A Road To California Trip

Last week I got to go to R2CA.  Not just attend but also take a class, sew in my room, attend the show preview, go to the party and shop, shop, shop at the vendors.  I had a great time visiting with my friend Linda and her friend, Jonnette.  

Linda and Jonnette

Linda and I took a Snippet Sensation class with Cindy Walter.  Poor girl......she endures living in Hawaii.  She is very talented and she has branched out from her snippets technique to painting on fabric to make backgrounds.  I was just there for the snippet technique. 

Take one picture.  Add fabrics for a color palette.

Fuse and snip and you get this

Trade out the vase for something bigger, then iron down

I also worked on a scrap quilt using some jelly roll strips from Moda.  I only had 26  2 1/2" strips but I was trying out the technique for a 1600" quilt top.  The pattern calls for 40 strips.  It definitely needs more so I am going to have to think through what to do with it.  Probably some type of border. 

Start with a pile of 2 1/2" strips

And you sew and you sew and you sew

Not quite big enough but I'll figure something out

This was my third year to attend R2CA.  It is definitely becoming a tradition that I look forward to in January.  And.........Ta Da!  Our table group won a game at the Thursday evening party.  All 10 of us received 6 items from Clover.......including snips, piping, needles, rotary cutter case.  Of course, I forgot to take my camera for a picture.  It was well worth the price of admission.

A Chance to Win

Just in case someone is wandering through the blogs and happens upon mine, here is a blog giveaway at 

My Sister Made Me Do It?  Hurry over.  It ends next week.  Someone has to win.  Might as well be you or ME!

When The Organizing Bug Bites

In the middle of the afternoon a few days ago, I all of a sudden began hauling fabric to the dining room table.  It looked like this: 

Then it began to look like this: 

Now it was time to move it back to it's home on the shelves in my sewing/office room:

Truly this is all the fabric I have.  And if you believe that, there is a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you. This is actually only the fabric that folds somewhat easily for the shelves.  I also have a drawer full of fabrics for specific projects, more scraps than I care to think of and a basket full of specialty fabrics such as hand-dyes.  I'm not complaining.  I've seen pictures of way more stash than this.  But I do think that this amount qualifies me as a dedicated quilter/sewist. 

Replenishing The Stash

It doesn't seem like too much fabric buying if I call it replenishing. I think solids always need replenishing.  Did anyone else take advantage of the sale on Kona Fabrics at Janesfabrics.com ?  These will play nicely with some Jelly Rolls that I have from Moda.  Question is "Do I begin a project now or take it all with me to Road To California?" We'll have to see what next week looks like.

I've posted twice in one day.  I don't think I've ever done that before.  In between the posts, I was putting away the Christmas decor.  It is all safely snug in boxes in the garage.  One goal for the day done.

Winter Change Out

Putting away the Christmas decor is always bittersweet.  It seems like more work than putting it all out.  This year I decided to leave out anything that was somewhat snowman themed.  I think I'll wait until the first week of February to deal with that stuff.  I even saved a box with those things in mind.  Good-bye Santas.  Hello Snowmen. 

Now to deal with all the other empty spaces left behind.   Put up the same things or try something different.  I certainly have lots of "stuff" to choose from.  Forty-two years of marriage accumulation provides many creative solutions.  But for the moment (or next few days), I'm just going to enjoy the vacant spaces.

The New Year Begins 2012

 

New Year's Eve was celebrated by babysitting with the DGDs so their parents could have a date night.  DH and I both went.  Despite my best attempts, Makayla was still awake when her parents got home at 10:30 p.m.  Mom got her quickly settled in and then the grown-ups toasted each other with champagne.  Nahn Nahn and Pop Pop left for home and got there just in time to watch the ball in Times Square fall down (of course, in CA it was a re-run).  

I'm not making resolutions for the New Year but I am once again adopting a word.  In 2010, my word was FAITH.  In 2011, my word was STRENGTH.  In 2012 my word will be ENGAGED......not the getting married kind.  My goal is to be more aware and conscious of my world, my activities, my relationships.  I want to "engage" myself in each moment.  

Since clutter distracts me from focus, I've attempted to bring some new sense of order to my office/sewing area.  The results became this: 

Labels and rearrangement of fabrics, scraps, sewing supplies, projects

An awareness of how many children's scissors I have accumulated in the DGD cabinet

Leaders and enders that drew me in to sewing

The beginnings of yet another UFO.

 

And then I remembered.....

OOPS!  What about this drawer that I just created?

...and this UFO now being hand quilted......very, very, slowly

I am so determined to finish up the embroidery details on this and get it DONE

See?  How cute are details.  Get to it!

But sometimes I just want to start something new so I pull out those cute little baskets with their new labels and before you know it, another UFO.  And that's how I create the scraps of my quilty life.......