One Creative Family

I am so glad to be back in the sewing room for more than the obvious reason.  Hubby had surgery to remove a cancer from his lung and is now home recovering.  After several days in the hospital I am so glad he is home and now to start getting live back to some sort of routine.

Yesterday I was able to finish my calendar holder.  The center of the star has clear vinyl so you can put your favorite photo there.  I have started writing up directions for this.  Once it is finished I will post it.

I will be making about 10 more of these for our craft fairs and probably about 10-15 more bed pillows.So with this I better get busy.

Live each day as it is the last.

 

I have been spending quite a bit of time at the hospital with hubby. As we have spent many hours in waiting rooms and now hospital rooms it has given me time to appreciate the beautiful artwork surrounding me. This starts the minute you walk into the hospital. This beautiful glass artwork hangs from the ceiling of the 3rd floor and is observerd from the 3rd floor and the 1st floor looking up. So beautiful. This includes the staircase.

This last one is in the waiting room

Titled “No Broken Hearts”

Last night our quilt guild  guest speaker was Ronnie Elmore,  who specializes in Log Cabin and Courthouse Step Quilts.

Here is a little of his show.

Something he said was the Log Cabin pattern has been traced back to the Egyptian’s. The ancient Egyptians were buried with their pets and some of these pet mummies were wrapped in log cabin pattern. Never knew.

The first 4 quilts are antique quilt and the first one is dated to early 1800’s. These are all made with the Log Cabin or Courthouse Step patterns. Even the patterns that are round. I do think I need to rethink the Log Cabin.

He and his wife are quilters. His wife is a quilt appraiser.

Learning is fun isn’t it?

 

Today I have been getting little hand work projects together to keep nervous hands busy.  Hubby goes in for surgery Wed and stay for about a week.  As I was looking for a specific fabric to cut out I found this old treasure.  I made myself a sewing case for hand work years ago(at least  10 yrs).  So I packed it with 2 new projects and one to finish.  This will take me to day 1 or maybe even day 2. I love the unusual and wacky art work and this is my first try with “messy thread” .  I think this is a BAD impression of Jackson Pollock.  It does measure 14×13 closed.

Inside left side with pockets and pin cushion.  I put thread in one pocket, needles and pins in the pin cushion, scissors in another pocket, my pens and pencils in another (now I can put my phone in the bigger pocket, and a little $$$$$$ for emergencies in the one with the flap.

 On the right 2 large pockets to hold paper, patterns or even a small cutting mat.

My hand projects laid out and ready to go.  Looking at this now, maybe I need to make a new one a little more updated.  I do think that is a must.

Do you have any of your older projects still? I can’t seem to get rid of my first attempts at things.  It is nice to see the “Oh not! not what I wanted, to the “Yes! I nailed it.” Or almost anyway.

Have a wonderful day.

 

Such a wonderful day today is turning out to be.  Quilt I have mixed feelings about is about pieced together.  When finished with that today will find me making  a tote for myself to carry hand sewing around next week. I have cut out pieces for another Dance of Dragonfly Wall hanging, but instead of raw edge it will be needle turned applique.

This is the quilt I will be finished piecing today.

This is the Dance of the Dragonfly wall hanging that is raw edge applique.  I think that I will needle turn will be much nicer.  What do you think?

This afternoon will bring a homemade pineapple upside down cake.  I think I will make it about 5 this evening so it will be nice and warm for dinner.  My 2nd favorite thing to do after sewing is cooking and baking.  This takes a back seat to most things as hubby is diabetic and a picky eater, but I love it when I have a good excuse to get into the kitchen. Tonight being Sunday and the Walking Dead will be on and some of the Granddaughters and our daughter and her boyfriend will be over to watch and we need snacks.

Enjoy your day and embrace every minute of it.

You thought that you were going to see pictures of gardens?  This is the quilt I am currently working on.  I love the pattern and the way it seems to be turning out.  What I am having trouble is the written directions.  My brain doesn’t seem to be making a lot of sense to me.  I have been making by sight.  Look at the diagrams and guessing at how it goes.  I do like it though?  Hopefully the top will be finished by tomorrow.  I like the fabric I am using.

The rest of the weekend I will be needing to get 2 wall hangings and 1 quilt ready for our guild’s quilt show.  I need to put sleeves on them for hanging then make sure all is ready.  My wall hangings have sleeves (and are on the wall), but I don’t like sleeves on quilts so they will be removed after.  How do you get your quilts ready for Quilt Shows?  Do you clean them? Press them?  I am serious about asking as I have only entered 2 quilt shows before.  Normally I am intimidated by the wonderful quilts the people in my guild and other guilds have and fell mine don’t stand up to theirs.  Why now?  I don’t know.  Maybe to just see if I can defeat those monsters of my own making.

Any suggestions on entering quilt shows?  I know I have been hit and miss on blogging, but I am determined to keep going and get more interesting.

Thanks for staying with me on this crazy journey.

 

 

Next week I will be spending time away from my sewing machine, hubby will be in the hospital for about a week and so I am fixing little sewing kits to keep my hands busy.  I am trying to wool applique, and refresh my embroidery.  I have only done wool applique twice and like this.  I do believe I will be doing more of this in my future.

My mind is going crazy thinking of all the things to make…..I am thinking greeting cards would be a good start.  I think I will break these up between applique and embroidery.

Latest tea towel.  Tomb of The Unknown Soldier made by HubbyToy Jail for Granddaughter’s toys, designed by daughter Mary, and made by hubby.

Just little snippets of what is going on around here.  Also Alicia has been making her babydollsHave a wonderful day tomorrow.

Hand surgery went great and I am healing well.  I even did a little sewing the day after.  I hope everyone had a nice weekend and enjoyed lots of sweets.  I know we did.

I have been making little “kits” that will be easy to throw in a small bag and take places where you are just sitting and waiting.  April 1 brings many things to our house hold.  Starting with a White Easter.  I have lived in Missouri for 45 years and have never seen a white Easter and we got less than 1 inch of snow that has caused things to get slick.  Next week Hubby gets more tests done (Dr. waiting rooms) and then surgery on the 11th and a week in the Hospital.  I have been getting these little projects ready to be able to kill time.

I have been working on a new quilt using fabrics from our trip to the Southwest a few years ago.

here are a few of my blocks so far.Hopefully it will look like this when done.Any new projects going on?

If anyone is looking for new inspiration check out this blog.  Some great stuff here.

https://farmhousequilts.blog/2018/03/

Just one more photo of our Easter Morning 

Here is wishing everyone a very Happy Easter and a great Sunday.

This morning while killing time before Ms. Destiny came to spend the day with us(3 yr old granddaughter) I didn’t want to get started on something I couldn’t put aside when she arrived.  I decided to straighten the fabric stash and was wondering “Why did I buy this?”  Then the light bulb FLASHED on.  Grab a post it note and pencil, wrote what I wanted to make out of it. Then I pinned it to the fabric and made a stack for these.  I am keeping that stack to about 5-8 small projects or 1 or 2 med projects or everything for that big project.    This is probably something everyone does anyway but it just hit me like a ton of bricks. The next thing I will do is cut each project out and stack it where I can reach it really quick and go to town.

A while back we went to Hancock of Paducah, KY and one of the pieces I purchased was this.  Didn’t have a project then for it and don’t have one now, but the fabric just drew my attention several times so I bought some.  Any suggestions?Well all my little angel has arrived, so while we have our “snowball fights” with my fiberfill and build a fort out of some old quilt batting we will send lots of giggles your way.  Happy Monday and enjoy the creative process.