Category Archives: LinkUP

I have the sewing blahs

Posted on March 4, 2017 by Terri | 3 comments

Times like this I desperately need a goal, so for March’s One Monthly Goal I’m going to get at least one half of Mister’s Nappy Quilt blocks sewn together. He selected Primitive Gathering’s Trotting Along pattern out over a year ago, and this past weekend pulled fabric from my stash and turned the background choices over to me. He also wants a 4×5 block setting instead of the whole quilt.

I did get started on the first block. LOL

I have some things coming up in March that will lessen the amount of time I normally have available to sew (on top of my blah). I feel like there has been so much pulling at my brain, that I cannot settle in my sewing room! I did cut some more manly napping quilt blocks this past Tuesday, but I just cannot sit to set them sewn. Blah!

The construction and repair has been completed, finally, on our home. The carpet people were here yesterday and I now have a master bedroom full of brand new padding and carpet, and the family room is back in one piece as well (some padding had to be replaced, and the carpet re-stretched). Other than 2 black smudges of something on my brand new painted bedroom wall, everything is back the way it was before, only better. I took the opportunity of everything being in upheaval, and Mister being there, to deep clean all around the furniture, and the baseboards in the bedroom and bath (since things were moved in there to make room to “store” the bed while the carpet was being done. That “spring cleaning” chore is done, and I should feel liberated, but instead, I’m still blah.

March’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge color is red, so I’ll be working on 15 neutral- and 15 black-cornered red lozenges.

March’s Goals:

RSC17 – 30 Red Lozenges
OMG – 10 completed blocks on Trotting Along
Farmer’s Wife – 5 blocks
Charity – 3 hours, last Saturday.

3 Comments

Posted in House, LinkUP, Lozenges Quilt, One Monthly Goal, Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Trotting Along

That was easier than I thought

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Terri | 2 comments

After my post on Thursday, I was determined to get back on track. Yesterday, I ended up finishing the 15 Wild & Goosey blocks I had started.

I swept all my bits and pieces into their respective scrap baskets, packed up my templates, and cleaned off my cutting table.

I pulled my bolt of white expecting to just cut what I needed for step 2 on the Baby Quilt. I did a test on one block, that turned into several, and ended up getting as far as placement on the design “wall.”

I did take a break sometime during all that to head out to Mister’s garage to find my fraternal grandmother’s sewing machine. He had pulled it from the cabinet a few years ago to clean the cabinet up (it now sits in my family room as a side table). It was covered in nicotine from years and years of my grandparents smoking. Anyway, I have been wanting to get the machine cleaned up, and see if I can get it to work. The wiring coating was fragile when I got it, and now is non-existent in some places. The machine is important to me for what it made – “rubber” pants for me using old Marine Corps parachutes when my father was stationed at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, California. I know she sewed other things for me, but that’s the one that stands out the most. It also means I know the machine is at least 58 years old 😉

Now that I’ve located it, I’ll get him to pull it out (it’s behind his surfboard) and get the serial number and start searching.

I have never cleaned a vintage machine before. I know I could have it serviced somewhere but I would like to try myself first. I have also been thinking of getting my maternal great-grandmother’s treadle up and running again. I guess before I work on either of those, I should pull my little featherweight out, get her oiled and give her a whirl.

Since I put the Wild & Goosey away, and am ahead of my plan on Baby Quilt, I am going to on Farmers Wife today, when we aren’t running errands. While the game may be on tomorrow – neither of us care who is playing – however, Mister does want some “super bowl party” food, so I’ll probably make some easy wings and sides so I can get a lot of time upstairs tomorrow as well. The plan for then is to cut my Lozenges pieces.

Have a great weekend!

Linking up to Finished or Not Friday.

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

2 Comments

Posted in Baby Quilt, LinkUP, Lozenges Quilt, Quilting, Vintage Sewing Machines, Wild & Goosey

Getting February Quilting Organized

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Terri | 3 comments

It’s time for me to set up my February quilting goals. I’m so proud of the progress I made in January.

Baby Quilt – I keep distracting myself from getting this finished. It’s not hard, I just got myself pulled into the world of paper piecing Wild & Goosey blocks. LOL They are my quilting crack. I almost finished step one on the baby quilt, however, so I need to get that finished and the back ground fabric cut. This will be my One Monthly Goal for February.

En Provence and Midnight Flight – both still in time out until I finish Baby Quilt. I am using fabric from these in my Lozenges and Wild & Goosey blocks, so they are still thought about almost every time I sit in front of the machine.

Wild & Goosey – oh man. Do I love these little critters. So far I have worked on them every day that I have been able to sit and sew. It’s fun to dig through my little snippets, but it is messy!

Farmers Wife – I am behind on my block of the week. I need to pull these out instead and put Wild & Goosey away. I am also paper piecing these so maybe that will satisfy my need to “quilt by number.”

Lozenges – still my Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2017 project. February is sea green and defined as “Anything between blue and green will work. From teal, to aqua to turquoise.” This is going to be fun! I am also trying to incorporate more neutral and black scraps into this month as well.

So for February:

Baby Quilt – 1) finish step one; 2) cut background for step two
Lozenges – Make a minimum of 20 lozenges with February RSC17 colors (10 black/10 neutral corners)
Farmers Wife – Make a minimum of 4 blocks

3 Comments

Posted in Farmer's Wife, LinkUP, Lozenges Quilt, Midnight Flight, One Monthly Goal, Quilting, Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Wild & Goosey

One down, eleven to go!

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Terri | 4 comments

Wow, January 31, already! Just when I think I have a handle on things, the month is gone. It’s been a pretty good month, tho not perfect.

This is a long, month long, post. 😀

My January 4 post had me setting my goals and getting ready for my Bonnie Hunter Midnight Flight class. The goals will be at the end.

My theory on taking a class is that if I can come away with learning one new thing then it is money well spent. I got more than my money’s worth on that day.

I have not taken very many classes, but this is the second one I have had with her. She is consistent in the way she teaches and she has the patience of a saint.

I was having trouble with my leg that day, so my focus was off a bit, but I did manage to finish a quadrant of the block. Seeing the trouble several people had keeping their geese flying the same direction in a block, I have decided to piece just quadrants, then work on the blocks. While I have made sew and flip units before, I focused on perfecting them this class.

Since I live over an hour away from where the class was held, and the evening lecture/trunk show was being held (4 hours later), I contacted my friend Andee a couple of days ahead and threw myself on her mercy to allow me to hang out with her between the two. I ended up getting to go out to dinner, and to an antique mall, with her and Bonnie. The antique mall was another wonderful learning experience. I love reading Bonnie’s posts about what she finds antiquing in her travels and getting to see that first hand was an experience I am not likely to forget for a very long time. She posted about it here, and I died laughing when I first read the post. She also posted about our class, here, with many more photos, and a quick photo video.

I did come away with 2 little things from the mall. A vintage travel iron (for my new collection) and a small quilt that is embroidered with “Wounded Knee.” I have been trying to research the quilt. When I first picked it up, it was with the idea that it would make a perfect “Harley” quilt. The price was right too. Bonnie thought that it was a “Made in China” quilt, and we talked about why (learning here!) and I decided it was worth the price. We looked at a few other things, then Bonnie wanted to look at the quilt again, and that’s when Andee discovered the embroidery. I’m happy I found it, but Harley didn’t get it. I discovered a small hole in it after I bought it, and knew if Harley had it she’s pick it to death. It’s now on the back of a chair in my living room. It holds great value for me, not because of when, or by whom, it was made, but the memory of when I purchased it.

We knew the evening before there was a glitch with Bonnie setting up her inventory for sale at the lecture so we improvised and set up in the parking lot of an elementary school next door. It was a lot of fun, where it could have been a moment for complaining.

I volunteered to be a quilt holder during the lecture. I do have some photos of her “live” quilts from her books, and they are all so lovely. I threatened to swipe the Wild & Goosey, from Addicted to Scraps, and Pineapple Crazy, from String Fling. I love foundation paper piecing!

But the quilt above, is one of the favorites that she shared. There is no pattern, and it is the first time I have ever seen it. It demonstrates what you can create if you use her Scrap Users System. I am such a visual person, and seeing this made me so happy.

It was a long, exhausting, fun and memory-filled day.

One week later, I went on my annual girlfriend reunion trip to Vegas. Drove up by myself, since everyone else was flying for one reason or another. It was so dreary! I remember thinking that if I didn’t see snow on the mountains before the weekend was over, I would be so surprised. We are such party animals. We rent a 5-bedroom house (same one the past 3 years – and reserved for 2018). We eat at the same restaurant Thursday night (maybe next year somewhere new? as I am not happy with them right now), then swing by a grocery store. Friday we do our shopping (needlework store, quilt store, this year added in Vera Bradley outlet for some of the ladies) and go out for lunch and dinner. Saturday we never left the house. The grocery store run takes care of all of our breakfasts, snacks, and lunch for Saturday. Some order in for dinner Saturday (I had leftovers from grocery). There is a lot of stitching, crying, laughing, staying up too late, getting up too early, and I sort of wipe my slate clean and use that weekend as my new year start.

(Sure enough, when we came out of the needlework shop on Friday I looked over and the mountain tops were dusted, and it looked like more was on the way.)

I had a shopping list, and a budget. I wanted fabric for the Nora Corbett Couriers (that I’ve started collecting). They didn’t have what I wanted in the count I was looking for, but at least I know what to order. Shop models on PTP Storm.

I did come away with these 2 Ink Circles designs that I decided to stitch in these variegated silks, instead of the called-for fibers.

I always have a plan for the quilt store. It is a wonderful shop and I could go crazy in there. Last year I purchased neutrals with white backgrounds. Most of them have already been used in Midnight Flight, En Provence, and Wild & Goosey. This year I wanted black on white and white on black for a future quilt. The large piece of thimble fabric will also go into a project envelope.

I also fell in love with this portion of the shop’s BOM. The woman at the cash register said her mother was teaching the class and gave me permission to photograph this portion. She said the pattern was found as a freebie on Craftsy but I have been unable to find it. I love that scissor. It’s paper pieced, and I would love to have a smaller version hanging in my sewing room.

My Canadian friend Kathy drove back to AZ with me on Sunday for her flight back to Canada on Monday (out of Phoenix). On the drive back she found out her aunt had passed away and her sister has lost her job. I was informed by Mister that a Pex line in the master bedroom has sprung a leak and the water had been turned off. Groan.

Super happy we have a pool, since we were hauling water in to flush our toilets. Little House on the Prairie I am not. 🙂 Monday, we called the plumbers and they cut a hole in the bedroom wall, and replaced the line. Then we called the insurance, and they immediately sent someone out to cut bigger holes and set up the blowers and dehumidifiers to dry us out. The following 3-4 days had all types of people in and out accessing, and poor HarleyQuinn has not been happy over the stranger danger.

Since one of us has had to be here for people dropping off construction supplies, checking the blowers, carpet dude, etc., and with Mister in school 2 days a week, I moved all of my appointments to a few weeks out, and only left the house when Mister has been home. The advantages to my rarely leaving the house for the past 2 weeks is I have gotten a ton of sewing and stitching done!

In the stitching department I finished another round of Mirabilia’s Garden Verses, and have been making fairly good progress on Death by Cross Stitch (which is what I worked on in Vegas, if I stitched).

As of January 14, 2017

I got started on my Great-niece’s baby quilt and only need to make 8 more of these huge 4-patches (made from 5″ squares) and then on to the next step. I’m using a left over layer-cake, some charm squares, and pulled some fat quarters.

I also made it to the Rusty Barn Show in Phoenix and added some nice, needful things.

Olfa frosted rulers to replace my Omnigrid. I cannot see anymore when using the Omnigrid because of the yellow. The 24″ will be cut down to 18″ since Olfa does not make that size.

A couple of bags of scraps. Will go into my Wild & Goosey or String blocks. The zippers are for zippy pouches.

More white on black and black on white for future quilt. The colored fabrics will be zippy pouches.

One of the vendors had some Accuquilt dies for 40% off and the tumblers were on my wishlist. The iron caddy model was so tiny, and it will be for the travel iron I bought at a Christmas sale.

I also accomplished my One Monthly Goal of making purple Lozenges for Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2017. I made more than 40. So I am linking up to both of them with this post.

And, I worked on Wild & Goosey units. I get distracted by them and consider them my quilter’s crack. LOL I also printed off enough papers to make 270 blocks. I might have gotten a little carried away, but I want to make up some in different colorways for a table runner or two. I do need to pack them all away, however, and get back to the baby quilt.

If anyone is reading, I apologize for the length, and I thank you for sticking it out. I am thinking this blogging only once a month may not work out, if each month is going to be this full. I really had no idea it was going to be this long when I started, but it seemed the perfect thing to work on while the contractor is here working on the house.

The above photos that are of me were either made on my phone by someone else, or borrowed with permission from Andee.

4 Comments

Posted in Bonnie Hunter, House, LinkUP, Lozenges Quilt, Midnight Flight, One Monthly Goal, Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Stitching, Travel, Wild & Goosey

Wherein I share my largest WIP of all

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Terri | 6 comments

the Dungeon!

PICTURE INTENSIVE!

This is part of my Lady Lounge/Dungeon. I’ve put my hands on almost everything you’re about to see except the two scary bins in my cross stitch area. Those will be my next sort, maybe. I really want to get my sewing table and cutting table completely cleared off first, but I seem to be using both of them for sorting through everything before I pile it in the guest room. My method probably only makes sense to me, but I am making progress my way, and that’s all that matters. 😉

If you’re standing inside and facing the door this is immediately to the right:

Quilt Fabric for all the things. FQ up to 2 yards. More than 2 yards and it goes on bolts (I get empties from my LQS). The bottom shelf holds pre-cuts.

Quilt yardage and bolts of 30ct Murano xs fabric

Quilt yardage (I need to get some more empty bolts) and bolts of 30ct Murano xs fabric

Cross stitch fabric and storage for some fibers

DMC and in the plastic bag is a bolt of 30ct Platinum Murano.

In front of my quilt fabric cabinet is this container of gathered books and magazines that need to be shelved. And another WIP! I didn’t realize what that was until I took the photo. Sigh.

When you turn right, there’s my sewing table, and the window that looks out the front of my house so I can be nosy while I sew. It is great light for the room since it faces south. They are cracked for the photo, but I keep the shutters closed if I’m not in there.

The top. Left to right: Featherweight and new travel case and in front of that is a box of “strings” for paper piecing. Pink containers have hex paper-piecing in them, and the blue basket has miniature Temecula Quilt Co quilt kits. Next is needles, pins, paper piecing stuff, threads that need sorting and storing. Letters that need painting and put on my wall. Phoenix Comicon stuff that needs sorting, tossing, or displayed on my cork board, and behind that is solid yardage that needs to be put in the cabinet.

Underneath the sewing table:

My sewing machine caddy, cutting mat, ironing “board,” that travels. To the left is a 3-drawer plastic bin that hold strips and stuff (that needs to be gone through) and behind is a basket full of quilt kits. I honestly can’t remember what’s in the brown box.

Close up of my strip bin. The blue containers contain squares and bricks.

Close up of all those quilt kits.

Instead of continuing around the room, let’s face the door again and turn to your left. (I’m avoiding that corner as long as I can.)

Cutting table top:

This is where I normally measure 10x then cut once and still freak out until I’ve measured what I cut. As you can see it’s another sorting spot. The pile on the right is what I’m working on right now. It has bolts (not on the bolt) of more Murano! The drawers to right are a couple of rolling bins I bought in Japan and I love them so much.

and underneath! The threads are my overdyeds on individual airline cable rings. Normally hanging on the doorknob of my cross stitch fabric cabinet. AccuQuilt Cutter and dies to the left of the shelves. The fabric bins on the top shelf and on the floor to the left hold scraps. One is specifically civil war reproduction fabric that I’m pulling from for my Farmer’s Wife Quilt. The other is everything else. The one on the floor holds a mix that I am going to go through, iron and use my cutting machine to make 2 1/2″ squares for a leaders/enders quilt. I’ll also be pulling strips from the drawer I showed earlier. The labeled plastic containers are MOST of my quilt/sewing WIPs.

Sigh. And now that corner. This is my cross stitch corner. Remember that picture of the boxes and boxes of stuff I have pulled out to sell. This is what’s left.

Top shelf on the left holds my coveted SANQ hardback books. Wooden box magazine holders are in alphabetical order by designer. Most are just labled A, B, C, etc., but some of them are designer specific (Goode Huswife, Shepherd’s Bush off the top of my head). Second row also contains my hard cover French alphabet/symbol books. The left wooden basket holds small kits that I really need to dig through and do for some quick gratification (anyone else remember the Elegant Stitch Essie’s?). The right one holds Blackbird Designs, many of which are kitted Loose Feathers. The metal bins contain, in alphabetical order, charts that are printed/sold in 1/2-sized and smaller ziplocks – a whole lot of Little House Needleworks in there. Under the baskets are hardback quilt and cross stitch books, and the bottom 2 shelves are magazines. Mostly SANQ and JCS. The middle unit also contains boxes, containers, etc., for finishing. The glassed in cabinet contains books and I have purchased glass shelves and lighting to turn it into a display cabinet for some of my small pieces.

And then there’s this:

I know if I start digging through here I will soon have 50 WIPs. These two containers hold mostly kitted things I’ve received over the past couple of years in the monthly clubs I joined (I quit one of them after last year). The damask container also holds things from a weekend sewing retreat I went on 3+ years ago. These 2 containers really scare me. LOL

Still with me?

Oh look. I left to get something to drink and my editor came by:

I have my laptop set up on the dining room table for now. It normally sits on my grandmother's treadle machine that's on the wall that you haven't seen. That wall is for another day.

I love the look on her face. She’s a little startled that I walked in and she’s getting ready to jump off the chair she knows she’s not supposed to be on. I have my laptop set up on the dining room table for now. It normally sits on my grandmother’s treadle cabinet that’s on the wall that you haven’t seen. That wall is for another day.

And here’s where it’s all going for now while I sort it out in my Dungeon.

Ouch. Fuzzy picture. Sorry! This is my guest bed. If you come to visit me I promise you won’t have to sleep with all of this. In fact, please come see me. It will get me to put it away faster! That fabric needs to go in the few empty spots left in my cabinet. I’ve been trying hard to color sort it as I piled it so I can just pick it up and shove it on the shelves. The pile you see at the foot of the bed is kitted items I pulled out the other day that I no longer have interest in. Several of them were self-kitted which means I need to gut them and put the fabric and fibers in my cabinets and add the charts to the boxes of stuff to sell. The pile between the fabric and the pink zipper bag are quilt kits I’ve been working on. (Don’t you love that batik on top! I got it during a visit with Kathy when she was in Yuma last winter.) The blue basket contains finishing items. I brought it in here to keep from traipsing back and forth. Most of the stuff in here is actually quilting stuff, but behind the pink bag are a few stitchy items that got tossed onto the cutting table and they just need to be logged into my spreadsheet and sorted into its proper box.

So that’s it. My Dungeon. I really do love my room. It took me forever to decide on a color. As you can see I love IKEA. I’ve blogged about it before but the color matches a cart I bought at IKEA. I saw the cart and immediately knew that was the color my walls needed to be.

The only piece of furniture in there that’s not IKEA is my grandmother’s treadle. It works, too. I need to clean it up a bit, and probably find a spare belt for it, but I could sew on it if the zombies showed up. And I have enough fabric and thread to keep up warm with quilts, and maybe even sew us a couple of shirts 😉

And since it’s still WIP Wednesday after this super long post, here’s my latest Houses of Hawk Run Hollow progress photo.

It was dreary when I took the photo (we’ve had some late monsoon weather the last few days). I like to stitch across and work my way up. As you can tell, there’s a whole lot of blue in this block.

One more thing. These are the two designs I pulled from my kitted bucket the other day. I had intended to start one of them yesterday but completely forgot we had a baseball game last night, so that didn’t happen. Maybe in a minute? I have all my adulting done for the day 😀

The Goode Huswife – Book of Spells

Blue Ribbon Designs – An Expression of Gratitude

silks, wonderful silks!

If you’re still here, or actually here at all, thank you for visiting. If you have comments, be gentle. If you have questions, bring them on!

6 Comments

Posted in An Expression of Gratitude, Blue Ribbon Designs, Carriage House Samplings, Farmer's Wife, HOHRH, Puppies, Stash, Stitching, The Book of Spells, The Goode Huswife, WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Terri | 2 comments

Still spending a lot of time watching the Olympics. So happy we’re in the Track & Field portion. I love to watch the slow motion shots of their bodies moving. The muscle movements fascinate me. Of course, I also love watching the diving and swimming for the same reason.

Last night we went to a baseball game. We have season tickets for all Tuesday and Friday home games and I have been trying to upgrade all of our Tuesday games. Last night we had really good seats. Just 3 rows back from out dugout.

We live over an hour away from the stadium. I love my team, but I’ll admit there are many times this season (we’ve been losing so much!) that I have trouble staying focused on the game and keep thinking I could be home stitching and watching on TV. We’ve decided not to renew our tickets next season and just buy individual games.

Between the Olympics, Baseball, and daily adulting, here’s my latest progress on Sugar Skull. Mister was looking over my shoulder a couple of days ago and said he really liked how it was turning out. I’m looking forward to getting it finished, as I’ve never really been much of a one-at-a-timer and I’m feeling the itch to move on.

It’s a little tilted and off-focus to show the beading better.

I’d love to have my piece finished by Saturday, but don’t know if that’s going to happen. I have to take my car in tomorrow to have the rear end aligned, (one of the things I didn’t mention in my earlier post was that Mister and I were rear-ended on the freeway in March and this will hopefully the end of that saga), and I have some friends coming for a stitch-together on Saturday and am going to start to get ready for that.

2 Comments

Posted in Olympics, Stitch-together, Stitching, WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Terri | 6 comments

I joined a Halloween Stitch Along on a Facebook group and chose to stitch Mill Hill’s Sugar Skull. It started on August 1, and ends October 31. The Olympic games are giving me a lot of stitching time.

I’ve decided to just stitch the one design as I’m planning to participate in the Fall Stitch Along that begins August 15.

My goal for this design is to finish it into a cube, then go on to the fall design I’ve chosen.

6 Comments

Posted in Stitching, WIP Wednesday

It’s my first WIPocalypse check-in!

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Terri | 11 comments

I haven’t stitched as much as I’d like to so far this year, but it’s because I’m finally painting my sewing room! Almost everything has been packed up, moved, and unpacked as we finish an area. We’re doing it in bits so I don’t become overwhelmed by the messiness of it.

I started with this

I switched the glass doors on the right to my fabric cabinet on the left and moved the solid doors to cover my cross-stitch fabric. The quilt fabric was too long and I’ve spent the past couple of days refolding all of this to get back in my cabinets.

Here’s where I was when I went to bed last night:

2015-01-04 18.05.22

My goal for the year is to sew during the day, and stitch during the late afternoon/evening, with reading thrown in every now and then. I usually read during a lunch break and if I’m by myself while I’m eating breakfast. If I go by how things went the latter part of last year, I know there will be some days that I need a break from sewing and I’ll just sit and stitch all day, or I’ll need a break from both and sit and read all day 😀

I’m beginning with 5 stitching and 5 quilting goals to start out my WIPocalypse. I have a page here.

As to stitching, the plan is to work exclusively on Lizzie*Kate’s Unseen Things mystery until completed, then start working on And They Sinned. My sewing will also include finishing out the two Sam Sarah items from last year into bell pulls. I’m sure some time during this year I’ll be adding things to my WIPocalypse stitching list.

Here’s the last photo I took of Unseen Things.

This was taken December 29, 2014, and is the first part, minus the small bees on the right. I have since moved on to part two and will make sure I have an updated photo on the next check-in.

My first quilting project is to finish my Phoebe’s Flower Box quilt. It needs borders, to be quilted, and then the binding.

As with my stitching, I know I’ll be working on other things in addition to those on my list and will be adding them as necessary.

I’m linking up today with Measi.

11 Comments

Posted in LinkUP, Studio, WIPocalypse

One more week!

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Terri | 6 comments

How busy have you been? Are you planning out your 2015 year?

I’ve been busy, but not crazy busy, except in spurts.

This past weekend was the Phoenix COMICON Fan Fest. It has been touted as a success and that makes me happy. Two and a half weeks from now I have my first meeting for COMICON 2015, so I’m trying to not even think about anything related to it until then, but it’s a near impossible task I’ve set myself.

Next week we’ll be in California with Son and Girlfriend. I am really excited about that. Since we moved here we have flown Son and Girlfriend in to spend Christmas with us. That, and a pair of tickets to Disneyland, has been their Christmas gift from us. Last year we asked them if they would mind if we came to California and all 4 of us went to Disneyland on Christmas. You would have thought they were both 10 with their reaction 😀 We’ll be crossing an item from my bucket list by staying at the Disneyland Hotel while we’re there. We’ve decided to go to Disneyland on Christmas Eve and California Adventure on Christmas Day, since we’ll have to leave Anaheim late Christmas Day to drive to Oceanside. We haven’t completely decided when we’ll return to Arizona, but no later than Sunday.

I am working on a Christmas item right now. I gave up on getting my room painted until after Christmas. Between Mister’s studying for finals, my COMICON obligations, and some sewing I needed to get done, I quit stressing about it, cleared a spot and set my machine back up. Here’s where I shoved everything that was stacked on my table, so I could sew. That white “wall” is my design wall and behind that’s my shelved in closet.

And here’s what the guest bed looks like (there are 2 tall piles on the floor I didn’t bother taking photos of). Most of that will go on the shelves behind the design wall in the photo above.

Here’s what I finished by yesterday.

Hoping to finish the piecing today and the quilting and binding tomorrow.

Very little stitching on my Lizzie*Kate mystery and no updated photo of it.

That second question up there? I have been planning out my 2015. I try to adopt a positive thought for myself every year. Last year it was “happy thoughts” and no matter what was going on I tried to always remind myself to think happy thoughts. I had a really good year with that.

This year I tried to continue that and added on to be less judgmental by reminding myself that I may find myself in that person’s situation one day, or that I didn’t know the story behind what was making someone behave the way they were, either toward me or toward others.

This coming year my plans are to “quit saying, start doing.” I’ve been listing my WIPs and projects I want to start and trying to formulate a plan that will get me doing more. I love my calendar on my phone for reminding me of appointments and not letting me double book something, but I’m going back to using a paper organizer for my projects. More about that in a second. I’m also going to use Wunderlist. I have it downloaded on my computer, phone, and tablet. It’s the first thing that pops up on my computer when I start it up and it shows me what I have to work on, as a reminder to not get sidetracked. I’m tracking my WIPs and projects I want to do on it since I can add things from the different electronics and it’ll sync between the 3.

After following a discussion Melissa was having on Facebook, and others sharing what I’ve been thinking and the types of planners they use, I’ve decided on a Planner Pad. I love that it has the possibility to be used as something other than an appointment book (which my phone covers). Also, I will be using my timer more to keep from letting the computer suck me in. I have found myself spending less time on it the last few months anyway and it has made a difference in what I’ve accomplished.

I have 4 trips planned for 2015. Vegas (Jan), Prescott (Apr), Tennessee (Jun), Prescott (Oct). I am stepping up my volunteer activities as well. In addition to continuing my sewing for AZ Blankets 4 Kids, I’ve taken a larger responsibility with COMICON, and I am the new Membership Director for the Arizona Quilters Guild. I am looking forward to having a very heart-fulfilling year.

So my goals for 2015 aren’t to get this done, or that finished, etc., but to just be more organized which should lead to productivity. I guess I’m sort of going to run my retired life like I ran my working life 😉

I’m linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

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Posted in COMICON, Goals, Life, LinkUP, Quilting, Stitching, WIP Wednesday

Sunday Stash Report

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Terri | 3 comments

Before I get to the down and dirty, and yeah, it’s sort of bad, this was a great week for me. Still not up to 100% but I had to really think about it to see how I’m doing. Almost there.

The only bad part of my week is the flat tire I ended up with Thursday after work. Mister thinks I got the screw in the parking lot at work since it wasn’t all the way in my tire, nor was it dented up very much. Of course this created the need to search for a new tire on Friday and the closest one we could find is in Louisiana. I ended up getting the tire patched and we’re waiting to see what’s happening with a new tire. This led me to cancel my trip to California in a couple of weeks. The deadline to get my deposit back – and to mail the balance due – was Friday and I just couldn’t take the chance that the new tire would make it here, or to chance driving there and back on my patch. I’d already dodged one bullet on my last trip (as a friend so eloquently reminded me) and didn’t feel comfortable taking that chance right now.

On the stitching front, I did work on Elizabeth Sheffield 2-3 times this week. I’ve been lazy though and haven’t taken a new progress photo. Need to remedy that before next weekend.

On the quilting front:

* Son’s Tumbling charms – still waiting on black batting. I need to pick out what quilting design I want to do and see if my friend already has a similar pattern.

* Tumbler quilt – didn’t touch it this week.

* Civil War Club – tablerunner – didn’t touch it. That will be remedied after this posts.

* Celtic Solstice – As mentioned in my last post, I’m participating in Bonnie Hunter’s Celtic Solstice mystery quilt (starts Friday after Thanksgiving). I pulled my stash out and hauled my choices into work since I had 3 oranges and 3 yellows I thought would work. I bought 1 blue, and several yellow and orange FQs and am happy with what I have to work with. I’m excited to see how I’m going to be cutting it up. Many of the blues I’ve had in my stash forever and what I don’t use in this quilt will be cut up for a future nephew quilt, from one of Bonnie’s books.

* Future DIL’s quilt – bought an 8-yard bolt of fabric this week for background (and possibly backing).

* Scrappy Irish Chain – for me. Bought 5 yards of the background fabric.

* Camille Bag – this is one of the classes that I’ve signed up for. I found the perfect focus fabric but am waiting a bit for the lining and straps.

In addition to the project purchases I also added a couple of cuts of neutrals, one cut of red, and – woooo boy! – 1/2-yard cuts of all of Pam Buda’s American Gothic fabrics (link is to her blog post).

Fabric added this week : 29 1/8
Fabric out this week : 0
Fabric added this year (April – present): 178 7/8
Fabric out this year (April – present): 51 1/2