We are rearranging the house!

Moving furniture is not one of my favorite activities. There are some people I know that move things around every few months to make the room more this or more that. I am not one of those people. I arrange furniture and it tends to stay that way for years. Honey didn't have to ask more than once for this change though.

Honey and I are about to change up at least 2 rooms in our house. He needs to have an office to handle all of his truck things. It has to be accessible to auditors, which means we don't really want it on the second floor. They would have to traipse through the entire house to get to it. We don't really want it in the basement either. The basement does not give off that professional feeling. We have decided to put it in the "little bedroom". There are no beds in the little bedroom. The "little bedroom" is a small room on the first floor that I currently use to work my day job from and I use it for my sewing machine. All of my other sewing paraphernalia is upstairs in the "office". Now the office does have 2 desks in it currently. Honey's desk is falling apart. It is going into the trash. The plan is to move my desk and the file cabinet downstairs to the "little bedroom" and move the rest of my sewing stuff upstairs to the "office" The "office" then becomes a sewing room, since it mostly is anyway. I get all my sewing things on one floor and don't have to do the sewing aerobics anymore. We also have to move a table from the basement to the new sewing room and a file cabinet from the basement to the new office. Gram's couch will come up to our bedroom. I think the whole house will be in an uproar all weekend. Good thing I decided not to paint first.

My new sewing room. I've never had a sewing room. It is currently a very cheerful yellow. I am watching the light this morning to see how it comes in the windows. I want to make sure it will not blind me as I sew in the morning or the evening. I also have to move my cutting table to a more lighted corner. It can be a little shady in the evening where it is now. My sewing machine is going on a regular table for now. I will now have room for a real sewing table once I find one I like. I'll need to look at more little cubby holes also, to put fabric in.

It's moving day at my house!

Progress?

I've been working diligently on Palumbo's Puzzle. I have about 20 blocks to finish and then string them all together. Everything was going along just fine...until I had a little distraction this past week. Nothing bad. Just the curious nature of how my mind works. I was pinning and sewing the curves together, just like I have been. I happened to pick up 3 yellow pins, 1 green and 1 red. Well, I noticed the play of the green and yellow pin heads off the black and gray fabric of the quilt. The colors were muted and looked great against the dark background. I had to stop and record the colors to go back to later. Now they have been haunting me. I've been dreaming muted lemons and limes. This is how it always happens for me. I am happily doing my thing and BAM! Something clicks in my head and I have a new idea.

I think I need a better idea storage tool. I keep a journal (well, maybe 2 or 3). I keep pictures, usually on my computer or they stay in my phone. I keep fabric color combinations together under my cutting table. The problem I am having is that all these ideas go in and then they rarely come out again. It may be because there are always new ideas to work on. I think truly it is the disjointed nature of how I keep the ideas. I need the pictures to come together with the color combinations and the journal sketches somehow. I'm looking for ideas...

What else is new and exciting? Honey and I are discussing going to the Kentucky Truck Show next month. http://www.truckingshow.com/ I think it will be very cool! I'm hoping it will be similar to the motorcycle shows, only much larger vehicles and so a much larger canvas for custom paint. It is so amazing what these artists can do. I also am very curious about the sleeper quilts. I have only seen the $40 blanket variety from your local truck stop. SOMEBODY must be making custom quilts for these souped up semis!

Happy Valentines Day!

Ok, So Valentine's isn't until tomorrow. Honey and I celebrated last weekend in Chicago. It seems like Valentines week here. Not such a bad thing.

Honey was in Chicago on Tuesday. BooBoo and I left Erie on Thursday. I stayed with my best friend Thursday night. We do this every year. I get to her house about 10pm and we stay up until 2 or 3 talking. I headed off west when she went in to work on Friday. Honey was working the motorcycle show, finishing the setup at the Stephens Convention Center. I wish I could say we filled our weekend with very exciting plans. No so. It was just a nice weekend away. We did take a little trip south of Chicago to look at a trailer for his truck. Not the peak of excitement though.

BooBoo got to play with all his friends. He is madly in love with Riley, a white shepherd. He got to see Roy and Pat, and the Yamaha boys. Eggs for breakfast, a hamburger for lunch. (He won't eat dog food when we are on the road). He thought it was a great trip. Now, don't go thinking the other boys missed out. Charlie and Petey were at Camp Diane's. Spoiled rotten would be a good description. Bailey got to go to Aunt Bonnie's. Spoiled rotten again. Bailey's sister lives with Aunt Bonnie as well as 2 Springer Spaniels, Gunner and Gabby.

I took several photos of the custom paint jobs on the motorcycles. I love the color combinations they use. I've also been looking at some of the lines of the pieces parts, like this fender from one of the Victory Ness bikes. The flow of the exhaust pipe has a nice curve to it. The different shapes of the handle bars. I'm working on a design using the exhaust pipe curve. I'll work on the handle bars later. Who knew motorcycles could inspire quilts.

Snow again

It snowed again yesterday, another 8-12 inches. We've had over 120 inches already this year. Not as much as some areas, but almost a record for here. My mother reminded me it doesn't snow when it is very cold here. I guess I should be happy it has warmed up enough to snow. I had to shovel some of the backyard to give the little boys room to go out.









I've signed up for Facebook. I'm moving into the digital age I guess. I was not a fan of My Space. Too many kids I think. It seemed too much like an obsession. Not that Facebook isn't full of kids or a bit like an obsession. There seem to be more people my age there and I have been surprised by some of the people that are there. The Today Show has a page for example, well Hoda and Kathy Lee anyway. We'll see how it goes. If you are on Facebook, let me know what you think of it.


I finished my stealth project. You'll still have to wait to see it. I gave it to my quilter, Alison Schmidt. This quilt needed a higher level of quilting than I am capable of. Alison does a great job and I can't wait to see what she comes up with.



I've just started working on a commission quilt. A couple of the drivers that have been on the motorcycle tour have asked for quilts for their semi bunks. The quilts are 55" x 85", long and narrow. The first quilt is black/purple and grey to match his truck. I've added a little of the lime green to brighten it up a bit. The next one is green with darker green flames. I think I'll have to applique the flames. I'm still working on drawing that one up. The third quilt we have been discusing has a mission style design. I'm waiting for the applique artwork to match their bedroom. The mission quilt will be king size. I'll be busy with these for a little while.




I'm headed to Cleveland this weekend for the IMS Motorcycle Show (http://www.motorcycleshows.com/). It's the same show I was at in Houston. Honey left on Tuesday to start the setup. I'll stay until Sunday. The show closes at 4:00 for the Superbowl. Honey will be tearing down the booths during the game. I think they play it over the loadspeakers. Next weekend we'll be in Chicago. Maybe I'll find another inspiration bike like the one in Houston. I'll certainly get some good flame ideas.

That Creative Place

Do you remember how important your high school yearbook was? At the end of the year, it was critical to make sure all not my friends signed the pages. Heaven forbid they didn't get that chance to mark up all the white space. I might forget them forever over the summer. I have not gone back to those pages very often over the years. I still think about all those signatures though. There was one that still stands out today. A good friend of mine wrote, "I am at a creative low." and signed his name. I guess it stands out because I understand that feeling. How many times have you been called upon to be witty, clever, or profound. It is a hard thing to do on the spot. I am much better at developing ideas over time. I think most of us are that way.

I think I have told you I keep several journals around to jot things down. My ghosts, or ideas as they run rampant through my head. Just last night at our quilt guild meeting, a friend of mine was talking about all the crazy ideas that run through her head and how quilting gives her a chance to channel them into something productive. I understood completely.

How do we develop these fleeting glimpses into something usable and productive? How do we make sense of all the craziness? I have found that I have more ideas flowing when I am doing the most mundane activities. Driving any distance will bring out an amazing array. Exercising is also a good way or riding my motorcycle. Most recently, I have been paper piecing points. It must be the repetitiveness of the task at hand.

I am working on what my mother would call a "Stealth Project". I can't give you much detail right now other than it involves quite a bit of paper piecing and an incredible numnber of points. Each block is taking much longer than I had anticipated, but there is no sense in hurrying. I'll just make more mistakes and have to take it all out again. The bonus has been the myriad of ideas I have been thinking through as each pointy section goes together. I don't think I can turn them all into quilts, but I certainly have been able to contemplate the viability of each as a quilt design.

Going back to my good friend having a creative low, it is hard to have exactly the right thing to say at the right moment. I keep filling those journal pages to help me when the need arises. If I'm really stuck, maybe I could go get on the treadmill or take the motorcycle out for a spin (Not in January though). The best idea is to go back through the pages and look for an idea that just needs a little refinement.