Disorder and Confusion Everywhere!!!

A few months ago Mom and I purchased the Ghastlies. I got mine in white and orange. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I had a good feeling about it.

I have never designed my own quilt before, feeling that I didn't have the skills and, most importantly, the patience to get all the pieces to fit together. I put off drafting a pattern until I had all the fabric. So after I got them, I sat down and spent an entire night graphing out blocks for each of the characters I wanted to have in my quilt. I wasn't very confident about them, so I put them away for another day.

I got out the plans and the fabric a couple days ago and decided to try out my pattern. I got through the fifth block and realized I didn't have enough of the orange cats to finish the other blocks. So I had to order more and wait for the fabric. It arrived on Thursday to my delight.

For FNSI I did the last three blocks that I needed to finish to put my quilt together. As I pieced my blocks, I watched Monk (and I thought I had a lot of phobias).

Here they are all together.

Just to let everyone know, there will be sashing in between the blocks, so they won't be right next to each other. I think for not having any real plan to start with, they turned out pretty good. I am a little more confident in designing my own quilts.

I'm Late! I'm Late! For A Very Important Date!!!

In the aftermath of the Broncos win last night, I forgot to post my FNSI. So, here it is. Better late than never.

I worked on the pineapple blocks that mom has been bugging me to finish. I have them pretty far along and I am excited about working on them again. I think the excitement this time has to do with everything being pretty much already cut.

In the Meadow...

...We can build a snowman (or a family in my case)

For this month's FNSI I decided to work on the Winter Wonderland project that I started back when rocks were soft and mist was in the air.

I finished this block and traced out another block last night.

Help! I Need Somebody! HELP!!!

Mom recently referred to the incentive that she bought me. Here is the result...

Now I need the advice of the blog world. Are the paper pieced blocks arranged in a best way possible? If you think that some of the blocks would look better elsewhere please let me know.

Hide and Seek!!!

Last night was FNSI. So I settled in and thought about what (of my many projects that have been started) I should work on.

Mom has been on me about finishing my candy cane quilt that hasn't gotten finished yet. We got some new fabrics this week and she has been thinking of how to use them. She realized that the candy cane fabric from a Very Fairy Christmas looked a lot like the candy cane that I embroidered last year. So I dragged out my stitching and blocks that are finished. It was a perfect match.

So I (after many "work on them! work on them!" from mom) decided to work on my last three paper pieced blocks and see how far I could get.

I got my stuff ready, then I looked around for the back up fabric that I have for when (yes, when because I know that I will) I mess up. I couldn't find it any where. I spent about twenty minutes tearing up my side of the sewing room and trying to get it back together again. I gave up looking and hoped for the best.

The two blocks I got done and two of my embroidered blocks on the perfect fabric for sashing.

I was also given my first pair of stork scissors by my mom yesterday, and I have to show them off. I don't have much fondness for birds, and the feeling is mutual. They are the ones that started the feud. I have always wanted a pair of stork scissors for myself, but I couldn't find any that I liked. These are perfect.

This is the stitching bag I got from Ant Nicci and my NEW black and white stork scissors.

I collect pins and decided this is the perfect place to put some of them. The pin with my name has been in a button tin for as long as I can remember. 2 are from my recent trip to Florida. 4 of them are from the shop hop that mom and I try to go to every year. (You'll never guess which little pal might join us this year - if we go.)

Let Your Hair Down!!!

I was so excited for this FNSI, since I missed last one.

I started out my night by trying to catch up on my BOM's and the extra blocks that I am making along with them.

After I got all but one of the blocks done I got to work on a project for my LuLu. Mom and I bought her a big girl nap mat with Rapunzel, from Tangled, on it. The pillow isn't very big so I decided to make her a Rapunzel pillow case for an extra pillow.

As so often happens one turned into two!!!

Where I Have Been!!!

It has been a while since I last posted. (Or that is what mom tells me.)

(Me and the conductor of the Hogwarts Express)

I have been pretty busy this month. I went on my first vacation in 7 years. I accompanied my sister's family on their trip to Orlando, Florida. We did the usual tourist stuff, Disney World (all 4 major parks), Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and Sea World.

The first night there we attended the Arabian Nights dinner show. It was a lot of fun and very interactive. Gumdrop loved it since she is very into horses.

LuLu missed getting her picture with her favorite Disney movie character, Mulan, by 2 seconds at Epcot. She did get to wave and say, "Hi." I really enjoyed the topiary characters. But my favorite part of Epcot had to be seeing Off Kilter sing "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond." I love this song and seemed to be the only one in the crowd who knew it. The rest of them must not have read Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon because Rodger sings at the Scottish/Irish festival.

We did the VIP tour of Sea World and got to feed Sting Rays, Dolphins, and Sea Lions. We got to see the Dolphin show, the Sea Lion pirate show, and the whale show, Believe. My sister and Gumdrop went on Atlantis with me and got pretty wet. We ate at the Luau dinner that they have at Sea World and it was a lot of fun, even though with my food allergies I couldn't eat much. We all got to feed Dolphins and Sea Lions. LuLu loved the Dolphins.

While Nojo was taking the picture of LuLu feeding the Dolphins he failed to see that she had just stolen his biggest fish. She is too cute for him to be mad for very long. What a great big brother.

Islands of Adventure has the Harry Potter village of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts Castle. This is where I had the best time. I love Harry Potter and it was the major reason why I went on the trip. I went on all the rides there and have the best picture of all the accumulated photos taken on our journey. I got to drink butter beer and pumpkin juice. I was only able to bring mom back a pumpkin juice but she was happy with that. The ride in the castle was so much fun. If you love Harry Potter and want to feel like you're part of the story this is the ride for you.

(This is my favorite picture. The guy at the photo desk couldn't stop laughing at the look on my face. Yes, I am afraid of spiders!)

The last thing we did was go to Cocoa Beach, which I was also excited to visit since it is where "I Dream of Jeannie" takes place. I absolutely love that show. You can ask mom. I drive her nuts with it.