Swap Diva Deedee

Its happened I leaped off the nearest tower of stash and took the plunge into Diva hood.
We set up a Swap group, and boy that happened so quick I am currently giving my head a shake. Wow the response was absolutely great. Lots of you wonderful quilters are wanting to share!!!

I love Sharing, for me its a way to liven up my stash, receive colors and patterns that I would not have thought of myself. The first swaps are going to be put online by tomorrow pm. I have spent the last hour doing the guidelines for 2 swaps that we will be having for Sept.

Since it has been retreat weekend, my whole weekend has been quilt or swap related. Cutting stash. I have the bandaids to prove how busy I have been and I have piles of 2 patches for the Old Tobacco Road that is one of Bonnie Hunters Mysteries. And I have been pressing 4 patches for the Orange Crush mystery another of her mysteries. Enjoy whats left of the weekend folks.

HUGS
Deedee

OC, OTR, Sisters choice and Swap maybe?

Good day to all my visitors. I am doing the virtual retreat this weekend from Yahoo's Stashbusters group. This is a good thing as I am working on the Orange Crush Mystery, Old Tobacco Roads, and Sisters Choice.

Yep I have SAD, commonly known to all as Sewers Attention Deficite. Once I start something it can and will grow to a few somethings because I am cutting for a project and next thing I know I am working on 2 quilts and in this case I am working on three quilts. I am currently not working for the break part in the day. Sustenance in the form of Chocolate and a Latte, and I am sure I could look for the nutritious foods but whats the fun in that. Need a glass of wine too but I will wait for that until after I finish using the rotary cutter. Don't want to drink and cut.

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville has started another mystery quilt. Its called the Old Tobacco Road. Now I haven't even finished the second step of the Orange Crush but here is a peek at my Step one.

How did the sisters choice get started you ask. Well I took part in the scrappy 9 patch swap from Blockswappers group and I got some fabulous patches back in return. I had shown a pic in a earlier post of the blocks I had made , now here is some of the wonderful blocks I got in return. As per Bonnies directions I hadn't put the points on the blocks yet and I was going to wait for when I have all 70 blocks to do this. Then Bonnie put up her OTR mystery up and well it had 2 inch half triangles, A BAZILLION OF THEM LITTLE BEGGERS, and how she started on hers for the quilt is she made it from the cut off spare triangles from the sisters block for one. So I started cutting out for the 2.5 x 6.5 strips so I can use on the sisters choice and spare triangles for the OTR.


And of course since I was cutting I started cutting for the 2 inch strips for that quilt as well. But suffering from SAD I promptly thought of the 2 inch squares that I couldn't use from the OC and started pulling out that tote with that project.


So last night after doing some of all this cutting and drinking a pot of coffee, I had all three projects lined up next to my machine so I chain piece them. So after 12:30 am rolled around and I finished the piles that I had I then had to iron the pieces so they would be ready for the next step. Once the iron was out this morning I figured I would just add a new bunch of fabrics to the pile and started ironing all my FQs to use in the OTR and of course there was some colors that I could use the OC and once ironed I began cutting again. I am now at the part where I was at last night at 11:30 with piles of little squares waiting to be sewn together and In need of Sustenance.

So in my moment of clarity I decided to Blog and take pictures of all the little bits going on in my house. I know nothing like this ever happens to anyone else out there. lol

Oh and since I am still suffering from this I also have the halve brained idea for a centralized strip swap of 2.5 inch strips , 1/2 width of fabric . 10 fabrics a set. 10 sets max.
All sets can be the same or different.

The Bog Run

Well Saturday was the most fun outdoors I have had in ages. We participated in East Selkirk's 2nd Annual BOG RUN. The Proceeds go to Cancer Care Manitoba. The bog was 300 metres in length filled with soupy mud. It was a HOOT. I guess I never quit liking playing in the mud .
This pretty picture was DH on his baby a 450 Polaris or maybe its 500. The MCs were a couple of people I went to high school with so there was a little ribbing going on... they wanted to know if DH ever took his quad out of the garage since it was so clean.
Thats me in the red helmet finishing my run. I was covered in mud. It was the first time that I went on a ATV run so I was a little nervous but the kid inside me was screaming with excitement. For one thing I didn't even know how to start my DH machine. lol. There was only 3 female contestants so I got second prize . I didn't get stuck. I only ran into one side at the turn. I did the course in 58.6 seconds. I am doing it again next year!
Of course DH was on call for the airport and sure enough he was called in so we didn't do the second run. The second run was better than the first because of all the machines going through there was ruts underneath that muck and you could get stuck. There was one machine driven by a couple. the girl was first place in our catagory and she made it in 50. 4 seconds. Her partner on his second run. He got stuck seriously stuck and he had to be hauled out of there,his time for partial run 8 minutes. There was some serious wise cracks about how a girl got 1st place on the same machine

Its Thursday

Well I have a lot of things going on. Monday I received my Postage Stamps from Jo in Scotland. I have just been fondling them every chance I get. I am still going through all of them(there are 35 bundles of 50) and reading the names people have placed on their little bundles. Wish I had thought of that. What I have been doing with them is separating them into colors. So far I love them all and I haven't even got through them all. I actually have 20 new fabrics to go into the next swap, and I haven't gone through all my stash. It becomes apparent that my tastes have changed in fabric over the years. When I first started seriously into quilting my colors were the tastefully muted colors of country prim. Now I am building a stash of bright colors, I have an abundance of purple tones in Batics, and as contrast I have Orange. LOTS of Orange. Purple Passionate Quilter eat your heart out.
I also signed up for Chookyblues Christmas swap. Thats the button you see on the right side of my blog. Last night I received my partner . SSSHHHH its Secret but I went to her blog and spent and hour last night reading all about her. She seems like a very wonderful woman and has a life that when I was a little girl , she is what I wanted to be when I grew up. ;-)
This blogging thing is totally addictive. I have read about people from all over the world (if they are in english that is) I have read about their triumphs, goals, wishes, and heartaches. You get to see a part of them that if you were just introduced to them you wouldn't know. Its personal, its sharing its about loving your life mostly. I admitted recently to Paula that I stalk her blog.
Any way my goal for today is a complete day at work. I have absolutely no desire to be there. Office politics as they are make me sick, really, I am emotionally exhausted when I get home. I am looking for a new position under the thought that a change is as good as a rest. I will post pictures of my postage stamps later right now I don't remember where I put the camera.

Have a great day folks.

It was reno work

Well I didn't sew a thing this weekend. The weekend was filled with house and yard stuff. We actually started replacing the fascia on the house in preparation to put up new gutters and downspouts. I think we are going to go with white trim on the house because of the white vinyl windows that we installed. That way we can do cream coloured siding. I hate the stucco on my house. Its gotta go. We located the spot on the roof that leaks . I guess during the last storm a couple of shingles were blown off and at least we know where to fix , unfortunately , the weather that is called for today is thunderstorms so it won't get fixed today. I also decided that the deck is going to get redone. The boards on the decking are old so its time to get a new deck top.
I could make a list of things that need to get done before winter because its all outside work. I actually enjoyed painting the fascia, and I didn't have to climb the ladder because of the deck . It will be nice to have the house look nice finally on the outside.
Maybe tonight if its raining I can do something quilty. Have a good day everyone.

Reno work or sewing

Well for the past few days I haven't touched my sewing machine, or my rotary cutter. I have to decide on which quilt I want to work on. I may just put stuff away for the week and let my mind declutter. I have a ton of ideas floating through my head and I have to write them all down or my brain is going to explode. We still have a lot to work on in the house and I think I may just work on the kitchen for the weekend. .. Yeah right ... I almost feel a need to sew right now just thinking of it. Oh I am a great procrastinator, I can come up with a gazillion things I have to do other than cleaning ... same with working on the house. I really didn't want to work on the house ourselves. That's what contractors are there for darn it! But I suppose that DH will want to become one with the power tools this weekend and my house will end up being covered in dust of some sort. I signed up for a pumpkin swap with the ladies from quilted sisters. I have to make 14 pumpkins of any sort and size 6,9 or 12. I think I will go Prim on these and I will have to go stash diving for my country ish oranges. Some one call out for a search party if I don't come up for air by Sunday.

more cat pictures

Any way these are the pictures that I was trying to load last night of the nine patches I made.









The Picture at the bottom is the block from the missing magazine. Anyone out in blogland know which magazine because I am having a hard time locating the pattern in the scores of Mags that I picked up in the last year.

The Forgotten Stash

Well I haven't cleaned the hatch in my car for over a year. I found 7 bags of various yardage and FQs that I do not repeat do not remember buying. My hatch was filled with various items that I do not use every day. Winter parkas, Blankets, candles, flashlights, sewing machine(never know when your gonna need that)Picnic plates and cutlery, Various shoes and rubber boots, Hoodies, spare pants and socks, tools and one tire. Man I was ready for everything. While taking the items out I was finding bag after bag of stuff that I probably shoved into the hatch so my husband wouldn't find more fabric that I bought. It was kinda like an early christmas. I have now snuck it into my laundry room and its waiting its turn to be prewashed and slide into the overwhelming tubs and shelves of stash I already have.

Well after I drafted the beginnings of this post me and DH went to a dinner party. Best friends neighbor said " I have a lot of Fabric that I am not going to use. Do you want it?" Well it was in front of DH and he said "she doesn't need anymore fabric, besides she has fabric in a bag in her car." Apparently he went into the hatch of my car to look for something after I cleaned it and found the one bag of fabric that I left in the car and the sewing machine. He asked in front of all if they would help in an intervention. Darn, now he is going to be checking my car if I go out shopping.

When we got home he asked me if I really pull over for a sewing fix and do I have stash in the glovebox. Reasonable question.

Before the dinner party I was chain piecing a 6 inch block for a quilt that I can't remember which magazine I got the pattern from and well I need to know when to stop sewing these blocks. It is a ufo that I started before I made the ugly quilt (see previous entry)because I felt the desire to mindlessly piece. I started with sewing the 1.5 strips together and then I cut them into pieces around a 2.5 inch center. Its a scrappy quilt. I have to go through my bedroom shelving to find the magazine. I know its in this years publications so that is a big help.

I packaged and tried to courier out my scrappy 9 patches to Karen from Blockswappers. Unfortunately there is a darn Civic Holiday tomorrow and they are not picking up until Tuesday and they didn't have the waybills to make up the parcel. When I go to work tuesday I will get it picked up there to I had sewn 70 blocks , of which 50 were for the swap. They look nice. I want to make the sisters choice quilt from quiltville.com and I realized that if I had just used my stash I would have only had to make 2 more blocks before I need to put on the star points. The variety of blocks and fabrics that I will receive has me getting excited. And then there are the 1.5 inch squares that are on their way here. My husband will just have to suck up that fact that I am a Fabric Addict.

Well I have just spent the last 5 minutes trying to upload pictures and they wont go.
going to try one more time. If there is no pictures I went to bed.

Islendingadagurinn

Well, Yesterday was lovely me and darling husband went to Gimli Manitoba. It was warm and humid but the breese of Lake Winnipeg was refreshing. The street vendors sold jewelry, quilts, homemade knitted items ( there was a shawl I loved out of my price range) caps, throws and sweaters with icelandic patterns. The knitters out there would have loved the skeins of wool they were selling. I know I did and I don't knit.

We took in the historical village and the viking battles. The group of vikings was made up of Icelanders from all over Canada. In the village there was vendors selling their wares. Intricate handworked silver, carved bone combs and hair ties, goblets made from horns, leather crafts and woodworking. It was great. The outfits that the villagers wore was homespun cloth. The King of the villagers wore Chain mail. Oh boy you could smell the sweat and rust on his outfit.

Mid afternoon it was annouced that the king had died and a funeral procession of vikings carrying their king on their shields commenced. One of the Kings sons came sailing in on a dragon boat with a small band of his followers. Soon the insults were flying and the brothers battled to the death over leadership of the people.

I loved every minute of the day with only one regret. We didn't get to Amma's teahouse. I wanted to have a nice cup of tea and some Pönnukökurs or Vínarterta, DH wanted a burger and fries. Oh well next time.