One more post - Happy New Year!

I was hoping to have the t-shirt quilt done for my last finish for 2022, but that just didn't work out. The good news is my first finish for 2023 will be in the first week of 2023! I have circled the area I have left to quilt.

Things have been a little crazy. The weather was just awful. Not as bad as some people had, but challenging. I stayed home for Xmas since I had a frozen pipe and didn't want to leave the house with a space heater running. The pipe finally unthawed Monday night. Then Tuesday evening around 9:20 p.m. - no water. I ended up calling the police department to see if they knew anything; they did not know about it. I told them I was concerned if there was a fire would the hydrants work. The water was back on by morning although it was brown for a while!  A pipe broke that was at the  cross street to the cul-de-sac.  Then Thursday evening I was watching Law & Order and there seemed to be a lot of siren background noise. I put the TV on mute and it was actually coming from outside. The sirens keep coming closer. I looked outside and saw the reflection of lights flashing so I headed outside and along with the neighbors saw that the fire department was at a house at the end of the street. There were no flames, but there was smoke from a furnace that somebody had worked on. At least it was 60 degrees outside and no one got hurt. Geeze - enough excitement for the week!

I did get the other six placemats done

Made pie, cookies, and fudge to take to my son's for our delayed Xmas on New Year's Eve.

67 hours until I have to go back to work. Have a safe and happy New Year!

Last post of 2022

I was just too tired last night to do any sewing. I have been at work at 6 a.m. every day except today. So last night I wrapped the six placemats that were done and opened the Xmas present I bought for myself.

Yes, I bought another cast iron pan after I told myself I didn't need anymore. They had them marked down on QVC at a killer price and the color that I got was even $30 lower with free shipping. It will be a great pot for roasts, chicken, chili, and soup. I put the insulated tumbler beside it so you could get some perspective on how large the pot is. It's a 7.5 quart pot. The snowstorm has hit here, and I crawled to work this morning at 25 mph. At times the blowing snow was fierce. I would have never drove to work if I still had my Eclipse.

I am taking vacation next week so I will be back with my first post Jan. 3rd. Have a safe and happy holiday season!

Placemat progress

Here is my progress on the placemats. I sewed together the binding, but they still need pressed.

I finished free motion quilting one section of placemat sandwich and got a little over 1/3 quilted on the last placemat section. I had enough quilted I cut off one placemat and here is what I have left to quilt on the last piece. The scissors are placed at what is already quilted.

After I cut my blanks, I used a lid to mark my corners.

I cut the corners off with scissors.

Here are the four blanks ready for binding.

I did stop at the library after work to pick up a DVD, Top Gun Maverick, and found a few other CD's and documentaries to watch over Xmas break. I had been in line to get the Top Gun DVD for months and having it be my turn to borrow this DVD over Xmas is perfect!

The color copier is still broken so I guess I will spend the day prepping stuff to print once it gets fixed, I can give it a workout!

Can't keep up!

I've been too busy - darn it! After work it was get another covid shot, pick up meds and get gas before the big storm. Got home and threw in a load of laundry, then worked on the placemats. Three more done

The binding for the next six and the bodies for the next six are laid out. I need to pin baste the bodies.

At work I have been putting together O&M manuals (Operation and Maintenance) for jobs that are almost done. I got this bad boy done yesterday.

I have been coming in at 6 a.m. so I can use the copier without other people messing with my stuff, but today I killed the copier. I sure hope the serviceman can revive it! The Building Division went to lunch for Xmas. I had a chicken/spinach garlic pizza. Leftovers for tonight.

I'm tired.

It took two stops

After I got a perm last evening, I stopped by JoAnn's to get some of the batting I needed t finish the placemats. They didn't have any - oh I am so shocked! They never have anything I need in that store! I went down the street to Hobby Lobby and they had what I need at 40% off. So now I can get back to the placemats tonight.

I got three Xmas cards in the mail yesterday. The sparkly one is pretty, but I have glitter everywhere now! LOL!!

It was a weekend!

It was a busy weekend. Friday night I had company, and we made a pecan pie and a cheesecake. These were for my nephew, SIL, and brother. The girls had never made either including pie crust from scratch. We had a good time. They both know how to beat an egg now!

The pecan pie was made in one of my cast iron pans. Vicki, I turned the pie out so you could see how nicely the crust bakes. My brother said the pie was really good.

Saturday, I made a quick trip to the Italian food market and then got ready to head to my brother's house for the big show. My nephew's band was opening for Donnie Iris at the Casino in Northfield, Ohio. Here is sound check

The casino had a nice space for the band to relax. There was a catered meal and snacks. I took a Kind bar and headed to the lobby to help my SIL set up the merch booth. I didn't get a picture of the booth because after eating the Kind bar I got a horrible stomach ache. I felt horrible the rest of the evening and it was all I could do to get thru it. After Michael played I got slammed! I never thought we would sell so much merch! My SIL came to the booth and helped to wait on people. We got slammed again after the Donnie Iris show with the people that we couldn't get to earlier. We used most of the tote bags that we had on hand. The band got a standing ovation which is unusual for an opening act. I took a picture of this picture on his FB page. I could see the show a bit on a big screen that was across the room in the lobby area.

I don't remember what time I finally got to bed - midnight? 1 a.m? I did get up around 8 on Sunday.  I decided I needed to get some placemats at least started. A woman at work had asked me months ago to make her some (this is the same lady that I made the pillows out of men's ties last year), but I just hadn't had time. Well, since I don't know what to get her for Xmas, she will be getting placemats! She picked out the fabric long ago. I got the fabric cut, layered, and quilted enough for 6 placemats. Three are finished. I couldn't believe how long it took me to get the binding on the first one! I ended up having to go to Youtube to find a video on how to join the ends because the more I messed around the worst the problem got! The second one went faster and the third one, well, I was in the groove. She wanted a different fabric on each side.

The next three are at the point where I need to join the binding so I can finish sewing it.

I have all the fabric and binding cut for the next six - yes, she wanted 12 placemats. I did run out of that white batting shown in the picture. It is a firmer batting that would be used for things other than a quilt. I used a layer of it and a layer of regular batting, and the firmness and weight were just right for a placemat. It took me 40 minutes to quilt enough fabric for 3 placemats so I think I should be able to get them all done so they can be gifted this week.

I was gifted a lovely box of Malley's caramels from my nephew, SIL and brother.

Wrapping and a party

I've had a busy day and just found a few minutes to post. Last night I had to do some cleaning up and wrap more presents. The brown wrapped packages are for the annual What-a-palooza.

I'm finally getting all these O&M manuals out of my cubical space today. The project manager is picking them up today to take to the Owner

We had our Xmas luncheon today. They clean out the maintenance shop and set up tables.

Santa showed up using a different mode of transportation. You can't see the lights, but it looked really cute. 

Four people at the table I was sitting at won prizes. You got chances when you bought tickets for a charity that buys beds for kids. My streak is still alive! I have been here for 19 Christmases and never won anything! In those boxes was a four pack of insulated tumblers, a 12 pack of beer, a fleece blanket, and a gift pack from Bath and Body Work.

Have a great weekend!

Some border done; Christmas greetings

I got some of the border done last evening. It was a lot of winding bobbins and changing out thread colors.

In yesterday's mail I got a Christmas card and a Christmas postcard. Cute and cute! Those put a smile on my face!

Another shirt quilted

Another shirt quilted.

Now that I have these three shirts in one of the corners quilted, I think I will go ahead and quilt the border pieces next to the shirts that are quilted. There is no rhyme or reason why I started quilting in the corner other than I had white thread on the machine.

I had a few minutes, so I wrapped two more Christmas presents. My new tape dispenser works great!

T-shirt progress and my neighbor's lights

When I got home from work, I watched the special on the Smithsonian Channel I had taped about Dale Chihuly. I have always been fascinated with his work. I was lucky enough years ago to go to the botanical garden in Pittsburg to see his work exhibited. After that it was a load of laundry and quilting another t-shirt.

I did go outside and take a picture of my neighbor's light display.

Mish-mash of stuff

I was so tired on Friday and Saturday it was hard to get myself to move. I did hem the sleeves to a jacket, fixed a skirt hem, and finished up 10 more tote bags to get them off my sewing table.

I ran some errands Saturday morning and bought two strings of lights. I broke down this year and decorated the front window with the lights. I had to haul up from downstairs the stand that the ceramic tree is on. That bookstand is heavy! Here is what my display looks like from the outside and inside.  I should have taken a picture of my neighbor's house.  Dave has put up more lights this year.  I told him I thought the Griswolds had moved in next door!  His response was "Wait till next year!"  I will take a picture tonight.  

Sunday I was finally feeling more energetic. I delivered the jacket and skirt - they were for a relative thus the delivery service. I stopped at JoAnn's on my way to get some interfacing that was on sale, thread, and a zipper. Yes, that is a lot of interfacing for t-shirts, but I have a king-sized t-shirt quilt that needs to get made and it is going to take a lot of interfacing!

I came home with a tape dispenser that my son had ordered for me from the place he works. He gets a discount and free shipping. No more fighting with those cheap plastic tape dispensers that you have to use two hands to cut the tape. That red one in the picture is now in the trash!  The dispenser is heavy enough that it doesn't move when you pull on the tape and I can switch out the rolls of tape and put the masking tape I use when I tape my backings down. This trip to JoAnn's, delivering the clothes, and getting gas took 3 hours.

Next I did dishes, made a pot of chili, made some Mexican rice to go with the chili, and replaced the zipper in a pair of pants that belong to the husband of a woman I work with. He only wore the pants once and the zipper got all messed up. I wanted to get these down right away - she had just given them to me on Friday - and not let them linger around.

Finally, I got to quilting on the t-shirt quilt. I have one shirt quilted, but it is a least a start.