Goals - Week 14

I was bad earlier this week about not posting updates to Goals, Stash Busting and the quilt class.  Its been a hectic week to say the least.

Goals from Week 13:
- Post pictures of quilt class blocks and Starry Night sewing. --  Posted quilt class blocks, but not the needlepoint.  Its coming along fairly well though.
- Wash fabric for baby quilt -- I was able to wash the fabric on Monday or Tuesday evening.  I also cut out everything and even started sewing a bit.
- Setup fixed sewing machine and quilt commission quilt -- Bust!  The sewing machine was setup, but not fixed properly.  Back to the sewing mechanic.  I have it back again today (4/8), but I haven't put it on the frame yet to see if it will completely behave.
- Complete all 4 Flying Geese blocks for quilt class -- COMPLETE!!

So I did fairly well last week.  The only items I didn't complete were items I couldn't (broken sewing machine) or I really didn't get around to (Starry Night needlepoint).

I'm not really sure where all the time went this week.  Somehow its Friday already, which is usually a good thing. ;-) 

Work has been a bear lately.  Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have 7am meetings at work.  Tuesday and Thursday I have 7:30am meetings.  yuck!  This means that every day during the week, I'm up at about 5:30am and out of the house by about 6:30am.  I used to be able sleep until 6:30am. ;-(

A few of us at work have noticed things getting earlier and earlier in the morning.  When I first started 4.5 years ago, it was rare to have a meeting before 8am.  Now, 7:30am meetings are routine and meetings are being pushed earlier to 7am.  Before I know it, 7am meetings will be routine and I'll be coming in at 6:30am for certain meetings.

The sad thing is...with the meetings being earlier and coming into work earlier...I'm still not leaving any earlier.  I still leave around 5pm or 5:30pm in the evening.  So the company is getting another hour out of me every day.  I get paid for 40 hours per week, but I'm routinely working closer to 50 hours now, which pretty much stinks.  It would be nice to get back to working "normal" hours again, but that probably won't happen for another 2 months or so.

Anyway - on the house front, we are closer to closing on selling our house.  We are about 80% packed right now with the stuff that's unpacked being items that we use frequently or can't pack up yet (files).  We're looking at a rental house again this weekend, so hopefully it will work out for us and we can start renting it soon in order to move some stuff over ahead of time (yay for renting from our builder's dad who is ultra-accommodating).

Goals for Week 14:

• Post pictures of quilt blocks from week 5 of class --
• Post pictures of needlepoint progress --
• Post pictures of baby quilt for cousin --
• Quilt commission quilt with fixed sewing machine --
• Pack some more  ;-)  --

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

House Shopping

Last week, Rich and I spent Friday off from work "shopping" for things for the new house.  Its really insane how many different choices there are.  Who would have thought something as simple as a toilet had so many options (color, tank type, bowl shape, height, style...)!

It was a very busy day, but I think we made some pretty good progress.  While the choices aren't FINAL yet, we were able to make some decisions on:

• toilets
• bathroom faucets (for all baths)
• kitchen faucet
• kitchen sink
• hardwood floors
• molding
• kitchen countertop
• kitchen hardware (for cabinets)

So we did pretty well.  For the bathroom faucets, our primary choice right now are these:

They are the same faucet, just different finishes.  Depending upon the final counter-top choice for the different bathrooms, we'll pick either the stainless (1st picture) or the oiled bronze.

Its exciting to be making the choices now and to see the picture in our minds starting to come true.  :-)

Quilting Motivation

I was reading Jill's blog today where she was discussing different techniques of how to get, or stay, motivated while quilting.  I do sometimes get frustrated like Libby and find it hard to sew.

Sometimes when I have no desire to sew, I'll kind of "force" myself to sew a few pieces for a scrap quilt.  The scrap quilt I'm working on now is just random 2.5" squares throughout the entire thing, so I don't have to think at all.  I find that I sometimes lose the desire to sew when I've been working a long time on a quilt that is tedious or requires a lot of though.  Being able to just sew simple 2.5" squares lets my mind not think about what I'm doing and I can just relax and enjoy sewing.

I also make lists like Jill does.  I have a "sewing priority" list where I put my projects with deadlines on the top and those without deadlines on the bottom.  Each project gets 5 or 6 items to do on it.  I usually break things down into very simple steps so that I feel like I'm accomplishing things.  For a basic quilt, I'll have steps like: design quilt, determine fabric amounts, purchase fabric, wash & press fabric, cut fabric, sew blocks, press blocks, sew rows & press, sew rows into top, add borders, quilt, trim quilt, add binding by machine, hand stitch binding and photograph.  That way even if all I do is buy the fabric, I can cross off something on the list.

I don't usually "treat" myself to things when I finish up a project.  However, the "treat" that I do get is that I'm done with the project and I can add a new project to the list.  Usually its a project that I've been wanting to do for a little while, but haven't allowed myself to start until I finish something I'm not as enthusiastic about.  I find that if I have the motivation of starting a really fun project once I get the current one done, it keeps me sewing and finishing what I have started already.  This way, it also keeps my UFOs to a minimum.

I definitely agree with keeping multiple projects going at one time though.  However, the multiple projects have to vary in difficulty and there can only be 3 or 4 at most going at one time.  I try to have one difficult project, then maybe two easy projects going.  That way I can work on the difficult one for a while and when I get frustrated or annoyed, I can work on something easy.

I hope some of these tips help others who have a hard time being motivated or keeping motivated with quilting.  I think all of us go through phases where you "lose your mojo" and just don't feel like sewing.  When I truly don't feel like sewing, I'll do some needlepoint where I really can let my mind just wander and think about whatever it is that's bothering me.

Quilt Class - Week 4

This past Sunday was week #4 for my quilting class.  Its hard to believe that there's only 2 more classes left.  I think I will miss going to class every Sunday.  While its a little bit of a pain to pack up the sewing machine and take everything with me, its fun going and sewing/chatting with the other women.

So this past class we learned three different techniques on how to make Flying Geese blocks.  The first two ways were traditional methods.  One was cutting the triangles before hand and sewing all the pieces together.  The second was cutting rectangles and squares and sewing the diagonal lines and trimming away the excess after the block is sewn.

The last method, which is more modern, uses a ruler by Eleanor Burns.  Its a bit different, but you actually end up with flying geese blocks that are the correct size and it only requires sewing 4 seams in order to do it.  Its a bit labor intensive with the final cutting and pressing seams open, but its definitely worth it.

I had made flying geese blocks a while ago using the traditional methods. See my post here.  I ended up making lots more flying geese than I needed because half of them were the wrong size.

So here's the final blocks made with the flying geese from class:

 

The picture isn't great.  I took it late last night in a room with a CFL light bulb (yuck!).  Also, because the background fabric is close to the carpet color, I had to put my dark green sweater underneath the blocks so you could actually see them.  Not all the points are perfect, but they are pretty darn close.

Goals - Week 13

Last weeks progress...

Goals for week 12:
- Sew "Starry Night" needlepoint and photograph -- Done - Finished page 17 and photographed.  I just have to post the new picture.
- Wash fabric for cousin's baby quilt -- Didn't complete.
- Clean up and pack extra fabric/quilting patterns. Organized and packed a whole bunch of fabric (didn't realize I had THAT much).  I also cut up some of the excess small pieces into 2.5" squares for my scrap quilt.

Last week was another busy week.  We found out our buyers are approved for their mortgage pending a bank appraisal (which happened on Friday...we'll find out early this week if we "passed") and pending verification of funds....from BRAZIL!  These people are only putting down 3%...so like $5000 and the bank has to verify that they have enough funds in their various accounts, one of which is in Brazil.  So they have to get a letter from the bank in Brazil and then have it translated because it will be in Portuguese.  It won't stop the closing, but may delay it a bit.

I suppose the delay is good because we're still struggling with finding a place to live.  We looked at one apartment complex this weekend and while their terms are really good (3 month minimum lease, no down payment, month-to-month leases after the initial lease, etc); the apartments themselves are really depressing and crummy.  So we're still looking....

So Goals for Week 13 (lucky 13):
- Post pictures of quilt class blocks and Starry Night sewing. --
- Wash fabric for baby quilt --
- Setup fixed sewing machine and quilt commission quilt --
- Complete all 4 Flying Geese blocks for quilt class --

Hopefully I'll get most of these things done. ;-)

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 13

This past week was somewhat productive.  Not a lot of fabric used, but some.  Mainly it was  for the quilting class (0.65 yards) and for the scrappy quilt (0.42 yards).

My quilting machine did get fixed this week, but not until Saturday morning.  Thankfully, it was just thread caught in the bobbin that had caused the timing to get off.  That will teach me to use cheap Sulky thread instead of good quality thread.  I was trying to get the quilt quilted, so I wasn't picky with my thread and didn't want to wait for Superior to ship.  Serves me right...If I had just ordered the good thread and waited, I probably would have gotten the quilt done this past week anyway and wouldn't have broken the machine.  oh well...live and learn.

I also ended up buying fabric last week.  My cousin is having a baby this summer, so I picked out some nice, bright-colored fabric for the baby quilt.  Damages....5.25 yards.  There's 2 yards for background material and 13 fat quarters.  I only need about half of each fat quarter, but I wanted to get a good variety of colors..so I'll have some left over for another project.

So here's the numbers for this week:
Added This Week:       5.25 yards
Added Year to Date:    37.64 yards
Used This Week:         1.11 yards
Used Year to Date:      16.17 yards
Net Year to Date:        21.47 yards

Still haven't used as much as I have bought.  I find that I always buy about 1/4 yard extra for fabrics and then I count only what I actually use.  So even when I buy fabric for a quilt and make the quilt, I still have added to the "stash".  I have to really get moving on the scrap quilt to use up some of the excess! :-)

Quilt Class - Week 3

This past week was the 3rd week of class.  This week the main technique was strip piecing to create nine-patch blocks.  I've never cared for strip piecing just because its so hard to get the entire length of the seam exactly straight.  I always end up with little "wavies" in the seam...no matter how careful I am.

I think the reason I've had problems in the past was that my strip piecing used really long strip sets (full width of fabric).  In class, we cut the strip in half, so it was only 22" long.  This made it a bit easier and my seams didn't seam to waver as much.

Along with 4 nine-patch blocks, we had to make 4 friendship star blocks.  I was able to complete all the blocks between time in class and a few hours at home on Sunday evening.  I don't have pictures yet, but I plan to post some pictures later this evening.

As with the past few classes, I haven't really learned anything new, but its nice to get out of the house for a few hours and spend some time with other ladies who quilt.  I'm enjoying the class and I think I may take another class there after we're done with this one....one a little bit more advanced. ;-)

Updated with picture

Goals - Week 12

Last week's goals:

Goals for Week 11:
- Test quilting panto on "Tumbler" quilt -- Completed
- Make 4 pinwheel blocks for quilt class -- Completed
- Sew "Starry Night" needlepoint and photograph -- I did do some sewing, but no photos.
- Complete quilt top for commission quilt -- Completed piecing this, but not quilted yet.
- Purchase backing material for commission quilt --Completed

This past week was very productive.  In less than a week, I got a complete quilt top made and ready for quilting.  Unfortunately, I ended up breaking part of my MegaQuilter sewing machine, so its in the repair shop and I won't be able to do the quilting on the commission quilt until I have the sewing machine back.


We also passed our house inspection this week, including the radon tests.  So now we just have to make sure the mortgage for the other people goes through.  We've started packing up a few things at this point, but part of us doesn't want to get too far down the packing road and then have something fall through.


We also checked out a rental property.  We've been having trouble finding a house rental because everyone wants at least a year lease, but we only need 6 months.  We don't really want an apartment because it will mean storage for everything.  However, an apartment may be the answer.  The house we looked at belongs to our builder's dad.  The layout is kind of wonky, but the biggest worry is that there is no central air and the place smells kind of musty/moldy.  Since I have pretty bad allergies, we really don't know whether the place will bother me or not.  If it does...it will be a VERY long 6 months.


Goals for week 12:
- Sew "Starry Night" needlepoint and photograph --
- Wash fabric for cousin's baby quilt --
- Clean up and pack extra fabric/quilting patterns.

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 12

This week was a fairly productive week.  I finished up a quilt top for a co-worker, but then I ended up buying backing material (1.75 yards).  I get to count it as used though because its already washed, pressed and loaded onto my quilting frame.

 

Now...the quilt was going to be quilted this weekend, however I had a little "incident" with the MegaQuilter.  So Friday I tested out a new pantograph on a practice quilt sandwich and everything was fine.  I loaded the backing for the commission quilt and started stitching a straight guide line across the top of the backing and batting.  About 15" in, I heard a pop and saw my needle was broken.  I thought it was just a bad needle.  So I put a new one in, went to pull up the bobbin thread, and the bobbin snapped the tip off the needle.  When I opened it up and looked at the bobbin area, it was clear something was wrong.

I took the MegaQuilter into the local sewing repair shop, and they said that somehow either thread or a portion of the first broken needle got jammed between two parts of the bobbin race and threw the timing off horribly.  Thankfully it can be fixed, but it could take 2 weeks to get the MegaQuilter back.  So much for getting the quilt done this week. ;-(

Good news is that it can be fixed though.

So between the backing and prepping the binding for the commission quilt I ended up using some yardage this week.  Here's the damage:

Added This Week:       1.75 yards
Added Year to Date:    32.39 yards
Used This Week:         2.22 yards
Used Year to Date:      15.05 yards
Net Year to Date:        17.33 yards

Flimsy!

Yay!  Finished up piecing the top for the commission quilt for my co-worker's daughter.

Goals - Week 11

I didn't get a lot of my goals done from last week, but that's mainly because the goals had to change partway through the week.

Goals for Week 10:
- Finish quilting "Tumbler" quilt -- Didn't touch it last week
- Make 16 log cabin blocks for quilt class -- Completed!
- Sew "Starry Night" needlepoint and photograph -- Only a small amount of sewing done.
- Wash and prep backing for "Shine on Bayou Cane" -- Didn't touch it last week.

The main reason for the goals changing is that we accepted an offer on the house!!

Since we now have less than two months to find a new place to live, pack up and move, and actually sell the house, my goals have had to change. 

We're not sure if I'll be able to setup my mid-arm machine at the rental, so I'm racing to try to get the commission quilt done in the next week so that I can get it on the mid-arm and quilted.  I made progress on making the quilt top (go here for info) and its at least 50% done at this point.  Due to the fact that I'm now rushing to get this top done, I had to cut back on pretty much everything else.  I've decided that I'm just going to pack up "Shine on Bayou Cane" until after we move into the new house.  I'm just not going to be able to get to quilting that thing anytime soon, so it will have to wait.  The same thing goes for the "Tumbler" quilt.  Even though its on the mid-arm right now, I'm only going to quilt two more rows to test out my self-made pantograph and then its being taken off for the commission quilt to go onto it.  The "Tumbler" quilt will just have to wait until we move.


Goals for Week 11:
- Test quilting panto on "Tumbler" quilt --

- Make 4 pinwheel blocks for quilt class -- Completed!

- Sew "Starry Night" needlepoint and photograph --
- Complete quilt top for commission quilt --
- Purchase backing material for commission quilt --

I'm sure I'll make progress this week...mainly because I have to. ;-)

Quilting Class - Week 2

Yesterday I had my 2nd class of the beginner's quilting class that I'm taking at a local quilt shop.  (If you want info on class 1, its here.)

This week, we moved on to making half square triangles (HST) and making a pinwheel block.  I've obviously made a lot of HST in my quilting time, so that wasn't anything new.  However, the instructor did show me how to do the "pinwheel" thing with the seams on the back of the block.  I've read how to do it a few times, but haven't figured out how to do it.  Its amazing how easy something seems when someone actually shows you how to do it.

So here's the blocks we made this week.  I got two of the blocks made in class, and then the remaining two I got finished up as soon as I got home.

Here's the little "pinwheel" of the seams on the back of the block.

Unlike last week where we only got 2 "logs" onto the 16 log cabin blocks in class and then had to make all 16 full blocks during the week, this week I only need to make the 4 pinwheel blocks.  So I'm done!  ;-)

They all measure up to 8.5" square, so they are spot on what they need to be.  Its also nice knowing that I won't spend most of the week making blocks for this quilt.

Along with the pinwheel blocks above, below are the 16 log cabin blocks I made last week.

I still enjoy the class even though I definitely know a lot of the techniques already.  The other students are already coming to me for questions when the instructor is tied up with someone else.  So part of my class time is helping the other students, which I enjoy doing.  I definitely have a good time at class, so that's what truly matters. :-)

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 11

This week was a very productive week on the quilting front.  I did have to add some fabric to the stash this week, but its for a commission quilt and will be used up fairly quickly (at least most of it).

I finished the log cabin blocks for my quilt class.  Here they are laid out the pattern that they will be used.

I also used some fabric for the 2nd week of the quilt class to complete 4 pinwheel blocks.  The instructor was also able to show me how to do the "twirl" thing with the seams on the back of the pinwheel blocks.  I've wanted to do it, but never could quite figure it out.

I was also able to cut ALL the fabric for a commission quilt on Friday evening and got a whole bunch of square-in-square blocks done along with prepping the applique pieces for the child's name.  The "requirements" of the quilt were that it was super soft & cuddly, used Dora and Diego in it somewhere, and that the child's name was on the quilt somehow.  The left the design and fabric choices completely up to me.  I'm not going to show the entire plan just yet, but I'll hopefully get the entire top done this week so there will probably be pictures next week.

So for me...I was actually able to use a lot of fabric this week, which is unusual.  Here's the numbers:
Added This Week:       5.75 yards
Added Year to Date:    30.64 yards
Used This Week:         4.40 yards
Used Year to Date:      12.83 yards
Net Year to Date:        17.81 yards


I think I need to start making some more blocks for my scrappy quilt to use up some stash. ;-)

Quilting Class - Week 1

On Sunday, I went to the first of six sessions for a beginner's quilting class at a local quilt shop.  Throughout the course of the class, we'll be making blocks to complete the quilt below.

The basic techniques are taught in-class and then you finish the blocks up on your own at home.  This first week, most of the time was spent going through how to straighten your fabric, press it, and cut the strips.  The last hour of the class was spent actually sewing the center pieces of the log cabin blocks to the first strip to form the "logs" of the block (the two cream colored pieces next to the red square in the above picture).

By far, I was the most experienced quilter there.  There was another woman who is probably in her 60s that has made some quilts, but nothing very recent.  Most of the other women there (6 of us total) had either done no quilting or had just tried it once or twice without much success.  Despite not really "learning" anything at the first class (it was all stuff I knew how to do), I had a good time.  The instructor said that while there are 16 log cabin blocks, people just really have to make 4 of them in order to do the appliqued heart during week 4 or 5.

When I got home from class, I cut the remaining strips necessary to sew all of the log cabin blocks.  The pieces are all set to go, I just have to start sewing them onto the blocks.  It will be a bit tedious since you have to add one strip, then press, then add the next strip, and press, and so forth.  There's a total of 12 "logs" that have to be added around the center square, so its 12 times of sewing and pressing on each block.  Plus, to make sure it goes together correctly, you have to make sure everything is the proper size after each log is added.

These are the fabrics that I'm using for the quilt.  The red is the accent fabric to match the red in the pattern picture above.  Then I have 3 shades of blue that will replace the greens in the picture.  Then I have three different creams/tans to use as my "lights".

 

I hope that I'll be able to get to putting the log cabin blocks together this week so that I can bring them to class completely finished.  Plus, I'll then be able to share more pictures along with counting the fabric as stash used. ;-)

Goals - Week 10

I didn't get nearly as much done last week as I thought I would.  It was a hectic week with showings at the house and trying to determine if we were going to get an offer and whether we should stay with our current agent or not.  Here's the progress from last week:

Goals for Week 9:
- Finish quilting "Tumbler" quilt --  This is about 1/2 quilted at this point.  I've been playing around with my own pantograph design, so its taking a little longer to get it quilted.  Plus, the woman who pieced this top did a pretty poor job and there are ripples everywhere and the top is SO not flat.
- Sew "Starry Night" needlepoint -- I was able to sew a bit on this.  Its kind of my "go-to" project when I don't have a ton of time to do something.  I can pick it up for 15 minutes or 1/2 hour and make some steady progress and it takes a whole of 2 minutes to put away.
- Wash and prep backing for "Shine on Bayou Cane" -- didn't do this at all, but I have the backing! ;-)
- Finish quilting "Purple Squared" --  didn't touch this one at all either

So what do I plan on doing this week???

Goals for Week 10:
- Finish quilting "Tumbler" quilt --
- Make 16 log cabin blocks for quilt class --
- Sew "Starry Night" needlepoint and photograph --
- Wash and prep backing for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --

I'm leaving "Purple Squared" off the list for now since I can quilt that on my regular sewing machine...which I will always have available.

House -- So on the house front, we did get an offer from a couple.  Their initial offer was a complete low-ball offer of 20% less than our asking price.  Considering the asking price is under $250k, that's a lot to take off the price of the house.  We countered with dropping the price by $1,000.  We've been going back and forth the past two days and we almost have them up to the price we want.  Right now there's a $2000 difference between the prices.  We really want to get them up to $240k, especially considering we put $2000 of custom wood blinds in the house that are staying with the house.

If we do accept the offer, we're going to end up having to rent somewhere, which is why I am pushing to get things onto the quilting frame and quilted.  We're not sure where we will rent yet, but it may not have room for the frame to be setup.  If not, then I won't be able to quilt anything (easily) until we move into the new house, which will be in the October/November time-frame.  So I'm really pushing to try and get some things done so that I can keep the frame up as long as possible.

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 10

My post is a little bit late, but better late than never, right? ;-)

I used a little bit of fabric this week when I went to my quilt class Sunday afternoon.  Its not much, but its a little bit.  All said and done, in class, I used 0.2 yards of fabric.  I will be using more this week as I have to complete 16 log cabin blocks by next Sunday's class.

Added This Week:       0 yards
Added Year to Date:    24.9 yards
Used This Week:         0.2 yards
Used Year to Date:      8.43 yards
Net Year to Date:        16.47 yards

I plan on posting some pictures later this week, so for now..this is a picture-free post.

How did everyone else do?

Goals - Week 9

Goals from Week 8:
- Sew 6 baby bibs --  Done!
- Sew 4 hours needlepoint "Starry Night" --  Done! Will post a picture soon.
- Load eBay "Tumbler" quilt onto frame --  Done.  I even started quilting it, but only have one row done.
- Pick out panto for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --  :-(  Didn't even look this week.


I think the biggest goal I have right now is actually to sell our house.  We've been trying to sell for 2 years now and while at the beginning we were over-priced (with a bad real estate agent to boot), we have a very competitive price at this point but people are just afraid to do anything.  We had two showings on Sunday.  One was a couple who are relocating to this area, but need to sell their house before they would even entertain buying one here.  The second showing was very promising.  The wife had been to the house earlier in the week and loved it, so we had a 2nd showing for them with the husband being present.

The verdict at this point is that they may put in an offer tomorrow.  What it is...we don't know...will they actually do it....another question mark.  We've been here before where we've been told an offer is imminent, but nothing came in.  We're trying not to get our hopes up, but we really want this to work so we can start building.

So goals for this upcoming week:

Goals for Week 9:
- Finish quilting "Tumbler" quilt --
- Sew "Starry Night" needlepoint --
- Wash and prep backing for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --
- Finish quilting "Purple Squared" --

Here's a snapshot of the partial quilting on "Purple Squared".  The white on the quilt is Miracle Chalk that I haven't removed yet.  The beauty of Miracle Chalk is that you don't have to wash it out.  Just a steam iron and the chalk disappears.  Love the stuff! ;-)

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 9

I fell off the bandwagon a little bit this week.  I had to buy fabric for a quilt top.  Earlier this week I signed up for my first ever quilting class at a local quilt shop.  I've been quilting for 4 years, but have never taken a class (just self-taught).  I figured it would be good to take a class at some point and this one seemed to fit in my schedule really well.  Here's the fabrics that I bought:

You'll have to wait to see what the top looks like though. ;-)  It does have some things that I haven't tried yet (like curved piecing), so I'm hoping that I'll learn some things from this class.

I did end up  using some stash this week though making some baby bibs.  I used about 2/3rds of a yard to make 6 bibs.  My MIL is taking them to a local co-op that sells people's hand-made items and I'm going to see if any of them sell.  My co-worker who has a 2.5 year old said that they were better than the "cheap" things carried in stores and that the ones in the stores cost $6.  Each bib cost me about $2, so the material cost is pretty cheap.  I'm hoping these will sell and help fund future fabric purchases. ;-)

So overall, I'm still in the red.  Hopefully my numbers will start to improve at some point! ;-)


Added This Week:       10.4 yards
Added Year to Date:    24.9 yards
Used This Week:         0.67 yards
Used Year to Date:      8.23 yards
Net Year to Date:        16.65 yards

Quilting Class

I've finally done it....I've signed up for a quilting class.  Despite quilting for 4 years now, I've never actually taken a class on quilting.  A LQS (local quilt shop) is having a Beginning Quilt Making class starting March 6th and running on Sundays for 2 hours for a total of 6 weeks.  A few things drew me to the class:

1.  The quilt shop is a total of 5-10 minutes from our house...very convenient and they just expanded. ;-)

2.  I thought I might meet some new quilters in the area who are also relatively new to quilting.

3.  There are some techniques that they'll be doing that I haven't done yet.  By the look of the quilt they plan to make as a sampler, there's some log cabin blocks, applique, and I think some piecing of fabric with curves, which I haven't tried to do yet.  They'll also show how to put a hanging sleeve on the quilt, which I haven't done.

4.  Aside from techniques I haven't done yet, they're going to go through some of the basics of cutting, pressing, getting that perfect 1/4" seam, etc.  While I think I'm pretty good at that stuff, I think it would be useful to actually have someone show me how to do it and see if I'm doing something incorrectly.

Now that I've signed up for the course, I'm both excited and a little nervous.  I'm a bit of a loner and don't gravitate toward "group" settings.  I'm sure the people there will be very nice and friendly (almost all quilters are), but there's a little bit of a worry that I won't "connect" with anyone there.  I'm probably over-thinking this, but I really hope that I'll enjoy the class and meet some people.

House Choices

If you've read my blog over the past few months, you'll know that last summer Rich and I bought a piece of land about 10 miles from our current house location.  We spent most of the summer/fall clearing trees and prepping the land for building a house.  We're still trying to sell our current house, but we're slowing making some of the choices of what to put inside our home.

The biggest items we've looked at so far are the kitchen cabinets and the fireplace.  We've picked out the style of the cabinets, but we just need to narrow down on the color of the wood.  The front of the cabinets will be a cherry wood because we love the grain of the wood.  We're debating between two medium brown colors where one is more of a brown and the other has more yellow tones in it.  Either way...they will look nice.

The other item we've looked at is the fireplace.  Below is the picture from the manufacturer's website.  The fireplace can be used with either the doors closed (as shown in the picture) or you can open the doors and there's a decorative wire grill that fits into the opening.  The fireplace is incredible to see in person.  The kind of "cool" thing about the fireplace is that with the doors closed it is one of the most efficient fireplaces available.  It burns so hotly that it burns not only the wood, but also all the gases and ash that gets near the top of the fireplace.  That's why in the picture you see the orange flames much higher in the fireplace than normal fireplaces.

We saw the fireplace in action at the local dealer and its wonderful.  Very warm and easy to use and the flames are absolutely spectacular.

Now we just have to get the current house to sell so that we can move forward with building the new house.

Goals - Week 8

Last week I didn't post any goals, nor did I update goals from the previous week...mainly because I was sick as a dog last week.  Thankfully I'm doing better now.

Rich came home from work last week and had talked with one of his co-workers who's wife started her own business.  They suggested that if I wanted to try to start a business to make baby things that are easy and quick to make and that people always buy.  The easiest things are burp cloths and bibs.  My mother-in-law makes kids things and sells them at a local co-op, so I'm now making some bibs and I'm going to see if they sell.  I figure if I can make something like that to get a business started, then I can graduate to other things on top of the easy bibs.

Goals from Week 6/7:
- Purchase backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --  Completed
- Sew 4 hours needlepoint "Starry Night" -- Definitely completed
- Load eBay "Tumbler" quilt onto frame -- Didn't touch
- Pick out panto for "Shine on Bayou Cane" -- Didn't touch

Goals for Week 8:
- Sew 6 baby bibs --
- Sew 4 hours needlepoint "Starry Night" --
- Load eBay "Tumbler" quilt onto frame --
- Pick out panto for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 8

I didn't do a whole lot of sewing this week because I was very sick.  I was home from work for 4 days this week with a really nasty cold.

However, I started feeling better on Friday and by Saturday I was able to get some sewing done.  Mostly I did some quilting on a quilt, but I did make a 4.5" square cube out of some flannel scraps.  I wanted to see how it would look and I'm considering making a bunch of different sized cubes for kids to play with.  I also managed to cut out fabric for 4 baby bibs.  I don't have any pictures right now, but I may have some later today.

I also ended up buying some fabric this week.  I needed backing material for Shine on Bayou Cane, so I needed to buy 2.5 yards of material.

Here's the numbers:

Added This Week:       2.5 yards
Added Year to Date:    14.5 yards
Used This Week:         0.75 yards
Used Year to Date:      7.90 yards
Net Year to Date:        6.60 yards

How did everyone else do?

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 7

This was a quiet week on the quilting front.  I've been fighting a cold the past few days which makes me not want to do anything.  I have spent some time working on my needlepoint since that's pretty easy and low-effort.  Here's a picture from this afternoon:

Stash report:
Added This Week:       0 yards
Added Year to Date:    12 yards
Used This Week:         0 yards
Used Year to Date:      7.15 yards
Net Year to Date:        4.85 yards

Update....

We were able to have the garage door people come out to the house on Wednesday to take a look at the garage.  Rich said it took the guy a whole of 10 minutes to fix the garage door and it works like a charm now.  The only reason the guy thought that the door would have come down would be because the little "eyes" were set really low to the ground.  So if you're shorter than a cat, don't walk under our door closing or it won't see you. ;-)

The good news is that its fixed and it didn't take much to get it fixed, just a lot of hassle on Rich's part with having to call them and setup the appointment.

We plan on having Rich's car fixed sometime in the next few weeks.  The only reason we don't know exactly when is because the turbo engine on the car has been acting up.  Instead of smooth acceleration, it kind of jumps and as Rich puts it "the engine can't get out of its own way".  The first time we took it to the garage, they couldn't duplicate the problem so they sent us home.  It started doing it more and more often, so we took the car back.

The good news is...the could duplicate the problem.  The bad news is that they have no idea what's causing it.  They've called corporate Subaru to see if they know what it could be or how to diagnose it.  Thankfully, the car is still under warranty.  Plus, because we paid extra for the service warranty, they give us a loaner car to use throughout the time they have the car.  A few weeks ago we were thinking that it was a waste of money for the service package, but now we're definitely glad we bought it.  Ultimately, the car is under warranty so they need to fix it...or at least do something about it.  Its frustrating right now because we're making payments on a car that we aren't able to drive because its broken.  Also, at some point, probably about a 1-1.5 weeks from now, if the car isn't fixed we'll have to have a "no-so-nice" conversation with them regarding the car.  If they can't fix it in under 2 weeks, then there's something really serious wrong with the car and its not worth the $25k we paid for it.

On the quilty front, tonight I find out if the sewing center has fixed my sewing machine.  Its been skipping stitches with the BSR foot, but they haven't been able to duplicate it.  They claim that they haven't had anyone with these problems on the 440QE, just on the 830.  When I talked to corporate Bernina though, they say the problem is common to the BSR foot and not just to the 830 model.  So I'm going to have to try to convince the sewing center to put the stronger spring on my machine anyway and check one of the clearances that the corporate tech told me about.

Other news.....

I've been feeling like I have a cold for about the past 3 or 4 months.  While at first I thought it was just a cold, at this point, I'm sick and tired of it hanging around.  I've also had a lot of problems with fatigue over the past few months.  I'm typically the type of person that when I get home from work, I don't think twice about going around doing things or doing sewing in the evenings.  The past few months, I've been lucky if I get dinner on the table before I fall asleep at night.  I've been completely exhausted.

So I went to the doctor's yesterday.  He thinks I may have a little bit of strep throat and a minor sinus infection.  He also thinks that I may have developed indoor allergies (dust, etc) and that may be causing me to not feel well.  However, he didn't like the fact that I was so fatigued.  Even with the minor infections and possible allergies, I shouldn't be this tired all the time.  So this morning I had to go and have a bunch of blood drawn (2 big tubes, 2 medium tubes and 2 small tubes -- a lot for someone who doesn't like needles).  He's testing for thyroid problems, diabetes, kidney problems, lupus, celiak's and mono.  Its basically to hopefully rule out a bunch of things by some relatively simple blood tests.

A large part of me is hoping everything comes back negative, but a small part says that if those all come back negative...what's making me so tired.  If its not something physically wrong (like mono or thyroid), then it could very well be that I'm working too hard (at least that's what the doctor said).  He sees lots of people from my place of work and he says that we all have similar problems: over-stressed and over-worked....and bad insurance.  I just hope we figure out what it is so that I can move on and not be so exhausted all the time.

It will probably be a week before I find out, but in the meantime I'm back on allergy meds and I'm on antibiotics to take care of the sinus infection and possible strep.

Last Week....

Last week was a pretty eventful week for us in Upstate NY.  Right at the beginning of the week, we got smacked with two storms right on top of each other.  The first storm high on Tuesday morning and dumped about 6" of new snow during the day.  This wasn't a huge amount of snow, but for some reason the towns decided that it wasn't worth plowing, so the roads were an absolute disaster.

The second storm started early Wednesday morning (about 3am) and proceeded to dump another 5" of snow.  It was supposed to be more, but the change-over to wintry mix and sleet happened earlier than the forecasters thought.  So we ended up with less snow, but with a coating of junk on top of the snow.  By Thursday, everything was cleaned up.

Unfortunately, Thursday was eventful for us anyway.  With the additional snow (and lots of snow in the mountains), Rich decided to take Thursday off from work and go snowboarding.  I was getting ready to come into work when he went to leave the house.  About 2 minutes after he left the house, I heard a big bang in the garage.  I couldn't imagine what had happened!

I pulled on a bathrobe and walked into the garage to find him getting back out of the car with this scared look on his face.  Somehow, as he was pulling out of the garage, the automatic door decided to close...ON HIS CAR which is only 15 months old!

Rich had opened the door, walked to the end of the driveway to see if it needed to be shoveled, walked back in and started the car.  As he pulled out, for some reason, the door decided to close and it didn't respond to the pressure of something underneath it.  So the garage door dented the roof of the car, scraped it up a bunch and broke off the antennae.  The door also came off the track at the bottom panel and the bottom panel was bent inward by about 3" at the bottom.

It was quite a shock and has been just a pain in the butt since then.  We got a quote from the car dealer that it will be about $1000 to fix the car (expensive, but not awful).  We're still waiting for the garage door people to come out to tell us how much that will cost.

The biggest problem at this point is the door.  With good intentions, my father-in-law came up on Thursday to see if he could bend the door back in and fix it.  Unfortunately, when he bent it back in, he had to take off one of the pulleys that keeps the door on track and in doing so, the chain that helps support the weight and keep the door balanced came off.  With the chain off, the door is completely unbalanced and only Rich can open and close the door.  I don't have the strength to open/close it with it being unbalanced and unsupported on one end.  Its just a mess at this point.


Part of the reason of having a house is having a garage where you don't have to park your car outside and scrape it every morning.  Plus, if we get the snow they're expecting us to get over the next day or so, I'll have to shovel out my car.  Argh!


Anyway - enough of my ranting.  Hopefully the forecasters will be wrong and we won't get much snow. ;-)

Goals - Week 6

Sadly, last week as a pretty poor week in terms of completing goals.  About the only things I did was sewed on Starry Night and had my mother-in-law take my sewing machine to be serviced.

Goals from Week 5:
- Sew 4 16-patch blocks --  Didn't touch
- Purchase backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --  Didn't touch
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" --  Completed
- Load eBay "Tumbler" quilt onto frame and play -- Didn't touch
- Take Bernice (the Bernina sewing machine) to the sewing center to be cleaned/fixed --   Completed


It just seemed a bit of a hectic week last week and I was exhausted all week...which I'll post more about later.


Goals for Week 6:
- Purchase backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --
- Sew 4 hours needlepoint "Starry Night" --
- Load eBay "Tumbler" quilt onto frame --
- Pick out panto for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --


Hopefully I'll get a few things done this week.  Soon, I plan on trying to add an exercise goal to the list.  I really do need to exercise more, but I've had a really hard time getting myself motivated to exercise.  After putting in 9-10 hour days at work, I'm left exhausted and the last thing I want to do is exercise, but I should do it.  I'm thinking if I can't make myself go to the gym, maybe I can at least get myself to do something (like jump rope) at home for 15 minutes.  At least its better than nothing...right?

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 6

We're already done with January and into February now.  This past week hasn't been nearly as productive as I had wanted, but with copious amounts of snow and work (and being sick) I didn't get a lot of quilting in.  However, I did prepare a backing for the eBay quilt, so that counts as stash. ;-)

Here's pictures of the quilt again:

 

Stash report:
Added This Week:       0 yards
Added Year to Date:    12 yards
Used This Week:         2.5 yards
Used Year to Date:      7.15 yards
Net Year to Date:        4.85 yards

I've been REALLY good so far this year.  Especially this weekend.  The local quilt shop is having a big super bowl sale and even though I stopped at the store to drop my machine off for servicing, I didn't buy anything...mainly because I knew I'd have to report it here. ;-)

How Long Do you Wait...?

So how long do you wait when you're at work and the power is down?

I only have "power" right now because I'm working off my laptop battery.  The internet connection is still live here, but the battery will only last so long.

We've been without power for about 25 minutes now, so its starting to get a little cool in here.  With it only being about 15F out, it will get cold in here pretty quickly!

I'm real tempted to pull the "college" rule...10 minutes and the professor hasn't shown up...so you leave.

Goals - Week 5

I did alright with last weeks goals, but not quite as good as I had hoped for.  We had a showing of the house mid-week, so that ate into a little time since one entire evening was spent cleaning the house.

Week 4 Goals:
- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) -- Completed
- Prepare backing material for eBay "Tumbler" quilt and load on quilt frame -- Partially Completed - not on frame yet
- Prepare backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" -- Didn't even touch
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- Definitely did 4 hours of needlepoint.  I should have the next page done soon.


So for this coming week, I have some slightly different goals....

Week 5 Goals:
- Sew 4 16-patch blocks --
- Purchase backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" --
- Load eBay "Tumbler" quilt onto frame and play --
- Take Bernice (the Bernina sewing machine) to the sewing center to be cleaned/fixed --

I also finished a Jodi Picoult book this past week.  I posted about it here.  It was a good book, but came a little close to home.

I've started reading another Lynn Austin book called "Song of Redemption".  This one is a little more religious than I typically read, but it will probably be good.  If I keep at the pace I have been going, this book will be done in a week, too.

We're expecting to get more snow this week.  In the past few weeks, we've gotten about one storm a week, although we were spared last week.  The storms tend to hit on Wednesday and just cause the one day to be bad.  However, this next one is a monster storm.  We're supposed to start getting snow Tuesday morning and its not going to stop until Wednesday evening.  Tuesday, they're expecting us to get about 3-8" during the day, which will be interesting since my car hates snow.  I may have to leave work early Tuesday.  Then Wednesday, we're supposed to get up to 16" of snow.  If the forecast holds true, I will definitely have to work from home on Wednesday.

Hope everyone is having a good week so far.

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 5

I'm a little late in publishing my stash report...but better late than never.

I don't have any pictures right now since this is a really quick post.  I was able to finish up another set of blocks for my scrappy quilt and I also started quilting Purple Squared.  Both of these used up some more stash.  I used just over 0.4 yards for the scrappy quilt (I actually made 6 blocks this week) and I used about a yard for the back of Purple Squared (picture below is from when I finished the top last year).

Here's the numbers for this week:

Added This Week:       0 yards
Added Year to Date:    12 yards
Used This Week:         1.42 yards
Used Year to Date:      4.65 yards
Net Year to Date:        7.35 yards

Picture Perfect

It seems that I'm into a book reading trend right now.  I've finished 3 books in 3 weeks now....mainly because I'm reading during my lunchtime at work.  It helps me to get my mind off work for 45 minutes and to not be looking at the computer screen.

The most recent book I finished was called "Picture Perfect" by Jodi Picoult.  This was one of Jodi's earlier books in her career.  It didn't have quite the punch and drama twists that her newer books have, but it was still very good.  For some reason, which I'm not really sure why, this book seemed to hit closer to home than her books usually do.  If you've read any of Jodi's books, they always tug at the heart strings and usually make you think very differently about the way the world can work.

This particular book is about a relationship that seems like its perfect in every way to the public.  Its a story of a unknown anthropologist falling in love with a big movie star and becoming married.  Their relationship starts out really well, but then every once in a while, the husband shows a streak of anger and violence.  It starts with just a few shoves when he got angry, then the shoves turned to smacks and kicking.  The wife would make excuses and the husband would always apologize once he realized what he had done.

While I have never been in that type of situation (thank, God), I can imagine how a woman could easily get into that type of situation.  The wife loved her husband so much and knew that if she left him, she would cause him more pain and hurt, which she couldn't bring herself to do.  Only when another person got involved did she actually get the courage to leave. 

I'm not quite sure why this one seems to bother me a bit more than the others, but while it was a good read, it was also a little disturbing.  I guess its because I could potentially see myself in that type of situation and not having the courage to leave.  I know I never have to worry about being in that situation, which makes me grateful, but none the less, it was a slightly disturbing read.

Goals - Week 4

I didn't do nearly as well this past week as I had planned.  Mainly because life got busy and I ended up hurting my back last weekend.  Having a sore back doesn't help with your goals when your goals involve cutting large pieces of fabric.  Here's the goals from week 3:

Week 3 Goals:

- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) -- Completed
- Prepare backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" and load quilt on frame -- not even thought about
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 5+ hrs sewn.

I also ended up finishing the book I was reading by Lynn Austin.  In just over a week, I read the entire novel called "Hidden Places".  It was a quick read, but a good read.

Week 4 Goals:
- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) --
- Prepare backing material for eBay "Tumbler" quilt and load on quilt frame --
- Prepare backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" --
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 

I've also started another book.  Now I'm reading "Picture Perfect" by Jodi Piccoult.  I generally like her books, but this one is a little harder to read than normal.  I think its one of her early books, so maybe that's why.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 4

No pictures this week.  I was only able to squeeze in a little bit of sewing this week.  The evenings were pretty hectic and I was really only able to sew part of Saturday afternoon.  However, I did make 5 more blocks for my scrappy quilt.  I also cut some more small pieces of fabric to add to the variety of fabrics in the scrappy quilt.

So my numbers are still improving:

Added This Week:       0 yards
Added Year to Date:    12 yards
Used This Week:         0.35 yards
Used Year to Date:      3.23 yards
Net Year to Date:        8.77 yards

How did everyone else do?

Goals - Week 3

I did alright this past week on my goals.  I didn't get as many 16-patch blocks done as I had wanted to, but I was close.

Week 2 Goals:
- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) -- completed 3 16-patch blocks, and 2 more are almost done.
- Add border #3 to "Shine on Bayou Cane" -- Completed!
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 6+ hours completed. 


In fact, I was so good with "Starry Night" that I actually finished another page of the pattern.

The portion with the scattered stitches is page 16.  So I now have 15 full pages complete.  I think there's 2 more full pages on the row I'm working on along with a partial page on the far right.  The bottom row of pages are only about 60% full, so the bottom row should go faster.  At this rate though, I'm finishing 1 page per month, which means I still won't be done until October!

I also finished reading the 3rd book of the "Inheritance" series.  The book is called "Brisingr".  I'm always surprised at how well written these books are and the fact that the writer is only in his early 20s.  I think I read somewhere that he wrote the first book, "Eragon", when he was only 16 or 17.  It seems to be taking a long time for the 4th book to be finished up, but I'm sure it will be well worth it.

Week 3 Goals:

- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) --
- Prepare backing material for "Shine on Bayou Cane" and load quilt on frame --
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 3 hrs sewn as of 1/19

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 3

I made more good progress this week on Shine on Bayou Cane and the scrap quilt.  Both of these meant that I used more fabric this week - yay! ;-)

I actually finished the top for Shine on Bayou Cane.  Its not quilted yet, but the top itself is done. 

 

So I used some fabric for the last border on Shine on Bayou Cane and I also used some fabric this week making blocks for my scrappy quilt.  Here are the blocks so far:

Here's the numbers for this week:
Added This Week:       0 yards
Added Year to Date:    12 yards
Used This Week:         1.53 yards
Used Year to Date:      2.88 yards
Net Year to Date:        9.12 yards

So far so good...just need to keep using the fabric! :-)

EBay Quilt Top

I've always had trouble taking one of my own quilt tops and testing out new quilting techniques on it.  There's something about putting all the effort into a top and then potentially messing it up because of bad quilting.  However, there's only one way to get better at quilting...and that's to do it.  So instead of using one of my own quilt tops, I purchased a 53x54 quilt top off eBay.  With shipping, I paid less than $15 for the top shown below.

 

It looks like a cute and fun quilt top.  I can add borders to it to make it a little bigger, but I could just leave it alone at 53x54.  I may add a 6" border to it (of possibly 2 border to add up to 6 or 8") to make it about 60x60.  I can use stash for both the border and the backing (yeah for stash busting) and since I didn't put a lot of time into making this myself, I'm hoping I'll have an easier time trying out something different for the quilt top.  Time will tell.... ;-)

Goals - Week 2

I think I did fairly well at completing my goals from last week.  Here's a recap and what I accomplished:

Week 1 Goals:
- Sew 56 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (avg. 8 per day) -- Completed sewing 96 squares together.
- Piece border #2 for "Shine on Bayou Cane" -- Completed and sewn onto the quilt.
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- Definitely completed 4 hours, probably a little more.

I also finished reading the 2nd book in the "Inheritance" series by Christopher Paolini.  The first book was "Eragon" (which was made into a horrible movie) and the second book was "Eldest".  They are thick books, but are fun and quick reads.  I definitely recommend reading the series.


So the goals for this coming week are pretty similar to last week.

Week 2 Goals:
- Sew 64 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (total of 4 16-patch blocks) --
- Add border #3 to "Shine on Bayou Cane" --
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 3.5 hrs as of 12-JAN

Hopefully I'll be able to complete these this week, but considering I won't be able to play hooky with Jury Duty, I may not get as many 2.5" squares sewn as I would like.  However, its still better than having to sit on a jury that was for an attempted murder case.

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 2

This week was a good week for stash busting.  I used a little over 1 yard of fabric for the borders on Judy's Shine on Bayou Cane pattern from her book Weekend Quilts.  I really liked the quilt when she did it as a Quilt-for-an-Hour project, so I decided to do that one first when I got her book.  I'm saving some pictures until I get the top completed.

I also used up some 2.5" squares this week (actually, a total of 80 of them) to start making 8" blocks for a scrappy quilt.  My goal had been to use 56 of them this week (so it would be 1/4 yard), but I was able to get a bit of sewing done on Wednesday when I was released from Jury Duty and again yesterday.  I hope I can keep it up and I'll blow through the 12 yards in no time. ;-)

 

Stash Report

Used this Week:           1.35 yards
Used Year to Date:       1.35 yards
Added this Week:        0.0 yards
Added Year to Date:   12.0 yards
Net Used for 2011:     -10.09 yards

Goals - Week 1

Since I fell off the wagon a bit last year in respect to a lot of things, I'm going to try to keep weekly goals on here...and see how well I do.  The goals will be simple and do-able things that I think I can actually accomplish in a week.  Sometimes breaking things down into smaller pieces makes it easier to accomplish the tasks.


Week 1 Goals:
- Sew 56 2.5" squares together for scrap quilt (avg. 8 per day) -- 16 completed on 1/5
- Piece border #2 for "Shine on Bayou Cane" -- ~50% complete on 1/5
- Sew 4 hours of needlepoint on "Starry Night" -- 2.5 hrs complete on 1/6

I think I can accomplish those goals.  If I do more than what's on the list, I'll update it next week with what was actually accomplished.

Stashbusting 2011 - Week 1

The past few years, Judy Laquidara has had a stash-busting effort going on that she posts on her blog, Patchwork Times.  Last year, I started out really well with reporting my efforts on using the fabric I have versus buying new fabric.  Then things got hectic and I fell off the wagon.   Not so much with buying fabric, but with reporting.

Overall, I did pretty well last year.  The only fabric I bought (with the exception of one fat quarter sampler -- yikes 6 yards worth at the end of the year)  was for specific quilts for new babies.  I used up some of the fabric I had bought the previous year, which definitely helped with my numbers and kept me in the positive (stash used) for the majority of the year.

I'm hoping that in 2011, I'll be a little better at this and posting in general.  The last 4 months of 2010 I just totally fell off the wagon when it came to blogging.  Maybe with the start of the new year, things will go a little better from a blogging perspective.

So while my report is a few hours early (Saturday evening vs Sunday morning) here's the totals for week 1.  This includes some fabric I received for Christmas, so I'm already starting in the hole a little.

The fabric I received were fat quarter samplers from Connecting Threads:

Flower Basket Sampler

Dark Solid Samplers

Stash Report

Used this Week:           0.0 yards
Used Year to Date:       0.0 yards
Added this Week:       12.0 yards
Added Year to Date:   12.0 yards
Net Used for 2011:     -12.0 yards

Since I got the Go! Cutter just before Christmas (present to myself courtesy of an award at work), I plan on cutting up some stash in the upcoming weeks to get it ready for using.  I'm hoping the Go! will really help with cutting the excess fabric into usable bits and it will be a lot faster than hand-cutting it! ;-)

Happy Quilting!
Sarah

Merry Christmas...to me

A few weeks ago, I received an award at work for a project that I completed earlier this year.  The project reduced our programming time on our components at our production facility by 50% and improved our drawing quality (I removed approximately 60% of the dimensions from a single type of drawing and we produced thousands of these drawings every year).  After I received the award, I was able to transfer the amount to Amazon gift cards, so I bought myself a Christmas present....an Accuquilt Go! Cutter.

I haven't had a chance to take it out of the box yet, but I can't wait to try it out.  Other quilters have said they love it and it speeds up their cutting time AND makes their quilts better since there is less variation in the piece parts of the quilt.  Along with the cutter shown above, I was able to purchase some extra dies.  I bought the 2.5" strip die, tumbler die, apple core die, and a die with multiple sized stars on it.  The cutter also came with some dies, 2.5" square, some half-square triangle dies and a 4.5" square die.

I'm pretty psyched about trying it out, although I probably won't be able to open it up until after Christmas.  I have to work through Wednesday morning this week and then I'll have to prepare for Christmas since we are hosting Rich's family at our house for Christmas day, then traveling to my parents to spend a few days with them for Christmas.

On other good notes, Rich and I went for a nice walk at our property on Saturday.  The river in the back of the property was mostly frozen over, but there were areas where the water was flowing freely.  Since the ground was pretty solid from the cold weather we've had, we even found our way through the "swampy" area to get back to the front of our property.  It was really pretty out there and it was so quiet and relaxing.  Hearing the water flow was amazing and that's all you could hear...no vehicles...no kids/people.  We also saw lots of animal tracks.  There were rabbits, chipmunks/mice, deer, a fox or something like that and turkey tracks.  We think we may have seen coyote tracks, too, but we're not sure.

On Sunday, we did some Christmas shopping in the morning and were back at the house by lunchtime.  At about 2:30, we got a call that someone wanted to see the house....at 3:30!  So it was a mad scramble to clean up the house in less than an hour.  We did as much as we could (put things away, cleaned up the kitchen, cleaned the bathrooms, swept the floor), but we didn't get the carpets vacuumed or cleaned the showers.  The real estate agent apologized for the short notice and we explained the few areas we didn't clean (there were a few dishes in the sink because the dishwasher had just been run a little while before that).  They didn't mind at all since we were so accommodating and letting them see the house on short notice.  Ultimately, they liked the house (as the agent thought they would) and they are comparing it to a similar type house in Clifton Park.  They are a little concerned about the taxes, but they are weighing it with the higher cost of a similar house in Clifton Park.  Hopefully it will turn out well for us. :-)

Time.....

This year has absolutely flown by!  How did it get to be the middle of December???

I'm sorry to say that I haven't been very good at posting on here.  I'm not sure if its a case where I've just been lazy or that I've felt like I have had nothing worthwhile to say.  Maybe its a little bit of both.

Rich and I have been fairly busy the past few weeks trying to get ready for the holidays.  Work always seems to get crazy this time of year because: 1) manufacturing wants to ship by the end of the year, 2) performance appraisals are due, 3) funding gets determined for next year and for programs that don't have funding next year, we have to finish everything this year.  On top of the work stuff, there's all the preparation for the Holidays.

Christmas shopping is not one of my fortes and, to be honest, I'm kind of sick of it.  I don't like all the commercialization of Christmas these days and just about everyone in my family can buy whatever they want or need, so it makes it difficult to find the good gift.

I think lately its just been a case where I feel truly overwhelmed by life.  While sometimes it doesn't seem like we have much going on, somehow I always feel harried and rushed.  I haven't had time to just relax and not worry about things.  Even our trip to the Bahamas was stress-leaden.

Our first flight out of Albany to Charlotte was delayed in Albany due to a fuel leak.  So the 50 minute layover we originally had dwindled down to less than 5 minutes.  We had to run through the Charlotte airport and got to the next gate just as they were loading our zone.  Then on that flight, I was lucky enough to be sitting next to a kid who sounded like he was trying to hack up a lung.  We finally got to the Bahamas and picked a "short" line at customs.  Well, it was definitely a poor choice.  Every single person in front of us was going to the Bahamas on a work visa and there were problems with all of them.  So it took us 1.5 hours to get through immigration.

Our actual stay at the Sandals resort was pretty good.  We expected the food to be a little better than what it was, but the view and beach were perfect.  Several nights we had trouble finding someplace to eat because only certain restaurants would be open and some you had to have reservations and they were booked solid.  We didn't even end up eating at the French-styled restaurant because Rich ended up getting sick.  We think he had some bad veal, but it kind of made the end of the trip not much fun.  Most of the last full day we were there was spent in our room and not down at the beach.  Then because he wasn't feeling well, the entire trip home was very stressful.

At this point, I've been stressed out for so long that my entire body hurts.  Yesterday, I got to the point where I could barely move my head because my neck was so tense.  I just can't wait for my vacation to start next week.  Maybe I'll actually be able to relax over the holidays, although it won't happen until at least after Christmas day, since we're hosting Rich's family at our house for Christmas.

Anyway - enough griping....  Eventually I might get some more pictures on here, but I think for the time being, this may be a venting tool again.  :-(

Long time.....

So much for posting on a regular basis... :-(  As typical, work and life got a little screwy so here it is the end of November and its the first time I'm posting in about a month!

Things have been VERY busy at work the past few weeks.  Additionally, Rich and I went on vacation last week, so we spent a lot of extra time at work to make sure we didn't get too far behind when coming back from vacation.

Just where did we go????  The BAHAMAS!  :-) 

We had a great time, despite getting sick the last day from the food.  The beach was absolutely fabulous and the drinks were plentiful.  You could pretty much get anything to drink (including alcohol based drinks) from 11am until 3am.  You could get yourself into a LOT of trouble.  The food wasn't great, despite the place being all-inclusive.  However, the convenience of having food and drink right there pretty much whenever you wanted it was good.  We spent pretty much every day from 9:30am until 5pm on the beach or in the ocean.  We made sure to use plenty of sunblock and sit under the umbrellas so we only got a little burned.  If I actually tanned instead of burned, I'd have a great tan...but I have fair skin that only wants to burn.

I'll have some pictures posted soon from the trip (mostly just pictures of the beach).  I also have some pictures of some quilty projects that I've been working on.

Books - The Hunger Games

Earlier this month, I finished a book called The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  Let me just say...this is a FANTASTIC book!

The story is based upon a futuristic world where there is a central Capital that acts as the governing body for 13 Districts.  At one point in time, the Districts rebelled against the Capital and fought amongst themselves for various resources.  As a means to end the fighting, the Capital took control and obliterated one of the districts...District 13.  This was to prove a point to the remaining districts that the Capital was powerful and if they didn't do what the Capital said they, too, would be destroyed.

In order to "remind" the districts of the pointless fighting the Capital devised The Hunger Games.  The whole point of the Hunger Games is for children from each district to be placed in an arena and fight to the death.  The last one standing wins the Games for that year.  Each year, the remaining 12 Districts would hold a reaping to select a single boy and a single girl from each district to participate in The Hunger Games.  The names are selected from a bin where everyone in a certain age range are required to put their names in at least once.  If your family was poor and didn't have enough to eat, you could put your name in more times in exchange for additional food/goods. 

In this particular story, the focus is on a young girl name Katniss.  Her father was killed in a mining accident has she has been illegally hunting with her friend, Gale, in order to provide food for Gale's family and for Katniss's mother and younger sister, Prim.  Katniss has done everything she possibly can to provide for her family and has tried to keep her younger sister's name out of the reaping selection.  In this fateful year, even though Katniss' name has been placed in the reaping multiple times, her younger sister, who's name is entered just once, was selected.  Katniss did what an older sister does, and willingly took Prim's place in the reaping.

So now, Katniss is off to the Capital to join the other Tributes to fight to the death in the arena.  She and her fellow Tribute from District 12, Peeta, don't know quite what to make of the Games.  They know they are going to their deaths and yet they are unwilling to just give up and let the other Tributes, or the Capital, win.

This is truly an excellent book and its EXTREMELY hard to put down once you start reading it.  I highly recommend picking it up from your local bookstore or library and setting aside a weekend to read it. ;-)

The Albatross Lives :-(

We were all geared up for getting the contracts signed for selling the house....then got a call from the person who was going to buy the house.  Not only did he find out Friday that his pension would be cut by 20%, but he also found out that his cancer was back.  :-(  We felt awful for the guy.

Obviously, they will not be buying the house, unless some other miracle comes along.  They were worried that they were "messing" things up for us by not buying the house.  We assured them that they were not messing anything up and all they should be concerned about is getting healthy.  Hopefully the cancer will be treatable and isn't an aggressive form of cancer.

So.....anyone interested in a house? ;-)

It's Happening.....!

After the abysmal attempts to sell our house with real estate agents, Rich and I put the house up for sale ourselves.  A few weeks ago we got a call that someone was interested in the house.  We did a showing for that person, and they came back with an offer.  We weren't happen with the offer, so we countered and they said they had to think about it.  On Wednesday, they called us back and gave us a better offer...

AND WE ACCEPTED!

So we are closing the deal on the house on October 21st.  A little too soon for us to move out you think?  :-)  The new owners are going to rent us the house until May of next year, which is when our new home is supposed to be done.

We won't have to move out of our current house at all before moving into the next house, which is WAY more convenient.  All in all, we're pretty darn lucky.  The people came up a bit in price, not quite as much as we would have liked, but with the ability to rent the house until our new house is built....it was too good to pass up.

Keep your fingers crossed that all the final paperwork goes through properly. :-)

Weekend & Tea

Last week was a very busy week for us.  On Monday and Tuesday nights, we met one of my co-workers up at our lot to give him some wood.  We thought he was just going to cut the wood that was already in the pile and take that away, but instead he wanted to help us drop a few trees and cut them up (in exchange for the wood).  So we were up there cutting trees until 7:30 at night. 

Then on Friday night, we met my manager up at the lot for more wood.  He heats his entire house with wood, so he's up for "free" wood whenever he can get it.  So we were up there again until 7:30 at night.  Then Saturday morning, Rich and his dad went to the lot to cut down some trees and my co-worker AND manager went there, too, to get wood.  They dropped a tree that we weren't sure how to drop, so at least that's down on the ground now. 

As for me....on Saturday, instead of working on the lot, I had to do laundry and a bunch of errands because I'm traveling this week.  I also met a great friend for tea on Saturday.  We had a great time.  We didn't spend as much time there as last time, but we were still there for 2 hours and had a bunch to talk about.

This week, I'm down near NYC for a training class for work.  I'm hoping it will be good, but its a little nerve-wracking.  Its not that the class will be hard....its just that I don't really like traveling.  I like being home....plain and simple.  I'm sure the week will go by quickly and then I'll be happy to be home again.

Another bit of good news.....we ended the contract with our real estate agent earlier this month and put the house up for sale by ourselves.  We got a cheap "burner" phone at Walmart so that we didn't have to put our personal phone number up on the sign.  We had 15 flyers taken in the past week or so, and this morning we actually got a call!  Someone wants to come see the house tomorrow.  Rich will show the house since I'm not home, but we're pretty excited.  These people are retired and they have family in our area.  Plus, they don't need to sell their house in order to buy our house....so no waiting! :-)

Anyway - I think I'm going to get ready for bed and read for a while.  There's not much else to do here.  Too bad I didn't think to bring some sewing with me to at least work on tonight.