Weekend Adventures … or something like that

This weekend, I had big plans. Clean the bedroom, get to the closet, maybe get that cleaned up, and start the studio. Why, oh why do I insist on setting myself up for this sort of failure??

First off, I haven’t cleaned our bedroom – REALLY cleaned it – in months. Like, I’m talking before the holidays. In 2009. OK, maybe not that far back, but outside of picking things up off the floors, dusting and running the vacuum, I haven’t really cleaned the bedroom in a really long time. I can hear Chris saying to himself, “What else is there to cleaning a room?!” That’s because men have a different standard of clean than women do. Am I right here or what?

So I spent most of Saturday cleaning the bedroom, doing laundry and throwing things out. I’m sad to say that I didn’t get all of the room cleaned. But I did manage to get something like ten loads of laundry done. Why is it that men will wash it, dry it and refuse to put up a load of laundry? Do they think it’s going to take itself out of the basket and hang itself up or crawl into the dresser drawer? *sigh* At any rate, I still have more laundry to get done as well. But at least most of what I’ve washed already is put away – the last two loads didn’t get hung up because I am out of hangers so I need to make a quick stop at Walmart to pick up more. I’m not sure what happens to my hangers (or my flatware in the kitchen) because every couple of years, I need to buy more.

On the bright side, I have several bags of clothing ready to be donated, several bags of trash to throw out, and a bunch of books to be sent … somewhere. Most of them are old school books of mine, so they may be best thrown away, but I hate to throw away books. I also don’t want to move these books so I am determined to find something else to do with them.

All this makes it sound like my room was a toxic waste dump, but in reality it wasn’t. I just have this really bad habit of storing everything that doesn’t have a home in my room. I really need to stop doing that – maybe make it a policy that at the end of a season I get rid of clothing I didn’t wear or that I no longer like. Set some time limits for keeping stuff I never use. Spend more time throwing stuff out that I don’t need!

Hmmm … I guess the question is, how does the child of two packrats DO this?!? I’m thinking I might need to hire someone to come in and help me declutter …

 

Packing for The Move

I am not an amateur when it comes to moving. I’ve had lots of practice at it over the last ten years, but if moving were an Olympic sport, I doubt I would bring home the gold medal for the USA. There’s a certain art to moving, one I’ve not fully mastered, even after so many moves. I think it’s my lack of organizational skills that drag me down, so I’ve been scouring the internet for tips on how to organize and pack, purge and prepare for moving. Yes, we are moving. No, we don’t particularly want to move. And no, we don’t have a target move date just yet. We do, however, have a 2600 square foot house full of items that will need to be either purged, stored or taken to a much smaller location (we don’t have a place nailed down yet where we’re moving, but we are definitely looking to downsize). I’ll be documenting our progress here on the blog as we prepare to move, and hopefully I’ll be able to share some tips for those who are just as organizationally challenged as I am.

All of the websites I’ve found recommend packing things you don’t use often, but don’t want to get rid of – things like books, china, crystal, pictures and trinkets. I have a lot of stuff that falls into this category, so I think it will be easy enough to start doing this tonight after work. We already have boxes and packing tape (we thought we would be moving this time last year and bought those things, but the move didn’t materialize) so I think we’re fairly well set for that to start with at least. On the way home tonight, we’ll stop for some colored markers, maybe some colored paper, and printer ink (I’m out).

My plan for tonight is to start in my closet – it NEEDS to be cleaned out anyway, and there’s a lot of things that can just be either thrown out or donated. I spotted a Kodak digital camera box on the top shelf last night … the camera was tossed out at least two years ago when it stopped working but the box and packaging survives! Yeah, it’s time for that to be gone. I still have boxes in that closet that weren’t unpacked when I moved in four years ago. I am betting most of that can hit the bricks as well. And there are MANY clothes on both mine and Chris’s side that can be donated to others who can and will get some use out of them. Alternative, we could have a yard sale prior to the move – I will see what we have and make a decision soon about that.

I have no illusions. I don’t think I’ll finish the closet tonight; it’s not in good shape right now, so I’m fairly certain it’s going to take more than a couple of hours to get it done. But it’s a start, and it will rehabilitate a problem area in my home. Win/win in my opinion!

 Because we don’t want to be tripping over boxes and crap – and because we don’t have a move date at this time – we’ll be renting a small storage space where we’ll store all the non-essential items until we’re ready to move. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal to most people, but to me it’s progress. And right now, I need to see progress.

 

The best laid plans …

I had really big plans for this month, as evidenced by my last post. However, real life steps in and sometimes it’s a lot easier to plan for a great month than to actually live the great month. Well, I knew it was ambitious when I set the goals, and I also knew it was unlikely I would hit many of them. Now that we’re more than halfway through the month, let’s see how I’ve done so far.

1. Go shooting at least twice this month. Well, the month is still reasonably young, and next week will probably involve a little more free time than I’ve had until this point. I did manage to get out once and do some shooting, so I’m hopeful I can get in another session.

2. Finish Christmas gifts that I cannot further discuss here. Yeah. Well. See, what had happened was, there was this gopher … I got two gifts completed, shelved two others, postponed one, and have one left to finish. Before Christmas Eve. And it’s important to me to get it done. Yeah, I’m totally sweating it.

3. Enjoy at least one date night with my husband. This will be next week, after the holiday rush is over and the kids are with their dad.

4. Visit my mother on a day that isn’t a holiday. It could still happen, I guess.

5. Go shopping with my sister. Not bloody likely at this point! Will try again next month.

6. Look for a job in earnest. I did start out the month looking in earnest, but at this point the listings are not plentiful and I’ve suspended my job search till January.

7. Finish Season 1 of Lie to Me. YES! Something I’ve done in its entirety. Small accomplishment, but still…it’s a victory!

8. Read at least one more book and listen to another one as well. I’m almost finished with one of the earliest Dirk Pitt novels, Iceberg, and I listened to The Scarpetta Factor.

9. Clean up my bedroom and much out and reorganize my closet. haaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahahaha. Ummm .. this hasn’t yet happened. Or started. Or been thought about. There’s always next week, I suppose.

10. Take time to remember why Christmas is important to me and why it is my favorite time of the year. Another one accomplished!

11. Spend quality time with my children even if it’s just playing Monopoly or watching a movie. I swear I’m going to do this before Wednesday.

12. Take the first steps toward a permanent lifestyle change for nutrition and physical fitness. Well, I did re-join Weight Watchers. And dumped it. We are working on a plan that will work for us and to hell with the “experts”.

 

31 Awesome Days – Goals and Desires for December

1. Go shooting (photography!) at least twice this month.
2. Finish Christmas gifts that I cannot further discuss here (nosy people trying to find out what they’re getting, ya know).
3. Enjoy at least one date night with my husband.
4. Visit my mother on a day that isn’t a holiday.
5. Go shopping with my sister.
6. Look for a job in earnest.
7. Finish Season 1 of Lie to Me (I think this might be my new favorite show).
8. Read at least one more book and listen to another one as well.
9. Clean up my bedroom and muck out and reorganize the closet (someone send a search party if I’m not back by NYE).
10. Take time to remember why Christmas is important to me and why it is my favorite time of year.
11. Spend quality time with my children, even if it’s just playing Monopoly or watching a movie.
12. Take the first steps toward a permanent lifestyle change for nutrition and physical fitness.

 

Playing with Quilt Designs

One of my favorite things about quilting is that two people can take the same pattern and come up with completely different looks, either through choice of fabric or by the way they set, or lay out, the blocks. It’s the interpretation of a particular pattern, or block, that makes it unique. It’s what gives the quilt character, and what reflects the personality of the person who made it. Unfortunately, it’s also the one place that so many people seem to fail at quilting.

I cannot count the number of times that someone has said to me, “I had this great idea, or at least, I thought it was a great idea, but when I actually tried it … well, it didn’t come out the way I thought it would.” Boy, do I know that feeling! Almost every quilter has experienced it, or will experience it, at some point. It’s inevitable, when one starts to depart somewhat from using patterns and begins to venture off into that brave and wonderful world of design. There’s usually a process that takes place as a quilter begins to venture into the wide world of design …

The first phase is the ‘easy’ quilt – the one that’s just a few block sewn together, or maybe a pieced block that doesn’t need a fancy setting. This is simple, and most quilters can do this without a lot of trouble and almost no assistance.

The second phase happens when the quilter realizes that the design she has in mind is slightly more complicated. Out come the graph paper and colored pencils, and a slightly more complicated, but still fairly simple idea is turned into reality. A quilter might find herself surrounded by crumpled sheets of graph paper, but in the end, she figures out her design and finds success in this method.

The third phase – or as I like to call it, The Beginning of the End – occurs when the design is far too complex to easily render on graph paper, or when it has so many lay out options that the colored pencil method is no longer practical. Enter Electric Quilt.

Electric Quilt is this great program that’s been in production for probably 15 years or so – it’s long been used by people around the world who want the flexibility of changing things in their design without having to worry about causing eraser holes in their graph paper. But the truth is, the learning curve is not insignificant, at least, not up through version 5.0. That’s the version I have, and I won’t lie – I have had it for about five years, but I’ve used it little, until recently.

Confession: I love computers, software, gadgets – anything that can be considered electronics. So when I heard that there was a new version of Electric Quilt, I decided immediately I wanted it. I can’t really tell you why, except that it seemed really cool and I wanted it. Then reality set in and I thought, It’s crazy to spend that much money on a program that I don’t even know how to use and have put little effort into learning. Not one to be deterred by such minor facts, I pulled out my copy of EQ, installed it on my new computer (after making sure it was gone from the old one), and set about learning to use it. You see, I won’t be beaten by something as minor as not knowing the software.

Over the last several days I’ve had the opportunity to play with it, extensively, and I keep asking myself one question …

WHY DIDN’T I DECIDE TO FIGURE THIS OUT BEFORE NOW?!?

It’s still quite daunting, learning to use this program, but all in all, I am loving it. I designed a quilt block in the colors I wanted to use, then “set” the block in the predetermined layout that EQ offered. I could turn the blocks however I wanted them turned, I could add or remove borders, I could change colors throughout the quilt in a single click … I am, in short, addicted to EQ.

But I’m still not ready to upgrade just yet. Instead, I fully intend to attempt to purchase as many of the “stash” collections as possible, which will allow me to choose actual fabrics from a wide variety of designers. Fortunately, it will work with either 5.0 or 6.0, so when I upgrade EQ I won’t lose the stash. Two stash collections are produced twice a year – once in the spring and once in the fall, at a suggested price of just $25 each. Yeah, I think I can swing that!

My first trial was a log cabin block in black and tan … I have set the blocks in a large, king sized quilt in a variety of ways, giving me and my husband the chance to look at them all and consider many different looks. It’s much easier than trying to visualize or verbally convey an idea before even having the fabric in hand.

One thing I haven’t figured out yet is how to export my designs to a picture form. When I do, however, I will be sure to post the different variations for folks to see … I’d like to hear what people think about the choices we have!

 

A quilter's nightmare

Saturday, I woke up full of energy and ready to tackle the world! OK, not really. Anyone who knows me, knows that I hate mornings, any morning. Even though I’m grateful that the Good Lord let me wake up – my mother has always told me I should be grateful for that – it’s not my favorite time of day, ever. I can be equally grateful that He lets me go to bed at night …

So the truth is, I stumbled out of bed on Saturday morning at 10:15 … something I haven’t done in ages. My wonderful husband had to leave for work just fifteen minutes later and I had the house to myself – a rarity with two teens and a husband. I sat on the couch for a little while, organizing my thoughts and enjoying my caffeine IV, and considered what I should do for the day. I knew my man wouldn’t be home until around 6ish, so I had virtually all day … and I decided that where I really wanted to be was the studio. I had bought a new charm pack on my last trip to my local, and it was bright and summery … I thought about what a cute lap quilt it would make, with the right “blender” fabric. I just hoped that I had some blender fabric in my stash.

Now, if you don’t know what a “blender” fabric is, let me enlighten you. A blender is simply a fabric that will tie everything else together in your quilt. Some folks call it the “background” fabric, but I don’t see it that way. A good blender will create cohesion in the quilt and make it all work together. Usually, my blender fabrics are marbled fabrics, such as the ones that Moda makes. Moda makes THE best marbles in the industry, in my opinion, and I would happily stack my studio shelves with bolts of this wonderful fabric, if only I had the money to do so. But I digress …

Once in my studio, I opened the charm pack and laid each little square out on my cutting table so I could get a good look at what I had. Ohhh I thought, this is some beautiful fabric. The colors were vibrant – orange, yellow, red, lime green and blue – and I could see them with something equally bright as a blender – yellow or orange, I thought. Black wouldn’t look right … it had to be something bright. I began digging through my stash.

And I came up completely empty handed.

But during the course of my excavation work, I found some wonderful nautical themed fabric. So once I was resigned to the fact that I had nothing to go with my charms, I decided to work on something nautical. But again, I was missing a blender. Darn, I thought … what now?

A little more digging found some strips I had sewn together while making my niece a quilt several years ago. It was a nine patch quilt made of 30s reproduction fabrics … Great, I thought, I can make another repro quilt and maybe give it away on the blog. But I was missing white fabric for the big squares!

By this time, two hours had passed and I was getting hungry, not to mention that I was pretty irritated that every single project I had started was missing key fabrics! These are things I should always have on hand, I thought. What is wrong with me?!

I’m pretty sure I’m going to have some more free time on my hands this weekend, when I’ll have time to spend in my studio. But unlike last weekend, I’ll be prepared. I’ve already made one quick stop at my local, where I purchased a yard each of orange and black marbles. You can bet that I’m not quite finished yet … I fully intend to get my hands on some white cotton that I can use to embroider for my 30s reproduction quilt. So watch this page … there may be a giveaway in it’s future!