New favourite tool

I have a new favourite tool. A metal magnetic pin bowl. I am terrible for constantly knocking my pin container off whatever surface it happens to be sitting on.  I saw one of these advertised, thought it a great idea, and promptly ordered one. If I knock it off now, no problems, the pins stay right in the bowl, instead of scattered all over my flour. Not only that, but the pins line up in a lovely circle around the edge of the bowl that make it simple for grabbing one at a time.  What I didn't count on was an added bonus. The rails of my quilting machine are metal. I can put my bowl of pins on the rail, and it stays put. Woohoo!! Makes loading quilts ever so much easier.
On a separate note, I leaned a rather hard lesson yesterday - never ignore internal promptings to do something. I had been off work on vacation for 11 days, and several times during that period I had thought that I should go in to work and check and see if the new schedules were out, and put in my availability. I ignored it, thinking that when I went in Monday, yesterday, it would be time enough. WRONG!! I checked the schedule when I got there, and it had been filled in for me, and sent down to staffing, at which point no changes are allowed. So there are now more shifts filled in than I usually do, on days that I didn't want to work. Needless to say, I'm rather upset with myself. On the good side......... the pay checks will be good. I normally only do 6   8 hour shifts in a 2 week period. There are 8 1/2 shifts in one of the 2 week periods that are booked for me. The other 2 week period has 6 and the other has 7. This could be very interesting. Maybe I can add the extra shift funds into my trailer savings fund.........................??????

Design Wall Monday June 27

I have a confession to make. I went out to Best Buy the other night and picked up Season one of Star Trek, the Next Generation. Yes, I'm a Trekkie. There, I said it. And, while watching episodes 1 to 8, I prepped and glue basted My Tweets block for June. I am so enjoying doing this BOM. It is quite time intensive for the actual preparation of the blocks. But once they are prepared, they are the perfect take along project, needing only appropriate coloured embroidery floss, needle and a small pair of scissors. No pins to get stuck with, or drop all over at the most inconvenient time or place. Just pick it up and start sewing. It travels with me to work, and appointments and on car and camping trips. And it will be going to work with me this afternoon. After a break of 11 days, I'm back to work again. Why do days off always fly by so quickly? (sigh) To see more design walls, go on over to Judy's Patchwork Times Ther is always lots to see there. When I was there about 20 minutes ago, there were already 60 other walls to look at. Lots and lots of eye candy and inspiration.

Edit: LynCC from What a Hoot has asked that I link my BOM to her linky for BOM', so I've done that as well as linking with Judy

Stash Report Week 26

I finally have some more fabric use to report. I have caught up on all 5 of the customer quilts I had backlogged. One per day over the past week. Does that ever feel good, to have them done. I'll post pics in a separate post. The really great thing about being caught up is that I get to work on some of my own. I loaded on my Crazy Curves quilt yesterday, and got a really good start on it, before my tension went wonkey, which is my machine's way of telling me that we've had enough for the day. I also used up a small amount prepping June's My Tweets. So, the numbers:

Used this week:                           4.2 yards
Used this year:                            68.7 yards
Purchased this week:                   0
Purchased this year:                 95.5 yards
Balance:                                +26.8

I'm getting close to breaking even, and there have been no quilting fabric purchases since March. Not bad, not bad at all. And since no blog post is complete without a picture, here's one of the progress so far on Crazy Curves:

For more Stash Reports, go on over to Judy's Patchwork Times

Design Wall Monday June 20

There is nothing  new on my design wall today. Bear Tracks is still there, and unchanged. I spent last week starting to catch up on my backlog of customer quilts, and working 3-11 at the hospital. And then, we spent the weekend at the campground near to  Noel, Laurie and Avery. We were at the same park as last time, but a different campsite. This one was right on the water. We were able to open up the zipper at the end of the bed, and then lay there, and look out over the water while having our morning coffee in bed. This was part of the view:

While we were there, Noel, Laurie and Avery, and Laurie's parents came out for a campfire, and hamburgers cooked over the fire. Yummy. Avery had a great time............ he slept through almost the whole thing. But Grammy got to have quite a lot of cuddle time, while sitting at the campfire. What could be better?

Noel did the cooking. He doesn't have a great fondness for camping, but he sure does a great job of cooking over an open fire. We had roasted marshmallows, and pecan tarts for dessert, and Avery got to have his dinner inside the trailer. I wonder if we'll make a camper out of him? I can see future years of going up there, and having him come out to visit, and maybe even stay with Grammy and Grampy for a night or 2, or maybe even more. It can be guaranteed that by then, he won't be doing a lot of sleeping, like he does now. But, he sure is adorable.

The rest of this week isn't going to be anywhere near as much fun. I'm off work at the hospital until the weekend, so my goal is to get all my customer quilts finished. I'm well on the way to that goal, since I finished one today. I'll be loading another tomorrow. I want to be able to get them done, so that I can get to quilting the backlog of my own quilts.

Ooops........

I'm sitting here blog hopping and resting, and I was just looking at my post from yesterday, when it came out and hit me........ 2 sections of 2 different path blocks are turned the wrong way. Darn, drat and "oh bother" as Winnie the Pooh would say. Now I have to pick them out and turn them around. Rats. And I stared at that thing after it was up on the wall for quite a long time, and didn't see it. Good thing I looked at that picture again, and found it before the whole thing was together. A lot of mistakes in my quilts I will let go, but not those. That's what I get for being in a hurry, and for working on that quilt, instead of the customer ones I should be. LOL. So, having said that, I'd best go upstairs and put and hour, or so, into the quilt that is on the machine. (sigh)

Design Wall Monday June 13

Bear Tracks grew some more this past week and is still on my design wall. All the main blocks are done, and are half sewn together. There is still a fair bit of work left to do on it, though, in order to get all the border units done. Unfortunately, it's going to have to wait. There are more walls to look at over at Judy's Patchwork Times
I have a few customer quilts that have to get finished up. I've been badly procrastinating on them, and the pressure of knowing they are there waiting is starting to bother me. I'm working 3-11 Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so there won't be a whole lot accomplished these days. But I'm off for 11 days after this, some of which will be spent visiting Noel and Laurie and Avery. We're going up on Friday, coming back Sunday, hopefully armed with lots of pics. It's hard to fathom that tomorrow it will be 4 weeks since he was born. The time is flying too fast.  And speaking of time flying so fast, yesterday was Matt and Becca's first wedding anniversary.  It seems like just yesterday I was trying to get all the bridesmaids' dresses done. Wow! They have had a good year, though, and are growing together as a couple in the Lord. Matt wrote this to Becca:

Well sweetie, it's official now. 1yr! You are sleeping right now, but as I look and see how comfy and how content you look. I am truly blessed to have you as my wife. I thank God for these moments. 1yr ago my life changed for the better! I love you very much and look forward to many more years of happiness with you!

What mother could hope for more for her daughter.

Stash Report Week 24

Well, this has been one very busy, productive week. It was lovely outside, finally, so we got a lot of the work in the back yard done. Scott rebuilt the pond, an annual tradition, to make it look different, and give it a different sound with the water falling in a different pattern. 

Then, we got the old flower beds around the pond weeded, planted and mulched, and the new gazebo sunscreened area put up

And now we have a wonderful backyard retreat, and a lovely view for, among other things, morning coffee.

In addition to all the yard work, we finally finished putting the new M&M wheels on my Millie machine. WOW, what a difference in the way that machine moves, smooth and tone of control that I didn't have before. I can see a whole new way of being able to quilt coming. And finally, all of the main blocks for Bear Tracks are sewn, and most of the cutting for the border blocks is done. So my stash report numbers are up:

Fabric used this week:                             1.8 yards
Fabric used this year:                             64.5 yards
Fabric purchased this week:                        0 yards
Fabric purchased this year:                     95.5 yards
Balance:                                                  +31 yards

To see more stash reports, go on over to Judy's Patchwork Times

Design Wall Monday June 6

We finally have a decent summer day. The kind where we can comfortably sit outside in the yard on the swing for morning coffee. Pure bliss. The irises are in bloom, the roses just starting to show a bit of colour, and the peonies just starting to open up. The pond is partially reconstructed, and the water is gently trickling, making an attempt to cover up the occasional annoying barking from the dogs next door. There is barely any breeze, so, after I finish writing this, I am going to pack up what I need to work on Bear Tracks and bring it all outside.
My design wall has a couple of things on it. My progress so far on My Tweets and my progress so far On Bear Tracks.

And then, no post right now would be complete without a picture of the reason why there hasn't been any recent design walls, or much quilting going on. Our beautiful, adorable grandson Avery. This is going to one of the last current pictures I have of him, unless his Mom and Dad take pity on me and send some down. We don't know, right now, when we are going to be able to go back and see them again. I miss him so much already, and we just left them on Friday. He'll have changed so much by the time we get to see them again. (sigh)

If you want to see other inspirational design walls, pop on over to Judy's Patchwork Times There is always lots to see there.

Stash report Week 23

I haven't been doing a whole lot of stash reduction in the past couple of weeks. We've been spending the time either working, or visiting our recently enlarged family. I did get a My Tweets block all prepped, busting 12 inches, and then worked on Bear Tracks a little bit yesterday and today before going in to work, which used up another 18 inches. The reason for this lack of sewing? Our grandson Avery who was born 2 1/2 weeks ago. How's that for an excuse to slip in yet another picture of him? LOL!!

Now, to the numbers:

Fabric used this week:                30 inches
Fabric used this year:                  62.7 yards
Fabric purchased this week:        0
Fabric purchased this year:          95.5 yards
Balance:                                      + 28.3 yards

Go on over, if you want to see how others are reducing their stash, to Judy's place at Patchwork Times Her numbers are amazing for this week.

We're home.....

Why do vacation weeks always go so fast? We had to come home today, since both of us are working tomorrow. While we were gone this week, I managed to get all the pieces for My Tweets for May cut, prepped and glue basted onto the background, and then some stitching done. It is nice, so far, being able to keep up with this. The other challenges I started at the beginning of the year seem to have fallen by the wayside. But they've been replaced by a wonderful grandson.

We had to go over to say goodbye to Laurie and Avery before we left. He was awake today, and we got to have some playtime on his play mat. He is such a good tempered baby. Sleeps well, most of the time, except in the middle of the night, when most newborns think it is time to be awake. He was slow getting started gaining weight, but he's on his way up, now. It was really difficult saying goodbye, especially since we don't really know when we'll be able to go back up again. But Avery had a good chat with Grampy before we left. He is just the cutest thing ever.

Vacation time

Here we are, in the middle of our week's vacation up near our kids. The internet connection at the campground is a bit erratic, so I haven't been able to do as many posts as I would have liked. This evening, however, we are spending some time at Noel and Laurie's, with the baby and the hockey game. The campground we are at is rather nice. Sometime in the past someone planted scores of lilacs. They are all now in bloom, rather later than usual, due to our late spring. When the breeze blows out of a certain direction, the fragrance is absolutely heavenly. The campground itself is small, and not very busy at this time of year. We don't have the place all to ourselves, but it's pretty close to it. We've had one nice day, yesterday, but the rest of it has been pretty chilly

Of course, the main reason for coming up here was to spend time with Noel and Laurie and that precious grandson of ours. Becca and Matt came up on the weekend, and stayed at the campsite with us. Matt wasn't able to get time off when Avery was born, so this was Matt's first chance to meet him. I must say that he looks really good holding a baby. I've been teasing him that Avery needs a cousin. LOL And Becca is thrilled with the baby as well, and wanting one of her own. However, as much as I would love for them to have one of their own, they would be smart to wait a while.

And what would be a post, without a picture of that beautiful boy.