SPOTLESS!

I spent the better part of the last 2 days organizing every scrap of fabric in my sewing room.  Everying is sorted either by project or color, placed in a Rubbermaid container, labeled and stacked neatly in the closet.  There is NOTHING piled on the floor, tables or any other surface of my room.  The transformation is truly amazing.  I'd show before and after pictures, but then I would have to publicly admit what a true slob I had become!  The room is so pleasant now, I can hardly believe it.  So one good thing came of me being without my sewing machine this weekend!  Though I can hardly wait to begin sewing again!

Wow!

I completely LOVE the new long-arm quilter I found.  I picked up the quilt yesterday and was very pleased with the job she did - my other quilter NEVER quilted right to the edge, even when we asked her to (my SIL still uses this other person, though I refuse to use her ever again!).  Anyhoo - I know these pictures aren't very clear, but she did a dense overall pattern of small hearts and vines.  And it's gorgeous, I love it!

I have the Johnny & Buck baby quilt to give her next, after I get a chance to piece a backing for it.  My stepsister's baby is due at the end of July, but even if I don't get the quilt to her before the birth, I'm sure she won't mind!

9 Days????

I won't get my sewing machine back for 9 long days, and it will cost a minimum of $99.95.... <heavy sigh>

I will miss my Pfaff over the holiday weekend.  I guess I willl either work on cutting out some future quilt projects or cleaning my sewing room in preparation for my dad's visit in June.  Hmmm - which do you think is more likely to happen?

My long-arm quilter is finished with my DD's teacher's quilt!  I will meet her to pick it up tomorrow - yay!  Of course, I won't be able to put the binding on right away - dang it.  But I'm excited to see what she's done with it!  Pictures tomorrow!

Mass Production!

I have all the cutting done for my red, white and black quilt.  I also have all the black and cream/white half-square triangles sewn and most of them trimmed up (I like to make my HSTs about a half-inch larger than needed, then trim down to size for perfect points!).

Last night my machine started making awful noises and the needle started hitting the bobbin cage when it went down, so I will have to take it into the shop after work today.  I hope they can get it back to me quickly - with a 3-day weekend ahead, I was hoping to get a lot of sewing done.  It couldn't have happened at a worse time.  No, I take that back - it HAS happened to me at a worse time!  Once when I was at a quilt retreat, it broke down on the very first day!  Thankfully my SIL let me use her machine while she was basting quilt tops together, otherwise I would have been very bored.

Fingers crossed that it's nothing too expensive to fix and that I get my machine back quickly!  Otherwise, I see a lot of cutting in my plans for the 3-day weekend!

Black & white & red all over!

I'm still cutting strips and squares for my next quilt project.  The stacks of stash fabrics to cut don't seem to be getting any smaller, either!  I am using over 40 blacks, over 20 cream/white and close to 100 reds, almost all from stash and some using up the very last scrap of a piece of fabric!  It's been a lot of fun to revisit some of the reds that have been in more than one past quilt and some that there is only one or two 2-1/2" squares left.

I was so anxious to see the pattern, though, I had to put together four blocks to inspire me to continue with all of the cutting!  Here is the first corner, and I'm loving it!

I had to laugh because my DD made me a card at school for Mother's Day and it listed my favorite things.  She listed my favorite color as red, which it is not, but I assume she probably thinks so after seeing me working with this giant pile of red fabrics for the last few weeks!

Come on, Monday!

Not that I'm trying to hurry away the weekend or anything, but I have my first physical therapy appointment Monday morning.  I'm still in a great deal of pain and also feeling like a slug from not doing anything other than my stationary bike all week.  I'm anxious to get back to training for my triathlon.

Since my evenings have been free, though, I have done quite a bit of sewing and cutting for my next quilt, making hundreds of half-square triangles and cutting a gazillion red patches.  This is for the quilt I showed in my March 31 post.  I can't really start even a test block until I have most of the fabrics cut out since this is planned scrappy.  I'm making really great progress, even though I don't have any I can show!

I am scheming how I can get to Spokane for the Buggy Barn's quilt show in August.  Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company is teaching 2 all-day classes there, and I'd love to take the Friday class.  Hmm, wish I could see the class project, but it won't be available to see until July.  I'm not sure I want to pay $145 for the class (includes all day class, lunch and the kit) sight unseen, but I am such a huge fan of that designer....  Stay tuned!

Sidelined!

I'm in serious pain from a shoulder injury - my chiropractor said it was my rotator cuff, although I saw my general practitioner on Monday and she said she doesn't think there is a tear.  She recommended resting it - no swimming or kickboxing!  :(   And referred me to physical therapy.  Meanwhile, I am icing it and have some good drugs.  It feels slightly better after 5 days off from swimming, but still is incredibly painful at rest and excruciating whenever I move it.  I'm totally bummed.  :(

I found someone!

I found a long-arm quilter, and delivered my first quilt to her today - my daughter's teacher's quilt - and she should have it back to me by the end of May.  I got a really good feeling talking to her, and I have high hopes that this will work out well.  If so, I have a mountain of quilt tops that I need to get quilted as funds allow.  I'm excited!

All in the name of research

I volunteered to participate in a flu vaccine study last fall and was accepted as a participant.  It involved getting a shot which may or may not have been the flu vaccine, 3 blood draws, weekly phone calls and reporting every trip to the doctor or illness.  It was a little intrusive, but I'm glad I did it and hope I will find out whether I got the real vacinne or the placebo.  I did not get sick - so who knows.  I'm glad it's over, though!

Mondays Suck!

There are FIVE Mondays in May - that hardly seems fair!  But the last one is a holiday and today is my birthday, so I guess they are not all bad.

I only did 10 laps at the pool this morning.  I haven't been swimming since Wednesday because my rotator cuff is causing me agony.  But I got a good chiropractic adjustment Friday and I was pain free all weekend.  But after this morning's swim, it's a little achy.  I will have another adjustment this afternoon, but I can't keep getting adjusted every time I swim, if I plan to do it at least 3 times a week.  $$$

I didn't get much done in the quilting arena, but I did finish the pinwheel border on my stepsister's quilt.  I'm debating whether to add another border of the brown horseshoe fabric, but on the other hand, I'm ready to call this one "done."

I've located a longarm quilter in Seattle and plan to meet with her later this week to deliver my DD's teacher's quilt for her to work on.  It will be a good test for me to see if I like her, something I need to get done by mid-June, but something I'm not so very attached to.  Fingers crossed!