April recap

I just don't feel like I got much of what I wanted to do this month. Yes, I did finish up two UFO's and one new project, but to me that wasn't much.
6. teal/yellow convergence quilt 41.5" x 43 April

7. Blue/yellow cobbles 34" x 48" April

8. Linen #1 - 36" x 49" April

This month saw a trip to Georgia to see my sister, and then she came to Ohio to help me and two of my brothers try to put a dent in helping clean up my dad's house. That took four days plus Sunday to try and recover. Here is the trash pile.

I will be headed to Miller's Dry Goods in Charm, OH tomorrow and work Friday and Saturday for their 50th anniversary sale. It will give me a chance to recharge.

A huge job and I need to make cookies

I have volunteered to scan, organize, and archive family photos from my parents house. I volunteered because I didn't want my older sister to get her hands on them when I know she would not do anything with them although she would promise that she would take care of it. I bought some archival sheet protectors to start out with and I will have to buy materials as I figure out how to handle all of this material.

Here are the four boxes with all the photo, birth and death certificates, diplomas, and letters. I it is going to be a big job.

I also now have my Mom's cookie press. I remember as a kid sitting at the table cutting maraschino cherries into tiny pieces for decorating the trees and wreaths. Mom always called these cookie press cookies and she would make hundreds of these at Xmas to give away to my Dad's bosses and co-workers. I can remember riding in the car as we went from house to house delivering the paper plates of cookies. The press is in it's original box and it looks like all the pieces are still in the box!

Wands of Exuberant Color - I may need your recipe since there wasn't one in the box and some of your best tips so I can be successful making these cookies for Xmas this year. I never made these before; I only cut the cherries!

T-shirts and more vintage quilts

I received two more t-shirts in the mail. I have one more coming and I believe I finally have enough. The latest ones are The Clash and U2.

I also bought some pearl cotton size 12 to used on the t-shirt quilt to add a little handwork to the piece.

A number of years ago when my dad's mother died, several of my brothers and I helped my Mom, Dad and aunt clean out her house. Dad found these two quilts that his Mom had made. One was for my dad and the other for his brother, Ed. My dad took one quilt and he gave me the other.

These are the only two quilts she ever made. When Grandma, Marian Weber, was visiting my parents years ago my Mom wanted her to embroider her name on the corner of the quilt and the year she thought she had made these twin sized quilts. Grandma said she absolutely hated making these quilts and she would never make another one and she never did! My Grandmother was an accomplished seamstress too!

The quilts were bound differently. One had a typical narrow binding

and the other one had the backing folded over to the front at the sides and fabric strips sewn at the ends.

I don't know if Grandma did the typical binding first, then just wanted to get the other one done so she did the backing folded over on the other OR did she do the fold over first then found out how to put on a typical narrow binding on the other quilt. I will never know.

Pin basting and vintage? quilt

One of the quilt group members came over and I helped her pin baste two small quilts. This first one is light sabers

and this one was made from leftover bits

This quilt is one that has returned to me. I made it for my mom for her birthday in 1981. Look at this awful hand quilting! I am a self taught quilter and this was one of the first two quilts I hand quilted. I didn't know any better that I should not have used dark blue fabric with off white quilting thread!

Here is the front. The quilt is quite faded especially the blue border. Green gingham - really what was I thinking! At least my point matching was pretty good!

Check out the binding corner. Well, at least I can say I got better!

A little sewing and lugging boxes

At work yesterday one of the fellows who is setting up the trailer at a new project needed to go to the storage room to get some tables and chairs. Well, since we were going there I asked the fellow to load up the pick up with files that needed to be taken back to the storage room from the double wide I work in. Here are the piles of boxes and drawings

Here is what those areas look like now.

I still need to spend some time in the storage room and re-file a bunch of stuff, but there is no rush.

I did get part of the border quilted on the drum quilt. Last evening I spent too much time texting and talking on the phone to a couple family members to get much sewing done.

My white quilting thread is running very low. I am going to have to get a cone in order to finish this piece.

I will not be posting again until Monday the 27th as I will be off doing some family stuff.

Busy weekend

Saturday morning I had a hair cut appointment and I spent the rest of the day cleaning up the studio. My table is cleared off and now if I have something I want to do, I have room.

Part of the clean up included pressing fabric that was washed

and adding my newest t-shirt to the design after pressing interfacing to the back of it

Sunday morning I had to run over to my brother's house and put the clean sheets on the bed, turn on the hot water, and sort the mail. Then I went to the grocery store. It was a beautiful day so I decided to go outside and pick a project that needed done. I had this pile of wood left from the garage project and it need to be cut up as it was too long to fit into the bin. Another brother of mine left me his old circular saw so I used that to cut it up. I had never used a circular saw before.

pile is gone

and in the bin

The side yard was a mess from the garage project so I decided to clean it up. So here is the side yard before

Here are the loads of debris

And here is the after. I raked all the way down the hill to where that big pile of sticks is. I did not put that pile of sticks there - my neighbor did. It is actually half on my property. I will have to work on getting rid of it. I could use about 3 yards of top soil in this area where the ground is low toward the garage.

It has been bugging me that there was some plastic that had blown down the hill into the trees so I carefully walked down the hill and drugged the plastic out of the woods.

The front yard needed mowed so that was next. I crossed my fingers that the mower would start. I had a lot of problems with it last year. I had bought some fresh gas when I was out that morning, put some dry gas in the mower, added some oil, and pulled the cord. It started on the first pull!!!! I raised my hands in the air and was looking for the crowd to roar. There was no crowd, but I pretended there was and they were thrilled! I have three bungee cords on my mower, one to keep the bagger flap open, one the hold that handle that if you let it go the mower stops ( I can't pull the cord and hold the handle at the same time), and the third bungee hold the throttle in the starting position. I take the throttle bungee off once the mower starts as well as the handle bungee. The mower runs great so there is no reason to replace it for a few minor quirks.

After 4 hours of yard work I was beat. I went inside, did a couple loads of laundry, dishes, and then sat down to sew. All the sewing I got done consisted of winding some bobbins and machine quilting about 9 inches of border.