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 

Christmas

 OMG! I have been so busy that I did not realize how long it had been! And I just got interrupted with an hour long call from a classmate who calls annually to wish us a Merry Christmas.  Truly I am blessed to have friends who stay in touch after nearly 55 years.  Yikes! Has it been that long since high school graduation?  I have been baking.....numerous kinds of goodies and will package them to deliver to neighbors and friends this week.  I started later this year.  Had lunch with 20 plus prior school dist employees from Rawlins who are now residents here, and visited with neighbors for coffee and am working on quilt projects and below my latest project.  I actually had to make a list this morning in order to get everything done today.  Got the dogs bathed, peanut butter buckeyes finished , three loads of laundry, this blog, my daughter called, krautburger filling ready for the bread I have yet to make plus a million other things.  I simply do not have enough time in my day.

So at a cute shop last weekend with a friend who came to spend the weekend, I found this turned piece for $8.00 and had a snapshot of a porch angel I wanted make.  The Mr. immediately set to work on it.  Love him!  The base is from a brass lamp we were scrapping, the wings from a pallet piece and the arms were from two stairway pieces that I have been dragging with me for years. I will try to finish this blog later this week but gotta go and get my bread made.

pig pen

 This again is my collection of pig cutting boards. I was not happy with my previous display, so when my buddy, Pat was here this weekend, we hit some flea markets as well as some retail stores and we got an inspiration for a different display.  I had picked up some fence pickets this summer for a quarter apiece and did not know what I would do with them, but being the cheapskate that I am, I hit upon an idea.  The Mr. got busy and helped with my project and after a little drilling, and screwing and painting, look here!

I have yet to finish with a sign at the top. But it is on it's way.  We decided just to lean it and then it can be moved so anyone who knows me understands that I move things all of the time.

This past couple of weeks has been so busy, and I am not complaining, but it has not afforded me the time to get to some things.  This week my friend was here on Sat and Sun, Mon I caught up a little, Tues I quilted, or sewed really at the library with several friends, Wed I had an applique session, Thursday was lunch with retired school employees and today again is UFO (unfinished objects of the fabric or needlework items) and tomorrow is to shop for Thanksgiving.  Speaking of that, my neighbor invited us to join them and friends so I volunteered to make several things to help out.  It was so very nice of her and she also asked if I knew of anyone else, just to invite them also.  She invited a couple of single neighbors also....what a sweet thing to do.  We are truly blessed with good friends and neighbors.

The library here is a wonderful place for the community to access!  We were able to secure a room every Tuesday to have for the day so that our little group can quilt.  We sign up for 3 months and there are accomodations for our machines and irons, and cutting boards etc.  There also is a coffee shop and sandwich shop in the building so it will give us a place this winter to congregate together.  Hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful!

More chalk paint and stuff

 Oops..forgot to turn the photo! I finished the chair and look at the pumpkin.  It was scarred and looked horrid and since it was a fake one that I've had for years, what the heck.  I like it! There is so much controversy about using Annie Sloan wax over the paint, but I found it easy and like the matte finish, plus no fumes or sticky varnish. Durability?  We will see.

 So I had my pigs on top of my cupboards, but since there are now six, they are quite heavy and I decided that they might be too much weight for the cupboards.  I personally know of two people who had their upper cupboards fall and lose dishes when not enough hardware was used to secure that much weight.  Dishes are heavy actually.  So my little piggies are in their pigpen.

 I have been taking a class to complete a "Gypsy Wife" quilt and I had no idea really that there were so many squares.  I know for sure that I finished 43 squares yesterday and today although they are small...4-3 inches and the other ones which are larger were done during the last month, it feels like a 100 at least.  There are about 10 or so more to complete, using some of the ones below by adding more rounds, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this portion.  Next will be to try to put the sections together with narrow strips (yet to be cut). At least I have been able to use from my stash and put to use some of the smaller pieces of fabric that I could not bring myself to discard.

I have also been working with a friend to organize a group of gals (who want to machine quilt in a group) to find a place to work.  We need a large room with electrical facilities where we can spend several hours a day.  The Laramie County Library has been able to fill that need and we will hope that it works.  I have more than a dozen quilt projects started, so hopefully this will motivate me to finish some.

With daylight savings time ending this weekend and the temperature dropping now, it sure feels like winter is here or close at least.  Not my favorite time of the year and the wind nearly blows me away. How many shopping days until spring?

"Wherever you are it is your own friends who make your world." ~ William James