Blogger Poop & UFO Update

Okay I just wrote out this post all about my UFOs and the lack of progress and when I went to post, Blogger ate it. I tried to get it back but, alas, it is done for. Here it is in a nut shell:

I have been too busy doing hand work and watching American Idol to get anything done.
The only reason I got two quilts finished this month is because Soul Sister needed binding to do on a road trip to Missouri to keep from ending up in prison.
May 26 is the one-year anniversary of my UFO list. I had 209.
I'm going to work really hard to get projects done by this May 26 so I can show some progress.
Here's where I am now and we'll compare again on May 26.

Unstarted quilts - 87
Quilts cut out - 13
Blocks pieced - 5
Blocks appliqued - 2
Quilt top pieced - 4
Borders on - 14
Quilt basted - 5
Quilted - 2
Binding on (but not whipped down) - 1
Quilts complete - 76

Wish me luck!!

It's Nice To Be Missed

This was a typical weekend at the lake for my family. Grandfather working on the computer, Grandmother keeping the peace, "Uncle Dabid" chasing two wild little nephews around and those same two wild nephews getting to do whatever their little hearts desired. (yes, that is a gallon of chocolate ice cream that Wild Boy has his hand in. At least his big brother is using a spoon.) What's missing? Me and Shelby. I was at the church women's retreat and Shelby was spending the weekend with friends.

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My Mom tells me last night that Wild Boy did remember me in his bedtime prayers though. It went like this...

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God bless Grandmother and God bless Grandfather and God bless Dad and God bless Big Brother and God bless Uncle Dabid and God bless Aunt Ceesa...wherever she is. Oh... and God bless Shelby. I really miss Shelby!

Jewels and Wisdom

I have to admit that between being out of town and too busy and too tired, we have not been to church in quite some time. And unfortunately it's one of those things that if you let too much time pass, it is harder and harder to go back. This weekend was our church's women's retreat up to Montreat, one of my favorite places on earth. Prior to this weekend, two wonderful ladies asked me to go on the retreat. (No, they did not gang up on me. I don't think they knew the other had said anything to me about it.) Put that together with my next door neighbor, who is the Christian Educator for the church, mentioning that there was space AND I could have my own room...I decided what could it hurt. I knew only a handful of the 44 ladies attending but thought I'd give it a try again. I am not always comfortable in a group because I am very much an introvert and I generally do not trust others ability to accept me. (Yes, I know there's some deep, dark, psychological voodoo going on there but...it is what it is.)

So, Friday I picked up one of the wonderful ladies that invited me and we headed for the hills. It proved to be a fantastic weekend of sharing and studying women of the Bible as well as talking about women in our lives that have been jewels and sources of wisdom for us. I rekindled some old friendships and met new friends. We stayed up too late, ate too much and laughed constantly. Now I'm home and physically exhausted but my spirit is rejuvenated. One of the really extraordinary things about this group of women is there seems to be a genuine acceptance of all. Everyone comes from different backgrounds and upbringings and are all ages. There is not a feeling of judgement but one of acceptance. No one asked why I had not been to church in so long and there was no pressure to come back. Because of that, I may just show up the next Sunday morning I'm home.

The Variety Show

All of a sudden I have stuff to tell...not big stuff, just stuff to share. I guess that's what happens when you visit blogs of interesting people.

But first... pardon the lack of space between paragraphs at the end of this post. I do not understand why the spaces aren't there...just Blogger's little practical joke.

First thing to share:

Mrs. Goodneedle was talking about her first quilt book, which she still owns. I searched for mine and was afraid it was long gone after the organizational endeavor. But no! I still have it. It's not really a quilt book but a decor book.


It appears I bought it on sale at Book-A-Million for $19.98. It was 1991 and though I lived in a 510 square foot condo, I had high aspirations for interior decorating. (yes, 510 sf and I lived there for 9 years!) In this book, I found a Sunshine and Shadows quilt and thought..."I could make that"... even though I could not use a sewing machine and had never sewn anything by hand in my life (or machine technically but that's another story). The rest is history...

Anyway, there you have it. I still have my first quilt book...probably because it wasn't in the quilt room when I purged the library.

Second thing to share... Lisa Boyer of The Dorky Homemade Look fame gave a photo lesson on her blog the other day. I have now discovered that little flower mode on my camera so I can take close up pictures. Here are some of my pumpkin. (The color still isn't that great but it is late and my house is a cave.)

This new knowledge makes me very happy. I will be taking close ups of lots of stuff now. Yay!

Third thing to share...

Again from Lisa Boyer (and no, I am NOT stalking her...she is just very full of knowledge this week. Go check her out...she'll take you on a tour of Hawaii. You get to eat hula pie and chase wild chickens.)

On Lisa's blog today, she tagged all her readers to think up a 6-word memoir. Here's mine...at least for now.

"Hands craft tales where words fail."

People that only know me as a guild president/show chair, public speaker, teacher, etc. tend to think I am talkative and out-going. Those that really know me know I don't really talk much. I figure if I am standing up in front of a group, I better be entertaining or smart...so I fake both.

I write more than I talk. Well, I figure if you've made it this far, you want to hear what I have to say.

So, now it's your turn. Consider yourself tagged to write your 6-word memoir.

Final thing to share...

David took this picture of Shelby the other night. We're on the couch and she's hugging one of her favorite toys, a little yellow bug. Sweet baby girl!

The Great Pumpkin

I love starting off a weekend by finishing a project. I feel like I'm already ahead! Finally, I have my pumpkin finished. I was discouraged after our class last week where we all got back together to assemble our pumpkins. I sewed all my panels together and stuffed the daylights out of the thing. It took on a slightly less than pumpkin shape though. It was more muffin top shaped - all pudgy in the middle. Then, when we started tying the cords around it, things really got ugly. I took it home and pouted for a few days. All that embroidery work and my pumpkin's deformed.

So, the other night when I couldn't sleep, I got up and unstuffed that poor pumpkin, took in the curves just a hair and restuffed it. I added another whole bag of stuffing to it too, then sewed him up. That is one pressurized pumpkin! You would almost use it as a drum.

Today when I got home from work, I decided to try to finishing him off by tying up the cord that makes the stem. I am pleased to report that my ugly duckling...uh...pumpkin grew up and is pretty sweet, if I do say so myself.

Now to find the right spot for him...he's bigger than a basketball! And no, no one can touch it!

The Great Rug Fest Roadtrip

Finally, I remembered to bring my camera in from the car! It's been one of those weeks where I have something going on every evening after work and work is wild all on its own. But here I am finally having a moment to tell you about the weekend and the trip to the Virginia Rugfest.

First, when I said hilarity would ensue... I had no idea how bad it would be. We laughed so much, my sides are STILL sore. It was constant and just way more fun that should be allowed. We followed my little GPS unit all the way to Richmond and made one wrong turn because we were talking too much. Once we got back to the correct exit, we followed the GPS to the hotel. It said to turn left on Sandy Drive. I turned left. It said to turn right on Bell Creek. I turned right. It said "you have arrived". Well, we had arrived to the Walmart parking lot. HB is in the backseat saying "hey, are we going to Holiday Inn? It's behind us." We were too busy laughing while we toured the Walmart parking lot to care. Moral of the story...a personal GPS unit is only so accurate. If you want true accuracy, say...5/100th of a foot (which is the accuracy of my husband's GPS he uses as a surveyor), you'll have to shell out $40,000. I'll stick with my slightly off GPS and just keep my eyes open.

We settled in and even ordered Chinese food to be delivered to our room (which was yummy). It was nasty rainy outside so we weren't all that interested in venturing out again. After an evening of rug hooking and laughing at each other some more, we all turned in for the night. The next morning we set off for the Virginia Rugfest. Thank goodness for the little GPS because this place was out there. We thought the entry fee was a bit pricey ($12) especially since we weren't staying to rug hook (it was a "hook-in" where everyone brought something to work on and sat in a big room and hooked). Other than a high price tag on entry, the show was very nice. I managed to purchase a nice variety of wool for my next big project and SS bought a little kit and a pattern. (Yes... HB and I have sent her over the edge.) In the main lobby they had a small rug show. People just brought finished rugs to display so they had no idea how many or what they would be displaying. Here are some of my favorites...

These first two are by a featured rug hooker. They were incredible.

The rest are rugs brought in by the ladies spending the day at the hook-in. I especially love the primitive rugs.

Finally, this is what I was working on while we were on our road trip. It was a kit I bought at the NQA show last June. It's made of wool yard and is punched like needlepunching...just bigger. I finished it in less than a day. I think I'm going to turn it into a stool top.

Yay! It's done! (sort of)

I finished my rug about midnight last night just as the last chapter of Harry Potter & the Deathly Hollows closed on my CD player. How perfect is that?! Why sort of finished? Well, the next step is to bind the rug and where I find binding a quilt relaxing and therapeutic, binding a rug has not proven to be so serene. It has to be done though so maybe I'll prep it before we take off on our adventure.

What adventure, you ask? Well, as if HB and I didn't have enough fun last weekend, we are headed to Mechanicsville, Virginia (Richmond area) for the Virginia Rugfest. (wooo hooo). My SS (Soul Sister) is going too. The three of us together...watch out...hilarity will ensue. SS has been known to make me spit coffee all over my steering wheel and snort out loud in the silence of my office...much to the delight of the guys next door.

HB and I are trying to recruit our quilting friends to the dark side (rug hooking) but so far everyone is holding fast to their quilting stash. I believe SS is dangerously close to the edge of the cliff. I'm hoping the woolen goodies at Rugfest will send her over the edge this weekend so she can join our little rug coven.

I Have HAD It!

I have been putting off getting my hair cut because the last time was such a disaster. The woman cut my bangs almost to the hairline. I looked like I was 5 years old. (In reality I've had this same haircut all my life, just different lengths.)

It's been a good 6 months since then but this afternoon, I finally HAD it. My hair was a mess...too long, too shapeless... an old body wave waving badly damaged hair like a surrender flag. I hate getting my hair cut, which is why for most of my adult life, my hair was looonnngggg.

See...told ya...same haircut, just a LOT longer. How do you like those 1980's big bangs?

So, at 5:00 this afternoon, I called a salon I've never gone to before and asked if they had anyone free to cut my hair. They did. Yes, I know this is dangerous but I'm living on the edge, here. So, I go meet my new stylist who is this petite redhead who had just had her own eyebrows and upper lip waxed (this is a full service salon) so she's a little red. She feels she has to explain her appearance but I recognize the signs... We hit it off. She was funny and didn't make me make all the decisions. I feel so much better and my hair no longer looks like a frizzy mess. Tthe great part is I don't have to spend an hour styling my hair.

And yes... you only get to see the back. I HATE having my picture taken.