Sick little girl

The assistant is down

I wouldn't share this with too many people but I know I have a lot of animal lovers among my bloggy friends. My poor assistant hurt her leg last week. We're not sure what happened but last Sunday she was limping pretty badly. Being a large dog and prone to strains I didn't think too much of it at first .... especially when she seemed to be getting better on Tuesday. But soon she was not putting any weight on her back leg again. She has been very lethargic all weekend and today we made an appointment for her at the vet for tomorrow afternoon.

When someone just can't communicate how they feel I'm left feeling so helpless. I hope she understands that we are taking care of her and will not let her be in pain much longer.

Wrapping up a year

Well I never got to make anything with the Merry Modern fabric.  One of the problems of having your sewing room in your dining room is that you just have to give it up at a certain point and put all your tools and mats and piles away.  It's kind of nice to have that cut-off though because the pressure is off ..... you really don't have the option of trying to whip up a last minute gift.  You can just close off that part of  your life and concentrate on other areas. Before I put everything away I did make some new pillows for my couch with the leftover fabric from my Sampler quilt and I about twenty felt mittens for small gifts.

It seems every year I don't have enough time to do everything I have in my mind so next year I am planning on doing some sewing in July with my tons of Christmas fabric and maybe even designing some original cards with my photos from this year.  I'm thinking the assistant with some reindeer antlers under our tree.  Hee Hee.  I think of that every single year but not usually until the middle of December when I'm receiving cool original cards.  Of course this grand idea will be 100% dependent on the humidity level so I can't say for sure how much I'll actually be doing.

Another benefit of not having access to my sewing is that is that I'm getting antsy to start a new project or two.  My notebook is getting full of ideas and I'm constantly surfing fabric sites.  I just won a signed copy of Malka Dubrawsky's book Fresh Quilting on her blog tour stop at Pink Chalk Studio.  I can't wait to get it and start marking pages.  I'm sure that as soon as the new year starts I'll be ready to jump right into the sewing with both feet.

Saturday was my family Bailey Girl Christmas party here and we had such a fun time and lots of good food and good laughs.  I gave my niece Jamie the star quilt I made for her and her reaction was perfect!

My nieces Jamie and Lisa

Jamie snuggled up with her new quilt the next morning.

 Hope you all have a wonderful happy and healthy holiday! 

Mad Men made me do it

Oh dear.

Look what watching marathons of Mad Men while sewing will get you.  I innocently went on line the other night to do some Christmas shopping and somehow stumbled onto the Fabric Shack site.  Oops!   Today some Alexander Henry Merry Modern fabric just appeared in my mailbox with a credit card slip. 

I was planning on NOT getting into a sewing frenzy with a deadline this December but now I've just GOT to make something with these fabrics.  And before my Mad Men craze is over too.  Hmmmm.... I'm thinking pillows ..... any other ideas??   I need to redeem myself by producing something supercool. 

Gnome from Utah and the Tree from Minnesota

Along with getting this fabulous fabric in the mail today I also received two sweet ornaments from a Flickr ornament swap.   December mail is soooo much nicer than January mail :)

Thankful

I have such a blessed life and I try and be thankful every single day for all the bounty in my life.  Great children, loving and supportive partner, my family, my assistant, warm home, health, jobs, our great country, etc, etc.    My list of things to be thankful for can go on forever.  I love that we have one day to relax and just revel in our blessings and the only obligation is to be thankful.  

I'm also thankful for all my readers.  Finding a community of people to share my quilting journey with has also been a blessing in my life.  Thanks guys!  You really do rock!!    Even if it's not your Thanksgiving Day I hope you all have things to be thankful for today and can spend a moment to relax and enjoy. 

After the meal ..... Thanksgiving Dinner 2009

Sampler Quilt

I finished up the sampler quilt that I made this summer with Amy's quilt-a-long.  I worked on honing those ever useful quilting techniques of measuring, accurate 1/4" seams and trimming half square triangles with this quilt.    I always wanted a red and white quilt and now that I have one .... I want more! 

This is the first quilt I took to a long arm quilter to have professionally quilted.  It felt a little like cheating at first and I balked at spending money on it but I have to say that it came out beautifully and the cost really wasn't that much.  I found a great little shop right near my workplace and she was able to use the back I'd pieced and my batting and, most importantly, she didn't cringe or laugh at my points (or lack thereof).  I'd been pondering just how to quilt this and since I like to get old projects finished up before I start new ones it was really blocking me.  The back is kind of a mish-mash of my leftover pieces because I was desperately trying to just get enough together so I wouldn't have to buy any more fabric.  Sometimes I CAN be frugal ....

On to Christmas .....

Now I have to move the sewing machine and mat out of my "studio" and turn it back into the dining room for the holidays but that's OK.  I can still work on smaller projects and here are some felt mittens I'm working on for ornaments and gift tags.  These are fun to make up ahead of time and then embroider and finish while watching TV on the couch at night.

Happiness is .... a star quilt

I had a fun time making these stars and I'm pretty happy with the final product.  Kona ochre is my new favorite color and it made a  nice frame to this quilt ... don't cha think? 

I had a pleasant time with the hand sewing this week while watching Mad Men on Netflix.  I can't believe I haven't been watching that series!  I've got one more quilt to bind this weekend so I'm saving my discs for another hand sewing marathon.  Bring it on! 

I'll enjoy this quilt for a while but I made her for a special person in my life.  Can't wait to let her spread her cheer. 

Denyse Schmidt is so wise

Today was another quilt sandwiching day at the Bailey house!  I got a pretty cool back made this weekend and since I had another in my long line of dental appointments this morning I took the whole day off and did some pin basting.  Does anyone else find making a pieced back more work than making the quilt top?  I basically have NO plan for the back and at least with the front I'm working with small squares and I know what I'm doing.  I try to use up all the scrap pieces and leftovers but trying to fit everything together is like a puzzle.  Plus you're working with looooong and wide pieces of fabric.  But anyways, I digress, the back is done and the binding is made so all I have to do is quilt now.  Eep!  My most scariest part. 

I was trying to rush to finish up this quilt for Amy's quilt festival this weekend and it was making it too much like work.  Then I was an inactive (shy) participant in a live chat with Denyse Schmidt on Twitter Saturday.  One thing Denyse said really stood out because it's so true for me. "As soon as a deadline is attached, just assume that it introduces a level of stress and may take some of the enjoyment away."  

I decided right then to take the deadline out of the equation and just relax.  I'll be taking my time on the quilting because I've got a  more involved pattern in mind.  I'm actually looking forward to working on it a little bit each evening after dinner.  Quilting gets pretty monotonous so I may have a little wine and Pandora involved.  Ahhhh .... sounds much better than hurrying to get it done last week.

Here's a little hint of the back