Happiest Celebration on Earth

This is wear I would like to be now!!! OH well...I will just have to settle for stitching the castle. I really hated stitching the stained glass. I guess I will spend my time on the next rotation doing the backstitching. There are lots of beads I need to add too....but that will be at the end.

My grandmother fell and broke her hip today. She is currently in the hospital and they plan on her surgery tomorrow..but due to her blood thinners it will probably be Friday or Saturday. I am praying that all it ok.

I had a very stressful day today at school today. I just need a small break. It must be something in the weather because everyone at school is stressed.

Historical Fashion week 1

I have spent a week working on this design and it was a headache!! I made several mistakes and spent several hours frogging those mistakes. Then had to restitch everything...I am now on the right track and it is looking good!!!! Once I was on the right track...I loved working on it. I have been keeping up with the hours stitched and subtraction hours frogged...so right now I have put in a total of 14.5 hours and have finished 3.6% of this BAP finished.

I went to Walmart on Saturday and found four different fabrics that I like that go with my star wars themed quilt. I couldn't make up my mind so I bought a yard of all four! DH and I went to the Razorback game Saturday evening...it was so disappointing to lose by a fieldgoal!

I did work on my Indians this week. This is my car project. If you are curious to what a car project is let me explain. Every morning I am in traffic for 30 or so minutes...so I am working on a project that isn't that hard. I stitch in my car as I stop and go...stop and go. If i am sitting at a stop light...I pul it out to work on....It is slowly coming along!

May the force be with you.....

This is my nephews favorite movie of all times! He eats, sleeps and breathes Star Wars. So I decided to make him a Star Wars quilt. It took me forever to find the Yoda fabric but I finally located it in Hawii of all places!!! The online store is titled Gotfabrics and they had YODA!!!

The web addresss is: http://www.gotfabrics.com/ and they were very fast. It took only a week to get my fabric. I hope my nephew is shocked when he sees his quilt. I do have to find Teddy Bear fabric now for my niece. She loves her teddy!!!

I STARTED!!!

Last night I picked up my fabric for Historical Fashions! I was so excited. I started working on it at 9:00 pm and did not stop until 2:30 AM!!! I was having so much fun!!! I did make a change. The pattern called for me to use DMC 414 for the border. To me...that just wasn't pretty so I started going through my Krenicks and found Braid #8 in periwinkle. It looked FABULOUS against the fabric and so that was it. I actually used up one whole spool of kreink last night. I did order a new spool from 123stitch...but I am going to check out my LNS to see if she has a spool so I can work more on my border. If not...then I will go ahead and start with the design. So...what do you think about the colors?

Year of Kitties!!

I put the final stitches in my 2006 Kat's by Kelly tonight. I really stink at french knots so I decided to use light green petite mill hill beads for the kitties eyes. This piece started as my RR piece for ILCS and so a couple of the kitties have french knots for their eyes. I am so excited that I finished another piece!!!

I also worked on my quilt today and I have sewn all the rows. Which means I have 6.5 rows...now I just have to put them together. I may skip ceremics tomorrow night and go to my quilt class so I can lean how to that. I was looking for fabric for the back and I think I have found it. As you can see there is a picture of the quilt and then in the next picture I have placed a picture of the fabric I would like to place on the back. What do you think? Think the stripes is to much?

I have to say, tonight I am missing my friend Kim. She is out of town visiting her family without internet access. I am so used to chatting with her around 9:00 pm everynight...I think I am going through withdrawals!! I miss chatting with her.

Cinderella update

It was Cinderellas turn in my 4 day rotation plan. I finished all of the stitched part of the castle. I left the beading and backstitching until I get finished. Which I really HATE to do!!! I like to do all the beading and backstitching as I go...but everyone told me I should wait until the end so that is what I am doing. I have stitched 13% of Cinderella. On the next rotation, I will be starting her dress which is the biggest part of the design.

I worked on my quilt this morning. Sewing all those blocks into rows. I worked for a couple of hours and then took off to my grandparents to celebrate my grandpa's birthday. I did take my grandma to Hancock fabrics and then to K-Mart. She hadn't been to Hancocks in a while and we looked all over the place. Then, we stopped at K-Mart to find her some sweats to wear around the house. She found a great pair of brown sweats that she just loved!!!

Tomorrow is a staff developemnt day so I guess I will be busy doing that. I hope to come home after school and finish my quilt rows.

crafty day

Thursday evening I had my quilting class. I spent two hours in my quilt class. When I first got there I was giving the task of ironing all my strips. Then, I had to cut all 11 strips into blocks. I have always appreciated the beauty of quilts but I am starting to appreciate the work put into one quilt. I do have to confess...I have been looking for new fabrics to make a new quilt! This is going to be another expensive hobby.

After dinner, I settled myself into my recliner with my Kats by Kelly October kat. I caught up on some of my shows, Biggest Loser, One life to live, and criminal minds. I am a huge TV junkie...terrible I know...but I love to sit and stitch while watching TV. I finished the small design in one evening...which I know they are small but they usually take me a couple of days.

My DH went to Outback for our dinner...when I got home from quilt class he had dinner waiting on me!!!! I was so excited!! They have this chopped salad with blue cheese and candied walnuts that I just love...he brought me that with a fully loaded bake potato. Talk about a good husband!!

Augusta - 10% complete

Yes, I have completed 10% of my Augusta the 13th hole project. This piece is for my DH. I have already stitched the 12th hole....and there are 2 other Augusta patterns....so I have a feeling I will be stitching these until I am dead!!


This project is in my rotation system. Right now I have15 projects in my rotation. They are broken down like this: 8 BAP, 3 medium size and 4 small projects. So, I work on a big project for 4 days and then alternate between small and mediums. I am cheating though. I am working my snowman piece in my car during morning traffic. I sit still so much I can actually get several stitches in during the morning. So that is my car project. This just tells me how much I am addicted to stitching if I have a project in my car!! LOL!!


It is another late night for me. I came home today and took a nap...big mistake..but I was so tired. Hopefully, when I do go to bed I will sleep well.


Tomorrow is my quilting class!! I can't wait to see what I do with all those strips!!! Will let you know!!!

Can't sleep

It is 2:30 in the morning and I cannot sleep. I have so much on mind about school things. Nothing to drastic...but I have several things that need to get finished this week and my mind won't stop racing. I have tried counting sheep, counting DH snores...Nothing works. I am wide away. I have teach in the morning. Hopefully, I can get mind to calm down enough for me to take a little nap before I have to get up. This is the worst because you are staring at the clock saying...ok..if I fall asleep now I can sleep for 4 hours ..that will be good...but then you stare at the clock..slowly watching the minutes tick by and you get more frustrated!!!
I am finished venting...so I am going to try and sleep or at least count my husbands snores.

Stitchy Weekend

I was busy yesterday and today doing stitching things. I picked up my yard of fabric for my Hometown RR project that I will be starting in January 2009. I know it is early but sometimes it takes a while for my orders to come in my LNS. Sara sent me an email saying it was in and I asked if Sunday was member day with double punches on our buzzy cards...she said no, it wasn't until the craft fair weekend. I said Ok...just hold onto it because I want the double punches. I received an email a while later telling me that she would go ahead and give me double punches. She said with an order this big...I deserve them!!!!! So I received $155 dollars in punches!!! I was so excited!! Then I stopped by HL to pick up some DMC threads that I was running low on and completely out. After that was stop at Office Depot. I made working copies of my Historical Fashion charts. That fabric should be in by War Eagle craft weekend so that means more double punches!!!! LOL!!!!!

When I finally made it home, I spent the evening in my sewing room. I was finishing up 4 SFE for my ILCS group. I made 4 very cute little boxes. How it works is you pick a theme, and everyone stitches something for you in that theme. The themes I have left were: owls, summer and then 2 black cat themes. I loved this little cat design so I stitched it for both of them! I also finished LK Tea lovers chart....I left off the top "official" part because I didn't like it!

After finishing the projects I put away my new floss, kitted up my historical fashion design (just need fabric), cleaned up the floor from all my scraps of threads, fabrics etc. It was bad.

This morning I got up and worked on my quilt. I listened to the movie Philadelphia Story with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. I was just zooming right along with my quilt when my bobbin messed up. I knew it was making a noise but it was still sewing so I moved right along on this piece....well...the top stitched ok but the bottom looked horroid so I have to frog all of this piece and start again! That really stinks. I just need to stitch up 3 more blocks including the one I messed up on and Iwill be finished with the first part. I go back to class on Thursday night and see what my next steps are in this process.

This afternoon I worked on Augusta the 13th hole. There wasn't much progess...I started page 2 of 16 so I have a feeling it will be awhile before I finish this design. Off to watch the Amazing Race.

Chocolate Angel Cake Recipe

I have had several people ask about this recipe. I hope you take a peek at what it is suppose to look like.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Chocolate-Angel-Cake

As I said below...it took me a little while to make the cake..but it was worth it

Home Made Chocolate Angel Food Cake

I made this cake all by myself. It may not be pretty but it sure does taste good!! Dh was flipping through a magazine full of recepies and he saw this cake. He wanted me to make it and I agreed to try. It was an interesting experience. I had to separate eggs and even dig out my flour sifter to sift powdered sugar, cake flour, and cocoa. I started the cake at 6:00 pm and finally finished icing the darn thing at 8:50 pm!! The icing had to chill for an hour, the cake had to bake an hour and then it had to completely cool down...so it took almost all evening. With my husband sitting in the living room saying "Cake, Cake Cake" every hour on the hour. He jumped up and cut himself a piece as soon as I said "it's ready!!!" It got 2 thumbs up!!!! So, I made my husbands day....
Hmm...since I made him cake does that mean I get to buy some new stash?

Paperback Swap- GREAT MONEY SAVER!!!

I joined paperback swap last week and I am already addicted. I even added a link to the page for you to visit and join!!! As you probably can tell by the title of my blog....I am an AVID reader!!!! I can start a good book and not put it down until I finish it. I find myself going into bookstores and coming out with new books on a weekly basis. I love used bookstores and seem to spend tons of money there also!!!
I was so happy to find Paperback Swap. I will confess I have 3 bookshelves FULL of books and I won't read them again but I don't want to donate them somewhere they won't be appreciated....so paperbackswap is the answer. I just created an account Tusksmom is my nickname. I entered in 10 books that I wanted to trade...and I got 3 credits to spend!!!! Each book that you order is only 1 credit!! So I went shopping....I found 3 books and clicked "order book" then I found several that I wanted so I created a wishlist. and wouldn't you know...someone had them in their stash that they wanted to get rid of....I wanted the books so I found out you can use your paypal account to purchase credits (ONLY IF YOU WANT TO) which I did...so more books came to me!

You only have to pay when:
you want to purchase more credits
you have to ship a book to someone
That is it!!!
You don't have to pay a dime to join or have a book shipped to you!!!!! Plus all your books go where they are wanted and appreciated...what book could ask for more?
So check it out.....and remember my nickname is : tusksmom
I would appreciate the referral credit!!! I have lots of books I want to get!!!

Striptease anyone?

I started a new hobby and I came home with all my fingers!! LOL!! I have driven by this quilting shop in our little town everyday for over 2 years. I did go in this summer when the ILCS group was in town...but didn't buy anything. I finally got up my courage and scheduled a beginners quilting class. I went in afterschool and met with the owner (I am bad but I can't remember her name). She told me to go pick 4 fabrics and we would get started on my Striptease quilt. After looking around for over 30 minutes we finally found the fabrics I liked for my quilt. I decided I wanted a twin size quilt...I can cover up with it or Tusk can lay on it. Yes, I am making a quilt for my puppy...I am terrible.


She gave me a rotary cutting lesson which if you remember is how I sliced open my finger this time last year. I managed to cut thirty-three 2.5 inch strips and then elevan 6.5 in. strips after I had to iron all my fabrics. After that, I was tired and stressed because I just knew I was going to slice open my finger!!


My plan this weekend is to sew up the strips and head back next Thursday night for my 2nd class!!!