Just Catching Up a Little

Anyone else tired of summer yet?  One way to avoid the heat and humidity here at our house is to escape to the basement and my sewing room.  One quilt top is done (photos will have to come later) and delivered to the LAQ and now is as good of time as any to play catch up.  These are the January, February and March BOM's that I finally started on the other day. April is almost done and May and June are waiting.  I still need to go pick up the July block.  Maybe I'll finally be caught up by the time the August block is available! I've still got the 2009 Among Friends Block of the Month quilt that needs to go to the quilter too.  Just need to piece the backing and give it all a good pressing.  I'm liking the colors of this quilt much better than that one.  

 

Here are my newest projects.  I'm having fun making pillowcases and then using my new embroidery machine to stitch names on them.  I downloaded this cute font the other day from Embroidery Designs.  I made the two oldest grandsons each  a car pillowcase and little J's "girlfriend" one too. (She and J are sharing a two-year old birthday party this weekend.  That should be lots of fun!)  There are so many different websites with cute embroidery designs that it gets overwhelming to look through them.  I'm still learning how to use my machine but I'm signed up for another class in a few weeks so hope to get some tips. 

See these wonderful Happy Daisy fabrics?  I purchased these this past spring when Fat Quarter Shop had them half price.   I must have had something in mind for them, because there's a jelly roll, 2 half yard pieces, 1 full yard and 3 yards (for a backing I suppose).  Since I've evidently forgotten what I intended to make - any suggestions are welcome! 

 Beamer hasn't had a guest appearance here in awhile. He celebrated his ninth birthday a few weeks ago and though he doesn't look too happy about it he's out-lived any  other cat we've ever provided a home for!  I  was browsing through my old posts and realized that it has been almost exactly THREE years since I started this silly little blog.  Guess who was in one of those very original posts.....yes, Beamer!  It's kind of embarrassing but you can see that post here.   I swear he's not been sitting on this same chair the entire three years!  But I should thank those of you who've stuck with me through these 290 posts!

Quilt Show

Last Friday I ventured across the county to the quilt show held at Edwardsville United Methodist Church.  The lighting wasn't photo friendly but you can tell there were some awesome quilts on display.  This is just a small portion of them.

This t-shirt quilt was quite impressive and it was huge!  I loved the setting fabric for the t-shirts.  Someday I might try one of these - at least that's the excuse I'm using for the stack of old shirts accumulating in my fabric closet!

This was my favorite at the show.  It belongs to Lora Nale (the link is for the shop where she works) who did both the piecing and quilting.  I think it was a favorite of many as I was lucky to get a photo when there was just one lady standing in front of this gorgeous quilt. 

Now for the quilt show at my house!  Since D has been busy with work "stuff" all week and weekend there's been no motorcycle riding.  So I've been trying to finish up some old projects along with starting some new.  This quilt is the B.O.M. from Among Friends for 2008.  My long arm quilter finished this up last spring and it's been waiting for the binding for several months.  Finished!  I might need to re-decorate one of the spare bedrooms so I can use it but it's only a twin size.  This is not my favorite color combination but it's growing on me! 

Someone else likes this quilt though.  Beamer thinks that any time I leave my sewing un-attended, it's intended for his use as a bed! 

Have a good week everyone!

Pre-Travel Tidbits

Progress on the cabinets will slow again as we are getting ready to gather our leather jackets and helmets and pack the Harley and trailer for a few days on the road. Hopefully the weather will clear and we'll have a dry trip. But if not - all the more stories to tell, I guess.

Thought you might like to see one of the new features of the remodeled kitchen that I'm going to really enjoy. My big Kitchen-Aid mixer will now be at finger tips notice to mix up something sweet and fattening! I used it today to mix up some oatmeal cookies and it was great! D thought he should raise the butcher block just a little to be even with the counter top (this is still the Formica - new ones will wait til June) but I like it a little lower. Since I'm short, it makes it nice to see what's going on and easier to add ingredients. When stored - it is out of the way and not taking up counter space. I lost some cabinet space but I think it's a good compromise. You can see above the base cabinets on either side of the new gas range. The doors aren't quite ready for the uppers but he'll be able to finish that up soon after we return. I'm actually kind of liking the open shelves for now. Having them open makes me make the effort to stay relatively organized!
Beamer has a new best friend! Meet Mr. Automatic Feeder. He is nearby at 7:00 AM waiting for his breakfast and again at 6:00 PM when he is expecting his supper. This will come in handy though when we're gone next week and our neighbor won't have to worry about getting here at the same time every day to feed this poor starving cat!


A few weeks ago I received a package from my sister. Inside were two aprons. One was my first ever sewing project for 4-H and the other was this. Neither one of us is sure where it came from. We think it is possible that Mama made it for her mother back many, many years ago. There was a time when she made some projects using gingham and cross stitch. But the condition that it is in makes me think it is probably newer than that and perhaps someone gave it to her or she made it when we were both expecting our first babies back in 1978. Although it's kind of big on me and not the most attractive style, it's fun to reminisce about our sewing heritage but sad to think there are some questions that will remain unanswered. So chalk one up for blogging as our grandchildren will have some way to go back and have access to the tidbits of our lives!

Now you'll have to excuse me as I really should be doing laundry and packing for the motorcycle trip. Fitting everything in is much easier now with the little trailer but there are still some things I have to limit ( such as shoes!). I might be able to get a post or two from the road - so check back in a few days to see where we end up!

Spring Riding Is Our March Madness

We've been taking advantage of every hour that's warm enough for riding the motorcycle. Yesterday, we took a quick trip over to Madison, Indiana for lunch and a little shopping at a couple of the shops downtown. Then we decided to take a little ride on past the town and loop back around to Madison and home again.......without our detailed Indiana map. A scenic ride, but we aren't really sure where we were for most of the time! But with a little backtracking to stay off some gravel roads, we made it home by suppertime.

Today was another nice day and after a little work on the kitchen cabinets (by D) and a quilt project (by me), we were off on the Harley again. We had to stop at Louisville Harley to pick up a couple of things then we were "on the road again" ! We headed down I-65 to Glendale, KY. The winter weather has been hard on that road. I thought I was going to bounce right off the back of the bike! Pot holes and rough spots in all the lanes most of the way to Elizabethtown didn't make for a very comfortable ride.

We had intentions of eating at the Whistle Stop Cafe but it was closed on Sunday. (Should have googled for the hours I guess!) But we did find that the former Depot Restaurant is now Tony York's on Main and it was open. I believe the Depot was a popular place a few years back, but had suffered a major fire and was rebuilt. It is a beautiful building, and not really the type of place we had planned on having a late lunch.

The dining room was very nice with white tablecloths and the works. As we were leaving we saw that some other folks (on motorcycles too) were enjoying the nice deck and patio area. We probably would have fit in better there with our boots and jackets.But we did have a nice lunch. I haven't posted a food photo in awhile so I'll show you my chicken salad on cranberry bread. We avoided the interstate on the trip home, but had to endure numerous stoplights on the route that the GPS chose for us. Next time we'll plan a little better but it was still a nice ride!

Otherwise, not much to report for my week. I did finish sewing the blocks for Connie's Siggie Block Swap but I've still got to sign them. I need to get some freezer paper so I can get them done and on their way. Saturday morning I drove over to Among Friends for the BOM. Here's my completed block for this month. It turned out pretty but I'm not sure if I'd make a complete quilt with this many little pieces. Tomorrow I take my car over to get the window fixed finally. They've been waiting for the parts and they finally arrived. I hope it doesn't take too long to get it repaired. At least when it's nice, D doesn't mind riding his motorcycle to work so I can drive the truck.

Beamer has been enjoying any sunny spot he can find on the floor. The other day my new red shoes were in his way, but he didn't mind. He is a big cat as you can tell from this photo. I really do have normal size feet (size 7) but he makes these shoes look like they belong to a little girl!

When I start to post photos of my cat and my new shoes I think it means I'm searching for blog material so I guess I have nothing else interesting today. Hope you all have a nice week and are enjoying the first few days of Spring or the first few days of March (basketball) Madness, whichever makes you the happiest!

Just Miscellaneous Stuff

It time to post something on here that is not about food! So here's a look a few things I've been working on.

It is so cold outside this morning, Beamer doesn't know how lucky he is to have a sunny spot to bathe! I watched Martha Stewart this morning and she had a lady on talking about different breeds of cats. She didn't mention Bengals, so here's the Bengal pic of the day! When we became emptynesters, Beamer became our "fur" child. I've always had cats, but this one has become more of a family member than any other. You'll notice he's picked a spot next to my knitting project. My knitting mentor/friend T started me on this small scarf before Thanksgiving and I haven't worked on it since before Christmas. In fact, I've ripped and re-started on it about six times! So when our little knitting group got together last week, I re-started yet again. I think I've got it under control now in fact so maybe, just maybe, I'll finally get this accomplished and will be able to move on to something else. I saw some cute knitted purse patterns that would be fun.

Now I need a little help from some of you quilty gals out there. I finished piecing all of the accumulated BOM's from last years series from Among Friends. Now I'm ready to put them all together. As you can see, they are supposed to go "on point" in strips that are then sewn together. I've never done a quilt like that before and I'm a little confused by the instructions. So any tips are appreciated. A trip over to the store will be made this weekend for the new BOM meeting, so maybe I can pick up some tips there too.

Another question for you all. Daughter B and I are considering the decor for their nursery. Her room is already painted a nice orange color, and since they don't plan on finding out the baby's gender, she's looking for not-gender specific fabrics for the crib set that we are considering making. She found this fabric at Free Spirit, from the Urban Flannel line by Valori Wells. It is adorable and just what she's looking for, but it is flannel. Has anyone make a crib set from flannel? I know a quilt would be feasible, but not sure about the bumper, etc.

One last thing before I go - I special birthday wish to this guy! Happy Birthday to our son-in-law and the soon to be daddy, N!

On To The Next Holiday!

With Thanksgiving over it's time to move on to the next holiday. In fact, with an extra pair of hands around the past few days, I was able to get the tree up and mostly decorated. Even the blog has undergone a little holiday makeover!

We had the traditional turkey, dressing, potatoes and green bean casserole for our Thanksgiving. And I honestly don't care to see another turkey and all the trimmings for awhile! We felt like we were stuffed all weekend but enjoyed it anyway. I'm voting for something different next year, but when it gets that time again, I'll probably be out-voted in favor of "family favorites"! It was nice to have E home for a few days. She stayed around long enough to miss the snow showers and traffic jams up in Chicago land and make it back safely.

Our guests for dinner this year were son-in-law N's mom and sister and of course B, N and E. They paused long enough to get a nice little family portrait.

One more guest, was E's kitty, Decibel. After the first day, she and Beamer were friends again. He even shared his current favorite sleeping spot.

We managed to stay away from the malls on black Friday and instead drove over to Madison for a little old-fashioned main street shopping. Or the girls said they just watched mom shop! But they did have to stop and try on a couple hats in one little shop. Still acting like a couple of silly little girls! Of course we did manage to do more shopping on Saturday and even enjoyed a non turkey dinner at Havana Rumba. I don't know what I was thinking but no food photos folks. Sorry.

I'm not sure what's up with Blogger, but it's not playing nice tonight. Maybe it's the change I made from Explorer to Firefox but the compose screen does a lot of jumping around and I'm having trouble placing my photos. So hopefully I'll have more patience next time for a more interesting post.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week everyone!

Pans, pedicure and such

Have you made them yet? This is the second batch. Can't you smell them? My normally dessert avoiding husband finished off the last pan. Check back to the last post for the recipe. The smaller 9x9" pan is definitely the way to go. I love my Goldtouch pans from Williams-Sonoma. I got them for Christmas a couple of years ago and since then I've thrown out some of the old rusty pans and added to my collection. My last purchase was the muffin tin, but I've also got a 9x13 cake pan, a bread pan and an awesome sculpted pumpkin bread pan. They bake very evenly, are extremely non-stick and don't scratch easily. A little pricey but worth the extra pennies. Here's the result of my sewing ventures for the week. I ordered this kit from Cozy Cottage Fabrics after seeing it on another blog that I've become addicted too, Red Geranium Cottage . I almost didn't post this photo because I don't think I did it justice. I'm not happy with the mistakes I made on the outer border but by the time I realized what I'd done, it was too late to fix. So I used this as a stipple stitch experiment (try saying that three times fast!) My machine has a pre-programmed small stipple so I tried that on the outside border. It's not really the look I was hoping but glad I tried it. Someday I'll try to free-motion quilt - when I get brave! In the meantime - I've got a new table topper:) My BOM quilt from 2007 went off to a quilter this week along with the first quilt for Grandbaby#1. I can't wait to get them back but I'll have to be patient for a few weeks. I'm not sure what the next project will be. E reports that the computer sleeve fit the MacBook nicely but suggested that a handle might be nice. So I might try making another-after I get back from vacation!

Yes I'm going on vacation! Just the girls- E, B and me. They had planned on doing something together then invited dear ol' mom to come along. Since we're going to do the beachy thing, the much needed pedicure was today. I love the polish color. It is Opi , Charmed by a Snake. Wouldn't that be a fun job, to come up with the names for new colors! It was pretty cold coming home in the flimsy little salon flip-flops. And of course there was sn*w! I'm sure I'll come back with lots of pictures, so stay tuned! I don't know if I can post to the blog from my iphone, but I may try. Sometimes it can be a little tempermental with emails and such.

But before I go on vacation, I'll be taking a trip to Kansas. Not a vacation, but a quick trip to attend Aunt Sylva's funeral. It will be a sad occasion, but nice to re-connect with aunts, uncles and several cousins. I just looked at the weather and the forecast is good. Just like many areas, Kansas has had a long winter. Temps in the 5o's and low 60's almost sound tropical.

(I wish someone would explain to me why Blogspot chooses to double space where I don't want to!)

Leaving you with Beamer as he enjoys a little nap. Why is it that any time I lay the clean laundry on the bed, he uses it for a pillow? Today he picked D's favorite Life is Good socks. So I guess, if you're a cat and there is warm from the dryer laundry to curl up on, life is good!

Dreaming about RV's

Could this be the RV of our dreams? This weekend we drove across the river to the Boat, Sport and RV Show at the fairgrounds. After paying our $9.00 entry fees (yes, each!) we spent a few hours touring some of the RV's and motorhomes on display. It looked like there were many more boats than RV's but we didn't even make it over to look at them. We've had a boat or two in the past, so that's not an activity we're going to pursue anytime soon. This 1954 travel trailer had been restored by a local RV dealer and was drawing quite a crowd. The RV industry has certainly come a long way.
This is a photo of the interior of the 5th wheel travel trailer that we liked the most. It is a Carriage Carri-Lite. The interior workmanship and cabinetry impressed my woodworker husband. It even had a flat screen television that disappeared behind the fireplace, tile floors, 4 door refrigerator and many, many other deluxe features. Of course, the price tag on a unit like this is deluxe too! We have heard good things about the Carriage products and they do make less expensive models. I follow the blog of a couple who are full-timing in a Carriage 5th wheel, The Wandering Wishnies and they seem to be very happy with theirs.
Do you suppose he's wondering if he could fit a motorcycle or woodworking tools in there? That is one concern we have with getting a 5th wheel, as to whether we could double tow the motorcycle trailer or put a lift on the back of the trailer for the bike. We keep looking for a toy hauler that has some of the same features as these nice 5th wheels. But it seems that they are built to cater to the motorcross or racecar fans and then also lose some of the living space.

One of the new things we've been seeing lately is alot of the Heavy Duty Trucks folks are using to pull their 5th wheels. There were a few specialty motorcycles on display too. This chopper was painted in honor of the Ryder Cup that will be held in Louisville in this coming fall.

That's the highlights of the weekend. Today I've been experimenting with a different camera, but I'm not sure if it takes any better photos than my little Kodak. Can you tell which Beamer photo is taken on my camera or on D's Sony? I think the zoom might be better on his and also the close-ups. I'll have to try some more when I have something more interesting than my lazy cat.

I saved dessert for last! It is (mostly) sugar-free! Now I'm going to go find the Cool Whip.
Just a little teaser as to the remodeling project. It doesn't look like much yet does it? He has completed more than this though! (It's just kind of hard to photograph.)
Until next time. Thanks for checking in!

A Weekend Jaunt and Beamer and the Hummers

The hummingbirds have taken over our deck! I bought this small feeder at Lowe's the other day and even tho it has a small dripping problem, it didn't take long for the hummers to find it. (Along with the ants and wasps!) Beamer loves to sit inside and watch from the glass doors, but when I let him have his "outside time", he's almost been attacked by the brave little birds. If anyone comes out on the deck, there are usually three of them chirping and defending their feeder. I've been trying to get some good photos of them. I'm surprised these turned out as well as they did ! I love my little Kodak V550. It is just the right size to stick in a purse or pocket, especially when we are on the motorcycle.

Our riding this week consisted of a few short jaunts and one longer trip on Sunday. We traveled to Kentucky via the bridge south of Corydon. It was a good day to ride with temps in the upper 80's, but slightly overcast so not such a good day for photos. We traveled over some windy, hilly roads (Dennis loves those, of course) but saw lots of pretty country. It is always interesting to see the different crops and farm animals that line the back country roads that we like. This trip we saw lots of tobacco being harvested. I always think of Daddy when we see different farm stuff, because I know he would have enjoyed seeing these things. I don't think he would ever have put tobacco in any of his fields tho! We saw buffalo grazing, lots of goats, mules and of course cattle and horses. One little foal with it's long legs was so cute, but by the time I got my camera on - we had sped by. It seems like on the motorcycle, you can see things so much clearer than in a car. I was amazed me to see so many tomatoes still on the vines in gardens along the way. I wanted to say - "hey if you're tired of picking them - send them our way!"

We made a stop in Cloverport, Kentucky for lunch at a little family restaurant. I'm not even sure of the a name, but we had a pleasant meal. But, we realized how much we appreciate the non-smoking policies that so many eating establishments have adopted. After crossing the Ohio River again at Tell City, we made our way back up through the Hoosier Nat'l Forest and were home by 3:30. We drove by the Overlook Restaurant in Leavenworth, Indiana. We've made this part of the drive before and have stopped to enjoy the fried chicken dinners and the beautiful view of the Ohio.

Our weekend was completed with a wonderful authentic Cuban meal with our neighborhood "biking buddies" and their family. Wrapping up the day with a pleasant meal and good company, makes any journey a joy! Thanks Ramona and Monte ! One last photo for Monte --

Until next time --- Enjoy !