Nose to the grindstone!

Hey there! How have you been? I hope you have been good. There has been much thread flying around here. I have been sewing up a storm for sure. I will say that with my husbands new job and all the traveling he is doing, I sure am able to log crazy hours at the sewing machines. Really! The kids are happy to eat breakfast for dinner and I can sew that much more.

I have been making samples for quilt market. This is a quilt.

And these are the coolest little quilted notebook covers for Moleskins (my favorite type of notebook). The morning after I finished these covers I wanted to take pictures of them...but I couldn't find them anywhere. I was afraid they had all been a dream, but I spotted them in my daughters book bag. She was on her way to keep one for herself and give the other one to her teacher. She thought they were the coolest things I have made in ages. I told her that I would make her different ones...these need to be sent out. I need to remember to follow through with my promise and actually make some for Emma. They only take a moment to whip up and I have the notebooks all over the house.

While I was working away in my sweat shop basement, my middle man trotted down the stars and made the bold announcement that he wanted to sew something! So I helped him make a pillowcase. What a great project for a kid! He was as proud as he could be. We used the pattern on Allpeoplequilt.com and he did everything.

I don't know why I have never done this before? It was so quick and so easy. I think I see many pillowcases in my future.

This is some of what my sewing room looked like yesterday morning. I am working on nailing down dimensions for a pattern. Yep I am finally taking the dive into pattern making. For both my bags and my quilts. I think some big changes are on my horizon and I can't wait!

I finished quilting this awesome quilt. It is so wonderful. I was happily taking pictures of it in my backyard yesterday evening and noticed a dull hummmmmm in the background. I finally looked up to find where the buzz was coming from and saw that this quilt and I were standing in the middle of a migrating swarm of bees. I slowly made my way back inside and watched from the safety of my sun room. When the coast was clear I went out for a couple more shots of the back of the quilt. You can see more of it over on my other Blog Tia Curtis Quilts.

We had some furniture delivered this morning. My Sun Room is almost where I want it to be. This table will be the table that the kids use for all their crafts and works. The paintings are by my Best Friend (who I miss terrible) Sharon Smith. The table and bench legs are old pipe fittings, and the staining on the table has little pops or red and aqua that I love. The prisoners over at the USDP (US Disciplinary Barracks) are going to make some book shelves for us and that will finish everything off...It will be a sunroom/study and library all in one.

We also bought another bed. Stu and I have been sleeping on the box springs and mattress until we found what we really wanted. After the last debacle of wood boring beetles and the horror that came from Mexican made beds, I just really wanted something American made...so the Amish in Ohio made this bed for us. I love the wood. It is beautiful cherry from their forrest which they grow, harvest and process on their own land and make the furniture as well. I need to go look at the bed so I can get the name of the company. We bought it at our little local furniture shop (after looking almost at every shop in Kansas and Missouri, we bought from the place right down the road.)

I will need to make a bigger quilt for this bed...I think something Amish, don't you? Oh and the room needs to have the wallpaper taken down and be repainted. I know that, but I just ran out of steam after we did all the work downstairs. It will happen...just not right now. I think we are going to go with a pale dove gray for the walls.

What else??? My mom is doing well with her recovery. She is back home after 2 weeks of Rehab. She sounds so good on the phone and I am so proud of her and her strength. And my dad is such a hero for tending to her and driving her around to all her appointments. I thought of her this morning when I fell down my basement stairs. I think I broke my floating ribs on the left side. I wailed like a baby and Stanley came flying down the stairs to crash into me and my boys came running too. Stu helped me back upstairs and got me some Motrin...vitamin M.

OK, we are off to the Louisville Cider Festival. Have an awesome weekend!

xo,
Tia