Over doing it

I have finished the bulk of the machine quilting for the quilt for Tania and Nick. Tonight I will quilt the border and add the binding. Another hand stitching project to finish before the guild meeting on Monday.

Mom and I had a nice time at the play Guys and Dolls put on by the Hamilton Rotary Revels. She fixed a light lunch from the leftovers she had from the dinner she had made my sister, Becky, on Friday night.

I cut my yard. It is good exercise and today I am sore all over. It did not seem to bother my lupus. I guess now that I have started the yard it will be a summer job for me. I also took a hand saw to the low hanging branches on my ornamental pear trees in the front yard. I hate having to dunk and sway while trying to cut the front yard. I had to move them all to the driveway to cut the yard and then move them back to the grass when I was done. In case I needed to leave for any reason, the branches were completely blocking my driveway.

Now I am ready to face whatever comes my way at work today. And the rest of the week. Also looking forward to getting a lot of sewing done this week!!

In stitches,
Judy

Kate and sewing

Monday is my day off and I always pack as full as possible and yesterday was no exception. I was excited I was having company!! I got up and straightened up the house and the sewing area and made homemade pizza sauce for lunch.

My niece, Kate was coming over for a sewing lesson. She had two things she wanted to make. Snack sacks and a lunch tote. She had seen something she liked on line so we took measurements and she drafted the pattern added the seam allowances and away she went. She made three of these bags and added a vinyl window in each snack sack.  

For the lunch tote we looked at a couple of patterns that I had for regular purses and totes and came up with our own design. She had a specific size she wanted and this is what it turned out to be. 

We had a good time and I am sure she is already planning the next project for the next time she comes to sew.

In stitches,
Judy

Busy weekend

I worked yesterday and every Saturday. Each Saturday is a gamble. Two weeks ago I was busy from the time I signed in until the time I signed out. Yesterday not so much. I think I took about 15 calls all day. I did get quite a bit of stitching done on  my hand quilting project. Tomorrow I am going to add the binding even though not all of the stitching is done. I am also working on the quilt for Tania and Nick. I only have 30 more squares to quilt out of the 180 total blocks. I am going to do a simple stitch on the border. I would like to have both quilts done for our guild meeting the first Monday in April. I need to get stitching.

Today I went to see the play Guys and Dolls put on by the Rotary Revels in Hamilton, Ohio. It was very good. What I did not like was the man sitting next to me. I should have asked for rent from him. The entire time we were there his left elbow was lodged in my ribcage. Did he really think I was his arm rest? I was almost sitting on my mom's lap! I am thinking that if I could have taken off my right leg and put it in my purse, there would have been more leg room for him. I was so stiff when the play was over I could hardly stand up from sitting like a pretzel for most of the play!

Now I am off to finish machine quilting the quilt for Nick and Tania. My sister and I are driving to Brooklyn in April and I want the quilt to take the road trip with us. Tomorrow is looking to be a busy day. My sister in law and niece are coming for a sewing day. My girl friend Jennifer is also coming. I am going to make homemade pizza crust and homemade sauce for whoever wants lunch. And I will probably work on the hand quilting of my scrap quilt or work on the Orange Crush fabric. Looks like it is going to be a busy day.

In stitches,
Judy

As my weekend ends

As my weekend ends it has been such a wonderful weekend. I have finally gotten the quilt for my daughter in law pin basted.

 It is full/queen and I think I used about 2000 pins to baste it. I have started the machine quilting on it and I have 3 rows out of 15 rows quilted. I am planning on quilting every night after work.

 

 

My mom and I took a road trip today.

  
 I had to drop off a quilt for Rising Sun Quilt Fest in Rising Sun, Indiana.

  
 We turned off the Garmin Lady and took the scenic route hone along the Ohio River. Saw this flag carved into a tree stump.

 
 Stopped and took a few pictures of the Anderson Ferry. A good place to come this summer with my sister and her kids. We can take the car ferry across the Ohio River and then to Shawnee Lookout for a picnic.
Can't wait for summer. The warm weather is already here. It is not even spring and it was 81 degrees today!!

Tomorrow I will have to go back to work and if the calls are slow I have a project that I have been hand quilting and I will get to add a few stitches to that! At this rate I should finish this quilt by the end of the month!!

In stitches,
Judy

Spring fever has struck

This last bit of warm weather has given me spring fever. I so want to go out and work in the yard. I would like to start edging the walkway from the driveway to the porch and the driveway. It has rained here yesterday and the soil is moist enough to do it so after work tonight I will go out and dig in the dirt. I have been collecting ideas for my flowerbeds and purchasing seeds to start in the house. I will not start the seeds until I get back from New York City in April. They will set out on the deck during the day soaking up sunshine and come back into the dining room once the sun goes down. I also want to take apart my porch swing on the frame, sand and stain it. It has been many years since that has been done. There is a bench in the front yard that needs it screws tightened, So many ideas, I just can't wait to get started.

Tonight I will work on the quilt for my daughter in law and start pin basting it. I am hoping to start quilting it after work on Saturday. Busy, busy, busy!!!

In stitches,
Judy

Life

This has been a very interesting week and it is only Wednesday. I did a mock up of the block I wanted to use with the Orange Crush fabric in the previous posts. I really like and cannot wait to get started on it. I have finished sewing the circle squares together for my daughter in law's quilt. I need to press the segments and join them all together. I will add the borders and hope to start pin basting it this weekend. I have put everything back in my refrigerator, even though it still  makes a noise. It is not as loud now and when I am working and busy I do not hear it.

Yesterday was my birthday! I had a very full day. I worked my whole 8 hour shift. I applied the new sticker to my license plate so I can drive another year without getting pulled over. I voted. I went to the library and went to the grocery store. My mom stopped by at lunch time with a lovely bouquet of yellow flowers. Yellow is my favorite color. I got to talk to my kids in New York City. They moved on Monday to a bigger place and my sister and I will be driving up there in April for a visit. All in all it was a wonderful day!!

And today I had a home visit from the company I work for. At one time or another each of the work at home staff gets a visit. It has been warm outside so I had the wooden door open and was watching out my storm door at the birds, squirrels and any thing else that caught my eye. A big car pulled up across the street with a gentleman looking kinda lost inside. I knew he was the company rep I was waiting for. As he started towards the house, I called to him to move his car as he was in a no parking zone. I have to admit it is not well marked. I think there my be two or three signs on my long block. But I did not want my visit to stand out by him getting a ticket. He was here and gone in under 8 minutes!! If I do not hear anything in the next few days, I know I passed. But I am sure I passed. No telling what tomorrow will bring. But it is off to bed for me now!!

In stitches,
Judy

Refrigerator saga

I am still having issues with my refrigerator. Right now it is smack, dab in the middle of my kitchen, along with a cooler full of my perishables. I emptied the entire refrigerator over the weekend. Unplugged it and opened the doors. This morning I cleaned out the entire thing with baking soda and water. I cleaned the floor behind the frig and plugged it back in. I put something in the freezer and a diet pepsi in frig. And the darn thing is still making a noise when the frig turns on. Something is loose in the back. I am still waffling whether or not to call the repair service. So far now the frig will live in the middle of the kitchen but the cooler is going back to the garage. The food I took to my mom's is staying in her freezer for now. I will not starve. The freezer in the basement is full!!! I will have to think about this bump in the road for a few days. My next days off are Sunday and Monday!!!

In stitches,
Judy

Fabric Magnet

I seem to be a fabric magnet. I was at two different JoAnn Fabrics on Sunday and the magnet worked then. Came home with several pieces of fabrics, most of them are earmarked for certain projects. That is a good thing. Tonight was our Guild meeting. Once again, the fabric magnet was working. I came home with a bag of fabric from one of the other quilters. Next week my stash numbers are going to be out of this world. I really need to get a handle on this.

I have decided on a pattern for this bright fabric. I have designed a block on EQ7 and I need to make 9 blocks for the quilt. I purchased some yellow fabric to use in the block. Pictures will follow.

In stitches,
Judy

Sunday

It is Sunday and I am getting ready for a road trip to Blacklick, Ohio. Going to a birthday party for a two year old. I have my Garmin ready and gas in the car. There are couple of things I need to do here before I can leave.

My refrigerator is just over a year old and Wednesday it starting making a noise. Of course, it is out of warranty. I thought I had it figured out. I had packed the freezer to fully and there was no air circulating and it sounded like something was dripping into the drip pan. I took a bunch of stuff out and put it in the freezer in the basement. Problem still there. I was told that perhaps things were frozen and it would take it a few days to unthraw. It has been more than a few days. Last night, I took all the stuff out of my freezer and drove it to my mom's. She has a huge pretty empty chest freezer in her basement. I now have brought the cooler in from the garage and before I leave on my road trip, I will empty the stuff in my refrigerator into the cooler add a bunch of ice and unplug the refrigerator and let it rest for 24 hours. Then I will plug it back in and see what happens. In the meantime the refrigerator is in the middle of the kitchen. I will have to make sure that I have plenty of ice to keep my perishables happy. I am hoping that once I plug it back in the noise will have gone away. If not it is time for a visit from the refrigerator repairman. But at least I will have done everything I can to fix it!!

In stitches,
Judy

Happy Saturday

It is Saturday and I am getting ready to start working. I have the circles for my daughter in law's quilt that need to be sewn together. I will work on them today if we are not busy with calls. I have 90 circles to add to the quilt. I have figured out I want to add them, now it is just a matter of doing it right. I do know where the seam ripper is so I should be fine.

I have a few projects that I am going work on around the house this weekend that are not sewing related. I have to get my drill out! Watch out a quilter with power tools!! There things I want to hang on the walls and my walls are plaster. Pictures will follow.

I have a birthday party to attend up near Columbus, Ohio tomorrow. I think the Garmin and I have worked out our differences, so we are ready to roll!!

In stitches,
Judy

Happy March

I am not sure what happened to February. I had such plans for stash reduction, but that did not happen. I thought for sure I would finish more projects but that did not happen. So I am going close the door on
February and open the door on March with hopes getting more things accomplished. I just need to keep moving forward.

I had such a nice day on Sunday with my sister in law Kathleen and her daughter and my niece, Kate. They are such creative people and we had such fun. Kate is going to come back and dig in my stash, play with my buttons, do crafts and learn to sew on my sewing machine. The possibilities are endless!!

Sleep has been a fleeting thought the last two nights. It is almost time for the alarm to go off and I have already been up for several hours. I am hoping we are busy at work today because I need the stimulation to stay awake!!

In stitches,
Judy