Changes Afoot

I haven't sewn a stitch all week, even though technically, I probably could have.  DS the Younger and DDIL left Tuesday morning as planned, so we are actually empty nesters now!

We celebrated Easter a week early, and the grandkids had a blast looking for Easter eggs. Even the one year old found several. I had made a holiday brunch, because that fit with everyone's schedules better than doing a dinner. 

Unbeknownst to DH and me, our kids had been working on a surprise for us since last year. After brunch, the kids (four out of five were here with their families) sat us down, and surprised us with $2,000 they had saved up to help us go on an Alaskan cruise! We were dumbfounded, and honestly, I didn't say much at the time, because I was just so shocked. 

Now that I've had time to process that amazing gift, I've realized what it means to me, and one Bible verse in particular comes to mind.

Proverbs 31:28  (NKJV)

Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:

Why is this the verse that  gets me? Because going to Alaska is on my bucket list, and my kids know that. I've heard Alaska is amazing, but for me, it's more than that. I have been to 49 US States, and Alaska is the one I'm missing. My kids know how much I've wanted to get to all 50 states, and we keep pushing back the trip, so much so they were thinking we'd never get there, so they decided to give us a boost we couldn't ignore. 

Today is our 34th wedding anniversary, and although DH was scheduled to work today, he got off work early, came home with roses, movie tickets, and a plan to take me out to dinner. 

My kids and my husband love me, appreciate me, and respect me. How much more blessed could I be?

DH and I sent off for new passports, since ours expired last year, and we are debating going end of cruise season this year, or next year sometime. A lot of going on right now, so we're playing it by ear, but either way we'll need passports so we got that settled at least. 

DH has been to 44 US states, and we realized if we drive  (the long way) to Seattle, and take a round trip cruise from there, then drive home, we'll have his 50th state on that trip as well. 

So this week has had no sewing, cruise dreaming, and room rearranging and updating.

We had two twin beds in the grandkid room, but I wanted them to have more room to play, plus I was moving a television in there. I opted to get a daybed with trundle instead, and all the grandkids appreciated the extra space. 

Our living room has had vertical blinds in it for years, and I really hate vertical blinds. I saw the other day that I could now buy a 170" curtain rod, so I bought one, and used two patio door panels to cover our wall of glass. I really like the updated look. We've got new furniture ordered too, so when that arrives it will really be a living room update. 

I found some plastic containers that fit on the shelves in my fabric prep room. If the shelves are too messy it makes me a little crazy. 

I'm not finished organizing my rulers, but I've got a start!

I'm moving sewing stuff from all the nooks and crannies where I had it stashed and moving it to the new sewing suite, with the exception of my batting. I'm content to let the batting live in the guest room closet. It looks like a ridiculous amount of batting, I know, but honestly, I'm just thankful to have it. If I just finish my UFO list it will take all of it, and possibly more. 

I'm working on getting the new sewing space set up. My Bernina is ready to use now.

 

Organizing the walk in closet in the sewing room is slow going. I'm sure it will always be changing, as I finish projects and use up some of the things I have now. 

I can't get rid of this full sized bed yet, because we've got so much company coming. Once everyone has come and gone, I can get my longarm set up in it's new spot. I'm hoping I can arrange this room in a way that leaves me space to set up a vintage machine or two as well. I prefer piecing on vintage machines, but with no sewing room the last couple years, having multiple machines out wasn't practical. 

The new sewing space is a work in progress, but I'm feeling good about it. Where I had sewing stuff crammed in all but one closet of the house, I'll only have sewing stuff in three closets when I'm done. I'm keeping handwork in my bedroom closet, but there isn't much of that. Batting in the guest room closet, and everything else in the sewing suite, which includes that one walk-in closet. 

It's a new life stage, it's a good time to make some changes.

Empty Nest or Bed and Breakfast?

A major milestone is rapidly approaching. We will soon have an empty nest. Our 34th anniversary is next week, and our oldest kid is almost 32, so in reality, we haven't had very long as a couple without extra people around. Last year at this time, we had 10 people living in our house! Besides our five kids, we've had various people come and go over the years. We've opened our home to friends and family alike, as people had need.

It's a big change, and I am thoroughly looking forward to it! I'm excited to see what the future has in store, and I am excited at the thought of DH and I having more time to spend together, just the two of us. We may end up with other people living with us later on, who knows what will happen down the road, but for now, we'll be empty nesters...

...or will we? It seems people come to visit in spurts, and we are having a wave of company these days. We've had four cousins come visit in the last couple of months, right now DS the Younger and DDIL are here visiting. This weekend DD#2, DSIL, and Mr LJ arrive so they can see everyone, and on Sunday we'll be celebrating Easter a week early because four of our five kids will all be here at the same time with their families!

Today my oldest sister came down to visit and we had a fun day together. We'll have quite a bit of company in town for DD#1's baby shower in April. April is shaping up to be a crazy month, we will have extra people sleeping here every week in April.

Sometimes it feels like I'm running a bed and breakfast, but do you realize what a blessing it is to have people want to come spend time here? I am glad that our home is inviting, and people like being here. I love seeing everyone. Does all the company make it hard to quilt? Sure, but no matter how much I enjoy quilting, people are more important to me every time. I can quilt later, but I only get so much time with people I love.

Now, with all the craziness going on, have I gotten any sewing in? Actually I have, and I've also started setting up my sewing suite. I haven't had a sewing room for two years now, and now I'll be taking over two rooms in the finished basement as my sewing suite. So far I'm only working in one of those rooms.

I've got my cutting table set up in the center of the room, the cutting table is a counter height kitchen table. I've got three quilt tops on top of it, but you can only see one in this pic. That top one needs borders, but the two beneath it aren't getting borders, so they are done, just need pressing.

You can see my ironing station behind the cutting table. It is made from 3 Ikea Trofast Units. We made a big ironing board to go on top of those, so I can press 45" fabric easily, and still have space for my iron. The purple plastic drawers have my fat quarter-1 yard pieces of fabric. The tall set of shelves are obviously a work in progress. my Go dies on on the bottom shelves, and right now I have various projects on the top shelves. I'm not thinking this is where my current projects will be stored once I'm done, but for right now, this will do.

I took a photo from this angle, so you can see my Scrap User System fits perfectly under my cutting table. I buy the large three drawer Sterilite drawer sets, take them apart and reconfigure them to four drawer sets. They fit perfectly under the table, no wasted space at all.

DH put my pegboard up on the wall you can't see, but I haven't gotten any of my rulers up yet. You can see part of my treadmill, which we just moved to this room. I want the treadmill right in my sight reminding me to use it.

I'll post more photos as I work on the rooms, but this is a start.

Three small quilts to top stage this week, and a start on a new sewing space, all while I have company? That's a win in my book!

Regrouping

I'm doing what I can these days, but life is very, very busy. We had some out of town company that we had a great time with, their visit was just too short.

I have gotten sewing done here and there, I just finished one project a few minutes ago!

These are bookmarks, which are the favors for the baby shower I'm throwing DD#1. I decided bookmarks would be a good favor for a book themed shower. The bookmarks finish at 2x8", and there is a layer of batting in them. (Busting some small batting scraps) I'm glad these are now finished. While I was making these, I actually slipped in an extra project, and now I've got a bunch of units made for a couple other projects.

I had over cut for the baby quilts I made, but I was completely out of the blue I used. I grabbed a piece of pink, and these units used all of the pink fabric! Stashbusting little by little! I've decided I really like these 4x8" (finished) Flying Geese units. I draw an extra line on the corner squares,  and I am getting two 3" (finished) bonus HSTs, from which I could make 3x6" Flying Geese, or do anything else you can do with HST's. I could technically make 3.5" finished HSTs with my bonus units, but I don't save anything that works with that in my scrap user system, so I just go with a bigger than 1/4 seam allowance and I have more options.

I really like working with small units, as you can see by those bookmarks, but I've decided sometimes larger units are fun too. I think for donation quilts I may use those 4x8" Flying Geese a lot. The fact the bonus HST's are such a usable size, and are still bigger than most of the units I make, means I can make two donation quilts in not much more time than one!

Tomorrow I'll start sewing on DD#1's baby quilt. I don't have a lot of time before the shower, and we have three more groups of out of town company coming between now and the shower. At least I have all the other baby stuff I was making her finished, so if I can't get the baby quilt finished by April 7, I still have a gift for her, and she could get the baby quilt late. The thing is, I really want to get the baby quilt done, so I can get back to finishing weighted blankets and the wedding quilts. We'll see!