Mug Rug #1

I know that the is a pretty big hint of how the mug rug is going to look; but the person that I am making it for has no clue that it is for her. I started planning it last night, then immediately began going through my gold and yellow scraps (thank God for scraps!). Then I got to sewing. I am so anal-retentive that I can only do these English paper-piece method. I will never do them another way. I also started planning the second one since we are supposed to make two of them to exchange. I might start cutting fabric for that one tonight.

Speaking of tonight; it's our neighborhood ladies night, and boy is it going to be good. I am bringing my camera so watch for pictures of a bang-up time!

Oh, and my car is totaled.

New Year's Resolutions (a month late)

Missing Posts Means:

I really, really love my fabric transportation device. I have had it for about 2 months so far, and cannot express my happiness enough. I can even fit kids in there....and a Starbucks.

BUT:




I am sad now because I have a very sore neck and this:





I can't say for sure, but I am pretty confident that the 20 something year old gal that plowed into my front driver's side wheel was texting as she flew through her light. I have many pet peeves in the driving world but the two that top my list are people who follow too close and people that text (or talk on their cell) while driving. I swear if my neck didn't hurt so bad when she casually walked up to my window to ask me '' are you alright?'', I would have taken the phone out of her hand (yes, she still had it) and bounced it as hard as I could off of her forehead.

I went to the hospital on a back board as a precaution. All of the x-rays and scans done say that I ''only'' have a torn neck muscle, and worst case, some disc movement. (O.K., I am not complaining too much here, I know it could have been a whole lot worse.) Both of the kids were with me and didn't even suffer a bruise. (Thank the Lord!) The firemen that took them out were very happy with my seat belt skills on the kiddos, and quite honestly, so was I.

At least I was provided with a decent rental. One that can hold a crap-load of fabric...and two kids. The unlimited mileage says ''Paducah!, I have yet to visit you. Let me call ahead with my credit card numbers.''

I am now going to look forward to posting about happy things like mug rug exchanges, projects to get done, and rainbows.

McKenna is 1! (almost)

Here is a picture of McKenna before she was born.

I am so sorry, I had to stop typing because I just made myself laugh tears there. Obviously, I am kidding; although this is exactly how I pictured the situation when she was due.

Man, I cannot believe that she is going to be ONE on Wednesday. I must have gone into a coma of momdom in that time because it feels like it was just last week when she busted out. A mommy coma; by the way is where you are alive, breathing, walking, doing the dishes and laundry, but you are in such a state of exhaustion that you remember nothing for long stretches of time. I am quite sure that God does this so that we block out the times when children come running to you with dog poop sculptures, zhu-zhu pet-stuck-in-the-hair, or permanent ''art'' on your Ethan Allen furniture. It is very much like a severe car accident, only we don't get to escape to the hospital.

For the first few months of her crawling stage; I was rushing around taking things away from her before she could stick it inside her mouth. Then, after doing (I don't know how many) finger swipes in her mouth, I realized that she had her own little ecosystem in there. I figured if the Halloween candy that she found hiding since 1977 was able to make it past the lint covered cheerios, a sky blue Crayola chunk, and chewed up receipt from Target that she was harboring in her cheeks for a week, well, that little buddy deserved to be in someone's tummy. You go, you little fuzzy M & M!

Now she is walking. Dear Lord. I am going to run around the house and put up all of the breakable ''nice'' things and redecorate in the Weeble Wobble theme with touches of Lego. I will fill my (now empty) wine rack with stuffed animals. I will tear out the first page of each of my cookbooks just to beat her to it. I will write ''don't write here'' on all of my walls. I will pull all of the toilet paper off of each roll then re-roll them to much better crumpled up roundish kind of rolls that are too big to fit on the bar. I will dust my carpets with plant dirt. I will cut chunks out of the curtains, but only the ones that are not hidden behind large pieces of furniture. I will do all of this because I know it is coming anyway, and I want her to think that she learned all of this from somebody. Maybe then she can finger swipe my mouth, because I think that I found a perfectly good rum ball in the closet from Christmas.

Why do you have quilt ALL the time?

Has anyone here ever been given the guilt-trip for doing your quilting while watching TV? In one of my former lives, when I was young enough to get up from the couch fast enough to answer the phone, I was in a relationship with someone who would get pissed-off if I happened to be hand quilting during a movie. And now, I am old enough, maybe a little crazy over the situation(s), and have a blank page of blogland begging for the attention, to finally defend myself.

WTF. Please explain to me, because maybe I just don't understand, why it is so terrible that I am actually enjoying myself while watching TV? Why are the people who get irritated by this doing absolutely nothing except melting their brain in front of the tube? Is this right? Seriously, think about this. What is wrong with this picture?

Boy, you had better hope that I have something constructive in my itchy hands to keep them busy, because I swear, the next time that someone EVER tries to make me feel guilty about my hobby, I am going to throw them into my trunk with a shovel, plastic bag, and duct tape. Granted, I will probably be butt-tired at that point; and instead of doing something 'drastic', I will just leave them in there for a little while. Give them a few minutes in there to think the situation over. I guarantee that if you do this one step, your honey will let you move the long arm into the living room plus hand over the remote. Let us not forget, ladies, about the whole ''Hell, fury, and woman scorned'' bit. NOTHING makes a man see the light more than a crazy person with sharp tools.

These days, I am very blessed to be married to a man who understands the fragility of my mind; and he is blessed to be married to a woman who loves to watch him play Black Ops on his X Box 360. Tea anyone?

New BOM; and it's FREE to boot!

Molly is one of the Wacky Pack gals that are famous all over the state of Texas (and various other states in the collection of 50). Famous for being the craziest women on the loose with rotary cutters. I am proud and honored to call them friends. You are not allowed to hang out with these girls unless you carry enough money for a weeks worth of fabric and/or bail money.
I still pee like a puppy, so I just bask in their aura.

Anyway! Molly has designed yet another Block of the month called Boot Bash that you are welcome and encouraged to join featuring cowboy boots with each months individual theme. This woman is amazing because she does all of this and cooks too. She is like the Pioneer Woman with a branding iron.



I am really diggin' the January block already, and thinking that I have some great scraps to put together for this one. Maybe I will put together a kit! Go check out her blog, and tell her I sent you. (not that I get any fancy gifts for it, but she would like to know that I am still breathing!)

talk to ya'll soon!

Quilting with Beer Goggles

I have been putting off making this sample simply because I like to ''let it all out'' when I work on applique on a grand scale. I need room to breathe. I need to use a large design wall. I need paper plates. I need to start and finish in one day. I need to give my children away to family members for the weekend. I need a seam ripper.

It is simply amazing what one can accomplish with a seam ripper and beer. I am completely serious. I love the sound of an ice cold can being cracked open and slipped into a quilters beer coozie. My first gulp is by far the most satisfying. Once that is taken care of, little else matters.

I have heard of the mandatory glass of wine to start out your sewing adventure; and I am with you there as well, sister; so go on and choose your poison. As long as you kick back and relax, you can have fun with your project. Quilting with beer goggles helps you choose fabrics that you wouldn't buy on a 75 percent off sale table in the best of quilt shops. You are likely to drop a few stitches without a care in the world. Friends will smother you with compliments on your quilting expertise as you hold your pattern upside down (which is kind of like a map anyway, you understand). You will lose and find, lose and find that needle with your hands, feet, and rear end and feel no pain. You are a goddess. You also have a collection of seam rippers that go beyond the norm, so that when you 'come to' in the morning to that quilt, you can rip it all out again, baby. Because now that you have done this whole thing intoxicated, It should be a walk in the park sober.

Sure your friends will snicker ''Oh, my gosh! Do you even remember what you did last night? You were out of control! You did a reverse applique Baltimore album block with double-knit polyester!'' (which is totally amazing since that was not one of the U.F.O.'s that you brought with you, that you probably actually have)

So, the sample got done. I didn't have to do it intoxicated, just buzzed. That way I could tell you the next day that it's name is Sugar Pop.

Retreat! Retreat!

I am very happy to report (4 months later) that the tulip blocks that I was so stressed out over paid off. The quilt shop's entry in the shop hop received 1st place. I like this because it was chosen by the viewers. If it had been judged, well, we would have had to actually make it flawless. Thank goodness for normal, every-day, wonderful, beautiful, people of quilting.

Now the only thing that I have to stress about is getting my applique class together. I am teaching on the 29th on machine and hand applique. All in one class. My problem is narrowing down all of the information to make it beginner/basic so that I can fit it all into one day. I wish it were the other way around. I wish that I had to try to come up with stuff to fill the hours. Wouldn't it be nice to go home from a class with the newly acquired knowledge of how to use fusible web AND make the perfect Mexican Martini? Or you could learn Texas Hold 'em in a Stack and Whack class. This all kind of makes me wonder what really happens on those quilting cruises.....

Speaking of vacations of sewing bliss, I just completed a quilt retreat weekend at Emilie's Quilt Haus in Stonewall, TX. It. Was. Wonderful. Kay Huffman is the owner/operator along with her husband, Jack. They were fabulous hosts. They also let us see the inside of the one room log cabin that her grandmother was born in. If you don't feel Texan after going there, you might as well give up on the idea all together and leave the state.


Don't you just love the lighting? I had a great view of the Texas hill country. Laughing. Drinking. Sewing. My favorite part was that I didn't have to get up once in the middle of the night to make a bottle or change a diaper.