Where Has the Time Gone?

I need to get more recent pics off my camera and onto the computer--I am so bad about that--but meanwhile, here is a quilt that I made from start to finish for a customer who will be donating it to raise money for a dog rescue. I was pleased with the outcome. I hope it will bring lots of money for such a good cause!



Wow, its been several days since I posted about the CED. I have been absolutely swamped with my longarm quilting business responsibilities--it is my busy time of year, getting quilts completed for my customers to give as Christmas gifts, plus working on new class samples for January-April, and quilting a few class samples for other teachers! But, I have been making at least a bit of time every day to create, sort of....

Saturday--no problem! My own little craft night while watching TV with DH. I worked on some charms for the Blue, Silver and White swap on Art Charms.

Sunday--Totally wiped out from working on the longarm all day. After I got the baby down, again, I sorted through some of my polymer clay buttons that I am planning on selling at up coming craft shows.

Monday--Not a very creative day, not much time. Cranky baby = cranky mommy. I spent a few minutes cutting down some quilted book covers--again for the craft shows.

Tuesday--Better. I put the baby in the backpack for about an hour and jazzed up some of my hand dyed scarves with metallic fabric paint! Fun, and so invigorating!

Wednesday--Varnished my paper beads for the Autumn charm swap on Adornmentz. Painted some papers that I will be using in my mini art journals, plus spent almost an hour sewing the edges on about 10 books--that was huge! I kept expecting the baby to wake up again, but he let me create! Good boy!

Today--The kids were off for Veteran's Day, so what better than to take a trip to McD's and craft ! We were there for about 2.5 hours, and I finished my Autumn Charms. Off to get a little more work done tonight....

CED Days 3 and 4

Well, yesterday was NOT the most creative day ever! Got off to a bad start--my son's preschool called early to cancel school for the day due to the teacher's having the stomach flu. While I am glad that my son didn't get it (knock on wood), it was kind of a bummer because that meant I had to miss my monthly Mixed Media Mavens meeting, which I was looking forward to. Can't expect a 4 year old to sit quietly while a bunch of women gab about art!

So, I had my hands full with the two little boys home, then early release day for my daughter. The afternoon was spent gathering up my supplies and samples to teach my Art Quilt Embellishment class last night. I am always frazzled getting ready for a class like that! It was fun, but a little stressful from a teacher point of view--I always want to make sure I am not forgetting anything! We played around with different ways to embellish with beads and buttons, plus Shrink Plastic, Fun Foam buttons, Model Magic and rubber stamps, wire wrapped beaded dodads and more!

Home by 9:00 to finish getting the kiddos off to bed and feed the baby. By 9:45pm, I was out in the garage finishing up a quilt on my longarm machine for a customer. I have a bunch of work deadlines looming and am feeling stressed about that. Back inside by 11:15, just in time for Baby to wake up again! Off to bed at 12:15, having done no real creating except for the few minutes that I was demo-ing during class. I guess that that will have to do!

Preschool was canceled again this morning, so I do have the two boys at home. But I am going to try to sneak in some creating after lunch, before I pick up my daugher from school.....

....Later that day.....Oh no, my son has the stomach flu! It came on this afternoon. He hadn't eaten much all day, said his tummy hurt at lunchtime, and was a little "off" all day. It came on just after dinner. He is sleeping now, but I am on alert.

On the creative front, I did get a few minutes to work on my daughter's Christmas present pink, white and black quilt before my son got sick. That's something!

Machine Quilting Fun

Here are a couple of things that I have machine quilted on my longarm machine recently. This first picture is of a border that I did on a customer's quilt. She had a very simple southwest star design in the center, and then this fabulous feather border print. She wanted the feathers to be outlined so that they really popped out. Took forever, but worth the effort I think!




This next piece is something that I did for myself. Remember those 1 yard hand dyed gradations from a couple of months ago? Well, I wanted to actually USE one, so I made a quilted tote bag. This is the front and the inside lining is the white part, which is actually not seen in the finished bag, but shows off the quilting design a little bit better. Did I remember to take a picture of the finished tote? Of course not--and now it is hanging at the Bernina store since they are selling my hand dyeds. So....I'll have to wait until I get it back or make another one. But I was pleased with the finished tote, and it was very gratifying to have made the whole thing from start to finish.