One is the loneliest number.....

I started with two HUGE bags of apples a week ago last Friday. I have made fried apples, crockpot applesauce, apple slices in the microwave and now this....



I have one apple left.. wonder who will eat it?

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

My weekend.....

Pat Sloan scheduled a "virtual label making retreat" this past weekend. Her goal was to get a lot of us to clearly document those gift quilts we so love to make. I am guilty of not labeling my quilts. I always thought my quilts were finished once I put that last hand stitch in the binding. Now I know that a good label is the finish all quilts need. Anyone that makes quilts, either for yourself, family or friends should hustle over to her blog and start reading the posts starting last Friday... You will get all the inspiration and ideas you could possibly need....






These are the labels I finished Friday...three of them were made, written on and sewn on their quilts.
Today I plan to sew labels on DH quilt and make the two labels I need for the grandsons Christmas quilts. One I can sew on, the other will have to wait until it is back from my FABULOUS quilt Pat P.
Then I am going to get started on a few of these bags... I think these might make a great bag for some Christmas presents. I won't make them from Christmas fabric and then maybe they will be used all year round....

Saturday DH, Rock Star and I cleaned out the garage, washed it down, etched it and then Sunday while I was playing with Miss Abbie he did THIS....

We had an ordinary concrete garage floor and now we have a masterpiece. It looks perfect...


Well off to sew...and iron some of DH dress shirts...and make an apple pie for DH..

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

We make cake....

After a couple of clicks on different blogs, I found this... I know there are many recipes out there, but this is the one I used today.... so this is where I will link...

I watch two elementary age kids after school about 3 days a week. They live across the street so it is very convenient for the parents and it gives me a bit of spending money.

Today when they stumbled into the back door, I announced that M and L would be making their own snack. "What can WE make??" said M and L...

"CAKE you can make CAKE!!!"

So we did.... and it was good....

It must have been a hit, they said they want to cook again tomorrow...Are there any other "in a mug" recipes???

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Speechless.....

Very seldom am I speechless. It happened once yesterday and here is the complete story...

Yesterday was MY housecleaning day. I started around 9am and got busy upstairs. After dusting, wiping, spraying and scrubbing the upstairs was finished and I came downstairs to start in. It was a mess...

I started in the dining room, went into the living room and then it happened. The doorbell rang. Standing at my door was the mail lady. She had a bundle of mail the likes I have never seen. Package after package was heaped into my arms. Of course, I was completely embarrassed. Here I was totally unshowered and in my cleaning clothes...I am sure I looked and smelled heavenly..NOT!!

I received a book I had ordered from PaperbackSwap, a fabric panel I bought on line from SewItsForSale, Hubby got a couple of packages and then down at the bottom of the pile was a HUGE package.

Opening up this package....


Revealed this package-with cute black and white polka dotted bow..


First out was this darling little bucket...In my favorite red/white/black..This has become my new redwork project holder on the couch. It fits everything perfectly.


Then I pulled out this beautiful purse....The inside is all in polka dots with a pocket and it has a magnetic snap..and it's quilted in diamonds. Very pretty... this was a pattern in the Australian magazine called Homespun. Loraine had a photo of this on her blog and someone at the magazine saw it. They contacted her and it will be featured in the magazine under the "look what I made from one of your patterns" section... Isn't that cool? My purse will be famous.


Oh, look what is inside... Linda fairly swooned when I told her these were in the bag...she called me spoilt..


Then there was THIS!! This is absolutely stunning, gorgeous, wonderful, thoughtful, perfect, beautiful....did I say stunning?? It has perfect hand embroidery, machine applique, and is quilted. I can't wait to show it off at Redwork Club and Quilt Guild...


I can't say enough about it....

Now who sent me all this?? How did I get all these goodies in my mail? First, I joined Linda's bag swap.
Then I was lucky enough for Linda to pair me up with the wonderful blogger, Lorraine. Lorraine sent me these goodies all the way from Australia. She did an absolutely amazing job. Click over to her blog to see more wonderful projects.

I have sent her a private, positively gushing thank you, but here in public I would like to say THANK YOU LORRAINE....I love everything...

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

PS..if you double click on the photos, they should show up in a new window as a closeup.

A review of Alex Anderson....

Today is cleaning day at my house. I am literally tearing it apart. I also have applesauce going in the crockpot so I am feeling fairly housewifey....lol So why am I writing in my blog?? instead of cleaning? Cause I'm taking a break!!! Yea, a break!! I have my ice water and I am sitting on the couch with the fan on. It's HOT in here..I have finished the complete upstairs... So there...

Last Thursday Miss Nancy, Anne and I went to see Alex Anderson. I forgot my camera and Miss Nancy was kind enough to send me some photos....







I was a bit disappointed. Alex started by talking a little bit about her background, her kids, how she got started quilting and how "Simply Quilts" started and ended. That bit was interesting. She showed slides of her as a wee girl at her grandmas knee doing some stitching and some slides of her kids and particularly of her son's wedding which was just 3 weeks ago.

Then the talk took a turn and became a BIG FAT BERNINA COMMERCIAL. I wasn't alone in this opinion either. Both Miss Nancy and Anne thought the same thing.

I was hoping to see some quilts in person, maybe some quilt hints? Anything? no...

There were her books on sale and if you bought one there she would autograph it. I guess if you brought one with you she wouldn't? Who knows. I don't own any of her books and didn't buy any there. The 7 Bernina dealers (I thought only one store had sponsored her talk as that is the ad I received in email) are the ones that got together and sponsored her visit, so there were demonstrations set up around the room and then a shuttle was available after the talk for a free lunch (reservations required, although no one asked our name) at one of the sponsoring stores. I was particularly interested in the bias binder for my machine (yes, I own a Bernina) but the attachment was $229.00 (with the $40 coupon in our Bernina Bag) and for me that is a bit high for a sewing machine attachment that really only has one function.

After the talk, we headed over to one of the shops and had a free lunch and made some purchases. I bought some FQ's (thanks Anne and Miss Nancy for the FQ's you bought me for driving) and some fabric printed with a line drawing of houses and shops in Paris (although the writing on the shop awnings is in English..what's up with that?)... They had a beautiful quilt made from the fabric, but I don't really need a red/white/black quilt so I bought enough to make 3 tote bags. Why 3? Not sure, but there wasn't much on the bolt and I was scared I would want more and it wouldn't be there...

All in all it was a lovely morning....but I think it should have been a free talk since all it was was an advertisement for Bernina....

Afterwards, I met my sister and my nephew and we went back to her house for awhile...My nephew is in Navy and he was home for a few days. That night my mom, step-dad, sister, nieces, aunt and uncle came for dinner. Sis made a great pork roast, fried corn and baked potato's...then the younguns went out to party..and I went home....I was beat and at one point fell asleep on her couch and apparently SNORED!! LOL

well, I guess break is over. ice water is gone..

My next sewing gig is to hem some drapes for the living room and dining room. We have had some problems with the rods we hung right after we moved in two years ago. They were not hefty enough apparently for the weight of the drapes and every time the dog jumps up on the sill and barks he pulls them down, curtain rod and all. Last week was IT!! He pulled them down for the last time. Hubby took all 4 of the rods down, filled the holes, repainted and last night we put up new wrought iron rods. I need to hem the drapes so they don't drag on the floors and hopefully this will keep the dog from destroying them. We will see...

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Gone shopping....

Today Alex Anderson is in St Louis and I and 2 friends have tickets.(as you read this we have been on the road since 6am to get a good seat, one of us is short and needs to be near the front, lol) I guess it is a trunk show. I didn't get the tickets and haven't really paid any attention to the ads so not sure what all will be involved. I do know that after the lecture/trunk show we are headed over to the sponsors fabric store for a free lunch and demonstrations of items I am sure they want us to buy (and some of us might be happy to oblige them)

In the meantime, I have started to think about the reds and yellows I need for my new quilt pattern. The pattern calls for layer cakes and charm squares. Does anyone know of any new fabric lines with red and yellow as the predominant color? I am not even sure where or how to start looking. I am thinking dark red and a gold yellow. Not brights... Any help or links would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Answering Services DO WORK....and customer service lives...

I am not a buyer... When I first started to quilt and sew I would purchase fabric just because I liked it. Most of it wasn't quality fabric and I passed it on to a home school group that was happy to get it for practice pieces.

Disclaimer - please know that the person picking up the fabric was aware this wasn't what I consider quality fabric. I personally believe you should use the best quality fabric you can afford...ok off the soapbox...

ANYWAY!! Now I purchase fabric for a specific project. This means I purchase smaller amounts and not that often.

Patterns however are a different thing. I will buy a pattern at the drop of a hat. I want ALL of them. I have redwork patterns, sewing patterns, scrub patterns, quilt patterns, baby girl dress patterns, purse patterns, books with patterns. I LOVE THEM...

So, yesterday I was reading a blog and got sent to another blog which led me to write a comment and ask where to get her newest pattern. I fell in love with Double Takes II. I have been hankering to make myself a red and yellow quilt for some time now and although I haven't started buying fabric, I have found the perfect pattern!
Thank you to the designer Heather Mulder Peterson. She is not a new designer, but is new to me as a designer. I hope you will go over and see her designs. They are extraordinary. Alas, no link to order the pattern. After a quick inquiry in her comment section, I received an email back from Heather to tell me that lots of stores carry her patterns. oh... So off I go to google it and sure enough,Quilters Warehouse comes up a couple of times. Off I go there. So like Vicky I poked a few buttons. (if you read her regularly you know how she can poke those buttons, even when sick,lol)

So what happened??

I poked the wrong button...

Silly me.

I wanted to order Double Takes II and I poked the button next to Double Takes I. Damn.... now what... I really don't need two patterns...

I click over to my email and just that quick there is an email with information on my order and an 800 number to call if you screwed up. It says call ASAP as they might be already fillling my order. I tripped over the dog to get to the phone. Well, turns out that Quilters Warehouse acutally does close but I got the nicest lady at their answering service. She said she would leave a message and QuiltersWarehouse would email me in the morning. I couldn't wait. I called at 10:02am.. Heather answered and I started to explain what I did last night when I was poking buttons. She said "Is this Nancy?". "Yes...." I said very warily...
"We were just talking about you!" she says. "we just got your message from our answering service and have changed your order" "You did?" I say.. "yes, your invoice will show the wrong pattern, but your package will have the correct order".

THANK YOU HEATHER AND QUILTERS WAREHOUSE... What great customer service...

If all customer service was this good, I might poke some more buttons...lol

I guess I better start collecting some fabric....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy