My Plans

My plans for the day were to get a good picture in the sun of my completed Easy Street Quilt, finish and fold the laundry and just maybe pull a few weeds, and mulch in the front flower bed, run to the grocery store, and sew until my little heart was content with Scarlet since she is now up and running like a top thanks to Stephen Bradford the sewing machine guy.

What happened so far this morning?

Middle daughter called and wanted to chat....  folded laundry while chatting with her and cut strips for my blocks.
Sew my little heart out until the dew evaporated and I could pull weeds and mulch.  Nope
MIL requested pictures of her cat to take to her sister.  The cat used to belong to her sister who is now in a "home"

Not too sure if I like Picasa or hate it or maybe it is going to be one of those love hate relationships I don't know yet. I seem to have constant problems uploading pictures.

First picture printed out on a standard sheet of paper instead of the smaller photo paper

Watch the Finn while his mommy takes Gabe to school.  FAIL  Finn had a blowout.  I ran Gabe to school
Pull weeds, and mulch---no we have more rain on the way and it never did really dry out.
Grocery store --daughter took pity on me and went so I could finally sew.

What did I get done.

Lots of barn pieces cut out (roof, door, window, background) and one Quilty Barn Along from Lori at Bee In My Bonnet done.  This was number 3.  There was a new step added to add 1 1/2 inch strips of white around the barn, but I am running low on white right now so I will wait on that step but I did get one barn done.  Two more and I will be caught up.

Did you ever have a fabric that you just adore and really do not want to cut into the stash.  The pink in this one was part of Polka Dot Stitches from Riley Blake.  I adore the fabric and just hated using it.  Silly I know.

I had some more time, and I love it that the white for the barn background, roof, and door/window pieces are all ready cut so I just need to make a Farmer's wife block and then figure out the barn color.

This is Barn 4

Amazing what I can come up in my scrap boxes.  I love this one it is soooo cute!

I had time to do one mo



Happy Stitching.

Ah Tuesday

It is the end of April.  My parents are on their way and I finally have sort of a quiet day to myself.

Of My goals for the month of April....well they flew off the tracks within the first week.

1.  Work on Machine Quilting Easy Street--Done I finished it and it is quilted, and bound.  Going on the bed for my parent's visit.

2.  Chart and work on my Christmas Stocking Cuffs-  I have 6 to make for my mother's house and at least 2 for my home I have been putting this off....It means I have to sit still and watch TV then I get distracted.  Oh My!  ---got started and working on some slow stitching

3. Make Valances/Curtains for the family room This is one of my blocks which has the contrary wife.  They will look so cute in our little ole farmhouse.---nope I am looking for a block called the contrary or onery husband that I can redraft to be 6 inches.  So far I have not had much success.  Update found a block and redrafted it to 6 inches finished.  Surprised myself that I could do it.  So these are going to be used for my curtains for my family room.

Contrary Wife

Onery Husband

 4. Finish piecing my Hugs and Kisses Quilt top---layout is done, but piecing has been waiting

5.  Finish piecing my Jewel box blocks I have 5 I think I want about 30 blocks--  got one done

6.  Finish 2 pumpkins one for a gift and one for me (hey would free up a project box)---nope
7.  2 Farmer's Wife Blocks per week so at least 9  I am off to a good start have two  made--and that was all I finished

8.  1 Country charmer block per week -  I finished one

9.  Catch up on the two mystery quilts -  I did catch up on the first installment of 1 and have installment two partially done.  My mother wants to do one so I am saving that one until she arrives. 
10.  Clean up the spare room for my parents visit at the end of the month.  T minus 28 before they arrive  Done the room is cleaned, dusted, and the bed is made
11.  Finish trimming those darn geese from 30 years ago. Have the bodies trimmed....the wings they are taking some time.

So overall I would call two finishes for the month, and the one finish is over and above what I had planned

What did you get accomplished this month?

I am going to link up with Carrie over at A Passion for Applique.

Woo Hoo An April Finish!

Whew!  I finally finished my Easy Street quilt.  I think I will call it Raindrops on Easy Street. 

Unfortunately we have had a lot of rain the last couple of days, and alas today is starting out that way today too.  So the pictures were taken in my sun room.  Hopefully in the next day or two I can get a good picture outside with sunshine!

I am very pleased to have this completed and now I can go back to work at finishing something else up.

Thank Goodness Its Sunday

Ok it is not actually Saturday, it is Sunday but I haven't done a post for awhile but I wanted to share what we got accomplished this week and join in with Thearica's Saturday Sharing Day at Pigtales and Quilts.

This is my ugly dining room.  Someone in their infinite wisdom chose this funky light blue/mint green color and then put on a brocaded wallpaper with stripes in the same exact color and added a wallpaper border.  The room only has one window and it is tall and thin so not much light gets in and it was just dull and depressing.

Since we moved the doorway from the kitchen into the dining room it was an excellent time to start to get rid of the ugly color and wallpaper border.

OK I will admit it I am excited about how much I love this!  I am not a big fan of yellow, but I love the way this turned out.  Yes we still have the painter's tape up while we wait for the paint to cure.  But it looks so much better!   We put up wainscoting, the chair rail, mop board, OK DH actually did all the work but I supervised.

What else did I do this week?  I finished quilting my Easy Street, and have been working on my binding.  While watching all 6 installments of Star Wars. 

I won't show the front until I have all my markings removed from my quilting and the binding is done.  I am going to have this finished in time for my parent's visit.  They will be here Tuesday night.  I can't wait. 

What have you been doing? 

Wow It Is Wednesday

Can you believe it is the last full week of April already?  I can't!  It has also been almost 2 weeks since my last post.  Not that I have done much sewing lately.

DH had his hand surgery on the 5th and seems to be recovering.  Things I have discovered about him?  If he does not have anything to do he will make me crazy so we could never live in an apartment, condo, or the city.  With his right hand injured and limited mobility he can't do what he loves to do which is yard work, work on his cars, or tractors.

What he did get done while he was home for 2 weeks?

Put a huge hole in my wall to move the door from the kitchen into the dining room. 

The door with the clock over it is the old door.  

The old door was at one time the window that looked out over the old enclosed back porch years ago.  It is only about 28 inches wide from side to side, and about 15 inches deep.  Moving furniture in and out of that area of the house was always a challenge, you had to go out the front door and in the back door or vice versa. 

Old door closed up, the other side will become a bookshelf for cook books, and because that spot is extremely cold will be where we store potatoes and onions.

New door, which makes the flow for the house so much better!  Also see that light switch, um yeah once upon a time it was in the middle of a wall.  Same thing on the kitchen side, the light switch for the kitchen is closer to the new doorway than the old one.

Also being that in the in law's eyes, DH was off work and home we were in high demand to take people on errands, fix broken things and do miscellaneous stuff.  DH cannot do any of it so I fixed a table and set of chairs for the MIL, weeded her flower beds, cleaned her garage, basement and misappropriated some treasures.

This painted wooden screen to kind of hide the freezer sitting in the sun room.  There is nowhere to put it in the house, and it will not fit down the basement steps so this is the most convenient places for it unfortunately.

I also found a king sized quilt frame that DH is working on retro fitting so that I can machine quilt using my Viking, he has the plans and he and his buddies have all sorts of parts so this should be interesting.

In the deep dark recesses of the basement was this beauty hiding in a nook under the stairs.

 She is a white rotary.  Her name is Flora because she has these wonderful embossed flowers all over her head, and deck.  She needs some love, and so did her cabinet.

Her cabinet where she sat was cracked severely and was missing a huge chunk.  So we removed her from the cabinet for now.

In this bin on the side was the chunk which was missing.  DH took it and fitted it to the spot which was broken, repaired the spot, and replaced the broken wood and it looks wonderful.

The side opens and her original instruction manual, box of tools, and oil can are still there, as well as some other notions.  The top portion of that part opens out more, and there are oodles of bobbins and other machine parts.

She will stay in the sun room until DH rewires her but she is such a beauty I could not pass her up, and she was free.  I can't wait to sew on her.

DH went back to work this week with one handed duty, which means that he pretty much is sitting around and telling everyone in his area of the shop what to do.  Which meant da ta da!  I got to get back into my playroom, well not really.  I  spent hours marking my Easy Street Quilt and I am almost finished quilting it.  I have part of one corner, and one whole corner left.  By the time I am done it will have taken about 15 hours to machine quilt.  That is including interruptions from the grandsons, and DH. 

Very big quilt to machine quilt on a domestic, but it has been going well.  If you are going to machine quilt or FMQ on your domestic you definitely need a pair of machingers which are gloves with grippys.  They make it so much easier and your neck and back won't be killing you later.

I found this old ironing board in the junk room when I moved in, don't think it had seen the light of day in years.  It is heavy, but oh so sturdy and with a piece of plywood which is 20 X 60 it is great for ironing on when trying to smash into submission those seam intersections.  You know the ones I am talking about....

I also had DH repair my big ironing board, and while he was doing it I made a new cover. The original big board he put on it cupped and so it was not working out.  I used fabric from my stash and put old batting pieces in it to give it some padding, and staple gunned it in place.  I made it so that when I wear this side out I can just take the staples out, flip it over and use the other side.

Back to my machine quilting I want to get this baby done, and bound, and on the bed in the spare room before my visitors arrive next week. 

Happy wet and dreary Wednesday.

Whole Gaggle of Geese

DH is not feeling well.  Probably a combination of the horrendous thunder storms which came through yesterday, lots of pollen, just being in a funk because he doesn't feel well, being locked up in the house because today it is in the 30's barely, the other day it was in the 60's. 

Me on the other hand I could not shut down last night.  So after I finished trimming part 1 of the Lazy Sunday Mystery I started working on recutting the ancient flying geese.  I actually finished trimming up the bodies and started on the pile o wings.

That pile at the top are the wings.  At least they are in pairs so they are pretty easy trimming.  After I was done with the bodies I realized something. 

I have a much smaller blue pile than red pile of goose bodies.  Thinks that make you go hmmmm.  What was I thinking when I cut only that number of bodies and why so many more burgundy/red ones than blue?

I thought just maybe I had some fabric to make some more blue bodies.

I have a small roll of blue, and a few inches of one of the reds but not enough to do any real damage.  Think it is time to do a body count and then decide what to do from there. 

What a great day to do geese though. 

That is the view of my field from my sewing room window.  Sorry but it is too cold to wander outside for a photo op.  Yep all the rain is just sitting in my field.  That is what happens when I call the nearby wetlands a  swamp.  Divine justice me thinks.

Lazy Sunday on a Wednesday?

This week has flown by. 

Monday took DH to the doctor to remove the mega bandage to be replaced by a big band-aid.  He is to do a series of exercises several times a day.  No working on cars, heavy equipment, or yard work for at least 2 weeks. 
Went to the dump since we do not have garbage pick up.  Actually since he works for a municipality we can take our garbage to the dump for free.
Afternoon walk at the township facility.  For a small township we have a beautiful playground, softball, baseball fields, a lake and wonderful walking path.

Tuesday I had my hair done, came home and the refrigerator and water line had been moved to its new home.

As well as the Hoosier, and the weird funky shelf that served no real purpose but as a junk collector was taken off the wall.
Ran to Toys R Us to pick up the youngest grand daughter's birthday gift.
Removed the small cabinet which was above where the refrigerator used to be.

Wednesday--Since I had not had time to sew all week I declared today was my day to sew.  I was going to work on the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt called Lazy Sunday Mystery which is features in Quiltmaker Magazine.

Problem 1.  I had started to cut my fabrics per the instructions and I could not remember what order I had them in when I started this quilt in February.  I had taken a picture of the fabric layout on my cell phone, but it was no longer there, because.....I had not done a back up since mid February, and mid March I got a new phone, and lost the picture.

I had to reconstruct my layout.

I decided instead of going scrappy I was going to use some more modern fabrics, which kind of make me uncomfortable.  Once I figured out my layout I had to try to figure out what I had cut.  Only to discover that I had cut 30 HST the wrong size.  Surprisingly it was not the end of the world, I got them to the right size (which was smaller) and after sewing them squared them up with out a hitch.

Problem 2.  Love DH but every 15 minutes like clockwork he was in my area.  What are you doing?  Wow that machine sews so nice and quiet after I oiled and lubricated it.  Then he decided he could not stand it anymore and he started the kitchen remodel.

Which resulted in this.  While I love the idea of the door being moved it meant constant.  Honey can you help me?  Honey can you find me a box for the plaster and lathe?  The small door on the right will be closed up it is barely 28 inches wide.  Well actually closed, but turned into a bookshelf.  See our house is a 150 year old block farmhouse.  The block is called Michigan block, and it is thick.  That door used to be the window that looked out onto the back porch once long ago. 

DH finally tired out of his deconstruction around 2 pm so I could get back to sewing. 

All my pieces sewn, ironed, and trimmed except for that last set of HST on the left.  Glad I got that done because part 2 of the Lazy Sunday Mystery came out a couple of days ago.  Which means I am behind once again. 

Have a Blessed Wednesday.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Kim at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure is doing scrap basket Sundays so I decided what the heck lets stitch along.



I pulled out my Farmer's wife book and cooked up two blocks this afternoon after DH and  I went for a walk at the wetlands.  (I call it swamp!  :D)

I am proud to say these are completely from scraps in my stash.  Or the stash I inherited from my aunt on my father's side.  Many scraps that I posses are from her mother's stash, and when she passed away years ago my mother and sister inherited, and I appropriated about 40lbs of fabric scraps from it. 

I also finished a jewel box block today. 

Time to start dinner for DH, and maybe a wee bit of work on a mystery quilt that has been sitting in parts on my sewing table for about a month.  Then some slow stitching this evening. 

Hope your Sunday was wonderful!

Time to Stitch

It has been a rough last couple of days.  But it is Saturday Sharing day over at Pigtales and Quilts with Thearica  http://www.pigtalesandquilts.com/     Link up and show what you are up to for the past week or even today.



DH surgery went well but he has on his right hand a bandage which is as big as a boxing glove.  So I spend a lot of time looking after him.  Whether he realizes it or not I kinda like him a lot, and he is not really good on pain medication so we had a really bad night Friday night.  Thank goodness it was better last night.  

While DH was in surgery on Friday I got thank you notes done from our recent wedding, and I got some slow stitching done.  Well actually I did slow stitching on Thursday too, because the MIL injured her hand and I spent a couple of hours waiting in the surgeon's office with her too.  The hand surgeon has seen everyone in the family except for me. 

OK while it does not look like a lot I am working on 22 ct Aida cloth so it is quite a bit really.  This will be DH stocking for my mother's house.

I also worked a bit on my jewel box quilt.

Today  is actually Sunday but I really wanted to share a bit.

DH felt well enough and the weather was nice enough we went over and walked at the wetlands.  It was nice to see the swallows, hear the toads, and see some small signs of spring like small pussy willow catkins appearing. 

This beautiful creature was swimming around too.  You do not realize how really big they are until they are near you.  Their feet are the size of my hand easily!   DH has sent me to my playroom he says I seem to have a lot of pent up energy and he does not need me to sit with him all the time.  Tomorrow he gets his bandage off but he will be off work for at least 2 weeks until after the stitches come out at least.

What to do next?  I could work on my mystery quilt, or my Farmer's wife--who knows, other than there is some stitching which is going to get done.  Hope your Sunday is peaceful and full of joy!

Sometimes Mamma's Just Know

I had a rough evening.  I have been looking for a new job for the past 5 months, and frankly there is just not a whole lot out there.  I grew up in a time that even if you didn't have a college degree you could get a position, and excel with hard work, and perseverance.  I hear now that many companies even require their receptionists to have at least a Bachelor's Degree.  I have sent out many applications, and went on many interviews, and even some second and third interviews.  Still no success.  I keep saying that the Almighty has a plan, and when it is right it will happen.

I had a rough night, didn't sleep well, was up and down.  Anyway I finally rolled out of bed this morning, DH had made me coffee, and I opened my e-mail to this:

It made me smile. My mamma sent this late last night.  I am sure she knew I was struggling.   Quilting, reading other people's blogs, and blogging has kept my spirits up and yes sometimes a girl just has to sew.

What am I doing this morning?  I am going to get my cross stitch stuff out, and get ready for some hand stitching.   DH has his surgery tomorrow and I need something to keep me occupied and out of trouble.  I have two patterns I have decided on so far, and I am going to cheat-- one pattern is going to be used twice.  So only 5 more to figure out, and some charting to do for names.  These will be used for stocking cuffs for Christmas stocking at my parent's house, and our home too.  I am a bit behind already.  Gabe the middle grandson, and Nikole my beautiful sister in law don't have stockings at my mothers.  I now need to make four more this year:  one for Jeff my new husband, Finley aka "The Finn" currently the youngest grandson, Pablo (brother's baby due June 2) and I will call him "Van" the grandson that is due to my middle daughter in August.

I have my stuff ready, going to sit and watch movies this morning and get everything ready for tomorrow.

Have a blessed Thursday everyone!

Doin the Happy Dance

My wonderful DH swung by the house on his way to Monroe to pick up parts  and brought me a coffee. 

And a surprise.

What it is I do not have a clue, and neither does he.  It was at the staging area to go into the landfill at work, and he rescued it.  He thought it would be great to stage strips or use those handy little trouser hanger to hang blocks from. 

When DH returned from work for the day we had dinner, and were arguing about which account the gas bill came out of only to discover it came out of both.  While I was working on remedying that, he was perusing Craigslist.  Now he finds some mighty cool things there.  We found Dinah for $50 the sellers saw no value in the sewing machine just the cabinet. 

We found my most recent gift Sophia for $40.

Today nearby they had on Craigslist two sewing machine tables for $25.  We called and they told us sure we could come and see them.  I got there and could barely contain my glee.  What did we find?

Yeppers those are two featherweight tables.  DH had to go run and find Rita to make sure they were what they appeared to be.  The family we bought them from say they have been using them as card tables for years, but the elderly couple's mothers, (Both his and hers) used them to sew on when they were young.  While not in pristine condition, they are in fair condition, there are some water spots, and a cigarette burn, but overall they look wonderful, and the parts are all matching. 

 According to DH I could never be a poker player, he said as soon as I saw them that my eyes lit up and sparkled so he knew he had to buy them for me.  So I am going to kick up my heels give him a great big hug and kiss and do the joyous snoopy dance.  I can't think of any better happy dance to do! What a terrific find to add to my vintage collection!