Ohhhh the new fabric!

The RJR Rep was in yesterday, and I could barely contain myself! The fabrics delivering between now and January are AWESOME! I can't wait! DH helped me with the "bright colors and shiny objects". LOL I took care of the darks.

I was interviewed yesterday for an article for a "Shop of the Month" and one of the questions she asked was "Where do you see quilting going in the next few years?" I spouted off my answer, but it really did get me thinking about where MY quilting is going in the next few years. My answer to her was something to the effect that you will begin seeing quilting as more of a personal expression. Rather than a bunch of pattern-followers, I think quilters are becoming a bunch of "Rebels". We don't just make a pattern anymore, but rather buy a pattern as a base and build on it. We decide that we don't like the pattern-makers plain borders and applique a vine on it....we love to change things up. We love to try a Thimbleberries pattern with bright bold batiks....we are just wild and crazy that way! (The pic is a TB pattern but definitely NOT TB fabric! ROFL)

But, back to me.....(afterall, it is all about me, isn't it! ROFL) People assume that because I own a shop, all of the samples in the shop reflect my personal taste. Not necessarily so. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is any such thing as an ugly quilt, but shop samples are made to sell books, patterns and fabric. I have one customer in particular who can't leave the shop without saying "well, you are just into those dark colors from Thimbleberries and Kansas Troubles...." She can't get past it. While I love TB and KT, I also love batiks and bright colors. I love pastels....I love mid-range colors.....I love it ALL! Sometimes I get a little offended, and now I wonder why....l. I sell a LOT of KT and TB, therefore I need a lot of KT and TB samples. I took the liberty of counting samples yesterday and I have an equal amount of each displayed (country vs. brights) but she only sees the dark ones. Why is that? So, here I sit wondering where I see MY quilting going in the next few years. Do I see myself just making the things that help me in the shop, or do I see me doing something for me?? This soul-searching sent my mind swirling....this shop should reflect me. There should be samples that I just love love love......I am the first to admit that it has never been decorated in a way that I wanted. It is too utilitarian for me, but with limited space I felt forced to decorate it that way. Is that what I really want? I am keeping this list for the new shop. We hope to be in it in around a year. When the new shop opens, I have decided that it will reflect me. There will still be the other samples that I 'need' to have, but there will be a lot more of me. I want people to be able to walk in and say....now THAT is Cynthia. :)

Blessings,
Cynthia

My Saga Continues.....

Sunday afternoon, DS asks when we are going to go school shopping....my response - probably next weekend. But, uh, mom---school starts Tuesday. Now, usually he isn't this demanding, but the poor little fella has gone from 5'8" to 6'2" just this summer! NOTHING fits. So, my Monday was spent taking him to the mall for a quickie shopping spree. Went to my parents afterward, only to find Pops jumping out of his seat excited that we stopped in unannounced. (Certainly made my day!) Spent some time grabbing fresh veggies out of the garden, then it was home in time for our soccer game.

Guild was yesterday, and I completely forgot about it! I thought it was next week. It was bring a dish, so I just didn't go. :( The ladies who stopped in the shop on the way there told me I should just go anyway because there would be plenty of food, but I just didn't have it in me. In my family, if you don't take something when you visit, then you don't go! Too bad for me, because we have some awesome little cooks in our guild! LOL

Found a used longarm on the web yesterday, but it was over-priced for me :( To me, the additional $3,000 it would take to get a new one made more sense than buying one 4 years old for that much!

I've been working on an online class using the Flying Geese Ruler, and here is a pic of my unquilted little runner. Makes doing a large quilt out of flying geese seem actually tolerable.....enjoy!

Blessings,
Cynthia

What a way to wake up.....

Grooooossssss! I woke up this morning (bright and E A R L Y ! ! !) to the dog puking. Bleck! My poor Bambino is very sick. I think he has gotten some of his soccer ball in his stomach and is trying to pass it. My poor puppy feels the need to chew on everything. I try to keep a good eye on him, but he is a sneaky little boogar! I'll be glad when we get past this puppy stage. :(

I did finish the quilt on the longarm yesterday. That was a goal for me, so I'm pretty happy about that! Today, I have to do a test run on a table runner class that I will be teaching online Labor Day weekend, but I do intend to load the next quilt on the longarm and spend quality time down there tomorrow. :)

Why is it that accomplishing such little things feel like mountains sometimes? I finally trimmed the front hedges last night, and I feel like a queen! I am just so tickled that I finally got around to doing it. I just couldn't let myself do them while in the midst of all of the longarm problems, but now it is like everything is all better. Even the motion detector just started working out of the blue yesterday. Strange, huh?!

Keep DS in prayer. He got a new Sergeant yesterday, and it is one that he already has had problems with in the past. All this, just in time to go to Iraq. It really has him down.

Now, for our *cute* Bambino story of the day. When we are eating, we make Bambino go lay on his pillow so he doesn't sit and beg for food. We sent him to his pillow last night.......yes, he drug the pillow over by the table. It was too funny and quite hard not to laugh. He is just too smart for his own good!

Take care and be well!

Blessings,
Cynthia

And just why didn't I post yesterday???

Well, it was because I finally got that longarm a humming! Yes, it would seem that Gammie is fixed and back up to speed. Before and After the shop was open I longarmed my little fingers to the bone. I am happy to report that this quilt will probably be coming off some time today! Whippee! I also got my motion detector fixed yesterday, so that's one less thing to worry about. My next victim....a new digital camera. The old one has given up the ghost, which makes it difficult to update any of my sites.

Well, Bambino (my precious little golden retriever) decided to get us up a couple of hours early today. This did NOT make for a happy momma. I don't know what the deal was, but as soon as we opened the door he went running across the field toward the neighbors. Maybe he had a bad dream about their dog and was having difficulty distinguishing the dream from reality. ROFL All I know, is that I am tired.....

Rooster starts school next week. We haven't even thought about school clothes. Now that he has reached 6 ft, I am sure that NONE of his pants fit. He is turning into quite the little man. *grin* Can't tell I am a proud momma, can you?

Well, I'll put an existing pic of my hotrod on for today, since I have no digital camera. If you know of a Mopar geek who is looking for a ride....or, maybe I won't. The toolbar isn't showing up this morning...

Blessings,
Cynthia

Wow! What a weekend....

Let me just preface by saying that I was ready for my well-deserved meltdown by the time the weekend arrived. My new credit card machine for the shop wasn't working, my longarm wasn't working, I gashed my head open while vacuuming the shop and life was certainly dishing out some rough days! Saturday, I was all set for the Sewing Extravaganza. DH was even going to go with me. We loaded up and off we went. When we arrived at the college, yes, they were paving...new asphalt and all. Surely, my black cloud hadn't followed me on my journey! But wait, there's more, the 4-H group didn't show that was all set to provide the day's food for everyone. No, I didn't even bring a piece of fruit to snack on! Argh! Could this get any worse???

Customers started arriving and honestly, I was not in the mood to teach my jacket class. I went in, saw everyone's smiling faces, and that was it for me. I remembered why I am in this business. The people are soooo wonderful and it is always exciting to share the things that *work* for me. :) The rest of the day completely turned around. We had a good day at the Extravaganza, drove the car home (did NOT unload) got in the other car, and off we went 2 hours in the other direction. Had to do DH SYSCO dinner. Got back to the hotel room at around 11 and met 3 of our 4 girls for brunch Sunday morning. :)

Then....we decided we would stop at my parents to see how my Dad was getting along. We mowed their 5 acres, installed Mom's new washer and dryer, bought them dinner (big spenders we were---KFC! ROFL) and made it home by 11 pm last night. What a way to change a weekend around.

So, today, here I sit....all re-energized and ready to take on the world. The first thing I have to do is finish frog-stitching the quilt on the longarm, then I am going to tackle it again. Wish me luck!

Blessings,
Cynthia

Well, Blogger has been a buggar!

Honestly, I've been trying to post for days.....Blogger times out when it is publishing my post! Eeeek!

Well, I finally finished the quilt I was microstippling. Her DH picked it up and I've never heard from them again. :( I had hoped she would call to let me know how she liked it, or if she didn't, but nothing.

Since then, I have done a baptist fan pantograph on a primitive quilt for an upcoming festival, quilted a musical quilt for another customer and loaded my next sampler, which I will begin today. it is 95 X 115, so it might take a while to do. Mostly SID and feathers...it's what I do.

Jessia is finally home from Germany. She and DS had a great time. Now, she is off to Guard for two weeks and to make up the time she has missed. We made her birthday dinner and birthday cake last night, since she was in Germany for her birthday.

Do chores around the house just grate on you until you jump in and do them? Everyone has been piling all of our cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink, rather than treking down to the basement to put them away. It has been bugging and bugging me....yesterday, I pulled everything out. (I get this way sometimes...) Lucky for me that I did. Our water filter was leaking and making quite the mess! So, I got that all taken care of and decided I would clean out ALL of my cupboards yesterday. Now you know why I got NO longarming done! ROFL I spent the day with rubber gloves and a mop bucket!

Well, need to get on that longarm today and make up for lost time.

Happy Sewing!

Blessings,
Cynthia