When I'm 76...

My dad just sent me an email about what's going on over there, about a thousand miles from me, zip lining!

Left to right is my mom, sister Sarah, brother Ben, my dad and Pops. Today is Pops 76th birthday!!

I can't believe he actually went zip lining, cuz I feel a little chicken about doing it at 25.

You can see Ben on the left, and Pops on the right. And some GIANT pinecones in the tree on the right.

When I'm 76, I hope I'm half as brave as he is! :D

Happy Birthday Pops!!

Love,
Leah

He's all mine!!

Lookie at what my husband gave me today!!!!! A teardrop emerald ring, with little diamonds on the side!!!

Oooohhwhee! I never saw it coming. Took me totally by surprised. Handed me a bag with a sandwich in it for me... wait, what's that white box?

I'm still stunned, especially since this has been a rough week for me and I haven't been able to put on my best face. And said face's eyelid has started to blister (I rubbed it too much in my sleep thinking there was something in the corner of my eye) and attractive is the last word in my mind. :P

Now I just can't decide, should I have it sized to fit my ring finger or my middle finger? I think I'll do middle finger...

Christmas is certainly brightening up, even though I'm gonna be late with my side of the family's gifts. :)

Leah

Triple the fun

Had my husband take me to the doctors last night and I have three infections - my ear, my sinus and my throat. Whew.

At least my husband has been a saint through all this, being at my beck and call, getting me food and drinks as needed, making sure I'm taking my meds, turning a blind eye to the horrific mess in the apartment. Yeah, totally a keeper and he's all mine. :D

But really, can somebody bump Christmas off for another month? Please?

Leah

Uh oh...

Got another ear infection in my left ear this time. I had 2 days worth of antibiotics left, so I took one pill 4 hours ago and burst into flames! I thought it'd be ok because I didn't react to them until 7 days later back in October. But instead, I look something like this.

I really don't wanna go to the doctors again... *throws a tantrum* ugh.

Can somebody please put Christmas off for another month? All I want to do is soak my face in ice water and huddle in bed. :P

Leah

Carolina Crossroads Clue 2 Completed

That title is a bit of a tongue twister! I'm glad 2 didn't start with C too. ;)

I completed the 9-patches tonight. Wait. That's too easy to say. I completed putting together nine HUNDRED squares!!!!!!!! That's better. :D (But that's 800 seams!)

What's so sad is that if you put all the 9-patches together, it'd only cover 30x30 inches. All that work, for such a little amount? :P But I bet the finished results will be spectacular!

The bad thing about this mystery... it makes me forget that Christmas is like, oh, 12 days away! Ack. Nothing like putting panic in myself... and I haven't really gone shopping yet. Not to mention that I'm not celebrating with my side of the family this year, so it's no fun to think about buying them gifts and not be able to watch them open it. It's really fun to watch their expressions as they open your gifts, especially if they happen to be quilts! Like last year. :)

Leah

Vote for your favorite!

Help me decide which version I should make! The only difference is the center of the Ohio star blocks - one is green, one is purple. Poll is on the right of the post.

Ohio Stars with purple center:



Ohio Stars with green center:


I'm planning to do this quilt while I wait for Bonnie's next clues. I'm starting to think that my guesses at her mystery are off - there's some gaps in my figuring. So why not just do both? :)

Leah

A new quilt

Today I've been working on Bonnie's mystery.

I've got clue/unit 1 completed - rail fence blocks. I've started on clue #2, but probably won't have that completed until Sunday or Monday. At least I should be ready whenever clue #3 comes out! :)

I can not explain it, but when I'm working on a mystery quilt and the more I handle the pieces and think about them, the more I feel like I need to solve it! Ahhh! Drives me nuts. I had to stop in the middle of sewing and draw up the quilt in EQ5. Below is what I *think* the mystery results will be.

Except much bigger than my drawing, it'll have 4 star blocks in both directions. I just didn't want to click and fool around with more blocks.

Then I wondered... what if I added some purple?

Mmm, yes! I'm liking this. Not enough to derive from Bonnie's pattern, but it always can go into the "someday quilt" file. ;)

How about a little more purple?

It looks fine close up, but not so much when you just see a thumbnail.

In all honesty, I have no idea where this pattern is going. There haven't been any 4-patches in the mystery yet. That was completely my own doing. :) I just had to fill my need to put it down on paper.

***************

No quilts completed this week! Are you shocked? ;) Let's just say that the "blessing" of being a woman has left me more tired this week. Not to mention I have a new freezer to fill up. ;)

I used about 2 bobbins this week, all in piecing.

I busted about 10 yards of fabric. This includes various green, pink and white fabric for Bonnie's quilt - I might have some strips leftover. Let's not forget the half yard that I gave to the guild's Christmas swap.

I received .75 yards this week, all from the quilt guild's Christmas party.

Seems like when one week has a good bobbin result, it has lower stashbusting results. Good fabric busting is lower bobbins emptied, and therefore less machine time. Tic for tac?

I'm just happy I have my quilting mood back after this summer! The heat did me in and I just couldn't bare the thought of turning on the iron most of the time. But now it's nice and chilly (about 40 degrees outside), I want to make quilts! Lots of quilts! Warm quilts! Cuddly quilts! Quilts! :D

Leah

Off of my high

Looks like I'm off of my "quilting high" this week. Barely any sewing done, much less an entire quilt! :P

Here's a picture of the fabric I brought to the quilt guild's Christmas swap.

Yup, half a yard of one of my hand dyes. I know... the rules were half a yard of new fabric... but who'd complain about opening this? :) It was an experiment of purple and orange. They don't blend that well, as you can see in the bottom right corner.

Then this is the fabric I unwrapped, and nobody stole it!

I was kinda surprised, a lot of the more attractive fabrics were being stolen. Couple ladies eyed my piece, but nobody took it. Maybe because it's Laurel Birch fabric and they already have it? Well, I don't have it, and now I do! :D I can get 32 5" squares out of that half yard. So I think it'll be the center of something. Squares or stars... I don't want to cut it up too much and ruin the birds.

And I really thought I was going to come home with the exact amount of fabric I arrived with...

...but nooooooooo, they had to hand out a FQ to everybody. Mine has little silver sparkles in it. Probably will get whacked up into 3" squares or strings. :)

Now I'm putting my attention towards Bonnie's mystery quilt.

Leah

Christmas Party

Tomorrow is my quilt guild's Christmas party.

I made popcorn balls as my contribution to the potluck.

We also need to bring in half a yard of fabric for the white elephant exchange. Hope I don't end up with a bright red piece! :D

Leah

Christmas is here!!

Christmas came today. :D My in-laws told all their married children that they could do a "couples gift" for Christmas, up to $300. Well, this baby is $268. After taxes, we're just below $300. :)

I'm pretty happy about getting a deep chest freezer. I've been wanting one for some time, so I can stretch out my Costco trips more, and stock up on good deals from the store. And theoretically, in the long run we'll save more money.

I think tomorrow I'll get a couple gallons of milk that's on sale for $1.99/gallon. Yes, milk can freeze just fine, shake it well after thawing. :)

Leah

Scrappy 9-patch completed

All done with the 9-patch!

It started off very fast, but slowed down to my normal quilting pace.

I think it'll be a Christmas gift for a swap I'm in. Don't worry, it's not a swap that's been blogged saying "please don't blog about it". :)

**********

Still it's been a good week. I redecorated my blog. Of course, green still remains the dominant color. That'll probably never change. ;)

I completed a quilt. That's pretty good. ;)

I busted another half-yard of fabric in the binding.

I used up 6 spools of bobbin, most of them on the quilting of the 9-patch.

Here's the bad news (sorta)! I won 8 lovely FQs from Serena, but hopefully it'll never see the inside of my closet, but actually get put into a quilt soon. I already have an idea for them.

So more fabric in than "out" this week, but I'm moving in the right direction. :)

Leah