Progress--Summer Style ~

Temecula Quilt Company's July project was these little "Cakestand" blocks, 

 


I am sure you have seen them around the quilty blog community. 

 



Can you say, "tiny"? My first one had the boys in the house laughing at me, how can anyone cover up with a quilt of those?

 
 Silly boys! But, I did decide to enlarge the pattern, 




 and now, there are 31 larger blocks in various stages of progress. There are 8 small ones, too  :-}

Here are 2 blocks to send to Calgary, Canada, via my friend Gail.









Last, here is the amount done in the sewing room. 

 Not much it seems, since there is a good amount of sorting happening too.

  That's why I called it "summer progress," lol!

I am hoping posting the progress will help me with accountability....


So, here's hoping another post happens before 2 weeks pass again. I'm trying to sew a bit every day, how about you ? 

Happy Quilting!

 



"I have trusted in Thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation. I will sing unto the LORD, because He hath dealt bountifully with me." Psalm 13:5,6

Time Flies...

 
 This has been sewn into a flimsy, but no picture of that. "What border?" is the nagging question, Larry and I cannot agree....


Time flies...and I'm dragging these days, but school has been a joy to get back into. One teaching friend described it as getting back in the routine, so it's a good tired, not a stressed one. I agree. Cute students, teaching with a great staff and getting hugs from those little guys, it's all good. One little gal must have told me 3 times today that I was just beautiful-ha! Made me lol every time. I think it called "looking through the eyes of love",  you can't beat that. But on second thought, I was wearing fushia pink slacks, and a pink and purple shirt - a little girl's dream colors- ha,ha~

Hi to you, sweet Norma!

I've neglected saying hi through sheer lack of time.  Norma said on facebook, "I can tell you are back to work, less posts." :-}

Still sewing by bits, but the only pictures I've taken in the last week is of the kids in my classroom for the 1st day's picture. I get them printed out and use their photos all year for the board in the room that says, "Second Grade is the BEST!", made for me by none other than my favorite live-in artist, my sweet Larry.

 

~ the built in, almost finished cabinet...the shelves and not finished baseboards ~

Sewing room, uh, not done. I think I need to hire out for helpers, maybe you'll get a home cooked dinner in return? LOL No promises...!

The air conditioner has gone out at home, hopefully it will be repaired tomorrow. Thankfully, we've been too busy to be home, plus there has been a bit of a break in the weather.

We lost a dear friend in a tragic motorcycle accident. It has saddened our church family, we love his family like our own. He has a wonderful testimony for the Lord, and we know we'll see him again, but it is such a loss. Larry was honored to do some art for the special services. Jesse was a young man, a 24 year veteran for the Los Angeles Police Department. "Heaven's getting sweeter all the time"... this is the song running through my mind these days....

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Tomorrow is Back to School night, and there is always projects you want to have done so the parents can see you're trying to teach and have art around the room. Jeff and Lydia helped today by making folders for tomorrow's meetings, and hanging some apple mobiles from the ceiling. Hanging colored creativity always adds some fun to the room, and the kids are so proud ~

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Okay, I fired up that camera to share these current 15 minutes of sewing:

From the red and white swap ~21 star blocks!

I was totally inspired by Annette of Sunshine Yellow's blog, who also had participated in the swap!

...and this is my sketch of a block I've been admiring, seen here and here, and too cute for me to ignore!

 

I'm using redeemed squares from my pineapple blossoms, plus other half square triangles I've sewn to go along...using a "Triangulations" cd purchased for 25% off, great deal!

 

Especially, since my redeemed squares measured an odd 2 3/4" and I wasn't willing to throw that 1/4" away, the cd made it easy to make more hst's the size I needed...and that made me happy!!











"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is." Jeremiah 17:7

A Bit of Progress

Hi! We have been doing a number of projects, and a couple have gotten completed. Larry and I worked on the floor (look, Papa, not too bad!)



but we had to take a few boards to other folks to trim the ones that weren't full widths, because we don't own a table saw.

It worked out, but the floor just couldn't get finished in one day....
Today we have been working on the cabinets: purchasing, painting, and our friend Richard is installing and building the countertop.

I went with what was available, a Formica brand, but it had to be custom done because it will have extra depth than an ordinary kitchen cabinet.

I had to go to court Friday, umm...one of those lovely cameras on the corners of certain intersections took my picture for not coming to a complete stop. Yes, I'm ashamed to say, I'm not very "pokey" when I'm driving. This is only my second ticket in 30+ years of driving, but you cannot believe the price of that ticket, people! I pleaded "no contest" and asked for consideration, that being I received said ticket 6 months after it being issued (during the time Larry was in the hospital), and the judge knocked off some cost. Are you ready? I still had to pay $450, AND whatever the traffic school will cost. That Comedy Traffic teacher better be pretty funny!

Saturday, we drove up to Bakersfield to be with dear friends from our past. They had to bury their beloved daughter, a 35 year old momma of 4, a childhood playmate of my daughter. Her Daddy was saying how hard it was to stand at the graveside, knowing he would be walking away and leaving her physical body there six feet under. We'll see her again, we praise God for His promise of that...still...hard.

Dad and Mom, and the "kids"-Ginger, Wayne, Larry and Preston

We also received some sad news, which is leading to a trip to Nebraska. My sweet MIL Barb is having a recurring bout with cancer. She and Dad have agreed to not suffer through radiation/chemo treatments. She says she's feeling great right now, just going on with life as it comes.



She has been such an inspiration to me personally, spiritually and in my sewing and quilting. Actually, she was my home economics teacher my senior year in our private Christian high school eons ago.

I already was an accomplished seamstress, and I ended up assisting the new sewing students. I remember at that time in her life, she was sewing EVERYTHING she wore EXCEPT her pantyhose, no kidding, she had even sewn her shoes. She's amazing. I'm glad for the opportunity here before school to be able to go back to Nebraska. Larry and I will be travelling with our friends Beth and Jerry, for moral support and good company.



I've sewn a gown for the trip (no, I'm not modeling it!),

and the stack of Storm at Sea units has grown.

There is this little stack of nine patches, civil war style prints. Lydia wanted to know why I was sewing with such ugly prints. I said I've always liked era quilts, and was trying to do a "brown quilt". If you've never heard me say this before, I love Debbie Mumm, but usually end up with something more Mary Englebreit, lol. Lydia comes by her love of color in her genes, *vbs*! But, I'm hoping this stays a good brown quilt. :-}

And, the red charm squares arrived from Karen, and they are super!

Not a bad piece in the bunch, either! Thank you, Karen and all the 125 participants. I LOVE them ALL!

"Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy;
at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Psalm 16:11

"But, First..."

My demo tools of choice...wonderwoman!

We are backing up, instead of going forward in our sewing room...what can I say? I wanted to put built-in cabinets in the old closet area.

See the wall after we removed the newly painted (but now trash) baseboards...
uh, right...the new baseboard will be taller...hopefully

The carpet was not an ideal color, brown green...(I'm not a carpet person anyway) and to have it in a sewing-with-needles-and-pins room is just courting disaster in someone's foot.

Our friend Richard is filling the divots in the concrete left from the tack strips.

Larry sent me shopping for flooring, and meanwhile, the baseboards, and carpet, and padding, and carpet tack strips had to be removed, and handygal Pokey has been involved with every process, including hauling it out of the house. And hauling other stuff back in!

I'm so slow (ha! I bet you didn't know that?!?); it's taken a bit of time. Next up, the flooring! Larry's doing that, I'm the go getter mostly, lol.

The newly patched floor, and my floor of choice is a closeout laminate

that has a hand-scraped texture, Armstrong brand.

"Oh, no! My displaced fabric is in the computer room!"

DD Lydia is in the process of putting their wedding photos into a shutterfly book, and it's coming along much better than the sewing room. I've helped with some photo editing. I thought I'd close showing a few of those pics ~


Lydia made her flowers, boutonnieres and bouquets
from lace, felt, buttons and ribbon. Oh, and love ~

So sweet! And see the little lego light saber on his boutonniere ~ !

Me, Grandma Barb, Lydia, Jeff, Larry and Grandpa Gil Davis

A Little House Time~

The Southern California Quilter's Run has now passed, but not without us enjoying several days of visiting about 30 shops! We also did a bit of collecting of course. It's so hard not to with all those beautiful fabrics out there. Beth was searching for new cherry prints for her kitchen. I have been wanting to do a "brown" quilt. The shops were happy to help us out! Sorry, I didn't have pictures of those to post, maybe next time....

This week, we are working on a few house projects. Chairs getting painted

Jerry putting the newly covered back on this old steel chair

or re-covered

Ta - Dah!!

or another one waiting for it's turn.

I do my dining room chairs like my quilts, give them something common, like the colors, but mismatch the styles. That makes me smile! (Poor Larry, he's a much more orderly kinda guy. He likes match-ey match-ey, but he puts up with my quirks!)


This week we are working on one of two last rooms to be painted in our home.

The folks who had it before us really liked CoLoR and every room had at least one bold color wall.

Let me tell you, we have kept the primer paint company in business. Uh, I think this wall is gonna need two coats before we paint....


Oh, yeah, hopefully this room that has been used for storage will become a sweet sewing studio.
Happy Quilting!