Catching up and a finish

Where does the time go? I've really been busy with freezing and drying zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, ... and I've been busy with the Cricut. Here is Ray's new shirt that he designed.

We hung the sign that we bought in Virginia on our porch.

I finished a quilt! This is the quilt made from the African Wax Prints - I finished the top at the last retreat. I bought the collection of fabrics at Crimson Tate in Indianapolis last April.

The backing is some fabric that Ray picked out at Seams Sew Easy in Fairfield, Ohio in July.

This donation quilt has Dream Cotton batting and is 52" by 66". I used a walking foot and quilted this with straight lines. I used light gray #2600 50-weight Aurifil thread. I used my new machine!

close up of laundered quilt

I've really wanted a new sewing machine for quilting but I don't have the space for a long arm and I can't stand up for hours at a time. I considered a sit down long arm but again that would need quite a bit of space.

After years, make that 11 years of looking, reading, talking with people, researching, I finally purchased a Haruka, the Juki TL-18 QVP. This is a mid-arm machine and I love it. My understanding is that haruka is Japanese for beyond. So far is is beyond my expectations!

I am just finishing my first free-motion quilt on the Juki and will show it to you when the quilt is done. In the meantime, I'll be getting more produce this week so I'll be back in the kitchen.

Catching up

Where do the days go?

I have a finish. The Flip Flop Quilt is done. I found the fabric when I was cleaning out fabric drawers. Thinking it would be a good quilt for summer, I decided to get it done. 

I machine quilted this donation quilt with a walking foot and straight lines both vertically and horizontally using Aurifil #1135 yellow, 50-weight thread. 

This quilt measures 55" by 55".

The back is a black dot fabric with the extra flip flop fabric.

Since I last blogged ...

• We attended the University of Wisconsin Marching Band Spring Concert. We go every year with a group of friends. It was Director Mike Leckrone's last concert - he is retiring this year after 50 years as the band's director!

• I finally blocked this scarf that I finished knitting in February.

• I began and finished the podcast of Friendship Album 1933. I thoroughly enjoyed listing to it.

• I decided the borders of this red/white quilt would be more squares from my 2 1/2" square collection. Now I just need to get this sandwiched and quilted.

• I've started another quilt using 2 1/2" squares. This one will use all batiks.

• We spend a pleasant day with my brother-in-law and his special lady. After lunch, we visited the New Melleray Abbey, a Trappist monastery, near Dubuque, Iowa.

     We were able to see their beautiful church.

     I loved the windows

     and this unique organ.

• I've done some baking. First I made 4 batches or chocolate chip cookies

and then 4 batches of big ginger cookies. They are not all for us!

• I've spent some time playing with my Cricut Maker. I bought a pattern for a guitar box and was amazed at how hard it was to make. I must have failed gluing in elementary school. These are versions 6 and 5. Whew!

In the next picture, you can see the box part.

I also made some bookmarks. Someone is graduating from preschool and I though these would be fun.

• Ray mowed the lawn for the first time this spring. I snapped this picture on Friday because a wild turkey was crossing our lawn.

On Saturday we had quite a spring snowstorm. I snapped this picture from the porch through the screen.

Sunday we woke to a beautiful day.

One thing I haven't done is erase my white board. I have this message left from Easter where I usually write grocery lists. Although he has to reach rather high, Griffin writes a message every time he visits. I always hate to erase it.

"hi I was here. I like to write stuf. Griffin"

I guess there are a lot of things I haven't done . . . so this week I'll try to accomplish a little more on my to do list!

Weekend Retreat

I went on retreat with 3 friends this past weekend. I didn't take many pictures - sorry. There was lots of sewing and crocheting going on.

I took my Cricut Maker along because one member in our group hopes to have one soon. We made these two shirts.

This morning I took some pictures of my projects. All were cut out and started before the retreat. They all need pressing but that seemed a waste of time today since I was just going to fold them up again.

The first one is made with strips left from this baby quilt. I sewed the left over strips like a jelly roll and then cut the pieces for this.

This quilt still needs borders. I used blue strings separated into lights and darks Every so often I added a bright colored string to the dark blocks.

A while back, I saw Bonnie Hunter's Tumalo Trail quilt. I thought it would make a good child's quilt with a some changes. Looking back at Bonnie's, mine looks quite different!

The turquoise and pink quilt:

The bright color quilt:

I also finished binding a quilt - I'll show you that soon.

I saw the doctor last week. She thinks the problem in my back is muscle instead of bone related. That pretty much means surgery won't be involved. Yay! I still have meds for the pain and I begin physical therapy next week. Anything that involves leaning forward is very painful. Sadly sewing involves some leaning forward. Today I'm not doing much; I'm just recovering from the weekend. Hopefully I'll be ready for short bouts of sewing by tomorrow.

In other news - I cannot post on other blogs again. I'll be working on that...

Life has been interesting...

Interesting might be a good word...maybe ouch would be better.

On Friday September 14, we were in an accident. We were at a stoplight waiting for a car to clear the intersection so we could turn left. A large Ram pickup truck rammed into the rear of our Jeep. What a jolt! Ouch! 

The four people in our car all had some degree of whiplash. Thank goodness we were all wearing seatbelts. After exams and x-rays, the doctor gave us meds and said REST. We have been really tired from the meds and the pain so resting hasn't been difficult. 

Needless to say, I'm doing very little. I have done some reading in my Cricut courses. I've also used iron-on vinyl on two t-shirts. Ray helped me design his. In case you didn't know, he is an avid biker. 

When I found the heartbeat with the sewing machine, I knew it was right for me. I had to rework it some but I'm happy with it. 

We actually got outside for a while today and did a little walking. I'm hoping I can add a little more exercise every day. We still plan to leave October 1 on a trip north.

No Problem Staying Busy

I'm keeping busy. 

Of course I've been in the kitchen some. The preserving of produce is slowing down. The dehydrator isn't even running right now. I think the tomatoes are all done along with some pasta sauce and some tomato basil soup. I did make a lot of  Twice-Baked Potatoes for the freezer since we got a couple bushels of potatoes from our people. 

I love getting to know the people that grow my food. The couple that supplied us the last few years had to give up their large garden this year due to medical issues. So we found new people - we have a CSA with a young man and we get most of our bulk food from an Amish family about a half hour away. Both use chemical free methods although neither is certified organic. The prices are very reasonable and all of the food has been wonderful. We also frequent farmer's markets mostly because I love them!

I still want to make Freezer Coleslaw when the cabbage is ready and applesauce when we get some apples.

Of course all of this rain has to stop if anything is going to continue to grow. We are well over 9" since Saturday and we  still have days of rain forecast.

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My Cricut learning is still ongoing. I tried my scoring wheel - it makes folding so easy. I made these 3D stars

and I tried the iron-on vinyl on a t-shirt.

I'm learning a lot and getting a better handle on the design software. By the time we visit our oldest son and his family in late October, I hope I know what I'm doing because the Cricut  Maker is going with us.

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One of our youngest son's hobbies is keeping bees. A couple of weeks ago we were able to watch the process of gathering honey. After moving the boxes off of the hives, the frames are removed and the cells are opened with a device that looks like a paint roller with prongs. My seat for viewing was not in a prime position for photos.

opening the cells in a frame

Then the frames are spun and the honey is collected in the bottom of a large barrel. I loved watching the barrel emptying into a strainer above a 5-gallon bucket. Each 5-gallon bucket held over 50 pounds of honey!

When our son puts the boxes with the frames on the hives, he sometimes uses spacers between them so the bees can create more honeycomb there. It's not as neat as the honeycomb in the frames - it's more freeform. It tastes the same and the honey can be spun out of these or the whole thing can be eaten. We all enjoyed eating the honeycomb.

The raw honey is soooo good! We brought a few jars home but you can see that one is almost half gone already. 

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I am doing some quilting. I'll have a finished quilt to show you very soon - it's in the washing machine. Another one just needs binding. I am busy quilting another one. I decided to do the free-motion quilting over several days because I definitely need some daily practice. 

I have at least 9 quilts begun so I really don't need anything new right now. But this just happened anyway

Stay tuned...

A little bit of everything - ideas, a bag, a sign ...

The days seem to just fly by. On Monday, Ray and I worked at the Teacher's Luncheon that our church hosts every year. It's so hard to believe that summer is coming to an end. 

I've been busy kitting a few quilts to take to a retreat in November. 

My idea for using some 2 1/2" squares in a large block

An idea using 2 1/2" squares inspired by Nancy Zieman's column quilts

I know it's early to get the quilts kitted but we are planning a couple of trips in October and November. I want to be sure I'm ready. After all, I have my priorities! We'll be in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to see the fall colors with a few days in Door County on our way home. About a week later we'll head to North Carolina to visit our oldest son and his family and also some friends. Hopefully we'll see more fall colors. On our way home, we'll spent some time in the Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina and then in Tennessee visiting Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 

I had a request to make a bag for Grandson G to carry his piano books to/from practice. I didn't have any music or piano/keyboard fabric so I decided to create some. 

As I was designing the bag, it occurred to me that almost all of my projects are prototypes. Maybe someday I'll start using a pattern. 

I decided to label the G key 

This bag is about 12" by 15". It has a pocket on the back. The bag is quilted with a large loop pattern.

The note pocket

The inside is the neat black fabric with the colorful circles.

Inside of bag

Ray and I are binge watching a TV series on Fire TV. We usually watch 2-3 episodes or more of Heartland a day. This is the most TV I've watched in years! 

We were in Madison, Wisconsin last Friday night because Ray had an evening photography shoot. I spent the evening at the motel catching up on my Cricut learning. I finally made my first sign yesterday.

I'm learning...

It is hard to watch the news this week - the area we stayed in Friday had over 15 inches of rain on Monday and lots of flash flooding. It hit many businesses including the camera store, that hosted that Friday outing. People were stranded in motels where we stayed. There is so much damage and most don't have flood insurance.

Today we met Ray's brother and his lady friend for lunch. We had a great time and enjoyed some really good pie. It's been a good day!

Learning, Knitting, and Quilting

It's been rather busy around here. I think we have everything ready for Christmas. The last month has been a little strange in that we have been acquiring things - for us.

In late November we upgraded our phones because we needed to and the time was right - the new phones ended up being free - really! Of course there is a learning curve which is getting easier now that the SIM cards are in the correct phones. The guy made a mistake and switched the cards when he set up the phones so weird things happened - when one phone rang, so did the other; text messages either came to both phones or only went to one iPad; when we were roaming, we had no data; ...

We replaced our laptops about the same time as the phone upgrade. 

A couple of years ago, we decided to see how long we could make our old laptops last. It gave us time to save for the new ones which we both love. Of course, we have another learning curve.

We began thinking about trading in my Jeep Cherokee about a year ago. Ray really wanted something larger (he often hit his head when he got in). We found a great deal and now have a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's a compromise for me because I love driving small vehicles but I do love some of the features and the headlights give better light. And you guessed it - another learning curve.

And then this happened - a Cricut Maker. 

It cuts almost anything including fabric.

I can draw a picture, take a picture, find a picture... and put it on my computer and the Cricut will cut it! The black fabric has Heat 'n Bond on it so it is ready to appliqué. The melon is just cotton fabric. I am planning a quilt with crayons...

I am loving this machine and learning as I go - yes, it is one more learning curve! If nothing else, I'm keeping my mind active!

I've finished a few projects.

Ray has a new pair of Chicago Bears socks.

I made a couple of alpaca hats for the friends that gave me the alpaca fleece. They match their son's hat.

I have one quilt to finish this year - the last large flannel one. It is very close - I am hand stitching the binding! I'm not sure I'll show you before Christmas but it will be done!

Tomorrow is Cookie Day with our nearby grandkids. We'll make/bake/decorate cutout cookies and gingerbread houses. It's one of my favorite holiday traditions. 

 Merry Christmas!