Nothing New

 Nothing much to report today. I did get a quilt loaded, and the quilting is started.

The thread is called purpilicious, and it is a really nice color.

My stepdad is in the hospital for a kidney removal. He had cancer on one kidney, and they opted to remove it. The doctor said the remaining one looks fine, so no chemo is needed. He was stationed at Camp Lejune during the Vietnam war, and there was a lot of chemical testing during that time, plus the agent orange exposure once he was deployed to Vietnam, so no surprise about the kidney cancer. Needless to say, most of my time was spent at the hospital. Tomorrow, I will need to take a friend to the VA for his blood work, but I hope to get some sewing/quilting done also.

It will all get done when it gets done. I have to keep reminding myself that I am retired, and there are no rigid deadlines.

Quilting Day

I am still working my way through the stack of quilt tops a customer brought me. She said “no hurry”, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t mean I can just piddle around. I got this one done today:

It is a baby quilt with Lilo and Stitch fabric. I think my biggest challenge is deciding on a thread color. That has always been a sticking point for me. I was planning to use a peach color, but it was pretty stark against the navy border. I ended up with a variegated turquoise. It is one of my Fantastico spools, and it worked really well.

I texted a picture to my client, and she loved it. I used an Urban Elements design called Fern. I was trying to stay away from flowers or butterflies as I think the baby is a boy. Fern is pretty neutral; almost a feather pattern.

When I left the shop, I stopped and got some fresh spinach and mushrooms so I could make an egg frittata for meatless Monday. I also added halved grape tomatoes and sliced black olives.

I thought it was good, and Bill said he liked it, although he is never very excited about meatless Monday. He took some bratwurst out of the freezer to grill tomorrow. So funny.

Early Morning Antics

I’m pretty sure my neighbors are ready to kill me. The dogs found a possum and started a big ruckus early this morning. Like 5:00 am early. The picture I took at 5 didn’t turn out as it was too dark out; these were from  around 6:30.

I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures, but it was a huge possum. I tried to push him off the fence with a broom, but he had his claws dug in and wasn’t going anywhere. We had to crate the dogs to get them to stop, and he got away. Finally. These are the two Jagdterriers. The other two dogs are not hunting breeds and they weren’t very interested. 

After that excitement, we had to drive to Lake Jackson, and man, was it ever foggy.

I was glad we were in the truck since it sits up a little higher and helps with the visibility. We took all the leftovers from our moving sale and donated them at the SPCA re-tail store in Freeport. The lady who helped us unload said everything would be sold by next weekend, and sure enough, by the time we came back with a second load, a young couple was loading the furniture we had brought. It’s nice to know someone can use it, and it’s also nice to know the SPCA got some much needed funds. They do so much for the animals.

Needless to say, there has been no quilting or sewing all weekend. I’m still hopeful about Monday.

March UFO

 I got the binding put on my March UFO, so this one is a wrap!

It’s a Villa Rosa pattern that was kitted for a shop hop that happened in March, 2021, and I got the top made pretty fast. The quilting, and then the binding, took a little longer. There were (I think) three color way choices for the quilt…..it seams like the other choices were a blue one and a brownish one. Naturally, I picked this one. 

More good news…I took my mom for her cardiologist appointment this morning, and her EKG was perfectly normal. Apparently the pacemaker is doing it’s job. She says she is still more fatigued than normal, but none of the doctors we have seen so far seemed concerned about it, and I don’t know what to think.

This afternoon, I worked on loading another quilt for the customer who brought me seven tops. This is another baby quilt, and it is cute.

I have a lot to do tomorrow, but I hope to get it finished on Monday.

UFO Progress

This was actually my February UFO, but I just got the binding on it. 

I used a solid red binding, and it’s pretty narrow. I cut it 2.25”. I often do that if I don’t want it to show up as much. The quilt is prettier than the pictures which kind of wash it out.

My March UFO also needs binding. 🙄 It is on the machine though; I just need to finish stitching it down, so I think I will make it by the end of the month.

Another Finish

I got another customer quilt done.

It’s made from a panel with four borders around it. It’s really cute. 

I used a pattern called three leaf clover, and I think the texture is really nice on this one.

The texture shows very nicely on the back.

I have three more to do for this customer. 

Saturday Sewing

I had some free time to sew on Saturday. I worked a little more on this one: 

This is the one I’m doing with two charm packs. I need to put the borders on the sides, but I want to use some mini charms to make a checkerboard border, and I need to put a little thought into the measurements. The length and the width need to divisible by four to make the checkerboards work out correctly. I think the length is okay, but I probably need to remeasure.

The rest of the weekend was spent on packing up stuff that needs to be donated. We have quite a few boxes that will need to be hauled away. Once again, I am baffled by how much stuff we have accumulated that we don’t really need.

Customer Quilts

Janice brought me five quilts to longarm. This is the first one.

It didn’t take long once I got it loaded. She chose an edge to edge star design. 

It turned out very nicely. I think she will be pleased……at least I hope so! 

The backing is pieced, and is also nice.

The stars are equal distance from the center. I think my camera angle skewed in somewhat. 

Free Table Runner Project

I had this pattern bookmarked thinking it was something I could work on with my granddaughter over spring break.

It’s a free project from the Thermoweb blog. The pattern download is here. I did have to enter my email address to get the free download.

It turns out the grandkids are off to Colonial Williamsburg this week, so I will keep this in mind for summer. I bought Kathryn a Featherweight machine for Christmas a couple of years ago, but there hasn’t been any opportunities for us to sit down together and sew on it. Now that I am retired, I hope we can spend some time working on projects together. 

Quilting Placemats

Not much new here…..I did load some placemats and quilt them.

I am finding this is a good way to use up smallish pieces of batting and some of the bobbins that don’t have a lot left on them. It actually takes longer to load than it does to quilt them. Of course, there’s still binding to do, and the sooner the better. I have been busy digging up blocks that never made it into a quilt that can be used for placemats. All will be donated to the Meals on Wheels program.

UFO

I found another UFO that I needed to finish. It is a really old one from an online swap. 

I’m not too sure how this one slipped under the radar, but when I found it, it only had the sawtooth border sewn on, and two pieces of the white on white were folded up inside it.

When I took the white out, I saw why I didn’t finish it. The two pieces were the same print and same color, but on one, the printing was much less defined. I think you can tell from this picture:

My choices were to only have the sawtooth border, or use the two pieces that weren’t really a perfect match. 

I was thinking the sawtooth border looks fine alone, but I might lose some points when I did the binding.

As you can see from the pictures above, I decided to use the different white on white fabrics and be done with it. It’s not perfect, but I will probably just keep it for myself, as I really do like the quilt. It will finish around 88” x 100”, so I can use it on one of my queen beds. I think it will be really pretty once it is quilted.

Crazy Weekend

The plans were to have a moving sale in Lake Jackson, and I got there Thursday afternoon to finish setting everything up. 

This is not even close to all of it. Just so much “stuff”. It really has me wondering how we accumulate so much. I mean, things stuck in closets or cabinets that was not even being used. It’s mind boggling. 

The sale was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My mom had a doctor appointment Thursday morning, and I talked to her before I left town, and she said they told her to double her medication for the heart arythmia she had been having. On Friday, her heartbeat had increased to a high level, and her blood pressure was 50ish over 40ish. My stepdad took her to the ER, and her cardiologist was called. They ended up doing surgery, and she now has a pacemaker. 

I came back home on Friday, and left Bill to deal with the sale. Mom was released on Saturday, and I took her home. She seems to be doing better already since she got the pacemaker. We will need to call today and make an appointment to see the doctor, so I’m hoping that goes well. 

I will need to make a trip back to Lake Jackson when I can to pack up whatever didn’t sell and get it to the donation center, but for now, I have enough to deal with here.

Binding News

I was really having a moment of indecision on this quilt:

Specifically, what to use for binding. I had enough of the blue backing left and had pretty well resigned myself to that, but I just wasn’t sure.

When I was digging fabric out of boxes to put on the shelves, I found this:

There’s 26” of it which should be enough, and that would get it out of my stash. This is most likely a donation quilt, and I know it wouldn’t matter to some people, but I really try to make the donation quilts look attractive. 

The bonus to all of this is that I can use the rest of the blue backing for my Ukraine quilt blocks, so it’s a win/win.

I will have to be in Lake Jackson all weekend; we are having a moving sale in a last ditch effort to get everything out of the house. Bill is not too excited about it, but the girls said they would help me. I have posted notices about it online, and my Facebook messenger is blowing up. Hopefully, I can keep my sanity through all of this.

A Little More Progress

I worked on my fabric organizing a little yesterday. I have a lot of the folded fabric done, and I found another box of fat quarters which I added to the shelf.

The good thing about organizing by color is that I can see which colors I have a lot of, and which I don’t. The orange stack in the middle has very little. I like orange; I know some people don’t, but I do. The far right on the middle shelf is black and gray combined since I don’t have a great deal of either; left of that one is brown and purple. I combined those too since I don’t have enough of either to make a very tall stack. I was surprised at all the blue—it’s not my favorite, but it does have turquoise and aqua mixed in, and I do like those colors. On the second shelf is solids on the right, polka dots next to that, and holidays left of the polka dots. The other two stacks to the left are prints that don’t read as one color and 1930’s. 

I have another of those bins that go on the bottom shelf, a purple one, but I can’t find it anywhere. I assume it will turn up eventually……I think I got them at Big Lots,  not sure though. There’s still a lot more stuff I need to deal with, but for now I am happy to make some progress.

Ukraine Blocks

I had a little sewing time yesterday and got three blocks made. 

I had expected to get more than three done, but each block is a lot of cutting and marking diagonal lines. Once all the cutting and marking is done, the blocks go together really fast, and it is a nice, big block. A couple of my pieces were directional, and they aren’t all oriented correctly, but I decided I could live with it. I know some people don’t think twice about it, but if you started out a garment sewer, which I did, it really is distracting. 

I don’t know if I’ll do 9 blocks or 12; I have enough of the blue squares cut to do five more, so I have a pretty good start.

It was cold today after several days of upper 70’s. Other than sewing, I did a little laundry and housework, and I also cooked a pot of beans and cornbread. The beans were so good. This is all that was left after Bill and I ate:

I think my beans are so good, but I always think my grandmother is up in heaven shaking her head because I put a can of Rotel tomatoes in them. I know she wouldn’t have ever done that. 

Quilting for a Cause

I have no doubt everyone is aware of the crisis in Ukraine. It is absolutely heartbreaking how many people are being forced to flee their homes, and in many cases, their country. I did no sewing yesterday, but last night I went through and pulled out some blue and yellow fabric.

I am feeling motivated to make the pattern Pat Sloan posted on her blog. It is a free pattern, but she is requesting that everyone make a $10 donation via the link in her post. The link is for UNICEF, and it was really easy to donate. Of course, you can always do more. 

There are other ways to give as well. Quilted Twins has a link on their website. The cool thing about that is one of the twins is living in Poland where a lot of Ukrainian refugees have fled, and 100% of the donations go directly to buying needed supplies for the refugees. 

Oh, I found this cool fabric as well:

Apparently, sunflowers are the national flower for Ukraine, and I am thinking I will use this for the block centers. I have gotten enough cut out to complete several blocks; unfortunately it is the weekend, and we are needing to get some things done in Lake Jackson. I will be ready to sew when I get back (hopefully Monday).

Glasses Case

When I went to Corpus Wednesday, I put my glasses in my bag. I can’t walk or drive wearing them, but reading is a different story. I was looking for a case to put them in, but I couldn’t find one. ☹️ 

Yesterday when I was working on my coffee filter swap quilt, I found a block that didn’t make it into the quilt.

I used it as a pattern to cut a piece of batting and a back. I also cut some bias binding.

I had a brainstorm to make a case for my glasses. I ended up trimming a little off the sides before I put the binding around the three layers.

Once I had the binding sewn all the way around, I folded it over and stitched down the side and across the bottom.

It looks like a taco! LOL. My glasses fit though. It kind of cracks me up how I’ll spend an hour making something to keep from throwing away a quilt block 

A Little Bit of Organizing

I’m still working on it….not very fast though! One thing I wished I had done differently last time was more color grouping. I’m working on that now, and I see why I didn’t do it before. It definitely takes more time. 

The boxes on the third shelf have fat quarters. Yes, a lot of fat quarters. I am thinking about color grouping those too, but not until I get the flat fold pieces done. On the bottom shelf I have the bins that are grouped by function—one is interfacing and other stabilizers, one is embroidery supplies, etc. There should be another purple one somewhere, but I haven’t uncovered it yet. 

I’m trying to keep going on this but not spend so much time I get burned out. I have a tendency to get so motivated about new things, and I jump in and go, go, go until I am just sick of it, and it doesn’t get completely finished. I just need to be patient with myself, and set everything up so that I can maintain it. I don’t think it ever ends. 

March Goal Status

My internet is so bad right now…. I am going to try and get this to post. Here is my “to be quilted” March UFO:

It still needs to be trimmed. I have it laid out like this as I have been looking at the quilt pattern. It is one of the Baptist fan ones I bought. There is something about it that I don’t like, but I’m not sure what it is. It may be the scale. I will reduce the size next time I use it, and see if that looks better to me. The important thing is it’s done. The quilting part at least. I’m having a hard time deciding what to bind it with. The backing is light blue, and I’m thinking about a navy or red. Oh wait, I bound the last two I made with red. I do love red, though.

I have to go to Corpus today and get my windshield replaced. Not just repaired—replaced. Something hit it hard, and then the cracks started running every which direction. 

I bought the “windshield insurance” which is supposed to pay for it.