When in doubt, ask a five year old.

Almost done!

I finished quilting Mary's blanket! It isn't perfect, but I did my best. I thought about running another set of diagonal rows the other way, but in the end it was just too much work. My original inspiration only had quilting lines going one way, and I liked the simplicity of it. I still didn't know what color to bind it off with though. I took Mary with me to pick something out. When I saw the blue in the store, it seemed too bright. I wanted a lighter blue. But Mary loved this one. It's perfect with the quilt. I am so glad she picked this fabric. It has little light blue flowers on it. I'm working to blind stitch it on. I'm about half way done. I should be able to finish it up tonight. It seems this project has taken forever! I cannot wait to wash it up and give it to her.

(and then start the next project of course!)

John worked on the house a bit while we were out of town. I have so much new trim to paint. I'll be painting the windows in our master bedroom and bathroom first. John still has wood left, so he said that we could go ahead and put in new baseboards and door trim too. Then I can paint the bedroom! I'm so excited. It feels like a long time since we've done a big house project. I have some big plans for our room. New window coverings, a new bed skirt, painting the side tables, new lamps (if/when I can find something I like). Busy, busy! I really want to get my log cabin blanket done too. I'd love to get it all done by Ellie's b-day which is when I started knitting the blanket last year.

But for now, dirty laundry is calling. Fun stuff!

Sewing room

I'd love to have a sewing room. Maybe some day when the girls move out. I usually sew at the end of the dining room table which works out well. But for Mary's quilt, I needed a different set up.

I've moved the table over to the wall. I only have one side up, so there's plenty of room for the girls to play.

Ellie has found every pillow in the house. She has a pile of blankets and toys there too. And stickers. She never has enough stickers.

Mary's been coloring or making a "nest" of her own in the other corner. Then they pretend to nap! Haha.

I get to sew in 2-3 minute intervals and then get a snack, change doll clothes, get more craft supplies, change Ellie's diaper, spell something for Mary to write down, etc, etc. After an hour, I give up and go cook lunch. There's definitely more playing than sewing going on, which is fine. It is fun to all play and work together. I'll be able to work more on it at night. I worked last night until I couldn't see straight.

And the quilt? I haven't cried or thrown it in the trash. I have become an EXPERT at ripping out seams. I think I did a good job pinning to together (I used about 250-300 pins). I started quilting it in the middle, running a diagonal row from one corner to the other. It was nearly impossible to shove half the quilt all bunched/folded up through the middle of the machine. So impossible that the back of the quilt puckered up in several places. By the third time I'd done that row, it looked pretty good. I think I have six rows quilted now. I'm doing them three inches apart. It's getting easier now that I am not in the middle of the quilt. The girls and I are going out of town tomorrow, so I won't be able to work on it for a few days. When I get back and recover from our trip, I hope to finish the quilting in about 2 days. Then I'll have to do the binding. I have no idea what color to use. I went and looked at fabric on Sunday but nothing caught my eye. I don't think I want to do pink, red, or green. I want something that pops. Maybe a print? Maybe a plain turquoise blue? One of the fabrics has stripes, and it has some blue in it. Gah! I don't it to be wrong.

Rest time (Ellie has given up naps yet again and probably for good) is over. Going outside to play ball and swing.

I've been busy!

I didn't mean to neglect my blog. We went away for Memorial Day weekend, and it feels like I haven't caught my breath since.

Every year we go t0 Ft. Wayne for Memorial Day weekend. There's always a big party at John's Grandma's house on that Saturday. Then we spend the night at a hotel and drive home Sunday. The weather wasn't the best this year (chilly and rainy), but the girls had fun so it was worth the trip. We got home Sunday and goofed off a while. Then John started to clear the storm damage up. I decided to help. I would pull the limbs back to John, and he'd burn them. The girls helped/played/ate snacks. It was crazy. I'd grab what I could and pull them 50? feet. It felt good. I'd turn around and the pile was still so HUGE. It seemed impossible. I'd get more. And more. I must have made 100 trips. That was just the apple tree and the cherry tree we lost. Mary and Ellie would pick up small sticks. Finally the girls and I went in and ate dinner. John kept working. That night, we hurt. My arms hurt, my legs were on fire. My feet hurt. Everything. We both had sunburns too. Monday we started again after lunch. The girls weren't as happy to play by themselves, so I didn't do as much. John put in another 6 or 8 hours. I'd help when I could. We got the ash tree cleaned up. Then John took Tuesday off work and went to it again. Mary was at school, and Ellie and I were doing our thing. I'd look out, and John looked exhausted. It broke my heart to see him so worn out. It was hotter than heck, and he'd been at it for 3 days. I could barely move from being so sore and tired. I couldn't imagine how he felt. We got it all cleaned up though. John still has to split the wood, but it's all piled up along the edge of the yard.

I hit the US 40 yard sale a couple times this year. First the girls and I went. Then I went alone last Saturday. I didn't find much this year. I took 40 towards Dayton. I planned to go look for some bamboo shades for our living room windows when I was done yard saling. I went to Target with no luck. Then I was off to Home Depot. I got to the isle and saw the blinds. And then I saw this:

I took this cell phone pic and emailed it to Mom right after I put them in my cart.

Was $36, now $6.80????? I looked at the tag about ten times, then took a picture. Then I stuck the blinds in the cart and rushed to check out (after emailing Mom) just in case it was a mistake. Four blinds for the living room for less than the cost of one! Woot! John hung them right up for me when I got home. Pictures to come soon--maybe when we paint or maybe if I ever even clean the room!

By Sunday night, I was getting the itch to craft. The problem though is that my crafts seem to be getting more and more difficult. Ellie's blanket nearly killed me. My new project? A twin size quilt for Mary's bed. I was so intimidated by it that I didn't want to start.


Here's what I had as of this afternoon. The pattern is called a coin quilt. The coins are the little squares of fabric. They form a huge line, then are bordered by a plain (white) strip on either side. The quilt has 175 coins each cut 4.5 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall. There are seven coin strips. Tonight I finished sewing all thirteen strips together. I still need to do the two outside white strips, and then put a white strip across the top and the bottom. When I got everything sewed and pressed tonight and turned it over, I couldn't believe I made it with my own hands. I cannot wait to see it done. I still have a long way to go (making the back, basting it together, quilting it and binding it).

I told myself I would go to bed early tonight. I went to bed at 12:30am last night (this morning!?!?!) so I guess if I went to bed now it would be slightly earlier than that. I'm so tired I can't type or even remember if I had anything else to say.

Goodnight.

What a week.

I think that's all I can say. What a week. On Saturday, I was happily taking pics for my blog.

Ellie's new blanket on her bed.

Quilted table topper.

On Sunday, John and I had four hours to ourselves! We weeded and mulched some of our flower gardens. Monday after work, John mowed the entire yard. It started to storm.

Trees crashed down. The power went out for 21 hours. We were fine. The house was fine. Yesterday John and his Dad started cutting up the mess. And what a mess it is.

The apple tree is still standing. I hope it lives.

The dayliles we worked to weed and mulch.

Back side of the apple tree.

One of the debris piles. Maybe 3-4 high in places.

More of the garden we worked on Sunday.

I just realized that while some hostas are still standing, there are some that are just GONE. Right between the wood in the foreground and the smashed daylilies. There was a row of hostas there.

Ellie on one of the logs.

These little guys made it!

Ellie on another pile. Plenty of firewood this year!

One more look back at my garden. I keep telling myself it will be back next year.

The wind hit that side of the yard just right I guess. The rest of the yard is fine. We lost small limbs, but nothing major.

These hostas made it pretty well. The meter housing did not.

The power line pulled so hard before it broke that the meter box (not the meter) got damaged. The roof got torn up where the line goes into the house. Nothing major. We already are dealing with the insurance company.

And so, my week. A lot of clean up work for John, but we got lucky. We are safe. Nothing fell on the house.

Hopefully I'll be back with some crafty posts in the near future.

Thank goodness for crafy friends!

Last fall, my good friend Karen decided it was time to clean out her fabric stash. She sent me some stuff she thought I could use. I saw one huge piece (original price tag still on it), and it screamed "blanket" to me.

I have no idea why I didn't get right to work on it (or why I didn't iron it for this picture). Maybe I was busy. Maybe I remembered the half done, falling apart, not even close to square baby blanket I tried to make 2 years ago.

But my craft closet was overflowing, so I decided to start on it. Seemed easy enough. It's just three pieces of fabric on the front, and 4 on the back (more on that later). It has quilt batting inside. I laid it out on the dining room floor and pinned it together with 200 quilting safety pins. Then I noticed the backing was just too darn small. I took all the pins out. I added another piece of fabric to the back. I pinned again.

Next up, drawing out the grid for the yarn ties. Left to right was easy since they are on the stripes. I'd get a line or two marked and realize I was going sort of diagonally instead of straight. I was crawling around on top if it, cursing. Tried again. I'd try to square it up to the previous lines. I'd get half way down a row at 4 inch intervals, and then the next square spot would be 3.5 inches. Ugh. I was almost ready to throw in the towel.

Then, magic. Magic in the name of Grandma Mary. She came over last week, and we were talking. She was telling me about every blanket she's ever made. There's a quilt in her guest bedroom that I love. She was telling me she was just going to lightly quilt it, but then looked down and realized she was on the wrong row. Instead of taking it out, she just did more work to hide her mistake. I think she said she was going to quilt ever other seam, but got off a row. So she ended up doing twice as much work. And then she said, "once your blanket is laying on the bed, you'll forget in a week that some of your ties are a quarter inch off. And no one else will even notice in the first place."

I got back to work. Marking it. Stitching and knotting the yarn. Making bias tape. Machine sewing the bias tape to the front, and then hand stitching it to the back. It isn't perfect, but I was happy. I washed it. Half the knots didn't hold up so well. Last night I was crawling around on the floor yet again to fix those. Then I tossed it in the dryer and went to bed (which explains the wrinkles).

It's for Ellie. Fabric from my dear friend Karen. Made by me on my Mamaw Judy's sewing machine. She was there with me in spirit. Sage advice from Grandma Mary gave me the push I needed to finish it. I hope Ellie sleeps well under it for many nights to come.

On a break

The hard drive on my computer is full. I can't download pics from my camera.

Well, it was full. We tried to delete some stuff, and now it won't even start up.

John pointed out that the middle pinwheel on my runner was backwards. Then I noticed two more were too.

The thing I am currently making has brought me to tears and kept me up way too late. And is breaking my back.

So with that, I am on a blogging break. I'll be back.

Fresh from the dryer

How long until I can put up the Christmas trees?

That's right. TREES. Woot!

The print fabric for the pinwheels is from the line "12 Days of Christmas" by Kate Spain. I used the same fabric for the circle garland I made last December. The plain fabric is Kona cotton, and is an off white color called bone. The fabric for the binding was left over from my tree skirt last year. I don't have the name of it.

Now I'm without a project. I could go back to my log cabin, or pull out more sewing. I've been thinking about sewing a lot lately. I could work on some around the house project too I guess. Or sleep? There's an idea.

The girls have finished their after school snack. Back to work.