (they were using it to advertise their Redwork Club). Of course no pattern as it was in a magazine a zillion years ago. THEN. Bev said she had made the quilt AND might still have the magazine.. She did!! And now I have started a new redwork quilt. Like I needed another project..


Nancy

Twist and Shout....

So the story goes like this....


Trudi lives in the UK. I didn't know that.. and she was kind enough to fess up..of course I would have realized it when she sent me her mailing address...but anyway...


The Twist Part...

She said I should pick another name...but wait...could she pick? YES!! Ok, actually those are not her hands...but she knows who they belong to, so that's all that counts. And I bet the winner couldn't care less who drew her name...lol

The Shout Part..




So Bonnie is the new winner.. please email me your mailing address and I will get your package out Tuesday..

Let's all give a round of applause to Trudi....HIP HIP HOORAY!!

Nancy

stay tuned....

A little twist to surprise you...


Nancy

announcing....The Winner...

First we must list all the names

Then we must cut them all up

this is my pretty pink box
i know, i'm not a pink lover
but i'm also not one to throw out something just because of the color


these are the scraps that were in the box

Romper, Stomper, Bomper, Boo...

I see Gari and Doris and Osage Bluff Quilter..

I swear...I had to really talk to get him to draw the winner.
He said he couldn't stretch.
He said he couldn't move his arm.
I said he couldn't leave the house.
He drew.

The Winner....

Congrats Trudi, send me your mailing address and I will get it (them?) in the mail on Tuesday.

Thanks everyone for playing the game. I was shocked and amazed that so many of you picked the right number. I must have the smartest readers in the bloggy world.

Nancy

random thoughts...

Our local discount store has decided to close it's fabric department. It's not the best fabric but it's 50% off and nice for pillowcases and such for the grandkids...

Some pillowcase flannel for this Christmas...



Some pink Princess and lizards and frog fabric....



And I will recover my ironing table today...





My son after some minor out patient surgery yesterday. With all the drugs on board he was so cute...and talkative... He said "Thanks for coming with me" and held my hand.

Hubby is going with me today to run all my errands. Want to guess how much longer it will take?

And "So you think you can dance" must have started last night, cause it automatically got Tivo'ed... which is great..

And who knew that ALL my readers were so smart and could pick the right number for the contest. Surgery boy will be drawing a winning name tomorrow...cause he really can't do much else.. So there is still time to enter... Go down a couple of posts to enter if you haven't already..

Come back tomorrow for the winner...

Nancy

off for the day...

here for the contest? click this link

The family has a little sumpin, sumpin to do today..think good thoughts for us if you are so inclined.. And I wouldn't want you to be bored so here are the latest blocks of my Civil War Love Letters... I have 8 to go and I will be ready for class on the 15th of June.

Bev finished all her projects this past retreat so she picked out the fabrics for the bottom two blocks and also the one on the end of the top row. She did a good job and I would be happy for her to come down and pick out more... I did find out that it's easiest for me to pick the fabric and cut a few blocks and then sew...and then pick and cut a few more and sew.... seems to break up the monotony....

If you haven't entered the contest...hurry...you only have 2 more days to guess.

Nancy

PS...I am looking to purchase a pattern second hand... Buggy Barn Star Crazies. If you have it and would like to sell it, please email me.. I can use cash funded paypal. I am taking a class on the 10th and really need it soon.. thanks

Announcing.... The contest....

Contest Now Closed...

winner

Ok, first things first. Here is the prize. Batik fabric. I don't like batik fabric and I found this in my sewing room. Why would I buy batik fabric if I don't like it? Maybe I knew there was going to be a contest? Who knows. AND guess what? It's not a fat quarter. Oh no..If I don't like batiks, why would I buy a fat quarter? No...it's a 1/2 yard.. of pink.. Did I tell you? I'm not a pink kind of gal either.

So here we have 1/2 yard of pink batik fabric.... Is it pretty? Cause I can't tell.

Now if you aren't a 1/2 yard pink batik kind of gal, then I guess you don't have to enter the contest. Cause I got nothing else... (well, I do, but I'm not sharing)




Now to the particulars....

Guess ho5w many proje5cts I got done at my mini-ret5reat. V and B you are eligible also, cause really they weren't paying any at5tention to me... They were too b5usy sewing... If there is m5ore than one correct guess t5hen I will draw a name from all the corre5ct entries...

Now, this should be easy...right? Oh, do you need a hint? Guess somethin5g between 1-10...OK?

So, I guess I will leave the contest up until sometime Friday night or Saturday morning, then I will announce the winner.

Oh, I hate to do this, but I must keep it to USA only. Mailing is astronomical and it would be probably be cheaper for me to fly the fabric over, but I can't do that either...as much as I would enjoy it..lol

So, I guess that's it. Did I forget anything? No? Good...

Nancy

new button and giveaway....

look on the right sidebar

click on May Giveaway

tell them "withthreadinhand" sent you

really, it's worth your time...

I am cleaning the sewing room today and getting the contest ready for tomorrow!!

Nancy

tilt your head to the left....

Or to the right. Doesn't matter. I finished the last two First Saturday blocks this past weekend. They are the ones at the end of the first and second row. These are not in any order and I haven't decided how I will sash these. They will be 3 across and 4 down, but my design wall won't hold them that way. Any ideas? I don't have any matching fabrics, but I have quite a stash of 30's so I could make cornerstones... that either match each other or not.

We all had a wonderful time at our mini-retreat. We left Thursday and came back earlier than planned on Saturday. We did stop at a quilt shop on the way home and I got a new magazine and some triangle paper. No plans for the triangles, but you never know when it might be bad weather and you just HAVE to make triangles... well, I am ready..

I am off to spend the day with bitty. Daycare is closed for a funeral. (oh, that sounds bad...bitty goes to a private run day care and the owners uncle passed away).. So we will play, go to the quilt store, have some lunch, take a nap and play some more. Fun day!

One day this week there is gonna be a contest. Consider yourself warned...

Nancy

I'm outa here....

My bags are packed, along with my sewing machine and food and fabric and rotary cutter and rulers and snacks and my pillow... if I have forgotten anything....too bad..

Be back sometime Sunday..

Nancy

the one about getting 3 kids where they need to go....

oh my... I so admire all you young mothers out there. You make it look and sound so easy. The last two days I was totally responsible for 3 kids (8,7 and 2).

My day started at 4:30pm...

Pick up bitty from daycare.

Take her to Walmart and buy Milk and cookies. I couldn't take her to the grocery store cause her Dad works at the grocery store and everyone knows her and it takes forever to get out again AND he wasn't there and how do you explain to a 2 year old that your Dad isn't at work AND isn't at home? (cause he is with my daughter out of town)

Pick up big kids from school which means I had to get bitty out of the truck, sign out the big kids and then show ID to the after school program police so I could actually take them home. Don't you think that two kids running and yelling "Grandma!!" would be ID enough? Oh no, I had to show my drivers license and they had to compare it to the name that my daughter gave them. I kept telling them I knew the "secret number", but I never did get to prove it.

Drive to Little Ceasers Pizza and park right up front and let the 8 year old go in and order the pizza and pay for it and bring the change AND the pizza back to the truck. She did a great job.

Drive to the gas station and get ice cause the ice maker doesn't work and even though the 8 year old told me over and over that there is cold water at home, I couldn't get her to understand that I needed ICE not cold water...

Drive home and try to get the key to work in the door while keeping bitty on the porch, holding the pizza and making sure the big kids know that they can play AFTER dinner. I never did learn to juggle.

Feed them. Pizza and cookies. Hey, that's a balanced meal. They had a cookie in each hand...

Let them play tag outside and I got to be base.

Give Bitty a bath. Then dress her in her jammies while listening to her tell me how the jammies go on and "Gama Ancy, da yegs go here".

Get the big kids back into the house to take showers. They didn't even argue about who goes first...good kids..

Let them have more cookies. I am the grandma...therefore they can eat more cookies.

Get bitty to bed..which means three books, a drink of water, two blankets, two lovies and pat my back... Oh and she kept saying something else, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was. (I eventually was told she was asking for me to "dernondafan"...) She likes the white noise of the hall fan.

Get the big kids to bed which was surprisingly easy and they fell right to sleep. Oh, except for one of them that banged her head (twice) on the wall and then had to come down and get some kind of white gooey stuff out of her backpack so it could "dry out".

Then me and Glee and Parenthood and fall asleep on the couch..

Up this morning at 5:30am to shower, dress and get them all ready for school and daycare. We left right on time and nobody forgot anything. I call that a successful morning.

Now I am back home and tired... and packing for a fun trip this weekend. I will be gone until Sunday...

Want to guess where I going?

Nancy

the one about stopping at a quilt shop....

Aren't those just lovely... I fell in love with them a couple of weeks ago when 2 friends and I went to a couple of quilt shops about 90 miles from here. I fondled them at least 4 times before we left. And yes, I left without them. Not sure why, except I am not prone to buying fabric without a purpose. I kept thinking these looked like Home Dec fabrics and would love to be able to buy bolts and bolts and make new curtains, pillows and more for my bedroom. BUT...we have our house on the market and I am NOT redecorating this bedroom. I don't know what type or how many windows will be in the next bedroom so I couldn't buy it and just hope I have enough... could I?

Turns out I could...

and did...

How? Yesterday I drove out to watch 3 grandkids and guess where they just happen to live? Yep... about 3 miles from that quilt shop. I left a bit early, walked in, held my breath while I located the bolts and then scooped some up. There isn't enough for curtains and such...but I did buy 8 yards total and could see a small quilt for the end of the bed and some matching pillows...

Nancy

My baby...

Our last child graduated from High School Sunday. I thought I was going to be ok. I'm not much of a crier at family events, but I teared up as the class paraded into the family arena. If you look at the bottom left hand side of the following photo you can just see him....his head is turned around. I didn't kid myself thinking he was looking for us....he was looking for his girlfriend..lol



And here he is with us... I wish I would have though to take off my jacket, but it was colder inside the arena than outside and I "asked" the hubby to please walk back out to the truck and get my jacket...
My oldest and my youngest...
This is his "twin" sister... everyone knows they are related even though she is 12 years older. They look and act alike.. and that's my son-in-law...

We had a wonderful party on Saturday where I found this graduate sitting on the floor drinking what I thought was his "first" beer. Come to find out he confessed to it being his second.

So I guess now we are almost empty nesters...

Nancy

notice anything different?? and some help needed...

Does my typing look different? Yesterday The Son installed Windows 7 on my computer, which means I spent the next 3 hours downloading Adobe Reader and EQ5 and my camera software and I am still working on getting my IM downloaded. What a mess, just to keep up with the times...

While the computer was chugging away I started working in the sewing room. I should have been cleaning.. I should have been making a grocery list..I should have been begging IMO's for a free pizza box.I should have been doing a lot of other things, but I didn't... I got some stuff cut for next weekend. What's next weekend? My sanity trip. Me and 2 friends are going here for a few days of sewing and no cooking. We do this a couple of times a year, and would do it more if we could. Well, I guess we could...nothing is really stopping us except husbands and one of us works (OUTSIDE the home, cause we ALL work inside the home!)

Anyway back to THIS weekend... What's this weekend?

PARTAY!!!

Yes, a party... our youngest child, The Son, is graduating from High School on Sunday. And we are giving a Party tomorrow. There will be 30-35 people here to eat. And I'm not cooking. Oh no...I called the local smokehouse and ordered pulled pork. Just have to add the sides (thanks sis for bringing german potato salad, and other sis (that doesn't read this I think) for bringing mac and cheese!) And the son requested Cheesecake for dessert... so that is purchased also...

So anyway I now need your help...

clicking will make it bigger and easier to see...



These are my Civil War Love Letter blocks... I am halfway there. Our leader told us to lay them all out and it will give us an idea of what colors we need to concentrate on for the rest of the quilt. There seems to be a tendency for people to pull the same color fabrics all the time... So do you see any colors that I am missing? This is the hubs quilt and he likes it so far, but he is color blind and so no help to me at all....(in many things, but I digress)

Nancy

ps i will explain the pizza box later... if i forget someone needs to remind me..k?

comedy genius....

I confess... I have approximately 400 blogs in my google-reader. Not all of them post every day, but most of them post at least 3-4 times a week. I have to admit I have my favorites...

These are the ones I click on to get inspiration -

Oh, Fransson! - Elizabeth never fails to inspire me with color and crisp modern quilts.
Moda Bake Shop - if you need a pattern for anything it will be right there...and free...it doesn't get any better than that.
Simplify - a young mother and another designer of modern quilts. I love seeing pictures of her boys...
and many more...

These are some of the bloggers I feel I know...my kids call them my "fake friends". Believe me NONE of them are fake....

All Stitched Up - Linda is responsible for this blog. She talked me through setting it up never realizing what she started... I will always be grateful to her..

Bren - Is a sweetie. I can't link as her blog is semi-private, but I can't leave her out either. She is the best mom...and grandma. She inspires me to be a better person. Bren has given me permission to share a link to her blog. click HERE to read

A Little of This and A Little of Pat - Pat and I talk almost every day. I read her blog first thing in the morning (well, now she seems to have taken a break). She shows lots of quilts and blocks and she could very well be in the first category also..

Tea and Quilts - Miss Nancy and I met at a local redwork club and we are "real" friends. We actually go places together..like Paducah....like in real life... yea, I know??? She is probably the best quilt piecer and Type A person I have ever met. She is paticular and meticulous and I love it... cause I'm not. She inspires me to use more pins.

Batiks by the Bay - Ann lives in Australia. Now. She used to live here. Real close here. Like Miss Nancy, Ann and I would meet every month to sew. Miss Nancy, Ann and I all met at that same redwork club. Ann started the whole thing by inviting us to her house to sew one day and it went down hill from there. Ann did embroidery, but was just starting to quilt. It was so much fun to get together and sew... We miss her a lot.. You can move back any time now Ann...
Can't your hubby commute?

And then there are those blogs that I read to laugh. You know the ones where you make sure there isn't any liquid in your mouth when you open up the blog and start reading...cause you are tired of cleaning the computer screen? The ones that allow you start the day with laughter, which is the best.

Kims Big Quilting Adventure - Kim is the most prolific quilter I know (other than some people I know that don't blog) and always makes it sound like I am missing out. Her and Gran get into some wonderfully funny adventures...starbucks, anyone? and she tells it like it is...which I love.
She also designs patterns and teaches classes in her area...

The Bitchy Stitcher - one word - FUNNY! She had about 3 1/2 readers when I found her.. she now has 186 followers and 514 facebook fans... nuff said...

So what blogs do you read? Why? Any good blogs you can lead me to? I could use some inspiration... and a few laughs..

Nancy

My inspiration for this post? Lynne at Lilys Quilts

more Mothers Day...

Saturday evening I was told to be ready to leave the house at 7:15am. oh? ok. At the butt-crack of dawn on Mothers Day I was sitting in the truck ready to go. Where? I had no idea.. I kind of figured we were off to have breakfast somewhere because I was told not to bother eating. hm..

Where would we be going that '
1. I couldn't eat
2. had to leave EARLY...


We drove into Denny's around 9am.. There were my girls and all my grandkids. I can't believe I took my camera and took NO photos...

We had a wonderful time eating and talking and the grandkids behaved beautifully and ate all their breakfast.

And look what I got?

Oldest daughter and son-in-law gave me this..






Isn't it pretty? I love the color green and the bird is so cute...

Second daughter and son-in-law presented me with this.





Can you read it? Yes, it is a word... L E E. That's our last name. She has a friend that takes the photos and mounts them into words. Isn't that cool? It is sitting on my mantle and I love it.

Thank you girls for getting up and getting the kids ready and surprising me. I loved it...and maybe next time we can all wear panties?

Nancy

oh, woe (wii?) is me....

There are 14 blocks due this month

by Tuesday

I have these 6, well apparently I can't count...

I have 8 done...

Oh, woe is me... I need to shake a leg...

AND

Oh Wii is me...

For Mothers Day I got a Wii with Wii Fit

I have already bowled ( I got 7 strikes in 3 games!, not bad for an old lady),

played tennis

and

watched the SON find out that his Wii Fit Age is 30!! He is 17.

Oh my... I don't think I want to do this..

If he is 30 what does the Wii have in store for me?

Yikes

Nancy

some WIPS...

4 quilts ready to be basted and quilted

2 charm packs of Make Life by Sweetwater to make a quilt
these are actually in some kind of order!!

FINISHED!! This clutch was a class at quilt guild.
put away with Christmas stuff..

Commission diaper bag ready
need to make one more in chocolate and blue for the same lady


And I am waiting for permission to post the sauce recipe. I have it all written down and all the photos taken...

AND

Tonight is PROM!! The Son will be wearing a Tuxedo and everything (everything being funky shoes that I will be sure to get in a photo)

I have already warned him that I will be following him to the Girlfriends house for photos.

Nancy

dreamy...

these are the 12 fq's i won from jackie at

Canton Village Quilt Works

when i got her email stating that i was a winner i

dashed over to her shop

and was completely overwhelmed

she carries tons of 30's and is i think the only

one who makes her own packs of

5" squares in 30's reproductions

i own a pack

they are really pretty

i am letting them age in the stash

someday they will talk to me and tell me what they want to be when they grow up

i am just waiting patiently

i digress

i was overwhelmed with her selection of Kona

i love Kona

i asked her to please pick me 12 fq's of her pretty Kona so i can do

a color wheel quilt

didn't she do a good job?

She can do the same for you

just click here

and it was FAST

she emailed me Sunday night saying i was a winner

they got here yesterday

and she was right

i was a winner

thanks Jackie

Nancy

hm...

this is what I accomplished yesterday

not much

today will be better

I promise

I'm going on a

ROAD TRIP!!!

back tomorrow!

Nancy

design wall monday May 3,2010

a commission quilt
that should have been done by now
but isn't
but will be hopefully this week
but don't hold me to that
k?

doesn't look like much does it?

Nancy