Saturday report on the "Friday Night Sew In"

We did some sewing .....



Some pressing (at which time we decided we prefer pressing seams open instead of to either side ..... it seemed to help those pesky seams to match up better ... at least it does here at MBIAJ!)


Which all led to this pieced background (to which the MBIAJ Sewing/Quilting Dept plans to slap on some appliques hopefully in the not too distant future ....)





In addition to the previously mentioned pieced background, the MBIAJ Sewing Dept , being the ball of fire that they are, also spent a few minutes of the "Friday Night Sew In" taking a few more stitches on this long lingering project. We're hoping to increase our productivity over the next month now that the MBIAJ Time Management Dept has implemented our new "15 Minutes a Day Campaign". Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

....And thank you Miss Kitty for your report. We will be back soon!

Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Friday Night Sew In and the "15 Minute a Day Campaign"

Happy snowy Friday Blogland neighborhood! (Don't those snow topped porch posts look like cupcakes with icing on them!)
ANYHOW .... it's COLD COLD COLD outside, so we here at MBIAJ Headquarters decided to...



....put a big pot of chicken soup on , fire up the sewing machine and join in on this month's ....









Friday Night Sew In which actually goes well with our MBIAJ Time Management Dept's 15 Minutes a Day (or most/some days) Campaign
The Time Management Dept is hoping the MBIAJ Sewing Dept can rack up an accumulation of 15 minute time slots full of sewing tonight ! Here's their report on what has been accomplished so far this past week in 15 minutes/day :



Day #1: traced applique shapes onto fusible web and fused them onto fabric






Day #2: cut out half of the applique pieces (OK, so we're slow cutters)












Day #3: cut out the rest of the applique pieces (more slow cutting.....)














Day #4: Figured out measurements and cut out background pieces


OK .... so the MBIAJ Time Management Dept was fairly pleased with the accumulation of progress made over 4 days of just 15 minutes a day working on this project (OK, we're slower than molasses in January, but it IS January and the MBIAJ Sewing Dept is farther along on this project than if they hadn't at least squeezed in those 15 minutes a day!) Now to just keep it up!!!:) (oh, and if you're thinking that the above project looks like a Christmas project, it is ..... we like to think of it as early for next year instead of what it really is..... late for this year!)

OK ..... the soup is done and the sewing machine is fired up !!! On to the Friday Night Sew In ....... Hang onto your hats ... here we GO !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Be back tomorrow with a report !

Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

15 MINUTES !!!!

Good Sunday morning Blogland Neighborhood! Well, the MBIAJ Time Management Dept has been working on a new plan this past week to try and help put some kind of structure into what typically ends up being a day like this poor lady in this You Tube video is having....(turn off my music on the sidebar over there ---> by clicking on the middle button with the 2 parallel lines so you can hear the video).....




Look familiar ? (humor us and say it does so we don't feel even more disorganized, unproductive, and inadequate than we already do after we watch Martha Stewart or read some of the blogs written by the I don't know how the heck they do it young mothers of 2 - 8 kids who have cute, cute blogs and tons of finished GORGEOUS quilts and other BEAUTIFUL projects posted every couple of days it seems!!! When the Moonbeams Boys were little, I was just thrilled to get in the shower by 6pm and that the laundry was kind of done and there was a sort of hot meal on the table somewhere before midnight every day (and that was on my day off ...it was worse on the days I worked!) .... oh, I tried to sew ... but it just didn't fit into my day or night. And now that the boys are big boys (college and a senior in high school) you'd think the situation would be better .... but, it's not .... the day job has increasingly gotten more time consuming (or I've just gotten more burned out and SLOWERRRRrrrrrr......)

ANYHOW, in an attempt to increase productivity around here the MBIAJ Time Management Dept has come up with their....



"15 Minutes a Day" ....













..."Just 15 Minutes a Day Campaign" !!!! Yes .... they feel that (like exercise) we should be able to scrape together just 15 meesly litte minutes per day (or most days?) to make a teensy tiny bit of progress on a sewing/quilting project! (hopefully this won't involve doing some hand stitching while sitting on the throne ). AND, over time (possibly a long time) projects WILL get DONE !!!! So, that's our plan ..... anybody else find themselves in the same predicament and want to join in? We can come up with a catchy group name like "15 Minute Marvels" and a button and all that stuff that the MBIAJ Blogging Dept hasn't had time to figure out yet (maybe in one of the "15 Minutes a Day" time slots they can work on it) .... and we can post about it on the weekends to show how 15 minutes a day (or most days) can add up to actually finishing something in this milleneum !!!

Be back soon with our 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 + 15 = 90 minutes (or less) by the end of the week update ....

(P.S. thanks to Pat Sloan who found that funny You Tube video first and posted it on Facebook)

Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Color oh Color ..... where fore art thou Color ?????

Good winter morning Blogland Neighborhood. Sitting at the window seat having some nice hot oatmeal this morning looking out at a chilly backyard (looks like it was a rough morning at the birdfeeder .... the wind must have blown the birdfeeder sideways and dumped the birdseed on the ground ... now the birdies are digging around for it .... we'll have to have the MBIAJ Grounds Keeper fix that today ...). Anyway, blustery January mornings like this have us craving some COLOR !!!!









We found lots in the new Feb issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine and also ....







.....these SNEAKERS !!!! Aren't they spiffy !!!!!!! Those would be just the thing to dance around the kitchen in to chase away the January blahs !!!!!! And speaking of "I LOVE IT " color .... LOOK at ....



....THIS !!!! This is a box that was filled to the brim with all kinds of goodies from "Harry and David" ... the goodies were delish, but even better is THE BOX !!!!



.....OMG !!! The MBIAJ Drawing and Sewing Depts are in LOVE with the colors and cute drawings !!! They are wishing it was fabric instead of a box !!! They would totally buy many yards to play with !!!!!

Well, enough day dreaming about spring time colors ... time to put our snowsuits on and trudge out to the car to work ....

Be back soon! (P.S the MBIAJ Time Management Dept is working on a new strategy to try out this year .... they'll be back to tell you about it .... as soon as they iron out the kinks .... and as soon as they have time !)

Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Winter Sunset

Happy winter weekend Blogland Neighborhood! Can't believe we're already a week into the new year! Well, we here at MBIAJ Headquarters are TRYING to feel hopefull for the New Year .... a clean slate .... new possibilities.... etc, etc, etc .... and we plan to get around to all that as soon as we get Christmas put away (target date: Feb 15th, 2011) AND get our heads above water with that ever present , suffocating pile of paperwork that goes with the day job ....UGH!!!! (New Year's Goal #1: come up with a different day job !!!!!). Yes, we know, that's been the goal every year for about the past 28 years AT LEAST (stuck in a rut ?!?!??? DEFINATELY!!) BUT, this year we're determined .... DETERMINED (we're shouting that ... like Scarlet O'Hara shaking her fist at the sky declaring that she will never go hungry again) to do things differently this year so we have more time to get some of our drawings/designs OFF those little pieces of paper and made into fun stuff and submit those designs/patterns to some magazines and or pattern publishers.... we even have a friend/stunt quilter waiting in the wings to help get this show on the road! (I know right now she's sitting at her house drumming her fingers on the table and tapping, tapping her foot waiting and waiting for me to finish my part of Project #1 so I can hand it off to her to finish up .... )

OK, back to the paperwork pile so we can get to sewing Project #1 before the weekend is completely down the drain!! We'll keep you posted !!

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)