Sunday, March 29, 2015

thoughts about transistions

yesterday we put the rest of our household into the final POD

its strange to walk around in the house that is now so empty -- everything echos

that POD will be picked up tomorrow afternoon and we will go on Tuesday afternoon to put what is left in the 'fridge into a cooler to take with us

right now we are staying in a local hotel -- a nice vacation after all the hard work!

this morning at breakfast (which is provided as part of our room fee) this great couple were sitting a few tables over

it reminded me of a latter day American Gothic

after breakfast in the elevator we chatted with them a bit

sweet people on their way back home to Kansas -- we wished them safe journey as they did us

it's strange being here now that our home really isn't -- definitely feeling like strangers in a place we've lived in for over a decade

until then I'll keep working on the embellishment of this piece

there are two more panels that get all of that gold metallic thread cross hatching -- I went to my local quilt store for the last time and picked up some more of the DMC thread that I'm using for this just to make sure I don't run out of what I need before I know which new to me local store has these things





Wednesday, March 25, 2015

time to say goodbye

we are in the final countdown

a week from today we will leave Colorado Springs and set off for our new home town

we have been very busy packing and cleaning

at the end of last week we had to say a very different kind of goodbye

Elphie was my "empty nest" baby, the dog we rescued and adopted the year our daughter went out into the world on her own

she went to art shows with us when she was little, served as the guard and nursemaid when each of us had surgeries and made us laugh at her antics

hard as it is to say goodbye, it was harder to see her suffer, so we made that most painful choice


at some point in the future there will be another fur baby in our life -- first we need time to heal

Monday, March 16, 2015

while you're making other plans

back on the first of March I posted a picture of where we thought we would be moving to -- we were pretty excited that it would be a pretty easy move with just a few days between one house and the next one

apparently, it was not supposed to be, as the whole deal fell apart early last week because so many problems were uncovered in the inspection that the seller refused to fix or pay for us to fix ---- no, I'm not paying you full asking price under those conditions!!

so the end of last week it was off again to find someplace to move to

and here are the pictures of the new house

it has a 3 car garage which means I will be able to store things in part of it, the DH will be able to have his wood workshop in part of it, and I will be able to part my vehicle in it (WOW! I've never been able to do that!!!)

in addition to that it has an unfinished basement that we will be finishing to my specifications to create the studio that I want (I figure I've been working out of makeshift studios for quite a while, I can wait a few more months to have exactly what I want!)

we are supposed to close on this on April 15 ---- Happy Tax Day!

meantime, in an effort to clean out the freezer, we've been eating some very creative menus

and because the growing season last year yielded a lot of pumpkins, there were a large number of bags of pumpkin there which I decided to reduce by making a pie

except I decided to use egg beaters in it -- uh, not a good idea!  it rose up like an amazing souffle only to crash over the edge creating a very messy looking pie and a huge mess in the over (I'm really glad I hadn't cleaned that yet!!)

it tasted good, although the texture was somewhat softer than a usual custard pie

I'll be making one more pie, but I'm sticking to "real" eggs this time!

we've been trying to tie up the end of projects before the items go into the POD -- last week we got the new seat onto the  first of the 6 dining room chairs that the DH cleaned up and restored the finish on ---- I hope we get the rest of these done before the crew gets here on Saturday

last week before the house deal fell apart I was working on this piece again

it's coming right along, but it will be getting packed up later this week -- beading requires really good lighting, and since we'll be in a hotel for a couple of weeks between houses, this will be put on hold until the move is complete

sewing projects are much more portable!

this is the quilt top I'm working on for my daughter's bed, and it will travel with us in the van so I can work on it while we're waiting

and then there is this

the beginning of my 2015 Hoffman Challenge piece

this year's fabric is a very busy print, so it took me a long time to figure out what to do with it

the red tone ring in this picture is part of that challenge fabric

I'll be using pieces like that in various places in this design, and now that I've started working on it I'm getting pretty excited about it

Today we start the last serious packing of rooms --- need to get to the point that we're "camping out" in just a couple of rooms by the end of the week!




Wednesday, March 04, 2015

deadline met!

I actually got it done in time

the deadline for Sacred Threads is the 9th of March

I put in my entry yesterday --- yippee!!

and here is the sketch for the next deadline -- which is in July

along the way there we will be moving from one place to another --- we've passed all the hurdles except the packing and cleaning at this end --- now on to the challenges at the new house!

Sunday, March 01, 2015

moving along

there is actually much more quilting done on this than appears in this picture --

I took this picture right after I had finished doing all the machine quilting of the tiles and the arches

the sky has all been quilted now, and I'm working my way through the "sky windows" of the arches

I need to keep at this because I have only 8 days left to the deadline --- I'll be back at this again today!

because of that looming deadline, I haven't touched this piece for over a week, but just before I put it aside, I did finish the portion that will be red brick --- looks pretty good


and under the real title of "moving along", we have accepted an offer on our house and made an offer on a new one


if all goes well, this is where we will call home in April

March is going to be a very busy month!