A Year of New Beginnings and Finishes

I've been quite busy this year as I'm sure you can tell from my lack of posts! First we had the big "UP and MOVE" from Georgia to Oklahoma and all the settling in that goes with a move! I didn't tackle my new sewing studio until April...which meant...no sewing. My room was rather filled with boxes!

I was thrilled when I finally had my new sewing studio organized. 

Early Spring I joined the local quilt guild and HCE organization and soon became busy enough to make up for my time not sewing. 

About mid-year I joined a Dear Jane (Support) Group through the guild and started on my Dear Jane Journey. My hair-brained thoughts were that I would only ever attempt one Dear Jane quilt in my life so I decided I would do three at one time and get it over with! 

I'm doing a Black and White Dear Jane, a Batik Dear Jane, and an embroidered Dear Jane which I'm digitizing myself. So instead of doing the 225 (4 1/2 inch) blocks (with 20 or more pieces per block) for one quilt, I'm doing 675 blocks for three quilts! I think I've completed 9 blocks of the 675! A long journey ahead for sure! But hey, when I'm (ever) done I'll have three Dear Jane quilts and I can then move on to another hair-brained project! My Support Group is awesome and I enjoy spending one evening a month talking the Dear Jane talk. 

 

After joining HCE I became heavily involved with making items to be entered into the local County Fair held mid September. Now...I'm telling you straight...being the city girl that I am, I've never even been to a county fair let alone enter an item to try to win one of those elusive colored ribbons! I entered 19 handmade items and won ribbons on 17! I was feeling really Wowed and accomplished! Here are some of my winning items:

And I've started on my items for the 2016 County Fair:

In late September I hosted our annual Family Sewing Retreat which included my sisters and Mom. My sewing studio and new home were put to the test and I'm pleased to announce that both passed and we all had a grand time sewing, visiting, and shopping together.

I then decided I needed to make quilts to give as Christmas gifts to my in-laws....seven quilts! You can read that post and see the quilts here. I stayed on schedule and finished all seven before Christmas. 

With my busy quilting and sewing schedule this year I really have no time to go back to the rigors of the Nursing world so I think I'll try to stay retired one more year and see what all I can sew and quilt in the coming year. Not to mention the egg-laying chickens I now want to raise, the bigger garden I want to plant come Spring, and the Bees I would like to raise for honey. I'm quickly transforming from city life to country life....and so are our dogs!

What adventures and accomplishments have you had in 2015?

Thanks for visiting and remember to

Live On!

Quilt On!

Quilts as Christmas Gifts

For the past few months I've been steadily piecing and quilting quilts for Christmas gifts. When asked by my in-laws what I've been sewing, my standard answer has been a vague "small projects and table runners" with a quick change of subject. Now that the quilts have been given I can finally reveal them here for all to see!

I was quite pleased with the way the quilts came together and more importantly I had no major issues. I work better with a deadline and stayed on the schedule I created to get them completed before Christmas. I kept all the quilts as a throw size...roughly 60 x 60 inches.

Now for the Reveal! 

(The fingers holding up the quilts belong to my DH who's job was to assign the quilts to the recipients.)

Carolyn and Monty's Quilt

Gary and Jean's Quilt

Linda and Ken's Quilt

Inez's Quilt

Iris's Quilt

Shelby and Frances's Quilt

Michelle and Michael's Quilt

I'm happy to report the quilts were a huge hit with the recipients! I'm also happy to report that the only new fabric I had to purchase were two pieces of backing fabric...the rest came from my stash! Sad to report that I really can't tell I took from my stash! Oh well...I have an entire new year to work on that!

Quilt On!

Living on Tulsa Time

It has been a long while since I've posted...but...I have a good excuse. I'm amazed at how one email can change your priorities and current life situations. My DH was offered a job in the Tulsa area...we thought about it, prayed about it...thought and prayed some more...then decided a change of scenery would be nice! So we moved...though not quite as easily as I've just typed.



We moved to the Atlanta area 20 years ago and my household paraphernalia has grown quite a bit in that time span.  Especially my sewing gear...I've added 7 machines and a whole lot of fabric in the last 20 years! Can you imagine packing up your entire sewing room?  It was a frightful thought and I was a wee bit embarrassed when the packers came. I did some preliminary packing such as boxing up my sewing machines in the original boxes and taking apart the long arm. Other than that the packers and movers did the rest and I have to say they did an excellent job.

Before all the planning and packing we had to find a house! It's really difficult finding a new home based on your sewing room and having a long arm, numerous sewing machines and a ton of fabric that needs a nice big area to live in. I was in fear of having to give up my craft! Four weeks later and after viewing about 50 homes, we found the perfect home in a nice country setting!

 

Sewing room all packed up and ready to go...

This is only one-half of the room!



 



 

Trying to move during the Holidays is quite the challenge. We closed on our new home the day before Thanksgiving and spent Thanksgiving Day in Little Rock with my sister Gina who blogs at Sew Much and More. (We had no furniture and no food which meant No Fun)  I was in the new house less than two weeks when Christmas festivities in Louisiana were upon us, then two weddings in Texas the weekend after Christmas. I was finally back home on New Year's Eve to continue my adventures in unpacking!

 

Moving forward in time to the present and after about 100 unpacked boxes, my sewing gear still remains packed in boxes and behind a closed door!

 



 



I'm easily side-tracked and distracted when my sewing paraphernalia is available so I'm unpacking and organizing other rooms before I start unpacking and organizing my new big 24 x 26 foot sewing room! It's a huge room and the only room that's upstairs (we were looking for a one story because honestly I was tired of dragging 98% of our laundry up and down the stairs in our Georgia home AND other future age related reasons that I'm sure will occur). The room fits my needs perfectly and the movers groaned every time I said "upstairs" when they were hauling in boxes! So behind this door is my future sewing room that I hope will one day inspire me to create beautiful things.

 

But this is what it looks like now.....and this is only half of it!

 

I've not sewn since the middle of October and I'm in need of some sewing therapy!! Two rooms remain before I can commence with molding my sewing area into a room that will stimulate my creative juices.  It has become a carrot dangling in my mind.

 

I'm loving my new home in Oklahoma and the country is beautiful and peaceful. I'll always be Georgia Girl Quilter but now with a twist (and hopefully not a tornado twist)...Georgia Girl Quilter in Oklahoma.

 

Thanks for visiting and come back to see the progress and transformation of my new sewing room.

Happy Living! Happy Quilting!