Two more days

And the bulk of the move will be finished. On Tuesday we move the furniture, with the exception of the pool table. While we may be able to move it ourselves (others have done it, I know), we have opted to have professionals do it for us. It will be the very last thing to move, though.

Today, after the Texans game, I’ll be headed to the new place to clean up a bit. We’ve moved all the boxes over, and the kitchen is unpacked and my studio is mostly unpacked. Once we get furniture in, I can finish unpacking the clothes that go in the dresser (the kids do their own moving stuff like packing & unpacking), and making some changes to the house to make it more livable for us – like removing the towel bars in both bathrooms to make room for bookcases. While the house is large, storage is at a premium, particularly in the bathrooms, so we’re having to make some changes there.

But, the bathrooms DO have clean towels, and have been cleaned (and will be cleaned again before we move in, probably tomorrow). In fact, about the only thing missing at this point is furniture. I was determined that since my vacation officially begins tomorrow, I didn’t want to spend the entire time packing, moving, and unpacking. I think we’ve done a decent job of having things unpacked that could be unpacked, so we won’t be living with a mountain of boxes for several weeks – which would drive me nuts, and cause me to spend my entire vacation unpacking, at least until everything was sufficiently put away. My closet is slowly filling up with clothes – I take a few every time I go over there, leaving only enough here to get me through till Tuesday. I’ll be so glad when this move is over!

What I’m really looking forward to is some studio time, even though it will now be in my bedroom. And Thanksgiving! I can’t believe it’s less than two weeks away. And of course, I’m really looking forward to spending time with my husband and kids while I’m off. I am so excited about the next eight weeks or so, I can hardly contain myself – the holidays in a new house, new decorating opportunities, and just the excitement of the holidays themselves practically give me a contact high! LOL I don’t know why I’m so excited for the holidays this year – maybe it the relief of four years of stress, or maybe just the idea of being with my family, but this holiday season will be fantastic, I know it.

 

Hard to believe

But it’s nearly Thanksgiving! In just two and a half weeks, we’ll be celebrating one of my favorite holidays. I really love this time of year (I think I’ve mentioned that before), and this year I’m really excited to decorate a new home for the holidays, spend time with my family, and get moved.

The Big Move will take place on November 15th. We’ve been moving some things over in the last week – bookcases, boxes, dining table, just to list a few things. I’ve started to unpack boxes, too. Everything that goes in the kitchen has been put away. Linens are put away, so everyone will have clean towels & washcloths when we move in. My studio is being unpacked, so when we move in, I can just bring in my tables & machines and voila! I’m ready to finish Christmas projects.

Before you know it, we’ll have zoomed past Thanksgiving, right into Christmas. What I don’t understand is, why do so many people zoom past Thanksgiving right into Christmas before Halloween is even over?! I love Christmas, I really do, and maybe it’s that I’m getting older, and want time to slow down, but I was a bit irritated to see the Christmas decorations up all over town on the first of November! Even the Home Owner’s Associations in our area have decided to put up decorations. What is up with that?!

I saw something the other day – and I really wish I could remember where it ws, but I can’t – about “Respect the Bird.” It was all about not skipping over Thanksgiving and getting caught up in Christmas. I think this is an excellent idea. We spend half our lives wishing it away, or ignoring it (anyone else remember being a kid, praying to grow up?), and the other half wondering where the time has gone. This year, I am going to make an extreme effort not to over think Christmas before Thanksgiving. I’m going to enjoy every minute leading up to Black Friday (which is an ominous name in it’s own right, isn’t it?) and not try to leap too far ahead. Like any quilter/artist/crafter, I will be working on gifts before Thanksgiving, but I won’t turn on a single Christmas song (never mind that I was singing them last week without even realizing it), pull out a single string of lights, or even consider a Christmas tree until the evening of Thanksgiving at the very earliest.

Instead, I will spend my time moving, unpacking boxes, working on making gifts for the holiday season, determining what I’ll make for Thanksgiving dinner, and enjoying the time with my family. The day after Thanksgiving, I will turn my thoughts to Christmas, but until then … the reason for THIS season is the Bird!

 

Random thoughts …

I haven’t posted in a week or so because I’ve been so busy, and I feel really bad about that. The not posting thing, not the being busy thing … anyway, I don’t have anything in particular I want to talk about right now, so I’m just going to tell you the random stuff that’s been floating around in my head lately. A lot of people I know tend to live life linearly, but not me. I live life in many directions; this post may frighten you, but I promise you that I’m mostly sane.

Last weekend, we went to Fry’s so that Travis could look for some anime – Dragonball Z, to be exact. While we were wondering around in there (NEVER a good idea for me or Chris) waiting on him to find what he wanted, I found a new copy of Family Tree Maker. At one time I was really hot into genealogy and I still have all my files. I’d heard rumors that now you can save digital images with your family tree in this software and it wasn’t terribly expensive, so I bought it. Chris, who has never known his own father, asked if I could find the man using the online capabilities of ancestry.com, and I told him I’d try. After a couple of phone calls to his mother, some creative searching and two days, I think I located not only his father, but his grandparents and a portion of his grandmother’s line on that side of his tree. I am amazed that what used to take weeks and months of research and trips to the genealogy library now can be done in minutes and hours online. I am blown away.

I have been planning a patriotic quilt for the last two weeks, and now I think I might be ready to start working on it. I’ll get started this weekend … my older sewing machine was in the shop for a cleaning and at first they thought it needed some repairs, but it turns out that they just had it together wrong. I picked it up on Tuesday but it’s still sitting down at the front door, waiting for a strong male to bring it up (it must weigh 40 lbs). I used to have my machines cleaned annually, but at a cost of $162, I think in the future I will have them cleaned every three years or so. I think the last time that one was cleaned was about five years ago and I never had a problem with it till just before I dropped it off this time.

I’ve been playing EverQuest II quite bit more than usual lately because I haven’t really wanted to start a new quilt. I rolled a new toon and started to level her in the new zone that recently opened up, which has housing and everything. I love the new housing; it’s much more cheerful than anything they’ve ever had before. I could stand in the house and just look around and be happy there.

Travis asked me at 10 pm last night if I could take him to meet his dad this afternoon. I wasn’t expecting it and I was a little annoyed that he waited till practically the last minute to ask, but it means that Chris and I will have a weekend entirely to ourselves. I cannot wait.

I need to spend a little more time organizing my studio because I now have my genealogy stuff in here. And my photography stuff. And of course, my quilting & sewing stuff. It’s amazing how much you can get into a room that’s not much bigger than 12×12 if you work really hard to make it all fit.

I’m working at home today, in my pj’s, so I guess I’d best get back to it. I have a ton of contracts to read – I started last night so I’m not terribly concerned that I just took 15 minutes to jot this down. And I’ve already put in about three hours more than required this week. But I can’t lie – I’m glad it’s Friday and I have two days to recover!

See, I told you this would be random!

OMG, I almost forgot! Today is my parents’ 43rd wedding anniversary. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THEM!!

Happy anniversary!
Happy anniversary!
Happy anniversary!
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappy anniversary!

 

This is for you, Soph

By request … a few shots of past quilts. Enjoy!

 

Was it worth the effort?

OK, so I have mentioned that I made a quilt for my husband Chris – which neither of us liked once it was together. Well, the quilt pattern itself isn’t bad, but the fabrics are totally NOT him, so I decided to start over with the same pattern, different fabric. Here is the top of the one we didn’t care for much …

I made it on the suggestion of the owner of QuiltWorks, a local quilt shop close to home. She told me it was easy to put together and that it turns out beautifully – she even had two in the shop to prove what she said. What she failed to tell me was just how ridiculous the instructions are in the book, and how much I’d have to figure out on my own. It is indeed a simple quilt, but it’s NOT for the faint hearted nor the uninitiated quilter.

Written by Suzanne McNeill, the book is called Batiks Inspired by Bali. The quilts in the book are beautiful and I’d been wanting to make something using batiks, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I bought a “Bali Pop” – 40 fabric strips that measure 2.5″ by 44″, made by Hoffman Fabrics, one of my favorite companies. So I figured, good fabric, high recommendation from the LQS owner … what could possibly go wrong??

How about nearly everything? The instructions are horrible. It took me AGES to figure out McNeill’s “system” to sort the fabrics. Her quilt was made using the Bali Pop called Mint Chip. I used one called Cappuccino. I anticipated small issues based on this, but I’m not a new quilter; I thought I had this firmly in hand, NO PROBLEM! There were problems. Lots of problems. But once I got the sorting done, and started piecing the quilt, it went by quickly. And then I started to lay out the quilt. The instructions told me to cut six of the 14.5″ blocks into two pieces – one that was 7.25″ long and one that was 5.25″ long. But the layout diagram didn’t state which block was to go in what position. These “half” blocks were to go at the end of rows, and I couldn’t figure out why they should be different lengths when every other block was 14.5″ long and the rows were made of three full blocks and one abbreviated block. So I decided (wisely, I think) to cut the blocks in half. I could trim them if needed once I started sewing rows together but you certainly can’t add back fabric you’ve already chopped off.

I still don’t know why the cut blocks were to be two different lengths, because I saw no need for it. My blocks and rows went together very well and required no trimming. Eh … who knows?

So then I decided to make a second quilt using the pattern, thinking that I already had tackled the toughest part and I understood what I needed to do. This time, I thought (not so wisely), I’ll use yardage and cut my own strips! But I stood at my cutting tables for what seemed like days trying to figure out what to cut. As the minutes dragged by and nothing was being cut, the idea flitted through my head that I was losing my mind. I went to sit down and try to figure out what I needed to do. It took me some time but finally I figured it out and I started cutting. But again, I wasn’t using the exact fabric she did – this time I decided to use Moda marbles – one of my favorite fabric lines of all time. I did pretty well till I hit the “brown/green” print that she never called for in the yardage instructions. I have NO idea what fabric that should be … so now I’m stuck putting together all of the other color blocks until I figure out which one of these should be “brown/green” because “brown/green” is NEVER mentioned in the yardage requirements.

My head swims just thinking about it. And this is all from just ONE of the fifteen quilting patterns. I am terrified to look at any of the others for fear of what might happen next!

My suggestion to Ms. McNeill is to fire her proofreader/pattern testers and start over with someone who actually understands quilting. My suggestion to my readers is this – if you intend to make this quilt, I suggest you either be a strong quilter or else you find someone who can help you that is a strong quilter. This one could reduce even the stoutest quilter to tears …

 

Summer Begins!

Memorial Day has always signaled the beginning of summer to me, and this year really isn’t any different, even though my son still has two days of school left this week. It’s one of my favorite holidays because it means that from now till the end of the year, there is at least one three day weekend every other month, and who doesn’t like a little extra time away from the job?

I’ve spent this weekend hanging out with Chris, grocery shopping, watching movies and playing EverQuest 2. But what I’ve enjoyed the most is playing with my new Brother Innov-is 2500D sewing machine. I set out with the idea to buy the Innov-is 1250D, which is a very nice machine. It’s not as fancy as the 2500D but it’s nice and it would suit my needs just fine. What changed my mind? The 2500D was a refurbished machine, with the complete factory warranty, and it was only a few hundred more than the Innovis. It made buying the machine a no-brainer. I got the refurbished machine for about $1200 under sticker and about $800 under street price. Not too bad, I say.

And it’s very, very pretty.

I’ve also been working on the studio a bit over the last few weeks. I moved the closet organizers into the closet (isn’t that where they go, after all?) and put the baskets on the studio floor.

In fact, I put a LOT of the stuff I don’t use often in the closet.

It’s still far from perfect, but I finally feel like I’m moving in the right direction. I think another set of baskets would help a LOT … but those won’t happen for a while now …

I finished the quilt I was making for Chris but neither of us really love the colors. I’ve started a new quilt for him and the one that I made is destined to be a Christmas present for … someone. Once I have the new quilt finished I’m going to do a red, white & blue for July 4th … I’ve decided that I’m going to do a “holiday” quilt for each holiday. It may take me two years but that’s my goal. In fact, I would love to do a different quilt for each month for our game room. The one thing we never seem to have enough of is blankets, and the ones we do have are in serious need of the trash! I’ve never kept a quilt I made, so this might be a nice switch …

Today’s question … would you rather receive a handmade gift or something bought from a store? Most people will jump to say “handmade” but I wonder – how many of them are being truthful?

 

The latest addition

Today, my really nice sewing/embroidery machine decided it needs a break. So … it took one. It was obviously in need of a vacation because about an hour into my studio time this morning, the thread broke on the machine. I rethreaded the machine and started back to quilting, but it was obvious that there was something wrong – the bobbin thread looks like a two year old tried to draw it in. I’m pretty sure that the machine just needs a good cleaning, but I can’t even get it to the shop till next weekend. And being arm deep in quilts that I need to get finished … what choice did I have but to go buy a cheap machine as a back up?

I looked at different machines on line, but the truth is, these days you’re sort of at the mercy of whatever the department/big box stores have on hand if you need a machine quickly. I headed to Wal-Mart – my least favorite place on earth, but the one I figured most likely to have something that may work. I didn’t want anything fancy – when you’re quilting all you really need is a straight stitch. You don’t even really need reverse, because there is no reverse in quilting – IF you know what you’re doing, that is. A lot of women use the old Singer Featherweight – a machine I would LOVE to have, but cannot currently afford. And I wanted something today – I didn’t want to wait for shipping. But I digress (I will right after you see this beautiful machine, anyway).

So there I was, at my local Wal-Mart, which does not have a fabric department, thinking I would be lucky to find a kiddie machine in the toy department. But as luck would have it, they had the Brother SQ-9000 sewing & quilting machine. My main machine is a Brother, I intend for my next expensive machine to be a Brother, so I couldn’t really see a down-side to buying this machine as a back up. My cousin has had more than one Brother she bought from Wal-Mart over the years, and has always liked them. This machine was $200, and what influenced me to purchase it was the accessories that came with it.

The feet alone are worth quite a bit – it came with a walking foot (I paid $45 for the one I bought for my more expensive Brother) and a 1/4″ seam foot ($30). It also came with a foot you use for free-motion quilting (I got that with my other Brother as well) and several other feet. The best thing is, the machine uses the same feet and bobbins as my PC-8500. The one thing the SQ-9000 doesn’t have that I wish it did is a thread cutter. With a press of the button, the PC-8500 cuts the thread at the end of a seam, and I love that thing. It did come with a quilting table – I’m not sure how useful the “large” quilting table would be just sitting on a table, but it comes in handy when used in conjunction with my Horn of America cabinet. The cabinet uses custom inserts to give an even sewing table, fitting around the machine being housed within, and of course the PC-8500′s insert doesn’t fit the SQ-9000. But the quilting table helps even out the surface somewhat, as you can see here.

In my opinion, this is an excellent machine for $200. It is very lightweight, but my dad used the same model machine to make boat seat covers using heavy vinyl, so I know it’s got enough horsepower to sew together lightweight cottons. What surprises me most about this machine is the feel of it as it runs – I’ve used a lot of cheap machines before, and I won’t lie to you. Most of them FEEL cheap. But this one feels like a much more expensive machine. It’s a little louder and sounds a little more mechanical than the PC-8500, but then, I paid $2000 for the 8500 …

I can’t say for sure how well this machine will perform over time – yet. But I suspect that if it’s like every other Brother sewing machine I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with, it’s going to be quite the little workhorse. I’ll keep you updated on how it works out.

 

Wow, has it really been a month?

I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last post. Sorry about that! I’ve been so tired every evening, and so busy on the weekends, I hardly ever go near the computer when I’m not at work. But I’m back, for better or worse. Have you missed me?

Anyway, not only have I been crazy busy at work, there really hasn’t been much to share with anyone lately. I’ve been adjusting to the new job of course, and the loss of my Fridays off – which has pained me greatly. But most of my off time has been spent in studio, or thinking about the studio or quilting, or looking at fabrics. I don’t have a lot of pictures to share right now, but let’s start with my two newest additions to the studio, and my first true step forward in trying to get it organized.

Neither one is full, obviously, though Chris would tell you I’m making a valiant effort to do just that, but the third drawer of the second set is just about stuffed full of fat quarters. For those of you who don’t know what a fat quarter is – or FQ for short- it’s a cut of fabric that is 18×22 inches. It is taken from a half yard of fabric cut down the middle – a quarter of a yard of fabric. A standard quarter yard is only 9 inches in width, but about 44 inches long. That drawer is plumb full, as my mother would say, of FQs. Each set of drawers has one drawer at the top that is very shallow – perfect for things like threads, rotary cutters, scissors, thimbles and other sewing/quilting paraphernalia that can be difficult to store. I’ve been considering purchasing another set of drawers, this one with all shallow drawers to store just such items.

PLANNED …
Another thing I’ve been doing in the evening as Chris pulls me through every season of Smallville since it’s inception nine years ago is to put together a “project book”. This book is actually a binder I’ve been filling with pages torn from old quilting magazines and placed in sheet protectors. These are quilts I want to make but … I’m tired of storing the magazines. So far, I’ve rid myself of about 50 magazines and I have added about 50 quilts to my project book. Sadly I think I have at least 100 more magazines to go through …

I purchased some fabric that has I Love Lucy printed on it – you know, from the tv show of the … was it 1950s or 1960s? I can’t remember. Anyway, it’s adorable, and the quilt made from it is destined for our game room. I also have ordered – but not yet received – a quilt kit using the Gone With the Wind fabric, which will also go into the game room.

STARTED …
I’ve started a new quilt for my wonderful husband, who has complained more than once that HE doesn’t have a quilt made by me … it took me a long time and a lot of irritation before I found a quilt he likes being made in fabrics and colors of which he approves. What he doesn’t realize is, neither of the kids have quilts made by me either – yet. And they’ve known me MUCH longer than he has! More on his quilt once the top at least is done.

IN PROGRESS …
I’m hoping to post some photos of the latest of my quilts this weekend, which is just about finished. I have about three inches of binding left and it’s done. It’s a baby quilt – a decidedly feminine baby quilt, made for no one in particular, just because I liked the fabric. I think I’ll hang it on my wall in the studio … I completed the top using the fabric I posted a while back. I’m going to take it to my mother’s house this weekend and see what we can do with it on her quilting machine.

FINISHED …
One bottle of Crown Royal, a carton of Dreyer’s ice cream and a cake. Not all at once, and not all by myself. But that’s about all I’ve finished at home recently. LOL

 

Do you know

The problem with most block of the month programs I see? I don’t like the colors of the fabrics used in most of them. Maybe I should design my own BOM and post it here? It’s something to consider … that way anyone who wanted to follow along could choose fabrics that suited them!

 

Woven Ribbons

Have you been looking for an easy quilt block, either because you want to put together a quilt quickly, or because you want to learn to quilt? May I recommend the woven ribbons quilt block then ..

Find the pattern here … and don’t forget to browse the site. There are TONS of free patterns – just be careful of the copyrights!