I think it was in the fall last year or so when I tried a Longarm challenge. The gal who started it, counted up that she had 30 quilts she needed to finish and gave herself 30 days to get them done. So I think Labor Day is a good time to take stock and get to work! Funny, I checked back through the blog and it was TWO years ago (right before the quilt show again!) and I did the challenge finishing at Labor Day that time) The really, really, REEEEEAAAAALLLY sad part is, there are quilts on here that appeared on that list two years ago - Marci's lime, pink & zebra quilt - hey, at least it's just waiting on binding! The EMCC quilt and both of Sherry's quilts *sigh* the freebies always get pushed to the end of the line, and I don't think the snowman quilt was mentioned, but it was hanging around back then. The 2 round robins mentioned (one a wallhanging, and the other from my online quilt group) are both still in the UFO pile too, bummer. But that's ok, this is a new challenge and I will hit it with renewed energy and the effort this time will be so much better!! Am I convincing you yet? I think I'm starting to believe a little :)
From memory my list of customer quilts would be:
1. Lisa Weddle - Dresden Plates in 30's fabrics (on the frame now being quilted)
2. Heidi Armond - Commissioned baby quilt - finish embroidery, piece top, quilt & bind
3 - 10. Sylvia family - EIGHT twin/full quilts in same piecing pattern but different fabrics, all from the 1970's, 2 are on hand right now. All need quilting AND BINDING
11. Sylvia family - commissioned whitework baby quilt, 40 x 40 or so
12. Carol Joslin - greens & yellows Monkey Wrench pattern, no borders
13. Amber Gilbert - baby quilt
14. Amber Gilbert - antique bear paws, full/queen, needs estimate and quilt plan
15. Amber Gilbert - fall Thimbleberries colors, patchwork
16. Nancy Taylor - Christmas Halverston prints Block sampler
17. Nancy Taylor - blues and yellows block sampler
18. Sonja Denny - Super hero t-shirt quilt for hubby, all pieced, just need quilting and binding
19. Edna Martin Christian Center - Blue Ohio stars with white setting blocks, muslin needed for back
20. Sherry Campbell - kids of the world quilt, needs EZ board spirals, should be quick and easy
21. Sherry Campbell - Aztec quilt (QoV)
22. - 25. Whipker cousins - 50 Birthday quilts for Aunt Carole's kid, need quilted and bound
26. My mom's sampler quilt - she forgot about it, not sure if she wants it quilted or basted for handquilting?
Then personal quilts/projects would be (if there were any time, LOL)
1. Marci's pink and zebra prints quilt, just needs binding sewn down
2. Grandmother's flower garden, just needs binding
3. "Let it Snow" snowman, needs buttonhole stitch around letters, then quilted
4. Crow sweatshirt - finish applique around flowers and add binding to cuffs, collar, & hem
5. Heart medallion wallhanging - not going to make it into a medallion quilt, so just quilt & bind it
6. Pillow case out of theater fabric for Kevin Rudzinski
7. Finish ripping out my Favorite Color quilt, come up with a quilting plan
8. Finish chicken pincushions for the quilt show boutique - need filled & sewn shut (12 or so of them)
I will check at home and see if there are others (and I fear there are, LOL) and then see if it is possible to do 30 quilts in 30 days? Well, a few more than 30 days, since I'm starting August 29th, and going to the end of September. I know that the customer with 8 quilts won't want them all back at once, but there's no reason I can't finish them all, but return them over the course of several weeks. I am sure I will feel so much better if I can tame this growing backlog and be ready to receive more for Christmas. With the economy and our family finances so dreary (another post for another day, but suffice it to say, our home insurance & flood insurance went up AGAIN, causing our house payment to go up when we were truly expecting it to finally decrease this year :( ) the extra income from this quilting effort will be awesome!
Heck, I might even get something of my own done in time to enter it in the quilt show, but I HIGHLY doubt it, LOL!! So it's on -
Friday, August 29, 2014
Friday, August 22, 2014
Forgot to post about prom and graduation, oops!
In all of the chaos about MIL, I forgot to post anything about prom or graduation. Middle DD went to her Sr. prom early in May (don't even remember the date, LOL) and looked sooo pretty! She found the dress in our local mall and it was pretty cheap as prom dresses go. I splurged and got her sparkly shoes and a handbag too. She went with a group of girl friends, no dates and had a great time.
Marci gave every single piece of lawn furniture a fresh coat of red paint, well, in between texts to Collin of course, LOL
Aunt Colleen used deck cleaner to freshen up the deck so we could paint it, but we ran out of rain-free days to paint it, so it was clean and pretty but not painted for the party.
We painted the insets of the front porch columns red to see if it would be nice and it was pretty sharp looking so we kept it. I really wasn't certain at first and almost painted the first one white again!
We had a simple buffet of hot dogs and burgers, Marci's bean dip, baked beans, potato salad, and chips. And of course, cake from Aunt Colleen! (gee, the siding on the house looks filthy! I don't think it was really that bad in real life?)
Glad we got this family shot, so often we get busy at these special day events and forget to get a picture of all of us together. Especially if I'm taking the pix, I forget to give the camera to someone else and let them get all 5 of us (well, plus gr'ma and gr'pa in this photo).
These are Ellen's friends, actually, not a very good pix, but it's kind of neat because you can see Robert, the one looking at her. Turns out he likes her, and they have even gone on a few dates as of the writing of this post. They worked together at Chuck E Cheese and he was the first one to arrive at the party - even was about 10 minutes early, I think he likes her :)
Her pretty cakes, with her diploma and an awesome pix of her marching her freshman year. She didn't have senior pix taken, but this one was from family pix done in January.
Our graduate, mostly she's glad the graduation is done and the hanging out could start!
Then the first weekend in June, she graduated, hooray! It was a beautiful day and we had a terrific party on the deck - just a simple cookout with family and some of her friends. There was a lot of painting and cleaning going on outside the house to get ready though! And Marci was a huge help because the boyfriend got to come to the party too, and it was her first chance to introduce him to the extended family . All in all it was a wonderful day and I think we all had a great time.
Glad we got this family shot, so often we get busy at these special day events and forget to get a picture of all of us together. Especially if I'm taking the pix, I forget to give the camera to someone else and let them get all 5 of us (well, plus gr'ma and gr'pa in this photo).
These are Ellen's friends, actually, not a very good pix, but it's kind of neat because you can see Robert, the one looking at her. Turns out he likes her, and they have even gone on a few dates as of the writing of this post. They worked together at Chuck E Cheese and he was the first one to arrive at the party - even was about 10 minutes early, I think he likes her :)
This was Ellen looking at her hope chest after the boys carried it up to the deck from the barn - thank you Chad, Collin, Robert & Leelynn! The front panel slides over and reveals padded, hanging storage for necklaces. In the background (L to R) are Gr'ma Bobbie, Robert, Collin & Marci.
Her pretty cakes, with her diploma and an awesome pix of her marching her freshman year. She didn't have senior pix taken, but this one was from family pix done in January.
Our graduate, mostly she's glad the graduation is done and the hanging out could start!
A little bumpy at first . . . .
All seemed to go well when we dropped off middle DD at college. Got her moved in and went out to a late lunch, even bought a few things at the big WM that we forgot to bring. Interestingly, DH pointed out that DD shouldn't be surprised to become an odd man out. Her two suitemates were black and she is not. He said he just got a feeling that those girls were going to hang out and DD would be left out.
When I got up on Saturday AM, I found a text from 4:15am that pretty much confirmed that DH had been correct and that he had perceived a bad situation before any of us could even imagine it. Her text said, "If they keep making me feel bad about myself, I'm coming home. I don't want to have to hide under my blankets afraid to sleep every night while that Kayla girl parades her friends in and out and shit talks me. She didn't even bother to learn my name, mom. I'm "That little white girl." *sigh* By Saturday evening she was begging to come home and enroll in the local community college. From the texts my mom and sister were getting it was clear that DD was afraid for her safety and her belongings. The two suite mates had been drinking and partying in the shared living room the night before with several friends over - strangers to DD. She over heard them admitting to wanting to get her out of the room so that they could get one of their friends as their roommate instead. I talked to the Campus Police and the Asst. Director of her dorm - who was a very nice fellow and he took care of it. I told him that she was being bullied and was afraid for her safety and he managed to get her moved into a new room on a different wing in less than 30 minutes!
But, that meant we drove back down there (2.5 hours!) on Sunday to be sure she was settled back in ok and feeling better. We got her bed lofted and situated her furniture. Her 2 suite mates seem very nice and everyone who was involved (RA's etc.) were astonished at the level of racism that was being aimed at DD. They were glad to get her out of there and really glad they could turn this experience around. If we had brought her home Saturday night, I'm certain that her college career would have been over. She was so traumatized that she would never have gone on a campus for school again.
Two interesting things that let me know that God was in control of the whole thing: When I wrote her address down Thursday at work, I wrote it down wrong, transposed some of the numbers. So when I mailed the package on Saturday I mailed it to the wrong room. I figured it out Saturday afternoon and figured I'd tell her on Monday to let the mail folks know to be watching for it by name, not room number. When she text her sister the new room . . . . . it was 207 A - yep, the room I'd mailed the box to and the room I'd written down for all the family members, on Thursday. God knew all along that she wouldn't' be in 270A, he had his hand on her protecting her and guiding the journey. Also, even though I looked and looked in the van on Friday, I couldn't find my camera. So we had no pix of her first day at college. But when we went back on Sunday, it was right there in the van. So we took pix and we all decided that Sunday was her first day at college, the previous two days were just a bad horror movie, LOL!
She has had a great first week. Classes going well and no retaliation from the other girls. She is even hanging out with my friend's daughter (who is having roommate trouble too - hers is drinking and getting into her stuff without permission, ugh.) They are headed to a movie night on campus tonight so that should be fun, and she should be starting her campus job next week. I'd say she's off and rolling!
When I got up on Saturday AM, I found a text from 4:15am that pretty much confirmed that DH had been correct and that he had perceived a bad situation before any of us could even imagine it. Her text said, "If they keep making me feel bad about myself, I'm coming home. I don't want to have to hide under my blankets afraid to sleep every night while that Kayla girl parades her friends in and out and shit talks me. She didn't even bother to learn my name, mom. I'm "That little white girl." *sigh* By Saturday evening she was begging to come home and enroll in the local community college. From the texts my mom and sister were getting it was clear that DD was afraid for her safety and her belongings. The two suite mates had been drinking and partying in the shared living room the night before with several friends over - strangers to DD. She over heard them admitting to wanting to get her out of the room so that they could get one of their friends as their roommate instead. I talked to the Campus Police and the Asst. Director of her dorm - who was a very nice fellow and he took care of it. I told him that she was being bullied and was afraid for her safety and he managed to get her moved into a new room on a different wing in less than 30 minutes!
But, that meant we drove back down there (2.5 hours!) on Sunday to be sure she was settled back in ok and feeling better. We got her bed lofted and situated her furniture. Her 2 suite mates seem very nice and everyone who was involved (RA's etc.) were astonished at the level of racism that was being aimed at DD. They were glad to get her out of there and really glad they could turn this experience around. If we had brought her home Saturday night, I'm certain that her college career would have been over. She was so traumatized that she would never have gone on a campus for school again.
Two interesting things that let me know that God was in control of the whole thing: When I wrote her address down Thursday at work, I wrote it down wrong, transposed some of the numbers. So when I mailed the package on Saturday I mailed it to the wrong room. I figured it out Saturday afternoon and figured I'd tell her on Monday to let the mail folks know to be watching for it by name, not room number. When she text her sister the new room . . . . . it was 207 A - yep, the room I'd mailed the box to and the room I'd written down for all the family members, on Thursday. God knew all along that she wouldn't' be in 270A, he had his hand on her protecting her and guiding the journey. Also, even though I looked and looked in the van on Friday, I couldn't find my camera. So we had no pix of her first day at college. But when we went back on Sunday, it was right there in the van. So we took pix and we all decided that Sunday was her first day at college, the previous two days were just a bad horror movie, LOL!
She has had a great first week. Classes going well and no retaliation from the other girls. She is even hanging out with my friend's daughter (who is having roommate trouble too - hers is drinking and getting into her stuff without permission, ugh.) They are headed to a movie night on campus tonight so that should be fun, and she should be starting her campus job next week. I'd say she's off and rolling!
Thursday, August 14, 2014
And now for the good stuff!!
We are taking the middle child to college tomorrow, wow! It's about a 2.5 hour drive, so we are leaving about 6am. Tonight we'll finish packing up the car. She has about half of her stuff packed because it came from Gr'ma's when she moved out yesterday. But all the things I've been amassing for her (hamper, sheets, towels, cleaning stuff, food, etc.) still needs loaded up.
It's been a long week. My friend Angie is on vacation and I'm cleaning the dialysis clinic for her while she's gone. But that has made each day jam packed and scheduled to the minute. Last night is a good example - Mom & Jim wanted to take us out to celebrate DD going to college. So I worked from 8-4, then drove to MIL's and DD loaded all her moving out boxes up and we went home. She unloaded a couple that are not going to college, and we got back in the car with littlest one and made it to the restaurant right at 5:30pm. Left there at 7pm to go to mom's and we visited for a half hour, then I took both DD's home and switched out of my work clothes and made it to the clinic by 8:35 - just 5 minutes late to meet Jerrod who is cleaning with me. Home from that by 10:30 pm.
Now here is where it got interesting. I hadn't fed or watered the chickens in cages inside the coop for several days - just kept forgetting because I'm so busy. So I thought I'd better do that before I shut the coop up for the night. I prepared the bottles for their cages and grabbed a flashlight. As I got close to the coop and fluffy animal, a cat maybe? Waddled into the coop -- WAIT, is that a white tail? OH, and is the kitty mostly black???? UM, YIKES~ that would be what you call a Skunk, not a cat!! So needless to say, the birdies had to wait until this AM to get water and food, and they slept with the coop door open as well, LOL! Luckily, the coop doesn't smell like it had a skunk visitor last night, phew!
I have a great quilt on the frame, Dresden plates in 1930's fabrics, it's just so cute! And I have a great quilting plan too. So wouldn't you know it, my front handle switch went out, UGH! DH is going to swap it for the back handle switch (hopefully today) because it has to be soldered, and that is beyond my capabilities. He's going to drive down to the college tomorrow so I can work on some embroidery for a commissioned baby quilt. I'd like to get it onto the frame and quilted next weekend after hopefully finishing the Dresden plates this weekend. Delivering those will give our propane fund a big boost!
Work is mostly the same, although it's worth pointing out that I've been here 10 years on the 18th! Wow, that went quickly. I'm glad for all the special people I've met here and I do think that working here played a role in getting DH into a church and all of us to where we are today in our new church. God had a plan all along, as he always does!
It's been a long week. My friend Angie is on vacation and I'm cleaning the dialysis clinic for her while she's gone. But that has made each day jam packed and scheduled to the minute. Last night is a good example - Mom & Jim wanted to take us out to celebrate DD going to college. So I worked from 8-4, then drove to MIL's and DD loaded all her moving out boxes up and we went home. She unloaded a couple that are not going to college, and we got back in the car with littlest one and made it to the restaurant right at 5:30pm. Left there at 7pm to go to mom's and we visited for a half hour, then I took both DD's home and switched out of my work clothes and made it to the clinic by 8:35 - just 5 minutes late to meet Jerrod who is cleaning with me. Home from that by 10:30 pm.
Now here is where it got interesting. I hadn't fed or watered the chickens in cages inside the coop for several days - just kept forgetting because I'm so busy. So I thought I'd better do that before I shut the coop up for the night. I prepared the bottles for their cages and grabbed a flashlight. As I got close to the coop and fluffy animal, a cat maybe? Waddled into the coop -- WAIT, is that a white tail? OH, and is the kitty mostly black???? UM, YIKES~ that would be what you call a Skunk, not a cat!! So needless to say, the birdies had to wait until this AM to get water and food, and they slept with the coop door open as well, LOL! Luckily, the coop doesn't smell like it had a skunk visitor last night, phew!
I have a great quilt on the frame, Dresden plates in 1930's fabrics, it's just so cute! And I have a great quilting plan too. So wouldn't you know it, my front handle switch went out, UGH! DH is going to swap it for the back handle switch (hopefully today) because it has to be soldered, and that is beyond my capabilities. He's going to drive down to the college tomorrow so I can work on some embroidery for a commissioned baby quilt. I'd like to get it onto the frame and quilted next weekend after hopefully finishing the Dresden plates this weekend. Delivering those will give our propane fund a big boost!
Work is mostly the same, although it's worth pointing out that I've been here 10 years on the 18th! Wow, that went quickly. I'm glad for all the special people I've met here and I do think that working here played a role in getting DH into a church and all of us to where we are today in our new church. God had a plan all along, as he always does!
But the Mother-in-law might be crazy :0)
Started this post July 17:
Well, we made one more trip to the ER on Friday, May 30th - middle of the night again of course. Turns out the water pill that she was to take "as needed" and when I'd ask if she didn't think she should take one - she'd say no, she was just fine - ----- well, she needed to be taking it. She was retaining fluid and it was getting on her lungs causing her to be short of breath. There was a fight in the exam room between her and the daughter when we discovered that she should have been taking it but wasn't. The daughter had been pointing out her swelling feet and suggesting she was retaining fluid too. So of course, MIL was defensive and arguing that "that's fine, I just won't call or bother any of you anymore" and again saying we were to stay away from her doctor visits, she wants to be in the office alone with the Dr. (she thinks we are conspiring with him I guess.)
SO, we headed home and had an appointment with family doctor &; the heart Dr. on Monday June 2nd. I expected her to fuss about me going in but she acted like nothing ever had happened or been said about it. We just waltzed in there like normal. She was happy that he told her she could stop taking the bladder pill (she'd not taken it since April or so?) and the tummy pill (that she hadn't taken since MARCH!) so she feels like she got a victory. But he said the water pill is a must and all the others are too. He gave her prescriptions for the ones that didn't have refills left - that was cool, I wish my Dr. looked at all my Rx's on my visit and wrote new scripts for those that needed them. inevitably, I discover that I'm out of refills and need more meds, a week or so after a visit! Murphy's law!
Finished the post August 14:
Ended up having a big blow up with MIL the last Saturday in June. I had gone over to pick up DD for work, but MIL & her daughter were already fussing (I'd already been called a name by MIL even!) We ended up discussing lots of stuff that has been going on, trying to clear the air. But it became apparent to me that MIL was just being combative. She has been "off" the last few weeks. I brought up that she's been difficult and cranky towards me for the last two weeks but she wouldn't admit it or give me a reason. The daughter went into MIL's room to look for some paper RX's and MIL followed her. MIL was trying to grab daughter and daughter was swatting her away. There was no physical "altercation" but some swatting of hands. Also, in the Living room, MIL got up from her seat to attack a couple times and daughter stood up to her and kept her hands up defensively. One of the times MIL was going to hit me, and I didn't even realize it later until I was told. There was shouting and the whole confrontation was bad. MIL used her emergency device to call for help, saying "These girls are here and they are being mean to me and some one needs to come and make them leave." It was sad and kinda pathetic. The Sherriff's deputy arrived and we stepped outside. He talked to MIL and she said that she was doing just fine, keeping up with her chores and the animals, but we are trying to put her in a home and she doesn't want to go. We told him that she had been irrational of late and displaying temper and anger that are not normal. Many of the things she is saying are not true, but we are not able to discern if she is lying or delusional. He had us leave because she wanted us to, and she doesn't want either of us back in her home. *sigh* She will ask her neighbor to take her to town today, and I guess she'll lean on her for errands from now on.
UPDATE: Since I "got fired" by MIL, as I'm calling it. I have only returned into the house twice, to help my DD take something in or out, and once to use the phone (ours was out.) I've spoken to the neighbor and indeed, MIL asked her to be her caregiver, BUT, neighbor said "No, I have a house and a job, I can't do that, but I will take you to town for errands and doctor appts. when I can" But MIL is telling everyone that the neighbor is her caregiver. The day I was there to use the phone, MI L took the truck out of the garage and headed to town. I said, "I didn't know the Doctor released you to drive" and she responded that she could do anything she wants now. It is worth noting that she didn't say "The doctor said I can do anything I want" She is doing anything she wants because no one is supervising her anymore. My dd was still there up until last night when she moved out for college, and she was keeping an eye on her. But now, MIL has it just the way she wanted it - no one caretaking and she is in complete control. Unfortunately, that means she is taking risks she shouldn't (mowing the yard, going up and down stairs -- with laundry baskets in her hands even, driving, and not taking meds if she doesn't think she needs them., etc.) I can pray for her safety and health, but that's it. I'm sure she will get herself into a medical crisis (my money is on her stopping her water pill AMA) and end up in the ER, then we can step back in and hopefully the Doctors can get her to understand that her health and mental status don't support her being alone any more.
Well, we made one more trip to the ER on Friday, May 30th - middle of the night again of course. Turns out the water pill that she was to take "as needed" and when I'd ask if she didn't think she should take one - she'd say no, she was just fine - ----- well, she needed to be taking it. She was retaining fluid and it was getting on her lungs causing her to be short of breath. There was a fight in the exam room between her and the daughter when we discovered that she should have been taking it but wasn't. The daughter had been pointing out her swelling feet and suggesting she was retaining fluid too. So of course, MIL was defensive and arguing that "that's fine, I just won't call or bother any of you anymore" and again saying we were to stay away from her doctor visits, she wants to be in the office alone with the Dr. (she thinks we are conspiring with him I guess.)
SO, we headed home and had an appointment with family doctor &; the heart Dr. on Monday June 2nd. I expected her to fuss about me going in but she acted like nothing ever had happened or been said about it. We just waltzed in there like normal. She was happy that he told her she could stop taking the bladder pill (she'd not taken it since April or so?) and the tummy pill (that she hadn't taken since MARCH!) so she feels like she got a victory. But he said the water pill is a must and all the others are too. He gave her prescriptions for the ones that didn't have refills left - that was cool, I wish my Dr. looked at all my Rx's on my visit and wrote new scripts for those that needed them. inevitably, I discover that I'm out of refills and need more meds, a week or so after a visit! Murphy's law!
Finished the post August 14:
Ended up having a big blow up with MIL the last Saturday in June. I had gone over to pick up DD for work, but MIL & her daughter were already fussing (I'd already been called a name by MIL even!) We ended up discussing lots of stuff that has been going on, trying to clear the air. But it became apparent to me that MIL was just being combative. She has been "off" the last few weeks. I brought up that she's been difficult and cranky towards me for the last two weeks but she wouldn't admit it or give me a reason. The daughter went into MIL's room to look for some paper RX's and MIL followed her. MIL was trying to grab daughter and daughter was swatting her away. There was no physical "altercation" but some swatting of hands. Also, in the Living room, MIL got up from her seat to attack a couple times and daughter stood up to her and kept her hands up defensively. One of the times MIL was going to hit me, and I didn't even realize it later until I was told. There was shouting and the whole confrontation was bad. MIL used her emergency device to call for help, saying "These girls are here and they are being mean to me and some one needs to come and make them leave." It was sad and kinda pathetic. The Sherriff's deputy arrived and we stepped outside. He talked to MIL and she said that she was doing just fine, keeping up with her chores and the animals, but we are trying to put her in a home and she doesn't want to go. We told him that she had been irrational of late and displaying temper and anger that are not normal. Many of the things she is saying are not true, but we are not able to discern if she is lying or delusional. He had us leave because she wanted us to, and she doesn't want either of us back in her home. *sigh* She will ask her neighbor to take her to town today, and I guess she'll lean on her for errands from now on.
UPDATE: Since I "got fired" by MIL, as I'm calling it. I have only returned into the house twice, to help my DD take something in or out, and once to use the phone (ours was out.) I've spoken to the neighbor and indeed, MIL asked her to be her caregiver, BUT, neighbor said "No, I have a house and a job, I can't do that, but I will take you to town for errands and doctor appts. when I can" But MIL is telling everyone that the neighbor is her caregiver. The day I was there to use the phone, MI L took the truck out of the garage and headed to town. I said, "I didn't know the Doctor released you to drive" and she responded that she could do anything she wants now. It is worth noting that she didn't say "The doctor said I can do anything I want" She is doing anything she wants because no one is supervising her anymore. My dd was still there up until last night when she moved out for college, and she was keeping an eye on her. But now, MIL has it just the way she wanted it - no one caretaking and she is in complete control. Unfortunately, that means she is taking risks she shouldn't (mowing the yard, going up and down stairs -- with laundry baskets in her hands even, driving, and not taking meds if she doesn't think she needs them., etc.) I can pray for her safety and health, but that's it. I'm sure she will get herself into a medical crisis (my money is on her stopping her water pill AMA) and end up in the ER, then we can step back in and hopefully the Doctors can get her to understand that her health and mental status don't support her being alone any more.
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