I digress

Today I need to sit on the pity pot for a while. The last two days have been (deleted expletive)! DH has had two very "bad" days in a row. It caught me off guard. Then he asked me to promise that I would not tell the doctor at our next meeting. He is so out of it that I don't know what to do. He is taking his pills at the wrong time and consequently he is drugged instead of medicated. Then my small quilting group on Mondays totally ignored me last night. I finally left at 8:30. I was the first one to leave, but I was close to crying.

Off the pity pot!

I have almost finished the second Alaska baby quilt. Only three rows to sew on and then the two major sides to sew together. I plan on finishing the top tonight.

Saturday I made a major road trip. Jo Ann's Fabric, Staples, Half Price Books and Meijer's. Polka Dot material...I didn't own a single piece. Sentimental Stitches is starting a polka dot garden so I loaded up on 1/4 yd pieces of each that Jo Ann's had. Along with that I got several pieces of fabric that will work as the backing for my charity quilts and some foam core board to make a design wall in my new studio. Staples was a stop for more color ink cartridges for my printer. I am going through them at the rate of two a month. Half Price Books was just to look for books by Chiaverini and another author. I ended spending $50 on books from idiot's guide to home security to beginning wood working. At Meijer's all I was going to get was two book shelves. I walked out with three book shelves, one computer desk, three lamps, three lamp shades and an African violet for my flower garden in the kitchen window. Wow, what an expensive day!

Myrna Giesbrecht is starting her Studio Makeover classes from her website on September 8. I need to gut the family room before that. After this top is completed the sewing machine is going to be packed up and I am getting to work! I am excited and just a little worried. I have never approached a total renovation of a room before. I guess the class will keep me on the straight and narrow and I will end up with my dream sewing studio in the end.

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

History strikes again

Yep, I didn't go to the group meeting. Shame on me!

I continued to work on the baby Trip Around the World and cut one piece of the sewn together strips 1/2 inch too long. Just means that I have one less row to fudge with. I have been taking pictures as I go along. Once I figure out how to add pictures to my blog you will be able to watch as I go.

I have started to read one of the three books I bought through Amazon dot com about setting up a sewing room / studio. Looks like I have my work cut out for me. First I have to literally get every piece of furniture and all knick knacks out of the way and start measuring the walls, windows, fireplace and sliding glass doors so I can diagram the layout. I think I may have to throw away a love seat that I have had since 1982. It's in poor shape and I don't have the couch that went with it any more so I won't be too much of a pull on the heart strings.

After I finally get everything cleared out I have to figure where to put my 7 (yes seven) sewing machines. I could keep the one for traveling in it's case, but it is the most modern of all my machines. I will have to think about it. I have purchased several different storage containers and other things to make this studio my own. The Dollar Store and sales at JoAnn's are making this an easy transition.

This evening I think I will plan on spending one hour working on the family room and then reward myself with some more work on the quilt top. I would like to get it finished before the 21st so that I can give it to one of my friends who has a long arm and has offered to layer and quilt my tops for charity. Oh, I do so want my own quilting frame.

I wonder if Uncle Sam will hand out some more money for fuel surcharges and what my IRS refund will be next spring. Maybe I will have enough to get the machine to go with the frame. I am easy to please and don't need the top of the line machine. I requested several books from the inter library loan service in Ohio on long arm machines. One of them even tells you how to set up your own business.

Well, maybe after I retire I can supplement our income with quilting. Who would think I would ever want to go back into business on my own? I have been fighting with DH for years because he wants to start up some kind of business. After two failures in our own businesses I didn't ever plan to do that again. But, with only myself to contend with I might even consider it. We will have to see what the future brings.

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

No quilting since Thursday

Machine is still in bag. Fabric is cut and waiting. I am reading books. I am in a funk.

Will not take it out on you.
Have a nice day, Karen

UFO weekend starts early

There is an UFO weekend at Q.U. and I am part of it.

Thursday afternoon I cut the 10 FQ for my next baby Trip Around the World quilt top. Then I had to go to sleep from 3 P.M. to 9 P.M. I am part of the team at work responsibile for the month end closeout. I was called in at 12:30 A.M. and will be working until 7:30 A.M. Then I can get back to my UFO goals.

Have a nice day, Karen