Is it ok for me to panic?

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I'm still working on this quilt. Did I say lots of stitch in the ditch? Yup, there is.



I had several people stop by yesterday too. I got the "ok to finish" on the three necktie quilts. I gave away a couple of my rug frames and they were picked up. The rest of the quilting books were picked up by three separate people. My baby came home too. Doesn't she look pretty?

She has new wiring and a complete going over. I got a new cording foot too. This repair guy is fantastic. Very reasonably priced as well.

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I took a little trip down memory lane on my blogs. I went back and read some of the oldest posts. It's very interesting to go back and see all the things going on and all the changes I've made in my life while blogging. I've always kept a journal and sometimes I read those, but the blogs have pictures. A captured moment in time. I can see the struggles with organizing and all the dust bunnies I've dealt with.

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A few weeks ago I was forced to remove some of the oldest posts because I had gotten up to the limit of 500 posts. Well, I'm almost up to 500 again. Time to remove some of the oldest again. It's a lot easier to remove posts on this blog than it is on the other one. On this blog I don't mind printing the posts out and putting them into a binder. It's the other blog that I don't like deleting information that could be useful to someone searching for information.

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While traveling down blogging memory lane it suddenly popped into my mind.... my daughter and grand daughter will be moving in here in only a couple of weeks. PANIC! Lots of things must be done in the next couple of weeks. I've got to get myself moving a little faster to get things ready. I took a walk through the house making notes of things I must get done. It won't be easy continuing to quilt, creating winter crafts to save energy, and moving stuff all at the same time... but nothing to do but to do it. Somehow it will all get done. Oh gosh, Thanksgiving is this month too. Now it's time for a real panic attack. I best get started right away.

Oh my goodness!

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I really like the Freecycle group!

See these quilt books? I went through all mine and decided to get rid of these. I believe there is about 150 in this stack and I have another stack in another room.

I didn't know what to do with them. I thought about donating to the library or to a thrift store. Somehow it just wasn't what I wanted to see happen to these books I so lovingly read and used regularly. I really wanted someone to have them that would use them as much as I have. So I posted them on the Freecycle group. Wow! Within minutes I got a whole bunch of replies from people who wanted them.

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One person lost all her quilting stuff in the flood, some were new to quilting, one man wanted them for his wife for xmas, another man wanted them for his wife who is a beginner and another person wanted them for the quilters in Appalachia. There were others too. So many requests and all for good reasons. Well, I decided to divide them all up so each request gets some of the books. I decided to add some fabric to each group of books as a sort of bonus. I feel so much better about giving them up knowing they are going to people who really want them.

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I guess I better get started sorting some fabrics very early just in case someone decides to be here early to get their books.

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I did get a lot of things moved around today. I can actually find things now... sort of. Still quite a bit to do though. I also got another quilt on the machine and started stabilizing it. I have about 50 packages of quilt batting under the machine but only one of the type anyone requested. So that's the quilt that went on the machine. My batting order from last week hasn't arrived yet. It probably will arrive just in time for the next quilt.

I drew this little quilt design about this time last year. I came across it while cleaning out stuff. I decided it should be put onto my design wall as inspiration. As I start sorting fabric in the next few days I'll pick out fabrics I believe should be used to make it. I'll put them all together to form a kit for when I can work on it. I can't remember why I didn't make the kit when I first drew it. Probably because I didn't have the right fabrics handy.

The hearts have gone to the church to be auctioned. You can see them on the church website here in a couple of days. Be sure to check out the other artists hearts too. My favorite is Marilyn Foulke's love bird. The whimsey of the piece appeals to me. What's your favorite?

Hmm... I forgot to sign the hearts. I plan to go to the auction so maybe I can sign then. Providing of course that nothing happens to keep me from going. Oh my, what should I wear? I've never been to an art auction before. Raggedy pants and tennis shoes won't do. I'm sure I have some nice clothes someplace in this house. Just have to find them.

Creating something for charity always gets me inspired to work.... not just quilting. A really great pick me up when I'm feeling blue. A sort of energy boost to help me with other things. I can't afford to do charity work all the time but it sure does feel good now and then.


My daughter and I were talking about my desire to create art. My kind of art. There are a lot of things I need to figure out before starting but may have to just wing it as I go. It's much easier to figure out how to price a bed quilt than it is to price a piece of textile art. Do I start off with lower prices because I'm a beginner or should I go for what I would like to earn on each piece? If I price a piece, and it doesn't sell, I don't mind keeping it. Do I create a website to sell my work or try for an art gallery?

I will need lots of fabric to create textile art. I have the fabric but where will I store it all now that my daughter and grand are moving in here? I'm trying to scale down the amount of stuff so there is room for their stuff while at the same time starting a new career. Such a delima! What I really need is a separate building for creating and storing. I don't have one so we will have to make do.


How do I get over being intimidated by established and serious artists? Its odd that I can quilt for serious artists while at the same time don't feel worthy of seeing my work beside theirs in a show. I can listen to an artist talk about the textile art they bring me to quilt and immediately see in my minds eye the quilting look they want. The thought of my own work hanging next to the same art I quilt sends chills down my spine. Yes, I know this is crazy but it's what happens to me.

There is way too much to think about for now. I told my daughter that all I want to do right now is create. I'll worry about selling later..... much later. Oh heck, there is plenty of work just putting the house back in order.

Membership denied?

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I got a lot accomplished yesterday. Most of the studio and kitchen stuff got put back where it belonged. At least enough that I can function.

I was tired from the work and started getting irritated that I have sooooo much stuff. It seems sometimes to be an endless cycle of stuff piling up.... stuff getting organized.... stuff piling up.... stuff getting organized.

I decided more things have got to go! I think I went through this same thing not long ago? Getting rid of stuff! I tried signing up for Freecycle here in Jefferson County. I believe some of this stuff is what would be good to give away to someone else.

I was denied membership in the Jefferson County Freecycle Yahoo group. The reason given was that my Yahoo profile was "inappropriate" (whatever that means) and they couldn't verify I live in Jefferson County. I looked at my Yahoo profile and it clearly states I live in Louisville, Kentucky which everyone living here knows is Jefferson County. I saw nothing inappropriate. Well! Since the local Freecycle doesn't want me as a member then the stuff will go to a thrift store or to a landfill.

I best get started on my day. Lots more to get organized and I have two customers coming today to pick up their quilts. These were finished before the floor work started.

Give me a break! Pretty please

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The floors are finished. Well, except for the bath room/laundry room. That flooring hasn't come in yet. It won't be a big problem of moving things around for that though. I'm very happy with the work the floor guy did. It's even better than it was before the flood. Time for me to put everything back where it belongs. Nothing in the studio except the intake table and stuff that happened to land there.




As well as the quilting machine and the stuff that landed there too. Yippie! An organizing clean slate.

The trouble with emptying a whole room and getting new shinny floors is that I started noticing how dirty everything else was. Moving the shelves and tables out of the room let me see all the accumulation of dirt and dust. Oh yes, and the grimmy door too. I have yet to figure out how the door gets so many hand marks when I always.... always.... use the handle. It must be everyone else's hand prints? You ever notice that no one pays much attention when things are clean but they sure do notice when things aren't?

Geeze, the baseboards have dust.... how long has this been there? It was hidden by the shelving unit.

Heck, the dust even clings to the walls.

There are cob webs everywhere! Especially near the ceiling. I swear I never noticed those before the room got cleaned out. You think the fabric fairies were decorating for Halloween?

The skylight has several years worth of dust and cobwebs; but I don't have a 30 foot ladder to reach those. They will remain. No one ever looks up that high anyway.

The things on the walls, clock, business licence, threads... it all has an accumulation of dust. Just look how thick it is on this.

The curtains? Yup, dust there too.

Not just on top either.

So everything is getting a really good cleaning. I started at about 4 am washing the baseboards and the walls. As soon as it started getting light I took down the curtains to wash them. Removed the old window plastic too. The wood got a thorough cleaning and new plastic went on there by the time the curtains got washed and dried. (Sure wish I had those window quilts done.)

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I even spent nearly 30 minutes trying to open the windows so I could wash those. I wanted to wash the inside between the storm window and inside window. I finally gave up because they are painted shut. So I washed the outside. Washed the inside. I'll let the dirt in between remain until sometime in the spring. (but which year?)

I'm cleaning and scrubbing away (on a roll) when I get interrupted. My SIL had her panties in a bunch and wanted the Peddlers Mall booth cleaned out.... today. We had already talked about giving it up. She wanted my brother out of the house and out of her way so today it was. Not Thursday like I had planned. So all the stuff from the booth that is mine gets put into the studio in the corner. (Gosh! I hadn't even got it all cleaned before stuff gets tossed in there again. No matter how hard I try to keep things clean and organized, like a well oiled machine, someone tosses a wrench into the cog wheel.

I made a side trip before coming home though. I bought new floor vents. Can't have nice shiny new floors with ugly vents can I? I also bought the pieces to rehang my closet (bi-fold) doors. Years of use has broken the holders at the top and bottom. Oh shoot! I forgot to get some hooks so we can keep little hands from getting into the wrong closets. Well, I do need to baby proof the house so another trip to the hardware will be in the near future.

I am determined that at least one room will be organized and clean before it all gets messed up again with my daughter and grand daughter's stuff. Ya know, I could have left the dirt and dust and got back onto the quilting machine.... but.... this is my time. One more day can't hurt. I didn't plan this but I'm sure gonna catch the silver lining. I can reorganize and make it better. As Kathi told tell me..... I'm not months behind on the organizing for this year.... I simply have a head start on it for next year.

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Thanks Kathi, I needed that!

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It's late and I've put in a really full day of cleaning so I'm headed to bed to watch a little tv before my eyes get too heavy. Tomorrow is another day.

Getting rid of STUFF

It was a very productive day and went faster than I thought. I got the closet office semi-cleaned. At least I can find things in there again. I never got around to finishing the painting of the walls in there. Perhaps it will get done before the big move..... perhaps not. It won't matter once the doors get re installed. This will remain my office when my daughter moves in here.



I got most of the bookshelves cleared off. The books went into plastic boxes under my bed until I can sort through them again. My daughter hasn't decided yet if she wants to use these or move them to another room. She will decide when her things get moved in.

I still have some items to get rid of. The rug frame, the sewing machine, and the baby swing will go live with someone else. (donated) The sewing machine is from maybe the 20s or 30s? It has a very unusual way of being opened for use. It has to be pushed up from underneath. The table does not have the swing out side as most tables do. The plastic boxes and the dog crate will go into the garage part of my bedroom closet for now.

I sorted all the books, papers, quilting templates, and quilting stencils that were on this desk. These went under my bed in plastic boxes. Nothing left on the table except the shredder, a lamp, and the window film I didn't get finished installing in this room three or four years ago. This desk has got to go live with someone else too. I've never used it for a desk. It's always been a catch all table..... sort of like a junk drawer. I want to stop using junk drawers and catch all tables so it has to go.

Now to find time to finish painting the closet office doors so I can put them back up. I need to find another place in the house to store the ladders. Oh yes, and paint the door frog too.

I've got a doctor appointment in a little while. That will take most of the day. Tomorrow I hope to go shopping for a washer and dryer. It depends on whether my daughter gets done with her own weekend chores in time for us to go. One of her chores is to get new tires and a tune up on her car. She's put it off as long as she can. The tires are getting too dangerous to continue using.

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Time for me to get going to the bus stop.

Company is always nice

For a little while I had company Thursday evening. Dad had to work late and Mom had class so NaNa got to feed them and play for about an hour. Ladybug can't decide whether to eat or have her thumb in her mouth. EJ just wants to ham it up for the camera. Ladybug doesn't like McDonald's. She only wants foods with tomato sauce or only green beans. She spits out and frowns at anything with meat or cheese. Must be a phase.

This is the next quilt to go on the machine. I've been dreading working on this one. This is the back. It's going to be a reversible quilt.

Why have I been dreading it? Because it's going to be very difficult to quilt. Why?

1. It's batik front and back. Batik is tightly woven fabric so it does a snap, crackle, pop thing when the stitching is being done. The needle has difficulty penetrating two layers of batik and a layer of batting. I have to be very precise in the stitching because any frog stitching will leave needle holes. No margin for errors.

2. The back has lots of bias cut fabric. There isn't any way for me to know for sure if the individual pieces are going to stay flat next to each other. It's underneath where it's difficult to see a problem. I'll probably get several tucks in the back because each piece has it's own direction of stretch. I always tell the people who do pieced backs to be sure that the fabric stretch goes all in the same direction. If one piece is cut horizontal and the one next to it is cut vertical or diagonal... the stretch is different. One piece is slack while another piece right next to it is tight.

3. Multiple seams crossing each other can cause a needle to break. I could get a fabric wart on top of a fabric wart. A fabric wart is where multiple seams meet such as in a pinwheel center where the 8 seams come together. It's called a wart because it makes a hard knot. Think how many layers of fabric would be in one spot if two of these come together in one spot.

4. The top must be centered on the backing so a small portion of the outside border of the back is included on all sides of the quilt. Centering a top on the backing (top to bottom) is difficult because the quilting draws up the top. The side to side centering is easy.

5. The top is an on point setting. Which means a whole new set of bias issues to work with. Often when someone pieces a top into an on point setting they use fabric cut into squares and then cut on the diagonal. This means they are sewing the stretch of bias when doing the setting triangles. It would be much, much better to cut the squares on bias then cut the diagonal which would actually be on the straight of grain. I'm not sure I explained that right but I hope you get the idea.

I decided to go ahead and finish this quilt because it goes to the same owner as the last quilt I finished. I want to ship them out together. Besides.... sometimes it's best to get the difficulty done so the rest is more relaxing.

Friday, I went shopping. It's been at least a couple of months since I chauffeured my SIL. I did get my new faucet for the kitchen sink. I won't open it until the plumber can tell me if it will work on my sink. If it doesn't fit I can return it unopened. I spent twice as much on this as I had planned. I saw it and decided my "old" kitchen needed a little bit of "update" in it.

I also got a new door knob for my front door. Yes, it is for a closet door. I use a deadbolt to lock the door and don't like being accidentally locked out of my house if I use a self locking knob.

I've been thinking about what will be my first art quilt project? I haven't yet decided on a theme but I have decided on things to incorporate. 1. Curved piecing. 2. Bright colors 3. A cartoony drawn character (my style of drawing) 4. Thread painting

Seeing what Marilyn (Metaphor in Fabric) did with her sandhill crane had my creative mind churning. I love the flip flops on her crane!

I do have to be realistic.... I have a lot of UFO things to finish before starting new projects. I have several charity tops waiting to be quilted. I have window quilts I want to make. Not to mention the rest of the customer quilts to finish. Oh yes, and my daughter moving back home in a few weeks. This will require some reorganizing of the house.

The other day, my post on when I would finish the customer quilts may have sounded negative but it wasn't meant that way. I was just doing a bit of mental calculations on when I could do my own projects again. It mentally seemed so long before I could get to my own things that it was a bummer.

One of the things a professional quilter must learn to do is plan their own projects weeks or months in advance. That's what I was doing that day. The nice thing about being retired will be that I can work on one single quilt and not have to worry about WHEN it will be finished. That won't work though if I plan to make art quilts to sell. A person can't sell what they don't have. If I want to sell my art I'll have to start thinking about creating and completing work. Selling my art brings up a whole new set of problems.... where and how will I sell it? I'll need to learn new "marketing myself" rules.

I also don't want to forget.... the cardboard furniture and writing a book. Hmmm.... maybe this is too many projects? (just thinking) I did say I was going to "say yes to less" this year. I should do more thinking about what I can accomplish and what I can't. Oh well, I have plenty of time for thinking. A quilt awaits me. Lots of thinking can be done while playing with the quilting machine.

13 to go

This one was on the machine. I had it almost stabilized when I noticed the pictures were pealing away from the fabric. I decided to stop and call the owner before doing any quilting of the designs. It may not be a good idea to quilt it when she will most likely loose the photos.

I had to wait until she got home from work to talk to her about the quilt so I took myself a half a ME day to start organizing my kitchen cabinets. When I talked with her she said she wants to talk with her son about the quilt before making any decisions so this one will come off the machine and the next quilt will go on today. They will both come see the quilt and talk with me before any decision. I may have to frog stitch it so they can do more photos.... with a different technique.

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Gary came to pick up my machines yesterday. He remembered me when he saw me. I used to take my machines to him regularly when he worked at Baer Fabrics. He said he would try to get my Bernina back in about a week. It's the one I use all the time in the studio. It depends on how quickly he can get a new bobbin race cover from Bernina.

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I also took some time yesterday to sort through my mother's medical and legal papers. I need them in some sort of order for the court appearance... whenever it's scheduled. For now, she's quiet and her medication is keeping her calm again.

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Time for me to get to work. Happy Independance day everyone!

The next finished quilt


This is a baby quilt. The design of the fabric is the focus so my challenge was to do a design that didn't take away from it. I did stitch in the ditch around the blocks and borders with clear thread.



I did a simple bow pattern on the four patch blocks.

I did a pretty feather design on the border and a loop design on the inside border.

Here is the bow from the back. These are freehand so no two are exactly alike.

This is the simple outline of the fabric design. Just enough to hold this area together but not distract from the fabric picture.

This is the feather and loop designs from the back.

After the day was finished I worked on this for about half an hour. There's no hurry on getting it finished. I just like working on it is all.

This is a quick post because today is shopping day. I did take some time yesterday with things other than quilting. I know..... I should have kept quilting. What I did was take measurements and made notes of things that must be done around this house. I want to do what I can to get organized again. If I don't..... it will start to make me depressed. I can't keep quilting if the house is mentally weighing on me. I'm still behind schedule and it will be impossible to catch up so a couple of days of making plans is good for me mentally. It energizes me.

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I took yesterday to do the measuring and planning because I'm shopping today. Since I'm going to be in the stores anyway..... why not take the opportunity to check out some prices and look for organizing ideas? I won't be buying just yet. For now it's enough to know what I want to accomplish and start looking for possibilities.

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It's almost like the sensation one gets when deciding what quilt to start piecing next. Look through books. Look at fabrics. Look online. You know what I mean. Somewhere along the search, the next quilt just pops up and you start making it. That's what I'm doing with the organizing. Searching for the next project. Hopefully by doing one small project at a time.... it will eventually get done.

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Gotta get off the computer now. Time to catch the bus to get my brothers car and pick up my SIL. It's going to be a full day of shopping.... smile.

Productive day


This is the next finished quilt. It's all about sports.



So I did a sport theme for the quilting. This is the first border.

The second border.

The third border.

And the fourth border. The extra lines all over the designs are quilter's chalk.

The pieced blocks got line dancing.

The inside border got flying geese. There could be geese flying over a ball field of clover.... right? The clover is on the sashing.

I got the next quilt ready and onto the machine. Started working on it; but, I realized I would be fighting the machine again. That means a bit of lint someplace. It also occurred to me I will be gone this weekend. Friday, a doctor appointment that could take all day. Saturday, going to the cemetary to visit my sons and my father. Sunday, going to visit Mom in the nursing home.

Rather than just track down one piece of lint to keep quilting, I decided to go ahead and do the thorough cleaning of the machine and table. Hmm.... I don't want anyone thinking I don't take good care of my machine. I do clean the bobbin area at every bobbin change. Not thoroughly, just a general cleaning. I oil my machine regularly too. The cleaning I'm talking about doing is the not so routine cleaning. The taking apart everything, clean really well, and put it all back together again cleaning.

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I have a problem with black dust dots. On the table the dust dots look white but on other things they look black.... like these dust dots on this cabinet.

Or these black dust dots on the floor.

The black dust dots get onto the bottom of my shoes and are carried all over the house. Here are some that ended up on my bathroom floor. I dust mop the studio floor two or three times a day but these dust dots re appear like magic. The floors in the other rooms don't get dust mopped as often. Heck, in the time it would take to dust mop all the floors, I can get a whole lot of quilting done. Besides..... who's gonna see the other rooms but furkid Dylan and me?

I get started cleaning the machine. I find bits of lint under here. I remove the pointer holder and clean it really good.

I find lint and threads wound behind a couple of wheels. All the wheels get removed, cleaned, and put back on.

The table.... geeze, how long has this been here? Ok, only since the begnning of xmas season... but that's too long. I move everything from under the table, get down on the floor, and start cleaning.

Aaaah.... that's much better.

Hmm... can't have a clean table with dirty velcro now can I?

The velcro gets cleaned when I'm cleaning the rest of the table. Much better now.

The bobbin area is cleaned more thoroughly than the regular day to day routine. I take the cover off and get to all the tiny hidden areas.

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What I save for last is the dirtiest job of all. Cleaning the tracks and the bed. Wiping the bed off is not a big deal but just look at all the teeth and placement marks. It takes time to clean all these with a q-tip.

The tracks and wheels get this really awful black residue on them. I clean the tracks and wheels with crome polish and tissues. See what I get? Just looking at the tracks they seem clean enough but geeze..... clean them with crome polish and you'll see they aren't so clean after all.

That's where the black dust dots come from. Dust from the tracks that somehow finds it's way onto everything else in the room.... especially the floor.

I never got around to removing the leaders to wash them. It would take too much time. Down time for the sake of clean leaders is not something I have right now. Maybe this is something I can get done this weekend since I probably won't get much quilting done.

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So why is it so difficult for me to find time to clean the table more often? Well, it seems when I'm running really far behind schedule customers don't want to hear me say..... "I couldn't finish your quilt by the deadline because I had to clean the machine table." I delay the task as long as I can. I only stop for the thorough cleaning when it's causing many quilting problems.

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Oh geeze.... look at the time.... I'm loosing quilting time sitting here type-talking.