2 steps forward; 1 step back

In the last post i had a bit of a list to accomplish for December. some of it got accomplished since then.
..the contest quilt is quilted and bound...just need to send in pictures...that is on today's list.
..2 christmas tops not started yet....but i 'thought' about them. in fact, i put my tokyo subway map quilt on the frame yesterdy and got a lot of it stabilized. that is on today's list, too...to finish stabilizing that so i can take it off the frame for other things.
..my friends tops will be here tomorrow so i can start on those and try to finish for christmas.
..2 batches of chex mix have been made....really need 2 more batches...need more hours in my day.
..i cut my hair...a hurry up job...just don't look too closely at the back. LOL

Now, to add to all of that stress....my aunt sophie died yesterday. so i need to travel to illinois on sunday for a funeral on monday. i really didn't count on not having those 2 days here. i guess i need to learn to add extra days into my schedule. aunt sophie led a full and good life. she was a good woman and liked helping people. she had been bed bound for several months and i believe she was just tired and ready to go to heaven. when she got sick last year she had just learned that her youngest granddaughter was pregnant...after trying for years. her first thought was that she live to see that baby born. she did....and almost a year more. so, i'm sad that she is gone and i'll miss her lots but i'll bet she is crocheting cloud covers in heaven and making quilts up there and using clouds for batting.

It's only 8am but i need to head over to my studio and get started on my day.

Stay warm

Trying to keep up

Alhough my husband and i don't really 'celebrate' Christmas....no tree, decorating or craziness going on here.....it seems that december is whizzing by. i have a contest quilt on my frame that needs to be finished TODAY. pictures are due in soon.

And yesterday i agreed to quilt 2 tops before Christmas for a dear friend. ... but the tops aren't quite done yet....hurry Mary. LOL

And i have 2 customer quilts that i said would be done by the end of the year....might happen...might not.

And i have a house closing coming up in a week or so....which will require me to be gone from home for 2 days.  Yikes!!

And i like to make cookies for Christmas.

And my sister reminded me the other day that i usually make Chex Mix for Christmas and she was looking forward to some of it.  Sis, i made 2 batches last night. hopefully 2 more today.

And i really, really need to cut my hair...i look like something in a scary movie.

So, i better get busy and start my day. how is your scheduling coming along? stay sane.

Plan B worked!

But just in case it didn't...i had plan C in place.

What i am speaking of is finding money for my house in Illinois. i found the house i wanted the first day i went out to look...after just a few houses. how did that happen?  i'm not complaining mind you.

But then the fun part was finding a loan for 11K. had i waited another year i could have just paid cash....like my sister did....but who knew i would find a place i liked so soon.

$11,000 doesn't sound like a LOT of money...unless you don't have that much. i tried the credit union that i used to belong to....after 12 days of faxing back and forth and talking back and forth and cussing (just my part...LOL)...they finally told me no....that was too little an amount for a conventional mortgage loan. is that stupid or what? too many damn rules.

And i couldn't get a signature loan because i wanted the house in my name only and my name is on our current mortgage...so that put my loan 'ratio' too high. try explaining to a 'city' loan officer that your husband pays the mortgage and even though your name is on the deed.....you don't contribute any money to the payment. no go.

So, plan B was to go to the little bank in the little town where i found the little house. i explained my situation to her and she said that she had the authority to loan that amount and that she would.....but, she needed 4 more board members to agree with her and sign off on it. and she called me 2 days later......2 DAYS.....not 12 days.....and told me it was a done deal. how cool is that.

But i did have plan C in place...just in case....my small town banker here in the woods.

So, after a couple weeks of nail biting and cussing city bankers i now have financing in place and am just waiting for a closing date.

Then the fun will begin....probably in the spring.

The list is starting...
     .... new windows
    .... new doors
    .....new wiring
    ....new plumbing
.    .... tear out all that ugly paneling
    ....tear out the carpet pads from the bedrooms....no carpet....just pad
   ....tear a couple layers of vinyl off kitchen floor
    .... strip ugly paint off all woodwork
    ....etc...etc

So, i guess now i better get back in my studio and do some quilting.....i have mortgage payments to make. LOL

Life is hectic

Oops..just when i thought i was home and back in my routine....i'm leaving town again.

I am trying to purchase a house in Illinois and having issues with lenders there while i live in Missouri.

So, on the advice of a real estate lady i am traveling to Illinois this morning to have a chat with a small town bank in town there. i guess i should have started out with the small town banks....city people have too many issues. LOL

So, wish me luck on finding a few dollars and putting this part of the adventure behind me and getting on with the fun part....tearing down paneling and pulling up carpet pads. LOL

I shall report on progress when i get back in a couple days.

In the meantime...don't have too much fun without me.

For Christine D....

hi Christine

if you wonder....others might, too...so here are the answers to your questions.

a pocket door is a door that 'lives' in a space in the wall. you pull it out to close it. the wall is like a double wall that houses the door. it is very cool and i've always loved them.  it is the door between the living room and the room i will use for my longarm. and there are french doors in the longarm room that open out to the front porch so i can close the pocket door and quilting customers can enter the studio and not the house.

and the 'metal ladder' is actually a television antennae. apparantly reception is town is bad. my sister only gets the local channels at her place a few blocks away. but i could hook up to cable or satellite but i'm not much on tv so i won't worry about it.

i'm getting excited to work on the house so hopefully the whole deal with be done shortly.

thanks for commenting on my blog.

All the news that is fit to print

Well, hello...it's been a while since we've shared.

I've been out of my studio for about a week but have been busy. i went to my sister's last week and we went to the beast...but not to work. i have decided that i need a house in centralia, too. so when i retire from retirement at the farm...i will already have a place to move to. it may take me a few years to get there...but it will be ready. so we went house hunting. we looked at 6 houses that i liked from the pictures on the internet .... but we know pictures lie....some houses were good....some kind of chopped up in layout....some too "something"...but all had very small to no yards. i need me some grass.

There was a very nice, large (think beast size)...lovely house...but the price tag was $54,500 and i didn't want to go there. plus...the place next door to it was a condemned butt ugly mess that needed to be burnt down.

The real estate agent said she had one more to show me if i wanted to see it but it was in deplorable condition and not livable. so, of course, that got me curious. as soon as i walked into it and roamed through about 3 rooms i said....i like it...i think i want this one. she was astonished. it's a bit over 1200 square feet, sits on a quarter acre, and has a huge 3 bay garage with an office out there. i guess my standards are lower than hers....a bit of shoveling out and some paint and it could be liveable. LOL  ok, and new windows and doors. but it has a new roof....that's important.

It has 3 sets of French doors and a pocket door. the pocket door sold my sister. LOL  hardwood floors and some cool woodwork. closets are scarce but i can live with that...i can always build closets. needs windows; has new roof. may need furnace; basement seems dry. tradeoffs here and there. it had renters so it is filthy. but once it is shoveled out, ugly paneling taken off walls, and a little love...it will be fine. right now we are calling it The Ugly Duckling. but it will emerge into a swan.....in a few years.

The owner is in California..i'm in Missouri...and the property is in Illinois. such complications. so i've spent 3 days faxing things back and forth. the real estate portion is done and all signed off. i am just waiting for my credit union to ok the loan. i got a really, really, really good price. although he was asking 27,900...he was going around town saying he would take 12-15K for it. LOL   that was dumb on his part but good for me.

One strange part....there is an oil well pumping in the yard.....right outside the kitchen. LOL  it has a fence around it and it is kind of rusty ugly but sort of out of sight...so that's ok. i don't have to deal with it. there is a wooden fence hiding it from view of the front street and i plan on painting a quilt on that fence to pretty it up.

In quilty news...as i said...i've been out of the studio for a week. but playing at home while talking to real estate people and faxing.

I finished the backing on the Tokyo Subway Map quilt and am ready to quilt it. i really, really like the back. it is just folded over my hanging stand. it is about 85" square. the writing says Tokyo Subway Map...is that not cool?

I finished the last 2 blocks of the North Pole Village set 3. i have 34 blocks now. i wonder if they will make another set. these are just adorable. the last 2 were.....

The photo shop. love the little camera shaped building. great idea.

And  the clock shop...isn't that little mouse cute? should have made the hands of the clock a different color...may go over them with some color. they show up a bit better in real life.

My selvage boxes are stuffed. i decided i need to use more of them. so i pulled out the black selvages and separated the ones with the white part on the end. i only used the selvages without the white. and cut 2" red blocks for the middles and simply stitched around and around till i could cut a 7.5" square from it. selvages were different widths, so the red block wasn't centered. i was almost finished before my brain kicked in that i could manipulate where the red square landed but not using some sides.  i cut out 80 red squares but ran out of black selvages after 43 blocks. i really didn't want to use the selvages with the white parts on them. so one evening i thought about reversing them ... so now i will make some with black centers and red selvages. have to finish the contest quilt before i continue on these.

In between the selvage blocks i was making crumb blocks...cut at 5" square. i recently got the Leaders and Enders book from Bonnie Hunter so that is how these were assembled. it is quite addictive and goes quickly and saves a TON of thread. i have a couple dozen of these and enough scrap fabric to make hundreds more of them. LOL

Do you use starch when you press? i never used to.... until my friend Brenda brought us all a bottle of starch at our last quilt class. i am now a starch convert. what a difference. and it has a fresh linen scent and completely makes the blocks more manageable. why didn't i do this before? sometimes i just need to be knocked in the head. thanks, Brenda, for the knock. i love it. (and you).

Sheesh...are you still reading...or did i put you to sleep. i'll try not to stay away so long next time. that was a lot of catching up.

Break is long over....back to work.

Almost finished with North Pole Village set 3

Here are 3 more that i finished today. i only have 1 to go but don't have time to finish it now. i am going out of town tomorrow so it will be next week before you see the last block.

First up we have a diner...every little town needs one.

And a church

And a very cute yarn shop.

Don't know what the last shop will be...i didn't peek. would be nice if it were a quilt shop.

But you will have to wait to find out.

See you soon...gotta go pack.