Sorry I am So Quiet. I will be back before too long....

Happy 49th Birthday To My Dear Hubby Mark!! Watch out Salley O'Malley! He is gonna have you next year. Don't think he likes to Kick! Stretch! and Kick! though.

Wow! Where Have I Been? To be honest I am overwhelmed with a lot of things. Last Sunday I had to take hubby to the ER with hiccups. He had them for almost a week and was so weakened by them that he started having breathing troubles. Too add to this poor sleep and almost not eating anything. In addition he had aggravated his knee the week before and it was just becoming worse and worse. They got rid of the hiccups in the ER only to have them come back a few minutes after we left there. The "fix" was Haldol in the ER and Thorazine at home. These are both "psych" drugs. They knocked him for a loop and made him extremely low functioning. He was so bad that I asked permission to either work from home or take leave of absence last week. Boss allowed me to work. It is really hard to be a caretaker. I admire all those that do this full time. To add to all this my son, who is a type 1 diabetic, had a touch of the flu. When it rains it pours.

On the work front it is mid year and that means appraisal writing time. I tried to do that from home last week buit with conference calls and caring for others it just was not possible to complete. Plus I had an overdue proposal to complete. I stayed up until after 11:00 p.m. and got that one done last night. I will have to concentrate and get these appraisals done this week since I have to get them all administered this week.

Then on the crafty front, I have many things I owe. Let me just call them overdue. I spent all weekend working to get a round robin done and to get the prep work done on a second round robin. Here are the fruits of my labor. Scroll through the pictures to see more detail. The picture in this post is the completed RR. Lot's of hand work on this one. The second one is paper piecing. I haven't done this before but have found lot's of great tutorials. Now to get the RR off in the mail.

On a fun note. I joined up for a White Elephant exchange on the Stashbuster yahoo group. I had a moment of regret at first since I felt it was a waste of money from the perspective of the shipping and return of contents in the box. I got the box over the weekend and boy was I pleasantly surprised. There was lots of nice things in there. I chose 6 items that I really liked. Now I have to find at least 6 things to place in the box and send it on to the next person. Assume that a pattern costs $9. I got more than my money's worth. Fun, fun, fun! PLUS! I tracked down Sharon-UK in Oregon and we had a nice chat! She is such a sweetie! Love that gal!

Serendipity

ser·en·dip·i·ty Spelled Pronunciation[ser-uhn-dip-i-tee]

• –noun
  an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

Four or five years ago I "worked" with a gal at quiltchat.com. We were both OP's in the room. Her nickname was nimblethimble. I loved this gal. We exchanged gifts, did swaps together and chatted our heads off! What a great gal. Then one day she disappeared. I tried her e-mail address and it was no longer active. Just lost touch.

The other day I was surfing the QuiltStudio webring and came upon a gals post about her friend suddenly dying. I posted my condolences. Not long after this I had a comment on my blog from someone who's blog name I didn't recognize. By now you have probably guessed it was from my long lost friend. I am floating on air! She has come to chat with me a few times and we are catching up on lost time. She has an awesome blog and I am in awe of her talents!

Faith, I am glad we happened across one another again! I am so happy to have you back in my life!

PAY IT FORWARD. OK I signed up to do this on Sarah's blog and Kim's blog. Let's see how it goes. The first three people that leave a comment and pledge to pay it forward to three (make that six) others on their blog will receive a handmade gift from me within one year of this posting.

Please help out and give your favorite colors and an email address.

Happy 48th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad! I am the luckiest gal in the world to have you as my parents! I love you!

Reflecting on May and June.... It doesn't seem that I have accomplished a lot these two months. I can't really recall what I spent my time doing but it wasn't major quilting accomplishments.

• Round Robin center completed and mailed off
• Three tote bags
• Row on my first round robin that I received almost completed. Have to sew on a few buttons and do a bit of embroidery on it.
• Quilted the peach and blue Ninepatch.
• Quilted the baby Irish Chain
• Pulled up all the durn carpet! Now I remember!

All in all not too bad.

Stashbuster Topic of the Week: What get's in the way of my quilty progress? Well I can look around and blame all sorts of things. I work, a LOT. I have the family to attend to and on and on. But, I am also a big proponent of squeeking in 15 minutes here and there to accomplish things.

I made a good deal of progress a couple weeks ago when I turned out three tote bags. Then after that not too much. I continued to sketch and plan my Round Robin row. I have been doing this for weeks! Then it hit me. I worried that it wouldn't be perfect so I was afraid to start until I knew it would be "right". Well now this is my design so who is to say what is right?

This realization was a slap in the face. I immediately got up and went into my sewing room and completed the first two sides of my round. I proudly showed my friends in #quiltchat. They all gave me design "suggestions" after asking about my plans. Some of their thinking was similar to mine and actually meant a better product I think. My initial reaction was to re-draw it. I said no, I am going to just sew it. I went into work on the last two sides. The top was easy, a plain strip. The bottom I had originally planned a full row of pickets across the front. This changed to leave an opening in the fence to lead to the front of the house. I marked my sewing lines and cut my rails shorter and sewed it on. I then sewed pickets on to find that the rails were too long. No big deal, I unpicked the end from the back, trimmed it and sewed the last picket down. Repeat for the other side. See the pics below. I think it turned out great! Just a few more items to add and it is done done.

So what gets in your way?

More Round Robin. I am done with the fence. I plan to add a bunny in a corner from the FQs pictured. Probably the pink. Will add a flower on the opposite corner. Might add a bird at top center with a small ribbon in it's beak. Stay tuned!

Sneak Peek My first round robin. Here is what I have done so far.....

Mesquite Quilt Show Loot I didn'y buy fabric as I am on No Buy. But let me tell you I actually felt a little down thinking of all the things I had at home that I really needed to get done. Curbed my appetite! So here is what I did buy. Some templates, pins, bobbins, a batt and a "tool box". I did buy one tote pattern. This will help me use up some of the pre-quilted fabric I accumulated one year.

Yes there is a DVD there too. I bought these patterns several years ago. I could never remember all the tips given to make the item. I broke down and bought the DVD. No more excuses!

High Five! Here is my first post on the new computer! So much better! Check this out... He is 7 months old and we taught him this trick in just 2 days.

New Toys. Hubby bought me a new computer last Sunday. I spent most evenings on conference calls and did not feel like setting it up and managing those calls as well. Saturday a.m. I planned to get up and get to it but we had a service repairman that came to work on the equipment that supports our internet. I didn't want to be working on the computer in the middle of that. As soon as he left I set the new machine up and started loading the software. I got the internet connectivity going and downloaded several pieces of software. It went pretty well. Now I have to download data from the old machine that I want to save and move it over. Less urgency to get that done.

The other new toy is a floor model Ott lamp. I have the table top model. I bought another using my 40% off coupon as there was not much to choose from. I went to a bigger store and they had the floor lamp for $100. That was better than using the 40% coupon. I set it up pretty easily and think it will be great. I found some reviews from people that complain it is too short. I just need it to shine light over my shoulder while I am seated. I am sure it will be great for that!

And yes, I promised to take more pictures. Haven't tried that out yet with the new computer.....I know I know. Cut me some slack. Another weekend of conference calls. I want my evenings and weekends back!

Tree of life. This tree is in my front yard. When dh and I bought the house in 1986 his mother would come to visit quite often. She bought us three trees. They all looked like sticks in the ground. I can't remember if she paid $5 or $15 for each of them. One of them died but the other two just flourished. The other is a Bradford Pear and is in the back yard. This is a red oak.

His mother died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1989. It was a shock but I must tell you that through this tree I feel she is still with us. It has grown big and strong. It produces a lot of acorns and we are always pulling up saplings from the yard. I should share these with the neighborhood as many people have scrub trees that have begun to die off.

We talk about moving all the time and one thing that dh and I always agree on. We will take acorns and saplings with us so that his mom can continue to be with us.

My Quilting Assistant. Here is my quilting assistant, Rascal. Hubby rescued him from a pound in Tulsa, OK. Hubby saw him on a website and arranged for someone to drive that dog down to Texas. He went and met the lady in Sherman, TX and happily drove him home. I am not sure what hubby saw in this dog but he sure wanted him. He even looked just like his sister and we considered adopting both of them. We were told that he was a mix of Australian Shepherd and Jack Russell Terrier. By his appearance we thought the Jack Russell size would be a heavy influence and he would be our little dog. We already owned one Australian Chow mix and three purebred Australian Shepherds. These dogs were right around the 50 pound mark and I had been used to smaller dogs. I was so happy to have a little dog again.

When he arrived we gave the kids strict orders to not hold him all the time. Every time I went to sit or lie down I had that dog in my arms or on my chest. I was reminded and teased regularly what a hypocrite I was. Yes I know, but I couldn't help it. I am not quite sure when or how it happened but this tiny little boy grew to be our biggest dog. He hovers around 70 pounds. How did a 50 pound breed and a 30 pound breed yield a 70 pound dog. Shouldn't I have gotten an average and not a breed plus breed weight?? Sheesh. Rascal has been with us for about 5 years. I had not spent much time sewing when he arrived but really got back to my sewing and sewing room last summer. I noticed that whenever I went in there that Rascal would jump on the couch and peak through the french door to watch. He sure was interested in what I was doing in there. This progressed to him standing at the door and "knocking" on it and crying to be let in. It just became habit to call and let him in immediately rather than hearing him cry and having to stop what I was doing to let him in.

He has been "locked out" so much that this year he doesn't even cry. He just works on that door handle or door edge until he gets it open and lets himself in. He has lovingly become known as Mom's quilting dog. His door opening ability was amusing up until several weeks ago when he was "helping" me by holding the floor down. One of my other dogs decided to sit at the door and whine because she felt she needed to be in the sewing room as well. I chose to ignore her pleas and called to the family asking them to distract her. Next thing I know Rascal jumped up and opened the door to let her in. I could not believe it. I will just have to tolerate all this company I suppose. Even though he gets up and down and wraps himself around my legs everytime I move I still love his company and his help. I did not think I could love a big dog as much as I love him!

Totes and more totes! I had a busy productive weekend. I had finished one tote earlier this week and finished two more over the weekend. This was in spite of working all through the weekend. When I finished up the totes I picked up my round robin I need to add a round to and continued sketching out the design. I really spend a lot of time planning before cutting. I even practiced sewing some ribbon onto fabric to see what I would be facing. It was easy. Now to quit putting off actually doing the row!

Good news! As you have seen I am not good about posting pictures. There is a reason for this. My computer is so slow. It takes forever to upload the pics from my camera to my computer then edit and load to my blog. It makes me nuts. It also locks up my computer and I cannot do much else. Well, dh and I went out and bought a new computer for me. I have to time moving over to the new machine but will do that this week. You should see more pictures from me soon!

Hope you had a quilty weekend!

What can you do with 30 minutes? I am not sure if I accomplished a lot or a little. This is mainly an observation. I do know that regardless of what I accomplished it had to be done to make progress.

• setup the ironing board
• pressed the already cut 4 strips for one tote
• trimmed and pressed another 4 previously cut 4 strips for another tote
• trimmed and pressed the fusible webbing (already cut to width) to all 8 strips
• put away the project and ironing board

Is that a lot? I don't know. I was surprised it took me that long but I also piddle along the way. I am sure the dogs had to go out at least once and I was called over to look at something on the tv.

Stashbuster Topic of the Week. Are you a hand, machine or send out to be quilted quilter. For the most part I am a machine quilter. I sent out a King size quilt this year to be quilted as I knew that it would be too hard for me to quilt by machine myself. I have dabbled in hand quilting. I felt so frustrated as it seemed to be too slow. I decided to pick it out and was amazed at what I had accomplished in the short time I spent! What an eye opener! So mostly I am a machiner with basic skills and I am working on branching out into free motion.

Quilty Weekend. I am an all or nothing kind of girl. I am always seeking balance. I think I managed that well over the weekend. I kept up with chores, decluttering, sewing and relaxing. Stress free fun. I finished a totebag that I have been working on and cut out two more of another pattern of my own. I washed some fabric for other projects and frogged an RR that I am working on.

While I was working on these projects I thought how easy it would be to just pull out a UFO and work on it for a few minutes in between steps. Even within my quilting I need balance! I made a list of projects that I need to accomplish in the near term and was please with my progress against that list.

Sorry no pics...the tote is a gift but I will add it later this week.

Carpet is out of the way. Now down to business! Let me tell you, I worked my fanny off and got all the carpet I planned to get out of here, OUT! I was then able to get back to sewing. I took Friday off so I had a four day weekend. I had a list and accomplished most of it errand/chore wise. Most importantly I got back to sewing.

I am in a round robin and had to make my center. This was due April 30th but somehow I had May 30th in my head. I finished it Saturday and then went to work on the person behind me on the list. I added three of the four borders and ran out of fabric. I meant to make sure I had the FGQ turned in the right direction before I cut but alas, I did not. I spent several hours sketching and watching TV. I have a loose idea of what I want but can't seem to get anything on paper. It will come.

I have a totebag pattern that I have been wanting to make. It is a gift so no pictures yet. I read and re-read this pattern and thought, no problem. Then I started putting it together and it isn't quite as straighforward as I had imagined. Luckily the shop where I bought the pattern has a sample. I will call or pop by and take a look. I hope it is not as I think it will be as I would have chosen a different fabric. I used a solid and would have preferred a small print. No panicking yet....we will see.... I also drafted out my pattern for my gift bag tote that I like to make. I started cutting fabric as well. Another gift as well. I have two different ones I am making of that pattern.

Did I tell you I won a doorprize at the new LQS? It was exciting! I didn't even know what the prize was. I just threw my name and number in the pot as I was directed to. LOL. A totebag, rotary cutter, saftey pins, seam ripper, charm pack, a little pouch and a small mat. All nice stuff! I am keeping the tote and fabric and gave dd the rest.