Thursday, October 31, 2013

Paid to quilt

A friend asked me to quilt her string quilt. I agreed, but wanted her to get me some hair product as she can get it REALLY cheap. Well she brought me 2 shopping bags of hair product! I just wanted a few bottles of Shampoo! LOL I will have to start washing my hair everyday!

So she brought me her string quilt, and bc she doesn't see quite like she used to, and is new to quilting, it would not lay flat on the quilting machine. I was very worried about it but proceeded.
 I had to take some 'tucks' in a few places where it just wasn't quite right.

Although it isn't 'squared' the way it should be, it turned out pretty nice. I have had a busy week, w mammogram, w/o schedule and other things I needed to do but I was able to get it quilted.

I'm going to trim it today, and bind it w the background fabric. just wrapped around. I wasn't going to bind for her, but after she gave me so much stuff...



The finished quilt above.
You can almost see the swirly design here.
 
I still have some unfinished projects that need to be done by Christmas. Although I am rethinking that time frame.



These are the WILD WOMEN quilts, I need 2 more. They will be different though. These are also finished being pieced and are about ready for quilting.
 

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Stealing Time.

Lately it seems as if the world wants all of my time, and there is no ME time, AKA sewing time. The house needs cleaning, BIL's house needed emptying, laundry piling up, DW needs to be filled or emptied. All those things and I can't quite get any sewing accomplished.

 But I have found that if I steal a little time here and there, I can get a lot accomplished.

So What have I been doing the past week or so?
brought in all of my savable plants and took cuttings of my geraniums hoping they will grow.... I have a pic of the Geraniums but blogger doesn't want to up load it. :(


Brought all my Orchids in last week too and found some re-blooming! They love the hit humid summers, but now we are in the Cool Autumn fall weather and they have to come in. Hoping some will still bloom this winter as they have shoots!







I did get to the Sauerkraut Festival in Waynesville Ohio, and visited one of my Favorite quilt shops the Fabric Shack where I was able to get a clearance sale fabric for the borders on the WILD WOMEN'S quilts.














I'm changing patterns for the other 2 of the WILD WOMEN'S quilts (I need4) and did manage to cut some of those strips out, calculated the fabric I will need for the 2 quilts. I'm using Eleanor Burns Pink Lemonade for the pattern.  you can see it here: pink lemonadeShe has a video, that was on PBS, very good inst and although I have her Flying geese tool, I use a different system. Her's looks confusing to me, and I just can't wrap my brain around it. I guess I will have to call it something else since it isn't going to be pink w those purple fairies! LOL







 While in Waynesville, I found these cute little hand made fairy houses, and garden ideas. I was intrigued because it was very different. So i splurged and bought one. mine is on the rt. w one of my plants behind it.



These small toy sewing machines were at an antique store in Lebanon Ohio, not far from Waynesville. I took a pic, just because I had not seen so many of them in one place. There were a lot of Treadles too in Lebanon, but I didn't take pic. Maybe I should have since this is about sewing. Oh well next time I'm there.
 
 
I've also started putting the strips of sashing between the blocks for a quilt I am making for my DD and her new husband.
I figure I will leader ender it till I get it done. It's the same UFO that Jo is working on atJo's Country Junction. Her's is scrappy, mine is "controlled" LOL I'm sure it will be loved. Scrappy would have allowed me to make it BIGGER though. As I am out of the matching fabrics. I still have a huge piece of fabric to make a border w that is in the same colors but a WILD print.
 
Now I really have to get to cleaning the house.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Vintage Thursday

I'm not much of a vintage collector, but I have been for several months been cleaning out my BIL's house. He has been in a nursing home (NH) since Feb. He is developmentally delayed, and has dementia also. After a fractured hip and wrist, he was placed in a NH. A couple of other illnesses, surgery, and returned to NH, we attempted to get him back home, and it just didn't work. So we have sold his house, where he and DH, lived all of there lives. 70+ yrs of stuff... papers, dust... old dressers etc...
I found a few things to take, old buttons, a Montgomery Ward sewing machine that needs to be rewired, LOTS of buttons, needles 2 thimbles... and this:
I thought at first it was a salt/pepper shaker, but it's just a little statue made in Japan!


Amazingly the kids most all came and helped empty the  house out. taking some of the stuff home to their houses. Still there were things that we didn't need. The neighbors took some of that too.

we are done, glad to be done too. the house is sold and now I just have to get all that stuff put away. A large amount of it is BIL's clothing that needs his name put in it, inventoried, and taken to the NH.
Ive been using my  computerized sewing machine on some of them to permanently put his name on things. the rest are getting sharpied.