Stories from the Sewing Room

Things continue to be wacky around here. Last week I left you with my daughter's car dying. She had a 2010 Prius and its battery gave out. It's still drivable on the engine and still getting over 40 mpg; it just sends out warning notices while driving. My son has been driving to school with it (yay for me not having to make the school run) and my husband was on the hunt for a newer Prius in her price range. After a few false starts he found one in my hometown via Facebook Marketplace. My in-laws went to look at it and put down a deposit until we can get up there this weekend. We've also sold her current car. So that's mostly sorted. 

Meanwhile, my son got a last-minute invitation (like due within 36 hours of receipt) to apply to a scholars program in the school he'll be attending next year. It involved writing yet another essay. He didn't want to do it, but I reminded him that one of my guild mates who used to work in the scholarship department told him that like 75% of people don't bother to apply for any scholarships because of the essays. It was painful, but he got it done and submitted before the deadline. The interview he had last week will be an unknown until at least April. I think that leaves us with one or two smaller, one-time scholarship applications to fill out. Hopefully we'll have a quiet month or so before everything starts picking up again.

I did not get my trip to Goose Pond to bird watch and see cranes and pelicans last weekend (no surprise there). I did manage to throw out my back by doing who knows what. Sitting can be painful, but walking helps and lying flat helps. I did get a bit of sewing done. My OMG for the month is to finish Nancy's Cupcake Crossing quilt. I have the center done. I have to piece the borders and then attach them.

I realized while sewing together the last row that one of these things was not like the others. 🤦🏻‍♀️ At least it was a pretty easy fix. 

I'm taking two half-day classes at IHQS and I have quite a bit of prep work for both of them. I also need to make a hanging sleeve and attach it to one of my entries, plus do all the paperwork for those. I have a week and a half to get the hanging sleeve and paperwork done and two weeks to get the prep for the class done. 

I've still been making progress on my selvedge rug. I'd estimate it to be 2/3 - 3/4 done right now. It's pretty hard on my hands. I can go for up to an hour before I have to stop. I'm looking forward to finishing it and moving back to regular yarn. This one isn't ending up to be as pretty as the first one I did back in 2020. BUT I love making something useful out of what most people would consider trash.

Here are last week's quilts. The first two belong to Stephanie. I quilted Lacey Loops on this one.

And Knit 1, Purl 2 on this one. I think you will be able to see this one at IHQS.

I got the binding onto Hannah's quilt and got both hers and Ben's shipped back.

I quilted Ansley Park 2 on Melissa's quilt. It doesn't show in this picture, but all the edges of the quilt were in the honeycomb shape.

Sara selected Splat for her quilt.

And Tina wanted Spring Thing. I used pink thread that blended with her inner border for the top and a more orangey-pink thread on the back.

I quilted Freehand Hearts and Loops (computerized despite the name) on Amber's quilt. I kind of wish I would have sized this one a bit smaller, but I think it's okay. It's a baby quilt.

That's quite a bit of work considering how chaotic life has felt lately.

In other news, I noticed my daffodils are starting to come up. I'm surprised anything survived in this soil after the porch repair.

And I spotted a Baltimore Oriole nest way, way up in the tulip poplar just beyond my property. I haven't seen an oriole nest since I was a kid. This first picture is one my son took. Besides the nest, you can clearly see that the blossoms are close to opening. Spring is coming!

This oddly artsy photo is one I took using his camera because he wasn't at home when I first  saw the nest. I didn't know that he had the camera set to take photos in black and white and I don't know why is has a ring around it. It kind of looks fake. 😆

I've seen a few yellow-rumped warblers and, though I couldn't see it, I heard a sand hill crane flying over yesterday. We have robins year-round. They are starting to be on the ground more. I think the squirrels were having a rough winter because they've stripped the bark right off several tree limbs in the woods.  

It's funny to think that in just a month or so, it will be time to start working in the vegetable garden.

I'll be back Sunday with the OMG finish link up.

I am making progress on Nancy's Cupcake Crossing quilt! I have two of the inner rows sewn.

As you can see, I have one more row of blocks to sew. After that, there is an inner border and a pieced outer border. And that's it! While Nancy had purchased the finishing kit for the top, it didn't come with backing. I found fabric from the same line and purchased that last year, so I'm ready to go on quilting.

I've also started knitting a selvedge rug. I've been cruising right along, but I find knitting selvedge yarn to be pretty hard on the hands. The further along I go, the harder it gets because it is pretty heavy. Last time I made one of these, back in 2020, I cast on 38 stitches. This time I cast on 30 since I felt like I ended up with a pretty big rug last time. I gifted that original one to my mother in law and I noticed that the rug has really stretched out/grown over time. Of course I have no idea how she uses/cares for it, so I'm not sure why it stretched so much. But I thought I'd try a bit smaller anyway.

I've continued to be very busy with work. Here's what I've done since last week.

I made and attached the binding to the front of Haley's quilt. It doesn't show much in the picture, but she had me make the binding from three different fabrics.

Janice's quilt, quilted with Winterfest. We used Glide Ocean for the thread and it looks so good with her background fabric.

Brenda's quilt, quilted with Hidden Valley. This quilting design did not agree with my software. It is highly unlikely that I will stitch out this design again. This took forever. Remember when I said I would have all of Saturday to myself? Yeah, this is what I was (still) working on. It can be really hard to admit defeat with a design, especially one you've paid for. This one was a freebie, but it still doesn't feel good when you can't make it look how you want.

Jae's quilt, quilted with Daisy Bounce. It's hard to see, but I used a light purple thread on the top and neutral on the back.

Hannah's quilt, quilted with Denali. I need to fully bind this quilt. Some of these fabrics are shimmery and it's so pretty.

Ben's quilt (his first!), quilted with Dunes. I fully bound this quilt. Can you see the hammerhead sharks in the upper right of the picture? He paper pieced those. Also, I brought in a photo of this quilt to one of my software programs. It has an alt-text auto feature that I can't figure out how to turn off. It identified those sharks as birds. 🤔 AI is stupid (and really bad for the environment).

Then yesterday, we finally had some really nice weather. I decided I'd go for a walk before lunch and then get back to work. I stepped out the door and saw a bald eagle flying behind my neighbors' house. It landed in the remaining tree line around the corner. I took a few pictures with my phone and then got caught by a neighbor for a lengthy chat. Sorry for the blur; I was zoomed all the way in with my phone. This is the second time I've seen an eagle in our neighborhood in 13+ years.