Odds and Ends

Day 4 of last weekend was spent with visiting relatives. I have been trying to get my second cousin Connie to visit for a lot of years. While she was visiting my grandmother about 7 years ago I showed her the quilt I was working on at that time - a garden trellis. She loved it. I told her then that if she ever visited my house the quilt was hers. She finally got the quilt.

Day 5 was spent curled up with a book. I figured since the plan was already shot I might as well relax and be really lazy. Big comfy chair, suspenseful book, warm quilt and three cats trying to sit in my lap at the same - what could be better.

This past week I added binding to three quilts and finished the pillowcases I made from the left over turtle fabrics.

This is the last you will see of these...they are headed for the washing machine then out the door.

Isn't he handsome?


I'm not biased.

My next door neighbor's house was broken into last week. She doesn't live there full time, normally gone during the week and with the holidays she hasn't been home for a few weeks. It didn't look like they stole anything, luckily she doesn't keep her jewelry at the house or have any fancy electronic equipment, and the person who broke in was dumb enough to not recognize some of the old things around the house were some very valuable antiques. Even if they didn't take anything whoever it was did a lot of damage...they threw a very large rock through her double paned sliding glass door. There were so many glass fragments that the clean up crew her insurance company sent out had to remove half of her living room carpet also.

I trimmed my roses back at Thanksgiving this year but I guess I missed one branch.

Beautiful.

Day 2 (again) and 3

Working or not I have to get up at 5:30 every morning to feed Obba and give him his insulin shot. On the weekends I normally go back to bed (I'm not a morning person), sometimes I can sleep more, sometimes I just toss and turn. The last two morning have been the latter. When that occurs by 9:00 p.m. I can barely keep my eyes open and by 10:00 p.m. I'm snoring.

Nancy did come over to sew but its been awhile since we've seen / talked to each other that we spent most of the morning gabbing...then we went out to lunch. Finally we started sewing.

I was doing pretty good with the first quilt on the frame until I ran out of thread on the spool about a third of the way into the quilt. I must not have threaded the machine right as I started having tension problems and getting big loops on the back...
Unquilting time. I've wanted to practice turning a quilt or loading a partially quilted top back to the frame I just hadn't planned on practicing this soon. Nancy thought (I was nuts for removing the quilting) this would be a good task to do watching a movie, I agreed (with both thoughts).

So I loaded another quilt.
I quilted random swirls in it. Then last night I loaded another quilt.

Large meandering. I finished it about 10 p.m. Wrote my post and headed straight to bed. I think I was asleep by 10:10.

Today has been busy but not as productive. I had breakfast with Karen. Like Nancy, I haven't seen / talked to Karen in a while and we had lots to catch up on. Ran a few errands (does walking around Target and lifting 40 lbs of kitty litter in and out of a cart count as a workout session?) and have been doing some picking up and cleaning tonight as I got a call that a cousin I haven't seen in a while is stopping by tomorrow on her way to visit her daughter.

So much for my 5 x 5 goals... you didn't really think I'd make it did you? Yes? Aren't you sweet. Just so you know, I am the princess of over planning and setting unrealistic goals. I do feel pretty good about how much I have gotten done in the last three days as I am also the queen of procrastination.

I hope you all have a fun New Year's Eve and a healthy and happy 2012 spent with lots of great friends, family and of course quilts.

Day 2

I'm pooped and headed for bed.

2 1/3 quilts off the frame. I'll explain and show pictures tomorrow.

Day 1

I got two big clean up projects done around the house...

...cleaned my stove top, tile and grout in the kitchen (I hate white tile and grout - I have both in the kitchen), then I cleaned the large garage bay (I split my three car garage into a two car garage and storage room years ago). I had my handyman over to help mount the shelf unit to the garage wall, clean my gutters and to replace my front door handle. I got everything off the garage floor and gave it a thorough sweep. I decided cleaning it also counted toward a workout session.

Do you have an old over the door shoe holder? The kind with pockets. They make great storage for garden gloves and small tools. I hung one next to the shelves and promptly filled it. I think I could / should throw out some of my really old garden gloves.

I also put away all my Christmas decorations...okay, I confess, I just dumped everything in the spare bedroom. Cleaning that room is my next house project.

The sewing room is picked up and I have a quilt loaded on the frame. Nancy is coming over to sew tomorrow, I'm know she will inspire me to get lot of quilting done.

5 x 5

I have the next five days off work, my goals:

5 quilts on and off the quilt frame

5 hours of other quilt related sewing

5 clean up projects around the house

5 workout sessions

5 ???

Hmmm, 5 errands to run? lose 5 pounds (ha, in my dreams)? call 5 friends I haven't talked to lately? fix 5 new recipes? I know what I'm not going to do and that is waste 5 days doing nothing.

I had a little retail therapy this evening...

For Christmas Jayme gave me a gift certificate to my LQS and Nancy gave me a jelly roll, when I got home tonight I had an email that my LQS was having an inventory reduction sale... everything 40% off... it didn't take me long to get back in my car. Fabric for two pillowcases (I'll have to take a better picture of the dragon fabric - it is too cool), border and binding fabric to go with the jelly roll, and a kit with pattern to make a cute little clutch. What could be better than a gift certificate and a great sale together.

May all the holidays you celebrate be merry and safe.

Nobody's Home

AnnieO knocked on my blog door a few days ago and I figured I'd better answer before she starts banging on it and yelling at me.

I haven't blogged lately cause I got nothin'...no quilting, no cute cat pictures, no flowers from the garden pictures, nothin'.

I am swamped at work so I've been working some extra hours, and its Christmas time (Bah Humbug) so I should be shopping cause I've barely made a dent in my list, but once I get home I just want to pretend I'm a potato. What makes it worse is I leave in the morning and it's dark and when I leave work it's dark, it feels like the day is over before I ever make it home.

Okay, that whine party needs to end.

I'm not making any gifts this year. Ha, I haven't touched a sewing machine (other than to move it) for over a month. I did a major clean up of my sewing room a week ago and rearranged a few things (does dumping a bunch of stuff to into another room count as cleaning up?). I've had time to sew but I have chosen not to, not procrastinated until the time was gone, but actually chosen not to sew.

Hmmm...that almost sounds like another whine party.

I have been going to bed early and reading. I've found a new author I like: Charlaine Harris. I've read all of her Shakespeare series and have started the Sookie Stackhouse series. I'm almost done with the first book in the series:

Easy quick read, suspenseful enough but not so bad that I can't read it before turning out the light at night, and just a touch risque.

Annie, is it okay that I've answered the door in my pajamas and haven't brushed my teeth yet? I promise I'll take a shower and put on some makeup the next time you visit.