Time Keeps on Slippin'...

Hello my friends!

I cannot believe that I have allowed so much time to slip by without posting!  If you had asked me I would have told you I posted 3 weeks ago, tops!  Imagine my shock and dismay to see that's it been two whole months!

I do have a few good excuses though...

First of all, I have a new grandbaby!

This is Kennedy Irene Hafer and she is such a doll and my namesake (-: 

 

She keeps us busy and smiling all day long!

 

 And since Kennedy and her parents (my son and his fiancé) are living with us until the new year, I needed to have a baby guest room so...

 

I dismantled my office and made that the baby room complete with crib, rocker, changing table and dresser.  Curtains and quilt are on the list of things to do and I found the perfect fabric for them too...

 

Isn't this the cutest fabric! I love the little owls. I think a Yellow Brick Road Quilt will be perfect with these.  I'll use the border fabric on both the quilt and the bottom of the curtains.

 

Now I needed a new space for the office so in a act of selfless love and devotion (;-p) I dismantled my beloved sewing room to put the office in there and instead of redoing my office I did the office up for my hubby making it a "Me Room" for some of his memorabilia from his Air Force Days.

 

 

 

 

Now, fear not!  I still have my sewing room, it's just now combined with my longarm loft.  Gammill Bea is sharing her space with Elena (my Elna machine) and Misty (my Featherweight) and Emmy (my Bernina).  It's a bit crowded and my guest bedroom closet and linen closet are now filled with quilty stuff but it works!  Do you see how my stash has grown?  The top of the cabinet is all wool!  I've gone wool CRAZY!

 

 

 

 

So with a new grandbaby to dote on (in addition to my other two wonderful granddaughters) and all this moving around and re-arranging (and cleaning out) which took a considerable amount of time and all the traveling I've done this summer, it's no wonder that the time has slipped away from me!

 

This summer alone I have traveled literally coast to coast!  I have visited quilt shops and antique stores in Washington, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee! 

 

And speaking of Antique shops, look at this great piece I found in Colorado!

 

 

  It's absolutely beautiful!  At first I was thinking what can I use this for?  But once I got it in the loft I had the perfect idea!  Look at how wonderfully it stores my thread.  The drawers are just deep enough!

 

I've also gotten a fair share of quilting done as well.  Most of what I've done lately I'll save for another day since I haven't taken pics yet but here is a wall hanging done for my brother-in-law.  It's a housewarming gift for his new house that he bought- I don't know- probably 5 years ago...so I was a little slow in getting it done but I did it!

Well, I, as always, have lots more to share with you...  Pictures of shops I've visited, quilts I've been working on and new ideas and techniques but it's late so I'll save it for our next visit.  I'll be back in a couple of days... I promise :-)

In the meantime, Keep Quilting!

Irene

PS  I'm afraid I have to stop taking comments from those of you who are "anonymous".  The spam has gotten a bit out of control. :-(

And SEW it begins...

Well, I've done it!  I have the list- or should I say "lists"- all ready.  As I was putting everything together for this post I decided that I really needed FOUR lists:

• NEW PROJECTS:  These are the projects that I have bought all the fabric and other materials needed to make the quilt but have yet to start.
• PIECING. These are projects where I have started to piece, but have not yet finished the top.
• LONGARM. Projects that are ready for the longarm but haven't yet made it there.
• BINDING. Pieced, quilted and ready for binding.  (Did I mention I really hate binding?)

So if you want to feel better about your UFO list, just check mine out by clicking on the links to the right.


Now, I thought I should share a few pics.


 First up is my work space. 

This was taken from the door of the room.

See my rulers hanging on the wall? 

 I painted and put that peg board up myself :)

So, the quilt on the design wall... well that's the first UFO I'm tackling.

I started this quilt in Altus, Oklahoma in October 2003.  Yes...2003!

It's called "Home for the Holidays" and was published in the

Holiday 2003 issue of Quilting for Christmas.

When I took this one out of it's storage bin I had three of these blocks done.

I picked it up again in early December and got this far...

Then, Last night I stayed up 'til 4 am and FINSIHED!

WOO HOO!!

So, this leaves the PIECING list and is now on the LONGARM list.

But why stop there? 
I decided to keep up my momentum and start another project.

The Civil War Tribute Quilt is next up.  This was a Block of the Month (BOM) by Homestead Hearth.  I've had all 12 blocks for about 6 months (maybe more)and not a single one started! So....

Month One:  Shots at Fort Sumter

 Month 1 has two blocks that are the same but different sizes...

one is an 18" finished block

while the other is a 12" finished block. 

This is the 18" block...Still have the 12" block to do.

I was really excited about how great the block went together.

 Managed to keep all my points and joints!

Well, that's all I've gotten done since the last time we chatted.  Hope you'll stop by again!

Irene