Christmas Vacation

I have been taking this week off for a few years as my daughter and her husband have been visiting. My son is home from school and I like to visit with them all. I have had a great week so far visiting with family.

I did have a wonderful Christmas. I enjoyed the gift exchange and church services. I went snowshoeing for the first time yesterday. I have been cooking, not something I do on a regular basis :).

I made myself a ruffle scarf. It is crocheted and made from bamboo yarn and very soft.

I am going to spend 2011 sewing and quilting my Civil War Diary Quilt. I want to finish my Victory quilt. I have a few tops to experiment new stitches on and fabrics to really think about what I want to do with them.


Off to enjoy my vacation from work.

I have been quilting really!

I haven't been doing much piecing because my sewing room is the dining room and well this time of year it is packed up for company. I have been crocheting here at home. I have been shopping until I drop and now I am finished. I am wrapping up the gifts now.

To see what I have been quilting please go to my Long Arm blog here:

http://finishedstitches.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-gifts-are-so-fun-to-finish.html

I am getting a tons of chatter of how more customers and going to bring quilts after Christmas. Our long arm business isn't even a year old and I feel things are really going to pick up.

The bleak weather isn't gonna keep me down!

Wow, it is amazing the little things we learn every day in blog land. I have a slide show of today's pictures. Yea me for figuring it out!

I have been feeling a bit off for the past several weeks but I think I have worked it out in my mind. I have been busy and physically feeling tired, sick and not able to eat and work out like I had. I put on a couple of pounds, boo. But I am back on the downward trend for weight loss. I have been worried about the annual creative financing that happens in Nov/Dec for emergencies, car repairs and other unforeseen events. I have decided today to just STOP IT!

I have started to get back to sewing, pic is of a recent block I made for the CWDQ. I have been crocheting funky ruffle scarves. I fired up the long arm. I am getting back to doing what brings me peace and happiness. I have decided the expectations I put on myself and the season is not what it is all about. Note to self-don't you do this every year, when will you learn?!?!

I am making a commitment to doing the important things one at a time. I am making a commitment to take care of my mind, body and soul. I am making a commitment to relax and enjoy.

The picture of my hair shows the new color on it, the hair matches my glasses. I feel much better.
Thanks everyone for your support, Merry Christmas!

Snow Day!

It has been very cold and snowy. The cold artic blast is here and makes it difficult to get around. We did have about a foot of new snow with tons of drifting. The kids are happy because it is a snow day and they can stay home. I want a snow day!

I haven't been sewing much since Thanksgiving. I have made a couple Civil War Diary quilt blocks. This is paper piecing time for me the winter brings out the tedious projects. This is definitely trying my patience.

I have the CWDQ and a Victory quilt started that needs to be finished.  I am quilting my yellow and green quilt. Plus a few other tops waiting.....

I have also finished my granny square sampler (crocheted). I am making a funky scarf. I have plans to get a few small items done for Christmas.

I need to organize my house. It is getting bad. I just can't find anything anymore. I need to straighten out the file cabinet. Get important papers together instead of all over the house etc, etc etc. When????, then I wonder- Why???? I would rather be doing fun stuff, ya know?

Design Wall Monday

I have worked on this for several weeks. It is 6inch paper pieced blocks of my own design. It is 44x58 or so.

I have been thinking about Christmas. We have a foot of snow and cold. It has been a time of mourning for my husband. It has been a time of victory for my Son in wrestling ( a medal, good job!). A time for reflection of my core values, they never change and how they are a source of comfort and peace. Mostly it is a time to think about where I want to go from here. It is a great time.

It has been a long couple of weeks.

My life has been upside down for a couple of weeks. My father in law died and it was difficult with my husband travelling back and forth 4 hours one way to the hospital. The memorial is Saturday.

The craft show was a bust. We sold 4 small items and broke even on the cost of the booth. I did make connections with other quilters who may need a longarm quilter and that may pan out.

I have been taking a bit of a break from long arm quilting. I will get going on a Christmas gift tomorrow. I pieced a top for a contest. Pic to be shown at a later time. I am tired and a bit discouraged.

On to work, living, loving and laughing!!!

Design Wall Monday

All of the above were worked on in the past week for a craft show my Mom and I are doing. I think we have a nice assortment of thing. I am going to make something with the yo yo's but not sure yet.

I made four of these blocks over the weekend and I need 2 more then I can start joining the top.

It has been a little overwhelming. They say bad things happen in threes, so I am hoping I have had my quota. My  father in law had a stroke and DH has been gone for 4 days trying to sort it out. I am coping by lots of sewing, playing violin, football and washing clothes.

Thanks for stopping by and check out http://www.patchworktimes.com/ for other design walls. Check out my long arm blog for the latest update on http://www.finishedstitches.blogspot.com/.

Happy Veteran's Day

I  have the day off and was able to spend time with my special vet, my husband. I did work in the studio and finished a quilt top. Check out Finished Stitches for an update on all the quilts Mom and I have done.

Today I finished another customer quilt. I sewed. Cleaned up the messy house and visited with Dad and Uncle Lonnie. I was treated to lunch with my husband and we had a great time at Walmart and Subway, lunch didn't break out eat plan. I love days like today, they really are special.


I am on the countdown to the Black Friday Craft show. I am getting nervous, but we have the booth layout done. Now to make price tags, hmm, better yet I will see if my son has time to make them.

life is good

I had a wonderful weekend. I bought this fabric in Canterbury Village. We got info for my husband kilt. The car had a wheel bearing go at the beginning of the trip. We are waiting to order after the holidays. Love the stores here.

Here is my design wall. Not any changes here.

A runner for the craft show.

While on our trip to south east Michigan, we went to Henry Ford museum.

Pretty cool stuff. I am in the diner. We also went shopping in food markets, malls and ate out tons. Diets weren't shot too badly out of the water. Buddy's pizza, and Macaroni grill were hits. I didn't buy tons but looked for gift ideas and was dazzled. We also went to a cider mill. Great time.

November 1!

It is here already, November. I have been working on finishing items for the craft sale on Black Friday. So has Mom. We have 2 more dates for little sales this winter. I hope something sells.

Mom and I have been working hard on quilts. We have several that need to be done by Christmas and we have 5 left to do. I think we will have them all done by then. I have no pictures yet. Check in later this week for updated pics. I have quilted three small quilts in the past week!

Yesterday was a beautiful day. We went to church, ate out at La's( we haven't done that in weeks!) and then drove to Petoskey. No leaves on the trees but the day was sunny and lovely. We went to the Celtic store and the meat market. Mom went with us and it was a great family day. Ahhh, now to get ready for the week.

triangle exchange

Last week I received my half triangles squares from the Friendship Triangle exchange hosted by my local quilt shop. This was paper pieced. There was a meeting at the quilt shop for inspiration, questions and assembly ideas. Of course, the book is fabulous but it was a tight budget this week. Mom went and participated in the exchange and bought the book, yes!  I can borrow it when I need it. Here are my 380 blocks, free of paper and ironed:

 Here are several ideas for layouts,  my first idea:

 then this one:

 more:

I think I will do this last one pictured below. It is on the cover of the book Friendship Triangles. It is a continuous square and uses over 400 of the squares plus setting triangles.

It is my favorite!I was afraid of the idea of mixing all the colors and different prints. But now that I see them together and what the shop owner has done, I am not afraid anymore. I am getting over my fear/dislike of batiks.

A simple fall collage

Monday

Here is an project that I needed to finish. I had my sewing machine serviced a couple of months ago and the blanket stitch is now working!! I am not great at applique so this was a challenge for me.

Homecoming was this weekend. The football game was sad because we lost horribly. The dance for DS was the next day. I really accomplished a ton. I cleaned up the house and the garden beds. Watch football and tried to relax. Hmm, back on the diet. I gained a couple of pounds.

I did long arm a wall hanging you can see it here.

Pumpkins gone wild!!

Pumpkins gone wild is the name of the charm pack in this quilt. I had to hand stitch the binding before it went out on display.

I sewed the borders on my orphan block quilt. I need to think of a better name for it, don't I? I found this fabric in Texas when my daughter was graduating in the spring. This border fabric has all the colors of the quilt in it, I knew I would find the perfect project for that wild fabric!!

I have been binding up all the quilts here. I had 2 quilts from last spring I thought I needed to sew binding on. Nope, just hand stitch the binding. Then I have 4 more table runners to hand stitch and the mountain is conquered!! I took inventory and I have 4 quilts to get on the long arm and quilt. I am the most caught up ever. I want it to stay that way. I have goals to finish my Civil War Diary Quilt, the second Victory quilt I have started and begin a long journey with Dear Jane in 2011.

Yesterday, my husband had a terrible day. There was an error made in our checking account with a company that made an unauthorized charge. Boo, creative money handling and we are all OK. Then his mother went to the ER and is in the hospital with her lung disease. And to top it all off, DS bought a itunes card. It was missing when we got home from the store. I went back and it wasn't in the parking lot. It had slipped in between the cup holder and the console in my van. I thought I could pop a storage drawer out, but no I jammed it. DH saved the day by fixing the drawer and finding the itunes card. Poor guy, he needs a great day today.

So starting today it will be a more normal week for me around here. I have a bit of a cold so I skipped Mondays workout and I need to go today. I have one violin student on Thursday. Tonight I am going to pin a small quilt of Mom's on the frame and try a new stitch. Then Friday we are going to the high school football team's homecoming. Ahhh, back to the good old routine, I love it. Quilting, knitting and sewing makes it all better.

Update on all things

The Quilt show was this weekend, my quilt is the green point sisters' choice. And the spools here. I heard people say nice things about them. I was nervous because my quilts aren't overly quilted art quilts. There are ones I actually use. I may try a more art type quilt in two years at the next show. My longarming skills will be even more improved by then!!

 At first I was intimidated my the quilting at this show, but then I was inspired. I met a lady who had an artist quilt her pieces from south east Michigan. I must meet her someday!

Here is the view of the ski slope outside the quilt show....

Here is a lake in the state forest on our nature drive yesterday.

Here are my sister's choice blocks, 6 inch paper pieced.

I need to get energized. I am tired because I had to work half days Saturday and Sunday at my day job, plus on call phone calls in the night. And since last Thurday this is what I have accomplished outside of my 40 hour plus work week:

-two hours of parent/teacher conference, all good

-ordered class ring for DS, very expensive

-sewed two quilt blocks

-drop off, pick up and attendance to quilt show

-shopping and wandering the Oktoberfest downtown

-made two quilt blocks

-quilted a table runner

-nature drives

-watched football

Hmmm, maybe I need to get a perspective. I keep feeling like I haven't done anything!!!

Something new today

This weekend was raining on Saturday. Here is the only photo I took. I was in the back being chauffered by the guys. We picked apples in between rain clouds. We went shopping and yes I made it to the fabric store.

Here is the EQ6 drawing of this next quilt.As you can tell I couldn't find an orange I liked as in  the draft. Love the blocks pictured, they are 6 inches and paper pieced. The lime green inspiration fabric will be the background fabric for setting the blocks on the diagonal.

While we were shopping, I saw something very interesting that really made me think. There was a young high school girl dressed in her homecoming formal. Cute little dress with matching shoes and adorable little bag. Her hair was done and she was walking alone through the mall. I saw her taking pictures of herself near poster of famous people, and saying "Hi" to her classmates still in the mall. She caught up with her family at the food court, most likely an older sister pushing a stroller with a baby in it. The girl was obviously alone and going to homecoming by herself.

I thought, now that takes guts. I never would have had the nerve with all eyes on me in that busy place to pull it off. Not at 15 or even now at 44. I should have stopped and told her "rock on" or "you go girl!" but I just smiled a knowing smile of someone who walked in that very same mall looking at dresses, and never went to a prom (or homecoming that is now a fall prom here) because I didn't have the guts to do it alone! Go Girl, hope you had a great time.  

Fall runner

Fusible fleece, and it turned out very well for this table runner pictured. I tried a fusible batting a few years ago and was it a disaster, but this product is very nice. I am not sure I would pay that price for it ( $5 for the little piece to make this runner 18x40 roughly) but I can see it's value!

I would like to make a little status report on the state of my fabrics and projects. I have made a huge dent in the big fat binding mountain. I have only half a dozen rrunners and 2 small quilts to bind!! Why do I procrastinate on this so much!! It is the perfect thing to do while watching football.

I think I have nearly busted my stash. There I said it. I have fabric for a few small projects and I am down to about 1/2 tote of usable scraps. Yes!! I can buy now  right? My plan is to buy only for planned projects!!!! I have 4 tops to quilt on my long arm after Christmas and then I have a clean slate of creativity. I am nearly done with everything. Finishing is a financial thing-you know buying batting and the tremendous amount of fabric for backings. I will buy what I need a bit each payday :)

Yarn mountain that I inherited is going to be donated to several charities. My hands just won't allow me to do much in the knitting and crocheting department. If I am going to do a project I am not using acrylic yarn ( the mentioned yarn mountain) I am using pretty yarn from the yarn shop. I have finally reached the point in life where I can spend a couple dollars here and there on pretty things of my own money (not all gift certificates that I love!!). It is a weirded out feeling too. Wow, I feel like a grown up.