January 2016 Musings

January was an extremely busy month mostly due to my accounting business. My clients are non-profit organizations and donors need their annual contribution statements in order to deduct for their tax filing. Also, like any other business payroll tax payments and reports are due along with Independent Contractor 1099s.

So what does that have to do with quilting you might ask?

Nothing! But I am surprised at myself that I have accomplished much on the Red Work Twitterings quilt with my crazy busyness. It isn't finished yet, but it is on the home stretch of being completed. 

The Red Work blocks were made a couple of years ago just waiting to be made up into a quilt. They had been on the design board for about the same amount of time. Inspiration to begin came when having to wait for Golden Threads to arrive in the mail to be used for a recently sandwiched quilt. I wanted to keep the momentum up of completing several of my long overdo UFOs. The Golden Threads paper has arrived but the pinned quilt is still hanging down over the stair rails while I complete the borders on the Red Work Twitterings quilt.

The last four stars are finished, and now the in between blocks need to be cut, sewn and added to complete the third border. I am getting excited!

I have been working on this quilt during the evenings after long days working, many of those days beginning at 4:00 - 5:00 a.m. in the morning and finishing up anywhere between 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. each day. I set up my traveling sewing machine in the bonus room so I can spend the evening with my husband. Sewing helps me to decompress after those long days. We received a gift of Apple TV from my son for Christmas and we have been watching Netflix shows while I sew the evening away. It is so relaxing!


 





Here is a picture with the first 2 borders. I am so pleased how the quilt is shaping up. It will be used as a wall hanging during the winter season.

For closeups of each block go to Pinterest and look for the pins labeled Joanie's Quilts.

 Winter weather with snow and ice made the days perfect for sewing. Though we didn't have the amount of snow that many had throughout the US we were shut down for several days due to ice.


My Cassie didn't care much for the cold ice on her little paws. She was quite stubborn about going outside and had to coax her to make her do what she needed to do. It was like having a three year old.

 I changed my office/quilting studio around again. For the longest time, well over a year to be exact, I had been trying to figure how best to position two large pieces of furniture in my rather small room and be able to looks out the window. The computer screens were blocking my view. Finally one day Mike looked around and said,  "Put your desk over there in the corner." It has been the best set up. By day my quilting table becomes a great place to organize my clients papers, notebooks and files and with easy access from my desk.

Did you notice my quilt hangings on the wall?

  
I now have a nice pathway from my desk to the printer without bumping into the corner of my quilting table. And I can use the backside of my quilting table for organizing business papers by day. Every evening I clear the business files and papers and my quilting table is free to be used for a cutting table or free motion quilting.











 So there you have it my January 2016 quilting journey.



Thank you for visiting and wishing you a great sewing or quilting day!