Baby, It’s Hot Outside

Alexa says it’s 99 outside, and I can believe it. The forecast for the next seven days is more of the same. This is my patio:

The lizards aren’t even running away. Two good thing about the heat: the grass isn’t growing, and the watermelon has been sooooo good.

I went to Yorktown yesterday and got the Aggie fabric I was wanting. I sent it home with Janice so she can piece the quilt. The shop had a basket of fat quarters on the counter—$1.65 each—I picked out ten that I think will work together.

I have a pattern picked out for it. 

I’m hoping I’ll have some free time to work on it soon. 

I have a couple of table runner patterns I want to make too. 

I had hopes of doing the flag one before the 4th of July…..maybe Labor Day is more realistic. For the second one, I have a Lori Holt jelly roll I want to use, and I bought some solid green today for the background. Although, now that I’m looking at the pattern again, I really like the yellow they used. We’ll see. Janice made me one from that pattern that I still need to quilt, so there’s no short of things to work on. I don’t make many table runners anymore, but I do like them. I think it’s time for a couple of new ones.

To-Do-List Tuesday 6-27-23

Happy Tuesday! It’s been a good week, and there has been just enough productivity to keep me on track. My list was short:

1) Get the APQ quilt sewn together. Not quite, but I’m about half way done.

A day or two of dedicated sewing will get this one finished.

2) Work on Summer Scrap Challenge. I spent some time yesterday sewing blocks together, I have four rows done, and five more to go.

3) Sew two more blocks for Water Colors quilt along. I got five more done. 

What’s on the list for this week? More of the same. These are the three projects I feel most motivated to spend time on, so I’m going to carry them forward to this week.

1) Get the APQ quilt sewn together.

2) Work on Summer Scrap Challenge.

3) Sew two more Water Colors blocks.

4) And just for fun, do some charity sewing.

I’m linking this to Quilt Schmilt.

I have my mammogram this morning. It has officially been rescheduled three times, so I am past due. I rescheduled it once, and the hospital has rescheduled it twice. When I went a few weeks ago, they said they couldn’t do it since it hadn’t been six weeks since my last Covid vax. You would think they would tell you things like that when you schedule the test. There are only two testing places in town, so it takes several months to get an appointment. I’m trying not to get frustrated, but this is silly. In a perfect world, there would be mobile units that would go through the neighborhoods offering mammograms free of charge to everyone. A pipe dream, I guess. Anyway, if you haven’t scheduled yours, please consider this a friendly reminder. 

After my mammogram, I am going to make a quick trip to Yorktown. My local LQS is out of A&M fabrics, and the shop in Yorktown has some. I want to make a quilt for the church auction in October, so I have plenty of time to get it done. My friend Janice said she would piece it for me, so I only have to quilt and bind it. 

Weekend Update

It was such a nice weekend—very low key, but still nice. I worked at my shop on Saturday finishing up a customer quilt.

The thread color is really a lot for the white background, but she likes the thread to show. If I have time today, I will get it off the frame and get it trimmed. More likely, it will be tomorrow.

I also worked on getting Scrappy Celebration put together.

I think I got five rows done…..it is a real pain with all the intersections and opposing seams. 

Oh, I kept falling asleep on the couch Saturday night. I finally gave up and went to bed. After church Sunday, I laid down and slept about an hour and a half. I think I have been exhausted, and I can’t seem to get caught up. I felt so much better after my nap, I went to the sewing room and worked on these: 

My goal for the week was to get two blocks done, but I actually did five. That gives me nine total, so I am making progress.

I also added a row to this one:

I made some extra blocks for it as well. I hope to work on this one a little while today. I never did get around to cleaning the bathrooms, so that will probably be job number one today. I got the floors done yesterday, but with the dogs, they need vacuuming daily, so that’s another chore. We’ll see how much sewing time there is…

Saturday

 

Happy weekend everybody! I’ve been really busy, but not too many things are getting finished. I’ve been working on the Water Colors quilt along, but those pieces require so much trimming……I modified my my to-do list to add a goal of getting two of the blocks done this week. I had originally meant to put it on the list, but it got left off. I did settle on a lay out for the Scrappy Celebration blocks

I’ve gotten the first row sewn together, and I’m anxious to see some progress on this one.

I also finished the quilting on the large customer quilt I was working on.

It still needs a close encounter with a lint roller, but that will happen before it goes back to its owner. 

Thursday I went to Galveston to pick up my lost bag.

(Yes, that’s a watermelon on my washing machine…..I haven’t cut it up yet, and I didn’t want it taking up room on the kitchen counter.) I am so happy to report nothing is missing from the bag. Although I was relieved to get everything back, I was exhausted from the drive. I slept nine straight hours Thursday night. I think that’s what I needed, as I feel good now. 

Good News

Thank you to anyone who prayed my lost bag would get returned. I got a text yesterday from the cruise terminal with a picture of my bag asking if it was mine. I am going to Galveston today to retrieve it. It is about 170 miles one way, and they offered to ship (at my cost of course), but I want to get it back, and close the chapter on this. 

My sewing group met Tuesday at church and we put all of the lap quilts we have been working on in the sanctuary to be blessed. This is from the back of the church looking toward the alter,

and this one is standing at the communion rail looking toward the back.

After being blessed, they will be delivered to the local dialysis centers and the two hospitals who do cancer infusions. We had so many, we ended up putting them in the chapel as well. It is the old (original) church built around 1850. We still use it for early services on Sunday mornings.

I worked on a customer quilt yesterday--it is quite big.

There is some extra fullness through the middle, so I am keeping the quilt pretty loose on the frame and using the cup foot on the machine.....so far, so good with that.

The same customer brought me some leftover blocks to use on my charity quilts.

There are only 11 of them, but she brought me some extra fabric, so I will make at least one more. I'm always glad to get a jump start on anything for the charity tops, so these are a welcome gift. 

To-Do List Tuesday 6-20-23

Hello! It’s been a couple of weeks since I made a to-do list, but I have been checking my last list to stay on track with what I need to be working on. Here’s the current status:

1) Put borders on the two donation quilts. Done.

These two have been added to the stack of tops to be quilted.

2) Get the APQ blocks laid out. Done.

3) Start the new APQ sew along—I don’t know what the first prompt will be, but I assume it will be cutting. Done. I have four blocks made.

4) Cut out another kit for the cruise. I don’t want to run out of things to sew! Done, but the three kits were in the bag I lost. I’m still hoping it will be found.

5) I’m still thinking about doing something with a couple of charm packs. I probably at least need to make a start on it. Done. I started one, just need to take some pictures.

On my next list:

1) Get the APQ quilt sewn together.

2) Work on Summer Scrap Challenge.

3) Sew two more blocks for Water Colors quilt along.

It’s not a very long list, but I have a lot of things coming up this week that are going to take away from my spare time. I think it’s enough to keep me busy this week. I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt. Have a great week everyone!

Weekend Update

It’s so hot…..too hot to do anything outside…

I can’t really say what I’ve been spending my time on, but whatever I’m doing, I’m doing it indoors in the air conditioning. The condensate line on the a/c got plugged, and I spent Saturday trying to clean up all the water. The technician finally came Saturday afternoon and got it unplugged. At least it never quit cooling. 

I think I posted a picture of this block already.

It’s from the current APQ quilt along. I got three more made Sunday.

Some of the fabrics are directional, and I didn’t realize that would be such a challenge. I took that turquoise one apart more times that I care to remember. I picked the fat quarters for the colors, and several of them are directional prints. These blocks are taking a lot longer than I had anticipated, but I only have to make twenty, so I will power through it. I need to cut some more fabric before I can make any more.

Four done, sixteen to go. 

The sewing machine was starting to sound a little louder than usual, so I took it apart.

Oh my gosh! When did I last clean this machine? This is crazy. 

I’m going to Round Rock today(north of Austin). I have been looking for a particular sewing machine for several months, and my dealer is unable to order it. They are apparently not being made anymore, but I found one store that has one in stock. A friend is going with me, so we will have a little road trip.

Playing Catch Up

I've been cleaning house now that I have pretty much rested up from vacation. Today was trash day, so it was time to clean the refrigerator. Yesterday, I did the floors and the bathrooms. I still need to dust, but that's the one thing I will put off as long as I can stand it.

Speaking of putting things off.....I decided I needed to get the APQ quilt blocks laid out....I've been saying I would do that for a couple of weeks now. Time to quit procrastinating and get it done.

I will study the picture for a while and see what I might want to move. I can already see a couple of blocks that need to swap positions. But what a lovely riot of color. I believe I am going to like this one a lot!

Between yesterday and the day before, I got a customer quilt quilted and bound.

I love those Aggie prints. This would be something I would like to make for our church auction. I think it would be popular with all the Aggie parents and grandparents. I have another big one I need to load today (maybe tomorrow). It's purple and black print. I still need to give the backing a good press with steam to get the wrinkles out. I ordered a black batting for it--just a single piece that comes folded up in a bag--and it is draped over my batting rack to let some of the wrinkles ease out of it. 

This morning is my mammogram. It has been rescheduled twice.....once by me, and once by the hospital, so I am pretty much past due for it. One more thing that has been postponed. 

I’m Back

I made it back home yesterday, and I have to say I had a good time. I was pretty exhausted when I got back, but I had a good night’s sleep, and I feel much better today. There was plenty of time to sew….we had an entire conference room to set up our workstations.

The lighting wasn’t bad, and I took my little portable lamp. I worked on all three of the projects I took, but I only finished one.

The bad news is I lost the bag that had my quilt projects in it. 😢 I got off the ship with everything, but I didn’t manage to get all my bags off the shuttle bus that took us from the terminal to the parking lot. I am hoping I can recover it somehow, but it will probably be a miracle. 

The good news is I only gained a pound. I tried to be reasonable with what I was eating, but I still ate more than I usually do. I get up early, so I went to the walking track on the top deck every morning and walked about two miles. I got to see the sunrise over the water every morning!

After my walk, I went to the gym for about 30-45 minutes. Other than that, I sewed all day. I did stay on the ship when we docked in Cozumel and went to the pool. 

If I can recover my lost bag, I will say it was a perfect trip. All prayers and good wishes that I get it back are appreciated. I need to get back into the groove today. I have a customer coming to pick up a quilt and another coming to drop off a quilt. I also need to get busy with the APQ quilt along. I went by the grocery store when I got back to town and restocked on bread, milk, lunch meat, cheese, and produce, so I’m good on food. A little house cleaning needs to be done before the weekend, but I can put it off for another day or two.

Weekend Wrap Up

Remember the Summer Scrap Challenge? I posted about it here. I sewed and sewed Sunday afternoon and got two rows done.

It’s not hard, but I had two of the blocks turned wrong which definitely affects how the pattern looks. I corrected them before I took the picture. I get aggravated with myself when I do stuff like that because it slows me down a lot to have to go back and fix things. Here’s the one my friend is working on:

She is a using a navy jelly roll as her “constant “.

Granddaughter has a summer job at the country club as a lifeguard. I spent a couple of hours at the pool Saturday afternoon when she was working.

She is getting so grown up—I’m not sure she wanted me there, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it. 😎. When she wasn’t on the lifeguard stand, she was at the concession area making snow cones for a kid’s party. 

The other think I worked on Sunday evening was the new APQ quilt along.

I had done some of the cutting Thursday and Friday, and I was able to get one block sewn yesterday.

Haha! This one is a little labor intensive. It took me a couple of hours to get one block together! The good thing is that it is a 15” block, so I won’t need too many. I have twenty fat quarters, plus plenty of background fabric, but I need to do some more cutting. I think I cut enough for six or seven blocks. 

I have a whole list of things I need to get done today—go by the insurance agent, go to the feed store for a big bag of dog food, go to Lowe’s for roundup, do a couple loads of laundry. I don’t know if there will be spare time for sewing or not.

Part Two

I meant to post this yesterday and forgot. I usually type out the post the night before and schedule it to post early the next morning. Unfortunately, I fell asleep on the couch (again!) before I finished it. 

On Thursday, I worked on making kid’s quilts out of the fabric I had laundered last week.

I got the borders on these two. This pattern is super fast—I think I spent longer on the borders than on any other part. I think they are cute, and of course, the quilting will make them look even better. 

On Friday i got this one cut out:

This is the first two rows sewn together. I think I need six rows plus borders, so I’m making good progress on these also. I’ve made this pattern a few times, and I like the way it turns out. 

I had an appointment Thursday with the cardiologist and told him I am so sleepy I can hardly function. He told me to cut the blood pressure medicine dosage in half and see how I did with that. It should help with the fatigue, but we will have to see if my blood pressure is controlled on the lesser dosage. I’m hoping I won’t be so tired going forward, although I realize my blood pressure needs to be lower. There must be an optimum solution somewhere. I’m normally a high energy person, and this is very frustrating. 

What I’m Working On

First of all, I started working on the Summer Scrap Challenge and got quite a few of the strips sewn together.

This one shouldn’t take long—it’s going together pretty fast so far. 

Second, the APQ quilt along officially started today.

I already did a little cutting, but it was very little. I will do a little each day until I get it done.

Other than that, I haven’t been very productive. I’m still more tired than usual and spend the evenings doing  nothing except some cross stitch. I am making progress on the cross stitch. 

Oh, one of my neighbors had their front door kicked in last night around 2am. Apparently there is a tic toc challenge that the kids are doing. I can’t understand why anyone’s kids would be out on the streets at 2am, but I know it does happen. I put the security chain on the door after I heard about it, and I do have a doorbell camera, but what would prevent them from kicking the doorbell camera and disabling it? I don’t want to worry about all this.