Blowing off the dust

When Cassie came home early in March due to Covid closure restrictions at UWS, we elected to have her take over the quilting room seeing as her little sister claimed her bedroom in August when Cass left for school.  After all, I haven't really been quilting much in recent years due to life's hustle-n-bustle being the mom of three very active athletes. 
But, as the month of May progressed, and more and more time was opening up in my schedule from the stay-at-home orders, the itch started coming on to get back in front of my sewing machine.  So... an evening of cleaning and tidying commenced in the open-space of our basement.

Open Space - before

Open Space - after

With almost two (?) years having gone by since truuuuuly spending time sewing, organizing all of my WIPs and leaders-enders was amazingly relaxing. 

Firing up the iron to repress some of the OMIGOSH blocks...

 ... sewing on a few last strips for the yellow string blocks for Bonnie's Talkin' Turkey...

... hanging the simple tablecloth design wall in order to check the status of how many Talkin' Turkey blocks have already been sewn...

... and simply getting organized in my new makeshift sewing area was time well spent and enjoyed. 

Now, to keep tackling a little bit at a time WITHOUT starting anything new!  😂

Furniture repair

Yup, the posts keep coming and coming today!

Next on my additional to-do list:  Fix furniture!

We have three tears in our two couches; so I grabbed some thread (WISH I had something heavier than just polyester!), doubled the thread up, and got busy.

All of the tears are in the seams.  The "fix" isn't professional, but---- it's done!  All of them!  Mom will be so proud of me :D  {{she made a comment during her last visit about .... with all the sewing skills I have, she wondered "why I hadn't sewed up the rips yet."}}

 Then, I flipped the glider upside down to see what could be done with the one-time broken and one-time fixed spring.  Paul fixed it last time, and it didn't take much to jimmy it back all good-n-"new."  It just needed to be maneuvered and tightened up again.

I'm sitting in the glider right now.  The broken spring is the main, middle one;  and now that it's back to "new," the support under my tushie is back :)

OH!  And what is it that I'm doing in my glider????  Looking through the 2012 album of pictures, picking some printables for updated pics on the piano.  Picked, printed, trimmed (with Caitlyn's help) and framed.  Goal met :)

Kitchen progress

I truly didn't have plans to start cleaning the kitchen until later when the girls are home (it goes MUCH quicker with more hands working!!!!)  But, after posting Linda's 4-patch in a square math lesson, I came upstairs with intensions of making a batch of raspberry jam.   You can see the clear plastic bowl of raspberries on the left side of the photo above.  Psht!!!!  NO COUNTER SPACE!  

At that time, what started as a simple "let's move a few things until later" actually turned into a full-blown kitchen scrub!  

At least that's one less thing on my to-do list for later.  {And no, we never keep the door on that one lower cabinet.  It doesn't stay on with the type of hardware installed}

And now I have room for my project :D

However, I will wait until after picking up the girls.  They are done with summer school at 2:00, and I'm sure they'd enjoy helping (before needing to tackle the dining room cleaning task)

Sunday's list - ACCOMPLISHED (and then some)...

Sunday's to-do list wrapup:

#2:  Bathroom cleaning - DONE (by girls) (with instructions clearly barked explained by me)

#3:  "Rake" lawn for mulch - DONE (by me)
#4:  Weed raspberries and mulch them - 90% DONE (accomplished by Paul)
#5:  Mulch Paul's strawberry patch - DONE (by Paul)

#5 ext: (mulch "rescued tomatoes") - DONE (by me)

#6:  Laundry (well, after a short-lived late-day storm that blew through, the once dry-clothes are still hanging on the line to dry for a second time.)

MORE Additional tasks....

WE HAVE PEAS TOO!  So, #7 -- we picked what was ripe and snacked on them for dinner.

And #8, I even finished cutting the fabric for Star Path - QOV Mystery #28.  I EVEN followed the recommended 10% rule for my scrappy reds (cut no more than 10% from one fabric to keep the scrappiness non-dominated by certain fabrics).  Remember, it's not too late to get motivated to join in.  The clues have only been fabric selection and cutting directions so far.  Clues are being posted every Friday.  Become a member of the group and join in the fun :D

CLEANING, TILING and RUNNING, oh my :0)

Ahhhhhhhhhhh! LOVELY way to start a muggy Wisconsin day: 6 miles of hills!!! :0) Here is Bethann, my sister-in-law who pushed kicked my butt on the hills today. Thank goodness she is running the "hilly half" of the marathon-relay next weekend; she is SO ready :0) Paul's brother Ryan and family are up visiting this weekend for some boating and tubing. The day is forecast to be BEAUTIFUL; storms should be rolling in later tonight, though.

So the past few days have been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning! The house SURELY needed it! THIS is what happens to a piece of cheese accidently left behind on the dining room floor. EWWWWWW! The good news: now that the house is virtually spotless, I can quilt, quilt, quilt away next week. Well....sorta. I have to head to Mom's on Monday/Tuesday for a funeral :0( My uncle passed away; such a sad quick chain of events over the past two weeks. He wasn't feeling well so headed in to the clinic; was admitted to the hospital for testing; and was diagnosed with Leukemia. He had four bouts of chemo, but wasn't fairing well. On Thursday, once his children had flown in from their locations around the country, the doctor spoke with them with the facts: even if the docs were able to clear his lungs and get him back to tip-top bodily health, his chance of survival was still so low because his body couldn't make its own blood. So after prayers and hugs, they all agreed to stop medications and machines. Despite the doctor saying it could be 1-2 days before he would pass, within an hour of stopping meds/machines, he passed away. The doctor feels my uncle must have had the disease for the past few years...... Live life! It can all come to an end so suddenly. It's too easy to get caught up in the day-to-day 'blahs!' Enjoy your loved ones! And that's exactly what we plan to do today!!!! :0)

Also, once the housework was done yesterday, I finally tackled the last stage of the basement floor.

The grout was finished by mid-afternoon, and I couldn't resist trying out the new rugs. The rug in the middle of nowhere is the location where the toilet will be.

I used some creative cuts and combinations to tile around the toilet base. My lines ended up getting a little "off" on the northern part of the room; I don't mean to blame my husband the contractor, but I don't think the room is exactly square. I needed to "fudge" my tiles as I progressed over the room.
And gotta love my garden-pedicure. Honestly! I don't know why I bother painting my toe- or finger-nails. Within a day of the garden, its all chipped. I TRY to be a girl, though :0)

Okay...time for coffee and breakfast....and then pack up for the day of boating ahead.

HAPPY SATURDAY!!!!!


OH yeah......NOT that it's a big deal.....but yesterday was my 36th birthday. I think 36 will be a great year :0) It's 6-squared....has SO many factors (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, 36), so many multiples of 3 and 6 there......yeah......36 is a great number :0)

Before & After - Sewing area

Feeling ambitious, I headed downstairs after prepping dinner (BBQ Pork Chops - trying a new recipe tonight) with all intentions of loading With Heart onto the frame and get some quilting in.

BUT.....I decided it was TIME to deal with THIS!

Everytime I walk to my sewing room in the background, I always had to step over this MESS!

Two hours later, three donation boxes later, and two garbage bags later.... ahhhhhhhhh. There IS something about tidiness, isn't there!!??!?!!? I was just saying this to Angela with her lovely Before/After pictures of her longarm/sewing area.

And as most of you know, when you clean, you find/see things. Ooooohhhh...my mind was just hummmming when I came across the left over Morning Run fabrics.

Cassie would LOVE a quilt made out of these, so I pulled some fabrics amidst the cleaning time and laid them out. I haven't thought much more about this yet, so if any of you "see" a pattern for the center, feel free to share. It will most like be third, no wait, FOURTH on my to-do list.

Weekly Goals by next Friday:
1) Finish With Heart
2) Finish Hopscotch
3) Finish Maltese Star

**sigh** A needed detour????

1:35 pm update from my previous post

Ummmmmmm, it's three and a half hours later, and I still haven't made it downstairs. REALLY, I had FULLLLL intentions, but as I was walking out the living room and stepped on yet ANOTHER toy, ...... I .....HAD......HAD IT!

"G-I-R-L-S-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! G-E-T....I-N....H-E-R-E....N-O-W!"
All electronics were turned off!
Brooms and rags came out!
And the living room was tidied and cleaned!
THEN....as if THAT wasn't enough.....

"G-I-R-L-S! These STEPS are going to kill one of us these days! Time to put EVERYTHING away that is on them! AND, the loft and bedrooms get cleaned before LUNCH!"

{{I wasn't patient anymore}}

As always, I failed to take any before picutes, but the afters.......**sigh**.....I wonder how long it'll stay like this????? My job was a simple one. Bark out commands (mainly for Candace, because she hasn't quite learned to find a little job on her own while cleaning), and organize puzzle pieces to see what's what (that's what's on the living room floor in the pic).

The stairs are ALMOST finished....just a small pile of Caitlyn's left....

Once my puzzles were organized, I headed to the loft.....this is how far I got before needing to make lunch. *I* was getting tired, and crabby and hadn't eaten anything....

Here's what left of the loft (the other side)...

While eating lunch (at 11:30), I literally was drained. Maybe some after-effects of yesterday's day in the sun???? I barely had enough energy to tidy up the kitchen table afterwards. SO....my not-so-forceful-barking-command after lunch was for the girls to head upstairs and slowly continue working on their rooms while I lay down for a nap.

Upon awakening (90 minutes later!!!-YIKES, but OH so nice!), upstairs I snuck....

BUSTED! Although, upon closer inspection, they HAD tidied the book section (a bit!)...

...with a WHOLE LOT MORE to go..... **sigh**

yeah, but mom....how can you be mad at me? I'm reading :0) I just got sidetracked while making Candace's bed....

....SEE! Mine is made...

Sadly, Cassie's room never saw much time....



So, is it bad of me to head downstairs now and let them fend for themselves? Kinda the "I didn't make the mess, so I"m not going to clean it" attitude???

**sigh**

I'm sure I'll be bloggin' later with what I decide....

Doesn't cleaning feel good?

ONCE it's done, that is....

Ugh! What a mess! Need I say anything????

There is just SOMETHING about having everything neat, tidy and clean!!! {{and pay no attention to the door-less cabinet---it always falls off, so we just leave it off}}

and yes....notice how the before picture was taken when it was daylight? I started when I first got home from class today; took a break to get the law mowed (2 hours) and to get into the garden. I finished it up just before sitting down....

When in the garden, I picked a few more pickling cucumbers that are ready for some canning. I plan to do a small batch of pickles on Saturday, so I'm trying to prolong their life by keeping them in cold water in the fridge.

AND...I did get some sewing done tonight as well! :0) :0)

Jared Takes a Wife blocks see some light. I needed to finish up all 120 "green-pointy-units" tonight; sewing and pressing.....**UGH--that was tedious!!!**.....and I couldn't shut down for the evening without actually piecing some blocks together!!! Nine pictured, but ten complete; twenty more to go.

Waiting up for DH right now; he's driving back from "home" and should be home-home within the hour. He's had a long day! Got up with me at 6:30; spent some time tilling up the garden, headed to Marshfield (2.5 hr drive) at 10:00; worked for his sister, and is now heading back tonight. All that driving and working....he'll be ready to collapse for sure.

Lazy

Yup, that was me today

Sure, I started the day off on a strong note by finishing the living room curtains, but....
After Cassie's Basketball this morning, I made some lunch and headed downstairs.
I used up another 120" of fabric today: pressing, cutting and hemming bottom/sides for the next set of curtains for the kitchen. I did NOT do any more work on the Roman Shades for the kitchen; DH has been fishing since lunch, and I need his assistance to know what wood he has in mind...

so...
After the basic hemming, I didn't have the ambition to cut/sew the tabs for the kitchen set of curtains, so, they were lain on the floor until tomorrow (??maybe??)

I figured I'd sew up another set of Paintbox blocks. But I knew I wasn't going to be sewing long once I made this silly mistake....I was feeling tired...

But set #7 saw a finish...
and here is set #6 from earlier this week.


Remember earlier this week when I said I was in the cleaning and tidying mood? Well, it didn't last much more than an evening, but a LITTLE bit of progress was made. Some fabrics in the basket and that had been hanging out on the floor were pressed and folded and placed on the 3rd shelf, while others were pressed and cut into scrap bins. However, YES, a basket of scraps STILL remains to be pressed and cut/folded.

While going through scraps though (MOST of them donated by my mother from one of her many garage-sale jackpot finds!!)...
I found this cute little panel of the Pledge of Allegiance. So, I took a break to throw on some borders. It will await completion until I get my Bernina back.


So....
Although there are some pictures of tasks, I really had a lazy day. I even napped for an hour this afternoon while the girls were watching Max and Ruby. Sure, I did a few loads of laundry, but....yeah, it was a very quiet, lazy day around here for me.

I have the Olympics on, and I don't foresee me heading back downstairs tonight. I sense an evening of web surfing or magazine browsing.

Happy Saturday!

Mid-morning break...

ALL BLOCKS ARE DONE!!!
12 rows are already sewn and waiting for these last 8....
This morning...
...I finished the last of the 400 blocks....
...I have sewn two of the rows together....
But I needed to refill the coffee, so decided to take a little break.
((do you see the other blocks stacked on the right? That will be my next project: Chunky Churndash for my parents))

In the meantime, I hear this from the upstairs...
Cass: "MOM! Can Caitlyn and I clean the bathroom mirror?"
Me: **um, duh....** "Of course sweetie!"
**5 minutes later**
Cass: "MOM! Caitlyn and I have this great idea--can we clean the rest of the house??"
Me: **am I in heaven**... "That sounds wonderful girls!"
**10 minutes later**
Caitlyn: "MOM! Can we clean to windows too?"
Me: **are they serious--they should know my answer** "Sure honey! Go right ahead!"
**upstairs now on my break, looking at overly sprayed, streaky windows and a rag that I could squeeze to refill the Windex bottle**
BUT....it's the thought that counts :0)

Chunky Churndash on hold... in the meantime...

Sadly, I haven't had a chance to get to the LQS to see if I can find the perfect gray for the Chunky Churndash yet, nor can I see the trip possible until Friday. So......

In the meantime....



Bonnie Hunter's Perkiomen Daydreams has seen some more progress. If my math is correct (remember, it's the summer and my brain takes a vacation sometimes!), I have 256 (of the 400) blocks completed. Laying them out certainly wasn't all that easy, but definitely exciting. This quilt is HUGE! I will not be able to lay all 400 blocks out at any one time. The quilt is 100"x100" (when complete). My game plan is to piece it into two halves (top 10 rows and the bottom 10 rows).
HA! After publishing comment...
Just to give you an idea of the size----that is a twin size mattress resting on its side at the top of the pic. I didn't even see it until after posting live!

I have been sitting, relaxing (with WINE again!!!!), and watching the evening news. FINALLY there was a heart-warming (and tear jerking) story. I don't know if any of you watched the ABC World News (with Charles Gibson) this evening, but there was a story about some individuals who came to the need of a turned-over vehicle in Milwaukee (Wisconsin). (watch it here: Rescue ABS News video. When there are stories that involved children in the age ranges of 3-9, they usually have a bigger impact on me since those are the ages of my girls. There was a 4-year old boy strapped in his carseat in the back of the flaming vehicle; and my heart just went out to the gentlemen fighting to get him out! It is so wonderful to be reminded of the good that does exist in our world when we are bombarded FAR too much with all the violence-involved news stories.

I don't know if I feel up to quilting tonight; at least I don't at the moment. It feels good to just veg and look around at my much neglected house. **sigh** Okay, so it doesn't feel good actually seeing the mess, clutter and unkeptness; it actually gets me stressed out a bit because of the guilt I feel! But...doing nothing does feel nice.

Happy Tuesday

Blowing off some steam!

I love my children, but...

...
when it comes to "cleaning up together," they really STINK! I did get some time in downstairs for a good hour -n- half and was able to finish up quilting the first section of Granny's Stars and even did one complete row of the DWR quilting before heading upstairs to whip up some lunch. The loft area was surprisingly quiet, so while the Mac-n-Cheese was boiling, up I went to see what they were up to.

It did appear that they HAD been cleaning at one point, but they were all "playing" when I went up to check on them. Mom's reaction: NOT GOOD! I thundered back downstairs to grab three garbage bags; one for actual garbage, and two to throw toys in. It was MOM's cleaning method now!

After lunch, mom continued to clean up; throwing EVERYTHING I saw in sight into one bag or the other. THEN! Ugh! I suppose I shouldn't be too upset at what I found next because I did the same thing when I was a kid (and now I understand why my mom was so upset with me)......their method of cleaning was "toss everything in the closet or under the bed." !!!!

So anyway.....two hours later, it's still not done, but MOST of it is complete. They have the task to finish it all up before mom has to "strike again" and throw ALL TOYS away!
(I don't actually throw all the toys away; rather just "store" them into the bags. Eventually, they may make their way back to the loft, otherwise they'll be donated to Good Will.)

Happy Beautiful Saturday!!!

Morning everyone! The day is going to be GLORIOUS! mid 60's, sunny!!!! A perfect day to get outside for some Spring cleaning, which I think is on my hubby's agenda; and I think his plan is to drag everyone out with him. I might go with a small fight, though, because I'm definitely interested in relaxing with some sewing....what else is new, right???

Again, I apologize for the infrequent blogging lately, but I'm sure you all understand how life goes sometimes... Seriously, 4th quarter has come roaring in and I haven't had a moment to breathe!

Caitlyn's birthday last Sunday was much of the same; whirlwind of waking up, eating breakfast and hittin the road for the inlaws (three hours away) to celebrate a Surprise 60th Bday for MIL. Caitlyn's only gift was this fun-looking "bouncy-castle" (oh! and a new armoire from my family). Amazingly, that thing didn't come out of its box until YESTERDAY!!!! at 3:30 PM, no less. I was standing by my words of: "the loft and bedrooms get cleaned before it makes an appearance." Well, mom finally had to intervene yesterday morning at 10:00, otherwise, it never would have gotten done. I delegated; they all picked up; we CLEANED!! And I mean CLEANED! I should get a pic of ALL THE TOYS that we removed; they are all waiting in the entry-way right now to be loaded into my parent's truck to head down to my uncle's house for a garage sale he'll be having in May. The loft is so uncluttered now! Heaven!

I did manage to get two UFO's finished this week! (See, if we all took a week off of blogging, imagine what could be accomplished!!!) :0) The Lake-n-Lodge wall-hanging is already in its new location, above/behind the piano in our living room.



Almost a year from when it started, Oklahoma Backroads has also been finished. I find that I'm a very symmetrical quilter, so I still make an "eh..." face when I look at it. That extra row of blocks just doesn't look quite right, but......it's done, and colorful, and full of lots of good scraps that remind me of Grandma. I have no plans for it at this point; perhaps I'll donate it to my mother's church???

My parents are up for the holiday weekend, and they brought a basket full of goodies for the girls, including the movie, "Bedtime Stories" with Adam Sandler and Courtney Cox-Arquette (sp?). It brought on a couple moments of giggles from all of us; well worth watching with as a family.













At one point, my mom, DH and myself caught a glimpse of Grandpa, and giggled to ourselves. How can THIS be comfortable?!??!!?





Enjoy your day!