A Little Bad Could be Good News

So we didn't accept the counter offer on the house we had decided on....really there is another house that we wanted more, but the price is quite a bit more and the yard is not very big and no pool...so we talked ourselves out of it and decided to be sensible. Well, sensible didn't work out so I am following my fortune "the project you have in mind will soon gain momentum" and am going for it. I may be working like a dog for awhile after we get there, but I really do love that house. So we are putting in an offer on that one tomorrow and we will see what they counter with. If that one doesn't work out I am not sure...we have looked and looked and not really finding a ton of stuff we like that works out with all the stuff we have to consider. Cross your fingers and toes for me...please! So I am hoping that this little bad news really turns into good news....

OC Step 3 Started, Bingo Winnings and the House in AZ

I woke up to all this snow on Monday! It was melted by the time I got home from work and it was gorgeous but someone is not getting the message that it is Spring! Smile.
This morning I finally cut out the larger triangles using the Companion Angle ruler which worked very slickly! I had leftover wing triangles so I will use those to make step 3 of the OC Mystery (from Quiltville and Bonnie Hunter) later on tonight I hope. Only took minutes to cut out the triangles and I hear the clue goes quickly. I am getting another cold so went to bed early last night and dragging myself this morning...I hate to be sick!
These lovely fabrics are chicken/red fabrics that I won from the NewQuiltingClub group. Phyl put me in to play on accident and told me to go ahead and play and I won! I feel kind of guilty since I didn't send in any fat quarters and I won this whole bunch! I plan to play once I get settled in AZ, but for now it is a bit of froggin around I don't have time for...lol. All this blog reading too has cut into my sewing time, but I am SO inspired by what others do and I have learned so much from reading them! I even subscribe to a few in Norweigian and German that I can't even read..but the pictures are awesome! Good thing I am a fast reader!
This is the picture of the house in Chanlder, AZ that we just minutes ago put in an offer on. It is not the one I have longingly looked at since last fall but I am too practical for my own good and this one is about 50,000 less if it all works out right and it has a pool. The backyard is bigger too which is important with four dogs! It has a doggie door and is 8 houses down and across the street from Kathy's sister so for all those reasons and more we decided on this house. My sister is bummed that we are not closer to her farther north but I can't find anything I like for the price I want up there--and without a housing association and all that. I did try though because I would like to be up there too...
Oh I got crazy and went and bought myself a new purse from the Vera Bradley collection..it is the little yellow bird pattern on black. I bought a matching one for my Grandmother's birthday which is coming up too. I am fabric nuts and those purses just make me smile!

Ding Dong the House is Sold!

We are really overjoyed that we got an offer on the house and accepted it yesterday! We need to be out by May 30th...so will be in Arizona by June 15th! We have found a few houses we love in Chandler and now are working on getting the financing all worked out so we can make an offer on one of them! Have been having migraines again pretty bad....stress apparently exascerbates them..ugh! I should be happy and relaxed, but apparently my head doesn't believe that yet!
On the sewing front...haven't done anything for a few days, but delivered Marlene's Flying Geese Comfort Quilt to her at the nursing home she has been moved to. I went with Randy to deliver it and she was really suprised to get it from me since I really don't know her. She was so thankful and really loved it...showed it off to a nurse who stopped in, etc. It will be well loved in her care and I hope it helps her!

Starry Eyed Block Eight

I just finished my starry-eyed block week 8--Eight Pointed Floating Star in the larger size for the NewQuiltingClub...I have been trying to get to this for days..finally did and WOW this one was almost as hard as the paper pieced star for me. I seriously almost gave up..I kept turning the points the wrong way and ripped several times...at first I didn't realize that I was putting two right star points on instead of a left and right...finally I decided to just get it together even if not as good as I wanted it...meaning using the pieces I had even after I had trimmed them wrong, etc...so it is one of those that you need to look at from 100 feet on a galloping horse to appreciate! I don't have a horse so the picture is too close, lol. I think I will need to try this one again now that I get how it goes and I can be more precise...I have a small one cut out so when I am feeling ambitious I will try it! If you are interested the free pattern is here. http://delawarequilts.com/BOMs/FloatingStar/index.html
Have our 29th showing (I think it is) in a half hour, so I need to go do the last of the cleaning and get the dogs loaded into the car for yet another Friday evening of fun...cross your fingers someone wants this house soon! SMILE.

Ginger Tagged Me...

Ginger http://gingerquilts.wordpress.com/ tagged me so here are my answers!

Five things found in your bag
1] Tide Stain Stick
2] Various medicines (migraine stuff, tums, etc.)
3] A book, whatever I am reading at the time..currently Three Cups of Tea
4] A granola bar, gum
5] Something to drink, I always have something! Green Tea today.
Five favourite things in your (sewing) room
1] My sewing table. My mom and stepdad bought it, refinished it and it was in my grandmother's formal room for many years, when the folks got it back they offered it to me!
2] The sewing machine!
3] My newest pincusion, every time I see it I smile and think it WAS so worth twenty dollars..they sell them on Etsy
4] Books and magazines with patterns and inspiration
5] fabric, fabric, fabric
Five things you have always wanted to do
1] Go back to Norway
2] Get healthy
3] Live near my immediate family
4] Teach at an ITP (Interpreter Training Program)
5] Have more time to quilt
Five things you are currently into
1] Quilting, I can't get enough of it...starting to think I have an illness
2] Pomegrante--such a sexy fruit
3] Reading, quest for knowledge!
4] Unfortunately ice cream (favoite is Eddy Cherry Chocolate Chip and Dulce de Leche)
5] Coffee
Five people you want to tag:
If you haven't done this and want to be tagged, comment me and post your answers on your blog! Smile.

Flying Geese Quilt is ready to comfort Marlene

I got the binding on the flying geese quilt and now I can send it with Randy to comfort Marlene who is in the hospital. She is elderly and has had increasing problems since she went to the hospital a few weeks ago. We are not sure she will fully recover and get to come home but I hear she is in good spirits and is planning on so we will see. I am hoping the Spring colors and flowers in this quilt cheer her. I really enjoyed making a quilt for someone I really don't know (I have met her in passing when I have been at Randy's...she likes the outdoors so I often see her sitting in her swing reading or working on her flowers) and want to once again thank Steph in Kingman, Arizona for supplying the batting, thread and most of the time to put the fabulous baptist fan on this quilt. She did it the day after it arrived and got it right back to me too! THANKS! If you are the praying type, please say a prayer that Marlene gets her stregth back and can walk again and come home soon.

Kathy and I finished step two of the Orange Crush quilt the night before last. This means we have made 284 of these little patches in the picture below. Last night I decided to finish up all the extras I had cut until I ran out of the larger triangles and had to quit. I played around and put them in this arrangement for the picture, but not sure yet what to do with the extras. I also have extra scrappy four patches so may have a few doll quilts or little quilts at the end of this too. So fun to use up scraps too!
Today I plan to do my starry-eyed blocks...have had them cut out for days and just haven't gotten to them yet!

Orange Crush Step One Done--well for one...

Not the greatest picture but Kathy and I spent a few hours tonight getting step two of the OC done for one of our quilts. I did the sewing and she did the thread cutting, ironing and pinning in stacks of ten..oh and the counting. As soon as we got to 142 she said that is it for tonight! So tomorrow I will start the other half. We had more than enough of all pieces cut, and I think the little triangles multiplied in the night because there were lots left over (we originally counted and separated into two piles) so I will reserve them in case I am short on the other half, haha! Now that I am sewing with the cut off end of the triangle to the inside I think they are coming out better.

Hannah came home from work close to 11 PM just as I was heading up to bed (just wanted to blog quick) and she wanted help with starting the cutting on her Puss in the Corner quilt. So I taught her how to do the cutting and then proudly took some pictures. She cut several of her colors (the easier squares..some have angles and she will need more help...the directions on this pattern are different than what I am used to) and posed for a picture at the end. You can see Rosey behind her and Otto (the blind dog) next to her too. Note the disaster everywhere since I left everything set up for tomorrow (if we have a showing clean up will be fun...)
You can see my returned stolen purse to the right in this picture too (Vera Bradley, I love it). Well off to bed I go...am almost half way through the book I bought last night and I want to read a few chapters before I crash. Yes, I AM a night owl...can't help it! Piece, out.

Comfort Quilt Layout and Puss in the Corner Fabric

Yesterday we drove to the Twin Cities to go out for Indian food and to hit JoAnn Fabrics so my daughter could pick out fabric for her Puss in the Corner wall hanging. She brought along her boyfriend Jeremy and they were so cute picking out the fabric. They were trying to get the exact shade of Hannah's cat GreyBear's fur to commemorate him apparently. Anyway, the fabrics they picked with a little input from me, Kathy and Randy are in the picture with the black meow fabric being for the back. We had a great time. We went up in two cars because Jeremy had to work at 10 and we wanted to hit some other places leisurely. The kids left and headed home but got lost and we had to rescue them. Then they were going along and switched highways at the right place but went the wrong way on that highway (there are signs, but it was dark and they never have driven back from the Cities alone)...so they supposedly were weaving across the center line and got pulled over. The cop was convinced they were high. My daughter is the most straightlaced type when it comes to that kind of stuff and was quite insulted at the thought. The kids were so flabergasted and were going the wrong way so the cop thought they were really out of it..apparently three or four cop cars and cops later and much questioning they were allowed to go with no ticket. One cop commented to Hannah that she has dialated pupils (so she looked stoned) and Hannah said they are always that way which is true..I have the same large open pupils and have actually had a doctor ask me once if I was on something because of my eyes. I barely drink and am scared of drugs, don't even like prescription pain pills..wish I knew why our eyes are this way. Kids were freaked out and I am glad Hannah wasn't alone on some dark country road when they got pulled over. Sigh, it put a damper in our night. Imagine the cops' suprise when he asked where the kids had been and Hannah said out to eat with my mom and to a fabric store. LOL on a Saturday night--no wonder he didn't believe them.
Can you spot my block among all the pretty comfort blocks that were sent in to Trish? This quilt looks great so far and I hope it brings a man with horrible cancer some comfort--I have never met him, but any friend of a quilter is a friend of mine. Oh my block is in the third row from the bottom above the center heart. It works, had to use the malest brown and blue fabric I had onhand. It looks great Pickles and Trish!

So far today have been reading email and blogs, drinking coffee and feeling sluggish. We didn't get home til 2 or 3 AM and slept in late today. The sun is shining and I think I am taking my new book (The Zookeeper's Wife) that I am reading for my online BookiesToo group outside to read...will try to sew more on clue two of the OC tonight now that I think I understand how to use that EZAngle ruler. By the way I couldn't resist and bought the larger version of that ruler and the Companion ruler since they were half off at JoAnn's. We hit Borders and I got some good deals on Denyse Schmidt's Quilt it Kits...will be gifting them somewhere, but I just couldn't leave them there!

I also wanted to say THANKS to all the Pickles who emailed me publicly and privately to help me ignore a rude poster on the group (who has since left apparently). It really made a difference in my day. I hate it when people are rude to other people on purpose, life is short...be as kind as you can!

Step Two of Orange Crush in Progress

Lots of tiny triangles--almost 600 total were cut!
The first 70 from clue two...I didn't find these particularily easy either. I had awhile turning the ruler round and round trying to get the hang of it! I seriously looked like I had one margarita too many at first. I have issues with some of that visual stuff (funny since I am a sign language interpreter and have no problem with that)! Eventually got the hang of the ruler....then getting the right edge with the square was harder than it should have been! So many hours later I have made 71 of those babies! I have a long way to go but I did sort of start to feel a rythm after awhile. Let's hope I can get it back when I get back to it! For some reason I was thinking I had to make twice as many of these units as I do, so I am feeling a bit relieved to know that I only have to make 142 and help Kathy with 142!
After reading the Quiltville emails I realize I am not putting the corners in the right place on all the triangles (one edge is cut off and it goes towards the center so the points are there) so some of mine might have issues later on. I will remedy this on the rest of them and hope it would be in the seam and not matter anyway, but what a challenging little bugger this one is for me!

Step Two of Orange Crush Started

Kathy and I worked on cutting more strips for the Orange Crush quilt last night. We got going gangbusters and were cutting them 2 and a half instead of 2 inches! So now I have a bag of 2 and a half inch strips ready for scrap system I am creating! So after we got 2 inches we learned how to use the EZ Angle Ruler (which took a few times to figure out) and we got all the large triangles cut for two OC quilts. We also cut the 2 inch squares from the strips. Now today I need to do a zillion (no lie!) little triangles and put them together into a block. This step may take us awhile! It feels great to use up the scraps that had been multiplying in the dark closet for the past five years. Also fun to revist all the quilts they were in throughout the years.
I also cut fabric for two stars (a 12 inch and a 6 inch) for week 8 of the starry-eyed block for the NewQuiltingClub's challenge. The larger one will be green and yellow and the smaller one red and blue. http://delawarequilts.com/BOMs/FloatingStar/index.html
I also Bingoed on B6 this morning for that same group and won something! It was the first game I played with them and I got in by mistake and was allowed to play even though I didn't put my name in. I really needed that!

Picture borrowed from http://www.bbdcreations.com/bbdcreations/index.html I bought this pattern with my daughter in mind since shs is a cat lover! My daughter is still looking forward to shopping for fabric for it. We are going to try to do that this weekend. I am so excited she wants to try it! I may get her to be a quilter yet. I also forgot to mention that in Chicago I bought a cool Flamingo bookmark from this same place for a gift for my dad's other half. Kathy got a cool mermaid card/bookmark from there too. I bought some black wool to use in a table runner my sister picked out for me to do, and I found cute little flamingo buttons for same flamingo loving lady though not sure what I will do with them!

Chicago Quilt Show Part Two!

If you are still with me after that last long post, here are more of my purchases. This is just a small wallhanging "Tree of Life" that I thought looked great. Not something I would usually choose, but the booth had lots of great stuff and this caught my eye.

I found the second issue of Quilter's Home Magazine! I didn't even know I had missed the first two issues for some odd reason...sigh. So now I am on the hunt for the first one. This was a great read on the bus ride home! This pic also has a pattern for several pincushions (my newest interest) as well as a bookcover pattern which you can make with lots of different options. The other thing you can't really see is the freebee I got from the booth I bought a cool mermaid card/bookmark for Kathy and the Tree of Life pattern.
This is not the best pic, but it is the free bag I got with Kathy's dog fabric and pattern. It came in quite handy while I was shlepping things around!
I also bought a cool "Puss in the Corner" pattern that Hannah (my 18 year old daughter) claimed immediatly. I had her in mind when I bought it...she has done a little quilting with my help but has never shown a huge interest and lo and behold she wants to hit the fabric store and try making it! I am so happy...so she has the pattern in her room someplace so I haven't taken a picture of it yet.


On the bus ride home Lynn (shop owner) gave each of us this fun kit from one of the booths (I need to look it up online...next project is to go through all the cards I grabbed at the show!) that I actually HAND SEWED on the bus! It took a little more than an hour, was my first time hand sewing. You may be able to see the basting is still in it until I attach it to something. It was rather fun to do (and made the ride home seem shorter) and several of us made ours. There are little paper hexagons that can be reused and you baste the fabric around the paper and then attach them to each other and eventually you take the basting out. It was kind of fun to do and I may look at getting one of the kits. Somehow I didn't even see the booth this was in or the gal demonstrating it. There was so much to see and do.
On the house front...we had our 25th showing today...have several people looking repeatedly but so far no offers. The realtor came out and got a no snow shot of the house and we have been working on the yard to make things prettier!
Oh and I bought a pin for the show so now I have three different quilt related pins so it is an official collection!
I sent off Marlene's quilt to Kingman, Arizona to Steph http://hualapaiquilter.blogspot.com/ and she put baptist fan on it the day after it arrived! She offered to do this and we haven't even met. What a fantastic gal and I can't wait to meet her when I get to AZ. You can go to her site to see the quilting and after I get it back and add the binding I will post another pic or two. Thanks so much Steph, YOU ROCK!

International Quilt Show--WOW!

I had a fabulous time at the Quilt show and met and made many new friends! We left the Calico Shoppe in Eau Claire at 6 AM Saturday (which is WAY too early for me) and I didn't know a soul. By the time I got off the bus at 9 PM Sunday, I had several hugs to give and had exchanged some phone numbers with my new quilting friends. It was nice to find other people who "get it" about the need to touch, see and work with fabric!


Below is the cool bag I got from the store! LIME folks!

So here is a recap and some pictures to help you along the way! On the bus I met my roommmate Rose. She happened to sit right behind me so we talked a little bit and she was excited for her fifth year at the show. I wrote a letter to CJ, read my Terri Thayer book (which was good and had me turning pages though I didn't have time to finish it--will get to it). The book is about a murder in the quilting world (with a rotary cutter no less) but I digress. We got to Chicago and off the bus in the afternoon and I followed the crowd in and lost my bus group immediately. Everyone seemed to know someone or several someones, so I was feeling pretty lost and alone. I wandered through the first rows of journal quilts feeling pretty overwhelmed....then I remembered that I had phone numbers for my NewQuiltingClub friends. I called two of them and got voicemail and left messages and before I could call the third Sandy called me back. She had me head to the food area (the farthest corner of the quilt show--great for warming up my muscles for the all the walking I would be doing!). I immediately spotted her in her pink crown along with Dianne. She introduced me to Fonda and Paul, Wanda and Raquel, and Alicia and we got lunch and ate. I couldn't stop talking, trying to remember names and put all the online info into info I could now retain! Each of these people was nice and friendly and I am SO glad I met them! Alicia gave me this awesome embroidered hanky to commemorate the show! I didn't expect that and it made me feel so a part of this group. They have been going strong for a few years now and I have only been in it for a few months. This is one group I think I will stay with for a LONG time.

After we ate we tried calling others that were showing up and one by one they came. Jan (pretty sure it was Jan...) brought me my NQC award for my Love Beads quilt finished in February 2008 for my son Mac. It won the most votes...my first quilt related award--yippee!

After everyone came and I tried to learn all the names, we got a picture. We are a happy group! I spent most of the afternoon shopping and talking Dianne's ear off! We bumped into Laurie and Fonda and Sandy a few times...funny how I feel like I know them so much better now that I have met them in person. These ladies are special to my heart! You can see Sandy has a crown and Dodie has a crown on her shirt..by the end of the day Dodie and Laurie and I am not sure who else also had crowns on! Some of us just aren't royalty though....hmmm maybe I am the jester? LOL!So now for show and tell on what I bought! I saved for months for this and I sure went NUTS! I passed by this quilt kit and later ran back through thinking I could find it. I had been thinking about it for over an hour...finally found it, bought the kit and snapped a picture too! I have no idea what I will do with this one, but it just appealed to me! So this was my first buy! I am not telling you prices, lol!

Next I saw someone from NQC had this cool bag with Eleanor Burns' Victory Quilts book, some preprinted iron on stuff to help with making the swags, mini rulers for flying geese, a 30 year pin and a free heart thingy I am not sure what to do with. I had to find it and grab it, at this point my bag got heavy! I also met my first Pickle Posse member--Gina. I have a picture of that too--she turned to me and said I am a pickle too! AWESOME!

This picture shows part of the Victory quilt on the right, but it was really the one in the corner that I loved...it is just one block repeated four times. I think I can find something to make out of this book someday, but mostly I just had to have it since I love E. B.!

The last thing I bought (I think) was this book which I have yet to look at. It has pictures and explains about many of the quilts that were hanging at the show. I didn't get enough time to look through them at a lesiurely pace so I thought this would be a cool way to look through them later on in the sunshine at my leisure!

That night my whole body ached! Rose and I went to dinner at Baker's Square to avoid the crowd, and Tisa and her mom Toni joined us. Rose knows them and it was great to swap stories about quilting and families and what we had to have at the show! We pretty much fell into bed after that....and of course I talked Rose's ear off too. I gotta quit that!

Sunday we ate at the hotel, checked out and went back for another day. I honestly wasn't sure I wanted to go back since it was so crowded on Saturday and I felt liek I had walked through it all six times and I was so sore! I lightened my bag as much as possible and bravely entered again..smile. Rose and I decided to hang together so that was really nice since my NQC people were gone! Rose and I chatted and really strolled through..taking our time...there were less people and we were there just as it opened and so I feel like we really got to see so much more. Sunday was a fabulous day! I am not sure of the order I bought in because I just kept on finding stuff but here is what I got (if I still have your attention I am amazed..smile!)

One booth had lots of little quilts in large picture frames. They really looked amazing. I found several I liked and bought the patterns and then later found pink and brown fabric that should work for making them. I think I see this on a wall in my future AZ house. Oh and the patterns were 30 percent off! Rose bought some too!

I found some fat quarters and then at another booth a half yard of the fabric that I used for my seasons bargello quilts! I had picked one fat quarter of the same pattern in four colors and tied my separate four seasons quilts together by including one of each in each season. When I wanted to do the borders I wanted more of that fabric and the store didn't have it. I have some leftover, but this will help alot...I didn't even have some of these colors originally. AWESOME huh?

One of the absolute splurges I had to have was this fabric and pattern for the quilt in the next picture. I LOVE the fabric. I already forgot where the gal said she got it from, but I will look at the business card later and add that here...can check her website I am sure....anyway it was definately a splurge, but I met another Pickle Posse memeber--Peggy at this booth. She has made quilts out of Katmandu fabric for Mark (the head Pickle) so that was awesome! Aren't the fabrics to die for.....sometimes I just don't even know what it is but these are so different from the rest--unique! They are from Indonesia. I saw on Peggy's blog she used them to make another cool quilt too! http://magicthimblecreations.blogspot.com/2007/12/busy-busy-busy.html if you want to see it.

Isn't this just the richest fabric? Makes a fairly simple pattern just POP!

I found a pattern for redwork that you iron on muslin (reusable) and some thread to do the redwork with at two different booths. I have never tried this and want something portable.

I knew Kathy needed something related to dogs...so I bought this kit for her to do with the backing. It is really cute with dogs in the windows of the squares!


Are the doggies sideways? Smile.Okay, there is more but this is SO long so more later.....told you I went nuts!