Completed March OMG & New April OMG

I didn't think I'd be able to pull this off, but I actually completed my March goal last night.  Here are all the border pieces for my For the Love of Geese quilt.  Woo hoo! Progress!

I need to surrender my sewing machine for an overdue cleaning, and it will likely be gone for several weeks 😰, so my goal for April will be to get the binding sewn down on my Morewood Mystery quilt. I have no reason other than pure laziness for why this isn't done yet.  I've even been using it as-is.  It's time to get it done.

I've still been busy with quilts.  Here is a sneak peak (of the backing, which is so cool) of one of the quilts from this week.  It belongs to Charlene and is going home today.

Other than that, not much is going on around here.  We are getting more rain and a cold snap, which always seems to happen right as our cherry tree blossoms.  We usually only have a few days to enjoy the blossoms before Mother Nature kills them off. We did notice various bees on the blossoms last night and we have a few dandelions in the yard too.  😊 The crab apple trees, along with most of the other trees, are starting to leaf out. 

My daffodils are still going strong at this point.  They've handled high winds and heavy rains in the past week.  Hopefully they survive the next bit of weather.


I don't watch a ton of television, maybe an hour or so in the evening, but I have enjoyed the series Superstore, which ended for good last week. I've also been watching as many back episodes as my Passport subscription allows of Finding Your Roots on PBS. The other PBS show I really enjoyed recently is All Creatures Great & Small.  I read the series of books years ago and I loved the show.  I was sad there were so few episodes.  I'll need to find something new to watch soon.  

Anyway, thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

Baby Steps and Glorious Spring

I've been really busy with quilts for weeks.  Here are the two most recent, made by Ann, in progress:


My OMG for the month is not looking good, but I still have a week to pull off a minor miracle.  My goal is to finish all of the individual border units.  The right units are totally done.  The left is not even close--12 more units to go.

It took me like four hours yesterday to make four units. Maybe this picture explains how my day was going.  Can you relate?

Lots of time spent with the seam ripper.  Not sure where my head was, other than being really sad at and struggling with many of the recent news stories.  How many more people have to die?  

I'm happy that it's spring and my daffodils are blooming.  Please enjoy a few pictures.




My daughter took this next one.

And here she is, in action:

Can you see the blurry sign in the background of this one?

It's been just over a year since our solar power has been up and running. For the last year, we have been able to generate more power than we use, so we only pay the meter hook up fee to the power company.  That rate was $9.64/month last year at this time and is currently $11.44.  Many of my neighbors who comment on our solar believe that we are totally self-reliant now.  We are not; we do not have a battery back-up ($$$) to store our power. If the power goes out, we have no power, just like everyone else.  We do bank our production and will earn SRECs (Solar Renewable Energy Credit) this year, which should cover our meter fees for the year.

We are in the process of purchasing the lot next to ours.  I've wanted to buy it for years, especially because, in my opinion, the only buildable spot on the lot runs right along our driveway (and on the side of the house where our bedroom is).  Property in our neighborhood has been hot over the past year and we'd noticed a lot of vehicles hovering around the lot. We put in our purchase agreement and the paperwork process is moving along. The closing is scheduled. The other day while I was quilting in the basement, my daughter texted me a photo of vehicles parked on the edge of the lot and people walking on the property.  So I went out and asked if I could help them.  They were plotting out where their house and garage would go...right along my driveway!!! Good thing we got our offer in when we did!  My husband may never get to retire, but at least we won't have a house right on top of us.  He's planning to build a second garage/workshop and we're going to plant fruit trees.  

Had my first vaccine shot Friday.  Other than feeling groggy part of Friday, I've had no side effects.  I even got new shoes while I was waiting my 15 minutes.  My daughter will be eligible in a week, so I'm hoping we can get her scheduled quickly and then 3/4 of us will be protected.  Can't wait to make that 4/4. Since our governor decided masks will no longer be mandatory, and compliance was already iffy, we will still be staying home and away from stores, restaurants, and such.  Please have care and concern for your fellow citizens.  As my mom always said, "Look beyond the end of your nose."

Hopefully I haven't been too much of a downer.  It has taken me ages to write this and I have deleted and started over so many times.  Quilting is good, garden is good, everything beyond my little piece of the world, not so much for me right now.


Linking with My Quilt Infatuation.



Quilts & Blossoms

First off, I am super excited that I am getting my first COVID vaccine shot on Friday!  Funny to be excited by a shot, but I am.  That means it won't be too much longer before we are able to go home and visit family at long last.

I've not done any personal sewing since last week, but I have completed four quilts for clients. Sneak peeks:




My husband has been working on the wiring in the basement.  We haven't finished painting yet, but it's nice to see the part I did finish in the actual lighting.  I was still unsure of the wall color until I saw the lights on.  I like it now.

I don't have my first daffodil bloom yet, but we are close. (One of the neighbors' daffodils are blooming.)  Maybe this will open by the end of the day?  We are later this year; this one bloomed March 10 last year.

A lot of my daffodils are so close to blossoming.  The day lilies are starting to grow. The trees have very visible buds.  The grass is not really greening up.  We still have some winter birds here. But spring is on its way.

I leave you with yet another messy view of my sewing room. I was working on selecting threads; can you tell?





Is Spring Here?

This past week has flown by!  I've been really busy with quilting, working every day for a few weeks, and decided Sunday to just stop and take a break.  The weather was beautiful.  I decided that we were going to clean out all the gardens and prep them for spring.  I wish I would have thought to take a before picture of the lower garden. We have a serious spearmint invasion.  One year we planted one of those 2" pots of spearmint and now it covers more than half of that garden.  If it stayed low, I wouldn't mind it.  However, it grows about 12" tall and has poky, sharp sticks.  I do not recommend planting this in your landscape.

Anyway, it was sunny and 45 degrees.  It felt quite pleasant.  We got all the gardens cleaned out, enjoyed seeing and hearing flocks of sandhill cranes flying far overhead, and I got sunburned!  Oops; wasn't expecting that!  Here are a few "after" photos I took last evening.  Everything looks so sparse right now.  I do need to buy a few things to fill in some bare spots.  Good thing I have all my little flamingos for some color. 😜


The daffodils are around 3" tall right now.  Many of the trees in our neighborhood are budded.  My allergies are going crazy. I'm thinking we're not too far off from planting peas and lettuce in the veggie garden.


Now, on to quilting.  I have finished the majority of the right border pieces for my For the Love of Geese quilt.  My March goal is to finish all the border pieces, though not necessarily sew them together, just get the units made.  So I'm about half way.

My Bonnie Hunter pieces have been neglected for months. I'll probably move on to this project once I'm done with the Geese.

Here are a few sneak peeks of quilts I've worked on since last week.

First, the antique quilt.  I quilted and bound this one and it went back home yesterday.

Next, quilted a panel quilt with Ba Da Bing.

Then the huge project--a king size quilt with a very tricky design--Pineapple Skin.  This was Sunday afternoon, Monday, and Tuesday's project. 

Next up is another Morewood quilt.

But first, I need to get everything tidied up in the house so we can have an appraisal done.  We are expanding our property soon.  I'm hoping to add some fruit and nut trees eventually, along with a workshop for my husband, who got his first COVID shot Friday through his work.  I don't qualify yet. 😞

I will leave you with a sunset view from last night's walk.  I like how I caught two contrails.  I told my daughter it would be really cool if they were comets instead of plane exhaust.  I hope you enjoy the view; I wish the photo reflected more accurately how spectactular it was.


Linking with For the Love of Geese and My Quilt Infatuation and mmm quilts.



March OMG

March!  Hard to believe it's a year since the world kinda stopped.  Other than two trips to Riley last July, I have not been further than 20 miles from my house in the last year.  I go weeks at a time without even leaving my neighborhood (my husband does most of the grocery shopping).

My goal for March is to finish the remaining individual units for the borders for my For the Love of Geese quilt.  If I get really ambitious, I'll maybe have time to sew them together.  But for now, I will settle for just getting the units made.  There are 40 individual units to be made and I currently have 12 done.


I have been really busy quilting lately.  Here is my next project--an antique quilt that will be receiving hand-guided, light custom quilting. The owners estimate it to be 50 years old.  I think the fabric looks a bit older than that, but I don't really know. It's entirely hand-pieced.

Here are sneak peeks of a few recently quilted projects. This first one is my Morewood Mystery quilt, quilted with Overlapping Crop Circles.  This is next up in the binding category.

These next two are Sonja's quilts.  The Irish Chain is quilted with Marmalade and the Flying Geese, Good Vibrations.

This is Odie's Morewood Mystery, quilted with Eddy.

I have lots more to share soon.  Lots.  Watch Instagram for more photos. It might take me forever to get them posted, but they'll make it there eventually.

I finished binding my National Parks wall hanging.  I generally work on binding in the evenings and I've been too worn out by that point in the day most evenings lately, so it took me about a month to bind. This is my fourth finish of the year.  I've only finished small things, but at least I've finished something.

                                

This is a panel from Riley Blake and I was really happy that it was not distorted. (I've purchased panels in the past that were really crooked/off grain.)  I chose Malachite for the quilting and I love how it gives the impression of a topographical map.


Something else I accomplished this week that I am proud of, but should have happened much, much sooner, is that I shipped 11 quilts I made over the past two years to Quilts for Kids. I wish I would have taken a picture of the stack of them before I shipped, but I forgot.

Oh, I can finally share a project I worked on last fall.  This quilt is made from the Charming Pirouette pattern from Yellow Umbrella Quilts.  I made my version using pinks and greens from my stash.  I added in a white fabric printed with little bows for my background and a Christopher Thompson Blossom print for the backing.



There are signs of spring all around us.  I can't wait.  Spring is my favorite.  The skies were so blue yesterday.  I took this picture while out on a walk.
Finally, I leave you with an image of my sewing room that I call "detritus."
If you need me, I'll be quilting.  If you can arrange for more hours in a day, send some my way.  :)