Knitting and Maybe Cleaning

I was so excited when I got my knitted shell finished in time to wear it for Mother's Day.  And it fits just like I wanted it to.  I am thinking about trying to knit little caps for the top of the arm holes but probably will be to lazy to figure that out and do it.   Anyway, on this special day our son-in-law invited us to join him and our daughter to celebrate their 29th wedding anniversary.  It was a surprise for her and she even cried when she saw us arrive (happy tears we were told).

And with the shell completed I started another pair of "leftover" socks.  I have knit 3 pair of purple socks so these will be a combination of those three.  And, because I can knit socks in my sleep, I just sent for yarn for a summer cardigan.  It will be the first time I will be doing cables and trying to follow a chart.  I think I will have to practice a lot before I begin.

And I had to share this little owl.  I ran into it in Walmart in the children's department: it is the perfect size for a socks project bag.  Just shows that you have to keep your eyes open no matter where you are.

I think it has been years since I won anything but recently I hit the jackpot.  I won these items from Julie at The Crafty Quilter.  My winnings included a quilt pattern, a Moda charm pack and a beautiful fabric necklace made by Julie.  I was excited when she told me I had won but way more excited when I opened the package.  Thank you, Julie.

People who have been reading my blog for some time know that I became quite ill last summer.  But really it started several month before, we just didn't realize what was happening.  This picture really shows how long it has been since I was up and going: this quilt was put on the frame in September, 2014.  I was whizzing right along and then two things happened: The machine started snapping the thread and I was unable to stand long enough to deal with it.  So this is where the quilt is now and I have quilted about 3 rows and have 2 to go.  I should have it done this month but the next two pictures will show why that may not happen.

This is my ironing board.  Both ends are piled with fabrics from three or four different projects.  With just that little space I have not been able to do much and am easily frustrated when I try.  My goal this week is to clear this off so I can begin to be quilting productive again.

However there is one other problem.  Under all of this, accumulated over the last several months, is my 3' x 5' cutting table.  My current plan is to put everything here into a laundry basket so I can work on the table and then work from the basket to put things away.  During my illness I would come to work, get things out and then be overwhelmed either by the mess or my lack of energy and just leave the area.  My husband offered to clean it up but I was afraid I would never find anything so I am going to work at it a little at a time.

My studio is a 3 room mobile office divided into a quilting room, a sewing room, and a prep/knitting room.  All of the rooms need work but I think that if I can get these areas up and running I can deal with whatever else needs to be done.  At least that is my plan.

I am very fortunate.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer that has moved into my entire skeletal system.  We thought it was a death sentence but with medication I appear to be MUCH better than I was and am able to do most of what I was doing before I knew I was sick.  God has been so very good to me and I hope to be able to use the time given to me wisely.  Gari

Organizational Plan

Over the past several months the studio has become more and more just a place of clutter.  When I want to do something I have to clear a spot to work and the clutter has made it even harder to use what little time I had.  So yesterday I devised a workable, I hope, plan to de-cluttering and yet having sewing time, too.  Since I have several applique projects going (all machine applique) I will applique one block and then spend the same amount of time putting things away.


So yesterday I appliqued three of my Funky Chickens.  Don’t those needle holes look big?  But experience has taught me that they will shrink back to size when the quilt is washed so I don’t worry.  Besides, the needle is really not that big.





Anyway, these three are finished and ready to be a quilt once we have all 12 in our chicken coop.  I do most of my applique with invisible thread and a zigzag stitch which seems to work really well.










In between chickens I cleared off the ironing board and started whacking off the top of the fabric mountain that has grown on the cutting table.  One bad thing about having a large table is that I can leave stuff there and move on to a new project and it isn’t in the way until there are 6 or 7 projects worth of fabric, rulers, and other assorted tools on there.  I finally was using a 2’x2’ space to do all my cutting and fusible drawing.





I did take some time off to document the rain we had (30 hours of it).  This gauge only shows the last 4”, the first 3” were accidently dumped by the dogs. 













I don’t know if you can see but we are on well water and our pump is about a quarter underwater.  I have always wanted to live on the water so I just pretended this was a lake.  When the rain stopped it only took about 2 hours for all of this to be gone.











However, while it was raining it was like living inside a waterfall. 











I put the plants in a semi-protected area so they got mostly the splash of the water falling on the outside area of the deck: I won’t have to water them again for a couple of days. 









Yesterday I received the panel I won in a giveaway from Kate of Life In Pieces.  The panel is about 4’x3’.












Although I don’t plan on using these blocks with it, I think that a layout something like this would work for it.  I will be putting it away for now but probably get it back out next summer when I begin working on Christmas stuff again. 







Along with the panel Kate sent these note cards and tweezers (I apologize for cutting the head off of the tweezers: will get a better picture for DWM).  I didn’t realize until I opened the cards that Kate made them and they are beautiful.  As for the tweezers, they are great.  I already have a similar pair that I use all the time and now I can have one at another sewing station.  When I got the first one I thought it was just cute (she has red hair) but they are long and get into places my fingers can’t and they hold tight: excellent.

Now I better get back to my organizational plan.  I am currently waiting for the Direct TV person to show up.  He called to tell me he wouldn’t make it until after lunch and then I just got a recorded message saying he will be here in about 1 1/2 hours.  Who knows!?! 

Almost Christmas

And so much going on here.

We have been wrapping gifts.  Like my wrapping table?  When not quilting I find that blank space to be quite helpful.  However, I do have a quilt on the frame so I had to get all the rest of the gifts wrapped so I could get on with my quilting.


Look at this package.  Can you see how the edges match up to complete the picture?  I am thinking that doesn’t happen often and especially not to me.







And the packages are piling up in our “gift cradle.”  Both the doll and Santa have had to migrate up as the packages have arrived.

And what was DH doing while all this “Santa” work was going on? 
Here he is watching a 3D movie.  Doesn’t he look happy?  Believe me he is.





Earlier this week we had the second of my pies: this time a turkey pot pie.






These were really good and will require a return engagement…..after I try something else later this week.




And one more thing I just have to share.  This is a quilt top I won from Chris Ballard. 









16 beautiful dresses made from Asian fabrics.  When I saw the top it reminded me of my grandmother who was a professional seamstress and made the most beautiful clothing.  She also taught sewing for Singer.  Anyway, these dresses are beautiful but I not only got the quilt top but a baggie full of these:

These are 2 1/2” strips of more of the Asian fabric.  Chris said that she made the top about 7 years ago but no longer wanted to finish it.  Right now it is lying on my cutting table but will soon be up on the wall so I can “stare” at it for a while, looking at different ways to make this top into a great quilt.  Thanks, Chris.

It's a Party

First: November is my birthday month. Well, since my birthday is almost at
the end of the month, and since it is sometimes even on Thanksgiving, and since
it is so close to Christmas, I celebrate all month. Hence, I got my iPad2
already (of course the giver then got my iPad, but who’s to notice a little
thing like that). Well, then I won a giveaway at Joanne's
blog and yesterday my prize arrived.


So this morning we had a party. Doesn’t this look festive? And there are my
gifts. What? You can’t see them so well?

Well, here is a closer view. There is a great quilt pattern by Joanne which
looks like I can use over and over to use up the scraps that seem to accumulate
in the studio. And that pattern also includes several sizes so I don’t have to
do too much thinking, something that becomes increasingly difficult at my now
advanced age.
Also included was a strawberry recipe book and these wonderful food fabrics,
the reason I entered the giveaway. And do you see that cute strawberry. At
first I thought it was a pincushion, but no. Look what it really is:



It opens up to be a nylon shopping bag. And when empties, the bag is easily
“stuffed” back into the strawberry. It is going in my car and will be used a
lot. I love it and THANK YOU, Joanne, for all the great goodies. Happy Birthday Month!!

Design Wall & Thank You

This is on my design wall today.  It is step one of my Journal quilt for May.  I don’t know if you can see that it is woven with two different blue fabrics.

And this is step two.

This will be step three sometime this week, that is once I work on all these little pieces a bit.  I think I am getting into this art quilt thing.  Next week I will show the quilt and what I am using for inspiration.

Here is what I got from Australia last Friday.  It came from Peg Cohen, she is one of the OPAM administrators.  I have used OPAM to help me complete several UFOs and in February I won the drawing.  Here is a quilt pattern that I probably will use for a comfort quilt and four DMC embroidery flosses.  With all the hand embroidery I am doing on BOMs, I can really use these.  Thanks Peg.

This weekend was our great grandson’s 3rd birthday.

Here he is attempting to blow out the candles.  After three blows, his mother had to help him and then we could have cake.

 

Now, last but not least, here are my hydrangeas, just starting to bloom.  Soon this bush will be covered in blue: how wonderful.

Now, it is time to go to Judy’s blog to see what else is going on in quilting land.

What a Wonderful Weekend

Nothing on my design wall this Monday: see some of the reasons below.

If you read my last post, you would know that this weekend had a rough start. But when our DS#3 and DDIL arrived, late Friday evening, the fun began. At almost 9pm we were eating breakfast and catching up.

On Saturday morning we started the day learning about
tech toys. I let them play with both my iPad and Nook. Look how much fun they are having.




I suppose it is not fair to tempt people like that.

I think she tried almost every app I have, which is not a lot, yet.

We did a short tour our little town and then started out for DS#3’s twin sister’s. We, however, had to make a stop on the way. DDIL had never tried boiled

peanuts, a southern favorite,

so we stopped so she could buy some.

And then she ate half the bag. She just might make a good ole Southern gal yet.

As we drove up to DD’s this is what we saw.

Once again our DSonIL and his homemade grill.

We feasted on grilled chicken, yum!!

After dinner we were highly entertained by our great grandson, Skylar. In these pictures he is showing his Aunt Jessica and Uncle Todd how he uses “his” phone (good phone but not activated).

He plays games and takes pictures with it.

This was also when he was FINALLY running down from a high energy afternoon.

As we were leaving we had to have some “our twins” shots.

Some things never change.

And finally my one quilty picture.

Look what I won from Quilter Jan. The jelly roll is called Basic Gray by Moda. It looks like really neat fall fabric. And it came in this neat lunch box. I think I will use the box to hold ongoing applique pieces and the jelly roll will have to tell me what kind of quilt it would like to become. I kind of hope it waits a while since I am started in Christmas projects and need to get them really off and running.

Now go to Judy’s blog to see what others have been working on.

Hurray for the 4th of July

If you are only looking for Design Wall Monday, skip to the end. Otherwise here is my story:

21 years ago I moved to FL where I started working on our retirement home. Within a week I decided that the two trees in our backyard were perfect for a hammock. For 17 years I spent lots of time outside, resting and reading on that hammock. Then 4 years ago we retired and decided that there were too many hurricanes in FL so we stayed in AL. Well, last week I suddenly realized that I missed my hammock (didn’t bring it because it really looked terrible after 17 years out in the weather). So Thursday, off we went hammock hunting and found a great one. Back home, while DH made dinner, I put the stand and hammock together and

then I decided to try it out.

Now I already knew it would stretch and would need to be readjusted several times but this was more than I expected. And I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t even stop DH when he ran for the camera. Saturday I sat, redid the chains, sat, redid the chains, and sat and redid the chains until I finally got it up and ready to go.

Then I spent a couple of hours enjoying the fruits of my labor.

This is what I love to walk out to. Isn’t it beautiful?

Now, on the quilting front, I won a giveaway Sandra Henderson and my winnings came this week.

The author is Cherri House and the quilts are all very geometric and made with solids. My first impression was that her quilts are very different from what I do but as I continued to check the book out I realized that this just might be my next challenge. Thanks again Sandra.

Yes, this is the finished baby quilt top. And I even have the backing done. I have two other tops that need backs and quilting and I really want to get them done first so for the next day or so, all my sewing will be making backs, bindings, and sizing batting. I have got to get quilts on the frame or I am going to be one of those people who has stacks of tops and no quilts.

But before that I think I will go outside, lie down on my hammock, and read a while.