I have about 40 blocks completed now and seem to have used part of every scrap I have here at home.  Did not think that would ever happen.  Here are the latest 17 blocks.  I am going to put them together when I get 56 blocks unless I change my mind.  They are not in any particular order just on the design wall.  Some I really like and others make me want to puke because they are so ugly...but I like it when they are together.  We shall see what they make.

I did not do any sewing today or anything else for that matter.  I just rested, thumbed through a few magazines and was just totally lazy.  Pulled weeds for about 3 hours yesterday and today I realized I pulled about 2 hours too many.  I have about 3 more hours to go but I think I will break it up to get the rest of the beds pulled.  I also have planted new flower seeds and some bulbs.  It is amazing how fast those little seeds pop out.  The miracle of seeing their little heads unfolding is something that makes me happy.

Today was our Coopers 4th birthday.  He is such a funny little boy.  He was born on our good friend, Grandma Ruthie's birthday.   She is about 81 years older than him but he loves going to her house because she always has "nanas".  Happy Birthday to both of them.  His birthday party is Saturday so he got a cupcake tonight.  Til we meet again......

new phone

Sorry about the video.  When the next bud opens, I will get a good picture.  My cell phone had been sent off for repair about 2 weeks ago.  I got a call yesterday and Bill went and picked it up.  The third time I tried to use it, it did the same thing...UGH *&^$#^(.  So irritating.  I went back down to Best Buy today with Jen and talked to the wireless manager.  His name was Lawrence and he was actually very customer focused.  Anyway, after hearing everything that has happened, he offered me a new phone.  I accepted and got the Samsung Epic which is the bomb as Jen says.  I had to pay $1.00 but that was OK.  I also purchased a blue tooth headset which will allow me to talk without the phone on my shoulder.  Should make it easier on my neck and shoulder.

We talked Lawrence into updating Jen's phone also for $100.  We both had the Samsung moment which I really loved ...when it worked right and we both hated when it went to speaker, mute, dialed while talking..etc.  It was good he gave her a good price so that I can have my personal help desk with the new phone.  That was a pretty good price since she did not have the replacement service.  We came home so excited.  We started downloading apps and hers worked fine and mine would not download anything.  I just don't get it.  I am such a bright person, I must carry my own electrical field around me that screws up everything electrical.  I tried to get her to swap phones...no go which I don't blame her.  We had dinner together and kept playing with the phone...no go on mine.  She left to go home and investigate online if there were any fixes.  She is so smart.  She sent me an e-mail with a fix.  It worked and now I have a wonderful new phone.  WHOOPEE!!!  It is about time.  I am so glad to get my many functioned phone back and this one seems to work great...so far.

I did sew 3 or 4 blocks this morning.  They were all 15 minutes to play in other words scrappy blocks.  I really liked the ones I did today.  I will make a few more before I show pictures.  I am so ready to sew something big or maybe I mean structured.  I guess the Polka dot quilt will be structured.  When I get 48 blocks, I think I am going to put it together....kind of hankering to finish something.  It is late so off to bed I go...til we meet again.....

Home and Garden

Yesterday, I  planted seeds and bulbs to take up north when we go..My red amarylla bulb bloomed a few days ago and the first grouping of white bells have faded but I have a new bloom opening up maybe this weekend.  Below is a picture of the red bells.  There is another bud coming out on the red one also.  I sure have enjoyed having them inside where I could enjoy them.  The blooms are so pretty, they look artificial.    I must have had the camera on video since it came out as a video.

I went to the home and garden show today with my friend Jean, her daughter and granddaughter.  If it were not for the free chocolate  (in bowls at the booths) and good friends, it would have been a big waste.  It had very little plants or gardening items mostly siding, hot water heaters, water companies, etc.  I did buy some new jewelry cleaner...sure was glad those tickets were free because I would have hated to pay for the tickets for what I got out of the show.  Oh well, I probably won't go again even with free tickets.

I did do a few blocks tonight and slapped them up on the design wall.  I think I have about 35 blocks.  I will have to count them again.  I have decided to just sew them together and take what it makes.  I won't make the quilt real big because it will be heavy with all the thread sewing those little pieces together.  I bet most people don't realize how heavy thread can be.  Me neither, but when it is sewed in a quilt, layered and quilted (more thread), some of them are very heavy.  The blocks not in rows yet, just flopped up so you can see them.  Pictures below are the blocks from the last few days

Some I like and some I look at and whack again and add a different fabric.  The middle one on the left needs to be flipped up or down because it looks a little weird with the triangle going sideways. One day next week, I am supposed to start the polka dot quilt so I will have to cut more fabric this weekend.  It should be interesting and I will post the results when we start.  I like having more than one project in progress...obviously, I like having lots of projects started.  The scrappy blocks and spiderweb blocks have filled a void since the shoulder surgery.  It has allowed me to sew and not have to cut.  I still cannot hold the ruler tight enough to cut accurately but it really does not matter with the scrappy projects.

I had Cooper last Sunday night and he was talking to me and I ask him a question that he had to think about the answer.  I was holding the camera and I just had to take a picture of his thinking face.  He has been doing this face when he thinks since he was quite a little fellow.

Emily did get married on Thursday but she doesn't think her husband is cute because he has a mohawk.  She told me she could not stay the night at his house because her mother would not let her and she had to stay home at her mother's house anyway.  It seems all my grandchildren are funny kids.  I do so enjoy their happy little faces and the great things they say.  Until we meet again.......

 

Tomorrow is a good day

I was scheduled for jury duty tomorrow and I don't have to go.  It has got to be a good day.  I have not posted in a few days.  It seems weekends are very busy with the kids.l  Austin and Emily stayed with me on Saturday night and Cooper stayed Sunday night.  I don't get any sewing done when they are here.  It was a busy weekend.  I did start to cut short strips of polka dot fabric that don't have to be all that accurate for a New York beauty quilt that I have been wanting to make.  It is all paper pieced and it is probably going to be very time consuming to sew.  Cutting a million pieces of different polka dot fabric is the first step.  It will be similar to the quilt pictured below.  I have been collecting polka dot fabrics for probably 3-4 years.  I have enough to make several quilts I am sure.  I have a stack of fat quarters that is probably at least 18 inches tall left to cut a strip off.  I have already cut about 75-80 strips.  I do a few at a time which is all my shoulder will allow.  My friend Evie and I are going to sew the quilts together when we go back to the mountains.  If you look closely, you will see that it has approximately 70-80 small pieces of fabric in each block.  I suspect it will take a good while to sew each block.  Anyway, I have wanted to do this quilt since I saw it.

I cannot remember what I did on Monday and Tuesday I went to my sewing group.  I stitched this week and I am still trying to stitch at least 15 minutes each day.  I am getting quite a stack of scrappy blocks and spiderweb blocks.  When I get a few more, I am going to throw them onto the design wall and start sewing them into strips for the quilt.  Today is the first day I did not have a chance to actually stitch.  I did square up some of the spider blocks.  Then I went to my friend, Ruthie's house to see if I could get her old sewing machine up and running.  Bill and I cleaned, oiled and greased it but it still would not stitch.  I think it needs a new belt.  The motor sounds strong when you take the belt off.  But it just does not want to go when you put it all back together.  Hopefully, when the oil soaks in and when we find a new belt, it will start to pur.  The visit was nice and we went to lunch when we got the machine put back together.  If we cannot get it running, she has another older singer that used to be a treadle and a motor was added to it.  I know more about singers so if we cannot get this one going, I am going to clean and oil the singer to see if we can get it running.

This afternoon, I planted some "mammoth and some red sunflower seeds, some cone flower bulbs and a couple of amaryllas that are supposed to be pink or peach.  I am forcing the bloom on them.  I have a beautiful red amarylla to go with the white one I pictured earlier.  I will do a picture soon to share.  I hope the new one I got is peach.  Emily came over and stayed with me while Austin and Lisa went to Karate class.  We took a walk to Opal's and I took her one of the amarylla bulbs in a pot.  It should give her something to look at while her foot is healing.  Until we meet again.....

Blocks, blocks, blocks

Yesterday, I went on the correct day and got the long overdue mammogram...oh YEAH!!  Boy was that fun. NOT!!  Today, I had a dental appt. for teeth cleaning.  Tomorrow I go to the Dr. for a checkup on my shoulder surgery.  It is doing fine and I am sure I will get an A+ for moving the arm.   I hate it when I have some kind of commitment day after day.  It seems I don't get anything done when the week is full of Dr. appts.  I look the picture of health and for the most part I am...it is just all these little irritations that take it right out of me.  I just want to stay home and get some things accomplished.

I did get a chance to sew blocks yesterday.  I made 3 wonky blocks and two paper pieced spider web blocks.  I also started loading a backing on my longarm.  I want to get the table toppers quilted that I pieced in the mountains quilted.  Then I can get the borders on and those babies can go in the finished pile.  Yesterday afternoon, I got the backing fabric pinned on the machine leaders and it just was not right.  I decided to re-watch one of the loading videos so I could figure out what I had done wrong.  I got online and just decided I was past the point of making sense with anything so I read my e-mail and watched the boob tube.  

This afternoon, after the dentist, it was so rainy and dreary that I crawled into the chair and got a quilt and dosed.  Later, I watched the longarm loading video and then pinned the backing.  Now I have to figure out what I want to quilt on the table toppers.  I really like them and I don't want to mess the quilting up.  It has been 5 months or more since I have touched that big girl, Lizzie Girl.  I decided I would wait until I was a bit fresher like in the morning after my Dr. appt.

I dug out some runners I had pieced for the NC house also.  Two are completed and I am not sure what I was going to do with the third smaller one because it does not look like I was finished with it.  Pictures attached.  I would love to get them both sets of table toppers quilted tomorrow and the binding sewed on so I could start the hand work.

Once thteal ones are finished, I will get the 3 above finished.  The above are scraps from a quilt top that I made a year or so ago.  I have at least 8 quilt tops or more to get quilted.  I need to get some practice time on the long arm before I try to quilt a real top that I have spent a lot of time piecing.  Once I started playing on it last year, I relaxed and things went OK, so I just have to get to that point again.  Hopefully, it won't take me long to get back up to speed.  Oh well, that is it for today...til we meet again.

Today I got up, got a shower, ironed my white blouse, got dressed and was almost walking out the door to my mammogram appointment.  The phone rang and the recording said "This is just a reminder call about your Mammogram appt for WEDNESDAY at 12:45.  Duh!!! Wouldn't I have looked stupid showing up on the wrong day.  I hate when that happens.  I was just so happy I got the call before I left and drove across town for the appointment.

I called my friend Opal to check on her foot.  She fell Saturday and hurt it pretty bad.  When I looked at it, it looked broken.  She said she was just going to call another friend to take her to the Dr.  I took her and it is broken.  She wanted me to see the xray because it is broke.  The Dr. then proceeded to stick her size 7 foot into a boot that had to be for a size 14.  I don't know how she would have walked in it.  He did not have another smaller one in stock and said he could order it.  I told her if she could make it back to the car, she could use my boot.  We came home and it fit her perfectly.  I took her home and then picked up one of our other friends and went back and watched a movie, Eat,Pray, Love, with Julie Roberts.  It was a different kind of movie...slow going at times.  The concept is good but the movie was a little slow for me.

Kids came for dinner so I only really had about 15 minutes between the reminder call and leaving for the Dr.  I sewed one spiderweb block.  I am moving along on that quilt.  I also moved the projects out of the drawer for the batiks so I can get them put up now.

New pictures organizing finished...finally

I have finally finished my organizing of my fabrics, scraps and sewing room.  I have all the fabrics color coded and in the cabinets.  I finished the fat quarter organizing by color today.  The only thing I have left to do is to stack the batik fat quarters into the drawer.  I have to shift some projects out to make room for them.  Amazing, all the fat quarters fit in the plastic drawer stands I currently have under my longarm.  I have no extra room so I guess I cannot buy anymore.  pooh! 

I sewed some of my "play" blocks and a couple of spiderweb blocks before I quit.  I also managed to cut 100 6.5" blocks.  I am thinking about doing a scrappy pinwheel quilt.  Small pieces are about all I can cut close to accurate.  I don't seem to be able to hold the ruler steady with my arm.  My shoulder is a little sore tonight so I know I cut to the max.  That smarted on my shoulder and arm but I am sure I will get over it. 

Tonight, I was watching the Super bowl at half time and I just had to call my friend Jean.  I thought the halftime show was awful except for those people in lights.  (Guess I am getting old because Pea just could not sing.)  My friend Jean and I have always talked about getting overalls and adding colored lights run by batteries and standing down at Hwy 50 near the 7-11 store on Christmas Eve waving at the cars going by.  I had to call her and remind her about that plan.  We laughed and decided this might be the year we do it. 

She mentioned brownies and as hard as it was, I pulled my self away from that most exciting Super Game (NOT) and told her I would be right down.  I shuffled into my walking shoes to Bill's distress and decided I was going to trot on down and get a brownie.  I wanted to walk since it is only 3 blocks.  Bill ran and got his pistol for me to put in my pocket.  Now who in their right mind would try to get a woman on her way to brownies.  He would have to be a total idiot.  Well, out the door I went...pistol packing and on my way for that chocolate fix.  That brownie was so gooooooood.  She had put a cream cheese mixture in the center. yum...yum.  She wanted to send one home for Bill...I took it, but he doesn't eat sweets.

Here are some pictures of all the 6.5" blocks I have made and a picture of an amarylla that I bought up in NC.  It has bloomed and it is really beautiful.  I also bought a bulb that is supposed to be peach.  It is almost blooming.  The perfection of the white blooms almost takes your breath away.  I cannot wait for the peach one to bloom.  Yes, I do have too much fabric so you don't have to tell me.  Till we meet again....

Scraps organized...whoopee

I have spent most of the day organizing my scraps so it will be easier to sew my spiderweb and 15 min play blocks.  I have completed 21 of the 6" blocks and 5 of the 12.5 blocks.  I have them all up on my design wall trying to decide if I want to put red or black fabric around each block or just sew them together.

Today, I separated the strips that could be used in the spiderweb blocks from the scraps that could be used in the 15 minute blocks.  I also have a tub of 2.5" to 3" long strips that could be sewed and cut into 4 patches or 9 patches or 16 patches.  I also made a tub of larger scraps that could be cut into strips or blocks.  I love scraps because I sure have a lot of them.  I also pulled little tiny pieces that I am using to stuff  a pillow for our dog to put in his crate.  If I leave a quilt out, he seems to pile right up on it even though he has his on quilt in his bed....he just has to be on my quilts.  I will share pictures soon.  Til we meet again.

Trunk show at our guild

Today, we had a trunk show at the Pine Castle Quilter's Guild.  The lady presenting was Alice Means.  She has won numerous awards from AQS and has won awards at quilt shows.  Her quilts were spectacular and it was like eye candy looking at them and hearing the story.  She does a lot of "couching" on her quilts.  This is sewing a  string, rope, heavy thread, yarn, etc into the top of the quilt to emphasize the area.  I know, I thought couching was just laying around on the couch eating chocolate.  She gave a free class after guild on a table runner.  I had intentions of staying and sewing the runner, but I had quite the headache.  I decided not to stay because it would have probably made my head hurt worse.  I know I missed a good class and it was free!..which makes it that much worse that I did not bring my machine and stay.

I stopped at Tuesday Mornings on the way home...not to uh shop, but to try to get rid of this massive headache I have had since Tuesday.  I thought a little retail therapy might cure it for me...it did not :(.  Bill got Chili out of the freezer for dinner.  He said it has beans in it so it must be Chili.  It was not Chili and there was not a single bean in the bag.  It was spaghetti sauce...and I don't think he knew the difference until I saw him eating it and had a taste.  Doesn't speak much for my cooking.  Boy were my taste buds shocked...guess it is the difference between men and women.  We pay attention and they don't.

I sewed 4 blocks on my 15 minutes of play.  I have all the scraps separated into strips, strings and little pieces and then a second bin that is bigger scraps.  I wish I could just play all day.  I think when I finally get around to making something with the blocks, it will either be one of the prettiest quilts or flat out ugly.  We shall see.  When I get about 6 more blocks made, I will show a picture.  I bought a new ruler that has a clip on it and I am hoping that clip will hold things steady so I can cut fabrics.  Sewing these scraps has filled a void for the time after my shoulder surgery that I needed to sew.  I need to clean house tomorrow...or...NOT...til we meet again.

Finally 15 minutes to play

Today, I went to my sit and sew group.  They truly are a wonderful caring bunch of ladies.  I did some frogging and mainly just visited which means I was not very productive.  However, sometimes we just feel like sitting and visiting among people we love and we don't necessarily have to be doing anything.  It is very hard for me to sit without doing something with my hands and I rarely do just sit.  But today, somehow it seemed right.  I finished my ripping, and just sat and flipped through some new quilt books that were floating around.  I missed the Orlando quilt show and one of the ladies had a slideshow of  the quilts.  They were beautiful and she had entered several gorgeous quilts in the show.  She had one of the quilts appraised at the show and it was appraised a little over $3000.00.  Not too shabby!  The visit was good and I needed mental time today.

I started my 15 minutes of play again tonight.  I did two more smaller blocks.  I am using scraps from a different tub.  I have been separating my scraps here in Fl into larger and smaller fabrics.  The larger, I plan on cutting more blocks to use in another scrappy quilt.  The smaller ones I will continue to use in the Spiderweb quilt or the 15 minutes of play blocks.  I truly have the "scrappy" quilt bug.  I love the hodgepodge of all different fabrics.  It is so much fun to just grab a piece and sew it on.  I think I must like it because my life is mostly "scrappy"...in other words, I just flow through life on bits and pieces of a lot of different things.  Like the fabrics, some pieces are beautiful and some are almost ugly...however, when you put them all together, it makes a very interesting block.  I  enjoy the unknown for the most part...sometimes it is not so good like when someone dies, is sick or sad or hurting.  The bright happy fabrics are the hugs, healing and the things that bring joy to our life.

I am making progress on the room.  I still have miscellaneous stuff to organize and put up but the pile around the dining table is getting smaller.  I hope to get a lot more put away tomorrow morning if I can get this lazy girl out of the bed.  Bill hung the two new cabinets in the Lizzie girl's (longarm) room which I plan on putting things that I have purchased to embroidery...but have not got around tuit yet.  I had my embroidery machine serviced while I was gone so I can start embroidery projects again.  Here are two more blocks:

See those tiny little strips of red.  I don't seem to have many scraps in red.  I think that calls for a red quilt.  I love doing these little blocks...and I am going to go back to 15 minutes play every day and one day, I will have a quilt with a very unusual look and it will be made with scraps that many quilters just toss so I have to think it will be free. hehehe!  Til we meet again....