Surprise b-day Party + 30's Tulip Block Swap

Last night my husband had a surprise birthday party for me for my family, quilty friends and their spouses! I think there were over 24 of us there. My son even flew in from DC! I got a Sidewinder, a gift certificate to a LQS, candles, and a fat quarter bundle of my favorite quilty guy's new line: Califon Mark Lipinski's Home for Northcott. My husband also got me a beautiful ring that I had admired some time ago from Crider Jewelers in Norwalk, but in all the preparation and excitement, he forgot to pick it up, so I will post a picture of it on Tuesday when we go to get it! There were two cakes, one chocolate with my favorite buttercream icing and another of my favorites Flan! Oh, I almost forgot to mention that my party was at a Mexican Restaurant: El Portrello in Sandusky (hence the Flan cake).


I am participating, rather belatedly, in a blockswappers online swap. The deadline is of course today for a total of 24 blocks. I have 13 blocks done and hope to get the rest finished by tonight or tomorrow. Of course, the Post Office will not be open again until Tuesday . . .

What's going on with bat's + bugs?

OK, as if the bat the other night was not enough, I go out to the car this morning and look at the giant mutant bugs on my tire! Needless to say, I'm walking downtown as I am sure that the moment I open the car door, those bugs are aiming right for me and life as I know it, will be over.

On another note, my husband is quite upset with me because of the portrait I painted of him in my post yesterday about the bat incident. I neglected to tell you that in addition to the remote, he was holding one of our granddaughters on his lap "to protect her from the bat". Well, all I have to say about that is, what about me? Didn't you hear me shrieking, screaming, crying for help? Guess I am chopped liver . . .

My B-day, Bead Retreat + a BAT . . .

Tuesday, the 26th was my birthday. I celebrated with my friends here at home with a Bead Retreat. I made 3 bracelets!






I found out earlier in the day that when my son-in-law was getting ready to leave for work the morning of my birthday, that he spent almost an hour trying to get a bat out of the kitchen with a broom. Needless to say, he was not successful as it returned last night with a vengeance. I thought that I had prepared myself for another "bat experience" by having every conceivable light on in my quilting room. My common sense told me that the bat would not fly into the light, but this particular bat was hell bent on taunting me and was soon flying around in my quilting room and appeared to be diving for me, so I instinctively hit the floor. Now, this whole time, my husband is in his recliner in the living room armed with his FREAKIN' REMOTE and my son-in-law is taking batting practice in my quilting room where I am almost in tears, begging him not to hit it because I am afraid it is going to go rabid and bite me as I am not a moving target (I am paralyzed with fear, cowering on the floor, remember?). I finally was able to leave the room on my hands and knees where I quickly crawled to the foyer and the freakin' bat followed me! I am now verbally abusing my husband who is still in his freakin' recliner with the freakin' remote. Finally, the bat flew up the stairs to the second floor, so I started closing doors on the first floor so he wouldn't be able to come back down to get me. The guys said that they knocked it out with the broom and threw it out the back deck door - I didn't believe them . . . they'll say anything to shut me up.
I went to the doctor today to have my knees looked at since they took a beating last night with my frantic crawling - so now I am limping around, my blood pressure is up, and I've aged at least 5 years in one day, all because of a bat. Happy freakin' Birthday to me . . .

More about the Vegas Quilt Shop Tours

Well, I only told you about the 1st tour I went on on Tuesday, but I went again on Thursday too! We went to a cute little Quilt Shop over by the Hoover Dam called Fiddlesticks. The shop was decorated with all kinds of antiques, there were bolts of fabric in an old Hoosier cupboard, in a white iron crib, old washtubs. It was really cool and I really enjoyed the little vignettes. The shop owner gave each one of us a cloisonne pin of the logo of her shop. When our time was up, we went on to the second shop: Quiltique. Wow, this was a shop that I was not sure I would care for because is has a lot of contemporary fabrics like Kaffe Fasset, Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, etc. but I discovered that I really like contemporary fabrics too! They had lots and lots of kits with the corresponding samples hung from the walls and ceiling. This shop came in second for me as far as dollars spent . . . need I say more? Oh, I forgot to mention that I was on this tour with a couple from Oregon (I would never, ever, bring my husband with me on one of these tours - it could be ugly). The third and final shop for the day was a repeat of a shop that I had been to on Tuesday, The Christmas Goose. This shop was really nice and it had all kinds of different things like stitchery, wools, wool roving, etc. I could not believe the patterns that they had, it was a wall (pictured below), with kind of like sliding doors with each door containing layers of patterns, patterns and more patterns. I would not like to inventory that wall. . .



















I did not take any more pictures with the exception of Fabric Boutique which I went to on Tuesday as I was afraid picture taking would cut into my shopping time, so you will have to settle for looking at their websites! I have posted the remaining pictures from Fabric Boutique - Enjoy!

We're Back!!!

Well, despite getting bumped from our return flight yesterday we were finally able to catch another flight home late this afternoon! We were compensated nicely by Southwest Air plus they put us up last night at the Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville - a gorgeous facility. It was dark when we arrived there last night, so we didn't see the grounds until this morning. I felt like we were in Graceland (even though we've never been). There were iron gates that you drive through at the entrance and then there's a long and winding driveway up to the hotel. There was lots of marble and someone was playing a baby grand piano as we entered. The room we stayed in was great, a huge, king, sleigh bed and a big, big desk that my husband used to catch up on some work. It really was a pleasant stay.
Our trip to Vegas was great. My husband was all excited about his IRS classes and I had an absolute blast on my 2 Shop Hops in Vegas! I am seriously considering starting a business of Quilt Shop Tours here in our area for visiting quilters. I have a lot of things that I need to check out first though. When we arrived on Monday, I was pretty tired, so I just stayed in the room for the evening until hunger got a hold of me. We went downstairs to Mah Jong and ate. I could not believe how expensive it was - $4.99 for a Pepsi! I think we were in bed by 8:30 as we were both exhausted.
The next morning, I was picked up at 8:30 for the Quilt Shop Tour. We hit 3 shops and they were all great. Susan, the owner of the tour business, had a little quilt show in the van and explained a little about each shop and what they specialized in before we got there. We were given discounts at each shop. There were 4 other ladies on the tour with me, one from Alaska, one from Israel and two from Australia! I cannot stress how exciting it was. I am sure I looked like I was on crack, running around each shop, checking things out as we had only 45 minutes at each stop! Each shop was different, and one of the shops really catered to us, they had demos, little gift bags and even some pins for us! Oh gads, did I mention the heat? It was well over 100 every day we were there. We were back at the hotel by 1:30I think, so I went back to the room to peruse the loot I accumulated . . .



Well, that's enough for tonight, I will post more tomorrow!

One more post before I leave . . .

This may be the last time I post until I return from Tour of Las Vegas Quilt Shops on Friday nite. My husband will have his laptop with him, but I am not sure he will be willing to share it, but we'll see.
I was just checking out all the blogs I read regularly and I have to say, check out Sharyn's blog: Kalama Quilts I love to read the end of each one of her posts as she posts her daily gratitude's. Several of her gratitude's might send me off the deep end, but she always puts a positive spin on it. I love it, and another thing I like is something she has at the top of her blog: Where we eat to live, but live to quilt... Oh yeah baby! Well, guess that's it for now - I will try hard to post of my quilt shop jaunts in Vegas, later!

Chicken Girls

Madison was at my sisters farm earlier this evening and came home with chicken and turkey feathers in her hair. I made her sit down to take a picture and if you look closely at the first photo, you'll see Haley nonchalantly hovering by Madison and she swiped 3 of the feathers and stuck them in her hair! Now she is walking around saying bawk, bawk, bawk . . .

Is the Limo here yet?

OK - I am almost all packed! I just realized that we are not returning until late Friday. I just have to blog more about this Tour of Las Vegas Quilt Shops that I am going on. This is a wonderful service. They will pick you up at your hotel, take you to 2, 3, 4 or even 5 quilts shops. They even provide you with boxes to ship your purchases home if you so choose! Wouldn't it be nice to have a business like that in your area? I cannot imagine taking visiting quilters to our area on a quilt shop tour - it would be a hardship, but one I would do gladly! I may have to check this out . . . Let's see, the itinerary might be:
Abigayle's Quiltery
Birds of a Feather
Quilts & Kreations
Sew Little Time
Country Fabrics
The Door Mouse
Black Swap Quilte Shoppe
Nautical Needle
Well, I need to get busy finalizing the hand projects I am going to take with me . . . more later!

Vegas, here we come!

We are going to Vegas for a week! Of course, I am going on a tour of Las Vegas Quilt Shops while my husband is at some IRS Symposium! This afternoon I had a pedicure and my toes are painted the prettiest candy apple red! I am so out of my element here - my first choice for nail polish color was Coney Island Cotton Candy - a pale pink iridescent - it was gorgeous, but the girls at the salon shamed me into the red. I really like it though it just doesn't feel like me. I have been getting some "hand" projects ready to take with me (like the Grandmother's Flower Garden that I have been working on for about almost 20 years)! Well, guess that's it for now as I taught a quilting class tonight and I'm beat. More tomorrow!

Gifts from Iraq

When my son was here this past weekend, he brought me some gifts from Iraq! Pepsi and Chocolates! As you can see by the photos, I have already inhaled one of the Pepsi's and several of the chocolates! It is so strange to look at the text on the labels - if it weren't for the Pepsi logo, I'm not sure I'd know what it was. The sizes are strange too. The can is really small, smaller than the small ones we have here.

So much news, but the battery is dead!

Well, this post is just going to be text since the battery in my camera is "empty", so bear with me . . . a lot has been going on around here.

We were without ANY cable services for a little over 24 hours. It was ugly: no phone (land line), no cable and no Internet. This was the second time in less than 10 days, so needless to say, I was really pissed perturbed. Then to add insult to injury, they changed the scheduled repair service from that day to the next and didn't even have the courtesy to tell me after I sat at home the entire day waiting for them. Pooh to Time Warner Cable. They are number 1 on my s*** list.


The back stairs that caved in have been completed. We didn't have a repairman fix them, he was a craftsman! Honestly, this man really was an artist. There are only 4steps, but it took him 4 days to complete them. Then he took another couple of days to replace some of the planks on the porch that had rotted. They were tongue and groove and the replacement planks were a quarter inch too wide, so he used a hand planer to make them fit - this guy was really old school, and he did a beautiful job. Then he sealed the new wooden stairs and the replaced floor boards and painted them with this neat paint that contains silica (sand) so we won't slip and fall when it rains!


My son and his wife arrived on Friday around lunch time! The 3 of us went to lunch and then went to pick up my grandchildren. We ate at the Wonder Bar for supper (it was Lake Erie Perch Nite) and ice cream from the Village Drive-Thru for dessert! All in all, a perfect day!

Saturday we spent the morning preparing and packing for our stay at the Kalahari Resort We arrived a little after 11 a.m. and went right to the waterpark! We were able to check into our room at 4 p.m., but we stayed in the waterpark until around 7 p.m. went the hunger pangs became too intense. We stayed in a huge suite, 3 queen beds and one king, 2 full bathrooms (one with a jacuzzi tub) and 2 balconies, a full kitchen, 3 flat screen TV's and a gas fireplace! Real, real nice! Unfortunately, in my quest to not forget anything, I forgot the most important thing, my camera! Our 3 granddaughters had an absolute blast. I am paying for it now, as my knees are totally shot. I feel like I need to get one of those scooters We left the waterpark around 2 p.m. Sunday and Aaron + Erica left for DC shortly afterwards. Well, guess that's it for now, as soon as the battery recharges, I'll post a couple of pictures!

Houston, we may have a problem . . .

Today I thought I would start something new and different. I thought I would put a little variety/spice in my quilting life! I started a BOM. Seriously, I think that I may need help with this obsession - I do not even want to count how many BOM's I have going at the moment (yes, it's double digits), but this one is stars, and it's a Judy Laquidara project, and I love, love, love Judy, and I love stars too! And this also has the potential to become a stashbuster, UFO, PIG, quilt top!

R.I.P.

I had to put my iron down yesterday . . . the lights were on, but there was no heat whatsoever. So yesterday when we went to Meijer, I looked for and purchased a new one! I didn't have too much of a choice though as I wanted a Stainless Steel Soleplate and there were only 2 to choose from. The one I finally decided upon was on sale, which I did not find out until I went to pay for it! Imagine that, I needed it, AND it was on sale - maybe I should buy a lottery ticket now . . .
On another note, have you tried this stuff? It's wonderful. It really removes those stubborn creases from the fold! It comes in several different scents, and you can get refills too. One of the LQS's that I frequent carries it and in a class I took there, the owner did an infomercial on it - I was sold! Try it, you'll like it!

One more thing - I just found out about a "Retreat House" in the next town over. Check it out - it's a really nice website and the facility looks great too. Oh, I smell a Quilting Retreat in my near future . . .

Another BOM done!!

I finished Block Eight today. Now on to Block Nine, but that won't happen until Monday as I have the girls this weekend since Amber is working.
I was checking out some blogs this morning and came across Once Upon a Quilt where I found what may be the answer to all those little pinwheels that I have been making from scraps from bowtie blocks and flying geese . . . what do you think? Of course, mine would be scrappy, but one like this just might work . . .