Just another Week

  Well, I have been busy , but today is my day to do laundry, so I have not been in the sewing room. I finished up my Instigram mini for the swap Tue. afternoon. Then had class with my little girl I teach on Wed. I don't usually get much time in the sewing room on class days. I got out a pattern for the next little quilt I am going to make. I still have a few things to make for my partner in the IG swap, and I have started on the Christmas Stocking swap, but still am not sure what I will make for the stocking. I need to get the 2 swaps completed, but I also have a wedding on Sun. I need to get the gift completed and I really want to get my grand daughter her birthday gift. I have to believe I won't be able to finish something on time. Sadly it will be the grand daughters birthday.
  My partner for the IG swap has a thing for mermaids, so that is what I made for her. Now just to figure out what other fun things I can make for her, I did some fabric purchases for the last swap, but really can't afford to do that this time, so make gifties will have to do, I hope she won't mind. I will post pictures after she gets it in Dec.
  For the Stocking swap my partner really likes snowmen, so for her I have bought and started making snowmen. I asked my daughter to do an embroidery for her and I will frame it, she is starting that next week. I have several ideas that I have never made before, but that is what these swaps are for in my case. I chose to make and do things that stretch me for the swaps. I have done several pieces of applique for the last 2 swaps, and now I am on to other things. I signed up for a class doing paper piecing, on Craftsy. So my next swap I will likely make a paper pieced mini. I'm excited about it, and a little nervous as well.
   My daughter and I have set up a pogo plug with a terabyte external hard drive I had, that was not in use. I have done my back ups and now I just have to learn how to get pictures off it when I want to post them on here. I have to admit since my phone camera is always with me I hardly ever get the camera out and use it. I think that may be a mistake, but for now its what happens. Until the learning curve is past I won't be adding photos to my posts. Lets hope the curve won't be too long. LOL
  Well, gotta go for now, until next time yall have a very quilty week. Tennye

I have been thinking....AGAIN

   Hi, how are things? I have just gone through the busiest crazy fun week. Second time ever I got to have all 5 of my children home, with all 5 grandchildren and all except 1 of the spouses. I thought I would have time to sew while they were all home. Hahahahaha who was I kidding? I went to stay with my daughter in Chattanooga when the baby was born back in April. I love that I got the chance to spend some more time with the new baby. He is almost 6 months and the cutest little guy I have ever seen. His big brother is pretty cute too, but you know how it is when it's a baby.  So a week with the boys was great, but then there were the girls. I had the one for the whole week, and another for almost a week. Sadly the oldest was only here for the weekend. Now all of them came to be a part of their sister/Aunts wedding. My middle daughter got married Sat. evening in a lovely back yard wedding. Now the day started with a huge rain storm, and that did cause some distress and some fast thinking and working. My new son in law and his brother found some hay and then all the guys in the wedding and some extra friends got out and spread the hay for the wedding to happen with out much mud. It was a beautiful wedding and they are married. Was this a stressful time, yes, but it was wonderful to have them all together and such fun. I have come to the conclusion that my family love each other and are willing to be here for any thing the other needs.
  I have gotten into Instagram and I kind of tripped into a Mini Quilt swap for cat lovers. Gotta get it in the mail tomorrow. I really should be sewing the binding on, since I didn't get it done last week. I decided to join another one that is due the 1st of Dec. and then I guess I got crazy and joined a Christmas one too. LOL It all seemed so easy at first, then after I signed up I began to panic. I am excited though. I told my grand daughter I would be late with her birthday gift since she will be 16 on the 18th of this month. I have 2 other grand daughters with birthdays in Dec. and a grand son too.
  So until I get back I hope you will all have a very quilty week.
Tennye
I was going to add pictures, but I need to figure out how with my new cloud.

Trying to Switch Gears

  I was just going through the blogs I follow and wondering if I need to just shut this blog sown. I read only the first line of a blog and it hit me I need to talk about that. Have you had those days, weeks, or even months when you need to be doing one thing and you really want to, but you don't. It isn't even that you don't have time or desire, but for what ever reason you just don't go do it. Well, that is how my life has been for months, I know I was out of commission for 2 months and that kept me away from here. That wasn't a reason for me staying out of the sewing room, well the time I was out of town was a good reason to not be in there. Needless to say I let that time I was sick seems to have given me an excuse to just give up on the stuff I need to and want to do. My next to the youngest daughter is working on a quilt for her new nephew and she too is having a hard time getting it done. She isn't really a quilter, or even a sewist as the blogs are want to call what I call a seamstress. However she made her first nephew a quilt when he was born and now wants to make sure that her younger nephew doesn't feel left out when he grows up. I am guilty myself, I got so busy before he was born that I didn't get his quilt finished and now it just seems like its hard to get motivate.

  Well, Aften (daughter) came over on Sat. with her quilt project and asked for my help getting it moving. I spent most of the day getting a section of her quilt made and completed, so , now she can get it finished. She is frustrated with how long it is taking, and finding it hard to make herself sit down and just do the work. I think I am feeling just a little of the same frustration myself. Oh well, on I go off to get some laundry done and maybe even spend some time in the sewing room and get some blocks finished.
I tried to post some pictures of the quilts in question, but alas they have not uploaded to my dropbox, so I don't have access to them on here.
Until next time yall have a very quilty week and I hope it won't be so long before I get back.
Tennye

Missin Again

  Well, I have been gone for a long time and once I got home hubby and I were both sick. I spent three wonderful weeks with my daughter and her family. She gave birth to my newest grandson three days before I got there and I stayed with her as long as I could. Hubby made a trip to see his father and family in Pittsburgh, PA for a week and then came to spend a week with us at our daughters. Unfortunately he had not been there more than a day when he came down with a coughing problem . The next day I too came down with what appeared to be the same thing. Sore throat, cough and we both lost our voice. We stayed until the end of the week and we had a room reservation for the trip home so we left even though we both felt horrible. We took turns driving that day, other wise we would not have made it. We had the hardest time staying awake. Our plan had been to stop in the DFW area and spend a day or two with my aunt and uncle, but we felt so bad we thought it best to just go home.

It was a rough day, but we were so glad to be home. The day we left for home our granddaughter saw the Dr. and she told them she had strep throat. However when I saw the Dr. here at home they told me that was not what I had.  I took a round of antibiotics and five days after I finished it I felt as bad as I did the day I started them. So total we have been sick for 3 weeks. I am trying to get back to work and so is hubby, but odd times we have coughing fits still.
  I have two quilts in progress as well as pillows for my friend out of his moms clothing. I got a call from a past customer who is wanting a couple of quilts too. Needless to say I have lots to do, so I need to get my strength back.
  On the 1st I was invited to do a 30 day challenge, 30 sit ups for 30 days. I have done pretty good with it, in that I have done it every day, but my sit ups don't really look like sit ups LOL they look more like an aggressive crunch. Maybe by the end of the month they will be full sit ups.
  I am so happy to be home and feeling some what better, I hope my little student will be back this week to finish her project we started in April, and I have plans for other things she can do over the summer.
  I have pictures, but I still haven't figured out how to get them from my cloud to my computer, so until I do I won't be posting them. Something to look forward to, until next time yall have a very quilty week.
Tennye

Howdy there Yall

   I had a little trouble getting up today, with the time change. Then I found myself wanting to just go back to sleep, but I didn't I kept trying to function as usual. Coffee was just not enough, so I had a little chocolate. That didn't help. Hubby was not supposed to be home for lunch and Aften is trying to get back to fasting one day a week. So I didn't need to have lunch ready at any special time. Aften needed to go to the post office before she came home and she called and asked if I would like to go with her to Good Will to look for a night stand for her room. Seems she is changing sides of the bed and the one on her new side is just a small table that won't cut it. LOL We didn't find any thing she liked, so came home and visited until she needed to go back to work.
  I have been wanting some toasted little pieces of french bread, and we had a short piece of it left from the weekend. I cut it up and put some olive oil on it and placed it in the toaster oven to cook while I finished heating up my lunch. I got it all heated up and took it to the living room since I was eating alone. I am really enjoying my meal and suddenly I smell a burning smell. I remember the toast, and it is too late. I run in there and smoke is coming out of the toaster oven. I turn it off and turn around to put my lunch down. When I turn back around I see flames pouring out of the oven, I guess I though turning it off would stop the cooking. WRONG!!!!! I can't think what to use to get it out and put the flames out. Finally I get my thoughts on and find a pot holder and pull it out. Flames leap higher as I give them more air. I dump it into the sink and turn it on. This did not douse the flames as I thought it would. I had to start using my hand to splash it over the flames. What a mess, but I am really awake now. Well, thanks for whoever started Day light savings time!!! Not a fan.
  Yall have a very quilty week, until I talk to you again.
Tennye

A New Endeavour

  Well, I have mentioned to you the upcoming quilt I need to make, or maybe two. I have not planned and designed a quilt in several years now. I don't put my quilts in shows and I have not entered any competitions with my quilts, so I just feel like, why reinvent the wheel, every time I make a new quilt. I find a pattern I like and tweak it to fit my needs. This time I needed a pattern that would include blocks of multiple sizes. I knew it would take forever to find a quilt with the measurements I needed, so, out came the graph paper pad and my pencils. I spent an hour or so figuring out the blocks and the overall plan of blocks and borders. Then for over an hour I searched for my block book. I had several of the 100 Block magazines and of course many quilt books. However my favorite book has multiple sizes for all the blocks in it. It is" Around the Block Again" by Judy Hopkins. I have made so many quilts with the help of this book. I find the block I want to use and she has already done the math for any size I might want. Ironically I never made it to her book, to look for a block. I was given a block a day calendar for Christmas a couple of years ago and I happened to find it while looking for the block book. On a whim I started looking through it for blocks in one of the sizes I need. I found Cupids Arrow Point block with a finished size of 12 in. I love it and since I have planned a heart block for the corner stones of the border it just fits this quilt. Bonus there is a nice sized center for adding photo blocks of friends and family.
  Well, gotta go finish up lunch so until next time, yall have a very quilty day.
Tennye

As Usual I Have to Ask Where Has the Time Gone???

  I started this year with big ideas and lots of ambition. That has translated to my being kind of busy. I am spending lots of time doing some research on the money and dolls that I want to sell. You would think that since I have had them most of my life and watched my Grandmother, and parents and even my great grandmother collecting and going thru coins and putting them in books and..... that I would have acquired some knowledge. Sadly if I had any I have forgotten it or it has become obsolete over the years. I even have some paper money that is supposed to be worth so much, and I can't find any of it on the Internet for sale. As for the dolls, well I never really knew anything about them and some have lost a portion of their value because in the 70's they told my grandmother it would make them more valuable if she had new bodies and clothes put on them. It has turned out that is not so much the case, those leather bodies make the doll worth much more. One bisque doll was 80 years old in the 70's, so is well over 100 years old. Having the leather body removed and replaced with cotton makes people think she is a replica instead of the real thing.
  Okay enough of that, I have been either walking or recently dancing four or five days a week, that takes more out of my day than I thought it would. I am also cleaning out my home. Stuff is going out weekly, that has been just stored for years. Having done all we did at my parents house after daddy died, has inspired me. I don't want my family to have that to deal with, the collections make the clean out harder, but it will get done. I have been going thru my sewing room too. I have a list of projects that I need to complete and the ones my family have asked for. The new grandson that is on the way means a new baby quilt too. The oldest grand daughter is graduating so what will I make for her??? Yes her mom wants me to make the quilt for her to take to college, but there has to bee something from me too.
  As previously discussed, there is also the desire to find some amazing thing I can make that will sell like hot cakes the minute I post the first one.
  Well, I need to go for now, but I hope I won't be off line here as long this time. So until next time yall have a very quilty week.

Happy New Year, Wonder What 2014 Will Bring

 I always think the new year gives us a clean slate to start new. I have not gotten such a good start on this one. On the other hand I get pretty excited when I think about what  this year can be. I can lose weight, get healthy and truly complete some of the things I have started and put off. I have gotten a good start, with just moving my body more. I am walking and dancing to start with the health, and I am here blogging as well. I have already completed my grand daughters Beanie Slouch hats for her birthday. I made 2 for the younger one and now I have made 2 for the older one and as a bonus I made one for my daughter too. Now I have done a few headbands that I think are cute. I have not crocheted in many years and I kind of enjoyed it.
  I seem to be finding it hard to get back to the sewing machine, even though I have a lot of things I want to make and need to make. I find myself in need of an income, and for what ever reason I think crafting would be a good source of regular income. However finding a product that will sell is a completely different thing. I have ideas and I need to follow through on them, but if you have followed me for a while you know follow through is not my strongest character. I also have some things I could sell, if I could figure our how much they are worth and who might be most willing to buy them. My grand mother collected dolls for all of my life until she passed away. Those were supposed to be an inheritance for me.

Well, now I need them and don't really know any thing about them. My dad collected coins and money for the same reason. Now I need it and know very little about it except that most coin shops will cheat you if you go in now knowing what you have or how much it is worth. I tried to sell a coin several years ago, and I had an idea it was worth a nice amount and the guy said it was only worth about a dollar or two. I knew better than that, so I left and took my coin with me. I am trying to do research on line and have even gone to the library to read some books. I feel like I am swimming in a sea of numbers that don't mean any thing.I will keep researching.
  Well, I need to get busy and I have books I need to return to the library today, so I'm going to go do that. So until the next time I have a few minutes yall have a very quilty week.
Tennye