Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Projects other than quilting

 When the virus first hit and we were ordered to stay home as much as possible, I was so excited as I would be able to do all kinds of quilting projects and not feel guilty that I wasn't out doing other things. So I did. I sewed and sewed and sewed and completed many projects. I got many old projects that I had started years ago and then put away for one reason or another and have either completed it or are close to being completed. After a few weeks, though, I found I was getting bored with all that and started looking for other things to do.

I read. I have been reading about a book a week, which for me is pretty fast. I have taken up a huge counted cross stitch project. It is probably way bigger than I should have taken on. I doubt I will live long enough to complete it. Oh well, that's okay, too. I have cleaned my pantry out and other cupboards and closets. We have taken clothes and unused kitchen "stuff" to Goodwill and now have more to take. I have actually washed windows. I also have been listing "stuff" on e-Bay. I have sold 7 quilts. I definitely didn't get even close to what I put into them, but I sold them which gave me money to buy more quilting supplies. Yay! I have also put several books and patterns on e-Bay. Most of them have sold. Some only went for $1, but a dollar is a dollar.

I found a free, yes free, pattern on TildasWorld.com for a dog pillow. I made two. So cute. 






Before I made the two pillows above, I woke up one morning thinking about the fabric the witches, shown below. I knew I wanted to something with them. I have had the fabric for a few years and just didn't know what to do because I didn't want to cut them up to place in a quilt. I decided to make pillows of them. I have two away to family members and kept one for me to display. Each one was cute and I could't decide which one I wanted, so I gave first choice to the people I was giving one to. I love witches and these are so cute!



I hope all of you are finding projects to stay busy with. Stay happy, but more importantly, stay sane!


Keep on Quilting



Thursday, August 13, 2020

Time to get back to this blog

 2020 is surely an interesting year and promises to get a lot darker before it gets better. My year started out with the death of my 97 year old mother. The next month was the death of my granddaughter’s grandfather. Another death in the family in April. Along with all of that grief, along came the Corona virus, also known as Covid-19. That became real for us the day after my birthday in March when our governor asked us all to stay at home because of the virus. We have pretty much been in-house since then. 

The week after we were starting our shelter-in-place I could not sew enough. I was sewing on different projects sometimes as much as 6 hours a day. That lasted several weeks. I am now at the point of not sewing more than an hour or two a day and sometimes going a week without sitting at my sewing machine. That doesn’t mean I am not working on projects. I still have my owl embroidery blocks I am working on. I also read a lot and search the internet and Pinterest for recipes. I have been cooking more than I have since all the kids lived at home. I can tell because the scales are going up and up and up.

One of the projects I completed is my Bee Bee Bumbling Bee 🐝 quilt. I have been collecting bee fabric for years knowing I wanted to make a bee quilt. Using a Moda Layer Cake Mix, I made the one shown here. After it was all finished, I have it to a friend of Gil - Jim. Jim is a beekeeper. He came by yesterday to get it. He loved it.

Bee, quilt

Bee






The second picture is the backing. I ventured into my two closest quilt shops to see if they had anything I felt would work for the backing. I did not find anything there, so I went online and found the perfect material at Hancocks of Paducah. Jim liked the back as much as the pieces front. I quilted it on the long arm using a bee pantograph. It all came into making a beautiful quilt.

Keep on Quilting