Making progress

I have to say that my system of doing a little cleaning each day has been working amazingly well!  I'm so proud of myself!  (Buffing fingernails on my shirt)  I do a little each day and the house has been staying clean and neat. I think this is a routine I can live with. A few times I've been busy and not done my chores but I've made them up the next day so all is not lost.

And this picture guarantees that I'm looking cuter all the time, right?

                                   

I'm also making good progress on the wedding quilt for my friend. I decided to add this diamond border but wasn't sure how it would look with all the diamond shapes in the center. When I laid out one side border against the center, I really had doubts, but the die was cast and I continued to make diamonds. When I laid out all four sides, I liked it a lot.  I have another narrow white border to put on and then the final 6" border of the green coral reef fabric.  That brings the entire top to about queen size.

The third area where I'm making progress is with this little gadget. We moved from a 4 level split house to a 2 level ranch, and I find myself walking the length of the house many, many times a day, as well as going up and down the stairs to the lower level several times a day. I decided to put on a pedometer to see how many steps I was actually taking. Was I ever surprised!  I know that the goal is 10,000 steps a day and when I tracked my steps while I was still working at my desk job, I got between 2500 and 3000 unless I really worked at it. I knew I was getting more steps in now that I'm in the house all day but I didn't have any idea how many. The first day I wore the pedometer, it counted 7500 steps!  Amazing!  I guess you don't have to worry that I'm sitting around watching soaps and eating bon bons, right?  I have it on again today and it looks like I'd better get a move on.

What we're not making any progress in is Spring.  When will you really and truly be here?  I was lucky and spent much of the winter where it was warm, but I'm getting tired of hearing everyone else bellyaching about the winter.  So today, March 24th, this is what we have outside:

Can you see the snowflakes in my back yard?  The lack of anything green except the pine trees?  The dearth of anything in bloom? The sunless atmosphere? I want so much for this snow to be gone so I can see what's in this yard.  

That's it.  Since it's snowing out, I'll go downstairs and work on the green wedding quilt.

Here's what I've been up to

I've been working like a mad woman on a quilt that my friend, Judy, asked me to make for her. Her niece is getting married the end of May and Judy said she usually makes a quilt as a gift for these weddings. This time, she can't do that since she has numb fingers from chemo and is pretty much confined to a wheel chair while her spine heals from bone cancer. So, she asked if I would make a green colored quilt for her. 

I found a pattern in a magazine that seemed as though I would be able to get it finished in time and here it is, laid out on my floor.  

It's simple white-framed blocks set on-point and I originally planned on doing a simple border of the focus fabric which you can see here. It's a hard to see in this photo but the border fabric is a green and blue coral reef which I think is very pretty.  

I originally bought this fabric some time ago to make a quilt for Don and me, but never got around to beginning it. When Judy said she wanted something green, I knew this was the perfect to collection to use.

Yesterday, I finished putting the rows together and trimmed the triangles off the sides and discovered that I'd made the center way too small!  Yikes!  What to do now!  Well, it'll have to be a more elaborate border--and wider than originally planned.  I'll begin working on a pieced border today and hopefully that will bring this baby more into the size range of a queen sized instead of twin sized as it is now.  I'll keep you updated on how this goes.

While I spent February in Alabama, I worked on a quilt my daughter had asked me to make.  She wants a quilt made with the colors of the ocean and she and I chose the batik fabrics together.  Again, it's a simple framed block around 6 colored fabrics that really do remind me of the ocean.

I got most of the blocks finished before I ran out of the neutral colored framing fabric. As soon as I got home, I went to the shop where we'd bought the fabrics a year ago and indeed, they had more of the neutral! I've not returned to this quilt yet because of working on the green quilt, but I hope to finish it as soon as the green one is done.

I also worked on this Bonnie Hunter Talkin' Turkey quilt while I was on vacation. I got all the blocks done and cut most of the sashing and began piecing the border.  I've always wanted a red and white quilt and I think I'm going to really like this one.  I used as big a variety of red fabrics as I could, and I realized that nearly every block has some part of a dog in it, as well as a few cows thrown in for good measure. I think I'll call this quilt "Krimson Kanine Kwilt"  just for fun!  It too will wait to be finished.

While I was in Gulf Shores, I made a few trips to the LQS and I'd bought a fat quarter of this fabric to use as a neutral in the Talkin' Turkey quilt. As I worked with it, I liked it more and more, so I returned to the shop and bought a few yards to bring home with me. Don't know how I'll use it just yet, but I just love the apple blossoms on the pin dot background.  As I worked on the TT quilt, I made a huge mistake and now have a couple hundred HST in red and white that I may use with this fabric. We'll see.

And, lastly, I began working on my first leaders and enders project.  Several years ago, I'd made up a bunch of small 9 patches--they measure 3" finished--and recently came across a pattern where I could use them with this green fabric that I've had on hand for a while (that means several years at least. lol ) So I started making up the blocks as I worked on the green wedding quilt.  Unfortunately, I've sewn up all the little 9 patches I had and only made about 15 of the 40+ blocks needed for the quilt, so I'll have to get busy on making more 9 patches out of scraps.  

This will be a quilt for the house here,  an extra one to have on hand when we have a house full of kids and grand kids.  I like the way it's turning out and, for sashing, plan to use a bubble gum pink that I've also had "on hand," and I think that will brighten things up a bit.

So that's what's happening in my quilting world.  Now I have to finish my daily chores and get to the local cheese shop. I'm going to a Downton Abbey dinner on Saturday and I'm to bring the cheese and fruit course.  Should be interesting shopping for just the right selection of cheeses.  Maybe I'll be tasting a few. (See a delighted grin on her face!)  I also have a "sew in" all day Saturday with my guild so I have to get this ready the day before.  Should be a very fun day.

Setting up a new routine

I've been back home from Alabama these past 2 weeks and am just getting into a routine in the new house. Nearly all the boxes have been unpacked and the rest of them will wait until it's opportune to unpack them, when I'm good and ready, in other words. :)

It's strange living in a new house even though it's a very nice house.  Just a matter of getting adjusted to everything here and remembering where I put the butter dish and the bath soap.  It's also strange not having to get up and go to work every day or even every other day as I've done for the past 3+ years.  I have time--lots of time!  Since we moved to town, I can run to the store in 10 minutes and not have to allow for an hour of drive time every time I had to come to town.  I've been at ends wondering how I will manage all this time and use it productively. I've been known to waste consume hours of the day at the computer, playing frivolous games, and that's OK once in awhile but now I have the time to do it daily. Yikes!

I've come up with a housekeeping plan that seems to be working pretty well. For my entire life, I've spent Saturdays cleaning house. As a girl, my sisters and I had the job of cleaning the house on Saturdays while Mom did the weekly baking.  As a working wife and mother, I continued to clean on Saturdays and also do the laundry and shopping on the weekend as well. I'm afraid that without any structure to my days, I would put off doing these housekeeping chores until the clutter and dirt are overwhelming and then be faced with the daunting task of doing it all at once, as I've done for so many years.

The plan I came up with and have followed the past 2 weeks is to do one or two rooms every day, not spending more than 1 1/2 hours on housework.  So far, I like it.  You have to understand that I absolutely HATE cleaning house!  Such a thankless job!  It never stays neat and clean and you just have to repeat the same tasks over and over and over!  I hate it!  BUT, I can manage an hour or so every day and the house is staying clean!  Every week, every room in the house is cleaned but not all at the same time.  I'm thinking this is something I can live with.

Today, I plan on taking some pix of the quilting I worked on in Alabama and the commissioned quilt I began a few days ago and will post them soon.

Go Canada!

I just finished watching the Olympic women's hockey game between the US and Canada and it was another astounding game by the ladies in red.  Not only did they win the game with a score of 3-2 but their level of play is amazing. I only watched the last quarter of the game and thre was no doubt that Canada was running the game. Even though I'm an American, I have to hope that the Canadian ladies take home the gold--they are just that good!

I know that I'm probably an oddity , being a woman who just loves hockey, but I come by it honestly.  I was  hockey cheerleader in high school (yes, we cheered on the ice on skates and even did jumps) and I went to a college in northern MN which had national champion hockey teams while I was there. My husband attended another prominent hockey university and we went to nearly all the games during those years.  And I've never lost my love of the game.

But the reason I only watched part of the game is because I was working on my Talkin' Turkey quilt.  I've made nearly all the components of the 12" blocks and late yesterday, I put the first one together.  As usual, with a Bonnie Hunter design, everything fit beautifully.  I really wish I could post a picture of it but trust me when I say it's very pleasing to the eye. I've made nearly all of the 450+ flying geese units and I want to thank the person who figured out how to make them the "no waste" way.  I can't put in a link to the direcions since I'm on my Kindle but I'm sure you'll find the directions if you google no waste flyng geese.  Not only do you not have any bits to cut off and throw away, they take very little time to make. And nearly every one came out perfect! Gotta love it!

Well, I have 29 more blocks to assemble so I'll get back to work.  Go Canada!

Watching women's hockey--Canada vs Finland. What a game!

No more fabric!

I've been here in Alabama for nearly a week and I've spent several days at the sewing machine working on a quilt for my daughter. She chose a very simple boxy pattern that's going together very quickly and I have  made about 3/4 of the 255 blocks needed. Yesterday, I ran out of fabric!  I thought I'd bought enough of the grayish/sandy color that frames the colored squares but I was wrong. The problem is I bought the fabric about a year or so ago at a quilt shop near where I live.  I'm not even going to look for more of that fabric while I'm here but will wait and go to the Busy Bobbin as soon as I get home in March.  I'm really disappointed since it was going together so well.  It'll be the first thing I do after I get back home.

Today, I'm going to the local quilt shop and pick up a few fat quarters of neutrals so I can get started on this Talkin Turkey quilt that I want to make for myself. It's a Bonnie Hunter pattern Talkin Turkey that's in her book, "String Fling." I love that it's red and white and have collected a ton of red fat quarters but somehow, not enough neutrals.  So, that's my plan for the day.

I've not been able to figure out how to get photos off my camera and onto this blog or even to email them to myself.  I need a smarter phone, I think, but I'm afraid that it'll be smarter than me. : p)

I'm in Ft. Morgan, AL, for the month and I can't begin to say how glad I am to be here!  We returned from Hawaii on Friday the 17th of January and by Saturday afternoon, I was down for the count with the Mother of All Head Colds.  Even though I was so sick and had a horrible cough that made it hard to breathe, I managed to get the kitchen totally unpacked and was able to get some order in the sewing room.  After a week of coughing so hard that I was peeing my pants ---so gross!--I want to the doc and got an inhaler that gradually helped with the cough.  Now, I'm pretty much back to normal (no more peeing in my pants, thank God!) but I'm still using the inhaler a couple of times a day.

We arrived here at the cottage two days ago and I'm so glad to be here. Today I woke up at nearly 9 am--almost 11 hour of sleep. Guess I was a little tired.  Today, I'm going for my walk and then I'll begin working on the first of the 4 quilting projects that I brought along.

Tessa asked me a couple of years ago to make her a quilt using beach and sea colors--pale aquas, peaches, greens and blues. She wants squares of the colored fabrics surrounded by strips of a pale sand/grayish color.  She picked out the fabrics, all batiks, and I'm ready to get started on it. Should have the top finished by the time I return home.

This year, I forgot to pack the camera so I'm going to see what I can do with my phone camera and maybe we'll end up getting a new camera which we have been wanting to do anyway.  I'll do my best to add pix if I can.

I also resumed my other blog, A Juicer's Journey, which is here.  I wrote this blog last winter to document my experience on a juicing diet. It worked well while it lasted but it's pretty severe and after 4 weeks, I called it quits.  This year, I'm beginning a modified juice diet so we'll see how that goes.  If you want to follow along, please do so.