Omigosh!

I entered my only two actual quilt finishes this year in the North Carolina State Fair and omigosh I won ribbons!  Totally unexpected.  I entered mostly because it felt odd not to.  :-)  My Random Roses table runner was started in Karen Eckmeier's workshop at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium this year.  Karen is absolutely delightful and runs a fabulous class.  I'm very pleased with it and it looks so nice on my dining room table.

Omigosh! I got a third place ribbon for my small Chain Reaction quilt.  The designer, Cathy Kirk, The Quilting Cowgirl, is in my bee and gave us all a "class" in putting the chains together at our retreat back in April.  I really liked the quilt pictured on the pattern cover and was thrilled to have all the scraps on hand to make it.  Silly me.  I don't have a photo of it bound.  :-)

Omigosh a new sewing machine!  I traded in the trusty Juki TL98Q for the newest iteration.   A Juki TL-2200QVP Mini.  I couldn't be more pleased, it's even better than the old one.  I wasn't sure that was possible.

First job was to finish up these gifts for friends.

Stardust and MD.  Her dad captioned this photo, "Stadium Seating."  Too cute!

The Tramp and I voted early.  The Viking came along and stood in line with us.  He earned a badge from a local police officer and a future voter sticker.  We are so worried about the outcome of this election.  Definitely not an omigosh.  :-(

Omigosh it's a jack 'o lantern sandwich!

The boy was a minion for "Happy Halloween.".

It took a couple of days to get all of the yellow off of his face.  :-)

We went to a local park to trick or treat on the very warm Halloween afternoon.  My I look serious.  I think by this time I was hot and my feet hurt!

We also went out to trick or treat in the evening which he enjoyed very much, but the real highlight of the day was the "plumber duck" given out by a local plumbing company at the park.  Omigosh!

Five and Batman were Star Wars characters once again.

And Stardust looked like a lady on a mission as Judy Hopps from Zootopia.

Omigosh!!  We cleaned out the garage last weekend.  The weather has been so warm and pleasant there wasn't any excuse not to.

And when you are finished all that hard work you just can't ignore the call of the brownie mix.  :-)

About once a week I take The Viking to have lunch with Nanny and Papa.  I love this photo of an intense moment in their conversation.

Omigosh.  Poor Dad.  I caught him with his mouth full.

The Viking was delighted that he'd created the Hurricanes logo while dipping his carrots in his puddle of ketchup.

Omigosh!  It's November for goodness sakes!  The rhododendrum bloomed at least three times last winter and seems to be just as confused this year.

While we did yard work today, the dogs enjoyed the sunshine.  Here we have Piglet, happiness filled.

And finally, the real Omigosh.  I've brought the project back out of it's bin and am determined to get on with it.  I have 444 of these tiny four patches to put together (omigosh!).

Which are for these blocks.  Yep.  444 of them.  I must be insane.  But we knew that already.  :-)

January

Some winter days you just have to take it easy.  A warm perch doesn't hurt.  

I took The Viking out to get him a pair of "renoculars" as he says it.  Now we can watch out the front window together.

His imagination runs wild these days.  He declared the wastebasket lid a "police car hat" and ran around yelling, "Emergency!  Emergency!"  I'm not sure he really knows what constitutes an emergency, but he certainly relates it to firetrucks and police cars.

When we go on our bee retreat in April, Cathy is going to help us put together the Chain Reaction quilt pattern she developed from an antique quilt.  I've cut out all the pieces and am ready to go!

As part of the "Glitterati Army" I also participated in another pattern test for Molli Sparkles.  His Diva Alphabet is fun and now I have a "sign" for My Sandbox!  :-)

 There is no excuse not to go out walking when you have a three year old around with energy to burn.
This day was pretty chilly.

And he was a train for the whole walk, sound effects and all.  He also insisted on bringing Yertle the Turtle.  It just happened Yertle fit in his hood perfectly.

On another day he gave me quite a workout trying to keep his trike moving along in a relatively straight line!

Cut to the next weekend and it was so warm out we did some yard work and I ended up stripping down to a tank top.  Weird weather.

And this poor forsythia is very confused.  It is definitely not spring!

I finished the hard part of my Texas Tumbleweeds quilt top.  It still needs borders.

The Viking has had a bad cold so I pulled out some hand sewing to do while I keep him quiet watching TV for a while in the afternoons.

I also decided to play along with the 365 Challenge quilt.   A block a day for a year.  I don't know what possessed me to start this, but I have managed to keep up so far.  We shall see.

While we were iced in by winter storm Jordan I continued to work on my Omigosh quilt which was put aside over the holidays.  Also something I was probably crazy to start.  Half of the blocks are done though and now I'm working on the churn dash blocks.  888 pairs there.

Made into 444 four-patches.  Now I'm in the process of trimming them.

We were lucky I suppose, not to get feet of snow, but what you see here is solid ice.  So we were iced in for several days anyway.

It was a great opportunity to watch the birds flocking to the feeders though.

Stardust didn't mind the feet of snow she got to play in!

The Viking is feeling a bit better though I'm still spending all day wiping his nose and washing my hands.  It was nice enough today to go for a walk on the greenway with Maisy.   As we came over the bridge and onto the greenway he declared it to be "very river-y today!"  He also said he was walking with a tractor.  Not being the tractor or riding on a tractor, just walking with it.  Hmmmmm.  This was before he grabbed onto the leash to help me walk Maisy.  He decided she was a bus pulling us along.  An empty bus.  "Take us home, Maisy!"  I wonder what we will be next time?  :-)

I got bored pretty quickly trimming little bitty four-patches.  So I've cut some of the triangles and added them on to a few.  I still have over 400 to go.  Insanity!  My brother is wondering what institution they are going to put me in.  Tee hee.

Happy Fourth of July!

Stardust looks ready to celebrate.  I believe that was a few days ago though because the rains came down today in both New Jersey

and North Carolina.  Sigh.

Yesterday, I finished my 111 blocks!!  Woot!!  Yippee!!  Happy Dance!!  And they look ok.  I wasn't sure my contrast was good enough (it isn't), but I'm so happy to see those diagonals....they stand out in a small photo anyway.

I couldn't resist stacking them up agains the ruler.  :-)

Feeling a sense of accomplishment I thought I'd take a break from Omigosh.  I cleared off the cutting table and traced a shirt pattern I bought from a vendor (Fabrilish) at the recent symposium.  It's been so long since I've sewn a garment it took a bit to get started.  I was nervous about cutting into the expensive hand dyed rayon lawn I bought with the pattern, so I bought some cheap knit to test my skills with.

Just a gratuitous photo of dogs.  I can't remember why they were waiting for me, but obviously they were.  Everyone was a bit out of sorts this week as we tried to get back on schedule after a week of being sick, so they were a bit clingy.

Mom was having some trouble with her new Bernina so we packed it up to take in for repair.  The retirement community has carts to help the residents move belongings around.  The Viking is "helping" them push the cart to the front doors where I will be waiting with the car....if I stop taking photos on the way.  The machine was easily fixed while we waited.  Yay!

Thursday, The Viking and I were able to spend time at the lake.  The sand toys are much enjoyed.

And at lunchtime he decided the cup holder in the arm of his chair was a sandwich holder.  :-D

He is currently getting lots of enjoyment out of the bins of Duplo blocks.  This however, is what adults (me) build when they are on the phone, on hold, for way way way too long (multiple times).  Turns out to be a good way to deal with the frustration.  Heh.

So tonight we didn't try to go out to any of the holiday celebrations.  Instead we turned up the TV loud to cover up the noise of the fireworks going on all around us.  Not that the dogs actually prefer Robbie Williams or Sammy Davis Jr. to firecrackers, but I hope it made them more comfortable.

I kept busy with sewing my shirt.  Why I chose the softest stretchiest knit to practice with I have no idea.  What was I thinking??  At least it forced me to mess with my sewing machine to find out the best way to handle the fabric.  Yes that's masking tape on the front of my machine.  I had to cover up the shiny chrome because I was being blinded by the reflection from my task light.  It's not the perfect solution, but it'll do for now.

So that's all.  One more day of holiday then back to our regular schedule.  Ugh.  I really don't like that word, schedule.  Ah well.  :-)