Home again, home again, jiggety jig

Well, I arrived back home from my trip to Maine and altho I had a great visit with my daughter, granddaughter, and future son-in-law, I was so happy to get back to my own house. Below is a photo of the view from the dining room of the inn we stayed at in the White Mountains of New Hampshire for the weekend.  Absolutely beautiful!  And on this day, it was sunny but cold and it looked wonderful.  At some parts of the drive, the trees were so covered with snow that I remarked that it seemed as tho we were driving through a snow globe but without the snow falling, thank goodness.

I had no problem getting through security either in Minneapolis on my way out or in Boston on my way back, despite the government shut down and subsequent "blue flu."  I have nothing but admiration for those TSA workers and all the others who are continuing to work knowing that they may never get paid.  I sincerely hope Congress and the President get this resolved really soon.  It's been going on long enough!  I'll get off my soapbox now.  Thanks for listening to my little rant.

The day after I arrived back here in Menomonie, Don and I picked up our son, Dan, and his kitten at the Minneapolis airport and he's spending a few days with us before he moves south to Madison to begin his new life back here in Wisconsin.  I'm so happy he's back in the Midwest.  Every once in a while, I think of it, and get a huge grin on my face.  Dan spent not quite 2 years in the Pacific Northwest, not really being happy at all. I won't go into the reasons why he moved there in the first place, but he's been trying to return to the Midwest almost to the day he moved out there. So, for him to land a good job in Madison and to manage all  the logistics of packing up and moving in a 3 week period is quite an accomplishment.

Dan will be leaving tomorrow sometime, and then I can get back to my sewing room.  While I was in Maine, I managed to figure out the measurements of all the blocks I need to make for my Mabel Tainter quilt and I'm ready to begin cutting and sewing them together to see if I made an mistakes in my calculations.  I want to make this quilt top while I'm at retreat next week.  

That's all I have for today.  Got to do a little laundry as well as restock the pantry.  

On the Move!

Yesterday I was on the road all day, and a wonderful day it turned out to be! 

First I took a load of fabric, yarn, etc that had been cluttering up my space and for which I had no use.  People know that I make the trip from time to time so they give me things to take when I go.  My friend who makes draperies gives me bags and bags of scraps.  Of course, I go through first to see if there's anything I can use in a zipper bag or something. This time I also had several bags of yarn that were given to me and a box of drapery sample books, and a box of really odd looking fleece. All of this goes to a quilt shop near a state prison which serves as a drop off point.  Someone from the prison collects theses donations and it's all used up in a program  for prisoners where they make up articles which are donated to the community. One year, they made knitted scarves for every school child in the district, and they've made quilts for nursing homes, and stuffed toys for first responders.  All in all, I call it a 4 way win:  I get to clear out my scraps, the quilt shop gets a potential sale when I drop off the stuff, the prisoners have meaningful work, and the people in town receive a gift. 

Of course, after I finished unloading the car, I had to prowl around the shop to see if there was anything for me to take home, and the answer was, "No, not today."  I did have a great chat with the owner, Donna, and I'll definitely be returning to her shop which is called Sew N Sew--check it out if you want.  It's really a tiny shop but they have a lot of really nice Thirties fabrics which I love.  One thing that I find so amusing and truly Midwest Country is the restroom.  By the time I arrive at the shop, my morning coffee has made its way to my bladder and I have to find the bathroom ASAP!  This shop is located beside the owner's home in a very rural area--not even a village--it's out in a corn field, I swear! There's no plumbing in the shop, so I was directed to Donna's house--"Go in the door and you'll see the bathroom right there."  No where else would this happen except in small town, rural America!  I love it!

The next stop in my travels was to meet two of my best friends for lunch in a town where I used to live, about 1.5 hours' drive from here.  This town has a really great book store/yarn shop combo and I always find something to bring home with me.  This time it was this book from the yarn store side:

I enjoy knitting and I have tons of yarn in tubs waiting for me to make it into something useful, so I didn't want to buy any more yarn,. I've been trying to decide if I want to make any more of the cardigan sweaters for 18" dolls and of course, this book caught my eye.  There are 24 patterns in there and I looked it all over when I got home and realized that I'm not familiar with any of the yarns used so I'll have to try to compare them with others that I do know about.  But it'll be fun to try some new doll sweaters--in my spare time.  😁

I was pleasantly surprised with some gifts from my friend, Bonnie.  She's the one I made this purse for, if you recall,

and these potholders for her husband who does most of the cooking.

And for my other friend, Diane, I gave these potholders, minus the binding clips. Ha!

They both liked them very much--Bonnie even said she would be using the potholders the next time she cooked--probably in 2034 or so!  I got gifts as well:  This great tea towel, which I just love--I won't allow Don to touch it!  

And a little daily message book about the value of friends.  This I'll cherish as I do my friends.

So, that was yesterday, but the day before I'd said I was going to make up a set of placemats and napkins to take with me to Maine. Well, that didn't happen!  When I got to the sewing room, I saw the unfinished Meals on Wheels placemats and decided to get them finished up first.  As I was working on them I realized there was no way I could get anything done in time to take with me.  What was I thinking?  So I did a lot of binding on the MOW placemats and this morning, I got up early and got them all finished. So I have 9 MOW finished and want to make 3 more for an even dozen and then I'll donate them.  When I get home from my trip, I'll make up the ones for the music dept fundraiser and mail them out.  

Today I'm doing laundry and running errands, and will then have to pack a bag and get ready to fly out early tomorrow morning.  Will return on Tuesday the 15th, so I'll be incommunicado while I'm gone.  Have a wonderful weekend, and no matter how good you are at making a quilt, keep that seam ripper handy.  😏

I've had quite a wild weekend!

I haven't posted for the past 3 days because I've had to deal with some medical issues which took a lot of time, but fortunately turned out to not be serious.  Thank goodness for that!  I have too many quilts yet to make to turn up my toes yet!

And I'm pleased to announce the first finish of 2019!  I put a list of tops to be quilted on the right side bar, and I hope to make a dent in them during the next 12 months--11 1/2 months is more accurate, I guess. I finished stitching the binding on the music quilt I made for my husband.  We hung it up on his wall this morning and I think it looks pretty good.   Unfortunately, it's by a window so there's a bit too much light in this picture, but I think you can see it pretty good.

Below is a photo of the quilt as I was working on it at my machine.  Don and I went to a quilt shop at least a year and a half ago and he got so excited when he saw these fabrics. The lighter one that I made into snowball blocks as well as the black fabric with bright colored musical notes which I used along with some scrap white fabric to make up the 9 patch blocks.  This wall quilt finished about 50" by about 35" so it's good sized for a wall quilt.  

You can't see the quilting designs at all, but I did a simple diagonal cross in the black squares, a four petal orange peel design in the white squares, and I used a stencil to quilt up a design in the snowball blocks.  I always have difficulty deciding on how to quilt up the border and I simply resorted to a meander using black thread on the black border.

I can't say it's one of my better quilts--by this time, I simply wanted to get it finished and up on his wall--but Don'\s very happy with ts and that's what matters, right?  AND, I get to count it as a finish!!!

Today, I had planned to make some progress on the Meals on Wheels placemats but I got an email from my daughter in Maine about a fundraiser my granddaughter's music group is holding in February. It's a silent auction and my first thought was "I can donate a quilt!"  Then I thought of the tops I have in the closet and decided that none of them would be appropriate. Nuts!  So, I don't have time to make up a quilt to donate--BUT, I could make up a set of placemats and napkins in time, AND, I have a set of fabrics that I bought for that purpose but put aside and never used. Perfect!  

I also found a simple and free pattern here that will be very quilck to make up. I'd like to have a set of four made up and ready for hand stitching so I can take them with me when I fly out on the 11th.

I've got to get a move on if I'm going to get these finished enough to take them with me. Bye!

Making progress in the new year

Indeed, I'm making some very good progress in the sewing room!  Yesterday morning, Don and I drove Dan to the Minneapolis airport so he could fly back to Washington, get all his stuff disposed of or packed up, and be ready to return on the 16th.  I'm feeling quite nervous about this move of his (don't know why since it's not me that has to organize and execute all of this, but once a mother, . . .) and in my head I know he's going to manage all the details and everything will come together. So why the heck did I stay up until 12:30 this morning and wake up completely at 4:30 AM?  Why!

I digress. And I yawn. 😮  Once we were back home the day was half over and I spent the afternoon frittering away the time.  When I finally got to the sewing room, I was able to make 4 more placemats for a total of 9, and I'd like to make 3 more before I'm done, shown below

Here's a shot of Don's music quilt--nine patch blocks of white and black fabric with colored music notes, alternating with snowball blocks of colorful musical instruments on white.  The thing has a border of the black fabric. If my plan goes the way I want it to, I'll get the quilting finished today and have the binding ready for hand stitching tonight.

Every year I pay attention to Bonnie K Hunter's mystery quilt and some years I actually do it along with her.  I've done On Ringo Lake, Allietare, and maybe one or two more.  This year I didn't fall in love with the colors she chose for the quilt and I'm not very confident of switching out the colors.  Plus I was really busy with holiday guests throughout December, so I didn't do the quilt.  I think that was a mistake!  Here's the picture she posted on her blog of the finished mystery quilt--I just love it!

The steps are available until February 1 so I'm going to print them out and will make up this quilt top sometime in the future.  If you haven't heard about this before, here's the link to her reveal blog post.  Good Fortune

Okay, time for me to get going to the sewing room. I've done all the laundry today, taken a walk outside (it's sunny and well above freezing today!), took care of all the phone calls and emails that needed to be taken care of, visited with my husband and his golfing friend, AND snuck in a quick shower and shampoo. Whew!  I gotta go downstairs and relax with my sewing machine. 😊

Happy New Year--again!

I have to do some banking today and will be writing checks with 2019 as the new date.  Can I do it without making that common mistake?  Probably not, but who cares?

Yesterday was a very lazy day. I think I'm just worn out from all the activity--mental, that is--going on around here. None of us is sleeping very well--I think we're all anxious about Dan having to pack up and move in less than 2 weeks, and not having a place yet to move too.  He's doing all he can to find an apartment, and we have a room at Elaine's if need be, but it'll be good when he's packed up, flown into Minneapolis and has an apartment lined up in Madison. 

So yesterday, I made brunch for the four of us and Johanna left shortly after that.  It was a really nice visit with both Dan and Jo home for a couple of days, and Dan will be flying out tomorrow morning, so then Don and I can take Christmas down and settle into a winter routine.  

I did absolutely nothing yesterday, in the sewing world. Didn't even go near the sewing room.  That will change after I'm finished with this post--I want to finish up the Meals on Wheels placemats and begin quilting up the Music Quilt that I made for Don.  It's a rather large wall quilt that he wants to hang with his specialty guitars and he's been so patient.  I've procrastinated with the actual quilting but I want to get it done so I can cross a finish off my list for 2019.  

Tonight I'm making a roast beef dinner for Dan's last home cooked meal, and tomorrow morning we take him to the airport so he can begin the Big Move!

Oh yes, the obligatory graphic image.  Hmmm. What should it be?  Maxine, of course!

Strips or stripes?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I came across this image on Pinterest and thought this was something I would like to do.  I have about 3 blank journals laying around the house with little to nothing written in them.  I guess I think of this blog as my journal, but it's not the same as writing by hand. First of all, this is a public blog so I'm a little careful about what and how I write things, believe it or not!  I rarely write about my feelings other than to say "I'm happy to have a quilt finished!"  So, even though I rarely make new year resolutions, I think I'll be more mindful of writing in a journal this year.  At the end of 2019, it'll be interesting to go back and see how my year has progressed.  So, whatever your "resolutions" for 2019 may be, I hope they are beneficial for you.

A lot of bloggers that I follow have been posting the quilting year in review.  I'm not going to do that since I can't remember what I've worked on--and finished--in 2018. What I am going to do is go over the list of quilt tops that I have in my closet waiting to be turned into bedding. At the beginning of 2018, I posted a list of all the tops I have.  There were 13 of them.  During the year, I've finished and given away 3 of them, and I made 3 additional tops and quilted them up.  To be fair, the additional ones were throw sized quilts, not queen size as most of the others are.  So I finished a total of 6 quilts this year.  Not too good is it?

Consider also that I spent July and August focusing on my granddaughter who was staying with us and I did very little sewing. September and October were spent making items to sell at the quilt tour shop the first weekend of November.  Since then, I've been working on making other things as I've noted in previous blog posts.

So, lets take a look at the list for 2019.  I have 14 tops on the list, but one of them is sandwiched and ready to go.  I know I have 1 top in blocks and ready to be assembled into a flimsy, and I have 2 tops that I need to make--one is king size and the other may be a throw or a queen,  haven't decided yet.  As I have for the past how many years, my goal is to finish one quilt before beginning on a new project.  Yeah, we'll see how that goes again!

At any rate, here are pics of my sewing from yesterday. First is placemats for the Meals on Wheels program.  The guild made placemats for them a couple of years ago, and I decided to just sew together some scrappy 2.5" strips and call it good. I made 5 tops yesterday, and will make another 5 before I donate them.  What a great way to use up sscraps!

I also thought I'd post a picture of the potholders I made for Tessa, and will take them to her next week when I travel. She likes the 1930s fabrics so I dug into those scraps and came up with these three.

I also made up another 5 scrappy heart blocks as leaders and enders while stitching the placemats. All in all, a productive day.

Johanna arrived in the afternoon for New Years Eve and the 4 of us had a great dinner, Dan opened his Christmas gifts at last, and we ended with a wild game of cutthroat dominoes!  All in bed before midnight!

Today looks to be on the quiet side. Dan is working very hard to make arrangements for his move from Washington to Madison and it seems as tho all the various parts of making this move are beginning to fall into place.  Our friends who live about 20 miles outside of Madison have offered to have him stay there if he can't find any other place. Good friends are so precious.  As Elaine said, "If our daughters needed a place to stay, what would you say?"  Well, we'd say "Of course," just like she did.  

Enjoy your day, however you decide to spend it. I'm going to make a list of quilting priorities and tape that to the wall, like I did last year!