Oh My, Busy

 Well, maybe you all remember last year, I was working on a hand quilting project of an antique thirties quilt. I have had some problems with it, but have finally gotten things on the right track again. I hated that it was on the back burner for so long, but there have been all these things I have allowed to get in my way. I hate that I am that way, and I am glad to say I am working on overcoming that.

  well, I am not going to take much of your time today as it is  the day before Easter and I am sure many of you are busy getting eggs and baskets ready for the day tomorrow. I am not sure if my girls are planning on baskets this year or not. I am not sure, but we have not planned for it so I hope not. Not to worry I will have it ready for them if I need to. Looks like the girls are planning to dye eggs even if they don't get a basket. They usually invite some friends over for this, so who knows how many will be here. Hahaha
Our older daughter is playing for worship services on Sun. so we are all going together, then we are headed out to the ranch to have lunch with the family. My aunt and uncle have the whole family out there for most holidays and we all look forward to it.
Have a wonderful quilty Easter and I will talk to you next week.
Tennye

What Are You Doing Today?

Good afternoon, I hope you are having a great day. I am doing the one thing I hate the most in my sewing room and that is looking for a fabric I know I have and I don't know where it is. I brought home some fabrics from the store a while back that I was going to use to design a couple of quilts. Well, having not done any designing I decided I should take it back to them, then yesterday one of the ladies called and said she had some ideas for it. So today I am looking for all that stuff I brought home and thinking I will just take it all back and if I decide to do something use my own fabrics and then be able to bring home the completed quilt or project. I hate putting so much time and so much of myself into something and then have to see it just sit in a box or on a shelf for months if not years and then sometimes just disappear. Yes, they do put my stuff up and promote my classes, but then after the class is over it goes into storage and only occasionally comes out for display or as I said it disappears. The store is moving soon and they don't have any idea how much space or what kind of storage they will have. That means the three or four quilts of mine on the walls may be on the disappearing act soon too. I hate that no one is able to use such well made and functional items. They should be loved.

   Well, I guess that is enough of that, I decided to do something that is cute and productive. I bought this fabric last year for a friend and then we sort of lost touch and I really didn't have a plan for it any way. So since I have the plan for a square bag I want to make to give away filled with some items a woman on the streets might need and not have access to. I decided to try out a modified version of that bag out of this cute Duck fabric. The girl I made them for is a collector of rubber duckies I think she is going to just love these.

  I know I love them, I added some cute ribbons on each one and I used the same ribbons on the zippers as pulls. This one is about six inches long and four or five wide and one and a half deep. I had fun making them and I will be doing a tutorial for the larger bag I am making.
So have a quilty week and the best Easter you have had in a long time. Find a good place of worship and pray for rain.
Tennye

UFO Challenge

  Just a little note to say,that I am supposed to be working on, 10 in the list of UFO's on my side bar.
When it rains it poors right. I go for ever and don't post and then whoops you can't get me to shut up. hahaha Well, that is the way I had planned for this year to be, and you know how the best laid plans of mice and men go, and I didn't do it. Not the whole going with out posting and then posting, but the can't get me to shut up part. LOL Let me see if I can find the fortitude to keep it up, this time and as one of the ladies I read said a little while ago, add 15 min. a day in the sewing room.
  You know I have read a theory by the fairly famous Fly Lady that you can do anything for 15 min. and not get too over whelmed or bored. Well, writing in my blog never bores me and certainly sewing on a quilt or other project never does either. I don't mind washing dishes either and if I didn't have to put them away I wouldn't mind doing the laundry. I don't mind vacuuming but hate to sweep and mop. Go figure!! So let us see how the 15 min. a day works out for me. If you break down an hour it has four 15 min. segments, and I think that makes close to 100 of those segments in a day. Now we all know we have to sleep and eat, and those other things that we don't talk about in mixed company. So that leaves us with about 9 hours a day to do what needs to be done and what has to be done. I say use three of those 15 min. segments in an hour for work related things and exercise and planning meals and ... Then give myself one 15 min. segment to play. So out of my previously figured 9 hours I have 9, 15 min. segments, just for my pleasure. That gives me two hours fifteen min. to sew, blog , garden, or just read a book. Knowing that I need to do more sewing than the others I might choose to give myself all of that time one or two days a week, and only part of it on other days. Making sure that on the days that I use 2 hours 15 min. I get up at least one time and walk around the house and get some water after every two segments. ( haha that is every thiryy min. )Sounds kind of complicated and over the top with segments I know, but I think that Fly Lady had the right idea and somewhere along the way I think it makes me feel better about me to have time to do what I love. Maybe I need to get back to basics with everything and that includes Quilting.
So go use that 15 min. of time for a quilty project and I will see you next time.
Tennye

Long Time, Quilts Done and More

 Hi all, I am so sorry I have been out of the picture for so many days. I have just been doing things that used to be part of my life all the time and have been put aside for a while. I have been planting flowers, and weeding the garden, and doing some general yard work. I have always enjoyed those things, and some how while taking the antidepressants I have been on I lost my desire for them. The yard has gotten out of hand in that time and I am glad to say just a few hours a  day for a week or so and it is looking much better. I think it would be much better if we had some rain, but so far that has not been part of the forecast in Texas. I know the sad events in the Carolinas with the tornadoes and life taking weather events have been all over the news. However here in Texas we are having devastating fires in North Texas and even in the Austin area. We are having such a drought and praying for rain is not just a daily event but hourly.

   I have also been doing some fun things too. I joined a post card swap for Easter and I have never made a quilted post card before. I sadly had to send them in an envelope, because the first one was too small and then the man at the desk wouldn't let me put a stamp on the fabric. I got frustrated with him over that, considering I have seen others that have been sent in the mail and did just fine. So even though I have not heard that the lady has gotten them yet I want you to see what I sent.
  Well, then I have finally finished the Lizard quilt and it has been delivered. Yea!!!! I loved the way it turned out but never got around to making a photo of the completed quilt. Then having gone to the store last month to see if there were any classes they would like me to get started I was given another snac sak quilt and I have completed that too. Isn't it too cute?
   Now I am on the move again, and starting some other new projects. I have also been working on the UFO's that I have been working on every month. I hate to say but I have not completed any of them. I did get one almost done yesterday and will most likely finish it today or early tomorrow.

  All the yard work has helped me with all that depression I was talking about several posts back. I feel human again and now I have another reason for being excited. My youngest daughter has called me and told me I will be a new grandmother in Dec. I am so happy for her and have already started getting things together to make her a diaper bag and some other layette stuff.
So for this time I am going to sign off and wish each of you a very quilty week.
Tennye

Stopping by

Thank you all for continuing to stop by and visit my blog, while I have been on y crazy boat. Hahahaha I have started a new post, but can't get the camera to load my photos on the computer. I will be putting it up in a little while. I hope until then you will forgive my absence. I had a wonderful birthday and I am sorry the give-away did not materialize as I had promised. I may be able to do it soon and if I do I will give you a week or so to post for a chance to win.
Have the quiltiest of days.
Tennye

Where Has the Time Gone?

Hello friends , I have been so out of sorts lately that I have not gotten on to post. I am kind of excited to say I am better. I made a list of items that needed to be done yesterday, and as of today I have completed three of the five, and expect to complete the last two tomorrow.
Today I did one of the things I have been putting off for a couple of years now. I can only say that I have been afraid , of what, I am not sure.  Today, I set up my Etsy shop. Now I didn't have the photos and descriptions ready to post , so no merchandise is for sale yet, but it is there and ready for inventory. I am also working on my policies , and as I am sure you can imagine things may change over time since this is my first time. I actually started the process about the same time I started this blog, but I had just lost my job and didn't have a debit card or credit card to use. One of these is required to open a shop. Anyway the name of my shop is Little Star Quilts, I wonder where that name came from.
So, on to the things I have been working on while I was not posting over the last weeks or so. I made the cutest post card, I have not taken a picture of it yet, but will. I also finished another of the snap sac quilts. I hope I haven't told you about that one, but if I have you will love seeing it when I get picture of it on too. I think the Lizard quilt will be gone by this time next week, well sooner actually. I will be meeting with the owner on Mon. to let her have it. I am sorry it will be after the cold has left the central Texas area, but he will have it for many years to come, so he will have plenty of time to enjoy it.
My daughter is working hard on her album and it is coming together nicely. She had another person in the class helping her out in the recording studio a couple of weeks ago. He asked if she planned to lay down a drum track. When she said 'I don't know a drummer", he told her he had a friend that was a drummer and he needed to add some recording to his resume. This week, they went into the studio and laid down the drum track. It went very well for her, and he is very excited to have his name on her album cover.
Well, I have work to do and I will be back soon with more quilty stuff for you to enjoy. So take care and have a quilty week.

Tennye

UFO Challenge mistake

Well, I apparently looked at the post and didn't notice the number was at the bottom and not the one in the top . Okay so this is not making any since. I thought the March number was 1 and now I see this months post for April and realized it was at the bottom of the counter that I should have been looking. This month, well April the UFO to use is 2, and March was supposed to be 4.  Not that I got to it in the first place, but I have been working hard on the two I was supposed to complete for Jan. and Feb. That is when I have been in the sewing room this last two weeks. I hate feeling like this and I am so happy that I have gotten better, even though I am not what I would call good yet.
I started working out this week, and even though I am still not consistent with it I have at least gotten back to it. I feel better and have more energy, to do the things I should as well as the things I want to.
Well, what are you challenging yourself with lately? I get excited when I check out so many blogs and see what others are doing. I think wow I want to do that, but I don't know if I can. Hmmmm I think I can do anything they can so I am going to start doing just that. I love how so many have these consistent little things they do. Even if it is the only thing they post for a month or more. They always post that one day. Fearless Friday, Wordless Wed., Made for you Mon. Tue. trials. I see them and think I should do that, then I say in my head," you know you won't do it every week." I want to change, I want to be different, I want new in my life. I want to post without whining. I want to be exciting and fun and interesting. That Man Quilts always has a new story about his daughter, or his yard, or .... Did I mention I sat out in the front yard for hours last weekend and watched the cute little boy ( well 15 or 16) from across the street work in my front yard and clean out my flower beds. I read a book, that I was not really interested in, until almost the end, and I felt alive for the first time in months. LOL Okay so I didn't just watch him work, before he got here I raked like six or seven bags of leaves up, we have Red Oaks and the hold their leaves until the spring when they start putting on new ones, so we have to do our raking in the spring not the fall. I need to go out in the back yard today and do the same thing, but guess what I won't, I am headed to the sewing room when I get off here.
I had some computer problems the first of the week, and I though I had them fixed until last night, when it seemed to freeze up on me. So I got on today and started cleaning it again. I used a different cleaner this time than I did last time, so maybe it will be fixed this time. The sad thing is I got it from a website that I have been going to at least once a month for over a year. I sent the owner a email telling her it had happened, and no one read it they just sent me a form email saying I could change my email choices by clicking on this link. Sad that no one even seemed to have read the email I sent.
Well, hope you have a wonderfully quilty weekend.
Tennye