Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Things are not exactly going my way right now!!!

So,School is really stressful right now, but it is not the work or studying. It is a class mate!!! You know, the kind of person that does whatever it takes to get attention? My nerves are just about shot. This class mate is loud, obnoxious, and just plain annoying. She has to talk constantly, taps her foot during exams very loudly, starts singing while sounding horrible, and brings a lot of personal drama into the class room. This may sound very badly right now, but I almost hope she will fail out of the program, just so the rest of us can have some peace and quiet. I swear, I am not a bad person, but she just brings out the worse in me. I am working very hard all day to just hold my tongue and focus on other things, to block her out. I know if I say something, or show that she is getting my attention she wins. So, if you are praying to God, or at this point I take any higher power, pray for me to keep my cool, and to be able to just block her out.

With knitting I have nothing new to report. Currently I am just not in the knitting mood. My heart beats again for quilting. I decided to add on another row on my Buckeye Beauty, to make it into a Queen sized quilt. I hope to get some quilting time in tonight, and for the rest of the week. I would really love to have the top finished, so I can quilt it on the Quilt Retreat at the end of the month. This is my plan so far, after dinner I will study for tomorrows exam, and then I want to quilt and see if I can get these blocks I have sewn together, and perhaps start on the new blocks.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Patriotic Quilt

I have been to my church for quilt group today, and got an update on my Patriotic Throw Quilt. We have turned it for the last time, and found out to my horror, that the top is so stretched out of shape, I need to add on more backing to quilt the last border. Mind you, I did cut the backing 6 inches longer than the quilt. So I guess this one will have a pieced back (which I hate) or end up in the "I don't like you anymore, so I won't finish you" pile. Needless to say, I am quite upset about it, and feel like I don't even want to bother with it anymore. :-( So it might be a little while until I get over that one.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Some updates to my Blog

Just in case you haven't noticed it, I put some additions on my blog. On the right side of the screen you see my UFO List. This is by far not a complete list of my UFOs, but it is all I could think of at the moment. I will add to it as I find more UFOs and as I start more projects. I also added some links below my list for free Quilt Patterns on the Internet. If you can think of a good site to add to my list, please let me know, and I will add it. If you have a blog or website, and you publish patterns, or sell quilt related items, please feel free to let me know, and I will certainly add your link to my blog, so my readers may visit your site or blog.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

This and That, and a lot of nonsense

Well, I could bore you with excuses why have not updated for a while, or I can just tell you the truth. I was so busy I forgot.

School is going really well. My grades are up, and I seem to have fallen into a good rhythm between school, studying, housework, and family. It seems to work out so far. I also started to volunteer at a local hospital on the weekends, in order to learn more, and perhaps to get a better chance of getting hired once I graduate.

I have not been knitting much lately. I started on the second front piece of my sweater, which needs the buttonholes knitted into. But I don't quite like the buttonhole placement. So I think my best bet is to rip it out, start over, and figure out where to put my buttonholes, if any. Since it is in chocolate brown I thought those big wooden sticks we used back in the 1970s to close our coats with would look nice. For those I can add loops after finishing with the I-cord method. But as I said, I still need to figure it out, so it is on hold right now, until I have figured out what I want to do with it.

I actually quilted a little again, and here is proof of it.




The OhioQuilters Yahoo Group had a Stay-at-Home Retreat last weekend, and it was fun. We got to stay at home, sew, chatter on the computer, look at each others projects, play Bingo, and win prizes (not me, but that is OK, because my friends won, makes me just as happy). I finished assembling the blocks I started at a Quilt Retreat I attended back in September 2011. Now I am slowly getting the blocks sewn together, one or two seams a night after all the other obligations have been met. The pattern is a Buckeye Beauty, and I followed Eleanor Burns' instructions. I should have read all of the instructions before I started, because I could have saved a lot of extra steps. The pattern was designed for a scrappy quilt, and if you have controlled colors, you can save a lot of steps. Oh well, lesson learned, and I will do better next time.

Speaking of Eleanor Burns, I went shopping. I love to sew with her so much, I bought several companion DVDs to the books I own from her. I am so looking forward to quilting with her. I can't wait for FedEx to get here.

I am so tempted to start a new project, but am fighting the urge really hard. I have so many started projects that I want to get some of them finished before starting another one. I feel inspired by my MIL to do this, because she has the same plans, and her reasoning for it makes sense. Her and I both are just starting to run out of places to store UFOs at. I am doing one better. My MIL is still bringing home fabrics, and I decided to start making scrap quilts with the fabrics I have. This will be a new experience for me, because I really try to control everything. But I think getting out of my comfort zone will be good for me. So now all I am allowed to buy is background fabric (if needed, can't give up control there just yet), backing fabric (I just don't like seams in my backing), and of course batting to finish my quilts. I am not sure about thread, I found a lot of thread when I was sorting out my sewing room, and think I am set for a while, unless I need special colors for quilting my quilt sandwich, but for piecing I am set. So far I have been doing good with my No-Buying Policy. But then again, the year is still young, and I am weak. But I will try my hardest, and try to keep you updated on my efforts. It is not easy driving past that quilt store twice a day going to school and back home.

Friday, January 6, 2012

My Christmas Break is Almost Over

On Monday it is back to School for me again, and with that also back to homework and studying, and all the other stress that comes with it. Especially squeezing all my chores and fun things into before and after School. But am I weird that I am looking forward to it? Some of the women in my class groan about school. For me it is a welcome step toward what I want to do with my life, now that the kids are old enough that I get to be selfish again. As I prepare for school, and drive there in the mornings, I dream of the job I want to get. While I am studying for my test (every day one in each subject), I can see myself using that knowledge in my dream job. To me school is the gateway to a new chapter in my life, that will bring a bright future with it. I feel like I am the only one with this positive outlook in class. Why can't the rest get enthusiastic about what we are doing? After all, it is not prison, it is school you sign up for. Nobody is chaining anyone to the chair, or is making anyone stay. Why are people so negative about the things they chose to do. If they don't like school, I am sure there are jobs that do not require medical classes, and long hours of studying. I don't see how it will be about the money either, because believe me, there is nobody getting rich in this job. What it all boils down to is, I just don't understand people.

On a crafty subject, I have some knitting and quilting goals for January. I am knitting on the kal for socks I told about in my last post. My goal is to get these socks done in January. I am also knitting a Chocolate Sweater since December of last year. I just started the second front of it, and plan to finish it off this month also. I really love the pattern. It is from the 1980's from the book "Maine Island Knits". The body is knit in a chicken wire pattern, and there are supposed to be chicken knit into the right front chest area, but I opted to knit this sweater without the chicken. I think it still looks very good. On the quilting front, I want to finish the quilt top for my older daughters graduation quilt. I started in at my last Quilt Retreat back in September 2011, and haven't touched it since. I started it as a twin sized quilt, but will have to make extra blocks to enlarge it to a full sized quilt. I am using the "Buckeye Beauty" pattern by Eleanore Burns for it. I thought it was fitting, since my daughter is a Buckeye Beauty herself.

Well, I better head off to my sewing room, and see what I can get done today. Have a great day!!!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Under what rock have I been hiding?

I have been gone from my blog a long time, and have absolutely nothing to show for. Oh, I have been quilting and knitting, but just nothing is finished.

I finally unpacked my sewing stuff from my last Quilt-Retreat I was on in September. Yes, I was not even in the mood to set my sewing machine back up. But I have been hand-quilting at church on Friday's. We are working on my Patriotic Throw. I am hoping to get quilting some more again, and maybe get something accomplished.

I also have been knitting, just nothing finished. I have several sweaters half way, and in some cases more than half way done. I am also knitting another pair of socks, from a kal (knit-a-long).

But I do have a plan to solve this conundrum I am in. I plan on knitting, and sewing for 30 minutes each day. I have to see how I will work it into my schedule when school starts again next week. But I think I can handle school, studying, knitting, quilting, and housework. Other women do every day, and after all, it is all about priorities. I fear time for me was just not on the top of the list. I also think it might be good to limit my time on the computer again. During my break now, I noticed how I spent more and more time each day on the computer, instead on things I really wanted to do. Here is a promise to myself. I will make time for myself each day and do what pleases me for just a little while.