Will Work for Fabric

the Power of 10

There's days that the arguing or video game talk of the 10 year olds and their friends drives me to close the office doors to drown out the noise....but today, the office doors are open and I took extra special pleasure at the listening....

Twin #1:  hey you broke my sword!!!
Twin #2:  don't be a jerk....Mom can fix it!
Neighbor boy:  I broke my shield, could your Mom fix it?
Twin #2:  duh!....she fixes all our weapons

Some days you just have to put down the work and put on your WonderWoman cape .....even if it's just to wrap electrical tape around a sword.

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

No More teasing....

The little basket from last post was actually a extra block from my new pattern, Cherry Baskets.   And now from the shameless self-promotion department:  here's more of the baskets.....

and here's the quilt...

Thanks to Holly for the beautiful fabric from the new Cherry Baby collection and for the perfect pink ricrac and thanks to Barbie for the beautiful quilting (You Rock!)

Hopefully, you will see this pattern soon in your LQS,  or you can contact me directly through my email link.

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

Thanks!

To all those who sent me kind words about my most unkind spider adventure and those special people who lent a helping hand and a sympathetic ear over the last few days.....

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

Smart Friends

Thank goodness, my friends are much smarter than me! 

We had emergency doctor visit drama this weekend.  As it ends up, my idyllic quiet weekend in the Adirondacks the previous weekend, left me with a lingering effect.  I was bit by a brown recluse spider on the back of my leg.  Unfortunately, I did not find this out until late Thursday when I felt this pain in my leg.  By Saturday morning, it was severely infected, enlarged and generally gross.  So off I went to the emergency weekend dr place and didn't hear much after "I'll need a number eleven blade".  Three hours later,  he sent me home with maximum antibotics, prednisone and vicodin. ( how's that for a cocktail???)

So while I stayed in bed and perfected my moaning skills, my dear friends Sister Mary Awful, Barbie Van Wonderful and Kathie have come to my rescue.   Knowing my Market deadline and my quilt in a state of non-quiltedness, they teamed up to arrange to transport my quilt, get my quilt quilted and get it back to me all in time to get it to Houston in time for the "Really Big Shoe".  They knew, better than I, in my medicated state that I should not be operating heavy machinery, the car or the sewing machine (aw, and I can going to backhoe this weekend.)

Like so many of you, I have this bad habit of not ever wanting to ask for help.  And now all I can say, is  thank goodness these friends were smart enough to know what I needed and the smarts to not let me get away with turning them down, my life has definitely been changed for the better and for good because of them.

So absolutely, positively, no quilting was done this weekend.  But I did hear that my little friend received her tumbler quilt and it was now keeping her little ones warm.

Tomorrow, its back to work....slowly...

Hugs and stitches!

Megan

The Racheal Report

I've been feeling like we eat the same thing over and over again for dinner....the kids have started to call it "The Rotation"----we're officially in a rut!

So I bought the Rachael Ray book

and now I'm doing my own version of Julie and Julia.

So here's this week's Rachael Report: 

    #108 - Park City Cashew Chicken:  really easy, a little sweet for me, but still high on the yummy scale.

    #288 - Lime and Honey Glazed Salmon with Warm Black Bean Salad:  fast and ingredients that were easy to find in my little local Foodtown.

What I love about this book so far is that with most of these recipes, just add a green salad and you've got the meal.  And really, they are taking about 1/2 hour.  Some of the shopping is challenge, but I go to the supermarket with a couple of the different recipes in mind....just in case I could not get some of the ingredients.

Want to join me in the journey?   I'm challenging myself to make 2 new dishes a week....with picky eaters in the house, changing too much of "The Rotation" might be too much of a shock for their little systems. 

Please leave me a comment if you've made anything from this book, I'd love to hear what recipes worked and what maybe wasn't so wonderful.

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

P.S.  I promise back to quilty things in the next post, can't wait to show you what I've been working on!

Check!

Do you ever feel like the To Do List is a monster that needs to be tamed?

This weekend, I tossed the To Do List aside....the weather was a crisp 33 degrees when we woke up in the Adirondacks, the leaves are turning, there were no soccer games or volunteer events and the only family commitment was to put food on the table.  So I spent the day in front of the fire working on some Not Quite Finished projects, all hand work so as to not disturb the Indiana Jones Film Festival going on. 

One project now in the Finished column....the Little Tumbler. 

All hand quilted and bound and ready to go to a little friend who just celebrated a birthday.  Since a lady never reveals her age, I will just say, she is safely in the single digits.

Note to self:  add item to the To Do List....get out the thimble and remember the simple pleasure of hand-quilting---Check!

Will need to schedule this again.....

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

No mincing words!

Don't you just love Marsha McCloskey?  Here's a woman you obviously can trust to tell it to you straight---no mincing words for her:

I just love this sub-title!

It's a rainy, icky day out so I'm going to work on my piecing skills and this seems like a good project to do it on.  No particular quilt in mind...who knows what will happen after one "really hard block".

So wish me luck....I'm going in!

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

Pink,Pink and more Pink

Are you thinking pink this month?   In case you've been off visiting another planet and did not know, this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I'm changing my side color in honor of all those people who work hard to remind us this month.

I have 3 sisters, and it scares me that one of us could be struck with this disease in our lifetime.  But mammograms help and research and new drugs are changing the face of this every day.  So I am making a little reminder for each of my sisters to go out and get the ladies squished....

(fabric courtesy of the LakeHouse leftover basket)...the quilts a mere 14 inches....so not a shout but a gentle reminder from someone who loves them.

Did you get squished this year?

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

Quilts and Kids

There are moments with my kids that are sheer joy and they are completely unaware....

Last weekend, we started our Saturday with the soccer game.  What's better than a bright fall morning at the soccer field with kids running around (instead of me) ?

Twin #2 had played goalie for the first quarter and thank God, no goals were scored on him.  As they are getting their water bottles, #1 says to #2 "you know, you're really good at goalie!"   OMG, I'm raising kind, considerate people!  Sheer Joy for Mom!  Of course 2 minutes later their kicking each other instead of the ball....but a moment of joy leaves a lasting effect.

It was Quilt Show weekend as well,  so let me show you two of my fav's---thanks to Carol and MaryEllen, the makers of these quilts...

I guess my infatuation with red is not dying down....

There were so many wonderful quilts(too many to post here), and energetic people running the show, I went home thinking...what am I going to do for the next show?  Quilt shows are always give me a new burst of energy...how about you?

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

The Spending Report

OK, so my checkbook got a little work-out at the show this weekend....but it was for the good of the guild, right?

At the boutique (selling donations by very talented guild members) I picked up some needlecases made by Barbie VanWonderful....they are as adorable as she is!

And a guild member brought a box of old quilt books.  I think my repro friends (they are not reproduction friends....they're the real thing!) were channeling, because I found myself buying these books.  One is a gift for a friend so I can "channel it forward".

The repro friends then directed me to the "Repro-Man" and I picked up these fq bundles.  Since I've not plunged into the pool yet, buying more than fq's feels like too much of a commitment.

But aren't they delicious ?

But there's not much time for working on repro stuff now and besides, how can I get anything done with these two on my machine????

Guess this one will go in the wash as soon as the binding is on....

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan