I'm finally sitting!

With snow comes children who wake before dawn wanting to go out and play in it. Mine are no different. We were out there as the sky lightened this morning, romping in snow above my knees. I didn't know it could snow this much in Virginia. We got more last night than in all six winters I've been here combined. Fun, fun, fun!

After about an hour and a half, we came in for breakfast and showers, then the kids surfed the TV looking for Christmas movies while I began moving myself into my new quilting studio. It took me ALL DAY! I had no idea I had so much STUFF! But it was worth it. Now that everything is in there, it looks and feels pretty good, despite the fact that my paint job on the walls is the worst in all of history.

Here's the view from the door (ignore the air mattress - we are about to have company, and this is also officially the guest room).

During the day, there is so much natural light that I don't need to turn on the lights. And I have my sewing machine situated so that it faces the doors, so I can look up and see the kids playing outside. I put up a design wall and decided that wasn't enough, so I put up another smaller one. Some of the UFOs that I want to get cracking on are up there to get me motivated.

The exception is my flannel buzzsaw quilt, which is still stacked on my ironing board. See that cute little closet door? (Yup, it is under the stairs.) I utilized the inside of the door to hang patterns and motifs,

and the closet itself is brimming with fabric in bins and batting in bags (you can't see most of it as it is in the deeper recesses of the closet).

So right now it is neat and organized. We'll see how long it stays that way. Well, for a week at least. We hit the road in the morning (if the interstate is open yet) to head up to my mother-in-law's. Which, of course, meant that I had to do all my present wrapping tonight. I am so tired. Let me shuffle off to bed now...

Dear Santa Letter for Fat Quarter Shop Giveaway

Dear Santa,

It has been a whirlwind year! While work has presented me with many trials, my family has presented me with many joys. I particularly cherish the time I spend with my sons in karate and cub scouts.

As you probably know, part of the scouting experience is camping out. We did our first campout as a den this fall. We put up the tent, no problem. We built a fire, no problem. We ate, sang songs, took a night walk - all no problem. The problem came at bedtime when there were three of us, and only 2 sleeping bags. My boys brought theirs, but I couldn't find mine. And wouldn't you know, it had to have been the coldest night of the year to date! I pulled out my car blanket, but it was woefully inadequate. I snuggled between my boys, hoping to absorb some of their warmth. I slept in all of my clothes PLUS my pajamas. It was all for naught. I spent most of the night awake, freezing and miserable, wishing I had a quilt to wrap around myself.

Which brings me to my letter to you. You see, while visiting the FAT QUARTER SHOP, I came across a quilt kit called CAMPING UNDER THE STARS.

I know that this Christmas Eve, it will be visions of this quilt, not visions of sugarplums, dancing in my head. It has lots of fabrics, which appeals to the scrap quilter in me. But there is a pattern! You see, I usually make things up as I go along, using scraps of fabric that I can find, and while I enjoy the process, it takes FOREVER! Having this quilt kit would allow me to get the quilt made in less time, allowing me to enjoy it sooner - like the first campout of the year!

I look forward to hearing your footsteps on the roof this year. If there's not enough to go around, please forget about me and take care of my kiddos - they have been super good and they deserve whatever they want for making me such a happy mom. Drive carefully!

Erin
AKA Vesuviusmama

I'm a WINNER!

I won, I won, I won! Kathy at True Creations is sending me a Terry Atkinson book, Big Bags Little Bags.


Hmmm, can you foresee what my sisters and mother might be getting for their birthdays this year?

Getting it done

1. Bright Ideas quilt - I sewed on the borders, sandwiched it with this bright, fun, large-scale print as a backing (I have been wondering what to do with this fabric for years)

then got a significant start on the handquilting while watching the Bourne Identity on TV last night.

2. Quilting Studio - It took me FIVE hours, but I primed the entire room, including the ceiling. My shoulders and arms are so sore that I can barely lift the fork to my mouth as I type this while eating lunch at my desk. And for a color, I decided to approach the room the way I approach my fabric acquisition - I shopped in the "mis-tinted" paint section. Yup, it appears that I am not just a scrap quilter, but a scrap painter, too. There is surprisingly quite a bit of paint available for half price just because it isn't the color someone thought they were getting. I appreciated not only the price, but having a smaller selection to choose from - as a Libra, I'm as indecisive as they come. I chose a (hopefully) soft yellow - I was leaning towards yellow anyway. I want my quilting space to be bright and cheerful. Now, I just have to convince my aching body that it wants to go back down there and paint...

3. New Year's Eve UFO Challenge/Buzzsaw quilt - I cut out the last flannel pieces for the blocks for my flannel buzzsaw quilt and even sewed two blocks together. Of course, I sewed them together in the mirror image of what I actually need, so those two blocks are useless for this project, but there will undoubtably be an orphan flannel block quilt coming out of my studio at some point in the future, so it isn't a complete loss.

4. Christmas decorating - I promised my little guys that we would decorate this past weekend. Luckily, we went out to pick a tree BEFORE the freezing rain settled over the valley. The boys are old enough now that they truly do most of the tree trimming, and they take the job VERY seriously. Our tree is always very simple - white lights, red bows, red and white candy canes, strings of popcorn and cranberries, a couple ornaments that have been given to us, and whatever ornaments they have made and brought home over the years. It is so funny to listen to them, "Oh, I remember when I made this old thing." (OLD!?! You are SEVEN. I have underwear older than you!)


And while they did most of the work, I drank most of the eggnog and nearly polished off a whole container of chocolate covered peanut brittle (if you've never tried it, it is heavenly and decadent and completely addictive) while crooning along with Nat King Cole.

Tonight is the last Cub Scout outing of 2009 - we are going Christmas Caroling at a nursing home. I'm thrilled - I haven't been caroling in decades, literally. Gotta warm up the old pipes - fa la la la la!

Counting the days until vacation

My wonderful weekend seems like a distant memory. This week at work has been BRUTAL! How long until winter vacation?

I didn't bring work home last night for a change. I probably should have, but I just needed a break. Instead, I worked on my Bright Idea quilt a bit (that's a working title - does it fit, do you think?) I finished the last prairie point border, and then played around with ideas for the corners. I made the corner diamonds two different ways using strips like the rest of the quilt to see which I liked best,


and I couldn't decide, so I did two one way and two the other. It's my quilt - I can do what I want, right? That's the beauty of not working with a pattern!

Anyway, this working on the dining room table business is getting old. I need to get my butt in gear and paint my quilting studio and move down there. Perhaps I should add that to my New Years UFO Challenge - my new quilting studio is my biggest UFO yet!

Anyway, no time to chat. First karate, then cub scouts, then back to karate for my leadership class. Hey, did I tell you that I got a plaque last weekend at the karate banquet? Each of the three instructors selected a student to recognize, and I was recognized for my "Inspirational Example and Aspiration to Excellence".

I was so surprised, and quite choked up. The instructor spoke of how I find balance between a demanding career, a family and a commitment to karate. Balance, huh? I feel sometimes like I am teetering on the edge of a precipice, or feebly attempting to keep too many balls in the air at the same time, so being recognized made me feel hopeful that I'm doing better at it than I thought I was.

Out of the blue

This weekend was wonderful! My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece (in-law?) came for the weekend, and we just hung out. We ate, we played dominoes and cards, I gave them a quilt show, we watched movies, we listened to my husband's basketball team win a game - it was a perfect homebody weekend. Jason and I were supposed to march in the Christmas Parade on Saturday night, but it snowed all day on Saturday so the parade was cancelled. This is one person who was not upset.

Then, today, as they were preparing to leave, the phone rang. Called ID said "Wyoming Caller". We get wrong numbers all the time, so I figured that this was a wrong number, too, since I have only even known one person from Wyoming, and I haven't spoken to her in over 15 years, but I answered anyway. Guess who it was? My friend from Wyoming from 15 years ago!! I've moved about 12 times since then, so I have no idea how she tracked me down, but somehow she did. What a wonderful surprise to top off a perfect weekend! If you are reading this, Janna, thanks for taking the time to track me down and call!

This afternoon, I've been working on some prairie point borders for the latest quilt I've been working on. I thought they'd compliment the diamond blocks well. I've never done them before - they are pretty easy and fun, although I'm not convinced I am doing them 100% correctly. And I ran out of the sashing fabric in the blocks, so each of my borders is made using a different white-on-white; it doesn't bother me - it is a scrap quilt after all! None of these white scraps has enough to extend into the corners, though. I'm going to have to think up something to put in those. Perhaps another diamond string block like those in the quilt? Perhaps white squares with some colorful applique? Perhaps some embroidery since I've learned how to do that now? Any suggestions?

And, as usual, I managed to cut down some more scraps as I went along. Here's a close-up of my 1.5" pile from today - they are so cute!

Being irresponsible

I'm supposed to be reading applications for admission to our university. Instead, I've been checking out all the blogs on the SEWMAMASEW giveaway list. I go to see what they are giving away, but get sucked into all their creativity and scroll through post after post after post (which is the point, right?). Where has the time gone? Why can't I focus on what I'm supposed to be doing? Why does this darned job have to get in the way of what I'd much rather be doing - quilting and reading about quilting and talking about quilting. Grrrr.

Anyway, if you have more time than I do, and you haven't yet gotten on board with Giveaway Day at SewMamaSew, be sure to get there by Saturday.