This is where I am.....

.........although I am sitting in the dark right now!

In my fresh clean office/quilting room!

Whew, this room was a mess, and I will leave it at that!!!
I will spare you all the grimmy, dusty, cluttered details.

I thought my office was now deserving of a new wall quilt so I whipped this one up this afternoon!!

hahaha

This is the Moda Nest quilt that I made and it was my first project on my Baby Lock when I got her home! I think the quilt has now found a good home!

Pardon the 2 baskets plus of excess "stuff" that still need a new home. The table in the middle of the floor was used to sit my machine on before Danny got home and moved the red enamel top table down from my sewing room. I will finish tidying those things up tonight or tomorrow, I promise!

But just look at that view!!

The stupid welder with the flat tire and all the grease/hydraulic fluid buckets behind the garage in front of the machine! Men? The green fishpond from the other window!!

I have to say it sure is a nice bright place to sew. I did a lot of sewing in this room for Robins wedding. I made her wedding gown, 3 flower girls dresses and 5 bridesmaid dresses while sitting in front of that window!

The view from the front window, the grandkids toys and my fishpond that isn't too green to enjoy. It must not be too bad because there are about 200 baby goldfish in there this year! That is another first for Sunny Morning Farm......other than the big fish pond, we have never had fish to hatch out in the smaller ponds! Yay! Anyone need any goldfish?
I have all colors, orange, black, white and any combo of colors!

Yes I still have paint that needs to be scraped off of the windows too..........among my many other things that I need to finish around here!

I can sit this winter/early spring and watch the Eastern Bluebirds in the crabapple tree out this window!

Now after I finish getting this box of stuff filed......

I can finish this quilt. I sewed the binding on it and apparently stretched the binding while I was sewing it and it is smaller than the quilt causing it to curl!! The crazy things I do!

I will have to remove it and start over.....urgh!!

Then I am going to play with my baby!!

She looks new and shiny doesn't she?

I plan to use this room and this machine only for quilting and doing the rest of my sewing and piecing in my sewing room. This way I have freed up some much needed space up there and it takes a good open space to be able to swing a quilt around while quilting it, I hope this was a good idea!

Half Time......

So girls.......I start my nursing job on Sept 13th in the surgeons office. That's a Monday and it is the day for system orientation. I can't tell you how many times I have had to sit thru this one. I have worked with the Carilion system in many different positions over the years and went to nursing school with them. Each time you transfer to another position (even within the same unit) or go to school you have to sit thru this ordeal! At least it is only one day now instead of 3-5 days like it used to be. Don't tell anyone but after I had sat in this "show" for about 5 times, I fell asleep during the fire safety video and had my head in my hand and my elbow on the arm chair and almost fell in the floor!!! When I woke up I looked around and everyone was asleep!!





Other than that Monday and a staggered crazy schedule for computer classes for the new electronic medical records they are using now, I will be only working mostly Tues, Wed, and Thurs!! Only 3 days a week....that leaves me 4 days a week, right? So I am trying to convince myself that I am going to be just fine working only part time. I am not having a lot of luck convincing myself of that tho. This morning it hit me that I will be only working "half time", actually less than half time when you consider that I will have 4 out of 7 days off to do the things that I love to do. I will have those other 3 days to make the money to support those other habits that I have on those 4 day breaks...sewing, quilting, sewing machine collector, farm girl, water lover, gardener, goat milker, cheese maker...etc etc etc etc........ Plus the time to work in my hair studio! Never know how that will pan out cause I am out in the boonies ya know!





Then if it happens that I have to work 4 days one week (the schedule is made out 30 days in advance) I am going to convince myself that those hours will be "bonus money" that will be used for special things!! I will make myself happy with this decision one way or the other!!! I am sure that I will be just fine once I actually get in the door and reality slaps me in the face. It is usually so busy with any nursing job that I have ever had that you can only daydream so much throughout the day about what you would rather be doing!





So I am going to think positive about this and go forth!! OK? OK!


Now in the next a little less than two weeks (but who's counting?), time that I have left, I am going to make some changes around here. I know you have heard it all before but like I told my sil..."don't believe everything you read on here!" She asked me one day if I had finished a quilt that I started many months before!! hahahahaha Like I said don't believe it all!!! LOL!! This time I am going to get some "so called organization going" like in my sewing room. I am full of ideas about how to get things organized in there so I can have a couple projects going at a time and be able to finish them in increments at different stages and different stations for each step in the process. You know my ADD and also I will "NEED" for sanity's sake to have something to be able to work on when I get home in evenings or on those days off. I will explain all that later and maybe with pictures!!





I am also on a quest to fall in love with my Baby Lock Quilter's Choice machine again. Remember I looked at the Elna Quilter's Queen at the fabric store last week. I DID NOT SEW ON IT, I AM NOT THAT STUPID!! I did however drool all over it......sorry ladies but I have it marked with my spit now so I guess I will have no choice but to buy it!! However, I am trying once again to convince myself that it is the "same" machine as what I already have and does the "same" things that my baby does! The Queen was just so shiny and new and had a different "powerhouse" look to her. I am going to give it my best shot with my baby today and hopefully get a lot of time in on her in the next 2 weeks to fall in love with her all over again. If I don't flip again, I will go back to the store and take the queen for a test drive and think about purchasing her in the next few months, or maybe I'll find a real nice used queen on ebay! This is the same machine that she has at Pleasant Home!





Better go I have some furniture to move!!

This made me feel goooooood.......

see this computer screen and all these buttons?

quilting in progress....


moving right along....
rather nice stitches.......

pretty even stitches......right?.........

and just as pretty on the back!!

Well girls there is a story behind this post..............

Where do I begin? OK....remember I drove all the way across the state to get this machine that I thought was such a good bargain, that I found on Craigslist?

I played with it at the ladies home that I bought it from and when I got her home she sewed beautifully!! I was so looking forward to getting a quilt ready for my frames and give her a try in there. So several weeks ago I slapped a layer cake (40 ~ 10" squares of fabrics)
together that I have had for a while. I am using a thrift store sheet that has some special detail that you can't see in the pictures yet, for the backing. I wrestled with my frames and getting this quilt in the frames for almost half a day that day.

I was so excited to see how my baby would do. She has a longer arm than my other machines but she is still not a long arm. I was hoping the difference in the length would be tolerable and make the job a little easier on me.

I played with the machine on the table first, wound all my bobbins and stippled on some scraps and it was just lovely.

When I got her in the frames it was "Katie Bar The Door" all you know what broke loose in my sewing room!!!! Not kidding! Everything that could go wrong went wrong with this machine.

The needle just fell out! I broke needles, I broke threads, The stitching was absolutely horrible.

I took the machine out of the frames and worked with her for at least 3 hours that afternoon and I couldn't get her to hardly sew a stitch. Robin was sitting beside me with the manual and we tried everything in our power to get her sewing. Nothing worked.

So I just got up and walked away from the sewing room and I have not been back until today.

I told no one except for Terri of this ordeal because it was too painful to talk about.

I was ready to give up quilting and throw everything out the window into the fish pond.

I left it all out of sight and out of mind for all these weeks now.

When I went up there today......I didn't feel like doing much of anything, so I thought I would just sit down and see if I could make her sew one final time.

It worked!!

It was sewing beautifully again in no time.

I said a big prayer asking the Lord for patience as I put her back in the frame to not lose my temper and shoot her.

God is good!!

I have over half of the quilt finished and I am so pleased with the results!

Apparently I did not know how to change the thread tension and save it in the computer. For some reason it just fell into place today. I did not even pick up the manual either!

Maybe I can think clearer with a foggy stuffy brain???

So I am not ready to throw her in the pond yet. Danny was happy and came upstairs and watched me quilt for a while and told me several things he can do to the frames to make them a litlle easier for me to work with....woowooooo!!!!!! Now just getting him to do that!!!!

Yes this really made me forget for a while that I was so sick.....then the Excedrin wore off again!!!! I am going to finish this quilt, that is just for me...maybe for the midnight boatrides that we have every now and again. Then I have to get to work on some other UFO's and some new projects that I have in mind....like a log cabin quilt like Terri's!!!

Move over Martha!!

Becky is on the warpath now!

In her new semi-organized sewing studio.

Oh boy oh boy have I been at it today. I was so tired of having a sewing machine here and an ironing board there. Here a cutting board and there a cutting board.....and everywhere in my house a sewing mess.

How was a girl to get anything done?

So I went to town on this room upstairs which was my original sewing room.

I have had a dilema with my quilting frames......I did not have room to put them up and extend them to fit a king sized quilt. Or hardly room to even use them for a lap quilt either. Danny has been begging me to make one for our bed. He made me a bed when we first got married....full size though. He says if he could build a bed at least I could make a quilt for it!! Does he really know what's involved with that one? LOL!!!
In the picture above there are 2 big Rubbermaid tables sitting end to end which can be used for the frames as big as I need them to be!!! woooowooooo!!!!! Finally figured that one out!

Until I get that said king size quilt made and ready for the frames one of the tables will be used as a cutting table. It is up on blocks to save my back!

My Christmas present last year was a whole bunch of new receptacles in my sewing room and peg board!!
This sewing cabinet was a consignment store treat at $44 last year!!!!!!! I love it!!

You see what kept me going today....Dr Pepper and my MP3!!!

I may be sewing all night!!

I am still a little bit crowded but it seems to be pretty functional at the same time.

One of the best things I have ever done was to buy that big display of Gutermann thread. I got it 1/2 price at Joann Fabrics (I think it was $89) a couple years ago and it has really come in handy. I don't remember ever being out of thread unless it was quilting thread since I bought this.

I can sit in the one rolling chair and scoot around to the 3 different machines as I need to.




Semi-organized shelves for storage. I have lots of containers that have been repurposed for storage of sewing notions. My bolts of fabric fit on the bottom shelf nicely. The tan cabinet is chock full of fabric. No it's not sorted by colors and perfectly folded so
I did not take pictures of that ;-)
I wish!!

Lots of good work surface until it gets junky!!

I love having a big cutting table!

When I need to extend the frames I can move some of this over or out for a while.

My next project!

Another quick charm quilt by Moda!

I love me some Moda fabrics!

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my sewing studio!

"Newspaper" quilt

This is what I have been working on today...well yesterday too. Oh yeah and last month briefly.....and they said the pattern was so easy that I would be amazed at how quickly it would come together!! hahaha

I have named it "Newspaper"! Ever since I first laid eyes on this fabric when it was but a mere dessert roll, I have thought about this joke......

"What is black and white and read/red all over? A Newspaper"

So of course I had to name it Newspaper.

The dessert roll did not have a selvage edge on the strips.

I had to go back and purchase some more of the fabric off of the bolt today and when I was cutting out the borders I happened to notice the name of the fabric written in the selvage.

I have had a terrible cold for a couple days now and have been feeling like I am in a fog and things are not really clear mentally, well that is not very different from the norm!!

Guess what this fabric collection is called??????

Black & White & Red Allover by Henry Glass!!!

Not kidding!!

I was just sorta stunned for a moment or two.

Kinda surreal, things sorta went gray for me for a moment!

I couldn't believe my eyes!

I am a psychic!

Anyone want their palms read?

I am keeping this quilt for myself and I am practicing with the new machine again.

I am doing the same meandering maze quilting pattern that I used on my pinwheel quilt. I am using that pattern because it comes so easily to me. Maybe from a lot of practice on the pinwheel quilt? I had greater than 20 hours in it. I sure hope it doesn't take as long on this one. The new machine is a lot smoother so I am thinking it won't take as long.


Don't look too closely!
I still have to get used to the speed of the machine so right now
my stitches are a little uneven in length ;-)

The lighting in my office/sewing room is not the greatest at night and I am having a hard time seeing well enough to quilt this tonight. This is a very busy pattern and it all runs together!
I will be ready come daylight though!
I think I will go finish handstitching the binding on the last quilt that I showed you so I can show some real pictures of it tomorrow! I think it turned out really cute!

Goodnight all!!

Playing with my Baby Lock

or is she just playing with me?

Funny how sewing machines can be so different.

I still have a lot of studying of that manual to do!!

It's starting to make sense though!

No better way to learn than hands on!

So I had to start another quilt.

These are some Moda charms that I have had for a while

and I had decided that I didn't really like them so I thought what the hay,

if they get messed up I wouldn't be out of much.

tehhee.... I am even sewing the blocks together with black thread!

There are black blocks in here though.

I love the extension table on this machine.

I have never had one and I didn't know what I was missing!

It sure saves a lot of stress on your arms.

I am quilting this quilt with a variagated thread from Robins Madera thread collection.

She has the entire Madera set for her embroidery machine and

she just happened to have them with her ;-) when she arrived today,

could have been that I asked her to bring her machine!!!

Like I don't have enough sewing machines in here.

I had to laugh earlier cause I just realized that it looks like a home ec class in here!
Time to scale down?

Nah!

This is not a long arm machine but it has almost 2 more inches of space

than any of my other machines.

I am surprised how much easier it is to move a quilt around in there!

wooowoooo

I have now decided that I like these charms!

I also like my new Baby!

I love the automatic threader.

The larger throat.

The extension table.

The thread Cutter!!!!!! woooowoooo awesome just like an industrial machine!

The knee lifter.

etc etc etc

The 1/4 inch foot works so much better than the one on my Bernina or the Kenmore machines.

The stitches are just beautiful! (unlike my Bernina)

The little blue light is actually a clip on book light but it sure helps to illuminate your work surface and it just clips on the top of the machine!

Pretty smart huh?
When you are blind like me you need all the help you can get!

All in all I love my new machine.

Thanks honey!!

I love Craigslist!!

I love the fact that I saved $478 off the price of a new machine just like it!!

I sure hope it does good in my quilting frames!

I have a couple bigger quilts started that I will try with this machine in the frames.

My new baby is here safe at home....

and she is still sleeping....shhshhh she had a rough trip home with her new mommy.

When she is awake we will show pictures.

Actually mommy is a little overwhelmed at the time with this new baby.

Her new Baby Lock that is!!!

We had quite a time yesterday.....long trip....had to get in lots of shopping too.

Well our kind of shopping that is....

antiqueing!!

Leslie spotted these 2 stores on the way down to Richmond and we had to stop on the way back.

They were all screaming "Please Mama"..."Please Granny" ..."we will be good and not let you buy anything"...........

This looks like Robin with a baby on board!!

I caught Leslie with her hands in the cookie jar!

She was also eyeing the cool primitive cabinet.

I don't know where she gets this from!!

Need I say more......except I already have this sink and no it is not attached to a wall anywhere!

Oh Danny!!

Look at those screen doors!!!!!!

Nothing a little Comet wouldn't scrub out!

We always have to check out the toilets!

Needs to be white and in my house!

Has to be white and in my house!

Oh No they are sooooo young to be acting like this!

I need a potting table like this! I do, I really do!

I have to go back with my truck cause this wouldn't fit on the top of my car......we tried!!

I need a new washing machine!

and a new dryer!

If the electric bills go up any higher I will have to go back and get these!

They are happy that they didn't have to ride on the hood and hold on to the stove!

Don't they think they are smart. Hurrying to beat me to the goods!

Cute greeting!

Three sweet little lambs!

Aaaawwwhhh!!!

The toilet....this one is my style!

Terri I was going to buy this for you because I knew you would love it. I knew you would have this table full of good homecooking and surrounded by happy kids!!
I couldn't get it cause they wouldn't let me!

Do I have room for just one more?

Anywhere?

I need this sign to send to my new grandson's house cause he is going to be called Bubba!!!
(southern boy ya know)