It's Fall Right?

It may be Fall in some parts, but here, well today it was 92 again!! We are promised cooler weather by the weekend, but I don't know. This is the big retirement week, with lots of festivities planned. Saturday we are having an outdoor family party, so medium weather please!!!

A little quilty business here......I made this little paperpieced runner and last year I gave it away as a gift. There were enough papers and fabric left to make another so this one is for me!! And then there's the bindings...got through this pile, well except for the top one. It's waiting to be done, so I will be starting on that one tonight.

I am happily enjoying retirement, even though the day just goes too fast. I have been dabbling in a little gardening :-)!!! I have taken on the task of filling in that brown spot in the front yard. For what ever reason it just won't fill in, but I'm on it!! I know, I know, it's a tough job but......!

Thought I would leave you with a couple recipes. First one is for a Zucchini Quiche that my mother in law gave me years ago. It is really yummy, fast and easy and also a great vegetarian recipe.
So here goes!
Zucchini Quiche
3 zucchinis (enough to make 4 cups shredded zucchini); 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1 1/2 cups shredded Jack Cheese; 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese; 1/2 pound mushrooms, sauteed in butter; 3 ounce can french fried onion rings, crumbled(in the picture that's the bigger can but we like more onion); 4 eggs; 1/2 cup milk.Grate zucchini. Add salt to bowl and put in colander and let drain for 30 minutes. Put zucchini in cheese cloth and squeeze out any extra water. Spray pie or quiche dish with Pam. Press zucchini in dish, over bottom and up sides. Mix cheeses, mushrooms, and onion rings. Put in prepared dish. Mix eggs and milk and pour over top. Bake at 350 for 40 to 55 minutes until lightly brown and quiche is firm. YUMMMMMMMMMY!!!

And Miss Red Geranium requested the recipe for THE WORLD FAMOUS BALL OF CHEESE...... (picture stolen from Red Geranium Cottage, with permission of course!!) 2 - 8 ounce packages Cream Cheese, softened; 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp Tillamook Cheddar Cheese; 1 (1 ounce) package Ranch Dressing Mix -(make sure it is dressing and not dip); 2 cups chopped pecans. In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese, cheddar cheese and 1/2 of the package of dressing mix. If you want to go hog crazy add the whole thing, hey live on the edge!!! Form into one large ball of goodness and then roll in chopped pecans to coat! Refrigerate 2 hours before serving.

Well that's it for me. There will be lots of retirement pictures coming. The big shindig is Thursday night! Hope everyone has a wackadoddle week! See you later alligators :-)

All Buttoned Up!!!!!

Finally some production to report on!!!! Saturday was quite the day. Some of the Monday night group came over for a sewathon, well some eating also!! Such a beautiful day..not too hot which was a relief. I decided to work on my projects that were waiting to have the buttonhole part done. I am embarrassed to say the turkey has been lying in wait for at least two years. But WHOOHOO.....he is done and will fly off to be quilted along with my little Christmas quilt. Great day!!!!

I also finished Block numbers 3 and 4 of the Designer Mystery Block of the Month. These blocks go together like a dream and I have said it before, love these fabrics. It's fun to have a monthly project that is easy to stay on top of! Look at this sweet Santa that you know who gifted me with!!! It is straight from The Polka Dot Pixie. Who would have guessed that Santa would look so good in Polka Dots! I think a new Santa suit trend has been born. Thank you, thank you Doe. Mr. Dottie Santa is definitely my new favorite Chirstmas decoration that will stay out all year long!! Then a surprise package arrived. A Pajama Gram, with the cutest polka dotted flannel PJ's and they even have my named embroidered on them!! How wonderful is this, but I can't figure out who sent them. A sweet little door hanger card was included that said they were from someone special. Hmmmmm, I will have to do some detective work to figure this one out. No family members sent them and seems to me since there are polka dots on them there must be a bloggy person involved!!! They are so soft and comfy looking. I can't wait to wear them. UPDATE...should of known the Pajama Gram secret person is Miss Red Gernaium Cottage!!! WHOO AND A HOO!!!! Thanks Sharon, you sneaky person you!!!! Blue and pink...my two favorite colors!!!

......and you knew it was coming. I can't help myself. Here's my new favorite picture. Seven weeks old tomorrow, it is so hard to believe, and he is starting to smile, really smile. Not that I got gas kind of smile. We just can't get enough of this little guy :-)!! He attended his first quilt group on Saturday with the ladies, but spent his time sleeping!!!

Fall is teasing us a bit. The air has definitely cooled, and the evenings are really a lot cooler. I even put the electric blanket back on the bed today. Not that it will be used for a while, but I can't wait to fire that bad boy up to 7!!!!! I refuse to do the leaf watch on the Liquid Ambers this year...they took forever to turn last Fall, so I will just leave you with this pretty sky post! Come on Fall, I know you are waiting out there somewhere!!!!! Hope that this finds you all well and with some wonderful quilting/crafting projects going on. See you later alligators :-)!!!!!

In A Word.......Busyment!

I am renaming retirement, busyment!!! I have been busier in the last two weeks then I ever could have imagined!! Where do you sign up for a couple extra days in the week?? A whole week has passed and no post for me :-(! I would love to say I have done TONS of sewing....that would not be the case!!

I have made progress on my little Christmas quilt. A few details left. Some buttons, nose and the buttonholing. Some easy Christmas napkins that will be given as a giftie to someone special. Fast, fun and easy. All great elements to a project. Only four left to make!

Lucky me I have had many retirement breakfasts with friends, retirement dinners with friends .... and speaking of breakfast, I am here to announce that Pumpkin Pancakes are back at IHOP!!! Katie and I were out to breakfast last week and yumo - we had the first stack of the season. All this celebrating leads to another big problem......................................back to the gym for me! I go early in the morning and do my thing and then swing by Baby Luke's house and his momma goes and we hang out for an hour or so!!! Lots of holding going on!

Some great mail here in Polka Dot land...cuter than cute bag

from Darlene. I just love the fabric that it is made out of, and of course polka dots for the lining!
Then I won a pattern Angels Come To Play..such fun cupcakes to make!!

And this really great pattern I ordered from Nanette . Not a very good picture, but she has a banner all made up over on her blog on her September 2nd post. Check out her Etsy shop -she has several patterns for sale! And also these wonderful old letters from Jen!! Again..check out her Etsy shop. Lots of tempting things!! Now to get them hung up! And lastly, block number four of the Designer Mystery Block of the Month.....sadly block 3 is sitting unfinished but I am planning on tackling both 3 and 4 this weekend.

A blog redo is in the works for me! A new header, some new colors, who knows! It's all very exciting!!!! I have missed visiting the blogs and seeing all the goings on...I know you guys have been busily getting ready for Fall. So off I go to get inspired and to catch up with my blog buddies! Happy mid September to y'all!!! Later alligators :-)!

A Gift From An Angel

Waiting for me in the mailbox today was a wonderful present from my secret Stitcher Angel.....two wonderful pincushions that are so beautifully made and I LOVE the colors! I have seen this type of pincushion on other blogs and always, always wanted one, and now I have two. Did I say that I LOVE them?!! And look at the sweet little socks for baby you know who!!! Thank you secret Stitcher Angel....you are the best :-)!

I have had some emails asking if I am OK. Very OK as a matter of fact, just nothing quilty again! All attempts at quilty business has not happened! Last week I ended up spending two days in the courtroom, going through the process of jurors being picked. Never got called, but after sitting through 60 people going through the same questions we all had them memorized! Finally at 4:30 on Wednesday the jury and alternates were picked and the 10 of us left were out the door.

Here's something I thought I would share. When we went to IKEA last week, I got this really cool half moon desk blotter. It's leather and has a little lip edge that holds it right in place...OK so my Bernina weighs a ton and the thing couldn't move anyway, but I just like how it fits over the edge. Speaking of sharing, have you been over to visit here???? So glad Miss No blog has finally joined us!

So what in the heck has been going on around here........going through closets, reorganizing drawers, making a list of projects to get done! Things that I have put off forever and always wanted to get to.....well now there is time and lots has been accomplished. I even went out in the yard and pulled a few weeds...have I lost my mind? Thursday there is a quilty sewing thing going on, so there definitely will be some sewing happening. Hope your week got off to a great start and that you guys are being more productive then I am!!! See you later alligators!

UPDATE - What an absent minded blogger I am. I forgot to mention the wonderful swap that is going on in my honor hosted by Sharon. It's amazing how she was able to put my likeness on a button! Have to say I was feeling a bit puffy this day :-)!! Polka Dots and Rick Rack, what a grand swap. Thanks Sharon!!!

Time Flies........

What a whirlwind of a week! OK, right off the bat I am going to talk about Baby Polka Dot!! Today he is one month old ........seems impossible that a month has gone by. Hello bloggers!! Are you looking at me....hey are you looking at me?? Well I am looking at you :-)!! We love you sweet baby boy!!

Quilting...hmmmmmm, let's see here. Seems there were some bindings to get done. All beautiful quilts....they could easily live at my house! And then there is my friend Carol. She is one of the most prolific quilters I know! Boy this quilt is a beauty! When I put the bindings on I pretend they are mine... for a brief while anyway! Seems SOMEONE was a bit behind on the binding pile!!! Then started my next Christmas project...time to get back into the Christmas groove. Most of the foundation part is done for the Merry Merry Quilt. Just need some greens for the little trees.

Having our girl home for a few days was wonderful and of course her computer tech support was much appreciated AGAIN! She loaded my little happy face quilting guy on my side bar. We had a ball at IKEA. She was looking for a shelf/cupboard for all her games, DVD's, CD's and all that fun stuff!! There were so many choices and I think she will have some more shopping to figure this out. Her best friend Emily joined us. They have been friends since the 5th grade. Friends thru thick and thin, happy times, sad times but always there for each other. Hanging out with them is just fun. Lots of laughing and listening to music on the radio turned all the way up. Felt my youth there for a moment, but a check in the rear view mirror brought me back to reality :-)!!!!! Of course Auntie had to get some cuddling time in with our guy! Too bad the picture is a little blurry.

Today I had jury duty. Sitting in the jury room hoping to be dismissed, but realizing it is something we all need to do. Well I made it up to the court room and they seated and started interviewing the first 12 candidates when time ran out. So back early tomorrow! As luck would have it Mr. Polka Dot got called for jury duty tomorrow! Hey maybe we can meet for lunch...but no discussing of our cases!

This was the view out my sewing room window earlier tonight...the sky was so amazing. If I was as good at picture taking as my friend, my picture would have been SPECTACULAR! The little light spec in the sky is the moon peeking out.

Off to work a bit more on my Christmas project. Hoping that your week is going well and lots and lots of quilty progress happening!

See you later alligators :-)!

How you doin'..........

I am doin' just fine........sitting by the pool, nothing to do because today is my first day of RETIREMENT!!! I am sure this is where you will find me every morning - NOT!!! Hey, there's a grand baby to be held and quilts to be made....I am still a few behind on my Christmas project of the month quest!!! The Tuesday morning ladies gave me a wonderful send off yesterday with a very yummy spread and this pretty bouquet of flowers. Then John took me out for a celebration dinner, Mexican food of course!! We talked over the day and started making some plans for an upcoming trip...his retirement is coming very soon also!!

I got a call from Megan last night asking if I could come over in the morning....yipeee!!!!!!!! No better way to spend the first day of retirement..spoiling little guy! Then our girl will be home Thursday for 4 great days. Friday she invited me to tag along with her and her friend for a shopping trip to IKEA...I don't know what it is about that place, but I LOVE IKEA!!!!!! And I almost forgot I have a class I am taking on Thursday evening with some quilting buddies, so I think I am going to handle this retirement thing quite nicely!

Again, not much quilty for me, but others around me have been very quilty!!! A beautiful grandmothers flower garden quilt that was gifted to our customer Debra; Debra's Trip Around the World; Debra's dragon quilt; Nurse Carol's wonderful Miss Rosie's quilt; Evelyn's hand pieced stars-what a beauty; close up of Evelyn's hand pieced stars; Jennifer's pretty quilt; hey, there's grandpa with baby polka dot!; Nurse Carols' Orange Crush quilt from the Quiltville Mystery Quilt series-love it! My picture on this one really didn't turn out very well. In person it really doesn't read Orange!!! Love the mosaic pictures, but I am still trying to figure out the settings. One of these days I'll know what I am doing :-)!! The whole set enlarges very nicely if you click on the photos!

Now I am off to have some quality time with my grandson. Hope everyone has a wackadoodle Wednesday and that you have some quilty stuff going on in your world!! See you later alligators!

Mail out, mail in.........

Today I finally got my cupcake swap partner Tammy's, packaged mailed. Only two days late.....but then my package from her arrived...WOWIE!!!!!!!!!!! Lots of cupcake goodness. Cute polka dot, rick rack and cupcake apron; a wonderful cupcake card with polka dot hankie; cupcake pincushion; chocolates and a very sweet Brighton cupcake charm. Tammy how did you know I have a Brighton charm bracelet?.....and a very sweet quilted square commemorating the swap (I'm hanging that in my sewing room!); some wonderful Lakehouse cupcake charm squares and cupcake fabric; a very sweet tea towel - that I will definitely heed the advice it has on it, and Baby Luke......hey what's Baby Polka Dot doing there??? You know I had to sneak a picture in!! Thanks Tammy for all the wonderful thoughtful swap goodies and thanks Sharon for coordinating the swap!!

I have nothing quilty to report. I finished up Tammy's swap items and then I have had a few bindings to finish up. Today I got to go over and have some grandma time with Baby Luke, so mom could get some rest. We had a great time together. He is such a snugglebug, and even though we were helping mom out, it did me a lot of good too!!!!

I have a great new word I am going to start using...wackadoodle!!! I was watching Project Runway, and one of the designers was using wackadoodle to describe something...wackadoodle certainly will fit quite nicely in to my life. I have lots of wackadoodle things going on, and I think just saying wackadoodle can turn a bad situation in to something quite funny!!!

The plan for tomorrow...something quilty for the soul :-)!!! Or perhaps some more snuggle time with you know who! Friday is breakfast and girlie time with my girl. I miss her badly. It's been a couple weeks and we have tons to talk about! Hope that you are all having a wackadoodle good time and getting some wonderful projects done!! See you later alligators!
UPDATE!!! Bonnie at Calamity Janes is having a giveaway....a really, really, cute Fall purse! Don't forget to leave a comment over at her blog to be entered in the drawing!

And The Winner is.........................

Wow, my basket is filled to the brim with entries.....and now to throw the names in to the random name picker generator...... sorry about the lighting, Checkers refused to work under those conditions! Ok, now back to the winner.....drumrolll please and the winner is ................... Bonnie over at Calamity Janes. Congratulations Bonnie and an email is on it's way to you. Thanks to everyone for playing along. Now I have a list of tons of new blogs to visit!! What a fun way to meet lots of new blogger.

This was just a crazy busy week. Out little guy is doing great and so are mom and dad. That dimple that mom has, well guess what, our guy has one on the same side! I had fun at the purse class and got everything done but the lining. I think whatever you make using Prairie Paisley comes out great. But this bag was really fast and easy...lining to follow! I have also been working on the goodies for my cupcake partner! I can't show much of that yet, but hopefully goodies will be in the by Monday, especially since that is the deadline. All this working on cupcake goodness has me thinking cupcakes or better yet chocolate. I scoured the house in hopes of finding some chocolate, but no luck, until......well helllllllllllllllllo Kitty!!! Desperate times call for desperate measures...yumo!!!

Not much quilty going on for me, so I will leave you with a couple pictures of a couple binding jobs I have done. The one on the left is Nurse Carol's and Jan's on the right. Great job as usual ladies!!!

Now right in the middle of writing this post my font went to small. What the heck??!! Then when I went to Blogger Dashboard it is in small font also....again what the heck??!!

Oh no, maybe the eyes are going. They say that's whay happens you know and then.....well everything starts going!!! OK, enough blabbing from me. See you later alligators!!!

WOO AND A HOO!!

What a great response to my GIVEAWAY!! There is still time to enter..the drawing won't be till Saturday. It is so much to find a bunch of new blogs. My intention was to reply to each entry, but please know you are all entered, and like I said if you mention the give away on your blog you are entered 3 times!!

Not much quilting going on here. I did manage to finish my second Designer Mystery Block of the Month....I am really enjoying these block, and yesterday block three came, yipee!! Also BL (before Luke!!), I was the very lucky winner of a cute bag from Sharon. Love, love, love the colors and look at the sweet little polka dotted chicken pin-CUTE!!! Great fabrics I might add! The other night I was poking around on the blogs and ran across a bunch of posts about what are your some of your favorite quilting tools. Thought I would share some of mine. Love my needle threader and when I was out and about I found this really cute wooden base to stick it on. Doing all the bindings it makes it really handy to use. The creative grid 4 l/2 by 12 l/2 is one of my favs. Again, doing bindings, I like the size and use the 45 degree angle line for joining the end of my binding pieces to make a perfect joint that you can't even tell on the front where the start and end is! The little silver scissors, my absolute FAVORITE. It has a little hook on one tip for ripping out. My friend Gayle gave me these when I started quilting and they are always beside my machine! Thought I lost them in my recent sewing room redo, but last Saturday I found them!!!! Like finding an old friend. The gold stork scissors...how can you not love them, they are too stinkin cute and my thimble - WONDERFUL!! It's by TJ Lane and it is the best fitting thimble I have ever found. Very light weight and thin, you don't even know you have it on. Now for a really odd favorite tool.....our upstairs banister! There is an open span of about 78 inches. It is the perfect place for measuring a quilt for borders.

Some fun mail again. Our very own Nan, who soon will be starting her own online pattern business, sent me one of her patterns. I can't wait to whip one up with Luke's name on it. Two different sizes and it uses charm squares. CUTE! Way to go Nan. You are going to do so good. I am proud of you :-)!!

Today I am taking a purse class---I am excited. I haven't taken a class in ages and hope I remember how to behave. I also will be visiting our sweet baby, and mom and dad are going to go out for lunch and I get to hand out with baby! .I am one excited grandma. Tonight we are goingl to see an Angel Game..go red!!!! And once again I must leave you with some babu Polka Dot sweetness...here's our boy with his Auntie!

Hope your week is going well with some crafting going on. See you later alligators!

BLOGGY UPDATE!!! Check out Doe's post of 8/13. She has made the most beautiful quilt using one of Moda's free patterns.

YUMMY!!!!