2010-Mar-10 - Engligh Cottage Garden finished

Well, its finished, all but some additional embroidery to highlight the path and flowers.

The photo is a bit washed out due to the sun shining on it, and it was blowing in the wind, but it gives you an idea of how it looks. Now I have to decide what border to put on it and how I want to quilt it.

I have learnt many lessons doing this project.

1.Organization. This is the only thing that kept this project manageable. When I decided to do this I went through all of my embroidery cotton and picked out the colours that were to be used for the cross stitch. I then pulled fabric out of my stash which was close in colour to the embroidery cotton. Each piece of fabric was then identified with the colour number and the symbol on the graph. One thing that I really didn't consider was the amount of fabric I would need.

2. Cut your squares to the exact measure using the same ruler for the entire project. This is true in all the fabric you cut, however, when dealing with such a small piece to begin with, it doesn't leave much room to compensate for that fraction of cutting error. I wasn't able to do much strip piecing due to the frequent changing of the fabric colour, so each square was sewn separately.

3. Sew a precise 1/4 inch seam. Use the same sewing machine for the whole project.

3. Pin all of the seams so that they line up. I spent a lot of time doing this step.

4. Patience.

5. Patience.

6. Patience.

7. The most important lesson. What was a thinking, was I mad???? a bit crazy??? a little bit on both counts. If you decide to do a project like this, DON'T, change your mind and forget it.

Don't get me wrong I did enjoy doing this project, and now that the time consuming part of it has been completed I am glad that I did it and I am very pleased with the result.

Hope you are having a great Wednesday.

Patricia

March 10, 2010 - Rain, Rain, (Don't) Go Away

We have rain!  It's so good to see the rain coming down instead of flakes.  It started yesterday on my way home from work and as soon as I picked up Lily, she asked if she could play out side with her unbrella.  (Kids can be so simple. All she asked from Santa last Christmas was an umbrella!) So she got it out and went stomping around the yard with her unbrella.  What a treat for her!

While she was stomping around, I was able to get some stitching done and by bedtime, I'd completed the quilting on one long border on the quilt.  Tonight, Tessa will be home and I expect to be able to go great guns on the thing then.  Yesterday I had a gruelling 3 hour interview with a client and after I was finished, I stopped by the LQS to relax a bit. I don't know about you, but when I'm real stressed, I find that touching the fabrics and seeing the colors to be very soothing.  Anyway, I got some batik fat quarters in pretty pastel colors to make a table runner and I found some yardage in the sale room that I'll use for place mats and napkins that I may offer for sale in the new co-op shop.  So I have plenty on my quilting plate waiting for me to finish this darn Irish Chain. 

Last night I also finished proof reading the co-op minutes and got them sent off to the other members. We're planning to have an open-to-the-public meeting on March 27th to explain our ideas, gather input from the public as to what they want from this co-op and, of course, accept new memberships.  I'm just flabergasted that this concept is actually getting off the ground!  Just 2 months ago, it was an idea floating around in our heads, and now--it's really happening!  I'm in charge of getting ideas and bids for a sign on the outside of the store and am excited to see what the graphic designers come up with.   

2010-Mar-9 - English Cottage

About a year ago I started a project, and what a project it was.  Those of you that were here prior to the problem with this blog site will remember the English Cottage Garden quilt that I was making. 

I was converting a counted cross stitch pattern into a quilt.  Each cross stitch equals a one inch square.  Well, 5,424 one inch squares later, and the top is  F I N I S H E D.  I am really pleased with the way it looks.  At the present time I am doing some embroidery on it to outline some of the flowers, trees etc.

Now I have to decide what kind of border to put on and also how I am going to quilt it.

I will post a photo tomorrow

Patricia

March 9, 2010 - House of Drama--and Comedy

I spent last night typing--and typing-- and more typing!  My fingers were so worn out that they couldn't quilt!  I did get up a little early and got the first repeat of the border design quilted this morning before work, so that's one step closer to the end of this quilt.  Wendy sent me a pix of her finished quilt and it looks pretty good for a novice.  It's just 6" squares of batik and some of the seams are a little off but she said that was ok, she can live with it.  This was her first try at FMQ--just an all-over meander--and it came out not too bad. She has a lot of potential as a quilter and she said she wants to have a quilting weekend with me once a month--next time at her house, which is fine with me.  She can do the cooking the next time!

Last night was drama at my house.  I had Lily by myself and after supper, she went upstairs to get cleaned up and put her pajamas on while I started on the typing.  We had her reading time and went upstairs to tuck her in when I noticed the bathroom door was closed--that's strange.  So I just reached out to open the door and realized, Lily had locked the door!  Now no one could get in the bathroom!  Not such a big problem since we have a second bathroom but we keep the cats' food and water in the upstairs bath and they were getting hungry!  When they started whining and howling, that's when the drama began! 

I tried to open it with a bobby pin as I've seen Don do many times, but it didn't work. I called his cell and, as usual, he'd turned it off.  Left a message for him to call me asap.  (He called at 6:30 this morning and I gave him a tongue lashing--what if there had been a crisis and his phone was turned off?  why are we paying for a phone when he keeps it turned off all the time?  etc.)  I was okay with using the second bathroom to get ready for work in the morning until I realized--I don't have a toothbrush in that bath so I'd have to go to bed and to work without brushing my teeth. Yuck! 

That's when I called Wendy and spoke with Steve. He told me how to unlock the door--it has just a little hole in the doorknob--and Wendy told me to use a small knitting needle--worked like a charm.  For any who want to know, size 2 knitting needle is the tool to keep handy.

So, drama resolved, typing finished, and border quilting begun.  Not too bad if I do say so.

March 8, 2010 - Another sign of Spring

I'm taking my Christmas village down today.  It's a big enterprise because I have lots of buildings and figurines to go with it.  It covers several spots in our living room and entry.  I'm sure it's gaudy, but i love the lights on the long winter nights.  Now that nights are getting longer, I'm content to take it down.  I'm itching to put up spring wall-hangings and bouquets.  Simplify things a little.

I was watching HGTV the other day - fixing homes up to sell better.  I realized how outdated our house is.  Part of me says the decor reflects who we are, with golf stuff and quilts, cross-stitches on the wall.  Part of me says if we ever want to sell we're either going to not get a great price or we're going to have to do some big-time redoing.  Than I think, if I'm content before I watch those shows, do the shows foster greed?  Oh well, no money to redo things this year.  I'm content with that.

Son Ryan stopped over this morning to take a shower.  Their bath drain was plugged (a problem they've had before, their house was built in the 1920s) so he poured some stuff in and came here.  I haven't seen him for a while.  He works full-time and is taking fire-fighter courses.  He finished the first-responder medical part before Christmas, and is now working on the actual fire-fighter training.  Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of jobs for full-time fire-fighters.  He's thinking about going on and getting his EMT certification.  He's enjoying the medical part of the calls he goes on for their local volunteer station.  His degree is in choral music, but decided he didn't want to go to get a PhD in that, as he first planned. Instead he got married and had a little girl - the one licking snow with our dog a few weeks ago.

Rhoda

2010-Mar-8 - Signs of Spring

The signs of spring are everywhere, the crocus and daffodils are poking through the soil in my garden.  It maybe awhile before we see any flowers but at least it 's  a promises of some flowers in the future.

The sunny days and cold nights are making the sap flow in the maple trees, so the sugar bush is a hive of activity.

As  the snow is melting, we can see all of the garbage that has blown around all winter, not a pretty sight.

Now that the  frost is starting to come out of the ground the "half load signs" on the rural roads are in effect.  The pot holes are getting bigger and deeper on some city streets and well travelled roads.

The ice on Long Point Bay in Lake Erie is starting to melt causing the ice fishing huts to slowly sink into the remaining ice.  The huts have to be off the bay by March 15th,  however, if this mild spell continues most of them will be on the bottom.  If that happens fines will be incurred by the owners and they will be charged for their removal as the huts will be a boating hazard during the coming boating season.

 Next weekend we put our clocks forward. 

Only 70 more one inch squares of fabric to sew together and the top is finished, pictures to come.     

 I seem to have a bit more energy, so have to run and start the weekly chores.

Have a wonderful Monday.

Patricia

March 8, 2010 -

Week 2 of my blog challenge begins here cloudy and overcast with a bit of a misty rain--just enough to smear the glass when I turned on the wipers on my way to work.  Hey, rain is better than snow at this time of the year! I'll take it.

Yesterday's co-op meeting went very well, I'm pleased to say. The person who had been so agressive a few days ago really curbed it in and we got the by-laws written without major conflict.  Only a few minor disagreements, but I can live with that.  So, things continue to move along at a rapid pace. As secretary, I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the minutes I have to type--I love that kind of dilemma!

Quilt-wise, I did very little yesterday.  I was exhausted by the time I got home from the meeting yesterday afternoon, had dinner (thank goodness for crock pots), typed up the minutes of the meeting and went to bed.  Tonight---I challenge myself to get the stitching done on the final, wide border of the Irish Chain. 

Tessa was exhausted last night as well--it's a good thing Lily has energy :)  I've been telling her for months to get her thyroid checked and she finally looked up the symptoms of hypothyroidism and thinks she may have some of them. She said she would call the doc today. She also has to schedule Lily's surgery today as well. Poor Lily has huge adenoids and tonsils and has to have them out. When she gets a cold, her ears block up and she loses most of her hearing.  It's hard to sound loving when you have to shout at her in order for her to hear.  It's hard to see a child go through surgery, but the alternative of repeatedly losing her hearing is not good, and she'll have to have them out sooner or later anyway, I suppose.  Jo had her tonsils out when she was about 20 and she had a difficult recovery, but I expect Lily will have a much easier time of it.

That's it for this morning. I have home calls to make and have to get ready to hit the road. 

2010-Mar-7 - Baby Quilt

My great grandson (am I really THAT old to have a ggs) is due this coming week, but his quilt won't be ready for awhile yet. The fabric was purchased some time ago, however, my life has been quite busy during this past ten days so have not started his quilt yet.

Finally chose a pattern I want to use, it is a easy one so once I get started it won't take too long to put it all together.


Here is a picture of the fabric I am going to use,(the colours look a bit washed out from the flash) however, it will give you some idea. His nursery is decorated with African animals, so when I saw this fabric at Joann's I just had to pick it up. I wondered if the colours might be too dark for a baby, but decided to use it any way.

Today is promising to be another lovely day, but mid week the forecast is calling for some snow.

Have a great Sunday

Patricia

March 7, 2010 - One week down!

I can't believe it's been a complete week into my personal challenge of posting an entry every day this month.  So far so good.

Yesterday, Wendy and I did quite a bit of quilting. She finished the top for the lap throw she was working on and it is gorgeous.  There wasn't enough space to work on my quilt, so I started piecing together 2" squares of scraps to make Jo's little travel bag.  She wants a small quilted bag she can wear across her chest to carry her wallet and a lip gloss while she's away. 

I don't know if I explained this but if I did, just skip this part. :) My youngest child, Jo, applied for and was accepted into the Peace Corps and she's been assigned to the Kyrgyz Republic as a health educator. Kyrgyzstan is a former member of the Soviet Union and is located south of Russia, north of India and shares it's eastern border with China.  On the internet, it looks like a beautiful country--very mountainous--but it's also desperately poor country. I think Jo will be very challenged going there, but she has a great personality and her laughter will win the hearts of the people. She's leaving home on March 26 for Philadelphia, arriving in Bishkek, the capital city, on the 29th and will be there until May, 2012. Don and I plan on visiting her in the spring of 2011.  Part of me is so happy that she's been offered this opportunity and part of me is worried to death at the thought of my "baby" going so far from home.  I guess that's what being a parent is all about.

This afternoon I have another meeting of the cooperative and I certainly hope it goes better than the one on Wednesday.  I plan on saying a few things about proper behavior in this group--isn't it sad that this even has to be brought up to a group of really competent women?  If we are going to get this project up and running, we have to all work together better than we did on Wednesday.  I'll let you know how it goes.

One of the reasons Wenday and I didn't do more sewing yesterday is, we--Tessa and Lily also-- took a break at midday to go to the Empty Bowls lunch in Menomonie. We had our soup lunch served in hand made pottery bowls that we brought home with us. This is an annual fundraiser for the local food shelf and the soup was sooooo good--win-win all around, I think.  Here are the bowls we brought home:

Well, I hear Wendy getting up and so I should go.

2010-Mar-6 - Library Books

Made a trip to our library today, I was looking for a crib quilt pattern, found a book that has a lot of easy quick patterns, so will likely use one of those.  I have a lot of magazines, (I have got to stop buying them), but could find nothing that was suitable for the fabric I am using the for baby quilt.  The batteries for my camera are on the charger, so tomorrow I will post a photo of the fabrics that I will be using.

Have a wonderful day,

Patricia

March 6, 2010 - Another gorgeous day!

Saturday and the sun is shining in a brilliant blue sky!  I love early spring.  I can see the driveway from my window and it's filled with puddles of melted snow.

My niece, Wendy, came over last night for a sewing retreat and we have 2 tables set up on the living/dining room. She's working on a batik lap quilt 

made out of these fabrics. It's been several years since she's done any sewing so I'm kind of coaching her a bit as she goes along. I'm continuing to work on the Irish Chain.  Please let me get it done this weekend--I'm so sick and tired of working on it! 

2010-Mar-5 - Beautiful Day

OH saw the specialist yesterday, and the diagnosis is he has severe Tophaceous Gout in his hands.  However, she cannot do anything during this attack, he has to continue with the Prednisone, however, that is raising havoc with his glucose readings and additional blood tests today will see if it is having any effect on his blood thinnners.  The swelling is going down and the pain is almost gone, so, things are getting better.

More good news, my Mother is now out of the hospital and feeling a lot better. 

I was able to work in my sewing room last night and hope to do some more tonight, soon will be able to show a picture.

Patricia

March 5, 2010 - Sick friends

I found out last night that a long-time friend has Hodgekins Lymphoma.  Apparently the cancer is pretty advanced, so it's not good news.  He is going to have 6 months of chemo.  Then last week I found out my neighbor 2 doors down has cancer.  I'd say she's mid-40s.  She still has a son in 8th grade and one in high school.  She's a really neat woman whom I like a lot.  I haven't seen much activity there, so when I do see a car I plan on calling. 

This morning I went to visit a friend who is half-way through cancer treatments.  She looks wonderful!  Well, except for the bald part.  She's feeling good, for the most part, too.

Ok, so how's that for a downer?  The sunshine is wonderful again today, the days are getting longer, and life is good.  I need to take down my Christmas village next week.  I would have done it last week but I had other things to do with the grandkids coming.

Tonight I'm having dinner with two college roommates.  One never married and one is widowed.  I feel like I have it all!

Rhoda

March 5, 2010 - Sick child

I've been up since before 5 am with Lily who has a bad cold and another ear infection. Tessa works this morning and when she gets home, I'll go to work for the afternoon. This is about the 3rd ear infection this winter and she's had at least 6 colds--one right after the other.  The ENT doc says she needs to have her tonsils and adenoids out soon, so maybe Tessa will get that set up this afternoon.

I had to go pick up my refinished tables this morning.

I got a pair of these living room tables about 25 years ago.  Now they are in the garage airing out a little before I bring them inside. The products used on them are pretty stinky! 

I hope to get some work done on the quilt borders this morning since I'm home with Lily. Then I have to make a pouch for Jo to carry her small electronics in while she's in the Kyrgyz Republic and also have to make an apron as a gift for her host mother. 

BTW, that carrot salad I made the other night was a hit!  Everyone loved it--definitely a keeper recipe.

March 4, 2010 -

I got no quilting done last night. I was at a meeting of the Folk Arts Coooperative from 5:30 until 9:00, and I was exhausted when I got home!  We got a tremendous amount of work done and set the store opening date for April 5 or sooner if we can.  So excited to actually see the place open up!

Unfortunately, one of the members of the group (a person who joined at a later date) has a quite abrasive manner to her speech and tone of voice that just grates on me. She also is quite agressive in her speech, both of which leave me extremely tense and stressed out.  I have developed a plan to use with her to hopefully diminish some of these behaviors, but frankly, I don't know how much more of her I can take. 

Tonight I have Spanish class and won't get home before 8:30 but maybe I can get some stitching done before going to bed.  Don took off this morning for his golf trip in S Carolina and will be gone for over a week--should be nice and quiet in the house.  I'm always glad when he gets home, though.

Another day of brilliant sun--is this the calm before the big March blizzard that we always get right around high school tournament time?  Yikes!

2010-Mar-4 - Can you belive it

Another sunny day, can you believe it--and more in the forecast, hope we are not paying for this lovely break of good weather in April.  However, we will take this sunshine whenever its given to us.

Yesterday's entry I told you that OH was referred to a specialist, can you believe it-- we go to see specialist TODAY.  Our Dr sent an urgent fax to her yesterday,  so I figure it must be something that needs to be looked at quite fast.  Hopefully, we can get some meds, it they are available to help him.

I was able to do some sewing last night only three more blocks to complete.

Patricia

March 4, 2010 - This Week

I have been training this week, driving 1 1/2 hours both ways.  At least they said they'll give us mileage, whew!!!

I'm pooped, my body and my brain aches.

Then next week all over again, but this time they'll put us up at a hotel. 

I enjoy learning new things, but I'm totally wiped out! 

I'll post some pics of the lovely snow we had this week.  We've had some unusual weather this winter.  Alabama doesn't get snow and when we do it's just 1/2 inch or dusting.  We had some nice snows recently.

Hope y'all are doing okay and looking foward to spring like I am.

Becky

March 3, 2010 - Back to Normal

2010-Mar-3 - Sun--Sooo Nice

Today we have a beautiful sunny day, more snow going.   Did see some crocus starting to peek out of the ground.

Had OH at Dr's today, he believes that he has a rare form of osteo-arthur, our Dr. has never seen it in all the years he has been in pratice.  Have been referred to a specialist.

Hope to get some more sewing done tonight after dinner.

Patricia

March 3, 2010 -

We had the most glorious early spring day ever!  Brilliant blue skies, birds singing in the trees, and temps above 40 degrees. Snow melting all over!  Even with the snow melt we've been having the past few days, we still have at least a foot left on the ground so it'll be a while before the spring flowers start poking up. But we have hope that Spring will come soon. 

Yesterday was quite busy.  I was home with Lily last night and after supper and her reading time, she and I went into the hot tub.  What bliss!  We both got straight into our jammies afterwards, watched an episode of "Kipper" on Sprout tv and then Lily went right to sleep, freeing me up to work on my quilting.

I got the camera out and have a picture of the medallion quilting I've done on the Irish Chain quilt. I'm pleased with how it looks.

As I said in a previous post, I stitched the center design and then went back and added another design to fill the unstitched corners. I think the two designs work well together. Last night I was able to mark some of the design for the narrow first border and got 2 sides stitched.

I also made a carrot salad using a Bobby Flay recipe I found on-line.  There's a meeting the the board of directors for the new co-operative and we'll begin with a pot luck supper so I thought this might work:

This is partially cooked carrots with a dressing of lemon juice, fresh minced garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper and salt, whisked together with olive oil.  Heavenly!  I'll sprinkle some chopped parsley on it before I present it to the group. 

We will be working on a schedule of things that have to happen prior to opening the doors of the shop. We are now the official renters of the store and I think we should open the doors to customers as soon as we can since we're paying rent, but there is so much to do first. I know we'll get it all done--we are WOMEN, after all. If we can give birth to our babies and raise them, we certainly can open up and run a store, right?

Have a great day