This is the wall hanging in my office.

Good Jack-Bad Jack, kinda like my personality ;-)

Thought I would post before I head to bed. We've had a pretty good earth shake in the area tonite, hope all is well with my blogger buddy Theresa, she lives very near.

I've made a pot of chili for the office tomorrow and also tried a new recipe for a pumpkin cake. All of the little guinea pigs at work can test it. All it takes is an angel food cake mix and a can of pumpkin with some pie spices. Hope it's good. It drives me nuts not knowing if it's good or not.

Hope you have a fun day tomorrow!

I sure hate see this holiday come and go so quickly. Would you believe I saw the beginnings of a Christmas tree lot tonite. They have campers and stakes and a porta potty already!! Nuthin like rushing things!

Another Good Weekend

This is the extent of my Halloween decorating, pretty pathetic eh? I was able to get all but five of the pincushions done, yipeee!!! I have to pick up another package of piping to finish them up. All is good! I managed to also get about 40 of the little tissue holders done for retreat gifts and a good start on my packaging for Sharon's Chocolate Swap. Four more days of work and then I will have two weeks to play! My friend, Cheryl from Mass. will arrive next Sunday and Carol and Syl will be here on Monday. Syl will stay with Cheryl and I until RETREAT! starting Thursday. Then I will finally get to see Vicky and Jane and so many other great quilting friends. For some of us this will be our 7th year together! Ok off to work. Have a good week.

This Little Pincushion Went to Market

Last year, I was way ahead of the game with my pincushions. My pal Deb says I was done by August. I did all the stitching by hand and was so happy doing it. I was using Alex's new Alexandra line that wasn't out yet and feeling kinda smug ;-) you know, smiling alot! Then she emailed me asking if P&B could use my design for a handout at Market. My design? the little basket is Alex's and I just came up with the idea, but... SURE! I was honored! I had to make an extra for the sample, but that was fine by me! I think they gave them out at the Schoolhouse, but don't really know for sure. Alex made sure that one kit was saved for me. I thought they kitted them up real cute..... So this little pincushion went to market and all of the other little pincushions went wee, wee, wee all the way to retreat!

Double Tagged!!

Ok, don't wanna be a party pooper so I'll play along. Giz tagged me for the 10-20-30 years ago. After you've been tagged, and answer/post, you need to go over to RelevantBlog and leave a comment and link. As boring as my life is, here goes....

• 10 years ago - Was working as a clerk for the Department of Human services, going to a lot of Jr. College football games raising my then 18 year old son.
• 20 years ago - Was working for the Dept. of Human Services, I had already been working for them for 6 years. Raising my then 8 year old son.
• 30 years ago - I just got hired at the library, but I must have had too much fun cause by the end of 77 I was pregnant with my son. If you are still awake, I'm gonna tag Vicky, West and Laurie - Good Luck Ladies Then my sweet friend Vicky tagged me for 4 MeMe (notice her name is first up there?)
• 4 Jobs: Worked in a Florist; Fry cook; Clerk; Clerical Supervisor
• 4 Films I could watch over and over: Pride and Predjudice (any version); Dr. Zhivalgo; It's a Wonderful Life; Elf
• 4 TV shows I watch: Desparate Housewives; Brothers & Sisters; Masterpiece Theater; City Confidential
• 4 Places I've Lived: Martinez California, Houma LA, Katy TX, Concord California
• 4 Favorite Foods: Any homemade soup, grilled cheese, broccoli, any kind of pie :-)
• 4 Favorite Colors: RED, Blue, Green, and all of the others
• 4 Places I would like to be right now: Quilt market, mountains, quilt retreat, with friends
• 4 Names I love but could not use on my children: Chloe, Amanda, Mathilda, Benjamin
• 4 People I'd love to tag: Gloria, Giz, Erin and Gail

Now why was this such a chore? See ya later!

FEELIN GROOVY

Thank you for all of the get well wishes, I don't know what it was but I think it's gone now, I've gone to work for two days now and I'm feeling preeeeety good! Since you asked, here are pumpkin pictures, inside and out! one is needle turned (I got 11 of those done) and the 31 others are machine appliqued using my new skills. Notice anything wrong? oops, I guess I didn't listen to the teacher. I forgot to reverse my pattern when I did the steam a seam technique. I don't think it will matter too much, I hope not. It's been fun seeing all of the pumpkins out in blogland. You can check out Erin's or Yvonne's, and Teresa's. I think there are 42 of us and if you've posted pictures on your blogs that I have missed, please let me know. It's going to be one adorable pumpkin quilt. I did get a chance to "chat" with another pumpkin swapper Gloria. What an interesting new friend. Anne Sutton designed the Strawberry Hill pattern for her and mentioned her on the back of it. (oh and Fatquartershop has this pattern on sale! and they also have some NEW Bunny Hill Designs!) I hope you will visit Gloria and ask her to show us her pumpkins too! Some of you were asking about the pincushions. I can't share them until after the retreat, but have an idea. Alex Anderson posted a blog about Duck Butts, it was funny. I told her I was gonna blog about pincushion butts. We thought that was funny too. But then I thought about it some more and thought it was dumb. But oh well here goes....what's wrong with dumb? TADA!!! PINCUSHION BUTTS in all their glory, this basket shows half of them done. At the moment I have got a total of 60 done and 20 to go. I think I'll make it! OK, are you still with me... all together now.... Slow down, you move too fast. You got to make the morning last. Just kicking down the cobble stones. Looking for fun and feelin' groovy. Ba da, Ba da, Ba da, Ba da...Feelin' Groovy. Hello lamp-post,What cha knowin'? I've come to watch your flowers growin'. Ain't cha got no rhymes for me? Doot-in' doo-doo, Feelin' groovy. I've got no deeds to do, No promises to keep. I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep. Let the morning time drop all its petals on me. Life, I love you, All is groovy... xoxomar

Whelp, the weekend is over

I'm still up, It's midnight and I should be in bed. Morning will come too soon. This happens every weekend. Seems I never want to go to bed and once I get there I don't want to get up. I get my hours messed up so quickly, I think my internal alarm clock needs repair.

It's been a productive weekend inspite of not feeling well. I even passed on going to a local guild show, just didn't feel up to it. But... I managed to finish all of my pumpkins, even trimmed them all, now they just need to be taken to the Post office. I also managed to get 10 pincushions piped and stuffed I got all but two of them stitched closed while watching Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. I will be working on these every nite when I get home. Hmmm tomorrow nite will be Dancing with the Stars. I will have to discipline myself to keep focused on these. 30 more to do and they will be done. Vicky mentioned that there is only 20 days till retreat. OMY! My friend Cheryl from Mass. will be coming in on the 4th so I need to get the condo in order also. No time to waste, must get rest. Sweet Dreams.

MY FRIDAY !

OH Lucky me, I work a 9/80 shift and have every other Friday off. I pay for it by working an extra hour every day but my alternating Friday. That other Friday is an 8 hour day and my cherished short day. Tomorrow is my Friday off. So today is my "Friday". LOL, have I totally confused you? I didn't get much done this week. It's been stressful and busy at work and have come home too tired to get much done. I did go to my Wed. nite group last nite,but ended up taking out what stitches I put into my haunted house. I just visited and came home a little early. This morning and most of the day, I've been feeling kinda yucky. Hope a good nites rest will cure it!

So what does this leave me with?

A Boring Blog, that's what it leaves me with!!

Leaves..... This is a little wallhanging that I did when I met with my old Wed. nite "stitch and bitch" group. A few quilter friends lived on a court and we would sew in their garages and watch the kids play out in the court. During the summer it was fun, we moved inside when it turned colder. We'd go on field trips to Thimble Creek and out to dinner and exchange gifts at holidays. We don't meet any longer, but I do have this little quilt to remember the fun we had. I hang it my office every year around this time.

This weekend is designated as the BIG P WEEKEND, I have to get down to business with those pumpkins and pincushions! I have 3 wonderful days to get something accomplished. Wish me luck!

I'm going to leave you with some before and after pictures of Precious. When she moved in with me it was summer and I made my son get her a shave, LOL, she got clipped pretty good. Her new "do" is growing back, it looks better on her but doesn't look so good on my dark clothing!! Hope you all have a productive, if not, a FUN weekend, doing what you love most.

Maybe You Could Join Us

Vicky and I will be at Alex Anderson's Quilt Retreat next month. I can't wait!!! It's so much fun. My "famous" friend Deb just posted this news on another site. I thought I would let all of you in on the contest too! APQS and Alex are having a contest. What fun if you won! Why I'd even make you a pin cushion ;-o Alex Anderson Quilt Retreat contest link http://www.apqs.com/quiltingcontest.htm Check it out and if you enter ... Good Luck!

Class at PIQF

Whoa, what a busy weekend!! I think I need a week to rest from my weekend! Thursday was spent at PIQF, Friday was chore day, you know the days where the laundry, car, bills and all of that boring stuff needs to be taken care of. It rained HARD all day too! I've also been pet sitting in Benicia, it's not hard work, but it's not the norm, so it takes a little more effort. Saturday morning I was signed up for a class at PIQF. I've never taken at class at a show before! I've said that if I went back to Asilomar I would take a class by Sue Nickels and Pat Holly to learn how to machine applique. Well Sue was teaching a raw edge applique class and I couldn't resist. Chances of me going back to Asilomar are slim, so I thought I'd better take advantage of it.

Sue is a great teacher, she covers everything and has so much patience, yet allows everyone to move at their own pace. She uses a camera to teach so that everyone can watch her work on the screen as she doing it. It's an awesome tool. It was wonderful to see her quilts. Such beautiful machine work. She works very closely with her sister and most quilts are done in tandem. I was going to show you a couple of pictures, but blogger is being difficult, quit after the first picture!

The 75th Anniversary Bernina's were furnished for the class. If you are a Bernina lover, I'm sorry, but I wasn't a happy camper. I wasn't familiar with using the knee lift. The last time I used my knee for sewing it was when I learned how to sew on my Mother's old Singer in the cabinet. Talk about flash backs! I was also having trouble with it skipping stitches, and that darn needle up/down feature on the foot pedal was too sensitive and messed me up constantly. Even with all of the problems and unsewing, I managed to get one little bird block done. I can't wait to sit down at my Pfaff and give it a go. Now that I see how it is done, I will be machine appliquing my pumpkins.

During lunch break my friend Debbie and I met up with Deb and Holly and I was able to lure them to the Bonnie Blue Booth. I got some major notches in my meg belt. We had to hurry back to class but there was plenty of time to shop after. I got some supplies that I found useful in the class, easy thread needles & tweezers. I found a couple more patterns and that was it. Today I was off to a baby shower and back home to clean up the messes I left while passing through all weekend. Back to work tomorrow, but I do have another 3 day weekend this coming week, just 4 more days!!

Where to Begin?

What a day! It started by taking a bus ride with the Wednesday nite ladies to the Pacific International Quilt Show in Santa Clara Convention Center. This is a huge show, I think the largest that I've been to. I love taking the bus, everyone is always in such a good mood and you don't have to fight traffic coming or going. The show was awesome as always, but I have to say that I really just go to see the vendors, LOL! I think I have already seen most all of the quilts online at one site or another. There weren't many surprises. The biggest surprise to me, was to see so many quilts with very very heavy quilting. I guess that is the trend now that there are so many talented long arm artists. The quilting is beautiful, but sometimes I think it's a little too much, but that is just my personal opinion. I tend to like the more traditional.

My first mad dash at the show was for the Fig Tree booth, Joanna has limited kits made up and they go quick. I just love her stuff, she had her patterns there and I managed to put a sizable ding in my checking account. From there you could follow my trail of drool from vendor to vendor, I think I left a big pool of drool and the Bonnie Blue Quilts booth. Be still my heart, those civil war fabrics tug at me. I wasn't too bad, but according to Vicky's three touch rule, I should have brought it all home with me, I must of picked everything up at least 6 times and put it back. I found out that they are from Katy Tx. , I used to live in Katy Tx.!!

So this was my haul, a little of this, a little of that. I was happy to find the book for my class on Sat. (yes, I have to go back on Sat., oh darn!)I was able to take a nice nap on the bus home. When I got in my car there was a light on the dash board that I didn't recognize! OH NO, I knew I have a small oil leak, but this devastated me. I thought I was being punished for my carefree purchases. I came in and looked in the book... LOL, oops! I forgot I turned the defroster on this morning, whew, saved again! Then I went out and got my mail, what an awesome surprise was waiting for me!

My new bloggy friend Theresa sent me the most beautiful piece of hand dye that I've ever owned, the color is so pure and clean, THANK YOU!! Isn't this gorgeous?To top it off I got news that I finally have enough in my deferred comp account for my employer to kick in a little... nice! Hope your day was good one.... OOOOO I almost forgot, I got chance to see Pam and give her a hug, in fact she probably thought I was stalking her, we were passing each other at every turn! It was great to see her and ... Ok I'm babbling, I can't wait to go back, LOL! I'm gonna go see if I can remember how to put pictures from the show in my flicker album. And also I wanna add that after seeing what Carol bought in just ONE shop, I don't think I bought much at all!! ( a good thing she wasn't with me at Bonnie Blue's)

Finally Finished!

Last year I made that Nancy Halverson panel advent calendar for my son's foster child. They asked me if I could make something like that for her birthday. Daja's birthday is on Halloween. Do they want birthday theme? Halloween theme? They said both! This sent me in a tizzy, I'm not creative, I can follow a pattern, but that is as far as it goes.

Hmmm.... Daja loves PINK! Oh my gosh, this is the little girl who when I visited her took me by the hand and pulled me into her room, jumped up and down over and over yelling PINK PINK PINK! My son had painted her room totally PINK! She was tickled pink! I remembered that Moda line "Wild Things" that was cute and had pink in it, kinda Halloween, so I searched and searched and found some coordinating fabrics.

Now for a pattern. Hmmm, I couldn't wrap my mind around a design. I Spent hours looking online, looking through magazines and books. I found I had one those fabric folding books. AHA, a little bit of an idea. The Christmas book had a pocket type count down hanging. But wait, isn't there a Halloween book too? I Need it! Well I got it and it didn't have anything that really worked. Then I showed Daja the fabric. She didn't like it! Do you see where I'm going with this? $$$ is adding up and I still don't know what I'm doing! Do you do this? Do you start off in one direction and turn completely around? I guess this how I build my stash. Well then, the divorce got started and I put it all aside. I wasn't planning on making this, because of all that has happened, but I kept seeing the fabric sitting there and I had to do it!

TADA, here it is. It's pink and it's original, I borrowed the pattern from the fabric folding book and got some help with lettering from Elizabeth's book and Holly's fabric is so fun to work with. (Thank you for the link info Rabbit Stitchings! ) My lil project is finally done. Just need to sew the button, the label and the sleeve and I can send it off . It's outta here! I sure hope she will enjoy it. I won't get to see her face when she opens it and finds all of the goodies that I'm stashing in those little pockets. The only place I used the original purchased fabric was for the binding, sleeve, backing and pocket liners! The lime has cute purple spiders and I found an awesome lime green button with a spider that is going on the end of the thread running through Halloween under the spider web.

So now I can move on,

I'm off to mind my P's.... pumpkins an pincushions that is!

Happy Birthday to my baby brother and my dear Dad, they both celebrate their birthdays today. You are both always in my heart!

Lazy Blogger

No, Actually I've been a very busy blogger, the day job has been extremely busy & I've been working on a special project that is taking longer than I thought (don't they always?) I'll be back to post and share pics when I get this lil project done. xoxoxomar