As I mentioned last time, here is a picture of the veggie garden with the flower mixed in with the tomatoes and peppers. Truly a great way to brighten up the garden!

Here is a quilt and a pillow that I have sewn for a baby shower. A friend at work did all the counted cross-stitch.

I decided to do some major work on the house for my week off. Painting and turning Chester's bedroom into my sewing room was first on my list. My house was painted a peach color when we first moved in... more than 20 years ago. So this next picture is the peach paint with a sample of the new tan paint. I had to do this on one bathroom wall. I had every intention of painting part of the bedroom wall and stopping and taking a picture to show the diffence but was so excited with how the color was turning out that I just kept going until the whole wall was painted.

Cute little paint patch!

Here is one wall all painted. Is it just great!!

I enjoyed the color so much that I had to paint over the stark white of the grout. This is a HUGE improvement. I painted the grout white quite a few years ago.

Here is the fireplace from a distance. Yes, I know I still have to paint the bottom part. BUT... I still have lots to do and now I know how this will turn out, I can work on it one day after work.

My neighbor, Phyllis, came over the see how the work was progressing and helped me to rearrange the livingroom. I just love this new placement. the couch is at a slight angle and we changed the end table for this small chest. What a huge difference. I can't believe that this small change even makes the room feel wider. :)

Here is the back of the couch. We placed these few items back here and this is what you see when you walk in the front door. I just keep going back into this room and sitting down and admiring my 'new' livingroom.

This is why I can't just stop working. Here is some of what I have pulled from the livingroom and the bedroom. I should have taken a picture of all the stuff I hauled into Jocelyn's bedroom too!

Notice the kitchen and the trash piled up. I haven't touched all of that either. I just keep adding to it!

But now I can start to pull things together. The blue shelves are going out of this room. And this is the Computer wall :)

Here is my sewing center. I have the blue table in the back to support the quilt tops and when I need more floor space, the sewing table folds up and tucks away under the other table.

Here is the last wall. The 4th wall is my design wall. Nothing changed there. I am so pleased with this wall. I hauled the dresser up at 11pm last night and after dusting all the pieces off I finally went to bed. The Boxes on top hold various quilt accessories and I have the labeled with hanging tags. And these plastic boxes are multifunctional. I laid the boxes on their front and then packed them full and when you stand them up... ta da... storage and display at the same time. Two hold UFO tops and two hold selections of my newest fabric.

Oh my, will you look at all that TRASH!!! Well, there is still a trash can behind the box. I have now hauled it all out and the floor is now clean. Well, I do have to vacuum it tomorrow.

I do wish I had kept a log of what I did daily instead of at the end. But I think this still a good example of what I have been doing during my "summer vacation". LOL see ya.

Life gets in the way of blogging. But here it is a new day :) I've been busy reading other blogs and have found a new one to keep reading! Sewmeow has fun things to read and is having a birthday giveaway, please check out her blog at
http://sewfunquilts-sewmeow.blogspot.com/

I was trying to 'free' my summer for working on the vegetable and flower gardens and not get too involved in quilting. I know, WHAT???. But, as you know, I tend to get involved in a quilt project and ignore the rest of the world. i.e., gardens. and then the weeds take over. But I was determined that was NOT going to happen this year!!!! Here are my Tomatoes and the Beautiful Petunias :)


I even hauled some dirt in to fill in this box and purchased some manure in the bag to improve this soil.



I was doing great until it kept raining and raining. I couldn't get into the garden often to weed and then the grass took over. Well, as you can see, that didn't work out like I had planned in my head! If you look REAL close you can see my green beans in here with all the grass.




I sprayed and still the grass didn't die. I brought home come cardboard boxes from work, cut them open and spread them out and still it didn't die. I sprayed again. Nope, nothing. FINALLY ask dear husband why... and found out... I was using the WRONG SPRAY!!!! NOOOOOOOO... so.. that is why. hmmmmmmm Imagine that.




I now have the correct spray and the grass is turning brown! Yeah ;) Well, the weather is nice and I am going outside and pull the grass up that is next to the veggies. I'll take some pictures of my flowers too :)

Talk later. Hugs.

Dollar Crunching Is A Pain. But it does make one stop and think. I have gotten into the bad habit of buying premade food or Pizza already made or Mac & Cheese from the freezer section. But I forced myself to back up and start with the basics again. Plan a menu, write up a grocery list, shop from list without extras (as much as possible). One of my meals is Tostada Casserole! Yummmmmm. I will have to add the recipe in here :)

Tostada Casserole:

1.5 lb Ground Beef

1 - 15oz Can (2C) Tomato Sauce

1 envelope Taco Seasoning Mix

2.5 C Plain Doritos

1 - 15oz Can Refried Beans

8oz Shredded Cheddar Cheese

In Skillet, Brown Ground Beef. Add 1.5C Tomato Sauce and Taco Mix and mix well. Crumble 2C plain doritos and put in the bottom of a lightly greased rectangle baking dish. Spoon the meat mixture over the chips. Combine remaining tomato sauce and beans. Spread over Meat mixture. Bake 375 for 25 minutes or until mixture is heated. Sprinkle with cheese and the rest of the crushed chips. Bake 5 minutes more.

*** I have to tell my shortcuts. I use homemade salsa instead of the tomato sauce and sometimes eliminate the taco mix altogether (especially if the salsa is HOT) I also just mix all the ingredients into a large bowl and after well mixed, put into the baking dish and bake. We also use the remaining chips in the bag as utinsils. :) cuts down on that dishwashing!!

YUMMMMMMY This is really good as leftovers!! and it freezes wonderfully.

________________________________

Concerning the Dissapearing 9-Patch quilt, I have finished the top.. YEAH !!! I mulled over how to quilt it, whether to machine quilt it, hand quilt it or tie it. Hand quilting is out, takes to long, really wanted to machine quilt it, but I'm not very good at it, but I finally decided to give Machine Quilting a try. (I've not done this much, which is why I have so many tops, but not any quilts :( ..)

I don't have a good place at home to lay it out and sandwich the quilt together, I thought I would try to do it at work!! WOW That was interesting! I will have to do this again. I really enjoyed working on it this way when it was all spread out over 3 tables and could see the whole quilt!!

Now I am trying to machine quilt it :) I hope this turns out, because it is a gift for a friend. I have quilted a diagonal line across half of the quilt and am trying to get the other half quilted. After that, I have to do the diagonals the other direction. At that point, I will spread it out over my bed and see if it needs any other quilting.

Here is the top with the diagonals all going one way.
I will post a pic after the two diagonals are stitched and ask opinions!

It is hard to see, but I have the diagonals going both ways now, but I can see that there is still a huge area left without any quilting. That is not good. Trying to figure out what I can put in there that is quick.

I figured out what to put in the center. I REALLY wanted to put a circle, but that is still beyond me. Basically this represents X's and O's.. Hugs and Kisses :) Which ties into the back. It has one word. Believe.

This is for my friend Kathy B. who is fighting cancer.

Just another view. Farther away and shows the block well, I think

Here it is. Folded in half, but you can see the quilting in the center and what the borders look like. This is my first time working with stripes. I have seen this done in magazines and on other quilts and have wanted to try it out!

Now, I need to re-pin and smooth out wrinkles and figure out what to do for the borders.

Very frustrating. I thought quilting in the ditch around the striped border would be easy. Nope, I've had to manipulate the fabric so that it all doesn't bunch where the diagonal quilting meets the border. Sometimes not very successfully. :( I hope this gets lost in the wash. I need to go do something else, my back is hurting from hunching over to focus on the stitches. Boy, I wish I could just snap my fingers and have it all quilted!!

Ok, quilting is all done!! Yipee!!! I'm wiped out. Here is a pic, not sure if the quilting that I did for the border shows up. I just quilted curves. I had planned on quilting the curves around the flow of the flowers but the curves were too tight for me to do so I just elongated the curves. Good that the busy fabric hides it some, bad because the picture doesn't show up. lol

I started to baste around the edge of the quilt, but gave it up. What a pain. Now I need to figure out how wide to cut the strips for the binding. Off to search the web or pick somebodies brain!!

Guess you can see the quilting :) yeah!!

I love adding pictures, I figure this is a great diary of what all I have done. And close up pictures really will help later on, when I have forgotten what I did!

Jelly Roll Class Part 2

Accomplished alot on the Jelly Roll Quilt!! We spent lots of time working on the first block in the morning and then after lunch we worked on the second block. Then I came home and had to get ready to go out to a Chamber Dinner. But on Sunday, I really sewed and sewed. Here is a picture of part of the blocks on the design wall. And then a close up of them. and the last picture is the quilt laid out on my bed as I am sewing the block strips together.

I have the setting triangles sewn on but don't have a pic yet. We were to have class the following Monday, but it was postponed due to bad weather coming in. Luckily we did not get the bad weather, but we still didn't have class. However, we will be having class again this Monday evening and I need to get the quilt squared up and the first border strips cut so that I can jump in and start sewing them on at class. :)

I have decided to make a lap quilt for a good friend who is going thru a bad time right now and want to use the same colors/fabric that I did in the Jelly Roll Quilt. I hope these bright colors will help a little. I admit that I am combining the making of this quilt with the desire to try out a new pattern. I have been hearing about the Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt for some time now and fast it is to put together, so this is the design I chose. The Tutorial for this quilt can be found here:

http://quiltsatcs.blogspot.com/2007/04/disappearing-9-patch-tutorial.html

I decided to use 5" squares to make it come together faster still.

Here is a pic of the 9 Patch. I chose Pink as my center color. I really like how having a central color pulls it all together.

This is after cutting the original 9 patch up and then squaring up each block.

Yeah, I know, my notes to myself about how I did it are very poorly done. Hopefully I will be able to figure them out when I make another quilt!

Changes: Square up the original 9 patch to 14". This will make it alot easier than triming the others to 7"!!!!!!!

Here it is up on the design wall!!! I love how this comes together and with these bright fabrics it really pops out at you!

Ok, all sewn together. Now how did the blocks end up in different positions than when I had it up on the design wall? Compare the two pictures and you will see what I mean. Oh well. That is one of the wonderful things about this quilt pattern!!

Now I need to figure out what fabric to use for the small inner border. I held up a bright orange, which is what I had planned on, but it just blended into the quilt. Here are the pinks I used, but I am not sure I want to make it scrappy. I am thinking about either a darker green or blue. And, of course, the floral print will be the outer border.

Jelly Roll Class Part 1

I took some better pictures! Here you can see the floral Main fabric and the strips that I have cut and the Yellow and Green in the background are fabrics that I am considering using. Not sure yet which one it will be, or will it be both??? I'll just have to wait for the class and sew some pieces up before deciding for sure.

It surprised me when I laid the focus fabric on top to see how it changed with the different background fabric. I like how taking a picture and then studing it can help with decision making!

To me, the green blends and the orange stands out. That will play a part in my deciding which fabric to use.

These are the strips and the rectangles that I have subcut from the strips. All put into a container and ready to take to class!

I have pulled all the supplies together and still need to get my sewing machine ready for transport and gather any last minute items. I am off to get ready for class.

See ya, Trish

I have had to put Double Delight Quilt on hold for a bit. I am going to take a quilting class Saturday and need to get the fabric chosen and cut out for this. It is a jelly roll quilt and instead of purchasing a jelly roll, I am making my own using fabric from my stash!!!! I have chosen a bright floral print and needed to find lots of brights to coordinate with it. I keep looking and digging and even found a bin with a project I wanted to start, but never did, which had lots of brights in it!! JACKPOT!! I've been busy ironing fabric and cutting strips and re-packing the bin up so that when I am ready to start that quilt a majority of the fabrics will already be ironed and ready to cut up!!

Above is a picture of the fabric. For some reason the colors do not seem very bright. I will take a better picture of my blocks so you can see how bright they are! I am getting some of the jelly roll strips subcut into rectangles before the class, but I have a dilemma. It is a two block quilt.

First block is cut 4 ½” squares. Sew 2 ½” rectangles around it. This equals a finished 8” block.

Second block .. ends up being a square in a square variation. Soooo.. center square is a nine-patch. Directions say to cut the pieces 2 3/8” … NOT 2 ½” which is what I thought it would be. Then of course cutting the triangles to finish up the block.

My question is this: I am tired of cutting!!! And truly don’t want to trim down my 2 ½” pieces to 2 3/8” pieces. I mean cutting 1/8” from 60 pieces of fabric!! GROAN.. (whine, whine, whine) sorry.

Does anyone have a good reason why these should be 2 3/8 and not 2 ½”? This is all the information That I have. I will not get the book until I show up for the class on Saturday morning.

I am half way considering 2 ways. 1. Sew the seam larger!! Or 2. Just sew it ¼” and deal with whatever happens next which may be corners that are chopped off.

What do you think? Any suggestions or ideas why the smaller measurement for the 9-patch?
I have put this question to two groups I am in and will see what answers I may get! I wish I had thought to throw this question out sooner. Oh well.. such is life!!

Off to deal with chores and dreaded housework.

Take care, Trish

The New Year!!

It is now 2009. I can't believe how the time just flies!! I also can't believe it has been this long since I logged in. Hi Swooze!!! See, I am actually here!!!

To get the New Year off, I have been participating in Bonnie's Mystery Quilt, Double Delight. I love all her patterns!! This time I have been taking it easy on sewing the pieces together. Getting up often and accomplishing other things around the house at the same time. I found this to be a great idea for several reasons. I accomplished other things (which husband liked), I moved often (which body liked) and more important I slowed down when I sewed, relaxed my shoulders and sewed my seams better than ever before. In the past I found myself RACING myself. HURRY, HURRY, Sew, Sew.... Not good. So I guess this means I am off to a great start for 2009.

Goals? Hmmmm yes, goals.. those darn UFO's that are hanging around my head have got to be swatted into shape. I've given thought to why I have not finished my quilt tops. Again, several reasons seem to surface. I haven't machine quilted much (one time?) and am not good at it. It seems I must be GOOD at it before I attempt it again. Silly, isn't it. How do I expect to be good at something if I don't keep trying!!!! So my Mom has been my biggest cheerleader and critic (don't you just love MOMs!!) and has been encouraging me to THINK about WHY I am not finishing up these tops. Thanks Mom!! Another reason seems to be that the beginning of each quilt is such a challenge to me. From choosing the 'right fabric' for the pattern, to 'can I really sew this block' to 'what type of border best suits this quilt' to the last step of 'how will I quilt this top'. well.. I seem to pass all the challenges but the last one. I am so excited that I have completed the top successfully and of course there are always those "other" patterns that are begging to be made that I convienently forget about that last challenge, fold up the top and start on another challenge. The last challenge???? The quilting???? well, there I get stumped. I don't know what I want to do for the quilting and, of course, it has to be "perfect". :( So it stays a UFO, folded up and bundled off to the back of the closet of wherever I have placed it.

This seems rather insiteful of me doesn't it! Now to work thru it and not bundle this insite into the closet with the other UFOs!!!

I mentioned my Mom as one of my Cheerleaders, but I cannot forget my others!!! Thank you Swooze!! Your gentle hints are truly appreciated and won't let me forget that these quilts are not truly finished yet!! My Daughter is another, her stern "did you finish your other quilt?" keeps the UFOs from being totally forgotten. My son, for asking what I am working on now, strangely enough keeps the thoughts of unfinished quilts in my brain and won't let them 'rest' quietly.

I started today with talk of the quilt I am working on, so of course, I have to show pics.








This is Clue 1 all sewn. The upper lefthand pile of blocks has been trimmed to the appropriate 3.5"!! Still have lots more to trim up.







This is Clue 2. Again, all sewn but not trimmed. This is what I will be doing today.

This is all for now, My brain just shut down and I have no more information to pass on!! So, Hugs and Have a Great Quilty Day!!

Trish