Another year

I have been absent from this blog for a few months, just needed to get some other things finished.  But I have had another birthday and find myself realizing that I am blessed to be so healthy and able to do most anything I want to do.  Spring has sprung and we have some really pretty trees blooming and we planted grass which has nearly filled in all of the ugly places where crab grass previously grew and was killed. But lots has happened to friends and we have just been busy dealing with life in general.  I had a wonderful week and have taken some pictures which will follow in the near future when I get things organized.  Just stay tuned and I will be back.

My Vintage Trailer

This is the last finished project...one of many on my "to finish" list...so IT" DONE!!!!! I now have it hanging on my sewing room wall.  This project involved applique.  Each flower, and there were many on that stem, was individually cut and appliqued to the trailer and the stem.  The collage by Laura Heine is only one of many available and I have plans to do another....a white buffalo.  In the future of course, when more of my to finish list is culled down, I will make plans to do that. The background fabric is Route 66 fabric...appropriate I think for my Vintage Trailer.  In fact, we sold our camp trailer recently. It was the fourth one and we really did not have opportunity to use it much.  Our normal camping area has been so very dry the past few years that it was not conducive to camping.  The grass had gotten tall and then dry and the forest fires had become a threat.  We did though over the years spend many, many happy summers camping with our kids and our friends.  Those were the good ol' days.

The Olympics are over and I am having withdrawal pains.  I spent so much time watching the winter sports, especially the curling.  I heard so many comments about the curling being too much to watch..apparently not everyone enjoyed them as much as I did.  Some of the efforts made by those athletes to even get there were amazing, not to mention the skill and talents they displayed in all areas of the winter sports.  We can be so proud of them!

This little piggy went to market

I remember so well, my father reciting that little poem to each of us as we sat on his lap.  I have never had much of an inclination to pay any attention to pig items, but for some reason a few years ago, I was attracted to a cutting board like the ones above and picked it up.  Since then, I have picked up these one at a time, but only if they were cheap.  I have paid mostly a few dollars at garage sales and thrift stores, but the little black one was picked up at the vintage market I attended a few weeks ago.  I paid $10.00 for it and it was the most expensive.  However, I knew that I was going to use it for the title of this collection-----"Pig Heaven".  Previously I had posted a snap of these pigs on a picket fence, but I was not really pleased with it so the Mr. drilled a few more eye and tail holes and I am much happier with this display, plus there is room for more!

The two little fur pups that I have went to the veterinary clinic to get their teeth cleaned and each lost teeth.  One for the little guy and two for the other one, one of which had broken off.  I felt like a bad mom, but really, they cannot let you know about their teeth and I couldn't tell.  Their blood work though was normal, no problems for these little guys who are 11 years old.  They have forgiven me for taking them already!

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 54th anniversary...we didn't have a formal wedding ceremony.  It was at the worst time of the Viet Nam war....everyone was being drafted, I was working and the Mr. was finishing up work at the winter sugar beet season and preparing to start farming, anticipating the inevitable draft notice for men not in college or those without children.  The draft notice did come and he enlisted in the Navy which sent him on three west pacific cruises and our first child was born while he was away.  But we have survived all of these years without many heartaches and are truly blessed.

I have been trying new patterns, one of which is above.  I have seen pictures of these miniature dress forms and this one is a pincushion. My goal is to make several pincushions for a quilt retreat for late summer and this might just be one of them.  I made curtains for my sewing room window which has no view.  In the basement, my room has egress windows with window wells so there is no view and very little light, but I wanted to hide some of the metal which can be seen.  There are blinds, but I still wanted a little "girlie" touch.  Working with really cute fabric with birds on it, I labored and used velcro tabs to secure it and after two days, realized that I had hung it with the birds upside down! I took it down and redesigned it and the dress form above is made from the same fabric and it is perched upon a candlestick purchased at the Goodwill.  I received an Accuquilt Machine last week and have been so pleased with how it works.  It will cut up to 6 pieces of fabric in a precise manner and will give me the ability to cut pieces for a quilt so much faster. There are of course different dies for different sizes of pieces, but this first one I have allows 4 different pieces to be cut at once if need be.  My quilting friends have other dies and we will eventually be able to share as they are quite pricey.

We have been watching the Olympics and these athletes are so amazing.  I find that I make apologies for being too busy to blog, but.......

"Happiness walks on busy feet." ~ Kittie Turmell

Busy new year

 As a child I remember my Dad telling me that I should not wish my life away. For it seems that I was always wishing for something in the future.  Probably like all little children, I wished for Christmas as soon as I realized it was nearing, wishing for school to begin when I turned 6 (we did not have kindergarten), wishing for school to be out so that I could go barefoot, and so forth--always wishing for something in the future.  Well, now it appears to me that I have almost wished my life away! When I look down the road, it has become a very short one and with each day, even shorter.  Blessed with a very healthy life these 60 plus decades, I should not be complaining.  I have such a mental list of things yet to accomplish with a short time in which to complete, that I find myself now wishing for yesterday.  Trying to accomplish some of these small things has kept me from this blog I realize. So I will start to catch up.  First what has kept me occupied is the ironing station that the Mr. so willingly built for me. I spent some time also on this which after completed require time in the sewing room, several days in fact, updating some of the odd pieces I have accumulated in the past year to make the room a little more comfortable as well as efficient for the many projects I always work on. I needed this station to be higher than a regular table and the ironing board I was using was a bit shaky.  It needed to be on wheels so that I could move it away from the wall when pressing a large piece and I needed a shelf for my spray bottles and extra irons etc.

 It was primed and I picked a pale green for the surface, purchased new pressing cloth, stapled padding and the clothe to the top, which we reused and voila!  I love it!

This took all together the better part of a week, with the construction, gluing, painting and room arranging.  During that time, I took a 4 day trip to my friend's where we attended a vintage market.  It was one of the best markets we have seen.  We both purchased items and got great deals and I even picked up a quilt rack for $2.00 at the Goodwill on our way home.  Needless to say, I have been painting a few other things with this pretty green, including the quilt rack.  In addition to time spent on these projects, I have been trying to finish a few quilt projects and then the Mr. and I took the door glass off the oven to clean the inside.  I have done this before with older ovens....no big deal, right?  Well, this oven has 3 pieces of glass.  What's up with that?  The removable one was the center piece, not in need of cleaning and the other were not very accessible and I suppose there is a reason for that.  Anyway, I was able to do a little spot cleaning, but not much.  I am NOT spending any more time wishing my life away on that oven door!..It can stay dirty and I will hang a towel over it.

"Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or hatch." ~ E.B. White...
Charlotte's Web

Dresden Plates

Just a quick post to show the finished quilt, the result of which is our guild's round robin choice for the past few months.  I put the bottom left plate in my bag along with a few pieces of fabric and told the rest of the quilters that I didn't care about the size, or colors, but they all chose to use the same shades and WOW! There were 2 extra--10 in all that did not match so one became the label and the other a small table topper.  Loved this project!

The New Year

 I did not stay up to see the new year in. I went to bed early and figured from past experience, that the new year would arrive with or without my seeing the ball drop.  When I got up this morning, like I thought, it had come as it had in the 72 previous years of my life, although it was very cold.  I am done with the cold...oh wait, I have no say in the matter.  Christmas was quiet here and snowy!  My purchase earlier of the turned dowel and the help of the Mr. turned out to be a sweet porch angel. I will be able to change the head gear and the items in her hands for the seasons.  We did have friends for Christmas Day and my sweet neighbors exchanged goodies which are nearly gone, (thank goodness).  Below are gifts from my wonderful neighbor from across the street.  The beautiful Chrystal ball came last year and this fall,  she followed with the metal hanger.  It is beautiful and may stay up all year.  And this year....

 This lovely glass tree with the glass balls were from her.  It is not very tall....perhaps 9 inches, but it is so very pretty and she is a treasure for sure.  Thank you Mary.  I have been quilting with a group at our library and when I told them that I had a blog, although some knew it, they asked what I blogged about.  I realize that I haven't been real consistent with it, but told them that I would blog about them.  Not wanting to publish pictures of them for privacy issues, I will be taking pictures of their projects and progresses so this is just the beginning of my promise to them.

Imagination is the highest kite one can fly. ~ Lauren Bacall