Sukie

Well I pushed my WIPs to the side and I’m busy working on the Hello Kitty quilt so we can start the QAL (quilt along).

Here’s what I have so far, it’s her forehead:

I’m loving how scrappy this will be! I used mostly my stash for this quilt.

I’ll be doing a complete solid Hello Kitty for the quilt along. Yes, by the end of the QAL, I’ll have (2) Hello Kitty quilts.

When will I start this…..debatable. I was thinking at the beginning of Feb but there’s just too much shit going on and I don’t know if I’ll have everything ready in the next 5 days – so I was thinking shooting for March. Are you still down for the QAL? Here’s the official button:

Well this isn’t exactly a WIP wednesday kind of post. . that’s right I have no progress on my WIPs. Yes. Yes. I remember that I told the world wide web that I wasn’t going to start any new projects til my WIPs were done. You know that’s what resolutions are for. . . BREAKING!

Okay well one of my resolutions for the year (besides getting my WIPs done) is losing a couple pounds. Yeah had a baby almost 2yrs ago and still haven’t lost the baby weight. Goal is to lose about 20ish pounds by May.

1. I have to stop eating junk food at my desk. Yeah I think I get really stressed out when I’m at work and I didn’t really pay attention to the bad stuff I was eating. Well take that back. . I did know that it was junk but the junk taste so yummy! Yeah my worse, worse, worse combo was coffee and peanut butter m&ms. (just typing it out is making my mouth water a little)

2. Start exercising regularly. Yeah I went to the big named gym and signed up for with a trainer. I think that I’m more accountable if I have an appt with someone, ya know? Like I can be a lazy ass, and not go to the gym but if I know there’s someone there waiting for me then I’ll make more of an effort.

3. Walking during my lunch hr. My work is by a water way and I thought that I could start walking/running during lunch. I would have to eat at my desk after that but I’m fine with that. I don’t know if you have the same problem as I do – but I just don’t have time! Where do I fit everything I need to do and everything I want to do in one week. . . it’s pretty frustrating to juggle.

So if that’s the case then, I need a cute bag to put my running shoes/work out clothes in. . .

Have ya’ll seen the awesome FREE drawstring bag tutorial from Jeni Baker of In Color Order? (Oh yeah I said FREE) But you might as well spend the measly $6.50 for the bigger pattern – it includes 8 more bags!

One of the bag is called the laundry size. . . it’s “the perfect size for dirty laundry, large toys, a quilt, etc.”

This by fair is the girlest thing I’ve every made. .

Since I’ll be hauling it back n’ forth from work to home or home to gym I thought I should add a strap for it. It wasn’t that hard most of the supplies could be picked up at Jo’s. But I could just add a strap to it . . . it’s going to look ugly in the middle of the fabric like that!!! Oh, how bout some pretty sexy looking black trim? Oh baby!

All n’ all it took me (2) nights to put it together – not bad for a full time worker/mommy/wife right?

Yup, it finally happened. . . . .

So I’m surrounded by some talented quilters, and I’m kind of proud to call them my friends. And you know what. . . they’re really supportive. I heart them.

I’ve been joking around and tell each one of them to make me a quilt. I don’t really expect a quilt because it’s a lot of work to put a quilt together.

My buddy, Elizabeth told me to expect a package from USPS because she sent me a belated birthday gift. And I’m sitting there trying to guess what it could be and it helped that she was tweeting these sweet sneak peek pics on her twitter that I was hoping in the back of my mind it was a quilt.

When I came home on Saturday fr getting my nails did. . . I got a lot of priority packages (I’ve asked my buddies if they have any scraps to send me and that’s what the majority of the envelopes are):

See that giantic box there. . . .

Brad (the hubby) said: “Dang! You have some talented friends!” And I 100% agree!!!

It’s officially my couch quilt, the one I put over my lap while watching t.v or play doctor mario in the family room. If anyone interested in putting this beauty together, she’s got the pattern on her lovely blog this morning.

Since I was a young girl, knee high to some kind of hay/grass. . I’ve always, always loved Hello Kitty!

And now that I’m quilting I thought why not do a pixelated Hello Kitty quilt. . . why not do a quilt along too?

So you’ve all been warned a quilt along is coming soon but I must finish the quilt first to see if it’s even worthy of one.

So it’s a new year and I’m thinking I have to be a little more bitchy and less easy going. . . wha?!?! Yeah I’m pretty relaxed when it comes to cleaning my house. . .I usually don’t do it til I either lose something or I have company coming over (and lately I haven’t had anyone coming over).

But I’m kind of tired of the mess, ya know? Like I need to crack the whip out and get all the stuff organized and in it’s place.

So most of the family was back to their regularly schedule program today except for me and Pepper. I took the approach of lets not try to gang-bust all the mess in one day. . . that’s just ridiculous. Baby steps. So first thing is to organize my massive fabric stash!!!

Do you clean like me? It’s gets really freakin’ messy before it gets better. . . yeah but it wasn’t that bad.

I love the new year. . . you can go to pretty much all the major stores and they’re having some crzy ass sale on bins. I snatched these big clear bins up at the Lowes.

I was able to put all my WIPs (work in progress) into one bin and as I was putting them in I wrote them down. I want to get to the point where I’m just working on one project and finish it all the way through. . yeah basically not more WIPs. Insane right? Going by the list I have about 13+ WIPs. . . not bad. . . I think only (2) are quilts. . . I think. . .

Speaking of WIPs. . . did I mention I’m hella behind on my quilting bees? Yeah I suck ass. . . here’s what I’m working on for my 4th quarter group for 4×5, whatta ya think?

Ah yes. . . going on the blogs I see/read many many accomplished goals for 2011 and I’m kind of at a lost for words.  I didn’t really set goals at the beginning of the years so my recap post is kind of lame sauce.

Here’s what I did set to do for the year. . . it was to make new friends.  That’s right I want to make more friends and I think I pretty much accomplished it.  Here’s a short list of the folks that mean something to me (please don’t get butt hurt if you’re not on the list):

My best friend of all time would have to be my hubby, Brad. He’s always been supportive in my endeavors! From my salt water fish hobby to my sewing. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think I’m really lucky to have him in my life.

My partner in crime, Don’t Call Me Elizabeth. . I think we really got close organizing modern 4×5 bee. When she came to Salt Lake for the Sewing Summit we meshed really really well. And we’ve been talking ever since on the phone/email/twitter! She’s my double-rainbow-all-way!

Oh don’t forget my local gal pals. . where would I be without them!! Who would go to the fabric sales. . who would I sit next to while our local modern quilt meetings. . . who would I call up and bullshit with every week?

So that was my goal for the year and I think I did really really great.

Oh man. . when my good buddy Colleen told me about this awesome plugin for WordPress called: “The Winner is . . . ” I kind of didn’t believe her. BUT IT’S AWESOME!!! Makes drawing a winner like a billion times easier. You just tell the plugin which post is your contest post, close your comments, then it will randomly draw a name for you. . speaking of. . . the winners are:

It’s crzy giveaway day at Sew Mama Sew!

My quilting buddy, Sam has a great etsy shop called:

If you don’t remember Sam. . she’s the one that created this beauty for the Kona Solid Challenge:

Here’s today’s prize:
You’ll get (1) set of cards and (1) spool notepad! Aren’t they cute!?!?!!!

With each winner they’ll get (3) random fat quarters of the new Echo fabric line by: Lotta Jansdotter

How to enter each counts as an entry (deadline for entries will be 12.16.11):

1. Leave a comment. . . if you’re at a lost for words. . tell me what your favorite holiday treat is.

2. “Like” NoteThreads on Facebook and leave a comment saying so

Good Luck!!!

Yeah so I’ve had this quilt top done since December 2, 2010 and it was meant to be an xmas gift but I just couldn’t get it done in time last year and it’s been sitting in my WIP (work in process) pile since. Well I told myself no more WIPs! That’s right, can’t do it anymore. My goal is to work a project all the way through til it’s done.

The back is a simple one piece fleece:

Simple straight line quilting. . . cause that’s all I know how to do right now!! I’ll start practicing next year!! Promise!

Um yeah I’m in love with stripes for binding. . can’t be helped!

My next quilt to finish before the end of the year is my Small Plates – do ya’ll want a sneek peek?

You know how you lose readers fast? Try not blogging for a while. . ha! Yeah I don’t mean to neglect my blog but it’s been a little crazy. I fully blame myself for the craziness.

You know how you go through life and you one day realize that you have a calling. . yeah I got struck in the head yesterday, while I was sending out my company’s rules for the “White Elephant Gift exchange.” One of the rules I dropped the word “swap” and felt deju vu. It seems like my calling is organizing people for swaps or gettogethers. Yeah, I think I come up with the idea and I just can’t wait there to act. That’s right I get my sick jollys from other people’s enjoyment in swaps. I’m sukie. . I’m sick.

On top of organizing swaps. . I’ve been really busy at my day job. . since it’s the end of the year and I have to make sure all the books are on the up n’ up.

I have one christmas gift that I have to get done so I can send it out. I just need to finish hand binding it. . .because I’m still not confident about machine binding. I’ll get pictures of that shortly. . promise!!!

Ah yes. . another swap that I started. . the Secret Santa Swap on Twitter. It’s been pretty awesome if you ask me. My partner’s really into the vintage things so I got her/him some vintage buttons and trim. I’m also pairing it with some vintage Pyrex. It’s going in the mail tomorrow. I love vintage things but I really never thought of vintage trim and buttons. I hope I nailed her/him down. . .