Neither Sleet nor Rain nor Snow

It takes a lot more than a little storm to stop this family from having friends over for a fire. We all had a blast sitting out the storm by the fire. Yep those big white blobs are not a defect in the picture but snow flakes. Of course I really should have thought a little about the fact that maybe having a fire the night before a final at school is not one of my better ideas. The fire ended around 1:30 A.M. so I was able to get a couple of hours sleep and now I need to try to keep my eyes open so that I can get a couple of hours of studying. Hmmm maybe I should borrow our artist's thinking cap. It seems to be working for her.

I can just see how those antennas are bring more energy into the brain and really making it work extra hard. Then again the teacher may think that it is a little distracting for the rest of the class. Okay enough procrastinating I am really getting off the computer to go study!

Temptations Part 2

Just heard back from the quilt shop. Not only did they not get my money but there was another $900.00 floating out there that they never got. Turns out it was batched wrong with the credit card machine. The is a big chunk of profit for a little store. Money has now been deducted from my account and a lot of others.

I feel better and no Neen I did not get a discount.LOL

Temptations

Every year a group of friends and I go to a Quilt show in NH. One of our favorite vendors we have nick named Temptations. Well this time around they have really earned their name. It all started out with the most beautiful bundle of fabric above. It is the "Love Is" Line by Nancy Halverson. I just love all her fabric. Now this was the year I was suppose to be good so I didn't buy it but couldn't stop thinking about. I decided that if it was still there by the end of the day I would get it because it would be meant to be. Well good thing for me Melissa NH also fell in love with it and she bought it. Phew! or so I thought!

The owners said they had one more and would bring it in for me the next day. Wasn't that nice of them.NOT! So the next day I HAD to buy it. After all they brought it in especially for me.

I am a check book balancer and I balance my check book every week. I watched each day as all the purchases from that weekend left my account. I noticed that the beautiful fabric above never seemed to leave my account. Ahhh what to do what to do! I started wondering if maybe I used a different card but know it didn't show up on any of my accounts. I have to admit another temptation creeped in. Thinking well it is not my fault if they didn't remember to charge me. Hey I am only human and I think anyone would be tempted. Well I figured enough time has gone by and something had to have happened. I figured nope they are not gonna charge me for the fabric. I also knew that there was no way I could cut this fabric and enjoy sewing it knowing that a quilt vendor never got their money even if it wasn't my fault. I just got off the phone with them and they seemed shocked that I called to say hey are you gonna charge me. And I feel so much better knowing I made the call! And now I am gonna enjoy my gorgeous fabric.

Perfect Day

Some days just end up being perfect. This was one of those days. Of course it helps that it started by getting me my Christmas present. A little early but that is fine by me. WE loaded up the two cars and headed to Sanford where we dropped my van off to get a remote start put in. I really missed my old remote start that went with the old van. See all my nagging paid off and now I have a new one.

WE had to kill time while we waited for the car to be ready so we headed to Bonanza for some lunch then off to Walmart so the kids could get each other their Christmas presents. I take two and Jim takes one to shop then we keep switching off until they all picked out presents for each other.

Don't they looked excited to be shopping. The best part about this is that the kids didn't even fight the whole time! This is a rare treat.

After shopping found out they still needed another hour to finish the van so I decided that we should pick up wrapping paper at Mardens where it is cheaper than Walmarts. Had to pick up some fabric while I was there. I got 6 yards of pink backing fabric. 6 yards of peach with design backing fabric. These rest of the bolt of the yellow backing fabric. The other bolt was regular fabric just begging to be twilered. And then the other three cause I couldn't resist!

After that we went to the pet store. No we did not get anymore pets although the kids did ask for a rabbit. Picked up dog food and mouse food and fish food and hamster food. See we don't need anymore pets!

Picked up the van and came home! While I got dinner ready the kids and Dad cleaned the room above the garage and put up the tree. I went to visit Dad and dropped off some flowers my husband got for my mother.

Came back to help supervise the tree decorating.

While decorating the tree there was still no fighting with the kids! This was truly a great day. We have a nice rhythm. I had out the ornaments and Dad helps hang them.
See doesn't it look nice all decorated!

And the kids are off to bed. We woke up to find there is no school today because of a snow storm so we made 5 layers bars which are now cooling. I am gonna log off then go pick up some friend for the kids to play with then I am off to play in my sewing room. Gonna finish something on my design wall today!

I'm thinking it is time to finish the one on the left. I am considering hand quilting this one. It is a special quilt as my friend Cheryl designed this one. Hope everyone had a great day!

Tis the Season

The holiday season has begun. And with it all the family traditions. Thanksgiving was done a little different this year. After having a turkey at my husbands parents house I headed over to my cousins house. It was wonderful. Everyone brought something(I made two desserts) We had two different kinds of turkey and all just relaxed. Trust me we needed that. The night ended over my uncles house for my Grandmothers Birthday. It really was a nice relaxing Thanksgiving.

A new tradition for ther last three years had been that on Saturday we load up the kids and Jim's best friend and his wife. We drive to NH and get a hotel room then the next morning we spend the day at Santa's Village. Everyone had a blast but I froze my bottom off and caught a nice cold which I am now nursing and constantly giving my husband dirty looks for. He is trying to tell me you can't catch a cold from being outside all day in the cold shivering.

The good news to this is my shopping is all done and so is most of my wrapping. I am getting so good at shopping I even bought some people the same present twice.Opps At least I still had the receipt and can return them.

Hope everyone is well and happy!

Zippers Part 2

Once all of the layers are zippered on add your batting and basted. Then stretch your top over and bast. You are now loaded and ready to quilt.
And then every quilters favorite saying quilt as desired.

And now you have a quilted top. The best part if you run out of thread or want to work on something else all you have to do is unzip.

Happy Quilting

Dawn-Marie

Zippers Part 1

As the saying goes"There is more than one way to skin a cat" Okay that is kind of a gross saying but the point is this is the way that I have done my zippers. I know there are probably others ways but this is the way that works for me.

You will need three sets of zippers. Then separate the zippers. At this point you will only be using the section that hast the metal pull tab. This part of the zipper will be sewed directly on to the leaders. I just pinned them on and then used the machine that is attached to sew them. Make sure that the zippers going on the leaders for the backing fabric have the tabs in opposite ends. This way if you have a directional border you can up zip and turn the quilt around and rezipp. If the two zippers are going in the same direction you will not be able to do this.



After the zippers are sewn on re zip the other end. Mark the middle. Go by the markings that should already be on your leader strip. DO NOT fold the zippers in half and assume that is your halfway point because it will not be. Also on the backing fabrics mark a and b to coincide with the zippers on the frame. This will ensure that your top is centered. If you do not do this you might think something is wrong when everything is all zipped and does not line up. I also not if fabric is right side up or wrong side up.
Now pin your quilt top to the correct zippers. this is the best part. You can be sing this in your favorite chair. Watching your favorite movie or just hanging out with family. You will only pin one side of your top and both sides of your backing. Make sure to find your center of your fabric first then line up the center of the fabric to the center mark of the zipper. Start pinning from the center out. So this for all three zippers.

Now zipper to the leaders in the same order as you would have pinned them.