Odds and Ends

Okay folks, remember to press to the dark side.

I spilled on a table runner I made a few years ago so I washed it...some of it came out with the second washing. There were two blocks, but only one ran.  Kinda worried as I have that fabric in a lot of quilts.

This one was weird...the background fabric turned green (???). It was a cream. Everywhere it was used turned green.

This is my addiction (notice bag is empty), I love these jelly beans and I'm so happy they are only around during Easter or all my teeth would probably fall out from the sugar.

I wanted something sweet a few days ago - and the pantry was empty. Instead of finding / fixing something healthy I made candied almonds.

 OMG these were good! Sugar, water, cinnamon and almonds. These could be a problem as I always have those ingredients around the house. (This is all that is left - the tub was originally full - oink oink) You can find the recipe here with a video but I warn you they are really addicting.

I picked up another donation quilt from my guild. This time I checked the back and the pinning. Back wasn't too bad but the pinning was an issue again. Batting size was a little iffy also.

I'm sorry, but this is a quilt only a mama could love and I'm not it's mama. Squaring this up after it is quilted is going to be a challenge. I'm going to do a simple meander. It didn't come with binding fabric...what do you think? dark green? yellow? red?

I do have a finish I want to share, but it's a surprise, so I have to wait another week to show you.
 

Oops, Almost Forgot

I almost forgot what day it was, even turned off the computer. But I'm doing such a good job of posting every Monday I don't want to break my posting streak.

The civil war sampler top is finished...the pattern called for two narrow borders but I didn't like it and couldn't find any fabrics in my stash that I thought would work as borders. But I did want it bigger, so I made four more block and four long rails. I like the results.

And yes, it is pinned and ready to quilt.  I want to quilt Baptist Fans on the quilt so I ordered Barb's quilting template. I probably should have waited until I received the template and marked the top before pinning the quilt. Oh well.

I finished this little project this morning. I think I started it two years ago. Wouldn't think something so little would take so long huh?
 

Have to show a few funny Bella pictures... I shoved the dinning room table to the side and stacked the chairs so I would have room to pin the quilt. Only Bella would walk the chair rungs.

Doesn't she look like she is really studying the quilt picture?  She isn't.

She is intently watching the pushpin holding the calendar up.  What you can't see is how wet the back of her head is.  She goes for the pushpin, I squirt her with the water bottle. She sits back and starts watching the pin again. She normally gets squirted four or five times before she will jump down. This happens at least twice a day.
 

Feels like Spring

Since when does 56 degrees feel like Spring? I didn't mean to work in the yard today, but it was soooo sunny and pretty out. My front and back yard appear to have a bunch of bulbs starting to bloom...

I have two daffodils so far.
 

Pansies (I know, not bulbs) that survived the snow.

Maybe a hyacinth? 

Crocus's? I also have them in a dark purple.

I watered a little - we've had very little rain, trimmed a couple of shrubs, and sprayed lots of weeds. Technically I have a front and back lawn but both are so small. The front gets lots of sunlight, the back gets none at all. I'm already trying to figure out how to convert the back lawn to something else...maybe a paver patio?

I used this book to make four additional blocks for my sampler.

Not related to Lincoln, but I really like the blocks.

I could easily make a whole quilt out of the first three blocks. The pink one was a booger to make. If I ever make it again I will not use the book's method which is all triangles.

Can't wait for tomorrow, it's supposed to be 64 degrees - my kinda heat wave. ;o)
 

Happy Dance

 
I had my first visitor here in Oregon! Stephanie flew in for a few days last week. Thursday we did a bit of sewing...

Stephanie made microwave bowl holders from some of my scrap fabrics. Isn't this cute, she fussy cut the lighthouse.

And I worked on my blackwork sampler.

Thursday night Stephanie had a bit of food poisoning (yes, it was from my cooking). So Friday was a quiet day other than going over to my mom's for dinner and cards.

The Land of Lincoln Sampler didn't sit for long. Steph and I brainstormed and decided normal borders around the quilt wouldn't look right but if I made it bigger with rail borders and more sampler blocks for cornerstones it would look good. I've got everything cut out and will start sewing again tomorrow.
 

Quilting and Blogging

 
Sometimes I wonder how much quilting I would get done if it wasn't for this blog. There are a lot of weeks when Sunday comes around and I haven't sewn a stitch. Then I start wondering what I'm going to blog about on Monday. This was one of those weeks. I have excuses - putting the house back together again after the painters, lots of cleaning, a head cold that hit on Saturday. But they are definitely excuses, I've had the time but didn't start sewing until about 9:30 p.m. Sunday night (I'm a night owl).

Sunday night I sewed all of the blocks into rows. Tonight I sewed all the rows together and stay stitched the outer edges. (picture shows the blocks sewn into rows)

The pattern calls for two borders. I'm not sure if I have any fabric with enough yardage that will work for the borders. Most of my fabric is still packed up and I decided there is no point in unpacking it as I'll just have to pack it back up again in a few weeks when new carpet is installed.

So I'm going to put this quilt away for a bit. Now I need to figure out what to work on next...maybe I should start blogging more that once a week so I don't wait until next Sunday to decide on my next project. ;o)

 

Watching Paint Dry

Watching paint dry is BORING!  But it is now done. They left for the final time about 5 p.m., complaining about the long day and how hard they had worked finishing everything up. Not much sympathy from me as they didn't get here until 10:30. I've never had construction workers / painters show up so late in the mornings. The earliest was 9:30, the latest was noon. The job is done and I love the new color.

You can't tell it much from this picture but the paint is a much lighter color. Previously it was a mocha / latte brown - walls and ceiling, now it is a goldy white - walls and ceiling.

Makes the room look much larger and brighter. For all the windows, my bedroom and the living room were not very bright. Now they are.

Here is Bella inspecting the top of the wall to make sure they didn't miss a spot.

And here she is pushing the limits - she is not allowed on the kitchen counter tops.

Not much new sewing / stitching wise. I got the fifth week's block completed and a large portion of the frames.

I messed up the order of the frames (the long frames were supposed to be rows five and nine). There was potential for another bleep moment but I decided it was a design choice. ;o)

The rest of this week will be spent putting everything back where it was. I think I'm going to move some things around in the sewing room. With any luck I'll be able to get some sewing done this weekend.
 

Triple Bleep

 
I'm having the whole inside of my new house painted. Unfortunately I picked the wrong contractor. He's a very nice guy, and his crew is very nice, however I don't think (with one exception) any of them have painting experience. They have worked five days and there is not one room that is 100% finished. (Insert bleep here.)

I don't know why I unpacked, with the painting my sewing room had to be dismantled, all the closets emptied, and a lot of stuff was moved out to the garage which is now a mess again. Most of the furniture is covered in plastic.

(Insert second bleep here.)

Remember my showing these two pictures last week...

(Insert third bleep here.) The two pieces that are circled are the two I wanted to turn. They are not the two pieces I turned in the second picture. I'm not taking it apart again.

 

While I've been babysitting painters and watching paint dry, I did get caught up with the black work stitch along and have about half the frames stitched. Wednesday will be a new filler design.

Sorry about the language, hopefully next week will be better.