Sneak Peek at the New Bali Pops

The one one the left is Blue Hawaiian, the center is Grasshopper and the one on the right is Mango Margarita

The one one the left is Pink Lemonade, the center is Sangria, and the last one on the right is Zinfandel.

My 3 favorites are Mango Margarita, Pink Lemonade and Sangria. All of these are due out in the fall (Sept/Oct). I can't wait till these come out, I just love Bali Pops!

A Doodlebug's Swap

I decided to do a block swap today, it's been a long time since I did one and it just so happens that my friend Shannon (Doodlebug) is hosting one...

click here   to check it out if you want to do it as well, should be loads of fun.

Here are the fabrics that I bought today for the swap lots of brights :0)

And here is my block, shhhh, don't tell anyone what it looks like, I want it to be a surprise, lol!

Now I just need to piece 11 more :0)

Poker Night

Last night was our turn to host the neighborhood poker night, it use to be once a month the Friday night closest to the 15th of the month and rotates among those that usually are the regulars. This year however the guys decided to do it every other month due to busy lives etc... this month was our turn but had other commintments last week so it got pushed back a week.


Anyways like everything that we do we tend to always go big when it comes to these things, not that it was planned to be this way  but it is just how it turned out, lol. Ok perhaps it was because it is close to the end of the school year, maybe because of the 100 degree temp yesterday or even because the Blackhawks (hockey) were playing on TV last night (BTW they won!!!) but what ever it was Poker Night turned quickly into a full blown party. And of course there was no poker being played, lol. 


We are originally from the south suburbs of Chicago relocated in the AZ desert and we are fortunate enough to live in a subdivision that have quite of few other families from that area, good friends and neighbors. When we get together bud lite, margaritas, lots of fun, good food are plentiful. Last night was no exception :0)


My daughter Rachel claimed the party as her own, she graduates from jr high this week and took this oppertunity to invite all of her friends to hang out in our pool and my two oldest kids invited some of their friends as well. The party went on till 2:00 AM, I haven't had a party lasting this long since my early 20's. Everyone had a good time and are already asking when the next party will be, lol I wish I would have taken pics last night but was too busy making sure everyone was enjoing themselves to worry about a camera.


Was going to paint the Master Bath this weekend but it might not get done, not because of a hangover or anything, suprisingly I don't have one, I took 2 Tyenol before going to bed last night and slept 7 hours, woke up fine. But just not in the mood for painting, perhaps some sewing will get done instead.  

Spa Treatment

Just got off the phone with Amy from APQS, where my Liberty is getting her much needed spa treatment. She said that my machine was in pretty good shape for as many quilts that I do each month and she told me what they had done to her so far (which the cost was below what I though it would be) so she told me what little things they could do to improve the performance of my machine since it was a 2005 and there have been several things improved since it was made. For instance something to do with the needle bar the new one will have bearings or something that will improve my stitching/less drag when doing ruler work. Since it was comming in below budget I decided to go for the new improvements as well as buy new leaders and another dozen bobbins (you can never have too many bobbins in my opinion, LOL!). Anyways it should be finished up tomorrow if Christy gets back from being sick and either shipped back tomorrow afternoon or Monday at the latest. That means I should have it by May 28 or June1 at the latest. So I should be able to meet my deadlines, yea! :0)  

French Braid Quilt

This is a french braid quilt I am doing for my master

bedroom that just got a new coat of paint. The pattern is from "French Braid Quilts" by Jane Hardy Miller and the one I am doing is called "Big Red". The fabrics I am using are from 2 of the Marcus Brother's collections, "Metro Blue" and "Metro Blue Remix" I fell in love with the metro blue fabrics a few years back when it first came ou but didn't buy enough of it to do anything I wanted to do with it. So when the remix came out last year I knew exactly what I wanted to do and so bought the additional fabrics I needed to do the braid quilt I wanted. However I am only using the quilt pattern in the book for the center of my quilt because I have a king size bed and I need it to be bigger tan what the actual pattern allows for and I didn't want to do all of the math to make the center of the quilt bigge to fit my needs. So there will be added boarders, some pieced some not, you will have to stay tuned to see what I come up with. But it won't be too long of a wait since I want to have the piecing finished by the end of May when my Liberty is due back and when my mini vacation will be over.         

Droid :0)

Don't you just love that word?..."DROID" Reminds me of the 80's band "Devo" and their old song "Whip It", LOL!!! Who could forget those ridiculus red plastic hats and those coveralls they use to wear in their music videos and on stage. Ok so this post is really not about the 80's (where I spent my teen years) or anything about the craziness of an adolescent.

However it is about this...

It's called "DROID" and it's a cell phone plus a whole lot more!

So here's some background info to get you all up to speed-

We have our family cell phone plan/coverage through Verizon and all of my kids (except the twins), Chris and I have cell phones, unlimited text (a must have when you have a teenager, let alone 3 of them). Anyways my little old pink Razor phone has been long over due for a trade in, like 2 years over due...and back in March my 3 teen's phones came due for a trade in/upgrade (which they have been hounding us to since January.

Anyways My oldest moved back from college this week for the summer and said she wanted to upgrade her phone so yesterday Chris took her to the Verizon store (since she is a working girl now she is responsible for her own upgrade even though she is still on our family cell phone plan). She liked the Droid right away (because it looks like and does alot of what the IPhones do). And since the Droid is buy one get one free, Chris really wanted the freebie for himself but since I have voiced that I wanted a new phone this year with a key pad he decided that I should get the freebie :0) also since this Droid model comes with internet access with an additional fee of course, he figured that we could write off the monthly internet fee as a business expense. So Gecko Quilts now will have 2 e-mail accounts and 2 phone #'s. Eventually the thinking is that all Gecko Quilt communications will go through the cell phone/ DROID. 

   

This is a side view of the "Docking" station for the Droid so it can sit on a desk used as a clock, photo gallery(it also takes pics), music device, oh and it can play video/movies! The only thing it can't do is housework, & make dinner while I am either playing with this thing or quilting!

You can also buy.....

Skins, so you can personalize it more to your liking! I bought this cool red skin, it has 2 pieces, a front and a back. However when you dock it you have to take off the back skin. I love this skin it has a soft feel to it's touch, like a rose petal has, it's pretty cool. And evertime you turn it on it says "DROID" in a deep electronic type voice, which is what reminds of the Band Devo and the whole 80's thing.

With my last phone, I didn't use it too much. It basically sat in my purse and used for emergancies only when I was out. But when Vicki (my oldest) and Chris brought this one home for me they said welcome to the 21st century and my daughter said hopefully this will get me to use my cell more than just for emergancies. Needless to say I spent allafternoon and last night getting to know my new phone/ media device. I downloaded ALOT of free apps and games. Oh I forgot to mention that it has a GPS APP on it! and I also downloaded a mapquest app (since I already know that one). The only thing left to do to it is start downloading my favorite music, you tube videos (there is also a you tube app), movies and favorite pics! 

Making the Best of My Down Time

What does a professional quilter do when her machine is getting some work done on it? She sews! and this past weekend I made this cute tote!

This is the front.

The pattern I used is called the "Professional Tote" by "The Creative Thimble".

I do have to confess, I was a bit intimidated by this project because I haven't done any crafty type projects like this before. But it was pretty easy and it went quickly too. Which is a suprise since it can have 11-12 pokets on  it. I wanted to make this tote for my lap top, from the dimensions listed it seemed like it would fit, but it doesn't :0( see I have a wide screen laptop and this tote has a zipper to close the main sections close and the tote is designed to have this zipper section a little smaller than the actually tote. The zipper was an 18" one, my laptopcould fit into the tote if the zipper was a 20" one...hmmmm maybe the next tote I make I will have to modify this part of the pattern.

Here's what it looks like inside the tote.....

Lots of room for stuff and alot of pockets inside and out.

Heres a pic of the back.....

I was also a little skeptical of how sturdy this would be, but when it was done I am really impress with how sturdy it is!, It uses Pellon's Deco-Bond fusible interfacing and almost all of the pieces was fused with the stuff. 

Although I am not a fan of the expense it cost to make it, after you buy the 3 different fabrics (main, contrast, and lining) 3 zippers, cord locks, deco-bond, cording (I used suede lacing), and nylon webbing it added up to a pretty pricey tote. But that won't stop me from making more., LOL my 2 older daughters each want one and then I still need to do something about my lap top.    

A Little of This...

And a little of that.


Friday morning after dropping kids off at school Chris and I headed over to the UPS store to say my goodbyes to my machine...it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and it should arrive at the factory on Thursday but I will be without her 3 weeks or so, depending how many are before her. I talked to Kristy at APQS and told her when to expect it.


So without a quilt on my machine to keep me busy I baked some peach muffins and finished piecing a queen size tumbler quilt. I have a feeling I will be getting lots done piecing wise (like Shannon did when her beloved Nemo took a holiday) and I will probably end up gaining 10 lbs! ;0)


Was going to start painting my master bed/bath this week comming up but it has been pushed back a week do to scheduling conflicts with the hubby (he paints the ceilings). 


Saturday is Chris' B-day, he's heading to the golf course in the morning and I get to bake him a cake. I always bake the "Hershey's perfectly chocolate, chocolate cake" (the one on the Hershey's cocoa canister) for all of the B-days except my son's, he prefers a lemon cake over the chocolate. And I am hoping to work on a tote for my lap top.   

Stressed Out

We packed my Liberty up last night to send her back to the factory for her Maitenance/ Spa Treatment. She goes to the UPS store on Friday. And today I feel very stressed out, about it :0(


I don't know if it has to do with seperation anxiety or not knowing how much the whole thing is going to cost, or worrying about whether or not she will get to her destinations (first to the factory and then back home) safe and sound. Am I nuts? Maybe I shouldn't be asking this question, because I can just imagine what some of you are thinking about that last comment, LOL!


Anyways, until I know for sure what the cost will be I need to stay away from stores and websites that may entice me to spend $$$


I am also DREADING painting my master bed and bath, it is a huge space with volted ceilings and I know that I am going to be so sore (from going up and down the ladder) for a week after. So it is hard to say for sure what is my true source of stress is comming from. Maybe a combo from both...where's the chocolate? ;0)  

UFO's

We all have them, some have more than others, some are in various stages and some are just thoughts of inspiration. No matter what, if you are a quilter chances are you have them. I know I do.

So with my machine getting packed up and being sent back to the factory later this week for it's spa trip, I decided this would be a great time to get some things done. Such as repainting the master bedroom and bath (long over do) was suppose to be done last summer but got talked into doing 2 kids bedrooms instead. So on Mother's day Chris is going to paint the ceilings and then on that MondayI will paint the walls. 

Next I plan on getting some UFO projects done...

1) quilted sewing machine and serger covers (quilted the yardage for them yesterday) just need to cut the pieces out and bind the edges...will post pics of it when done but for now this is the fabric that I using

Then I plan on moving on to this project,

This is a tumbler patch quilt that I am making to use my CL Swirls template on, won't take much to finish this one probably a day at most.

This one just needs some applique flowers in the center of this quilt, then it will be done.

 

Must finish these 7 Christmas Stockings and get them quilted with the matching Tree Skirt before this Christmas (this UFO has been unfinished for too many years).

Then there is this one from 5" scraps, it will be a lap size quilt when finished.

This one is all Moda Sunshine fabrics using the Moda U Chocolate pattern with a little modification to turn it into a king size quilt for my bed.

So these are the 6 UFO projects that I am going to try to get done (pieced not quilted) by the end of May. 6 projects in 4 weeks and paint a large master bed/bath, I have alot to do. I will post each one as I get them finished. 

....and Then There Were Two

No your eyes aren't playing tricks on you...there really is 2 geckos. Tiger is the one on the right and the new one, Tony is on the left. I know the names are kinda cheesy, Tony/ Tiger but I had nothing to do with the names. The kids & husband did. Any ways we were heading out of the hose through the garage to take my oldest back to college a few weeks back and Tony was right next to our mini van, maybe he wanted to hitch a ride down to Tucson. Well as soon as the kids saw it they started pleading with Chris to catch it, which he did and so a new pet/ mascot was brought into an already crowded home, lol. They seem to get along well enough, I mean it's been 2 weeks and they are both still living. And check this out.....

Tony also likes the cricket box!, That's him peeking up at me through the window. So now we have 2 crazy geckos living with us, I guess I have to quilt more quilts to keep them happily fat with crickets!