Still home, still stitching

 Thanks for all your kind words.  My sister's surgery went well and she is recovering the best she can.  I leave NEXT Monday for assisting her. The sister in law has been holding on, doing ok and has moved from hospice to have her final days at home. 

So winter has taken hold of me. We have been lucky enough to have sun and lots of birds in the backyard. But I dislike hate this cold forlorn weather between seasons without any new growth and temperatures in the 40s. Ugh.  My mood is affected; yucky me. I should not complain; I am lucky for my life.

Anyway to happier, more fun things,  I finished a baby quilt for my daughter to give to her hopefully future sister and brother in law.   It is not your typical baby quilt; I was given a photo of a crochet blanket for inspiration.  I really would have done any color or theme. And I found some Bonnie Sullivan flannels that were perfect for it and the shop owner showed me an easy pattern resembling it.

Hooray for easy finishes. And since she really didn't know the difference between crocheted blankets and quilt, I just stitched in the ditch for the design. Simple. DONE!

And as I always have something to do in my evenings:  I am hand embroidering on paper punching holes for the design.  ( found on Pinterest, of course)

These are for the book sale for my PEO group. 

And then I finally tackled putting my center together for my Blockheads quilt. It wasn't too hard, just took some patience.  Slow stitching on my bias edges  But my piecing turned out accurate on almost all the half square triangle sections.  20 inches! 

Small finishes

 I had checked on my Instagram account and realized I hadn't posted anything in a good long while.  

So I checked my blog, and sure enough, I have been quilting and stitching lots of things. But I have had few finishes in the last several months. 

I need to get on that.  Several quilts are in the near top stage. Forward/ Onward.  Just March!!!

So I pushed to at least finish the little projects I have been working on:

1)   Got  the Easter door quilt for Mom finished.  It is good to work with bright happy colors.

2) Finished the inch square mini project, binding and all.

3)  Added half square triangles to the leftover 16 patch squares. 

I may not be quilting on the sewing machine much the next couple of weeks.  My sister is having an elbow surgery to repair all the broken bones from a fall.   Her husband will be going to Texas to be with his sister who is going in hospice. Too much at once for them.  So I am happy to help out. 

And Happy St. Patrick's Day.  I even made corned beef over the weekend in the crockpot. Yummm.

Back in the saddle.

 It was my turn to host a small gathering at my house, so I ( with expertise help from my dear husband)  have cleaned and organized.  I always feel so bad, because my sewing is scattered all the open room next to the kitchen.  It makes me feel guilty.

Spring is arriving  slowly and very gradually in Wisconsin. I have not seen the robins, but others have. And on our drive, I definitely could tell the willow trees have yellowing branches. 

And on the way to Madison to see the international fair of ethnic dancing, music and crafts, my dear husband and I stopped at Sun Prairie for a fabric at J J's Stitches.  And ended up getting fabric for a baby quilt gift and an applique quilt.    So excited...

On Friday, I finally felt like sewing and created a door quilt for my mom for Easter. All that is left is the binding, eyes for the chick and a few details. 

Then I saw a real simple small quilt and started cutting 1 and 1/2 inch strips. Fun to create!  

I just need to embroider a winding border and add some tiny flower buttons.   Well and quilt it, of course. 

And then I had extra pieces, so I started some new blocks which then got me down another rabbit hole:

I am trying to make them spring-like colors, but use more of my reproduction fabrics. 

It sure is fun to create.

Cold season

 My dear spouse brought back a cold from vacation. He really struggled with him which is so atypical.  He even went to a doctor after a week or so.  And now, a week after that he is still coughing. 

And wouldn't you know, he so kindly gave it to me. I NEED naps and have gone into hibernation from the world trying to recover and not spread it further. I have taken to placing a cough lozenge in my mouth while I sleep to abate the coughing. 

So I have done more handwork than sewing this week. 

I did make 2 blocks for Stash Bee.

I finished another mini St. Patrick's cross stitch.

I cut out my setting square pieces for my sampler quilt with one more block made. This whole quilt has been made with what I have on hand.  I did order sashing fabric, as my piece was not enough for all 25 blocks.

And I have been working on my miniature quilt for the guild's show at the end of March.

Yes, I admit it; I like small piecing. Not everyone else's favorite.

Sewing like crazy!

 I didn't quite no where to begin on my projects after the trip to Costa Rica. 

One afternoon after laundry and groceries and such, I sat and finished my St. Patrick's Day cross stitch.  I only had 2 accent colors to fill in. Now how to frame it.  No decisions???

And in the evenings, I have been cross stitching away at my Quaker Valentine by Primrose Cottage. I am running out of floss. UGH! 😣😣😣   But I am 3/4 done.  😉

And yesterday, I didn't feel like attacking the almost done quilt, so it seemed like a good idea to make 8 inch sampler blocks.  

And now I have 22 blocks made.  And I even found a setting I like from Sharon Craig's book. And then I dug out my Celebrate with Quilts book to find ideas for more blocks. 

Back from a trip to WARM weather

 My dear husband and I went to Costa Rica for a wonderful vacation. Our daughter and her beaux also went down and we had some time together as well. 

We visited 4 locations: San Jose, the capital where our flight landed, 

central mall, a "street" only for pedestrians

National Theater

Monteverde, a cloud forest ( rain forest in high altitudes),  ( lush forest with enormous plants)

La Fortuna near the volcano Arenal that exploded in 1968 when it also created hot springs ,

and then Tamarindo, a beach community on the Pacific side.  

The sights were amazing as was the wonderful change in climate. So glad to be warm and even hot at times. And we all marveled at the incredible flora and fauna of the region after taking several guided hikes. I saw everything from macaws to poison dart frogs, as well as sloths, tarantulas, and more. We ate local food as well as seafood and lots of watermelon, pineapple and papaya. And we spent lots of time traveling from local to local as the roads were difficult to travel on due to being in the mountains on non paved roads with many ruts and washed out areas. It took us over 5 hours to go 160 miles one day, for example. 

But it was beautiful, and a great escape from the snowstorms we had back home. Plus I got to see my daughter. 

Sarah and her dad

Examples of Costa Rican painted art with some statuesque animals.

So there had been no sewing completed being away from my machine and only minimal cross stitching done in airports.  I did see 1 fabric store which had limited space and no quilting cottons. 😞😞😞

But now,  it is kind of like a new year to get things going again.  I am making lists to complete and getting some of them even done.

Too much to do!

 I have felt very busy the last week trying to get lots of things finished and off my plate. That plus lots of meetings for this and that. 

But I have managed to be at the sewing machine: 

So happy to have finished my 12 inch block for Valentine's Day. I pieced and appliqued it last year.  And now I have it quilted and the binding on. I found the pattern on Pinterest.

And I have made 3 more blocks for my sampler quilt; they are fun and easy to accomplish in a small amount of time. 

And I just played around with pink scraps to make valentines.

The first group is stitch along edge and fold over.

The second group are just scraps with all over quilting.

I need to add some buttons and/or ribbons.

Little projects

 Each night, I like to relax in front of the TV with my hubby.   (He sits at the other end of the couch so as not to be hit with my needle and thread when pulling it up. ) But we enjoy sharing the shows together and I get a lot of hand work done. 

Current evening project has been the Valentine Quaker by Primrose Cottage. 

My progress over many days: 

And for other quilting progress: 

I finished my Stash Bee block for February. It turned into several blocks as it was so easy and all my solids were in the bag together. .

I also tinkered with some quilted hearts, but I will show those later.

I finished going through all my old teaching materials: 21 boxes worth.  I donated 12 boxes of children's books and kept only 2 boxes for kids and grandkids.

A winter trip to Detroit!

 I finished the rainbow knitted scarf for my daughter's birthday and it went very well with her khaki green jacket. She loved it; I forgot to take photos of the finished piece, fringe and all. 

But we traveled all the way across Michigan to Detroit by car. Highway 94 is not exactly flat, but rather bumpy and there is always Chicago to drive around. This makes for a long drive.

Getting to be with her and her beaux was definitely worth it.  We had Detroit style pizza, so yummy that went with a local beer I liked. Yummm.

Saturday we went to their Eastern Market, the biggest farmer's market that is open all year.  There are many buildings (sheds) with walkways in between lined with produce and products.  I am looking forward to trying a chicken casserole kit  and bean soup with a ham hock as well as the cranberry walnut bread I purchased there. Plus we had some crepes with apples and cinnamon, so good.

Afterwards we went to Belle Island to see their aquarium and a conservatory with incredible plants ( already having daffodils and hyacinths ready for spring). Lots of interesting water creatures as well as cactuses and rainforest flora in the 2 buildings. Belle Island is a smallish island in Lake St Clair between Lake Erie and Lake Huron.

Our guys in the bottom :)

And last but certainly not least we went to Cliff Bells for an incredible 5 piece jazz band. What a great old décor with mahogany ceilings and old booths. And the musicians were just amazing. 

Oh, if only they lived closer. 

On the quilting front:   I have finished piecing the small half square triangles for my center block:

Each half square triangle is 1 and 1/4 inches.  when put together this should be a 20 inch block. 

Fabrics are Kansas Trouble fabrics from my hoard.  I have an entire bag of jelly roll strips , layer cakes and lots of fat quarters and half yard leftovers, most of which have been cut into  ( several donated from friends. )

I have made several quilts from these. 

As I emptied it out I found some blocks that I had started from guild, and no other pieced patterns were given. So I have determined to use my stash and make blocks: 

Here is what I have so far:  These are 8 inch blocks.  

Keep on quilting

 Well, I am not "quilting" my tops,    YET!  Still on my to do list.

But I am continuing to work on my Blockheads 1.  I like seeing the progress and working a little more over several days.  And now I have the top and bottom rows pieced together along with the side portions. All that is left is to make the center medallion.

And I have really been knitting. The scarf needs to be done in by the weekend . But as I have been sitting on the couch, watching a favorite football team lose, or trying warm up on the couch.   ( OH, the weather outside is frightful. )  But it is not in the chill factor frigid, yet.  Addendum to that: all the schools are cancelled and it is well below 0. 

Any way, the pattern is getting more automatic and I make fewer errors. And I am getting better at undoing a row of stitches. All signs of improving my knitting. This shows the coloration better.  It is about 4 or 5 feet long.  Mostly done!

I took a trip to Indianapolis to visit the family again.

Here are some pictures.

Mom (93) and I 

Friday she was very talkative and was able to answer lots of questions.

Saturday, she was not quite as good. So goes the life with dementia.

My sister, Diane and I

It was a good trip. I even got to play with my grand niece and nephew.  So darn cute. 

Guild challenge

 Since last spring, our guild has been doing a round robin challenge with small groups of people who were willing to do it.  Each group had 6 people in it and tonight it is FINAL reveal. You provide a 12 inch center block of your own creation, a variety of fabrics, a journal if you please, and turn it over to the next person on the list. Every 2 months you return the border you created on the original and pass it on again. Completion has 5 rounds on the center. 

Here was this month's block  ( don't you just love sock pictures?)

And after my addition: 

My inspiration came from this book with some modifications.

I look forward to getting mine back, as well.  I really love the challenge of design using what has been provided. Pinterest give lots of visuals to aide the creative process. 

This is mine!!!!!

The reveals were all amazing, one as fantastic as another. We all were just gobsmacked at the incredible work of all the rounds together. 

Grooving into the New Year!

 I don't quite know what is different, but I have been quite productive since I returned home.  Part of it is getting warmer weather and being outside. Part of it is getting done with all the Christmas presents, food, and family. I love Christmas and do enjoy the traditions, the music and the joyous celebration of Jesus's birth. But now, I feel relieved of the pressure and hub bub and am back to my routine!

And I have started my new calendar journal making lots of lists.  ( I am truly not very consistent over time.)  But the new year brings new starts and new goals.  So I have been more organized... so far. And I have dropped the afternoon nap, although I don't know if I can keep it up.  

Lots of you have stated how much we have accumulated.  And as a 60 something lady, I am in that same category.  So I am attacking the boxes.  I am using Karen Brown's method ( from Just Get it Done Quilts) of doing a little each day.  And so far have cleared out 6 boxes. ( leaving 1 from the reorganization).  My first big push is clearing my teaching things. I retired 4 years ago and although I do tutor a little, I don't need all the books and manuals and such.  I am donating the books to a school. And am throwing out the tried and utilized methods away.  My local school district just adopts new curriculum every couple of years after the powers that be determine what is best.  ( not the teachers) So giving the materials to them is worthless, hence the garbage dump. 

But I have also been working away at some projects:

1) January's BOM for my guild this week:  a spool block

2) All the sashing strips are pieced for my Blockheads: 

3) I restarted a scarf for my daughter.  I had wanted to do it for Christmas, but really struggled with the pattern. And then I felt it was too narrow, so I ditched it.

Now it is wider and all that practice has made the knitting easier and even. 

And I will give it to her later this month for her birthday.  WIN WIN