Something New

It seems to hold true that, when one door closes, another one opens! 

We are opening a new business!! CJ and I have been working on our business plan and cash flow forecasts for the past month for our new venture called "Color Blenz". We will be doing automotive paint repairs such as chip and scratch retouching, bumper blends and then, in a few months, expanding into detailing.

We have finished the plans and applied for funding through Community Futures. We were told a week ago that we had been approved and now we are just waiting for the paperwork to be finalized so we can go sign the papers.

We have found shop space and have been doing what needs done there in order to obtain our "occupancy permit". Thankfully, there was not much - just a small bit of plumbing, replacing several electrical outlets and installing fire extinguishers. As soon as the plumber is done tomorrow, we can ask for our final inspection, get the permit and then our business licence.

I am really looking forward to this! 

A Rant on Unfair Employment Practices

You may (or may not) have wondered what happened to me, where I have been for the past weeks since my last post. I had accepted a job that was supposed to be part-time but turned out to be full-time and more in the scope of work that was expected of me.

The only problem was, I was on salary and was only paid for the time stated in the original agreement at part-time wages even though these people told me verbally that I would be paid extra for the first few months to get things caught up and back on track. I was putting in 8 hours or more monday thru friday, worked thru numerous weekends as well and never saw any extra for my trouble.  I was earning substantially less than minimum wage. In the month of March, I worked 187 hours that I reported to the company. I had to submit a daily work log stating what I had done and the number of hours I worked. They knew exactly the time I put in. 

There still seem to be those unscrupulous people around who will take advantage of others without loosing any sleep at night over it and rubbing their hands together all the way to the bank with the money they ripped off of you. 

Above all, I dispise being used. I am thankful that I am no longer working there although there are tenants there who befriended me that I will miss. Many have called to express their disbelief at what has transpired. 

I do believe in Karma - and their turn will come. Am I bitter? Yes, but I will get over it and remember well the lesson learned. 

That four letter word.... WORK

It has finally happened - I have returned to W.O.R.K. after being off for 2 years. 

We have taken on a position managing two apartment buildings for Woodsmere Holdings, 94 units in total. Its going to take time to get to know the routine as well as getting other things in order there. We have put in long days for the past week already and still have so much to do prior to the end of the month.

Its going to take some time for me to learn all the ins and outs of property management. CJ has done this kind of work before so the transition has been a bit easier for him. It also means that, for a while, I may not be able to do much in the way of quilting. I still seem to be quite tired by the time I'm done work for the day and we worked through last weekend.

Once we have our suite in the building ready, I'll be able to set up a small sewing room again and hopefully be able to get back to doing some quilting!

January Finish

I was told that I was too late to sign up for the "finish one a month challenge" at Abyquilt but, I am going to challenge myself to do it anyways!! Accordingly, I am setting my own rules. I'm going to have different types of finishes:
- Phase One Finish - All the piecing for the project is complete according to the instructions or pattern used.. in other words, a flimsy (finished quilt top only).
- Phase Two Finish - The completed flimsey is backed and quilted.
- Phase Three Finish - Quilt has binding sewn on and is labeled, ready to use (or hang).
If anyone else would like to join me, let me know and we will start our own "finishing school"!

My finish (Phase One) for January is the EPP Star Table Topper that was a mystery from CD Designs. The top is done, but I now need to figure out how to complete it. I think an additional border would look good although the design instructions don't include one. Since it is made by English Paper Piecing, I have to remove all the papers from the back, even along the outer edges. Then, I'll need to open out the edge seam allowances so that I have something to attach to. Cross your fingers for me! If you have any ideas on an easier way to do this, I'd love to hear it!!

I finally figured out that my problem with posting pictures is related entirely to the newest update for the brower I use, Opera. I far prefer Opera over IE but, until they can fix this glitch, I'm stuck using IE to upload any pictures.

A Belated Happy New Year!

For some reason, Blogger is not letting me upload pictures.. please bear with me until I find a cure....

Is it just me or do the weeks, months and years seem to be going by faster and faster the older that you get?? I swear that New Years Day just happened and now, the whole month of January is over!! I'm beginning to understand now why it was that when my mother was in her 70's, her whole day was taken up by going to see the doctor and making supper.

Time stands still for no-one and I know that I need to learn to make better use of the time that is here now for me to use. There are no "hold over minutes" in real life! I find that, sometimes, I get rather bogged down with things especially if I have no clear plan in place, or a deadline of some kind to work towards. I know I have talked before about goals.. I know what I NEED to do. It seems though that the one thing I do have down pat is procrastination.

I wasn't always this way. In my younger years, I got many things done in a day or week. There was time to go camping on many weekends even though I had a full time job outside of the home and children to care for. I can recall starting to cut out a dress at 10:00 o'clock at night and surviving on just a few hours sleep so that I could wear that same dress to work the next day. Now, it seems to take weeks and months sometimes to finish even small projects. I have almost totally stopped doing any garment sewing. The closest I get now is some mending.

I no longer wear skirts and dresses much. The uniform of the day for me has become jeans and a t-shirt or sweatshirt unless I dress up - then its nicer jeans and a nicer top. *LOL* My closet though is still stuffed to the max with all kinds of clothes. Its another of those tasks that I keep saying I am going to do "some day". I have A LOT of those "some day" tasks around my home. I did download a "Declutter Calendar" from My Simpler Life so that I could follow the suggestions there for gaining control of the clutter and actually fight my way through my messes.

Decluttering my home is my BIG goal for this year. That includes working to finish some of the many WISP's (Work In Some Progress) and UFO's (UnFinished Objects) in my sewing room. I am also going to join along with all the others at Abyquilt to finish at least one project per month in 2009. It is good to know that there are others who are in the same situation and hopefully, we can encourage one another along the way to meeting our goals this year!

A Hand Made Christmas

 

4sets of Potholders from scraps

Another 4 sets of Potholders from scraps

Christmas has come and gone for another year. Hope everyone's was wonderful. I spent the last few weeks prior to the big day doing lots of baking, sewing and knitting. My projects were mainly for family so I didn't dare show pictures here of what I was doing. Now that all the gifts have been delivered and opened, I can share them with you.

Old embroidery test pieces used as back of potholders

Potholders for my sisters and daughters, made from squares leftover from my mystery star quilt and some machine quilted/embroidered blocks for the backs. Three of the smaller ones were made from 9-patch blocks that were in mom's collection which I inherited.

                                                                 

A couple of the sets were made with leftovers from this table runner. I call it Crazy Holly and it is my third finish in the New Year's Eve challenge.

 
 
Knitted slippers for two of my grandsons. I have another two pair I am still working on as well.
 
A wooden trinket box that my granddaughter saw and told me she wanted on the morning of the 24th. I brought it home and was able to stain it that afternoon and spray varnish it late that night so it would be ready to wrap in the morning. She was surprised and really loved it! That made it all worthwhile.

Finally, I made a set of Junior cook sized oven mitts that I, unfortunately, forgot to take a picture of.

Scrap Happy!

I love the look of scrappy quilts.. I've been admiring many that I have seen online while blog-jogging. On Quiltville, Bonnie has shared her Scrap Users System and I'm sure most quilters have heard of it. If by some chance you haven't, click on the links and check it out. She also shares many wonderful patterns to use up your scraps!

Feeling the need to do some organizing, I worked for a few afternoons to organize my scraps. I dug out the plastic bins (sure wish I had stock in THAT company) and began to cut strips and squares. I just cut strips of various widths if the piece was at least 12" long. If it was shorter, I cut it into squares. After spending many hours of cutting, my 'organized' scrap stash all fit neatly into just 4 video storage boxes. They aren't even anywhere near full. :S Is it possible for a person to not have enough scraps?? YUP, it sure is.

A woman on a quilting forum site that I frequent was chatting about clearing out her sewing room of quilting fabric if it was anything less than 1/8 yd. She was going to TOSS IT INTO THE TRASH. Having heart palpitations, I sent a message to her saying I would LOVE to have any scraps that she was getting rid of. I'd could pay the postage OR send fabric in return for her trouble. Sadly, I never did hear from her so, I imagine, all that fabric was sent to her local landfill. :-(

HOWEVER, another lady by the name of Karen sent me a message saying that she had a box of scraps that she'd be happy to send me!! We made arrangements and the box arrived at my door today!

Now, I'm sure some people will think I'm loosing it to be so HAPPY over a box of scraps but I am over the moon! I'd estimate that about 1/3 of the box are pieces that are already cut into strips and squares.

There are some larger pieces, even some fat 8's and fat 4's! There is a whole pile of 2.5" strips in black on white and white on black prints... there are also pieces of beautiful hand dyeds. Here's a picture of it all on my livingroom floor. I tried to seperate things mostly by color as I unpacked the box.

Karen, I can't thank you enough! My brain is spinning with ideas to use these!! I know that one of the first things I will work on is a scrappy quilt for charity. 

English Paper Piecing

I have been working on the English paper piecing mystery quilt at CD Designs.  I was able to finish the first 5 steps easily within one week with time to spare. The first photo is steps 1 through 5 joined together.

A new step is posted every saturday. When step 6 was posted, I thought I would have plenty of time to complete it and didn't start working on it right away. Needless to say, it took longer to do this step than I expected and I didn't get it finished. Well, these things tend to "snowball" and now I am one step behind.

Here are the most recent pieces that I've done. The colors in this photo are more true to life. The six pieces are just laid out this way for the picture. Since this is a mystery, we won't know exactly how it all goes together until the end. Maybe I will be able to get caught up yet this week.

I haven't done anything more yet on the Rainbow Hearts baby quilt. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly to do for the actual quilting. I've had advice suggesting circular designs. I have no idea what would be good or if I would be able to accomplish something like that myself. I would be able to do a large all over stipple but I just doubt that would be the best design. I also could easily stitch in the ditch or do a 1/4" outline around the hearts. I just need to make a decision and then do it!

As for the binding, if I want to use the same fabric as the border, I'd need to cut the border down by 2" or I will not have enough of that fabric to do the binding. Since this was a pre-cut kit, I don't have any of the fabrics that were used within the quilt to use for the binding. **sigh** This was supposed to be an easy project! 

OCD Finishing (or something like that)

Here's an update on my Rainbow Hearts baby quilt. I selected a fabric for the outside border and have sewn it on. Now I am waffling on whether I have made that border too wide, too overpowering or not. It is the same width as the blocks within the quilt but I'm wondering now if it should have been narrower. (Notice my slipper matches the border?? lol)


Here is photo of the same border folded back to look narrower. I know there are some kind of rules for borders, that they should reflect the size of components within the quilt or some such thing. I just want this to look balanced and not weird.

The binding is supposed to be the same batik as the inner border. Hopefully I won't stress out over that too IF I get that far. I also have a difficult time coming up with a plan for the actual quilting on things. I've heard so often that the quilting can make or break a quilt and I stress over doing it "wrong" and screwing it up. After all the time that goes into the piecing, I sure don't want to ruin it.

I do this to myself all too often. Perhaps that is why I stall at putting the borders onto otherwise completed quilt tops (unless there is a pattern that tells me exactly what to do) and also why I have a closet full of tops that have never been quilted. I know one option would be to send them to a longarmer to have it done. Then I stress that I may not like what they choose to do. If I knew what pattern or design would enhance the quilt, I'd rather do it myself. Maybe its a control thing... I would even like to do some by hand. I do have a few books of quilting designs. Again though, I stall at what designs to use and where. Many patterns don't help when they say "quilt as desired". Finishing a quilt should not be this hard or this stressful!

Winter Weather in Southern Alberta, Canada

Doot doot dooooo - lookin' out my back door! This is what I saw today. Wish I had something there more interesting to look at, but there is a reason for this picture. Many people think that, since I live in Alberta, Canada, we should be knee deep in snow by now. That is not the case as here in the South East corner of the province, our weather tends to be much milder than it is farther north or east. We have still to see any flakes fall here. We have been basking in glorious sunshine for the most part all fall. I'm going to keep posting a snapshot of the scene from my back door as the winter progresses so check in often!