Sunday, January 22, 2012

More Applique

I spent the afternoon working on my Merry Merry Snowmen block today.  This is the first block of the quilt, so I need to prep the next one.  Nice to have the first one out of the way though.

Not much else going on today -- wind was blowing pretty hard this morning and it looks like it wants to sleet/drizzle/snow or something, but I can't tell if it has actually done anything.  It's too cold to go out to check! vbg

Gratitudes:  My girlfriend made me a cowl collar for Christmas and I love it -- it keeps my neck warm and helps to warm the rest of me.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Finished the Top

I found a red fat quarter in the stash today and used it for the inner border.  I think that sets it off better than just the wide pink border.  This is just a 25" square quilt.  I'll hang it in the little bath with the new shower curtain as soon as I get it quilted.

Gratitudes:
Tim plowed the long drive this morning and I got the short part by the garage snow-blown.  Hopefully we won't get the ice/drizzle they're calling for in the morning.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Another Snow (Sew) Day...

Have I mentioned lately that I hate snow?!  I do.  Can't figure out why I've stayed in this area all my life -- really dislike winter.
It's been coming down since 9:30 this morning and probably won't end til 9:30 tonight.  I've decided to let my neighbor plow the drive this time around -- it's really cold out there too.  He has a plow on the truck that used to be Bill's and offers to plow the drive for free -- can't beat that!

So, I decided it would be a perfect day for sewing.  Wednesday would have been Steve's 43rd birthday.  I met his widow for lunch and afterward I stopped at Acorn Quilts in Rockford to see what was new (definitely needed a pick-me-up!)  I found this fabric (it was brand new -- mine was the first cut off it!).

I bought enough to make a shower curtain for the little bath.  So, that's what I made this morning.  I still have my snowman quilts up in this bath, but it doesn't read obvious Valentine anyway, so I went ahead and hung it up.
In a week or two I'll hang a couple of heart/Valentine quilts in there.  One I know I have to add a hanging sleeve to and I need to dig out the other ones to see what I actually have.  I also started a little Valentine quilt to hang in there -- just 4 appliqued hearts.  I spent an hour trying to find a contrasting or coordinating fabric for the quilt to set off the border, but can't find anything in the stash, so right now the quilt is pretty boring.  I'll post a picture when I finish it --- I've only gotten one heart done so far.

Gratitudes:
My neighbor, Tim -- I would hate to have to clear the drive myself today.
I'm thankful I can stay in and sew on days like this.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Winter has arrived

We finally got "measurable snow" today -- so far about 5" or 6".  I spent an hour just before dark snowblowing -- it's supposed to get really windy so I wanted to get the first layer off to make it easier to clean the driveway on Saturday afternoon when it is finally finished!

I finished quilting my Henrietta Whiskers quilt -- this was a free bom from Bunny Hill Designs.  Kris and I each made the quilt.  I stitched the binding down today and washed it -- to hide all the little errors in the stitching -- not exactly easy stitching around applique pieces! 

I do love the quilt and will be quilting Kris' version for her soon.  We've just started doing another Bunny Hill Design -- Merry, Merry Snowmen -- another year long project!

Gratitudes:
After a couple of tries, I actually got the snowblower to start and stay running!  (Happiness is all relative you know!)
I really don't like snow, but am happy to be safe at home, with plenty of food, heat and enough wood in the garage to have a few fires before I have to go get another supply from the shed!

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Final Destination

The crock bench ended up in the kitchen between the two windows of the dining area.  I added a few books, but I think I'll probably add a few more.  Granted, it doesn't take much to make me happy, but this little bench with some of my crocks, makes me smile!
Gratitudes:
Babysitting Will and Mikey yesterday while Steph chaperoned AJ's field trip.  Got in some good grandma hugs!

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

January 4....

and I've already blown one new year's resolution!  The whole frugal, green thing.  But, I did stay with the green thing, because it's always green to buy primitive antiques, right?!  This is the blanket chest I bought today.  I sold my old coffee table and couch at the auction last spring, bought a new couch last July and have been looking for a chest to use as a coffee table for awhile.  And here it is.

The inside even has a shelf/tray that slides on the top.  I think I'm probably going to put some quilts in it.
I haven't filled it yet, but love that I have a space to put candles and small quilts on the top again.
And then I found this little bookshelf (same shop) and I put it in my library (I also sold the four big bookcases I had in the library at the auction).  I haven't decided for sure what I'm going to put on it, but the rings indicate to me that this was a crock stand, so I put a couple of my crocks on it.  I love old crocks and collect them, so I could probably fill it with crocks, but I think I might add a couple of old hard bound books with the crocks.  Haven't quite decided yet, so I'll play with it and try different things.  I adore primitives, so this little shelf just made my day!
So, even though I already broke one of my resolutions, I'll start over in my resolve to spend less (especially since I'll be pinching pennies til the end of the month now! vbg :-))

Gratitudes:
Finding treasures and being able to buy them when I want.
Having a friend with a Suburban that likes to antique shop with me!  Thanks Kris!

Monday, January 02, 2012

The Depression Quilt

My to-do list was rather long today, but I got most things done -- and the day isn't over so there's still hope :-)!  It's my house cleaning day and laundry day.  I try to get everything done in one day so I can play the rest of the week!

A couple of weeks before Christmas I turned a corner and got hit right in the face with a bout of depression.  Depression is a really ugly thing -- lots of dark thoughts that you don't have any control over; a feeling of overwhelming sadness; a feeling of what's the point anyway.  I knew what it was immediately, so I decided to try to work my way out of it -- it started on a Thursday.  I was working on an old project that I consider ugly at the time and really tedious.  So, I pulled out the Winter issue of Primitive Quilts magazine, set aside the ugly quilt and cut and started piecing the Country Christmas quilt in the magazine.  I even went to my favorite quilt shop and bought some border fabric for it.  In a matter of a couple of days, I finished the quilt, and more importantly, worked myself right out of the bout of depression.  I'm not saying this is what you should do if it happens to you -- clinical depression really needs to be treated by a doctor and if it had lasted any longer, I would have made an appointment. 
This quilt is actually quilted and bound and I'm considering calling it the Depression Quilt, but maybe not!  I really love it -- it's only 48" x 48", but that's a good size for throwing on the couch or on the kitchen table!  The picture was taken after piecing, but before I quilted it.
I went back to the ugly quilt and finished it afterwards.  It was a mystery quilt I didn't want to do to begin with, but Kris cut half the pieces for me last summer and by the time I pieced them into blocks and made another large amount of blocks for it, I figured I had too much time invested in it not to finish it!  You may or may not see a picture of it sometime -- the top is done but not quilted.

Gratitudes:
I'm thankful for my stash and for the Primitive quilts magazines -- love all their patterns.  It was nice to be able to pull fabrics from the stash on a moment's notice and start piecing.
And, I'm grateful that my one and only bout of depression only lasted a few days.

Sunday, January 01, 2012

Happy New Year!

And, it WILL be a Happy New Year! I insist
I started thinking about my resolutions/goals for the new year and I realized that I stopped making lists sometime this past year.  I'm truly a list maker and I find that I really accomplish things when I write them down, but when I don't I'm at sixes and sevens all day -- going from one thing to another and never getting anything done or always having that feeling that I should have done something and I don't remember what it was!  So, yesterday I made a short list of things I needed to get done:

And of the measly four things on the list, I only actually accomplished two of them!  But, it's a start getting back to a normal routine for me.  My friend Kris and I write a quilting newsletter for a few of our friends -- the past few times, she's done all the content and I do the editing.  Every once in a while I actually contribute something besides the editing, but not lately.  Hopefully next issue will be different.  But, I did work on the newsletter yesterday and will be sending it out later today.

I don't have humidifiers on my furnaces, so have room/house ones that need to be refilled constantly -- and yesterday I blew that job off!  I did, however fill them after church today, so I can still cross that off the list.  I did take down Christmas yesterday -- but I didn't put up a lot of Christmas, so here's the stuff I took down:
I do have lots of snowman quilts and a few Christmas quilts that I can leave up for a few more days.  The snowman quilts will stay up until I exchange them for Valentine quilts.  The other part of that chore was to clean out one of the Rubbermaid bins I keep my decorations in and sort the things again by seasons and put this stuff away -- that didn't get accomplished yesterday, so it'll go on tomorrow's list!

That'll be another resolution on the list -- sort all the bins and put them away -- a little at a time.  I'm not going to make myself crazy this year trying to do everything and accomplishing nothing.

This new year - 2012 - is going to be a good one because I'm going to give myself permission to take the time to smell the flowers.  I want to spend more quality time with my grandkids and if the house gets dirty, it'll keep til I get around to it!

Gratitudes:
Good friends, Squire and Cindy took me out for dinner last night -- lovely meal, good glass of wine and great friends.  And, we were home by 7 pm!  My kind of New Year's Eve celebration!
My church family -- a great bunch of people that really care about me, as I do them.