My House My Studio

This morning while eating my Cheerios I got to wondering what people think when they come into my house. I did have good intentions in the beginning but my hobbies have just overrun the whole house over the years. I used to keep my dinning room all neat and have a pretty center piece on the table that I would change with the seasons. Now this is my table... oh dear. Later to day it will be used for embellishments on ATC, then after that pinning a quilt to get ready for quilting. Well at least it won't get dusty.

If me using the dinning room table isn't bad enough I often take over the kitchen for poly clay and have my sewing machine cabinet in the living room. Thank goodness my hubby is a calm person who isn't into the perfect house. I do have a craft room upstairs, but I like to work down here with the "babies" and hubby near by. I guess a lot of folks use the dinning room table for a desk or work spot, it's not like the old days when the pedestal stand bowl of fake fruit sat on a runner and no one dare sit at the table except when company was over. I'm glad things have changed.

Well I'd done with my jewelry so I will put the mess away (for now) and I have a quilt top on the machine and I need to get the back made. I'm trying this year to get my Christmas presents done early. For the last 2 years I've been down to the wire working on them - no fun. Last year we were having new flooring put down at the end of Nov and I didn't even put up the big tree, so I also would love to make a new tree skirt this year and some other new stuff to decorate with. I love the patterns from Art To Heart and have 2 of her books. She has another Christmas one out I need to get that has the cutest snowmen in it. So I guess I need to get this denim quilt finished, cause I have 2 lap size quilts left to make for presents.

I always end up with the craft room in a mess after each flutter of activity and there is a denim mess up there now, so I'll have to clean that up before I can start cutting the back. Hum, maybe lunch first.

Quilting, Shopping, and more Quilting

Well back from 4 fabulous days of quilting fun. Stefanie picked me up Wednesday morning early and we were off for Paducah KY as our first stop. We had lunch and then rushed into the wonderful world of Hancock Fabrics. I used more self control than normal this trip and only bought a few things. I got a cool fabric with Scarlet O'Hara for my sister and a beautiful jelly roll of civil war fabrics from Moda. I also picked up these civil war fabrics which were just too nice to leave behind.

The second day Stefanie and her mom and I went to the National Quilt Museum and spent almost 2 hours in there in awe of the beautiful quilts. The large quilts that had been quilted on a standard home machine always blow me away. They also had a new exhibit called Imagine Hope and these stunning art quits were done by Hollis Chatelain. Amazing work. One of them is on the home page of the museum site. I also picked up a new Jim Shore piece while at the museum - couldn't resist it.

Stefanie and I also took all our gear and sewed every day we were there. Keeping the machines buzzing till near midnight each day. I did get a good bit done, but not as much as Stefanie - my count may be off but she knocked out 5 quilt tops - correct me if I'm wrong an it was more Stef.

I got binding made for 2 quilts I've got ready and also got a good start on my Christmas quilt. I've had this fabric for over a year and couldn't wait to get started on it. I just love silly reindeer stuff.
This is a start on another Christmas present for my in laws. I have 12 of the big blocks like in the center of this section done, but couldn't work out the layout so I set it aside. The layout came to me this morning while eating breakfast - odd how my mind works

This is a table runner I started and all it needs is the back and binding. It's for my sister. I did my first quilt as you go on this. I'm thinking of using an upholstery weight fabric for the backing, I'd like for it to be reversible.
We had a really good time while we were gone and got a lot done. Some mild excitement one night when going into Stefanie's folks place there was a raccoon in the garage. No way was this city girl getting out of the car and walking thew the garage, but Stefanie said I'll take one for the team and got out and used a big umbrella to chase the raccoon out of the garage - wonderful theory, but the raccoon didn't budge over this. We finally sat in her car and waited about 10 min or less and he came wandering out. He didn't seem near as scared of us as I was of him. About the wildest thing I'm used to seeing in our neighborhood are the neighbors.

Packing For Paducah

Well I've started packing for our trip to Paducah. Stefanie and I are heading out on Wednesday morning. The whole week is looking pretty wet. We plan on of course going to the National Quilt Museum. The exhibit there now is Imagine Hope. I just love going to the museum. It's like a shot in the arm for getting the creative juices flowing. We are also going to the mother ship of fabric shops, Hancock's! Man I love that place. If you have never been it's the size of a Walmart and just a quilter's dream. Stefanie grew up in that area and has known about it her whole life, but I didn't discover it till a few years ago while I was up at the AQS show in April. I know my little bit of money I've saved for this trip will zoom out of my pocket while in their. I've made a list of fabric I need, mostly backs for several quilts I have either ready to cut out or have started.

We are also packing our sewing stuff too and we'll sew each night and we've set one day aside to sew all day. It will be 4 days of quilting, quilting, quilting. I've never gone off for more than a one day sew away from home and trying to think of what to take with me is warping my little brain. I know I'll take way to much, but hey - you just might need that ruler or fabric bit. Lucky for us Stef has a big vehicle. If we can get all our scrap-booking stuff in her car this should work. Keep your fingers crossed.

So I won't be around for a few days, but I should be back with tons of photos and good stuff from our trip

When the Rain Stops

This was one of the most chilling images for me.

And Bless Taylor Swift's heart for donating $500K for flood relief. She's lived in Nashville since she was 14 and really put her money where her heart is.

Take a moment to look at this short youtube video.

The Sun Shines

After 2 bad weather weekends in a row the sun is shinning and at least in our part of Nashville, the weather is good. Many sections are still under water and schools are still closed in several counties. Most of the roads in this part of the state are open again. One of the things I was glad about in my yard was the heavy rains didn't beat my little flower up too much. This is a plant my mom gave me when we first moved into this house and I worry about it each year if it will come back, it continues to do very well.

During the 2 days of constant rain I got some quilting done and wanted to try out a new pattern. I'm not a real good free motion quilter, but do continue to try new things. This is a little ivy pattern I made up. Any time I want to do something new, first I get a sheet of paper and a pen and draw it out (not lifting the pen from the paper) and see how natural the flow seems to be. I think in time I will be able to do this one well.

Another thing I worked on today was using the poly clay tiles I'd made last Friday. I wanted to use them in some form of art, but was unsure what direction I wanted to go. I did 2 one kind of funky and the other a bit more formal. I like them both, but always tend to lean toward the funky style.

During the storm this weekend my hubby was unable to work on his current project (his truck) and I'd mentioned my little White machine was making a strange noise and he dove right into that to find out what was up. I have to admit I think he just likes taking stuff apart. But as scary as this photo is the machine is running very well now - no strange noise. It had never been cleaned and it is my first little machine. It was way full of lint. This is my little traveling machine so it lives a hard life.

Rain, Rain, and more Rain

I'm so very tired of all this rain. We've not had this amount of rain in over 20+ years. We've been trying to go to my sister's for 2 weeks for a cook out and last weekend and this one there were severe storms and tornadoes and now we have flooding. Our back yard is a lake and their are many roads closed and so many people flooded out of there homes. The major interstates are closed and chocked full of flooded cars. There have been 5 deaths in the state as of yesterday. Major areas of our community - malls ect are either just closed or flooded out. Here is a clip from one of our major interstates that was yesterday. It continued to rain all night and is still raining heavy today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5gYhLKwSp4&feature=related

We've not left the house in 2 days - the dogs don't even want to go out.