Dreaming of Quilting

Now that's a pleasant way to wake up in the morning! For the past week, I've been dreaming of Girl Scout cookies. Not in a good way, though. In an inventory, gotta count the cupboard sort of way.

The top of my MQX Charity Challenge piece is almost done. I just need to add the borders. So I'm planning out the quilting, watching quilting videos online and dreaming. I can't wait to dig into this one, but I definitely need a plan first. All I can tell you right now is that Fibonacci is involved!

I'm also dreaming of being back here...

next weekend! Yay!

Do Over

I failed Bear Paw 101.
I was trying to be so careful. I don't know how I turned not 1, but 2 sections of "claws."


That top right quadrant is a little askew, too. This is such a small block (4" finished) that I'll just start over.

I need one of Karen's desktop design walls.

Challenging Choices

I hadn't considered how challenging this challenge piece would be.
I shuffled, sorted, piled, and moved fabric around.

I waited until Julia got home from school so I could run it by her before I started cutting. Then I cut the wrong pieces out of a main fabric. Ugh! Plan B.
All cut out and ready to sew.

Yummy Fabric!

Look what I got in the mail!

I've been lusting after Meadowsweet for months. I'm not sure what to do with it, but it makes me sooooo happy!


This stack (and another one just like it) arrived from Jackie for a very special purpose.
Don't they give you hope that spring and summer are coming?

And that SWEET Jackie sent me these Moda Sweet Rolls. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that these are my first moda bake shop fabrics. They are yummy!

I wish I had time this week to play with my new fabric. Alas, February is almost over and I have deadlines to meet. Most (all) are self-imposed, so I can release myself from the obligation at any time. Here's my list for the next 7 days:

• Start and finish piecing my MQX Charity Challenge piece (photo due March 1)
  
• Star Crazy- piece February blocks
• Year 2000 Scrapbook
• UFO Challenge- quilt & bind Easy Weave

It's actually a nice assortment of tasks, so if I get tired of quilting, I can piece. Or work on a few scrapbook pages. Or re-count the Girl Scout cookies in my garage!

Cookies!

Step 1: Unload the truck.


Step 2: Count cases of each flavor.

Step 3: Awesome volunteers sort cookies by troop.

Step 4: Cookies are ready for troop pick-up.

If you need Girl Scout cookies, please go to Girl Scout Cookies.org or visit your local council's website to find a sale near you. DO NOT buy cookies on eBay. It is against GS policy to sell cookies online in this manner.

B-I-N-G-O!

My sister and I played Bingo for the first time ever.

And we both won!


There is a game every Tuesday in my mother's building. While Julia and Pete were on Grandma duty, Anita and I played. Winning is fun, but the long games like large picture frame and full card can get boring. I probably won't start going every week, but I will go again.

The cookies are coming today! I can't wait to show you what a room full of 3200 cases of cookies looks like.

Family Fun with Friends

We had a fun day yesterday with Janet's family.

Pete's Legos were resurrected...

A baby quilt was designed for a favorite teacher...

A recipe was tested...

And taste-tested.

The unanimous consensus:
As much as we hate to admit it, the home-made Tagalongs (Peanut Butter Patties) are crunchier, and the peanut butter and chocolate are tastier (better quality) than the real Girl Scout cookies. Many thanks to Maggie at Smashed Peas and Carrots for the recipe. We'll be making these year-round.

My mother had a health scare this weekend. I'm happy to report that after a night in the hospital for observation, she's on the mend and feeling much better.

Happy Fat Tuesday!

Have a Heart

I've been lusting after these felt rosette wreaths since I saw this tutorial. Today was the day to make my own.

I picked up the foam form at JoAnn's last weekend for $3.99. Yes, I paid full price for it. Gasp! From my the felt stash, I grabbed all the reds, pinks and little off-white. And started cutting circles. No measuring, no marking. A couple hours and a couple hundred circles and pins later, and I heart my heart!

25 in 25!

I'm doing so well with my goals so far this year that I decided to set a new one.

25 pounds in 25 weeks!

Slow and steady... Eat less, move more... More vegetables, less junk food.
I lost a lot of weight once before (50+), so I know I can do it!

I set the deadline of our family reunion at the beginning of August. Here's my father's branch of the family tree in 2005. I'm the one in green with the crazy tan and bad bra. Look at Pete and Julia down in front. So cute!

But right now, I'm making chili, cornbread and wings for the Super Bowl.
Moderation, not deprivation!

Are you wearing red today?

I'll be wearing red today for these cuties. My mother has heart disease which she manages quite well. (This is a 4-year old photo, but the best I had of anyone wearing red. My father loved to wear a red sweater or sweater vest on Christmas, so the Christmas after he died, we all wore red in his memory.)

This week flew by and I'm not sure what I did. Lots of cookie business (so far, so good), a little sewing, and encouraging Julia with a school project (she'd call it nagging). Bill went to DC on the train for the first time. I think he enjoyed the trip, but next week he'll need to fly down for a morning meeting. I dropped him off at our beautiful old train station. It reminded us of college days when I traveled by train from Rochester to Schenectady, NY. There is something more romantic about train travel.

Last year, Bonnie Hunter hosted a quilt along for Super Bowl Weekend called Super Bowl Twist. I put together a top with a big pile of bright novelties and geometrics. It turned out kind of muddy and I wasn't happy with it, so unhappy that I never took its picture. When I signed up for Pat Sloan's Super Bowl weekend party this year, I realized I still had the one from last year to deal with. So I un-sewed and added some skinny sashing. It's better. Still bright and fun, but at least there's a place for your eye to rest and notice the pattern. Since it doesn't twist anymore, I'm going to call it Super Bowl Slant. I need to buy a little more of that orange to finish the left and bottom, then I might add a yellow border (or not) and black binding. I'm not sure if I'll make it to Camp Sloanie this weekend. Maybe Julia will come with me and we can quilt together!


My copy of Bonnie's new book arrived this week! Go buy a copy today!

I'm starting to panic that a week of February is already gone and I didn't finish anything. So much to do, so little time! Here's my list for the next 3 weeks.

• Girl Scout Cookie Sale
• Clean garage to make room for cookies
• Prepare for Quilt Getaway Weekend
• February Star Crazy Blocks
• MQX Charity Challenge
• Year 2000 Scrapbook
• February UFO Challenge- #7 Easy Weave
• Fun with Strips & Strings
  

January Scrapbook

Yay! I finished the 1999 scrapbook in January, as planned. It's nothing fancy, but it's done. Now that all the supplies are spread out, I'm planning to keep going with 2000 right away. (Well, after a couple days of Girl Scout cookie business.)

I had all the supplies I needed for this one in my stash, including the book and extra pages. For 2000, I'll need to buy some stuff when it goes on sale. I have plenty of paper, so I can get started with the pages until then.

Here are some of my favorite pages and memories from 1999.


A fun day in Boston's Public Garden.


Julia's first day of Kindergarten. She gives me a hard time for not crying when she left. She has always been a social butterfly and easily makes new friends. I knew she'd be fine. (I did cry the following year when my baby got on the bus and left me home alone.)


Pete was Train Boy! He was in heaven when Thomas the Tank Engine came to Newport. How cute is he?


Julia created this page commemorating the friendship between her teddy bear (Daddy Bear) and the baby polar bear (Triton) at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence. Julia brought Daddy Bear almost everywhere for a couple of years. She was standing at the glass one day and Triton came right up to Daddy Bear, nose to nose. She held him up, and Triton continued to swim down to say hello. This went on every time we visited. We were all sad when he had to move to another zoo.


This is probably our favorite Christmas card photo.


In other weekend news, Julia was in the ensemble of the high school production of Cinderella. The girls all loved dancing in their hoop skirts. Julia shines on stage. She was Cinderella 3 years ago in middle school, so we kept picturing her in that role. But she was happy to perform several parts, requiring five costume changes.