Pillow Frenzy

It started at our Christmas celebration when one of my daughters wanted a quilt for her bed.  She's bought a "fixer upper" and work is progressing nicely but she painted the walls in her bedroom a dark gray and now needs some color.  She didn't ask me to make her a quilt - just share one I already had.  We looked through the stacks of quilts (don't judge) and she chose one I bought several years ago at a junk store for $30.  It was old and a bit ragged on the edges but a beautiful star pattern and made from reds and teals.  Then, of course, she needed some throw pillows to set it off.  We went through my fabric stash (don't judge) and she chose three fabrics we thought might work.  Well, you know pillows take so little time that I ended up making three.

While I was rummaging around in the sewing room I came across a pumpkin I had embroidered this fall so I just made a quick pillow with it while I was there.

I love the border fabric on this one, though it doesn't show up well in this picture.  It's spider webs with little orange spiders on it.  :)

Abut that same time I finished a wool hand applique piece I'd been working on so I just stayed with my pillow theme and this is what I ended up with.

This pattern was in a recent Primitive Projects magazine.  I think it will be put up and given to someone for Christmas next year.  I love the addition of the gingham.

I had another wool piece I'd finished weeks ago and, you guessed it, another daughter who needed a pillow for her new house.  Yes, two daughters, two new/old houses.  And my son is remodeling his.  Good grief.  Since this daughter loves chickens this is the one she's getting.

I keep a basket on my sewing machine filled with things that need to be finished.  So I continued with my chicken theme, but not my pillow theme, and made this rooster market bag.  I think I'll send it to a friend who loves chickens.

I made several market bags for Christmas presents this year - my girls use them for absolutely everything - and so I'm now completely out of the fusible I use for interfacing.  That means I need to make a trip to the fabric shop.  I'm trying to stay out of fabric shops - honestly - but sometimes that's not possible.

My problem is not really not that I have too much fabric.  It's that I have too many UFOs.  My January resolution has to be UFOs.  I'm going to write it on the bathroom mirror, and tape it on a piece of paper to the front of the television.  Maybe I'll make up a song about finishing UFOs.  I was horrified last week when I rearranged and cleaned and sorted in my sewing room at the number of UFOs and unstarted kits I have.

See those four dark baskets?  Kits not yet started and UFOs.  Seriously.  On the floor are 3 tubbies of wool fabric and two sets of drawers of thread and things I don't use often.  There are a couple of shelves of layer cakes and jelly rolls and fat quarter bundles and flannel fabric and on the top are pillow forms.  I just bought most of those because they were on sale this week.  Honest.

I keep fat quarters in the old gym baskets, sorted by colors.  I don't have an ironing board but use this ironing station, which works better for me.

This is fuzzy but on that far shelf I keep jars, and jars, of buttons.  And also patterns I want to use soon.  After I finish the UFOs.  Patterns I've already made or want to make way in the future are in the file cabinet.

One of the problems I have in my sewing room is there is never enough light.  I think I might have to consider having these cataracts removed soon.  :)  To solve that I've added what my dad would call "chicken lights" in a couple of places to help until I figure out something else.  I just moved my fabric to these shelves last week when they got displaced in the closet by the UFO baskets.  See how I subtly reminded myself to finish those UFOs?

This is where I actually sit and sew.  The bins have all sizes of pieces I've cut from scraps of fabric - 5", 2 1/2", 3" squares, different sized triangles, etc.  It's too much.  Really.  That basket on the left...that's the stuff I'm working on right now.  Except for that snowman on top, which is finished.  Yea!  I have no idea this turned into a tour of my sewing room except here we are.

And now I must go.  I need to work on UFOs.  :)

Christmas Ornament Exchange

Merry Christmas!!

It's definitely Christmas inside my house....but outside it's a different picture.

It's been so warm here that I saw forsythia blooming yesterday and the Bradford Pear Trees have buds on them.  When the cold weather finally hits they're going to be so confused!

Joan over at Moostash Quilting was my swap partner and we shared a few laughs over gifts and getting things mailed - mostly because I was almost, but not quite, late in mailing mine.  :)

Joan sent me this adorable sewing machine ornament.  How could I possibly get one I'd love more?  I couldn't!

Isn't it gorgeous?  And so perfect with that red thread for this time of the year!  But that's not all - she also made me this adorable Scottie mini quilt....

And that's not the last of her gifts - she also sent chocolate.  I can't seem to find that chocolate anywhere to take a picture - it's disappeared!

We had so much fun exchanging ornaments - if you didn't join in please consider it for next year!

It's Official!

We must be officially old....we went out for dinner last night at a local establishment where they don't take reservations.  The wait was only about 10 minutes we were told, despite the long line snaking out the front door and onto the veranda.  There was a bench where a young couple were sitting and when they saw us standing they immediately rose and told us to take their seats.  We protested - we were fine, really.  They wouldn't take no for an answer.  Isn't that just the nicest thing?  Perfect for this season of love.  But really, that kind of made it official.  We're old.

One Month!

I haven't written a post for a month...a whole month!  That's the longest I've gone since I started blogging in April of 2008.  And I don't even know what I've done for the last month, but here are a few highlights of things that have happened.

Back in early November my son ran his first half marathon (and came in first in his age class!) and my granddaughter ran her first 10K.  I'm so proud of both of them!  And I wish I had started running when I was her age because my body says, "no, not now!"



My grandson took a dive off a monkey bar when he was trying to sneak up to the front of the line - not really a suitable punishment I don't think - and had 5 staples put in his head, was a real trooper through his first CT scan, and was back to acting like a crazy monkey as soon as the pain med began to work!



I went shopping for a new chair and came home with one that I'm reserving judgement on - I didn't go looking for a recliner at all but this is what happened.



While shopping I ran across this Grinch sweater - anybody out there love The Grinch?



I started my Christmas decorating and rediscovered this little apron for the fireplace broom.  It was made at least 30 years ago by a dear friend who passed away a long time ago.  I treasure it.



And a sweet friend (from my high school "sisters") sent me three new violets.  Today was repotting day.



I'm working on Eighth Day of Plum Street Samplers Twelve Days of Christmas so I'm a bit behind but that's okay....I still have time to finish.  I think.  And I've been shopping 3 times.  Three!  I hate shopping because I always see things I would love to have for myself and don't need at all...such a temptation.  :)

Thoughts From The Back Of An Ambulance

It started a week ago Friday, the day before Halloween, with a scratchy throat.  I ignored it because I had company coming for the weekend and really, isn't that what we women do?  On Saturday it was about the same but by Sunday afternoon I knew I had caught a cold.  And answer me this...why do we call it "catching" a cold, as if we'd been chasing it and finally, finally we caught it?  I, for one, avoid colds like the plague.  I wash my hands a lot, I use hand sanitizer, I wipe the handles of the carts at WalMart with their bleach wipes, I take Vitamin C.  But still, there it was.

It wasn't too bad, just a cough and stopped up sinuses, and so I continued on my merry way.  I went to Yoga on Sunday, Weight Watchers on Monday and Yoga again on Tuesday.  Where I got light headed and broke into a sweat.  Strange since I'm always cold and never hot.  Wednesday the cough was worse so about 6 that evening I put on my pajamas and settled in with my stitching.  And I coughed and coughed and coughed.  For hours.  Which triggered esophageal spasms that were so bad I couldn't get my breath.  Finally my husband got scared and called 911.  Well, to be honest it was me who got scared and told him to call 911.  :)

The First Responder from the Fire Department arrived pretty quickly.  He was such a sweet 13 year old.  I remember thinking that .... 13 years old and I wonder if he was one of my students.  Of course, the problem is that at my age everyone looks like a 13 year old.  I'm sure he was much older, maybe even 25.  He put oxygen on me and took my blood pressure.  Correction - he tried to take my blood pressure.  It was so high that it wouldn't register.  The ambulance arrived next and started asking questions.  Try the blood pressure again.  190/88.  I'm pretty sure I told them to try again because my blood pressure is really 120/60.  Always.

I thought they would just give me a shot, calm me down, and head on back to the ambulance home while I went to bed.  No they said.  Can you help us get you on the gurney they said.  Young man I've been getting myself up and around for 69 years and I'm not gonna stop now.  On the gurney, up into the ambulance.  Did you know that the lights inside the ambulance stay on while they drive?  And it's dark outside so everyone on the street can see you in there?  They put the EKG machine on me, trying very hard to keep me covered up.  For which I will be eternally grateful.  I would have hated riding down the highway with the girls showing.  The nice EMT tried to draw blood and tried to get an IV started.  I have the proof that he tried - several black bruises on my arm.  I offered to pray for his blood drawing skills.  I think that probably wasn't politically correct but it was definitely appropriate.

Did you know that from the back of an ambulance cars behind you look like giant eyes following you?  And that riding backwards like that gives a whole different perspective to travel?  Instead of looking where you're going you're looking at where you've been.  Think about that for a while.  We passed the Shoe Factory...I bought a really comfortable pair of shoes there once.  And there's the place where I used to get my oil changed when I had the car that the eighteen wheeler crushed.  Oh yea, that used to be the neighborhood market but it closed and I really miss it.  Looking back is ok but trust me, looking forward is much more uplifting and positive.

Don't worry, this story has a happy ending.  I got shots and meds and more oxygen and finally got back home about 3 a.m.  It's days later and I'm almost well.  In fact, if the weather weren't so awful today I'd have gone walking today.

And since I've been sidelined this last several days I've coughed and stitched and finished up The Second Day of Christmas and The Third Day of Christmas and The Fourth Day of Christmas!  Here's a couple of pics....

Or maybe there's one picture - I'll take the other pictures in a day or two.  These are from Plum Street Samplers and are her free patterns for her Sunday Sampler series.  You should check them out because they're so cute and so fast and fun.

Meanwhile I'll be back in a few days to show you how I'm finishing them.  I haven't actually decided yet how I want to finish them but I'll be sure and show you.  :)  Any suggestions?

Gray Days

Well last time I posted I mentioned the drought and I have to say that's over.  Completely over.  We've had rain and more rain and there's more rain coming.  They days have all been gray and cloudy and damp and perfect for staying in and stitching.

We've had siding installers here for weeks - the 4 day installation of siding on our house has taken a month and they're not finished.  We have a brick house so there's not a lot of wood area to cover but it's been a comedy of errors.  Materials didn't come in or they came in damaged.  Where I asked for it to be put on horizontally they put it vertically.  The list goes on but I have high hopes that all mistakes will be corrected by tomorrow and the job will be finished.

Meanwhile I've done a little stitching and had my high school friends here for the weekend and started yoga again.

I did this quick embroidery but then couldn't decide how to finish it....

I love big stitch embroidery - it's very easy, suits my primitive style and is oh so fast.

Olde Witche Mary - has to be one of my favorites despite the many mistakes I made doing it.  I ran out of thread very early on and had to substitute.  This was a kit from Not Forgotten Farms and the thread was hand dyed.  There was plenty for the top half but not the flowers so I found a Presencia thread that was very, very close.  Somehow I miscounted and ended up altering a couple of the flowers to make them fit but if I don't tell you which ones I don't think you'll be able to tell.  :)

And I'm working on the Plum Street Samplers "Sunday Sampler" series - and yes, I'm way behind.  This is the First Day of Christmas...I've begun the Second Day but I think there are about six of them out now.  I have no idea how I'm going to finish the first two pieces but these will be ornaments when I get all the stitching done and get them finished.

I made a trip to Goodwill the other day to drop some stuff off so I shopped a little.  I'm always on the lookout for ways to use my cross stitch pieces.  I ran across a wonderful round green box for $2 that is going to be perfect for something....have no idea what, but something!  :)

I've got a hot cup of tea beside me, bread dough rising in the kitchen, and stitching in my lap.  Life doesn't get any better than this!