Throes of Creativity

I was rolling on the floor laughing when I got home tonight. What a pig I am! And I cleaned up this twice this weekend, although you could never tell it from this picture!

Daisy's little bed is back in that corner between the sewing and cutting tables. She is so funny -- tiptoeing through the fabric and paper that missed the trash can. She keeps coming over to me with that "OMG, what happened?" look on her face!

I don't care. I'm having fun!

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.....

August 1st Weekend

First weekends are my time to work on Christmas presents. This weekend I worked on my niece's quilt. Finished all the blocks and got the first row sashed. I didn't sew the second horizontal sashing on yet because that blue is bothering me a bit. It looks too dark for the blue strawberry fabric in the picture, but it looks all right in person. It's a Dimples fabric. After pondering it last night, I think I'll go with it. I've got a long work week this week, and cleaning house is a must, but I'm hoping I can finish up the sashings and start the borders.

Six days into the no-fabric month and I'm hanging tight. I only peeked at one online quilt shop newsletter and almost got busted with a BOM. But I didn't poke the button! I immediately thought of Jeanne when I saw it.

My friend, Mar, is making a Christmas quilt and miscalculated the background fabric for her applique blocks. Naturally I had it :) and am delighted to be able to stash bust a bit. Another friend called me last week looking for an old Pandolph pattern. I not only had the pattern but the exact border fabric she needed. Another opportunity to stash bust! Every little bit helps! It feels good to help out, but what really amazed me is that I immediately knew I had those fabrics considering how long it's been since I looked at them! LOL

August is another milestone month for me. Five years since I began quilting. Rotary Cutting 101, a prerequisite for other classes, was completed and I signed up for two beginning classes. I was off and running, and have never looked back!

I guess I'll find out today if the accounting lady shows up. If she does, we'll terminate her tomorrow. If she doesn't ... well, if you need me, I'll be in the Accounting Department!

Gratitudes:

~ A whole weekend with no commitments other than sewing!

~ Grilled filet mignon, parsley potatoes and a salad last night. I cooked!

~ Watching chick flick DVDs all day yesterday with no guilt!

~ A fun weekend with my online quilting buddies!

~ Listening to Daisy snore!

I Was a Good Girl!

Went to the closing of The Fabric Patch today. I was so good. Everyone should be really proud of me! I just picked up a few more spools of Aurifil thread at the good sale price, and a couple of packs of Hot Ribbon. A friend, Lady B, has designed a teacup BOM for her local quilt shop, and I'm wanting to start this applique project soon. She used this to embellish some of the cup and saucer rims and they were gorgeous.

The new owner of the FP was in there today. I picked up a flyer about what she's going to be doing to the shop. They currently own an embroidery business down in Orange County, and are going to be selling embroidery machines, etc. I don't think she's a dedicated quilter, so I'm thinking there won't be as much quilty stuff as we're used to seeing in there. Probably a good thing. My stash will definitely be my number one shopping place from now on.

I've been piecing the second block on my niece's quilt. It's a paper pieced block. I do real good on one or two, and then get all backwards on the next one. The frustration factor is high now. I'm going to plow through, though, on these as I really want to finish this quilt up within a couple of weeks.

Confessions Again!

I don't know why I tell on myself so much. Perhaps it's that Catholic upbringing? LOL

This is what my staircase looks like right now. About once a week or so I haul all the stuff back upstairs. My sewing area is downstairs just to the right of the staircase, and my stash room is upstairs. So I end up hauling stuff down to the cutting table, and then in the throes of creativity, I just pile it on the staircase to be dealt with later.

One thing I am going to do this weekend is get a cutting table set up again in the stash room. I think that will eliminate a lot of trips up and down stairs to the cutting table in my sewing room. Usually I just needed a strip or a hunk of something, but the whole piece has to come downstairs. That basket of Civil War stuff has definitely got to go back up. I almost tripped over it a few minutes ago.

I'm not lazy. I'm really not. But you could never tell it from this picture.

I sure hope I get some sewing done this weekend as I've run plumb out of quilty pictures to post. Yes, Judy, I left the PP templates at the office today, but I'm getting ready to draw it out again and go over to the Office Depot around the corner to make copies. While I'm there I should pick up ink cartridges. That would solve the copying problem! LOL

Four days and only one peek at an online BOM. No, I didn't order it. If it's still there next month, then it was meant to be. This challenge is SO hard! I've come to realize what an impulse shopper I am. A couple of weeks ago I would have poked that order button without even thinking! And it would have ended up in the BOM purgatory closet with the others.

Today was an interesting day. The 'former' employee made mistakes on the payroll that I handed out, and checks had to be recut. Found a major posting error when I was closing out the week and I had to deal with that before I could leave. But the good news is that I got everything balanced, another accounting project finished and off to the outside CPAs, and the backlog balanced. Bad news is that I don't think I'm going to get to Louisiana this fall as I planned. I don't see how I can when I'll be having a new accountant coming in to train. I did talk to the CEO about a vacation week, though, and we agreed to see how quickly the new hiring goes. I'm really homesick ...

What a Day!

First, I overslept and was scurrying around getting my hair dry and dressed this morning. I grabbed shoes out of the ones I had put aside to polish. This is what I saw I had on when I got home a while ago! Sheesh...

Then when I got to work, there a long memo from our Receptionist. It seems the employee who had two strikes called in at 7:00 this morning that her dad was in the hospital and she wouldn't be in. When the Receptionist said she was going to put her in my voice mail, the employee responded that she didn't want to talk to "that b**ch," and proceeded to give the Receptionist confidential accounting information that I would need when I got to the office. Three strikes. She will be a former employee the moment she sets foot in the office from her personal leave. The CEO was furious. Give 'em enough rope ...

And I just realized that I forgot on my desk at work the 17 copies of the paper piecing pattern I drew out last night. So much for getting started on that block. Guess I'll work on the red and white quilt assembly tonight. Oh, yeah, and polish shoes!

I'm doing real good on the No Fabric challenge. It's only three days into it, but I really don't want any new fabric. Of course, this Saturday is the goodbye get together at The Fabric Patch. I've already said my goodbyes, but I know myself well enough to know I'll mosey on over there just to give another hug to everyone. But I'm leaving my checkbook in the car. I am! Watch me!

Gratitudes:

~ Very light traffic all week. (I probably just jinxed it for tomorrow!)

~ Determination!

~ New flowers being planted in the medians in our neighborhood!

~ The never-ending inspiration from my quilty friends!

Sigh.........

Thank you, Nancy!

Nancy's blog yesterday reminded me that I also need to add books to my list of banned purchases for August. I'm such a book person. But truth be told, I mostly only glance at them when I get them home. But all that's about to change as I need to find new ideas to use up the stash!!

This is the messy site that greets me as I go up the staircase. It wouldn't be so bad if there weren't bags of batting piled on one side, and two bolts of Moda wool on the other! One thing I plan on doing this month is getting them organized, and getting rid of those magazines on the bottom shelves. I need to spend an afternoon going through the mags, removing the quilts I like, and then tossing the rest of them. And I also need to go around the house and gather up the rest of the books that are on every table, every surface, in the car ....

August 1st - and the first day of my new quilting adventure!!