January Chilling

 So, here we are, two thirds of the way through January. We still have not made much progress with finding a place to live. So much of living life is getting in the way of the search. Weather related delays and children out of school for various reasons. We will get there, though. Not to worry. So then you might wonder what am I up to creatively. Well, mostly hand work still. I did take my machine out a couple of times last week. I did some much needed mending and put together a couple of my plus blocks that I had cut out an pressed before I left California.

Here are some of the things I have been working on recently:

First of all, I signed up to be in this Stitched in Color quilt Along for this year. It is a monthly block program, and while I can't get started just yet, I know I will have time to catch up eventually. I am going to spend some time planning while I don't have access to my stash right now.

I am still working on crocheting these beautiful Flora Granny squares designed by Lucy at Attic 24. I only have 23 more to go and I will have 100 of them. They will be joined to make a 10 x 10 block square throw. This is a great project to pick up and put down as needed. I am using all my scrap yarn from other blanket projects for this one. It's the quilter in me.

I have several other long term projects lined up. I am doing the pineapple  quilt along with Gigi's Thimble which begins at the end of January and I have saved all the clues to do Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt as soon as I have access to my scraps for that one.

I am also working on some embroidery. This is Rebecca Ringquist's Schoolhouse Sampler.

It is her newest release and I am having so much fun with it. I check Instagram often to see what everyone else is doing with theirs.

There are so many different and fun elements in this sampler. I am going slow and choosing my colors carefully.

I don't think I have ever done quite so many colonial knots in one piece.

I am really enjoying the pace and doing all this embroidery. It is a skill I learned as a child and I am so happy I did. I have definitely improved since then. Lol

I bought these fun butterflies on Amazon. They are magnetic and so it the chalkboard in my daughter's kitchen. You get about 80 butterflies in a pack and they are beautiful. We put some on the refrigerator as well.

And this little cutie turned 6 this week. It was a week of threatening winter weather and of germs.

We ended up getting a bunch of these because the little cutie pie above was diagnosed positive on Tuesday. So far, all is well and no one else has gotten sick. Yay for vaccines and boosters. Hoping to make it a few more days to be out of the woods. 

Have a great week, stay warm if you are in the cold winter weather. Talk to you soon.

Happy Winter Solstice

 It has been almost a month since I have checked in here. Lots has happened in that month. I finished all my packing of my worldly goods in Southern California, loaded them into a POD and got on a plane for North Carolina. Now, those of you who have followed me for more than 5 years might remember when I left NC for Southern California 5 years ago. I retired from my job of over 20 years, after a well fought battle with cancer. I am doing great in the health department now. But Covid changed everything.

We could not travel and see our family. We missed them, and the grandchildren so much. They also needed us, as much as we needed them. They were working from home, home schooling and all the stuff that many many families were doing and they needed help. We could have helped if we had been here. So we made the decision that we did not want to be so far away in these uncertain times.

It had been two years since I had been there and 3 years since my husband had been able to be there. It was a very tough decision, but the right one for us. They have all grown so much, and change so much over the last two years. Our 14 year old grandson is now 6'3"!! And the youngest turns 6 next month.

For now, we are staying with our daughter and her family. It is a very full house, but full of love and hugs being given daily to all. All of our belongings are in storage. We will have a great holiday with all the kids and then, once school resumes in January, we will begin the search for a place to live. Our two NC daughters live about 2 hours apart, and we plan to look for something between the two places.

I have a couple of my hand projects with me, and as time permits, I work on them. I do have my Bernina here at the house, but I don't know if she'll see much use right now. I am downloading all of Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt, to sew it up once I am settled somewhere and reunited with all my stash. I also plan to sign up with Rachel Hauser for her 2022 BOM program which begins in January. I may start a few months late, but I am okay with that. I have really been missing sewing, so I think once I get settled, I will be sewing a lot to make up for lost time.

For now, I am just enjoying the family and the holidays. I miss my on line community, but I just got my computer here and set up, so I have to catch up with everyone I follow. I will check in from time to time and let you know how things are going, and if any sewing happens, of course I will share.

Have a peaceful solstice my friends, and a very Merry Christmas. I wish you joy!

Charlotte

I've Been Thinking

 With not much else to do but pack, wait to pack and a couple of hand projects, time  has been harder to fill. So, I have been thinking. Sometimes that can be a dangerous thing. I am thinking of my future, and what it will look like. I am thinking of how thankful I will be when the move is done. 

I have also been thinking about Christmas, because, let's face it, it's coming soon. We had talked about trying to keep it simple and less expensive and such. I feel like we say this every year, and then we just revert to the same old ways. I don't really know how to make the change and get everyone on board with me. So on Sunday, I saw this and picked it up and read the whole thing.

 

My youngest sister gave it to me for Christmas one year. I have never actually read it, although I have seen countless iterations of it on TV. I have to say, I am so glad I read it. Maybe it was just that it hit at the right time for me to absorb it. I mean, I have always understood the message of the story and all, but something else struck me while reading this.

The joy people felt at getting together and singing and eating and playing simple games really struck me. And it got me to thinking that that is what I wish Christmas could be. Not just for me, but for everyone. That we could be together and celebrate that. The food and the singing and such is just icing on the cake. 

I wish for a kinder and gentler world, with more love and understanding for each other. I think the older I get, the more these concepts mean to me. The world has become very harsh and hateful in the last 5-6 years and there seems no end in sight. It makes me weary.

So, for this year, my first in 3 years with the grandchildren, I am going to choose to focus on the togetherness, the food and enjoying the company more than anything else...those boxes will still be waiting to be unpacked eventually. 

I wish you peace, comfort and happiness for Thanksgiving and Christmas, in case I am unable to post again before then.

Hurry Up and Wait

Getting ready to move is tough. You have your list of things to do, and your timeline for getting them done. But when you don't work, it's hard to pace yourself. The sense of urgency isn't quite the same. That's kind of where I am right now. Some things are packed, that won't be needed until well after the move. Some things can't be packed until closer to the move.

This is the beginning of the packing in my sewing room. These boxes are all full of fabric and scraps. I started packing in there to have something to do that felt like moving forward. I wanted to take my time and pack things logically as well. I also wanted to keep myself from starting any more projects before the move. But let's be honest, my mind is in such a dither, I couldn't concentrate on sewing right now if I had to.

So, instead I am working on hand projects and reading and watching HGTV a lot. If I go ahead and pack quickly now, I will be sitting in a sea of boxes, just waiting. That doesn't sound like fun to me.

 

                           So I work on my hexie project...

And I work on my crochet project...getting quite a stack for both of them.

I have 15 of the crocheted blocks with their outside neutral part on them. Waiting for more yarn to arrive so I can do the other 30. Not sure how many blocks I will do, but once I run out of enough of my scrap yarns, I will probably stop. That's about all that's going on here right now. I hope you all are well and keeping busy crafting. That's really what life is all about :)

I hope to talk to you again soon.

Slow Crochet Project

Still trying to get several hand done projects going that will carry me through my move. I do like having a variety of things to work on, as the spirit moves me. So I have a new crochet project that costs me nothing but time.

I have crocheted about 8-9 blankets from Attic 24 kits and tutorials. I love them all. But there is leftover yarn from each of them. I tried to think of a way to use it up, just like my scraps of fabric go into quilts.

 My first thought was to crochet in Double crochet stitches, alternating between cool and warm colors and letting each stripe be however big it was based on how much yarn was in the ball.

I had divided all my leftover yarn balls into two bags. One is warm colors and one is cool colors. But once I got some of it crocheted, I wasn't happy with how it looked. I mean I really didn't like it.

So then, I ripped it all out and started again. I thought Granny Squares. It was what I originally wanted to do, but I had though they might be too much work. My daughter suggested warm centers and cool borders. I made one. It was okay.

Then I made another one. It was just okay. I like the colors, but this was not bringing me joy. I could not make a bunch of these for a blanket. Back to the drawing board. Lucy (Attic 24) had done a pattern for a floral Granny Square for International Granny Square Day! (Who knew there was such a thing?) So I went to her blog to take another look at it and I took my yarn with me.

This is the first square I made. Now, don't laugh. I know that this is much more complicated than the simple project I originally envisioned. But, it brings me joy! And the one thing I know about myself is that when I eventually cave and try the more complex project, I fall in love with it. It has happened with paper piecing and EPP projects as well. I do a lot more of those than I ever thought I would. I just need to remember that when I am looking for a project. Simple isn't always best.

And now I have a stack of them! I don't know how many I can make before I run out of scrap yarn, but I do know that I am going to keep making them as long as they bring me joy. That is the point of being a maker if you ask me.

What's bringing you joy today?

Slow, Slow, Slow

Things have slowed way down over here. Not a bad thing in the summer. Usually, I would be gearing up for  fall and the reinvigorating feeling it brings to me and my sewing. This year, not so much. In part, it's because I am having a bit of a creativity slow down. In part, my back is still not 100% and I have several quilts that need pin basting to move them forward and so I can't do any quilting. The third reason is that I am moving in a couple of months and I am loath to start anything new at this point. In October packing will begin in earnest, and I just can't make myself start something new with that looming.

I did sort of see this coming. I have two long term projects going on that I can fiddle with as time and the will to do so occurs. I have started the Scrap Stash Plus Quilt by Quilty Love. I need a total of 120 plus blocks for this quilt. I am about half way through this. I still have some to sew and about 34 more to figure out the fabrics and cut. I have been cutting and clipping together blocks to have ready to sew as I feel the urge to do so.

The other long term project is my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, which is EPP and so very portable.

 I am using mostly scraps. Can you believe I still have pink scraps after the other pink scrap quilts I have made this year? Each flower will be yellow center (also scraps) and pink petals. Once the 128 flowers are done, I will make more yellow hexies to be the in between hexies for the quilt. So a pink and yellow quilt.

I have these little wooden boxes that are perfect for holding hexies. I first made my 768 pink hexies over the course of a few weeks. Perfect therapy while waiting for back pain to subside.

Then, I made the 128 yellow centers and added them to the boxes. So now, whenever I want to, I can just grab the boxes and my thread and stitch them together.

Here are the first four I did. My only "rule" is to try and have all six petals be different in each flower.

The perfect stack of hexies, next to a stack of fabric squares waiting to be stitched together.

The funny thing is, I was never an EPP girl in my younger sewing days. Now, I seem to have infinite patience to sit and sew these little shapes by hand. Some days I prefer it to sitting at the machine. I shall do my best to keep a good photographic record of my progress on these two projects. Next time I shall share pictures of the plus blocks. Oh, and by the way this is my 700th blog post! Wow!!

Before

 Before I hurt my back, I was sewing quilts like a maniac. The ideas just kept coming. Apparently I love sewing from my scrap bins, because that is what I have been doing for this last year a lot. I haven't really run out of ideas yet...or scraps.

Remember the little bit of green quilt? I used scraps from my grey bin and mywhite/cream bin with one square of green. I quilted it.

I began with straight lines on the diagonal, but I knew that wasn't going to be all that I would do. So I cut myself a template for a curved line which I drew on with disappearing marker. I quilted using a medium grey thread. You can see it a little better in the pictures below. The yellow is part of the pieced back.

And the grey binding is from the Spring Chicken fabric line by Sweetwater. It was the perfect grey and I had enough to do the whole quilt. I really love the result of the grey and off white in this Irish Chain quilt. I am only sorry I could not get the green square to show up better in the pictures. It looks neat in person.

The other quilt top I pieced from scrap bins was this American flag. I drew it up on graph paper and stitched it up in 16 patch blocks. I find that for me, that is the best way to make a patchwork quilt. It is hanging on my design wall now. I know how I want to quilt it, but I am not feeling better enough to pin baste a quilt just yet, and I have a couple to do. So it will wait.

Have a great weekend and I will see you soon.