No Sewing But Lots of Working

I spent the weekend cleaning out the house. The first two pictures are my sewing room. I have a few more things left to inventory and pack. There is no rhyme or reason to what is and isn't taken by the recovery company. My current plan is to get this finished Saturday afternoon.

This is the source of the fire. It started in the dryer and went up the wall to the ceiling and across into the kitchen. Luckily it did not spread further out into the house. Everything is covered in soot and smoke and was removed from the house for cleaning. Those things left behind are my responsibility to clean if I choose.

My son and I moved to an apartment today. Most of it will be setup by the time I get home from work. I doubt I will get to sew much this week but I sure am going to try!

And She Sewed....

So my goal was to get to the halfway mark of making all the winged triangles I needed for the center blocks. I fell short by 10 or so. But what I really wanted to do was to make this little baby. Bonnie likened it to a crab. See the eyes? They are white. I love it. So many on Bonnie's yahoogroup had alignment issues or questions and I had to try it to see if I would face the same problem.

It isn't pressed yet so it is curling up a tad. I think it looks great. I was going to make as many of these as I had wings for but then decided to keep trucking on the wings. All the wings. Only about 200 to go. You know I am going to do something different don't you? LOL! Maybe finish off 4 blocks worth so I can make a little setting to see what it looks like. I am hopeless!

Still Sewing

I sewed another three hours or so last night. I was adding triangles to HSTs to make wings. I am going to have a little giveaway. Can you guess how many wings I made in that three hour period? HSTs were already assembled and the triangles to be sewn on were already cut. I realize this is a bad picture. I added two triangles to each HST.

I am not sure what I will give away but will pull something together.

Black and White
I completed my Ohio Stars for Bonnie Hunter's Orca Bay mystery. I skipped a step and have to go back to that. I have to add wings (triangles) to 350 HSTs.

Knowing how I work I will sew a few of these and work on another step repeating from the top. Have to break up the monotony somehow!

Design Wall Monday - January 23, 2012

I have not sewn for myself since March of 2011. On New Year's Day we had a house fire that gutted my kitchen and my laundry room. My son and I took some clothes and a few other things to live with until we could move back into our house. This is not going to be for another 3 months at least according to my builder and the insurance company.

Just that morning I had decided that I was going to start sewing again and had even completed some mending. I had dug out a project that I was going to start working on again to see if I could get my quilty mojo going. Then the fire happened.

I noticed a lot of people on Bonnie Hunter's QuiltvilleChat yahoogroup mentioning that they had accidentally made too many parts while making her Orca Bay mystery quilt. I thought it would be fun to ask these folks if they would send me their spare parts so that I could try to cobble together a rainbow Orca Bay. That was how simple my plan was. No thought to where I would get a sewing machine or that fact that I didnt have any notions what so ever.

Bonnie put a message on her group asking to send me Orca bay parts. To date I have received over 25 packages of notions, FQs, scraps, yardage, Orca Bay pieces and parts and even what I lovingly call my Orca Bay in a box. Teresa from the QuiltvilleChat group decided that she did not want to finish her quilt. She had completed through step 4 of 8. She sent all the pieces plus some additional fabric. Between her box and the other packages I have been pulling strips and continued cutting for the mystery.

I have completed 7 of the light Ohio stars and only have 21 more of those to go. I have started assembling the pieces for the 28 dark Ohio stars as well. I can't wait to get back to sewing!

First Time Quilter

I met with Cathy 5 times and we produced this. Her first quilt!

How's This for a Hug?

My friends tirane and Mimi made this hug quilt for me to wrap in and comfort me over the passing of my husband. It is hard to believe it has been two months already.

If you look closely at the backing you will see the word friends quilted in amongst the pebble path to signify friends being there through the path of life and it's trials and tribulations.

The close up is to show you the daisy motif tirane used to quilt it. She knows I love daisies.

Another Finish

I finished weaving in the loose ends a few weeks ago but failed to show the completed item. You can see the scalloped edging I added to it. The front and back do not look the same. It is because I only crocheted the blue in the front loop on one side. I love it!

I sewed!!

The last thing I remember sewing was the binding on my Mother's quilt. Maybe I sewed a little on my denim and flannel blocks too. But with everything going on since March I know that my sewing machine and I have not been close.

My daughter asked me to make her a "Hello Kitty" fleece blanket. I told her go find the fleece and call me and I will buy it and make the blanket. She found it in record time and even came and got me to take me to buy it.

I had made a fleece blanket for my neighbor Kelly some time ago. Last year while she was helping me and took my son to the hospital for a stay (she stayed too) her blanket went missing. I called her and asked her to go look at fleece with us. She had a piece that her daughter Amanda had bought and needed a coordinating piece. She went with us and found what she was looking for.

That was last night. Kelly took all the fleece to her house and washed it and we had a sewing date today. 3 hours later we had the two blankets below and some big smiles. This effort will put a smile on my face too because I was pushed to find all my sewing paraphenalia in order to accomplish this mission. Now that I know where it is I can get sewing again for myself!

Mom said to update my blog

So I did!!

A Finish

I had started this little afghan when I first went to Monroe in 2009. I felt bored by it. Now I wonder if it was because I wasn't thrilled with the intended recipient at the time. When I picked it back up with no recipient in mind I worked at it with regularity until I totally finished it last night at my "yarn" guild.

Everyone asked me who it was for. I really had no idea. We then talked about the new baby that the owners of Scrumbious had. They had let us hold a party at their business even though we filled the place and potentially could have run others off. I had just written them a thank you note the night before when it dawned on me what a wonderful opportunity I had here. I wrapped it up and gifted this little afghan to them this afternoon and they seemed to really like it.

I Buried My Husband Today

He was laid to rest at the DFW National Cemetery. The location is one that every time he and I drove past we commented on how beautiful the area was.

Rest in peace my dear Mark.

It's Over

He quietly passed just before 7 last night. He had a gentle smile on his face and I imagine he saw his loved ones waiting on the other side.....

Waiting is the Hardest Part

When we left the hospital on July 15th they said 6 months.

When the hospice nurse did her assessment on the 20th she said 3 weeks.

When we took him to inpatient hospice due to a fall on the 22nd they said let's see what happens over the weekend.

When the doctor saw him Sunday the 24th he said 24-48 hours.

Today a new doctor said Thursday.

Waiting is the hardest part.

Where is She?

I have mixed emotions about sharing family health woes here on my blog. I am going to let you know what is going on so you understand why I have been away. I posted this on FB yesterday:

• I forget that a lof of people dont know my husband's health situation. He was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 1990. It went untreated. By 1998 he was diagnosed with cirrhosis. Again it went untreated. He ultimately was on liver transplant list but broke the rules numerous times and was kicked off. He had surgery in May and his body couldn't take the anesthesia. His liver is failing......

My husband will be 53 Sunday so this is all too soon. We lost his younger brother, and only sibling, last year on New Year's Day due to long running health issues. I am concerned about my Father-in-law. I assured him that I will be there for him to take care of him.

So there it is. Feel free to ask questions. I don't mind.

Denim and Flannel

I have started sewing my denim and flannel together. These are the jeans that I cut up several weeks ago. I decided to use a 3" square and strip to make this. I wanted a size that wouldn't have too many seams to keep it lighter. I also didn't want to use a huge size and just have big chunks of fabric globbed together either.

I am happy with this size. Let's see how I feel once I start sewing these blocks together!

Deconstructing Jeans I have been saving jeans to make a flannel and denim quilt for some time. While I am separated from the projects I really want to be working on I decided to start cutting up the jeans so that I can start stripping them. I am going to make a log cabin from them. I just have to decide my strip width.

I bought these rag quilt snips some time ago at Michael's. I have been putting off this task as I was afraid I would have sore hands and fingers from cutting through the denim. It has been a breeze so far since these snips are super sharp!

Sweeper Cloths Thanks Paula. I did mine all by machine with purchased flannel. I still get my green points by not having to use disposable pads. I made 16 out of 3 yards of flannel.

Loom Knitting Socks

The striped "sample" is my needle knit sock that was given me by my friend. The autumn colored "sample" is a swatch that I knitted on my sock loom. I don't know about you but I think I have achieved success!

I bought the book "Loom Knitting Socks: A Beginner's Guide to Knitting Socks on a Loom" by Isela Phelps recently and read the technical part of the book. I am using a loom made by her husband in 2006 but just now got around to using it. These looms are sold on DA Looms but no longer by the Phelps.

There are 4 ways to make a knit stitch on the loom and my goal was to get the same gauge and look as my hand knitted socks. 3 of the 4 stitches look just like those in my sock but I definately have a preference as to ease of creation and the tension of the completed stitch. Now I just need to figure out how many pegs I need to get my size sock and I think I will embark on my first pair of loom knit socks!!

April UFO Done Already!! Woohoo! I got lucky that I had brought this from LA with me. I am still going to be separated from my other quilty UFOs for awhile or I would be jumping into the next one! This was the UFO that Judy L at Patchworktimes drew for April for her UFO Challenge.