Fabric Folding Kool-Aid

Last year a book came out called Create Your Perfect Quilting Space. I bought the book hoping to get my sewing studio (as she called it; not sewing room) organized. It is full of information about setting up your room, ergonomics, and all sorts of other good stuff. However, the one organization tip that has changed my quilting life is her technique for folding fabric.

I showed my friends. They just stared at me. Terry, who once owned a quilt shop and has lots of fabric, laughed and asked, "So who wants to come over and help me to that to all of my fabric?" A few days later Terry called me. She said that she tried the technique on one piece of fabric that was laying across her cutting table. Then she said that her OCD kicked in. I knew then that Terry stopped everything else she was doing and folded all of her fabric!!!! She said that she timed it and it took her 24 hours. Wow.

I thought since I inspired Terry that maybe I should inspire my Quilt Guild. I am the President, afterall, and I should give them techniques to make their sewing spaces more beautiful. With this technique not only is your fabric folded in beautful little stacks, but you save a ton of space. This gives you room to buy MORE fabric!!!

I gave the demonstration at the guild's business meeting during our Mini-Lesson time. Their eyes glazed over, and you could see the wheels spinning in their heads. They couldn't wait to get home and reorganize their fabrics. I can't even tell you how many of them went home that day and folded fabric. People found things they forgot they even had!

If you would like to learn how to fold fabric, Monica has invited us to come and take a drink from the kool-aid. You'll be so glad you did.

Fabric Find

While Terry and I were out thrifting we HAD to stop at the fabric store! That's just a given for the two of us. It makes it a perfect "girlfriend" day! We don't have a quilt shop here in our town, but we do have Hancock Fabrics. So off we went!

I saw this fabric in the store when I was in there the other day. I couldn't think of anything to make with it, but I did late at night when the store was closed. Isn't that the way it always is? I think it would make a cute purse for my daughter, Laura.

Laura is starting a new job on Monday as a Mortage Loan Processor. She is so excited, and we are excited for her. She said she wanted me to make her a new purse, so I thought this fabric was perfect. It's so "hip" for her age group.

Sandra Lee to the Rescue

I finally broke down and bought a cookbook. After looking through her recipes one more time, I decided I could adjust them and make them low fat. Instead of using oil, I could use Pam. If I used ground beef, I could use the 93/7 lean ground beef. There's always a way to adjust recipes,but you have to know how.

I had already planned to have barbeque chicken,potato salad, and baked beans. Looking through her cookbook while still in the store, I saw where she had a baked bean recipe. All she does is adds a little bit of this and a little bit of that to a can of baked beans. I tried it, and oh my...they were just as good as my husbands! That's saying a lot!

Here's a Peek

Here's a peek of what I am working on quilting wise. I am making Easter quilts for my last two grandbabies. The first two have quilts for every holiday, but the last two are too young to know they don't have one. I have to hurry and make them quilts before they find out!

For those of you with boys...choosing fabric for them is hard to do! Of course I can do blue and yellow and primary colors, but what in the world do you do for a Spring quilt? Well, I chose turquoise and yellow! I thought it was "boyish". It will be especially cute when I get the bunny and the carrots appliqued on.

Hopefully, I can post pictures by Monday.

A Huge Cup of Coffeelike Goodness

I love coffee, and everyone who knows me knows that. I also love cute coffee cups!

My best friend, Terry, called me this morning to see if I wanted to go thrifting. Sure!!! After reading other people's blogs about their thrifting trips and all the great things they find, I was ready to go!

Terry came over and she brought me this. I love the coffee cup planter! Inside was some vintage looking cherry fabric she is decorating her laundry room in, gardening gloves, and seeds for planting zinnias. I was so excited. Terry and I both belong to a Quilt Guild. I am the President and she is the Second Vice President. We have 150 members, all of whom I love dearly. Just recently I put together a huge event for our guild in honor of National Quilting Day. Three hundred and fifty people came from three states. It was a huge success. Terry gave me the coffee cup as a thank you for doing the things I do for the guild, and to wish me happy spring. She didn't have to do that, but I'm sure glad she did!

We had a fun day shopping at antique stores, and thrift shops.

I'm addicted

I'm addicted to blogging. Oh my...there is so much out there! I never realized! I go to one blog, and she suggests looking at someone else's blog, and there I go! It's an exciting, fun, inspiring, cycle.

Most of what I have been looking into are women who love to do what I do: sew, quilt, create, decorate, and clean. I don't really LOVE to clean, but I sure do love a clean house, so therefore I love to clean.

Now if I only loved to cook.... I would love to love to cook. I watch the Food Network hoping that some of it will seep into my subconcious and while I am sleeping it will all click and all of the sudden I am a great cook! It hasn't happened, yet. This past week was Chefography week. I was so inspired by Sandra Lee's life story. The semi-homemade philosophy she created really makes more sense to me now. So, I went to Books a Million this weekend and found several of her cookbooks. I didn't know she had so many. I couldn't decide between her cooking light cookbook or one of the other cookbooks where she doesn't cook light at all. The cooking light sounded boring, and the others would make me fatter, so I didn't get a cookbook.

I can cook, but it's the same ol stuff. I guess I could add a few things to my basic list of dinners that we have and go from there. Then I wouldn't have to wonder what we're going to have for dinner. The whole problem could be solved if we could live on chocolate chip cookies and Italian Cream Cake. Only in a perfect world.

Carrots anyone?

I did manage to get some quilting done this weekend. I was making myself a carrot, and decided to make one for my daughter. I think it is so fun to have a daughter with her own home. When I make something for me, I usually make the same thing for her.

The carrot was a "quilt as you go" technique that makes it really quick and fun to make. I like quick projects because they let you have "instant gratification". The quilts I make usually take a long time, so it is fun to have something you can make in an afternoon.

As you can see, I learned how to add photos! Yippie!!!!

Carrot Mania

All the girls over in Pat's group are making carrot table runners. I have mine almost finished! I made one for me, and one for my daughter. I will post pictures when I get them made tomorrow.

Pictures would make my blog more interesting. Maybe that will be the goal for next week is how to post pictures on my blog.

Happy Little Kids

Well, we have some happy little kids. The dog is back, and everyone is beyond excitement and pure joy! The guy who had the dog saw the ad in the Lost and Found. He saw the word "reward" and he said that's what caught his eye. Now I am usually positive(Pollyanna is what my friend, Terry, calls me), but I am trying really hard not to be negative (Negative Nelly is what Terry calls me when I start saying stuff I shouldn't say), so I won't be negative. We have the dog back, and that's positively great!

Okay, so THIS is why they have adult education classes!!

First of all, I'm sorry that the first people I ask to view my blog have to see it this way. Maybe I should have taken an adult education class from some computer guru who knows how to blog. I can write; boy can I write. It's the design "thing" I can't get a grip on. Oh well. Maybe my tech support(teenagers at home) can help me. I didn't really want to do that, but when all else fails, they seem to know everything.

Today is a rainy day here in my part of Kentucky. I love rainy days; just not too many of them. I have to have my sunshine!

Today I had to place an ad in the lost and found for my Grand-Dog, Kasey. He's a big, solid white American Bulldog. He's soooooooo sweet.

Kasey is my grand-dog, but he has a sister and three brothers that are my grand-humans. They call me Mom-Mom. That's so cute!!! Anyway, Alexis is 5, Cameron is 3, Brayden is 18 months, and Gatlin is 7 weeks. I just LOVE them!!! What I love even more is that they don't live with me, but they come see me all the time. I love that, too. They live about 15 minutes away. Alexis says that is too far, and it is just ridiculous!! She has a house picked out for her family one street over from me. It's so great to be so loved by such sweet little people.

I wasn't going to do put an ad in the lost and found at first; I just hoped he would go back home. But when I found out that Brayden, the 18 month old who doesn't talk yet, was walking in the yard with his arms held out screaming KASEY, my heart broke and I realized I was going to have to place an ad and offer a reward. Kasey sleeps with Cameron, the three year old. When my daughter was in the hospital giving birth to Gatlin seven weeks ago, Alexis was more concerned about who was going to take care of the dog. Afterall, she and Brayden were staying with me, Cameron was staying at a friends house, and dad was sleeping on the cushioned bench in the room. I assured her her daddy was taking care of Kaysey.

So...I hope someone sees the ad, sees the dog, and the dog is back in our life. Grand-Dad and I, Mom-Mom, are going looking around tonight. At least we can honestly say we tried.

I try so hard (sometimes it doesn't work)to get something quilty in my life every day. Afterall, I love to sew, I love quilts, and I have a ton on Works In Progress, also known as WIP's. I used to call them UnFinished prOjects, or UFO's, but Works in Progress sounds more positive, and besides that it makes a more understandable acronymn.

So, do you think I am going to work on a WIP today? Noooooooo. Us creative people are always getting creative ideas from other places and over at Pat's yahoo group we are making a carrot table runner. If you would like to make a carrot table runner click on to the free projects. Some of the girls are going to make their carrot not so pointy and make it an Easter Egg. They didn't have a lot of oranges, but they have a lot of pastels. So, they came up with the idea of the Easter Egg. Isn't it fun to be creative? You could decorate it with ribbon, rickrack, and beads. How fun!!!!

I'll keep working on my blog design...until then I hope you enjoy reading my posts.

I'm learning, so please be patient

Okay...so here goes the rest of the story. I love going to Pat's blog. She has inspiring quotes, fun ideas, and pictures to see and it's just fun being able to talk to her.

She also has a Yahoo group. There are over a thousand people in our little group where we chat and share ideas. What I love most about it is that we don't talk about anything super serious like politics, news, or anything else like that. It's just about quilting fun, and I absolutely love it! It's my "get away" when life gets stressful, or if I need to ask someone a question about quilting. We post pictures of our quilt projects we have made...it's just fun. We have on-line retreats where we sew for a little while, check in to see what each other is doing, and go sew some more. I mean it may sound crazy to you, but don't knock it till you've tried it. We have snacks and everything.

The other part of the fun are the friends I have made. Cindy Dickinson in Tennessee and her husband found out about my Quilt Show I was chairing for my Quilt Guild, and they came to see me. How fun was that???? A LOT OF FUN!!!!! I was so excited. My daughter was with me. She called me a dork, but that's okay. She meant it lovingly. She was just shocked that someone I met off the Internet would come to see me at the quilt show. It made my day, and one memory I will never forget. Us Sloanies (Pat Sloan groupies) stick together!!!

My other friend I have made in the group is Mary Ann. Mary Ann is one of those girls that is so funny, she makes me laugh out loud. The kids know when I'm laughing outloud that I must had read something Mary Ann said. Mary Ann started a blog a week or so ago, and it has changed my life as far as the creative world goes, so much that it inspired me to create my own blog! How fun!!!

Hello!

Wow! I can't believe I'm starting to blog. Who woulda thunk it?

My first blog experience was when I discovered one of my favorite quilt designers, Pat Sloan at quiltershome.com, had a blog! It is so fun to visit her every day to she what she is up to.