Month: June 2019

Yesterday in my Post I discussed that I could not for the life of me figure out why I did not finish the quilt, and why there were so many pieces in another bag that had not been finished.  I figured it out today.  The fabric line has a piece of fabric (see below) that Nancy Odom used in her Apricot Lilly quilt and I tried to copy the pattern with the same fabrics she used.  Obviously I did not like the piece and changed mine to a nice tea dyed background fabric that blended well with her fabrics.

This morning I decided I would just sew up the HSTs and make something.  I tried to use the above fabric for the middle of whatever I was going to make and just did not like it.  So, here is what I have made with a portion of the pieces that were originally cut out and not used.  A pretty table runner.  I wish the camera would really show the beautiful bright pink Azelea’s and nice muted green that blends with it.  Oh Well.  I am going to bind it in the green fabric.  I have not decided how I will quilt it.  Either on the long arm or domestic.

I put the remaining fabric up for now as I do not want to get tired of using it in another quilt at this time.  I want to finish up Section 6 of Stonefields (piecing) and move on to another project.  I will have to review my 2 year “list” and make a decision as I am ready to immerse myself in a more challenging project.

Have a wonderful week!

Nanette

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Sew Can She; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away; Fiber Tuesday;    Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHOW; Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Show and Tell Monday with Bambi; Slow Stitching Sunday Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party

Greetings from Hot Hot South Texas (at least at our house).   The heat is on for the summer and just to prove it the Heat Index ranged from 108 on Wednesday and 106+ yesterday – lovely heat wave.  OH now it is 93 and feels like 105 – guess it is still going on!

Today was the first day of fun I have had from downsizing, moving furniture for new carpet and 2 and 1/2 days cleaning my Studio rooms!  Was that ever fun, but now I know I have had enough of cleaning out and reorganizing.  I believe that a total of 20 days since the 2nd week of May was spent doing these things.  In between all of that work I did get some hand work prepared, but for some REASON I was so tired by the end of the days I did not accomplish a lot of applique or embroidery during the evening hours.

Now for the surprise part of this Post!  Years ago (and do not remember how many) I was given 3 Hummel’s by a co-worker who had gone to Germany on a TDY trip.  I cherished those Hummels as I knew I would never make a trip overseas!  During the last 23 years I had wondered where they were and for the life of me I could not remember when the last time I saw them!  WELL, the lost was found when I had to empty the China Hutch.  There stuck on the bottom top shelf in the back were my Hummels.  I also have two statues from either Japan or Southeast Asia from a person who became an ex-owner of them by default to add to my collection about 35 years ago.  Then there is a Horse from Japan that a co-worker brought me from Japan.  Now the beautiful blue trimmed in gold pencil holder and ash tray are from a co-worker who had many TDY trips to Greece and gifted me these beautiful items.  I decided that I would enjoy them so much more by having a single place for my memories of places I will never visit!

This morning during my early walk, I saw one of our deer and happened to stop and look what I found!!!!!

The fawn seem to freeze by the tree as I talked to her/him and was so surprised that the Mother did not turn and charge me.  I was able to take the 2nd picture up close!  This is the first baby that we have seen this season.  I will now be on the look out for more in the next 2 weeks.  Hopefully by July they will all be born before it gets any hotter than it is!

OK now on to some hand work that I have been working on (very slowly).  It is looking like French General is beginning to become a finish!

As I cleaning up the fabric/computer room in the Studio, I went through some fabric on the very top of my shelves that I had covered them up.  Now this had to be in 2009/2010 when we added my new room to the Studio.  There was a large stash of Azalea Trail 2002 fabric line from Nancy Odom, ALONG with 8 blocks that I had made in 2003-2004 time frame.  Why I stopped working on this quilt only God knows, because I knew that fabric was there, just never looked at it again!   After finishing the last of the cleaning and throwing out copies of downloaded free quilt patterns that I will NEVER make, I set this fabric and the 9 blocks out on my cutting table to put together today!  I started about 11:30 this morning and finished about 2:30!  And here she is, Apricot Lily by Nancy Odom!  I wish the camera would show the beautiful pink and moss green better.

I was so very very blessed that I had bought enough fabric to make the quilt with the same fabrics that Nancy did.  I do remember that I met her at the 2004 Houston Quilt Show and bought a few more of her patterns.  She was such a sweet lady and her quilts are so easy to make because she writes wonderful easy to read directions!  This is the book that I have and probably out of print but found one on eBay in case anyone is interested.  These are the two blocks that make up the quilt.  I have to finish the button hole stitching on three of the blocks.

This is the “stash” that I have left over – think I liked this fabric line?  I have a enough for many quilts or use a lot for backing.  The fabric came in pink and green Azalea’s, black and red Azalea’s and red and green Azalea’s.  It is such wonderful fabric to work with!

This is a picture of the book and all of the projects that are included.

Today has been a wonderful day and so enjoyable and fulfilling to have a quilt finished after all the hard work I had been doing.  It has inspired me for a few other projects that are not as technical as I have been making in the last 6 months!  And in case you are wondering, I am going to hire someone to start cleaning the house each month starting in July – I am what you call DONE WITH THAT!  (Hoping that the house cleaning service will work out)

Have a wonderful summer week-end and enjoy stitching!

Nanette

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Sew Can She; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away; Fiber Tuesday;    Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHOW; Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Show and Tell Monday with Bambi; Slow Stitching Sunday Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party

 

Starting Thursday the 13th, we moved things that we could in preparation for the carpet laying.  We were ready Friday morning for them to arrive at 9 AM.  Well, that did not go as planned – they did not arrive until 11:30………..Left at 9 PM.  Talk about 2 old people who were worn out!  The bedroom was the most difficult and time consuming in breaking down the bed and then putting it back together.  But it was done and at least we had a bed to sleep in Friday night.  They could not finish the Den or the closet so they came back Saturday for 5 hours and finished the Den and Closet.  If the young men were not so personable and nice I would have thrown a fit, but they did a wonderful job (at least as far as we can tell).  I can tell that by Monday evening I will not want to move for a week!  I am so glad that we did this now and not next year!

Sunday we moved the things we could from the other side of the house into the Den for them to lay the carpet in Library, Living Room/Dining Room and the old ‘computer’ room.  In my mind I figured about 3 hours work – WRONG – The dishwasher would not work, or I have forgotten how to work it – LOL)  So all crystal and china were hand washed.  I had another wild “keep it or give it away mood” and the Navigator was loaded with clothes, hangers, an old radio, and a big bucket full of “dust collectors” that no longer had any meaning to us!  This took me about 7 hours of doing that!  I started about 11:00 (Clay started a little earlier)  I was sitting in my recliner after a hot shower at 7:30 Sunday evening.

Monday morning the gang arrived around 10:30.  They left at 6:45 or so.  The house looks great.  All furniture back in its place (I cleaned all as it was moved)  Tuesday morning was to be a ‘short’ time of moving.  That ended up for me at 2:30 and I sat in my recliner until bedtime (exception – cooked supper).  Clay was working on his Ham Station.  We were both exhausted again!  I had a feeling that this was going to be a very long and drawn out process and I was correct.  It took 5 FULL days to go through this!

I am very pleased with all that has been accomplished in the last month!  It is amazing how great it feels to not have a cluttered house and to have given away things that we no longer wanted or needed!

I had scheduled a cleaning group to come and clean the house tomorrow, but for the life of me I cannot see enough dirt or dust to justify a $150.00 cleaning expenditure when I can do the blinds and inside windows and take the vacuum canister and do the base boards!  After all, I just wiped and dusted all furniture that was moved and it was ALL MOVED!  So I cancelled that appointment and now I AM FREE AS A BIRD FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR!

BUT, just so I would not get used to peace and quiet and sewing again (LOL)  I left around 7:30 this morning and ran 5 errands (2 grocery stores) and was home by 10:45.  Late Breakfast by 12 or so but all food put up and house looks good.

I am now enjoying a cup of coffee and headed into the other room (in the Studio) and start going through some drawers and clean them out!  Too much clutter in my Studio! (OK not that much but want to clean out things I do not want or need)..

I hope to have something ready to post soon.  Thanks for listening to my tale of “Fun and Games Replacing Carpeting!”

UPDATE:

OK – I decided to get up and take a few pictures.

Living Room/Dining Room

Bedroom – you can see the two windows covered with shades in the mirror.  I have to sleep in a totally dark room or I will not sleep well!  It takes about 45 minutes to tear this unit down and then another 45 to put it back together!  Very Heavy furniture!

Den – Clay and I built this Den in 1997!  I do think it contributed to a few more back surgeries and carpel tunnel surgery in 1998.  But worth it I guess it is 14′ x 40′  We originally thought it would be great as a screened in room, but forgot we lived in Texas and within 3 months it was closed in!

Like having a new home!  The carpet is a light-medium brown with some light beige mixed in.  Really makes the house look so much brighter!

Nanette

 

 

Happy Hump Day! Nice weather here – but that will change into Summer Heat late in the week!

Yesterday I finished the last of the reorganizing, cleaning out, and downsizing. The house looks so much better as it is less cluttered with furniture and paperwork.

Monday I went through my “little corner” in the Den where my Handwork WIPs tended to land when I was not in the mood, or in the “I’ll do it later” stack! I also had not gone through my sewing baskets since we had sold the 5th wheel in late Dec 2016! So it took some time to go through both baskets, clean out things I did not want or need, and organize both.

I have a place where I can keep my applique projects that is ready to be worked and another little stand where I keep my lap quilting hoop and a few small quilting projects to be worked on.

It looks so nice and neat and now I can hardly wait for the new carpet which will be laid this Friday and Monday! YEA! The room will be much prettier as I selected a lighter carpeting that will blend with the walls.

I also have another room that is now called “The Extra Stash Room”. This used to be our Music Room where we would play guitars when we first were married and loved it! My piano is still sitting there waiting for someone to play it!

This is the last room that I needed to reorganize and make room for things that had been stored in the corner of the Den. I am so happy that I spent all the time I did doing the cleaning and downsizing. Neither Clay nor I do well with a lot of clutter.

The shelves have fabrics, thread, muslin, yarn, scraps and my knitting basket for when I am in the knitting mood. You can see I need more batting and fabric! LOL Now as I work on projects everything has it place.

I know that I am truly blessed to have the 2 rooms in the Studio for quilting and one in the house as a “Stash Room” to keep all of my fabric, yarn and notions organized as the majority of quilters only have a small area for quilting.

The next project will be to clean the main room in the Studio. My Elfa units need to be cleaned out and could be organized much better. But for now all is fine.

I finished the last block for Section 5 of Stonefields. Section 6 has 4 blocks to piece and 8 blocks to applique. Hopefully I will be moving on to Section 7 soon.

Clay was busy doing some zero landscaping! At 75 he is still doing some labor intensive outside work! Because of the dry weather for the last 10 years the grass was not growing well there and he was having issues with the gutters draining properly! When he was cleaning out the gutters he found that each drain had pine cones stuck in each downspout!

We are still waiting to see baby deer. A few of the Doe’s appear to have had them, but they will be well hidden for a couple of weeks. A few more have not dropped theirs yet! I will have a front row seat looking out the window and watching them play!

Have a great day stitching or creating!

Nanette

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Sew Can She; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away; Fiber Tuesday;    Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHOW; Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Show and Tell Monday with Bambi; Slow Stitching Sunday Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party

Well summer has arrived and soon it will be “baby” time around here!  NO not grandbabies, but Deer Babies.  Here is a picture of the herd we feed and I do hope that they have the babies before the weather starts off at 100 degrees.  Walking is now going to have to be from 6:30 to 7:00.  I have decided to not complain about the wind anymore because now we have none!   I do like getting my walking in early as it seems I have more time to play in the Studio!  (I think it is all a mind game!). The weather will be 100 today, 100 tomorrow, and 104 by Sunday. This is supposed to be a short heatwave! We shall see!

We also have pesky squirrels hanging around eating corn and bird seed on the ground. Clay made a feeder for our birds out of an old cookie sheet and sometimes the squirrels would jump into the feeder and just lay in the pan and eat all day. He fixed that problem with the following. Notice the squirrel who tried to get into the pan today!

I have been working on preparing embroidery and applique projects.  Mainly Aunt Bea’s Parlor and Pat Campbell’s Jacobean Holiday.  I have all pieces ready to applique for Jacobean and all blocks ready for Bea’s embroidery quilt. I complete another block for the Jacobean.

I have finished the A Merry Christmas To You Sew Along with Susan Marth today. I changed the borders by using a 1/2″ gold border with a 3 1/2″ Red with Gold Border in lieu of the Sawtooth border. I enjoyed the SAL and glad that I have finished it. It was an easy project!

 

I have made a little progress on French General, at least I have completed the most difficult flower (I think).

When my cousin picked up the Trundle Bed that we no longer needed I had to put my Giant Dahlia on my quilt rack. This is the 3rd quilt I made and quilted on my HQ16 in 2006 and quilted it in 2008. It is too small for our bed! When I realized how I quilted it in 2008 that I must start using my rulers again and do more than just meandering!

I mentioned I signed up for a Sashiko class in SA for last week.  I did not attend the 2nd class today!  I will not expound on my opinion of how the class was presented, but for $55 I could have done better staying home and watching YouTube or buying another book!  For that amount I learned anything I did not already know. I received 2 needles, thread, and a”thimble” that I won’t use EVER as part of the class.  I was so disappointed I would love to teach a Sashiko Class but it would not be as this one was presented to me!  The ladies were very nice and it was an enjoyable chat time, but nothing gained as far as Sashiko goes.  I thought I had learned this lesson when I took my last quilting class from a Guild in 2010!  Oh well.

I leave you with this tidbit of information.  Did you know when you purchase chicken (packaged) that it comes to the stores ‘frozen’ (probably a chill type) then they lovingly put it out for the consumer to purchase and then the consumer takes the chicken and puts it in the freezer at home to RE-FREEZE.  Well, I got a batch that had probably been out too long after defrosting without knowing this.  I have to watch code dates carefully and thought I was in the SAFE ZONE.  I began having stomach issues earlier in the week and could not figure out what was upsetting my stomach until Saturday night!  It was the chicken!  I called HEB and spoke with the sweetest Manager and on Sunday we took the bad chicken back and they made it good by not charging me for what was bad. The Manager was so nice and he advised me I could pre-order the chicken and have them keep it frozen so in the future I will do so.

From the 14th through the 17th of June the house will be turned upside down and carpeting will be laid.  I do believe the job will be easier than we think.  I just hate the thought of cleaning out the Hutch with all the china and crystal!  I must keep thinking how nice the new carpet will be and how much I will love the new smell (NOT).   I will be glad when this project is over with.

Have a great week-end and for those who are dealing with the flooding and inability to plant crops soon start drying out! In the meantime, stay safe!

Nanette

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Sew Can She; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away; Fiber Tuesday;    Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHOW; Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Show and Tell Monday with Bambi; Slow Stitching Sunday Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party

 

 

On this day, I want to remember Darryl Scott Cook, Clay’s only son, who went to Heaven four years ago today.  He is so missed by Clay and I.  He was only 51 and just too young to leave this world.  We still have a hole in our hearts, but time heals all and we are doing fine.  We just miss him.

Today is also a day to remember all the soldiers that died on the beaches of Normandy and Omaha on 6 June 1944.  They were from the Greatest Generation of Men who did not know where they were going that day and how their day would end, but they were willing to fight against Hitler and his army of SICK followers who had killed millions of the Jewish people.  It is called the GENOCIDE of a Race!

Yes, they gave their lives for us so that Hitler would be stopped from killing Jews and successfully conquering Europe with his Tyranny!

Give thanks to all those currently serving our great Nation in our Armed Services, and those who put their life on the line everyday for our Citizens.  They are the Firefighters, Police, ICE Agents, and most of all the Border Patrol!  They continue to make this great Nation SAFE!

I give thanks and prayers for our President who is leading this great Nation through some extremely divisive times and for all of our protectors of this Nation so that we never experience what the world experienced in World War II.

Nanette