A New Year, A New Post

It's a new year....the last 2 weeks have been a blur. Many people don't realize that when you work retail, there is no such thing as a Christmas vacation. Once we got through Christmas, then it was time to begin counting things! Aaargh! We have a really good POS and inventory system, but you've still got to lay eyes on everything in the store. Were you aware that we currently have over 17,000 fat quarters in stock? I know this because we counted each and every one of them!

Besides working, I've seen 3 movies in the last 2 weeks. Now, I am not a big movie-goer (I could be sewing instead, doncha know..). But, the Friday before Christmas, my husband suggested we go to the movies. Since he usually doesn't want to leave the house, how could I say no? We went to see National Treasure 2. It's a good family adventure movie - you know it's going to be preposterous and you know how it's going to end, but it's a fun ride along the way. On Christmas day, we as a family are pretty much done with festivities - so we go to the movies! Since we saw our Christmas flick on Friday, we saw I Am Legend. It was okay - but when it was over I was kind of scratching my head. It ended without an ending, IMHO. Russ is never home on NY eve (since he plays in one band or another), so Audrey and I have started a tradition of going to the latest showing of movie. Last year was Charlotte's Web, this year we saw Juno. I have to say - taking my almost 13yo to see a movie about a 16yo pregnant girl may not seem like the most logical choice, but we thoroughly enjoyed the movie (it's VERY funny) and it led to really good discussion. I'd love to know if there is a soundtrack available - the movie is full of these fun, quirky songs. I checked tonight at Best Buy, but didn't see it.

I was really good in 2006 of tracking every project I worked on - and I did well in 2007 until about the last quarter. I haven't even pulled out my note cards to see how many things I worked on. But, here's a few things I got done prior to Christmas.

As you know, we've been working on remodeling Audrey's room since October. Her closet is microscopic, so we decided to go with external wardrobes from IKEA and turn her closet into a shelving unit. We also decided to not put the small louvered doors back and to hang a curtain over the opening instead. I worked all one day on making the curtain with the black grommets. Here's a helpful hint.....count the right number of holes needed to make the curtain ends land on the backside before you cut out the holes. Don't ask me how I know this to be true. Hence, the black and white fabric on the top. Sometimes you just gotta punt and git'er done.


I also made Audey this i-pod holder. It was a cute little pattern out of Quilts n More magazine. Have you discovered this gem yet? It's published by Better Homes and Gardens (the same publishers as American Patchwork & Quilting) and contains great smaller projects. Every issue I've looked at has something that I would actually make. I can't say that about all the quilting publications out there.



Now this is a travesty. This is my back-door neighbor's driveway. Can you believe that they have covered a load of crap on their driveway with a quilt? Yeah, it's a ragged out quilt, but it was RAINING the day I took this picture. What on earth is a quilt going to protect in the rain? It just made me sad.

Now here's some eye candy that is way cool. A customer brought this quilt top in last weekend to pick out borders. It was in great shape and was completely hand pieced. Can you believe we had the right shade of orange? I was fascinated with this top - I'd like to reproduce it using rectangles and connector corners. There's now way I'm going to inset all those pieces!

I also made a quilt top over New Year's, but no photo yet. Perhaps tomorrow.

Later!