Weekend Doings

This was a very productive weekend for me! I finished my blocks in the Oh My Stars! swap that Nancy is running. The swap was to do a 12 1/2" Sawtooth star with a 6 1/2" block in the middle. The background is white Kona Cotton and the rest of the block is done in cool batiks. So, here are the 3 sets of blocks that I did for this swap! I can't wait to see what I get in return. Nancy always runs the best swaps! I need to press them, square them up and ship them off to Ms. Nancy.






Then I worked on my Red & White Snowball Challenge. I finished cutting and sewing all 480 hsts! I didn't do them the way that Evelyn Sloppy shows in her book, instead I used my Easy Angle ruler and cut them out of 2 1/2" strips. Tomorrow I will work on cutting the other sections of the snowballs and putting them together.

















And then finally, I chose my fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's Carolina Christmas Mystery Quilt. I decided not to do Christmas Colors for this quilt. Instead I found a gorgeous blue paisley (and I've never been known to resist a paisley fabric!!) that I plan to use for the border and pulled the colors from it. So, I ended up choosing a black background, a dark green, a light blue and a lime green. I usually am pretty good about choosing colors and I hope that this one will go together nicely. If not, then no one will ever see it!!!

















This year, instead of me cooking for 45 of my closest family members, I will be a guest at Shaw & Faith's for Thanksgiving dinner. I only have to bake a Pecan Pie, make Banana Pudding and a Grape Jello salad. These are favorites of my kids and I've been given the easy stuff to do this year. I'm really looking forward to not having to do all the cooking this year! I will also be baking my mom and dad a Pecan Pie and a Cherry Pie.

Tomorrow is another day and I'm off to bed!

Hugs,
Pati

Baby Shower

This past Saturday, we had a baby shower for my oldest daughter, Stephanie. It wasn't a surprise shower because Stephi does not like surprises. She has always been one of those kids who wants to know everything in advance! The suspense of a surprise just kills her! This is a picture of my two girls, Steph has the darker hair and Ashley is the blonde.

She is decorating Ayden's room in a safari theme because she loves Zebras! Of course, I made her a zebra cake for the shower.

Just 8 more weeks until my first grandson is expected to make his appearance! I can't wait!!

Red & White Snowball Challenge

Allyson at and Nicole at have come up with a way to use up red & white scraps that we all have hanging around!!! This is going to be a great quilt!!

Birthdays!

I thought I would share with you a little bit of what I've done the last couple of days. My oldest son, Shaw, turned 24 on the 22nd. Since his favorite candy is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, I made him a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing.


















And, my youngest daughter Ashley, turns 16 today. She wanted a vanilla cake and decorated in the Rastafarian colors of red, yellow and green.

















Two days it took me to make and decorate the cakes. I'm just tired now!!


Pati

Starting Over

I know its been a long time since I last blogged. I am going to try to do better now that my crazy life has calmed down a bit ~ well maybe it has!

My mom is doing great and is back home with my dad! Her stay at my house forever changed my relationship with her. We are now very close and talk every day.

We have downsized from a 6 bedroom/4 bath house to a 3 bedroom/2 bath house. Most of my quilting stuff is in the garage in plastic totes. There are 24 totes of my stash fabrics, 18 totes of UFO's, and 11 boxes of books. I did have all of the UFO's and books listed on a spreadsheet but then my laptop blew a motherboard and took the memory with it. Do you think I had it backed up on another source? Nooooooooooo.........

I've been quilting (or attempting to)......my oldest daughter is expecting my first grandchild in January. His name is going to be Ayden Jiovanni Chernes. I can't wait to meet him!!

I spent two weeks in NC in July/August taking care of Richard's mom who had knee replacement surgery. I was about 30 minutes away from Mary Jo's soooooo.........yes, I went on a side trip! For those of you who have never been to Mary Jo's, it is an experience! I even got to meet Mary Jo! She is a hoot!

I'm ready for some cooler weather here in Florida! The days of it being in the 90's are killing me! I feel like a vampire only going out at night.

I will leave you with a picture of the 2nd quilt that I've started for Ayden. The first one is on the sewing machine being sewn. I will show you that one after the stitching is done. I found this quilt in Fons and Porters Baby Quilts magazine. Stephi and JC fell in love with it so I made it for them.

Until next time! And I promise it won't be 7 months!!!

Long Overdue Update

Okay, I know it's been a while since I last wrote. I've been taking care of mom....and little else. She is coming along great! I expect that she will be moving back to her house in the next month. We have been to her house a couple of times and she has been able to maneuver the two steps up into her house. Her PT tells us not to do it, but she is so determined to be back in her house that she does it anyways!



We are moving again! When we bought this house 2 years ago, we needed this 6 bedroom/4 bath house because we had 4 young adult/teenagers at home. Now, we have 2 so there is no need for a 6 bedroom house anymore. So, we are downsizing to a 3 bedroom/2 bath. We are staying in the same general area so that the youngest doesn't have to change schools. Now, this means that I'm packing my studio. So far I have 24 totes of folded fabric, 7 totes of yarn (yes, I knit and crochet too), 9 totes of UFO's and I'm not done yet. The anal retentive part of me is making a list of all of the UFO's and in what tote they are located. I have tons of books and magazines that need to be packed and moved too. I am going through the magazines and if I see any patterns or articles that I want to keep, I'm removing them from the magazines and pitching the rest of the magazine. I'm also going through my books and making a spreadsheet of the books that I have. And I know that I have about 12 sewing machines.....I need to make a spreadsheet of those too.


I took pictures but for some reason my computer isn't recognizing the card from my digital camera today. And I don't have the patience to try to fix it right now.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night.....

Okay, so that was intended to be funny. That was a song by the Bay City Rollers from somewhere in my teenage years.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhdwvx_qcAg

I know, I never posted pictures of the Christmas decorations all up. Hmmm.....somehow, time just got away from me. I guess that happens when you are caring for a sick parent (or child). But, we did make it through Christmas and into 2009. Of course, I was catching as much sleep as possible during the mom's naps.

Speaking of mom, she is doing fabulous!! She is now walking across the room with the aid of a walker. I think she thought that she would never walk again (much less make it out of the hospital). Yesterday, I took her to Walmart to get her out of the house. We tooled around Walmart in her wheelchair. And no, she has not forgotten how to use her credit card! *Grin*

I've moved my sewing machine and some fabric down to the living room/dining room area so that I can sit down here and sew and be with mom at the same time. I've worked on a couple of projects. I made my mitten blocks for a swap that I'm in and they went off to the hostess, Nancy, near Philadelphia , yesterday. And I've been working on Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt, Double Delight. I'm way behind but I just printed off the patterns and I know what the end quilt looks like. I just didn't have time to sit and sew non-stop.

Many of you may remember that I lost my job back in June 2008 and haven't been able to find another one in my field. Well, this past Monday (the 12th), my husband lost his job of 15 years. Budget cuts......pretty soon the whole nation is going to come to a screeching halt because everyone will be unemployed. Not quite, but you get the idea. Now, I have a problem with health insurance. You see, my 19 year old son has ulcerative coloitis. This is a chronic disease which invades the colon and is manageable with medications. He takes 19 pills a day. Yes, you read that right. Most of his medications come in generic form except for Lialda. He takes 4 of those pills a day to the tune of $550 a month. Now, we could get the COBRA insurance, but it is $1,072 a month and then the medication will only be $543 for a three month supply. I've looked into the drug company giving him the medication, but there is a catch. They go off last year's income tax return. Well.....the last one that I have completed is 2007. I was single, worked full time and it looked like I made a lot of money that year. I haven't done 2008's yet because I haven't gotten all the documentation to complete it. And 2008 will look okay because my husband was also working. But now, it is 2009 and neither of us have a job. Do you see where this is going? I guess I need to just sit down and write a letter and include all of this to the drug company. Sorry about rambling, but this was on my mind tonight. Thanks for listening.

And enjoy your Saturday night!!!