Ruminations

I've been ruminating this morning. Just trying to get my mind around all the things I want to do .... after I finish The Grand Organization.

Remember all those boxes that were piled up and that I opened a couple of weeks ago? Well, I saved the best for last!





Anew 2011 by Lecein. Brenda Riddle of Little Acorns blog is the designer of this gorgeous fabric. I love Brenda. I call her a gentle soul. I had the pleasure of meeting Brenda in person at the Long Beach quilt show a couple of years ago. Definitely the highlight of my year! And her puppy, Bailey, is Penny's secret love! But, sssshhhhhh, don't tell Speck and Skippy!

I've had this half yard bundle sitting right by my computer this week. I'd love to bathe my whole bedroom in this fabric. It just conjures up peaceful thoughts, doesn't it?

Over the next week or two I'm going to go through patterns and come up with how to use this gorgeous bundle. I'd like a pieced quilt without applique. My reasoning for that is I want to make a long bolster pillow to go across the top of the bed with applique on it. I hope this all makes sense. I can perfectly envision it in my feeble brain.

I have more of Brenda's Lecien fabric from earlier lines, including some yardage. They all go together so wonderfully. I'm positive I can make a quilt for my tall mattress bed without having to shop for more fabric.

Sigh ... guess I'd better get finished up on organizing so I can sew. I'm SO ready to sew!!

Leftovers

I had leftover four patches from this quilt.

So I made this.



No waste quilting!

Metal Stars

Jane "pushed" me into this booth at Road and told me she'd see me later! LOL. I can't remember the name of the shop, but it was maybe "Blocks on the Barn" or something like that. I'll find the name and amend this post.

EDIT: It's Classic Metal Company. He told me they do ship. There are two sizes. The ones I got are the larger ones.

Anyway, they are metal quilt blocks. They had all sizes and different stars - even a mariner's compass - but these two were the ones that caught my eye.

One is going in my breakfast room, can't decide which one but probably the blue, and the other will go somewhere. Or maybe I'll just tuck it away until I get a proper studio.

But they sure match my favorite Minick & Simpson fabrics perfectly!





Kinda wish now I had gotten a small one, too .........

Road to California 2012

Yep, we went. I was feeling a little better but still not well. And it was pouring down rain. But Jane and I went.

The show opened at 8:30 today because they didn't want folks standing out in the rain. Of course, this wasn't announced until yesterday afternoon so hardly anyone knew. We got to the doors and the guy told us we couldn't come into the lobby until 8:30 and told us to wait in the tent just a few steps away. We were in that huge tent by ourselves. He must have had a change of heart because five minutes later, he came and got us and told us to come on in and get a cup of coffee to warm up! What a sweet man!

Because it wasn't crowded at all, we headed straight over to the Primitive Gatherings booth. It was wonderful! We were the only two people in the booth besides Lisa and Nick. It was really nice getting to chat with them and shop at our leisure. Two hours later we went by again and it was totally packed.



The patterns are not sorted by vendor in the pictures ... and I also picked up a few of those cute little 2" charm packs they have in the Civil War fabrics. Love those things!

With our main objective accomplished, we visited all of the other booths. I had a nice chat with Sandy Klop of Moda's American Jane fabrics. I also spent a very pleasant fifteen minutes chatting with Verna Mosquera of The Vintage Spool. I had never had the pleasure of meeting her before. She is so sweet.



More patterns .......







And a couple of pieces of wool in colors I couldn't resist.

I did my annual kit shopping at Stars & Scraps. I love that store located in Corona CA, but I don't get there but a couple of times a year. I'm sure glad they're at Road! Just two small kits.





We left about 12:30 or 1:00 after spending some time viewing the quilts. The winners were gorgeous, but some of my favorites had no ribbons on them. I definitely thought there were quite a few that were ribbon-worthy! I didn't bring my camera, but will purchase the CD when it comes out so I can look more closely at the ones I fell in love with.

All in all, a nice day. I'm glad I went.

Sick Weekend

I had two posts that I was working on. Then I got sick and have been in bed most of the weekend.

Will be back later this week. Hope everyone had a grand time sewing this weekend.

Two Words Today

ROLL TIDE!

A Picture .. a Thousand Words

Organizing! Yikes!

Why is it that things get so messy before they get better?

I can't believe I'm going to post this picture...



Okay, don't laugh. I'm serious. I have a plan and it's working. Except that I thought I would get done with it by next weekend. That ain't happening. But, hey, at least I can get to my sewing machine! Kinda-sorta-maybe.

I didn't realize this until I started unstacking boxes, but the majority of them had never been opened. When a box arrived, I said, "Oh, that's that fabulous fabric for this/that project." Since I knew what it was, I just put the box aside.

I've never been this unorganized before. I know it's due to the fact that I spent more time at work than at home the last year. I was thinking about that last night. I'd often go into the office on Saturday for all or part of the day. That left Sunday to get a manicure, go to the market, get the car washed, scrub toilets, etc. I hardly even turned the TV on. Of course, that might be a good thing, except that TV time was when I did hand work. Penny would get some attention at night after her walk, I'd eat whatever was handy, I'd crash for the night, and start all over again the next day. Looking back, I'm surprised I made it without being committed! Now I have empty boxes flowing out into the kitchen!

2012 will see a LOT more sewing. I want to know where everything is in the sewing room and my stash room. I unearthed a lot of neat projects, so I'm itching to start stitching!

I might put a few things up here on the blog for sale. I have some towers, kits and the like that I know I'll never get to. Need to think on this a bit more.

One thing that will be fun this year is a Saturday sewing group that's been organized with local friends. We're going to work on Merry Merry Snowmen by Bunnyhill Designs. I think I'm going to be the only one needle turning. Everyone else will be doing machine applique. I might do that, too. Have a month to think about it - but I'm SO set in my ways. You can say it. I admit it!

I also want to start on the Cotton Club project that the Fat Quarter Shop had last year. I found it all neatly bagged. I love these fabrics and it'll be a fun one to make. Kimberly puts together the neatest projects for us. I check every single day to see what new, enticing thing she's put up on the site!



And I'll have two baby quilts to make this year. One will be a Bunny Hill's Park Lane. I have the fabrics and am ready to go on that one. The other one I hope is a boy so I can make the Row, Row, Row Your Boat kit I have stashed away. Of course, I really don't need to have a baby coming to make it, do I? :)

Well, back to organizing. All of that stuff will be out of my sewing room before the day's end! I need to dash over to the market to get gumbo makings at some point today because ......

...... tomorrow night -- LSU-Alabama BCS Championship Game! Be there or be square!



GEAUX TIGERS!!!!

Quiet on the Western Front

This new year is shaping up to be quiet and, frankly, boring. Yes, last year I was wanting boring - and I have it.



I've been taking a few stitches every night on a binding. I have three more lined up after this one so I'll be doing this for a while. That's okay, though. At least I'm making forward movement.

And I've been playing with the iPad that someone suggested I really needed. It's nice. It's portable. I like having it upstairs with me at night. I've been looking around for apps and it's overwhelming. Just trying to find a nice cookbook app totally blew me away. I gave up on quilting apps; too many to sort through. Same with decorating and organizing. Maybe you all could recommend some of your favorites.

Just don't go suggesting I need any more "i" things until I figure this one out!!

And while you're at that someone's site above, did you notice the new project ... I'm in, I think. Positive I can find something around here that will work!

How many of you took advantage of that fabulous sale that the Fat Quarter Shop had going on at the end of the year? I didn't .... can you believe that? I was too busy sewing up a storm with friends. I did place a small order at some point over the holidays. At least I think it was small. Yep, I'm positive it was.

The 2012 Designer Mystery quilt looks awesome! I love Camille's bright colors. I already have in mind someone for whom I know this will make the perfect gift!

Love that I'm thinking about quilting again. It's been a long dry spell!

1/2/12

Well, I stood outside looking for the B-2, and it didn't fly over this year. I mean, it's flown over for six years. What's up with this? I'm gonna have to give the General in charge of the flight path a little bit of Cajun over this omission! I think I saw it way off in the distance, but my picture was only a big patch of bright blue sky. And it certainly wasn't close enough to hear. That's usually the first clue that it's getting near.

So, General, don't be surprised if you get a call from me before next New Year's Day! Priorities, sir!!!

Whatever you do on New Year's Day ...

... you do for the rest of the year!

Uh oh, I'm in b-i-g trouble.

I was watching TV waiting for the announcement of when the Stealth was going to fly over the Rose Parade. It flies over my house on the way home about two to three minutes after that. I got my coffee, my camera, a light jacket, and I went outside to wait. And wait. And wait.

The Rose Parade is tomorrow. January 2nd? Whose bright idea was that? And why didn't anyone consult ME about it?

But it's absolutely gorgeous outside. Well worth the effort to stroll around out there a day early.

Okay, so does this mean I'm going to be a doofus for all of 2012?

But while walking around on the outside of my patio, I discovered what was making the tapping noise for the past four hours. I mean, serious tapping.

This is an awful picture, but I was trying to zoom and crop and get the little thing to show up.



It's a little wren who fell in love with its reflection in that trash can sitting out there. Poor darling. It didn't even ease up on the tapping while I was around. I finally tossed a gumball at it and it flew away. I hope it doesn't have a bruised beak or something. Persistent little love-struck birdie!

The gray thing is the cover to my barbecue that blew off in the winds last week and nestled amongst all the leaves that were blown in that corner. Time to get out the broom and some garbage bags and clean up the patio, and a beautiful day to do it.

Okay. On to quilting news -- Friday I went to Ginger's Quilt Shop and spent all day sewing! Can you believe it?!! It felt SO good. I just grabbed a bunch of things that were sitting in a corner of my sewing room, and my Tutto bag with the smaller Bernina that had been sitting in the garage all summer, and off I went. I was so thankful the machine still worked!

I squared four quilts, made four bindings, and attached them all to their respective quilts!! Plenty of handwork to do in the coming week or two. And today, of course! Have to make some stitches today! Hooray!



I left my machine at the shop and went back yesterday and finished up the things I had hauled over there. I put the borders on a quilt. I was still wanting to sew, so I went out into the shop and purchased three yards of fabric to make the backing. Got that pieced and left it with Ginger to quilt for me. Hooray again!

Then I pulled out the little mini quilts that were in the pile and cut the backings for most of them. Two I didn't have back fabric, but had some leftover from the backing of the quilt I left with Ginger. It was the perfect amount!

So I bought three yards of fabric there and used it all up in the same day!

A really funny thing happened. A friend was there and was going over a small kit that she had purchased at a quilt show two or three years ago. She pulled out the fabric and saw that they had shorted her on the border fabric. She was so peeved as it was an older fabric and she said she would never be able to find it. I asked her how much she needed. You should have seen the look at her face when I whipped out a huge hunk of it and cut off a half yard for her. What were the odds that I would have that exact Prairie Paisley fabric with me on that day? I wish I had had a camera. She was absolutely speechless! A great moment! (This was the same fabric as the borders I had just put on my quilt. And since it was Minick & Simpson, you can bet I'll always have some of that with me!)

Now I'm off to unload the QuiltMobile, get the blackeye peas and cabbage going, get the ham in the oven, and then do a LOT of organizing in the sewing room.

I figure if I do that organizing today, I'll do it for the rest of the year!!!

Besides, I've gotten in enough trouble for one day, and it's only 9:30 a.m.!

Happy New Year!