Last week I posted that I was feeling somewhat aimless with all these days of being at home stretching out before me. I made some goals, and posted those (Staying Busy in Challenging Times), and I’ve been working on them. I think this is easier for me than most because I have so much space to leave things up. I can move from piecing, to handwork to longarming as I want. When I am tired of sitting, I can stand for a while. So, I have several projects going at once. Scrap Dance Twist is accelerating the pace, so I had to get the top done and the borders on. Use the button on the sidebar if you need to go back to get a step for Twist. I am learning more about my new machine at the same time.
On the longarm, a Quilt of Valor that I’ll show you in its entirely later.
On my basement work table, the handwork quilt repair that will take weeks to finish. I can’t work on it that long at any one time. The repair is tedious and I just get tired of working on it after a bit.
On the stamping workbench, I’m starting the last cards that will be needed for the Safelight Project. I have so much paper that this won’t even make a dent. My latest order from Impression Obsession has arrived and I am excited to use the new stamps.
Next up, this week I’ll begin my Coronacation Placemat, and I have some exciting news on that.
My friend Vicky Welsh has sent me some of her fabulous hand dyed products for prizes!! The Grand Prize will be her Color Wheel Stash Pack, all fat eighths, a rainbow of hand dyed beauty. Runner Up prizes will be two of her Shirbori Hand Dyed Dish Towels in either Blue or Lavender. See her website at Colorways by Vicky, visit her store, and see her lovely blog too.
I did get progress on my goals too. I got the kitchen done, and a few of the windows. I made my new recipe, and my chief food taster has suggested some changes. I need to make it again after Easter, and get the flavors just right. In the meantime, there will be a soup recipe for you for next weekend. More progress is to be made this week, but I am a bit ahead. Next is to flip my closet, go through my mother’s papers, and begin weeding out old quilting and crafting magazines. It is pretty outside now, warm and the redbud is in full bloom, so a bit of gardening will be on the list, too.
How did you spend your week this past week? What are your plans for next week?
From My Carolina Home 
No wildlife visitors this week? How is your friendly squirrel doing?
It is good to have a plan for the many days we still have ahead of us. I am sure you will have the restoration quilt done by then. Is your placemat thing going to be a QAL or just something personal?
Looking forward to your progress.
nice you have such a large work area you can spread out so much – we are all tired of staying home it is so unnatural to us
Had our first warm day in Chicago. Lunch outside! It was lovely.
Like you I was busy last week! I made 20 different pouches/tote bags to use as gifts or items to sell in my shop. I made a mini quilt to use as dust cover for one of my machines. I also finished my corona-cation placemat for you. Normally, I sew on a whim but I’ve actually taken the time to make a list and I’ve managed to stay on task!
Our redbud trees look like your lovely one. So helpful to see different things coming to life. Dogwoods are just starting. Our Kentucky Bluebells are my favorite spring flower now…so dependable. And wonderful to get over-grown cuttings out of the house finally. Why do I have so many fungus gnats? Have been studying all the mask patterns out there, and made my first one yesterday. Knit fabric, cut 1 inch wide, and pulled so it curls up is by far the best strap material, IMO. It took me all afternoon to get the first mask made. Hoping it goes a little faster…several non-sewers among us are hoping I can make some for them too. Have a great week!
I stayed busy with work (I’ve worked from home for 14 years) and most evenings I played in my sewing room. I finished my latest Plus quilt and 4 more Safelight case sets (6 total) …now I just need to figure out how I’m going to get them to you!! Ha! I also baked some cookies that were just OK. I need to start planning my corona-cation placemat!
I have been bouncing around on my projects, but did pull out my hand quilting again and this time it seems to be going better. I did finish my Scrap Dance Tango top, but I messed something up in one quadrant, and I’m going to have to do some ripping once I figure out where the mistake is! My contrasts were not always the best, sometimes the patterns aren’t as visible as would be nice, but it will make a great masculine quilt for one of my piano boys someday. 🙂
We have been busy! Made 2 Eye Spy Baby quilts, some placemats, a reversible sling for a niece who was in a car accident – someone in a hurry tried to pass a truck and didn’t see her in her lane. (doing well, broken her arm, cracked her clavicle). And we walk the dog. Being retired this is not new to us but the entire town must have dogs and we didn’t know. When this is all over it’s the dogs that are going to be sad. We are seeing people at the tennis courts, leaving a court open between them. Our family across the country has started a bi-weekly Zoom Conference call. It’s free. Fun to see the babies, the “kids” in their 30’s who would normally be working and all of the oldies. It’s nice to have a reason to fix my hair and put on some makeup. (Still in my sweat shirts though.) Can’t wait to see the soup recipe. LOVE soup. p. s. I missed your “pets” too.
Hey Carole! Have spent the last week cleaning the cracks on my detached outdoors deck…under trees. It gets a lot of leaves & pine straw in the deck cracks over time. Three of my teenage grandchildren were here & bored with no school plus the curfew. So I enlisted them, with a bribe of a Blizzard later. It made the work so much faster. Then yesterday was a big soap wash in prep for the new stain finish. Whew! What a job but so glad to get it done! The Lord will always make something good out of hard times, if we just do our part of the work! He’ll bless the effort! Enjoy so much following your blog. Stay well! Bonnie in So. Ga
oh wow thank you for letting us know about the free classes on blu print-off to take advantage of that.
I always more than one project going too-more fun to mix it up
Love that new machine!! I’ve been a bit sluggish all week. Did go for one bike ride around town with the hubby, but he can’t go more than 3 or 4 miles, so it was a short one. Did some “mask” deliveries which was fun, because the hubby broke out his fancy show truck and we went zooming off thru the countryside. He was a bit distressed when I suggested a stop at the supermarket for “re-supply”….he doesn’t like crowded parking lots. I got caught up with step 3 & 4 of the TWIST, and started back up on the Vintage Christmas Quilt Along blocks. Cut out all the bits for the Gingerbread house yesterday before dinner. Took a break from making masks and cleaned up a bit. I REALLY want to reorganize my space, but as long as I am doing the guild “second time around” I feel trapped. I have the space, but loose my mind when trying to think of ways to re-do. I have the storage part figured out but not the “work centers”. I have “enough” tables etc, but have to use them when we have workshops to prep fabric for the guild. I guess I have all the time in the world to focus and figure it out. Be well my friend.
Hello Carole, I am still working on the variety of tasks that I have written down. It is amazing how when chores are written down, when you do not normally do it this way, how it all goes smoothly. At least, I think so, it is easy to pick and choose what I want to do or what I feel up to doing in that respect. I did go and sign up for one of the free classes. I saw quite a few classes that I really would love to watch and learn. To thank you for sharing that information again! I do not think that I am going to be able to get on facebook again. Even Hubby was having trouble. Off I go to begin one of my chores and then finish sewing on one side of a block. Have a great day!
Well, I live in a very small town and I used to interact with other adults by going to the local thrift shops to build up my pre-owned linen inventory for my ecommerce business. I have had a nagging feeling for several years that my “shopping addiction” interfered with a balanced life. So I am in the process of reducing my inventory to free up my time for crafts, playing piano, writing and travel (hard to travel when you have to ship things every other day).
I wrote a list of 25+ little things I want to accomplish in April and am working on crossing them off. I discovered a new website that specializes in Christian Conservative satire,and it inspired me to write a satirical piece for the little Buffalo Gap, Texas newspaper…I submitted it and it’ll be in their April edition.And this afternoon I started & finished a very short book that a stranger gave me: “Mr. Pegelow At the Gates of Hell”. Providential!
I’m praying that something really great will come of this COVID-19 for each of us individually and as a nation….a silver lining. One of the unforeseen effects of the Black Death/Bubonic Plague was that it marked the end of the Dark Ages and Western Europe’s feudal system,,,leading to the commoners demanding rights…the Magna Carta, American Revolution and our Constitution. I can think of several good outcomes…people getting their priorities straight… We’ll see.
Sandra
Something good – my family, far flung as we are, have grown much closer. At first it was emails, then phone calls. Today we had 18 households on a conference call. Just like being at home for Christmas – everyone talking at once, some eating breakfast, others eating lunch, one even eating dinner. We are planning dinner for Wednesday – Cheeseburgers in Paradise – IN COSTUME. Music provided by the musicians of the family. We are a silly bunch, age 14 months to 82 years. We haven’t gotten together for many years but shared old stories and gave advise to the 2 that are expecting in the spring. Hope spring Eternal.
Yep, this is the time that I am glad we are still “in the big house”
We have a lot of space to move around, climb stairs, and yes, lots of room for different projects. Our house is very open, so we can hear each other. that is pretty good, so we can see what the other is doing. I don’t know, my hubbs is always looking at what I do
My daughter just came by to pick up a cute little machine I bought for them a few years ago, a Janome Hello Kitty sewing machine.
Just keep busy, otherwise we might start screaming haha
I love soup, will be looking forward to your recipe next week. Yesterday made a pot of chicken stock from roast chicken carcass, then turned it into veggie soup for lunch, so yummy. Its Autumn here and getting a little cooler, so home made soup is always welcome.
Originally I thought that I would use the extra time at home to do some extra tidying/cleaning chores, but that hasn’t been working well. Guess it will be better to make a list then I could cross them off, one by one.
It’s so helpful to have lots of different choices to work on, isn’t it? I started my Coronacation placemat awhile back – need to finish it up!
Thankyou for your encouraging goals and plans. This is such a hard time for so many and we can lose ourselves in the negative side of it fairly easily at times. Goals are the best! I’ve set up various quilting projects around the house…EPP upstairs for after dinner sewing with Netflix, tops for quilting hanging from hubby’s gym machine (I placed an old sheet over the frames so my tops wouldn’t get dirty!!!), piecing projects on a fold out table in the study area, and now I’m encroaching on the dining room (it’s formal so rarely used) and using the table to lay out partly completed BOM quilt tops until I’m ready to return to them. I made blueberry biscuits yesterday and need to make a chicken casserole today. For now, we’re able to walk our dogs so I’m off for our morning walk. As quilters, we are very fortunate to have this wonderful craft to keep us busy, sane and happy!
I think it’s time for me to plant my lettuce but I’ll have to first get the garden in final order. I’ve gotten rid of all the winter debris already but it needs a good weeding & turning over. Hope that doesn’t kick in my hip bursitis. Inside I plan on finishing up the quilting on Hospital Sketches. My DSM that I use for quilting is in the basement so I can’t go down when we have a cold snap but the first part of this week looks promising! Other than that, I plan on piecing a few blocks and appliqueing in the evenings with the TV on.
Just had to look up “Hospital Sketches” and now I’m even more curious – is this fabric from the Louisa May Alcott book? or the Civil War fabrics? Curiouser and curiouser!
Joan
Your place sounds like mine. I have quite a few projects out around my studio and enjoy being able to shift from one to another.
Our last week had a lot of gardening but it was interrupted by and change to cold and windy weather. This brought down a lage tree in the front yard. It went across the road so had to be cut up before being moved. We are now waiting for the local shire to come and clear it up. Not quite what we had planned.
Oh, do I ever like that basket quilt! I look forward to a post on that.