Quilting Season

Fall is here and hopefully the "busy-ness" of summer will slow down far awhile.  I have been working on some quilting projects but I hope to have more time once I finish the canning from the garden.  In the spring I received a phone call from Jack, my former boss at Thunder Bay Resort in Hillman.  He told me that he was considering holding another Quilter's Retreat this fall and asked if I was still interested in working as the Quilter's Retreat Coordinator.  I thought about it for two seconds and asked when I could start.  So - we have a Quilter's Retreat scheduled for October 31 - November 3, 2013 at Thunder Bay Resort in Hillman.  This retreat will be a UFO retreat, so we can all get a few projects finished up.  I know for myself I tell myself that I am not going to start anything new until I finish up a few projects.  And as I look at my calendar I see that I have signed up for 3 classes in the next 6 weeks, so much for self-control.  But I like to learn new things so I try to take advantage of as many classes as possible.  A retreat like this will give all of us time to finish up a few things, meet other quilters, share ideas and just plain have a good time.  Please check out our website - www.thunderbayresort.com for additional details.  The retreat will feature 3 nights lodging, 3 breakfasts, an Italian dinner buffet, an appetizer and wine tasting reception, the resort's award winning Elk Viewing Carriage Ride with a gourmet dinner and wine tasting, vendors, a trunk show, a square swap, show and tell and a few other things.  Please call 800-729-9375 for pricing and reservations.

Happy New Year!

My plan for the last several weeks was to get in gear and make more postings on my blog this year.  Here it is, the third day of the new year and I am finally getting to it.  Oh well, better late than never.  I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful holiday season.  We sure did.  We were able to spend time with family and also have a little r & r time.  Steve had some vacation time and we enjoyed spending time together.

This is a picture of one corner of my new sewing room.  I absolutely love my new sewing room.  My long arm has not arrived yet but we are ready and anxiously awaiting the phone call.  I spent many hours in my sewing room on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and had a great time.  I put binding on a couple of wall hangings, made a very small table toppper from a kit and did some machine applique on my Block of the Month from last year.  I had to do a fabric search so I went through several boxes of my fabric stash.  By the time I found what I was looking for my head was whirling with ideas for my stash.  Hopefully this winter I can spend lots of time enjoying my new sewing room and playing with my fabric.  I do have an election on February 26 so that will keep me busy but not near as busy as the elections in August and November.  Off now to do a little bit of sewing before I head to our Guild business meeting.  Enjoy your day and I hope you get to do some sewing too.

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.

A Big Decision and a Lot of Chaos

We made a decision.  I orderd the long arm quilting machine a few weeks ago.  And I am so excited.  As I posted earlier Steve came up with 4 options for remodeling our house to make room for the long arm.  After a lot of thought and measuring we decided on a 5th plan.  The 5th plan involves a lot more work but we both decided it would be the best plan.  Steve removed a closet, 2 half walls, carpet, a split stone fire place and the chimney that was in the garage.  He replaced dry wall, built a closet where the chimney was and had to do some other repairs.  We picked out new carpet for two rooms and then it was time to choose paint.  I have never been good at picking colors, I have always felt safe with an off white color.  My sister Carol and I spent quite a bit of time with paint chips and decided on a soft green color and I love it.  My sister loves to paint so she did all of the walls.  Steve and I had painted the ceiling in one room and did the primer paint on the new dry wall and the walls where we had removed wall paper.  It has been a lot of work but we are now on the down hill slide.  Actually I am waiting today for the carpet guys but I have a feeling it is not going to happen today.  I am very tired of dealing with the chaos but I am excited about the final outcome.  My sewing room has more than doubled in size.  Oh, I think the carpet guys are here, yea!!  Yes, they are here and figure they can get both floors done today.  Then the fun of putting everything back together will begin.

A Very Fun Day

Last Friday our Guild hosted a 25th Anniversary/Friendship Day.  Two of my sisters, my Mom and I were on the committee.  We had 124 ladies and 1 man (my husband) attend the festivities.  The morning started with a 2 large tables full of muffins, cookies, donuts and other goodies brought in by our Guild members.  Attendees were asked to bring in a fat quarter and we filled two baskets that were given away.  We had three vendors, Backstreet Quilt Shoppe from Elkton, Hollyhock Quilt Shoppe from harrisville and Sandy Dee's Sewing Shop from Hillman.  The vendors each donated a door prize and we also gave away the 18 centerpieces.  Our guest speaker was Tresa Keyes from Petoskey who gave a beautiful trunk show sharing her quilts made with 1930's original and reproduction fabrics.  We served a delicious lunch of sandwiches and salad.  Dessert was this cake made by my sister Carol.  She always does a beautiful job with her cakes and they always taste yummy too.

I Have Missed My Blogging

I have really missed blogging.  I think about adding a post but for some reason it just doesn't happen. I guess I am just like everyone else, sometimes there just aren't enough hours in a day.

My family - It is back to school time and 3 of our grandchildren went back to school on Tuesday.  Cameryn is in 6th grade this year (hard to believe) and he is also playing pee wee football.  His first game is on Saturday and we will be there to cheer him on.  London is now in second grade and this is his first year in public school.  He was so excited to ride the bus and he said it was really fun.  Allie started kindergarten and told me that she cried when the teacher asked each one of the student to tell the class what they did during the summer.  My sister Connie has been doctoring at Mayo Clinic for two benign brain tumors.  She had 3 appointments yesterday and will have surgery in November to remove one of the tumors.  Her oldest grandson Jacob (14 years old) has been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and is receiving chemo treatments in Ann Arbor, a 4 hour drive from home.  He is doing very well and the doctors are very optimistic that it was caught in time and that he will do well.

My quilt world - Most of my spare time has been put into making favors for our Guild's 25th Anniversary/Friendship Day to be held next week.  My hand quilting was put aside when the weather was so hot as I quilt on my lap and it was just too darned hot.  The evenings have been cooling down some so I have picked up my hand quilting project again.  My husband Steve and I went to the AQS show in Grand Rapids last month and we had a great time.  We saw some absolutely beautiful quilts and also did a little damage with the vendors.  I bought a couple of patterns and a couple of small kits.  We also spent quite a bit of time with a long arm salesman/manufacturer.  He and his wife make the machines and the frames in their shop in Tennessee.  I really liked the way the machine felt and worked.  It got us thinking about making a purchase again.  We came home and did some measuring as it would take up quite a bit of space.  My husband came up with 4 options.  I nixed two of them right off the bat and told him that one of them really appealed to me.  The problem is that it would require some remodeling and I have been through enough of that with our old house to know that we always have to be prepared to expect the unexpected.  So right now everything is on hold as we "think" about it.  I have no interest in going into business quilting for other people.  I would just want to do my own quilts and perhaps some for my mom and my sisters. 

Our garden - Steve has taken over most of the gardening as I have trouble bending over after my brain surgery.  He has a beautiful garden this year.  We have eaten lots of green beans and I have canned and frozen some although we still have lots left from last year.  The zuchinni, summer squash and tomatoes have been going crazy.  I have made 42 pints and 7 quarts of zalsa and canned some tomatoes.  I also have lots of zuchinni bread and muffins in the freezer.  I found a recipe online to make oven roasted cherry tomatoes.  I tried them and they are ok.  I won't turn the oven on for 3 hours to make them again.

Today is Guild business meeting and we always have a fantastic show and tell.  I finished hand quilting a Guild Block of the Month that we did when Donna was Project Chair.  I am anxious to ask Donna what year that was as I am sure it was at least 5 years ago.

Something to think about

Last week at our Guild meeting a Friendship Quilt was shown.  The quilt top consisted of blocks made by several members of our Quilt Guild.  Nancy, the owner of the quilt passed on before she finished the quilt.  Her family passed it on to our Guild and a couple of the members finished hand quilting and binding it.  Discussion was held on what to do with the quilt.  I suggested that we raffle it on our Guilds 25th Anniversary Friendship Day in September and that was the general concensus of the group.  I brought the quilt home, opened it up to check it out and to show my husband.  There are 20 blocks in the quilt, each made by a member of the Guild.  Well, as I was reading each name I discovered that I am the only one of the 20 that is still a member of the Guild.  About half of the quilt makers are no longer living, 2 of the quilters have moved and are still quilting and I don't know about the remaining ladies.  I didn't find a date on the quilt but I do know that it was made quite a few years ago.  Of course, I decided that I must have been really young (maybe even in high school!!) when those blocks were made.  It did give me an chance to reflect on each one of the former members and it also made me decide that I need to kick it in gear and get some more of my UFO's finished.

AWOL For Too Long

I have been AWOL from my blog for too long.  Like everyone else I have been very busy with lots of things.  Two of our sons coached their sons Little League teams so Papa and I went to every game that we could.  And now our son, my brother and our nephew play on an adult slow pitch soft ball team and we are going to as many games as possible.  I guess it doesn't matter how old our kids are we still enjoy getting involved and encouraging them.  I have been very busy with work as it is election season here in Michigan with the primary on August 7.  I have been mailing out absent voter ballots and trying to keep up on all of the paper work involved.  Like so many others we have been hit with the heat wave and it just seems to drain so much of my energy.  We don't have a/c in our house but luckily it stays fairly cool.  I have been trying to sit in front of a fan in the evenings and work on my hand quilting.  I have also been able to do a little sewing during the last few days and am working on some small tote bags for gifts.  I finished a block of the month quilt, had it machine quilted and got the binding on it.  I will have to get my camera out a take a picture of it.  I have been doing as much as I can to help with our 7 grandchildren and totally love that.  We celebrated my Dad's 80th birthday a couple of weeks ago and I told him he is a very young 80.  He is still driving school bus 5 days a week during the school year and loving every minute of it.  On Saturday I helped my sisters cater a wewdding reception for 450 people and am still trying to recuperate from that.  It was a lot of fun but also a lot of work.  My sister Carol and her family are doing well.  Now another sister is facing some medical issues and will see a specialist on Monday.  Take care of yourselves and the ones you love.

Life Is Too Short!

Last week we lost my brother-in-law Perrin after his 12 1/2 month battle with mesotheleoma.  He was married to my youngest sister Carol and the father of three children, Ryan, Lana and Cody.  He was only 52 years old and it just seems so unfair.  Cancer is just such a miserable disease and is affecting way too many people.  Perrin was not in physical pain, thankfully.  I made this small wall hanging and presented it to my sister at the visitation.  I prefer something like this instead of putting money into flowers.  My sister is doing well.  We spent several hours together sewing yesterday and she was able to share some of the things of the last years jouorney, including several trips to a meso specialist in Boston. 
Remember that life is short, be sure to express your love to those who are close to you.

 Here is a picture of my Bow Tucks bag.  I love it.  This is the larger size and it works well for all of the necesseties.  I would like to make the smaller one too some day.

This is a project that I finished during the winter but I don't think I shared a picture of it.  At Guild we had a 2 inch fabric exchange, then one of the members taught this table topper pattern.  A lot of the information was basic information but always good as a refresher.  I have it on my coffee table and enjoy looking at it.  Quilt Camp was wonderful.  I spent lots of time finishing up some machine button hole applique on some very small pieces so it doesn't look like I accomplished very much.  Today we have a mystery quilt class at Guild.

A Visual !?!

This may not be for the faint at heart.  This morning out oldest nephew was confirmed at Church.  Following the worship service we enjoyed family time and a delicious dinner.  When we left there we went to the other side of town where a benefit dinner was being held for a local man who is seriously ill with pancreatic cancer.  We didn't go for dinner, just wanted to make a donation, then ended up visiting with a very good friend for awhile.  We got home around 5 o'clock.  As I have stated before hand quilting is my favorite part of quilting but I haven't had anything sandwiched and ready to quilt for quite some time.  I decided this afternoon would be a great time to put my quilt frame up, especially since it was 90 degrees outside.  Since it was already early evening I decided there was no sense in changing out of my church dress.  I did take my jacket off, leaving a sleeveless dress and not a pretty sight.  And since I needed some pockets for the clips for the quilt frame the only thing I could find was a Christmas apron.  The pockets worked great for the clips and for my I-Pod.  But wait, it gets even better - I also put my crocs on as they are so comfortable, especially on the cement garage floor.  I am so glad my husband didn't think about getting the camera out.  Oh, and to top it off, one of the songs that played on my I-Pod was Gretchen Wilson's Redneck Woman.  When I told my husband about the song he just looked at me and gave a very faint smile and nod.   So now I have a quilt that is ready to be hand quilted.  I left the frame up in the garage and am thinking that if I have enough energy left after Church I would like to get another quilt sandwiched.  I haven't decided yet but I may have quilt that one.

Right now in my sewing room I have a dress that I started for our grand daughter.  It is the first garment sewing I have done in a very long time.  I would like to get it done before she comes to visit next weekend.  I also have parts and pieces of a quilt that I have been working on.  The blocks are sewn into rows.  Now I need to sewing the sashings and corner stones together and get the top finished.  I have a sewing station set up here in our family room where I have been working on the mystery quilt I started at Guild last Thursday.  I have 12 blocks done, I think the pattern calls for 20 blocks but I may make the quilt bigger, not sure on that yet.  This week is going to be busy with work and helping with grandchildren but hopefully I can get Allie's dress done and maybe even work on a few more blocks for the mystery quilt.

How many projects do you have "in the works"?

A Very Good Week

This has been a very good week in my sewing world.  On Monday I took a class at Sandy Dee's Quilt Shop.  She is hosting a bag of the month and the first project was a Bow Tuck Bag.  I have been wanting to make one for awhile now and so this was the perfect opportunity.  It was fun, although I didn't follow the directions, but I still have a beautiful purse.  Yesterday several of us met at Sandy Dee's to work on our Block of the Month project.  Today I am going to my Guild's monthly business meeting.  Have I told you about all of the talent in our group and the beautiful show and tells?  Sunday afternoon I am going to my Guilds camp for four days and am really looking forward to some serious sewing.  I have a couple of UFO projects in mind and have to see what else is in my sewing room waiting for me.

A Very Proud Wife

Last weekend Steve and I traveled to Indiannapolis to attend the Fire Department Instructors Convention.  This beautiful truck was one of the many thousands of trucks we saw.  The stadium (the same one that hosted the Super Bowl this year) was jammed packed with all kinds of fire fighting equipment as was the huge conference center attached to the stadium.

 During the conference a Memory Stair Climb was held in memory of the fire fighters who lost their lives their lives in New York City on 9/11.  The climb consisted of 110 flights of stairs (3 trips through the stadium).  Almost 200 people participated in the climb including my husband.  The climb started with a beautiful opening ceremony, prayer and a bag pipe band playing Amazing Grace. 

Lifes Twists and Turns

Life here has taken quite a few twists and turns during the last few weeks, hence the lack of posts.  Also because of those twists and turns there hasn't been much sewing done here either.  I have managed to get a litlle bit (a very little bit) of hand applique done on a project that I have been working on for several years.  Yesterday morning I got up extra early to spend some time with my sewing machine and it felt really good.  This morning I got up early but so far am spending my time on the computer.  The twists and turns have made me really apperciate my husband, our children and grandchildren, our home and all of the beautiful blessings in our lives.  Today I plan to go to my LQS and spend some time sewing and visiting with friends for a few hours. 

Pillow cases

Our Guild, Thunderbay Quilt Guild meets every Thursday. On months when there is a fifth Thursday we use that as a Charity Sew. Last week's charity sew was pillow cases for children with very serious illnesses (ConKerr Cancer). We had a very ambitious group of twelve members attend. Sewing machines were buzzing, irons and rotary cutters were flying and of course laughter and conversation was aplenty. On about a 5 hour period we finished 85 pillow cases plus we had 49 pillow cases that were brought in before the sewing day. I am very proud of all of our participants, thank you girls. We are going to make lots of kids very happy and also help to brighten their days. All of the pillow cases had to be washed, dried, pressed and put into individual zip lock bags. I brought home the majority of the pillow cases. I ended up washing 4 loads and by 2:00 p.m. on Friday they were all bagged and ready to go. I will deliver them to a "middle person" next week who will make sure they get to the appropriate person for distribution. And I suspect that I may get a few more pillow cases at our business meeting tomorrow. Charity sewing is so rewarding. If you haven't been involved in any such activities I suggest you check around and see what you can do to help others.

A Boot Fettish

One day last week I was straightening up part of the garage and cleaning the floor. I lined up my husbands boot and shoes and although the picture isn't real clear there are 10 pairs of boot and shoes here and a few pair up on the shelf on the other side of the garage. I think he has me beat in footwear.

When Life Hand You Crap..............

Oh, I think it is supposed to be "When life hands you SCRAPS, make a quilt. Oh well!.. Life has been a bit stressfull the last couple of weeks with some family problems. Everything is going to work out. I decided that I needed to do some easy, mindless sewing. I had a zip-loc bag of pieced 4 patches sitting on my sewing table. The blocks started out at 2 inches. I pulled the 4 patches, found some additional fabric for sashings and began sewing. I ended up making these two baby quilts and am really happy with the way they turned out and I truly enjoyed and appreciated the therapy. These quilts will go to the Baby Basket here in our county. It is an organization that accepts new and gently used items for families in need.

Another Completed UFO

I finished this quilt about a month ago. It is a Spider Web quilt that I started several years ago in a class with Gyleen Fitzgerald at Thunder Bay Resort here in Hillman. It isn't a pattern that I would have picked but Gyleen had some great short cuts that helped to make the quilt a fun project. As a side note there were a couple of nurses in the class and they thought the spider webs resembled hazardous waste signs.
Today was sewing day at Sandy D's Quilt Shop. We had a small group today but still had a good time. I spent the majority of the time drawing, cutting and fusing the bumble bees onto some Honey Bee blocks. This morning before I went to the shop I got half of the machine quilting done on a baby quilt. I should go outside and finish cleaning up the last flower bed but the temperature right now is 87 degrees and I think I will wait till it cools down. Besides that half quilted baby quilt is calling my name.