Cathedral Windows

I also took a picture of the finished Cathedral Window's quilt. I was in the guest bedroom taking the other pictures and realized that it would fit on this quilt rack. Since I took down the wallhanging that was there I think I'll leave it up here for now.

Toppers

Vicki and I have been chatting some offline about toppers so when I was stripping one of my quilts off my guest bed I remembered that I'd made a quilted bedspread when I first got my longarm.

I remade the bed with the bedspread and tossed two small quilts on top. I think I'll leave the bedspread and these two small quilts for Chris and Becky. We're leaving them 3 queen size beds and one twin but I'm not leaving my queen size quilts! Of course, first I have to ask my Mom if she minds me leaving the scrappy tree quilt because she made that one for me! Don't look at my mismatching pillowcases!

Email address changed

I've updated blogger with my new email address but please check your address books and delete my old Bellsouth email address.

I will be checking both emails for a couple weeks but once I move, the Bellsouth address will no longer be valid and I'm trying to get everyone using the new address before then. Thanks.

mmcjohnson@gmail.com

Profile pictures

You can see I've changed my picture again - it's hard to find a picture I like and somehow when they are cropped and sized small enough they don't look as good to me. Maybe I was just accustomed to seeing the first picture I used on the blog but I didn't really like the recent replacement and I'm not crazy about this one either.

I should have used the time to take and post a picture of the finished Cathedral Windows table quilt but I didn't. Maybe I'll get a picture taken tomorrow.

Home sweet soon to be home

I flew back to Marietta today to finish preparing for the move and when I head back to Minneapolis on December 21st it will be for good.

I took a couple pictures of the apartment building and the park. The temporary apartment is just a few blocks away from this one so I went by frequently when I was out walking Chesty. It's convenient to have the park so close by but Chesty got overly excited about the squirrels. We'll live in this apartment for at least a year - maybe more and I'm looking forward to getting our stuff moved and settling in. The temporary apartment is OK but not that comfortable.

The view of the park from the balcony

A nice long walk

We took a 10 mile walk today along the Mississippi to try and work off some of the Thanksgiving dinner we ate yesterday. The weather was nice - cool but not too cold. It's been nice to walk everywhere rather than get in the car every time we want to go somewhere.

I worked some on my Cathedral Windows quilt and decided it's going to be a table topper. I pulled it out this year in January after not working on it for two years and it set there most of this year too. I finished up the last few blocks and am in the process of sewing the last row together.

When I originally started this quilt I intended to make a topper for a bed but knowing I might get tired of it, I would work a row on the top half and then one on the bottom half. Now having finished the last row I just have to join the two halves together and it will be one more UFO off my list.

Update

No progress on the Cathedral windows yet - I'm spending most of my time walking around the city or working on move details.

The good news is that I've got everything set up for the apartment and we'll sign the lease on Saturday. We had to lease it for the month of December to get the unit we wanted even though we won't move in until our furniture arrives sometime between the 26-28th. The temporary apartment is OK but I'm glad we won't be in it long.

We made it to Minneapolis

The drive wasn't bad - just boring and there wasn't much to see once we got past Tennessee.

Keith took me to look at the apartment we will be leasing first and then we came over to the temporary apartment and unloaded the car. For dinner we walked downtown and then back. It's cold but it felt great especially after being in the car for 2 days.

I miss quilting

In the past, my daily routine typically allowed me to quilt anywhere from 4-6 hours a day and I miss spending that time creating my quilts. In the last several months I've had other priorities and with another month or two to go before life settles back down I'm going through withdrawal.

In the meantime, I've packed two activities bags for the trip to Minneapolis; one is full of yarn and knitting projects and the other has my Cathedral Windows. I also have a stack of books so I'm sure I won't get as much done as I'd like but these projects will get me through this trip and will be waiting for me in Minneapolis when I head back up for Christmas.

Keith's move to Minneapolis

The car is packed and we leave at 6:00AM tomorrow to drive up to Minneapolis.

Chesty and I'll stay with Keith until the Monday after Thanksgiving when we'll fly back home to finish getting our household ready for the final move in December.

Since I'm staying up in Minneapolis for 10 days we'll only be apart for 3 weeks - it could have been much longer so I'm grateful.

Home

Snow!

We flew back home today from Colorado Springs. It snowed on Saturday and although it didn't stick at all I had a great time walking around the lake in the snow shower! I took my first Yoga class on Sunday and had a great afternoon in the spa on Monday but now it's time to get ready to drive to Minneapolis on Friday morning.

We'll be packing up Keith's car with all the things he'll need in the temporary apartment and some projects for me to work on for the 10 days I'll be up there with him.

Walking around the lake at the Broadmoor (after the snow)

Colorado Springs (Trip #1)

If the move wasn't enough to keep me busy I've got three trips planned between now and my move on December 21st. First, I'm going to Colorado Springs and will be gone this Saturday through Tuesday. This will be a fun trip - I'm staying at the Broadmoor hotel and plan to visit the spa one afternoon if I haven't left it too late to make a couple appointments. I'll call tomorrow and hopefully they can fit me in.

Next will be a trip to Minneapolis from November 17 - 27. I'll drive up with Keith and then fly back after Thanksgiving.

Finally, I booked my flight to visit Mom in December - I'll be there the 7th-12th.

Adam will be here tomorrow for the day so I won't be working on my move preparations until Wed/Thurs of next week. I still haven't accomplished as much as I need to especially with the above trips but I did make more progress today.

I did piece a couple quilt backs last night just so I could work on something quilty. I thought about loading a top and quilting that but now with Adam coming that won't happen but maybe when I get back from Minneapolis I can squeeze one last quilt in.

I'd rather be quilting.....

I spent the day going through files and cleaning up my desk. It wouldn't take so long if I didn't keep stopping to read things in the files I'd forgotten about or if I didn't save every scrap of paper that ever came across my desk. I'm sure I could easily discard even more but I know I'll need this stuff as soon as I throw it away.

Tomorrow and the rest of the week will be more of the same.

My official move date

My move date is finally set and Keith made my reservations this afternoon. I leave Marietta for Minneapolis on December 21st. Luckily we'll be living within a block of the skyway system so I can get around downtown even in the worst weather.

Keith leaves on November 17th but I will be driving up with him and spending 10 days in Minneapolis before returning here. We'll end up being apart for less than a month and it will be a busy time so I know it will fly by.

Packing up

Keith and I spent the weekend up at Big Canoe packing up the things we aren't selling with the condo. It was very difficult to leave this afternoon knowing that we won't be back up or at least not back up together as I'll probably go up in December before I leave to check on things.

We decided to rent our house here in Marietta to Chris and Becky who are moving back to the area in January with the idea of selling it to them in a few years once they are in a position to buy it. The condo is still for sale but Chris will keep a watch on it for us until it sells - of course it would be nice if it sold before I left in December but I'm not holding my breath.

We took time out yesterday for one last walk.

Since Chris has been after me to change the picture in my profile I'll upload this one that Keith took while we were out walking.

Dress

OK, one last wedding photo (for now anyway).

You can see my dress in this one but disregard my hair! It was a very breezy day and the photo's were taken outside - the wedding was also outdoors so I just gave up on my hair looking decent!

As you can tell from the photo with Chris in the last post, the jacket came off once we were inside for the reception.

Wedding photo's

I snagged a couple shots of the wedding - the resolution on these is really low - I've got to call the photographer to order some prints but here's one of the kids and one of me dancing with Chris - I look a little goofy but it was a special moment.

And finally, aren't both of my boys handsome?

Folding Quilts

There is a great article in the December edition of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine on folding quilts to eliminate the center creases. If you have the magazine - check out the article on page 44.

It's hard to explain without pictures but the quilt is folded on the bias and the picture shows 4 folds which when completed leave the quilt nicely packaged and the author states less likely to crease.

It's a timely article for me as many of my quilts that are now on beds or hanging over railings will have to be folded not just for moving but to be stored as I am downsizing significantly.