Twisted Happy Blocks

Since I finished the first top last night, today I'm working on a twisted version.



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Progress

I finished the blocks and got the top assembled. Tomorrow, I'll work on the Twisted version BUT I earned the right to sleep late!



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I'm sewing!

HeartStrings is having a virtual sew-in New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and I decided to get an early start.

I haven't used my design wall since the move in April but felt I really needed it up to help keep track of which novelty squares I'd used and which colors I needed to use for framing squares so I took over the area at the top of the stairs outside my sewing room for the next couple days - there's a bathroom behind that door but luckily, we have others.

And look who was sitting outside my room keeping an eye on my progress until Keith went to bed about 10 minutes ago.

I had a lot of fun meeting Suzanne for lunch today - don't worry Deb, I didn't talk about you TOO much! Again, if you have a chance to meet fellow bloggers/quilters in person, make the time - it's well worth it.

Keith and I have been slipping and sliding on the ice the last week and I was betting he'd go down first but instead on my way to catch the light rail to meet Suzanne, I fell this morning. Nothing that a little Aleve won't take care of but I was glad no one saw me go down.

Now, I'm heading back up to the sewing room - I've got at least another few hours of work left in me!


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I don't do well with failure

These may be a little hard to see so go ahead and click on them to enlarge.

I don't like having an idea that doesn't turn out as well as I have it pictured in my head so I decided to try these two postcards again. Since I liked the snowflake so much I used the same background and am doing the same embroidery stitches in the snow. I also changed the direction of this first one and put it on point. Looks like fireworks doesn't it??
I haven't stitched the snow in this one on the left yet but I decided to try to add snowflakes on the reject - I hate to waste my efforts too so I have a habit of trying to add to something that's not working. This looks a little better so the reject might just show up in someone's mail box even through it's certainly not my best effort.
And just so you don't think I'm more creative than I am....when I was looking for the beads for the snowflake I saw these iron-on crystal packets....both the above cards came with the crystal design already in place and all I had to do was press them to my postcard. They were $2-3 dollars and then on sale at Joann's so I thought they were worth a try.

By the way, all these postcards have the same blue background although it looks black in some photos. The second photo shows the truest color.


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If you ever have the chance....

If you ever have the chance to meet an online friend in person - please don't pass it up. Today I met Cecile (and her husband and son) at a local coffee shop and had the best time. I got to see one of her quilts and a knitted scarf and sweater she'd made for her son. She even gave me some knitting pointers so if I can manage to retrain myself - I might actually knit a bit faster.

Tomorrow, I'm going to meet Suzanne for lunch at the Mall of America too. Keith is amazed that I actually have 2 social events planned in two days.

I had a great walk this afternoon to and from the coffee shop and when I got home, I had postcards in the mailbox from our family exchange. Usually we just exchange one card per month but for December we made it optional to make and send cards to everyone. This first one is from my Aunt and the second one is from my sister, Deb.


I also decided to remake the two postcards I wasn't happy with, using the split background and the embroidery stitches in the snow since I was so pleased with how the snowflake card turned out.


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Playing with postcards

I decided that the snow portion of my postcard needed texture so I randomly stitched it with white perle cotton. All photos should enlarge if you click them.

And I loved how it turned out.

I decided to try a couple really simple ones using iron on crystals but I'm not too impressed with my stitches on the year - maybe I need to do it smaller. I may need to do another beaded one since I'm not really happy with how these are turning out.




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Anniversary

Today I celebrate my 3rd blogging anniversary. Three years of sharing my quilting, travels, and little bits of family life and meeting other quilters from all over.

Thanks for visiting me and for all the feedback and encouragement you provide.


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Brunch, a movie, dinner at home

Why is it when we have company we seem to go from planning one meal to the next?? We took the kids to brunch at Hell's Kitchen this morning. Chris liked the chandelier with all the knives in the background. Then a movie, then a couple quiet hours before it was time to cook dinner. They'll leave tomorrow afternoon - maybe I'll think about sewing on Monday!



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Shopping/games

Although shopping isn't top on my list, we took the Light Rail to the Mall of America today. I did find a new Jim Shore figure to add to the two I bought last year. When we got home, a game of Scrabble - not a favorite of the kids!

I'm getting a little antsy to spend some time piecing or quilting but the kids will be leaving on Sunday afternoon and until then, I'll focus on spending time with them. Come January, Keith will be traveling and I'll have plenty of time for quilting.


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It was Merry

Click photo to enlarge

I did miss the walk because I was cooking but Chris and Becky got to walk a bit this afternoon with Keith in between eating French Toast (another tradition) for breakfast and a big turkey dinner.

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Good times!

Chesty watching for Chris.

Chris & Becky arrive and we break out the Champagne.
Homemade (from scratch) cookie platter.
Our Christmas Eve picnic.
Looking at family photos after dinner.
A father/son moment.
The only thing missing was Adam and he called to say Merry Christmas on his way home from work.


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It's Christmas Eve!

I've been in the kitchen all morning cooking and have a break now before I start baking the cookies (you know that dough has to sit in the fridge for hours!).

My journal page today was about previous years when we lived in FL and Keith's dad was still alive. We'd always have a big family dinner and open presents at his parents' house.
But my favorite tradition is our Christmas Eve picnic. The potato salad and devil eggs are made, I'll start baking the cookies in an hour, Keith bought the sandwich fixings this morning so now we'll just wait for Chris and Becky to arrive - hopefully around 5:30PM if all goes well.


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A finish

A top pieced by Barbara in FL for HeartStrings and quilted last month is done. I did the hand stitching on the binding tonight. That makes 6 of the 10 quilted last month that are bound and finished and 4 left to do. The binding is machine stitched onto quilt #7 and I'll work on it as time allows over the next few days.

Some line dancing in the teal squares.

Swirls in the piano key border.


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Beading

I'd intended to make some more happy blocks today but decided to play with postcards instead. I'd was going to make a snowflake for my January card to exchange with family and one of my cousin's daughters wanted to know how to do beading on postcards so I took some time to photograph my steps.

I won't share all the photos here but here's the card in progress. I might make several if I can find different designs I like.




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Random items from my day

In keeping with my attempt to capture the sights (and sounds) of Minneapolis, I snapped a couple shots last night of the snow plows. It can get noisy and it always seems like they start work in the middle of the night but since I wasn't asleep it didn't bother me.

Is there anything better on a very cold morning (-13 degrees) than sipping tea with breakfast and a good book right in a patch of sunlight? My kitchen gets great sun in the morning.
Speaking of tea - my mug of the day was this one I bought on my trip to Toronto.

Doesn't Chesty look beautiful after his trip to the Beauty Parlor?

And finally, when I got home this evening I had a package waiting from Grace. I love Tim Horton's and was upset when I found out that they had mugs and I hadn't bought one on one of my two trips to Canada this year....and now I have one. Thanks Grace!


So now that I've bored you with my day - I have a question. How many of you blog about those little things from your life that you want to remember/document but that aren't particularly interesting to other people?

For me it goes back to my blog being not just a way to interact with other quilters but it being a way to document the things in my life. And I actually sewed today too - Happy Blocks were cut out and pieced and I made and machine stitched a binding on a HeartStrings quilt.


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Skill or luck?

When I win at Scrabble I like to think it's skill but when Keith wins?? Has to be luck right? He's ahead 6-3 in our tournament....I hate losing!

Chesty was supposed to go for grooming last week but we didn't make it and rescheduled for today. Keith took this photo the other night - Chesty digs in his bed and comes out with his hair full of static. I want him to look pretty for Christmas so that will take most of my afternoon waiting around for him.

I need the car to take Chesty but since it was -13 this morning, Keith didn't want to walk to work (wimp!) so I got up and drove him to the nearest skyway. Nice of me wasn't it? I'm not a morning person so I did whine a bit about it.

I was going to go back to bed when I got home but after spending quality time with my computer (email, blogging, and making my journal page for the day) I should go ahead and stay up since it's after 10 now.


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A new wordle

I'd commented to Grace that I'd cheated with my Thanksgiving wordle and typed in the words I wanted to appear. Here's what today's would look like using my blog content.....obviously not much quilting going on these days!

I've also been continuing my hated task of the day since returning from my VA trip although I haven't been posting it. Mainly it's been things like unpacking, laundry, making a grocery list for our holiday meals and today's task will be vacuuming. Then I'll bake some cookies, make dinner, play another game of scrabble, and maybe even get a little binding done.


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A tiny flaw in paradise

I lost. Keith came from behind in Scrabble with an 80 point word and beat me 309 to 300 and I was sure I had this game in the bag! Doesn't this look cozy?

Nothing like an oversized sweatshirt, a flannel backed quilt, and a fluffy white dog to warm me up after an afternoon spent outside in the snow.



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A perfect day!

First the champagne tasting at a neighborhood wine shop then a walk along the river and downtown. Lunch at the restaurant in the Foshay Tower, coffee and browsing at Barnes & Nobles before walking home. Now, we're tucked inside for the night with the fire, the tree lit, and Christmas music playing.

Click photo to enlarge!

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Snow!

I'm like a child! I couldn't sleep last night waiting for it to start. They're calling for 8-10 inches and it's coming down steady so I hope we'll get it all!

We're heading out on foot to a local wine store for a champagne tasting. We always have Mimosa's and Keith's homemade French Toast on Christmas day and we tend to sip more champagne than wine during the holidays so it time to stock up!

Later, I'll work on some more binding - I'm slowly making my way through the stack of bindings waiting from the tops I quilted last month.


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It's a long story

My family probably won't believe it until it happens but Keith and I have been trying to plan a trip to Ireland for the last 10 years. Lots of trips dreamed about, two trips actually ticketed and canceled, and my standing joke is that if Keith wants to stay married then I want my honeymoon by our 20th anniversary.

Yes, I tell him that the first one didn't count because he messed up the dates and instead of jetting off to Antigua while my brother watched Chris & Adam, we had a long weekend outside of Jacksonville with the boys (ages 4&5, in the same room of course) as we drove back from Florida where we got married to Virginia where we were living at the time.

So, with a maiden name of McLaughlin and grandparents who were born and raised in Ireland, it's always been a dream of mine to visit and that's the trip I chose as my *real* honeymoon.

This week, Keith booked the tickets for April. We'll go the week before our 20th anniversary (he's cutting it kind of close isn't he??) They say 3rd time's the charm so I'm crossing my fingers that this trip will go off as planned. We don't have any great plans for seeing the entire island but will spend most of our time in Dublin and maybe do a day excursion somewhere close.

Now it's time to pull out the 5 or 6 travel books on Ireland I've collected over the last several years and start to plan.


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Look what Santa brought!

San (Gypsy Quilter) had emailed that she had some Quilt of Valor tops for Alycia's project and we decided she'd send them here for quilting first. A package arrived today with 5 tops, fabric for backings, bindings, some extra blocks, and even a couple gifts for me!


Can you see the chicken?? I didn't get the best photo of it did I...but it's really cute!

And she obviously has a sense of humor too - this is how the package came addressed! Thanks San!



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Online friends

Cecile is a reader of my blog who wrote one day and offered to send me some books. Since that time we've written back and forth and she's sent other goodies including this cute little top for me to quilt and donate. She'll be in the Minneapolis area visiting family during the holidays and we're hoping to actually meet in person!

This was quilted with Happy Times pantograph from Lorien quilting and I finished up the binding this morning.

Aren't you glad to see a little quilting content here for a change?

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My 10 to Quilt goals have been great for my productivity and I've decided that I'll choose at least 6 months during 2009 where I focus on a goal to quilt 10 tops during the month. I'll start in January!



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A little too Merry

Too much partying last night and I'm lucky to even be sitting up. I'll catch up on some of my blog reading but will skim and look at photos as suggested in several comments.

Doesn't the city look festive? The photo was taken last night as we walked to the restaurant the party was held at.


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Google Reader

Ok, at 830+ plus blog posts in my google reader - it's obvious I'm way behind. What do you do when you so far behind???

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Chesty

Chesty misses me when I'm gone so we spent some quality time together today including a good brushing. He still needs grooming before the holidays so I'm taking him Monday afternoon for a bath and trim.

He's a cutie isn't he?



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Catch up day

Keith's having a Christmas party at a local restaurant tonight and as usual, after being gone I have some catching up to do. I doubt I'll get back to any quilting today but if I do have some time before leaving I'll work on some binding.

In the meantime, there's my journal page for the day to create, laundry, brushing Chesty, and going through mail and paying some bills. I did keep up with my Christmas Journal while I was gone and you can view the pages by clicking on the link above.

I also managed to open the *fun* mail last night. I got postcards from Vicki (tree), Mom (poinsettias), and Barbara sent a fabric card. I love them all!



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Home

I'm home safe and sound....after a 70 degree day in Newport News yesterday, I was greeted with 1 degree weather and snow upon my arrival at MSP airport.

An extended cab ride and I'm finally home only to find out that Keith has a business dinner tonight and won't be here until late but Chesty was glad to see me.



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It's 45 degrees and rainy here in Newport News as I wait to board my
plane but it's MINUS 10 at home right now!! Even so, I'm looking
forward to getting back and seeing Keith and Chesty.

Catching up

I'm behind a couple days on my Journal pages but managed to get one done today when we drove up to Pennsylvania to visit my uncle and aunt. My sister and brother-in-law came with us and they drove which was nice.

This prompt was about change and I chose to journal about missing the Christmases that Adam and I cooked together.

Tomorrow, Mom and I leave Maryland and head back to Virginia and then Tuesday I fly home.


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Family Time

A day spent with my family

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It's a race!

My 3 year blogging anniversary is coming up on December 28th and I've been watching my stats to see if I'll hit 500,000 visitors by that date.

I won't be doing a giveaway (although I know they're very popular) but I do plan on having an *Open House* so please stop by on the 28th and say hi especially if you don't usually comment.


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Can I keep up?

So far I've been been able to keep up with my daily page for the Journal your Christmas class but it will be a little more challenging while I'm traveling. I brought the laptop with me and worked on today's page in the airport. Pretty easy to tell today's prompt is about Christmas trees.

This year's tree is on the left in the photo above - do you have your tree up yet? Are you one of those really artistic types that have stunning trees each year?


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Northwest Lounge - MSP Airport

I'm testing uploading a photo and post directly from my phone....as if I don't post too often already!

I'm off again

I'm heading to Virginia to pick Mom up for a road trip. We'll be visiting Maryland for a family birthday party and then driving up to Pennsylvania for a quick visit to see my Uncle and his family. I'll be home by Tuesday!

We're not all together that often so I'm always excited when all 6 of us and Mom are going to be in the same place at the same time.

Can you pick me out in this photo?

How about in this one?



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Another binding finished

A HeartStrings quilt pieced by the quilters at St. Mary's in CT and quilted with freeform Baptist Fans - don't you love the texture the fans give it? There are also Hearts appliqued over some of the intersections where the red strips cross.

Today's hated task is already in progress. It's laundry and I can't delay it any longer because I have to pack for my trip tomorrow.


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Busy but productive!

I'm having a really productive day! By the end of this evening all that will be left on my mini *to do* list for tomorrow is laundry and packing. If you're bored you can check out December's *Done* list.

Since I had to walk to the Post Office to ship packages today, I took my computer and went to the MPLS Central Library to work on my instructions for Happy Blocks, a special HeartStrings project for January/February.

How cool is it that they let you bring your coffee into the library? There's an attached Dunn Brothers but I didn't realize until today that I was *allowed* to bring my coffee in. I always go up to the 2nd floor and find a desk by the window. Free wireless too although it was a little fussy toward the end of my session.

And speaking of cool - I love seeing the moon clearly when it's still daylight.



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A mini to do list

The prompt for my Journal your Christmas class came early so I was able to finish my page before heading to bed. Since the next couple days will be busy getting ready to travel on Thursday it's nice to get it done.

This page as well as all the others was created in Photoshop Elements and you can click the photo to enlarge. Of all the things Adam misses about not being able to spend Christmas with the family, I think the picnic tops the list. We'll have one this year with Chris and Becky on Christmas Eve but we'll have a 2nd one when Adam comes to visit in February.

My list for Tues & Wed

• Finish binding on HS quilt
• Laundry
  
• Pack - including the two donations quilts & Mom's Birthday present
• Ship quilts & pillowcases to Alycia and Adam's stocking stuffers (we don't do presents but since he's all alone I send a few little things for his stocking)
• Make and photograph Happy Blocks, write instructions for HeartStrings New Year's Eve Party
• Get some sleep!
  

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A change in plans

Keith called to say he was going to work through dinner so the Beef Tips I have in the crockpot will be for tomorrow night. I headed out to grab a bite to eat and went to the coffee shop to write some Christmas cards. I put them off all week so I'm counting that as my procrastinated task of the day!

It's been snowing all afternoon and I grabbed a couple photos of Chesty. In this first one he looks like he's admiring the snow but....
this is how he really feels as he tries to pull me back up the steps into the house!


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a new mat

I had every intention of buying an Olfa mat when I went out on Saturday but someone commented that they found it difficult to see the lines with their green rulers. So I tried it in the store and found it was much easier to see my ruler lines with the new Friskars mat.

This one is pink on one side and blue on the other - a truely reversible mat (unlike other commenters, I do use the lines on both my ruler and my mat to line up fabric). I'm not too disappointed since I've been happy overall with my previous mats which were Friskars.

Click on the photo to see the difference up close.

Another journal page - I'm still having fun doing these although I like the results from some pages better than others. I like today's. You can see all the pages in my online album if interested.

This one enlarges too - click the photo to see a larger view

I haven't decided what the task of the day will be yet, maybe more knitting and I'll work on bindings too. I've just got a couple days before I head to VA. This will be another road trip with visits to MD and PA - I'll be on the move pretty much from the time I get there Thursday to the time I come home on Tuesday.

While I'm there we'll be celebrating my Mom and brother's birthdays...but today is Mom's actual birthday so Happy Birthday Mom!


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Quilt a NONE

Judy's having a Quiltathon this weekend and I had every intention of working a bit but instead I haven't sewn a single stitch. It's been snowing on and off all day so of course we had to go out for a walk by the river and then downtown.

Click photo to enlarge

It's warmed up a bit - it was 8 degrees when we left.

Tonight we're going to a concert. I considered making that my *hated* task of the day but instead, I'll knit a little more on my prayer shawl that I've been dragging out for months (I know it's been at least 2 since I started it!).


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It's starting to feel like Christmas

My *hated* task of the day was grocery shopping and my Journal page for today is below.

Click photo to enlarge

Christmas music playing, a fire burning, some baking, with the tree brought in from the deck plus a few decorations and it's beginning to feel like Christmas around here.

Click photo to enlarge

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A walk downtown

I pulled out my holiday mug this morning. It says "this is as merry as I get!" and it's just perfect for me. I usually have to work not to be a Grinch although the last few years it's been easier to get into the holiday spirit since I don't have do any shopping and the snow doesn't hurt either!

I had to mail some packages so I walked to the post office and then downtown to meet Keith for dinner. I love to walk when it's snowing! I had to kill some time waiting for Keith to finish work so I wandered around a little. This photo is the Christmas decorations in the IDS Center atrium.

And coming home, we got enough snow to give everything that after snow *glow*.

Just in case you think I forgot, my task for today was knitting. I've got a prayer shawl about halfway done and I find that I'm reluctant to pick it up and finish it so I spent about 30 minutes working on it tonight.


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Log Cabin Finished

I love this quilt which came straight from my strips and strings bin. I originally had plans to try some more elaborate quilting but in the end freehand quilted simple leaves and loops. Both photos can be clicked to enlarge.


This quilt and the boxed squares will be donated to two elderly women next week through the Angel Tree at Mom's church.


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Christmas memories

I'm seriously loving this Journal your Christmas class. I've been looking through photos of Christmas past today, times spent with my family, with Keith's family, and at home with the boys. The class allows you to utilize pretty much any method of journaling you choose and the prompts provide a structure that helps you organize your journaling.

My hated task of the day isn't really one I hate but I've put it off for a while. I updated the online photo albums and the list of charities receiving HeartStrings quilts. The longer I put it off, the more time I knew it would take to catch up so I kept putting it off. I download the photos from our Yahoo group and then have to upload them all to the HeartStrings album....time consuming but this time I used Picasa to upload them so that part was MUCH quicker and it still took a couple hours. Rather than sit at home, I came over to the coffee shop where they have free wireless.

Now I'm going to head home and work on binding quilts.


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You did see this coming didn't you?

Certainly you guessed from yesterday's post what today's *hated* task of the day was going to be! It's not what I'd call clean...but after 2 hours it's certainly much neater except for the string corner and I'm not cleaning that up until I finish with them - it's just not worth picking them during a project.

I even put on a new ironing board cover - I was at Joann's last Friday and used a 40% off coupon. The old one was looking pretty scuzzy. Those shelves are pretty neat too aren't they??
The cutting table is completely cleared off - a rare occurrence.
All the bins and bags on the floor cleared away (don't count the ones in the closet, they're neatly placed in there!)
The quilts in the process of being bound are stacked on the table which has been closed back to it's smallest configuration.
So, that brings me to another question for you. Now that I can see my mat again, it's in pretty bad shape. I don't really mind replacing it since it's only the 2nd one I've bought in the entire 8+ years I've been quilting and I do a LOT of cutting. So my question is:

What brand is your favorite mat and why? I'm pretty happy with the Friskar's brand but I'm curious which ones you all use and how long they last you.


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Messy or neat?

I admit this room is a disaster....too much work and too little cleaning up as I move from project to project.
Would you look at that pile of strings on the floor?? They've been there since I started my green centered HeartStrings blocks and then grew as I worked on my pieced letters.
This mess is from tonight - I got two bindings made and sewn on but decided I needed to do a pieced binding on this quilt so I grabbed a bunch of leftover binding bits.
and as I got ready to sew them together, turned away for a minute and Chesty thought they'd make a nice pillow. Don't worry....every quilt I make gets washed so there will be no pet cooties.
So, my question to you is if you took photos of your sewing room right this minute, would it be messy or neat?


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No binding yet

I rewarded myself for categorizing all my expenses (yes, I'm completely up to date) by a trip to the coffee shop. I sat in the back corner today with my book.

Now, before Keith comes home, I'm going upstairs to make binding.


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I lied!

Maybe I will bore you with more of these daily journal pages than I said I would. I added the link on the sidebar to the album they'll be uploaded into but I just love this photo of Keith and I. Can you guess that the prompt today included weather??

click on photo to enlarge

Today's quilting task will be bindings and the *hated* task of the day will be categorizing expenses for 2008 in my checking account software....it wouldn't take long if I had done it all along but I'm months behind. I doubt I'll get it all done but I'll do a minimum of 30 minutes.


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December's goals

I'm going to keep it simple this month and won't get crazy if I don't get through everything I'd like to. I'll work on binding the remaining 8 quilts from November and see what progress I can make on the items from October's list that never got finished. And to keep the stress low, rather than a *to do* list, I'll keep a *done* list.

Because I have quite a few things that I SHOULD be doing but have been putting off or ignoring, I'm going to try and do one thing each day (when I'm not traveling) that I don't want to do. Some of these are quilting related but most are not. You might learn something about me from seeing what things I've been putting off or don't want to do.

Today, I did two things: 6 months worth of filing household papers and organizing my files for 2008 and I registered my extended warranty for my iPhone.


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sleep...online class...goals

Well, I'm not staying up ALL night now but I'm still not at my ideal schedule. What's my ideal? 2AM to 10AM.

Since I've been waking up at 3 or 4 AM and unable to go back to sleep, I got up early this morning and finished up my Christmas postcards, caught up on email, and started an online class. Suzanne shared her Journal your Christmas project last year and while mine is not going to be nearly as elaborate, I want to capture just a little of this season and that of years past.

I'm going to create 5x7 pages - a very minimalist approach - just a photo or two and a few lines of text. I won't bore you with them each day either but I'll add a link on the sidebar in case anyone is interested.

It's time to think about December goals too but I'll post them later. My main focus will be trying to finish up some lingering piecing projects and binding all the tops I quilted in November. The plan is to work at a more relaxed pace this month.


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