WIP Wednesday

I am so far behind!!!! I can clean house, or quilt, or walk but I can't seem to do them all in the same time period. If I do one I can't find time or energy to do the others. In addition, trying to keep up with my friends blogs, struggle with changing e-mail addresses to the whole world (it doesn't seem like an exageration), and trying to figure out why my e-mail insists on going out on the old server when I send it through the new hi speed server is making me gaga! The more Joe fiddles with the settings the more messed up it all becomes. Where is my computer guru when I need him or her?!!! And I can't even soothe the savage beast by scarfing down chocolate! Aarrggggg!!!!!


Now that I've gotten that howl out of my system here is what is in progress. I finally finished the kids quilt top for the 40 Quilts Service Project; I'll press it and mail it to Deb G. for quilting tomorrow. Here is a photo of it spread out on top of the backing fabric to make sure that the backing is big enough. I really like the looks of this pattern with this fabric. Beth, thanks for sending me this cute striped fabric. There was even enough to make the entire backing in three pieces, and the piecing doesn't show much because of the stripes. This is the largest quilt top I've ever done; up till now I've only done crib size quilts and the small journal quilts.

In the background of this photo on the cutting table are pieces and parts for my March 12 x 12 which is due tomorrow but is most probably going to be revealed later this week. I picked up some yummy Razzle Dazzle thread from Ricky Timms at the Creative Cloth Closet in Canon City and owner, Denise, showed me how she embellishes her pieces by machine couching this thread with invisible thread. It will take me a while to practice this and then do it on the March piece.

The house cleaning I've been trying to do in the midst of all this is get the clutter out of the office, where Joe and I run our business and I do my internet surfing and blogging and photo printing on fabric, etc. We haven't been able to get to the closet at the back since January because the space is full of storage files in bankers boxes. Sunday Joe decided that we could get some plastic boxes for the storage files and then he can store them in an outside storage shed, safe from the mice that got into my Christmas decorations and other goodies. I don't know why I never thought of this myself since I use plastic storage boxes for my fabrics, paints, stamps and ink pads, beads, etc. We found some cheap boxes, just the right size, at Wal Mart and I am in the process of transferring the files from cardboard and file cabinet to plastic. Here is a photo of some of them in the hallway next to the kitty condo and toys.

The weather is so gorgeous, in the 70s for the last several days, and as I walked past the fallow garden on the way to my daily walk, it was all I could do to keep from stopping and cleaning up the old brown stalks and debris, but I had steps to go before I could garden. After getting my breathe when I got back I forced myself to go to the sewing machine and finish attaching those last borders and getting the backing ready so it could go out tomorrow. I've got to get some work done in the garden before St. Pat's because that is when the peas, potatoes, lettuces, spinach, and radishes need to be planted.

Then Mandy, Amber and I plan to drive to Salt Lake City to visit daughter, Shay and grandkids, Samantha, Rachel and Evan during Spring Break. We try to go to SLC every year over Spring Break, but usually daughter, Kat, goes with me, also, but this year she doesn't feel like riding in a car with an active 4 year old boy, Evan, for that many hours. So Amber will go to keep Mandy in line, heehee, and I plan to take the girls to visit the campus at Utah University so they can start to get an idea of what to expect when they get out of high school. Hopefully, I'll get to visit some quilt exhibits while there since Utah women are known for being great quilters.

Here's a great photo of Mandy's brothers, Evan (4) and Ben (17) on a walk along Bijou Creek near Byers that son, Greg sent yesterday. Ben is often known to hide his face from cameras, so this is a special occassion. They sure look alike, don't they? Notice that the grass and trees show no signs of Spring yet on the Colorado prairie.