What I've been up to

I'm not doing a good job at all w/ keeping up w/ blogging! So much has happened since I last posted on here--there isn't enough space to fit it all in this post, but I'll mention a couple of things....

--We have found out we are having a boy! So the family will be nice & even---3 girls & 3 boys in the house! HOORAY! The fabrics have been picked out & ready to be turned into a quilt for the new baby.

--Baby charity quilts are moving along--5 have been completed & turned in to St. Judes Children's Research Hospital, I have my last couple started, but have yet to complete them & only managed to take a photo of only some of the completed baby quilts before they were delivered.

--The sewing room was completed and organized, WHEW! It's been done for some time now, but I rarely found the time to sit and blog about it & post photos & we all know how I hate to blog and not post a photo along, but to refresh everyones memory--I dramatically decreased my fabric stash about a month or so ago & it left a big explosion of a mess for me to clean & organize. Besides working on charity quilts, taking care of the kiddos & trying to find time in between to rest & relax & enjoy for once a sickless pregnancy; it is finally complete. Here is how it all looks now:

The Complete View

Downsized dramatically the magazine stash & have kept my fav.

Even the books took a big hit

My solids have taken up now 3/4 of the top shelf, instead of the whole top shelf--mixed in w/ some of my children's cotton prints & flannels

My designer wall of fabrics fitting on one side of my shelf now :)

I call this my notions wall & felt section

Hundreds of $ spent on printer ink cartridges & printer paper have gone to this: Purchased patterns from Etsy, blog tutorials all printed out and organized in order within these 9 binders, working on my 10th now!

There's plenty more fabric behind the closed drawers & cabinets, but I'm just glad I no longer have totes everywhere. I divided the fabric amongst friends, donated several bags to schools & sold what I had the patience to photograph & list.

So that's where the stash is currently at, I've made a promise & commitment to myself that I will no longer purchase fabric just to have it, but when I have a certain project, I will only buy what I need. So far so good & my sewing area is still neat & organized. So that's it for now w/ the sharing, I'll have to come back & post later on the baby quilts & swap photos!

UFO's FOUND!! Not the ET kind :)

Before the fabric diet the organization was very deceiving....yes deceiving. Everything that I had, I had just thrown in bins to make room for more fabric not following the rules. "For every ONE new thing that comes in, take TWO out." I just stacked and put them away eventually forgetting what I had in what tote/bin/drawer. Back then I was able to handle 3 or 4 different projects at the same time, I can't do that so much now, but my works in progress from a year ago that I stashed promising to go back to when I had the time, only to be forgotten has now been found!

I forgot about these lap quilts. I will eventually go back and finish these, but it just brought a smile to face when I saw my quilt tops that I was so determined to do by hand. So I thought I would share them with you. There are some that I hand pieced and started to hand embroider, there is another quilt that I was quilting along as I go and quilt tops w/ teeny tiny 1" squares. Here is what I found so far.....I know I have more of these laying around somewhere. I may finish these and add these to my charity quilts!

So that's it, I'm not quite finished re-organizing and de-stashing, but it is great to find forgotten pieces of work, now I'll definitely find more things to do during this pregnancy

A Major Fabric Diet

Sighhh.... it was only a couple of days ago that my stash was overflowing and taking up almost every corner in my home--much to my husbands disliking. I dramatically reduced my stash and did some major stash busting!

Remember this?......

Everything organized by color, calico, vintage solids, flannels and overflowing everywhere. Not like that any longer. Thanks to the big help of my best buddy who came over and helped take away a great amount of the fabric--(it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be) has helped me clear away my clutter.

Here is how it looks so far in all it's disorganized mess and splendor--Caution...de-stashing in progress:

Empty tops, not as full shelves....this is a good start.

These still have to make it's way somehow into my main wall unit. A big difference from before.

Look! All empty behind the doors!

An embarrassing mess, but I tend to make a big mess before it actually gets sparkly clean.

It is nowhere near finished, I still have to organize and decrease some more. There is still the books, the many unfinished quilt blocks, unfinished quilt tops, and tons and tons of pre-cut 1 1/2"-10" squares that I was saving for so long, I think it is finally time to let go. There's still the bins of scraps that I'm going to be going through now w/ a different eye, plus, I've signed up for swaps that only require me to send scraps and of course I'll add tons of extras to it so a big de-stash it is!

I'm Back

Oh my, I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted on my blog. I can only apologize to my blog groups, swap partners, and friends for my unintentional absence from blog world. Many things were happening before, during and since my last post, many of which I did not blog about because it was personal information as well, but one of the reasons for my absence, we suffered a major loss in the family during Thanksgiving and were not able to bury him until right before Christmas because of a special request to be buried at Arlington Cemetery.

I've also been suffering from morning sickness, slight depression and battles w/ Graves Disease. For those who are unaware of the disease it is a thyroid condition-(Hyper) that I have been battling with since after my second pregnancy. Many many things, but I will spare you any further details because I have noticed I am pretty much close to crossing that line of TMI.

There has not been much sewing/quilting going on and I have decided to get rid of almost all of my fabrics & sewing supplies. NO..I have not stopped sewing completely, but the collection/stash was getting too far out of hand and taken over ever corner in my home causing rifts between my husband and I. Along w/ aquiring too much fabric and supplies, I also took on too much all at once and placed a lot of undue stress on myself to finish in time, for this many of my swap partners have experienced delays and for this I very much apologize. Too many orders, not enough hours in the day to finish them between my own company, etsy, and BizMarket along with swaps I was a VERY BUSY GIRL.

I'm still sewing & quilting, but I've decided to regretfully hold off on my own business and take another route. I have to say that I was very lucky to be given this opportunity to now be working closely with a sewing designer to be her pattern tester and to also create items for her to sell. I think this right now is the best for me since all material is being provided to me, I will be paid for my time along w/ that I will be receiving material to keep my own--How cool is that? I am hopeful this will work out in the long run and alleviate much of the stress that has befallen me since I decided to make quilts for work. Now I get to focus on my charity quilts which have been slowly progressing. I will post photos on my next post once I am able to take better photos of them..I promise!

So I haven't left completely. I'm slowly getting back into the groove. I'm catching up now trying to read the all the posts I've missed--SORRY! I've missed you all & thank for all the kind words during my absence :) It was great to come back to those comments!

The Cats Out of the Bag

We had to wait until we told our family first before posting on here.  There's nothing like having your parents and family find out your big news from reading about it on your blog.  So we spilled the beans on till to let them know.................

WE'RE PREGNANT!!!!--Baby #4 is on the way.

We've known for several weeks now so that initial shock has come and gone.  I have never been one to keep my pregnancies to myself for very long. I know there are some folks out there that prefer to keep the news until they have passed the first tri-mester, but knowing myself, in the event that something like that something horrible was to happen, I would definitely need the support of my family to get me through a rough time.

So now my blogging friends you all know...YAY!!! It feels so good to let that out.

Pics instead of words.....

Busy, busy, busy......Happy Holidays to everyone!!

My Christmas Tree

Vickie requested a larger photo of my tree...I hope you meant my real one, not the fabric because....here's photos of my Christmas tree, the first night in all it's splendor:



it doesn't seem to shine as much during the day, but I had to change sides and what a mistake:



two children under the age of 3? and I still wanted to have my "elegant-no-touch" tree? yeah right, I've learned....see what they've done?



Poor Tree.

Let Me Correct Something......

I received this earlier this evening:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Ahem(*cough*), snort, ahhhhh......:

" WOW! I was gone this past week and just looked in to see who the lucky giveaway winner was - and you didn't even follow through on your promise! What the heck? You said "The person with the most correct wins" - what happened? Just because you could barely count on one hand the persons who got more than 2 correct? I am sorry, but I just don't think that is right. I've seen alot of giveaways but never one that felt "enough" persons hadn't guessed correctly. I am disappointed. "

sam

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--My first initial reaction after reading this was anger, but then I realized, this person does not know me, because if they knew me well enough they would not have left such a comment or thought I would cancel a giveaway because of the lack of "correct answers"? I thought I explained myself correctly, but after going back and reading what I wrote, I can see where I can be mistaken. If there were others that felt the same as "annonymous" I apologize. What I meant to say and what I should have said--and this is really what I meant to say:

When I said that I could barely count on one hand those that gave more than 2 answers, I should have said that there were only 3 that actually provided me with answers. There were about 2 or 3 that said they only knew 1, but did not give me an answer. There were several emails without answers, only well wishers and stating the fact that they do not know designers and wouldn't win.....so according to my rules that does not automatically enter into my giveaway---

When I posted "on second thought" I was saying that I wanted to have my giveaway be one that is open to everyone and not single anyone out. So, I asked for other ideas for the same package to be given away. I DID NOT CANCEL THE GIVEAWAY ENTIRELY--my buddy Kat can stand for me, I was giving some thought to someone who posted about guessing the weight of the package as a new way of having someone to enter---My main goal was to have a 'different' giveaway, not one where you leave comments, but something that added a little more--you all know Dana from Old Red Barn who gave away 3 quilts recently well she has people making videos and posting on youtube---I didn't want all that, my giveaway wasn't anything big to have that, but it does contain a substantial amount that I wanted a lot of entries and to give more people the chance to enter.

I failed miserably in putting into words what my intent was in re-scheduling the giveaway. I planned to repeat it after the holidays--I myself am busy too, so I thought this too would also allow more to enter, if I posted it after all the hustle and bustle the holidays bring. As the annonymous person stated they were disappointed, and I apologize you felt that way, but what you wrote as the reason why I ended the giveaway was not correct and not how I am, and it has saddened me. I don't want others to think of me that way. I just wanted to allow more people to enter and what would be easier than typing in a number to guess the weight of a big box? I mean, my photo wasn't a great one either, my friend pointed that out to me that there were some that were cut off or hiding, so that also wasn't fair to those who maybe would have known the answers.

So I want to start from scratch--not until January though. The new and revised De-stash, Purge Giveaway. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

and because I don't like posting without pics. I leave with this:

That should make anyone smile right? Now have I made myself clear?

Ahem(*cough*), snort, ahhhhh......

My mailbox is 3 miles from my house one way...literally. So I'm jealous of you who have your mailbox within a few steps from your door, in your yard, and definitely even more jealous of those that have them attached to your door. Darnit.

Well it was sleeting, snowing, turning into mush and eventually freezing on the roads, so the mail had to wait. Thankfully my DH was home and he did our grocery and picked up the mail....and boy what a happy surprise awaited for me!

My slipper swap item from my partner came along with a generous gift from a fellow blogger.

What's the title all about?

----My cough came when I took a sip from the homemade hot cocoa mix from Sarah--not that it tasted bad, but it was just too gosh darn hot, I couldn't wait to take a sip.

----I literally snorted and choked on my hot cocoa when I saw what Susan Thomas sent me....have a look for yourself....

It just brought back that embarrassing, yet painful experience again, and you better believe I already gave it a whirl....Fantastic! I recommend these over those gloves anyday, but for my peace of mind, I'm using these and the gloves. Thank you Susan! What a surprise and so thoughtful and generous of you :) I tried to send you a message, but the blog address that was written on the package sent by the company mis-spelled something, I hope you are reading this. Thank you again, it was my laugh for the evening.

-----and ahhhhh....because I slipped on the cute little slippers Sarah from Sarah's Corner made for me and they just felt all nice and toasty lined with Chenille, and a very soft material on the outside, and you can't go wrong with green, my fav. color.

Funny, I was just getting on my husband's nerves just a few min. before he left for the store because I could not find my slippers, and bare feet in this cold weather along with having hardwood floors all through-out the house sucks without them. Perfect timing Sarah & well made!--Now the next part....don't get mad, I'm not at all poking fun of your sewing abilities, but there was a little discrepancy, one that worked out for the better :) Here goes another little info. about me that none of you know....one that may be considered TMI, but oh well, One foot of mine is a size 8 1/2 the other is a size 7 1/2, Sarah's slippers just happened to be off in size in one slipper and what a blessing, it fits me perfectly-- ahhh...such is the life when things just work out perfectly on their own.

Here are the slippers:

So I am one happy gal! I just love getting packages in the mail! Have a great day/evening everyone!

on second thought.......

The giveaway it seems, was too hard for many--I'm sorry. I'm going to hold-off right now and hold the giveaway until I can come up with something else...plus. I also placed more items in the box. Pics to come on the new giveaway. There were very little comments under my giveaway post--You should have seen my inbox of the number of people wishing others good luck and letting me know that they do not know the designer fabrics, and I could barely count on just ONE hand the number of people that actually came up with more than 2 answers....so the number of folks that wished they knew and wanted to enter far out-weighed those that had actually entered. Sorry folks, I want to make this open to everyone. Does anyone have any ideas other than to just leave a comment?

************On another note, I was VERY busy sewing this weekend, completing orders and trying to catch up on the swaps I entered. I won't be entering 14 different swaps at the same time anymore....no matter how fun they are :)--(Yeah we'll see how long that lasts) Also, Amy Butler's donation for my Quilting For A Cause arrived :) Yay....Good thing there was a note in the box, otherwise my husband would have had my head if he thought I ordered more fabric..lol. Here's what she sent me: THANK YOU AMY!

Nice of her right? Another gernerous donation from wonderful fabric designers.

So, on top of sewing all day Friday and Saturday, I also attended the daily Biz Market on the mountain making sales and extra money for the holidays. We also decided to put up the tree again this year, and I also managed to find more pdf's and patterns to purchase. So let me leave you with some photos from my busy sewing weekend and a sneak peak for my swap partners into what you could be getting :)

Wrist pincushions, doll quilts, travel tissue covers, and so much more I have left to complete. I am apologizing now to my swap partners for the delay in getting your items out to you. I only hope that when you do finally receive them, it will be well worth the wait.