The ABC's of Me!

Sinta posted a fun little get to know ya thing called "The ABC's of Me" so I thought I would do one myself...it was kind of fun and kept me busy at work this afternoon, lol!

A- Age: 40-ish

B- Bed size: Queen

C- Chore you hate: cleaning the bathroom!

D- Dog's name: Joe is our black lab, Lombardi is our Rottie, Zoe is our Jack Russel mix that was supposed to be a chiuhauha, Rosey is our beagle, Daisy is our coon hound that was supposed to be a beagle mix and Bug is our chiuhauaha!

E- Essential food/item: Previously cherry chocolate chip ice cream, currently coconut light toasted greek yogurt

F- Favorite color: For many years it has been blue, but I really like purple and sometimes green too!

G- Gold or silver: Gold jewellery, silver furnishings

H- Height: 5'5 if I stretch it

I- I am: working towards being healthy!

J- Job: Sign language interpreter, I freelance a little, and work at a college and do video phone interpreting too (also an ASL teacher, but currently am not teaching)

K- Kids: I have three of my own and one honorary daughter from a previous relationship. Coleman is 27, is high functioning autistic and diabetic and lives at home, he is engaged to Lexi whoom we love, Hannah is 24 and is a Certified Public Accountant and lives in Wisconsin, and Mackenzie is 21, is working and planning to go back to college, and also lives in Wisconsin. My honorary daughter is Rachel, she lives in Norway with her fiance and their one year old son and is 23.

L- Living arrangements: We live in a two story house in Chandler, AZ. Love my house except for the kitchen which I would love to gut and redo!

M-Mom's name: Toni Lynn

N- Nickname: My mother has always called me Angela but apparently in kindergarten or first grade the teacher asked me if I had a nickname and I suddenly said Angie which no one had ever called me. Later I changed the spelling to Angi. Eventually I grew to really dislike that name and so tried to get people to call me Angela (my Grandma Char called me Angel!) but they would always shorten it to Angi so after one of the 19 moves we made before I graduated high school, I came up with Andee and that has been my nickname ever since. Now I usually tell people I am Angela and that is what they call me, if they try to shorten it I tell them my nickname is Andee!

O- Overnight hospital stay: I am hard of hearing and had ear surgery years ago, other than that when I had each of my kids. Other than the chronic migraines I get, I am super lucky health wise!

P- Pet peeve: As a video relay interpreter, I hate it when people make a phone call but aren't paying attention to their call! Sometimes I interpret away what a machine or person is saying and then they are like what, huh? Ummm you must pay attention to your call you missed it!

Q- Quote from a movie: "You must be November" from Sweet November.

R- Right or left handed: Right though many folks in my family are ambidextrous. Comes from my mom's dad's side.

S- Siblings: I have a sister two years younger than I and a younger brother, 12 years younger than me.

T- Time you wake up: I am SO not a morning person! I get up as late as I can though I am exercising in the morning before work these days! On the other hand, I can stay up super late and love my nights!

U- Unique thing about your car: It is an Element, they aren't making them anymore so I guess that is unique.

V- Vegetable you hate: Cooked Spinach

W- Ways you run late: I am almost never late. I tend to be 15 minutes early or I feel I am going to be late!

Y- Yummy food you make: I make lots of family recipes that are really good! I have a cookbook with them in it on Tastebook and have gifted them to my kids and family. A favorite is Pork chops and mushroom gravy!

Z- Zoo favorite: We took a personal tour of the elephant area at the zoo with my nephew several years ago. It was so cool and made me really appreciate elephants. I have a hard time seeing animals in captivity though...

Tuesday Night Sewing

 I was home from work by four today and I got right on Angela's Broken Dishes block in green for the RSC Challenge.  I had all these hst's left over as bonus hst's from a previous project so it went together pretty quickly!  While digging those hst's out, I found two leftover nine patches (from Carolina Crossroads) and realized they were the right size for another Flagstones block.  I think this one will become a mug rug down the line.

Kathy was working from home (new job--she is training eight hours a day so what is a girl to do?) so I decided to pull out a long leftover project so I could use of the rest of the cut fabrics.  Doubt you remember this quilt from 2010--

But today I whipped up some more snowball blocks and then put a new top together like this:

I like the first one better, but this allowed me to use what I had.  Still have a few blocks leftover but they will find there way into a back or a charity pile or something, glad to cross this one off my UFO list!

More Green, with a Side of Purple and a Flagstones block!

Framed Pinwheel

I spent some time during my long weekend catching up on my green blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I cannot believe how much fun these 6 inch blocks are!  They whip up so quickly and I really feel accomplished after each one.

Friendship Scrap

Nelson's Victory

Carrie Nation

Angela posted a Cactus Pot that she had kitted up in purple, I decided to go ahead and do mine in purple too!

Cactus Pot

So here are all the purple blocks from last month.

And here are all the green blocks sans the Carrie Nation one I made tonight.  I snapped a new picture but it was blurry and my phone is dead and plugged in in the other room, LOL.

Here are all the blocks so far as of the other night too.  I know there will be sashing in this quilt and pretty sure I will mix up all the colors too, but it will either be huge or there will be more than one at this rate!  I did add in all the churn dash blocks I made at quilting on the rim...I decided they were too big for what I wanted and I may use some or all of them in this quilt since they are the same size.

I also sewed up the last green lozenge tonight (actually did a ton of them as leaders and enders this weekend!) and my total is now up to 265!  The goal is 405 so I am happy to say I am over half way there and the year isn't half over quite yet!  No hurrying to get them done at the end of the year I hope!  I really think doing a color each month helps me go through all my scraps and gives me a goal I can reach so it works well.  Not sure why it took me too long to copy those of you who were already doing it!

I got up early this morning (to exercise before going to mom's for a bbq/pool party) and had just enough time to sew up the May Ooh Rah! QOV and then this fun block from Quiltmaker.  It was from Bonnie's column and I thought it would look great in Packer colors...I could see a whole quilt like this!

Flagstones from Quiltmaker March/April 2014

Ooh-Rah! Catching up on a QOV!

You may recall I promised to work on a QOV BOM this year and I made January's block...then I put it away and did not get back to it.  It has been nagging at me to dig it out and just get to it, so for Memorial Day (and because I am so inspired by Kevin the Quilter and Alycia with all they do for QOV) I got back to it!

 I did not make the stars for this block because I wanted to catch up and they look a bit crazy to me, so here is my modified block!

 I will be sprinkling in more white as I go so hopefully this will all come together in the end!

Edit* Got up this Memorial Day and sewed up the fifth block, so now I am caught up on this BOM.  Enjoy your Memorial Day!

 Kathy also did her bit for charity today.  She made this kiddo quilt for AZ Blankets for Kids.

Classic Meets Modern for March--Drunkard's Path Inspired Block

I attempted this block some time around March and discovered I had not printed my templates the right size so I gave it up mid stream.  I decided to dig out my new ruler and low and behold it is for the 12 inch finished block!  That made life much easier and not sure why I didn't look at it in the first place!

 I played around with the layout and started sewing...

 And here is my block.  It isn't perfect, but it is alright by me!

And now I am finally all caught up with the Classic Meets Modern QAL!  I am linking up to the March linkup at Sew at Home Mummy's blog!

Classic Meets Modern QAL--Desden Inspired May Block

 I decided to use my Rosie's Quilt Company ruler which was a little larger than the one provided since the last template I tried was printed the wrong size and required a redo!  I figure it is my quilt so as long as the block is the right size it is all good!

 I LOVE how this block came out!  Really fun, and now I am excited to use the larger ruler to make a baby quilt similar to this block...I need more time in the day, but really cute and easy to make this dresden inspired modern block!

So here are the first four blocks (missing March's Drunkard's Path....up next!) and linking up with Sew at Home Mummy for May!

Green, Green, Green

Wednesday morning before work I managed to ride my bike for thirty minutes (trying to do this daily, but now and then I cannot manage it since I like to sleep as late as possible!) and then I quickly sewed up Shoo Fly and Thrifty so I could get caught up on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler blocks that were posted while I was in Vegas.  I love that each of these blocks is usually sewn up in under 15 minutes, even with the cutting.  Really makes me think I can sneak in a little sewing here and there, rather than wait for the weekend!

Shoo Fly



I have done a few leaders and enders lozenges in green as well and the wall is growing green!
I have a big pot of chili on the stove to eat this weekend and I am so happy I can just stay home and sew, sew, sew!  I also have a Quilt Cam to catch up on from when I was in Vegas!  Really looking forward to relaxing at home :)

Ring Around the Hexies!

Ros also quilted my Ring Around the Hexies wall hanging!  I cannot wait to hang this one above the bed so I can stare at it daily.  Not sure if I made binding already and if not, what color I should bind it in.  Love the scrappiness of this and think the combination designers of Bonnie Hunter and Mickey Depre cannot be beat!  I am happy with my first work with pieced hexies, I know there are more in my future!

Ros custom quilted it with Superior Art Studio's "Arabian Sand" thread and in the bobbin she used Superior Bottom Line thread. 

My backing.

Ros custom made me a label so I don't have to add one, I always number my quilts though so I may have to add that myself but I am tickled this label won't wash out--very sturdy! 
Lost one pound last week and .8 this week for a total of 33!  Pretty happy with that considering all the buffets on vacation.  :)

Kathy's 35th Ave. Kaleidoscope of Kolor is Quilted!

You may remember last year's 35th Ave. BOM quilt--Kathy and I each made one (mine is still waiting for me to fix that last border one of these days!) and this one is hers.  Ros quilted it and did a great job.  Thank goodness this year's 35th Ave. BOM is not so big!

Ros even made a label for it!  Kathy is gifting it to her neice Bree in New York.

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada!

 Well we made it to Vegas and back (and stopped at the Hoover Dam along the way) and had a really good time.  I wanted to share a few highlights with you--warning the only crafty thing that happened at all was a wee bit of dishcloth knitting in the car on the way there and back!  I had good intentions and packed embroidery and hand sewing (hexies) but neither saw the light of day or the bright neon lights of Vegas!

 Kathy, me, Lexi and Coleman posed in front of the Vegas sign!  Believe it or not that was one of the highlights for me!  We visited the Titanic Expedition.  It was better than we could have hoped.  They had replica staterooms and a hallway of doors as if you were on the ship as well as a night view from the deck (with mirrors on each end so it seemed like it was a huge ship in that little space) and they had this stairway area which we got our picture taken on.  It was beautiful.  I could not stop looking around--everything was so intricate including the floors.  We could not take pictures in there ourselves, so I got this picture from the net (Sims game!) but this was what the tile looked like on the floor...so elegant and quilt worthy!

 They also had us pose on the bow with a green screen for this photo.  We were crammed in there as it was not to size.

Another highlight of the trip was getting to see Mama Mia!  We wandered over to the Tropicana and were not disappointed in the show.  It was good, we did some singing and even Coleman seemed to like it!

I was quite excited to cross both Las Vegas and Mama Mia off my bucket list...then I was talking to my mom tonight (they just bought a new house and are moving, yes again) and mom mentioned that when I was around five or so she took us to Vegas and we stayed at Circus Circus and saw the show, etc.  I don't remember it at all (and I have a good childhood memory bank, lol) and cannot believe I had always thought I had never been to Vegas!  I am so blessed that my mom is still around to remind me of these things--I wonder what else I don't remember?

Green Green Green!

We had our second annual Mother's Day Brunch at our place last Sunday.  My sister was sick and didn't make it, and my sister in law had other plans and Ben was with his mom, but the rest of us had Egg Brunch and enjoyed some time together.  I sent home Aloe Vera plants with my mom for both absentees and herself.  My great grandma Myrt always had an Aloe Vera plant and I distinctly remember any boo boo at her house would warrant a trip to this plant so we could put it on the owie.   I thought we should continue that tradition for future little ones!  So since I gave them each an African Violet last year (which reminds us all of my Great Grandpa Rushman who had tons of them) I think this is another annual tradition, a plant for each of us.

So I have been exercising for 20-30 minutes every morning and then again 50-60 at night daily for weeks now.  Today I skipped this morning because I really wanted to sew these two blocks before we leave for Vegas tomorrow morning!  I am working all day (here now waiting to punch in, I use every minute, lol) and have to get a pedi with Lexi and CJ tonight (his first).  I am all packed but the car isn't and there will be a zillion last minute things to do before we leave, so here the green blocks continue for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  This one is Roman Steps and went together quite quickly!

 And this one is supposed to be Box Kite, but I turned the corner pieces (that is what happens when I do the color placement the opposite of Angela!) so I will most likely keep it but may make another one if I find some time.

 Have a few more lozenges done too.  The green is growing!  Linking up with SoScrappy!

We bought tickets to see Mama Mia in Vegas and see the Titanic exhibition, I cannot wait!