Fabrics of all sorts...

My quilt shop visit for the backing of With Heart was successful. Five yards found in the 20% discount room, in addition to another spool, lighter color, of Aurifil thread. I really am sold on this thread!!!

I was drawn to a few more fabrics in the 20% off room. I have no project specificially in mind; you fabric-hoarders understand, I'm sure :0) However, Hopscotch is in the back of my mind because that'll be the next project (I think) once I finish With Heart.

I didn't spend any more time in the quilting room yesterday; took the early afternoon off to relax and look through all my old quilting magazines.

I met up with Jody yesterday afternoon to deliver the quilt. She insisted that "it was perfect!" And, boy! I wish Jody would come over to my house to organize/clean/decorate to match her house. It was BEAUTIFUL! Clean, uncluttered. Gosh---will I ever reach that stage? Maybe when MY children are two days away from their wedding?
Speaking of which, her daughter and fiance' were sitting at the kitchen table with the laptop doing some final wedding preparations. I was tickled that he was dutifully by her side AND that he moved his head to the side when Erica (daughter) showed me a picture of the cake topper, which showed the bride wearing a replica of her wedding dress. Erica excitingly explained that the topper was completely made out of paper; it was quite amazing, and I think she was saddened that she couldn't show it to me in person, but alas....it was at 'the other place' (his parents' house, which is hosting the reception.)

Anyway, so after we left Jody's we headed to Rice Lake for some shopping of fabric in a different form. For whatever reason, Candace has turned into a dress-wearing little girl and has worn a dress every day this week. And CAITLYN has been pouty because SHE didn't have any "pretty dresses" in her closet anymore. {{Cassie wasn't a dress-wearing girl, so there aren't any dresses in the hand-me-down boxes that fit Caitlyn}}. So, we went shopping for Caitlyn and found three cute summery dresses.....and THEN some! Each of them came home with 4-5 pairs of shorts; sadly I couldn't find many shirts, so that still remains on my shopping list to restock their summer clothes. Even *I* came away with a new item: a swimming suit! I only have bikinis----e-gats! I need to get backing running something serious if I plan to wear a bikini in public, so I needed a one-piece for the boating excursions we are planning over the summer.

I slept in this morning. I was awake at 5:00, but closed my eyes again, and AMAZINGLY I fell back asleep. I woke again at 6:00, but said.....nah. Not yet. So, at 6:45, I finally decided it was time for me to start my day. Paul is around today; a vacation-day of sorts for him. The weather is a bit dreary; overcast, gray, slight drizzle. I'll see what I can do together with him today, otherwise, I'll head downstairs to see about finishing With Heart.

Hope your day has great plans :0)

Puttin' feet up & How the frame works.

Little Caitlyn didn't allow us (ME) to get much sleep last night. She woke up around 1:00, crying and whining about how her ear hurts; she is a bit of a drama-queen to begin with, but this time it was legit. After a night of tossing and turning, even after some medicine, she still was in tears and running a 102 fever. Therefore, she was able to spend the day at home with Dad; too bad for me though! I was dragging butt a little bit, and it didn't help that I was testing all day, so I had to sit in a comfy chair, grading paper after paper. GOSH---it was sheer discipline to keep my eyes open.

I did pick up a new iron after school though, right before heading to the grocery store for the first food-trip in MONTHS! Seriously---we've only been doing the little "lets-buy-a-couple-of-meal's-worth" trips, but it was TIME to do a full-fledge shopping spree!!! It's nice having a stocked cupboard and fridge again :0)
I don't like having posts without pictures, so ... have a gander...


I don't know if you can see all those egg cartons?!??? Yeah, the chickens are definitely earning their keep; we simply aren't keeping up with them!

So, I'm putting my feet up right now, watching some TV and surfing the net.

On the quilting front....
Amanda was curious as to how the quilting frame worked with a pantograph......
While I was waiting for my frame and machine to arrive, I spent quite a few evenings "researching" on YouTube. How to load a backing, top, how to set up the frame, etc....You name it!
I found a jackpot (in my opinion)! Penny Bubar's channel has everything from loading a back and top, stitching a panto, lining up a panto, and the list goes on and on....
Anyway, the run-down...... there is a table below the machine's carriage that can hold a pantograph (plastic, wood or paper showing a quilting design.) The quilter moves the machine in any direction to follow the design on the panto using a stylus or laser-light. {{Yeah, I'm still using my jimmied-up-thing-a-ma-gig. It works great, so why should I cough up anything for something that quilting companies call "nice"???}}

I travel left to right; I find it easier because it mimics reading.....ya know----left to right.....

As the quilter moves along the design, it gets transferred effortlessly to the quilt top :0)

To actually watch this happen, follow the Penny Bubar link....it's the direct link to how she quilts a Panto.
I tell ya, this lady is HA-Larious! I enjoyed watching each of her videos for both the knowledge AND the humor. And a tidbit of information...I use Penny's "unique" style of quilting the panto (only on the left side). It really does give more control. I've also seen a version of this style when watching an air-brush artist----he locked his arms (elbows) at his sides and moved his entire torso when painting. It looked weird, but the art was amazing.


So...there ya have it. I'm loving the frame! I can see the 8-9" throat limitation of the Juki98Q getting old real soon, but I'll manage. ;0)

Happy Day-Before-Friday.

Loads of updates and latest OBSESSION!

Oh where to begin.....
Wednesday, after the frantic packing of the car after spending the morning and afternoon creating the C'mas Stockings quilt, I grabbed the girls and headed to Mom's. Once all things were unloaded at Mom's, I parked my butt in the glider, and started hand-sewing bindings. I wrapped up Andre's by 10:00, and started in on the C'mas Stockings quilt and got half done by 11:30, when I finally decided it was time to get to bed.

I have other updates to come yet, but I must jump into my latest "obsession" that my post title hints to. Last week, my 8th grade girls kept nudging me to read "this book" over and over and over. Finally, after seriously five of them kept saying I HAVE to read it, I went to Amazon.com to get an overview of what the book was about since I had no idea about it. Well, being as observant as they are, suddenly one of my girls shouted (during silent SSR time, by the way) "Mrs. Skattebo! you don't have to order it, you can just borrow my copy!!!" Then, after class THREE of them came running (literally!) down the hall with their copies, begging for me to take her copy over the other's. It was quite funny! But, I chose the first girl's, and seriously watched the others sulk, but.....oh well. Anyway, that night (I think that was last Monday), I started reading a few pages, nothing major..... The next day, my girls were wondering which part of the book I was at, HINTING that once I "get into it," I wouldn't be able to put it down. Anyway, that night (Tuesday), I read a few more pages finishing Chapter 2 before my eyelids said it was bed time.

So---fast forward to Wednesday night after sewing bindings. It was 11:30, but I figured I'd read a few more pages before sleeping, and I think I finished maybe three pages before I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.

But then, Thursday morning, I wasn't in the mood to sew yet, so I grabbed the book and read. And read......and read......and read.......snacked a little for lunch....read some more......shirked off helping in the "Thanksgiving meal prep" for as long as I could.....sighed when I had to put it down......ate some dinner.....cleaned up dishes.......and went RIGHT BACK TO THE BOOK. There were a few other mini breaks I needed to do----get the girls to bed, etc....but by 11:30 that night, I was done. OMGOODNESS!!! IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOD! And then......I did the BIGGEST BOO-BOO ever!!! I read the proloude (sp?) to the next book in the series that was printed at the end of this one. OHHHHHHHH----that was a mistake!!!!!!

So, at this point, I was frustrated for a few reasons....
a) I didn't really think it would be that good
b) I didn't realize it was a SERIES
c) After spending all day FRIDAY searching EVERY BOOKSTORE IN TOWN, I STILL wasn't able to read more because not a single store had a copy of book 2!!!!
d) Finally------while watching TV Friday night, suddenly I looked up during a commercial movie review. OMGOODNESS! It was the BOOK!!!! The girls NEVER TOLD ME it had been made into a movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, fastforward to my drive home Saturday afternoon, I was working on a last minute plan of arranging a babysitter for the night so I could go see the movie, and I DID! I took my babysitter while her mother watched the girls. Yup.....her mother watched the girls. That family adores my girls, so "mom" was more than excited to watch them.

So.....have you guessed Book/Movie Twilight from my descriptions????? Ohhhh....*sigh*....it was Soooooooo good! So now, I can't WAIT until tomorrow to ask the girls if anyone has book 2 to loan me????? *chuckle*


Okay, so time to rewind back to Friday. As Angela wrote about on her blog, for those non-Americans out there, Black Friday marks the official start in the USA for C'mas shopping. Two years ago, my sis and I were bonkers, starting the day hitting stores at 4:30 am and went until 11:00 pm! CRAZY! Last year, my mom and I hit the stores for a few hours. This year, my sis and I looked at the sales flyers the night before, but really didn't find any "we HAVE to get this" deals! So, we weren't in any big rush that morning---headed out and hit the stores at 8:30. We really thought we'd be home after a few hours, but amazingly, we were finding some great deals even after the "4:00-10:00" Bargain Door Buster bargains. The next thing we knew, it was 4:00, and we had to get back soon so Cass could open presents for her Birthday. She turned 8. So, we bought a B-day cake, ordered some Papa-Murphies pizza, and headed home.
While the pizza was cooking, we had Cass open her presents so the evening wouldn't get too late. She stocked up on some new Littlest Pet Shop presents and clothes, and also "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie. So, once we were done eating, the girls played in G'mas toy room and watched the movie while my sis and I unloaded the car



For the next couple of hours, we sorted all the packages, and I even WRAPPED EVERYTHING! There was no point in me taking everything back to my house, ONLY to schlep it back down to Mom's as C'mas time. So, I can now say that I am 95% DONE WITH C'MAS SHOPPING! I only have DH's parents to buy for yet....that's it.

Saturday morning, we visited my sis-in-law's house on the way back home to ours. We had a brunch, ate some more bday cake, and Cass opened a few more gifts. We needed to head out though by noon so we could get home for Cass to have a friend over from 3:00 - 6:00.
While she and her friend were playing up in her room, Candace, Caitlyn and myself started putting up the C'mas tree. Cass and her friend came down for some Bday cake (sigh---it's ALMOST gone now!) and then wanted to help decorate the tree, so I popped up some popcorn so they could make some popcorn garland. The tree is almost done, we have a few more garlands to string up, and then I'll snap a pic.

The rest of the night, I already talked about------*sigh*----the Twilight movie. We went to the theater in Rice Lake, a town 20 miles away. Spooner (just down the road) isn't showing it (yet). I may have to convince DH to take me out once it shows here.

Anyway----today has been an "unwinding" day. I've tidied up the sewing room a little, spent maybe an hour sewing some odds-n-ends, but I just don't feel like much more than today. Clothing is beckoning to me after being out of the house for a few days. *sigh*......back to the realworld again!

UGH! I almost forgot---I also have some Pre-Calc tests calling my name to be graded too. Will it be bad if I hold off until Prep time tomorrow?????

Happy Sunday!