Celebrating Making Do

For some reason...it feels like the evening of doom???  Must be the weather.

So, what does a quilter do when the night gets long..?? Makes strips?  I think that is like making lemonade out of lemons??  But, so much more fun. Scraps are my heaven.

Then...here comes Aoife....

Proud as punch.  Aoife crawls under the dining room table from the playroom to join Rosie.

And, from her front porch, my daughter watches folks ski down her street. At heart I think I still belong in Miami. Actually, I am watching this movie,...Tortilla Soup...and missing Miami right now.

Here in Charlotte, the cold and rainy mess continues....Here came cheer!!

Thank you dear Boo...on my lap, while I nap.

A cat and a book and a quilt!!!

Valentine's Day.  I think my son is sad he does not have a Valentine.

I could let myself get sad that I do not have one either.

Not going there, because I got my second shot a week ago Tuesday. Who would have dreamed how important that would have been a year ago!! Then...I am going to go roller skating and hoverboarding...

I might jump rope or hopscotch...Wahoo!  It will feel like that anyway.  I might just go out to lunch with some vaccinated friend with our masks, at an outside table!!!

My son found vintage cap guns in the attic...My grands are thrilled with them.  We are looking for those paper caps...the red rolls...cannot find....I found a few EMPTY boxes for $10...Jeeze...the caps are now vintage!!

The midnight hour requires more cutting with my Accuquilt Go.

When I bought it 10  years ago...and rarely used it!!!, How would I have known that

now, I would come to love it....and, alas, have arthritis.  Looking back, I should have bought the electric one.

Here are leftover bits.  I threw them away.  Not going to make a crumb quilt.

Trying to accept my life the way it is. Getting rid of crumbs and dust bunnies...OK, just crumbs.

 

Rainy and Cold Outside; Warm and Toasty in the Sewing Room

My five donation placemats for CMQG Done.  I so love Done!!

They are not due until November...So happy with myself.This has been such a crazy year...

.Great to find a well written piece on "The Melting Pot" from Cat Bird Quilts, A big thank you .Melanie for this article.  All my family thanks you too.. I hope my friends out there take time to read it.

Next up: Fabric chosen and cut for  four Project bags.

Oh, no...project stalled..I cannot reach the fusible fleece. 

I will need to wait for some help.  Meantime, I was able to cut out the back and front out of 4 project bags.  Thank you so much Deborah W. for your help.  Here is another tutorial if anyone is interested:

Project Bag Tutorial from Fat Quarter Shop  There are a lot of tutes on U-Tube for this.

I like handles on mine.

Portland park with lots of snow.  I so miss my youth.

Aoife will soon be 7 months old.  Thank goodness, my daughter is so good about staying in touch by video and email and Whats App From Charlotte to Portland seems a million miles away.

Going to read a book now, in my warm and cozy house....

One Relaxing Friday Night

A weekend off with quiet time to sew.  Tonight, I made my 5 placemat tops for the CMQG outreach, Meals on Wheels.  I should be able to finish them tomorrow...They are relaxing to make.

Aoife, a bit sheepish today!!

Aoife's first snow.

Aoife and her daddy take a walk in snowy Portland.

The weather there made the national news in Charlotte, tonight, blowing snow and roads with little visibility.

Short post as I am once again organizing.

See, I misplaced a present for Lynsey last night.  I tore up my sewing room looking for where I had hidden it.  OMG.  Finding it left a total storm here.

Tonight as I was cleaning, I came across some strings from Barbara's estate sale and the already cut batting I had made for the placemats.  After that, there was the African fabric and the project bags waiting to be made. etc. I could not put this away until that was done....and couldn't do that...etc...You know the story. 

Before bed tonight, I think I will choose the backing for the placemats.  I love to check a finish off my UFO list.  That should be tomorrow!!!

 

Things that Bring me Joy

Linda S sent me a hand hewn valentine from Buffalo, New York.

An artist's gift.  I have not been given a valentine in a very long time.

Lynsey will be 12 on Tuesday.  Uncle Brian and Aunt Emily gifted her with three nights of Hello Fresh

She LOVED it.  With great joy, she chopped and sauteed and mixed.  Last year she received the same present.  It is her very favorite gift of all time.  Here she is on night one, making Italian vegetable soup. She chose that one because her daddy had just had two teeth extracted and could eat soup.

Our Aoife's new game: Frozen peas in a freezer bag with water....sooo much fun.

Someone has a 12 year old birthday party.

Winter weather, Carolina Blue in Charlotte

Anna's chicken coups on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation

A pink chicken coop makes me smile.

An old Christmas box full of Kaffe strings makes my heart sing.

 Quilt Show Memorandum for Roberta Horton

She was indeed one of my very favorite quilt artists.

My Life in the Woods, Pandemic Style

"Love Chains" for the Guild outreach, snipped and finished and labeled, ready to turn in.

I asked the children to help me snip the threads.

Their daddy asked them to go on a bike ride.

Hmmmm....such a hard choice...with that, Grandma was left to snip her own threads.

Next up:  Aoife knocks a basket off a low shelf with last  year's candy in it.  Her mommy went two feet away for two minutes...New lesson....our Aoife is on the go.

No No No

RIP Roberta Horton.....This cannot be...one of our best quilters ever, twin sister of Mary Mashuta..

RIP  age 80

The Mugg Shot!!!!

This is me:  Locked in handcuffs at 73, isolated in my sewing room for being a naughty grandma.

When I tell them to clean the kitchen...in a loud voice...they call me....a Karen...OMG

Who in the world is in charge in my house.  They found my son's old things in the attic...Handcuffs!!!

Well, Grandma will no longer be able to cook, play cards...etc....They said that they threw away the key.  They insist that I am, indeed, their peer...God help me!!

Pandemic dress code: Seven pair of black or navy sweat pants and seven pair of sweatshirts with binding.  No one needs new clothes during a pandemic. 

After our visit tonight with our new pediatrician,  I saw how low things have become around here.

When we sat in the room waiting for the doctor, I saw Lynsey's toe stick out of her shoe, Dylan's soles were off and there was cat hair all over his hoodie.  My clothes also had cat hair...

OMG what a trip out of the isolation house will do!!! 

 Kids doing school in their jammies: grandma covered with threads.  We will be entering the world soon, again...the O'Quilts family must get a grip.

Lynsey has not been in a schoolroom for one year.

Good Vibes Help the World Go Round..

Good Vibes quilt-a-long today...via Zoom...great fun!!

I finished two potholders with scrap African fabric

Two sided fabric bowl using my African scraps.

Fabric bowl pattern with 10 inch leftover layer cake

Two sided

And finished quilting my Love Chain quilt for donation.

Just needs threads snipped.

Sewing, visiting with friends...all day...It cannot get better!!

Anna is one of our Good Vibe quilters.

Anna's House

My friend, Anna, lives on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon.  This is where the confederate tribes of Warm Springs live.

This is the tiny house she lives in with her husband.  It is his generational family home; 500 square feet with two rooms.  There are 150 acres of woods and fields at the end of a 3 mile dirt road with no one else on it.  It has a beautiful view of the Cascade mountains.  Since they have a 50 year lease on it.   they have been improving it for themselves and the next generation of tribe members.  Anna and her husband built a barn on the property where she plans to put her sewing studio,  When her husband was young, 11 members of his tribe lived there in that one tiny house.

Anna is part of our Good Vibes quilt group of 12 quilters.  Some in Charlotte, some in Oregon, one in Minnesota and one traveling by caravan, but often in Florida. This happiness Zoom has brought us.  Most of us have never met, but have become fast friends.  It could have been called a Covid group, as we have been meeting almost a year.  We were created by Suzette.  We are kept in line by Vickie.  We always have fun. !Today this group is having a Sit and Sew by Zoom.

Below is a newly finished doll quilt by Linda.

My son has taken his children on another bike ride in the cold dark.

They do not go in the road, just through the woods.  They LOVE it.

I hate it...I think that it is a generation gap!!

Grateful  to stay home and sew.

 

Little Aoife Cheers us so

Little Irish Aoife gets a new hat.

She also gets pink Irish cheeks from walks around Portland city.

People say that the Accuquilt wastes fabric.  I do not know.  Here are the left over scraps from the wedge cuts from one yard.  I am going to use these for the placemats we need for the CMQG outreach.

I love scraps. Evidently Stitch loves scraps too...Together, here we have set the top for a potholder.

another potholder top..

Wednesday night's Zoom on CQG was great.  Nice to see familiar faces.

Praying here for Tuesday's shot to come through.

A true light at the end of the tunnel.  Or a little light, at least.

This photo does not do justice to Linda's brilliant repro star top.

It is indeed stunning.

Another joy...Aoife crawls...six months..sweet Aoife is now on her way!!

In the darling cap her mommy made her from Liberty fabric...

Tonight my son and his children cleaned up the  kitchen.  He took them to the library to get my book...Oh, no...the library told him he could not get the book without an appointment...Dear me.

The sound of silence is emphasized by the end of a chaotic day. Poor Dylan hates zoom learning.  I do not blame him...but it is not Grandma's fault...sigh..

There is a possibility that he will go back to school part-time February 16. 

 We will see...With Covid, it always seems to change.

I think it was early December? that he went back for 3 weeks.  It was great for him because there were only 4 kids on his bus and 6 in his class. Many parents kept their kids home...Time will tell.

Poor teachers.

 

A Crisp Carolina Blue Day

Good Morning Yellow Bird

Due to my newest experience of working with dead fusible, I thought I would just finish off any applique I had hanging around. With inspiration from an IKEA tray, my bird is done.

Humming along, grateful for a new finish, I saw gunk on my iron.  Online said, "use toothpaste."

Scrubbing, I realized pieces were falling apart in this iron.  Guess that an iron, over 10 years old that is used non-stop....has a shorter lifespan than I realized. I certainly got my money's worth.

Bye-bye trusted Panasonic cordless iron...Bye bye...

New Panasonic cordless to arrive in two days.!!! 

Hmmmm, Here it is already!

Can you imagine the times we live in??

I had no idea that I needed a new iron until that one broke and this one came.

What a big difference/ improvement in 10 years...I am so lucky.

Joy comes in lots of packages...I am a Panasonic lady and a Janome woman.

 On BBC news last week, I saw an article about how men are flocking to sewing.

The statistics were....52% men vs 47% women are hot to sew....Forgot the details of this study, but I do find it an amazingly new generation!!

Energized I am....I did 5 walks up the ramp today instead of 4.  A good night sleep. Amazing how the light shines in the morning.  You know PT folks do not care about pain...Just keep on going..so I did and I do.

Also moving up from a size 6 to a 7 in weights for my bi-cep curls. That is supposed to help old lady improve her wobbly balance.

Just finished using up one yard of my dear and lovely new African Fabric.

I was able to cut 6 wedges with my Accu-cutter Go  And, African fabric is thicker than most cottons.

Thank you COVID for helping me explore new things right in front of my own eyes.

Very brave me just let a soon newly 12 year old and a soon newly 11 year old walk around the block alone, together with the phone.  They are taking books to the little library. Then walking by friend's houses with their masks in their pockets.  We live in a small community.  They are growing up.

(update, they saw workers in the street and came straight home. I am glad that they are better safe than sorry)

I am cleaning up!!!! As usual.

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????