Hide and seek....

I'm on a business trip with my husband...or I should clarify--he's on business and I tagged along to have fun! I really wished I had "Niles" (who was the one who had that? PCM? I know it was with Nancy for a while) to show my adventures. I thought and thought before I left about what I should take to photograph along the way and of course, I thought of something as soon as I arrived here! Oh well, next time. Anyway, I have internet connection this week, so better post things while I can. I'm not sure about the next couple of weeks what we'll have.

So, where am I? I thought I'd leave a couple of clues....Yes those are penguins! :)

Hint...it's warm! :) bet you couldn't tell...

I did bring some handsewing, will put pictures in the next post...along with more clues...

*********Gratitudes*********************

1. having a husband that likes me to travel with him, even though he has to work and I get to rest!

2. blue skies, warm sun on my face at this time of year

3. new grandbabies! (I forgot to do my gratitudes in my last post)

Where to begin?

Wow--another 10 days zipped by me...and so much has happened. I'll just have to spread my news out over time. BUT, the biggest and latest news is that we are expecting Grandbaby #5! We had dinner with all the kids and kidlets last night and my granddaughter got to announce the news. So, little Liam is going to be a big brother and he'll only be a year next month. What an exciting time!

My quilt group, Bias Buddies, had our annual winter retreat. The theme was, "Choc Full of Fun" and man, was it ever! Lots of chocolate! and Lots of fun! We had a couple of guests, a member who moved to SC came up, my cousin from CO flew out and my husband surprised me by flying my friend from Holland over! Of course, time went by way too fast. (It didn't help that I spent the first day on the couch with the flu! But I recovered quickly so I enjoyed the last two days of the retreat.) We played that new Quilt Trivia game and won chocolate along the way........received gifts of mugs filled with hot chocolate mixes, got a gifty bag of chocolate brownie mix, and a wonderful "chocolate kiss" that was actually chocolate fabric wrapped in foil. Our retreat committee did a great job!I worked on my Gratitude blocks (from Judy's blog). I'm way behind on the Hour a day thing, but I am plugging away. This one fulfills a few things...the Hour a Day project, my Quilt 24 challenge (I'm using the feed sack fabrics) and we are going to do this as part of my Stashbuster series with my students. I'm trying to get my students using up their fabrics as they go, so they won't end up with the huge stash that I have. I try to find projects that are easy and fun. I'll send them to Judy's website to get the pattern to complete their quilt.

Where does time go?

Man, it's been over a week already since I last posted! So, what have I been up to?
Sunday--our local quilt shop had their annual Super Bowl Sale (40% off!) and I volunteered to work (I also teach there) as there is never enough help. Heck, at those prices, she is busy!! I was a little worried that I might break my own rule of NO fabric buying period--I don't even include the 4 B's in my rule (backings, bindings, borders and ??-can't remember the 4th right now). It was hard, and I did end up buying fabric for my Quilt 24 Challenge (a coordinate ONLY--the ones shown are what my hubby gave me for my birthday) and fabric for a friend who is making a baby quilt. My challenge required solid fabric and I just do not have solids in my stash. And, I choose 4 yards total of something that I do not need, but absolutely wanted! It's a deep fuschia with orange dots on it. I thought it would make a great border. I got 3 yards of that and 1 yard of a wonderful batik orange to go with it. Now, I am not counting it as buying fabric--because the quilt shop owner pays us in yardage when we work--so I literally worked for that fabric. Okay--so it's kind of pushing the limit--but hey--it's my own rule AND that is the FIRST fabric I acquired (notice I didn't say "bought"! LOL) that is purely a "want" since last July! So, was I a bad girl? No, I don't feel bad. I did need the first fabric I bought and the other, well.... So, now the debate is, should I put that Fabric Diet button on my sidebar? LOLTaxes--ugh! It gets worse every year. Things get more complicated the older we get. I used to love doing taxes! Yeah, that was when my hubby just got a W-2, and I was a SAHM. :) So, now I spread out all my stuff and work 3-4 hours daily on it. I am going on a 3 week trip with Kirt and then on a 9 day trip with some girlfriends and I would like a lot of this tax stuff done before I go.

Making samples.........cleaning my sewing room. It lasted all of one day! My hubby came out right after I cleaned my work table off and was impressed--until he saw it 2 days later and wondered what happened! never mind, just never mind! LOL I also started to work on my Calendar quilt. I saw it posted last year on Pat Sloan's website, but the year was too far gone to start it. I unfortunately didn't remember until last week, so I'm playing catch up with Jan. But basically it's like a string quilt--you add a piece of fabric EVERY day to the row, usually a strip. And you make 4- 91 strips per row and put sashing inbetween the rows and you have a quilt. My original intentions were to add strips of whatever I was working on at the time. Well, I decided against that for a number of reasons. I might not have enough fabric to "give" to that project. What if I have a spell where I'm not piecing but catching up on quilting (which I DESPERATELY need to do!) and my fabrics would be all over the board. So, I decided to do a "theme" per month. January will have all blues/purples in it, Feb. will have pinks/reds. March will have greens, April will be florals, etc. Now, the question is: will I continue to do this all year? Time will tell!

Do you fuse?

Do you use fusible web? What is your favorite type? I used to be a loyal fan of Heat and Bond LITE and then I was forced to use Steam a Seam II for a project and with a change in how to use it a bit, found that I might like that a bit better. Quilter's Home magazine just had an article in the Jan. 2007 issue regarding fusibles and their differences. And it's funny how even those quilters differed in opinions. So, what's your favorite? Scroll down the side bar and vote for your favorite fusible web. I'm going to leave that up until late February, so come back and visit to view all the results.