This and that

Miscellaneous pictures for you today. I'm focusing on house cleaning and quilting my customer quilt.

Several of you asked for a picture of the curtains I made for Joseph's room. Rick and Rebecca wanted simple curtains shirred on a rod with no header. Because of the print I was required to piece these horizontally rather than vertically, which was a bit of a challenge. I bought a bunch of extra fabric because of this. I think I did a good job - one has to look VERY closely for the seam. Unfortunately I made these from memory rather than checking one of my books so I didn't allow a very deep hem. Other than that I think they turned out well, and I have lots of fabric left to make Joseph a "big boy" twin bed quilt with the leftovers.

I have crossed two unfinished tops off my sidebar list - hooray! Both of these are from the early 1990's, which makes me even happier to have them finish. Neither will take long to quilt but must wait until my customer quilt is finished.

Grandmothers Choice, or Fancy Nine Patch, was supposed to have an inner appliqued scalloped border (you can see the picture in this post.) I really liked the look but decided I didn't want to spend that much time finishing this little quilt. So I went for a simple white inner border - from a different white-on-white print as I'd used up the other - and a wider red border. I bought one yard of the red last week at the beach, but added little of it to my stash.

As you can see I used the lighter green for the sashing on Pinwheel Daisy. Thank you to all of you who told me your preferences. It was so much fun reading the comments - and interesting to find the opinions divided almost evenly between all the choices! I chose this green because I thought it was the most authentic reproduction. I dug out another solid for the setting stones. I auditioned many reproduction fabrics for the outside border and thought this one looked the best with the colors of the sashing and setting stones. This used almost all the print. When I took the pictures I realized that these three choices have given the quilt top a much lighter pastel look than the blocks had themselves. (You can see the blocks by themselves in this post.) Not necessarily want I wanted, but what I got. When I showed it to Fred he commented, "Looks like an Easter quilt." I guess he is right - it's full of pastels found in Easter candy, dyed eggs, and other decorations. So that's what it will become - an Easter table topper.

I am gradually catching up on all my blog reading - some of you may find comments on very old posts LOL! This time I'm determined to keep up with everyone. I've really enjoyed seeing what everyone has been up to!

A new look - and a little bit more

When I was working I swore there weren't nearly enough hours in a day for everything I needed to do. Now that I'm retired I'm still swearing that's the truth. I mentioned that to my daughter this morning when we went to coffee. Her response? "Does that surprise you?" Of course not, but I thought it would be better than when I worked. I'm not sure it is - how did I ever manage to work!

I'm quilting a very large, difficult customer quilt right now that I must take a little at a time. Most quilts start talking to me as I'm putting them on the machine, telling me how they want to be quilted. This one isn't doing that, so it's somewhat of a struggle. I'm plugging on little by little, with faith that it will start talking to me pretty soon.

In the meantime I'm visiting a little with the kids and Joseph almost every day. It's so hard to stay away from that precious little boy. What a sweet, happy child he is!

Thursday was my regular monthly appointment to get my hair cut and colored. I hate my hair - it's so limp, straight and baby fine. There aren't many choices as to what I can do with it. Seems like I've worn it more or less the same way for years and years. I arrived at the appointment a little early. Kelly, whose done my hair for years and years, was finishing the women whose appointment was just before mine. She was more or less my age, and wore her hair the way so many older women wear it these days - short and spiked. It really looked good on her - that hair style looks good on so many older women. I happened to hear Kelly say, "this is a perfect style for your fine straight hair." When I got in the chair I asked her whether or not that style would work for me. "Absolutely!" was her reply. I asked her whether it would look good on me - she assured me it would. So I made an immediate, spur-of-the-moment decision. "Do it!" I told her.

Well, this is very different than I've ever worn my hair before. It didn't look like me at all when she was done. I like it! And it's so easy to do. I have no talent when it comes to hair, but this I can do. My husband likes it. My daughter doesn't like it at all. She thought I forgot to comb it before I came over LOL! My son will probably hate it too. Chelsea , if you are reading this you might warn him LOL!

I have managed to clean up my sewing room and spend a little bit of time on a project or two of my own. I'll have pictures of them soon - right now I'm still learning about my new camera. I don't want to connect it to the computer again until I figure out how to delete the pictures that have already been downloaded. I certainly don't need to download the pictures I've already taken for the third time LOL!

************

Gratitudes:

1. A beautiful sunny morning

2. Tasty leftovers for dinner

3. Bright spring pansies in front of the grocery store

4. A new rotary cutter blade

5. A relaxing pedicure and the resulting pretty red toe nails

Another fun give away

Head over to Blueberry Lane where a giveaway is being hosted. The prize is a book of pin cushion patterns - love making pin cushions! If you post a picture of your most used pin cushion on your blog you get your name in the drawing an extra time.

This has been my most used pin cushion for years. Two of my Tangled Threads friends had us make these at quilt group one night. They picked out appropriate fabric for each of us. They remembered me talking about how I loved to cut out paper dolls when I was a child, so mine is made from this very cute paper doll print. I love this pin cushion so much that I made a similar one for every one of my guild officers and committee chairs as a thank you for working so hard last year when I was president.

I sure hope I win - I love pin cushion patterns!

Please help me choose!

Here are the choices I have for sashing the Pinwheel Daisy quilt. Which do you like best? I'm having a terrible time deciding. I'd love your opinion!

I will also use one of these for setting squares - or maybe I'll use the yellow left over from the block centers. Setting squares make it so much easier to keep everything even when adding sashing. I will probably pick a print for the outside border - right now I have no idea which print that will be.

So, do you like the pink?

The poison green?

How about the purplish blue?

Maybe a lighter green?

Or a yellow that's a bit darker than the block centers?

What about this teal?

Too many choices for me!

Wasting time? I don't think so!

This is a day I really meant to focus on tasks at hand that need to be done. So have I accomplished that? Of course not! What have I done? A little bit of this, a little bit of that . . .

I looked at the clock at 6:30 or so. I really meant to get up. I really did. But the bed was so warm and comfortable. The next time I looked at the clock it was well after 8:00. It way have been after 8:30 - I can't remember. I got up and wrapped myself in my bathrobe, slipped on my slippers, and sat down at the computer with a hot cup of tea. I brought up Bloglines so I could continue to catch up on my blog reading.

The next thing I knew I was on my third or fourth cup of tea and it was after 11:00. I heated last night's leftovers for my breakfast-lunch and continued to read. I did start the dishwasher - does that count as cleaning? I hope so, as that's what I'm supposed to be doing today.

About 12:00 I decided I should take a shower. But first I came into the sewing room and stitched together the rest of the Pinwheel Daisy blocks. Whoops! One quarter of the last block is missing! I guess that's what happens when a UFO ages about 17 years between work sessions. Not a problem - I certainly have more unbleached muslin and 30's prints! I pressed all the finished blocks and pinned on the yellow centers ready for applique. Love this block - it was a great block for teaching curved seams. Gentle curves, a forgiving design that can be squared up easily without harming block integrity, and an appliqued center circle that hides any seams that don't come together correctly in the center!

Moving on - I certainly can't stop here to get in the shower. With the blocks nearing completion I need to choose a sashing color. I have some wonderful choices - I bought a bunch of reproduction 30's solids the last time I visited Anna Lena's. What to choose? Definitely a dilemma! Nothing to do but grab the new camera, take some pictures, then try loading the software and downloading them to the laptop. Mission accomplished! Check out the next post and give me your opinion - please! I can't figure out which one I should choose!

Enough pussy footing around - I have showered, dressed and dried my hair. There is now no reason whatsoever that I can't start on the house. After all, the tubs for the winter decorations have been out of the attic for over a week now, and I have lots of new Easter decorations to put out. So, is that what I'm doing?

Of course not! Now that I have new pictures I need to write a blog post. And I've not even cleaned my sewing room - it's worse than the last time I took pictures! Those of you who know me know how unusual this is. I guess it wasn't a good idea to take six to eight unfinished flimsies out of the drawers at the same time. I wonder if I can still tell which stuff goes with which?

OK - I guess I'll start cleaning now. But wait - the sun has come out and it's a beautiful day. I think I need to head to Starbucks for a frappachino first. Wouldn't you agree?

************

Gratitudes:

1. Retirement!

2. Grandchildren

3. My new camera takes great pictures!

4. An understanding husband who just wants me to be happy

5. Signs of spring popping up everywhere!

Joseph Pictures

So sorry - I just can't help myself. I'm such an excited Grandma! Rebecca sent us the first pictures they took of Joseph while they were in Guatemala last week. He is such a cutie pie. I apologize right now for being a doting Grandma - but I'm posting some of them. Not quilty but wonderful nevertheless!

Today I went to Costco and bought myself a new camera. This is not the time of life I want to be fighting with an unreliable camera! The next couple days will be busy learning to use it.

Beach retreat - group pictures

Just got some new pics via email from my friend Sue. Much better than those I took! The first picture was taken Sunday morning just before leaving. Note the beautiful blue sky which was with us for a good deal of the weekend. From left to right: me, Liz, Lanny, Kathi, Peggy, Kim and Sue. We sure hated to leave when the weather was so beautiful. This was taken right in front of the house - didn't we have a marvelous view! That's Haystack Rock you see in the background - the landmark of Cannon Beach. Peggy's husband arrived early Sunday morning to pick her up as they were heading to a bridge retreat on the coast at Newport, so he consented to be our photographer. Thanks Al!

Sue took the second picture from the balcony on Saturday night. From left to right: Liz, me, Lanny, Peggy, Kathi, and Kim. We'd had a big lunch at a nice bayside restaurant in Wheeler, a little town a little over 20 miles south of Cannon Beach so we didn't want much dinner. (There is a very funky quilt shop there that we visited on Saturday.) We had pizza delivered Saturday night - yum! We sat around munching pizza - and lots of candy as you can see on the table - doing handwork, and watching episode after episode of HGTV's "Divine Design" that Kim had recorded and brought along.

Quilting retreats with good friends are simply the best!

UFO's

Now that all my Crumb Chaos quilts are finished I decided switch my focus to unfinished tops during March. I dug out several very well aged projects to take with me to the beach. I think I've shown only one of these before. It's my goal to turn all of these into finished flimsies - with one exception - by the end of March. Think I can make it? I sure hope so!

The first is one you've seen before. Tangled Threads friends made most of these blocks for me shortly after I joined the group. The pattern is from the April 1990 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine, and I think they were made within a few months after the issue came out. The fabrics are certainly from the 1980's! I had seven blocks - all but one hand pieced - so I cut out two more for a nice size square table topper. I hand pieced the eighth block on Thursday. My friend Kim, who wasn't in the group that long ago, offered to hand piece the last block so she'd have a hand in the quilt too. I hand pieced the blocks to each other on Saturday - now they are just waiting for the last block - which I should have tomorrow. I bought one yard of red at Center Diamond for the scallops and the outside border as I had nothing bright enough in my stash. I think this will make a great summer table topper for our dining table. You can see what the border will look like on the scanned picture. I think this will make a great summer table topper for our dining table.

The second UFO is from my Daisy Kingdom teaching days of 1991-92. It's called Daisy Twist. It's from Marsha McCloskey's book "Lessons in Machine Piecing", published in 1990. I have a bunch more blocks cut out - not sure how many - so this will be my machine piecing project for this month. Appliquéing the center circles will give me handwork for Tuesday nights also. Not sure what I'll do with this one when it's finished - the fabrics make me think of spring so I'll probably try to incorporate it into my spring decorations.

The next two UFO's are two sets of blocks made by the PINS - my online Pacific Northwest retreat group that meets twice a year. I've decided to combine these two sets of friendship blocks into one project. I'll use the tiny blocks - you can tell which ones I made as I have four of them left - as centers for more log cabin blocks. That should give me enough blocks for a nice couch throw. I should be able to finish this top quickly.

The last UFO is a set of seven 6" sampler blocks. Several years ago I participated in a $5 Quilt project at a local shop. I paid $5 for the first block kit, then received each kit after that for free as long as I returned with the finished block from the month before. We also got our name put into a basket for an extra drawing if we made a second block each month. I decided to shrink each 12" block to a 6" block and make it from 1930's fabrics - the original blocks are made from Civil War prints. I made only seven blocks because the shop closed after that. We received the last two patterns for the nine block quilt, but I no longer had any incentive to make the smaller blocks. I've looked at these many times since then, and today have decided I don't want to make a quilt from these. I love the 30's prints, but I'd rather use them to reproduce traditional 30's designs. So these seven blocks are going into my "orphan drawer" where they will wait until I have enough orphan blocks and spare parts to do another quilt. I feel really good about this decision - especially as it allows me to cross another unfinished flimsy off my list!

Today I must focus on straightening up the house before I can sew. My sewing room is a mess - at least by my usual standards. The dining room table is covered with baby toys - the teachers at Fred's school gave him a "Grandpa" shower now that he has two grandchildren who will be spending time at our house. I need to find a basket for these and a place to store them. My clothes, etc. from the beach are scattered all over the floor of the computer room - I was pulling everything out of the suitcase last night so find my prescriptions - which of course were on the very bottom. There is lots of laundry to do and a kitchen to straighten up. I need to figure out something for dinner - do I remember how to cook LOL? Doesn't sound like I'll have much time to sew today!

Beach retreat

Our Tangled Threads group picked a great weekend for a beach retreat as far as the weather was concerned. Fog greeted us when we arrived on Thursday. We could tell from the sounds and smells that the ocean was right in front of the house, but all we could see was fog. Friday morning was cloudy but the fog was gone. I left for Vancouver after breakfast, driving through heavy showers, but the afternoon cleared up nicely for those still at the beach. Other than a thunder storm late Friday night the weather was beautiful the rest of the weekend. Lots of time for walking on the beach and around town.

We are guessing that the house was built in the 1960's. It would have been very modern for that time but is very dated today. The location made up for that, however. It had a great view as it is only about 100 feet from the beach. Only a couple blocks walk for morning coffee, and one block farther to get to the quilt shop. Good restaurants in walking distance too, and only a few blocks to downtown and all the shops.

I got very few pictures - once again because my camera kept acting up - hopefully the others will send me some good ones. I tried for a group picture, but it looks like we are standing in the middle of dense fog - you can hardly tell we are there! You might enjoy going to the website for the house and seeing the 360 degree pictures of both the beach views and the funky kitchen and great room. Here is the link.

I did have a great time - in spite of the fact that I did the almost two hour drive four times in four days. I arrived back at the beach about 8:30 on Saturday morning which gave me most of that day with my friends. All in all a great time was had by everyone!

Joseph's Homecoming

Our little guy is finally home and adjusting well! It's very hard for Grandma to stay home and let them bond into a little family of three - I want to be over there cuddling him all the time! He's such a happy little guy - with a smile that lights up the entire room. All three of them are tired - not at all surprising! The trip to Guatemala and back was certainly stressful for Rick and Rebecca so neither of them slept well. Trying to negotiate through LAX when no one seemed to be able to tell them where they should be - trying to find the proper gate for their LAX to Guatemala City connection and learning the name of the airline was entirely different than what was listed on their itinerary - standing in line forever at immigration and almost missing their flight home - having their luggage miss the flight home - bad airline food - no wonder they were tired and stressed! I think of the three of them it was the least stressful on Joseph. However, having so many new relatives all wanting to cuddle and hold him immediately was hard on the little guy - and he let us know when he'd had enough.

They spent Saturday at Rick's folks' house as it was his mom's birthday, so I headed back to our retreat at the beach. Yesterday our side of the family got together at R&R's. This time was more relaxing for everyone, and we all had fun getting to know Joseph. Sophie and Joseph pretty much ignored each other as babies that age will do. Joseph was smiling and laughing for all of us most of the afternoon. He is busy exploring his new environment - and learning to wear shoes for the first time! They kept getting in his way when he was trying to change positions. Today he gets his first American check-up at the doctor's - he probably isn't going to like that.

The most frustrating thing for me was the fact that my camera has decided to act up - at the most awful time it possibly could. It's several years old and I guess it's showing it's wear - neither of the batteries will hold a good charge any more. I constantly missed getting pictures of grins, smiles, laughter and cute baby activities because it wouldn't respond quickly when I pressed the shutter. I know the kids will send me good pictures when they have a chance - in the meantime I'll post the best of all those I took - and they aren't very good. Not a single good picture of Rick and Rebecca with their new son! I guess I'd better start looking for a new camera.

************
Gratitudes:
1. A safe trip for Rebecca, Rick and Joseph
2. A healthy, happy new grandson
3. A wonderful beach retreat with quilty friends
4. Lots of crab to eat!
5. Sunny blue skies most of the weekend