Confessions of a Grandma

I was busy a couple of weeks ago on sewing.  I finished a small quilt. It is not so Florida-y, but it is always fun to throw a quilt together.  This was a manageable size for practicing the quilting on my machine.

There!  I finally figured out the picture thing all by myself. I have not been arrested, convicted, and sentenced to a chain gang.  I am looking for my real hair because I am pretty sure that my real hair does not have all that grey in it.  Stupid trick of the light!  I finished a small quilt this past week.  I am thinking that it is time to sign up for a class at a local quilt shop.  I want to how to do the fancy machine quilting. I don't see one of those huge set up programed to do the quilting from a computer program in my future.  Maybe if Mike agrees to give up the garage and turn it into a craft room.  Like that could happen! I did sign up for an on-line Craftsy course in pants fitting.  I have altered blouse patterns on my own with some help from books and magazines, but I need more help for pants.  I have not done clothes sewing for a while now.   I so miss the ThreadNeedle shop and its fashion fabric selection. ...

I finished another quilt.     I am already planning the next one. I found this fabric at a yard sale. 

I finished up the scrap quilt I was working on. It is made with fabric scraps and uses blocks from the 2012 Block of the Month Class on Craftsy. Another view: I backed it with flannel so it it quite cozy.  We sure don’t need it here in Florida this winter.  Guess what the grandkids are getting for Christmas this year.

I have been working on two different quilts and have finished the tops to both.  That is the easy part. I went to the community center to work on the large scrappy quilt.  I set up several tables so I could lay out the three layers and get them pinned together while keeping each layer as wrinkle free as possible.  It was hard work.  In the process of either setting up or taking down those tables, I did some damage.  My knee cap is black and blue and my shin too.  I managed a small cut just below my knee.  All on the left leg. It looks like I have taken up a rough and tumble contact sport instead of a sedate activity like sewing. And let me tell you, maneuvering a large quilt around a small machine to do the quilting is labor intensive as well.  First of all, it involves setting up extra tables to hold the weight.  Then there is all the adjusting and readjusting to keep all the layers smooth.  I'm hoping my arms will muscl...

I am always paring down possessions, trying to simplify, but at the same time acquiring new possessions and hungering after new stuff.  This past year, I made many trips to the Goodwill and Salvation Army donation centers.  Really, I have lost count of the boxes and bags I hauled away.  It's a feeling of lightness that very soon leads to a feeling of "Oh!  That empty space needs to be filled!"  and off I go on a shopping trip. I bought a Himalayan salt lamp mentioned by Patti at the New Sixty on this post .  Eventually, as I meditate next to it, that void I try to fill with stuff will be healed.  That's how I justified that purchase.  That and they are really cool and I wanted one. My vacuum cleaner, the one that was supposed to pick up bowling balls with its powerful suction, but in fact did little more than push cat kibble around the kitchen floor, made its way to the scrap metal bin (even tho' it was mostly plastic as things are these days)...

I bought this bookcase as a yard sale for 5 bucks. I did a little sanding and gave it a few coats of a primer, which I had on hand. I had the paint too so this did not cost more than the $5 plus some labor.  I will take it to my daughter’s house for my grandson to use in his room for books or toys. I also bought a wooden paper towel holder for 50 cents.  Mike mounted it under a cabinet in my craft room and I am using it for ribbon storage.                                   I painted the little bird house and added some branches and a little bird on top.  I hung it in the breezeway where I have set up my sewing machine for the summer. Staples started its Back To School sales a while ago and I have been picking up little things here and there.  Some will be in the Advent baskets I ma...

There just was nothing going on today.  I started poking though my fabric scraps and this is what I came up with. It’s a fish, if you can’t see it.  Here it is draped over a pillow, but I think that I will put it on a stretcher and use it for a wall hanging. I could have done some garden weeding, but it was kind of hot today and it is supposed to be in the 90’s tomorrow.  It has been a hot summer by Vermont standards.  Still, I haven’t had my bathing suit on since last winter.  Life has gotten a bit topsy-turvey. I also finished Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson.  If you enjoy laughing at serious panic attacks, social anxiety, and marital arguments , this is a really funny book .  Be warned that I  really do have quite a sick sense of humor.

I forgot to tell you… I finished my quilt.  It is far from perfect, but I am still quite happy with it.  In fact, I really kind of love it. 'This is made from pre-cut charm packs and is called ‘disappearing nine patch.’  I signed up for a tutorial on Craftsy . Now I may have been bitten by a new bug.  I have wandered into a couple of area quilt shops just to run my hands over the bolts of fabric and think about what I might want to make next.  Uh oh.

Here is a quilted place mat that I made this past spring: I use it on the bedside table of the guest room: I have also use scraps of material from other sewing projects to piece together and quilt some pot holders.  This has been the some sum total of my quilting experience to date.  I didn’t really know what I was doing, I just wanted to use up scraps. Was I daunted by my lack of education and experience when I for some reason took it into my head to attempt a larger quilt project?    No, no, just plunge ahead full speed.  Make it up as you go along. Here we are in progress.  Since I took this picture I have added a plain narrow border and then a wider print border.  I have cut the backing and the batting and pinned everything together.  I think it’s way too big to quilt on a regular sewing machine and I had not previously considered the possibility of hand quilting. Now I know why it is fairly common to find quilt tops, unfinish...