ideas dancing in my head

i was having a wonderful morning... all kinds of ideas dancing in my head with my scrappy 1 inch squares.... then i had to go to work.. finally at 10 pm last night i was able to stitch up some little square goodness... it was a long work day.

I fired someone yesterday. I think i enjoyed it too much. The guy didn't work his monday night shift because suposedly his sister was going to the hospital, then yesterday morning 15 min AFTER his shift started he called buck to see if he would work the shift because he didn't have anything to wear. I had to work the shift since neither buck or ralph are good on the prep table... and ralph was left alone with lunch rush for 45 min which could have been disasterous. (it wasn't... he handled it and i was quite proud of him for that) I have worked food service enough to know that if someone is calling in that often... then they dont want to be there and the customers know it. So last night he called and ralph was hemming and hawing around firing him and i said give me the phone. I said "look this isn't working out" he said "ok" and there... done... that little chapter of unhappiness is gone gone gone. I have been unhappy with his attitude for a while now and him being there was this little dark cloud... and that cloud is gone today. there are more storm clouds to deal with in life... but that ONE is gone! Its not that i didn't LIKE him... i do... I just didn't LIKE him working for me anymore!

so... i was dealing with the phone bill yesterday... it went up ALOT these last two months and i was trying to figure out why... i think the guy that i just fired switched our phone carrier on one of the phone lines, and possibly was charging the store phone bill for some service he was getting... AND several nights made 130 min phone calls to his old hometown (so i paid him for 2 hours to talk on the phone several times)... ok.. maybe i dont like him anymore... i now have to sort that out!!!

but back to my little squares of goodness.... i sewed 4 of the 4 patches together and though... ohhh how pretty!!! so i have a 16 patch of 1 inch scraps now... (dang i left the camera at the store... i cant take a picture) I am thinking either the pattern i found yesterday or i might just do something with the larger number of squares with sashing.. checkerboarded with something thats not so busy... i like all of the ideas in my head but i think i need to actually sew some things up to decide what i love... so i dont know where its going right now. We did have a little bit of money to splurge with yesterday and i asked ralph which he thought i should use with them.. off white or white... he said off white... since its his christmas present... i bought some kona "natural" and i plan on  using that with it.

I also bought some muslin... i need to do a wedding ring quilt for coleman since he just got married... and ive been loving the string quilts i have seen and have some ideas with that.... but there i go i have too many projects started, none being finished and i said i wasn't going to do that!!

it will probably be next week before i can get the sewing machine out of the shop... i cant wait. I will finish the two twin quilts as soon as i get that back!

My sister is sending me some scraps that she got from aunt gerri... i did decide i need more scraps for the little squares... so cool.. more scraps. ok.. was i demanding? i just sent her a list of what i still needed for all of my projects, in case she had some of what i needed!!! lol.. hopefully i will get a package from becki of lots of scraps!

changing my mind

ok.. it appears part of my process is changing my mind!!! Which... i guess matches the rest of my life so I dont know why that surprises me.

My little 4 patch squares... i was planning on making a 9 patch block out of them with nuetrals.. then checkerboarding that. BUT... i found these tutorials... Stashbuster Block 2 and Stashbuster Block and i think i love the strips of 1 1/2 inch squares as much as i love the 4 patch blocks... so ive got that running thru my head and i think im going to do something with it.

I love her colors with the white... my first thought is i would use cream. BUT... thats because im afraid of white. I dont know what my fear of white is... i LOVE the look of it... but i am seriously afraid of it. Maybe its because i have always avoided white clothing too..  i love crisp white clothes but in 5 minutes ive got a spot on me! The other reason i think cream for mine is she has such vivid colors and mine are more muted... just seems to be what i have in my stash. I will have to ask ralph and see my squares against the two.... but yes... my 4 patch squares will be combined with strips somehow and instead of printed nuetrals... im going with a solid or solids.... i need to play with graph paper again.

an another quilting blogging question... i would love to put a pic of her block with a link to the tutorial but i dont know the etiquette on that... so i just posted the links. Is it proper to email and ask her if i can post the pic with the link?? I would think so.... I just hate to have to clicky clicky the links to see something someone referenced.

Ralph and I worked yesterday morning... I stayed at the store during the break and stayed open. My plan was for it to be slow so that i could make a batch of sub buns and work on getting the sound equipment right. We were too busy for that! that was good cuz last week was super slow! We did our first show on www.fizma.com last night and i think our listeners liked it. We did a test run sunday and the mic levels were all wrong. I figured out that problem for last night but we still have a crackle that i cant figure out... im going to work on that thursday. But... the music quality is better and they didn't seem to mind the trade off!

Today i seriously have to work on bookwork for the store... im a month behind!!! Im going to have to do a sams run... then work from 5-10 so i dont think i will have alot of sewing time. I wish I had the money to get my sewing machine out of the shop... but its going to have to wait till later in the week. With the slow week last week, i just dont have it!

hope yall have a wonderful day.

not very inspired

my blogs last week dont seem very "inspired" but they did match my mood... i was really tired last week!

before i get into this... how do i make it so when i comment on someone elses blog post they can contact me... something about an email setting... ive looked and have no idea how to fix it!!! anyone have any idea?

my picture for the day... my little 4 patches... im still in love...

I have no idea how many ive made... and the picture is a little blurry, i was fighting to keep sammy cat off of them while i got the picture. But im still enjoying making these... i can whip up a bunch in no time!

I have my stack for the week of hand piecing... but im looking forward to getting my machine back this week!!! I have so many other things i want to get started on.

My sister emailed me and asked me if i would help her put up a website for her to sell her quilts!! I had no idea she was quilting enough to sell them! I am thrilled to help and will share a link when we get it up. I told her she should blog... lol... i am a blog addict. But i guess my cousins john and johnny are going to a "handmade" fair and selling things they are making (im assuming woodworking) and she has been sending quilts with them and selling them! I am going to have to join in on the family business... i will have to ship what i make to michigan... but how cool is that! Becki is calling her quilts "inspired by angels" because her inspiration is my mom, my aunt and my grandma... all quilters who have passed away.

My mom taught me to quilt. Both of my sisters make things... becki has made me alot of pretty things and sandy tends to make things for her home. lol.. sandy doesn't seem that crafty... so it is always odd to me when i see stuff she makes... but i think that the influence we had growing up (mom made our clothes, quilts, you name it) is stronger than her seeming lack of patience and interest! Becki doesn't surprise me... she has always created things! I didn't have my mom as long as they did, she passed away when i was 14 so i dont know if my stuff is really inspired by her, and my grandma i know she sewed and quilted but during my lifetime she owned a store and didn't sew that much (i think my aunt had more influence over my quilting that anyone) but i do know that i do it to feel a connection to them. I do it because the sounds and textures and finished products take me back to a time when my mom was a part of my life and i hope that the three of them are sitting up in heaven smiling down on me as i create things... like they did.

ok.. now that im all sappy... every once in a while there is a moment that just touches your heart...

Ralph and grandbaby Waylon yesterday... how sweet is that?

survived another long day

Ralph and I worked 12 hours yesterday and we survived it. I made the schedule for next week, i didn't schedule us for any 12 hour shifts! We each only get one day off (and i think we will close the 4th... so we will get that off too) I did it for several reasons. First... we need a break from 3 12 hour days, 2nd... the kids are doing a crappy job up there and it shows. I have had to give away food the last two shifts where people complained that their food was burnt. One brought the pizza in and im really disappointed that they served that. so... two people have complained, how many haven't and just wont be back? this is a small town and i cant afford to lose customers!! So there are only 2 shifts without one of us being in the store this next week. Third.. since we are covering as many shifts as possible we aren't working together... and i think we need that break! But it will break up a routine i have and i hate breaking up my routines!

My hand piecing that i set out to do this week is done! Even a mess of little 4 patches. I work until 3 today... tonight im going to be stocking the box again! i will post some more pictures tomorrow... i may even have two rows combined by then... im so excited!

This morning i have to go up to the store early, they are going to help me set up the radio show and we should be back on air by monday night! Ralph is out horseshoeing, but it should be the last customer he has till the next round which starts in 4 weeks. Its working out that he has 2 horrific weeks where he works himself to death... then 4 off. Im printing him flyers today to try to get about 5 more customers, that means he will have three horrific weeks and 3 off but financially we would be in much better shape!

oh oh oh... good news. Bucks employer wants him back... long story why he got fired, but they are trying to get him back and he will be making 16 per hour again and they will be able to afford getting their house moved here and move out! i was really excited but it may have to wait 90 days before he can get back on the crew. Buck better do what he can to get the job back because that kind of pay doesn't happen often in east texas! The employer realized what a work horse they got rid of... buck is a hard worker!

A useful tutorial

In the past i used bias tape to bind my quilts. (this was back in the 80's) I have seen so many quilts now with fabric binding that ive loved... i just had no idea how to do it. But... i found this tutorial on making bias binding... i was so excited. I cant wait to make the binding for the quilts im making the twins!! (i get my sewing machine back late next week... woo hoo... i cant wait!)

Thank you traceyjayquilts for the continuous bias binding tutorial!

life stuff

we now have a wireless router in the house! woo hoo! sharon and I figured it out yesterday, we had bought the router in december but it wouldn't work with our system. Ive been so busy i haven't tried to figure it out, sharon yesterday found where they had a fix for it and we got it installed and im now sitting in bed on my laptop blogging and ralph can use his computer... sharing was tough!

We also found a new home for our radio show. We are going to do it on http://www.fizma.com/ it is a new station, one of the creators of it was a listener to our show... she is so excited that we will be bringing our audience to them she is beside herself! We may have it running in time to do the show tomorrow, if not then definately on monday. It has all but the phone feature but they are working on adding that. There will actually be customer service here (there was NONE where we were doing it) Im excited. Our show is Monday and Thursday from 7-9 Central time (6-8 Eastern) and w play cowboy and western music... it is alot of fun, there is a chatroom for folks listening where they can interact with each other and we have built a "backporch family" I love doing the show. We had to decide if we wanted to do our own station where we could sell advertising or if we just wanted to keep doing a show... we chose the make no money option because we are both too busy to sell advertising!

Today i spent some time looking at etsy.com. Wow... people are actually selling their handcrafted goods! Im skeptical... could i really make money sewing stuff??? lol... im going to think about that one for a while... seems i need to get a sewing machine that works before i get too excited! The other thing i love is that recycled products and green products seem popular and i love those things!! Hmmm food for thought.

today is a long day so very little sewing. I did get some housework done this morning... serously though there are 4 adults in this house. Ralph and i work long hours at the restaurant and he horseshoes.... buck works 19 hours a week at the store and sharon doesn't have a job... you would think that they would have plenty of time to clean up after themselves... ahh but that would be a rant.. im just waiting for them to move out... there has been talk of that again lately and im getting hopeful again. I love them to death but it would be so nice if ralph and i had the house to ourselves!

So... picture of the day.... here is a "cowboyed up" shot of ralph and i when we were at the Acadamy of Western Artists Award show last year.

and another of us with some of our backporch listeners when we won the Western Music Association's Radio Station of the year award.

no sew day

Ok... my house is severely neglected because ive been sewing every minute i have available... so today im determined to clean and not sew... lol... we will see how that goes. I am almost thru my piecing that i prepared for the whole week and its only tuesday... so i guess i got alot done yesterday!

the sewing machine just left the house... ralph is finally taking it to the shop in Many... i hope they can fix it fast because i have so many projects i want to work on! I have been reading tutorials... im telling you thats dangerous! I now want to make a whole bunch of stuff i dont have the fabric for which means im going to have to buy fabric... its just dangerous.

lol... ok my method of making stuff is i read a bunch of tutorials to get an idea of how to do it and then i make it how i want... 

But...im going to make ralphs laptop a denim bag lined with mattress ticking. I think he will like that right now he is using a carry on case as a laptop bag! I didn't find a tutorial exactly how i wanted it but i did get some good ideas and have a plan in my head.

cloth napkins and curtains for the kitchen. I used to have a bunch of them but overtime they have worn out. I love using cloth napkins with meals! I am so excited about making different napkins for different seasons... oh and the color of my background on my blog is the color we are painting the kitchen... cant you just see some of these beautiful fabrics out there with these colors in it as napkins and curtains for my kitchen... (im giddy with the thought)

my favorite pair of pajama bottoms have a hole in them! I plan on using them for a pattern for a couple more pair of them. They are just cotton pj bottoms but i love them and wear them all the time! Living with sharon and buck... i cant run around in skimpy nighties! lol. I also plan on finding a capri pants pattern... in the summer thats all i wear to work and i need about 4 more pair!

the possibilities are endless and i feel like i have awoke a sleeping giant... it feels so good to be creating and making things again. I cant tell you the joy it brings me!

Ralph and people around me dont understand this "new found" obsession (its new to them... not to me... but it has been almost two decades since i have made things) I feel like i have come home... all the ideas and projects swimming in my head, the feel of fabric... the sound of scissors slicing thru ti...  i cant wait to hear the whirl of the sewing machine. Watching a lifeless piece of fabric become something... im just too excited. Hopefully yall reading this get that... because its hard to explain to someone who hasn't been there and done that... it all just makes me giddy!