A First...but no new work...

I have been busy but it seems that no new work is being produced.

Since coming home from Quilt Market/ Festival I have had little time at home.

A lovely visit to my sister for a week added to the busyness. I think I am stuffed until Christmas. She is a great cook.

A bit of Christmas shopping was done on Black Friday. No great deals because our dollar is so low compared to the US. I liked it much better when it was closer to par.

But I did pick up some cosy fabric for my mom to make our granddaughter some sleep sacks.

I did a two day long arm course before I left. Talk about brain overload. Friday or Saturday I am going to get some stitch time in!

I have been prepping for my first vendor sale. It is a lot of work but literally I hope it pays off. lol

I simply love, love, love the fabric line Nuances from Sew Batik. I think it will be a good fit for me since I have come to the conclusion I have feet firmly planted in the Art Quilt World and the Traditional/Modern world.

We have one more week trip planned before Christmas with good friends. And then it will be home for a few months. I am going to dedicate my time to creating. Getting on a good schedule will be the key.

How to create habits that are good for me that I don't resist doing? How to be good to myself and others too!

But for now I need to get cracking and finish off the last details of packing my sale stuff. By tonight it will be over. Tomorrow clean up and then hopefully so Jo Sew Time. My machines miss me.

And one other tidbit ... the Canadian Quilter Magazine from CQA had an article on the Canadian Nine Patch Exhibit in Houston. Anne and my quilt made the article. It was a nice bonus to our adventure. Everyone's quilt deserved to be in it.

No pictures this week. No sewing this week.

So I will leave you with some pictures from our Houston Trip.

Meeting Maria Shell was a great highlight of my trip as she is one of my favorite SAQA artists and a very nice, gracious person to talk to. She didn't even run when I gushed about how much I love her work. 

This was us after Sample Spree. This took place after all day running around the School House segments. Think School House as 20 min commercials all day long in different rooms. And over 1300 people running the halls all trying to get somewhere and get the good free goodies. Add Sample Spree in the evening which is the same people ( or at least number of people) running around to vendors to get the new products from companies like Moda ( or other big companies) People line up for a couple of hours to be first in line so they can run (literally)  to get to the shopping when the doors open. Think of the running of the bulls for fabric shoppers. 

This was such a cute turtle tower at Market I could resist taking a picture. It was at Jen Kingwells booth. 

Part of the fun of Market was getting your picture taken by the Moda designers then posting to Instagram. I had to get a Instagram account to play the game. This was Deb Strain's new collection which I won a set of fat quarters. I love the graphicness of the line. A bit of an address mix up but the fabric is on its way to me. Out of the five of us who hung around at Market 4 of us one a free set of the artists line. My daughter didn't win one so that is ok since we share everything any way.


Hope you have a week full of stitching fun.

Jo

Organizing.... Paper.

Are you ever like me? Do you find articles you want to read and save them? Do you save to computer hard drive? or do you print them out? or do you do both? 

I have a fear of not being to find everything.  I save the articles on my hard drive and I print them out. I have a pretty economical printer and paper is realitively cheap. So my problem is not so much of not saving it is finding. 

My main problem is I create systems to file stuff and I have years of stuff. I forget or can't find the stuff. So I reprint or look for new things. As part of my new year starting this month I have been contemplating stuff and how it makes me feel. 

I love stuff! I love my stuff! I love buying stuff! I love learning about the newest stuff! I lose stuff! I hate stuff! I feel guilty about stuff! I hate the mess the stuff makes! I hate how the mess the stuff makes and how anxious it makes me. 

That is a lot of feelings on stuff. 

I am working on my stuff and how it makes me feel. 

So I am taking it one stuff at a time. 

 My first stuff category is Paper!!!!!! 

Check this picture of Papers. 

 This is the binders, papers, loose papers I pulled from my sewing room only! 

I have a whole movable cart with papers and stuff from the kids. 
Piles of photo pictures half organized.
Scrapbooks started.
Bookshelf with Binders of saved quilt patterns. 
All paper stuff. 
We won't go into the scrapbook cupboard and talk about supply stuff. 

This is a shot of my kitchen table with the whole lot brought up from the basement. 

I don't know if I have the answers and I don't want to go looking for more systems. 

Out it all is coming from each binder. Sorted into category piles. With recycle box by my side for junk. Articles I don't want for my guild. And by the end of a couple of hours I want to downsize this mess! 

I am giving myself a challenge to downsize without moving. Use it up or loose it. 30% is my goal. 

When the basement is done being purged of my stuff and hubby has looked at his we are going to treat ourselves to removing a small wall, and ridding of three doors. This will open up the sewing family room to a bigger size and won't make me feel so confined! Trapped! Unable to breath! Guilty! 

No pressure purging! 

I will post an after picture of the the table, recycle bin and binders. 

Here is to an afternoon of favourite tunes and tv and moving a mountain of paper! 

Do you feel guilty about stuff? 
Do you ignore it or tackle it? 

Have a great day! 

Jo

Tackling her world one day at a time! 

Summer Summary….

Summer is flying by…

The weather network had a poll up. When does summer end! The majority felt it was the last day of August or Labour Day.
Traditionally Labour Day has felt like the last day of summer. Kids back to school has been a tradition in our family for 23 years. This year our youngest still goes back to school. But this is the first year my husband or I don’t have to be involved. Our youngest finished his 4 year degree at University and now is in the second of a three year degree to get him into the career he wants to pursue. The difference is this is the first time we don’t have to take him to collage. He now has his own vehicle so we just get wave goodbye and not load up the van and hit the highway this upcoming weekend.
The end of another era!
The summer has been a busy one. A fall on the May 24th weekend side railed me for awhile. June was spent recovering and physio.
July was off to the cottage. Not the whole month but between family duties and two adult kids at home not much in the sewing room occurred.
I did get some work done at the cottage. Setting up the machine I managed to finish quilting my nephews quillow - finally.  I made some cuddly bear blankets for all the babes that have been born to friends children. Unfortunately there will not be many left after they are completed.  I also worked a bit on my Judy Niemeyer quilt. Two sets of five blocks out of five sets are completed. I like the accuracy of the paper piecing but it is very time consuming.  8 hand pieced hexagons for my Katja quilt are done out 52. Mostly done in time spent in a car traveling or waiting in hospitals. It feels like I have accomplished more… It feels like I should have accomplished more!
I did get some dyeing days in. About 2. And some sun printing. About 1. Not as many as I had planned.
Last week I canned peaches. Not many for myself but for kids and for friends who are like my kids. In the up coming weeks it will be more canning. The produce is just to yummy to pass up. And the fruit comes from my families farm.
So to extend the season. I am going to take summer all the way to the 21st of September. No longer constrained by the school calendar I am going to rebel and enjoy almost another month of summer. How about you? Jo

Summer Summary….

Summer is flying by…

The weather network had a poll up. When does summer end! The majority felt it was the last day of August or Labour Day.

Traditionally Labour Day has felt like the last day of summer. Kids back to school has been a tradition in our family for 23 years. This year our youngest still goes back to school. But this is the first year my husband or I don’t have to be involved. Our youngest finished his 4 year degree at University and now is in the second of a three year degree to get him into the career he wants to pursue. The difference is this is the first time we don’t have to take him to collage. He now has his own vehicle so we just get wave goodbye and not load up the van and hit the highway this upcoming weekend.

The end of another era!

The summer has been a busy one. A fall on the May 24th weekend side railed me for awhile. June was spent recovering and physio.

July was off to the cottage. Not the whole month but between family duties and two adult kids at home not much in the sewing room occurred.

I did get some work done at the cottage. Setting up the machine I managed to finish quilting my nephews quillow - finally. 

I made some cuddly bear blankets for all the babes that have been born to friends children. Unfortunately there will not be many left after they are completed. 

I also worked a bit on my Judy Niemeyer quilt. Two sets of five blocks out of five sets are completed. I like the accuracy of the paper piecing but it is very time consuming. 

8 hand pieced hexagons for my Katja quilt are done out 52. Mostly done in time spent in a car traveling or waiting in hospitals.

It feels like I have accomplished more… It feels like I should have accomplished more!

I did get some dyeing days in. About 2. And some sun printing. About 1. Not as many as I had planned.

Last week I canned peaches. Not many for myself but for kids and for friends who are like my kids.

In the up coming weeks it will be more canning. The produce is just to yummy to pass up. And the fruit comes from my families farm.

So to extend the season. I am going to take summer all the way to the 21st of September. No longer constrained by the school calendar I am going to rebel and enjoy almost another month of summer.

How about you?

Jo