Homespuns on the wall

 I am only half way thru cleaning up my sewing room but it has been such a joy to find enough space to actually sew again. I have a newly invigorated mojo and I am excited to get to work on UFOs and new projects I am contemplating. Since my UFO list exceeds 80 I must focus on them - maybe two UFOs to one new project.

With that in mind, I've pulled out my Homespun Bear Paws project. The Bear Paw blocks had been from a swap from the late 90s (I think). Last year I decided on a pattern plan and made progress on pairing up four paws for a larger block and making several alternate nine patch blocks. Last week I pulled out the project again and got the main part of the top assembled. I am now working on the 14 border sections.

2 of 14 border sections

I am loving how manly this quilt will be. It will be 76 x 96 - much bigger than I had expected.

This quilt will have used up 24 of the Bear Paw blocks. I still have 46 blocks waiting their turn to become part of a quilt. I *am* happy to be getting to the bottom of my homespun bin. Of course it was helped a lot by the making of the Homespun String Quilt - another UFO waiting quilting.

Check out other walls over at Patchwork Times.

Going to Join

the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at SoScrappy. Every month Angela will post a color and we are to use our scraps in that color for whatever project we choose. I have a set of small drawers for the tiniest of my scraps. I organized these scraps years and years ago when I was doing machine applique. I haven't accessed these drawers in as many years and most of the fabrics are from the days of SoFro Fabrics - that's a long time ago. We're talking teeny tiny calico prints on yucky griege material. So as Bonnie Hunter always says, if the fabric is still ugly you haven't cut it small enough. Therefore I am cutting these scraps into 1 1/2" squares. Along with some Kona White I'll be making these into cute little pouches - 2 sizes in each month's color.

This pouch will be the size of the red pouch below.

This one will be a couple of inches larger.

This is the trial bag I made. I just love it.

I'm using the pattern from the ThermoWeb blog. The instructions are easy and sewing the zipper is especially straight forward. I'm hoping I can keep up with this monthly challenge and then come December I'll have a nice pile of toiletry/cosmetic bag sets to give as Christmas gifts.

I'm linking up to SoScrappy's Scrap Happy Saturday.

The sewing room got some action

I actually sewed in my dungeon sewing room today. This hasn't happened in months. Lots of sewing has taken place in the kitchen or dining room but none downstairs.  Woot! I was really excited.

IRONING STATION:

Before

 

 

After

 

 

 

 

There is still a long way to go in the room but now that the main areas are cleaned up I could make a new pillowcase for Paige. Note to self, charge the battery on the camera so I can stop getting bad pictures with my phone.

Bubble Guppies pillowcase

Recipient of pillowcase

May be able to sew tomorrow

I worked in the sewing room today for one hour - watched two episodes of Nurse Jackie, season 1.

CUTTING AREA:

 

 

 

 

Before

After

 

 

SHELVES #1: (Fabrics under one yard and UFO project boxes)

Before

After

 

Progress, one baby step at a time. And no, those are not the only UFO project boxes.

2014

2014, yeah! A year of new beginnings. 2013 was a year that I'd be happy to never return to! Losing my Dad in March and watching my niece, Beth, battle a brain tumor were enough heart aches for me. So I am looking to 2014 to be the year of good health, wonderful family gatherings and lots of love shared with all.

My goal for this year is to get my home in order - that includes closets, attics, basements, garages and, of course, my sewing areas. We have been in this house for 22 years and the storage areas are exploding at the seams. 

Overall House:
To tackle the house I'm going to try following along with daily and weekly missions over at Home-Storage-Solutions-101. Realistically, I'll never stick with it on a daily basis but if I can try to make it part of my day when I'm home then there will certainly be progress.

Sewing Room:
I have come so close many times but then never finished. This is the time to purge the junk and finish. The following pictures show what a disaster area the rooms are now. In my defense, the rooms tend to become the dumping grounds when we have parties, gatherings, etc. So much of the clutter should be quickly dispersible. If you look closely you'll see that the shelves are in pretty good shape. I love the old kitchen cabinets donated to me by a girlfriend who was remodeling her kitchen (the plan is to paint them teal). And I LOVE the Ikea Billy bookshelves., it is the "dumping" that has done the rooms in.. So, I must tackle the piles!!  Hopefully this won't take more than a few work sessions.

Ironing table dumping ground

Charity sewing stuff dumped every where

You can see the color the cabinets will eventually be

If you look closely you'll see that the shelves are in pretty good shape. I love the old kitchen cabinets donated to me by a girlfriend who was remodeling her kitchen (the plan is to paint them teal). And I LOVE the Ikea Billy bookshelves. It is the "dumping" that has done the rooms in.. So, I must tackle the piles!!  Hopefully this won't take more than a few work sessions.
                                    

Floor dumping in front of Billy shelves

More floor dumping in front of other wall of Billy shelves

These are the fabrics for the pillowcases for Circle of Care.

UFOs (both mine and charity) waiting longarming

Large pieces for backings

Lots of UFO goodies hide under the longarm

So, before I can sew I have to clean up. Improvements will happen.

Oh yeah, one more thing, putting away Christmas decorations. I hate putting away Christmas decorations. This is about 3/4 of the 23 total totes to be refilled and put back in the the attic. The sooner the better as far as Patrick is concerned since they are taking up a big corner of his room.. :) I think I'll have him bring them all down to the living room and I'll tackle a few a day.

QOV Big Block Blowout

Alycia is running a challenge to make QOV blocks. I sent 51 blocks to her and am posting here (although I almost forgot how to post). I am including this picture as proof for Judy L over at Patchwork Times. She is running her own challenge. Thank you to both ladies for getting us to dust off our machines and get some blocks made for this very worthy project.

Stash Report 1/8/12

How easy can this be?

Purchased this week - 0 yards
Purchased year to date - 0 yards


Used this week - 0 yards
Used year to date - 0 yards


Net - 0 yards

Next to me is the Connecting Threads catalog that came in the mail yesterday. I wonder how long I'll be able to resist buying fabric. I haven't bought any in months so I am really itching for some new stuff to help jump start the new year. Life has been so crazy that I feel like I deserve a fabric treat. ;) Better that than some chocolate, right? And the sewing room needs a major clean up and I'm sure once I start that I will realize I have waaaayyyyy too much fabric. So I'd better buy myself something now. hahaha

Go check out other stash reports at Patchwork Times.

UFO Challenge 2012

OK, I'm going to give this another try - blogging and UFO busting, that is. Where did I get the idea that "empty nest" meant empty life. We dropped Patrick off at Notre Dame a little over 4 months ago and I don't think I have had a busier 4 months since the boys were very little. It's been a wonderful busy but crazy busy.

But the New Year means a new resolution to tackle these dang UFOs so I will make the list and resolve to blog.

2012 UFOs

1. Crayon Box

2. Christmas Pineapple Blossom

3. Twister

4. Blue and White Checkerboard

5. I Spy

6. Sister's Choice

7. Homespun Bear Paw

8. Green Color Challenge

8. Red Four Patch

9. Batik Log Cabin

10. Batik Spendid Stars

11. TLC Juvenile Crumbs

12. 1930s Cobblestone

The terribly embarrassing thing is that only 4 of these are different from last years list. The good thing, most of the UFOs made some form of progress last year and I only have one new UFO. I finished 6 UFOs, made many tote bags, 15 casserole totes, and many baby outfits. Pretty unimpressive but that makes it easy to do better this year. :)

Check out other UFO challenge participants at Patchwork Times.

New beginnings

University of Notre Dame

The day has come. Our youngest has checked in at college and can't wait for us to leave. We know it is a good thing that he is so ready to start this next adventure of his life. And he has been such a joy to raise that we are thrilled that he has earned this spectacular opportunity to learn at this magnificent school. (And dh is excited about the football games.) But we are not leaving yet. There are lots of parent orientation meetings to attend and frankly, we aren't excited about getting back in the car for the 12 hour drive home quite yet.

When we do leave tomorrow we are going to head down to Huntington, WV to visit some good friends from the past and then spend a few days rejuvenating at a lovely resort in southern WV. Life has been crazy, crazy busy the last month and we are going to soak in some R & R. We decided that this would be a great way to start the new phase of our life, the dreaded empty nest.

Design Wall Monday

This week I am working on a fabric high chair/chair restraint for dgd, Paige. I got the pattern from AllFreeSewing.com. It worked up quickly following the very clear instructions they put on YouTube.

Having had 4 boys that are all now 18 thru 31 years old, I don't have any dolls to use as models. We don't even have any stuffed animals left around. So, use your imagination with the squishy pillow I bought for it's pellets.

I will be spending the next 2 days with Paige and will probably be tweaking the pattern a bit. Then I will make a second one to send to them to keep in their car for restaurant use.

Stash Report - 7/24/11

I've been pretty good the last few weeks - not an angel but pretty good. I only bought 2 yards of fabric to make a couple of fabric high chairs like the one at All Free Sewing. I've made one (1 yard used) and I love how it came out. If it actually functions well with dgd, Paige,
then I'll make the second one. I am meeting Nicole and Paige in DC on Tuesday and Wednesday. They are flying up from Florida and I will watch Paige while Nicole job interviews and we will also be looking for an apartment for them. They move north Labor Day weekend so the search for an apartment is getting down to the wire.

I'll get to try out the fabric high chair (1 yard used) cuz we'll be eating out all meals.

I also completed one of the casserole carriers - 2 yards.

Stash Report
Used the past weeks: 3 yards
Used year to date: 62.25 yards 

Added the past weeks: 2 yards
Added year to date: 92.75 yards

Net used in 2011: -30.50 yards (not good but could be worse)


Head over to Patchwork Times to see how others are doing with busting their stash.

Back to business

I've been having computer trouble. Although I could still check and send emails, I couldn't do much else. This poor laptop has been moving as slow as molasses and couldn't open pictures. However an hour at the fabulous Genius Bar at the Apple Store and, I hope, my little MacBook is back in business.

Everyone has been talking about the heat; too hot to cook, too hot to garden, too hot to quilt. Record breaking heat in the Northeast. Never ever seen temperatures this high. 106 degrees yesterday!! Thank heavens for air conditioning and thank heavens for all of our utility workers who kept our electricity going so we could have air conditioning. Now what's the last thing one would want to do during a heat wave? Turn on the oven, right? But I had a craving for chocolate chip cookies (a daily problem). And Chips Ahoy just wouldn't do. So, I turned on the oven and baked a batch. The kitchen/family room went from a comfortable 74° to a very uncomfortable (for this raging hormoned, perimenopausal woman) 78°. But it was so worth it.

I am absolutely addicted to chocolate chip cookies - most definitely my favorite food! And although I make a pretty good chocolate chip cookie I am still searching for the perfect cookie. I want it to be crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside. And I don't want it to be FLAT!! Today I tried Best Chocolate Chip Cookies from allrecipes.com. I followed the recipe exactly and straight out of the oven the cookies are delicious but what chocolate chip cookie isn't delicious warm?

Once cooled they taste VERY good but they are chewy without the crisp (but is that because of the humidity, although with the air conditioning the inside humidity is 50%). And they are flat! On a scale of 1-10, I would give them a 6. Trust me, I will still enjoy eating them. This recipe, though, is not "The One". I may try them again in the winter.

I will continue on my quest for the perfect cookie. Next up, Urban Legend Chocolate Chip Cookies. Any suggestions of your perfect cookie?

Edit: Chris and Pat (ds's 3 & 4) say these are the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. Today, the second day, they are crumbly chewy. Definitely not my choice but I'm glad they are happy.