Friday Catch-up

My aunt arrived on Wednesday the 18th, and left before noon yesterday.  The time passed all too quickly.

We went to Road to California (quilt show/expo) the day after she arrived.  It had been several years since I'd been to the show, and she had never been.  In some ways we were quite disappointed.  We are both traditional style quilters, and there were few of those, and of those that were there, they were hanging high up from the rafters in the entry hall, so hard to look at closely (or by those of us with vertigo).  There were a gazillion vendors, but neither of us were inclined to spend much time with them, so we only spent a couple hours there, jostling elbows with the rest of the opening day crowd.

I will say, the Lord gave us great days on which to travel - in both directions, Thursday & then Saturday - in between nasty rain storms as we traveled on to San Diego straight from R2C and then back home.  We had a nice visit with my cousin and his wife in the San Diego area.

Most of our time was spent just hanging out and chatting at home, but we did go to one museum, and a large quilt store.  She had never been to a Hobby Lobby and since we had one open in Oct/Nov, we spent a chunk of time perusing every aisle there along with a trip to Walmart to do some grocery shopping.

During my aunt's visit, I spent no time at all in my Creation Station, but dug out all of my quilt tops and WIPs and gave her a private showing at her request.  Now I need to refold a few to fit back in their respective boxes, and lug them all back upstairs to the closet they hibernate in.  There are also a few household chores to get caught up.  

In part, she came down from the Northwest to get away from the snow, rain, ice & cold, and what happens, we have lots of rain, and cold (though still a good 20º warmer than her home), and our furnace decided to go on the fritz for a couple days and it was considerably cool in the house.  We used the fireplace, and Marty went out and bought a couple space heaters, and we layered up.  Now, if some of my quilt tops were quilted, we really could have been warm!

Apologies for no photos, but I only took two at R2C, and I don't think I got any of my aunt while she was here, though I had intended to.

Clutter to Chaos

So this past week, in light of my aunt's arrival, I went into my guest room to try to clear the clutter.  I started with several boxes of craft supplies, accumulated over the last 40+ years including my brief stint as an in-home sales consultant for Artcraft Concepts (needlepoint kits).  The intent was to cull out as much as possible, realizing that from this point on, my two hobbies of quilting and genealogy would take precedence over anything else, and that 'anything else' stuff may as well be tossed, given away, what-have-you.  

This is the chaos that ensued.

It stayed that way for the better part of the week, and while I did cull some of it, at this point, all too much of it has just been shoved back into the boxes and lids and set aside - in total chaos.  Of course, my helpers weren't really helpers at all.  Having left it like this the first night, in the morning I went back in to work, and found beloved kitties had added to the chaos by bringing their stuffed mousies and other toys and placing them in the boxes, and dragging lace, ribbon and other items throughout the room and hallway.

I found some treasures though, or at least some fond memories.  It's been a number of years since I've looked in these boxes.  I also realized that it's much harder to part with some things than others!

Floss/yarn holder

 I have several of these floss/yarn organizers - from Artcraft.

threaders

There are also several of these yarn threaders.

patches

Oh so many souvenir patches.  My intent was to sew them to my jacket but that obviously never happened.  I may now sew them to a wall quilt.

Barbie outfits

One year, for Christmas, I decided to make Barbie clothes for my daughter.  I was going to use my cabinet model Kenmore sewing machine.  It wouldn't work, and I didn't have the money for repairs, nor the time to get it fixed, so I sewed them entirely by hand.  Apparently I didn't make all those I'd intended to.  If I remember correctly, many of these outfits were cut from cast-off clothing I had too.  There was no surplus money in those days!

Ready to be assembled!

My daughter now has a little girl (about 20 months), so maybe I'll sew them up for her...on a machine this time!!

Then there were patterns, all the way back to the late 1960s!

Made for my 21st birthday from a slick, polyester!

High school Home-Ec project.

High School Home-Ec project also.

Mid-1970s project. Bell bottomed, one piece, made from denim.  Still tucked away - couldn't part with it.

Mid-1970s project, also made from denim that had a tie-dye look.

Yet another High School Home-Ec project.

Also H.S. Home-Ec project.

8th grade graduation dresses

Aunt Irene made my sister's and my 8th grade graduation dresses.  My sister and I were in the same grade from shortly after I started school until we graduated.  My dress was the one on the left except that I had it in a pastel-ish blue; my sister's was the one on the right and she had it in pink but lighter, and the sleeve was changed to not have the cutouts, nor did she have the little bow.

First Home-Ec Project

That brings me to the last pattern I'll show, though there were many others.  Growing up in the cold winters of the Pacific Northwest, back in the days when the house was heated only by a single wood-burning stove that, for reasons that should be obvious, was not burning at night, one way of staying warm while sleeping was by wearing long-sleeved, long flannel nightgowns.  I made mine as shown in the center style.  The only thing I recall not liking about it was the lace around the cuffs - it was scratchy.  Please don't laugh, but I still have this nightgown, tucked away in a chest, threadbare and well-worn, and certainly too small.  It was my first real sewing project, and I did well on it, and I loved that nightgown!

Yarn

The last picture I'll show today from the craft-box chaos, are the yarns.  I wonder if there's enough there to make a pair of scrappy slippers.  I don't knit but can crochet, and have made slippers.  In fact, the first slippers I ever crocheted were again, in Home-Ec in high school.  They were dark brown soles, and a pretty, light aqua-blue/green upper, and looked like boots including laced up ties.  I don't know whatever happened to the pattern for them, but sure would like to find one.  The tangerine yarn, is from the late 1970s when I crocheted my patchwork bed blanket that I still use.  I forget what the other two balls were used on, but the two remaining skeins came from my grandmother's sewing stuff.  I think the blue/green variegated could date back easily to before the 1950s, but I'm no yarn expert, so maybe not.  

Maybe tomorrow I'll post some photos of some of those Artcraft projects. 

Stash Report Sunday, Week 3, 15 January 2017

I have a slight increase in fabric, thanks to my friend Panda tossing her leftover fabric from a quilt she's been working on, to me.  I've done just a little cutting and sewing, working toward getting the complete number of units for En Provence, done but still haven't succeeded.  I'm pretty much out of neutral scraps at this point.  

January's UFO hasn't been worked on yet either...off to a very slow start in January.  My aunt Irene arrives on Wednesday, then we're headed to Road to California either Thursday or Friday and from there, we'll continue on towards San Diego where we'll spend a couple nights.  She will be staying for a couple weeks hopefully, but that means I won't get much done on my projects.  After R2C, I wonder how my stash report will work.  Who can go to a big quilt show like that and not buy at least a little fabric?

Used This Week: 0 yards
Added This Week:  .48 yards
Used 2017: 0 yards
Net 2017: .48 yards increased

Linking at Patchwork Times

Monday's Links

I'm linking up at both Quiltville's Mystery Monday, and at Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

I'm slowly plodding away on En Provence.  I've sure been enjoying seeing the posts of others' progress and even of some already completed quilts.  There have been many that followed Bonnie's colors nearly to the letter (much as I did), and others who have gone their own way...all beautiful, but there have been some that have appealed to me far more than others.  I recall seeing one that was done with blues (in lieu of purple) with a background of black instead of neutrals - oh my! 

I've spent the last few days trying to catch up on elements I was short on.  So that's what this photo represents:

En Provence components

There are purple/neutrals cut for the remaining half-square triangles; there are the purple/lavenders cut, sewn into twosies to become 4-patches, and the remaining neutral strips cut to also become 4-patches.  The note just reflects the number I was short of, not the number needed for the project.  Also, I'm not yet sure of my dimensions since my plan is to make mine smaller - even though I will have the full number of units - it may become a lap-quilt and a table cover, and I may still need to make extras to fill in any areas requiring more under that scenario.

The next pic shows just a random placement of the units for the quilt's layout_I wanted to get a home-visual of how my fabric choices would be playing with each other.  Many of those units would be repositioned so that the same fabrics be spread out a little better, if possible.

Partial layout of En Provence

I haven't yet begun any further progress on Loveland Log Cabin, the UFO for the month chosen by Judy (#3 on our list), but I did get it down off the shelf, so does that count for progress?

Loveland Log Cabin

The wrist is still bothering me a little, but is so much better than yesterday.  I found I had no problem with using the rotary cutter, but had to be very careful using the iron, and setting the iron back in it's upright position was just the right movement to trigger the painful twinge, but I'm a quick learner (pats self on back) and was very careful to use a different movement to accomplish the same.

I'm not sure how much I'll get done this week, housework is calling_again_and I need to start tackling that guest room.  My aunt Irene is planning to be here on the 18th, maybe even the 17th, and she'll need a little bit of space to set her luggage.

Stash Report Sunday, Week 2, 08 January 2017

There are no changes to my stash report.  I have continued to work on En Provence and still trying to decide what size to make it.  
 

En Provence Part 7

I've sewn and trimmed all the blocks for the Part 7 unit, and begun cutting the pieces for those units I didn't make the full amount of yet.

Today, my right arm and wrist are giving me fits.  I can hardly grasp anything without shooting pain, and am thinking I probably laid on it too long in a wrong position, or something.  I had to have Marty push in my seat belt when we left church this morning after I tried and the pain shot through horribly.  This is the same wrist I nearly broke a few years ago and it's never been 'normal' since and I'm pretty sure I have some nerve issues along the lines of carpal tunnel, but it runs along the outer side of that arm from the elbow to the wrist.  It has been used a lot lately with cutting and trimming...perhaps time for a rest?

Flame

 This sweet lady is keeping me company here at the computer.
 

Used This Week: 0 yards
Added This Week:  0 yards
Used 2017: 0 yards
Net 2017: 0 yards increased

Linking at Patchwork Times 

Stash Report Sunday, Week 1, 01 January 2017

Isn't it a bit amusing to have a stash report on the very first day of the new year?  It would be more interesting if I actually had something to show, whether in or out.  But here you go, my first day of the year stats, lol.  I suppose 2016 didn't finish up too badly.  I didn't get much out, and with my additions to the stash, my net add was just a wee bit over eight yards.  I'm good with that.

Used This Week: 0 yards
Added This Week:  0 yards
Used 2017: 0 yards
Net 2017: 0 yards increased

Linking at Patchwork Times

Happy New Year

2017 is upon us and you're probably pretty tired of hearing and reading about how quickly those years are changing on the calendar.  They sure do though, don't they?

Upon checking all things on my computer, before once again hitting online church (in my defense of not making it in person, I was experiencing quite a bit of sciatic discomfort again so stayed home).  Sitting in a pew for nearly two hours with sciatic pain is not on my list of joy.  At home, I can stand and stretch or move about frequently with my headphones tethering me to my computer.

Bonnie at Quiltville provided us the final clues and the reveal of the 2016 mystery quilt.  While it's a little more purple than fits my personal preferences, it is a beautiful pattern, and I'm enjoying the process.  I'm looking forward to getting it together and put into the queue for the quilting process....before I die I hope!

Judy at Patchwork Times selected the first UFO to work on for 2017.  It falls within one my top three (those are the ones already layered and pinned), and it's a wall-hanging size, so I'm hoping I can get it finished.  My #3 is my Loveland Log Cabin.  

Loveland Log Cabin

I started this quilt in October of 2009.  Remember how quickly the years pass?  It's been pinned since February 2010.  Remember how quickly the years pass?  That's almost embarrassing!  It seems only months ago.  Well, send prayers for strength, energy and determination to get it finished, I need them.  My biggest hold up has been deciding how to quilt it.  Maybe echoed hearts?  Need to practice that FMQ stuff.

Wouldn't it be nice if I did get it finished in January so that it could hang on my wall in time for Valentine's Day?  That was a goal I once had; to have a themed wall-hanging quilt for each month and/or special holiday throughout the year.  I have the perfect wall which can be seen straight ahead as you enter my door.  I have Christmas wall-hangings that I hang, and when it isn't Christmas, I have my very first quilt, an Alex Anderson sampler that takes up that space, but I've no others done.

May 2017 be the best year, and may all we say and do bring glory to God!