It's been a while

I've been a baaaaad blogger but for a good reason. Tim, Nicole and Paige came up for a wonderful 10 day visit.

I now believe what everyone has always said about grandchildren being so much better than having children. I was either holding her or staring at her. Although I helped with the cranky hours, I just felt none of the stress that the parents did - of course it certainly helps that I always got a good night's sleep. :)

The best news for them is that Tim finally got the job with the Secret Service. It was a very long process but he starts in June so they will be moving to DC. Much closer to CT than FL has been. WooHoo!! I took them down to VA to look at apartments and then they flew home from there. I had a five hour drive back to CT so I knew I would need to stop someplace for a break. Joanns in West Deptford, NJ seemed like the perfect place to stop. ;) I picked up some more patterns to make Paige sundresses and one piece bloomers. Of course, I had to buy fabric for those things too. Well, I did, that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

So these are planned, so far:

Hmmmm, I'd better get started.

Design Wall Monday - 3/14/11

It's time for me to be thinking about UFO #1. I thought I was on easy street when Judy L picked #1 for this month because that project, Christmas Pineapple Blossom, is a finished top.

Just need to pop it on the LA, get it quilted and then bound. Unfortunately, Olga the LA, is very sickly right now and won't be back from the hospital in Iowa till mid Aprilish. So I swapped around some UFOs and now have a project that is in the top assembly stage. So my Crayon Box is now on my design floor. These are just slapped down. The final placements need more work plus it is a total of 50 blocks so I am thinking 6x8 placement for around 60"x80".

The question I need help with is what color to sash it with. I'm kind of liking the gray carpet. Any suggestions?

Go to Judy's blog for lots more design wall/floor eye candy.

Stash Report - week #11 - 3/13/11

It's been a relatively quiet week in the sewing room. I am almost finished with the tote bag for the brown challenge. It will get counted when it is finished.

I did buy 2 yards of fabric for little sundresses for dgd, Paige. I've debated whether these count or not. But they are 100% cotton and if I don't make the dresses, the fabric will get added to the stash. So, it gets counted.

Stash Report

Used this week: 0 yards
Used year to date: 25 yards

Added this week: 2 yards
Added year to date: 21

Net used in 2011: 4 yards

I need to finish some projects. LOL

Go over to Patchwork Times to see other stash reports.

It's fun to win

Yesterday I received a package in the mail and this was in it.

 

Woohoo. A great ArtBin won over at Jill's blog for participating in the Year of the PIGS. Thanks Jill. I have plans to keep my current WIP in it.

Quilters With Heart

We had a great day today of fellowship, show and tell, chocolate, oh yeah, and sewing.

First for the show and tell. Susan finished her BOM star quilt. OMGoodness, this quilt is absolutely gorgeous. No picture could do it justice. Bravo, Susan!

With Olga, the long arm, on sick leave, we all focused on binding.

Debbie, Susan and Jeanne were binding stitchers

Joyce was a binding maker

Do you notice how my being the photographer keeps me out of the pictures? hehe

Most of us took home a quilt to finish up the stitching at home but this Quilt of Valor is finished.

For various reasons, I won't be able to stitch with the group for several weeks. Have fun at Joyce's house, ladies.

Year of the PIGS - 3/9/11

Jill, over at Ramblings of a Fabric andYarn Obsessor, has asked these questions about our sewing space, "Do you have a separate room all to yourself? Are you a little (or a lot) messy or Princess of Tidy? Are there things that you find a hindrance to your sewing mojo like no place to put an iron but on the other side of the room from your machine or a lack of storage of tools that just create more clutter to trip over? Share your frustrations and maybe we can supply a suggestion or two.

About 15 years ago my wonderful husband had a room finished for me in the unfinished part of our basement. I think it was for my 40th birthday. It was my best present ever! I feel so lucky to have a designated space for my hobbying (blogger is saying that isn't a proper word but I'm leaving it as is). Before that I had things stashed in every closet and under every bed and I could never find anything when I needed it. Plus I was working at the kitchen table which, with four growing boys in the house, needed to be cleaned up every night so we could eat dinner. So, now I have my own space. I say that I have an organized mess. My organizational systems stay very neat and organized but my work spaces can get very, very cluttered with projects and project remnants.

I love that I have this space. I have crammed a myriad of organizational products in there to allow me to best store and access all of my great stuff.  First and foremost, I was gifted a full set of kitchen cabinets that a girl friend was replacing. WOW, what a windfall! I bought a new countertop and have more than a full wall of upper and lower cabinets and a workspace to sit at and do my cutting.

I had one remaining lower cabinet which had a counter top (ugly but didn't matter). I covered it with that reflective batting stuff and ticking to make a nice big ironing surface - well, it is when I keep it clear of $%*#(@^. Right now it is relatively clear.

The room is surrounded by bookcases for, well, books, 

storage units for bins of fabric by color,

a very large closet for fabric yardage,

shoe organizers for fqs, nickels and strings,

fat quarters

nickels

2 1/2" strips

and lots of drawers and boxes for UFOs.

Tops waiting for quilting

OK, if you are still reading you can see I have squeezed a lot of great stuff into my dungeon. Yup, I call it my dungeon. Which hints at the problem. It is in the basement and has no windows. My dream sewing space would be in one of those big rooms over a double garage. But in this particular house, I am happy to have the room that I have. I just have a hard time getting excited about going down there. It's away from everything and everyone. I wouldn't ever complain because I feel so lucky to have it. And once I'm down there I am fine, but I often waste the day procrastinating about going down there.

Go HERE to read about others' sewing spaces.

Not surprised

No one guessed how ds, Brian, totaled his girlfriend's car. Texting seemed to be the number one thought and I know our younger population is at a much greater risk since cell phones have been added to the mix. I don't know if he texts and drives but that's not how it happened.

They had just left Yellowstone National Park.

It was pitch dark, rainy, and a car coming at them had it's brights on when they slammed into a....

They were going 50mph in a 70 zone and Brian said he never saw the buffalo and thought they had hit a wall. Thankfully, the buffalo died immediately and didn't suffer. And thank God, the kids were relatively OK.

For those of you, like me, that need a little perspective on the size of a buffalo next to a car.

When you live in Connecticut, the thought of hitting a buffalo is pretty far fetched. LOL

Tiny Tuesday

This week I made blocks 14, 15, and 16. Each block is 4".

I now have enough blocks for one side of a tote or a small wallhanging or a pillow. I must say that I'm thinking tote. I just love totes.

Check out Jill's blog to see other tinies.

Design Wall Monday - 3/7/11

This weekend my ds #2 (29 yo) "totaled* his girl friend's car. They are both OK, some stitches, very sore but mostly grateful to be alive. Neither air bag deployed which puts into question the honesty of used car sales. Was this car in a previous accident and the airbags never replaced? I wonder if they will be able to track down the truth. I wonder if any of you can guess how he totaled the car? I will send a large stack of my remaining green nickels to the first person to guess correctly. If you choose to guess, be sure I can reach you.

Update: For those interested, you can read HERE about how Brian totaled the car .

I have several things in the works right now. But on my design floor (<g>) is the project for the green scrappy challenge. The blocks are now surrounded by white. I will next use the solid green for the sashing. I yet need to decide on a border.

I also have the brown tote ready to assemble. I had to borrow a walking foot from my friend while mine is off at Bernina, hopefully, getting repaired.

I also now am working on my crayon box quilt as my UFO #1. I have more than enough blocks made but need to come up with a layout and assemble the top. I haven't decided if it will have borders or not.

Stash Report - week #10 - 3/6/11

No change from last week on my stash report. I had hoped to get my UFO #1 quilted yesterday (then I could have counted the top and backing) but my dla, Olga, must go to the APQS hospital.

She is a very sick girl. After spending a long time on the phone with a very patient and helpful Dawn in the nursing (service) department, it was decided that the ole girl needed some major tinkering back at the birthing center. This past summer I spent about $500 getting her a spa treatment (overhaul) from a local medicine man but poor Olga didn't feel a whole lot better when she returned. It could be early April before they release her back into my care to fully convalesce. It will be very quiet here without her. We have been BFFs for 10 years.

I made great progress on a new tote for Judy's brown monochromatic challenge, I made 3 mini log cabin blocks so I'd finally have something to report for Jill's Tiny Tuesday and I made lots of four patches for Angela's green Rainbow challenge. But since none of these projects are finished, I don't count them. It certainly is an incentive to get things finished. Hopefully this week. I also plan to trade numbers on my UFO list. I can't work on #1 (it is already a finished top) without Olga so I might as well work on #2 as it needs piecing.

Stash Report

Used this week: 0 yards
Used year to date: 25 yards

Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 19

Net used in 2011: 6 yards

Go over to Patchwork Times to see other stash reports.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Today is Scrap Happy Saturday over at SoScappy. I haven't been able to properly participate since the start of the year but hope to do so from here on. The color for March is appropriately green. I have pulled my stack of green nickels, cut some of them into quarters and made four patches.

I am going to have to make many more quilts to put a dent in these nickels. The tone on tones are in front and the ones with added colors are behind. My specialty nickels (batiks, 1930s, flannels, patriotic, fall, etc) are in drawers.

Next I think I will border them with white and then a solid green. I got the idea from Ellen at Little Jewel Quilts. I loved her Blue Eyes quilt as she was piecing it and thought I would copy it (which she said would be fine). I decided to use a four patch center instead of the crumbs because of all of those nickels.

But a week later I saw her final quilt with it's fantastic border and I knew I would not be copying that. I just don't have the patience for that. Isn't it great? Mine will have a much more simple border.

 

Check out more green scrappy projects at SoScrappy.

Customer Service

My new favorite company is Fiskars. A while back I mentioned to my Friday quilting friends that I was frustrated because all of my Fiskars rotary cutters would collapse if I pushed down too hard on them. I could get them to work if I held down the opening button while I cut but the locking mechanism wouldn't hold. One of the gals (hi Joyce) told me to go to the Fiskars site to get the information about getting the cutters replaced. Really? I had three of them and they were all many years old. "Doesn't matter", she said. I was skeptical but I said I would check it out.

Sure enough!!!! I read to email them a picture of my cutters.

Check.
The next day I received an email back that they would be replacing my cutters. What!?!
This is what arrived a few days later.

They were all brand new, in packaging, but I forgot to take a picture before I excitedly opened the package. Even an extra blade.
Fiskars is my new favorite company. Great customer service. And I love my new cutters.