This is just a picture of one of my favorite applique quilts, an All In One quilt done on the Statler, and two pillows done on the Statler. The quilt on the couch is heavily quilted. I'm in two clubs: a Skill Builders (SB) Club taught by Joan Knight and Joyce Lundrigan - all projects done in Creative Studio 7.1 on the Statler Stitcher (the computerized part of my Gammill Longarm); And All-In-One Club (AIO) offered by Joyce Lundrigan of Methodist Hill Quilts - she gives us the pattern to piece the quilt and then all the patterns to quilt it with detailed instructions. If anyone has the Statler, I recommend both of these clubs. It's just amazing what you can do with the machine!
Anyway, I'm not doing resolutions this year. I have some health issues (damn Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm is still leaking). Plan is to wait and watch for another 6 months and have another ct scan with contrast and hopefully the leaks will close themselves. I've already had stents put in two years ago and this past August, had coils put in to stop another leak.
So, anyway - I decided it was time to start planning for the next 5 years! Now that the homeless quilts are finished, I'm hoping to get caught up on my own stuff. So I have a plan for 2020 to finish one big applique quilt - the size of the one in the picture. I have quite a few hand applique quilts in the queue, but now I'm going to concentrate on finishing and some of them will not be finished at all because I'm tired of them. I also want to piece and quilt all the quilt kits I have lying around - sometimes I buy kits at quilt shows or on a shop hop. I also buy fq's alot and have way too many of them - so hope to piece some quilts using them up - but not necessarily in 2020!
I'm a beginner knitter, so I'm setting a goal to make 12 kids hats for next years hat and mitten tree at church.
My 5 year plan also includes having hardwood floors installed next year; a new deck in maybe 3 years and a new car in 3 years - I'll give my car to my grandson, Will, who will be 16 in 2023. Grandson AJ, will be 16 next year, but he's getting his other grandfather's old truck!
I also have goals/a plan for other areas of my life - health, etc. I've written them down and plan to keep them close at hand over the next 5 years! I'm sure I'll be adding to them.
I've challenged my daughter to a no-spend month of January (she's protesting because her birthday is Jan. 10!). Only buy groceries or food. No online shopping! No slipping in clothes or toys when you go to Walmart to pick up prescriptions! And I won't be buying anything at the quilt store!
Until next time....blessings.
Finished Homeless Quilt No. 470 yesterday!
Went to lunch with my daughter to celebrate! (A real bonus for moving up to WI - I actually get alone time with her!)
So, today, I cleaned the longarm, recalibrated her, ran the oil routine, and put in a new needle. She is ready to go, but I'm giving her some rest (and myself!).
Then I spent the rest of the day putting the two borders on this quilt. It's 80 x 80, so my design wall is sorely lacking, but the top is finished. I need to piece the backing and cut binding. I'll do that sometime in the next week or so. Tomorrow is another applique day!
The table in front of the quilt is my very heavy antique table that came from a printing company in Mt. Morris, IL - not far from where I lived in Byron, IL. I love that table! It has a shelf under the table and a couple of drawers and it's on casters (now that it's been moved a couple of times!).
All in all, a very productive day.
Until next time.....Blessings.
Five down, two to go! That is, we had 14 tops to finish after we gave the Rescue Mission the finished ones. We have 7 all done, and this week I quilted 5 more, so only 2 more to quilt. Nancy will not be happy with me when I bring her the 5 to bind tomorrow, but we will both be happy to be done with this project so we can catch up on our own things!
And, yesterday I worked on another Christmas tradition: Watching Die Hard while wrapping gifts! LOL My daughter and I used to watch together, but she's way too busy nowadays, and I don't have that many to wrap anymore, so I did them yesterday!
In the evening I watched The Great Escape - my all time favorite movie - true story of WWII - and who doesn't love Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Charles Bronson to name a few of the all star cast!
And, I'm making progress on my next knitted hat, so that's great too!
Until next time....blessings.
I still have 6 more quilts for the homeless to do, but I'm also working on knitting hats for the hat and mitten tree at church. They go to neighborhood schools for those in need. And I just finished this one. I love knitting in the round, but hate the decreasing at the crown! And I'm a very slow knitter, so planning to try to get 1 a month done for next year. I have 4 done for this year and hope to get another one done yet.
I quilted one of the homeless quilts today, so only 6 more. We'll have an additional 14 to give away this year, bringing the total to 470 over the past 6 or so years.
Been having some issues with my plow people, so sent their final check and canceled the contract. I'll be clearing my own drive this winter. They tried to charge me $15 to put salt down -- 30 lbs of salt - on my normal size driveway and I can't seem to get it thru their heads that 5 handfuls of salt does not weigh 30 lbs. Its been a frustrating few days.
Until next time.....blessings.
Yesterday our church group donated another 51 quilts for the homeless to the Rockford Rescue Mission:
I know there are groups that donate quilts and clothes, etc worldwide, but I'm more inclined to donate locally -- the need is great.
We have donated 456 quilts so far over the years to all local organizations. We gave 50 kids quilts to a crisis nursery in Rockford called Maya's House a few years ago and I almost cried when the woman who accepted the quilts said she had just had a mother ask if they had any blankets because she didn't have one for her infant child.
Look around in your own communities and see what you can do to help. School children are cold and hungry -- if you knit or crochet or sew, they need hats and mittens and scarves. Every little bit helps.
Until next time.....blessings.
It's been a busy time since it stopped snowing and started heating up!
Today, Stephanie did the first coat on the rest of the basement wall. I started the painting in May, then she had knee replacement surgery and I quit painting - actually leaving half of it undone, which normally would have driven me nuts, but so much else was going on that I didn't have time!
We discovered the walls had never been painted, so needed two coats - I'll finish the second coat on Thursday and that project will be finally finished (except for putting everything away and cleaning out!).
It's actually a light blue color. Don't know if I mentioned it, but had an electrician in this past winter/spring and replaced all the halogen can lights for led lights. So much brighter and better to work with.
I've spent the past month or so working in the yard. Had "landscapers" remove the overgrown ugly shrubs from around the house. They were supposed to ready the beds for planting, but apparently they don't understand "get the rocks out of the beds that were used as mulch" because as I'm planting things, the rocks were still there -- so much so it was difficult not to pull a shovel full of rocks out of the ground. They also decided that dark brown mulch means natural. They spread a thin layer of "natural" mulch and I have worked every morning to cover it all with dark brown mulch. This is the new flower bed next to the drive:
And the bed in front of the house (still need to paint the garden bench):
The bed along the back of the house:
And, I had a couple of trees taken out and planted these 3 flowering crabs. Just finished with the mulch yesterday.
I still need to cut an edge around most of the beds and still have plenty of work to do outside, but happy to have the things planted - it's a start. And hopefully it will be cooler here on out -- since last week was in the 90's with 80% + humidity! I only work outside for an hour in the morning!
I also have a couple of plants on the deck that are doing fabulously!
Yes, the deck needs replacing -- maybe next year!
So, that's what's been happening here for the past two months!
Until next time.....blessings.
All my plans for cleaning the sewing room have changed. I had planned on cleaning the sewing room and organizing scraps and fabric. And then when my daughter is done teaching pre-school and before her kids are out of school, she was going to paint my basement. (She loves to paint - I hate to paint!).
But now, she's having a total knee replacement on June 5 and will be out of commission for 6-8 weeks.
So, this is what one part of the basement looks like:
So, now my tentative plans (and definitely not writing them in stone!) is to do a little bit of painting and put everything back together in that section and move to another wall! In between, I'm having another big tree taken down and having 3 flowering crab trees planted in that area, and my mowing people are going to rip out the shrubs around the house and rebuild the areas for planting flowers and new shrubs - which probably would have been done by now but we've had such a cold, wet (including snow) spring that nothing is happening. I also have two wooden outside rockers that need sanded down and painted and a garden bench that also needs painting. If I can get the rockers sanded, I can enlist my youngest grandson (9) to paint them - apparently he's like his mother and loves to paint!
Oh, and in between, I have homeless quilts to quilt, 4 applique quilts to quilt, and two club projects to make and quilt.
Until the next change in plans....blessings!
I spent the afternoon in the sewing room. I managed to quilt one baby quilt and load another to quilt tomorrow. Then I started working on those lavender shoo fly blocks. I put them together, even got borders on and a binding made:
I used up the shoo fly blocks, used up the dark purple fabric and most of the bubble fabric. Sewing room is still a disaster area, but I'm feeling good about using up orphan blocks and fabrics! That is the goal this year!
Until next time....blessings.
Well, today was the day I started the major cleanup of the sewing room! Actually, just a few hours this afternoon, since I went to Mikey's soccer game (he scored the first goal!) and then they took me to lunch!
This is what my big table looked like before I started cleaning.
This is what the goal is! The big bin on the right holds orphan blocks and I have added to it today and also have made some decisions on emptying it. Thankfully, we make quilts for the homeless -- 60"x80" quilts, so the goal is to use up the orphans and the scraps and make quilts. I had bins of scraps on the table and now I will be cleaning out those bins. I did empty one small bin today.
This is my cutting table and this is not acceptable! I have to clean this table off so I have a place to cut all the scraps. I was pressing scraps and started sorting them, but didn't come close to finishing that!
This is the pool table and it is also not acceptable! I need to do some major sorting.
The printers tray on the corner held a lot of applique thread and one day about a month ago it fell off the wall! I found it on the floor with thread everywhere. It will go back up on the wall after the wall is painted and it will be screwed in more securely for sure!
A couple of months ago I picked up a free pkg at the quilt shop - it had the fabric and some triangle paper in it, so I made up the half square triangles and 3 of the shoo fly blocks and the rest sat there til today. Today I finished making the rest of the blocks for a total of 10 shoo fly blocks. There, of course is no extra fabric and since I'm working hard to use up stuff, I designed a quick kids quilt with some print fabric squares alternating with these. Problem is, I need at least 2 more shoo fly blocks, so I'll use some different fabric and put them in the center, just like it was planned! haha
Anyway, I also put the borders on a quilt on my design wall, and I have a few quilts now to quilt, so the rest of the work will be done while I quilt homeless quilts. Ultimate goal this year will be to use up all the scraps I have laying around and then to start using donated fabric and a lot of my own stash -- it has aged long enough!
Until next time.....blessings.
Thomas Rhett has a line in a song that goes something like, "You can hear God laughing while you're making plans". So true!
I think the plan is to never have a true spring or summer -- just an extension of winter all year! Weather has been so weird all over the country. And it affected my plans.
I never did finish decluttering the storage area. I've cleaned the sewing room a couple of times, but it's a total disaster right now!
This is what has been accomplished:
This playset was here attached to the deck, when I moved in. Since my grandsons are older now, Mikey is 8, almost 9, and they don't come over here that often, it was a waste of wood and space.
So, Steph put an ad in her neighborhood paper and a guy and his 10 yr old, with the help of my son-in-law, took it apart and hauled it away. The guy and his kid are going to make a tree house with it!
And now I have an empty corner of my deck. The whole deck needs to be replaced, but not any time soon. I did spend a day shoveling sand: from the deck to in front of the shed.
My sil, Aaron will come by some weekend and get rid of the three sheets of plywood that the whole sandbox was on. And I spent another day outside burning sticks:
I get a lot of brush and sticks that fall all around the back yard. I don't use the fire pit for bonfires anyway -- might as well put it to good use.
So, that is what I was doing the two really nice days we had -- apparently that was spring, because then we had snow, twice! And this week it has done nothing but rain.
All my big plans to get the basement cleaned and decluttered have fallen by the wayside, but I have to find the energy to finish the job -- first because I can't even sew until I clean up the mess I have down there! And second, because I want to paint the rooms down there!
Until next time.....blessings.
I am so done with winter! So, today I took all the snowmen and other wintry quilts down and put up spring quilts!
Tulips to brighten the wall in the living room -- previously was a Christmasy snowman.
New throws for the chairs in the living room -- that white outside is snow -- so sick of it!
Tulip Farm hanging on the wall - all hand appliqued by me back in 2007, I believe. Replaces Merry, Merry Snowmen. The quilt on the couch is just a double four-patch with an appliqued flower border. Brightens everything up!
Spring Planting -- a Country Threads pattern, hand appliqued by me from many years ago!
It's hanging in the dining area of the kitchen, replacing a snowman wallhanging.
I do have a few irons in the fire. Finished quilting an homeless quilt yesterday that I made from pinwheel blocks and two rows of orphan blocks. I also cut out the latest Skill Builders quilt to piece today and quilt with e2e alternating and fill -- should be fun. Love the Skill Builders Club from Joan Knight and Joyce Lundrigan - so helpful to learn things on the Statler that I rarely use, but might now that I know how to use them! The Statler has so many things to learn!
Until next time...Blessings.
Seriously happy that it's the last day of January! Now if those sub-zero temps and wind chills would just go away!
Goals reached in January:
I've set a goal to knit a hat a month for the hat and mitten tree at church in December. January's hat is done:
This one was done on straight needles and I had to sew up the ends. I'm not very good at that and I don't like doing it! I've already started the second hat, and it is done on circular needles, so there will be no sewing up! And, I'm loving the pattern of the second hat, so will be finishing it by the end of February and probably do the same pattern for the next one.
Second goal for each month: piece a homeless quilt. Not sure if I can do this every month, once the group starts giving me their tops to quilt, but I did manage to piece one for January, and even quilted it yesterday.
Simple tops work the best for these homeless quilts, and I used up quite a few 2-1/2" squares - although the pile hasn't gone down much! I have started another one, using pinwheel blocks.
Goal Number 3 was purging (actually this is goal #1!) I have managed to take two carloads of stuff to the thrift shop and have another trunk full to take sometime next week, hopefully. I also tossed a lot of stuff into the garbage! I can definitely see a difference in the storage area, which encourages me to finish that job. I have emptied 6 Rubbermaid bins too - which I will keep until I'm sure I don't need them anymore. But, I am trying not to save things I don't need or want anymore, so I really don't want to refill the bins!
Goal #4 was establish an exercise routine again. I have failed miserably at that, but there's still hope for February! I did get new lights installed in the exercise room, and I have spent a couple of days cleaning up that room and my quilting room after the lights were installed. I'm waiting today for the electricians to come back and remove the longarm from a circuit and give it its own circuit since I tripped a breaker running it yesterday.
All in all, I think I'm doing pretty well on my goals for 2019.
Until next time.....blessings.
These are my two fabric cabinets in the basement. My original cabinet wouldn't fit down the stairs, so it's in the spare room holding finished quilts. These were quite a mess - to be sure!
I did finish the right one -- just took a picture before I was done! I have a whole lot of lights that I will be working on using up!
I finished the left one today. The whole top shelf is Christmas fabrics I've been collecting -- someday I'll make another Christmas quilt! I also have a ton of scrap fabric everywhere downstairs. So, I'm hoping to deal with as much of the scraps as possible this year. They will go into homeless quilts for sure. And I have various fat quarters in all areas of the basement I need to do something with too. I still have cubbies full of donated fabric that I need to press and pack into Rubbermaid totes to take to church too.
It would have been fun to play today except for the fact that I have a cold and it decided today was the day to sneeze and blow my nose constantly!
Until next time.....blessings.
This is a pic of the basement lighting that was here when I moved in:
Not real easy to see and very difficult when trying to work on the longarm. The electricians were here Tuesday and Wednesday:
Now I can see to sew - they hung a light over my sewing machines on the left. And definitely can see to cut and quilt!
So, the project for today is to clean up my messes - dust and vacuum and just do a general cleanup down here so I can actually work. I am thrilled with the lighting!
Until next time......blessings.
I'm still here -- just got kinda busy! I dropped the four bins off at the charity, but haven't been in the storage area to sort more -- but I have not given up -- I will get back to it.
I live in southern Wisconsin and we were part of the country that got caught in the big snow storm. I was in No. IL yesterday for our homeless quilt group sew, but left after lunch to stop at the store (packed with people!), and made it home before the snow started up here. It had already started in IL.
We have somewhere between 6"-8" on the ground now.
Just so so you know: I hate snow and winter! So, I'm hunkering down for the weekend -- great weekend to sew!
I joined a new club for my Statler Stitcher, which is the electronic program for my Gammill longarm. It is called Skill Builders and the January project was a tablerunner. We learned all kinds of ways to use some of the parts of the program I don't normally use and it was so enlightening. The program actually can take a square pattern and fit it into a rectangle. So much fun. Here's mine:
That center rectangle has a double crosshatch quilting pattern that is actually designed for a square, but the Statler stretches it to fit perfectly into a rectangle. Love the club and my Statler!
The electricians are coming Tuesday morning at 7 am to start replacing the lighting in the basement -- I'm so excited -- I will finally be able to see to work on the longarm and to sew. The lighting now is canned lights and the guy that lived here put halogen bulbs in them (I'm sure he designed and finished the basement himself), and that serves as poor lighting and the heat in the basement! Yeah, he didn't bother putting any heat in the basement! Once I get the new lighting installed, I'll just bring down a heater that I can turn on when I'm down there.
So, now I'm off to do a little cleaning upstairs and then heading downstairs to work on my quilt!
Until next time.....blessings.
Here are 4 Rubbermaid bins full of stuff to go, including a Santa in the box on top of one. I have hauled them out to the car and will deliver them on Monday. Most of this stuff is Christmas things -- lots of perfectly good strings of lights, and some handmade Father Christmases, and some vases and candle holders I don't use anymore. I found the crocheted stockings I made for us with the kids names on them, and of course, I saved that stuff. I saved stuff my kids made in grade school -- that's more personal stuff.
I filled one empty bin with stuff I'm keeping, but still have 3 empty bins. And the bin on the top right is a ceramic nativity set my sister made for my mother, so I will ask my niece or her daughter if they want it. My niece lost baby Jesus when she was playing with it as a little girl!
These two bins have soap making supplies in them. I'll ask my great niece if she wants the stuff before I take them to the charity place.
This is what this area looked like before the purge started! I'm making progress!
Until next time....blessings.
I managed to get 8 more blocks done on my quilt. Only 4 more to go. I've been working on 4 patches as I sew these blocks together, so hope to have an 8-patch block quilt to add to the homeless quilts this year.
Also dropped the shirt boxes I bought off at church on Sunday, so filled up the car with stuff that's going to charity. This is the real start to the purge of 2019! Included is a 2-piece set of luggage, a whole container of silver plated coffee set and serving trays, and two air beds including the pumps that go with them. And, one big Santa Claus decoration that is in it's original box. Hasn't made a dent in the storage area, but it's a start.
And, I've finally found an electrician, so he will be starting to install new lights in the basement so I can actually see to sew and quilt, in a few weeks.
Until next time.....blessings.
I worked on my quilt today:
8 blocks done -- only 12 more to go! Second from left on top doesn't have enough contrast, but not sure I'm gonna take it apart! I might learn to live with it!
I've also been working on a "betweens" quilt which is using 2-1/2" squares as leaders and enders, and making two patches and today I started making 4 patches out of them. I have a big bin of 2-1/2" squares - don't think I'll run out any time soon. But decided to press and make 4 patches. I'm thinking I'll make 16-patch blocks and maybe sash them to make a 60"x80" homeless quilt. The goal is to use up every scrap in the sewing room, but it's difficult to do when people keep donating fabrics! I spend all my time working on the donated fabric and mine doesn't get used. 2019 is going to be the year I use my fabric! Like the quilt I'm working on, I have a lot of Kansas Troubles Fabrics and a lot of darks - like Jo Morton and Civil War prints. Still need to clean out my fabric stash cabinets too! A woman's (quilter) work is never done!
Until next time.....blessings.
So my design wall was empty for one day!
I am working on piecing a quilt for my bed. There are 20 blocks, sashing and borders. I've pieced the parts of the 20 blocks, and put up one block that hasn't been put together.
All the fabric and the pattern for this quilt is from Kansas Troubles Quilters. Her fabrics used to be my favorites, but I think my taste has changed over the years. I still love her fabrics, but the quilt shop I spend the most time at is more of a brights/soft colors place. Lots of 30's fabrics, lots of Lori Holt stuff, and of course, Bunny Hill -- which is my favorite applique designer. So, I have partially gone over to the dark side (or maybe the light side)! lol
Until next time.....blessings.
I have one last finish for 2018:
I spent New Year's Eve stitching the binding down -- don't I have an exciting life?!
Old Glory is finished. Started and finished in 2018.
I didn't get the second one bound on the 31st, but I did get it done on the 1st day of 2019!:
And today I managed to quilt and bind the little one on the left that was made from orphan blocks.
I feel like I'm on a roll! I started piecing on a quilt for my bed -- I'd set aside the fabric and pattern for it -- years ago actually. And I was surprised to find that I actually had cut most of it out, so today I was able to piece 80 four-patches to start it. I've been spending the time between holidays sorting, organizing and getting caught up on things. I hope to have my antique table cleaned off by the end of January. Maybe I'll even be able to piece some homeless quilts -- usually I'm so busy piecing backings and quilting the homeless quilts the group pieces that I don't actually piece more than one or two, if that, in a year. But, I'm finally able to see the end of the mess, the end of the donated fabric that I need to press and bring in to the quilters at our sew-in. I have a full container of pieces now and another 2-1/2" strips container full for them. If I can, I'd like to start cutting the strips into 6-1/2" strips so I (or someone else) can quickly piece a rail-fence quilt. I also need to clean out my own stash cabinets - they are so messy I can't really see what I have.
It really feels good to see the end in sight!
Until next time.....blessings.
