Dog Days of Summer

It has been 4 months and Wow did time fly!  I have been working on improving my health and taking care of myself.  I've also been taking care of grandchildren. The new baby is 5 months old and looks like he is 9 -12 months. He is a big boy.  2 of the other grandsons are here while their dad works 2nd shift and their step mom picks them up on her way home. It's only and hour and a half but they keep me busy while they are here.

I actually haven't done a whole lot of quilting.  I have a few things that I need to get done, but the grands do keep me busy.  Dear Hubby took 2-1/2 weeks vacation and that threw a monkey wrench into some of my plans.  He surprised me(did not tell me) that he was on vacation and that we would be day tripping. I wouldn't have minded if I had known. Once we worked everything out, it was fun.

My guild had a garage sale and I picked up a dragon applique that someone had started.  It is reverse applique and twin size. It has 2 pieces that I will be removing and replacing with a different color.  Other than that it hadn't been worked on.  By the time I add borders it should be double /queen sized.  The other older grand son has changed his mind about 3 times for what he wants. I will work on the dragon and then go from there.

It is 85 degrees and partially sunny at the moment. The humidity is high also.  Thunderstorms and rain possible for tonight.  I'm hoping for less humidity later in the week.

Having fun 2

I may have hit on an idea for my older two grandsons. One likes dragons, I may see if I can have him draw me a dragon or find a free one that I could use and put it onto a quilt.  The other one enjoys my coloring books and likes a couple of the fractured animals.  I may see if I can enlarge and put the animal onto the quilt.  That way they would always know their quilt. 

I'm still working on a modern block and may have found an idea for that too.  I want to play some more and see if I can refine it to exactly what I'm looking for.  It would use 2-1/2" strips for the block.  It would need a sashing or negative space so it isn't so busy.  I'm still working on that issue for when it is all put together.  I may put some solid blocks around to rest the eyes. Back to playing!

Having fun!

What fun I'm having!  I'm trying to design modern quilts that my grandsons will like.  I figured that it couldn't be that hard.  These boys don't like anything that I have done so far.  I'm getting close though.  One of them has asked me to add some elements and remove others.  I can deal with that.  Some of their color choices are another matter.  I 'm not fond of working with a lot of black.  I'd rather work with something that I can see to quilt on and isn't real gloomy to me.  My younger son just informed his boys that there will be no black.  Once I take them to pick out fabric, I'm sure that things will change anyways.
The whole thing is, that, his 2 younger boys are moving out of toddler beds.  The older boys have moved into bunk beds and the younger 2 will be moving into bunk beds, soon. The older boys swap so that they change every month so that they don't fight over who is in the top and who is in the bottom.  They both will need a full/queen and a twin. The younger two will have twin for right now.

My older son is in process of moving and his boys are going into bunk beds also.  They are also moving out of toddler beds. These 2 will be happy with whatever Grandma Kat makes them.  I hope to have theirs done within the month as they live with dad.  The other four are only there on weekends at the moment. 

Then I can work on new quilts for the granddaughters.  The oldest wants cats and the other two would like fairies.  Much easier than mine craft, wild patterns, seahorses and frogs.

Back to designing.

Happy Spring!

Spring is here!  I'm hoping that the weather will agree. We still have a few feet of snow but there is hope.  I have been dealing with depression this winter and the dark doesn't help.  I have changed all my lights to the daylight bulbs.  It is helping and so is the time change. I'm hoping that I will be able to go walking outdoors soon.  The robins have been very loud in the morning as have the mourning doves.  We put a feeder up to help them get through the cold and snow.  For some reason the birds seem to be a few weeks early this year. 

I haven't had much time to sit and quilt lately.  I'm hoping that I will be able to on Wednesday.  I have a few ideas on a modern wall hanging that I would like to work on.  It would be solids and tonals in swirls and waves.
I have been searching through some of my scraps trying to match a compass block that was given to me.  I would like to add it to a storm at sea quilt in the bottom right hand corner. I may also incorporate a heart into it. I'm just trying to find enough scraps that look good and give me a good vibe.
I also would like to do a pineapple quilt.  It is something that I've always wanted to try. Something else that I could accomplish if I put my mind to it. 

Snow

I would have told you a few days ago that spring was here.  My, what a change a few days can bring.  We have snow again.  I was happy that we had grass greening up and the trees were starting to bud.  The robins are back too.
It started yesterday in the wee hours. Snow.  We are at 2 feet and it is still falling.  I'm ready for spring and warmer temperatures.  I want to be able to walk outdoors again and not worry about slipping and falling on ice. The week of spring we had has me wanting more. I am ready for the flowers and leaves to awaken. 
I may have to make a quilt with flowers just so I can see them at the moment.  I'm trying to be patient but this winter seems like it wants to hang on. I'm thinking about putting in a vegetable garden this year.  Actually I think that I will do container gardening as that may be a good way for me to get back into it.  A couple pots of tomatoes & peppers, some carrots and potatoes, maybe some beets. Peas and green beans along the fence and I should be good.  DH doesn't care as long as he doesn't have to til the garden.  If I want that done than I have to have one of my sons do it. Its easier just to put them in pots and then I can take care of them just like my flowers.

A Long Time

It has been a long time since I last posted.  There has been a lot going on. Some good, some not. 
My father has been in and out of the hospital. At least now we know that he has some sort of a blood disorder.  We thought that we were going to lose him as he was giving up hope and didn't want to see any of us. He would ignore us. It has been very hard on me.  The doctors have put him on a new medicine and he is finally starting to feel better.

The older of my sons came home from Alaska. He and his girlfriend had lost their jobs in the oilfield. They worked a couple of part time jobs and they just couldn't make ends meet so they are back in NY. He is in the process of looking for a job again as he has been doing temporary  work. He is trying to go back to school and finish his degree as a paper engineer. I wish him luck.

We have a new grandson.  He arrived on my father's birthday. That means a lot to me. He is a big baby, 9lbs 14 oz. and 21.75" long. He is a little chunky and I love it.  DH held him the day he was born. He has never held any of the grands before they were a couple months old.  Times are changing.  Jaxon is our 10th grandchild and is my younger son's 5th son. His fiancee has a daughter and all those boys are a new experience for the two of them. He only has the other 4 on weekends or during school breaks.

I have had some health issues myself and have spent time in the hospital. I have had a bunch of tests done and I need to have more done. Apparently my heart has an issue and adds a beat sometimes. We will figure it out, I'm sure.

I am trying to get back into quilting. I have made a pretty wall hanging. I have a top done and it needs to be quilted. I'm working on two other tops that I hope to get done for our quilt show in October. I may try some paper piecing to take to doctor's appointments. I also want to start doing hand applique again. It is time to get out of the funk that I have been in and finish some of the projects that I have started. I hope to put up some pictures soon of some of the things that I have been working on soon.

Busy Week

It has been a very busy week.  One of my uncle's died and it has been a nightmare. My cousin lives in a different state.  He changed his phone number and we couldn't get a hold of him. He finally tried to get hold of his dad and my dad answered the phone and let him know what was going on.  Just not how we wanted to handle things.  I hope that I don't have to deal with this type of issue again for a while.

No sewing for me and I may not get a chance until Friday or Saturday as it looks right now.  I really need some me time but there is still a lot to deal with before my cousin goes back to Ohio on Thursday night.

Design Wall

I finally have some pictures that I can share of what I've been working on.  Blocks that I've been cutting for Honor Flights and a finished block. I finally remembered to take a picture.  I'm also posting some pictures of Ellie Sue.  She is a hand full, but I love her to pieces.

blocks to be pieced and more fabric to cut.

 
Ellie is enjoying snow!  For a southern born puppy(Alabama), she really likes the snow and cold.  She is learning about being dried and having the snow brushed off from her.  This weekend is supposed to be really cold so we shall see what she thinks then.

Stash Report #6

Another busy week!  I did try to sit and quilt but spent more time frogging than sewing.   I had some lint causing some tension issues with my machine.  She is all clean and ready to go again.  Maybe Wednesday I can sit and quilt.

I did find 13 1/2 more yards of fabric to donate to guild for Honor Flight quilts.  I might as well make room in my stash.  I may need to go shopping at some point.  I may start keeping track of how many quilting books I buy as I just added a new one.  I love to read and I love to combine different ideas from different patterns.  EQ6 is a great place to play!

Used this Week:                         13.50  yards
Used year to Date:                     27.50  yards
Added this Week:                       0.0  yards
Added Year to Date:                  1.0 yards
Net Used for 2016:                    26.50 yards

Stash report #5

No sewing this week as I have had a run week. We also adopted a 7 month old puppy from Alabama. She arrived yesterday.  She is a chewer! I have been trying to puppy proof my house again. I'll post her picture tomorrow.

Used this Week:                         0.00  yards
Used year to Date:                     14.00  yards
Added this Week:                       0.0  yards
Added Year to Date:                  1.0 yards
Net Used for 2016:                    13.00 yards

Stash Report week #3

I have been making blocks for Honor Flights quilts. I donated a bunch of red, white and blue to help save the guild some cash. A bunch of us are as our account is running low. Our cost for where we have our quilt show tripled from two years ago. It was quite a surprise. 
I also have a baby quilt to go to Project Linus. I just need to finish sewing the binding down. I may do it on the machine though.
The one yard I added was from our guild Holiday Party. 

Used this Week:                         14.00  yards
Used year to Date:                     14.00  yards
Added this Week:                       1.0  yards
Added Year to Date:                  1.0 yards
Net Used for 2016:                    13.00 yards



I missed last weeks as we were without power.

Busy Week (long)

It has been a very busy week. I even managed to do some quilting! Sunday I went to Modern Quilt Club. We had a guest speaker that was fabulous! After an hour drive to get home, I stopped to get gas for my Subaru. I'm looking at the sky and it is weird looking. I finish filling it, get back into my car and it starts rocking. The wind is gusting 60 - 70 mph. Then it starts hailing! I back up a little to protect my car behind the building. In a few minutes time,  the temperature had dropped 25 degrees.  Now it was starting to snow with the wind. I decided to take my chances and drive the last 5 miles home.
I get home and discover that the power has gone out. Great. What to do about dinner? Hubby decides that we are going out as he doesn't believe me how crappy it was out. After a few near misses with tree branches and power lines, we make it to our local Cracker Barrel. We enjoy breakfast and head back out into the storm. The snow is really starting to pick up. The power is still out so I head for bed.
I get up Monday and the power is back on.  Yeah! We only got a few inches of snow but we are under a lake effect snow warning. I make sure that we have food for us and the pets, propane and charcoal(heat and cooking). I try to quilt some butterflies on a practice piece so that I can quilt a top that I showed on my design wall. I'm just not happy with the design I'm trying to do.Hubby comes in and we work out a butterfly that I can continuously quilt. I'm happy until the power goes out again. I can't post anything and can't sew. Off to bed early again.
Tuesday arrives with cold and no water. The pump has frozen in the well. Now I have to figure out how to do things without water.  I call a few different people and get a few ideas on how to get the pump working again. We finally have water at 4pm. I go to take a shower as I have quilt guild.  Hubby calls from work and reminds me to turn the water heater back on. He shut it off for some reason. I wait for the water to get hot, shower and go to my meeting. It is snowing again.
Wednesday when I get up, we have 7 inches of snow.  It is still coming down. My son calls me and tells me that he will be by soon to plow the driveway so I don't have to go out and snow blow. I go out and shovel the sidewalk and patio. 4 times I ended up shoveling. Grand total 13 inches of snow. I fall asleep shortly after dinner. Hubby wakes me up and I go to bed.
Thursday was a run day. Friday ends up being a run day also.
Today, I pack up my quilting stuff and head to where we have out meetings. We had a sewing day. I had managed to make lemon bars and take them with me. We are making honor flight quilts for the vets as they go to Washington, DC or Hawaii. We have enough blocks for 4 tops done. It was a good day of sewing for 6 of us. We only need 4 more blocks and there will be a fifth top done.  That is my goal for tomorrow.

Design Wall #1, 2016

I finished this top last spring.  I put it up as it was such a busy time.  I pulled it out in September, pressed it and trimmed up the threads on the back.  I have been practicing butterflies to quilt on it.  I think that I'm finally ready to quilt it.  Now where did I put the back so I wouldn't use it on another project? The binding is with it so I really need to find it.

Stash Report #1

I've decided to do stash reports again as it may help me to be motivated to sew and quilt.  I had planned on sewing today, but hubby had other plans.  We went and looked at a puppy.  I'm waiting to see if we get her.  Tomorrow is another day. 

Nothing in and nothing out so far this year.

A new year

It has been 18 months since I last posted and a great many things have happened in my life. 

My oldest son moved to Alaska. He loves it there and has no desire to come back to NY.

We have added another granddaughter to our crew of grandchildren.  We now have 6 grandsons and 2 granddaughters.  Miss Freya made her appearance on June 4th of this year.  I was there for her delivery. She was born at home with no drugs or trouble. She is a very inquisitive baby and very active.

We said some sad goodbyes to 4 of our pets this year. 2 cats(Otter and Nibbles), my beloved Loki(my avatar) developed cancer, and Riki(who started out as my son's dog and ended up staying with me as she wouldn't make the flight to Alaska).  I miss my furry children.

We have put a metal roof on our house as we developed a leak in the spring.  We were surprised to find that there was 4 layers of shingles and in a few places 5.  Code states 3 so now I know that the last contractor didn't do what he was paid to do 10 years ago.

I have joined a Modern Quilt Club.  We have been together a year and I am enjoying the simple beauty of our quilts.  I have a challenge due in June.  Currently I'm trying to figure out what I want to do.

I still do the newsletter for my local quilt guild.  I need to sew more for this group so I volunteered to chair our charity group.  Currently we are working on Honor Flight Quilts.  4 tops have been handed out to long arm quilters in our guild.  We are having a workshop in 2 weeks to make more.

I still belong to a Jo Morton stitching group.  I haven't been able to attend in a couple of months and I hope to get back to going soon.  I really don't want to drop out as I enjoy the small quilts that we typically make.

I'm sitting here trying to put together what I would like to accomplish this next year.  I will try to post it when I figure out what I want to get done. I have a whole year to figure it out. I've already told my husband that I plan on doing more quilting.  He told me that it was fine with him.  He told me that I need to spend more time doing what I like and less time running with the children/grandchildren.  I also want to spend more time with my dad.  That can be tough though as he keeps very busy.  He will be 72 this year.  I don't want him to slow down though.

Good bye to 2015 and Hello 2016!  I hope that you are an improvement!

Still working on my room

I'm at a stand still at the moment in my sewing room.  My DIL became ill and we haven't had a chance to work in my room for a while.  We also ran into a road block of what do I do with my mom's stuff? I pick a container a day and try to go through it. Its not easy on me.  I'm debating what to do with the items that my sisters gifted me.  I may just put them in a closet and let them age a bit longer and then deal with them as I need to sew some shirts for the grandsons for school. I really just want to get back to sewing and quilting. I guess that putting stuff in the closet may be the best thing right now.

Thoughts about Quilting

I seem to have quilter's block.  Since we lost our girl, I just don't feel like sitting and running my machine.  She laid at my feet and kept me company while I sewed. 

My DIL has noticed that I'm not working on stuff and commented.  She asked me if maybe rearranging my room would help.  We would move stuff and just pick Kira's stuff up and put it away for now.  I really don't want to part with her stuff and the boys(Loki and Deedle) don't lay at my feet.  Loki has always laid behind my chair and Deedle lays in the doorway.  We have put up a baby gate so they can watch as we decide how to change the layout.  I may put some shelving in the closet and remove the doors(sliders) to store my fabric.  I think that moving my cabinet and putting the conference table behind it will give me some more room when I quilt larger items or sew clothes for the grands.  I'm hoping that this will spark some creativity for me.  It will give me some storage room under the table and I will also have room for friends to come over and stitch with me too.  I just need to measure and make sure that everything will fit into my 11' by 13.6' room.

I may also change my lighting as there is a single window and the room can be dark at night.  Currently there is overhead lighting (ceiling fan) with 3 bulbs.  I may put led light bulbs into it, as we did in our dining room.  That has made a major difference there.  I prefer to cut there now.  Time to get back to measuring and debating about where to put stuff.

Stash Report

I have done a little sewing lately.  I have my Jo Morton's Little Women Club quilt done.  I just need to finish sewing down the binding which I will do tonight at quilt guild.  I quilted it on my Bernina with out the stitch regulator.  It was the first time that I had tried to do it with out it.  I could use some practice.  I used a whole yard for this quilt.  I'm working on some blocks but I'm not counting them until I get the blocks completed.

Used this Week:                         1.00  yards
Used year to Date:                     2.25  yards
Added this Week:                       0  yards
Added Year to Date:                 16.50 yards
Net Used for 2014:                    14.25 yards


Please head over to visit Judy at Patchwork Times and see what some of the others are doing with their stash.

Sad Day

I'm sorry that I haven't written in a while but I have been spending time with Kira, our German shepherd.  We found out at Christmas time that she had cancer.  She had been doing great.  I was so happy to see her so active and playful.  Last Thursday, she stopped eating.  I took her to the vet and we changed her medication.  She seemed to feel better but still would not eat.  We went back to the vet and they gave her a shot to help her stomach stop jumping.  She still would not eat.  Yesterday morning she stopped drinking too.  Very hard to call the vet and let them know that she had given up.  We took her in for one last time and said our goodbyes to her.  It was very hard coming home to the two boys.  They have been looking for their girl.
Kira was a very active girl and didn't like to take no as an answer.  She is out of pain now.  I will miss my girl.

 Her favorite place to sleep - our bed.

 Playing with her stuffed toy

Princess Kira

Stash Report 3/2/2014

I did some sewing this week!  I worked on my Jo Morton's Little Women club quilt.  The top used a whole 1.25 yards of Jo Morton fabric.  I've been waiting for the tower to come in but it hasn't yet.  Its supposed to this week.
I'm hoping to make a couple of project Linus quilts this week as our area coordinator has put out a call for quilts.  She has run dangerously low.  I'm hoping to get a couple made and take them to her at guild in a little over a week.

Used this Week:                         1.25  yards
Used year to Date:                     1.25  yards
Added this Week:                       0  yards
Added Year to Date:                 16.50 yards
Net Used for 2014:                    15.25 yards


Please head over to visit Judy at Patchwork Times and see what some of the others are doing with their stash.