Here we go down the Rabbit Hole!

I've been playing Alice lately. Perhaps I need to explain. This is July which is a shop hop month. I have never taken part in a shop hop, but as I needed some fabric for the two quilts I'm planning, I went ahead and jumped in whole hog. Since this is an online shop hop, I've been going around to all the different participating shops looking for the little purple bunny. Even Jessica got into it with me happily yelling "there it is!" When she would spot one. There are 180 stores involved, but to be registered for a grand prize you only need to find 135 bunnies (65 for the third place gift), but I couldn't help myself and sought out all of them!

Since our tax check showed up we once again have money for things like groceries, luckily for me I have a husband who has let me shop all over those stores. Perhaps it's selfish, but the way I see it, is that I will have enough fabric to potentially last me through November/December, and a happy mom goes a long way.

Hey don't roll your eyes! If I put a happy face on to put my daughter to bed she will go right to sleep after her story, but if I am impatient with her it only seems to take longer. If it takes a happy face I will wear it every time. I noticed last week it's taking over an hour from putting on the PJ's to real sleep, and that's seems to be an excessive amount of time.

Our Sunny Boy Cat has been asking for attention lately, it's honestly quite wonderful, nothing and I mean nothing soothes my heart and mind the way my cat loves me. My big, fluffy, goofy Maine Coon, just hops up and then looks at me like "oh you're here, you can pet me now". LOL

Jessica's quilt is streaming towards being done, today I stitched more of her little red hearts, Jessica loves "finding them" all over the quilt. I have two left and then to decide whatever I will do with the boarder and then it's time to bind it up. YIPPIE!

We have completely become addicted to "Deadliest Catch" here at my house, on the Discovery Channel, of course it's made all the better with the voice overs being done by Mike Rowe from "Dirty Jobs". We were hooked shortly before the start of this season, and we were up till the wee hours of the morning watching it. I never would have dreamed crab fishing would be so fun to watch. They do an amazing job everything from the camera footage to the music. So now I'm off to go watch while picking up the toys. GEEE... :D Read Well! Smile Big, Bedtime comes soon!

Quiet Post Birthday Celebration

Hello everyone, I've been on a bit of an Internet sabbatical while getting ready for Jessica's birthday. That of course was yesterday, and we all had a wonderful time. Of course there were hiccups, but that comes with it being a three year old's birthday and anyone who claimed perfection in that wasn't telling the whole truth, at least not at a "home" party. ;)

Jessica loves these photos of her "cake", she was so excited about blowing out her candles I had to hold her back while we all sang Happy Birthday.

I have wanted to buy the "Happy Birthday" wooden cake set for Jessica's play kitchen for over a year now, and never had the money to buy one. Well let me tell you want things happen for a reason. About a month ago now I was thinking about what's in that set. She has everything in that set already (from different sets that have been bought since I was a little girl) with the sole exception of the cake. So I told her father, hoping he would make one for her. I know you can't see it very well but he hand painted it with her name and some roses, he even painted it to be Tutty Fruity Cake! Sometimes it pays not to have money I guess! LOL

I remade the Green and Purple Log Cabin Block it's now the size she wanted and has the red center she wanted. Hey you know me I don't want anyone to be unhappy with the things I make.

100th Post!

Sure enough this is post number one hundred. To commemorate that event, I will share with you photos taken today of me working on the machine quilting for Jessica's Baby Clothes Quilt. Furthermore I would like to announce that the machine quilting for that aforementioned quilt is done. I just wrapped it up a few moments ago. Please note, this is me in my house when its over 90 degrees inside because I tried to burn dinner (it tasted wonderful though) so we have all the fans going. We got the stick out, but now it's hot in here and I don't want to spend the money to cool it of to turn it off for bed.

As you can see I am sporting a lovey expression in the first photo, complete with my daughter next to me supervising the work being done on her quilt. That chair isn't there for her, it's there to hold the weight of the quilt. Normally when Jessica watches she sits on the corner of the table and "helps" by holding a corner of the quilt. Perhaps not the safest place in the world, but what can I do, she's my little monkey! :)

Sewing Machine Challenges

I have spent this morning fighting the sewing machine. I've been having trouble with the machine quilting for Jessica's baby clothes quilt. The tension has been giving me all kinds of fits. Of course after DH messes with it, he discoveres the bobbin thread is all messy... OPPPS, should have checked that. So I was given the gentle reminder to check that right away if I have trouble.

Jessica's still asleep so I guess I'm back to sewing. Does anyone have any children's dog party games that the 3-5 year old set can play?

Hiya Folks!

Been a while since I was here, hmmm, let's see! I've been working on the machine quilting for Jessica's baby clothes quilt. Oh did I not tell you? I've decided to do the quilting myself. The blocks (25 total) will be machine quilted (I'm 2/3rds of the way done) and all the sashing will be hand quilted hearts. Everyday it's more and more quilt like. Simply amazing really. Perhaps that toots my own horn, but it is more soft, cuddly, warm, and wonderful than I would have ever hoped for.

I've been hard on the trail for the fabrics for my mother and sister's Christmas Quilt. This is a red I just love, it's a Christmas fabric, but I think it would be pretty all the time, don't you? Next up for your enjoyment is ... This is the Red swirl I loved from the Wintergraphix star I'm planning on making. The quilt will use the Wintergraphix pattern, but the only color I'll be using from the pattern is that red swirl (also called white on red eyelash!) Once again this is a Christmas fabric, but I'm sure it would be beautiful gracing a quilt all year long.

Of course my sister's quilt is a showcase of blue fabrics. The pattern of which has been a co-op with dh and I to create and draft it. So you'll have to wait and see the pattern, but just look at those colors! All the blues are from Thousands of Bolts So they are all around $4.00+/- (whereas the red is more like $8-$10).

Currently DH is sanding down the bathroom door, as the original finish has long since pealed and looks well nasty. He's going to sand it and paint it the bright baby blue that we trimmed out our bedroom with. Completely because it's the color we have, so it doesn't cost anything. It could very well be the only home improvement done before Jessica's birthday party on Monday.

Yes, that's what I said Monday. We're having a "dog love dog" party and if the invites I wrote are any indication we'll be having the latest Dog movie (any suggestions what that might be?), tearing open presents, and digging in the dirt.

TTFN!

Harvest?

Conversations around me seem to be of harvest and bringing in produce. Sure enough even dh and I shared our first home grown tomato last night. In this case it was only a cherry tomato and my half was the size of a dime but we'll take it.

My grandfather had a garden futher back than I can remember. He was always growing the best veggies, and one of the very special things about grandma and papa's house was the FREEZER PICKLES. So since I'm in a sharing mood today I will share with you the how-to's of freezer pickles.

Freezer Pickles
2 quarts unpealed cucumbers sliced (4-6 large cucumbers make a quart)
2 tablespoons salt
2 Medium onions sliced (I think she used vadalia's when she could get them)
Mix and let stand 2 hours
Make syrup of 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/2 vinegar
Boil only until sugar is melted.
Remove from heat, with coll set aside in refrigerator.

Drain cumbers and onions and squeeze out all the water. Pack into plastic containers. Pour the syrup over the pickles, cover with a lid and freeze. When I was older she used ziploc bags to take up less space in the freezer and served them up in her tupperware "pickle server".

1/2 teaspoon celery salt can be added to each container if desired.

It might sound odd but I PROMISE it's wonderful.

Yesterday's post did indeed motivate me to work on the perinatal quilts. I now have another top done and ready to quilt, this one will be either a Medium or Large Preemie, I know what an oxymoron. I have two Small preemies quilted but I'm out of the blue satin bias binding I wanted to use, so they will have to wait a little while.

I have completed the embroidery on the label for Jessica's quilt. You really have to look at it to see all the work I did. I even put french knots in the swirl centers, but the colors don't really show off my work.

I think I need my head examined because now I'm thinking of beginning the quilting for this quilt MYSELF. Yes, I'm very near committed. I'm planning on machine stitching the blocks with hand quilting for the hearts that would run up and down the boarders. I can't even begin to explain how careful I will have to be to budget my time and not over work my hand. I'm tempted to tell dh that if I start it and don't have it finished in two years he has to contact a hand quilter to finish it. A nice safety net I thought of.

Picture Day, at least for you it is

Isn't life special, today while I relax on my hind-end, as today is a do nothing-icky-rainy day you get postings and photos, which will hopefully motivate me to sew some more. Oh and I'm feeling a bit better, I just have to be careful how I sit down.

First up we have my two reject Log Cabin Blocks. It's heart breaking to me that they are rejects as I find them to be quite pretty. Oh they are rejects because one is to small by 1/2" and the other, rumor has the lady wanted a red center. :(

Next up is a little ditty called "Housewife", This block is brown, tan, and, off white, it made me nuts to take it seeing as it made me think of all the poop a housewife deals with on a day to day bais, but takes a decent photograph. This block also has the honor of being my very first pinwheel. They are not so hard to make after all. Though just a note, this is the block I had to cut extra fabric for, that I made the brown and green pinwheel with that you saw a few days ago.

My next star is not a star at all, rather a block I was concerned with at first but turned out quite nice. The pattern colors left much to be desired but marilbela had an eye for color that I never would have combined. That perhaps is the point of the Challenge Swap is it not?

And last but not least is the third in my set of 12 perinatal quilts. I really need to get moving on that project. This last one wraps it up for the Extra Small Preemie, so now I need to look up the next bigger size.

I have offered my baby quilt making services up to my sister, to make a baby quilt for a lady she works with (my sister is currently working with three pregnant women). I saw the perfect fabric for it at Joann's, it's cheater fabric, a baby pink patchwork that is as soft as the day is long, it just needs a backing, batting and bound up. I'm not quite sure, but something tells me I'll be buying all I need for it. Of course not normally a problem, but a bit of an issue with "what we've got is, really all we've got".

I hate that, things that normally we'd just do, suddenly I find myself thinking, if you would only pay us a little bit for dh's efforts it would really help us out... But in a time when no one seems to have much money, it's only my thoughts that hurt me.

I broke my Butt!

Okay I didn't really break my butt... Here's my tail of woe... I went to the beach with my daughter and my sister today, while the canal is only a block or two from my house the beach is more like a mile, rough like I know. Rather than follow the two of them around the park and beach area I sat on the seawall which afforded me a good view of both the play area and the ocean.

Seawalls are not made to be sat on. If you have a chance sit in the wet sand instead. So I was sitting with my good leg hanging down and my bad leg up on the wall. Unbenost to me this was rolling my pelvis, allowing my leg/hip to slip just a little out of socket. This might not have been the case for you but we all know my pelvis isnt normal anymore. Seriously! So the first time it slipped it hurt rather a lot to slide back in. Well I guess I'm stupid because I just assumed I was having trouble because my leg was hanging down, so I achingly pulled it up, forgot about it, and let it fall back to hang down again. This happened seriously 5 or 6 times! After a bit I knew it was my hip giving me trouble, but what's a woman to do, it was the seawall, the wooden park bench, or the wet sand.

The last time it happened, it hurt so bad couldn't even think how to get up, now that I really wanted to. My poor dear sister is watching nearly pleading to help me, and I'm fending her off. Why!?!? Because I hurt so bad I was afraid she'd hurt me worse if she touched me! Yep, so I just rocked there like a dumb bird until I could rock forward enough to be on my hands and knees and get up from there.

So now I'm home and clean (and Jessica keeps telling me she needs more beach!) but my pelvis has slipped painfully three times since I've been home, doing nothing more than sit and be in bed. Yeah, I know, BROKEN BUTT! lol

I didn't take the camera, which is a sad thing because I saw a DOLPHIN again! Yep! Luckly me, or so I hope. My husband has convinced the computer to accept the SanDisk card from the camera, so hopefully I will be taught how to do that soon, and you'll be seeing lots of pretty photos of the crazy lady rocking her butt on the beach! :D

Now for your viewing enjoyment I have one photo of the Buzzard's Roost Block that I made. This is the one I remade to be more juvenile, and I've posted both so you can judge for yourself how pointless my work was.


Don't forget you can always click on my photos to see a better detail, and we can all hope the photos from the camera will be better than these taken with the camera phone!

The Broken Butt Lady Bids You Good Day, and Happy Butts!