Making Good On My Convictions For 2019

Actually, I started in late November, getting my head in the right place for the foreseeable future.  The future is not foreseeable.  I got blind sided in October and I have spent time reflecting on what is important to me.  I have been spending some decent time in my quilt room these last six weeks.  I have finished two quilt tops which are coming back from quilting tomorrow, and they are ready for binding.  I finished the black n white mostly quilt top of Teresa's and made an interesting quilt back that helped use some of those b&w fabrics up.  It is ready to be delivered to Phyllis "the favorite" long arm quilter.  That makes three projects already in the final stages of completion.  I have a crap-ton more, but you have to start to make any impact.  I also started Zumba last week, and I plan on making an impact there as well.  I am grateful for my fabulous quilt room, all my inspirational books, cards from friends, and my ability to be creative.  I have been lacking some-in-my face inspirational reminders, however.  I have a plan to fix that.  Below is a photo of my metal cabinet, which holds about 1/3 of my fabric stash.  I love it because it is metal and I can use magnets to hold my fun bright goodies.  I am going to rework some of what is on it, and tidy up a bit.  I need a list of the top five projects, in progress, that I will focus on first.  

The little flannel quilt with the volunteer ribbons on it, is the first quilt I ever sewed a binding onto.  I particularly treasure it.  I painted this cabinet myself.  It used to be gunmetal gray.  It holds a lot of fabric, much of which I hope to be digging into this year and really enjoying myself.  Be strong, be creative.

Saying Farewell to 2018

It has been a busy year.  I had a lot of adventures this year.  It has been a good year and a bad one.  I had some good bouts of creativity and did a little traveling, all in good company.

Nyssa Oregon

Nyssa Oregon

Ontario Oregon

Garden Tour, Boise, Idaho

Poppies on Columbia Rd, on the way to
my Aunt Daisy's house.

Council, Idaho, June

Pinecones on shore of Payette Lake



McCall, Idaho

New Meadows, Idaho

Fruitvale, Idaho  Can't miss the quilt show in Council!

Council Idaho

 The following photos are from the trip to Bend, Sisters, and Black Butte Ranch in July.  We drove across Oregon, from Idaho.

This is the fair city of Brothers, Oregon.

I am sorry I do not remember the name of this fine Mexican
restaurant, in Bend. They had gluten free and it was fabulous!

This flower was at the train depot in Boise, Idaho.

This is a mosaic in the traffic circle in front of the depot.

Sunrise over Boise, Idaho, in August

 I really love to sew and quilt, but I like to travel and take photos, too.
We went to Germany to visit our daughter, in August.  A few photos follow.  I took a ton, but I am trying to keep this brief.


View from my window in London

The next four shots, I took at the Minitur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany.
It is not just the trains that move, but the cars, airplanes, circus rides, etc.

Berlin Wall, Berlin.

Klausen, Germany. in the little village our daughter lives in.

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

Fountain at the cathedral in Luxembourg City

Christmas lights at Scentsy in Meridian, Idaho

It was also a sad time this fall.  I have created a slide show, with music, to celebrate the life of my friend, Teresa.   Celebration of Life

To see all the sewing projects I did in 2018, click here: sewing projects

 

I am excited for 2019. I will be working on projects I have already started. I am planning a trip with my Aunt Karen.  Most things won't be the same without Teresa.

Fabric Buying Moratorium

     I have made a plan to behave myself with regards to being a fabric hog.  I have decided to not buy any more fabric until Dec of 2019.  If I must go with Annita to help her pick out fabric for her projects, I will not buy any for myself and, if I behave, we get to go for frozen yogurt afterward.  I, am a fabric addict, but have not hidden the fact from my friends.  It is true, my friends are enablers.  I have been an enabler to some extent.  At least two of us in our group have self-imposed moratoriums on fabric buying.  The others have been informed that they are not allowed to buy us fabric.    Nancy could not make it to our gathering the day we had this big discussion, so she will have to be informed, as she is probably the worst of the lot (from what I hear).  We may have to do a fabric intervention.  I truly have believed that I was the worst of the lot.  I know I have a problem, and will try not to compare myself to others, in order to make myself feel better. 
     Thank you, Shannan, for my last piece of fabric for a year!



     It is a good thing I got all the fabric for the Hannukah quilt before the self-imposed moratorium went into effect!  The good news is, I have enough of the Hannukah fabrics to make some more wall hangings, since I seem to be adding to my list of Jewish friends.
     It was a tight schedule, but I got it finished on December 5, just a couple days after Hannukah started.  Good thing I had that day of mourning off, so I could finish it up!

I had a good time creating this quilt and it was fun making it,
except for the applique' letters, but I stayed with it!

This is the back.

 Donna really likes her new wall hanging.  She likes the back, too.  Now that Hannukah is over, she flipped it around to display this side.  This side has dreidels and other winter motifs.  I would not have used this fabric on the back for anyone but Donna.  I knew she would not be opposed to it.  I am so glad she likes my work.

The Car Hop Quilt

I have been working on a powerpoint slide show to honor my friend, Teresa.  She was an excellent quilter, although she did not believe so.  She was also a very good friend to me, many other people, and animals.  I have not found any reasonable instructions on YouTube to enable me to post a slideshow on my blog.  Meanwhile, I have not posted since October.  I hope to have the slide show dilemma figured out by new years.  Let us see.
It has been a crazy time!!  Let us try to get on with quilting and sewing and having visitors and baking yummy stuff, even if it boils over in the oven and burns and is still not cooked in the middle.  It shall cool and set, we cut the burnt top off and the inside is pretty yummy just the same. 
     In August I did complete the car hop quilt.  This is the one I bought the fabric for in Weiser, Idaho, about five years ago (on a little road trip with Teresa, of course).  Then the fabric aged in my quilt room until November 2017, when I grabbed it up and took it to the quilt retreat in Eagle.  I did not like the background fabric, so off to Quilt Expressions, in Garden City.  Found the perfect 'jacks' background fabric.  I got the thing cut out and pieced into a top.  Now what for the backing?  Me and T (Teresa) went on another road trip to Nyssa and found this great poodle fabric that just screamed "1950s!!"   The owners of the shop also had a big dog. Teresa is a nut for dogs, especially big ones!  As another fabric addict, Country Corners Quilting Shop was at the top of Teresa's list because it had fabric and dogs!  What could be better than that?

I can't remember this lovable dog's name. Teresa
said it is a Mastif.  They brought him in just so she
could visit for a little bit.

Okay, I bought yards of pink fabric with black poodles on it.  I finally got the back of the quilt made.  Then dear friend, Phyllis, let me use her long-arm quilt machine to quilt it.  This occurred on a Saturday in June and two short follow-up sessions.  I am not speedy, nor do my feet, legs, and/or back handle standing up so long these days.  If you win the lotto, please, do not gift me a long-arm quilting machine.  Between work, trips to Council and McCall with T and Daisy, and the trip to Sisters with T, I managed to get the binding on with the appropriate 1/4 inch between each stitch.  Done!  Just in time to put into The Fair! 

See the light background fabric is jacks!

Then my husband and I went to visit our daughter in Europe, for two weeks and a day.  T cat-sat our dearly beloved Ebony cat, and our house, while we were away.  Dear friend, Phyllis, picked up the quilt when The Fair was over.  Thank you so much.  We were back a week and a half, when I got very sick and was off work for another week.  I put off getting the quilt delivered to my cousin, because I still had a terrible cough (which I still have).  Then some awful events occurred in October, and I finally got myself over to her place and gave her the quilt.  I am soooo happy she likes it!

Ta da!      the teal and bright blue are not so different
in this photo.  Need a better photo.

I am glad I am finally able to share this quilt with you.  I think I may have got three decent sized quilts made this year.  I made a couple quilts for demos, seven doll quilts and a baby quilt.  Oh, let us not forget the "Greedy" wall hanging!   Right now, I am taking a break from attempting  pop-up for my daughter.  One quarter inch piece of the bottom is not catching in when I sew the bottom on the rotten thing.  I will post a photo after I tear some hair out.   Keep on keepin' on.

Two Have Gone On Ahead Of Us

If you have been reading my blog, you will have seen references to my friend T and to my Aunt Daisy.  We had so much fun together.  I miss them so much.

Teresa Elliott March 25, 1959- October 23, 2018
Shige DeMyer (Daisy) April 11, 1926- October 15, 2018

I Love Columbus Day Weekend!

I always get so much quilting done!  Also, I started tidying up in my quilt room.  I had the Gwenie's Baskets quilt stitched in the ditch and laying under a sheet on my quilt table for about four weeks.  I finally uncovered it and finished the final bit of quilting around the outside of the handles of each basket.  I just love stuffing the quilt under my machine arm so I can quilt in a circle.  :)  Then I squared it up and got the binding on it as quick as a wink!   It is so lovely, I want to keep it for myself.  But, I made it to give to charity, so I will give it up to Janell at our next meeting.   Well, here it is!

 

I love the back, too!  I bought this fabric in the sale section at the quilt shop in Bend, when we went to the Sister Quilt Show last summer.  Love this quilt.  This quilt was based on the basket quilts that Gwen Marston has created. 

Back in Idaho! Did buy fabric!

Mary finally found the fabric shop in Wittlich.  We had gone back to Wittlich to have lunch at the Greek restaurant, but it was not open, again.  So we found the Das NahHaus.  They had a limited amount of quilting fabrics, but what they had was very nice.  They had lots of knits, drapery fabrics, some quilting cottons, zippers by-the-yard, hardware, colorful elastic, and a large variety of trims.  They, also, sold sewing machines and had a classroom.  My daughter was looking for fabric for a couple dormer curtains, for the house she lives in, in Klausen. 

    That afternoon, she unpacked her sewing stuff and we got it going on in her dining room all afternoon.  She got one panel, for the very top dormer, all finished.  We did not calculate exactly the width of the seams, so it is a little smaller than she was aiming for, but it works fine and is adorable.

 She plans on calculating better for the seam allowances on the next curtain, which is pointy at the top to fit the next dormer down, in the photo below:

You can see her kitty panel in the high window.  When we visited the fabric shop, I kept my self under control.   I bought less than 4 yards of fabric.   One yard is a border fabric for the borders of baby quilts. I also bought three zippers, with cool looking zipper handles, some colorful elastic, and some catronaut fabric, bright blue floral fabric, and some of the cat fabric (like my daughter's) but with brighter colors.

I included their business card in this photo.

The staff there were very nice, we spoke little German and they spoke no English, but we figured it out!