Books!

I am really a reader.  My favorite time of day is when I head to bed after a shower and read until I fall asleep.  These days it's more late than early, and it's nothing for me to look up and see it's 2:00 am.

Anyway, I've decided to keep a list of books I read over on the side bar and rate them from 1-5 stars.  I'm calling it books of 2015, but I've started it early.

I just read a book I loved and wanted it on the list!  The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber is so good!!  First, let me tell you that I don't like normal books.  Don't mention Debbie MaComber to me.  I can't get through them.  Books I like have to be different.  And this one sure is!

It's about a Christian missionary in the future who goes to another planet to minister to the race who have been found there.  I give it 5 stars!!!  And I don't give my stars lightly.

Let me add that I don't buy books anymore.  Ever since I discovered my library's ebook check out system, that is all I use.  I can have 15 at a time on hold and can check out about that many, but I never do.  I keep up with NPR Books on Facebook and read their reviews and recommendations.  I keep an eye on Book Riot, as well.  I often tell my husband how much money I've saved him, but maybe he'll believe me when he sees my list.

I thought we were going to do this on Judy's Patchwork Times, but I guess it fell by the wayside along with Comfort and Joy!!  (Still finishing up the border applique on that one!)

And....Christmas approaches

I have been manically shopping online since Thanksgiving. When you have 4 kids, 4 partners, and 7 grandkids, that's a lot of money, time, and effort to get ready. I'm a little bit excited as we are having our get together on the 27th, so I plan to be out and about picking up some last minute bargains on the 26th.

 Anyway, I've gotten busy today. I have two of these ugly panels for my 4 year olds who love Frozen. I mean LOVE!!!  I have them both sandwiched (my knees are killing me!!!!)  and they will be my first real product to use my  new Tiara II.  I really thought of them as practice, but while talking to my daughter today I realized this will probably be their favorite of all time quilt and will pull it out to show they children and it will look like crap!!  Well, such is life.  Better finished than perfect.

Speaking of the Tiara II, I have gotten a little better.  I am not using the stitch regulator, but have slowed it down to about 30% and I can get some decent meandering and following the lines.

I have come across my first project for after Christmas.  I bought these little (about 5x7) coin purses in Thailand years ago.  If you ever have a chance go.  The fabric, both silk and cotton, is amazing, even in the little markets.  Anyway, I used it when I traveled putting credit cards, foreign money, and American money in different pouches.  Well, guess you can see it's had it.  I liked it so much I just never moved back into my old billfold.

I found this one put back in a drawer that I thought was too  beat up once before.  Ha! Compared to the other it's brand new.

Well, I can't seem to find any on the internet to buy, but I did find this tutorial on making one, so, even though anything zippery makes me cringe, I think I'll give it a try after the holidays.  It is illustrated beautifully, so hopefully I can get it done!

Happy holiday finishing up to all.  I need to read  blogs to see what you all are doing.  I've been worn out from the shopping!!

Can't sew!!!

Must shop!!!!!!  Cyber Monday, my favorite shopping day of the year!!!!!  Woohoo!  (PS.  Yes, I ordered fabric!!!)

Tiara II

Well, I have tackled the quilting machine.  It won for a couple of days, but then I rebounded.  I was having terrible tension problems, but it was just because my thread was not "flossed" into the tension disk.  Someone told me I should hear a click when the thread is engaged, and I had never heard anything like that.  So I put some elbow grease on it and I heard the click.  Now I am having much better luck with the sewing.  My stitches look great.

I don't, however, have much skill with the quilting.  I have a panel from Madagascar that I got half price with some coordinating backing.  I decided to practice on that instead of little tiny quilt sandwiches.  I've decided to follow the lines of the hippo ballerina and then maybe move on from there.

Winter has moved in here like it has everywhere but Florida, I think!!  Looking forward to some quilting time next week.  

Exercise in Avoidance!!

Well, I haven't been doing very much.  I did get the little girls' Frozen quilts done by cutting off some border that was on the panel, and then adding my own.  Those are still some really ugly panels.

Then we had out hayride.  It was Nov. 1 and so darn cold that I stayed inside all I could.  Everyone seemed to have a good time, but I was happy to take the little girls to the house about 9:00 so our sleepover could begin.  Little Ruby would walk around asking people if they were tired.  She goes to bed about 7:00 so 2 hours late about got to her.

So this week I rested and recovered.....and avoided practicing on the Tiara II.  ARGH!!!! Must practice!! I also wanted to finish Comfort and Joy, but I'm still machine appliqueing the borders.  I didn't get the Halloween one done, and doesn't look like I'll get the Christmas done in time either.

The whole family!!  This doesn't happen much any more!!

Me and my little girls.

Hope you are accomplishing more than I am.  I am hoping to finish cleaning the playroom and then hit the machine!!!

Gold Mine!!

So I found a big box of quilts that I had forgotten I had. They have been in a huge box with some tablecloths in our climate controlled storage barn. I brought them over this weekend and it was Christmas!

 All of these were made, to the best of my knowledge, by my grandmother, mother,and aunts in the 30s. I know a lot of the fabric is feed sack, and some is just beautiful.  Paisleys!!!  Not one of these has a label and they make me want to go grap a marker and start labeling all my quilts that aren't done.

They smell a little musty.  Do you think it would hurt them to air fluff with a dryer sheet?  Or should they hang in the sun?

STARS!!!!  I love this one!  It has a couple of different yellows in the background, but it's still beautiful.

Love this!!!

Looks like they had some printed squares and just used it on the back.  Did they put those on feedsacks?

This is the only quilt I remember, but I don't know where or why.  I think one of the fabrics had a velvety feel.

The one below is the best shape all around.  I love it.  It just has one place I need to mend.

Grace had a headache today so she came to our house.  She perked up pretty well after Tylenol and we had a good visit!

Progress!

Finally, I got something done!! No pictures, but trust me.

1. Sewed together winter row quilt.  Must decide on border or no border.
2. Traced and personalized a haunted house to do a hand project for a friend.
3. Trimmed and put my own border around both of the ugliest Frozen panels in the world.
4. Practiced on my the Tiara.  I drew shapes and tied to follow them.  Might work.

Now I get to spend the evening with a grandson.  Doesn't get any better than that!

Woohoo!!!!

I have been so excited!! I actually bought this at the AQS show in Chattanooga about a month ago! Then came some surgery and lots of time not being able to go get it. Finally!!!! I got it Friday and have been slowly getting everything set up and ready. It has been harder without my chief helper around to do the heavy work, but I managed to find help.

 I think I got a good deal. I got the Babylock Tiara II, mat for the top, the table, the bobbin winder, the stitch regulator, and the 3 year gold warranty program for roughly $1000 more than a used machine without regulator, tables, etc. I feel pretty good about it. There were several I'd rather have if I were filthy rich, but this fits my budget for now.

I am a pretty bad FMQuilte on my DM, so here's hoping I can get this right!!

 This is the back of my of my Halloween quilt, HocusPocusville.  Since the name is quilting confessions, I'll admit the awful truth.  I didn't have enough of the backing fabric I wanted so I just ordered 2 more yards.  Well guess what?  Still not enough.  So I took some left over fabric from the front and made a basic design.  I tell myself it has more interest this way.  (Yes, I do realize I'm full of it!!)  Wish I'd had enough.

In other news, my 6 month mammogram was today, and it's "iffy" .  I am hoping we can watch it for a while. Dr. tomorrow.   And my wonderful husband of 30 years today is almost 4 weeks out of his surgery and on the mend.

News!

I have been busy. I mean, really busy. We tried out our 5th wheel RV, and I don't know if we're meant to do that. It is not fancy, and I really did feel like I was camping. I think I would rather have the feel of home, but I didn't have that except for the dog. We camped on the quiet side of the Smokey Mountains and really enjoyed that part of it. We did not, however, see a bear. Maybe next time.

 Now to quilting! I have finished the top, I think, of Hocuspocusville. I worked and worked to try to avoid wavy borders. We'll see if I succeeded. I'll let you know!!!

My quilt holder upper is out of commission.  He had some surgery last week and is taking it easy.  So the floor it is.

Here it is with the borders.

I was going to put stitching between the houses as the pattern shows, but I tried one and I'm not happy.  The stitches were uneven from me pulling it trying to get it where I wanted it.  I think there is too much room for error for me, so I think I'll just take this out and leave well enough alone.  

 I finally got the panels for my girls' Frozen quilts for Christmas.  They are perhaps the ugliest panels ever.  I forgot to take a picture so if you are interested see it here!  I guess I tried to block it out.  They are just huge on that panel.  I mean, giant Frozen people.  Here are the fabrics I got for extra design and pieced back.  I love the Olaf.  Hope my girls like it.  If you have any ideas on how to make it extra pretty, let me know.  I have been thinking about adding some snowflakes on the borders.

I have also finished all the rows I'm going to do for my winter row quilt.  There are two snowflakes on here I might be able to use on Frozen.

The top row is the last one I did.  I think I've decided to put a small white border, a row of the blue squares the length and width, and another white border.

And if you are wondering about my partner in crime, here she is.  She has gone back to school and flat disappeared from my life.  I miss her like crazy.  Here she is getting ready to run cross country. She's doing really well and improving her time and place every week, which is what it's all about.  Her creeper pillow lies in pieces downstairs, waiting for fall break!!!

And I have something else to tell you, but I will wait for next time.  Sorry for not posting in so long.  I've been short on quilt mojo and long on chores and business!!!!  I wonder if anyone reads anyway! Oh well.  Off to check on the hubby.

Self-discipline!

After reading Judy's post about making herself spend time in the studio, I was reminded that this has worked on me in the past.  So I've been making myself go to the sewing room.  Yesterday I made two blocks for the Fat Quarter BOM since I was behind so many.  Then I got a new one today!  So I have 4 done, 4 to go to be caught up.

Today I worked on cutting down my embroidery blocks for the Halloween quilt.  I also am trying to remember how to thread my machine for my applique.  Funny how you forget things like that.  Even the manual doesn't seem to help my tension problems at this point.  I thread; the bobbin is too tight.  I rethread: the top thread is too tight.  Repeat.  I will try again tomorrow.

I also went to a few shops for their row quilt patterns.  I went to Hyder Hangout where they are giving away two rows.  One is jars.  The other is birds.  When we were in Knoxville I went to two shops.  Gina's Bernina  had row of landscape and birds.  But my favorite was Mid-South!  Their row has flip flops and watermelon....my idea of summer.  (I hate shoes!)  I had some picked out in NC while we were visiting there, but it seemed like we were so busy there was no time.

We have had a full summer with grandkids in and out.  I hate to see them start school NEXT WEEK!  Good grief.  It's good to be retired.  I don't miss the total exhaustion of the first few days of school.  I do miss my friends, though, and meeting a new group of kids.  I always loved to see their faces on the first day of school.

I had some medicine reactions to my aromasin estrogen blocker, so I've moved on to Tamoxifen.  We'll see how that works out.

So, maybe more soon.  Hope things are well with the few of you that mosey by here!!

Lost!!!

Lost! My quilting mojo!!! If found, please return!!!  I miss it so much.

If anyone still reads here, how do you get revved up once it's gone?  For a while I was making myself go to the sewing room for at least 10 minutes a day, but even that seemed too much.  I would just putter and not work.

The cancer thing is all worked out and I'm happy with all decisions made, but it stole my urge to quilt.  Wonder if they took that out, too!!!!

This is all that was finished.....Grace's peace pillow.  And finished because she insisted!!

So.

Well, I've had my surgery and I'm recovering quite nicely.  The news from the biopsies was good, and I'm just spending some time healing and resting.  I don't know what other treatment I'll have to have, but I'm hoping not much.

In the meantime, I have zero quilting mojo.  zero.  I want to, but I don't.

I have looked for the Frozen quilt panels and for wow snowy fabric for handwork, but that is as far as I go.

Hope you are accomplishing more than I!

Pigeon Forge

Well, I went to my first ever quilt show. I had a great time, but was actually a little disappointed. I had built it up so big in my mind that it was way smaller than I thought it would be.  I hope to go to the next one in Atlanta when it comes around.

 I spent a lot of time trying the mid-arm quilters which was really my mission in going. I loved the Gammill Charm, but it would be over $9,000 in the end. I just can't justify that. I also like the Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen which would be about $6,000. I was also disappointed in the "deals" offered. They weren't really deals, in my opinion. If anyone has any advice in this area, I'd love to hear it. I'm really thinking about the Handi Quilter. Wish I could find a used one.

There were some beautiful quilts!

I have thought about buying this pattern from Crab Apple Hill.  There were 3 or 4 of them at the show.

I think I'm going to look for this fabric to make a quick quilt for the baseball mom in my family.

This lady was giving a cool demonstration on paper piecing and I wish I would have had time to watch it.  BUT.... I had a husband browsing in tool shops and a dog in the car.  We were on our way to see our kids in NC.

But here was the big surprise!!! I was looking at fabric and looked up, and she was at the next booth just visiting! What cool surprise for me.  I talked her ear off about all the pattern of hers I'd done.  I think I bored her to tears!!!

OMG!!! Look who I met yesterday!!!!

Design wall Monday

So things around here are chugging along. Still waiting to have one more test before some surgery. Not looking forward to that.

 I am still working on 1) 9 patches for Hocuspocusville 2) Hexies for Hex on the Beach. I'm almost finished with row 2

 But here is the big purchase!!! I bought 2 panels for my two precious girls who know all the words to all the songs for Frozen!  Wish I could share the videos of them singing and dancing and being Elsa and Anna!  They make my day.  Hope they get here soon.  I need one finished for sure for a May birthday.

Painful sewing!

I hope today goes better than yesterday.  I swear, I had trouble making a 9 patch!!! OMG.  I'm losing it!!!

February could have been a better month!

I haven't done much quilting as such, but have been doing a lot of handwork. It has been very comforting for me. I've had some bad tests results lately and will have to have surgery very soon, and then some radiation, I think. That is the plan right now. Everything seems to change in a heartbeat, so I'm no quite sure. More tests and doctors this week!  But sitting and stitching has been a calming influence since the first of the year.

 I have started my Tula Pink Hex on the Beach now, and it's killing me. I've done hexies before, but these seem a little short on fabric! Someone I read even did them with glue stick since it was so short. I've never gone right through the hex before, but I don't guess it will matter in the long run. I'm just getting started, and I hope it gets faster cause I'm working slow right now!!  I do love the fabric.

Just a few more to do!!

I finished all 12 of my Hocuspocusville blocks during January and February.  I enjoyed them so much.  I've even thought about doing another one! How is that for punishment!!

Only one cut down to size so far.

I changed the names on the buildings to grandkid or family names.  This was Spooky Lou's but it's now Spooky Joe's!  That was an easy change!!

My granddaughter, Grace, thought this should be Onnie's Stitches instead of a child.  I'm Onnie to the kids.  A grandson tried to say Nana and it came out Onnie, and it stuck.

Here's Ruby's candy shop.  She will be so happy!

Grace has a beauty salon and Georgia has an apothecary.  That is all I could work in.  I used the girls and the youngest boy.  Hope nobody gets their feelings hurt.

So I am trying to decide what to work on for now.  I think I will try to get Hocus Pocusville top done as soon as I can.  I was thinking about hand quilting it, but I'll have to see.  I think it's 60x60 so that's a lot of hand quilting!

I'll appreciate all the positive vibes I can get!  The next few months will not be fun.  But I will be sewing when I can!