Doe Sew Day

Next week starts the 2 week white tail rifle deer hunt here in Michigan.  Living in the northern part of the state it is a big deal to many people including my husband and our two sons.  Many people have a hunting camp where they go to relax, hunt, eat, drink adult beverages, play cards and shoot the bull.  We don't have a camp but my guys like to get together at my brother-in-laws to chat, share stories of their day in the woods and eat a few meals together.

For several years now our Quilt Guild has held a Doe Sew, a quilter's version of a deer camp.  We gather in the morning with our sewing machines and a specific project or we can work on our own projects.  As with any "deer" camp we always have lots of food (pot-luck) and lots of chatter and laughter.  This years project was a really cute snowman wall hanging.  I decided not to start another project right now so I worked on my log cabin blocks.  It is very scrappy and I am using 1 1/2 inch wide strips.  I am not in any hurry to finish this quilt so it is a perfect project to travel with.

Speaking of traveling, I am packed to head to a 3 day retreat tomorrow.  I am not taking the log cabin project but I did pack 2 UFO's, both mystery quilts that I started while working at Thunder Bay Resort.  I am hoping to have both of the tops done before I come home.  I also threw in a few smaller projects just in case.  I am always afraid that I will run out of projects so I always over pack when going to quilting retreats. 

A Little Bit of Organization and A Little Bit of Time in My Sewing Room

It was a busy weekend here but we were able to move some furniture into our "new" living room.  I am not real fussy about how things look.  I feel that it is our home and if it works for us that is good enough for me.  We still need to make some changes as we are moving rooms around and we have a process in mind.  We decided not to move things out of my "old" sewing  room and into my "new" sewing room until we can get another metal storage system.  We have one know and are hoping we can match it as there is the perfect spot in my sewing room.  We think we bought it at Lowes and the nearest Lowes in in Gaylord, about an hour drive.  We are going to Gaylord this weekend so with the price of gas and our busy schedule we decided to wait.  It is nice to have a chair, a TV and some hand work in the evenings.

I did climb over boxes yesterday to spend some time in my sewing room.  I spent quite a bit of time cutting strips for a log cabin quilt.  The strips are 1 1/2 inches wide and I like to cut them to the proper length.  Our Quilt Guild is having our annual Doe Sew on Thursday and I have decide to work on the Log Cabin blocks instead of starting a new project by making the really cute snow man wall hanging project that is being offered.

We also enjoyed a visit with our son Greg and his two very lively and very busy two year old twin sons Gavin and Grady.  They are at such a cute stage, singing and dancing and just having fun.  I made home made pizza for dinner and was surprised at how much those little guys ate.

Off to work now.  I am the election administrator for my community of 1700 + voters so as you can guess I have been pretty busy with all of that.  Like so many others I am looking forward to all of the campaigning coming to an end bit for a slightly different reason.  I am on the ballot but I don't have any opposition.  I have been the clerk here in my township since 1988.

A Finished Project -------Finally!

I was able to get the binding finished on this Honey Bee Quilt last week and I really like the way it turned out.  When we started our remodeling project we moved as many things as possible out of the two rooms involved.  Every room in the house ended up as a storage rooms except the bathroom.  And since my sewing room doesn't get a lot of traffic it seemed to be used the most.  As of right now I couldn't get to my Viking if I wanted too as it is in a cabinet.  But my Janome and Featherweight are accessible and I have used both of them for three retreats in the last few weeks.  I hand quilted this quilt, added the binding by machine during the early stages of the remodeling, so I just had to hand stitch the binding.  I have done both methods of binding, totally by machine and by machine and hand stitching and I still prefer the hand stitching.  I just like the way it looks.  Last night I finished the binding on another quilt and will have to get a picture of that one.  I have not even started settingup my new sewing room yet.  We are going to wait till we can get to town to buy new storage shelves.  I am anxious to get things rolling.