Wasie's Wonderings

Meet the Newest!

2011-04-17T18:46:00.009-05:00

Here is a pic or two of our newest family members, Ricky & Lucy. I had several ideas for names for the "twins" but I was vetoed on all accounts--merino & cashmere, methyl & ethyl, and knit & purl. So Ricky & Lucy, it is. After all, if I want help cleaning the litter box, I have to keep the troops somewhat happy.

They have been alternating between being cuddly and cute and driving us batty. Sounds just like kids to me!! We send two off to college and now take in two lil' kitties. ha ha ha. And boy do they love yarn! And they are no snobs either. Love every color and fiber content. Well, it is more fun if it's moving though! Lucy has even been on Ravelry already!

I started a shawl this past week and left a long tail at the provisional cast on as directed. The kitties got ahold of it and my 7-inch tail is now only about 3 inches long! I guess I will have to add an extra piece of yarn in to do the grafting at the end--only about 4 stitches or so. Here is a progress pic. It is very colorful. I'd love to have it done for Easter, but I'm not sure I can do it. Funny thing is the rows keep getting longer!! LOL I have less than a week so we'll see if I can do it. I have ordered some longer needles as these are getting too short. They are only 24 inches. I have 40 inch ones coming in a day or two.

Happy Stitches!
Wasie

Christmas Update

2009-01-07T15:31:00.013-06:00

I have been most remiss in posting lately so I will try to update quickly.

In November, I made a slew of pillowcases for the church bazaar. They were fun and fast! I think I will try to do some more for next year. All of them sold plus I did one extra.

Pillowcases for the church bazaar

For the 9-patchers, we swapped our usual nine patch blocks. The theme was anything goes. I used Christmas fabrics again since I had them out. We did Christmas fabrics plus white tone-on-tone in November. I figured that would get us lots of Christmas nine patches for a Christmas quilt. Plus we all made a large 12 1/2" block in a Christmas theme for each other. Mine was a pieced star. I thought I would never choose! I changed my mind about 20 times. I finally had to go with something that I thought I could get done!! We also made little ornaments for each other. I used the extra triangle squares from my block to make pinwheels and sewed a gold tassel on the bottom and a gold cord on the top and a pearl bead in the center. It was too bad I put the bead in the center, though. It covered up my piecing--it actually came out right!! LOL! If I wasn't going to put the bead there it would've been atrocious!

12 1/2" Christmas block for the 9-patchers swap

Then here in early January, I just finished this cute mini tote bag for a special lil' gal whose birthday is this month! It is sooo cute. I think I should start making these for the bazaar next November right now!!

Mini Charmer tote bag

I started a Christmas table runner, but it didn't quite make it. It is almost finished and I should probably finish it so it would be ready for next year!! I am also nearly finished with my third pair of socks!! I bought some sock blockers with my Christmas money so I am excited to use them after I finish this pair. Here is a preview. This way you can compare them with the photo of them after they are blocked!!

Lucy Neatby's "Simply Splendid Socks" pattern-Lang Jawoll Aktion yarn

Happy Crafting,

Wasie

8-D

Socks #2 — All Through!

2008-10-16T21:59:00.004-05:00

Whoo Hooo! I finished my second pair of socks today! And none too soon either as everyone is wanting a pair! Well, everyone meaning in my family... They are the only ones brave enough to wear something I made! ha ha. I suppose they figure it's safe; they can always hide it in a shoe if they need to!! ;o/ Here are two pics.

I think they look a little washed out. They are pastel, but the camera flash is making them even lighter then they should be.

I have the utter joy of being on fall break today and tomorrow so I am off work two extra days!! That's how I had time to finish my toes. And I went to the doctor for a little check up. They did a bone scan to check on my bone density. I have been taking boniva or fossamax and tons of calcium, 1200 mg a day for years. Well, I confess that I did not pass my test with flying colors! Yikes. I am supposed to make sure that I do "weight-bearing" exercise now a minimum of 3 times per week. This is truly supposed to help. Sigh... I will get out my daughters' swim weights and start with those. I can always use some more upper body strength anyhow!

Tomorow I am going to do more fun things and try to get some stash pictures posted on Ravelry. I also have a wip I wanted to put on there too.

Have a great fall!

Wasie

:o)

Special Delivery!

2008-10-04T09:20:00.008-05:00

I received the "Butterfly Blooms" quilt back from the quilter on Thursday! My DH went and picked it up for me—thank goodness! Then I worked Thursday and Friday evening at sewing on the binding and hand stitching it to the back. I had considered doing the entire thing with a sewing machine, but I just like the hand stitched look so much better. The one thing I didn't like though was sewing black with black thread! Yuck. It is so hard to see. (Or is that age creeping up on me? Naw....)

However, I worked and pricked my lil' fingers to the bone and managed to get it finished!! :o) We even were able to get packed too! And bright and early Saturday morning we were off to Nacogdoches. The quilt looks great on her bed! And they have their beds raised off the floor about 4 feet so they can put things under them. She has her refrigerator and dresser under hers. So when you come into the room her bed just brightens it up. Here's the photos!

For those of you who were asking: the fabrics are all those Andover dimples fabrics! Every one of them--even the backing. They blend so nicely. I just love 'em! There are sooooo many colors!! And the pattern is from Cozy Quilt Shop. It's one of their Strip Club Patterns.

I think I would like to make her a throw pillow or two to match with the flower block on it to dress up her bed. Purple is THE color at SFA so I'll be sure and use a lot of purple in it!

Here is Jess on her bed in her dorm! She at least makes her bed! Well, it was made when we came!! So all we had to do was throw the quilt on top! Parents weekend was lots of fun. We were able to spend time with her and meet some of her friends. Oh and mom even helped with some chemistry homework! How about that!! Meanwhile dad did some computer updates on her laptop. So we kept him busy too.

Now I have to finish binding another quilt I received back from the quilter about a month ago for the other daughter! She is feeling a touch left out... I think she misses her sister.

Here are some Happy Blocks that I made up for some block swaps.

These are for Sept. The theme was 30 prints. The outside border had to be the 30s fabric! And the inside square had to be solid. BTW-I could not find pink, yellow or purple to match. I was solid challenged. And I just didn't want to do them all "cream"--ya know?

Then I co-hosted the October Happy Block Swap with Linda. Our theme was "Fun Food!" The center square had to be a fabric with a food that is fun to eat like a snack food, dessert, junk food, etc. You get the idea. The border fabrics could be anything that worked with it. BTW-I chose the theme... So I hope you enjoy it...

I have mexican food, BBQ, margaritas, and ice cream cones. Pretty fun, huh? I hope the gals who won, Barb & Gerda, enjoy their quilts!! I just might make one for myself!! LOL No calories!!

Happy Quilting,

Wasie

Off to be quilted!

2008-09-14T23:00:00.003-05:00

Jess dorm quilt top is finished and dropped off at the quilter's. (Some day I'll have a long arm but that's another story...) I asked her to have it done pretty quickly so that I could get it back and bound in time for parent's weekend at SFA! I may be doing some handwork in the car on the trip down, but she'll get it! Here's some pics of it laid out on the queen-sized bed in the guest room. It certainly came out bright! ;oD

When it is all finished I'll get someone or a couple someones to hold it and we'll do a nice photo or two. I also want to get some of it on her bed in her dorm room and with her too! The top was totally put together using 2 1/2 inch strips. It's a cozy quilt shop pattern called butterfly blooms. They have the best patterns! I always like them.

I am busy finishing up some Happy Blocks for the September and October swaps so I will post some photos when they are finished. But now I have to get to bed as 5:30 am comes pretty early! I have to get Michelle to the pool by 6 am to swim tomorrow morning.

Night, night.

Wasie

Marmalade

2008-08-07T17:20:00.006-05:00

Here are some pics and info about my cat Marmalade. You can see by looking at him how he got his name!
Here he is helping me organize patches for an "I spy" quilt.

He has some interesting napping positions!

"Now I'm comfortable!"

"Well, maybe this is better?"

"Hey, man, turn off the lights! Can't you see I'm sleeping here?"

He also sits outside the shower and waits for you to finish. Then goes in it, yes the shower, afterwards and licks the warm water up off the floor of the stall! He just loves water--well, to a point I'm sure. He hasn't taken a dip in our pool yet! But he plays in the water dish that he and the dog share. It is a little play pool for him! He'll play in the toilet too if you give him a chance. Yuck!

On that lovely note, I am going to change the topic. Thank goodness! And show you another project I did this summer, that I neglected to post when I made it! It's a table runner out of Kaffe Fassett fabrics that I did for a friend's daughter who got married this summer. In fact, the daughter is a friend of ours too. And so is the groom and his family! They all go to our church. They are a great young couple. We all just love 'em. They will be living in New Mexico!

Rose & Derek's Tablerunner

Buenos Nochos,
Wasie
:oD

2nd Socks!

2008-08-07T10:33:00.005-05:00

No, they're not done yet...

I am doing too many things at once!! So I am knitting when I can--like waiting for my daughter at her flute lesson--stuff like that--and finishing up my older daughter's quilt for her dorm bed! Yikes! She informed me that she would leave for college EVEN IF IT WASN'T DONE! Now how about that! Curses! Foiled again! So now I am on a deadline... I just have a few blocks left and then I put the top together. I'll put a pic up of the top when it is done. I LUV IT! Picked up the backing fabric yesterday. I am glad that it is twin-sized since it is looking like I will have to machine quilt it myself on my sewing machine. So glad I had it tuned up!!

Well, I digress, back to the socks. I am making them out of Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Cotton. It's a bamboo/cotton/nylon mix color dreamy #0142 and is very soft. Needles are crystal palace US 2 dpns. My gauge was 7 st/in. I am just doing a 2x2 rib for the cuff and doing them basically like the last pair. I actually did try a pair in between these two but I messed up on the heel and ended up taking it all out--both socks. And I had done a fancier cuff--the rib was swirled. I decided it was too much for that yarn anyway--it was self-striping--and I don't think I cast on enough stitches. However, I think I figured out the whole heel business, what I had done wrong and all. (I couldn't get the stitches back on the needle to save the one sock, so I tore 'em both out. I live too far away from a yarn shop to just "pop in". It's a major drive down.) Anyhow new socks, new yarn, new beginning for socks #2. AND I have promised myself that if I am stuck that I WILL go down to the Woolie Ewe and ask Sue for help this time. So there. Here are the cuffs partway done.

Socks #2! Panda Cotton Dreamy

I have not been posting ANY of my quilting projects either so I will post at least one pic of one of them today. This is Peng's quilt. If you recall, Peng was our Chinese foreign exchange student last year. She left very early in June for China. She will return to the US in the fall for college, but not to Texas! :-( She is going to a school in Oregon. We are hoping to get to see her though at Christmas break.

Peng on the left; my oldest daughter Jess on the right.

Peng's Quilt is a quick and easy "Take 5" pattern by teachers-pet. If you need a pattern that you can do quickly this is it! I chose Peng's favorite colors and prints. Hopefully, she will enjoy using it at college.

Smile!

Wasie

8-D

My first socks!

2008-08-05T20:58:00.004-05:00

This past May I took a beginning sock knitting class at the Woolie Ewe. It was so much fun! We had one class a week for 3 weeks and homework in between. The socks we made were just basic socks. I did a 2x2 rib for my cuffs and then just stockinette on the foot. The yarn I used was a great hand dyed merino wool from Peru: Hacho shade 301. I used double pointed needles US 5.

(They probably need to be blocked... Haven't really figured that out yet.)

A perfect fit! Warm & comfy!

Now I'm working on my second pair in between quilting projects!! I need to put up some photos of those too!

Have a great day!

Wasie

Squaring Up a Quilt Block

2008-07-06T18:24:00.004-05:00

Sorry I have not been doing my usual blogging of late. Life. You know...
Anyhow, I have prepared these directions on how to square up a quilt block using ONE RULER for all sizes of blocks! This should save some of you some mulah! You can do this with any brand of rotary cutting square ruler! I am not advocating one brand over any other. This was just the one I happened to have that was large enough to do this!

Remember to click on the jpeg and it will get larger!

All squared up!
Wasie

One-a-week

2008-01-21T15:12:00.000-06:00

Flirtations is a wonderful new line of fabric by Sandy Gervais. I just love her style! I just had to make something with it so Sharon and I both are making table runners. Here's mine:

I think it is so fun! I'd like to do placemats, and a wall hanging, and a quilt for the living room etc out of this line! Sigh... so much fabric, sew little time!

A week ago Friday I purchased fabric for a quilt. Took it home and promptly began cutting it up. On Tuesday, I called Mary and managed to get ahold of her and told her that I needed this quilt done this week. She said she could do it if she had it by Wed morning. So that night I got the backing ready for it and I was able to get Paul to bring it over to her Wednesday at 9 am when she opened. I was so shocked though, when she called me on my cell phone that afternoon to tell me that it was done! Since I only had "check-in" for labs this past week, they didn't take the full 4 hours and I was finished earlier than usual and could leave to arrive in Sherman before 5 to pick it up! That just left binding! The quilt was finished on Thursday-a week after I started it. My family has decided that it is a record for me! Of course, I did have help with the machine quilting part.

The reason that I needed it in a week is it is a gift, of course, for some friends who are moving down near San Antonio. I am actually going to give it to them on Wednesday evening. Here are some photos of it.

It uses the "Take Five" quilt pattern which is why it was so fast and easy. Plus it wasn't too large to get finished either. There are 5 main fabrics in the body of the quilt: music, water, marbles, blue kaleidoscope, & fireworks. I chose the fabrics not only to "go together" but also because they have some special meaning for the family for whom the quilt was made. Music: both of them were involved in the choir and special music in our church. He was also our accompanist. Water: last summer, she was in charge of "splashdown" a free water carnival our church sponsors for the community. Marbles: this past year, they were given a foster son. Blue kaleidoscope fabric: reminded me of stained glass and they helped with putting the "stained glass look" on our sanctuary windows and the colors were similar to them also. Fireworks: they are alot of fun! And at choir sometimes they shoot zingers at each other. Well, I hope they enjoy it! It was fun finding all of those fabrics!

Gosh, and if I could keep doing one quilt a week for the rest of the year, how many quilts would I have done by Dec 31st? It boggles the mind!

Happy Calculating!
Wasie

Be Warm!

2008-01-05T21:43:00.000-06:00

This week, one of my friends, Sharon, and I drove down to The Quilt Asylum and picked up our first installment in our 12 month BOM — Nancy Halvorsen's Be Attitudes. I worked on my block starting yesterday and finished it up today. It is "be warm". Each one of the months is "be .... something."

This was the first time that I had blanket stitched on my sewing machine around little pieces with curves and corners that were tight and angles etc. I made up a little practice piece using scrap fabric with an "m" and 2 mittens — thought maybe I could get some use out of that... And I diddled around with the length and width of my stitch. Well, I thought I was doing okay on the lil' practice piece, so off I went on the snowman! Aargh! I did not like it! The scarf, in particular, looked terrible. I ended up finishing stitching the entire block, then pulling out the stitching on the entire scarf and redoing the whole scarf. I used a slightly narrower stitch this time on the scarf and that seemed to help plus my experience from doing the rest of the picture and all of those letters probably helped too. Also, see that strategically placed green button...it's my favorite. I loved that it was a wide button — hides all kinds of things... There are also little cream shiny buttons that go on the ends of the snowflake arms, but I was afraid that I would just have to take them off later for quilting, etc. I will probably have to take off the carrot nose and the green button, but I just couldn't resist putting them on!

Well, if you're tempted to join me, the website for the BOM is The Quilt Asylum. They will ship them to you mail order each month if you can't get to the shop to pick them up!

Be Warm,
Wasie
;o)

Tote Bag, Tote Bag, Everywhere a Tote Bag...

2008-01-05T21:15:00.000-06:00

I have truly been the tote bag queen lately. And every time I make one, my daughters go, "Oh, I want one like that!" Using the Charm Party Tote pattern by Quilts Illustrated, I ended up making 6 different tote bags. I truly think I have the pattern memorized now! Three of them were for the church bazaar; then 2 more were ordered from that and I finally was able to make 1 for a gift to give from us! Here's picks of some of them.

These three were the first 3 for the church bazaar.

This one is a gift for Grandma Pat.

Then I made a little purse for Peng from a pattern by This n That. And a Jelly Roll tote for my sister-in-law Linda for Christmas. I can't seem to locate a photo of Peng's purse right now, but here's Linda's jelly roll tote.

The jelly roll was a fabric collection called shangri la. I have enough strips left to make one more bag, and now that I know what I'm doing it should go faster!

Happy Toting,
Wasie

Hey! Where'd November go?

2008-01-01T23:19:00.000-06:00

The pics of the November Happy Blocks never got posted!
Here they are. The theme was Christmas.

Ho, ho, ho. Merrrrry Christmas.

Oh, and a Happy New Year everybody!!!
Wasie

the stockings were hung...

2007-12-26T22:24:00.000-06:00

For Christmas, our fireplace would not be complete, if Peng, our exchange student from China, did not have a stocking to hang! She had never celebrated Christmas before so the customs of hanging stockings and decorating trees with ornaments were all new to her. I made her a Christmas stocking for Santa to fill for her and to take home as a momento of her first Christmas in America.

(clicking on photo will make it larger)
I started with a pattern in "Fast, Fun & Easy Christmas Stockings" by Susan S. Terry and modified it to work with some of the Christmas strips that I had received in a swap. Then I added buttons: a gold glittery star, Christmas lights on the tree, and presents in the snow. I also glued on some garland. Some buttons were added by her name also. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. Santa came and filled it with all sorts of goodies too!!

On Christmas day, I finally finished my happy blocks for the month of December. The theme was jewel tones. The centers were off-white and the outside borders were jewel tones. Here's what I came up with:

I decided I had better use my time wisely so I went right on ahead and completed my January blocks as well. The theme is winter blues. I found some fabric with dogs playing with snowmen in the snow—sledding, falling, building snowmen etc. I fussy cut the centers from this fabric so they are all different and then cut the borders from 3 different blue fabrics. Here's a shot of 3 of these:

Hope everyone had a grrreat holiday! And keep the spirit of Christmas and the memory of Christ's birth in your heart all the year through!
Wasie

Fun Fabrics...

2007-10-29T11:20:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share this fun fabric that they have at the Quilt Asylum. I don't do that very often, but I think you would get a kick out of this! Wouldn't it make a great backing? I will have to get some!!

Oh, their website is www.thequiltasylum.com and the fabric is called wranglers. It's in the New Additions right now. Don't buy it out on me, please....

The gals from the Quilt Asylum -and probably every other quilt shop in the country- are at Quilt Market buying & ordering all the newest & coolest stuff for the next season. Wouldn't that just be so much fun? Of course, I don't know how they ever decide! Everything looks so great, and you can't get it all! I'm sure they are dead tired when they get back.

I am fighting a headache today and monitoring a test for my students right now this very instant!! Wow, huh! Of course, that means I have to grade them all.... I printed them on halloween colored paper. ha ha ha ha....

I haven't decided if or what I will dress up for on Wednesday for halloween this year. I am not feeling good today so it is not a good day to pick!

BOO!
Wasie

Charmed, I'm sure.

2007-10-20T22:36:00.000-05:00

I finished my surprise to take to church tomorrow. Well, nearly. I need some matte board for the bottom and I don't have any.
It's a tote bag made with charm squares. The pattern is from Quiltsillustrated.com and is called Charm Party Tote.
Here's the pics.
Front
Back
Inside
The fabric I used was from a collection called "Decorative Color and Contrast" by Marcus Brothers. The photos make the lining and handles look more orangey red than they are. The color is a soft medium peach tone. The colors in general are more muted than they are tending to look. We'll see what the gals at church think about it for the bazaar next month. Maybe I can get another 1 or 2 finished by then--especially now that I know what I'm doing and I have the details worked out! And I need to get that matte board for the bottom....

Happy Sewing,
Wasie
:o)

Whew.... life goes on.

2007-10-19T23:50:00.000-05:00

October Happy Blocks are in! Here's the picks.

The fabric is from Moda's "Fall Back in Time" line designed by Sandy Gervais. I just love her stuff. She also did the "Holly Jolly" Christmas fabric line I just love too. I am going to use it for my Happy Blocks for November—Christmas prints.

And I am working on some cute stuff for our bazaar at church. But there will be no photo before its time. Or something like that.... We'll see what I can manage before the due date.

Keep pluggin'
Wasie
:-)

Yes, I am around, folks....

2007-09-21T21:20:00.000-05:00

Life has been a little hectic lately. I guess a lot hectic. (Is that correct English?) So I have not taken any time to post any photos or anything! We have a new gal living with us, we said good bye to a dear friend who has moved many states away, and the semester is going full steam ahead! Whew!

Well, first off, meet Peng! She is from Changsha, China in the Hunan province and will be living with us for the next year. She is delightful, sweet and very studious. She is going to high school with our girls and working very hard. Her English is pretty good. So I think in a couple of months she will be feeling more comfortable than she is now. She is doing a great job trying all of the new food and she is eager to try all of the American experiences like the movies and football games! I think she is looking forward to homecoming next weekend too. Here is a photo of Peng taken her first day in Texas at the airport with our daughter Jessica. Peng says that "everything in America is big!" Her high school in China has 10,000 students! Denison High School must seem quite small to her!

Then just last Sunday we said goodbye to our dear friend Pam. She is moving to New Jersey to be near her father as his health is not great. She is in the last year of her bachelor's degree in music education and Southeastern is going to let her do her student teaching and finish it up there in NJ. She lost nearly everything in the floods this past summer here in Texas. I sewed her a quilt after the floods hit. And all that was left was the binding. So I finished it up and gave it to her before she left town. Here is a pic of it--"Musical Memories." I hope that we keep in touch, she has been such a great friend over the many years we have lived here. I think we have known her nearly the entire 17 years we have been here.

Another month means Happy Block time! September happy blocks were blue and yellow. Here are mine. Now I just need to get one of each shipped to the winners!!

Well, take care. Hope all are doing well.

Keep smiling,
Wasie

Hmmm... what's the theme?

2007-07-22T13:20:00.000-05:00

Here's the latest Happy Blocks for August. Can you figure out the theme?? Let me know if you're having trouble!!

This one I paper pieced the center using a neat lil' pattern from this month's Quiltmaker Magazine. I had to shrink it down by 70% to get it small enough to fit in the center of the happy block. It is so cute though! The regular size would be 6 1/2" instead of 4 1/2" -- finished are 6" and 4" respectively.

Enjoy !
Wasie
:o)

Happy Birthday Lucy!

2007-07-01T13:46:00.000-05:00

It's birthday time! My car-Lil' Lucy-turned ONE! Wow! Just 22,000 miles ago we picked her up all shiny and bright at the dealership! I wanted to give her a lovely scrubdown for her birthday but it keeps raining & pouring every day here! So first chance I get that's what we'll do. And then we'll go and take a birthday photo for ya. MINI sent her a birthday card too.

This morning I put the labels on two quilts for some darling little gals that are daughters of two friends of ours. Their baby was just baptized last Sunday, but I didn't get the quilt back from the machine quilter until this week so it didn't make it last week.

This is "Pinwheels for Alyssa" who is just over 1 month old. It is done with fabrics from the Spring Fling line. I used charm squares to make the pinwheels, and I did the entire quilt without a pattern. Calculating out the sizes of the triangles was a learning experience!

This quilt is "Sarah Smiles" and was made for Alyssa's big sister Sarah who is 4 years old and will be going to kindergarden in the fall. She is so delightful and reminds me so much of my oldest daughter Jessica! The pattern is Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs. The bright colors are Sarah's favorites.

I also completed my July Happy Blocks. I'll let you figure out the theme! Three guesses and the first two don't count! I went all out and did 10 this month instead of 8--5 different ones, 2 of each.

Have a great day and stay dry!
Wasie

A Yarn of an Adventure

2007-06-16T08:50:00.000-05:00

Jessica and I went on an adventure the other day. Dad & Michelle are out of town, out of state even, as he drove her to swim camp. So Jess & I went looking for some yarn, Mission Falls Cotton to be precise. I called down to our regular shop in Plano, The Woolie Ewe, and they didn't have it. So I started phoning around. I found a shop a few miles further south of The Woolie Ewe and I called them and they didn't carry it either, but they suggested a shop in Fort Worth yarns unique. Well, I searched "yarns unique" in Ft Worth in the White Pages and didn't find it. Hmmm. Then I tried "yarn shops" in the yellow pages in Fort Worth and there it was "Yarns Ewenique." The computer is such a slave to correct spelling!

So Jess & I drove down to Yarns Ewenique (I love that name) all the way in Fort Worth on the day that she didn't have her evening swim practice. My new nav system surely helped! I do not know my way around Ft Worth at all. The traffic was terrible! The shop closed at 5 and we were panicking that we weren't going to make it! It took us over 2 hours to get there. We managed to arrive 45 minutes before they closed. Whew!

Yarns Ewenique (Did I tell you I love that name?) is a cute shop! It is stuffed with yarn and the ladies there were most helpful. We had a lot of fun looking at and squeezing all of the skeins of yarn. Jessica found some Rowan country yarn that she liked and a new kind of knitting needle neither one of us had ever used, Daisy by Crystal Palace. It is a lightweight plastic needle. Both of us knitted with it at home and liked it. It comes in cool colors too!

I did find my Mission Falls Cotton and they had lots & lots of colors! I think I saw nearly every one. I was looking for it cuz I want to knit this baby blanket that I saw on the internet and it was done in that yarn it stripes and they left all of the ends hanging off. Then they braided the ends together for fringe. I thought it was a great idea--although you couldn't let the baby just sleep with it cuz of the fringe. Too tempting to chew on! Anyhow, the colors they chose were sorta dullish and drab. I wanted to swap some of them out and make it a little more cheery. I looked at the yarn color card on the Mission Falls website, but you just never know when you are on a monitor. So I really wanted to see them in person and choose them all together. I hope it comes out okay. Jess approved of the color choices! Unfortunately, they didn't have the pattern book I needed, so I have ordered it and am waiting for it to arrive so I can get started. Yarns Ewenique gave us the cutest bag with our purchase! It has a sheep on it knitting!

Afterwards we went to the Apple store at Willowbend to pick up a computer game for Jess that she was just dieing to get! There were actually a couple and she did not call ahead! So after fighting the traffic to get from Fort Worth to Plano, they only had 1 of the 3! She kept insisting that they would for sure have all of them as they just came out. Well, they told her that a lot of the times that means that they get shipped that day. So we made up for it at Macy's and found some great sales. Plus she needed some khaki pants for volunteering at the hospital this summer. So it was nice to find a good deal on those.

(No pics since hubby has the camera with him...)

Wasie

It's Black & White-almost

2007-06-10T14:19:00.000-05:00

I realized I never did put up a photo of my Black & White Happy Blocks. Black & White was the theme for June. And by the way, I was one of the two winners! I found that out after I returned from London. How's that for a nice lil' homecoming?! I am busy receiving all sorts of lovely little packages in the mail every day!! What fun is that!!!!

Here's my Black & White Happy Blocks Photo:

The next month-July-has red, white & blue for the theme. But no patriotic fabrics since some of the gals are not residents of the USA, and if they win the blocks, we don't want them to have blocks with all of these US flags all over them! For example, one month a gal won from Australia. The blocks are very cool and are pictured in an album in the forum at block central.

EEEK! I went back and looked and I never posted up a photo of my May blocks! May was a pretty hectic month what with the end of school and getting off to England... Well May's theme was flowers. You know, April showers bring May FLOWERS!

Here's my 4 blocks. (I always make 3 of each: 1 for each of the 2 winners, and 1 set to keep. That way at the end of the year I can make a quilt out of all of the different blocks that I made.)

Happy Day,
Wasie

Stonehenge Rocks!

2007-06-10T13:16:00.000-05:00

On our last full day in London we took the train out to Salisbury and traveled to the Stonehenge site. It was pretty amazing. They are still figuring out why it was built and there are many theories from astronomical to a calendar to purely religous. I learned alot about the site that I didn't know before. For example, there are large mounds of dirt surrounding the stones throughout the area and they are burial sites and both men and women are buried in them. Also at one time a wooden structure was in the center of the stones. And they also believe they have figured out how they lifted the stones upright using a system of wooden platforms. It is totally unbelievable that they went to so much trouble over so many years to work on this. So it had to be terribly important.

Here is a photo of me with the girls at Stonehenge.

After Stonehenge & Salisbury, we jumped on a train and went up to Bath and saw the Roman ruins and the still functioning waterworks. It was awesome how much of the structure was still preserved. It was also cool how the Romans had worked out the plumbing which is still being used today. The hot springs underneath still services the large pool.

The water is green now because the roof no longer exists and it kept the UV rays from the sun from reaching the water. The sunlight allows the algae to grow. In the Romans' era the water would have been clear. If you pump up the water from underground it's clear.

Here is Jessica at the Roman baths. In the background you can see an abbey that was right next door to the Roman baths. We didn't have time to visit it. Awesome architecture everywhere!

Here is part of our group on the top of the double-decker bus taking a tour around the city of Bath.

This is the "most photographed bridge in Bath." Well you can't miss an opportunity like that, can you?

Happy Sightseeing!
Wasie

Hey! The London Bridge didn't fall down!

2007-06-04T09:04:00.000-05:00

We're back from our week-long trip across the ocean to London. I went with my daughters and their girl scout group that I assist. We had a marvelous if wet time! We saw lots and lots of attractions, but not nearly everything. So I guess that's reason to go back and to bring dad! We also went to Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace), Salisbury (Stonehenge), Bath and Paris. What's that? You thought Paris was in France? Well, it is! We took the high speed train and went through the chunnel (channel tunnel) under the English Channel. It took about 20 minutes to cross the English channel or should I say burrow?

On the looong plane trips I did manage to get in a bit of knitting. They did allow size 15 circular knitting needles. Mine were also not very long--16 inches and plastic. The flight over was 9 hrs the flight home was 10 hrs. On the way there I finished up a scarf done with tape yarn. The brand was Sensations CARLO.

On the flight home to Dallas, I made a roll brim hat using Plymouth Yarn Yukon both print and solid. It is a very bulky yarn so I totally finished it up. However, Gatwick airport in London had greater restrictions for carry on baggage and I was afraid they would not allow my little scissors this time. So I put them in my checked suitcase. That meant I couldn't clip each color of yarn so I had the skeins still attached as I went until I arrived home and could clean it up.

After I get my photos from the trip sorted -- there are only hundreds and hundreds, literally -- I'll start posting a few for ya. And tell you some stories.

Cheerio!
Wasie

Off to England

2007-05-23T21:01:00.000-05:00

Here's a pic of a bright little flower quilt top I finished up. It's off being quilted now. I'm sure some little gal will like this one. At least I hope so!

We're busy packing up for our jaunt to London Friday. We'll be in jolly ol' England for a week! We're going with the girls' girl scout troop which I help out with. We've saved up the cookie money for 2 years to help pay for the lodging. I think everyone is pretty excited. Jessica said that she wants to meet Prince Edward! I wished her luck! It's supposed to be rainy and cold; although we've been told the weather can change quickly. Maybe we'll bring Texas sunshine with us.

Cheerio,
Wasie
;o)

A Star for a Star!

2007-05-04T23:19:00.000-05:00

Things have been pretty hectic lately. I'm sure you know how that goes! It is the end of my semester and that is what always happens. Anyhow, I have managed to sneak in time to put together a paper-pieced star block for a friend of ours who is graduating from high school. She is a close friend and has been swimming with the girls for years. She lives in Oklahoma and will be attending college up there this fall. She is valedictorian of her class too! This block is full of little meanings for her. I chose a star because Torie has always been a shining friend to the girls. She was right there when Jessica was so very ill. And she is a "star" in many other ways as she has so many talents. The "bubble" fabric for water-both swimming (how we all met) and the Christian symbol fabric for her to remember to keep Christ by her side and to follow His lead. The colors of the block are blue and purple for loyalty and faith of which she has a lot. Inside the star are other colors too and movement for Torie is full of life and fun and has a full future ahead of her.

Remember: if you click on a photo, it gets larger.

As far as the paper piecing goes. This was the first time, I have ever done such a large block using this method. It was harder than I realized it would be to put the paper-pieced sections together. I think it takes some practice and perhaps knowledge of some tricks (?)! All in all, I think it came out fair and if i did another, I'm sure I learned from my first experience!

Congratulations to all of our graduates!
Wasie

Happy "Happy Blocks"

2007-03-27T22:02:00.000-05:00

I managed to get my February "Anything Goes" Happy Blocks ironed and photographed for ya. I just laid them out on the floor and stood up high on stool. I hope you can see them! It was fun seeing what everyone came up with. I feel like I had an insight into everyone's personality.

(Remember: click on the photos for a larger view.)
I am not sure how I am going to put them together. I am trying to be "creative". So who knows what will come out!! Eeek! It could be scarey! So watch out!

I also managed to finish my "Bug Blocks" for the April Swap. I think they are pretty cute! I had to go and get bug fabric as I did not have any! Imagine that! Fabric I didn't have! It was fun hunting some down.

The May theme is flowers. I am sure I have some of those! So I will dig in my stash and scraps for those.

Happy Day,
Wasie

To TLU & Back...

2007-03-24T21:17:00.000-05:00

Friday, I drove my oldest daughter, who is beginning the fun and somewhat arduous process of choosing a college, all the way down to Seguin, Texas. We did not make it all the way home. I caved in and we stopped at a hotel partway and finished the 6 hour trek on Saturday. She did help with some of the driving; although she is not fond of high traffic situations, her highway driving skills are improving as she gains more experience. Anyhow, we did survive the drive, despite a couple of creative stop-and-go situations on the way home -- where once you finally merge all the way over in stop-and-go traffic and get to your exit only to discover that a fire truck and police car have it blocked and now you get to drive across three lanes the other direction to a totally new route! Or playing stop and go for 30 minutes to move only 2 miles, merge over to the right to try to exit to find out that you are forced to merge all the way back to the left, finally get there, get up to the front, and watch 2 police cars drive off and all the lanes open up! Isn't big city driving an adventure?? sigh...

Well, back to our story... In Seguin, we visited Texas Lutheran University (TLU) and Jess just loved it. We took a tour of the campus given by a senior business major, and met with an admissions counselor. We also were able to visit with a friend of ours who is currently a freshman student there. So she was able to learn alot about what going to school there was like. It is a private school so we will have to see about paying for the tuition. I am not sure how much scholarship money she can garner. But like I told her, if you don't try you will never know or get there. She really was excited about possibly going there. She still wants to visit some other schools though, but she certainly has been bitten by the college bug! She just has to remember that there are 3 more semesters of high school first!

Before we left for TLU, I was able to finish the 3rd Cowboy Quilt top! And get it dropped off at Mary's Quilt Shop for quilting. Here's a photo of the top, held up by my hubby. Hope ya like it. The quilting in this one will have saguaro cacti in it -- it has them in the "map" print -- and stars and longhorns.

Yee haw!
Wasie

Quilt Quazy!!

2007-03-22T21:19:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was the Dallas Quilt Celebration and my hubby and I (yes, he actually went too and is still living) drove down and spent several hours amidst the cotton and wool and carbon-based lifeforms. It was a huge show and we saw the most spectacular quilts! The winners are at the Quilters Guild of Dallas Quilt Celebration Results. BUT all of the quilts were tremendous and I don't know how the judges can pick! Paul and I had a terrible time picking one for our viewer's choice entries. We each chose a different one this year.

Paul's was nontraditional and nongeometric--very different for him.

My choice was a landscape--something I would love to be able to do myself!

I also wanted to post this photo of a stained glass quilt as we have mentioned doing something similar at church to put on the walls since we do not have any stained glass in our sanctuary. Well, gals, are ya getting inspired yet? I have some closeups and a ton more quilt photos too!

Happy Stitchin'
Wasie

Another Threshold Crossed...

2007-03-07T21:28:00.000-06:00

Eeek! It finally happened! My oldest daughter had her first car accident! But don't panic--no blood was spilled, the car was not totalled, and all have lived to tell the tale. I think it can be classified as a "Fender Bender." As far as I can tell, (she doesn't want to talk about it much for some reason), she was on her way home from school -- and she had lost her purse by the way, thought it was stolen, but that's another story -- and was stopped by a red light at the train tracks near the high school. Well, we had taught her to never stop on the tracks, and Jess stopped and felt that she was just over the edge and thought that maybe she shouldn't be. So she put the car in reverse and, well, you guessed it, she didn't look first, she leaped, and drove backwards right into a larger vehicle. So while she was hysterical and hyperventilating, the other driver called the police on his cell phone. Of course, poor Jessica didn't have her cell phone with her, she didn't even ask to borrow one to call dad or me or anyone to come help her. She had to deal with the police all by herself, get two tickets -- her first ones, I might add -- one of which was for an expired inspection sticker that no one had noticed, ooops.... Everyone has calmed down. I don't even think dad yelled. At least the girls said he didn't, which is good for dad! The car has nearly $1800 worth of damages. But, lucky for Jessica, the other vehicle she thought had hardly any! And we have not received any calls from the insurance company so maybe it was not really damaged. We are all hoping that's the case.

Meanwhile on the other side of town....
I have finished my March blocks for the March Happy Block Swap. The theme for March is "Ocean". I ended up doing 8 blocks.
Here they are:

I had lots of fun doing these. I made 2 of each so each winner will receive 4 different blocks from me. In fact, 2 of the centers of those 4 are from the same fabric! It was sooo awesome, I had originally only purchased a fat quarter, but I had to go back and get some yardage of it, it was just too cool.

In the HB swap, everyone does their own thing -- they just have to make this 8.5" block and in the "theme of the month." I believe April's theme is "Bugs."

If you go to blockcentral.com and look in the forum; then swaps & exchanges; then happy block quilt, Louise has posted her quilt top she has been working on from the valentine blocks she won from the January draw. You can definitely pick out my 3 blocks!! [Just look for the turquoise with the pink hearts; somebody had to add some other colors, didn't they?!?]

Drive Carefully,
Wasie

More Hardware!

2007-03-02T18:18:00.000-06:00

I think if a magnet came over this house all the loose metal in it would come flying out the windows!! And I ain't talkin' paper clips.

Last weekend was totally Jessica's weekend!
First she went to a UIL academic meet and came home that afternoon lugging 3 trophies! She received a 1st place in Feature Writing, 2nd place in Editorial Writing and a 3rd place in News Writing. We were so excited for her! I took a photo of her with all of her hardware. She couldn't hold them all nicely so she had to sit down!

She has been working on the school newspaper this year and would like to be editor next year. Although she's been told that she's "too nice." According to her sister, "they must not know her well enough!" Maybe Michelle should write a letter of recommendation for her!

Then on Sunday afternoon Jessica was inducted into the National Honor Society. We were very happy that she made it in her Junior year too. She was very excited walking across the stage, and we took many photos of her with her friends. This one is of her on the stage afterwards when she didn't know I was taking photos! (ha ha ha--evil laugh) She is so photogenic, but she doesn't like having her picture taken so you usually have to sneak one.

Hope everyone has a great weekend the first weekend of March. It is coming in like a lion here! We are getting cold weather again. No tornados like Alabama though. Keeping those folks in my prayers.

Michelle has managed to join the track team. (In her spare time...???) The coach called her the other night and asked her if she was interested. And the coach is Michelle's former coach from 5-6th grade who she just adored. So she is very excited to have her as a coach again. Coach Cruce is also going to work around Michelle's other sports aka swimming schedules and band schedules. Michelle also really enjoys running and the triple jump so maybe a change of pace will do her some good and give her a little break from swimming too. Sometimes you worry about her getting burnout.

Stay warm this weekend,
Wasie

Texas State Scoop

2007-02-25T13:29:00.000-06:00

No, it's not a new flavor of ice cream here in the Lone Star State! I am just finally getting a-round-to-it, posting an update on the HS state swim meet, that is. It has been so hectic around here trying to catch up at work and I happened to get sick AGAIN! This time I went to the doctor. She gave me a shot and some antibiotics. She said that my resistance was probably down from having the flu a couple of weeks ago and that is why I got sick again. Anyhow it has all helped. Sooo the moral of the story is: go to the doctor.

Now, back to our story...
Prelims were on Friday. Michelle was one of only two freshman swimming the 50 free and four swimming the 100 breaststroke. She was very nervous. She swam a 26.38 in her 50 free which was slower than her seed time so she was not very happy with herself. We could not go down on deck to see her, but I talked to her on her cell phone and she was a little down in the dumps. We all tried to cheer her up before her 100 breaststroke. She swam that event later and was also a little slow: 1:11.90. These swims put her in 15th and 11th places, respectively, going into Saturday's finals.

Michelle on the block; she's in Yellow Jacket black & gold!

Michelle did not want to wake up. She was a bit grumpy. So we took her out to Cracker Barrel and made her eat a good breakfast. Then we worked on cheering her up. It must have all helped some, cuz she did swim better on Saturday. She swam 26.30 in her 50 free--a little better than Friday, not her seed time, but still an improvement. Unfortunately, she dropped a spot to 16th. In the 100 breaststroke, she started out a little slow. Her first 50 was slower than her prelim time! And she was in 5th place in her heat. We were all just screaming! Then she started to pick it up and pass people. She just didn't have enough time to pass the leader and ended up 2nd in the heat which put her in 10th overall. Her time -- 1:10.97 -- was about a second better than Friday and her second best ever!

Swimming the breaststroke at the 4A high school state meet.

I do think she had a difficult time getting excited about swimming. She said,"mom, everything was 'about getting to state' now that I'm here, I'm just here." I think she was lonely being the only swimmer from her school -- making history only goes so far!-- and it was a bit anticlimatic. But, like we told her, you just do the best you can and go with it. She is only a freshman and can take this experience and use it next year. Apparently she has big plans for next year! Who knows what'll happen then! It was nice to see the swim team get some news coverage in the papers and even on the local television. We're hoping more kids go next year, and more kids start swimming! Michelle is already working hard for next year! She's getting ready for the long course season in USA Swimming this summer. That's what it takes hard work and dedication. I think that's why she's as good as she is from all those many hours in the water. Maybe she's part fish too??

Happy Swimming,
Wasie

PS I keep trying to add photos, but blogger is not cooperating!

Well, that was a learning experience! I finally was able to get the photos in! It took for-ev-er! Then I just wanted to center the captions under the photos. I had to learn HTML code and get it inserted properly. eeek.

WOO HOO Goin' to State!

2007-02-16T14:12:00.001-06:00

Yup! We're goin' to state! Michelle sure did it! We thought she had a shot in the 100 breaststroke, but she floored us all when she made it in the 50 freestyle too! Not bad for a freshman! And she is the first swimmer ever from her high school! So she has been in the papers and on the local TV station. They came out to the pool to tape her swimming and interview her the other day around 4 pm. But then it turns out that the disk in the camera had a scratch on it. They were able to save all the footage of her swimming but they lost all of the interview. So the reporter came to the house and redid the interview. She finished about 6 pm. The first time the spot aired was around 6:20 pm!

We're here in Austin and she's got her "tattoo" to get into the pool area. That's how they do the admission for swimmers now! It won't wash off--only comes off with alcohol. I'm nervous. Let's just hope she isn't!

Numerologists would have a heyday with her schedule! She is in events 7 & 21! Lucky numbers! And in her first event she is in heat 1 lane 1 and in her second event she is in heat 2 lane 2. And you'll never guess what room we're in at the hotel--221, of course!

Thanks to everyone for all of their good wishes. We have passed them all on. And will give her many hugs from all of you! Check the UIL website later today to see how she does!

Keep Cheering,
Wasie

Eeek! I won!

2007-02-10T10:10:00.000-06:00

I won the Happy Blocks this month. There were 4 winners this month; they split the blocks up by 4 as there were so many participants. I am not sure how many I will be receiving, but I should have them by the end of the month. I need to get mine sent in. I'll post a photo of the blocks and then I'll make a quilt with all of them! What fun! It will be very exciting to see what everyone comes up with! The theme for Feb was "Anything Goes" so I figure I'll get quite a scrappy quilt out of this swap!

We're going to be out selling girl scout cookies as they came in at the end of the week. Here I am getting over the flu and now I get to sit outside in the cold! It started to warm up and then promptly cooled back down for cookie selling! Fri evening we sold around 45 boxes outside Belk and 6 of those were for our Troops overseas! Today we'll be at WalMart and Gander Mountain. Hope it's a warmer day.

Have a Happy Sunny Day,
Wasie

Cowboy Quilt #2

2007-02-08T17:46:00.000-06:00

Here tis a pic of the quilt top of the 2nd "cowboy quilt". I actually have had it finished for a week or so, but have been so busy with swim meets etc. that I hadn't had a chance to get a photo up! This is based on a a pattern called "All About Me." It's 45" x 56".

The first cowboy top has been quilted. After I get the binding on, I'll put another photo up. I have to come up with a third one. I am thinking about something with stars--lone star and all. Any brilliant ideas? I have some cute fabric I want to use and I think it would be great background and I have some nice matching colors for the star points. So I am looking at star blocks. I need to get these quilts finished!

My youngest daughter went to the doctor this morning and found out that she has the flu. This undoubtedly means that I do too. Of course, it is too late to start the tamiflu medication. At least we are not doing too bad. But this is a particularly bad time for her to get it as she is swimming in the state meet in a week! She wants to go to practice tonight, but her dad & I think staying home is the best thing for now.

I stayed home from work yesterday as I had virtually no voice, and I worked on some simple blocks that I needed to get done for a swap I'm in on Block Central. It's a "Happy Block Swap." The blocks are very simple and quick to make. I needed to make three more and ended up making about 5 more. So my "new plan" is to make a couple extras each month and save them up. Then at the end of the year, I can make a scrappy quilt with all of the happy blocks from all of the different themes of the months. January's theme was valentines. February's theme is anything goes. March's theme is ocean. The rest haven't been chosen yet. Then they draw for 2-3 people to split up the blocks between depending on how many enter.

Here's some photos of some of my Happy Blocks.

Happy Day & Stay Away from the Flu Bug,
Wasie

Going to State!

2007-02-07T15:29:00.000-06:00

I've been pretty busy lately attending the end-of-season high school swim meets. Both of my daughters swam in the district meet. There Jess, the oldest, swam best times in her 100 free and 200 free and her 200 medley relay made it to regionals! Michelle the youngest, also swam her best times of the season in the 50 free and 100 breast and made it to regionals in both of those events plus her two relays, the 200 free and 400 free. She won silver in the 50 free and gold in the 100 breast while the relays each won bronze medals. Overall, the girls team took THIRD PLACE!!

At regionals unfortunately Jessica's relay didn't make it to finals (top 8 go to finals), but she seemed to take it in stride. She was just glad to be there. If you go to regionals you get "a letter."

Michelle made finals in all of her events. She finished 3rd in the 50 free and the 100 breast swimming personal best times in each! Then the 200 free relay finished in 4th and the 400 free relay was 5th. Then we had to go home and wait to find out if she made it to state. The way it works in Texas there are 8 regions and the winner in each event in each region are automatic qualifiers for the state meet. Then the next 8 fastest times from the 2nd, 3rd & 4th place finishes get to go on the "Call-Up" list. That way there are only 16 competitors per event. Finally after midnight, they posted the list on the web and Michelle had made it in both of her individual events. She is the first person from our high school to ever go to the state swim meet! And she's only a freshman!

Here she is diving in for her 50 freestyle.

On another note, her and I both have head colds--not good. And I stayed home from work today as I had no voice this morning! I have been constantly coughing. Aaargh! This is so frustrating. I dislike being sick. I do not have time for it! I am waiting for hubby to get it and hoping that Jess doesn't!

Well, hope you are well!
Wasie

It's raining; it's pouring, and we're not snoring!

2007-01-20T15:28:00.000-06:00

AAARGH! I just wrote this whole posting, and I did a preview to make sure the photo was correct. And then when I went back it took me to the dashboard and lost the whole thing! So I will not preview this time. I will just post and edit if needed.

It is pouring down rain here and we're hoping to be out of drought status! It is a great day to get lots of stuff done. I drove down to McKinney for the "strip club" meeting at the quilt asylum this morning. The new strip set is tans & browns. Good for me cuz it is very different from what I usually get. The pattern is appropriately named: Hash Browns. (So of course I had to have hash browns for lunch! I think it was subliminal.) You can view the completed quilt at The Quilt Asylum Clubs. Anyhow, this photo is of my strip set, background fabric (dk brown w/strings), inner border (cheddar w/little red & green) and outer border (red w/large print of gold, brown & green). Unfortunately, I can't get to it today. I have to work on the cowboy quilts. When they are finished, I can do other things. I am hoping to have the second one pretty well finished by the end of the weekend. I'm still debating on how to do the third one. I need something fast & easy. I'll see what fabric I have left.

I also attended the FROG meeting following the Strip Club meeting. FROG is an acronym for fabric reformation and organization group. Everyone just talked about stuff. Susan had made a block for the heartstrings quilt project. It is a group that is collecting string quilt squares to make quilts--or quilt tops--or finished quilts--or whatever for donation to charitable organizations. Their website is here: Heartstrings for more information and guidelines for making squares. Susan also shared with us some of her scrap quilts one of which was made with "leaders and enders." It has slews of fabrics in it with each piece finishing to 1" x 3". Here tis at: The Quilt Asylum's Blogspot. Check it out as it's awesome. It is all quilted and bound now. I am just going to have to try my hand at this "leaders & enders" thing. Now if I can only get started...

I just have to report that this past week, the attendance of my organic/biochemistry class increased by 50%! Word must be getting out! Well, hold onto your hats. Enrollment went from 2 students to 3. (It's all in how you report the numbers.) This course is only an elective for environmental science and the students don't seem to plan very well as it's only offered every other year. But just think of the individualized attention! These kids will learn lots!

Well I better get...
Back to work,
Wasie

Brrrr - An Icy Day

2007-01-16T23:04:00.000-06:00

Here's some photos of our beautiful icy day on Monday - MLK Day. It might be pretty, but, baby, it's cold outside!

There's a weather prediction that we might even receive some snow flurries tomorrow (Wed) morning! Wouldn't that be pretty!

Today, we checked in the organic/biochem lab & Katie (my lab assistant) was a great help! We had to get all of the keys and locks worked out for every drawer & cabinet in the lab room. Then we worked out who gets what set so that the students end up evenly spaced out and each student has a faucet. I ended up getting mechanical and changed out 4 lock that I couldn't get to work properly. Those camlocks just don't hold up well in a lab environment plus they are not really made for these drawers. I think we finally have all of it worked out though. It doesn't seem to matter what I do at the end of the previous semester! It's always a chore the next. Tomorrow we check in the first section of organic II.

Hope you are staying warm & dry,
Wasie

What to do on an icy day?

2007-01-14T21:09:00.000-06:00

We're in the middle of an ice storm here in North Texas-in case you haven't heard. We have been pretty lucky here at our house--no loss of electricity so far and we even drove to church this morning, slowly, I might add. (There were several vehicles abandoned in the medians and ditches off the highway!) The ice is pretty gorgeous outside on the trees. Tomorrow, I am going to take some photos. I decided to wait one more day as it is supposed to continue to keep drizzling and sleeting through tomorrow. However, after we skedaddled home from church this morning we definitely stayed in the rest of the day! So what's a quilter to do? Well, sew of course!

Here's a quilt top I finished that I had been working on. I did have the attic window blocks already completed.

I'm going to try to quickly do a couple more "cowboy quilts" for a family in our church that is moving to New Jersey. They have 3 little boys and 1 little girl. We'll see how it goes!

Stay warm,
Wasie

What a day

2007-01-07T20:11:00.000-06:00

Whew. I was so looking forward to today. It was the "Family Blessing" service at church where each family goes up to the altar and receives a special prayer and blessing from pastor to start the new year. It is always special to me especially since we almost lost Jessica a couple Christmases ago. It still was wonderful except I was getting this terrible migraine. By the time we arrived home I just collapsed in bed for several hours. I had taken some of my special migraine medicine and I finally went to sleep for a few hours. That really helped.

When I finally "came to" I helped my daughter make a "little purse". It looks so easy, but it has a ton of pockets! And two zippers. We managed to get it finished so she can take it to school tomorrow, but it certainly did me in for the night! Here are some pics of the purse. Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to get any of the cute lining fabric she chose.

The first is the front.

This is the view inside.

This is the outside & back of the purse.

You can sort of see all of the different pockets!

Well, I think I will veg out for the rest of the evening. I have to go in to work tomorrow. Break is over. sigh....

Rest up,
Wasie

What do Happy Blocks, Cowboys & a Tablerunner all have in common?

2007-01-06T17:45:00.000-06:00

Hmmm.... I've been sewing them this week!

I joined up with a swap group on Block Central that is making "Happy Blocks"--8" finished blocks for swapping. (So they are 8.5" now.) The center is a 4" square of fabric surrounded by a 2" square of a different fabric. To make one you cut a 4.5" square of one fabric and a 2.5" strip of another fabric. Then crosscut the strip into 2-4.5" rectangles and 2-8.5" rectangles. Sew each 4.5" rectangle to the top and bottom of the square. Iron; then sew each of the 8.5" rectangles to the other two sides of the square. There you have it! Easy and quick--can't get much happier than that! I have now made 12 blocks! First I made 6 blocks of "anything."

Then I found out that they were supposed to be in a "Valentine's Theme." So I had to make 6 more! I made 2 each of 3 versions. But all is not lost as I can use the original 6 in the next months swap as that month's theme is "anything goes."

I also finished a "Cowboy Cuddle Quilt" for my little nephew Anthony. I will get it in the mail to him asap as it is a late Christmas present. I hope my brother and his wife send me a photo of him with his quilt! They live in the Chicago area. So I do not get to see them.

The tablerunner to the right is for my husband's sister-in-law. I was hoping to do it sooner, but that didn't work out. So I did it early January. I think it came out okay, but I had never turned corners on the binding that are obtuse before so I was not sure how to fold it. I also didn't do a traditional binding and hand-sewed it to the back either which I probably should have done cuz I was in a hurry and it would have helped the corners! The hands holding it up are my husbands! When I edited the photo with photoshop it looked silly with just his fingertips on the edges so I decided to redo it and leave his hands in! Now it's just funny with the disembodied look!

The coolest thing happened yesterday--we had purchased a table & chairs set for our kitchen from Haverty's about 6 months ago. My oldest daughter was doing crafts on the table--which she was NOT supposed to be doing, I might add--and she got a bunch of purple spots of permanent marker on the top of the oak table top! Needless to say we were not too happy about this. However, when we had purchased the table & chairs we also had purchased a leather recliner and being concerned about having a cat and leather together we bought Haverty's special protection package for all of the furniture. When I called them and told them about the ink they told me how to go about filling out the paperwork for a claim. It only took a few weeks and someone came out and looked at the table. They were going to try and clean the ink off. If they couldn't get it off they would replace the table! Well, THEY REMOVED THE INK without hurting the finish! I couldn't believe it! It looks brand new! I couldn't get them to show me the product they used either. (Being a chemist and all, I really wanted to look at that bottle!) They took before and after photos. Best money I ever spent on one of those deals!

I even was energized to clean out my refrigerator!

Happy sewing & cleaning,
Wasie

Mini Photo??

2007-01-03T17:13:00.000-06:00

I am going to attempt to upload a photo and make it my "identity photograph."
Wish me luck!
Wasie

PS Hey, when I was pasting in the URL for the photo I noticed that my description said "husband of 23 years". It was time to change it! We celebrated our 24th anniversary this past New Year's Eve! Next year will be THE BIGGIE.

New Year Catch Up!

2007-01-03T15:59:00.000-06:00

Ho Ho Ho and Happy New Year! It's 2007! Hard to believe! I hope everyone had a wonderful celebration of Christ's birth. We sure did. Our service at church was just beautiful. We had the best music. Our organist's daughter sang "O Holy Night" and put many of us in tears it was so gorgeous. Our pastor also has this marvelous tradition -- he arranges and performs for us a Christmas song on the piano. It was wonderful as usual. "It is our Christmas gift," he says, "for Jesus and for us."

My friend Amy played cello throughout the service and the choir did two numbers. My younger daughter and I also participated in the prelude music. Chelle played both flute and piano (not at the same time, I might add) while I held my own on the clarinet. It was an interesting time of it as I was to play in a trio. The week before Christmas, we lost one member and were down to two. Then on Christmas Eve morning I found out that member #2 had terrible back problems and was going to the emergency room! Oh dear. (She is fine, just on muscle relaxers, by the way.) But she could not play that evening! I really didn't want to do two solos! So I recruited my dear friend Sharon who whisked out her clarinet practiced that afternoon and joined me! We did pretty well! Must be those angels helping us along plus a great accompanist!

That evening we opened all of our gifts -- not our normal tradition -- as we headed up to Minneapolis to visit my husband's brother & family early Christmas morning. Our nephew was home for a month's leave from the army. His battalion had been deployed to Kuwait and Iraq for part of last year so we had a particular wish to see him before he returned.

However, we stopped in St. Joseph, Missouri on Christmas evening and visited with my sister & husband and grandmother. I finally was able to give my grandmother the quilt I had been making her. She was very excited when she opened the box. She said, "Oh a quilt -- for me?" She was just delighted! Here are photos of the quilt and her with it. She asked me what "pattern" the quilt was and I told her I called it "Grandma's Stars" and showed her the label on the back with her name on it. I also pieced the back of the quilt as I couldn't find enough fabric of one kind that I liked on the sale bolts!

MInneapolis was not too cold! We've been there when it was much colder! But there was NO SNOW! We could not believe the lack of snow throughout Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota. It was a brown Christmas! Colorado had it all. We had nice time visiting with my husband's family and were especially glad to see our nephew Andrew. The girls were able to swim with a USA team at the University of Minnesota which was quite great of them! And all too soon we headed back home. The lack of snow did make traveling easier! We had a little rain on the way home. And here in Texas they are telling us it might be in the 70s on Friday! Whoa!

Stay warm,
Wasie

Race to the Finish Line...

2006-12-23T07:11:00.000-06:00

Here's what's left to get done by Monday--Christmas Day.
•mail Christmas cards (Yes, MAIL them. They aren't even in the envelopes yet. I am getting the family to do this one...)
•bind Grandma's quilt (Yes, the quilting is finally finished! At least the binding is made, even if it isn't sewn on yet!)
•make quilt labels
•bake rest of Christmas cookies
•put together Christmas gift baskets
•deliver said baskets
•deliver any other gifts
•purchase last minute gifts: prayer partner (book? b&b?), books for hubby
•wash grandma's quilt
•practice clarinet for Christmas Eve service
•eeek, do laundry & get packed for trip!
•wrap wrap wrap gifts - note: none are done!
YIKES-better get busy.

Ho, ho, ho!
Wasie

Wow 2 in 1 Day!

2006-12-15T22:12:00.000-06:00

I have never posted twice in one day before! This is a new record!

I realized that I have never written about Jessica getting her driver's license! Yep, the BIG day finally came! She managed to get all of her paperwork together at one time and go to the Department of Public Safety (that's what it's called in Texas) and received her paper driver's license. Then about 2 weeks to the day later she received her official driver's license. She does have restrictions as she is under 18. But she is so excited. She's doing pretty good too. However, she has very little sense of direction and is still learning her way around town. She and her sister are enjoying their newfound freedom. Mom, however, makes them call home on a regular basis. Especially during the busy Christmas season.

Drive carefully,
Wasie

I'm done....

2006-12-15T21:20:00.000-06:00

The cry of the college professor: I'M DONE!

Sigh... But why do I feel so sad? I hate it when the students cry. There is only so much I can do. One must learn the material. It is sooo important to study consistently. Cramming just doesn't work well with organic chemistry. You've got to get the principles. Sigh... There's always next semester. And so the cycle continues.

Now I get to attempt to find Christmas! Where is the tree? Where are the decorations? And, oh, the gifts have to get shipped? What do you mean they won't guarantee delivery by Christmas? There's plenty of time! I still have projects to finish and Christmas cards to send! (If they get mailed, that is.) And dozens of cookies to bake for friends and neighbors, too. I guess I better get busy, tomorrow! Tonight, I'm putting my feet up. Cuz...

I'M DONE!

Merry Christmas,
Wasie

One down; three to go!

2006-12-13T20:34:00.000-06:00

I finished the grades for my organic class today! Now all that is left are the 3 labs. With any luck I'll crank them out tomorrow. I very nearly finished one of the last two lab reports while the students were taking their finals. Unfortunately, I will probably be privvy to much weeping and gnashing of teeth tomorrow when all the students come by. sigh... I must admit I was disappointed in their scores on the final. I do not think they read the questions very carefully. First day next semester, I think we will go over a few of the multiple choice questions and discuss how to approach them aka read the question, look at the molecule, analyze the problem, etc. It seems that they just picked answers without putting very little thought into them.

I can't wait to be all finished so I can get on with the business of getting ready for Christmas! I need to finish the quilt for grandma for one thing. And after I finish that I was hoping to do a couple of other quickie projects. Plus we need to do sooome decorating! And I need to bake cookies for friends and neighbors. Sooo here's hopin' the students leave me alone tomorrow so I can finish up, and it goes quicker than planned! I only have 1 lab report and the lab finals left to grade (and the lab finals are fairly short as far as finals go).

Happy Grading,
Wasie

Topsy Turvy!

2006-12-10T15:33:00.000-06:00

I completed the top to Grandma's Quilt last night! Here's a quick photo. The inner border is 1.5" finished and the outer border will be 3.5" finished. Now I will put together a creative backing--I purchased some cute fabric that was on sale and there wasn't enough left on the bolt of all one kind--so I bought two different fabrics and finished off both bolts. I also have some of the outer border fabric left that I might sneak in too. Then I am going to machine quilt it. I think I will stipple the stars and put swirls in between where it looks like hurricanes. I think the area between the stars looks like the weatherman's hurricane symbol. I also am hoping I have enough blue left for the binding.

My students took their last regular exam on Friday. I have to go and get busy grading it this afternoon and evening. They will be wanting to stop by my office and pick it up tomorrow. Their final is Wednesday. I still have to write it and grade it. Plus I am still finishing up grading the lab reports. sigh...

Of course, there is no tree up in our house. I have one Christmas decoration up. It's a hallmark singing snowman & penguins. All you have to do is set it on the counter. No lights outside either. Of course, the girls (teenagers, nonetheless) could decorate if they wanted too. It usually doesn't get done around here until I am finished with my semester.

Hope your decorating is going better than mine!
Happy Holidays!
Wasie

Quilting Snow Day!

2006-12-01T17:10:00.000-06:00

Here in North Texas we had a little bit of ice yesterday which we don't get very often. On Thursday we all had a half-day of school/work and today I had a full snow day! So I was able to work on my grandma's Christmas present! And I got the top all pieced except the borders. It was a productive snow day for me!

The pattern is from a book called "Bundles of Fun." It's a great book; I like lots of the quilts in it and she shows them in many fabric combinations. I used 12 fat quarters plus 1 yard of the muslin for the stars. I wanted to use a color for the stars but I couldn't find anything that looked right with all of the colors. The one common thread among all of the fabrics was the off-white.

Here are the porch quilts I made for the girls. I call them their cuddle quilts cuz they are small and cuddly. I folded over one corner so you can see the back and how I sewed each strip on.

I finished Michelle's in July.

Jessica's I just finished here in November.

Well, I am going to do a little border work on Grandma's Quilt. She is 93 years old so I had better get it done for this Christmas.

Happy Snow Day,
Wasie

1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Quilts

2006-10-29T19:31:00.000-06:00

Well, yesterday I pretty much finished my 3 little wall hangings for the church bazaar! I only have to put the sleeves & labels on the backs. The center squares are hand-embroidered from this book called "Love Covers" by Tricia Cribbs. She used her mother's embroidery designs and put them together into a large quilt. I knew that I would never get a large quilt done for the bazaar, so I made some small wall hangings instead. This way the joy can be spread around! All of the fabrics I chose to use around the squares are reproduction 1930s fabrics that I had been collecting in my stash. They are machine-pieced and machine-quilted.

The first one I did was "Jesus loves me this much." It is 13" square. used the regular embroidery outline stitch on this one. I wasn't sure how I liked that, so I didn't use it on the next one. I also did all of the straight walking foot quilting before the stippling and I had gone and quilted that line down the border and I sure wish I hadn't done that! I should have stippled it instead. Oh, well. Live and learn.

The second one I stitched was "Love is ..." This one is 18.5" x 12". I used a backstitch for the letters and liked the folksy look better. I think it complemented the letter style more. It is similar to what she used in the book.

The third one is " Joy" and is 15.5" x 19.5". It seems to be everyone's favorite! Both of my daughters really like it. My oldest one has brown curly hair so she says that's her singing!

I may try to get a 4th one finished before the bazaar BUT it is Nov 11th! And I do have to work fulltime and take care of everything else besides. So we'll see. That's why I totally finished up these three first. I'll put their sleeves and labels on before I start a fourth. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Happy Stitching!
Wasie

From Paris, France to Hatch, NM

2006-10-23T18:55:00.000-05:00

Now that I think I have finally figured out this photo thing, I am going to start posting some photos of the quilts I have finished lately!

Here is a "Turning Twenty in Paris" quilt that I made this summer--July to be exact--for my 16 year-old-daughter Jessica. She was gone to camp for a month and we sort of redid her room for a surprise. My family was so proud of the fact that I had this quilt completely finished in 2 weeks! Mary at Mary's Quilt Shop did the quilting on her longarm machine so I can't take credit for that. Oh, one of the reasons that we did this for my daughter was because she was not just attending camp; she was volunteering at the Juliette Low Camp for disabled girls near Kansas City. She really worked hard for these girls! They had all sorts of disabilities from quadraplegics to autism to deafness. All of the volunteers were girl scouts. I was so impressed with everything Jess and all of the girls did. Way to go gals!

You may notice a lot of eiffel tower fabric. She is into Paris these days as she is taking French III this year in high school. I made some window drapes for her room out of the pink eiffel tower fabric also. Oh and she loved it and was very excited when she came home and found all of the Paris paraphernalia.

Green Chiles are one of the favorite foods at our house especially since we lived in Las Cruces, NM for so many years before moving to Texas. We consider Hatch chiles to be THE BEST! I even did a postdoc isolating capsaicinoids from chile peppers at New Mexico State. So when I saw all of these chile pepper fabrics I knew I had to do something with them!

Here is "Yellow Brick Road New Mexico Style."

I just put the binding on it last week. And boy am I glad it is finally finished. It has just been lacking the binding for awhile. I am afraid I have a few like that. I just don't seem to like bindings for some reason. So I am trying to force myself to get them done. I tried a new method where you do the entire thing on the sewing machine. (Thanks, Susan.) It certainly went faster-so maybe I'll get some more of them done. sigh...

Well, I am nearly finished with some miniature wall quilts for the church bazaar. They have embroidery in the middle. I will post the photos when they are finished.

Happy Stitching,
Wasie

MINI Mania Strikes

2006-10-03T21:19:00.000-05:00

Well, MINI Mania has definitely struck our household! In June we purchased our first MINI—a 2006 hyper blue checkmate cooper.with a silver roof and silver swoop. It is a standard, has premium, & cold weather packages besides the checkmate pkg. We all 4 are in love... Everyone wants to ride in it all the time. We ordered it in April and watched and waited for her to be born, cross the ocean, pass through the distribution center and finally arrive at our dealer at the end of June! Heres some photos. Her name is Lil' Lucy.

I started driving her to work when I went back in August, and so she went with me to Oklahoma every day. She pretty much is my car anyhow... But I guess my hubby just missed her sooo much he couldn't stand it. So he found one for himself! So now we have two! His is a used one. It's a 2003 electric blue cooper S with a white roof and white bonnet stripes. (He really liked electric blue when he found it; wouldn't have any other color!) It's a standard also much to our teenage daughters' chagrin! But hubby loves it. His also came with navigation and it's a hoot! It's a "she" as she has a British accent and uses all of these British terms. It is so fun. You want to program the nav even if you know where you're going just to hear her say, "200 yards straight on" in her lil accent. We were going to name his car "Ricky"—that was the original plan—but couldn't do that with that female voice! So he's named her "Sparky". Here's some pics of "Sparky".

If that all wasn't bad enough. We just had to take a couple of days off work—not easy for a college prof—and go play in the MINI Takes the States tour when it came to Dallas! We drove Lucy in the group for a couple of days. Unfortunately, that was all we could spare. I sure did want to go to St Louis and Indy!

MINIs in Memphis

MINI USA Tour Bus

Electric Blue Lineup in Memphis

Now that we have a cooper and a cooper S our daughters think we need to add the two convertibles to the family to "complete the set!" They'd be happy to each drive one! Only one is driving age and she is working on getting her license. She has even attempted the dreaded standard transmission! A friend at work said that he could just see us now...all following each other in our MINIs! sigh

Wasie

Finally....

2006-02-01T10:26:00.000-06:00

I am finally finding the time to write something on here! It has been hectic to say the least!

Here's a quick catch up:
THE BABY'S HERE! One of my best friends is adopting a brand new baby! I am so excited. I started crying when I heard the news. They will make THE best parents and they have been waiting and trying for soooo long both to have a child biologically and to adopt--years and years. The hospital where they are is letting them have a room to stay in with the newborn so they get to stay with her day and night! We are all praying that they come home safely in a few days. I can't wait to see them and hug them. There, I'm crying again!

Michelle's flute recital was just awesome. She is such a wonderful musician. I sure hope she gets to do something with her music at the college level. She just has too much to pick from! She will have to get very good at time management -- that's for sure!

Jessica is busy, busy, busy with high school. She is making a movie, scrapbook & presentation for English class over "The Lord of the Flies." The scrapbook is very cool. I hope I get to see the movie they did! And of course, you know they are swimming in regionals in a week-and-a-half or so.

I went to the "Strip Club Meeting" last weekend. It was fun! My fabric strips are gorgeous and..... are you ready..... already cut for the quilt!!! I also have my black background fabric almost completely cut!! I just want to sew!!! I also organized my sewing table and some of my area. I need to do mucho more work on this! Gotta get goin'.

My organic students take their first test today! I sure hope they do okay. sigh sigh sigh.....

Wasie

Super Swims!

2006-01-28T07:29:00.000-06:00

Jessica (oldest daughter) swam in her district meet last night!
Dropped 3 seconds on her 200 free and 19 secs on her 500 free! Plus her 400 free relay made 4th place and is going to regionals.
GO JESSICA! GO JESSICA! GO JESSICA! GO JESSICA!
We are very proud!
Not bad for someone who could not breathe 13 months ago!
LOVE YOU!

Mid-Week Crisis

2006-01-25T12:38:00.000-06:00

Well, it's Wednesday. Will we make it to Friday??
Let's see what do we have to do:
Grade lab reports
Make slides for class on Friday
Take Michelle to Physical Therapy for Shoulder
Take girls to swimming on Wed & Thurs
Get ready for lab on Thursday
French Horn lesson today
Write quizzes for Friday

Time for any sewing or knitting??? AAARGH!!

Cookies, Cookies and More Cookies!

2006-01-21T10:00:00.000-06:00

The Girl Scout Cookies for our troop have been ordered! F I N A L L Y! It took long enough. Not too impressed with that online system. I think it still needs a little work. I had to enter everything twice--it didn't save the info the first time! Shannon said that it just didn't like me. Thank goodness I only had 4 girls' orders to enter plus the booth sales. Shannon had 2 girls to enter. We were both on the phone at the same time trying to get this done last night! Too funny. Anyhow, I ordered 756 boxes aka 63 case of cookies!! Anybody want some cookies??? Hope I can find a place to put them when they get here!

Took the girls to swimming early this morning--7 am on a Saturday! They did not want to go! Michelle had gone to the movies last night and promised that she would get up to go this morning anyways, and Jessica stayed up and watched a movie. They were both v e r y g r u m p y ! AARGH! I don't like that. They want to go and work on things, but then if I get them up, I'm the bad guy. I suppose some day they'll understand.

Dr. Shannon told Michelle she could try to swim today. She is recovering from a small shoulder injury. I hope it goes okay. I am a little nervous about it. I will feel better when I pick them up and she tells me it did not hurt at all! She is supposed to take it easy and Coach Greg is going to watch her stroke closely. I hope and pray this is not the sign of things to come. I'm certain she will do lots of kicking today!¡!

Tomorow is the big flute recital. Michelle is playing a lovely flute piece entitled "Hungarian Serenade" and our good friend Pam is her accompanist. Michelle is also accompanying another flutist, Maria who is younger than her. Shannon is playing also. So it should be lots of fun to hear everyone play. It is in a large chapel at AC. Let you know how it goes.

Wasie

It's Friday!

2006-01-20T12:33:00.000-06:00

Yippee! It's Friday! I survived yet another morning of 3 whole hours of talking nearly nonstop to a multitude of students--some of whom actually interacted! Unfortunately for the general chem bunch, I had to give the gen ed assessment pre-test. I hate that. I feel like they may not feel like they know anything. I just kept stressing that when they retake it later at the end of the semester then they will truly feel like they learned something this semester! Also, a poor grade on the pretest does not impact their grade. Plus I will give them extra credit points from the post test-- they will like that! Students always like extra credit!

Anyhow, I signed up for the Strip Club!! Oh my! That sounds terrible! It is a FABRIC strip club! It is meeting at The Quilt Asylum on Jan 28 and you get a packet of FABRIC strips that are precut for you. So you are ready to sew!! Sounds FUN to me! AND very clean! What better place than the Quilt Asylum to have a Strip Club--too funny. I can't wait to go and get my strips--all batiks--my fav-or-ite fabrics!

I am working on running down the battery on this laptop so it can be calibrated. You just gotta do it! It was updated and now ya gotta calibrate it which means using it until it is totally used up! Sounds weird doesn't it. I'm just glad computers work! Yea for Apple! I've been using Macintoshes since the original 128k all-in-one macintosh and have NEVER regretted it! Best computers out there.

Well, I better do SOME grading of the quizzes today!

Wasie