Clean Along Postponed....

The Clean Along is being postponed. I'll let you know when I decide on a date. Thanks to those that planned to participate. For now, I'm going back to bed.

Spring Cleaning Clean Along

Don't forget tomorrow is the Spring Cleaning Clean Along. Is anyone planning to participate? We'll start at 8am PST. Thursday morning. Let me know and I'll link to all those participating!

No Soldier Forgotten

Do you remember way back in June of last year when I posted this blog post about my friend Alycia and her Quilt of Valor Challenge? Her story (in a nutshell) goes like this. She got involved in the QOV project and went to her kids' school to talk about the project. The kids asked if they could help and so she helped that class make a quilt. Last May (of 2008) she made a delivery of approx 40ish quilts (give or take). The chaplin pulled her aside and said "do you think you could bring 100 next year?" She hesitantly said yes and then went into a full panic. So she sent a call out to fellow quilters in her community (both in real life and online). Then one day a friend said "how many soldiers are in that unit at the hospital?" To which Alycia answered "400" and her friend said "wouldn't it be amazing if you could give a quilt to every soldier?" And a challenge was born. She's blogged every. single. quilt that she's received. Then a few months ago, as she was making final arrangements to make the delivery (background checks, student lists, etc...to get on the army base) she was told that the size of the unit had increased to 700 wounded soldiers. With only a few months left she was sure she wouldn't be able to cover every soldier. She hadn't even reached her 400 goal yet.

Just to confirm how absolutely amazing the quilting community truly is, go check out Alycia's Blog. Her finished quilt count is up to 616!!!! I cannot believe it! She is still collecting quilts, although at some point she will begin setting them aside for next year (I'm not sure when this year's cut off date is). Her delivery will be in early May. She is so close to being able to offer a quilted hug to every soldier in that unit. If you have any finished quilts laying around, looking for a home please consider sending one (or a few) to Alycia's "No Soldier Forgotten" project. They don't have to be patriotic in nature. This truly has grown from a small project at an elementary school to a world wide effort right before our eyes this year. Its touching and heart warming and brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it.

I can't seem to shake.this.funk.

I'm in a terrible funk. I'm cranky, I'm tired, I'm unmotivated and I'm driving everyone in my family crazy. I think it is directly related to my lack of sewing machine. But truth be told, even if I had my foot pedal (and I've actually borrowed Karen's) I couldn't sew anything because there isn't currently a single clean flat surface in my house.

I was caught up on my laundry, but I'm not anymore. I'm in need of a some serious Spring Cleaning, but I still can't even get motivated enough to start. I mentioned a Spring Clean A Long on my last post and there was a little bit of interest, so I'll be hosting that next week. Right here on my blog ~ Thursday, April 23. Every hour I'll post a task to do. It'll be a short task, just 15-20 minutes or so. I'll do them all in the same blog post, I'll just keep editing it to add the new tasks. Let me know if you are participating and I'll link up to everyone in the beginning of the post. I'll post from 8am - 5pm (PST). If you are on the East Coast, you are welcome to participate, although it may run late for you. You can also wait until Thursday and do it all then :)

Hopefully this will get me motivated to get off my bum and clean the rest of the house! I need to get some furniture moved and some other things organized this summer in order to start homeschooling in the fall. I think that may be part of my funk. Making the decision to homeschool has been so liberating, but getting started is also very overwhelming. Add to that the mountains of house chores in front of me and I think I kind of just froze. When I get very overwhelmed I tend to just withdraw and do n.o.t.h.i.n.g. Not this time....pity party's over and its time to crack the whip!

I'll see you Thursday! :)

p.s. sorry if this post sounded whiney. that's the mood I'm in...strangely I feel better though. even after this short little post of just putting it all out there. I'll just go one step at a time and get 'er done! Thanks for "listening"

***sigh***

I'm still here. I just have nothing to show you because I am still sans sewing machine.....just thought I'd check in. My laundry is nearly caught up. I'm going to tackle the kitchen next. Cleaning really cuts into my sewing time, so maybe its better that there is no sewing time right now? I can really concentrate on my Spring Cleaning?

Speaking of Spring Cleaning... I've thought about hosting a Spring Cleaning Clean -a - long. Anyone game? I'll chose one day ~ probably April 23rd, 24th or 25th (anyone have a preferance). At the top of every hour, I'll post a task to do. It'll be as short task, probably no more than 15-20 minutes. I'll link to everyone's blog that is participating and if we're feeling really adventurous we can post before & after pictures??? Let me know if there is any interest and I'll post more details later.

Cheeers,
~Jessica

Oh Yea...

I forgot to tell you...I'm not allowed to buy any more fabric. *sniff sniff*

See, after seeing my stash photos, my friend Kristin decided to get to work on her yarn stash. Let me tell you about Kristin ~ she is amazinly talented. Just take a look at her etsy store. Its amazing. I own several Kristin originals, and I love them all. This woman can just look at an object and a few minutes later she has made an exact replica out of yarn. Its awe inspiring (look for some of her creations to show up here...just as soon as I get my sewing machine back).

Anyway, we got to talking and realized that we were both drowning in our addictions. Me: fabric. Kristin: yarn. So we challenged ourselves. Neither of us will buy any fabric/yarn until June 1st (unless its for a custom order ~ which I dont' really have to worry about....). On June 1st if we've both made it she will buy me a yard of my choice of fabric and I'll buy her a skein of her choice. Deal? Deal.

And then we're going to start all over again. Because, lets be honest, two months really isn't going to put a dent in either stash now, is it?

SCORE!!

I love yard sales and with the sunshine we (finally) got today, there were several in our small town. We stumbled upon one sale that was way out in the middle of nowhere at an old farm house (my favorite kind of sale!). Their garage was PACKED full. Stuff was spilling out of everywhere. I wish I could have spent all day there and just sorted through and touched everything! It was an antique dealer's dream. I would have bought every piece of furniture there if we room for it. But I'm not collecting furniture just yet. But I did walk away with these goodies. A brand new, still in the box cutting table. I can't find any information about this particular brand online, but I know other tables like this go for $100 and up. The woman told me it was $145 new. Its still in the box, hardware included, never opened. Another great piece of Pyrex and the boys picked up two plastic light saber toys (they've recently entered a Star Wars phase). All for the grand price of..........wait for it.......$26!!!! TWENTY SIX DOLLARS!!!! Woo Hoo!!! SCORE!

I'm in a FUNK!

I don't know if its the weather, I don't know if its my lack of sewing machine, I don't know if its the new puppy (that still isn't sleeping through the night ugh!), but I'm in a funk big time. We've also had some big decisions around here that we've been talking about (hang on Cricket ~ it doesn't concern moving to NH yet)....we're thinking about homeschooling next year. Well, we've actually pretty much made up our minds to do it. Its absolutely what is right for our family, but the whole thing still seems a little overwhelming. I actually think my quilting time will increase because we'll be home a lot more and the kids will work independently on a lot of stuff. So, I'll be busy this summer picking our curricula, planning lessons, getting organized, etc.

I have been working on several quilts and I'll be posting pictures of them (along with free patterns) just as soon as I get a chance (and get my new foot pedal so I can finish them up!!)