Thursday, January 02, 2014

New Years Day Annual Sew-In


My Thursday Bee came over for our annual Sew In at my studio.   Just woke up from a 2 hour nap after everyone left.  Sewing  is such hard work!

Finished putting the binding and label on my '4 on the floor - Flannel quilt.  60 x 80" 8 yards from stash.    Don't know if this counts, but gave away 5 pounds of 2, 2.5 and 3inch strips.  At our fabric by the pound sale next week, we figure that 1 pound of fabric is about 3.5 yards (Darker fabarics weigh more than light colored fabric!)  So, by that calculation another 17.5 yards from some really old stash (like from the 80s and 90s) .

Last year on New Years Day, we did a 'Jelly roll Race' with strips cut from my stash.  We measured out about 13 oz each for all our Bee members.  We -  in our estimation- figured 13 oz came out to about a good sized Jelly roll  (i.e. 42 2.5" strips)  We did not want to count strips, so we weighed the fabric.  See the quilts that we turned in to the Comfort Quilters.  Nita says these were the first ones to be selected at the nursing home due to the bright colors!







http://www.shady-wood.com/images/gallery/bee-jellyroll.jpg

Sunday, November 24, 2013

UFO's for 2013

 Every year for the past several years, I've listed my top priority projects that have been UFO's (UnFinishedObjects) that I wanted to finish for the year.   Well, at the beginning of 2013, we had just moved not only our home, but our business (T-Shirt Quilts of Texas and Shadywood Quilts).  Not an easy task, let me just say...
 
We moved right before the Christmas/holiday rush began..   We had contractors building out our new studio, and we were only down about 2 weeks, and then we were working round the clock to fulfill orders.  Granted, there were a few local folks picking up their quilts on Christmas Eve, but hey.. EVERYONE got their quilts before Christmas!  Whoo Hoo!
 
This year, we made the cut off date a wee bit earlier (last weekend) so hopefully, we can enjoy a trip to visit the kids over Thanksgiving, and still get everything done.

Saturday, September 08, 2012

We're HERE!

We have finally finished moving all of our  crap - junk stuff, that we have been accumulating for over 30 years.  We moved from 3/4 acre home with apartment, studio, garage, barn and STUDIO to our new place on 2 acres, larger studio, and HUGE 40 x 30 Barn/Airpane hangar  for Jon.  No garage, so guess where all of the stuff that had accumulated in the garage, apartment, barn and all of the built-ins from the house landed?  Poor Jon, the barn is filled to the gills with antiques, candle making stuff, studio stuff, garden stuff,  every peice of wire, wood, motorcyle and airplane part.  Not to mention all the tools and the AIRPLANE that is out there.   Oh, did I mention that the airplane almost did NOT fit in?  That was NOT a funney moment, when the last thing in was the airplane and it wouldn't fit.  Several things came out, and and we finally got it parked at angle.

OK, here is my studio in process.   At the back is the office and store room.   The steel building was in place when we bought the property, but was was uninsulated bare walls.   We had to add bug proofing, insulation electrical and so on...... 



Flash forward to the sheetrock.  

We have primed, painted, added flooring.  Oh, and a powder room!  Enough is done that we could start the move.  Oh boy, everything landed in the middle of the room.  Piles and stacxks and of bolts of fabric.  Of course all of the back orders of fabric have been arriving.    Did I mention that we had a lot of built in shelving and cabinets at the old house?  Slight miscalculation.   We have no place to PUT things.

Got the quilting machine set up today, a corner for my sewing area, and actually quite a bit of progress.  Had a bunch of built in shelving and cabinets that we couldn't take with us.   I would show pictures, but the camera cables are packed somewhere and I have not located them yet.  I am sure it is in some box the packers labled  "living room misc".  Good grief. 

We had to fire the movers.  Took them 8 hours to load and unload one trailer full of boxes.  They conveniently didn't load the BIG heavy stuff  and when we would point and indicate we wanted the 'big desk'  or 'heavy armoire'  they would sign and indicate that it would need to go on last in the trailer.  Well, then the trailer was too full, and would have to be next trip.   Anyway, long story short, we told them not to come back, paid them off and rented a U-Haul  truck.  Jon and I spent the next 4 days loading and unloading the stupid truck.  needless to say, we didn't get all the things done this week we wanted to, but managed to get everything done.  We both agreed we are too old to be doing this, and I kept suggesting we hire someone else (Labor day weekend - no change).  So, we sweated, hauled and heaved and got it done.

Funny how you get used to little things.  I'm used to the kitchen sink being on the right.  I keep going in and placing dirty dishes on the stove!   Tonight, still had not located the can opener, and Jon used his swiss army knife to get the can open.  He is kinda handy to have around.

Well, more later.




Sunday, August 19, 2012

New Home, New Studio, New Look

Well, it has been awhile since I've posted, but it's because I have been super busy with graduation quilts, buying a new house, and getting ready for moving to new location.  Wow-  a lot has been going on.  Tried FB for awhile, but that is is not as gratifying as blogging.  Hope  I can be more consistant in the posting.

Well, the big new is that we are MOVING!  The movers come September 1, 2012.    I sure hope the new studio is complete by then.  Of course, that is optimistic as they haven't started on my building yet.  Bummer.

East end of new studio.
Here is current photo of studio.....   Right now, it is a mostly empty steel building.  A whopping 24' by 40'  building.  Bare walls, a few lights hanging and two garage doors.  This is the new building for T-Shirt Quilts of Texas and Shadywood Quilts.  We are moving September 1st, and we have NOT started on my buildout yet!  Yikes!!!!

The double garage door you see faces East  and will be replaced with  a solid wall and a couple of windows. 

The west end, is a solid wall with a couple of windows and we are adding an office, half bath and kitchen-ette.


West end of studio
 The contractor (and hubby) assure me that it will be ready by September 1, when the movers are coming to move us, lock, stock and barrel to the new location.

We have to finish hubby's new building, so we have a place to put all of our STUFF!  We currently have an attic, garage, barn and LOTS of stuff that we need to transport to his barn while we are moving. 

I am so excited, and can hardly wait for them to start, but the contractor says it will just take a week to do the build-out and they assure me that it will be done by the time we move.  We'll see....

OK, this is the BEFORE pictures.  I will post as we make progress.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Quilty Field Trip With Friends

The Daystrippers Bee (Tri-County Quilt Guild) went on a field trip to the quilt show at The Woodlands last Friday.  We crammed six of us into Shelly's SUV, and went to the show, lunch and then to Quilters Crossing in Tomball.    Pictured are Beverly, Katherine, Betty, Diana, Shelley and Barbara C.

That quilt we were standing in front of did NOT win a ribbon.  It was thousands of little tiny 3/4 inch squares to make that scene.  Should have won something, it was  neat quilt.   Speaking of winning, I did win a rolling chair in the Tin can raffle.   It only takes one ticket!!

Lots of vendors at the show, not really anything new, except for the Ruler Revolution bunch.  They are local, and I think her rulers are in the local shops, but have not hit the distributors yet.  Take a look at them.

Lunch was at Rico's just off of 45.  Ran into some friends from West Houston, who took the picture for us.

Then we stopped at one of our favorite quilt shops.   Quilters Crossing in Tomball where Deb and Mandy have a great selection of batiks and bright colored fabrics.  HUGE classroom, and lots of classes. 

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Needle Felted Pin Cushions














I found a cool tutorial on WC Mercantile website  for making needle felted pin cushions.   Well, I have quite a 'fondness' for pin-cushions (OK, I'm a bit obsessed)  and even picked up a couple of containers at the WC Mercantile shop in Navasota to make these little creations.  Now, you have to understand.  My Thursday Night (Quilt) Bee exchanges 'homemade' gifts each year at our Christmas party.  (Yes- Christmas - not Holiday).  there are 14 of us, so that means making at least 13 of something.... Not always easy to come up with an ideas of the time to do it.  In past years, I've always wooosed out by buying Quilt calenders for everyone.  but, if you look at last years gifts  Mariet and a couple of others upped the ante on creativeness...  So, I've been thinking about making felted pin-cushions since this past summer.  

 I found pottery type votive containers on eBay, and they have been sitting on my dining room table since July!  Finally got them done last week, and can show the pictures now that the party was last Thursday.  Oh,  I did NOT hand needle felt these like in the tutorial.  I have one of those fancy dancy felting machines (Pfaff 350) that I got at Quilt festival a couple of years ago.  I used Wool Batting that I kind of shredded for the stuffing and as the base for the needle felting.  I used wool roving for the color swirls and machine felted the crud out of it.  Then made the pin cushion.

Got lots of cool things from the Bee members.  Cherry Salsa, some AWESOME Rum Cake,  a knitted Cowl from Michelle, a knitted/felted pin cushion from Mariet (these are COOL), Cup Cozies, Shoe pants, Texas Pin cushions (see a theme going on here..) and several other cool items.  

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Doing a Little Dyeing



Yarn drying on the back porch

This summer, a couple of my knitting/quilting friends came over to the house for a day of experimenting with dyeing yarn.    Most of the dyeing was in the microwave, but we did some in the crockpot as well ( the brown & turquoise ones).  Mariet made a big bucket of Indigo dye, which was really fascinating.  It's GREEN when you first look at it, and pull the yarn out of the mix.   Then as you watch it magically starts turning blue.  A couple of the hanks were pretty bright, so we experimented with over-dyeing in the left-over indigo bath.




These are the ones I dyed.


Friday, November 18, 2011

New Grandbabies! Yes - that is Plural!

You all just think I've abandoned this blog, but actually there has been lots going on.  The best is that both my daughters were pregnant at the same time.  Due dates were just 3 weeks apart. Well, little Julia Kathyrn was born October 13, at a healthy 8 pounds, 10 oz.    I spent a couple of weeks in Atlanta, helping out with Chloe and little Julia.  What fun spending time with Rachaels family.


Had to miss Quilt Market and Quilt Festival this year, but that's OK, Lindsey had her first child - Olive Elena - and as her father said " A modest 9 ibs, 10 oz"   What a big girl!  She is also a pretty one - with the Moormann nose!   Sorry kiddo. You'll grow into it!  :)



Olive Elena Naumann - 2 days