It is Wednesday already! Geeze!

I got a bit more quilting done on the I Spy quilt.

Finished stitching the letters on the variegated sampler.

Now I will have to search thru these two books to see if I can find some small designs to fill in some of the negative space.

Next Monday we have an all day yearly meeting for the company. I need to bring something to keep my hands busy and not waste my day. I found a partially knitted baby blanket so I will be taking that. I wasn't sure if I had any yarn left for another baby blanket. Over the years of company meetings, I have used up all the yarn I think someone gave to me and this is what is left.

I also dug out some kitted up cross stitch which I might take one of those too.

Today I have to take a road trip to the home office for a meeting. I have a couple issues I need to talk to IT and accounting about with some emails I am not sure about. I don't want to open an email that is fake. It is getting harder and harder to tell if an email is real or fake.

I Spy quilting and cross stitch

I got a start on quilting the I Spy quilt. It will be a finish for February.

I have made a lot of progress on that cross stitch piece with the variegated thread. I only have two more letters to stitch - the B and K. I plan on adding something in the open spaces - the date and my skull for sure, then maybe a heart. Here is where I was last Friday when I posted and where I am now.

1st finish for 2024 and fabric for tote bags

I spent Friday evening straightening up the house. Saturday was a quick run to the grocery store and vacuuming before my friend showed up. She arrived about 11:00 and we sewed the rest of the day Saturday and Sunday until she left around 11:30 a.m. My friend was making pillowcases for gifts and got those done. Then she worked on some log cabin blocks. I quilted that baby quilt and on Sunday I got the binding done. I hand stitched the binding since the quilt is for a friend of my brother's. It turned out 40 3/4" x 48 1/4".

My friend brough me some fabric for my birthday and Xmas. There are two yards of each. Such fun fabric!

Here is the fabric she brought me to use for tote bags. I don't know how many yards are on that bolt, but there is a lot! The fabric is kind of stiff kind of like duck cloth. It will make some nice sturdy bags! In the bag are drapes.

I now have leftovers for meals this week from the cooking I did for us. I made salsa chicken and shortbread cookies. We never ate the Black Forest Ham I bought for sandwiches and I never cooked the bacon I had bought for breakfast. We were just too busy sewing to eat!

Yeah it is Friday!

I was busy last evening in the kitchen. I cooked some bacon and made a blueberry cornbread.

I have been working on that varigated sampler and here is my progress. I now have 12 of 26 letters stitched. Almost half done!

I got a call from a girlfriend last night and she wanted to come up Saturday and Sunday to sew. She also wants to get the piles of fabric she has been collecting for me from friends for making bags for the merch booth. I have no idea how much she has. So tonight, I will have to get the house prepped and get my list together for the grocery store. I plan on getting that quilt done. After that I think I will work on getting the I Spy quilt quilted. Have a great weekend!

Quilting, next cross stitch project and the amaryllis

I got a bit more quilting done.

I started a new cross stitch project. I like using that variegated thread I used on the Valentine small, so this next project was the perfect one to use it on.

The amaryllis is finally showing signs of blooming! I received this bulb before Xmas so it has taken a while.

Soup, quilting, cross stitching, and a gift received

I had a busy evening, and it went fast! I made a big pot of bean soup. I haven't been cooking much and I needed something to take to work for lunches. I ended up with four quarts. I also made some brown rice which I will add the rice to the soup when I go to heat it up.

I got a little start on quilting; a little is better than nothing!

Yesterday at work I added just a few more stitches to that small. I added a few of the zig zags and I am now calling the stitching done. Time to make it into a small.

There are two ladies that have a floss tube videos that I watch religiously - Brenda and the Serial Starter. I love these ladies! I think we could be best friends. They are generous with their knowledge, share what they learn, inspire with what they are stitching, what fabric and charts they buy, and are loads of fun to watch! This is not the first time I have sent them something, but wanted to put together a few things I made for a Xmas present. I was late for Xmas, but it all worked out. The one lady was gone on a trip to Europe and then to a stitching retreat, so my box greeted her when she got home. My sister watched where they showed what I sent them and sent me some screen shots. Here they are showing the cards I stitched and personalized for each of them. Brenda is a huge Michigan fan and Laura is a huge Indianapolis 500 racing fan. Brenda said she was godsmacked when she saw the card.

Boxy pouches with tassels I made

Quilted pouches

Scissor pouches. I made this especially for Laura because a few months ago she said she could find her fabric scissors. I told her she can keep her scissors in the pouch, and I put a large loop on it so she can hang it up and find them.

a pillowcase for each

a project bag with a monogram fob and handmade tassle

and finally a set of four placemats. This was as much fun for me to make as for them to receive.

This was shown at the one hour and 56 minute mark. Episode 107 was especially long since it had been a month since their last video.

Busy weekend

I have to keep pushing myself to increase my stamina so after vacuuming for 2 hours at work on Friday and shoveling two driveways when I got home from work, I was a bit tuckered out. LOL!!  There was about 4" of light fluffy snow that needed taken care of.  I think we got another inch or so after I was done. 

The rest of Friday evening was resting, but Saturday I was out at 7:30 a.m. to run errands, grocery shop, and get gas. There weren't many people out since it was only 9 degrees. My first stop was Menards and I pretty much had the place to myself. If I needed help, I got it! I wanted some primed MDF to make shelves for the alcove in the entry to my bedroom. Menards has a cutting station so a fellow helped me get my board down from the shelf and I hauled it out to the cutting station.

I should have put my gloves on; my fingers were about froze walking back and forth to the station. It was probably the lenght of a football field one way. I don't have my new chop saw set up yet so being able to cut these at the store was great. They are now sitting in the garage waiting for me to install them.

I was in and out of the cold for a couple hours and that took the wind out of my sails a bit!  I started laundry and cross stitched the rest of the day. I finally finished this little sampler.

Sunday, I continued with the laundry, did dishes, started this V-day small, wound bobbins for quilting the baby quilt, and watched some football. I think I will add a bit more stitching on the V-day piece before I turn it into a small.

My legs were sore on Saturday, but on Sunday the only thing that hurt was my right shin. It took all day to get it to quit thumping. I have to get better and stronger, or I will never make it thru another season working at the merch booth.

Thank goodness it is Friday!

I am ready for the weekend! After work if the roads aren't too bad, I am going to run a couple errands and then head home for two days of sewing, laundry, dishes, painting, and football. Working 5 days a week is getting old. LOL!! I did get the fourth baby quilt top sewn together. Yeah!

I think I will start machine quilting the baby quilt tonight and then the I Spy quilt. I need to do better than I did last year with finishing only 5 quilts. I know I did a lot of other sewing, but only 5 quilts - pitiful! I finally updated my yards of fabric usage vs. how much I bought. I still bought more than I used. I don't think I kept track very well, but not enough to change the outcome. For 2024, I know I need to stock up on baby quilts and I would like to get a couple flannel quilts done to have on hand. I know I have a king-sized t-shirt quilt I want to get quilted and of course there are mounds of tote bags to make for the merch booth. There are some projects around the house I want to finish too. 2024 is going to be busy! Can you tell I am feeling better? LOL!!  Have a great weekend!

Finally, back at the machine

I am not 100% yet, but I am having long periods where I feel pretty good. I finally got back to the sewing machine and almost have the fourth baby quilt top sewn together. I sewed together the blocks to make four rows and now am sewing the rows together.  The bottom two rows are sewn together in this picture.  The top two rows are on the design wall not shown.  Three more seams and it will be done. Here are the bottom four rows.

It has been cold here! At least today we are starting at 20 vs. yesterday that was in single digits with a brisk wind most of the day. It was sunny most of the day so it didn't seem so bad if you were indoors. The company bought pizza for lunch for the pile drivers, foremen, and superintendents so they could get out of the cold for a little while. I think using the restroom instead of a port-a-john was the highlight. There is one woman onsite and she said it was nice to be able to use the indoor facilities and to be able to wash her hands rather than going the hand sanitizer route. Last night we had a light dusting of snow. The roads have been well salted so no issues driving. I am just glad I haven't had to shovel. That could be rough right now.

What's going on

I had a hair appointment after work so nothing got done. I did get a text that my nephew somehow ended up at a taping of the Kelly and Mark show and won the crazy dance competition they have as a audience warm up before the show. Michael's taped dance will now be shown on Thursday's show. It should be interesting.

Then today the movie he scored the music for is being released. It's a horror movie that takes place in a bowling alley.

I did buy a different OTC pain med and it seemed to work pretty good. I will give it another go tonight.

I am feeling a bit better and Excedrin keeps the throbbing in my right leg tolerable. I'm still tired, but I think a couple more good nights of sleep and this bout of sciatica will be mostly over.  

Nothing

I felt bad all weekend so nothing got done except a load of laundry, a shower, a trip to the grocery store, and a tiny bit of stitching.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday - I slept between 11 - 12 hours each night. Then on Saturday I took two naps. The stabbing pain has stopped, but my right leg just throbs when to OTC meds wear off.

Amaryllis and Salsa Chicken

My sciatic nerve was hurting still when I got home from work. I got something to eat and fell asleep in my sewing chair, so no sewing happened. Here is my amaryllis that was given to me in Mid-December. It looks like it has a long way to go before it blooms.

I did make some Salsa Chicken for breakfast/lunch today. I used the taco seasoning my SIL gave me which is the same seasoning I gave to all the women at work. It tasted pretty good for breakfast.

2023 accomplishments

In looking back over 2023 I only finished 5 quilts. I did make 28 placemats, over 30 boxy pouches, at least 50 other pouches, 4 scissor pouches, 47 pouches for wireless units

made a lot of tote bags for the merch booth, cross stitched 17 pieces, did numerous repair and alterations, emptied 42 spools of thread

made three piped cushions, eight pillows, and two tutus.

After work I went and got sushi for dinner.

I am feeling a bit better, but I sure could use a nap.