Still not ready for an 'After' picture

I had things pretty tidy for a short while.  Then I decided that I needed to rearrange this shelving unit.  Shelves are tricky because they can  so easily get all cluttered looking.  The next thing I knew I had this...............

 big mess on my hands.  Phooey! 

Well,  I will keep working on my space and keep you posted. 

 I did refold and organize my solids.  Once again I'm sorry for the sideways picture.  Ugh,  when I edit I can't seem to get the rotation to stick.  Aren't these pretty? 

 Check out my design wall!  My red doggie has a border.  Wheeee!  And I quilted it this weekend too.  This is going to a friend at work whose baby is due in April.  I don't know if she's having a boy or a girl but I think this little 'Clifford' will do. 

 And remember that I told you my co-workers are in baby mode, I am busy quilting this quilt for another friend who is due in April. 

I also made something incredibly cute this weekend but I can't share it yet.  My Wild Thread friends are coming over next weekend for a birthday celebration. (it's my birthday!)  We are having a birthday swap.  I thought long and hard about what to make my swap buddy.  I even started something last weekend, then a lightbulb went off.   It's perfect and I promise I'll show you next weekend after I give it to her.

Have a great week everybody.  I hope I stay productive in the sewing room.  Right now I I have lots of ideas and inspiration waiting to keep me busy.



Monday Design wall.

Thanks to Judy's book I showed in yesterday's post, I have gotten some serious border mojo going.  Mr. Brown Doggie got his border yesterday and I am playing with some Red Doggie ideas.  I pieced a backing together for this lil dude and hopefully he will be sandwiched and ready for quilting soon.

And now, I feel compelled to make reference to a comment that someone made on my last post.

Really Chris?!  Really?  Did you have to bring up the stepstool that went missing?  The stepstool that practically sent me into a downward spiral questioning my sanity.  No ma'am,  I did not find it.  I didn't look for it.  As far as I'm concerned,  IT NEVER EXISTED.  I was so sure it would appear one day but it hasn't.   That's all I have to say, and now I will go back to fighting the urge to peek into all the closets once again.

Enjoy your Monday people! 

During!

It's hard for me to clean and sort through my sewing room.  I have trouble resisting the urge to stop and play. I stayed strong for a little while though before giving in to some sewing.  Here is a peak at my day spent 'cleaning'.
I wouldn't have to clean up so often but I have a problem with surfaces.  I cover them up.  I pile, stack, shuffle, move, shove, rearrange and just generally collect stuff on any available surface.  This is my Big Board ironing surface.  When I began tidying up look what I found buried under some fabric.

My hammer.  I used it about 2 weeks ago to help me get some screws out of the Big Board.  I used to have it attached to 2 rolling carts with baskets.  I really love being able to roll things around to where I need them but the big ironing surface took up so much room and, as you can see, it attracts clutter.  I removed it from the carts and now it's propped behind the door where I can easily pull it out and put it across my cutting table when I need it. 

Ok, moving on.  Next up is my newest quilt book purchase.  Judy Laquidara's book on pieced borders.  I really wanted to stop and poke around in this book but I forced myself to tuck it away.

I did play (mess around) in this box for a bit.  This is a box of thrift store shirts and also some 'closet cleanout' cotton clothing that I thought I might recycle. 

I decided to keep these items out for a couple of specific projects that are in the pipeline.

Remember when Laura Ashley dresses were THE thing to have?  I love this cotton fabric  so I chopped up the dress.  I am intrigued by the button bodice and think I may be able to use it.  Can't tell you what for though because some people I know read this blog. 

A co-worker asked me if I would make a pencil roll for her daughter.  She also told me that her daughter's favorite color is lime green.  I decided I could used some of this shirt, including the pocket.

Vintage tablecloths.   Isn't that red and aqua one on the left just yummy?  A few of these have been cut up a little.  I made some pillows with them a few years ago.  Back into storage these went to be saved for another day.

I got these pachaged of cloth napkins from Wisteria last year on sale.  They have questions around the border for dinner table coversation. 

One for adults.

Another for kids.  I haven't decided what to do with them yet,  so they will continue to marinate in the cupboard.

Oooooo goody, more vintage!  I snagged this child's apron years ago.  Maybe some day I'll have a grandaughter who will bake with me.

Cute little cat faces on the pockets.

I got these hand stitched beauties at a quilt show a few years ago.  I'm saving them for just the right project.  They have the most unbelievably tiny and perfect stitches.

I checked on the kitties.  Chet appears to be guarding Rosie, and keeping her warm too.

Oy!  This UFO is beginning to haunt me.  Tiny apple cores, all hand stitched.  I photographed it with my shoes for scale.  It's a charm quilt, no fabric is used more than once, and I have at least 400 pieces.  I think it may end up as a table topper in the dining room between meals.  Some day.

Getting better don't you think?

Hmm, what's all this in the hallway?   Forgive the sideways picture,  I am getting used to using Picasa.

I felt that I deserved a reward for making progress so I stopped to whip up the pencil roll.  I just happened to have some cute lime green batik.

Instead of just slots for pencils, I included a larger pocket on the right for cards or a notebook and on the left I attached a pocket from the thrift store shirt.  It has a nice button placket.  I didn't want to deliver the roll empty so I got some cute pencils with a little eraser and sharpener that I can hide in the pocket.  And I found some adorable little cards at HomeGoods (my new favorite store).

Connect the dots,  how cute is that?

Well,  don't go far folks because I actually got some more sewing done this weekend.  Every weekend should be a three day weekend don't you think?  Of course I had to work 16 hours on Thursday to be off on Friday.  bleh
Have a pleasant Sunday evening, I plan to.

BEFORES !

BEFORE

(sorry this is sideways, I goofed)

BEFORE 

 BEFORE

I have the speakers hooked up to the computer and Pandora is playing classic rock!  I have the day off and I am planning a blitz attack on  this sewing room.  

I'm gonna  try not to disturb  my babies who are snuggled together in the next room.  Chet is the black and white in the back and Rosie is the tabby.  Rosie is a manx cat, no tail.  This picture is so deceptive because Chet is such a chubby guy and weighs at least twice as much as Rosie.  She's a little feather, but boy can she hunt.  Always leaving gifts on the doormat.  Gifts from Rosie are carcasses;  moles, mice, birds, and once a bunny.  Dreadful I know but she is still my precious darling, lol.

Stay tuned for some 'AFTERS'.

btw - if you have never seen 'Tin Men' starring Danny DeVito and Richard Dreyfuss,  you really should.   If anything, you need to see the scene where the siding salesmen snooker the Baltimore  housewife into wanting to be the 'after'. (it's not naughty I promise!)  Watch the clip here on youtube.  And, omg, the movie is worth it just to hear the exaggerated Baltimore accents (Baltimorese)



Welllll.......................Hey there!!

Hey there!  Hi there!  Ho there!   Guess what happened?  I'll start at the beginning.... I had trouble posting pictures on my blog,  I don't like to blog without pictures (Although I secretly think I could possibly maybe perhaps almost be entertaining enough without pictures.  If I get enough nerve I'll tell you about the crazy dialogue I had going in my head the other day while lying face down getting accupuncture!),  ummmmm  where was I?  Oh yeah, so not crazy bout posting without pictures, and   week after week goes by without a post.  I worry that I'll never post again and I slowly stop reading the 2 zillion blogs I follow.  It's a downward spiral and the monologue that I have in my head talking to all of you (hahahah ALL of you!  oh gosh, rofl, there are so many of you, hee hee hee!) is beginning to fizzle.  So,  2012 comes along.  I do have some resolutions and one of them is to B L O G.  Are you wondering how I solved my terrible, dreadful, most miserable dilemma?  I had a spaz attack last weekend and got all fussy with my husband.  It goes like this, 'I take care of this, this, this, and this around here and all I really want you to do (besides take out the garbage and run to the store to get  milk for my oatmeal and go out of your way on the way home from work to get me Noodles and Co. for dinner) is to handle the computer issues.'   So my darling fiddled around, called Comcast, fiddled around some more, and changed the router cable.  Tadah!  Looks like I can now upload like a fool!

 

I didn't plan this post around any specific pictures.  I was testing the success of the Great Cable Changeout and just snagged a variety of photos out of my library.  Now I'm going to try to provide some entertainment to go with them.   Even if you read it last year, go read this post.  I was so excited to get my little nativity collection out this year.  I put them up on the hutch and used some pretty paper as a backdrop to make them stand out.  And I never took a picture,  :( .    I'm so sorry . 

Remember my Clifford?

And his friend?

I think they are going to make their way to the finished pile soon.  Right after I pop together some jazzy borders for them.  Amazon just delivered this book to me.  I believe one of my 2012 resolutions involves this book.  Stay tuned.

If you remember these blocks I worked on a while ago, you might be interested to know that I finally sewed them together, on point!  Oh yeah!  I believe I will be using Judy's book to put a border on that one too.

Do you like these scrappy blocks?  They are from my quilt cruise with Bonnie Hunter.  I put them together too, not on point.  The original pattern from Bonnie is one point but I ran out of steam and couldn't bring myself to make any more blocks.  Apparently my husband must really like this quilt.  He is always complimentary when I say, 'Hey Jon, come look what I made!', but this quilt elicited unsolicited (say that fast a few times) praise.  The blocks were on my design wall for a while and every visit to the sewing room, Jon would say, 'Hey that's nice!'.  I wonder which one of the  60 borders I'll choose for this one?

And here I am with a happy face!  If I look disheveled it's either because I had just traipsed all over Old San Juan, Puerto Rico in 350% humidity or because I had a couple drinks at Senor Frog's.  Does it really matter?  I had a happy day with my Wild Thread buds.  

And there you have it my faithful readers,  I think I'm back!

Cruising with Quilters.

If you have ever considered going on a quilting cruise....... DO IT!!  If you are a quilter, then you know how much fun it is to hang around with other quilters, and what better place than on a cruise.

 We were lucky that we were sailing out of Baltimore.  Just a quick drive to the ship.  I think that's the only reason I even considered going at all.  I read about the cruise on Pat Sloans blog about a year and a half ago.  It sounded like fun so I threw the idea out to my Wild Thread friends.  I didn't expect anyone to bite but I tried anyway.  I was shocked and thrilled at the responses and before we knew it,  we were packing.  We booked through Sew Many Places and were able to pay monthly for about 11 months so it was relatively painless.  Go check out their trips,  there are lots to choose from.

 This is the small conference room that Bonnie's classes were in.  We had Janome machines all set up and ready for us, including Bobbin Boy who helped with any problems and was always ready to wind a bobbin.  See the stack of boxes in the back?  The machines were for sale at a very good price.  I need another machine like I need a hole in my head but quite a few ladies took machines home.  

If you're wondering, we didn't spend too much of our time 'slaving away' at quilting and sewing.  It was a 9 day cruise with 4 days at sea (2 days on the way down and 2 on the way back).  We only had classes on the days at sea.  We had a couple of hours of class in the morning and a couple in the afternoon.  Pat and Bonnie each had a project.   Pat's was pretty much entirely by hand so her classes were held in a beautiful bar with a beautiful view at the top of the ship. 

 The rest of our time spent having cruise fun.   I have to say that all of the personnel on board were just awesome, so friendly and anxious to be of help.  My roomate, Janet, and I had a wonderful suite attendant named Mr. Brown.  He told us that if we ever needed anything, just stick our heads out in the hall and call his name.  We adored him and I don't know if he ever took a break.  We especially loved the fun towel sculptures he left us. 

 

Our first stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico.  My friends and I took a walking tour of Old San Juan.  It was very nice but happened to be about 5 miles of walking in high humidity.  My poor friend, Annette, got a gigantic blister on her foot.  GIGANTIC!!  Poor gal.  After our long hike, we had some dinner and drinks at Senor Frog's restaurant.   We had been there for a while before we looked up and saw this display on the ceiling, lol.

 Inner tubes with bikini clad bums hanging up. 

 Another Mr. Brown masterpiece.

l

Check this out!  There was some rough sea on the way home, stirred up by tropical storm Sean.  Not only were we warned about it but we had to leave our last port three hours early to aim around the storm.  As we left, we kept coming across crewmembers TYING things down!  The big coffee urns, potted plants, even the frozen yoghurt machine.  It was disconcerting but exciting too, lol.  The 25 foot waves didn't pan out though, darn!  There was quite a bit of rocking though.  As one of my pals said, "It's nice when I go to take a step and the deck comes up to meet me."  I was rocked to sleep every night and slept like a baby.  

 Here we are in the Schooner Bar.  We met here before dinner most nights to enjoy the D.O.D. (Drink of the Day).  Lots of tasty drinks.

He

Here we are in the dining room with our waiter, Maxisimo, and his assistant, Crismon.  Their service was unbelievable.  Wow!   And omg the food was so darn delicious.  Mmm mmm mmmmm!

And here is the gang at the farewell cocktail party with Bonnie and Pat.  From the left is Sandy, Janet, Charlyn, myself, Annette, Diane, Bonnie, Chris, and Pat. 

If you go here you can see Pat's photos from the cruise.  She took a lot of great pictures and make sure you see the one of me at the ironing table!     Go here for one of Bonnie's posts about the cruise.  She took a picture of the same potted plant that I did, lol.

I started my Christmas decorating today.  I was feeling very unprepared for the holidays this past weekend so last night I spent some time online doing some shopping and we got the decorations out of the basement.  Every day this week after work, I plan to work on the decorating.  We have some holiday festivities coming up as well as my daughter's birthday this weekend.  It's time to get cracking and get my holiday act together.  Wish me luck.  I  have some little gifts I made that I'll show next time.  G'nite!

I'm alive!!

 

Yup, I am alive, and if I were kicking I would be kicking my laptop, or the wall, or my internet bill or............................!  I haven't solved my problem uploading pictures yet.  My husband spent some time with my laptop and improved the situation but the process is slooooooooow.  I'm sure I should just go visit the Geek Squad at the local Best Buy but I bet they are crazy busy this time of year.         

 Anyway,  enough whining.  I want to thank anyone who is still visiting this little blog which hasn't been very active. 

I have had a fun Autumn.  I went on my first cruise!!  And it was with a group of my Wild Thread girlfriends  AND  Pat Sloan and Bonnie Hunter.  

The picture up there is of a table  display when we went aboard the ship.  Crazy carved fruit.  Lemme tell you, I never wanted to go on a cruise and I guess only quilting could get me there.  But I think I have been converted.  Kinda like when I said I would never live with a cat, and now we have four (and wouldn't want to be without one)!  I can't wait to go again, I'm trying to talk my husband into one.

This post was just a test, I really have to go get the holiday decorations out of the basement.  I promise a better post  later today or tomorrow, and I will show you some of our cruise fun!  Ta ta.