Karrin's Crazy World

Tuesday, November 02, 2021

One Monthly Goal, November

It's time to link up a goal for One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts. Many thanks to Patty for all she does to keep us motivated.

My November One Monthly Goal is the same as last month's which I didn't get to work on at all. It is to quilt and bind this quilt which is my present to my sister for Christmas.

Linking up at Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal.

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Another week has flow by, and it has been a week of ups and downs. I was able to do a little sample quilt on my new Handi Quilter Moxie. I only had one snafu, when one of the cords got caught up and I didn't at first figure out what was going on. I didn't take it out though as it was a sample, and it is sitting at the back of a cabinet.

It worked perfectly otherwise. Today I decided to start quilting for real on my sister's Christmas quilt. I had meant to give it to her last year, but because of John being hospitalized in November and then needing more care, I never got around to quilting it. Well today did not go so well. I quilted about a 6 x 24 inch section before I realized something was wrong. I had a huge birds nest underneath. I am still picking it out.

The little sample quilt I made, I used to put in a cabinet I had cleared out. My brother-in-law Roger for my BD gave me 11 six inch Yolanda Bello Picture Perfect Babies. I have an extensive doll collection, and he gave me these. I wanted something to lay underneath them in the cabinet.

My other not so good happening this week was to my mini I-pad. I had felt like cooking and made my daughters families some potato soup, and beef stroganoff, and I made deliveries to their homes. I had been having stomach issues, like heartburn despite my 2 stomach pills, so I stopped at CVS on the way home. I had my I-pad with me and put in my door pocket while I ran in the store. I got home, and got my stuff out of the car, and realized I didn't have my I-pad. I drove back over to my daughter's house and my grandson showed me how to locate it on my phone. It said it was up at CVS. I looked all over the parking lot, asked about it inside. Then I noticed it was moving. My grandson and I tracked it down, miles away at someone's house. My SIL advised us to call the police and wait for them. But when they got there, my SIL went and knocked at the house in question. It was a police officer's house, and apparently his wife found it in the CVS parking lot.

I guess what happened was that the I-pad must have fallen out when I took my mask out of the door pocket. Then I ran over it! This is what it looks like now.

I tried to use John's I-pad but his is too old to update. It is stuck on IOS 10, and my apps are at 13. I spent 1/2 a day trying to get his to work, but finally gave up and ordered a new one. Unfortunately it won't arrive till the end of November or first part of December. I do have my old I-pad before this damaged one, which doesn't have much memory and I am using as a trade-in. I can use it until I get the packaging to send if off. I use my I-pad for just about everything, reading, I save quilt patterns on it, play Words with Friends, just about everything but blogging. So enough about bad news.

This week we celebrated my youngest granddaughter Klara's 8th BD. We had a nice pizza dinner and ice cream cake.

The other good thing that happened this week was that I finally figured out a recipe. This taqueria up the street from me had a dish called Camarones A la Kora. I fell in love with it, and had it about 3 times, but the restaurant tends to cook the shrimp too much. It is sauteed shrimp and then they put a chili and lime sauce over it. So I have been looking all over the internet to see if I could find a recipe. All the demos on You Tube were in Spanish. I finally found one that had subtitles of ingredients. I made it this week, and it was pretty much like the one at the restaurant, and I was really happy to have discovered it. I need to cut down on the salt it said because it was too salty. But it was enough for 3 meals.

The other good thing I started this week was working on my Ella Maria Deacon blocks. I have not worked on these really since John started going downhill last November. I love applique, and it is comforting to me. I don't know why I haven't been able to until now. I used to do my handwork at night watching TV with him. It felt good getting back to this.

This is what I will be working on for Slow Sunday Stitching, and will be linking up at Kathy's Quilts. Head on over and check out what everyone has been doing.

Saturday, October 23, 2021

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!

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Ghastly Ghouls Blog Hop, My Day

Today is the third day of the Ghastly Ghouls Blog Hop, and also my day. Many thanks to the fabulous Carol @Just Let Me Quilt. The past two days have had some wonderfully creepy projects. Be sure and check them out, the full schedule is below.

Right after I signed up for this hop, I got an email from Bird Brain Designs and I saw a cute Halloween kit, which some squirrel encouraged me to buy. I love embroidery, and wool projects. The kit had everything in it, including the cute wagon buttons!

As I have also been on a gnome kick, I noticed this Candy Corn Gnome video and instructions at Ruffles and Rain Boots. There are very good instructions, but I had numerous do-overs on this one. I followed the directions for using alcohol ink to dye the beard and hat. I didn't like the first attempts, and did it over. I still have yellow and orange fingers and nails. I guess I should have worn gloves, but the deed was already done. The next problem I had was my personal problem. I am a Glue Gun 101 dropout. I always get glue all over the place and don't glue what I want to. She just folded the fleece over and glued them. Again I got glue all over the place and wasn't happy. I tried sewing them, but wasn't able to turn them inside out. I finally glued with some craft glue. She has a pattern for the bag, but wasn't able to get it printed and cut on my Cricut. I finally just printed it. I had to shrink the bag though I probably should have shrunk it a bit more,

Anyway this is the final product. I just love him so much!

The cute little bag has two sides.

I had one more project I wanted to do. A number of years ago I bought this paper mache pumpkin and wanted to do something with it. I decided I wanted to finish it for this blog hop. I spray painted it and managed to get paint all over my favorite leggings, carrying it into the house where it could dry quicker. I cute out the crow on my Cricut with vinyl and attached it to the pumpkin.

Thanks for stopping by, and again thanks to Carol @Just Let Me Quilt for another fun blog hop! Be sure and check out the other bloggers below.

OCTOBER 18

Creatin' in the Sticks
Inflorescence
Samelia's Mum
Songbird Designs
Ink Torrents

OCTOBER 19

Just Sew Quilter
Quilted Delights
Websterquilt
Patchouli Moon Studio

OCTOBER 20

Scrapdash
Homespun Hannah's Blog
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Karrin’s Crazy World

OCTOBER 21

Kathy's Kwilts and More
For The Love Of Geese
Quilt Schmilt
Words & Stitches
Home Sewn By Us

OCTOBER 22

Just Let Me Quilt
Quilt Fabrication
Selina Quilts
Ms P Designs USA

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Ghastly Ghouls Blog Hop Starts Today

Today is the start of the Ghastly Ghouls Blog Hop hosted by Carol @Just Let Me Quilt. I am excited to see what everyone has been working on. My day will be on Wednesday, October 20th. The entire schedule is listed below.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sunday, October 10, 2021

Ghastly Ghouls Blog Hop Coming Up

The Ghastly Ghouls Blog Hop is coming up October 18-22. I can't wait to see what everyone is doing. The full schedule is below.

OCTOBER 18