Unfortunately with the practically daily rain and/or overcast skies we've been having here, getting really good pictures of the finished quilts is nearly impossible but trust me when I tell you it turned out gorgeous.

Glide thread in Military Gold was the perfect choice for the top.

The panto Surf's Up was fitting and I really like the way it mimicked the edges of the flowers in the Black fabric.

A pretty gold print was supplied for the backing and Glide thread in Honey Gold was just right to have the stitching show, which Kathy prefers, without being too overwhelming.

Such a simple pattern resulted in a really beautiful quilt.

Kathy told me she has many more quilts in process so there will be more coming my way to finish.  I can't wait to see what she brings me next.

My first longarm machine and frame Penelope, went off to her new home yesterday.

A nice couple from a couple of hours east of me decided to make her their own.

Helping them to disassemble the frame and load it all in their vehicle brought back so many memories of when I brought her home and set her up.  We certainly had some good times together. I hope they are as excited as I was that first day.

Enjoy your quilting adventures Jim and Cindy.  I know that Penelope will be well loved and put to good use. 

Penelope is getting a house call spa treatment in a few days and I can't wait!

Deciding to get her upgraded has been something I've been thinking about for quite a number of months. I've read tons about the upgrade on the Hinterberg Owners Yahoo Group (all great) and I've been emailing back and forth with many Voyager owners that have gotten the upgrade and they all say "do it". I've been hesitant to spend the money but in the end, it will be so worth it. 

This is what my Penelope looks like now.

This is Steve Dekkr of Dekkt Out Quilting Supply. He is the developer of the Dekk't Out Quilting System. He's the one that will visiting all the way from Florida in a few days.

This picture is from the International Quilt Market in Houston in 2013 where he was showing someone the new upgrade available. You can see that it will have an entire new look and a complete new electrical system.

Penelope will get these fantastic new Ram handles with push button controls, such a huge difference from her current set up. Steve changes out practically everything on the machine except for the motor. 

You may remember my Not feeling the love post from 6 weeks ago. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. Well I've been waiting all this time for the local repair guy to come and take a look at Penelope and see if he could figure why she has been behaving so badly.

Yesterday, just before lunch he called that he was on his way and after a lot of this and that, adjusting and leveling, totally taking apart and reassembling the tension assembly and a bit of other tweaking, he was able to get her working. See!

So far Penelope and I have not become the close and loving friends that I had hoped we'd become.

Though I haven't had a ton of time these past months to get used to her, the few times that I have, she has not played nice. Not nice at all. I have read and reread the manual so many times my eyes feel like they are crossed. I've made all the adjustments recommended by the manual and a friend and every recommendation that I have read on the Hinterberg Yahoo Group multiple times with no success. For the most part, this is the only thing I have to show for my attempts.

 Yuck! Lots of huge long stitches, nothing controllable and certainly nothing pretty. And if you think the top looks bad, this is what the back looks like!

Even worse! At this point, I'm seriously thinking that I have an electronics problem and if that is the case, no matter what I do to get her stitch nicely, it isn't going to work. I can't help but wonder if it was dropped or otherwise damaged when the older couple that I bought if from moved it from their basement where they had it set up to their garage where she was when I picked her up. I know that when I moved her, I was extremely careful so I'm sure that nothing that I have done since setting my hands on her has caused any problems but either way, she is sick and needs professional attention.

Like many others, I'm not one who makes resolutions either but instead pick a word or mindset to carry me through the year. My mindset for 2013 was to resist...resist buying fabric just because I only liked it and didn't absolutely LOVE it, resist joining in a ton of online bees, swaps and blog hops so that I could concentrate on my own projects and resist spending too much time sitting at the computer and actually sewing more.

So how did I do last year? Well not too bad but not what I had hoped for either. There are still a bunch of projects that I had hoped to get done last year (or at least started) that are still waiting. Blarg! I did buy fabric, probably more than I should have, but I did resit a lot of lines too. I only participated in a couple of blog hops and no online QALs, bees or swaps, other than the ones that I hosted of course.

As is typical, I started thinking about this year about 6 weeks ago and what I want to accomplish. A few months back I took on more hours at work and that just didn't work for me so I've cut it down a little again to a schedule that I think makes more sense and still gets the work done.

In 2014, I want to
FOCUS

and to go along with that word is my secondary word LEARN.

I want to quilt my own quilts and to do that I need to focus on getting to know my longarm Penelope a lot more and learn all that I can about her and the art of longarm quilting. To that end, I'm planning on attending MQX Quilt Festival-new England in April to take as many classes as possible.

I also want to focus on developing my own quilt patterns, all the ones that I have sketched out on paper and those I have floating around in my head. At some point I want to get them published, either in magazines or to sell. For my birthday a few months ago I got Electric Quilt 7 but I have yet to even load it onto my computer let alone actually use it. My focus will be to learn the program and use it to bring my pattern ideas to fruition.
I also want to learn paper piecing. MY LQS was having a class in the fall for a paper pieced winter table runner that I wanted to take but at the last minute the class was cancelled because the instructor was ill. They were going to reschedule but I don't believe that has happened yet so this year I'll be looking to see what other small project paper piecing class(s) I can find to learn this interesting technique.

Overall, this year I'm going to focus on finding a good balance between doing what I love and caring for who I love. 

I need to focus on getting fit. I'm not overweight per say but being petite, even a few extra pounds makes me really uncomfortable in my own skin. Plus the skin I have isn't anywhere near firm. So a bit of exercise is going to become part of my normal routine. I'm not the gym type and I refuse to get out to run or walk in the bad weather so I'll be inside my house most of the time. A small amount of time exercising a few days a week is certainly better than none at all and I know that seeing results will spur me to do even more.

Family has also got to be a huge focus this year. Too much of 2013 was spent running or catching up so I desperately need to get back into my normal habit of planning and prepping ahead. I don't like being behind the 8 ball. To that end, within the next few days I'll be finally sorting through the mounds of recipes that I've been saving to try and working out a 4-6 week meal plan for us. A friend did this and it sounds like the perfect idea. It will help keep us from throwing together the usual quick meals at the last minute, it will help us eat healthier, it will help us get more veggies into our diets and it will certainly help the big TIME factor. I'm really looking forward to the variety this will bring. I love to cook and can't wait to get back into it. If you have great crock pot recipes, please send them my way.

On the family front, we're also looking into some new activities opportunities for the kidlets and I'll be focusing on other things I want to get do more with/for them. Sunshine is into crafting in a big way and Santa brought lots of goodies for her to craft with. I need to make the time to do that with her. Our garden will get more attention this year and the kids are going to pick something to grow too.

I've been a cake decorator for 20+ year. Here are a few pictures of my work.
My life has been so insane these past 2 Decembers that I haven't had the time to make my own kids' birthday cakes. That isn't going to happen again this year. I can't change when they were born so our Decembers will always be really busy but if I can focus on getting the Christmas prep done earlier, I'll have the time to create the birthday cakes of their dreams.

Quilt blog land has so many wonderful people and this year I want to focus on being more in it. I think I want to perhaps participate in at least one QAL or BOM, but just one. I'm not going to join any bees this year because I'm already involved in one...The Primary Bee that I'm hosting for the young ones. I'm also going to try to participate in ongoing weekly and monthly linky parties more so that I can connect with more quilters, learn more from others and find new inspiration.

So what about my hosting plans for this year? Well I just don't know yet. Other than the ongoing Primary Bee, I have yet to decide all that I want to do this year. Absolutely YES I will be hosting the Kate Spain Charm Swap Round 2 (announcement and sign ups to start soon) but I'm not sure if there is enough interest to host a Modern Mini Mystery Round Robin 2014 or perhaps a Mini Mystery Round Robin with a theme such as Halloween or Christmas. I hope the masses will speak up and let me know what you'd like to see this year from me.

There are just a few more things I want to focus on this year.

The kids' life books and baby books are still languishing but I'm determined to make progress on this somehow. There are literally thousands of pictures printed and waiting and I'm going to make time to work on this each month.

We've been in this new house 2 3/4 years and I still have 3 rooms that aren't painted at all. In my defense, I'm waiting on hubs to get the wainscoting up in 2 of the rooms and it was only just prior to the holiday season that I found the right color for the 3rd room. The goal will be to have all of these completed before summer comes.

Quilting life wise, I hope to focus on expanding my online connections, to bring you more in the way of tutorials and giveaways and to that end I'll be contacting some companies about sponsorship opportunities. Hopefully this will turn into a Win Win situation for all of us. I'd love to do more product reviews. I'm looking forward to making some serious industry connections at MQX in April and I'm even considering trying to find a way to attend Quilt Market this spring in Pittsburgh (anyone need some booth assistance?). My ultimate goal is to leave my accounting life behind and make my quilting business my career.

So this list is plenty long enough and if you have read down this far, I thank you deeply. I knew that this would be a long post and that is why it has taken a couple of days to get it done but I really needed to get all of this out of my head and in writing so that I can really start focusing on my goals for this year. My condensed list for 2014 looks like this:

1. Penelope - learn to use her and get my own quilts done
2. MQX Quilt Festival New England - attend to learn and to make industry connections
3. Electric Quilt 7 - learn to use it to develop my patterns and get them published
4. Learn paper piecing
5. Exercise to get fit
6. Develop and use a 4-6 week meal plan
7. Craft and garden with the kids
8. Christmas prep done early, before Thanksgiving
9. Make my own kids' birthday cakes
10. Join 1 QAL or BOM
11. Participate in regular linky parties to connect more with others
12. Work on the kids' life books and scrapbooks
13. Paint 3 remaining rooms
14. Blog sponsors
15. Spring quilt market

How does that look? Too much? Maybe...but I've got to start somewhere and making a list is always the 1st thing that I do. No matter what your own plans are for 2014, I hope that you can make great huge strides this year to accomplish them.

When you hear the phrase What's Happening, do you think of that show from the late 70s? I do. Yes I am old enough to remember it but thankfully I look younger than I really am.

Anyways...to answer the question...not much really. And that is a bummer. Normal everyday life is busy as usual. Work. Laundry. Kids. Dirty dishes. The typical stuff that eats up creative time.

At least on Friday I was able to accomplish this!

I've been doing a little shopping lately for things I need to start using Penelope, my long arm machine. As soon as Joey's 100 Good Wishes quilt is completed, I get to start playing and practicing with my new toy. I thought that I'd show you some of the goodies that have arrived recently.

This iron rest, available at Keepsake Quilting, is something that I've wanted for a long time. I actually had it on my wish list for Christmas but hubby didn't pay attention to the notation that said where to buy it and he bought something else instead that was definitely not this.

Though the above iron rest wasn't a must have for long arm quilting, when I got an email from Keepsake Quilting for 20% off my order, I didn't hesitate any longer. Plus my sister Tina wanted a few things too, including one of these iron rests for herself, so we were able to split the shipping cost.

Back to the topic at hand.....I have a list of needs and wants for my long arm quilting. One of them is a new surge protector power strip. I certainly don't want anything to happen to my machine and with all the crazy thunderstorms we've been having lately, I'd rather be safe than sorry.

My long arm machine came with a few bobbins but not many so a decent supply was definitely required. Knowing that a typical quilt could take 5-10 bobbins to complete, having a measly few just wouldn't do. I got these for a good price from Finishing Touches Quilting Studio. I also ordered from FT a stash of laser light batteries so that I'll be able to use the laser for pantos. The amount I received should last me a really long time.

I also ordered a Towa bobbin gauge. This is one of those tools that is highly recommended since a great deal of the problems long arm quilters have with thread tension stems from the bobbin tension. Being able to have good bobbin tension right from the start no matter what thread I am using will make quilting so much easier and more enjoyable.

The other item in the picture, the 3/4" circle labels...well they are for labeling the bobbins. For my piecing thread spools, I use pipe cleaners to keep the bobbin with the correct spool but I don't want to do that with the bigger cones of thread since they will be in a drawer. I don't want to have to struggle to figure out if the thread on the bobbin matches a specific cone so I came up with this idea. The stickers fit on the top of the bobbin perfectly, can be easily removed before using and I can note the brand, weight and color number and then store them in my bobbin cases neatly.

Penelope doesn't come with a built in bobbin winder, since she was a stretched industrial Singer machine originally, so a stand alone bobbin winder was on my list. I bought this one off of Ebay from Sharp Sewing Supplies.

Besides getting a lot more thread, I'm pretty well set up now for my long arm quilting adventures.  The previous owner included a great deal of the items on my Wants and Needs list so I didn't have to purchase them separately. I do need supplemental lighting over the frame since all I have is the room's center light fixture now but hubs is designing and making something for me that will work perfectly. There are a few other items on my list that I'll let hubs and Santa get me for birthdays and Christmas...micro handles, Bowers lifts, an extension table for ruler work plus I'm sure there will be a few different sets of groovy boards and specialty rulers that I will add to the list over time.

Ta Da! My long arm machine now has a name.
Here and forever more she shall be known as

Penelope!

I just knew that the perfect name would come along for my new-to-me long arm machine and last night it did. While surfing through my blog reading, low and behold on someone's blog she posted about her new puppy Penelope. I tried to go back and find who's blog it was but I couldn't. Anyway the instant I saw that name I knew that my search was over.

According to babycenter.com it means "Weaver". Pretty appropriate I think. I'm using the more modern definition here, not the old one according to Wikipedia. I wanted a name that was a bit older in origin but still works for to today, a girly name that wasn't too weak or wimpy; she is a work horse of a machine after all.

It suits her perfectly. Now I don't think of the color White when I think about the word Penelope and although I'd love to paint her a better color that matches her new name, I'm not going to do that. I'll just know that in my eyes she is a as colorful as any Penelope can ever be.

Yes it makes me happy to finally have found the name for her. I wasn't stressing over it but it was a tad bit annoying that something just right hadn't popped into my head before now. My machines have to have names. They are an important part of my life, my partners in everything quilting related.

Many of you might remember what my studio looked like before the major overhaul and rearranging that has finally been completed. My sewing desk overlooked the big, bright window where I could watch the world go by, the bookshelf and my design wall were on the right side, my cutting table and the dresser where I store my stash were on the left. 

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day for a road trip. As I drove the skies cleared and the sun came out. The journey was definitely an enjoyable one and the scenery along the way was breathtaking. Lots of beautiful countryside and old stone houses to admire everywhere.

We arrived just about 11am, took a look at all the pieces we had to deal with and set to work loading it all into the Iron Tank, as hubby calls his vehicle (don't ask me why; I have no clue). Everything fit with plenty of room to spare. The poles didn't even hit the dashboard. It's good to know that I can fit 10 foot poles in here with no problem but 12 foot poles would have been another story entirely.