Baby, It's Cold Outside

Played golf last week, wearing the winter coat this week. Gotta love the weather in the south, lol. But sometimes I like bad weather so I have an excuse to stay inside and hunker down, watch a movie or 2, and do hand work. We watched The Blind Side last night, and of course I cried. What a good movie, I love Sandra Bullock.

I'm retiring December 18th, so I have been trying to make a Christmas ornament for all of my co-workers. There are 32 of them!!! But I will get them done. Thought I would write a note on a Christmas card to each too. I will miss all of them, except 1 or 2, lol.

A while back I found sites showing how to make a tutu and tutu leggings , and just had to make some for my great granddaughter, Mackenzie. She thinks she is a princess and I was sure she would like them. Here's a picture of her wearing them, and not much else!!! She doesn't like clothes too much, even though she lives in Minnesota. And her hair is bright red, and so cute. She couldn't even wait til her mom smoothed out the tulle from getting smashed in the box. Oh, she's a year and a half old.

Hope you all stay warm and have a great day.

wilmaNC

I'm still full...

of food, and new ideas. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Now I'm looking forward to Christmas.

I'm sure none of my readers is aware that I am retiring on December 18, (ha!!), or that I am very excited about that. I will have more time to devote to quilting and reading, and have had an idea in my head about a series of small quilts for some time.

I met my husband, Dave, in 1972, through a friend. We hit it off right away, and talked on the phone for a few days about books we had read and numerous other things. I did not have a sewing machine then, but I have always liked to sew. Being hippie type people, we kept our jeans forever, and if they got a hole?? Sew a patch on it! So after talking to Dave for those few days, he came over bringing some jeans for me to patch. That was in the middle of December, and we got married on January 3rd. Everyone was appalled and said it wouldn't last, but this January we will celebrate out 38th anniversary.

(These aren't mine....just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about)

Anyway, I always loved the look of patched jeans, so comes the inspiration for my series of "Patched Jeans". My sister gave me a bolt of soft denim material that is 12 inches wide. I am cutting the roll into pieces about 20-24 inches long, and each will be a small quilt. I'm not sure how many I will get out of the bolt, but it should keep me busy for a while.

I'm excited to start this project and to see how many I can get done. There is a small consignment shop that opened recently in our little town, and the fellow seemed interested in little quilts, so I will take the first one to him and see if he thinks it could sell. We'll see.

Plus, all of the other items in my "To Do" file are calling to me. Need some bad weather to keep me in the house, lol.

Later,
WilmaNC

Happy Thanksgiving, a Change of Plans, and Fried Noodles

I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving!!!

We had a little change of plan for our meal. Originally we were going to go to a restaurant for dinner, but as Dave and I were looking through the refrigerator and pantry yesterday, we saw that MIL, Rita, had purchased a turkey breast, stuffing mix, sweet potatoes, potatoes, stuff for pumpkin pie, and rolls. When we asked her why she bought all those things, she said she was going to cook them on Friday so we could have leftovers. Geez. Can you say passive-aggressive?? So we cancelled the reservations last night, and we will be cooking all this food for just the 3 of us. And we WILL have leftovers. LOL.

Dave and I always have noodles in the pantry, as one of his favorite things for Thanksgiving is fried noodles. If you have never had these, you are really missing out. And they are easy peasy.

Use the thicker noodles, (homemade are best but didn't have much time...), we use Kluski noodles which we have to buy every time we go to Ohio.

Anyway, cook the noodles as per instructions and drain, and let cool. In a large frying pan melt butter, and then dump in all the noodles and fry and turn until some are light brown in color. You must always pick at the noodles too, to make sure they taste right. And that's that. On your holiday plate, place the noodles between the turkey and the sweet potatoes. The juice from the sweet potatoes runs a little into the noodles, YUM!!! Or, you can do like my husband, and most other people, and put gravy on them. Go figure. We only have these at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it's not because they are hard to make, just special.

Later,

WilmaNC

A new Thanksgiving experience

All of the renovations are done (except for the Solatube that will be installed today...) and Thanksgiving is tomorrow. This year we are having no visitors, and since we're going to be staying in town, we decided to eat out for Thanksgiving. Dave and I have never done this , even once, in our lives so it will be weird, to say the least. I do miss the family dinners we had when my kids were little, but things change, and children grow up. My son lives in California now, daughter in Ohio, 1 grandson and family live in Minnesota, the others are in Ohio. Everyone is spread out but hopefully all will have a great holiday and know that we are thinking about them.

There is a very nice restaurant called the Weaverville Milling Company Restaurant that is about 2 miles from us. It has a very good reputation, but for some reason we have never eaten there.  Could be because it's only open Thursday through Sunday, but for whatever reason, that's where we're eating our Thanksgiving dinner. We're actually kind of excited. But we're baking our own pumpkin pies to have for dessert when we get home. Some traditions just can't be changed.

I hope everyone has a very nice holiday.

Later,
WilmaNC

Almost finished!!!

The renovations are almost finished. Yay!!! All that is left is for the plumber to come at about 2pm today to hook up the dishwasher, and the new faucet and drains etc for the sink. I think everything looks beautiful. And even with all of MILs things, there are still several shelves and the whole upper corner cabinet (lazy susan) that has nothing in them. I love the countertops, they are made of quartz and are supposed to be virtually indestructible without all the maintenance of granite. Here are some pictures.

 The faucet looks crooked because it's just sitting there, it's not hooked up yet, lol.

Having the combination microwave/stove vent really opened up some counter space.

 And this new cabinet by the refrigerator even gave me some counter space of my own, although the silverware drawer and the garbage can is in the cabinet below.

And a couple of more pictures of the finished floor.

We all just love what has been done. It's like living in a different house.

Next on my list.....Hopefully next week I will be getting a Solatube with a vent fan put in our bathroom, depends on when they can do it. Ours is an inside bath with no windows, and the vent fan barely pulls any air. So, this will help with the darkness problem and hopefully with the moisture also. I'll show you that too when its finished. Then maybe I can get back to some heavy duty sewing.

Speaking of sewing, all I have managed to get finished is several mug rugs. I'm giving them as birthday presents to my quilty friends in the ABC Quilters group. (We welcome new members, but like to keep the group fairly small and personal.) I will post pictures of my mug rugs soon.

That's all for now.

Later,
WilmaNC

Rotary Cutter Blades

Sometimes I am appalled by the prices that quilting gadgets cost. They are kind of like medical equipment in that if it is specified medical, (or quilter related) the cost goes way up. Rotary cutter blades have always been a bit pricey in my opinion. So when I read about blade replacements for carpet cutters, I was very interested. I looked them up and saw that they look exactly like the ones I use for my Olfa and Fiskars rotary cutters. So....I just had to order some.

The company is Harbor Freight. The blades come in packs of 2 for $1.99. I ordered 5 packs ($9.95), tax $1.31, and the freight was $6.99. The total for 10 blades came to $18.25. But the blades were on backorder, so when I opened my package, they had given me an extra pack, so I got 12 blades for $18.85 ($1.57 a piece). At Joann.com the prices are: Olfa blades, pack of 5 for $31.99, Fiskars, pack of 5 for 25.99.  At Amazon you can get a 5 pack of the Fiskars brand for $14.15. So Harbor Freight is still a great deal.

I think if you got a lot of your friends to place an order with you, you could even save more, as I can't imagine the freight would be much more.

Update on house: not much going on right now. We're waiting for the countertops to come this week, then they can finish up.

Later,
WilmaNC

It's coming along

All of the cabinets are placed now. And the microwave and lights are installed. Today the countertop people are coming to measure, and another guy is coming to install the new vinyl in the bathrooms. They say the countertops will take a week or 2 to get here, I hope it's sooner!!

Pictures:

Everything is so pretty.

I didn't get much sewing done yesterday though. Did start on a cool hot pad from Oh Fransson. It's a very nice one. I'll show you when it's done.

Weather is supposed to be really nice today. Hope I have a chance to get outside for a while. I'm just dying for a hike!!!

Later,
Wilma

The Floor is Beautiful

Recent pictures of the floors below. Today they come back to install bottom cabinets, apply quarter round to edges of floor, and finish the hallway. It is beautiful so far. I especially like the under the cabinet lighting. What a difference.

Later,
WilmaNC

My prize winnings (Day 4 reno)

The house is really torn up, and I am still hanging out in my sewing room. Made a couple of mug rugs though. I found some orphan blocks, cut them up and sewed them back together. These things are so cute. I made mine about 5x7. Enough room for a mug of coffee and a few cookies. They remind me of a little tiny placemat, lol.  But they are cute and are very quick to make.

I also got my prize winnings from the Fall Challenge from the Quilting Bee Forum. The blocks are very unusual as the focus fabric was from Australia and was covered with snakes and other critters (it's the purple print). I also won 2 yards  of coordinating fabrics. Hopefully after the first of the year I will get these made into a quilt. My block is the one with 4 snakes coiled, lol. It was a fun challenge for sure.

Now for an update on the renovations. It's coming along. They are supposed to finish laying the floor in the kitchen today so they can get the bottom cabinets installed, and hopefully the new dishwasher and the microwave oven hood.  (We bought stainless steel even though MIL doesn't like it, but then again, she bought dark quartz counters when we wanted light, so I guess we're even.) And maybe the new lighting. They are going to bring back in the sink portion of the counter so we will have a sink and water for the weekend. Then on Tuesday the countertop people will come to measure and hopefully by sometime next week it will be installed. But who knows for sure, lol.

With everything out, it would be a really nice kitchen if we could extend it into the dining room, but then where would we eat?

So today will be just like the rest of the week. MIL at least gets to leave her bedroom and go play bridge with her friends. She has been staying in there bundled up cause the heat is off because of them running in and out to cut the flooring. I am lucky in that my sewing room is heated separately.

Only 13 more shifts to work til I retire.

Later,
Wilma

Day 3

Well, my banishment to the sewing room has paid off a little. I made matching aprons for my GDIL and great GD. The little one (1 1/2 yo) loves to help mommy clean and care for her little sister, so I thought this would be cute. I didn't have to worry about her seeing them cause she never comes to my blog, lol. Kinda retro looking.

And here are more pictures of the house. Flooring almost to the dining area and started down the hall. And the upper cupboards are hung. We got some new lighting last evening, I think it will look pretty. The stove looks a little off center, but when the bottom cupboards go in, it will be centered. I could never stand to have it off center, in my world everything has to be symmetrical, lol.

I also made a couple of mugrugs but I'm sewing the binding down. They are so cute and could certainly become addicting. I'll post a pic when done.
Later,
WilmaNC

Day 2 renovations

Our house is really torn up, but they are making really good headway, and it's only lunchtime.  Here are some pictures.

One of the new cabinets.

 We think these are for over the refrigerator..

A little piece of the new floor. Pretty!!!.

Other side of fireplace..

Cabinets in the garage.

The living room.

They are about halfway to the dining room now.

Living room.

Kitchen.

Living room.

More pictures to come.

Later,
WilmaNC

Home Renovations and more

First I will show you the "More".

I finished a couple of quilts for charity. I will be donating these to the Guardian Ad Litem program in Asheville NC. They do good work.

First one was made as a mystery given by Valerie of Valerie Custom Quilting on the Quilting Bee site. I quilted it with red thread with a bamboo pantograph. It was tricky to do cause it had 2 rows and I quilt with a Juki, so had to set up 2 styluses (or is it stylii??) in order to get the different rows. Came out OK though.

The next one was given to me to quilt, I don't know the name of the lady who made the top though. My sister gave it to me to do. It was a bit tricky because of the thickness of the fusible she used, broke my thread a couple of times. Saw this quilting pattern on a quilt at a quilt shop I visited last month. Looked good on theirs, but I doubt that I will use it again. It was just a wavy line echoed all the way down, and at the top and bottom I did little loops to fill in.

And then there is this: my sister Patty gave this to me as a gift. I am always thrilled when I get something with my name on it. Growing up with the name "Wilma", I was never able to get those cute little personalized things. I don't know who made this but it is soo cute. A stiletto decorated and made from a bamboo skewer. Cool eh?

And now for the before pictures of the house. They are coming today to start on the hardwood floors, I'm sure the house will be torn up for a while.

That's all for now. Since they will be working in the house all day, I will be banished to my sewing room. Ahhh, such torture, lol.

Later,
WilmaNC

And the winner is......

Wanda!!!!! Congratulations!!! An email is coming your way. I hope you enjoy the book. It does have lovely patterns.

I enjoyed doing the giveaway. I think I might do this every 50th post.

Last week I finished this little Patchabilities wall hanging. They are so cute.

The hanger I used is just a small hanger purchased at a craft store. I used wire cutters and clipped the center of the bottom so I could slide the wall hanging on. Much cheaper than the small hangers with the wooden dowels. And I think it's just as cute. Maybe I could tie a bow around the twisted part....

I was in a grocery bag swap at the Quilting Bee. This is the first bag I have received. It will be fun to take it in the stores here. This one is from Oregon. Isn't it cute??

Tomorrow we start renovations on the house. We're getting hardwood floors installed, as well as new kitchen cabinets and countertops. I will be showing before and after pictures as we go. I am very excited!!!

Hope everyone has a great day.
Later,
WilmaNC