I'm Looking a Little Grumpy Today, don't you think?

I stole this from Pea's blog.. (But she said anyone who wanted to take a pic could). Thanks, Pea.

I guess it's been proclaimed "National De-Lurking Week". It's a chance for all of you who stop by, but have never commented, to do so.

It's easy to leave a comment. Just click the word "comment" below this post. Type in the box that comes up. Then type in the letters you see in the word verification box. Hit the blue box that says "log in and publish".

You can be anonymous, if you want. I promise I am a nice person. I won't bite or growl at you or anything like that.

I'd love to hear from you! I'd also find it interesting to know what state or country you live in.

There were over 100 of you stopping by yesterday and only 5 left a message. So come on, people. Hit that comment button! Let's see who has been lurking for the longest time. ;)

I Wonder When Ladies Wore Gloves this Color?

I purchased these rather bright green long gloves many years ago in a junk shop. They are a very gaudy color and every time I display them, I wonder what era they were worn. Do you think the late 1950's? I only wish I could see the entire ensemble. LOL.

I am using them on the knob of this china cabinet which is full of green things.






Look what DH came home with.

These beautiful red roses. I thought they looked great with the white snowflakes that are falling today.

Looking Forward to a Nice Quiet Weekend

I plan to stay home and get some much needed cleaning done (on my sewing breaks).

Here's my big bunch of blocks that I've completed the past week. I'm in a sewing frenzy. I think I made a block every night this week. I love when I get totally consumed in a project(s). I made the seagull last night. The snowman still needs buttons and facial features embroidered on.


See the turkey way up on the top? I don't like him much at all, so I've added borders and he's destined for the pot holder pile. He'll be cute to toss on the counter as protection on Thanksgiving.

I've changed my profile pic again. Do you ever get where you just can't stand to see your mug looking back at you every time you comment? That's where I am now, so I decided to use Mr. Cardinal for awhile.

I also have a lot of library books that came in this week. They are all Christmas quilting books that I ordered.
I will glance through them to see if there is anything new to make (I actually got the snowman pattern from one of those). While at the library, I picked up these Southern Living magazines.
I love to read these. They have the best decorating and recipe ideas.

What's everyone else doing this weekend?

Felt Rounds for Dish Storage

Doesn't it seem like everyone is cleaning, purging junk and storing items away this month?

I thought I'd share my tip on storing dishes so they don't scratch.

Most of you know I am a dish hoarder, so I've got plenty stacked in my cupboards. I don't want them to scratch, so I cut pieces of felt (somewhat round) and stick them between the dishes.

Then just stack to your heart's content.

In a pinch, paper towels will work almost as well.

I learned this from Martha way back in the early '80's.

Fire King Peach Lustre

I came home from work today and decided to tackle the empty china cabinet in the living room.

It's been sitting empty since I took all the Christmas stuff down. I like to change all the items in my cabinets a few times a year. When I find that I am so used to whatever is in them that I do not even notice the items anymore, I make a change.


I opened the bottom door of the cabinet and saw these peach lustre dishes. I decided to pull them out and spend a few months enjoying them. I needed an accent color and noticed the yellow teapot and vaseline candlesticks--voila! I had an accent color.

A little more digging deeper into the cabinet and I found some yellow/gold flowers, copper beads and a crocheted doily that my great grandmother made. The doily went on top of the cabinet, where it sits all alone until I become inspired to find some large items to put up there. I may have to case the basement to find somthing suitable.
My old coppered baby shoes were also inside the cabinet. I pulled them out, too.
Here's the copper beads and an old ladies glove (I buy those whenever I come across them. Can you imagine wearing them every time you went out?)


I found all of these items just by standing in front of the china cabinet, bending down and pulling things out from behind the closed doors. The funny thing is, it's still full behind those doors!

I am Very Irritated with Pattern Books

that do NOT include the 1/4-inch seam.

It seems to me that when I purchase a book of patterns, all of that extra work should be done for me. I have been spending well over an hour on each pattern just cutting out the different sections and adding seam allowances.

Last night I had to do it again with a snowman pattern.


I cut out each individual piece, tape it to copy paper and add the 1/4".

Now I am finally able to run copies today so I can begin sewing tonight.

I must remember to check the patterns BEFORE I buy a book. If the author was too lazy to add the seam allowances, I will pass on that purchase.

Isn't this the cutest snowman block? It's the one I plan to make tonight.

Enough of Paper-Piecing

Time for a little break and a cup of Edy's Cherry Chocolate Chip ice cream.

Doesn't this look delish?

Believe me, it was.

I'm a little discouraged after making a turkey block tonight that I don't like at all.

Laurie asked me what I was planning to make with all of these time-consuming bird blocks.

Well, I am almost embarrassed to say, "Nothing." That's right. I have no plans for anything. I just felt like trying my hand at making a few and so far I haven't felt like stopping.

I am no expert at paper-piecing. In fact, I only taught myself how last winter when I used my practice heart blocks to make pillows for the deck. I talked about it here.

Now that I know how, I am pretty hooked. I used the technique to make a border for the log cabin quilt I made last year and am quilting now. I have not spent much time quilting it lately, as I am spending all my time on these bird blocks. I find it pretty amazing to get so much detail in a quilt block.

I am sure I will think of something to do with them.

See This Gaudy Tropical Fabric?

I bet nobody but me would see on owl in this fabric!

That's such a big part of the pleasure of making these blocks. I love to find a use for ugly fabric. By using just a small portion of it, it ends up looking nothing like its appearance as a whole.




So far I still like the first block I did the best (the cardinal).

I also did this robin over the weekend.


He was quite the headache! I put the wrong 1/8 of inch piece of fabric on his back and did not realize it until I was done. So I just colored it in with a permanent marker. Those tiny little feet are about the size of a sliver of a fingernail. I did a lot or ripping out on this one. The only thing I actually like about this one is the fabric I chose for the head. The little nest turned out pretty good, too. It was the one feature that I did not think I would like at all.

These Boots Are Made for Walkin'

and, unfortunately, I've got to walk right on out of here-NOW!

Thank goodness I am only 2 miles from work because I have to be there in 10 minutes.

This is one of the pairs of boots I bought on Dec. 26. I love them. They have nice detailing up the side, but noone can see it once I drop my pant leg down.

Have a wonderful day.

Record High Temperatures Today

Almost 50 degrees on January 4th. It's pretty amazing and very strange...
Personally, I like it even though I do find it a little scary. I just wonder what is really happening.

I got a complimentary issue of "Cuisine" magazine in the mail today. I quickly skimmed through and this parmesan basket caught my eye.

How cool is that? A salad served in a basket of melted cheese. Yum! I must have a little dinner get together so I can try this.

I finished my third bird block--the bald eagle.

This time I doubled the background fabric and it worked much better.

I had Better Luck Tonight

This hummer block went together pretty easily. I am not too happy with the background fabric because of all those visible seams. I should have doubled the fabric. Live and learn............


Thank you all for the nice comments on the cardinal block.

I am having so much fun with these. I can't wait to get home from work to make another one. I love to get so involved with a project that I am eagerly anticipating the next time I get to work on it.

I think I will do an owl next.

The Sewing Angels are not Smiling Down Upon Me Tonight

After last night's successful cardinal block, I was eager to try another one. I got home a couple of hours late today because I had a dentist appt. and a nail appointment.

I sat down for about an hour to catch up on my blog reading while the nail polish cured. About 6:00 p.m., I decided they were ready and I started on block #2. It was going along beautifully--much easier than the cardinal. I estimated it would only take one and a half hours. At about the one hour mark, I discovered that I really needed a different fabric way back on the first section. It was actually the very first piece I put on.

So I had to rip out hundreds of teeny tiny stitches. I can save two sections (out of 6).

VERY DEPRESSING!

So much so that I decided to forget about it until tomorrow. Instead I grabbed my can of Necco candy wafers and came here to make my daily blog post.


Oh, yea, I also jabbed my finger with the scissors (see the bandaid?).

What can you make in 3 hours with 94 Little Pieces of Fabric?

How about this 7-inch cardinal block?

It's not perfect, but I have proven to myself that I can make these complicated foundation pieced blocks!

There are 11 little blocks sewn together to make the 7-inch block. The pattern is in Linda Causee's book, "365 Foundation Quilt Blocks".

I don't know yet what I will do with it. I suppose I will make three more and use them as corner blocks in a quilt border. There are patterns for a robin, a bluejay and an American Eagle. I may make one of each.

I Added about 15 Yards to My Fabric Stash Today

Then I decided to try to get it somewhat organized. I hauled up two heavy bins and folded & stacked by color. Most of what I had I didn't even remember buying.

I sure do envy those of you with sewing studios loaded with pull out see-through drawers. I've seen a few on the net that made me drool onto my keyboard. It's nearly impossible to organize your stash without dozens of those drawers.

Mine is now neatly stacked in see through bins. It does not really work very well because the bins are too deep and the middle fabrics get lost. But it's about the best I will probably ever have.


I also spent a lot of time rotary cutting fabric into strips so it's more manageable when I need it. I even cut up some old clothing that I have had boxed for that purpose for years.

My once empty clean dining room is now full of fabric, an ironing board, boxes, etc. Quilting is a very messy hobby!

Ia anyone going out tonight to celebrate?

I will be sleeping long before the ball falls. I have to be at work tomorrow morning at 6:45 a.m.

What a Wonderful Day I Had Today

for my last vacation day. I just puttered all day. I did do some very easy cleaning—very easy, compared to what I have done the past two days, which, I do believe, would border on the line of cruel and unusual punishment, had someone forced me to do it.

Today I removed all the combs, brushes, etc. from a drawer in my bathroom and soaked them all in soap, water and bleach. I washed out the entire drawer and put it all back. Then I removed all the stuff from the linen closet and washed down the shelves and the little stair-step shelf things I use to hold my hair products, etc. It was easy and quite fulfilling. There are no stray hairs floating around my brush drawer (at least until tomorrow morning!).



I also puttered just a bit with these old metal TV trays from the 1950’s (?). I decided to remove some pics I had on this wall and hang these. I wasn’t much in the mood, so left it at this for now. I still need to put some ribbon over the wire because I definitely will not leave the wire showing like that! I also need to putz a bit with the inside display. I decided I was not in the mood today, so just left it all.


I also put all my new charger plates away. I had to remove some other stuff to make them all fit on the bottom shelves of this cabinet. Now they are very easy to get at when I set a table.



I stuck a few allium into this green plant just to get a different look.






Since Christmas Eve my sewing/computer room has been so very clean and tidy. It’s been nice, but I can’t create in a clean sterile room, so now it looks like this:


LOL. All those little bags are separating strips of fabric that I use for log cabins. I cut up some more fabric early this morning and had to get them all out to put the freshly-cut strips in.

Then I decided to do a little sewing just because I can’t go longer than a week without creating something!

Until 7 am this morning the orange fabric of these points was the lining of a fall vest that someone (not me) made. The fall fabric (next to the bright orange point) was the outside of the vest. I took my rotary cutter to it and it ended up as this block.



I am posting this late because Blogger would not allow me to add the pictures yesterday.

Everything is Packed Away for Another Year

People are always wondering where I store all of the Christmas stuff I own.

Welcome to my basement, which I fondly refer to as my own little junk store. It is used only for storage and it is pretty full.

This is my Christmas section. These shelves are big (3 feet deep) have been filled for years. I have had to add those large plastic bins way down on the left side.


I don't use all of this stuff every year. I have enough to do a lot of different themes and I only use whichever items fit the theme I've decided on for the season. If I want to do a pink tree, I just go to the boxes with the pink items. It's nice to have such a varied collection.

Sissy mentioned that I need to switch to the new Blogger this week. I can't switch! My blog is too big. Does anyone else have this same problem? My dashboard says I can switch, but when I try, I can't.

8 Down and 1 to Go

I was just beat yesterday after spending about 6 hours removing, boxing up and hauling the decorations down to the basement shelves. I have everything down, but the main tree which I will tackle as soon as I finish my second cup of coffee.

I am feeling a twinge of envy for Giddy who said she only had to box up one ceramic tree and her house was back to normal. Mine feels bare as a newborn's bottom right now. It's a clean slate just waiting for decorating inspiration.

Tomorrow is garbage pick up day so I plan to spend a little time throwing out junk from the basement.

I am hoping to get everything finished by noon so I can spend some time sewing/quilting.

I Wonder Which Day I will get to Relax?

7:00 a.m.

9:00 a.m. #1

9:00 a.m. #2

11:00 a.m.

Forgot to Mention this Bargain!

 
70% off because it's considered a Christmas item.

I don't know about you, but to me this screams, "Valentine's Day heart cookies!" 

Guess Where I was at 5:45 A.M. today?

Sitting in the Walmart parking lot with about two dozen other people waiting for the 6:00 a.m. opening!

JC Penney also opened at 6:00 a.m. Oh, what fun I had! I never get to go to the after Christmas sales. I had a nice leisurely 3 hours of bargain hunting. I went to Walmart, Kmart, JC Penney and JoAnne Fabric.

Here's the trunk of my car when I got home at 9:30 a.m.

and here I am checking out the loot. "What's that? Ah, MORE charger plates!" I have been watching the burgundy chargers and they were half off today.


Wrapping paper, TONS of ornaments, boots, p.j.'s, candy, red lights, blue lights and clear lights, cards, goodie gift bags, bingo gifts for next year, 2 gold reindeer.... I can't even begin to put it all down.

Look at those adorable gold/bronze birds (I bought three packages) and all those candy ornies for my candy trees. Oh yea, and some bronze glass balls (bought 3 pkgs. of those, too) and look at that NECCO candy tin full of Necco round candies. Remember those? The empty tin will be great under the candy tree.

Look at the length of these receipts. That will give us an idea of how many treasures I purchased. **grin**



I still have a few days to enjoy the tree, so I put all the new ornaments on. I removed the Burgundy colored balls (which I was only marginally happy with anyway) and put the bronze ones on. I added 19 white poinsettias and hanging things that look like big chunks of ice and reflect the light.

Now I can look at a different tree all week.
Can you see the new birds in the tree?