First, there was this:
My machine has been turned on; see the reflection of the light bulb?
And then there was this:
The center section for my bow tie quilt has been sewn together. From here, it will get a solid border, then a border of more bow ties and from there I still need to decide. This section measures 36.75"x39.5" so will have to do the maths as to how wide I want the border while making sure it will accommodate the bow tie border, but for now, I'm really happy to have finally put my foot to the peddle and accomplish some quilt piecing! Hmmm, now where are the rest of the bow tie blocks? I know they're here somewhere...
[Apologies for the photo quality. I've noticed my camera is not taking good photos any longer, and using my phone for photos & then off-loading & editing is hugely inconvenient. Maybe I should put in a Christmas suggestion to the resident 'Santa'.]
Over the past two years, my daughter has been gifting me quilt-boxes from Cotton Cuts. I get one box a month for six months (three as a Mother's Day gift, and three as a birthday gift). The fabric style selections she has chosen for me will stretch me (but she may inherit them still, haha), and nearly all have been wonderful. The ones in the first year included a pencil and a small spool of Aurifil thread in addition to the 1-yard cuts. This year's are half-yard cuts and whatever small monthly surprise is added. Within the last couple weeks, I finally removed them all from their pink shipping boxes, washed, folded and logged them into my system.
A new box arrived just a week ago, and should be the last for this year unless she decided, unbeknownst to me, to subscribe longer for me.
The six fabrics closest to the front of the image are from the quilt-box. On my computer, the image looks a bit dull, but hopefully yours will show better. All are a bit more vibrant. The orange fabric, a Minion-themed (& licensed) fabric, and the green in the back are my small purchases made while going with Panda yesterday. Those two were both in the clearance bolts so were only $5/yard...I really don't need more fabric, but orange is in short supply in my stash, and I thought the green would just be a nice addition. Any wagers on the Quiltville Mystery Quilt having orange in it? I seem to recall Bonnie really likes orange, and if she bases this year's MQ on her January Japan trip, she showed pictures of orange structures....could/would she include orange again? Is the Japan trip even her inspiration? We'll all know in a month!
I think I'm getting closer to wanting to stitch again. I need to be about 40 years younger to accomplish all that my mind wants to do but my body says "no" to. Doesn't seem fair, but then, I need to recognize I have accomplished much during my lifetime so far, and Lord willing, there'll still be another couple decades to go to bring some of those other desires to fruition.
Whew, has it ever been awhile since I've posted on Webs of Threads!
I still haven't turned my sewing machine on (except to mend a pocket) since December 2017 when I last worked on En Provence, and the week prior on my Bow Ties.
So what have I been doing? It would seem to be not much, though we did do the kitchen remodel as shown at Duck Out of Water though I don't think I posted about the finish which was at the end of May, and I won't bore you with that now...getting things back in place with sometimes reshuffling has taken awhile. I have some sciatic and other back issues which make the process slow. It's perfectly functional and I'm loving it.
I also did my annual summer trip up north. My aunt Irene flew down and stayed two sleeps, then we drove north about four hours and spent a night at a cousin-in-law's. The next day we drove up beyond the border but instead of staying on the interstate we diverged east and stopped at a quilt shop in LaPine, OR. It was five minutes before closing, but the lady graciously allowed us in and we shopped a little. From there, we went to Sisters, OR and spent the night then had breakfast with another cousin who lives near there. The restaurant was great, and we felt obliged to leave a more than generous tip as we hung out for about three hours. We didn't take the time to go to the Stitchin' Post but before breakfast stopped at the bakery and each of us got a couple of their dinner plate sized apple fritters, oh they are so good! From there, we headed on to my aunt's home a couple hours away, where I spent the next couple of weeks.
When it was time to head south, my sister had planned her vacation at my home so she met me at our aunt's and we drove down in tandem spending one night north of Sacramento, CA. She stayed for about 10 days, I helped her with a project she was just beginning, though my heart wasn't really into it. She hasn't quilted before but is retiring in the spring (maybe) so is planning to do some craft-related things. She would say all I wanted to do was play Minecraft (don't judge, lol) and she might have been right, but really, I only played a couple times while she was here and that was when she was sitting at a table I'd set up for her so that we could be in the same room while she learned or while she was working on personal stuff on her laptop. Last year I helped her with a quilt-as-you go block which she wanted to use for pot-holders. This year was quilt-as-you-go table runner.
I've done some "remodeling" in my Creation Station. The upper cabinet originated in the lower bathroom, was removed 7 1/2 years ago with that remodel, used temporarily in the kitchen prior to that remodel and has again found a new home. It's housing office supplies mostly. The bookshelves (both the above and below images) mostly lived in the pre-remodel dining room beneath an 8' window. We replaced the window with a sliding door, so no place for the bookshelves. The plan was to use one of them in a corner in the new dining room area, but between the baseboard and the extension of the countertop, the bookshelf was about an inch too wide and wouldn't fit. We purchased a new unit, which left these two up for grabs. I'd been wanting to replace the pseudo-bookshelf that had been there for a long time, so this seemed to me to be the solution - stack them along with that cabinet. The upper shelves have my color-coded scrap tubs and tubs of projects or pieces and other miscellany.
The lower one has a tubs for selvage trim, patterns, and plastic bags I use in sorting scraps. On the bottom-most shelf is just more office supplies. The Creation Station doubles as my genealogy work room, so I need lots of folders and papers as I use a color-coding system for it as well. This is the first time I've been able to see the top of my sewing machine table in a very long while, and still sitting there is En Provence and Bow Ties. It's pretty much the first time I've been able to sit in that chair in months! Barely visible on the left is the book case where I have all my books, some of which I decided I'm getting rid of, not all quilt-related. I'll probably hold them to see if my sister wants any of them. I also went through all my old quilt magazines and pulled out patterns of interest and tossed the rest into the recycle paper bag. There's only so much a small room can hold, and the excess clutter needs to be dealt with - in all rooms of our house. This is a start.
My friend Panda just sent me a message to say her machine needs to go to the hospital and asked if I'd like to ride along...there's a quilt store only a block or two away, and we'll get lunch out, so yeah, time to get ready.
Maybe my next post will show some progress on that two year old mystery since we're getting close to the colors reveal for this years. Can you believe that's only a month away? Time is absolutely passing at light-speed!
