Happy Halloween

Hope everyone has a Frightfully Happy Halloween.  Just came back from Houston yesterday. Had a great time and will start posting about the trip tomorrow.   

Great new book

I got my copy of this book on Friday night at Thimbles.  It is by our head thimble Pat Wys, I am so excited for her.  This is a great book, even if my friend did write it.  The projects in here are absolutely wonderful.  I have  made one, the White Chocolate Log Cabin, it was my very first thimble's project.  I have the kit for the quilt on the front, I think this might inspire me to get it made sometime soon.  One of the great things about this book is the fact that all of the quilts will go with any color scheme you happen to have.  They would also make great gifts.  But if you aren't into neutrals the patterns would be great made out of any color choice.  Check out Pat's blog, if you haven't already discovered it, you are missing out a great and hilarious read. 

Giveaway for favor

Yesterday I made a post about our fourth grade teachers who were trying to get post cards from as many places as possible to help teach geography to their students.  I have had several responses so far.  Thanks so much.  I decided that since I was asking for a favor I should give something in return. 

I have two books that I am offering.  One is The Civil War Sewing Circle by Kathleen Tracy and the other  is Reproduction Quilts from the Civil War Period.  If you send in a post card your name will go in once.  If you blog about this your name will go in not once, not twice, not three times, but four times.  The drawing will be on Friday, November 11, this will give your postcards plenty of time to get here.  Can't wait to see how  many postcards our students get. 

Favor to Ask of Quilting Friends

As most of you know I work in an elementary school.  This morning one of our fourth grade teachers was talking about a project they are working on and the poor response they have had to it.  Being a nosy media specialist I wanted to know what the project was in the  hopes that I could help out.  The teacher has posted a map of the US and a world map outside her classroom and is trying to get postcards from as many different places as possible to post alongside the maps.  This is a great way to get the students interested in geography.  So far she has very few postcards  and they are  from the eastern United States.  She only has one international postcard so far.  I told her that I was sure some blog readers would  be more than happy to help her out.  If you send in a post card your name will go into a drawing for a give away.  Don't know what yet, since I just came up with this.  Watch for info later on exactly what the give away is. 

Address to send the postcards to:

Casey Dunaj

2400 Ross Road

Snellville, GA 30039

Lets see how many we can get for them!!!

Beautiful Saturday

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day.  The leaves have started changing and falling, which means I was out there on Saturday raking leaves.  My goal this year is to stay ahead of them and not let them get too bad.  Luckily it didn't take too long to get them up.  After my yard work, I went in and made a huge pot of chili.  I never follow a recipe when making chili, so I never exactly how it will turn out.  I have to admit this was one of the best batches I have ever made.  DH loved it, he didn't even add additional hot sauce.  While the chili was simmering I went back to the Farmer's Wife.  I managed to get four blocks made.  I am really enjoying making these, now that I am doing the paper piecing. 

Contrary Wife, it was a contrary block, I made this one twice.

Bat Wing

Wrench

Friendship Star, this is my favorite from this week. 

More Farmer's Wife Blocks

 While off from work on Monday I was determined to catch up on my Farmer's Wife blocks.  (that didn't happen)  I came to the conclusion that those templates were a pain in the ****.  I remembered that when I got the book I also got the CD with the paper piecing foundation patterns, all I had to do was find it.  It took a while, (that is one reason I did some cleaning in my sewing room).  After finding the book, I had to figure out how to print the block patterns, that took awhile.  By the time I had done all of this I was to over it and didn't feel like making very many blocks.  I did get four made.   

Bow Tie

Big Dipper

Attic Window, I really like this one.

Box, yes that is the name of it, and I can see that I need to pick some threads off of it. 

What a great day!!

There was no school yesterday, most people thought because of Columbus Day, but it was really a furlough day.  I didn't care why there was no school, just really excited that I got to stay at home for the day.  My DH left on Sunday afternoon for Savannah and wasn't going to come back until Monday night, that meant that I had the house to myself for a the day.  I love my hubby and missed him a lot, but had a great day doing what I wanted.  I finished a book, Crunch Time by Diane Mott Davidson.  It was a part of her Goldy the caterer series, very entertaining.   I did some cleaning in my sewing room, sometimes I feel like I do more cleaning that sewing.  My friend Becky, over at the Quilting Booklady has inspired me to decorate.  I decided on a color scheme, red, yellow, and turquoise.  Not my usual colors except for red of course.  It will probably be after the holidays before I do anything, but I can plan and decide on a new layout. 

Then it was sewing time.  I had three pair of boxer shorts cut out for my hubby and I made all three pair yesterday.  Two were for Christmas, the ones from the money fabric were out for him when he came home.  They were a big hit.  Thanks to either Kristie or Becky for the fabric, I can't remember who gave it to me.  After sewing I decided to make a dinner that I normally wouldn't have time to make after coming home from school.  I made roasted chicken with potatoes, onions, and butternut squash.  We also had green beans and homemade bread.  The only thing missing was desert.  All in all it was a great day, now I am counting the days to Houston!!

Almost over

I have been so busy the last two weeks with our book fair at school that I haven't had time to do anything else.  I had just started not being exhausted when I got home, then book fair happened.  I go home every night and just crash.  DH even did laundry last night!!  Today is the last day, I start packing it all up to go away in a few hours, then hopefully I can get caught up on some other things that I desperately need to do.  I haven't even touched my  machine in the last week.  I have managed to do some handwork, counted cross stitch.  At one time counted cross stitch was "my thing", it was what I did to relax in the evenings (that was before I discovered applique and knitting). Years ago I decided to make everyone in my family a Christmas stocking.  I thought that I wouldn't have to make anymore, but alas I had to make one more.  I finished the name last night. This is the 20th stocking that I have made.  It still has to be turned into a stocking but that won't be hard to do.  I have to admit that I did not enjoy this one very much.  Probably because I was thinking about all of the applique that I wanted to do.