Only 7 days to wait

My Grand daughter and I taking a quilting class together. My mom, her great-grandmother also took the class with us. The three of us had a blast and have beautiful quilts to show for the class.

Just 7 days until my longarm arrives. I am soooooooo excited!!! My husband is putting the finishing touches on my studio and I have started to move things into the room now. Boy I didnt' know I had so many quilting books and magazines until I started to move them all!!

I better get back to work and keep moving.....an exciting day.

Shelia

Way To Go Joan

Hey I just read about one of my guild members on another blog. Joan does beautiful quilting and she teaches a "figure flattering quiltwear" class. There is a link on the blog to Joan.
http://oneloosethread.blogspot.com/
Just had to let you know so you could check it out.
Happy Quilting Again,
Shelia

9 Days Until Sweetpea Arrives

The days are flying by until my longarm arrives. I am so excited to finally be getting her.
My husband is working feverishly to finish my studio before she arrives and I am slowing getting some things moved from my old studio into the new space. I've got so much stuff to move and go through. Exciting seeing some fabric that I forgot that I had.
More pictures to come as things are completed. Of course, I'll have tons of pictures on installation day.
I have scheduled 4 days off after installation to PLAY, PLAY, PLAY!
Happy Quilting,
Shelia

My New "Baby"

Here are pictures of my new KenQuilt longarm machine. The delivery will be on August 7th. She's is so pretty. I can't wait to get her here and start creating beautiful quilts.

I still have to name "her". She runs so smooth and I love the stitch regulator.

More pictures to come as my studio is completed.

Happy Quilting,

Shelia

My Quilt Studio Progress

My husband has been working diligently on my quilting studio trying to get done before the longarm machine is delivered on August 7th. I am sooooooooo excited.

He has spent so many hours getting this room ready. We have used real sunlight bulbs in the light fixtures and it is a very well lit room.

He started on the wood floors today so we are almost completed. Now I need to be getting my current studio packed so I can move into this new space once the longarm arrives.

What fun getting new toys is.....makes you feel like a kid at christmas again. Tomorrow I'll have pictures of the "new baby" coming in August.

Happy quilting,

Shelia

Doing The Happy Dance

I'm doing the Happy Dance!!

Tomorrow I am going to North Carolina to visit Jennifer Kay with Quilting Solutions to test drive several longarm quilting machines!! I am sooooo excited. My husband has almost finished my new quilting studio and now to pick out my machine.

My plan is to decide tomorrow between the model's I've been considering and get the order placed.

I'll let you know Sunday what the verdict is.

Shelia

Win A Quilt

I found a great site today and you have an opportunity to win a beautiful quilt. Visit her website at www.oldredbarnco.blogspot.com



Don't miss out on this awesome opportunity.
Shelia

Pay It Forward Challenge

I'm participating in my first PIF (Pay It Forward) so here are the rules...It’s the Pay It Forward Exchange. It’s based of the concept of the movie “Pay it Forward” where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on. So here’s how it works. I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on the blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won’t be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that’s a promise! What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. So is anybody up for some fun...??

Make a comment and say you want to play along and I will add you to my PIF!!

A Small Piece Of Metal

At first glance you see a small piece of metal shaped into a cup. To most eyes it doesn’t represent anything of importance. Not an expensive item. Not a worldly good to be traded at a market. But to me it was priceless.

I have always said that making memories is the best thing that you can do with anyone you love. I try to make sure that those I love know it and have memories to show them they are loved.

Today is a sad day in my life as I carefully wash my grandmother’s face and fluff her beautiful white hair. A quilt covers her that my mother and I made and gave to her just this past Christmas. Mom and I had a great time picking out the fabrics from my stash, cutting and sewing the quilt. I quilted the quilt while mom and I talked and pressed fabric for another project. Today it caresses my grandmother, Rosa Lee Godfrey Donaldson, as children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren come to say goodbye. Today she went to be with the Lord and is seeing loved ones again who have been gone for a long time. We were blessed to have her for 88 years.

As my mother and her sister were getting things together and looking for the earrings and necklace my grandmother wanted to wear for the service on Sunday they came across a small zippered bag. Inside was some floss, scissors, needles and a thimble. It was my grandmother’s sewing kit. Nothing fancy but well used. As a child I can remember watching my grandmother as she mended shirts and pants. Some needed a patch sewn over a torn area and some had lost buttons. She carefully mended each one as she watched over grandchildren playing in the yard. As a young child I spent many days with my grandmother along with other cousins we played on the swing set in the back yard. We watched as trains passed on the tracks behind the house. We ran and played hard all day.

As my mom and aunt Sylvia looked at the bag they removed this small piece of metal and turned to me. They smiled as they handed the item to me as they knew this small piece of metal represented a piece of me.
It was my grandmother’s thimble and it is priceless to me. Isn’t it amazing how something with no worldly value can envoke a feeling of immense wealth to the recipient. My grandmother will always live in my heart and now she is always with me each time I place a stitch in a piece of fabric, she will be there guilding my finger as her thimble sits snuggly in place.

Shelia
July 11, 2008

It's Finally Saturday!!

This has been a very hectic two weeks. Our hospital has installed a new computer system and my ER was the ginny pig!! WHAT A NIGHTMARE. I've worked 70 hours a week for the past few weeks and I am exhausted.

My dear husband has been diligently working on my new quilting studio.....which I hope to be able to have time to use again soon.... he's already torn down the outside wall and re-built, he's primed the walls and is today going to be putting the color on the walls, I've chosen a light sand color. Maybe next weekend we will have the hard wood floors in. I can't wait to get into the new studio.

I go on July 19th to try and pick out my longarm machine....I'm soooooo excited. I'll post some pictures of the progress when I
get them downloaded into the computer.

Visit my webshots and see some of my quilts. http://community.webshots.com/user/QuilterShelia?vhost=community

I'll post more later.
Happy Quilting,
Shelia

Construction On My New Quilting Studio

My dear husband is busy today on the construction of my new quilting studio. I will be getting a longarm machine in July or August and he is converting our gameroom into my new quilting studio. YIPPIE!!
I am soooo excited. I'll post pictures of the progress as we go along. The wall is coming out now that leads to our carport. Seems so strange with all that space.
It's been a crazy week here in South Carolina.....HOT HOT HOT!
They say that we have some cooler weather coming our way.....but guess that we can't ask for much since it is JUNE!
More later,
Shelia

A Rushed But Productive Day!

Today I started with many items on my To Do list. I was able to complete my list by 12:30 and then had time to finish piecing a UFO (unfinished object) top.

I started this project when I took a class with my quilt guild in February of 2002.....yes I did say it was a UFO. It's hard to believe that it has been over 6 years since I started this top. The class was named "Scrap Quilting Without The Scraps". A friend and past president of our guild, Jennifer Kay taught the class. You used fat quarters to cut out your pieces using Marti Mitchell's templates www.frommarti.com . You then moved the bottom star pieces to the top of the pile and them sewed the blocks together. It gave a scrappy look without having to piece from scraps. This was before the stack the deck books came out. Jennifer and her husband now live in NC and manufacture long arm quilting machines at http://www.thequiltingsolution.com/ .

Our quilt president issued a challenge this year to finish a UFO. We had to pick a UFO and photograph the stage it was in at that time and turn in a page with an explanation why we hadn't finished the project. We now have until September to completely finish and quilt the project. There is going to be a separate category in the quilt show for these projects. So I am almost there. Now I have to get it quilted!

That brings the next subject, my quilting studio. My current studio is our spare bedroom that my husband converted about 5 years ago, but now I want a long arm machine and my current room does not have enough room for that. So we are now in the process of converting our game room into my studio. We bought hardwood flooring, paint etc., this weekend for the project. I will have my machine by this fall, so we've got lots of work to do before the machine can come home.

Happy Quilting,

Shelia