baby Alice

Here she is: 2 days old. She stayed longer at the hospital than her mom and dad-as she had to go under the "bili lights" to deal with a bit of jaundice, coming home the next day however. I was told she slept best when I held her-apparently Alice finds me quite calming :-) I was baby holder while they both took a much deserved nap and in fact my son was still sleeping when I finally left tonight. It's nice to have a baby around but I won't be losing any sleep tonight *vbg* I dropped off the pooh quilt which was a big hit and it was immediately put in the washer so Alice could be using it soon. She is about five and a half pounds and quite a snuggler. I think spending time with Alice is going to be taking up a lot of my free time for quite a while-it's nice to be able to offer advice and support to new parents. Mostly I tell them they will all learn to be a family together. Life just doesn't get any sweeter than a new grandbaby!

I did mention this was the first of many quilts for the baby princess...guess I will be adding to that pink stash after all lol.

baby interruptus

Yesterday morning I got the baby alert call...and after work headed over to the hospital. At 1:09 am my granddaughter, Alice Lee made her entrance into the world. I was able to hold her about fifteen minutes later. Pretty exciting stuff!
I got home around 2:30 am and after three hours of sleep- here I am. Did I mention how gorgeous Alice is? She is just the prettiest baby girl ever to me!
Guess that hand quilted pink baby quilt has found a home. *vbg* It's going to be one of my main life goals to introduce her to quilting so she can inherit my stash and machines and carry on the quilting torch. Hurray for a baby girl in the family!
Quilting? oh yeah....I did not do any during our beach time-took my knitting instead. I remembered I need to stitch in a hanging sleeve along with the binding and there was not enough time Friday to pull all that together. The wedding fun took up most of our time as it was.
I have sleep to catch up on tonight-quilting will probably be on hold for several days as life adjusts to the new family member.

gone for the weekend

I have yet to fix my latest computer glitch and will leave work early today so we can try and beat some of the traffic as we drive "over the hill" to the beach. Our neice is getting married (2nd time) tomorrow-offically. They married at City Hall on Halloween (it was special to them!) and my sweetie was there. This is the church event and party for the rest of us family and friends who missed that brief event earlier.
I am getting my quilted wonky village wallhanging back today...with zero time to stitch the binding so I can hand stitch it during the drive time....argh. I am seriously considering leaving work an hour earlier just to get that done...I know you all would be thinking the same thing...however, I did not pack last night and now I am running out of before work time...so I think I will throw in my travel sewing machine and find time tonight to stitch binding...you think my sweetie will notice? Well, guess I will have to see how much room is in the van. Ok...so-lots to do in the next 30 minutes...and back sometime on Sunday...everyone enjoy the weekend!

pooh quilt done!

There is something to be said for making a smaller baby quilt-it certainly finishes up faster! I have enough to make one more...and have another idea I want to try but it feels great to have this one done.

white elephant

Isn't this sweet? It's 12.5 inches by 12.5 inches roughly. I did not pin it very straight, I assure you it is perfectly square. I am going to have to stitch a small label on the back when I find out who made it. I will take it along to guild night and ask for the person that made it to contact me. The tail, eye, and tusk are all embroidered by hand.

I fixed my computer glitch-beware of windows auto updates...they can sure give you some unexpected curve balls!

I quilted up the baby pooh quilt last night and will stitch the binding on tonight. I changed my mind on the zigzag application and think I can do what I want in a simple and fast manner. I am eager to have it done and get back to those borders on the wedding top. After that, I will of course have to sort out a backing, make the binding, and put it aside for the longarm quilter. As much as I want to dive into another quilty project...I am going to dive into my scrap bin and do some cutting -that goal has been on my list month after month. Did I mention a very sweet gal at retreat pulled all the scraps out, put them together by color, and folded them all neatly? It seems so much easier to tackle now thanks to her! There is a ufo in there of the African scraps ala mile a minute/crumb block starts to put into their own project box. At any rate, it will provide a real change of pace as I ponder the next few projects I want to work on next.

computer woes...

Well, no, I did not solve my main issue. And with help, I figured out it isn't my virus/security upgrade program's fault...apparently Windows had some update program automatically install which is causing me fits. I am going to either restore my computer to an earlier date or do some research on fixing whatever they did. I really do not want to spend time on all this now as...I am hauling stuff from the back yard like patio furniture/accessories and contents of the garden storage shed over to our rented storage unit. In about 2 weeks the entire backyard/side yard will start being ripped out. We are gone next weekend for a family wedding-so that leaves today and this coming week of evenings. I have borrowed a neighbors truck (hurray for generous neighbors!) for this time period. Of course a bit of purging is happening as well.
Major home upheaval is never easy to deal with. I am grateful it's outside the house, but, it still will be a royal pain to live through.
Anyway-I have the baby quilt waiting to be quilted and the machine is all set up as well. I figure I will get that quilted then go back and put on the second border on the wedding top. Then switch back to zigzagging the special binding on the baby quilt as it will use the same color thread as the second border.
Still need to do a few other house errands for the upcoming week as well today.

And, I still need to take a few photos and post them...as lunch break is over-back to getting as much done in the remaining hours left of today as I can! The computer stuff will have to wait until the running around gets done.

computer glitches

I finally bit the bullet and upgraded our virus/security program. It took all my time yesterday morning and more last night. Then it would not allow me into blog sites-including my own! wrestled a bit and then decided I was too tired to deal with it. This morning I was pretty determined to figure it out-I just hate it when I feel the computer is smarter than me! I do believe I have solved the problem. Although it is still giving me a hard time...sheesh. Work is sucking up a lot of energy and time. I only work 8 hours...but, that is lost quilting time! Plus the time to commute there and home-more lost time! I am thrilled to be doing this job...it is exactly my dream job and all the people there are great. Best of all my boss and I are on the same wavelength-which means when I tell her we need to do such and such, her response is go for it ! It really is great to work "for" someone that shows you respect and support like that.
So- the other big thing I did last night was finish putting away retreat stuff and clearing my sewing table for action. The machine is set up again-the music is ready-the two quilt tops and their borders are waiting. With any luck I may actually sew a border on tonight! And I will take a photo of the white elephant I won too. This weekend is pretty busy with non quilty stuff to get done.

no camera, no photos

Ok, don't give me a hard time, but, I chose not to take my camera to retreat. I was way too busy sewing and having fun to be taking photos...though several took my photo showing off my completed top. Well, the blocks are all sewn together-I spent this morning cutting out the three borders I will be putting on it. So, you all have to wait until that point to see how it looks. Aren't I a meanie *vbs*?
I know you won't be surprised to hear I won the award for staying up the latest. Yes, there I was putting that top together...determined to have that top done before I went to bed - when I heard birds...not coming from my ipod either...Oh no! that could only mean, yep, I had sewn the night away! It was 5 am ish when I crawled into bed - but that top was done! I had terrific help from everyone in distributing the blocks so the light/dark parts were spread out evenly over the top.
I also finished up the baby pooh quilt top too. I had to cut one border to allow for an extra wide special Pooh satin binding I want to apply. Now I need to catch up on my sleep and sew borders on. The large quilt will go to the longarm quilter and I will quilt the pooh bear one on my machine. My goal is the end of this month to have those two done. When I get a chance I will post some photos of the "white elephant" I won - another fun aspect of the retreat-with lots of laughter included. I did not touch my bin of scraps but one of the older quilt gals took it on as her mission to organize! It is all folded and in color groups now...except for the "too small" scraps that I am doing mile a minute blocks with. I had to explain what that was and then show her an example of what a mile a minute block looks like. I had a few in a baggie.
There were some truly amazing quilts being finished or worked on by many of the women there-stunning stuff. Of course, now I am sorry I did not take my camera, but I know who to email and ask for copies. I made some new friends, hung out with other friends that I haven't seen in a while - just generally had the best of times. I only spent money on having a massage (pretty good chair one too) and resisted visiting any quilt shops. I did manage to win some fabric over the course of the retreat-so managed to add to my stash anyway.
And so concludes my most excellent retreat adventure.

all through the night

I easily was the last quilter still up stitching away-and I am finally calling it good. I completed all my stars and chains blocks. I was up until 2 am last night, tonight it's 3 am...wonder if I will catch breakfast at 8 am? plenty of snacks abound..I won't starve!

A charming older gal took over my stash bin late in the evening and put all like colors together, folded, and generally neaten it up LOL...I thanked her nicely. Tomorrow I will look again at what I need for the setting blocks..I think I may be raiding that stash bin for greens, or begging them from fellow quilters. I think I want to get all the blocks together into a top and then switch to either cutting scraps or figuring out what I am going to make with the pooh fabrics. Tough decisions! I am very lucky, they have an elevator so considering we are sewing in the basement and I am sleeping on the 2nd floor-it helps to save my knees on all the stair climbing that would mean. This retreat center is out in a wooded area- gorgeous trees surround us. If the weather clezrs, I may consider a short hike. Not likely however. I am having a lot of fun and enjoying putting the petal to the metal. ok...really need to grab some sleep before the sun comes up!

taaaadaaaaa! thanks Tonya!

I am giving Tonya over at lazygalquilting the credit for inspiring me to jump in and hand quilt wonky fans on this baby quilt. At long last Texas baby is finished-I will add a label once a baby is actually born. This feels great to be done ahead of any deadline and I am pleased with my first real hand quilting effort. I included a close up of one block to show my quilting better. I shared this at small group last night and had to laugh when one quilter friend asked me how long it took to quilt. yeah, right! I would guess each fan took about an hour-some more, some less...if you want some time element attached. Place a time value on having fun? I enjoyed each minute working on this quilt-that is the real value. And I will be delighted if it gets used up and worn away with love. I will just make another!

Life is Good!

leaving for quilt retreat today

my online quilt friends

curried lentil soup made for my sweetie while I am gone

photos tomorrow!

As so many of you have commented, getting into a new schedule of work and play takes a bit of time to acheive. I finally sat down last night and machine stitched the binding onto the Texas baby quilt and got the hand stitching started. I will work on it during my lunch half hour, at small group tonight, and then when I get home later. I probably will get it done late tonight as I leave on retreat tomorrow and don't want to drag it along. I have other hand work I can do with the gals. So, I figure I will be able to post a photo tomorrow morning before I leave. I have so enjoyed working on this quilt. The sheer joy I have felt has really reminded me of why I quilt-I just love doing it so much! And, what I also realized is how much more I enjoy quilting when I don't have a pressure dead line. Of course, I do have some deadline projects-hard to avoid when you want to make someone a quilt for an occasion. The ufo I am taking on retreat will end up being a wedding gift-it fits what the bride has asked for (this is the church part, they married at city hall earlier) and I was so happy to figure this out! So, scrap bin, ufo, and a hand project plus pooh baby fabric -that is what I am taking to play with during retreat. There are some group things I can do as well-so I may take something to join in for that as well. This way I have enough choices I won't get bored and will make progress where I want.

here I am

It was a busy weekend and once a friend grants permission I will be able to share some of her quilts-they are so wonderful...meanwhile, I have not made much progress on my own stuff-put together binding for the Texas baby and cleaned up the batting mess I had made in here. Don't ask. I have started a new job-so doing the 8 to 4:30 pm thing each day in an office is going to cause lots less quilting time. It's good to be able to look forward to a paycheck and all that comes with working again of course, but, boy was I spoiled by not working.
I have to adjust my energy levels and obviously get more done either early morning or in the evening. I am looking forward to going on retreat Friday. Guess I will be motivated to really get as much quilty stuff done as I can!

a big step done

I have been feeling under the weather the past several days-which meant I could hand quilt without feeling any guilt at letting everything else slide. Last night I put the last stitch in the hand quilting on Texas baby. Today I hope to squeeze in time to get the top trimmed and the binding machine stitched on one side. I am going to put a label on with blank spaces for name of baby receiving it, but have it stitched down on two sides with the binding. Then I can spend time tonight or over the weekend hand stitching the back side down. I will post a photo once it's completely done. I am so pleased to have this quilt to this stage, well ahead of the mid June deadline I had mentally decided on.
Lots of running around on the day's schedule-but first, back to the gym! Boy, have I missed feeling well enough to go do that-which goes to show you the habit it has become :-)