Good evening!!

Can you believe it is the last day of February 2011? Where has the first 59 days of this year gone? I'm not sure what I have accomplished in those 59 days, how about you? I know I have gone to work to make the money to help pay the bills, but what else have I done? At least I have started the year out right with the grand-kids birthday cards...... I mailed 2 today-one will be a little late (better than usual) and the second one will be early and I mean WAY early for me. I sure hope I can keep up the good work on that score. Usually I mail the cards 2 or 3 days AFTER the birthday...... What I should do is get all of the cards together at the beginning of the year then all I will have to do is address and mail. Maybe I'll get to that LOL!

We have been looking for a new place to move. I know, I hear all of you---AGAIN???  Yep! We would like a little bigger house and one that we won't have to pay a million dollars to cool during the summer. Besides, Carl would love a pool and I just might enjoy it too! Now that it is getting closer to the hot weather we decided to just stay here for the summer. It is as bad moving in the summer around here as it is moving in the winter in snow country, but for the opposite reasons. So, this weekend we started 'coolerizing' this place. It was funny at Home Depot when we asked for window plastic.... We always had window plastic at the hardware stores in NY when everybody was 'winterizing' their homes during the winter. We worked in our bedroom on Saturday, with 'coolerizing' the window and spring cleaning the whole room. It sure was nice to get that one done. Next on the list is the computer/sewing room. That shouldn't take as long because when I moved my sewing machine and table in here I did a lot of cleaning. I just need to go through some papers and I won't need to do that until after the window is done. We just hope that doing this will cut down on the cooling bills this summer. I guess, only time will tell.

The only other thing that is going on around here is our church's Stake Conference is this next weekend. We are having a special visitor speak to us. Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will be presiding in our Stake Center. What a privilege it will be to hear his words to us!  

Until next time, Happy Quilting, 

 Sharon 

"Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2009

Valentine's Day

See what my honey sent me at work for Valentine's Day? A beautiful bouquet of different colored roses. The purple were the prettiest! It is surprising that there isn't much smell to them.... I will dry these petals when they are all done giving me pleasure and add them to all the other rose petals that I have collected over the past 22 years we have been together. I have quite a collection!

Happy Quilting, Sharon
 "Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2009

Review of 2010

I have a habit of saving stubs from places we have been and things we have done. Here are a few of the things that we did last year. Carl and I don't go to the movies very often, but we did manage to go to a couple good ones last year. 'Sherlock Holmes' and 'Sorcrer's Apprentice'. Both were good movies and worth the money. For our anniversary we went to Hover Dam and went on the tour. That was fun and on an earlier post I showed everyone what we came across on our way home. We also went to 3 different Western Festivals. 2 here in the 'valley' and one in Kanab. The airline ticket was from Melvin coming out to join us for the 'Film Festival' in Kanab, UT. Also, during his visit we went to see a Diamondbacks game. Mixed in there is my wrist band from my visit to the emergency room when they decided I had 'acid reflex'. It sure didn't feel like my stomach at the time!

Now, I will be able to file these in the 'round' file so that I can get on with my 'destashing' project. I really want to clean out some of this paper stuff hanging around and this is just the beginning. I hope everyone is having a fabulous start to 2011. Now, if you can get it to slow down some, I sure would appreciate it!

Happy Quilting, Sharon
"Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2009

Merry Christmas!!!

I had a very quiet and enjoyable day today! I got a little quilt project done which I shall post about in a few days. It is a present and it has yet to be delivered and I don't want to spoil the surprise.....

Yesterday was my Mother's 88th birthday! It sure doesn't seem like it has been almost 25 years since I have seen her! Her birthday was on the 24th of December and she passed away on the 14th of February. All of her kids use to make sure that she received a birthday gift as well as a Christmas gift each year. One year when I was still home the 'older kids' pitched in and bought drop down ceilings for her living and dining room areas. 2 of my 3 brothers did various types of carpentry work so they put it up with the help of the 3rd which was a good 'gofer'.... It was up to us 'girls' to get Mom out of the house for the day. When we came home it didn't look any different, but Mom could tell there was a difference. Of course, us 'girls' looked up and could see the difference right away! I don't remember if Mom finally noticed or we ended up telling her after the 'boys' came inside. So after everybody left and Mom was happy as a clam we went into the living room to watch TV. When she went to turn the set on her knees got wet (Mom 'walked' on her knees because she had drop foot and it was painful for her to walk on them). We couldn't figure out why the floor was wet until we started looking at the 25 gallon fish tank. During their work on the ceiling someone had hit the tank with a hammer. This tank was one of the older ones that had the metal corners so the crack in the glass didn't show. Mom told me that I was never to tell the 'boys' what they had done and I never did until now :)! She didn't want them to feel bad after all the work that they had done putting up that ceiling.

I am thankful for my many blessings this year! The one that is on the top of the list is having my husband with me still, with a job, house and talents next in line. I have to thank my Heavenly Father for these blessings because without Him in my life these wouldn't be as sweet as they are.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sharon

"Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2009

A typical Saturday morning.....

Good Morning my fellow bloggers! As is my custom lately I am up way to early for a non working day. I have always been a night person and it is really odd that I am awake at 5, 6, 7 AM most mornings the past 6 months or so. No matter what I try I can not go back to sleep. I guess I just need to adjust my thinking, get out of bed and DO something! This morning happened to be a load of wash and visit all of my usual stops on the internet. Now DH is up and we're talking about going to some garage/estate sales. One of our favorite things to do on a Saturday! Then after that I want to get to my new 'toy' and finish my wall hanging I started last week. I ran out of bobbin thread and was to lazy to start back up after I re-loaded.  I will post pictures after it is done. 

I am off so that I can go see what others 'junk' will become my 'treasure'!

Happy Quilting, Sharon
"Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2009

New 'Toy' problems and solutions

Happy Black Friday!! 

Today was the first day that I have ventured out shopping on black Friday in years. BUT, I had to have stuff for my new 'Toy'!! I received the parts I needed to get it going again 2 days ago and I was still having problems..... so I went to Jo-Anns to get different needles~~~maybe that was it........ While I was up in the area I figured I might just as well go to Hobby Lobby, so I picked up the Side Winder for bobbin winding, maybe that was one of the problems...... Nope, nothing seemed to work, besides the tension the top thread kept shredding. It was like something was catching it. Sooooooo, I went hunting! This is what I found:

This is a drive shuttle spring. It sits around the outside of the bobbin. The area that is circled is suppose to have a little loop, but this one had a rough edge and kept catching the upper thread and shredding it. This is what happens to your tension when this little piece of metal is bad. 

This is the top

 This is underneath

This is what it looks like when you have a working drive shuttle spring.

This is the top

Yep, this is freehand. Not bad, huh?

This is the bottom

Yahoo! I am in business! Now I need to get busy and get my supplies out and get a real quilt loaded. This machine is going to be such a DREAM to quilt with!

Happy Quilting, Sharon 


"Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2009

Craft Fair

Drats! I forgot to get a picture! I even remembered to take my camera, but never even got it out of the bag! Well, we had a great day! It was cool, not cold, not hot, just a beautiful Arizona day. I will have to remember to get pictures at the next show we do in December.

I am still waiting on parts for my new 'toy'....... It's a good thing I have my ''Challenge!" going on right now otherwise I would just about be crying 'cause I can't 'bond' with my new baby! I keep saying, just a few more day, just a few more days! Now that the craft fair is out of my hair I am going to get the Advent Calendars done then I can have the time to play with my new toy.

I have been thinking about what I want to do for my next "Challenge!". I do believe it is going to be at least in part getting papers cleaned up, pictures onto the computer and just sorting all of the 'goodies' I have kept over the years. One dear friend from church has sent me a home made birthday card for the past 10 years and I have saved every one. The sad part is nobody except me appreciates what that means to me. Once I am gone they will just be a birthday card someone sent to me and it will be tossed. I want to scan this type of stuff and put it on a thumb drive with an explanation. I also have old pictures and newspaper clippings I want to get scanned then I am going to pass the discs or thumb drives down to my grandkids. It will be my way of passing the family to them. I was lucky enough to have family around close, but now we are spread so far apart that it's hard to pass on stories.

Well, it has been a long day and I am going to hit the hay. See you all later, alligators!

Happy Quilting, Sharon
"Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2009