Summer Quilting....

Good thing about having an empty studio is having plenty of room to prep quilts....

We have an Open House to promote our house sale this weekend, and I plan to keep my long-arm up until our house does sell. With that said, I plan to use my summer sew time to quilt the two charity quilts I have committed to and the few finished tops I do have before I take down my long-arm for an upcoming extended period of time. I did finish quilting my Anne Downs yesterday and just need to bind it before I share it here. I'm also hoping to finish sewing my Lori Holt Bee Happy top as it would be perfect to hang in the laundry room of our new home and I'd like to create a lap quilt for my mom before Lizzie goes into deep hibernation. 

Honestly, this is really the first time in our downsizing process that I find myself wondering how much I'll miss the convenience of my studio? Time will tell, as I'm sure I will in some ways. But in others, I continue to find myself embracing this transformation in my life. Stay tuned!

And for those of you still hanging on with me...we count our change July 6th!

Another Year Older....

...and got to celebrate it a little early when our two favorite little guys visited!

That is our little guy's "CHEESE" smile and big brother's "Smile nice for the camera" grin" as I begged him to "Just do one nice smile for Meme bud." LOL!! I  really didn't want one of his "funny" faces he humorously enjoys flashing in practically every picture taken lately!  Hard to believe he starts kinder in the Fall! Anyhooo.....Celebrating 54 couldn't get any better than this! 

Getting It Done!

I wasn't sure I'd really be able to get my studio from THIS to this:

But BAM! I did!!! And now.....eighty percent of it is in storage: 

With the only thing left standing being my long-arm:

The downsizing process continues to be rejuvenating for me in spirit.

So for any of you thinking about it tackling it yourself....it's been refreshing and rejuvenating. 

It's taken me eight months to get to where I am now and I'm loving the simplicity of having less.

As for the ol' blog here....I'm playing with the idea of an entirely new blog once we've sold our current home and moved into our much smaller home. Some of you have also asked about an eye-spy swap this summer. I haven't decided yet...but will soon! (Tomorrow is the last day of school....so time will slow down a little bit.) ANDDDD our Annual Piggy Bank Challenge will be on July 6th. So those of you involved in that, mark your calendar! Thinking of all of you and sending smiles your way.

A Productive Mess?

Hello! Hello!! Downsizing has consumed most of my free time over the past six months. 

After yard sales, trips to make donations, craigslist sales and passing things on to our daughter, most the rooms in our home are now empty and the house literally echos. LOL!

 All's I have left  to pack is the sewing studio...and right now it's a mess!

A productive mess...as I'm literally going through everything. Craft supplies I haven't used in years went in the yard sale. Fabric I don't like anymore, gone.

And it really is hard to sew when when my sewing area looks like this:

The long-arm looks like this:

And boxes fill most the floor space.

At times, the process of downsizing my sewing studio has felt overwhelming. Sometimes, even emotional when past memories surface. And sometimes I have found myself indecisive. But in the end, it's turning into a cleansing process that finds me actually looking forward to having a smaller space.
 Less is starting to feel good....does that make sense?

I've kept out my wool creative stitching and hope to get two donations quilts finished and three of my own quilt tops turned into a quilt before we sell our house and I temporarily pack up my long-arm. 

My new space will be a simple 10'x11' room:

 I'm already daydreaming of how I'll decorate and set up my new space.

And in the future, I can always decrease the length of the poles on my long-arm and set it up.

But for now, I like the simplicity. I'm actually enjoying the process....

and hey, I'll have plenty of quilts set aside to bind as I do love binding!

Thanks to those of you who have emailed me to touch base and to let me know my blog has been missed. That seriously, is just the nicest compliment. Thank you!!

Lizzi is hibernating.....

Changes in my job this year; 

Changes in my husband's work schedule; find my long-arm left in hibernation. 

The changes are all pretty exciting really.

 At work, I love the independence and freedom in my job as a mentor and reading specialist. I certainly do not have to worry about getting my 10,000 steps in each day.  I seem to always be on the go as I flutter between classrooms. Just today I started the morning giving a sixth grade lesson and ended it working with our kinders as they learn to decode and read. It's just so awesome to be a part of their learning process.

At home, the month of March will find hubby and I getting back to working the same Monday through Friday schedule for the first time in F O R E V E R!! Like we are talking so long we can't even remember WHEN we did share the same work schedule in the past ten years. But not anymore!!! We're so excited about the idea of being able to enjoy full weekends together and the opportunities that this will open for us to be more active together. Funny how one change dominoes into so many others. You know, like when the bedsheets get changed, laundry gets done and house gets cleaned...that kind of fun stuff.

With that said, that leaves me again, with not much to share on the ol' quilting blog here. (I'm so sorry) I AM enjoying my hand stitching as I work on my Sue Spargo Forest of Trees BOM. I find myself stitching every night and continuously looking forward to playing with all those creative stitches! Of course, I have plenty of quilts awaiting to be finished, including two for the Carolina Quilt Project. (I haven't forgot Carole....smiles!) But for now, I just wanted to drop in to let ya know...my life's just in transition. A good transition for sure. But one that finds me taking a break from quilting once again. I'm sure once Summer rolls around, Lizzi will be out of hibernation and I'll find myself getting those projects done lickety split! Until then, I promise to drop in to share updates of the grands, our weekend adventures, along with some slow stitching every now and then.