A bit of this and a bit of that

It's been a fragmented week, but I have been working on a few different projects. First of all I have been bustin stash for a fun quilt from Bunny Hill Designs "YoYoville".

I decided to adjust the quilt to fit my California King and quilt the center before adding the borders and sides. Another way to get more width that my 10 foot quilt frame hold.  I actually like this method. I used a quilt as you go on the borders, and was on a roll, making it happen, when don't ya know I was 1/3 of a yard short on my border fabric. A quick trip back to my fabric shop was in order. I do have it now, but haven't seemed to get back to putting that last border on, so I can have some fun building my houses and trees. Hopefully this weekend, that will happen.

Then "Chocolate" quilt. I am so enchanted with this fun pattern that I decided that I had to make another. Brown and turquoise kept running thru my mind, and since I am teaching that class in a couple of week, I figured I would start another, to use as a sample of how to put things together. So the shopping began, over the past weekend. My favorite part. I found just the fabrics I was looking for too, and only a few different stops. Can we say Ohhhh Ahhhh!!!  

Ruth and I have been busy making plans for this class and it promises to be quite fun. We have some great surprises that are going to happen during class, so you won't want to miss out. :-)  I say no more! hehehehe  Check out Wooden Spools if your in the Denver, area for our August/September class.

We are off to the Capitol today for the Capitol Quilt Show. I have never been, but hear that it's a must. So today, is the day we "must" go!  I am sure I will have so much inspiration when I get back, that I will need to add another 50 years on my life to finish all the quilts I want to make! Ain't it the way?  :-) But what a great vise to have, right?

Totem

Another PIG finish.  Yeah. It's been so blasted hot here that I took a day for myself and sat in an air conditioned shop and finished quilting my Totem quilt.  I love this quilt and really have no idea why it never was finished to begin with, but I am scratching it off my list of things to do once and for all!  :-)

Lisa Moore is the creator of this wonderful pattern. I just love all her things. http://www.quiltswithatwist.com/ is where you can find her delicious patterns, and she's having an internet special right now.  Buy 3 get one free. Can't beat a deal like that now can we. I am making my list!

Still waiting to hear from the insurance adjuster, but my agent has called 3 times today. Hopefully that will lead to something. I do have phones now and the electrician replaced a bad outlet outside and checked over things and seems to think all is well. The furnace guy was here today too, and got my air conditioning back up and running. Hallelujah, my armpits are happy now! Did you know there are mother boards on furnaces too????  Now I sit  watching it rain and hail, thunder and lightening again. Sure after I watered the lawn... I kringe every time the lightening flashes. That monster of a TV antenna needs to come down, so I am not a target again!

My desktop computer is fried, and the surge protector was begging to be put out of its misery. But the good news is, I am pretty sure that is about all the damage. I should have TV back on Friday. Thank goodness for DVR. I am catching up on my old quilt shows, on it.

Update

Just a quick note to let you know that I am here and all is well, but our home was hit by lightening on Tuesday night. No visible damage, but phone, Internet, TV, etc are all out. We are finding things as we go, that are also not working. A TVand a phone were immediate victims. It looks like it might have hit the TV antenna and satellite dish and traveled into the house. The explosion was something else. I jumped about 10 foot off the ground.

It was quite the light show. There were so many lightening strikes that the sky was lit up for about 35 minutes. The lightening was hitting the ground and everything on it, and flashing back up with bright blue light light. I guess I should have been more scared than I was, but I was so captivated by what I was seeing, I could stop watching. Until of course I was the target!  :-) There were thousands of strikes every minute. Mother Nature!!! She was really mad!

We've added the microwave to our DOD (dead on demand) list along with the air conditioning. :-(  I am trying to go thru the house and test out everything  right now. But I am very happy to report that none of my sewing machines were plugged in at the time!  Yeah...

Farmers Insurance has been a big let down. They can't seem to find an adjuster to come out for at least 10 days. Really??? I am so glad my house didn't burn down and we were sitting in the ashes waiting for them. We have replaced a breaker already to get power back on to everything, but I am not comfortable with there not being hidden problems. We are taking matters into our own hands and getting workmen out to inspect things since Farmers can't seem to help us. I don't want to risk a fire while they figure out how to get someone out here, to start the process.  And yes my bills are paid on time. For 30 years now with only 1 claim for theft of a roto-tiller, 29 years ago  :-)  God love insurance companies.

Hope anyone else effected is OK and getting better service than I am right now!

:-)

I have been very bad today

And I don't even know how or why, it just happened.  I went to breakfast with my quilt partner in crime, then we went to UFO day, to work on our oldie moldie projects. I was sewing my little heart out until it was time to leave. I go up to the register to pay for class, and that's when IT happened. I walk past the "near new" machines the shop has taken on trades, and WHAM this machine hits me, puts itself on my credit card and jumps into the back seat of my car!!!!!!!   HOW???? Why???

?Oh yeah, I remember why, I am a Disney freak, and my old Disney machine is so outdated, that they don't make software for it anymore. Of course I did just find that out last Friday. I don't need to tell you that I haven't slept since, with the anxiety over it all!!   So... when I saw this baby, it was mine, all mine!!  And it is after all, my birthday in a couple of week. I just pre-purchased my gift right?

Now, I'm on the other side of town, and it's 4:45pm. Mr Moosestash gets home about 6pm. Please don't let there be any traffic tonight. I need to get this home and set up in it's place, so I can say... What are you talking about it's been there for years!  You know they are never really sure if your right or not, and they don't want to look too stupid, so they nod and grin. Works every time!

Traffic was great, I pull in the drive at 5:15. Actually that's amazing time for this city. All is well, his shop doors are closed. I beat him home. I open the garage door, and YIKES, he is home early and working on a car in the garage!! Oh great. But I saved myself, because he wanted me to buy him a mosquito repellent thing that clips to your belt, and I found it today. He was so captivated with his little plastic bug tormentor, that he never paid any attention to my hauling the machine, or it's big ole box with the embroidery attachments in the house. :-)  Oh yeah, I win again!!

I was scrolling thru the screens and found this great "7 Dwarfs" design. It's going to have to be the first that I stitch out. I love the dwarfs. Dopey is my favorite.

It was a stellar shopping day. I was finally able to get my hands of a copy of Handmade. It's an Australian magazine, and it finally made it's way across the Pacific. The great pink and white snowball quilt is my blogging buddy Karens, over at SunburntQuilts. She blogged about it months ago, and I have looked for the magazine ever since. It has Mothers day projects on the front, if that give you an idea of how long it took to get to the states!  :-)  Anyway, Karen I got my very own copy now, and I am enjoying it. I also have bragging rights and can tell everyone, I blog with the gal who...   :-)

                                                                          JoAnn's fabrics has their 50% coupons this week, and I found this fun book. It's all mini quilts. I can't wait to get some time to make up some of these.

Last buy not least, Art to Heart. Nancy Halvorsen always does a fantastic job with her projects. I just have to have a fire place screen this Christmas. It is July and what better time to start that project.

Now, what to do first. Decisions, decisions!

Heavenly Chocolate Bliss

Melts in your heart not in your hands!  Yep that's my new catch phrase for this little guy! No pun intended of course.

If Hershey's is one of your favorites, or Dove, or Nestles, etc... THIS is the quilt for you. And it promises, to not put one bit on your hips, unless of course you sit under it and just eat chocolate forever, which is actually not a bad idea!  :-)

My friend Ruth and I saw a special exhibit of these quilts at HMQS in Salt Lake City and just went crazy over it. We later found the designer, Angie Oswald and immediately bought patterns from her. Angie designed this for her quilt guild. Now that's a guild I want to be a part of. Is this just too much fun?

There are so many different parts to this, that you just have to see. Specialty fabrics can really change the look of this quilt. There were probably 20 quilts at the HMQS display and every one looked completely different.

It's a great place to bring on the bling too. I love ric-rac, ribbon, buttons, and even baby pom-poms for the marshmallows in the hot chocolate. Anything goes with this baby!

Fusible applique, pieced blocks, just a delicious assortment of construction methods. It's a great way to practice on a little bit of everything. Sorry paper piecers, they left you out on this one:-(

Leftover silver, ironing board cover cloth makes a

 great pie pan. Silver lame is perfect for the candy wrappers.

Don't you know, that I bought every specialty fabric that I thought might work for this quilt. I haven't even began to touch them all. Looks like a Choco Bliss 2 might have to go up on the drawing board.  :-)

So there you have it Chocolate lovers. You can contact Angie for a copy of her wonderful pattern at dandaoswald@hotmail.com  

OR

If your in the Denver area, my friend Ruth and I will be teaching a 4 week class, at Wooden Spools on South Broadway in Englewood, Aug 16, 23, 30 and Sept 6th from

 1-4pm. We promise to amuse and abuse everyone - equally of course!!   hehehe

You'll be sure, to have a rip roaring good time in this class.  My guess is, that there will be a little chocolate tasting as we go, too :-)

Are you tempted yet...

Hope to see you there!!