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.

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

Thanks for stopping by!

HQAL, SLOW SUNDAY STITCHING

 It  has been a very busy couple of weeks.  Two Saturdays ago was our neighborhood garage sale, and I spent all week gathering items and pricing them to have nothing much sold, just 25 cent items, or free items.  I did sell one of my knitting machines and some attachments though.  I plan to put the other one, and all of its components on sale on a Facebook group especially to sell  knitting machines and attachments.  

Last weekend was our guilds Red and White Extravaganza Show.  Other items were in the show, but the major categories were red and white quilts.  These are what I entered.

My mini-quilt group embroidered and quilted this cat one.  

These were some of the other beautiful quilts.  

I snagged quite a few items at our Country Store.  I got 2 hexie quilt tops for $10 each, and a bunch of vintage hexie blocks, and Grandma's Flower Garden and 20 Sunbonnet Sue blocks.

The last day of the show an elderly woman came in with a vintage double wedding ring quilt.  It was made by her grandmother for her father.   She talked to our member who was working admissions and they came over to me.  She was wondering if it could be restored.  I asked if I could bring it home with me to assess.  It wasn't too bad, needs some patches replaced, and needs to be re-bound.  I told her I would do it, it might take 6 months, and she was happy with that.  I went in an old dresser I have, I used to purchase vintage blocks off Ebay.  I found a double wedding ring block I am going to use the fabrics in it to replace some of the bad patches.  She said it brought tears to her eyes when I said I would do it.  Hard to take a good picture of it.  

I have continued working on the #scrappymeetsthrift challenge on Instagram hosted by Taryn #reproquilt lover.  I think I am up to 85 blocks out of 240.

I am also participating in the 100 hexies challenge by @sewfoxymama on Instagram.  I am up to 63.  I am going to use part of them as the front of a zippered supply case.  

The morning of our last day of the quilt show, I went to straighten out this staghorn fern on the side of my fireplace.  It was crooked.  It hangs about 6 feet up and is on a 2x4 that I had thoroughly soaked the day before so it was really heavy.   I tried moving it with one hand.  It came off the wall and hit me in the face just as I was about to leave for the quilt show.  It scraped off some skin, so I put a Bandaid on it and went to the show.  

The next day it started bruising.  I will be attending my grandson Jaeger's college graduation with a black eye, hopefully a little lighter in color.  

For Slow Sunday Stitching I will be working on this month's Liberty's Bird from Civil War Quilts by Barbara Brackman.

I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching, and  Frédérique @Quiltingpatch.

Check out the Hand Quilt Along Links Below.

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, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Laura

Thanks for stopping by!

HQAL, Slow Sunday Stitching

 It has been a busy couple of weeks.  I didn't have time last week to post, my oldest daughter and her family went back to South Dakota to a friend's daughter's wedding, and I had the pleasure of taking care of 4 of my grand dogs.  Apparently I overfed them treats when getting them back in their kennels, they were looking at me with such sad eyes though.  My daughter said I was a sucker!

Last week I received a great package.  I won an Island Batik FQ pack for participating in the Stay at Home Round Robin this year.

Last week I was able to finish the Civil War Mini Sew Along by Kathleen Tracy on Facebook.  

I also got caught up on the Scrap Meets Thrift Challenge by Reproquiltlover on Instagram.  These are 2 inch blocks and I now have 70 made out of 250.

This week I finished quilting my last entry for our quilt show in two weeks.  I just need to sew the binding down, and the label on. 

Check out the Hand Quilt Along Links below.

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, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Laura

I will be working on my binding for Slow Sunday Stitching.

I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching, and  Frédérique @Quiltingpatch.

HQAL, Slow Sunday Stitching

 

It was another busy week.  Tuesday morning I had a quilt guild board meeting and in the evening the Begonia Society board meeting was at my house.  There were 8 of us in attendance and I made sesame chicken and broccoli for dinner and brownies for dessert.  The rest of my week I have been trying to catch up on my projects.  Before the Begonia dinner though, I quilted my On the Road Again table runner.  

Last week in slow stitching, I finished the hand quilting on this.  I intend to make a pillow cover and it will be entered in our red and white quilt show in May.  It was started by a friend's mother in the guild who passed away last year.  She had cut out the Hawaiian applique, and had it basted, I appliqued it and quilted it.  

I also finished the Civil War Mini stitch along by Kathleen Tracy on Facebook.  I am in the process of hand quilting it.

 I got 10 more blocks done for the Scrap Meets Thrift Challenge on Instagram hosted by @reproquiltlover.  I am up to 38/250 2 inch blocks.  These are all made out of my Civil War reproduction scraps.

I also finished the first block on Barbara Brackman's new block of the month, Liberty's Birds.  

I have also been quilting on another quilt show entry.

I need to figure out what I am doing with the white part.  most of the other is quilted.

Saturday was my dear husband John's BD, he would have been 82.  This picture is one of my favorite.  We went to get family pictures, and he asked if he could bring his guitar for some pictures too.

My girls and their families that were in town went to our favorite Mexican Restaurant where John and I had gone to since we moved to town.  

Grandson Keaton was home several days for Spring Break, but was headed back to West Virginia Saturday night.  

I will be working on the Civil War Mini quilt above for Slow Sunday Stitching.  I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts.  

The links for the Hand Quilt Along are below.

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, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, Connie and Laura

Thanks for stopping by!

HQAL, Slow Sunday Stitching

This week was spent chasing several squirrels.  I saw this one snatching up food in my yard the birds had dropped.   Last Sunday, Melisa at Pinkernpunkinquilting mentioned that Kathleen Tracy at A Sentimental Quilter was  hosting  a Civil War Mini Sew Along.  I have tons of Civil War repros, and scraps and joined in this sew along.  I am caught up on all three weeks of blocks now.

Also last Sunday on Instagram I discovered that Reproquiltlover had started a Scrappy Meets Thrift Challenge making economy blocks.  I chose the 2 inch size which means I will probably be making 250 blocks, unless I decide to do a smaller size.  

I spent about 3 days rummaging through 3 bins of scraps and cutting them up.  I am paper piecing these, which are not my favorite thing to do, but this small I feel it is necessary.  I have had a few technical issues of the fabric folding up when I am trying to add a piece.  This is what I have accomplished so far.

I have thoughts of pursuing yet another squirrel, in the form of this quilt.  I haven't cut out any pieces yet, just thought of it.  I am attending a quilters day camp next week and have been trying to get my projects lined up.  

My daughter Kristen showed me this Birch Gnome quilt pattern, and I purchased from Lake Girl Quilts

I love gnomes and love birches, we had some for 40+ years until had to take them down due to disease.  I need to look through my fabrics and see what I can find in the ways of blacks and grays, and something for the birches.  

Also this week I quilted my SAHRR, and put the binding on.

My orchids are blooming like crazy,  

I had a little mishap earlier in the week.  My daughter Kristen and I were about to go to aqua yoga, when I got notification a package had been delivered from Amazon.  I got the package, took it in the kitchen, and my box cutter was missing from the junk drawer.  I pulled out a paint scraper that John had sharpened for me and proceeded to cut my left hand.   John would have told me what a dumb thing I did, and you should never cut toward yourself.  

Needless to say, there was no aqua yoga that night.  Kristen and granddaughter took me to the ER where I got 5 stitches.  

What I will be working on for Slow Sunday Stitching is the binding on my SAHRR.

I will also continue hand quilting on this piece that will be a pillow top for my friend.

 I will be linking up to Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.   Check out what is going on there, and also check out the Hand Quilting Links below.

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, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, Connie and Laura

 

Thanks for stopping by!