'Tis the Season...

Wow! Where does the time go? Just seems like we start October and here it is coming to a close. What does that mean for me? It means holiday hours at work. I get to go in an hour earlier. Woot! :-( Christmas is almost here. We get to put the tree up, and at least i can look forward to that. Plus I get a year older in the coming months. :-(

In the last post I had mentioned that I would be getting pictures of the Sewing and Quilting Expo. I did remember to take my camera, but they had signs up that read taking of pictures are prohibited. I just could not bring myself to sneak in a few shots. I did think about it a few times. Then I thought they would come and haul me away. I will do my best to describe what I saw.

The one that just stands out in my mind is a small wall hanging made by Sue Hausmann. It was done using the new 4D Family Portrait and an embroidery machine. The picture was of her grandsons graduation and it looked life like. Better than any picture stitch I have ever seen. Most of the pictures I have seen stitched out look better the farther away you get, but up close does not look like much other than threads. This one looked good even up close. I was in awe. Almost makes we want to buy an embroidery machine and the program. Almost. There were a group of items that were done by Jenny Haskins, I just love her stuff. She can take simple embroidery designs and combine then together and make them look like WOW! She had a foot warmer on display that was just gorgeous. I did find this on Jenny's web site and the picture does not do the real thing justice. Its the quilt in the upper left hand side done similar to the foot warmer. You just have to see it in person to really know the beauty of the warmer. The warmer was made out of silk fabrics. Just think of how much that would cost me to make.

Done in One challenge by Fons and Porters Love of Quilting was kind of a cool display of projects that you could finish in a weekend. I thought this was a great idea and my kind of contest. I did find some pictures of the Done In One challenge winners online. I just love the web sometimes.

There was the New England Quilt Museum Founders Exhibit and also the 2008 Hoffman Challenge Quilts and dolls on display. Lots of great items to look at. I was in awe. I just wished I could have gotten some pictures for you. Click here to check out the photo gallery of the the expo.

I am proud of myself. I got up at 5:30am (it was early for me and not planned) and worked on my Another Little Quilt Swap project and got the binding and label on the quilt. Woot! Just need to get it in the mail to my partner. I think the quilt is due to be mailed out by Nov 6 so that does not leave me much time. I will post pictures once my partner had gotten the quilt. As I am looking at it, I see a few loose threads that I need to go back and snip.

Charlie

Sewing and Quilt Expo

Are you ready for the Sewing and Quilt Expo this weekend at the KCI Expo center? The expo is going on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I will be there on Thursday morning after I have breakfast with my mother. We are going down to the Corner Cafe in Riverside and I am going to have some biscuits and gravy. Yum yum!

Let me know if you are planning to be at the sewing expo. Maybe we can meet. I will get some pictures and post them here after the show.


Remember this group of fabrics, from a few months back? I still have not come up with any ideas for this fabrics. Please post any patterns you might think will look good with this group of great fabrics. There I go again with that autumn color pallet. I just keep going back to it over and over again.

Who want to be the first to follow my blog? Click the link on the right to sign up and let others know you read this blog.

Thanks!
Charlie

12 Steps and Cute as a Button!

I am loving this autumn weather we are having. All the leaves are changing and turning into bright yellows to vibrant reds. These are my colors. I fall back upon them time and time again, but I am trying to think out of my comfort zone. Hard to do sometimes. I am just drawn to the Autumn colors, and if you look at my stash it just screams out Autumn.

I have decided that I am going to try to use up most of my stash, it is just getting way out of hand and I am always wanting new fabric, but never use up what I have. Sometimes I think it might be best if I just buy what I need. Lets face it, how many of us really use our stash? Maybe a piece here and there, but for the most part we buy what we need. I would like to be the fist to say: My name is Charlie and I am a fabricaholic. Who would like to stand with me and join our little 12 step program by using up their stash. Show of hands please. Can't take it with you and if I were to ever move I do not want to schlep it around.

I am almost done! Done with what you ask? Done with my Another Little Quilt Swap Quilt. I was able to get it quilted and the buttons sewn on today. I just have to get the label and binding on. I will get the binding placed on tomorrow, but as for the label that is another story all together.

As many of you know I dislike to do any hand sewing of any kind. I really many ANY. So here lies the problem, how to get the label on the back of the quilt. If I were to do it by machine it will show on the front. Then I thought about using steam-a-seam 2 around the edges, but I am just not sure. Also thought about sending the label with the quilt and some chocolates and letting my secret pal place it on, but that is just tacky and rude. I need your help in this matter. Post any idea's you might have. I will take any help you could give me.

Charlie

I'm Still Alive

I do not have my computer back up and running yet. I have since found out that I have a fried mother board and I am not sure what I want to do yet. I think I am going to take my BH's computer and he will get a laptop. We just need to save up some money. A good laptop is not as cheap as a desktop.


I am still working away on my Another Little Quilt Swap quilt. I have all the blocks done and have all but two blocks sewn together to complete the top. Then I will be ready for the quilting and binding. You would think I would have a 20" square quilt done by now, but for some reason I am finding this harder to do than a lap size quilt.


I am joining another swap. This time around I am partaking in a fabric square swap of 5" squares. A great way to rid of them left over scraps that I no longer want. Juliette over at Chickpea Sewing Studio is hosting this swap. The Spare Change swap is easy -- you just need to send 24 5"x5" squares of fabric and a self-addressed stamped envelope, and you'll get 24 different pieces in return. The fabrics you send can even be all cut from the same print. The goal is to have a great variety of new fabrics to make a white & scraps quilt. Sounds good to me! Just think of all the quilts one can make with 5" squares. Look out swaps, here I come!

Charlie

P.S. I filled up with gas today and it was $2.73 and now when I got home it was $2.71. I can not believe the prices. I hope it is as cheap in your neck of the woods as it is here in Kansas City.

Update

Wow, what a roller coaster ride the last few weeks have been. Not only for me, but the rest of the country. It seems that we are all on the downhill side with the ups nowhere in site.
The last post I told you about the computer woes I was having and it seems I am still having them. I thought all was well and I was up and running, but it seemed that after I used the computer for 15 minutes it would reboot itself. I had run virus software and it told me I did not have any problems on my computer. I just wanted my problems to go away and get my life back to normal so I thought I would once again reformat my computer, but this time wipe the hard drive clean. I get the windows recovery disk back out and reboot and choose quick erase hard drive. I get the warning message that all data will be deleted from my computer. I let out a big sigh, thinking all my problems will be a thing of the past. Oh boy, was I ever wrong. My computer gets 93% done and just for no reason reboots it's self. O.k. I think the disk is dirty. I clean it and back to the 3 hour install again with no luck. Same things happens again, again and again. WTF? Long story short, my computer is now in pieces in the quilt room, waiting to be fixed. We are going to try again and fix it this weekend with a real copy of Winodws xp and not this recovery copy.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes, but until then posts will be slow coming. I have gotten a little bit of quilting done, but not as much as I would like.

A Little Fall of Rain

I've had computer problems. It seems that I can break a computer just as quick as it takes my BH to fix it. We used the repair utility that comes with Windows to fix my problem and thought it was going well, until I get a new copy of windows and all my old stuff is setting in a folder marked old computer taking up space. I have no idea how to get it restored. I have replaced most of it already. I have just lost a few items that I can not restore. I am sure they're still on the computer if I only knew where to find them. It feels good to start fresh. It's cleans the soul.

Block of the month will be awhile before I get anything else posted. I lost all the block info to the computer problem.


Moving on to some good news now. Thursday night my BH and I went to Starlight theatre here in Kansas City. It's a theater under the stars and it has one of the largest stages in Kansas City. It had been raining all day long and I had thought we might get rained out. Shows are rain or shine so we headed out to see Les Miserables. The story of how the convict Jean-Valjean struggled to escape his past and reaffirm his humanity, in a world brutalized by poverty and ignorance, became the gospel of the poor and the oppressed.

We got there about 7:30 show started at 8. When we got there it finally stopped raining. The seats were a little damped, but thats o.k. If you have ever seen Les Miserables before you know that it's a 3 hour long show that uses a turntable as part of the set. Well, this one did not use the turn table as it was not the broadway touring production. My BH and I were not sure how that was going to work out. Oddly enough, it was a great show. We loved Eponine. My bh shed a few tears on A Little Fall of Rain. Who does't on this song. If you have never heared it before get a copy and listen. It's a great song about unrequited love. Just before the finale my BH leans over and said "If you want, we can leave it's just the finale". He thought he was being funny. I was appalled that he would say such a thing to me. I told him "Bite your tongue". I lost it on the finale. I started crying. Well no not crying, bawling. I was sobbing so hard I thought it started raining again. The rain did hold off and we both had a great night.


I am partaking in another little quilt swap and have not gotten too far on my quilt yet. I just have the fabric and the pattern picked out. I am going to be using the Box of Chocolates Pattern from Bits and Pieces by Karen Costello Soltys. I will be doing mine in bright pinks and browns. I loved this pattern the minute I saw it and knew I just had to make it. I love the use of buttons in this quilt.
Charlie

Perfect Day!!!

Today was a perfect day. The weather was just right, not to hot and not to cold. My BH took me out for a picnic tonight when I got home from work. It was so thoughtful and sweet of him. He had made chicken salad sandwiches and macaroni salad and we went to a local park. What a great way to spend a Friday evening. After dinner we went on a 1.3 mile hike. Wow, that was a trip let me tell you. My heart was beating fast. I am not used to all that exercise. Maybe I need get off my butt a little more... :-)

It's just a perfect day. I am glad I spent it with you. Oh such a perfect day. I am, glad I spent it with you. You made me forget myself. I thought I was someone else. You keep me hanging on. Oh such a perfect day. I am glad I spent it with you. -Lou Reed

Then I went shopping at Macy's, they are having a huge sale this weekend. I bought two hundred dollars worth of clothes for about sixty dollars! I love big sales at Macy's, sometimes you can find clothes cheaper than at wal mart.

Here is a project that I made for my good friend Pat. I will be teaching this class at work. I pieced the table runner and pat quilted it. I just love how Pat uses cherries for the quilting of the runner. The embroidered cherries are the cutest!!!


Here is yet another table runner that I made and quilted myself. I think I might end up giving this to my mother when I am done with it. It is more her colors than mine. I like to take simple blocks and make then look like something so much more. I love how the outer border is broken up by a matte strip. It just kinda sets it off. Give it that "pop" factor. Take a look at the binding on this one I have done it all by machine.

Table runners are quick and easy to make. Most only use 3 - 4 blocks and you can get them done in no time. They are great for the beginner quilter. They even give you a chance to try out your quilting. Woot!

Thanks for a perfect day!!

Charlie

Edit: This blog entry was done Sept 5th, 2008 not what ever day blogger thinks I have done it.

BOM Update

Take a look at the first 6 blocks of our BOM. There just waiting to be sewn into the quilt. I need to get off my butt and get that done. Just another UFO in my ever long list of items. If I stop adding to this list maybe I can get it done. Who knows?

The orange in the picture seems to jump out at you. Lets hope it's subdued once I'm done.

BOM-Cups and Saucers

Below you will find our 6th block of the month. This time around we will be using some of the techniques we have learned from the other blocks. We will be using the HST and No waste flying geese method.

It's hard to believe that we already have 6 blocks done. Whoot!

Cups and Saucers
Click here for instructions

BOM - Flying Geese

Below you will find our 5th block of the month. This time around we will learn how to make flying geese by using a no waste method and getting four geese units out of one square. This is the only way I make flying geese. Click here for the How-To.

Flying Geese Pinwheel
Click here for instructions