All Moved in Gardening, Birding, and Sewing!

We planted two rosebushes because I hated leaving the ones we planted three years ago at our rental.  Looking forward to seeing these grow.  There are already lots of annuals planted around the house which suits us fine as I do not love gardening (love looking at it, but not putting in the work and energy to get there).  You can also see that we sprayed Hazel's mosaics and put them out.  I need to have her make some for this year (we did them on Mother's Day previously but with moving we did not get there this year!).

I sewed up a mini/med size pillow case for another pillow for Hazel to use while napping here.

We also bought a few cheap bird feeders (disposable) just to see if the many birds in the area would stop at our window.  This is just above the rose bushes.  We have lots of goldfinches stopping in and some house sparrows too.  I have not seen others at the feeder yet, but I downloaded the Merlin app and have discovered by recording their songs that we have House Finches, Red-Wing Blackbirds, Northern Cardinals, European Starlings, House Sparrows, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and American Robins in the area.  Hazel and I are enjoying learning about the birds!

 I finally got a picture of the border on this Lori Holt quilt.  This is the one Hannah wants for her soon to come daughter.  I need to get it out to the longarmer!

Fastest Weekend on Record!

 Last Thursday after work Kathy and I went hiking at South Mountain again.  It was a great night and we went farther up to see the ruins this time.  Really pretty.  We sat up there and looked through the window in the rock, very fun!

 We got to see the sun set.

 And the moon rise!

 However, by the end of the hike my feet were killing me.  My toes hurt really bad and I knew my shoes were too big and my feet were moving around in them too much.  So we headed over to Roadrunner and they did their little walking test and made me inserts and talked me into these shoes.  They are super comfortable and I cannot wait to hike in them!

 After our hike I had lots of steps, yay!  However, I woke up on Friday and had horrible pain on the front of my ankle/shin.  It hurts to even touch my skin.  I am hoping it is not shin splints--Kathy thinks it may be a bruise from hiking in the old shoes.  I have no idea!

 I have been icing it and we skipped hiking today because I am having trouble even walking (don't even have 2000 steps today..ugh!) and I am praying it will heal soon.  I wore my new shoes all day on Friday (which seemed to help my right knee) and did not wear them at all yesterday.  Today I only wore them for my ten minute half time walk and the pain was worse after that so not sure if the shoe adjustment is part of it or the walking.  Time will tell.

 Friday or so my Cotton and Steel Hatbox fat eighths arrived from Sew Mummy Sew!  I love them and will most likely hoard them a bit!  After work Friday we went to New River and spent the night at my mom and dad's...helped them with the thrift sale all day Saturday.  Then we met Ros for sushi Saturday night!  She gave me the Packer quilts to bind, but I haven't made it that far yet.

 Today I made my Tula Pink City Sampler block 23 and 24.  Somehow managing to keep up with my two a week!

 And all the blocks so far.  They are amassing quickly!

The next thing I sewed took a few hours but is a secret for my Santa Swap Partner Jennifer.  So I cannot show pictures yet, but I was happy with how it came out.  Now to wrap all the stuff and get it winging its way to her--she already mailed mine!
I also stitched up the weekly Wild and Goosey block.  Thank goodness I have the goal of one a week or I would just put these off too often!  I love them but each block takes a good hour!

I am SO happy I had time to finally trim up hst's and get Piney Flats made!  Thanks again to Jo and Kelly over at Jo's Country Junction for encouraging us to finish up a Quiltville project or two before the mystery starts on Black Friday!  

 I also finally hand stitched up the opening on my pillow today--also a Bonnie Hunter adaptation of Lori Holts' house block from the Parade of Homes in Quiltmaker Magazine.  Really cute!

Feels like this was the fastest weekend on record!  Watched the Packers kick butt and got a pedicure today too...I wish I could start all over again at Saturday tomorrow, lol!

Our New House and a Good Mail Day!

Here is our new house! I love the outside look of it and really wanted a two story...I have had my eye on this house since I came across it on my first online search last fall! I never thought it would still be available or affordable by the time I could put in an offer.

This picture is of the loft and the designer fans they put in. The house has three bedrooms, so I could use one bedroom as a quilting studio, or I could use this loft as a quilting studio. If it is big enough that is my plan since I can see into the living room from there and can still feel connected to the house as I sew...but without seeing it in person I am waiting to decide for sure. That IS the most important decision right?!

We have another picture of the living room printed off but it isnt' available online anymore..it shows the other half of the living room with the rounded out front window you can see from the front of the house picture. This is the back half of that room, garage off to the left, stairs in the middle and kitchen is to the right. You can also see that the owners were really thoughtful and put in a dog door for our four dogs! GRIN.

Underneath the stairs you can see a custom painted screen! The pictures are Tuscan in style, which is what my current living room is and I am more than happy to keep that area Tuscan, I LOVE IT! This is one of the things that made me feel I had to have this house!

This is the back or side yard...we aren't sure which. The neighbors are CLOSE so I sure hope we get along. The little orange trees rock and the dogs will love the grass. The yard is smaller than we would like (as far as we know) but it is bigger than the area the dogs have been able to use for the past few years...we have a huge yard, but a small fenced area.

This picture is obviously the kitchen. There is a pantry off to the right behind the fridge I am told and looks like another set of doors on the right. Nice island..this kitchen has FAR more storage than the little one I have here in Wisconsin, all updated too. We aren't too sure about that shade of yellow in the kitchen so pretty sure we will paint it more of the tuscan orange/yellow that we have here in our kitchen and living room or possibly paint it this other kind of coral color that we saw in a different house--both of us loved the color and that was our house choice # 3.

I hope others are excited about me getting my "Dream House" as I call it. My family had various things to say such as "are you sure you can afford it?"--I sure hope so-- and "it looks kind of small" --it is 400 square feet bigger than the house we are in and I am not taking the two kids that live in this one--Hannah is going to college and Mac is staying with his Dad--and "I can't believe you are buying a house without seeing it"--Kathy's sister and brother and law did go see it and gave us details and the thumbs up--and one good one "That's great!" but so far no one really is as happy as us...my sister is bummed we are an hour from her but that is far better than across the country and I will be driving to see her or meeting her in the middle as much as I can. I may even be able to freelance up in her area so I am conveniently nearby so I can visit her.

My good mail picture is below. I really enjoyed the handsewing on the bus trip back from Chicago so I ordered this little pattern and the paper pieces to make a small hand sewed project. I am hoping I can kit this up and do it while driving to AZ and whenever I get time but we will see. I also need to iron on the pattern for the redwork I bought in Chicago so I can work on that in the car too!

Thanks to all of you for your comments. I really am enjoying getting to know all my blog friends. Today I have no jobs (but do have papers to grade--ugh) but am planning to go to CJ's storage and get a few loads of his stuff (we already started) and go through it and organize, toss, etc what will come with us to AZ since CJ can't do it right now. After that we need to grab some groceries, then if there is any time left in the day I need to sew the OC part 3! We also have two movies to watch--The Kite Runner (great book) and Neverwas so busy, busy. Tomorrow I am going to the Festival of Nations in the Twin Cities with one of my Deaf students and his ESL class and on Sunday we are driving almost four hours to go visit CJ. Should be a fun filled/busy weekend!

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!

Summer Bargello Progress

Jade kitty didn't mind the vibrations from my machine as I strip quilted my Quilt University Summer Bargello quilt. She just let the fabric pile up all around her! It was so cute even though she slows the sewing down a titch she is a great companion! She helps me with missing my son C.J. since she is his cat.




























Here are the before and after photos on Mac's room. We cleaned it up, painted it and got new carpeting. It looks bigger that is for sure!





















Friday we drove around the area and delivered flyers with pictures of my stolen jewelry to the pawn shops. No one has seen any of it so far. I am not giving up hope yet, if a high school student took it then he might just be dumb enough to try to pawn it! I sure didn't know that pawn shops have to upload info on EVERYTHING they get from people everynight. So keep your fingers crossed on that. I also delivered a list of the stolen jewelry to my uncle who is a fantastic jeweler who works at Laskers. He will get together a total for all the stolen stuff that I can give my insurance man.

So while we were downtown we wandered in to the Calico Shoppe and I signed up for the International Quilt Festival in Chicago overnight bus trip on April 12 and 13th. I have never gone on a quilting trip or to a huge show so I am excited. I don't usually like to go to stuff like that alone, but the past two years we have talked about going and somehow since it is six hours away we never get there. Kathy picked out this jelly roll, fabric and pattern to make her sister a quilt since the one we thought we would give her sister went to AZ to my parents (they love it!). We both are really attracted to Ingrid Barlow's patters for the modern traditonalist so we bought one for this fabric, and may have to do more than one. She has a website with other patterns too. http://ingridbarlow.com/default.aspx I like her style.

Some Cutting Done and Update on the House

Well I finally made time to cut out the one and a half inch strips for my "summer" Seasons Bargello quilt (wallhanging size) for my Quilt University class. I need to get it done before Friday night or Saturday because our teacher will be posting the "autumn" pattern then. I need to get cracking on which fabrics to use for that one. I have one strip in this one (third from the right) that is a different color but same fabric pattern that is in my "spring" version. Bought four colors to try to work them in since we can put this all in one lap quilt when we are done. I haven't decided on that or wallhangings yet. Originally I thought a seasonal wall hanging to change in my eventual quilting studio would be nice, but now I am thinking a lap quilt would be good too. Anyway I am not entirely enthused with this group of fabrics but I am working with what I have here and so we will see how it turns out. Summer has lots of sun and green so they do make me think of summer anyway!

We spray painted our front door today. Ok Kathy did it while I was working (grin). It was ORANGE--like 70's orange inside and out and now it is a fabulous almond color. I really think it is a huge improvement. Should have done this awhile back. It might need another coat yet, we will decide in the sunlight tomorrow. Yay to that!
Here is the new loveseat/chair/bed we got. We have it covered by two quilts and two blankets right now as we are training the dogs to stay off it. We bought some bitter bitter spray and sprayed an old blanket on top of it for two days and they didn't care for it and stayed away. We didn't care for it either. We added a rug to the living room and they are happy to have that to lay on but old habits die hard. Mostly it is going better than we expected. I know it is hard to retrain dogs, but they have destroyed three couches in about as many years with constant jumping on it. Where it was before they liked to climb on the back to see out the window. That rips the cushion off the couch...sigh. I like to have them lay on it with me, but don't like the wear and tear on the back so we are going to try to keep them off the couch. They can still go on the beds though!
Kathy got the white toilet seat on and the fish one off so the downstairs bathroom is all done too! Left on the list of things to fix is laundry doors (half done) take down hardware in Hannah's room, new carpet in kids' rooms (on Wed.), toilet seat upstairs, and we decided to paint the upstairs bedroom. We will also touch up some paint outside and we have bags of leaves to get rid of as soon as Spring hits since we didn't ditch them all in time last Fall!

Off to Margarita Monday at the Mexican Restaurant downtown. I think I am driver tonight though so no margarita for me!