Sewing Obsessed!

Big mack truck that hit me!   Holy hannah cold and flu season is upon us!! Camp Wanna Sew was great .... really it was.  Now if I can only remember everything I did while there ... it would be great!   I know I was busy ... and I know I was very productive, but upon returning home Sunday afternoon (Sept 28th) I fell sick to an awful bug.  Actually, it had been "brewing" at least a week prior (Sept 18th) to camp, but when I got home from camp - I let my guard down ... oh boy! did I get hit.   My sister and daughter said it must have been the adrenline rush of going to camp and being there that held off the evil that was lurking until I got back home. Monday and Tuesday were part of my holidays which were spent flat out with a chest cold.  Wed and Thurs were the first days sick days I took in almost 3.5 years of work (n ot many can say that I know!!),  I was still flat out!!  What the heck!??   Returned to work on Friday (nobody else gonna do it!!) and worked all the n

It's been a whirlwind the last couple of months.  And summer was in there??   Okay, so a whole two days of summer doesn't count - let's have a "due-over"!!  Who's in for that??  Not a whole lot of extra time since the last "report"  but I did make the best of what time I did manage to sneak away from everyday/work life.   AND I have taken "my time" back at work so I'm a slightly happy camper.  ☺ Just slightly LOL Speaking of camper - it's time to pack up for Camp Wanna Sew.  Like men with their hunting, my focus is on just getting through each day until the it's time to leave.  And that my friends is in 9 sleeps!   Woo Hooo!!!  Doing a happy dance here, I tell you!  Then it will be a long 8 months waiting  until the next one. Booooo....hiss!!!  So I will enjoy each moment with all the camp friends made over the past 7 or 8 years that I have been going and sew till I drop! ☺ This weekend I worked on Christmas presents for

 It's been H-E-double hockey sticks since Jan 22/14 (yes - I remember the date clearly and I wasn't even at work!! Go figure!!!)  and my "me-time" became pretty well  non-existent.  BUT I'm baaaaack!!!  and I'm making "ME" the priority, okay ... I'm working very hard at it.  LOL Way to close for my liking to a full blown burn-out in May - June, that I am now practising hard at putting me first, something I have a very hard time doing.   Yes, my dear friends  (you know who you are) it's taken me three years to do just that - but I trying my hardest at making it MY reality!!  ;-) Enough said! When I was at camp in May, I was lucky enough to sandwich five pieces together so that I could start my free-motion quilting "studies"  ;-)    The first three items are part of the five that I have been practising on  - things that have been in my "course study"  for  my PHD  ☺  There is one more that I will show you next ti

Holy Hannah!! There went April - zooooom!  Just like that ... POOF!   Work really got in the way of the fun life since January 22nd, but that will soon change, as I cannot go this pace for any longer, and I'm beginning to realize "why should I?"   Yes, I know, I know!!  You all told me so!  But I learn at my own speed, which sometimes is slow - very slow.☺ It is now time for Camp Wanna Sew!!  With working, working and working some more, it's all of a sudden time to start packing for camp this coming Wednesday!!  WHAT??  Already?   Can't be January just started ... but it is now the middle of May!!   Yikes! So I've quickly put things in a tote that I may do - or may not.  A couple new things to "maybe" start, and quite a few others to finish or not.  Finishing projects totally depends on the mind set of any given day while I'm there - heck I could be sleeping the whole time I'm there, after all the overtime since January!!  Why do get the

Not much sewing going on as of late - but when I do I am having loads of fun!  I think? I really don't want to start anything new just yet, seeing I still have numerous projects to finish (that's another story line for later!!) and that is a priority for this year, again...still....YET!   Well maybe not " finish " all of them but at least get a good handle on them.  HAH yah right, who am I trying to kid?  "In what century?" ask me, myself and I!  LOL   As of the beginning of this month (March), I have purchased 10 large quilt backs.  Yes, I do have that many ready to quilt, and maybe 4 or 5 more not to mention the smaller projects/quilts.   I must confess.....   I am a "Quilt-top Maker"!!   There!   I said it. LOL.   We will see just how many I get quilted after my "sandwich-fest" (that's putting the quilt/batting/backing together for quilting) at camp in May; just have to purchase all that batting now!!  Yikes!

No, I'm not hanging ... well unless you count the time I spend in the sewing room "hanging" LOL I made this piece for my son for his 38th birthday, in 2013, after he asked if I would make him "something to hide the back room" in the basement.  "Something like you made my sister".  Well for his sister, Laurie, I had made two full blown quilts which she uses as drapes for a patio door in their living room.  It was a great challenge, fun to do but would I do it again?  No ... well not until my son asked.  He normally doesn't ask for anything unless it is something he truly wants and cannot get it for himself.  And for him to ask "me" to "make it" ... well that was special. 7 months in the making for daughter and hubby's home (2010) So, in August 2013, I had an idea of what I was going to do. Or so I thought!   I saw some beautiful embroidered owls and outlines of fish from Embroidery Library and I just had to have

It's the beginning of March, already!  What have you done?  Well I have been sewing - although not as I would like due to brain-drain, but progress has been made even if just a little bit!! Last month I did a demo class with the very basic skills needed on how to get started with free motion quilting, to my guild.  We had a blast with it!  At least I think we did?   Most times when they tried something they would say it didn't look very good.  Of course I would say "Practice, Practice and you will see how quickly you get better".   That class brought me to the subject of this post, and had me realise just how much I missed/loved instructing/teaching!  Pattie and I should have been quilting up a storm by now but alas that four letter word still gets in the way.  But this week I'm on holidays trying to recover from the "brain-drain" before I head in for my next session of it called "year-end".  So, we (Pattie and I) decided to "bond

Every quilter dreams of finishing their own quilts.  Well, okay, most of them do LOL   And I'm am one of them.  Don't get me wrong - it is nice to have someone quilt them for you when the tops are made but really - did you really " make it ?"   Hmmm... not really.   But that is MY opinion, right? No, really - think about.    Yes, you may have created the top and it's beautiful ... but " sometimes " your quilter is the one that brings it to life and makes it downright gorgeous!!   Did you do that?   Hmmm... No.  See, that is MY opinion.  I did design one top a couple years ago (for McCall's Quilt Designer Challenge) and it was my favorite piece as a "top".  My quilter/friend, Suzanne Gauthier, quilted it for me in ways I never dreamed it could be done.  You always - ALWAYS - acknowledge your quilter as they are really part of that quilt.  Suzanne - she brought "Breaking Free" to life!  It actually took on a whole new look onc