4 months just flew right by!

Yikes!  4 months and no posts - oops!  I do mean well, and often I compose blog entries in my head.  Unfortunately, it's usually when I'm lying my head down on my pillow at night, and as you can see - those posts don't make it to the blog.

I'm actually have a good streak right now, not sure why, but happy for it all the same!  House is tidy, and Mt. Washmore is sooooo close to being conquered.  Been feeling good and being productive - can't ask for more than that!  I'm in the middle of rearranging the quilting room.  Max and Marci each want to get rid of a tall bookshelf.  So the 2 shelves I have now will go out to the barn - they have a larger footprint and I find that they stick too much out into the walkway.

So right now it's complete chaos, things piled on the longarm table and stuff half moved, LOL!  The pix below show the fireplace wall.  It will keep the design wall in place and the treadle in front of the fireplace, but the thread cabinet will go beside the design wall.  The rolling garment rack will go across the room to hold customer quilts and a box of batting scraps probably.

The next view is the wall where the cutting table/cabinet will go.  I think the quilts on the wall can remain hanging where they are, we'll see.  My sewing machine desk will go in the spot where the cutting table is now (can't really see it, behind the longarm) on the wall with the window, just to the left of the window.  I'd like to keep the space in front of the window clear so I can have a quilt there for Maggie to lie on.  She loves napping there in the sun when the curtains are open!

And this last pix shows the two shelves that are getting replaced.  They are really nice shelves, but just not so practical for what I need in here, and sticking out further at the base is annoying too.  The thread cabinet/hutch in between them will be moved across the room, and the garment rack will go in this area somewhere - depends on how much room is left around the longarm.  I'd like enough room to scoot to the other side, but can give it up and go the long way if I have to.  That's one of those things I'll just have to move the furniture around and see how it works best.

In family news.  Marci finished cheering and had a great season.  Next up is a clinic to brush up on try out skills and then try outs for High School - wow!  Can't believe my last baby is going to be in High School next year.  Here are some pix from one of the last games -

The middle pix is with her two awesome coaches, Jamie and Mollie.  She sure learned a lot from them and I really think she has a good chance to make the High School squad.  Those tryouts are in April - stay tuned, LOL.

Ellen got her first job about a month ago - she is working at Chuckie Cheese's, tee hee.  Corny place, but she seems to like it ok.  She doesn't like one boss, but everyone else is nice.  And for the most part, no one likes this one boss.  She isn't very nice to the kids.  My only beef with the job is that I am her taxi and they don't always let her off on time.  Last night she was scheduled 5 - 8 pm.  I arrived at 8 pm to pick her up and sat in my car for 1 hour and 45 minutes.  The bad part is, that's not unusual.  She gets off on time about once a week, and is about an hour late all the other times.  Of course, she's supposed to be checking into getting her driver's permit so she can learn to drive, get her license and drive herself - hasn't lifted a finger yet *sigh*.

Guess that's all the news for now - time to go home and start the weekend!

Final challenge report, not so good :0(

Well, I had good intentions, and though I didn't knock the challenge out of the park - I did get organized and finish some more quilts than I would have.  Right now my board is in very good shape.  I actually have a very reasonable few months ahead of me, with only about 3 quilts in Oct. & Nov.  And only one in December, leaving room to get one done for Marci for Christmas!  I have told people that I'm currently booking January, and no one has complained, so Hip Hip Hooray!

Last weekend was the guild's quilt show.  I pushed to get a new whitework quilt done.  I had about 36 hours of quilting time in it.  The "Polly Pocket Quilt" I made from Adam Chenovert's class and a purse were entered as well.  The Polly Pocket quilt won first place in the "Special Techniques" category and the newer quilt was second.  Most exciting though, the Polly Pocket won "Best Machine Quilting" overall for the show!  Woo Woo!!!  I was surprised and so delighted.  I received a lot of good compliments from folks who attended the show and it was really sweet.  Overall it was a great show, the guild got lots of positive comments about the quality of the show and the beautiful quilts.  Folks are looking forward to the next one in two years!

I took some pictures, but have to find the camera to post, LOL!  Those crazy weekends can be like that!

Marci first 8th grade football game!

Ugh!  Looking at the calendar, the challenge is over half way done, but only a few quilts to show for it.  Must get in gear. 

Of course, with school going now, the kids' activities have picked up and I'm losing a fair amount of quilting time to that.  Last night was the first football game for the littlest DD who cheers.  It was fun.  They looked great in the new uniforms and pom poms.  It was along night, with two games to cheer, and they were beginning to look a little worn out by the end of the second one, poor things!

Got some good photos:

The girls were glad as shade spread over their side of the field! 

This next photo is a fun one.  We didn't know that when the football team scores, the cheerleaders have to do pushups - the same number as the score.  So after the first touchdown & field goal it was 7 pushups, after the next, it was 14 pushups . . . . . good thing it's Jr. High and the score doesn't get into the 40's very often, LOL!  Needless to say, the pushups were her sister's favorite part of the whole night!  The announcer and crowd count for them and cheer them on, it was really fun.

Wednesday progress report & stay away kids!

Let's address today's post in reverse order:

It has come to my children's attention that I have a blog.  Middle DD is searching the web for it (found her scribbled note of keywords) - I will shut it down rather than have the kids read it.  Reading this blog would be the same as me searching your room for your journals and reading them.  If you think THAT'S ok DD, then read on, but do not ever get on your high horse about ME invading YOUR privacy.

Hopefully, this has been addressed and we can continue on to regular programming now, LOL

Progress on the challenge:  One quilt almost done.  I'm on the last sections and they are going pretty fast.  Though I have to pick more blackberries tonight and process them, I think I can get the quilt done by bedtime.  YIPPEE!  Then I will load this customer's other quilt, which she wants only and E2E on, and finish it quickly too.

I have a couple of pix of the quilt in progress, but I"m on the wrong computer to post them, have to do that later.

Max almost got his windshield replaced yesterday, but there was a glitch, so the fellow will be out today to finish the job.  Poor guy, he had his work van all opened up to get to tools and such, and one of the newer red hens climbed right in and took her sweet time searching all through it!  Climbing in tool bins and everything!  Man, these three reds are way, way too curious.  They must have some cat in them somewhere!

Progress report, sort of ;0)

So here's my tiny bit of progress.  I did finish the baby quilt for the shower on July 28th.  It was pretty simple, just pieced yardage from Hobby Lobby and a minkie backing.  I didn't even use a batting since there was flannel and chenille in the top and the minkie was fluffy too.  Quilted a meandering feather all over it.  The first picture still has my blue washout marker marking the spine so I had a guide.

Next, I knew I had to change the ceiling fan in the quilt room before I could make any progress on the challenge.  There was a short or something in the chain pull for the ceiling fan light.  I know this and use the wall switches to turn it off and on, but Mr. Calico came through and used the chain pull to turn it off at some point, and after 500 + pulls over the course of several days, I couldn't get it to come back on (yeah, I'm a touch stubborn, LOL)

SO - out came the tool box.  Luckily I already had the new ceiling fan on hand.  It had been bought on clearance some time back, as a discontinued sample . . . . . just never got around to putting it in.  Gee, I hope others have that problem too, I'd hate to be the only one!  Once I took the old (heavy) fan and light down, I was reminded that I never finished painting the ceiling a few years ago . . . . . . ran out of paint and time, never got back to it  *sigh*  I'm seeing a pattern here!

And it was such a small patch of ceiling too, only about 1/4 of the room.  I quickly threw some heavy fabric over my shelves, found some ceiling paint in the cellar and drug out the ladder.  The new fan base was going to be much smaller, so I was going to have to do this anyway.  Might as well dig in.  The trim at the ceiling needs done too, but that can be for another day, LOL.

So after I was done and put the paint stuff away, I waited to the next day and tackled the fan.  UGH!  It wasn't as easy as painting!  Couldn't for the life of me get the silly light to work.  The fan worked fine, but no light.  Checked and rechecked my wiring, but nothing.  So I went to the hardware store to ask the guy some questions.  And we decided my course of action would be to take the light kit apart and check the wiring inside there - maybe it got jiggled loose sitting around in my quilting room.  Well, I did that and would you know?  The light kit had never been connected to the fan base!  Gee, I fiddle farted around for a couple of days checking and rechecking stuff, changing light bulbs, getting zapped by the electricity a few times -- thinking I was doing something wrong when NOPE!  Even making a trip into town to consult with Mr. Hardware guy -- and It wasn't me at all.

Finally got the fan and light in and working - Yeah!

Then MIL calls to let me know the blackberries are ripe and oh, there are plums too.  So that meant another pause in the action to pick fruit, process it and make jelly.  We are picking berries every three days, and plums every two days.  I manage to get a batch of jelly done by the day after picking.  This picture is from a few days back, there are even more jars now.  So far we are at 18 jars of Blackberry Jelly, 24 tiny jars of Plum Jelly (for teacher, mailman, propane guy, etc. gifts this Christmas) 10 jars plus two tall jelly jars of Plum Jelly.  Today is the day to pick blackberries - so expect 6 more jars of that by tomorrow.

But all that put a crimp in the quilting plans.  Plus a friend came over to use the machine so I unloaded the quilt I was working on, and we did hers that evening.  The SUPER DUPER part of that is, a friend came over  . . . . . . . that means I had to tidy the house which really needed it!  But I lost the morning to tidying and laundry, and the afternoon/evening to helping her quilt.

SO -- with renewed vigor, I set myself back to the quilt challenge and hope that life doesn't interfere again!  I still have 33 days - that's a lot of quilting time.  For today my goals are to get the darn berries & plums picked and processed, and then finish up the main body of the charity quilt and one border.  That will get it ready for turning and finishing the last two borders tomorrow.  Wish me luck (and send me Diet Coke for energy, LOL)

My own Longarm Quilting Challenge!

Ok.  Take a deep breath!

I've been inspired by Jenny, another longarm quilter who had a backlog of customer quilts.  She gave herself a 31 day challenge to finish the 30 quilts she had on backlog.  She didn't make the goal, but she DID make significant progress, I think the total was 19 or 20 -- WOO HOO.  Granted, all but 3 or 4 were simple all overs, or all overs combined with a couple of borders.  But the point is - it got her committed to getting it done.  And even she said that it kept her focused on going back and quilting after getting interrupted/distracted.  She knew she had a goal to meet and so she knew she had to go back into her quilting room and get started again no matter how many times she got interrupted.  And she has kiddos younger than I so this gives me encouragement!!

I've already discovered books on CD's and that has gone a long, long way in keeping me from getting distracted and off the task of quilting.  Plus, I don't like stopping in the middle of a CD, so I'm likely to "keep going to the end of this CD."  Which gets a little more and a little more done.  Baby Steps you know!  So with a challenge commitment, I think I could make some amazing progress too!

Right now I have:
3 calls to make for setting intake appointments.

2 Queen/King & 3 Full size quilts on hand (one is for heirloom/custom, the other four are med. quilting)
2 Quilts of Valor - one done, one to go
2 twin size - one will be EZ boards, one light custom
1 Full/Queen - med. custom (to match one done before)
1 Wall hanging - round robin from guild yrs ago, custom/heirloom (will likely be mine to keep once done)

My Queen round robin from the MOL group - heirloom/custom, would like to finish for guild show
Plus one Queen size for mom.  She could be swayed into hand quilting it I bet, but parts of it looked like fun for me to quilt - maybe I quilt some and baste other parts for her to hand quilt??

Piecing (and then quilting):
1 T-shirt quilt (need to try one so I can do an up coming one for customer)
1 Twin (Marci's pink, black, lime quilt - I want to include this because it needs to get done!)

By FAR the most intimidating is the one for Martha.  She's a friend of my mom's (pressure to do well) and the last 2 quilt I did for her won ribbons at our last guild show (more pressure) AND I've had the top for just over a year (more more more pressure!)  I really feel like if I can get it moved out, I'll feel a great relief and the others will flow more easily.  But it's a big one, with, I kid you not -- 24" borders on the outside!  Yep, it's an embroidered table cloth and she bought yardage, cut it in half down the fold, then cut it to length and slapped it on the 4 sides of the table cloth!  That has had me stumped and intimidated for most of the year, LOL.  I do have a plan to do large swags and try to break up the area into more manageable strips, but still, 24" is a lot of length, and a lot of area to fill up, LOL.

So here's my challenge - a Labor Day Challenge - if I start counting Saturday, July 21 - that gives me 45 days till Labor Day.  My challenge is to complete all of these quilts and get them returned to their owners by Labor Day.

Now, mind you, I'm doing these numbers from work.  I've not included today or tomorrow in my 45 days so I can go home, sort and tidy my quilt studio and get ready for the attack.  That means that when I go through my stack, the numbers might change if I've forgotten about one here or there (always a possibility with my middle aged brain, LOL)  edited to add: yep, just remembered one I'd forgotten.  Updated the totals above, not suprised ;0)

Jenny was great about posting almost everyday, but I'll likely only update Wed. through Fri. when I have WiFi at work, with Dial-up at home, posting and pictures would be a drag.  Although, if I can figure out how to do it easily with my phone, I'll be accountable every day of the 45 days.

So there you go.  I'm committed, it's out there.  Abolish my backlog of customer & charity quilts and complete a few of my own that are most important.  No taking it back now ;0)

RRGGG! Why is iTunes so hard to learn??

Seriously, I'm a bright person (ok, mostly in a book learning sense, not common sense, but that's not important here!) so why can't I get this iPhone and iTunes thing working? When I plug the phone into the computer it wants to sync everything - NO! It's the work computer, I don't want all my apps on it silly.

And then, when it's done syncing - the new music I downloaded isn't even on my phone - sheesh! That was the whole point of syncing silly! The local library offers 3 free downloads from a song library each week, but they are not transferring from iTunes on my computer to my phone. Off I go to try again. *sigh*



Ah, the key was to go online and do a search for my problem.  And of course, it boiled down to . . . . I was doing it wrong, LOL.  It actually is pretty simple, when you do it right.  Now my free downloads from the library are on my phone - happy day!!