more cupcakes . . .

We had chocolate cupcakes with butter cream icing again today. Haley, in the picture below is wearing most of hers!
On another note, I am all caught up with my online swaps and my BOM's. Actually, let me rephrase that, I am actually ahead of the game as far as my swaps are concerned. I just mailed out 2 days ago a swap that isn't due until November 15th! Woooo Hooooo!!!!!!

Bloodwork results are in . . .

We took the pool down and put the sandbox in its place . . .

When the girls came in from the sand pit, we made chocolate flower cupcakes with the new silicone pan from Pampered Chef. Madison sucked off every bit of frosting and gave me the soggy cupcake, which I promptly ate!
The results of my bloodwork came back already. What the heck, my arm is still black and blue! There were some things that were high. Life as I know it now, may be over shortly. I see an end to my ice cream and Pepsi runs to the drive-thru. Oh, and lets not forget my fresh fruit, sprinkled with sugar and then drowned in heavy whipping cream . . . oh, things are going to get ugly, I can tell already and the doctor hasn't even called me yet (it's a reprieve and I'm taking every bit that I can get).

Quiltathon Progress

Well, I got the quilt top done, now I have to piece together pieces for the binding.

They're in Nicaragua!

My son and his wife Erica are in Granada, Nicaragua! He just sent this picture from his iPhone. I can hardly wait until they get home and send me more pictures. Well, that's it for now as I'm off to participate in Judy L's Quiltathon! More later!

Busy day today

Had to get up early this morning, but I overslept and had to race over to the hospital for some blood work - yuk!
Came back home and started on a quilting project that I have had on the back burner for some time now (a mere 2 months). Our friend + photographer, Chris, purchased what she thought was a crib quilt and small pillow, but when she got it home and opened it up, it was a kind of a bed-in-a-bag thing 'cept for a crib. It contained a crib skirt, valances, a diaper holder, a fitted crib sheet, bumper pads and some other kind of trinket holder. So she asked me if I could take those things apart and make another quilt from them. I was intrigued by the challenge, and in a moment of weakness said yes. As soon as I got them home (oh, did I forget to mention that she purchased 2 sets? One for a boy and the other for a girl) I began to take apart the boys quilt (I always save the best stuff for last - I love the girly set)and there it sat until today. The fabric looks and feels like ultra suede. It feels really plush and I am quilting it as I sew it to the fitted sheet which I am using as the backing. I have recycled the batting from the bumper pads, so it's pretty lofty, but looks really comfortable. Chris plans on using it on the floor and photographing babies on it (yeah, I know, the kids will be in college before I get it done).


We went to the Lodi Station Outlet Mall today to get some clothes for the twins as all of their long sleeve shirts look like "belly shirts" and I don't want any of that! I love to shop at the Children's Place for their clothes because they wear like iron, but I didn't see much there that I liked. Still managed to do some damage though. Below are pictures of Haley and Emma in the clothes hamper . . . why do we bother getting them toys?

Twinkle, Twinkle 12.5 inch star

Wow, I got another BOM done, and this one isn't due until October 10th! I am on a roll now. This feels so good, now if I could only force myself to work on those 2 other projects that have been on my Quilty To Do List . . .

Block 4 is done!

Well, it's done, and way ahead of time too! This one really went together nicely!

2 blocks down . . .

2 more blocks are done. I am still 1 block behind on this Star BOM though. It's going to be a bright one. I usually am working with Thimbleberries palettes or Robyn Pandolph's soft, romantic, prints, so I am really venturing out of my comfort zone with this one! Hopefully I will be able to get caught up tomorrow with the 4th block - time will tell!

O'la-la, this one's for you!

Finished another BOM, several more to go though. Just can't seem to catch up.

Today I received my postage stamp blocks from Scotland. I have been waiting a long time, they were mailed on July 31st! I think they were on a slow boat, but I'm glad they're here.

I'm going to Columbus tomorrow to a meeting of HQ16 owners and we are going to have a speaker from the Ohio Long Arm Quilters group and she will teach us how to decide on a quilting design. From what I understand, she will bring a book of various quilting designs for different blocks which the OLAQ group created. We will be given blank blocks for us to "quilt" and start a book of our own. I am really excited about this as it's something that I struggle with.

That's it for now hope to post more tomorrow after I return.

Where has the week gone?

OMG - it's Thursday . . . I have class tonight and I'm not ready for it! I have been diligently plugging away at my Quilty To Do List and I am able to cross off 3 more things now! I finished the Postage Stamp Swap, Nickel Swap and the 30's Nine Patch Swap blocks. Now, if I can just keep the momentum/mojo/focus going . . .

Sorry to make this so short, but I really need to prepare for my class tonight - it's pretty bad when the teacher isn't prepared! More later . . . .

Postage Stamp Swap

I have been busy today choosing and preparing fabrics for the Postage Stamp Swap. I participated in this swap a few months ago and now it's time for another. A swap set consists of 50 different fabrics cut into 1 1/2 inch squares.

I have to make 25 sets of these 50 different fabrics. Thank goodness I kept a record of the 50 fabrics I sent in for the first swap, as I do not want to duplicate any. It's really been time consuming - I had forgotten how time consuming this was: choose the fabric, press it, sometimes starch it, and cut it up into those tiny little pieces. I started early this morning, and I'm only a little more than half way there . . .

Thank goodness for the June Tailor Shape Cut Plus! I love, love, love to use this tool to sub cut the strips into the 1 1/2 inch squares. It really is a time saver! The one I use is the Plus, it's only available in quilt shops - it is larger (12 x 18) than the Shape Cut (12 x 12) you would find in Wal-Mart or JoAnn's.

Re-do blocks

Well, I had to take the top rows apart from each block, went to the LQS and purchased more fabric from the mistakes I made with cutting and finally got them done!

Quilty To Do List is growing . . .

My quilting To Do List is growing by the day . . . The first items on the list I tackled yesterday, and I fumbled. I can't go any further as I made a mistake cutting on one block and made another mistake marking on the other block. So I am at a stand still until I go to the LQS to get more fabric. It's a good thing these 2 BOM's aren't due until next Friday! I am afraid to start on the 3rd item on the list.

Oh, yes, I should be afraid to start something else, very afraid, as I just looked at the picture I just posted, and the top rows on both blocks are not right - those little half square triangles are going the wrong way aaaaaaaaaaagggggggggghhhhhhhhh

Tulip blocks are done!!

Well, I finally finished the 24th block at 2 a.m. this morning! Got up early and went to the Post Office to send them out as they were due 2 days ago to Nancy, the Hostess . . . Nancy gave me permission earlier last week to drop out of the swap, but there were so few of us in the swap that I felt guilty that there wouldn't be much variety for the others if I dropped out, so I made it my mission to get them done, and I did it, a little late, but they are done and in the mail now on their way to Nancy!