Sock Monkey Fun

I saw this recipe for placemats at the Moda Bake Shop during the Christmas season. You can follow this link to see the pattern: Personalized Placemats. I was glad to find the sock monkey charm squares last week so I could use them for my little great niece and nephew. It is always fun to sew for kids.

New Quilt Shop

Last week I visited a new quilt store (new to me) about 30 miles from here. It is called Keep Me In Stitches. It was stocked with batiks and lots of novelty prints. The colors were so bright and it had a really upbeat feel to it. One of the women working there I had met about a year ago at a quilt show.

I found some cute charm squares with sock monkeys and bananas. Plus some beautiful navy batiks. They had a great quilt on display using the navy batiks with solid white in a churn dash pattern. It was so pretty. I can see making that.

As I was checking out, the store owner told me that another new quilt store called Going to Pieces had just opened a few block away. She gave me directions and even drew me a map. How nice is that?! Unfortunately I did not have the time to go then, but that just means another trip. Both are close to Primitive Gatherings - another of my favorite stores.

Where Was I?

I decided to take up quilting yesterday. It has been so long since I have done any sewing that it feels like I am pursuing a new hobby. I got busy making a Dear Jane block - G13. I scan each block when I finish and I save it to a file with the year and month so I can track my progress. I was very dismayed to see that my last save was in July. How did that happen?

I am determined to finish this quilt in 2011. I started in 2008 right after I bought the book and thought I could finish in about a year and a half. Well I guess it doesn't really matter how long it takes as long as I get it done.

Go Pack Go!!

As you can imagine this is a big week in Packer Country. The news stations are working overtime finding stories and making interviews with anyone and everyone remotely affiliated with the Packers or the area. The newspaper is jammed full of news reports on the Packers win and the NFC Championship. It is really an exciting time.

Some of the smaller events that interest me are:

1) My 84 year old friend, Don, made it to the Packer Pro Shop at 8 am Monday to get his new Packer Tshirt and hat commemorating the game this past Sunday. He was also sporting 1 green and 1 gold rhinestone on his earlobe. Too funny. You go, Don!

2) Green Bay and other Wisconsin food banks will receive a total of 18,000 cans of Campbell's soup for having the highest number of votes on the Chunky.com website. Our church food pantry is one of the fortunate recipients. Thank you Campbells. This is incredibly generous. I think Green Bay has won this every year. One of the benefits of being a small town franchise with a lot of heart and a great community.

3) Our church organist played the Packer fight song on the organ the last 2 Sundays at the end of the service. The pastors are now gearing up for Super Bowl Sunday. Can't wait to see what they pull out.

It's Here

My new Super Duper washer is here. No more laundromat. YaHoo. I have run about 10 loads of laundry in the last 2 days and I still have more to go. It never seems to end. Of course, having our son home was like an explosion when it comes to dirty clothes. I sent him off to the laundromat last Sunday to do his own so he was all ready to travel.

He made it to England, but his suitcase was lost for 3 days -- no clothes, no toothbrush, nothing except his computer and his paperwork. At least he had the things that were most important to him. Ha Ha. We have had a few disjointed emails as his computer connection is not right yet. He has a lot to figure out and a short amount of time to do it as classes start on Monday. Right now he has all his classes on 3 days. A 4 day weekend every week. What a deal!

Yesterday was my parents' anniversary. They have both passed away. They were married in 1943 during the war and my dad was on leave. He was stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia at the time so off they went to live there until he was reassigned and my mother came back to Indiana to live with her folks. I love seeing these photos of what they were like before I knew them. Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

Changing of the Quilt

Since it is January, I put up my snowman quilt 3 weeks ago when the Christmas things were put away. I made this quilt from a pattern in a magazine 8 or 10 years ago. The white fabric is fused and then I did the button hole stitch around each snowman by hand. Never again. I used fusing that was very thick, probably the only thing available at that time, and I fused the whole piece rather than just the edges. It is so great to learn new techniques over time. I don;t do a lot of fusing since I prefer hand applique, but it is so much easier and delicate now.

And He's Off

Yesterday we drove thru the blizzard to O'Hare to put our youngest on the plane for a semester abroad. Doesn't he look happy?? He met up with a friend at the airport and they traveled together and are living in the same dorm, so at least he will have a support system of 1 for the first few days. He was very excited, but also very nervous as he started packing on Saturday. He was doing that leg jiggling thing all day on Sunday, so I knew he was close to the edge. What an exciting time for these two young men.

I am on day 15 with no washing machine. I was sick with a cold when it died, so my husband went out and scouted all the newest machines and came back with the facts, ma'am, just the facts. He made his recommendations and when I felt better we went back to the store and bought one. We are going with a front loader and there was even a promotion that gave us a free pedestal to put it on. Unfortunately because there was a promotion, pedestals are on back order and we still don;t have our washer. I have made several trips to the laundromat and sent my son with all his laundry on Sunday so he would be ready to travel. Have you been to a laundromat lately. This one was so clean and they had really big machines, but $2.00 for a little bitty load! Yikes. But I was thankful that it was there and close to home.