Midweek Mash-Up

Happy Wednesday! First of all, my mom is doing well. Thanks for the prayers and good wishes, it is definitely appreciated. When she sees the doctor for a follow-up, we’ll find out if/when the blood thinners can be discontinued.

The dogs are going to the groomer this morning. It’s not easy to get harnesses on all three of them and get them in the car, but I would rather get them all done at once. I texted Melanie last night and told her my dogs stink. She will bathe them this morning, and hopefully trim their claws. My dog groomer is also my stepdaughter so I get good service! 

I have been working on customer quilts this week and making pretty good progress. I got two Jacob’s Ladders done for Janice.

The second one has an orange back.

So pretty.

Also, this small one for Penny. 

I am working on some more, but I will need to bind them and that takes a little longer. I have also been working on getting some three yard quilt kits put together for our guild workshop tomorrow. Betty came over yesterday and helped me get everything together. I hope to have pictures soon. 

Another Weekend Already

I can’t believe it’s already the weekend! The week kind of zoomed by leaving me in the dust. Of course, driving back and forth to Sugarland two days left me a little off my routine. My mom is back at home and doing well, so that’s a relief. She had an LAAO procedure which means they implanted a device to seal off the left atrial

appendage which is where blood clots are formed. I hope this will be the last of the heart surgeries. 

I managed to get four customer quilts done in between trips to Sugarland, but I just realized I didn’t take any pictures! LOL! All the time spent waiting at the hospital was an opportunity to surf through all the social media, and I saved some pictures of things I would like to make……..someday.

This is a vintage quilt. 

I don’t know who to give credit to for the photo. Isn’t it pretty? It wouldn’t be hard to duplicate.

Here’s another one. 

I think this picture came from Pinterest. It would also be easy to make with a solid and some 1930’s reproductions.

I want to make this one,

and I have already drafted it out on paper. I think it is the goose tracks pattern. Anyway, I can always entertain myself by looking at quilt patterns and drawing them out on paper. I had taken some yarn and a crochet hook with me, but I’m still not sure my right hand is ready for that much repetitive motion. I am going to try and rest it a little longer. 

A Busy Weekend

Happy Monday friends! 

The weekend was good. I went to Yorktown Friday to pick up my online order. I had bought six one-yard cuts (the ones on the left)

and they were $6.00, so I ended up getting six more. I can always use neutrals, but I prefer to see them in person before I buy them. She also had some of last year’s Christmas fabrics on clearance. I limited myself to three two-yard cuts. The gray one will be a border on a panel I have had for a few years. I like the panels, but I am often stuck on what to do with them. 

This one is a border print.

My plan is to use it for a table runner, but I don’t know for sure. Anyway, quite a bit of fabric for a little over $100, so it was worth the trip. 

My church women’s group had a retreat on Saturday. It was very nice. We had some guest speakers and some good fellowship. One of the ladies did a sound bath. 

It was my first time to experience that. It is actually for stress relief. It’s very calming; almost hypnotic. We also had a workshop on faith journaling. It was led by Melanie, our church secretary. It was like junk journaling with a biblical basis. A couple of the ladies shared their faith journals so we could get ideas. I didn’t take pictures of them, but they are something like this. 

Melanie gave us a package of goodies to get us started. 

I’m really not sure where to start, but I saved my church bulletin from this week and from last week, so I can cut out the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed. I think a profession of faith would be a good starting place. 

We had a soup and sandwiches lunch. Becky made a hearty pasta fagioli soup.

Becky, Gloria, and I went to the Our Lady of Lourdes fall festival after church on Sunday and ate turkey and dressing. They also had Vietnamese food available, and I bought a plate of that to bring home. I’ll eat it tonight. 

Tomorrow I will take my mom to Sugarland for her heart procedure. They are implanting a “watchman” device in her left atrial aorta. That is where the blood clots typically form, and she should be able to stop taking blood thinners once it is done. It’s amazing what they can do now; of course, they won’t do it in Victoria, so we have to travel. 

Scraps and More Scraps

I was home early yesterday. I had left the shop to run some errands, and they didn’t take as long as I thought they would. Someone had given me a shoebox full of scraps, and it was a good opportunity to get home and get them cut up.

My goal was to add to my potato chip boxes. I did pretty well, but there’s still more to be done. 

I also cut up some black and neutral fat quarters and added those to my other box. 

All the sewing I’ve done lately was depleting my supply, and I like to have a good variety so there aren’t too many duplicates. All the chips I cut are 2-1/2” x 4-1/2”. Some people do other sizes, but I like this size because I can cut them from leftover charm squares if I get too many of those. 

I am thinking of a new project I want to make, but I need to find some spare time to work on it. The last class I went to, I was wishing I had a flat type of bag for my cutting mat and rulers. I could also add the little wool mat in the pictures above. It’s 12” x 15”, so smaller than the cutting mat. My idea is to make something lined with Bosal or soft and stable so my rulers don’t get cracked. I already have a case for the mini iron so I don’t need that. And of course, I have a case (or two or three) for my sewing machine. 

Oh, the house smelled so good when I got home from running errands. I had bought a roast when I went grocery shopping, and I browned it on the stove and then put it in the crockpot with potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery. I cooked it in beef broth and V8. 

I know it looks like a lot of liquid, but I took out 1-2 cups to make gravy. I like to mash up some potatoes and carrots and put the gravy over them. I have enough to eat for a few days and will most likely have to freeze some. It can be thawed out later and used for vegetable beef soup. 

As for today, I am taking a little trip to Yorktown. 

The other day when I was eating lunch, I opened the laptop and started watching Sarah’s “twelve at twelve” on Facebook. She had some sale fabric, and I bought six yards. 😬 I don’t need it, but I can’t resist a good fabric sale. Now I need to go and pick it up. I texted Betty, and she wants to go, so maybe we can get lunch and make a day of it! Tomorrow I have a ladies retreat which is for my church WELCA group. I think it will be fun, and of course there will be food involved! 

Midweek Update

I think I am finally caught up on the time change. After a couple of nights of minimal sleep, I slept seven straight hours last night, without waking up at all. I actually feel pretty energetic now. I’ve gotten several quilts done this week, but I didn’t get pictures of all of them. 

Here’s another Christmas panel. 

I also did the binding.

I think this one is a turning twenty, or a variation thereof. 

And, here are a couple of baby quilts.

These two quilts are mostly the same, but the backs are different.

The yellow one is cuddle or minky. A lot of people love it, but to me, nothing beats the cool, smooth feeling of a good quality cotton. I put the binding on these too.

I went outside yesterday evening and was surprised to see how big the moon looked. Have you seen it? 

It was so bright and clear. Is that an autumn thing? I think it might be.

I have been busy sewing my potato chip quilts, but I don’t have anything yet that’s photo worthy. I tend to work on three or four quilts at a time, and I have four of the potato chips going right now. The problem with that is it takes me a little longer to get finished. Of course, when I do finish, I will have four tops done. I know the way I sew would drive most people crazy, but I’ve always been this way. It works for me. 

Quilt Class

Another time change…..why can’t we just pick a time and leave it alone? I’m all messed up already. My biological clock doesn’t adjust that quickly. LOL. 

It’s been a good week. I’m working hard on getting caught up and quite a few quilts got done this week. I didn’t get pictures of all of them, only a few. We’ve had cooler weather, and it’s been so nice. I usually prefer hot weather, but I think I was ready for a change. I spent some time yesterday afternoon cleaning house….I didn’t finish, but it was nice to have a little more energy. 

I taught a two-day class at quilt guild. The subject was “How to Use Your Scraps”. I talked about how I process my scraps so that they actually make it into quilts. At the end of the discussion, I handed out books with patterns for potato chip quilts. 

In case you are wondering, I got permission to reproduce the patterns and hand them out at the class. Everyone had pre-cut some “potato chips” and could choose which pattern they wanted to try. Here are a few of them. 

I think it’s interesting to see the different color choices. I started on one myself, but when I started trying to put them together, I realized I had sewn them wrong, so I started a different one. I didn’t get that far, but I worked on it at home Friday night and yesterday and got five rows done.

I still need three more rows. I hope I can get it done this week. My intention is to use it for a Project Graduation quilt. There are about 30 quilt patterns in the booklet. I would really like to try all of them. Well, that’s a goal, but it might not happen. I’ll see how far I can get with it.

Last night, I sat down and took apart the ones I had done wrong during the workshop. I turned on a Hallmark movie. I didn’t want to do it, but it wasn’t too bad once I got started. I plan to re-stitch them today.