Tag: Ruler Work

Making up for lost time and the Zebra incident

Three blog posts in one month.  Wow.   I am honestly shocked at myself.  Trying to keep positive and attempt to do the things I love.  I have been told by my Significant other that I need to make an effort to go over to my happy place.  He tells me it makes a difference in me (or my level of grouchiness).  I am making efforts to try and do that.  Sometimes it is hard.

It seems like every day there is a new surprise.  For the last few days I have been having sleeping issues.  I wake up around 4 or so and off in the distance I can see light peeking over the horizon and I can not get back to sleep.  It gets lighter and lighter outside and I lie awake trying to shield myself from daylight.  Then I am tired later and want to do nothing.  Kev’s Suggestion:  “Cover the Window”.  Me,  “This might be only temporary.   I am, not sure I should do that”.  Kev,” OK, continue not sleeping.  Your choice”.  I hate when he makes sense.

The Whimsical Quilt – So, I finished this quilt recently.  It has cute whimsical animals.  I did not want to cut up some of these fabrics and lose the costumed animals.  It came out OK. 

It has fleece on the back.  I love fleece and minky on the back of baby/toddler quilts.  It makes them so soft.  I have no plans for this quilt, it was just something to do.  Mind you I have loads of projects half done or sort of started, but still pick up new things.  At least I finished this one!  Hurray for me.

What else am I working on – Of course, I have started new things.  I am working on a happy Baby quilt.  Nanette sent me the pattern and she is also working on one.  Hers will be perfect of course.  Everything she does is perfect.  Pictures to come later.  I am also making a Yellowstone Quilt.  For those of you that watch the Yellowstone series, it is the one that Beth is wrapped up in sitting on the front porch.  Simple nine-patch set on point.  Pictures to come later.

The Zebra Incident – I live on a state route.  Driving down the road one day, I travel a lot,  in the pasture with some horses, I see a zebra.  Like a real Zebra.  I do a Double take and laugh to myself.   I call my daughter at school and tell her about the zebra.  She has that tone.  That, you have lost your mind tone.  So, later, when I get home, I tell Kev about the Zebra on Route 245.  He rolls his eyes at me and gives me that “You are insane” look.  He says to me,” There is not a Zebra on 245.”  I argue, of course, but eventually, let it go and start to wonder if I have lost my mind.

A couple of days ago, I’m driving down the road with my daughter in the car and there he is.  I stop the car, backed up, while my daughter is yelling at me and made her photograph the said zebra, that no one believes exists.  I then proceeded to text everyone.  I win.  There is a zebra on 245 and I have not lost my mind. 

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Monumental….and another

So, I guess I am going to to have to be happy right now with making smaller pieces. It is not the worst thing in the world. I do have another larger quilt that is for a Guild competition that I am going to have to figure out how to get quilted. We will have to see. May wait a while longer. Hoping things improve for me.

So, I am keeping this table runner for myself. I have had these fabrics for while and thought they were cute and summery. So, while this piece might look simple, I was trying to learn new things. These are not all straight seams. There is a “Y” type seam in here. Have never done them on quilts (plenty on cloths) but the instructions made it super simple to do.

Also did some straight line quilting. Funny, did it and then watched a video on how to do it. Not necessarily in the right order. I still like the look, even though it is not perfect. I now know a couple of tricks when I attempt this again.

It did take a considerable amount of time for all those lines though.

Still, I think it was worth it.

My Personal Struggle – Not much has changed since my last post (it was really only a few days ago). However, I am trying to work hard at returning to my former self, fully aware that it may never happen. So, I thought maybe I would keep track of my progress here. It is going to sound a bit funny. Prior to my surgery, I was walking 2 miles a day. I was trying to work on weight loss but mostly preparing for a trip I promised my daughter (Europe). She graduates in 2022, and has always told me how she wants to go. I always talk about my mother and her family (Mom was from Germany), so, it seemed like the opportune time to take her. Then I had my surgery and it looks like this trip could be very difficult. So, I will continue to push myself, not only for me, but her.

We are currently using the mailbox method for walking. How many mailboxes can Lori get to? Today it was 6. Yesterday it was 5. So, I guess that is progress. Seems sad that we went from walking 2 miles per day to counting how many mailboxes I can get to. The walk back from Mailbox #6 was hard and painful, but I did it. To put distance in perspective (I do not live in a subdivision), My house sits on about an acre. Most others sit on about 1/2 acre. So, it is a bit further than 6 mailboxes in a subdivision, but not that far.

As for weight loss. I am down about 20 lbs since surgery. A lot of that comes from having to give up gluten and sugar due to the increased heart rate. When there is nothing good to eat, well then you lose weight. I noticed yesterday when I put on my jeans to go out in public that there was plenty of room in them. That is not a bad feeling. I stopped buying a lot of stuff, because no one in the house needs the junk.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

OMG…A blog post

Yes, I know it has been a while.  Just when I think I have my act together.  The S**t keeps rolling downhill and I am in the path.

Life goes on and I will survive.  I wont’ t bore you with all the details.  Just life crap I was in no mood to deal with.  It did not however, totally stop me from quilting/sewing, or you would have read about me in the paper LOL.

I hope you all had a lovely mothers day.  I did.  Spent the day making pillow cases for the guild charity.  Went to dinner with the family and they surprised me with a Ninja Foodie, which I have used every day since…..  I had an electric pressure cooker, which I loved, but this thing is the bomb – pressure cooker, air fryer and slow cooker all in one.

This quilt was an experiment.  I liked this pattern, Baby Bento Box, which can be located at Ronda’s creations.   Super cute and fast.

Anyway, I wanted to make this top with just fleece or Minky on the back without batting.  I ended up using fleece, because it was an experiment and less expensive.  Honestly, I WaterMark_2019-04-24-20-35-08don’t think I like the no batting part.  What I love is how the quilting looks on the back.  It looks good even when I am not.  It seems that fleece will hide a lot.  Honestly, it looks even better in person.

I am working on another one, which I will use with batting and Minky (already have it put together) to see if I like it any better.  It is the lightweight feel that gets me.  This would defiantly be a summer quilt.

Positive notes – New job is going well (or at least I think so), and I will have some exciting quilt news soon.  Hard to keep in, actually.

I have missed you all.

Happy Sewing

Happy quilting

Treasure your Family

 

One Monthly Goal for March…..No way…….yes way……

Even though I have not started my new job, my mind is certainly in a different state.  I have until April 8th.  I finally feel ike I am on vacation.  Not only did I finish my One Monthly Goal for March, but it is packaged and in the mail for my Star Wars loving nephew.  Even made a couple of star wars pillow cases (forgot the photo of these).

Originally I bought this fabric on clearance to make something to practice on.  It was odd.  A very square desigN.  The only way not to cut up all the design was to fussy cut each square, which I did.  It is an odd-looking quilt, but it is Star Wars.  For some odd reason, I put borders on the left and right, but not on the top and bottom.  Not sure what I was thinking there, or not thinking at all.

20190320_191727So, I did practice my quilting and I was very happy with how the quilting came out, so I figured it was at least worthy to give away, even though it is odd.  I used my “star” ruler and then made angle lines.  There is a lot of quilting in it, but I enjoyed using it and it looks pretty good.

I did have to wash this quilt prior to sending, it hung on the back of the couch with the binding half on for a couple of weeks, which means the dogs assumed it was for them.  Kept yelling at them, but I guess the rule is?  “If there is a blanket or anything that looks like a blanket it is ours to cuddle up in.”  So, I needed to de-dog it.  I thought I would not like it as much once washed, but I actually liked it more.  Interesting.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure your Family

One Monthly Goal – October

For my One Monthly Goal, I am going to quilt and bind this baby quilt.  I have made this quilt for Kevin’s (man-friend) sister who’s  pregnant.  I kind of did my own thing.  I really liked the center baby pin fabric, so I did not want to cut it up too much.  I plan to use my heart ruler for this one.  Not sure of thread color, but it will likely be something multi colored.

Kellie, another story…

You may have seen this photo before.  But I need it to tell my Kellie story.  This is my lateFB_IMG_1503081791295 husband Derrick and Kellie.  We were in Las Vegas together because Derrick was in a Pool tournament.

So, when I married Derrick, Kellie was the only one in my family that did not have something negative to say about it.  Whether she liked it or not, she kept it to herself.  She was always kind to Derrick, which is more than I could say about anyone else in my family.  Yes, I met/knew him in an odd unconventional way, and yes he was younger than me.  But when my first husband took his own life and left me with 2 kids, he was the only one that stepped into a really ugly, messy situation and was willing to do whatever was needed. He was coming to town to visit his sister for the holidays.  He asked if he could stop by to check on me.

He never left.  He did not feel like he could.  Things just went from there.  I know Kellie and her husband, Matt, talked about it.  He told me when we were sitting in the hospital by Kellie’s side.  They decided if he made me happy (which he did) that was good enough for them.  This is just one of the many many reasons I can’t imagine life without her.  She stood by me, always.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Love the Ones you are with

When life throws you a curve, quilt

This is my One Monthly Goal Project.  I actually finished it.  It was completed before my sister died.  I think I needed something to do rather than sit around and wait for something to happen.  I actually finished the binding on the evening before.  I needed something to do with my hands.  It is a cute baby quilt, even though my fire fly looks like it has mated with a bee.

For the first time, I pieced a back.  Nothing fancy, but I did it.  Learned a few things.  If watermark_2018-09-24-19-02-24.jpgyou can piece your back, you can save a lot of fabric.

I used my heart-shaped ruler for my quilting.  It does not look watermark_2018-09-24-19-02-49.jpgto bad. I find quilting with shapes and rulers relaxing, which is why I probably got this completed.  I needed to do something that was sort of mindless. For some weird reason, the color looks goofy in this photo.  Maybe because it is a close up

I hope you don’t mind….for a while I will likely add pictures of my sister Kellie.  I think honoring her helps me a bit.  It has only been a week and there were many time I said oh I will ask Kellie, burst in to tears when I suddenly realized I could no longer do that.

KELLIE – When, I had issues with my first husband, My sister drove down and picked up Haley for

20180917_134023 (1)
Kellie and Lori

the weekend so we can try to sort out what we were doing.  Unfortunately, that same weekend, my husband Jerry took his own life.  Kellie kept Haley for a couple of days so I could make arrangements and then brought her home.  She wanted to protect her for as long as she could, from how hard life was.  Haley was only 4.  I was so thankful that she did that.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Treasure those you love like there is no tomorrow

My One Monthly Goal Finish….

I would say it was a miracle that I completed my One Monthly Goal, but I have already used that headline…LOL. I finished my “Starry Starry Night” quilt.  This was a top that I paper pieced for Denise at For the Love of Geese as a pattern test (She does have some lovely patterns).   It came out not too bad, considering I don’t consider myself a very good paper piecer.

I had a lot of fun quilting this project.  I think that is because I like how the quilting cameWaterMark_2018-05-23-19-12-25 out.  I wish I had chosen a different thread for the front, because I wound up liking the back a lot.  I used a variable thread on the front, and all I see is the the light part of the thread, which shows any mistakes.  I do not have a long arm, so I am always using my domestic machine and I always want to get the “longarm” look on my WaterMark_2018-05-23-19-10-53domestic machine.  I know it takes a lot of practice to become proficient and I have been working on it.  However, I found these rulers (not sure why some are called rulers) at my local quilt shop.  I quilted this using the Star shape.  It made making beautiful stars on my 20180422_135918.jpgdomestic machine easy.  They come out nearly perfect.  I am still getting used to using them, so not every star is perfect, but I like it.  I think I will keep this quilt for one of my future grandchildren.

This is the last photo I have of my birds.  They have all flown the nest.  I see them in the yard, learning about life, trying to get food.  It was wonderful watching them hatch and grow each day.20180523_175037_resized

Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday weekend.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

The good, The Bad and the Ugly…..

So, you know what really stinks?  When you finally get around to doing something and it is screwed up.  So, my one monthly goal is to quilt this quilt.  So, I spray basted it about a week ago.  I go to get it and it looks like this.  So, the border was totally jacked up.  It looked fine when I had it all laid out, but I like to wait until that spray basting is dry.  Ugh.  So, more finagling with the border.  I am trying to figure out what I did.  Did I stretch it out when I basted it?  Do I not know what square is?  Could be either, I have my moments.  Will have to figure out something. Open for suggestions.

WaterMark_2018-05-13-12-39-59So, on a more positive note.  My star quilting looks awesome.  I love this ruler, even though it is not really a ruler.  It makes it look like I WaterMark_2018-05-13-12-39-26am way better than I am.  It is hard to mess up.  Perfect stars.  This was my test piece, until I figure out what to do with my border.

Baby birds look about the same.  Getting more feathers though.  It rained a lot here yesterday, so I watched Mom andIMG_06261001 Dad collect worms for the babies.  So cute.  This morning when I left, it was sprinkling, and Mama was sitting on the nest, keeping the babies dry and warm.

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 One monthly goal…and some other stuff (Fluffer Nutter Butter)

So, For my One monthly goal I am going to finally finish this Table Topper.  Not sure I would call it a UFO, it is less than a year old.  I made this with the intent of learning/practicing some type of scalloped border.  I bought one of those fancy border rulers a while ago, so I will finally have a chance to give it a try.  My plan is to have this totally completed.

So, my friend Lynn was telling me how she bought some rulers for Ruler work and it was really easy.  So, since Lynn always has great ideas, I decided that I needed to give it a try.  On the way home from the swim meet on Saturday I stopped by a quilt shop and purchased the Ruler work foot.  A ridiculous $125.00.  Ugh. Then I purchased a starter set of Westerlee Rulers.  I hope to use these rulers to finish the quilting on the table topper before I give it a fancy scalloped border.  I am very excited about my rulers and I am hoping It helps me become a more confident quilter.

The Fluffer Nutter Butter quilt for the mystery quilt…..ugh.  Not much progress. Dang itwatermark_2018-03-05-13-26-48.jpg.  I think I was supposed to post on Feb 28th, but I was busy hitting 20180228_201013_resizeda deer.  I have such luck.

Here is a list of participants in this quilt along:

 

 

 

 

Saturday was the final swim meet.  Yeah!.  I can’t tell you how exciting that is.  Swim practice was 4 days a week and then weekend meets, often at least an hour away.  The school it was held at, had an awesome Natatorium.  Two Pools.  However, the most intriguing part was that the school was decorated with quilt designs.  Odd but refreshing.

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting