New, new, new!

Lots of new things have been happening around here. Some of them good, some of them not good.

Not good? My dad. He's been having major health issues. So much that we know we're going to Michigan (for this third time this year) next week. And we may be going a lot more in the next several months. We couldn't see the logic in spending so much on hotels, etc. Plus, as you may know, we love to camp. Oh, and since RT passed his exam, he got a bonus. So all of this lead to us trading his old car, which was this:

The smallest car GM made that year.

for a new (to us) car, which is this:

Don't think they parked it there accidentally. Clever CarMax!

All so that we can tow this:

It's a popup trailer.

We tow it closed, of course.

Oh, and we're fostering this guy:

His name is Ollie. He is super sweet. He is 100% blind. In fact, he has no eyes, but he gets around just fine. If you know of anyone who might want to adopt him, let me know! He is next to no work. Unlike sighted dogs, he doesn't need lots of exercise or attention. But he loves people! We are still considering keeping him. We'll see how the Michigan trip goes!

I also tried out my gathering foot. Awesome! Who needs a ruffler? Not me!

And last, but certainly not least, I have tried a new pattern. It's Meg's Garden from Don't Look Now. It's part of a bee through the Richmond Modern Quilt Guild. I am close to being ready to fuse it. I have tweaked it here and there since this photo was taken, but you get the idea.

 

Now, I've been told that I am a show-off. That I am a "big spender" and that I parade it around in front of people just to make them feel bad. I would hope that's not the case. RT has worked his ass off to get his Fellowship and he got rewarded for it. That went to the camper. The new (to us) car was a trade-in, and we didn't put extra money down, and now have a sizable payment to make. Rest assured, we are not drowning in money. We are FAR from rich. Our income is probably in the lowest 5% of RMS families. Anyway, I lost a friend over this, but I don't feel that I've done anything wrong. If you think I have, please let me know. I try very hard to not be a braggart.

Woo hoo! Over here!

Yes, it's been too long. I admit: I suck at updating this blog. Oh, who am I kidding? I suck at updating the RMQG blog, too. I guess I was not cut out to be a blogger. Oh well. But photos!

First is my new cutting table from IKEA. It's supposed to be for the kitchen, but it works great as a cutting table because it's counter-height. And look at all the drawers!

 Here's an in-progress photo of a small quilt I made for a high school friend that I reconnected with on Facebook. It makes me happy.

 Over the holidays, I realized I needed another gift for my father-in-law. So I took a photograph that he had taken and printed it out on fabric. Then I quilted it. Here, the binding is taking up too much of the photo (this is from before I had done the hand-stitching), but you get the idea. I think it came out pretty fantastic! I may try this with other photos in the future.

Molly's first embroidery

I'll spare you the details of why I haven't been around too much lately. Suffice to say part of it was the loss of both of our pets (we put Snickers down and then a couple weeks later our cat Garfunkel died on her own). My job situation has changed; I'm no longer working at Quilter's Corner, but I am still teaching classes there. I am, however, helping Swirly Girls Design out with their website and I'll be teaching a handwork after school program at my daughter's school. More on that last thing below. Oh, and my in-laws visited and my daughter turned seven.

In absolutely fabulous news, my husband passed his final actuarial exam! If you follow that link, you'll see a snapshot of the grueling exams he's had to take over the past several years (all ten items in the white part of the table at the top, and then the Group and Health track column below). He's now very near the bottom of the chart, working on his Decision Making and Communication Module. He's hoping to finish that by Monday, and get it graded (passing, of course) so he can go to the Fellowship Admissions Course in December. This should be a gimme. In the unlikely event his paper is not accepted, he'll just have to revamp it and get it done so he can go to the March Admissions Course. But of course, he's really hoping to get it wrapped up before the end of 2011. Me too.

So today a couple of my wonderful sewing friends came over and one of them brought her daughter. She got my daughter interested in doing some embroidery. Her first attempt is a really big running stitch, but then this afternoon I decided to teach her the backstitch. Here's how she did!
If you ignore the chocolate milk stains on the left, I think it's fantastic for a first attempt and just having turned seven! Next she'll do the bird at the top in blue. This gives me confidence for my after school program this year.

Anyway, with school starting in a few weeks and some planned sewing time on the horizon, I hope to update this blog way more often.

Okay, so now I have to go work on my round robin block for the Richmond Modern Quilt Guild. The meeting is tomorrow night. Ah, deadlines, how I've missed you!

The Richmond Modern Quilt Guild has arrived!

I'm so happy to announce that there is a new chapter of The Modern Quilt Guild in Richmond! We'll have our first meeting on Friday, April 15th starting at 6 pm. We're currently meeting at Quilter's Corner in Midlothian, VA. If you sew and are in the Richmond area, please come! We're going to have giveaways, food, and a beading demo by the wonderful Cathy Etter. If you've never met Cathy, you are in for a big treat.

I'm so excited to be a part of this!