Tonight I tried a new Weight Watchers recipe and I wasn't excited about it...I felt it needed more flavor! Mark said it tasted really good. I made Orange Beef with Broccoli...it uses broccoli slaw. I think next time I will use real broccoli and more orange juice (fresh squeezed!). I squeezed the oranges and zested the orange! I felt like Martha Stewart - LOL!

I have another new recipe I want to make but I am a little unsure so I think we will be having stir fry for dinner tomorrow night. I am hoping I will be able to do some beading tomorrow night.

I was so excited that I was able to help Wendy, Jen, Judy and Tori cut fabric for the next three months of block of the month club at Frank's Sewing Center. I was so glad I got a chance to do some "quilting" related crafting. I have not had a lot of time to quilt...I have a lot of other things that have been taking up my time.

I did follow up with my insurance company today and I am working on setting up my sleep apena test. I am hoping to set it up for next weekend...this weekend I have other plans with my family! I also need to go to have my cholesterol level tested and other blood work as well. Tonight on Biggest Loser they talked about sleep apnea and how weight loss decreases how much you snore, etc. The doctor also explained that blood pressure increases when you have sleep apnea so there is hope that my blood pressure will go down.

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.