Curing the January Blahs

For a long time there, I felt as if all my off days were committed far in advance: doctor's appointments, hair appointment, traveling to DD's house, work inservices, putting the tree up, buying and wrapping gifts, grocery shopping, cooking, etc, etc, etc. It seemed all my time was taken up with lots of have-tos and few want-tos.  It was starting to make me a little CRANKY.

Every other week I have a 4-night stretch off.  (For night-shift workers, this is equivilant to 3 full days).  Last weekend I really should have taken the Christmas tree down and put away all the decorations, but I had a mini-rebellion. Instead, I worked in the sewing room, clearing away the clutter, taking down the black Halloween curtains (!) and re-organizing a bit.  I have some dark blue-striped curtain panels that have been up in the room before, but the fact that they gapped when shut really bothered me. So I ripped out the side seams and sewed the pairs together.  Not very challenging or creative, but it got rid of one of those little things that bugged me.  And in the winter, the sun's path is low enough that, when it shines, it blinds me at the machine until after 11am. Not any more.  Now I can leave the curtains shut until I'm ready.

I even got my hot air balloons back up.

(And yes, that's STILL snow on the ground, 4 weeks later!)

I cleared stacks of books off my desk and sewing table.  These were bought at yard sales during the summer, in plans of reading while lying in the hammock.  Didn't happen, obviously.

And as much of a Stephen King fan as I've been for years, I have some old ones yet to read. Some are stacked beside the bed, and others stored in a box under the cutting table, out of sight, out of the way, but still accessible.

This book I won 2 years ago in a giveaway by Julie at Pragmatic Compendium.  I got about 2/3 of the way through, stopped to do my taxes, and just never finished.

I went through my 3-ring binders and culled out old patterns and pictures of quilts I no longer want to make.  In the top of the closet are standing organizers full of old quilt magazines.  Even though I've stopped subscribing to all but 3 magazines, I still have loads of magazines, and I could really use that room to store something else.  There's so much that can be found on the internet now, I have no problems going through all my old mags and cutting out the pictures and patterns I want to keep--and putting them in the binders to do later.

Also in the reorganizing (and I haven't gotten into the closet yet), I found several UFOs I'd forgotten about.

I cut 12 of these squares, in preparation for a child's quilt, but only cut 9 balloons. I think I was searching for a different fabric for the last 3 balloons, and I've decided to use this fabric:

The problem I'm running in to is, even though I haven't turned the edges of the applique under just yet, it's too

big for the square.

Even turned diagonally, it's too big.

I don't remember why that is.

So I'm thinking I'll either need to trim the balloons and baskets down, or add borders to the cloud squares and make them larger.

Or, I suppose I could sew the squares together with  sashing, and have the balloons overlap the sashings deliberately.

What do you think?  Any other ideas?

In the meantime, I re-discovered these king-sized pillow shams bought at a thrift shop a while back.  I'd already taken the seams apart, and laid out some of the pattern pieces for an apron.  I finished cutting, and then sewed them together.

It's not quilting, but it turned out just as pretty as I thought it would. And it cleared just a little more off my cutting table.

And this week?  Not much sewing has gone on, and the tree is down, but most of the decorations and lights still need to be packed away.  I'm a late convert to Ghost Whisperer, and have been catching up on dozens of old episodes, thanks to  ION television and the WE network. That's why there is no Saturday at the Movies this week--I haven't seen any movies in about 3 weeks!

I'm also now addicted to Farmville (thanks SO much, Mighty Mom).  Coming up is a make-up dentist appointment, a groomer's appointment for Tandi, and having my truck towed to the shop.  Despite trying to start it several times the last few weeks while it was surrounded by ice and snow, it has succumbed to the cold and only makes a forlorn clacking noise now.  I do believe that's the sound of money exiting my bank account.

Oh, but look what came in on Wednesday:

Fabric.com, you rock! I don't have a specific project in mind, but I'm sure I can find something.

 I wish it were next weekend already.

Two-week time delay

That's what I seem to be experiencing! I finally have my reader count under 50, but I haven't kept up with my own blogging.  I'm behind in Christmas preparations, I just found the Christmas cards today, the tree is up with lights but no ornaments,  and I have to get out some thank yous. "Time flies when you're having fun" they tell me.  But they also say time seems to go faster as you get older.  Well, either I'm getting old rather quickly, or I'm having lots more fun than I am able to remember. 

The Friday morning after Thanksgiving, we left for my daughter's in VA--a 7 1/2 hour drive.  (I need to remember to send a thank you card to the vet for the doggy Prozac--Tandi traveled really well!) J-Man caught my virus and then passed it on to DD.  It was a family thing--share and share alike. It was nice to see her little city and her office and be able to visualize some of the things she mentions.  She made a point of driving us past one of the hospitals in town. (Did I mention she's trying to persuade us to move up there?)

Mealtime for the animals was a bit busy, but they minded their manners pretty well. 

( left to right: Beautiful But Dumb cat, Cute Chihuahua Mix dog, Tandi, Grumpy Old Man cat)

 It was a nice time, over too quickly as usual, but she's coming down here next week and it'll be good to see them all again.  Yep, the cats are coming, too, as DD has lost her cat-sitter.  Grumpy Old Man cat hates to travel and will yowl approximately 4 hours of the trip.  Beautful But Dumb cat will yowl some, because if Grumpy yowls, it must be the thing to do. Cute Chihuahua Mix dog loves to ride in the car, however.  She's a great little traveler.

Better DD than me.

In the meantime, amongst all the shopping and MD appointments and laundry and work party, the mailman has been mighty welcome at my house.  Look what he brought:

Fabric won from Kate, my name kindly chosen by  Archie, her cat:

Note the Halloween colors! And it has such a nice hand to it.

Fabric bought from Maggie via her eBay auction:

(just the fabrics; the rest will be explained later)

I love batiks!

And look what Lettie sent me from Hawaii: gorgeous fabric, a mug rug, a pincushion, and a yo-yo key ring!

Lettie is the yo-yo queen!  Check out her blog to see what she can do with yo-yos!
Isn't that pincusion just the cutest thing?  Can you see the little bead "sprinkles" on that doughnut?

And macadamias! Omigosh, if these make it to Christmas unopened it'll be a miracle!  What a sweetheart!

And just because I was a good girl and hauled hiney over to my gynecologist's office for the first time in 3 years, I treated myself to these little goodies from one of the local quilt shops:

(OK, now it's time for the rest of the picture)

I had every intention of making that table runner from some Christmas fabrics, but it ain't gonna happen.

In addition, I bought these from fabric.com:

I really like that "Bottled Poetry" fabric. I'd thought of making DD some napkins from it, but it's so pretty, I'm thinking of placemats instead, because I just can't cut it into small pieces!

The holiday plaids were intended to become Christmas gift bags, but again: ain't gonna happen this year.

The bad news is brother and his wife won't be able to come up for Christmas this year. 8^(.
The good news is I don't have to empty out the sewing room for them, so I might get to work on DD's string quilt.  It's on my list of hopeful finishes for Finn's UFO challenge.

Speaking of which, I did finish one item on the list:

It's a tablerunner made from 3 of 12 swap blocks I got 8 years ago.  Hand-pieced and hand-quilted, it was a soothing bit of handwork to take along to appointments or watch TV and do.  In fact, I was actually able to use it for about 3 weeks! The other 9 blocks are assembled into a table topper, but that's only made it to flimsy stage. That one will be machine-sewn for sure.

Well, that's my month in a very large nutshell.  Not much happening, to have been so busy. I have to say, though, I haven't been stressing about what's not getting done. Usually I'd be totally over-committed by now, and pulling my hair out from frustration.  Maybe it was J-Man's illness that made us all slow down and just enjoy being together, no matter what. Maybe it's just tiredness. Or anti-motivation.

Because I swear I didn't take any of Tandi's doggy-Prozac.

Lazy Days

Almost another week has gone by since my last post--and it was pretty skimpy. I've had some work issues simmering in the back of my mind while I did some other, more fun stuff. I had 6 nights off and while I didn't accomplish half the things I meant to, some things did make it off my list.

Thurs. morning I actually got up before 8am and made it over to a co-worker's house for appetizers and cocktails. Remember, THEY got off at 7:30am so it was a reasonable cocktail hour for them. I had ice water, just because I planned to stay up all day, and there aren't many things I like to drink, truth be told. Except chocolate martinis. And kahlua. Neither of which needed to start my day. But it was fun, a chance to see a different side of some folks, and some absolutely delicious appetizers--peach salsa (odd taste, but good), artichoke dip, and pesto brie. Omigosh, was that ever good! I was there 4 hours!

Thursday evening a separate group of us went to see "The Ugly Truth."


Definitely a chick flick and only fluff, but fun to see with some of your girlfriends. We followed that with a meal at Fatz, and some browsing at Big Lots next door to the theater. It was nice to indulge in a Girls' Day Out.

Not much of the sewing I planned got done, but I did sew up 10 blocks for the second half of the Four Seasons Quilt Swap--summer edition.

We could make up to 20, but I'm a little rushed, and a little bored with them right now, and if I need more blocks, I can make more from my stash to fill in.

And I made up two little needle books for myself.


The one with the rosebuds was the first one--the blue one was second and a little better. I didn't have any felted wool, but these were just fine and so simple to make--if they wear out, it won't take an hour to replace them.

I also got this in the mail last week:




Jean sent me some doll hair for the little Handy Dolls I'm making for work. The yarn I was using is not holding up and I'll have to bald them in order to put some new on--but now I have a decent substitute. Can you see the little rosebuds she sent for their dresses?

Too cute!

So it's time for another 3 day stretch and the schedule from you-know-where this month. I'll be perusing your blogs as time permits, but may not be able to post for a bit. Besides, it's the lazy hot days of summer. Hope you get a chance to relax, everyone!

Stashbuster Report week 28 (I think!)

Posting Sunday Stash Reports for Judy L's group has become a useless endeavor for me these days. What with gifts from friends, and non-quilting fabric picked up at yard sales, I can't remember what I've counted and what I haven't, and then when I use these fabrics I don't know whether to count them as stashbusters or not. Also, do I count fabric as used when it's a swap? And do I count it when the fabric becomes a flimsy or when it's quilted and bound? So I believe I'm going to drop out of the weekly count. Maybe next year I'll start again and have firmer guidelines for myself. And then again, maybe not.

So, what have I been working on? Well, I did my 20 blocks for the 4 Season Summer Quilt Swap, but forgot to take pictures. They are color blocks, using the half-seam at the beginning and finishing that seam at the end of the block. You can see it in the logo on my right sidebar. Margaret will be sending 20 back to me, and then we'll do this again. By early September, I should have 40 color blocks. I'm not sure how I'll use them, but it'll be fun to see all the different fabrics in use!

Remember when Mighty Mom sent me the box of fabrics and some were a polyester blend? I said I had another use for them. Well, this is what I've been working on:


Last fall, one of the ICU nurses and I were discussing some of our little Alzheimers patients who fidget with their IVs, catheters, electrodes, oxygen, etc, sometimes with messy results. Jennifer said she sometimes makes washcloth dolls for them to hold onto. Not long afterwards, I scored a box of 50 muslin dolls offered on eBay. Some are plain muslin, some are solid or colors with stars on them, some are 8" long and some are 12" long. Because of the holidays, with the subsequent emptying and then painting of the sewing room, the dolls languished for several months in their box.


I pulled the box out a few weeks ago and have begun making little handy dolls for our patients. We've already given 2 away, even before getting them finished. I found some curly yarn at a local shop, though she only had 2 colors; but it makes cute hair. Scraps of leftover fabric are great for their clothes, and I'm working on a couple of small quilts to go with them. I figure the polyester blends and sheet scraps MM sent will be perfect for the backings. The 2 completed dolls shown here are in my locker right now, waiting for just the right "mama". They're washable, and once a patient handles them, they can't be used for anyone else, so they go back to the nursing home with the little old ladies. We're trying to make them and their clothing as sturdy as possible, with minimal parts that can come off.

Rarely does our little hospital get pediatric admissions, though enough of them come through the emergency room that we may leave some dolls down there. It's been fun working on them. Some have faces drawn with Pigma pens, and some need button eyes and embroidered features because they are so dark. I have been searching the internet for face ideas, because drawing has never been my strong suit. The dolls themselves look as if they'd be really simple to make, should we use up those 50 dolls any time soon. They're so cute, I may just have to make one for myself and make the clothes just a bit fancier. After all, mine wouldn't have to endure industrial laundry machines!

Better than drugs

I thought you might like to see photos of what inflated my stash amounts this week.

First off, two weeks ago, I got Mighty Mom's box of goodies and tore through them all without taking photos and without blogging about it. I had to go back and find everything to take some belated photos so I could share them with you.

MM's grandmother saved boo-koodles of things and MM was generous enough to spread the wealth. She sent out boxes to several of us with all kinds of fun and funky things in them. Look at what grabbed my interest right away:

She knows how much I love to watch the neighborhood birds at the feeders! And right beside the bird book is a foil transfer for a Christmas t-shirt or something. I haven't read the directions yet, but it looks like it could be a cool thing to do.

There was some flannel:

and a vest pattern that is way too small for me, and not my daughter's taste, but is fabric I love, so will probably cut into pieces for something specific.

I immediately tossed all the cotton items into the wash, and they're waiting to be ironed and stacked together. A couple of them are very large pieces, with sturdy texture, and will make a couple of nice grocery bags--if I can get my act together to just do them.


Some of the fabrics she sent were polyester, or polyester blend, as I found out when I did the burn test. Since I make all my quilts out of cotton, and try to use quilt-shop fabric because I might participate in a swap and senior moments sometimes prevent me from remembering where I got my fabric, I wasn't sure how I was going to use them. Some are perfect for Halloween this year, though the exact use hasn't come to me yet:

These polyester blends will be perfect in another project I'm working on.

That involves more photos and explanations, so I'll save it for a later post.

Then, Lori of Dakota City Quilter sent me a package from her summer residence:

Those strips are what she calls "noodles" and I didn't measure them, but I think they are the length of the fabric.

She included brochures and bags from the Visitors' Center where she volunteers:


Someday, maybe we'll make it up there.

Lastly, here's my haul from the moving sale of My Quilt Shoppe. (Yes, that's actually the name of it.) OH, the deals they had! Fats were only 75 cents! Yardage was 60% off and if you took the bolt, it was 70% off!

I yielded to temptation. I bought 3 yards of this luscious pink rose fabric and 2 yards of the rosy pink check to go with it--and have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with them. Something will come to me, I'm sure.

If those weren't enough, 22 fat quarters jumped into my basket. Really, they did!


AND, they were also getting rid of some of their props and displays and I fell hard for this mirror:

I love the detailing:


Where will I put it? Beats me. I might even offer it to my daughter, who's moving to a larger rental next week. I don't know. I just couldn't bear the thought of missing out on it, and it was only $10.00. You see how I just couldn't walk past it, don't you?

So that explains why my stash is so bloated this week and there's absolute chaos in my sewing room.

But hey, the retail therapy was very beneficial. I am so much easier to live with this week. 8^D