Orange Crush is Done Done!

I have still be crazy busy with work and not sure when it will slow down and give me a life back. I wish I was less of a perfectionist, but I tend to give 110 percent when others do just fine with a mere 80 percent...sigh.

I haven't done much sewing and plan to get to some on Sunday or Monday since it is a holiday here. My mom and stepdad are moving to Texas (now that I am finally near them--trying not to take THAT personal) so last weekend and again this weekend I am driving 2.5 hours to their place to help them pack and such. They are pretty excited about going though I am bummed. I guess I can't make other people want what I want (some family closeness) and thankfully I do have my sister and brother and nephews here and Kathy. My best friend besides Kathy is moving in with us in a week or so. Randy had moved to Wisconsin in 2000 because of me and really missed me and Kathy and so he decided what the heck and is on his way...he is currently in Ohio visiting his family and will head to Tennessee to see his daughter before coming our way. So I have "family" there too!

I got the OC's back a few weeks ago and last night I got the last of the binding put on. It was a great activity to do during the Olympics. I am happy with how it all turned out and hope that Megan loves it when it comes her way this Christmas. Bonnie at Quiltville is starting another mystery (Old Tobacco Road) tomorrow and I will be following along, but don't think I will be doing it unless I absolutely can't resist. I should get started on some ABC kid quilts for Christmas presents next. Oh so here are the pics of my OC!

A corner up close...didn't Steph do a great job with the quilting? I love it!
The label
The back...what I had that sort of matched!
You can't quite see the entire thing..I will try to get another good picture in better light and with the corners in there but this was the best we could do tonight! This quilt grows and grows on you I think. It is definately ORANGE and even the red looks a bit orange to me.

I did manange to cut my ant and beach ball fabric for more ABC swaps...here they are before they got mailed out. I can't wait to see what I get back and then I can get to sewing these two and two from a past swap for Christmas presents. They should go together pretty quickly. Hopefully there will be something sewing wise to report on Sunday!

Cupcake Swap, Starry-Eyed Block Prize, and Strip Quilt Done!

Here is the crest for the school I now work for. GO JAGUARS!

I received my cupcake swap from Anne Heidi of Norway! Hers is on the way to her still...I love everything she included and know she put alot of thought into these goodies! My favorite item is the cupcake pincusion with pins in it...it is adorable and I have always wanted one of these! It will be loved for a very long time.

She asked if there were any goodies I wanted from Norway after I told her I had visited in 2004 and I quickly replied Daim bars! They are the best candy bar I have ever tasted...sort of like a Heath bar, but much better...the chocolate is so smooth and the toffee is thin and tastes great! I got candy bars and bite size bits of the candy bars and have been enjoying them since the package arrived.

Also I got several spools of really cute ribbon, stickers with cupcakes on them that are really cute and 3-D and three pieces of fabric with cupcakes on them. They are all so sweet and I am one lucky recipient. Thanks Anne Heidi and Sharon for hosting this great swap! It was my first blog swap and was alot of fun!

I am happy to say that we got back all four of the quilts we sent out to our longarmers. The Orange Crush quilts went to Steph in Kingman and came back fast and gorgeous! I already finished the binding on Kathy's niece's quilt...she got married last Saturday and we will mail this to her this week after we get her new address.

I started the binding on mine, but then Rachel's Outside the Box quilt and my strip quilt arrived from Jen in Rice Lake, WI on Friday so last night I did the binding on the smaller strip quilt and it is on the back of my couch! My thumb is tired and has holes in it, but I will keep working on the other two. Rachel is coming to visit us for Thanksgiving (from Norway) since her dad is moving here in a few weeks so she will get hers then! YAY! The other OC we will give to Megan for Christmas since no wedding seems forthcoming and we want to be fair to the neices (there is competion there).
Here you can see the backing and the label.
This was all made from leftover scraps from Kathy's sister JoAnn's quilt and then the borders from stash. I love the color it adds to the living room!
I was one of the winners of the Starry-Eyed Block challenge and so Sandy sent me this card and these four fabulous fabrics! My name was drawn from the jar since I did all but one of these blocks..the one is still waiting for me to do! Thanks Sandy for encouraging us to challenge ourselves...now to put those blocks into a top or two!
Angela

Finally a Post!

I feel like I am out of the blogger loop. I have so many to read and emails too! I went back to work about two weeks ago and it has been wild. So darn busy and to top it off have had some migraines and all that so have been working, sleeping, working, sleeping! I am hoping to get in the swing of things and keep up with everything I enjoy! To top all that off Kathy's nephews are here for five days while their mom is at her sister's wedding in NY. Here they are playing Play Doh which has so far been the single most occupying thing they do. They are four and five and one of them talks nonstop and I mean nonstop! Every two seconds I hear "Aunt Andee, Aunt Andee" lol. I am enjoying them but will not mind sending them back home to their mother too! She has two others who are younger than these two also. (Long story but she is not these twos' bio mom but is their MOM).

In quilting news...I got back both my Orange Crush quilts LIGHTNING FAST from Steph in Kingman. She did an amazing job with them and we love them! These pics are of mine and will be for mom that is at the wedding for Christmas since has not announced a wedding date yet. It still has to be bound.

The other one is for the niece getting married. It is about half bound since I did a bunch last night after the boys went to bed. We were hoping to send it on the plane, but there was no way I could get it done feeling as I did so we sent a card and will mail the quilt. I hope she and her new hubby like it. Today is their wedding day, send up a prayer for a long lasting marriage for these two.

I have now been to two cool quilt shops in the area, and recently discovered another one right near my work that I haven't visited yet. At one of these shops I found this cool thread catcher that I had to have because it has the fruit ladies fabric on it! They didn't have any fabric in stock, but plan to call me when they get some in. I want some of this cool fabric though I have no idea what I will use it in! It is awesome though and I am happy to have the thread catcher and pin cushion.
A few weekends ago we also made a quick stop at the Goodwill and Savers stores...we were looking for a few toys to help entertain the boys (who knew Play Doh would keep them busy for hours at a time!) and I found this book. I have only flipped through it, but it was worth $1.99! I love a good deal!


My birthday was last Wednesday (the first day of students at school here and the day the boys came!) and I think we forgot to take a picture of my awesome cake but here is the pattern and fabric Kathy got me! I always email her wishes...things I would like to have but can live without usually and then I wind up forgetting what I sent her and she often picks stuff from what I send and I am totally suprised! She is the best gift getter! I love how this pattern looks and will add to to be to be done list!

Today we are going to my sister's house to celebrate out bdays (hers and Kathy's were the 3rd) though Kathy is working....boys can swim and we can all hang out together. Oh and my sister's LOVED her star table runner. She immediately put it on her table and dragged everyone to look at it all day. I am glad it was a hit! After all she is my favorite sister!

I won some kind of prize from the NewQuiltingClub for all my starry-eyed blocks. Can't wait to see what it is...I still have one star block to go and then I need to figure out how to put them into a quilt.

We are still waiting for two quilts back from our gal in Wisconsin too! Oh and I mailed my cupcake swap stuff to my partner in Norway. I hope she likes what I put in there!