A new perspective on things

My plans for this past weekend did not pan out like I thought they would. Let me tell you what happened...
Saturday morning, we had a come and work on your own craft day at church. I was so excited about this!! We did not have as many show up as we were hoping but that is ok. We had wonderful fellowship and food!! oh my goodness! Anyway, we are working on projects and just chatting away when one of our member's husband (who had been working on the furnace back in the nursery comes rushing up to where we were) and says to his wife "get a trash can we have a leak!" Doris and Robin go flying back there, I go back there and oh my goodness!!! The water was pouring from the nursery ceiling!! We all go into action grabbing all the wooden furniture, books, blankets...everything we could get out of the rooms as fast as our little soaking wet feet would allow us to on a slippery floor!!! They get the water turned off..now to focus on the mess.
I called my husband to bring up the shop vac. Susan called her husband to see if he could come help. I called a Larry, I knew he was the one that could tell me where there were more mops and such...next thing we knew we had a slew of people, the deacons actually came up to help and assess the damage. There was no church on Sunday morning, but a group of helpers gathered yesterday and the we are back in working order now! 
Needless to say we, the crafting ladies, gathered our things and the crafting day was over....it is tiring work moving wet things and pushing water to a drain.....
Yesterday, which was Sunday, I had planned on sewing all day. Not what happened....I finished the quilt on the longarm machine and brought up to the quilt shop. Handed it over to Carol so he could hang it up. I'm teaching it in February.
My husband announced, I know this was inspired after he watched hoarders on tv the previous night, that we were cleaning the basement....giggle...that means I am cleaning my sewing room!! And that means I'm touching fabric...giggle....the laugh was on me! LOL My sewing room did not take as long as I was hoping and we soon moved up stairs and began working on the main level of the house.
Actually, what happened was I, because I was cleaning my sewing room, I discovered that there were 3 finished quilt that needed to be hung up in the house!!!
And here they are:


Asian quilt 2010



French Toile Galactic Explosion finally hanging in dining room!!



Mystery Quilt 2008 placed in hallway

 Now I have these wonderful quilts hanging up!! I'm so thrilled!! We swept floors, vaccuumed, dusted and had poor man's steak and potatoes for dinner! Finished the evening off by watching two movies! First was Despicable Me, and Downton Abby!!
I plan on continueing my cleaning spree by dusting family room, cleaning this nasty computer room (office) and finally washing all the throw rugs!! I've been avoiding that task (throw rugs) forever, and I have no clue why!!!

Quilting: I'm going to put up on of my easy patterns in the next few days. I have the strips cut. So, if you are interested in seeing this easy pattern, shoot me an email and give me your thoughts on it or better yet, make one and send me pics!

Happy quilting...

Lord closes doors

You know, no matter how much I want to do something, if the Lord does not want me to do it HE will let me know by closing the doors!! Even if I try to open them back up, He will close them even harder! OK, I get the message now! LOL 

New Year, New Focus!

The new focus: getting life back in order!
We moved back to Michigan almost 4 years ago. When we moved I never planned on getting as busy as I allowed myself to get these past 2+ years. Now, as of this morning, we are going back to our old life.....family time. Our boys and each other are the most important!  Outside activities have taken over our family time. We still have young men that need our attention and we need to pay attention to each other....and the house could use some serious clean up!! Oh my goodness! I can't stand the dust and the piles any more!
I have a couple of friends who say my house is clean...no it is not! It is a mess and I need to work on it! I need to allow myself time to get back into my old routine of cleaning. I had it down so well!!!
I need to focus on homeschooling, we still have two boys left to graduate! WOOHOO!! 4 years and I retire!!
I need to focus on my quilts! I truly believe that if I can keep my house clean, keep all distractions that are outside the home at arms length then the quilting world will get organized with the home life....
Quilting: Dawn and I want to have a charity division of the quilting. Teddy Bears and Quilts. But this will come in time, not right now. Focus on what is most important. Get the home life in order and your relationship with the Lord and everything will fall into place...actually the relationship with the Lord needs to come first then family life will fall right into place.
So....it is time to go work on what I said I needed to do....Later everyone!!

Interesting conversation...

Last night my husband and I were chatting right before both of us fell off into sleepy land. We were discussing the importance of family. Extended family. The family that most people, generations ago were close to. You had all your family gatherings with them...you know holidays, birthdays, recitals, plays, choir performances, etc...
Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts, Neices, Nephews, Cousins!! Everyone was around! That was generations ago. Most families today don't have that closeness any more.
Think back to when our great grandparents imigrated to this great country. Think back to how everyone helped each other...am I making any sense? Today, most families don't have this closeness...we don't have the same "togetherness". Families are so split up across the country.
Some grandparents choose to move away from the northern cold states to head to warmer climates ( I don't blame them! I can't stand the cold either). But what happens is the grandparents don't develop the relationship with their grandchildren and then they wonder why their grandchildren don't try to visit them or write letters...communication...well, honestly, you broke the lines of communication when you moved away...far away.
I think too, that grandparents forget just how busy life is when you have children still at home. It is not as easy for parents to pack up the family and travel several hundred maybe even over a thousand miles to visit grandma and grandpa. We are still raising our children, we are not retired we are still working.
I wish families were closer together. Joe and I have been alone since the beginning. Shortly after we married we left beautiful South Carolina, for Joe's job, and moved to Michigan. Joe has family here, but it is not mom and dad, sisters and brothers family. It is aunts, uncles, cousins...but Joe had been gone from this area for over 15 years....when you have been gone that long...things change. The family traditions which used to include everyone are not the same because people move, people change...people change things to suit them. No hard feelings at all, just stating the obvious. Speaking of moving....lord have mercy! We moved out of Michigan, to IL (just outside of MO), then on to Mississippi... and now we are back in Michigan...talking about full circle!
People get used to you not being around and they change accordingly. Is this bad? Absolutely not, you must adapt and move forward.
Moving forward: can we bring family back? Can we begin a new tradition with our own children and promise to stay with them so that we can help them when they reach adulthood, parenthood? Watch those beautiful grandbabies? I truly don't have the mindset of raising my kids and then moving away. I love my kids! I want them around. I don't even say, "I can't wait for them to move out, because I don't want them too"! LOL I hope they live close by so we can have wonderful family gatherings...I just promise not to be the mother-in-law that is so nosey and controling that my daughter-in-laws hate me. Ok, enough said....I'm gonna go enjoy my day....I think I just figured out how to make a pine burr block! Ha! Yep, that came way out of left field didn't it?!
Happy day everyone!!

Yesterday's progress....

Oh my goodness!! Dawn and I made great progress. Dawn is my favoritest (if that is a word) quilting buddy! We have been friends for over 10 years now.  Yesterday, Dawn and her husband came over around 10:30am and stayed till almost 9pm.


Block A



cool colors for block B



this is my chain piecing separator!

 Dawn brought over her computer to help write my quilting patterns.  She is also my tester! Interestingly enough she learned just how important, and so did I that 1/4inch seam is and how different everyone's sewing machines are. Took her a while, due to the fact that she had been garment sewing, to find where her 1/4inch seam was. We made an executive decision during this process yesterday...have that seam permanently marked .
We managed to get 20 blocks together and Dawn made notes for the pattern. Today I have to send her pictures, my yardage and piecing instructions.
Happy sewing!

More pattern writing today and hopefully...

More pattern writing today and hopefully we will have hot water also. My husband found a great deal at Lowe's last night. There were two 50 gallong hot water heaters that were in the "scratch and dent" area and the employee offered us to them for less than what they were marked! We got a sweet deal on them! I had to bring my truck up to meet my hubby, he drives an explorer...I drive the F250...big ol' truck you know! After we purchased the heaters, we drove home and then headed out to dinner...all the kids were gone! All four boys, gone!
We were just going to go to a local Coney Island, but plans changed just a bit. Instead he took me to the local Salvation Army store. You see, I had seen an antique Singer Treadle sewing machine (made in 1906) with a wooden puzzle box inside one of the drawers. The puzzle box had tons of accessories inside! It is the coolest thing I had seen in a long time!  As soon as we walk into the store I head straight back to the furniture section to see if the machine had sold. It was still there!! You won't believe though what I saw! Someone who had no idea what they were doing had destroyed the front drawer!! Broken the belt, taken the one screwdriver (looks almost like an ice pick) and well, I was so upset over this! I wanted that machine! Not now, someone ruined it. I can't believe how they busted up the front drawer. I was soooo bummed.
After my disappointment we did find a couple of shirts for me, and then we went to eat at the local chinese food restaurant that was located in the same strip mall....
No pictures for today, hopefully by the end of today I can load some of pics that I have been taking for my quilt pattern...maybe give y'all a sneak preview!
Later y'all

Writing out my quilt pattern

I have spent the majority of the day designing my quilt in a new color wave. The first one I made was in denim blue, green and tans. The second one was black, tan, cream, white and gray....now today's is in vibrant blue!! lime green and whites! I'm loving it!
I've been taking pictures as I go along, making sure I've done the math correctly, by remaking the quilt. I really hope quilters like what I've created!! I'm gonna teach the quilt at the local quilt shop in Feb. I think I need to contact a few other quilt shops to see if I can sell my pattern there too! 
I've completed the 128 four patches, 64 center squares, and now I'm working on the next unit of block A. This quilt has two blocks. I'm also going to redesign the border!! I'm getting brave, I tell ya!
This morning though, I spent my time deciding if I should do some longarm work or not. I really wanted to, and I had the desire to, but my legs kept telling me to sit down! We did not sleep enough last night...our boys did not go to bed at a decent time so that kept my husband up and everytime he got out of bed to see what the boys were up to it woke me up...sigh...go to bed boys and honey, please learn to sleep through some things...LOL....
K, gotta go cut more fabric!

Quilt guild meeting last night

Last night I attended, for the first time, the Oakland County Quilt Guild in Rochester. They had a special guest speaker: Edyta Sitar!! At first I was thinking that I would not go to the guild meeting because of the temperature outside...brrrrrrrr, snowing, the distance and driving to an unfamiliar area at night. But I told myself, you are a big girl and you can handle this task!! I am so glad I did!! I loved it! Edyta's quilts were beautiful and inspiring.  I'm not totally a fan of the coloring on her quilts, but that is ok, I was focusing on the "piecing".
I loved seeing the show and tell of the other quilters also. I will comment though, I've noticed a lot of longarm quilters have computerized machines....I have a gammill but there is not computer...only a stitch regulator....all my designs come from head and go to my hands to the machine. I just sat quietly and looked at the beautiful work....and thought....I can "maybe" draw that? lol...and maybe not! LoL....Needless to say, I'm gonna go play with a whole cloth today. 
oh on a different note: we have no hot water today...joy joy joy....

And thanks to everyone's compliments on my French Braid Blue ice!! The pattern for the braids comes directly from the French Braid book, but the rest came from my head!! LOL....I will say that I am using the EZ rulers more and more in my designs. I love these rulers/templates!

Take care everyone and drop me note!