Twister ruler

LOVE the twister ruler/template! I made this for my sister. It was super fast, fun and simple.

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Think I've been neglecting my machine???

Hmmmmm......wonder how long it's been simce I cleaned.....not like me to let it go so long....

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Minkee Monday

Ms. Minkee is pooped out from a weekend filled with laughter and family! We laugh and carry on for hours on end when we all get together and we must have worn her out!

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Design Wall

Finally, finally finsished!!! Yippee, Yappee, Yahoooeee!!!! This has been languishing in my UFO box for almost 2 years. DH COULD. NOT. start the new football season with a golf quilt on the back of his chair now could he?? Now he has a Cleveland Cavs quilt and a Cleveland Browns and a generic golf quilt ready to adorn the back of his chair during the appropriate season! Perhaps this will help the final score for our Ohio teams????

This will have to qualify as my design wall as I finished it last night and my wall is now empty!!!

What's that strip at the top of the quilt you ask? Why it's the only piece of paw print fabric I own....hence, it's the dog pound....or if you are a Browns fan and get the reference, it's the dawg pound!!!! It cracks me up!!! (in case you are not a football fan, the dog pound is the area under the end zone at the stadium.)





Some poor color shots but you can kinda see the quilting. I used a panto called popcorn and I love it!





Click on over to Judy's blog and see what the rest of the quilters are working on this week!

Stash Report/UFO challenge

I've lost track of my stash! I forgot about keeping track during June and July...well and August. To be honest, I haven't been to quilt shops (other then one weekend), Joanns or Hobby Lobby & Hancocks. To the best of my recollection, I bought a few yards of fabric that one weekend. Plus, Ms. CCCat found a great sale last weekend (every time she leaves town, I spend money!) on Saggy Baggy Elephant fabric! Cute! And someday I'll make something with all the author and book fabrics I've collected.

Today we had a one day retreat and I cut and pinned 6 0r 8 pillowcases, got half done on a binding and will soon work on an embroidery. The quilt and embroidery are UFO's. I'm behind by two months but plan on catching up by the end of this week!

Because I don't count fabric out until something is finished, finished, I can't count any fabric going out! PHOO! That means that my final stash count will be in the plus but I'm not worried. I'll have a quilt and a bunch of pillowcases in the out column next week!

Used this period: 00
Used year to Date: 59
Added this Week: 8
Added Year to Date: 109.5
Ahead or behind 2011: +50.5 ...therefore behind

UFO workings

Weell...my UFO for Aug is now quilted....can I finish the binding????? Having a one day retreat this weekend so it just might happen......

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Minkee Monday

I was trying to sew...Ms. Minkee had other ideas! You must scroll to the last picture as it is hysterical!!!

Hello, Shalom, Hola!

It seems fairly obvious that I am no longer sure about blogging. I love the idea of it....but the actual execution....It is soooo time consuming to edit pics and all. I am going to hang in here a bit longer but bear with me...if you are still out there... I've been filling my time elsewhere. How do you find time to post, read, comment ect......I don't have kids and it's just DH and I so that isn't the problem. It's just so much time on the computer. I have that I accomplish much more without the blogging but I miss it......So how do you do it?

On the quilty front....

I made this sign for school. I teach a class we call L'dor V'dor. In hebrew that means from generation to generation. I teach Jewish customs, traditions and holidays.

I have been wanting to make this sign ever since I bought this book by Atkinsons Designs.

Number one. I hate my sign. The kids will probably like it but....icky, icky on my part. Number 2, I didn't want to sew so I used the old paint around the edges technique. ICK. Number 3, The idea was to make it reversible because I am also the librarian. I painstakingly fused and cut the letters for LDOR VDOR and LIBRARY. I fused, painted, bejeweled, and decorated both sides. YEAH it was done. AHEM....I strung the letters on the rod. L-d-o-r-V-d-o-r. I turned the rod around expecting to see L-i-b-r-a-r-y. Instead I saw y-r-a-r-b-i-L!!!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! To add insult to injury, I can't even find a place to hang the riffin' raffin' thing!!!!!!

Here is a close up of a couple letters.

Design Wall...YIKES

Working on a million things here...none on a wall though!
Not a lot of time for explainations but here are pics

I am making a sign for school....more on this later as I made a HUGE mistake!!!

Our guild is having a block exchange. I've had months to work on these and naturally I am doing it at the last minute.....they will eventually be butterflys.

See this hoop stylishly being modeled on my knee. I scoured the city for this style so I could continue my work on this

My UFO for July. I have been working on this for years now. I am making real progress and it is so exciting.

Green Bottle Caps II

The question was asked, WHY do I need green bottle caps? I have a mission at school this year to do as much as I can with recycled objects. Sooo, when Passover rolls around, all of the children will make frogs like this or like this. Just like Andy Rooney, "Now you know the rest of the story!"

Green Bottle Caps

I love my volunteer job! However, I have been struggling with it because I feel... well... less than necessary. I know they appreciate what I do, but they don't always have anything FOR me to do. They are a) nearly all men b) not accustomed to volunteers and c) nearly all men! The "being men" part leads to the blank eyed stare when faced with someone wanting to "help." (Think toy assembly, getting lost, etc. LOL!)

There is one man (CV)that realizes that there is potential in having a volunteer and more and more often he has things for me to do. A few weeks ago he was out of the office and actually "called in" a job for me.

Last week, I walked into his office. I spotted a case of water in the corner of the office. I embarrassingly blurted out to him, "YOU HAVE GREEN WATER BOTTLE CAPS! Please save those for me!" I silently cursed the lack of hard wiring from my brain to my mouth! CV certainly has more important things to think about then saving those silly green bottle caps! I hoped and hoped that he wouldn't remember.

This week when I said hello, CV jumped up and said, "There you are! I've been waiting for you. I have this, and this for you to do and Oh, on the shelf." I looked on the shelf, expecting to see a pile of papers, and found 10 green bottle caps! When I thanked him, his simple response was "We help each other."

It's the silly things that validate a person. They make one feel needed, necessary and important. Like many others, I don't require compliments, pats on the back or flowery words of praise. For me, the silly little, off-handed, often un-thought-of things that people do, like remembering to save a silly lid, affect me far greater.

These ridiculous green bottle caps made me realize that I am indeed a making a difference in this volunteer position. As crazy as it sounds, those green caps made me feel like I belong because I was remembered on Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday, not just Wednesday (the day I volunteer).

Once again, it's my theory, You never know when you will touch someone else's life. I wrote about it here. It also reminds me to be kind and thoughtful to others. I may touch someones life and I certainly want it to be in a positive manner.

Bobbins Question

Can anyone tell me what difference is in "factory" bobbins and generic bobbins? I took my machine to be cleaned & checked. The tension was funky...every now and again. I was unable to take or pick up the machine as the shop is 4 hours away. DD delivered and picked it up. They told her that not using "factory" bobbin (yes, they used air quotes) can cause issues. HONESTLY? I've never used anything but generic bobbins,and not had problems.

I can understand that you may get a "bad" bobbin, or one that has become warped but....come on! Someone MAKES all of these bobbins, right! Do we really believe that there is a bobbin manufactorer for Janome, and a seperate one for the genenric bobbins?

So this begs the question,was the "use factory bobbins" statement real or meant to sell product? Do you really, really need to use factory bobbins?

Minkee Monday

I swear this cat must be reverting back to a kitten. She has been "discovering" all sorts of new places to sit. This one kills me cause I can't figure out how she got in that space!

UFO Challenge-a finish

Done. Done. Done.I'm officially caught up and this finish counted for June!!!! Yippee!!!
This is a recycled photo from when it wasn't finished however it IS done now!!!

State of my backside

Oh how I wish my daughters and their spouses were slugs! Instead they are driven, determined young people.

I have be fiddle faddling around with the same 10 lbs for a year now. It is annoying and I've been looking for inspiration....ANYWHERE!! S0, we all made goals for the month of June. This was all my stupid idea. I said that I wanted to lose 10 lbs for the umpteenth time. Serena and Chris-A made goals too. Aviva and Chris-S didn't. Serena held to hers and about 10 days ago asked us how we were doing. WHOOPS! I had forgotten about it!!

After discussion, Chris-A and I made a deal for our goals....little did I know he planned on sticking to it!! LOL!! He is giving me a run for my money! But....if all goes well over the next two days, I will have attained my goal!! WHOOHOO! (don't get too excited as I had gained that 10 lbs).

For July it seems we all have goals, DH not included as he is healing! My goal is 4 days a week at the gym.....Chris-A dittoed my goal.....my muscles already hurt! Aviva has a gym goal, Serena and Chris-S have the same goal.

The way I see it the month of June goes to Serena for inspiring us...uhm and making us feel bad that we weren't working towards our goals. I am hoping that the month of July will go to me and that Chris-A will poop out with the gym! It's not easy for me to go toe to toe with him...he's almost half my age!

The unknowns here though are the rest of the family....they may just surprise us and be the winners! Any way you look at it we will (hopefully) all be winners by the end of July.

Family photos

In December we had family photos taken. We are just getting around to doing something with them. Thought I'd share here too. ( I can't find that I've already posted these....if I have, forgive my aged brain and bear with me!)

The entire crew....



DH and I. I LOVE this photo as getting DH to smile is like pulling teeth. This is as close as we've ever gotten!



DH can't do anything serious and he was squeezing the stuffing out of me! I do like how it made my waist look so small though!!!




Serena and her husband


Too bad they aren't in love huh?




Aviva and her (now) husband.



The photographer was awesome! She manages to catch moments. Doesn't this look like a Calvin Klein commercial?



Love this! The guys MUST appear tough and crusty!



DH loves his girls and they love him. This picture brought tears to my eyes.


If you are so bored out of your mind and have nothing better to do, we have 50 some odd shots from this photo shoot! Have at it!!!

Design wall Monday

edit********I always forget(URGHHH!) to tell everyone to hop on over to Judy's blog and check out all of the other design walls!!!!!

A little late but I'm here...

So my machine is going to the spa....for a minimum of one week. The tech said that they are running at 10 days however, I send my machine to Austin. I live almost 4 hours away. After Friday, I won't be able to pick it up for at least 3 weeks.....sigh....... Let's keep our fingers crossed he is able to finish it before I get there on Friday!


On the plus side of no machine, I have to work on other things. So...my goal of the summer is to get my fabric scraps

and drawers under control. No machine will allow me to do just that. I am working on the chuppah scraps I didn't finish. Next I'm going to attack the drawers of strips in sizes I'll never use. I'm going to take them down to the sizes I will use and then....USE them!

On a TOTALLY unrelated note....I think my heart rate monitor needs a new battery.....



or maybe I DO! LOL!!

UFO Challenge-a finish

I may not be quite on track, but I have finished one UFO for each month of this year!!! Here is my latest finish. It counts for May.



I began this last year for DH. I had found both Cleveland Cavalier and Cleveland Browns fabric. This one is finished just in time for basketball season to be over!! LOL!! Oh well. Hopefully, I will finish the football quilt that is identical to this one, only with the Browns, before football season begins!!!

Minkee Monday

I have had this unfinished quilt on the floor behind my sewing machine for weeks waiting for a binding......Ms. Minkee made herself a little nest!

Minkee Monday

I think it's funny how she finds that most obscure places to sleep!