Month: August 2007

daily life · family · longarm quilting · quilting

I am still here, too…

Wild Rose Quilter10 Comments

What is going on?  I, like Diane, have been in a major funk the last few days, too.  And I really don’t know why, other than that I am sick and tired of my day job.  It is sucking the life out of me.  Then I feel bad for feeling that way, because I try to tell myself I shouldn’t be whining and complaining.  I mean, I HAVE a job, it pays quite a bit better than minimum wage, I am ABLE to go to work, I have so many blessings, yada, yada, yada…not to mention the wonderful family I am blessed with.  A husband that couldn’t be a better mate for me, a son that I would not trade for any other boy on the planet…so WHY am I feeling so pissy?!  I have been so tired, too.  Oh well, enough of that…

Thank you all for the comments on my last post.  I so enjoy your visits to my little space here on the web.  I am tickled that you are noticing and checking on my block progress.  I really MUST finish this quilt!  This seems to be helping me stay at it.  I did two blocks today, putting me five ahead of my one a day scheduled goal.  I am starting to feel like I am going to finish this.  I realized that it has been almost TEN years in the making.  Oh my!  I will quilt it with either a panto, or the Quilt EZ contemporary BF’s.  I also want to say thanks to those who gave me pricing suggestions on the batting, and about my health.  Oh, and thank you for the nice comments on my furniture!  I have to tell you, that chair is fabulous for sitting in and doing handwork.  I have been sitting there, watching TV, and stitching on binding.  It’s just perfect for that.

Other progress to report for the week, is that I have added the 2nd round of logs, light and dark, to the 32 blocks for my cousin’s quilt.  Coming along nicely there.  Also, I am almost finished stitching the binding on my Mom’s Cornerstone’s quilt.  I did take it to Pampa with me when we went last week, and she LOVES it!  I knew she would, but it was so fun to see her see it.  I hope to have the binding done, a label made and attached, and give it a wash so that I can give it to her no later than Sept. 5th, when I will be passing through on my way to Amarillo for a doctor’s appt. 

School started here Monday, and DS was able to drive himself there and back for the first time.  He said he really likes his teachers that he got this year, so far.  Well, I am going to go take a hot bath, and get ready to settle in bed to watch Crazy, Sexy Cancer on the Discovery channel tonight.  I will work on Mom’s binding while watching. 

Thanks for stopping by…hope I wasn’t too much of a downer!

daily life · longarm quilting · machine quilting · pretty fabric · quilt top · quilting · quilts · sewing

Saturday Posting

Wild Rose Quilter16 Comments

I love Saturdays.  This was a good week/bad week.  DS & I had a nice visit with my parents, and got our yearly eye exams done.  New contacts and new sunglasses for us both.  I went to the LQS, bought some more colors of thread to have on hand for stitching bindings.  Ya never know what color you might need and not have it on hand.  And for me, it’s about an hour drive to get more. 

My roll of batting and batting samples came from Quilter’s Dream.  I have decided to place a fairly large order of assorted packaged battings, and keep a stock of them in our store front at the glass shop.  There are several quilters here, and no place to buy good batting here in town.  I think it might be a good thing to do.  I did email them for a “suggested retail” list, but have not heard back from them.  Michelle W. gave some pricing advice in a post I have on MQR, and I really like the way she does it, but just wondered if they have any guidelines. 

I did complete a customer lap quilt.  Beautiful fabrics.

toile1.jpgtoile2.jpg 

I got so lucky on this one.  Once, I noticed that my thread was not threaded over the check spring.  My heart sank…I did not want to look at the stitches on the underside of the quilt.  They were perfect!  Then about 2 rows later, a piece of my check spring plopped down on the quilt top.  Oh joy, I thought!  When that happened to me with my premier, I had to frog a whole 80-something inch row of Linda Taylor’s Feather Meander panto.  Not fun!  I finished stitching the row, as I was close to the end, and guess what!  It did not mess up the tension!  How lucky was that?!

The bad week part, is that whatever it is that ails me, which I think is fibromyalgia, is really flaring up this week.  I have been so tired, and I hurt, hurt, hurt.  My shoulder, my right arm, right hand, legs, hips…whine, whine, whine.  I called in sick yesterday, and stayed in bed extra long.  My hand & wrist haven’t felt this bad before.  My palm is very sore to put pressure on.  Typing doesn’t really hurt, but using my mouse does, and if I try to twist off a lid, or lift something, OUCH!

Oh, another good thing…my new furniture arrived.  Karen K. wanted me to post pics, so here it is.  I love it.

chair.jpgsofa.jpg

Now I am going to so do some sewing.  Have a great day!

quilting

Sunday Report

Wild Rose Quilter3 Comments

I got off to a good start on my cousin Carrie’s quilt today.  I got the four center blocks completed, and the other 32 blocks are started, with the first light and first dark rounds completed.  I am so honored and excited to be making this quilt for them.  I hope it comes out as good as I am envisioning. carrie1.jpg I added a new textbox in the sidebar so that I can post updates on my starry log cabin progress.  My goal is a minimum of one block a day.  There may be days where I am not able to do a block, therefore, I will need to make up those days on another day.  Please hold me accountable.  I know that I am leaving town tomorrow after work, to head to my parents.  DS & I have eye doctor appts. in Pampa on Tuesday, so we are going to spend the night with Mom & Dad on Monday night, as they live in Pampa :-).  Very convenient!  So, I made one extra today, trying to get ahead.  I hope to work on Mom’s binding a bit tonight, also.  Guess I better go!

quilting

Starting a New Project-Edited to add a QUESTION??

Wild Rose Quilter13 Comments

Now that I have the binding on Mom’s quilt to the handstitching stage, I can officially start on my next project.  These are the fabrics for my cousin’s quilt, a commissioned king size for their bed.  She hasn’t even seen the fabrics, just told me they wanted brown and cream.  This is what I purchased.  I am going to do a log cabin, barn raising layout, only I am going to do the four center blocks completely in the cream, so I have a large cream center diamond.  Inside that diamond, will be an applique of their cattle brand.  I’m not much of an applique-er, so wish me much luck!  Her husband is going to draft out the applique pattern for me, so at least I don’t have to do that myself.  I’m going to quilt it with feathers and some western motifs.carriefab.jpg

Now that I have started sewing my blocks together, another thought has occurred to me.  Will it be a problem to applique onto pieced blocks??? 

daily life · longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts

Saturday Progress Report

Wild Rose Quilter3 Comments

I got the binding sewn onto the front of Mom’s quilt, and have it trimmed and ready for the hand stitching.  I also did one block on my starry log cabin UFO.  Only 76 to go!  I soaked some muslin in Bubble Jet Set and ironed it to freezer paper sheets for future quilt labels.  I feel like I’m coming down with a headache.  So my next move will be to put on my swimsuit and go hop in the hot tub.  This would also fall into one of my favorite things category.  It’s my own little oasis in the backyard. tub.jpgThen I think it’s off to bed early tonight for some TV watching, and providing my head doesn’t really flare up, I’ll start stitching on that binding. Hope you had a happy, productive Saturday!

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts

Only 77 more to go…

Wild Rose Quilter7 Comments

ufo.jpgJudy L has been discussing UFO’s on her blog.  Thanks a lot, Judy…you guilted me into pulling this old UFO back out 😉  I started this in either 1998 or 1999.  I sewed up a storm on it, until…..I got to the part of adding all those last logs that will make the stars when the blocks are sewn together.  I do NOT like sewing those.  I really want to finish this quilt.  It is intended for my bed.  I am trying to figure out a system to get it done, that won’t seem overwhelming to me.  I have 77 more blocks that need the last logs added.  Finish a block a day…a block every other day…If I did one every day, I would have the blocks all finished in just over two months.  Somehow, I don’t see a block a day, every day, happening.  Maybe you guys can hold me accountable on this project.  Like, if I haven’t given a blocks done update in awhile, scold me for not working on it! 🙂

I really don’t have too many UFO’s.  I can think of three off the top of my head. What I mostly have, and I really don’t want to know how many there are, are WOBs.  What are WOBs?  This is a term I have made up for all my quilts that are Waiting On Bindings.  I’m awful about getting the quilting done, then off to another project.  Unless it’s a quilt I’m getting paid for, then I seem to get right on that binding, but my own just lay around, bindingless.  I am even using one on my bed right now :-0  How awful is that?  And it’s not the first one I’ve used that way.  And months ago, I made my son a cute lap quilt with golf fabric.  Guess what it is still lacking? 

I can think of 4 PIGS that I have, that I need to start on.  Well 5, actually, if you take into consideration that one of those PIGS will actually make 2 lap quilts.  One for DH & one for me. 

I have two waiting on quilting, one personal, one customer.  The customer top is waiting only because I had to order the batting for it, and it hasn’t arrived yet. 

I did make the binding for Mom’s quilt today, and hope to get it stitched to the front of the quilt this weekend.  I have my cousin’s commissioned king quilt to start on….

Oh dear, and here I am piddling away the minutes on this blog.  Guess I better get off of here!  Yea, thanks a lot, Judy!

quilting

4 Things Meme

Wild Rose Quilter3 Comments

I’ve been tagged by Nancy H.

4 things you may not know about me

1 I’m a big NASCAR fan

2 I pray for turtles and other animals to make it safely across the road when I see them.  If possible, I might stop to help them.

3 I was named after my uncle, Randy Matson, Olympic silver medal winner in 1964, Olympic gold medal winner in 1968 for the shot putt.

4 I love to go fishing, but I cannot eat fish…I am deathly allergic to them!

4 Jobs I have had:

1 Santa’s elf

2  Sales clerk at Hasting’s

3 Loan secretary at a bank

4 Adult probation officer

4 Movies I could watch over and over:

1 Bram Stoker’s Dracula  (it’s a great love story 🙂 )

2 Lord of the Rings movies

3 Michael

4 hmmmm….there really aren’t too many I like to watch over and over

4 TV Shows I watch:

1 Grey’s Anatomy

2 Desperate Housewives

3 Survivor

4 Big Brother

4 Hobbies:

1 Quilting!!

2 Fishing

3 Reading

4 Gardening

4 Places I have lived

1 Pampa, TX

2 Canyon, TX

3 Skellytown, TX

4 Perryton, TX

4 Favorite Foods: (Only 4, food is my friend, come on!)

1 Chips & Salsa

2 Barbecue ribs

3 Ribeye steak

4 fried chicken

4 Places I would rather be:

1.  A cabin on Lake Table Rock

2.  A vacation fishing with my hubby

3.  Just leaving the bank after depositing my huge lottery winnings (Yes, I stole this idea from Kay’s list, but she had a great thought there, just thought I would take it a step futher)

4. I really love being home, so I’m ok with being here right now

4 Websites I visit daily:

1 MQResource

2 www.dogoftheday.com 

3 BLOGS

4 The Weather Channel

4 people I tag to play this:

Diane F.

Jan D.

Karen K.

Vicki W.

machine quilting · quilt top · quilting · quilts

What I have been working on this week.

Wild Rose Quilter2 Comments

I know I haven’t been blogging much the last few days.  That’s ’cause I’ve been quiltin’!  Got this customer sampler finished.  I didn’t get good pics, and I regret that, but here is a bit of it.

hiddenstar1.jpghiddenstar4.jpghiddenstar5.jpg

Next customer quilt is a panto.  It’s a lap size with pretty blue & white toile.  I’ll be using Jodi Beamish’s Rosie on it.  But I can’t start it til my order gets here from Quilter’s Dream batting.  I had fun working on the sampler and am glad my customer, also a good friend of mine, liked it.  Now I need to go figure out what’s for dinner….don’t ya get tired of that one???

longarm quilting · machine quilting · quilting

Favorites Meme

Wild Rose Quilter6 Comments

Ok, it’s taken me days and days, but I think I finally have the favorites meme done!  Today, after I got off work, I loaded a customer top.  A “Hidden Star” sampler.  I’m actually very excited about quilting it.  I’m not freaking out nervous!  Can you believe it?   I want to do some fun feathers in it.  First, I have to finish the SID around the blocks for stabilizing.  Then the fun can begin!

A – A-1 quilting machine named Corky!

B – Bears

C – coffee

D – Derek

E – Eggplant Parmigiana

F – Fabric!!!

G – Greg

H – Home

I – internet quilting friends 🙂

J – jerky

K – kitties

L – Libby & Lulu

M – Money!  Lots of it! 😉

N – NASCAR

O – olives

P – pumpkins

Q – Quilts!!!!!!!!

R – rice krispy treats

S – Salsa & chips

T – toads

U – Upside Down Pineapple Cake

V – Vacation days

W – weekends

X –  Xtra fabric yardage

Y – yards & yards of fabric

Z – zucchini