Ah, it's Thursday

Yes, it is Thursday and I am breathing a sigh of relief! Why? Because my husband repaired my Janome MC6500 last night!!! And I get to sew with it today!! I'm so happy! I was somewhat unhappy on Tuesday afternoon when I drove clear up to Flint (Miller Road exit) to the sewing machine shop....I called and asked if they repaired Janome sewing machines. The man answered, "yes, we are an authorized dealer, we do it all." "Great! Where are you located, I'm on my way!" I said....well let me tell you!! I drove all the way up there in my TRUCK that only gets 15miles to the gallon...mind you it is diesel!! Translation...diesel costs more!
So I drive up there....it is 20+ miles only to find out that they DON'T REPAIR sewing machines and their repairman just retired...oh how convenient! He then proceeds to inform me that they have someone drive all the way from GRAND RAPIDS to pick up the machines and take then back to Grand Rapids for repairing....oh my, I would not have my machine for 2 weeks! I was fuming mad! Why did he not inform of that when I called?! When someone tells me that they are authorized that means they do the work! Sheesh! Needless to say I was not happy...
Oh and I can't forget that they wanted to sell me a new machine! Oh my Lord! What are they thinking?!
On to a good topic...I am sewing today! Because of my husband and his gift of being able to repair anything! Thank you!!!
It looks like I might be teaching sewing more often than what I thought. There are so many young girls in our homeschool group that want to learn how to sew. This is just something that I feel is necessary. It is a form of art, sewing that is, and I just love the fact that these girls want to do this.  They can take this skill with them and use it for the rest of their lives!! How sweet!
Last night I was back in Praise Team at church. I absolutely loved it and I have not felt that way in a long long time! I just felt like I belonged there.  Thank you Lord! The other day Pastor told me I was doing too many activities and he was worried about me. So when his daughter came up and asked if I was going to be in choir I said, "according to your dad I'm doing too much." He was standing right there...hehehehe.....He then told me (he is the Pastor) "Oh you can do choir! it is only 2x a month." He said that with a grin on his face...lol....oh ok, I will then.....someone needs to take over acteens then! LOL gotcha!
I can't wait to sew today, maybe I should get off the computer and go work on something..just something! LOL....I did accomplish a huge task the other day. I was checking out my fabric stash and realized...hey, my fabric is looking kind of pathetic! What is going on here? See, I've been taking fabrics off the shelves and grouping certain ones together to well, make a quilt. I've been storing these groups in different plastic bins. What has been occuring is that I was forgetting what all I had stashed away in a bin/bins and was telling myself that I needed to go buy more fabric!!! Wait a minute, lets rethink this.
I love to shop for fabric, I love the smell of walking into a quilt shop!! Ah, heaven! But I don't have the funds to do this. Where is your fabric? Looked to my right and way across the room are 10+bins filled with "groupings" of fabric....oh yeah, there it is....so I pulled the bins off the shelf, put all the fabrics (yardage) back on to the correct shelf on the other side of the room, where it belonged. My half filled shelves became full!! All the colors grew, they doubled!! OH my, grouping all those fabrics and placing into bins was not a smart idea, but wait...now I have empty bins that I paid for...hmmmmm
IDEA: you have tons of scraps! Bonnie Hunter's scrap system...put it into play! so I did! I began sorting my scraps into colors. I now have organized scraps. Two bags, maybe three still left to go through, but I feel that is such a better plan!
My next step in organizing is to take a few minutes (15-30 minutes) at least once a week and iron/cut a color (bin) of fabric scraps. This is so awesome. Because you know, there are some nights/days where I really don't know what I want to work on, I just want to touch fabric. This is a perfect way to get my fill!!
And last but not least, I was able to quilt 4 quilts on the longarm machine over the weekend! AWESOME!!! I had purchased a wide black sateen backing for one quilt when I realized the backing was way too big and I would be wasting all the fabric backing....so I really did not want to waste it. I came up with a plan to put 4 lap size finished tops onto the backing instead! Sweet deal! With the left over backing, there was still some extra, but no where near what I had calculated from before...I will cut the sateen up in small sizes and either use it for samples or table runner.
Oh and I can't forget to tell about my awesome buy of warm and natural batting!! 3 weeks ago at JoAnn's, Queen size warm and natural batting was only $10 a bag!! My husband bought me 10!! How wonderful is that!? I love him!
Well I have babbled on long enough...

Quilt projects

This past week I've been diligently working on a quilt, along with getting very distracted by my entire sewing room! I had an agenda! I was to make x amount of 4 patches and x amount of hst for this quilt. But, as usual, I was getting side tracked by all the *goodies* within my eye sight! Maybe I could take this fabric and do this, or what about adding an additional border onto this quilt so I could do some amazing longarm custom quilting...oh wait, I bet, if I combind these 3 quilts onto this one extremely long quilt back (4.5 yards..do the math!) then I could fit all 3 of those quilts on to the machine and walla I would have finished 3 more ufo's!! OH wait....but then I have to consider thread color....do I want to do solid color thread or varigated thread...oh what batting do I need, do I have enough black batting..all 3 of these quilts require black batting..looks like I have to go visit the quilt shop again..oh bummer, Carolyn will be so surprised to see me!! LOL

Now, do you see why I lost what I was attempting to accomplish? Did I loose you? I lost myself!! LOL  Finally I remembered what I was suppose to be working on...Cathedral Stars by Bonnie Hunter!! Holy Moly! It took me reading her blog on quiltville.com to realize the project!! My goodness. I'm not kidding, all week I would run down to my sewing room to just sew a few units and then I would rush back up here (note to self: move sewing room upstairs, won't hurt knees as much) to either head out the door or work on something that was needing my attention...like say a child? LOL  But I was having the darndest time remembering what I was working on!! I would glance on my tables as I flew by to see if the pattern was laying there...nope I don't that is what I'm working on.....this went on all week!! I just have to say, Thank you to Bonnie for posting on her blog about the workshop in CO.

I was able to finish my "Totally Decaffeinated" quilt, it is too pretty to call it that, but that is name of the quilt in the book.  I've showed it to lots of people and they all love it. I need to go replenish my fabric now that I used lots of browns and creams up for that one. Bummer, another reason to go to the village quilt shop!! Carolyn, I'm coming over for a visit!!! I just love those ladies!!! And Carol, who is Carolyn's husband, they are fantastic people up there!! I can't forget to mention Sally! Sally is my altoid buddy! I give her a handful of altoids when I go in....she likes me only for my candy! LOL  just kidding, she is great too!

Guess who just found out she did not take a picture of the finished quilt that has the borders on it???? Yep, that would be me! My goodness...back to the workshop...oh no, you know what this means? I will probably forget what my mission is before I reach the bottom of the stairs leading to my sewing room....Pray for me! LOL

Happy quilting everyone!!