Sunday, October 19, 2025

Out of the Dark Blog Hop Starts Today, My Day

                                                                  



The Out of the Dark Blog Hop starts today, hosted by the fabulous Joan @Moosestash Quilting.  I appreciate her and Carol having two more blog hops this year.  

For my project, I worked on a kit I had bought several years ago from Shabby Fabrics called Midnight Silhouette by Blackbird Designs.  I got the top finished, but not quilted yet.  I was at a quilting retreat this past week, and I got a couple of the ladies to hold it up for me.  


Be sure and check out the other bloggers and see what they have come up with for the Out of the Dark Blog Hop.  The line up is below. 

Thanks for stopping by!

                                                      

                                                         Monday Oct 20



Slow Sunday Stitching

 It has been another busy month.  Last time I posted was September 14th.  I was getting ready the next week to go on a 5 day quilting retreat to Zephyr Cove in Lake Tahoe.  The next week, two days after guild meeting I got a horrible sore throat and headache.  We were told if we were sick in any way, to not come.  I had my bags packed already, supplies and machine.  I took a Covid test and it was positive, so I was not able to go.  Unfortunately, you could only get a refund 30 days before the retreat.  

Thankfully I healed fairly quickly, and became by the next weekend.  Granddaughter Kyleigh and fiance Drew got me a ticket to see Stevie Nicks in concert.  Daughter Kristen and son-in-law Jeff also went.  It was such a wonderful concert and a dream come true for me.  



Back in September one of my hearing aids stopped working, they were out of warranty, and I decided to get them through Kaiser this time.  I had to wait for an appointment, and then wait for them to come in.  I wore 1 hearing aid for about 6 weeks, but they finally came in last week and I am very thankful.  

The other thing that happened, was that last Sunday I turned 75.  Kyleigh asked what I wanted to do, and I asked to go to Half Moon Bay.  Kyleigh, daughter Katie, granddaughter Klara and I went to Half Moon Bay for the day.  It was a little chilly, but I loved being at the ocean again.  We also went to the orchid nursery and had a nice Mexican lunch.  





Tuesday last week, Kyleigh came over to make a baby quilt for a friend of hers.  I had won some fabric on Instagram, and I cut it into 5 inch squares.  She sewed everything together and even quilted it herself.  I just made the label and put the binding on.


That day I had incredibly bad luck with my machines that day.  I had planned to work on 2 baby quilts, which I didn't get done in Zephyr Cove.  My Bernina Artista 185 started making birds nests and the bobbin was making noises.  This had just been in the shop less than a month ago, so I set it aside to take to the shop.  I got my Bernina 770 out of the case where it had been packed go to Zephyr Cove, and once started up, it had a picture on the screen telling me the feed dogs were down, and they weren't.  I watched videos for about 2 hours trying to get it fixed to no avail.  So Kyleigh and I took both machines in.  

Meanwhile I got this machine out of the closet.  It is a Singer 99, came in a wooden case, and I got it for my 13th birthday.  I haven't used it since 1973 when John bought me a Singer Touch and Sew.  


I oiled it, and sewed a seam, and it sewed just fine,  I rewound the bobbin, and then looked around for the bobbin holder and couldn't find it.  Two days later I realized that the bobbin case didn't come out.


Luckily I had a featherweight I could work on.  I have since gotten my 770 back, but apparently the Bernina guru at the sewing machine place got Covid and it will be awhile before I get that machine back.

The past couple of days I have been at a quilt day retreat.  We pay $50 for three days, and that is mainly for the prizes.  We have dinners, you can come and go as you want, just leave your stuff for 4 days, and go home at night.  My name was the first called and I got to pick out this beautiful layer cake in blues.


There is a quilt shop a couple of doors down from where we meet called Sew Katie Jean and they usually come over during our retreat, and 5 people's names are pulled out of a bag.  My name was called and these were my prizes.


What I have been working on at retreat are the two baby quilts I meant to get done last month.  The airplanes I need to put the borders on.


The ballerina girls need the sashings put on and borders.  


I also started putting my small economy blocks together. 



I also started working on Kyleigh's wedding quilt.



What I will be working on for Slow Sunday Stitching is the vintage double wedding ring.  


I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching and https://quiltingpatch.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by!


Sunday, October 12, 2025

Out of the Dark Blog Hop Coming Soon

 


The Out of the Dark Blog Hop is coming next week, hosted by the fabulous Joan @Moose Stash Quilting.  I have the top for my project completed and am looking forward to seeing what everyone has done.  The schedule for the blog hop is below.

Monday Oct 20

Sunday, September 14, 2025

SLOW SUNDAY STITCHING

 Last week was pretty relaxing, able to work on my own projects for the most part.  I did have Community Service Pin Basting Day, and one day had lunch with my friend Jandra, who happens to be Kyleigh's fiance's grandmother.  

I made Jandra a bag like the one I made for Kyleigh's BD and I had also made myself one.  This one is mine, and Kyleigh's was similar.  Jandra's had beige handles.



This week I also made a bag for my stepdaughter Dawn's BD.  Dawn likes turtles and I had bought this panel to make a bag sometime ago.  I decided to use Soft and Stable to pad it.


A project that got put on hold with my broken arm was an on-line quilt class I was taking with Angela Walters, Negative Spaces Quilt Along.  I bought the panel and did the first lesson, and then broke my arm.  The second lesson was for the patterns on the blue section, which I got done this week.  I am hoping to finish this up and bind it and give it to my youngest granddaughter Klara for her birthday in late October. 





I also got some applique prepped for the upcoming Out of the Dark Blog Hop hosted by Joan at Moose Stash Quilting.  This is one of my projects for my upcoming Zephyr Cove quilting retreat.


The highlight of the week was Saturday when my family and I and went to help granddaughter Kyleigh pick out a dress for her wedding next October.  She looked beautiful in everything she put on.  We went to two bridal places.  




This was the group that was helping her choose.






I'm not saying what she chose, but I think she did make a choice today.

What I will be working on for Slow Sunday Stitching continues to be the vintage double wedding ring restoration.  


I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching and https://quiltingpatch.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, September 13, 2025

Scrap Happy September

It’s again time for showing off our scrap projects!  ScrapHappy is open to anyone using up scraps of anything – no new materials. It can be a quilt block, pincushion, bag or hat, jewelry, dolls, socks or a sculpture.   Anything made of scraps is eligible.

If you'd like to join us and use up your scrap collection, instead of sitting around in bags, etc, why not join us on the 15th of each month? Either e-mail Kate at the address on her Contact Me page, or leave a comment on her Scrap Happy Post.

I've been absent a couple of months.  I broke my arm and wasn't blogging.  I am currently getting ready for a quilt retreat soon.  

In July, we had another 5th Wednesday for my quilt guild Community Service.  I spent about 10 days cutting up flannel scraps for more Potato Chip quilt kits.  I was able to make up 6 kits.  





My granddaughter is getting married next October and I am making a Double Wedding Ring quilt.  The centers and ovals are not scraps, but everything else is.  I spent over a week cutting the pieces out on my Accuquilt.  I will be going on a quilt retreat later this month and this is one of the projects I am going to work on.



That's it for this month.

Be sure and visit the other bloggers below and see what they have been up to.  

KateEvaSue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan
Moira, SandraChrisAlys,
ClaireJeanDawnGwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue LVera, 
 Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
NóilinVivKarrin,  Alissa,
TierneyHannah and Maggie

Thanks for stopping by!



Sunday, September 07, 2025

SLOW SUNDAY STITCHING

 It was a busy week all around.  This was the week for our guild board meeting.  This week I continued to prepare for my upcoming Zephyr Cove quilt retreat.  I got more of Kyleigh's Double Wedding Ring pieces cut out.  

Also Kyleigh's best friend is having a baby boy in February, and his father is a pilot, so I found a pattern on Etsy, and got it all cut out as well.  This was a pattern by One Bee Lane.

Thursday I had two appointments, with the dental hygienist, in which I was determined I needed to have some "deep cleaning" in several months.  

The second was with the hearing aid specialist after a hearing test.  One of my hearing aids stopped working three weeks ago.  I found out earlier in the year that my current hearing aids were out of warranty and would no longer be serviced by my prior hearing aid specialist.  I decided to go with the Kaiser system this time and they have been ordered and will arrive in a couple of weeks, and I have an appointment October 8th.  

Friday afternoon was spent setting up this year's Begonia Show and Sale.  These were the sale plants.  



This was an arrangement I made for our auction table. When I ;eft Saturday afternoon it had the highest price on it of $45.



These are some of the entries in this year's show:





These are what came home with me:  I have a lot of repotting to do next week.  I got 12 plants in total.  I went a little crazy!



The show ends tomorrow, I'll need to go pick up my plants after the show.

What I will be working on for Slow Sunday Stitching is repairs on the vintage quilt.    

I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching and https://quiltingpatch.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, August 31, 2025

It's Been A Long Couple of Months!

 When last I wrote, we had just had our annual quilt show, the last day of which I acquired a black eye when a staghorn fern fell on my face.  Later that weekend my family and I flew into Albuquerque to see grandson Jaeger graduate from University of New Mexico in Nuclear Engineering.




He was accepted as an intern at the Sandia Facility, and plans to stay in New Mexico and get his Master's.  We are all so proud of him.  

I came home the next weekend and went to write my Slow Sunday Stitching post, and my laptop, which was two weeks shy of being a year old was not charging.  I took it up to Best Buy and they sent it off somewhere to be looked at.  It was gone for over a month, and I finally got it back.  While it was gone I tried using my old computer, but I couldn't download the pictures as they were in heic format and I couldn't translate them to jpeg.  On my computer that was in the shop I had downloaded a program that translates the photos, but I didn't want to purchase it again.  

After I got my computer back,  for some reason it wasn't downloading the pictures from my phone anymore.  I tried once, and it started downloading pictures from the beginning of time, I couldn't press the button that said "download new photos".  But somehow the last couple of days it has straightened itself out.  It has continued to  have problems the last three weeks.  

July 9th we were getting family pictures in a park down the road from me.  It was one of those days that 3 things happen.  I got in my car and tried to start it.  It took 3 tries and it finally started.  I prayed all the way to my destination but I made it.  I turned my car off, and then immediately tried to start it again and it was dead.  All this stress caused my irritable bowel to start up.  I headed over to the park bathroom, but it was bolted shut.  My family got there, and I told them I needed to use the restroom "right now".  My daughter Kristen told my grandson Keaton to take me to a bathroom.  There was a Starbucks down the street which saved me.  

We got back to the park and the rest of my family was there, including SIL Jeff's parents.  We started walking down the paved path, and I got about 6 feet into the park and stepped on a rock and twisted my ankle, fell on my hip, hit my elbow and scraped the skin off my palm.  Kyleigh and Andrew got me back up on my feet.  My elbow felt a little strange but we went on to take around 200 pictures.  I wasn't in all of them, but some of them, but I smiled for those I was in.


After the picture session was over, granddaughter Kyleigh took me to the ER where I was discovered to have a broken elbow and was placed in a splint for 6 weeks.  I had landed on my hip and ended up having a basketball sized bruise on my hip, but thankfully no broken hip, just a large seroma which gradually disappeared.




The first three weeks I didn't do much of anything but read 8 books.  

After I visited the orthopedist about that time, he said I could take the splint off while in the house, being sedentary. so I started hand sewing again, and using the sewing machine. 

Before all of this happened we celebrated my SIL Jeff's BD in Santa Cruz.  Grandson Jaeger was here with his girlfriend Shiri


In August, we celebrated granddaughter Kyleigh's 25th birthday.  



We also celebrated daughter Katie's BD.  I made her this table mat with an owl on it.  She set it up on her area at work.   



I have been working on some projects recently.  I made three By Annie projects.  I made one of the Two Big Bags.  


I also made the Catch All Caddy.



I also made the Hot and Heavy Bag for my small iron I take on retreats.


All of these are in preparation for a quilting retreat I am going on soon.  Those three bags took over 2 weeks to do.  I had to watch some of the By Annie videos multiple times.  I am proud I got all the zippers installed.  Zippers are not usually my friend.  

My granddaughter Kyleigh is getting married next October, and I started cutting out her wedding quilt.  I am making a double wedding ring, and thankfully I have the Accuquilt die for this.  I have been busy cutting out all the components.  I will need 81 blocks for a setting 9x9.  There are 54 pieces in each block, a total of 4374 parts.  This will be totally scrappy.

I've been cutting for 4 days now.  I have all the centers cut out, as well as the oval pieces.  I am busy cutting up scraps for the arc components.  



Back in May at our second day of the quilt show, an elderly woman appeared with a quilt in a plastic bag.  She asked one of the women at the admissions desk if she knew of anyone that could restore old quilts.   They immediately brought her over to where I was sitting at the Community Service table.  I looked at it briefly and asked if I could take it home, which she allowed.  I contacted her several days later and told her I would do it, but it would probably take 6 months or so, I quoted a price of $300 which is way, way, way low.  But it was my mistake, so I will stay with that price.  

I have been working hours and hours each day on this.  I have been replacing the worn pieces with old feedsack pieces, and the white with vintage pillowcases I am cutting up.  My plan has been to work on the outside pieces first, and replace the binding, then work on the inside.  I took about a month off because of my injury but am back at work on this as my slow stitching project.  I still need to to quilt the big white centers.  It is really calming to work on this vintage quilt.  The elderly woman who brought it in said her grandmother made it for her father.  




This is what I will be working on for Slow Sunday Stitching.  I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  

Check out the Hand Quilt Along links too!  

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

KathyMargaretDebSharonKarrinDaisy, and Laura

Thanks for stopping by!