Plan B

Plan A was to do a large meander on the wool quilt. That did not work. Why? The quilt is just too heavy and thick to maneuver.

Plan B that was suggested by several of you worked better and that plan is to stitch in the ditch. I decided to free motion stich in the ditch rather than use a walking foot. Why? Because of the thickness of the wool backing and battting. I got all the lengthwise rows stitched and half the width wide rows done last evening. The blocks are still puffy and I think I may go back and stitch in the ditch around the center stripe of each block. I did that for one block so far and it doesn't take very long. Here you can see how it looks on the back.

I was asked by one reader if I get a flu shot. No, I don't believe in them. I haven't had the flu since I was a kid. Yes, I get colds, but flu shots will not prevent a cold. Nothing prevents a cold 100%. A cold is viral and nothing will cure it or prevent it.

My cold is better today. I still have a bit of coughing and nose blowing going on, but once I get moving I can deal with that. I still can't smell anything. As long as I can keep my sinuses cleared enough that I can breath thru my nose, I can function. As soon as my head gets clogged up I am miserable.

Progress on the wool quilt

I still feel awful. I have been able to manage the symptoms, but that's about it. Saturday I spend the day cleaning my messy laundry room. I tried to be brutal and got rid of a lot of stuff. I found a few items for donation. I also cleaned up the studio which was a mess too. I can now walk thru both rooms without tripping on stuff.

Sunday I worked on the wool quilt. It took some real work to get the back put together. The wool blanket did not lay flat at the edges and I had two large holes I needed to patch. I had to add to the length and the width of the blanket with wool yardage I had to get the back big enough. The quilt is now pin basted, bobbins are wound, and the sewing machine is all ready to go to free motion quilt it. I think I will just use a large meander.

I also got the binding cut out.

I have 10 days to get this done.

Thank you

for all your get well wishes. I still don't feel great, but I do feel a bit better. I have felt so bad I have not had the strength to do anything except look at a few magazines I borrowed from the library.

I went to work yesterday because we had a progress meeting at 8 a.m. then after the meeting I went home to bed. I did manage to roast a butternut squash so I would have something to eat for lunch today and I thawed out and drank some homemade chicken bone broth.


Being sick has put me way behind on getting the wool quilt done. I now have 14 days to get it finish and I am also behind on moving out of the trailer at work. I am just going to have to pace myself carefully and do what I can.

15th finish for 2017

I went home sick yesterday. I sat in front of my electric heater and fell asleep for a couple hours. I didn't have the energy to work on the back for the wool quilt so I figured I could sit and at least finish sewing the binding on the linen quilt. So my 15th finish is the linen quilt. It turned out 40" x 51.5". The back is also linen.

I still don't feel great. I have the typical cold symptoms: a cough and, runny and stuffy nose. I really didn't need this to slow me down. I now only have 16 days to get the wool quilt done.

Wool quilt top and what a party

I got the top sewn together for the wool quilt.

I still have a stack of wool pieces leftover, but the stack is much smaller!

The blanket for the backing is smaller than the top. I found two pieces of gray wool yardage in my stash. I gently washed and dried them. I will use them to add on to the blanket to make it big enough for the back.

I fixed two of my nephew's amp covers and a t-shirt.

I headed over to their house on Sunday afternoon to go to a birthday party/gig. A fellow rents the Kent Stage every year and throws himself a big birthday party with bands playing and lots of food and drink. People bring food and beverages too. Here is my nephew's band performing.

I feel lousy with this head cold. I tried to be careful not to contaminate anyone.

Cutting away for the wool quilt

I was very tired when I got home from work last evening. I was up later than usual on Wednesday night visiting with a brother from out of town so yesterday was tough. I eventually got myself moving to start sorting out the pieces and parts I have had squirreled away for this quilt to see where I left off. I found 7 blocks ready to go. Here they are on the top row and one at the side. I am laying out the quilt with the length of the quilt being horizontal. It will be 9 blocks wide by 13 7" blocks long.

To cut pieces out of the men's suiting samples I just stacked them. There are holes at one end of each piece and some glue residue at one of the bottom corners where the paper labels were so I have to cut the strips out of the center. Here is the pile I have cut

and here is the pile I have left to work with

I have no idea how many strips I have cut, but I do know I need to make 62 more blocks. With three strips in a block I need 186 strips. I don't think I have that many cut yet so I will cut a bunch more before I start sewing them together.

I did see this beautiful little fellow looking for bugs in my rotten deck last evening. I think it is a woodpecker, but I am not sure. He was only looking around for a few minutes, but he was sure fun to watch.

Have a great weekend!

Time to catch up

I was not in the mood to post yesterday so today's post will be kind of long.


I got pictures of the two cute tote bags I made the other day.

I got the binding on the linen quilt and have started hand stitching it on.

I went over to my brother's house for dinner last evening and to visit with another brother who was in town. I had taken my R.E.M. piece over so he could see it in person. He thought I had done a great job on it and reminisced as he looked at the shirts. While I was there my SIL gave me new t-shirts to wear for my job at the merchandise booth. Since we sold out all the shirts in September, Michael had to order more. The blue has a design on one side and the black one has a designed on both sides. We have a gig on Sunday so I need to be wearing the new design.

My brother who was in town had asked me at least 5 years ago to make a wool quilt for his bunk on the bus when he travels with different bands. For the last four years he would fly to each show, but the fellow he is with now will be using buses. After looking and looking, I finally found the top I had started years ago and is on my UFO list. The majority of the wool is lightweight men's suiting samples. I had taken the sample books apart and washed the pieces. The blocks finish at 7". Here is the top so far

He finally told me what size to make so now I have to get this done. I hope to get to go to the show in Toledo on November 3 and I can then hand it over to him. I found the wool bat and the backing which is an old wool hospital military blanket. We didn't have much money growing up and my grandfather, who worked as a civilian at the Great Lakes Naval Base, would bring up discarded blankets - the green ones as well as the white ones that were used in the hospital. Of course over the years the blanket is no longer white and it has a hole or two in it , but it is very sentimental to my brother and now it will have a use. I also saved a couple pairs of our Dad's wool pants when we were cleaning out his home after he died two and a half years ago. I wanted to incorporate some of that wool in this quilt. I will be using that wool for the binding. So I will be dropping everything to get this quilt done in the next 21 days.

I made a batch of cookie dough before I went over to my brother's and put it in the fridge. I was up early and baked the cookies this morning for the guys at work. We have a big day today on site and I thought this would help give them a bit of a boost. They taste really good if I say so myself!

This morning we have some visitors to the site - Canada goose. There must be at least 20 of them. You can also see the slight bit of green which means the grass seed they planted last Thursday is growing!