I just bought: 'Black & Decker D2030 Auto-Off Digital Advantage Iron' by Black & Decker

Yep it's true the headlines do not lie! I have been cursing my spendy Rowenta iron for years! "Why?" you ask, because it leaks at the most inappropriate times. Most times when I am carefully pressing a block with light color fabrics and dirty water leaks onto the block!!!!!!ahhahahhha I've had it @#$%^&!! So today after another leaking incident I went right over to the laptop and researched irons and came up with the above mentioned one, bought it from amazon for 39.00 should arrive next Monday!!  I feel good about the price and the quality. Besides the leaking the iron was over heating, wool had become my new cotton setting because @ cotton it was scorching fabrics. I only used bottle water to avoid build of minerals that really gunked up my previous iron. I had seriously been considering putting out the $$$ for an Oliso, but the reviewers still had problems with leakage on the high dollar ones. So I thought to stay in a more moderate price range and hope for the best.  Thus the sewing has really slowed down, I refuse to ruin another block, fabric or dress shirt till the new one arrives.

I have to sub at the library this week and next for the director who is taking some vacation time, so will not be at my Janome, pushing the pedal, as much as usual. I'll probably pick-up/continue reading the Queen Betsy series by Mary Janice Davidson that I started a few months back I'm ready for #4 Undead and Unreturnable, it's a humorous, sexy vampire series! I'll probably cruise the catalog too for any new quilt books and see if I can check a few out. TTFN

UPDATE: 5/14/12 The iron is working beautifully! Lots of steam when needed and very easy to fill! Keeping my fingers crossed that it continues on the smooth crisp no drip path!

Corn and Beans

It's a cold blustery day! Using blustery always makes me think back to a favorite storybook video of my kids, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. I can still see the illustration of Piglet blowing off the ground while holding onto Pooh's scarf/yarn and Roo asking if he can fly piglet too! Cute! I was always an Eeyore fan though, "Thanks for noticing me".  Anyway it's cold, cloudy and pretty nasty out, but I did hear on the radio that we are halfway through winter!!! Now that's good news! I strongly dislike cold, dirty snow and gusty winds, so winter is my very least favorite season.

I have pieced together a few more house blocks, I now have 8 in all, but am going to take a short break from making anymore until I can get some lighter weight tissue type paper to print and sew on and some more Mary Ellen's Best Press, clear starch alternative. The printer paper I've been using is a bit to heavy for paper piecing, removing it sometimes tears out seam edges and the MEBP( I like the lavender fields scent) is needed to keep the little blocks from stretching when I remove the paper. So till I can get to town, I have many other WIP's(Works in Progress), PIP's(Projects in Process), and UFO's (UnFinished Objects)to keep me entertained. We quilters have lots of names for these neglected items and I don't lack choices in my vast collection!! Last year at spring break DD and I started on her Corn and Beans quilt from a Leisure Arts Book titled Scrap Quilts Fast and Fun we adapted the pattern 1/2 square triangles over to 2" Thangles and it is so much more accurate and fun for me to sew. That's my choice to sew on while I watch the birds feed outside my sewing room window on this blustery day. "Tah Tah For Now" pooh says that!

                                                           Corn and Beans (8 blocks)

Jeanneke's Houses from Scraps challenge!

Finally!! It took long enough, here are some photos of my house blocks each little house finishes at about 3 inches and its a challenge to get used to working with such small pieces. A very good way to use up scraps though!

 Here's a close up view of one of the blocks!

I am participating in the challenge to have some fun and use up as many of my scraps as possible. Plus I want to use only fabric that I have on hand, so the yellow border and flower print are in my stash in amounts of unknown yardage. So when I run out that's where I'll stop with the quilt size. Some participants are making a block a day a pretty lofty goal! My goal will be as many as are possible with the above stated fabric restriction and one every other day..or so! They are fun to sew and I'm having a good time looking through all my scraps, and putting together combos that please my artsy fartsy color pallet! My best quilting bud in Iowa gives me scraps in all the gifts she sends, she uses them like packing bubbles, so they have a double purpose and I love getting them as much as the special gifts she crafts.
My husband, whom I will from here on refer to as TheManwhoholdsmyHeart helped me with the uploading of the pics tonight! Thank you dear you showed such patience and didn't roll your eyes at me as I asked you to show me again, please.  (and probably again and again in the future till I really get it!)

It's a Birthday!

Today is #2Son's Birthday, he's 23. I can remember well his day of arrival, a long day of labor and on into the evening, before he made his presence known. He was bigger than the other two at 8 lbs 1ozs., but looked a lot like his sister. Even now in baby pictures i sometimes have to look at dates to be sure which kid is which. Hard to believe he grew up so fast, my most vivid memory of him is about age 3-4 running around the house with a red band tied around his forehead over baby fine blonde hair, swinging a pretend nunchakus (it was a blue plastic toy wrench on a yellow cord) and saying "cowabunga" he was a ninja turtle!! What a cutie! So I smile when i think of this memory and send my wishes your way son for a very very Happy Birthday! I love you with all my heart....

ok so I like to "cookerpot" too!

I guess this is more than a sewing blog because i do like to cook/bake/create too! "Cookerpot" is the name my children gave to me years ago(more to this story and I'll explain it further someday). So when deardaughter(the oldest and only girl and will be refered to in future posts as DD) was in 7th grade shop class she made me a pen holder with WORLD'S GREASTEST "COOKER-POT" on the little brass plate!! :-D It's a treasured piece! But back to cooking i'm feeling the need to make bierocks today for my hubby, he <3 them. It will take me most of the afternoon, browning the ground beef, shredding cabbage, making bread dough, and then forming and baking the little individual pocket sandwiches. Bierocks are a german-russian food experience from my youth growing up in Russell, Ks. I really have to be in the mood for all the mess and since there is a cabbage in the frig, needing to be used, it's sunny out with lots of great rays energizing me I guess it's time to get after it!

Lions, and tigers and bears! Oh My!

It's my first posting and I've been thinking about it since #2Son and his special girl K helped me create it on Tuesday. What should I write, think think think! Ok that's enough of that, just write. So it's Friday a good day to finally post, it's my favorite day of the week, the day I was born on, TGIF!! I have been reading blogs and following several blogs for over a year now, so felt it was time to jump in, plus at my age, (on the other side of "the hill") I need to keep up (sort of) with technology. I have learned so many quilting tips, tutorials for projects and new recipes from so many talented people. It's inspiring everytime I check out the latest happenings. So with help and a few questionable looks (WT??) from #2Son I am hoping to add a quilt block design and some photos to my postings as the year progresses. That's big for me as I su*k at posting photos, so many steps!! Well my coffee is cooling off and I need to get busy with my day, yea for my first post!


Go Cats! Tonight is the Cotton Bowl and besides being my favorite color, PURPLE has been running through my veins for many years!!