Memorial Day Weekend

It is the time of year that we spend time thinking of those who have gone before us.  Many relatives and friends of mine have passed and are heavy on my heart.  I am sure you have some to.

With the thoughts of our departed ones, I have chosen to spend my weekend with friends and family celebrating and rejoicing in the time we had with those in our past.

Grandma Schlagel shared in my joy of quilting and painting, inspiring me without me knowing it.  Grandma Mema loved to knit and crochet, also things I love to do.  My father, Bill, I do not remember, however, I am sure his talents, interests and skills are with me in some way.  My mother-in-law Betty loved everything.  She has  been very deeply missed by us all.  I even have been thinking of my cats Charmin and Tinkerbell (really Katies cat).  How I miss their company.

I sure wish they all could see what we are doing now. I think they would be as excited as we are to start our new venture and have fun with all the wonderful people we get to experience.

With this in mind, spend your weekend, like mine, with the ones you love.  If you can't, call them, email them, write them or think quietly of the fun you had with them.

Thinking of all of you dearly
Melissa

Home, Home on the Range.....

We might have a home this week!  Last Wednesday, May 7th, we put in 2 letters of intent on two separate locations.  One in a NEW location with a building that is BRAND NEW and will need walls etc., the other, older needing major redo.  Both are in active areas, but our first choice is the new location.  We were told the company who owns the new location would take up to 14 days to answer us (we requested they answer in 10).  The older location would supposedly answer us by Monday May 10th.  By Thursday morning, May 8th, we were notified that the newer location accepted our letter of intent as is and would have a lease to us by next week.  The contractor we wanted to use can not fit us in for June, but our Broker has found us another one he recommends.  We are meeting with the contractor Tuesday afternoon in the new location and hope to have a bid from him soon thereafter.  We have a construction allowance to finish the location and think it is sufficient to cover all the construction.  As soon as we have a signed lease (from either location) we will put pics and an address up so everyone knows where we will be.  This is killing me not to know where we will be!  I hope we know soon.

Website is up!

Pat has worked very hard to get our website set up.  For now there is a temporary page you can all see at: 

the-sewingcircle.com 

He will be expanding this site as he can.  If you have any ideas for the site, please email:
info@the-sewingcircle.com

I have been learning Edge to Edge quilting with Bella and have completed 2 lap quilts (whole cloth top and bottom to practice.)  I will put pics up of the next ones as these 2 don't show the thread well.
Woopeee!

Learning to quilt with Friends!

I ran out of space in the last blog to share a little about the learning we are all doing on Bella.  I have been working through the training manual and Dee has started watching the videos.  We have so much to learn.  So, the day Bella was set up, we were ready for some training.  Unfortunately it took longer to set it up than Steve was used to.  So, we got just a little bit of training.  Best part is that many of my friends can learn with me.....all The Sewing Circle folks and a few that have some experience already.  Bonnie Colona lives in Denver now and has the same machine, so she came to join in the initial training and is a great resource when I get stuck...She is awesome.

Bonnie is training me how to load the fabric and baste them together (we are "floating" the top 2 layers.)

Pat thinks I make funny faces when I am quilting.  Probably true, but certainly fun!

Bonnie was wonderful helping learn, she even had time to rest...

So, I am off today to get  Bella working - might even put on a real quilt....