Glad that weekend is over

Whew, that was a brutal weekend of work. I think I'm getting too old for this, but there are 2 1/2 years to go before I can retire, and even then it will only be with the minimal pension. I spent the weekend working on the Alzheimer's unit. That has got to be the worst disease. It robs the patients, mostly men, since they are vets from the 2nd world war, of their minds. Some of them know who they are, but none of them know where they are, let alone why. It's no surprise then, when some of them fight the idea, literally, of some stranger, to them at least, coming in and undressing them, taking off their diaper, and proceeding to wash their private areas. Reasoning doesn't work, because their ability to reason is gone. All they know is that these strange women are stripping their clothes off. Most of them are cooperative, but there are 3 or 4 who fight, tooth and nail, again, literally. Most of the time, if they are fighting it, we just leave them, and try again later. But, when they are "soiled", there is no choice but to get it done. There are no male staff on this unit, so it is up to us women to look after these men. To say that it is difficult is an understatement. But, the weekend is over, and I don't have to go back to work until Friday, so I've decided that today is my play day. I'm going to work on the mystery quilt, and on my 100 block challenge blocks, and I'll come back later tonight, or tomorrow, and give a progress report.

Design Wall Monday Nov 29

There isn't anything too terribly exciting up on my wall today. I gave in, and decided to participate in the Roll Roll Cotton Boll mystery , so that's what is currently on my wall. These are the strip sets for step one. I haven't managed, obviously, to get them cut into their 2 inch segment, yet. Maybe this week, depending on what else is going on. I've worked this past weekend, as well as having to go in today, as well. And, for some reason, I just can't seem to get up any energy to do anything else. My body just doesn't want to wake up, which could make this afternoon's shift interesting. My get up and go has definitely gotten up and went.  Oh well, this too shall pass. The second picture here are the fabrics I think I'll be using for step 2 of the mystery. A continuation of the purples used in step 1, and blacks, since I think they will have a good contrast with the purples. Both pictures a rather blurry, for some reason, rather like the way my brain feels, today. Definite brain fog going on here. (sigh) I did get a lot more than this accomplished this past week, but most of it is secret, Christmas stuff.  I'm hoping to keep up with the 100 block challenge blocks, as well, so they are on my to do list for this week. But, for now, it's off to work I go. To see other design walls, go on over to Judy's Patchwork Times

100 block challenge

  
So far today, I have gotten all of the bindings made, and the fourth square for Teaquilt's 100 block challengs  finished. These are picks of the first 4, so far. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep up. So far, it has been an enjoyable thing to do. So, now I'm off to get those bindings actually sewn onto the quilts. Whether I finish them by hand or machine will probably depend on how my shoulders feel after wrestling 3 quilts though my machine. I much prefer the look of hand stitched bindings, but, these are quilts destined for charity, so, I don't know if I want to take the time to do them by hand.

Today I will.....

Today I will make a list of all the things I want to get accomplished today. It's cold and wet outside, the kind of cold and wet that is almost cold enough to snow, but doesn't, so it is just damp and dreary instead. But, we are warm and snug in here. Sometime before I got up this morning, Scott was up and built a lovely fire. So, I'm sitting here on the couch, with my laptop on my lap, all warm and toasty, not particularly wanting to get up and do anything. It's days like today I wish I could move all my sewing stuff down here to the living room. But, I think that would cause major revolution in the house, from my wonderfully patient, and understanding, husband. There is already a quilt on the floor, waiting to have it's ends tied in, another quilt on the rocking chair that I just finished tieing the ends in. The table beside the couch is covered with applique and knitting stuff, and books, and papers, and thread, and needles, and.......... I could give in, and enjoy the fire and work on some applique, but there is other stuff I want/need to get done. So, I will exercise some self discipline, (have I mentioned before that is not one of my strong points?) and make a list and work towards getting it done, so, here goes.

1. Make the binding, and sew it onto the 3 completed quilt tops.
2. Make the 4th square for Teaquilt's sew along
3. Take pictures, and write a post about the 4 finished blocks.
4. Decide whether I'm going to hand or machine finish the bindings.
5. Do some more work on some Christmas presents.

That should pretty much take care of the day. If there is time left, I will do some more on the Pineapple Nine Patch quilt, and see if I can get it to the finished stage.

Design Wall Monday Oct. 22

I don't have anything new up on my wall today. I'm still concentrating on getting things finished. But, I thought I would share one of last week's finished, which I am so happy with. My Pieceful Kwilter Bom is finished, and waiting for quilting. I made the mistake of going through all my unquilted tops, and discovered that there are at least 10 of them. When the Pineapple one is finished, hopefully this week, that will make 11. Yikes! Join me with a cup of something warm, and come on over to Judy's Patchwork Times to see more design walls.

The day after the Friday sew in

 This is a quilt that I've been working on for the past year, as a  BOM  sponsored by Shannon at Pieceful Kwilter It is a lovely quilt design and I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and it is finally added to my finished list, and added to the growing piles of my own quilt tops that are waiting to be quilted. I seem to be doing more piecing that quilting these days.

Thank you, Shannon, for all your hard work in designing this, and in writing and posting all the instructions. I'm really happy with the way this quilt turned out, although I do wish the stars in the gold fabric had stood out a bit more. But, I wanted to use the aqua fabric there as a tie together, because I used that fabric somewhere in each of the sampler blocks.

Then I was able to get some work done on my Nine Patch Pineapple, which meant that there was a lot of sewing going on here yesterday. I was able to start at around 2 in the afternoon, and kept on going, with a few breaks, until about 11:30, when my eyes got to the point where they would no longer focus. I noticed, though, after most of it was together, that one of the pinwheel sections is turned the wrong way. Drat! However, the good news is that I have one of those units left over, for some reason, so I might be able to applique it on top of the offending piece, with no one the wiser. (giggle) I started the day with 23 out of 30 blocks for this quilt done. I finished up the last 7 blocks, got them all arranged on the wall, and then got them all sewn together. There was still time after that to get the first pieced border sections cut, and they are in the process of being sewn. I am doing this quilt along with 2 other people in a sew along with Teaquilts . There is a picture there of Tea's finished quilt. She did hers in reds, and it is stunning. The quilt pattern is from a book called "Geometric Gems", and there are several other quilts in the book that I'm itching to do. But now, as usual, I am working the weekend, so won't have much time to scroll through the Friday sew in posts I'm going to go grab some lunch, and then go work on some of the border units before going in to work at 3, even though I would much rather stay at home and play with my fabrics. (sigh)

Friday night sew in

The is a Friday night sew in coming up this Friday. I'm not usually able to participate in these, since I work most Fridays. But, I have this Friday off, so, I'm going to do it. I'm, going to commit to having this coming Friday for sewing, and, hopefully, the whole day, and not just the evening. Maybe I can get the Pineapple top done that day. There are a lot of people participating in this, and it will be fun to see the posts on Friday, talking about what they are working on, and then on Saturday, to see the results of all that sewing. Go here to see more info, and the list of all those who are joining in.

Design Wall Monday Nov 15

Before I say anything about quilts, I have to get the important stuff out of the way. I've been keeping a secret, mostly, for the last 6 weeks. And it has been a terribly difficult secret to keep. But, I've been given permission, now, to share it, and shout it from the rooftops. Here it comes: WE ARE GOING TO BE GRANDPARENTS!!!! YIPPEE, YAHOO, WOOHOO!!!!!! There, it's out, and I no longer feel like I'm going to burst. The lovely couple doing this are our wonderful son, Noel, and our even more wonderful, since she has to do all the work growing the baby, daughter-in-law, Laurie.  I'm walking around with a permanent grin on my face, doing happy dances. Cute fabrics, and baby clothes, and toys, and all the fun stuff, while someone else, namely Laurie, does all the hard work of growing and having the baby. Between her Mom and myself, I suspect we are going to drive Laurie just a little tiny bit crazy. Laurie's Mom, Jan, is a knitter, so, when we were all together over Thanksgiving, back in October, which is when they told us, Jan and I made a pact. She would knit to her heart's content for this coming baby, and I would sew to my heart's content. Like I said, we are probably going to drive Laurie crazy, but, it is so much fun. Anyway, to quilting stuff. I have, on my design wall, the almost complete layout of the Block of the Month I've been doing, designed by Shannon of Pieceful Kwilter I am so pleased with the way this quilt is turning out. She is going to be sponsoring another one, and I think I will definitely be doing it. I know it isn't on my goals list for this month, but I'm doing well enough with it to be able to add something else in.  And now, join me over ay Judy's Patchwork Times to browse through other inspirational design walls.

Another finish

I have my Mac computer back, and all seems to be well with it. While I was unable to post pictures or anything, I managed to get my Connect the Dots quilt, designed by Judy Laquidara finished. I exercised considerable self discipline, while is not at all one of my strengths, and worked on it, without starting anything else, until it was finished. The last border went on last evening. I must confess that stating goals publicly here is helping with the self discipline thing, and I really like the feeling of accomplishment from actually finishing stuff. So far, off my goal list, is Evelyn's cross stitch quilt, which I didn't manage to get a picture of. This quilt was on that list, so it can be crossed off, and I have 2 of my own small quilts off the machine, and quilted, and waiting to be trimmed and bound. Not bad, considering it isn't the middle of the month yet. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I have 15 of the Pineapple quilt along blocks sewn together as well. But now, I must sign off and get ready for work.

My Mac has to go to the Mac hospital

I am totally not impressed. My MacBook has quit on me. It won't turn on. I am currently usingmy old dinosaur laptop, so I am, at least, not totally cut off. But, Idon't know howmuch picture uploading,and stuff like that, that I'll be able to do, until it can be fixed. I hope it can be fixed. I'll have to take it in tomorrow, before I go to work, and, hopefully,have a diagnosis sometime next week. And,ofcourse,itis past the warranty date. (sigh)

When all else fails, read the instructions

After supper, I came upstairs and started to work on clue #3 from Judy's mystery. It was going really well, and I got all of the pieces done that needed to be sewn today, so that I could start to put the blocks together. That's when I hit a snag. I put all the elements together, looked at it, and couldn't figure out why it didn't look the way it was supposed to look. Then it hit me. I had pieced the small 4 patches in the wrong direction. They are supposed to look like the top picture, with the brown going diagonally through the block. I have all of them, except this one that I just re-did, pieced like the second picture. All of them, 34 of them, all pieced wrong. ARRRRGGGGG!!!! So, I am spending the rest of my evening, taking all these blocks apart, so that I can put them back together properly. (sigh)

Quilting Tuesday

Judy posted clue #3  on her website today, so I'm going to play with that today. I've managed to get Evelyn's cross stitch baby quilt done today, except for sewing in the ends. That's #1 off the November goal list. I'll get a pic of it, as soon as the ends are sewn it. Right now, it's looking a bit shaggy. Charlene's quilt is waiting to have the ends sewn in, as well. Maybe later tonight I'll put on a movie, and blitz finishing off all those loose ends. My least favourite part of doing a custom quilt job, and the job I can easily procrastinate. So, I don't have a picture of that one yet, either. Supper is done, except for clean up, so I'm going to go do that, and then go play with Judy's quilt block instructions.

November goals

Looking back at my October goals post, I have all, except 2 done. The embroidery for the raggedy quilt is still outstanding, and I haven't finished Evelyn's cross stitch baby quilt yet, although it is loaded onto the machine. So, that will be done in the next day, or 2. So, as it has been a quite successful experiment in writing down goals to work towards, I will do it again.

1. Finish Evelyn's quilt (brought forward from October)
2. Finish Christmas gifts. I love giving, and receiving home made gifts. They speak directly from the heart.
3. Sew together the rest of the Pineapple nine patch blocks.
4. Do the units for Judy's mystery as the steps are posted.
5. Quilt at least 2 of my finished quilt tops.
6. Finish the applique on the 4th, which is the last, of the Cactus Rose blocks
7. Start the border paper pieced units for Cactus Rose

Design Wall Monday Nov 1

Wow! I can't believe it is November, already. On my design wall today, are a couple of things. I am doing Judy's mystery so, I've put my progress so far, up on the wall. Also, I participated in a Card Trick swap with an online group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cdnquiltswappers/  and I've put those blocks up, just to study and get a feel for them. I have a couple of ideas of how I want to put them together, and I've posted a picture here, of one of the ideas. If I do this one, though, I'll either have to make more blocks, since I only have 12, and I think I'd probably do plain triangles around the outside, Go on over to Judy's Patchwork Times to see more inspiring design walls