Just stopping by....

....wanted to show these 2 quilts ~~ they are done, done ~~
The tops and backings were donated by Jeanne...they were my practice tops for machine quilting...too much fun!!! I have a couple more of Jeanne's yet to do and my pal Barbara has a couple of Nancy's at her house putting the binding and labels on them. I will post pics as soon as she returns them to me.

Barbara and I have already reserved the quilting machine for next month, this time we will put a personal quilt on first~ my Harlequin Weave ~ that I just made for my bed. In November Nancy posted a pic of her Harlequin Weave and I thought..."that is exactly the new quilt our bed needs" as I have struggled finding a pattern to make for our bed because the new drapes are a Thomas Kincaid print with large floral print that I did not want anything to compete against. I showed Ed Nancy's quilt and he agreed, so ... I dug in my stash and came up with several pieces (pattern takes 14 different prints) then did a bit of shopping to gather up the balance of what I needed. Saturday and Sunday I put the top together and laid it (in flimsy stage) on the bed....Bless Ed's heart...LOL...he didn't say a word...I didn't say a word...then we both agreed...NOPE...not for us! We agreed to leave it on the bed until March 17 (next machine quilting day) to see if it grows on us. I think it is growing on us already!!! After I made the bed up this morning I walked out of the room and turned around...it just seemed to "fit": the colors, the block size, the prints...it all just seems to fit ~ and quite nicely I might add. When I came home for lunch Ed said basically the same thing. We have kinda decided that it isn't so much that we didn't like the quilt...it is just that it is so very different from anything I have done before. So...be watching...some time after March 17 I will post a picture.Here is another quick sewing project completed. (I have put this off for years...why do we put the simplest things off?? ) I have always covered my machine with a piece of plastic..one of those plastic machine covers that you can purchase at JoAnns?? yep...that is what I have used all these years....but while going through my stash...piece by piece...I ran across this little piece of border fabric that was used to make bibs for my great niece 9 years ago. Not much there but perfect for what I needed to do with it. Isn't it cute?
And last for the night is this shocking picture...this is a great quilt top that a friend saw in a thrift store and thought of me so she bought it and sent it to me...years ago...it is a 1925 Hexagon quilt top and I cut it up...yep...took out my Ginghers and whacked this handpieced quilt top up~it about killed me to do it but I have been thinking about doing this for a few months now. Half of it has now been repurposed as a skirt around my cutting table, hiding my rolling sewing machine cases, my rolling scrapbook case and a few other things. The other parts of the quilt top *may* be repurposed and become valances for MCM. Because I knew this top would never be quilted, it has spent the last few years folded and stacked in my UFO pile...living a sad and lonely life...so now I can look at it every day...and enjoy it...I love the fact that it was all handpieced, that the maker took the time to embroider the date (June 13, 1925) on it and that my friend thought of me, purchased it and sent it to me simply because she thought I would enjoy it...and now I really am!!

That's it for me...off to prepare the backing for my HW...my least favorite step in the quilt making process...making the backing...

***Cathi (Crazed Quilter) Please email me***

Quick Post

Here is a quick look into last weeks activities for me.

I spent almost every spare moment pressing and cutting up scraps and am really proud of myself for sticking to such a boring task. There were 3 baskets full of scraps to cut when the process began, the 2 smaller ones are now empty (see me grinning from ear to ear!)...the largest one is going to have to wait a while as I believe the men in white coats will have to haul me away if I dare start on the last basket! Here is a pic of my BBS cutting spree.This is one of 3 St. Patty's Day table toppers that I sewed up as my reward for hours of cutting scraps. I believe it was Norma who first posted a tabletopper done up like this. Years ago I made a set of place mats using this method, it is a quick and easy, fast finish project. This one is for Diana as a thank you for sticking with me through thick and thin, I made a smaller one to hang on Momma's door, the other one is for my dining room table.

22" point to point and 19 " side to side

Today our 2 middle grandkidlets have their last basketball games...in 3 different little towns near us, so we will be traveling all over the county! It will be a busy day for us.

Whoo Hoo...I am able to sign in...

....this really is getting old fast, Blogger and I just don't see eye to eye very often any more.

A Quilt for Nana & Gabe 45x55

Here is the surprise quilt I made a couple of wks ago, it was given yesterday so I can now post the picture. This quilt is for "Nana and Gabe". My sisters first grandson will arrive within a few short weeks and she NEEDED a quilt just for her to snuggle with that precious new baby boy, Gabriel Andrew, so I made this and sent it as a surprise to be given to her at the baby shower. After all, the new baby boy was getting gifts, the new baby boy's big sister was getting gifts (well, I knew she was getting at least one because I fixed up a surprise for her too!) so it was the only right thing for the new baby boy's Nana to get a surprise too!

This quilt was so fun on so many levels:

• My sister did not expect it ~ had absolutely NO clue
  
• My niece-in-law and I (not the new baby's mom) had a blast planning and keeping this secret
• The fabric is Mary Engelbriet, she is my most favorite of all artist
• I machine quilted this during my most recent trip to the quilting machine shop
• I machine quilted a special message just for my sister onto the quilt

It is fun to surprise my sister, she is the most gracious person I know and deserves to be treated as special as she treats others, if not more so.

While we were talking on the phone Saturday, we shared a common desire that we both want to have more of our mommas' graciousness, her consideration for others, her ability to bring out the best in others, the way she went over the top when doing something for a special event in someone's life etc etc...all those awesome attributes that that define Momma. Last night, after she had recieved her Nana quilt, she gave me the best compliment...she said making and giving her that quilt ~and keeping it a secret~ was something Momma would have done...I will treasure her words, that compliment, the rest of my life. I love you, SOPO!!!

On another note: the Clean Sweep continues. My partner in crime, Diana, has kept me on task and has been a real slave driver to boot!!! She has been my dear, dear friend for 30 years, knows my sewing habits better than I do, is probably the only person in the whole world who knows me well enough to tell me if I am fooling myself about UFO completion, whether or not I will actually use a piece of fabric...if I will ever get back to a certain craft...etc. etc. She is the perfect person to keep me and this project on track and moving along. And BTW...she is also the person who had led me into such areas as paper dollls, lace doilies, button collecting and a few other things over the past 30 years ~ so, I figure half of the stuff in there is HER fault anyway...RIGHT?!?!?

Diana and I in 2003

MCM Clean Sweep Progress thus far:

• 4 lawn and leaf bags of stash to be donated
• 1 lawn and leaf bag plus a smaller bag of stash went home with Diana
• 1 lawn and leaf bag full of craft stuff to be donated
  
• 1 large bag of papers to be shredded
• 2 large bags to be taken to the recycling center
  
• 2 large bags of trash
  
• 50+ quilt books have been sorted and are ready for my eBay lister to pick up
• magazines have been sorted and ready for donation
  
• 10 UFO's are out of my life: Diana took 3, 2 will go to eBay, 5 donated
• some yardage that was purchased for clothing handed over to eBay lister
  
• 8 sets of rolling drawer sets sorted (keep, donate, toss) , 5 now empty and ready for scrapbooking things to be organized into them
  
• Ed has painted a length of pegboard (for some of my tools and notions) which will be hung today
  

Blessings:

• I have not lost my focus/goal of a "less is more" home, and continue to be inspired
  
• my newcutting table top (a gift from a client ~ larger than he orginally told me) the large flat surface is so nice!!
• found a couple of UFO's that were MIA
• found a quilt top that has been MIA
• my children will not have to to deal with what is no longer here, should anything happen to me any time soon! LOL
  
• Diana...she knows I have wanted to do this for years and has been a great cheerleader for me
• Diana is ready to do her CM as well....this is catchy!!!
  

Regrets:

• none

After Diana left last night I cut out and made up a table topper for her as a thank you. It is just a quickie~strippy...St. Patty's Day themed table topper, but it is cute. I will post pics when the binding is finished.

Blogger...is a Booger

For a couple of days I have tired to sign in to post, this morning I am finally able to sign in. I am very frustrated by this and hope to have a solution soon...grrrrr!!!!

Anyway...what has Pam been up to? Well...I am continuing in my quest for a streamlined MCM giving it a total makeover. Peter Walsh has nothing on me as I have been sorting through every little slip of paper and making that "one second, touch once" decision about so many things. I have my "KEEP" "DONATE" "TOSS" piles and have been ruthless about everything I touch!!!

Today my eBay lister is coming by for a pile of junk~ errr, umm...treasures~, the garbage can is full, there are 2 giant bags of fabric ready to donate to a charity quilting group in the next town over....and that is just the beginning.

This is something that is long over due. In the last seven years of our life we have experienced one life changing event after another (empty nest, kids getting married, grandchildren, kidney transplant, waaaaaay too early retirement for DH, dealing with SSA, momma had a major stroke, parenting the parent, daddy's passing...etc...makes me tired to think about it even now) without much let up between each happening. The result is, we have put our lives in a "maintenance only" mode...not going forward...not going backward...just treading water has been a real accomplishment. When you get in that type of a situation, and are there for any period of time, it becomes so routine you tend to think it normal...which it isn't...and you adjust your life in such a way that you deem it OK...which it isn't...and it makes coping so much easier...but the elephant in the corner is still there and you still gotta deal with it at some point. That is where we are right now...dealing with those elephants.

I love making over one room every year or so from top to bottom...with NOTHING untouched. But until last year it was put on hold while we dealt with so many other priorities and life events. Last year we did two rooms...the kitchen and our bedroom...because the wall between those two rooms was torn down and re-built during the remodel. This year it is MCM. Every piece of paper, every scrap of fabric, all my notions...everything is getting a "reality check"....the reality is: if I haven't used it, if I don't have a plan for it, if I forgot I even had it, if I did not miss it, if I have not touched it....(get the idea???)...then out it goes!!! I am so excited...this is so much deeper than just a "going to clean up MCM" task...this is a "going to clean OUT MCM" task and I am having so much fun! YES FUN!!!

Today Ed is painting a piece of pegboard for me and will hang it this evening, a client of mine is giving me a 35x70" cutting mat that he mounted on a board and added trim all around it (his wife was an avid doll maker and this was her work space, she died a couple of years ago and he is just to the point of giving away some of her things....I know how terribly hard this is for him....letting go is never easy, this I know all too well), the extra furniture will be gone by this afternoon as well as all the piles of eBay ju...err~treasures. I will be at the point of sorting totes and totes and totes and totes of fabric (have been waiting for the cutting table to arrive to have work space). I have a goal of getting MCM room finished by the time my head hits the pillow on Monday night (the office is closed on Monday) and if it isn't a done-done project then I have arranged to take Tuesday off as well.

I FINALLY went out and got myself a label maker (Peter Walsh would be so proud of me!!) to label all of my scrapbooking stuff that is in 4 rolling drawers sets and my sewing notions that are in 5 others...rolling drawers...the best way to go IMHO. I have wanted to label each drawer for years but never took the time to do so...now is the time, especially since my brain doesn't work as well as it once did!!! Have label maker, shall conquer!!!

OK...enough goofing off...I've had my 3 cups of coffee...best get in MCM and get busy...I am seeing an end to this project and feeling the itch to sew a St. Patricks Day table topper so better get MCM finished so I can get on with the fun stuff.

BTW...next head-to-toe room make over??? Our guest room...I want it to be ready at a moments notice for LindaJ (*¿~)

So....let's try this again...

Blogger has been a royal pain in my fanny!!! I am having a hard time posting a comment on other peoples blogs...and if I can post I have to sign in for almost all comments, even if I am already signed in...sigh...

I wrote up a post to post to my own blog and my computer shut down on me...what's up with that? I share a private blog with a couple of friends and can't even get into that blog to read nor post...and I am the administrator of that blog!!!

My son is working on a solution for me....if you don't hear from me for a while, I will be back.

Today is TGIF...and believe me it is!!! Tomorrow I will be going back to the shop where I rented machine time last month. This time 3 of us are going. The shop owner has offered us some of her classroom space to set up our sewing machines so are going to just move in and keep busy with charity quilts. We've got 4 tops ready to go, if there is time I am hoping to slip a personal project in to quilt up at the end of the day.

I refuse to put myself on a fabric diet it a couple of reasons...

1. I am not really a shopper
2. I know I already have more than I need/want/can use
3. If I have a project in mind...and need fabric to complete it....I will buy for it diet or no diet

....so...keeping that in mind...I have been scoping out the Dick and Jane and have decided to go ahead and purchase what I need for a jacket. Had it all picked out and ready to hit the purchase button but 4 of the 7 prints I wanted were out of stock...grrrr. I will keep looking.

Ed is a horrible influence on me....he found this pink frog fabric and dared to point it out to me...well, guess what...this hot pink frog fabric hopped right into my cart along with all these coordinates. He asked me what I was going to do with it ~~ LOL..."Edward, do I have to have a plan???

I am gearing up for a HUGE Clean Sweep of MCM. I really want to remove what I know I will not use~ fabric, notions and etc. There is a group of quilters in a nearby town that is requesting fabric donations for quilts that are headed to orphanages in Russia. I have more than enough to share and if I would just get rid of some of what I know I won't use I might discover some long lost favorite pieces.

I managed to put the pedal to the metal and get a top done after work today...it is a surprise so I will have to wait to post it, but I can give one hint...it is a ME print, and waaaay too cute!!!

See Spot Run. Run Spot, Run

It has been a long long time since a fabric line has caught my attention and called my name like the new Dick and Jane line of prints. I am totally liking this line...just looking at any of the prints sends me back to a time of sitting on the landing at the top of stairwell in the house I grew up in...or out to the tree fort...or the place in the hedge behind the garage... a place to be alone... to take my pudgy little index finger and point to each word as I sounded it out...
I just gave away this quilted jacket (to my sister who appropriately oohed and aaaahed all over it). I made this jacket for myself last year and now am thinking that the new Dick and Jane line would make a fun quilted jacket to replace it...whadda you think??? Hmmmmm...I am thinking my sister might like it too, we could swap them back and forth every now and then....hmmmmm.....just might have to give this some more thought!!! Can you see it...my new jacket done in Dick and Jane....
Another of newer fabric line that is calling my name, just not as loudly, is Sock Monkey...makes me laugh just to look at it!!! Not seeing it as a jacket, but would make a fun quilt for a "keep at Nana's house" for someone who is expecting her first grandson...might have to give that some thought as well.

The Big Game is Over....

.....and the house was rockin'!

On the menu: 4' sub-sandwich, potato salad, salsa and chips, deviled eggs, Hawaiian meatballs, veggie tray, pizza breadsticks and this cake....


We are neither a Colts household nor a Bears household but we have a grandson who is nuts about the Colts so we of course cheered the Colts on. Everyone is happy and the house is now once again quiet...but full of memories of Super Bowl 2007...but the one that will stay with us for a long long time is:

Mr. Giant Crab latched on to KatieBug's hand
and WOULD NOT LET GO!!!

I told her I thought we should finally have a crab louie and let Mr. Giant Crab know who is boss!

And wrapping up a wk of Birthday's...

....is our two youngest grandkidlets

Madelyn, now 5

and Jason, now 4

When we celebrate, we celebrate...five bdays in seven days.

Momma, Myself, Ed, Madelyn, Jason

Is it any wonder why I am so tired!?!?