M.I.A.

Well, once again it's been way too long since this blog was updated. But, fear not, I have a good  reason. After working all summer to get our home ready to sell, we finally put it on the market and it sold in 19 days. This meant we had to scramble to find a short term rental.

We found a rental a mere 2-1/2 miles away and moved most of the contents of our home, one carload at a time. We did have a U-Haul for the big stuff but, since we will be moving again in a few months we didn't want to box everything. We used plastic storage bins for all the everyday stuff. Let me just say, this is NOT the way you want to move. It took us 16 days and countless trips back and forth.

I have taken over the living/dining room for my temporary sewing room. Unfortunately there just isn't enough room for the HandiQuilter to be assembled. All of my shelving units for my stash had to be disassembled in order to be moved. They are now assembled and the stash is almost all put away.

There are still a few empty cubicles but fear not, there are still several garbage bags of fabric still waiting to be emptied. Maybe by the time we are ready to move again I will have it all put away....

Meanwhile, my sewing table is still in pieces as we have temporarily misplaced the hardware to put it back together. I'm currently using a small, portable folding table from Costco for my sewing machine and actually did some sewing yesterday -- yeah!

On the house front -- things are moving along quicker than we had expected. We will be heading over next week to talk about extra electrical pulls, those all important additional outlets in my sewing room, built in sound system and even picking out cabinets.

This is the garage end -- my room will be above the garage. The Bearded One is ecstatic, he's getting a 10ft door for the bus! The garage will also 12 ft. ceilings so he can even open the top while parked inside in order to dry out the canvas. He's a happy camper. 

This is the other half of the house, downstairs will be a great room with the bedrooms upstairs. It doesn't look like much now but I understand the roof should be on by now. I've suddenly become a big fan of HGTV and all the home shows. My head is swimming with all kinds of ideas, that's a good thing, right?

Hopefully life will be a little more settled now, even if it's only temporary. The good thing is, real movers will be moving us the next time.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year.

Some (almost) Instant Gratification

It's been a busy couple weeks. I spent the better part of last week and some of this week working on a non-quilting project. I've had a wicker loveseat sitting, buried under fabric, in my sewing room for over a year. It's needed upholstery on the seat back and new cushions along with some repair of the seat bottom. My brother eventually will be taking it over to Chelan since he has a lovely sunroom the loveseat and matching rocker will look good in. With much prodding, he finally picked out some fabric. I just wasn't motivated to work on it since he wouldn't be driving his truck until bad weather.

Well, a friend needs to borrow the set for the sunporch at her Dad's house that they are trying to sell. Their real estate agent feels a little "staging" would help things along. Thus, I got the motivation I needed to work on this project. Naturally it turned out to be more work than I had remembered. But, I can now cross this project off the list. And I can say that this project was MOST DEFINITELY not instant gratification! The Bearded One is also happy this project is complete because it means the rocker will no longer reside in the garage.

Because I had to literally unbury the loveseat from the piles of fabric that were on top of it, that meant I had to do something with the piles. I currently have 2 large shelving units from Ikea that stand floor to ceiling and each have 18 cubicles. Each cubicle is stuffed to overflowing with fabric. Literally to the point that fabric is falling out onto the floor. Let's face it, it's far easier to just stuff the fabric back into the appropriate color cubicle after using. Yeah, I'm lazy. But hey, do fI get any points for admiting this deep, dar, secret to the whole internet? Anyway, After getting some motivation from Bonnie Hunter's lecture a couple months ago, I'm SLOWLY working on refolding these cubicles. (Notice, it's been several months since I went to that lecture.) I've discovered that if I fold the fabric as Bonnie suggested, I can get two stacks, side by side in each cubicle.

Here's the first cubicle completed -- See the pretty pinks, all neatly folded & stacked? Can I boast that I have two whole other cubicles completed? That's 3 down, 33 to go! (GROAN) It's a torturously slow process that really bothers my back. So it will get done a little bit at a time. Did I mention that there's also another shelving unit with 6 shelves that are also filled with fabric? You will notice I'm not showing pictures of all this mess. Nor will you see pictures of the piles of fabric that had been residing on the wicker loveseat.

So, now for the instant gratification. All quilters need some every now and then, especially since progress on the Storm at Sea is so tediously slow. I decided I needed SOMETHING to show for all my time downstairs besides burning through two audio books and a Quilt of Valor was a good diversion. It doesn't help that this morning I stumbled upon a Zig-Zag Quilt Along. That seemed to fit the bill (like I really need another project.)

Naturally I had to do things my way instead of the Quilt Along way. I prefer making my half square triangles using the Easy Angle method. And then there was the problem that I wanted to do this NOW, not week by week, as the instructions were doled out. And, after playing around in EQ6, I decided I wanted to do my squares 6". Ok, so I'm not really doing a quilt-along. But, here's what I got done this afternoon/evening.

This is half the quilt already and this was after I had sorted and folded 1+ cubicles of fabric. Of course I'm paying for it now by having to sit here with the heating pad on my back in the middle of a very hot summer.

There's been some progress on the trailer, but since I've babbled long enough already, I'll save that for another post. This is supposed to be a quilting blog afterall. Sorry KD, no pics of the Spotted One today.

A New Year

Simply doesn't seem possible that it's 2009 already. It seems like just yesterday that we were worrying about Y2K. How come, when we were kids time just seemed to drag along and now that we are adults, it seems to just fly by? If you have an answer for that, would you let me know.

Meanwhile, here's the long awaited reveal of the secret wall hanging for The Bearded One. He liked it. He decided to hang it on the wall by his side of the bed, right above where her bed used to be. I tried to get creative and quilted in all the little nicknames we used to call her, Tomato Thief, Paper Shredder, Sweet Girl etc. She may be gone, but she will never be forgotten.



I ended 2008 in a proper manner, adding to my stash! Four of us decided to hit the After Christmas sale at our favorite quilt shop, The Quilt Barn. I needed to get a few more pieces for the High School seniors quilts. But I was a bad, bad girl. I also bought a bunch of tone on tone brights for the Heartstrings "Happy Blocks" along with a couple pinks for a certain niece who must have everything pink. Then there were some Christmas fq's and a couple pieces that I just "liked".

I've started cutting out the center squares for the Happy Blocks and will work some more on those today and tomorrow at quilting.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd leave you with this lovely ditty I received in my e-mail the other day. I think it sums up how Seattle and the whole area doesn't deal with snow very well. It's a good thing we don't get it very often, unlike the other side of the state. Poor Spokane has hd 68" so far and more expected today.

"Twas the week before Christmas, and next to the Sound,
Not a creature was stirring, for all were snowbound.
Greyhound busses quit running, no matter the fare,
And the mail men and garbage said they just couldn't get there!
The children were sliding Queen Anne Hill on their sleds.
While roofs were collapsing on old people's heads.
And mamma in her boots and I in my cap,
Were stuck in the snow and ice and such crap.
When at the Home Depot there arose such a clatter,
I trudged from my car to see what was the matter.
A group of sad souls were waving their cash,
They couldn't buy shovels, they'd sold in a flash.
Tires were spinning and just wouldn't go,
And chains lay broken in the dirty old snow.
Then, what to my surprise did my eyes look over and see?
Eight representatives of SDOT,
With a fat politician so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it was Mayor "Salt Nick".
More rapid than gun bans, his excuses they came,
"To save our environment the roads stay the same!
On Broadway ! On Boren! On Yesler and Denny!,
To clear off these roads would cost such a penny!
Sliding down Thomas and onto a wall!
The busses hung over I-5, ready to fall!
Still, he insisted it wasn't his fault,
As the world's greenest mayor he wouldn't use SALT!
That stuff's corrosive, could hurt the fish.
(But the Puget Sound's SALT WATER you ignorant kish!)
So snowy Seattle continued to stew,
But Mayor "Salt Nick" just hadn't a clue.
While I stood there astonished, on nearby TV sets,
I saw the airport was packed, no de-icer for jets.
Since others couldn't get down the roads to the ferry,
The city decided to close Denny and Cherry.

Police cars and firetrucks were highly impaired,
Citizens got no impression that Mayor Salt Nick cared.
A house that caught fire, or a rape in progress,
Was less important than "going green" in Seattle - I guess!

An accident closed the I-90 bridge,
And people couldn't drive down Finney Ridge.
Shovels , and salt had just flown off the shelf,
And I laughed when I heard him in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
He tried to convey we had nothing to dread;
He spoke many words, but did little work,
Yet Seattle knew they should never have elected this jerk.
Then thumbing his nose at his citizens' plight,
He turned to the crowd and exclaimed "We've done right!",
And then to his limo refusing to yield,
He left to get solar panels installed on Qwest Field.
But I heard him exclaim, as he skidded past me
"Happy Christmas to all, heck, I give myself a 'B' ".