Simply Awesome

While out last night for a meeting I couldn't help but look up and gaze in wonder at the multitudenous bright stars that shone overhead.  So many twinkling in the firmament and so beaituful and the night sky was so clear so as to be the perfect backdrop for the brightness of those stars.  Where I live there is very little air traffic overhead and no industry to obscure this heavenly spectacle on clear nights.  I tried to take a few snapshots of this beautiful part of the hemisphere above me but while I have a wonderful digital camera, it simply isn't powerful enough to capture the splendor I spied with my little eyes.
This is close though!  But as I saw it it was AWESOME.

Who would have given credence that this clear and beautiful night sky would in but a few hours be clouded over and that my sleep would be interrupted with thunderous clashing sounds of an oncoming storm.  It thundered and lit up the sky for a few hours and went on its way leaving only the rain behind for morning.  Where I live at the mouth of the Bay the sounds are so amplified that you really would believe you were actually at the end of the bowling alley. 

I dare to hope Ms. Spring is truly on her way and that ole man winter is going into hibernation. 
Morning has found me a tad sluggish with sore arthritic knees, which I really do not need today with the opening of the Stitch 'N' Chat at the church hall in the village.  I am excited about the huge possibility of others coming in and enjoying a chat with them about their favored craft, hopefully there will be quilters or wanna be quilters among them.  If nothing else it will be a lovely way to sit and meet new people, or catch up with neighbors and acquaintances.   In any event it should really be enjoyable, and enjoyable a few afternoons a month is what I am aiming for.
Being a resident in a small village where not very much goes on unless an event is planned through a larger organization leaves its void for many a crafter who more often than not sit in front of their television sets, or in front of their sewing machines by themselves.  I want to share the experience and learn something new from someone more skilled than I or to offer up new challenges.
In any event it is to happen today and hopefully, like they said in the movie "build it and they will come" .....
Tomorrow is a return to sorting and organizing my fabric stash, but that is tomorrow....
Thank you for taking time from your day to visit with me and please don't forget, tomorrow Michele will be setting up what the St. Patrick's Day Blog Hop is going to be like and we Bloggers are going to advertise what nice goodies we all have to give away to you, our wonderful readers, so please come by tomorrow and see what it will all be about.
One more item to mention and that is I have taken word verification off the comments and if any one who wishes to make a comment finds it back on my blog again, please let me know so that I might keep on removing it, I so dislike the word verification process.


 Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.  ~Author Unknown

Getting It Together

Once again I find myself changing the status of my fabric stash.  My walk in closet is so cluttered with bags and boxes and the fabrics don't all fit into the shelving, so a change must be made.  I am one of those that can stand a mess for only so long and then WHAM, I just have to get stuck in and sort it out, you know, clean it up.
I even found fabrics I thought I no longer had!  Once again that is really due to me not being totally organized.  Space simply does not allow for the type of organization I want, but come heck or high water I am going to get myself tidied up one way or the other.  I am ashamed of my closet at this moment.  It always happens to me when I have at least other irons in a fire... LOL
You see when this house was bought I was led to believe that I had a loft in the cabin on our property and my mothers' glowing description led me to believe it was the type of space that would allow me to set up my fabrics, sewing machine and load of room to work in.  Well it simply was not truth.  Seeing as I was in NewBrunswick getting our possessions ready to move my mother was here looking for houses with my youngest brother.  Neither one said that the loft really wasn't large enough to stand up in let alone use it as a studio!  So out of the necessity to continue piecing and quilting I just had to move into my bedroom.  Now every so often the mess gets to me and it just has to be sorted.  What do you do when you've created a mess in your sewing room?
With each new project I wish to do I run over to the cabin and pull fabrics but I never return them (besides it isn't organized over there either!) They get put away here in my walk in and now I just do not have the space for any more fabrics. 

You'd never know I have already given bags of my stash away would you?  I know I am getting awfully tired to moving piles from here to there just to find something.  This time I just have to find a method which might allow me to find what it is I am looking for and get on with whatever project is at hand.  It simply has to work out this time.   
In a matter of a few months it progressed from a neat and tidy walk in closet with only hanging clothes and two towers filled with sundry fabrics to this mess which you see in the picture I just took.  Deplorable!  So much so that it is really beginning to stress me out.  
Obviously not enough though because this morning instead of getting stuck into the clearing up I sat at the sewing machine doing some piecing because I really didn't want to actually begin but nearer lunch time I had a good talk to myself and convinced myself that this had to be done.  I cleared out a whole dresser and sorted out so far one drawer with Christmas and specialty fabrics.  Next drawer holds all red colorway fabrics on one side and all green on the other side.  There are still two more drawers to fill up again. 
  I already have bags to be given away, fabrics the likes of which I simply cannot use in any quilt, therefor, off these are going to someone who might use them for sewing clothing and the like. 
At the rate I have been procrastinating this afternoon it will take me a month of Sundays' to clear up.  
How do most of you manage your stash?  Do you too dream of this illusive wonderful space not only to house all of your fabrics neatly stacked on shelving in colorways, but space enough to cut, to sew, to iron, to read in or just sit and dream of projects?  Me, once again I live out of my upstairs bedroom and have to share my hobby with my sleeping and clothing space.  Oh well, maybe some day I might win something substantial on a lottery and buy myself a tiny house just for me with the largest room just set aside for my quilting, do you think?
But these sewing rooms are so neat and tidy 

and while this one is in cramped quarters it is neat, everything seems to have its own place
and this little corner looks neat and tidy and all set up at least for the ironing

I believe these are people who live very organized lives, and this one in particular is Roberta's Sewing Studio,  that I found through a Google search is to die for!
Tomorrow marks the opening of the Stitch 'N' Chat club here in the Bay and I am crossing my fingers that a few ladies will show up and a weekly meet can be formed,  there simply are but a few quilters in this area and certainly not enough to form a guild sew to my way of thinking this is a good alternative.  Besides there simply isn't a social place around where friends and neighbors can get together and chat with their friends.  Not everyone can be a scatterbrain like me, so here is hoping I don't forget anything that I should be taking along for the day.  Please cross your fingers for me that my grand idea isn't a huge bust!
With the advent of spring and the change of weather patterns my arthritis has been acting up, anti-inflammatory medication is once again being taken to assist in alleviating the constant nagging pain which of course slows me down and with the turning forward of the clock one hour my sleep pattern is also disrupted.  Hopefully by this time next week I will be caught up again, do you think?  
Thank you so very much for stopping by to visit with me this morning, I know I have been absent for a tad, but, I got lost in my stash!



Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul.  Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.  ~Pamela Vaull Starr

I Am On Brain Disconnect

Hi and a happy Sunday everyone. 
I am having problems today, I cannot seem to follow the simple steps and easy to follow instructions. 
I went over to visit with Jenny from Missouri Star Quilt Co. video tutorial attempting to find out how and why my little simple self binding Baby blanket didn't turn out.  Well duh, instead of using the square measurements as Jenny mentioned, I used a piece of flannel that was a rectangle and cut my backing to accommodate the rectangular shape.  Nope, it has to be a square.  Rectangles don't work. The first one I attempted to make didn't turn out, and I convinced myself that I had completed all of the steps but possibly cut the corners incorrectly. 
Below is a picture of the result of my first attempt, no self binding because I cut it down and embroidered around the outside edges. 

I really thought I could use the fabric as long as I stuck to the right measurements, not so, your fabric cut must be squared.  I simply didn't pick up on that the first try though.
Maybe sub-consciously I just wanted to try out the heart embroidery and not obey the rules for this cute pattern which is supposed to be so very easy, and it is, don't get me wrong, it is easy, but you have to follow the rules for it to turn out just right. 

Sew what do I attempt to do today, I decide to take another run at making a self binding receiving blanket and today began all over again.   I followed all of the steps but before cutting the corners this time, I turned it right side out and I can honestly tell you that I am useless at simple.   

See I am taking it apart, hopefully  getting it right this time!
I don't believe this, but it is absolutely true, I redid it and it is still wrong..... I cut it square but somewhere between the correct cutting and sewing I actually made another mistake - this is supposed to be SIMPLE, isn't it???  Well, when your me is takes a few mistakes before I actually get it!  I can see I cut the corners wrong this time because it certainly doesn't come out the way it is supposed to in Jenny's tutorial, she turned it right side out and it fell nice and flat with mitered corners so neat and tidy!
Mine certainly didn't behave that way!  Now I have another fine mess.
Time to put it away and leave well enough alone for the moment.  Seems like I have a brain disconnect, I don't follow instructions well (at least not this week!)
That's it for me today, two huge mistakes are two too many and so it is time to go back to something I can actually do.
Have you ever had such a problem with something that is so simple?  How can one person do something simple and make it so darned complicated.  
I must have a brain connectivity problem "simple" must mean complicated to me I guess. However I won't give up, I will learn from this and get it right yet!  I could understand making a mistake putting together a Bargello quilt, but this simple little blanket should not be a problem.
Now that I have cried on your shoulders I think it is time to stop what I was doing and hopefully tomorrow I can salvage something from this mess I made again.  Maybe leaving it for a few days and getting out one of my UFO's might get me back into the right frame of mind, ya think?  However, I remember it took me a long time and several mistakes learning how to miter corners on my quilt bindings too... 
Thanks for stopping by, I sincerely hope your day wasn't frustrating like I made mine out to be, and that you enjoy the rest of the day however long it is. 
Stay tuned for the St. Patrick's Day Blog Hops starting on March 17th, it is coming and I can almost guarantee a large Blogger participation and lots of super gifts to be given away. 


When the world says, "Give up," Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."  ~Author Unknown