I Have the Job in AZ!

I got the job in Arizona! I will be teaching American Sign Language at a High School! Yippee! I can hardly wait to get started...don't have to wait long because the new teachers start on July 28th! Should be fun to get to AZ, unpack, organize, find all the ASL teaching stuff, and then start....WOW! I can't figure out why the underlining is on and I can't turn it off but hey I am excited about this.
House is all moved out of, sold, check deposited, money wired to AZ for the new house and our stuff is on its way with Kathy and Buck. They were in Missouri last time they checked in.
I have my sewing machine with me at Randy's and I hope to get one or two of my WIPs done this next week! I also have to get cracking on my daughter's scrapbook for her grad party a week from tomorrow--oh and get the food together too...a mom's job is never done!
I heard from CJ. He is okay but got into some trouble. Sigh. We hope to get down to visit him soon.

Kathy's OC Step 5 in Progress

Kathy is hard at work on the first part of step 5 as I type. I think she has almost the first half of these ones done. I just had to take a photo and post on them...lol.

Kathy's Step 4 OC done, and Step 5 Started

I helped Kathy with some of her step 4 stars and she just finished the last two. They are ironed and ready to go. I had already cut out and organized her step 5 stuff and now she is cutting the orange squares for step 5. I am hoping we can get going on that step. Tomorrow we get the truck, you can see my priorities, lol.
Waiting for orange squares...
Starting to cut the orange, WOW she says!
I picked up "Quick Quilts" #91 and love the table topper they have in here called Garden Party. The fabrics are great, but I am envisioning this one with Mark Lipinski's Katmandu! I have already packed the ones I bought but may have to add this to my list of things to make.
Picture has a lot of glare, but you get the idea. The fabric is Jane Sassaman's Hothouse Garden. I really like them in this quilt but Katmandu would be cool too!

Orange Crush Step Five Done!

Whoo Hoo Step 5 of the Orange Crush is finally done! Wow what a lot of orange! We had a crazy busy day and I finally got to sew late tonight...did the half album blocks and the quarter album blocks and sewed a few of the Step 4's for Kathy. She also worked a bit on that, and so she has 9 blocks to go for Step 4. I got her started on some of her cutting for step 5 too, but just barely.
Last night she finished cutting out the background for Rachel's Outside the Box quilt too, so I can work on that after the truck heads out on Wednesday (at Randy's).
Today we helped Hannah get all of her stuff out and to storage, etc. Cleaned her room out and moved the cats. One will stay here with Hannah and one is at Randy's now, but will come with us (Jade) when we go. Also did a little packing. We went to Randy's to grill out for Memorial Day (since he has our old picnic table and grill!) and afterwards played Five Crowns and Cranium. I won the first, and the guys won two out of three on Cranium! We had a lot of fun, and my favorite was when Buck and I were club craniuming Riverdance. Neither of them were getting it so we just kept dancing, I looked over at Buck (who isn't a bad Riverdancer) and started to wet my pants! So off to the bathroom I went and Kathy was without a clue (it was SO obvious lol!). Happy quilting folks!

A Busy Day, not alot of sewing

We started out the day by getting breakfast at the Eagle restaurant, then hooked up with Randy and headed to the winery. http://www.autumnharvestwinery.com/ After Kathy (who is damn near 40) got carded we did a wine tasting. I already knew my favorite was "Fall Folly" and it still was after trying a half a dozen wines. I bought a case of wine to bring to Arizona, mostly of this favorite flavor and "Northern Lights" which I also like. Kathy threw in a Pinor Gris which she liked too. We took a few pictures outside and then spotted the cows on the way out. So since Buck doesn't get to see cows too much in Arizona we made him pose for pictures. Kathy joined him and the cows ran off! Randy stayed in the car muttering that we looked like tourists, lol. It was fun.

We came home since it looked like rain and played tons of games. We started out with a new one "Fact or Crap" which I almost won...Randy beat me by three tokens. That man knows plenty of crap, ahem I mean facts. We laughed quite a bit which was nice and had running jokes throughout the game. After that we played "Alibi" again and I won that one! Somewhere in there they thought they would teach me how to play Texas hold em....they laughed so hard at me because I would announce when I had a good hand and all that. I lost pretty fast. Interesting game that one.

Here is Randy with a huge pot of "chips" had to use the fact or crap chips since most everything is packed (as you can see by the shelves above Randy). By this time we had sworn off the wine and switched to coffee.

We then decided to head off to Irvine Park so Buck could see it and we could say goodbye to it too. It has a little zoo and I have been going there since I was a kid. Got a few pictures and Hannah and Jeremy met us for a bit, then we all went to Olsen's for ice cream! We headed home and then had a huge storm a few hours later. Buck was pretty amazed at that too and we really thought it would be a bad one, but in the end it was short lived.

We did some packing and cleaning and laundry and all that and hauled more stuff out to the garage. I can't believe we get a truck in three days...the time is flying! I didn't do any sewing today....tonight I sat down to cut the half triangles out of indigo for the second part of OC's step 5 and realized I had packed up the ruler I need for it. Tomorrow I am going to try to locate it, but not sure I will find the darn thing. Kathy sewed more of her step 4 OC. She is up to 17 blocks. Slow but steady, she thinks they are alot of work to do, but her sewing really has improved ALOT since she started quilting with me a few years ago.

I am currently reading Barbara Walter's "Audtion" which is really interesting (and actually helped me with a few of the fact or crap questions, lol) and is sort of a mini history review as well as a glimpse into her life. I am trying to finish it up though because my online book group (BookiesToo) is doing the summer big read "War and Peace" and I am dying to get started on it. I seem to always be reading three or four books at a time now. Used to be I read one at a time.

Started on Orange Crush, Step 5

Bonnie had warned us that she may have to post late with step 5 of the OC, so I had resigned myself to waiting until after the move to work more on this quilt...BUT...today she suprised us and posted (not late after all really) the directions. They are http://quiltville.com/orangecrushmystery5.shtml if you somehow have not seen them yet. I immediately went up and started cutting out the orange and indigo squares for these blocks and spent the next few hours sewing the blocks. I finished all twenty of these blocks, but this step also has 18 of these cut in half (basically though we are assembling them instead of cutting them in half) so I have those to put together tomorrow. I love the colors, but really still have no idea how these go with these:
But I guess that is the mystery! This quilt must be HUGE when it is done, because we have 30 stars and 20 with the orange, plus the half ones and I still have parts in the bin that may wind up in something else...really exciting when the mystery gets this close to being solved.
We got all of Mac's stuff out of the house and off with his Dad today. Also met the ex's new fiance, by all accounts she seems VERY nice. A definate improvement from the woman he left me for...smile. We picked Buck (Kathy's newphew) up from the airport and he couldn't get over how green and open it was here as compared to Arizona. The dogs are all over him and he isn't sure he is all that dog crazy.
Tomorrow we are planning to hit the orchard/winery and stock up on my favorite wine since I won't be able to get it in Arizona. Other than that I am sure we will do a little packing since we are down to the wire here. Have not heard more on my job yet, but got my second reference letter today and WOW it was really nice. So I sent that on. One to go!

Strip Quilt

I am still trying to get out of my funk. I think the stress of moving, finding a job, planning a graduation party, my son's court postponement, etc is getting to me. The stress gives me migraines and they make me tired, cranky and suicidal! So today I decided that I should just sew and feel better. Yesterday my online group NewQuiltingClub did a strip quilt and I was not in any way able to join in. So a day late, but I followed Monica's directions and used up leftover strips from Kathy's jelly roll and other tan and green strips that I had cut up (thanks to Bonnie at Quiltville!). I was pretty random on this and so in some places there are more lights together than I would like, but I was very happy with it after adding the borders also from stash that hadn't been packed up!
It is really just a lap size and I like how it turned out. Not bad for a few hours of sewing. The gals in my group are donating some of these somewhere and mine may wind up with those since I really have no one in mind for it yet.
Kathy cut out all of the blocks for Rachel's quilt and is hoping to cut out the background for it tonight. Then that one will be ready for sewing too.
We move a week from tomorrow. Spent some time in the garage today getting that all together. We will get a ton of boxes tomorrow morning and do more packing. Getting down to the odds and ends now.
My phone job interview went pretty well. I was happy with it though for whatever reason my mood went right downhill after the call. Worry maybe, who knows. I got an email from the principal today saying that I am being strongly considered, they have more interviews to do but I am the type of person they want, and asking me if I had other offers pending. So that is a good sign I think...just need a little time and hopefully I have a job. This one really does look perfect for me! Cross your fingers please ;)

Cutting Started on Rachels' Outside the Box Quilt

Some of you may remember my daughter Hannah's Outside the Box Quilt from The Modern Quilt Workshop book by Ringle and Kerr. I love this book and this pattern and my psuedo princess daughter (my ex's daughter whom I love) admired Hannah's quilt and said she would love one too when I asked her which quilt she would like. Years ago I made her this quilt with dog and cat fabric which suited her fine, but now she is 17 and a half years old and ready for a more mature quilt!

So I am using some of the same fabrics that I had leftover from Hannah's quilt, some from my JoAnn's tin purchase, and some I picked out specially after I found the backing fabric (large print flowers at the bottom of the picture). Kathy is taking a break from her OC step 4 (she has 13 blocks done now!) and has started the cutting for this one. I am doing the ironing, picture taking and blogging. Smile. I think Rachel's quilt will be larger than Hannah's...I think she has a double bed now (Hannah has a twin) so I would like to make it so she can use it for years to come.

We have been busy packing up the house everyday too. I have packed almost all of the sewing stuff...have left out this quilt top, my sister's star tablerunner, the pink and brown fabric I bought in Chicago and the Fit to Frame patterns I bought there, a few fat quarters in case I get a starry eyed block to do and a few quilting books. I am already feeling deprived. I left out the book Creating Your Own Quilting Space so that I can refresh my memory and make notes/dream about my quilting studio now that I will have one at the new house!

One of my online groups did a quick strip quilt today, but I have been feeling really low, headachey, etc. for two days and didn't participate. I may work on that later though since I do have strips here and it turned out well. The other thing I have been thinking might cheer me is to do a doll quilt...something quick I can see results from. Things in my personal life a really stressful suddenly and I am just putting one foot in front of the other right now until I can think clearly again. Life should be easier....smile.

Starry Eyed Block Eleven

I spent a little time tonight sewing this block together for the NewQuiltingClub group's Starry Eyed Block Deal. It is just like Bonnie's Spinning Star block (of which I have made 30 now) except that the middle square is not a four patch. It is even the exact same size! I had no problem with those blocks, but this one I turned around a star point and had to rip, then I ripped the wrong row and had to rip again. I was laughing at myself for mindlessly sewing and listening to the TV because I needed to pay more attention to the sewing and ripping! I think this one is very nice in the reproduction fabric that I bought to do some stars in. I have never used this type of fabric before but have admired it from afar...reminds me of a kitchen apron or something. Here is the link in case you like it http://members.tripod.com/~fvqg/05archiv/405.htm
Also had a visit from my best Deaf friend Rachel and her fiance Bryan today. They were here a few hours and it was nice to catch up with the since they live an about two hours away and I never seem to see them anymore. They promise to visit us in Arizona though! She is pregnant so I will be making another baby quilt for her before December.
I also did some packing and cleaning...not too long before we are gone, baby gone!

Kathy's OC, Moving to AZ, Hannah's Award and a Job Interview

First off thanks to those of you who tried to help me figure out why I could no longer see my pictures as I was composing. Today I finally pushed the right button (Compose at the top on the right) and it went out of "edit Html" mode which I had accidently pushed and apparently allows me to edit Html which I really don't need to do! So YAY I learned something new. Next thing I want to learn is how to write on my pictures...I love the blogs that do that but haven't figured that out yet either.


I finally took a picture of Kathy's fabrics for the Orange Crush. We used stash for the brown and red, she is sharing my indigo because I am pretty sure I bought too much since I could not decide between the two different ones, and we finally picked out her orange fabric which I love! She has 6 and a half of the step four blocks done...we have been busy and not much sewing has been happening but I am hoping she has time soon, or I will be helping her since we would like this step done and possibly the next one (I can dream) before we load of the van and she is off to Arizona on the 29th! Speaking of the van...
We decided to go with Penske after hearing several horror stories about recent UHaul trips people had taken. I have moved a million times and mostly have used UHaul without any problems (though one trip with my parents we had no AC in the van moving to AZ in May and it was HOT!) but just to be on the safe side we called Penske...turns out with our AAA discount they are cheaper anyway. So off we went to look at the 26 foot truck Kathy thought we would need (see her in the truck) and we decided it is TOO big! We downgraded to the 22 foot truck since she is going to be towing her car and her nephew will be keeping her company on the trip since I have to stay here for 10 more days for Hannah's graduation and orientation to college. They are bringing three of the dogs with them, and I will have one dog and one cat with me. We are nuts!

Kathy came to town with me on Friday for my last teaching class and we had time between things to grab lunch from Ray's (the BEST hot beefs and I never get there unless my favorite (and only) sister comes to town) and we stopped off at Carson Park for an impromtu picnic. The sun was shining and it was so quiet there. We took a few pictures of ourselves, and this was as good as it got. SMILE.
My daughter Hannah (in tan shirt on stage) got her Honors Cord from Chi Hi last Wed. night too. I am so proud of her. She does well in schoool and she works hard at Subway too. They decided to give her her nine foot party sub (for Grad party) for free as a graduation gift! I am pretty impressed with that as is she.
We went to the casino with Randy yesterday afternoon after packing a ton of stuff for moving....we actually all came out ahead! Not alot ahead, but we were there about four hours, entertained in style and left with money in our pockets! It was fun and we will miss hitting the casino now and then with Randy. When we got home I had a message on my machine (left on a Sat. at 5 PM) asking me for a phone interview for teaching ASL at a nearby high school in Arizona! I am really excited about it and think it could be a great job...different from teaching at a University (which I have done for the past six years) because there is more time with the students, they meet every day as opposed to once or twice a week and there is prep time and conference time built into my schedule! So cross your fingers they like my interview, and I like theirs!

Still Working on OC Step Four

I have spent a bit of time today working on the OC step 4. I have seventeen total blocks done...I couldn't resist heading out into the sunshine to lay them all out and take a picture, though I am sure Bonnie has something far more exciting in mind than this layout. It is so nice to see the blocks coming together! I plan to keep working on these this afternoon, nothing else in my day until tonight when I go to an awards banquet at my daughter's school that she was invited to.

OC Step 4's in Progress AND Starlight Wish Block Done

I somehow changed a setting so now when I add photos I see all kinds of letters and such until after I post the blog. Makes it hard to know which picture I am talking about but I don't know what I did to know how to change it back...UGH. If anyone knows feel free to comment me so I can change that! So I have a picture of my Mother's Day cake which was yummy and is now all gone.





I also completed the Starry-Eyed Block # 9 for my NewQuiltingClub group. Here is the link http://www.blockcentral.com/starlightwishblock.shtml if you are interested in this one. It went together really well and I like the colors and everything. The other picture that has all the piles of sewn fabrics is Step 4 of the OC for me and Kathy. They are awaiting ironing and getting put into the spinning star blocks! I am hoping to get some of them done yet this afternoon!

And a Great Day was Had by All!

Randy came over and he, Kathy, Hannah, Mac and I played Alibi for the first time. It took a little figuring out to get the directions, but it was a lot of fun. Randy was the one to try to guess, but in the end Hannah won. She has a tendency to be really logical with these games! It was worth the money and we will be playing it again. Do you have a favorite game or card game? I would love to know what it is...we are game people! It was a wonderful gift just to have two of my three kids home playing a game with me!
Kathy also went out and detailed my car! I have been wanting to get it in to be done, but it requires me emptying out a zillion things out of the car so I never seem to get it done. She did a great job and I was able to go through and throw out some of the junk that accumulated in my car since last October when I got it! Now it is almost travel ready for Arizona--we need to get it in for an oil change and check on the tires then it is all set!
Haven't sewn a lick today and I can hear the fabric calling me...

Kathy's Double Stack Done!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! We made egg brunch last night and threw it in the fridge for a hassle free breakfast this morning. Here is a picture and the recipe. This one is one my mother and I think her mother before me made for many a morning Holiday. The picture is the recipe doubled.

BREAKFAST CASSEROLE
1/2 cup Velveta cheese(8oz.)
1T. butter
1T. flour
salt and pepper
1 cup milk
Melt above into a sauce to pour over all but the bread. Beat 6 eggs, 1/2 cup Canadian bacon
1/8 cup onion(browned) Scramble in 1 and 1/2T. butter add 1/2 cup mushrooms and sauce. Put 1nad 1/2 slices bread on top, sprinkle with paprika. Refrigerate overnight, take out 30 minutes before baking at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serves 6.

Coleman called to tell me Happy Mother's Day late last night...I guess he wanted to be the first to tell me, and he knows I am a night person so I was up. That prompted the other kids to give me their gifts, etc. so we celebrated at 1 AM. I got these gorgeous flower, the cards in the picture and Hannah got me a Wisconsin Coffee/Tea mug so I would never forget Wisconsin while in Arizona. I have been drinking my coffee out of it all morning of course. Hannah also found me two cool Italian charms to work on my replacement charms since my whole bracelet was stolen. One says "I love you" and the other says "Mom" so I tried to take a picture of all the charms I have so far... but you can't really see the charms no matter what I tried to do..so will be doing that one again later on!
Kathy is almost finished with her quilt top for the Double Stack...I can't get to my machine to work on Step 4 of the OC and I am going nuts! LOL. Randy came over so I think we are going to play cards for awhile and then later we have Burgendy Beef to eat (in the crock pot now but I was out of Burgendy wine so I used Lambrusco..lol we will see how that works...so I guess it is Lambrusco Beef lol) and tonight I should get time to sew. Tomorrow is a crazy busy day but Tuesday there will be time if nothing else....