Tuesday’s Trivialities

 

Remember how I mentioned HERE that I had to order more light fabric for my blue pineapple quilt that I was kitting up for retreat next month … I was pretty surprised that I was so very short on that fabric … I was sure that there should have been enough.  But I bought that fabric May, 2013 in Paducah on our way to Florida, so I really couldn’t remember how much I bought … just thought sure I’d purchased about as much light as I had dark.  Well … as I was organizing the sewing room for some sewing time yesterday, I came across more of the light fabric … a LOT more!  I somehow managed to include that uncut fabric in my stack of cut fabrics on my marathon kitting day (I’m tellin’ ya, there was a whole lot of fabric to be kitted up!).  I’m not sure if I’ll just use the fabric I have (so the lights will all be the same fabric … I have a mix of the dark blues) or if I’ll mix in a few other lights for a less controlled scrappy look.   Either way, I’m going to be adding a nice chunk of fabric to my stash. 

 

Speaking of time in the sewing room, I spent most of the morning and a good chunk of the afternoon sewing HST blocks into rows for DD’s chevron quilt … and am excited to say that I have my 16 rows all finished!  I’m hoping to get back into the sewing room today and start sewing those rows together … and in a few days, I’m hoping to have enough rows together to be able to share a picture or two with you all.

 

Speaking of picture, after I finished the 16th row, I decided to call it a day … and DH and I ran to the camera shop in the nearby small city.  I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t know what camera would fill the bill.  Thankfully after sharing all my requirements, the clerk helped us narrow our selections down to one … and while it doesn’t have the view finder I wanted (we would have had to pay double the price and it was questionable whether the camera would be small enough to fit into my pocket or my purse), it does have the option to increase the display brightness so I should be able to see in sunny conditions.  Hopefully I will no longer have to apologize for the poor quality of photos I post here. 

 

After we finished up at the camera shop, we ran over to the small town where the grands swim … their team was having a fundraiser at the pizza joint.  The kids worked for tips, delivering food … and the restaurant gave the team a small percentage of the proceeds.  There was a good sized crowd, so it should have been profitable for the restaurant and the team. 

 

There’s another swim meet tonight … hopefully the rains will stay away until after the meet is over.  And speaking of the swim team, imagine my surprise when T#1 was chosen as an athlete of the week in the swim team town newspaper (lower right hand corner).

 

On the way to pizza joint last night, I got a phone call that my new glasses are in … I’ll be heading off to get them as soon as I wrap this up (their offices open at 10:00).   I’m so excited … I’m getting rather tired of having to take my glasses off in order to be able to read anything on my iPhone.  <sigh>

 

Hope you all have a terrific Tuesday!

Kathy

Slow Sunday Cutting and Stitching

I’m bound and determined to get in some time with needle and thread today.  I had to check my blog to see when the last time I got some “needle and thread time” … 2 weeks ago today.  That’s just way too long … but sewing DD’s chevron quilt top and kitting fabric for retreat next month have been my priorities for those 2 weeks.  I do plan to finish cutting fabric on hand today (border fabrics for DD’s quilt) … I’m still waiting for some fabric for retreat, so my Big Board and my GO will stay out (I don’t have room for them to be out 24/7, so I store them when they’re not in use). 

When I finish up the cutting, I’m going to sit down and work on my Martha Washington’s Flower Garden.  I’m almost done with my 30th block … I took a picture to share, but the red photographed as a bright cardinal red rather than the muted red it really is … it “bugged” me too much to publish.  I guess I could get my big camera out (big is a relative term … it’s a standard size point and shoot), but what a pain … I have to go get it out, take the picture, connect the phone to my laptop (at least the laptop is out/in use right now), upload the picture, check for editing (cropping, straightening, etc.), save the edited version in a smaller format … frankly too much work on the off chance that my big camera will produce a more accurate red.  You’ll just have to use your imagination. 

Which brings me to my search for a new camera.  I’m looking for a small (aka subcompact) camera that takes good pictures, has good zoom, has wifi capabilities, has almost no “lag time” between shots (I’m sure that there’s a technical term for that ha!), and that will fit in my small-ish purse or pocket.  Plus I think I’d like a viewfinder (when I use the display screen on my iPhone camera in sunny conditions, I really cannot see anything so I literally have no clue whether I’m actually capturing the image I want not to mention whether it’s even focused in on that image).  Oh, and did I mention I don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for this camera?  I’m not sure that there’s a camera that will fit all those requirements.  <sigh>

After a couple of weeks where there was been something going on every. single. day, I’ve declared that this weekend is Lazy Weekend.  While we haven’t scheduled anything, it’s not been much of a Lazy Weekend so far … I spent yesterday morning paying bills, reconciling accounts, filing paperwork, etc.  As a retired accountant, you wouldn’t think that I would hate that job so much.  I spent the afternoon boxing up for return … I finally reached (yet again … we won’t mention how many times over the last 40 years) my goal weight … I’m just having a hard time finding clothes that fit properly, that complement, that don’t cost an arm and a leg, that are my “style”, and that don’t make me look like I’m a 63-year-old who’s trying to look like an 18-year-old.  I think clothes that fit those requirements must be sold wherever they’re selling the camera that I’m looking for. 

We checked the garden this morning.  After a slow start, our zucchini appears to be thriving and producing plenty of blooms … but not a single zucchini.  From the looks of it, the blooms aren’t getting pollinated.    Our tomato plants, on the other hand, are producing great guns.  Our early girls didn’t produce the very first tomato, but they’re making up for it by producing loads and loads of tomatoes … one must have 40-50 little tomatoes on it!This is just a small sampling.  If all our other tomato plants produce at that rate, we are going to be inundated!    Our green beans are doing well … no blooms yet that I can see. 

Have a blessed Sunday, y’all!
Kathy

Slowing Down … Finally

 

Things were crazy busy this last week.  But since most of the busy-ness involved DD and my Ts, I’m definitely not complaining.    

 

And that was the case Tuesday.  DD and the Ts were out and about that morning and picked up The Lego Movie DVD … and invited me to a “private screening” of the new movie.    My decision was a no brainer … that fabric would still be there on Wednesday.  We had an early dinner and headed out to that night’s swim meet.  And we actually got in a meet!  The first one this year.  T#3 was really at the top of his “game” and finished one of his heats considerably ahead of the rest of the swimmers.  It was so cute to see him look around and realize that there were no other swimmers at the end of the pool … he used his finger to count out each of the other 5 swimmers and when he’d counted them all, he raised his arms in celebration.  His face was jubilant when he ran over to tell me that he won his heat. 

 

After taking my dad to his ophthalmologist appointment and then back home, I had my afternoon and evening free …. and I finished cutting the fabric for retreat.  I discovered that I was short some fabric for my pineapple quilt (especially the light fabric), so I ordered more.  I still need to iron and cut the border fabrics for DD’s chevron … I don’t have anything on the agenda for the weekend (so far, anyway!), so I think that will be on my to-do list for Saturday.  It shouldn’t take too long, thanks to my GO … I’m hoping to be able to finish up stitching the last 3 rows of DD’s chevron quilt … and start piecing together the rows.  I can’t wait to see some rows on my design floor. 

 

DH and I got out early (or so we thought) Thursday morning to get in some much-needed yard work … we had hoped to get out there before it got too hot, but it has gotten so hot and humid that we would have had to have been out there at sunrise in order to avoid the heat.   

 

We had the 2 littlest Ts here Friday … Mama was busy with T#2’s friend birthday party (her birthday was May 29, but between swim practice/meets and other summertime commitments, this was the only day all her her friends were available).  Thanks to a late night Thursday evening (the meet was 45 minutes away), Nana and Papa and the 2 littles were all pretty tired … we all needed some nap/quiet time after lunch. 

 

Did you all know that today is World-wide Quilt in Public Day?  Well, the phrase “world-wide” might be a bit of a stretch since the “celebration” seems to be confined to Europe, but still …  

 

I see a road trip in my future.  Jacksonville is not quite 2 hours from us, so while it’s certainly a do-able trip … and if I promise DH that we’ll stop at Five Guys for dinner on our way home, I suspect that he can be persuaded to go with. 

 

I’m still waiting for my new glasses to come in … I am getting tired of having to take off my glasses in order to use my iPhone.    Hopefully they’ll be in on Monday.

 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend planned!

Kathy

Catching up on a Tired Tuesday

 

It’s been busy, busy, busy here since my last post … which would help explain why there’s been no post since Saturday morning. 

 

We spent Saturday at my dad’s.  It was such a nice day … not a cloud in the sky, a nice breeze and delightful temperatures.  I’ll be honest and say that I would have rather been home that day … out on the deck stitching.  But we hadn’t been out to see my dad since April (if you recall, we were gone for a couple of weeks in May … and were busy the days before and after our trip), so we needed to get out to see him.  It’s getting harder and harder for him to get around … he’s becoming a bit of a recluse, so I definitely wanted to spend some time.  Thankfully his friends drop by from time to time, and he’s got a “personal assistant” who comes once a week (one of the few things that the State of Illinois seems to do well is providing assistance to low-income seniors to help them stay in their homes as long as possible). 

 

Sunday, we headed to DD’s after church for a family get-together to celebrate Father’s Day.  One of the “problems” with married children is finding ways to get together to celebrate holidays … thankfully their parents are all willing to get along so there’s no problems about how to celebrate those special days. 

 

Yesterday we had all 4 Ts so Mama and Daddy could get a few things done around the house and run some errands.  I picked them up at 6:15 to take them to 7:00 swim practice … that’s 7:00 AM!  And yes, the water is cold at 7AM!  By the time we got home (1:00), we had just enough time for a quick lunch before I put T#4 down for her nap.  After dinner, it had cooled off enough that we could get outside for some play … I never did figure out what they were playing … all I could determine was that it involved lots of running around the house.  I imagine they all slept well last night … I know I did! 

 

Thankfully there’s not much on today’s agenda … until tonight’s swim meet.  And it looks like we might actually get in today’s meet!  Both of last week’s meets were halted when the storms came in.  Unfortunately there are more storms in the forecast for Thursday night (the next meet this week). 

 

In the meantime, I’m going to try to get the rest of my fabric kitted up for my retreat next month.  I would like to get that wrapped up as I’d like to be able to get back into the sewing room tomorrow to finish piecing DD’s quilt.  I’m anxious to start the hand quilting! 

 

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Kathy

Saturday’s Stuff

I haven’t been back to the sewing room since Wednesday evening, so I’m still at 13 almost completed rows. 

Instead I’ve been preparing for my upcoming retreat.  I spent Thursday ironing all that fabric piled up on the couch … I wish I knew exactly how many yards of fabric I ironed … all I know was that it gets pretty warm standing over an iron for hours on end.  As long as this took, I can’t imagine how long it would have been had I ironed it using a standard ironing board … thank goodness for my Big Board.And imagine how much easier it will be to press 108” wide backing fabrics and my quilt top when I’m ready to baste. 

Friday was spent cutting all that fabric.  I don’t have the dies I need to cut the 9 yards of fabric for my Nantucket quilt.  And because I have just enough fabric for T#4’s spiral log cabin quilt (12 yards), I’m cutting that fabric manually as well.  But I certainly intend to use my GO to cut the fabrics for my pineapple blocks.

I’m about halfway done through the cutting … I’ve got the Nantucket fabrics all cut and ready to go (they’re in the forefront), and I’ve cut all the lights for the spiral log cabin (the strips in the background).  I still need to cut the darks and then get to work on the fabrics for the pineapple quilt.  And I need to cut the border fabrics for DD’s chevrons … I have strip dies in the sizes that I’m thinking of using for her borders. 

I won’t get much cutting done today … we’re going to leave in a couple of hours to go visit my dad.  When we get home, I need to bake another loaf of bread for DSIL for Father’s Day tomorrow … loaf #1 is in the machine now. 

Have a wonderful weekend, y’all!
Kathy

This and That on Thursday

I said it’s going to be a busy week, and it certainly has been. 

Tuesday morning, DH and I hit the road to go to Homestead Hearth, shopping for some more red for the connector hexies for my Martha Washington’s Flower Garden and for fabric for T#4’s spiral log cabin.  After a lot of search and a whole lot of help from the clerk, I found a couple of reds that aren’t perfect, but if I mix them up with my original red, they should be ok.  And I found fabrics for the log cabin … there was a whole lot of searching going on, especially after we discovered that a couple of the fat quarters I chose (I selected fat quarters as they were easier to carry around to compare) were the last of those fabrics in the shop, so we had to come up with other fabric choices or a mix of fat quarters.  I don’t think I could have come up with the fabrics without the help of the clerk … choosing fabrics is one of the most difficult parts of quilting for me.  My accountant’s OCD-ness rears its ugly head, and I really have to try to fight being too matchy-matchy.  She understood that a controlled scrappy is about as much as I am comfortable with, but she encouraged me to choose a few fabrics that I never would have chosen but that I think are going to be perfect!  I wish I had gotten her name … I would have loved to have written a note to the shop, letting them know what a HUGE help she was. Note:  not all of that is fabric I purchased yesterday … much is from my stash … there’s enough fabric there for probably 4, maybe 5 quilts.  I still need to press all that fabric and then start cutting so it will be ready to take to retreat.

We got home just in time to head to the first summer swim meet … they were able to get in 6 events before the storms came.  Everyone took shelter in the pavilions until the meet was cancelled.  There’s another meet this evening … and there are more storms that are supposed to be rolling in a couple of hours before the meet is scheduled to begin. 

This morning the gals I walk with and I went over to the Missouri Botanical Garden to see the Nature Connects Lego display.  It was amazing what they could do with Legos.If you click on the picture, you should be able to see close-ups.

When I got home, guess what I found had been delivered in the mail? Katy over at KatyQuilts stitched together 3 mug rugs from some leftover fabrics … she thought they were ugly, and I vehemently disagreed … and she graciously offered to send me the “ugly” mug rug of my choice.  Not only did she send me that adorable little mug rug but she sent along 3 bags of green tea!  Isn’t that just the sweetest thing? 

I spent the afternoon and a good bit of the evening in the sewing room … I now have 13 almost complete rows stitched together … only 4 more to go!  Of course, then I have to add that 17th block to each row, sew the rows together and then add the borders.  I even pressed the rows so they’re looking rather presentable  now (well, except for the random loose thread … when I had finished pressing that last row, I was ready to be done for the day).  Given how busy this week is going to be (including the weekend), I don’t expect to have the top together and ready for basting until the end of next week.  Which reminds me, I need to wash and dry the backing fabric, so at least when the time for basting gets here, I’ll be ready to go.

Have a fantastic Thursday!
Kathy

Tuesday’s Trivialities

 

Yesterday was a busy day here at Chez Nana … but then the entire week is going to be pretty busy.

 

I walked with my neighbors Vickie and Lois.  It was cool … I had to grab a sweatshirt.  After our walk, I headed to the sewing room where I finished piecing together the 2 rows of the chevron quilt and pieced together 2 more rows … now I have 9 rows almost completed.  Since the quilt will have 17 rows, I’m more than halfway done … with the pieced blocks … I have a couple of borders to add as well. 

 

I had an eye appointment yesterday afternoon.  It was a case of good news and bad news.  The good news is that my nearsightedness and my astigmatism is improving (who even knew that was possible??) … the bad news is that the optic nerve in my left eye is thinner than it should be.  Because I’m at risk for glaucoma (my dad has it), my optometrist wanted to do a scan of my optic nerves.  The nerve isn’t so thin that she is ready to make the diagnosis of glaucoma, but it’s certainly concerning enough to her to want to follow up on it regularly rather than waiting a few more years to do a scan. 

 

I also spent a little time with needle and thread … in Dr. Nana’s operating room. 

 

My day ended with a quilt guild meeting.  I made it official and paid my dues and am now a member.  I have to say that I’m glad I did as I was certainly made to feel so welcomed. 

 

Today will be another busy day … there’s a road trip to Homestead Hearth on the agenda.  I’m hoping to find the fabric for T#1’s new quilt there.  Here’s the inspiration for his quilt:I wish I could give credit for it, but I found it one afternoon many months ago when I was Googling log cabin quilts and failed to note the website/blog where I found this.  I showed T#1 several of the quilts that I found, and he chose this one.  I’m planning on using dark blues and neutrals with a red chimneystone.  I hope to be able to start piecing his quilt at the retreat next month.

 

Tonight the Ts have their first summer swim team meet … IF the rain doesn’t interfere.  Since the forecast is for thunderstorms, I won’t be surprised if the meet is postponed.

 

Not sure what is up with my ISP’s mail server.  I’m getting duplicates … LOTS of duplicates … of emails in the last 16 hours.  This morning when I checked my mail, I had 46 unread emails, only 2-3 of which were actually new/original … the rest were duplicates. 

 

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Kathy