Mike and I are suppose to be leaving in 40 minutes for our 5 week vacation but guess who is still in bed? We really wanted to be on the road by 6am because I think it is almost a 10hr ride from Minneapolis to our 1st stop Wichita KS. We will be heading to Phoenix for a week and then off to Vegas for 3 days then Santa Monica for 3 days and then Pomona Ca for 1 week and then back to Phoenix for our last week of vacation.

My goal will be to try and find a quilt shop in every town that we stay in and am hoping that Mike will cooperate. I will not be doing any sewing for the whole 5 weeks but when we come home that Thursday my sister in law is coming to sew with me on that Friday for 2 days. She is anxious to try out the new long arm which I can't imagine life without it. This is why in the past years I have never wanted to try one at quilt shows because I knew at that point I would absolutely hate the setup I had.

I will try and post a few pictures now and then, would hate to bore others.

Till Later

My Mom's bed

My Mom is 83 years old and still works. She worked at the local hospital from 1966 till 2 years ago on the I.V. Team. She now works at Costco serving samples and she loves it. She is not one to sit home day after day. My Mom has always put everyone first no matter what. If she knew someone was going hungry she would feed them first before feeding herself. I truly believe that my Mom is one of the kindest woman I know. I found out recently that she has never had a new bed and the bed she does have she has been putting down blankets and foam to cover the springs coming through. My brothers and I put money together and got her a gift certificate to a local furniture store and to buy herself a new bed. She wanted to wait until spring so that the store would not have to deliver in the cold and snow. We told her that she does not need to worry about this since this is what they do for a job. I decided that this new bed was going to need a new quilt and blue being her favorite color I thought i would do something with half square triangles. After browsing around the blogs I follow for some kind of idea or inspiration I found this quilt made by Red Pepper Quilts which I love her work and the colors she uses. I think this quilt will look great in blues. I have started sewing them together and hopefully I can get it done soon and get it to her before I leave for 5 weeks.

Our friends Gene and Dawn are coming up from Ft Dodge IA today to spend the weekend with us. I am so excited to see them. In the summer of 2008 they were in a really bad motorcycle accident, nothing life threatening, but a bad one. Dawn broke both wrist and is still doing physical therapy. She also is battling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from this accident. I wanted to make her something that she could take home with her that she could wrap herself up in when things are just really tough. I had 4 different charm packs and a lot of white fabric and made this. I was surprised how quickly I was able to get this made and quilted. This morning I have to get the binding hand sewn and that will be my down fall of getting it done before they get here. I'm thinking I am going to have to come up with and excuse why I am having to work on it while they are here.

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