Find Your Happy Place

Lauren leaves for Portland tomorrow after spending two weeks at home with "the Parents." I'll miss her. We've had a great time together spending 6-8 hours each day at the cabin quilting and for the past three days making floormats. The final floor mat, which is titled Find Your Happy Place, is too cute for words. Several months ago I found the most adorable fabric at Joann's (Yes, Joann's!) with yoga frogs on a black background with sayings, such as Breathe, Chill Out, Find Balance and Harmony, Lighten Up, Love, Calm, Relax, Peace, Visualize (you get the idea), and it included the phrase Find Your Happy Place ("Happy Place" is a phrase Lauren has been using since Berkeley days). I bought a few yards just because I loved it. Lauren saw it and also fell in love. We had no idea what we'd do with it until this week when we decided to make it into a floormat. Here's a pic of the finished mat...

And, here's a close-up of the bottom border that includes writing and a frog that extends from the middle of the mat onto the border...

So cute, I want one!

More Floormats

Remember the floormats we made last spring? Well, actually, the floormats Maria and I made? No one else was up for the challenge at the time. Although, Sally placed an order for one and as she's my BFF, I gave her the one I was making for myself. To date, I don't have one, but that's all about to change. Lauren came home for the October Stix Retreat and agreed to stay over a week to care for the critters while Verne and I spent that time in Connecticut. Hurricane Sandy nixed that plan, so Lauren and I have had a week together quilting and crafting. Over the past couple of days, we've made a cat mat for Lauren's pet, Mr. Ernest,  a red Kaffe Fassett mat for her backdoor (coordinates with the one I made her for her front door), one for a Christmas gift (don't want to ruin the surprise, so I can't say who), and one for me. She was surprised by the amount of work and time they take and now understands why I didn't "fill her order" sooner. 

Here's a pic of Mr. Ernest's new placemat to be used under his food and water...

Lauren's back door mat...

the Christmas gift for "she who must not be named"...

and, a pic of Lauren working on yet another mat...

Where'd October Go?

I started out calling this "Longarm Update" and shared all of my longarm accomplishments at each month-end. If I were to stick to that theme, I'd have NOTHING to report for October. Between finishing the ULS and preparing for the October retreat, I did little else last month. Maria arrived mid-month and we sewed/quilted the week before the Stix retreat (working on the Ultimate Market Bag prototypes). We've waited a long time to be able to spend a carefree week together and it was as much fun as we'd anticipated. Not altogether "carefree", though, as I was feeling much anxiety over the large group we expected for the retreat and our project, which up until that point was just an idea. With Maria's help, we had a large pile of painted fabrics and three bags completed by the time guests arrived. The cabin was sparkling clean, sewing tables arranged, and the woodshed stacked with firewood. Our retreat was a success. Overall, it was a productive month and that's a good thing! My pile of quilt tops to be longarmed has grown, though, and at this rate I have little chance of achieving my yearend goal of completing my backlog of projects to be quilted.