Mitered Corners Nightmare!

Do any of you work, and then dream of work all night long, only to get up tired because you had a full day of work, you worked all. night in your sleep, and then you have to work all day following the night of dreaming. Weird how your brain activity does this.

Do you dream in color? I do on some things. If there is a storm or a tornado in my dream it is always in black and white. But sometimes I do dream in color. There was a period of about 4 years I dreamed nothing. The reason? Vitamin B12 deficiency, yup that’s right, if you don’t dream for a long time, you may want to go see your doctor.

I personally have never dreamed of quilting in my sleep. That would be neat. Sleeping under a real quilt that I have made, only to work on my quilting in my dreams. Has this happened to any of you?

The sewing side of life has been good to me this week. That extra day off really got the stitches sewn. Lots of 365 challenge blocks happened. Some easy, some, not sew much.

I did one of the hardest blocks I have ever done. Took me hours. Sewed a few pieces wrong a couple of times, but by golly, got the nightmare block done. If you missed my last post, I show a tutorial of mitered seams with video goodness. Click here for the video, or here for the blog tutorial.

Here is my hardest block. I think this took several hours. Glad the difficulty is over. Glad to have the experience under my belt. Look forward to telling generations all about it when they gaze upon it in the quilt in years to come.

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I still have not made it to the quilt shop. You have to make an appointment. Not sure if I want to do that, because I pass by after work, and lately the time I get off has been iffy. This week consisted of working over a couple of evenings, and then leaving early for a dentist appt. The dentist office will never be the same. That was a new adventure compared to the mundane dentist appt. before covid.

Here are some more 365 blocks. I decided to add a pop of color here and there. Will try to at least add each color of the rainbow to get a little more interest and contrast.

And I finally started quilting on the SewQuester quilt. Done a bunch of pebbles on the perimeter. A little bit of ribbon candy in the sashing. Some feathers in the stars. And some melons in the 4 patches. I am liking the affect of this pattern and how it aligns. I probably need to do another one of these quilt tops.

And about 2 1/2 weeks ago, or maybe it was three, we had a fat cat who was not fat all of a sudden. I had suspected she was pregnant. But she is a bit wild. Not completely feral. She comes up to eat everyday and if you are lucky you can pet her. She is a beautiful black and white cat, a tuxedo cat. She has the softest fur. Well, I thought she had the babies and was not taking to them because she was always lounging on the front lawn (probably waiting for me to feed her.). Well another black cat we had started to get humongous. I knew she was going to pop at anytime and thought when the tuxedo cat had hers, she would follow within a few days. Several weeks later, we can hear faint mewing under the bathroom floor. I can only assume the location of where the black cat had them under the house, it unnerved the tuxedo momma kitty, and so she moved them to the font lawn. She had 5 beautiful babies. They are small enough they cannot run away, so it may be we can tame them as long as she doesn’t move them again. This was captured right at dusk. The flash went off on the camera and the picture quality is horrible. But here is another baby kitty picture.

As large as the black cat got, I bet she had more than 5. We have cats growing all over the place. These babies are healthy, have the eyes open, and the bellies are chubby, so she is meeting their needs nicely. That is always a worry. I once had a very stupid cat that had babies and then would not take care of them, and then the kittens got cold, and then they died. I tried to interfere, but I probably just made them cold (I did not heat up the food, their death taught. me something).

I listen to a radio program, called Bird Note. It has a very short snippet of factoids about birds, bird calls, or bird tidbits that I find very interesting. This week I got to hang a bird feeder, and will be birdwatching with the children, teaching them the calls of certain birds, and what they are. I find it fascinating and peaceful. I am hoping with the help of the IPad, this will stimulate some interest with my children finding things out on their own. Children are curious and sometimes rely on Mom and Dad too much for information.

Work is starting to pick up, so that only means my hobby and my blog will suffer. We will see what the week holds. Until then, thanks for stopping by and reading my blog!

365 Block Challenge Medallion!

Well, after months of effort, it is nice to see this start to look like a quilt. I have completed the center medallion pieces. I have laid them out on my design floor!

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I must say I am almost 100% pleased, but the hst side of the center block is too light. Not sure if I will redo.

Also in one of the cornerstone blocks, my piecing is reversed. I know I cannot fix that, nor will I sew a new block. As a general rule, your eyes read a quilt like a book. You glance at the left, but focus towards the right. I will put that block on the left.

I managed to upload a metered corners video tutorial.

Sorry my hands were in the way a lot. My 8 year old filmed this at my high table with few instructions. It was the only way to keep her quiet and video. You can hear my 7 year old watching PBS kids in the background. Things I tune out and am used to blares in the video! Non-professionals here, tis ok.

https://myquiltprojects.wordpress.com/2020/05/22/mitered-cornersa-tutorial/. And as promised I am showing the full mitered block from my last post.

And I have used my fridge as a design wall LOL, whatever works eh?

Not sure what the weekend holds, I know I will be cooking each day, big delicious meals, and a cake may even happen! Mmmmmmm cake~~~drooling, it has been a long time since I made one.

I aim to quilt some more on the SewQuester quilt.

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Perhaps some video will happen on that as well. This quilter had a good night’s sleep as is ready to tackle the day. Have a good one, and thanks for reading my blog!

Mitered Corners~A Tutorial

As promised, I am bringing you a mitered corners tutorial.  I eventually will make a video, but for now, can be photo style.  If my instructions confuse you, bear with me.  Sometimes the picture to words makes sense to the editor (me), but may not to you.  Pose your questions in the comment section and I will help you out.  🙂

To start off, you will need two rectangles and one square.  Lets start small, so you can get the feel of the fabric folding (plus if there is a mishap, you are not out lots of fabric, eh?)

Cut the square 2 inches.  Cut the rectangles 2 by 3 1/2, you will need two rectangles.  Ignore my folded corners here, pretend they are just a square and rectangles.  Below is the block you will learn to miter the corner.  Where is the miter here?  It is between the two dark reds.

Our first step is to join the square to a rectangle using a partial seam.  I find starting halfway through the square is best, but you may figure out that less is better or worse for you.

Half a seam.

Next you will sew your other rectangle to the adjoining side of the square making sure to stop short 1/4 inch from the square corner.

You can see the partial seam showing on the left of the square.  At the top of the square, you have just sewn that minus a 1/4 inch from the unsewn corner.  It is smack dab in the center of the above photo.

Fold the square along it’s bias from corner to corner, and then bring the rectangles together matching raw edges on the right.

Pin and place your ruler line on the bottom edge of your rectangle and draw a line for stitching stoping short at the top 1/4 inch from the edge.  This is where your folded square rests.  This seam is crucial, it is the miter.  If something is off by a stitch it will become wonky,   Wonky does not work for a miter.

Stitch directly on top of the line.  Notice I stopped where I stopped my line draw.  Can you faintly see the bulk of the folded square underneath.  When starting to stitch with your sewing machine, start on top of that spot, as your machine positions to make the stitch it will carry the needle to fabric forward, making the perfect intersection for the miter.  If you stitch to much you can always flick out a seam with the seam ripper.

Trim away excess corner.  I just wack it off, you can however be more precise and use a ruler.

Very important for pressing, you must notch the bulk of the fabric.  This will allow it to nicely press in any direction without distorting the bias.

Unfold the square (hidden above).  If you did your notch, it will easily swing out and you can finish your unfinished seam.  Pictured below is the square flipped hiding the gingham showing the barnwood.

It may help you to mark your 1/4 inch seam allowance at all start and stop points.  If you have done it correctly with your stitching, that will be your guide.

This block is ready for finger pressing.  Press the seams to make it lay as flat as possible.  Sometimes that means pressing towards the square, sometimes that means pressing away from the square.  Your rectangle seam can be pressed either way.

If your seam allowance is accurate, and you started and stopped where you were supposed to, you should end up with a perfect 3 1/2 inch square.  Hard, no.  Time consuming, yes!  But oh so fun with fabric!  And if you don’t get it right, the first time, keep trying.  It took me a bit to find a way to fold and unfold to get the best results.  Will these results work for everyone?  I hope so, but maybe there is a better way for you.

The long holiday weekend is almost here, and I will have another post with the finished block from this tutorial.  It will be one of my 4 corners on my center medallion for the 365 quilt block challenge.

I hope everyone tries this at least once.  And I hope if you have questions, leave them in the comments section and I will certainly try to help you out.

Have a lovely un-sew-questered weekend!  All of us will be like hamsters let out of our cage!  Be looking for a video to come soon on this very subject.

And thanks for reading my blog!

 

Seeing Red!

Happy Sunday, readers!  I hope you are all enjoying your day.  I have been suffering from a headache/migraine that has decided to depart with a little help from Magnesium.  I have felt so good in fact today that ALL OF THE 365 QUILT BLOCK CHALLENGE MARCH BLOCKS ARE COMPLETED!  Hence the reason I am seeing red!

First I would like to share my formula, that helps me decide my fabrics.  I have a pile of fabrics.  Depending on what my daily BOM (bill of materials) tells me, depends on what I select.  Playing with contrast is key at this step.

A long time ago when I was working on the tumbler quilt, I realized that the same fabric could be considered light or dark depending on the value of fabric it was placed next too.

Every other tumbler in this quilt alternates between light and dark.  A tan could be placed next to dark blue or black and it could be considered the lighter value.  A tan could be dark enough placed next to a white that it would look dark.  You can probably see all the repeats in there if you look closely enough, some as the dark value and some on the light.

The same holds true for the 365 quilt block challenge.

Each day has its’ own block.  Each block can vary between only two colors used to 4, 6 or even 8.  When the BOM calls out for blocks A and B to be Dark Dark, and block C and D to be medium, and medium dark, this simple task of pairing fabrics can be difficult.  You have to pay attention to placement to make sure there is enough contrast between the Dark Dark and the Medium Dark pieces that touch.

With the help of the homemade Alpha Bitties my Mom made for me (thanks Mom, I am using them every day to help keep things straight), I select what fabrics are to be dark, or medium dark, or light and place the corresponding letter for that block.

Here I have assigned the BOM blocks to cut from these pieces of fabric.

I then cut the fabrics to the dimensions on the BOM, and then keep them with the Alpha Bitties so I don’t get turned around.  Here is the block board (Lori Holt’s design that I made at TOGA, and boy I have been using the heck out of it).  Then I subcut or draw lines as prescribed in directions.

It makes it so much easier if you have 35 pieces in your 3 1/2 inch block to keep them all straight and sewn in the right place!

Todays block was sewing a partial seam (yuck), and sewing the remainder part of the block normaly, revisiting that first partial seam making it whole.  Not my favorite, but nice to know that I can do it!

This block was making 4 tiny flying geese to surround a square.

Nothing more frustrating to be making all these tiny cuts to fabric and learn you have to cut a huge chunk out of a larger piece because you sewed the wrong left wing where you should have sewn it to the right wing.

During the course of the last 5 months, sewing these small blocks, I took some very good advice from someone (who took multiple years to finish their 365 quilt top).  The only thing she said she would change was she thought she made all of her dark 3 1/2 inch blocks too dark.

So, I decided to look at contrast a bit and realized I could use the same concept of my tumbler quilt in this 365 quilt.  If I chose the color black every now and again, I could use a dark red as a medium dark red, and sew on and sew fourth!  I even went to the trouble and placing some light colors amongst the darks, so that I would get good contrast when they all go together.  I am sew thankful for the advice offered by a fellow quilter.  Very good advice, indeed!

Independently these blocks are kind of ugly, but when you place them as a whole, it gives a wonderful variety.

Today I have three legs sewn of the center medallion border.  Only one more of those to go and I am running out of ideas for the lighter fabrics.  I made need just one more lighter red to make that side happen.  But in the mean time, I laid it out, not in any particular order.  The large cornerstone blocks around the medallion have not been made yet, but it did not keep me from laying them out on the floor to see how this was going to look and if I needed to take a different direction.

Just look at all those contrasting blocks!  And forgive me I got so excited I did not even pay attention to the yellow bookmark photo bombing this picture LOL.  By making some black, some dark red, and some with just a hint of light fabric, it has made my eyes happy!  All of this work, hours and hours, and now I can start to see the picture coming in to focus.

I am going to steer this direction for the lighter blocks too.  I will probably use loud and colorful neutrals (yes there is such as thing) and incorporate that style as I go.  Here are some I made so far.  Most of this color fades at greater than 6 foot leaving just a hue of soft blue, or pink, or even tan.  I am very happy with that.

Well, I have felt good enough to play, it is time to get to work in the kitchen.  Potstickers for supper, MMMMmmm.  Light, simple, delicious!  And tomorrow it is back to work.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my weekend, and crave weekends like this every week.

May your week be filled with productivity and well-being!  And thanks for reading my blog!

 

Mitered Corner’s

How many of you quilters out there have attempted mitered corners?  Every now and then when making an improve quilt, I end up having to miter the corners because I did not think smart while designing the quilt in my head.  I recall this quilt, having mitered corners.  One of these corners was not quite right.  But it quilted nicely and now you could never tell.

I probably did this the hard way, but it got done.

In working my 365 quilt block challenge, I managed to print everything up to May 5th.  I have been working the March blocks.  Last week, I was at March first, I marched my way right on to March 20th.  More than 20 blocks for the week as there were some bonus blocks.  Much of these blocks was about learning the mitered corner.  I will have to do a tutorial on this as I figured out an easy way.

Above are all mitered blocks.  The 6 inch block on the right took me hours, as those corners are time consuming and there was 16 of them buggers.

Here is another block that took me a bit, but oh it was so nice to sew almost every evening!

I have failed big time in taking photos after each block completion and have already placed them in the shoebox. You will eventually see them one day sewn together in harmony.

I have grown some more as a quilter trying something I would never even try on my own with these mitered corners.  And now I know how so I can help or show someone else.  The knowledge I am getting for free is priceless!

Here is a 4 leaf clover block for March 17 all done in red.  Looks more like hearts in red.

And some flying geese…..I just love how the angles of this do not remotely look like flying geese!  Can you see them?  There are 8 flying geese here!

I started hand sewing the binding on this quilt.

I think I am totally done with only one side.  As time allows I will enjoy the slow stitching.

I started quilting the Sew Quester Quilt.  I opted to use teal thread in the naked negative space of wide muslin borders.  I am using brown in the brown squares or half squares.  And I will probably use camel in the main body.  The teal is stark contrast against the muslin background.  Not sure if I like it as much as I thought I would, but I am quilting it making those half squares become whole squares into the muslin and like that affect.

Before I got the muslin quilted in teal I had already filled my M bobbin twice just for one side.  QITDM or quilt it to death method it is!

When my son came to see me for Mother’s day, I decided I have quilts coming out my ears, so I gave him Good Fortune and Garlic Knots Marina.  I always wanted to keep Garlic Knots as it was stitched with my stitching buddies from work who all had a block swap.  But my son is 6’1″ and is tall.  I knew that quilt would give his feet good coverage.

If I were to die tomorrow, all the quilts I have would line the pews beautifully.  I have seen this before and I would love to have the hugs those quilts could give for long after I am gone, to be a reminder at my funeral that my essence is all around my loved ones.  🙂

Morbid thoughts?  No, just know that my day will come whether I am ready or not.

Well the grocery list needs made, the laundry needs washed, the dishes need a good hose down too!  I am off to plan this weeks meals.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog!

 

SuperStar!

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!  You are a true superstar!  Just look what you managed with a broken arm!

I am going to have a blast quilting it too!  No charge….I insist!

Enjoying my day!  Enjoying my family!  And Enjoying my sewing machine time!

The large blocks above are 6 1/2 inches and will finish 6 inches in the quilt.  The little blocks surrounding are 3 1/2 inches and will finish 3 in the quilt.  The upper corner basket turned out so adorable (adorable block has 29 pieces within 3 inches!!!!!)  And liking the large red star in the opposite corner.  Would I have ever selected such a ridiculously challenging block all by my self to sew for a quilt for myself or someone else?  The short answer is no.  I am really liking the exercise of all my tools and pushing my quilting boundaries.  Color and value and contrast can be hard, but I am slowly learning that if I just select a lighter shade and a darker shade, it comes together.  It matters not what shade or hue of color is there.  I am learning different methods, with an occasional visit with the seam ripper.  The good news using the seam ripper on any of these blocks, the pieces are so small, it takes no time to undo an oooops.  I might add it is very satisfying to mark each one as done.

After visiting my printer yesterday I see that I will be sewing the whole center medallion and surrounding blocks soon!  Exciting!

I really have the urge to start a new project,  Yesterday I played with my precuts to see if I could match things up to create another top.  But, I have all this red fabric pulled and crowding my work area.  I opted to sew one.  One block became two, and before you know it, I had 7 done.  Now I am past 12.  Time is ignored today, a Mom’s kind of day.

Happy Mother’s day!  And thanks for reading my blog!

Another Post Means Progress!

Can you believe I have two posts for one week?  It has been a while since I have achieved multiple posts in one week!  And sewing happened today!  I got the two corners sewn on SewQuester, and then I squared it up and put on a border of my own size and choosing.  The idea behind the large border?  It is rather stark and kind of ugly.  But I am going to take those brown triangles that touch the border and make them come out as full squares with the QITDM.  What is the QITDM?  It stands for Quilt It to Death Method!  And I have a gob of negative space to fill!

Unfortunately when I got this puppy done, it measures 81 X 96.  And I have not enough fabric print to make the backing one whole design.  I can piece and patch, but the front blues are so elegant, that I will probably just put a muslin backing.  Putting nothing but muslin on the backing will give the backing a whole cloth quilt effect, which is an added bonus.  I aim to start piecing the backing this weekend.  Mother’s day may be a quilty kind of day!

In looking at the above picture, I am thinking after quilting those “squares” that I will trim away the excess and leave the edges as scalloped?  Still brainstorming.  I am itching to quilt, it has been over a month and a half!

I jumped back into my 365 block a day challenge.  March 1, 2nd, and 3rd are now completed.  I had purchased fabric around the 10th or 11th of March right before everything got shut down in our neck of the woods, and actually forgot that I had bought it.  It was sitting in my 365 pile, smiling at me when I started pairing up fabrics for the block audition before making the cuts.

I am hoping the next week, going back to my normal work schedule that more piecing time will happen and that I can cross at least a couple weeks worth of blocks off the list.

When I began typing my post on the laptop, and it resting on my lap, with my feet up on the couch, little Firecracker was attacking my hands wanting to play.  Cute little baby.  I will try to get more pictures up of the kitten before she becomes too big to be a cute kitten.  She is almost upon the gangly stage where she is lean and underdeveloped awkwardly so.  I know those of you who have had kittens know what I am talking about.  Small head, lean big body, and all ears.  Odd they grow that way, but I guess if they didn’t, there would be no such thing as an adult cat.

Last night was weird.  Straight line winds passed through.  I was at work.  And boy howdy, the wind made the walls inside the building creek.  The internal doors shook loud enough it sounded like someone was knocking on them.  And then the lights went out, and it was daaaaaark!  This happened in a matter of about 15 to 20 min before I was to leave.  When I got out to the parking lot, I started running to my car, because I saw the line of dust blowing a wall towards me.  And the chubby quilter that I am of course runs no marathons and did not make to my car in time.  I do know that the wind was strong enough to blow my fat self sideways during the running.  And I got a sandblasting in the eyes and dang it in my mouth.  What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.

And the ride home was fun too.  I think my car followed right along with the storms edge almost the whole way home.  I have a big car that can seat 7.  When the wind was behind me, I was giving it no gas, I was being blown home, and the readout on the dash said I was getting 75 MPG, I never thought I would see that.

Because of the power outage, I could not see very well.  I dodged down trees, and power lines, and large garbage cans with trash strewn about.  I got about 12 minutes from home and think it either passed me, or I outran it?  When you are in a predicament like this, your body naturally gets the endorphins going.  Fight or Flight.  It took a while to get to sleep.  At 2:45 a.m. another straight line wind shear came through the area, and I heard the dreaded limb roll on the roof.  Yeah, a pretty good size limb (of the only tree that overhangs the property line and house) fell on the roof and rolled off.  I think there was plenty of sap in the wood and it fell leaf side down which acted as a spring, then when it rolls the heavy part of the trunk was first to hit the ground.  Will have to get to cleaning that up.  Not to big of a limb, so it should not take long.  From the HackBerry tree.  Hackberry trees get so big and if they have any damage from the weather, from ice storms or wind, or other trees, they become problematic and rot easily.

This is not my hackberry but it is looking a lot like all of them.  I can see the right of this tree has damage at the fork of a previous limb which will ultimately cause that whole branch to fall in wind or in snow and ice, eventually.  The older the tree gets, the more smooth the bark becomes.  There is a very old hackberry at the back of the lot next door.  The dangerous thing about that tree, it towers over all others in the neighborhood.  If you were to take a tape measure around its’ base, it could easily be the size of a shed, 30 foot.  That particular tree is a volunteer tree.  A volunteer tree is one with its main fork at the base.  That makes it even more likely to fall due to its’ geriatric state, and it being a volunteer, it is a matter of time before it decides to decimate something in the neighborhood.  My power line runs under its’ bow.  I dread the day it pulls it down because electricity cannot be reconnected because my house is sooooo far out of code.  I am not going to let it worry me, but the side that borders my property is relatively flat, all the weight and mass of the tree will likely take it down due east, taking the power lines in the alley and the power lines off the house.  The good news, it will take my lines down first, and disconnect me from the grid before it causes a major arc of power and taking down the transmission lines in the alley.  That will be a bad day.  A sad day for such a grand ole tree that will not clean our air anymore.  A sad day for property owners and the cleanup from the damage, and the monetary loss associated.

5 years ago I had 4 very large shade trees in the backyard.  Now I have none.  I have noticed it being allergy season that they really sheltered the house and kept the pollen away from us.  This year seems to be a sneezy time.  I miss those trees.  They breathed well for us all those years.  They blocked the sun from the house.  They kept us cooler and full of oxygen.  They kept the grass from growing so well!  Now there is more to mow.

Well, I am off to try to catch up duties in the household.  Laundry is calling my name practically cursing me.  But If I get all my work done today, I will get to play on Sunday.

Happy Mother’s day to all the mom’s, and thanks for reading my blog!

 

Introducing Firecracker!

This week has been hard.  Allergens are kicking everyone’s butt’s.  I do not typically suffer from this, but in retrospect, I do believe it zaps my energy and makes me extremely tired like my body is fighting off all the invaders.  Eyes are pretty puffy today and this skin thing I have been experiencing since I have had the hives, is inflamed.

I will say it has been nice to have the windows open and the air conditioner off, but for a price my allergy sufferers are suffering.

My last weekend, I had a sew date with my Mom.  My Mom broke her arm 6 weeks ago and is recovering.  She is doing great and wants to sew!  When there is a will there is a way.  She figured out she could use her accuquilt to cut a bunch of squares.  She has learned to sew left handed.  And by golly a whole quilt top has happened.  I will try to get a picture of this to share.  Overcoming a handicap is hard at first.  Have you ever tried to sew left handed?

When visiting Mom using her implements for quilting was no fun.  I guess I am spoiled with the nice stuff I have.  Mom is getting a new olfa cutter and 36 X 40 mat.  A new 6 1/2 X 24 ruler by creative grids is coming her way.  Her 20 year omnigrid would rock on the table because it had slowly been chiseled away.  Her other rulers scootched all over the place, this will help her when she gets back going full swing.

During our sew day, this happened!  I got the rest of #SewQuester almost sewn!

I lack  cutting and sewing the two final corners as well as the borders.  I am relieved after laying this on the bed that the brown rather fades out and you really only see the blues in the top.  I love how this pattern forms a grid, it makes it extra neat with the blocks on point.  Hopefully over my weekend I will knock out the rest of this and get it loaded on the longarm.  This pattern is worth doing again but my jellly roll does not match the muslin I have on hand.  I probably could even use a layer cake.  I could even go very scrappy.  But I think I want to move onto another project.

I have so many quilts, I need to start giving them away.  My son will be first in line and can take whatever two he wants.  It got me to thinking, I have sewn so many that I could probably write a book with my own patterns in it.  I think the craft world is brutal to quilters and all the strings that come attached to publishing would not be my cuppa tea.  Probably not up for the persona in public as I am a home body.  I would have to purchase quilt software and make it compute on screen.  Sometimes that is more frustrating that making a block wrong and seam ripping it out.

What would I name my patterns?  Firecracker you ask?  No.  This tease in the title is a little distraction that I named the newest addition to the cat family in our household.  Meet Firecracker, so named because she is a black cat.

Do we call her Firecracker?  In time, right now she is still baby kitty.  She sleeps with someone every night and is quite the snuggler.  During the day she plays.  I am sad for her because she does not have siblings to teach her how to fight.  For now, us humans will be her extended family and help her play.  She is not solid black.  She has the smallest patch of about 20 hairs of white hidden under her chin and neck area.  She has certainly made a bang in our hearts.  We love you Firecracker!  She is right at 5 weeks old.  A quilter’s cat in the making!

I am debating on going back to regular schedule at work.  I am sleep deprived and cannot find my grove.  I miss my little snippets of sewing daily and have a great need to sew.  It soothes the stress and is great therapy.

Am I worried about getting sick, the answer is no.  I do believe I had this crap back in Nov.  I refuse to worry about the unknown.  The media seems to love the frenzy they are causing.  Millions and billions of dollars to be lost and made all at the tax payers expense.  My solution?  No news is good news eh?  Ignorance is bliss!

Thank you for reading my blog!

 

#SewQuester Halfway!

My one day off last week, I managed to get the triangles cut and half of the twin sized #SewQuester quilt, pieced.  I chose brown as the outer fabric to set it on point as directed (this still will have more borders to go).  Pictured below in an excited photo opp in its un-ironed state.

Bringing this out into daylight I see a flaw with my decision, it is what it is.  All of the fabrics in the jelly roll were hues of blue or off white with a tad of brownish gray.  All browns are not created equal.  The brown I chose has much red and pink in it, and very little of the turquoise.  Probably not the best choice, but I am sticking to what I have in my stash for this.  I will continue forth and plan on sewing tomorrow to get this pieced.  Not sure if I have the right fabric for additional borders.  That will be an archeology dig in the stash, and not sure I will have time for that for my Thursday/Friday weekend.

I tatted a bit more and have stalled with that, everything is in a state of flux so to speak.  If I pick something up, I have so many interruptions of chores, children, cooking, etcetera, that I have just decided to keep my sewing and tatting to the days were I can do it without so much interruption.  Part of this is me and the anxiousness of time and needing to have everything come together before I go to work everyday.  When getting up early in the morning, the only time I have ever felt like this is if I run late due to flat tire or alarm not going off.  It is a very cortisol/stress feeling and probably taking years off my life.  A hobby I love should not take years off my life.

You know I probably need to be getting back to the 365 quilt.  I have months worth of blocks in my inbox just waiting to be sewn.  I have seen the centers coming together for those who are keeping up, simply stunning.  I hope mine is half as beautiful of those I have seen.  Kick start/butt in gear!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I suspect the quilt shops in Texas will be re-openning next week.  I am certain myself as well as many others will flock like ducks to water, to get what is needed for all the sewing/finishes going on.  If quilts shows do not commence for the remainder of the year, there are going to be massive shows next year and the next several years that follow because of the extra time afforded for those non-essentials who hobby with this craft.  I do look forward to gazing upon some quilts.  For now, pinterest it is!

I noticed in the last three days that traffic has become more normal.  The quiet nights are now gone as the highway roar is back.  The economy is starting up again.  The economy is the essential right now.  Those that are receiving handouts, will be at a loss when those handouts stop.  As we all know, there is NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH.  Someone is paying for it.  Right now, me being essential, I am paying for it with each paycheck earned.  Things will become lean.  I hope those of you struggling will manage to make your ends meet.  It will be hard, but you will be a better person because of it.  Consider this all a lesson on personal growth, dealing with difficult situations will change your brain forever and make you wiser than you were before.  That wisdom I found about 20 years ago has served me well during this time.  A good mantra to have now is,  hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Thank you for stopping in and reading my blog!

 

 

 

 

 

We had visitors! And they do not care of Social Distancing Governor!

I keep reading reports all over the internet, with how quiet society has become, the wildlife tends to migrate into territories within the city!  I have seen a herd of deer walking down main street (on the internet).  Have you been outside at all, can you hear the world peace’n quiet going on?  I does not matter what time of day I am outside, I do not hear the roar of vehicles on the road or for that matter modern civilization.  I did not realize how loud we are!  More on this in a bit.

Me working the grave yard shift, tends to be un-nerving while trying to sleep.  The windows are wide open, and the neighbors come home at 1:30 a.m. and they decide to play fetch with the barking little dog.  Or they smoke cigarettes and the smell wafts into the house.  Little things constantly bugging me when I try to sleep but can’t.

One night (I have forgotten which night because there was so much sleep deprivation this week), I kept hearing a buzz on the kitchen screen.  Sounded like a june bug on steroids.  I had to go shew it away.  And by golly, it was not a june bug at all, but a Luna Moth.  I have only ever seen one other Luna Moth in my lifetime, and I think it was at night too.  So I did not shew it away.  I admired it’s beauty and took pictures so I could show the children in the morning what had visited.

The best surprise the next morning, it was still there!  And they got to enjoy it’s beautiful, large green wings with fern, fuzzy feelers.  The little thing died, on my window sill.  In looking at it in the daylight, it looked like it had mildew on it’s wings.  I have not looked into Luna Moth deaths, and have no idea what it died from, other than natural causes.  I was a little sad, that I got to be the last living being to see it alive.

Here it is, a bit shriveled and looking less than lively, but at peace and beautifully so.

And then there was the next night, the damn golden retriever that lives behind us, was alerting us, that something fierce was in the backyard.  That dog wanted to kill whatever it was.  I have heard the dog bark like this before, and it was an armadillo.  Finally at 2:30 a.m. the owner came out and had a talk with the dog.  He only barked a couple of more times.

I awoke the next morning, doing my normal morning routine, and that dog started up it’s fierce barking again.  I threw on some clothes, thinking I was going to find one of my cats taunting the dog.  Nope, as I got closer, the dog’s barking increased, he was really upset whatever was in the tall grass.

I got about 5 ft away and saw something orange in the grass, at first thinking, is this a robin?  Why would the dog be barking at a bird?  Then I got closer, and saw the dog was having a fit over a tortoise.  Can you believe that?

I used to have a turtle like this one in my youth.  He was more green and yellow spotted, than pink and orange.  I brought him inside long enough for his beautiful head to poke out so the children can see the dots and color in nature.  I could not have designed fabric as vibrant as the head and neck of the trespasser.  No social distancing for the wildlife that crosses into the yard!

On the crafty side of life, very little sewing has transpired.  They did release the final mystery clue in the Sew Quester quilt along.  I aim to work on this on my only day off for the week, tomorrow.

I have enjoyed a bit of tatting here and there, but find I do not want to pick it up, if I am just going to be interrupted with chores or questions, or other silliness the children seem to offer relentlessly.

I hate being idle.  It seems like such a waste of time.  I did learn a dutch word this week about how nothing is really going on right now, it is called niksen, to do nothing.  Yup, niksen (pronounced nixon) is what my life is all about at home right now.

I know I can speak for us all, we all want things to be normal again.  And the good news is, it will return.  The gesture of a handshake will be most pleasurable, as well as hugs to go around.  It’s the simple things in life.

During my commute I did hear an old Alabama song, it made me smile.  To All the essentials, it was written for you, years before it’s time, if that makes any sense.

 

This song make me a bit sad, as Pittsburg steel workers, are no longer, coal mining is no longer, Detroit is no longer,  NAFTA has killed American jobs.  Thank goodness the farmers are still feeding the world.  Thank goodness the truck drivers are still delivering goods.

Maybe this virus is a reset.  And all will live and be happily ever after……food for thought.

Thank you for reading my blog!