boogaj

* CRASH *

No quilt block today because I was in a car accident.  No worries -- I'm okay, but my neck is a bit sore and I lost an hour of my day. 

Basically I was driving down the road and another driver pulled out of a cross street right in front of me.  A police officer saw the whole thing and I was informed that I was not at fault.  Luckily I slammed on my brakes and didn't hit her that hard -- the speed limit is 40 mph on this road and there could have been some serious injuries, but luckily I was paying attention.  Maddie was in the back seat and became quite hysterical -- her shoulder hurt a bit where the seatbelt crossed it.  (We were both wearing seatbelts and she was in her booster.)

So now I have to go to the insurance agency tomorrow and the car will have to go in to the shop at some point -- thankfully it's drivable!  In fact, it doesn't look that bad at all.  (I love my Honda Civic!  Her car had to be towed!!)

Enough, I'm tired just thinking about it -- I'm coming down from the adrenaline rush and as I said, my neck is feeling a bit sore and I feel a migraine coming on.  I'm off to put on my jammies and have a peaceful evening on the couch.  I'm just thankful that Maddie is alright.

So busy -- bad lighting

I was so busy today that I didn't get my block made until just now and it's already dark -- thus the lousy photo w/ flash. Today I didn't have any cutting to do (thank goodness!) and this block took very little time to put together.

I'm enjoying doing the quilt block a day thing even more than I thought I would. It's like I have a little something crafty to show for my day even on a busy day. It's just a little thing to do one block and I'm having no trouble fitting it into my schedule which is nice.

Oh -- I've posted more chocolate bar reviews over at the chocolate blog -- curry & chocolate is today's theme!

Now this is fun!

Okay -- something a little different!  Today I made my first "complicated" quilt block.  I can hear the seasoned quilters laughing at me -- but it's the trickiest block I've made to date so I am calling it complicated.

My biggest fear was getting the corners to line up properly and I guess my insane quest for prefect cutting paid off, because everything lines up nicely.  Whew!

My second worry was that my seam allowances wouldn't be right and the block would end up too small.  All is well though -- I actually had a smidge extra to cut off to square it up and the block now measures 12 1/2 X 12 1/2.  Whew, again!

While these are a bit more work than the blocks for my other quilt, they don't take all that much time and I feel like I could have this quilt top finished up before long.  Yeah!

And on the 7th day. . .

I made strips.  No quilt blocks today, but really the whole idea was to get me quilting/sewing every day and I definitely put in my time today.

For me the worst part is the cutting -- I get so crazy over it!  I try to make everything perfect, but I have a terrible ruler (must put that on my list next time I visit a quilt shop) and I get stressed out.  I also don't have a good cutting table, so I do it on my packing table which is too low -- back pain ensues.

But after all that cutting I got to sew together these strips and that was the fun part.  I should have plenty of strips to get me through the week, so stay tuned for my attempt at some 4 patches!

Study in browns & golds

Block #5 looks a lot like Block #2, so I thought today I would spare you the quilt block photo and instead show you a little something I've been working on.  (All blocks are in my Quilt Block a Day Flickr set.)

I mentioned a while ago that I have EQ5 (Electric Quilt v5) and that's what I used to design the quilt that  I've been working on lately.  The blocks are very simple because it was the first quilt I designed and only the second quilt I have made.  Now I'm starting to think that I need something just slightly more challenging -- so I worked up a new design!

This isn't much more difficult, but there will be some corners that have to meet in a nice lined up way -- so it's a step forward for me.  I'm using more Denyse Schmidt fabric -- but this time I'm pairing it with Espresso Kona Cotton (vs. white -- well, "Snow" is the exact color if I remember correctly.)

So hopefully some new blocks soon.  I'm just waiting for the Espresso fabric to go through the wash -- why I didn't wash it the moment it entered the house, I don't know.  Now I have to wait -- maybe this will make me learn my lesson.

I know they look the same. . .

I promise this is different than yesterday's block even though it looks the same.  (If you want to see all the blocks -- they are in my Quilt Block a Day Flickr set.

And if you are interested in hearing about the Coffee Crisp than stop by the Chocolate Blog.

21 days?!?

So it sounds like it takes somewhere between 21 days and a month to form a new habit.  Well, I'm on day 4 so I guess I have a way to go yet.  This is actually quilt block 3 which I made yesterday -- so I'm still on track with the block making but I'm behind with the posting already.

I've had a question about the pattern I'm using.  I actually made up the design myself and posted about it way back in April of last year.  The fabrics are Denise Schmidt Flea Market Fancy paired with Kona Cotton (the solids). 

I realize that these block are a bit boring since they are just a square in a square.  I'm thinking about starting up a second quilt so that I can have something a bit more challenging to work on when the mood strikes.  Looks like it's time to pull out the quilting magazines for some inspiration!

Quilt Block a Day - Day 2

I made it to day 2!  How many days does it take for something to becaome a habit?

Quilt Block a Day

I have a new project -- Quilt Block a Day. As the name suggests, I plan to make a quilt block every day this year. I'm starting a bit late, but I had a pile 'o blocks:

from the quilt I started last year. And I'm not much for the New Years resolution thing, so I'm starting it today (well, yesterday really.) I'll also be keeping the quilt block photos in a Flickr photo set.

Oh, this all came about because I was showing Pete the Gammill website and threatening to purchase a quilting machine. He said that if I finished 10 quilts this year, I could get one. Okay, I still probably wouldn't buy a Gammill -- they are a bit out of my price range. Although I love the pink one! If this comes to pass, I'll probably opt for a short arm like the Pfaff GrandQuilter. Hey, I can dream, right?

Motherless Brooklyn

I just finished up Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem.  It had been on my "to read" list for a while now -- I'm not sure why, but I had heard it was supposed to be good.  And it was!

This isn't my usual genre -- I guess you would call it a detective story, but there was a lot more to it.  It's got it's share of gangsters, murder and mystery, and it also has Lionel Essrog -- the main character who suffers from Tourette's syndrome.  I'm not sure I would have picked it up if I had known it was a detective novel, but I'm glad I crossed that line because this book is really more about Lionel than anything.  The character development and dialog are engaging and kept me reading while the plot kept things interesting.

I think I'll be putting Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude on my "to read" list now.

So what's up next?  Special Topics in Calamity Physics a debut novel by Marisha Pessl.

So much chocolate!

I'm getting caught up on my backlog of chocolate -- I just posted another review over at the Chocolate Blog!  Now I just need to find the time and energy to make a pretty banner and such for the site -- the TypePad template is doing nothing for me.

Whole Grain Baking

An especially nice gift that I received over the holidays was a copy of the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking Book.  I love to bake, but as I read more about nutrition, I want to make healthier things for myself and my family.  Using whole grains is something I'm definitely trying to do more of.

This cookbook seriously has a recipe for just about every baked good and there aren't a lot of fancy ingredients that you need (a problem I've had with the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook).  So when I was at the grocery and the desire for banana bread hit, I knew that I'd probably be okay if all I picked up was some bananas.  As luck would have it, I had all the other necessary ingredients in my cabinets and fridge!

As it turned out, there was a variation for the banana bread recipe that made Chocolate chip banana muffins and I was all over that -- shorter cooking time and it inculded chocolate.  Come on! 

I would give this recipe 5 stars -- it was easy and tasty with a pleasantly crunchy top and moist crumb and Maddie is downstairs devouring a muffin as we speak.  I'm eager to try out more whole grain recipes from this book, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more food photos on the blog in the coming months!

Mystery Cross Stitch

No knitting in sight because I'm in love with cross stitch again!  After I reacquainted myself with the Paradigm Lost Sampler, I got antsy to find another project to start -- something on Aida and with some color.  (Why Aida?  Well, Aida is easier to stitch on because it isn't evenweave like linen and has holes which are easier to see.  I'm stitching Paradigm Lost on linen and my eyes get very tired!)

So I started browsing around the web and I came across The Gift of Stitching which is a digital cross stitch magazine. I was excited because Julia Line was doing a "Mystery Sampler" in the current and upcoming issues!  Let me explain -- first of all, Julia Line is the designer behind Long Dog Sampler and she designed Paradigm Lost.  Secondly, I should probably explain a Mystery Sampler to non-cross stitchers.   Basically you get part of the chart for the design each month.  So this month I work on the top 1/4 of the design and next month I work the next section and so on.  As you can probably tell, I've been having fun stitching this up.  Now I just have to find the time to start one of the cross stitch projects from the latest mailorder!

Chocolate Alert!!!  I just posted to The Chocolate Blog!

I *heart* Martha Stewart Living

This weekend I did something that I've been meaning to do since we moved -- I got my Martha Stewart Living Magazines out of the attic and organized them.  Of course I had several years worth of magazines collecting around the house to add to them -- so what you are seeing above is nearly all my MSL magazines.  (I actually already found more since I took the photo -- they are hidden everywhere!)

Now, what I did was organize them by month instead of putting them in chronological order.  This way I can grab all of the January magazines in January and look through them.  (I love to do this!  I forget all the goodness in some of the old issues.)  I thought I would be able to put all the magazines for one month in one magazine holder, but I already have too many to do that, so I'm in the midst of figuring out how best to store them. 

Just another day in a magazine addicts life.  (More on my magazine obsession can be found here.)

Reading lots of Books!

Since Thanksgiving, I've been on a bit of a book binge.  I realize that I haven't reviewed any of the books here though.  So here goes!

First up we have Grass for His Pillow and Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn.  These are books 2 & 3 in a series I've been reading by him.  (I reviewed Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori, Book 1) in October.)  These books were as exciting and wonderful as the first book.  A kind of fantasy fiction set in feudal Japan -- there are elements of the supernatural that come into play, but it is mostly a love story set in a time of war.  (Sounds kind of cheesy, but it's really good!)  And I'm very excited to see that there is now a fourth book called The Harsh Cry of the Heron: The Last Tale of the Otori which came out in September!

2006 was the year that I got to know Haruki Murakami.  I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore but by far, my favorite was Norwegian Wood.  This is the book that put Murakami on the map and it's feel is quite a bit different from his current (more surrealist feeling) novels.  It's basically a coming of age novel (groan, I know!) with the feel of an autobiography.  But of course it's a bit weirder than that (this is Murakami, after all!)

Basically this guy is caught between the past and future in the form of two women.  One that connects him to his youth, and a friend of his who committed suicide, and the other that is full of life (she is quite vivacious!)  It was really a compelling read.  If you want to give Murakami a try -- start here.  And if you are already a fan, but haven't read it -- please do!

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon was up next.  Now this is what I wanted Franzen's The Corrections to be -- but it wasn't.  (I really did not care for that book.) 

A Spot of Bother was funny and witty and really rang true.  The characters were human and engaging and I sped through this book.  Basically it's about a family struggling as the father retires and has a nervous breakdown.  Meanwhile his daughter is getting remarried and his son, who happens to be homosexual, is trying to get his life straightened out.  The mother/wife starts an affair and it just gets crazier and crazier from there! 

This isn't the first book I've read by Haddon -- I also read and enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

I just finished Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (the author of Housekeeping which I just loved.)  This book was good, but not great for me.  It's written as a sort of diary -- an aging preacher is writing to his young son because he thinks he may die soon.  This style leads to the inevitable rambling that you would expect from a diary -- which annoyed me in places.  The voice of the preacher rang true, however -- and there was a bit of a story that came into play more as the book went on.  If you loved Housekeeping -- pick this one up. 

I think that's everything, although it seems that I'm missing something.  I'm sure Pete will let me know if he remembers something I forgot.  And what am I reading now?  I'm speeding through Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem -- really excellent book!

Toblerone Review

I posted my first chocolate review over at the Chocolate Blog!

Cross Stitch & Chocolate

See, I have been crafting too!  (Although I've been playing Zelda *a lot*!)  Right now all I can think about is cross stitch and I've worked on my Paradigm Lost sampler over the last two weekends.  Those of you who don't do cross stitch probably can't appreciate the number of hours that have gone into this small portion of the sampler, but I assure you -- this photo represents *many* hours of stitching.  I can't get enough of it either!

If you would like to see the photo of what it should look like when complete, I posted about it here.

In addition, I've decided to start a new blog!  (Yes, another one -- this makes 7 active blogs for me.  Well, somewhat active.)  So what is this new blog?  Well, the title of this post may have given it away.  It's called the Chocolate Blog and I've got tons of chocolate bar reviews that I need to get up there.  I'll also be posting chocolate news and recipes along with whatever other chocolate things I can think of! 

Perhaps tomorrow I'll post some book reviews here -- I have a backlog of those to publish.  And I also want to write more about cross stitch -- I'm obsessed!

The Queen of Electronics

That's what Maddie calles me. And she's the Pricess of Electronics. So funny. Although I do feel a bit like the queen of Nintendo products right now. For Christmas I received this:

The elusive Nintendo DS Lite Coral Pink! Along with these cool games:

• Elite Beat Agents
• Clubhouse Games
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 March of the Minis

And Pete did everything he could to find a Nintendo Wii for me, but there were none to be found. He even waited out in the rain on New Year's Eve morning to try to get one -- but no luck. After running to another town Tuesday night and missing the shipment of Wii's at Meijers, I did a run yesterday to a local Target and found one! (There were only 2 left when I got there -- whew!)

Of course I had to get some games for this too:

• Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Woo-hoo!!

So, basically I've been playing video games -- thus not much to post on the blog. Now I'm off for a little more Zelda -- I'll be back when I find time to craft!