Getting in the mood to sew

Argh! I can't seem to motivate myself to sew! I tell myself I'm going to go home from work and sew this or that. Then I get home and after making dinner and doing laundry and whatever else has to be done, all I want to do is collapse on the couch.

I did start on the pet mats. I put five of them together. They need to be quilted. I want to do that on the industrial singer, so that's been my stalling point. Haven't gotten upstairs to work on them.

On one of the blogs I recently read was the story of how this gal met her husband. Since I don't have much news to report on sewing, I can at least relate a bit of ancient history. I met my husband in May of 1985 at a mutual friends house party. I was actually sitting on the couch talking to his brother, when my future husband knocked on the front door. Someone had accidentally locked the door, so I got up since I was closest to the door to let him in. I remember opening the door and feeling this rush that almost knocked me over. I was tongue tied (a small miracle since I was/am quite a chatterbox). We didn't start dating right away, because I was trying to make up my mind if I liked his brother or not. Didn't date the brother, and then in July of that year my future husband and I got together and the rest is history.

I do want to back this story up a little. Some of you readers are going to scoff at this next part, but I'm adding it anyway. In February of 1985 a friend and I went to see a psychic. She had an office on Michigan Avenue in Chicago and was well respected. She had a radio show on one of the local news channels and helped the police in missing persons cases. My friend and I had never gone to a psychic before and this was just a fun thing we were going to do. Well, we had our readings that day, and also had audio tape recordings of them made. I laughingly told my friend that the psychic told me I would meet the man I was going to marry in May. Then promptly forgot about the reading and the tape.

After my husband to be and I had been together for almost a year, he proposed to me. I said yes, obviously. As wedding plans progressed, I was cleaning out a drawer and came across the tape recording of the reading. I laughingly put it in the tape player and was listening to it, when she got to the part about meeting the man I would marry in May. I laughed, because we didn't start dating until July, so I pooh poohed it all. My fiance walked in the room and I asked him what month we met. He immediately says "we met in May". I asked how he can be so positive of that and he told me we met a couple days after his birthday, which is in the beginning of May.

To this day, 20+ years later, I have not gone for another psychic reading. If I were to go to one that was reputable and he/she told me something bad, I would probably think that they were right and be upset. On the flip side, if they were wrong, I would still have thought the bad things were going to happen and been miserable for nothing.

Pet Project

I have always been a pack rat. It is difficult for me to throw anything away. Well, with my fabric stash, this hasn't been a bad thing, on the whole, but I have a lot of fabric that I would never use in a quilt. Most of this fabric was included in boxes I was given or had purchased at garage sales.

Yesterday I called the local animal shelter, Adopt A Pet, and asked if they needed any blankets for the bottoms of some of the cages. They said yes and told me what size to make them. When I got home from work I pulled out some ugly fabrics and cut enough to make five mats while I was cooking supper. I am going to put a piece of heavy fabric in the middle as a batting. I think I'll use the industrial Singer to free motion quilt them. That will be good practice for me. The animals won't care what the stitching looks like, or what the fabrics look like.

This project may also jump start me into sewing again. I know it was because of the heat that I didn't do much sewing, but it's starting to cool off some and I'm anxious to be doing some more sewing. I have to get darling daughter's graduation quilt done soon.

We had a nice vacation. I made some yo-yo's during the car rides and while at the campsite. It was mindless sewing, but satisfying because I was doing something, at least. I went to the Nolting representative to see the long arm machines. The reps were really really nice. They let me try the Fun Quilter and two of the industrial long arms. I don't think there is much room for me as a representative in this area. I do, however, really want a long arm machine. I have wanted one for quite a while. Since they are expensive, I don't see myself owning one in the near future, but it's something to dream about.