Rip, rip rip

The only downfall of sewing is ripping out all those lovely tiny stitches. UFO #6 is a casualty of the seam ripper. I am making 36 blocks for this quilt and so far I have had to rip out the 4 blocks. Only 32 more to rip out. Yippee!! I am going to have to continue with UFO #6 into February to get caught up. Oh well.

In stitches or ripping,

Judy

Weekends are too short

 

Weekends are too short. I am working 6 days a week, 9 hours a day!! I keep hearing how nice the money is, but one day does not make a weekend. It was a very busy, short day. I worked on the clutter and dishes in my kitchen, went to the grocery, went to Jungle Jim's to pick up a few things for the gals at work, went to a memorial service for my sister-in-law, did a load of laundry and now I am hoping to get upstairs to the sewing room and UFO #6. I am exhausted.

Tomorrow I start my new shift at work. I am supposed to go in 90 minutes later and still do an hour of overtime. I am going to go in the regular time and get my notes together. We go live on the phones tomorrow. It should be interesting!! We still have not heard if we are being extended. As far as we know, we are closing in 25 days. We should have more information tomorrow. I am busily applying for jobs. The limbo at work is so stressful and the stress makes my lupus act up. It is in my bones and joints and I hurt today.


We are anticipating yet another winter storm this week. It is supposed to include ice this time along with snow. I still have not gotten all the snow off my driveway from the last storm. If we get ice and snow I am staying home and sewing. I am not risking live and limb to get to work. I won't get paid but I will not drive in the ice. I do not mind driving in the snow. I have my car ready for the weather. Blanket, shovel, broom, overnight bag, melting compound, and a full tank of gas. I need to throw in a few bottles of water and I should be set. 


Have a great week!! When is spring coming?!!




 

Busy, busy

 

Does this quilt look familiar? It is the quilt in my header. Just before Christmas, I was able to layer and pin baste the quilt. I put it in the floor frame this evening and I am going to start quilting on it tomorrow night after work. I am planning on doing a bit of quilting on it every day. I have decided the quilt pattern I am going to use and I will be quilting it in black thread. I will be posting my progress here quite frequently. 

Snow is coming again tonight and I heard that we are expecting more snow next week. I was able to park nearer my back door tonight but I still have not shoveled the snow from the storm last week. I did a short day today, only 9 hours. I am planning on 10 hours tomorrow. 

My UFO #6 is in dire need of some time at the sewing machine. I am planning to work on it after work on Saturday and in between the memorial service on Sunday. I have Monday night at my small quilt group to hand stitch down the binding. Busy, busy!!

In stitches,
Judy

Stuff

 

It is hard to believe that it has been a week since my last post. I would like to say that I have been busily sewing, but that would be a lie. I can say that that work is kicking butt and we are working 6 days a week and mandatory overtime. We are being trained to take phone calls starting on Monday. It would not be an issue if they were not closing us down the end of February. 

 

I have been working on UFO #6. It seems to a theme in my sewing room. Yellow. The monochromatic challenge was yellow and that is done. The UFO seems to yellow also. A theme is running through my sewing room. 

The other theme around here is snow. It snowed last Thursday and my car has not made it to the garage. I have a very long driveway and I spend all my time at work. And tomorrow night we are expecting accumulating snow again. I have the ugliest snow boots ever and I have been wearing them every day since last Thursday. I did find my shoes in the back seat of my car today. I do not even take them into the office anymore. It is too depressing. I have to wear my boots home because my driveway is not shoveled. How many weeks until spring?!!

In stitches,
Judy
 

Hump day

 

It's hump day!!! And tomorrow we are supposed to be getting more snow. After all, the snow we had on the ground has started to turn black and yucky. I was starting to see the brown grass in my yard and I kinda liked the look of the brown grass. But we are expecting upwards of 6 inches of fresh, white snow. I have my car packed with all the important stuff. A shovel, a broom, melting compound, a blanket, and my overnight case. In case the roads are too bad to travel home, I have a friend who will put me up for the night. I have pretreated my porch and parts of my driveway.
  
I am going to bed soon so I can get up early and do the mandatory hour of overtime at work.I have successfully downloaded another book into my IPOD. I listen to them while I am working. This will not last much longer, we are changing back into a call center starting January 31st until we are permanently closed on February 25th. Yeah!!! 

No sewing yet again. I finished my back pack over the weekend and I did mark a few squares for the quilt I am hand piecing. And I went out and bought some more yellow for UFO #6. I keep thinking that I will be cutting that out one of these evenings but it has not happened yet. We are working again on Saturday so maybe after work on Saturday, I will be able to cut and sew.

In stitches,
Judy

Finished another challenge

 
I finished another one of my challenges this weekend. I have signed up for three challenges and so far I have finished two of them. This is after working up to 13 hours of overtime and six days a week. This is the front and back views. The lining is a green print, also from my stash.

I am doing the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and this month the color is Blue. I have used my scraps to make a blue back pack. I really like the way it turned out. 


In stitches,
Judy

Stash report

Yet another week has passed and it is time for the Stash Report. I am in a no buy fabric mode but will take donations or gifts. This week I got a gift. I have the co-ordinating fabrics picked from the stash and have the pattern picked out and loaded into EQ7. It will take it's place in line after the UFO #6 at Patchwork Times. 

Added this Week: 1 yards
Added Year to Date: 3.75 yards
Used this Week: 2 yards
Used year to Date: 5.75 yards
Net Used for 2011: 2.0 yards


Did get a little bit of sewing done today. I was hoping to work on my UFO #6 today but ran out of time. Tomorrow after working my hour of overtime, I will come home and cut out the fabric for my UFO #6.

Check out Patchwork Times and see how everyone else is doing.


In stitches, 
Judy

Happy Friday

 

It's Friday!! Yeah, that means the weekend is here. (Hi, Karen) It also means that I am working tomorrow. We are scheduled for a full day, but will be able to leave early if we get all the work done. I have learned how to download books on tape to my IPOD and now I have 4 books to listen to while I am working. It helps to mask the voices of my neighbors. 

I still have not touched the fabric in the dining room/new sewing space. I went in there today to use the table. I am thinking about cutting out UFO #6 this weekend. It is something I designed on EQ7 and looks like it would be easy to put together. And I need to finish my blue back pack. So many projects so little time. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend and gets to spend some of it at the sewing machine. 

In stitches,
Judy

Snow day

It snowed again today in Ohio!! I made it to work before the snow hit and got to drive home in it later in the day. Yuck!!! But I was able to get out and walk around the parking lot at work and these are some of the things I saw.

 
Seems my co workers are afraid their wind shield wipers are going to freeze to their wind shields. It looks like the wipers are waving to us!!

The trees are so pretty with the snow on their branches.

And here is my car. Hiding under a blanket of snow. I did not have my wipers saluting but I did take my broom/scraper into the office and put it under my desk so I could clean off my car without having snow land in my seat when I opened the door.

Debbie, may angels carry you to heaven and leave the pain behind.

In stitches,
Judy

Challenges

 

In 2011 I have signed up for three challenges and I think I am going to be able to finish all three of them for January. In fact, I did finish the monochromatic challenge at Patchwork Times for January. Yellow. I made a lovely yellow shopping bag that I am taking the stuff I need for work. It is certainly a sunny thing to carry in all the gray, snowy weather we are having in Ohio. More snow is on the way today!!

I am also doing Rainbow Challenge and the color for January is blue. I am making a blue backpack. I cut up a lot of blue fabric this weekend. I cut charm squares for the backpack and have enough squares {less two} to make a second back pack which would make a nice gift. I also cut strips for a string quilt. And some 3.5 x 7.5 inch rectangles for another project for a later date. This will make a lovely blue and white quilt but not this month.


I am also doing the UFO challenge at Patchwork Times. UFO number 6 was picked for this month. It is a baby quilt I designed on EQ7. I worked on this project over the weekend and I am ready to cut it out and start sewing on it. It will be a baby quilt on hand just in case. 


Work has picked up and overtime has kicked in. Last week I did 15 hours of overtime, 4 which were mandatory. This week the mandatory overtime has kicked up to 13 hours including all day on Saturday. Certainly cuts into my sewing time! And snow is in the forecast for today and that will lower the number of workers who will come to work. Many of our workers do not drive in the snow. I will be leaving shortly for work and my car is packed for any weather emergency. I have my snow shovel, a broom, a long handled broom with a scraper on the end, my boots, and melting compound. The long handled broom goes in the office with me. I can then brush off my car at the driver's door and not get snow in the car when I go to start it after work. I hate sitting in the wet seat on the way home. 


In stitches,
Judy
 

Design Wall Monday

 

I do have something on my design wall/dining room table. I am making a back pack for a challenge I am participating in. It is a rainbow challenge. Blue is the color this month. I started with blues from my bucket of 5" strips but there were not many of them. I moved onto the blues in my stash. I decided it was time to weed out the old stuff. The millenium fabric had to go and the somewhat cute fabric with the date 1992 stamped in the selvage. So my backpack will incorporate some fabric that is 11 years old and some that is 19 years old. But nothing new as I have not stepped in a fabric or quilt store in 2011!! But I am open to gifts. And I was gifted some fabric last night.

In stitches,
Judy

Weekend wrap up

 

I have joined the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and this month the color is blue. I have lots of ideas rattling around in my head. I am so excited to be back at work after being out of work for almost a month but the overtime is cutting into my sewing time. I finally got to get back to the sewing room this afternoon. Not much to show for it. And nothing blue. I have been pulling blue thoughts together and have lots of things I would like to do. I think I have settled on two blue projects.

One needs 32 charm squares and the other needs various blue strips.This is my blue project cut out.  I am thinking that the really old stuff in my stash is going to be chopped into squares and strips. Indeed, I did cut the out stuff out of my stash. There were things in my stash from 1992. That makes some of stash 19 years old!!! There is not much in the way of blue scraps in my scrap basket. Green and brights are more my style. 

In stitches,
Judy

Stash Report

So far so good for 2011! I have been staying out of quilt and fabric stores and shopping from the stash. And it is working. Of course some of the fabrics have dates on them. Millenium fabric is 11 years old now and the that odd blue fabric that I cut up into strips had a date of 1992 in the selvage is now 19 years old. But it still works. I am not counting the fabric that I was prepping for other projects in my stash report because it is not a finished project just a pile of fabric.

Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 2.75 yards
Used this Week: 1.5 yards
Used year to Date: 3.75 yards
Net Used for 2011: 3.75 yards
Check out Patchwork Times and see how much fabric is being used.


In stitches,
Judy


 

work work work

Work is all I seem to do. I started back as a temp at my old job on Monday. Yeah! And there is open overtime after you do 4 hours of mandatory overtime. I have done 7 hours so far and it is only Wednesday. I have been coming home from work and exercising and just vegging in front of the computer. I keep hoping that one night I would be able to get to my yellow challenge. But nothing has happened so far. I am going to sew this weekend for sure. 

I thought I was having a flare up of my lupus and it was settling in my back. My doctor is going to put me on a muscle relaxer. It may cause drowsiness. The last time I took medication that may cause drowsiness, I was up for three days straight. We shall what happens. Drowsiness would certainly cut into my sewing time.  

I heard that accumulating snow is being predicted for tomorrow into Friday. No amounts given just accumulating. That is a scary thought. I hate having to shovel accumulations. And with my back bothering me, shoveling might be a problem. Oh well, the car will just have to sit out at the bottom of the driveway and I will learn to like wearing my ugly boots to get around in. Ugh!!

In stitches,
Judy

Busy, busy, busy!

I am happy to report that I have finished my second day back at my old job and things are going great. I have already put in 4 hours of overtime and it's only Tuesday!! All the issues I had been having have been worked out. I went two days without email and I must sent out dozens of emails daily for my job. I am getting back into the swing of things but I have not sewed for two days. I am hoping to get back to my monochromatic challenge tomorrow night. I need to do small steps towards the sewing. More overtime for tomorrow.

I am going to bed now. I am getting up early and doing my overtime in the morning and then decide about after work overtime. I plan to do as much overtime as is allowed. I am now a temporary worker and I have to pay for cobra, so no more fabric for me. My new mantra is "shop from my stash".

In stitches,
Judy

 

Design wall Monday

 

There is not much on my design wall this week. Check out Patchwork Times and see what others are doing. I am working on my monochromatic challenge. I also went to our guild meeting tonight and came home with another UFO. It looks like it just needs a border and to be quilted. 

I started working today at my old job. My lupus has reared it's ugly head and my back is bothering me. It has a lot to do with my stress level. 

In stitches,
Judy

Stash report 2011

Hey, it's the first stash report for 2011 and I am ahead. I was hoping to have used more fabric but I did not get as much sewing done today as I thought I would. I am making progress so far and I am certainly happy with the results!!
I finished three things this week and pin basted a quilt for my floor frame. 

Added this Week: 2.75 yards
Added Year to Date: 2.75 yards
Used this Week: 5 yards
Used year to Date: 2.25 yards
Net Used for 2011: 2.25 yards

Check out Patchwork Times and see how everyone else is fairing this first week of stash busting!!

In stitches,
Judy 

Am I Crazy?!!

I have signed up to do three different challenges for 2011!! What was I thinking! I am hoping to get something done for each of these challenges. The latest challenge is Rainbow scrap challenge at So Scrappy. This month is blue. I have wanted to make a back pack for myself like the one I made for my mom for Christmas.

I guess mine will be blue. I have plenty of blue fabric in my stash. This is helping with stash control. I am not buying any new fabric this year if I can help it. I am using my stash to piece the backs of my quilts. All these challenges should help me get a handle on my stash. And I should have lots of things to show for all my challenges!!!


In stitches,
Judy

UFO Challenge 2011

I am so excited to see that number 6 was chosen for the UFO Challenge. It is a baby quilt that I designed on Electric Quilt 7. I plan on starting it next weekend. This week is just too busy.

In case you have been following along, I have been out of a job most of December. I quit my job because we are being outsourced to Manila and I the job I thought I had fell through the day before I was scheduled to start. I have signed up with a temp agency and I am going back to my old job for the next 7 weeks but without benefits and no severance package at the end. I go back to work on Monday and I will be working my old shift!! I will still be able to make my Monday night quilt meetings with my small group. 

In stitches,
Judy

Happy New Year!!!

Happy 2011!!! It is hard to believe another year has come and gone. But I am looking forward to many new and interesting projects in 2011. I am surprised to look back and see how many projects I finished and how many I started and did not finish. 2011 appears to be a better year at finishing and using my stash.

I am still working on getting my quilt in the floor frame. It is almost pin basted. I have decided to take the outside border off since I did not make my backing wide enough. The quilt is a scrap quilt of no particular size and now it is a bit smaller!! Check out Scrappy Saturday and see what every one else is working on!!! But on a positive note I have the binding fabric ready just need to cut it down to size and join the strips together and put it in a safe place until the quilting is done. 

Tomorrow I plan on starting on my monochromatic challenge. Yellow!! I have my fabrics selected and it will not take to much time to put together a shopping bag. Finally, something for me!!!

I did get my jacket finished but I have not taken it's picture yet. I will do that tomorrow and post the picture. It is a bit scary!! And it is a jacket for an 18 month old little girl.

In stitches,
Judy