{Post 1,712} Stay-At-Home

Have any of you done something new or different from your normal routine? I have not been going to my booth once a week or getting allergy shots once a week. I definitely don’t go to the store at every whim. We have not gone to meet with our church in over two weeks. Something I have STARTED is making a to-do list for the next day. I make this right before I go to bed. It gets things off my mind, and I can prioritize my list for the day in the AM. I find that I need to do the thing I want to do least first. For example, I rarely put all the laundry away the day it is done. It is either hung up or folded, but it’s not at its final destination. I have one laundry day a week so that I don’t have to spend lots of time with it on my mind every day. So that is often the first thing I do when it’s on the list.

Since the stay-at-home thing has started, I have spent several evenings cooking or baking to distribute to friends the next day. Our church family is quite spread out, but there are several areas that contain most. I made large batches of chili, beef vegetable soup, and cookies. Dollar Tree has round containers that are perfect for transporting and storing soup. I bought some paper products and crackers to include in each box. That was fun and fulfilling.

I need to get more exercise in. That will take some planning and rearranging of things. Every day I think about how important it is, but I don’t do much about it.

Above is my string shirt block quilt. It is on the design walls in our guest bedroom downstairs. I added a few more sashing units today. I only need 16 more. I will probably get them made either tonight or tomorrow AM. Then I will get the quilt blocks off the wall and in a pile for webbing. 

I should knock out a few of the quilts I have that only need machine quilting. I have two customer quilts to do, then some of my own. If only my wishes came true as soon as I wished them.

{Post 1,711} I Can See My Cutting Tabletop

This is the cleanest my cutting table has been for simply ages. Here is the before and after.

All that is on it is a small, beautiful Christmas wreath quilt. All it needs is binding, and that’s what the red bolt of fabric is for.

Then I got set to clear off the floor beside the cutting table (that nearly prevented me from getting TO the cutting table). This pile is completely gone, but I did not take a picture.

I found numerous projects, most near completion. At least now I have some hand-quilting projects to choose from should I get the whim. These were all in the pile closest to my cutting table (green curtains underneath).

This just needs the basting stitches removed and a pillow back sewn on.

This was a sampler from Kim Diehl. I have two of the smallest blocks to hand-quilt and the binding put on.

This is a 20” pillow cover that just needs a back (it has a twin somewhere, but it hasn’t turned up yet).

These two pillow covers are finished. All they need is pillow forms inside.

This only needs hand quilting on the bottom right side of the cream and a backing put on. It is a pillow. The design in the white pumpkin area is called Pumpkin Seeds. I. Love. It. It was just spritzed with water to remove the Mark-B-Gone to show where to hand quilt.

I also found a pumpkin quilt that has the rows sewn together. I just need to sew the five rows to each other to complete the top.

In spite of getting so much done today, I feel like I slacked off most of the day. At the bottom of the blue laundry basket that held all these mostly-finished projects were five shirts to be deboned. My scrap string shirt bin was full (it is not very big anyway), so I pieced the color portion of 16 blocks for a Bonnie Hunter’s Virginia Bound quilt. It’s paper pieced. I thought it would diminish my shirt string scraps, but I can’t tell I used any. I need 80 for the quilt. I found 16 foundations while I cleaned up today. The sides get covered with neutral strings. This is the only quilt I have made more than once. I have completed two of them so far. Now I’m starting my third. I like it so much because all width of strings can be used.

Drop me a line if you’re reading. Just click on the “Would it kill ya to comment?” Button on the left. I look forward to hearing from you.

{Post 1,710} This Week’s Happenings

The way I keep track of what’s happening in my life is through my pictures. That seems odd, but when I start to write a blog post, I look at the last pictures I posted, then start from there.

It has been odd to be staying at home so much, but I love it (I do not love the reason, but there you go).

I went to my booth Tuesday to spruce up and put up a couple new small quilts. I added a goldfish print bag holder, some bowl cozies, and three mini quilts (which can be seen on my chicken wire screens).

I also took some pouches made with cork on the lower half. There are a few other pouches as well. I am surprised the antique mall is still open. It is certainly not essential. I made the trip over after calling the owner. She said no one had been in all day, but she was there doing paperwork. I wanted to have my new items there so that if customers came in, they would be available.

I continue to work on things at home. I only make things I would be happy to gift so that I am not overrun with items if/when I close my booth. There are 3 customer tops here as well as several (ok—maybe 8) of my own to machine quilt. Tomorrow I’ll work on straightening up my sewing room some more, then quilt at least one of the customer quilts. 

Yesterday was a day off from sewing for me. I decided to be a blessing and visit 7 church families in my area. Well, not really visit visit. I made two batches of cinnamon rolls and met people in their driveways after setting the cinnamon rolls on their porch or somewhere else so we could visit without contact and at least six feet apart. They all were healthy (as far as they know). While I love alone time, I did miss the contact. I can’t spread happiness, but I can pass out homemade cinnamon rolls. I wanted to check in with them in person to see if there were needs I could meet. 

I hope you are all well. Send me a message!

{Post 1,709} Potholder Pandemonium

From what I read and hear, crafters have the same blender mindset. What I mean is that every idea we come across just goes in the blender. It keeps circling back through my thoughts from time to time.

For example, I was squaring up a twin bed’s worth of quilt blocks lately. I had this mess. Instead of throwing it away (it was, after all, super thin slivers of scraps and muslin), I pushed it into a quart Mason jar on my cutting table.

The next day I recalled a Pinterest post about making trivets and pot holders from tiny shavings. So I started to make one. I had a customer picking up as well as dropping off quilts. She had been out of town for a couple months. I asked her if she was stopping at Hobby Lobby on her way to my house. A girl has to restock after being out of town! She was, and I asked her to get me this.

That led to the following pictures which are self explanatory. The quilting is less than an inch apart in all directions, horizontal, vertical, and on the diagonal both directions. The trivet/pot holder finishes at 6-1/2” square. I bound it just like I would a quilt.

Are you like me? Does a new, successful project just make you soooooo happy? This is a little library of all the fabrics in this new quilt. I love it. The soluble fabric rinses off after the quilting. It is magic, I tell you!

Stay well. It is so important to eat well (no junk), exercise, get enough rest, etc. Leave me a message

{Post 1,708} Quilts, Grandchildren, and More Quilts

I think I could sew 24/7 and never catch up with my wish list of personal quilts for my home and for gifts, let alone for my booth! With the stay-at-homing going on, I’ve sewn a lot recently. I will just put these out there with sizes.

There are two queen-sized customer quilts I cannot transfer from my phone to my iPad. My phone must be pouting.

This is the back of a baby quilt I machine quilted for a customer:

This is a 27” square patriotic paper-pieced quilt I am making for my booth. I want to make at least one more to keep.

This is a baby quilt I made for a friend in my church who had her precious little nipper this past Saturday.

I had 50 of these disappearing 4-patch blocks pieced when a friend from childhood asked me to make her a quilt. She loves the 1930 reproduction prints, so I made more blocks (over 50 more) and just finished piecing the top this AM. On to the pressing, quilting, labeling, and binding!!

This is another patriotic quilt I am making for my booth. It is all Thimbleberries prints. It still needs an inner and outer border and quilting. With the corona virus thing going on, I doubt my booth will even be open much longer, let along in time for 4th of July. I thought I was getting ahead by making these so early, but it might be for naught. Oh, well.

Now let’s have a look at some grand babies. Pictures only here.

I ordered a large 3-ring binder (with 4” tall ring holders) to make a “catalog” of my quilt pattern selections. I guess with so many things shut down now, it would be a good time to quilt up some samples. That would make it easier for my customers to select a pattern. Sounds good, but where is my motivation?

{Post 1,707} More Booth Work

I had a few more ideas for my booth. I get great satisfaction from making things myself. A few days ago I was at my favorite thrift store and saw a big piece of finished wood in the “$1 frame” box. It was not a frame, just a large piece of shaped and stained wood with some kind of acrylic finish on it. I went back yesterday to see if it was still there and made this sign for my booth last night...

I was looking at my most recent booth pictures, and I have some ideas for how to use it in my hutch. I hope it works.

There is also a need for more space for hand-painted signs that I have made. I am going to group most of the kitchen items on the hutch and move most of the signs to my shuttered door. I saw some pictures on Pinterest of people who hung framed pictures on shutters. I could not figure out how it was done, so I contacted someone who had them on her blog. She got back to me (after a couple weeks). It seems easy, but time will tell. Stay tuned.

I scrounged around in our garage and came up with enough wood to make three miniature pictures ledges to attach to the flat part of my shutter door (I think it was a closet door in a former life). When I bought it, someone had placed 5 screws in it haphazardly and at different angles. I am OCD. For real. I removed the screws, patched the holes, and painted the whole door last night. I am about to attach my picture ledges to the flat part. I’ll post later about how it goes. I’m a little nervous about drilling through the back and hitting just the part of the wood that I want. Here is the door freshly painted and one picture ledge before IT was painted. 

Just to get you salivating, I am sharing a picture of my favorite food on earth...homemade cinnamon rolls. I bakes 4 dozen for a fund-raiser last night. I kept six of them at home to share with my son and one of his friends.

Update: I attached my picture ledges by going through the front of the shelf. The screws were countersunk and painted over. There will be a picture in front of them anyway. Here is it, not quite dry, but assembled at the very least!

{Post 1,706} Ohio & Pennsylvania

I left my house Wednesday AM (Feb 5th) to head for my parents in OH. I was about 4 hours away when my Dad called and told me not to come, so I headed over to my sister’s. I spent parts of 3 days and 2 nights with them. Then I drove over to my daughter’s in PA. Well, I tried. I got stuck in this.

I got to within a couple miles of their house before I was just spinning in place on a hill. My son-in-law came and rescued me. I was right past a volunteer fire department parking lot, so I backed down the slight grade and turned in there. We got my car a couple days later. It was treacherous.

We’ve had a great visit. I have not taken many pictures. I’ve done lots of painting, cuddling, cooking, cleaning, dishwashing, and the usual shopping, errands, etc. 

I picked up a few good pieces at the Goodwill here to make over for my booth. I am eager to work on them.

While I have been here (on one day actually), I had 3 former customers ask me about quilting something for them as soon as I got home. Then I also had someone ask me to make them a twin quilt from soup to nuts. She is a woman who was my next-door neighbor growing up, and we were best friends for years. 

Here are a few pictures from my visit. The flower picture is the before of the walls in the first picture. It is a mobile home that we painted the bedroom of. We are going home Tuesday AM. Practically every minute has been planned out between now and then. We are singing a quartet (my husband, who arrived yesterday, my daughter, my SIL, and I) in the morning service tomorrow. That is fun and exciting. I love every single thing about the song we are singing.