{Post 1,744} Strangely Productive Day

 

I always have a to-do list a mile long. I check off three things and add seven. It’s a way of life for me. Today was no exception. Timmy stayed overnight last night, which meant we chilled last night for hours. I needed it. He did, as well. We snuggled and snuggled, and snuggled some more. 

This AM I got some work done in my sewing room while he slept. Then we had homemade protein waffles for breakfast and got his school work done in a snap. His writing is bee-you-tee-ful!! After we finished, I finished the quilt sham and got it in the wash. Timmy helped me decluttering in my craft room for an hour. We cleaned off and around a 8’ banquet table that can now be folded up and stored. I am using the “Decluttering At The Speed of Life Method” by Dana K. White, and boy howdy, does it work well. I am reducing what I have down to the reasonable available space. I started a group on FB for things I am giving away. I was able to rehome several neat things. I listed some antiques on FB Marketplace and hope to sell those. 

Timmy left in the early afternoon. I started machine quilting a customer quilt. As of now, I have all but about 15” wide finished on that. 

My husband and I were given a gift card to Red Lobster, which is possibly my favorite restaurant. Well, it was until tonight. We just learned that they have removed their warm apple crostada from the menu. <heavy sigh>. We were so disappointed. But we’ll make it. So we drove 45 minutes to the Red Lobster and had a great meal (I brought half of mine home for lunch tomorrow). 

I have been looking for a TV cabinet (we still use a DVD player and Wii console). I keep looking at the thrift stores. We have a very specific space and measurements. Nothing has turned up. We ended up looking at a couple stores tonight. We found one for far less than we had anticipated (at least for buying it new). It is a some-assembly-required things, and I hope to get that together in the next couple of days.

A customer dropped off a darling baby quilt this afternoon (we should really have a revolving door on the front of the house!). It is sooo cute. The colors are very unique. An orchid, grayish turquoise, gold, peach, and lots of black and white. I will post a picture when I quilt it.

Here are some of the antique items I am selling. They were my grandmother’s. There is just not room in our house for them, especially since we are reducing our living space so greatly. These items are interesting to me just because I saw them at her house for so many years. The first item is a wooden bucket, the second is an ash bucket, and the third is a wash board.

The pressure is on to get my craft room emptied out. My youngest daughter and her family are coming February 27 and will be staying in there. That’s just a little over two weeks. My goal is to have it converted to a guest room with our queen-sized bed. I am also looking for a twin-bed frame and headboard/footboard. I found a marvelous set on FB tonight, but the seller is not returning my messages. I am guessing it is already sold. It looks perfect for our grandchildren’s guest bedroom.

That’s about all for today. I am loving my bullet journal. I am keeping it simple. I have seen some where the person literally spends hours drawing multi-colored art work then puts a short quote on the page or whatever. That is fine for them, but I’d rather be piecing than recording it!!

Take care, my friends.

{Post 1,743} More of The Same

 

It seems like I am in the same routines I was when my children were young...meals, home schooling, etc. My grandson is learning like a champ. Honestly, I am not biased. He is so intelligent. He is staying overnight tonight. I love that kid.

We are moving some things around in our house. As of April, all our children will be gone from our home. If you’re new here, I have 8 children. Our house has 6 bedrooms and an office. We have a friend that just started working from home. They have a small house and 4 children. My husband offered to move his office upstairs into an empty bedroom and allow our friend to use his office that is entered through the garage. 

My husband is finishing up moving a stacking washer/dryer into my clothing closet. The original set are in the finished basement. After my son is married, we are going to rent out his bedroom, a full bath and the laundry room/kitchen (that is currently missing the kitchen part!). Having laundry facilities upstairs will help out with that transition a lot. We will need to put a door in the hallway to have a division between the two bedrooms downstairs. We are keeping one for our children’s use when they visit. Then we will put in new flooring after my son moves out. We need a stove/oven and a kitchen sink instead of a laundry room sink plus seating for the kitchen.There really is not much to do. We already have had several young single men interested in renting it.

Today I finished a long-term project (well, I actually finished it after working on it yesterday and today). I ordered a charm pack on January 4, and it just arrived a couple days ago. So I worked on it immediately. It is a pillow sham to match a twin-sized quilt I made this past summer. This is the quilt...

Here is the sham. I just made a quilted front with the design being the size of a standard pillow. Then I put a zipper up the middle of the back. I laid it wrong sides together and stitched in the ditch of the pattern area and again at 1/4” inside of that. Then I attached binding in the usual way.

With that project finished, I will get it in the mail tomorrow. A customer brought over a baby quilt today for me to machine quilt. I have two others, and I need to get started on them. 

Take care, and leave a comment so I know you were here.

{Post 1,742} Sewing Up A Storm

Here on my blog, quilting is my most common topic. But my life is full of so many more things. I do sew a lot—and it seems like more and more this year. When I was in PA recently, I met my sister for a meal. She was telling me about bullet journals (which I had never heard of, naturally). I started one for my UFOs, machine quilting projects, and tracking my sewing every day.

The hardest part was deciding how to set up a page and how to track actual specific work. Here are two pages from my bujo (that’s a cutesy abbreviation for bullet journal if you want to look up some ideas on Pinterest). The numbers circled in pink ovals are from the project list by number.

I am often asked how many quilts I’ve made in a year or how many customer quilt tops I’ve quilted. I have never keep track, other than looking back at my blog. I was not good at keeping lists or whatever. As we drove back from PA to NC, I came up with over 40 UFOs that I could remember, and that was before looking through all the storage drawers in my sewing room! I am adding machine quilting (MQ) requests on the same list with the MQ highlighted with orange colored pencils.

I am writing down quite a few details about the quilts I am piecing and finishing. I regret not doing that with quilts in the past. Especially what quilting pattern I used and sizes for sashings, borders, etc. I am enjoying this so far. 

Other breaking news for me...remember how disappointed I was to close my booth at the end of 2020? Well, someone asked about selling my quilted items in her brick and mortar store. I sent her pics of what I had then I took over the ones she picked out on Friday. One of them sold the very next day!! I was so excited. It’s a win-win for the owner and me. She doesn’t buy the items since they are sold on commission, and I don’t pay rent! Here are a couple pictures from the store. She bought 3 of my booth display pieces including this hutch. She took me right to it, but I didn’t even recognize it. I think it’s the surroundings. The store is so quaint and cute with wonderful ambiance and lighting.

Still home schooling my grandson. Today was a rough one, but we muddled through. I am hoping that tomorrow is a better day with his schoolwork.

Saturday AM I drove over 2 hours to my son’s fiancee’s house to bring her back to ours. I was halfway there and suddenly wondered, “why did I volunteer for this?” It was even my idea. As soon as we got back to my house, we cooked and cooked and cooked—something she has not done much of. But she was amazing and soooo very helpful. We made two desserts, two soups, and homemade crescent rolls. It was exhausting. But so much faster with two working.

Here she is trying my homemade banana pudding for the first time. She “used” to think her grandmother’s was the best. She said she can imagine being somewhere where a person is bragging on their banana pudding. She said she’d respond with, “Oh, you think you have the best recipe? That’s cute!” I laughed so hard. Why does everyone look 12 to me?

Be a blessing to someone around you! Life will be sweeter!

{Post 1,741} PA Visit & Strings Started

 

Our youngest daughter had a new baby girl 12/31/2000, and we went up (7 hour drive) to see her and the rest of her family for a few days (5, in fact). We had a marvelous time, but I had allergy problems while I was there. I had a sore throat, cough, fever, etc...all allergy symptoms. I am just feeling better today. 

In my recent sewing room clean-up, I found a stack of blocks (except for 5) that would make a good-sized quilt. I made the other 5 blocks. Yesterday I laid them out and picked them up to “web the top” a la Bonnie Hunter’s teaching. I love doing that because one ends up with one stack of blocks, sashing, and cornerstones that does not get turned around while assembling. Here is a picture of the blocks that have yet to be added and the second picture is what I have finished so far. I L-O-V-E the sashing color. Aqua/teal is my new color, and I’m trying to incorporate it into my home here and there. This quilt will be for us to keep.

Yesterday I also finished, labeled, washed & dried this beauty for a customer. It is 72” x 90”.

Last, but not least, is a pic of me and my new granddaughter. Babies are such a great way to start new people.

{Post 1,740} There Appears To Have Been A Struggle

 

I have spent bits and bobbles of time lately organizing my fabric. I saw a few ideas and morphed them into something that would work for me. I measured my shelves and then bought the biggest stackable plastic boxes with lids that would fit while stacked up, but not be too heavy when full (that’s asking a lot of a lowly plastic box, but I found some that worked). I found that the fancier the handles and lids, the more expensive the box. I went with something simple that was flat that would be easy to pick up, but not with all the bells and whistles. 

I measured the interior of the box in height and width and made a simple template out of corrugated cardboard. I folded all my fabric FQ and larger to fit around the template. I made a small pile of pieces too small to fold more than once. It seemed insurmountable because I have a lot of fabric tucked here near there in my sewing room. I gave up the expectation of perfection and just started. I am nearly finished (well, I AM finished with everything I’ve found so far, but I have drawer stacks under my long arm to go through). 

Before starting the boxing project, I had all different sizes and styles of boxes and piles of fabric in every nook and cranny of my room. Here is a before and after shot of just a little of the area. The bonus of touching each piece of fabric is that I separated out that which I know I don’t want any more, whether color, style, etc. This first picture is where I pulled out 3 bankers boxes (from behind the curtain, which I’m leaving off in the future).

This next area is the nemesis of my sewing room. Just a little space between my homemade ironing station and quilt frame. I keep my batting rolls here as well as anything else that is homeless.

Here is part of the after (I still need to get rid of all the empty cardboard and plastic boxes...they are legion). This first pic is what was behind the green curtain. The box with “neutrals” is my first completed box in this new system of organizing. 

I first thought I’d keep the boxes here because they can be stacked two high with plenty of clearance. But now I’ve decided to put the least used of them on the bookshelf along the wall between the ironing station and quilt frame. Next I want to organize what’s in the 2 three-drawer plastic stacks...that is now squares, triangles, labels, extra binding, and small specialty rulers. On the bottom is a few jelly rolls and the bankers box has mailing supplies. 

For those insanely curious (like me), here is a description of my box contents. Everyone has different stashes. I mainly have Thimbleberries (I have 100 partial bolts because I formerly sold it from my home...still do if anyone is interested), holiday prints (patriotic, fall, and Christmas), non-Thimbleberries in rainbow colors, and novelty prints (I make baby and I Spy quilts enough to keep some large pieces on hand for backings and piecing). I also make pumpkin quilts—runners, pillows, wall hangings, quilts of all sizes). 

Generic means not Thimbleberries. I love Thimbleberries, but they don’t plan nicely with other fabric lines!

*Thimbleberries:  red, gold, brown, green, and blue

*Thimbleberries:  purple, pink, black, seasonal, and neutrals

*Holiday: fall, patriotic, and Christmas

*Pumpkin: mostly orange, a little green and neutral, Disney princess yardage, sock monkey yardage

*Generic blacks, reds, and neutrals

*Generic red, yellow, brown, green, blue, purple

I have emptied so many eclectic boxes and piles of fabric. What I love about doing this is that since it’s stacked up, one can see EVERY fabric in there just be removing the lid. Here are pictures of how I filled the box (by placing it on its end and piling it) and how it looks when it is in its proper orientation and the lid is off.

When I started folding the Thimbleberries, I didn’t realize I had so many small pieces that were box-worthy. I had a box filled, then came across a dish pan full. I use dish pans to keep fabric and projects in because they are $1 at Dollar Tree and can hold a LOT. It was so easy to just set the box on its side and remove the sections of each color to add a random piece or two. I ended up dividing it into two boxes that are nearly full. 

Whew—that was so much work, but it looks fantastic. I still have to go through the drawers under my quilt frame. They are mostly UFOs (some nearly-completed tops), shirts, and oddball fabrics (netting, felt, denim scraps). It will all get done in time.

Isaac, my only child-at-home is 21. He is recovering from Covid. He is in his last two days of quarantine. Thankfully my husband and I did not get it. Isaac was joking, but he said he could hear my up in the kitchen (which is right above his room) cooking and baking during the holiday season (we never had ANYONE over—it was kinda sad, but we didn’t dwell on it...it was necessary). He lost his senses of smell and taste very early. He said “I was laying there thinking that I was missing cookie and goody season. I couldn’t taste or smell. I wondered if life was worth living.” Again, he was kidding, but he was miserable. Even though he didn’t have an appetite, I kept him filled with healthy food and water to aid his recovery. He dutifully ate, but it wasn’t enjoyable. Made me think many times what a gift our senses are, and I will try to appreciate them more.

That’s it for this very long post. I am home schooling a 6-year-old grandson, and that takes a LOT of my time, but I hope to at least clear out the empty boxes in here today, with his help. He is staying overnight a few days because his little brother has a fever. Just found that out this AM. 

We are also doing a big project in my sewing room that is causing some disruption. We are putting a stacking washer and dryer in my clothes closet (my husband and I each have a good-sized closet of our own). My sewing room was formerly the master bedroom. When we started sleeping in one of the smaller bedrooms after 7/8 of our children moved out, we left our clothes in the closets back here because we both use the master bathroom instead of the hall one. We are working towards renting out a large portion of our finished basement after Isaac gets married in April and moves out. Phase one is getting a washer/dryer up here (ours is currently downstairs). So I had to clean out my whole closet. I donated a huge amount of clothes and shoes. It is good to downsize and clean out, but it is wreaking havoc on my sewing room in the meantime. My style in here is “there appears to have been a struggle”.

One of my main reasons for my blog is to use it as a personal journal. Thanks for reading along. Another reason is to share what works for me as far as sewing. Hope you found this helpful. Leave me a comment!

{Post 1,739} Lots of Piecin’ Goin’ On

 

I have given away two large quilts in the past few weeks as well as selling one. Lots of progress here. I have a couple reasons why I think this is happening. I bought a rolling cart of drawers. Not only has it helped me stay organized but I can take the whole drawer of precut pieces to my sewing machine, thus getting more done faster. Here are a few pictures. I am working in earnest on the first (Plaid Lightning) and the one with the 4-pointed star design.

This first one is finished except for a border of 6” tall by various width pieces.

This one is finished, quilted, and in the hands of its new and very happy owner.

This is my current squeeze. I have 61/80 blocks finished. I had a lot of small scraps, so the last few blocks have pieced “stripes” in them. Do you see all 3 of them? Some added fun and less waste.

Here is the picture from the book. Virginia Bound by Bonnie Hunter. I love the border. I have done the other two I made with an orange/blue/green color way. I love orange in a quilt, but I think I’ll use something else. 

{Post 1,738} Christmas Decor 2020

 

The little I did seems to have taken f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I worked on the living room off and on all day, and this is all I decorated.

Just to give you a chuckle, I spent over an hour on this garland on the mantle/shelf (I call it that because that is where our mantle was before we removed the fireplace. I still call it mantle out of habit. Please forgive me. I had bought the nativity scene this year and really wanted to make it “shine”. I set it on the mantle then put the garland on. The garland is quite hefty (I love the way it looks). But then I didn’t have room on the mantle for anything but the thin nativity. My husband came up and asked me why I didn’t put anything else up there. I said there was no room. He gave me an odd look and then reminded me that last year I put the garland UNDER the shelf. I asked, “I can DO that??” He just gave me a blank stare. Here is the comparison for your humor of the day...

Just gonna leave that here. I have a few other things to pull our, but that it about it for us this year. I remember back when all 8 of my kids were at home and the constant activity. I miss having my 8 elves to help shop, bake, clean, decorate, move stuff around, bake more, eat lots of cookies...<sigh> those were the days, my friend.