Happy New Year 2021

 This past year has been such a strange and awful thing.  Who knew way back in March that we would all be hunkering down at home, cutting out travels, foregoing hugs and generally becoming hermits?  We spent last January in Arizona near Phoenix where I did considerable birding, adding to my life bird list, visiting with family members and friends,  and enjoying the sunshine.  

Burrowing Owls

On our way home we went to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon where I had never been. 

 Then we detoured to Socorro, NM to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.  

Sandhill Cranes coming in for the night

Thus ended the fun part of the year.  Our drive home from that trip carried us through some nasty stuff in Oklahoma and through lots of rain in Tennessee.  We arrived here at home just in time for an overnight snowfall of several inches.

We had planned to go to Iowa in May for two graduation ceremonies but those trips got cancelled.  Then we were to return in July for our granddaughter's wedding.  That also did not happen, much to our dismay.  The wedding went forward mostly because they could not change dates or cancel without losing much money in deposits to the venue.  Two family gatherings got cancelled, one in May and one in November.  Quilt guild activities were cancelled and have not resumed.  My husband's bridge games were cancelled and have not resumed.  We were supposed to be on our way to Arizona again at the moment but that had to be cancelled also.  We just did not want to take the risk. 

Thankfully, we are resilient people for the most part.  We've spent the year at home mostly, going out for groceries, medical appointments and the walks at the park where we can maintain distance.   I did take one short trip for a quilting retreat but it was only after a whole lot of deliberation.  So far as I know, everyone who attended was fine.  It sure was hard to forego hugs with friends, though. 

I have spent most of my time quilting and reading.  Thankfully those hobbies can consume many hours.  We also enjoy our home and the many birds around us.   My husband caught up on some maintenance chores as well. 

I won't even go into the turmoil concerning the elections and its not over yet.  

I'm truly hoping and praying that 2021 will be a much happier and healthy year for all of us.  I'll leave you with the quilting projects I've worked on this year. 

Finished this one off this year

For the high school graduate

I've also been working on wool applique projects but none are completed as yet.  Anyway, it keeps me busy. 

Y'all take care of yourselves and please stay safe until such time as we can all move freely about our worlds.

Happy New Year, friends

Covid Woes and Log Cabins

 I am so far behind and downright ashamed of my lack of posting.  I love to read posts of other bloggers and it is just not right to  leave mine languishing. 

I have been pretty much staying at home.  Grocery store runs and doctor appointments but not many of those.  My little sewing group decided to resume our gatherings at the guest house of one of the group.  There's only five of us but with the holidays and increasing covid infection rates, I'm just not comfortable being there any more.  So, I've bowed out until such time as I feel things are safer.

It was my turn to host my siblings' gathering back in mid November and since I'm the youngest of the bunch, we're all getting up in age.  One brother recently had a mild heart attack.  Given that, and the fact that our May gathering was cancelled, I really wanted to go ahead.  We were all set and my husband and I actually drove down to NW Florida in preparation.  Upon arriving and overnight during conversations with my brother, the prevalence of covid in the area became quite obvious.  Even some extended family members had been exposed.  It just became too much for us and after much anguish, on Friday morning I decided to cancel the whole thing.  I made those difficult phone calls to my siblings.  Some were relieved, I think, and others didn't have much to say about it.  At any rate, less than 24 hours after getting there, we got back in the car and headed back home.  Even though I wanted to see my siblings, it just wasn't worth the risk to all of us to go ahead.  I truly hope that we will be able to resume next May.

I have been sewing and reading, as usual.  My most recent finish is my first log cabin style quilt.  These have been around forever and there almost endless ways to arrange the blocks.  Here is the one that inspired me. 

I pulled out fabrics that I liked and started cutting the "logs".  Since I was not cutting many of the same fabric, I actually wound up cutting most of them one at a time so that I could get multiple lengths from the same fabric. 

The old card table comes in really handy with my quilting.  It's a moveable extra space for sorting.  I also used Frog tape to mark the sizes and location numbers.  That's something else that quilters use frequently.   Anyway, there are 546 pieces to make up the blocks.  

Its easy stitching but you do have to pay attention to the order so that the finished design comes through.  And in the middle of this project my machine decided to be temperamental again.  Off to the spa for a good cleaning and examination by the technician who found nothing out of order.  It still was a bit difficult on return, but with some tweaking of threads it returned to good working order. 

And here is the finished top.  The colors do not show well here due to the lousy lighting.  I am pleased.  Now on to the next project, whatever that may turn out to be. 

Y'all stay safe out there.  We are all so tired of the restrictions but its not worth our health to throw caution to the winds now.  

Y'all take care 

  

The Ride Continues, Part 2

 My progress on the tumbler quilt has been slow or non-existent a lot of days but I have made some progress.  Nothing about this is hard but it takes time and perseverance.  

I got the strips cut from all the fabrics.  I don't know how many different fabrics there are.  On most I cut only one strip, a few I cut two and there were a few pieces where I only had partial strips.  Oh well, that's the point to make it scrappy.

Then the fun part started, cutting all those little tumblers.  I do not have a tumbler template and wasn't about to spend over $25 to buy one just for this project.  I wandered around and looked in all nooks and crannies to see what I could find to use.  TA DA!  I found a Dresden plate template/ruler that had never been opened.  I pulled it out, figured the size I wanted my tumblers and used painters' tape to mark the size for easy reference. 

I simply cut in one direction, flip the ruler around and cut the other piece, continuing until the strip is cut.

It was my idea to simply toss the tumblers into a plastic bin and then pull them as they came to sew them.  

One of those ideas that worked better in concept than in execution.   Since I was cutting strips of double fabric there were always two pieces stuck together and also a number of cuts lying together.  So I sat for a while and separated the tumblers into separate piles so that they could be mixed up.  When finished, I added them back to the bin in different orders and then stirred them up. 

I sat down to start the sewing.  Again, the idea works but execution is a little more difficult. 

Yeah, I had to fix that one but it was a learning process.  I continued to sew them together until I had the row about as long as I wanted it, considering that I would be adding borders as well.  

There are 25 different tumblers in that row but it is as wide as I want it for now.  There are probably about 15 more different tumblers that weren't used.  They'll go into the next row.  I'll keep sewing rows of tumblers until it again gets to the size that I want it.  

So, that's where the Ride sits at the moment. 

We are having a glorious fall day today.  Sunshine and mid 60's which is a bit cooler than normal.  This should be October weather. 

Y'all take care

Come Along for the Ride

 I thought it might be of interest to see how a quilt comes into being.  I saw a quilt lying on wildflowers in a field recently on a blog.  I fell in love with the concept and the idea.  I believe that lady made hexagons like a Grandmother's Flower Garden but I have no interest in paper piecing like that.  My idea was to make a mini tumbler quilt using 30's reproduction fabrics.

The first thing to do, since there is no real pattern for this, is to try to figure out how many tumblers I will need.  I think I've got it right but we'll see. 

We start with scribbles and figures which may or may not be correct but its a starting point. 

Then is the selection of fabrics.  I simply went over to the cabinet and pulled out just about all the 30's reproduction fabrics I have, along with some others for neutrals. 

I'll just cut strips from them and then cut the little tumblers. 

So, that's where we stand at the moment.  I'll do my best to  bring you along as progress is made. 

Y'all take care

A Catch Up

 Okay, its time.  All these months of the covid pandemic have taken their toll on all of us.  I know that at times I am frustrated, sad, stressed, lonely and just plain unhappy.  Then at other times it doesn't seem to bother me so much.  My brother and I were talking yesterday and we both agreed that many of us Americans have for way too long had the ability to do as we please when we please.  We have become truly spoiled with having the ability to indulge our wants and whims.  This time of restriction can teach us a valuable lesson.  If our true needs are met (food, shelter, clothing, safety), then all our wants can be adjusted and modified if we will but make the effort. 

I am a quilter.  I have a room full of fabrics, tools, patterns and every other implement that I need or want to indulge my expensive hobby.  Yet, I find myself being unsatisfied at times and at a loss as to how to occupy myself.  Isn't that pathetic?  I'm relatively healthy, have every need met and 99.9% of my wants met, so how can I possibly be unsatisfied?  I just shake my head at myself sometimes.  

Now, on to something more cheerful.  During this period of uncertainty, I cleaned up my sewing room. 

You won't see that cutting table empty like that too often.  Same for the sewing tables. 

See that small lamp on the table.  It has stopped working.  I thought it was the switch so I figured I'd give it a go and see if there was obviously something wrong that I could fix. 

Looks like the base of a lamp, huh?  Way beyond my capabilities because in reality I know zip, nada, zilch about electronics.  I put it back together and then proceeded to do something I know how to do.  I found a used one on dBay just like it and promptly bought it.  Should be here in a day or so.  Nifty, huh?

My husband and I try to go walking several times a week at our local park which is about 30+ acres with the lovely Butternut Creek and Notteley River running through it.  I came across this sight this week and it really caught my fancy. 

Budding engineers had obviously been at work building a rock dam.  Then one obviously had an artistic bent and built that sculpture/cairn.  I swear the top looks like a dancer or angel in movement.  Don't know if you can enlarge enough to tell.  I'm so glad I captured the sight because the next time I was at the park the sculpture was gone and the dam totally rearranged. 

Just another one of those lessons about appreciating what we have when we have it. 

Y'all take care of yourselves.  See you soon.

Hot July Days

Hey, everybody.  Summertime has arrived in the mountains.  We had such a lovely June weather wise.  Now, the humidity has crept in along with higher temperatures.  Oh well, we'll survive.  Just talked to my sister earlier down in NW Florida and they've had temps and heat indexes up above 100.  I can hardly imagine with the humidity down there.  I told her that was one of the the primary reasons we moved away from there. 

We've been saying home pretty much.  We go over to the park for a walk fairly often but we are able to avoid other people well enough.  It does the heart good to walk along the creek and hear the water. 

I've been sewing pretty steadily.  I have the graduation quilt all done and ready to go in the mail.  I really like how it turned out and hope Josie will like it. 

In addition, I started and finished the top for another quilt.  Don't know when I'll get it quilted.  I loved these colors together.  You may need to enlarge the photo to properly see the striped fabric. 

I've gone back to working on the Oh, Christmas tree wool applique pattern.  I have the circles for the 21 flowers all cut out and stapled together.  Now I get to start the fun part of doing the fancy stitching to fasten them together and to embellish them.  It is enjoyable but very time consuming. 

I hope everyone takes proper precautions to keep themselves and those around them healthy.   Stay safe.

Y'all take care

I'm So Excited.....And I Just Can't Hide It.....

(Snicker....now get that song out of your head.)

I'm in the middle of a quilting project and I'm excited about it.  I don't think I've been this pumped up about a project in a very long time.     Many, many years ago I bought some fabric at the Quilted Moose in Gretna, Nebraska (I believe it was) that was diagonal striped fabric.  Fell in love with it so I bought the fabric and a number of coordinating pieces.  They have been stored together since then.  When I was trying to decide what I wanted to stitch on next, I pulled out that fabric and decided that was it.  

I chose a very traditional pattern shown in homespuns and dark fabrics.  Not in the same universe as my fabrics.   Got it figured out and blocks laid out ready to stitch together. 

Can't wait to get it all together and see the end result! 

We're getting rain almost every day and can I say I'm tired of it?  Yeah, I know.  Once it stops I'll be begging for rain.  The flowers (and weeds) just keep on growing in this wet warm weather.  We are still having cooler than normal weather but I'll take that happily. 

Hubby made a run to Walmart the other day.  I think he loves me. 

Y'all stay safe and take care of yourselves and your loved ones

Waiting for Spring

Yes, I'm still alive and well.   About to grow webbed feet but still alive and well.   We have had an unusual amount of rain from last fall and on through the winter.  Doesn't appear that the end is in sight either.  We've not had major flooding like some areas but our soil hasn't dried out for months. 

I've been up to my usual stuff.  I took a quilting friend who is a new birder over to see the sandhill cranes at the Hiawassee Wildlife Refuge northeast of Chattanooga.  It was a gorgeous day but very cold and windy.  She didn't believe me when I was emphasizing how warm she should dress for the day, but she complied.  Once we got out of the car and headed up the little rise, she knew exactly what I was talking about.  Although the numbers of cranes were lower than some years, there were still some to see.  

All in all it was a good day even if it did take the whole day for the trip. 

I've been doing some sewing and have three tops at the long arm quilter for completion.  They should be home in three weeks or so.  One is a hand applique quilt called Across the Wide Missouri that I started several years ago when I began learning how to do needle turn applique.  I figured that by the time I got the top done, I ought to have a good grasp of the technique. 

I admit that my stitching did improve but its still far from perfect.  

I attended a quilting retreat with friends from Florida and Alabama back at the end of January.  We met at he Grand Oaks retreat center near Scottsboro, Alabama overlooking Lake Guntersville.  I worked pretty much solely on a top using Australian fabrics.  The mixture of so many patterns and colors was way out of my wheelhouse but I will say that I love the way it finished up.  The pattern is a variation of a log cabin block and is very simple.  It's the colors and patterns in the fabric that makes it so stunning.  

It's a quite large quilt.  I'm looking forward to seeing it all quilted up. 

I also made another modern looking quilt top.  The colors simply called to me and I used grunge fabric from Moda.  The colors are very rich and lush. 

This picture doesn't do it justice.  

I made a day trip over to Lake Junaluska in North Carolina with the Franklin Bird Club last month.  I knew where the town was but had never done any birding there.  We were able to see a good number of ducks there.    I had planned a trip to the Outer Banks this winter but due to medical issues in the family did not get to go.  It's too late now as the ducks, geese and swans have already started migrating.  Oh well, let's hope next year will be the one. 

I find it so hard to believe that we will be switching to daylight savings time this weekend.  Seems to be way too early, what with Easter coming late on April 21.  

I'll do my best to be back more frequently.  Meanwhile, thanks for hanging in there with me. 

Y'all take care 

Progress, at Last

I've been working on this quilt called Across the Wide Missouri now for about 3 years.  Saw a finished quilt at a show in Springfield, MO and loved it.   It's all hand applique work so it takes time, at least for me.  When I began the project, I was just learning needle turn applique and I figured by the time I was done that I'd be pretty good.  I have improved a great deal but will be the first to admit that I'm still not "good" at it like some of my friends.   

hand appliqued blocks 

I've been putting it off but finally broke down and started the sashing strips to join them all together.  Lots of tedious measuring and cutting and I'll also have to make 47 different flying geese units to add into the sashing.  Its not hard work, just tedious. 

cutting sashing

My long arm quilter runs a 20% off deal during January and February so its a good time to get tops finished and off to her for quilting.  I can do them, but its not fun for me and turns into a real chore.  This time, I'll write the check.

Y'all take care

Sew, I Did It

Oh, where to begin.  When we left off, I had decided to give the nieces and nephews quilts at our family gathering on May 20.  Well, I did it.  I finished and delivered quilts to or for 12 of my 13 surviving nieces and nephews.  I didn't ignore the 13th one, she already had received a quilt several years ago.    So, let's show you what they got. 

Julie's Quilt 

Dana's Quilt

Eddy's Quilt 

Tammy's Quilt 

Ginger's Quilt 

Blaine's Quilt 

Robbie's Quilt 

Brian's Quilt 

Devin's Quilt 

Michael's Quilt 

Wendy's Quilt

Tera's Quilt 

In addition to these, I also delivered new quilts to the two little granddaughters. 

Sorry these are not the best pictures but I hope you can see them well enough to appreciate them.  So far as I know, they were all well received, some even with tears.  I got lots of hugs.  

Somehow, I just haven't been able to get myself enthused over a new project yet, but I think I'm getting there.  

I'll be along with more adventures soon.   Y'all take care.