Hippy Quilter

fabric bowls

2011-12-23T23:03:00.000-06:00

So at the retreat in October we had a table of "white elephant" type stuff. Basically books and notions somebody did want anymore. Each table drew four cards and each table got to go the the white elephant table according to the cards they drew. The pickings were starting to get a little low and I saw the book "Fast, Fun, & Easy Fabric Bowls." I didn't take it the first time I saw it but it was still on the table the next time so I grabbed it.

When I went to Denver at the beginning of November to pick my BFF up to come visit for a month we did a fast shopping trip at JoAnn's and I bought a couple of yards of Peltex II. It's fusible on both sides so you don't have to use up a bunch of Wonder Under too.

So this is the results. Next time JoAnn's has a 50% off coupon and I have the money I'm buying a whole bolt of Peltex!!

All three of these bowls are on their way to their new homes now.

Silence descends!

2011-11-30T13:32:00.000-06:00

Boy did it ever!! My BFF was here all month. We had a great time!

Then Son 1 and his family and my mother came for a "pre-Thanksgiving" dinner since he had to work on T-D. My youngest granddaughter will be 1 tomorrow and is just the cutest and goofiest thing ever!

Then the next week on Tuesday I went and picked up DGD #2 and her dad came on Wednesday. Then for T-D my hubby's best friend, his wife and 3 kids plus my mom came for dinner. I think I outdid my self this year and reached turkey gravy nirvana.

I took my BFF home yesterday and hubby is off at his second job and the house is totally silent again. I mean like clock ticking, I hear the cat snoring silent. LOL!

In quilty news, I am suddenly the chairman of a quilt show at our local arts center. I volunteered to "help" and now I'm in charge. The chairman's husband has several medical issues and she quit. She gave me notice 2 whole hours before the board meeting. Wasn't that sweet?? I still don't have any of her notes. Hopefully I can get them before the guild meeting next tuesday. If she had let me know right after the guild meeting at the first of November when she also didn't show up I could have had several things done and had more info for the board meeting. I guess I'll spend the next few days playing catch up!

a UFO finish

2011-10-28T13:03:00.000-05:00

I have been working on going thru everything and sorting things out. Since I've moved 3 times in three years and two of those moves were only 9 months apart things got to be kind of a mess and really needed sorted out and organized.

I have no idea what I was originally going to do with these blocks. I know I made them at least 6 years ago because we moved from that house in 2005. Anyway, there were 10 of them. 6 of one color scheme and 4 of another color scheme. And I had some yardage of two fabrics with them. I put 9 of the blocks together and added borders for a nice size throw and turned the extra block into an accent pillow to go with it. I love the way the plaid and gingham work with the florals.

I have one more set of UFO blocks put together. It's not quilted yet though.

the next challenge project

2011-10-07T13:29:00.000-05:00

The next challenge project for the guild I'm in is called "Kansas, My Kansas or what ever state you're from.

I have a rough sketch of what I'm going to do. I'm going to use the Kansas dugout blocks in dark green and tan at the bottom. Then the Kansas troubles block in two shades of blue and white and at the top two lines of flying geese. I'll applique wheat and sunflowers on it and it'll be framed with a wood print fabric I have.

Fair results

2011-09-18T17:24:00.000-05:00

"Such a Winter's Day" got a blue ribbon. The comment from the judge was to the effect she'd rather see the applique and embroidery done before the quilting. It's an art quilt, not strictly a quilt so those decisions are based on the creative process.

"Ladybug Invasion" got a reserve champion. The judge liked the embellishments. I don't think I've posted a full photo of it. So I'll do that now. Since hubby isn't home to hold it for me I'll take a photo of it on the floor. The hollyhock and the leaf block are my two favorites.

Such a Winter's Day

2011-07-27T11:35:00.000-05:00

It needs a couple of teeny repairs and the label and then a really good pressing. But it's done.

just the knots!

2011-07-23T23:06:00.000-05:00

All I have left to do is the French knots. I tried to add piping to the binding but nothing I did worked. It took too much attention away from the center.

it's getting there

2011-07-16T14:29:00.000-05:00

I added two more leaves. The Cardinal looks more like he's perched now. I am only going to use 7 snowflakes. I think they're just pinned on in this photo. The positions will get tweaked a little bit as I get ready to iron each one on and sew it down. I have the three big ones sewn on now.

I'm thinking about adding piping or a tiny flange in the binding since the binding is going to be the same fabric as the outer border.

just two more leaves!

2011-07-14T02:50:00.000-05:00

So it needs two more leaves. It needs one in front of the bird to make him sit and it needs one in the upper right corner. I'm glad I looked up a picture of a Northern Cardinal before I used the designer's colors. She had the beak yellow, they're red. She also had a white area around the eye, it's all black. I'll sew on a black bead for the eye.

The snowflakes are next.

all the leaves

2011-07-08T23:04:00.000-05:00

I finally quit adding leaves. It has 97 leaves. I got the flowers cut out and they're pinned on. At least there are only 9 of them. I did change them from the original. The original flowers were too pointy.

67 was not enough!

2011-07-03T11:43:00.000-05:00

There are already 70 leaves on the wall hanging and there's still one branch left to do. You can see I changed the bottom ones just a bit. I really did want one that went below the accent strip but I really needed to fill that lower left corner so I took off the short ones and added one fairly long one and a medium size one over on the right. I don't know if I'll get the rest of the leaves on today or not, we're having company tomorrow so I need to get the bathrooms cleaned and start the food prep today.

40 leaves!

2011-07-01T10:21:00.000-05:00

I have 40 leaves on the wall hanging now. I took off some of the short stems on the bottom and I'm going to add one long vine from the left to the right below the one that's already there. I'm pretty sure 67 leaves aren't going to be enough. There are three flowers down the left side and three across that bottom vine with the cardinal between the last two.

And this pattern started off with 16 holly leaves!

10 down...

2011-06-29T10:32:00.000-05:00

Ten leaves done and only 57 more leaves, 7 flowers, 10 snowflakes and 1 cardinal to go. I loooooooooove the way the leaves look. The stems turned out really cool too. They're three different shades of brown pearl cotton just held together and twisted a little and zig zagged down with invisible thread. Well, the main stem is three strands, the smaller branches are two strands and the teeny one with just one leaf is one strand.

Yes, the background is already quilted. I wanted straight lines and no stops and starts and the only way you're going to get that is quilt first. Good thing I have that handy dandy super steam iron 'cause this is gonna be wrinkled some by the time I get everything appliqued!

previews!

2011-06-27T14:02:00.000-05:00

The first picture is the flowers and leaves just scattered out on the background in the general areas where they're going. There will also be a cardinal on the lower right between the last two flowers. In this photo it's just laying on the ironing center. The brown line around in the center is the pearl cotton threads I'm going to use for the vine. I had thought maybe about cutting it in pieces but I think it'll look better if it's one solid line with branches coming off of it. The flowers will be solid enough after I get them backed with thin batting you won't be able to see the vine thru it but you'll still have the impression of the vine.

In the second picture I have the background almost quilted. I still have to pull the thread ends from quilting the top and bottom borders to the back and quilt around the outside of the accent strip. I really like the way these snowflakes look. I need to make two more small ones for the left hand side. The quilting in the borders is asymetrical, there are 3 lines on one side and 4 on the other side. There are 10 lines of quilting in both the top and bottom borders.

Next I'll couch down the vine and start appliquing the leaves. Tomorrow. When my husband isn't home.

zag

2011-06-23T09:21:00.000-05:00

I got some of the "snowflake" blocks made. Hated them. Snowflakes are six sided. The blocks are 8 point stars. Plus they do not line up in the centers. Yes, my seams are consistent and pretty accurate. So, I redesigned that part too.

It still bugged me there wasn't any of the added in fabric in the center so decided to take that apart and add some in. In the process I decided to take the dark purple out of the center and just use it as an accent strip between the center and the border. In the pic I just have squares pinned over the dark purple ones to see how it would look. Since I had to take it apart to take out the dark purple and add in the border fabric I also enlarged it by one square each way. With as many leaves as I have I thought it would probably look scrunched into the center space.

I have top and bottom border to add today and then I can baste and do the basic quilting on it before I start the applique.

back up and punt

2011-06-18T09:52:00.000-05:00

I finally get back to working on the wall hanging. I'm working on the border blocks now. I have the centers done (13 pieces and they're barely 3 inches big) and I look at the next set of instructions for the blocks. The designer, in her infinite wisdom, broke up all the cutting instructions into each section of instructions instead of having all the cutting instructions at the beginning and just the assembly instructions broken into the sections. Uhhh, I have no fabric and the instructions call for 80 2.24 inch squares. So I start hunting for the scraps. And I hunt. And hunt some more. The only scraps I find are from the leaf fabrics. I suspect I used up all the main fabrics since I don't find any scraps at all and I have the binding fabric in the Art Bin with the rest of it. While I was hunting for the scraps I saw a purpley gray that works really, really well with what I already have. I'll take apart some of the block spacer units and add in the new fabric there and take the parts I take out of the spacer units and use them for some of the block corners. It should mix the new fabric in well enough that you won't be able to tell.

I'm thinking about calling this one "Such a Winter's Day."

quilt guild "Opportunity" quilt ready for the quilter!!

2011-06-13T15:27:00.000-05:00

I thought I was never going to get all the blanket stitch applique done on the borders of this quilt!! Next it goes to another guild member with a longarm to be quilted. After it's quilted it'll come back to me for binding.

If anybody is interested in an opportunity to own this quilt leave me a comment and how to get a hold of you. Tickets will be sold on this quilt until the first weekend in December and we'll draw for the winner at the end of the local craft show.

bye-bye ketchup

2011-06-06T16:02:00.000-05:00

The people that lived here before us painted the entry/kitchen area a dark red and a dark gold. The red really looks like ketchup. Today hubby is priming it.

quilt priorities

2011-05-27T13:44:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you have to quit working on something and work on something else. My small guild does an opportunity quilt every year. This year the quilt has appliqued borders and a pieced center. I said I would do the blanket stitching around the appliques and to keep a consistent look it was decided that just one person would do that part.

I have the first border done and it looks really cool.

This is one of the end borders. When it gets put on the quilt the corners are mitered and another of the large center flowers goes on each corner. That's why the vine ends are hanging loose. I need to have all of the borders done by the first weekend in June so they can be put on the quilt. I need to have all of the applique done by the second weekend in June so it can go to the longarm quilter next. After it's quilted it comes back to me for binding.

random bits

2011-05-02T07:45:00.000-05:00

I took my girlfriend back home to Denver over the weekend. While I was there we went to Home Depot, Lowe's and Big Lots. I got more house plants at Home Depot and Lowe's and some flower pots and a rug for hubby's room at Big Lots. His room has tile on the floor and it's cold.

We made huge progress unpacking while she was here and there's not really much unpacking left to do now. Most of what's left is decorative stuff or things that need to wait until hubby paints. The hall upstairs and my closet and bedroom get painted next. The cookbook shelves go in the upstairs hall so the books are still packed for that shelf. The decorative stuff that goes in my bedroom is also still packed.

I'm going to just relax a bit this week and do laundry. We were so busy getting things unpacked I didn't do any of the laundry other than a couple of loads of clothes. I need to do tons of towels, sheets, and blankets now. I'll bet there are at least three loads of towels!

I should be able to get back to sewing in just a few days. I have a guild project I will have to work on next week. I'm doing the applique on the borders for our guild's "opportunity" quilt.

pacing

2011-04-18T08:22:00.000-05:00

Hubby said he knew it was time to stop for the night when the cat started pacing the dash. We loaded the trucks and headed this way on Saturday. We stayed in a hotel about an hour from here. It was already 2:30am when we checked into the hotel so it was definitely time to rest for the day.

Good thing it comes off the trucks faster than it goes on! We unloaded the small truck Sunday and part of the big one and then finished unloading the big one Monday.

I really have to pace myself with all the unpacking or I'll be in a world of hurt. Since my girlfriend came with us we're getting a lot more done than I would by myself but we still have to limit ourselves on how much we do every day.

We've made a whole lot of progress over the last week even with pacing ourselves. The kitchen is mostly unpacked and in order. The sewing room is well underway.

Every wall in this house needs painted. The ones that aren't an ugly color are grungy. The previous owner had a day care and they had several dogs. The kitchen is currently painted in what can only be described as ketchup and mustard. It has one fairly bright red wall and the other walls are a dark yellow. The guest bedroom is currently painted blue with a dark navy blue wall. The master bedroom is... well... just ugly. I'm not even sure what you'd call that color.

So far hubby has painted the front living room a really nice medium olive green. The sewing room is now a nice sunny yellow and two walls in the family room downstairs have been painted a deep orange. The guest room and master bedroom will get painted a light sage green. The kitchen is going to be a pale orange behind the cabinets and the rest of the room will be a pale tan. The upstairs bathroom will be a light lavender.

work in progress

2011-03-29T15:42:00.003-05:00

Somebody commented on another blog they'd like to see more things in progress. So I'll show you where I started and where I end up with this project.

The first photo shows the fabrics and the pattern laid out together. I really don't do blue at all so I changed to the purply gray fabrics.

The second photo is of the final layout of the applique background and the first flower pinned to it.

The pattern uses holly leaves, flowers and berries. The berries and flowers aren't holly berries or flowers though. Once I got the holly leaves done and pinned onto the background I hated them. I think part of it may have been the colors of the leaves. They just didn't really do anything for it.

So I changed them to ivy leaves and made about 4 times as many leaves as in the original. Since I made soooo many more leaves I can leave off the berries and the applique will still fill the space.

Since our move is only two weeks away it'll be a while before I get back to this.

back in boxes

2011-03-06T12:56:00.003-06:00

There's a good size stack of boxes in the spare bedroom now. I hired a kid to come help me. I put an ad on craigslist and he emailed me 41 minutes after I posted!! He packed what would have taken me a week to do in a little less than 4 hours. That room is so small I couldn't get far enough away to get the whole stack in the picture!

My second oldest granddaughter is coming to visit for her spring break so she'll help me build another giant stack of boxes. We'll build the second stack in the living room.

After I take her back and go sign the papers on the house if there's anything left to pack I'll call my packing helper again. He really was great help. We'll have him and his two brothers come load for us when that day gets here.

I get to buy a house! I get to buy a house!!

2011-02-06T11:49:00.003-06:00

We actually get to buy a house!! I'm so excited!

I wasn't finding anything for rent so I called one of the realtors there and asked if they had rentals and she said "why don't you call the mortgage guy and see if you qualify." Uhhhhhh, okay. 10 minutes later we were pre-qualified for a mortgage!!

So a couple of weeks ago I went down there and hubby and I spent two days looking at houses. We found two that we really liked that are big enough etc. We put a bid in on our favorite one. That was on Monday and by Friday we still didn't know if they were going to accept our offer or not or what they were going to do. So I had the realtor withdraw our offer on that house and we put in an offer on the second house. I think we have all the details ironed on that offer and we should go into "under contract" before long. The closing is April 1st.

It's a nice size house. The listing says it's 5 bedroom but one of the bedrooms is barely big enough for a day bed so it's really more of a storage room they finished. We'll probably turn it into a small exercise room. Otherwise it's 2 bedrooms up and 2 down and 2 bathrooms up and 1 down. It doesn't really have a dining room so we're going to turn the living room into a dining room/library/sitting room. It's separate from the rest of the house so it can be a more formal space and then we'll put the actual living room downstairs in the family room. The sewing room will go downstairs too. The second bedroom upstairs will be an actual guest bedroom.

This means we should stay put for a good long while. After I get the sewing room together I won't have to move for years and years so I can actually get caught up on everything!!! I'm really excited about that part.

the third baby quilt

2011-01-14T12:55:00.003-06:00

I thought I was never going to get the third one done!! I had to quit working on it to shop and wrap Christmas gifts plus do all the cookie baking and mail everything. After that I just lost my momentum for a week or so.

In the picture the binding along the top isn't done but this quilt went into the washer and dryer and straight into a box and into the mail yesterday.

I have one more quilt from these same fabrics but with one of the reds for the outer border. I put it all together in a kit and it can sit on the shelf for a while!

two baby quilts so far

2010-12-08T01:18:00.002-06:00

This is the two quilts together.

This one is for the son of my first cousin's daughter. She helped me move this last summer and this is a "thank you for letting me borrow mommy" gift. The colors in this one are red, blue, green and deep plums. The background has teeny little stars in similar colors but they don't match exactly.

This quilt is for my newest granddaughter born the 1st. The fabrics don't want to photograph true in this one. It's peach, lavender, yellow and pink. The background is a really, really pretty pale gray.

it's a done deal

2010-12-06T11:40:00.003-06:00

We're going back. Sort of. Hubby is going back to his old job but we're not going to live in Oklahoma.

He'll be going back probably this week or the first of next week to start work.

Some sudden changes. We're going to find hubby a cheap apartment and he's going to live there until I can move in June. We're locked into a lease on this house and there's just no way we can afford to pay this lease and pay for another place to live. So I'll stay until the lease is up.

the job situation

2010-11-23T00:59:00.002-06:00

Hubby didn't get the job in Missouri. Not because somebody else got the job, because they took the posting down and didn't hire anybody. I think they found out the position was going to cost them a lot more than they thought and decided they could get along without a General Foreman. Oh well.

So hubby is still looking. Then today his old boss called. They really want him back. His old boss thinks they're going to have an opening before long. I told hubby we could go back there but I will NOT live where we did before. We can live just 37 miles away from the plant and be in Kansas and it's a world of difference. I might be willing to live 5 to 10 miles inside of Oklahoma so we don't have to do two state tax returns every year but it's going to have to be a great house!!

In quilty news I have one baby quilt ready to hand stitch the binding down on the back and the second and third ones are cut. I'm going to finish the third one next since that baby is due soonest. I won't get much done before Friday though. Tomorrow morning they're coming to rip up the bathroom floor and replace it because it's rotted and like stepping on a wet sponge. Then I have to go to the tax office and take a couple of hours of class and take the tests. I don't know that we'll be here thru tax season but if we are I want to have a job.

Then of course on Wednesday I'll start cooking for Thanksgiving. My BFF, her husband and my oldest son will be here for the holiday. I'll make the dough for dinner rolls, make a cheese ball, and do some veggie prep for Thursday.

Friday though there will be plenty of leftovers so I won't have to worry about feeding hubby and I refuse to do battle for consumer goods so I'll have the day to just sew and sew!!

"Memorial to a Bridesmaid Dress"

2010-11-17T09:04:00.003-06:00

Turned out totally gorgeous!

In March of 2007 my two sisters in law and I were forced against our will to wear bridesmaid dresses for our in laws vow renewal ceremony on a beach in North Carolina. I threatened at the time to turn mine into memorial pillows or something.

It turned out to be this wall hanging. The large star points and the outer border cornerstones are the bridesmaid dress fabric. It's a bitch to work with. If I hadn't bought that expensive steam iron at the quilt show in May I probably couldn't have made it work. That steam iron puts out some serious steam and made that stubbon poly crap behave. Those seams are FLAT!! Plus, bonus! I could also iron the silk and the cotton with that iron. The bluish fabric in the center and smaller star points is a really nice silk.

The binding is on the second one of them. I need to trim the third one and get the binding put on it. I needed to get these out of the way so I can get the baby quilts basted and quilted.

baby quilts

2010-11-14T14:33:00.003-06:00

I always take breaks in what ever else I'm working on to do baby quilts. This time I need to do three at once!! This is the top for the first one. The second one will be from the same fabrics except it will have a blue for the last border.

This quilt is for the son of my first cousin's daughter that helped me move this past summer. The second one from these fabrics is for a great nephew due in the middle of December.

The third baby quilt is for my 5th grandchild due at the beginning of December. It's a girl so her quilt will be from a different group of fabrics. I'll post pictures as I finish them.

"Hold the Lime" preview

2010-10-21T14:44:00.003-05:00

I looooooooooove the colors in this quilt!! The places it looks like there's a white fabric are actually a really, really pale pink. There's one block on the bottom row missing because I left it on the design board at home when I went to my BFF's house to lay it out.

Time

2010-09-25T11:47:00.003-05:00

I think I'm just going to name this quilt "Time". It's a little smaller than queen size but I hadn't planned on putting this one on my bed anyway. It will probably go on a full size guest bed eventually. The block closeups were taken before the quilt was even put together. Several of the other blocks also have clock faces in the centers.

things change

2010-09-17T09:41:00.002-05:00

And then they change again.

Hubby quit the job he got here. It was the worst job ever. From the time he started work until the day he quit he had 1 day off. He worked almost exactly two months. Not only was he not getting days off he was working 12 hour shifts most of the time. In the week right before he quit he worked 9 days of 12 hour shifts in a row, had one 8 hour day and had to go back to 12 hour days because they fired a supervisor. He quit the next day.

Just a couple of days after he quit he got a phone call to apply for a job. He was recommended for the job by his old supervisor in Guymon. It's in another state of course. We both went and he had a really good interview. We'll find out if he has that job at the end of next week. I think he'll probably get it because of the high recommendation of his old boss.

I went to a retreat last week and got several things done. I got the binding on the Time quilt, all three of the "Memorial to a Bridesmaid Dress" wall hangings ready to quilt, another giant bag for Girl made and a whole stack of blocks made for the pink/yellow/orange quilt.

I finished hand stitching the binding on the Time quilt last night. I'll post pictures of it in a day or two. I'm still not positive what its name is going to be. I like either "A Question of Time" or "Galaxy of Time."

the move

2010-07-07T15:19:00.002-05:00

We picked up the truck and spent saturday loading. We quit when it got dark and by that time we had the majority loaded. Sunday morning we took the beds apart and gathered everything that was left in the house into boxes and loaded it up. We left Oklahoma by 2 in the afternoon.

We stopped in Lamar for supper and when we got to Limon we ran into a severe hail storm. The rain and hail were so heavy that all the traffic just stopped and waited it out. I couldn't see more than about 2 feet in front of the car. It just cracked the windshield and didn't break it out. It didn't crack any of the other glass. The adjuster was here this morning and said some the dents in the car are from bigger than baseball size hail. It's totaled. The pickup has 6K in body damage. None of its windows got cracked. We drove the rest of the way here in steady rain.

We unloaded the furniture from the back of the pickup as soon as we got here. The hail was so big and hard that it punched holes in the bottom of the love seat that was covered with a tarp in the back of the pickup. After we got every thing out of the pickup so it could dry out we unloaded mattresses and bedding off the U-Haul and fell down into bed.

Monday we got up and got the truck totally unloaded. We waited to turn it in because of the damage. Thank goodness I got the insurance!!! The insurance was $55 and the windshield alone would have been $446.00!! The whole roof of that truck will have to be replaced too.

We didn't get a whole lot done yesterday since we were all so tired. The girls and I have been working on unpacking boxes today.

I'd show you pictures of some of the hail damage but my camera battery is dead and I haven't found the charger yet.

final days!!

2010-07-02T10:37:00.002-05:00

The truck is waiting to be picked up tomorrow morning. Hubby, oldest son and the girls will be here this evening. We should get the majority loaded Saturday and we'll finish up and drive to Colorado on Sunday. Monday we'll unload and get the beds put together at least. We have to have the truck turned in by Wednesday at noon.

Tuesday the cable, internet and phone will be installed. I am sooooooooooooo looking forward to getting rid of the satellite internet!! It's almost as slow as dial up! With the added feature of losing your connection every time it rains. Since I did the bundled thing I'm going to get up to 16 mbps! Wohooo!!

Getting the kitchen unpacked and organized is first priority of course. I'm sure we're both ready for something home cooked even if it's just sloppy joes or one pan goulash.

My sewing room is on the small side so I'll have to put some of it over in the guest bedroom. I'm sure it'll end up being a total reorganization since all the 2 yard and up cuts of fabric will go on coroplast organizers and go in bookcases in the guest bedroom. One of the biggest things I'll have to figure out what to do with is the scraps. I hate to get rid of them because I really do use them for the girl's square in a square quilts and I used almost all scraps for the "Year in a Snap" series. I'm sure there will be plenty of other things I need just a bit of something for. I'm sure after I get started I'll figure out some sort of organization method for them.

the thing I'll miss

2010-06-29T15:35:00.004-05:00

The sky. As my hubby says "they have great dark here." That's because there isn't much here so not a lot of lights around. We can turn off the porch light and see the Milky Way from the front yard.

We can also see the lights from towns 10 miles away. During the day if you go out on the highway that runs past here you can actually see the buildings of one town 10 miles away. There's a wind farm down in Texas that we can see the very tops of the windmills during the day with binoculars and we see the red lights all blinking right down on the horizon at night. The wind farm is about 20 miles away.

There are no obstructions between us and the horizon for a full 360° so we see full sunrises, sunsets, moonrises and moonsets. I've seen some pretty awesome ones here. We've also seen some pretty wild looking storms.

5900, more or less

2010-06-22T14:06:00.002-05:00

That's the approximate number of miles I'll drive from the first time we went for Bill's first in person interview the 10th of May to when I'll take my cousin's daughter home the 6th of July.

The girls and I are just going to shuffle stuff around in the house today so it's easier to get around in.

Tomorrow I'll take granddaughter home to her father's in Alamosa and cousin's daughter home to Lamar. That little trip will be almost 700 miles.

They'll both be back to help load and unload the 4th of July weekend. Then I'll pay them both and take them shopping in Greeley. At least I'll only have to take cousin's daughter home after our shopping, granddaughter will go home with her dad.

16 more days!!

2010-06-17T23:04:00.002-05:00

My middle granddaughter and the daughter of one of my first cousins are both here packing. They're both 14 so they still have good backs and knees. LOL

They have the kitchen packed. Tomorrow they'll start the sewing room.

giant happy dance!!

2010-06-01T12:14:00.003-05:00

We're moving, we're moving, we're moving!!! I am soooooooooo excited about this move!! We're moving to Colorado!! Home Sweet Home!!! (I think I just used up today's allotment of exclamation points)

one down, two to go!

2010-05-31T20:36:00.003-05:00

The first one has all the borders on! It fought me about the last border. I originally bought a really nice Jenny Byer border print. Hated it. So then I pulled a really nice dark purple with a gold wave design overprinted. That one was only marginally okay. So I pulled at least three other prints out of my stash, no, no and no. Then I went to a quilt store 130 miles away and found a tan batik with a stylized shell design. It was better than anything else I had so I got enough to do borders. On the way there I realized that I'd be going past a really good size quilt store the next day so I took the wall hanging with me and found a great fabric for the border. I also decided to put the poly in the cornerstones since it pushes the border fabric to the lighter side and since it's a memorial to the bridesmaid dress it needed more of the fabric from the dress.

a graduate

2010-05-25T15:57:00.003-05:00

I'm pretty sure I'm not actually old enough to have a granddaughter graduating from high school but there you are. It wasn't all that long ago I posted a photo of her first car.

I'm so excited!!

2010-05-16T23:12:00.002-05:00

I get to have Margaret Gunn quilt my "My Secret Garden" quilt!!! Her web site is http://www.mainelyquiltsoflove.com/main/. She's also on my blog list as "Sewing and quilting Gallery." I'm putting the quilt in the mail tomorrow!

beginnings of a memorial

2010-05-15T11:01:00.002-05:00

(Just laid out so you can see the beginnings. The quarter square triangles are the only parts that are done.)

This is the beginnings of a "Memorial to a Bridesmaid Dress" The dress is the solid green on the outside of the seashell print. The fabric in the center is a really lovely silk I found that's very close to the color of the bridesmaid dress one of my sister in laws wore. The green is the dress I and my other sister in law wore.

To say we weren't exactly happy about the whole thing is somewhat of an understatement. MIL decided to do a 50th anniversary vow renewal with the full gown, tux, bridesmaid, and groomsmen attire for every one. Then she picked not exactly flattering dresses for the three of us. We're not exactly ... how shall we say... spring chicks anymore. And two of us aren't exactly skinny anymore either. There were several other issues involved that we'll just ignore.

I threatened, after it was over, to turn my dress into memorial pillows. The dress got shoved in the closet after we got home and mostly ignored. Then a couple of weeks before I went to the quilt show I bought the newest issue of "Quilter's World." In it is a pattern for a wall hanging called "Summer Shimmer." It is totally perfect for "Memorial to a Bridesmaid Dress"!!

I'm going to have to get that fancy new steam iron out and steam that poly into submission though. It doesn't want to iron into nice creases.

My Secret Garden

2010-05-13T18:01:00.003-05:00

It's together!! I love how it turned out. I'll be looking forward to getting it quilted now.

hollyhock block

2010-05-09T15:01:00.003-05:00

I love how this block turned out. It's from the "My Secret Garden" quilt. I only work on it when I take my old machine to the lock-ins. I have two more blocks to make and then it'll be ready to put together and add borders! One of the last blocks is an appliqued vine and it has to have a template for placement so I'll get that one ready here at home. The other block is just a pieced block.

quilt show haul

2010-05-04T00:24:00.002-05:00

I got a few things when I went to the quilt show in Denver this last weekend. The thread was a fortune all by itself!! The iron is a Euro Steam Evolution. I have all of the fabrics to make the "Bride's maid memorial" wall hangings now. I need to finish the pink/yellow/orange quilt first though.

quilt preview

2010-04-24T16:48:00.002-05:00

This quilt is going to be soooooooooo cool. The blocks are just laid together so you can kind of see how it's going to look. These particular blocks may or may not end up together in the finished quilt. I think the most blocks of any fabric combination is 4. Most are either 2 or 3 blocks of one fabric combination.

room improvements

2010-04-15T12:45:00.003-05:00

You wouldn't think adding two more pieces of furniture to a small room would give you more space but it did. The dresser in this picture is the ironing center. My big board ironing board fits on top of the dresser but it's too low. The weather hasn't cooperated so we can get the riser built for the top yet. It's tough to cut MDF outside in 30 mph winds. It still has a few things parked on it that I need to find homes for. Oh, and if you look at the bottom left of the dresser in that space you'll see my cat. That's her spot now. At some point in time I'm going to paint this dresser. I think I'll go ahead and look for different drawer pulls. It's Early American style and it's the one style that I really don't like. A paint job and new drawer pulls will make a big difference though.

The blue dresser is going to be the cutting table. It has a piece of plywood on the top now but I think when we have time we're going to go to the big lumber yard and get a piece of counter top for it. The space between the cutting center and the credenza is perfect for bagged batting and "ladies in waiting." The two big red bags have quilts that are waiting for binding. The ruler racks and all the rulers have been moved over on to the credenza in front of the bookcase.

this room is a wreck

2010-04-03T10:57:00.004-05:00

This end is where the computer and tv are. The bookcase to the left of the tv did have full size bolts of fabric but I rewound them onto the half size coroplast boards and they're all in the bookcase in my bedroom.

I'm getting some new dressers on monday. One of them is the long, low style and it's going to become the new ironing center. I have a big board that sits on top of the regular board so it'll just sit on top of the new dresser right in front of the window where the ironing board is now. I have plastic over those windows because they're so drafty so I don't need to get to them to open them.

Then we have this end. I'm going to take out that cutting table next to the tall cupboard. I'm going to move that blue metal dresser over where the cutting table is and get a new top made to put over it to turn it into a cutting table. Right now it has fat quarters in it. After I get it moved over to where the cutting table is it'll hold batting in the two big drawers and odds and ends in the skinny top drawer. The other dresser I'm getting on monday will go where the blue one is now and the fat quarters will go in it. I don't know if it's going to be big enough to hold all the stuff that is on top of the blue dresser now. If not the wicker basket organizer will fit in the bookcase next to the tv.

This is a pic looking into the room from the door. This really isn't that big of a room and there's a LOT of stuff in here! And here I am going to add two more pieces of furniture! The cutting table is going to go to storage for now. I know I won't live in this house forever so I may be able to use it in the next sewing room.

Girl and bag

2010-03-16T14:11:00.005-05:00

She posted to my facebook "this bag ROCKS!" LOL

The bag is supposed to be a quilt carrier. I made one for myself and she saw it and wanted one really bad. She travels several times a year between mother and father's houses so she will definitely use it!

It took forever to get to the store with home dec fabric to pick fabric for her. Her favorite color is yellow and she loved the black and white fabric.

I modified the design of the bag some and added pockets inside and out to each end and one on the outside side and one on the inside side.

She was in a school play not long ago and dyed her hair dark brown because Cleopatra doesn't have strawberry blond hair. People would kill for her hair color and she dyes it brown.

the end…

2010-03-16T11:31:00.001-05:00

Of the Census job was yesterday. Yay! All that nice money coming the next three weeks is going to buy me the Janome 6600, the Tutu rolling machine bag and a Martelli cutting mat. Plus a whole lot of fabrics!

Where the deer...

2010-03-14T13:56:00.004-05:00

And the antelope...

and the camels play??

I've been working for the Census Bureau and have done a lot of driving recently. There's an irrigated circle north of town that has a pair of camels, a pair of llamas and a pair of buffalo along with several horses. The antelope are pretty thick in some areas I drive thru and you see them in broad daylight.

new blog thing

2010-03-10T10:36:00.002-06:00

I discovered this new blog writing thing today. It should make posts a whole lot easier to do. Go here and get it… Windows Live Writer

Stupid thing won't work. Fine.

Deck the Halls

2010-02-18T09:54:00.003-06:00

Deck the Halls is done!! This means I have the entire "Year in a Snap" wall hanging series *TOTALLY* done, done, done!!! I think the February and December ones are my top favorites but I also really love May. I think I need to lay them out four at a time and take pics of them that way. The May block was the reason I decided to do the series in the first place but I improved the fabric selections so much for the February and December blocks they turned out to be my favorites.

This pic shows the background fabric a little. The second close up may show the true color a little better.

The next finish is going to be the monster wall hangings for the grandkids! I love making progress!

candy corn and fall leaves

2010-02-04T13:19:00.003-06:00

The first picture is a close up of the bird on "Candy Corn." "Candy Corn" is the October wall hanging in the "Year in a Snap" series. He still needs the bead sewn on for his eye.

This is the picture of the whole wall hanging "Candy Corn." I need to stitch the binding down to the back and it'll be totally done.

This is the close up of the scarecrow on "Fall Leaves" the November wall hanging. I need to add his face!

A pic of the whole wall hanging "Fall Leaves." I need to stitch the binding down on the back of it too.

Back to School

2010-01-20T17:10:00.003-06:00

I have Back to School done! I got it quilted last week and took it with me when I had to go get my mother and take her for an eye appointment and procedure. Anyway, while I was waiting for her I got the binding done. I love the orange pencil.

I also have the beading done on Ornaments. The gold one fought me. I ended up ripping off all the beading and making a new ornament. I'll get it quilted next. It's due the 28th for a challenge.

Decades and blue moons

2009-12-31T21:29:00.003-06:00

I am amazed at how many people have both wrong. It's not the end of the first decade of the 21st century. You can't count to ten and end on nine. That's only nine. And you can't start counting anything with zero or ten.

It's not a blue moon either. A blue moon is a little more complicated than the second blue moon in a calendar month. Especially since blue moons were called blue moons by people that didn't use a Gregorian or Julian calendar. Blue moons were known to people that counted time by moons. A blue moon is the third of four full moons during the time between a solstice and an equinox. Blue moons only occur during February, May, August and November.

I started the September "Year in a Snap" wall hanging today. I'm going to get the last four tops of that series done in the next week and then I'll get them all quilted at the same time. Then it's on to the monster wall hangings.

Trunk show

2009-12-16T23:21:00.004-06:00

I've been asked by one of the local guilds to do a trunk show at the end of February. Uhhh oh. I better get myself in gear and get some new stuff done!! They'll get wall hangings since I tend to keep a lot more of them. The quilts that get finished generally go live somewhere else as soon as they're done.

I'm not working a formal tax season this year. I'll still do a few tax returns but I won't have the pressure to put out 8 to 10 returns a day. If I do 20 for the whole tax season that'll be plenty. I'll only be doing paper returns, no e-filing, no stupid loans. Basically if they don't like it they can go somewhere else and I don't care.

Not spending 40 to 60 hours a week doing taxes this next year should really help me get caught up on quilt things.

FLY!

2009-11-12T16:22:00.003-06:00

I saw this pattern in the October issue of Quilt World and I knew I *had* to make it for Deb. I didn't tell her that though. So I got it done in plenty of time to show and tell it at all three guild meetings at the end of October -beginning of November. Of course I showed Deb a pic and she just LOVED it.

You should have heard her yell when it showed up in her mail.

it's official...

2009-10-14T17:34:00.002-05:00

I hate Thangles. I have yet to get an accurate hst with these stupid things. Fortunately I took a class from Sally Schneider and have a gizmo. I can still use the 2.5 inch strips to make 2 inch hst with the gizmo. There's more than one way to make hst!!

a scene challenge

2009-10-13T13:59:00.006-05:00

So, the challenge for the Timeless Treasures guild that meets four times a year was to do a scene. To most people that means a landscape. I know there are lots of people that like them but I think most of them are sort of boring unless they're way over the top and super detailed. I'm not going to do an ordinary or over the top landscape. A scene can also be a still life or a portrait. I decided to do a still life.

I kinda like the way this one turned out. I really like the little spot of sparkle. It's a freebie fake diamond tennis bracelet and a small pin the pin part broke off of. I hand sewed it on with invisible thread. That was a pain.

Don't you just love the way the lampshade turned out? Does it look crooked to you?

new quilt start!

2009-09-20T00:12:00.002-05:00

This is the first applique block I have finished from the "My Secret Garden" quilt. I got most of the pieced blocks done at the retreat last weekend. There are some blocks that are both pieced and appliqued and some that are only one or the other.

August wall hanging

2009-08-21T19:58:00.002-05:00

Finally! I stopped working on this series last July when we moved. I finally got back to work on it and finished August.

No name comes to mind immediately for this one though. All the others seem to have a built in name but this one doesn't.

I'm open to suggestions.

Train! Train!

2009-08-15T20:12:00.004-05:00

The train is the Cumbres-Toltec that runs from Antonito Colorado to Chama New Mexico. It's a coal fired, narrow gauge steam engine. Bill and me at Antonito before we got on the train. We took the trip that runs to Osier and back to Antonito. That's still a good day's ride. It took from 10am until 4:30pm.

There were several stunning views like this one.

Christin taking a picture of herself and grampa.

She's comin' round the bend!

We came out of a tunnel and BAM!! heart stopping canyon views!! 750 feet to the bottom!!

88 blocks!

2009-08-09T22:35:00.007-05:00

I got 88 square in a square blocks done saturday. I used a new tool called a prep tool.

I used it to trim off the triangles so they matched up with the squares. I think the blocks still need squared up though.

This is my most favorite block. No two blocks are the same. These quilts really give me the opportunity to use up scraps and make all sorts of interesting fabric combinations.

progress!!

2009-07-30T12:33:00.002-05:00

It feels so good to finally make real progress on things!! Even though the Carpenter's Wheel is in the list of things that are done the binding wasn't put on it yet and I got that done yesterday. I'm not in a huge hurry to get it done so I'll finish the binding next week when I go for the guild meeting. That way I don't have to drag the machine with me to sew for 3 or 4 hours.

I also got the top of the Midnight at the Oasis quilt done yesterday!! That's real progress! I got one corner on the wrong direction so I'll have to take that off and turn it around but that's a 15 minute fix. It's going to be a totally stunning quilt. I'm thinking because it's a very straight design that it needs feathers in the quilting. I should have taken a pic of it yesterday but I didn't think about it.

I think next up will be the butterfly kisses BOM in the original fabrics and two of the square in a square quilts. My husband's neice said she likes darker colors. The butterfly kisses original is darker colors. I didn't actually care much for the original fabrics but I loved the pattern so I went ahead and bought it. I had started a square in square for the great neice but she's just barely 3 so there wasn't a huge hurry and then she had a baby sister. If I'm going to make two of them I might as well go ahead and do them both at the same time so I've started cutting for the second one. When I get the blocks sewn I'll mix the blocks with the first set so they'll each get an even bigger variety of fabrics in their quilts. Mom and dad and 2 daughters will all have a quilt at the same time that way and I'll get rid of one I'm not all that crazy about. Works for me!!

more fabric store rantings

2009-07-23T13:07:00.002-05:00

Okay so now they're saying "there's nothing close to me."

And then I search for them and find out there's 41 quilt stores in a state the size of New Jersey they can't drive to because "it's too far."

Don't people drive in those little tiny eastern states? Is 30 minutes so excessively far you can't go by yourself?

Hell, I drive 10 miles *one way* just for GAS!! I drive 96 miles *one way* to go to my quilt guild meetings and to sew for the afternoon with friends.

Sad, sad, sad, the ways people will put limitations on themselves and then turn around and whine about it.

controversial views

2009-07-19T11:37:00.003-05:00

Apparently I hold some rather controversial views on fabric buying. I expressed surprise at how many people list walmart as a fabric source on a message board and got the standard "it's all I can afford" and "it's the only place within spitting distance" whines in return. I call bullshit. Every LQS puts fabric on sale and this isn't the horse and buggy days, you can drive farther than 10 minutes to get to a store.

I bought fabric for 3.50 a yard friday at a LQS. That's very affordable. Anybody that's posting on a message board is also perfectly capable of buying fabric online. I have bought fabric as low as 3.75 a yard online. And you don't even have to have a credit or debit card for most of the places. You can send them a check or money order.

Bullshit I say.

They say they don't need the quilt snobs telling them otherwise. I say they're shooting themselves in the foot buying fabric at walmart. Walmart demands its manufacturers lower their price by 10% every year. Once you've offshored the manufacturing to some country you can get away with 10 cent an hour wages the only way to lower costs is to start lowering the cost of the goods. That means cheaper quality griege goods and cheaper dyes. Then you lower the quality of the printing process. When the manufacturer has lowered the cost as far as possible then walmart just stops buying from them and finds a new manufacturer in another country that can pay 5 cents an hour and starts all over.

People will put their own neighbors and friends out of work just to buy cheap Chinese goods and then turn around and complain they can't afford anything else when their own good jobs left for China.

Yeah, I know it's controversial and an unpopular view. But ya know, I don't care. If everybody cared more about where their goods came from than how cheap they could get it this country would likely be a whole lot better off. Walmart has not done this country on any other country any good. If anything it has seriously hurt this country.

I've lived in poverty. Don't tell me "I can't" I know better.

Quilt class rebel

2009-06-28T22:09:00.005-05:00

I belong to this big guild that only meets four times a year. The class in October is the Orion Star. The quilt shop owner here is giving the class. She wants everybody to purchase a $200.00 kit to take the class. But, the colors are UGLY. Or at least I think so. So I told her I would take the class but I want pink, yellow and orange. She said she would see if she could pull the fabric off the shelf in those colors. The off the shelf kit would include the backing fabric but it would still be $200. But. But. Even if I had to buy all the fat quarters at 2.50 that's still only 70 bucks and I know I can get quality backing fabric for a really reasonable price.

So, that means she's charging each person at least a $100 bucks for a class fee. I don't know about you all but that seems pretty excessive to me. Especially considering I took two classes from a national quilt teacher in April for $60 total for both classes. And this class is a sew on this line, cut on that line, remove paper class.

She called me back the other day because her store is never open and you have to call and make an appointment to shop there. When I called I didn't get an answer and I'm not driving all the way over there if she's not going to be there. So, when she called me back I told her I had taken a look at the fabric in my stash and I would rather make the quilt from my fabric stash and for her to figure out how much to charge me for the pattern and the Thangles and a class charge. She said she thought she could do that. I'm not paying more than 40 bucks. I don't mind people making a profit but I think she's gouging people.

Then two days later at the other guild meeting she totally ignored me.

I pulled these from my stash. I need one more orange. I have a couple I can still choose from if I can't find one that goes in this range better. The fabric they're sitting on will be the main border and there's an orange and a pink that I have enough of for an inner border and the binding. I *know* she doesn't have near the selection in these colors in her store that I have right in my own stash.

scraps happen

2009-06-22T20:47:00.003-05:00

And happen and happen and happen. I've got a three drawer cart crammed full of scraps. That's the biggest problem, it's crammed. Just any old way.

So my next project is to dump it all out and at least sort by color. That way when I look for the perfect yellow to make a sunflower I don't have to dig thru all three drawers! And then I'll quit just stuffing the scraps in there.

While I sort I'll cut 5 inch and 4 inch squares for a scrap quilt for a great niece. I make a square in a square block and they're sashed in black. I have one started for a great niece and then she had a baby sister so now I need two of them. These two will be #7 & #8 of these quilts I've made. Everybody keeps having girls. The one in the pic isn't as pink as the first few I made. I'll make sure I get more pink, yellow, orange and purple in the next two.

Oh and I have the August "Year in a Snap" block done finally! I may go ahead and get the rest of the blocks done before I quilt them since I have a month and a half to go before I need to have the August block ready to hang. Plus that gives me time to go thru the scrap bins. That way I can find what I'm looking for for the next 4 blocks.

Do something with this shirt!!

2009-06-19T10:16:00.003-05:00

This is the wall hanging I made for my father in law. My mother in law said "do something with this shirt and I'll pay you for it." It took me a while to figure out something to do with it but once I did it didn't take long to make the wall hanging. I'm really happy with the way it came out.

SAD

2009-06-05T17:00:00.003-05:00

No, I'm not unhappy. That's Seasonal Affective Disorder. Most people think of winter depression when they hear the term SAD. A small percentage of the population suffers from summer SAD. Summer SAD is insomnia due to too much sunlight. I just read about a study they did in some northern latitude countries on suicide rates. They go UP in the summer. It's all that midnight sun that keeps people awake.

I've come to think of it as nap season. I really can't take drugs for the most part, I'm either waaaaaaay too sensitive or allergic to everything for that. I can at least nap during the day when the light level stays the same. If I can go to sleep in the afternoon then I can take a half decent nap. My room is very dark even during the day so that helps some.

Needless to say I don't get as much done during the couple of months of nap season. The worst is from about the end of May until the middle of August or so.

I live for fall.

a quilt show! plus! bonus!

2009-05-11T12:04:00.005-05:00

I went to the quilt show in Denver a week ago. Oh my!! Loads of totally cool quilts and awesome work! I fogot my camera so you'll just have to take my word. One of the coolest quilts was a Judge's Choice winner. It was called "Bouncing Bubbles." It was the simplest "turning 20" type of pattern done in vibrant colors. It was what she did with the quilting and embellishing that made it a real stand out. As suggested by the name the quilting was circles. There were about three sizes of circles over the quilt and she did something different in each circle and then embellished with hot fuse crystals and beads. Oh so cool! I suppose I should also tell you about the best of show. It was an appliqued scene of a bridge over a stream with trees and rocks and such. What made it so outstanding was the size of the applique pieces and the style it was done in. Most of the pieces were about half the size of a regular postage stamp and they were irregular in shape then they were individually raw edge appliqued and it was multi layered to give it tons of depth. Plus she got the perspective exactly right and her water was flat.

Plus! Bonus! I got to hang with my bff. She really is a bff. (that's a best friend forever for all you non texters)

We've been thru a wide range of crafting and needlework together over the years. I finally settled on quilts and she's gone off in a whole new direction building doll houses. Or rather miniature houses. They're soooooo cool!! It's a good thing too, her macrame always looked like something the cat hacked up and her crochet squares always ended up sort of triangular. Her doll houses are perfect though and she does "dressed beds" that are just to die for gorgeous! She adds silk embroidery pillows to some of the beds for a real special touch.

I have one of her earliest doll houses. It's called the Lilly. She "bashed" it for me and turned it into a New Orleans French Quarter style house. Bashing means she changed it from it's original style. Originally the balcony was just a roof and it didn't have French doors and it didn't have that ultra cool back screen door. My Lilly lives in the middle 1930s.

I brought home another doll house. This one is the Laurel and it's done in a midwest farm house style. It's going to live in the middle 1950s. You can check out some of her work on her blog. It's over there ----> in the blog list, Deb's minis. She's done some seriously cool work.

she killed it!!

2009-04-23T13:20:00.003-05:00

M. Problem was so offensive and so many people complained the email group owner is deleting the list!

I knew it was bad but I didn't know how many people had complained about her.

I'm handstitching the binding of Josh's quilt today. I should have it finished in the next couple of days.

Madam Problem makes a total ass of herself

2009-04-21T08:34:00.003-05:00

I am just stunned at what she said at the retreat. One of the women in the group is African-American. She's a terrific person. M. Problem was sitting at the same table as Jessica along with 5 other people. Jessica had a heart attack earlier this year and had gotten several get well cards from her friends. One of them had a picture of Michelle Obama on it. M. Problem says "what's this doing in here?" Jessica says "it's a get well card" Then M. Problems says "Michelle Obama is butt ugly." I didn't hear what was said back to her after that comment but then she also added "those people look like chimpanzies." Unbelievable!!! I am *very* impressed Jessica did not get up and rip her head off.

And that was just for starters. She carried on all weekend about her boobs. She had reduction surgery earlier this year so she wants to show off her new boobs to everyone. mmmmm, nobody gives a shit. She was pretty "in your face" about it too.

Plus she does this whole "lesbian" act all weekend making comments and rubbing on people when she hugs them. At least half the women at the retreat are 60+. Most of them find it really offensive. And I think if the rest of the women that were there stopped and really thought about it they'd find it offensive too since she's being very degrading towards anyone who is lesbian.

M. Problem thinks she's popular, funny and cute. She's none of that. She's offensive, loud, and obnoxious. She might be an attractive person but her personality makes her ugly. Makes me real happy she's still not speaking to me.

Retreat!!!

2009-04-12T12:09:00.003-05:00

An online group I belong to is having a retreat next weekend. I am soooooooooo ready!! I'm not sure yet which projects I'll be taking. I need to look thru everything I'm working on now and see what stage it's in. I would rather take things that are already cut so I can spend the whole weekend sewing. The retreat starts friday at noon and runs thru sunday afternoon. It's at a gorgeous hunting lodge. The building we use for the sewing room was the original dining hall so it also has a great kitchen we can use. We'll all bring food for part of the meals and then go to the new dining hall/lodge for the rest of the meals.

The picture is a view from the deck of the new lodge. You can see the road below that winds across the river and back down to the old dining hall where we sew.

A perfect blizzard

2009-03-28T11:26:00.003-05:00

How could a blizzard be perfect you ask? Well, it can start on thursday night so you get a four day weekend!! I could probably get out but I'm not in any hurry to. I don't have to be at work until tuesday at 1.

quilt progress!!

2009-03-17T10:58:00.004-05:00

I have the Posh top together! I am really happy with the way it turned out. I love that border fabric!

I also picked up Josh's tractor quilt and the Carpenter's Wheel quilt from the long arm quilter. I had the quilt store over in Liberal quilt these two for me since I just don't have the time or space to do them myself right now.

I wouldn't call the tractor quilt pretty. For that matter the fabrics don't even really go together. But it works. The tan looks a lot like a summer fallow field and the green looks like corn or soybeans if you were flying over the fields. The main thing is it's definitely a boy quilt and Josh is going to love it!!

The Carpenter's Wheel is actually a dark burgandy, a tone on tone gray and a gray with pink roses. The burgandy is way too orangy in this pic.

The perfect excuse...

2009-03-08T13:34:00.002-05:00

to haul all the fat quarters out of the dresser!!

Fat Quarter Bingo!!!! Wohooo!!! Last year the pots were around 700 fqs for each group.

I needed to get all the fat quarters out and get them sorted by color again but I just haven't had the energy. Well, it's time for fat quarter bingo on the HGTV quilt message board again. I think that's what you call motivation!!

Plus when I win I have to have that dresser all organized so the new ones will fit!! LOL

What a difference a week makes!

2009-02-26T07:59:00.003-06:00

What a difference a week can make!!

I went back to my old doctor on tuesday. It's just a little over an hour and a half drive so it's not really all that far to go see him. Plus if I schedule my appointments on the right days I can go to the quilt store. So anyway, I told him I was going to have to change docs because they weren't in my insurance network. He took me to the office and they're going to get in my insurance network so I don't have to change doctors!!!

Then wednesday I drove 3 hours one way to take the Census Bureau test so I can work for them this fall. I missed one question so I'll be at the top of the hire list. I mapped the route before I left and did both fastest and shortest routes and the time difference was only two minutes so I took one way over and the other way back home. I'm glad I went the way I did, I found a quilt store on the way home!! It's a great little store in Waynoka Oklahoma.

On tuesday I got the first two sections of the block of the month and then wednesday's shopping got me 7 peach and pink fat quarters, 2 yards of the palest pink fairy frost, 4 yards of a purple swirly fabric, a fat quarter table runner pattern and a kit and pattern for a really cool heart shaped pop up sewing case.

The end to this week is going to be great. Hubby and I are going to Amarillo saturday to celebrate our unaversary. That's an anniversary on years there's no 29th.

Ahhhhhhhhh, much better now!!

bitch of a week

2009-02-22T13:35:00.002-06:00

For the most part this week sucked. It started off bad on monday and didn't really start to improve until thursday.

Monday I was supposed to go see a new doctor. I get over there and they demand my SS card. I didn't bring it with me because I just don't carry it number one, and number two you're not required to give that number out anyway. I even offered to pay cash for the office visit and they refused to see me. The stupid bitch actually thought I would make another appointment and come back later!! No fucking way after the shitty way I was treated. I came home and called my doctor in Lakin and I'll go on tuesday. He's out of the insurance network but at the moment I don't care.

Monday evening after work I went shopping at this really funky discount store here. I left my debit card at the store and didn't discover it until tuesday night.

Sunday I had switched the satellite receiver box to the supposedly new one they sent since the old one's hard drive had failed. Bill said it had been shutting itself off. Uhhh, okay. So monday night I settle in after work to watch my shows and the damn thing shuts itself off and won't come back on right. I called tech support and we got it working again. The tech told me he would put notes on my account so that if it did it again in the next two hours the next tech could escalate the support. That soooooooooo didn't happen!!! The reciever shut itself off in about an hour and a half. The second tech I got was apparently an idiot and basically refused to any thing but the minimum required to get it working again and refused to send me a new one. The fucking thing actually shut off *while* she was doing tech support and she didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with it. I finally got tired of talking to her and just hung up after she got it working for the 3rd time that night.

Tuesday morning I get up and call tech support yet again because the fucking thing wasn't working and I knew Bill would be home in about an hour and would want ESPN. I had the third tech reactivate my old box so we could at least watch tv until another receiver could be sent. He was at least helpful in that way. But he didn't get the original receiver on the account right and when Bill got home there was no ESPN. So I called tech support yet again. This time I got the only person there that seems to have the slightest clue what they're doing and she got the original receiver back on the account so we could at least watch tv and made sure they were sending another new box.

And then tuesday while I was at work I get a voice mail on my cell phone saying my internet wasn't paid this month. I called them earlier in the month to change debit cards on the account because the bank changed card processing companies and sent new cards with 4 whole days notice. I asked the kid what the last four numbers of the card that is on the account were and the person that changed card numbers for me put it in wrong!! That's when I discovered my debit card was gone.

And it didn't end there. I got a notice from the town they were going to shut off my water because the bill hadn't been paid for two months. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHH!! I go to the bank's website and print off the two pages to show it had indeed been paid thru bill pay. I sent Bill to the town office. I didn't think it would be a good idea for me to go in there at that point. I suspect I'm the only person in this whole fucking place that uses bill pay and nobody is smart enough to figure out what the fuck it is!!

And to end the week I had a customer cop an attitude on me and then go throw a fit to the manager yesterday. She is apparently under the impression that because she runs a day care in her home she gets to deduct her entire family budget including all their clothing, food, lotto tickets and dog food. She got the attitude when I asked her why she wanted to file married filing separate. As a rule it's the worst filing status there is. And then it went downhill from there. One of the first things at the top of the deductions on the schedule C is the vehicle expenses. I ask her if she uses her vehicle to transport the kids and she said she does sometimes. I asked her what her vehicle was and when she put it in service. She couldn't figure out when she put the vehicle in service because she's been doing day care for 5 years but just got her license last August so she started it then, but she wants deductions for the whole year. Then she blew up and picked all of her stuff up and stomped off. I think she does day care because she's too fucking stupid to work anywhere else.

wave after wave...

2009-02-01T19:24:00.003-06:00

Of the "great unwashed." People that make less than 12K a year and seem to have a problem disciplining their kids and with personal hygiene.

I have 107 hours on this paycheck and I'll probably put in even more hours the next two weeks. Needless to say I get no sewing done and I'm lucky if I even get laundry done!!

work gift

2008-12-20T10:30:00.002-06:00

At the new office I work in there are 5 other women besides myself. So, I figured a table runner would be a great gift for the dirty santa exchange.

I added a candle and candle holder.

patterns...

2008-11-23T08:50:00.004-06:00

You ever get a pattern that is totally goofed up? This a really cool quilt but the pattern is hopeless. The first one turned out really pretty but I thought it was too narrow and a bit too long. It has two blocks, a corner block and a straight block. The corner block had a whole bunch of unnecessary pieces so I redrafted it. Then they wanted you to make a jillion strip sets for the straight block, cut it into blocks and then sew it back together. I skipped the cutting it into blocks and sewing back together part. For the second one I redrafted the corner block again to make it larger but keep even cutting measurments and I refigured the size of the whole thing so it'll come out wider and a little shorter. By the time I get done fixing theirs I could have just done my own pattern!

The next quilt made from this pattern is going to be blue, gray, lime green and black. I know, it doesn't sound all that pretty but the fabrics are just gorgeous together and they go with the recipient's room perfectly.

fabric folding...

2008-11-16T10:39:00.004-06:00

Is almost as good as actually sewing. I have a cupboard that most of my stash goes in. It was a huge jumbled up mess after moving and I'm just now getting around to organizing it. I'm refolding most of the fabrics so they fit in the shelves better. I still have the bottom two stacks to take out and refold. I'm trying to refold it so it doesn't take up as much space height wise so I can get more in it.

After I get the cupboard done I'll start on the fat quarter dresser. I got a bigger dresser for fqs and when I moved the fabric over I just stuck it in the drawers so it needs resorted by color.

I'm hoping to work on the Posh quilt later today. I have the blocks with the pink squares sewn into halves. I just need to sew the halves together and it'll be ready to lay out and set together.

back to work day

2008-11-10T20:27:00.002-06:00

I went back to work today. I was only there 3 hours. We have tomorrow off and then go in at 10 on wednesday. It'll probably be 10 to 6 the rest of this week. We start doing the advance loans on the 19th.

baby quilt

2008-10-27T15:59:00.003-05:00

I finished a baby quilt for a great niece. The colors refuse to show true though. The blues are actually lavender and the background is lighter than it shows.

baby quilt in progress

2008-10-18T20:58:00.002-05:00

I'm kind of leaning towards the peach for the border and binding. I think the yellow seems too bright and the lavender blends in too much.

Loblolly

2008-10-14T19:33:00.002-05:00

This area has gotten over 4 inches of rain over the last three days. Which really isn't all that much but there's only about 8 to 12 inches of clay over calichee. Right now my car is stuck just off the road. We had hubby's truck stuck and the neighbor came down and pulled him onto the road. We'll get my car out tomorrow or the next day after the rain soaks in a bit and the ground firms up a bit.

A load of gravel has suddenly leaped to the top of the "must have" list. Hopefully it'll dry out at least until we can get it.

the continuing M. Problem story

2008-09-21T11:21:00.004-05:00

Madam Problem has officially quit the guild. She didn't pay her membership and didn't attend the retreat. She did post to an email group we're both on about how she'd gotten emails and a phone call about how she was missed at the retreat. Yeah, right. Nobody was happy with the project kits she got. She spent a little over 900 bucks and the kits were short on background and backing fabrics. There were only three or four people that even said they were going to do the project. Most of the rest said it was too complicated. I know she knows the skill levels of most of the guild members and I think she picked the pattern just out of spite.

The email group we're both on is planning a retreat and Madam Problem was trying to get them to have it in March since she thinks I would be less likely to be able to attend since I do taxes. She couldn't get anybody else to go along with her since there is at least one other lady in the group that does taxes and the place they have the retreat isn't open to the public until after March 31st. I guess that means she'll just have to put up with me.

She quit talking to me after I emailed her and told her all guild purchases have to be on a receipt by themselves. She's furious she can't bill the shipping for her purchases to the guild. Too bad, so sad.

To be honest, I don't really want to even be associated with someone that thinks the rules don't apply to them. The guild is not there to enhance her budget or to boost her ego. Several of the original guild members are sick of M. Problem's "it's all about me" attitude and don't wish to see her back unless there's a drastic change.

Progress

2008-09-16T21:00:00.002-05:00

Progress has been slow but fairly steady. The sewing room is mostly unwrecked now. I can actually sew in here. I bought 3 of the plastic storage drawer carts and put them and the little brown dresser in the closet. I bought another dresser for the fat quarters and it's way bigger than the little brown one so there's tons more room for fat quarters.

I went to a retreat over last weekend and got caught up on the Butterfly Kisses and Decadent Victorian block of the month. I need border fabric and instructions for the Butterfly Kissses and I can put them both together.

I'm still behind on the wall hanging of the month though and several other things. I'll just have to stay behind for another couple of weeks though since the inlaws will be here sunday.

settling in

2008-08-17T08:40:00.002-05:00

We got to actually move to the house the 8th. The a/c was the final thing that had to be done and he finally got it done that afternoon.

Since then it's been one giant puzzle. Remember those slider puzzles we had as kids? The ones where you had to slide several squares half a dozen directions to get one square where you wanted and then you had to slide that square plus all the rest to get the next one in place? Like that only worse. Thank heaven for self storage units!! We gave up and took a lot of non essential stuff and put it in storage for now.

We need to do some more shuffling on monday when son 1 will be here. There was a fairly large cupboard next to where the fridge goes but with my fridge the cupboard would stick out from the corner into the hall 2 to 3 inches so we decided to take it out and put it in storage. I really wanted my upright freezer here in the house too. Well, that's not going to work. We have to put the freezer in storage and bring the cupboard back so there's room just to get everything put away in the kitchen. We also need to move the hutch. It has to sit in the living room and it's on the wrong side of the living room right now.

And the sewing room isn't as big as my last one. I must have measured wrong. It's actually smaller and it's shaped different. Good thing there's a really big closet in the master that can be used for storage! I may get this room unwrecked in another month!! It's the worst puzzle of all. There is a huge stack of boxes in front of the credenza* and half the stuff in the boxes goes in the credenza. I am going to go thru this stuff and be more selective about what gets put away and what gets tossed or freecycled. I don't think anyone actually needs all this stuff!!

*short for "big ass piece of really heavy ancient motel furniture."

trapped in a motel

2008-08-06T08:13:00.002-05:00

The whole move has been one giant cluster f***. They set the house on the lot last monday. I finally got electricity yesterday. I STILL don't have water. The town was out of meters!! How the hell do you not have at least one damn water meter????

the flames!

2008-07-28T21:31:00.002-05:00

Aren't they cool???

throw stuff in a box

2008-07-17T08:44:00.003-05:00

I'm in the throw stuff in a box phase of the move. Middle granddaughter helped yesterday and oldest and middle granddaughters are going to help the next two days. We knocked out the entertainment center, hutch, cookbook shelf and the tins off the top of the cupboard yesterday. I'm hoping we can knock out the whole kitchen today and tomorrow. I'll go buy paper plates and plastic cups and silverware to use for the next couple of weeks. Since hubby isn't here I'm not cooking right now anyway.

I doubt if I get much sewing time at all over the next few weeks. I'm going to leave the machine until last to pack though. It'll go in the rolling tote and be put in the car anyway so there's no reason it has to be packed right away.

A girl and her car

2008-07-10T16:44:00.002-05:00

My oldest granddaughter turned 16 the 7th. She got a car from her uncle. She's so pleased with it. Today was the first time she's driven to my house all by herself. So naturally I had to have a pic to commemorate the occasion.

Sail Away

2008-07-09T13:38:00.003-05:00

I finally got the July wall hanging done. I am just not that crazy about red, white and blue. That probably has a lot to do with why it took longer to get this one done. I even had to buy fabrics for this one!

flames! flames! I get flames!

2008-07-05T09:23:00.002-05:00

On my car that is. I'm so excited. I have a PT Cruiser and I have always thought it would look cool with flames. So yesterday we went to some friend's for the 4th and I asked him who did the flame paint job on his pickup and he said he did. One of the things he is most fond of in the whole world is my carrot cake. So I asked how many carrot cakes it would take to get flames on my car. He said five. We agreed to one carrot cake a month for five months and I'll get an overlay of pearl flames on my car. They'll start out white and go to orange. It'll be weekend after next when he paints it. I'll even post a pic!

A spot to land!

2008-07-04T07:33:00.002-05:00

We found a lot we can buy. They're nice big one acre lots. We'll go pick which one we want next week. They have city water and electricity but a septic system. We can live with that.

Now to get started packing and get moved as soon as they get the house set up.

My new sewing room is bigger than the one I have now so I know it'll all fit, it's just a matter of arrangement. The closet is smaller though. There's an extra closet in the master bedroom that can take the overflow.

landing a house

2008-06-25T08:44:00.002-05:00

I feel like Dorothy. I have a house, I'm just waiting for a place to land it. LOL The deal with the house and the lot fell thru so we found another house that we qualify for the loan and we'll rent a lot... somewhere.

I expect to be on the road three more days this week. Monday was the trip to find the house and then thursday, friday and saturday will likely be spent setting up the money situation. I'm hoping I can get away with just thursday and friday on the road but with the way things have been going it probably won't work out that way.

This part of the year I call insomnia season so I haven't gotten a whole lot quilt wise done. Well, between the insomnia and running back and forth to Oklahoma.