The New Month of 2021; February

My February UFO challenge includes machine appliqueing these three pieces, fused forever ago..Maybe 3 or 5 years?  Must be the fault of my cataracts that make my stitches a bit irregular.

This is the problem of a long wait to sew a fused project.  A piece or two fell off and are lost???

Some workshop helped me produce this African-like tree.

Growing up in Phoenix, I kind of think, this tree looks arid.

This task is all but finished....It is the (but)....that is the problem...finding the missing piece or making a new one........some day....Oh, well...somehow, the pattern appeared, happenstance under orange webbing saved for sponges...Now, to find the fabric, in a box in my son's room and he is asleep.

This pattern said it was drawn by the author, Betty Boynik, The pamphlet says 1974..

So glad I keep everything...maybe lose it, but keep it.  My life is like a scavenger hunt and I do not know what I am looking for...Surprise!! When I find it.

Last night I used my wedge die on some new African fabric...Hmmm

I am trying to be calm as I wait the next 9 days for my second vaccine....There is hope..

I see now, that I should have fussy cut the stripes and not just stuck the fabric in the cutter.

Also, my new design boards are not working.  The tape is already coming loose from the batting and will have to be stapled as before.

Below are the luscious scraps I have been fondling last night..My kind of meditation!!

February brings Lynsey's birthday, Dylan's birthday, Emily and Brian's wedding anniversary, Valentines day...Sunday afternoon, Eamon took the kids, double masked to Aldi for the weekly shopping. Lynsey has in mind the week's menu, starting with stuffed peppers tomorrow night.  It is easy- peasy when both kids help. Then, in minutes, they have eaten it all up and are still hungry.

After Aldi, their daddy took them once again to some hill in the woods behind our house to roll down.  They love spooky things..TBTG they have a daddy around for these things now.

Last night

, Lynsey made dinner and a salad....Next Lynsey and  Grandma played two hands of canasta and two hands of Old Maid.

She bribed me with the making of brownies for the playing of more cards.  

I think it was a win-win situation.

Today is more remote schooling and continued cold weather (37 degrees F)

I just ate my blueberry breakfast and watched a news clip.  This specialist said that the Covid hurricane worse than #5, is up ahead.  He also said that 30 percent of Americans only cover their mouth with the mask, not the nose.  Whatever...It is too early now for anxiety, so I am off to find the repair fabric for my block

The Repair:

In 30 minutes it is fixed....Hmmm 30 min vs 4 or 5 years????

 

My Happy Life

Tiggy is no Milito...but...at 10 years old,  he is trying to fill the gap.  He is a Carnegie Mellon cat, brought home on an airplane by my dear daughter when she was in college.  Here sleeps Tiggy with me...My daughter is hiking on the Italian Riviera....sigh..

 A tree in our yard...I think it is older than I am...that brings some comfort..ha!

 Irises...from the days when I thought that fabric was not enough.  I went nuts on mail order Irises...now they grow  without my help.  Just being beautiful on their own.

 Cherry tomatoes in the front garden amongst the weeds.  Mr. O'Quilts is spraying for deer.

 On this...again..rainy day in Charlotte...my joy and I have fun.....My Ibuproben, my diet Coke, my Pandora, my cool and awesome Janome and red and white strips found whilst cleaning my mess.

 I know that red and white is so last year..but I love it.  Thought I would try out this tute from Rachel.  I see that I need to watch the slant direction.  I used the computer paper that I had on hand...8.5 by 11...and am just having fun..and using my scraps.

I drew a line on 8 papers one diagonal and on 8 the other way, glued the center strip on the line..and now..4 are done..

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.

O'Quilt updates

I spent all day long today in a continuing education workshop for my business..The morning speaker was fine, but the afternoon was so draggy....My husband had met me for lunch at Pio Pio...he is a gooooood man!!  I now have 6 more CEU's and I both started and finished an entire scarf sitting there.   Sitting is not my thing.

Yesterday I decided that the lamp I had made years ago from a whatever bought at an antique store in the country for $2...needed a new lampshade.  The old one was clip on and only took old fashioned light bulbs..scarce lately.  So World Market to the rescue.  I love the lamp even more so now.

 Wednesday night at my Irish quilting group, I gave away all my scraps.  When they were bundled in give-away packages, I was fine.  I need the motivation to get to my "good stuff" before I die.  But as the scraps were on the table being dispersed...grabbed...collected...my  heart stopped.  I had all I could do not to change my mind!

Now I am OK...having shared the booty...because a new scrap bag has been started already...

My mother:  Wednesday she went to her poetry group in house.  She had fun but was tired.  Thursday she went on the bus to lunch bunch.  When she got home, she said that she was more tired than she had ever been in her life and she was not doing that again because she now knows it is too much for her.  This morning she had her hair done.  This afternoon when my husband stopped by to visit after tennis, he couldn't find her.  Then the activity bus pulled up.  Out came my mother exhausted.  She had gone to a ceramics studio outing and made two bowls.......She said that they had wanted her to rest instead, but she decided that she could either stay in the bed and wait for the end, or push herself.  Mother!!!  U wear me out..but I am grateful