One day til March

Tommorrow is March 1st.....ugh.......I hate March! It is the worst weather month of the year. It's not cold enough for snow (usually) but not warm enough to enjoy going outside. And it's either raining or gloomy clouds.To make it worse, it's a 31 day month.......sigh.

What's your least favorite month of the year? And why?

Last night was the Blue and Gold Dinner for the Cub Scouts. That was fun.....I always enjoy watching the older boys bridge from cub scouts to boy scouts. To me they are taking their first steps towards manhood and it always tears me up to watch them leave childhood behind......

I did win a prize in the silent auction, horray!! It was a Longberger Basket with some baking goodies inside. It has a patriotic liner so I am going to use it when I go to Assateague Island over the 4th of July! I can not wait for that vacation to start!

See my basket?

I helped the tiger cubs make clay cupcakes for their centerpiece. Here's a picture of a few of them. They came out really cute. And they almost look real before you put on the decorations!

Well, that's it for tonight........I quilted the Storm at Sea today with wavy lines and added the binding. Just need to wash it and then get it to the inlaws. Have a fantastic Monday!!

kathy

Super Saturday!

Ok, it's been a while since I posted.....life got busy. Training for work, strep throat kid, back log of events that were rescheduled from all the snow......but I did manage to sneak in a little sewing. First up, I made this purse to donate to the Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner silent auction. That event is tonight.....I love silent auctions! Maybe I will get to come home with some goodies!

The purse pattern is called the "Rachel Bag" and comes from the book "Bag Boutique". I have made this bag a few times since it is easy to do, roomy, and looks great with large scale prints. For this auction I toned down my normal screaming colors so it would be more acceptable to the masses......what to you think?

If you are thinking that you have seen this fabric before, you're right!!! I used it in my Storm at Sea quilt. Since I orginally planned to make that quilt bed sized, I have lots leftover. And I decided to give the quilt to my inlaws for their anniversary! I think they'll like it, don't you.

I did two more Farmer's Wife blocks too.....they get kind of addicting because they have such cool names. Plus I only have to make one of each block so I can't get bored. That's a problem when you have to make 20 of the same kind of block with the same exact fabric in the same exact places....it becomes boringggggg. Probably explains why I am a scrap quilt junkie.

This one is called "Buckwheat"......interesting huh.......

And this is "Butterfly in the Crossroads", now this one I can visualize better. My butterfly is supposed to be a monarch. I grow milkweek every year in my garden so the monarches will come and lay eggs. Then I get to see the catapillars become butterflies. I love that. I did notice we did not have very many monarches last year compared to in the past. Hope this year there are more of them.

Time to get moving.......have a great day and I will let you know if I win anything at the silent auction.

kathy

More Farmer's Wife Blocks

This week has been getting back to some kind of normal rountine after all the snow days last week. The kids are back to school though it is with a 2 hour delay to start time all week....and today it warmed up to over 40 degrees!! First time in weeks!

I've been busy making more of the blocks from the Farmer's Wife Sampler......here they are!

First up is "Box".......

Then there is "Bowtie"......

Followed by my favorite of this group, "Broken Dishes".......lots of little triangles but I really liked how it came out.

Then there's "Broken Sugar Bowl", don't you just love that name!

Have a fun rest of the week!

kathy

A winner!

And the winner of my Valentine's Day giveaway is.......

Lisa from 9 Patch Nurse!!!!!

Congratulations!!!!

Today I need to get a new iron because this guilty party.....

decided to knock mine over and it fell onto the concrete floor then BAM! It broke the water tank......I loved that iron. It has so much steam.....so much heat......sigh.....now for Valentine's Day I will have to find a new iron to love.

Have a fantastic Valentine's everyone!! And be sure to eat some chocolate and buy some flowers, you deserve it!

kathy

Orange Peel Revisted

One of my goals this year was to make one orang peel block a week as part of a quilt along. Now these blocks are hand appliqued and I am slow at hand applique. But I decided to give it a try and play along. Here's my first block.....

I was pretty pleased with how the block turned out. However it took me a long time to do it and I did not really enjoy the whole process involved with making the petals. One thing I often hear about is how it's important to enjoy the whole process of creating and not dwell on the finished product.

So decided this is going to be my last Orange Peel block since the process was not enjoyable to me. But I still wanted to do something "Orange". So I decided to make an Orange Zinger! Doesn't that like a cocktail?

The Orange Zinger is make from a base fabric and selvages. I had tons of fun picking out which selvages to use and stitching them down. Plus it was a little stroll down memory lane to see some selvages from past quilts.

So I'm swapping out my Orange Peel  for the Orange Zinger! Here's the link to make your own Zinger quilt at the Selvage blog....

I also won this week a selvage needle case from a give away at Scraps n Strings. She has a really cool spiderweb quilt so check it out.

Anyone else done a selvage quilt?

kathy

Snowy Birthday!

Guess what today is???? It's my birthday AND it stopped snowing!!

To celebrate my special day, I made black bottom cupcakes.....I am going to put one on here later.

Now it we have ALOT of snow here.....this is the end of the street.

I wanted to go out for dinner tonight to celebrate but that's not happening....instead I am going to have my very own Beach Party!! The first thing to do was make my cup holder....there is lemonade inside.

Now time to stretch out in the hammock and enjoy the rays....ahhhhh.......

Later on tonight, I am going to fire up the grill, throw on some burger patties and crank up the heat! You gotta let your hair down and live is my motto!

Have a great Thursday and some quilty photos tommorrow.....

kathy

A Snow Day Give Away

Well, its snowing again......ALOT! See??

That white hill? It's my neighbor's car......I'm thinking.....maybe March til it all goes away. In the meantime, I thought I would have a give away!!

I'm doing a Secret Valentine's Day Swap with my group, the Wild Threads. I have my secret person's name, bought them some candy, a fat quarter, a cool book, and some socks. You also had to include a mini quilt in the swap package. I decided to experiment and found a pattern from ArtFabrik that I liked. I got to play around with my wave rotary cutter.

I still need to add the quilting.....and that is going to be lots of fun! Going to add texture to the flowers with thread and some kind of swirly design in the background.

I ended up making two quilts.....one for my secret swap partner and one for the giveaway!

 If you want a chance to win, leave a comment on this post by 9am EST Sunday morning (Valentine's Day). I'll draw a name and post sometime that day who the winner is.

Good luck and have a fantastic day!

kathy

Black and White Baskets

You're probably wondering if the only thing I have done in the last few days is shovel snow and cook.....the answer is no. I started watching season 2 of "Lost"  with the hubby, he is always overjoyed when I spend time watching TV with him. I also got some sewing done. I finished up a teddy bear for a client. It's made from her dad's shirt......isn't he cute!

And I finished up another UFO!!!! I combined the leftover black and white blocks from the dead chickens quilt with my basket blocks which came from the Wild Threads group swap.

 Now with all this snow, I thought some red would heat things up! I like how this turned out. These are my favorite three basket blocks.

And that is a witch on one of the basket fabrics! For the back, I am using another quilt top I did. My group, the Wild Threads, did a round robin. I like the individual parts but not how it looks as a whole.

And I was also involved with a strip swap block making adventure with the Wild Threads (say that three times really fast). I made all kind of blocks with my strips. Here's some of them.

Now I made these blocks in all sizes and shapes and stiched them up. And I hated the way the middle looked.....sooo......I took the round robin top and appliqued it to the center of the strips top!!!!  Viola! I love how it looks now!

Sometimes you just gotta take some chances and get out the scissors! I cut the middle of the strips top out from underneath the round robin after I was done with the applique.

So this will be the back to the black and white baskets. I am going to quilt it with bright red thread and bind it with red binding. Any suggestions on how to quilt it?? I have those big empty black and white blocks that I could do something pretty in......hmmmm....thoughts??

Enjoy the day!

kathy

And it snowed...

Unless you are living under a rock, you know that this past weekend the mid Atlantic region was pretty much buried by the storm of the century. Of course this century has only been going on for 10 years......hmmmmm. But it was STILL an impressive storm! Between shoveling, dressing children in snow clothes, and making food I took a few photos to share with you. And BTW what is it about a snowstorm that makes you want to start cooking enough food to feed a small army? I don't get those urges during a tropical storm or a thunderstorm.....someone should research this for their PhD.

Here's my snow pixs and at the end of this posting I am going to share my receipe for Peanut Butter French Toast, which is beloved by the members of this household except me, I hate peanut butter! Why do I make it if I won't eat it?? Because I live in house of peanut butter lovers and if it was chocolate french toast, I would eat it all up and gain yet another 5 pounds. My diet plan, make what you hate!

Here's me.....why am I wearing a dog leash? So I don't lose it under 2 tons of snow....the previous attached dog is now trying to walk thru 2 feet of snow. The dog stand about 2 feet at her shoulders so just her head sticks up. She does love it though!

Here's my car during the storm....see all the snow piled up on top!

Here's my hubby, Ed, dragging the pine tree off the backyard fence. The branches started snapping off from the weight of the snow. Ed is looking forward to cutting the branches up smaller with some man tools. Not sure what is it with men and chopping things up but keeps him busy.

Here's Mikey and Pepper at the end of street next to us. See the street sign sticking up behind them?

Post storm....the big dig out.....

Now that's ALOT of snow......some people have piles of snow 6 feet high on their front lawn from digging out their cars....it is an amazing sight.

Now Ed is 6' 3"........and the snow comes up to his waist in some places.

Guess what?? There is another storm coming.......5 inches and up.....I don't think the kids are going to school at all this week. Luckily I still have at least 20 rolls of TP still on hand....think that's enough?

Then the french toast......I whipped this up when the snow was coming down fast and furious.

It's really simple.....

Peanut Butter French Toast

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

6 eggs

1 3/4 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

10 cups torn bread

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees

2. Spray 2 square baking dishes or one 9 by 13 inch baking dish with cooking oil.

3. Mix first five ingredients together with a mixer.

4. Stir in bread with a spoon.

5. Pour in prepared dish and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

PS I like to cut in some chocolate chips or strawberry jam after I pour into the dish. The photo is the strawberry jam version. Certain people ate the chocolate chip verison before I had a chance to get a photo.

Have a great day!! I'm walking over to a friend's house today so the kids can climb the 10 foot moutain of snow at the end of her street.

kathy

The rest of the household

Last week I wrote about all my pets. Today I am going to tell you about everyone else who lives here with me but first a weather update. It started snowing yesterday afternoon and there's 21 inches on the ground this morning with it still coming down. One of the trees in our backyard started losing branches last night under the weight of the snow. The weatherman are saying this storm might be a record breaker! Pretty darn exciting!!

Good thing I stocked up on batting! Might be awhile before we can dig out.

Now the cast of characters in my house. First there is my husband, Ed. He is a GED math teacher and a huge sports fan. He also kinda looks like his dog.....see?

Then there is the oldest son, Jack. He likes to play sports, Xbox, and is good with animals. He is in 8th grade this year and says his goal is to get at least two A's on his third term report card. You heard it hear first! I'll let you know if that actually happens since Jack is a real slacker about school. He's a real good kid

though.

Then there is the middle son, Brad. He is in 2nd grade and 8 years old. Brad loves, I mean loves, to talk. He also loves Godzilla. If you ever want to know any facts about Godzilla, Brad's the person to ask. He's got a real creative twist to his mind too. Maybe he will be a future Godzilla film director.....

Then there is the youngest son, Mikey. Or Mike as his friends call him. He is in 1st grade and he wants you to know he is 6 and 2/3rds. NOT 6 years old. Mikey loves animals, playing with his Legos, and generally running around. He also wants to go outside in the snow so I better finish this up.

Have a great day everyone!!! If you are under the "bubble of doom" (we are) for the Mid Atlantic storm then be sure to take it easy shoveling, make some chili, and wait for the plows.

kathy

Snow Supplies

Well, the middle son came home from school yesterday and says "Mom, the bus driver said we might get 40 inches of snow this weekend".

Wow, that's alot of snow!!!! I could be stuck here for days!! So I went out and got some critical supplies needed by all quilters facing a snowfall of epic proportions.

First I bought some thread.....

Then I bought some batting......and in case the world as we know goes into a deep freeze due to the 40 inches of snow, I can always just wrap it around myself to stay warm.

Then I checked the TP supply. That's like religion in Maryland......

"Honey, it's going to snow"
"Ok dear, I checked the TP and we have 20 rolls, you think it will be enough?"
"Let's not take any chances, I'm heading to the Walmart to get another 12 pack".

In case you're concerned that I have only 9 rolls, not to fear. I have two more packages so unless it's March by the time I shovel out, we should be ok.

Then there is the most important thing of all to a quilter.....

Need I say more about that one?

Have a fantastic day!!! And I checked the weather forcast, the weather man said up to 24 inches, darn! The thought of 40 inches was way more exciting!

kathy

Santa Claws and the rest of the household

Another 4 inches of the white stuff Tuesday night and the kids had a 2 hour delay on Wednesday morning. So I had time to finish off the rest of my blocks for the "Holiday Block Swap". And these are adorable.....you better sit down, the cuteness level might be too much for you.

Group number one!

I fused these down and stitched around using black thread. In case you're wondering, I did the whiskers , eyes, and mouth with Pigma pen. Now here's group number two!

I just love tiger claws....I bought the fabric for my middle son's Halloween costume years ago. He was a little tiger and he looked so cute! Now I finally got to do something with the scraps from that outfit.  But as much as I love the tiger claws....he's not my favorite kitty.....my favorite one is.....

Chocolate Claws!!! I look at him and think about eating, what else, CHOCOLATE!

Which kitty is your favorite?

Have a great day!

kathy

A snowy day- again!

I don't remember the last time we had this much snow in Maryland!! It has been so much fun!! And today is exceptionally pretty outside! But wait! The weather guys are calling for yet another storm this weekend....and they are saying.....it could be a BIG one! Alright!

I finished up my candy cane blocks yesterday for a online block swap I am doing over at Aunt Pitty Pat's. I fused the block and then stitched really close to the edge with invisible thread. They came out really cool!

See?

You had to make a companion 9 patch block to go along with it. Here's mine.

Last weekend I took some photos when I was out in the snow.....and while I was stomping around, I found this tree!!

Pretty cool huh! I wonder what he is thinking about......probably keeping an eye out for beavers. This might be hard to believe since we live in a metro area but we actually had beavers in the stream behind our house last year. There's a green zone that's maybe a 1/4 of a mile wide behind our house and the beavers moved in for a while. Chewed down lots of trees, and then moved out. I guess this guy never recovered from the horror of seeing his loved ones chewed down to a stump. Poor guy.....

Well, I am off to do a little stitching before I get started with my day. Hoping to show you a pix of my second set of holiday swap blocks later on. This one features "Santa Claws" and its soooooo cute!

Have a great snowy day!

kathy

Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt

Now I have always dreamed of living on a farm. I grew up in rural New Jersey and lots of my friends lived on farms. And I have always wanted a goat. Why, I don't know but they just seem so cool and goats seem to go together with farms.

My problem is, I live in the Baltimore Maryland metro area.....and you can't really have a goat in your backyard....hmmmm......and I don't think I can convince the neighbors that it's a new breed of designer dog (goatdoodles, now there's a name!). So I have two stuffed goats, I named them Daisy and Smithers.....aren't those great names for goats!

To make up for my lack of a farm, I decided for one of my 2010 goals was to create the "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt". There was a contest in the 1920's about if you would want your daughter to marry a farmer. The contest entries are published in the book and there are 111 blocks in the book as well. My goal is to make 2 blocks a week so by the end of the year, I should have made them all.

I decided to use colors that remind me of a vegtable garden in full bloom. The first block is called "Attic Windows".

Next up is "Autumn Tints"......

 Followed by......"Basket" and then "Basket Weave"......

The next block really cracks me up.....it's called "Bat Wings". I decided to add a litle to the original blocks.

 He, he, he......then I did the "Birds in Air" block and this was a tough one. See how tiny those little half square triangles are, only 1 1/2 inches.

Then I made the "Big Dipper" and "Bouquet". This week I am going to do "BowTie" and "Box". I am off work today since I managed to get the strep from one of the kids. At least it will give me some time to finish up my Holiday Block Swap squares! I'll post them tommorrow for you to see.

Have a fantastic day!

kathy