still kickin'

 I can't believe its been over a year since I sat here and typed in this little square. But here I am. :) 

It's been a year. Lots of things. 

Working on getting my girl healthier. Hashimotos is no joke. That one could be a full time job.

We had some pretty spendy plumbing work done. And will now need to get our whole front yard reworked as well as some garden beds and all the sprinklers etc too. 

We haven't been anywhere really. No vacations to speak of.

I've done some quilting. I really think that is my therapy. I can sit and focus on all the stitches and doing everything I need to do to make something pretty and there is no room in my brain for any other thoughts or worries. I really like that. lol 

Oh yes..one super fun thing is we got our back patio screened in and we love it. Thankful we could enjoy it some before the death of summer hit us. This year just seems more miserable than usual. How is that even possible? Ugh. So many days over 100. 

Here is my quilt. It's called Layer Cake Lucy and it was super fun to make. I love the large scale print on the back and I hand bound it. About killed my thumb and finger but it was so worth it. 

My view from the new patio. I love the rug. We got it at Home Depot. Haven't found comfy lounge chairs yet but I love this poof at got at Walmart (Dave and Jenny Mars collections). 

This little thing makes all our days. She is a sweet funny little ray of sunshine that we didn't know we needed so badly. We all love her. :)

Those are the high points. :) I'm sure there are other things but I just wanted to hop on and say 'hi'. So..hi! I hope you are all doing well and maybe I will try to get back to this more if I have the time and feel like I have enough to say. Hugs, friends. 

it was cold

 So you probably heard about the horrible weather in Texas. I will let you know that indeed it was cold..very cold for this warm weather loving Texas girl. 

We were hearing about rolling black outs and we went all day with the power on. I cooked dinner on the stove (all electric house) and I thought we might skate by without losing power. I was chatting with a friend at 6:45pm...and it happened. Everything went black and the power stayed off. There was nothing rolling. It was just off. It was too early to go to bed. So we just got the candles going and curled up under our blankets. We dripped faucets etc in hopes of not having our pipes burst. 

The next morning it was still stupid cold outside...like 4. And we had no power. We were so miserable. It only got down to about 50 in our house but it felt much colder. We were just so chilled. I couldn't cook anything or make anything warm because we are all electric. So we decided we would try to go for a drive in the car to warm up. It had snowed pretty heavily (for us) but the 'big roads' around us were decently clear and we could drive. So we drove around and got warm then found a restaurant open and got some warm food. But then it was time to go home, which we all dreaded.

But when hubs walked in the house to go back out and open the garage door manually, he saw that our power was restored. And praise the heavens, the heat was on and the house was no longer miserable. So hubs tried to get some work done and I was dealing with some lingering issues from the power being off etc. Then I heard it.. a loud pop and loud running water. Then I saw it...water coming from under our dishwasher. I started yelling at my husband to turn the water off at the curb...he was already headed down there as hearing water in the wall is never a good sign, even if its not all over the kitchen floor. So he got it shut off and we started cleaning up the water and soaked about ten towels with water mopping up the water.  Thankfully we kept the water contained to the kitchen...instead of the new LVP flooring we just put in a couple years ago.  

We were due another round of the nasty weather that night but I also had the plumber coming. I knew if he couldn't make it to our house before the next round of bad weather, we would have to go a day or two without water. So we were able to find some bottled water at a gas station and I had my hubby get us a 5 gal bucket and some extra cat litter..so we could all use a bathroom without needing water. AWK. Thankfully they came and got the leak repaired, so we had water. And our power only went off once more for about 45 minutes.

Thursday of last week, we got the rest of the repair done, the wall patched etc and I finally have everything put back where it goes. No dishwasher in the middle of the kitchen floor. All my bottles etc that go under the sink are put back now. 

In the middle of all the other chaos,  we had a boil water notice for a day. So it seemed like every time we had our situation figured out, we had to start over again. We both had decision fatigue after this fiasco was over. And I also had moments of looking at the weather forecast and knowing it wasn't going to be above freezing for several more days and wondering how long we were going to be without water and power. Almost all of our pipes froze but miraculously only the one in the kitchen broke. I had prepared for us to be 'in' all week but not to be without water or power. So my meal planning utterly failed and that was a bit tricky also.  I'm not gonna lie...I was a bit concerned about how we would stay warm if our power out continued for days. It was scary, stressful and so tiring. 

So thankful for warmer days and beautiful sunshine! 

Remember me?

 Hi all. It's been a minute...or a year..or so. 

I thought I would give a little mini update. Things are chugging along here..just living life corona-style. Which isn't all that exciting. Thankfully we are all healthy and have not been bitten by the covid bug. 

My health is good. I had a scare which was either a lab error or something going seriously amiss. I worked my tail off hitting all the anti-cancer stuff and got my labs redrawn a few weeks later, and they were amazing and have continued to be perfect. So yay for that. Very scary time for our little fam though.

I've been sewing! I made a couple more quilts. A simple one for a family in need. I heard about a little boy with the same cancer that took our little one. I was heartbroken so I made a quilt for them. 

It was a fun, quick quilt. A got the top done in a day. The simple quilting and binding took a few more days, and then it was off in the mail. I enjoyed making something for a stranger to help brighten their day. 

I also made a quilt for the girl. Its so stinking cute. 

It's KITTIES. I had so much fun making this. 

I had it long arm quilted by a lady here in town and she did such a great job. The quilt pattern is little paw prints and it just finishes it out so nicely. I decided to make a pillow sham out of the scraps. So cute. 

It's kitty approved...wait what? Yep..we have a little kitty. We love her.

 

She was a super fun surprise we didn't expect..but now we aren't sure what we would do without her. She is a lot of fun and a welcome distraction from all this covid mess. 

Blogger was a total bear uploading pics. Not very fun. But it was fun to come on and say hi. I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy.

Hugs, friends! 

It's finished!

I finished my quilt Sunday. I put the sewing machine away and cleaned up the dining room. Praise be! I was so ready to do that.

And then I finished finished it on Monday. Meaning I soaked (to get all the markings off) and washed my quilt and stitched up the little corners so they are held together completely secure.

But it was a journey to get there. I think I alluded to the binding being a booger bear in my last post. After that post, I finally just decided I hated the binding and wasn't happy with the look of it. It was not pretty and I knew I could do better.




So rip rip rip..pick pick pick.



Yes, I ripped out the binding that was about 2/3 complete. That means I ripped out thread almost all the way around my quilt TWICE. Cuz I'm fun like that. Actually it was more relaxing than sewing. I watched a movie and propped my feet up on the coffee table.

I had watched a video of an alternate method to put in binding and had just tucked that away and kind of forgotten about it. Basically instead of equal parts of binding on the front and back and trying to always catch the binding on the back when you're top stitching it on the front (see my pic above when I could not keep things in line..among other probs!), you intentionally offset it so on the back it just looks like a line of quilting that nobody will ever pay any attention to. But I had to test it out first on a scrap quilt 'sandwich'. I liked it!



So in one day I was able to just get the whole new binding put in. It was start and stop and I took some breaks, but I could do it in a day rather than working and working (and crying) and not getting anywhere with a decent result with the 'traditional method' which just is not in my wheel house.



See..offset. More color on the front (yellow) and a thinner line of red on the back (white) and that extra little line of 'quilting' right beyond it. That method is brilliant. So. much. EASIER.



And here it is all laundered and crinkly. All the heart eyes!

And just so ya know, tiny red threads are the new cat hair around here. I've swept and mopped and dusted and I still find tiny red threads from ripping out the binding. It makes me smile because instead of looking at the defeat of ripping it out, I know there was victory of actually putting in a very nice looking binding and being happy with it. Yes!

imperfections

I"m still working on my quilt. I'm about a little over half way finished with the machine quilting. I have done all the seams going across the quilt, and now I am doing all the ones going up and down. A seam on each side of the 'ditch", where pieces come together.



I have kept working for another week from the beginning of this writing and now I am half way done sewing on the binding. I have sewn it on, but then I have to fold it around to the front of the quilt and sew it down all the way around, finishing the edge and encasing all the raw edges.

Y'all.

It's been a thing.

All along the way,  all I could think about was the next project. What do I want to make next? Maybe the cat block or one called the two step. I couldn't decide.

This week I've really been pushing to get this project across the finish line. I am excited but also beginning to be burned out a little bit. This is the largest sewing project I have ever taken on (hmm except for maybe all the lined curtains in my house lo a many years ago when I felt young and fresh and crawling around on the floor measuring and pinning was no big woop).

Well friends...I think I am old. I'm ready to get my dining room back and not have decor shoved aside so I can pile sewing boxes and piles of do-dads everywhere. I'm over it.

And another thing is that the struggle is real putting on a binding. It kicked my tail when I made the class projects but I wondered if it was because the angles were wonky and there weren't any true actual 90* corners. But I am on the struggle bus again with this piece that has regular corners and it is really annoying. Three of the corners are perfect or close to perfect and the fourth one had to be messed with and picked out and resewn a smidge just to make it okay.

so. bummed.

But ya know what, it really is ok. I'm not entering it into any quilt fairs. I'm just cuddling up with it on the couch. And after it gets washed, it will be super crinkly and yummy anyway.

I hate that one corner that doesn't measure up to what I wanted it to be..which is far below what a pro would call perfect. My perfect. But I will smile and know I did my best for my first real piece and love it forever and like it for always.



My grandmother pieced this sailboat quilt,  probably when she was younger than I am now.  It was just a pieced top at the time of her passing and my aunt quilted it for me and gave it to me as a wedding gift. Do you want to know what I noticed recently? An imperfection! I have had this quilt since 1991 and noticed that one boat has upside down sails a few weeks ago.

And so my little quilt with a less than perfect mitered corner (and quite a few other little hiccups) will be just fine.

from scrappy to happy #anactualquilt

I decided shortly after I finished both of my table runners that I really did want to make a quilt.

Like really.

I have been watching youtube videos etc and had made a few decisions. I wanted something pretty 'scrappy'. I wanted to be able to make a block and if I messed it up, no big deal. Because it would just 'go' and not be all matchy matchy. I felt like that gave me permission to mess up and not be utterly stressed out about it.

Because y'all...quilt fabric is pricy! I am so used to the fabric at Hobby Lobby and it always being on sale etc and this is whole new experience.

Side note...quilt fabric is pretty much the Cadillac of cotton sewing fabric..more fibers per inch etc which makes for a much better end product. Now you know...because I sure didn't.

I watched a video by Jenny Doan...who I am obsessed with, by the way..she is just such a cute lady and she makes it look like you really can do it. Well I saw a video on 'tiny houses' and I was hooked. I grabbed some scraps and tried to make one.




Success! I loved it. But I didn't have a ton of scraps laying around so I invested in some. I bought some cute fat quarters and a few grab bags of scraps at some local quilt shops. And commenced to making a few more houses.

And then it hit me...I have to make way over 100 of these for a throw sized quilt.

*insert the bug eyed emoji here*

And I know myself well enough that it was going to turn into a negative experience and I didn't want that. Because I really did/do want a quilt that I made myself..that I can snuggle up on the couch with.

So! Change of plans.

I remembered a pattern I had pinned months ago..'in case' I ever made a quilt. It's a SIMPLE four patch with a larger square next to it and that is repeated for the entire quilt. An easy beginner pattern, which the tiny houses were not. I went back to my favorite of the three shops and asked for help and showed them my fabric pieces. And then looked around and found the cutest fabric that coordinated pretty well with it, for the big squares.



I got started making squares.





(that is how the back of a perfect four patch looks..with a tiny four patch in the middle that distributes the bulk very well)



And before long, my top was finished. Verrrry scrappy. It's not a pretty quilt, by all the fancy standards, but its beautiful to me because I made it. :)

I really was wishing I could have sent my top up a flag pole or something...LOOKIE AT WHAT I DID ALL BY MYSELF. I'm such a dork but I was so happy I made it 'that far', because honestly I wasn't sure if I could do it.

But I did. :)

I went back to the cute little shop and found backing fabric that is in the same line as my yellow squares..and its got little squares all over it which to me seemed perfect for my humble little scrappy only a 'mother' could love, quilt.




Isn't it cuuuute? And the red peaking out on the right side, is the binding. It matches my red small squares perfectly.

I got my back ready, and then pin basted it and started quilting on my almost 30 year old BASIC Kenmore sewing machine (with a walking foot). I am straight line quilting on both sides of my seams etc so it will be a square double line grid all over. Again..simple.



I sent that photo to a friend and she said it looked like my quilt was trying to eat my sewing machine. Pretty accurate. It was overwhelming at first and I just wasn't sure it would even be possible for me to quilt on my 'regular' sewing machine. But I found a you tube video showing how to do it and it really hasn't been that bad. Tedious but not hard. I am working from the center out and have quilted half of it, going across. I have the other half and then both halves going up and down.

It's a marathon, not a sprint.



(blue lines drawn on seams so I can keep track of where to sew)

I think it's going to turn out cute and I am falling more and more in love with my little ugly duckling quilt.

touching my toe into the waters #quilting

I have always been amazed by quilts. I have a baby quilt that was made for me by my grandmother. I used it and even carried it on car trips etc until it started to fray and now it lives on my quilt rack. I have a few that were my mother's and I was given a quilt my grandmother pieced and my aunt quilted as a wedding present.

I love quilts. The patterns.  Stars, stripes, bear claws,  squares, triangles..and a bunch of other shapes I don't know the names of. The colors. Every color in the rainbow.  The fabrics. Everything from quilting fabric to well, feed sacks and old clothes, way back when. Quilting has come a long way. 

But quilts are intimidating. I always looked at other's creations with all the heart eyes..and a little bit of jealousy if I am just being honest.

I recently noticed that a local sewing machine and quilt shop has beginner quilting classes...what are the odds? LOL So I decided to sign up. I had to wait a couple of weeks from when I signed up to actually go to my class and I was so antsy and excited.

My first class was last Tuesday and my second class was day before yesterday. Next Tuesday is the last class. (we will come on another day to bind our quilt after we complete the quilting on our own).
The teacher is the sweetest and so is her helper. There are six of us in the class and four of us are left handed. I am used to being the minority, so that has been kind of funny.

The project we are all doing is a table runner. A very doable first project with lots of opportunity to learn different blocks and some beginner technique.

My first cuts and pieces. This was created on our first night.




This is the background fabric...it has bluebonnets on it. Those are the state flower of Texas and they have my heart big time.


And this is my almost completed top. I could not believe we made so much progress in two evenings.


I am so proud of it. I hope I don't get stuck and unable to finish. So far it has gone together so well and the teacher is so encouraging that it makes me feel like I really can do it. :)

I knew that week to week I would forget what we learned so I grabbed some fabric at Hobby Lobby to make another one so I could reinforce it all in my mind. I am just as excited about that one as the official class one. And if it actually turns out, it will be a gift so that is fun.

Such pretty colors!



Squares done but I can't remember how to square them up. So I will carry them to class next week and let her show me again. And then I can sew on the sashing. And do whatever else we learn next week.




I don't see me becoming a super fancy quilter but I am excited to perhaps create a few simple projects that are useful and pretty. So fun. Even an old dog like me can maybe learn a new trick. :)