my first set of Dotty Stars blocks

Now, I'm making another set for a block swap I'm hosting. This is going to be a way cute quilt!

Music and more

I love quilting and I love music! All sorts of music, almost all genres. Recently, I've added to my collection. Some is re-purchases from music I loved as a 10-year-old and the others I've discovered and love now.
Before I show you my new CDs, I wanted to show you my itty bitty claim to fame... Bonnie K Hunter has a new book out, (that I've pre-ordered) titled Leaders & Enders and my comment and recommendation is right on the web page.
I have, now in my music collection,

Osmondmania

Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay, along with Donny, Marie and Jimmy. I usually can remember them all.

The Partridge Family -

this was my very first album. I got it when I was 9 or 10, and LOVED it! I don't know which song I like more, "I think I love you", that was NOT on my album, or "Umbrella Man". That one so reminds me of living in the Pacific Northwest.
Keith, Laurie, Danny, Chris and Tracy and let's not forget Reuben and Shirley.

Seals & Crofts, beautiful voice and mellow tunes. A nice change from the stronger rock that I usually listened to.


another Michael Jackson. Love song #9!

Susan Boyle (although I may have already mentioned her.) Love, love, love her "I Dreamed A Dream"!

and Adam Lambert (great dance music).

My new magazine

I have been letting most of my magazine subscriptions expire. I don't need them. I have a million and a half patterns that I haven't got to yet, but they are starting to feel like the same ole', same ole' stuff. I still get Australian Patchwork & Quilting and American Patchwork & Quilting, but the rest are no longer coming...and I miss finding a quilting magazine in my mailbox. I went to the book store the other day and found Quilting Arts. I bought the special edition about the Houston International Quilt Festival and was showing it to my daughter...the art major. She is going to be able to use one of the patterns as a starting point for one of her projects. She needed an idea and this one the professor approved of. Isn't it cute? OK, now maybe I don't need to make any birds since she'll be doing it, but I think I still might need to make a bird or 2. They look like they might be cute little pincushions.

Finally, life is slowing down a little

Math class is all done, Christmas is over, but the last cleaning up of the Christmas decoration is still on the to-do list and the new year has begun. Time to slow down and breathe for a minute before starting on the next big round of activities.
I pulled a
A "B" is nice, but for all the time and homework I put into it, I so should've got an "AAA". lol
A B is plenty good enough. I'm just relieved that I passed. I'm also proud to announce that I got my official acceptance letter to Marylhurst University. Yay!
Now, to go and take charge of cleaning and reorganizing the house and getting caught up on some quilting UFOs. There's no time for any of that when I'm taking classes. Next time, I'll show you pictures of what I'm working on. I know, you can hardly wait, huh? :o)

My class made quilts

We made the newspaper, too! We made charity quilts and hand tied them. Believe me, it was a labor of love, and not easy, but the kids were so proud of themselves. Read about it and check out the photos, too. It's amazing what quilters can do when we work together. :o)

Marylhurst University

Yesterday, I went to research and tour Marylhurst University, and made my mind up to apply. I even turned in the first part of the application.
The vast majority of the students are both part-time and non-traditional, so I think I'll fit right in.

some sewing machines are home again :o)

I've had a tough time getting all the way through our class' quilting unit. The very last lesson was showing them how to add french fold binding onto our quilted hot pads.

Last week, when I was teaching my students how to quilt, I has just terrible luck. First, my Pfaff stopped working. OK, not a big deal...I grabbed my Janome Jem. Well, that stopped working. Different issues, but still, it wouldn't sew. OK, it's much heavier, but we're doing the last of the class and we wanted to get finished, so I brought the Bernina to class. It worked for about 15 minutes and then it, too died. 3 sewing machines, 3 different issues. I bundled them all into the car to go to the sewing machine "hospital" and drug out my very first, original, New Home machine. That baby, probably made in the 1950s, finished the last of our quilts up and ran as smoothly as you could imagine. Yay! for good old mechanical machines!
The New Home is almost ready to go back into it's case. The Pfaff and the Janome are home safely and the Bernina is still waiting for a hook. Not that I *need* it, but it should be home within a week or so. At least I didn't have to even think about using the treadle machine. There's no way that I could've drug it to school to show the kids how to attach binding. :o)