Just a bit of fun

I found this on my friend Molly's blog and it was fun reading her answers so I decided to swipe it and put it on my blog.

We've all filled out all those different questionnaires about ourselves but this one is about the hubbies.

So here's the info on my better half.

He's sitting in front of the TV; what is on the screen?
Football or Nascar or the weather channel

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?
None - he's not a salad eater. He either gets something else or gives the salad to me (or Tasha if she's with us).

3. What's one food he doesn't like?
One? I only get to pick one? Onions (mushrooms, peppers)

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order?
None - we don't drink alcohol

5. Where did he go to high school?
Chambersburg Area Senior High School

6. What size shoe does he wear?
size 10 1/2

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be?
Holy cow, how much room do I have? Anything to do with football or Nascar - cars, hats, pennants, figurines, footballs. He also has a collection of marbles from his childhood.

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich?
Right now it's this chicken carbonara thing from Subway

9. What would this person eat every day if he could?
probably candy

10. What is his favorite cereal?
Super Golden Crisp

11. What would he never wear?
A dress.

12. What is his favorite sports team?
Dallas Cowboys and Penn State Nittany Lions

13. Who will he vote for?
I imagine McCain.

14. Who is his best friend?
Brad

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do?
ask him to help with my quilts

16. How many states has he lived in?
three, NY, PA and MD

17. What is his heritage?
Darn, we've talked about this (school projects for the kids) but I'm not sure I remember - I think his people came from Scotland and England

18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake?
Raisin spice (a secret recipe)

19. Did he play sports in high school?
Football

20. What could he spend hours doing?
Watching tv, playing video games, anything at all to do with football and house repairs/remodeling

So now you know all about him. lol.

Until next times, hugs and stitches, Jody

Back Again

Well I am back after a brief bout with computer interruptus. We have really been lucky. We've been doing computers for at least ten years and have never had a major problem. This one wasn't as bad as it could have been - the power pack died but at least we didn't lose everything on the computer. But I ended up using the kids' computer for more than a week and it's not hooked up to use the printer, camera or anything.

So I have had some time to get some things done. So I think the last thing I was doing with the Quiltathon. I'm not sure what happened with that. The blog I read about it on was supposed to have updates and check-ins over the weekend but I never saw anything. I don't know if I was looking at the wrong place or if she didn't get to it or what.

I did however finish up my round robin from my quilting group. I didn't take a picture of the backside and I really need to because it's reversable. The back side is a charm quilt using many of the fabrics I used on the front. Here it is:



The next one I finished is my Valentine's quilt. This is a rare all machine sewn quilt. I always machine piece but mainly I hand quilt. But there are those times when I just want to finish something. Mainly I machine quilt when I get to feeling like that.



Next I have the first round of my Christmas roosting robin I'm doing with my favorite online group. I'm venturing more and more into machine applique and starting to feel a bit more comfortable with it. I still need to work a lot more with small pieces - the holly berries almost made me crazy. lol.



I have also been working on Christmas presents but I can't post pictures of those for obvious reasons.

Other than quilting, the kids are back to school, my hours at work have been cut back to almost nothing and you would think between those two things I'd be getting tons done but for some reason I'm not. Maybe tonight.

And of course I can't say good-bye without posting a picture of Thunder. This one was just too cute.



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

A Quiltathon!!

While looking at various random blogs I came across Patchwork Times who will be having a Quiltathon this weekend. A day to do nothing but quilt! What a dream. Sigh.

I figured I wouldn't even try it because my youngest son's birthday is this weekend but some things have fallen into place that I will be spending the majority of my day quilting with the Quiltathon. Real life will intrude in the way of laundry - but it's supposed to be a beautiful day and I will be able to put the clothes on the line.

So I've decided to work on a Halloween quilt. I went through my stash and came up with these fabrics:



I have the pattern picked, I've started cutting and I even did a bit of sewing tonight.

I can't wait to get started tomorrow. I'll be doing periodic posts for the check ins.

If you can, join us. You can click on the link in the title for all the details.

Until tomorrow, hugs and stitches. Jody

A Quick Catch-Up

It's been a few weeks since I've last posted and they have been busy weeks. I've gotten some quilting done. I've done two rounds on my roosting robin and am almost finished with it.

Here's July's round:



And here's August's round:



August was to be the last round but I think I want to put a black tone on tone border on it and make it a bit more rectangular.

I've been working hard to find more time for quilting because we're on the down side of the time until Christmas (less than six months yikes!). I'm planning a few Christmas gifts so I really need to get moving. One thing that is helping is it's football season. Rodger and Joe are at practice every night and I sew a lot while they're gone.

I'm still hand quilting my TATW but I have a really great reason to finish it. Rodger is very supportive of my quilting, helps me pick patterns and fabrics - he has an incredible eye for color. But he's not really into quilts and although I've offered numerous times to make one for him he always politely declines. So a few months ago we started talking about painting the bedroom. It really needs it. We've been here 11 years and probably haven't painted it since right before we moved in. We want to do a light brownish color and I mentioned making a quilt for on the bed. And he reacted typically. It's almost like I can see the wheels turning in his head - oh no, she's coming and she's going to want quilt advice. lol. I've suggested a number of different patterns for a quilt for our bed and he's not really been excited by any of them. But the other night while I was quilting the TATW he said "I really like this one. It's really nice. The colors work perfectly together." Yikes!! So I quickly suggested that it could be the new quilt for our bed (I am soooo lucky it's big enough lol) and he agreed! I'm not sure when I'll finally finish it - I'm echo quilting in each square - but I guess I have some time since we haven't even picked a paint color.

Oh - here's a picture of the TATW top:



Our big news over the past few weeks is that Joe's hospitalization is over with and he is off the medicine and the doctor said we can stop the finger sticks. Joe is so thrilled. However, we are going to continue the finger sticks throughout football season just to be on the safe side. But it looks like our journey through these medical conditions are at an end. Thank God.

As always I will leave with a parting shot of Thunder. This is his "room".



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Old things finished, new things started

Well I have made some accomplishments in the past couple of weeks. I suppose the first thing is that I got Ryan's pillow sham done. I really like it (and he did too) and it wasn't that hard to make. I think I will make one for each of the other kids - maybe for Christmas. lol.

Here's the front:



And the back:



I also finally found a pattern that will work for my show pins. I have tried a number of different patterns and didn't care for the way they turned out. But this one I love. It's pretty enough on it's own and the pins will just be a lovely addition.



I'll put the pins in the center of the flowers.

And the new thing started is actually an old thing redone. I have a webshots account and will frequently look around at the quilts on the site. I found one of a schoolhouse block but where the part of the house with the windows is there were small quilt blocks. I fell in love with it and starting making my own. I wasn't happy with it - partly because I started it not long after I started quilting and the fabric wasn't very good quality. I also do not like working with templates. Everything isn't lined up perfectly but I quilt for fun not perfection so I'm happy with the results. Here is the first block:



I'm using Civil War repros. The brown fabric in this block I got at the last quilt show I went to. There was a vendor with just CW repros. I had a hard time getting out of that stall. lol.

And of course I can't leave without putting up one of the latest pictures of Thunder.



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Small Accomplishments

Not a whole lot happenin' on the quilting front this week. I tried to work on a wall hanging for my show pins but the pattern I found just didn't work. Then I tried modifying the pattern and that didn't work. So I took a break from it. Next I picked up my roosting robin. I have until the end of the month to do another round on it. I've come up with a few ideas that looked good on paper but didn't translate well to actual sewing. I finally decided to do a piano key border. And that of course was not without problems - I couldn't get the seam allowance right, the machine unthreaded itself after almost every piece. I have done a couple of piano key borders and I love them. I'm not really into scrappy but this is a sort of controlled use of multiple fabrics and I love it.



I have done some other sewing. I made these sheets for Ryan.



A pillow case is in the works but not ready yet. It will (hopefully) be ready by the end of the month (for his birthday).

And of course I can't leave without posting another picture of Thunder.



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Found Treasures

I have gotten a couple of found treasures over the past few weeks. First was a sewing table I got from a freecycle group. If you've never heard of freecycle check into it. It's a great group. If you have something you want to get rid of (in good condition of course) you can list it and someone will take it off your hands. And if you need something you can post a request and many times someone comes up with something for you.

So here is the table closed up.



And here it is with the sewing machine up.




I didn't keep the sewing machine. It worked but the tension is all messed up and I do not have the patience to fool with the tension. I have a machine sitting in my shed because the tension is messed up. But the dh built me a shelf so that I can put my machine in the table and it works great.

This morning I got an older quilt at a yard sale. The folks I bought it from collect antiques but I don't know that this quilt is antique. Here's the front:




And here's the back:





It's a two sided quilt! But for some reason someone put a layer of plain fabric over the back. The lady I bought it from attempted to remove a good bit of that layer of fabric:





I'm not exactly sure what I'll do with it. Part of me wants to leave it the way it is because it's sort of interesting. And part of me wants to figure out how to completely clean up the back - but I don't think I can do that without taking out the quilting. And I won't do that.

I have a number of quilts I got at yard sales and this is probably the nicest one. There are no tears or seams coming apart and the fabric is only a bit faded and there are just a few dirty spots.

Now where should I put it? Hmmm

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody