Happy Leap Year Day!!

Happy Leap Year Day!!  

Personally, I think today should be a legal holiday, given it only comes once every 4 years.  But since that isn't the case, take some time today to do something special - just for yourself. Or better yet - do something special for someone else.

This past weekend, I attended two (2) 4-H tack sales hunting new & used horse tack.  Now you are probably thinking - How much more horse tack does she really need?   The answer is not that much.  But I'm not hunting just for myself - there are others at the barn that need things.  

And in the spirit of Leap Day Do Something for Others, I am now hunting tack & supplies for a couple of horse rescue organizations.  While I can't donate a lot of money for these groups, I can hunt bargains on items they need to keep helping horses.   

Today, I'll be cleaning and organizing my finds, prepping them for shipment. My quilt design wall is doing double duty right now. 

 Very soon, this wall needs to revert back to just fabric as I am working on finalizing my Storm at Sea variation. I like the feeling of movement in the third version I colored so far.  I need to finish the coloring by adding the neutrals.  The bottom part is a little tricky as I want to regress the neutrals out to the bottom. 

In the meantime, enjoy your Leap Day activity, whatever you decide to do.

Spring is right around the corner!!

Sitting out the Storm (at Sea)

Why is it I have no problem sitting in at my sewing machine all day, every day (I wish) but sitting in a business meeting conference room for three days in a row makes me twitchy and tired?  Not to mention, cranky in the evening.  I've counteracted this with some of the latest relaxation trend - adult coloring.  

While others are just discovering the benefit of returning to our favorite kindergarten activity, many quilters have known about it for years.  There is nothing better to unwind than pulling out the color pencils and some design pages.  Not only is it relaxing, we end up with a road map for a new project.

I started with this & didn't like it.

I thought I was going to play with the internal shapes hidden within the Storm at Sea design - diamond stars, hearts, ornaments - but I ended up working with color placement & progression instead.

And version number 2.

These may or may not be where I end up for my newest quilt but I'm definitely enjoying the playing with color.

Sunlit Red in the Studio

We had a bit of a break from the normal Winter weather over the weekend.  Temps got up to 60 degrees!  What a welcome break, except for the 50 mph winds.  Thankfully, they settled down after Friday night. 

As I was zipping around cleaning and doing laundry, I caught this moment in the morning sun.

Beautiful red amaryllis - a wonderful splash of color, with the promise of spring hopefully not too far behind it.

Colorings

It's time for the Aged Muslin collection to come out & play.  I made the color card and matched color pencils to the swatches. 

I printed out the Storm at Sea pages and got ready to get busy coloring.  This is as far as I got:

and it's not going to cut it.  I want more of the hidden shapes to come out with color value changes, so this definitely needs some work.  

Oh My, Quite an Estate Sale Find!

Driving back from the DH's recent Specialist appointment, we took a stretch break at an Estate Sale.  It was totally a spur of the moment decision, requiring the husband to turn around and drive two blocks back to turn into the subdivision.

The detour was well worth it!  DH found some small woodworking tools and I found this, in the basement - a clean & dry basement I might add. 

The case is in near perfect condition.  And how about a peek inside.

A Singer LBOW 301A!!!  Lots of attachments - zig-zagger, buttonholer, etc.  I haven't had a chance to pull her out & test drive her yet but there was never a question in my mind that I would leave her behind.  $30.00!!! Woo Hoo!!!

The enclosed paperwork showed a complete tune up was done...in 1985!  

After 31 years, I imagine there will be some oil required for this girl to get up and running.  Nope - no name just yet. And she may just be the machine that gets left at the Michigan house during the Summer months. 

Our Little Lioness and The Lion King Challenge

Sunday was not only Valentine's Day, it was also Zena's 5th birthday.

Because she is a shelter kitty, we didn't know her exactly birthday, only the month, so Feb. 14th seemed perfect for her.

Her birthday was celebrated with a new squishy cat cave bed.

And a matching larger open bed in pre-celebration of Ziggy & Zappa's birthday next month on St. Patty's Day.

Don't let her cute face fool you! She's a little lioness.

That's a perfect segue into the second part of this post:

The Lion King Challenge 

Cherrywood Fabrics announced a new quilt challenge for 2016, based on the popular musical celebrating it's 20th Anniversary later this year: The Lion King. See all the details HERE.  And yes, you are reading that correctly - Cherrywood is working with the Disney Theatrical Group on this project.  I pre-ordered my packet before the theme was even formally announced.  

Love these!  Let the design research begin.

Happy Day After

Happy Day After Valentine's Day!!

The actual day was spent hunkered down in the house.  Winter sent a blast of Arctic air our way over the  last few days and with no real reason to venture forth, we stay in.  The DH did brave the cold to pick up some breakfast skillets from our local town restaurant.  Have to love a man that brings home the bacon - already cooked even. LOL!  

Since I've been kind of missing in action on this blog lately, I'n sure you've been wondering what I've been up to over the past two weeks.  

The quick answer?  A lot of stuff and no sewing!

DH is still struggling with his back issues but we are starting to get some answers with the testing the Drs. have ordered. That's a good thing & he is managing well, all things considered.

Work's been busy.  I've been working a a HUGE upgrade project for the past few months & we finally completed it. But it's only Phase One of Three of the even HUGER Globalization Project.  The next two phases are expected to evolve over the remainder of this year.  I'm learning more about computer system configuration that I ever thought I needed to know and it's not even the IT back side of it all.  It's cool collaborating with people in the organization  across the world.  

All of this leaves little time and energy for studio work. Or maybe it's the grey-ness of Winter that makes me want to couch potato the evenings.  Not sure but it has to stop and soon.  

I have been riding.  I have been hitting a few tack sales. I have been coloring a quilt design. I have info on a new quilt challenge (details coming to share) And the DH & I even hit an estate sale (more on that later too).

I'm back and the goal is to try to write posts three times a week. There - the goal is out in the Universe and I MUST try to maintain it.

Staying warm,