quiltathon progress

I don't think my ironing board is terribly ugly, but since Libby has asked to see... I have scorched it lately pressing my applique so it doesn't look as good as it did, but I have to say I love it. DH made it for me a few years ago and it makes pressing yardage and quilt tops much, much easier. The only problem I have is that it always has *stuff* on it. I am going to clear it off at least somewhat for my quiltathon weekend.

I have high hopes for the quiltathon. I've spent my evenings this week getting ready. A coworker fell in love with one of the quilts I have in progress and decided she wanted one from the same pattern in her colors made as a duvet cover. I've drawn up the size she needs in EQ and straightened the fabrics. I have also done some and plan to do the rest of the chores I usually accomplish on the weekend. My menu plan for next week is done and we are doing the grocery shopping tomorrow night. DH is going to do the laundry so I should have most of the weekend. I still have to neaten up my sewing room and then I think I am ready to go. I'm so excited.

weekend report

My pif arrived at the end of last week. Thank you Welsh Quilter. I love it. I have a mini cutting mat and small rotary cutter I am going to use it for. The chocolate is NOT going to last much longer. I only held onto it so I could take a picture. If I wasn't such a procrastinator it would have been gone already. :D I have been working on my pif gifts. I haven't forgotten you guys.

It was DS birthday yesterday. He and his girlfriend went snowboarding and then came here for dinner. I asked what he wanted and he chose lasagna "with meat". I quite often will make pasta sauces with no meat. When the kids were growing up we ate very little meat, although he likes lasagna without the meat he LOVES it with. While DS was opening his gifts, Misty and Dusky thought since everything in the world is for them, that the gift bags were for them to get into. DH went and got a grocery bag to distract them and save the gifts. Misty immediately got in, but Dusky got in and crowded her out. Misty decided that revenge would be to get on and trap him inside. DS was laughing, waiting for Dusky to start making his "I'm trapped" sound. When I hold him to brush him or when Misty traps him he makes this deep meow in the back of his throat. I don't think he likes being restrained.

I haven't gotten any real sewing done this week. I marked my reproduction doll quilt for hand quilting. I did manage to avoid the end of bolt sale at the LQS and not go to any other fabric stores. I didn't use any fabric this week, but I also didn't buy any fabric this week.

I signed up with Judy for a quiltathon next weekend. I have already started planning what I am going to do. I think I need motivation. Hopefully, next week I will have a much better report.

quick update

I had an extra day this weekend, but I didn't get done anywhere near as much as I wanted to. We went on a little road trip to our building to check in on the tenants on their way out. I went and delivered my applique wall hanging to Jan. While I was there I helped a customer pick out some fabrics and sold a couple of yards of the repros. :cD I also picked up background and sashing for the 4 patch doll quilt I am making for the shop. I think it came out pretty well. I'm going to do simple line hand quilting on it.

The last time I went up and stayed Jan and I were going through some new magazines she had gotten and had almost all left at the end of the month. There were some really cute projects in them so I suggested she make a sample of one of the smaller projects included to try and help sell the magazines. She made this cute camera bag and said she completely sold out of the magazine that month. I was bummed because I wanted to get the magazine so I could make one for me. She said she didn't need this anymore since she had sold out of the mag so she gave it to ME. Isn't it the cutest thing? My digital camera fits into it perfectly.

Ok now for the stashbusting report. I made the doll quilt, but all the fabric was new because I didn't have enough of anything Jan carries to finish it up and using fabric she doesn't have would defeat the purpose. So this week was pretty much a wash. I didn't enhance but I didn't deplete. :c/

the week in review

What a week! The weather this week has been really something. There was only 1 day that it didn't snow. On Friday we had to make about a 2 hour trip to go to court to evict tenants we have in a rental property where we lived before. They haven't paid rent in 3 months and the wife gave horrible attitude at the hearing. I just do not understand how some people think. She agreed that they hadn't paid rent, but commented snidely that we knew why. Her husband was out of work for a few weeks, but what she failed to mention is that she has never worked herself and they could afford a vacation for 5 to Florida for Christmas. She cried and tried to make us look heartless. The judge was sympathetic, but wouldn't listen to her excuses and we were granted the judgement. We can have them removed next Friday. That was a stress relief for me. We have been paying very high oil prices for that property and with nothing coming in it has put a huge strain on our finances.
It was snowing all day and we ended up stopped in a real mess on the way home. About a 1/3 mile stretch of the highway was littered with accidents. We counted at least 12 cars and a jackknifed semi off the road on both sides. There was a mini van that had been hit so hard that all of the windows were shattered and a sedan with its trunk in its back seat. We didn't see an ambulance, so hope everyone was alright. It must have frozen suddenly and caught everyone off guard. I have never seen it that bad before.
All in all it's been a pretty good week on the quilting front. I finished the wall hanging for Jan's shop. It's quilted, has a hanging sleeve and I sewed down the binding waiting for our day in court. It used about a 1/4 yard of fabric. I also got my niece's quilt top all put together. All it needs is its borders and then I'm ready to quilt. I counted this fabric when it was cut so I can't add it to my total. I also started a reproduction doll quilt for Jan's shop as well. She is still having trouble selling the repros. I don't get it. I love them so much. These 4 patches are going to be set on point in 3 rows and sashed vertically. This is about a 1/2 yard. The biggest news is that we stopped at Marden's and I left with exactly NO fabric and NO yarn. There was a nice background that rode around in my cart for a while, but I restrained myself and put it back.
So this week 3/4 yard used and none added.

i really wanna know...who are you? who? who? who? who?

Mary posted earlier this week about her blog stats and wanted to know who was visiting her. I knew that, of course, she would have many more visits that I did, because, face it, she posts a lot more often than I do and has a lot more inspiring quilting in her posts. Absolutely no one wants to read; got up, drove to work, sat at my desk typing, drove home, ate dinner, sat like a lump, played with my kitties and went to bed. (think maybe I'm in a rut?)

Anyway, her post prompted me to put a sitemeter on my blog to see if anyone was still reading my ramblings. I was surprised to see I got about 70 hits the first day, but I'm afraid a lot of them aren't for real. :c( Does anyone know how to read these stats? I checked the details and I find a bunch of hits of 0:00 seconds. This can't be someone stopping by. Feed readers must be checking up on me to see if I have anything new or something automated like that. Anyway, it was fun to see that there are actual visitors reading as some hits were 15 minutes or so. I hope you are all enjoying my posts as much as I enjoy reading yours. Please, if you have a couple of minutes, leave a comment and let me know who you are. Someone from Spain visited and I'm sure I have never gotten a comment from Spain.