and the rest of the day...

Spent the day finishing up some quilt projects. I hand sewed the binding on the Arizona Dreams quilt and got a label on the back (I love you hand). Kathy tied up the I Spy quilt so that is all done too. Label is on it, but needs to be sewn to it yet. I also put a label on the Quilter's Puzzle quilt we made awhile back. I still need to open it up and try to get the edging straighter and resew it closed, then tie it. I am just not quite happy with the way it turned out. Have had it sitting aroudn to fix for awhile. I also updated my handwritten quilt journal.

In the mail yesterday I got some Flea Market Fancy squares to add to the small collection I already had...they are different sizes and the larger ones are the pink version, so I am not sure what I will be doing with them yet, but I love the fabric!

Also in the mail I got "Curve of Pursuit" which is a knitting pattern. I can barely knit...my mom has tried to teach me several times, and my grandmother tried this summer. I finally bought a video and that helped tons too. I made a partial scarf before putting it all aside. SO I will need lots of help if I am to make Curve of Pursuit, but if nothing else I am going to try to adapt it to a quilt which seems doable and really modern looking!

Kathy and I crazily put a bid on ebay for a Denyse Schmidt quilt we didn't need but the price was great and what a cool thing to own so...we won it. Should be here in a few days!

Picture Sorting Day

I spent a few hours yesterday sorting through all the pictures I have and organizing them by child for future scrapbooks I plan to make for each of their graduations. Coleman's is done (one more page I want to add) and Hannah's needs to get started since she graduates this year! Have a few more years before Mac's has to get done. I sent a ton of pictures to Doug (the ex) so that I won't have to move them to AZ this summer. Was great to get through them! I will have to take some pictures and put them on here of CJ's and then Hannah's when I get going with it. That will motivate me to get going on it!
Another project that we did the other day is we took all my old Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazines and marked off any possible projects we might want to do in the future...then we scanned and saved them in the computer and to disc and we are getting rid of the old magazines. One less thing to move!
Well off to watch the packers and maybe start hand sewing the binding on my Arizona Dreams quilt.

A Walk in the Park Pictures

Here are the pics!

Another Sewing Day!

So yesterday Kathy and I cut and sewed and tied all afternoon and evening long! The Arizona Quilt now is tied and has the binding machine sewed on and just needs hand sewn closed.

We started and finished my first I Spy Quilt which was fast, easy and a lot of fun. Kathy cut up hexagons and squares to do five more I Spy quilts later on when we have enough charms to do it. I had bought a pack of charms on ebay which is the bulk of the first quilt, but unless I buy another pack it will be awhile before I can do another one since you need so many different ones for each I Spy quilt.

Next we worked on my "Walk in the Park" quilt from Quilter's Home magazine (my favorite!) which has lots of applique which I don't usually do. We got to putting the applique on and discovered that we had only made about half the pieces--apparently I didn't do the math right. So we had more work there than we expected. We got all eight applique blocks assembled and the day before yesterday I had gotten the checkboard type blocks done. I just have to figure out how to actually do the applique so it looks good, then we can assemble the top. I expect that will take months and be done in between other projects since I am not sure I would have the patience to do it all in a row. I do love the colors in it though and it will help me get through this long last winter here in Wisconsin. I need to take pictures of this one to post yet.

My other passion is reading. I belong to an online bookgroup (used to be the Oprah bookgroup when she first had one but we had to change the name so we are the Bookies now) and every year we post our best and worst, etc. I didn't read near as many books as usual this year and I didn't find that many "best" books either. So in no particular order my favorite this year are:

Water for Elephants by S. Gruen
Quilts by D. Schmidt
A Thousand Splendid Suns by K. Hosseini
Northanger Abbey by J. Austin
Down in the Common: A Year in the Life of a Mideval Woman by A. Baer
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

Modern Quilt by W. Ringle and B. Kerr

Snow Day for Me!

I was supposed to pick up my friend Randy from the airport yesterday but his flight was cancelled due to fog in Ohio (so then I was supposed to get him today, but cancelled due to snow here...he made to Milwaukee where he is stuck for the third time!) so anyway we had a suprise free night and Kathy and I decided to make the Just Your Size quilt designed by Dorothy Young on my "Pocketful of Mysteries" online group. It went together really well and I used fabric from my stash...the cactus/sunset fabric was purchased when I visited Arizona a few years ago and I hadn't found a use for it...it seemed appropriate to use it now since we are planning to move to AZ this summer. I titled it Arizona Dreams...we will appropriately be dreaming of toasty warm Arizona all this last winter here in Wisconsin!

Today lots of snow shovelling and I watched an awful Packer game. I also cut out some of the stuff for a tablerunner for my sister.

Welcome to the Modern Diary Blog

I love the idea of keeping a diary like I did in my youth so here I am. Not sure that anyone but me will actually read it, but you never know one day someone could be studying the modern diaries of the past and I could wind up in someone's thesis...smile.
When I was in high school I had (still have it) a few notebooks that got passed around my group and different people would write in (it was titled "Days of Eau Claire" after the soap and the town name) and it was really fun to have an interactive type journal. I stopped keeping it in my twenties when I got too busy with the kids and moving with the military. Six or so years ago I started keeping a book journal (which is just about full now) since I am an avid reader. Then a few years ago I started a quilt journal to document all the quilts I had made. I really enjoy getting a picture and description and details of the patterns and circumstances of the quilts I make. It is really fun to page back through the quilts and review my progress and such. Quilting is a huge part of my life--I have become obsessed with planning the next quilt, and dreaming about quilts I may never make and a quilt studio I long to have!
I am a nationally certified sign language interpreter and I also teach American Sign Language and the semester just ended. I love sign and language in general since interpreting rarely if ever gets boring. I travel all over and interpret for a wide variety of Deaf people.
I have a girlfriend, three children, four dogs and two cats in my life. They all keep me quite busy. We are planning to move to Arizona in June or July if our house sells and I am looking forward to warmer weather (we live in Wisconsin now) and being closer to my family there.