I will be back!

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. Things are busy right now-Soccer is Tuesday and Thursdays, Exam study class is on Tuesday and we are packing our selves to move on the 19th of September. We have hired someone to move the stuff but we need to pack it-I think I would have preferred someone to pack it and I move it. I thought the 10 days this summer without the kid would have stressed out the hubby and I but no-this packing thing is going to do us in I think! Why are the "family" things in the house mine to pack? Why do I have to do the kitchen, the bathrooms, the ya ya ya ya-why is the adult male in the house done once his dresser, closet, computer and tools are packed???? UGH!! I love my hubby very dearly but I tell you he is on my last nerve-Yes I ONLY have one left!!

The professional exam study class is a true class for a true 4 hour 250 question exam-how did I miss that information?? Sitting in class I decided that I might just as well take the SPHR exam and get it out of the way-it is the same study class and why go through it twice. The bad part is that the exam is right after Christmas which means that I will have to study over the holiday-through the baking and through the sewing and that stinks! I will multi-task become super cooking sewing, studying, sewing MOM and succeed at it all!

Amazingly enough, before packing the sewing machine up on Sunday I was able to put the bindings on two UFO's. One was the trapezoid and one was a Joann Fabric BOM from I think 2001-2002. I remember sitting in the chair doing applique after I broke my broke my leg one winter. It has been quilted waiting for the binding since about 2006. With the Buggy Jars, the Trapezoid and the BOM done I have only 3 completed quilt tops waiting for attention. I am hoping that I can add a quilt frame to my new sewing room and turn those 3 tops into quilts shortly!

I think the camera is packed-maybe hubby's is not yet-I will try for a picture to post.

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Miniature Booty Swap #2

My MBS2 quilt arrived on Friday and it is awesome! It is dark blues, hot pinks and variations of gold/orangy stars. The colors are so bold and striking together. Don't you love the quilt label? I have got to figure out how to do that with my machine. The feature is there I just need to find it... ;)

Thanks again to Marlene (http://madamquilter.blogspot.com/) -I love it!!

The process of sorting has begun in preparation for the big move. We moved here 2 years ago in October and we did a HUGE sort and dump so you would think there would not be much. There is more than I would like but overall we did a good job keeping things organized and in their proper homes. The exception is my quilt room and the closet I keep recipes and cookbooks in-dag gone it no one to blame but myself. I tell you what though the next move should be seamless because I am organized now! I spent all day in my sewing room sorting, setting and am ready to sustain! (anyone notice the 5S reference?) I have an old dresser that I kept stuff in but there was no rhyme or reason and I had project pieces in different spots, was using fabric for one thing in another and then having to re-buy.

I went to Target and bought plastic boxes, clear this time, and magazine holders. I then when through the dresser and put all the projects together in one bucket. I was able to save one for the fat quarters that are groups and I don't want to separate but need to wait for that "perfect" project. I see a turning twenty in my future for some of them because I FINALLY found my pattern book! I knew I had one! I have been a subscriber to Quiltmaker Magazine forever and have saved them for just as long-so I sat on the floor flipping through magazines. The criteria to keep was that it had to have more than 3 projects in it that I would consider making-if not I pulled out those I would consider, stapled them together and filed away. What was remaining went in the trash bag-I know almost sacrilegious but I had too-I only could buy 6 magazine holders in the color I wanted and I had to save one for my Cook's Country magazines.

Here are the fruits of that labor:

Maybe it wasn't meant to be square....

So I pulled out a 42" trapezoid UFO to finally finish after about 10-11 years. This is the Carol Doak Birds of Paradise from one of her earlier books. Mom and I drove to Syracuse in January to take this class. This class drove me to buy my first Viking because I hauled around an eighty pound Kenmore machine-crazy big and heavy. That machine could sew through steel beams if you needed it to! The top, backing and binding have traveled to North Carolina, a few spots in New York and finally here to PA. It was none to smooth and because I have the cheapest, most useless iron on earth! (brand new one to boot!) I had to hang it in the bathroom and hope the shower steam would help my lazy iron. It kind of did and finally today I decided that it was as flat as flat could be and moved forward. I tried the taping the back to the floor method, laid the batting then the top. WOW-how crazy un-square can a top possibly get-I must have been sipping wine or suffering from vertigo when I put this together! How do you square up a trapezoid? Hmmmm....you do the best you can and move on-get this bugger done with a disclaimer on the label that it was only the 3rd quilt I had ever done.

The new machine is wonderful to quilt with-all the room! I have yet to struggle turning it as I pivot. After this is done I need to find a project that can let me use some of the fancy stitches...I think I have a batter bowl pattern in there somewhere which would use the blanket stitch-that could be a good start.

Summer is over!

I am not really happy to see the days get shorter, colder and see the white stuff fly-but I am happy to see my kid go back to school! He needs structure and other children and the summer is just way to long for him. He is an only child (step sibling is 12 yrs older and 3 hrs away) and the neighborhood children have different rules so there is not much interplay-Crazy what other parents think is appropriate behavior for the 8 and under crowd!

Tonight was packed-5:15 we looked at a house that was a cute 2 story Cape Cod with a usable basement. Draw back is small bedrooms and the washer and dry in the basement. The hubby is retired so he is in charge of the "house" with the knee replacement in January steps are foe not friend. The good is the playhouse in the backyard, great entertaining kitchen/dining set up and wonderful backyard. Do the goods make up enough to help through the pain of packing and moving.....Nope.

6PM was soccer practice and 7PM was Meet the Teacher at school-let the fall BEGIN!! Soccer will be Tuesday and Thursday with Scouts also on Thursday and I am the weird Mom that will insist on Scouts over Soccer. I review many many resumes and never am I impressed with Team Captain as much as I am by Eagle Scout. Personal opinion that I will stand by and suffer many strange looks because of it.

I have stopped taking Master's Courses because going so soon after finishing my bachelor's the subject matter was painful. I had just taken all these courses and now had to take again but with an extra paper to make it Master's level-very annoying and I was disinterested. So I stopped taking them and today have signed up for my PHR certification courses. My career will be stalled without a Master's or my PHR - not that I am looking to leave I need to be prepared and show that I am moving forward-ahhh the politics of a career. So my Tuesday nights from September through November will be spent in a classroom.

So when will I get to sew? Weekends-the good part about school starting. Scott and Zach during the summer are ready to go go go on the weekends because they have been home at the house all week. So during the summer we tend to more day trips which cuts into my home time. During the school year days are busier and we ALL crave home time on the weekends. So I get machine time-plus-shhh don't tell-I am tucking away to buy a Little Grace frame. I found them on Ebay (gotta love it) for any where from &500-$800 and some with free shipping. If we find a 4 bedroom or a 3 bedroom with a family room it will be MINE!! Shhhhh-I have not shared my plan with the hubby. I gotta find a way to break it to him-this will entail me listening for something he would like and buying it for him-although the new PC for his birthday ought to count for something-oh yeah the new sewing machine. Shoot-hmmm think think think.

The MB2 is done and ready for the mail this weekend. I think I am going to finally quilt my Carol Doak paper pieced wall hanging from 10 years ago (I think-sound right Mom?). I have kept it rolled gently and the binding and backing stored with it so I didn't use them in something else. It is funny to look at it and see how dated the fabric is but it was great at the time and I fussed so much over finding the perfect shade of Periwinkle.

I will take a picture of it once I find the media card for my camera-Zach had it to print pictures from the last I saw it. Hmm that would be a good project for right now-there are pictures on it that I have not downloaded yet.

All right-have a nice night.

Non-Quilting Blog

How come the 2 days of the weekend fly by but the from Monday to Tuesday during the week will crawl! There is always so much i want to do and only a fraction of it gets done. Oh well.

Saturday we headed to Sunbury for the Riverfest. I was a nice town event-there was PLENTY of food, crafts, bands and a car show. Scott and Zach enjoyed the car show-how come they can't remember the "Honey Do" list yet they can rattle off the most mundane information about cars that existed well before their time. We did our normal walk through and then split up to each enjoy our own lunches. Zach calls is "trash"-not meant to be insulting but that it is junk food with not a veggie or fruit in sight. Scott headed to the hot sausage booth while Zach and I got fresh potato chips sprinkled with Old Bay Seasoning-YUMM!!!! OMG they were amazing! We got fresh lemonade and homemade Root Beer-Poppa-it was good! I had my Gyro and Zach had the corn dog on a stick. As we were wandering out we say deep fried Oreo's but there was no room.

Today the hubby asked what I had planned for the tomatoes he has been collecting from the garden....why does it have to be my idea?? So I spent the afternoon making homemade tomato sauce. The house smells delicious! I enlisted Zach to help and as we were working Zach said he wanted manicotti for dinner so off to Super Wally's we went for the ingredients. My mom gave me a recipe a while ago that I have not tried but pulled out for the manicotti-you use the no boil lasagna noodles instead of manicotti tubes. You soak the pasta sheets in boiling water for 5 minutes-they become pliable, you spread the filling over 3/4's of the noodle and roll! Manicotti roll ups! They were good and so much less work. Doubly good with the homemade tomato sauce.

I finished the binding on the MB2 swap and just printed the label. I decided to try a computer generated label instead of trying my best handwriting-which is not all that good. It printed a bit larger than I would have liked but next time I know to shrink it. I have decided to not do another swap right now as my other projects are piling up and I am of the personality that I only work on one thing at a time. Although I buy enough to be working on a hundred at a time. I really want to get moving on my BOM from Our Gathering Place in Montoursville. It is a paper pieced design using lite, medium and dark bali's. I have 2 months done but truly need to catch up plus there are some UFO's that need attention.

Where or where can she be.....

I know, I know-where have I been-I get a new machine and you expect I would be burning through projects and lots of posts. Well I meant well but life got in the way. I have however got my MBS2 all sewn and quilted. I am working on the binding this weekend.

The new machine is great except it is BIG! I lost my work space to the right of the machine where I kept my seam ripper, snips and magnetic pin cushion. This morning I was fussing over nothing being at arms reach! So while we were out and about running errands I checked the aisles for something to solve my problem. I found it at Target! It is a shelf that clamps-perfect. I wish it were in pink but I can make a runner for it in Pink and "girl it out". Plus when I need to close that door, I can take the shelf off and stick it inside the cupboard.

Here is my Miniature Booty Swap 2 piece. I like how it turned out. My plan is to have it in the mail this week-but we will see. My step daughter and her boyfriend are visiting this week so there will be little sewing because there will be people in my sewing room!!! The injustice! No actually it will be great to see the kids. It has been a few months.

Got my kid back.-highly overrated.

Thursday was the LONGEST DAY EVER...We were leaving after work to head to NY to get our kid-whom we missed terribly. The hubby and I did well considering we have never had that much alone time. I had my computer turned off, my phone forwarded and Miranda ready to go at 3:10-I never walked out of the plant until after 4-buggers!
Got home loaded the car and off we went-it was amazing-I didn't even have to stop to potty! If you talk to the hubby a 4 hour trip requires on average 2 trips. I don't think I stop that much but I might out of boredom from riding.
So we get here and oh mercy I missed that child up until yesterday at about 11AM. Yup then the mouth kicked into high gear. Involved a melt down in Kohl's and a few threats in Old Navy-we were school clothes shopping. Not sure when the tide turned but it got better until about 4PM at the in-laws. Now don't you agree that a child acting up is the absolute worst when it happens in front of your mother in law!!! OMG I could have killed the child-he stood in front of me and told me "No-he wasn't doing that" All I asked for was a "please" when I demanded the item I had in my hand. His father intervened and nicely said that was not a nice way to talk to mommy and that he could have the item when he asked politely. Now mind you the room is quiet-the newborn even stopped fussing when the 8yro said "NO". If the couch would have opened up and fairies offered me a passage to the other side-I would have gladly gone....The child then told his father "NO-I don't have to" and walked outside.
Well we bid our goodbyes with me apologizing for his behavior....
The good news is he is alive but missing a few of his favorite belonging and activities for a few days or possibly life.

I don't think there is any fabric or quilt shops in the works for the weekend-although I am hoping for rain and that could change......