24 January 2013

A Big Change

I can't believe I haven't posted since the new year. Well, actually I can. It has been really crazy here. With the way everything worked out I was unable to really start all of my New Year's ideas but I figure February will be just as good. At least I hope I will be ready to go by then.

Anyway, the big change in our life was that we finally bought our very first (and only) house. It was a whirlwind 6 weeks. We started looking mid December. By December 13 we put in and offer and we finally closed on the 14 January. Talk about quick. We were able to get everything moved in by the night of the 15th and actually slept in our new home.

I can say moving all of this fabric was not pleasant. I am still working my way through all of the boxes and have a minute by minute conversation with myself about all of this stuff. Let me tell you there is alot of this stuff too.

I used to have a living and dining room area for my quilting, well I did expand to other rooms but that is not the point. I now have a long arm room, a quilt room and a ton of storage space. I refuse to expand out of those areas so some tough love might be coming my way.

Here are some lovely pictures of the house in progress.

Hopefully by next week, since I have another week off of work, I will be ready to sew with just a few things left to do.

The long arm room..It is kind of a tight fit but that is ok. The closet (below) is to die for. Buy a couple more cubbies and I am all set. 

Long arm room closet.


Oh yeah! I thought I was getting the whole basement, which would include this room but for some reason hubby wanted a study. What could I say? Well, I thought about NO but figured that wouldn't go across very well.

Basement bathroom. I made this the boys bathroom so I wouldn't have them in mine any longer. It does mean the have to go down to shower and brush but my bathroom will no longer have the boy mess in it.

This is the view from my husbands study out. My computer is now down here and is taking a little to get used to.

This is the den area I guess you could call it. This is only a fraction of the boxes that were originally there. this was filled to the top.

My sewing room. The desk the TV is on is no longer there but I have plenty of room. Well, now that i took part of my sewing table apart to get it to fit.

A very weird hallway in the sewing room. The little wall on the right is not very wide and it just there. We think it is to hold some type of house things but who knows. I have since but some shelves on the left wall.

The other side of sewing room. The shelf on the wall now holds my Isacord threads, the futon (left here by previous owners) is out in the den, and my cutting table now resides there.

This little cubby is behind the door and held this bookshelf perfectly. I will be needing to get some of those precuts used soon. And those boxes on the bottom, just a small portion of my WIP"S or UFO's. I really do need to get busy.

This is a weird little room on the left as soon as you come downstairs. We put the boys computers in there, the cat box, and those shelves are going to hold office supplies and whatever else I can't find a home for.  How's that for organizing?

Another view of the den area. The bookshelves have been moved to another wall which now hold all of our movies, the long chest is now on the same wall and will hold some more of my stuff. The futon now resides on that wall temporarily.
 
 
These are just the downstairs photo's. Hopefully soon I can show completed pictures of the whole house and maybe get back to some cool quilty and knitty photos as well.
 
Have a blessed week everyone. I am off to unpack some more boxes.
 
Michelle

04 January 2013

On The Needles 1/4/12

I finally have an on the needles post. Of course it looks like I was able to get a lot done but that is because my last post was probably a month ago.


I did finish my purple socks finally, they have even been washed and dried.



I also finished my red scarf.  I had originally bought this yarn to make some of the thicker beginner socks that I had been taught with. After, oh about 5 minutes of debating I realized I did like the sock weight or even sport weight better than the worsted weight so I had to decide on something else to do with this yarn. I used one skein to make the scarf and then since I bought two skeins, of course I figured a hat would be good out of the second skein. I am using the 7,8,9 pattern from Ravelry. I decided to do it with size 8 needles since that was the size I used for the scarf.  Let me tell you, after working with the smaller size 2.5 needles these feel like water hoses.


I also am, still, working on a sock. I was taught how to knit with the 4 dpns, but this pattern called for 5 and since I am still a novice and it was an easy, peasy sock I am following the instructions to the letter.  I have found that, so far, I do like using the extra needles. I don't get such a big gap when switching from one needle to another, which I get the other way no matter how tight I pull the first couple of stitches. I am sure I will get better as I go along. I sure hope I get brave enough to try some other patterns soon as well. At times it gets really boring using the same pattern over and over again.



I also bought a pattern to make a Kimono cardigan but that will have to wait awhile. I am really going to have to set some of this knitting aside to get some of these Dear Jane blocks appliqued but it is really hard to do....I also wish I was a speedy knitter but that isn't so.

I also received a lovely gift card from my Dear Jane students for Christmas.  So of course I went and bought some yarn, figured it would be easier to move than fabric.


I also finished a scarf for my mother, in that lovely ribbon twirly stuff but forgot to get a picture. Maybe I can make that my next weeks post.

I probably won't be able to post another needles Friday for awhile, well I could but it would probably be the exact same thing in the exact same spot, but I will be back.  I just have to move houses and get settled in first. Yarn is great...goes in buckets and is pretty light to move.  Fabric...well we won't go there.

For more on the needles head on over to Judy's. I so love going out and about on the various blogs to see what others are up to.  Although, it does add to my "want to do list".

Have a great day,

Michelle

01 January 2013

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone.  I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Years Eve.  I didn't stay up too late since I have to work this morning.  Our big sale at work. At least it is a short day for me.

I have two completions for the New Year....wish I would be able to keep this pace for the year that is for sure.

I am teaching a new class, Year of Schnibbles. So I have to be ahead of the game.  I finished January a long, long time ago.

Full House - Jan

 
Plan C - February
I meandered all over with white thread. I was hoping you could see the quilting a little bit better. I had this top quilted in maybe 10 minutes.

Plan - C
Full picture or as full as I could get without hunting down a chair to stand on.
 
Doc - Close up. I was under a time constraint so this one was also meandered all over with a multi-gray thread. The charm pack is Quilting blocks.

 
Doc - March
Again I tried to get the complete picture.  One of these days maybe.
 
 
I did machine sew the binding down. I also added a sleeve and label to both of them. I just have to finish hand sewing those down and they are totally done done.
 
I have April Schnibbles top down as well but that one will have to wait awhile.
 
With my time and circumstances changing I have had to really work hard to get ahead.  Which in my case is really hard when I can barely keep up.
 
Dear Jane this month will only have 7 blocks. I guess it is not that bad since in the last 19 months I have never done less than the 10 required. I am hoping to get at least 7 done for the Feb meeting but that might be difficult.
 
I am lucky that I was ahead on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler so that one just needed the blocks picked out.  I am technically good to go until March.
 
So this week will be playing get ahead and all of my New Year wants for quilting and knitting will have to start March 1, but that is ok right...
 
 
Have a great day and hope to be back sooner rather than later.
 
 
Michelle