Overwhelmed !!!!!

Don't you sometimes feel overwhelmed with all the material, kits and patterns sitting in your sewing room?
Well I am feeling like that lately, I feel like I will never get to it all.
I have a few projects started at one time, and every day it is a challege to pick which one I will work on today.
And in between all of this, I am learning how to knit. Yup, I still have not given up. This time I have needles and am practicing my kniting skills.

I look at everything around me and think, why did I buy that? What was I thinking? And who is going to get that quilt.

This weekend my girlfriend will help me sandwich the outdoors quilt I made for my nephew for christmas. Then I can spend my evenings working on the binding and that quilt will be done.
I started a black and white yellow brick road quilt. I have been collecting back and white material for two years now so it was time to start this quilt. I work on it one hour a day and slowly it is coming together.

I also have a christmas wool table runner that I started a couple nights ago and I try to spend some time in the evening doing the hand work on that in front of the tv.

Now that the weather is getting colder, I spend more time indoors, so maybe I will get to it. All my projects for christmas are finished,,,,,,,,,I think! You never know.

Stranded!!!

The car was acting funny friday night when I drove home from work. But I tried not to think about, afterall it was friday night, and I had a whole weekend with nothing planned to do.
But during the night I awoke with a thought about the car and why it acted so weird and what would happen if it died.
I got up bright and early to run out to check out my car, and sure enough it was dead.
My poor car. Luckly I had a friend that owns a auto repair shop. I called him up and it just took minutes before he was here with a battery charger. And after a couple of hours on the charger it started right up. But I was warned not to take it anywhere exept his auto shop. Bummer, now my car is sitting at the garage and I am sitting at home.
Well....................let's see what we can do when stranded.

First thing I did was finish my nephew's quilt top. All done and now ready to be sandwiched and quilted. How's that?
But that's not all, the house got cleaned, floors vaccum, furniture dusted, dishes done, etc etc etc......


And then I worked on my BOM for the month of October. It needs to be joined in on the quilt. So far this is what it looks like and it is starting to look like a great quilt.
And then I took a break and deceided to cover some of my windows in plastic. Need to get ready for that cooler weather. So I tackled a few windows, not the best job but it will work for keeping the cool air out from the cracks.


Oh yes, and then there was maggie. Poor little gal, momma is running around and not paying attention to me. Play with me momma please!!! So I took a break and played awile with my little girl.

the next morning when I got up
I cleaned out my scrap box, and deceided to cut some into 21/2 inch strips and 4x4 squares. I mail these to my girlfriend so she has something to play with while she is learning how to quilt. So far she has made three huge quilts and some baby quilts with my scraps. She is learning and having fun at it.

Then I sat down to work on this little snowman quilt. It needed some embroidery work done before I could start to assemble it.

My brother showed up for a visit, so we sat and watched the football game and ordered a pizza. I was able to finish the hand work on this little hanging......

after my brother left I finished most of it up. Here it is still needing the binding on it. But you get the idea.

Whew!!!!!!!!!!! See what you can all accomplish when you are unable to leave the house!

Now as I sit here quietly on the couch watching tv, I am thinking of what else I could do before bed.............lol

Something new

Sometimes you just have to try something new. Get outside your comfort zone.

This table mat was one of the new items I bought at the Quilt Expo. I was so excited after taking a lecture on "Working with Wool" that I started this project in the hotel room later in the evening.

Now it is finished! I am so proud of it that I will keep it for myself.
But I will have to start one more. There goes the pocket book, and a reason to go to the wool store.

Finally an update on the Quilt Expo!!!!!

I am finally getting around to blogging about the Quilt Expo! (what? I've been busy)
It was fantastic!!!! Wonderful!!!! And very expensive to my pocket book.

These are just some of the many many quilts we saw. I took a ton of pics but can't put them all on my blog. Where would I have room to write?

I found alot of new things to try and took a class and went to two lectures. Tricks and tips to bindings, and working with wool, and free motion quilting. What a weekend!

The quilts were just stunning, the workmanship exquisite. Words can not describe the quilts that were on show.

They estimated about 15,000 people that went thru the doors during the three day event. It sure was crowed as the day went on.

And now I have more items in my stash. Now I have to live longer to accomplish it all!

Madison Quilt Expo

Yes Yes Yes!!!! It's that time of year again!
The Madison Quilt Expo with Nancy Zieman. I will be heading there tomorrow after work. I will be able to meet my sister there. This year we will have a new gal with us. My sister's sister in law is joining us for the weekend.

I am all packed, the car is gased up, and ready to go. Just have to get thru the day at the office.
Honestly I am just like a littel kid that knows christmas is coming. My wallet along with the credit cards are already shaking with fear.

I don't need anything else for my quilting stash, but I am sure I will find a thing or two that I know I will just need. And I am always open to new tools. Who knows what I will find.
Stay tuned............................

Labor Day weekend 2010

Words can not begin to explain this weekend. Alot to do and all that got done.
Imagine that!

And play time with my favorite playmates.

We are at the Fun Set Blvd in Appleton for the day. So much to see and so much to do. I am sure you can imagine what it was like trying to keep up with four toddlers. And the bumper cars were the biggest hit. A wonderful day, and who cared that it rained and stormed outside. We had fun and stay warm and dry.


And this is a fall quilt top I finished this weekend also. I believe it is a queen size, so it will make a nice gift. For now it is resting on my quilt rack for the autumm season. The colors are great and seem to match everything in my house.
Oh and I got the house cleaning done too!

Weekend visitor

My brother came for a weekend visit to my new home. It wasn't that difficult to think of things to do since there was so much work around the place that needed to be done.
But we kinda picked and choose. Here is my brother, learning how to tie a quilt.

Ok, I thought it was funny, he didn't. He kinda got confused as to which way the needle and yarn went thru the quilt, but that's ok Jerome, it was your first time.

We went shopping to pick up some fabric paint and some sun visors so my brother would be able to relax and do some of his artist work. This is the sun visor he make me. I love it!!!!!!!

He worked very hard trying to figure out how it would fit on the brim but after careful thought he worked it out.

I worked on a few projects myself on saturday afternoon. This is a purse that I got put together in no time at all. Now I just need to add the straps and it is ready to fill.

These three blocks are my august BOM's for the quilt club meeting. All done two weeks ahead of time. Don't get too excited, that won't happen again.

A very busy, but relaxing weekend spent with my brother. Well, when I talked him into washing windows it was not relaxing for him, but hey we had fun and now my house windows sparkle!