So little time...

I am trying to be better organized. I am following the flylady but I have been out of bed for two hours and still not showered with shoes... maybe tomorrow. The positive is that my sink is shining, and has been for days! Baby steps and maybe I will find some time to make it upstairs...
I haven't written anything lately because I have not been upstairs to piece anything. I have three customer's quilts to do, one is on the long arm. The second one I have for the same customer is a small wall hanging for St. Patrick's day. I ordered a new Pantograph and I hope it will be here today. The third quilt is a large one.

I have been busy since I last posted. I purged my closet. I was brutal. I haven't done my dresser yet, but I have 2 medium size cartons of clothes packed so far and I am pretty sure I will have three full when I am done. The closet looks so good!. When I was growing up my Dad was in the Air Force and at that time we moved every year. I hated unpacking, so I always wanted the fewest boxes of my stuff. I guess that is still in the back of my mind now thinking we might be moving this summer. I will now have three fewer boxes to unpack!
The back yard is slowly getting done. If we have to sell this house this summer I need to get the backyard looking like it did when I saw this house, and bought the backyard. I really looks like a park when it is cleaned up. A smaller lot for the next house. I am not a gardener.
I also did a talk about quilting to a group of ladies about quilting. This was very hard. All but one of these ladies don't quilt and I don't think they were too interested in how quilting is done. They did enjoy the trunk show, at least they said they did, but I don't think they got the artistic side of quilting... they kept asking how long it took me to make the different quilts. That is not something I keep track of. Oh well, that just proves that quilters are a different breed of people. It was amusing to me. Poor unfortunate souls...

Dog days...

This quilt is going to be done someday! I worked on it until late last night, and I will be back to work on it as soon as I eat some lunch.

This morning was the first of three trips to the vet. Maddie, my pretty girl, was first for her yearly shots and check up. Maddie is a sweetheart I adopted about 14 months ago. People always tell be how pretty she is, then ask what kind of dog she is. I should get her DNA done and find out. When I adopted her the Bio described her as a 2 year old Cocker Spaniel mix. I was thinking about getting her and I mentioned it on Facebook. My best friend since high school, who lives several states away, went on Pet finders and picked out the same dog I was looking at. That made my mind up! I went to get her, about an hour drive north of here, and when I got there I was expecting a 30 pound Cocker mix. She is a 50 pound girl. At her first vet visit her Doctor said she is more like 7 or 8 years old. We have 2 Golden Retrievers, so she is a small dog compared to them. My husband was really not in favor of getting a new dog, but he left it up to me. When we had her for about a month, he said he was glad I rescued her. She really likes men and greets him at the door whenever he comes home. I think he likes the attention. She fit right in with the boys, and is good with the cats. She was very interested in the bird in the cage at first, but now she pays no attention to him unless he is singing, then she just listens.
I take the boys in tomorrow morning and afternoon. I decided to take it easy and do them one at a time, since Glenn is not here to meet me there and hold a leash.
Lunch time and then some piecing time before the kid gets home and we go to the orthodontist... and I wonder why it takes me so long to get anything done... maybe a retreat is in order when Glenn gets home in July.

I haven't finished the Kaleidoscope quilt top yet... the center is done but the left over stratas were just sitting there, and I needed borders. I have been doing a sort of crazy quilt type thing with the left overs. There is one quilt in the book, by Ricky Tims, that has what looks like a crazy border on it but when you look at it closer you see all four border are the same. I love the one in the book but I had already started random piecing when I looked at the picture again. I will be working on it after dinner tonight, so maybe some pictures tomorrow.
The organizing of my time is coming along a little better. I have found if I make a list of what needs done it helps. My list has gotten longer the last few day because my husband may be transferred in his job. It is something we won't know for sure until he gets home from his deployment in Afghanistan mid July. Since we have a son in high school I may be moving before my husband so Ross can start School. I really hate having to move Ross right now, but that is the military life.
In the mean time I need to get this house ready to sell. This will really cut into my quilting time. We have an acre lot that is partially wooded. The woman who had this house before us was a fantastic gardener. She put brick walkways around and through the woods. She planted azaleas along the paths. It is a lot of the reason I liked this house when we bought it. When it is all cleaned up it looks like a park. Right now, not do much. I have not spent the time on it that it takes to keep it up. I now know I am not a gardener. I spent all day on it yesterday. I think if I just spend a couple hours a day on it I can get it under control at some point.
I guess dinner isn't going to make itself. Then back to the quilt.

Self doubt?

One of the many things I have learned since I started quilting is that there will always be a point in putting a quilt together that I will look at it and think I have made a horrible mistake.
Not to brag on myself but I have a really good eye for color. I think it is like some people having perfect pitch, some people just see color. I can look at something and know if it will match something else I have at home. It is almost like the colors hurt my eyes if they aren't right. This is both good and bad. The good part is obvious, but the bad is that I have a very hard time doing scrappy. I love scrappy, and I know once all of the colors are in the quilt they will all match. The problem comes when I an assembling the individual blocks and the colors within the blocks do not match until the other blocks join them. I know this time will come and I just have to push ahead, tell myself that I am being too picky and stick to the plan. Last night I worked on the Kaleidoscope. This is the Ricky Tims pattern, or I guess it is more of a technique. It isn't new, I just missed it when it first came out. It is not the Kaleidoscope block. It is using stratas to cut mirror image sets. One big image. So last night I told myself that I was being silly and I did not need to re-do any of the stratas. I pushed myself to get to the assembling point so I could get an idea if the finished product. I told myself it is just a top, no one else would know what it could have been it I had chosen colors better... Guess what? It is so pretty! I will finish the assembling today and see if I can figure out how to post a picture.

Side tracked...

I am trying to get myself on a schedule, but I am so easily distracted! I have found if I have a check list, a real written down check list, I do much better.

While I was off track yesterday I spent some time up in the sewing room and I worked on a new project. I know I should be working on an old project, maybe finishing something, but this Kaleidoscope by Ricky Tims really has me interested. I need a wedding present for a friends daughter, who's wedding was last November, and I wanted to test this technique. Finding a pattern that will work in a somewhat modern/Asian home has been a little challenging. I think this might work.

The test one is made of purple scraps. I am not sure where the purple one will end up but I will be needing some baby quilt replacements soon, some medium kid quilts. I always think of the time Dana came to me with her very worn out baby quilt and ask me to make her a new one "4 inches bigger". She had grown out of that one. I live the things kids say.

I better go make a list for the day. we will see how that works for keeping me on track...

New plan...

Will I ever make it up to the sewing room? I have decided I need to make more time to create. I keep giving myself too many projects. While Glenn is gone, I thought somehow I would have more time, but the opposite is true. Single parenting of a 15 year old is a full time job. Then, of course, there are three dogs and 4 cats in this house. Just trying to keep the hair under control can be a full time job... Then there is my business... When all I really want to do is SEW!
Maybe I can put myself on a schedule. Since I always feel like I should be doing more I stay up too late at night, then I sleep too late. I am not a morning person, never have been but when I worked outside the home I could get up and go to work, do what needed done even if I was not feeling it until 10am. So that is my plan - I will get up and sweep dog hair, feed the livestock and what ever else needs done that day. Then Maybe I will have some time to sew...

A Quilter's scattered thoughts

So I have created a Blog... Funny because I was really just trying to comment on a fellow quilter's blog. I have always been amazed that people can write things that interest others enough for them to spend precious time reading them. I really don't know if I have anything interesting to say. Some people blog to complain. I do not want to do that. The subjects I talk best about are my children, and my quilts. My children are really young adults, well mostly. Dana is my oldest, 24, and she is very much an oldest child, much more grounded than her scattered mother. Kelly is 23 and she is a free spirit, an artist looking for her passion. Then there is my Baby Boy, Ross. He is 15, born when the girls were 8 and 9. He is my husband Glenn's only natural child, even though the girls call Glenn Dad and he treats them the same as if they were. Ross was born to a family of people to adore him, his sisters were his greatest fans. I kind of feel sorry for the woman he marries. He is turning out to be a really great young man. He has goals and manners. All of my children are above average... I guess I am their greatest fan.

I have been Quilting since the girls were very young. It is my passion. Quilters are a different kind of people, but I suppose that can be said of any group that involves like minded people. We have our own rules and language. We hoard fabric. We save scraps. We like old things, especially old quilts. We like new things, especially new quilts. We live for dealines! We are usually a few years behind on quilts. Baby quilts by the second birthday are not un common. We will drive out of our way to go to a quilt shop.

I really do not know if I will ever write another blog... like I said I was only trying to comment on fellow quilter, Bonnie Hunter's blog. Now she can write a blog...

Kristy