Binding progress, new fabric, daffodils, and doughnuts

I was very tired when I got home from work. I ended up falling asleep in my sewing chair. I think I was out for about a half hour. When I woke up, I threw a load in the washer and got to work on the binding for that baby quilt. Tonight, I will sew the corners and will try and get the hand stitching done over the weekend.

As promised, I opened the box of fabric when I got home. It is a really good mix of prints for my bunkhouse quilts. I needed some browns and neutrals. I tried to pick fabrics I normally wouldn't buy; I don't buy much brown or green fabric because I don't like those colors. I will get these washed and cut some strips over the weekend.

I walked by this narrow flower bed to get the mail. The daffodils are coming up! The temperatures are all over the map for the next 10 days ranging from 27 to 62. I don't see any coming up in the big center bed, but then it is covered with a lot of leaves.

One of the guys brought in a box of doughnuts this morning just because it's Friday. They don't do this very often - thank goodness!

Today is an economic boycott day so I won't be spending any money. I am trying to not go tomorrow to a local garden center that is having a St. Patrick's Day event. They have pots and plants on sale including different kinds of shamrocks. I don't need any more plants. I barely have space for the ones I have, but it is hard not to add more. I have a long list of stuff I would like to make some progress on, so I need to just stay home and work! Have a great weekend!

Jeans fixed, binding, Chocolate Santa, puppies, fancy dinner, eggs, and a box - Whew!

As soon as I got home from work I fixed my neighbor's jeans. They needed reinforced along the back seam. He had been doing squats to build leg strength for when he goes skiing next month and the jeans were showing signs of stress.

I then sewed together the fabric strips for the binding for that baby quilt I just finished quilting. The binding is pressed and ready to go.

While I was at it, I sewed together and pressed the binding for the next baby quilt I am going to finish.

I forgot to show you the big chocolate Santa that Michael bought me for Xmas. I hadn't seen him so he gave it to me Saturday on the Brite Winter concert trip to Cleveland.

At work, one of the foremen found three puppies wandering around the job site. He gathered them up and drove up the office. He had stopped to get some small cans of dog food and dog shampoo. The pups each ate two cans; they were hungry! Then they got a bath and several of us helped out with drying them off. The puppies were very sweet; they didn't nip at anyone picking them up. They all ended up going home with someone.  They looked to be about 8 weeks old.

My neighbor took me out for a fancy dinner for fixing his ski pants and jeans. He was also the one I had made the Harley quilt for his cousin and gave him the baby quilt for his first grandchild coming in April. I had salmon and it was so good! It was a huge piece of salmon, and I could only eat half of it, so I took the rest home and had it for breakfast.  The salmon was on a bed of baby bok choy and mushrooms in some kind of sauce that was absolutely delicious! 

I did go to the grocery store at lunch time yesterday to pick up a few things. I decided to look at the price of the eggs I like to buy and they have gone up another fifty cents in the last couple of weeks. They are now eight dollars a dozen. In November, they were a few cents less than five dollars. I didn't need any right now; I was just curious about the price.

The Mailman came late yesterday and there was a box at the front door. I had ordered some fabric from The Patchwork Place on January 24th and it finally showed up. I was too tired last night to open the box so I will do that this evening. I don't remember exactly what I bought except they are reproductions. They were having a heck of a sale and many of the pieces I bought were remaining half yard pieces which was fine with me.  All the different prints will give me more variety and a scrappy look for my bunkhouse quilts.  I got free shipping, so I didn't pay the $19.16 it cost to ship this box.  I will post a picture tomorrow of what I bought.  

Quilt labeled and ski pants fixed

I got the label on the baby quilt. This is going to my neighbor for his first grandchild.

I also got his ski pants fixed. I added a piece of ultrasuede to cover the holes left from the snaps and to add some strength.

Quilting done

The second baby quilt is all quilted. The binding is cut and ready to sew together.

The binding will have to wait until after I get the ski pants and jeans fixed. I also need to get a label on the first baby quilt so I can give it away. I plan on doing all of that tonight.

Second baby quilt progress, winter concert, tote bags

Saturday I headed over to my brother's house to join the rest of the band in a road trip to Cleveland. The band had a concert, outdoors, for a winter festival. The wind wasn't too bad and we had sunshine which helped a lot!

I had bought a pair of Under Armour ColdGear leggings to wear under my pants and they worked great!  My legs did not get cold at all!

We had to carry the equipment quite a way to the stage. I got home at 8:30 (we left at 1:30 pm). I was sore and tired. I did receive a cute hat out of the deal!

I did get the rest of those tote bags sewn together to take to Cleveland. I am glad I had them because we needed them. So that is the first 13 bags for 2025. We are going to need a lot more! LOL!!

Sunday I worked on quilting that second baby quilt. It is 80% quilted.

I did laundry and made soup too on Sunday. My neighbor called to tell me his cousin loved the Harley quilt. Then he came over with a pair of ski pants and jeans that need some fixing. The snaps don't stay snapped on his ski pants. He took the snaps out so I can do my thing and put in a buttonhole for a jean style button.

The seam at the back of his favorite old jeans is showing signs of stress so I will be reinforcing them so they don't blow out.

Today we got instruction of what to do if ICE shows up. Ugh!!!

2nd finish for 2025

I finished the baby quilt on Wednesday evening. It measures 40 1/2" x 48". I used 2 1/2" strips to make 8" finished block of 16 patches.

I didn't post yesterday because I stayed home with a belly ache. I feel much better today. I didn't get much done when I was home because I was feeling bad. I did do a load of laundry, made 6 tote bags and got handles ready for six more,

pin basted the next baby quilt,

and made a pot of soup with that wedding soup mix that was gifted to me and watched again most of Season 5 of Yellowstone.  I did doctor up the soup a bit by using chicken stock along with the water, added chicken since I didn't have any meat to make mini balls, and drizzled in an egg with parmesan cheese mix into it. The soup smelled so good.

Plans for the weekend are to finish the other six tote bags, quilt that baby quilt, and maybe get started on quilting the fabric for the curved top pouches I want to make to take to the retreat in a couple months. Have a great weekend!

Binding progress and Violets

I now have the binding one long side, one short side and half of the other long side done.

The two violet plants were in the same pot, but the husband seperated them so I got two pots instead of one. The pot is a two piece unit. The inner pot sits higher so the botton of the pot in not in the water, and there is a cord that sits in the water that is in the bottom of the outer pot which waters the plant as needed.

I was suprised this morning when I went to take these pictures at how much bigger the one plant looks from just Sunday! Here is what they looked like Sunday

and what they look like now.

Can you see the difference?  Pretty cool!

Baby quilt and another gift

Yesterday was the day from h*ll - company meetings all day. All this day does is piss me off. When I got home I got something to eat, turned on To Catch A Smuggler and fell asleep. LOL!!  I think I was still tired from my trip.  I was very windy on my drive home so I had to keep both hands on the wheel to fight the wind.  I did get the baby quilt trimmed after I woke up so now I can start the hand stitching

When I was packing my backpack for work this morning I found another gift I received this weekend. For lunch on Saturday we had wedding soup. It was made with this soup mix and frozen mini meatballs. It was so good! I was then gifted a bag of this soup mix that is made in Pennsylvania. How cool is that!

Wanda, I have never had African Violets either. The ones gifted to me are in special pots for African Violets so their roots don't sit in the water. I was given full instructions on what to do and what not to do so I have been fully trained. I was told if I kill then, he will just give me more as he starts new plants all the time. Vicki, yes we did get some sleep! I never thought we would get thru all the fabric I brought, but with me cutting the chunks of fabric and Cherie running the die cutter we made a lot of strips very quickly! On Sunday morning after we finished up cutting my fabric, Cherie picked out fabric and we cut strips for a 16 patch she wanted to make.

Office upgrade, cutting strips, a winning team, and snow

The guys came Friday to expand my cubby at work. Here is the before and after. I now am not trying to navigate around my chair because the space was so tight.

We also had a visitor, Maui. She wasn't happy that she was confined to one office.

After work I left to go visit my friend, Cherie, and her husband Dale in Pennsylvania. I am glad I drove on Friday rather than waiting until Saturday. The weather was perfect on Friday and I made it in two hours. First thing we did was to go to the Elk's for dinner and trivia night. Family members and friends arrived, and we had 10 on our team. There were 8 or 10 teams - I don't remember. Let's just say I was no help whatsoever! LOL!! Our team did win. The prize? Six drink chips. It was a lot of fun and the food was good. I took this picture early before a lot of people had showed up.

Cherie and I spend all day Saturday in her studio. Look at this wall of cabinets for fabric storage. How fabulous is that?!

She has an accuquilt cutter and boy did we cut strips!

I had a pile of hand dyed FQs that we cut.

Then we worked on cutting 2 1/2" and 3 1/2" strips for my bunkhouse quilts. Look a this pile of strips!

I also was gifted two meanuring cups to add to my collection

A bunch of quilting magazines

Some left over Halloween flannel pieces

I am going to help out by finishing two quilts. These were made by a friend of her's and the lady passed away. The lady was making each quilt in halves and quilting them. There is still some quilting that needs done and then I will have to figure out how to sew the halves together. It will be an interesting project.

I taught Cherie how to sew a mitered corner so she sewed all four corners on that baby quilt. I will get it trimmed and finish sewing the binding.

Cherie's husband likes to grow plants and he gifted me two African Violet starts. We had a lot of conversations about plants and the deer eating our plants! Once spring rolls around I will mail him some Lenten Roses. He says he has the perfect spot for them - the spot where he planted the hostas that deer ate. I won't forget about you Vicki; you will be getting some too!

I also got to see the worm bed. Cherie has worms to take care of garbage and to use their casings as fertilizer. I was very cool!

I left around noon on Sunday and my ride home was a bit dicey once I got closer to home. It was raining when I left PA, but in Ohio it was snowing. It was light at time and heavy at others. There weren't many cars on the road which was nice. About 25 miles before home there was an accident with a tractor trailer in the median ditch and several cars scattered in various ditches. There was some slush on the road so we all were slowing down. Over all the roads were in good shape. That just must have been an area that got some heavier snow. The streets in town were messy, but ok for driving. I had to shovel when I got home. The snow at the botton was soaked and wet.