Bring on the turkey!

Today is our big Turkey day. My family has been busy getting ready....the girls are cooking like crazy. My girl made the most yummy iced pumpkin cookies last night..........I am surprised there are any left with all the taste testing that was going on. Megan made a pot of garlic mashed potatoes that will be going in to the crock pot shortly not to mention 2 Famous Balls of Cheese! The Turkey just hopped on the barbi, dressing, gravy and cranberry sauce all ready to go! Thanks to my family for doing all the work while I lounge on the couch and of course do some blogging :-)!

Back to feeling better. I had a couple bumpy days, but I can see I just have to take it easy and not overdo. I just don't do well at sitting and especially this time of year. I would love to be pulling out my Christmas stuff like Miss Sharon, but that might just have to wait for a week. Got some great mail yesterday. My Santa letters arrived. Not a very good picture........cause they are way cuter then in person. Love the paper that Mika picked, very

vintage. You pick the words and give her your colors and she will make you the most wonderful words ever!You can reach Mika at mika2682@aol.com, and if you haven't already visited her moms blog, Cherry Hill Cottage, you might want to take a visit. It's one of my favorite blogs.

I have had lots of questions about the pattern used for my Chocolate swap quilt that Carol made. Silly me, I thought it was a Buggy Barn pattern, but actually it is a pattern by Sandy Gervais called Tree Up! Lights On!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

OK, moving forward!

Boy things can change so quickly. A week ago Turkey plans were foremost on my mind, but than things changed.........SHINGLES! Yucko. Today I feel quite a bit better. I spent a couple days just feeling really sick, that was until my good friend Carol (Nurse Carol) suggested I cut my pain pills in half and take a smaller dosage. That did the trick. Much better, much, much better. Thanks Carol. I know I have to take it easy, but at least I'm up off the couch and moving around. In fact I decided I wanted to go out for a bit, just for a change of scenery (something besides the family room :-)! Got out of my polka dot pj's and put on my favorite pair of shoes...polka dotted of course, and went out for a while. OK maybe not the best of ideas (ouch), but it was nice to be up and moving. I definitely will follow all of the doctors (and Nurse Carol's) orders. I want this to go away quick!

So I'm settled back down on the couch, back in my polka dot PJ's (nice and loose) and I hear the UPS Van. I know what that means. C H O C O L A T E!!! My chocolate swapping buddy Carol had alerted me that my box was on the way and sure enough..........

IT'S HERE! Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate...............sorry, I got a little sidetracked:-)! I haven't had any chocolate for well over a week. Part of the chocolate swap was to put the goodies in a handmade container. I open the box ......wait a minute.... I did just take a pain pill, OK half a pain pill, but what the heck this looks like a quilt! Inside the card Carol has signed "I hope you enjoy both the chocolate and the "container" "! This wonderful quilt being the container wrapped around the wonderful chocolate!

Wow, Carol the chocolate and quilt ...both amazing!. I love the Buggy Barn Trees and I have the perfect spot to display my new quilt, and the label on the back is very special. Hope the wonderful quilting shows up in the picture! You really made my day Carol! Once again, happy tears.......must be all the drugs! Thank you Sharon for hosting such a fun swap!

Thanks again for all the emails and comments...you guys are the best! I'm looking forward to Katie coming home Thursday night and spending lots of time with Katie, Megan and Matt, and then our big family Turkey Day on Saturday (the girls are taking over for me!) Hope that everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving spent with lots of family and friends and yummy chocolate.................whoops, I mean Turkey :-)!

Can't Thank Everyone Enough!

Sharon called me today to let me know about all the nice comments.....and I just don't even know what to say except THANK YOU!! Probably was the pain medication but I had happy tears. In the scheme of things this is minor and I know it will pass, but all your good thoughts and wishes have meant so much to me. The next time somebody tries to make me feel silly over blogging all I'll have to do is let them know about the kind thoughts and words from everyone! Thank you, thank you, thank you :-)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Turkey Day is Coming!

I would love to tell you that this is what I've worked on for this year and hope to have it done by next week.....but I have to admit I actually made it last year and all I need to do is get the buttonholing done! Seems easy enough, but I am hoping with some public humiliation that may encourage me to get it done! So come on girls, heap it on :-)!!!

Here's a picture of the little table topper that Carol and I bought at Festival and started in the hotel room. Just needs some primitive stitches plus some primitive quilting and it will be done....now this one is doable :-)!! It's so hard to believe that next week is Thanksgiving. I can hardly wait... it's definitely one of my favorite days. Growing up it was always a big family doing and it's a tradition that I've tried to carry on for my family. I mentioned before the make ahead gravy recipe and I thought I would share it with you. It was passed on to me by my mom.

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Roe's Make Ahead Turkey Gravy

4 turkey wings (about 3 to 4 lb.)

2 medium onions, peeled and quartered

1 cup water

8 cups chicken broth

2 medium carrots, cut in chunks

2 medium stalks of celery (with leaves) cut in chunks

4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 tsp. dried

3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 Tblsp. stick butter or margarine

1 tsp. freshly ground pepper, or more it you like

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put wings in large roasting pan, lay onions on top. Roast 1 1/4 hours or until wings are browned. Put wings and onions in a 5 to 6 quart pot. Add water to roasting pan and stir to scrape up any brown bits on bottom. Add to pot. Add 6 cups broth (refrigerate remaining 2 cups) the carrots, celery and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered

1 1/2 hours. Remove wings. When cool, pull off skin and meat. Save meat for another use. Strain broth into a 3 quart saucepan. Discard vegetables. At this point refrigerate overnight so the fat that rises to the top can solidify and be removed easily..the next day after you removed the fat bring broth to a gentle

boil in a saucepan. Whisk flour into the 2 cups of broth that you saved before

and blend till smooth. Add flour mixture to broth that is gently boiling and boil for 5 more minutes to thicken. Stir in butter and pepper. Serve or pour into containers and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 1 month.

Yummmmmy! You can doctor it up more if you like with different spices, but it is very good and makes about 8 cups.

This is a cute Fall snowman hanging that Carol made for me a couple years ago. I just love it and at least it's done :-)!

And Kim, yes my Monday group did meet tonight, which is

Monday and we got lots of gabbing done, some sewing and talked all about our Thanksgiving dinner plans! Hope everyone is enjoying Fall! Later gators!!!

Is It Monday or Friday?

Tonight was late night sewing for my Monday night group..........that was for you Kim :-)! Once a month we do late Friday night sewing complete with goodies to munch on. See the world famous ball of cheese right in the front!
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My Lucky Star quilt was back from the quilters - notice I said quilters.....we have two sisters that do quilting for us at the shop. Without exaggerating I have to say they are amazing....the quilting is so beautiful! You can click to enlarge the picture and see the wonderful feathers they put around the stars.
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Not much going on this weekend. A few bindings ready to go, and more Thanksgiving planning. Time to dig out the Turkey day recipes. I have a wonderful make ahead gravy recipe that was my moms that is made with turkey wings, so I need to get them ordered from the butcher. I worked on my chocolate swappers package tonight, so I need to get that finished up... oh yeah, and fill it to brim with yummy chocolate! Well it's way past my bedtime! Later gators!

Back to my routine!

Think I'm getting back in to the swing of things. Caught up on my sleep and worked my three days at the shop! Now I'm off for four days. I'm planning on gearing up for our Thanksgiving extravaganza!

Thought I would give a turning of color update on my trees-they just aren't cooperating this year! We have been having unusually warm days, so I'm afraid the beautiful show they normally put on is just not going to happen this year :-( !

Lots of pretty quilts to look at this week at the quilt shop. This quilt belongs to Jennifer in the Monday night group. The picture just doesn't do the quilt justice - it's so pretty.

All three of these quilts belong to Jan who comes to class on Mondays. They will be coming home with me for a while so I can get the bindings on them.

If you look closely, in the bottom picture my friend Carol's dog Chester is making an appearance! He's the best dog in the whole world and he loves to come to the quilt shop and greet all the customers.

Friday night will be another late night sewing with the Monday gals and I'm hoping to get both of my swap items done, if not the Chocolate police might come and get me .......YIKES!! Hope everyone is having a good week and getting lots of projects done!

Report From Festival!

And I thought Market was good :-)! Carol and I had the best time. We wasted no time when we got there. Landed in Houston around 3, picked up our car and headed over to our hotel. Amazing, we didn't even get lost...well we had a slight wrong turn, but it all worked out well and we got checked in. We were so excited to hear that they had added a shuttle bus from our hotel, so we immediately went down, got the bus and we were on our way! Right off we met the nicest ladies on the bus. Some with tales to tell from past festivals, and some like us, experiencing it for the first time. We were very close to the start of the line and the minute those doors opened we were off and running. Carol and I had a master plan ...........................power shopping, which proved to work quite well. We started a few isles over and starting zooming up and down, picking up things along the way -OF COURSE :-)! By the end of the evening we were definitely worn out.....................but, tomorrow would be a new day and we would be at it again.

A sighting of Sharon and our Lil Miss Doe in line. Those girls were so excited to get in they were moving all around! Actually I think I was the one doing the moving!

A view from overhead of Festival - only a small portion of all the vendors! So many
amazing booths!
Carol getting a picture from up top.......probably figuring out which booth we need to head to next!

This is Penny Sturges and Jill from Qtuiltsillustrated. Loved their booth and all the cute purse patterns.. They were so friendly and helpful. And see the cute quilt behind them, well I just had to have that kit! Love that Lakehouse fabric!

Here's the nice gals from Plain Janes's -
again cute booth and loved all their kits.

Carol and I found a really cute turkey table topper that we ended up working on in the hotel room - that is after chasing all over the festival looking for Wonder Under. What quilters won't do to get going on a project. We ran around so much we had to find a wall to lean against and take a break. Notice the health food - now that will give us more strength to carry on :-)!

A few more shots of festival. They don't like you to take pictures but I found a few willing souls! A couple weary quilters getting a back rub in the Medi-Rub booth!!!

The nice lady from The Sewing Studio........Carol and Ella (who we met a Festival) sharing fabric for a quilt they want to make.....fabric from the Sewing Studio.

And one of my favorite pictures, Carol's Haul!!!!

We had the best time and there are so many more stories to

tell, I could just go on and on. Not to mention thinking we

were going to crash on the plane ride home.................well that's another whole long story :-)!! I have missed you all, hope I didn't bore anyone too much!

Later gators!

Are You Ready for some Quilt Market??!

A good word to sum up Quilt Market is AMAZING, and the anticipation of Sample Spree is equally as amazing. Here are the four of us with our Moda bags that Donna surprised us with. We are standing in front of the windows that look down over the Market floor.
This is the room where we waited for Sample Spree to start. When we lined up early in the day it was being used as a meeting area for an Electrical Conference............little did they know.........they would soon be invaded by hundred's of women (well a few men) waiting to charge through the doors and scoop up whatever quilting stuff they could get their hands on :-)! Getting there early leaves you lots of time to get in to trouble....err, I mean reflect on what lays ahead... hmmm.......what oh what shall we do all day?? How about a game of cards!
We met the nicest bunch of ladies from Chicago. We spent all day in line with them, and then it turns out they were in the room right next door to us - what are the odds?! Then we noticed the nice people over at the Electricians table had flashing lights on their hats.......we need to investigate. A couple of our Chicago friends headed on over and they bring us back flashing light bulb pins . Eight woman sitting for half a day waiting for Sample Spree to open and now we have blinking light bulb pins - let the high jinks ensue:-). They have magnetic backs so you can stick them all kinds of places. They work well as earrings, and they can even attach to your glasses . Wish this picture would enlarge, she had them stuck to the middle of her glasses - we were laughing our heads off! It's probably one of those times when you had to be there.......but I can tell you there was some hysterical laughter happening at this point --- will someone pleasssse open those Sample Spree doors .....open, open, open!!

It would have been fun to show some pictures inside but once those doors open it's every quilter for themselves.......some of my fastest running has been done at Sample Spree. Here are the after photos!!

Worn out - but look at the haul!

It's back to the room for some rest and to get ready for our next day of Market. This is the view out of our window. Beautiful at night with all the sparkling lights!

Here's some fun shots of the day......................

Debbie and Linda ready to shop till they drop.....

Donna with one of our favorite people - Norbert our Moda rep........................

Visiting the LakeHouse Booth (here's a couple of shots of the BEAUTIFUL QUILTS), and getting to meet Holly Holderman - definitely a highlight of the day! Donna has ordered a ton of LakeHouse fabrics and we can't wait till they arrive!

Frank Bielec from Trading Spaces ---what a character, being as friendly as could be!

.........and a personal highlight for me, getting to see my longtime friend Merry, who owns Fiddlesticks Quilt Shop in Boulder City, Nevada. She's living her dream of owning a quilt shop. She is one creative lady and Fiddlesticks is beautiful shop!

Whewwww! That sums up our four day adventure. Wednesday I'm off to Quilt Festival with my friend Carol and I'll have more tales to tell by the weekend. Later gators!

We're Back!

We made it back safe and sound and I have lots of pictures and stories to share. Only problem, I'm worn out! So it's off to bed for me. Tomorrow is my long day at work 10 to 8:30, and I will try to get the rest of my pictures posted tomorrow night. Needless to say lots of fun happened, lots of buying happened and some great tales to tell......I even got to meet our one and only Pam Kitty, who I might add is every bit as nice as I had imagined. Here we are in the Late Bloomer booth - CUTE QUILTS!!! Elizabeth, Pam Kitty, myself and Donna. Don't we all have that Quilt Market glow :-) One more picture to share......
This is my friend.... well actually I don't know my friends name, but I'm thinkin if any of you out there are thinking of joining the Red Hat Society you might want to check in to it a little more :-)! Promise to share more from start to finish. Later gators :-)!

Did somebody say cheese.......................ball?!

I have had literally thousands of email requests for the famous ball of cheese recipe,(OK maybe 7 :-)) so without further delay I present to you the famous Ball of Cheese recipe! Here's what you need. Two packages of cream cheese, a package of Hidden Valley Ranch Salad dressing mix (make sure it is the package that says to mix with milk & mayonnaise, not the buttermilk one), sharp Tillamook cheddar cheese and chopped pecans.

Soften the cream cheese. Add 3/4 of the dry salad dressing mix (sometimes I go hog crazy and add the whole package). Mix so the dressing mix and cream cheese are well combined.

Next add 2 cups of grated cheddar cheese. This is more of a cream cheesy cheese ball, if you want more cheese go for it. Next form in to a ball and start rolling in the pecan pieces. I crushed the pecans in a plastic bag first so there are finer pieces.

Keep rolling until it's covered with the pecans. Better to make at least a few hours ahead, or overnight . Yummy! As I told Carol, after 5:00 there are no calories in the cheese ball - just one of the rules of the ball :-)!!! My nephew

John is the one who name it the world famous ball of cheese!

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Today we totally switched plans. We had planned to go to the horse races and spend the day out in the sun. We like to go to Santa Anita and sit in the infield with a picnic lunch. I always take some handwork and John usually takes a book. We are crazy betters - $2.00 per race. The winds have been really bad today, and a few fires around so we decided to stay home. Our best to everyone who might be affected by the fires.

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So here's my updated plan. Finish up Carol's binding (the blue plaid) and start the binding on another customers quilt, Ruth's wonderful Egg Money quilt, and maybe read a few magazines.

Also, game 7 of the playoffs are on at 5:30, so we will definitely be watching that! Hope all of you are having a wonderful weekend! Later gators!
PS - almost forgot to mention I finally finished my Lucky Star quilt