kinky bali love

Well here starts another evening of fondling fabrics. I started this day out that way as well. First of all I had a road trip in mind for picking up some black cotton. Safe item... just walk into the store and pick up a couple of metres of black. pay and walk out the door. Simple, I did however made the mistake of going to a different quilting store.hmmmm. Let me tell you you walk up to the door and you are greeted by flying geese surrounding the doorway...looks promising its a small house outfitted as a quilt store . Let me tell you even the most devote fabric buster would be quivering in her boots as the sites that greet them as they walk in the door. 4 gorgeous quilts immediately grab my attention. ooooo pretties. A basket of gismos and gotta haves right in front of me ooooh ... I think to my self a couple of things there in that basket I have to pick up , might as well pick it up now. That is just what was in the doorway and I havent even walked into the store proper yet. Well I am comitted now to entering the store... can't let the store cow me into submission . I can be strong. I am just there for black fabric.
One step over the threshold eyes dart to the right, 6 feet shelving with an assortment of FAT QUARTERS. There is oranges yellows bold and bright, brilliant hues of the florals , spring greens sprouting up on another shelf. Damn I was in trouble. Okay I bargained with myself I will purchase a few patterns maybe .... something springy maybe a floral wall hanging pattern. I have 10 years of quilting magazines at home and a bookcase of books . I don't need another pattern I start mumbling to myself .
"Hello welcome" damn, I am spotted its only going to take the owner 5 minutes talking to me before she figures out I am itching to spend spend spend . " hi " I say to her and duck into a side room that has an assortment of bolts floor to ceiling with sizable display of Black and whites in the middle. I take a deep breath and whoosh I let it out. I am not getting out of here without buying a little something why there is a wall full of neutrals that I know I don't have a big supply of. Then the fondling starts. You know your in trouble when you get all hot and bothered over a swirly purple and pink piece of fabric. How do you help yourself. I didn't bring a safety person with me ... a friend that does not support my fabric addiction. I don't don't have a phone number for Fabric-holics anonymous. "Can I help you" rings out from the other room " No I just need some black fabric" I blurt out. I start pulling bolts off the wall and oogling them, this would be great in..... I love this it would work with that fabric...would 3 yards be enough?
Yikes I have planned 10 projects with the fabric in that room in less than 5 minutes. Slowly back away from the room. Okay I am back in the main room with the owner. And she knowingly asks" First time here?"
Again I mumble "I just need some black, solid black".
" I'm sorry I just sold the last yardage earlier today. I do carry a large blah blah blah blah blah...."
Okay, I tuned out at that point I spotted some patterns and I drift off in my own little mind. I start sniffing out the yummy bali's and batiks that were hidden from view in the back room. That does it. I pulled a purple out, a mauve , a hot pink ....until there was 20 bolts out and in a pile on the centre display. I opened them up laying them across each other, softly touching them. A veritable orgasm of color, woohoo! Come on ladies you know what I mean when you finally get to where you want to be.
Okay so I didn't sign up for the no buy challenge. I would be falling off the wagon every time I get within eyesight of a quilting store. I still think there should be a 1-800 number so people like me can be talked down into reality. Anyway here are some of the goodies that I bought. I already prewashed the fabrics and they are now ready to pressed. Now once I fold them up where am I going to hide the sizable bundle of color from my husband.

lack of sewing space

well here goes as my mind starts to wake up ...need more coffee though... I thought I would post a couple of pictures. My kitchen in progress. So far the electrical is just about finished on ones side just have to run the wiring for under cupboard lighting and put the insulation back in place. Count down is 4 weeks for the cupboards to arrive. I have to pick out a new range hood microwave. Have to replace the plumbing which was something we didn't expect to do. Sew with that going on my table is in my living room and I started having withdrawals. I just had to sew something anything. I couldn't pull out any of my bigger projects or small ones for that matter. I couldn't get to them . They are all in tubs or totes until I get some space back... never mind my table doesn't really have a top . Its buried somewhere under stuff. I hate stuff. Well not if its my stuff. there is a tin of cookie cutters about 20 magazines to recycle, a box of shredding (cleaned out our personal files) 3 Christmas presents which for some reason my husband keeps on forgetting to send up north to the nieces and nephew. One sewing machine, one tote of 1.5 inch strips. This one tote is threatening to expand so I ended up sewing mindlessly for 1 hour last night to get strips sewn together . My plan is to do the basket weave quilt that the Quilting Twin has on her blog. This satisfied my need to sew and for better or worse start another project. I am hoping to get a few quilts out of those strips. I will cut down the strips to 4.5 for the basket weave, and for a rail fence , I will cut up 1.5 for small 4 patches. What exactly I plan on doing with those. ehhh I will figure that out another time. All that matters is that I got to sew. and sew with no interruptions and I couldn't be happier about it. I have so many things patterns floating around in my head that I couldn't get them all done if I had 10 lifetimes. The pile on the chair is my sewn 1.5 strips. Did pretty good eh without a plan. I hereby solemnly swear to sew for myself for 15 minutes a day on anything I want. ( i will probably keep it to the strips until I can get my table back in order). Oh and I was invited to another bridal shower I just have to mark down the date. One of my grannies favorite granddaughters is getting married to a wonderful man. For all of those at the ceremony grounds his name is Paul Ikwe. (inside joke)
http://quiltingtwin.blogspot.com/

UFOs

Well here goes my ufo list
Alien landscape,Log Cabin, Fat Cat, Coneflower, baby rail quilt, Pink sweetheart quilt, rag quilt, 3 snowmen wall hangings, Scrappy Triangles, Starry Night quilt, 3 lone star quilts, Buckeye beauty and last but not least my oldest charm quilt to which I have used as a practice quilt for applique, Machine quilting using my strange but new feet attachements. Last one has about 1 foot of quilting left to do and then the binding yippee. I am having piecing withdrawals though. I have all that beautiful fabric that I want to cut into and make a few of Bonnie"s patterns. Soon as soon as I finish 2 quilts then I can piece one. In the mean time the blocks for 3 BOMs are arriving adding to my overflowing tubs. . sheesh that 17 of them ... scary thing is I might not have got them all. I need help. lol

Alien Landscape UFO

Well hear is another UFO . I started this in a class January 07. I didn't care for the colorways that I had then so it hit the UFO pile I found it again and used some really ugly batik brown thing some fancy yarn and some tulle now it looks better. At least I like it now. I have to quilt it by Tuesday. I will be adding other embellishments beads and such at the Little Britain Hall then. I need something that will pull the water feature into the foreground any suggestions people. In the mean time DH is starting to day to pull down the drywall in the kitchen because we have to have all the electrical and drywall up primed and painted by the time my cupboards arrive. So my sewing time that's already at a minimal time will get even shorter. I love the idea of having cupboards i just don't like it cutting into my sewing time. And it will since I set up my machines in the kitchen. I am looking forward to putting out my Grandmothers and my own china since a number of the cupboards will have glass fronts. I just have to find space for all my addictions like machines tubs and totes and drawers full of thread. I will gladly post a pic of the cupboards when they all are up and the counter top is in.

Coming out of the darkness

hey world i am back. almost one year to the day i went into hiding. Most people didn't notice. So what. I am back and that is all that I care about. Most people don't realize that depression is a very scary thing ... you can't talk to people ... you feel alone....and you feel judged by everyone. I fell into a very deep bout of depression. I am talking the most happy things in my life didn't feel worth it. I became a puppet that someone else was telling me what to do. I couldn't follow through with anything. I had every intention of fulfilling all my obligations but suddenly i became frozen. what if i wasn't good enough. what if people didn't like what i did. I became almost manic in spending , people would love me if i bought them things, Let me tell you i spent alot of money. Meaning I went through my savings like a bat out of hell. Fabric busting didn't happen for me... my favorite fabric store was at times my own demon or angel. one day i was feeling completely out of touch with reality and i walked in there and spent an extremely amount of money ....I won't say here in case DH actually reads this and i don't need that to come up. lol I bought a car , I had laser eye surgery, helped buying my son's car, paid off some loans,bought a memory craft 110000, enough thread to take me through to the next century, ate enough food to put on another 20 pounds. I shopped online , I ebay shopped. and i quit going to native ceremonies for a bit.
Next thing i know i am slowing down and i started to quit buying things to fill up that hole inside of me. I started to think that I might not be such a bad person. I figured out again that I am the only one that needs to love me. I started to sew again. I realized I can live on my own make decisions that I feel are best for me. I started to enjoy the treasures I bought (STASH) because of the amazing colors that I picked. Ideas started to gell in my brain and I began doodling again. Then the pictures and drawings that I did. the process of how to make them into fabric art. The foundling of fabric make me feel good actually made me feel good. While I was sick all it did was make me feel guilty that I was alive.
I am no longer hiding in the darkness and back in the world of amazing color and i relish it , I sing out of tune (poor people around me) I dance and jiggle my big old butt around the house and I am letting myself be silly. Oh and I rescued a sweetie pie pomeranian and she loves me, meet Taco