Black Friday 2014

Hahahahaha No Shopping Here


Yesterday before everyone arrived for Thanksgiving (which by the way was really special) I managed to get  a customer quilt completed.

That was yesterday today Black Friday which I like to think of as insane Friday - Stacy came over Toby brought Ky and Gus and they trimmed my tree for me.

Big Help Gus!!     Seriously though Stacy and Ky did an amazing job working (with) around Gus.

This morning before the tree trimming I quilted for Diane Amundson, great looking quilt Diane.

I have the house all decorated inside and out for Christmas and can concentrate even more on customer quilting.

The day is going better than I had expected - keeping myself pretty busy.  Have Christmas music playing on TV and feeling pretty good.

You know how the saying goes life give you lemons make lemonade.  Well this morning I attempted something that I thought would work - Black Beans cooked can give a blue color to the water - I saw on instragram a lady had dyed yarn using beans.  Well obviously I had to try that with a scarf right.

Ha ha -  yes as soon as the beans boiled the color was a beautiful blue, but I'm thinking don't waste the beans, cook them until soft and give them to Stacy she was going to use them for a dip.

Off to my sewing room I go, feeling pretty smart.  Check on beans - oops there is a time limit on that color - now its a brown - I don't need brown dye I have that.  Hmm those beans smell pretty good - what can I do with cooked beans and brown juice - make soup!!!!  Added stewed tomatoes, onions, garlic - its missing something what can I put in this pot????????    Fried up some leftover bacon added to the pot now we are cooking.

Not exactly on my diet after adding the bacon so Toby and Stacy both go home with soup and I have a small bowl for me.

Dresden Plate

The top was hand sewn by someone, have no idea who - one of my customers brought it to me to be quilted I have already forgotten how she came to own this one.  Will ask her when she picks it up.

Although its a beauty now it was a little bit of a challenge to quilt, with pleats and puckers popping up throughout.  Still I'm glad I had a chance to quilt this and turn it into something that will be appreciated for many years to come.

For the past few days I have had the attention span of a gnat.  Just cant concentrate on one thing for any length of time.

So far I have quilted off and on, put lights on bushes out front, 2hrs to put together stupid lighted deer, cleaned a spot on the pond to let the sun shine in, -as advised to help keep the fish alive through the winter.  Pond heater, pump not working right now.

Its a year gone by and tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a time to be thankful and spend with family. HAPPY THANKSGIVING  EVERYONE.   Friday would have been our 50tth anniversary.

I'm looking forward to my family coming to dinner .  Its one of the special days that will keep me from going off the deep end.  I'm about 3 seconds away from losing it altogether.

Plan on eating as many high calorie foods as I can pack in.   Not a good thing for sure.  I have been watching my weight and lost 18lbs so far, and maybe tomorrow I will find those missing lbs.

How many jobs, chores and projects can I pack into the next few days.

We will see wont we.

Still Working On November

What fun for me - seriously!!!!

and then........

and ........

So who is having more fun than me.

In addition:

Hehehehehe notice the bling???

Today I declared a Jammie day and got loads of things done -  including quilting, sewing on my own project, knitting , dyeing and oh yeah managed to clean the house which was in dire need of a good cleaning.

More of the same on schedule for tomorrow - cant believe its almost Thanksgiving and soon Christmas, which means I have to kick it up a notch if I want to get my own projects done by then.  

Time management that's the name of the game this time of year.

A Few More November Quilts

Business has been good and seems to be picking up even more - All Good Things!!!!!


After having one of the best Birthdays in a while -  dinner out with my family, headed to the sewing room and finished this customer quilt for Karla N.

Sometimes I just have to look at a quilt and it will tell me the best way to quilt it.  For this one it spoke to me wiggles, but not just straight line wiggles - no - cross hatched wiggles and while I'm quilting it I'm saying to myself this reminds me of something, think think think........ Oh Yeah -  colored interlocking puzzle piece floor tiles - that's it.

Fun and it really makes each square pop up like little pillows.

From quilting I go to running errands and back again to load yet another quilt which I completed this morning
for  Karyn P.  Small wall hanging but beautifully done - I used a panto called Continuous Baptist Fans

This would be a great stitching design for a quilt with a lot of negative space to fill.

As a matter of fact I have one of those quilts of my own to do.

For The Birds

Cute:

Got to play with my line ruler again and do some free motion - best of both worlds

Next up - tshirt quilt for a customer

Call to eye doc - and Gus coming to see gma this afternoon - its going to be a good day

Something Special

Took all morning and some of the afternoon to do but it turned out so pretty.

Customer quilt by Linda Batz - candles wall hanging, and I got to try out my new proline rulers by Lisa Calle for the piano borders.

Don't know why the camera turned this sideways, you will have to tilt your head

Now I'm going to have to rest awhile especially my eyes by the time I finished with this everything looked blurry when I turned away from the quilting.

Not a good sign, guess I better check with the eye Dr tomorrow.

Darn infection is back on my right eye but the good news the meds seem to be helping.

Too bad I really wanted to get another quilt loaded and started today, but better rest up - I will do a better job if I do.

I do have a couple scarves to finish up ironing and washing so guess that is the plan for the rest of the day.

Only A Memory Now

Since coming home from Houston I have been working on my customers quilts.

Free motion flowers - love doing these flowers

Beautiful sampler quilt - I used a pantograph called "Paisley"


Now I'm back to the real world - not too bad a world though.   While I was gone and seeing all the beautiful quilts it always gives me an incentive to make more quilts and do the quilting for others


Sadly I went back to yet another urgent care yesterday afternoon, my eye infection is back and now I'm on 2 other drugs to try to get rid of it.

Its so annoying cant understand why it just wont go away - now the Dr thinks I have contact dermatitis and cellulitis.

My eye looks just like it did in Houston ugh - happy halloween again.


Today is clean up day in the yard - time to take down - pull up and put away all lawn furniture and decorations.  Its always fun putting them around the yard in the spring but so so sad to put them away especially when its a dark and gloomy cold day like today.  Lucky for me I have some pretty darn nice kids as they are coming over to help with this chore.

Even Gus will be here to help

Returned From Houston

You cant imagine what a time I had in Houston this year.

Started off with an eye infection that continued throughout my trip.

This did not keep me from enjoying myself and spending enough money to keep many vendors and Houston restaurants happy.

The quilts, of course, were outstanding.  One of our friends had a quilt accepted at the show.  Sharon Schaapveld did an amazing job and we are all so proud of her and makes us so pleased to know her.

Another quilter that I am so proud to call a friend Lisa Calle
Her quilting is just jaw dropping amazing:

I took hundreds of pictures of the quilts and did not even take one of each it would have been just too much but for those of you who would like to see them her are just a few:

And still another quilter that is a friend through CT - Valerie Smith had one of her amazing pieces displayed at the Modern Quilts Unlimited booth:

Unfortunately I didn't get a close up of her quilt - it is the grey purple small wall hanging and the quilting is yet another gorgeous amazing piece of work.  Here I am with my wonderful friends.

Like I said just a teeny tiny bit of all the pictures I took - there are hundreds more that I have

One of the favorites was the view from our hotel room at night

Houston really is a very beautiful city. At least the parts we saw.

Our hotel was located 6 blocks from the festival and we walked it to and from every day - not to mention all the walking that was done inside the building.  My friend Charyl had a step counter and one day she recorded we walked 4.5 miles.  This is an amazing feat for me.


After a delay at the Houston Airport finally made it home around 7:30pm, too exhausted I left all the unpacking for today.

Which took a good part of the morning - sorting through the purchases, clean versus dirty clothes but its all put in its proper place.

At last but not least I managed to quilt one of my customer quilts.  Now its not a show quilt and my quilting by any means does not compare to those award winning quilts, but not everyone has to do a show quilt - (we) just enjoy our own special quilts and quilting.