Fell off the horse again

This time because last Tuesday morning my husband thought he was having another heart attack and I had to rush him to the hospital.  It wasn't a heart attack after all, but he was seriously sick - as in 3 units of blood low and bleeding internally.  He was admitted to the local hospital and kept over night and then moved into Lansing where he stayed until late Saturday afternoon.   And, on top of that, I was dealing with the carpenter that kept saying "Tomorrow night I'll get it ( the new back porch) finished; that was finally finished after hubby got home on Saturday.   I wish I could say the stress has eased up, but it hasn't yet... three drs appointments this week.

Sunday, I did try to quilt... there was a small wall hanging that has been on Mo'e's frame for over a week now while I was trying to decide how I wanted to quilt it and while all this stuff was going on with hubby.  I had tried doing in the ditch stitching earlier ( pre ER visit) but I was trying with double batting and, apparently, Mo'e didn't like it... I couldn't get straight in the seam stitching so ripped it all out and went back to one layer and that was working so much better.

Then, as I rolled the quilt up further onto the frame... I saw it!!  The bobbin thread was just LAYING on the backing fabric!!!!!!!!  It looked good on the front but the back looked/looks like crap!

Hubby has dr appt first thing ( well, late morning but early for us) tomorrow and maybe when we get back I'll feel more like unstitching the rest of this quilt. 

Today I did one load of laundry, emptied the dishwasher and reloaded & ran it while fixing dinner, put clean sheets on hubby's bed.  The rest of the day was spent watching Penn and Teller on youtube... Don't Judge Me!  I needed it.

take care...

ttyl...

Back in the saddle again

Hey, it's me... I've been here - reading other people's blogs, but haven't had anything worth typing to post on mine.  I think it had to do with our family reunion a couple Sundays ago... I've been in what I would call a 'melancholy' mood ever since.  It was something slow growing and didn't really hit me until this past week and I couldn't shake it off.  I had trouble sleeping and couldn't really focus on anything - didn't even want to go into my sewing room.  It was our guild's sew in this past weekend and I wanted to go, but didn't want to either - shrugging my shoulders - so I was kind of glad when no one else was going and I could stay home.  Still no sewing being done, though.

I did load a new top onto Mo'e and tried doing some stitching, but I had put a double layer of Hobb's 80/20 and I don't think Mo'e liked it.  The stitching was wobbly and I just didn't like the look of it so I took out what little stitching I had done and opened the batting out to one layer.  It's basted but that's as far as I've gotten.

There were some bears waiting to be 'born' in my sewing room and I finally told myself... Do it NOW!!  and once I got started, it wasn't bad - kind of fun :). 

Here are the two I did today.... May and June..

yes I know he's upside down... he's supposed to be...  This is June so he may be doing cartwheels because school is out and Summer is finally here.

The next two months - July and Aug. may have to wait a little bit... July is Yellow Green and Aug. is Yellow Orange and I don't think I have either one.. I may have to do some digging or use creative license.

At last Thurs. guild meeting, Mary brought in supplies to make angels for our Festival of Trees donation that we do every year for the church that allows us a weekly meeting space.  The angels are kind of cute.  I grabbed a made up kit and then grabbed an extra pattern and some of the supplies needed for a second one - just incase Katie would like to do one, too.  If she doesn't, I'll just make two -  they look super simple to do... but may be a little harder for me since Mary used a hot glue gun in the making of this one --- and hot glue guns and I don't always play well together.  I'll figure it out.

I also did some sorting of 'stuff' on the card table next to my desk in our family room.  It's not completely cleaned off, but that's my goal - to get it cleaned off and folded up & away.  I've really got to start paring down all this quilting 'stuff'.  It's way out of control, which doesn't help my mood any.

Oh, and the bag I made for the stepdaughter as an early birthday gift.... well, they never came up for his family reunion - and didn't bother to let us know.  Apparently, they bought a new house and have been busy moving in from what he told me when I finally sent a message via fb asking what happened.  Gee, thanks for the notice :(.  Well, the stuff can sit here for now, there's no money to be shipping gifts - it's not like they've given us the new address anyway.  Shakin' my head... 

Ok, I'm calling it a night here...didn't sleep well again last night... well, when I slept it was good, but I woke up a little after 3 am and, after tossing and turning til 4:30, I sat up, turned the tv back on and read some more of my book for about an hour before I was able to go back to sleep.... and slept til about nine.

Anyway.... take care.... 

ttyl

Late again

It was too close to 8 pm when I was ready to write my post last night, so I didn't...  it's getting down to the finals on AGT (America's Got Talent) and I didn't want to miss a bit of it.  There are some amazing acts - not sure who I'd like to see win; it's so hard to choose this time around.  Usually I have a clear winner in mind but not this year.

Anyway, yesterday I managed to get another two bears done and I might have messed up the tummy of one I did the day before - I think I did August in orange instead of yellow- orange (April is supposed to be pure orange) but that's ok... I'm lovin' them just the way they are. 

Ok, I just went back and checked the website.... April is Orange and the plus sign...Each month's color and tummy design has a meaning.  April is Positive Attitudes. (Jan. is New Beginnings and you had your choice of either a bug or a butterfly)


Ok here's what I did yesterday... Feb. - blue - High Hopes. and you could put either a star or a rocket with tiny stars on the bear's tummy.

and March - yellow - Being Active Outdoors

  The first option for the tummy embellishment was a sunflower and the second one was a basketball; neither one appealed to me and I'm happy with just the jump rope.

Ok - we're caught up for now.  Today is grocery shopping/paying bills day so probably won't get much sewing done.  May and June blocks are next when I have the time.

take care...

ttyl....

Katie's Squirrel

My friend, Katie, has been on vacation upnorth for the past week so she hasn't been blogging or sending me messages via phone.  She's back now and I wanted to read her blog post... she'd already sent me a message through messenger but I wanted to read anyway.  BIG MISTAKE... I glanced over at the sidebar on the right and saw a couple of interesting blogs that she follows.

I read a couple and everything was ok.  I even noticed that we follow a couple of the same ones.  Then I checked another one out... it was ok... but then that one had a link to someone else's blog and they were talking about a Beary Colourful BOM... well, I love bears and can't seem to resist BOMs... so I had to check it out.  That's when the squirrel got me!!

But they are soooo cute!!  And really not hard to do... just lots of applique'.  So worth it, though...

https://www.cleverchameleon.com.au/2018-beary-colourful-bom/

once I finished printing out the patterns for months Jan through Aug., I HAD to start... I'd do just one I told myself... so cute!!  I  just HAD to do a second one...

So, there went my plans to finish up my Autumn themed BOM from Shabby Fabrics before starting anything new.... sigh....   It's all that squirrel's fault  lol
It'll just have to wait until I come to a stand still with the bears, which will happen if I don't happen to have the correct color/shade ( or a reasonable substitute).  I know I have the dark blue required for Feb.  (.... oh yeah, the red one is Jan. and the orange one is Aug. and is supposed to be yellow orange... this is close enough.), but  I'm not sure if I have the right purple; I might have used up the 'good' stuff on my RSC and I'm pretty sure I don't have anything that would qualify as yellow-green.  I don't want to have to go buy any fabrics either... this is another one of those projects to use up some more of what I already have.  I found some yardage on a bolt in my 'storage' room and there was more than enough for the background for the bears.

I've been  'writing' this blog as I've been eating my dinner, but dinner is over and I want to get back in my sewing room to start on the blue bear.

take care....
ttyl....
and watch out for the squirrels!!!

Slow progress

This is what I did yesterday.... everything you see is applique'd down but not everything is there....   there's supposed to be a sign that says Pumpkins for sale... It's not done yet because I'm having a bit of a problem deciding how I can do it. 

The pattern says to do it by hand and use satin stitching for the Pumpkins part and then I think straight stitching on the For Sale part.  I thought maybe I could do a machine satin stitch for the Pumpkins but after doing just part of the P, I realized that I didn't like it.  Doing it by hand could take f-o-r-e-v-e-r  sigh.  So, I'm trying to figure out how else I can do it.  The background piece is a brown batik print similar to the wagon handle and the only thing I've found that will trace the letters onto the fabric is a white pencil, but it doesn't do a very good job - maybe if I could put some sort of see through stabilizer on the back of the fabric before I trace .... well, whatever it is I do, it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Today was family reunion day ... I had a nice time ... got to catch up with my younger brother and aunt and chat with cousins... and I got to go through the house next door to the church where the reunion was held.  This house was the parsonage at one time from what I was told, and my mother's parents bought it from the church when my mom and her sisters still lived at home.  When my mother and birth father divorced, we came to live with my grandparents for two or three years.  I have memories of this house and when I heard today that it was being torn down next week, I asked if I could go through it.  My mom's cousin took me over and went through it with me.  Some of it was like I remembered, but some things had been changed.  This was the house where I snuck downstairs on Christmas Eve and opened every package that had my name on it.  Of course, I got caught - my punishment was that I had to sit on the couch and watch while everyone else opened their gifts ... and I wasn't allowed to touch my gifts - including my new doll!!  One of the gifts that I had opened wasn't mine after all... when I saw CA in the moonlight, I assumed it was CAROL - umm, no, it was for my cousin, CATHY. 

I don't know what it was about that night that made me realize that Santa wasn't real... I was only six and nothing was said to me but I just 'knew'.  I do remember asking my great aunt who lived across the road from us ( and she was my Sunday School teacher when I was four and then my school teacher for k and 1st grade - country school) if Santa was real.  She told me that he was - that he lives in people's hearts -- and I liked that. 

As much as I didn't believe in Santa, I certainly wasn't going to tell anyone else that he didn't exist.... just incase he was real but wouldn't be bringing me gifts if I said that he wasn't.  Typical childhood 'drama' right? lol

Ok, enough of walking down memory lane... this is supposed to be a blog about quilting.  There isn't any more to tell tonight, though, so I guess I'll just say...

TTYL

Energy is wasted on the young

Sorry, I didn't know what else to put.  It's the truth, though.  If I had the energy of a 3 year old, my house would be spot less and I'd have a small UFO quilt pile.  As it is, I went for a pedicure while hubby went for a haircut yesterday morning and I think we both took a short nap once we got back home. 

I did manage to start working on the next block of my Shabby Fabrics fall BOM ( from last year).  This is block seven out of nine, I believe.  I'm pretty sure that month ten is when you put all the blocks together and add the buttons, etc.  I traced, roughly cut out the paper back fusible and ironed it onto the backs ( well, except for one piece of fabric).  Thank goodness, I've been saving the 'leftovers (some are too big to be called scraps in my opinion) and I found a piece to match the one that I accidently fused the webbing onto the front of.  Disaster averted!

Late yesterday afternoon, we made a spur of the moment dash into Lansing to check out Menard's.  On line, they had a really great deal on a patio table with umbrella and four chairs - less than 1/2 the price of the set I'd been looking at on Walmart.com and Amazon.com.  We wanted delivery because I knew the box would be heavy and I didn't want the two of us trying to figure out how to get it out of our car without causing major physical damage to one or both of us.  There was some 'confusion' as to delivery fees - I had printed out a copy of the picture of the patio set but not the page with delivery fees - bad move.  It should have only cost us $40 at the most ... at first they wanted $79 and I kept telling them "No, not when I saw that it should only cost $40".  The gentleman whom I'm assuming was the dept. manager finally dropped twenty dollars off and I said, "ok, I can accept $59" only because I couldn't bring up the page from their website on my phone.  And at the bottom of the receipt was information on how to receive the rebate - 11% of purchase price... works for me.

Anyway....it arrived about mid morning after I received a call wanting to know if it would be alright to deliver this morning instead of in the afternoon.

Hubby just HAD to set it up; I was really worried if he was up for it.  He did let me help and the hardest part was assembling the table.  You really needed at least two people for that.

 Of course, Buddy had to check it out.... 

Not a great pic, but if I stand where the deck rails aren't in the way, then I'm too close to the table.  Hubby says he doesn't care for the new chairs; he likes the old ones better.  I told him we can probably get cushions for them.  They're not fancy or expensive chairs; I think they're comfortable, but he's an old fart who has to find SOMETHING to be unhappy about lol.

Just before dinner, I finally managed to get back into my sewing room and get the applique pieces fused to a silicone sheet so that I can just lift it onto the background and not have to fuss with getting pieces in the right places.

Tomorrow, I'll get it onto the background and start stitching it down, but first, I have to bake cupcakes to take to my family's reunion on Sunday.  Not fancy cupcakes like my friend, Katie, makes, but still good... lemon with a surprise lemon curd filling and lemon frosting ( all from a box and two cans lol).  It's about all the energy I can muster food wise.

It's after 9 pm and I'm heading to bed....

take care....

ttyl....

Super Short Tonight

Here it is!  My completed project for today.  This is the seventh block for the Gnome for the Holidays by fatcatpatterns.com. 

After I completed this, I had to go over to Walmart with hubby and, although it was a short trip ( I even beat him done this time lol), it wore me out and I've done nothing except play on my computer and fix dinner since we got home.  And, although it's not quite 8:30 pm, I'm tired and heading for bed in a very few minutes.

take care....
ttyl ....

OOPS! It's the morning after

I was going to post last night, but it was a Tuesday and AGT (America's Got Talent) was on and I didn't want to miss a minute of it. 

So, yesterday was sort of a day to 'catch up'; it was the 7th day of a new month and I had yet to work on my RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge).  I mistakenly thought that I didn't have enough Oranges left after using them on the crayon quilt top

but I found a fat quarter of Orange that was left from my two Dragonfly quilts and another loose fat quarter of a burnt orange.... enough to do these...

and I didn't even have to use either of the orange fat quarters that I bought last week - just in case -.

Doing the four foxes didn't take all that long; I was able to chain piece and do all four at the same time.  The bunnies are another story... One of them takes roughly an hour - and that's if you don't make any mistakes that have to be undone and fixed (ask me how I know) - I cropped the wrong side of the base of one of the ears and was afraid that I didn't have enough of the burnt orange to fix it.. luckily, I just barely had it. 

 There were some pieces left over from the second bunny, but not enough to make a third one and I don't think I'd want to mix the fat quarters purchased last week with this burnt orange - it might look kinda weird.  And I only wanted to make two bunnies a month, at the most.  I still have some catching up to do on them... only two or three months are done.  At least I stuck the required fabric for the month into the bin with the pattern and background fabric; I just have to put my mind (and body) to it and get caught up.

Ok, now I'm off to my sewing room to see what I can get done today.

take care...

ttyl....

oh, and PLEASE, comment if only to say Hi.  :)

Oh so slow Monday

I had intentions of getting quite a bit done today, but it didn't quite work out that way.  I spent quite a bit of time off and on through the day reminding myself that it's Monday and not Sunday - it just felt like a Sunday.

While trying to clear up some of my mess from last week, I decided that I'd use up some more of the Aunty Acid fabrics to make accessories for my bag...

 First was this little pouch... it's supposed to close with a big snap but I went for the off center button hole and button.  It wasn't off center on purpose... I messed it up once and ripped the stitches out and carefully measured for the second attempt - I don't know what went wrong, but it's definitely not in the center.  Oh well, it's going in my bag and I don't care.  :)



 Next came the checkbook cover.. this needs a little reworking or altering of some sort... the checkbook fits perfectly - but I can't use the plastic piece that needs to be under the check when you write on it... I'll figure it out later... I don't write that many checks anyway.

 Got a package in the mail because it's Monday not Sunday lol....the backing fabric for the frog quilts..  I went on bugfabric.com and found some on sale for like $3.97 a yard ( give or take a few cents) so I ordered 5 yards to be sure there would be enough for both quilts.  It's so cute!!

That's it for today....  other than I got the first pattern for the Save the Bees BOM.  I wanted to do my RSC foxes first - that's why I was attempting to do some cleaning up.  I got the BOM pattern printed out and put in the bin with the fabrics - that's as far as I got.  Hopefully, I'll feel less 'tired' tomorrow and I'll be able to get something done.

In the meantime...
take care...

ttyl

Sunday night

Ok, it was slow going today, but I got the top done... had to correct a couple of blocks... here's one... an OOPS that I couldn't leave like that.  It's still not a 'perfect' block and remains different from the other 11 blocks, but I don't think it will be noticeable once the quilting is done.  It's the way the white rectangle blocks are positioned; to correct it, I would have had to take the block almost completely apart and I just didn't feel like doing that - with the way things were going today, I might have messed up again.

I think this is the layout I ended up being satisfied with... really hard to tell in black & white, but I think the lights and darks are pretty evenly distributed.

Ok, here it is... with sashing and border... top done and can be added to the 'waiting to be quilted' pile.  I really don't know what I want to use for backing & binding... not even sure how I want to quilt it -I'm thinking maybe 4 interlocking circles for the white centers. Beyond that, I have no idea.

Tomorrow is the start of the Save the Bees quilt a long ( I thought it was today and kept checking my email ).

Ok, I'm going back into my sewing room ( oh yeah, my needle threader broke off my machine today grrrr) and do a bit of cleaning up so that I will hopefully be ready to work on my RSC foxes before starting on the Save the Bees.  Then, I'm going to bed... my body has been screaming for a nap all afternoon!

  Oh!  and I have another empty bin... just didn't take a photo.

take care...

ttyl...

Slow going

I'm sorry I haven't blogged lately, but, honestly, there wasn't a whole lot to talk about.  Our new porch/deck was finished and we love it.

 I decided to work on emptying another bin... this particular one had a fq bundle of Aunty Acid fabrics that one of my cousins had gifted to me for my birthday, I think.  It seemed that I'd never get to use it because every time I thought I had a pattern where I could use it, something wouldn't be right and I'd look for something else.  So, it's sat in a bin along with some white yardage and also some gray yardage and this pattern

 I had thought that I could fussy cut the Aunty Acid prints and put in the center of these blocks... well, maybe it might have worked but it just didn't seem 'right'. 
So finally, I bit the bullet and said "to H@@@ with it" and used it for another one of these totes/bags

This time for myself... and I love it.  I found some black with white polka dots scraps and used them for the linings and handles.

I still have some fqs left... MAYBE enough to make a second one of these bags ( with a different lining and handles).  I've put it aside for now and the bin is empty... because

I added these bright colored fq to the white and gray yardage and now I'm working on this

I had a rough night sleeping the night before last so I didn't get up until almost noon yesterday ... but I managed to finish all but the last three of the twelve blocks required.  I ALMOST finished the last three- they are partially together; I just need to join the three rows together to make the block.  It was LATE last night and I was tired and decided they could wait until today.

 this red and blue one was the first one

and this green and blue one is the last finished and sitting atop the pile.  I THINK I might be able to get the entire quilt top together today... YAY!   

I like this block...I may try it again with other colors.  It only take five fat quarters and then 3 yards of background ( the pattern called for cream but I used white because it's what I had) fabric.  Three of the fq fabrics were from one of the fq bundles I've been receiving from Quilt in a Day for the last year and the green was from some of my green yardage.

Orange is the RSC color for this month.... I went and bought a couple of solid orange fqs because I don't think I have quite enough in my scraps to make my required four foxes...because I used a lot of them for this...

I've since spotted a few pieces - well, one or two - of scrap orange fabrics laying around in my sewing room so, hopefully, I'll have enough for the foxes.  Once I get this current quilt top done, I'll work on them and  see how it goes.

Guess that's it for now - time to stop stalling and get in there & finish up the Cabin Fever...

take care...

ttyl....