Goodwill Hunting

A great big Mama sized dress in this soft 100% cotton....greeted me this morning at Goodwill for $3.50.  It cannot get better than this!

 It is in the giving that my heart glows.

2013 and the New, Flexible Me!

Outside of my comfort zone...working on it, but it does not come easily.  I used, for this book cover, the voile from the $3 skirt I bought a few weeks ago at Goodwill. I did iron on a bit of iron on interfacing to stabilize it. A little AMH for the sleeves makes it very fine.  Can u imagine, AMH in the same post as Goodwill:)

 For some reason this black is not photographing well...but you get the idea.. 

For the life of me I cannot be sure, but I think that this button in my heart shaped button box, came from a little shop by the bookstore in Little Switzerland.  I must have purchased it  when my daughter was in a music camp up there...A shame that my mind has aged along with my body.....blah blah blah....

 Still, this one that I kept for myself is a favorite...from IKEA fabric.

Peace through Piecing

From Beth to me comes encouragement with "Peace through Piecing"...Yup right on....Today's relaxation comes by finishing another Sunshine quilt top.

And, from making a book cover for a well traveled friend who is fighting the fight!

 Yesterday, I linked up with...Leila for posts on sewing rooms...AND I forgot to post it here!!  Not too swift when it comes to linking up....sigh.
I visited my mother this afternoon.  She had spent the day in bed...breakfast and lunch and was just up in her wheelchair.  We had a lovely visit.  As I left, she asked me if I thought that she had Parkinson's every day #@**^)$%#**.  Jeeze Louize, how it shifts in a second.

A Thinking of Others Kind of Day....

Yesterday was the ice storm with a high of 27 degrees.  Today, the high was 40, with sunshine and Carolina blue.....hard to wrap the mind around the weather.  I was all snuggly in my bed when the call came that my daughter-in-law's mother had died.  She was 50.  

The day changed...up and at um...picking up the grandkids, taking my son to the hospital to be with his wife...making Grandma's chicken soup, giving baths..reading books and sharing the love and feeling grateful.

As tonight brings peace to our household, Himself is watching a show and I just finished a Sunshine quilt top for the Guild...pondering life...

I am 65 and I still have my mother.  My DIL is only 27...My mother is 42 years older than her mother....such is the life.

Trying to focus on a creative project, but the focus will not come....

Ice Pellets and more

Well...getting ready for our sit and sew...calls started coming in...cancelled due to icy rain...how not nice is that!!!  Seems like below freezing weather and small ice pellets kept folks home...easy for me of course...all cozy at my home!!  

My 4 year old granddaughter asked for a Hello Kitty lovey..I finished it yesterday, just in time for her dental work on Monday.  Now, tomorrow I will have to find some fleece with Thomas the Train for Dylan...his teeth need help too.  Hello Kitty fleece is from Walmart.

 Here is the challenge fabric that our IQ Bee is using.  I think that an ice storm is a perfect time to work on mine.

I, too feel like making cookies, but I have not eaten sugar since my daughter left on December 29...so guess it will have to be something else..an applique cupcake perhaps??

Day and Night..

Happy 28th birthday to my son!!  Where did the time go??  

Today I was totally exhausted from two days with my grandchildren..My daughter-in-law's mother is dying so the family was needed at the hospital.  The children were wonderful, but they are still  2 and 3 and 7 and I am not... I needed a great big nap!!

Then, off I went to the new Salvation Army store.  I found this adorable hand knit sweater for my granddaughter for St. Paddy's Day...It was new!! And, it was $3.99...wonderful, until I got to the cashier who announced that all clothes were 50% off on Wednesdays!!!...A $2 sweater for my dear girl and a big smile on my face.

Tonight Dolores showed up with her very first quilt top.  She used her daughter's Irish Dance T-shirts for a surprise present.  She and her husband took turns sewing it together...Soooo  proud of Dolores and Steve!

 My clever sister is making a quilt for a co-worker..Little dresses saved for 50 years..appliqued on blocks getting ready for the cutest quilt ever. 

 And that is the way today went down....almost perfect!

Tea for two..and choices...help needed

When I put these UFO's together, I did not realize that there was a secondary design.  I have moved the blocks and in doing so, ruined the primary design...sigh...so help is needed to choose which mistake is better...lol...  It is always clearer on a post...Thank u...

Tea for Two..the animal lover visits:)

Square in square blocks

I hate to square up....sigh...but it is done.  I never realized that there was a secondary design here until it was on the design wall...oh, well...too late..

Humming along...

Yesterday I went to the Guild Sit and Sew...a wonderful new spot, a fun time...almost 30 quilters were there sewing and talking away!!  I finished two Sunshine tops and put the corners on these four patches that had been sitting around my sewing room forever.  Now I am squaring them up and getting done with this UFO.

I am just back from visiting with my amazing mother.  When I first arrived, she was all dressed, but in the bed...eyes closed, hands folded on her chest...hmmmm...not a good sign.  I said..Mom...what is wrong..She opened one eye and said...nothing dear...I am just vintage...  Ha ha...my husband joked...she was practicing!

Lordy. She is a piece of work...Her mind comes back most of the time now that she is eating again...That Parkinson's I will never understand.  I am grateful for our lovely laughing visit.  I left her eating chocolate cookies.

Road to Oklahoma and such

At the Queen Bee meeting, Pumpkin was a big hit...an out and out queen...She was hoping to get the same attention at the Irish quilters' Bee...but alas...the Irish quilters, for the most part consider a cat an outdoor pet...So sorry Pumpkin baby...sooo sorry....

 Looking for blocks that are 12.5 inch unfinished...think I have that here at this quilt a long...Amy's Creative side!!

Did this one too with the same templates...eg measurements...sending them both to you Rhonda as Donna's house is probably a bit far for me now.

Courtney and Walmart have nothing to do with each other!!!

  OMG, I am a total fan of Courtney.  She has two small boys and is pregnant with her third boy and still...yup...still cranks out stunning stuff...Oh, to be Courtney!

Strolling around Walmart after the pool this afternoon, I spied...Hello Kitty Christmas fabric...The label said $5.95 a yard...but inquiring minds here knew better.  Bingo...on sale for $1 a yard...oooooooo a find!  I got it all...6 yards...then I noticed the longing look of the mother and child behind me..so I shared the bounty...A great day to share fabric with another fabric lover!!

From here comes a warning about the Frixxon pens...She says that using them on Batiks leaves "bleach" marks.  I have not seen that...but beware.....

Zippy Zeal

Two more, I cannot stop.  One from the voile skirts I got from the Goodwill yesterday and one from my herringbone batik....

The New Year Doings....

In keeping with my New Year plans of flexibility....a hard thing for me....I am going to add different fabrics to my quilting.  I am starting with Voile.  Any suggestions...just send them my way!!  I picked up these today.

Queen Pumpkin

Pumpkin attends The Queen Bee and is chosen Queen!!!

 My first attempt at the Charlotte Modern Quilt Guild January swap.

Totally easy Coin purse tutorial. It is fun and it is fast!!  This is my first one and I think I will make another.  Great relaxation on a rainy day.

Here they are...made in such a short time:)  Instant gratification.....my style...

Links and videos to make you think and make you happy

Wonderful links here...First up is E Quilter's Hurricane Sandy relief---There is so much need still for Hurricane Sandy victims.  Luana's Flickr page shows the destruction and quilts being distributed.  It warms my heart to have been part of it and makes me want to send another one.

On a lighter not there is Pat Bravo and one more of her adorable fabric music links...love them..fabric everywhere.

Thanks to Deb Rowden comes the news that there is a new thrift store video out.  Rapping about Goodwill shopping....ha!  It is a rap song with dirty words...but still fun.

Back to the somber is Quilting in prisons.  Thank you Gefilte Quilts!

And ending with this totally awesome, totally adorable video on teaching your child to sew!

Prudence and Penance.....

Sigh, sigh, sigh....Prudent I spoke with Himself today..showing him the thrifty corners I made into pinwheels....Extra corners leftover from another project.   I KNOW he was impressed, but he is a man of few words.

Just then, the doorbell rang...UPS with a nice load from the Hancock sale a few weeks back when I was feeling sorry for myself...Wrong timing.!!!!!!

Lucky me, Mr. O"Quilts is calm and kind and wonderful!:)  In spite of the sorry happenstance,  I would be lying if I did not admit that my heart was wildly beating!!  Just glad that I had ordered before the decree and joyful at the beauty of what came my way today!!!

 Penance...quickly sewn tonight for soldiers...just spreading the joy!

Sulky Sunday, and I do not mean thread!!

Mr O'Quilts was awakened at 7:30 this am because he was on call..He worked until 11am.  So now what does the man do to "relax"??????  He has decided to take down the Christmas tree.  I am crabby as crabby can be.  I love that Christmas tree.  It is still fresh and beautiful.  He is in there with classical music playing and down go the lights and down go the ornaments.  I am holed up grumpy in my sewing room.  On last night's messy table I found these, small HSTs from the corners of some quilt forever ago..whatever... I "relaxed" by sewing them into pinwheels.

   Mr. O'Quilts from the upstairs office has declared, once again, an austerity program.  He has given me, in the downstairs office, notice that he plans to retire and one day, he will come home and announce...."I retired today!!".  He said that there will be a transition period between paychecks, so financial prudence is the new word.  Now, that is an unpleasant thought.....financial prudence...hmmmm.  It is especially unfortunate since my PayPal finger has developed such muscle these past 6 months I have been injured!!!!

Now who sits around and sews 3.5 inch pinwheels...although they are kind of nice.  I just took a sneak onto the porch...UGH....I found the 24 big empty Christmas boxes waiting for me...sigh, guess tomorrow I will put away the snowman collection and the Santa collection.

Oh, no...here he comes to so sweetly ask me to hold the base of the tree while he lifts it from the stand.  I must put my face into the sweet smelling tree and say goodbye.  It has been up a month and still is lovely.    Saying goodbye is always the hardest...blah, blah, blah!

A Quilt and a Quandary

This hospital quilt is done.  I did the circles one each morning and one each night to stave off the dizziness.

Now, I am finished with free motion quilting for awhile to get my bearings back.  Had to finish this up with the walking foot.

 Now the quandary!!!  What is a scrap and what is a project begging to be started??  How big is a scrap that is to be kept??  What to  do about all this mess with 2 inch squares and orphan patches.  One side of the table is clean...how many possible quilts are there here, on this side of the table???

 I am totally overwhelmed.  But if I start with new projects for each orphan or snippet possibility, I will never touch my awesome stash... 

 Or is this the size a scrap should be????  I have half a mind to just cut pieces like this into strips for strip quilts...  Just typing this drives me batty.

The scrap quilt thrill

Evidently it is my rightful style of using the cleaning of my quilting room as an excuse to finish up bits and pieces I find.  It is like a scavenger hunt!!  Left table is cleaned.  Moving to right table, I found these cute dollies that Eithne gave me awhile ago.  Since I love the thrill of making do and putting together bits and pieces, why do I buy more fabric???  Sigh...another thrill, you know!!

 Rip Stop, purchased at the famous Mary Jo's cloth store in Gastonia.  She has the best selection and it is two dollars cheaper than Hancock's.  I heard today that the soon to be 81 year old Mary Jo will not be coming back to the store as she has the memory problem thing.  I just hated to hear that.  She is certainly a well loved North Carolina icon.

Next Christmas

I just cannot get it together today.  I never let a day go by without sewing!!  I want to finish that hospital quilt, but I am afraid to do the free motion circles.  Ugh.  Today I was able to go back to my water exercise class successfully for the first time in 6 months.  I only stayed for half the time and I only had a few symptoms..So, that is a good one.  I have found my perfect ornament for next year's ornament exchange...this unmarked reindeer at an after Christmas sale. I just made the cardboard pattern and bought the felt...I am going to pack it away in my Christmas fabrics...gotta get a head start you know.

This is what I really, really, really  want to be doing!!!

Too tired to quilt

    While perusing Beth's blog yesterday looking for her Flickr....I found this adorable link instead.  I keep watching it and I keep getting that warm fuzzy feeling.  Thank u Beth!!

 That was more fun that getting serious, although thanks to Marc and Angel, serious can happen too.  Change is good!!  You go first:)

More on the fake "super slider"

See the hole in my ratty old destroyed Superslider?  I needed a hole like that on my new oven liner for the needle.

 I positioned the oven liner where I wanted it, which was butting up on the right edge of the sewing machine. I made my sewing machine needle go down to mark the exact spot and traced the hole around the needle spot with a pencil.  I cut out that hole with little pointy scissors.

 If I could freemotion practice now, I would be all ready to go...with my gloves and the oven liner taped down.

Sherry, if you have any suggestions would you please leave a comment on this post for the others.  Thank u!