Top's Done

I put the blocks together and then just slapped on borders. The quilt designed by Monique Dillard in the Quilt It Today magazine used 18 blocks, set on point with red side triangles and a couple of borders -- one of them pieced.  It's really a pretty quilt.  But we didn't exchange enough blocks and I doubt anyone really wanted to make that big of a quilt anyway.  I had just enough of the sashing fabric to do the sashing of the blocks -- would have been nice to have a little more for another border, but that's okay -- using up stash is a good thing!

Don't tell Kris, but it was fun to do and actually got me back to the sewing machine to piece something.  The only quilting I've done for the past few months has been some applique.  And, I'm finding I enjoy applique more than piecing for now -- I think I go in streaks as to what I like to be doing! (If Kris knew I had fun, she'd come up with another challenge project in no time!)

I'm waiting for the guy to come and plow my drive out -- we got somewhere around 5 or 6 inches of snow yesterday and today and it drifted across the drive in a couple areas that are probably a foot deep or more.  I did get the snowblower out to blow a path for JR to get out to the grass (gotta think of these things when the snow is deeper than your dog is tall!

It feels like a good day to make some soup and knit the rest of the day.

Design Wall and Blocks

Now that I've made up my mind to stay here awhile, I can put my design wall back up -- and leave it up.  I use a photographic stand as my design wall -- I can take it anywhere, but I usually just leave it up in the cutting area of the sewing room.  I just roughly stitched a sleeve in a piece of Warm &  Natural batting and slid it on the crossbar of the stand. 

You'll notice I did square up my quarter square triangles and put the two different blocks of the quilt on the wall.  Maybe next time I'll actually sew them together! 

While I was in the basement sewing room my mail lady came to the door to deliver a box with my new soap molds, so maybe later this week I'll start another batch of soap.  The very wet snow has started and is being blown around by the north wind -- I felt really sorry for the mail lady!

Wow -- two posts in the same day!  Yay me!

Winter Winds

Can you see the flag to the right of the evergreens?  We must have 40 mph winds out here -- I know we're only 90 miles from the Windy City, but this is ridiculous.  And this afternoon we're supposed to get more rain/sleet/snow.  Did I tell you I hate snow and cold and winter in general?  But hopefully, this will be winter's LAST hurrah!  Spring can't be far behind, can it?!

This afternoon I might actually get to the sewing room to square up some quarter square triangle blocks.  My friend Kris always has a challenge or two up her sleeve and the latest came from Quilt It magazine -- a red and white quilt made with quarter square triangles, so 6 of us exchanged some red and white 5" squares and we're all making a variation of the quilt.  So far I have my triangles made, but that's it -- Kris already has 7 blocks made!  Guess I'd better get busy.  Later....

Found!

I seem to forget to write anything here for months.  Really -- I'm fine -- not lost or anything!

It's been a busy few months, or a boring few months -- I live in the midwest and it's winter so not a lot of outside activities and I tend to get caught up in doing a lot of nothing - sort of hibernating in the winter.  It finally is getting close to spring -- well, it's sunny today even though the temp is only in the 30's!
I've been cleaning house and getting rid of stuff in anticipation of putting the house on the market again, but now I'm re-thinking that.  My daughter thinks I'm a waffle -- can't ever make up my mind! But I've spent a lot of time thinking this winter -- the plan was to move to the big city to a condo -- have someone else do the mowing and the snowplowing and do some downsizing of course.

But, I really do like my house -- Bill and I designed it ourselves and had it built.  We have a beautiful piece of wooded property here -- I saw 8 deer out beyond the woods this morning.  In the city you won't be seeing that.  Plus, with a condo you still have to maintain it yourself -- so I might as well stay here and pay someone to plow my drive and mow my yard.  I won't have to give up my beautiful sewing room, and I doubt any of the condo's have a fireplace in the kitchen -- which is where I've spent the past few days -- just knitting in front of the fireplace.  We used to love to have a fire there every morning -- our days always started a little later just because we were enjoying the fire.  I still have plenty of firewood in the shed, so I might as well enjoy it.

The upshot is that I'm not ready to move yet and hopefully I'll know when I am!
In the meantime, I've been learning new things. Last year I made it a point to learn to make laundry detergent and soap.  It's been kind of fun and I just finished a batch of soap -- I leave it for 6 weeks to cure and that was up on Thursday.  I ordered a couple of new molds so I'll make a new batch next week or the week after.  Another reason to stay here -- I have a huge kitchen and it's very convenient to make soap in it.
This year my goal is to learn to knit socks.  I've been following Judy and Mary's blogs for years and been so envious of their sock knitting!  I taught myself to crochet years ago, but never learned to knit.  I tried to make dish cloths last year, but it was super boring!  And I love the idea of making two socks at a time, so I bought all the books and the circular needles and the yarn -- the whole kit and caboodle.  I was bound and determined to learn that way, but when I finally got around to sitting down with it I discovered it looks easier than it is!  So I went back to Judy's blog and she just happened to post a month or so ago what book and what yarn she made her first pair with.  I did a search and found the book and the exact yarn was on sale at that site (I can't remember which one it was), so I bought both and some double pointed needles and set about teaching myself to knit socks!
I have ripped it out and started over about 3 times, and this is very far from perfect, but I'm going to continue on and hope the second sock is better and the next pair will be good!  I'm loving knitting on dpns -- I love knitting with smaller needles and I love watching a recognizable item hanging from my needles!  I've even been looking at other things to knit -- but I'm not going to start anything else until I've got socks down pat!

So that's what I've been doing in front of the fire in the kitchen this weekend.  I really need to put it away and clean house tomorrow though.  And, hopefully it won't be 3 months before I write again.

November

This year is flying by.  Thanksgiving is going to be here soon.  I am so not ready!  I've spent the last few weeks finishing the outside work -- leaves are mulched, garden tools are put away in the shed, snowblower is in the garage ready to go and I have a load of wood in the garage.  Had the first fire of the season yesterday afternoon -- it wasn't particularly cold outside, just felt a little chilly inside and it was nice to sit in front of the fire and do some applique- which I haven't touched in a month!  I start having withdrawal symptoms if I don't get some sewing done!

Today for the first time in awhile I cut out a new quilt and started making blocks.  This is the "Three Sisters" quilt from the Winter 2012 issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects.  I loved the quilt when I first saw it and then really loved it because it was designed by the ladies of Yellow Creek Designs -- they own my favorite quilt shop!  So, last week I drove to Pearl City and bought some Kansas Troubles fabrics and started the quilt today.  The three blocks above have taken me practically all day to make!  And they are only 6" blocks.  But maybe that's why it took me so long -- those tiny pieces!  It's fun to make and it also has applique in it, which I will do needleturn, not wool.  There's no deadline and I'll just keep plugging away!

Gratitudes:
A beautiful, sunny and warm day to spend in the basement sewing!
Listening to George Strait on several cd's while I sew, and Kenny Chesney and the Zac Brown Band.

October - My How Time Flies!

It's been four months since I've posted -- can't hardly believe it.  What have I been doing?  Oh, a little of this and a little of that!  We've been hit with the drought that half the country has been hit with -- good for me because I only had to mow a few times all summer!  But now fall is in full swing, and the trees are dropping their leaves -- which means getting out the mulching mower -- I do not rake!
We had a "quilters' garage sale" - got rid of some old fabric and lots of scraps as well as other garage sale stuff like the "Pack and Play".  I did okay -- Kris did really well, but she had more "stuff".
I've been trying to get the fall outside work done -- up today is taking down screens, power washing the porches and washing windows.
Hasn't been a lot of quilting going on, but have managed to finish some applique projects and prep more.  This first one is a quilt that was in the Fall Primitive Quilts magazine (love that magazine, btw).  This was fun and easy and quick.  
                                    
Next is"Fred - there are enough Jacks around" designed by Kris and she also gave me her leftover orange and some black squares so I could whip this one up.  The applique took no time at all and I used a fabric I bought last year for the border. 

Then these next two are from Bunny Hill Designs.  This is her Merry, Merry Snowmen block of the month quilt.  After doing her Henrietta Whiskers free quilt last year, both Kris and I decided to start this one.  I do love the Bunny Hill designs for applique.

I have block number 3 prepped and try to do a little applique each day.  I also have 5 other applique quilts prepped -- just for variety and I like to have something ready for a grab and go type thing.

I've tried my hand at making soap and laundry detergent this summer -- just for fun.  The laundry soap is so easy and works great, so I'll sell some of it for our "Parable of Talents" project at church -- always fun to raise a little money for the church.  I've also been doing the Power Point for church and helping out the financial secretary whenever she needs me.

That's about it for now -- time to get busy making hay while the sun shines!

Happy Independence Day!

Gratitudes:  I was born and raised in the USA!  And Thank God for our Freedom.  Thanks also go to all the men and women who have fought for our freedom since the first struggle for independence to this very day.

And another thing

Time sure flies around here.  I was going to try to keep up blogging more often and here it's been almost three weeks since I blogged.  This is what I've been doing in the interim:  This first shot is a picture of my back hall before I cleaned it.  That bookcase is solid maple and we've used it as a catch-all for gardening stuff and etc., for 18 years.  I cleaned it off and took it to the shed/shop and sometime this summer I'm going to strip it and refinish it and put it in the library where it belongs.  The door goes to the back yard; the garage door is on the left and the door to the half bath is on the right.

The after shot. Bill made the bench on the left and used it for all kinds of stuff -- hats, gloves, knives, miscellaneous.

I did clean it out, but forgot to take an after picture -- this is the before!

And my latest adventure:  I've been wanting to try my hand at making soap for a few years now and finally got up the courage yesterday afternoon.  These came out of the mold today.  They need to cure for 6 weeks, but I'm pretty happy with my first attempt.  I've been following this blog for years  down--to--earth.blogspot.com.  Rhonda is very knowledgeable on a lot of subjects and I love her writing (and envy her writing ability too!).  She published a book a few months ago and I bought it and have read it twice.  She's doing the whole simple living thing and what I really like is she encourages everyone to do their own version for their own reasons.  My reason for making soap?  I like the idea of no chemicals and all natural.  I've been buying handmade soap for a couple of years now from the Oregon Soap Shoppe near here and really love it.  But I just wanted to try making some myself.  It took me half the day to get everything organized and set up -- the soap making itself didn't really take all that long.  I learned a lot and maybe next time I'll add some fragrance, or not.

And last but not least of what's been happening the past few weeks.  We made it through the second anniversary of Bill's death, and our happy occasion was the day before when Mikey turned 2!  Will graduated from preschool -- he'll be 5 this summer and heading off to all-day kindergarten in the fall.  Briana graduated from 8th grade and will be heading off to high-school in the fall.  The picture below was taken Saturday when we celebrated all 3 events!

Gratitudes:  Family
Trying something new - always good to expand the horizons.

Road Trip

Kris, Jan and I went on a road trip today to Wisconsin (we live in Northern Illinois).  First shop was in Belleville, WI and is in the new Quilt Sampler magazine just out, called Patches and Petals.  Great little shop in a restored 1905 building with wooden floors and center staircase.  Lots of samples of quilts I'd like to make "someday"!  And the only thing I ended up buying was four cotton towels that I may applique something on, or I may not -- they're nice and long though and I like that for hanging in my kitchen.

Next stop was the Mill House Quilts in Waunakee, WI.  Great shop -- it's been around a long time and was in the Quilt Sampler magazine many years ago.  We spent a lot of time wandering around and looking at everything, but I didn't buy anything there!  I sometimes think I have so much fabric that I'll never use -- too much fabric, not enough time -- that I don't buy anything.
We did walk over the tracks to the pub  next door and had lunch on the patio though.

Third and final stop for today was JJ Stitches in Sun Prairie, WI.  JJ's was also in the Quilt Sampler magazine many years ago.  We've all been to this shop before, but I really love it -- lots of civil war repros and my kind of antique colors -- the darks!  I absolutely fell in love with a quilt on the wall (should have taken a picture but didn't even think of it).  I bought the background fabric and a bundle of fabrics for the squares along with the pattern:  The picture on the front of the pattern does not do the quilt on the wall justice -- the background was a deep cream/almost yellow color and all the 1" finished squares are the darks in the stack.  I love the quilts made with tiny squares, but don't usually make them because I really don't like working with the tiny pieces.  This one is mostly strip pieced and I think I might be able to handle it.  Who knows when I'll actually get around to starting it!

All in all it was a very good day -- it was a great day for a road trip!  And I can fondle fabrics and dream about starting this quilt!

Gratitudes:  Kris drove today and it was nice to spend time talking quilts.

More building

Having finally made the decision to stay, I've been making other decisions much easier!  I asked my son-in-law, Aaron to make me a water barrel.  I've always been interested in conserving and reducing my carbon footprint and saw water barrels for sale last summer at the Farmers' Market for at least $100.  Aaron made one for them last summer at a fraction of the price, so I asked him to make one for me.  They brought it down for Mother's Day (it's actually my birthday present because my Mother's Day gift is a handmade planter that the grandkids made filled with a variety of annuals.)
So, Aaron told me what I had to buy and what I had to do to set the barrel up.  I have it at the corner of the garage and the overflow spot should drain right into the part of the downspout that Bill buried way back before the sidewalks were poured that drains way away from the house.  I had to take the solid downspout off and replace it with the flexible one -- once again really happy that I invested in that trusty power screwdriver!  Now I'm just waiting for rain!  I have it set up on blocks so I can fill the watering can from it for watering my tomatoes and peppers!

Back when we lived in a subdivision, we had about a 3/4 acre lot and a big garden (including an asparagus bed that Bill planted).  He also built a compost area with landscape timbers right out by the garden.  It was great.  Then we moved here, have 23+ acres, but a smaller garden and a lot of trees.  Still have an asparagus bed that he planted that first year and the asparagus is still wonderful, but he didn't bother with a compost area.  He was more into cleaning up the woods and the garden really isn't much -- the kids were gone by that time.  But, as I clean out my weedy flower beds and the garden boxes, I collect a lot of stuff that could be composted, so...I bought a tumbling composter from Home Depot.  I put it together on Saturday -- only took about two hours and once again -- that power screwdriver was a lifesaver!  Being a quilter, I've always understood a guy's fascination with power tools, but now I understand it even more! vbg

I put it out in the garden area next to the 5 blueberry bushes Bill planted -- I took the picture in the late afternoon, otherwise it's pretty sunny out there.  The asparagus bed is just adjacent to this area -- you can probably see the tall ones that have gone to seed back there.  I have two tomato plants and 3 green pepper plants in the boxes and a whole bunch of weeds too.  I'm just going to try to manage a small garden this year and maybe next year I can add a little more.

Gratitudes:  I can feel the stress of the past few years slowly falling away now.  I have lots of plans, but know that nothing has to be done immediately.  I'm taking my time and smelling the roses (well, the iris and the peonies anyway!).

A Change of Heart

I have taken my house off the market.  It was a rather expensive lesson in jumping in with both feet before I really thought everything through, but now I have finally made up my mind.  This house is way too big for one person, but it was way too big for two of us!  But it was our dream house and I still love it.  It means I have a lot to take care of, but it also means there is no rush.  The major things I will have to hire some one to do like replacing the furnaces, or staining the outside of the house when it needs it.  I already have a friend's son mow the yard most of the time, but even I can do that whenever Connor is busy.  My neighbors and friends keep the mowers and other equipment working for me, or tell me who to call.  My next door neighbor plows my drive in the winter -- although I also can work the snow blower. 

I've let my flower beds go to weed for years now, but this year I actually feel like working in them again, so slowly but surely I'll whip them back into shape; a little redesigning of them has already begun.

I'm still an hour and a half away from my daughter and grandkids, but all my friends and my church is down here and I'd miss them if I moved.  I'll just be making trips up to Wisconsin to see the boys play baseball and just to spend quality time with my daughter and her family.  Otherwise, I'd be driving down here to see my friends and church - so it's basically a trade off.  Steph made me do a pros and cons list while I was waffling about selling or staying and it came out about even :-)!  I hated having the house ready to show at any moment and having to put the family pictures away, etc.  And the housing market is not back yet, so it would probably be a long time before it actually sold.  So that is my thinking on the subject!

And I decided that there are a lot of things that I can actually do myself and a few things I want to try, so I'm jumping in with both feet.  First up -- Bill always had a Weber kettle charcoal grill -- he never wanted a gas grill.  I sold the kettle at the auction because I did not want to mess with it.  So, I went out and bought myself a small gas grill.  And, drum roll please, I put it all together myself, and even went to FS to have the tank filled (I always feel like a dumb female when I have to do things like that!).  Best gift to myself was a power screwdriver that I bought when I bought the grill!  Love it!

I took the left shelf back off when I hooked up the gas -- it was just always in the way.  Fired that puppy up and grilled a pork chop the first day and had my son-in-law grill burgers on it for Mother's Day!  It works great and all the screws are tight thanks to the power screwdriver!

Gratitudes:  I finally feel like I made the right decision after two years of waffling.

Today was the first anniversary of Steve's death.  We all seem to have made it through today by keeping busy. 

 I can still hear his voice on the phone, so I'm thankful for that; and I still think about him every day -- I doubt that will change anytime soon either.  He was an amazing man whose life was cut way too short.

Change of Plans

The plan for the day was to work outside.  We'd already gotten an inch of rain by the time I got up this morning, and it's still raining -- a nice gentle rain, which is great, but rain just the same.  I'm a little bummed because for the first time since Steve was diagnosed (Dec. 2007), I actually have been looking forward to working in the garden/flower beds and yard.  I have plans to reduce the size of my flower beds and move a lot of plants around. But, I'll wait til the rain is done and do a little at a time.
Moving on, the other plan for the day is doing laundry and that's well on its way.  I'll spend some time straightening up the house, but I think I'll also spend some time on this quilt: 

The part over the longarm table is only 2/3 of the top.  The other blocks need to be sewn together and added.  This quilt is called Four Patch Plaid and is in Pat Speth's first book, Nickel Squares.  I made another of these quilts years ago when the book first came out and use it all the time in the recliner in the evening -- JR sits on my lap on it.  It's showing signs of wear, so I decided to make another.  It's a twin size which actually is a great size for wrapping in the recliner -- especially in the winter!

Gratitudes:  The rain.  We actually did need it, even though it puts me farther behind!
Connor got the front mowed yesterday before the loud thunderclap and rain.  Hopefully, if it stops raining, he'll get the back mowed this evening.

It's Official

My house is listed at For Sale By Owner.com  Listing #23861403

If you know anyone interested in buying a two story log home in the country with 23.5 acres, please let them know!  I am really ready to downsize now!

The view from the Porchrocker

We've been blessed with an early spring -- in fact we are in the part of the US that has been getting 80 degree temps during the past week.  I had to rush out and rake all the leaves out of the flower beds so the daffodils could grow and bloom.  I've spent many a morning lately drinking my coffee on the front porch watching the plants grow!
I'm especially enjoying the mornings and evenings on the porch this spring.  Hopefully, it will be my last spring here so I'm savoring.
 I'm getting ready to put the house back on the market For Sale By Owner.  A really good friend is helping me get all my ducks in a row as to putting together a flyer/handout and arranging for advertising in the Chicago area as well as this area and also on the 'net. 
The plan is to move to WI near my daughter and her family.  It would be really nice to go to the grandkids' sports events and not have to drive back home for an hour and a half.  It would be really nice to finally get settled -- I feel like I've been living in limbo for the past two years.

Gratitudes:
The weather has been beautiful lately -- even though our winter wasn't bad weather-wise, it was still long and gray!
Daffodils.
Friends that know a lot and help me a lot!

My new toy

While I've been sick and whining, and not getting anything done in the sewing department, I have been doing a lot of reading and playing on the computer, the I-Pad and on my new phone.
Some background:  I've had a cell phone for a few years -- the first one I used only for emergencies, never kept it on and paid $20 a month for it at Sprint.  Bill didn't want one.  Then Steve got sick, I saw the need to have a better phone and a better phone package, so I bought a nice LG model, signed up with Verizon because Steve had good luck with them out where they lived (when you live out in the boonies you have to determine these things that aren't issues for people who live in the city!).  I signed up for a full package for texting and data, but cancelled that after a month and just stuck with the cell phone part.  I don't live on my phone.  I did buy an I-pad2 a couple of years ago and I do have a Kindle that I love.  Problem is that I still live in the boonies -- I have satellite internet because I can't even get dsl on the phone lines out here, no cable, etc.  Let me tell you what satellite internet is like -- 5 times the price of dialup, 1/2 the speed of dialup!
So, mostly I don't do much on the I-Pad because the wireless connection is bad!
Fast forward a few years -- the kids all LIVE on their phones -- texting is the new talking, Facebook is king, etc.  I finally succumbed to it and bought myself an IPhone 4S -- with Siri no less.  You can see by the fingerprints that it gets some usage!  I stayed with Verizon, am now back to having a text and data package and oh boy, a hot spot booster.  I can now use my I-Pad and my phone and they work faster than my computer!  And oh boy is Words With Friends addicting on Facebook!  Not only that, but it's been wonderful having something to play with while I'm coughing my brains out and I don't have to expose any one else to it! LOL

Whining is over -- still coughing but at least I can text someone and whine about it now!

Lent

I'm a fairly private individual when it comes to religion, political views, etc.  I'm a Christian, in fact, I'm Methodist, but I don't wear it as a badge or use a bullhorn to announce it.  My friends and I have religion discussions fairly often and I have friends from many denominations.  It's just not something I'm usually public about.  I was raised in the church I attend.  I left it for many years after my first marriage, and after trying other churches and other denominations over the years, I came back to my church when Steve was diagnosed with the brain tumor.  (We had been back before because Steve was confirmed in this church when he was 13).
Anyway, Bill and I joined this church again in 2008.  We had a female pastor at that time, but in 2009 we got a new pastor.  His name is Christopher Druce-Jones and I have to tell you that he is the most dynamic speaker I've ever heard.  He leads our bible study groups and I hate to miss any of them because we have such great discussions and I have learned so much since he came to our church.  In our regular bible study we are reading "Heaven is For Real" by Todd Burpo.  I read this book a couple of years ago and loved it and now we're reading it together and discussing it chapter by chapter.  We have all walks of life in our bible study groups -- so many stories.  It's really wonderful.

For Lent we have a special Lenten study going.  This year we're reading this book.  Adam Hamilton is a Methodist minister in Kansas -- young, like Pastor Chris -- it so amazes me the knowlege they possess.  Pastor Hamilton started his own church and his congregation numbers in the thousands.  (My church is very, very small -- we might have 60 - 75 people on a Sunday).  This book is accompanied by a dvd --each chapter shows the actual sites that we read about in Jesus' journey of the last 24 hours of his life.  I would recommend the book and the dvd.

Like I said, I hate to miss any of the bible study groups and I had to miss last week's Heaven is for Real and chapter 2 of the 24 Hours because of this lousy cough -- now I only have my thoughts on it and nobody else's insight -- I miss it alot!

Okay - enough whining!

The adventures of me...

When last we left our heroine (that's female hero, not drug), she was being productive in the sewing room.  That was last Friday.  I unearthed these blocks from one of the plastic drawers there were stashed in and put them up on the design wall.  Wonder how long they'll stay there before I either do something with them or take them down and bury them again.  I can't remember if Kris gave me these after buying them on E-bay or at an auction, or if I bought them from her at a garage sale.  Note to self -- do something about this memory (or lack thereof) thing.
Irregardless (don't you hate when people use that non-word?!  I do!).  Regardless of what I do with these blocks, I did manage to pull fabrics and cut out a quilt for Mikey -- who will be 2 in June and I thought it was time to make his baby quilt.  I even started sewing it.

And then it happened....from out of nowhere I was hit with the creeping crud.  "They" all say "its" going around -- but none of them say how to avoid it, or how to get rid of it.  It's the cough that starts in the throat, moves to the chest and takes up residence; the sinuses that fill up and then drain whenever they feel like it; it's the don't bother trying to sleep for at least 2 nights because the cough is not going to allow it; it's the rib-hurting, chest congesting, unproductive cough, cough, cough; it's the get out the Depends because at my age I can't squeeze those muscles and cough at the same time cough! It's probably a good thing I live alone and I have an idea JR would probably plan a trip about now if he could!  The pharmacist said Mucinex -- I should probably buy stock in the company.  I know it just takes time and the congestion will break up, but boy am I tired of coughing.  It's been a week now, and not only is my cough unproductive, but so am I.  Nothing more has been done in the sewing room.  I haven't even opened any of the hand applique -- it's too hard to stitch or do anything else when you're coughing or your ribs hurt!

So that's my post and my whine for the day.  I have a couple of more things to write about -- but I'll leave them for a different post!

A more productive day

I spent most of the day today playing in the quilt studio :-)! I had to do a search and rescue attempt the other day to find a certain applique project I knew I had started. In the process I found a few other projects, of course. So, for most of the day I prepped the next blocks on four applique projects, and sorted and checked two others in progress. So, yeah, I have 6 different applique projects going at once! But that's okay, because they are great take-along items to work on and if I don't feel like working on one, I can always work on a different one!

Then I decided to make a block called Pinwheel Star from the Fons & Porter's Sampler Quilts & Blocks Winter 2011 edition (page 40) magazine.  I really like the block, but I'm going to design it with fewer bias edges -- I want to use this block as a leader/ender project while working on other things, so I don't want to mess with all the bias edges -- I'd rather sew and flip the corners of the flying geese blocks, whereas the design calls for cutting triangles.

I have a couple of other things I want to prep, too and hopefully I'll be able to do that tomorrow -- I'll be digging through scraps for another quilt!

Gratitudes:
AJ is 8 years old today -- he was a 10 week preemie and now he's a second grader taking advanced judo lessons, playing baseball, and doing well in school!  Happy Birthday, AJ! 


Being in my own little world, with the cd player on and listening to some favorite tunes while playing with fabric -- what could be better? (Plenty of things, I know!)

Boring News Day

How boring you ask?  I'm sure I heard you!
I have no quilts to show you, nothing fun even on Valentine's Day except for a pic of my big toe -- I had toe surgery a couple of hours ago to remove an ingrown toenail! Whoopee on the excitement scale!  Doesn't it just look lovely.  Maybe I'll actually do some quilting this afternoon, or maybe I'll just take a nap!

Gratitudes:
I finally had the surgery done -- it doesn't hurt although it did take more than the usual amount of needle pricks to get it numb -- and that's the part that hurts.
It should be completely healed by the time spring finally arrives.
JR is always happy to see me come home!

Another Project

I have a stack of unrelated projects always staring me in the face.  You know the ones:  go through the pictures and organize them; clean out that shelf of sewing related stuff and find a place for everything; go through the decorations and toss the stuff that's falling apart and you never use...., etc.

I have a big table in my clutter room (mud room/former sewing room), and I dumped most of the photograph books and boxes on it in hopes I would start cleaning them up.  Been there since November!  Today, I took some of the loose pages of one of the books and started cleaning them up.  These were pics of quilts I made back in the nineties.  This was before I ever got a digital camera and I used to get double prints free every time I had the film developed.  Why I need 48 pics of the same quilt is beyond me!  So, today while I was waiting for my meatloaf to bake, I sorted out the keepers and tossed the rest.  The stack on the left is the one I tossed!  I still have a picture of all the quilts in the stack, but only one or two!  Now if I did that every day for the next 6 months, I might make a dent in the photo department! vbg

I did get my little Valentine quilt quilted yesterday and today I stitched down the binding and the hanging sleeve.

Gratitudes:  My daughter -- she was my sounding board today and she helped me make some decisions I've been wavering on.