It's a wonderful place here. After living a little over 50 miles from the nearest quilt shop for 7 years, I'm now within 10 minutes of two and 20 minutes to a third one. We also have a Hobby Lobby and a very nice Hancock Fabrics. I love it. I don't have to worry about being able to get a new blade for my rotary cutter or needles for my sewing machine or fabrics for that special project. I can go when I want to. It doesn't have to be a special trip planned in advance. I really am glad we moved here.
It's taking longer that I had hoped to get things unpacked and sorted out but that will come with time. After all, we are both senior citizens. I hit a new decade back in November. No longer am I one of the 60 somethings, I'm now in the 70's. I'm just thankful that I'm in pretty good health for my age. I'm trying to do something about my weight too. Need to get some of it off if I want to stay healthy.
I'm going to spend most of tomorrow in the sewing room working on the Attic Windows project for the Red Rooster retreat in about 3 weeks. I love the technique but the directions for the quilts shown are sadly lacking, as in nonexistent. So, I've got to get it all written up. A few of the ladies could take it and go with it but most of them need a great deal of hand holding along the way and very clear directions. I've got my work cut out for me for the next couple of days.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
BOM quilt block
This is the block we did last month. The original in the shop is finished by hand with a blanket stitch. A couple of us are doing it by machine. I still need to do the curly vine that connects the stars. Haven't decided what color I want to do the vine. The entire quilt is in these colors with a pumpkin in each block and trimmed or embelished for each month. As you can guess, this one is for July. I'm not sure which block we're doing tomorrow but I'll post a photo when I get it finished.
Weather Roller Coaster
The weather this winter has been just like a roller coaster and the past few days haven't been any different. Yesterday it was 73 degrees, cloudy, showers, and a tornado warning. Fortunately for us, it stayed in the sky and didn't touch down. Others weren't as fortunate. Today it only made it to 38 but was bright and sunny. Wonder what the weekend will bring?
I've spent most of the afternoon in the sewing room making sample blocks for the project I'm going to be teaching for a group of friends in a few weeks. We get together twice a year at a wonderful retreat center in Alabama. I hope to have a wallhanging or lap size quilt top made over the weekend so I can send them a photo with their supply list next week. I'll post a photo here too.
Tomorrow morning I have to go to a class I'm taking at a local quilt shop. It's a really nice BOM. I don't normally get excited about BOM quilts but this one just spoke to me and it's not even in the colors I usually work in. I'll see if I can remember how to post photos and get one in here of the block tomorrow.
I've spent most of the afternoon in the sewing room making sample blocks for the project I'm going to be teaching for a group of friends in a few weeks. We get together twice a year at a wonderful retreat center in Alabama. I hope to have a wallhanging or lap size quilt top made over the weekend so I can send them a photo with their supply list next week. I'll post a photo here too.
Tomorrow morning I have to go to a class I'm taking at a local quilt shop. It's a really nice BOM. I don't normally get excited about BOM quilts but this one just spoke to me and it's not even in the colors I usually work in. I'll see if I can remember how to post photos and get one in here of the block tomorrow.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Starting over
It's time to start over on blogging. I do enjoy reading other people's blogs so it's only fair that I have a blog. I've been absent from this one since last June and lots has happened during that time interval.
During the summer months we concentrated on the landscaping in front of our house so that it would have "curb appeal" to potential buyers. It had been on the market for almost a year with only minimal interest. The biggest problem was that it was a large house on seven acres so that it was out of the financial reach of over 90 per cent of the adults in our county. That meant that it would have to be someone from out of the county. We kept making improvements on the house as we had to live there during that time. We added a new storm door, a screen door, a new water heater, and new laminate flooring. All things that really needed to be done whether we sold it or not.
In August we went to Missouri. While I was at a quilt retreat, Howard was visiting his neice and her family about 90 miles away. Unfortunately, the trip was cut short as he got a call that his uncle in NC had passed away. He picked me up on Saturday morning and off we went. We made a quick stop at home to unpack the car, repack the car, grab a couple of hours sleep and get back on the road. Home was almost exactly in the middle between the two locations and they were both about a 12 hour drive. We made it to Raleigh in time to clean up for the visitation at the funeral home. It was bittersweet. While it was a sad time, it was also good to see old friends from high school that he hadn't seen in over 20 or more years. We came home on Wednesday and both spent most of the next three days in bed sick with some kind of respiratory virus.
September we had a couple of good nibbles on the house but no offers so we were considering taking the house off the market in November so we could relax over the holidays and then putting it back on the market in the spring. Oh well, life is what happens while you are making other plans. The first week of October, we got a contract on the house and we had to start looking for a new house, fast. In five weeks, we accepted the contract, looked for a house, signed a contract on a new house, started moving things into a large storage unit in the new town, closed on both houses and moved on November 15. What a whirlwind. But, everything went pretty smoothly considering how fast it went. We were totally unprepared to move but we did it in a real hurry.
We love our new, smaller house, especially the smaller utility bills. One of these days we may have all of the boxes unpacked and things sorted out. But, downsizing is hard to do when you are going from 3,000 sq ft, a 40 x 80 ft barn, and two storage sheds, 16 x 32 and 12 x 16. Didn't have time to sort as we packed so we are having to do that now and it's taking time.
Also happening during all of this was Howard's nephew being hospitalized for drug abuse. He was found unconscious at least 3 times between June and the first of November. We thought he had been admitted to a program that would help him but we were wrong. On the last day of November, he overdosed for the last time. At the age of 36, he took too much and his heart stopped for good. He was such a talented young man but was so troubled with demons that no one knew about until it was too late for him. So, an unplanned trip to Florida interrupted the unpacking.
On a happier note, we went back to Missouri for Christmas and spent it with Howard's neice and her family. We had a great time. We took our two dogs, Jack and Daphne, with us. They were so well behaved and got along very well with their dogs. But, like August, we both came home sick with a repeat of the several days in bed with a respiratory virus.
Here it is, the middle of February and I wonder at how fast the time has gone. Howard has completely retired and has taken over the kitchen. As I've been cooking since I was in 7th grade, I'm not complaining at all. I have my sewing room in the bonus room over the garage. I have a real problem calling it a "studio". That just seems so pretensious to me when I'm not an art quilter. I make quilts for beds and occasionaly for a wall or table. I like to spend time there. I'm slowly getting it organized. I do miss all of the built in cabinets and book shelves I had in the old house, but I'm getting there. I have decided that I'm going to shop from my stash first when I want to make a quilt. Of course, I'm not going to ignore my LQS. After living 50 or more miles from the closest quit shop, it's heaven to have three here in town. The closest is only 5 miles away and is great. I'm going to try to finish up several of those UFO's living in those large Rubbermaid tubs and use up those scraps to make quilts for charity. There is so much need in the world right now with all of the disasters and making quilts is my way of helping someone who has lost everything.
I'm going to try to post photos of my progress with turning those UFO's into Finished Objects. I have several ideas of designs I want to try and new techniques I want to learn. I may have turned 70 last November, but the flame of learning is still burning bright. I want to learn something new everyday.
I will be away for the next two days as I have to make a trip to see a long time friend who is also my accountant and have my taxes done. While there, I will visit one of my children and several grandchildren and spend the night with a longtime quilting friend. I will try to post to this blog on a more regular basis, whether or not anyone else reads it but me.
During the summer months we concentrated on the landscaping in front of our house so that it would have "curb appeal" to potential buyers. It had been on the market for almost a year with only minimal interest. The biggest problem was that it was a large house on seven acres so that it was out of the financial reach of over 90 per cent of the adults in our county. That meant that it would have to be someone from out of the county. We kept making improvements on the house as we had to live there during that time. We added a new storm door, a screen door, a new water heater, and new laminate flooring. All things that really needed to be done whether we sold it or not.
In August we went to Missouri. While I was at a quilt retreat, Howard was visiting his neice and her family about 90 miles away. Unfortunately, the trip was cut short as he got a call that his uncle in NC had passed away. He picked me up on Saturday morning and off we went. We made a quick stop at home to unpack the car, repack the car, grab a couple of hours sleep and get back on the road. Home was almost exactly in the middle between the two locations and they were both about a 12 hour drive. We made it to Raleigh in time to clean up for the visitation at the funeral home. It was bittersweet. While it was a sad time, it was also good to see old friends from high school that he hadn't seen in over 20 or more years. We came home on Wednesday and both spent most of the next three days in bed sick with some kind of respiratory virus.
September we had a couple of good nibbles on the house but no offers so we were considering taking the house off the market in November so we could relax over the holidays and then putting it back on the market in the spring. Oh well, life is what happens while you are making other plans. The first week of October, we got a contract on the house and we had to start looking for a new house, fast. In five weeks, we accepted the contract, looked for a house, signed a contract on a new house, started moving things into a large storage unit in the new town, closed on both houses and moved on November 15. What a whirlwind. But, everything went pretty smoothly considering how fast it went. We were totally unprepared to move but we did it in a real hurry.
We love our new, smaller house, especially the smaller utility bills. One of these days we may have all of the boxes unpacked and things sorted out. But, downsizing is hard to do when you are going from 3,000 sq ft, a 40 x 80 ft barn, and two storage sheds, 16 x 32 and 12 x 16. Didn't have time to sort as we packed so we are having to do that now and it's taking time.
Also happening during all of this was Howard's nephew being hospitalized for drug abuse. He was found unconscious at least 3 times between June and the first of November. We thought he had been admitted to a program that would help him but we were wrong. On the last day of November, he overdosed for the last time. At the age of 36, he took too much and his heart stopped for good. He was such a talented young man but was so troubled with demons that no one knew about until it was too late for him. So, an unplanned trip to Florida interrupted the unpacking.
On a happier note, we went back to Missouri for Christmas and spent it with Howard's neice and her family. We had a great time. We took our two dogs, Jack and Daphne, with us. They were so well behaved and got along very well with their dogs. But, like August, we both came home sick with a repeat of the several days in bed with a respiratory virus.
Here it is, the middle of February and I wonder at how fast the time has gone. Howard has completely retired and has taken over the kitchen. As I've been cooking since I was in 7th grade, I'm not complaining at all. I have my sewing room in the bonus room over the garage. I have a real problem calling it a "studio". That just seems so pretensious to me when I'm not an art quilter. I make quilts for beds and occasionaly for a wall or table. I like to spend time there. I'm slowly getting it organized. I do miss all of the built in cabinets and book shelves I had in the old house, but I'm getting there. I have decided that I'm going to shop from my stash first when I want to make a quilt. Of course, I'm not going to ignore my LQS. After living 50 or more miles from the closest quit shop, it's heaven to have three here in town. The closest is only 5 miles away and is great. I'm going to try to finish up several of those UFO's living in those large Rubbermaid tubs and use up those scraps to make quilts for charity. There is so much need in the world right now with all of the disasters and making quilts is my way of helping someone who has lost everything.
I'm going to try to post photos of my progress with turning those UFO's into Finished Objects. I have several ideas of designs I want to try and new techniques I want to learn. I may have turned 70 last November, but the flame of learning is still burning bright. I want to learn something new everyday.
I will be away for the next two days as I have to make a trip to see a long time friend who is also my accountant and have my taxes done. While there, I will visit one of my children and several grandchildren and spend the night with a longtime quilting friend. I will try to post to this blog on a more regular basis, whether or not anyone else reads it but me.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Too many motorcycles
Last Thursday when I took my aunt out to lunch, we couldn't get near our usual place in the small town of Cumberland Gap, TN for all of the motorcycles there. This week was the "Honda Hoot" in Knoxville and Thursday was the group ride to Cumberland Gap and they had lunch there. You can't see much in these photos as we weren't allowed on the main street and had to detour around them. I took one picture fron the end of the street and the other from across the small park in the center of town. The town is tiny. The main street is only a few blocks long but it is pretty. The businesses there are mainly antique shops now and a wonderful restaurant, Webb's Country Kitchen. We had to go somewhere else but still had a good time spending the afternoon together.
Today we went to Lowe's and spent quite some time just looking. Since we are pretty sure that we are going to go with new construction, we decided to look at what's available in refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers, dishwashers, ceiling fans, and such. I was amazed at the big price difference between the basic models and the top of the line with all of the bells and whistles. You sure could get carried away if you weren't careful. I don't want the absolute bottom model but I also don't want the top of the line either. I'm going to wait and see what the builder installs and then decide if I want to upgrade. But, all of that is assuming that we are going to have a house built and we aren't at that point yet. Guess you could call this, being prepared.
Howard and I are both big fans of all type of auto racing, including drag racing. He and my son have both been involved in racing at one time earlier in their lives. We were just heartbroken at the news today of the death of Scott Kaletta in the explosion and crash of his dragster. My heart and prayers go out to his family.
Today we went to Lowe's and spent quite some time just looking. Since we are pretty sure that we are going to go with new construction, we decided to look at what's available in refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers, dishwashers, ceiling fans, and such. I was amazed at the big price difference between the basic models and the top of the line with all of the bells and whistles. You sure could get carried away if you weren't careful. I don't want the absolute bottom model but I also don't want the top of the line either. I'm going to wait and see what the builder installs and then decide if I want to upgrade. But, all of that is assuming that we are going to have a house built and we aren't at that point yet. Guess you could call this, being prepared.
Howard and I are both big fans of all type of auto racing, including drag racing. He and my son have both been involved in racing at one time earlier in their lives. We were just heartbroken at the news today of the death of Scott Kaletta in the explosion and crash of his dragster. My heart and prayers go out to his family.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Contract on the house
We did it. This afternoon we signed the paperwork accepting an offer on our house. But, it's still not final. They have to sell their house first. Oh well, most of the country is in that position now so I understand that as we are too. Their house was listed a little over two weeks ago and they are already getting calls about it. It's a nice two story house in a very nice neighborhood and school district so it shouldn't take it too long to sell as that area of Knoxville has started picking up in real estate sales. Friday we are going to be looking at houses in the Mt. Juliet and Lebanon, TN area, east of Nashville. The agent there sent us an email with the listings of over a dozen houses that met the criteria we gave her. We are looking for a few specific things; a fire place, great kitchen for Howard, a sewing room for me, and a moderate size yard that is fenced for the dogs. So far we have seen two that we really like and another three that have possibilities. But, photos can be deceiving so have to see them in person. I'm going to make up a check list sheet for each house and have fresh batteries in my camera so we won't get confused about which features were in which house.
I did get a quilt block made. It's a 12 inch, Star in a Star block and is another of the lottery blocks for a retreat in August. The requirements were any star, 12 inch finished, wow or woc background and jewel tones, no batiks. I think I managed to meet all of them. This is probably my favorite star block pattern. I've used it frequently in quilts, especially for kids by substituting a novelty print for the star in the center. Makes a nice quilt.
Better go. I need to really get started on clearing out, sorting, and packing my "stuff", especially the sewing room. I'm excited about moving closer to family, but not about the packing and actual moving process. I'm getting too old for this. 
Friday, June 6, 2008
Step 5 finished
I did it. I finished Step 5 of the Orange Crush Mystery yesterday and took a couple of photos to post here. Since I'm using lime green in place of the orange in the mystery sample quilt, I may have to change the name of mine. I also used pink in the center of the blocks instead of the indigo blue Bonnie used. I'm making this entirely from my stash. I decided that if it were to be a true scrap quilt, I had to use what I already had. So, that's what I've done so far. I may have to buy a batting but I think I have fabric for the back already, stored in one of the many boxes of fabric that I have.
The top block is of the whole block and the bottom photo is of the half blocks and corner blocks. From those, I'm guessing that the body of the quilt is going to be set on point. Will have to wait and see. I got carried away when I was making the unit in the corners of this block. Bonnie called them a "split 4 patch". They are a very versatile unit and are used in lots of other quilts. I have about 30 or so leftover so I have the start on another quilt. They were fun to make.
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