Happy Easter!

Wow! I can't beleive it is already Easter....Happy Easter! We have about 12 - 14" of snow here that fell two days ago, so it does not really feel like Easter. Emma loves the snow...being a springer...yup you guessed it she leaps and springs through the snow. Emma just went on a treat hunt...I hid a treat for her to find...it was a chicken Carvers. They are 80% meat and she really likes them. I know having fun with pup on Easter.

I'll post more about our Easter celebration later - that is if there is anything exciting to post...it could just be regular family time and not much to post about.

Yesterday was fun...I went to one of our local quilt stores called Bits and Pieces and it was the first month of a block of the month - the pattern is called A Kaleidoscope of Kolor. It is really pretty....we all get to pick out our own background fabric and mine is a white with stars on it. It should be fun to see the same Kaleidoscope of Kolors with different backgrounds like black, white, navy, creamy tan...very fun. Jen and Cindy were there and they brought Michelle...Jen also brought my Miranda bag which is beautiful. It was so nice to see Michelle.

Yeah...my cold is starting to break up some more...I wish it was totally gone and it has to be by this Saturday as that is when I am having my sleep study. I have to remember to call my doctor this week and ask if she wants me to have a sleep aid. That was on of the things they told me to do at the sleep study place.

I did go to Weight Watchers yesterday and well I'm up in weight. Not good. I want the scale to go down and you would think it would with my being sick. I didn't eat that much so you would think I would have lost weight but no, not me. I just have to really watch what I am eating I guess and write it down all the time not here and there. I should be good at this by now but I am not.

Tonight I have strips of fabric to cut because I am going to Frank's Sewing Center for a Fabric coiled bowl making class. Then I have to pull out the other supplies for the class. Tuesday I have Batik Club at Patched Works. Here I hardly have gone to any Quilting Stores in the past month and now I will have been to three in less than a week.

Happy Easter!

Here's Emma!

Well I added a picture on the right hand side of my blog and it's Emma as a baby! She was such a cute puppy! I don't know about you but I wish they could stay little forever! She is sitting next to me right now watching it snow! I wish I had my winter quilt pieced and quilted...all I have left is to put the top and bottom border on it!

I can not believe how cold it is and how icky the roads are...I live a mile and a half to two miles from work...with then snow it took me 20+ minutes to get home...I drove behind someone doing 17 mph on the road. The speed limit in that area was 30 mph...it was not bad enough that we had to be going 17 mph!!! Ughhhhhh! I just wanted to get home so I could get warm. I hope tonight to take down our Christmas Tree. I am tired of it being up. I was going to take it down last night during the Packer game but it just didn't happen!

Well I hope everyone stays warm and dry!

Happy New Year and All that Jazz!!!

Wow it's the New Year....where did the last one go? I think I blinked and it was Christmas. I also looked at so many of my friends blogs and could not believe how much they got done in one month...I am a lazy quilter! I am also having a pity party for myself today as I have a cold.

I was fine last night and woke up with a full blown cold...I was going to go to Weight Watcher (one of my promises to myself is this year I will eat better!) WW is not a diet - I know it works I lost 30 lbs. My problem is I gained all 30 back when I went off of WW because I love food. I like to think I have a relationship with food - crazy but true. I am going to try not to be an emotional eater. Okay so I got up and went into the ladies room...Emma the crazy dog went up on the dresser next to my bed and took my roll of Vitamin C tablets and took off. I was in the process of washing my hands so I took off after her. By the time I got downstairs well she had the packaging ripped apart and one Vitamin C tablet on the floor ready for hoovering! So I have to stick my hand in her mouth to remove said hoovered tablet as I don't want her eating it....well out comes the tablet and the rest of the roll that are still in her mouth. I wash my hands AGAIN and now I have to give her, her morning pill. Okay I think to myself this is doable. Now I give her her pill which is the size of a quarter and I have to push it to the back of her throat so she must swallow it! Okay AGAIN I wash my hands. Now I go get dressed and come downstairs with my pillow - I think I slept for 5 hours total on and off. I have a head cold and my brain is killing me...my sinus is sore and my ears well my ears hurt as does my throat. My lunch was some Chicken and Wild Rice Soup...soothing yes, filling not so much!

Since then I have gone on some websites and read my e-mail. Tracy from Sewthankful has a Blog called Let's get sewing (http://www.sewthankful.com/blog/) and her latest post is titled My New Motto and Challenge: Be Great in 2008! What a great idea! It is to be great at whatever you want.

Let's see what else...ohh yeah Emma is fine the little bit of Vitamin C tablet she ate did nothing to her...she is fine in fact when our mail carrier came she felt right as rain...she was ready to bark and carry on as if she would kill him the whole time wagging her little stump of a tail. What can I say Miss Emma was going to protect me from the postal carrier! I should probably sleep some more or I might watch Harry Potter movies. I tried to read but just couldn't concentrate. Also when I was typing a response on Jen's blog http://cre8tivequilter.blogspot.com/ I was having a hard time typing Plastic Shoe Boxes instead I wrote shoe box plastic is what I kept my scraps in! Okay I know when I should stop and I am about there! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years!

It's beginning to look like Christmas

Well tonight did not turn out the way I anticipated but it was a good night. Well I did sew but not the kind we all like to do.....I was sewing Emma's toys back together. I had to do surgery on three of her stuffed animals. I did this while I watched some TV on the computer. While I did that I opened some Jim Shore items that I have for Christmas...two angels, a polar bear and penguin, and Santa, sleigh and reindeer. While I was putting them out Mark went and pulled out our 4 1/2 foot Christmas tree from our first Christmas together. I cleaned off a glass table and put the tree up. I am thinking of confiscating a red, green and black blanket to put around the bottom of the tree and cover the stand. Tomorrow night I hope to put ornaments on. I did just bring some up and I did just put the blanket around the bottom of the tree and it looks great. My tree skirt would have been too big so I am happy with this for this year.

For a cheap tree - it looks okay right now. I do have to fix some branches and I did bring up a box of ornaments. I may quick put them on so that I feel like I got something done. I was going to take my clear coat off and replace it but I don't think that will happen right now. Maybe in about 10 minutes or so...I don't know if I will get a chance to put a new coat on before tomorrow...which is our Section Christmas luncheon at work. I am bringing mini meatballs and mini hot dogs in a sauce. It should be a good time.

Yeah for me...I am getting some Christmas stuff up and I won't feel like I didn't do anything this year. :-)

Emma just got a little piece of chocolate...I dropped one the size of two plain M&M's. I hope she will be okay. I had a beagle lab mix that could eat chocolate and be okay. I guess I'll stay up a little later to keep an eye on her.

Only 26 days until Christmas...can that be right?!?!?!

Ohh my how did the year get away from me? I had such plans...such grand plans that I would make all these gifts for Christmas this year and wow my family and friends! Okay..reality...well I haven't started a darn thing. I have had a lot going on lately and well I have already thrown in the towel...No quilted things for either friends or family. I just don't have the energy or drive or well whatever! I know that things happen to all of us and we lose our drive to make stuff...I even lost my drive to blog...I am hoping to keep up reading all my friends posts and posting stuff on my blog. I feel like such a cheat as I am not blogging about quilting!!! Oh yeah...only 26 days until Christmas...I guess I should get a tree up and start my Christmas shopping!

Emma is resting right now...My English Springer Spaniel has decided that she will out last me tonight! I am ready for bed but I am trying to stay awake! Emma did snore a little earlier but I believe it was a ploy...she no sooner snored and she was off the couch and looking for yummy paper. Emma likes paper which is weird. This weekend she ate a roll of Tums...needless to say she is just fine. As soon as she ate them Mark called me downstairs and I immediately went on line to see if she needed to go to the Emergency Vet...as it was a Sunday that would have been our only choice. Well said pup is just fine and no need to take her to the vet...I think if she ate a whole bottle of Tums ... different story ... off to the Emergency Vet we would have went.

Tonight is a big football night and I am not watching because if I start watching the Green Bay Packers mid-season...they lose. I used to watch the whole season but well my husband doesn't watch football and I guess I miss watching the games with my dad and brother. Ohh well. The Packers play Dallas so I will just have to keep my hands away from the remote! Go Pack Go!!!

I have been working on reading all the posts that I missed...oh my where have I been. I will try to keep up!

Wow it's been awhile

So I have been working on the kitchen project. My mom came over and helped me rip down the wallpaper that was in our kitchen....there were many problems and many types of walls underneath the wallpaper such as mud (for drywall), drywall, primed but not painted walls, unprimed walls, you name it I think we had it except for plaster. Since that first day my mom, dad and I sanded the walls and washed the walls. Mark and I put this product called Gardz up to protect the drywall (it's for porous surfaces). Next came priming and painting. We painted all the walls a color called Capri Coast...it's a cream color similar to the color of sand on the Capri Coast...hence the name.

I have also gone to a quilt retreat at Jen's house which was a lot of fun! I loved the panel she gave all of the attendees!!!! She made wonderful chili and stuffed green pepper soup. There were also a ton of treats. I think the companionship was the most fun!

I also had a Lia Sophia jewelry party at our house. It was nice...my mom made these delicious banana bars. She is so wonderful...she came over and helped me clean.

Emma went to the groomer before the party and was given a English Springer Spaniel cut with her ear hair cut shorter so her ears would not hang in the water.

Anyways, I finished the top for the block of the month except for the piping and borders...I can't wait to get that done and I can't wait to get it quilted. I also worked on a Take 5 quilt which was fun...I did not have enough fabric to finish the border but the quilt shop sent me some so I can hopefully finish that part of the top this weekend.



Well there is so much more that has happened but I am getting tired and will write more in the days to come. I also have to figure out how to post some of the pictures that Jen sent me that she took of the Quilt Retreat at her home.

Take care and happy quilting.

4 Day Quilting Retreat

Wow it has been a while since I posted but four of those days I was in Elkhorn, WI at Lutherdale at a Quilting Retreat. I did not make either of the projects but brought about 15 projects and completed 10!!!!

I was called a prolific quilter by some of the ladies in our group at the quilting retreat. There were 41 of us and I was in the group on the lower level. Obviously there was a group on the main level. Well the first night I made Kristie (one of my roommates and quilting friends from before going on the retreat) a runaround bag and wonder wallet. Prior to this and a while after I arrived I met my other roommate and quilting friend from before the retreat - Kathy and she introduced me to Carol. We three of us went out to dinner and had Chicken pot pies. I should say we had pot pies which the chickens ran through to give it flavor and very little chicken...but what was there was good.

Friday morning I lost my mind and decided to try paper piecing again. I did it once or twice before but this time it was a much harder project and I think I have paper pieced myself out for the rest of my life ... or until I forget the pain I was in when I was paper piecing ... whichever comes first. Okay I made a wall hanging with two pumpkins and a cat wearing a mask...it is adorable but there are millions (okay a tiny exaggeration) of pieces. I told Kathy and Kristie that they could smack me upside the head if I ever get it in my mind that I am going to paper pieces again. When that painful experience was over I then worked on an Origami bag. This did not take long and all the ladies on our floor loved it and wanted the pattern. Many of the ladies made the bag and it was the hit of the retreat. I was told that next year I need to bring another easy project. Several of the ladies told me I should be teaching quilting and projects as they thought I was quite good at it. Ohh my me teach!!!!! I don't know about that but I took it as the compliment it was meant to be. Linda heads the retreat and last night (Saturday) I mentioned the comments that were made and she said that she thinks I should be teaching as well. Wow how is that for a compliment!!!!!

Okay the bag doesn't take too long and that was with reading the directions and making it for the first time. I then worked on some two table runners....before you know it - well it was late and time for bed - Late is somewhere between 1:30 and 2:30 a.m. Okay before I went to bed I tried to make an easy project...a pillowcase...somehow this is just not the project for me. I sewed it according to the directions and Kristie told me it didn't look right and suggested I rip out all the work I did ... well I hemmed and hawed and finally ripped it all out...fixed it and proceed to sew the seams...somehow I broke two needles and one of them was titanium. Kathy tried it on her machine and it was fine....I just think I was too tired but who knows.

Suddenly I wake up and it's Saturday...well after breakfast I decide to work on making a top for a table runner I have wanted and just never gotten around to. Well I run into a snag because well I forgot it uses triangle paper. Okay well lucky for me we are going shopping later so I cut out all I can and then it's time to go. We went to Backyard quilts where I check out how to make my flannel and chenille quilt that suddenly I just couldn't remember which is supposed to be the binding (blue with snowflake), inner border (white) and outer border (fabric with words in blue). Okay this is also a reminder for when I decide to finish the quilt because you know I will forget by then. Well anyways I wander the store and end up buying a book and a bunch of fabric that is used on the samples in the book. I decide that I have fabric at home that I will make a tree skirt someday for my mom which is in the book. Then we stop at Sammy's Pub and I have Italian beef (which Carol and Kathy tell me is delicious and ohh were they right)! After that we head over to Milton to Loose Threads. There I buy more of the delicious fabric that I started to buy at Backyard Quilts. Ohh I am a fabric junkie. I think when we got back I laid down for an hour or two because I was fighting a migraine all the long weekend. Then I finished the table runner and was ready for show and tell. Ohh the first night I finished the hand binding on my mother-in-law's quilt and early on Friday I finished the First BOM Block for Wendy's group. Ohh is it beautiful. After show and tell I started cutting the chenille and flannel. Ohh was that a pain and I asked Linda for some suggestions as to how to cut some of it and square it up. This morning I finished cutting the fabric into squares so that later on I can finish this quilt! So needless to say I was quite busy. When I got home I dumped all my stuff in the living room and here it still sits. I left Lutherdale at about 10 AM and arrived home about 11 AM. Emma was very happy to see me and is now laying on my hip to tell me it is bed time...so I better finish this post.

When I got home I talked to Mark and then slept because my migraine medication was kicking in. When I woke up an hour and a half later it was time to get up and I ate a hot pretzel...not much for lunch but I wasn't feeling too good still. I laid down with ice on my temple because my headache was revving up and well I just didn't want to end up in the ER this weekend so it was nap time again. Then when I woke up Mark took me to the Machine Shed. I have been soooo lazy today and I can't believe it is almost 10 PM. Ohh well it is off to bed for me and I hope you all had a great weekend. I know I did. I made several new friends and one of the ladies Frannie and I talked for an hour and a half or so one night ... I got up at 2:30 AM to go to the bathroom and just checked to see if anyone was sewing and she was so I sat and chatted with her. What a great time I had but I did miss Mark and Emma and was glad to be home as well. I did miss seeing Michelle and her group when they came and visited Jen and Cindy and I did miss the Wendy's BOM group that meets at Frank's Sewing Center.

More pictures of Emma and my trip to Frank's Sewing Center

One of my favorite things in life is my dog Emma. She brings me so much joy and happiness. Right now as I write this blog entry she is laying on the living room floor by one of my bins of fabric chewing on her Nylabone. We try to encourage her to do this because it keeps her teeth pearly white and she was really interested in one of Mark's socks sooo rather than have her eat a sock...which she would do if allowed I took the sock away and am encouraging bone chewing. I did put the sock in the laundry room so she won't be able to get it but who knows with Emma. The two pictures on the left are when I took Emma to the dog park.

She really enjoyed hunting in the long grass and sniffing the many smells available at the dog park. She has never hunted in long grass before so another springer named Bailey showed her how. Bailey is quite good at it and she had no problem diving right on in the tall grass. Emma wasn't quite so sure on that day if it was something she wanted to do but as you can see she figured it out really quickly.

Some of Emma's most memorable times occurred when she was a puppy. When we first got her, we bought her a wading pool. For her first birthday,

we bought her a second wading pool as we got rid of the first one. As you can see she really liked her swimming pool. Even though she is faced away from the camera you can see she was really enjoying her pool. She used to try to dig her way out of the pool...very funny to watch.

What do you think of the pool picture? All I can think is she was soo darn cute when she was a puppy. She still is cute but puppies are sooo cute!!!

Well I received an e-mail from Jen telling me she was going to the sale at Frank's Sewing Center and did I want to join her and her mom...well I called Jen on her cell phone and asked when they were going. They were on their way so of course I met them up there. I had to take Jen's challenge and go to Frank's and try to figure out which ones were hers...we will see if I am right...I sent her an e-mail with the answers so I done with that task I set for myself. Anyways with the sale I wanted to buy some jelly rolls but they sold out of all the jelly rolls by the time we got there. I did buy four charm packs...two of them in the tins and the other two are seasonal...one is Halloween and the other is Christmas fabric.

At the Madison Quilt Expo we saw a lot of quilts with crystals attached to them. Well I just had to have one when I saw they were on sale at Frank's and of course I had to buy crystals. I think this is going to be a whole new area of purchases. I also bought three patterns...two use charm squares and the other one uses a jelly roll. Needless to say I did well in purchasing stuff tonight.

Wendy was at Frank's working and I asked her if I could use 2 1/2" strips for tomorrow's class instead of 2" strips...she said yes so I was off to raid my poker strips for class tomorrow. I only had to cut two gray fabrics and one of my favorite floral. I put all the stuff in my new Quilt in a Day backpack to find that the left pocket the zipper doesn't work...how annoying. The first one I picked up had a small hole in the bottom. Anyways everything I need is packed up. We are supposed to come home with a binder full of ideas. I know a lot about color and have taken a Jinny Beyers color course in Rosemont at the International Quilt Show but I just want to take this for fun! I like to see what others have to say on various topics and Wendy is such a good teacher ... so I really like to take classes from her.

Well I should get ready for bed soon...I am rather tired and my feet are hurting again...I really don't like having plantars faciatis. Take care and I hope everyone gets a chance to quilt this weekend. I need to look for some batiks for my Egg Money Quilt so I can start that.

How do I follow up ... Here's Emma

Thank you for all the comments on Emma...she is quite the spoiled puppy! Okay she is a 2 year old dog but forever I will call her puppy. She is a lot of fun but she is very active except for right now when she is laying on the couch cuddling.

Last night was so much fun! I am a student volunteer for a Beginning Quilting class taught by my friend and quilting mentor, Wendy Rieves.

She has inspired me since the beginning...okay in the beginning she had to convince me that I could first sew a strait line and then cut a straight line and finally that I would definitely have a huge stash one day.

WELL my stash is huge and growing my leaps and bounds...but I think the most fun for me is seeing the excitement on the new quilters faces. I have been helping for about five or six years. As a student volunteer I help the students with threading machines, helping them learn to rotary cut, how to figure out a scant 1/4", color selections, etc. I think I get as much out of it as they do. I just feel good when I walk out of the classroom.

I was working on some of my homework for the class that I have coming up this weekend. It is a color confidence class...I just know that I really want to take it to firm up all the concepts I have in my head plus to see if there are things I don't know. I at one time was an art major in college...I ended up with a business degree and two majors one in Marketing and the other in Human Resource Management.

I am also going to look at my Egg Money Quilt Book again tonight and start thinking about fabric I want to use for it. I am thinking batiks. I also have to pick out some fabrics for the table runner we are making in the beginning class. I have a kit that Wendy put together that I am going to make for myself. I also need to make one for my Mom. It has to be in blues...she said a little yellow is okay too. Ohh I also have to start cutting strips for my class on Saturday but I will probably do that on Friday night. I am a procrastinator - unfortunately.

Maureen

Here's Emma

I can't believe it I finally figured out how to add pictures. I have them on a CD and I added them to the blogger site by clicking on the little picture icon.

This is a recent picture of Emma in her natural habitat...her house. We don't own the house she thinks she does. She also thinks she owns everything in the house.

Well I didn't think I was going to add another posting tonight but I was so proud of the fact that I was able to post the pictures that here I am posting away.

Anytime I can write about Emma I seem to be able to fill up pages. She really has been wonderful for both my husband, Mark and myself.

In fact here is a picture of Mark and Emma. (Do you think he likes her? - yeah he seems pretty content holding her. This picture was taken approx. last year in October. That is my guess..the window is open behind Mark but he is wearing a sweatshirt. She also has a recent haircut because she is shaved down and we do that only three times a year. Her hair used to grow quite quickly. In this picture we got her an English Springer Spaniel cut. The next cut she got was a hunter's cut and they shave everything including her really pretty ear hair. She was not too happy with us for that hair cut...luckily Mark took her for the hunter's cut haircut.




This is one of Emma's first tricks that she learned when we took her to puppy training...to jump through the hoop. Mark taught it to her. We needed to have her learn one trick that we taught her using the techniques that we learned in class. Well Emma learned to sit, lay down...come, and stay well those are optional to her. We still work on it but it is hard. She knows down/off when she is jumping up but if she gets excited well as Jen will tell you Emma forgets that command too! Jen was fine with it as she is a dog person! Lucky for Emma! In this picture she is jumping through a hoop that is being help straight out from my husband at shoulder height. She gets really good air sometimes and flies through the hoop. You would think that she would run and jump through the hoop but she doesn't, she springs from the floor through the hoop! Amazing.






Finally this is a picture of Emma and my brother's dog Sadie when Emma was pretty young. I think she was about 5 months or so in this picture. Sadie had just been playing catch with her ball and bringing it to my brother. Emma tried to copy everything Sadie did but only for example smaller loops of the yard. Hence why she is laying right by Sadie. Mark or I are holding the leash because we weren't totally sure how Sadie would take to Emma. She tolerates her even to this day and Emma trots along behind to see what Sadie is doing.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of my girls!

It's Sunday Night

Well I can hardly believe it is Sunday night. I did a lot of work on my new blog site. I had so many good intentions but none of them came true! I did make a really nice dinner for my husband. OK here is what we had...Chicken stuffed with broccoli & cheese, Au Gratin Potatoes, and green beans. I am now hungry for Chocolate ice cream from Culvers. I can't believe how much I am craving it. I will ask Mark if he wants to go in about five mintues...that should give me time to finish writing the rest of my posting.

I had really wanted to finish the last block for my Block of the Month Club and put the last row of sashing on. I also wanted to quilt on my mother-in-law's quilt. I thought about starting one of the kits I bought yesterday at the Quilt Expo but again no. What I did get done is my laundry, and making dinner. I was going to take all the stuff down here upstairs but no that didn't happen.

Mark picked up my new Pink Razor Phone on Friday. He is so nice to me about doing that. I would have gone but I was at Block of the Month club. Ohh well.

Right now I have a very sleepy, snuggly dog next to me. She is quite a wonderful dog and very loving. Today she decided to sniff and try to step on and eat a wasp. That is such a dog thing to do and I just have to smile at her. Lucky for me she did not eat the wasp and my husband got her away from it.

Hope you have a quilty evening.