Merry Christmas

Wordle

Mary has done a wordle on her blog, and I thought I would do the same to see what kinds of things I talk about on this blog. It would be interesting to do it from time to time to see how the topics change.

Shopping Yet Again

I've made the list of people I am buying presents for, but I am having a hard time with getting the presents. It has been a Gimme year for sure. I'm usually done with everyone by this time of the year, and generally avoid buying a lot of things for myself during the shopping expeditions. Not this year.

I went to a couple of thrift stores to see if I could find some antique fun thing to give to a particular person. I did find something small for her, although it's not old, but I found a big bag of ties for myself. They remind me of my office days. The ties seem fairly new, and still fashionable (because I'm so knowledgeable on that subject.) I am hoping that the owner became an entrepreneur and decided they would not wear ties in his new position, or maybe he got a promotion and just wants newer ties. I borrowed the book Daddy's Ties from the library, and now have something else I can work on during the winter. So many quilts so little time.

On the grocery front, since I am keeping track, I bought $10 worth of fast food last week. That and the $15 groceries previously mentioned kept me at $25 for the week. For this week, I bought $43 worth of food, let's say that half of it is mine, at $21.50, so I am under $25 this week as well.

I went to CVS - because they are having another free marathon - two pages worth. This time I limited myself to things I would actually buy even if it wasn't free, instead of things I could find a use for if someone gave it to me. I skipped more "free" things than I usually do. I've gotten my credit card bill from my first "free" spree and decided to save some of my balance for gifts. I only found one thing I want to give as a gift. Although I know I can give drugstore things or make up a gift basket, it seems like an impersonal gift to me.

More shopping needs to be done. I've now made a list of specific gifts, so that next time I venture out, I will be able to stick to it, and save some things for others to buy me.

Quilting Plans

You're probably wondering about my progress on the quilting front. Well, there isn't any, but decisions are being made left and right! Winter is a busy season at work, so I'm not going to have a lot of time for quilting. I'm trying to think of low stress projects I can work on to still have some quilting progress to show this winter.

I have been debating about the quilting options for the Shakespeare in the Park. It is all pieced together, except for two corners. What I was telling you before about having the same color corners is not true. There are actually two different color corners, and since I already changed them to same, I have to change them back. I blame my crowded design floor for my error. I have been debating about tying the quilt, or quilting it in parts (batting parts) so it will fit in the machine, or hand quilting it. At first, I was thinking that my piecing wasn't all that good on this quilt, and I'm not sure I want to hand quilt something that doesn't have nice sharp points. But now I have decided that since I haven't ever hand quilted anything before, my quilting isn't going to be all that good either! So I am going to hand quilt this quilt size quilt. And get a nice homey quilt out of it. I am going to find some time to borrow some space to sandwich it. Don't expect to see a finished quilt anytime this decade, but I'm sure I'll show you lots of progress pictures in the meantime!

So far this year, my plan has been to finish quilts that are closest to completion. But these quilts are the darker or cooler ones - the trip around the world is mostly gray, the Crossed Kayak is blue. I need to work with brighter colors. The other ones need decisions on borders I am not ready to make. The plan for the winter (oh goodness, it starts tomorrow!) is to work on blocks - to take them into a top stage. This way I can still work on finishing things. I have brought two things downstairs - I know, trouble! One is the Moondance, which needs me to applique the already prepared flowers onto the secondary blocks. It seems like I want to sit around watching tv and have some handwork to do. I hope the flowers look better to me after they are done than they do now.

The other thing that came downstairs is the Four Patch Posie. This will be my piecing project. The blocks are done, and I was thinking about a setting for them. I had found a pattern for a completely different quilt that I thought might have a good setting for the posie. It has taken me this long to install EQ4, and try to adjust the pattern to the size of the posies I have. After playing with it a bit, I have decided it is too complicated a quilt pattern for this block (plus it has the square in a square thing that I hate piecing). I tried out some other things and came up with my own thing which I think will work. Even though it may wind up with having even more square in a square blocks. (80! I just counted, but at least it is only one round, and all the other piecing is incredibly easy) I need to play around with the colors to see which fabric I want where.

I'm good at making plans! I'm still being tempted by other projects I want to make (new ones), but I think once I get going on these two, I will be able to avoid that temptation.

Fourth Picture

There is a game going around on blogland. It goes something like this:

*Go to the fourth photo file on your computer

*Choose the fourth picture in that file

*post it and explain

*tag four people to do the same

I have enjoyed seeing what other people came up with, and wondered what incriminating picture I would come up with myself. Would it be something that would require me to start yet another blog, or worse yet, ban me from blogland entirely?

I have been tagged by Michele and have searched my files. Lucky for me, my incriminating photos aren't filed properly in folders - and most of them haven't been scanned, so my fourth photo is very appropriate.



It is from a quilt show I went to in March. I took this closeup shot because I really like the squiggly quilting.

Shopping

As a followup to my grocery post, I want to let you know that I had to go shopping on Wednesday. I was disappointed that I had groceries to buy just a few days into the experiment, but I was out of Special K cereal, and I have that every morning. I planned a big shopping expedition, with the help of CouponMom, armed with shopping lists, and paper clipped my coupons to each list. I also took my coupon box with me, just in case.

First, I went to CVS. On Thanksgiving, I went there to buy a bunch of free stuff. They gave me coupons "Extra Care Bucks", which can only be used at the store. It is easy to count the "free" twice, on Thursday when I got the coupons, and again when I use the Bucks. I am trying hard not to do that, so I made a list of things that were on sale that I wanted / needed / would buy anyway. The only splurge was a quilt magazine. The prices were the same as the sale prices at other stores, so I could stock up on normal stuff. I was also looking for gift items. My family members don't have a need or want for small appliances, and I couldn't see anyone getting excited about any of the other items. I wasn't able to use up all my bucks, and got some more on this trip, so I will have to make another trip later. The cashier didn't look happy that I was buying so much stuff. I did have to pay around 50 cents. She said I could use a $1 Buck and lose the rest, but I'm not about to lose $ like that. I don't really care for the Bucks, since you can't use them in whole. They are all in weird amounts, the price of what was purchased, so adding isn't so much fun. And you have a limited amount of time to use them up. On the plus side, I didn't have to fill out any rebate forms.

Next, I went to Walgreens, just for the free stuff they had - foil paper and tape. Everyone was really friendly, and I had several people ask me if they could help me. The cashier found me while I was shopping and told me that she had some coupons for me to use. I told her I had coupons, but if she had a bigger amount, I would be happy to trade for them. I was expecting to get just two things there, but I managed to get about $30 worth of stuff practically free. They had mascara buy one get one free. They had packages of mascara that had two tubes in them - they were buy one get one free. When I combine them, I could get four for the price of one. I had a $1 coupon, but I traded it for a $2. Very nice. For my total purchase, I had a gift card (due to other free after rebate stuff) that I used for the small balance. I'll get $2 of that back in rebate for the tape. I like that the gift cards don't expire, and you can use them in whatever increments you want. I do have to complete a rebate form, but they make it easy because you can do it online, and you only do one form for all the items you bought that month.

Then I went to Kroger. I bought my cereal. It wasn't on sale anywhere, so I bought the largest box to get the best unit price. I also bought milk and bread. And some frozen food. While I was waiting in line, I checked my coupon box for other things I had bought just to see if I had a coupon - and I did! I found three more coupons I could use. I hope I don't lose coupon opportunities like that on a regular basis. I saved about 50% this week, not as good as the 60% last time, but very nice nonetheless. In total, I bought about $30 worth of things. I can't find the receipt, so I can't separate out the non-food items. And I don't know how to count the spaghetti and spaghetti sauce, since it will be shared with other members of the family. There is already a month's worth in the house just for me so I am not going to count it. I am going to guess that I spent about $15 for food for me. I don't think I can manage the rest of the month on just the remaining $15, but I think it would be worth documenting how I do anyway.

Then I went to Staples and got some paper, also free with the rebate and coupon. Overall I was very happy with my purchases. I came away with many bags of things, with minimal impact to my credit card.

Free Magazine

I found a site where you can get a free six month edition of Down Under Quilts. There are other choices of magazines if you prefer some other type of craft.