A Clean Slate

My mom appreciated all your wonderful birthday wishes for her and says "thank you". She had a great day! Breakfast with a friend, lunch with her sister, and then.....well, she came to my house to take me to the doctor. Yes, I will be 49 in a month or so and I needed my mommy! She opened her gifts from us while she was there. A large cut crystal with a rod iron stand (she loves all that shimmers and sparkles) and a sunflower candle holder for her kitchen. She loved it all, but said her blog post was the best gift ever! We had a bunco night last night too, so the lady partied from morning til bedtime!!!

I have not shared on my blog the health issues I have been experiencing, but now that I know the outcome, I will share that I will be facing a hysterectomy in the very near future. I am feeling it will be a great relief in my life and am trusting God in this situation.

I was able to get to the opening day of Acorn Quilts.The fabrics are incredible!!!! Look what I got. 1/2 yard cuts of these pretties for use in upcoming gifts.I was quite disappointed that there were no hand quilting supplies. We need very little, but what we need is very important. Little did I know, the owner was just waiting to speak to a hand quilter to find out what we would want her to carry!! WOO HOO!!! I gave her my list and she will be getting those things immediately! LOVE IT! I plan on taking my camera in and doing a post on Acorn Quilts....the owner was thrilled with that!

This morning was a "no school" time, so I decided to clean up the sty my sewing room/office had become. No before pics, but believe me, it was as bad as it had ever been. FILTHY and the dust was so thick you could write in it!....really. No floor space was empty, as my mess from sorting scraps was still everywhere. My cutting table, computer table, and ironing board were loaded with clutter. The closet....well that has been bad for quite a while. I started there....the closet. Now organized and neat!You can walk right into the room and not trip on anything!The cutting table is cleaned off, and Pine Ridge is split between the design wall and the paisley box under the left side of the desk, waiting til those Christmas projects are finished!Fabrics for those Christmas miniatures are set out and ready to be cut up!A clean slate. Ready to begin again!!!!!Thanks for stopping in!! Don't forget to give part of your day to Him.

Sorting

No, it is not laundry sorting. It is scraps. I had several boxes of scraps that needed sorting out. This is not stash fabric, but those strips and pieces that are too small to put with stash, but too large to just throw away. I keep anything 2" or wider, myself. I know some people keep anything 1" or wider. I would probably not use it, so I throw those scraps in the trash. I ended up with a box of darks, a box of lights, and a box of mediums.
Also, a large pile for my friend Sue, who makes the most wonderful strip quilts!Sue recently made up a challenge for herself called The Over The Top Challenge. Pop over to her blog to read all about it. She encouraged me to challenge myself also, and though my goals are not a lofty as hers, I am working hard on the ones I have set. I am focusing on the goals that have to do with Christmas, though I do have others recorded. Right now, the Basket Case is FULL priority and then I have 5 miniature quilts to do for Christmas gifts. The minis will be 18 inches square and hand quilted, so I have my work cut out for me. As for the sorting, a log cabin mini may be on that list....not sure yet, but I know that my queen sized log cabin is on my challenge list, so the sorting will help the process greatly! I will share my challenge list later.
The kids all came Sunday to watch the Bears beat the garbage out of the Steelers!!! My son is a HUGE Steelers fan since his early teen years, and Sweetheart is a die-hard Bears fan. It was sweet!! The kids all played nice together...Emerson had to be right in the mix!She wanted to play in my pots and pans while I made dinner.She eventually settled for her toy drawer.....She is a sweet baby and gets sweeter every time I see her. TJ started school today. His mommy is homeschooling him this year for preschool. No, she is not homeschooling him for elementary, but I support them in their choices. They took TJ to get tested for preschool and he tested at a first grade level.....did I already tell you all that? My mind is going!! Anyway, Rachel will work with him at home and he goes to Cubbies, Sunday School, and MOPS so there is enough socialization for him right there. He had a great first day and was very proud of his accomplishments.
Tomorrow is a busy day here. The kids and I will be at the church for a couple of hours tomorrow morning while the staff is at a funeral. We will homeschool there and answer phones and collect food coming in for the funeral dinner that afternoon. Then I plan to go to the BRAND NEW QUILT STORE that is opening just half a mile from my house! Acorn Quilts, Inc is opening it's doors tomorrow. I have been holding my breath. I have told SO many people about it and they just look at me like, "Oh, that's nice." Don't they get it??? A new QUILT SHOP!!! HELLOOOOOO.....ok, so maybe they don't get it!
Tomorrow night is the second week in our new year of Women's Bible Study. We are doing this book.....We had our first meeting last week (we take the summer off and do the Titus Tea's) and I was pretty disappointed. I thought the book study was very dry. I complained only within myself and said nothing to anyone. I prayed about it and was certain that God would understand what I meant. He did not. I got a very clear stirring in my spirit that I was way off. How can God's Word be dry? I was not looking deep enough. So now I look forward to digging in with an open heart and a willing spirit. Must be a big lesson in there for me somewhere and I am bound and determined to find it.
I will come home in time to watch my DVR'ed Biggest Loser with Sweetheart. I love that show and look forward to it each season. I am also a Survivor fan and OH. MY. GOODNESS. There is a player that is out and out EVIL.....His mother did not hug him enough, I am certain of that!!!!!!
Have a blessed day and go hug your kids or they may end up a reality show villian!!!!!

Quilt Shop Hop

Saturday began with an awful snow...that fine steady snow that is very slippery. The roads were horrific and I think God used it to test my faith more than once. I went with my friend Coleen, as she had told me of a quilt store in Belvidere (our neighboring town) that I had never been too. After getting lost, retracing our steps, and going a different route on the most awful roads EVER!, we finally made it to "All My Stitches" I walked in and my breath caught! I was in my own personal "Promise Land".My favorite fabrics lined both sides of the entire store...really, I did not see a fabric I did not LOVE!

The window front had this beautiful display...Stunning. Of course, after 3 cups of coffee, the 70 minutes in the car, white knuckling it and stepping on that imaginary brake, I had to find the bathroom! Really Coleen is a good driver and I was more than safe. Even the restroom was decorated with an antique hand quilted butterfly quilt...circa 1930.Now you know I love pink and brown together, but would you look at the RED, pink and brown combo....I LOVE IT!!! It is a Moda Jelly Roll....I may have to go back and get it.Cindy, the owner was a delightful lady...a grandma like me, but she looks younger...who has been away from her beautiful shop for the last year fighting cancer. She found out in just the beginning of this month that she is officially in remission!! Praise God! She was so sweet and helpful. She just oozed hospitality. Cindy had a section of her store dedicated to 1930's repo fabrics and quilts. It was a wonderful room. Here is one end........and here is the other...The quilts in this room were incredible...Antique toys lined the tops of the shelves and the atmosphere in this room was so "1930 farmhouse". What a wonderful experience.I will certainly be going back soon. Alas, my time here had ended...we were starving and it was after 2pm. If you are ever near Belvidere, IL, stop in and see Cindy! I noticed a pink flyer in the window as I was leaving and it had Bonnie Hunter's name on it....I was too far away to read it, but maybe she will be visiting Cindy's store in the near future.

What did you say???? Oh, you wanted to see what I bought? Well we made a trip to The Quilter's General Store after lunch. (This is an OLD picture...the grass is covered in snow now!)

My purchases from both quilt stores ended up to be....6 fat 1/8ths, gorgeous homespuns, and 3 fat quarters in a gorgeous gold (for my Harvest Sky) from All My Stitches, and from The General Store I bought a new pattern (measures 42x42 and I think it will look great over my fireplace)... ...and some stencils. I also grabbed a couple of emery boards with quilt patterns on them just for fun.

Most of the time we were in the General Store, I had this book in my hands...I have wanted this book FOREVER! It is 27.00 and I had Christmas money...why not. I carried it and carried it (It was the only copy they had). Finally Coleen said, "You know I have that book and you can borrow it." Well, good grief....I should have know she would have it...she has close to 300 quilting books!! That is her thing. So I put it back, and grabbed the pattern, which she had too, so maybe we will do it together. Today, she brought the book to church for me and the dream begins....maybe you will see a newly designed sewing space very soon. Or I can just dream....