Category: Family

Cute and Ugly

I finally got caught up on my Fall into a quilt along blocks.  At some point when I get the current design off my design wall, I will take a picture of all the blocks together.  Love the pumpkin block.  I did not like it though until I looked at the photo.  For some reason it all looked wrong to me.  Then when I looked at the photo, I thought, OK, It is not that bad.  Lucky for me Nanette had sent me some Batik scraps and there were some lovely orange ones.

Eww, the pie.  Don’t care for this one.  I think it was mostly my choice of colors on the bottom half.  Well, I guess there is bound to be one out of the group that I did not care WaterMark_2018-08-10-21-45-57for.  I am leaving it through.  I will keep it with the not quite right sunflower.

So, I think I may try the quilt as you go method on this. Obviously I am not doing it as I go….LOL.  I tried this technique a long time ago and decided I did not like it.  But lately, I have watched a few videos and decided I need to give this another try.

Sister Kellie is sounding a bit better the last few days.  I am hoping things stay that way.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

I Miss my life and sewing and quilting

A totally chaotic July has led to a somewhat rocky start to August, but I think I see the light.

I have had so very little time to sew or do anything I normally do.  I did sit down and put a label on this quilt.  It was done months ago, but sat there waiting for it’s label so I could put it in the cedar chest.  I am silly.  Yes, I make quilts for my grandchildren…..that I don’tWaterMark_2018-08-01-20-12-33 have and better not for some time.  But since I was an “Old” mom, I worry that I won’t meet my grandchildren.  Just in case, I make them quilts.  That way they know that their grandmother loved them whether I am here or not.   If my daughter waits as long as I did, I will have to be here at 80.  LOL.

A couple of weeks ago I had a bit of free time and decided to make a pin cushion.  It did not come out too bad.  I decided to send it to Nanette.  She is always so kind to me.  I think I will make one for myself at some point.  I like large pin cushions.

School will be starting here soon.  Last weekend we took the kids to Kings Island.  It was fun.  I had not dared go to an amusement park in years, however, I did pretty good.  Tried to stay off the crazy rides. The following day was school shopping.  I did suffer a bit at the early start of the week, but I expected it after a day at an amusement park, but I did it.

This weekend does not seem to have any scheduled activities, so I am hoping to get a few things accomplished.  My house is a bit disastrous and I need to spend some time in my room to get my mind right.

Sister Update:  Still not good.  Back in the ICU.  It scares me. When I do have time to do something, I lay on the couch and stare at the ceiling.  Kellie just turned 48, this past Monday.  She is my best friend. My keeper of secrets, my travel buddy on many occasions and my little sister.  I still don’t understand how this can be happening.  Life sucks. I need a Harry Potter Wand.

I am sincerely sorry for not posting for the Hand Quilt Along.  I will get back to myself, at some point.  These lovely ladies, have made great progress though:

Kathy,  Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette, Sassy , Edith, and Sharon

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Love the ones you’re with, near and far

I forced myself to Sew…..

As a norm, I do not have to force myself.  Lately, it seems that I do.  Not because I want to, but because I am so drained, removing my big but from the couch is more that I can actually deal with most times.

I did manager to finish my next block for the fall into a Quilt Along.  It was a really simple block, which I guess is good for me with now.  I feel pretty simple these days.  I used my batik scraps.  I have not yet decided what to do with my sunflower.  Roseanne offered to fix it and Nanette found the problem with the block instructions.  You are all wonderful.

I had someone explain to me that there are circles in life and most people can deal with something in 1 circle.  Problems occur when things are happening in more than one circle.

My professional life circle.  OMG. totally on the crazy train here.

My Personal circle – Good God.  Special-K (his nickname) has gout so bad he can not walk.  And no, we will not go to the doctor.  Daughter Haley has been sick for over a week.  On a plus side Summer swim is over.  That makes me happy.

My Family Circle – My sister seems to be improving.  She actually called me and sounded not to bad. For that I am grateful.

My ME circle – I feel crazy.  I need to do more sewing, that always helps me relax and get my head straight.

Deep breath.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Sewing-Quilting and other nonsense…(some nonsense, some not)

July 3rd was the fifth anniversary of my Husband Derrick’s death.  That same day, I find fb_img_1503081791295.jpgthat my little sister Kellie has blood clots in her lungs and is in ICU. Two of my absolute favorite people.  Damn it.  Derrick was the love of my life.  I think about him every day. Not a day goes by where I don’t think of him, laugh, smile, shed a tear.  My little sister, my best friend, keeper of all my secrets.  Come on.

I went to Cleveland.  Things were bad.  They got worse.  I wondered at one point if we would lose her.  I could not bear the thought.  How could someone else I love be taken from me?  The list is quite lengthy for someone my age. I stayed for five days.  She got better, then worse, then better.  She got to leave the ICU the same evening I went home.  Here in the next couple of days she will go to a rehab hospital.  She does not want it, but knows she needs it.  Besides the blood clots, she had pneumonia and was septic.  Lots of things to recover from.  The picture was from Las Vegas. Derrick was playing in a pool tournament and Kellie and I needed an excuse to go to Las Vegas.  It was fun.  The best time with two of my favorite people.

This is my fall quilt along block.  I was done before I left for Cleveland, but never got to post it.  I had issues.  It does not look right.  I don’t know where I went wrong, but I am convinced the instructions did not match the example.   If you look at the top row and then the bottom example, they do not match (or I am crazy.  Either is possible) .  The one time I attempt to actually follow instruction and look what happens.  It is going to stay ugly for the time being.

One of my sewing machines is down.  Of course, it is the one in the cabinet that I quilt with.  I will try to drop it off this weekend.  Broke a needle and it kept making a weird noise.  I guess a piece could be stuck somewhere.  It needed cleaned anyway.  No quilting for me for now.  I will just have to work on piecing.

With all my personal craziness, I did not enter anything into the One Monthly Goal.  ☹.  Next month, maybe things will get back to normal.  A girl can hope.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family

One Monthly Goal…It is truly a miracle

I am not sure how I managed to finish my One Monthly Goal, but I did.  This is the quilt WaterMark_2018-04-21-19-28-17top given to me by Nanette.  I love it.  I quilted dog bones, free-handed it.  That was a bit scary, but it came out all right.  I used a festive multi-watermark_2018-04-21-19-26-10.jpgcolor thread.  I love multi-color threads.  I don’t know why.  I am weird.

So, the back, come crazy dog fabric.  I had a friend give me whole bolt of this stuff.  It is sort of odd, not exactly fleece and not exactly flannel.  Just weird, but perfect for my dog quilt.  Yes, this is my dog quilt.  I have already used it while lounging on the couch.  Warm and cozy and extra special since the top was made by an extra special friend.  I have plan to make another quilt like this and donate to a dog rescue so they can hopefully raise some money.

Seems that family is on the mend.  Kev is getting better and my sister’s prognosis no longer seems as bleak as it once was.  A long way to go, but there is light.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

 

So, this counts, right? – Hand Quilt Along

Once again, I am apologizing.  I have gotten nearly nothing done.  Both, with sewing/quilting and my personal life.  There is so much going on in my personal life at the moment, I just want to go somewhere dark and warm and sleep for about a week.

For my hand quilting, I did finish the binding on this quilt….  That counts, right?  I do have a piece of embroidery for a quilt, but for some dumb reason I did not take a picture of it.  Next time.  This binding is actually on my One Monthly Goal quilt.

Besides all my personal insanity, Kevin (AKA man-friend) has gout so horribly he can hardly walk.  My little sister is also not well, and honestly, that is just not allowed.  As the older sister, I just want to take it all away for her.  Regardless of her age, she will always be my little sister and damn it, it is not her turn.

Please visit all the other wonderful people who actually get things accomplished:

Kathy, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan , Sherry,  Nanette, Sassy , Edith, Sharon and Bella.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

My One Monthly Goal for April

March is over.  Yeah.  So, I am going to get the quilting done on my special dog quilt for my one monthly goalmy one monthly goal.  I have started, but have a long way to go.   My intent is to have it completely done, binding and all.   I decided that I would do an all WaterMark_2018-04-03-20-19-19over dog bone pattern.  So far, it is going OK.  I don’t hate it.

I have multiple projects going, so I am hoping to get a few things done.

So, in my March month of hell, there was a very bright note.  My 13-year-old eighth grader passed her entrance tests to college and actually gets to start this summer.  Helping her prepare and running to the testing center, was one of the many things that sucked up my time.  I am very proud of her.  I would like to take all the credit for her smartness, but I can only take full credit for her smart a$$ness.

Wonderful thing here in Ohio, kids who can pass the tests can get up to 2 years of college credit totally free, including books.  If all goes well, she can start college after high school as a junior.  Also, her college classes count as her high school classes, so she is not doing double work.  I might have enough money to fund those last two years.  She does not understand how important it is, but I was fortunate to leave college without any loans (thanks Mom and Dad).  At the time, I did not realize the importance, but there are people my age still paying back college loans.  Yikes!  I don’t want that for my daughter.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

My one Monthly Goal in this crazy month

So, I finished my one Monthly goal and I don’t like it one bit.  O, my intent was to use this to practice my curved borders.  However, I got new rulers and got all excited about that and we have some pretty awful ruler work.  I thought about tearing it all out, but I just did not feel like it.  They are not all bad, but there are a couple that are pretty hideous, not to mention that for whatever reason my measuring skills were totally non-existent.  I will use it on my table.  Everyone always makes a big mess anyway…..It will blend in with the quilting.

This is the crazy birthday month.  All the kids’ birthdays are this month, along with my late mother, and my late husband, Derrick.  While I understand what everyone was doing that July before, I just do not understand why, myself included.  Fourth of July is really not that exciting.  So, the month has been getting gifts and making food and it is not over yet.  Still one tomorrow and Friday, Haley has some of her friends over.  Teenagers.  Great.  They will eat all the food, drink all the pop, and be super annoying.  Such is life being the parent of a teenager.

Due to all the crazy birthday stuff, I get little or nothing accomplished from a quilting perspective.  Add in there that I really miss my Mom and I have spent the month constantly thinking about Derrick and feeling a bit sorry for myself.   There have been numerous times that I just wanted to call Mom and talk to her about “things”.   Next month will be Dad’s birthday and I was totally a Daddy’s girl. Yeah.

Then there is the fact that, the first dead husbands brother died.  Haley wanted to see him before he passed.  I took her.  I had not seen these people in nearly 10 years.  It was stressful, but not nearly as awful as I had managed.  Sad that he is gone, I always really liked him.   At least he will have some good company.

Gosh, I sound depressing.  I don’t feel as bad as it sounds.  Sometimes, life just happens.  I need to get more sewing/quilting in and chase away the blues.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

My hand quilting and one of the many reasons I can’t get things done.

Well, not much has  been getting done around my house.  There are a host of reasons, 20180217_120109_resizedKevin and Haley both sick, plumbing issues and a very large chocolate lab who thinks she can sit on me while I try to sew.

I did make some progress on my two hand quilting projects.  My Dog Bone dresser scarf is 45.5 inches long.  I think I only need to add 2 more dog bones.  This was mostly due to the Super Bowl.  As I sat on the couch, I worked on this project.

 

The Flower Garden project now has a total of thirty flowers.WaterMark_2018-02-18-19-24-15 (1)  I am thinking that when I join all these together, I might use a yellow.  Not to sure, but that is where my mind is at right now.   To get a view of all these talented ladies hand work, click on the links below.

So, I do have to say that through my blog I have met some of the most wonderful and generous people.  I need to give a special shout out to he wonderful Nanette.  She is a super generous person and has become a special friend to me.  I am so greatful

 

Only Little Old Ladies Quilt……REALLY?

So, this was my conversation the other night with my significant other.  The conversation started because I was telling him that Lynn and I were going to do our own “Sew In” in our dining room. One thing led to another and he informed me that only little old ladies quilt.

“So, I am a little old lady?”(me).  His response was, “well if the shoe fits”.  Then he went on to tell me that his Mom did this stuff.  What stuff?(me)  “You know did things with yarn” (him).  “You mean like crochet?”(me)  “Yah, that kind of stuff”(him).

Well, just for your information, not all the people in my quilt guild are old”. (me)  The majority, the average age?(him)  !!%%%&&& (words I should not type).  “Just so you know I have done this my whole life, not just since I have known you” (me).  “Why are you getting so offended?” (Him).  “Well, I think you just called me old, and all my friends.”  I am tempted to give you all his phone number and email address to set him straight, however this little old lady may find alternative methods of showing him the error of his ways. Lynn can punch him when she sees him.

I now have all my blocks for my free quilt top from Red Rooster quilts.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that week 26 was binding.  Gosh I love free stuff, especially quilt stuff.  I hope they do it again.  So now, I need to put it all together.  I already have the backing, so I should be good to go.  I really do like Orange.