Musings from a scrap quilter and grandma about quilting and grandchildren, and whatever seems pertinent at the time.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
New Year's Goals
Monday, December 29, 2008
1 Year
And, OMG he turns forty in a couple of weeks. I'm way too young to have a forty year old son! But oh, are we glad he's attaining that age -- it sure was iffy last year!
Gratitudes:
The obvious -- we're thankful we still have Steve and he's doing well.
We're thankful, once again for Dr. Crute, Neurosurgeon extraordinaire.
We're thankful for the entire group at Madison.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
After Christmas
This is Steph with the two boys -- Will is now jealous when AJ sits on Mommy's lap, so he's learning to get along (or not!).
We've had more of this strange weather too. It was clear on Christmas day, but yesterday it started warming up and becoming foggy. Today it's been raining -- most of the snow we had is gone -- but not all, so it's also very foggy today. I did run a couple of errands yesterday, so today was a great day for staying in.
I've started thinking about my New Year's Resolutions and one of them was to get my quilt patterns organized. Years ago I saved whatever patterns I wanted out of my stack of magazines and put them all into binders -- but I didn't sort them, just put them into one binder after another. So yesterday afternoon and for a few hours today, I sorted the patterns into baby/kid, Americana, totally scrappy, applique, holiday and seasonal, etc. I think I have seven binders. Then I sorted a large stack of quilt related papers and threw out a lot of stuff that I haven't looked at in years. I still need to go through a large stack of magazines again and add the keepers to the binders (I will probably have to add more binders). And then, finally, I'll go through the patterns/magazines/printouts that are in my sewing room -- all I've done so far are the ones in the 3rd bedroom upstairs!
Another resolution is to get my cookbooks and recipes in order. I've already been typing a couple of recipes every day and sorting as I go through the loose ones, but today I sorted through a huge pile of loose recipes that I had in that same bedroom upstairs! I have one file folder (overflowing) that I will go through again as I type them up -- I'm only saving the recipes I'll actually use. I did find a book of hand written recipes that my grandmother on my dad's side wrote out. She didn't always write the name of the recipe, or if she did, it was in Swedish, but the recipe was in English. That of course, is a treasure and I'll not be throwing that out. I also have some hand written recipes that were written by my mother and my sister -- both of whom we lost many years ago -- so those also are a treasure.
So that has been my day -- as I was thinking about the resolutions, I decided there was no time like the present! Typing the recipes is going to take a long time, but getting them sorted and throwing out the ones I don't want is half the battle, so I'm glad to have part of that done. And now that I've separated the quilt patterns into categories, filing new ones will take less time -- plus, I've spent quite a few enjoyable hours going over the books and picking out projects I may have time to try this year! And, I've noticed my tastes have changed and I will be more discerning when I go through the rest of the magazines.
Gratitudes:
The weather has cooperated in that what travel we have had to do has been okay.
Being all together for Christmas.
Actually beginning to get organized instead of just talking about it.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas
Friday, December 19, 2008
Preschool Christmas Program
Anyway -- the program was at the church where the preschool meets. These are mostly 4 year olds, maybe one or two 3 year olds. They enacted the Christmas story. AJ was one of the wise men, the boy behind him was a camel! They all proceeded down the center aisle of the church.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Friday's List
And finally, I reminded myself that I wanted to type two recipes and try out my new recipe printing for the binder and here they are:
I think this is going to work really well, and while I was picking two recipes to type and print, I threw out another dozen that I will never make. In a little bit, I'll go up and sort through a few more.
Gratitudes:
The Bears won last night! (And I got two more blocks appliqued on Steph's Christmas present).
Finishing my to-do list.
Organizing my thoughts.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Odds and Ends
I ran errands yesterday and stopped at JoAnn's with a couple of 50% off coupons. I didn't really need anything, so gravitated to the books, of course. I picked up one on fabric postcards. So far I have resisted the urge to make postcards, mostly because I didn't want to add another addiction, plus I'm not nearly as creative as some I have seen on others' blogs. I did buy the book however. Then came home and printed off Mary's tutorial on postcards -- which is written and illustrated so well, I certainly didn't need to waste my 50% coupon on the book! vbg So, today I dug out my non-fusible stabilizer and my fusible web and made up 3 postcards. These are quite un-imaginative, but I wanted to play. I'll send them to the grandkids as they are. Boy, did that not scratch that itch! I have some ideas already simmering, so I've ordered some envelopes and will let the ideas flow ..... as soon as I finish the wallhanging I have to make Steph for Christmas, and finish the auction quilt!
I haven't forgotten the ideas for printing recipes, but that's been put on the back burner temporarily -- until I finish the Christmas gift! I did test my idea for printing them, so we're good to go with that.
I've also been thinking about my goals for next year. Not only the things I want to accomplish, but ideas on how to go about accomplishing things and keeping track of finished things. I also decided that even though I do work a lot with my stash, I will also be buying fabric next year -- I like the look of brighter colors in my scrap quilts, and most of my stash is more on the muted colors side.
Gratitudes:
Having a varied to-do list, so jumping from one thing to the next actually means getting something done!
Being inspired by other quilters -- Mary for one, is very creative. Mel is also very creative and inspiring to me. They both have such great ideas.
Can My Butt Get Any Bigger?
And a side note: I not only discovered the Candy Cane Kisses, but also Cherry Cordial Kisses and Hot Cocoa Kisses and oh my, they are all fabulous and will be contributing to the size of my derriere!
I'm off to do something constructive with my day now!
Saturday, December 06, 2008
December!
I quilted a table runner this afternoon and loaded another small quilt to do tomorrow. I've been using pantographs so much lately that I've forgotten how to do freehand -- so I'll be doing some practicing on this one and the next small runner! Think I'll watch the Pajama Quilter dvd again, and Kimmy Brunner's beginner's dvd -- lots of ideas on those two.
Staying in by the fire on these cold, snowy days.