Friday, January 27, 2012

Day Off

   Usually my day off every week is spent cleaning and busying myself with various errands or things that need to be done for the following week.  Today was not like that.

   DH and I have recently purchased a treadmill.  Wonderful!  Except that it is his busy season which leaves me stranded at home, by myself, for extended periods of time.  Bad idea.  This month I have managed to attack and kill wallpaper in two rooms upstairs which we never use and give them spackling measles from all the holes the previous owners decided to put into the walls.  Now they are waiting to be painted, but I haven't gotten there yet because without the wallpaper and various holes the rooms look quite good!  Anyways, treadmill.  DH manages to bring home the treadmill from Sears (because, of course, we aren't having the silly little thing delivered) and then we park the trail blazer (and the treadmill) in the garage for a while because we still need time to bring it in.  When we get time I decide we need an army to bring it in since it weighs like 300 pounds and we need to bring it in at an angle through the door because it's enormous.  DH goes to recruit the neighbors and comes back alone. 

  Great.  So me and DH attempt to shove it through the door in our garage loading-dock style as the house door and the car are at the same level.  No good, the thing is too big to simply shove through.  DH pulls the truck forward and we pull out the treadmill so that it looks like a ramp for the car. Then we stand there and ponder what to do next as it is half in and half out of the car.  We decide to flip the treadmill end-over-end and then push it into the house like a hot-dog, slide it across the kitchen and down the basement stairs where we decided to leave it for another evening.

   Now, I'll let you know that I am actually pretty handy and relatively strong for a girl.  I grew up on a lot of land with a dad who thought I should be completely self sufficient and therefore taught me lots of random stuff.  So, I figured on my day off I should put this together and perhaps go for a run.  I venture downstairs to see this.  Right where we left it.



How hard can this be?  Well, it took me 40 minutes and a stabbed palm just to get the box open.  Thinking to myself that I could have been quilting, I abandon ship and leave this for my husband:


He'll figure it out sometime.  As it was still 8am and I had only destroyed one level of our house I figured I' go back to the second story and see what sort of mischief I could get myself into.  OH! I know, DH needs all of the shelves out of the linen closet because the carpet installers had to take the door off and didn't put it back on properly!  I will be a good wife and remove the towels, place them randomly through the hallway and into the bedrooms, and suggest when he gets home that he go stand in the dark closet so we can put the door back on correctly.  Yep.  Sounds good, so that's what I proceeded to do.  DH has yet to find out.

At this point stores are actually open so I can go get that yard of fabric I need from the store.  When I walk in to the cozy little shop I tell myself to go straight where I need to and pick up the one bolt I was destined for.  But wait, what's that fabric to the upper left?  Oh no.  It's so cute.  It's better than the one I was going to use.  But there isn't enough of it and I'm sure it's an old line.  What to do...  I better carry around the thin bolt of fabric and carry both the one I need and the one I want with me to the clearance section where I tell myself there is nothing I need.  I leave the clearance section empty handed.  But, while I was there I decided I needed to go to the blues and greens.  Where of course I find more that I need and they come home with me too.


I am making a U of M string quilt for DH and an MSU string quilt for my dad for Christmas next year.  Trouble is that since I'm a new quilter I need to buy lot of different fabrics!  It's addicting and I need to stop but yet I don't have nearly enough...

So then I came home and started working on project # 2; a Christmas tree quilt.  I made four or five blocks an decided to count what I had.  I discovered I have more than I thought!


I technically have enough to make a couch-quilt and I just can't decide how I want to put the little cuties together.  They all still need a border, but those will go on after I settle on how I want them together- either out of the fabric I intended or from the one I thought was too cute to leave behind.  If anyone knows where I can find O'Snowy Night- green tree pattern you should probably let me know.


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

My First Project

      Now that you know a little about me I can start talking about quilting!  I know that my husband will be relieved that he doesn't have to try to understand me anymore :)

      I am learning from a friend (Mama Spark) and started with an easy lap quilt just to see if I actually enjoyed the process and not just the end result.  I meet up with her and some of her friends on Wednesday nights and she shows me, basically, how to do everything.  And then when I'm scared to do it, I make her do it show me again.  This is what I'm in the process of finishing;


     ...though I am far beyond this point.  Over Christmas I managed to make the "quilt sandwich" (with fusible batting of course, since I'm not quite that amazing), and used the walking foot on my new sewing machine (!) to quilt it using stitch in the ditch via youtube instructions.  Then at last week's meeting I was taught to bind the quilt, which I am horrible at.  I swear it took me 5 minutes to make the first two hand stitches, but I'm slowly getting better at it.  I have a feeling this will be the part that I will hate in any quilt I make. 

     I already have grand plans for other quilts I want to create and am currently making Christmas tree blocks for a holiday quilt.  I can't wait to see how that one turns out!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

So Why......?

It's very interesting to decide where to begin in the first blog.  Where am I in my quilting adventure?  Have I made anything yet?  Why did I decide to start quilting?  Why the name?  Why am I blogging? Well I don't want to write an autobiography or anything so I'll just start with the Whys. 

Why did I decide to start quilting?  Well, my cousin wanted to have a baby.

Weird, right?  I guess, but I love my cousin so I'm sure I'll love her squirmy, slobbery child when she decides to push one out so I wanted the little being to have something from me.  We grew up very close but unfortunately when I got married I moved halfway across the state so I don't get to see her often.  I thought that perhaps if her baby has something from me, it can remember me that way too.  Who knows, maybe I'll be nice and make something for her too someday :)

Why the name?  If you've read my tiny profile, you'd already know that I'm 24.  Apparently quilters my age are rare and when I tell people I either get reactions of "OH! That's WONDERFUL!" or "You really quilt?  That's strange."  When I told my husband that I wanted to quilt he gave me something close to the second reaction.  Plus a "I didn't know I married an old lady."  Well, apparently you did DH, and guess what!  I like going to bed at 9pm, baking stuff to fatten you up, wearing comfy clothes/walking around in my pj's and yes, even sewing.  Maybe I'll get into yelling at kids for playing on my lawn, but I haven't decided yet.  So anyways, now DH always says I have an old soul, but usually in a loving way...

Now, why oh why am I blogging?  I don't tend to watch facebook like other people my age.  I've never even seen twitter.  And yet I'm here.  Talking to you.  Since I've moved I discovered that we don't have anyone our age in our neighborhood.. at all.  I've also discovered that my town doesn't have a lot of community events.  I don't like paying to exercise.  I work long hours (by choice) and have at least an hour commute each way when I'm not stuck in traffic.  These things make it difficult to find other people with my interests.  Plus the fact that I like to spend time with my DH on the weekends when I don't have time to do it during the week.  Hopefully this blog will give me a chance to hear from other quilters, get advice, and talk to myself you about what I'm working on.  Plus I found that I can spend HOURS on quilting blogs (and ironically, some parenting blogs though I'm nowhere near wanting kids) so why not?