Do You Get the Urge to Change Things in January?

I always do.

So far I have rearranged the living room and dining room.

I have rearranged the insides of 4 china cabinets.

I have removed all of the stuff on the family room entertainment center and boxed it all up for storage. It's still bare, but I will eventually think of something to decorate it with.

Now I am tired of my boring end tables and am going to order two new tables.


I think I will arrange one of the tables with the rear view (forgive the pun) as you come through the entrance door.

What do you think? I think most would agree that it's NOT boring!

Bitter Cold Weekend Predicted

It's the perfect weather to spend a little time quilting.

Since I am still sewing machineless, I have plenty of time to work on "Roses are Red, Borders are Blue".

I was hoping to get away this weekend, but after checking the internet weather sources, it appears that there are weather warnings in all directions.

So I guess it's two days of cleaning, cooking, reading & quilting. I am off now to finish reading the latest Elm Creek Quilts novel, 'The New Year's Quilt'. I must say that I am a bit disappointed in this one. Anybody else read it?

What's everyone else doing this weekend?

How Could I Resist Tangerine Clip Dots and Lime Dip?

No, it's not nouvelle cuisine .

Immediately after work today, I headed to Joanne's fabric store to see if there was anything I wanted to buy before my 50% coupon expired.

Imagine my sheer delight when I discovered it was another of those "half-off-the-already-clearanced-fabric" sales.... I still get a tad dizzy just thinking about seeing that little red sign.

I decided to look for a few fabrics to use for my new deck color scheme and I hit the jackpot! The orange on top is heavily textured with nubby pieces of thread all over it; hence, the name "Tangerine Clip Dots".

Not only did I find some perfectly-colored fabric, but I also found these plastic plates. They were in the Christmas aisle and were 70% off! They don't look like Christmas to me at all. The plates are sitting on "Lime Dip", a wonderful solid fabric in two shades of lime green.

Of course, I found other fabric, too.

And ANOTHER tote bag pattern! If you remember I keep buying these and have yet to make a tote bag. I plan to make a couple for grocery shopping. It seems to be the thing to do these days and I am sure mine will hold up better than those plastic bags that split open all the time.

Oh, and I did find something to use my 50% off coupon --a package of 10 sewing machine needles to replace the four I broke last week. Now, if only I had a sewing machine!

I stopped at my sister T's on the way home to return a big stack of quilting magazines. I happened to mention the Juki machine I found online.

You will never believe it, but she OWNS that same machine! What are the odds of that? I never paid any attention to the machine she used on her frame.

After talking to her, I am glad I did not rush out and buy it. The machine works fine, but it is nearly impossible to find parts for it. She spent many hours searching online for a bobbin part last year when she bought hers. When she finally found one, she called and couldn't order it because she was not a dealer. After many more hours of searching, she finally found a MI dealer who was willing to order it for her and then ship it to her. She said it was a pain and she is not looking forward to any future repairs.

I have always felt it best to buy local and that is what I will end up doing. I still have not heard from the repair man on my machine. I do hope it can be fixed so that I don't have to rush to buy a new one.

Thinking of a New Color Scheme for the Deck in '08

Turquoise

Orange

and

Lime Green

I think this would be a vibrant summery color scheme.

Orange would be the accent color.



Giddy mentioned gardening on a comment earlier in the week and now she has me thinking of summer! (not a bad thing to think about on this slushy, snowy day.)

I think my big orange cannas would look great with this color scheme.

I would have to make all new pillows, glider quilt and chair throws after I find fabric in the chosen scheme. Hopefully I would have it all in my ever-increasing stash, but probably not. I think I have used most of my orange fabrics this past fall. It would be a lot of work...................

Quilting Calisthenics

So many people think of quilting as something wimpy old ladies do. Well, let's dispel that myth right now!

Sure older ladies can quilt, but they are far from wimpy. One has to be in pretty good shape to maneuver a quilt from the first block to the bed covering it will finally become.

Let's just take a little peek at a few of the muscles needed to "sandwich" a quilt. Sandwiching is the process of putting the backing fabric, the center batting, and top together so that it can be quilted. I use safety pins for this.

Most of us are not lucky enough to have a huge quilting studio with enough space to wreste around with the 10-foot piece of fabric required by a king-sized quilt. For me to get a quilt sandwiched, I must crawl around the kitchen floor for over two hours.

Here are a few of the positions I was in and just a few of the muscles I used this morning:

squatting:
quadriceps, Rectus Femoris
Vastus Lateralis (Externus)
Vastus Intermedius
Vastus Medialis (Internus)


raising arm to sew batting together:
deltoids, Flexors


Pushing body back to expose more batting surface:
deltoids, biceps, triceps, brachioradialis muscle, upper and lower leg muscles


Smoothing wrinkles from batting:triceps, biceps, thigh muscles


standing, bending to rearrange top: glutes, abdominal and thigh muscles
standing, bending, walking in same position to cut excess batting:
glutes,


Reaching/Stretching to smooth corner:
glutes, abdominal and thigh muscles


So if your new year's resolution is to have stronger muscles, you might want to consider taking up quilting!

This is what I ended up with after two hours of work.


A quilt top with 260 pins holding all 3 layers in place so that I can begin quilting it.

I feel so good now that this is done (it's my least favorite part of the quilting process). Now I will have plenty to keep busy until I get my machine back.

Things are Looking Up

I found a sewing machine repair shop in town. They also sell the very high quality (with a corresponding price)Husqvarna/Viking line of machines.

So I trotted off early this morning to drop off my old machine. Just the price of a tune up is more than the old thing is worth. I took a quick look at the new machines, but was not terribly interested. You have to be in the mood to shop for a new machine. I was not in the mood.

I was dismayed to hear that it will be approximately 2 weeks before I get my machine back. I was hoping the tech was just sitting around with nothing to do and he'd have it done by this afternoon. :) O.K. so I know I was dreaming.

I am afraid to order the Juki online. What will I do when I need repairs?

I need to do more research. It would be far better to buy locally even if it will cost more money. They will give me as many classes as I need to learn how to operate the machine, too.

So I will pay to have mine fixed and then I will be in no hurry to get a new one. Which means that I will probably procrastinate until it breaks down again. The last repair tag was still secured on the handle of my case. It was March of 1997. If this repair lasts as long I may not have to think about it for a long time!

Today I finally took down the Christmas trees in the family room. The room is now void of any decorative charm.

The whole entertainment center is bare as I've decided to use different accessories than what I had up there previously. Trouble is, I have no idea what and I have no creative energy this weekend. So it will sit bare until I do.

Since I am stuck home this weekend, I could have accomplished a lot, if I wasn't so blah. Hopefully I will have a spurt of energy tomorrow.

Juki TL-98Q

While beginning my online search, I found a beauty.

Is there anyone stopping by this blog that owns or knows about this longarm machine?

After twenty-four hours to mull over my dilemma, I have decided to go big and get a good machine with room to put a quilt under it. This machine is made especially for quilting.

I would love a first hand review.

Like Coffee without Cream

Like chocolate without sugar

Like warm bread without butter...

You can certainly live without them all, but who would want to? Thus is my life without my sewing machine.

I was so distressed this morning when I could not sew before going to work. Instead of sewing, I vacuumed the whole house at 6:30 a.m. See the effect it has already had on my mental state!

Yesterday afternoon the needle snapped after hitting the metal of the bobbin case. I don't know what exactly happened, but I have had no luck trying to get it to work. The needle continues to hit the metal.

I have a problem because the only sewing machine repair shop in town closed a few years ago. Other than Joanne's we don't even have any place that sells machines.

Now I will have to spend time thinking about what kind to buy, learning how to use a new one, etc.

I can't begin to tell you how unappealing that is to me.

I was quite happy with the old machine that only sewed a straight line (all the other features have long since broken).

Does anyone have any recommendations for features to look for? All I want to do with it is paper piece quilts, make home decorating items like curtians, and mend/hem cothes. I guess now would be the time to get one that I would be able to machine quilt the smaller quilts, too.

I am open to all suggestions.

Gold Beaded Charger Plates

I forgot to show you one of my very best after Christmas bargains.

I have been wanting these chargers since I first saw them in early December. I liked them so much I almost paid full price ( $7.00 each). In early December I even had them in my cart. Thankfully I was overcome by common sense, and I put them back as I really don't need any more charger plates.


One day last week I was strolling merrily along the main aisle at Wally's World when what to my wondering eyes should appear?


A big 75% off sign on a holiday linen display!


Let me assure you those cart wheels burned rubber to get to that table. I picked up a few tablecloths, then put them back. You saw my china cabinet FULL of table linen. I just have no room for more. I was pretty proud of myself for putting back linen that was nearly free.


Then I looked down to the floor-level shelf. Oh, my, there they were! A stack of ten of the chargers I almost bought a month ago. AT 75% OFF!!


It's a good thing there was nobody in front of me. I would have knocked them over to get to the stack first.


Are they not simply gorgeous?

Sometimes patience is indeed a virtue.

Remember my Full Figured Snow Lady?

Well, she went on a diet!
There's not much left of her after our warm spell. Last night we had a lightening & thunder storm with over 1.5 inches of rain.

Where was all that rain when I needed it in July?

I had an extra long work day as a convention group came in just as I was ready to leave. Of course, I didn't leave. I spent an hour and a half talking with them. Thank goodness for that soup I put in the freezer in December.

While it was heating up from its frozen state, I worked on my nine patch within a nine patch block. Here it is propped up on the sofa.

What do you think?

The center star is not exactly identical to the outer star as I ran out fabric. I was in no mood to go to the basement to paw through fabric bins so I just used whatever I could find in my sewing room that was similar.

I think I'm liking it as a pillow.

The Teeny Tiny Star Block is Done

There are 45 pieces that make up this nine-patch block. Most are the size of my thumb nail. It measures 4.5 inches.

It was not hard at all.

Yesterday morning I was ready for work 1/2 hour early. I decided to spend the time working on the 8 remaining blocks. I finished them all in exactly thirty minutes.

Now I have to find a use for these cute little stars. I am pretty sure the two I have done will end up in the points at each end of a table runner.

I am also considering them as the center block for the same star. It would finish as a big 13-inch star with a clone of itself in the middle. I have always admired others work when I've seen blocks like that. Before computers I would never have been able to figure out how to size my own pattern to fit. It's a snap to do with the help of computers so I will most certainly try one of them. It may become a pillow since I really don't want to do a whole quilt. Perhaps I will make a set of new pillows for the living room. I am bored with the current look.

I've been in the Pink (and black) all Week

All last week I puttered with different pink and black blocks and have finished two table runners and started a few of .... hmmmm....who knows what! LOL. Eventually they will turn into something.

The one with the purple stripes was planned to fit one of three long rectangular frames I have in the living room. We will see if that really happens. Sometimes these pieces end up as something totally different than my original plan.

Tonight I decided to try a teeny tiny little block. It has 9 pieces and finished at just 1.5 inches. If I put 9 different 1.5" blocks together, I will have a 4.5 inch star that will have over 50 pieces in it.

Of course, I must make at least one just to see how difficult it is to do.

I was out of town all weekend (last weekend, too) so I have not been doing much blog visiting. The weather has been quite warm and the road conditions are great for traveling. We take advantage of good winter driving conditions whenever we can and get away for little overnight jaunts. Next weekend I hope to stay home and finally get some time to do nothing.

Last week I was reading an article that said "a perfect storm" topped the list of overused words.

The list is put out each year by the public relations department at Michigan's Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie.

To quote the article I read:

The contributors gave first prize to the phrase "a perfect storm," saying it was numbingly applied to virtually any notable coincidence.

Is this a common phrase to all of you? I have never heard this phrase!

The Partygoers were Nestled all Snug in their Beds with Visions of Fun still in their Heads

If the lefover bottles on this poolside table reflect last night's party activities, then I am sure many of our hotel guests had a lot of fun last night.

The hotel had its annual NYE party.




I brought my camera in early this morning to snap a few of the "day after" photos. I was surprised that the place didn't look too bad. In past years it was much more of a mess.








By the time I got in at 6:30 a.m. today, the housekeeping staff had already started the clean up.

Decorations were tossed aside waiting for the decorator to come and pick them up.

Tables were being folded and chairs were being stacked.
The floor was still littered with hints of last night's activities.

Someone dropped an egg roll as well as a couple of their drink tickets. Those three blue tickets could have been redeemed for three alcoholic beverages.

Perhaps the person dropping them had already consumed more than enough alcohol.

Can't you just imagine 160 people blowing noise makers and tossing streamers at the stroke of midnight?
I even found one of the tickets I made for the event on the floor under a table.

The night auditor was very calm this morning which indicates that everything went well and 2008 arrived without incident.

I worked for just a few hours this morning.

Now I am ready to make frosting for my cake and then sew until it's time to leave for the family dinner party.

Happy New Year to all of my blog readers!

It's New Year's Eve

While most of the world parties, I am home baking cakes.

When I got home from work today, my intention was to make one jello poke cake to take to my sister-in-law's tomorrow for a New Year's Day family dinner.


So I made a cake and put it in the oven.

As I was tidying up the mixing area, I noticed something that made me gasp.

"What's wrong?" My sweet husband was full of concern.

I heaved a very disgusted sigh and said, "Half of my fingernail is missing!"

He gave me an I-really-hope-you-are-joking look.

I held up my right hand.

He looked a little nauseous.

We both searched all over the counters, in the sink and even in the garbage. We found nothing that was small and pink.

I walked to the pantry.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Making another cake."

"Good idea," he said, not even attempting to hide the relief in his voice.

I made a second white cake, but didn't have another nice glass 13 x 9-inch pan so I used two smaller pans.

I thought to myself that it would be just my luck to find the missing fingernail now that I had already made the second cake.


My fingernails and I are just not having a very good week!

An Owie and a Wowie

The Owie:

Homemaker is a dangerous profession.

Just look what happened when I got my pinky stuck in the vacuum cleaner during yesterday's organizing spree.

It ripped that baby right off well below the quick.

Note the redness and swelling.

A lesser woman may have been diverted from her mission after that mishap. But not me, perseverance runs in my family. :)

Yes, it hurts!

The Wowie:


A drawer in my kitchen that has nothing in it!

It used to hold place mats, but they were moved to one of the china cabinets.

Now I am leaving it empty just because it's such a novelty to have an empty drawer!

How long do you think it will stay empty? LOL.

Did you notice my new header?

Those pink and black star blocs are what I have been making the past two mornings. That's what I do at 5:00 a.m. Today it was 4:00 a.m., but who's going to quibble over an hour?

Well, it's nearly 6:00 a.m. right now so I am off to shower. Depending on the weather, I may be off on a little overnight trip today. A woman can only take so much cleaning and organizing before she needs a little FUN!

I hope you all have a great last weekend of 2007!

This "Vacation" is Killing Me

I must get back to work soon so I can rest a little.

Last night about 7 p.m I decided to change rooms on three of my china cabinets. I get bored looking at them in the same spot and they need a good organizing anyway.

In order to move them EVERYTHING had to be removed. Let me tell you, I have them stuffed full.

So I removed everything last night and had DH help me move them all. He did not do it with a smile. In fact he was downright grumpy about it. I don't really understand why as I did ALL the work before and after they were moved. It took him about 15 minutes to finish his part.

I decided not to do any more until this morning. This is the mess I woke up to:

The living room was just as bad.

I worked from 6am until 2:30 p.m. with only one break for a cup of coffee and a handful of cookies. Someone finally gave us a nice assortment yesterday. :)

I gathered up all of my table linen from 4 different cabinets. I found all kinds of stuff I don't even remember buying--like that gorgeous floral and leopard print fabric. It will make a very unique table with my leopard print purse vase.
When I was done all of the tablecloths and napkins fit into one cabinet. The placemats on top had to go in a different one.
This cabinet used to hold a hodge podge of stuff and I never really knew what was there. One of the things it held was my peach lustre dishes. Now they are in the dining room cabinet.
Just look how neatly they are stored! It's a treat to open these doors now. I ended up removing the peach lustre from the top shelves since I decided to use a blue table runner.
Here is the dining at 2:30pm. All nice and neat and tidy!

This cabinet used to be in the dining room.

It's now in the living room behind the love seat. Remember the quilt I cut up and had on the wall? Well now it's lining this cabinet. It took quite some time to get it the right size, sew the ends to get a neat seam and figure out how to keep it in place. I ended up putting a few tiny nails in the cabinet. Probably not a smart move, but I don't ever intend to sell this 1950's cabinet, so who cares? Not me.

All in all I am pretty happy to finally have it all done. It was more work than I expected it to be, but then most everything I do is.

Needless to say, I did not get the main tree down. But that's OK as I am enjoying it this afternoon. We have big snowflakes falling and it's great to work in the kitchen with the tree lit and the snow falling.

I hope tomorrow I don't have to work so hard because every muscle in my body is sore right now!

The Big Tear Down Has Begun

On December 26 all of my holiday spirit vanishes and I want my decorations taken down.

I suddenly become claustrophobic with all of the "stuff" around me.

I need to see clean open spaces.

Today I spent about 4 hours removing the living room and dining room decorations.

Tomorrow I will finish removing the main tree and the 3 on top of the entertainment center.


What I am really excited to tell you about is that thirty minutes ago I finished my quilt!

I am very happy with how it turned out. I didn't plan it to be a Christmas quilt, but the colors do suggest that it may have been made for that holiday. It seems appropriate that I finished it during Christmas week.

All of that binding I showed you has been sewn on:
In honor of the big event, I even changed all the bed linen this morning to my favorite 1000 thread count sheets.

I can't wait to crawl in this bed tonight!

Where were you at 6:00 a.m. this Morning?

I was in my sister's driveway picking her up to hit the after Christmas sales.

We shopped till we nearly dropped -- 4.5 hours and only hit four stores.

I bought everything from a black blazer and pink shirt at Penney's to these cookie/food ornaments (also at Penneys).

We spent a lot of time in Joanne's fabric store. I bought some bronze fabric to make a tree skirt for next year, 12 big bronze poinsettias, and a ton of little gifts to use for next year's party presents.

My sister didn't buy nearly as much as I did, but she gets the prize for the most unique item. She bought a talking fly swatter. Yes, after you swat the fly, it says things like, "hasta la vista, baby!" and "today was not your lucky day". LOL. She says her husband will love it. I guess he is always swatting flies.

Yesterday afternoon I cut fabric for the binding for my "Starry Log" quilt that I pieced last winter/spring. It's a king size and let me tell you, that's a lot of binding! Just look at it


It goes all the way across the dining room table and back to the family room entrance. It's about 37 feet long. I worked on it a little last night and for about an hour today. I am halfway done.

Hopefully by tomorrow night I will be sleeping under that quilt. That will be two quilts finished in the past week.

It's a record for me!

We had fun this year with my new treasure hunt game. Here is one group looking for "a green pear candle
Here's mom looking for her last item -- a humming bird sipping nectar from a pink flower".
Everyone had a tough time finding him. I don't know why, as he was right out in the front!


I think most people had fun with it and I will probably do it again next year.