New Week

Last Thursday and Friday were busy days. I got my stuff for the two TAS groups I'm in ready. I found using a scrapbook plastic tote works great. I must have 6 of them. I put my unfinished projects in them. But when you have over 15 unfinished projects, it's time to weed down the projects.

I took the BOM projects I've been working on with me. On Thursday I took pictures and sent a few of those up to The Applique Society's (TAS) president. Since this is a new group I help get started, I've been in charge of the organization of paperwork and dues. We had about 14 members of 22 show up at the quilt shop. Everyone works on their own projects and shares what they have going on. Mom had 10 of the 12 cat applique blocks she's working on done.

                                         SWWRDQG Block of the month, 2002

Friday was one of those days. Got up early to vacuum and clean the carpet. Then I went to the TAS group at mom's house. I took what I was working on on Thursday. A couple of the gals in that group finished more projects, and showed them. I passed out the chenille   stuff we ordered that had arrived. I'm looking forward to using it on my block for stems. I helped get the table set for all the quilters to eat lunch. Then I had to hurry up and close up my stuff to get back for our furniture to arrive. Arrived home just as they were turning the corner to deliver the furniture. Worked some more on cleaning the carpet before hubby got back from work. Then we headed off to bowling. 

Saturday and Sunday are kind of a blur. I did try to quilt on the Hawaiian quilt top on Saturday, but Charlie wasn't having any of that. Hubby threatened to remove Charlie so I could. Told him she was fine. But she did find a spot on my legs that she didn't want to move from. So, I had the quilt and the cat on top of me. Talk about getting warm, good thing the weather was on the cool side. Sunday I went downstairs to quilt on the Butterfly quilt that's on a frame. I got 15 minutes in on quilting when hubby brought me Charlie - "Are you missing someone?," was the reply. So, we put her on the quilt at the other end. That lasted a short time when I felt her nose push up against me finger. She wanted attention - again. I gave her TLC for awhile, quilted a few more stitches when my parents arrived to go out to eat.

So, that was the extent of my quilting over the past 4 days. Can't seem to win lately. 

This morning I went back to the eye doctor to get my glasses worked on. The bi-focal was off and not "crisp," so they are making it stronger for me since I do a lot of hand work. Don't know when I'll get them back, but it only took a couple days last time. 

My plans? Good question. Laundry is a bit behind, so working on that. I am going to try and get some quilting done since Charlie seems to like the sun (what there is of it) out on the deck. As long as she stays out there, I should be able to get a lot more quilting done. Let's hope. I'm going to try though.... 

This morning I wish I took my camera with me when I did my morning walk at 7 a.m.  The sky was beautiful with reds and oranges. Plus the fall trees are turning. The maples are turning bright red and bright yellow. It's so enjoyable walking that early in the morning to watch as the sun comes up. If you haven't done that, you should at least once in your life time.

As things turned out yesterday, I was lucky enough to get more quilting in. I did two loads of laundry and baked some gluten free peanut butter cookies. I kept getting up and down with quilting yesterday. I tend to want to move around more then just sit all day. I got lucky - Charlie decided she wanted to sleep in my computer chair rather then come into the living room and sleep on the quilt. - Not so lucky today, the first thing she did when she came into the house was go straight for my quilt. As for me, I'm on the computer. No surprise there.

I need to work on getting my stuff ready for the quilt group tomorrow. We started another group with The Applique Society. TAS as we call it. That is a great group of people to get involved with and there are so many good ideas out there. I've learned a lot from them over the past three years of being a member. My mother has been a member almost from the beginning. I think it's funny how our membership numbers are exactly 10,000 different. I joined 10,000 after she did. I am a member of two TAS groups. One is at my mother's home and the other is at Quilter's Junction, in town. The one at Quilter's Junction is new, this will be our 3rd meeting. All the ladies are wonderful to be around. Plus being with them has gotten me to get more done with my projects. I have actually been working on 2 different applique projects and quilting 2 different quilts. I told myself I would not start a new project till I completed 2 unfinished works. I have actually finished 4 unfinished projects since June and have told myself I want to finish more before I start my Baltimore Christmas BOM (block of the month). I ordered that in January and got all my supplies at the end of September. I'm excited to get that going but want to finish a little more before I do.

My BOM's consist of Affairs of the Heart - which is one of my projects I'm doing now. I have 27 blocks of the 32 or 36 blocks done. This was something 4 of our group decided to do. 3 of us bought the BOM through a quilt shop in Texas. My mother decided she was going to make it from her scraps. So, of course, she finished the quilt first, even when we told her she had to wait. Mom just works fast and does beautiful work.

I need to get my bobbins done and put in the stack and carry case. I took that idea from a few of my fellow quilters. They bought cheap bobbins and used the embroidery/applique threads and wound them on there. They bought the Stack'n Store "trees" and use those for when they are going to meetings or retreats. That way you don't have to carry all your threads with you. I like it because it take one bag out of the equation. Less to carry and more room for your fabrics. I was winding bobbins this weekend and now just need to get a few more before I pack for tomorrow and Friday.

Okay, today is a "nothing scheduled" day. So, let's see if I get anything done today. I really do need to vacuum but Charlie gets spooked. And after saying that, I agree with my husband, that cat is spoiled! I work around her and she comes around for TLC all the time. Actually, that's why I'm slow today, she wanted an hour of TLC time with me this morning. Now she's on the quilt.

Quilting is going faster than I thought it would. My stitches are not very good, but I am working on it. Hopefully they will get better by the time I'm done. It's not really a quilt for show, so I'm really not worried about it. I'm not ready to show off my quilts, never really felt like showing off my work. I enjoy what I do and don't care what others think about my quilts. I blush when people like my work, so I keep them in the family.

Okay, time to do something constructive again. Who knows what my day will be like till I do it. Have a great day.  

Another day...

Since posting my information yesterday, I actually got some quilting done. Charlie (my 18 yr old cat), thinks the quilt belongs to her, so it is hard to do much with Charlie around. She is a sweetie though, she is cleaning herself as I type (right next to me on the desk).

I had forgotten how quick hand quilting can go. I have been working on my Hawaiian quilt that I design some 7 or 8 years ago. That with the help of Nancy Chong. So, if you ever get the chance, take a class from her. I put in a good 3 hours quilting time and am getting closer to being able to do the center of the quilt. I had to go around the center design before I could quilt the inside section. That wasn't as hard as I thought, since I made sure the quilt is tight each time I quilted one section. The center motif has four leaves and four flowers coming out of the center. Once the flowers are done, I will be able to do the center by going around in echo stitching. During my breaks I took  a few pictures of some of my projects as well as Charlie on my quilt that I'm quilting. 

The butterfly quilt that I am also hand quilting is on a frame downstairs. We usually go downstairs to watch football on Sundays, so that is when I go and quilt on that quilt. I could go down anytime I want, but it's more fun to have people around when I quilt. 

My "workshop" is downstairs and I have plenty of room to move around it. I have been pulling out unfinished projects that were started over 10 years ago. I was thinking of two of them the other day. One is appliqued butterflies I put on a bed sheet. I started that one when my daughter was a year old. She is now 22 years old. My, how time flies. The other quilt is an old pattern that is hand pieced. Similar to the wedding ring circles, but has star points there instead. I guess you could say it's a cross between a wedding ring and a snowball. When I figure out the name, I'll post it. 

It has been fun and exciting at time to go down in my quilt room and pull stuff out. About 6 months ago, I decided to clean up my shop and get organized for when I had time to quilt. I sold a few fabrics at a garage sale, and I even throw a few things out. I gave books away or sold them on eBay. My room was clean and organized when I finished. 

The interesting part, was that I had forgotten about so many of the projects I started, that it was hard to remember how to finish a few. Take the Dizzy Geese pattern. I started that in a quilt retreat over 7 years ago. Had most of the fabrics cut, just needed to sew it together. UGH. No such luck, it wasn't that easy! It took two weeks to figure out what I did to what I needed to do. When I did figure it out, it took another two weeks to piece. I went to my mothers thinking I didn't have enough material for the border work and was working on a different inside border. Mom figured we had just the right amount of fabric, so for 2 full days we pieced geese for the inside border. After all that work, I don't think I will ever do another one of those quilts again. But in the quilting world you can't say NEVER because it always comes back to bite you! lol

So, what are my plans for today? Who knows! I've been on the computer since I got up. Seems to be hooked on free games on Facebook. I do want to get more quilting done, as I'm hooked on the quilting part. I need to get a few things together for Thursday and Fridays applique groups. In a couple weeks, it will be Thursday one week and Friday the next, but in the mean time they are both this week. 

I'm finding my quilting stitches are big, and I'm trying to get them smaller. The more I work on it the more I'll remember how to get them smaller. 

Okay, need to do something constructive today. Laundry, TV, and quilting all at the same time. I'll let you know how it goes, because when I PLAN something - rarely does the plan work. 

Not sure what I'm doing..

I'm not sure how blogging works, but thought I would try it. I'm finding out I need to post each time I have something to say. I would rather just add to what I already started. 

Life is good! lol 

A Quilter's life after 50

I have finished 3 years of Community College, getting 3 ATA's. I'm over 50 years old. I do love Birthdays, so I'm willing to tell my age. Growing up with 2 brothers and a grandmother made life interesting. We traveled the world because my father was in the USAF. I've seen things and heard things most people ever dream of. I married in 1982 and am still married to the same person. We have 2 children, one in NC and the other at Pullman. Since I was 7 years old, my mother and grandmother taught me how to do needlework. I have done crocheting, knitting, cross stitch, and counted cross stitch to name a few. I made embroidery flowers on my jeans as a teenager. We were taught to respect our "elders." So, I would ask my mother and grandmother to teach me how to make things. I've made so many things over my lifetime, but little has followed me. I still have a sweater I made in HS that my daughter is wearing these days. So, a few things I still have. While in HS, I decided I would not become a quilter. It wasn't what I wanted to do. Too much work, too much time, too much mom's thing. When I graduated and tried to get my mother to make me a blue double wedding ring quilt, she said she would buy the fabric if I made the quilt. (By HAND) After picking the fabrics and waiting for her to start on it, I decided I would learn. It took me 4 years to piece. While I was dating my husband, he saw what I was working on, and talked me into finishing it. After we were married, he even made me a quilt frame to put it on so I could hand quilt it. I finished the quilt just before my son was born in 1985, so it took 7 years from start to finish. I gave my husband that quilt. (I will look for a photo and post it on here). That quilt has been in three different magazines in the 1980's. After my son and daughter were born, quilting because a "second" to everything. I went to work to help with paying bills. We worked hard to get where we are now. I even worked for AmeriCorps to help pay my way in CC.

So, today, of all days, I thought, "what the heck", I could write down what I'm thinking at the time I'm quilting and I can show some of my quilts, that usually don't get shown. I'm usually a quiet person, who stay in the background and waits to see what others do.

I am quilting on my own designed Hawaiian quilt, also quilting on a quilt top given to me by the SSW Rainy Daze Quilt Guild, after I step down from President. I'm finishing some unfinished project that were started over 10 years ago. I'm working on a block of the month that my mother and Vicki Parapya did for the SSWRDQG. I have two going at once, because my daughter wanted her's in orange. I wanted to do one in blue. So, I have one for me and one for her. Should be interesting. I've completed 5 months of blocks, so I have a ways to go.

I could just keep typing, but I'm going to get lunch, think about this blog, and decide how I'm going to do this. Should be interesting to see if anyone cares. (smiling)