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Here we are  at the end of July 2016!  WOW!  Only one more month of hot weather and maybe we will all have a Fall Season that will begin in September!  We have had a break in the 50 days of no rain and now are 5″ richer.  Tomorrow the hot weather will return and I am hoping that the air will be a little dryer and not quite so humid, but who knows.  I would have never guessed that we would have rain at the end of July and it is good that we are heading into the hottest month with green grass.

I am experiencing a “little” cabin fever with this hot weather, just the opposite of cabin fever that can hit in the winter.  Maybe it is the weather change this week, but I have no desire to do anything, much less start a new piecing project, or start quilting on a quilt.  Maybe tomorrow will bring me some drive and the desire, but for now it is movie time and work on some hand applique.  We were scheduled for a trip to Durant, OK for 2 weeks, but somehow we realized that sitting in a 36 foot fifth wheel in 100 degree weather would be even worse than staying home.  At least we have the Studio to come to each day and work on our hobbies.  So that trip will be in September (darn) but it was the smart thing to do!

I have completed my current (not counting today’s) Circa 2016 blocks, finished Block 4 with CWB (Bountiful Life for me) and began working on my medallion on Brinton Hall quilt that I started late last year.

Cathy has finished Block 5 and progressing very well.  I like the fabrics she used for her block and the changes she made.  Remember – she is making this quilt with  10 1/2″ blocks – you go girl!

 

Here are my  Circa Blocks through the 22nd of July.

 

Stonefields Segment 4 is WIP, but I have finished 6 of the 12 blocks for this segment.  I incorporated some new fabrics and made the “mirror” block the same, but fussy cut 3 different flowers from Barbara Brackman’s Ladies Album fabric.

Well, this is it for now.  Maybe tomorrow will bring a better day – I am still dealing with the lovely “acid rebound” from quitting the Aciphex.  It is getting better, but a very slow progress.   I am hoping that by September things will be even better!  Have a great day and keep on stitching!  Stay cool!

 

Just when one thinks that the weather is really HOT it gets HOTTER.  Yikes 104 heat index today and believe you me – it is HOT!

But inside my Studio it is nice and cool!   Today I have completed all of my UFO’s and am totally caught up with my monthly project blocks. I have even been working on Block 4 of Bountiful Life – hope to have it finished this next week.

A couple of months ago I sent Jaydee some batik blocks that I had made along with 3 other ladies in my one and ONLY block exchange.  I decided that if I had not put those blocks together in 4 years that I was not interested, so they took a trip to Jaydee and here is the result.  She did such a beautiful job putting all 96 blocks together to make a beautiful quilt for her bed!  I know that she will enjoy it very much!

Today I finished my Mini Dear Jane quilt, the last of my UFO’s for now (remember the Texas quilt is still WIP status).  I really like how it turned out.  I auditioned 4 different fabrics for the background before I selected the Pin Money fabric.

Moving right along, I have also finished my Threads of Memory quilt by Barbara Brackman.  This will be a wonderful lap blanket for winter time (if it gets cold this winter).

And last, but not least, I finished the applique for Block 10 of Ms Potts from the BAS project.

Looking back, the month of June has been one of my productive months in quite awhile, mostly because I am feeling great and my energy level is at 100%!  This is attributed to eliminating my acid medication Aciphex and Zantac!  I did a cold turkey after I found out that the Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI) can cause hip issues, gastroparesis, and in itself cause GERD!  It was not easy to do this, but I knew that something was not right with my body and after 13 years of a GERD medication that I thought was helping me was actually hurting me!  I have a very unique genetic makeup so not everyone needs to do what I did, but for me it was a God send that something told me to do this.  Glad I did it.   I may have to still stay on a  modified diet, but boy do I ever feel great!

I may start up the long arm tomorrow and begin quilting some of these tops.  That would really make me feel even better!

Have a wonderful 4th, be safe, and happy!   Keep stitching!

Yesterday I posted Jaydee’s CWB blocks.  We inadvertently posted her block without the embroidery.  I am posting both pictures so you can see the difference the embellishment makes on a block.

Have a great day!

I like the way that the embroidery makes the leaves look like they are attached to the stems!  Great job Jaydee – lots of work doing this!

I have finally accomplished what I said I was going to do!  Start on Circa 2016 and yesterday I posted some pictures of a few pinwheels and 5  – 9 patches!  I knew I did not like where I was going with the fabrics and rather than “rip” a 2 3/4″ block, I started over with them using different fabrics.

I kept the original 5 patches (too small to rip!) and looked for additional fabrics to add some movement to the quilt.  I am using my Michael Miller Krystals for the background fabric and the border is a dark chocolate Dimples!  I am really loving this version.  I set the medallion on the design board to see how the background fabric and the darker 1 1/2″ bord would look!  I love it!  Tomorrow I will sew it together.

It is such a good feeling to start on a project and see the fruits of one’s labor immediately.  Applique is wonderful and my first love, but there is nothing like piecing for “instant” gratification.  I will now start on the quarter square blocks and continue to play the “catch up” game with the other quilters who are working on Circa 2016.

By the way, anytime I start the chocolate cravings I know there is a strong weather change coming down the pike and it is here.  We are having rain all this week, so best to sit and sew, and watch the rain from my nice bay windows!  Have a great evening!  I am Happy Happy Happy!

Greetings.  We are back early from our “7 day planned trip” getaway, but we decided that we had just had more fun that we could handle so we came home yesterday.  There might be some serious storms in the area later in the week, so we probably made a wise decision to come home early.  I did get tired of feeding those machines and would rather purchase some fabric (of which I did this morning).

So here I am back in the Studio cleaning up the email, etc and heading for the other room to cut out my Temecula Circa 2016 quilt blocks!  I have realized that I have been stressed trying to do 2 blocks a month on CWB and with the stress of the “small remodeling job going South” problem, adding the CWB really got to me.  Anyone who has made an Album quilt (needle turn applique) knows that it is time-consuming and can be stressful.  I did not realize I was stressing over it until the night before we left for Durant.  I am almost through with Block 3 and MAY try to finish it by next week, but I am going to take a month off from that project and see if I can get back into my “groove”.

It is very interesting how quilters  to do so much with their time.  But when it becomes a chore, I am “outta” there for awhile.  I think this is what happened to me when I started my Capt Aust baltimore album quilt a few years ago.  I really do want to complete the CWB, but not with time frames of having to work on 2 blocks a month!  So I will start a new block in the next month, but for now I have 5 quilts that need to be completed (at least the tops put together).  Cathy and Lynn are continuing on and Jaydee is, of course, way ahead of us with her 10 completed blocks.  She has been embroidering on those finished blocks and as soon as I receive her pictures they will be posted!

Cathy has been working on Block 4 – She has changed this block to have a dog and a squirrel.  I think this is going to be the cutest block – The dog looking up at the Squirrel.  So creative Cathy!  Look at all those beautiful leaves to applique – Whoopee!  I think this will be a favorite of mine!  It takes time to make these changes and Cathy is really doing a great job!

I am really enjoying the BAS Margaret Potts’ BOM.  The blocks are small and doing one per month is fine.  Easy to complete one small block compared to a 14″x 14″ block loaded with lots of “pieces”.  I have not completed my block for May yet but will soon.  I have changed that block to do some EPP rather than the small “Dresden” flowers.

Jaydee has gone back to her original blocks and incorporated some embroidery.  I am re-posting her pictures to showcase her hard work.   Nice accent work.  Makes the pieces pop.  Jaydee is using Kona fabrics for her quilt.

So off to the sewing room – I have 6 more Alexander Bean Pot blocks to make and will be preparing the blocks for Circa 2016.  Since we are just about half way through this year, I really need to get serious about my projects.  Also, Clay and I will be taking some day trips just to have a change of scenery.  We may head to Kerrville, Texas next week to visit Creations Quilt Shop.  This is a premier shop in the Hill Country of Texas and so much fun to visit.

Till next post, have a wonderful Memorial Day week-end and stay safe!

 

This story may not be interesting and really not a quilting story, but this is what has kept me (AGAIN) from just having a nice quiet retirement quilting life!  My close friends have heard this story but maybe others can get a few chuckles on me today.

Well, here we are again – in a mess – but soon it will be over.  All I wanted was to have new kitchen flooring and upgrade the bathroom vanities.  But as we all know now, nothing goes well and nothing is the same.  This idea started in the middle of March.  Such a small job – hire O’Krents to do the flooring (no problem there) contract out having the bathroom vanities taken out and re-installed!  But as I am finding out now that NOTHING in this country is as it was.  The contractor did not work out so Mr Clay decided to paint over the wall paper in each bathroom. So Clay decided to do the job – Easy you say – HA!

That decision caused us heartburn and a big mess.  We were told to put a primer over the wallpaper, smooth it out, and paint.  No big deal – Clay had done this before. The only problem was that Lowe’s gave us the wrong advise, told us to use latex primer instead of oil based and then the  big mistake was using Valspar paint!  But I get ahead of myself,  before the new flooring, Clay set up the new vanity in the Master Bath temporarily before the new floors were laid.  As soon as the new flooring was installed, he had already primed the Master Bath walls and had one wall painted so that things could be ready to move back in place with the help of the guys.  Then all was put back together permanently.  There were problems with the painting over wallpaper – neither of us were happy with it, but would just live with it.  Then for the next 10 days we discovered that the paint would not dry and was sticky and had a high chemical smell.  (Of course this does not include all the electrical work he had to do to accommodate the new lighting!)

OK, back to Lowe’s.  They should have advised us to use an oil based primer. We were in panic mode – how to get all this off our walls.   Lowe’s stood behind the information that they gave us and sent out a crew 2 weeks ago to remove the old wallpaper and new tacky paint.  Of course that meant that Clay had to undo his permanent placement of the Vanity and Medicine Cabinet – Oh so much fun! After the crew removed the mess  Clay spent 3 more days trying to finish preparing the walls for wallpaper.  Then we had to order wallpaper and of course you cannot buy any wallpaper at a store anymore –  one has to go select and order and wait for it to be shipped.  I ordered some on-line – BIG MISTAKE – but I was blessed – they were late in shipping it and we cancelled that order and went to Sherwin Williams and selected better paper (fewer rolls also) and saved about $350.00!

I think everyone is getting the drift – the story may not be exact, but since the decision to do this we have been in the following situation for 3 weeks – Shower in the Master Bath, Toilet in the other bathroom, and hand washing and brushing teeth in the Kitchen Sink!    Finally the paper comes today and we have hired a contractor to hang the wallpaper.  But he cannot come until Saturday.  To top this off, I have a house full of dust since my housekeeper did not need to come with all of the work going on.  My computer room and music room are in a mess.  One has all of the things Clay needed to work with and the other has a toilet, vanity, sink, and Medicine cabinet sitting in it.  Two weeks ago I told Clay to keep the door shut – I could not handle the mess.  Darla comes on Sunday – YEA I will not have to do the detailed cleaning!

But the fun and games continue…..Yesterday (Wednesday) we had 2 “easy” doctor checkups and we planned on it being a short day – HA to that one too.  It took us 2 hours to go 50 miles to the doctor and that wonderful traffic mess caused me to miss my appointment time.  It took 4 hours to get there, see my ear doctor, and hurry and get to our 1:00 PM dermatology appointment.  We were on a roll – we were in and out in 25 minutes – Love that Doctor!   But Murphy was not through with us yet.  I figured that the stupid black cat had run across my path and I just did not realize it.  Clay stills tells me to not blame that poor little kitty because he cannot help that he is all black!  LOL

When we got to the car, the keypad entry on the Town Car was non responsive – the key less entry button would not work!  JOY.  90 degrees and about 85% humidity!   The car started and everything worked with the exception I could not control my outside mirrors, the driver’s seat, or the door locks – Talk about 2 old people wanting to just run away ….. LOL.  We were able to run 2 more errands, make numerous calls trying to figure out the issue and decided to come home and this AM will take the car into the local mechanic for him to trouble shoot the problem.

A few days ago when the “fun” of remodeling the house (new furniture came on the 26th of April) became a “little” overwhelming,  I told Clay that I needed a “REAL” getaway and would he like to go to Durant, OK for a short Casino visit and stay at the Lodge (no RV this trip).  YEA he is ready!  So we will be leaving in a week or so for a 5 day casino trip and I told him I did not want to do anything but enjoy the Lodge visit and stay in the Casino.  All I want to hear is NOISE of the lovely machines where my brain cannot think about where we have been!  Assuming that the wallpaper hanging goes as planned this Saturday and the house is cleaned on Sunday and the he mows the yard we will be on the road.  ANY BETS?

Have a great day and hope you can find a good laugh on this story!   Now that it is almost over, I can begin to make lite of it.  I will post my quilting progress next post!  Poor Dear Jane – maybe in the Fall!