Category Archives: Life

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

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

Hello to the middle of December

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Terri | 2 comments

They say time flies when you’re having fun, and right now, except for one tiny glitch, I can say that’s true.

I have been very productive with needle and thread, both at the sewing machine and in hand.

Yesterday was one of my twice-monthly sew-togethers with my local group and I worked mainly on my Bonnie Hunter Step 3 4-patches.

Here’s my progress photos to date.

Part 1: 221/221
Part 2: 100/100
Part 3: 10/168

Today should see the finish of my purple 4-patches.

When I’m caught up on my Parts, I am cutting/preparing for the Midnight Flight class I’m taking next month. There is a class info sheet that tells us how much to bring to class (instead of enough for a whole quilt) so I’ve been pulling fabrics and cutting. I am taking more than I need so I can hopefully swap some with other attendees. I have my constant red cut, and changed the orange to a yellow. I’m also not including any purple and using blues only. I think I may be buying a couple of 1/4 cuts before then as I’d like a little more royal to go with my navy.

As to my stitching, I know I said in my last post that I was going to do a separate post about my Year of WIPs Challenge status, but I think instead of spending more time on this computer writing a post, I’ll just do a photo update in my dedicated tab up top. I am still loving the 10 hour rotation with the focus being on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I am now spending less time stitching than before, but I knew that was going to happen so chose the number of WIPs accordingly. So far I think I made great choices. The bit success right now is that I finished And They Sinned. Woohoo!

She’s a big girl! That countertop is 5 feet long 😀 If you click on the picture, it’ll turn right side up, but it was hard to get it to focus because of the size.

The glitch I first mentioned is my HarleyQuinn had to have surgery this past Monday to remove a large hematoma from a back leg. She has 3 layers of stitches (because her skin is so thin) and the layer I can see I counted 7. While she was under the doctor went ahead and removed 7 other places and all but one of those just required 1 stitch (the other one required 2). So now we’re nursing her. Pain pills, anti inflamatory/pain pill, liquid antibiotics every 12 hours. No overactiveness, which means carrying her up and down the stairs. In other words spoiling her more than usual, which is a lot already.

This picture is of her staring at me the night before because she’s starving (she’s always starving, just ask her).

and here she is all snuggled up between dad’s legs after we brought her home. She was drunker than Cooter Brown, and we worry she’ll flop herself off the sofa.

Today she’s back to her sassy self, and is more work to keep her from dancing and prancing. She’ll have to have 24/7 babysitting until the stitches are removed. We do have a care-collar for her, but if we keep her with us she shouldn’t have to wear it. Fortunately Mister is out of school, and neither of us have any plans to be anywhere together that can’t be cancelled or rescheduled for a later date.

2 Comments

Posted in And They Sinned, Bonnie Hunter, En Provence Mystery Quilt, Finishes, Gratitude, Midnight Flight, Mystery Quilts, Puppies, Samplers - Original, Samplers - Repro, Year of WIPs Challenge

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

Well hello there!

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Terri | 4 comments

Ever walk into a room and get sidetracked by something other than what you walked in there to do? That is pretty much why it has been since March 2015 that I have blogged. I have always meant to just something would come up and then it would be a couple of days, weeks, months, a year then I would think, “oh yeah, I was going to blog about that,” and off I would go again not doing it.

There is no way I can catch you up on what I have been doing since my last post. Some of it I would rather not re-live. 2016 itself has not been 100% happy for me/us and while I’ve been meaning to blog some of it, now that I am sitting here I would actually rather not.

A few things I can post without tearing up, though.

Mister: Graduated from ASU Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Art History (so very proud of him), has not gone surfing, had to have chemo treatment on his face for pre-cancerous cells that caused him to rival Deadpool in the beauty department (that was a horrible experience for me, not to mention what it did to him), applied for a second degree (starts in 2 weeks), and continues to drive me nuts in both the good and bad ways. After 35 years of marriage, that is a wonderful thing to write.

Me (in no particular order): Gone to quilt retreat a couple of times, worked two large Phoenix Comicon events, went long periods of time without stitching or quilting (still not quilting, but recently started stitching again), read I do not know how many books, two seasons worth of season tickets to Diamondbacks baseball (which oh my heavens cuts into your spare time!), started hiking, had a good friend from North Carolina spend the weekend with me, had 8 friends from several states spend the weekend with me, spent the weekend with said friends (plus a few more) in TN, went to Vegas with some friends, went to Yuma twice to visit a Canadian friend who winters there, dyed my hair blue/purple/teal :D, lost a lot of weight and gained it all back, drove Mister nuts in the both the good and bad ways, oh, and not blogged!

Right now I am enjoying the Olympics, and not enjoying the crazy politics. The temperatures are high and we are in monsoon which means high winds, lots of sand, and sometimes hail filled rain that comes in seconds before you are prepared for it. I am sorting my sewing room because I let things pile up on the cutting and sewing tables, and have pulled a whole lot of cross-stitch patterns to sell.

Does this mean I am back. Who knows?!? I know when I was blogging I seemed to do more sewing and stitching since I like to share it here, plus it helped me stay organized. We will see.

4 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Life

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

Hello 2015

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Terri | 4 comments

Like so many other people around the world I hope this new year brings joy and excitement and good surprises. I want to learn something new, forget something old, and make a new friend. I want travel, and laughter, and riches beyond compare, but not the financial kind.

This year’s mantra is “Stop Saying, Start Doing.”

I’ve already posted about my 101 things, and mentioned that I’m going back to participating in WIPocalypse. My page for that is set up. I’ve tried to limit it to 5 stitching things and 5 quilting things. That’s not to mean there won’t be more done in those areas, just those 10 things I’d like to finish in 2015.

There are several authors I have on my wish list that I’ve never read and I’d like to read at least one of them. I also starting reading the Bible through today. I’m using The One Year Bible for Women by Tyndale House Publishers. I’ve asked Melissa to use her excellent card making skills and make me a bookmark.

I want to keep expanding my cooking skills and try several new recipes. I have a couple of cookbooks I haven’t cooked from yet and am anxious to try them out.

I’m recreating my household journal this year since I want to be better at managing my time. I don’t want the internet to suck my valuable time away, especially with the things I need to do for COMICON and my new Arizona Quilters Guild position, so I plan to continue to use my timer when I’m at the computer. Less internet suckage equals more reading, quilting and stitching, too!

I want to go back to that mountain and try another, and another, and another. I bought some new, warmer, workout clothes a couple of days ago and got rid of the “nothing to wear” excuse I’ve been using since the weather got cold to us, so I’m headed back out to my daily walks. I also want to get back to my Zumba classes so studio shoes are on my shopping list, too.

While there are many, many more things I’d like to do in 2015, they’re just brewing in the back of my mind and if they happen, I’ll share.

May 2015 bring all my readers what they seek.

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net.

4 Comments

Posted in Goals, Life

Turning 20 in 2015

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Terri | 1 comment

Time flies and I’m shocked by so many of these:

The movie Babe, which is sad since Christine Cavanaugh passed away on Dec. 30.
The movie Toy Story
Sony Playstation
Yahoo!
The song Waterfalls by TLC
The movie Clueless, which I loved!
Pride and Prejudice with the yummy Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.
James Bond fan? Goldeneye turns 20.
OJ Simpson’s trial. I was packing my house to move to Japan when the verdict was read.
Frappuccinos!

Edited to add that last one 😉

1 Comment

Posted in Life

Fare thee well 2014

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Terri | 4 comments

This is probably going to be a very long post.

I sometimes wonder if our calendar was created so the happy part of the year is at the end so we forget so much of the bad things that happened early on. I know I could read back thru my blog and find some truly forgettable things, but if I can’t remember them right now, why bother? They happened, they’re over, and if they were that life altering, wouldn’t I remember them now?

I had to quit my job at the quilt store, but I learned so much while working there, and I have had so much more time to devote to the things and people I love. I had to have dental surgery, but as painful as it was, it made things better, and I’m going to have less in 2015. I fell down that mountain, and probably broke my arm, but at least it was from the top, where I had never made it before. None of my family or close friends died this year, which is the best blessing of all. I try to grow from the bad things as well as the good things. Will something happen in 2015 that makes me think “oh, NOW I remember what happened last year.” Probably. But for now I’m happy in my not remembering.

Some good things happened this year too, that I know I’m not currently remembering, but my heart is still so full from our wonderful Christmas and the time I got to spend with Son and FDIL. It’s so hard for me to believe they’ve been together for 9 years. I saw some moments that made me rethink my thoughts that I wasn’t a very good mother. He’s such a loving person and not afraid to show it and that is indeed a great accomplishment.

I got to travel in 2014. I had my annual girlfriend fest in Vegas. I had my first quilt retreat experience. I also had my 2nd quilt retreat experience with a completely different group of women, a couple of whom have become really good friends.

I joined a quilt guild and have had so much fun getting to know the women there. I joined a local-to-me sewing group. I finished my first bed sized quilt and almost finished a 2nd one. I lost and found my stitching mojo and I went back to my Thursday night stitching group.

I changed my eating habits in July and learned some new cooking methods and tried some really great recipes, and had a couple of flops that made me thankful for scrambled eggs for dinner 😉 I climbed a mountain. I stepped on the scale this morning, and am down 21.8 pounds for the year. I logged my best day ever since 2012 on FitBit with 24,993 steps.

I reread some favorite books and discovered an author had written a couple more in the series. We went to the movies, although not nearly often enough. I had dinner out with our friends almost every month.

But most important for the year, I let it go and finally found myself, which made my 2014 journey worth it.

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net.

4 Comments

Posted in Life

Slowly but surely the year comes to an end

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Terri | 2 comments

I feel the need to be domestic, and yet there’s barely anything for me to do! I cleaned the house really well before we left for CA since I knew we’d be tired when we got home. There were no decorations so that didn’t need to be dealt with. All that has left me to do is laundry and the daily clean-up in the kitchen.

All that spare time means I’ve been catching up on my blog reading and that might have gotten me into some trouble 😉

It’s been fun seeing what everyone is planning for 2015. I mentioned to Mister this morning that I can’t believe it’s already been 15 years since the world was freaking out about Y2K.

My own plans to date have included my going back to 101 things in 1001 days and I’ve set up my page. I don’t know what version I finally published because I caught myself waking up at night thinking “oh wait! I want to do this too!”. But it is what it is and I’ve left myself some breathing room as far as my quilting and stitching goes. It’s probably cheating but I can’t imagine trying to create needle and thread goals for 2 3/4 years.

Speaking of those goals, I’m going back to participating in WIPocalypse. I wish I still had my old lists so I can laugh at myself. My lists were so long that I scared myself from getting much done. I wasn’t quilting at the time either. Since the guidelines have changed and quilting is included, I’ve decided to try it again, but this time around I’m starting small and building. It contains 5 stitching things and 5 quilting things. I’ll be posting the list next week.

For now I’ll leave you with the list of movies I watched all day while stitching and doing laundry: A Christmas Carol, Meet me in St. Louis, Elf, A Lion in Winter, and Trading Places. Quite an eclectic Christmas season selection 😉