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Well the trees are almost finished, and the lights are done as far as I can do them. Actually, I ran out of lights outside. We put up red, green and clear lights, and I ran out of green. I may buy another set, but then again, I may not. I may just call it 'done'!
Today I have also finished up 3 trees, and will work on the last one after supper. It goes in the family room, so I may be able to work on it as I cook dinner, which by the way, is to be Indian tonight. Hubby's not feeling too well, so I may not get to do it. I need his help to move the computer stand. It has wheels, but since it's on carpet, it's really hard to move. But, one way or another, I will finish the last tree by tomorrow and post pictures tomorrow evening. I'll be so glad when it's all done.
This has been a most productive day, but certainly not in the sewing room. I got 2 trees decorated and the lights done outside. Well, almost...I came in to have a drink of water and catch my breath. I should have skipped the drink - it started to rain and I can't finish tonight. It's dark enough to see the lights now, and I just love them. My husband likes them as well, but he sure hasn't moved a muscle to help out this year. Don't get me wrong - several years ago I realized that if I wanted outside lights I would have to do them and they would have to be 'bush' level because I'm certainly not going to do any climbing out in the dark and cold. I'll have to finish the outside lights in the morning, but I don't think I can do another tree. I'll get the last 3 done tomorrow. I want to get all the mess put away by tomorrow evening. I love the decorations, but putting them up and taking them down really puts the house in a turmoil. Hopefully, I'll be done tomorrow and I can post some pictures.
The last of the leftovers are finally either eaten or thrown away. I'm ready for new food! DS2 has gone back to school, and the house again has just us two old farts rattling around in it. Thanksgiving is truly over.
I have the first tree up and the lights are turned on. If I have the energy, I'll go decorate it this evening. But it is evening, isn't it? Well, maybe it won't get decorated today. You can tell I have a lot of 'get up and go' today.
The only sewing that has been done in the last 2 days was a little project for DS2's girlfriend, and some sweatshirt repair. No progress on any other projects...maybe tomorrow.
I hope everyone had a joyful Thanksgiving day. I loved having all my guys here - Hubby, DS1, DS2 and grandson. I sure missed my daughter being here though. The food was really good, if I do say so myself, but I got a couple of real back handed compliments which I may tell you about someday.
Are you a Black Friday shopper? I'm sure not. The only time I've ever gone out to fight the early, early crowds was the year we gave the children a small tv of their own. For one thing, it's too hard to get up before dawn for the stress of shopping after spending the day before cooking and cleaning. For another, I don't usuallly buy into those 'have to haves' that are so hyped. Do you remember the Cabbage Patch shopping fiascos in the 80s? What a disaster they were.
So there probably won't be any sewing today. I have to put away the Fall and get out the Christmas. One tree is up ready to decorate, four more to go. Hopefully, I'll get some help. Not sure, though. No one else is really interested in putting up the decorations, except my grandson. He likes to help and will be here tomorrow to help with at least one tree. Maybe I'll just get them all up, put on any garlands and lights, then wait for him to come and help. Sounds like a plan.
I had a great time sewing today. As I got my Christmas fabrics out to work on a couple of blocks for swaps, I found my tree skirt that I had put aside a couple of months ago. Well, since I'm planning to put up Christmas trees this week, I figured it was just about time to get it finished. It didn't have much left to complete, just a little quilting and the binding. Finishing the binding will keep me busy while I watch tv this evening. I'll show you as soon as I put it under the tree.
I got my swap blocks made, but I'm not happy with one of them. I hate the fabrics and I just can't bring myself to send it out. I'll try to get another one made tomorrow before cards. Yes!! I didn't get to play the last 2 weeks, and I've missed it so much. Anyway, back to the block... I just can't send it out. I only send out things that I would be happy getting, and believe me, I'd be most unhappy to get this awful thing. So, here are the ones I'm happy with. They need to go out by Friday, but I don't shop on that day, so it shouldn't be a problem.
After I got my 'need-to-dos' done, I got some more Dear Jane blocks done.
My younger son came home for the holiday this evening, and we went to dinner at a new Mexican restaurant in town. When we went in, the music was so loud we could hardly hear one another, and I didn't realize until the end of the first song that it was live. But the music was good - mostly country but a good guitarist who played a modified version of Malaguena. It was the first time I've heard country music in the Mexican restaurant. Good food, good music, good dinner companions.
After several days of feeling like a failure, today was a good sewing day. I got several placemats pieced for my daughter. I want to make 6 different traditional patterns, and for the life of me, after I had done 4 I couldn't think of any others. So I'll have to look at some block patterns this evening and do those last 2 tomorrow.
I prepared the pieces I need to do the applique on the cardinal blocks, and plan to work on that during tv time this evening. If I can get one finished tonight, I'll show you tomorrow.
I've now completed 88 of the blocks for the Dear Jane quilt, and really want to get to 100 this week. When I came to a standstill on the placemats, I was not ready to quit sewing for the day, so I got 3 more done this afternoon. What surprised me was that I found 2 very simple ones to make that didn't take any time at all to complete. The third one I made was completely paper pieced, and took more time to make than the other 2 combined. Anyway, these are my accomplishments for the day.
I've gotten no sewing done this week, even though I've tried. Since my daughter has been visiting, I haven't worked on sewing during the day. However, each evening I've had Dear Jane blocks prepared to do by hand while we watch tv. Each evening I've tried, and each evening I've failed. I'm not sure where I've gone wrong, but everything I tried to make came out the wrong size or just generally screwed up. I should have been working on quilting my D9P quilt; it's never going to get finished at this rate.
Today I tried to get myself back into sewing and did make a couple of DJ blocks and a block for a monthly swap. I'll post it as soon as it's gotten to my swap partner. What I really need to do, though, is some work on Christmas projects. I have all the blocks to make for Aunt Pitty Pat's holiday swap. I have my colors and patterns chosen, I just need to do it. I also have a couple of Christmas blocks to make for swaps, and some placemats for my daughter. I have them started, and I'll show you all of them as soon as they're finished, since DD doesn't read my blog. I also have all those cardinals to finish up. Hopefully, tomorrow I can really concentrate and finish at least one of those projects. Wish me luck!
My daughter has been visiting this week, so my time has been spent in other than my usual activities. However, yesterday I got a surprise from the mailman and just had to share. It's a mini quilt for the Fall Mini Quilt swap. It was made by Kristine, and it is such a cutie. She sent so many goodies along with it; chocolate (long gone), some really cute Mary Englebreit magnets, recipe cards, a card listing standard quilt sizes, and a beautiful piece of fabric to wrap it all up. She also sent a beautiful handcrafted card. What a wonderful surprise. Thank you, Krisitne.
I rattled on so much yesterday that I didn't tell you about the great surprises in the mail. The first one was a beautiful block from a monthly swap I'm in. I've asked for stars in dark blues, reds and greens, and this is from Susie, who said she is inexperienced with stars. Believe me, it certainly doesn't show inexperience. It's going to fit in perfectly with the others I've received. The quilt top with all these lovely stars is going to be gorgeous. I wish I could get the colors to look the way they really do.
The second package was from Debra in Australia for the Four Seasons Holiday Swap. She sent this cute little wall hanging, which she said was her first ever quilt. What an honor to receive someone's first effort at this craft/art we love so much. Her package was also filled with other goodies; a Christmas tea towel, gift cards, a beautiful handmade card, and some chocolate, which of course, is long gone. Thanks, Debra, for the great surprise.
I spent my sewing time today working on some Dear Jane blocks, but I'm going to have to put them away. I have several other projects that I must work on, so I'll have to put it aside for now. I have 82 blocks made, and these are the latest additions.
I have a swap that must be mailed tomorrow, and I'm ashamed to say I missed the deadline. Today is the deadline, and of course I can't make it. I'll have to spend a little more on postage, because I really don't want it to be late to the recipient.
We got home from Las Vegas late yesterday, but I was just too tired to do much of anything. We love to travel, but getting to an airport is always is problem. We live in a small town, and although we have an airport, it seems we just can't get anywhere from here. (Remember that old book, "You Can't Get There From Here"?) We usually drive to the airport in Charleston, Columbus or even Akron, but this time the flight in the package we bought was from Cincinnati. That's a 3 1/2 hour drive from home, and since I was totally unfamiliar with the area, I looked on the internet for driving instructions. I didn't know the name of the airport, and just looked for an airport in Cincinnati. Got our driving directions, put them in the GPS, and we were off on Monday morning, more than 5 hours before the flight time. Would you believe the directions were for the wrong airport?? I was sure our trip was ruined. Fortunately, the TomTom is a lot smarter than I am, and when I searched for an airport in the Cincinnati, it came up with the right one. We were past the morning traffic rush, and so made it in time. And would you believe the Cincinnati, Ohio airport is in Kentucky?
Not a very auspicious start to the trip, but we really did have a good time. We did a little shopping, played slots, did a lot of walking and saw 2 shows, Menopause the Musical, and The Lion King. They were both great entertainment. The Lion King stage show is absolutely amazing. We all know the story, but the staging, costumes and music are just wonderful. It just made the trip, and if I get the chance, I'm going to see it again. Truly awesome.
It was good to get back to sewing today, and I got 2 Dear Jane blocks completed, and made a Christmas block for a swap. I keep finding more swaps I want to join, but I'm resisting. I have things that I need to get in the mail on Monday, then I don't think I have any others due until January. Thank goodness. Life gets really busy at this time of the year. Sorry I have no pictures to show you - my battery died and I forgot to charge it.
This will be my last post until Thursday or Friday. Early tomorrow hubby and I are headed out to Las Vegas for 3 days. We're hoping to see some good shows. Of course, I love the slots, so I'll have a good time in the Mandalay Bay Casino. Can't wait! Of course, there are some quilt shops there as well, so I may get a chance to go and drool. See you later.
I have had so much fun in the sewing room yesterday, working on DJ blocks. It seems the more I work on this quilt, the more it pulls me in. When I started the blocks, of course I started with the easiest ones. So that's the only order I'm using. Now, however, the ones I passed up before are also fairly easy. My work is far from perfect, but as I've read about this quilt, done is better than perfect. I have almost half the blocks completed, so I'm going to lay them all out on a bed to really see how they look together. I've kept a spreasheet of the blocks completed and the colors I've used for them so that I won't end up with 5 blues or reds or browns in a row, but otherwise the blocks just sit in a pile on my sewing table. There isn't a color plan for the quilt, but as you've seen in the blocks I've posted, I'm using Civil War reproduction fabrics with a tea stained muslin as the background.
Today I have some Christmas blocks I need to get done, including my cardinal blocks. I have to get started on my blocks for Aunt Pitty Pat's holiday swap. I know the blocks aren't due until late January, but I'll be on a trip at that time and need to have everything done ahead of time. I'll try to post some pictures this evening.
Well, I've sent off 3 packages to bring me up-to-date with my swap obligations. I didn't realize I had so many due for November. I have 1 more to mail out within a week, 1 before the end of the month, and I think that's is for November.
I had to use three post offices to get these packages out. I was taking a friend to lunch, so left home a half hour early to have time to stop at my closest PO. There was a line, but I got the mailers I needed, got in line and addressed them. Then I realized that the line was not only not moving, but there was some major difficulty with the computer printer for money orderes. It took some time to get that customer finished, then the next person in line wanted 3 money orders. Needless to say, that took the next half hour. I couldn't leave the line because I had to pay for the mailers I had already addressed. When I finally got my turn, I just paid for them, took them and left. So to continue the saga, after lunch I was going to a quilt shop in another town, and went to the PO there only to find it closed. I finally found one on my way home that not only was open, but didn't have a line.
Unfortunately, not much sewing today.... hopefully, tomorrow.
I cannot do another swap!! Each one that I read about is so tempting, but I just can't do another right now! Why can't I just let them go by?? I have a lot on my plate until mid-February, but it is so hard to let one go by. Please, please don't anyone post another interesting one right now!
Speaking of block swaps, I got started on my blocks for Aunt Pitty Pat's holiday swap. I'm not satisfied with the fabrics I have, so guess what! I get to go shopping for more. I have my block designed, so I really want to get them done and mailed in to swap mama Aunt Pitty Pat.
Today's sewing progress: finished all my cardinal blocks, made 4 DJ blocks, and made 1 block from the Bridal Sampler quilt. I'm not starting on the Bridal Sampler yet, but I just had to make one of the blocks. I'm really anxious to start putting my Christmas quilt together, but I still have a lot of blocks to come in from swaps. I guess it will be a project for 2010.
I meant to post this on Monday, but forgot. This is the love of my life, my only grandson. Isn't he cute?
The mailman was really good to me today. Although I was expecting it, the package of fqs from the Bingo game was way more than I expected. This big fat package contained 25 fqs! There are some really pretty fabrics in this big group. It's going to be fun to find projects for them.
Also today, I got this group of 6 inch blocks. They are so cute. I was in a swap on Swap bot and my partner flaked on the swap. The coordinator of the swap then stepped in and sent me these to replace the one I should have gotten earlier. They're going to work in perfectly in the Christmas quilt I'm putting together. I have blocks from 4 different swaps that I'll put in one project. You know, saying (writing) that makes me realize that at this time last year I hadn't even heard of a block swap. Now each one that comes along tempts me and I have to be careful not to overextend myself.
I started working on a wall hanging that I'm making as a gift, and got one block pieced. They're all cut and really go together easily. There's some applique to do to finish it up, but even that shouldn't be difficult. In cas you can't tell, it will be a cardinal. I'll post one when it's finished, and tell you the name of the pattern, but I just don't want to walk upstairs again tonight. (sorry)
These are the DJs I've made in the last few days. My pile of blocks is really growing; I now have 67 done. Of course, the quilt has 169, so I'm only about one third done.
