Just a Few Accomplishments

This is the beaded ornament I am making for the Guild. Since no one from the guild is a blogger, I can confess on this site that I am the secret Santa.................. I have some dear friends that are members of the guild so even before I joined I did a wee giftee for each member attending the Christmas gathering. One year it was strawberries for needles. The next year it was a Wonder Wallet from Lazy Girl Patterns. Last year as you know it was the beaded tassels.
I figure I will need to have at least 60 ready by Thanksgiving. If I need a few more I can make them up before the meeting. So here are four done and 56 to go. There are 12 ornaments to each container. If I get 5 containers completed I will be in good shape for the event.


Finally the hat and socks and sweater are done. The smocked dress was done also but I managed to get something from the iron on it when i was blocking the top so it will have to be washed. I will mail what I have to Jean so at least that part will be done.

Lem and I stayed home for the holiday weekend. We did swap the winter clothes for the summer clothes. Now the closet is nice and organized.

We have a dear friend coming next week for a visit and I got the closet in the guest room cleared our for her and two drawers in the chest of drawers emptied for her use.

I didn't even get half of what I wanted done. I spent Sunday afternoon with a heating pad and that really cut into my time to stitch...................

Let the Games Begin

Well, they are here.................. They being "the visitors"..... People think it is great living on Cape Cod but the truth is, while it is a great place to vacation it is not a great place to live. The town I live in has a population of about 6,000. During the summer it becomes 23,000. Traffic becomes a nightmare and the rule is "You do not go anywhere that requires a left turn." Folks tend to leave their manners and intellect at home when they vacation. Grocery shopping must be done before 9:00 AM and after 10:00 PM. Restaurants are crowded and the prices are raised during the summer.

Yes, I am only 1 1/2 miles from the ocean but living here I often forget to go. Silly me. I get so involved in the things required for day to day living that I don't take time out for enjoying the things here.

Surprises

In 2004 one of the associates at my local fabric shop was beginning a new enterprise. You could bring to her your pattern and fabric and after she took your measurements, she would cut out the garment for you. Then you could assemble with confidence that it would be a perfect fit. I purchased several length of fabric and patterns. Went all out go get some new clothes…………….. She kept them for the summer of ’04 and ’05. In the winter of ’05 she returned the three boxes to me. They have been sitting in the bedroom since.

Last week I carried them downstairs to the studio. Since I am finishing things on the MUST DO list I thought I would open the boxes to see what was there. I also opened a box of things that I had kept to cut out myself. In the box that I kept I found:

3 Dress Skirts

3 Pairs Capri’s

6 Tops

3 Pairs Full Pull On Pants

1 Pair Straight Pants

1 Tuxedo Shirt

1 Boucle Jacket

What was I thinking? Remember, this does not include what is in the other three boxes.

This week, I finished one pair of pants and one top. I need to re-work the pants a bit to get them to fit right but I will keep on fine tuning till I get it right.

A New Clock

On Friday afternoon Lem and I went to get another clock. I am so glad that we both like clocks that tick and chime. When we went to pick up the ships clock we purchased in March we saw another clock that we really liked. It is marble and was made in the mid 1800’s. It has a French movement and a really pleasant chime.

I also finished a pair of socks. I keep a pair going all the time. They are great “pick up” work when the mind is too tired to do anything but the hands need to be busy.

I am still working on the things for Jean. I did get the baby nightgown smocked and this morning I got it sewn together. Now to hem it and sew on the snaps and it will be done. I will be pleased to get these things in the mail to her.

Mother's Day

Okay, I am a bit late with this. I seem to be a bit late with everything these days. I am trying to keep the house in order and cook healthy meals. Boy that sure takes time.

It was a wonderful Mother's Day. Both of my Darling Children checked in to say hello. Lem gave me another pearl for my necklace.

Juggling

I find it impossible to juggle all my balls at one time. It seems that the more I attempt to get it ALL done the farther behind I fall.

Blogging is an all time favorite thing for me. I enjoy reading what everyone else is doing and making and where they are going and what they are seeing......

I want to be a part of all that is happening out there in blogger land......

Here it is past the halfway point on May and I haven't even gotten my own page up to date. I am way behind in reading what everyone else is doing.

I have spent the last few weeks trying to keep the house in order and trying to be proactive. That means keeping up with a calender and accomplishing task before they are due.

I have also been concentrating on one project at a time. I finally got the Storm At Sea Jane shipped off to be quilted. I then concentrated my morning time to getting the 2005 Siggy Swap quilt top together. That has been done at last. Perhaps I will get a good picture of it tomorrow.

I finished the hat and socks and sweater for my sister but I want to include a smocked dress in the package. That has been pleated and I have all the things together to get the hand work done.

Now that the weather is improving it is time to get out the summer clothes. I have several totes of fabric and patterns I have been tripping over for the last two summers. This is the year I am going to make those clothes and wear them.

As most everyone knows, Lem and I are hoping to be moving to NC in the early part of 2009. I simply must go through the cellar and garage and get those areas cleared out and get ready to move.

Let me leave with a picture of the siggy quilt in progress.

Whew................

I reached my goal....... I finished this top. Now to send it off to be quilted. I am delighted to see it all together. The yellow was definitely the right thing to do...... It makes the quilt sing.

After it was all done, I realized that I would have to put a hanging sleeve on it and on all the others I am sending to the show. One thing about making bed quilts, they don't need a hanging sleeve....

I also got out the siggy blocks from 2005 and began to assemble the. Now this is going to be a much bigger quilt than I first thought. I have three rows complete and I like how it looks on the design board. Of course it hangs off each side a bit but I do get an idea of how the finished product will look.

Unfinished Projects.

As if I didn’t have enough, I brought home some from others………. The guild had its annual auction last night. You took what you did not want and it was auctioned with the proceeds going to the guild……… I reviewed the items for sale with care and kept in mind what I have at home already.

There were several books on quilting that I thought Kate would enjoy, those wonderful “Learn How to Quilt” books that have so much information in them.

I saw one of our more experienced quilters place some blocks on the table and went over to check on them.

Aren’t they wonderful? There are a few more blocks to be completed and there was none of the background fabric included, just what was needed for the colored portion of each block. I think there are 3 or 4 more to do. I will also have to cut into my charm fabric to get the squares to add to each block.

The instructions are all there. She even made the templates for each block and included them in envelopes marked with the month they went with. This is going to be a wonderful addition to my collection of unfinished projects. It will also be a good practice quilt when I teach myself how to machine quilt. This set me back $5.00

I spent $3.00 more and got this collection of blocks. It will be interesting to see how they end up being set and just what becomes of them. They are machine pieced and not exactly the greatest fabrics but I will enjoy using these blocks to practice machine quilting.

Now these are all hand pieced. I will say it looks much better in the picture than it does in real life. Some scrappy quilts you need to stand back from to the best view.

There are even a few ready to add and the template used.

I also see a tote bag in my future. The extra block will be a nice pocket on the other side of the bag.

I just could not see the effort that someone had put into these things being lost.

Progress

Two more rows added to my Storm at Sea Jane.......... Only two rows left to add. That means only 18 more of those small blocks to paper piece and only 15 more of the diamond blocks to paper piece. I like paper piecing but only in small quantities at a time. I am thinking about a border now. I have some ideas floating around in my head but we will see.



I did take a break and finish block one of row two on the RLT quilt.