What the cats are thinking...

We are so happy that those humans are back to work!!! Some holiday weekend, we missed several naps. I don't know how we are going to catch up!

Leftovers

Is everyone in America tired of leftovers yet? E. and I were laughing on Friday as we were heating up leftovers because we were picturing people all over the country doing the same thing. Just think about it--all the tupperware, all the foil covered dishes, trying to make gravy go from a gelatinous blob to smooth gravy again. The Thanksgiving ham has been turned leftovers, then into a casserole which lasted for meals and now it's ham and bean soup. I just have one question though, how come there is never any leftover pie by Sunday?
Here is my pecan pie which was gone by Friday and here's the sweet potato pie that was great for breakfast on Saturday.
(It's OK, I didn't have any whipped cream so it still counted as a vegetable).

No shopping for me this year. I didn't leave the house from Thursday afternoon until this morning when I went to Sbux. Loved it!!! I missed going to see Bad Melisa but I need to wait until I get that extra pay from working Thanksgiving at SBux. I got some sewing done but not nearly as much as I thought I would or as I needed to. We all vegged and watched a lot of movies and a seasons worth of "30 Rock" (laughter counts as exercise right?).

Here are the November blocks of the month that I finished just as November is leaving us. November, why are you leaving already; you just got here!!!
Little Quilts Saturday Sampler. I've never seen this block before. Isn't it neat?
And Fat Quarter Shop 2009 Designer Mystery
So tomorrow is Monday, let's all pout about having to go back to work....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I have a lot to be thankful for during these rough times: S. & E., my cats, my family, friends here and in blogland, my jobs, a house, and my faithful truck to get me places. I'm also thankful for Bad Melisa and the Moda man that keep me in fabric.

I should have known that I wouldn't be lucky enough to have a holiday off and was called into Starbucks to work even though I was scheduled to be off. It was a very understaffed insanely busy day, and I was slinging coffee like a mad woman
(similar to Snoopy making toast from Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving). Venti lattes and mochas for everyone!!!!

Yesterday was a furlough day so I spent the day sewing and cooking: made the cornbread for dressing, homemade pie crusts for the sweet potato pie and pecan pie, chocolate chip cookies (because according to S. and E. "there was nothing to eat in the house"), and made the dressing so all I had to do was put it in the oven. After Starbucks, I came home and made sauteed kale, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, cooked the dressing, and S. bought a honey baked ham (yes we had ham instead of turkey and went a little non-traditional this year). We now have food for the next four days and hopefully I won't have to cook and I can just sew. I didn't get to show E. how to make homemade rolls so we may do that this weekend but hopefully that will be it. Well I have hit the proverbial brick wall and am off to read and get some rest. I'm thinking tomorrow is going to be a pj day--won't see me out in the shopping crowds.

Weekend Wrap Up a Day Late

Well I meant to post this yesterday but didn't get a chance. It was a Thimbles weekend which means five hours of fun, inspiration, laughter, and more fun with the Silver Thimble Quilt club. See all the great show n' tell here at Pat's blog and more at Brenda's .

Sunday was Starbucks day and even though it was one of the most dreary, drizzly, damp, cold, miserable days ever, lots of people got out of bed and their cozy homes to visit SBux. Thanks, I think? Personally I would have stayed home and nothing would have gotten me to leave. I planned on sewing all afternoon when I finally got home and was mid-block, literally, sewing the middle part of a block, when E. had a boredom emergency and *had* to go to the movies right away. (BTW: the siren for a boredom emergency is waaaaaaahhhhh waaaaaahhhh). So I left the poor half-sewn block and S. and I dashed off to save E. from boredom. We saw the movie "2012" and it was a rather predictable end-of-the-planet disaster movie (think "Independence Day" but with earthquakes and tsunamis instead of aliens. The CGI effects were spectacular though and I really think the computer effects people should get top billing for this one because without the effects it would be a poor-storyline-with-overly-dramatic-acting movie.

Anyway I was thinking about the whole 2012-thing (the premise being that the world will self-destruct on December 21, 2012) and realized what a great excuse this could be for not doing housework. Start around the middle of 2011 and say "oh why do deep cleaning/reorganizing/ purging the attic/basement/whole house/pantry when the world is going to end as we know it in a year and a half." And spend all that extra time quilting. And when someone (most likely a man) says "why are you spending so much time quilting when the world is going to end in a year and a half and no one will need quilts?" Look at them blankly like that is the silliest thing you have ever heard of. Do you think this will work? Do you think that maybe the Mayans had it wrong and the planet won't self-destruct from earthquakes and tsunamis but by giant mutant dust bunnies? (remember you heard it here first)

Oh and to prepare, you need to start stocking up on more fabric now, before it's too late.

Antique Quilt

I thought everyone would like a quilty post since I haven't been able to show the projects I'm currently working on (Secret Stuff ya know). When I was in Michigan in October, my grandparents gave me this quilt top that they found while cleaning out their basement.
Don't you just love the one red block? I really love how it is not in the center; it's just in there in the quilt. The colors are just gorgeous--no fading and only a couple of spots that should come out.
Here is a close up. My grandparents think that this was pieced by my great-great-grandma since there are some other quilts in the family that she made.

Here is the back so you can see how it was constructed.
And a close up of the stitching.

I don't know whether I should "finish" the quilt or not. If I were to finish it, my thought are I would get a solid backing of a similar color, layer it with cotton batting, and stitch in the ditch. But I don't know if I want to do that or not. What are your thoughts?

Guest Blogger

Well I guess us cats have to do everything around here. This is Edgar Poe having to write this blog post in the middle of supper time because my human has been flinging fabric around all weekend and running that noisy machine. I tried to get Stella to get me in focus but she was in a hurry to get dinner, probably out of my dish...Sisters are such a pain.

My human has been muttering something about holidays coming up and it's nearly Thanksgiving and all kind of things I don't understand but there are paper lists and pencils out to play with so I don't care about those things unless there are treats or special food involved.

My human met one of her friends, Karin, yesterday at a place called "Bad Melisa's" and she brought home a fun bag to play in. I batted spools of thread and sat on fabric until she took them away. How come everything is called "no" around here? I did get to sleep on some new quilts that my human picked up from the lady that makes fabric more comfortable by putting something called batting in them. I am supposed to help put binding on the quilts this week and then there will be pictures of me sitting on them for this blog. I am a big help when it comes to binding and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

OK my paws are tired now and I'm late for dinner. Hope there is some left for me or I will have to get into the tupperware container again. Edgar Poe over and out.

If it had rained any harder....

"Ida" drowned!

This bad pun was brought to you today by Tropical Storm Ida, which dropped over 4" of rain and all the fall leaves on Atlanta yesterday.

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.

Veterans Day

Honoring and remembering veterans and their families.

A Sewing Day

I had today all planned out--coffee, some computer time, gather projects, stay in pjs and sew all day. First two items went great. Then a bit of a snag. True confession time here fellow quilters and I really hope this has happened to someone else besides me......

After looking through my sewing room for an hour, I couldn't find the project I wanted to work on. It was not in the big bins, not in the giant ziploc bags, not in the tote bags, not in the apple crate, not in the armoire, and not in the laundry basket. Where is it???? It was for a Xmas gift. I have no idea where it is although I did make sure all four cats made it out of all the fun hiding places in the sewing room. What to do??? Well of course there is always a plan B. So I am going with plan B. And I am sure I will find the project next June, well after Christmas.

After that adventure, the cats and I spent the rest of the day spreading as much quilting stuff around the house as possible. Sorry, no photos, we worked on Secret Stuff.

Cat Mischief

I came home yesterday and the TV was on in the bedroom. I didn't have it on in the morning and the remote was on the floor. Apparently, the cats decided to watch TV while I was at work.

I am somewhat concerned as they were watching the Military Channel. No doubt learning new special ops tactics such as rappelling to the top of the cabinet to get the treat jar, resistance techniques for cat carrier threats, rapid deployment to food bowls, tunneling under quilts, and of course sneak attacks.

Can Someone Please Press Pause???

I am not ready for November. In fact, let's rewind back to October. I am still trying to wade through blog posts and emails. If I haven't commented or replied, I am sorry and I will get through everything and I thank you all for commenting and emailing and just being out there in bloggyland.

Since I returned from Michigan, I have been running around like my hair was on fire, working working working. For my day-job, our office relocated over the weekend which means all last week was packing packing packing, supervising movers late at night and on the weekend, and starting tomorrow unpacking unpacking unpacking. So I worked all weekend there and at SBux and missed Bad Melisa's Spooktacular party , and missed watching "Nightmare Before Christmas" and singing along with all the songs and missed carving pumpkins. Foo!

I also missed posting a photo of my super-fantastic-best-birthday-cake-ever that I had in Michigan. (thanks again Mom!!!)
I always ask for Halloween-themed b-day cakes since it's a week before Halloween. Lots of purple, a moon, plump frosting pumpkins, polka-dots and a witch--now that's a cake!!
The cake is marble cake with buttercream icing and is from Sweet and Savory Bakeshop. This was the BEST bakery cake I've ever had--perfect tasty cake and perfect not too sweet, creamy frosting. I heart Sweet and Savory Bakeshop but am REALLY glad it is nowhere close to me or I would have to make up some holidays to celebrate....I'm just saying.

Oh hello is this blog ever going to get back to quilting????? you are asking. Yes, I am working on something right now that should be done this upcoming weekend since November is dragging me along with it....

Cats Do Not Understand Time Changes

Whoever came up with daylight savings time obviously did not have cats. I am trying to convince them that it's not dinner time and it's not working.