Hopeful.......

Lots of things have been going on the last couple of weeks. Two weekends ago I went to Austin to visit longtime friends, Pam & George, that are living there now. George was the Pastor of Music at my church in Phoenix for over 20 yrs. I've been privaledged to know them and to call them friends for over 22 years now. My two days down there was a time of refreshment and I was richly spoiled by them. =) It won't be another 2 yrs before I make another trip down to see them.

On the way back to N. TX where home is on Monday 2/9, I stopped off by other friends to deliver some stuff and ended up having dinner with them and their 3 kids. Another rich time of friendship that I'm thankful for.

The next day, I went to two different job fairs. With the economy what it is these days, both were overwhelmed with the number of people that showed up for them. The first, put on by Dice.com, was not well organized and in a room much too small for the number of people that showed up. The second one. put on by Lockheed Martin, was well organized and moved smoothly. My resume was pulled for a call back for an in-person interview. That was supposed to have happened some time this week. The first one, which I almost didn't attend, has resulted in a phone interview with Interstate Batteries that was represented at the job fair. The phone interview was yesterday, and has resulted in me being scheduled for an in-person interview on Monday, 2/23. Both opportunities are for permanent positions and would be good ones to get. Lord willing I will do well in the interview on Monday, and if it is his will that I would get a job offer from the company.

Meanwhile, the house continues to be up for sale. We've dropped the price several times, but still only three people have looked at it. I've been using the time to really go through things and get rid of things that I don't use/need and don't want to have to pack up and move and/or store again. Things like a mini stereo system that had been packed for 3 yrs, and not used for several yrs prior to packing to move into the house in Phoenix. Didn't think I'd really miss it if it was gone........... Have pulled out a bunch of stuff that I'm going to work on listing on eBay this weekend as well. Hopefully it will sell 'cause I could use the money. Have also listed a bunch of quilt stuff for sale on a yahoo list that I'm on.

Have a bunch of quilts I'd love to sell.........but have been struggling to know where to list them. Etsy is one option, but I haven't sat down and figured out how to list things on it. Anyone else have any good ideas on where to list things like my quilts and quilted postcards for sale?

Gratitudes -
1. That I have a job interview scheduled for this coming Monday.
2. For the long-time friends that God has placed in my life - they are a blessing to me.

The Angels are Done, The Angels are Done....

.....And with that allusion to Paul Revere's ride, I am happy to say that I was able to finish using up the remainder of the angel swap blocks that I had. Pictures are below. I'm going to keep one of the quilt tops as a headstart on the next time I need a gift for a baby girl, but the rest will be going to Sunshine Quilts.

Gratitudes:
1. For a mortgage company that is willing to work with me, even though they are aggressive in pursuing foreclosure.
2. For a God who has a plan for my life and is not surprised by anything that happens.

Finished UFO

Just after the first of this year, when I finally got home from Phoenix and my trip out there, I found out that I needed a baby gift for a shower later in the month of January. Because it was easiest, I finished up a UFO. I had started working on the border for this panel and never finished. But was perfect for the new baby. =) Now to decide what UFO to work on next.....

Gratitudes -

1. The weather has been lovely here in North Tx after last weeks ice storm.

2. Last week was a good week for resume submittals.

Postcards for Sale

One of the things I'm hoping to do this year is to be able to start selling some of the things I make, such as the quilted postcards that I make. I've finished off 7 this week that I will be putting up on Ebay this weekend. I've added a couple of pictures of them below. Let me know what you think of them.

Angel UFO's

One of my oldest UFO's is a set of 12" swap blocks from a year-long swap back in 1998. For the most part these blocks have lanquished at the bottom of whatever tote I happened to be storing my umpteen sets of swap blocks in at the time. One of my goals this year is to work on finishing up my UFO's and I decided to start with these blocks. Most of these will be donated to either American Heros or Sunshine Quilts, so for me these are finished. At this point, one of the quilt tops I'll be keeping for a future baby gift.

Step one was to count the blocks and then put them into groups that went together. I counted 57 blocks, and ended up with 9 different piles of blocks. A couple of the piles I added some other blocks too to round out the numbers of blocks going into the quilts. Over the last ten days I have managed to finish 5 of the quilt tops. The last one was finished at about 2:30 am this morning and the last couple of rows drove me nuts......not only did i have to frog-stitch one whole row thanks to sewing it on upside down. But the machine I was working on decided to stop working right. So i have to try to fix it now. THank goodness for the old kenmore.........maybe it's time to pull out the bernina that I have tucked away and start using it.....

At any rate here are pics of the 5 quilt tops I've finished so far, click on the pics to see a larger view of the quilts.



















Gratitudes -

1. Multiple sewing machines that mean I almost always have a machine to sew on.
2. Lovely weather this weekend after the ice storm earlier in the week.

Catching up and Finished UFO's

I've been way too quiet lately as I've been dealing with continued unemployment and the job hunt as I try to find a job as an IT Business Analyst. Not to mention trying to sell my house in a depressed housing market. None of which is fun. Thankfully I do know that no matter what God will provide all I need according to His will - including the next job and a buyer for this house.

Getting the house back on the market has meant that i have been decluttering it and getting rid of a lot of stuff that I moved out here and never had time to deal with before. Lots of stuff has been given away on Freecycle. And I'm still pulling more stuff to be gotten rid of. Have a pile of boxes in the garage that are already packed and out the house. Need to do more so that I can declutter more. Have been thinking about what else I'd get rid of in the way of furniture if I end up having to put a lot of this into storage which is a very real possibility or even have to down size. Hard to believe but most of what is in my 3000+ sq foot house was in my little bitty 800 sq ft apartment just a couple of years ago.

Meanwhile, to help keep the stress level down I've been quilting a lot. I'm in a crazy quilt round robin with 4 friends. I finished up what I added to the first one I worked on this week. The picture below shows the work I added to her block.

I also put together a table topper that is going to be a BD present for one of my best friends. Her BD is in April so I won't post a picture of it till then. Am also planning on writing a pattern for it and submitting it to see if I can get it published in a quilt magazine. I've also been working on getting some of the many swap blocks I've had stashed away for years into quilt tops. I'll post in the next post about these.

Gratitudes -

1. That I know God is a loving God and will always supply my needs, in spite of how my circumstances appear to me.

2. That there has been a lot of activity in the job search this past week.