FNSI

I was super excited for Friday Night Sew in this month, first because I remembered it and second because I had lots to do!

I didn't actually sew much, but I basted my MSU quilt, failed horribly at quilting it, and made a couple projects that I have been wanted to make.  See?

cute pincushion with storage

kleenex travel case

My MSU quilt is too big for my machine and I am horribly disappointed that I can't do it myself.  I'm also pretty sure I will have to rip out the stitches I did do before I send it off.  I feel so much more accomplished when I complete a quilt start to finish on my own, but since it is so large I don't think it can be helped otherwise!  I'm going to start the label on it soon too, probably next weekend.

I also drew out another project to start working on and I'm hoping that it will come together quickly so I can show you what it is!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

MSU Quilt Top

            YAY!  I got my MSU quilt top all sewed up this weekend.  It went relatively quickly because all I had to worry about were the seams.  It was nice that NOTHING else had to match.  It doesn't really look much different from what I had showed you before, but here it is! 

I am going to have DH help me take a better picture of it, but his exam is on Thursday so I rarely see him even though he's home.  Only 4 more days and I'll have him back for a while :)

 

I need to sew together the backing next.  I bought some spartan flannel- I'm hoping there's enough so I don't have to design anything on the back, but I'm planning for the worst.  I still have a few things I need to get done before Christmas, though I'm hoping they don't take as long.  I need to make a couple tissue covers {the little ones}, finish sliced apples and donate that, make a phone case, and get a sewing machine cover done.  I'd like to make a cover for my kitchenaid mixer too, but I just don't know if I'll have time.  Fall field work is going to be ramping up soon and will last until just before Christmas so I'll have my hands full again shortly!  Any new projects you're starting? 

Help!

OK, so... I can't decide what I like better.  The first has a diamond in the center and it just radiates.  The second has LOTS of diamonds.  It's kind of busy, but I think it makes it interesting.  If you were getting this as a gift, which would you pick??

 

Oh My, MSU!

Ok you guys!  I never thought I'd ever get to this point with my MSU quilt!  I've been busting my hump this weekend and I got over 70 green blocks done for this thing!

I had to use a spare bedroom to lay it out and it just barely fit!  I haven't made the final layout yet, but I was just super excited to get it to this!  I need my weekend to be 2 days longer! 

In other news I tried out a couple different recipes this weekend that were pretty spectacular.  The first one was a taquito recipe.  The ingredients sounded yummy but I had no idea why they were called "little tacos" until DH told be you buy these out of the frozen food section.  Huh.  I don't know why anyone would since they are ridiculously easy to make (and to freeze for later!).  So anyways, if you like those things you should totally make these because DH says they are WAY better than the kind you buy.  I made one batch as a meal and then made another and put them in the freezer for later. (Also, I only used .5 t chili powder and no lime juice- I didn't have any).

I also tried out a vegetable chowder.  The flavor was good but mine didn't really thicken like it was suppose to.  Next time I'm going to try with cornstarch since I always have more luck with it.

Right now I'm making apple chips and I just canned some applesauce.  I tell you what, I've never made it before and it takes a ton of apples for not much in return!  I'm rethinking this for next year.  I still have some left from our 1/2 bushel and I don't know if I should make apple butter or apple jam again.  We'll see what DH has to say about it! 

Happy Columbus Day!

Yummy fabric buys!

This week I've gotten lots of packages!  Fabric, bedding, and clothing!

 

I'm participating in a swap for Tula Pink fabrics and I got 2 packages in the mail.  I attempted to buy yardage from fabric.com but they cancelled 3/4 of my order 5 days after I placed it because their website wasn't up to date.  *Sad face*  So, I ordered from someone I've never bought from before:  Pink Chalk Fabrics.  They have a super cute website and their prices for what I purchased were good.  Plus the package came looking like it was wrapped in love.  When I opened my order from fabric.com and my order from pink chalk I was amazed at the difference- even down to the care they took to fold the fabric!  And pink chalk wrote "Thank you Stacy" on my order form.  That was nice- I'll even overlook that they forgot the e!

 

So anyway, this is what I got from Pink Chalk Fabrics:

 

Little Bits (bottom) is what I'm swapping

 

This is the additional I got from fabric.com:

 

 

I like The Birds & The Bees line from Tula Pink and was nervous that we wouldn't get much in the swap.  Sadly, I was right so I'm glad I bought some extra.  I will probably have to supplement, but I'll wait a while yet.  This will probably be the last swap I do for a while too.  I'm finding that I like entire lines of things and not necessarily random fabrics.  My stash just isn't big enough yet to have anything to supplement with!

 

I also went to viking sewing in Ann Arbor this week because I was scared I was running low on greens for my MSU quilt.  The fabric shops by me either went out of business or have a very small selection, so I have to venture far and wide to get what I need. 

 

 

I have lots I want to do on this gloomy day!  We went to a cidermill (last week maybe?) and bought a half bushel of apples so I need to can some applesauce and some applebutter.  I also want to work on that MSU quilt today.  I think I might squeeze some in this morning before my doctors appointment!  I've cleaned the bathroom and kitchen so far and I'd like to run this afternoon.  OH! And I'm going to try out a new recipe for dinner tonight!  Baked Taquitos!  I'll post the recipe if it is yummy! 

 

Have a lovely day! 

Happy Weekend!

Even though it's over :)  I'm thrilled because I got everything on my chore list done!  I rarely say that.  Like, ever.  Then I got more done.  AND I even had me time today!

Because I had me time I decided to work on my Dad's MSU quilt.  Technically, that was on my list too, but I count it as "me" time because it's sewing :)

See the mess I made?  It was fabulous.  I'm going to get back to it shortly, but I thought I'd share my world with you!

I cleaned that aquarium this weekend too!  My fish are much happier..

Wanna see what else I did?

 

Our fantastic sea world bathroom has been transformed into one that anyone can use!  And by anyone, I mostly mean adults.  And by that, I really mean no one since we rarely have stay-over visitors.  I fixed the hole under the window, painted it tan, and added a towel ring.  Then I had to clean it.  Ugh.

 

 

 Do you remember the horrible pink room?  Probably not, I don't know if I've ever actually told you about it... but you can see it here.  Well now it's yellow!  We had extra paint from our master, and because it came out waaaaaaay to bright yellow we mixed it with white to tone it down.  It gave us a lot of leftovers.  So I fixed the hole in this room, then painted everything.  The ceiling, walls, closet (which was also pink...) baseboards, trim, and doors.  I was so tired of painting.  Then I assembled a bed out of the bunk beds my parents brought over a couple weekends ago with the assistance of a ladder.  Richard was home but he was working, as usual, so instead of bothering him I propped up one support on a ladder so I could bolt it to the headboard.  Then I had to get a mini scaffold we had to hold up that side while I bolted the other one with the ladder technique.  I was pretty stoked about my ingenuity.  And that Richard had no idea what in the world I was doing up there.  He is pretty proud of what I got done!  We don't have any twin stuff so I bought some sheets at target and ordered a mattress pad and comforter today from kohls.  I'd like to make a quilt for it.... someday...

I also de-strawberried my flowerbed.  I planted 2 strawberry plants from a co-worker last year and they literally took over everything.  See the bigger flower bed?  Every bare patch was covered with strawberries.  I transplanted a lot of them to this little area between our air conditioner and our patio.  I'm hoping they are going to be quarantined there, but who knows.  They have a mind of their own.  There are still some remaining strawberry plants in the flowers because I found the praying mantis again and I didn't want to disturb it too much.  I think he/she liked my forest of strawberries.

I also made raspberry jam and sauce this weekend!  I haven't tried it yet, but it smelled delicious :)  Next weekend I'm going to can applesauce!

Anyways!  Back to sewing.  I think next weekend I'm going to lay out my quilt again to see the progress.  Stacks of blocks just don't o it for me :)  I'll show you if I'm as productive next weekend as I was this weekend!

Have a lovely week!

Tula Pink? You know you want some!

Mama Spark is hosting a Tula Pink fabric swap that I'm going to play along in.  28 people swapping 28, 10" squares- and there are plenty of openings if you want some Tula Pink variety in your life.  I'm using Little Bits from The Birds & The Bees.

cute, right?

I also bought some coordinating fabric from this line, just in case there are not too many.  Better to hedge my bets I thought- plus it got me to free shipping and more is better than less :)

If you like Tula Pink, play with us!  You need 2 yards for 28 10" blocks and the deadline is Oct 31.  You can find all of the information about it here.  Check under "Sign up for the swap" under discussions, review the rules and if it sounds good to you use the handy-dandy form to sign up.  Mama Spark will post your name in the list.  Review the fabrics, pick one and post a photo of it!

I'm excited to see what lines pop up!

Hope you're having a lovely afternoon!!

Lifestyle change!

A while back I decided it was time for a lifestyle change since I was tired of being out of shape, and let's face it- diets don't work.  Like everyone else, I had been steadily gaining weight since college and when I saw my weight on the scale this summer I was mortified.  Hence, lifestyle change. 

I got this app on my phone called MyFitnessPal which allowed me to set a weight loss goal, track my foods, and input my exercises.  I used it more as a learning tool to see what I was actually eating and how much activity I was getting a day.  Brutal.  I logged my foods for about 3 weeks until I was learning what I should be eating and how much I should be running.  So far I've lost 8 pounds!  It is all from areas which are unseen to the general public, but I'm much happier with what the scale says.

Now I'm not counting calories but I am much more aware of what I intake and how often.  It also helps that I've essentially made healthy snack options as the only ones available in the house.  Now- don't get me wrong, I still eat chocolate, but I don't crave it nearly so much since I've stopped eating so many sweets.  It's like once you eat one, your body wants more!  Solution?  Stop eating them apparently and your body wants things like grapes instead.  Weird.  I also started running again so I feel much better about eating a piece of pie after I've had a good 45 minute run :)

Anywho!  I've been pretty busy with household stuff still, but life is showing signs of returning to normal.  Remember how I was destroying our upstairs while Richard was away for so long at work?  Well I've finally started putting it back together!  Pictures to come...  And now we have CURTAINS in the living room!  Apparently all I needed to do was go to TJ Maxx and buy tension shower rods and curtain panels.  Plus a bunch of other stuff, like a calphalon stockpot for $50!  Real curtain rods for this size: $40-60 each.  Tension shower rods: $15.  Perfect.



Richard won't let me go shopping alone anymore

I really need to finish my MSU quilt for my dad for Christmas so I pulled that back out this weekend.  I seem to have gotten bored with it and I found that brainstorming quilting patterns for it has given me a little more push to work on it.  Do you have any ideas?  It is essentially a giant block S.  I'm not sure I have enough green fabric for the strips so I may be on a hunt for more green soon...
While I've been busy, Annie just follows me around causing trouble.  Or if she is really bored by my activities, she finds a nice pile of blankets to snooze on. 



Yes, those are my clean shorts Anniekins.



Hopefully this weekend I will have some progress to display!  I hope you're all having a good day!

My most recent fabric find

was at a little shop south of St. Clair, MI a couple weeks ago now. 

I have a window in our master bathroom that I have been looking for curtains for all summer.  It is a really odd size:  60"w x 40"tall.  I finally gave up and started looking for fabric to make my own, and I found this lovely leafy fabric.  Yummy :)  I also couldn't pass up the green leaves or the red plaid ($3/yd! What a steal!).  I'm hoping to make them sometime this month.

This weekend has been the first weekend home I have had in I don't even know how long.  I tell you, I almost kissed my kitchen floor Tuesday when we got back.  There has been so much I haven't done around here so I've been running around non-stop trying to get some things done.  I went outside to plant some flowers I've had for probably a month and I saw my morning glories went on steroids since I've been away! (They are hiding my rain barrel)

While I was gone Richard also bought me two sets of these!

 

I love glass tupperware.  Well, I guess it's not really tupperware, but you get the idea.  I don't like microwaving plastics and I've been trying to find leak proof alternatives for our lunches so when DH saw these on sale he bought them for me :)  He thought about giving them to me for XMas and I was soooo happy he didn't because they are so useful!  Then I had to reorganize my cabinets in my kitchen.  They were not pretty, but I really only have one and a half before pics.

Before

After

After- Tupperware Cabinet!

I love my lid buckets.  Before all of the lids were in a massive heap on the middle shelf.  We had many fall outs.

 

Last weekend we also went to Mackinac Island.  I've never been there before and it was a really good excuse to get away from family and attempt to spend time with Richard.  I'll post pics later- you need to see this hat I got!

 

Yesterday I started painting another spare room upstairs because my parents are stopping by today to drop off a bunk bed they don't want anymore.  I didn't get as far as I wanted to yesterday because Richard's mom came by to be entertained for a while, so that put me back a few hours.  I'm hoping next weekend we will finally be alone and maybe I'll get some sewing done!  My next goal is to border my sliced apples!

 

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

I couldn't ask for a better getaway

I'm at the Thomas Edison Inn in Port Huron.  It is just lovely.  Technically, I am here for work, but I really couldn't ask for a better getaway right now. 

As some of you know, I'm a fisheries technician and I work on the Huron-Erie Corridor (corridor that connects the waters of Lake Huron and Lake Erie) for a restoration initiative.  Today I am shuttling important people around for a celebration and boat ride tour of the corridor and I got to stay here last night (into this morning).

Being close to the water and watching the sunrise from my balcony is bringing me and indescribable amount of comfort and at the same time it is so beautiful I want to weep for it.  I have to leave in about an hour and a half to meet up with the boat crew, but for now I'm basking in the early morning sun.

This afternoon I'm planning on hitting a quilt shop between my shuttle driver duties; River Place Quilt and Sew, north of Algonac.  I'm really excited about it and I'll show you what I take away.  There is a shop here near Port Huron but the hours are not conducive for a visit.  Maybe another time!

My Grandma A passed away this Saturday morning.  It was early and my aunt and I were sitting with her.  It was very difficult and even though she went very peacefully I was terrified and devastated.  I am extremely happy she didn't go alone.  On Sunday my cousin and sister made a photo board for her funeral.  It turned out really well- we had lots of old photos and lots of family photos to choose from.  She was a beautiful lady, even at 90 :)

At my wedding last year (this is my favorite!)

She was one special lady and I'm glad I was able to spend the time I had with her as my grandma.  Richard (DH) still has all of his grandparents and now I'm forcing him to visit more.  He invited his grandpa over this weekend while I was away to play cards and his grandpa said to him "That was fun, I really needed that."  He better keep it up :)  I wish that I was able to see my set more over the past year and a half and I regret not traveling home more often.  I am happy that I made her a priority visit though when I was home. 

Enough with the heavy! I'm off to enjoy my morning and relish the georgeous view.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

My Third Finish

I finished my third quilt yesterday in record time for my usual snails pace.  As you know, just over a month ago my Grandma A had a stroke that put her in the hospital and on a long road for recovery and I wanted to make her a quilt.  Unfortunately, the day before my Grandma was going to be released from rehab she had another stroke which she hasn't been able to recover from.

I was so disappointed and frustrated because I still needed to hand stitch the binding and since it was a surprise she didn't even know about it.  I am very happy with how it came out and I know she would have loved it.  I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it yet.  I may have a photo of us put on fabric and turn it into a label for the backing and hang it in my sewing room.

I will probably make another one like this sometime, but I can't decide if I need a break from quilting or not.  I really need to start again on the MSU quilt for my dad for XMas, but I am just so drained I'm not sure if I have the energy.  My Gma is being sent home from the hospital tomorrow or Tuesday and we will be doing hospice like care until her time comes, so until then you may not see or hear too much from me. 

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Oh my goodness, where have I been?!

WOW.  I actually had to read my own blog to know what the last thing was I told you all.  That was interesting.  I have been crazy busy (since when are we not?) with my Grandma A, work, and getting together the latest quilt.  I have been busting my hump on my Gma A's quilt in attempts to get it to her but I'm not sure I will make it in time.  She was scheduled to be released from the rehab facility today (insurance ran out) but was readmitted into the Neuro ICU on Monday morning.  As of yesterday, she was lucid only very rarely.  It nearly killed me to hear it, especially since we just lost my Grandma H a couple of months ago.  I'm going to go up again tomorrow and hopefully it spurs some goodness.  Usually when I see her she gets very excited and does better.  I have no idea why, maybe the brain is sparked to work more?  I don't know, but it sure is a roller coaster.

This weekend I was able to make the quilt back, baste, quilt, and start binding the quilt. I don't have pictures of what it is at this point- but here are some from before I quilted it.

The quilt is about 46" wide and the fabric I picked was about 42" {for the direction I wanted} after selvage so I made a 4" HST block for the back to mirror the diamond in the front and added the 4" red strip.  I really like it.  When I was basting it I stuck a pin through the center of the diamond on the backing so I knew where to center the quilt.  It worked really well and it made me happy that I was clever enough to think of it, which then made me laugh because it isn't revolutionary at all :)

I thought that I had a close up pic of the birds but I can't seem to find it.  The fabric says things like "friends," "faith", "support", "love", "hope", "family", and "courage."  I bought it from creative quilt kits with the rest of the red and pink fabrics because it seems perfect for her situation.  We need her to get better!

In other news, I finally sent my friend her ugly cat coasters.  I sent them out on Saturday so hopefully she has them by now.  I think she may be out doing field work so she may not actually have seen them yet, but I hope she does soon!

I was going to baste and bind them with the cute pink fabric I bought for it but in the rush of things I knew it would never get done.  I just followed a simple coaster tut where you sewed all 3 layers together inside out, flipped them, and sewed again.  Simple, but took me forever!  I stopped in JAF the other day and found MORE ugly cat prints like this.  She may be getting more...

My garden has been severely suffering neglect lately, but I just don't have time for it.  My snapdragons are finally blooming though since the rabbit stopped eating them.  These are ones that I grew myself from seed indoors and I have never seen anything like them.  They grow in multiple colors on one plant!

Odd..

I also may have broken the lawn mower.  Richard was in TX for training all week and since it has been raining the lawn needed to be mowed.  Well, after I got through the front yard it started smoking.  And smelling funny.  I put it back in the garage hoping it would fix itself and told Richard last night when he got back from the airport.  He didn't seem thrilled, but at least the front was mowed :)

I hope you all have been having a lovely week!

To Border or Not to Border?

I've finally got my Gma A's quilt top together (like 5 minutes ago) and I am SO HAPPY with it!  The only question now is to border or not to border?  Here it is without the border.

love

I have dark red fabric that I was going to make a 2" border with, but now I'm not so sure.  What do you think?  I would be using the dark red as the binding...

And on the fifth day, there were trees.

Yep.  Sunday was a tree-tastic celebration at my house.  Two weeks ago we went to Lowes to buy a new dishwasher and we left with a dishwasher and 8, 6' arborvitae trees to plant on the lot line where the new neighbors built.  Then they sat on our porch in dishpans of water as I was desperate to keep them alive and it was 100 degrees outside.  I started planting last Wednesday evening when the weather broke (under 85..) and kept going until Sunday.  You really wouldn't think it would take that long but we have solid clay in our yard and a 22" x 18" hole is pretty large when you are digging up that kind of substrate and only have an hour a night to dedicate to it.  When I had three in the ground and went for my fourth, this is what I found:

A lovely sprinkler head that was buried in our yard.  With that I stopped digging because there had to be a water line running to it and I would more than likely break it if I didn't immediately inform Richard.  So on Saturday, DH found the line and started digging a new trench in our yard to move the sprinkler head.

This was just the first trench which located the line.  He is about to start the second trench.  It took him a good 3 hours to dig up our yard and put it back together so I could keep making my tree line. 

  By the end of the day on Saturday we were both wrecked and I still didn't have all of the trees in the yard.  Plus I got a call that Grandma A might have to have brain surgery to stop a bleed and she was back in the ICU.  My mom told me to just stay home until they knew what was going on so on Sunday I planted the rest of the trees and headed to Lansing for the rest of the day. 


Finally, on the fifth day...


Grandma A did another fantastic guilt trick on me again when we were leaving.  She does her cute "will I see you tomorrow?" and I had to say "No, gma, I have to go home and go to work, but I will be back next weekend."  Just about tears my heart out every time.  I have extended my stay twice so I could say "Yes, I will be here."


In crafty news, I'm still working on my miscount disaster for Gma A's quilt since the trees have been eating my life.  AND I'm going to participate in my first fabric swap!  It is of Heather Ross fabric and the one I am sending out is so cute I just want to squeal.  I'm hoping that it will work well in 9" squares, but you never know.  I'll show you when it arrives :)