New Home Adventures

Our journey to New Jersey has been very interesting. The DH has wanted to go back to his home state for many years. A change in policy at DH's employer now enables him to work anywhere in the country. With his parents getting older and mine gone, being closer to them is more important than staying in MN.

So, last summer we started looking in earnest for a home in NJ, close to family, but not too close, with a master bedroom on the main floor and space for an office for him and a studio for me.

We found a floor plan we liked in an Active Adult Community and were going to build. But within a week the lot we wanted was sold. We were offered a completed house at a price we couldn't refuse and so began our move to NJ.
This is the house as it looked before we bought it. It has 3 bedrooms, 3 1/4 baths, a family room, office, sunroom and now a studio. It's much biger on the inside than it looks (3400 square feet).

It's a little more than hour from Manhattan, 20 minutes to the beach and 45 minutes to Philadelphia, 10 minutes to Great Adventure, smack dab in the middle of New Jersey.

The house came with builder grade (which means really cheap) carpet and light fixtures,black formica countertops in the kitchen and white contractor paint on all the walls.

Before picture of the Kitchen

The second story had a partially enclosed large loft are on one side, a smaller area in the middle and the third bedroom on the other side. Of course, the large loft was designated my studio.

This is the studio before it was enclosed. And on the right is the before view from the living room. While it is a big space, it's about half the size of my current studio.

This is a view from the back of the house with one of our neighbors - There is a flock of turkeys in the woods and a herd of white tail deer along with other critters and birds

It's taken me three weeks to get this posted. Between working on the house and Minnesota Quilters' show in June, I haven't been doing much quilting, though I did get to take a class from Susan Cleveland (the Piping Hot quilter).

Most of the work is done in NJ. The hardwood floors go in the end of February. And hopefully it won't take another three weeks to get the almost after pictures up.

The Movers come the first week of March to take 90% of our goods to NJ. We confident it will be warmer next month. Check back soon for more pictures.

Something is better than Nothing - 2007 in review

Wow, 2007 just flew by. It's been a very, very busy year. I joined the Board of Directors for Minnesota Quilters, Inc. and a month later was asked to co-chair the 2008 quilt show in Rochester MN.

A team of 6 members reviewed capabilities and companies to provide online membership management for MQ and online registration for the show and other events. We chose Memberclicks and are extremely happy with the decision.

I now have a co-director of communications (thank goodness). Her name is Cindy Wilson, aka My Flamingo, and has been a partner through the MQ's online adventures.

The Fairie Goddessmothers had a Flitter at the AQS show in Paducah and three FGMs and I drove down. It was great fun and wonderful to see old freinds and meet new ones.

Also in the Spring my DH discovered he could work remotely from anywhere in the US. So, in August, we bought a year-0ld home in Jackson, NJ, that had never been occupied. We are now in the middle of long distance redecorating, visiting the new place every 6-8 weeks. We plan on moving permanently next summer, after the show in Minnesota.

May and October found me at the Quilt Market in Salt Lake City and Houston making contacts for MQ. I also helped Shelly Stokes and Mary Brandt in the Cedar Canyon Textiles booth (the Paintstik company).

DH and I sailed with Princess cruises twice this year - in January to the Southern Caribbean and through the Panama Canal during Christmas.

With all that going on, I did manage to get quite a few UFOs finished and even a new quilt or two started and completed, or just started.

Here are a few:

Finished projects in 2007

This was for my Show Co-Chair, Kathleen Winters. She is a licensed therapist and we are in "Quilt Show Therapy". The center piece is from Block Party. The corners are the logo for the 2008 MQ show.


This was a round robin from the MQ Fall retreat in 2006


My FIL gave all his sons a set of his medals from his service in Korea. He was part of the First Marine Division.



Front and back of Twirling Tulips. Pattern by Linda M. Poole

Finally finished Modena, also by Linda M. Poole

Part of the winged wonders swaps with the FGMs. This owl actually ended up at Eco-Craft since his body is made from their corn-based batting.


This minis were donated to Ami Simms Alzheimer project. They were part of over 125 small quilts presented to her at the show in Paducah.

Funny runner started in a technique class.


Just a fun way to use up blue scraps

From Quilt Poetry.

The small fairies are iron on silhouettes from Creative Iron. I designed the one in the middle. The background are 9 patches from the first FGM Flitter swap.