Another Table Runner

I am hooked on the Ice Jam table runner pattern. I made another one from a Corey Yoder charm pack called Buttercup and Slate. 

It was after dark when I took the picture, so there was no natural light from the sky lights or the windows. It’s hard to capture the color in artificial lighting. Sometimes a closeup picture shows it better. 

I need to take a little time and get my recent runners quilted and bound. The quilting machine has been busy with customer quilts all week. I got this one done for Marian.

And, a graduation quilt finished for Candace.

I think I will soon be caught up on customer stuff, and then I can work on some of my quilts. I also need to finish at least one or two for the church auction. I have until October to get that done, but time tends to sneak up on me, so sooner is better than later. 

We hosted Bunco at church Monday night, and that was a lot of fun.

I think we had about 60 people, so it was a good turn out. Other than that, I haven’t been doing too much. I was thinking about the 5K a day in May challenge which I did in 2020 or 2021. Maybe I should challenge myself to get moving this May. I know I have had no energy since I had Covid last year. I can’t seem to overcome the lethargy. 

A New Runner

I stayed up a little later than usual on Saturday night and got the table runner kit sewn. This one

I really like the way it turned out, and I do enjoy sewing with batiks. I like the crisp feel of them. 

I think the colors are nice and spring-y. Anyway, I am happy with it. Binding fabric was included in the kit. I need to get it quilted and bound before I misplace the binding fabric. 

I wasn’t able to sew yesterday. I spent the afternoon purging some paperwork, and I made another pass through my closet culling what I no longer wear. The donation pile on the guest room bed is growing. There are so many things that need to be done, and I feel like I don’t have the energy to get it all done. My son-in-law replaced the chain on my bike, and I was able to go for a nice long ride around the neighborhood. I feel like getting out and getting some exercise every day is the most important thing I can do to take care of myself. But, it is easier said than done. I also need to increase my step count. I have been slacking off on a lot of things.

A Little Work and a Little Play

It’s been a busy week…..again. It passed so fast I could barely keep up. I had quilt guild and Bunco on Thursday. I won a prize at bunco—for least games won. LOL. The food was good, and I didn’t have too many leftovers to bring home, so that’s a good thing. I found these two fabric bundles on the “free” table at quilt guild. 

I'm not sure where they’re from, but it looks like Walmart. Each package has two one-yard cuts. I thought maybe I could combine three of them and make a three-yard donation quilt. There were several of the bundles on the table, but I didn’t want to be greedy, so I limited myself to these two. 

I got a customer quilt finished; both the quilting and the binding. 

She calls in Boho Braids, which I assume is the pattern name. I finished another one for her, but I haven’t photographed it yet. 

I got my lawnmower running—with my son-in-law’s help. My air compressor has quit working, and Roger had to come and put air in the tires. I got everything else tuned up and got my back yard cut. It was pretty bad since I was waiting for the riding mower to get fixed. Now that it’s cut, I can start working on the flowerbeds. Or, I can just sit on the patio and play with the dogs. 

I also went to the quilt shop and treated myself to this table runner kit. 

I’m hoping to get it finished this weekend. It won’t take long once I get started.

Here We Go Again

I had a diagnosis of “trigger finger” about three years ago. It was the middle finger of my left hand, and it is caused by gripping. It causes the joint to lock, and you have to forcibly straighten it to get it to unlock. I had three steroid shots into the tendon sheath before it finally went away. The next step would have been surgery to open the sheath, but I was able to avoid it. Now I have it in my right hand. ☹️ 

I didn’t wait as long this time since I knew what it was. I went to the orthopedic surgeon yesterday and got my steroid shot. 

If you think that sounds painful, you would be right. It’s still less painful than the joint locking up though. I’m hoping I can get by with one shot this time. I also hope I can avoid surgery. I had tendon repair surgery on my right thumb several years ago, and it was done in the doctor’s office with a local anesthetic. Even though I was awake, I didn’t watch. That kind of stuff makes me nauseous. The recovery took a few weeks, and I don’t want that again. I need my right hand!

We had an Easter egg hunt at church yesterday and I took a few pictures. 

The teens hid the eggs. Notice the ones stuck in the fence! That made me laugh. It was so nice to see so many kiddos at church. I went to my daughter’s house for dinner. I cooked the food and took it. Ham, deviled eggs, scalloped potatoes, and brownies.  My mom brought some green beans. And, I got all the Easter baskets delivered. 

I am a hostess for quilt guild Thursday morning, and I’m hosting Bunco on Thursday evening. I’m going to do cake and also tortilla chips and queso for quilt guild. I looked yesterday for my little crockpot (for the queso), and I can’t find it. Either I have misplaced it or left it somewhere. Hmmmm. I went to Walmart, and they had them for a little less than $10. 

Unfortunately, the first Walmart I went to was sold out, and I had to drive across town to get one. For $10, if I accidentally leave it somewhere, it won’t be a large loss. I was planning to make ceaser chicken wraps for bunco, but I have some leftover ham to use, so I think I will make ham and Swiss quiches. Only 12 people are coming so two quiches should be enough. I’ll also fix a salad and some dessert. I need a few appetizers, but I will think of something.

I worked all morning, and after all the doctor stuff and the Walmart runs, I was so tired. I came home and did nothing except this. 

A generous pour of Sauvignon blanc. 

Part Two

Happy Easter to all who celebrate. I will be at church all morning, and with the kids in the afternoon. 

I titled this post Part Two because I’m still working on the projects I posted about a few days ago. I got the borders taken off the raffle quilt and added a strip of silver gray and started making some nine inch windmill blocks to go all the way around. So far, I have one side done.

The silver gray border was added to increase the size to a multiple of nine so the blocks would fit. I’m happy with the way it looks. I need to make 16 more of the windmill blocks, but I have quite a few pieces cut, and hopefully it won’t take too long.

I worked on the handles for the twister bag also and got them finished.

I stitched in the ditch to get the binding attached, and it’s not perfect. Maybe because I sew about 100 miles per hour. LOL

It’s good enough if you don’t look too closely, so I’m leaving it. It would have been faster to make a regular handle instead of doing the binding on the edges. but I like the extra contrast it gives the bag.

Since I had dark green thread on the machine, I finished two more placemats. These will get added to my stack for donation to Meals on Wheels.

I was able to fuse some leftover batting pieces for both placemats, and that made me happy.

There was plenty more I could have worked on, but I quit early to put together some little Easter baskets for the grandkids. 

They are all probably too old, but I’m not willing to give it up yet. We have a chance of rain today, so it may be a wet Easter. 

What I’ve Been Working On

It’s already been one of those weeks, and it’s only Wednesday. I have had to keep reminding myself what day of the week it is. I kept thinking yesterday was Thursday, and then going into a panic because I am the worship assistant for Maundy Thursday church service, and I hadn’t had time to prepare! 

I was at church on Tuesday for our Deborah Circle meeting, and we started discussing what our raffle quilt will be for 2026. We try to start about a year ahead so we have plenty of time to work on the quilt. This was donated:

Everyone wants to use it for next year’s raffle, but it is only about 60” x 60”. I reminded everyone it needs to be at least a queen to sell the maximum number of tickets, so I was asked to take it home and add more borders. LOL. Maybe one day I will learn to shut up. It’s actually okay because I was itching to make some changes. There are two of the borders that I don’t think enhance the quilt.

The one with the pink flowers has to go, and that wallpaper-looking one with the silver glitter

also needs to go. I found something in my stash that may work for a border, and it’s cute. 

I will see what I can do. There is plenty of help available so I don’t have to do it all on my own! 

I decided to work on another one of the twister bags. 

I had a charm pack of green, blue, and purple batiks. Not necessarily my colors, but they will be pretty in a bag.  This is what I came up with for a layout.

I got the hard part done, which is getting the pinwheels pieced. 

I had planned to make the handles yesterday, but I got distracted with that raffle quilt. Maybe tomorrow or Friday. I’m also trying to decide about the lining. I may use plain white. The inside pockets are more visible that way. At least that’s my thought.

I don’t know what will get done today. I will need to take my mom to Sugarland to get her dog. The dog was hit by a car on Sunday, and she took her to her vet here, but she didn’t want them to amputate the leg, so they referred her to an emergency vet in Sugarland. I drove her and the dog there on Sunday evening. We had to leave the dog as the orthopedic surgeons don’t come in until Monday. Anyway, there are three bad impact fractures with bone splinters everywhere, and they recommended amputation, and she agreed. They will call her and let her know when we can go get her (sometime today). It’s beyond sad, as she had to have her other dog euthanized just a couple of weeks ago. We are all dog lovers in this family, so I understand how hard this is. I think the dog will be okay with the amputation, but the rest of us are very upset. 

A Busy Week

I haven’t posted anything here in a week, but I’ve been super busy with a variety of things. I had a goal for last weekend to get the logging on quilt finished piecing. I think it was my January goal from one of my UFO lists. I was able to finish it Sunday.

I wanted a piano key border, but I didn’t have enough strips left of the pioneer woman fabric, so I came up with a way to make it work. I think now I would rather have the strips on the top left and bottom right corners, but I’m not changing it. Now to get it quilted. 

On Monday and Wednesday, I got a couple of customer quilts finished. Quilted and bound.

Kathryn had her senior prom last weekend. She wore the dress my daughter wore to her junior prom.

I can’t believe it was long enough, but surprisingly, I didn’t have to do any alterations. This may be the first year I didn’t have to make modifications. We have been looking for a picture of Julia in the dress, but we haven’t been able to find one. ☹️

On Tuesday, I worked at church with my sewing group. We only worked until noon, and for the life of me, I can’t remember what I did in the afternoon. It may have been yard work. There was one day that I got all my weed and feed put down and watered in.

Wednesday evening, I cooked tacos at the church.

I also made charro beans, Kim made Mexican street corn, and Mary made homemade bean dip. A lot of people brought desserts. It was our last Lenten meal. Next week is Holy Week, and we don’t do a meal then. The Easter season is a beautiful time in the church calendar, and I really do enjoy it. 

Thursday I took a friend to Sugarland for a medical procedure, and that was an all-day affair. I was so tired when I got home, and I was still tired on Friday, so not much got done. I did go to the International Festival at the university on Friday evening. My mom went with me and we met some friends there. 

They had a nice variety of food. I can’t remember what all I had, but there was a rice dish from Africa, a bean salad from Peru ((really good), egg noodles with mushroom gravy from Germany, empanadas from Spain, and some kind of little fried rice balls from India. I can’t remember the name of them, but they were served with a cilantro sauce.

I couldn’t get a picture of the food without holding up the line. 

There was a pretty good turnout, I thought.

You can go to each individual station and learn more about the country. The countries correspond to the international students who are attending UHV. These handsome boys are from Mexico.

There were also some performances. These girls, I think, were from one of the South American countries. 

And, this was a mixed group from India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. 

I made a small video of them dancing, but I can’t get it to load. Sorry about that. 

So, it’s been a busy week for me. I have tried to keep up with laundry and housework, but I have failed on both counts. There’s a load in the washer while I’m working on this post. I will get up in a minute and move it to the dryer. I’m hoping I can finish vacuuming today and get the floors mopped. That’s my main goal.

A Little Update

Wednesday was my birthday, and it’s been fun. Someone brought me a strawberry cake to church last night, which worked out great because I could eat a small piece and share the rest with everyone else. Alan and Dave took me out to Olive Garden last night, and that was fun. Dave’s birthday is one day after mine, so we were both celebrating. The festivities will continue tomorrow with the family. 

I got a couple of customer quilts done. This one is batik. 

Her husband picked it up, but hopefully she likes it.

This one is a donation quilt Penny made. I like the happy colors.

I hung a different one up on the wall of my quilting room. It’s an antique string quilt. The batting is lumpy, and the stitches are kind of large.

I don’t think I’ve hung this one up before. It’s interesting how the maker used the big checked fabric. There’s red and white check, and red and black check. From a distance, the checked strips looked pieced.

April Plans

The UFO number for April is 

I have four lists, but one of them only has nine entries on it, so I’m off the hook for that one. 

Numbers 2 and 6 are done, and I have an extra month to work on 7. That seems like a good plan.

I have a list for “Quilts to be quilted (and bound)

I’ve only finished the January one, I still need to work on February (6), March (7), and now April.

“Tops to Finish Piecing” — I’ve done none of them.

Maybe I can get something done on this. The Logging In quilt only needs a border at this point. I will and try and work on that one this weekend. 

Of course, I’ve been busy with church activities. The men are cooking this week, so I won’t have any responsibilities until the 9th. I spent yesterday shopping for dog toys. Reba has a stuffed alligator she is very fond of. She’s had it about 4 years and usually sleeps with it in her bed. 

She had a big tantrum on Sunday and removed the stuffing and the squeaker. 

This one had to go in the trash, and I absolutely can’t find a duplicate. I found something similar, but I can’t come home with one new toy, so I bought three. 

I gave Reba her choice, and she decided on the bright green one.

She took the other two outside and buried them, but Ruthie dug up the red one and brought it back inside, 

She’s sleeping with it right now.