All better!

I was down for about a week, but back to feeling like me again. We even went up and got Miss P for another round of fun!!

We've built a fort and got to go play!

doni @ Oregon coast

Bored and sick!

I got the crud that Miss P was passing out ... bummer ... there was cool things to do this weekend too! But I'm just laying here - moaning on occasion!!! I have been surfing the web all day - my brain is just well enough that I can do that - symptoms are BIG headache, icky throat and nose drips! [Just in case you catch it by reading my blog!!!] I've been staying home - just so I don't pass it around to an innocent bystander!

I realized today that I listed my Fab5 in June of 2007. Granted, I got three of them done-done but seriously - 15 months ago???? It's been a busy year - retiring and moving, getting settled in, seeing Miss P twice a month ... and there were a lot of 'non-fab5' projects finished. FOUR great nieces and nephews graduating from college in one May created a backlog of quilts owed. Now that those are finished, how to get serious? Dedicate time every day to quilting? Dedicate one day a week to UFOs? What about all these other projects nagging at me??? [Do your projects nag you? I can hear them whining from the sewing bins! Even closing the bedroom door doesn't help!!!] Time for a list!

• New baby quilt for grandson coming in November - decide on pattern - baby blue and brown are the colors - I love blue and brown together - but that baby blue is difficult
• Miss P's 'big girl bed' quilt - decide on pattern - could finish an UFO for it - but I'm not thrilled with how it will go in her room - mishmash of styles!
• Library book bag for L - she gave me the fabrics - would I be more excited about this if she actually used the library???? LOL!
• Repair L's graduation quilt from 1997 - you know how I feel about repairing!
• New quilt for our bedroom - king sized - I'm afraid
• Little presents for friends for Christmas (shhhhh - don't tell!!!!)
• Pink [I hate pink] wedding quilt for DH's nephew - not thrilled with the way scrap "disappearing 9patch" is coming out - I think I used my favorite blocks on the graduation quilt I gave to N! - wedding's in January - reception in April????
• TWO BOMs that were frightfully expensive to just languish!
• TWO kits that were frightfully expensive to not even start!!! It wasn't even like me to buy kits - darn that favorite store in Gretna!!! - I miss them!!!!

So - I'm not feeling well - and feeling guilty about quilt projects ... I'm entertaining comments on how to get going ... Please let me know what you would do!!!

Well, hope your weekend is going better than mine!!!

Birthday Party was a Hoot!

Miss P and her dad, J were just getting over bad colds and as a party favor - DH brought it home with us! Miss P is also here for the week and we're having alot of fun with her. My house, of course, is destroyed - but it's small - should be able to get it back up to speed this weekend. Today is Miss P's actual 2nd birthday - tomorrow is DH's official birthday - making a marionberry pie to celebrate. Here are some pictures of the celebration - a great time was had by all!

In reverse time order ... blogger always does this to me - a favorite gift from Uncle Z - a soccer ball; J2, A and DH; Miss P feeding dad a 'bite' of her cake; and a sweet smile while we were singing 'Happy Birthday to you!'

DD requested that I make a 'replacement' blue Sesame Street blankie - the pink one was wearing out. There was no pink fabric in the store but Miss P liked the blue fabric in the store; she fell asleep under the blue fabric in the car on the way home; she smiled when she opened it at the party ... why oh why did I have to 'remove it from the crib AND the room' during naptime yesterday??? Hoping it becomes acceptable SOON! Thank goodness we brought the pink one with us too.

Oh - naptime has ended - must run - the princess awakes!!!

Do you document your finished quilts?

A stashbuster asked today how you document your quilts - looking for different methods to present to her guild. It got me thinking - of course, blogging is a good way to journal your finished projects. Almost everyone posts pictures when they finish something. But there are other ways too. Old-fashioned ways! Of course, there is the always popular "I'll do something about that when I get around to it!"

Back in the late '90s I thought I was losing my mind (okay, partially right!) and I wanted to document the quilts I'd made and could still remember. I started quilting in 1974 and never looked back! There was a pile of quilts! The little journals they were just starting to sell didn't thrill me. So I developed my own system.

First I took photos of all of the quilts I could get my hands on. With film - not digital! We always got double prints so I thought it would be a good idea to make a quilt journal for each of my two kids. I also dug out past pictures and had reprints made if I didn't have two prints. I got 3 ring binders.

I bought a ream of heavy stock paper and set up a word document. I put one quilt per page and after I got all the information typed in I printed it twice - once with the 1 inch margin and once with a 4 1/2 inch margin. Then I added the photos either below or above the write up. When I put the books together I staggered the pages so every other page had the photo on top. It made the book "thinner" too.

I wanted the book to remind me of the quilt and things happening while I made it. What discussions I had about it ... the fun stuff. Here's what I wrote:

Name of quilt - year finished
Size W x L
A paragraph telling about it. Silly things that happened. my thoughts, who helped me, what was happening ...

EXAMPLE - I made a small square spring wall quilt for my MIL and she nailed it to the outside door of her apartment! That door faced west - the little quilt fell apart from sun damage in very little time. She gave it back and asked me to 'fix it'! I was complaining to my mom about it and she went off on a tangent complaining about renters who nail things to the door!!!! "Mom, we're upset about the quilt NOT the door!" LOL!

Those were the type of memories that I was afraid of losing!

I enjoyed making the books, my kids and friends even enjoyed reading them! Now I'm behind in keeping them up - by about 8 years!!! However, I do keep a list of finished projects each year - so I could catch up during my retirement - if I actually get around to doing it!!!

I have a Excel spreadsheet of all my projects and project ideas. Every year I update the list - adding new ones and deleting old ones I've lost interest in. There are UFOs - Unfinished Objects; PIGS - Projects in Grocery Sacks; WHIMMS - what exists only in my mind-ish! The list is legend! How do you keep quilt records??

Hooray! - Finally finished!!

Here are a few pictures to share. The three projects that I finished - relief - this weekend, my view from the 'Fairlift' at the Oregon State Fair and a sunset last week from our deck.

Hooray! - today I mail back to Nebraska the denim quilt, the I Spy quilt [with poem] and the Christmas stocking for my great niece's dog!!! The hardest part of the stocking was to find a picture of a boxer! Dogs can't read - so I always put a picture on them!!! LOL! All worthy projects - but for some reason I had a hard time getting them done. Guess I'm still finding my way around the new sewing space. I haul my machine out to the dining room table to sew. Not much room in the 'sewing room' with the computer set up in there. AND I love the view from the dining room too!

This week I need to tie the replacement Sesame Street flannel quilt for Miss P - the big birthday bash is next weekend - so none too soon to get it done! And I may have found a pattern that excites me for the baby quilt I need to make for 'baby boy' who's due at Thanksgiving! Work, work, work!

Last visit L gave me her high school graduation quilt to repair - It was made in 1996 and has been well used - but I can't really figure out what the heck happened to it! It appears to be mostly the alternate block seams - but they aren't particularly shredded - so why did they separate? I have older well-used quilts that have held together well - I hate repair work - so hope the word doesn't get out that I'll do this! LOL! There are signatures on the back of this one - so she'd really like to keep it usable. DRAT!

In a funk! Could you tell?

You probably could - I haven't written for more than a week! I hate deadlines - even the ones I've made. My to do list is long and mostly for other people. The denim quilt is done. The I spy quilt has been giving my fits! Either I can't tie a square knot any more - with the directions right in front of me - or acrylic yarn simply refuses to hold knots!!! I estimated that one nap was all you needed to untie every knot on the quilt! So rather than retie it - I used the crappy ties as basting for machine quilting. The machine quilting will probably help the quilt hold together better. Got the inner squares quilted today - tomorrow I'll quilt the border. Maybe by the end of the week everything will be ready to mail. I still have the dog Christmas stocking to make - but I did find a picture of a boxer so - hopefully, that was the hard part!

THEN next week is Miss P and R's birthday party. We bought the "big girl bed" for Miss P for her birthday - but need something to open too ... have a new Sesame Street flannel to make a small quilt because the original is wearing out too fast. Doesn't thrill! Also need a new "big girl bed" quilt.

And of course, baby boy is coming around Thanksgiving ... he'll need a quilt! Haven't even thought about that yet. And Christmas won't be too far behind!