We dont' need no education....

WOW, what the heck was I thinking when I signed up for 4 classes?  Gosh, I have been so busy with work and school that I don't have much time to do anything other than study and post a quick status on my Facebook account *sigh*.  Oh well, it was to be expected I suppose.  Going forward, no more than 2 classes at a time in a semester lol. Homework finished for the night for CGS2520 (Word ch 2, hands-on exercises and quiz); MAR3370 (attended chat, watched 2 tutorials, and completed 1 quiz), and PHI2010 (began reading week 2 chapter readings) I'm tired. LOL Heading off to relax for a bit. Nite all!

Kerensa

Excited and nervous at the same time

Yes, I know, it has been almost a full month since I last posted here.  Sorry, I've always been this way.  I have many diaries that I started over the years and never continued.  I will keep trying my best to blog at least once a week.  The main thing that has been going on this past month is that my son moved out of the house and into an efficiency apartment with two of his co-workers so I turned his room into my quiltroom! :)  There is still room for a bed if he decides to come back home but it opened up my dining room for us to eat again LOL.

Sewing/Office

My sewing area and office combined

Sydney's Sewing area

I am really loving having my own room to run away to.  Now to get a TV in here too lol.  I haven't had much time to sew anything this past month other than sew together some leader/ender HSTs to make pinwheel blocks.  I think I am going to use them in my black and bright quilt but who knows, I may just keep going until I have enough to make an entire quilt. :) 

I was gone for the last week in Iowa on a business trip and thoroughly enjoyed myself!  We went to Coon Rapids, IA, and WOW the land is so beautiful.  I love the rolling hills and the neverending corn and soybean fields, not to mention the farmland with the cattle.  Some photos:



Coon Rapids, IA

Sculptures of the three basic views of IA's corn DNA :)

Wind Turbine, we need these in FL

Iowa State Fair, fried goodies lol

One of the rides at the state fair

I have more photos but don't want to put too many up on the blog.  Maybe one day I will set up pages for different parts of the blog and upload more photos.  I really enjoyed the trip, and getting to know my peers in our IA office and the country.  My flight back was horrible, we were supposed to leave at 11:25 AM so were at the Des Moines airport at 8 AM and found out after checking in and going through security that there was bad weather in Memphis, TN so our flight would be delayed.  Delayed h*ll!!!  I spent 8 hours at the airport and found out that the plane was struck by lightning and they had no more flights (with open seats) out of Des Moines to Memphis.  So they upgraded me to a flight to Atlanta, GA (first class) then to Valparaiso, FL but my flight didn't leave until 5:30 PM.  I finally arrived home around midnight.  That was one very long day, especially since I had to go back to work the next day lol.  At least it was a Friday. :)

On another note, I am so excited!  Classes at UWF start tomorrow!  *VBG*  I have been checking my online site every day but found out I can't access the classrooms until the first day of class so looks like I will have to wait until tomorrow evening after work to access it. :( 

Anyway, I need to get myself going.  I promised to make a couple more RWB quilt blocks for the Mary K Memorial quilt and I need to run down to K-Mart and pick up the family photos we had taken before Jamie moved out.  Until next time...

Kerensa



Oh what a day this was

So, I know it has been a while since I posted, sorry about that.  Going back to work, and getting back into the swing of things gets tiring don'tcha know. :)  Today the hubby daughter and I planned on going out to see the new Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows p2 in 3D then out to dinner since my son had to be at work at 3.  So there we were 1/2 way through the movie, just getting to the good part (the first hour was pretty boring to me) when my iPhone buzzed and lit up.  I checked the caller ID and it was my son so I answered.  Do you know how hard it is to try to whisper in a theatre? LOL, I ended up going out of the movie theater to call him back.  He promptly advised me that he had been in a car accident.  Of course, I freaked out!  But at least he was alive and talking. I asked him where he was and he said in the Walmart parking lot.  So I rushed back into the theatre, up 60 billion steps (or at least it felt like it) grabbed Randy and Sydney, and off we went.  Since I really wasn't too sure exactly what had happened I called him back and he said he was trying to find the owner of the "truck" he hit.  So we get there and it is pouring down rain, thunder, and lightning to boot and my son is standing outside in that weather looking scared to death!  I got out of the car with my umbrella and let hubby park my mom's car that we were borrowing since Jamie had mine, and I rushed over to check out my car.  The "truck" he "hit" was a 2007 Ford Expedition and all that happened to it was there were some scratches on the back driver's side panel, no dents, no cracks nothing, just a couple scratches!  What happened to MY car... well have a look-see...

Yep, looks like I will be needing a whole new door, or at least the outside panel.  What happened was that our Walmart has isles where some are one way and others are both ways, he went down a one-way aisle the wrong way and decided to "whip into" an open spot and misjudged the turn.  He didn't turn wide enough and hit the left rear bumper of the Expedition and dragged it down the side of the car door.  No one was in the Expedition when it happened.  The police officer said that since there was so little damage to the other vehicle he did not have to file an accident report, we could just exchange information.  So he filled out a driver's exchange of information report and told me to call my insurance company.  My son told me he was not afraid of the people whose car he hit, or of the cop, he was afraid of me and how upset I would be.  I told him that the car is replaceable, but he isn't so although I was upset that my poor car was damaged, not to mention the red clay he got all over it last night while out in the woods to go swimming, (I have had this 2006 Ford Taurus since 2006 with no accidents!!!). I told him I was thankful that no one was hurt.  He apologized to the owner of the Expedition over 5 times while I was there.  So now I have to come up with the money to pay the $500 deductible to get the door fixed, depending on what the claims adjuster has to say and the quote the body shop gives us on Monday.  At least the car is still drivable so he can continue to go back and forth to college and work.  I'm really scared about how much my car insurance will go up.  Thank goodness I had full coverage even though my car is paid off! :-D

Since the movie was a washout and hubby and I was soaked to the bone from standing out in the pouring rain (Sydney was safe and dry in the car and Jamie had his work uniform in the car and could change once he got to work) we decided to just pick up a super supreme pan pizza from Pizza Hut, yummmmmmmm, and came home and watched Blue Crush 2.  That was a pretty good movie!  Everyone else decided to go to bed on me and Jamie is still at work until midnight so I decided to start working on my retreat bag, which I plan on using as a purse depending on how it turns out lol.  I picked up the strips from Mom's after playing around with them to decide on how I wanted them arranged. Daddy has to work tonight so I couldn't sew over there so I brought the strips home and merrily sewed them all together and pressed the seams:

Merrily sewing jelly roll strips

Strips all sewn together

Tomorrow while daddy is sleeping Mom and I will start working on putting the bag together.  I'm excited but nervous too.  We spent a LOT of money on all this fabric so it better turn out right ;-). 

Anyway, I guess I'm going to go play Gardens of Time on Facebook for a bit.  I'm still nervous right now about Jamie driving home tonight so most likely won't go to bed until he gets home around midnight.  TTFN and happy quilting!

Kerensa

Lazy Dayz

Well, my vacation is almost over and I really haven't done much of anything other than running to appointments or shopping. :(  I'm very disappointed with myself.  I have been so tired I just don't want to do anything.  I had my sleep study on Saturday night.  Doc thinks some of my problems are that I am not really sleeping at night which is causing my extreme tiredness/lethargy during the day.  Found out I am allergic to the adhesive they used to attach the wires to my shoulders, neck, and face :/  The swelling is going down finally, although it still burns a little and is somewhat sore where it's raised up.  I had so many plans for my time off to quilt that I didn't do it.  Sydney didn't finish her quilt top either but she has a better excuse.  My brother brought his four girls down to stay the week and Sydney has been babysitting them.  She told me she may just surprise me with a completed top when I come home from work one night. :)  I really hope she does and that she really likes it because this is something I would like to do with her on a regular basis!  Other than that there really isn't much to talk about since I didn't do much.  Later.

Kerensa

RRCB

So I have decided that my next project is going to be Bonnie Hunter's RRCB, or Roll Roll Cotton Boll mystery quilt!  The reason I chose this one is because Bonnie is so great at "shopping" her stash and making scrappy quilts.  I'm afraid of my stash of scraps so I figured this may help me get over that fear lol.  My first step is to shop my stash for all of the fabric requirements.  I don't have much in the way of neutrals for the background so I may have to buy yardard for that, but I do have plenty of fat quarters that I have picked up and/or traded over the years for the rest of the quilt.  I will post photos as I progress, starting with my stash and what I pick out.  For now, I need to go help Sydney with the rest of her quilt top.  I have decided to use Mom's embroidery machine with her Quilt Works program to quilt my table runner since my Pfaff is having bobbin tension problems right now O_o.  I'll be back later.

Kerensa

Returning to Morocco

Today is officially the third day of my 10-day vacation.  Saturday I really didn't do much, just lazed around catching up on TV shows.  Yesterday I didn't do much either but we had a really awesome storm, including hail:

View from inside the house

Yep, it's coming up fast

yikes

Two pieces of hail that hit me!  About the size of small marbles. 

The yard was covered in hail bouncing around everywhere.  I was just keeping my fingers crossed that they didn't get bigger and damage the cars.  I can say the temperature dropped about 20 degrees from 102 down to 88 or so.  Felt really great outside after the storm passed.  Unfortunately, the lightening zapped the phone box down the road and half of the area has been without phone and internet service for 2 days now!  I was jonesing really bad for Facebook and my blog LOL  Finally they got it back on around 7 tonight.  



Today Mom and I went to Margie's Quilt Shop to try to find fabrics to make the purses we got the pattern for.  We had so much fun shopping and looking around!  See what we got:

 

Fairy Frost fabric and charm squares to make this bag for mom:

That was the bag that I wanted to make but I couldn't find any charm squares in the batik colors I wanted since I really wanted the bag exactly as it is shown in blues and greens so while I was browsing the fabrics I found...Dragonfly Summer jelly roll, the LAST one!!!! :)  For those who have read my blog the Dragonfly Summer fabric collection by Moda has been on my want list since I first found it online.  So needless to say this is the fabric I chose to get for my bag:

This bag has directions for charm squares, strips, or whole cloth.  Now I have never in my life ever made anything like this before!  I'm very nervous, especially with how much the fabric cost us, so no room for mistakes!  However, mom has made clothing and other things before so she has promised to help me make them :). 

So after we went fabric and then grocery shopping I came home and told my daughter Sydney that today was a mother/daughter craft day.  She was very excited about this so I pulled out a HUGE stack of charm squares that I have collected over the years through swaps and gifts etc along with some old off-white background fabric squares and taught her first how to separate them into light and dark stacks, starch and press the squares, then how to measure and square up all of the blocks to a 5x5 size with the rotary cutter.  She then got on the living room floor and began playing with the block layout.  She is just going to do a simple lap quilt for herself.  Here is her progress so far:

Sydney pressing charm squares

Sydney playing with block layout/design

The Singer machine mom loaned Sydney to learn on and her rows of blocks labeled and ready to sew

And since I'm showing sewing machines, here is my lovely Pfaff:



While I was at Margie's today I found a long-arm quilting machine (I think it was a Bernina, but could have been a Janome) I really, really want to get one one day!  But that will be when I am more experienced.  Margies has quilting classes and I am hoping to take their Beginner Quilting class and also take the SNIPS CATCH-IT & PINCUSHION class with Sydney.  The only problem with this class is it is on Wednesdays and I have to work.  The next one is on July 13th so we shall see if I can afford to take a couple hours off to take her and then go back to work.  Who knows. 

So anyway, while Sydney was working on her charm squares I finally broke down and made my Return to Morocco table runner and I think it turned out pretty darn good!  In hindsight, I would probably change my "medium" color since it blends a little too well but overall I LOVE LOVE LOVE it and the fabrics match so perfectly with my house decor.  So here we are from start to finish:

Three fabrics to start with and the instructions

All the pieces cut

HST (half square triangles) of light and dark fabrics

HST's added to other pieces

Cut in half ready to make flying geese

Flying geese left and right

Geese combined together

and now for the grand finale (sorry, got carried away and didn't take other pictures lol)

Return to Morocco table runner

pattern by Far-Flung Quilts Carolyn Griffin

Close up

So...what do you think?  I know, it blends in really REALLY well with my wall but I haven't quilted it or put on binding yet, that is for tomorrow. ;)  I'm very proud of myself, it's a great-looking table runner, especially for my first one and it only took me about 3 hours to make from start to finish, including helping Sydney out with hers.

Well, I suppose that is about all for tonight.  Maybe one day I will get some of these patterns and photos put on their own tabs.  Need to learn more about blogging first though lol.  Until next time, happy quilting!

Kerensa





Electric Quiltin'

I haven't had much energy today to do more than watch movies and play on the laptop while doing so.  Today I watched Burlesque with Cher and Christina Agulera (sp?).  I loved the movie.  Not an actual musical like I thought it would be but really good.  Watched most of Black Swan until the kids got home then turned it off as it was a tad bit racy.  Will have to watch it later on when the kids aren't around.  Hubby and Jamie are currently watching The Green Hornet.  So while I was watching TV all day I played around with my EQ 5 program (Electric Quilt) and designed three quilts as well as did a mystery quilt tutorial from EQ.  Have a peek:

Earthy Bargello

Red and Black

Trip Around the World (with hubby's help)

Electric Quilts' Mystery quilt 'EQuinox"



So, even though I didn't actually 'sew' today, I did do some 'quilting' lol.  I'm more tired than I should be and tomorrow is back to work and training so have to get some rest tonight. Anyway, Mom just called me and she tried her hand at a homemade NY-style cheesecake and wants me to come try it.  Who can turn down cheesecake?  Not me! lol  Until next time, happy quilting!

Kerensa