Goodbye 2009

I am so excited for 2010 to come into my life.

This past year has been a life changing experience for me. Mike had his second heart attack in 2 weeks 1 year ago today and since has been working out 5 days a week and has lost 60 lbs. He was smoking 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day and quit that day. I am so proud of him.

Raychel 1 year ago weighed 79 lbs and now weighs 130 lbs. She will never work but is able to live on her own and seems to be happy. She has a great team of doctors that make sure she stays as healthy as can be. It has been 1 year since Raychel has been in the hospital which is a huge step in getting healthy. She had been in the hospital 75% of the previous 2-1/2 years.

Justin our son is moving out again come March 1st. He moved back home after a fall out with his roommate and will be moving in with some friends that are buying a house. I love him dearly but Mike and I are looking forward to having our house back. Justin is thinking about having the gastric band done. With everything that Raychel has gone thru due to gastric bypass this will never be an option for him. He is a big kid and after having 2 heart surgeries when he was 11 and again at 18 being extremely over weight is so unhealthy for him or anyone.

Jessica and the 3 kids are such a wonderful thing in our lives. Amazing how grandkids can make you smile. We are hoping that this next year will be better to her and Aaron. He is a cement mason and he has had to go out of the state of Minnesota for work and that is really tough when you have 3 kids. Seeing Dad/husband once every 4 to 5 weeks is tough on all of them.

My goal for 2010 is to spend more time sewing. Mike is very supportive of this and with every ones health on the mends this should not be a challenge to make happen. I really would like to get back into sewing cloths and the grandkids would benefit from this.

Hope everyone out there has a safe New Years Eve and a WONDERFUL 2010.

Till Later

Absent

I know that I said I was going to start back on writing on my blog about quilting but it just seems that there is so much going on in my life that is private. I use my other private blog as a journal and it is amazing how well if feels to get things down in writing.

Ok so much about that. I finally got Justin's pirate/skulls quilt done and gave it to him last night. It was funny how I handed it to him and he went right into his room with it and within 5 minutes you could hear him in there snoring. I guess he liked it.


I am working on a quilting this weekend for a friend who lives about 3 hours from me. We have come to the conclusion that we are sisters not friends because we are so much alike. Neither one of us has a sister so this works for us. She is really having a rough time after a motorcycle accident. Her body has healed as much as it is going to and now the mind is having to heal. The doctor's are saying she has a form of post traumatic stress disorder. I want to bring a quilt to her so that she can wrap herself in it when she is needing a hug.

My boss and my son each got me $50 gift certificate to Joann Fabrics. I am excited because they are now carrying the Warm and Natural packaged so I want to buy some of that and also rotary cutter blades. I'm sure I will find somethings to spend my certificates on.

Well adjusting to a longarm from a midarm is such a huge difference. I have found that I have to have both hands on my machine because if not I my machine will have skipped stitches. I must be pulling it weird when I use just one hand. It is very nice to not to have to change my bobbin so frequently. I quilted almost 2/3 of the quilt before I had to change bobbins. As much as I love this machine it is harder on my shoulders. I have been taking breaks and taking Motrin to give my shoulders a break. I have arthritis in both shoulders so practacing will help get my shoulders use to this. I have spent a almost a month getting use to this machine and have not spent anytime piecing. I really need to get back to that so I can finish Justin's pirate quilt, he is being very patient. Here is what I have done so far

Well I was thinking that I was just going to have 1 private blog for just myself and then I realized that I miss the other bloggers out there that I have met. When I deleted this blog it said that I would have 60 days to change my mind and guess what I did? I miss getting others opinions on what I"m thinking and what I had made.

I have a story to tell and it is amazing how this story came to be. I had hurt my leg and was sitting around on a Thursday night about 3 weeks ago. I was surfing the quilterblogs website. I love this website. As I was paging thru looking at others blogs and quilts I came across this blog which I passed by and then backed up and read it again. Yes Cathy was giving away this longarm . I commented on the blog right away and then thinking no I am going to email her directly. Well within 10 minutes the longarm was mine. I had Nolting ship her a shipping carton and then arranged for UPS to pick it up. I was so excited and could not believe that this had happened. I kept waiting to hear that she had changed her mind and thank God she didn't. Well 1-1/2 weeks later it was at my door. I never had a clue what a difference it would be from my 9-1/2" Janome to a 18" Nolting the control is unbelievable. I was for sure if I was going to have to get a stitch regulator and I found out I don't. I'm not saying that I don't have a huge learning curve in front of me but that's ok. I am frustrated with the tension issue that I am having/had but I think as I work thru it I will come to understand how the tension works. I have read that some people never have to adjust theirs and some that have to adjust it every time they load a quilt top. I have a lot of fabric that I would never use for practice and I'm so glad that I kept all those pieces of batting that I trimmed off. I'm not sure about using pantographs my frame is all set up for it I'm just not sure about being behind the machine. I guess it will be practice, practice, practice. I bought a book on Amazon on Sunday night it is called ABCs of Longarm Quilting I think this book is going to help me alot. I am suppose to go to Mary's a longarm quilter that I have been reading for a long time. She lives very close and is willing to share her knowledge with me and I can't wait.

Well who ever read my blog before is stuck with me again. It is good to be back.

I promised myself that yesterday I was going to clean my basement and never made it there. My sewing room takes up 50% of the basement and without cleaning it up I am not going to be able to start on the 2 memory quilts I want to get going on. Just seems when summer hits Minnesota it is hard to not be outside since warmer weather here does not last longer than 5 months. Pretty soon I will be complaining about the 10 below zero weather.

I have running to do tonight after work but I have no excuses why I can't start cleaning up in the evening. Hopefully I will have something quilted to show soon.

Check out Twiddletails giveaway. I love the Moda charm packs.


Have not had much time to sew lately. I have been busy working, busy in the yard and we have been busy traveling back and forth to fix our motorhome. We will be bringing it home on Saturday. I can't wait to go camping.

Ok so even thou I turned 50 my birthday was a blast and it only lasted 4 days. On Thursday 11 of us went to my favorite Mexican restaurant and had one of my favorite meals. Steak with grilled veggies, refried beans and rice. They usually serve your favorite drink and sing to you but I choose fried ice cream instead. Yummy!


Our friends from Iowa came in on Thursday afternoon and stayed in their motor home in our driveway. I was so wonderful to have them come for the weekend. On Saturday we had about 28 of my favorite friends over. Mike made pulled pork and grilled a turkey and then of course all the different sides. He did such a great job. I think the best presents of all is that Raychel was well enough to hangout on the deck with all of our friends. She made it from 3:00 until 8pm and then headed to bed. Justin our son also hung out for awhile but he had to get to the recording studio. I'm just thrilled that everyone I wanted to be there was.

Yesterday Mike and I took Kris's quilt to her. My brother and her were power washing the house when we showed up so I think she was thrilled they had to stop for awhile. Her she is with it.


Well back to normal life and back to the gym today.

Later

OMG in Minnesota yesterday it hit 97 degrees, you might say so, but on Saturday we had frost warnings. The weather here can be so weird going from spring to summer. Today it is suppose to be 94 and tomorrow 68. So unbelievable. We have company coming tomorrow from Ft Dodge Iowa and my house really needs to be cleaned. Mike is home this week and seems to think the outside needs all the attention. I will not go work out tonight (so sad) so I can come home and start cleaning.

Kris's birthday is Sunday and I only have a little bit of the binding to finish sewing down. Hopefully I can finish it while watching American Idol tonight. I will take a picture of her with it and post.

Oh by the way I turn 50 tomorrow so weird just the other day I was giving birth to Raychel and she turns 30 in July. I have friends that have journals about everything in their life and I wish I had. It would be so fun to go back and read my life's history, or maybe not there were some pretty rough patches.

These are the things nice about being this 50:
My children are grown but still need me sometimes.
The friends I have are true friends and here for the rest of our lives.
My mortgage is half paid off (we bought this house when I was 35).
I only have 12 years before I can retire and really start to party.
I really know what is important in life because I have learned from my mistakes.
I am friends with my kids not just Mom.

The only sad thing about being 50:
My Mom is 82, healthy, but my Dad is no longer here. I wish as I got older my parents had stopped growing old so we could grow old together. I love my Mom and Dad and am so happy for the life they have given me.

It is going to be a very busy weekend so I hope everyone has a great 3 day weekend. I will have a 4 day weekend since my boss seemed to think I would need a day to recover. The party is on Saturday but I won't argue and will take the day off.

Later

Last week at this time I was going on and on about how it was Mothers Day and we were going to work in the yard and go to brunch on Sunday and hang out. Well Saturday came and I headed outside and it was cold and windy. Mike did not get home from working until 2am Saturday morning so he was not up for working outside. I was out there for about 10 minutes and realized that it was to cold and windy or should I say that was my excuse for not wanting to be out there. I spent the rest of the day in my sewing room and Mike laid on the couch watching some Indy race. Sunday came and Raychel was not up for brunch so Mike and I went and the food was wonderful. Came back home and headed back into my sewing room. So no excuses this weekend we have work to get done. We are having a party next Saturday, my 50th birthday, and we don't want to wait until the last minute, but kind of feels like we have.

Working on getting the binding sew down on Krissy's quilt and got Raychel's quilt loaded on the frame while watching American Idol on Tuesday. I will work on that tomorrow night after working outside and not before. Again wanting to start on my Mom's memory quilt and will not start on that until I am done with what I am working on now.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Cathy

I know I know but I think I am going to join this 6 week quilt along. And it also is a chance to win a new sewing machine and get a quilt done Check http://www.oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/ out.

Thought I would share with everyone a great Moda giveaway. Check it out at Lila Mae's sight. I would love to win these fat quarters but who wouldn't

Well it's Mothers Day weekend and you know what that means, we get to do what ever we want. Well that's how I would like it to be. I would love to wake up and go right to my sewing room with my coffee and not come back out for the day. What we are doing is picking up Raychel and then go to my son's work where he is a kitchen manager for brunch. Moms eat free where he works which is such a nice treat, not many places offer that. With Raychel being over for the day that means I will spend the day with her and Mike and that is ok. Her and her brother are the reason I am a Mom so I will spend time with them. Saturday we are going to work in our yard. We have a lot of Oak trees and the leaves are very hard on the grass and with Raychel being sick for so long our yard has been neglected. There will be a lot of racking up the dirt and putting down lime to get the dirt back to normal so grass seed will grow.

Mike will be working all day today and I am getting off work at noon to take Raychel to the doctor. I am thinking that I will be back to home by 3:00. That means that I can eat a bowl of cereal for dinner and spend the remainder of the day in my sewing room. I have two quilt tops that need to be quilted and I am hoping to get one of them done tonight. I have made a promise to myself that I will get these two tops done before I start on my Mom's memory quilt so I need to hurry. I am so excited to get that one done and give to my Mom. She is a true seamstress and really appreciates the work I put into my quilts so I always love showing her what I have done.

Hope all Moms have a great weekend and get to do what you enjoy and if not a Mom enjoy the Mom you have.

I had so much fun at the quilt show. Pat lives 2 hours west of Minneapolis and it is a small town. Very much a farming community and it is so peaceful out there. I was thinking as I was walking from my motor home into her house with my pj's on that I would not be doing this at home. No one near to see me, I love it.

At the quilt show there was probably 75 quilts there and they all ranged from quilters that had little experience to the Oh My God look at this one. There was a woman there doing a Q&A on machine quilting and she was unbelievable. She does all her quilting on her Bernina without a quilt frame. She had done the most amazing work. I seem to really appreciate this work so much more than quilting done on a frame. I'm not being disrespectful to the ones that use a frame and either a long arm or a mid arm, it just amazes me when one does it this way. I had to get a frame after trying it once with my machine on my kitchen table I just could not get it. I know that it takes practice but I did not give it much of a chance. Their Guild had done a BOM and it was fun to see how everyone took those blocks and came up with their own designs. I loved them all. Not much for vendors selling and that was a little disappointing but that's ok I saved some money.

I have decided I am going to do a memory quilt and am very excited to get it going. I will post pictures as I put this thing together. This is one of the pictures of my Mom and Dad that I am going to use.

I am so excited. I hate to say it out loud but here it is. Mike and I are leaving on Friday and going out to my sister in law's. Mike is going to work on the motorhome and Pat and I are going to spend Saturday at the quilt show her guild is putting on. This will be my first time going to this show. They have one every other year. The first time I was going to go my Dad's funeral was that weekend and then 2 years later Raychel was so ill and I could not be that far from home. Well here I am, it is Wednesday and everything is quite.

I really need a quilt show to help me figure out what my next quilt is going to be. I have a lot of different fabrics bundled together for probably 5 more quilts but I have bought all this over the last few years. As I went through all of it last weekend trying to clean things up nothing really got me excited. Of course all the fabric I just had to have and could not live without is not what I want now. I realized I am one that should always buy for what I want to make now because I probably won't want to do it in 2 years. For example I saw this quilt in a magazine and just had to make it for my bosses little boy that she had just adopted. Well I called all over the country tracking down this fabric and finally found it out east somewhere and had it shipped to me. Well now 3 years later he now is 6 and it probably is not appropriate now. I know no one having a little boy. I guess I could make it and hang onto it for that next great nephew that is born. Now that does not sound fun to me.

Just realized I have to get ready to go to work.

Later

I am part of the Cottage Quilting Bee and I have not done well at keeping up. When I got February I did the block and sent it out. As of yesterday I still had March and April. These two months had two people sending out their fabrics so I needed to get busy. This has not been easy for me. I am so use to following someone else’s design so I like that it is forcing me to use my own ideas. Yesterday I did two of them and here they are. I did notice after looking at my pictures that I should maybe spend more of my time washing my floors than sewing and then I thought why would I do that?

Mike is in Council Bluffs IA and I am hanging out at home helping Raychel get back on her feeding tube. She has been off of it for about 2 weeks now and her body is really taking a toll not getting the nutrition she needs. So here is my plan:

I am going to help Raychel, getting back on the tube feedings takes her body a while to get use to and she is already so weak. Hoping by Monday morning she will have a little color in her checks. She is so protein deficient that her hands and feet are very swollen so hoping that will start going down. This is going to take some time to turn around so will just have to be patient. Have to come up with a natural diuretic for her.

Back in Feb I joined a quilting bee and did February's block and have March and April sitting in my sewing room. I am going to drag my stuff up into the living room and find a place to sit down and work on my blocks. That way Raychel and I can sit and watch movies all day and I can get these 4 blocks done and in the mail on Monday. I can also bring one of my machines up so that I can not have to keep running up and down the stairs to sew. This will be a good day, I will post pictures of my progress.

I was wondering if anyone is having issues when uploading pictures. It use to be I would upload the picture from Photobucket and go back to my post to continue typing. Instead of seeing the picture in my post now it will be all the script regarding the picture. I can see the picture when I go to Preview and it is there when I publish the post. Frustrating when I am trying to post more than one picture and I can't see where they are. Any help would be soooooo appreciated.

These are pictures of the quilt top I made for my sister in law, Kris. I took these with my new camera. I have to figure out how to take pictures of the entire quilt and have it be clear. Time and patients.

My new camera comes today I am so excited. Not sure what my first picture will be but what ever it is I will post it.

This sounds like fun. Not sure if I'm going to join but will probably follow it.

My big 50th birthday is next month and I have been debating what I want to do. I would love to go camping but finding a campground to go to in Minnesota on the first major holiday weekend is impossible. Might just have a party and hang out with good friends. I have wanted a camera for a long time and have borrowed my daughters but I want my own. I ordered one yesterday. I had my boss check it out and he thought it would be a good one. It is a Kodak and has 14 mega pixels which he said is really good considering Raychel's is 7 mega pixels. I'm excited. Now to decide what we are going to do.

As soon as I get my camera I will be taking pictures of the quilt I am working on.

My friend, Megan, is having a quilt give away. Check it out.

After work Mike and I are off to get our motor home. It has been out at my sister-in-laws, Pat, since last fall. We had gone out for Mike's brothers funeral. We drove it out there so Raychel would have somewhere to go if she started not feeling well. She had the service at the farm, it really was more like a celebration of life. On our way home we had broke a fan belt and didn't know it and it over heated and ended up having to have a wrecker come out and tow it back. Thank God for AAA, it would have been a $900 tow. Any way we blew a head gasket and need to go out and start working on it. Well I should really say Mike will start working on it.

For me I get to hang out with Pat. I'm going to bring my pinwheel blocks so I can lay them out on the floor and arrange them in order. I should have this all pieced by the end of this next week. I think I should have it done in time for Kris's birthday in May. I will need to find the backing and that won't be to hard. I really like
finding the backing that is already 108" wide. Will have to see what I find.

Till Later

Thought I would post a Raychel update. This is a picture of her with my son's girlfriend, Raychel is the one on the right. Back in the beginning of February she had bottomed out at 79 pounds and yesterday at the doctor she weighed in at 95. This was so exciting. After 3 years of being sick I think this is where she has started on her road to a better life. She will never be healthy as we all know life but this is better than life at 79 pounds. I guess my niece had Gastric Bypass last week and we were told 3 days after she had the surgery. Her Dad was telling us that after what happened to Raychel they were so scared, as they should be. The only thing I wanted to say was "Raychel did great for the first 18 months", but I didn't. I will just keep her in my thoughts.

So this is the pile I started with to make Kris's quilt. This one has been a lot of fun. I am using the Moda Charms. There is 128 half square triangles



And now the pinwheel blocks. I love all the colors. I know that Kris is going to love this one.

I had such great plans for this weekend. Mike is leaving for Council Bluffs IA today and my plans were to organize all my fabrics and my kitchen. Mike has been having some heart issues since we went to Arizona and he is not comfortable going by himself so I am going with him. I talked to the cardiologist yesterday and they want him to take his Plavix at night instead of the morning. Half of the time in the morning he gets a tightness in his chest, trouble breathing, nausea and some disorientation. The nurse was saying that he might have another blockage but it could be the diabetes. Mike's heart attacks were in December and also diagnosed diabetic at the same time. All of this is new to us so it is not easy figuring out what is what. He checks his blood sugars when this happen and some times it is elevated and other times it is normal. Go figure.

I'm not complaining I am thankful that his heart attacks were not very damaging and this is something he/we can live with.

So if you can't sew the next best thing is quilt shops. I have printed out a map of Council Bluffs with all the quilt shops on it so I am hoping to take the big truck and go exploring while Mike is working. There is a few I am very interested in checking out. Will see.

Winter Storms coming again you would never know it is April 3rd hopefully we will get home on Sunday without to much slipping and sliding.

First of all I go to type and always change the font color and the option is gone. So I went out of Mozilla FireFox which I use for getting on the Internet to Explorer. I had no luck there either so I guess I now type in black. I guess if this is the worse thing that happens to me today life is good.

I got all done sizing up my 4-1/2" blocks. I try to do this all on all my quilts I make but sometimes I try to sneak by without doing it. It is right up there with hand sewing. I got the idea of the pinwheel layout from Moda Bake Shop. I love that website. I am just deciding now if I want the 4 pinwheels to be in the same like colors of if I want to mix it up. The quilt is going to be a lot bigger than this quilt shown and I do have enough fabrics to do either way. I will have to spend my day at work figuring out what I am going to do. They will never know I am thinking about this passion of mine or would it be considered a obsession?

Ok so I finished this post and checked it out and it posted in Green. I am so confused.

I have decided that the quilt top that I have been trying to do for my sister-in-law is just not going to happen. It is put away for another time or another quilt. I have decided to make her a pinwheel quilt. I had these Moda Charm packs and these colors are going to look great in her house. Her birthday is May 24th so I have time. I am going to enjoy making this one. I have 124 of these square now put together and just need to put the pinwheels together.

I finished the top for Raychel's quilt. This one was fun and quick to do. My camera does not do this quilt top justice. I wish I had a better camera.

I know I should be grateful but I really wish I was still laid off. It is tough to only have those few hours of sewing time in the evening. The weekends come and go way to fast.

Just needed to share.

So I made it through my first week of work, yes it was only 3 days but it was a long stressful 3 days. I have been sewing the binding on one of my quilts that I want to give to someone. Tomorrow we have a birthday party to go to in the evening and then on Sunday I can spend the day sewing and getting laundry done.

Has anyone purchased any fabric from www.keepsakequilting.com? They have scrap bags you can buy and wondering if anyone has bought from them what the quality has been.

Well here it is Wednesday morning and it is 6:30 am and I am awake because for the first time in a long time my alarm went off. My days of doing only what I want have come to a end. I thought I was laid off until April 8th and I found out last Thursday that was not so true. The truth is I DON'T WANT TO WORK. At least not where I work. I love my job. The Mom of the family owned business I work for is starting to have some form of dementia and she is paranoid and has gotten so mean. It is hard to work when you don't know when you are going to be verbally attached or who is the next victim.

What is so sad I have quilts that need to be made.

Please don't get me wrong I am thankful for having a job we would not survive much longer financially.

The are some green fabrics I picked up today. I will do something with them, thinking the hour glass block. It is nice to buy such nice spring like colors when we are suppose to be getting between 6" and 12" of snow tomorrow. The more we get the less chance of returning to work on Wednesday. My days of temporary layoff has come to an end.

I purchased this fabric a few weeks back and I knew I wanted to do something with it for Raychel. I know I have seen quilts that the blocks are just squares that are framed in with another fabric. I want to do something that is not going to take a lot of time. Any suggestions.

So this is the block that I am working on for my sister in laws birthday (I know I have shown it before). It is a 8" block. Each block has 8 - 4 patch squares that measure 2". For the size quilt I want to do I will need 576 - 4 patch squares. I had not clue I would need that many for this quilt. I am struggling to find enough scraps to make this 4 patch squares. I have 200 made right now. I will have to go digging deeper to find 1-1/2" strips to make another 376 of these.
WHAT WAS I THINKING?

I decided after going to the fabric store that I love green. So yes I changed my blog layout this morning but I truly love this green much better.

My blog friend, Christina, has promised me that next month she is going to host a "Orange Week". I am so excited. These orange fabrics are a lot brighter than the shown here. I went to the fabric store and while there picking out my oranges I came across all these beautiful bright greens and was struggling to not buy the greens. The greens would make the hour glass quilt that Christina makes.

So if you are interested in joining the orange week keep an eye out on Christina's blog.

I think my blog is a lot like I quilt. I like to change my blog background often because I get bored with the same old thing. This is also how I quilt. I know there are people that do the same pattern over and over and there is nothing wrong with that. I just get bored and have to do a different type of quilt each time. I know I don't have an attention problem but with that statement you would think.

So I thought I had a month to go before returning to work but got the call yesterday that I am returning next Wednesday. They wanted me to return on Monday but I already have plans. I don't want to go back to work, I love being home. I had a feeling that this was going to get to comfortable being unemployed. How Sad!

These are pictures of the front and back of a pillow case I made for my adopted grandson, Jaxson, who is 2 and loves guitars. Every time they come to visit he is always pulling out Mike's guitar magazines and wanting to play Grandpa Mike's guitars. Well we brought it over to him yesterday and all he could say was WOW. He loved it. I usually don't make pillow cases but he is not big on blankets so this worked perfect. This fabric is from 2 shirts that were given to Mike from his sister so I did a little recycling.

You have to go check out Vanessa's wonderful Moda Jelly Roll give away. I would love to win this one.

I am so hoping to find time to sew today. Since being home I have had to spend time with the girls and of course not at the same time. We have to go to Jessica's for dinner tonight so I have most of the day. I know just what I am going to work on. I will post pictures later.

We left Apache Junction AZ on Monday morning and drove to Albuquerque NW. Tuesday we drove to Oklahoma City Ok and then on Wednesday we drove to Nashville TN. Thursday we drove to Winchester VA and today we delivered Jean's car to her about 50 miles outside of Harrisburg PA. We are now in a hotel in Columbus OH and will be home (Minneapolis) tomorrow night. It has been so much fun but will be good to be home to see our kids and sleep in our own bed.

Jean is selling her home in PA and will be living in AZ year around. She is big into crocheting. She taught me how to crochet oval rugs, they are beautiful. Well when we got to her house she gave me 6 plastic garbage bags full of yarn. Mike is not able to see out the back windows. When we got to the hotel and opened up the back hatch yarn started falling out. We laughed so hard. Mike said someone is going to see us and think we are homeless with all the plastic garbage bags. He just cracks me up. We also celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary on Wednesday seeing the country. Would have been more fun if we had been in the same car.

Can't wait to get home and spend a little quality time in my sewing room. I have projects to work on.

Well we made it to our friends in Phoenix last Tuesday and had a wonderful time. Our friends neighbor is from Pennsylvania and has a home there and a home in Phoenix. She was leaving this Wednesday to drive back to Pennsylvania to sell her home there. She got a call yesterday morning that her son was in the hospital and not doing well. She was trying to figure out a way to fly home and get her car back to Pennsylvania also. Well long story short Mike and I left Phoenix this morning, Mike in our car and I in Jean's car. We are traveling across country to the east coast, dropping her car with her and then home to Minnesota. Talk about a road trip. The only issue I have with this whole thing is no sewing.

Hope everyone is doing well. I am getting some time to get caught up with all my favorite blogs.

The temp here in Minneapolis is 4 degrees and we are leaving in 2 hours for our road trip. Our 1st stop is Wichita KS and the temp there right now is 21 degrees. Tomorrow morning morning we will be off to Santa Fe NM and the temp there right now is 25 degrees. Tuesday Morning we will be on our way to Phoenix and the temp there right now is 46 degrees. We are hoping for some warm weather. We are so excited. I will be taking pictures of our trip.

Finished 2 quilts yesterday so I can bring them with to sew the binding on. I actually find I enjoy hand sewing it passes the time and what is nice to step away from the sewing machine and just sew. The other plus to hand sewing is I can still work on my quilts being so far from my sewing machine.

Till Later

I have the sampler all pieced together I just need to get the store to buy the batting. I am going to just do some real simple machine quilting on it, I don't want to make it any more busy than it is. I will probably just stitch in the ditch. I also need to get the one I worked on at Pat's on the frame and get that one quilted.

The other night I met Pat, my sister in law, half way. We met at this wonderful quilt shop and then dinner. For the first time in my life I walked out of a store that had fabric in it with empty hands. I was so shocked. I guess for the first time I thought about all the fabric I already have and nothing really jumped out at me. The fat quarters were $2.99 each and I find this so not a good deal. I have bought fat quarters at quilt shows just because they are always such a great deal at those shows.

The reason I want to get the 2 quilts done is Mike and I have decided that we are doing a road trip. On Feb. 16th we are leaving Minneapolis and driving to a friends in Santa Fe New Mexico. We will stay with him for one night and then we will go onto Phoenix. My best friend moved there 1-1/2 years ago and even thou it has gotten easier to not have her right here I still miss her so much. We were going to drive our car which is a 2004 Honda Civic my boss thought it would be better for us to rent a car so he did that for us. I had gotten laid off on December 15th and he thought I should have gotten paid for Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Years day. I work for a family owned company and he is my boss and then above him is the hateful Mom. So he paid for our car rental. This will be so nice to not have to worry about the car breaking down, not like we thought it would but you never know. We will start heading back home on Feb. 23rd. So I am going to will be having plenty of time to hand sew the binding so I want to get these 2 quilts done.

Till later

This is a new Thimbleberries BOM quilt. I want to do this quilt. Each BOM pattern (alone) is $5 a little more than what I want to spend and then to purchase the fabric. I am going to have to check it out at one of the stores maybe it won't be as expensive. I really think this is going to be my next project.

So here is the wall hanging I have been rambling about. Laid it out so I would have an idea which one to go where. I need to add the sashing and the cornerstones and then the border. Unfortunately there is one block I would like to replace and that would be the 4th row down and the middle one. It is not as light in person and is it is the picture so I hope it works. Looks pink in the picture but it is maroon mixed with white. This was a lot of work, more than I thought it would be but it was fun.

It is a good day. Mike is at work all day, Raychel is with Jessica for the weekend. I just did 20 minutes on the treadmill, I know that's not that long but I had to start somewhere. I will do 20 everyday for the next week and then I will bump it to 30 minutes. If I do this everyday i should start seeing some results.

Today I am going to put all my blocks together for my sampler and then I am going to start back on my sister in laws quilt. Her birthday is in May and I don't want to rush at the end.

Till Later
Cathy

I absolutely love being laid off. My laundry is done my kitchen is staying clean and I can sit in my sewing room for hours. I have 2 blocks left to do on my sampler wall hanging but realized on one of the blocks I have lost 3 - 3-1/2" squares. I had read a couple of weeks ago that this woman after cutting out all her pieces for a quilt she puts everything in Ziploc baggies and I thought "what a great idea". I wish I had followed her great idea. I now have to go to the store and buy and 1/8th of a yd of this missing fabric. Ughhhhhhh. I guess if that is the worse thing that happens to me today I am doing just fine.

Jess and the kids came over yesterday for dinner and to watch American Idol. Mike hates American Idol so he watched tv in our bedroom. Taylor who is 10 yrs old made a comment about the wall hanging I made hanging in my living room. I guess people are not use to seeing something like that hanging up. I looked at it more like a piece of art. They say out of the mouths of a babe, wonder if that is what adults think also. Wonder what she is going to say when I hang my sampler wall hanging in my entry way. I have a very long thin wall that is over the stairs going downstairs and thought it would look great. I guess I am going to have to be careful that I don't hang to many. I don't think i will make anymore thou because there is nothing like a quilt to cover up with.

So today I start walking the treadmill. This is something I have to do to lose weight and to improve my health. I have learned that I am not going to lose weight with diet alone. People say how they lost a ton of weight going through a stressful situation, well it that was me I would be a stick. I keep thinking with everything Raychel has gone through to be thin I should not even care, but I do. I am not comfortable being heavy and have to do something about this. I am going to have to step away from my sewing table for 30 minutes every day and just walk. Need to figure out a way to bring my sewing to the treadmill.

Till later

This quilt was one of my first quilts I pieced back about 4 years ago. I finally put it on the quilt frame and just did a meander on it. I am not so much into the dark colors anymore but it will still look nice in my living room, this one is mine. The binding needs to be hand sewn down so that will take me sometime.

I have to say I am thoroughly enjoying my unemployment but I have to remember this will end come April 1st. I can't be getting to use to this. At some point I have to work on my list of things I pledged to get done.

Raychel dropped down to 79 pounds and her spirit fell right with it. Please keep her in your thoughts.

Raychel is coming back today. We took her home on Monday and she realized yesterday that she should probably not be alone. Raychel is really becoming the artist, she has been practicing with pencil drawing flowers and then using colored pencils to shadow them in. Well she does not want to get bored with it so we are trying to think of some crafts she can do. She does not sew and is not interested in it. Being so malnourished and have more frequent seizures lately her thought process has a hard time processing things so it needs to be something easy.

Any suggestions?

So I was not as productive as I wanted to be this past weekend but that's ok I love just being with my husband and kids and we were together for the whole weekend.

Not much for sewing but I did squeeze in some here and there. I did start machine quilting the very first quilt had done over 4 years ago. I was so excited to get it pieced and then was so excited to move onto the next one. All the others (except the wall hanging) have been gifts so I needed to get them quilted right away. This one is for me so I now am excited to finish. I also got another block done and decided to post pictures of the ones finished. I know the pictures are small but the blocks right now are 12-1/2" so they will be nice size. It will be more fun to post the entire sampler quilt put together.