New and Old Hobbies

Howdy All,
Well, I have been quite busy in my sewing room trying to get done wit a three inch on line square swap and am almost done with that. Also will finish up five blocks for another online project today. It was fun doing them but it will be nice to be a little freed up to pursue yet another project :) Yippee! Here are a couple of pictures of the jewel box quilt I did for my daughter. It really was a fun project. I think the brightness of the colors helped with that.
Oh, and not that I have enough going on I have recently taken up violin lessons and I LOVE it! Some times 45 minutes go by just like that while I practice. It is really cool. So, you might have figured out that that is another reason I'm probably not blogging as much as I'd like, but I'm trying :0)
Hope you all have a great day of Quilting :0)
Cindy

Last Day of Christmas Break

Well, tomorrow is back to school for the kids. Hmmmmm, on one hand I'm glad, it's easier to work when they are in school:0) Then again, we say good bye to another year. We did have a very productive day, none the less. My son had a friend stay the night last night, which seems to be a good thing as I get to have some uninterrupted sewing time. So I was able to get squares all cut and bagged to send for a block swap I'm in. YEAH!!! A little stress gone:0) Can't wait too see what I get back. How fun! They are really pretty sets of squares too! Before my son's friend left he sweet talked me into fixing his bunnies arm, patch his quilt his grandma made ten years ago and made him a pillow case. Also been working on a quilt on the design wall that I haven't touched in a long time. It will be nice to have that thing completely pieced. Well off to fix some dinner :0)
Gave a great day!

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone,
Hope you all are having a safe and wonderful New Years eve :0) I am spending it with my parents at their house. We have been shopping till we are dropping! Eating, eating and eating!!!!!!! OMG On wonder the first of the year is diet, diet, and diet!!!! Oh well, still having a great itme! However our plans have taken a turn, my da has come down with the 24 hour flu! Ohhhhhhhh, YUCK!!!!! Man, I hope we don't catch this or it's going to be a really rough 4 and 1/2 hour ride home on Wed.! Can't wait to get to finishing some of those U.F.O.s. I lkie Jen's idea of just seeing how much we can get behind us in Jan. I'm also fired up about starting some Christmas presents for next year. Was last year too but it didn't turn out like I pictured :) HMMMMMM! Wonder why? We are supposed to get some serious snow here too. Four to eight inches, which for this area is quite a bit. My brother drives a gas tanker and has to work eleven hours tonight, during the night and the storm, doging drunk!!!! Please keep him in your prayers :0) Thanks
Keep up the great quilting and I'll try to catch up on blogs but I'm away from my favs list so I'll have to wing it.
Again, Happy New Year and have a GREAT 2008!!! :0)
Cindy

Hope your Christmas was Happy

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! I sure did! I received four 45 minute violin lessons (Did I mention I have taken up the violin?) some quilting gift certificates, a beautiful necklace, a beautiful hand made dish cloth. a soap sock with wonderful smelling soap in it and an I Pod Touch! Who'd of thought!?!?!? WOW! Yeah, I REALLY like it !! Anyway, still have to get down to my parents for Christmas down there and celebrate New Years with them too, YEAH!!!! Now if the weather will hold :0) Here are some of the Christmas gifts that I did up. Pretty much quick and easy is the way to go for me.



My Traveling Stars quilt finally made it home yesterday! YIPEE!!!! Annie Smith put an additional label on it for me listing all the places ti has been. As far as states go... New York, New Jersey, Colorado, California, Texas and Michigan, of course! Can't wait to get it hung up! Actually curled up under it this morning and red some of my Quilter's Home before anyone else was up. Wouldn't want my family to catch me using it as a blanket!!!! They might try to do the same!!!
Have a great evening, may you get a lot of quilting done!!!
Cindy

Marathons are Tiring :)

Well, where do I start? First off, we are all well and healthy. Amen! Work has been busy and school has been a complete nightmare. Constantly there fighting for one kid, then the other starts to have problems with his teacher! Just too much stress. So to cope I have been trying to sew. Need to post a pic of daughter's quilt - Still! Still need to make a pillow and finish a table runner. Haven't wrapped a thing yet either. Never have I been this procrastinating before Christmas. Think it's a depressed kinda thing. It to shall pass.
My Traveling Stars quilt that will be on the Quilt Show next year also went to Houston and to Bernina Headquarters. I bet it had a lot of fun :0) So, just because I had nothing else to do with ten bucks, I entered it on the AQS on line quilt show along with another quilt that I had made. All this started because a friend of mine made a really beautiful table center and she wanted to enter it. So we did. Another fire starter for this is the fact that she and I will be going to the Paduka AQS Show in the spring! Yipee!! I can't wait! Here are a couple of pictures of my kids dressed up for Halloween. We ended up making my son's because, even on line we couldn't find a Sir Aaron costume. It's a pokeman character.
I have been so busy that I haven't even been lurking. I will try to do better :0)

Have a very safe a and wonderful Christmas! May you get all that you wish for :0) !!!

THREE MONTHS!!!!!!!!

Whoa!!!!! I can't believe In haven't posted in three months!!! Think about it a lot but honestly haven't even been lurking :0( Life has been quite the marathon :0) Thanks Kristie for the comment. I miss you guys too. I'll have to get some pics on here and up date you all. Have to get kids to school and dogs ready for Christmas!! :)

Round Robins

O.K. Here we go. I'm sure glad that I didn't post these on the other site before I realized that a lot of you switched to here. This is Lois' quilt. I did the last border which was a border of choice.
This is Emily's quilt and I did the paper pieced trees. It was to be a border or squares.
This is Minda's quilt and i did the applique border. She lives in the country and has chickens. So I tried to do her yard.
This is Kathy's quilt and I did the solid strip of fabric border.
This is Jan's quilt and I did the border of triangles. I made kimonos and cranes.
This is mine. I did the center and I get to keep and quilt this for my very own :0)
I've also been busy trying to finish up some ufos. Have a table topper done and almost my daughters jewel box lap throw bound. Went to finish a bargello flag that I started YEARS ago and found that there were actually three of them cut out!!! Oh my goodness! UFO pile just grew and mutated! So I'm going to go and try to work on them :0) Off and running :0)

Been Quilting :0)

Hello everyone,
Haven't been around here in a while as I started a new blog, myquiltblog.com/scissorhandscps and have been doing a lot of quilting. Still need to finish that second sock :0) I will have to get together with Arleta and Carrie and do some knitting:0) Below is a picture of a quilt that I made for a pattern designer as a test run and she asked me to send it to here to be photographed for her pattern book and she ended up being asked to do The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Timms! So my quilt will be on that show due to air next year between January and June! I'm so excited! Have also been finishing some UFOs. YEAH, two this week and working on a third! Hope everyone is crafting up a storm! Off and running - to my quilt studio! :0)

Not so much knitting

Well, since I have hardly been knitting due to soooooo much quilting! I of course still have my first pair of socks going, a dish cloth and two scarfs. I will put up pictures as I finish them but done hold your breath. I currently have FOUR quilting deadlines to met one by April 15ish, two by April 25 and one by May 1st. YIKES!!!!! However, alot of my friends will tell you, if I don't have myself stretched so tight, I'm not happy :)
Have started a new blog. It's a quilt blog and I will probably be posting there more often. I think. It's that time thing.
www.myquiltblog.com/scissorhandscps/ Off and racing!!! Have a great day.

Started a Scarf

Well, I sure have been busy and I feel I have all of you to blame. This however, is a good thing. Reading your posts and all the ideas foe finishing ufos and a christmas pesent a month has had me in my sewing studio quite a bit:) Thank you, thank you, thank you. So in January I finished the thank you clef and note wall hanging for a computer friend, two pot holders (could be Christmas presents) and 12" block I'm donating for a breast cancer quilt. Haven't yet taken a picture on the note quilt but will post a pic when I do.
February I have finished a table center that I will exchange for someone elses in March. Also have been working on the round robins and have made the triangle border on it and will exchange it for another tomorrow. Just as soon as I put an applique ufo on the design wall, my DS comes in and starts going through my oriental fbric stash. Soooooooo, you guessed it, down came the applique quilt blocks and we started cutting up that oriental fabric. It currently lies on the floor ready to pin and the quilt patterns are ready to go. Little sweet heart thought it would be done this morning. Hardee Har HAR. I WISH I was that good.
Have also been listening to quilting podcast and have jioned a group over there and might have joined a block exchange group. CRAZY huh. That or REALLY, REALLY dumb. But hey, it really sounds like fun. Anyway, with all thios going on I don't know how often I will be posting as my knitting as REALLY dropped off, atleast until I found that basket of scarf yarn on sale. So I did start a scarf and have another one I want to start. Getting the shakes now. I really need to sit down and start a new ufo list but think sitting through three scary horror flicks would be more enjoyable. Saw Ghost Rider the other night and boy, was that a good flick. NOT kid material though. I think it would be way too scary.
Oh, by the way did you know I love dogs and chickens??? :0)
Off and racing.
Cindy

It's the Weekend - Yeah?????

Sat. morning, have to host the den meeting for son after dropping daughter off at friends. Then lunch quick and off for hair do (a most relaxing time). Then home to get daughter so her other friend can come over for a Heeley's sleep over. Oh yeah, somewhere in there son will have a friend over but I'll be gone and husband will be on duty. I think when we reach the point of the Heeley party I will retire to my sewing studio to machine quilt. (I'd lock myself in but one of the corners we cut for cash purposes was no door on that room) Bad idea, as after the kids had friends over I found my rotary cutter rather close to my machine and a bunch of cut up paper. They didit right on my sewing table top not on the rotary cutting board. Miraculously it is fine but the blde is much duller:( I hide that stuff now. I WANT A LOCKABLE DOOR:)
By the way I switched to the new blogger just before this post. I figured that being so new if I lost everything it would be no big deal. It was very quick, easy and painless. All my stuff followed me and my template stayed the same. So I wouldn't be so nervous it went very well.
Off and racing:)

O.K. I've been tagged by the Bare Foot Cobbler and I'll play :)


The Page 123 Meme
1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, look down to the 5th sentence.
3. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Include the title and the author's name.
5. Tag 3 People.

O.k. No laughing. The first book I grabbed didn't even have 123 pages. That's what I get for grabbing Flat Stanley :)

His mouth twitch in a scowl, but he persisted. "My mother told me Anneke was quite disturbed when she learned of the engagement. And since you and Dr. Granger's sister are such intimate friends, one naturally assumes-"

From An Elm creek Quilts Album, The Runaway Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini. Won't be tagging anyone because the people I would be comfotable tagging have already done this:)

The poor sock is still in limbo. /sometimes I think I hear it crying at night - not. But do feel guilty about not working on it. If I just worked on it as much as I think about it it would be done:) Off and racing :0)

Me do a MEME???

Five things people don't know about me. Hummmmmm, that's not easy because I have a mouth that should have a muzzel on it half the time because sometimes it has a mind of i'ts own :)

1. My Paternal Grandma taught me to embroider.

2. My Maternal Grandma taught me to crochet.

3. My MIL gave me my first knitting lesson. I made one slipper that was WAY too small. She also started me on quilting.

4. I have found actual arrowheads in a tobacco field in Tennessee.

5. I have learned to NEVER EVER mess with a ouiji board.

There, that wasn't too painful. Had to dig way back, though. Don't know who to tag because every one I read has already done this.
Almost done piecing that wall hanging. Should be woking on it now so maybe that's what I will go do. Off and racing:)

Blog,Blog,Blog

Sometimes it is just easier to read blogs then to post one. Not much nw scince yesterday. Worked on the wall hanging some, only three more borders to go before I can start quilting it. Reluctant to pick up the sock because the heal flap on the second sock is knit tighter than the other one. I know, I'll get past it sooner or later.
Work was wicked today. Good money but it REALLY cuts into the craft time. Eight dogs today and didn't get done until 5:45. Didn't even get lunch, but it's my own fault since I'm also the scheduler. I just feel so sorry for those poor animals that are in need and very uncomfortable. Of course the extra one I took today was seriously GROSS!!!!! Can't tell detail. just really gross! I felt so good when that poor dog was all CLEAN and brushed out, she was beautiful and you could tell how much better she felt. So happy too. If hadn't taken her in I could have been done at 3:30 and been able to craft until I had to pick up the kids:) Glad I took her in :0)
Made the mistake of downloading the movie Cars on to my laptop and now I'm being begged to watch the movie by my DS. So I'm racing off to Radiator Springs.

Back to the Grind

Well, it's over for another year. Kids are in school again and I'm back to work. Five dogs today. Had a little yorkie that everybody was making over, he is a really cute dog. A bichon, a sheltie, a cairn terrier and a portugese water dog (Oscar, he was my favorite today). Nice light day for jumping back in.
Have been working on my sock. G-girl gave me advice that it is just a sock. Sooooo, I will finish it with the mistake in it and chalk it up to my fisrt pair. There will be others, right??? My feet won't care and I will still love them. But advice to other first time sock knitters. If a non matching pair of socks will bother you, don't start out with self stripping yarn:)
Have been doing quite a bit of quilting lately. That's where the UFO thing would come in handy for me. Almost have a crib sized wall hanging done that I started about three days ago. It is to be a thank you. A little incentive to get er done quick.
Hope everyone has a happy new year:) Off and racing!

Have a Happy New Year :)

Wow, looking back I see that I haven't posted for quite sometime. OPPS! Well, all is well and Christmas was wonderful. Still trying to get my first pair of socks done. At my pace, maybe that should be my New Years Resolution. Did finish my quilt block for my round robin I will be starting January ninth. It will be fun. It will also be a push for me as I will only have a month to work on a border on someone elses block. I won't even see my block for seven months! Then they will all be done and everyone will get their own block back with all the borders on it. Pretty exciting! Can't wait:)
Have a birthday dinner for the MIL tonight to attend at Red Lobster. YUM! May try to knit on my sock on the way there. Have already tinked back about for rows once on the heel flap, what's one more time, if need be right??? A friend commented that I need to let go of my perfectionism. If that's true, then why is her stuff so much better then mine??:)
I have also had a serious itch to finnish alot of my quilting projects. Only have about 20 or so.
Hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year and all your knitting projects go smoothly.
Off and racing.

WHAT A WEEK!!!

OH MY GOSH. I left that post last Saturday and during dinner one of my bestest friends of six years,up and died :( My computer!!!!! What a complete bummer to go at this tme of year when money is , you know, soooooo abundant - NOT! Well, the pain is not so bad now as I sit here and post on m new laptop. It is REALLY COOL. Highly recommend it if your in the market for a puter. As for my old friend. The hard drive is o.k. and will be installed into this one soon. The computer it's self may be fixable for a small amount and then the kids can play on that one. They make me nervous when they use this one.
My poor sock. It has been getting like NO attention. With all the doggies that need beautifying this week I don't see much knitting time in my future.
Christmas stuff almost done except for those few annoying little extras to get to. The the company will arrive friday. It will be a most wonderful Christmas too, as this will be our first one in our new house. My eight year old DS is soooooo excited and is the best decorator, he has earned the nickname, "Mister Christmas".
Don't know how much posting I will get done this wild week. But it sure is good to get back. Alot of my favorite blogs to catch up on. So if I don't make it back before the holidays settle down I hope you all have a most enjoyable time. I will be racing through the holidays as usual :)

Week in Review

Wow, it's been a busy week. I find this always seem to happen in December. Let's start with last Saturday. I was scheduled for a hair apt. and my daughter said she wanted a haircut. So I called and they said they could fit her in while they do my hair.This is her before she went pictured here with her brother visiting with Santa.

Now this is after the long awaited haircut.

You really have to give her credit as she donated about eleven inches of her hair to Locks for Love. This is the second time she has done this in her ten years of life. She has such a big HEART:) (purple puddles) Makes me soooo proud.
Had I mentiond that my camera was on the fritz? Well it would open but not shut until the battery died. So taking pictures was not very fun unless it was an emergency. So a new camera is out of the question until after Christmas because the credit card is still melted and warpped for the last shopping adventure. So I was examining it and decided it can't get too much worse so I figured out I could shut it if I stuck the toothpick in there and poked around a bit. The camrea didn't seem real fond of this idea but it subcummed and we took some pictures. So this morning I decided to take some more pictures and upon opening it, it decided to puke up a little piece of plastic. Something that resembled a piece of a gear. Probably goes with the other half that it puked up over Thanksgiving. Anyway, it is working fine now. Have to love that higher power. We will have Christmas pictures after all :)
So I did finish that Halloween wall hanging. Here's a picture.

Also, I was to host our little quilt group here last Tuesday and one of the ladies mentioned doing a sunflower quilt. Well I have a pattern I have been wanting to due, atleast one block of it. So needless to say it lit a fire under me and most of last weekend I jammed on it and actually made two :)

Now the problem of which border to choose, how to quilt it, get a rod pocket on it, get it bound and wrapped for my other quilt group that is having it's Christmas party Monday night!!!!!! Also ended up getting some doughnut holes, cider, setting up and getting ready and thank you northern michigan for SNOWING!!!!! :( Then only one lady showed. We had a nice chat and discussed quilting patterns for a quilt she's on a deadline with. All in all it was fun. Hmmmmmm, and here I sit.
Well, if you've been keeping up, you know that's not enough for a marathon. So I also said I would help with coffee fellowship tomorrow at church. Still have to get fruit and dip. The kids and I decided to bake cookies the last two nights. We made homemade chocolate chip cookies, chrismas cookies (some still need frosting)- and yes there are two pumpkin cookies and one Jack Skelington cookie as he is my daughter's favorite hero right now, spumoni cookies and church windows.


The only little problem I had was in turning off my double oven. Forgot to take the chocolate chip cookies out of the bottom oven. OOPS. They're still edible but very crunchy. My husband calls them dunkers for his milk. He's so wonderful.
Well a little blurb about my job during the holiday season. Scince I only see my clients about every six weeks the
Christmas gifts have been starting to come in. Yesterday was a little unusual, but I happen to like that. Started out with extra cash - it's the best, then some sinfully delicious chocolate truffled from Seattle WA. OH, SO YUMMY. Toffe, blackberry, expresso, and mint. Also a set of Sebastian Professional Laminates Dazzling Shine shampoo and cream rinse. (for me, not the dogs:) Then, if you can believe it, a whole spiral sliced HONEY HAM!!!!!!! Wow, is our family going to LOVE that!!!! I love my job. Have to jump out of my P.J.'s now and begin the race. Want to make walnut and or pecan balls today and maybe wreaths too. I sooo put too much on myself sometimes but it keeps life interesting. Have a great weekend. Off and racing:)

Feeling better:)

Thanks for the comments about snoopy. We're starting to get back to an even keel. Time seems to heal even the worst of things. Having a wonderful family and two healthy chillins helps:)
Haven't been knitting lately due to a little error that needs to see the Sock Doc, hopefully tomorrow.
Have been quilting in the studio quite a bit though. LD asked to quilt this weekend so I set her up next to my machine and she made a nine patch scrappy table center piece. Maybe one more border to sew on and then she can get her feet wet machine quilting:) Ohhhhh how exciting!!! I will be starting a round robin project in January with a small group of friends. The idea is that you make a center block and then each of the other people will put a different border on it. If there are six people your quilt will have five borders on your center and you get to keep and quilt it. A few years back I was lucky enough to do three round robins with our local quilt shop. Two of them were with Norway and one with Switzerland. Very cool to experiance quilting from over seas. We also sent journals and they wrote in ours and us in their's. The best part was that the shop had a book pulished called Friendships in Bloom and I'm in it with three borders that I did. VERY COOL! That brings me to what I was going to say in the first place. I have been working on a mariner's compass block that I tought I would use for my center and whoops, it is 14 inches instead of 12. BUMMER. Now I either have to make another one or change to a differnet block. I have started two sunflower blocks, may use one of those.
I will have to post some pics soon if the camera will decide to work. It's partially broke and now seems to have a mind of it's own:( Need a new one anyway but just can't afford it with the down hill slide to Christmas bearing down. This is a pic of a house block I worked on for a quilt that our quilt group did for our church bazaar. It was a fun block to do.



Keep up the great work blogging. I'm guilty of reading them and not blogging myself- shame on me. I will try to do better. Off and racing:)

Sad Day

Don't read this if you don't want to be brought down. I wasn't going to post today because it's been a very sad one. My work day was to start with two dogs coming at 8:30. The new client shows up with only one dog saying that the 15 year old dog isn't doing well. OOOOO.K. Just so happens that our family has decided to put our 15 year old beagle down today because he's not doing so god either. Everyone said good bye to him this morning before school and I was left to do the dirty deed following my work day. Well, my seven dogs are now down to six due to the no show and then the phone rings. It is the man that has the little poodle/shih-tzu that I have been grooming since it was a puppy about 15 years ago. (What is it with 15 today?????) He says he can't make his 9:00 apt. because he has been up with his "puppy" all night. She hasn't eaten in two days and has been throwing up all night. All choked up by this I time, I told him not to worry abot it. He said he'd call me later and let me know what the vet said. Well he called all right, just as I was walking out the door to take care of our crippled up old dog and that was all I could take. Bawled like a baby for the next 45 minutes. When it rains it pours. And why is it that doing something so nice for the dog has to feel so HORRIBLE for me??
Thanks for listening, I feel a little better. On an up note. I went to my quilt meeting and finished a halloween wall hanging. Finishing is good. Will try to get a picture on soon. Don't feel much like racing tonight.
Have a good night.