Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all. Here is our tree all ready for Santa to put the presents under. I got all the presents wrapped yesterday. The kids will keep track of Santa's progress throughout the day. And when he gets here he can enjoy the cookies that where made in his honor and of course there are carrots for the reindeer too. Have a wonderful Christmas and I hope you get everything you wish for.

Life Happens

Check out my other blog Life with the Roen's to see what I have been up to this week. And I am still undoing the stiching on my quilt. I am almost done and then can begin to start hand stitching on it. I go to work tonight but, get the next two days off so I can get going on this, after I make sure Santa has everything he will need for this weeks journey.

First piece Done

Well, I finished my first piece of hand work. I guess it is ok, except that after finishing it I found out that it is off center.

I think with more practice it will get better. After I finished this, I decided to finish undoing the quilt top that I wanted to do. I have been undoing it since I put in the first five lines of quilting. I decided that I didn't like the way it looked, I had been trying to stitch in the ditch and was not watching where I was going. So I think I will try my hand stitiching with the quilt now. It will take a while though. I only worked on this little one three nights in the last month, so a whole lap quilt will take longer.

Nothing New to Report

Well, there is nothing new to report on the sewing front. I am still working on some hand work. Not sure if I like the outcome or not. We are our own worst critics they say and that may very well be true. I have also been doing a lot of baking for treat giveaways to friends and the house is as decorated as it will get. I went very minimal this year and tried not to bring everything out as it would be easier to put away less. Plus it seems that I spend my days off cleaning the house and doing things with the kids since I don't have time on work days. I am lucky if I see my kids sometimes right now, When I work the 2-11 shift, I am never home when they are awake. Boy, I miss being the stay at home mom. I think I will keep trying to work on the hand piecing and I did pick up a pattern at JoAnn's during Black Friday and thought I might try to tackle making pajama pants. My kids love wearing them and since they have tons of t-shirts they really need the pants.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here is my hope that you are enjoying this day with your loved ones.

Ramblings of a Mad Quilter

Nothing new here on the sewing front. I did start to hand stitch the pictures I traced last week, and will see how the first one turns out. I have been spending my time reading all the blogs I can online. I love to see all the new things that people are making out there. And it gives me ideas on what to make in the future. I am really at a cross roads in life and can't spend any money on new fabric and don't want to use up all of my small stash. I am not sure what direction I am heading to. I love to quilt, but I miss quilting with people. I can't afford to take classes right now and so it stunts my flow. I wonder if I would be any good trying to design my own quilt, I only use other peoples patterns as of yet. Oh well, on the bright side if I did have any spare money I would probably spend it on the day after thanksgiving sale at Jo Ann's. I thought I would be working that morning, but it looks like I will not work until the afternoon.

Today, I worked on tracing some snowmen that I was able to find online at the family fun coloring pages website. I am going to try some more hand work. I want to try to do a quilt entirely by hand stitching. My 15 year old wants to do it with me, so I have to trace enough for both of us.

I had to go out and buy new thread because I couldn't find the thread that I had. Turns out that my daughter has been using it to make bracelets with for her friends, and has it in her mess of a room somewhere. If you have a teenage daughter you know how many times you ask them to clean up their room.

Finally

Finally, I have had the time and will to sew.

I put this together with some redwork iron-ons that I found at Sew Special when I lived in California. I also have another set in blue. At the time I bought two sets of each so I have made two of these in red.

They are nice baby size, but the two end squares on the middle row I embroidered yesterday. I just couldn't leave them blank but because I had already sewn it together and quilted in the white borders. I was a little nervous to sew by hand and not take it through the whole square. But I had no problem after all, to look at it you would not know that it was done as an after thought.

Where has the time gone?

I know, it packed its bags for new pastures. I have been so busy with trying to live everyday life that the time has just moved on without me. I work from 3-midnight, come home try to catch up reading blogs, play a game and go to bed. My kids go to school while I am sleeping and are sleeping when I get home.

Ok, enough of the pity me. I have moved on now and trying to keep up with more blogs. There are some really nice stories out there and I just love the ones that have pictures of their latest work. It keeps the quilting bug alive. I haven't worked on anything in the last year, however I did finally install my EQ5 CD and have started to play with it. I need to find some video's on working with the CD to explore more creative uses. I tried by making a baby blanket first and I like it but when I print, it seems to print smaller than I think it should be.

So, although I am not using the machine, I am one step closer to getting back to it.

Maybe it's Time

Well as you can see in the previous post there has been a death in the family and my husband will be going to the funeral, but we will not be going with him. He is only going for three days and I only get one paid day off work for bereavement, and the kids have their first day of school this week.

So I will be taking the three days while my husband is gone off from work to take care of the kids. I think this will be a good time to get the sewing room done so that I can try to find time to get back to sewing. I received the new catalog from Keepsake Quilting and of course just love the cover quilt, it made me want to start a new fall color quilt. Of course thinking about going to San Deigo made me want to visit all my friends at Quilt in a Day too. Oh well it will just have to wait till next time.

Family Sadness

At 11:05pm Michigan time (8:05 California) my husband got the called that his father had past away. He and his sisters will be joining his mother in the next few days. School starts here on Tuesday so my husband will be attending the funeral alone.

Ok, so I haven't been sewing yet. I haven't really felt like it. I do get a twinge now and then and wander why I am putting it off, but it really boils down to the fact that there is not enough time anymore.

I have been unpacking the kids rooms lately and once done with that I need to get the garage done and then maybe I can set up the sewing area better to suit my needs. I miss not taking classes but again there is no time and for that matter I really can't afford it either.

I did it!

I did it, today I had to use my sewing machine. I have a class tomorrow for Girl Scouts and one of the homework projects was to make a mess kit drying bag. I used a very heavy material and thread. I thought my machine was breaking down, it was making a lot of loud noise. But after I got done making my bag, I tried stitching a couple of cotton patches and the machine was working fine. I need to find a place to take my machine for service and I need to get some new needles, but it was working. Maybe next week I can get some more done. I only have four days of work and although I could use the money, I also need time to get things done around here. Nothing gets done here if I am not around to make everyone do the chores.

One more Day

Well, hopefully one more day until I can finish unpacking and start sewing. I still have to pick up a hook to hang the lamp in the ceiling. The room has no light to speak of. Then I can finish unpacking the sewing things and get it organized and do some actual sewing. I have been so busy with work and trying to spend time with the kids, that when I do have any free time I end up laying around the house. I do however spend at least an hour a day on reading blogs too. When I get home after work at night I read some blogs and then play some computer games while having dinner and then it is off to bed. No time for sewing then. So I will only be able to sew on my days off and sometimes in the mornings. Oh well, we do what we must, but I sure miss the days when I was the stay at home mom and had more time to sew.

Will I ever be sewing again?

Well I have my sewing area set up and almost all unpacked. I still need to hang the overhead light, the room has no lighting to speak of. Once I have everything unpacked, maybe I can get down to sewing again. The stress that I have been under for these past months has really made it hard to take the time to sew. I need to find my happy place again and get back in the swing of things.

I do seem to keep up with all the blogs I have been reading. I like to see that there are others still do sewing out in the world, even if I am not.

On to the New

Today our son bridged from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. It was our last Blue and Gold ceremoney. I am such a wimp, I always have a tear in my eye when onhe of my kids are recognized as if it was my great achievement. Well, in a way why not, I am the one that had to go to all the meetings and campouts and other activities with them.

I am hoping to get started on my sewing area tonight. I really have been wanting to sew.

Just Another Day

Well, we are in. Now we get to set everything up. This could take a while. So I will just take it as it goes. Starting a new department at work this week. Going to be working at the service desk. Hopefully, my hours will be better than lately. The kids are already moaning that they don't see me enough.

I don't have my sewing set up yet, but I have the next three days off, so that should give me time.

All Moved In

Well, we are all moved in. My husband has been complaining the whole time. The kitchen is too small, he doesn't have enough cupboard space. For a chef this is the worst. But what can we do. Now I get to spend the time getting everything set up. It always amazes me how much stuff we have. And I know that we have gotten rid of a lot. When we moved to California, we gave away alot of our things like all of our outdoor furniture. When we moved from one house to another in California after the first two years there, we got rid of more of our stuff like furniture that was getting run down, and alot of things that we found we hadn't used in that time. When we left California we downsized the truck to come back and so again we got rid of so much stuff, kids toys and clothes, appliances and such.

So now again we have moved and it took two days to move everything out. We have not replaced any of the things that we gave away in the last seven years, but we still seem to have more junk than anyone I know. Ok I have been replacing my Girl Scout supplies, but that was because when we moved anything that I had, was reinbursed by my Troop there, so of course I would need to collect new things here, and that is not hard to do. With a meeting every two weeks from September to June, you do collect alot of supplies for crafts and info to teach things needed to work on the patches the girls will earn.

I hope I can get my sewing up and going again in the next two weeks, I want to get started on the new mystery that Bonnie from Quitville is doing, but I still need to unpack boxes, however I am trying to unpack the smart way, by having a box available for garage sale items and one for items that we will keep but do not have room for so they will stay packed. Like our knick knacks we want to keep or our dishes that will not fit in the cupboards. And I need to get the kids rooms put together so they are comfortable and reflects there personnalities.

I'm so sad

I'm so sad , the house that I have loved for the last ten years has been lost to us. We moved back from California when my husbands job closed last year, we had hoped that he would find a new job somewhere in the country and the kids and I would stay here while he went off to work. I would have been fine with this as moving to California had not been the joy we were had expected it to be and we were now heavy in debt. But he has yet to find a job after a year and a half. It is hard to imagine that there is not a job somewhere in this big country of ours, but we haven't found it. We are not being picky either, he has went on a couple of interviews but to no avail. So now we will be moving this weekend, as the new bank that bought the house did not want to work with us. They would not even talk to us, they just served us an eviction notice.

So again I have not done any sewing and have instead packed it all away for the move. I am going to unpack it and set it up right away, but I do not know if I will feel like sewing or not. I am just trying not to get depressed about this and hope that this is all part of a bigger plan for my life, but right now it just feels rotten. This is the house that I had told my husband when we lived in California and he wanted to get rid of it, I would divorce him first before I gave up the house. I know you will say but it is just a house, but this is my house, I had another house when I meet my husband, and sold it after we got married because it was too small and he promised that in time we would buy a house together. This I did and three years later we bouhgt this house. This is the house I bought my children home to from the hospital, this is the house where I started on my road to volunteerism, signing up for the association board, helping out in the neighborhood and just enjoying sitting on the front porch at night or the back porch while the kids played in our park that backed to the house.

I started many of the current fun familyactivities that my neighbors now enjoy in this subdivision like Easter Egg hunt in the park, the annual Christmas lighting contest of which after the first year I started this, our city government took my lead and expanded the contest to the whole city. I start the first neighborhood caroling, and at Halloween my neighbors would welcome a nice tall cup of warm apple cider during their walks with the trick or treaters.

I will miss sitting by the pool on warm days and enjoying nice parties for the kids and their friends. I don't want to think of someone else living in my home, the home I expected to grow old in where my grandkids would visit. Now I am going to have to start all over and hope that by the time I have grandkids I will have a place of my own for them to visit me instead of the nice house I just pay rent for.

I AM SO BAD!!!

I really am. I just don't see to think about keeping up this blog. I want to, but I spend so much time doing other things that when I get to it I can't think of anything important to say.

I have been reading some blogs of other quilters, want more, can't seem to find enough. I don't have time to go to the quilt shops. Couldn't get anyone at Quilt in a Day to answer me when I asked to do the BOM through the mail again. Really miss having the patterns to look forward to every month. Found Bonnie's mystery quilt, copied the instructions and keep telling myself I am going to start working on it. Made my ducks, but stopped before stitching them. I just haven't felt inspired to sew.

I don't think anyone has found my site. I am probably the only one to see it HAHAHA.

Oh well, just have to keep trying.

Update for the Week

OK, So I have been very busy this week. I have my duck applicates on their background, and have been playing around with the stitching. I think they are going to look great when their done, unfortunately, I have not had a lot of time to play with them.

I have also been playing around with my son's cub scout photos. I am making a slide show for his blue and gold banquet. I knew people had been making them in the past and they looked great, but working on one yourself and seeing how cool they can look is a whole other feeling.

This week starts a month long involvement with Girl Scouts, from activities and field trips to cookie booths. First we have a meeting tomorrow to finish up the swaps we will need for Saturdays field trip to the splash bash. Then we have a cheer competition, pine wood derby and the splash bash all in one day. I don't think there will be one minute to have for myself to sew this week, but I will get to it soon. I also want to try making the Carolina Crossroads Mystery quilt I found on the Web. So I will keep plugging along.

Monday, January 14,2008

Today I am recovering from a weekend of Boy Scout Camping. I took my 10yr old son to interview a Boy Scout troop in our area for their annual camping get together. He will cross over in March. He really seem to enjoy the weekend, but it was very tiring, this was a non-stop event.

Before I left though, I did start a block from Jody Davis' Duck Series. I have the first block layed out now and am ready to stitch together. The only thing stopping the finished product right now is to machine stitch or try to hand stitch. I would like to try hand stitching so I am leaning that way.