I hope you all have many days like this. Katie and Dave came over for pizza and and the weather was beautiful and we all ended up outside.
And these are the times when I say life is good and I have been blessed. My family is healthy and happy and I hope these things never change. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I will.
And of course Buddy was on patrol!
You have to love these faces!
Today Katie came over and planted my little garden around the lamp post. This year we decided to go with orange and yellow.
It looks a little sparse right now but in a few weeks it will be perfect.
Thanks Katie!
Have you seen this? I have wanted a Hello Kitty sewing machine for the longest time! The machine is made by Janome and is a 3/4 machine and weighs about 11 pounds. Almost every review I have read has been positive; metal bobbins are suggested for better sewing.
So I finally ordered one from Target. I can’t wait for it to get here! I am hoping that it will work out as a travel machine; my Bernina and Viking are just too heavy to lug around. I will let you all know how it runs after I give it a good workout!
April is over and with it another month of birthdays has passed. Adrienne celebrated her 30th birthday on the 23rd; Michael turned 10 on the 28th and Lauren and Dylan celebrated their birthdays on the 30th. Lauren (my youngest!) is 25 and Dylan is
(shown with his handsome big brother Michael)
Katie made a Handy Manny birthday cake:
The fondant and decorations were made from confectioner’s sugar and marshmallow. I love the tape measure! She also made the cookies.
Michael had his friends over for a football party. Katie found out how much food 11 ten year old boys eat! For his birthday I made Michael a Yankees quilt. Since cotton Yankee fabric is difficult to find I did some improvising.
The Yankee logos were appliqued. The grey Yankee square and the blue fabric were a shirt and pajama pants from Walmart.
I found the badges on E-bay.
2001 is the year that Michael was born.
Dylan said that HE wants a baseball quilt now!!
My very best friend Mimi took a beginning quilt class last year and completed a wall hanging. (She finally realized that I could not teach her all she needed to know!) She chose red hat colors (red and purple) and left the quilt for me to quilt and bind for her. And now almost a year later it is completed and back in Virginia!
I did a stipple in the background and then added straight line quilting to the blocks and border. I also sent Mimi some buttons if she wanted to add them to the flowers (She does)
Here is a close-up of the quilting.
I think she did a great job. Enjoy your quilt Mimi!
I will be teaching a class at Mission Rose this spring!
I have fallen in love with this book and I will be teaching the technique in May.
I have made these two samples and I want to make a third using the bigger sized block:
Above is a table runner and below is a wall hanging.
I have always enjoyed teaching and I am looking forward to the class!
Yes-I have been woefully negligent in my blogging duties. Everyday that I plan to post, something comes up. For example today it is this: 
Our house is bi-level; the kitchen, which is the first floor, is below ground level by about 40”. This causes a LOT of plumbing problems because the drain run more horizontally than vertically. It also means that much of our plumbing is between walls instead of being exposed in a basement. (We don’t have a basement) What I thought was a slow running kitchen drain has become a leak somewhere in the pipes. The plumber has gone in search of a camera so he can see what is going on. We are not pleased.
In happier news, Adrienne and Joe baptized Lenny and had their marriage blessed earlier this month. We drove down to Maryland for the weekend.
Can I just say? Lenny is a healthy baby! He is 8 months old and is over 20 pounds! His christening outfit just fit him (although the hat was TOO small!)
He looks just like Adrienne did a that age. And he is a very happy baby: 
And finally, I have been knitting a sweater. It is a neck down pattern with a V-neck: 
It is actually a denim blue heather from Cascade 220 yarn.
Last night I babysat Michael and Dylan. Dylan was helping me by unwinding the yarn as I knit: 
He is an excellent helper!
More to come!
UPDATE: The plumber(s) were here from here from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm tonight. They replaced several feet of pipe, snaked for hours and put a few holes in my lower cabinets (inside). My sink is still plugged up.
The verdict-we have a collapsed pipe under the cement floor in the hallway. It will require pulling the carpet, jack hammering the floor, replacing the pipe and then making all the repairs. We are looking at a second (and possibly third) opinion-and estimates. But as my husband has reminded me, it is not an earthquake or tsunami.
My computer has been acting up lately so it is out being checked. I am typing this on my iPad. I am finding out how dependent I am on my lap top. Bejeweled Blitz is just not the same!!
At least I am doing lots more sewing! I finished a little quilt top today and I played with my flower maker. I will get pictures up ASAP!
Yes I finally cleaned my sewing room-again! This time, instead of just shoving stuff into my closet, I was able to similar things together on my new shelves!
Look at this horrible mess- I moved the drawers from next to the TV to under the new shelves so now I have my desk area back.
This corner was killing me. If something fell, it was gone forever!
Now it looks like this:
This is a new shelf that I PUT TOGETHER MYSELF!! When we get it on the wall and filled, I will post a picture.
Here is a picture of a little quilt I am working on. I love my little kitties! 
Yes! I finally finished something!
Not that I have not been busy. Since it has been so gosh darn cold I have mostly been working on my afghan. It is coming along slowly. It has 20 colors plus white. It is 72” wide so the rows take a while. I am working on the second repeat of colors:
I plan to do three repeats and then some kind of border.
I have also quilted a couple of quilts and some placemats but more on that later.
This is what I finished:
It is a cover for my I pad:
(Note the shameless plug of my grandsons!)
About two years ago Katie and I hit up the Rescue Mission Clothing Store looking for wool to felt. Well, we promptly forgot all about it. Last week Katie came over and we finished getting the fabrics ready for the wash (make that five wash loads!). I made the cover from some of the fabrics.
This is the back. I quilted over the pattern that was already there.
I put in a pocket…
…And I even covered a button!
I really, really like it!
And here is a preview of my next post:
(My husband is too good to me!)
I almost forgot! Lauren made her boyfriend a quilt for Christmas. And she really did do all of it. I just supervised (and she will tell you it was grudgingly-I really don’t like making T-shirt quilts).
I think she did a great job!
When it is cold and snowy, as this January has been, my love of yarn overcomes me. This month I have been in the mood to crochet. I have been collecting skeins of Cascade 220 yarn to make an afghan. Lots and lots of colors accented with white.
It is big and is eating yarn: It is as wide as a queen sized mattress. I made the mistake of measuring my progress yesterday: it was only 17” long. Oh dear-in my head I thought it was about 25”! Each row takes me about 40 minutes to crochet-a simple calming repetition of double crochet.
And just for fun, some pink hearts for Valentine’s Day. I am going to make a garland for my fireplace. Each heart is almost instant gratification: I can make one in about 20 minutes.
You can find the pattern for the hearts here.
I took this picture in my kitchen.
I was supposed to work today and my road had not yet been plowed; the highways were still covered in snow and I drifted off the road because it was snowing so hard. I came back home and called in.
And now it has stopped snowing, the sun is shining, and the roads are clear.
Another typical winter day in Central New York.
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