haul from Goodwill

Yesterday on my way home from sewing class, I popped into Goodwill. My friend had told me it might be a good place to look for something to keep my thread in. I can always get the plastic drawers, but I'm tired of plastic. It has to be under 25 inches...and the drawers have to be deep enuf for a big cone of thread. I didn't find any furniture..but I DID find treasures!

I have a gap between my sewing table and my cutting table. Things that fall down between are hard to retrieve! I will be using parts of a couple of these things to make a caddy to fill that gap...Karen has been revving me up on my Home Depot wanderings. I love the crafty stuff she comes up with!




A frame for a Lang calendar. I have loved those for a long time...now I have some place to hang it... Also a box with a hole on the side. I'm going to repaint it and use it as a tissue box. Counter space on my sewing table it at a premium. I will be able to stack something on this if the tissues come out the side.





The blue divided platter will go on the long arm for prewound bobbins and other gadgets. See a snowflake theme here? I MIGHT be tempted to call my new quilting biz something with a snowflake...except I live in the DESERT! HA! Wishful thinking...




This little guy is self explanitory. I'm a dog person...and I have papers to organize. Enuf said!

Tomorrow is laundry day. I will finish up quilting a baby quilt and get started putting the next together. Maybe have borders and most of the backing together before bed. See you tomorrow!

300 posts!

OH MY GOODNESS! I just looked at my post counter...and this is 301! I know I have been a bad bad blogger this summer, but fall looks better for good info anyway!Maybe I should have a giveaway! More info to come...


I got to attend the Sept meeting of the AZ LongArm Quilters. Its part of the AZ Quilters Guild. I had an errand to do on the way. I only looked at the address from MY house...not from where my errand was. ::::S I G H:::: I'm not too upset if I'm just a bit late for things..but NOT THE FIRST TIME! I hate to be late to something my 1st visit. I WAS...I over shot not once..not twice but THREE TIMES! This is a lesson to ME...READ THE MAP. BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE ERRAND SITE. Enuf said.

I really enjoyed the meeting. Well..not the meeting part..those are always necessary..but boring. Especially when you are not part of any of what they are talking about! But this month they had a program...and it was GREAT! Terry Doyle talked about how to plan a whole cloth quilt. She even gave us folders with vellum, pencil, ruler and about 6 sheets of design idea. Her tip to look for quilting ideas all around you must have stuck. I took these 2 pictures at GOODWILL in the linens dept! HA!




I found these in the kitchen...I know I will get more use out of them in the quilt studio than the kitchen. I think they will live there for now...




The 2nd speaker was Jessica Brunneman ( have probably butchered her last name..I CALLED her Jennifer, even tho I have met her before. My brain said Jessica even as my mouth was voicing Jennifer!what a DAY!) She shared background fill ideas instead of always stippling. THAT was fun! She gave ideas for projects we brought too.

The AZ quilters guilds's charity (I'm not sure if always or just this year) is Quilts of Valor. They had a couple dozen quilts ready to go with backing/batting/top ready for volunteers to take home and quilt. Any way we want...good practice for a newbie! I took two and they don't have to be returned till Jan.

And last but not least: show and tell! there was one quilt that just came back from Moda's challenge traveling show...a quilt the quilter needed help on background fill (good timing on her part!) and a raffle quilt I have seen before and drooled AGAIN!

Tomorrow I will show you what I snagged at Goodwill...and what is going to become...and one more helpful tip from the Long arm group...I'm tired!

USC progress

I fiddle and futzed with the letters...and finally got a combo of 3 I liked. Here are 3 fused:







Here is a closer look at the U...On the fabric, it looked like the letters had a thin border around the whole letter. Instead of cutting extra pieces I used a zigzag stitch.




This is a close up of the zigzag. I have never been a great satin stitcher, so I just lengthened the stitch so it was not solid. It is nothing to write home about, but I like the look. If you step back, it looks like the one on the fabric. I'm a happy camper. I will do the S tomorrow, but I'm pegged out on zigzag for the night. It takes too much out of me! lolol


Tomorrow I get to attend the AZ LongArm Quilters group. It should be a good time! They meet every other month and last meeting I was flying to Austin that day. DRAT! The program this month is how to plan a whole cloth quilt. THAT will be interesting. I hope to make a trip into IKEA. I need some under bed storage and something to hold my batting roll under the Gammill. Night!

USC quilt

Ok...so every year we rent a beach house in Central California. All friends of my husband from high school ...only 2 of us 'aliens'...rest are Mayfair Monsoon alums. I have been making each husband a quilt...this year is Nick's year. Nick is a USC FANATIC with the emphasis on FAN! He has season tickets, tailgates at each game..you get the picture. So when I asked him last year, what kind of quilt he wanted, this is what answer I recieved : Weeeelll, I REALLY would like a USC quilt, but you probably can't make one of those. (do you hear the CHALLENGE in that request? Do you think I would EVER make him anything ELSE? nope...not me..not gonna back down on THIS ONE! ::::grin::::). I found USC fabric. Every idea I had sketched, my DH said "that is too graphic". Um...er...Honey? those colors? ANY quilt in gold and maroon is gonna be GRAPHIC! I finally agreed with him on one...with a center square featuring the USC logo. Not the Trojan...I'm not THAT good! Just the letters. I scanned them off the fabric and cut them out for size. I'm thinking they need to be a BIT bigger..but how about some opinions? Please? They WILL be in maroon...so please excuse the white paper color!





The plan is to fuse, then edge stitch in maroon and do a wide zig zag just in side the edges to mimic the outline. On the logo letters there is an outline of the letter colors. Thanks in advance for your opinions...I love to have a sounding board!


PS Julie no blog...no forwarding this on to Nick!

OK OK! I promise to post more!

Julie No Blog has called me on the phone to COMPLAIN! She said it was ENTIRELY unacceptable that I have not posted since early Aug. I tell you..moving 3 rooms...getting a kid settled in school....breaking down my old frame...having the new one delivered...trying to get the courage to THREAD IT...OIL it...OH MY GOODNESS! STITCH on it!

The Gammill got delivered a week and a half ago..Guess what I have been doing? Trying not to be intimidated by it! I'm taking an online feather class called Feather Bootcamp. That is overwhelming and a good thing at the same time. I HAVE to stitch to keep up with the class...so I have to dive in and not tip toe around saying "its such a big machine...::whine whine::: Idon't know how to thread it ::;whine whine:::: how do I oil it ::;whine whine::::







here is a small peek at what I'm working on in the class: This is my 2nd attempt at a squared off feathered wreath:










This is my practice drawing for the day.


I'm really enjoying this class! Its given me the confidence to maybe try some of these free motion. Some of the students in the class have been stitching on fleece. I will look for some this weekend. See you soon!

Painting DONE!

YIPPPEEE! I don't mind PAINTING> Its the prepping...taping...PRIMING! ICK! I finished priming the rest of the room last night...and today my loving DH lent a hand with the roller. I do the nitpicky detail stuff...and he is GREAT with a roller. We had the rest of the room knocked out by 11. BOY was I HUNGRY! I also feel like I was hit by a mac truck. Sheesh!...its just PAINT! I will finish touching up as soon as I fold the latest load of clothes. Then I think I"m ready for a NAP! It was so hot in there with out the ceiling fan going. I sure rely on them ALOT!

I may get to start moving all my ....er.....JUNK .....um..... STUFF... SEWING EQUIPMENT tonight. I don't be able to move the old frame table till DH gets home on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. I will move as much as I can with out getting in the way of that long table. Its a10 ft Formica counter on 3 Ikea dressers. I am hoping to have the countertop raised up so I can use it as a work surface..and maybe one end a desk area for this laptop. I have the Gammill scheduled to be moved this coming Friday. It will go into the room I currently use as a studio. My DH and I measured again yesterday just to make sure. I was right and I will have to move out. The new studio is a 12 ft by 12 ft square room. The current studio is 11ft by 14ft. I need those extra 2 feet for the 12 foot frame! :::giggle::: Can't you just see me LIMBO-ing under that frame to get to the other side? I would rather move all my sewing stuff! lolol I promise to post some pictures as soon as it looks a bit more organized! In the mean time, where in the HECK am I going to find room for all my son's TREASURES? Boy, by the time this is all done, I will have cleaned out/moved no less than 3 rooms of stuff!

Sorry about no pictures. I do hate to blog w/o pictures...

In honor of Rookie

If you have read my blog for over a year, you remember this day last year.







My border collie mix, Rookie, escaped from our locked house during a storm. He was missing for almost 4 months. His return was because a caring person took him to a vets office where he was scanned for a microchip. You can imagine my surprise (and JOY) to get him back after so much time. I had a huge red nose from crying and a grin from ear to ear! (and this after 3 days before bringing home a new PUP! HA! God DOES have a sense of humor!). In honor of Rookie's return, please microchip your pets! If they are microchipped, please take this time this week to update and/or review their info. You need to update everytime you move.

I hug him EVERYDAY and marvel at the fact that we got him back!