Yesterday and Today

Yesterday's quilts.  

My "Floribunda" ,an album quilt created for our guild,

by Karen Ponischil.

My Experiment in Solids

Disappearing nine-patch shown under my snowball tree.

Blocks in Green, with Three Stooges border

Old quilts to share today...I am so glad I took pictures.

I have no clue as to where some of these went.

Today was day 3 after my fall...swollen and bruised...

Not aging with grace. Wanting to jump up and do my thing..

Three more days of school...Talk about celebration.

Teacher thank yous this year....a mask...ha!!  Crazy Covid.

School will start 2 weeks early this upcoming August.

First week should be in person at school.

Second week will be remotely if the RNC convention stays in Charlotte.

This year...a winter vacation...from Thanksgiving to New Years.

No spring break and school over before Memorial Day.

Wow.....of course...this is the plan today...changes could come tomorrow.

I am still using the walker, because my right leg is not too strong yet...

Hurry up leg...I have things to do!!!!

My daughter is 33 weeks pregnant.

She may not like what I am making her for the baby, because

I love funky...not so sure she does...

Did I tell you...I call the baby, "Nona" !!!
Because she is a  no name baby...ha ha.

Found these cute pictures when I looked back..

Tigger ...trying out the IKEA doll bed.

Lynsey shopping at the farmer's market with us when she was four.

 

Now she is 11 and cooked the dinner tonight.

Nice to have happy pictures.

Gratitude for the Fluffy.

Today brought a drama...
But, since this is a quilting blog, I am going to feature some of my older quilts
to pad the way:

First up my international 12 inch snowball quilt.

Snowball quilt backing , flying geese made with leftovers from the front snowballing.

My veggie jar quilt for the gardener, Mary Pat

 The applique quilt I made for Lynsey's wall when she was young.

 Red Onion quilt, I gifted to Judy

Below, my favorite cat ever...Milito and buddy, Cookie
They are cuddling on one of the string quilts that I made from
clothes I bought during my trips to India in the 70's.
I made several of these and gave them to  my daughter.
These kitties are long gone....

Now for the story...I love a good story:

An enormous amount of weight was gifted to my body, since ALS came into my life.
I am grateful for the real and substantial me...

For I had a nasty fall this morning.

I broke nothing....because I bounced.

Thank you God.

My 4 fake joints are still working.

My old bones have thanked me for the protection.

Dearest Ellen left a present on my porch this morning...such opportune timing
She did not know that I had just fallen!!!
Two large bags of M&Ms in a lovely bag on my doorstop

, Just because she cares.

Dylan was squeamish...Lynsey just took care of business...even though it was not fun.

I slid on the shower water, I grabbed an antique clay piece my mother had made, instead of the counter...

My foot was cut, there was a mess...there was blood, there was screaming..broken glass covered the floor.  Everyone was scared.

Lynsey went into doctor mode.  She put on gloves and soaked my cut foot.

Then applied ointment.  She made me hot tea.

She helped my son get me off the floor.

Under medication, I feel better. My guess the morrow will bring more swelling and bruising.

Lynsey sauteed veggies for our dinner.

I wanted hot dogs, but she insisted on something healthy.

That girl....
I always sing to her...What would I do Without you.
I found this funny one:

What Would I Do Without You

At the end of the day, perspective has arrived.
I am thankful

Making Something out of Nothing...

Piecing random scraps...analogy..

Sort of like...The Scraps of our Lives...

Making something from almost nothing.

I feel fury in my bones.  Trying to put a name on it, but it encompasses 

everything.  They say that when you feel overwhelmed and out of control,

do one small thing to complete...Nope...not me.

At almost midnight I am cutting out a new pattern with directional fabric.

I have at least 10 good pairs of sewing scissors....none of them are sharp..grrr

I be a fool, I see...

That aside, I am using my new weights for cutting.  

Everyone in my house is on each other's  nerves.

No focus at all...I have a million things to work on..

The kids keep missing their school Zoom meetings.

They are fighting with each other.

However:

Tonight Lynsey cut the back yard grass and Dylan cut the front.

Under the watchful eye of their father.

The kids and I, masks on, delivered some bags of scraps and

supplies to the school art teacher's home..
Excitement there... An outing!!!!

Last night , 6 feet apart, Linda and I sat in her driveway to chat and show and tell

OMG...freedom...

I am supposed to be losing weight for my hernia operation.  Planning now on skipping that operation, keeping the hernia..and eating more ice cream...life is short...they say!!

Life is also strange...and getting stranger!!
The riots last night broke windows in Discovery Place...museum for children.
Dandelion's Irish pub, the banks and more...

I realize that I have only 3 out of 4 quilts done for our MQG outreach...Should start on that...
Should start on Emily's baby quilt....shoulda, shoulda, shoulda

Guess I should watch Blueprint classes, since they are going out of business.
The good news is:
My Portland grand dog has been sick...but getting much better!!

..Today is my wedding anniversary.  It would have been 40 years..
I was a very very lucky woman to have had that man!!!
Roberta Flack, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Eyes Wide Open...A Minute of Motivation

Thanks to Kaja's blog, on our Improv site...I have motivation this afternoon!!

This is the next stage...of my rail fence improv..group challenge..years in the making.

Up to stew now on the design wall.  I have looked at this all afternoon.

I think it is too heavy on the dark...I will try cutting the border blocks in half.

Stay tuned.

A brilliant piece of feed sack...I think I bought from Ellen..

It just may be enough for a border.

In my excitement, I found a forever lost, bolt of bees..

The fight might have gone out of me...I just do not know
There are so many things I cannot control

School again tomorrow...OMG

My Soul is Saved by Fabric Art

My soul had better be saved by fabric art...cuz there are riots tonight in Charlotte.
Right across from the Art High School where my children went to school
Looting, police in riot gear...OMG..

Just go sew....Grabbing fabric strips to sew...random, brain free sewing.
Also 4 inch patches...one to another for a future four patch.

Stress here...school is the worst...Isolation is next..money is next..
However, I am working on being more like Boo
Just look how he relaxes.

The other day , it was two am...

Hopefully I was smart enough not to post something stupid at this hour.

I have done that before...

The children are having a hard time missing the structure of school

They miss their friends.  They miss other family members.

They cling to us.  They stay up too late.

We stay up too late.

My son is now handling his stress by changing the oil in our cars.

I am making masks and cloth napkins.
That was yesterday.

Today, I am getting a grip.  Zoe and I chilling on the screened-in-porch.
Reading and breathing under shelter, in the rain.

 Blueprint is going out of business....OMG one more thing..Thank goodness for now..Creative Bug is still around...for how long??  I am itching to know..

Karen, send me your email address so I can thank you properly for my blog comment.
The napkin making is an old idea, new to me.
I make them one sided, just hem the edges.  Some folks serge the edges, but that
is not for me.  It is really a perfect, no think project for these times.
I hope you start sewing again soon.
Even simple napkin making is life saving.
And life saving is priceless..

Hello Sunshine, Behind the Clouds

Long time coming is making sewing weights.

I have tweaked this Tutorial:

Beautiful Things

My son used the glue gun for the washers and had them ready for me in minutes.
There are two washers glued together for each weight..
The washers are about one and a half inches or one and 3/4 inches.

Batiks scraps were used here...both because they are beautiful.also, they do not fray.

Sew with a zipper foot very close to the washer...on slow machine speed.
If you loose focus...ha ha.no one I know does that!!!
and do not keep the zipper foot right along the edge of the washer, you will get
stitching that is out of line...see the yellow one below at the 10 o'clock position.

The glue gun was used to hold the washers together, but I used a
glue stick to keep the fabric on.
First I tried cutting them with a pinking blade in my rotary cutter.
That was a disaster.  The pinking shears worked better.
I love them...so adorable.
Lynsey just said:  "Grandma, Dylan and I are doing crafts now,
Can we borrow your new weights to hold our paper down".
OMG

I have replaced the green thread on this bowl with natural.
I like it much better this way.

Charlotte has opened to stage two.  My son says it is like a real
Memorial Day weekend....the roads are packed.
Not for us.  The O'Quilts Family is staying  home.

Calming the Covid Roller Coaster

Covid 19 roller coaster had my panties in a twist today.
OMG  OMG  OMG
Just could not get focused....
Started looking thru new things on Creative Bug.
Found this....She had some great ideas, techniques...to improve my bowl making.
Nicole Blum on Creative Bug
I used variegated green on the bottom, made handles and tried the knot thing she suggested.
Nothing like a picture on the blog to show my errors.
I am going to go over the string on the knot with more green...and of course
the multitude of strings need to be snipped.

Once a certain 10 year old gets off the computer, creativity kicks in.
By himself, he made an airplane from popsicle sticks.
I had just given away stray popsicle sticks to the art teacher when
Dylan decides it is his new hobby.

Calming myself with :
Bob Marley, No Woman, No Cry
Bob Marley, Everything's Going to Be Alright

I wonder if anyone else is going nuts...or am I the only extrovert reaching deep within her soul,
struggling to practice the strength of my husband and my mother.

Grandma O'Quilts Takes an Exciting Turn...

Excitement...Today came my rope from Amazon Prime.
They had been sold out forever.
Lucky me, it came in two weeks..

If it would stop raining in Charlotte, I would try to dye some rope.
Guess I will use this pan...without the handle..sigh...

Holding on tight to my history.

We left our home on Cape Cod when I was eight years old...
With us came this favorite pot which is at least 64 years old..

It used to be a pressure cooker...now only a favorite pan.

We called it the "fudge" pot...in which we made Grandma's special family recipe..

Sherry and her husband fixed the handle about 10 years ago.

My son has tried twice this past week to fix it again.

Last night the handle just rotted and fell off.

Bye Bye Birdie....Bye Bye

Contrary to my wishes, things do not last forever.

This current crisis...sent me here...
Making cloth napkins instead of buying paper ones.
I made mine different sizes, depending on the scraps...12"" to 15".
Actually I was persuaded by a blog, which one, I forgot..
MPat and Mary Lou are my role models...
I am quite late to the party.

The excitement tonight was my escape.
I went for a drive alone...away from my noisy household!!
Thought maybe I would just drive by Trader Joe's to see what I could see.
No line.
Only a few cars in the lot....
My handicap spot was open.
Meant to be!!!
Wahoo!!

First time in two months I have been out.
They sanitized a cart for me.
They showed me where the entrance hand sanitizer was.
They sold me two (the limit) lovely smelling sanitizers for my car.
There were tons of workers in masks at every corner. being sure we all
followed the arrows...Most of the customers had on masks, including ME!

I felt so free...so free...
Thank you Donna for suggesting 6:30...dinner time..
My doctor said I could go at 8 am, senior time...but that seemed to be full of
old people in line...ha ha...
This was perfect...not that I am going to make a habit of it.
But, for tonight It was absolutely divine!!

Making the Best of Crazy

Wash clothes for new little baby girl coming this summer...all done!!
The micro fleece on the back is like Minky...It sewed well once I realized,
 I needed a stretch needle in my machine!!

Snow in Charlotte!!
 First we had a thick layer of yellow dust for weeks from
the tall pine trees in our yard...
Now, "snow" is from our two big Carolina Cottonwood trees...
Spring in the Carolinas!!

Stitch doesn't mind...as long as he can be the center of attention!!

Above, "snow" in the tomato garden.

Dylan and Grandma went to a small private neighborhood park
He started reading his book assignment.  We had thought we were alone.
Quickly we were distracted by fighting Canadian Geese.
 Really?  Dylan thought they were adorable until
they started to come toward us with their attitude.. (thx Lisa)

Last night the grands and I played canasta.
They are still learning....so much fun.
Memories here of playing with my own grandmother at that age.
And card memories too.
These cards with "grandma" printed on them, I sent to my own
grandmother when I lived in New York City.
Hmmmm  That was 50 years ago...
And the Interlochen playing cards are from when my daughter graduated high school
from Interlochen Art Academy in Michigan...
That was 15 years ago...
Yes...It is true...I  keep everything....but how nice the memories.


And wonder of all wonders...how the children chose a matching snack for
our card playing . Not only red, but a healthy one at that!!

To: Lynsey and Dylan....Do you know why I would receive notes from both your teachers
that school work had not been done last week????
And you had told me that, yes...it was done??
What are you two doing/??  It is 10 pm.

I see....you have been busy, indeed!!!

Lynsey does not want the new baby girl coming...in Portland...
to be the only one with new soft washcloths.!!
Here are the two purple ones that Lynsey picked out for herself.
The above fabric is one of the ones that Emily brought back from her honeymoon in Thailand.
The below fabric is an African print that I bought on sale online.

Now...thanks to Chuck...we have the wisdom below:

It is soon one in the morning...Out of control children are now learning how to
install a new dishwasher.  No bed for them!!!

I have very strange children..
My son LOVES to install new dishwashers!!!
And, my daughter LOVES to do taxes.
All I can say is that I am one lucky grandma!!!!

Grandma in Training to be a Navy Seal

My girl is having her first baby...I am so excited.

She told me the kind of toddler bed quilt she wants...

Now I can plan and leisurely sew.

Sheep...The Irish way!!!

These are some of the wash cloths I am making for her baby.

I looked online for soft baby washcloths...They sent me microfiber...so soft.

On one side, I am covering them with adorable baby cotton quilting fabric...

Then I am quilting them to hold them in place.

  

Right away, my son and my granddaughter were jealous...
OMG, they wanted me to make them some...Talk about being a baby!!!!
And, the child is not even here yet....She is due in July..

Something is wrong with me.
Again!!
I am not reading as many books.
I am not reading my friends' blogs.
My go go go, has gone gone gone.

Bingo, I read an article Tina found on the web:
Handle Stress the Navy Seal Way.
Late in my life...I have become.a Navy Seal wannabee...

Here are the tasks I have accomplished ....10 masks for children.
See, I have had this problem of the children misplacing their masks and coming in my
sewing room just helping themselves to new ones....

Or, my OCD son,
washing them all the time so when the children want them, they are wet!!!!
We are mask believers...to help keep others safe.

I took 6 baby hangers from Lynsey's room to send to Emily...
I took 6....Lynsey has 20.
Mind you she is 11 and has not put her clothes on baby hangers since she was 4.  OMG....
She said, I do not want the new baby to have those...
They are mine and I love them????????
She told her father that I stole them and vandalized her closet/????????
 God, please help me.
I had to give them back and apologize...

I got a grip, bit the bullet...and on my credit card ordered a new dishwasher.
One would think that the store would be thrilled to make sale.
Maybe they were...
However....due to the "Covid 19 situation", they will notify us when it is available.
It is OK...
Good practice for the children to wash and dry dishes the "old fashioned way"!!
It is my son and I who are sick of it..!!!!