 |
| My sweet mama, daughter and I @ my 40th bday fiesta - Miss you mom |
 |
| Best Stepmama ever and the Beans! |
Welcome
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Happy Mother's Day with Love
Monday, April 29, 2013
New Beginnings
Heya friends! Guess I need to catch up! We moved into our home on the 1st, so we've been busy trying to get set up. It's so strange in this empty house given that we had a house of full of furniture back home! We only got to bring 1,000 lbs of stuff with us and surprisingly, that doesn't amount to much. I tried to bring ALL my fabric and quilting supplies though! I have an awesome space for sewing! I loved my room back in PA, but it was in the basement so it didn't have windows. Now I have the top floor of the house with windows on 3 walls! As soon as I saw the "studio" caption on the floor plan, I made plans! I'm not sure how I'll feel about being up there when summer hits, but for now it's great.
I was so eager to get all set up as I awaited our household goods shipment with (hopefully) my sewing machine cord & foot pedal. I even got a new Rowenta iron (holy cow, I love it.)
Two days after we moved in, our household goods arrived and I eagerly anticipated finding my cord and petting my fabric which has been lonely in transit for 3 long months!!
No luck!! I finally had to break down and order the cords from the US. I've been waiting for them to arrive for about 3 weeks now, sigh! Anyhow, it's been fun looking for storage solutions for angled walls. I also discovered some things that the movers put in the storage boxes instead of the Germany boxes - my large cutting mats, rulers, labels and a ton of other stuff! Darn, time for shopping ;). In the meantime, as my sewing obligations got ever later, I made a friend at church who sews. I finally broke down and asked to borrow her machine last Sunday and she said yes! So guess what I've been doing with her nifty little Janome since last Monday???
I went nuts with that machine on Monday & made 6 In Color Order BOM Dec blocks for my 3x6 Sampler Quilt Mini Bee (still owe myself 1) which were due in mid-January. Aren't solids fun?
and then I moved on to some things I signed up for in the last couple of weeks BEFORE I had my borrowed machine - I know, I'm a nutbird. More to share tomorrow, my cocktail glass is empty..
I was so eager to get all set up as I awaited our household goods shipment with (hopefully) my sewing machine cord & foot pedal. I even got a new Rowenta iron (holy cow, I love it.)
Two days after we moved in, our household goods arrived and I eagerly anticipated finding my cord and petting my fabric which has been lonely in transit for 3 long months!!
No luck!! I finally had to break down and order the cords from the US. I've been waiting for them to arrive for about 3 weeks now, sigh! Anyhow, it's been fun looking for storage solutions for angled walls. I also discovered some things that the movers put in the storage boxes instead of the Germany boxes - my large cutting mats, rulers, labels and a ton of other stuff! Darn, time for shopping ;). In the meantime, as my sewing obligations got ever later, I made a friend at church who sews. I finally broke down and asked to borrow her machine last Sunday and she said yes! So guess what I've been doing with her nifty little Janome since last Monday???
then on Tuesday, I made the Antique Tile from FreshLemons blocks for my 4x5 Modern Quilting Bee hive which were due mid Feb (owe myself 1 of these too)
& on Wednesday, it was all about catching up with Sewn Together.
 |
| January for FairlyMerry |
 |
| February for Rick |
 |
| April for CourtiePie |
Hugs!
Francine
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Google Reader alternatives
Hi friends,
Have you picked your side yet between Bloglovin' and Feedly? I decided to try them both out. Actually, to be more honest, I purposely tried out Bloglovin' and forgot I had signed up for Feedly until I got a little message on my computer about it crashing. Anyway, I'm not in love with Bloglovin' yet because you can't read whole posts without clicking onto an individual blog. I follow over 100, so that is annoying. And I like that Google Reader shows a post as read after you scroll over it.
Anyway, I read a really great article on Jane's Fabrics and Quilts blog, so I'm going to send you there and she'll send you on to the article - happy reading and picking!
Francine
PS-
Lookie what I found today over at The Quilting Hottie Haven!! You can read all about the designing/research/pestering skills it took to bring us these fun magnets. They can be ordered here for cheap!
Have you picked your side yet between Bloglovin' and Feedly? I decided to try them both out. Actually, to be more honest, I purposely tried out Bloglovin' and forgot I had signed up for Feedly until I got a little message on my computer about it crashing. Anyway, I'm not in love with Bloglovin' yet because you can't read whole posts without clicking onto an individual blog. I follow over 100, so that is annoying. And I like that Google Reader shows a post as read after you scroll over it.
Anyway, I read a really great article on Jane's Fabrics and Quilts blog, so I'm going to send you there and she'll send you on to the article - happy reading and picking!
Francine
PS-
Lookie what I found today over at The Quilting Hottie Haven!! You can read all about the designing/research/pestering skills it took to bring us these fun magnets. They can be ordered here for cheap!
Monday, March 18, 2013
a cool contest
Hey friends! Did you hear about the contest over at Intrepid Thread? You take a pic, throw it in the palette builder at Play-Crafts and then upload the completed palette into the Flickr group. I really liked a lot of the submissions! Better hurry, the contest ends on 3/19 ~ good luck!
 |
| JellyBean Tree - I'm decorating my daughter's room around this print and I didn't realize how light (unbold) the colors are until I saw the palette. |
 |
| love this scarf |
PS - I really need to learn how to position pics in my posts - so annoying to have them messy! Any tips? All I know about is dragging.
Hugs,
Francine
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Happy Saint Patty's Day!
a little fun borrowed from Cotton Patch Quilts Facebook page! I'm Toadstool O'Shivers - what's your name?
T. O.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Party time
I'm huffing and puffing and flexing my fingers after entering tons & tons of giveaways in the latest
The theme is Beat the Winter Blues and boy do I have 'em! Yesterday looked like this
and today it's a winter wonderland again!
Ahh well, it's beautiful at least.
Anyway, here are some of the new blogs I came across in my travels:
Quiltscapes Quilting - she shared a tutorial for "Snippets" - little fabric wallets - I can see getting addicted.
Robin Quilts, etc - she had commenters post sewing tips which I liked and she has some cool tutorials
Seriously..I think it needs stitches. - she had a great giveaway and fantastic blog name, but I also noticed a very cool widget I'd like to try : Shelfari
sew.darn.quilt - another great giveaway and I love how she displays her followers across her header!
The Amateur Quilter - said for the winner of his giveaway to print out the giveaway post and take a picture of it with the project the winner makes - cool idea!
Windsor & Main - I really loved the blog's layout - so organized and inviting - plus an "inspiration" list I liked
There were so many cool giveaways and I really liked Moda's Snap Pop line - makes me feel so "Springy"
Happy Thursday!
Francine
I didn't get to participate this time (for the reasons whined about in my last post,) but I've had fun discovering some new blogs!
The theme is Beat the Winter Blues and boy do I have 'em! Yesterday looked like this
and today it's a winter wonderland again!
Ahh well, it's beautiful at least.
Anyway, here are some of the new blogs I came across in my travels:
Quiltscapes Quilting - she shared a tutorial for "Snippets" - little fabric wallets - I can see getting addicted.
Robin Quilts, etc - she had commenters post sewing tips which I liked and she has some cool tutorials
Seriously..I think it needs stitches. - she had a great giveaway and fantastic blog name, but I also noticed a very cool widget I'd like to try : Shelfari
sew.darn.quilt - another great giveaway and I love how she displays her followers across her header!
The Amateur Quilter - said for the winner of his giveaway to print out the giveaway post and take a picture of it with the project the winner makes - cool idea!
Windsor & Main - I really loved the blog's layout - so organized and inviting - plus an "inspiration" list I liked
There were so many cool giveaways and I really liked Moda's Snap Pop line - makes me feel so "Springy"
Francine
Monday, March 11, 2013
More Germany
Hello again! A little update on my machine saga... I really liked the suggestion from my friend Flaun, so I've gone with ... <drumroll> Dita! Isn't that fun? I like it! I was really leaning toward Heidi, but only for the German novelty of it and I won't be here forever!
So, in our last episode, I was dragging my family onto a train, bus then taxi to a town south of Cologne called Lohmar to visit a shop called Quilter's Point. It was a cute place with a clerk who gave me lots of quiet time to explore by myself.
My goal (with all my quilting supplies in a household goods shipment that we will not receive until we move into our permanent housing) was to get a few basics that would allow me to complete a doll quilt swap and several bee blocks that were getting to be late. I tried to get everything done before we departed, but with the moving company sending out a team of 8 guys, in no time my house looked like this and I had to box up my machine and sent it to myself here in Germany.
Too late I realized that I hadn't sent any tools/notions, or my doll quilt fabric just the machine and the fabric for the bee blocks I was working on. At the shop, I was able to put together a little starter kit for myself: I tried not to repeat anything I already own, so I grabbed a small rotating map, smallest rotary cutter, and some fabric for my DQ. (150 euros, ouch!)
It has been a tragedy of errors ever since. I waited a whole month for my machine. In the interim were many conversations with our shipper who had triggered over 500 euros in customs fees for our package. Eventually, while we argued, they sent the package back to my empty house in PA. Finally, Dita arrived. Since she had been serviced prior to our departure, the accessory tray was empty and I had no needles or bobbins, so I had to order them. A week later when I finally sat down with everything I needed and got her set up I found
no power cord or foot pedal. I am so bummed! After all that, I still have to wait until we move into our permanent house - April 1. I'm trying to enjoy learning about Germany in the meantime, but I've been really disappointed in missing deadlines for swaps and things I've committed to.
Which brings me to a little question: My block buddies were very understanding and patient about the delay, but understandably, a swap angel had to step in for me so my partner did receive a quilt. My intent all along has still been to make/send the quilt I had planned. Is that what you would do? Considering the delay, if it were you, would you rather receive the fabric or maybe a gift certificate? I am feeling so guilty about this and when I wrote to thank the person who had sent to me & let them know I'd be returning it, the response was pretty hostile. I wanted to explain because my feelings were hurt, but the party I'm most concerned with is my partner. Any advice?
Francine
So, in our last episode, I was dragging my family onto a train, bus then taxi to a town south of Cologne called Lohmar to visit a shop called Quilter's Point. It was a cute place with a clerk who gave me lots of quiet time to explore by myself.
My goal (with all my quilting supplies in a household goods shipment that we will not receive until we move into our permanent housing) was to get a few basics that would allow me to complete a doll quilt swap and several bee blocks that were getting to be late. I tried to get everything done before we departed, but with the moving company sending out a team of 8 guys, in no time my house looked like this and I had to box up my machine and sent it to myself here in Germany.
It has been a tragedy of errors ever since. I waited a whole month for my machine. In the interim were many conversations with our shipper who had triggered over 500 euros in customs fees for our package. Eventually, while we argued, they sent the package back to my empty house in PA. Finally, Dita arrived. Since she had been serviced prior to our departure, the accessory tray was empty and I had no needles or bobbins, so I had to order them. A week later when I finally sat down with everything I needed and got her set up I found
no power cord or foot pedal. I am so bummed! After all that, I still have to wait until we move into our permanent house - April 1. I'm trying to enjoy learning about Germany in the meantime, but I've been really disappointed in missing deadlines for swaps and things I've committed to.
Which brings me to a little question: My block buddies were very understanding and patient about the delay, but understandably, a swap angel had to step in for me so my partner did receive a quilt. My intent all along has still been to make/send the quilt I had planned. Is that what you would do? Considering the delay, if it were you, would you rather receive the fabric or maybe a gift certificate? I am feeling so guilty about this and when I wrote to thank the person who had sent to me & let them know I'd be returning it, the response was pretty hostile. I wanted to explain because my feelings were hurt, but the party I'm most concerned with is my partner. Any advice?
Francine
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)