Category: sewing

Progress, I’ll take it

I am actually doing things, just not that much. Have not been feeling myself lately, but who has.

These are gifts. I figured that I needed to get them done. I have a Thanksgiving piece I am working on. Who knows if that will happen. It is just for me, so no big deal if it does not get finished.

I liked the dog and cat prints with Holiday hats. I rarely pass up dog prints. Cats are OK and I did one for my cat loving sister, but I am truly a dog person. Well, actually I am an animal person. I love them all. I am just partial to dogs. Funny, I used to be scared of them. Now I can’t imagine life without them. They are truly my fur babies

I did get the next clue for the mystery quilt, but there will be no more clues until January, so I don’t need to be in a hurry for that one. Phew.

Thanksgiving is next week. I know there is much to be thankful for, but I am just so over things. Here in the great state oh Ohio, we are being told that holiday gatherings are not allowed.

Is covid really spiking? I think we are just testing more so it looks like it is so much worse. Please don’t think that I don’t take it seriously. I just want the actual truth. The media truth which is clearly jaded. What and how thy report seems to depend on what else is going on. Do we need distracted from Politics? Yes, then you are going to die from covid. Is there nothing to report in the world of politics or nothing you want mainstream population to hear, then you will die from Covid.

  • Ruger, AKA Shrek Jr was not happy about his costume
  • Snibble was perfectly fine being a taco since she is Mexican
  • Moka refused to be a Hershey Kiss

This is not a political post. I want news that is actually factual news without political bias. Rant over.

Happy Thanksgiving to all

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Mystery Quilt Clue #5 – Orange Dreams

Something is changing. I have made 2 blog posts in the same month. OMG am I returning to normal? Unlikely (not sure I have ever been normal). I am however beginning to make progress. I have started to try and do something every day. I am not successful every day, but more is defiantly happening. Last night I cut out another table runner (Christmas gift) and pinned together a few pillow cases for the guild. I have also created a project list for things that need to get done at home. Instead of laying around looking at the cobwebs, I have put a list together that the whole family can assist with. We have already been productive. Cleaned out our filing cabinet and threw away manuals for appliances and things we have not had in years. Cleaned out one of the buffets in our dining room. Things are starting to get done.

Orange Dreams or Orange Nightmare?

I am starting to like it a bit more. I don’t follow instructions well, so I have reversed color schemes and turned blocks around. I think it is becoming less of a nightmare. It will be interesting to finish. I am hoping that the center of this quilt can distract from the orangeness.

Fall is here

Not my beautiful fall tree (next Door Neighbor’s), but it is my view from the hot tub, which I can finally get in without being too hot. The weather in Ohio is still weird. It has been in the 50’s for nearly a week and today it may reach 80. Furnace, air conditioner, furnace, air conditioner. Ohio, please pick a season and stay with it.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

My Quilting Godmother

I hope everyone has a Quilting Godmother. Let me tell you about mine. She is the most wonderful thoughtful person. She sends me so many things. The picture above is only a small portion of what she recently sent me. There were two large boxes stuffed to the gills. I separated the fat quarters into groups and made my own fat quarter packs. There is also a bunch of solids which I already have a project for. There was also a Thanksgiving panel, that I will make for my front door,

What do I love best about my Quilting Godmother?

She is truly a great friend. All the wonderful things aside, I am so happy and grateful to have a friend that passes no judgement on anything. We have great conversations about politics, life. She has been an awesome shoulder to lean on when I needed one. Then there is the fact that she is an awesome quilter. Please visit this wonderful lady’s blog. I have met some awesome people that are quilters!

An Interesting Photo

My cousin sent me this photo few weeks ago. The woman in the front is my grandmother. She has been gone for about 40 years. The man in the back left was my grandfather. I never got the chance to meet him. After my mother came to the US with my Dad, her and my grandmother took turns visiting each other. The first time that my grandfather visited my mother in the US, he died, at our house. I think he came and saw that his daughter was living a good life and that meant he could go. At least that is what I would like to think. The lady in the middle at the back is actually my mother. To her right is her cousin and then my Uncle. Sad, but all of these people are gone. I would guess my mother was 19 or 20, but just a guess. I love these old photo’s.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

I love my Quilting God Mother

Mystery Quilt Clue #4 – Getting Weirder

So, I went a bit rogue on this block. I was finding it way to orange (even thought I like orange), I made what was supposed to dark light and vice versa and then rotated the block. It gave it a weird effect, that I find tolerable. Not totally in love it, but it does help the totally orange look that I had enough of.

I have also created a blog for our quilt guild, Marysville Crazy Quilters. Feel free to take a look at some of the quilts and projects my quilting friends are working on. The guild does a lot of charity work, which I like.

Personally, I still feel crazy. I have come to the conclusion that Covid is truly a state of mind. I don’t like it. This Covid state of mind has me less likely to quilt. I find myself staring at the TV or the ceiling of the bedroom and rarely wandering over to my studio. I have to get out of that state of mind. I am struggling to make a few blocks for a mystery quilt. Jeez. I find I do more when I actually have less time to do it. How is that right? I do have plans to make a few Christmas gifts so I better get moving. I also have had a quilt on the longarm for a couple of months. It stares at me as I walk by and yells insults at me for ignoring it. Ugh.

I hope you are all staying safe.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Mystery Quilt #3 – Getting Better

Well, after Clue #3, I like it better. I m still calling it my Orange Nightmare, but I do see that there may be hope. I m not a fan of these 6.5 inch blocks though.

Cornona virus is killing me. I have little or no motivation to do anything. My daughter started her junior year in High School and came home crying because nothing is the same, you can’t do anything. there are no groups at lunch. I felt bad for her. I didn’t even think how awful it would be for her and her best pal is going to the vocational school, so she does not see her.

A couple of weeks ago, my quilting pal Lynn and I went to Amish country to go fabric shopping. Not that we needed anything, but we both wanted to feel sort of normal. Interestingly in Amish country, they do not wear masks. They believe if god wants them, then they are ready to go. We went on a Friday, so there were not big crowds. It was hot as heck though.

Zinck’s in Berlin (Ohio) was our favorite. Of ll the times I have been to Amish country I had never been to this store. Ft quarter packs (20 FQ’s) were $26.99.

  • My Haul
  • Zinck’s, Berlin, Ohio

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Wow, That is orange – Mystery Quilt Clue #2

After the first clue, I liked this quilt.  However, it is looking way too orange.  From this view, you can hardly tell that the other blocks are stars.  Poor choices on my part.  I was trying not to buy more fabric.

So, these are 6.5-inch star blocks.  I do not like working with these small pieces.  I am starting20200719_134637 to wonder why I decided to do something with such small pieces.  First I can’t cut them correctly and if you sew anything wrong (which I did), ripping stitches from small pieces is a pain in the butt.

Up close it doesn’t look that bad, but it is a lot of orange.  I think my choice of the dark orange print was wrong.

It’s just going to stay that way, I can’t stand small pieces.  It will be interesting to see what the next clue is.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

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A Quilt Challenge and a very sad sad loss

So, lately, I have been a  big whiner about the fabrics in some charity quilts I was making.  However, once they were put together they were not nearly as bad as I thought. On the other hand,  the plaid fabric challenge is killing me. This is a guild sponsored challenge.   Everyone who wanted to participate in the challenge had to bring in 1 yard of plaid fabric and 5 or 10 dollars (can’t remember).  The top three winners will divide the money, everyone gets to vote for their favorites.

You have to use some of every single fabric in your quilt.   That is the only rule.  It can be any size or a runner.  I see only one fabric repeated.  But, holy cow, when you put them together they are a scary bunch of fabrics.  The one-yard was divided up between everyone who was participating.  The result was about a 6×8 inch piece of some of the ugliest fabrics.  It may take a miracle.

I have somewhat of a potential idea of something, but I am scared that I will hate it and then not want to work on it.  thoughts anyone?

I want a do-over on 2020.  Besides the stuff happening in our society.  The saddest thing I can ever recall happened.  My daughter’s best friend called on Thursday afternoon, hysterically screaming.  Once we got her to speak so we could understand, she told us that he just found her little brother hanging in the woods behind her house.  I told her to call 911 and we were on our way.  We flew there.  Beat all the EMS and police.  Haley was checking the house and I took off to the back of the woods.

There I saw beautiful sweet Savannah and her little brother holding up their other brother.  The sheriff drove to the back near the woods, flew out of the car and I pointed to them.  He ran up with his knife and cut him down.  Paramedics arrived and carried him out of the woods and began trying to revive him.  I asked my daughter to please not look.  She says she did not.  We hugged Savannah and her brother as hard as we could, while they worked to revive him.  No one knows how long he had been there.  We got to the house in less than 10 minutes, which is still too long.

They did get his heart started and flew him to Children’s, but he died a few hours later.  My heart is broken for this family.  I love sweet Savannah.  No note, so outward signs, and a 14-year-old boy is gone.  It is unimaginable.

I can not get the picture of Savannah and her little brother holding Gaven up out of my mind.  It won’t leave me.  It is a heartbreaking image that wakes me up multiple times at night.

Please, please hug your children, no one knows what tomorrow brings.

Say a prayer for the family.

Some Important Lessons learned

Hello Fellow Quilters!

Lesson #1 – I hated these fabrics when thy were given to me to make a donation quilt.  I hate them a little lesson now that it is together.  It looked better on the design wall than it did in the picture.  I think this would look better with some different fabric.  I may try it with some of my own at some point. Lesson is,don’t always judge fabrics so harshly, sometimes they will surprise you.

Lesson #2 – If you don’t have a carbon monoxide detector, get one.  We all could have lost 20200531_200223our lives.  Our ancient (20+ years) carbon monoxide detector, went off and would not stop.  Initilly we thought it was nothing, but something said call the fire department and have it checked.  It goes off when the kids unplug it or bump it and it beeps to let you know that it is on battery power.   Well, when the firre department came, they opened the door and shut it immediatly.  They said that they could not go in without oxygen.  They suited up and returned to tell us that they had never seen carbon monoxide this high in any house.  They set up some fans and got us some things we needed out of the houser and we were off to spend the night at the neighbors.  The next day it turned out that the exhaust pipe from our water heater became disconnected and all the Carbon monoxide was going directly into the house.  We had it repaired and the fire department came back did a recheck and we could return home.  Please, if you have propane or natural gas anywhere in yur home, pleaase get one.  If yours is old, please replace it.  It saved us.  We would have all been dead in less than 30 minutes.  Lucky for us it was a nice day and we had been outside, so we had only been in the house for about 10 minutes.  Phew.  I was bit freaked out about the whole thing.  Yikes.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

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Insanity has set in.

I can’t even begin to count the swear words on this one.  It looks simple enough and honestly I think it is.  The problem is me.  So, let me explain how this went, after the top was finished.  “Hey Mom, shouldn’t the dog part on the top have a leg also?”  Son of a nutcracker.  Ugh.  “Oh, and doesn’t the dog need a tail?”  You have got to be kidding me.  Yep, no top legs and no tail.  What is going on? I have totally lost my mind. Even better after I made the leg section and finished the top, post mistakes, I found a leg section that I had made.  It was not like I made it a long time ago and forgot, we are talking one day to the next.  I think that quarantine is eating away my brain.  This project is  My One Monthly Goal.  My intent is to finish it.  We will see.  I am supposedly heading back to work next week, so I am not sure it can happen.

So, when/while I got frustrated with this quilt top, I made some pillowcases.  For me, it is 20200504_195345something I can see being completed.  This stack has 22 pillowcases.  This brings my total pillowcases for charity to 44.

It also means that my stash has lost 44 yards of fabric.  Trust me there is more where that came from.

So, I had the chance to look at my next charity quilt kit.  Good God.  It is equally as ugly (maybe more) than the last one.

Could the fabrics be any uglier?  Yes, they can.  See my last charity quilt.  The picture on the right is the pattern I am supposed to use.  On the plus side, all the 2.5-inch strips are cut. and it should be quick to put together.  But, I do not like working on quilts that are not something I would ever put together.  I know, charity, someone will love it.

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Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Stay Safe

It’s Done…..ugh…

Done, quilted and bound.  Just did a simple meander.  The thing that bothers me about the quilt is the dark brown.  It just looks wrong to me.  I have another quilt top I made and I have a similar project with it.  There is a color that looks all wrong in it.  I can’t be to blame for this one, I did not choose the fabrics.  I am sure someone will like it.   I have not even opened the other charity quilt.  I will get to that later.  I am trying to work on the Weiner dog quilt top.

The problem I am having is that I started it a while ago.  I wanted it to be big enough to 20200421_140325put on a twin big, so I started making it bigger, but I did not write down my notes or can not found where I wrote my notes.  So, I am spending a bit of time figuring out what I did, which is annoying.

I think it is a great way to use up scraps though.  It is cute and I am the crazy dog lady.

So, I am on a two-week furlough from work.  Hoping it is only 2 weeks.  Hard to tell right now.  I hope you are staying safe is this crazy world.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

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