Ups & Downs

 I am feeling like there are more downs than ups this week - but I had some wonderful mail yesterday afternoon that brightened an otherwise frustrating day.  So, a BIG shout out to my friend Connie at https://farsideoffifty.blogspot.com/ for the wonderful mail surprise.

Connie is so creative and a very generous soul as well.  She makes the most gorgeous cards, crochets all kinds of lovely things, and with her husband they make Christmas ornaments every year.  He carved this one and she painted it.  This year's ornament is a quilt block.  I absolutely LOVE it!!  And it arrived with a pretty hand made card, a sweet note, and a kitchen scrubby crocheted by Connie.  Thank you Connie so much for your generous gift!

The rest of my day didn't go as well.  I saw an orthopedic doctor early in the morning.  They did more X-rays, and then he came in and offered to give me an injection in the knee because he's convinced it's just arthritis.  Told me to "ditch that brace" as it needs to get more bending.  Also wrote up an order to start PT, which I'm OK with.  However I said no to the shot because I felt it still doesn't explain why that knee completely buckles.  So he finally agreed to get an MRI scheduled.  No call for scheduling happened but I'm trying to be optimistic that they'll call today.  And of course without that brace, my knee buckled again in the afternoon.  Luckily when I fell, it was into the chair I was trying to get out of.  I'm beyond frustrated right now.

Change of plans

 This isn't the best photo, but you can probably see I have an immobilizer on my left knee.

Long story, but I'm dealing with some type of soft tissue injury.  Yesterday afternoon was partially spent in the ER (my second visit this month) as my left knee buckled and wouldn't support me at all.  After lots of X-rays it was determined I have no bone fractures.  So on Thursday morning I'll be at the Orthopedic Institute clinic to see what comes next, which will most likely include an MRI.  

In the meantime I can hobble around with a cane and this immobilizer, as long as I do it slowly.  That means I won't be trying the stairs to my sewing room for awhile.  GRRR!  Wishing I had some binding to work on, but I do have some hand quilting.

I may take a couple days off from blogging too.  It's the pits getting old.

Design Wall Monday - Nov. 18

Right now, I'm keeping my focus on staying caught up and BOMs and finishing some small projects.  I'm also in the mood for some Christmas sewing.  

I'm caught up with the Tranquility mystery again.  This month's clue was to make 8 of these border units (6 x 12).  I was all excited thinking next month we might see the layout, but then I realized these 8 units are not enough to go all the way around the quantity of blocks we've made previous months.  So there must be something else coming in December.

There are 8 star blocks needed for the Saturday Sampler BOM this month.  They are stars quite similar to a previous month, but with white stars and with extra corners added.  

One pair of blocks is made, and the other 3 pairs are cut out and ready to sew.  We know what the final quilt will look like this time, and I'm thinking that next month we'll get the last clue and make blocks for each corner.  It's exciting to be close to the finish line. 

Because I'm in the mood for some Christmas sewing, this kit has floated to the top of my list this weekend.  It's a table topper using the "folded star" technique.  I'm kidding myself that I'll get it made this week but it needed to be "on my radar" at least.  

I'll be linking up with Design Wall Monday today and Monday Musings.

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

https://songbirddesigns.blog

RSC24 - Week #46

Today is the first day in over a week with nothing scheduled that required me to go anywhere.  Yay!!  I plan to sew as much as possible.  And then we had plans to go to a movie this evening, maybe followed by supper somewhere.

This might be the final RSC quilt top of 2024.  But then again, I have lots of block sets still hanging in the closet, so it might not be last.  All of the flimsies waiting for quilting are hanging in the sewing room closet - all 22 of them if I could wall hangings and runners.  Yikes!!!

I took this flimsy into the basement family room/husband's office and laid it out on his putting green which makes a great design wall.  He recently wondered why it was collecting strings and I had to admit how those strings were getting there.  LOL

Shooting Star is a pattern that came in a Fat Quarter Shop Sew Sampler box a couple of years ago.  I just love stars, and this one is extra fun because the alternate block makes a great design when paired with the stars.  The first version of this that I made used the fabric in the box plus my own background.  That one was gifted to my nephew's daughter for graduation in May 2023.  This one has been an RSC project each month in 2024.  It's perfect for scraps.  

This wasn't an RSC project this year, but I am doing scrappy white backgrounds from my leftovers bin.  I needed 30 blocks for a quilt project and I had lost the extra blue jelly roll strips I planned to use for cornerstones.  I've made 2 or 3 blocks per week this fall, and these are the final 2 blocks needed.  The other good news is I found where I had put those extra blue strips, so all is good.  Finishing this quilt is actually on my list for 2025 - and yes, I've already begun making my list.  LOL

Check out more Rainbow Scrap fun today . . .
https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/ 

End of week check-in

 I can't believe it's already Friday!  This crazy busy week has flown by.  With limited sewing time this week I've still made forward progress on some projects.

The mystery quilt, Tranquility, is quite possibly nearly done.  This month's clue was to make 8 of the border units (6 x 12).  I have 6 of the 8 done and the parts ready for the last 2 of them.

Twinkler is getting closer as well.  I need 30 blocks, and thought the 2 made this week were the last 2.  But when I layed them out on the floor - oops!  Only 28 of them.  

So I've cut out the actual last 2 blocks and hope to get them sewn today before heading to my cardiology appointment this afternoon.  I have 3 jelly roll strips of blue left, but there should be more of them as I only used 1 jelly roll strip per block.  Somewhere in the mess in my sewing room must be the rest of those strips.  My plan is to use them for cornerstones.  

So, my next project really needs to be some cleaning.  I'm lacking stamina right now, but even cleaning one little area at a time would help.  OK - I'm lacking motivation for cleaning too.  LOL

Music and more

 On Tuesday afternoon I left town with 3 friends for an evening of fun in Sioux Falls.  We began with supper at an Italian restaurant, where the food was wonderful.  I had a delicious chicken marsala and brought home half for another delicious meal.  

Then we went to the Mannheim Steamroller concert at the Washington Pavilion.  Like the food, the concert was wonderful.  It was a delightful mix of Christmas music and other. But the Christmas music . . . so so so good.  Don't you love when you get goosebumps when you listen to some music?  I've been a Mannheim fan for decades, and still have most of their CDs, although they are in a box in a closet right now.

The only negative - the young woman sitting to my left who coughed almost continuously through the whole program.  A deep rattling cough!  I'm going to be so angry if I get sick from whatever she has. 

The view from my desk is still very pretty.  That golden maple tree is the only one in the yard that is holding onto it's leaves right now.  We had a dribble of rain overnight, and sure could use more.  Now I see the forecast says we might see snow next week.  That is pretty normal for this time of year, so it's OK.  We need moisture.

Today is the day I get to take off the heart monitor I've been wearing 24/7 for the past 2 weeks, and tomorrow I go back to Sioux Falls to North Central Heart for more tests.  They've ruled out a couple of things but still need to determine a firm reason for my extreme racing heart.  And a plan for treatment will hopefully follow soon.  I was in the ER a couple of weeks ago with a heart rate of 220+.  That was terrifying!  Hence the heart monitor, changes in medications, and lots more tests.  Good thing my favorite hobbies don't require a lot of strenuous activity.  

Quilts of Valor update for November

Hopefully I'm sleeping in this morning as I went to a Mannheim Steamroller concert with friends last night.  This post was actually written yesterday.

Our little Quilt of Valor group has been very busy this past week.  I can't say often enough how rewarding it is to make these awards to our deserving veterans and active duty service members.  We had 3 award ceremonies.

 

One little Christmas stocking

 

This is it - the only thing to show so far this week.  These little Christmas stockings are being made by the members of our Sew Vintage group, and will be filled with a little gift and exchanged at our Christmas party in December.  It's small enough to be used as a tree ornament, and big enough to hold gift cards or candy for the grandkids.  Which gives me an idea - although I may not find the time to do anything with that idea before Christmas.  LOL

Design Wall Monday - Nov 11

It's Veteran's Day and I want to begin the day with gratitude to all of the veteran's who have served our country.  I'll have some Quilts of Valor things to share later this week.

I wrote this post last night as I have a dentist appointment right away this morning.  And from there I'll be headed to the Veteran's Day lunch where our QOV group will be awarding 3 quilts to veterans.

My design wall plan right now is to focus on small projects - things I can finish quickly without a lot of stress.  And believe me there are plenty of small projects around here just waiting their turn.  Project #1 this week is to make a little Christmas stocking for a gift exchange coming up in early December with our Sew Vintage group.  We're all making these little stockings and adding a little surprise inside.  

We also started working on the ornament that I cut lots of little squares for.  Mine is about half finished, so that is another goal for this week.

Four of the 8 border sections for Tranquility are done.  I'm hoping to finish the other 4 this week so that I'm totally up-to-date on that BOM.  We also got our November Saturday Sampler block clue, but those will probably have to wait until next week.

The final 2 Twinkler blocks are currently laying on my sewing table.  They don't take long to make, and I've been doing 2 or 3 each week as a Leader/Ender project.  Once these 2 blocks are done I'll have 30 I needed.  But the quilt itself will probably wait and be a 2025 project as I haven't made a firm decision on sashing or border options yet.  No rush for this one but it will be nice to have the blocks ready. 

  I'll be linking up with Design Wall Monday today and Monday Musings.

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

https://songbirddesigns.blog

RSC24 - Week #45

 It's my favorite Saturday of every month - Saturday Sampler in the morning and Sew Vintage group meets in the afternoon.  It will be awesome to spend the day with like-minded ladies who I know will avoid talking about politics.  And Saturday also means lots of Rainbow Scrap Challenge posts to explore.

Shooting Stars was NOT going to be a square quilt.  My plan was to make it rectangular, but sometimes plans just need to change.  When laying these blocks out this week I finally decided I like the square layout better after all.  The rows are "in progress", but won't be finished yet this week.

Make Your Point has one new row this week.  Each of those pinwheels and 16-patch units are 4.5" square unfinished, so it will take a lot more to make this into anything useful.  But it's fun to keep adding to it from the scraps.

Most of my sewing time this week was not focused on RSC projects, and I also had a lot less time available to sew.  Some weeks are just like that.  This coming week may be limited too with lots going on - Quilt of Valor presentations at Veteran's Day events, a dentist appointment, a concert, a cardiology appointment, a manicure, and a couple of college basketball games.  There is also a celebration of life one evening for a long-time friend and coworker who passed in September.  

I'm linking up with the RSC posts today . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

BOM progress

 Tranquility is the mystery quilt I've been working on this year, from Bear Creek Quilting.  The clues are emailed out at the beginning of each month.  We must be nearing the finale because this month's blocks are identified as border units.  Hmmm . . .

Clues 1-5 have all been 12" (finished) blocks in various quantities.  I'll admit I have not yet tried laying them out to figure out the final layout.  We are using 5 fabrics - a print, and light/dark versions of 2 colors.  Mine are light and dark teal with light and dark gold.  Not my normal color choices but they looked good with the print I chose.

Clue #6 has us making 8 border units.  I have 2 of these sewn and the parts are ready to go for the remaining 6.  These units will finish at 6" x 12".  

Circle of Friends block #5

This is the 5th of 12 paper pieced blocks for Carol Doak's Circle of Friends BOM.

I know - I swore a year or so ago that I would NOT make another major paper pieced project.  But this one is only 1 block each month so it feels manageable.  And - my skills do need to improve. There are a couple of spots in this block that are not lined up perfectly, but I do like my color placement.  

So far I'm using that same black/multicolor print for the outer corners.  However it will only show up in the first 6 blocks because I don't have enough for all 12 blocks.  I have another black print to use in those corners, with dots in those same colors.  I noticed this is the first time I used orange in these blocks, so I'll need to make sure to use it again.  

Projects, projects, projects

 I have my paper pieced sections made for the Circle of Friends.

I'll remove the paper foundations while watching TV.  So maybe by tomorrow I'll have a completed block for this BOM project.

Well - it's not just my quilting projects going on around here.  There are some home improvement things going on too, although I wasn't expecting everything to begin at once.  I'm trying to just stay out of the way as much as possible.

Monday morning the installers came to put up the permanent outdoor lights.  We only did the front of the house, but it looks pretty.  Our next door neighbors have them on all 4 sides of their house.  We can choose from a gazillion color and movement options.  The best thing - no more crawling up ladders to hang our Christmas lights.  

Yesterday morning I left to vote and buy groceries.  I was gone about an hour, and returned to this in my yard - massive tree trimming.  We had a couple of big trees dying in the backyard, and my husband had arranged for them to be cut down, along with trimming some of the others.  When we moved here in 2006 the previous owner bragged about the 60 trees on this 1.4 acre lot.  So, now there are only 58.

And the most important project?  But one that won't be finished in one day.  Also my husband's project.  He and a friend are building storage shelves in the 3rd garage stall to make room for the big fancy golf simulator they bought together.  I'm staying out of the way of all of these projects, even when they asked me what color the shelving should be.  I don't care what color it is.  But I am starting to think Dave having more time on his hands (since he is semi-retired) could become really expensive if he keeps getting ideas like this.

String star runner is finished

 I just can not tell you how glad I am that the constant barrage of political ads will come to an end today.  My opinions are very strong but this isn't the place for that, so I'll spare you. LOL

The second String Star table runner is all done, and yes I added the leaves.  Thank you to all who gave me input on this.  The first version of this has laser cut maple leaves appliqued onto it.  And all six star points were made with the string sets.  This one used up most of the rest of the string sets, and those are alternated with a solid autumn print.

The oak leaf shape was something I googled, and then tweaked the size until it was what I wanted.  Then I traced them onto fusible web and ironed the cut out shape to the runner.  Just a touch of simple quilting will keep them anchored.  

My next task for this week is sewing this month's paper pieced block for Circle of Friends.  All of the fabrics are cut and the foundation papers are organized.  Hopefully I'll have this done today, but we'll see how ambitious I am when I get home from voting.

Design Wall Monday - Nov. 4

My design wall this week has tasks that will move some projects forward toward a finish.  How much I can accomplish this week is a mystery due to lots of "stuff" going on.  But I'm satisfied with any forward progress.

I've decided that I'll do the oak leaves on the table runner.  So far I've cut out the orange and brown.  There are 2 gold ones still needing to be cut out, then I can fuse them on and do a bit of quilting to hold them down securely.

The alternate block for Shooting Star is a fast/easy block.  I needed 5 more to match up star blocks, so the parts are all cut for them.  Sewing them by the end of the week is my goal.

The parts are all cut for more Twinkler blocks too.  I've been making these all fall - 2 or 3 each week, and the goal is 30 of them.  

Besides binding a couple of baby quilts, I'm also working on some hand quilting.  This little quilt was a guild UFO exchange.  It has 9 of these hand pieced stars.  I have 3 remaining to be quilted and then I can tackle the border quilting.  

The 5th paper pieced block for Circle of Friends has been posted, so one more goal is to figure out my color placement and cut the pieces needed.  

I'll be linking up with Design Wall Monday today and Monday Musings.

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

https://songbirddesigns.blog

RSC24 - Week #44

Did I really just write WEEK #44?  How is that possible? 

One finish for the week was the second version of the String hexagon table topper.  The first one was made from a kit, but there was more than enough fabric left to make another.  Notice that 3 of the star points on the second one were done with the string sections, and the other 3 star points used a piece of the backing from the kit.  I did use my own cream fabric for those background wedges however, and I chose a lighter cream. 

 

I quilted some leaf shapes into each star point/diamond.  Now I'm not sure if I want to add some applique leaves like on the first one, or leave it as is.  What do you think?  I cut out a couple of orange leaves just as a test.

Early in the week I finished assembling the top for Summer Getaway, which was another kit - except for the white background.  White-on-white is a light neutral that I use a lot so I pulled that from the stash.  This is about 50" square. 

Going back to the closet I've revisited the RSC block sets once again.  Shooting Star is getting very close to having enough blocks, so I think I will focus on getting this one to the flimsy stage by the end of November.  In particular, more of the alternate blocks are needed to pair up with the star blocks.  I've pulled some fabrics to make at least 5 to finish out the right side of this layout.  Then I'll probably make one more row for the bottom, so the quilt will end up rectangular rather than square.

I'm linking up with the RSC posts today . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Quilts of Valor

Our Quilts of Valor group has several quilt award events coming up around the Veteran's Day week, so we've been busy getting things ready. 

There are 5 quilts all washed, labeled and ready, along with the certificates.  Two will be awarded on Nov. 6th to female veterans at a local DAR meeting.   Three will be awarded at the local Veteran's Day luncheon on the 11th.  That event has become an annual tradition now and the Legion, VFW, and DAV work with us to nominate worthy vets.   That big container underneath - holds all of the tops waiting to be quilted, along with some backings, and some block sets - all for future quilts.

There are 3 more that will be awarded at a Veteran's Day luncheon in a nearby small town on Sunday the 10th.  Those still need labels, and I'm just waiting on the paperwork for correct spelling of names.  I need to remember to take that box with me when I go there, as it belongs to one of their Legion members.  

We received this quilt from a Wisconsin group and it just needed binding, washing, labeling.  I was terrified to wash this one because it has so much white - and even the backing was red.  But I used synthropol and 4 color catchers when I washed it and it is pristine!!  Thankfully!

The member who put the binding on this quilt also washed it.  And she had said the same thing - terrified to wash it with all that white.  We chose a light grey backing for this one just because the front was so light.  It's really a fun and very different quilt.  The top was donated to us from a Minnesota QOV group - along with 9 more.  I did some measuring and sketched out some instructions to make this one myself as I really like the scattered flying geese.