No luck!

Well it didn't work a second time, either, unless it is still in cyberspace somewhere! I'll try again another time!

Oops.... forgot the picture!

I tried to add the picture by going in under "EDIT", and it even said it was uploaded, but it never showed up... even with refreshing the screen. Sigh. Well, here it is.

January 29 and All's Well

Last weekend I went on a quilting retreat with my quilting friends whom I get together with on Thursday nights. We had a wonderful weekend! It was in a new place; we were her first retreat. It was in an old house, with a huge room set up for sewing and another room next to that for pressing and cutting. Upstairs were bedrooms with beds. Soon she will provide bedding, but we brought our own for now. I want to get some of my QuiltChick friends to come up for a retreat soon. There was a nice kitchen with two tables together where we could eat, and we were able to cook what we wanted, and ordered great pizza from a local place for one supper. They are such good friends. I feel lucky to know them. I surprised everyone by going to bed early both nights, but I am just so darn tired these days, and couldn't get into staying up to sew. I stitched binding on both baby quilts (I had finished quilting the second one last week one evening), and started hand stitching that on one. I also made a set of postcards with the theme "Blue Moon." I called mine "Blue Moons" and on a snazzy background put two overlays that just possibly could be seen as butts... Hey, it fit the theme! heh heh

I never catch up at school, but I keep plugging away at it. I should be correcting papers right now instead of being on the computer! I'll do some later.

Friday after school my best buddy and I drove to LaX for our last meeting on the Archaeology Project. The actual meeting was a waste of time, but I finished stitching the bindings on both baby quilts during the drives and at the motel Friday night. Actually I finished the last bit of the second one at home last night (It had gotten too dark to sew in the car). But they are FINISHED!!! Three down, one to go. That's my next project, to quilt and bind the fourth one. I plan to put some labels on the two quilts this afternoon, and then I will pack them up with a note and mail them on Monday after school! That will feel soooo good, to have those gone. I realized that they were like a dark cloud hanging over my head, and I needed to just DO them and get them where they needed to go. In the case of these two, I can't call them baby quilts any longer... but they will be nice for cuddling in to watch TV, or to make a tent, etc. They are rather large for baby quilts. I guess you could call them crib sized, though. As I have noticed before, binding a quilt really makes a big difference in what it looks like. When I put the red binding on these quilts it really made them look so much nicer. I quilted them with a varigeted primary color quilting thread from YLI. Love the way it looks, and I am getting better at it. My photo isn't the best (a bit crooked), but it shows the color, etc.

I had best get at the things on my list. Ana and Eric will be here in a couple of hours and I won't get anything done then. Hugs!

Half way through January already

and I can't believe it! I guess when you are so busy, the time flies!

School has been keeping me busy, as usual. I have a pile to correct that I plan to do on Wed. when I show an all period video each class. That's the only way I can catch up sometimes! It IS a worthwhile video, not just a time filler. We are starting to get into Greece now. Fun!

Rich and I finally sent out some Christmas cards recently. A bit late... but better late than never. Our holiday time was so full. My mom ended up in the hospital with congestive heart failure. She is home, doing sooo much better now. She never really "bounced back" from the surgery to implant the pacemaker. I'm sure it was because of the CHF, but no one realized it until she was having so much trouble breathing that Dad took her to the emergency room. There was fluid in her lungs. I haven't seen her since she got home, but have talked with her on the phone and she sounds a lot better than she has for months. She says she feels better, too.

I've been lazy so far this Saturday. I am feeling somewhat guilty that right now Rich is doing the dishes. But then, hey, I can get over that. =-) The only reason I feel guilty is that it is usually a job I do, and he was just saying that he has so much to do today. He is planning to work on my studio in the basement, so I should really go let him do that.

We got a phone call from some friends in Manitowoc and they are coming over after they do some shopping today. We have invited them for supper. Guess I'd better go buy some food!

Today I want to finish quilting the baby quilt that I have half finished. I also want to sew binding on it and the first one I quilted so I have hand work to take to quilting. The last two weeks I haven't done anything because I had nothing prepared. I am going to be glad to finish them and send them on their way! I have that as a thing hanging over my head. It'll be nice to get out from under it! I have to think about DJ club which is next week, too.

In the last few days I have had the opportunity to make up my mind, finally, about which direction I want to go in regarding machines. I looked at the Bernina 440 with the stitch regulator. I also looked at the Handi-Quilter. Tried both, too. But, I have decided to go with a Nolting Hobby Quilter (the new one has a new name, but I am not sure what it is, can't remember what she said) once the basement studio is finished. I will keep my Bernina 170 with the embroidery module. If I get another machine it will be a Pfaff to do different things on, but I don't even know if I will do that. First the Nolting! I will finally get all those tops quilted! It is a long arm, but not as expensive as larger ones, and also very light weight. I can't wait to get it and start playing. =-)

Well, best to stop talking about it and start doing it!

Angel