Another day

Up at 6 this morning and at the gym at 6:30. Then to the Dr's at 9 and another one at 2:30. In between went out to lunch with my mama on the river. It was nice. It's only 9:15 and i am headed to bed. lol..
I worked on my flower quilt today while waiting in the waiting rooms. Nice to have a hand project.
Sunday i plan to get out a UFO.. Now which one???????????????????
Happy Weekend...

Dream books..

Here is another idea for using old books as the basis for your dream books from Jane's Apron and Vintage Pleasure.
My friend David even had another idea. Get a scrapbook album and stick your inspiration cutouts on each side of the paper that comes in the plastic holder and then you can pull them out and put them with other inspiration and come up will whole new ideas.

Dottie.

P.S. All this time on my hands is turning into some wonderful dream adventures.

Summer of Independence

Well with all that has happened in this past year or so and now with the layoff I am going to declare a "Summer of Independence". Julie over at Jane's Apron has declared it for helping with her kids, I am going to use the motivation for me to become more of who i want to be, rather than who i have turned out due to life's circumstances. I am going to push my self creatively. Check out her blog. It's a good one. ;-)

My new toy...

I get laid off so i go do some retail therapy. lol.. No it just is a coincidence. I received money for my graduation and combined with money i earned house sitting and money i was refunded from co pays I had about 400 dollars. Well i wanted to buy something. I was debating between an IPOD touch and a new TV.

All i had was a shuffle and i wanted to upgrade. Now my TV is another story. The red bulb has been going out more and more. I can still watch TV but not the right color. It's interesting to watch something and think it's a blue dress and when the red comes back on you find it's a shocking pink. lol. Kept me on my toes. Also since the TV was so old i need to buy a converter and it wasn't worth it. I was just going to give up TV and watch DVDs.

When i came home that Monday i knew what i would get as i would be home more. So i went out to look and came home with the 26 inch TV.

It's just slightly bigger than the one in the living room. lol but it's MINE... and i love it.. I get more channels.. Yea!!!!!

When i told my boyfriend that night he just laughed and said he would need to keep an eye on me if my reaction to an event is to go buy and expense electronic gadget.. I told him not to worry. lol It happens rarely.

Off to watch the TV. lol

Dottie..

A new direction....

Hi,
Well - news has happened this week.
On Monday the 22nd I was laid off. I walked in to work, signed in on the computer and was starting to start my morning review when my boss came and said we needed to go talk with the bigger boss. They brought me in and gave me the news. I was OK with it. I knew that when the time came it would be me.I had made my peace with the possibility and turned it into a positive spin.
When we heard of layoffs in the branches we always thought it might happened to us and i determined it would likely be me. For a couple of reasons, one - i didn't have any extra jobs over and above(but we won't go there) , two i just got my degree and who knows if i would have stayed, three i have no family to support, four i am one of the lowest on the seniority pole. Also i have a hard time making drama about problems or promoting my self. I just think that the job i do should say enough. And the few times i have tried to promote myself notice is not taken. With the economy - the department had to cut expenses and in our department that is people. We have cut everything else.
But it is going to be just fine. I have a positive attitude. I had been praying what i should do job wise after i graduated. I didn't know. Well i got my answer. lol
So i am now going to have an interesting summer. Hopefully employed but i am going to take advantage of it creatively. Wait for more posts on that.
Dottie

Grandmothers Flower Garden...

Hi,
I am going to do a series of posts on my projects/UFO’s. Maybe it will be motivation to work on them.

The first I am going to show is my grandmothers Flower Garden. I think I might call it the Agnes May or the Lillian Dorothy in honor of my two grandmas. Gotta think on that as it isn’t just right and I know the quilt will tell me what it wants to be called. I have always had a special yearning to hand sew. Currently this is my second completely hand sewn quilt. I will post later on my first one that is still in progress.
I was going to New York in May and I wanted something small and compact to work on and thought it was the perfect time to start some English paper piecing. I have observed it over the years and thought how cool that was. I was especially influenced by watching Beth at Heart to Hand Quilt shop. She taught a class on it but I was just able to observe her at the monthly block of the month club and then with talking with her a bit. I also did some research on the Internet and studied a couple of tutorials and read a couple of directions on a couple of sites and came up with a mishmash my own style of doing it. To get started I knew I had to find some templates. Of course I dreamed up the design of this quilt at work. That is where a lot of my designing starts and I was itching to leave work but I had to wait until 5 when I got off. I first looked at the Internet to see where I could buy hexagons. I found a site but I didn't want to have to wait for delivery so decided to go check out Fabric Depot here in Portland. A wonderful store here in the Portland area. They had them. The hard part was deciding which size to use. After much debating with myself I choose the 1 inch hexagons and I was off and running.
I knew I had tons of scraps at home and decided to go buy some white on white fabric to go in the centers. I also bought a cute cutter in the shape of a daisy for the plane as I didn't know if my cute little scissors would make it past the checkpoint and I didn't want to risk it.
Later that week while sitting in front of the TV I cut out my fabric from all of my pieces just roughly around one of the templates. I did not cut them precise or perfect. In fact long ways from perfect as some are a bit more a hexagon rectangle then a hexagon square. Lol. In fact I even found that I cut the white ones two small so those were not going to be the center any more and I had so many different pink fabrics I decided to use those as the centers. It actually looks pretty good.
I had a plastic box left over from my Q-tips and it's the perfect size. For my trip I put enough fabric for 6 flowers, needles, the cutter and thread into the box. I put the rest of the stuff in my suitcase with my scissors. I was way too ambitious.
We took a red eye to NY from Portland, with no stops. I was tired and hyper. My friend was traveling with me and he fell asleep so I started one. It seemed so hard. I didn't cut the pieces big enough and even though I pinned it, the fabric slid all over and I had very little left to baste. I put it away after the first few hexagons as I was discouraged.
My days in NY were full and I never had a chance to pick the sewing up to work on. I flew home alone and the seat next to me was empty – so I tried again. I still struggled. I was able to complete two flowers but I was still discouraged. I even found the whip stitching hard. So I put it away and thought about it. I was about ready to chuck the whole idea.
That week I made another trip to Fabric Depot and bought the ¾ inch hexagons and tried again. I am now in love. That smaller size has made such a difference. The fabric still slides a bit but it so easy to baste and the pieces are nice and tight. The whip stitching is now so much easier. My applique project is at a stopping point so last week I started taking the flower garden to work. I find that between my 2 - fifteen minute breaks I can usually get almost 1 flower done a day. When I first started I would baste the middle hexagon and then 1 for the next round and then whip them together. I would then do the next one and whip stitch it on. If felt like I was starting, stopping, starting stopping... So I changed my rhythm. Now I baste all 7 hexagons and then whip stitch them all at once. So much faster and I feel so much more productive.
One day at work I did a little figuring. Each flower is 4 inches. I figured out that if I wanted to do a quilt 80 by 80, I would need 400 flowers or 2800 hexagons. I haven’t figured out how many white ones I need to make but it’s just a rough idea. I might just do it in sections as I plan to use all my scraps on this.

Today... my day

Well it it was the first Sat free.. What did i do???Not much.

I did laundry.. i finished two books.. I wrote up some calling cards.. They are so cute.. I used an old fashioned rose and put myself down as a quilter and an artist. How cool is that.

I read all my blogs.. watched some of the US Open.. and i cleaned my closet.. I got 4 bags of clothers to take the donation center tomoroow.

I was going to take photos of my paper piecing project.. but one thing led to another and it was dark. So i will take photos tomorrow.
Till later taters..
Dottie.

Spell check..

I have been reading some of my old posts..
Spellcheck Dottie. Have you ever heard of spellcheck. Maybe stick a grammar check in their too. lol
Well I apologize to all who are reading. I will go back and tidy my entries up so they make some sort of sense. But i think you are getting the gist of what i am writing.
Dottie

In Memory...... Jim Carlsen....

April 9, 1962 - June 17th, 2008

The love of my life. I miss you dearly and I talk to you everyday! We could had a life full of “gelling”.. I will always love you.! My sweet sweet Jimmy!!!!!!!
Please watch over me. I think you would be so proud that I graduated! I miss our talking and our daily -we are passing over and under the overpass conversations. I will never forget you!
Thank you for changing my life and the privilege of loving you!

School is over and the fun begins.

Hello everyone.

School is over!!!!! Yea.... Now the fun begins....
What i have planned.. I have a goal to work on and complete 3 quilt tops this summer. My mom has a goal for me to buy a large roll of batting and sandwich some.

I have 3 hand projects going. One is the block of the month that I posted a couple of posts back. I finished the prepped one and have sewn and turned the hears for the next two months. I will iron down all the pieces on the backing this weekend and take it back to work to work on during breaks.
Meanwhile I have my grandmothers flower garden I am piecing. Did i mention it before? Well i cut the fabric too small for the 1 inch hexagons but the pieces of fabric work great with the 3/4 inch. If i want to make an 80 by 80 quilt i will need to do 400 flowers. But that doesn't count the white walking path. I will have to refigure but at least i have a goal. These are all from my scraps. It might take me years. Right now i have 10. lol I will be working on this the rest of the week at work.
Third - i have my original hand project. I had found it about 4 years ago at a thrift/antique shop at the beach. Pieces for a tumbling block were cut all cut out. I am not sure how many. I then went to Joannes (since i think the original fabric was from the 80's.) and bought some green, pink and gold to go with all of the brown flower printed pieces. They are all now sewn together and I have decided to float it with a chocolate brown border. I have cut out the pieces to go around the border and the border it's self. I have not had time with school to mark the pieces with a white pencil. That is another goal this summer.

What other plans.

One i plan to go through all my magazines and tear out pages and things i want to keep. Perhaps a color combo or a wonderful bedroom. I am going to file them in a file box. I am going to do 5 a week at least. I will then post them in my dream book for ideas for the future. I am keeping some series but then other ones i will go through. I need the room. lol

Read. Right now i have like 18 books checked out from the library and a series i have had on my shelf since February from a friend at work. I gotta pump them out. Maybe this weekend i can make a dent.

Have lots of movies and series to watch. I didn't get a converter box for the TV in my room. One i wanted to see if i tried not to watch so much TV. I have Gilmore Girls, Road to Avonlea, West Wing, Emily in New Moon, Felicity, Upstairs Downstairs, Berkshire place and a whole bunch more. Oh yea.. the Tutors and season 2 and 3 of Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson.
Well that's a book.
I will talk with you all later and update you on my progress.

PS. I have to fit the gym in there somehow and enjoy the sun.

My last class..

Well my last class is set to start in 25 minutes. I am kind of sad. In a couple of years i will be back doing something.... but i am so ready for a break..
Next week finals.
Good by Portland State.

The countdown has begun.

I have begun to countdown to graduation. 3 days to go to class and a total of 10 days till the ceremony. Yea