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.

Mike's home. When he saw the cardiologist on Wednesday she told him to stop wearing the nitroglycerin patch and so yesterday he had an episode that lasted about 50 minutes. They are thinking because he was not wearing his patch anymore the heart must have had a contraction and then when he took the nitroglycerin it calmed down. He will now be wearing the patch from this point on.

I brought Raychel home with me this afternoon, she lost 2 more pounds which puts her at 86. We are hoping the tube feedings kick in soon.

Was able to get another block done and I will post tomorrow pictures of the ones that are done. This last one was not any easy one to do it had a lot of very small squares.

My plans for this weekend were to have friends over tomorrow night that we have not gotten together with for more than 4 years and due to an issue. And then i wanted to sew. Raychel was going to come over tomorrow to also see Pegeen and Roger. If you have noticed I have been using the "was and were" words. This is because Mike is back in the hospital. We don't know if the stint they put in on January 2nd filled up again or what is happening. He was having all the heart attack symptoms again but they went away after 50 minutes. I am so hoping that this is nothing.

As far as my sampler wall hanging I have 6 of the 15 blocks done. It is going to look so nice, I can't wait.

I have been Tagged

My friend, Amy, has tagged me. I guess the rules are go to your 4th folder of pictures and pick the 4th picture. Well this is mine. When my Dad passed away we put together a group of pictures for the funeral that were shown one after another on a overhead screen. This is my Dad and my two neices. My Mom and Dad never missed my nephews softball games. What is funny about this picture is my Mom and Dad had never been to a bar or had never drank, so on this very hot day my Dad walked down to this bar and bought that hat. I guess if you had to know my Dad to understand why this was funny. I guess that was the hat that my Dad wore everytime he would go to a game. My Mom put that hat in the casket with my Dad.

I am now suppose to tag 4 people and this is who I choose:

Christina
Jean
John
Megan

Well I am up and trying to get ready to Take Mike in to get his wisdom tooth pulled. Very difficult when it is 35 below zero outside. I really don't want to go start the car. Mike can't do it since having his heart attach. The cardiologist told us yesterday that this cold weather is very hard on people who have had heart attach's. Bummer for me.

I will be coming home and going no where, this is a perfect day to just stay home.

Amy, a good friend that I have made thru blog land has given me a nice comment on her blog. It is this:

zoom out send to mobile copy to my album buy prints add comment print at Target photo prints photobooks posters mugs stickers photo disks and more …

• full size
• send to mobile
• copy to my album
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print at Target photo prints photobooks posters mugs stickers photo disks and more …

100%

I never thought I would meet good friends like this while writing about my love for quilting and all the other little things in my life that effect me. Amy is a very kind, kind woman and she really does inspire me to push myself when it comes to sewing and in other parts of my life.

I guess what I am to do now is list 5 addictions:
1: Sewing - mainly quilts I did my time of sewing cloths when my kids were little and that is what I could afford.

2: Fabric - Since I was little I would love to go to fabric stores and just feel the fabric. My Mom is a fabric junkie so I know where I got it.

3: Grandkids - I am a adopted Grandma and love those kids so much. Raychel will never be able to have children and not sure what Justin's plans are so they are my grandkids. Never new being a Grandma could feel so wonderful.

4: Blog - I love going on line and reading everyone's blogs. It has been so fun to read about others life expereinces and learning from everyone's quilting. I also just have learned that you can have friends that are not physically with you.

5: Family - I love my family, my husband and my kids. I would do anything I could possibly pull off for them. Not everything is possible but I sure will try to make it happen.

When I was trying to figure out what my addictions were I thought it was going to be a difficult one to do because the word "addiction" has always had a bad meaning to me but as I name my "addictions" the word had such a good feeling about it.

The 5 blogs that I truely love reading are as follows:
Amy - she is getting it back, I have said it before and will say it again she inspires me to push myself.
Christina - I love reading her blogs she truly loves to craft of all kinds. She makes things look so easy. She also loves to gab as much as I do. One could really learn a lot from her.
Megan - I love reading Megans blog. You never know what you are going to get with her. She does really nice quilting for a newby.
Jean - Jean is a true teacher and I know when I read her blog I will learn something and if I have questions I know I can email her and she will tell me how to do it or what I am doing wrong.
John - I have said it before I wish my husband sewed like John or had his ability to choose colors like John can. But if that happened I would have to share my fabric and my sewing room and I'm not sure I am ready for that.

It is hard to choose 5 because there are others I like to read when I can. This has become a true addiction.

I talked a while back about the software I purchased call "Perfect Quilt Express" I really am enjoying designing my own quilts. I wanted to do a sampler quilt that I could hang in my entryway and this is what I have come up with. I finally printed all my pattern for each 12" block and last night I finally got done cutting out the last little piece. Never realized how much work it would be to cut out for 12 different blocks. I know it does not sound that much but I was surprised. It is hard to know how much fabric to buy also. I know, I know I was not going to buy any fabric but I did and promise to not buy any more unless I need fabric for backing which I don't have in my stash. I am more a quilter who figures out a pattern that I want to do and in the past would go out and buy all the fabric for it. I probably have a 15 of these kits together which is plenty to get me thru this year and into next year.

Till Later

I am back on unemployment, yeaaaaaa! I know that most people are put into stress mode when this happens but if you worked for the family I work for, unemployment comes at a blessing. This family knows no boundaries. I will now be able to sew and chip away at my list of "what have you been waiting for" chores and all those wonderful quilt projects.

Raychel is coming over today to spend a few days with Mike and I. She sent me a text last night that she weighed in at 90lbs . My heart came out of my chest and someone walked by and stepped on it. I guess I have gone into denial mode here and keep thinking that she is going to wake up and feel better. I don't understand why things like this happen and why to my daughter. I know that sounds selfish but that is how I feel honestly. Faith of any sort just does not seem to be doing the trick with my attitude right now.

I have talked about how I want to buy a digital camera so I can talk pictures of my quilts without having to wait for others to share their camera with me. I have been looking around and my boss was saying to make sure I get one with no less the 8 pixels. Does that sound right? He has a camera that is amazing and sounds like he spent over a $1200 on it. Unemployment is pushing me into making making sure that this is a purchase I really want to make. I got $100 from my boss for Christmas (plus a pair of crocks for wearing when I am at my quilt frame) and then the other day I got an envelope in the mail that had $100 in it without no name. A very nice surprise in the mail. Can't say that happens often. I am sure that it was my oldest brother, he does things like that for my Mom and he knows that Mike and I are in a financial place we have not been in before. Anyway back to the camera. I can take some of this money and buy a camera or I can save it to fix our motor home that we cracked a cylinder head on and need to get that fixed. Mike and a mechanic from my work are going to fix it together but we need money for parts and to pay the mechanic for helping out. I guess I could always use Raychel's camera she is always happy to share.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and I will post pictures tomorrow what I have worked on (with Raychel's camera).

Till Later

Ok, so when my kids were very small I was a stay at home Mom until Raychel was 5 and Justin was 1. At that point I decided it was time to go to college and I did. Mike watched the kids during the day and was a full time musician at night. I did this for almost 4 years and then got a job right away and have worked since. For the first time I was laid off on December 15th and had all these grand plans of never leaving my sewing room. It has not happened and I don't understand? I have been so busy and with the holidays and just every day life things. When did I have time to do all this and work? Well this week I have gone into the office to work with our auditors, I am the accountant and it would be hard to do our audit without me. Any ways I am so excited to have this week come to an end so I can get back to trying to do just what I want, SEW!

talk to you later.

I have joined a quilting bee this should be fun. What a great way to learn from others.

I have decided to join a quilt challenge check it out here I have always thought something like this was going to be fun. It is going to be fun to see how others quilts will all turn out.

I really believe that I am being tested to see how much one can be dealt. Mike had the heart attach back on December 12th and had the stint put in and then yesterday he had another one. We are waiting to find out what they are going to do. It was a very, very mild one but as far as I am concerned a heart attach is a heart attach whether it is mild or severe. Don't get me wrong I am thankful that it was mild.

Raychel has been pushing baby formula thru her feeding tube and that is going better than the predigested stuff.

I will stay positive and know that everything happens for a reason. I believe that this new year is going to bring my family new beginnings. Mike's heart attach is going to force he and I to start eating right and exercising. As horrible as that might sound it will be good. Raychel will get stronger and stronger, I know this in my heart. She is such a strong woman and this is her year to get better.

This will be my year to spend more time sewing and getting my house in order. Since being laid off and not having to return to work until March 30 this is my opportunity to get done all the things that have been pushed to the side since Raychel getting sick. I will also be spending time on getting healthy myself, physically and mentally.

Till Later