It's all in a bunch of work...

Wow I am so tired! Rob stayed up watching a movie last night, and knowing I couldn't sleep with that particular movie on, I just kept reading my new book. We didn't get to sleep until after 1AM, what a fool I am! I'm completely dragging the ground today.

But I have great news! The 2 sets of perinatal quilts are done! Remember those are going out to Bridging People and Places Charity, and I have worked on them since I began quilting! They range in size from 8" - 26" square.

The single one is my favorite of all of them, that being a bit funny as those Log Cabins has been an issue for me (getting them the correct size for the Block Challenge). I'm not going to give you closeups of the others, but you can see the first ones I made by clicking on the charity quilts below. Each one is different some are bound with satin. That was my first choice, but at $4+ per package, it didn't seem worth it. I can't imagine how much money it would have taken to bind them all. Some of them are bound using Eleanor Burn's scrappy style quilt binding. Now that I like! You take the scraps from your quilt and put them together to make the binding. Some color combinations this worked better with. For instance shades of yellow scraps looked better to me than the shades of blue and yellow scraps. I enjoyed this project, and am glad to send them on their way to their new homes. May others find comfort and peace in what I have created.

My heart is still heavy, but they say time heals all wounds. I'm not sure about that. (as Elvis plays "I'm so lonesome I could cry" in the background)

While I worked on the charity baby blankets, I had the new sewing machine embroider the flowers for the blue quilt I'm working on. I'd like to have 20 when I'm finished, but size of the fabric, ect. will surely come into play (gasp, I haven't bothered with the math yet, oh no!) LOL! I have completed 8, I feel that's good progress for two days.

I'm thinking about joining the local guild again. There are some problems over that, but I'm struggling, a huge part of my day is sewing, or thinking of quilts and of course taking care of Jessica. It really puts a stopper on what I can talk about if that's not interesting to the people around me. I wonder about that. How did I get so wrapped up and interested in doing, quilting, and creating? And what did I do before? I can't really remember...

Unfinished Projects Challenge

Spider Lilly's in the Moonlight, sometimes wonderful things happen that we never planned. These Lilly's were right in that very spot in when we bought the house, and right next to it is a Spineless Cactus that has grown from knee high to as big as a man in the time we've owned the place.

Hi everyone, one of the members of the quilting board has issued a challenge to finish our UFO's by the 31st of December, those are unfinished projects that were left for a period of time. Abandoned. Lost. Forgotten, for whatever reason. Perhaps it had nothing to do with the project itself, but rather other things that needed to happen first, a different project, children. Whatever. Any project that has been left for a period of time is eligible. I have really taken this to heart, and have been working diligently on my first UFO. The Perinatal Quilts. I love working on these really I do, but life has gotten in the way a couple of times.

As some of you may know this is grief work for me, so it's very emotional and raw. Okay not so raw now but certainly tender. I had wanted to get them done and in the mail to the charity by Christmas and this has just been the drive I needed. Currently I have 16 done! Of my two part set of 20, number seventeen has it's binding more than halfway on and then it's down to three. Perhaps I can even have them done by the end of the month. It has surprised me with these. What started out as just ten tiny little quilts, how long could it take? Has turned into at least 20 blocks and an untold number of borders. I'm here to tell you that's a quilt! One nice big quilt. No photos of this UFO will be posted again until it's done and ready to mail. I'm hoping by not posting I will continue to stay motivated.

What are your current UFO's? It doesn't have to be quilting, it could be any craft, perhaps it's the flower bed that you haven't done anything with. Just think if you winterise it now, it will be already to plant in this coming spring. Of course if you plant Gladiola's, Tulips or Daffodils you wont have to plan in the spring at all.

My other UFO's you all know about. The red 18 point star quilt that I love to hate. Honestly, I'm afraid when I cut it down to fix it I will mess it up and then I'll be out of the right kind of fabric or something. DH tells me I should create the block as I think it needs to be on a completely different fabric (scrap of course) to be sure it will be the right size. I think he's right, but tell me what can I do with a 17" triangle filled with half square triangles? LOL!

The next one is the Blue applique quilt. It needs a couple of things a butterfly embroidered on the basket handle, rosebud blocks to go all around for the first border, and then hopefully embroidery flowers of all types to go around. How many of you can see that in your head? Trust me it will be beautiful I just know it. Anything dealing with embroidery is on hold until my thread order gets here. Oh there goes the mail man! It's here! Finally!

Now with all that excitement where was I? Oh yes I've also been waiting to finish the Bargello until the new thread got here. since from here on out it's a quilt as you go, I needed thread to match the muslin I plan to use on the back. You can see it in the photo the smaller of the two big spools. Boy I hope that Maxi-Lock thread works out swell. My New Machine has made even Sulky Rayon make lint! I'll write a review after I've used a bit of it.

Now see that pretty purse clasp? Oh how I've wanted that. Just knowing I have it to make a little kisslock change holder, or perhaps a small purse just delights me. I was thinking about using it on my Halloween trick or treat challenge, but I might like it to much to put goolies on it!

Oh and those teal blue string beads? Those are to fix my sister's pants. Then have little sequins on the pockets and while she didn't point it out I noticed they were coming off. So I'm replacing them with some of these, I'm planning on hand sewing them on real good that way I can get a couple of passes through the bead with the needle.

Any other UFO's? Oh yes, I'll need to quilt all of the quilts above, and the last heart baby clothes quilt, but one thing at a time. I think I have enough to keep me busy till the end of the year!

An old HS friend of mine is having knee surgery, so I was thinking of sending a care package, but you know that's just one of the little things we do at the drop of the hat because we want to.

She's Here! She's Here!

My new sewing machine arrived 2 whole days early! I wasn't nearly ready, as I hadn't even read the embroidery unit part of the manual. Of course the box holding the embroidery unit was banged up so I had to set it up and make it sew, while we hastily tried to read the manual, with the DHL guy hollering "everything okay?" every 30 seconds or so.

These are my very first Embroidery projects. I sewed the "E" first, and then DH wanted to see it "do something" with color changes, that would be the little teapot there, and since I have volunteered to fix my sister's butterfly pants I designed and stitched out the butterfly, not the perfect answer for the tear on her jeans, but I'm working on it. DH has also done a little embroidery on it, but his wasn't done when I took the photos.

My new machine has the hopeful name of Trusty Gem. Trusty because she is nice and solid like Trusty in the Lady and the Tramp movie, and Gem because once the DHL guy went away I discovered that she works like a gem. Perhaps Charm is better? Oh well only time will tell if it's a fitting name.

My current project (that hasn't been slid to the back burner for being a pain in the rear the way the red star quilt was, don't worry I'll get back to it!) These are the striped pieced together to make a Bargello quilt. These strips were given to me by my quilting friends for my birthday. Currently they are sewn together, and are awaiting two things. The Eggshell colored thread I ordered to quilt it with, and for me to come up with a beautiful repeating pattern/curve to make the bargello with. Call me crazy but I think all the different colors from all the different ladies really blends well together.


My aunt called my mom this morning looking for a high chair for Aidan. It seems my cousin pushed aside at least THREE offers of a free high chair (including one from me and one from my mom). But since she didn't want them... Now they don't have one... But think they need one. Okay here's the deal either use the baby swing like we did when dd was tiny, or go to Goodwill/Salvation Army a little bleach water and you've got a high chair.

Perhaps that is a bit unfeeling, but that's how I feel. I've burned up my blender and already told DH he needs to go to the Salvation Army and look for a new one that's of good quality to replace my new "piece of junk".

The hunt!

Oh where have I been, and what have I done being away so long? I'm awful sorry. I've been sucked into the world of new sewing machine lust.

It all started on a hot summer day, when I was making a "tail feather" for Jessica. Which is to say the the way I accidently messed up the skirt on my Pj's that Jessica loves, because it makes a little "tail feather" out the backside. So there I am sewing a nice hem stitch on the bottom of dd's skirt when BANG! BANG BANG BANG, my sewing machine starts knocking. Apperently it doesn't like making the few decorative stitches anymore.

I'll admit it scared me. The sewing machine banging under my hands was a bit much for me. You would think it was because if my sewing machine breaks, it will leave me without a sewing machine, for all my happy quilting projects. No that wasn't the scary part for me. It was the noise and the vibrations in my hands. So I started sewing machine shopping. All the time, if I was online I shopped, if I was at the quilting store I shopped.

I researched and now know about so many machines, my head feels about full with the knowledge. Then I had a conversation with my husband. He seemed to think that if I got an embroidery machine, I would want it to have the Disney features. So that changed everything, all my research went up in a puff of nothing. Poof! And I started looking at the Brother Machines because Brother has an exclusive deal with Disney, they are the only emboridery machine company liscensed to make Disney stitches... But not all their machines will/can. Only the ones labeled "D" for instance nearly everyone knows about the $250 Walmart special the Brother 270D, that does Disney, but it doesn't have many designs, it has a cassette system that can break and leave you stranded, ect. So that was the least of what I wanted. I would have completely forgone an embroidery unit, rather than have that machine.

So the hunt was on. I found TWO top of the line Brothers, okay, so they were top of the line in 2001 and in 2003. One is the 2001 ULT, and the other was the 2003D ULT, note the first one doesn't have that telltale "D" for Disney. And I watched them on ebay. They were set to end about the same about of time. So I watched with baited breath. (that would be stinky!) Researching and hoping.... and hoping. All the while keeping DH up to date on the current auction prices... Days pass and I watch... Then finally the fateful day arrives. Both auctions are up to $810, and while it's not the top limit DH gave me I feel as though it's passed the point of no return and I'll have to keep looking.

But what I didn't know is that my husband had been researching machines behind my back. Yep. He knows at least as much about those two machines as I do, and I wonder if he knows a little bit more... The auction on the 2001 ULT ended first, it's right up on the wire and I have told him flatly to stop it's all over. But being the man I love to hate, he doesn't listen. We won the auction by $10, I'd hate to have been the other bidder, as we took it in the last 6 seconds. With my DH counting down in his head. So while this one doesn't have the trademark Disney package it's still an amazing machine, I have spent the past three days reading the 300+ page manual. (note the other auction went much higher and went up $1,000 in the last two hours, which I was happily enjoying raving about instead of worried that we wouldn't win). Never have I been more grateful not to have to watch an auction than the one I saw the next day for the 2003D, scary stuff!

So now the 2001 ULT is on it's way to me safely packed via ground transportation, all set to arrive here on Thursday. Funny that's the day the local embroidery club that I'd like to join meets, oh well there's always next month, and what a joy to wait! :D

Where oh where can you get a sneak peak at this wonderful machine that will be turning out beautiful things like butterflies and delicate lace snowflake ornaments? Right here

Til next time I wish you all every happiness!