I have a lot of free time - NOT!

Today I learned that in the eyes of my 14-year-old son that I have a lot of free time on my hands. My response, of course, was "Really? Explain this to me," thinking to myself that I would love to know where this free time was.

What started the whole conversation was when we were driving home from the store (grocery store) and I expressed how I forgot a few things and how tired I was of going to the store so many times in the last week. I suggested that he could go back in a few days with his older brother and pick up the few things that we would need. His response? He's too tired. Mind you, he's in junior high school and plays basketball right now. He then proceeded to give me reasons why the other 2 men living at home couldn't go either, both that they are working all day and they are tired when they come home. He says that I could do it because I work from home (I am a medical transcriptionist)and I get off of work early (between 4:30-5:00)and I have more "free time" than they do.

I was speechless for a few seconds mind you, but managed to find my voice and then proceeded to go on a tirade about how little free time I actually have. I mean who cooks the dinner and then tidies up afterward? Who then sits down to finish any unfinished work leftover from the day? Who does a load of laundry in the evenings when they say they need something in particular? Who has been busy decorating for Christmas all while they are taking it easy reclining and watching TV or playing X-box games or watching videos on the computer? I think he got the point.

I can't wait for a day of free time. I will be sewing rest assured. In fact, my machine has been calling me for days, but I haven't had a chance to answer back. It's coming soon. I may even delegate someone else to make dinner that day, and I wouldn't care if it was Ramen noodles either.

Some of my winter projects

I can't believe how the time has flown this year and that Christmas is almost upon us.

The only finished project is the snowman tablerunner. It's a smaller runner meant to be in the middle of the table and still be able to put placemats around it. The middle photos is of a sofa topper that I started a few years back, but I am hoping to finish it after Christmas with plenty of time left to display it throughout the winter months.

p.s. Gotta give it up to my son who helped me with the photos.

Take a chance on me with the Kindle 3!?!!

Are you a book hog? Yep, that's me.
Do you sometimes hate to loan books for fear of never getting them back? Yep, that's me.
Do you have books in every room of your house? Yep, that's me.
Paperbacks or hardback books? Yep, that's me. I have them both.
Do you have a hard time keeping track of which books by what author you have? Yep, that's me.
Do you sometimes forget which books you have read already? Yep, that's me.

All legitimate questions for those who love books.

Who wouldn't love a chance to have all their books stored in a small device that is 5 x 7 inches and only 1/2 inch thick called the Kindle? I certainly would. My husband would probably give his right arm to have all my books stored in one small area too instead of all over the house! Not to mention never losing a book again b/c the Kindle can hold so many books. And with so many book stores closing, just think of the convenience of ordering books via the internet with wifi at your fingertips no matter where you are. It's just oozing convenience...

Why a Kindle instead of an Ipad, Nook, or other ebook readers? Because of all the fabulous reviews the Kindle has received of course, but I would like a chance to see personally for myself... not to mention Amazon.com! One of my all-time favorite places to make purchases.

I hope they take a chance on me so I can lose myself in real-life dramas, romance, or mystery in one little gadget.

Bzzagent.com. I've been a bzzagent for a few years now. It's where you receive products to sample and review and then spread the bzzz along to your friends. They are launching a new campaign on the Kindle. Check it out for yourself and sign up today to get started sampling products and giving your own reviews.

Love it or leave it

A few nights ago I started machine quilting a St. Patty's Day table runner that I had pieced, oh, about 7 yrs ago. I pondered for days how to quilt it and decided to stipple the larger areas in the borders and sashings and then I would follow the star pattern to quilt the rest. I got about three-fourths of the way done with the stippling and ran out of thread. This gave me a chance to take a break and stand back and look at my progress so far, and .... I decided I didn't like it at all!!!

Now comes the dilemma. Buy more thread and just finish the quilting as planned or shove in a drawer and deal with it at another time.

I wonder if this has happened to other quilters, pretty sure that it has, and how would you deal with the situation. Love it as it is or leave it?

I love the chance at giveaways!

Just been reading through the blogs I follow on my Google Reader and alas! - another chance at a great giveaway.

For more info, check it out here - http://theplaidscottie.blogspot.com/2011/03/blogiversary-giveaway-2.html

Also another giveaway to enter here - http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/2011/03/sponsored-giveaway-featuring-wondrous.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JaybirdQuilts+%28jaybird+quilts%29

I am eager for the mail to come today. Bit the bullet and ordered fabric online from Thousands of Bolts. Can't wait til later today!

Time to make a decision

I am no longer 32 yrs old, working out of the house full time, with 2 smaller children, and able to function on 4 hours of sleep. I am, however, 45, working full time from home, 1 grown child and 1 almost grown child, and functioning on 6 hours of sleep each night.

So, what's the point you ask? When I was younger, I made more time for each and every hobby/craft that I enjoyed. Let's see, there was sewing of course, rubber stamping, card making, scrapbooking, painting, jewelry making, ribbon embroidery, cross stitching, crocheting, and candle and soap making. For the past 3 yrs it has been not much of anything except sewing here or there. Well, I am back into my sewing big time and I feel the time has come to make a decision on which craft supplies to part with.

I have a 5-foot shelf filled with scrapbook supplies that I first thought I would just get rid of, but now I am thinking about just paring down the amount because eventually I want to work on more albums. I have a few under-the-bed boxes filled with rubber stamps that haven't seen the light of day for almost 3 years now. I have a cupboard above my washing machine filled with acrylic paints and brushes. I have have more scrapbooking supplies in a file cabinet, and more wood for painting on up in the shed. Are you starting to get the picture??? I have way too much stuff and the thing is if I live til I am 100, I'm never going to be able to use it all.

So, I guess my decision has been made to start clearing out. Next decision - whether to donate or have a yard sale in the next few months when the weather finally breaks. I know! Yard sale first and then what's left - donate!

Hopefully I can part with my beloved crafting supplies as easy as it was to write about it.

More about me and adding to my stash

First off, let me say this blogging can be intimidating to me. I'm still getting the hang of it. One of my main goals is to get the picture uploading/editing/posting figured out so that it's a no brainer.

More about me... I've been sewing for 34 yrs now (holy cow! when I figured that out I was shocked!!!). I used to sew a lot of garments, almost everything I wore for me and my children and occasionally something for my hubby. I got into quilting about 14 yrs ago when I was an Operations Manager at Joann Fabrics and built up a stash that was crazy wild. For the past 3 yrs though, I haven't really made time to sew except when a request came in from a friend or a family member, but I remembered that I was much more balanced when I was sewing, thus the resolution to get back into it daily.

I am amazed at how quilting has progressed. It's so free-form and really no pattern is needed now a days from everything I see. The fabrics have me amazed, but I have yet to go back to my favorite quilt shop until I have saved up a few more dollars. I want to be able to spend without guilt.

I did, however, venture into a Joann Fabrics on Sunday for a little pick me up.

I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, just some fabric with a more modern flare that I didn't have. I loved the retro look of some of these.

I loved this fabric and in thinking, probably should have purchased more than the 1 yard that I did. Since the store I was at is 45 minutes away, I think I'll either look online for it or at my local little Joann's.

How do you all do it?

I thought that keeping a blog and posting each day would be a breeze as much as I am on this computer during the day, but I am finding that is definitely NOT the case.    I keep thinking that I must keep up with the rest of you wonderful quilting bloggers by posting something creative, whitty, or something that I learned in my quilting adventures, but I am still getting the hang of how to even find my blog to post on!

Mind you, I am keeping up with my 20-minutes a day goal of sewing/quilting whether it be working on piecing or hand quilting and I do want to post pictures of my projects, but the times seems to pass me by and before you know it, it's bedtime again.  Even though I don't write on here that much yet, I am in heaven reading everyone else's musings and searching the web for more projects to add to my list.

Enjoying hand quilting again

In my New Year's quest to work on sewing/quilting at least 20 minutes a day, I pulled out a quilt that I have been hand quilting on and off for about five years now.  The bonus of sitting in the recliner hand quilting in the winter time is that you keep nice and toasty warm while you are working, thus I have only worked on this particular quilt while in the winter time.  Summer would be just too sticky!

I've finally finished hand quilting the entire inside of the quilt with gold thread, which shows up nicely.  I'll probably work on the checkered inner border next.  I haven't really planned any of the quilting in advance, so when I finally get to the outer border, then I'll decide on how to quilt it.   This is a twin-sized quilt in colors of gold, rust, cream, and deep purple.  Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do the colors justice.   The stars are each 4 smaller paper pieced blocks sewn together to make a larger block.  There was no pattern for this particular quilt per se, but I used the measurements from a quilt with 12-inch squares set on the diagonal to help figure the measurements for the corner triangles and the side triangles. 

A million and one thoughts

And so the new year has started and of course resolutions are on everyone's minds, including the typical ones of losing weight, getting fit, and getting out of debt.  Those really shouldn't be resolutions, they should be a way of life for me.    Of course, I am adopting them for some of my resolutions for the upcoming year, but the one I am most interested in at the moment is making some time for myself each and every day to sew/quilt or do one of the many other crafts that I am interested in.  Why should it be that just because I am a mom and wife that I do not have a chance to relax each evening after work/housework like the men and boy does when they come home each day? 

How's it going you say? Well, so far not bad.  I have managed to make some corn-filled heating pads for my sons, re-line a pair of leather mittens with fleece, put borders on a table topper that I have been making for my SIL for a few years now, and started hand quilting a wall hanging using perle cotton for that folk art look.  

I sincerely hope it keeps up.  Sewing/crafting is my time to relax and gather my thoughts for the day.  Oh how I have missed it!!  Welcome 2011!