O Christmas Tree

Come hell, high water or, in my case, a messy house and laundry--

I'M PUTTING MY CHRISTMAS TREE UP!!

(This christmas tree was brought to my house with the generous donation of my favorite pumpkin patch owner)

--leaving work with plans of raiding Joann's before getting home--

dre

CAN'T WAIT!

It's coming! The End is near!

and I have tickets to the midnight showing.

MWHAHAHAAHAHAHA

--dusting off her slytherin scarf so she'll be up to no good--

dre

Quilt Market

*insert one of the following as a valid excuse for me dropping off the face of the web*
a. I'm exhausted when I get home with my new schedule at work
b. I am STILL trying to get everything settled in at my house
c. It's too cold up north
d. I haven't had a weekend to call my own since I've moved
e. all of the above and whatever else you can imagine.

ok, now that THAT is done with--guess where I was 2 weekend ago!?!?
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ok, ok, given the fact I haven't posted in a while the options are endless so I'll not keep you in suspense but I will show you!!!

That's right! I was at the Houston International Quilt market with my aunt and mother. We were there representing our favorite pumpkin patch and had a great time!

I flew in on Thursday evening and started friday with what is called "School house" where you can attend various panels throughout the day about new lines of fabric, notions, ways to improve business and marketing ideas. It was very enlightening to learn about th industry itself and really openned my eyes to how broad this industry is defined as.


I got this really cool hancherkief from moda and some beautiful samples of fabric being used in the michael miller clubhouse project.

At the end of Friday was sample spree--or those who don't know what this is my description is that it's like black friday and fashion week combined for quilt shop owners. This is not only the opportunity to see what's coming up for the next couple months but to also BUY samples.
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Guys, this can get really ugly. I saw fabric lines sell out faster than black friday door buster deals and I saw women hauling 3 times their weight in fabric back to their hotel rooms----oh wait, that was me!--- my aunt is a serious shopper and  I was delegated as Team Pumpkin Patch's pack mule.

Saturday is when the exhibit as well as the wholesale vendor booths were open. As someone who has really only been exposed to the retail side of quilting I couldn't believe the amount of wholesalers out there.  I met the designer of Miss Rosies quilts--her new book is wonderful and she was so sweet! I also took a candid picture of Ty Pennington--I did not realize that he was every quilt shops owner's dream man until I saw many a owner blush at the prospect of meeting him.

I ended my last day looking at some incredible quilts. I still can not believe that these pieces of art are made of bits of fabric!!!!

This one is the show-stopper for me though. At a distance this is a gorgeous mural quilt

however, upon closer inspection THIS is what you see. 

and this

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?

I stared at this quilt for a ridiculous amount of time in awe of this quilt. There was some pretty fantastic ones there but this is the highlight that I wanted to share. 

I came back home to contemplate my mediocre quilts. Then totally psyched myself into getting done with my own projects. 

I've been working since then and look what I have to show for that!!!

My walking foot is now set up and ready to go! 

Many more project to complete to come!

--watching stargate atlantis until Glee is on tonight--

dre

So Much Has Happened!!!!!

You are currently looking at the future reception site of my wedding next year! :) Planning has gotten into full swing here. There's been lots of sitting down and looking at HTB and getting the information that really matters.
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like wedding colors.

The move into our new town home was painful but successful and since we've settled life has been non-stop.

(don't judge the hair! I was sick at the time!)

My first weekend in New Hampshire was filled with doctor appointments and hacking my lungs out--this sucked exceptionally so because it was my birthday weekend. I was deemed contagious for a while when they didn't know what I had and gave me surgical masks. HTB called me a ninja for a week.

(be jealous of my awesome seats)

The weekend after that HTB and I celebrated my birthday belatedly and our anniversary. This resulted in one of the best weekends ever. I went to my first Red Sox Game, toured the Sam Adams brewery, and spent the night in boston close to Faneuil Hall. XD

Weekends following that I've been running around getting those things for the house that you never thought you needed and researching some wedding venues.
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In short I have not had me time to do anything artsy crafty. D:

Last weekend and this weekend will be no different. DM is in town so I'm having a great time trying on wedding dresses and watching season premiers of fall shows (ie: Glee and Grey's Anatomy)

This weekend is pretty awesome since I'll be driving down to New York and going to *drumroll* Kleinfelds!!! Getting out of work early today and trying to get the NYC early so I can have dinner with my cousin, Sydle. I haven't seen her in a reeeeaaallly long time--so I hope everything works out!!

--wondering why her change oil light is still on--
dre

Help Help Help!

All the smiley moving face images are lies

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I've been moving and internet is still getting set up

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move in post soon to be shown of my new snazzy place.

--in search of the aleve--

dre

I Think I'll Keep Him

My personal countdown has begun, T-minus 3 weeks to go, is D-day.  (D-day=daunting drive across the country).

As I am planning this I can help but feel really lucky to have not only the support of my family and their never ending string of good advice during this move (yes, I won't pack all my books in one big box, I know not to be stingy when I buy my first mattress and that futons may not be the answer). I can't forget that my co-conspirator in this journey is pretty awesome-------and can drive long distances with little stops.  

Beyond my personal planning (ie: packing my junk).  I'm also working with HTB on all the logistics of the move itself. He is a schedule guy and I'm a list person, so you can imagine that while I'm creating lists of things that need to be done he's behind me with the same question--"when are we supposed to have that done".

In a way it's a great partnership but my list making tendencies know no bounds--(ie: time frames).  But I've been kept in check with realistic time frames. I originally put furniture shopping, unpacking, grocery shopping  and opening joint bank accounts on "things that need to be done the weekend we arrive" I received silence on the other end of the phone when I initially proposed this with a heavy sigh afterwards. 

This trip is gonna be an exciting one and I'm so happy to be doing this with him-----did I mention he drives long distances with little stops?

Just wanted to take a chance to share how planning is going on the moving side of things, and share a pic I found of HTB and I 

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ok and maybe gush a bit about how awesome HTB is. 

what do you think?  I'm pretty lucky huh? I think I'll keep him. :)

--feeling lovey dovey--

dre

Quick Report--Friday Night Sew-in

I've got work today. So I'll have to post about Friday Night Sew-In after I get out (or around lunch time) take a look though! I definately sat infront of my machine! *whoop!*

-Sad she's at work on a Saturday--
dre

Friday Night Sew-In

***the following post was done at the last 5 minutes of my lunch hour at work--please read at your own risk!--this has been a public service announcement for the readers of DEFENESTRATE***

(flee! I tell you, flee!)

I have been so busy! here's a quick list of my life for the past week or so.

I bought boxes to start packing up my junk. (I leave August 18th--it's only 3 weeks away!)
I sewed on most of the border on the Green Monstah--only 2 more strips to go!
Dropped off clothing with the tailor (2 dresses and 1 pair of soon to be capri pants)
called venues--only to discover that none of the ones on my short list are not available on the date I have
Called dress boutique--only to discover that the dress shop that will be local to be does not have the dress I want (even if it doesn't have the dress)
Started calling dress boutiques in dallas to try and find the dress--incidentally scheduled approximately 2 appointments (one of them doesn't even have my dress)
Started sewing a dress (because I need to learn before I leave)
Hosted 2 Mercado quilting clan classes (AKA I'n trying to learn as much from my mother as possible)--I can now sew hexagons and know the basics to cutting and reading patterns.
Started Packing... (2 boxes packed and my room is still full)

I decided that I need to finish starting stuff and finish it for a change!!! So I've joined the band wagon--





My mother just joined so we'll make a night out of it. :)

tonight--I will finish my green monstah, and the dress that I have started.

CURRENT PROJECTS
-green monstah-piecing
-ugly fabric challenge (plume)-piecing
-shiloh-piecing
-school yard tunic-piecing
-stash buster-binding
-pineapple table runner-label

I  am determined to cut that list in half before I leave!!

Completed projects!

errr.....almost completed projects.

Last night I put the final stitch in my Wild Things from Oz quilt and tossed it in the wash to shrink and be happy. :D

It's beautiful. I love it. I curled up on top of it I was so excited it was done!! The red binding was exactly what it needed. 

Here's the view of the pieced backing. 

Those swirls look so great on the black fabric!!

So this morning, straight from my bed I started getting ready for the finishing touches for the green monster quilt I am working on. 

I had a whole bunch of green fabric just sitting around without a home. So I decided to adventure off into Wonky-territory and made myself wonky 9-patch blocks.  Now, my green pile is still significantly larger than all other colors in my stash--but it's a whole lot less. Here's what I have done so far. 

This quilt, sans border and binding, is 70.25X88.25--isn't that ridiculous!? I never EVER thought this quilt would end up this large! I worked on it in pieces so I never realized how big it was until I sewed it all together. 

I spent a lot of my afternoon ironing this quilt, in short......

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NIGHT MARE!!!

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this but I absolutely HATE ironing. So doing this quilt on the small ironing board was a challenge and a half! My arm was sore after doing JUST the back seams. 

So you can appreciate how big of an undertaking this quilt has been post construction allow me to compare this Green Monstah, to my Wild Things. 

It makes my Wild Things quilt look like a baby quilt!!! It's so friggin HUGE! This is without borders or anything!!

I just finished piecing the border and now am about to put it all together. >.<

--dreading the Green Monstah--

dre

Struggle Bus

So, I would say about two years ago I attended a closing ceremony of RIT's Leadership Institute  where the Evolution of Dance guy gave some really good bits of advice to leaders on campus as well as provided us the treat of his  dance in person.

One of the anecdotes that he shared with us is accepting that as leaders sometimes we aren't going to be on out A-game. Sometimes, as he shared with us, we'll be driving the struggle bus.
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He also mentioned that on those exceptionally bad days, we'll be running to catch up with the struggle bus.
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Today, I am struggling to catch the struggle bus. I woke up 3-4 times, had to get up early to get pretty (we had team pictures today), had to grab potluck whoopie pies I made last night and pack a personal cheese plate (in case my co-worker, have less than savory culinary skills).

I am at work and have discovered my ability to compose sentences have escaped me, I have well over 2 pages of trade logs to catch up on and that I left the bread for my fall back cheese plate plan on top of the counter.

Thought I'd share my crappy day, and let you know that I'm still gonna keep my head held high.
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Also, pray for my team picture to turn out well--I'm really bad with pictures.
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to everyone who is having a day similiar to mine.........I feel you.



we just gotta keep on dancing!!!!!!

--really REALLY sleepy--
dre

Awesome Long "Weekend"

On Tuesday, HTB was here for a visit. He'll be starting a training in NC next week and had a week to fly down and have a fun time before it's back to work work work!

HTB and I are in the process of looking at places in Southern NH to move in so the first day he was here we pretty much ran around going to the bank and checking mortgage information. It's pretty exciting!!! 

The day after that though, we went to the Ft. Worth Zoo. I haven't been to a zoo in about 3 years so I was pumped! Here's a few pictures. 

This little guy was awesome, he started honking when we left

This picture reminded me of my ugly fabric challenge. 

Needless to say, it was great to see HTB and have him around for 5 days! After a year of constantly flying back and forth to see each other, we are happy that soon we are going to not have to do this. *hallelujah*

note: Wild Things from Oz made it  home in time for some fun pictures. 

Like the picture at the beginning of this post Ryan and I are pretty much opposites but somehow we still work together.  :)

I'm a little sad I had to leave him at the airport today but I know that soon (SOON) we're going to be together! 

--feeling a lovey after the mushy post--

dre

There's no place like home!

What a crazy weekend!!

I attended a Harriet Hargrave Machine Quilting class/retreat. I learned so much that I'm a bit overwhelmed!!

But I definately know more about machine quilting than I did before I get there (ALOT more).

I was increadible to hear from the ultimate heirloom machine quilting pro the basics as well as tips to make my quilts from beginning to end--at least the small ones that I have to start with.(I'm not THAT ambitious!!!)

As exciting as this weekend was--what's even more exciting is that, thanks to Margaret (the quilter I send my babies to) my Wild Things from Oz is going into the mail tomorrow!!!

Omg, it is so beautiful!!!!! I can't wait to bind it and see the final product! (the binding is a red from the same fabric line).

Even more exciting than my Fab quilt?!

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I know it's hard to believe that there is anything more exciting than a brand spanking new quilt at my doorstep

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but there is!

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*drumroll please*

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HTB Is flying in tomorrow!!!!

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about that.

--one more day of work and then she's home free for 3 days--

dre

Shiloh

Say hello to Shiloh! So you;ve seen peeks here and there so here's the pattern that I'll be using. It's from Bonnie Blue quilts.

I'm using a Looking Back by Moda fat quarter bundle as well as scraps from quilts I have already made (mostly from my blue and cream Stash Buster quilt). As you can tell by the first picture I haven't gotten far into the project (only 11 out of 36 blocks!!!)

In my defense, allow me to show you some photographic evidence to prove that I couldn't just sew any old block to another!!!

Because of the dark golds I am using for this quilt are being used as both a light fabric and a dark fabric I had to pretty much plan out the color scheme of each block before even thinking about sewing anything together. 

So now! I am well on my way!

I'm really excited to see how this one turns out. It's the first time I've ever sewn flying geese and I'm trying to be as precise as possible with my blocks. (No eaten up points for me!)

This weekend, DM and I are headed o a quilt retreat/class. I'll be dabbling at machine quilting  in the class hosted by connecting threads and taught by Harriet Hargrave. 

It's a first time for me taking a class! 

Wish me luck!!!

--packed and ready to go--

dre

Ugly Fabric Challenge

Something else I forgot to mention that happened this past weekend was my visit to a new quilt shop. and while I did not find anything that I needed (I was looking for a specific gray and a specific solid) I did discover a challenge that I immediately went for.

The Ugly fabric challenge starts with a fabric that hasn't been loved by many of the shops customer. You pick a yard of "ugly" fabric from a grab bag pile and have to make something with it by October where all participants will have their quilts on display. *note* when the term "ugly" is used in relations to this challenge it actually means yardage that hasn't been moving quickly in the shop.

This will be the first time I've put my quilt out into a physical public forum. So I had DM pick out a bag from the pack and sighed a breath of relief with what I got.

I got a yard of Plume by Tula Pink for $2!!! I immediately scoured the place for a pink to start my palette and above is what I left with. 

I've been auditioning a few patterns and sketching a few out in my handy Moleskine but decided for further inspiration I just NEEDED to head over to Cabbage Rose and see what they got. 

I now have a full palette to sink my teeth into and start designing something. DM keeps on saying "you don't need to use the initial yardage as your focus fabric" but I'm determined to keep in the spirit of the challenge and really focus on the "ugly" fabric. Instead of the browns that are in the plume line I decided to add some deep plum purples to the mix for some variety. 

Wish me luck!!

--dreaming of what she'll make as she types--
dre

Memorial Day Weekend

was a busy busy weekend for my sewing machine!!

This upcoming Friday, DM and I will be attending a Harriet Hargrave--Machine Quilting workshop and quilt retreat hosted by Connecting Threads.

This means we had not only a list of materials to get but also had to prep some blocks to practice the new found skills.

Disregard the 7 blocks of another project I'm working on (shiloh--more of that later in this posts!)

We needed two simple pieced blocks and an applique..... Bet you can't guess which ones are mine and which one belongs to DM!!!

I wasn't feeling the applique bug so I designed cut and sewed this guy up in about 2 hours (I didn't even bother giving the sheep or bird eyes yet!)

After making sure all the required pieces for the retreat was done, I went on to cut up an new project as a back up to Shiloh during the retreat. Here's a peek at the cutting station after I was done. 

I'll give you one hint to describe my next project it starts with "g" and ends in "reen". 

Once I finished cutting up all that I moved forward and made another 4 blocks of Shiloh and started another 3. 

it's coming together so well!! If only the pile of blocks to be finished wasn't so intimidating!

It feels like I'll never finish!!!!!!

--feeling accomplished--

dre

He GRADUATED!!!!!

Look at him go!!!!

This is where I spent my weekend, watching HTB walk across a stage and receive the holder for the diploma he's had for the past two months (He's good like that). 

I'm so happy I could share the day with him and his family. 

CONGRATS RYAN!!

(doesn't he look so happy!?)

--Flying back in less than 36 hours to make it to work on Monday--

Dre

**note: images of him and I together will not be posted until my in-house photo editor fixes it---I squint***

I have a condition

So the cleaning lady came to our house on Wednesday.

This normally means that the family room that my mother and I have converted to a craft area needs to get cleared up. With my Pineapple Hospitality quilt finished I was able to clear everything. (I haven't gone through my scraps to get the pieces of fabric that are salvageable for scrap quilts.)

This is just a quick pic of what it normally looks like. However with the pineappe hospitality frustrating me I had started also cutting the fabric for my next project. 

It's called Shiloh. I'm using not only the fat quarter pack of Civil War Homefront by Moda but also scraps that I had from my stash buster quilt and creams that I had laying around. 

Needless to say this only meant that I had a whole bunch of fabric in my craft room and a whole bunch of fabric in my closet that was not being used. On top of all this I went through a week of accumulation where I bought some more fabric. 

At the top is fabric from JoAnns, the Owl print and greens came from Fabric Worm and the purples to the right are from my favorite Pumpkin Patch. 

Needless to say I wasn't aware that the size of my stash had increased significantly. 

It wasn't until this wednesday

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when I had to move my fabric out of the craft room

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This is the sight that greeted me in my room thursday when I moved the fabrics in my closet out to re-organize.

I was shocked. How did I let my stash grow so uncontrolled!?! I started going through every trip to cabbage rose, every call and visit to my Pumpkin Patch and came to a disturbing conclusion. 

I'm a fabric hoarder! 

Don't worry, I'm not talking hoarder like the TV show, just that I have been buying fabric in some cases because I just want to have it. 

So I started pulling everything out and taking proper stock of what I had. 

these are my fabrics that are over 1/2 yard. I have another 2 yards of cream fabric in the craft room that I didn't bring in. 

I have used a whole ton of blues and not enough greens. I'm working on that, just got to find the right pattern. 

note the french general fabric that it behind this stack--I have a whole bunch of red. 

In my defense, I use cream in just about EVERY project I do, this means it's the color I need the most of but run out of the fastest. :/ 

This is all my kits and precuts. I have a whooolleee bunch of Rouenneries by French General. It's part of their quilt kit but I have been auditioning them for another project. 

These are the flannels that I looked at when finding the backing to  Ryan's Quilt. 

I went through all the cigar boxes I use for scrap storage and the bigger pieces went here. 

not quite sure what I'm going to do for the stringy left overs--but I've read you can have so much fun using them for a certain technique. I'll be saving them for whenever I find out what it is and take a class on it. :P 

that and I can't bring myself to throw anything away quite yet. 

Now all m stash is organized and it will prevent me from buying fabric I already own (it happened with a fat quarter of brown fabric). 

Now, it's back to the drawing board to see what I can use all this fabric for!!! I already have all the stuff I need for Shiloh, I didn't even include THAT stack of fabrics. 

My only comfort is that this condition is normal and hereditary. 

This is my mother's stash. (note, two of the uhaul boxes are just non quilt related books.) My thought process is that she's had a head start for accumulating her stash. :P

--thinking she needs alternative storage for her fabric needs.--

dre