Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Halloween

Over the weekend I worked on one of my "retirement" quilts. I got all the blocks put together and the borders picked out. Progress! (I will be retiring next July and am making quilts for each of my staff members (12) as my retirement gift to them.) (We've been together a l-o-n-g time and I love each of them dearly!). I really need to focus more on this endeavor! I have the patterns and fabrics picked but need to get moving on the actual sewing. Life keeps me busy! Almost finished with my MA in Philosophy and yes, I have a full time career (in IT) as well.

I also did a little more work on a shawl I'm knitting. It's in a beautiful hand-dyed (not by me!) wool called "Black Purl". Egad it's gorgeous stuff! The shawl is also working up nicely. I hope to have it finished for a trip to the beach that is planned for mid-December. It should be just enough for walking along the sand. I'm going to pull together my project plans for my stay at the beach and post here as well (adds a bit more of an incentive to "git 'er dun").

As for the current quilt (no name yet ... hmm.... how about "retirement quilt 3" for now?), my goal for the weekend is to have the top put together, then bundle up the backing, batting & top to deliver to one of my (3) long arm quilting folks for the quilting. I think I'll increase that goal to also have the "packaging" done for "retirement quilt 2" as well. (It doesn't seem like much but hey - full time job, full time student - time gets eaten up!) OK ... one more weekend goal. Since the repeat on the shawl is 8 rows, I'll shoot for having 16 more rows done.

I hope your Halloween (if you partake) is wonderfully spooky in fun ways! Enjoy!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Day 1

Hello. My name is Gale and I am a quilter.

If that sounds like an introduction in any 12-step program, well .... read on and you will see that quilting IS an addiction!!

I did not know when I took my first "learn to quilt" class that this would lead to an intense love affair with fabric, quilts and sewing machines. I have been quilting for 20 years ... I have more fabric than I will ever use in one lifetime ... more sewing machines than I care to admit ... UFOs too numerous to even want to count ... and I embrace my addiction! Many quilters have a sewing room; I have a sewing HOUSE (that just happens to also have a bed and a kitchen).

I have long wanted to blog - about sewing, quilting, those unfinished projects, (as well as politics and philosophy, but those blogs will live under a different name), so Day 1 is my start.

My intent is to blog about what I want to finish "next", commit to a date to have it completed, then meet that date. My hope is that the "publicness" of a blog will provide me with just the challenge I need to actually do what I've planned. Although I would not consider myself even an amateur photographer, I will post pictures of where I'm at and where I'm going in my UFO world. I will also post about works-in-process and where they might be headed.

I hope this will be a FUN experience, and I hope to meet many other quilters that share my passion (and a long list of UFO'S!!). Your comments are welcomed!

Welcome to my blog. Who knows what comes next