Busy, busy, busy!!

I have been busy. With what, I'm not sure I really remember to tell you but I haven't been on the computer all that much, certainly much less than usual and I no matter what I do, how far in advance I plan or what I tell the family---I never seem to manage to get to my quilt or even to cutting fabric. But, all is not lost, it's been a good quilting month---I got a gift subscription to Fon's and Porter's Love of Quilting magazine from DH, I was in a bottle swap for one of my online quilting groups and I got a box of awesome scraps for my scrappy quilt that is in the works! With a birthday coming up, Easter just passing---prom shopping coming up, graduation and then the graduation party---and that's just for one of the kids---there just doesn't ever seem to be enough time in the day! When I started quilting, back in the early 90's, I had 3 kids at the time who were toddlers or younger so I was able to quilt while they napped and then I quilted after they went to bed and into the wee hours of the morning---never really getting more than 4 hours of sleep a day. And I was fine. I was also in my mid 20's!!! Now, with 6 kids, one a toddler---and being well ensconced into the 4th decade of my life, I just can't do it anymore!!! When I did some marathon sewing sessions around Christmas last to finish up gifts, I stayed up all night for a few nights---I got around 4 hours of sleep each night and I was dead tired for DAYS!!! Ah, the joys of getting older, LOL!

Ok, so I joined the bottle swap for my Ohio Quilters group---I had never heard of such a swap and this was also to be my first online swap. Needless to say, I was excited! My partner listed that she liked bright colors, frogs and Jelly Bellys. I looked through my stash and found some great bright FQ's that I had but the frog fabrics that I had for the baby quilt were all used up, just some scraps and not even a whole frog on a scrap!! I went to my LQS, hoping they'd still have that fabric but they didn't. It didn't seem they had any frogs so just as I was ripping myself away from the fabrics to go look elsewhere, there was a FQ bundle of 5, and on top was a great froggie fabric surround by 4 brights! It was within the allotted budget for the swap so I scooped it up! What a find, LOL! I stuffed that into my 2 liter bottle, along with the brights I found in my stash, a some bags of Jelly Bellys that she loves. Here is a picture of the stuffed bottle:

Needless to say, the people at the post office thought this was pretty nifty. One lady just kept exclaiming, "I've never heard of such a thing, imagine, sending a gift in a soda bottle!" LOL! Unfortunately, no one in the group has heard from my partner, as to whether she got my bottle, or sent out hers. Hers was due to be delivered around the 3rd or 4th, so she must have gotten it! I just hope everything is ok with her, since she hasn't been heard from in a while!

My bottle arrived on the 31st, the day after I mailed mine out. I had been watching for the mailman everyday and was ready for him when he got here, looking to see if he was holding a bottle. Of course, he came while I was in the bathroom that day, so I didn't realize he had come. 2 hours after his usual delivery time, I checked the mail box for mail and it was full (ours is a slot that goes into the house) and my mailman always knocks on the door when he has something that won't fit in the box, so I didn't bother looking outside. DH gets home hours later and he's like---I found this bottle on the porch, they must have decided it wasn't deliverable or maybe it needs more postage. (thinking it was the one I sent out) I knew it was the one I was waiting for and needless to say I squealed with excitement and went running for knives or scissors (I felt like a little kid, LOL!) My partner sent me some beautiful fabrics, it was certainly worth the wait! Here's a pic:

Of course, I didn't think or wasn't patient enough to take a pic before I opened it, LOL! Thanks Dianna, what a nice Easter treat!

A while back, I happened to be chatting with some quilting friends, talking about wanting to make a scrappy quilt but I no longer had my bags of scraps and it would take me years to save up that many again (basically, I was whining!) Of course, you don't have to wait to have scraps for a scrappy quilt---but to me, that is part of the charm of a scrappy quilt---using leftovers, not buying fabrics for it. Anyway, one of my friends suggested that I put a request out on my blog, and those of you that read me regularly know that I did do that. I wasn't going to at first, I thought that maybe it was tacky--but then I decided that I could actually help someone clear out some much needed space in her studio---so in asking for scraps, I could be helping someone as well! Hey, it makes sense!!! Ok, well I'm just being silly---but I decided I had nothing to lose and I put out the request--and people responded!!! The Thursday before Easter I got a box in the mail, filled up with so many wonderful, beautiful scraps! It took my breath away! Thank you again, Vicki, you really made my month!! Debra also offered but I haven't been able to get my emails to her--so Debra, if you happen to pop by, anything I send to you bounces back (my emails bounce at Yahoo regularly, even on the groups) so if you have another email addy I can send you my info, or if you are on yahoo messenger, I can IM you the info, LOL! Whatever happens, thanks for offering to send scraps as well!
Box o' scraps!








My daughter (the senior in high school) is in the musical Aida so this weekend we're gonna be going to see her perform. I can't believe this will be her last musical and in a month, she'll be graduating. Wow, time flies! DH was up in the attic, rummaging around for an old TV for one of the kids, and he found two little baskets of quilting stuff that somehow got put up there--probably during a spring cleaning. While looking through the baskets, I found project that Jessica had made while I was working on the Debbie Mum Santa wallhanging that I finally finished for my mom this past Christmas---I started it probably 8 years ago---she would have been around 10. She just used scraps leftover from my quilts I was working on and put this together herself, designed it and sewed it---using the machine for the first time. I think it's beautiful!! I had forgotten about it, I think she has too so I am going to frame it as is and give it to her on her birthday. That way, she can finish it if she wants to---or if she isn't interested in it, I'll keep it, LOL! She used to help me make garb for our SCA personas, usually cutting fabric for me, or patterns. On the other Debbie Mum Santa wallhanging that I made for me, there is a teeny patchwork quilt hanging out of the sled---she made that when she was 7, all hand stitched. She was always afraid to use the sewing machine---but she finally sat down and use it for this project of hers. She just grabbed the scraps lying around, cut them into pieces and made her own creation. Then she became a teenager and was no longer interested in sewing with mom. Maybe someday, the bug will get her again, in the meantime, this is a beautiful memory. I think I want to keep it now, instead of giving it to her!!!!


Ok, that's it for me for today, I will try not to fall so behind and I promise to have something accomplished (SOMETHING!) by next WIP Wednesday!

Haven't had time for much......

Life caught up with me and took over. I haven't picked up my quilt or my knitting in probably 3 weeks, at least. I don't know about you, but I feel so---bored, lifeless, tired---when I can't work on my creative outlets. My carpal tunnel flared up and I just can't hand sew or even hold onto the hoop for longer than 5 minutes without some major pain and knitting is just out. Needless to say, I had to cut down on my computer time as well, since typing and mousing makes it hurt as well. I've gained a few pounds over the last few months which is why it is flaring up---due to a lot of water weight gain, so I have to cut out salts and sugars to get back down and the doc said my carpal tunnel should go away after that. For some reason, with each of my children I gained weight after childbirth instead of losing, even though I haven't changed my eating habits or my exercise habits. My thyroid levels are messed up so we are adjusting my meds as well---once all this is taken care of, the carpal tunnel should go away again and I'll be hunky dory again. I tried cutting out some squares of denim for my denim rag quilts and even that messed me up---so I'm taking a break for a bit.

While I was sitting in my living room looking at my snowman wallhanging on the wall, I realized that it is time to put it away, so I need something to take its place. My quest while I am getting back to normal, is to find a cute, easy pattern for a spring wall hanging. Back in November, I saw a lady on my local Freecycle list advertise that she had tons and tons of old quilting magazines to give away---I went to her house and she had probably around 150, I took 80 (there was another lady who had replied to her, but since I replied first I got first dibs and she said I could take them all if I wanted to since she hadn't contacted the other lady yet--but I made sure to leave her a bunch, too---I tried not to be TOO greedy, LOL!) These magazines are all from the early 80's--some late 70's and a few from the early to mid 90's---but they are fabulous! The one thing about them is that nearly all pics are in black and white---and they don't always have pics--BUT I don't see that as a negative, it forces me to use my OWN ideas of colors and fabric patterns instead of trying to easily duplicate what the pattern maker used---which I prefer, over all. So, for the next 5-7 days I will be perusing these old mags to see if I can find a cool spring pattern or at least get some ideas for something I can design on my own. If you have any suggestions or ideas, feel free to let me know them!!!

As you may or may not know, I am asking for donations of scraps---useless scraps to you that could help me for my scrappy strip quilt I am planning. I will gladly pay the postage, I can send it via paypal or in the snail mail! I will gladly accept any fabrics--my only request that it be natural fibers---any colors or patterns and no preference on size or shape. The reason I am asking is because my scraps were all thrown out, either unknowingly or stupidly, over the years and the only ones I have now are from the last 4 quilts I made---not much there. As I build up my stash again and make more quilts, I plan on doing the same for someone else someday!

I am afraid of free motion quilting. I haven't really tried it in years, but I have a hard enough time machine quilting a straight line without my tension going kaplooey or my stitches being too close together or too big because I am not getting it over the feeddogs in a consistent manner. I have a really good machine, it was just serviced and when I was piecing I had no problems with tension or stitch size---it's just when I try and put a quilt on it that it all gets messed up. I was going to take a machine quilting class at my LQS but I wasn't able to sign up this time around. I saw a Linda Schmidt, Alex's guest on Simply Quilts make a quilt from a photograph (Art Quilts: Parisian Nine-Patch Miniature), using fabric painting techniques, some applique, and she was creating trees using thread and water soluable stabilizer. She drew the tree out on the stabilizer, put it into a hoop and then free motion sewed the stabilizer, making sure to cross all lines to ensure that the tree would stay together once the stabilizer was dissolved. I really want to try that, but once again, I am afraid of free motion quilting/sewing. She did keep her feed dogs up, which I kinda don't understand how unless she just kept going forward and using the back button, I don't know but my goal for this year is to learn how to do this---and to learn to free motion and machine quilt. While I am a traditional quilter in my heart, my head is telling me to make an art quilt, so I need to learn a whole slew of new techniques so I can at least make a small wallhanging by the end of the year.



That's it for me today, hopefully if I am a good girl and follow my doctor's instructions faithfully, my swelling should go down soon enough so I can get back to work! I should get a wrist brace, but to me, that is like admitting that I have a problem, LOL! He said if I lost 10 pounds, I should be good to go since I didn't have a problem 10 pounds ago, LOL! Of course, I'd rather lose 40---time to up my metabolism and hit the sidewalk with my walking shoes!!

Have a good week, hopefully I'll talk to you all soon!

WIP Wednesday and projects to be...

I was looking through the photos section on one of my Yahoo Groups quilt groups I belong to and I came across a quilt that I MUST MAKE!!!! It looks very complicated to me, but the talented woman who made it said it was actually pretty easy. It's called 3rd Weekend in October.

OMG, I absolutely love this quilt! Since fall colors are my favorites anyway, I think this is the perfect quilt for me--plus the fact that I've always wanted to make a leaf quilt. The design is from Innovations and the designer is Ruth Powers and she has quite a few patterns I would like to make---given the time and the money, I'd have them all done by the end of the year, LOL! Her website is called: INNOVATIONS Quilting patterns designed by Ruth Powers
Ms Powers is a very talented designer and I look forward to bulking up my stash to make some of her quilts!!!


I'm still working on the baby quilt, I'm wishing I had machine quilted it instead, I just don't seem motivated to hand quilt it, with all that is going on in the home with my son and all the other kids, it's been hard mustering up some energy to work on this quilt. As I've always said, I'm more of a piecer than a quilter.




I was searching all over for flannel plaids for the snowman quilt I wanted to make from Fon's and Porter's Love of Quilting magazine. Their website did not have a kit, even though it was advertised to have one in the magazine---which I didn't mind so much as I'd rather pick my own fabrics, but when I spent 3 days online looking for plaid flannels and coming up empty, I was getting very discouraged and I had wished I could have gotten a kit. My local quilt shop had nothing, lots of kiddie flannels and floral flannels, no plaids. I went to Jo-Anns and they had a few flannels, nothing to write home about, though. I picked up the few I found there and I figured that it's just gonna take a couple of years to gather enough flannel plaids to make this darn quilt, since no one seemed to be making them this year. Then, I went to Wal-Mart. Now, I've been pretty much boycotting Wal-Mart---partly due to the layaway fiasco, and then I hear they are getting rid of the fabric/craft section and so I decided that I am no longer going to shop there. Part of their reasoning to getting rid of the fabric department is, according to a Wal-Mart higher up, Wal-Mart is trying to appeal to an upper class of people and rich people don't sew. WHAT?????? But, I digress.....

Anyway, I had to go to Wal-Mart for canning supplies, since no one else around sells them and I stopped in the fabric section and what did I find???? FQ bundles of plaid flannels and tons more flannels on the rack!!! They were all quilt shop quality fabrics, too!!! You wanna see my flannels? LOL!

Geesh, don't ya just love fabric????!!!!






Homespuns have always been my favorite fabrics but I think plaid flannels are now joining them in the favorites list!!!

Now, here is the time for a shameless plug/request. Do you have too many scraps laying around and not enough room for them? Would you like to clear some room for some new yardages or FQ's? Do you have lots of scraps and just no ideas of what you may ever want to do with them? Let me take them off your hands and help you clear up some more storage space! I am looking to make a scrappy string quilt in the near future but my scrap stash is very, very small. Over the years, stuff has gotten thrown out during moves and spring cleanings and I have been left with very little quilting fabrics scraps (yet I have tons of scraps from my costuming fabrics, none of them got thrown out :-(!! ) So, if you would like me to help you and therefore help me, just write to me at marsaili at cox dot net and I would be glad to help clear some space for you!!!!

Ok, shameless plug/request over!

Another project I am looking to make soon, which should be fast and easy, is to make a few denim rag quilts. The nice thing is that I don't have to quilt it if I don't want to and I can probably make 3 or 4 of them in a week. I've been saving all of the kids outgrown jeans--and with 2 pre-teens and 3 teens, they grow out of their jeans FAST!!! Even the baby's outgrown jeans can help towards his rag quilt. What I will do is get backing fabrics that go with each kid---Hello Kitty for my 19 year old daughter, something rock and roll for my 17 year old son, Pokemon or Sonic the Hedgehog for the two youngsters and something Garfield for the 15 year old. I love the look of the frayed blocks and it goes with the homey look I'm trying for in the house. Plus, I think the kids would all like one, as well! The quilt in the picture is from Patchwork-and-Quilting.com

Ok, that's it for me this week! Hopefully I'll have my current WIP done by next week---but that is a tall order, we'll see!

He is home!!!

Thank you all for your prayers and hugs, my son came home today, he is fine. He's lost probably 10 pounds and doesn't look like he's slept in a month---but he survived on the kindness of friends and only spent one night in the cold. Now that I am relieved and happy he is home, it's time to start thinking options for him--something that will work and keep him on the straight and narrow. I am not putting him back into the treatment center, we'll work on an out patient basis and try and get the help he needs that way. Thank you again for your prayers and kind words, I am going to actually sleep tonight, I think. Lord knows I can use more than 2-3 hours of sleep!!!

Son ran away again.....

Needless to say, I haven't spent much time quilting this weekend. I found out on Wednesday that my son ran away from the treatment center on the 16th. 5 days after he disappeared, someone finally informs me, his mother. Their excuse was that their policy is to contact the guardian and the police--since county took emergency custody of him to place him in this facility, they are now his guardian. The problem was, all county workers were off Monday for Presidents day, so my county worker didn't find out until Tuesday and he didn't inform me until Wednesday. In the meantime, my son has been gone for 5 days by the time I am informed. Now it's been over a week, one friend saw him the night he ran away and no one has seen him since. I am literally falling apart with worry, I've contacted all the friends I knew he knew and asked them to contact any I didn't know. My daughter has asked everyone she knows---but no one knows anything. He left the facility---in the tail end of our blizzard week---dressed in a hoodie, jeans and checked tennis shoes---that's it. He has no money, no ID, nothing. The treatment center has all his belongings locked up, so he had no way to get his money or other things. I have his ID, his guitar, all the "stuff" that he cares about, I am surprised he hasn't come back for them, which worries me even more for his safety.

I am just blabbing at this point, I've done all that I can physically do, it's a waiting game now, although I have been driving around everyday trying to find him. It's taking a toll on me, my health, family---it's just awful!

Ok, I'm done, I just needed to get that all out. If you are reading this, please pray for my son, for his safety and a safe return very soon!
Thanks

Heirloom Quilts

Well, I've been working on the baby's quilt, I was going to machine quilt it but decided at the last minute to hand quilt it. I sent DH up to the attic crawl space to find my quilting hoop and he came back with treasure! Oh, and my hoop! About 17 years ago, my ex's great aunt had died (of old age, she lived well into her 90's, she was a wonderful human being!) When the family was going through her condo to take things, clean it out and give stuff away or throw it out, the ex and I had gone to help and to pick out what we wanted (what was left, anyway--the rest of the family got the best stuff and as usual, we got the pickings---but personally, that was the best stuff to me!) Among the stuff to go to the trash was a big box, so I lifted it up and got stuck by a sewing needle. So, I opened it up and there inside was tons of sewing stuff, most of it very, very old! In the big box was a smaller box and when I opened it up inside was a treasure trove! His great aunt was a quilter, she had started a grandmothers flower garden back in the 30's and worked on it here and there throughout the years but never finished it. When I found it, it had a large completed panel, some completed rows and some completed flowers---along with many cut hex's and all the fabric that she used for the hex's AND a homemade template made by her husband. I was SO excited, I wasn't a quilter yet---in fact I knew nothing about quilting but I knew that this was special. I took the whole box to my ex's mother and asked her if she was sure she wanted to throw it out. She said yes, no one in the family wanted it. I asked if I could have it and she said yes. So I took it home with the intention of finishing it, but I soon found that I needed much more quilting experience before tackling a job of this magnitude! So I packed it up and put it away until I would be ready to finish it and from that day on, I've been a quilter ever since! When my ex and I were splitting up, he told me he took it and destroyed it, and I was heartbroken, I never expected to see it again. But Lo and behold, DH found it in the attic---along with long forgotten quilting books and templates and patterns and cross stitch patterns---lots of stuff I thought was gone forever! Needless to say I am tickled to have this quilt back, after I get some of my UFO's done, I am going to finish this quilt! There is a lot of scrap fabrics (original 30's fabrics!!) left and tons of cut pieces, but there isn't much of the yellow solid used in the center of the flowers. I am hoping that I can find a fabric to match!

About 10 years ago when I was really going full steam ahead with my quilting, my Aunt had given me a quilt for Christmas. She had inherited it from her grandmother and it was made by her great grandmother, my great, great grandma, sometime in the late 1800's---they say it was made in the 1880's. I know she died in the early 1920's and it was finished way before she died so it was most certainly started at least in the 1800's! It is a log cabin, I believe it's a barn raising pattern.

It is made primarily of silks and velvets but there are many cottons and some woolens as well. Many of the silks are fraying, I'm not sure I want to fix them---well, I'm torn. I know if I repair it is takes away from the value of the quilt. I also know that since many of the silk strips are fraying that there probably isn't a whole lot of monetary value anyway---and even if there was I am not getting rid of this quilt for any money!! I would like to hang it eventually, but I worried that exposing it to light and air will speed up more deterioration of some of the fabrics---some are perfect, however. I can't put it out on my bed, with the baby, the boys, the dogs and the cats, it would be sure to be ruined very quickly. I hate keeping it hidden and folded up with acid free paper, looked at maybe 2 or 3 times a year. If anyone has any advice on how to handle this quilt, please leave it in the comments section!

For now, I am still working on the baby's quilt, stitching away---hopefully I'll have it done in a week!

Stitch on!!

More winter pics...

My little snowbunny boy, LOL! The snow is melting and by this weekend we are gonna be knee high in mud. Not looking forward to that! This is his first time in the snow!


Click on the pictures for
a bigger view!



Here is our puppy, Raven, attacking Jeremy in the snow, LOL!







Here is Sean measuring our snow---and this was before the storm was even over!






Our snow dogs, having a blast. Annie has to be tied up because she keeps climbing on the big pile of snow by the fence and jumping over! Stupid, smart dog!!!!