It's official!

THE HOUSE IS SOLD!!!!!!!  I should be thrilled and I sort of am but now I have to plan the move......ugh!  It's really a good thing that most of the small stuff is already gone or I would be a mess!  Okay - so now I can move on! 

So what did I do to celebrate?!?!? 

Well, I organized The Farmer's Wife of course!  I had planned to do this a year ago when I started the project but as usual, other things took precedence and it didn't get done.

I would like to point out that I do not do this with ALL quilts, only "long term" projects.....and this is really a long term project (I mean it's already a year - lol).  Also, I want it to be as portable as possible.....

First I went to Staples and had them cut the spine off of the book - $3.00 + tax, then I asked them to make a copy of the spine on card stock for my binder......in colour of course (I'm anal that way!) - $0.49 + tax!

Here's the binder......

I purchased the kind of binder that has clear pockets in the front, back and spine and put the cover on the front, the spine from the book on the side and the back cover on the back...... I think it's a 3" binder.  This way I can find it in a bookcase or if it's lying on it's side (since I tend to misplace things!  Like books full of blocks!?!?).

 I also purchased page protectors - 100/$6.49 + tax.  They are the Staples brand and they are acid-free, archival quality.  In the first one I put the pages with the letters from the farmer's wives which is what the book was written about.....

 The next section are my spreadsheets which list the blocks and template numbers......the yellow ones are the blocks that are done!  There are "only" ten!

The next section is the template section, of which there are 106.  I have split them into 10 per page protector in order to keep them more manageable and easier to find.....I also purchased a package of yellow circle labels to mark the numbers on.....$4.96 + tax. 

 This page holds a copy of the block placements in the quilt - the back of the page is block 1......

 And finally the blocks, also marked with the yellow circles.....the finished blocks slip into the page protectors as they are done.  Keeps them clean and pressed and at hand.....

All I have to do now is organize the rest of my life like this and I'll be laughing!  I have to say it will be hard to misplace this binder(I'll  probably still manage to do it though!).  It cost around $25.00 including the binder but for a project like this I really feel it is well worth the extra cost to keep it organized.  I imagine it will be another year before this quilt is done and all of the blocks will be protected and in pristine condition when I'm ready to do the sashings and corner blocks.  Well worth the time and effort!

So now I can start planning my "big move" and paint colours and decorating and all that good stuff that comes with moving!  Okay, seeing the bright side again!

Have a great day everyone!

Jo-Ann

It took two days........

but I found what I was looking for!  Before I tell you that story, I will give you the update on the "House Sale" (yet again!).  So the offer is conditional on financing and inspection - the time runs out 5:00 P.M. Friday January 14th (that way we can go ahead with the weekend Open House if it doesn't go through)!  So tomorrow is the house inspection scheduled between 2 - 4 P.M. however, we have not heard back about the financing, so, I am still crossing fingers and toes (and walking funny) but if they can't prove financing it will be a no go!

So - back to my story!  What was I looking for?  Well, last night was the first meeting of our new Sampler Club - Dear Hannah, Dear Jane, The Farmer's Wife is Nearly Insane! and since some of the girls want to do The Farmer's Wife - I was looking for the book and the blocks I had done, started last year.

I started looking Monday night, all over the house, mostly in the studio where I have been keeping all of my quilting projects and I came across the large plastic container with the fabrics I had been using to make the blocks.  However, the book and the blocks were no where to be found......so, next stop, the townhouse, where Rich and Jonathan had deposited all of the packed boxes from the studio.

Yesterday at around noon Rich and I drove over to the townhouse and went through all of the boxes that were packed.  His comment of course was, "You could open another quilt store in the house with what you have here!"  As if!  These men just don't understand the word STASH!!!!  Not to mention all of the projects, patterns and books!  In any event, after 2 hours of searching - nothing!  So back to the house to give another once over in the studio (I thought maybe I put them in a drawer or cupboard) - nothing again! 

Last place to look - the store!  In the meantime, I wanted to work on doing all of the pricing of the stuff that came in!  It was class time before I knew it and I didn't really have time to look thouroughly!  The class started and I headed for the storage room to look!  I managed to clean up a good portion of the storage room but no book, no blocks!  So far I only knew where it wasn't and after 2 hours of looking the class was about to end and I was no further ahead......I was frustrated, upset and depressed, thinking I'll just have to start over again!  At 10:00 P.M. Nancy and I went home!

So again, where did I find them?  On Sunday I had a customer who wanted to know how to do Sashiko, so I went to the back storage room and pulled out my basket of Sashiko.  I gave her a quick lesson, showed her the thread and then decided to take the basket home with me for something to do when I'm watching TV.  I found a Sobey's bag under the table in the classroom, I looked into it and found a flannel project I had wanted to start, so I just dumped the Sashiko into the bag and took it home.  I put it at the side of the couch in the living room and took the Sashiko basket out and put it on the coffee table.  Around 11:30 P.M. last night I decided to see what had to be done to start the flannel project and took it out of the bag!  Underneath the pile of flannel was the Farmer's Wife with all the blocks in the book!!!!  I just started laughing!  I mean how dumb can you be and isn't it always in the last place that you look!  The upside is, that I got half the storage room cleaned up!

So without further ado - here is the book and the blocks!  (I haven't found all the templates yet!?!?!- but I'm sure they'll turn up!)

 Blocks 1 and 2

Block 4 

 Block 6

Block 9 

 Block 11

Blocks 15 and 16 

 Block 21

Block 29 

10 Blocks done - only 101 to go!  I am so relieved that I found them!  Since I am doing them by hand, I am even more relieved.....now I can get back to them!  Not to worry, Molly's Meadow has not been forgotten.  Hopefully I will have some time tomorrow night for Molly....

There's also another plastic container somewhere with more fabrics and probably the templates I'm missing for this quilt so I'll certainly have to find that as well but I can make more templates and find more fabric if I need to - that's not an issue at all.....so my day ended well!

Have a great day everyone!

Jo-Ann

Fingers and toes crossed!

It was what has become the usual Sunday ordeal today!  Getting Jonathan up and getting to the store on time with him in tow, never pleasant, but necessary due to the frequent Open Houses we have had to endure!  The day went rather quickly and around 4:30 P.M. I got a call from Tanzie to say that a couple that had been at the Open House today wanted to come by around 6:30 P.M. to see the house again!  She expected an offer! 

That kaiboshed any ideas of getting to the grocery store so plans for tomorrow's lunch changed rather quickly.  They arrived and walked around for about 1/2 an hour and then 10 minutes later I got another call from Tanzie saying she was on her way over for the offer presentation......

It was decent, although it took a bit of doing, she had left and her and Gord had to turn around and come back before it was signed, sealed and delivered.....but the offer is in pending financing (which this time does not look to be an issue) and a house inspection so by Friday at 5:00 P.M. I should know if there's a deal!  Hence fingers and toes crossed!  This could be it!

After they all left, I nursed my sciatica and took some drugs and figured I should get back down to Molly's Meadow and get something done....so with Totally Stable in hand, down I went!  Again I have to thank Barb for the great idea, what a difference working with the stabilizer - it makes such a difference......

Here are the first 3 blocks together......7th row center!  Looking good, I'm getting excited!

 A bit of a closer look and if you click on the photo you should be able to see the blanket stitch I'm doing around the edges of the applique in the center block.....

 I only have to edge another 24 blocks, 96 more appliques and I'll be done that phase of the project!  I did manage to put a small dent into it tonight and will continue with it tomorrow night I hope......I am really getting psyched about getting this quilt top done!

However, I am tired and tomorrow is another day, and I want to take advantage of the drugs to get some sleep - so I'll bid you all good night!

Have a great day everyone!

Jo-Ann

P.S. If you couldn't actually see Simon peeking over the curtain in the photo yesterday, try clicking to make the photo larger..... 

I know, I know.....

I'm not really keeping up here!  I knew it would be hard to keep up two blogs!  It was either gonna work in my favour or against me....so far, the jury's still out!  (Well, at least in my mind!)

It's been an extremely busy week for me, working on the Newsletter is always time consuming and with 4 Open Houses (both weekends...) it's been pretty hectic!  We have a "conditional" offer on the house already, so we're just waiting on the formalities to see if the deal goes through!  A little bit stressful, to say the least but hopefully we'll be packing up in the very near future.....fingers crossed!

In the meantime I was going through the camera and downloading pictures for the blog(s) and found two fabulous pictures that Rich took when he was "playing" with my camera a few weeks ago......

I think this one was taken on the Humber River....

This one is Gizmo, isn't she adorable - may try to do a quilt!  I'll definitely have to take Mary's class first though!  (Take a Picture)  Need to play a little and start collecting fabrics.....

Thought I'd get some quilting done tonight to show off but I was so tired I came home and fell asleep on the couch........then I started watching the late night movie on CTV - Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyck, in black and white, a real oldie but lots of fun.....really enjoying it!  Could have been knitting but I left that at the store!  Oh well, guess I'll just sit back and relax...

Okay, have to go let Simon in, he's been out carousing all evening....

Have a great day!

Jo-Ann