Do you want pictures….

or ramblings from me? I can do both, but it would boring in the end. We all enjoy looking at pretties!

I’ve been preparing for next weekend’s quilting retreat. Pulling projects outs, making sure all parts are cut and making 9 patch blocks for the charity project we are doing for Quilts of Valor. Well, what an appropiate way to spend part of my 4th of July by making 9 patch blocks. I have 7 done and I hope to get at least 3 more.

And here’s the 10 blocks I have done of the Pink & Green Monster….it’s soo hard to do these blocks, and I have 10 more to put together:

I was at work for a few hours today to instruct someone on threading their serger….well I learned a few new things after an hour of trying to figure it out….seriously it’s not the difficult, but one little thing messes up everything else. Mental note, if machine was set up for a cover stitch previously, in order to use a 4 thread overlock stitch, you must remove the proper hardware and flip over the proper switch.

The rest of the day involved an afternoon visit to hubby’s friends house (he does have his own friends) and a long nap.

Feel like sewing but don’t know what to start with….I’m sure something will come to me.

Happy Birthday America!

I hope you enjoy your 4th (where ever you are :)) We’ll be spending it with family, friends and fireworks.

Yah for a long weekend…

well, sorta–I wasn’t suppose to work Saturday, but I have a class schedule to teach a machine, so I’ll be in for about an hour, but otherwise I’m off til Monday!

We hung patriotic quilts out on the porch today at work, to follow suit with Mt. Airy, that had flags flying from every pole:

I haven’t been doing too much sewing as of late, but I have worked on a few things.  I finally finish my friend’s quilt top, it’s soo huge I can’t take a great picture of it but here it is on my bed and I finally named it The Golden Zen:

I also am making mini stockings for the shop’s employees to celebrate our Christmas in July…I finished mine and need to finish the rest this weekend (everyone’s is different):

And being it’s July (and I already have one of my “to dos” done–whoo hooo!!) I started to play with one of my holiday UFO’s by making a block in the pattern–I plan to finish more of it during my retreat next weekend:

Unsure what I’ll sew tomorrow before I head out for holiday festivities, but I need to make 10 more blocks for the Pink & Green monster and would prefer to finish them sooner than later.

It’s bedtime now…..

July is almost here!!!!

I need to get my butt in gear the next few days, so I’ll be ready for my Christmas in July projects (to include some halloween items).  I have several UFO’s that are holiday related and my logic is to get things DONE in July.  I’m also going to include 4 quilt tops that are going to be holiday gifts—so I can pass them on to my long arm quilter (yes, Penny that means you ).

So, this weekend (in between work, bbq, & going out with hubby) I need to finish up my Orange Crush (so I can finally update my OC logo with my own name on the side bar :)), finish my round robins obligations, my mini swap obligations and pulling out my UFOs for July to work on.  It really isn’t that much, I’m making it sound more than it is, but I really plan to focus on holiday stuff in July.  And I’m taking a quilting retreat in the middle of July and definitely plan to finish several projects during that time.

I’m very excited–I receive the pattern for the Garden Club today…OMgosh!  It’s more gorgeous in person and the pattern is very cool for the embroidery machine!  I can’t wait to get this done and host a BOM club based on it.  We are still picking out the fabrics at work to do the project, but hopefully by end of tomorrow.

No pictures to share this evening, just more rambling.  There will be pictures by end of the weekend though……have a great weekend!

Lots of rambling thoughts….

this post might ramble a bit….mind is wondering a wee bit too much and felt the need to share….you can skip through this post and look at all the cool pictures if you prefer

Well, I think I’m coming out of it. It’s weird how my body/brain work. After long trips away from home I get post-trip depression. Like clock work it hits hard the full day after I arrive home and lingers about a week. I know this about myself and try to keep busy with things and learn something new about myself and depression every time. This time I noticed how difficult it was for me to focus on stuff. I start doing something and within 5 minutes I’m plopped down in front of my computer playing mindless computer games. I did also noticed how I was able to “snap” out of it more or less….I craved some solid attention from my hubby-got it last night and I woke up today all happy. I made coffee, did some laundry and have been working on 5 or so projects. Still having issues with staying focus, but definitely more productive and less on the computer doing mind numbing things. Depression sucks, but I have learned so much about my inner workings I can recongonize it and work to get out of it a lot quicker than in the past.

Again, I have tired to keep busy and with the lack of focus, I have ended up with adding yet another UFO to my list. So, where to start?

Let’s go back to last week when Cheryl came over to sew and I had to pull out my hand dyes I got from my last quilt show and play with them. In the process ended up finding more fabric out of my stash and using a pattern. I’m excited and it is going together rather quickly (whew–so, I don’t feel too bad or behind on other things). I cut it on Saturday and started sewing it together in between things today and here’s 2 blocks. There will be 7 more colors for the chains:

This actually falls into my Strip Challenge for the Summer.  I’m using 2 1/2″ strips to make this quilt along with all items from my stash

Then a lady was clearing out her storage rentals full of fabric….I mean FULL of fabric on bolts and in bins. Here’s just one side:

She was trying to raise money to pay for her rentals…craziness! Anywho, Cheryl and I went shopping on Sunday at this lady’s storage units –with $3/yard sale, who was I to say no?! So, after 26 yards later (that was a total of $78, I walked away confused, tickled and excited. I purchased the first 3 pictures in yardage, the oriental one I got 6 yards for a backing, the remainder 1 yard each:

Came home took pictures and put the fabric away. It was fun to see familar faces at the storage units from the guild and from blogland.

Monday, I took the youngest to her annual summer camp and worked the rest of the day. Then spent Tuesday all day at work setting up the machines and trying out the Q-Bot on the mega-quilter…very cool.

I finished up hand quilting my ALQS yesterday and almost done with the binding. It’s going in the mail tomorrow…unfortunately I don’t feel comfortable sharing a picture yet, because I followed my partners likes to the “T”. Hopefully by Tuesday I can share it!

Then I received my Round Robin from Texas and whipped up a border around it. I plan to share it with my class tomorrow, where we are going to start our own round robin. I also received my RR Bloggers piece and know what I’m going to add to that. Being I can’t show either of those round robins, here’s my 12″ block for my next round robin adventure:

Today, I have been sewing and sewing and sewing. I finished one set of blocks (finally) from my Orange Crush and almost done with the others–at least I have them fixed.

I also found out a friend’s baby is going to be a boy and now need to crack down and get those quilts (I have another baby quilt for a girl to work on as well) done up by August time frame.

Well, I have a few hours before I have to go into work to help host the embroidery club, so I think I’ll do some more sewing.

Where to start?

Well, there’s soo many things to say and stories from the past week I don’t know what to say and I’m sure I’ll forget something.

I throughly enjoyed spending last weekend with Anjea and having her come to San Antonio and bring me lots of honey jars and a big ole bottle of Volka from Austin…..ya know how hard it is to pack in your luggage all that glass and pray it didn’t go over 50 lbs?? LOL It was at 42lbs….whew!! Needless to say, it was worth it! Thank you again Anjea! LOVE the new favors

Then the big kick off of the convention was Sunday night with the revealing of the new machine. It was pretty cool and I meet the youngest participate at the convention, Leah who is 12 and very bright and talented. Somehow amoungst 1600 people we continually ran into each other over the next 3 days! I started to tease her of being my stalker! She is from California and won a prize in the Sew Gallery Show. Again, great gal and she is lucky to have a great mom to show her along.

I learned how to use the new Designer Diamond and the Q-Bot piece that goes on a Mega-Quilter to automatically quilt for you (IT’S TOO COOL). Not to mention learning 2 new softwares, that I really enjoy!

There was a big closing dinner on Wednesday with free alcohol and dancing (but if you wanted a soda it was $3.50 for 10 oz bottle…yah, crazy!).

I’m still coming down from the input overload and meeting so many new faces/people. I went into work today to show off the new machine—-that arrived on Thursday—-and looks like folks are ready to purchase it….we have 4 in the shop, but I think we will need more by next week.

I spent the day sewing….well, cutting I think mostly. I’m kinda in a fog really not focusing on any one project–not good–just need to rest I guess.

Here’s my pictures from my week away. I think it’s bed time.

I’m HOME!

and I didn’t realize how much I truely was out of it until I was talking to Cheryl about not having any of my vices (aka hobbies) for the past 6 days…..and playing and learning new software and machines does not count!

I’m ready to unpack and hit the hay and just chill the next few days.  I have lots of pictures to share and a few stories, but all details will have to wait til tomorrow.  I’m beat.

It’s hot here in Texas!

101 in San Antonio today…..well, outside, inside was a cool 72ish

We got her late Saturday afternoon–when the boss realized we didn’t have any convention obligations to attend, we decided to play! Anjea from Austin came down baring gifts of yuminess and we spent the evening righting the Riverwalk Taxi and eating Texas Style BBQ. We had a nice time and enjoyed more sight seeing Sunday morning with a visit to the Alamo! Said good bye to Anjea and started into convention mode!

We got to see the unveiling of the new Designer Diamond from Husqvarna last night….OOOOO ahHHHHHHHHhhh…..what excitement! You can see it for yourself on their website.

I have taken pictures, but here’s one to enjoy until I get back on Thursday. Internet is $10/24 hours in the hotel…Crazy in my opinion especially for the price we are paying and internet is free at the holiday inn!!

Hope everyone is doing well–I’ll reply to ya’l this weekend!

Leaving on a jet plane….

don’t know when I’ll be on again??

I hope to have internet at the hotel during the next 5 days….depending on the price and all.

If not, I’ll be back Thursday evening with lots of pictures and stories!!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Sometimes…

I need to just pause.

This is the second time this year that hearing the lost of another person that just leaves me speechless and so sadden.

I am so use to my morning routine and one being a big part of it is watching the Today Show on NBC, even enjoyed seeing my favorite male artist this morning, Kenny Chesney. Big part of that show (especially during this election year), Mr. Tim Russert.

I’m having a challenging time with this. I’m unsure why it’s effecting me so much (as I watch the news in tears). I will admit I’m not savvy in the less with politics, but I relied heavily on his take on what was going on over the past months.

He was a good man and proud son and father. It’s more sad that Father’s day is 2 days away and his son just graduated from college.

I understand there are other deaths in the news, like those poor boys in Iowa and other sad happenings. Not saying they don’t effect either, but it feels so personal when I hear about Tim’s death at work.

RIP Tim and god bless your family.