Post #999!!

Otherwise known as what I have been doing on my 3 day weekend.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon cleaning and moving things around. I finally got the label written and stitched down on the second secret quilt. I have dubbed it Brown Sugar! On Tuesday, I will take it to work and give it to a co-worker.



Last night, I made great progress on my sweater! I got half of the last part of the front of the sweater done and started the second half! I should be able to get the front finished with just a couple more hours of knitting!



Today, I straightened up the stash room and was getting ready to set up my machine when I realized that I was being over run by piles on my hope chest. I ended up going through the stacks and putting things away and I found a couple more things for the 1,000th post giveaway! And since my baskets of fabrics to be cut into scraps were overflowing, I decided to get those in order. I'm very close to being done with the 5" pieces and I hope that the smaller pieces go just as fast!



Once I get this done, I will be ready to finish up another project and then cut out one of my neighbor's quilts!

Now, I'm off to start writing up my 1,000th post for the giveaway!!! Are you just so excited?!?!

Maxie thinks that breakfast in bed is the bee's knees!

Really, I didn't mean this...

Last night, I ran into Joann's to pick up a 5" square and a small rotary cutter for the 1,000th post giveaway. Honest! That was it!!

I went down the aisles to look at yarn and noticed little red CLEARANCE signs.... That was it!



Seriously, ALL of this was on clearance!! The Sugar 'N Cream on the left was 97 cents a ball!!! Seriously!!! I just couldn't pass it up!

And since I got 2 more of the closet organizers on Wednesday night...



...along with the flexible muffin bake-ware for $2.99, I knew that I had a bit more space for these new yarns.

But just barely enough room!



This was taken before I added the new yarn. I also pulled out a box of yarn to donate to the hospital for volunteers to make prayer shawls.

Maisy just doesn't know what to think!

2010 Quilting Goals Revisited – Post 2

I’m doing a series of posts on my progress so far on my 2010 Quilting Goals.

Goal 2 – Finish a ‘big’ project before starting a new ‘big’ project.

So far, I have been doing pretty well on this goal. At the beginning of the year, I had several small projects that were in various states of completion and I think that I finished them all by mid-February. Once those were done, I concentrated on the 2 secret quilts which were all UFOs and therefore not new projects.

The only big project that I have finished so far this year is the secret quilt A Little Latte for Regina. I’m really close to finishing the second secret quilt and Milky Way, but I have to do the binding and labels on both.

I have started two new projects this year. First, I cut out the Judy Martin Log Cabin Quilt, but I had been gathering fabrics for that quilt since November’s shopping trip with Barb (again with Barb?!?! lol HOLLA!!). Technically, it wasn’t started in 2009, but I didn’t start the cutting until I was finished with one of the Secret quilts. And second, I cut the pieces for the SIS quilt, but I just did that last week.

Looks like I should sew the binding and label on one of the quilted quilts so that I can finish something and start sewing on the SIS quilt!

This goal hasn’t been that difficult to keep except for the cutting on the SIS quilt. Since both Sue and Regina are assembling their blocks and almost done with the centers of their tops, I am a bit behind them and was getting anxious to start on my quilt. But this post is helping me realize that I really should work on the binding on the quilts that are in limbo so that I can have more ‘big’ finishes and then I can start something new!

I don’t think that it will be a problem to keep this Goal for the year.

Goal 3 – Organize Stash Room

This goal was finished in January, but the second part of the goal is to make sure that the room stays clean and the fabric is put away in an orderly fashion. Up until a week ago, it was a cake walk! I know that after I brought in all that fabric in April I spent about 30 minutes folding the fabric and making sure that it all went onto the shelves in the proper spots.

I think that when I was trying to bust fabric to get my Stash Report back in the black I may have pulled out a bit of fabric without replacing it immediately. There may be some yarn on the floor, too. Who knows where that came from! ;)

This Goal has truly helped me keep the room in order a lot longer than I had expected. And I am considering other improvements to the room that would help me keep it clean and organized better. I also have some decluttering that must be done to the non-crafty portions of the room!

Maxie says....

"Just leave our toys alone! No decluttering needed for them!"

It's done!!

Oh my gosh!! I'm finished with the spare/stash room!!!

OK, I want to just say that again....

I'm finished with the stash room!

What a relief! And I think it looks great!! I did run out of space so some of the fabric that I showed in yesterday's post is going to be hanging out in the rocking chair for now. And there are a couple of things on the bed that I would love to have out of the house, but this is where they will reside for the time being.

Here is a before picture of the shelves where most of my yardage is:



And after:



What a difference!

And this is the after of the shelves that are just to the right of these pictures:



And here is the rocking chair:



I still have a couple of things that are hanging out on the floor, but not to the extent that it was before. I can handle the few things for now.

And this is the completion of my 2010 Crafting Goal #3!! Yahoo!!! I'm so happy to have this done!

Other than this, I have spent the day doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen and clipping the dogs toenails. I'm pooped!! I think that I will be spending the rest of the evening cuddling with the dogs and knitting! I deserve after finishing all of this!

Swimming...

I am swimming in fabric!! I have spent the last couple of hours trying to get the last of the main part of my fabric refolded and once I started putting stacks on my shelves I realized that I ran out of room! I have too much fabric!!

I decided that since the scraps and crumbs are sort of at the bottom of the To Do list for now, that I need to concentrate on organizing and working on UFOs so that I can start some new projects and get some of this fabric out of here.

I have stacks of Joann's clearance fabric and flannel backings that have been pre-washed and ready for quilting or tying and binding to be donated to Project Linus. If I could get those stacks out of here, I would be well on my way to the Charity quilt goal and have more room to finish organizing my scraps, crumbs and fabric.

I guess the question that I need to answer is .... if the fabric is ready for quilting having been pre-washed and cut to size, is it considered a UFO? I'm thinking YES! Maybe I should just take the stack into my sweatshop/bedroom and make sure that they are paired up and ready to take to the frame for quilting.

OK, it's way past lunch time and I have 4 beady little eyes looking at me with anticipation of going outside. Guess I better scoot!

Big day tomorrow!

I got a call from the shop today that the frame and the Mega Quilter are at the shop and ready to be picked up. The cruise control (stitch regulator) won't be in until Tuesday, but I figured that setting up the frame and making sure that the machine is in working order is important and definitely something that I can do this weekend without the cruise control.

Tonight, to continue the preparation for the frame, I took a nap when I got home from work. :) I only slept for an hour though. Then, I had a salad for dinner, cleaned the kitchen and went to the basement. I swapped out a rickety, old metal shelving unit for a nice, sturdy plastic one and re-organized the shelves. I now have a good size pile to take to Goodwill and a larger pile to try and sell on eBay. Now, I just need to wait until they have a selling special.

Once I was done in the basement, I folded laundry and put it away so I am ready to work on some projects tomorrow. I am debating on whether I should get up and rush to the shop when they open to get the goods or if I should just take my time and make a couple of stops after a restful morning of going through the past week's mail. I will probably end up doing option B.

Well, check back tomorrow for pictures of the set up. I am still trying to work on a name for the machine and frame. Should there be separate names for each? Maybe Lenny and Squiggy? I always loved Laverne and Shirley! :)

April Accomplishments

It's that time again to list everything that I got done in the last month. And since I am up-to-date on my postings, this should be a relatively easy list to make!

1. Cleaned and organized the spare bedroom where my stash is kept. It looks awesome, even if I do say so myself!
2. Learned that I have way too many kits and projects started and that I should not be buying anything else!
3. Treated myself to a shopping spree at my LQS, Best Friends, after realizing that I hadn't been into the shop the entire month of March. Shame on me!
4. Went to a Bunco charity even for St Jude Hospital and won an evening out for two. Maybe I can just have 2 evenings out with myself... :D
5. Received my first Quilter's Home from my subscription that my parents got me for my birthday. Yeah!
6. Received and organized lots of donations for the Quilt Retreat.
7. Finished my taxes and filed well in advance 2 days before the deadline.
8. Assembled the blocks for the Stash Pot Pie quilt. I even bought fabric and attached the borders to finish the top!
9. Got an awesome prezzie from Michelle! I love it!!
10. Met Jen! Finally!!!
11. Took Jen on a mini shop hop around Cincinnati.
12. Went on the Second Annual Quilt of Dreams Quilt Retreat.
13. Pimped Jen out at the retreat
14. Had IHOP 2 days in a row with Jen and had Beezlenut Splashes. Yum!
15. Finished one BOM block
16. Made 6 pillowcases - 2 What would Jill Do, 2 Star Wars, 1 Crab and 1 stars and clouds.
17. Stitched the binding to the front of my Spools quilt that Jen quilted for me.
18. Finished the final book in the Harry Potter series.
19. Won the Grand Prize at the Quilt Retreat - the Rowenta Pressure Iron and Steamer
20. Broke the Rowenta Pressure Iron and Steamer during it's first use. Am a total tool! I was able to fix it though! Woo hoo!
21. Raised over $2800 for St Jude Children's Research hospital from the Retreat!
22. Went on a date
23. Almost finished a comfort quilt for a co-worker's son. I just have to finish the quilting and then bind it.
24. Made a design wall. No more poor man's design wall for me.
25. Finally got meds for my allergies. Am feeling great now, thanks!

Now, if I can hurry up and get this posted, I may be able to start my accomplishments for May!

I am done....

I am so proud of myself! I am done with putting everything back into the spare bedroom. It looks pretty good! I still have some organizing that I will need to do eventually, but for right now, it is basically ready for an overnight guest.

Here is my sewing area that is in my master bedroom. I just need to straighten things up a little more.





And here is the spare bedroom. I was quite shocked with the amount of kits and projects that I have already gotten and haven't started or done anything with yet. Everything that is part of a kit or has already been started is now in these plastic bins. There are also 2 full shelves of bags and bins full of scraps. I didn't take the time to go through the scraps yet, but eventually that is the plan. The scraps are on the top shelf and the bottom shelf in this picture.







I feel great about finally having this done. It is the first time since I moved in here that this room has been in order! I still have some little things that I need to find homes for, but I have a few weeks to get that taken care of.

Now, if only I could pull out Bubba and make a block or something!

January Finish it Up challenge

Here is my list of things for the January Finish it Up challenge:

1. 1 more fabric book for Ethan
2. 2 cat table runners-just need to finish
3. Blue floral purse-started
4. Brown floral purse-started
5. Cat placemats-1 done, 3 to go
6. Pink and blue Very Badley purse
7. Yellow Very Badly Purse
8. Star blocks
9. Star and Nine patch border pieces
10. Star and Nine Patch block assembly
11. Finish organizing stash and spare bedroom

Hopefully, I will be able to make a huge dent in this if I can't get everything done. I hope that I can get everything done!

December Accomplishments

Here is my list of December Accomplishments:

Quilty Things Accomplished:

1. Finished my 9 patch blocks for my star and nine patch quilt class
2. Practiced FMQ more on my scrap quilt and quilted a Kid Komfort quilt for our Guild
3. Finished the Monkey fabric book for Ethan
4. FMQ a Halloween table runner
5. Finished coasters and rice heat bags for Christmas presents for co-workers
6. Completed the first Santa Rag quilt for my Granma's birthday
7. Bought Fabric for another Santa rag quilt
8. FMQ the I SPY - this was the biggest thing this month, I think. I also got it bound with the help of Granma.
9. Finished 1 cat placemat
10. Started working on 2 Very Badley purses before I realized I had messed them up and quit sewing on Christmas presents for a week!
11. Began the process of cleaning out the spare bedroom where my fabric stash is kept. This i quilt related because I needed to have a place to put my stash as I bought fabric and I was running out of floor space in the spare bedroom. Now, there is lots of space and lots of containers in which to store projects!
12. I also started preparing Maddy's 50's Retro Take 5 quilt to sandwich and quilt. I'd like to get that done before Valentine's Day. (no use trying to add it to my January list of must do's!)

Non Quilty Things Accomplished:

1. Found out that my Grinch Name is Woefulgrump Sourbottom. Everyone should know what their Grinch name is, but the link is disabled! :(
2. Changed my blog template
3. Finished Lake in the Clouds by Sara Donati

I think that there might be other things that I have done, but I am drawing a blank right now.

The only other thing that I can think of is that while growing my tiny stash, I won the $100 gift card at my lqs!

Now, I need to make my list of things that I have to do for Jen's January's Finish It Up challenge!

Pictures for prior post

When I posted the update from Saturday, I hadn't uploaded my pictures. Now, they have been uploaded.

This is the fabric for Ethan's pillowcase. This will match his bedroom pretty well.



This is for pants for Spencer. He really liked the flannel pirate pants that I made for him so I am sure that he will like these, too!



For the Pat Speth class in March, I got this fabric. I am going to use it to make the Sunny Lanes quilt from the Nickel Quilts book. It is a scrappy looking quilt and I think that this will look awesome in the pattern!



This is the spare bedroom and these were taken after I had been working for about an hour. I have made a trip to the dumpster already and have a load to take to Goodwill. I also want to get a couple of shelving units so that I can organize my fabric and projects a little more.







Man, what a mess! :)

Man, I am pooped!

Saturday, Judy from my small group and I ran around town and stopped at a bunch of quilt shops! We had a very productive day! I got lots of goodies!

First, we took Bubba to the shop. As you may remember, we had a mishap the week of Thanksgiving after her had a routine check up. Here is a refresher of that event. The specfic store that I bought the machine at had told me that a different shop is where the cleanings and repairs take place so I decided to by-pass the first shop and went straight to the repairing shop. Unfortunately, that shop is 45 minutes away from my house. I had told Judy that I was going to go there when we talked about going to a LQS for their year end sale and she asked if I wanted company on the drive so we decided to make a day of it. Man, was it a great day!

We got out to the shop and took the machine in and I was totally prepared for a fight. I did not want to leave the machine again because, last time, they kept him for 2 whole weeks. And since the part broke off almost immediately after I got it back, I knew it wasn't my fault and I didn't want to pay for anything. Silly me, I forgot that Bubba is still under warranty and I wouldn't have to pay for anything! And they agreed that I could take him home, but I would have to bring him back when they got the part so that they could put the part on and keep it under warranty. Awesome!

Next, we drove to Waynesville to the Fabric Shack. This is one of my favorite shops because they have so many bolts of fabric AND because they have a lot of novelty fabrics and lines of fabrics. Some of the other shops in this area will pick 3-5 bolts from a certain line and that is it. The Shack had all of the fabrics from the Flirtations line that I wanted! I also got a few novelty fabrics for more I Spy quilts since I am getting requests for them.

When we left the Shack, we went to a little restaurant that was right down the street and was basically a hole in the wall. The food was AWESOME! I can't wait to go back! They had the best peanut butter pie! Judy said that the next time we 'shop hop' that we will plan on going back there for pie!

After the Shack, we drove to Sew-Ezy to stop and see if they had anything on sale. They really didn't, but I got some fabric to make Ethan a pillowcase to match his room and some polar bear flannel for a quilt or something.

Then, we went to Best Friends for their end of year inventory sale. They had moved some of the shelving unit around and had a bunch of bolts marked 50% off and set up on a table in the middle of the shop. They had fabric marked 20-70% off and if you killed a bolt, you got entered into a drawing for a $100 gift card! I think that between Judy and me ,we killed 14 bolts at least! I think that Judy thought I was nuts when I was going around looking for 50% off fabric that had around a yard left on the bolt, but then she really got into looking for them, too! Hopefully, one of us will win something!

After I got home, I ate dinner and then started working on my spare bedroom. This room has been a mess for a long time! I have been buying farbic and kits and things and just putting them on the floor in the room because nothing was organized. I realized that in order to have anyone come and quilt overnight, they would need a place to sleep and that would be where they would have to go. And in order for that to happen, the place needed to be cleaned up! I forgot to take before pictures, but I took mid-cleaning pictures and will soon be taking some after pictures. I need to get some more shelving units to spread things out a bit. Right now, most of the fabric is off of the floor, but there is no sort of organization to it. And all of my scraps are sort of scattered. But things are more organized than they were before and I will soon be ready for the scrap/stash busting class at Best Friends that started in about 2 weeks.

Well, I need to get ready for a movie. I am meeting my granma, Aunt Carol and cousin Meghan to see National Treasure 2. We are all very excited about going to see it in the theater!