New Year's Resolutions

I find New Years Resolutions a list of potential, additional, failures.
(Failures do not make me feel very good.)
I have learned to stop making New Year's Resolutions. 
A Bucket List seems so much more practical.
Note: lovely lime green color of my bucket.

"Things to do before I die or things to attempt to do."

1. Lose weight, not be half as tall as my weight chart says I should be.
OK, chart says I should, only, be a foot taller than I am. 

2. Start eating and living healthier and happier. 
Find my "Happy Place", no one has sent me the map to "Far, Far, Away", yet.

3. Finish projects that are laying around, before starting a new one.

"How do you eat an elephant?"

"One bite at a time!"

Try finishing a portion of the project and try to look at it as having one less step to do before the project is done. Finish piecing a top, mark a quilt top and layer it, finish the quilting on a quilt or finish the binding.

4.Stop doing things I don't enjoy. AKA, stop being involved in a project that starts organizing, for the following year, the day after it finishes.

5. Avoid irritating people, unless they are blood relation or in-laws, then have as little contact as possible if they are irritating.  "Nope, still don't have the new passports!"

6. Travel - go on a real vacation - no going to a relatives house for a week and staring at each other. Also, no going to an amusement park and being being whipped, twirled and nauseated - for $25 - $50 per person.

There are a lot of states I would like to see, then maybe we will think about Scotland and Ireland.

OK, 6 on my Bucket List, how many more?  We shall see. We shall see.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Finding Inner Peace

I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr Phil proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished."


So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, a box of chocolates, and the last bit of the tequila.

You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now.

Pass this on to those whom you think might be in need of inner peaceBelieve me it works!!!! Get sewing girls...I'm done and in no conditions to be around meedles!


Just kidding - I found the above over on Connecting Threads website, it was left by Pam in NY.
http://quiltwithus.connectingthreads.com/profiles/blogs/last-big-shopping-weekend-and#comments

Change Change Change

Why is it??? When you are finally finished with something that has demanded your full attention for months, and that you think you will finally have some time to do something you really want to do - quilt, everything takes an unexpected turn!
We moved to NC a little over two years ago, to be near DYS and the Devine Miss M.  The factory he works at is closing in NC and he is going back to work in the FL plant.  Thank God, he will still have a job, when so many people do not. 
The move will be good when it is over, but right now I am freaking out!  More weeding out and downsizing!  The plan is to get a 5 or 6 bedroom house with a pool and a 3 or 4 car garage.  1 bay sewing studio, 1 bay the boys woodworking tools get combined into fantasy woodworking shop, and 1 bay gets the mowers and yard supplies.

No more daycare for Miss M, lots of baking cookies, learning to sew, making jewelry for Mommy and Sissy.  No honest, Daddy, Grandpa and Brobro, don't want bracelets and necklaces, "M"!

Christmas

I am a sporatic poster, but Bonnie has had a scare with Oscar and I felt the need to share.
We had a scare a couple of weeks ago.  Christmas looked like she was suddenly pregnant with about 6 kittens.  Poor baby usually only weighed about 2 pounds, suddenly she was up to over 5 pounds and very lethargic.  Just because your house cat never goes outside, you still need to get her neutered!  Poor baby's uterus had gotten infected and was stretched into two huge lobes!  Surgery was successful!   Chrissy is home and  beating up on the 2 dogs and ruling her kingdom!  As Bob Barker has always said:  "Neuter and Spay your pets!".  Chrissy obviously fell in to the :  "If you don't use it, you need to lose it!" catagory.   Thank God and NDVet, she is "OK"!

Who Are You & Who Am I

Copy and paste, and then answer the questions, and tell me you did so I can learn about you, too!


1. Sweet or Savoury?

2. Dresses or Jeans?

3. House or Apartment?

4. Shop Online or Offline?

5. DVDs or Downloads?

6. Cocktails or Juice?

7. Chocolate or Strawberry?

8. Laptop or PC?

9. Magazines or Newspapers?

10. Facebook or Twitter?

11. CDs or MP3s?

12. Kids or Pets?

13. Cookies or Cupcakes?

14. Walk or Run?

15. Breakfast in Bed or Breakfast Out?

16. Market or Supermarket?

17. Sourdough or Grainy?

18. Heels or Flats?

19. Late nights or Not?

20. Coffee or Tea?


About Me:
1. Sweet or Savoury?      Savoury

2. Dresses or Jeans?        Jeans

3. House or Apartment?      House

4. Shop Online or Offline?    Online

5. DVDs or Downloads?       DVDs

6. Cocktails or Juice?       Cocktails

7. Chocolate or Strawberry?    Chocolate

8. Laptop or PC?      Laptop

9. Magazines or Newspapers?   Magazines

10. Facebook or Twitter?     Facebook

11. CDs or MP3s?     CDs

12. Kids or Pets?    Kids grown, 2 dogs 1 cat

13. Cookies or Cupcakes?    Both

14. Walk or Run?     Walk

15. Breakfast in Bed or Breakfast Out?   Breakfast in Bed

16. Market or Supermarket?   Supermarket

17. Sourdough or Grainy?    Grainy

18. Heels or Flats?    Flats

19. Late nights or Not?  Late nights

20. Coffee or Tea?    Coffee and lots of it

Missing In Action

Things have been a little crazy the last couple of months, more correctly would say - past year!
Planning a whole Scottish Highland Games has really cut into all sewing and quilting time (and sanity!).
I have promised myself to devote time for family, sewing, quilting and sanity!
Outside forces may try to mess this up, but I am only going to allow a few hours a day to dealing with committments that only really need a hour or two, 2 or 3 days a week, for planning of 2011's Scottish Festival.


My sewing for this year has consisted of: finishing the RR Blogger Swap, repairing a seam on the Devine Miss M's sweatpants and making Hubby a pair of trews.  What are trews you are asking - tartan trousers.

My lovely model is featured in Scott modern red tartan trews.  He has been asking for these for a couple of years.  Note: big happy grin!

Sanity for me is sewing, sewing and sewing, on a daily basis.  I am embarrassed to admit I turned up hems on a pair of pants two years ago with fusible hem tape.   I guess it like the "Cobblers son going barefoot".  "The seamstress/alterationist ironed in hems!"  Really need to redo them considering they are still an inch to long.  My goal for this week - redo hems and stitch them in this time!

GO! Give Away

There is a "GO!" give away over at  Millie's Quilting , go check it out. 

If I win I will be re-gifting the "GO!" and keeping the dies, I choose.  I broke down and bought a "GO!" last week!  But you all know that by now!

New Baby Arrives

My new baby arrived yesterday.  She immediately made a road trip, with in a couple of hours of arrival.  Didn't even get to spend her first night in her new home!  The friend we stayed with was properly in awe of her and her beauty.  Hmmmm!!!  Did my friend have a slight greenish tinge???  My DH thought she would and did!
Now I need her to tell me what she would like to be named.  I will have to get back to you on that!

Strippers

Yes, I ordered a package of strippers today.

 OMG!!! Not those kind!!!

These - AccuQuilt Go! strip cutter dies:

INCLUDED IN THIS AWESOME PACKAGE DEAL

1 - 1.5 ACCUQUILT STRIP CUTTER

1 - 2.0 ACCUQUILT STRIP CUTTER

1 - 2.5 ACCUQUILT STRIP CUTTER

1 - 3.5 ACCUQUILT STRIP CUTTER

1 - 10X24 CUTTING MAT

***************************

Easily cut perfect strips for sashing, borders, wide binding, tote bag handles and more. Lay cut strips across die perpendicular to blades to cut any size squares for cornerstones, 4-Patch and 9-Patch designs. Lay cut strips across die blades at a 45 degree angle to cut diamonds for Tumbling Block, 8 Pointed Star and other diamond designs.

WOO HOO!  Hurry up, Fed Ex!!!

The Last Piece - Give Away

Sarah over at The Last Piece is having a give away. 

Fabulous fabric not yet released!

Always a Piece of Me - Give Away

Ashley at Always a Piece of Me is having a give away. Go on over and check it out, tell her I sent you.

Give Away at Stray Stitches

Linda at Stray Stitches is having a give away.  Lots of great stuff. 

Tell her I sent you over!

I iz havin a sad.

I had good intentions, but man am I catching "crap", over the post - "Lower Than The Limit".

I have read most of these blogs for quite a while, but wasn't an official "Follower". I didn't intend for us to sound like we were trolling or begging for "Followers". Only that I like reading these blogs and we had something in common at this moment, besides being quilters. I am very sad about all this!

My Lower Than The Limit Quilters, is where I intend to share overcoming obstacles when I try to find sewing and quilting time.  Overcoming not being eligible for a free AccuQuilt "GO!".

Give Away at Red Quilts

Shelley at  Red Quilts is having a give away, in honor of her 100th post, go on over and tell her I sent you. She has lots of great "goodies" to give away!

This what I saw and really want, but she isn't giving it away.

She is giving away a sweet little pincushion, a great book and "Fabric" - ya know we all need more of that!

Lower Than The Limit Quilters

LOWER THAN THE LIMIT QUILTERS

I have found several others that have received "THE LETTER".
I mentioned we should start our own group: "THE LOWER THAN THE LIMIT QUILTERS".
I have no clue as to how to make a button, someone in the group mentioned we should have our own button on our sidebars.

If you would like to help our little group eliminate the need of the elusive button, the members that are in need of "Followers" are:

Me - Sue, here at: KQ Sue

WENDY at: Why Knot Kwilt

Ashley at: Always A Piece of Me


Monica at:  Diary Of A Quilt Maven

I wonder if we did do a "Lower Than The Limit Quilters" blog and combined our "Followers" that would get us in with AccuQuilt??? Hmmm??? 

OK, new blog done!  Let's see how much fun we can have with this.

Rejection

If you read my blog even once in a Blue Moon, please click on "Follower".

I know you are out there, you email me and leave me comments.

I just got rejected by AccuQuilt's blog list, of Bloggers that love AccuQuilt.

(These are the people that keep having all the GO! giveaways.)

They want only blogs with at least 100 "Followers".

I will try to blog more and try to being interesting or slightly amusing if nothing else.

Thank You, for being my Blog Friends!

Wendy over at Why Knot needs followers, also. She got the same letter I did.

AccuQuilt Obsessed

I have become AccuQuilt obsessed. I want an AccuQuilt Cutter so bad. I keep entering give aways for the GO!, but so far no luck. AccuQuilt commented on Face Book they were looking for demonstrators about three weeks ago. So far I haven't heard anything from them, either. I really would love a job demonstating the AccuQuilt GO! or Studio.




A friend has a Studio in her Quilt Shop that have I used a few times, LOVED IT!!!
Another friend has a GO! she brought it to a class I took and shared it with us, WANT ONE!!!


I guess I need to write the: "Dear Santa and Elves, What I really, really want for Christmas is" - letter. P.S. Santa, A few dies would fit in my stocking, most carefully hung by the chimney.

SAHR

I finished the Round Robin Blogger exchange about a month ago and was so relieved to have it end. I told myself I wasn't starting another project. I have so much going on right now.

Ha - ROFL- famous last words!

Kate over at, Kate's Quilting, started the "Stay At Home Robin". Everyone works on their own quilt and doesn't worry about rushing to the Post Office to mail the quilt to the next person.

Step one was to make a 6 inch block of your choice. OK, done, oops thread trimming, sorry!

Step Two add a 4 x 6 inch section. My 4 x 6 inch section is scraps from my Twisted Kitties quilt. The pattern was actually Twisted Sisters by Ami Simms. I don't have a sister, but I do have a cat.

Go! Accu Cutter

Spun Sugar is having a give away. It is the coveted Go Accu Cutter!

Go on over and find out how.

I have wanted one of these ever since they came out. I have so much fabric and so little time to sew, let alone all the cutting before I can even start to sew. Would make my life so much easier and productive, to have one.

Cattitude

I have been doing a Round Robin Blogger swap. 14 people each did a step on each others quilt, then each mailed the quilt on to the next person.

My quilt came home today! I am so excited! I absolutely love my little quilt!

My original starter block is, the black and white square with in a square block, on the left in the second row.

The sayings in the top row are so what Crissy would say, if she could talk. "Not that she has any problem communicating, by telepathy!"

"Please take the kitten back to wherever you found him. xoxoxo, The Cat"

"Please put away that suitcase. You are not going anywhere. xoxoxo, The Cat"

"The furball on the bathroom rug is for you. xoxoxo, The Cat"

Where did all these fabrics come from??? I haven't seen any of them!

Wordless Wednesday

IHAN - 30 Days of Giveaways Anniversary

I Had A Notion is having The 30 Days of Giveaways Anniversary Celebration . Go Check it out. The AccuQuilt Go is just one of the prises. Boy would I love to have that!

Blog Link:: http/www.ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/

Website Link : http://www.blogger.com/Ihavea-notion.com

Friday Fill Ins

I found this "Fill In" at Tonya's Sewing Room .
Tonya found it at Not So Plain Jane, where Rachel does a new one every Friday.
Fill in the blanks when you can't think of anything to say!

1. In 1992, I was a lot younger and thinner.
2. Love, laughter and smiles.
3. Do what you will, with what you have, where you are.
4. Peaceful and content is where I'd like to be.
5. The trees and flowers are telling me sow seeds and reap vegetables.
6. Happiness that just keeps going on.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to reading a book, tomorrow my plans include quilting and Sunday, I want to sew!

April 6th is National Tartan Day

April 6th is National Tartan Day. I think of sewing with Homespun Tartan Plaids.

A group I formerly quilted with every Wednesday, back in TN, swapped 2" x 6" plaids from our stashes. I printed and passed out the "Brick Walk" pattern for every one to use. Several members went right home, put their pieces together and had tops by the next week. Several of us added our bags of pieces to our UFO shelves, there probably should have been "BUP shelf" - Bags of Unstarted Projects. Every year on National Tartan Day I think of the bag of pieces and of the past friendships. One of these days I will dig the bag of plaids out, sew them together and think of all the good times our group had together. Our "Secret Santa Swap", trips down to Mary Jo's, quilting retreats at Buffalo Mountain Methodist Camp, trips to quilt shows and state quilt guild meeting. We had a lot of great times!

Scraps and Life

When life gives you scraps, as quilters we make quilts.

Other times in life we are given scraps and sometimes need to admit that the scraps we have been given are tooo rotten to work with.

My motto has always been:

Use it up,

Wear it out,

Make it do,

or Do without.

Several of my non-quilting commitments have gotten to be "NOT Enjoyable!" I am not getting paid enough for all this, OH YES, I am not getting paid for any of this!

The bad thing these commitments have cost me "Valued Quilting Time", over the last year - especially and a few for several years. I am dealing with very difficult people, that are draining the energy out of me! I am now dealing with back biting, controlling, rude, expectant people. They are now draining me of motivation, to steal 5 minutes here or 10 minutes there to sew a few stitches. I am haunted by them in my sleep, when I can actually fall asleep.

Over the years I seem to always end up being friends with, or befriending, the difficult people of groups I encounter. In school I was what I refer to as a "Geek Collector". I was, also, friends with the other stereotypical groups. Most of the geeks were actually very nice people that were true loyal and friends.

Some talk show, years ago, talked about these type of people. The "expert", said to: "Never steal someones joy/happiness and never ever be guilty of being someone that does this, either."

It is sometimes difficult to say enough is enough, which is what I am struggling to do now. l have never been a quitter.

Thank, God, I have never been on a sinking ship, I would have gone down with it - bailing like crazy!

Thanks, for letting me have my whine - boy - I sure would love some wine about now!

National Quilt Day

I hope everyone had a great day quilting today!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Here is a link to this cute little St Patrick's quilt.
Moonlight Quilts has it as a free pattern on their website.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

John Flynn Class

Wow, it has been a week, since I took John Flynn's, Storm at Sea class. It was a great class!
He and I have the same opinion on cutting and sewing seams. I have always tried to instill in my former students, that if they cut accurate and sew accurate, they will not have to rip out or re cut. We tested the width of our machines by sewing 3 - 2 inch squares together. The center square was supposed to measure exactly 1 1/2 inches.

All machines are not created equal! Needless to say there was a lot of ripping and resewing in the class.




A few days later at an informal group I occassionally meet with, one of the members said: "I didn't take the class and buy the templates, because I can just rotary cut squares and rectangles". "Right!"
That may be true if the light is right, the moon is in the right phase, she had a good protein breakfast and no coffee!

OK OK, so I had my laptop and pulled up the photos I had taken in the class, and showed her the potential problem areas. True, there is a big Square with in a Square block and a little Square with in a Square block. Those aren't a problem to rotary cut and sew accurately. But the two rectangular blocks can be difficult, if they stretch they will end up "wonky". Sewing the four sections together and getting those little midpoint seams to align perfect on all four sections can be a challenge. John's templates have the dog ears cut off to help you line up the pieces up.















Then we get to pressing the seams. If you get into the habit of always twirling your seams in the same direction on every quilt it will eliminate lumps and belly buttons on your quilt. When you press, left points back or toward you and right goes forward or away.


Any one who says they have been quilting and sewing for years and there is nothing to new to learn, is delusional! There is always a chance of hearing something new or trying a new technique.
I heard several years ago, after sewing over 40 years, if you were having trouble threading a needle, if you turned the eye around the thread would more than likely slide right through. The eye in a needle is punched, when it is made. There are tiny burrs on one side, that you can't see or feel; but the thread can.

Embellishments

Tonya, at Lazy Gal Quilting, was a runner at a quilt show and one quilt was fabulous, but got marked down for having fur on it. How unfair!!! I feel fur should be considered an embellishment. Embellishments: beads, sequins, lace, ribbons, fur. That is, also, Chrissy's opinion and she sticking to it!

Probably half the quilts would have had fur embellishments if the judge had looked closer. The quilter probably forgot to only quilt and cuddle with a coordinating cat, on that quilt. I guess I need to stick with the Amish quilt patterns for a while. Hmmm --- I have two Amish UFOs, I wonder where they are? They just needed quilted! Off to look, maybe I should have added dust as an embellishment; I will probably stir some up in the search.

History of Aprons - and memories

This was one of the dreaded email forwards, from my cousin Sharon. It brought back a lot of childhood memories.

The History of "APRONS" I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears. From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of second. When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and then men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old time apron' that served so many purposed. Send this to those who would know (and love) the story about Grandma's aprons. Remember:Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw. They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron.
Author Unknown

Think of all of the pieces of a quilt that were in the scrap basket after those aprons were cut out and sewn. I always loved the feel of my Mother's aprons, they were always so soft and comforting. Tears were dried with the corners of those aprons. Aprons smelled like your Mommy, home baked bread and fresh baked oatmeal raisin cookies; when does it get better than that! Those are what I would remember as the "good old days".

Inspiration

The FP&QG meeting had Pepper Cory, as guest speaker, Monday night. Pepper showed some of the quilts in her collection and gave her lecture: “How to Become a More Creative Quilt Maker”. Unfortunately - I forgot my camera "Aaaackkk!" I will add pictures later if one of my friends remembers to email them to me.
Tuesday Pepper gave her workshop: “Two Blocks are better than One”.

This is Pepper's sample block for the class.
Can you see the same block in the middle of the quilt?
It is so amazing how 18 or 20 quilters can cut the same size pieces and get totally different looking blocks. The supply list said bring a wide assortment of fabrics, leftovers from other quilts we had made would work. I grabbed 2 tote bags and stuffed them with bags of leftovers and inherited bags of fabric scraps. I had been sick all weekend, but was determined to attend the lecture and workshop. My energy and design "mojo" was pretty challenged by Tuesday afternoon. My scraps seemed to not want to play together and I really wondered if I was up to playing at all!

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!