Quilting and Vacuuming

When I was at the fabric store, I found some fabric that I thought would make great table runners.  And I was given directions for a quick to make table runner.  So this is the result:

It doesn't scream Valentines, but there are little pink hearts on the red fabric.  I like it!

Then I went to my monthly Groovy Girl Class, and we were making table toppers.  I didn't have time to pick fabric from my stash (bummer) but found another set of black and red fabrics.  I'm not really a black and red person, so go figure why I'm picking out black and red. This table topper is "round", and will work great on a round table, or even a rectangular one.  It came in three sizes, and I made the small.  (The large is almost 4 feet across.)  Again, I don't think this screams valentine, but it was fun, and took about 6 hours to make and finish, including figuring out how I wanted to quilt it, and getting it quilted.  Both of these are on my floor for being photographed, and the wood strips are about 2 inches across, so you have an idea of size.

Now vacuuming does not sound very exciting, but I have a new "toy".  First, if you have not discovered "Woot", you need to if you do any on-line purchasing.  Woot is a site that sells one thing a day, except for the days they have "Woot-offs".  My new toy is a robot vacuum.  Like the Rumba, but this is a Neato.  The reviews I read, people who have had both machines like the Neato better.  And the Neato has more of a plan in it's vacuuming.  It does not just bounce off and go the other direction.  I've run this little gem twice now.  And it REALLY works.  Now my house has a great room, with furniture on the sides, and recliners in the middle.  The Neato tries to recognize doorways, and it thinks some of the areas between furniture are doorways.  So it does the first little "room" first, then on the the next "room" and so on.  It is not quiet, but not that loud.  When it has done every room that it can get into, it turns off it's vacuum, and works it path backward, and finds its recharging station, and carefully backs into the recharger.  I can program it to run at night, but have not done that yet.  I'm watching to see where it has problems in the house.  But so far, it has not had any problems!  So now that I've bragged about my little vacuum, I bet you want to see pictures.  Oh, it also makes it up onto throw rugs, and vacuums the rugs.  It does have problem with the two rugs I have that have an extra cushy no-slip mat under them, but it gives moving onto them a try, and then goes about it business elsewhere when it can't climb the height.  Now for pictures:

 Above, it is working along the wall and below it is getting under the toe space in front of the sink (sorry, I think I should have rotated the picture first!!).

OK, I can hear the comments "yea, it's cute, but does it do anything??"  Well I'm almost embarrassed to show you the results.  My story (and I'm sticking to it) is that I have two dogs, and it had been about 4 days since I vacuumed.  But this is it's dirt bin when it was finished the first day:

And I had already emptied the bin about half way through (there is a pause button).  Yesterday when I ran the vacuum, I got about this much again!!  WOW!

And the best part?  Yesterday, I did a load of laundry, vacuumed the floor, and made dinner all at the same time!  I think my little Neato is going to need a name, don't you??

Fabric and Houseplants

I brought a lot of fabric and trims/zippers/sewing tapes/craft items home on Thursday from my two girlfriends.  It's still sitting in my living-room!  I have started through the crafts stuff.  Actually the craft stuff is good timing.  My scout group will be making sculptures and art creations in the next month.  I'm sure lots of the craft stuff will be put to good use.

So what did I do today?  Well, the quilt store has fabric at $2.50 a yard today only.  So I purchased 18.3 yards!  So I'm not doing too good in my plans to reduce my stash.  But I got stuff that I have vague plans for.  There is fabric to make 2 winter scarves (they might make gifts next year), and a couple fabrics that I think will make a really nice purse.  After I came home, I helped my husband take stuff to the storage locker, and then he helped me transplant two large house plants.

One plant is a fig tree, about 6 foot high.  The other is a bocarnia otherwise known as elephants foot.  When I purchased the bocarnia, the bulb at the base was about 1 inch in size.  It is now 5 inches across.  I love that the long narrow leaves gracefully curve down to the floor.  In the new pot, the leaves are 1-2 inches above the floor.  And I've gotten all the dirt swept/vacuumed up too.  (Just can't re-pot plants without making a mess.) LOL.

So, after dinner tonight, I need to start again sorting the fabric and craft stuff.  The fabric goes into three piles. One that will go to the charity quilt group at church, one that I will keep, and last time, my third pile was stuff I didn't need to keep, but was partially completed projects that the charity group wouldn't be interested in.

My hubby says his TV show if over, and it is time for dinner.  I'll report on my fabric sorting later.

Cub Scouts and Quilting

We had our Cub Scout Pack meeting last night.  It was average as our Pack meetings go.  And tomorrow I take  the Webelos and the Tiger to the Newspaper office.  This will be the last requirement that the Tiger needs to complete his badge.  He is a go-getter little boy, full of energy.  I hope he stays in scouting, because I sure would like to have him in Webelos!

I belong to a neighborhood quilting group.  Some of the ladies that meet with us are beginning quilters, just making their first quilts.  And some like me meet for the fellowship - not really needing the "lessons" but sometimes I learn a new way to do something. The leader of the group teaches a new skill each month.  Our new project is to try out a round robin.  The beginning quilters may not participate, but at least 3 of us are doing it.  Instead of each starting a quilt, and trading, we are just doing one.  The quilt leader started the quilt, and it was just passed on to me today.  I have 2 months to do "something".  To tell the truth, I just took a quick look at what I was given.  There is a notebook that is a journal that accompanied the project.  I haven't even looked at it yet.  This is a landscape type quilt (I think - from our previous conversations).  I'm thinking it will be a chance start a bit of art quilting.  No beading, fibers, etc; but a chance to do some free design of my own.  I'll keep you apprised.

The other point in my life is that I have started back on Weight Watchers.  Last week I only lost half a pound or so.  I'm hoping this week will be better!

Starting to think about next spring's garden

OK, I'm just beginning to think about the garden.  Tonight was our Pastor's surprise birthday, and I talked to James, another church member.  Apparently he has some blackberry bushes he brought to the area from where he use to live.  They've been growing in his yard for 4 years, and he was asking if I knew how to propagate them.  He doesn't have internet access, so I just finished checking.  I found three methods, and I'll give him the papers tomorrow.  Maybe I'll get some blackberry plants out of it.

Last year I tried to plant some raspberry plants.  They didn't make it.  I don't know why.  But after looking at information about blackberries, I want to ask James if his have thorns (some versions don't!).  And are they bushes or vines.  And do they die back every winter, or do the branches grow new leaves every spring.

Hmm, now my garden - plants I definitely want again - acorn squash,  (they were small last year, but very tasty), pickling cucumbers, pole beans, fewer sugar snap peas, planted further apart, and in a row, not in a group.  Carrots, more lettuce, and definitely more tomatoes.  We made spaghetti sauce out of the tomatoes last year.  Only had enough for 1 batch of sauce, but it made enough for 2 containers in the freezer.  We just finished the end of it last week.

I also purchased a couple strawberry plants.  They really didn't make strawberries last year, and I understood from the nursery they were supposed to produce all summer.  But they did propagate - all summer!  They took over the entire section of the garden.  (I have 5 sections, each 2 foot by 4 foot).  I will need to prevent them from taking over any more space.  And if I don't get strawberries, they may be short lived!!!

Well, I can't start anything until March/April, so I have at least another full month to work out a plan.  Below is a picture of part of what I had to harvest just before the first hard frost.  You can see lots of green tomatoes, carrots, the acorn squash, the bell peppers (they were supposed to be carnival colored, but were pretty much green with the one purple), a few radishes and the end of the pole beans.  Not shown are the sugar snap peas, and more tomatoes.

I can't wait to start harvesting again!!

Fabric Stash

I admit, I have plenty of fabric in my stash.  And this year, I'm tracking the fabric I use, and the fabric I add.  So today, I have to admit, I added 14 yards of fabric.  5 1/2 yards to make covers for the pillows in my living room, 3 1/3 yards to make some valentine table runners, 2 yards to potholders, and almost 3 to make some flannel pants for sleeping.  So watch to see what I actually get done!

Meanwhile - I have been sewing on a quilt top.  This fabric was given to participants in the local shop hop last summer.   I want to share what I have done so far...

Each block has two shades of one color, and two white corners.  Four blocks form one ring.  I'm now sewing blocks together.  The 4 columns of blocks on the left (the shorter columns) are sewn into two columns of rings.  There will be 8 columns of rings, then I start putting the columns together.  The original pattern just had 2 basic colors, and they weren't organized in the top.  As you can see, I divided all the colors we were given, and have tried to make color paths across the top.  Sewing all these blocks together has been very time consuming.  There are too many diagonal seam intersections to make sure match up.  I'm having to resort to pinning...  and I hate pinning!

Now, did you notice the stars in the pattern??  No?  Well they don't stand out very well, I wish there was more contrast between the mediums and darks.  The intersection of the color strips have 4 darks or 4 mediums coming together.  These form a star, but only a few stars stand out.  A thought for a better value differentiation next time I make this quilt.  Of course, matching those seams is difficult enough that there probably won't be a next time!!

Do you make New Year's Resolutions?

I generally do not make New Year's Resolutions, but I did this year.  I actually made several.  A couple of these have to do with my passion for quilting.

I promised myself that I would quilt for 2 hours each day.  Now even tho I have missed a couple days, I don't feel that I have failed in keeping this promise.  I am getting more accomplished, and that was the purpose.  I have gotten one lap-size quilt finished, and have now gotten all the blocks sewn for another quilt that has been on the design wall for months.  I'm liking how this quilt is coming together, but I now have to fuss with making points line up with seams.  UGH.  I'm too much of a perfectionist in this aspect, so my progress with slow down now.

The other promise I made myself about quilting has to do with my desire to make art quilts.  I promised myself that I would make 4 art quilts this year.  I need to jump in, and get started making art quilts, not just wish I was doing so.  Part of what is holding me back is "art quilt" is such a broad spectrum.  What is it I want to do?  I love dabbling in all the various possibilities - dyeing, felting, beading, folding, creating pictures...  and the list goes on.  Recently I saw a blog about someone who does fantastic bead work on small quilts.  Somehow this just "sang to me".  "YES, something like this!" I said to myself.  As I looked around at these quilts, I saw a comment that this person had tried felting in one of his pieces.  "Aaaah!"  I do know that as an artist, you grow, try new things.  So why am I so caught up in "what am I going to do"?

"Where to start".  Yes, that may be what is holding me back.  This person was doing a quilt journal, making small quilts with a monthly theme.  OK, that makes sense to me.  But I promised 4 quilts.  Not that I can't make more.  But lets start out with something I can probably do.  AND finish!  So 4 quilts.  Maybe a seasonal theme.  I should start with "Spring".  No, I think I will start with "Winter" because at the beginning of the year, I started to design a fireplace screen to hang in front of the fireplace to cut down on the drafts.  OK, so maybe I won't have 4 quilts in a journal form.  But I will start with this first item, and see where it leads.  I think this may be FUN!

Ripple effect of tradgety

In church this morning, one of the ranchers asked for prayers for a friend of his. This friend is another rancher in the area, and had suffered a freak accident. Long story short, this man was bucked off his horse, and is now paralyzed from the shoulders down. He has started to gain a little movement in his hands and arms, but.... Listening to the words the rancher said and didn't say, there was so much - pain that this had happened to his friend, and awareness that this type of thing could happen to any rancher, at any time. Not said was the concern that it could happen to him, and concern for his family if something similar happened. I also picked up a bit of relief that this friend has a son, who is ranching with him. The son is only 25, and has small children of his own. But there was also relief that the friends ranch will be OK - someone to run it.

Concern for the ranch, and it makes sense to me to extend that concern to all the ranches in the area. Concern over loosing a ranch for what ever reason? And then concern over being able to safely transition his own ranch to his son, who indicates that ranching is what he wants to do. Preservation of their way of life? And if the ranches, one by one, are lost, do we all lose? Probably.

I've only lived in this rural community for about 5 years, having moved from the big city. The more I learn about this life, the more I respect it. This is a community, the way a community is suppose to be. Concern for your neighbor, love of the land. Stewardship and caring. I have a growing admiration for the ranchers in the area. They live their lives, knowing what dangers are present, but doing what needs to be done. Doing what they love to do. And safe guarding their way of life.

I'm sure there are many lessons in this for me. Both obvious, and the not so obvious. Do what you want to do. Face your fears, and move forward. Plan for the future, but trust in God's plan for you when your plan go awry. And that we are stronger together than by ourselves.