New Ideas

Well, I got a email from Etsy today and it had some blog information suggestions. Any way I was looking at it and I have some great ideas for some up coming posts. I think it will make all of you enjoy reading more. I am also going to be offering some free patterns in the near future for your enjoyment and to ask you to offer your thoughts on whether or not they are easy to follow and if you like how they turn out after you make them . As I have said before I really want to write a book and I can't think of any one I would rather have as testers than my friends here on my blog, so watch for the new up and coming things.
Have a quilty week.
Tennye

A Better Day

Well, I have been working hard today. My husband has really been after me to get my sewing room organized and I started back at the first of the year. Like that was such a long time ago. LOL Truly I have told you I have been really dealing with some hard depression the last few weeks and I was starting to think I might have to get help, but then yesterday things started to change. I began to feel a little better, and I got some exercise and the sun was shining and I spent some time outside.
So today I got up and I felt so good that I started working in the sewing room. I believe I have it almost under control. I still have some issues I am not sure what to do with, but I can deal with them one at a time. Mostly I just feel better and that I can get in there and work without having to clean first. I even cut the back ground fabric for the block I am working on. I am challenging myself with some blocks, and they are paper piecing and applique. I have all the pieces cut for the applique and the squares made for the paper piecing. I have the fabric all picked and I am ready to go. Once those are completed I will move on to the UFO's, and get them off and going. I have plans for the cutest Christmas Tree ornaments, and they are next on the list. See I am feeling so much better.
Have a very quilting week.
Tennye

Now for what is next.

Well, I have made my list of UFO's and I have put all my craft projects in a box as well. I am surprised to say that the UFO box is way bigger than the craft box. As a matter of fact the UFO's don't even fit into the box I purchased for them. I have my worked cut out for me this year and I have the other things I need to make for being able to have an income.
I am not getting as good a start on this year as I had wanted to. I worry about it, and find myself so over whelmed with the thought of what I need to do that I just sit and do nothing. I hate myself for it and I don't know what to do not to feel so over whelmed. I believe what the scripture says that I need to think on those things that are good and pure and right. So I am going to start with one thing, and forget that there are any other things that need to be done. Then I will see the next one and when that one is completed I will look at the next one. I think that is the only way to change what is going on in my head right now. I will write more and I will show my progress.
Have a great quilting week.
Tennye

Business plans, and mending

I have been looking at a book on starting new businesses and today I read about the business plan. I have wanted to do this for years and i just put it off because I worry that I won't do it correctly. After reading today I feel much better about it and think that maybe I will be able to get it done. Of course instead of needing about 5000.$ i now need closer to the 10 or 15,000$ that the banks are more likely to loan. I talked to a couple of bankers several years ago and they just don't want to loan less than 10,000 even for a small business loan. I don't want to borrow anything but I don't have the money to get the things I want to use. I want to do embroidery on the things I make, not all of them but some. that is not a big cost unless you decide to add software, which I want. Then I have wanted EQ for a long time and if I add the embroidery software and the EQ I will need a new computer as this one is not capable of working with that much memory in use. Then of course there is the thread I will need for the embroidery, and a way to store it too. I want to add a long arm machine as well. Then I started thinking maybe it would be nice to rent out the machine when I am not using it. So I will need a place to set it up because my house just doesn't have a place. So you can see my delima.
I did several mending things today too. I have some more to get done, but feels good to have some done. It doesn't feel so intimidating now.
Gotta go have a great quilty week.
Tennye

Fabric Found

Well, as I am sure is the same for most quilters, I have no need to go out looking for more fabric, but that is exactly what I did today. I took my mom with me and we went to two quilt shops that I have never been to before. I will most definitely go to one of them again. I did find some fabric that i just could not live without. I also bought a book that goes with a ruler that I bought years ago and have never used.  I am in a challenge in one of the yahoo groups, to use a ruler you have had for a long time and never used. So this one is the one I want to use. I will show how it turns out when I get it done. Until then I have found the fabric for the quilt I am designing. I look forward to showing you this one when it is completed. I am in hopes that it will be done by the end of next week.
I have been reading others blogs alot this week and it seems I am a slow quilter. Is that a bad thing, or am I just careful? I think it is not that I am careful, but that I am too fast most of the time and I spend too much time taking out what I have put in. Lots of people are thinking about resolutions right now. I am not really one for making resolutions, but I do like to think of the new year as a time to renew and refresh. One of the many things I am going to do this year is try really hard to be more patient and take my time with what I am doing, so that i don't make as many mistakes that have to be redone.  Seams go in just as easily the correct way as they do the incorrect way, so why not do it right the first time.
Good luck to each of you as you get your new year started.

Try, try ,try

I have been trying to get on and write for the last three days and for what ever reason I would get on and never end up posting. I got a good start on the week and now I seem to have fissiled out. My sewing room is some what of a mess after my re-organizing it last week.  I know what I want to do, but when I walk in there and see the mess it seems to just over whelm me and I either turn around a leave, or sit down and get frustrated. Needless to say I have not accomplished what I had thought I would have by now. I do have a pretty good list of the started and not completed quilts and projects for the year.
I was looking around on the web today and I found an article from a lady in Africa who teaches quilting on line. She was giving advice to those who might like to take it up. It was a good article and I enjoyed reading it.
I am still pretty excited about the new year and the things ahead. I have decided to make a huge effort to make this year the one in which I find myself successful in my own eyes. It would be nice if others found me to be a success, but I think in this case it will be even more important for me to see it.
Last night when I logged on the write I saw a post from a lovely quilter who also lives in Texas. She had posted about going to Galveston and the changes she is seeing post Hurricane Ike. She posted a photo of herself standing in front of Murdocks ( a gift shop on the sea wall). We have pictures of my girls there the week before the hurricane and pictures found on the internet of the post hurricane destruction . I look forward to the photos that we will have of my girls in the newly restored shop this spring. Needless to say I got distracted with that and it just went from there. I do enjoy reading other blogs and seeing what the other quilters of the world are doing.

So until next time happy quilting.

A New Day

Wow, I have had a terrible time the last week and now I am feeling so much better. I will be starting early in the morning working on the class I would like to have completed in the next two weeks. I wanted to finish it last year, but found that is was not a good time for me to work on anything that included writing. I just could not seem to concentrate on writing. I will be adding this class to the Quilting Weekly website when it is finished. So I will be adding photos here, but not much else. The class will be on quilt as you go. It is going to be a wall hanging so that it won't take so long to make. I hope you will like the finished result when it is ready.
Well, I took my cats to the Vet this week and it seemed like it took all week. They had to stay over night and I only have one cage so they had to go in different days. Wed. I took the little one Hydie,to get spade and de-clawed. I went back on Thurs. to take Cali to be de-clawed. I had to go back later in the day to pick Hydie up. Then went back on Fri. about noon to pick up Cali. Cali is great and not mad at me for taking her. Hydie on the other hand is not only mad at me she is terrified she will have to go back if she comes out of hiding. Well with her hiding out like she is I am having a hard time knowing how she is feeling. That concerns me because she could have a problem and I would not know it because I can't see her. Her food bowl is being eaten out of, but it could be Cali eating from both of the bowls. So I guess I will see if I can convince her to come out and let me hold her so I know she is okay. She should be moving around more than she is.
Well, until next time I do hope you will have a very quilty week.
Tennye

Again Today

Well, I am here again today, because I am watching a movie and it is all about a family about to lose their home and business, so they start a blog to get out the word about the business. So I am wondering what you think about that.? I have been blogging for a long time now and I have some who follow me, but I would hate to think I had to rely on my following to keep my family from losing my home. I would love to think my blog would bring in enough financial income to keep me from having to take a job. I will be looking at my resume this week and thinking about what I can do to make an income. My DH has decided I have to make at least 500$ or more a month to help him pay the bills. The truth is though I would hate to think that I had a dreadful dead line like they are dealing with and had to rely on what I have to say in my blog to save my home.
I have this crazy idea that I want to write a book of patterns, and I wonder if I can do it, and if I did would anyone buy it. I have so many ideas for different patterns in my head. I wonder how long it would take to make all the projects and then write patterns and put them in a book form and try to find someone who would print it. I truly don't even know what to do to get someone to publish it. Well, I guess I have let you all in on a very personal part of my thought tonight. Such is the thinking of the new year.
Tennye

Happy New Years!!!

What a great time of year. We can all decide to change something in our lives or we can just ignore the new year and go on with life as it is. I am one of those who likes to make a change so I am working on getting organized. I am also taking the time to make a list of my UFO's and PIP's ( unfinished objects., and projects in process) I have been encouraged to do that by so many others who are doing it. I am in a couple of yahoo groups and several of those ladies are doing a history of the quilts they have made and listing their UFO's. I don't keep very good records so making a list of the quilts I have made might be a pretty tough task. I have done a fairly good job of making photos of the quilts or tops as I make them, but there are so many I gave away and didn't make a record of at all.
I have photos to show today of the last two quilts I made.I finished the last one the day after Christmas and she came and got it as I completed it. The large one is 90x90 and I made it with the quilt as you go method do there are some pictures of the process. then I have the finished items.These are the last two quilts from the mans clothes. His family is very happy about them.

Have a wonderful 2010 and look forward to the quilts you will make and the time you will spend with family and friends.