Sewing Studio update

I have started to make progress in my sewing studio. You no doubt remember my moaning about it in several past blogs. Well it is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Last weekend I started going through all the "trash" that has accumulated in the family room. I have only made a dent; but a good dent at that. The recycle bin will be full next Monday. I may even stack several boxes of paper on top of the bin.

Once I get all the paper out and move the garden pots that have accumulated (I think they multiply like rabbits) then I will start to see more possibilities.

Last year during the back to school sales I purchases two or three book cases. They are waiting patiently for me in the garage. I cannot wait to put them together and use them for the magazines and books about sewing and quilting that I have gathered together over the years. How exciting to be able to go to a book case and pull out the very pattern I want. As I put things into place I will also be creating a database of title, pattern and location for each. Then I can go to the computer and say "I want a pattern with the Ohio Star" and find all the various books and magazines that use it. How exciting!

The other thing that I am so looking forward to is my sewing machines. Yes. I have many. Three or four are in the garage also. Mostly Singer machines, but also a treadle machine. I am going to get that treadle machine in working order for the next time we have a power outage. I will not be deprived of my quilting where there is no electricity.

I leave for my October retreat early this year. They had to change the date to September 26, 27 and 28. I so look forward to the friends I have made over the last retreats. I will be looking specially for Maureen. I haven't seen her since last year and I miss her kindness and gentle spirit. Some of the others just make me want to burst out laughing. They are a great group of women and I love them all.

Enough for now. Talk to you later.

Quilt Quild

I missed Guild again last night. I have been having problems with my pancreas and it's too painful to go running around. Now I will have to wait until October's meeting since we meet the first Monday of each month and the September meeting always falls on Labor Day.

Wonder how much I can get done on my list?

Have a great day, Karen W.

NQA Annual Show in Columbus, Ohio

Saturday I attended the Quilt show in Columbus. I had a great time. I met vendors from past years and some new ones as well. I enjoyed talking to one vendor from Marshall, MI. I attended college at Western Michigan University very near to Marshall and have fond memories of dinners at Winn Schuler's restaurant and seeing the town circle decorated for Christmas. I asked and they do still put up the Camel Crossing sign between the outer sidewalk and the circle to the Nativity Scene. Wonderful old memories.

I also talked to a vendor who's husband was in Alabama at a Bagpipe Competition. They sometimes go their separate ways and sometimes go together. She used to be a professional competitor in Scottish Dancing. Now in her late 50's she is no longer to compete, but still dancing when possible. She told me about a Bagpipe and Dance competition that is open to the public in northern Ohio in August. Depending on DH health we may go up to see it. He loves the sound of the bagpipe and I love the dancing.

While I was at the convention I saw a display for a powdered product that mends all types of fabrics. This includes denim, cotton, silk and wool. The way DH goes through his jeans I figured that it would pay for itself in one pair of jeans. Then I saw another display for Angelina that also uses the same powder. Two birds with one stone!

I really shouldn't mention this, but one of the group of quilter's that told me I was no longer welcome in the neighborhood quilt bees was at the convention also. I was walking up one isle and as she turned into the isle she immediately told the one woman with her that they needed to go back around. I think she ran away from me. Well that is what a bully does when they are not surrounded by their friends, isn't it? She still amazes me. Every time we pass each other at Guild meetings she looks down at her shoes. She doesn't have the graciousness to look at me and refuses to talk to me. Well that is her lose and my gain. I have learned that "good friends" that don't stay with you through the bad times are no friends at all. I would rather deal with a straight out enemy than a snake in the grass. ENOUGH ABOUT THEM.

I enjoyed the quilts on display and took so many pictures that I had to replace the batteries in my camera twice. When taking a picture of one quilt I finally realized what one of the quilt tops that I inherited from my grandmother was an Irish Chain pattern. I had always classified it as a 25 patch block. Funny how looking through the lens of a camera will may things look totally different.

Have a great day.

Studio Makeover

I keep procrastinating about my studio makeover. Tonight I will be taking all my quilting projects that are in the living room and moving them down to my original sewing room.

Maybe if I am in the lower area of the house I will be moved to work on the current family room to make it available for my studio.

All of the back issues of quilting magazines have finally arrived. My plan is to review one issue at lunch each day at work. Then I will take it home and enter it into my Quilt Magazine Database that evening. This will get the magazines put away as each one is entered.

I have gotten out the portable quilt frame and my Great Grandmother's quilt. They will be set up in the original sewing room and I will be working on the quilt until my guild meeting on June 1. That will give me 15 days to get it ready for viewing even if the hand quilting is not complete. I expect that Monday, May 25 (which is when the U.S. celebrates Memorial Day this year) will be a day of great progress. I intend to hide in my sewing room the entire day.

Have a great day.

Mouse Pad

I recently read in a magazine (new or back issue I do not know) that putting a mouse pad under the sewing machine foot pedal will keep it from walking across the floor. Yesterday I found an old one at work that I really don't know why I saved. I took it home and now need to get my machine out and try my new not to walk pedal.

I am finally past the 2 week lifting restriction and can get my machine out. DH has been working on the outside and is so tired that asking him to help me is more than I can do. He is exhausted by the end of the day.

Have a nice weekend.

Guild was fun last night!

Our quilt guild met last evening. DH was so concerned about my driving to the meeting and back. I did fine. But, and there always is a but, I should have taken him up on his offer to drive me. My pulse rate was up too high to sleep until almost 4 this morning. 2 hours of sleep is not enough!

The meeting was just what I had hoped for. The show and tell had a lot of Shashiko quilts and the students of the class from Sunday brought some of their work to show as well. The speaker is a member of guild and she gave her "Memory Quilts" presentation. There were times when I wanted to cry and other times when I felt inspired to new heights by her endurance. I think she was talking about another class in the future. I would surely like to go.

Guild is planning a trip down memory lane next meeting and they asked if we would bring in quilts that had special meaning to us; either our first quilt or one with special background or one that had been made by a family member. I signed up to show my great grandmother's "Grandmother's Garden" quilt. I have been hand quilting it since forever. Maybe in the next month I can get some more done before the show and tell. It is a precious quilt to me and one that will never get used. It will be stored and displayed in a safe environment.

Several members of the guild came up to me and we had wonderful conversations. My old "friends" of course avoided me. I don't continue to attend the guild because of them, but because it is where I belong. I learn and get inspired by all the members!

I found out that the group that was sending quilts to the maternity center in Alaska are not doing it at the present time. Such a worthwhile effort and so special to the mothers. I may have some fabric and patterns that I had set aside for future quilts and can put them to good use. I will ask Jerri if she will give me the address and I might just send up some quilts on my own. That would make the people at the center and the mothers feel so special. I love doing that for others!

With the restrictions the cardiologist put on me for the next two weeks I cannot make more than one trip downstairs each day. The one for today is done. Tomorrow I will get out GG quilt and look it over. Let's see if I can make it a little more presentable to my guild members.

Have a great day and keep on quilting.

Ohio Valley Quilters Guild May, 2009

Tonight is Guild meeting. James has promised to take me if I don't feel up to driving that far. I had an angiogram on Friday. The results are that I have a wonderfully strong heart and no repairs are needed. Guild will be just the thing to bring up my spirits. I am so limited in activities and cannot lift even my sewing machine. Looks like fabric and a rotary cutter are going to be my next best friends for the next two weeks.

Over the weekend when I was comfortable sitting up I started cataloging my quilting magazines. I wanted to use a database, but found that just a single spreadsheet on Excel will do just as well. I am listing each article. The columns are Magazine Name, Volume, Number, Issue, Publication Date, Article, Page, Regular Articles, Special Articles and A Flag if it is a project or article that I know at this time I want to go back and look at. It takes a while to enter each magazine, but in the long run it will be like a card catalog in the public library and very useful. I plan on entering my quilt books as well so that I have everything in one place. How organized LOL.

Tomorrow I will ask DH if he will get out my sewing machine and put it on the table for me. Maybe I can start sewing as well as cutting.

Have a great day and smile at someone.