A Work in Progress

Slow Quilting or Just a Slow Quilter?

2012-01-30T03:23:00.000-08:00

Sandy at Quilting for the Rest of Us has talked about slow quilting or taking her time to enjoy the process of making a quilt. She posts every Monday on the subject and has many thoughtful insights. Me? I think I'm just a slow quilter. I participated in my guild's UFO workshop on Saturday. Was there from 9:30-2:30 with a short break for lunch and I got three of these blocks done. Keep in mind that I had already sewn the flying geese, the half-square triangles, and the strips for the rest of the block construction during the class for this project back in October. See what I mean about being a slow quilter?

These blocks will be eventually become a tablerunner. The fabrics are mostly Kansas Troubles. The pattern, Geese in the Valley, was created by Susan Shively of Midnight Owl Quilts* for a workshop for my quilt guild.

In other stitching news, I'm continuing to work on Grace Mason. I'm down to a little bit on the border, a fairly large over-one motif, some over-one lettering, a little blackwork and three large motifs on the bottom right. In my head, that's about two nights worth of stitching, but in real life, it will probably be two to three weeks. I'm getting anxious to finish this although I still enjoy working on this piece.

*No affiliation, but I have purchased several of her other lovely patterns

Friday Night Sew-In

2012-01-19T03:56:00.000-08:00

Go on over to http://www.craftyvegasmom.blogspot.com to sign up for the first Friday Night Sew-In of 2012 and join in the fun. I'm planning to plant myself on the couch with Grace Mason, and hope that I have significant progress to show you on Saturday morning.

WIPocalypse Check-in #1

2012-01-18T03:51:00.000-08:00

ABCs of Aging Artfully - Lizzie Kate

Grace Mason

WIPocalypse is being hosted by Measi. Although sign-ups are now closed, you can still stitch along with everyone throughout the year. Here's my first check-in showing my progress on my two most active projects. Grace and I survived a small crisis. I ran out of the DMC 316 that I was using and the new skein I bought is a lot lighter. Who knew DMC would change dye lots? DMC 316 is the lavendar needed to fill in the flowers on the basket and in the red flowers. I rummaged through the stash left from my mother's things and thought the skein from there was a little too light also. I explained my problem to an employee of my local needlework store and she offered to run home and bring me what she had from her stash. The bottom line is that I have a pretty close match and the store has a very grateful, loyal customer.

I've been busy as always since my last post. All five of us enjoyed a week on Sanibel Island on the Gulf coast of Florida between Christmas and New Year's. The weather was gorgeous and the shells were plentiful. I ate grouper every chance I got. We flew back on my husband's last day of employment. Thanks to his frequent business travel, he and I were upgraded to first class. Not only first class, but the very front row of the plane. The flight attendant saw my husband take some snacks back to our children who were crammed into coach seats and we struck up a conversation. As the plane was landing, the attendant announced to the enitre plane that there was a special passenger in Seat 1F who was retiring after 37 years. Everyone on the plane applauded, and my husband, who doesn't let much bother him, was slightly embarrassed. I thought it was a nice way to end his career.

I seem to have the rhythm of my daily life back again after winter break and my two younger children are now back at college, so I promise to be a more faithful blogger in the next few weeks.

Friday Finish

2011-12-23T04:22:00.000-08:00

These items have actually been finished for a couple of weeks, but since my stitching time has been limited this month, I have nothing else to show. The pincushion and scissors fob were made for my sampler guild's exchange from Blackbird Designs Wild Lilies pattern. They're sitting on a square made by my grandmother who crocheted and did tatting. I own three pieces of linen from her and they have a special story that I'll save for another post.

This seems to be the season of finishes or milestones in our lives. My daughter turned 20 on Wednesday and that marked the end of having teenagers in the house. My husband is the one with the big "finish" as he will be officially retired on December 31. We've been thinking about this and planning for it for at least 18 months, but the transition has not been without its bittersweet moments. My husband and I are of a generation who spend their entire careers with one company. He has worked in the transportation industry and has had continuous employment for over 37 years although the particular company he worked for has been sold twice. Leaving after that much time does give one pause and we've both questioned a few times in the last month whether this is the right decision at this time. Ultimately, though, we have both know the time is right and we are ready to move on with this new phase of our lives.

We'll be spending some time with our family this weekend so I'll take the opportunity now to wish you all a very special holiday and much happiness.

Picnic Day

2011-12-15T04:09:00.000-08:00

Nineteen years ago today we moved into our current house. As in other situations of great trauma and/or drama, so many details of that day are etched into my mind.

The move was precipitated by the birth of our daughter, our third child. We were rapidly outgrowing our contemporary style two-bedroom with a loft house. So in August of 1992, we put the house on the market and began our search for another home. We found the house we are now living in pretty quickly and for a few days, it looked as if the seller would buy our house. (I remember spending the night of my 39th birthday on my hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor so it was clean for the showing the next morning.) However, the seller was going through a contentious divorce and the husband didn't really want to sell. So he refused our offer which also meant the wife wouldn't be able to buy our home and we kept looking. Every other house paled in comparison to the one we originally wanted. Finally, we offered the full asking price and when the real estate agent told the husband he would still be liable for her commission if he didn't accept the offer, we had an agreement. It was signed on October 31st.

In the meantime, we had sold our house to a couple who were expecting their first baby. They both worked, but had a lot of income from tips and commissions. That meant they had some trouble getting a mortgage and still didn't have one by around December 10 or so. Our wonderful real estate agent who obviously wanted this sale to go through drove the couple to Maryland on December 14 and sat in the loan office to help them get a mortgage. He was successful! I took the call in the office at my school around 3:30 that afternoon and immediately called my husband to tell him that we were indeed moving the next day. He went out to dinner that night with clients about an hour away from us and I went home to take care of our three children and move boxes out of the basement into the garage.

Fortunately, it was cold, but not raining or snowing on December 15th that year. I waited at the bus stop with our older son who was in first grade at the time. Since our new house was only a mile away, he didn't have to change schools and would be going to school on his old bus and coming home on the new bus. Then it was off to do a final inspection on our house and continue helping the movers. We were already exhausted by the time we went to settlement in the afternoon. We settled on the old house first and remained at the table to buy the new one. There was a heartstopping moment when the transfer agent (or whatever his role was) said, "You need $XXX for the house" in a tone that implied we didn't have enough. I must have gone pale because he quickly reassured us that everything was OK.

We were back at the new house in time to watch the bus carrying our son whiz by. Our sitter hopped into her car and followed it down the hill. It took a little bit for her to convince the driver that she could take our son, but she got him off the bus, brought him home and then had to leave. Our daughter was six days shy of being a year old and was not walking yet. I carried her as much as possible, but had to put her down sometimes to give my arms and back a break. She crawled around and generally got in the way of the movers. The highchair hadn't arrived yet so I had no place to put her down safely. On top of that, it was cold because the doors were open all the time. Finally, I bundled the kids into the car and went to the bank to get money to tip the movers and to get dinner at McDonalds. We brought the food home and took it to the basement (which was carpeted, thank goodness). The four of us huddled in the corner with our coats on as I took burgers, chicken nuggets and fries out of the bags. My mind was racing with thoughts of unpacking and how I was going to get three kids settled into their beds that night when my son, who was 3 1/2 at the time, threw out his arms and declared, "There's nothing like a picnic!" And thus, a family tradition was born.

Every December 15th since then we have had a fast food dinner, sometimes in the basement, sometimes not. Our two younger children don't remember the move, but they love the story. Tonight my husband and I will be the only ones home for dinner. We haven't decided if we'll have fast food (probably not), but we will pause to remember that crazy day and to renew our promise to each other that we will not move again until it's time to go to the nursing home.

Time is Running Out!

2011-12-08T16:20:00.001-08:00

Although I don't post about it often, I read a lot. A lot, as in 138 books and counting this year. It helps that I like to listen to audio books. Since I read for pleasure, much of this material doesn't require deep thought and therefore, I don't burden you with my reviews. In case you're really curous about what I'm reading, you can check out the Goodreads link in the sidebar.

If there's one thing I have more of than cross stitch charts, it's books. I'm taking the Off the Shelf challenge sponsored by Bookish Ardour and committing to reading 50 of the books that are already on my shelves. That will only make a small dent in the pile, but it's a start. If you want to take the challenge, too, the sign-up is open until the last two weeks of December.

A Preview

2011-12-03T04:28:00.001-08:00

I've been working on some smalls for my sampler guild's exchange next Saturday. Can't show you any more than this, but trI'm pretty close to finishing. I got slowed down by a little "reverse stitching", but I'm back on track to have the pieces assembled this weekend.

The smalls exchange is an annual event at my guild and is a lot of fun. Participation is voluntary and even if someone doesn't bring a stitched piece, she can still ooh and aah over what others have done. We've expanded the event a bit in the last year or two to include appetizers and desserts (which reminds me that I signed up to bring a dessert and we're going out to dinner the night bfore--guess I'll have to plan ahead!).

After the meeting, I'm planning to meet a friend so we can see the embroidery exhibit at Winterthur in Delaware. Should be a fun stitching day!

Friday Finish

2011-12-02T03:07:00.001-08:00

X-block quilt

Close-up of block

Here's one of the quilts I took to the long-armer last summer. As yet, it has no name. This quilt was one of the projects from my monthly "scrap club" and I did indeed use some of the black and white prints in my stash. The block is made with an X-block ruler. In the case of this pattern, I made a nine patch and then placed the ruler so that the outside patches would be cut at an angle. Those pieces were used in the border. The whole time I was making the blocks, I thought about how to put a little color in the quilt. My choices were running to lime green or yellow as I don't tend to like the red/black/white quilts I've seen. Then I spotted this perfect red and black print and it all came together. Good thing, as I wasn't loving this quilt in its pre-border stage. Now it's a family favorite. It resides on the back of our couch and each of the kids tried to make off with it when they were home for Thanksgiving. And don't you think the long-armer used the perfect quilting pattern?

Small Business Saturday

2011-11-26T04:38:00.001-08:00

Have you heard about Small Business Saturday? I hadn't until I saw it on the website of my local quilt store. I'm planning to support the economy a little there today. I haven't bought any quilt fabric in over two months as I've been trying to use my considerable stash. However, I need some backing fabric and if I can find what I need on the sale shelves, both the store and I will benefit from Small Business Saturday.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2011-11-25T05:01:00.001-08:00

Today is one of my favorite days of the year. It's Black Friday and I'm not out shopping. We live approximately three miles from the largest mall on the East Coast. Said mall sits at the intersection of the PA Turnpike and two other major roads, one running north/south and the other running west. You can imagine the traffic. We rarely venture out of our neighborhood on Black Friday. Being "forced" to stay at home makes it feel like a snow day and I always get so much accomplished by staying in the house. I'm looking forward to some extra stitching time and finally getting started on the exchange piece for my sampler guild's meeting on December 10.

I'm a purist. I love Christmas, but not a single note of a holiday song or a Christmas decoration of any kind is allowed in my house until the day after Thanksgiving. We put the decorations up on the first Sunday in Advent and leave them up until Epiphany (January 6). I love the lights, the music, the special events and the fantasy that I will actually have all the cards sent, the baking done and gifts bought and wrapped by the week before Christmas so I can sit back and soak it all in. Don't forget that I have to throw my daughter's December 21st birthday into the mix. (That 12/21 birthday is genetic as it's also my brother's birthday.) It's all fun. Let the holidays begin!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T10:12:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the US! May you have a wonderful time with family and friends and celebrate all your blessings.

WIP Wednesday

2011-11-23T03:09:00.001-08:00

Grace Mason

Verse (over one)

Lower left corner

Grace Mason (Of Female Worth) is coming along. My hope was to finish this by the end of October, but as usual, I underestimated the amount of stitching and overestimated my stitching time. I should be able to make some major progress on this over the long Thanksgiving weekend and I'm pushing for a finish by the end of the year.

Aaaah. . .

2011-11-19T15:27:00.001-08:00

That's the big sigh you may have heard from me as I eased into the weekend. This is the first weekend all fall that did not include traveling (can't really count the weekend of the snow storm as we were supposed to have gone to a cross country meet that Saturday). My house is also breathing a sigh of relief since it's been cleaned and my husband is thankful that I actually cooked a meal tonight. It's the little things, you know.

So now the dishes have been washed, the laundry has been folded and put away and I've even done some ironing. Time to settle down at the sewing machine for a bit and make two more of these blocks. Then I can assemble the twenty completed blocks into a top. The pattern is Sweet Sixteen although I can't recall at the moment who designed it. I got the fabrics in a kit awhile back and as I'm trying to use what's already in my stash, it seemed like a good candidate for a leader/ender, Except that when I got everything cut out, I just kept going. My true confession about this quilt is that I'm not crazy about the fabrics and wish I had thought of just selling the kit before I started cutting. I've also reached the point in my quilting journey where I want to do more complicated patterns and this just doesn't fit that bill. I'm sure this one is going to be a gift in the future and since I don't want to give the quilt bad karma, I'll just try to enjoy the rest of the piecing.

Stay Tuned

2011-11-14T17:07:00.001-08:00

I haven't abandoned blogland, but I've continued to be really busy at work and with my children. I spent last Sunday on the road to visit my son at his college (as if we haven't seen enough of him during cross country meets this fall) so we could discuss his next steps after graduation. This past weekend, I went to my sampler guild meeting on Saturday morning and then headed to my daughter's college to hear her play in her jazz band concert Saturday night. Although she had a major paper due today, she took some time to have breakfast with me yesterday and we had a wonderful time talking about, among other things, the possibility of her studying abroad next year. The weather was lovely and the drive back went smoothly, but by the time I arrived home and took care of a few things here, we were out of of daylight. Therefore, I don't have any pictures of my current work. I've been plugging away on Grace Mason and binding quilts, so as soon as I'm home when there's daylight, I'll get some shots to post here.

In the meantime, here are a few links to things going on in the blog world. Evalina is hosting an oldest UFO stitch-along. Check it out here: http://evalinamaria.blogspot.com/2011/10/oldest-ufo.html

Heather is gearing up for next year with a list of monthly themes that you can read about here: http://lottloft.blogspot.com/2011/11/theme-licious-2012.html Personally, I don't think I'm going to do this as I'm planning to make Amy Mitten's Not for Us Alone my focus project for next year, but the rest of you might want to join in.

Finally, Teresa wrote about her Stitcher's Bucket List which is giving me a lot of food for thought. I hope you enjoy it too.

Playing Hooky

2011-10-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

Tonight is my "scrap club" meeting at the LQS and I'm at home. My friend who attended last month's session (which I missed due to my oral surgery) showed me the project for this month and I wasn't thrilled with it. It's raining, I worked late and Miami is playing the University of Virginia tonight. All good reasons to stay in and either work on Grace Mason or the binding of one of the seven quilts I got back from the longarmer at the beginning of October. Maybe both.

I've been absent from blogland for a couple of reasons. I've been working late a few days a week and our weekends have been taken up with my son's cross country meets. I love being able to attend his meets, but since they are often held at places two or more hours away I'm not getting much done around the house. And I'm getting even less quilting and stitching done. My son's a college senior so our 8-year stint with cross country comes to an end on Saturday when he runs his last race. So for now, all I have to show is one of the blocks from the 2010 Thimbleberries BOM. I'm slowly catching up with these although I won't meet my goal of completing the entire quilt this year. I'm definitely OK with that, but I am looking forward to life slowing down a bit in the next few weeks.

Friday Finish

2011-10-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

Peace Comfort Quilt

I finally finished this quilt a few weeks ago and donated it to my quilt guild to give as a comfort quilt. I made this quilt "pillow style." That is, I sewed the front and back right sides together along with the batting and turned it rather than binding it. That sounds easier than it was for me. I had all kinds of problems measuring the backing and batting correctly and as a result this quilt sat in my WIP pile for quite a while. To quilt it, I used one of the decorative stitches on my machine and stitched little half circles along the seams. It turned out OK, but it's not my best work by any means. I learned some things about machine quilting and keeping the back smooth. I think it would have been easier to quilt if I had planned to do a binding on the edge.

Thanks to all of you for your well wishes. I'm getting better each day and have been assured that I will be happy someday that I had the oral surgery. But I have to say I'm reaaally looking forward to eating something that isn't soft, white or yellow. Applesauce, scrambled eggs and Greek yogurt can only take you so far.

WIP Wednesday

2011-10-06T03:33:00.000-07:00

Grace Mason as of 9-28-11

So I'm a day late posting this according to the title. I got my quilts back from the longarmer yesterday and sat down to sew some of the binding on one during the Phillies game. Then I went on to working on Grace Mason and never got this post written. I had to abandon Grace and all other stitching for a week since I had some oral surgery last Thursday and wasn't supposed to bend my head. I won't bore you with the details, but the surgery was in preparation for getting braces to correct the effects of dental work done when I was 6 or 7 years old. The recovery has been a little rocky, all the more so since I couldn't stitch, but I am feeling better each day. When I left Grace last Wednesday, I was in the process of finding my counting error on the vine band. Couldn't see it for the life of me, but with a new approach last night I found it and corrected it. In the process I found one or two other areas that need frogging, but those should be easily restitched tonight. I'm still loving the colors in this piece!

Easier Than One Would Think

2011-10-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

When I went to the quilt show at Oaks, PA in September, I was able to do a tour of the vendors on Saturday and make notes about things I might want to purchase. One of the things that caught my eye was a cute wall hanging with snowmen. The same wall hanging had caught my eye at the show last year, except that it was done with pumpkins. I bought the pattern and the fat quarters then and of course, let it sit in my stash. The reason was the mitered corner. I just didn't have confidence in my ability to piece it. I really liked those snowmen but I wasn't going to buy them unless I could make the block. I had some time on Sunday morning before I went back to the show so I did a mock-up with muslin and the piecing went fairly well. I learned from my trial that I would have done a better job if I had marked where to stop sewing on the side strips. I did that with the real block yesterday and got a perfect miter. I was so happy with how my block turned out that I made four more of them after I took this photo. Honestly, the hardest part was fussy cutting the fabric to get the pumpkin (more or less) centered. As Sandy says, sometimes you just have to get over yourself and do it! (And yes, I did buy the snowmen fat quarters).

Sleeping through the Storm

2011-10-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

As you know, I try to keep this blog stitching related, but once in awhile I feel the need to tell about other parts of my life. For the past six months, I've had a heavy heart as I learned that my cousin, Linda, was dying of melanoma. She wasn't a cousin I was particularly close to when we were growing up although she and her family lived just twelve miles from us. My father came from a family of 11 so I had 20 cousins on that side of the family (and none on my mother's side as neither of her two sisters married). Because there were so many of us, we tended to break off into age groups and since Linda was five years younger than me, she was with my sisters more often. But I got to know her better as her illness progressed and she and her wonderful friends posted on her journal at CaringBridge. It was great to learn about her strong spirit and faith, her love for her favorite sports teams and players and her sense of adventure. She left out the parts about her suffering, but I know it was there until she finally, peacefully passed away about a week ago.

I went for a walk during the morning after I was notified of her death. I happened to be listening to Mitch Albom's Have a Little Faith. That kind of book is not normally my thing as I usually find the writing sentimental and the thoughts oversimpliflied. However, as soon as my walk began, I was listening to an anecdote in the book about a farmer who is looking for a new farmhand. A man is recommended to him as someone who can sleep through the storm. The farmer doesn't know what this means, but hires him anyway. That night, a storm rages and the farmer rushes out to the barn to check on things. He finds the farmhand sleeping and when he wakes him, he asks if he has taken care of the animals and the fields. Of course, all those things had been done and the farmhand was able to sleep through the storm because he had taken care of what was important. My cousin worked until the very last week of her life to take care of some things that were important to her and she was able to die rejoicing. As we all do at times like these, I have been re-evaluating my priorities and asking whether I have been making time for the things that are important. Thanks, Linda, for teaching all of your family one final lesson.

Friday Finish

2011-09-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

I'm introducing what I hope will be a fairly regular feature of this blog, the Friday Finish.

Here's a recent quilting finish, a project for my "Scrap Club" class. We focused on applique for a few months and used a book that had lovely patterns for "toppers" for quilts and banners. For once, I decided to start much smaller and made a placemat. All the pieces were done with double-sided fusible interfacing even though we were encouragd to do at least one piece with freezer paper. I felt it was better to stick with one method at a time! I used my machine to stitch a blanket stitch around all of the pieces except the "string" on the balloon (which is in kind of a weird position, but I can live with it). The string is zig-zagged. I drew some stars on the background to add extra quilting there. I had hoped to finish this one in time for my husband's big birthday, but missed that deadline. I also missed my birthday. Looks like me daughter will be the one to usher in our new tradition of using a birthday placemat.

Lightening Up

2011-09-13T03:55:00.000-07:00

When it rains heavily, we get some water in our basement. Not a lot, fortunately. It seems to come from the foundation in a corner of the laundry room and follows a predictable path along the ironing board and under my cutting table to puddle at the side of the refrigerator. I've learned to keep my stash of fabrics and bags of projects in plastic tubs to keep everything safe. When heavier rains are predicted as in Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, I take the extra precaution of moving everything out of the path of the water stream. During the past two storms it became abundantly clear to me that I have More. Than. Enough. fabric and many quilting projects in the works.

Having so many WIPs weighs me down at times and I decided it was time to finish up one or two of them. Here's the first one. This table runner was a kit I bought at a quilt show when they were still being held in Fort Washington, PA. Ten years ago, maybe? At the time, I wasn't a quilter, but I had a sewing machine and this looked simple enough so I made a start on it. I didn't know anything about rotary cutting and quilting rulers so let's just say my 3.5" squares were cut a little less than accurately. I had only had one nine patch done so I took that apart and re-cut all my squares to 3" and adjusted the width of the borders. The quilting is stitch in the ditch and some X's across the squares. I had another chance to practice binding and find that it is getting easier. I'm happy to have it done and to have the WIP load a little lighter.

Friday Night Sew-In

2011-09-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

We're not even through this weekend yet and I'm already planning for the next one. Good things are coming up--the Pennsylvania National Quilt Show in Oaks, watching my son run cross-country during his university's homecoming weekend, and spending some time stitching while Miami plays Ohio State. I haven't even mentioned the Friday Night Sew-In. You can sign up here and join the fun.

Measi sent a correction to my last post about WIPocalypse. She's going to accept sign-ups through the first few months of 2012, so start thinking about which WIPs you'll finish next year.

I promise the next post will contain actual pictures of my projects!

Wish I'd Thought of This

2011-09-07T04:00:00.000-07:00

Measi is hosting WIPocalypse in 2012. I'm in on this and you can be too if you go to her blog and sign up by September 30. It sounds like a lot of a fun and a great way to finish up some of those UFOs.

My Work-in-Progress

2011-09-05T05:40:00.000-07:00

I've been working on Grace Mason (Of Female Worth) for the last couple of weeks. Grace has been a WIP for quite some time. I remember that it was the first piece I picked up after my mother's funeral four years ago and that turned out to be so appropriate. There will be a verse from the "virtuous woman" section of Proverbs centered on the lower half of the sampler. That passage was the one the minister used as the basis for his sermon at Mom's funeral. I also remember stitching some of the border as I sat with my then 90-year old aunt three years ago and listened as she wrestled with having to give up her apartment and her independence and move into assisted living. I was originally attracted to the sampler because of the colors and because of the Scottish style (my husband's family was originally from Scotland).

I think now it's time to finish this one and I've been enjoying it. It has a variety of stitches including four-sided, double running, a few Smyrnas and lots of over one. I've been trying to outline areas and do the fill-in if I'm tired. Tonight I'm planning to stitch more of the border when I watch the Univeristy of Miami Hurricanes defeat Maryland. I hope all of you in the US are also enjoying your Labor Day holiday.

Time Flies

2011-09-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

I was pretty surprised to see that I haven't posted for almost two weeks. In the interim between the last post and this one, I've packed up and sent two children off to college, weathered an earthquake and a hurricane, and returned to work. Luckily, I didn't even feel the earthquake and we were only minimally affected by Hurricane Irene as it blew up the eastern seaboard. Both college moves went off without a hitch except for forgetting a cable for my son's new TV and having to make a quick run to Target. Returning to work was my least favorite of all these events, but not nearly as much of a shock to my system as I thought it would be. I've managed to leave behind my leisurely mornings and make it out the door around 7:30. Once the students get back next week I'm sure I'll enjoy it more, but right now, it's really boring sitting through endless rounds of meetings (some of which I conducted myself!) and hauling out the classroom materials from cupboards.

I've managed quite a bit of stitching in the last two weeks. Here's my finished "Home is Where My Heart Blooms" (Blackbird Designs). It's done on a 30ct R&R fabric, with the called for threads, I think. Not too sure about whether I started the house in the called for Shaker White from Sampler Threads or not. I ran out of thread about 2/3 of the way through (the directions do state that 2 skeins are needed, but who reads directions). I tried matching the current dye-lot of Shaker White to what I was using and found it was a lot grayer. The thread I was using was very close to GAST Straw Bonnet which is more yellow, and that's what I finished the house with. Had lots of trouble with that border because I can't count. Anyway, all's well that ends well and this will be framed shortly.

Thanks for all your comments on my last post about the problem I had with an on-line shop. I thought about it some more and have decided to e-mail the owner to let her know about the situation. Will keep you posted on what happens. And thank you for the suggestions of shops that do treat their customers well.

I see that I have several new followers. Glad to have you here!

Moo (A C.O.W.* post)

2011-08-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

*Cranky Old Woman (a la Nancy)

I placed an order for a single item with a well-known on-line needlework shop earlier this summer. The item was back-ordered which was OK with me. A package from the store showed up about four weeks later, but when I opened it, the contents were not my order and the sale slip had someone else's name on it. I called the store and told them about the error. The response was "How did that happen?" and then I was asked to return the package to them. A few days later, I got a call from the store and was asked for my address. I did return the package the next day, at my own expense during an extra trip to the post office. About two weeks later, I finally received the item I wanted after yet another phone call to the store to check on whether the package was on its way (it had gone out in that day's mail). In the meantime, my credit card had been charged.

Why am I cranky? Because the shop made no effort to thank me for returning the incorrect order to them. After all, I could have kept it (and it was a chart I had been eyeing along with fabric and all the threads) and claimed that I had never received what I had ordered. Obviously, it didn't occur to me to do that as I couldn't be that dishonest. But don't you think a note in the package with the correct item would have been a nice touch? Or maybe a thank-you during one of the phone calls? Or an offer to reimburse my return postage? I'll think twice about ordering from that shop again. What would you do in this situation?

Mother and Child Reunion

2011-08-18T08:18:00.001-07:00

No, I'm not channeling my inner Paul Simon, but I am celebrating the return of my middle child. He was last seen snaking his way through the security line at the Philadelphia airport early on the morning of June 9 on his way to a summer research project in the Colorado Rockies. He was in a rather remote location with an elevation of 9500 feet and cell towers are few and far between out there. He communicated by e-mail sporadically as the internet was not terribly reliable and he called about every two weeks when he went to the nearest town. Let me tell you that ten weeks is a loooong time to go without regular contact. Even at 1:30 this morning, he was a welcome sight! (Not so much the large duffel and backpack full of dirty clothes). Now it's time to get him to the dentist and the barber (the beard has got to go!) before he heads back to college for his senior year on Monday. In the meantime, my older son will come home and the whole family will be together for the first time since May. Looking forward to a great weekend.

Aged to Perfection

2011-08-16T19:42:00.001-07:00

That's the saying on the sign that my daughter hung when my husband turned 60 (60!) a few weeks ago. The sign stayed up for my birthday last Saturday. I don't know about the "perfection" part, but I certainly as getting more aged by the minute.

In years past, I've started a new project on my birthday. But you've all seen the list of my WIPs, so you know I can't justify a new start. I saw Robin working on this Lizzie Kate chart, The ABCs of Aging Artfully, during our guild meeting on Saturday. Since I already had it in progress, I pulled it out and put some more stitches in it. The plan is to do a letter per day--that's the plan anyway. I'm thinking that it will be made into a pillow to put on my rocking chair.

Deadlines

2011-08-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

I've been whiling away the summer and suddenly it's crunch time! My sampler guild is having an ornament finishing class on Saturday and I need to have a finished ornament. Here's my progress so far on Joy by Angel Stitching. It was in the JCS ornament issue in 2006. This one will go to my niece, but do you think I'll actually get three more done for my own children without a deadline hanging over me?One of the long-arm quilters I've used is having a sale that ends this weekend. The deal is that when I bring in at least three pillowcases to be donated to ConKerr Cancer, I will get 20% off on quilting. No limit on the number of quilts. I have six tops done so far (two of these were done last summer when this same quilter had a 3-for-2 special--didn't get the third one done and the other two never got quilted). If I can get this block pieced together with 34 of its friends, and add three borders by Friday morning, I'll be able to take a seventh quilt. This block was made with a 7.5 inch X-block ruler. It's a technique we explored in the Scrap Club I go to each month. Haven't decided if I'll use it again, especially since this quilt has been giving me fits. I just can't find the right border fabric even though I've been shopping for it several times. More on those shopping trips will come in later posts.

So, I have deadlines looming and what do I do? Pull out a charm pack and start a new project, of course. This little table topper is made from one charm pack with a pattern by This n' That. It was super easy and super quick and I thought my daughter might like it to brighten up her dorm room this fall once it's quilted and bound.

How do you manage deadlines? Do they inspire you or make you proscrastinate?

A Small Update

2011-07-29T09:18:00.001-07:00

It's been a few weeks since I've posted and there is absolutely no reason for that except that I am having the laziest summer on record. As you know, I was thrown for a loop with my change in job assignment in the past year. My husband and I took full advantage of being empty nesters and filled our weekends with activities and short trips. It was a busy year. So I've been happy to stay close to home this summer and recover. I've been reading a lot, doing some heavy cleaning and ruthless decluttering along with some stitching and lots of quilting.

I've taken the time to do some experimenting with a ruler to make flying geese (Deb Tucker's Wing Clipper--no affiliation, just the ruler I chose to buy at a quilt show). These geese finished at 1x1.5" and were made from scraps from a project that is nearly pieced. I'll be taking a class in the fall that has flying geese in the pattern so I wanted to be sure I remembered how to use the ruler.

These small squares were made from the scraps from a jelly roll quilt that I will show you in the near future. They'll finish at 1" and I'm thinking they might be used to make a cute mug rug or perhaps be incorporated into one of the coin purse patterns I've been wanting to try. We'll see. After all, it's not even August which means I have four more weeks with nothing but time on my hands.

Sew Productive

2011-07-12T10:01:00.001-07:00

Last week, the friend who got me started on quilting suggested that we get together. Usually, we meet for breakfast or go on a shopping expedition. This time she came over to my house and we spent the day sewing. I worked on blocks for my Shoo Fly quilt and have them all completed. Just have to work on the layout and sew them together.

My friend and I set up our machines at my kitchen table, but I didn't want to move my ironing board up from my laundry room/sewing area. A glance at the sewing area was enough to make me do a clean-up! While I was at it, I decided to finish off two quilt tops.

This one was made from an All About Color jelly roll. As I mentioned in another post, I'm trying to learn something from each quilt. From this one, I learned to read the directions and then read them again. A local quilt shop had made this quilt and I was so excited to get their last jelly roll so I could make it also. I sewed combinations of three strips and then started cutting. Except that I had used a half inch seam and cut 6" block instead of 6.5" blocks. Fortunately, I caught my error after only one strip set. I debated continuing on with 6" blocks, but decided to rip and look for more fabric to replace the ones cut incorrectly. I got the center together and then this quilt became a UFO. All it needed was three borders and those took me about two hours to attach. Don't know why I let it sit for so long.
This top is made with the "Take Five" pattern. I learned from this quilt to label the fabrics for their intended use (border/back/binding) when I get home from the store as I had excess yardage and wasn't sure what I had originally intended. Another top that had the blocks pieced and only needed two borders to finish. Maybe I'm also learning that borders are not my favorite part of quilting.

I Won!

2011-06-29T16:03:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the fabrics I won in a giveaway from Nancy at Patchwork Penguin. Since I rarely win anything, it was a very pleasant surprise to find this box on my doorstep yesterday. I'll be using the fabrics to make some charity quilts and including some of them in scrappy projects. Thanks, Nancy, for being so generous!

May I Present

2011-06-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

Jane Longstreth! Jane* has been a work-in-progress since 2005 or so and I finally put the last stitches in her during the June 17 Friday Night Sew-in. We've had our ups and downs along the way, including frogging of some of the over-one verse and restitching the basket twice (miscounting) as well as the lower left border (again because I cannot count). Those over-one flowers on 36-count are tiny! But the stem-stitched leaves caused the most anxiety and kept me from working on this piece for quite some time. Those leaves got ripped out a time or two, but I think they are passable. One of the other things that was hard for me about this sampler is that the motifs are not always symmetrical. I had to let some of my sense of order go! I'm so glad I persevered.

*A little history about the sampler: Jane Longstreth is one of a group of well-known pieces from Chester County, Pennsylvania. Jane was the youngest of seven children and she stitched this sampler when she was 14. The original sampler is in the collection of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College.

There's Still Time

2011-06-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

You can still sign up for Friday Night Sew-In here. I'm planning for a finish or two tonight. Jane Longstreth is soooo close to being done and I have a quilt that just needs three outer borders to be completed so perhaps I'll have a couple of pictures for you tomorrow.

Unearth Day, 2011

2011-06-16T07:03:00.001-07:00

I clean out my needlework closet once a year on a carefully chosen day. It's a task that has to be done when I have the entire day free and when there are no other family members around. I simply refuse to let anyone else see the extent of my stash (not even you, my readers, and thus, the picture of the backhoe).

This past Monday was the day for the 2011 clean out. My husband was playing in golf tournament at a course 45 minutes away from our house. Our two college-age children were out of the state on their summer adventures. Let Unearth Day begin!

However, the day did not start as planned. I'm a morning person and even though it was my first weekday off from work for the summer, I was up and going at 6:00. I was more than ready to dive into the closet by 9:00, but my husband was taking his sweet old time getting out of the house. I thought he'd never leave! Eventually, I had the house to myself and pulled everything out of the closet, dusted shelves and scrubbed the floor. I started sorting the contents of the boxes and then the phone calls began. The first one was from my son in Colorado. He landed a research position for the summer in a rather remote location, but he was "in town" for the morning where he had cell phone reception. Normally, he would make a good spy as he says nothing in his phone calls, but, of course, on Monday, he wanted to chat away for 15 or 20 minutes. Not that I was complaining, but I did have six or seven boxes to sort. . .

Then the call came from my daughter. She was not in Tennessee as I had thought, but near Washington, D.C. as she and her friend had taken turns driving all night to get back to her friend's house. So glad I didn't know that was happening when I went to bed on Sunday night! I was in a bit of a panic because I thought she was going to come home that afternoon, but as it turned out, she had a job interview in D.C. and stayed an extra night. Whew!

Finally, I got through all the boxes. One contained some fabrics purchased decades ago to make clothing so most of the contents will be donated. I put aside a few charts to sell at my sampler guild's next stash sale, and I put away the charts from things I finished during the past year. Along the way, I pulled out some projects that I'd like to move up on the priority list. We'll see whether I get to them during the year. One can always dream. I managed to get rid of any entire box in the closet and several plastic bags. The closet is much more organized and once again, I know where everything is. Not a bad way to start out my summer vacation.

Bound and Determined

2011-05-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

Early on when I began quilting, I finished piecing and doing simple machine quilting of the stitch-in-the-ditch variety on some projects. Then I followed the instructions in a quilting book and successfully made the binding for them. Must have been beginner's luck because for the life of me, I couldn't do it again when it came to completing this snowman wall hanging. I fussed and fussed with it and couldn't get the angle right for sewing the two ends of the binding together. I even bought a special ruler at a quilt show that was supposed to give me a perfect angle and I couldn't figure it out with that. It was beginning to get in the way of my quilting enjoyment and making me avoid quilting. Finally, I took my problems to the owner of my LQS and she walked me through the steps again. Voila! Perfect binding! This cute little guy was a paper piecing project. (Have I mentioned that I really enjoy paper piecing?). He was to have been completed in January for Nancy's UFO Challenge but, hey, better late than never, right?

Getting this small project off my quilting table gave me a psychological boost and inspired me to put the binding on a small quilt made from a pack of charm squares. This quilt is being donated to my quilt guild for their comfort quilt program. I love the kaleidoscope fabric for the backing and it was very forgiving of a few small mistakes.

I have one more project awaiting binding. Now all I need is time.

Retreat!

2011-05-27T03:34:00.001-07:00

The sampler guild I belong to has a semi-annual retreat in Ocean City, Maryland, about a 3-hour drive from my home. I haven't been able to go in the past since in October and May I've been busy with the kids' sports or end of the school year activities. Now that our two younger children are in college, I've been freed from some of those responsibilities and I was finally able to join the group last weekend.

I left mid-morning last Friday and after a stop to pick up the person who would be sharing the hotel room with me, arrived in Ocean City around 1:00. I really had no idea of what to expect from the retreat, but it was an absolutely lovely way to spend a weekend. No worries about food, cleaning, kids, etc. Just lots of stitching either in the rocking chairs on the porch with a view of the ocean or in the well-lit lobby of the Lankford Hotel. And of course, shopping in the shop, Salty Yarns, that is right next door (no affiliation with either the hotel or the shop). Not to mention getting to know members of the group and lots of laughter. It was great to be among people who understand what a passion stitching is for some of us. I can't wait to go again in the fall.

I'm Back!

2011-05-14T04:45:00.000-07:00

I've finally returned to Blogland. I certainly didn't intend to be away so long, but my work life gets hectic this time of year.

I had a wonderful (and much needed) break the week before Easter. My husband and I had tossed around ideas for a short trip to various warm locations, but nothing seemed right. I had myself geared up to stay at home and tackle a couple of projects around the house and do some stitching/quilting. Then, about a month before the break, my 92-year old aunt was moved from assisted living to the nursing home in the retirement center she lives in. She's the only remaining link to my mother's family and she has no children of her own. My husband and I decided a trip to Colorado was in order. Our plan was to make visits to the nursing home in the morning and afternoon and then re-visit some favorite spots during the day. (My parents also lived in Colorado after my mother retired and we took many vacations there.)

Our first stop was Jamako Joes', west of Loveland. The first time we spotted this place, we were very amused by it--not only was it a drive-up espresso bar, but a pick-up truck was in the order lane. We were on our way to the airport so we didn't stop that time, but we vowed to try it the next time we were in Loveland, and it's become a regular stop on each subsequent trip. After all, it's the last place to a get a latte before Estes Park. Note the black car in the picture. That was our rental. The agent told us to pick anything in a particular section and my husband chose a Crown Vic. Channeling his inner Broderick Crawford, I guess. We got more than one extra glance out on the highway.

Fueled with an Almond Joy latte, we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park where we spotted a large herd of elk. Then it was back down to Estes Park for a stop at the Estes Park Brewery for a local brew and some nachos. Guess the "locals" also know that the nachos there are great!

We went up to Cheyenne one day since we had never been there. My sister gave great reviews of the trolley tour she took there with my aunt last fall, but the trolley doesn't start running until May 1st. We enjoyed the Union Pacific station, the state capitol building and some of these "talking boots" on our own. The boots were decorated by various organizations to depict the history or culture of Cheyenne. You can use your cell phone to get a recorded message about the boot. This one is about the Wyoming govenors. I thought you would enjoy the quilt patterns on it.

I'm so glad that we went as my aunt's mental condition has continued to decline. In her working life, she lived in two Asian countries, headed up the social services division of a state institutiton and also for a national adoption agency, and traveled the world. Last week, when I talked to her, she said she was trying to get back to Iowa where she lives. That was the place she had one of her first jobs 60 years ago and I find it interesting and a little sad that that is the place she remembers most.

On a happier note, we were also able to see one of my father's sisters and two of my cousins in Denver. I hadn't seen one of my cousins since his sister's wedding 37 years ago! We had a great time together and shared lots of family news.

I promise to be back again soon to update you on my sewing progress, such as it is. Thanks to all of you for reading and making comments!

It's Just Fabric

2011-04-10T04:24:00.000-07:00

Last fall, I decided to join the "Scrap Happy" club at my local quilt shop. It was to start in January and sessions are scheduled on the last Thursday of the month. I checked the store's website for a supply list a few times in December and didn't find one. I didn't think anything of it since the class description said we would be getting tips for organizing our scraps and making small projects out of them.

Then--surprise!--a few days before the first session, I thought to check again and found out that we were to have a pattern book and fabric ready to go for a full-size quilt. At the time, we were having some crummy weather and getting out was difficult. In fact, we had a snow day on the day of the first session. So, in the "scrappy" spirt of the class, I looked at my stash and took a bundle of fat quarters from the Frolic line of with me to class. I had splurged on the bundle last fall at the quilt show in Oaks just because I liked it. Twelve of those fat quarters have now been used to make shoo-fly blocks like the one above. I'll admit it was tough cutting into those lovely fat quarters and I had to keep reminding myself that "It's just fabric. You'll find more fabric that you love." I'm glad I talked myself into using them since this has been a fun quilt. I just need to make four corner blocks, assemble the top and add borders. I'm thinking there will be an update at the end of my spring break next week.

Pack Your Bags

2011-03-27T10:21:00.001-07:00

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of the quilt I made for my daughter for Christmas. This one was finished in November after I put in a solid day of shop-hopping and I took it to the longarm quilter the very next day. The pattern is Check It Out from Pressed for Time patterns. This is the second time I've used the pattern. It's a fun and easy one. The inspiration came from a bundle of fat quarters I chose because of the Eiffel tower fabric. I later found yardage of that and used it in the border. I think its' a Michael Miller fabric. My daughter took French in high school and got to go to France on a school trip (I haven't been yet. . .) so I thought this would evoke some nice memories for her. As I mentioned in my post about the Boy Scout quilt, I'm trying to learn something new with each project. For this one I learned that it's OK to dive into your stash and include a fabric that wasn't in the fat quarter bundle. I didn't think there was enough contrast in the fat quarters, so I dived into my stash and found a pink with some brown overtones and it was just the thing. The inner border is from a line called "Pack Your Bags" and so is the backing. Again, I learned that not everything has to match exactly. So even though this was an "easy" pattern, I think that making it moved me along on my quilting journey.

Woodlawn Needlework Show

2011-03-26T04:18:00.001-07:00

As some of you may know, the Woodlawn Plantation in Alexandria, Virginia is the site of an annual needlework show. A local group, Nellie's Needlers, organizes the show each March. Although I have submitted pieces in each of the last three years, I have only been able to attend once in that time. Now that my daughter conveniently goes to college in DC, I decided that taking her back to school after spring break would be a perfect time to see the show and enjoy a weekend break. So we set off much earlier on a Saturday morning than my daughter would have liked. We had only one small glitch on the trip when someone misread the directions, which was fixed by using the GPS on her iPhone and we arrived safely. (Note to self: Must stop being so cheap and get a smartphone.) My daughter is not a needleworker, so she wasn't impressed by the show. She did enjoy looking at the furniture in the house. I, on the other hand, was enthralled by all the lovely stitching and so happy to see that some members of my sampler guild had won ribbons. There were some lovely over-one pieces done by a male stitcher and I cast my "viewer's choice" ballot for one of those. Two large charts had been finished into books--one of Carriage House Samplings alphabet charts and one of Mary Beale's Days of Advent chart. Not sure that is how I would want to display my work, but it was an interesting finishing idea. There is a whole room for Christmas, one for children's things (including some smocked dresses) and another for needlepoint. All of it made me want to sit down and start stitching right away! We took advantage of the lunch served by Nellie's Needlers and both of us recommend the quiche. I understand that their lemon tart is wonderful, but we decided to save room for dessert later that evening in Old Town Alexandria.

After the Woodlawn show, we went over to the local needlework shop, In Stitches. My daughter waited in the car while I looked at the needlepoint canvases, and then we headed to the hotel. Immediately upon reaching our room, she laid down and took a nap. What is with these kids? I couldn't get any of my three to continue their afternoon naps beyond the age of 2 1/2 and now they are snoozing any chance they get! I finally roused her and we took the hotel's shuttle to Old Town. The shuttle let us off about 10 blocks from the restaurant where we had dinner reservations so we got to stroll down most of the shopping district. Luckily, the weather was gorgeous and it was a very pleasant evening. Good thing we didn't eat dessert at lunch as the white chocolate raspberry bread pudding we shared at dinner was fabulous! I love bread pudding although I never make it at home. My daughter "discovered" the dessert at her cafeteria and now she loves it, too.

On the way back to my daughter's college the next morning, we agreed that Woodlawn should be an annual event for us and that we'll explore a new DC neighborhood each year. We've already decided that Georgetown will be next. I can't wait!

How Cute is This?

2011-03-24T10:40:00.001-07:00

Last week, my good friend and I went to the AQS Quilt Show in Lancaster, PA. We're quilt show veterans so we arrived with shopping totes and bag lunches. We had a plan for which floor of the hotel to visit first. We had short lists of items we were looking for and vowed to spend some time actually looking at the quilts on display. There were some lovely Baltimore album quilts that were both hand appliqued and hand quilted. I love to look at them, but don't think that I'll ever attempt one. I recently bought Rosewood Manor's Baltimore Quilt crossstitch chart, though.

My plan was to buy a specific ruler and a bundle of eight fat quarters from one of my favorite vendors. That went out the window when I saw this cute, cute, cute potholder at the Traditions of White Swan booth. I snapped up the pattern (Hot Cakes! by Susie Shore Designs) and one of the kits. This project requires 2 10"x9" and 2 9"x6" pieces of fabric along with some InsulBrite and Warm and Natural batting and less than an hour of sewing. Great way to use up those fabric and batting scraps. I can see these done with various holiday themed fabrics. We have a lot of wedding showers at work and I think one of these potholders would be welcomed along with a muffin tin and cupcake supplies.

And as for the ruler and fat quarters? Didn't buy either of them, nor did we buy the X-block rulers we were considering. But I did manage to find yardage for the borders of a quilt in progress along with some novelty fabrics that I'll incorporate into a quilt for one of the kids eventually. The day didn't go quite as planned, but I would call it a success anyway.

Where Does the Time Go?

2011-03-16T17:26:00.001-07:00

I was a little surprised to find that it's been nearly a month since I last updated this blog. I've been busy with a little of this, a little of that--tax forms, paperwork for school--and I've recovered from a cold, but those things really shouldn't have kept me from posting. Anyway, I'm back with pictures of the quilt I made for my middle son who is an Eagle Scout. I've been trying to learn something from each quilt I make and boy, did I learn a lot from this one. First of all, I learned how to "fussy cut" all those badges. Then I struggled a bit with how to piece the horizontal sashing so that I didn't have a vertical seam. I checked in with the experts at my quilt guild and they assured me it was OK to do a bias seam. I learned how to handle directional fabrics in a border. I was pretty proud of my work on this quilt and I loved the fleur-d-lis design the longarm quilter used to quilt it. But this quilt wasn't done with me yet. After it was quilted, bound and put on my son's bed on Christmas morning, I found that one of the blocks had been sewn in upside down. So the final lesson from this quilt was humility.

Out with the Old, In with the New

2011-02-18T10:16:00.001-08:00

Several years ago when we were getting a new laptop for one of my children, the salesman tried to sell us a wireless printer. I recall making a "mom" remark to my son along the lines of "If you can't get up to walk over to the computer to print, then you really are lazy." Well, readers, it's time to eat my words. It all started when our desktop's hard drive filled up and I got a new laptop. It was a bit of an inconvienence to take the laptop to the printer, hook up the USB cable and print, but I lived with it. Then the printer gave up the ghost. It was a gradual decline. It copied one sheet as it always did, but subsequent copies began taking 15 or more minutes to exit the printer. Still I lived with it. Until I began to do my taxes and needed to print reams of on-line statements. It was time to get the wireless printer that came free with my daughter's laptop out of the box. It's new and shiny and finally, after, oh, five or six attempts at set-up that consumed 1.75 hours of my day off, we have joined the 21st century and can print wirelessly at our house. And I don't feel one bit lazy.

All's Well That Ends Well

2011-02-13T16:21:00.001-08:00

I know better. I really do. My "Keep Me" sampler was finished in July and languished in a pile of things waiting to be framed. One night in December, I decided to take a break from writing Christmas cards (which, frankly, were a bit of a chore at that point) and get my sampler ready to take to the framers. Like I needed to spend more money in December. When I took it out, I noticed a smudge on the top that would show when it was framed. I decided I could spot clean it. You know, just a little dab of water on the spot. And you also know how one thing leads to another which caused the overdyed threads to run. A lot. Panic ensued until I remembered the "cure" for this problem. Suffice it to say that "Keep Me" was soaked within an inch of its life and all of the dye came out. My framer helped me pick out a lovely green frame that I perfectly compliments the greens in the sampler and I couldn't be happier to have this hanging on the wall.

My January Challenge

2011-01-30T07:49:00.001-08:00

You may recall this post in which I decided my personal challenge this year would be to work on WIP for 15 days in January. I am happy to say that I successfully completed the challenge and can show you my work on Jane Longstreth.* This sampler is in the Vassar Collection, but was done by a girl who lived in Chester County, Pennsylvania. I was drawn to this sampler because of the colors in the flowers in the border, but also because I live very close to Chester County.

Jane has been a WIP for (ahem) some time. The chart called for 28 count linen, but I decided to do it on 36 count. Not usually a problem, except that I didn't account for the over-one parts of the chart. The lettering is not so bad, but the stitched in those flowers are tiny! The stems will eventuallyhave leaves on them, but the directions say to trace the leaves on the chart and fill them in with stem stitch. I'll have to re-size the leaves to fit the higher count fabric and that is what has left Jane languishing in my sewing basket for so long. I decided to take a deep breath and plunge in once again to get this finished. I'll be putting in another 15 days on Jane in February and find that I'm looking forward to it.

*I apologize for not taking this off the scroll rods to show you a better picture.

Machine Down!

2011-01-27T12:03:00.001-08:00

When my nephew and his wife announced that they were expecting a baby, I, of course, decided to make a quilt for the new little one. The Schnibbles quilts seemed to be about the right size and I chose "Scratch" from Schnibbles Times Two. All it required was a charm pack or two, some background fabric and backing. I chose Barnyard Buddies for the charm pack and a very cute fabric with cows and pigs for the backing. My nephew is originally from Iowa, so the quilt was named "A Little Bit of Iowa." Aren't all those farmyard animals cute?

Well, I found out that those Schnibbles patterns are a little more challenging that they look. I had never done setting triangles but soon mastered them (in my opinion). My biggest problem was with the coin rows. They were supposed to measure 30 1/2" (which miraculously the 4-patch rows did), but mine kept coming out 31 1/2 or 32". After some fiddling, I got them to measure correctly and am pretty pleased with the pieced top.

Since this is a small quilt, I didn't want to send it out to be quilted and thought I would do it myself. Just a simple stitch in the ditch or maybe a quarter inch around the four patches. But first I wanted to practice. I pulled out a top that I had pieced during my guild's comfort quilt workshop last February and put it together with batting and backing. All was going well until I tried to sew over a safety pin. I truly thought that I had removed all of them after sewing between the rows. So my machine has been in for servicing since Monday and I find that I miss it. Especially since I have a snow day and I haven't been able to make any sewing progress. Will just have to content myself with organizing the sewing area and thinking about my next project or two. I think I see a list in the making!

Friday Night Sew-In Progress

2011-01-23T09:39:00.000-08:00

I spent Friday night working on "Snow Garden" (not Snow House as I said in my earlier post). It's the first in Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart Series. I'm stitching all twelve of these on one large piece of fabric. This was my New Year's start and the plan is to finish one chart per month so the sampler will be done by the end of the year. That's the plan, anyway.

Friday Night Sew-In

2011-01-21T06:36:00.000-08:00

It's that time again! Head on over to Heidi's blog to sign up. I'll be working on Snow House from the Anniversaries of the Heart series by Blackbird Designs.

We had another snow fall in the Philadelphia area last night and have a 2-hour delayed opening for school. Our second one this week. I'm getting a bit too used to these leisurely mornings, but not to shoveling the snow--better pack my lunch and get out the door! Look for a picture of my FNSI progress tomorrow.

Coming out of Hibernation

2011-01-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

I had grand plans of making more frequent posts this year, but then we entered the first week of January. I returned to work and my husband flew off on a four day business trip but two of my children remained at home on winter break, causing our household to enter a sort of limbo . They stayed up half the night and slept most of the day away while I maintained a more normal schedule. And what was up when my daughter announced that her friend was coming over on a Wednesday night and they commandeered the family room just as I was going to get settled in there with my stitching and the DVR? That never happened on a week night when she was in high school!

Then there was my feeble attempt at imitating Michelle Kwan . We had a small snow storm the first Friday in January. Our driveway was mostly clear by the time I came home from work and walked out to get the mail. Unfortunately, I stepped on the one and only patch of ice and my foot flew out from under me. Next thing I knew I was flat on my back on the cold blacktop screaming so loudly I'm sure I was heard in two counties (not such an exaggeration--the house at the end of our street is in a different county). When I realized that my son was in the basement playing a video game and would never hear me and that my daughter was out with the car and could potentially swing into the drive and run over me, I was motivated to sit up and assess the damages. Nothing broken, but I had a heck of a bump on the back of my head and the mother of all headaches. My doctor, who sends me for tests for every other little thing, advised me to ice my head and take Tylenol. Thank goodness she was right, but the episode slowed me down quite a bit. When I complained about my lack of energy the next day, my husband took the opportunity to remind me that I'm in my late fifties and I shouldn't expect to recover quickly. Talk about adding insult!

But now the children have been shipped off to their colleges and my husband and I are beginning to resume life as we began to know and love it when we first became empty nesters. It was particularly wonderful this morning to not have to worry about getting any one else out the door when school openings were delayed by two hours.

I'll leave you with a photo of the quilt I made for my older son. It's a Terry Atkinson pattern called Urban Cabin and is made with some Kansas Troubles fabrics. Hope it's making him warm and cozy on these cold nights.

Last Finishes of 2010

2011-01-07T15:50:00.000-08:00

Sometime between Christmas and New Year's, I finished the September Bauble (SamSarah Designs) that had been in my traveling bag during the fall. This will be finished into a cube with the October Bauble on the opposite side. Of course, I still have to stitch the October Bauble, but there's lot of time between now and next fall, right? Finishing this project meant that I completed all but one of the new crossstitch starts I had during the year. The only remaining one is "Home is Where My Heart Blooms", a Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers.

My other finish was to complete the sewing on three ornaments. These were the ones I stitched to give to my children for Christmas. . .2008 (or maybe 2007?). What's worse is that they were hidden under the ornaments I stitched for last Christmas, so they've been on my work table for two whole years. I even had the backing cut out and all I had to do was make a twisted cord hanger and sew them together. Oh well, at least they got into the stockings on Christmas Eve which is more than I can say for the ornaments for 2010. Those aren't even stitched yet. Clearly there's no point in rushing these things when I can just dip into the stash of completed projects.

Like a Box of Chocolates

2011-01-02T07:36:00.000-08:00

I finished Rainforest Crunch on Christmas Eve. Every square was such fun and I loved using the Watercolours. It's such an easy thread to work with and the color variations really worked on this piece. I am totally sold on doing counted needlepoint and have another project I hope to start this year. But at the moment, I'm sticking to my 15 days of stitching on an older WIP, Jane Longstreth. Pictures will follow later this week.

I'll be having this framed as it is intended to hang on the wall in our guest room (just have to keep working on having its current "occupant"--my oldest child--move his things out!)

So far, 2011 has gone well. I saw a reference on someone else's blog about this being a prime year. Let's hope that it is in every way. I'll be enjoying my last day of winter break by straightening up around the house, reading the paper, getting the haircut I never got around to during the entire week I was off and finally finishing my Christmas cards. It's rare that I don't have them sent out before the holiday, but this year I was having too much fun binding quilts and finishing Rainforest Crunch.

Wishing you all a very relaxing day!

Resolutions

2011-01-01T05:04:00.000-08:00

I have been following this blog that I found while reading Marcia's blog. As I looked around my house, I realized that a lot of my clutter is reading related. Specifically the pile of newspapers on the chair in the kitchen. My husband and I are definitely dinosaurs since we still have home delivery of the newspaper every day. But I don't always take the time to read it and thus the pile of papers. So my New Year's resolution for 2011 is to read the paper daily.

That's it, just one resolution. Although I tend to make a longer list in August (my birthday month) of things I want/need to accomplish during the coming year I have found that one very specific resolution on New Year's Day works better for me. Last year I resolved not to talk on the phone while driving. Not that I was ever on the phone much while in the car, but I wanted to make a conscious effort to be a safer driver for myself and everyone else on the road. I kept that resolution for the most part (I can only think of two times when I didn't) and will continue to keep it in 2011. So here's to a better informed, more clutter free me in 2011!

Ringing out the Old, Ringing in the New

2010-12-31T06:23:00.000-08:00

. . . Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times:
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace. . .

From Alfred Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam

Wishing a very happy new year to all of you and your families!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T05:46:00.001-08:00

Wishing all of you the most wonderful of holidays with lots of great times with family and friends!

Fall Reading Challenge

2010-12-23T17:25:00.000-08:00

I posted here about the Fall Reading Challenge hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer Reads. During the time of the challenge, September 22 to December 20, I read 15 books. My local library holds a series of book discussions each spring and fall. Five books based upon a theme are chosen for each discussion series. This fall's books were about other cultures and they turned out to be the best reads of the season. Here are my top three books for the fall.

The Latehomecomer by Kao Kaila Yang tells the story of a young Hmong woman who immigrated from Thailand to Minnesota with her family. The book tells about the family's challenges in assimilating themselves into a new culture.

Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder is one of those books everyone should read. Although I thought the story was sluggish in spots, I learned a lot about genocide in Africa. The central person in this story is a young man who was in medical school when the genocide began in a country I have never before heard of. It tells about the horrible ways one human can treat another and I was outraged that these things could happen.

The book I've been recommending to everyone is Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. It's set mostly in Ethiopia, but also in New York. The book is a beautifully written story about family relationships and loyalties.

So there you have it--my fall reading report. Susan hasn't announced a winter challenge, but if/when she does, I'll be ready with my list. In the meantime, I'm indulging in a cozy mystery, Holiday Grind, by Cleo Coyle and hope to finish off the fifth Harry Potter book by the end of my winter break.

The Magic of the Season

2010-12-21T03:22:00.000-08:00

Two of my children arrived home from college last week. I've been looking forward to this winter break in particular as it will be the first time that no one has a homework assignment to be done over winter vacation. And, as unhappy as I am with my current job assignments, one of the perks is that I work in only one building and I find I rarely have to bring work home these days. This has allowed me to stay on top of the shopping, decorating, and baking for Christmas and I now have some free time on weekends. So do the kids as they are no longer busy with high school activities, so on Saturday we took the train into Philadelphia and indulged in an old tradition.

The photo is from the light show at Macy's in Center City. This is a long-standing Philadelphia holiday tradition and thousands of people gather each day in the Grand Court in what used to be (and will truly always be in my mind) Wanamaker's department store to take in the sight. The "magic tree" is the center of the show and it changes colors frequently throughout while the lights on the sides show the Nutcracker, Santa and his reindeer, a train and a parade of toys. It used to be narrated by a local newscaster who had a wonderful voice, but has been updated and is now narrated by Julie Andrews. I've seen it several times over the years and it's just delightful each time.

Before and after the show, we wandered through the Christmas/Holiday/Christmas Village around City Hall. I'm not sure if the controversy surrounding the name of the village made the national news, but it was quite a story around here for a few days. This is the second year for the Christmas Village which consists of a number of vendors selling upscale crafts and other wares, and is meant to show how Christmas is celebrated around the world. Well, people protested about the "Christmas" part and the name was to be changed to "Holiday Village." Then it was back to "Christmas Village." I don't think it accomplishes its purpose of showing Christmas in other parts of the world, and although it was fun to wander among the merchants, I don't see any need to return. It was a bonus to run into someone from work while we were there and to be able to introduce my son to her as he goes to her alma mater.

To cap off the afternoon, we went over to the Comcast Center to see the wall. This was my first opportunity to see the digitized images that are displayed on a wall in the lobby that is several stories high. There is a continual display throughout the year, as well as a special holiday show including a segment showing snowy woods where we felt as if we were actually on a sleigh. Just amazing technology and just as "magical" as the light show. What a treat to enjoy all this with my children!

Surprise!

2010-12-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

I've spent the last few evenings sending out Christmas cards. Some years I print a "newsletter" and in others, I just include a handwritten note. This is a year when I'm doing a shorter, handwritten note, mainly because I just couldn't get it together to type up the longer letter. I have a long list of relatives to send to since my father came from a family of eleven. I've got a shorter list of high school and college friends and writing notes to them has caused a sort of mental exclamation mark.

Let me explain. I grew up in a very small town in Nebraska and went to a very small college near Omaha. The summer after I graduated from college, I got married and moved to Pennsylvania. First to the western part of the state and then shortly thereafter to the western suburbs of Philadelphia where I've lived for the past 35 years. So now when I'm writing to those Nebraska friends about my son in Brooklyn and my daughter in DC, I think about how my life has not been the way I imagined it would be when I was a teenager. Don't get me wrong--I love living near Philadelphia and having access to great restaurants, theaters and museums (not to mention living just three miles from the largest mall on the east coast), but it's just a different life than I thought I would have. I marvel that two of my three children are very comfortable finding their way around large cities and how they in turn have expanded my horizons.

So what about you? What "surprises" have you had in your life?

Friday Night Sew-In

2010-12-10T15:28:00.000-08:00

Heidi is hosting Friday Night Sew-In two times this month. I'll be curled up under one of the quilts I'm binding. I got three of them back from the quilter on Sunday and need to have all of them done for Christmas morning. One is done and I've finished about half of another. With the cold weather we've been having, this is the perfect way to spend Friday night.

Stop the Insanity!

2010-12-05T03:35:00.000-08:00

Have you all heard about this challenge starting in January? Robin, Anna, Coni, and Siobhan have either signed on or are thinking about doing this. 15 new projects in 15 days? No way, no how! OK, I'll admit that I did briefly entertain the idea of doing this (and yes, I am easily entertained). Robin's rationale really appealed to me and then there's the fact that I would get to make a new list of projects and I love lists. (Again, I was entertained by reading Anna's potential list of projects and being able to suggest revisions to it.) I certainly have 15 projects of a variety of sizes hanging out in storage tubs so this wouldn't involve buying any new stash. But those four ladies above actually finish projects. Me, um, not so much. Just take a look at my sidebar.

So here's my own personal Stop the Insanity Challenge for 2011. On January 1, I'll take out one of my WIPs, probably my oldest one, and stitch on it every day for 15 days. This might become a challenge I repeat every month and it might not. We'll see. Join me if you want. There won't be any real rules, just some progress toward finishing off all those projects.

A Finish!

2010-11-27T05:49:00.001-08:00

Postcard for Paradise (Blue Ribbon Designs) is done! When I started this a year and a half ago, I thought it would be so easy to do three of the squares a day and knock this out in a month. Wrong! But it was a fun stitch--until I did the border all the way to the bottom right corner and realized it wouldn't meet. That's when I went back and found out I was supposed to be doing that herringbone stitch over three threads and not four. I wondered why I wasn't getting good coverage. . . Since I had done some of the top and some of the left side correctly, I decided to frog. It was a pain, but I like the result so much better. So this goes in my to-be-framed pile. I have a great framer, but I haven't given her much business this year. It seems I can't get myself motivated to prepare things to take in (you know, clipping threads on the back, doing a final check to be sure every stitch is crossed). I think I'll make it a New Year's resolution to get caught up on framing. This piece is intended for the bedroom we are making over into a guest room. So when it does eventually come back from the framers, perhaps it will spur me on to completing the decorating of the guest room. See what all those little Xs lead to?

Trains, No Planes and Automobiles

2010-11-24T02:30:00.000-08:00

Our empty nest is filling up once again as our three children arrive home for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The first to arrive was our middle son whose Tuesday afternoon biology lab was cancelled, allowing him to snag a ride home with a fellow student. Our middle child usually comes home with a large bag of laundry and a shaggy mop of dark hair (just like my husband used to have before he went white. Thank goodness all my kids inherited his thick hair, and not the fine, thin, superstraight locks that are bane of my existence. But I digress.) Since he is such a creature of habit, he didn't disappoint on either the laundry or the shaggy front, but he has added a full beard to the mix. This may take some getting used to. It does make him look more mature, but please don't tell him I said that.

Our daughter arrived from DC on Amtrak about 15 minutes later than scheduled. Which was a good thing as I had crawled east on the Schuykill Expressway, (also known as the "Sure Kill" Expressway in our household, as in, "You can sure kill a lot of time on the expressway") and arrived at 30th Street Station just as my husband called to tell me the train was late. I guess I just had to experience what Philadelphia's 30th Street Station is like at a busy travel time or I would have had my daughter take a regional rail line out to our suburb. But she has never taken the train from school before and she's young and petite and was bringing a heavy bag full of the books she needs for the paper that she's writing over break and I took pity on her. Luckily, our timing was great and the parking gods were with me. I had snaked around the station in a long line of cars, getting increasingly anxious about what to do if I actually had to attempt to parallel park. Remember, I grew up in Nebraska and this Cornhusker does not have a parallel parking gene. But I found two metered spaces empty and could pull in--whew!--and thus spared myself from blaring horns and angry looks from other drivers. I was there for four minutes by the time I collected my daughter and returned to the car.

After six years of having to fly home from either Miami or Los Angeles, our oldest can now travel to us by train and that's how he'll arrive later tonight. He's probably traveling light, is more experienced and at 6'2" is not at all petite so one of us will be collecting him from the regional rail station.

With the nest much fuller, my husband and I will be re-living one of the aspects of early parenthood--sleep deprivation. It's already started. I turned out the lights around 11:30 last night and woke sometime after to the thud, thud, thud of my son's size 11s on the uncarpeted stairs. And woke again around 1:30 to the smoke alarm. My daughter was washing her hair and the steam set off our super-sensitive alarm. But it is soooo good to have them home. I'm off to work, but only for the morning as we have an early dismissal for students and staff. Then it will be time to relax, maybe take a nap and listen to my children's stories about their lives and just enjoy having them near. I'm wishing the same contentment to all of you.

Shop Hop Recap

2010-11-21T14:10:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, I participated in a local Shop Hop for the first time. It was an event that I was greatly anticipating and my goal was to explore some new shops and do a bit of stash enhancement. I started out from work around 4:00 and pointed the car east to the first shop. It was one I had been to several times before and didn't expect to be wowed by the merchandise so I wasn't disappointed when I didn't find much there. I was a little discouraged at Shops 2 and 3 when I didn't see any "must have" fabrics in them either. I began to doubt my wisdom in embarking on the adventure especially since I was driving around at night in unfamiliar territory and had already gotten lost between both Shops 1 and 2 and Shops 2 and 3. But Shop 4 was a real gem since that's where I found these yummy Civil War fabrics that I'll use to make the blocks I collected at each establishment. I arrived at Shop 5, my LQS, about 10 minutes before closing. After a quick stop to pick up dinner, I headed home to do a little sewing before bed.

On Saturday morning, I got up early, worked on my daughter's quilt and then prepared for part 2 of the Shop Hop. All was going well until about half an hour into my drive to Shop 6, I realized that I hadn't brushed my teeth! Fortunately, I had some water and a mint with me, and I guess that worked since I didn't notice anyone backing away from me during the day! I hit the jackpot at Shop 6. That's where I found the pattern and most of the fabric for the quilt I made for my oldest last weekend. The shop happens to be close to the place where my sampler guild meets so I'm sure I'll be back there in the next month or two. The rest of the shops were all great (I had been to three of them before) and I managed to increase my stash with neutrals and some cute Christmas prints. (Those prints really are red!). You already know what happened when I got home on Saturday and it won't be a surpise to you that I went to work on Monday exhausted but satisfied from all the fondling of fabric.

You Know You're a Quilter

2010-11-14T14:08:00.001-08:00

or maybe you just know you're crazy when go on a shop hop on Saturday morning and choose a pattern for a quilt, gather the fat quarters and fabric for border and background at one shop, purchase the backing at another, begin cutting immediately after completing another quilt and work on it until 11:00, get up at 6:30 and sew all day in your pajamas until 20 minutes before it's time to take said quilt to the LQS where you have an appointment with the longarm quilter so the quilt can be done in time to cover your oldest son on Christmas morning. I didn't stop to eat (and if you knew me in real life, you'd realize how obsessed I must have been) and only took time to brush my teeth, get dressed, comb my hair and put on a little mascara before heading to the shop. On the way there, I realized I had forgotten my camera so I don't even have a picture to show you until the quilt comes back to me. By the way, the other quilt I finished yesterday was for my daughter's Christmas present. Fortunately, the one for my middle son has been done for about a month or I would be totally insane by now.

Shop hop was fun but I'm exhausted! I'll have a full report and pictures for you tomorrow. Now I'm off to clean up the sewing area, clear the table for the next project and find places for my new stash.

Anticipation

2010-11-11T15:24:00.001-08:00

My readers of a certain age will remember the commercial that portrayed the long wait for (supposedly) rich, thick ketchup while the Carly Simon song "Anticipation" played.

Well, that's sort of how I've felt this week. I'm anticipating my first shop hop beginning tomorrow afternoon. This is something I've wanted to do since I began quilting a few years ago but it wasn't possible while our daughter was still a high school student. My husband is going away for a conference this weekend and my time will truly be my own for the next few days. I'm planning my route, printing maps, looking at patterns, making lists of things to look for and just generally looking forward to the whole experience. My lesson plans are done for next week so I'll be able to walk out the door at 3:45 and be on my way to the first shop. Oh, the anticipation!

Order Among the Chaos

2010-11-09T16:31:00.000-08:00

As I've written several times before, my work life has been pretty crazy this fall. When I've had time to stitch, I've been drawn to projects are made up of lots of small squares, like Postcard from Paradise and Rainforest Crunch, a needlepoint design I found while stalk-stitching
Coni on her Spinster Stitcher blog. There's something so satisfying about completing each one of those little squares. Who knows, if this work situation continues, Nova* may come off the WIP pile and get finished.
*(No affliation with this shop, just a good picture of the design.)

Home Sweet Home

2010-11-07T18:33:00.001-08:00

Aaah. . . That deep sigh you hear is my house thanking me for staying home and cleaning this weeked. Honestly, with all the traveling we did in October, things were getting a mite grimy around here. I spent nearly all of yesterday at home scrubbing, dusting and vacumming and now we can pass the health inspection. I was the lector at the early church service this morning and had to go back to help count the money after the late service (I find it highly amusing that I'm tapped to do anything remotely connected with math, but the chairman of the finance committee begged me). In between, I attacked the mountain of ironing that was on the back of the chair next to my sewing machine. Of course, I had an ulterior motive for doing so since it was geting difficult to actually sit on the chair to sew. Then my afternoon was free to work on the quilt I'm planning to give my daughter for Christmas. Made good progress on it and should have a finished top by the end of the week. I didn't do a lick of work for school this weekend and I feel relaxed and ready to face the work week.

Thursday Night UFO

2010-11-06T08:53:00.001-07:00

A few years ago, my local needlepoint shop offered a "club" for a series of Faberge eggs. One a month for the entire year. Thought these would be a great decoration for the fireplace mantle in the living room. I made a start on January's and that's as far as I got. Until a group of us on a bulletin board I visit decided to work on a UFO every Thursday night. My job issues are starting to ease up and I can finally sit down to sew at night a few times a week. Plus Big Bang Theory is on at 8 and since it's one of the very few shows I watch on a regular basis, I try not to miss it. (It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm fascinated that someone can portray a person with Aspergers/high functioning autism so well. And it is a pretty funny show, too, although I'm sure there are physics jokes that I just don't get.) But to remain on topic, I decided to work on this piece since it's small. It's way outside my comfort zone with the stitches, but I'm taking it slowly and I like the texture that's coming from the variety of stitches. We'll see if I have the same feeling about this piece when I get to the stem stitch and the chain stitch that are used for those black and gold lines and the veins in the leaves.

On the Move

2010-11-04T03:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last post. My husband and I have been on the move the past few weekends, spending time with each of our children. I went out to Gettysburg, PA, in the middle of October to watch our second son run in a cross country meet. The course is actually laid out on part of the land you see in the picture here. This the third time I've made the trip to this particular meet and it's become a favorite--an easy drive, lovely fall foliage and a course where I can see a lot of the race. This year, the race fell on the Saturday of my son's fall break, so I brought him home with me. During the break, he had surgery to remove the pin that was inserted when he broke a bone in his hand last summer. The surgery was delayed a bit when he lost consciousness as the IV was inserted. His heart rate is really low due to running and also to a medication he takes. The plan had been for my husband to drive him back to school in the early afernoon, but we ended up taking him back in the early evening. It's about a 5 hour round trip and we're not used to these late nights!

We had barely recovered by the next Friday when we headed to Washington, DC for parents' weekend at our daughter's college. It was the first time we had seen her since August. She talks to us nearly every day, so it didn't seem like that long, but it was wonderful to see her. She's happy and much less stressed than in high school. An added bonus was getting to hear her practice with the jazz band she's in. We also got to meet up with friends who also happened to be in DC for the weekend, and we got to know our daughter's roommate a little better.

And finally, we spent a fabulous weekend in Pittsburgh with a family friend. Our older son came along for the trip and even though he slept in the car most of the time, it was great to be with him. The weather was terrific and sunny on Saturday (it's usually pretty gray in Pittsburgh). Part of the purpose of the weekend was to watch the Pitt-Louisville game. We were Louisville fans because of our friend and even though they lost, we had a good time. The people in Pittsburgh are so friendly and I love visiting there. And I managed to stitch two more needlepoint ornaments in the car on the way home. What could be better than good friends, family and stitching?

It's Been a Heck of a Week

2010-10-15T15:57:00.001-07:00

Who am I kidding--it's been a heck of a school year. This new assignment has me working my tail off. I'm usually in between 7:15 and 7:30 and most nights I don't leave school until after 5. I'm getting way too old for this and quite frankly, I regret that I didn't take the early retirment package last spring. I was hoping to leave by 4:30 today, but thanks to a phone call from one colleague and a visit from another, I didn't get out until 5:15. And I still brought work home this weekend. But in a few minutes, I'm going to get comfy and settle myself at the sewing machine with a book on tape (Laura Lippman's In a Strange City) and a cup of tea and sew the night away. Hope all of you are doing something nice for yourselves this weekend too.

We Return. . .

2010-10-12T17:24:00.001-07:00

. . .to the main purpose of this blog. I've had many posts lately about our activities, but no updates on quilting and stitching. You've all been kind in bearing with me as I navigate this period of change in my life. In between moving the kids and enjoying the freedom of not having them around, I have been working on a few projects. My quilting guild had a UFO workshop a couple of Saturdays ago and I completed one top and sewed the backing. That inspired me to sew the backing for a top I completed last spring. I'm nearly done with a quilt made from Boy Scout fabric for my son or I will be as soon as I replace the inner border. All these will be shown in good time. In the meantime, I give you a progress picture of Postcard from Paradise. This has been fun to do. Stitching the grid for the boxes has been perfect for the nights when I'm really tired (as unfortunately I often am due to my new assignment at work). As you can see, I'm nearly done with the squares and border, but I only have two strands of floss from my original skein left. It's a Crescent Color thread and the dye lots are not consistent. I trekked to two stores to buy other skeins but have found that the color is now more blue than green. Fortunately, I'll be able to use the dark portion of one of the skeins and it will match the green border pretty closely. I think. Stay tuned for picure of a finish* later on this week.

*I know none of my kind readers will point out that I've made this prediction before.

Seasons Readings

2010-09-29T16:04:00.000-07:00

Susan over at A Southern Daydreamer Reads is hosting another seasonal reading challenge. I signed on for her summer reading challenge and read 15 books between June 21 and September 21. Most of them weren't the ones in my original list, because, well, it was summer and it was hot and I just indulged in a lot of light fiction and mysteries. Three of the books I read deserve special mention, though.

I purchased All the Tea in China after I visited my aunt in the spring and we went to the Celestial Seasonings Tea factory in Boulder, Colorado. The book chronicles how an English botanist smuggled tea plants out of China and made the drink available to the rest of the world.

I always enjoyed Nancy Pickard's mysteries featuring Jenny Cain who runs a philanthropic organization in New England and I was sad when that series ended. Since then Ms. Pickard has written several novels in a new series that I didn't care for and some stand alone mysteries. The Scent of Rain and Lightning is one of the stand alones and it kept me guessing until the end.

The River of Doubt is another non-fiction book, but it read like fiction. It's a fascinating account of Teddy Roosevelt's expedition down a previously uncharted river in the Amazon. I read this one by the pool on our Florida vacation and couldn't put it down.

And now it's on to the Fall Reading Challenge. Here's what I'm planning:

1. The Strength in What Remains-Tracy Kidder

2. The Shadow of the Wind-Carlos Ruiz Zafon

3. The Latehomecomer-Kao Kalia Yang

4. Petals from the Sky-Mingmei Yip

5. A Moveable Feast-Ernest Hemingway

6. look me in the eye-John Elder Robison

7. Shoot the Moon-Billie Lets

8. Murder on Waverly Place-Victoria Thompson

9. To the Hilt-Dick Francis

10. The Broken Teaglass-Emily Arsenault

Time to get a cup of tea and get started!

Exquisite

2010-09-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

Early in August, a good friend and co-worker who knows that my husband and I are foodies and that we were about to be empty nesters alerted me to the dates for Restaurant Week in Philadelphia. I immediately snagged a reservation at Le Bec Fin, one of the finest restaurants in the city, if not the entire nation. My husband had been there for business dinners, but I had never had the opportunity to go. As it turns out, I had to spend a good part of Friday in a meeting with a lawyer due to a lawsuit brought against my school district by parents of a former student. Reminding myself that we were going to Le Bec Fin that night helped me get through the meeting. My anticipation was high and I was certainly not disappointed. We were seated in the main dining room which has wonderful high ceilings with gold trim. The ceiling height helps with the acoustics so that even though there were probably 50 people in the room and the tables are fairly close, it felt like we were alone. There were legions of people waiting on us and the chef, Georges Perrier, wandered around the room occasionally. Each course had wonderful presentations and flavors. From the butternut squash soup with pickled pumpkin seeds to the whipped cream on the key lime tart, the whole experience was simply exquisite. The added bonus was that a three course meal during Restaurant Week was $35 so that both of us ate for less than the price of one meal at regular prices. Who doesn't love a bargain? Le Bec Fin will be closing in July, 2011 so I'm really glad we had this opportunity. I hope each of you got the chance to indulge yourself a little this weekend, too!

Tonight, It's All About the U

2010-09-23T17:27:00.001-07:00

Ninety percent of the time I can totally ignore sports. I don't much care how the Eagles or Phillies are doing and the Sixers and Flyers are pretty much non-existent to me. But I am a closet college football fan and when my son went tot the University of Miami, I transferred my loyalty from the Nebraska Cornhuskers to the Hurricanes. So tonight I'm planted on my couch stitching away on Postcard from Paradise while I watch Miami pound the Pittsburgh Panthers. Go 'Canes!

Out and About

2010-09-22T16:39:00.000-07:00

I've gotta say that this empty nest thing has a lot going for it! After nearly 25 years of arranging our lives around the kids' schedules, my husband and I are enjoying the freedom of being "home alone." We took advantage of Philadelphia's Restaurant Week and had a lovely $35 prix fixe meal at Fork in center city. On a Sunday night. Since Restaurant Week is actually two weeks long, we're going to another restaurant in the city on Friday night. A couple of weeks ago, I found half-price tickets to a play and only had to check my husband's schedule to see if it was OK to buy them. We love coming home from work and throwing together a quick meal that pleases us. I love being able to get out of the house in the morning so I can get to school early when it's quiet and no one talks to me while I try to get ready for the day. I love being able to do things like going to the quilt show last weekend and not having to worry about who needs me at home. No sports practices or music lessons to worry about, no having to think about who has to be picked up when and where, no homework to nag about and best of all, no having to plead with and threaten reluctant teenagers to get them out of bed in the morning. Please don't tell the kids how much we're enjoying this!

Outside the Box

2010-09-12T03:53:00.001-07:00

My sister and brother-in-law from Iowa visited us over Labor Day weekend. They've been to the Philadephia area several times and we've been to all the historical sites as well as Valley Forge at least once. We were all looking for something different to do and a quick Google search gave us several possibilities. We chose to tour the Eastern State Peneteniary which is located right in the city only a few blocks from the Art Museum and the Franklin Institute. And are we glad we did! The facility hasn't operated as a prison since the 60's or 70's and is now a National Historic Trust property. It once housed Al Capone and Willie Sutton, however. We arrived in time to take the architecture tour (one of three or four special tours included with the admission) and had a very informative guide who pointed out lots of things I might not have noticed. For example, inside the prision the corners of the outer walls were curved to make it harder to climb over them to escape. After that we took the 45-minute self-guided audio tour (also included with admission).

My sister and her entire family are big baseball fans. Me, not so much. But since she and her husband had expressed a desire to see a game, we headed down to the ball park. Great seats, terrific weather and of course, a hot dog made for a wonderful evening. And the Phillies won!

Sunday morning we went to Chanticleer, a garden on an old estate in Wayne, Pennsylvania. A friend and I had tried to visit several years ago, but it was closed, and I never got back. This was another pleasant surpise and it's practically in my back yard. The garden has plantings on 35 acres that include an asian wood and pond gardens. People are encouraged to wander off the paths and plants are not labeled so as not to distract from them and to encourage visitors to interact with the gardeners.

Definitely not my usual weekend activities, but ones that made for great memories!

Gone!

2010-09-06T13:06:00.001-07:00

Here's the last carload of stuff to leave our house. Last weekend, my husband and I loaded the van for the third weekend in a row and drove up to our older son's new apartment in Brooklyn. The trip went smoothly until we crossed the Verranzano Bridge. We zigged when we should have zagged. Or more correctly, we think we should have crossed on the lower level and not the upper. But I don't think we'll ever really know for sure. We were enjoying the drive along the bay and pointing out the sights, including Coney Island, when all of a sudden we were past JFK and seeing signs for Long Island. Definitely not where we wanted to be! Through the magic of cell phones and Google maps, my son was able to guide us to his place. He' paying rock bottom rent for Brooklyn, and believe me when I tell you that his room is miniscule! Oh, well, he's young, he's not there that much, he's paying month to month and maybe, just maybe, he'll get a raise soon so he can move on and I can relax. But how sweet it is to have him only two hours* away (and to have our basement empty.)
*Unless of course, one's husband doesn't listen and stays in the right lane at the toll booth and NOT the left one as he was directed and the red van ends up on Staten Island on the way home. But then again, I've always wanted to see the Statue of Liberty.

More Multitasking

2010-08-25T17:49:00.001-07:00

During those long car trips to take my two younger children to college, I've used my time wisely and stitched these canvas ornaments.

These are Kathy Schenkel designs from a series called "Countdown to Christmas." The first two or three ornaments took me around five hours to complete. Now I have it down to a science and each one takes about three hours.

Except for this one which took me about three months. That pesky satin stitch on the candle (see close up below) was ripped out, oh, about four times, before I could get it to a reasonable facsimile

of the way the stitch looked in the diagram.

Fronts will be joined to backs (not by me--way beyond my finishing competencies) and embellished with ribbons and hangers to go on a small tree that serves as an Advent calendar. In fact, I tried to drop these off at the needlepoint shop on Monday, but forgot they aren't open on Mondays. It wasn't a wasted trip as I had breakfast near the shop with a good friend and enjoyed my first day as an empty nester as well as my last day of summer vacation. One more day of inservice training this week will be followed by a long weekend. We'll welcome the kids back to school on Monday and those leisurely mornings spent reading the paper and enjoying a second cup of coffee will become a distant memory.

Going, Going. . .

2010-08-23T16:09:00.001-07:00

We're becoming expert movers as the past two weekends we have loaded up the van to move two of our children to college. Daughter's move is on the top and middle son's is on the bottom. LOTS of stuff is now gone from our house and we are technically empty nesters. Just have to get rid of the mountain of stuff my older son has parked in the basement and we will truly have a more empty nest.

Both college moves went smoothly. Our daughter's roommate is from Hawaii (I've already researched flights) and didn't arrive until early evening. That gave us the chance to work in the room without bumping into anyone else. After everything was set up and we retrieved the refrigerator that I had ordered (LOVE being able to order online and pick up in the store at Best Buy!), my husband and I waited with our daughter for awhile. Eventually we decided to go to our hotel and she contacted the girl from her high school who also goes to her university so they could get together. We all left the room together and our daughter didn't even look back as she headed across campus! She seems to be having the time of her life and is getting along well with her roommate, so all is good on that front.

Our middle son opted to have surgery on his hand after he spent a night without the splint. That happened on Tuesday and it went well. He was so funny in recovery when he told me how he kept asking one of the nurses out. She was a really cute blonde, so I guess I don't blame him! The stitches will be in until the end of this week and he has a pretty impressive looking bandage so he couldn't do some of the heavy lifting for his move back to school. My son has had the same roommate since freshman year and they have the same room they had last year. They didn't like the furniture arrangement last year and planned something different this fall. My husband was on hand to help with the heavy lifting and elevation of beds. I made my son's bed and emptied the boxes and suitcases we were bringing home with us and then we left them to get settled. And drove home to a (somewhat) empty house. This may take some getting used to.

For the Good Times

2010-08-16T13:56:00.001-07:00

Today is my 35th wedding anniversary. We were married in the church in my hometown in southeast Nebraska. No air conditioning and people thought my husband was nervous when they saw him shaking his leg. He was just trying to get the sweat to run down it a bit faster! Mine was the first of three weddings my parents planned, and since I had spent the summer in Pennsylvania working and setting up our new apartment, most things fell to my mother. My parents decided to have the reception in my hometown and that meant there was only one venue--the "supper club." Actually, this was the basement of the local pool hall/bar and had formerly been a bowling alley when my mother was a teenager. Although there wasn't a private room, my parents figured very few people other than wedding guests would be there since it was also the weekend of the county fair. Sometimes I miss life in small town Nebraska. Mostly not. Turned out they were right, but choosing that venue also meant that they couldn't control the band. It was, of course, a country music group. A trio, I think. My husband and I hadn't planned to have a first dance and so didn't make a request. However, someone urged us to go to the dance floor and it was announced that it was our first dance as a married couple. And with that the band began to play "For the Good Times."* We had been married about three hours by then and were dancing to a song about a failed relationship! We just started laughing and waved everyone else onto the floor with us. We're still laughing about it all these years later.

*The Lyrics

Comings, Goings and Suspicious Behavior

2010-08-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

Our children are on the move this month. Here's some of the stuff my oldest moved from LA and has dumped, I mean temporarily stored, in our basement while he looks for an apartment in New York.

And here's some of the stuff that my daughter will be taking with her to college on Saturday. I didn't bother to take a photo of what has been in my middle son's room since he came home from college in May because, well, you get the picture.

And speaking of the middle one, I spent the day traveling up and down the Pennsylvania Turnpike from our house to his camp in the Poconos and back again. He hurt his left hand on Thursday evening and finally went to the ER near camp on Saturday afternoon. X-rays confirmed that he had fractured a bone near his little finger. They gave him a splint and told him to see an orthopedic surgeon in 5-7 days. So I spent Monday morning arranging the appointment, dithering between whether he should go to someone close to his school or come home. We finally decided he should come home and this afternoon he was seen by the doctor affiliated with our local hospital. The good news is that the break doesn't require surgery or a cast and he only has to wear a splint for the next four weeks. I got him back in time for his 6:30pm meeting.

But the day was not without some drama (other than the 360 miles I put on the car). Since we needed to bring the x-rays with us, we had to stop at the hospital in the Poconos to pick them up. I, of course, being unfamiliar with the area, saw a building that looked like it could be a small community hospital and turned in. As I drove through, it became apparent that it wasn't a hospital and I turned around to ask directions from two women who were out walking. They seemed very flustered and told me I was on federal property just as the security patrol pulled up. The officer was pretty testy about me being there and didn't soften his attitue when I told him I hadn't seen the sign in front. Now, mind you, this was a facility for a goverment agency that provides you money in retirement (I'm a little paranoid about the experience and am avoiding giving the actual name in case they flag mentions of the agency on the internet.) There I was, a middle-aged blond-haired, blue-eyed women in a mini-van and I was being told that there were lots of cameras trained on me since I had entered the property twice. Just what kind of threat did I pose? True, my dark-haired son who hadn't shaved in four days and had several layers of dirt on him might have looked somewhat sinister (he is left-handed after all), but I really don't think that justified telling me that I would absolutely have to turn around and leave rather than just going back the way I came in. Maybe the patrol's attitude stemmed from his fears that he will never see any money from that agency in his retirement. And really, if they didn't want me there, shouldn't they have a gate?

The Winner Is. . .

2010-08-09T15:51:00.001-07:00

Sherry! Please send me your address so I can send the Bloom chart to you this week. Congratulations!

Multitasking at Its Best

2010-08-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

I periodically attend inservice presentations at a local center that is part of a statewide training network. Usually the presentations are telecast to the center that I go to. I often see the same people at the inservices and one of them is a woman who brings her needlepoint to work on while whatever expert is on the screen talks away. I've always wanted to join that woman in stitching while learning and now I have--only not in public. Before and after vacation, I listened to an on-line conference for about 30 hours (lots of different presenters, thank goodness). While I listened and occasionally glanced at the powerpoint slides, I sat on my couch and stitched on Hester's Needle Grace and Truth and all that multi-tasking led to another finish. I'm sure someone is going to look at my collected works someday and comment that 2010 was a very good stitching year.

I started this sampler last year as my reward for having the scale dip below a certain number. The sampler is successfully completed, but my weight loss program not so much. I'm a very lapsed lifetime member of Weight Watchers and since it worked for me 10 years and a much faster metabolism ago, I've decided to rededicate myself to following the program. I notice several other bloggers have become WW members in the past six months or so and that has also spurred me on to another try. I may or may not give updates on my progress.

Don't forget to leave a comment on my last post if you want to be entered in the giveaway for the Bloom chart!

Home Again

2010-08-04T05:25:00.000-07:00

I'm back! (Although you didn't even know I was away). We were in Orlando for five days to attend the wedding of a very good friend and to get in a short vacation before we start the work of moving our children to various places in August. We enjoyed strolling around Lake Eola in Orlando, wandering on Park Avenue in Winter Park, and eating dinner at the Millenia Mall.

We spent one day at Universal since my daughter wanted to see the new Harry Potter area. I am so not a rollercoaster person which is one of the two reasons my family has never visited Disney World. (The other reason is that when they were younger, my kids were not good at waiting in line.) But I was brave and went on the Dueling Dragons ride which turned me upside down a time or two. I kept telling myself that I had been through childbirth three times and really, how much worse could a rollercoaster ride be. My daughter is an amusement park veteran and advised me to sit on my sandals so I wouldn't lose them during the ride--who knew?? I was white-knuckled the entire time (all of three minutes??) and it took about five minutes for my heart rate to return to normal, but I survived. The Harry Potter ride inside Hogwarts is very cool. I'm sure we weren't more than three or four feet off the ground at any time so I felt safer. It was like an Imax movie on steroids since we really were flying with Harry and getting "venom" spit on us from spiders. Wish I could have talked my family into standing in line to go on the ride again.

We also spent a day in St. Augustine since I feel I'm not a responsible parent if I don't drag my children to some historical place or another when we're on vacation. It would have been nice to have more time to spend in St. Augustine or to have gone when it was cooler since there are several museums that looked interesting. We chose to visit the Fountain of Youth site and got to drink some of the water that Ponce de Leon thought would keep him young. It has a lot of minerals in it, including sulphur which, of course, gives it a distinctive odor. We also took the trolley tour which gave a good overview of the area, but I wish that we had had time to see Flagler College which has a number of Tiffany windows. That, and the quilt shop we drove by on the tour.

The wedding was lovely and the bride was gorgeous. The couple got married on the 6th anniversary of their first date--in his toast, the best man questioned why they couldn't have started dating in January instead of July since the air conditioning failed just as we were heading into the reception. It got fixed but not before I lost approximately five pounds in water weight.

During some time relaxing in our hotel room, I listened to podcasts from Quilting for the Rest of Us which I discovered through Denise's blog and finished stitching Bloom. It's stitched on 19 count antique ivory cork linen with Watercolours. Very fun to do and very fast to stitch. I'll be turning it into a pillow sometime soon, I think. The "Doubles" part of the chart is that crossstitch chart is accompanied by directions for doing the design in wool applique. Since this will appeal to those of you who come to look at my quilts and those who stitch, and since it's my 100th post, I'll be giving this chart away to anyone who leaves a comment by midnight on August 8. (Please don't post this giveaway on other blogs.)

Deadlines

2010-07-27T06:05:00.000-07:00

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." Douglas Adams

Here's my Keep Me Sampler (Moira Blackburn) in all it's wrinkled glory. I finally finished it on July 22nd after having it has a WIP since August of 2004. It wasn't finished in time for Robin's WIP Challenge but I can count it for my sampler guild's 2010 WIP "stitch-along." (Instead of doing a group project as a guild, we are each choosing a project to complete during the year.) After all this time, I still love the colors in this sampler. Here's a close-up of the willow tree that attracted me to this piece in the first place:

We had a willow tree near our garage for many years. Although it was a pain to clean the leaves off the driveway, we were sad to lose the tree in a storm and it's nice to have a memory of it. One other thing--this piece is heavy! It has a lot of solid stitching in it and that added weight.

The other deadline I missed was a 3 for 2 quilting special that my longarm quilter was offering. I have one quilt top entirely pieced and was racing to finish two other tops but things just weren't coming together. I did make some progress on a top that's been hanging around for about two years and now need to put borders on it. The other quilt is pieced and needs to have sashing and borders. So a couple of afternoons of sewing should take care of those. Pictures will follow in due time.

I certainly didn't mean to take a month off between postings. I blame it on long run of 90 degree or higher days we've been having here. In the interim between posts, I've read a lot, been to a college orientation for my daughter, finished unpacking my boxes at work, done a lot of deep cleaning of my house, had lunch with friends, gone to a quilt show and a couple of quilt shops and celebrated my younger son's 21st birthday--in short, really enjoying my time off from work. In addition, we've had some computer drama that resulted in having to purchase a spiffy new laptop (it has a red case!) and a new wireless router, both of which will make blogging much easier. I've kept up with all of you as best I could and it sounds like most of you are having a good summer, too.

New York Beauty

2010-06-30T12:48:00.001-07:00

These are the first three (and only) blocks I've completed from a workshop I took from Linda Hahn back in April or May. Her method of sewing the curved seam works really well and so far, each one has been perfect. These are Kansas Troubles fabrics. I was a little unsure about using them and having the center of the block the same as the outside. And sure enough, when I got to the workshop, everyone else was using fabrics that were a lot jazzier than mine. But now that I've done some of the piecing, I like the effect. I was planning for the completed project to be a wall hanging for the sewing/guest room that I wil be remaking my older son's bedroom into (we refer to it as "The Shrine" since it's almost exactly the way he left it six years ago when he went off to college--minus the clothes on the floor, of course). But we recently got the good news that he will be relocating from LA to Brooklyn by the end of the summer for a salaried position with health and dental benefits. So this New York Beauty may be just the thing he needs for his new apartment.

Polishing My Halo

2010-06-23T09:11:00.001-07:00

"Polishing my halo" is what my mother used to say to congratulate herself when she had finished a large or tedious household task. I've been taking advantage of the uninterrupted time I have with my husband at work and all of the kids away to do some serious cleaning. The using a toothbrush to scrub the tiles kind of cleaning. My house is thanking me and my halo will be shining brightly by the end of this week.

When I take a break, I've been reading Stuff by Randy Frost. It's about compulsive hoarders, a disorder that has fascinated me since I saw a TV show or two about it. The book is extremely readable even though it presents Frost's research about the basis of hoarding. I think one of the things that makes it so good is that he really seems to like the people he studied. Reading their stories makes it a lot easier to clean out the closets.

Double Dipping Again

2010-06-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

I've been participating in a year-long reading challenge hosted by Vickie. I decided back on January 1 to go for the gold and read 100 books this year. Vickie allows participants to include audio books in the total and thanks to that I'm up to 52 books this year, about half of them books on tape. Now A Southern Daydreamer has posted her summer reading challenge. Should be no sweat to meet the challenge by reading these books I've pulled from my shelves:

1. Evan Blessed by Rhys Bowen
2. Winterkill by C.J. Box
3. Glittering Images by Susan Howatch
4. Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts
5. For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose
6. look me in the eye by John Elder Robison
7. Letting Go by Karen Levin Coburn nd Madge Lawrence Treeger
8. Murder on Waverly Place by Victoria Thompson
9. To the Hilt by Dick Francis
10.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by (do I even need to write this) J.K. Rowling (and yes, I know that I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't finished the Harry Potter series).

I haven't started any of these yet because I've been captivated by Stuff (Frost). More on that later, but suffice it to say the book has motivated me to put some heavy duty cleaning on my agenda for today. And while I'm cleaning, I'm listening to David Baldacci's latest, Deliver Us From Evil. Who says I have a book addiction??

Catching Up, Part 2

2010-06-20T11:55:00.001-07:00

I've managed to shift myself pretty well from work mode to home mode this summer. Some years it takes awhile, but this year I put some thought into a routine for the day. Haven't used the routine yet, but just thinking about it seems to have helped make the transition. My daughter left for "senior week" at the Maryland shore on Friday. After I dropped my daughter off at her ride's house on Friday morning, I took advantage of the fact that no one needed me for several hour and headed off to the quilt shop to pick up my Thimbleberries block of the month. On the way back, I stopped at two used book stores. One benefits a local hospital and I had never visited before. It's very well-organized and stocked, but a little pricey ($4 for a used paperback). The other book store is in Valley Forge Park and I dropped off a rather large donation of books my children had released from their shelves. It's smaller, but I managed to find a few paperbacks for $2 each. Since it was an absolutely gorgeous day, I indulged myself with lunch from the lovely shop next door and sat outside reading one of my books.

With our daughter off at senior week, my husband and I are home alone. Yesterday, we took a mid-morning walk and then I started cleaning while he went out with a friend. Managed to thoroughly clean the powder room and reorganize the closet in it before he came home and invited me to lunch with the friend and the friend's girlfriend. Which is how I wound up at a local tavern having a beer at 1:30 on a Saturday afternoon. It has been years since I've had that kind of time in my schedule. Not something I'd want to do every week, but a really nice change of pace.

Today, my husband and I made the 180 mile round trip to attend the worship service at my son's camp and see him installed as a counselor. It's a much better trip when I'm not driving and I used the time to finish a canvas ornament. My third finish in my 25-project challenge.

The quilt? It's the one I made for my daughter's Christmas gift and haven't shown before. My daughter picked out the Amy Butler fabrics. The blocks are from Calico Carriage Quilt Design's Post and Beam pattern. The pattern calls for the block to adjoin without the sashing, but I felt the sashing was needed to give the eye a place to rest. I had another Amy Butler fabric for the outer border, but think the batik I used ties it all together a little better.

Catching Up

2010-06-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

The past ten days have been over-full. I had to finish up my paperwork as well as pack all the accumulated things of 19 years in one school. It took 60 (!) boxes and yes, I did some purging. Some of the paperwork's not quite finished, but an hour or two on the computer will take care of that.

School was out on the 11th, the same day my older son came in from California. On Monday, I put him on a 6:15 train to New York so he could talk with his company about job possibilities there, and then got ready to attend my daughter's high school award ceremony. After taking her to lunch, I helped set up for the post-graduation party. Tuesday was spent making sure my daughter got to graduation practice and my husband picked up my son from the train. I drove 180 miles round trip to pick up my son from his camp and then we all attended graduation. Yesterday, I took my older son to the airport from his 6:00am flight and then drove another 180 mile round trip to be sure my son got back to camp by 9:00. Whew! I rarely nap, but yesterday, I needed to.

So, I'm spending today catching up--on the newspaper, on putting things away and beginning to clear up the clutter from the things that accumulate at the end of the school year (my son's college stuff, my daughter's high school stuff and my own stuff that I don't store at school), taking things to the cleaners, getting prescriptions filled, etc. In short, all those little tasks that have to be done.

Also in the spirit of catching up, I'm showing my Perkiomen Valley quilt. This was a class I took in March, 2009. I got it back from the quilters in January or so and bound it right away, but never showed a picture of it, although I did show one block in this post. I used Wildflower Serenade from Kansas Troubles for the green and a Thimbleberries for the ivory contrast. Since I didn't have much of a stash when I started this quilt, I purchased quite a few fat quarters for it. I had some fun finding novelty prints for the things I love--some suitcases for travel, chocolates, coffee, books. The half-square triangles were made with Thangles. I am attempting to learn something new with each quilt so I mitered the border on this one. Now that I had a much larger stash, I'll be doing this pattern again sometime.

My Reindeer Flies Sideways

2010-06-16T09:17:00.001-07:00

It used to be that the tears would start rolling whenever I heard "Pomp and Circumstance." Until my kids paired these lyrics with the tune:
My reindeer flies sideways;
Your reindeer flies upside down.
My reindeer flies sideways;
Your reindeer is dead.
Which is why I was dry-eyed at my daughter's high school graduation last night. (OK, so I did choke up when she sang in the choir and I realized we were probably watching her perform for the last time.) All in all, it was a very happy time and both my sons were also in attendance (one came in from LA and I retrieved the other one from his job as a camp counselor.) My daughter spent four years collecting "graduation bling" as she and her friends referred to it and you can see that she amassed quite a bit of it from honor societies, band, drama and student council. We were all so proud of her and can't wait to see what the next four years will bring.

Do You Kindle?

2010-06-02T15:58:00.001-07:00

Or use some other e-reader? I've been toying with the idea of getting one and am leaning toward the Nook from Barnes and Noble. But I always manage to talk myself out of the purchase. I have access to a wonderful public library system and often use their on-line service to reserve books. At least half of my "reading" is audio books because I'm in the car so much and I like to listen while I stitch or quilt. But my reading time may increase when my youngest goes off to college in August. But I also have about 2500 books under my bed waiting to be read (just kidding, of course. I probably only have 2400). So would those of you who have one of these devices or have gone through the decision not to buy one let me know what you think about them?

Double Dipping

2010-05-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

Robin posted a WIP challenge awhile back and I entered. My sampler guild usually has a stitch-a-long, but this year, we are to choose a piece already in our stash (started or not) for completion. My piece for both of these is Moira Blackburn's Keep Me Sampler which was the one I was stitching at the first guild meeting I attended back in 2006. I've done a little more on it since this photo was taken. My mini-goal for the week is to finish the top right (fence, vine, border) with a bonus goal of finishing one of the trees on the right. And maybe figure out if/where I went wrong on the border on the left. The plan is to stitch on this pretty much exclusively until it's done.

It Takes So Little

2010-05-29T17:57:00.001-07:00

I purchased this MP3 player a few years ago so that I could download books from my library. Only problem was I couldn't get the required software from the library to download onto my desktop computer. I got around that for awhile by downloading the software onto a laptop, but then the laptop died last summer. I had been thinking of replacing it, but at the moment, my desktop does most things I need it to (although it can be slow about it) and it seemed extravagant to buy a new computer just to download books. I do have an I-touch and an account at Audible, but I really prefer the MP3 player at times since it's small and fits easily into my pocket so that I can listen to books while I clean. Besides, the books I put on it are free. Today after looking at the Best Buy ad as I do every Saturday, I thought I'd try to download the necessary software one more time. And lo and behold, it worked! Cleaning the house was much more pleasant while listening to Meg Cabot's Size 12 Is Not Fat. It really does take so little to make me happy.

Thank you all for your comments on my work situation. They were all really comforting and helped me to see that this is an opportunity to grow.

Do Not Worry

2010-05-22T06:35:00.001-07:00

Here's my first finish in my 25-project challenge. It's the Eye on the Sparrow chart by Silver Creek Samplers stitched on an R&R fabric with a Sampler Threads conversion from Shakespeare's Peddler. (No affiliation, just a happy customer.) I started it during my trip to Colorado over spring break to visit my 91-year old aunt and finished it the beginning of May. This verse has special significance for me since it talks about the lilies of the field and Susan is from the Hebrew word for lily. I'm a big-time worrier and planner (remember how much I like to make lists?) so this reminds me to relax a little bit--OK, a lot--and try to go with the flow.

While I was working on this piece, I was totally unaware that there was going to be a major change in my work life. I am a speech therapist and have worked in my present school district for 19 years. During that time, I've worked in several different buildings, but have always been in one of my elementary schools. I've worked with the principal in that building for 18 years. I was about to the be oldest and most senior person in the building when another teacher retires next month. However, my special education supervisor decided to swap assignments for two therapists and I'm moving to another school next year, for no apparent good reason, except that I was assured it's not because of anything I've done or haven't done. I begged to stay where I am, especially since I'm planning to retire in another three years. I talked about my leadership positions in the building. My principal fought for me to stay. She cited the history I have with parents and how I'm a model of professionalism for the younger staff members (translation: I'm "mature.") All to no avail. So I am packing up my classroom and saying goodbye to students and parents I've worked with for several years. I'm determined to leave everything in good shape for the new person. I'm trying to avoid the end of the year celebrations because that's the last thing I feel like doing. And most of all, I'm trying to rise to this new challenge and not to worry about it.

OK, I'm Done Now

2010-05-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in a previous post that I had been on a bit of a buying spree. I took advantage of the Pajama Party sale at my LNS although I shopped from home in my pjs and got the chart, fabric and threads for Drawn Thread's Cici's Casket. Then I put myself on automatic for Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart and ordered fabric so that I could stitch all the charts on one piece. And finally, I picked up Carriage House Samplings Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow and Suzannah before they go out of print. I'm done now and a 25-project challenge is officially beginning. No more charts until I've completed 25 cross stitch projects. My husband predicts that LNSs will go out of business when I'm on these challenges, but I'm sure that you all will be picking up the slack for me, right?

May Day

2010-05-01T09:12:00.001-07:00

When I was a child, we had a May Day tradition of delivering baskets of flowers and small treats to someone's doorstep, ringing the bell and running away before we could be discovered. Did anyone else do this or is it just a Midwestern tradition?
We always had lots of fun creating the baskets out of construction paper and pipecleaners, or when truly pressed for time, Dixie cups and pipecleaners. Since I've outgrown that kind of May Day fun, I'm thinking of a different kind of basket, using these fun fabrics for Mojo from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co., a pattern I ordered immediately after seeing it on Nicole's blog. (That woman gets me into more trouble since her posts on Scrap Basket Surprises sent me running to get that book also.) My Mojo is still in the planning stages as I don't have background fabric (my LQS is moving at the end of the month and I'm hoping there will be a sale). And anyway, I have another project or 5 out on my cutting table.

Maybe I Should Retire, or Maybe I'm Just Tired

2010-04-29T15:21:00.001-07:00

In March, I was given the opportunity to take an early retirement but I decided not to take advantage of it for several reasons. I thought I just wasn't ready to be home all the time and then there was the pesky problem of health insurance for our 18 year old daughter and 20 year old son. But I tell you, almost from the moment I let the school district know that they were stuck with me, things have gone south. I have been overloaded with paperwork and too many meetings. I've had to discipline a third grade student for a bullying remark (not my usual role), and had to deal with another student who tends to lash out at me when asked to do work. I'm sick of all the people I work with and how some of them can't cut the parents any slack. Looking forward to the weekend and trying to keep in mind that we only have 30 school days left.

Turning Twenty, Part 2 or Put On Your Shades

2010-04-28T16:01:00.001-07:00

I posted here about my son's 20th birthday. Here are the front and back of the Turning Twenty quilt I made for him using mostly fabrics from Moda's Atlantis line. The back has a panel from the line in the center and I also used parts of another panel for the front of the quilt. My son is hoping to work in marine biology so he loves the quilt, but it's awfully bright for me since I'm more of a Kansas Troubles kind of girl.

Excuses, Excuses

2010-04-27T16:56:00.001-07:00

I could offer a lot of excuses for not posting in the last two weeks, but the fact is, I've been just plain busy. The spring and fall are the busiest times at work for me since I have lots of reports due, and I've been putting in some extra hours writing those reports and meeting with parents. I have also been getting an application ready for a supplemental position at my job. It hasn't been all work, though. I took a class from Betsy Morgan with my sampler guild and I took a class from Linda Hahn with my quilting guild (I took the New York Beauty class--more on that later, but just have to say her method of sewing the curves is so slick. I've done three blocks and all are perfect.) And snuck in a night out with friends from work.

I've also been on a bit of a buying spree for quilt fabrics and these showed up on my doorstep last week. There's the Rural Jardin line from French General--perfect for making a quilt for my daughter who is going to a college whose colors are red, white and blue. Now just to find some time to sit down at the machine!