Sewing Room Cleanup

 I have been spending quite a bit of time in the sewing room, just not sewing. This cleaning project will take a little bit of time, and of course, I work 10-12 hours a day, so I’m just doing what I can manage each day. I will try to get some pictures soon though. One bonus, I am finding things I forgot about. I have some quilt kits I bought and never completed, so I can add those to my list. Eight or ten years ago, I was into the artist trading cards (postcards), and I found some of those. Here’s one:

You can see I had a stamp and stampad to put the address on the back. I did several swaps, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. One day I will do it again—when I have time. 

Sewing Room Cleanup

I worked all afternoon yesterday on the sewing room; unfortunately, there wasn't as much progress as I had hoped. The plastic shelves I had weren't really working for me. The size was adequate, but the plastic didn't really support the weight of the fabric and had started to bow in the middle.

Also, things had fallen behind, and they are too heavy to move when they are loaded up with fabric. I ordered some nice wire ones with wheels and got the first one put together, and then Bill assembled the other one for me. He warned me that even though they are metal, they probably have a weight limit, which he fully expects my fabric collection to exceed.

Of course, the hard part is getting everything transferred. I wanted the old ones completely out so I could clean the baseboards before the new ones got moved in. That meant piles of stuff waiting to get put away.

Some of it needs to go away, but what? So far, I've made a small pile of stuff in the hall that can be disposed of. Unfortunately, I am keeping way too much. I did make a quick trip to the dollar store and got a couple of baskets to store fat quarters and small pieces of yardage. I will need to stop today on the way home from work and get a couple of more.

I did find this cute vintage breadbox on one of the lower shelves that I had kind of forgotten about. I was surprised to find it full of fabric! 

 

I'm not sure why that surprised me; it's not the first time I've opened a closed container and found fabric inside. I also found some other goodies I had forgotten about that need to be added to my UFO list. I am hoping for a little progress each evening, but I'll have to see how that all goes.

Pincushions

 I’m so tired of the rain. We’re all a little stir crazy at this point. Bill took Rosie back with him so she can be groomed, so Ryder and I went out for a walk. Of course, it started raining again while we were walking. Oh well. I did put some walnut shell in my pincushions and got the openings closed up.

The dogs had managed to get one of them off the little table by the sofa which was no surprise. Both are finished now.

I also made a mug rug for my desk at work. I am stitching the binding down by hand, so a little more tv work. That’s fine with me. I have been coming home from work too tired to do much.

Pincushions

 I liked the pincushion so much I made another. I think these are just so cute. I have plenty of felt left so now I'm thinking of a red one with a white base for the machine. I used fiberfill for the stuffing due to the size of these. They are around 6", and I thought the walnut shells would be way too heavy. I still haven't stitched up the opening I left for turning, and I may add some walnut shell to give them a little weight. Right now, they feel kind of like plush dog toys--which is probably what they will turn into if I don't keep them out of reach.

We have been having lots of rain, most of it in one night. Rain, lightening, thunder. The handwork on these pincushions let me sit on the couch and Ryder could lay against me while the thunderstorms were going on.

And here's a closeup of the pincushions. 

I'm really happy with them.

String Star Quilt

I am going to try and link to an old post to a String Star Tutorial. Hopefully it works! I was going through some old pictures in my Google Cloud hoping to find anything that needs finishing so I can locate it and get it finished up. Many UFO's have been finished and either gifted or donated, but I have a suspicion there are some more hanging out somewhere that need to be finished and moved along. I did find a picture of the String Star Quilt I did a tutorial on in 2016. It's finished, and it is one of my favorites. I kept it and continue to use it even though the black shows dog fur like crazy.

I had put it on the bed to tie off and bury the ends, and it turns out it's the only picture I can find of it. I will need to get a better picture when I get it out this winter. When I was looking for pictures, I found some other string projects.

I'm quite sure there have been many more over the years. They are always a favorite with me.

Eating Out

We went out for supper last night. We had just been talking about how things seem to be back to normal after about 14 months of strangeness. This time last year all the restaurants were closed except for curbside delivery. I can remember us being so desperate to get out the house, we drove through the Whataburger drive through, and then parked in the parking lot and ate our burgers. It was better than being stuck inside four walls. 

We haven’t been to Surfside in quite a while so we went down there to the Red Snapper Inn.

It was busy and bustling with customers. It looked normal. I ordered sautéed flounder with artichokes and mushrooms. So good. Bill had broiled flounder stuffed with shrimp and crab, and we split a bottle of Pinot Grigio. We both brought about half of our food home.

A New Pincushion

Oh my goodness. How cute is this?

I am making a pincushion from a pattern I found at American Patchwork and Quilting. I modified it a little (like I always do). I want to make it for Alan’s birthday, and I actually have until September, but I don’t know how long it will take to get it looking the way I want it to. So far though, I am happy with it. I have some walnut shells I bought from the quilt shop that I can stuff it with, or maybe I will use fiberfill. Not sure what would work best. I want to make another for me with a pink base and background.

Prairie Flowers

I got a few more blocks done.

I love these Bonnie and Camille prints, but no surprise there. I always like their designs. Other than that, I have been busy with other stuff—mainly work. I have one more weekend off before the shutdown starts, and I want to some major decluttering and cleaning in this house. I’ve gotten so slow at it, not sure if I can do as much as I would like to. 

We had an A/C guy over to look at the blower. Some contacts were sticking so he replaced that part and flushed the drain line. Bill asked him for a quote to replace the whole system. Turns out the blower is about 50 years old. No wonder we have problems with it. I think it will need to be replaced before we can sell the house. 

Fat Quarters and May Flowers

 I found some more fat quarters that I can use for my May Flowers quilt. This one.

I actually bought four half yards from the bolts thinking I could just cut my own fat quarters and have a spare of each. I was a little frustrated when I started cutting and saw I didn’t have quite a half yard. 

It’s fine, but it will be a little tight on the cutting for this pattern, especially if I have to do much straightening. But, I am happy with the twelve fqs I have picked out, and just need to figure out the background. I was planning on Kona snow, but I might like something with a little pattern.

Mother’s Day 2020

Happy Mother’s Day to all. This is the gift from my daughter.

I hung it today, and I’m waiting to see if we have any takers before I fill it all the way up.

We celebrated yesterday at Texas Roadhouse. I’m pretty sure that’s my mom’s favorite. That where she generally chooses to go. It was my mom, me, my daughter, and granddaughter, so four generations. It’s nice when we can all get together.

Prairie Flowers

Isn’t this the prettiest quilt?

 

It’s a kit from Quilter’s Patch using a Bonnie  and Camille layer cake and a Missouri Star pattern called Prairie Flower. I bought the kit a month or two ago, maybe during the Taste of Texas shop hop. I need to do a blog post about the shop hop. It was so much fun.

I started this kit a few weeks ago. I couldn’t sleep one night and got up about three and started cutting it out. I love the way the blocks look with the Bella solid background.

I don’t think it will be too hard to finish. The blocks are easy, and the decisions are all made concerning sashing, cornerstones, and borders. As long as I don’t get tempted to start changing things, it should go smoothly.

Birthday Gifts

 April is my birthday month and my friend Dave has his birthday a day after mine. Bill and I were able to get together for a night out with Dave and Alan a couple of weeks ago. Dinner at Joe’s Pizza and Pasta with a bottle of wine and good conversation. 

They gave me several “quilty” gifts—all fabulous—but this one is really cool.

Alan made these from a Lori Holt tutorial. They are project boards for making quilt blocks. The pieces cling to the quilt batting, and you can transport all the pieces from the cutting table to the sewing machine, then stack them by the machine for sewing. So cool. 

I always like handmade things the best. Don’t you agree?

Spring Blooms

 We had a really bad freeze in February. I’m not saying it never freezes here, but it’s generally a day or two a couple of times a year—if that. This year, it was already cold so the ground was colder than usual, and then we had temps in the 20’s for almost a week. I thought I had lost all of my plants. Well honestly, I was just glad not to lose any water pipes! I wasn’t sure what all would come back and what was gone forever. We had a good rain this weekend, and my Canna Lilies are blooming!

I’m not sure what’s going on with the Lantana. It’s pretty tough, and I think it will be fine once the weather gets hot.

The Lily of the Nile usually blooms in March, but here it is May, and I can see two buds.

A

A strange year for sure.

Nine Patch Square Dance

 I have been waiting for the border fabric I ordered to get here so I could finish this top. It’s the 2021 quilt along from American Patchwork and Quilting.

Look what came this week!

The pattern uses a narrow inner border of the background fabric, and then a wider one from one of the colors in the quilt. I’m still thinking about that inner border: do I want the off white like the background or red like the cornerstones? Either way, the outer border will be the black. 

Today would be a good day to work on it. Nothing but rain and more rain. I have been doing laundry and got the bathrooms cleaned. It’s hard for me to get motivated when the weather is yucky like this. If it clears up soon, I will have to get busy and get the grass cut. In the meantime, I need to make a decision on the inner border for this quilt.