Road Trip! Quilt Related of Course!

We just returned from a wonderful road trip to Oklahoma, 1100 mile round trip in 3 1/2 days! Quilt related of course!

We headed northwest on Wednesday afternoon for a scheduled A-1 Longarm Quilting Machine set up and training just off the famous Route 66 -- had to take these photos to document that we were there...now it's up to interpretation as to which critter represents me and which one represents my hubby (grin) but we really enjoyed our dinner at this fine establishment where the photo was taken. Wish we would have had more time to explore the historic route, but it did lead to a really nice little downtown area in El Reno where we had a good lunch at a local "meet" market and then a quick jump into a local quilt shop!
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These yummy fat quarters were my 'treasure hunt' for the trip -- I found them at K's Quilting Studio where our newest A-1 longarm quilter works. I could have stayed longer in the quilt shop enjoying the beautiful shop samples on the wall and all the tempting fabric, but we had work to do!

Ah, but a few fat quarters really do go a long way -- can't wait to add these brights to one of my scrap quilts and just know they will remind me of our time in Oklahoma! I so enjoyed being out in the country and seeing beautiful scenes -- loved the corn growing and the horses grazing....okay, so the fabric doesn't look like corn growing or horses grazing, but it's going to remind me of that when I see it, that and my new friends!


As A-1 dealers we actually go to our client's studio to set up their table, machine, and to train them on routine maintenance, general troubleshooting, and the operation of the machine. Here you can see the fellows working through the timing of the machine. Hubby and "MacGyver" worked well together, I just stood back and let them have their 'guy time' since guys seem to speak the same language (grin).


Once that was behind us it was time to quilt! (This is my area!) Oh the joys of watching a new longarm quilter at her machine!


Can't you tell by this photo that she's a natural! I just know there will be plenty of happy moments in this studio - can't wait to see her beautiful quilts -- don't think she'll be working on practice muslin very long!


Two happy days spent with new friends, a road trip with hubby, and a few fat quarters to boot -- can't ask for any better -- I am truly blessed!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood AND in My Bathroom!

This photo was actually taken yesterday morning when hubby and I decided we needed to support our local donut shop...after a week of being healthy with the Vita Mix we gave in to temptations -- and we took Pixxie with us to enjoy the neighborhood boat dock as we indulged in the sinful pleasures of a freshly made cinnamon twist.
Have to admit the scenery was breathtaking, I enjoyed the company and of course the donut was fabulous!


When we headed home we reclaimed our bathroom! Yes, after a week and a half of parts and pieces being all over the house as it was occupied by our skillful painter we finally were able to put things back in the cabinets and start decorating again. Added the final touches today as I found this beautiful poka dotted shower curtain that I just had to have. What do you think?


Believe it or not, the room is actually a little brighter than the photo - the yellow is called Buttercup. I just call it sunshine. This was taken at 8 PM and the lighting just doesn't do it justice. It is bright and beachie looking and I love it! Which shouldn't surprise anyone considering how much I love the beach! By the way, the jar full of sea shells were collected by my grandmother in 1993 when we took her to the beach for the first time at age 81 (George Island FL). When she went into the nursing home I inherited them. She's now 96 and everyday I think of her as I enjoy the shells.


We are still babysitting Son #1's fish, so it's a tad crowded at the end of the counter. We've been grandparents to these little beauties most of the year. Son #1 lives with our painter fellow -- they bought a foreclosure house back in February that needed a lot of work, a real fixer-upper. So due to the construction in their living quarters it was decided that the fish tank would occupy space in our bathroom, temporarily. (Yeah right, I've heard that one before!)Have to admit, they are fun to watch and are placed "before the throne" so there's plenty of opportunity to watch them (grin) and be in wonder of God's creation.


In this photo you can see the hand carved whale my dad made and our "window" to the beach outside. The poka dots on the real window are just fabric and not curtains yet. Complements of my neighborhood quilt shop, Pinwheels and Posies. I was thrilled to find something that would match my new decor.

So to celebrate, we made Toll-house chocolate chip cookies and are settling in for a Friday night movie at home.

Ah, life is good!

Morning Sunshine - to your health!

Thought I'd share my new morning mix. I recently upgraded to a new Vita Mix. I had purchased one in the late 80's early 90's and used it here and there throughout the years, not as faithful as I'd intended...but it played out on me and after seeing the new upgrades I decided it was better to purchase a new one instead of repairing the old one. Wise choice. It arrived the end of last week!

For background, this "health kick" started several months ago when I injured my leg after hurricane Ike helping in the food distribution truck. Among other things that my chiropractor helped me work through he shared with me the idea of eating right according to your blood type. He recommend that I check out the works of Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo to learn which foods were beneficial to me and which ones to avoid. Of course you have to know your blood type (grin) so I checked with the local blood center to check my records as well as my husband's. I discovered that I'm Type A and he's Type O. From there began an interesting quest....

According to Dr. D'Adamo I'm suppose to be more of a fruit and grain eater, which is pretty much how I like to eat. My husband on the other hand is more of a meat eater (which also was true to his normal habit). The key is trying to find things that we have in common to help with meal preparation, and to learn what foods to avoid. We both found it interesting that some of the no-no's on our individual lists were things we didn't particularly care for in the first place so that wasn't too difficult, but there have been a few things that we said "oh darn".

I'm starting with the fruits right now, made a list for each of us grouped by the blood type recommendations of highly beneficial, neutral, and avoid. The reading of this book is very eye-opening. I've combined this information with Jay Kordick's The Juiceman's Power of Juicing to discover the health benefits of the individual fruits. Okay, there is a difference in juicing and the total juice of a Vita Mix, but that's a discussion for another time and another place (grin). I chose the Vita Mix, which is a total juicer - meaning you get pulp and all - and I'm going to share with you my recipe of this morning.

You can see the ingredients in the above photo. And below is how they looked in the container before mixing. I first poured in a small can of pineapple juice to give me liquid (could have used water but wanted more nutrients). Then I place two slices of fresh pineapple, four frozen strawberries and 4 frozen cherries (pits had been removed prior to freezing), and 4 frozen raspberries. In about 30 seconds in my Vita Mix I had a nice frozen sorbet. It was thicker than what I wanted -- I was in a hurry to drink it before going to my water aerobics class at the YMCA - so I added a little distilled water to make it more juice like.

Ta da! A great way to start the day!

Now I'm not a dietitian or a nutritionist, but according to my reading this little glass of sunshine was packed with potassium, chlorine, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, iron, iodine, provitamin A, B complex, vitamin C, Bromelain (an enzyme that helps with digestion) and all that from just the pineapple and pineapple juice. The strawberries contributed vitamin C and natural sugars that cleanse the system, potassium and iron - good for strengthening the blood, while the sodium content provided a valuable tonic for the nerves and keeping the glands healthy. Plus strawberries have an added benefit of ellagic acid which is suppose to reduce and neutralize the damaging effects of the carcinogen PAH found in cigarette smoke and second hand smoke. But wait, there's more! The cherries contributed even more iron, magnesium, potassium, silicon (good for hair and skin) as well as provitamin A (which is also known as beta carotene). From what I understand in the reading - you can't overdose on provitamin A derived from vegetable and fruit. Plus everything is natural, no preservatives!

Wow, didn't know you'd get a science lesson just by visiting my kitchen! And for those that have asked, here's a picture of my cherry pitter. You just place the cherry stem side up in this little do-dad, use the spring action and push down the plunger and out the other end (the clear plastic area) pops that pit! Like I said, made my work seem like play it was so much fun!


I'm eager to try more mixes with my fruits and later work into juicing veggies. I can testify that I'm not hungry after having my fruit drinks and I think I have more energy! I'm hoping to lose some weight! Dr. D'Adamo says that if you eat according to your blood type that you should achieve your ideal weight. I'm counting on his words of wisdom (grin).

Here's to the beginning of a healthier lifestyle!

It's the Pits!

Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief, office or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest. Proverbs 6:6-8

Yep, it's the pits! These are pits from the cherries I put up in the freezer last night. I discovered this nifty little tool that actually pops the pits right out of the cherries. It truly made play of my work!

Okay, so what gives, I'm a quilter not a farmer. Ah, but I'm trying to return to some domestic roots...it's been a while to say the least...

Years ago when the boys were little and we lived in Tennessee there was an old farmer that went to our church, Charlie Oliver. I mean a real farmer. He had over 100 acres right on the river and grew just about everything including hogs and tobacco (stories for another time). Well, for some reason Charlie loved me like a daughter and was so good to me and my family, always providing me with produce (or pork tenderloin) and later actually loaning me an acre of his land to try my hand at gardening...that's the year I canned so many green beans that once they were all eaten I haven't eaten another one! seriously! Oh and Charlie had a blackberry grove (orchard?) and I dearly dearly love blackberries! My grandmother used to have blackberry bushes in her yard and she's always put them up in the freezer so I could enjoy blackberries year round at her house. Of course, fresh off the vine was a wonderful option too.

Okay...so what about the pits above? Well yesterday in my effort to actually follow through with my new goals of eating healthy a friend of mine shared with me the location of a local farm and produce stand in Alvin, about 20 miles from my home. I came home with all sorts of wonders.



The strawberries are grown there on the farm. I washed them and then put them in a mini muffin pan to quick freeze before bagging them.


Don't know why I can't get this photo to turn 90 degrees the way I took it, but here you see the home grown blackberries. The other fruits aren't local but available at this farmer's market. Blueberries, raspberries and cherries. I did a google search on cherries last night and I'm convinced that I need to buy a truck load of them! The health benefits far out weight the expense! Oh, and the watermelon was home grown too. I loved their brown bags -- this is my friend Annette...

I think I'm going to have to frequent this place a lot this summer!

So this is how my little freezer looked last night and this is how it looks this morning. Love the new plastic 'mason jars'. In case you are wondering, I want to be able to just pick out one or two berries and not have them all clumped together, so that's why the quick freeze as single units before moving to the long term storage containers.

Okay, so the Ben & Jerry's is from my former life (grin) before I decided we needed to get healthy! Notice the replacement Soy Dream Cream in the back (double grin).

The majority of the fruit will be made into fruit smoothies which I'm finding is a wonderful way to start my day! And yes, I'll be in the pits again this morning as I do have another bag of cherries to de-pit and stock away. I'm trying to keep the ratio low of "pit two (or three) eat one!"

Lessons for a Monday (or anyday!)

My thoughts this morning were the hurrieder I go the behinder I get . Seems I feel pulled in so many directions as I try to get a start on this week....my bathroom has been 'under construction' for a week now - who would have thought painting would be such an ordeal - but try showering without a shower curtain and see how many towels you wash in a week (grin)...then there's the underlying 'unknown' with son #2 being sick, took a week to get a doctor's appointment but we have one for tomorrow praise God...and now hubby is feeling rather run over, wonder if the doctor would see both at the same time? hum...that's a phone call that needs to be done. And then there's my own personal goals and deadlines...not easy to be the 'owner of your own business' when there's not enough hours in the day to take care of home and business. Been known to work into the wee hours...but sometimes that's just too much...I'm looking at two major custom quilts that have immediate deadlines and wondering okay God how am I going to do all this?




A song I sang in my high school choir came to me (never mind how long ago that was):

when I think I'm goin' under,
part the waters Lord.
When I think I'm goin' under
calm the sea.
When I cry for help,
oh hear me Lord,
and hold out Your hand.
Still the waves
and calm the raging storm in me.

I can only remember that small portion of that simple chorus but it has helped me focus for many a troubled times. Taking a deep breath I then thought there are lots of scriptures that are calming during troubled times, lots of scriptures that tell us to be still or to wait upon the Lord, that He is our deliverer.

With that in mind I dusted off a Bible that I had used when my kids were young, you know, the one with all the notes in the margin, not the new one that I take to church (grin)....when the kids were little we had lots and lots of children Christian cassettes and videos. I learned many a scripture verse to song (and I hope my kids did too)...and I recorded a lot of these verses in the back of my Bible under the Personal Study Notes page....this is what I rediscovered this morning. By the way, singing is a wonderful way to commit things to memory. Perhaps that's why so many of the old hymns come to mind in troubled times or good times, they were inspired by scripture. Many of today's songs are too. I just love praise and worship music, listen to it the majority of my day....anyway, back to the verses recorded together in the pages of my older Bible... The collection was presented in song by a recording called GT and the Halo Express: Winning the Great Race of Faith. (And I just found out they are still available after 15+ years! So if you have children or grandchildren these story tapes with scripture songs comes highly recommended) It's my hope that these verses will speak to you as they did me and encourage you to keep running.

Romans 15:5,6 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things and at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, and have been called according to His purpose.

Isaiah 40:30,31 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men strumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew thieir strenghth. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.

Isaiah 43:2,3 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Romans 8:38,39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 John 5:4,5 For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Hebrews 10:35,36 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.

2 Timothy 4:7,8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteouness, which the Lod, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.


After this refreshing reading of the Word I believe now that I can face what ever today brings, and tomorrow for that matter, because my confidence is in the Lord and I know that whatever comes my way He will guide me through it and I'll be victorious due to His grace and mercy. Yep, good lesson for a Monday that I hope I'll carry with me all week!

Any Day at the Beach is a Good Day

Oh the joys of living so close to the ocean! We left the mainland early this morning and crossed the causeway to Galveston Island for a breathtaking morning walk along the seawall. It was a beautiful bright day with little or no humidity. The crowds hadn't arrived yet and we enjoyed the almost solitude overlooking the beach during our two and a half mile walk on the seawall.

The rental umbrellas and chairs looked inviting, but we weren't prepared to spend the day. A few had already staked their claim to the choice spots and were already beckoned into the water by the inviting call of the waves. We just walked.


We passed by our favorite place to eat on the island "The Spot". It seemed almost strange not to have people eating out on the decks, but then again, I don't think they serve breakfast!






This photo was taken when we first arrived, coming from 61st street as we turned on to Seawall Blvd. Guess he was an early riser! The photo below was taken later in the morning - this is the jetty nearest the Flagship. Fishing must have been good today.

Lots to see on the seawall. By the way, if you haven't been to Galveston (yes it's really an island) then you may not be aware that there is a long walkway atop the seawall overlooking the sand and surf. There are no businesses beach side, except the Flagship Hotel, Murdoch's Bathouse/Gift Show, and the historical Balinese Room, and one or two fishing piers which were all destroyed by Ike. This is the view of the rebuilding of Murdoch's -- which is a welcomed site!! The brightly painted concrete is all that is left of the entrance to the Balinese room -- quite a lot of history distroyed with the passing of this historical landmark.



These monuments below document the building of the seawall at the turn of the 1900's. If you look close you can see how Ike pushed the top domes to the side. I guess they will eventually straighten these, will take large heavy machinery I'm sure. That's the left overs of the Flagship Hotel behind these pillars.


As we neared the Flagship Hotel, or should I say what was left of it after the flurry of Hurricane Ike, we decided to go down the concrete stairs descending from the seawall to sea level. I guess I'm always complaining that we don't actually walk on the beach but instead take our walk on the seawall....well, today was different. Up close and personal, sand in my shoes! Oh the joy of being on the beach!

And oh the sunburn! Even though the morning was a lot cooler than it would have been in the afternoon, it was still a bright sun shiny day!

It was worth it! Now it feels like summer! I hope we can resume our Galveston seawall walks more and more, I've missed this "routine" that was interrupted by the hurricane. Maybe, just maybe things are going to soon feel like normal again. I love these one day vacations, or as in the case today, half-day vacations!

Yep, any day at the beach is a good day !

My smallest feathered wreath and other updates

Sometimes things don't always go as planned. The best laid plans can get thrown to the wind when life interrupts...more on that in a minute...I'd like for you to take a look at the smallest feathered wreath that I've ever quilted -- Yep, the center of this little miniature quilt was a blank square and I did the little wreath freehand on my longarm today. You can see the size as compared to my hopping foot. The corners were blank also and I did the little twisted continuous curves. Doesn't it make this little quilt come alive!

I'll share more photos once the quilt has been delivered to the customer -- I feel like it's only fair that they get to see their quilt first, and live not on the internet (grin)...so how does this work into my 'life is full of interruptions' topic of the evening? How 'bout the fact that this little quilt got some what suspended in the middle of quilting it this weekend as instead of me having a nice quiet Saturday quilting at home I spent the day in the Urgent Care unit and then the Emergency Room with Son #2. No details right now, just enough to say that it was a long day from him first text messaging me from work at 10 AM wondering if I'd take him to the doctor if he could get off at lunch time...then learning at lunch time that things had gotten pretty serious...by 1:30 we were in the waiting room of Urgent Care, by 4:30 they were telling us they didn't like the reports and sent us to the ER, by 9 PM we were home without the answers we need... so another interruption later this week as I go with him for a followup appointment at the doctors (hopefully, have to make the appointment). Again, details another time, just know that it was a long stressful day and by the time my "day off" on Sunday came around I was in no condition to make up for a lost day of customer quilting, instead I needed my own therapy.

Ta da - this is one of my unfinished projects from a border class I took last summer with Winnie Flemming. It's been waiting for the last set of borders -- the piano keys surrounded by the maroon strips. This was my afternoon project on Sunday.

This has been a fun project, and probably the most detailed piecing I have ever done. It's by no means perfect as it was a class project and I learned a lot. It's not quilted yet, and probably won't be for quite some time as I am behind in my customer quilts, but I didn't want to just fold it away with the other quilts in waiting, instead I've pinned it over the current wall quilt in my living room, the one that it will eventually replace, a blue one called "A Day with Elise" that I pieced and quilted a little over 3 years ago. It too had matching curtains...but those have been replaced with coordinating fabric that this new quilt matches. It's nice to shake off the old and bring in something fresh. Will be eager to quilt it, but in the meantime I can enjoy just looking at the colors. By the way, the quilt from last week's post is also of the same fabric line -- it will be a couch quilt.

Here's the close up of the final border -- kinda proud of my mitered corners, learned a new trick and it works!
The light isn't true on any of these photos, but guess that's what happens when you take photos late at night. As a refresher here's my curtains, I think I had them finished in time for my Christmas open house last year. Personal projects have a way of being dragged out!


Speaking of personal projects being put on hold...as well as life's little interruptions...we are also in the process of updating the bathroom -- going from a dull sand color to BRIGHT!

And did I mention that we only have one bathroom?!?!?!?! Enough said!

My Day Off, and "just 30 minutes" has been successful

It's Sunday! Family worship, quick lunch, NASCAR, quilting. What could be better!

Earlier this year I made a list of all my "project started" and organized everything in clear project boxes in my sewing room, a visual reminder that I had a lot of piecing to do! I've been trying to work through those projects but have to admit I've been distracted a little and played around with some instant gratification quick scrap quilts in between those patient UFO's.

Well, today I decided to return to my original goal of working through my already started projects and since it's my "day off" today was a great day for some quilting fun.

Last year I decided to redo my living room. In the past we had this really ugly blue couch and I'd tried to make the room livable by adding beautiful blue curtains and a blue and yellow quilt to hang on the wall...that was three years ago. Last summer we replaced the blue couch with a new brown couch -- and I decided that the blue just had to go. I had just quilted a quilt for the local quilt shop that was to be a block of the month and fell in love with the fabric. Upon close inspection I realized it was fabric from a cover of The Quilter Magazine (March 2008) and it just seemed to me that this line of fabric by Marianne Elizabeth would be perfect in my living room.

I started the project in the magazine (also on the home page of Marianne's website),how be it, making mine smaller to use as a lap quilt on the couch, and got as far as the setting triangles prior to adding the borders. That's when it became a UFO (sigh).

Wanting to replace the blue and yellow quilted wallhanging I decided I needed to use these same fabrics for a borders class I had signed up for during the summer. Alas, that's still among the ranks of "projects started" needing only 2 more borders to complete.

In the meantime I made the living room curtains...that took months to complete...takes a while when you primarily work on your "days off" (for me that's Sunday afternoons). They were completed by my open house at Christmas (nothing like a deadline of having guests to motivate!)

And with those same thoughts in mind...that of having a deadline with guests coming next month for longarm workshops with Jamie Wallen...I decided it was time to add the borders to my Quilter's Magazine Cover Quilt I fondly just call "Living Room Split Rails". Ta da.


I even pieced the back and prepared the binding in hopes that I'll be able to quilt it in the next few weeks if I can get caught up on everything else. Keep watching the side bar for those Quilts in Waiting to turn into Finished!

In the meantime I have stolen about 30 minutes almost everyday and finished up the binding on this fun little lap quilt. I call it "when life gives you scraps add a happy stripe and make a quilt"


I had fun quilting it and of course one of my butterfly (logo) found it's way among the fiddle faddle. That's what I call my freestyle quilting when I just take off without a plan and just doodle. I took a few close ups and will post them later in webshots.

These were left over strips from my "ugly quilt" made earlier this year. Individually I love the fabrics, there's some really fun ones. I do like tropical related fabrics so that explains the lobsters, fish, whales, parrots... but what I've discovered with the recent quick scrap quilts has been that I need a calm, somewhere to rest the eye...that's where the stripe came in, although it's anything but calm! A few weeks ago I tried again and made another scrap quilt...I don't think I took photos of it, but it's now in the Quits in Waiting category (complete with pieced back and prepared binding)...anyway, I'm learning some valuable lessons about color value and hope to do better in the future (grin).

In an effort to finish using these particular scraps I pieced the back and I think that's my favorite part of the quilt, that's its somewhat reversible. Several years ago when I was new to longarm quilting and quilting in general I had a friend ask about the possibility of a reversible quilt and I sorta pooh-pa-ed it saying that it would be a waste, better to have two quilts than something reversible. Well, never say never. I like the way this one turned out.

And as always, Pixxie is proud of it too.


Such is my beginning of what I hope to be a good quilting week! Maybe next weekend I can work a little on that other living room quilt...would really be nice to have it "all together" when I have my guests....hum...deadlines are good motivators don't ya think?

It's a Dog's Life

It's been a long day, a good day, a good week, just busy and tiring. As I was reaching above my studio couch to turn off the shop light to call it a night guess what I saw? One tired pup!

I almost didn't see her. Typically the purple quilt is tucked into the back of the couch and the orange quilt is tucked into the bottom cushion- my version of a quilted slip cover...occasionally Pixxie likes to pull out the covers and burrow her way underneath -- but this is the first time I think I've ever seen her "covered up" like this!


Night nite Pixxie. I guess you really do think I make all the quilts in the house for your pleasure! Oh but the pleasure is all mine, this pup really makes me smile. Hope she brighten your day too.

30 Minutes to Sew

My hubby calls me when he leaves work "on my way home darlin'" and I know I have about 30 minutes, give or take depending upon traffic, before Pixxie and I greet him at the door -- Pixxie gets a treat and I get a kiss (grin).

Well, today I was at a stopping point on a customer quilt and decided that I should take those 30 minutes for myself! Why not, close of business for me too right?

Earlier this year I purchased these really neat project boxes and actually counted how many UFO's I had, or as I now call them "projects started". I've seriously been wanting to finish them, but seems this past month or two I haven't had too many Sunday afternoons to call my own, and when I have I've wanted a little more instant gratification than working on a UFO -- in other words, I've been doing quick scrappy quilts that could be pieced in a day...or two. New projects not finishing old ones GASP!

The past couple of Sundays I've been working on this project, trying to finish up some fabric leftover from the whirlwind quilt I made earlier in the year. No, it wasn't a part of my UFO countdown, but I couldn't resist. I needed to work with something fresh.


So I pieced the blocks all one day and actually left them like this on the floor of my studio until this Sunday when I sewed the blocks together and added borders, pieced the back, cut out the binding and put it in the "quilts in waiting category". I couldn't believe I left them out all week, even having customers step over the mess when they came...but I had struggled too long with the layout that I wasn't going to take the risk of messing it up.

Okay, so fast forward to today. 3o minutes. Hum. I do have a 'project started' that has all the blocks complete, why not lay them on the floor and each day at close of business spend those 30 minutes working on it? Why not indeed. In a matter of day I might make a small dent that would speed things up on Sunday afternoons, my day off, where I could really then begin to see some progress.

So, that's what I did -- and of course Pixxie had to get into the act of my 'documentation' for my blog! Hum...the only flaw I have in this is that I'm finding the older the UFO is the worst my piecing was! I'm just going to have to live with it, tell the quilt police to go home, I'm wanting finished because finished is good!

I'm making my way to the finish line thirty minutes at a time!

Out with the old, in with the new

Simple Simeon right?

I mean, the hard part was the hunt - having to purchase under pressure and with the added restrictions of 'fitting the hole'. Well, that and the cleaning out of the spoiled food, not to mention the floor underneath. Ah, but we were ready! At 7 AM today, we were ready. Delivery scheduled for Saturday - a sigh of relief after being without a refrigerator since Wednesday.


10 AM came, the phone rang with what I hoped to be the much anticipated call that the delivery truck was on it's way...

Wrong.

"Mrs. Overton? I'm calling on behalf of ......... to let you know that your refrigerator will not be delivered today, your model wasn't in our warehouse"

"Excuse me? We bought the floor model, of course it's not in the warehouse, it's on display in the store."

"Well the store didn't bring it to us, they are suppose to bring those to us.....we need to reschedule your delivery because our drivers have already left"

"You don't deliver on Sunday do you? I guess we're talking Monday?"

"No mam, the earliest I can reschedule would be Thursday the 14th"

"I don't think so. (said nicely but firmly) I've been without a refrigerator since Wednesday night, I purchased this one on Thursday, I understood having to wait until the truck could come on Saturday, but my paperwork says Saturday the 9th and I need my refrigerator. I have out of town guests coming in for Mother's Day weekend that will be arriving around noon and I don't have a refrigerator. It's only 10 AM, you have all day to come up with a solution, I need you to assist me with this problem."

"Mam, I can't, the truck has already left and the driver has his route. It will be Thursday the 14th before we can deliver."

UGH!!!

So I call the store where I purchased the appliance and the wonderful customer service gal who helped me pick it out immediately started digging into the problem. Their paperwork said today but the delivery company's paperwork said next Thursday. (some sly person changed the paperwork I'm guessing). She said she was trying to find a solution, that the contracted delivery company was suppose to come pick up the floor model, all the paperwork indicated that it was a floor model and not a warehouse item and that she would speak to the manager who happened to be tied up in a meeting -- could she call me back within an hour or so. Oh, and did I mention that I shared with her that I either needed the refrig delivered today or my money back to go somewhere else and purchase my 'second choice' because I needed an appliance! Of course all this was I hope said very sweetly as I firmly believe you can atrack more flies with honey than vinegar (grin).

Noon came. True to her word she called back, said they were working on the problem, that is was possible they would use their own truck and bring it out, she would keep me posted.

2:30 PM. Long long day. I called to check on the progress...seems they really were working on it and doing their best but it would be delivered today she just wasn't sure of what time. Sigh of relief!

4:40 PM Time for my two hour update. I call again, my sweet little gal had gone home but she left me in capable hands of another associate who assured me that it was indeed on a truck and now it was a matter of routing, I'm guessing they had something else to deliver too, which was fine with me, I was just relieved to hear that it was being moved this direction! She thought it would be closer to 6 PM and said that if I needed to run a quick errand to do so, they would call when they were about 20 minutes out.

In the meantime during the course of watching the clock for 2 hour updates, my guests did arrive. Since there was nothing to eat in the house we did manage a quick run to Subway for lunch around 1 PM and had hoped the appliance would have been delivered in time to go out for a nice supper at the Kemah Boardwalk...when I learned that it would be near 6 PM we decided that would be too late to try to go out to eat on a Saturday night so I decided we'd make some potato soup from a mix I had in the pantry, but I wanted to run to the store to get some grated cheese and pick up some crackers....I knew I couldn't do my "grocery" shopping since even with the refrig on it's way it wouldn't be cold enough yet...so left hubby and Pixxie guarding the house waiting on the phone call and we ran to the local grocery store.

You guessed it! They came and went while I was gone. Can you believe that! I waited almost 11 hours for delivery and I missed all the excitement!

Ah, but it's here, and it passed Pixxie's inspection. This is the cleanest it's ever goin'a be so take a good look at my new kitchen appliance!! We were told to let it sit for 30 minutes before plugging it in (something about the freon and transit) then to allow 24 hours for it to cool down before adding food.

The good news is it kicked in when we did plug it and and the lights even work! The real test will be in the morning when we check the temperature...

So, it's been a long day and my guests have been most patient. We've made plans to go to I-Hop in the morning for breakfast before going to church. Guess I get a Mother's Day breakfast out instead of a lunch out! But that's fine by me. Looks like I got a new refrigerator/freezer for Mother's Day too!

I'm a happy camper. And the gals at my local store are to be praised for their persistence in trying to find a solution for me, especially when the gal at the contracted delivery company wasn't willing to go out of her way to help a lady in need. I will be writing my comments to the corporate office stating the facts, and again, praising the manager who took it upon himself to personally make a delivery so this lady didn't have to go another week without a refrigerator!

All's well that ends well!

Hum? Was this a test?

Sneak Peak - what's on the frame

I managed to play catch up a little today after being distracted the past two days. Thought I'd give you a sneak peak of the beautiful custom gracing my frame this week...This was a block of the month a year or so ago from Quilts By the Bay, I quilted the original shop sample and now one of the ladies who signed up for the BOM has brought me hers to quilt...I'm doing it a little different -- love to play around with new ideas. This is a sampler quilt with log cabin settings. Instead of doing a 'running' feather down the quilt I'm doing mirror image feathered hearts in each log cabin block and enjoying how it's turning out. Each sampler block is done differently of course and there's three narrow borders as well as a wide border that you'll just have to wait until I'm done to see how it looks (aren't I the meanie).

It felt good to get back to work today, but unfortunately this quilt isn't going to be finished by mother's day....I had to stop this evening and toss out all the bad food in the current refrig and get hubby to pull it out so we can mop under it in preparation for the new one sometime Saturday. Key word, sometime. Ya'never know when those delivery guys are going to show up - depends upon how they pack the truck! Another lesson in patience.

The interesting thing is I'm expecting out of town guests sometime tomorrow so that's going to compound things as far as a trip to the local grocery to restock all those items we had to toss. Ah, such is life!

So stay tuned sometime next week I'll post the finished quilt on my webshots along with a couple of others that I've finished recently. I really do quilt in my spare time (grin).

Hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day weekend spent with family and friends! ko

Bumps in the road

As much as I like to think that life is just rainbows, the reality of it is there are some rough roads out there too. Making me 'practice what I preach' as far as 'choosing joy' is concerned. That's pretty much the summery of the past two days...only one thing went as planned and that was because it was the first thing of the day yesterday! I made it to my second day of water aerobics at the YMCA! Had started this last fall when I injured my leg after Ike and was pretty faithful until temps dropped down to 45 (it's an outdoor pool) and this week I made the decision it was time to go again. M/W/F -- I'm 2 for 3 so far this week...from there it's sorta gone down hill or off the beaten path so to speak.

Yesterday my son calls to say that his car had been towed from his apartment complex...he parked in the wrong place...so there were several hours spent trying to negotiate and get his his car out of hawk...I'll spare the details but we were given a break on the towing fee due to the area being unclear that it was indeed a no parking zone..so that ended well...but it took up my afternoon and the rest of the day seemed to be unproductive ...

Then hubby comes in from work and discovers our refrig/freezer isn't cool -- the milk had curdled (I skipped breakfast yesterday and was on the road with the little car crisis that I didn't eat anything out of the refrig and hadn't noticed). He decided to pull out the appliance and clean the coils hoping that was the problem.

Nope. At 5 AM when he left for work this morning he woke me up and said "you need to go refrigerator shopping today." So much for catching up from missing a day of quilting yesterday!

So on with my mission. Not an easy task having to buy under pressure, not only that but to be limited in my selection due to (1) needing white to match the rest of the appliances and (2) needing to be a certain size since the current refrig/freezer is recessed in the wall and there is NO other place in the kitchen to put an appliance. Undaunted, I get my trusty measuring tape that once belonged to the master craftsman I called daddy and measure my current appliance as well as measure the opening or what I've fondly called today "the hole". And yes, being the daughter of a master craftsman I do know how to properly measure (grin). By the way, because we inherited this machine with the house we have no idea of its age and decided we didn't want to invest in repairs.

So armed with a little notebook with my dimensions I set out on my quest. I decided my shopping options included Conn's Appliance, Fry's Electronics, Sear's Appliance, Best Buy, Lowe's and Home Depot -- all within a 20 mile radius (how blessed am I to have such choices!!).

Or so I thought. Refrigerators come in so many shapes and sizes now days, not to mention price ranges -- but I was very very limited in finding one that was short enough to fit into the HOLE. I guess when they remodeled this house who knows how many years before we purchased it that refrigs were shorter back then. Oh my.

I'll spare you all the details of my search. But I did narrow it down to two appliances, one at Best Buy and one at Lowe's, who thankfully were near each other as I did make several return trips to make sure of my purchase. The sale price was the same, the difference was between top freezer or bottom freezer as we had previously decided we did not want side by side any more. Of course I'm text messaging hubby at work and on the phone more than once with my sister and my mother who have much more experience in this department than I do.

We (my sister and I) decided on the bottom freezer...several reasons actually - one being that was my hubbies preference if I could find one, two because I liked opening the refrig door to have all my most used items at eye level, and three because it was the best buy (no pun intended because I did purchase from Best Buy). I was able to purchase the floor model on clearance for almost half price of an untouched one because it was last year's model! Praise the Lord! The other one's retail value wasn't as high so I sorta felt like I got a better appliance for my money. Being the floor model I don't care that it will need a little elbow grease to get the smudged hand prints off the handle. Give it a week or two at my house and it will look like that anyway (grin). And I didn't care that it didn't have an ice maker (could have added one) because we make our ice from distilled water anyway -- our local water really needs a filter and we don't have that, so our current freezer had the ice maker turned off anyway. Other than that, it's a nice modern refrig/freezer combo that I think will look good in my kitchen and more importantly, do it's job of keeping things cold!

I am really praising the Lord that we were able to have such a nice refrig for an affordable price, especially since we hadn't budgeted for this and had to purchase under the gun. Only negative is they can't deliver until Saturday....no problem, just told hubby he has to take me out for dinner (tee hee) somehow I can always manage a dinner out!

I guess the next day and a half I'll be eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches because that doesn't need to be kept cool. I'll just pretend like I'm camping -- until tomorrow night's dinner of course!

So yep, there's been a few bumps in the road lately, but golly, that's life. Where would a rambler be if there wasn't a little drama every now and then.

Whew, shopping takes a lot outa a gal...more later!

Now That's One Organized Bag!

At least that's what my hubby said when I modeled my newest Sunday afternoon creation.

Indeed it is! There are pockets on the outside and pockets on the inside.

I picked up this pattern "Sew Awesome Bags" by Wilma Niemann (743 Butler, Valley Center, Kansas 67147 wniemann@cox.net) from the Kingwood Quilt Show on Friday. I purchased it from Nana's Parcels (102 Pecos St, Glen Rose TX 76043 254.897.4313) and knew immediately that the fabulous beach stripe that I purchased from P&B this January would make a great bag. You may remember from an earlier post that my sister-in-law received zippered bags made from this fabric. I do have plans for a few for myself before this bolt is gone (grin).

This was the first time I'd worked with a product called Decor Bond by Pellon. I love the way it stiffin'ed up my bag! I think I need to find this on the bolt too, can think of lots of future uses...

The inside of the bag called for a long strip that would be made into several pockets, with you making the choice for the width and how many divisions. Since my interior was a dizzy stripe I figured I'd better use my beach print or I'd never find my pockets! (I have a bolt of this stripe too, so I'll be useing it a lot -- you may remember it from my "Ugly Quilt" I made in Feb -- I do like the stripe though! )

I made the pockets to fit my travel "wet wipes" (Swine Flu and all, it's good to be able to wipe my hands when I need to), my glasses case (which I'm seriously thinking of remaking in beach print), my checkbook, and my calendar. If you'll notice I added a loopie to hang my keys on (left) I use a carabiner for my key ring and it's handy to have a place to attach it so I'll always know where they are without digging deep into the bottom of my purse. The red on the bottom is my plastic canvas I'm using to give the bottom some strength. It would probably be nicer if I encased it with the same dizzy blue stripe, but again, it's nice to give my eyes a break when looking into this bag!

The pattern called for a plain little pocket on the other side but I decided to try to figure out how to make a zippered pocket. I'm really into zippers since my friend Kay loaned me her zipper stash to play in after telling her about all of Laurie's neat creations I found on Laurie's blog. Have to say it didn't turn out perfect, but I learned a lot! I wanted a zippered pocket to keep my wallet in, again, so I'm not digging to the bottom of the purse. Hum, and probably my lipstick.

One other change that I made was to lower the position of the interior pockets, I've found with other bags that I tend to overload the pockets, so if they are closer to the bottom then the weight falls on the bottom of the bag and is not pulling down the sides (does that make sense? I can do it better than I can explain it.). I really love to be organized. Pockets are wonderful.

I think the back is pretty too. I figured with the button closure (Velcro actually) that I could keep it straight what side was what, but it does help that the colors are a little different too. Can you see all the possibilities of this beach stripe fabric? I'm going to have fun working through this bolt!

With all these pockets I don't know what I'll put in the purse! Did I mention that the outside pocket is large enough to hold my water bottle? Yep, I'm thinkin this is my 'going to market' bag -- only I'll need to make one in fall colors before I go to the Houston International Quilt Market and Quilt Festival in October But this would be the perfect bag! Right now it's getting close to summer and this will be my beach bag or my whatever bag. A bag for every season....

One can never have too many bags!