Bag Ladies - June Link Up

I have to thank BARBARA for introducing me to these fabulous ladies.  They came pre-printed and pre-colored on muslin that is still set to the "freezer-paper" in the print processing that they use.  You just peel them off and can stitch with suggested color(s) and Stitch style.

I like to put a light weight fuseable stableizer on the back to help strenthen the fabric for stitching as well to hide any knots, oops or thread cross-over.  And since I am making them into each their own mini quilt, it helps with a nicer lay to the piece.

I had  pulled another 'new' lady for the month of June, but I had fallen behind on my May's sweet girl.  I have used three different stitches and thread options for her hair and haven't liked any of them - thus, she is still not finished.  All her 'quilt' units and borders are waiting for me to get my act together.

These are for fun and to work on at your own pace, but I feel I neglect them when it takes too long to make one final decision.

Today we expecting some severe weather which means powering down (and unplugging) - so some handwork will see the light of day.

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Scrappy Wednesday

My first week's work on the new temperature quilt project.  I am using the noon temp read as we have a huge change from morning to dusk.  AND we have been rather stormy most days and rather cool at night (makes for good sleep weather though).  Starting with Summer Solstice, days' temps were 75, 77, 82, 74,76,72,66 - six of the seven days were rain!

Of course I will be doing the center of the next week temp rosette, but my primary project for the day will be to make foursies with my plaid patches.  Ha - one pile is headed the wrong way which means I have to keep my witts about me in making sure these cuties all head they same direction - simple sewing, but with some care.  Kind of like taking the country road for a leasurely drive, but you have to watch for the deer!

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Monday Making - delayed

Monday was a non-sew day as I was attending  a Catskill Mountains Quilters Hall of Fame event in Windham, NY.  And just up the road from where we were is the lovely Patchwork Co Quilt Shop. So, yes, that was worked into our day.  Not that I need fabric, but when in Rome do what the Romans do - right!

They have been running a huge sale all month - hey, new stuff has to be rolled in and they need to make room (I will be back to check out the 'new').  I showed a lot of restraint and this was my small bag purchase.

The neutral was the last (almost yard) on the bolt and looked lonely - 'Flirt' - will be used in something very soon.  The next two small pieces were tossed aside from the cutting of the person in front of me - ends of bolts and she didn't want it - hey, I will give it a home.  The period green with sweet cheddar flowers - 'Kindred Spirits' - will go into the Mini Monday Blocks and the little Geese with Temecula Quilting.  The alpha print - 'A is For' - will go into my juvinile tote to be used when our guild works on the donation quilts for the community.  AND the BIRDS were my just for fun because it caught my fancy - 'Trading Post'.  I have a lot of blacks that I want to use up and this will be my focal to blend them all.  And then the Jelly Roll of 'Cheddar & Indigo' by Nancy Gere just had to come home with me.

Today I will catch up on the Mini Monday blocks.  Simple  framed centers and we have to make four.  They should work up quickly and then I need to get back to the stitchery on Bleeker Street.

I haven't had a 'finish' in a long time and the month is almost over.  Maybe????

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Slow Sunday Stitching

It's been a while since I joined KATHY for a day of slow.  I am trying to add a little handwork in each day as I am falling behind on some hand projects.  But today is for slow.

I want to prep the bunny block for Bleeker Street (side bar button) and then work on the hand stitches.  I am making minis from each section rather that the whole quilt - although, some day I may make the whole quilt.

Late yesterday after a powerful storm - this huge double rainbow appeared in the sky.  

I had a hard time photo'ing it as we still had a lot of cloud, but all the locals up and down the Valley and then some were out there watching and snapping away.

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Too Hot

These two usually squabble over who gets to nap in the shade of the old apple box, but it is too hot today for squabbling.

** linking up with Feline Friday ** 

Whoop Whoop Friday

I am happy to say that all those plaid/stripe blocks are now done!  Now they will take their turn being sewn into foursies as part of my Scrappy Wednesday.  This is my year to 'enjoy' and I am enjoying my year long tiny block projects.

I added to the Temecula flying geese project.  There are 60 more geese to go and I'm not rushing them.

Today I will concentrate on getting the 'mamma' stars into their flimsy stage.  All of the sashings and corner stones are cut - this should chain right thru the machine.  It's to be a rainy day (rain for the next 5 days), good day to stitch away.

They look a little lonely!  My start on the temperature quilt.  I am using the mid-day temp as my day's temperature for selecting fabric.  We have quite a difference from morning to dusk right now, so this makes it easier.  Although that one looks yellow, it actually is a very limey green.

The biggest Whoop is the new printer is finally here - the last techie part to get updated/replaced.  I got a wonderful deal at half price and ink cartridges 20% off and I had enough marks on my Office Max member's card to get another 10% off my entire order.

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Scrappy Wednesday

Monday I had another 'turn off' day as we had flood and tornado alert for 24 hours.  After losing so much on just a little electrical blip, I didn't want to take chances.  There was hand work to catch up on anyway.

Finally when things seemed safe Tuesday afternoon, I powered up the machine and finished the last five of the smaller CW stars.  These will wait now as their bigger 'momma' stars get priority on turning into a flimsy.

Then I went smaller and worked on the newest Temecula 'Mini Monday' block - the one with the pinwheel center.  This was the first time my Juki tried to 'eat' my tiny bits of fabric.  I had just cleaned, oiled, and put in a new needle - but it was persistant in jamming those bits into the bobbin casing.  I figured I had a bad new needle after trying some larger scrap to stitch on - it sounded 'clunky'.  Either it had a spur or the nice new point just wasn't there and changed it out - no more problems.

Then I pulled out my plaid project and did up another set of 10.  I figured I better count - because some times I can't count to10 or in 10's.  I need 24 more of these and I am going to have to dig in other places for plaid or stripe to finish this project off.  I'm sure it is somewhere in all the scraps I have - I'm not going out for another shirt at the thrift shop.

Then I can start putting these into groups of 4.  It will be easier to put the flimsy finish using larger '4-patch' sections as well as spread out the color and design.

Luckily our stormy weather pattern cleared itself up and I went out later in the day to .......

a lovely 'Mid-Summer Tea' at our local library.  They had a sweet little setting on the front porch.  It was bring your own tea cup and something to share snack type event.  And the little cutie-pie event coordinator made the most scrumptous strawberry truffle!!!!!  OMG!!!  I'm not a desert person, but I admit I had two servings of this delight.

Back to catching up on all those scrappy blocks,
Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

Rain, Rain, Rain

We are seeing some sun today, but June has been almost as rainy as May (and April).  This is looking off my front porch and that front field has been nearly half underwater for the past 3 months.

With the rain, I worked on catching up on some things.  The 'Two Step' mystery blocks.  Yes, I managed to make large blocks without fainting.

The newest blocks for 'Patchwork Sampler' - my savior!  Small blocks with tiny pieces.

I have all the sections done for the next 'Yankee Diary' block and need to get this stitched .  Not sure I like the backward flag, but I know they had them in this era's quilts.

And SARAH has a sew-along with the popular 'temperature' quilts.  I will start mine on Summer Solstice and will be using this color chart as a quide.  I have gotten very behind on my hand stitching and need to reform to the machine gets turned off at set time and only needle/thread in hand time after.

I need to pull my color matching scraps - found an empty shoe box tote for this and have my hexie papers ready.

   
This is were I will be for Father's Day - Vending.  I'm hoping the weather holds.  I've scheduled just one show a month until November and this will be my last year vending.

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon 

Scrappy Wednesday

I had to search back to see when I started these - exacly a month ago.  They came about with playing with a lovely gifted bag of fabrics.  I have sashing and border fabrics with them now and hopefully this will get to flimsy stage this weekend.

I saved all the left overs from those stars.  The corner cut-offs were sewn at the time as a leader/ender so I had all those wonderful bonus HSTs.  There is another whole quilt here.  No, really!  There is!

More stars are coming together.  They might be smaller than their 'mother', but I will set them on point for a whole different look.  Both of these quilts will be part of our quilt guild's donation to the Winter Games Ceremony for Wounded Warriors at Windham Ski Center in December.

I'll finish playing with these and see what I have on the shelf to use for setting triangles and borders.

We had a couple of super hot days - so nice to see the sun and be warm for a change.  But we have slipped back into a bit cooler temp which will make for some great walking.  Maybe I can convince Bella to go on a 'walk-a-bout' with me.  Moe starts and then 'squirrel' happens.

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon 

Scrap Storage

This button is on my side bar, if you haven't noticed it before.  You should make a weekly visit (and share) to VAL'S to see what theme is up and visit those who link up.

This week's theme is about scrap storage and linking up past posts.  I am a scrap quilter and get scraps in all the time, so a bit hard to search for a good post on this one - so we start from scratch.  This was a new donation just yesterday.  A lot of bigger pieces with a few strips and what would be equavelant to a layercake or charm.

Yes, our area quilters seem to use a lot of green, and I get swamped in it. Since there are a lot of large pieces, rather than store it I will piece a backing or two.  To me it is about using it, not storing it. 

I get so many items in that I now keep a list of other quilters and guild members who are looking for certain items and when I sort down a donation, I set aside for each of those if it is in the pile.  I know I will never use it all and would rather gift on to someone rather than stash it away.

This is my main storage center.  You can see my 'yardage' is just one shelf.  Since I work small blocks, yardage to me is actually a FQ and I keep those (scrap size) in the shoe box totes by color.  The other side with the larger totes are specialty - CW, panels, layercakes, etc..  

And a shelf of kits.  I buy kits when they are super on sale - just for the fabric which I tend to pull a few pieces from as I need.  I think those need going thru to add to the yardage shelf and then pass others on.

One bottom shelf has my few books and the other bottom shelf (you can't really see it) is where I keep my containers for those items pulled for my friends - waiting to be passed on to them as I see them.

And my play center!  These are my barrels that my project left overs or smaller donation pieces get chopped down into squares.  The shelf of 'eclare' tubs is my collection of buttons - my usable buttons.  My special heritage buttons from great-gran, aunties, grans are still in their original tins and/or boxes to fondly hold their memories. 

This stacking cube unit next to my machine holds my totes of QAL projects, mini blocks, leader/ender work, hexies (neglected), hand stitching works in progress.  And my guild books and paperwork.  Some of that will be passed on to the new program committee (I was Chair the last term), but then I get to add new stuff as the in-coming President.

You may have caught sight of this and wondered my I didn't show - well here it is.  This is my SIL's area of storage.  She has three projects that are on the verge of 'finish' and then this will get re-organized.

Thanks for visiting and remember today is National Sewing Machine Day - go love your machine(s).  I have our guild's picnic tonight - we break for Summer.  I get to share some fabulous food with some fabulous people.

We have a fun little game to play while the techno gets set up for the program - a special viewing of "Threads for Life".

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Monday Making 6/12/17

Today will be a MINI day.  Working with 1.5" squares and strips for the Puss-in-the-Corner blocks and H blocks.  Working mini blocks means they take a lot more to make a quilt, but what fun and variety.

They are pinned in groups of 10 to make 'counting' easier as well as I work them each 10 at a time - this seems like a comfortable pace for me right now.  I did figure a rough plan with each and will need 370 of the Puss blocks and 460 of the H blocks - a long ways to go.  These are both long term, have fun projects.

And I pulled my shoe box tote of CW skinnies to work on the new Temecula summer mini project.  The 3rd block was just released and I need to catch up with this one.  Since this will be a wallhanging finish, this tote should empty nicely into this piece.

**  linking to Monday Making and Design Wall Monday **

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

A Breathe of Fresh Air

Thank you all for comments on my piggies and barns and concern over the latest chaos.  When you get around 300 e-mails a day and you are gone for a week - well, I just couldn't catch you all while straightening out the 'tronics' mess.  

I am 90% back to norm.  A few of my files got damaged and that will be resolved over next week.  And it seems I am shopping for a new printer.  Mine is a very old Lexmark which no longer is supported by software or drivers - plus, I was having a hard time finding ink for it.  I have narrowed down to three models I am going to look at on Monday.

What is a girl to do after this mind boggle?  Play with scraps of course!

The Postage Stamp is probably about the only pattern that I repeat - even change it up a little from time to time.  It is mindless, chain stitching that I can just relax with.  My 1.5" squares are stuffed in that barrel - probably enough for two quilts, but I am using them in two other projects.

I have a lot of 1.5" and 1" skinnies and saw the Temecula Quilt Co is going to host a Marvelous Mini Monday over the summer.  Oh, be still my heart!  The Geese are almost done, so a new bitty block project will fit the bill over the summer.

And Kevin the Quilter will be hosting a scrap mystery starting later this month - 'Sapphire Stars'.  The word BLUE was said - I'm in! 

In the middle of the chaos, someone dropped off SIX large bags of shirts.  They heard I was using shirts in quilts and cleaned out.  I could see these were old rayon or cotton/rayon(mostly rayon) - and very old, dirty, mouse infested shirts.  Bella and Moe went totally bonkers trying to rip into these bags after said mousies.  Needless to say - this all went out the door and all loose mousies were caught.

This is why you don't stash so much you are passing on things that will go right to the dump.   

Our Monsoon season seems to be over and we are into sunshine and warmth!  Sunday I need to pick up some quilts from my long armer, will do lunch out, and maybe stop at the farmer's market.  No Slow Sunday Stitching - going to enjoy a day out and breath some fresh air!

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon

MIA

I didn't plan a vacation away, but I had some serious damage to various items from a power outage 'blip' and slowly recovering as I discover what has gone amiss with all this..  

My life-line (computer) took it bad.  Modem, lines, and computer involved and I am slowly going thru my recovered files (bless those guys) to see what might be missing.  

My printer is so old that it is no longer serviced and seems unloadable - might be time for an update.  And if I can find my camera software - that will get loaded.  It all takes time and I will try to catch up with you all once things are back to norm. 

AND thank heavens for a back up sewing machine as my Juki gets repaired.  Luckily I haven't set up the long arm yet - I would be devistated.

Even with super surge protectors with the brown out protection didn't help - and I wasn't home when this all happened.  Thankfully it wasn't a bigger loss.  

Of Pigs & Barns

The little piggies are going to market - or running amok?  Four more added to the barn yard with this month's RSC17 color - YELLOW.  Most of my current yellow scraps are very light (must be why I'm not using them), but I scrounged around and found enough for these piglets.  And little piggies never run in the same direction. 

We had pigs on the farm many years ago - food and lard source, but I must have either been very young or they were gone before my time because I don't remember them.   BUT, I've heard many tales of how they were constantly getting out and making a mess of things - and quite the stinkers to get back in their pen!

And on the farm - the last of the 'barn' photos to share.  This was originally the machine shop.  Yes, I even learned to weild - we fixed our own machinery.  

When the crop land was rented rather than worked, it became the woodworking shop.  

Replica Amish furniture, Grandmother and Grandfather clocks, cedar chests of various sizes and designs, specialty moldings, cabinets.........

Even a small planer was in here for some of the small, refined work.  She has been rather battered by the winds and showing wear.  Some tools, machinery and storage is her function now.

This was originally the 'split-level' chicken house.  We had three chicken houses at one time, but when the chickens went two were removed and this became my Dad's workshop.

Eventually he moved into the larger shop and this is another storage shed mainly for all of the mowing equipment and supplies.

And if you continue to walk around , there is the barn set up by the old stone quarry.  It's hard to see the scale of this with all the growth and leafing.

The foundation to all the buildings and houses were cut from this quarry.

I hunted and chipped quartz from here as a kid and so did my children.  

This lean-to type barn was for crop machinery storage.  The center is taller as that was to accommodate the tall corn combine.  

Yes, you really had to know your stuff to move machinery in and out of this place  without wiping out a post/beam or scraping the rock wall.

Just because it is pretty - the old logging road that takes you  to the upper fields on the mountain.  Some day I will have to hike up to the cabin to share some photos of the upper 'plantation'.  It's turkey season, so no hiking up there yet.

** linking up with Whoop,Whoop, RSC17, and Oh,Scrap **

Hope you've had a lovely weekend.  We've been so rainy and I took all of these inbetween breaks of sun/cloud cover.  And it's raining again.

Sewingly Yours,
Sharon