Finally some REAL snow!

We have snow - lots of fluffy, white snow and it is still coming down. Looks like there is about 4" on the ground now but I am not going out to verify with a ruler! I am wearing my fuzzy pink slippers and I do not want to get snow on them. I will be wearing fuzzy pink slippers (and my bathrobe) all day today. Whoo hoo!! No driving to the office! No makeup! No trying to figure out what to wear! Weather reports tell me that the snow will change to ice and then rain but for now I will enjoy watching the snow come down. I will be taking calls from the office. There is a feature on the phone at my desk that allows phone calls to be transparently re-directed to my home number. I have remote access to the computer on my desk at work through both my desktop unit at home and also on my laptop. Fortunately, at this time of the year the beer business is slow so hopefully there won't be a whole lot of calls.

There is a quilt from Terry Atkinson's "Happy Hour" booklet laid out on the floor of my studio. I am going to put that one together this morning and hopefully get the quilt top finished today. There are also 2 other quilts I want to work on if time permits.

The studio is warm and cozy, a pot of coffee brewed, French Vanilla Sugar Free creamer in the fridge and I AM IN THE MOOD TO SEW!

OK - so it's only a secret from my mother...

I am 56 years old. I still have to keep secrets from my mother! If she finds out I am buying another sewing machine a lecture will begin. I made my sister promise not to tell. (Actually, I did a pretty good job of keeping the Janome a secret until she went up into my studio and saw that one!)

Enough of my relationship with my mother...Since so many of you left comments, I have decided to do a surprise give away!
There were 11 comments as of one minute ago. I used a random number picker and the winner is Bethany! Since this give away is just as much a surprise to me as it is to you, I have no idea what I will send you. Fat quarters? Notions? Storage container? Hmmmm...

Bethany, please email me your mailing address and I will send your surprise. Thanks for reading!!

I have a secret

I know that lots of you have very nice, very expensive sewing machines. I, on the other hand, have a bunch of used, ancient machines and one fabulous Janome 1600P. A couple of years ago I bought a used machine that has cams and does some decorative stitches. Guess which decorative stitch it doesn't have? The one that looks great when you are doing applique - the blanket stitch. I covet machines with a blanket stitch - and maybe the chicken track stitch. (I am sure there is a real name for it but that's what it looks like to me!) I have a bonus coming next month. I am going to do one responsible thing with the money and then I am going to do one thing for me. Can you guess what it is?

Where did I go?!

Thought I dropped off the earth? Nope - just busy, busy, busy! I haven't touched my machine in a week but I will be making up for lost time this weekend.

No, I am not going to work on the mystery quilt. (I put all the little pieces and completed squares into baggies. This one is definitely on my back burner!) I will be working on my grandson's birthday quilt. His birthday was last week but I won't see him until February and I want to see his face when he opens it. It is going to be a very simple quilt because I want to keep as much of the fabric intact as possible.

From Quilty stuff

Alex loves "Thomas" and I think this will be really cute. The spotted fabric will be for the inner border and binding. I will use the darker blue print for the outer border. I chose red flannel for the backing as Alex likes the feel of it. I hope this becomes his blanket of choice!

Other busy stuff? Well, I took a vacation day on Friday and spent the day with some of my "sisters" (of the Society of Sexy Sewing Sisters fame). We had a great time even though it was CRAZY cold. On Friday evening, my DIL arrived from Virginia. She came to help me organize my basement! Isn't that incredible?! Saturday was spent running stuff to the Salvation Army and organizing and labeling all of the plastic totes in my basement. Saturday night Sally's former neighbor came to have dinner with us. Sunday we literally laid around all day - couch, my nesting chair, bed. It was a GREAT weekend!

I returned to work yesterday and then took another vacation day yesterday so that I could enjoy ALL of the inauguration festivities. What a day! I was so excited and proud and weepy - a regular hormonal freak out! Seriously, one of those days that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Back to work...and reality...today.

Lest you think I lie...

I have now for your perusal a photo of the pillow I made with the pretty pink collection of fat quarters that Irene sent me.

From Pillow

I have the pieces cut for the second one but just have not sewn it together yet. I have been sleeping bizarre hours in the past few days. I sleep until about 1 am, read for a while then fall back to sleep and I am lucky if I get up at 5. I have no energy to sew at night so I really am getting so far behind. I have a couple of quilts that I promised would be ready by the end of the month. Why in the world I thought I would start the NYE Mystery Quilt is TOTALLY beyond me!

I finished something!

It isn't a quilt. It isn't a doll dress. It isn't even one of my quickie favorite table runners. Remember the fabric that Irene sent me a couple of months ago? No? Well, here is my blog post about it. I found a free (of course) pattern for a 5 fat quarter pillow from the Fat Quarter Shop. Other than for the back I have enough fabric to make s second pillow top so I think I will whip that up this weekend. I would show you a picture but my camera is 2 floors below and I am too lazy to go get it! I am going to play hooky for an hour or so at work today and run over to Joann's. I will get pillow forms and a fat quarter of something pink for the other pillow back.

The weather is going to be messy this weekend so other than doing some insulation installation in the house I will be sewing...I think. I may spend 4 hours scrapbooking on Sunday afternoon with my sister. There is also a very good chance that I will spend the entire weekend in my pajamas, laying on the couch and watching movies!

Just ice

I honestly thought I would wake up to fluffy white snow this morning. Nope - nothing but ice everywhere. It is supposed to start raining so I would imagine the ice will melt pretty quickly and I will have to go to work. Finally I feel like sewing and I have to go to work. Major bummer!

Over at Bunny Hill Designs, Anne is offering a free block of the month. Though I do not do "country", the first block looks pretty sweet and the quilt will make a nice gift. See, I have already started working on
Handmade for Christmas 2009. Actually, it is a very good excuse for me to indulge my quilter's ADD. I am going to also do the free (very key here) block of the month on Connecting Threads if I can figure out where it is! Of course, this will mean I have 2 quilt tops that need quilting in December. Maybe I should look for OLD block of the month patterns, do two at a time and finish up in July. Whoa - that scares me!

Nothing to show

I puttered yesterday. I think I went up and down the stairs about 30 times. I made a huge pot of ham, string beans and potatoes (very Pennsylvania Dutch!) I did loads of laundry. I went for a walk. It was cold and damp but at least I got out of the house and moving. I went to "Wrinkle in Time" with my sister and quilty Pam. I didn't buy anything. I just poked around a little. I sewed for a total of roughly 30 minutes.

I don't feel guilty. I needed to be "not busy" for a day.

Heading off to work

Can you believe it? Nearly everyone in the WORLD has off today. Not me! Worse yet I have to be in the office at 6am on Saturday for our year end inventory count. I am a purchasing agent and I only have to do this once a year so I don't complain (too much). I knew this was part of the deal when I signed on. There are 2 teams counting in the cooler tomorrow. I am on one of the teams. It should go pretty quickly. I have a newbie teamed up with me. I am going to wear a hat and gloves and make her track the numbers. My plan is to stand there with my hands in my pockets and boss her around! (I know the inventory and I LOVE power!) Last year the cheeseballs that were in charge brought in doughnuts to feed us for breakfast. I have heard rumors that they are taking us out for breakfast if we want to hang around until everyone finishes their counts. Though I do love breakfast out, I think getting back home and in front of my sewing machine will be the plan.

I have been working on the mystery quilt but not too hard! All the little squares in squares are killers. There is also a lot of trimming. I can appreciate that because I do like to square up my blocks. The next step in the mystery is going to be published today. I am looking forward to seeing how the blocks and colors of my fabrics are going to play against each other. I think this will end up being one of my WIPs for a very long time. I have so many other things I need to finish - like 2 Christmas quilts from 2008 and one even from 2007! I think I am going to just make quilts and then save them for gifts rather than plan a gift. Less pressure and that will be then name of the game for 2009.

If you are working outside the home today, bless your heart. If you get to hang out at home today, enjoy!

Baby, it's COLD outside!

I am in the studio this morning. I was just looking at the little squares and little triangles I cut for the mystery quilt. There are a lot of little squares and little triangles!! I am drinking my second cup of coffee - Colombian beans with sugar-free French Vanilla International Foods creamer. Yummy. The wind outside is howling...seriously! I think with the wind chill it feels like 1 degree. I know that for many of you that read this blog, that kind of temperature is the norm in winter. In SE Pennsylvania it is not!

I am waiting for Bonnie Hunter to get outta bed and post the next set of directions for the mystery. The reason I want her to do this is the REAL mystery. These are little pieces, folks. I don't do little pieces!! Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. Bring it, Bonnie - bring it!!

(BTW - Happy New Year!!)