DESIGN WALL REPORT: I (barely) started a new pair of socks, and I’ve been busy sewing…something I can’t show you, so I’ll give you a peek at the colors and fabrics:

ON-LINE FRIENDS REPORT: It was fun to get a mention on a couple of other bloggers’ sites this week:  Floribunda (a/k/a Julie) and Lori (a/k/a Lori in SD).  Be sure to stop by their blogs for a visit.

BLOG HOP REPORT: Those crazy pattern designers have done it again!  They are calling it Fall-O-Ween.  If you check back here each day, I will have a link to the next day’s featured blogger.  Today it’s Gudrun. and while you’re there, read the rules of the hop and be sure to comment.  And I forgot to mention — FREE PATTERNS are involved!  Gudrun has a cute candy corn runner pattern on her blog today.

WHAT’S-FOR-DINNER REPORT: I’m trying out Judy Laquidara’s recipe for Jen’s Chicken, a creamy chicken dish to serve over egg noodles.  It sounds wonderful!  Review tomorrow…

SELFISH IT’S-ALL-ABOUT-ME ITEM: Anybody out there play Words with Friends on their iPod Touch (or maybe you can play it on the iPhone also)?  If so, leave me a comment or contact me through the “Contact Me” button at the top of the page if you’d like to play a game or three.  Seriously addicting.  It’s like playing Scrabble.  But better.

OUT-MY-WINDOW REPORT:  The Hummingbirds flew the coop, and the finch are enjoying having “their” crab tree back as a supplement to the seeds in the wild flowers in back:

And I KNEW I was forgetting something — the post card exchange through Three Creative Studios!  I’ve received all the pc’s now, you can see the photos from the five participants on the TCS blog.  It was a lot of fun, and the sign-up for the next one is open.

–Sue

We called it our PIGS project (Project In Grocery Sack).  We had a lot of fun, including bringing our scraps in (in a grocery sack, of course) for a “weigh in”.  Pam and I wore pig hats and pink boas for our final “bringing our PIGS to market”, reminiscent of Miss Piggy.  We had a GREAT completion rate.  Only two didn’t finish their project by the required date, and some even did both quilts!

I did the 3 1/2″ squares, and arranged my blocks to make diagonal rows.  There is everything in this quilt — puppies, horses, teddy bears, flowers, batiks — lots and lots of memories of past quilts, but I felt like I was sewing garbage together.  I wasn’t liking all those random fabrics and colors and themes together at all.  It felt like a waste of perfectly good thread.

Now that the top is done and I can step back from it, I love it!  Unfortunately, I scarcely made a dent in my scraps.  In case you’re interested, here is the block.  It can be rotated a number of different ways when you lay it out.

(16 patches, 6 light and 10 dark)

–Sue

DayStitchers, recognize her?  Yes, it’s Margaret!  You may remember Margaret from last month when we were at the Minnesota State Fair and I took her picture in front of her hockey-player wall hanging.

Margaret was competing at the Miracle of Mitch fundraiser yesterday.  She placed 27th overall out of 105 shooters and was the highest female shooter for the third year in a row ( and NO, she wasn’t the only one!).  Woo-hoo!

Thanks for allowing me to use this picture, Margaret.  It’s fun to see friends “out of context” — and Margaret, you really do rock!!!

–Sue

We set attendance records for opening day:  119,145.  Now, considering weekends will likely go over 200,000 per day, I shouldn’t be complaining, but that’s still a lot of people!

I went with my friend Margaret (after dropping my Aunt Bert off at the airport who was bummed that she was leaving Mpls on the first day of the fair).  Bert and I had a wonderful week, did some sewing, a little lunch, a visit to a quilt shop, played a lot of cards.

Margaret with her ribbons (that’s her hockey-playing grandson, plus an original needlepoint tea cozy made to match a special teapot):

My three little wall quilts and my quilt on a stick were passed over, although I know the judges really WANTED to give them all ribbons!  My bees came through for me though; I entered them in the Bee & Honey division, so they’re in the Ag-Hort building.

I’m going back next week and will take lots more pictures; this was a quick trip to see how the “important” quilts did — Margaret’s and mine!

This hexagon quilt was a personal favorite of mine so far (I’ll note the quilter’s/artist’s name next trip).  Besides being beautiful, I find it very restful and calming, something we can all use more of!

A number of my other friends won ribbons as well, and I will post about them later in the week.  Also, I’m feeling a repeat of “What Did Sue Eat at the Fair” coming on.  I saw so many yummy things Thursday, but Margaret and I were pretty sensible, having Walking Tacos and Iced Lattes.  Capital letters…that’s how good they were!

–Sue

Last Wednesday, friend Carol and I headed northwest toward St. Cloud, Minnesota, for the annual Minnesota Quilters quilt show.  (And no, my Autumn Garden quilt in the Challenge section didn’t win anything, but I wasn’t toooooo surprised or disappointed.  My goal was to not embarass myself, and I ended up with a quilt I wouldn’t have made otherwise that I like very much.)  Back to the subject!

Pal Carol and I stopped in at Pat & Patrick’s house close to St. Cloud for some visiting time and an overnight.  Pat & Patrick visited us in Texas this past February.  Here they are leaving our favorite Port Aransas breakfast spot, The Island Cafe:

Back to Minnesota.  We had a wonderful pontoon ride and trip last week to a restaurant via the river that meanders past their property.  The evening was absolutely stellar for being outside on the water.  In the photo below are Pat, me, and Carol; Captain Patrick is busy at the helm — well, actually he was busy taking this picture!  (Thanks, Patrick, for allowing me to use this photo.)

Carol, Pat, and I are 3/4 of a long-standing friendship group of four; we all worked together at the same company eons ago.  Marcia (who completes our foursome) was hard at work in Minneapolis on this day, but here we are all together on a previous get-away (Pat, how come I look so much taller?  must be the chair):

Thank you, Pat & Patrick, for a wonderful evening and breakast send-off.  Carol and I needed those cinnamon-pecan waffles (Patrick’s creation) for endurance as we navigated our way through the quilt show!  I’m so lucky to have such wonderful friends.

–Sue

Kerry and Tracy grew up across the street from us, and played in the same pack of kids as their brother, my three boys, and all the other boys in our old boy-dominated neighborhood.  Along with my daughter-in-law Lynn, Kerry and Tracy are the daughters I never had.  Without the worry and the expense.  Such a deal!

They are wonderful examples of modern-day women, both professionals, one with two children and an in-home business and the other at home and very busy with three young, VERY active youngsters. Check out their blogs listed below.  I really enjoy reading about their day-to-day lives.  It brings me back to the days when my boys were young, often makes me smile, and sometimes even laugh out loud.  And I love it:  they use power tools!!!

Kerry

Tracy

–Sue

Mary brought “pie” for all of us a couple of weeks ago.  (The other woman in the picture isn’t Rosie, that’s for sure.)

It looks to be about 16 pieces of pie, both blueberry and cherry!  These are the cutest pincushions you’d ever want to see.  She weighted them nicely, and they have sugar sprinkles (beads) across the top.  And as with everything Mary makes, the workmanship is impeccable.  And I particularly love that she signed and dated them on the bottom.  What a treasure!  Thank you, Mary!

I’ve had my slice of pie on a plate, and Jim seems so surprising drawn to this pincushion.  Doesn’t it look good enough to eat?

–Sue

That’s how close Christmas is — I can already hear Santa’s sleigh off in the distance, like the ticking of a clock, reminding me of all the things I need to do in the next week.

BAKING:  I am not a prolific baker like my friend Pam who is making 13 kinds of cookies this year (and she doesn’t do easy cop-out cookies either!).  I’m making my favorites:  Swirled Mint Cookies, a peppermint pressed sugar cookie, Capuccino Flats (coffee/cinnamon/chocolate cookie), and neighbor Marilyn’s Taffy Cookies, a brown-sugar shortbread cookie with Hersey bar piece melted on top.  The sugar cookies are done; two more batches to go.  Mmmmmm. 

SHOPPING:  (almost) done.  Now, in the spirit of truthfulness and full disclosure, our family is small, plus we draw names for each other, (plus I do smaller “mom” gifts for the “kids”).  I have DH left to buy for (Jim, are you reading this?  Reminder to leave a Sears ad out with some things circled).

CHRISTMAS LETTER:  Done & Mailed.  I have done a Christmas letter every year for probably 36 years until last year.  It seemed like it was too depressing, since we were in the middle of some medical testing and didn’t know the outcome yet.  Why make people worry?  Skipped last year.  All the medical stuff came out quite well, so I needed to do a letter for this year.  I spent a couple of hours at the computer trying to do some kind of letter, and I felt like I was writing the same letter I had written 35 or 36 times before.  So stale and boring.  Here are most of our letters since 1996, including one written in verse; it’s a fun way to look back at what’s been happening in our lives since then:

So I searched on line for Christmas letter tips.  Just the spark I needed.  So my Christmas letter is now a newsletter (which I’ve done before), but I added a quiz.  There were several other ideas on this web site for ways to make your Christmas letter more interesting, and I was able to keep to my cardinal rule:  no more than one page.    Once I had some fresh ideas, the letter practically wrote itself.  Now I need to print the labels for the envelopes (yes, I know handwritten is more personal), and get those puppies in the mail!  I like my letters to reach their destinations shortly before Christmas, so I am actually on track.

TREE & DECORATIONS:  Done.  Artificial permanent tree has been up and lit for two weeks, with nary an ornament to be found or my sweet angel on top.  Yesterday I added ornaments, but only about half of them.  I only hung the crystal and glass ornaments, the silk poinsettias, and the icicles.  I’ll see if this tree grows on me this year.  It looks a little sparce without all the kids’ ornaments on it. 

Put up my snowman wall quilt, have to find a home for my little Christmas tree wall quilt, got out the silk poinsettias, put out my very favorite table runner, along with some other miscellaneous trims.

QUILTING:  Have one gift quilt left to finish.  (two days’ work)

FUN & PARTIES & FUN & FUN:  A brunch, an afternoon “dinner”, a tea luncheon, Wednesday quilt group with cookies & snacks – get out my elastic-waisted pants and I’m ready!  And we will try to get a date to work out for our card-playing group as it’s our turn to host (after Christmas).

CLEANING:  Hah! 

MAILING:  Done!  Package to DS in Virginia, and get the cards with letters in the mail (tomorrow).

CHRISTMAS DINNER:  We always have the same thing — shrimp de jongh with rice, bread, and salad.  Easy and special.
Okay, I know I’m forgetting something.  Oh….

WRAPPING:  Not done.

And let me share three wonderful gifts I got from three wonderful friends (we celebrate early — and often), in case there’s a gift idea that works out for you:  an Oregon Scientific atomic alarm clock with the projector for the ceiling, a pressure cooker cookbook – Miss Vickie’s, and a purse (I was able to pick out the purse because I returned a gift that was a duplicate).

So, what are you doing reading my blog???  Don’t you have holiday prep to do?  I know, some people are much more together than I am, but I feel like (finally) things are almost under control at our house.  

How are you doing — can you hear the jingle of the sleigh???

–Sue

Go check out her give-away post here, and be sure to leave a comment (she’s giving away wool socks!!!).  To read her older posts, just click on the header of her blog.

–Sue

She has a great tutorial today for doing that final join on your binding.  When I first started quilting, I did a straight-across seam; didn’t like it, but did it on many quilts.

Then I played around and came up with my own slightly cumbersome method of doing a diagonal seam for that final join so it looks like the other seams in your binding.  Celine’s tutorial is for doing that nice diagonal finishing seam.  I can’t wait to try it on my next quilt, as it is probably a little more streamlined than my method.  Check it out!

–Sue