Thursday, August 21, 2014


                                                    MRS. JOE NAMATH

So- if someone had told me 40 years ago that I would be friends with Joe Namath I would have told them to go jump in the lake! (I would say something different now but I was not a potty mouth yet). Yes indeed, somehow I found Joe Namath’s Facebook page and I am now his friend! Broadway Joe and I go back a long, long way. Settle in kids- it is a long story.

Back in the day there was not much on tv, so football was on every Sunday- all day long. There was something about that tall, confident quarterback walking up and down the sidelines in a full length fur coat! Oh my- and he was handsome to boot! Big dimples, long hair, etc.  I was only in third grade-I must have been born a boy crazy fool! The episode in which he appears on the Brady Bunch I must have watched 8,000 times. My brother made total fun of me because Joe wore pantyhose in that infamous commercial- who cares??? He could wear my pantyhose all day long! I was obsessed!

 
I started to sign all of my school papers that I handed in “Joe Namath”. Finally my teacher had to send a note home to my parents stating that there was no Joe Namath in her class and I had to stop signing all of my papers Joe Namath. She probably thought I needed mental assistance at that point. However, several months later, this same teacher brought her brand new Joe Namath popcorn popper in and let me be the first one to use it! I will never forget that!
 

I was so sad when he retired- but I moved on. Next in the queue were baseball guys-Bucky Dent of the Yankees, Lee Mazilli of the Mets, and let’s not forget Jim Palmer of the Orioles in all of his fineness in his Jockey underwear ads!
 
God love my mother- she even ordered me the full size poster of him in his undies- they were yellow I believe. These days she would be arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor! Then, back to football boys I went- Vince Ferragamo of the Rams, Richard Todd of the Jets and most recently Brett Favre.  Seems like I go for the quarterbacks- must be the in charge thing I guess LOL. And honey- don’t even try to yell out calls to me at home and expect me to follow orders -  haha.
 
 
Oh- and let’s not forget the cuties on the USA Hockey team that won the Olympics! Ooh la la! Oh look a squirrel----
 
 

The next important part of this story is about a wonderful post man named Louie. We got a brand new post office in town- a brand new trailer! Single wide, no less. And it landed almost in our back yard. It was very convenient for the one who had to get the mail every day after school a/k/a me.  So- Louie (who I swear was Avery Schreiber’s twin) somehow found out about my athlete obsession. He told me to get him names of the guys I wanted pictures of and he would take care of the rest. And God love him- within the next few months I had great stuff coming to me- a big packet of loot from the Jets, a signed picture of Lee Mazilli and an autographed picture of Vince Ferragamo (which I still have). I never heard from the Yankees- have not been a fan since. Bastards.  I have no idea how he got this stuff- and how he got addresses for the teams. Of course this was way before the internet. He had no idea how happy that stuff made me- or maybe he did when he got to see my face when I opened the box and saw I had mail! And mail from hottie men, no less. I wonder what that poor man thought about me. Oh well. Once a perv, always a perv.
Well, my dreams of marrying Joe eventually went down the tubes. In addition to never meeting him and being able to dazzle him with my wit, I am happily married to a most wonderful guy- a tad shorter than Joe but much more handsome and he spoils me rotten. Can’t beat that!
So that is my Joe Namath story-we have a lot of history-even though he doesn’t know it!
Enjoy your day my friends!

Wednesday, August 20, 2014


         Works in Progress Wednesday-

I have been trying to work on some older projects, while throwing a few new ones into the mix.
I did some more machine applique on my Not Really Jo Morton quilt. Boy do these take time when you do them right. I could probably hand applique them faster than this!
 

Here are the 2 blocks I have done so far from a Block of the Month High Prairie Quilts is doing. I promised myself I would keep up- so far so good. Of course it is only month 2! I am hoping to visit this weekend and get my 3rd block, then I will piece it this weekend.


 

I also made another Sew Together bag. I used my $200/yard Chip and Dale fabric I bought online. It is from overseas- the selvage was even written in Chinese. It really wasn’t $200 a yard- but it cost me $18 for a half yard. I must be insane. I was paranoid to cut it-and actually I figured I would cut it wrong because that is just the way stuff goes for me. But I actually did not mis-cut it, and even though the fabric is blue and orange I will use this bag. Yes- I am one of the few people that live in Colorado that is not a Bronco freak.

 


 
Now that the baby shower is over I can share the following quilt. Yes, it is funny that I had to work with orange and blue again- and Broncos fabric none the less! But it was for a dear friend that is a huge Bronco fan and is expecting a boy. 9 of us each made a block (some made more), then I sashed them, tilted them, pieced the top and quilted it. It was actually fun to do. I just told the gals I needed blue and orange blocks, pieced or appliqued. I got a wonderful assortment of both. The quilt came out larger than expected- 60 x 60. So mom can use the quilt even though it was made for baby “K”. We won’t tell baby “K”.

 
While waiting to get picked up to go the shower, I made this Boxy Pouch. It went together very quickly. From piecing to finishing it up it took less than 2 hours.

 

Now I have to move on to other projects. I have some quilt tops to quilt for a friend and of course I have my gazillion other works in progress to work on in between. I have a quilt retreat coming up at the end of next month with my quilting buds- I hope to work on some fun stuff then. I am already trying to decide what to take- though I don’t know why. I end up changing my mind a hundred times before I actually leave. Oh well!

Happy sewing all!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014


       Evidently I need to drink coffee-
   So, this morning started off well - kind of. I should have known something was amiss when I could not find my cute Wonder Bread sandwich case. I always bring it home from work, it gets rinsed then waits patiently for me to fill it the next morning. Oh well- I grab a dog poop bag/ baggie out of the cabinet and throw my sandwich in there. No- I do not recycle that much- the bag had not been used before.


 
  I headed out the door to work. When I got to work, I put my sandwich in the fridge and lo and behold- there was my container! I forgot that I ate a late breakfast yesterday and never ate my sandwich. Oh well- I won’t have to pack one tomorrow.

   I needed to run a few errands and my lovely boss let me do that, so off I went.  I had to run and take pants back that I did not try on before I bought them. They did not look like skin tight crop pants while on the hanger. Once I got them on at home, however, I looked like a polish sausage that had been boiled in a gallon of water ready to burst. This over-weight 48 year old has no business wearing skinny jeans so back they went. I tried to think I looked cute in them, but mirrors don’t lie. Even if you beg-
 
 

   Now comes the dumbass move of the day. I had a few checks to cash so I headed to the bank. The parking lot looked quite full so I went to the drive through. I pulled up and noticed the canister was in its’ proper place.
 

As I gathered the checks and my ID, a sweet voice came on the speaker, told me her name and told me to let her know if I have any questions. As I went to put my checks and ID in the canister I noticed the canister was not in its’ spot anymore. I used the call button, and chatted with the gal. She told me just to back up and come over to the commercial window and she would help me there. So, I did as I was told. She extended the drawer out so I can put my items in the drawer and I looked down- the fricking canister was in my lap!! I have no absolute recollection of taking the canister out of the holder. NONE. ZERO. ZIP. Now here is the dilemma- do I admit to my mistake and give her the canister back, or just go home with a souvenir? Then I figure I am probably on camera putting the canister in my car so I better give it back, as embarrassing as that may be. I just don’t want to wear striped jumpsuits. Those are so 70’s.
   So, I admitted to her I had the canister. To her credit, she laughed with me (and probably at me) and said it happens all the time. I am sure it doesn’t, she was just being kind but I appreciated the effort. As we finished up our transaction, she told me maybe I should go get some coffee. This was not done in a malicious manner- we had been bantering back and forth about the whole episode.
   I made it back to the office in one piece and with all of my parts. I even managed to remember to pick up the blue prints for the office. WOW!
 

   I am sure none have you have done anything like this??? I hope tomorrow is a better day!

Friday, August 1, 2014


                                                                         Shop Hop Fever

        What is shop hop you ask? It is a little like Saturday Night Fever, but without a  hotty in a white pant suit. Well, now that I think about it a shop hop is not even close to that- unless you are listening to the Bee Gees on your car stereo in between stops, which is a grand idea if you ask me. 

 
    A quilt shop hop takes place when local- and some not so local- quilt shops get together and plan an event that usually has to do with shopping at their stores within a certain time frame.  Once you get done hopping, there are usually prizes to be given out to those that shopped at all of the shops in the time frame allowed. Some shops give out prizes if you get to so many shops- I know there are a few states that have state wide hops- that is on my bucket list- Bob are you reading this???
    Our local shop hop is this weekend. Being the insane person that I am, I have volunteered to help out one of my very favorite shops. So, in addition to my full time job I am working there Fri night and the weekend. I am a glutton for punishment, but I love running into previous students and friends I have made along my quilting journey. Plus my shop is so good to me it is the least I can do for them. Please say hello- I will be in the orange shirt. Well, we will all be decked out in orange shirts but I won’t be hard to find!
  This year’s theme is post cards. Every store has a Colorado- themed fabric postcard for sale. The shop I am working at has sunflowers on it. I have designed a quilt pattern for the shop- here it is-


 
      The quilt is only 12” x 18” and hangs on the little display metal frames you see all over. My talented friend Lexie re-drew the pattern for me. The drawing I first made looked like Stevie Wonder drew it. (If you are blind and reading this blog, please do not be offended. I am sure you can draw better than I can. Trust me.) Once Lexie got ahold of it she turned it into something a person could actually stitch! Thank you Lexie! My sketch looked like this:



      I love hand embroidery- it relaxes me when I can sit still long enough to do it. This one I stitched on our porch one lazy Sunday with a wiener dog in my lap the whole time. I am sure if you look closely at the finished quilt there will be dog hair on it!
     My goal is to have many more of these patterns available soon. I am in the process of converting 3 others to pdf’s and then I will put them for sale on the Craftsy web site. I will keep you all posted when that happens.  In the mean time, run by B Right On in Brighton and purchase a sunflower pattern-it will help support my crack addiction.  THANKS!