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