Not a lot of sewing...but still lots to keep me busy

Not a lot happening now that my machine is in the shop again! :( Honestly I'm as dumbfounded about it as anyone else... and I know the ladies at the Bernina shop think I'm not telling the truth - but I really do not know of an incident where anything hit my machine!

I can't even think of a way that would be possible??? It's on the dining room table and that room is baby gated off from the twins... and Nora is only in there when I'm in there. Anyway - I cleared out the room last week b/c David scheduled workers to come in to repair drywall (you can see photos at our family blog)

and Saturday when I had some time in the guest bedroom to straighten up and do some sewing I discovered that the presser foot was sitting crooked on the feed dogs. and using my foot 57 the needle actually came down onto the presser foot metal! YIKES? HOW did that happen? I wish I had taken a photo of it.

So yesterday (Wed.) I drove it over to the Bernina Dealer... not sure how long it will take as there were a few other machines in front of me... nor do I have any idea how much it is gonna cost. :( It was just in for servicing and a new main board make over this past March.

Urgh, but enought about all of that... I'm just hoping I can borrow a friends machine or something so that I can finish up my 1930's Jewel Box Blocks for Crazy'boutquilts swap that is due to her on or before 8/1/09

I signed up to swap 3 sets of 8 blocks... and have "most of the work" done. If I get the machine back by the 26th I should be able to make the deadline...only need 8 more HSTs and 3 sets of 4 patches to get all of these blocks completed and mailed!

****CROSSING MY FINGERS, LEGS, AND TOES****

You may have noticed somehting new on my design wall (I'm la,la,loving that thing!) In the above photo is a look at half of the String Blocks I've collected from the HGTV Sunshine Quilters Group... I have a total of 74 scrappy around red and 4 scrappy around blue centers that I have collected for this years group donation to HeartStrings Quilt Project. I plan to mail them in the last week of July just in case there are any more on the way to me...

Speaking of mail - Just today I got two packages in the mail. Bardleysmom sent in these two blocks and my friend IowaLisa mailed me this panel. Lisa and I were roommates at the Circle of Friends Retreat in NH this spring and she told me she had a "source" ;) on where to get this discontinued pannel. I can't wait to make a wall hanging with it.

So what have I been up to, if I can't sew then... well organizing, putting away, cutting out blue tonal and red tonal fabrics for Quiltaholic's 2011 charity quilt project, putting away, and more decluttering, pinning together binding strips for when the machine comes back, matched up some nickels for 30's HSTs (I only need 8 more of those)

Did I mention putting away and decluttering?

I promise it didn't look this bad before I had to clean out the dining room and bring all of that upstairs.......and because I'm sick of stepping over a great big sack of shirts from the GoodWill... I've been cutting up "parts" ;) and then ironing some Kona solids I washed up recently

This is a photo of only a few of the shirts. As I cut I'm lazy and use my rotary cutter and as I get them dissected I push off into the floor and grab the next shirt... then when I'm ready for a cutting break I fold some... maybe I should do it as I go... but this works for me. I cut about 3 times this much more that you don't see. - and 1 of the 2 bags is now out of the floor! ;)

Oh and one more thing I did today in the sewing/guest bedroom...... I finally found my traced patterns of the Christmas Wishes blocks!!! Wooo hooo! Now I can finally get back to stitching! I knew I had them and the rest of the Quilter's Blessings all together in a White Binder... I just could not remember where I put that binder! LOL :P

I thought I had a photo to share with you of the Christmas fabric I bought when I was at Keepsakes in April... but looking back thru the photo file... I must not have taken one of my Keepsakes loot? or it's on a rescue disk... I'll pull it agian soon and take another photo of it to share ;)

I had a second 7" hoop to put the Christmas Wishes in... although I could really use a smaller one but I'll make due. Now I have two stitchery projects... one for in the van... and the other for... uham, for the bathroom :P it's my only time away from the kids... and why not be productive when I'm doin my business?! LOL

Hope that wasn't "TMI= too much info" :P

Love from Texas!