Busted!

My youngest daughter, Dana, and her two girls came by this afternoon for a little while.

Here is a picture of both girls. The oldest one is Kyra, and the youngest is Katy.




And my oldest daughter, Summer, called and told us all to meet her at Abuelo's for dinner. Which we did. We had a wonderful time. We ate shrimp and steak and queso, tres leche cake and flan, and good old sot grandma had 3 margaritas. Now that is not a normal thing for me. I don't drink often, but I love the taste of margaritas and these were so good! I let Aud drive home because I knew she would have a fit if I didn't and I was glad she was there to do so. My oldest daughter called after we got home to make sure we arrived safely, not sure because Aud (who is 91) was driving or because I wasn't.

Now for the busted part. My oldest daugher and her husband both graduated from OSU. I LOVE OU football and always root for them. Aud roots for OSU. Anyway, OU beat OSU, which I noted in my blog not too long ago. So Summer says to me, I was reading your blog and my mind went totally blank and I could not comprehend....how in the H**** can you root for OU when your children graduated from OSU? And my response is always..they are the better team, lol. She still doesn't understand why I had OU painted on my driveway where the house numbers are. LOL, there is no tolerance in Oklahoma football. So, I am berated by my very own child when I root for OU. Don't you feel sorry for me? lol

And tomorrow is the Big 12 championship game. OU has beaten Missouri this year, barely, and I sure hope they can do it again.

I have to post my challenge information tomorrow also. Some of my cyberspace friends have challenged me to do a project. Since I am the proverbial "late child" on some things, I will post all of that information tomorrow.

Aud amd I have not done any decorating either. Maybe this weekend.

Fidget Elfshimmer

I always knew I was special. And this explains it. Especially the part about living in the rotting woodlands. Always wondered what that smell was, lol.

Your fairy is called Fidget Elfshimmer

She is a cheerful sprite.

She lives in rotting woodlands near poisonous toadstools.

She is only seen when the first flowers begin to blossom.

She wears red with white spots, like the toadstools. She has delicate green wings like a cicada.

Get your free fairy name here!

Stuff and ranting

There is not much going on around here. My poor finger still hurts, so I am not getting any quilty stuff done. Did manage to shred all of the catalogue labels so I could give them to one of the local churches. They collect them, thank goodness. I think it is awful how many catalogues we get in the mail. Between Aud and I we get at least 30 every week, and I am not exaggerating! That adds up to a ton of paper.

We got a little snow, but it melted, so now it is just dreary looking. My azaleas have given up the ghost for the year, and the impatiens are just mush now. I will have to clean them up soon.

And I want to rant about Cook's Illustrated. I dropped my subscription to them earlier this year because they made me mad. It seemed like I was getting phone calls from them every other day for one thing and another and the man making the calls was very rude and pushy. So, I finally told them to take me off their mailing list, cancel my subscription, and don't call me, and don't email me. I still get the emails and today I got a book from them. You know, the kind that has the invoice pasted on the front and it has the bill in it? Well, this one didn't have that, so I thought, OK, one of my kids has sent me the cookbook for the year. I have all of them up to this year, and that was reasonable. SO, I cut the tape, opened the package, and there was an invoice in there. I was not happy. I very carefully retaped the box with clear tape, which is all they had done, and went to the post office. I told the clerk it had not been opened and return it to sender.
What irritates me about this is that I feel they are being deceitful by not putting the invoice on the front so you will know you have a bill coming. Plus, they shouldn't have mailed it to me in the first place. Anyone else have problems with companies doing that?

And, speaking of, I got a "free sample" in the mail from a company called "painVanish" several days ago. I haven't used it, but finally got around to reading the inclosed "letter" tonight. I am so lucky, they are going to send me my Welcome Pack which includes a FREE cooling relief patch and a 2-oz. tube of PainVanish....all for the introductery price of just 14.99! Aren't I lucky? If I don't like it all I have to do is return it postage-paid and cancel future shipments. Wow! So, I called them to tell them forget it, where did they get my name, and I was not interested. They have already mailed it! As I told the girl, I am not spending my gas or money to go to the post office to return it, I didn't order it, and they can forget about it. I also told her to be sure she put on my "account #" that if they tried to collect for this, I would turn them over to the state attorney general's office. Felt better after that, lol, but stuff like this is getting very frequent. Anyone else get any of this "wonder" cream?

I think that is enough ranting for now. Thanks for listening if you stuck this long.

More Football !!

Well. I am watching the New England Patriots play Philadelphia and it is a little nervewracking, for sure. And, I have cut the middle finger on my right hand and it is bleeding like a stuck pig, and I can't do anything but sit and moan. The medicine I take makes my blood thinner than normal I guess.

Update: New England escaped by the skin of their teeth! Yea!!!

Anyway, I have heard via the grapevine that I am envolved in a brewing project with three other bloggers . It should be interesting. I need to get my finger better so I can play. Stay tuned for details!

Football!!!

OU beat OSU today in the Bedlam battle. And OU looked really, really good. And, Texas was beaten by Texas A&M yesterday and LSU was beaten by Alabama yesterday, and Missouri is leading Kansas right now, and the moon is full, and all is right with the world, lol.

OU will be playing for the Big 12 Championship next weekend in San Antonio, Texas against the winner of the KU-Missou game. Should be a good one

Update: Missouri beat Kansas, so we will meet them next week in SA....and we beat them earlier this year, so maybe we can do it again!!! Go Sooners!

Have stayed totally out of the stores during this weekend, isn't that exciting? And that is the full extent of what I have managed to accomplish in the last several days.

From the looks of some of your blogs everyone else has been busy, busy, busy. And all of the Christmas decorations going up look wonderful!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I hope this Thanksgiving Day finds you with family and friends and making great memories to last a lifetime.

I found a turkey that wasn't cooked, lol.

Quilting Room

This morning I am taking you on a tour of my quilting room. I have re-organized some of it and it is a little more functional than it was. I "fixed" it by moving several things to another room which I am turning into my "other" quilting room, lol.

This picture is the left wall as you walk in the door. This is the door I keep my portable design walls behind. My printer sits on top of an antique chest I keep all of my specialty rulers and some threads and "gadgets" in. The hearts are out of wool. The clock is out of tin and I painted it about 20 years ago. It still keeps time however.

This sewing machine is my old Bernina that I use mostly to machine applique with. Then I have a roll around table that will fold up. I keep odd things on it that I can't seem to find a good home for. The wall hanging is Arabella, a quilt from Blended Quilts. I don't remember what the fabric is, but it was from Quilt Gate about 3 years ago. The pictures on the wall are some paintings I did in another life and a wool pumpkin piece, a handmade Christmas quilt I was given several years ago and a crossstitch piece I did. The table is my cutting table. The bins underneath hold, what else, fabric!


This looks toward my main sewing machine. The two boxes on my cutting table are the current "two" projects I am working on. That is always subject to change. The wall hanging is one of Pat Sloan's designs.
The design wall. The roll around cart on the left holds more "junk" and some serger thread. The serger sits there patiently waiting. I have several projects that I need to do on it. There are a couple of "ongoing" quilt projects in the baskets beside the serger. My big ironing board that I couldn't live without. It was one of the first things I bought when I started quilting 7 years ago. The wall hangings are some of the first quilting things I did.
Door to the fabric closet, some quilt blocks waiting to be set, and another heart piece I did early on from log cabin blocks.
I feel very fortunate to have as much room as I have to quilt in. It is wonderful. And it won't be this clean tomorrow, I guarantee, lol.

Fabric Closet

I was asked how I store my fabric. This is my fabric closet. I recently "cleaned" it out, lol. Each plastic container contains a whole quilt ready to be made, including backing. The fabric on the shelf and in the wire pullouts is part of my stash. I think I need to stop buying fabric, there is no room in the inn. lol

Stuff

First of all, the Sooners lost to Texas Tech! We were outplayed, our quarterback suffered a concussion, and our hopes for a BCS championship this year are doomed. Texas Tech did this to us a couple of years ago, and history has repeated itself. I am still in a state of shock. The fact that I am a fourth generation Texan has nothing to do with this of course. I just like Oklahoma Sooner football. One of my daughters and her husband graduated from Oklahoma State University, but I don't follow them, and next week OU plays OSU, which is always a tossup. It is called Bedlam, and for good reason. But that is for next week.

Meanwhile, for those of you who always need design walls, below is one answer I have found to be useful. I went to Home Depot and got a sheet of insulation. I ask them to cut it into 2 x 6 ft pieces. Then I covered them with batting, taped down with duct tape, and use these for portable design walls. I chose this size because they are easily stored behind doors. The blocks on this one are part of a sampler I am doing to use up some of my stash.

These are some ornaments made on a Bernina embrodiery machine that I won as a door prize at a quilt guild meeting Thursday night. Aren't they cute?

This is the cover of a very interesting applique book. I think it is very neat . I may even have to do some of the appliqued fruits and vegetables shown inside.

Here is a picture inside this book that shows two different colorways of veggies.

Very colorful.
Another book I ordered. I love the way these houses are put together. I would like to do one of these too.

Anyone have any favorite quilting book titles they want to share? I love buying quilting books almost as much as buying quilting fabric. lol.

Pay It Forward

I saw this on Krisp Quilt and was lucky enough to be one of the first to sign up. So I am

"playing it forward".

It’s the Pay It Forward Exchange. It’s based of the concept of the movie “Pay it Forward” where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on. So here’s how it works. I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, but you will receive one within 4 months and that’s a promise! What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

THIS HAS BEEN CLOSED AS OF DECEMBER 30, 2007

Calico Craze Update

This is the Lori Smith pattern that started it all. It is called Patchwork Sampler. There are only 51 blocks of 3 different sizes in it. I am making this quilt in Calico Craze. An ongoing project as making one block takes me several hours.

This is the old cutting table in disarray as I try to figure out what to cut next in the battle of the block.

The only one I got finished today.

And this is the quilt I am making from batiks, plaids, and stripes. I finally got all of the blocks made, now for the sashings and cornerstones, and borders. I wanted a picture of it before it is put away until the first of the year. I don't think I will be able to get back to it until then.

Challenge Quilt Finished

Well, here it is, finished. I even quilted it, but don't look at that. I don't do machine quilting very well, and this is the first piece I have done in over a year. It is 24 inches square. I have no idea what I am going to do with it once it is "judged" or whatever is supposed to be done with it. I will find out Thursday night I guess. Maybe give it to my youngest granddaughter for a doll quilt?

I didn't get my Calico Craze blocks finished today, so I haven't started my book yet, but since it is only 12:30 am, I can stay up another hour and a half and get it started. The only problem with that is I won't want to put it down.

The new Quilter came in today. Not that impressed with it, and usually, there is at least one quilt in each of their magazines that I really love. Maybe my tastes are getting jaded.

Piece & Plenty Update

I am up to date on the Piece and Plenty BOM. Yeah!!! Now I can get some other things accomplished. For those of you who haven't started this, it takes some time but you sure get a feeling of accomplishment when one is finished. I am so excited! The pieces aren't perfect, but they are done.

I put the yard to bed Saturday for the winter with the help of the yardman. He raked up a lot of leaves, and thirty minutes after he left, the yard was full again, lol. And then Mr. Arthritis hung around for the better part of the rest of the weekend, but I did manage to get the small challenge quilt finished. I will post that tomorrow.

Have managed to cut out two more of the Calico Craze blocks. Am going to quilting bee tomorrow and hopefully can get them put together.

And, if I do that, I have promised myself the night off. I have in my hot little hands a copy of the new J D Robb novel and it is calling me.

Thanks for all the compliments on my purple hair. It really is fun. If I could get a small tattoo without them using a needle I would get one on my hand, but I don't like needles, so that is out I guess. ;>)

Back to Purple

It has been a long month without purple. But it's back!

When I retired I decided to wear my hair straight so I don't have to fool with it. I don't really like it straight, but I like the options. Anyway, it was pretty boring, so Shelva, my hairdresser, and I decided to jazz it up a little. I had pink streaks for a while, but then we found the purple. And so I have purple streaks in my hair. I get a lot of remarks on this, especially from the young men that I run across. They always comment on my hair, and tell me they really like it. Not sure why, that never seizes to amaze me, but I have to giggle. They probably just figure I am a crazy old woman. Wonder why.

Tutorial - Working with your Blog

If you want to link to another url in your post do this:

Type in the name of the person you want to link to:
Perry

Highlight the name and then while it is highlighted select the icon directly to the right of the big T. If you hover over that icon with your mouse you will see it says "Link"

This brings up a window that asks you for the type and the url you want to link to. In this case I want to link to http// and the the url is:
http://okperisplace.blogspot.com/

That is all there is to it. Don't forget to save!

Everyone of the icons across the top of the posting box have meaning. If you hover with your mouse over each one of them it will tell you what it represents. Don't be afraid to try them out. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish. Just save often. And you can always erase.

For those of you who have trouble with your photos not enlarging when you click on them, there is a trick to that. If you load the photographs first in the order in which you want them to appear, they will enlarge. In other words, load the last one first. IF you move them around after loading, 9 times out of 10 they won't.

And all of the cute "stuff" you see on people's blogs....just click on them and they are linked to the original source. You can then follow the bouncing ball to do your own thing.

Hope this helps!

Just stuff

Played around with my blog and changed the main picture and put some "reminders" in. There is a plethora of "stuff" out there to play with! Fun!

Moving right along on Piece and Plenty Applique Block 2, yea!


Upgrade for John Flynn quilting frame, just the pieces, tomorrow is put it together day I hope, and use it, lol.

Frustration and lots of time spent on getting this baby threaded correctly and ready to attach the Flynn frame to it tomorrow. This is a hard machine to thread, or the few brain cells I have left are going faster than normal. I never did read manuals very well, lol.

My Tassimo got here today! Was not expecting it, and the coffee I ordered for it did not come. So, off to Target to get some. Cindy said I could get Seattle's Best from Target, and Cindy, if that is Seattle's Best, tain't very good. Seemed a little bitter to me. And I picked up some Cappucino, but, reading the instructions wrong of course, ended up with not very good stuff. That was the only thing my local Target had for the T. So, tomorrow I am off to hunt down some Latte and some Hot Chocolate. I think it will be 2 weeks before my coffee order gets in.

Notice the small pot on the left? That is my new hot tea pot for green tea. Have had it a couple of weeks and haven't gotten any further. And you can see the iced tea thingy there too. And the Magic Bullet and the coffee grinder. I love small appliances, I am addicted to them. My children love it when I get tired of something and give it to them. And Aud says, we have no more room. So, I will have to use these things or I will be in serious trouble with Aud.

The moral of this story is: Starbucks is still the best!

And then it was on to the mail. This fabric is a piece I ordered from Cotton Club. They always have interesting fabric.
And this is the quilt book I am going to use for this fabric. It is by Judy Sisneros and her ideas are really great for using fabric of this nature. I think this is the fourth piece of this type of fabric I have bought to do these quilts with. At least I can look at it. It makes me happy just petting it and thinking about what I am going to make with it.

Quilt Guild Challenge Quilt

A quilt guild that I belong to is having a quilt challenge. We were given the Mary Englebreit print and the red print that had to be used, and the challenge was to make a small quilt with either the width or length being 24" and the other not being much bigger. I am not at my best in this type of situation, but came up with this.

I don't normally use white in my quilts, but this seemed to call for it. And I extended the center out with a little machine embrodiery work around the edges. I didn't have much fabric left from the center cut so was pretty limited in my choices since this idea did not occure to me until I had finished pieceing the entire thing, and thought it looked too blah. Not real happy with the machine applique on it, but too bad. I don't think applique of any kind is my forte'. Anyway, now I have to quilt it, which is another thing I don't do very often. The finished size will be 24" square.

Starbucks

I love Starbucks. My favorite is a grande double-blended Mocha Frappacino. I am so addicted to them that I have a reloadable Starbucks card with the “lady with the arms” on it. I have 2 locations within a mile of me and 2 others within 3 miles of me. I also buy Starbucks Breakfast Blend and mix it half and half with the flavor of the month and that is what I drink. I think I may have a habit here, lol.

These are the cups I bought for the grandkids. They will go in their Christmas presents. I know they are Halloween, but I got them for half price, lol.



In my quest for a good cup of coffee I bought a coffee press from Starbucks. It has become a morning ritual with me to make 2 cups of coffee. The press makes the best cup of coffee I have ever tasted.

You start with a clean press. It uses no electricity. Then you bring water to a boil.

I grind the coffee beans coarsely and put them in the bottom of the press.
Then I pour the boiling water over the beans, stir them up, and put the lid on.
Set the timer for 4 minutes, push the plunger down, and pour. And that's all there is to it.

If you like coffee you need to try this. Do you have a favorite coffee or method of making it? My friend Cindy uses a Tassimo system. I was talking to her about it today, and have ordered one. I was interested because you can get other beverages for it, and make only one cup at a time. I intend to use it for cappucino or hot chocolate. Aud loves hot chocolate, and winter is coming. However, I don't see how it could possibly taste as good as my pressed coffee.

Arabella and Friends

Arabella and her friends live in a corner of my bedroom. This is the stool they sit on. It is a shoeshine stool I painted about 16 years ago or so.



The Sooners won! Yea! And I have finished the first applique block of the Piece and Plenty BOM! Yea!


I have forgotten this bear’s name. He called my name one day in the mall when Aud and I went to lunch. It must have been around Easter because I bought the ears for him. I think I have some Christmas headgear for him to wear, but since we haven’t gotten Christmas out for a couple of years, I am not sure where it is, lol. And my cat, she was painted during my painting period. She usually sets at the bottom of my quilt ladder that stands beside this stool.

These are pictures of Arabella’s pantaloons and boots. Notice the ring on her finger. Her hair is made from yarn. Isn’t it wonderful? And her clothes? I made every last stitch of her and everything on her and had so much fun with it. She is an Elinor Peace Bailey doll, and I made her about 20 years ago. I found Elinor on the internet not too long ago, and bought a couple of small doll patterns for an idea I have running around in my head, but haven’t taken the time to bring it to fruition.

Bits and Pieces

I have a study, aka "the holding area". This is the room where things land before they head out the door, or land as they come in the door. And there they stay until I decide which way they are headed, in or out.

I keep my quilting books and magazines in here, my cds, dvds, and other miscellaneous junk in the built-in bookcases. I also have a beautiful antique desk, and an antique slipper chair that needs to be recovered in there, but I don't know where this chair is going to end up, so have never recovered it. I have also moved several plastic storage containers full of fabric into this room out of my real quilting room.

I am turning this into another quilting room. I had a Little Gracie II but sold it before I ever used it because I decided I really didn't want to do that part of quilting. I have put the Babylock Quilter's Pro that I bought a year ago and have never used on the table, and the box behind it is my John Flynn quilting frame that I have had for several years and never used. Think there is a pattern here? lol My hope is to finally get everything set up and be able to quilt some table toppers and small items. Who knows when this will happen. Perhaps by saying in black and white (actually black and pale yellow) that I am going to do this will help me get it done.



Isn't this gorgeous? It is Floragraphix by Jason Yenter for In The Beginning. I have oohed and ahhed over this fabric since it came out, and finally found some on sale, so I bought it. Now to figure out what I want to make with it and see if I can find some matching pieces. I am thinking a good blended quilt might be just right.

Here is the latest progress report on my Piece and Plenty Applique Block. Only 4 leaves and 1 ribbon button to go! Yeah! And then on to block 2. I almost got the first block done by the time the new one came, lol.