DON'T KNOW WHAT IS WRONG

I can't take a clear picture for the life of me. Guess I will have to be getting the directions out this weekend to find out what to do with this camera because I can't figure out what I am doing wrong. Even when I put it on automatic, the picture is still blurry. Well anyway, this is a picutre of my Xmas stocking. Lots of work went into these stockings but they are so worth it.

Not much has been going on here. The weather has been crappy this week and now I have the news on and they are calling for bad weather for the morning commute. Just what I wanted to hear. Yesterday was just awful. It snowed, then sleet, then back to snow. The commute to and from work was dreadful yesterday. Funny story about the snow yesterday. When I came home there were big foot prints in the front yard. No packages but the postman must have walked across the yard. Only the guy does that, no when the girl delivers our mail. Well when DH got home he said "how much fabric did the UPS guy bring you today". I said I didn't get any fabric at all and I hadn't. He said well there is footprints in the front yard and only the UPS guy walks that way. I told him since he is becoming such a detective I better tell the UPS driver to walk down the driveway. I have had a pending order going all week with The Fat Quarter Shop but I haven't been able to finish it yet.

So is everybody almost ready for Xmas. I haven't even started Xmas shopping but I am hoping to make a good dent in it this weekend. The only problem is, you have to wrap all those gifts once you buy them. I am a perfectionist at heart, so all my packages have to be perfect. You must have ribbons and bows on your presents or they aren't finished.

Have been working on the challenge quilt this week. Just a few more days and I will hopefully be able to post a good picture of my progress. In between times, I have been working on my bluework snowman. I am working on one of the bigger portions right now, I think it is 18 x 42. Here is a little peek at the section I have done so far.


Making perioges for dinner tonight. I make DH the ones with cheddar cheese and potatoes and then I make mine with cheddar cheeses and jalapeno. DH always says how can you eat those when you don't even like spicy food. I don't know, they just sure taste good.

Well off to cook,

Hugs, Cindy

LET THE CHALLENGE BEGIN

Can any of you believe that it is already December 1st. As some of you might have been imagining me and 3 of my blogging friends, Nicole, Lisa, and Perry have started our challenge quilt today. The guidelines are that todaywe are supposed to annouce what our fabric selection is and what pattern we have choosen.

I am also using the book by Marsha McClosey and Sharon Evans Yenter called "Blended Quilts". I am going to make the quilt called "Victoria's Garden" but if any of you know me I have to enlarge the quilt. The finished size is 76 1/2 x 88 1/2. As the pattern stands now, it is 5 blocks across/6 rows. I am thinking that I should make it 6 x 6. Does anyone else have any thoughts about this.

This is my fabric selection. The fabrics on the right are my border fabrics and my focal fabric and the ones on the right are for the inside blocks. It is from the new Mary Rose collection which I absolutely fell in love with. So my quilt shall have a lot of florals in it. There is quite a bit of cutting for this quilt and that will have to wait until tomorrow.

My DH and I are really big "Dancing With the Star" fans. Well tonight they are having a local Dancing With the Celebrities event which consists of a lot of radio, tv and band celebrities. The proceeds benefit Children's Hospital so when we heard it advertised we decided we had to go. I am excited about this because it means I don't have to cook dinner tonight. LOL.

Not too much else is new around here except we are supposed to get a big storm tonight. I hope it doesn't start until after we get home. It is supposed to be the dangerous stuff, snow, sleet and ice which I absolutely hate. It is supposed to change over to rain tomorrow and that is good because I really have to start Xmas shopping and then I have some work that I brought home to get done. It is really making me very nervous that I am so behind at work and am planning on taking time off for the holidays.

Well off to do some laundry and sew some. Hope you all will come back and check on our Challenge project.

Hugs,

I KEEP ON FORGETTING

To thank Vickie for the chocolate I received from her. I just tried to take some picture of the candy, the cute fabric and pot holder I got from her but the picture came out blurry so I will try again tomorrow for that one. I also tried to take pictures of the Xmas stockings that I made for Joe, myself and Beth several years ago. The picture of Joe's came out fine but Beth's and mine are blurry too. Here is a picture of Joes.

I did all of the stockings in counted cross stitch and it took me a year to do each stocking. Joe collects Santas so of course his stocking had to have Santa in it. This was way before I got the quilting bug but can you see, there is a quilt. LOL

Not too much else is new or exciting here. I am waiting for it to get dark and I am going to go outside and take pictures of the outside decorations.

Just wanted to post a little note that the "Challenge" begins with some of my fellow bloggers on Saturday so please stop back and check out all the information about our challenge then. I am very excited about this. I am so glad that tomorrow is Friday, but this weekend is going to fly. Just too much to do and so little time.

What's everyone else been working on? I am tracing another portion of my bluework snowman. I hope that I can finish tracing tonight because we are going out to dinner tomorrow night with some friends and I still have to finish my 3 blocks for Saturdays class. Pressure, I can handle it.

Carol, hope you are reading--tell Andy I am going to start posting some pictures of Joe's steelers ornaments next week.

Well must go start dinner. URGH

NEWEST FIND

I was off on Monday and if anyone was watching the Steeler game on Monday night you know what the weather was like. It poured down raining all day and I decided there was no way I was going Christmas shopping. Instead, I just went to the Williams Sonoma store and as soon as I walked in the fragrance was to die for. I decided I had to have it. There was a woman who greeted you at the front door and she directed me to everything I needed. Has anyone every tried this. You just fill that little steamer up and put it in boiling water and your just starts to smell wonderful. It might be better than a candle which I usually have one lite all the time while I am sewing. Has anyone else ever tried these.

I cannot believe that it is the end of November and less than a month to Christmas. I was off over the Thanksgiving holiday and didn't do any shopping on black Friday. Instead, my DH starts to decorate the house. He loves Xmas so I let him go wild. This year he decided we weren't going to have a real tree, instead he went to Lowe's and bought an artificial one against my wishes because you see I love the real thing. Well he has taken the tree back 3 times because at least one section of the tree's lights weren't working and guess what, this one isn't working either. For what this darn thing costs, he better keep taking it back until he gets one with all the ones working. Needless to say, there are no decorations on the tree but the house is starting to get decorated. Here is a picture in my dining room of one of my favorite wreathes. The place where we usually get our "real" tree at has the most awesome floral shop and I just can't resist them.

Haven't gotten very much sewing done since before Thanksgiving but that is okay. Last night I was trying to get my blocks done for Saturday's class and only have the last border and then they are finished. Tonight, I think I am going to start tracing another one of my bluework snowman blocks. They are just so very consuming it will probably take 2 nights to trace this one.

This weekend starts our "challenge" with my 3 other friends. I will be posting the pictures of my fabric on Saturday and then start cutting out. Can't wait to get started on this one. I am excited.

Well I just wanted to touch base and say hello. I will post more often this week.

Hugs, Cindy

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I know a lot of you are getting ready for the Thanksgiving. I am thought I would start some of the preparations when I got home from work tomorrow. As some of you know, my kitchen has been going through a major remodel. The kitchen countertops were installed last week and her are some pictures of the progress. Aren't they beautiful. I even picked out a granite sink which my DH was totally shocked that I picked out a black sink but it goes so well with the kitchen. My DH is making all the cabinets and there is a little sneak peak of them. I will show you a good picture of once they are finished. My kitchen is still in the dining room and tonight DH is installing 2 big cabinets by the frig some tomorrow night I will be able to put everything away and start cooking.

I hope everyone enjoys Thanksgiving with family and loved ones. I am looking forward to being off for 5 days. Yippee. Can you tell I am excited or what. I don't start my Xmas shopping then but I do start Xmas decorating. That is my DH's favorite holiday of the year so we decorate inside and out. Will take some pictures as we progress.

I finished another quilt and will take a picture of that over the weekend.

WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE

First thing, Happy Veteran's Day. Thank you to all the men and women who have served and continue to serve our country to make us free. I special thanks goes to my DH for his 25 years of service the Navy. I am so very proud of you.

I can't believe it has been over a week since I have posted. Where has time gone. Last week at work I have been totally swamped. It sure does make the days go fast but by the end of the day I am beat and still have things to do at home.

There are no pictures today but tomorrow I will take some pictures of what I have been up to.

My husband has really been under the weather and we spent 2 days in the ER last week. He has developed a fisture of the esophagus and he had surgery on this 4 years ago and it is acting up again. So now we are having surgery again this Wednesday. I don't remember him being so sick with the last one, but with this one he can hardly eat and when he does he says he feels like he is choking. So therefore I spent the weekend trying to figure out things he could eat. The only thing that made him comfortable was chicken broth with noodles and chocolate pudding. I made a big pot of potatoe soup and grinded up the potatoes real small and he actually got a bowl of that down last night.

What have I been working on, let's see. I belong to an on-line Kansas Troubles group and I was making 3 birthday blocks over the weekend and made them totally wrong. In the garbage they went. Then I made 2 others blocks to finish a quilt off. This one is going to take me awhile to get together because the outside border is all 3 1/2" blocks but it is going to be so beautiful when it is done. And then of course I have been working on my blue work snowmen a couple of hours a week. I have my last class for that tonight.

Well I better get off and get some work done. I hope you all have a great Monday. I will be back tomorrow with pictures.

SPIDER QUILT

Good afternoon everyone--hope everyone is having a good and productive day. I came home from work to a nice surprise. I got my spider quilt back from Penny. She did an awsome job on it. I tried to get some pictures of the close up of the spider webs she put in the blocks and the bats that she created. It turned out really great and I am so happy with it. Won't get much use for this year, but it will be ready when I decorate next year.

No sewing for me tonight. I have to get ready to go to the funeral home. My cousin's wife passed away on Sunday from complications with diabetes. She was only in her late 60's and that is pretty young in this day and age. I figured I had better go make an appearance for the family because my mom is not up to going.

Tomorrow is Friday though. Yippee. I am hoping to get loads done in the morning and hopefully, with my fingers crossed, be able to sneak out a little early. I doubt that will happen but I have good thoughts on that.

I don't know about you, but I have been drooling over Kimberly's website today. Tonight when I get home, I am going to figure out how much I need of that Mary Gate 11 line. I absolulely love that. I believe that Lisa, Perry, Nicole and I are all going to work on quilt and that is the line I am going to use.

Well off here for now--later.

Cindy