Hand Quilt Along, Slow Sunday Stitching, Long Post

It's hard to believe another three weeks have gone by, and it is almost Halloween!   I have not done much handwork in the last three weeks, much less any sewing on my machine.  I did finish my projects for the Ghastly Ghouls Blog Hop.  My day was here.  I finished my little stitchery "Jack's Ride".

I also finished hand stitching the binding on the guild charity quilt.  

Please see the hand quilting links below, and check out what everyone has been working on.  

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.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, and Daisy

Last year before John started going downhill I was working on the Ella Maria Deacon quilt.  I stopped working on them and I still have about 12 blocks to do to finish the top.   I have prepped a bunch of blocks and I intend to use those for my hand stitching the next couple of weeks.  I will be working on this for Slow Sunday Stitching  I will be linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.    Head on over and see what people are working on there too.  

Last Saturday we had a visit with our nephew visiting from Virginia with his friend.  Both of my daughters and 3 grandchildren came over some pizza, and we attended grandson Keaton's soccer game across the street.  Apparently Keaton broke his toes in 2-3 places either kicking or someone kicked him.  He is now in a boot.  

My nephew is 6'9".   The girls and I look like midgets in this picture.  

The next morning the girls and I went on the Breast Cancer walk with some of Kristen's coworkers from the State Capitol to Tower Bridge, and then had a lovely brunch at a restaurant along the river.  

What I have been doing for the last few weeks is downsizing, and rearranging about 3 rooms.  I recently got a new Handi Quilter Moxie.  I had the original Handi Quilter set up they came out with to begin with.  You taped some plastic rails to a board, clamped the board to a table.  Then clamped the side pieces on that the poles hooked into.  That was in 2001 I first got this.  It was before the Handi Quilter 16 came out.  So I always used a Juki machine with this set up, which had a 9" throat space.  

I got the Moxie set up in my old office, and cleared off most of the bookshelves, either by downsizing the books and magazines, or moving a bunch of stuff to the bookshelves in my bedroom.  

Then I moved most of the books and magazines from my sewing room into room with my quilting machine.  In my sewing room, everything had gotten so cluttered I couldn't get to the books, I would have to move stuff to get to the shelves.  It was a horrible mess.  It almost looked like I was a candidate for the show Hoarders, though the rest of my house is not like that.  There was stuff all over the place on the floor, shelves, every surface.  

The woman who sold me the Moxie came over today to make sure I had assembled it right and I had.  I also was able do do a little sample quilting.  It works so smoothly, I love it!  So I new this Mary Lynn was coming over today, and I thought it would be too embarrassing for her to see the mess.  You know when you are organizing, it frequently gets worse before it gets better.  So I got up this morning early and I had the room organized by 10:30.  I had clean counters that had not been cleaned for several months, probably before John passed.  I had room to put stuff on bookshelves and really tidy things up.  The fabric shelves still need straightened up, but the majority of the room is really tidy.  

That last cabinet with the turtle block on it us on a lazy daisy type device and there are drawers on all 4 sides.  John had designed that himself.

The other big thing I did last week was get all of John's wood in one place so I can get rid of it.  It was all over the garage, and there was only about a 4 foot pathway that I could walk  to the freezer.  If I am able to get rid of the wood, I will be able to get the tools ready for sale.  

The other happenings this week were that my roof was finished, my solar panels back up.  The inspector will sign off on the job when the new wood on my chimney is primed.  Unfortunately it has been raining the last several days, and it is supposed to rain this next week.  

I am so happy to have all my messes cleaned up and now I can get back to my quilting and handwork.  I just can't seem to be creative in chaos, though I am the one that created it! 

 Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great week!