Moda Bake Shop

Have you been to the bake shop? I just found via a blog I stumbled upon. Thank goodness the calories are only fabric. Otherwise I would be in EVEN more trouble. Check it out.

Moda Bake Shop

Tuesday's Guild Meeting

Tuesday's meeting featured Marg Higgins, who is a member of the guild. What a great trunk show. Marg gave us permission not to follow the rules we all have learned as quilters. She taught us that it's OK if the quilt police like your "art quilts". They are yours and if you like them, that's all that matters. Below are some of the pictures I took of her quilts.

This quilt made me smile. When she held it up all I could think was WOW that's a true Velvet Elvis. Sure enough, Marg found a velvet picture at a garage sale and turned it into a TOTALLY cool wall hanging. She added glitter to the picture and spiced up the flowers. The quilting was great because it enhanced, not distracted.

Marg's coat of many colors. She said she only wears it when she has time to talk to people. Definitely one of those items that makes you stop and want to talk to the person that's wearing it.
This wall hanging really intrigued me. Marg used left over pieces from a quilt that hands on it. The green that makes the leaves or stems for the flowers is actually her hand turned upside down. What a great idea. Instead of wasting something that was wonder undered to beautiful fabric, she re purposed it. The color on the bottom is a south American belt that she attached to the wall hanging and then embellished like mad.
This picture is of a wall hanging that was very embellished. It was very interesting to all of the things she had attached - yarn that was couched, beads, fringe, etc.
I don't know why, but I love this piece. It really caught my eye (HA HA HA). In all seriousness, I do really like it.
Have a great night.

Do You Know??? CPSIA

(you can get this cute design here)

Did I get your attention? If not, please read on.

As parents and concerned citizens I’m sure most of us at one time or another has been confronted with the question of lead poisoning. But have you asked yourself what your government is doing to protect your children from lead contained in toys? The answer? They're banning toys, taking books from schools and libraries, hurting low income families, killing entrepreneurial spirit and risking putting the economy in an even greater depression than we've seen in decades. I'd like to introduce you to their solution: the CPSIA.

Do you know about the CPSIA? No? Then I ask you to take a few minutes to find out about it.

The CPSIA stands for Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a new set of laws that will come into effect on 10 February, 2009 and will impact many, many people in a negative way. Make no mistake, this is very real. View it for yourself. If Forbes, the American Library Association and numerous other media are paying attention, perhaps you should too.

How will these new laws affect you and people like me? Well, here are a few examples:

To the Parents of Young Students:

Due to the new law, expect to see the cost of school supplies sky rocket. While those paper clips weren't originally intended for your student to use, they will need to be tested now that your 11-year-old needs them for his school project. This law applies to any and all school supplies (textbooks, pencils, crayons, paper, etc.) being used by children under 12.

To the Avid Reader:

Due to the new law, all children's books will be pulled from library and school shelves, as there is no exemption for them. That’s okay though, there's always television. Our children don’t need to learn the love of reading after all. Article from the American Library Association

To the Lover of All Things Handmade:

Due to the new law, you will now be given a cotton ball and an instruction manual so you can make it yourself since that blanket you originally had your eye on for $50 will now cost you around $1,000 after it's passed testing. It won't even be the one-of-a-kind blanket you were hoping for. Items are destroyed in the testing process making one-of-a-kind items virtually impossible. So that gorgeous hand made baby quilt you bought your baby this past winter won’t be available next winter.

To the Supporters of Project Linus and other Charities that Donate Handmade Items:

Project Linus is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that donates handmade blankets as gifts to seriously ill and traumatized children and provides a tremendous service opportunity for members of our community for the benefit of children. Why would ANY act of government want to stop the good work that we are doing? Unfortunately the way the Act is worded, the term "distribute" is used, which could include any item made and GIVEN or SOLD to a child under 12 years old. At this time, it is not known how or if it will impact Project Linus and other charitable organizations but the CPSIA needs clarification with regard to charities. The reality is that if the law is not clarified to exclude charitable organizations, or to define certain terms regarding “distribution” and remove the potential liability to organizations such as Project Linus, we will have no choice but to dissolve our beloved organization.

To the Environmentalist:

Due to the new law, all items in non-compliance will now be dumped into our already overflowing landfills. Imagine not just products from the small business owners, but the Big Box Stores as well. You can't sell it so you must toss it. Or be potentially sued for selling it. You can't even give them away. If you are caught, it is still a violation.

To the Second-Hand Shopper:

Due to the new law, you will now need to spend $20 for that brand new pair of jeans for your 2-year old, rather than shop at the Goodwill for second hand. Many resale shops are eliminating children's items all together to avoid future lawsuits.

To the Entrepreneur:

Due to this new law, you will be forced to adhere to strict testing of your unique products or discontinue to make and/or sell them. Small businesses will be likely to be unable to afford the cost of testing and be forced to close up shop. Due to the current economic state, you'll have to hope for the best when it comes to finding a new job in Corporate America.

My Shop

To the Antique Toy Collector:
Due to the new law, you'd better start buying now because it's all going to private collection and will no longer be available to purchase. “Because the new rules apply retroactively, toys and clothes already on the shelf will have to be thrown out if they aren't certified as safe.”

To the American Economy:
Already struggling under an economy that hasn’t been this weak in decades, the American economy will be hit harder with the inevitable loss of jobs and revenues from suppliers, small businesses and consumers. The required testing is far too costly and restrictive for small businesses or individuals to undertake.

To the Worldwide Economy:
Due to this new law, many foreign manufacturers have already pulled out of the US market. You can imagine the impact of this on their businesses.


If you think this is exaggerating, here is a recent article from Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/16/cpsia-safety-toys-oped-cx_wo_0116olson.html


And for those of you prepared to be stupefied and boggled, The New Law.
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html

Did you know? If this upsets or alarms you, please react.

To locate the contact information for your congress person go to https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

To locate the contact information for your US Senator go to http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Here are some additional contacts:

Contact the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission - (301)-504-7923

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission 4330 East West HighwayBethesda, MD 20814

Contact the House Energy and Commerce Committee - (202)-225-29272125
Rayburn House Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515

You are welcome to contact the personal offices of anyone on the following list, who are the members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. There is not room here to post addresses, but a google search will give you their snail mail addresses.

Henry A. Waxman, CA , Chair
John Dingell, MI, Chair Emeritus
Joe Barton, TX Ranking Member
Edward Markey, MA
Rick Boucher, VA
Frank Pallone, Jr., NJ
Bart Gordon, TN
Bobby Rush, IL
Anna Eshoo, CA
Bart Stupak, MI
Eliot Engel, NY
Gene Green, TX
Diana DeGette, CO
Lois Capps, CA
Michael Doyle, PA
Jane Harman, CA
Janice Schakowsky, IL
Charles Gonzales, TX
Jay Inslee, WA
Tammy Baldwin, WI
Mike Ross, AR
Anthony Weiner, NY
Jim Matheson, UT
G.K. Butterfield, NC
Charlie Melancon, LA
John Barrow, GA
Baron Hill, IN
Doris Matsui, CA
Donna Christensen, VA
Kathy Castor, FL
John Sarbanes, MD
Christopher Murphy, CT
Zachary Space, OH
Jerry McNerney, CA
Betty Sutton, OH
Bruce Braley, IA
Peter Welch, VT
Ralph Hall, TX
Fred Upton, MI
Cliff Stearns, FL
Nathan Deal, GA
Ed Whitfield, KY
John Shimkus, IL
John Shadegg, AZ
Roy Blunt, MO
Steve Buyer, IN
George Radanovich, CA
Joseph Pitts, PA
Mary Bono Mack, CA
Greg Walden, OR
Lee Terry, NE
Mike Rogers, MI
Sue Wilkins Myrick, NC
John Sullivan, OK
Tim Murphy, PA
Michael Burgess, TX
Marsha Blackburn, TN
Phil Gingrey, GA

Where Did the Weekend Go?

I did manage to get a few things done today. I have no idea where the weekend went though. Work tomorrow - BOOOO. YIKES, in my thoughts of going to work tomorrow, it just dawned on me that this is the last week of January. Where has the month gone??? I had big plans of getting all sorts of things accomplished. I'm going to have to work like mad this week then.

Here are couple shows for today. This is a baby quilt that I just did a big meander on. I love the dragons that look like Princesses and Knights.


This is a top that I showed before. It was my first attempted at a disappearing 9 patch. Didn't turn out at all like I thought it should. Oh well, it's done now.

And of course, there must be some sort of embroidery to share now. I made 6 blocks with bears on them. I think I'm going to set the blocks with a 9 patch block.

One sick (not good) applique lamb. I really need to work on my applique on the embroidery machine. The colors for this guy are HORRIBLE. Need to work on that too.

Last but not least, one tired Buddy to share. I think he will be happy to have the house quiet tomorrow. That way he can catch up on his sleep. He's exactly like a little kid, no napping because he just might miss something. He did catch the cat by the tail today. Poor Shiner really didn't want to be pulled in the direction that Buddy was trying to pull him.


Goals for this week:

1. Quilt 2 baby quilts.
2. Get binding on the quilts that have been finished.
3. Embroider some more clothes for my walking bill board (aka Grace).
4. Practice on applique with embroidery machine.
   

Have a great week!!

Festivites and Sewing

I decided to take today off work to stay home and watch the inaugural coverage. My real motive is to get some serious sewing done too. The embroidery machine will be running at a constant pace today as I try to get a quilt quilted.

The TV is on already and I'm ready for all the coverage. I talked to the guy I work with yesterday about the inauguration. We both decided that we don't remember excitement and coverage like there will be today. It's a very important day in history and if I can't be there to see it in person, I just want to see it on TV.

EDIT - 7:30PM:

I just came up for air. The TV was on the entire day. I completely teared up during the speech that President Obama gave. He said so many things that really hit home for me. It's so exciting to be an American and to be part of this country. This definitely is a time of change.

So onto the things I got done today. I sewed like a woman possessed. The cats helped me. Buddy didn't like all the machine noise and started pacing so he spent some time in his crate.

Finish #1 - this baby quilt for a lady that contacted me via ETSY. She is having a baby and has not found out if it's a boy or girl.

I think I did a pretty good job keeping the colors neutral. The back is a pale green and so is the binding. All I have left is to finish hand sewing the binding.

Finish #2 was the Dresden Plate quilt that I showed a couple days back. I had to figure out how to finish the top of it. So that's now done and ready to be handed off. The cats LOVE that quilt, so it's in the dryer right now being fluffed to remove some of the cat hair it accumulated while visiting my house.

Finish #3 was the back for a quilt top that I finished around November. The back is loaded on the quilt frame and waiting for me to get busy. I need to get the batting and top centered and I'm ready to get it quilted. I even cut the binding out and it's ready to be sewed on once the quilt is together.

Finish #4 was a panel quilt that I added some borders too. It was partially done so I finished it and got the back ready. The binding is also cut and ready to go.

In between the mad frenzy of machine quilting and sewing, I fired up the embroidery machine and made some Bluework blocks. After looking at the picture, I can see I need to pick some more of the stabilizer from the back.

I love the new machine. Not a single thread break. The machine just starts and runs until it's done. Gotta love it. If I can find some material for bags, I will get started on those again.

Well, I must retire and get one small child ready for bed. Have a great night!!

Weekend Projects

Christmas ornaments that look like icicles. I will put some rhinestones on them to make them a little shiny.

Valentine's day hand towels. Made some for me and my mother in law. I have some for Grandma, but they just aren't stitched yet.

My favorite creation for the 2 days. A bag for Grace to carry her tap and ballet shoes in. Poor kid is going to have to be my poster child / walking billboard.

Just so you know, I love my new machine. The thread is doing what it's supposed to be doing. I can hit the button and walk away and not have to babysit the machine. I'm happy happy happy. Or as my dad would say, as happy as a pig in slop. Yep that's me!!!

I also got the Dresden plate quilt trimmed so that I can stitch the back to the front. Then off to it's owner. I'm planning to spend Tuesday watching inaugural festivities and quilting.

Have a great week.

Resolved

It is with great pleasure that I'm announcing the resolution to the BabyLock embroidery machine issue. This morning bright and early my brand spanking NEW machine arrived and was set up for me. I have been happily stitching away WITHOUT any thread breaks. Being nasty wasn't the most fun thing to do, but I finally showed that side. I think I finally made it clear how frustrated and disappointed I was with the way things were being handled.

I will be sure to show you pictures tomorrow. I'm just so excited that I need to go stitch more!

Have a great night!

My Baby Turns 5

I've been reading Judy's posts about her son leaving to go live in the dorm and trying not to laugh. I truly understand because today my baby turns 5 today.

From this

to this

to this

to this

and now my all time favorite that will go in the boyfriend photo album

It is truly AMAZING how quickly they change and grow up right in front of your eyes. She's only 5 and I'm the biggest sap about it today. I can hardly wait until she's 16 (yeah I'm kidding).

I took pizza in for the kids at daycare for lunch. New respect for those women who do daycare for a living. If I had to be around that many 4 and 5 year olds on a daily basis, I would be ABSOLUTELY nuts.

Serious Whining

Turn away now, this is going to be some serious whining. If you don't want to read my whines and complaints, run quickly.

I think I have mentioned several times that the embroidery machine I got went back to the shop. Well I still haven't gotten it back. Purchased on 12/10 and it's now 1/12. Can't seem to get anyone to respond to me. Today I stepped it up and went directly to Babylock. 2 phone messages and an email. I figured that I would have heard from someone this morning. No nothing.
I do have a loaner from the shop that I've been using, but it's not my machine. My brand new shiny machine.

The retailer was supposed to send the machine back between Christmas and New Years. I was told it went back on the 8th of January. I don't know whether to believe them or not now. It's probably still sitting there in the shop.

I couldn't get the machine to work with any of the thread that I have. My good old Singer worked/works just fine. No thread breaks, no rethreading. It likes rayon, poly or metallic. This new machine hated all my thread. Then to hear the retailer tell me that I just needed to replace the thread and not use Sulky or Maderia made me want to scream. For the money I spent, that machine should be able to work with yarn should I want to embroider with it. OK, so I'm not going to try yarn, but you get my point. You can't just make a blanket statement about thread and expect me to jump and replace everything I have purchased. Not going to happen. Yes I understand there are bad spools of thread that you run into OCCASIONALLY. Not every spool of thread I own is bad.

I so don't want to throw a big old stinking hissy fit, but boy it's coming close. The hubby is about to get involved and let me share that just isn't going to be pretty.

Seems like customer service just doesn't exist anymore. I feel like someone should be bending over backwards to help. I don't feel like I'm getting that. So I have a loaner and they didn't have to do that for me. Then again, they would have seen the ugly side of me if I didn't get a loaner.

I keep trying to remain calm, but the blood is starting to boil. I feel like I've made a HUGE mistake and everyone is just laughing. We have the money, now lets see what she's going to do. My fear right now is that should I choose to return everything then the next fight is going to start because I'm out of my 31 day return window.

UGH, UGH and triple UGH!

Finally Some Quilting

This is a quilt from one of the girls at work. It's for her daughter's birthday tomorrow. All she wanted was a big meander. Took me all of a 1/2 hour to quilt. I put the binding on for her and will start the hand sewing before I give it back.

I will need to remember this quilt every time I think I want to quilt for a living. This one will make me re-think that whole idea. I did flowers with leaves in the sashing. Then I quilted around the edge of each Dresden plate. The quilt was made by an 80 year old and was partially sewn and partially done by hand. Nothing was really straight. I'm not the straightest person, but this one was really hard for me to try and get straight. There are prairie points around the sides and I need to figure out how to finish the edges.

We celebrated Grace's birthday with the family today. That was a lot of fun. Nothing crazy, just some cake and ice cream with the great grandparents, grandparents and aunt & uncle.

I'm hoping to make it down to the basement to do a little bit of embroidery, but who knows. Dance starts again tomorrow, so I need to get the bag together with all the shoes and clothes.

Have a great week.

Thank You Blogland

Above is my inspiration for tonight. I thought that I could do it on a quilt I'm working on for a girl at work. Knowing that I couldn't do it exactly, I gave myself permission to be me and make up my own variation.

My variation of the same flower. I didn't get a picture of the leaves but I'm even impressed with those.

So to all the Bloggers in Blogland of whom I peruse, thank you for giving me the courage and the understanding that I can be me and that not everything has to match exactly or be perfect. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. It's very freeing to know that I can do something and it looks nice even though it's not exact.

And last but not least, the new little helper that's come to our house. Thankfully I never tell anyone that I'm pet free. Thus it's easier to explain the hair. Buddy likes the quilt.

Thank you! and have a great night. I'm off to bath one small child who will turn 5 next week. 5, yikes, that number doesn't seem possible.

Back to Work

Today is the first day back to work. I don't know if I'm going to make it all day without a nap. Grace continually asks my boss if I take naps under my desk or if she can come to work with me and take a nap under my desk. Who knows, that's where they might find me today.

Buddy got a bath this weekend. Couldn't resist sharing. He was so good in the tub, but as you can see he didn't like the event. The dog is definitely all fur.

I was able to play on the embroidery machine this weekend. Here are a few of the items I embroidered. In case you are wondering, my machine has gone back to the manufacturer. I'm hoping to hear something this week.

I also go to put a baby quilt top together. No pictures, sorry. I was just too lazy to walk to the basement to take a picture. I'm hoping to get it on the frame tonight and work on it.

Have a great day!