yes Virginia, it does snow in Chesapeake, Va!

hiyall,

We rarely get snow here in my neck of the woods in Virginia, but this time we got hit big time! I went out today to take a few pic to record this momentous occasion! Enjoy the view!



The Plum (Pt Cruiser) under 5 inches of snow. It may end up

sitting there til Monday. People can't drive in this crap and I refuse

to be a target! I took these pictures approx 930am this morning.

Within an hour, all of Abby tracks were covered with fresh snowfall.

Dwarf Alberta Spruce by my door way. Its 5 ft tall

and is about 12 years old.

Abby the wondermutt looking for a place to make yeller

snow. She not real fond of snow, but she tolerates it. She

rather stay indoors and be my 4 legged quilt tester.

Abby on guard duty, she spies the hoodies playing in the

snow. She thinking.....go ahead...make my day, step on

MY driveway!

My messy back yard looks very charming in the deep

snow. May have been only 5 inches, but that is alot for us!

Even the trash cans look purty in the snow!

Ok mom! I have had enough, I dont care if

I have fur between my toes, I want back in!

You know its cold outside when your 70 lb bordercollie/

rottie/malamute mix mutt goes outside to pee and is

back inside in less than 2 mins. Gives new meaning to

'splash and dash'!

Keep On Stitch'n On!

(mauh) Liz

Got Pin Cushions?

Hi yall!

As I promised, here is the tutorial for the pin cushion that I gave my students in the last class that I taught. these little pretties were very well recieved!

you will need the following supplies:

~one wooden candle holder cup (bought at any craft supply store)
~3 flat floral marbles (to weight down the cup)

~couple of scraps of felt, at least 3 in ~4 to 4 1/2 in scrap of your favorite material

~chunk of polyeaster fluff

~ 3 1/5 to 4 in round template of your chosing

~hot glue gun ot thick tacky glue

~high gloss paint (opt)

~ paint your candle cup the color of your choice, I painted mine a neutral cement color. apply 2 coats, let dry completely between each coat. if you want a real high gloss, apply more coats.

~once the cup has dried, place the flat marbles in the cup. I used the flat marbles cause I didnt want the pin cushion to be top heavy.

~take your felt scraps and free hand cut daisey like flowers. cut at least 2 flowers.

~ hot glue the flowers, one on top of the other.

~using the template, draw a circle on the material and cut out. using a running stitch, make a yo-yo and stuff with the fluff firmly. draw the thread tight and tie off.

~hot glue the ball on top of the petals, hold in place til the glue hardens.

tadaaaaaaaaa, you have a cute little pin cushion to keep or give away. I have given pin cushions to many of my quilting buddies and students and they are always welcomed! you can make a 1/2 doz of these little charmer in about 2 hours or less! enjoy!

Keep On Stitch'n On!

(mauh) Liz

post script

hiyall,

quick post script to yesterdays entry. I did not design this quilt. my friend and boss at the Quilting Bee in Chesapeake Va. did. although there are variations of the block all over the net, Mary Beth was the one came up with specific instructions on the construction and assemble, then taught me so I could teach the class for our sunday quilt class regulars. Special thanks to Mary Beth for her details and work! I made a boo-boo on the measurements of the top, it should have read....56x 70. I had 80 blocks on my brain when I typed 56x80...oppppsss! I also forgot to show you the giftie I gave to my students. Since my students pay good money to take classes at the shop, I feel they should get a little sum-sum back. I generally come up with a new pincushion design and gift it.
.
this is what I came up with for this class. I will do a tutorial later.
Keep On Stitch'n On!
(mauh) Liz

Ya gotta love sundays!

hiyall,

ya gott love sundays! I like teaching quilt classes at the local quilt shop on sundays. today was one of those days. I taught a class called ' stack the deck'. It use to be called mousetrap. we called it that cause of the triangle shaped middle block that reminded you of a piece of cheese in a trap.

these lovely ladies are my students. AJ, Jan and Seanea. They had a good time and loved the challenge of slice and dicing the blocks, shuffling the layers, and sewing it back together.

these are the finished blocks, you have to be careful when you shuffle the deck or you end up with 2 of the same pieces of material in your block. the formula goes as follows: select 5 ~ one yard cuts of fabric. cut 4~8 1/2 strip from each yard. then subcut into 8 1/2 in block. each yard will yield 16~ 8 1/2 in blocks. you will have a total of 80 blocks.

~take one of each block, 5 total and stack together.

~make 3 slices into the stack of blocks, see pictures for guide lines

~number each stack and shuffle in this order. #1 block take the top piece and place on the bottom of the stack. #2 take 2 top 2 pieces and put in the bottom of the stack. #3 take the top 3 pieces and place of the bottom of the stack. #4 take the BOTTOM piece and place on the TOP of the stack.

~ now your ready to sew. for this you work backwards. sew #3 and #4 together, press and trim off excess of the MIDDLE. dont worry about the edges, you will square up after the block is complete

~take the #3/4 unit and sew it to #2. press and trim off excess on the middle.

~take #1 and sew to the #2/3/4 unit. now you can square up the block. it should square up to 7 1/4 to 7 1/2 inch

stack and cut your blocks 5 pieces at a time. you will end up with 80 blocks total. make your rows 8 across and 10 down. this will make your top before borders 56 x 80.

the block has the appearance of the crazy quilt block. you can use your fancy stitches on your sewing machine to do mock crazy quilt. thank you for taking the time to read this blog entry and take a chance and try this block!

Keep On Stitch'n On!

(mauh) Liz

Im back!! I think....maybe....kinda.....sorta.....

hiyall!
like the bad seed that I be, I am back....I think....still having problems with phone lines but I can get online more often lately. Verizon and I are not seeing eye to eye. I may end up switching providers before this is all over. I thought it was a shorted out jack in my wall. Nope, that isnt the problem, its that damn FIOS line they put in last summer. Th cold wet weather hasnt helped either. I have missed reading and posting blogs so much!! I have been able to get online thru library puter (which limits your time on the puter to one hour) and sons house. I get to read mail and pay bills but that is all. I have missed 2 deadlines with NPN and I am not happy about that! I am working on a couple of articles for next month.

now for the latest updates on moi!

I'm still working at QVC. They did hire me on for a permanent slot. my new title is Variable Labor. This means that I work on my own schedule and hours. I can work as little as I want or up to 40 hours. I do have to work at least 32 hours a month, 16 hours of those hours to be worked on weekends. I try to work second shift cause it pays a 10% shift upgrade. Right now Im still in QA, they have a couple of huge promotions for the next couple of months and they will need extra help with inspections. Since I am crossed trained in 5 different departments I can get plenty of work most of the time. only bad thing about working so many different departments is that each one has a different pay grade. QA and IC (inventory control) the highest is where I will try to work the most. Its a pain to do the paperwork for payroll but it is a steady job! Im still at Harris Teeter, they have cut hours and since Im not a regular of course my hours really got cut. I was hoping to quit them when I got the perm contract with the Q but until I get use to the hours there, I will stay at HT as well.

not much sewing going on, since I didn't have easy access to the internet, I couldnt surf for ideas. I am still teaching at the Quilting Bee and I have a couple of cute ideas for classes there. I am counting down the weeks til the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival! 5 weeks and counting! I generally dont spend a lot of money at the show, just drool at the wonderful work and get inspired. I have my wish list and pretty much stick to that. I try to support my local quilt shops as much as possible.

I hope yall are doing well and had a good holiday. I know I did, went to my nephews for xmas in north carolina and had a very nice laided back time. something I needed for a long time!

See yall in blogger land! maybe...kinda....praying....

Keep On Stitch'n On!
(mauh) Liz