Ramblings From Randi, The Wild Rose Quilter
My adventures in quilting, my adventures at Hackberry Spring Ranch, and other tidbits of my life.
It’s only Wednesday, and for some reason, I woke up more tired than when I went to bed. I feel absolutely exhausted this morning. I just want to crawl back in bed, but I have to go to work. It’s only 14 degrees outside, too. Good day to stay in bed, all warm & snuggly.
I finished Joanna’s quilt, and it is in the mail on it’s way back to her. Thought I’d share a couple of pics right quick.
Finally, I’m to the part of Joanna’s quilt that I have been looking forward to quilting the most! The looonnnggg feathered strips. Oh yes!
I think our quilting plan has come together nicely.
Making some quilting progress!
This will be another short post. I’ve been busy, but just don’t have a lot to show for it. I used 3.25 yards of stash this week in my guild project. Year to date totals:
I’m still going in the right direction. Yay!
I was coming down with a head cold earlier this week. Friday and Saturday, I was not feeling so great. I did get a customer top loaded yesterday, and today, I got all the SID done. Joanna, these are scrumptious fabrics you chose. I love them! I’m going to enjoy looking at them while I quilt this. (Oh, don’t pay any attention to that snippett of football fabric you can see pinned to the leader…it’s not part of the quilt. It’s just there so I have enough extra backing to work with it on my machine. Thank you for adding that to make my job easier, Joanna!)
I said something about ordering some more thread yesterday, and my husband told me that he was planning on buying me thread for our anniversary, which is coming up March 1st. Yippee! A gift I will love and love using! A longarm quilter, or any machine quilter for that matter, can’t have too much thread, now can they?! I’m sure looking forward to that shopping spree.
Have a great week!
Wow, January is just busy, busy so far. This week I had quilt guild Tuesday night. I’ve also been working on end of year tax stuff. Fun, fun, fun. I typed all our W-2’s, only to discover I was checking a box I didn’t need to check, and now I am about to go retype them. I need to balance the company check book, and do the sales tax filing for December. Of course, we have to get everything together for our accountant.
My son has not had anymore hives breakout since Sunday. Yay! But now, I swear, I am coming down with something again. Sheesh, how many times can I catch this crap in a three month span. But the nasal stuffiness and scratchy throat feeling is back. I’m crossing my fingers it’s the crazy weather, and I’m not really getting sick again. Yesterday we were in the 50’s, today at 1:00 we had only reached 20. It’s FREEZING cold out. But, I think it’s supposed to be a short cold blast, and back to 50’s.
I finished the quilting on this one. Not the greatest pics. I couldn’t get really good light today.
It’s a cute, fun quilt, and I thought it needed fun, cute quilting. I sure hope you like it, Betty! 🙂 Thanks for letting me quilt for you!
Now, I’m off to redo W-2’s. 😦
What a week it has been. Getting back in the groove at work, and dealing with a 17 year old who came down with a severe outbreak of hives. I’m talking head to toe hives. This started Monday evening. Tuesday I tried to get him into the doctor, but they were booked. Ended up in the ER with him Tuesday night, only to find out I was already doing pretty much everything that could be done. They did give him some stronger antihistamine and a shot of steroid. Today has been the best one since, they were pretty much nonexistant til about 6:00 and a few popped back up. It’s a weird thing. I mean he was completely covered in them. I tried to get him to let me take a pic of his back for my blog, but that got an emphatic “no!” LOL. We have no idea at all what caused them. Very frustrating and unsettling. Many thanks to Jan for giving me advice and moral support!
Between that and a stressful week at work, especially yesterday, I haven’t taken a single stitch til today. I got off work at noon, and got to work on this adorable pumpkin table runner for my friend, Betty. I bought the same kit, only mine is still in the bag. At least I will know how to quilt it when I get it put together. 🙂
TGIF!!
I did manage to get my Daddy’s Log Cabin quilt completely finished last night, by putting the final stitches into the label. I didn’t get as many projects finished as I had hoped, but all things consisdred, I think I had a good “quilty” year.
I have started my “2009” page, which you fill find under the “Quilting Projects 2009” tab at the top of this page. I’m ready to start getting some numbers going on my stash tracking page!
I just finished eating lunch. Blackeyed peas & cornbread, of course! Yummy! I will confess that I didn’t make the peas from “scratch”. I made my cornbread from scratch, but the peas came from a can. Bush’s Blackeyed Peas with Sugar Snaps. They are so good and so quick and easy. Speaking of quick and easy food, here is one of my favorite new products from 2008. Ore Ida Steam ‘n Mash ‘taters.
I was so excited when I saw the commercial for them on TV. This is a great time saver for me, and they are really good! Now my family gets mashed potatoes on weekdays again. When I get off of work at 5:00, and come home to start dinner, peeling and chopping up potatoes is not high on my list of things I want to do. These guys get two thumbs up from me. They also come in sweet ‘taters, and galic herb and some cheesy ones. I like the sweet and the regular russets the best.
Sometime today I have to do statements for the shop, but I am going to spend some more time working on my Gracie’s Star blocks, and my Oklahoma Backroads. My vacation was officially over yesterday and I went back to work. But today is another day off.
A few months ago, back in October, I had a mammogram scare. Turned out to be nothing at all, but for almost two weeks, we didn’t know. It made me think about scary words like mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, reconstruction, and fighting for survival. Well, I start this year with a great appreciation that I’m not facing any of those things. I’m thankful that my family is in tact, and I have more blessings than I can count. Every day is gift. Thank you for sharing this past year here with me!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had a very nice, laid back day around here. It was just my husband, son and me. Then yesterday, we went to Pampa to spend the day after Christmas with my parents. We had a wonderful day with them. We waited til the day after because the fabric store there is having a going out of business sale, and it was open on Friday. I am sad it is closing. Mom & I really enjoyed our little outings there together. So of course, we had to have one last hoorah there 🙂 There will be more about that in my Sunday stash report…hehehehe.
Today was a great day, as well. I finished up the quilting on my customer quilt, and I am pleased with it. I hope she will be. I sure had fun working on it.
After I finished this, I felt like just doing some piecing. Piecing for the sheer fun of watching the pretty blocks come together. Remember these fabrics I purchased earlier this year?
I couldn’t stand just looking at it any longer. I had to start cutting it up and sewing it back together.
These blocks are FUN to sew together. I also washed some white fabric and some 30’s repros that I want to use in another quilt. And I’ve done some sewing on the leaders/enders scrap quilt I’m making for my Mom. I’ll put pics of that in tomorrow’s post.
I am truly grateful for days like this. They are like a little gift. I hope you are enjoying your weekend and doing something you love!
In the post preceding this one, Terri asked what I was going to quilt in the alternate blocks. Now that I have a row of them done, I will show you.
The stencil design is by Anita Shackelford, and it looks so beautiful stitched out. I have wanted to do this one for awhile, but honestly, I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. It’s actually quite fun to do. Carla Barrett inspired me to purchase it after she posted a couple of quilts that she used it in, on her blog. One was this beautiful log cabin. The other was a stunning Carolina Lilly quilt, which you can find if you click her gallery tab.
Wow, two posts in one day. I’m on a roll…
It’s 5:30 and I’ve already got a loaf of cranberry nut bread in the oven. Did I mean to be up this early? No way! 3:30 this morning and I was wide awake. At 4:45 I finally just gave in and got up. I’m sure it will catch up with me later today.
The Red Velvet Whoopie Pies were a hit. Mine aren’t near as pretty as the ones in the magazine, but they taste good. I didn’t follow the recipe for the filling, though. The recipe calls for a filling made from cream cheese, marshmallow creme and butter. I was getting ready to make it and my son stopped me and requested that I use my butter cream frosting. Since I’ve never had them before, I can’t say which way is better, but my butter cream frosting sure is yummy in there.
They look pretty sitting on the counter next to my new mixer, as they are almost the same color red. I chose the cinnamon color mixer, which is a deeper color than the bright red. The recipe for the whoopie pies can be found in the December Better Homes & Gardens issue, or the BHG recipe site, by doing a search for Red Velvet Whoopie Pies. You will have to register at the site to view the recipes, but it’s free.
I also made a batch of beef jerky yesterday. It’s my second try in my new dehydrator. I tried once using the oven, and I ruined all my jerky meat. This batch came out really good, so I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. We like it hot. Can you see those red pepper flakes?
Since it is Wednesday, I will throw in some more pics of the WIP that is on the machine, and a pic of the memorial t-shirt quilt I have started.
Oh yum! The cranberry nut bread just got done…can you smell it? 🙂 My house never smells like this at this time of day…lol. This will throw my little family for a loop! Me…cooking before coffee…how in the world did that happen?
They really won’t care, though, since it doesn’t involve bacon, eggs, toast or pancakes. Those items are a supper dish around here. I tell them if they want them for breakfast, there’s a perfectly good restaurant in town that serves them in the morning.
Merry Christmas Eve! I hope Santa is good to you!
Ramblings From Randi, The Wild Rose Quilter 