Thursday, October 16, 2008

Terrific Give-Away

Can you believe someone wants to give away a quilt? Check out this link:



and you too can have a chance to win this beautiful quilt.

Be sure to look at all the pictures - this is a gorgeous quilt and this lady designed it and made it herself.

Sure hope I win it. lol.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Goin' To A Show

No I'm not going to a quilt show - although I sure would like to. lol. Goin' To A Show is the name of my latest finished project. Its a wallhanging I made to hang my show pins on. I spent a lot of time looking for a pattern specifically for show pins (there aren't many out there) and finally found this wallhanging that I decided would work.



I thought the pins would make nice centers for the flowers.



A couple of these are not show pins but are very special. The pin to the left is from Capital Quilts - a great quilt shop in Gaithersburg MD where I went with three wonderful ladies that I'm on a Yahoo group with. The pin in the middle is of a quilt block with four flowers that I also got at Capital Quilts. Of course each of the flowers represents one of us. Not that I need anything to remind me of that very special day but they sure are nice to have.

I've also done two more rounds on my Christmas roosting robin. They were very simple - basically a separator round and a round to take it off point.



I mentioned before that my daughter has taken an interest in photography and I found this picture on the camera. This is the front of our house.



Now you can picture where I'm at when you read my posts. (I'm sure you were all sitting on the edge of your seats just wondering what my house looks like. lol).

Well it's time to get moving and get something productive done.

Here's a look at one of Thunder's latest pictures.



It's hard to believe we've had him 7 1/2 months. He'll be a year old before long. My baby is growing up. lol.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Friday, October 10, 2008

Something New

My friend Barb is a multi-blogger. She has a quilting blog, a book blog and a devotional blog. I already have the quilting blog and have been wanting to do a book blog but since I have a hard time posting here regularly I didn't want to start up another blog to keep up with.

So when I found Shelfari I saw my opportunity to mention the books I like without having a book blog.

Now when you come to visit you can check out my bookshelf (on the lower right hand side of my blog). You'll find a selection of books I have read and loved. Right now I have a selection from Jennifer Chiaverini, MC Beaton, JK Rowling and Cindy Woodsmall. I have read multiple books from these very talented ladies and would recommend anything any of them has written.

So be sure to check every now and then to see what I've been reading and maybe you'll find something that looks good to you.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Saturday, September 27, 2008

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

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

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

Friday, August 8, 2008

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

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

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