Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Can you see the mistake?


Was sitting in my sewing room talking on the phone to my friend Jane. I had just finished sewing the last pair of my One Block Wonder together. I was feeling good and thinking I might sew a two pairs together. Than I noticed a mistake. Jane told me not to worry about, no one will see it. I'm thinking I'll see it. So I took some pictures to see if any one else can see the mistake. After I took the pictures and I'm looking at it, I see another mistake. I'm not doing any thing about it tonight.



Here is a full view of the One Block Wonder and how far it has progressed.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Quilts & Simpsons


I'm not sure what it means to have quilts and Simpsons in the same picture. Regardless of the meaning it is fun to see. Lisa looks like she is enjoying looking at the quilt. I had to Google her name. If you look real hard you can see the corner of a smile. I didn't allow my kids to watch this show when they were little. I know I'm a mean mother.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sunday Quilting Upate

It has been a busy week again! What else is new? I always have busy weeks. Wednesday I had the EQ6 Club meeting down at Cutting Edge. Which means I spent Monday & Tuesday evening after work doing my handouts. I did manage to sew some more rows of my One Block Wonder together. Saturday I had an Beginner's EQ6 class, at Mulqueen's which was 3 hours long. I had 7 students and they all did very well and asked some questions I hadn't thought off before. So once again I learned some new stuff.
Friday & Saturday was spend with out of town family.
I did finally get to do some sewing today. I didn't get a lot done. I was watching the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. Some times sewing comes to a complete stop when I watch movies like that.


Here is the picture of my progress. It took me awhile to figure out how to do the floating borders, but I finally got it. See the light green on the left top & bottom. I also took some pictures for my class I'll be teaching in February.

Time to go to bed. I had planned to go to bed earlier, but I didn't make it! That's a bad habit I need to break.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Finally Done!


The New Room is Finally Done! It's amazing how many little details there are to putting on the finishing touches.
Richard was able to put up his outside lights for the new room, a spot light to the back yard and a light by the back door. So he is happy. I had him hang my wind chimes which is my finishing touch. I have missed them. Of course there is no breeze tonight, so I can't hear them making happy noises. I have three chimes hanging, two big ones and a small one.


Richard didn't think the picture would turn out at night, but I'm happy with it.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Sunday Night Quilting Updates

Well it has been a very productive week! I finished my Mini Valentine of Falling Hearts, this will hang on my cubical wall at work. I finished my Winter Wonderland 9 Patch Pizzazz.

I laid out my One Block Wonder and even started sewing it into rows. Here it is with the border



fabric. The light green will be for the floating borders around the hexagons. Then the dark ruby for a narrow resting border. On the square window, I'll use the wide border.

The One Block Wonder will be curtains for the Master Bedroom. We had to add a window in the bedroom when we closed in the back patio. So one part is for the windows, I'm thinking of doing it like a Roman Shade.
You can see pictures of the room being added on in my Webshots link to the right. Go to the album Our House.

The other two panels are for the French doors we used to replace the sliding glass door that went to the patio. I will use the narrow border on this, the narrow ruby and a narrow light green for the floating border.

This is how far I made it with sewing the rows. Now they are on strips, I have six done with four more to go. I'll have to do some measuring of the center to make sure it will fit my window, I might take off the last strip on this lay out.


The Painting is Done!


Yes the painting is done! That is on the new addition outside. Later the rest of the house outside will be done. My husband’s idea not mine. I would say get it all done now but it’s his domain. It seems it took a long time to get it finished. A couple of test paints. One day of spray painting and another day of painting with a roller and brush on the details. Richard and Kinsen did a good job!!






I went outside today to take the pictures so the sun would be to my back. In the afternoon it is always in my eyes and it's had to take the pictures then.








It is a lovely morning outside, my weather widget states it is 54 degrees but I think it is warmer than that. Notice the lovely blue sky. I also picked the first orange from our tree. They are not ready yet maybe next month.

Friday, January 16, 2009

A Funny Thing Happened...


...on the way to finishing my Valentine Mini Wall hanging. I was doing free motion on my table top machine. It felt like the quilt was dragging a little and I felt like I had to work too hard. I was thinking something isn't right but for the life of me I couldn't figure it out. The stitches looked fine, but it was just hard to move the fabric. I quilted all the white background in the wall hanging. I jumped from area to area lifting the foot and lowering the foot, looking right at for my needle position. I looked at the foot several times and nothing registered. I'm changing the thread to brown for the borders and what do I notice. I had a straight stitch foot on and not my bouncing darning foot. I changed that foot right out and things went much easier. It's amazing what using the right tools will do!!

Here is the finished Valentine Mini, or Falling Hearts.

I tried to get a close up of the quilting to show you it came out OK but all my pictures are blurry, so maybe tomorrow I'll try to get another picture.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Jane's Pink Fabric Arrived

Jane,
The fabric you sent me is lovely!! I cut it right away and added two hearts to my Falling Hearts wall hanging. I liked so much I made a big heart and one medium heart. I'm eating dinner real fast now so I can leave and do an EQ6 demo for Cactus Patchers. Here is a picture for you all to admire the fabric Jane sent me.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Sunday Quilting Upate a Little Late

Sunday sure did go by in a hurry. I had my pictures taken and about ready to do my blog entry when Kinsen came home from work. Today (Monday)is his birthday he is 24 and since we work days & he works evenings we decided to do our cake and gift for him last night. So I visited with the guys instead.

I did a lot of non quilting type activities this week. I took my class sample to the shop, wrote a class description and supply list for the One Block Wonder Class I'm teaching in Feb and March. I decided to do a two part class with a month in between to give them time to sew all those hexagons.

I also worked on my outline for my EQ6 demonstration tomorrow night at my chapter of the Arizona Quilters Guild meeting. I have to have an outline so I show off everything I'm thinking about. I'm not worried about not having enough material, too much is more likely to be my problem. When I teach my Beginner's class for 3 hours I always go over. I have notebooks to show what the program can do, such as handout for my quilting classes and stuff you can print out. I also have some of the quilts I have designed in EQ6 to show off.


I did finish the binding on the Square Falling Hearts and worked on my Long Falling Hearts. I'm waiting for some pink fabric a friend of mine is sending to me to add another heart or two. I wished the pink showed up better. I also sewed the binding on my Winter Wonderland, and started doing the back side by hand. I'm not going to show a picture of that until it is complete.

I didn't get to work on my Mystery Quilt. I had planned to do some of that on the weekend. The instructor took her instructions off the website on Friday while I was at work. So I didn't want to do any thing without reviewing the instructions. So that will have to wait. Luckily the DVD came in the mail today, so I'm set now.

Saturday Painting


Richard finally decided to rent a paint sprayer to paint the outside of the new room of the house. He had purchased one but it was of such poor quality that he returned it. The one he rented was great. He painted all the eves and all the sliding.

Here are Richard and Kinsen in their painter's bunny suits.

The goggles had a film in them that can be rolled up to have a clean viewing area and keep his glasses from getting paint spray on them. The things people think of.

I can't wait to have the paper off the windows!! He just has to finish up some of the trim by hand and he will be done.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Blog Restyling Nightmares

What a Morning?
I almost ruined my blog. I wanted to change the background but my favorite place to get backgrounds is closed for repairs, that The Cutest Blog on the Block. So I found this background from another site, which is OK not what I was looking for. One tends to get a little dazed after looking at some many things. When I went to add it I mistakenly deleted all my widgets. I tried to replace my previous template but it didn't come back the it's previous glory. So I moved on to the new temple.
I have spent the last hour and a half trying to remember what I had and where to find them. I think I better take a screen shot of what I do so I can replace it if needed and not tax my poor old brain. I also made sure I had links to all my favorite spots so I don't have to search for them again. The only widget I haven't found again is my local weather one. The one good thing is I now have the check box reactions showing, that didn't show before even thought they were checked. Now I hope some one will use it.
Now I need to go do all the other stuff I have to do on a Saturday.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Falling Hearts in a Square


Last year I did a monthly mini wall hanging from my LQS (Local Quilt Shop). I didn't finish them all but I hope to this year. The one for February was not to my liking, so I decided to design my own. While I was sewing the background to the borders of mine, I remembered I need a $10 gift for a work party at the end of the month. So I made a square one to give as a gift, worth more than $10 in my book. Anyhow, tonight I finished appliqueing and quilting it. All I have to do is the binding. I drew my hearts in EQ6 on Wednesday night. Last night I sewed the borders to the background to this square and my hanging. This morning before work I traced the hearts, the rest I did tonight after work, going out to dinner with my main squeeze and a wedding reception.
This was good practice for my wall hanging, which will be long and narrow like the others in the series. That size works well for my cubical at work. I think I will print the some of the hearts a little bigger and may do another double layer one.
My friends that I went to lunch with on the 27th of December will recognize the fabric I picked up on our quilt shop run.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Project # 2 done!


OK I'm on a roll!! I just finished another project on my list for 2009! So I only had five inches of binding to finish and sew on 12 buttons. It's still done!

Monday, January 5, 2009

It Was A Mega Hit!


I presented Glenda with her gift. Her face just lit up so when I gave her the bag. I was trying to get a picture her face when she first saw the quilt. But I didn't get it, Rob our other co-worker was going on about look at the label. I'm kicking him to be quiet, so she can just enjoy. Then someone from another department comes in and gets in the way. But I will remember the look on her face it was priceless. She was so happy. Here we are with her wall hanging. I'm the tall one, she is short stuff!

Here is Glenda with her little quilt in it's new home. Later in the day I did change that bright white clip to an aqua one. It looks much better. She even named him Hymie. I'm glad she decided to leave him at work, so I can enjoy him also.

I made the label, I use special Christmas label for Christmas gifts so why not a Hanukkah label for a Hanukkah gift.

It was so fun watching her open her gift, that it really made me feel good to give her the gift because she appreciated. Goes to prove you should only make gifts for people who love them!!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Sunday Quilting Upate


Well my first project I wanted to finish in 2009 is done!!! It is a late Hanukkah gift, better late than never. I'll take it to work tomorrow to give it to Glenda.
I haven't worked any more on the Mystery Quilt since New Year's Day. Too busy get re-organized after the Holidays and finishing my SW Frog. Jane Wilson is the original designer, but I did make some changes. Don't we always make changes in a pattern.


My husband finish organizing the food storage, boy talk about an improvement in that room. He did a awesome job! Thanks Honey!!! I finished taking down the tree and all the festive Christmas decorations are away for another year. It is time to get back into a normal routine, which is OK with me.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Paint Test 2

Yesterday my husband and I looked at some paint chips and found two colors close to what we have. Today Richard painted it on the house around the new window in the bedroom. It is very close to what we had and we like it. I have always liked the colors of our house and have no imagination on what other colors I would want to use. So we will repaint it the same colors we have. Right now we are just painting the new room and around the new window. Later this year we will paint the rest of the house. We have red brick in front. Richard wants to build his work shop before he paints the whole house.

Look how close this is, the old paint is more than 16 years old. In Febuarary we will be in the house 16 years. You can see the first paint test in a post Our House from Dec 13th.


Bread Update

5 hours after placing the ingredients in the bread machine I have a loaf of raisin bread. If this had been white bread it would have come up to the top of the bread pan.


I ate a piece as soon as it came out with a little butter, the rest of the time I make toast and use honey on it. Sometimes I like peanut butter.

How we spent Friday & Saturday

We have one bedroom that has our food storage. Most of it has been piled almost to the ceiling in boxes that hold six cans. If I needed anything I would have to have Richard or Kinsen move boxes to get the one can I needed. I do have one can of all frequently used items in the kitchen, but they do run out and need to be replaced. So we found these really neat shelves on line but the price was prohibitive. At thanksgiving I received an add that they are 40% off. So we ordered one. Friday after work we put it together and loaded it up. It looks so nice and it is so easy to use. I have the smaller version of these in my kitchen pantry for small cans. We still have a lot to do to organize our food storage but this has really made me happy. I was able to get a can of flour this morning all by myself.
Here is the before picture.

Here is the after picture. Richard wants to build me some shevles but that might take a while. You know how guys and projects can be. This is the link to the sheves: http://www.shelfreliance.com/
Here are the 17 boxes we emptied.

Here are the boxes we still have to organize, at least they are in piles of wheat, rice, beans and etc.

This is the wheat grinder making flour out of my 6 grain mix: red wheat, white wheat, pinto beans, lentil beans, millet & barley.

The flour is nice and fine.

This is me making my bread.

I didn't want you to think I'm a superwomen!! Thanks Heavens for bread machines. I use it every other week.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Goals Others Completed

Both Richard & Kierra finished some goals. They are starting off the new year with a bang! Kierra & Will finished painting their kitchen in their new house. Here is a picture of Kierra & Kinsen and her painted walls.

Richard reorganized the garage. He was able to move all his tools out of the center of the garage. He had all his tools in the middle of the garage to build the new room on our house. I mean big tools like saw tables and I don't know what, that is all guy stuff. With the tools out of the way, guess what I get to do? You got it park my car in the garage.

Quilt Goals 2009

Quilts Goals for 2009
Winter Wonderland 9 Patch Pizzazz (Binding only)
Festive Santa (Embellishments only left)
Dear Jane Boo Swap
Dear Jane Christmas Swap
Dear Jane Quilt
Dear Jane Nurses’ Swap
Horse for Krystal
Mystery Quilt
SW Frog
Valentine’s Mini
Other Minis
Sea Breeze
Blue Moon
SW Batik Stars
Mystical Horse my own Design
On Block Wonder
The Dear Jane Swaps I want to finish so I'll be ready to quilt my big Dear Jane Quilt. It is something I always wanted to do but didn't want to do under my little machine. The feather technique I learned today will work well in those plain triangles on the border. Here is the link to the original Dear Jane Quilt http://dearjane.com/ You can see more pictures of my Dear Jane Blocks at my webshots link on the right side bar.