What did I do on the Friday Night Sew In?

I played with EQ6. Did you know that there is a version 7 coming out in June. I still have so many things to learn about 6 that I an in a quandary about what to do. I can get a great price on the upgrade if I pre-order before May 31. I will think it out again.

I decided to see what I could design with only HST. It was a lot of fun. Then I added a border. and when I was finished I had added a total of seven borders.

Would you like to see what I did?

First I designed the center arrangement of the HST. I added a border and this is what turned out.



The I went crazy and added six more borders.



I think it all turned out rather nifty.

Progress on MIL quilt

I have cut out four of the blocks for the quilt. By that I mean that a total of 17 blocks are cut as each one has four identical blocks placed in the top.

Saturday I was watching a video on QNNtv about EQ and realized that the top was missing somthing. No sashing. How amazing! I pulled up the design and added sashing in the same color as the borders. It is a really wonderful red. The cornerstones of the shashing are going to be white on white fabric. It really made the quilt pop. I cannot wait to start the sewing. However, I am going to have all the cutting completed so that I can just start sewing and not have to jump back and forth between.

We are leaving for Orlando on April 9th. I will be taking the cut pieces for my MIL quilt and Navajo Tears with me. In my spare time between Disney World and Discovery Cove I will sew and chat with our family. I cannot wait.

I hope we will be taking my DH computer with us so that I can post while I am down south, but if not I will update you when we get home.

Have a great day and enjoy Spring.

Monday and Quilting

Yesterday I almost completed the quilting on one of the baby "Trip Around the World" quilts. I will finish the quilting this evening. Then I will layer the second baby "Trip Around the World" and start quilting it. The first was quilting with straight line quilting diagonally through the rectangles of the patches. Sewing through the bias was very interesting. The second I will be implementing some techniques I learned from one of our Guild's visiting quilt teachers. I am going to try a simple curving stitch down the seam lines between the patches. I envision the curves going into the patches and making a pleasant change to the puffiness of the finished quilt.

I made some real progress in the process of getting my family room ready for the studio makeover. As soon as I get one area in the back corner ready I will be moving my computer system into it. This way I can combine all of my hobbies in one area and free up the smallest bedroom to be what it is designed for. It has been my computer room and office since January, 2000. That is when I had my hip replaced. The computer remained there when DH had both knees replaced in December, 2000 and through several knee surgeries for me prior to my knee replacement in September, 2006. I am doing much better with the stairs now and feel that I can take my computer system back downstairs.

My EQ6 class is slowly coming along. I have fallen behind in the lessons and plan on setting some time aside each evening this week to play catch up. I want to finish the lesson prior to the end of the class so that I can ask as many questions as possible. This is a great product and I can see some fantastic quilts in my future.

A Christian friend of my was talking about how her walk with God is progressing. She reads from the Bible every day. I have been reading some scripture, but if I want to walk the walk I need to be more regular in all aspects of my spiritual life. Just praying is not enough. The Word of God is also necessary to keep me on the path. How wonderful to have a friend who likes me whether I am happy or sad, angry or glad; who takes me as I am and points the direction chich is most in tune with my goals of spirituality.

Have a great day, Karen

Thursday Evening

Surprise: I have more magazines about quilting than I thought I had. I was clearing off a chair in the dinning room that I set various "stuff" on at the end of each day and I discovered almost 20 issues of various quilting magazines. I am in seventh heaven!

EQ6 has a free software program to use as a database and I am cataloging my quilting books in one database and my quilting magazines in another database. Looks like I will have some data entry to do this weekend.

This is the beginning of a three day weekend. I have informed DH that I have planned out the entire weekend. It may be selfish, but sometimes caregivers need to do exactly that even if they are not on a respite. (For those who do not know what a respite is, it is time away from caregiving with no responsibilities but to take care of yourself. It is a time for reflection, healing and rest.)

I will digress only this far. Yesterday I had an appointment with my primary care physician. He treats me and DH. I told him about my quilt neighborhood group and how they had told me I am no longer welcome in their group. My doctor said, "Tell them to go to H---. They have no idea what you are going through. Until they have to deal with what you are handling they have no right to make any statement or to treat you with disrespect."

Have a great day, Karen

Oh how I wish I could work on my to do list

Good intentions never accomplished anything. If I don't work in my family room I cannot have my sewing room / studio. Does that make me go down there and work. Nope. I piece my quilt tops instead.
I have given up on trying to make the Trip Around the World a post on my blog. I just forget to take pictures as I go along and take off sewing. Sorry. If anyone wants the instructions and the photos I do have, leave a comment with your e-mail address and I will send them to you.
Last night I got most of the top put together. Once I have it finished I will take the two tops to JoAnn's and get backing and binding fabric for them. The fabrics for the tops are not "baby" fabric so the backs will have to be "baby" fabric!
Big weekend coming up. Two days to work on the house. I would love to give the family room floor a really good SCRUB! It has been too long since it had more than a lick and a promise (if you know what I mean). To do this I will have to put a lot of things out by the street for the garbage man. I have Saturday and Sunday to do this since the garbage man comes early on Monday morning. Wish me luck, please.
My next EQ6 class assignment should be available at 6:00 P.M. EDT this evening. I cannot wait to get my hands on it. If I can finish it tonight then that will leave me all of the rest of the weekend to work on house cleaning.
If you haven't already guessed, I HATE HOUSE CLEANING! I am my own worst enemy as far as this housewifely practice is. I strongly believe in a place for everything and everything in it's place. BUT, I don't have a place for everything I have and therefore do not put away things. I am known as person who is controlled by my stuff instead of me controlling it. I have several books on how to get rid of clutter. That is the problem...too many books about it and I cannot seem to follow the directions.
Enough.
Have a great day, Karen

EQ6 all weekend long -- almost

Friday evening was great! My employeer had Vince Gill and Amy Grant Gill come to the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio just for the employees and agents that were attending the August meetings. It was the first time that all employees and all the August meeting attendees were at a single function together.

Amy was really fantastic. She talked and sang and we got to know more about her as an individual as well as enjoying her songs. What a special lady. She was checking her oldest daughter into college on Friday morning, flew to Cincinnati just for us and was flying back to the college to finish the freshman processing.

Then Vince came on the stage. You just have to love the man. He projects this simple calm down home attitude and then belts out these songs that just go clear to your soul. I loved every minute of his singing and then Amy came out and sang back up to one of his songs as an encore.

This is a fantastic couple and I wish them the best in the years to come. We had quality entertainment for a non-stop hour and 45 minutes. My employeer is the best!

Saturday morning I started my EQ6 Sampler class from Quilt University dot com. What a wonderful class! I started and finished the assignments before lunch and had my homework posted on the gallery website at Q.U. before supper. I finished my EQ6 Mystery Quilt Lessons 1 through 3 and posted them on the EQ6 Mystery Yahoo Group Website. To say I am a little psyched is an understatement.

Sunday evening I got out my sewing machine and started sewing strips for my second baby quilt sized Trip Around the World. I will start taking pictures tonight and taking notes of the process as I go. I will post them here if anyone is interested, feel free!

I was wandering aroung the internet after I finished my EQ6ing and went out to the HGTV website for Alex Anderson's "Simply Quilts" videos. Guess what was up first. You will not believe it! Myrna Giesbrecht was her visitor and there were four episodes to watch including a walk through Alex's and Myrna's studios. How great for background on my own studio makeover! So many things are falling into place that I am truly blessed.

I actually attacked some of the chaos in my family room so that I can start on my studio. The crunch to get it finished before September 1 is off. My orthopaedic said I don't need knee replacement as soon as I thought. But the pressure is still on to get my own place to sew and just be calm by myself. Sewing in the living room is a nice way to spend time with DH. But, DH is sleeping most of the time in his easy chair. So much for togetherness.

Tonight is the Caregivers Support Group. I have missed the last two months. I better get my act together and attend tonight! Even if I don't think the meeting help I know that I will need them further down the line. It is called denial and it isn't just a river in Egypt!

I am really leaning towards getting that Grace machine quilting frame. I need more research and to talk to friends in Guild to get feedback. I am thinking and thinking about this. I will not leap before I really can justify the expense!

Have a nice day, Karen

What am I doing?

Last night I read two more of the quilt magazines that I picked up from Guild. They must have had 100 issues of old magazines that someone was giving away. What was interesting is that a magazine from the 80's had the same pattern as one of my magazines that I got within the last two weeks. The traditional patterns never go out of style, do they?

I purchased EQ6 a few months ago and have been dabbling with it ever since. Recently I became aware that EQ has mystery quilts on their website. I started with the previous quilt about two weeks ago and finished it up last night. Boy did I learn things about EQ that I hadn't learned yet. Tomorrow is my first lesson from Q.U. called EQ6 Sampler. It is taught by Fran Gonzales the EQ guru. I am sure that I will learn bunches from her. Also have another EQ mystery quilt to start. Looks like a lot of time will be spent on the computer.

The three books and the floor layout portfolio that I ordered have all come in. I started a basic layout for my sewing room/quilt studio and I don't have enough room in the family room to put everything! Maybe I should get the actual dimensions of the room and the placement of the windows, fireplace and doors. I always seem to do things backwards. I definitely got the carriage before the horse on this one.

Tonight my employer is taking the entire company to an event. It is to be held at the U.S. Bank Arena in downtown Cincinnati. We are getting free parking, free entrance to the Event and free beverages and snacks inside the arena. We won't know who the entertainment is until the introduction at 8:00 this evening. The last time CFC did this they had Bill Cosby come during the business day and all the employees were outside enjoying a carnival kind of atmosphere with ice cream and soda. If they could get Bill Cosby, can we even imagine who they will have tonight. Some many names of entertainers are being speculated about. I imagine that only 5 or 10 upper level management know who it is for sure and one individual in Corporate Accounting that paid the fee to the entertainer. I will let you know who it is when I blog next.

I am not sure exactly what I am going to do this weekend. I know that reading is OUT! I cannot afford the time. I have too many UFO's to work on and time is getting short on the Alaska baby quilts.

They last few weeks I have been struggling with envy. One of my friends from Guild has a new Grace quilting frame and a new long arm quilting machine. I die of envy every time she blogs about it or mentions it. I have been looking at a Grace frame called Gracie II. It will take a long arm quilting machine or even a regular sewing machine. The amount of space that is available for quilting depends on the machine. It can be anything from 6" to 18" for the professional long arm. Am I getting too self centered and wanting this too much? I have the cash to pay for the frame and it is upgradable as far as the machine for the future. I figure the frame and the necessary accessories will be about $1250. Is that too much to be spending? I have to really think about this. When I talk to my DH James he seems to encourage me. Is that because he knows how much I love quilting or because he then thinks that we can go and get a new motorcycle for him. You know the yang and yang of that type of thing in a marriage. I must not pursue this aggressively. Patience girl, patience!

Enough for now. Have a great day, Karen