Megan's Blog

Most Delicious Day

Oooo, we had the most delicious day in "the city" and yes, I admit, the trip was a celebration of the Feast of the Most Precious. 

The Feast became the Feast because someone (my father used to say "I won't say who, I'll just look at  them and whistle") forgot my birthday a few times in our early married days.  So I wrote  "14 more shopping days til the Feast of the Most Precious" on the calendar two weeks before my birthday.  It started out as a gentle joking reminder that he should not forget the day and just kinda stuck.  So the proclamation went out "from this day forward.....The Feast of the Most Precious will be celebrated with gifts and merriment and Lemon Meriginue pie" and yesterday was definitely merriment.

We visited City Quilter and ran into a fellow guild member.  It was so nice to be in a bustling store, people buying, chatting, getting inspired.  I picked up these adorable pinks and a few additions to the Lollipop pile.

In our travels we saw this church

Clearly a quilter had her hand in the windows

And I was so inspired by Tracey
that I bought these to use for a sewing room slipcover at Purl Patchwork.

and then we went in search of cupcakes and found our way to Billy's

And while we sat outside eating our goodies we spotted a celeb with his kids. 

New fabric, friends on a bench, lemonade and moonpies made with oatmeal raisin cookies and Ethan Hawke.....a most delicious day.

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

A REALLY Good Quilty Day

Yesterday was a very good day in the quilting department!

I spent the better part of the daylight hours with Sister Mary Awful, Barbie VanWonderful and Alicia, the Bell of the Ball, working on the guilds friendship quilt. 

The block this year is a house block.  We encouraged members to add their own touch by adding curtains, greenery, etc.  and they all did a great job with the blocks.....and they all measured up the the correct size too!

I can't help but to feel like a day like yesterday is what the friendship quilt is all about.....a day of laughter, friendship, food, and a dash of good-hearted abuse.  In 5 hours we were able to piece together the whole quilt top!  Here's just a little sneak preview....but GSQ members, stay tuned to the Strawberry Supper, all will be revealed.

So I came home, took a 15 minute power nap ( cause those ladies are exhausting!!!), fed the kids, screamed about homework and then the Dear Jane ladies came over for our little sewing bee.

Last night we handpieced using the freezer paper templates printed from EQ.  I use the C. Jenkins 8-1/2" x 11" sheets right in my inkjet printer.  It saves you all the marking of the lines and checking as you are sewing, you can feel if you are sewing along the seam line cause you'll hit paper if you are off.   You should have some of this in your bag of tricks....

So while the DJ'ers were here I finished one block and then another after they left.

Don't you just love the top one!  I might have to make a whole quilt with this block (Thanks Lori for the color inspiration!)

So a quilt top done and 2 DJ blocks....that's a good day in my little world of madness.

Hope you have a great quilty day....

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

Saturday Sewing

Despite the buckets of rain coming down on Saturday, I made my way up to sew with the Firehouse ladies, and very glad I did.  It's always so much fun to see everyone's projects, catch up on the news, and maybe squeeze in a little sewing. 

After I got the binding on a newly quilted class sample, I set out to work on a CW block.  Caryn and Mary were working on theirs as well, so I as in good company.  It took me nearly an hour to finish the blue and white one, Sadness and Silence.

ok, maybe there was a little chatting along the way, but I cannot be expected to just sit and sew!

I paper-pieced a few of these....and here's a few things I've learned/remembered about paper-piecing:

        -  it's worth the investment into come foundation paper.  I used Carol Doaks Foundation paper and I really like it.

        -  if you are going to take the paper off before you sew the blocks together, be very careful pressing.  The blocks can get a little distorted and grow if you steam and run the iron over the block too much.  Just place the iron on the block, no steam!

       -  before you print the blocks on EQ, really take a look at how they suggest grouping the pieces.  I found sometimes I re-group them for my own ease of piecing.  Also, always do the print preview so that you don't have units spanning over 2 pages.

So it was a very productive weekend in large part because it was Father/Son weekend in the Adirondacks.  DH went with the twins, 2 of their friends and their friend's dads.  The twins quick report on the weekend.....the kids had fun and there were alot of beer bottles in the recycling.  Oh well, to each their own vice/form of entertainment.

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

Friends and Food

Oooo, such fun yesterday and today.  Yesterday Sister Mary and the Applique Novices came over for their first applique lesson.  But even with alot of gum-flapping, lallygagging and loud-laughing, alot of prep work was done, and next lesson they will be able to start sewing.

We had a yummy lunch of Cheeseburger Pie and salad and the pie was such a hit that I thought I'd share the recipe.....I'd love to give credit to whoever invented this, but it's been in my handwritten book of recipes for at least 10 years.

Cheeseburger Pie
1 8-inch uncooked pie crust
Filling:
1 lb ground beef, cooked
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 c bread crumbs
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1/4 c chopped onion
1/4 c chopped green pepper

Mix the filling and put into pie crust.

Topping:
1 egg
1/4 c milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cups cheddar cheese

Mix all the topping ingredients together and spread over filling.
Put foil around the edge of the pie crust so it doesn't get too brown.

Bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees.

Better make 2, it goes fast!

And today Kathie and I went out to PA to do our part to stimulate the economy----how patriotic are we!!!
We showed restraint ( Kathie more than me) but sometimes a fabric just calls for no particular reason, sometimes the line is busy and sometimes we take the call.

I bought this little ditty----please don't ask me what I'm going to do with it, I just thought it was quirky and fun.

Don't these girls just make you happy??

Hope you find something that makes you happy this holiday weekend....

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

Girls just want to have fun!

Yahoo!!  I'm having one of those days....it's noon and all the "must do today" tasks are done and dinner is in the crock-pot so the afternoon is freed up for time in the "studio" (we used to call it the dining room, but things change quick around here).  Ok, so there's dishes in the sink and a load of laundry that needs addressing but a girl's just gotta have fun sometimes.

but before the machine goes on, I wanted to share with you a little gift from my dear Sister Mary Awful..

in January, there's a picture a snow-ball throwing nun with a caption that reads "hell hath no flurry"----
honestly, don't you wish you had that job, thinking up nun puns all day ?

Well, thanks to SMA for the calendar, it will be a year of laughs!

Little update:  for those who asked, the calendar is available on Amazon

And look.....this is my 99th post!  What did I say in all those posts?  did I blather?  did you laugh? did you cry?  Seems like alot of posts, but it happened in the blink of an eye!

So to celebrate #100, I am going to post a free pattern tomorrow for Version 3.0 of my needlecase. 


hmmm....a little rac-rac being used? 

                                                              ....stay tuned for the free pattern!

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

Fabric Shopping as a Team Sport

Yesterday was the Big Game of Fabric Shopping for us.  Our wayward friend from across the pond flew in on Monday and we whisked her away to Lancaster PA for a day of catching up, shopping, eating, laughing and taking a break from the holiday madness.  And taking it all in, I realized that fabric shopping is alot more fun as a team sport. 

So we had the pre-game work: 

• examine the stash----what am I shopping for?
• determine which stores can we hit and make it home in time for dinner
• prepare snack basket for mid-game energy boost (sure the others made fun of me for bringing        along the snack basket, but they both "hit the basket" during the day)

and then the Big Game----get the kids on the bus and off we go and 2 hours later we arrive at our first stop---Sauders.

OMG, all budget and stash strategies go out the window momentarily, oxygen administered where needed, and we dive in....."
        "I need some of this"
            "what will I do with this"
                    "this is a great border fabric"
                        "there's a discount if you buy the rest of the bolt"
and then the cutting table where the cheerleading begins.  We stand at the cutting table and as each bolt is cut, we gaze upon each other's selection and say "I'll take a piece of that" or "take the whole bolt, you'll use it for backs and borders".

and it takes practically no effort to convince each other that we really NEED to have all this.

And we cheer as we watch the "scoreboard" and hand over the credit cards.
 

Back to the car to the next stop --Burkholders--where our team grew to include other shoppers.. and they joined in the "I'll take a piece of that" play and some directed us to a great re-fueling spot.

By now, the clock is our enemy so we decide to have a post-game meal and head home, where we find our cheerleading friends from Burkholders finishing their meal.

We arrived home victorious, exhausted and with that new fabric buzz. 

But the best part of the day was just being part of the team.

Hope you have a team to shop with....

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan

What are they teaching in school?

I took the kids out for White Hot Chocolate at "the D's" (as they call Dunkin Donuts).  On the way home, all sugared up, they started to call each other names.  Trying to stay true to my "call me if there's blood" mantra, I remained silent.  This goes on for a bit and continues to get louder til Twin # 2 finally says "I'm a strong person, you can't hurt me emotionally", to which Twin # 1 responds "then how about this?" and slugs him in the arm. 

Well, I guess the touchy-feeling teaching only goes so far.....a case of nature vs nurture?

Anywho....the Amazing Jeanne from Cover Me Quilts finished my tumbler quilt and it is gorgeous!  She did an allover in variegated beige thread.

Don't you just love the feel of a freshly quilted quilt?

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

What's that noise?

Before I left for Colorado, my dear friend Sister Mary Awful, sent me a little card...

The inside says....that's why they're praying!  what do you think she means by that? 

Well, thank goodness for friends like her to watch over me. She was kind enough to make the trip to PA while I was in CO to get our machines serviced.  Even though I have only had my Bernina 440 for about 8 months, I put alot of miles on it, so I figured, she needed some TLC.

And let me just tell you WOW!  what a difference!

Now that purring in the sewing room is not just the kitties but my tuned, oiled, cleaned machine.  And I have to admit, with it running so smoothly, I feel like purring too!

So take my advice and get your machine professionally tuned-up, you'll miss it for a few days, but then maybe you'd get some of that handwork done!

Hugs and Stitches!

Megan