Current Projects

I'm not as good at multi-tasking as I used to be. The good part of that is I see projects finished more quickly because I only work on one or two at a time for the most part. I've been quilting in the daytime and knitting in the evening.

My current quilting project is a "work quilt"... I was referred by another woman I quilt for regularly and this is now the second quilt that I've been working on for this client. She has several tops made by her mother, they were all made in the 40s and in need of some repair. She's been doing the repairs and bringing them to me for quilting.

 

 

Weddings have been a big part of our thought process the last few years. I posted about Rebekah's wedding in August of 2010. Last year, Rachel got married and she and her husband live in Atlanta where he's attending Georgia Tech, pursuing a Master's in Mechanical Engineering.

 

 

 

Rebekah did Rachel's hair, along with all the bridesmaids, Ruthie, and Marshall's Mom that day. She worked from 9:30am until pictures started at 3:00.

 

Ruthie loves getting dressed up and fussed over, she could hardly wait to put on her dress.





 

And now it's time for me to get back to work. I have a couple more hours of quilting today, this evening I'll knit. One great thing about scheduling my time this way is I'm developing a nice quilting callous without ripping my finger to shreds!

Happy Quilting!
Sue



Believe it or not.....

I'm back.

I've been kicking around trying to get this going again and decided that I have the time and would really enjoy a record of what I have going on around here.

I could write for days and days, so much has happened since my last posting. TWO of my children have gotten married since then, one last summer and one Memorial Day weekend.

We now number 11, from left to right Jonathan, Rachel, her husband Marshall, Kayla, Joshua, my husband, Mike, me, Rebekah's husband Brian, Ruthie, Rebekah, and Lucas.

My tendency is to write so much that I put off updating because it takes so long each time, I'm attempting to turn over a new blogging leaf and write shorter posts more often with updates incorporated along with the daily activities, we'll see how that goes!

With 3 of the kids out of the house and Jonathan working full time, involved in church activities, and going to the local college I have a lot more time than I used to. I quilt during the day and have rekindled my love for knitting and most evenings put down the quilting between and pick up the knitting needles.

No post is complete without a Ruthie picture and the next will show some of what I've been working on.

Or two.

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Shopping Spree

My Christmas gift from my family was a weekend trip to Mall of America, all expenses paid, including some spending money. It was set for the 23rd-25th of March so I'd have time to save up some additional spending money and also for the fun of anticipation.

A few weeks ago, I was told the trip would actually run through the 26th, that they were hoping to do a third night but wanted to wait until they knew for sure.

The trip included my 3 daughters and we left early Friday morning. We arrived at the mall about 2:00 in the afternoon and shopped until they closed. We were back again when they opened Saturday morning and stayed until it was time to meet up with some internet friends for pizza. We went back to the hotel (they pricelined for the hotel and got a great deal at the Hilton...oh my, it was SO nice) and put up our poor, weary feet.

Sunday morning we hit Kohl's before the mall, then back to the mall until about 5:30, when we were out of energy, out of money, and had found everything we'd hoped to find and more.

Here is my weekend in pictures.




Me and my girls at the Mall

Ruthie in our shared bed at the Hilton

2 of the dresses I bought

My best bargain, a $200 winter coat for $25

2 more dresses

Camisoles in 4 neutrals and 2 pretty colors

Ruthie's dress for Rachel's wedding

Ruthie had a little sample spoon we'd gotten at the mall and declared (several times) she needed ice cream for her spoon. Rebekah went to the lobby and they had little pints. Ruthie was thrilled!

More dresses (these are my favorites)

Shoes for the wedding and shoes for fun. Can you guess which is which??

One of my favorite purchases, my dress for the wedding

My outfit for Rachel's bridal shower this weekend

In addition to the clothing and shoes, I bought a sticky lint roller...which works well and the lint really does wash off just like they show on TV!

Another favorite purchase was a Kindle. I've been wanting one since they first came out and am thrilled to have one now.

Ruthie was a trooper for the entire trip, the 6 hour car ride was no big deal for her. She walked the entire first day. The second she mostly rode (we had a stroller with us), we figured out later her little feet probably hurt! 

All in all, the trip could not have gone any better. A lot of shopping, wonderful down time in the hotel, a meet up with friends, and much laughter.

And now, the focus is the wedding. I'm working on their quilt, this weekend is the bridal shower, and we're making final lists for guests, food, and decorations for the big day. 

This is the life!

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Imagine my surprise....

when a little birdie told me it had been a month since my last post! I'm still not sure I'd believe it if the date wasn't on it, I would have guessed 2 weeks...tops!

But, a month it was and a busy one at that.

My focus right now is finishing a quilting job, I have a self imposed deadline of March 20th. The friend for whom I'm quilting is not in a hurry, but I'll be taking a 4 day, 3 night trip with my 3 daughters to Mall of America and payment for the quilt will add a nice little sum to my spending money!

13 of 20 blocks are now quilted, a beautiful feathered border finished it off

Also in the mix is knitting...and a fair amount of it at that. I've been knitting socks and shawls. The first shawl was ok, I didn't really like the yarn and it didn't fit or hang like I'd imagined so I'm giving it another go. I have two on needles right now and a pair of socks that is almost finished. Waiting in the wings is 3 more skeins of yarn for socks.

Shawl number one didn't come out quite as I'd imagined

Quilting is never put aside for more than a day or so, Rachel's wedding quilt isn't nearly as far along as it should be so as soon as this quilting job is done, hers become the focus until it's finished. Joshua and Kayla got engaged on Saturday, so right on the heels of Rachel's quilt is another wedding quilt.

Add to that my plan to make new Christmas stockings for the entire family (11 in all with the "inlaw kids,") with handmade socks and hats in them, and my year is pretty well planned out in the project deparment.

I had really hoped to spend a lot of this year finishing old projects, and piecing a couple of new designs, but those will have to wait until next year, which should be decidedly quieter. One can hope, anyway!



She loves having her wet hair wrapped in a towel like the big girls!



Ruthie continues to do well and seems rather unaffected by all the hoopla around here. She keeps herself busy with her little toys (she loves any little figures that are 1"-2" high and is becoming very good at pretend play...something we weren't sure she'd really do,) her movies, and chattering with everyone. She's recognizing some letters, and her speech becomes more understandable and her sentence structure better with each passing week.

Ruthie often takes up half my sewing table with her toys and food,
though generally she's not actually ON it!

One of these days I'll get my act together and get posts out as often as I plan to! In the meantime, I'll be quilting and knitting my poor fingers to the bone!

Happy Quilting!
Sue

It's Me Again!

I've had a string of busy weeks, today I'll be cooking for a family birthday dinner tomorrow. I'm making a fajita bar, which will have 3 kinds of meat with sauteed mushrooms and onions, peppers, beer battered onion rings, 2 side salads, and dessert. I'll do as much as possible today to minimize time in the kitchen tomorrow and maximize time with the family!

No day is complete without some needlework, though, and even on my busiest days I can usually find a few minutes somewhere. My current project is a quilting job and I hope to be on the borders later today in spite of all the time I'll need in the kitchen. One more simple block after the one in the hoop and I'll be on the borders, there are three.

Knitting is here to stay and I'm really happy about that. While quilting has been my obssession for the last 20 years, and still is to a large extent, the ease of making quick gifts has brought knitting back out of hiding. This is the color of the next pair of socks I'll have on my needles.



This picture was taken the evening of Ruthie's birthday dinner day back in November, she's sporting new jammies, a new hat and shoes and posing with her new dolly.

My cooking day is well under way, the roast chicken is about to come out of the oven, pasta salad is made, meat is sliced and ready for cooking, and the vegetables are cut and ready to cook as well. All that is left is to make the cake, which will go in the oven when the chicken comes out. I didn't expect to be so far along at noon, and am looking forward to spending the rest of my day quilting and sprucing up the house.

Happy Quilting!

Sue

I'm Back....

and hopefully can keep up with plan B.

I got myself in a rut with this blog, not updating for too long then having so much to say that it took forever to do.

So I'll be trying to do short little updates every 2-3 days in hopes of keeping up...and keeping motivated.

Today's post would fit better on a blog called "Knitting Chatter." For the first time in many years, I didn't quilt a thing for Christmas. I did sew a few bags, but other than those, I knitted.

I started knitting at 10 years old, making mostly purses/bags for a long time. Whenever I had new yarn on the needles, my Dad would ask me what I was making, knowing full well it was a purse...it's all I knew how to make! I didn't follow patterns in those days, but made bags of all sizes, long handled and short, until I felt ready to learn to read a pattern.

From there, I went on to blankets and sweaters and that launched me into all sorts of needlework. Once I picked up a quilting needle, though, most of those other things went by the wayside.

For the first time in many years, I didn't do any quilting. I did do a bit of sewing, making several of these bags in different fabrics, a few for myself and some for gifts. They have a really long handle, which can be knotted up to be shorter or worn cross body. They are small, big enough to hold a few essentials needed close at hand.

I was inspired to pick up knitting needles by some online friends, starting with a couple of easy cowl scarves. Rachel loves unusual accessories and I'd heard a lot of talk of fingerless gloves so searched for patterns. This is a really simple one, I made a few pair for gifts and a pair for myself.

I also tried my hand at some more involved patterns, I love these and Rachel does, too. Several other pairs of wristwarmers also got knitted for gifts and my foray back into knitting had my mind racing. In the past, everything I made was big, these smaller things are quick and fun to knit and had me looking for more.

I have various pairs of knitting needles around, but hardly any double pointed ones. I made do with what I had, but talk of sock making, along with other projects, had me searching for sets of them. I found this online and Mike bought it for me for Christmas, it has 14 sets of various sizes of double pointed needles, which really open up the possibilities.

With leftover yarn from a wristwarmer and scarf set, I made these little socks for Ruthie. I was hooked.

I bought sock yarn and made this pair for me. They are slightly too big, so I may save them for my son's girlfriend for Christmas next year.

I found an easy hat pattern, Lucas was in need of one, so I asked him what colors he wanted. Ruthie was NOT happy when that hat wasn't for her, so she got one out of leftover fingerless glove yarn.

Currently on my needles is another pair for me, this one is made from baby yarn and the first one is made.  It fits perfectly so sock number two is well under way. I've been buying skeins of yarn here and there for various things and will probably be doing nearly as much knitting as quilting for a while. More about that in later posts!

 No post is complete without a Ruthie picture. She got that Santa hat from a nice woman at church who knows she loves hats. She tried it on her new birthday dolly as soon as she got it home.

 There is so much more going on here, but that will wait for another day. Though this post was all about knitting, I have a quilt I'm hoping to finish by next Tuesday so I'd better get to it!

Happy Quilting...and other pastimes!
Sue

Home Retreat

I love quilting retreats but they don't really fit into the budget or the calendar these days. I have a local friend who quilts, we plan late night sewing nights a few times a year, starting usually lunchtime or mid-afternoon and going as late as we can both stand.

She had some extra vacation days to use, so we planned a two day "home sewing retreat," two days put aside to sew as much as possible. It's usually much easier for me to be home, this time it was easier for her to be home so we have been meeting at her house. The upside of not being at your own house is that your family is not there wanting/needing you to do something, I've been pretty steadily sewing the whole time.

We planned this some weeks ago, so I planned a new quilt top and actually bought fabric for it....the bigger pieces in my stash are becoming fewer and further between and while I love the challenge of making quilts from what I have, sometimes it's fun to buy all the fabric for a new project. I pinned triangle paper and got it all ready to begin sewing as soon as we got set up.

While on a roll, I had fabric for another project that I hadn't prepared, yet, so that got pinned as well on the not likely at all chance that I finished my project and needed more to do.

We got together at 10:00 Thursday morning, with sewing late into the evening in mind. We got our machines an cutting areas set up, an ironing board is set up over by the other window. After some prelimary sewing we picked up Chinese food and brought it back, a rare treat for us both. We bought enough to have some for Friday dinner if we were still sewing. With lunch over, we resumed sewing.

Before too long, blocks turned into a row. I'm sewing this one a block at  time and putting it into rows as the blocks are done so the tedious pinning of those long rows is spread out.

Ruthie joined us for the evening on Thursday, all her siblings had somewhere to go. She was happier than this picture would indicate, she spent some time drawing on this couch having a snack, and also spent some time interacting with my friend's oldest daughter, who is also our oldest son's girlfriend.

 I love blocks of time set aside for sewing projects, I'd nearly forgotten how much in the last few months. I have my little corner set up with my Featherweight and my computer (the pattern is on it and it allowed me to check email, look up a few things we were wondering about along the way, and just have a few minutes of diversion every so often.)

A steady stream of snacks and caffeinated beverages kept us going and we worked until midnight before calling it a night.

We resumed at 10:00 Friday morning after a good nights sleep and, other than a break just before dinner time for an appointment, we sewed until midnight again.

I packed up and came home, my project well under way.

Jonathan and Rachel kept the home fires burning, Lucas and Ruthie were well fed and entertained. Lucas poked his head out when I got home, sheepishly saying they had just gone to bed, having played games for candy the entire evening.

I'm looking forward to seeing this face tomorrow, she was sleeping when I got home and I just saw her briefly this morning.

After what I hope is another good night of sleep I'll set up my sewing area and continue on. My plan is to sew most of Saturday as well, and I'm hoping these 3 days will have set me up for continued productivity as we head into the fall and winter months.

Until next time,

Sweet dreams and Happy Quilting!

Sue