Time for a cleaning

 I think it's a sign that it's time to clean out a drawer when you can't open it, right??  So when our "junk drawer" in the kitchen got stuck, I emptied it all out and found the culprit (a rice server was blocking the drawer).  Well, that motivated me to clean out another drawer... and guess what I discovered?  

25 spatulas!  And another 6 in another drawer!  YIKES.  off to the Goodwill!

As for sewing, I have been working on my Jessica Dayon blocks, slowly:  They're going to be purple and aqua!  I intend to make them into the baby's quilt once I have enough.  I'm also using them for Céçile's sew along, in case you are participating in that project.

I have been knitting a bit.  We are going to Virginia next week to visit our son and their kids.  So I decided to knit hats for the boys and one for the new baby girl.  So cute!  These were "kits" and you sew on the Sesame Street "heads" after they're done!  It's pretty cold there now so hopefully they'll love them!

And the baby girl hat isn't quite done yet but it's coming out really cute; love that the yarn is striping!

My biggest news, though, is that I had to have my gall bladder removed!  YIKES!  I have not had surgery since I had a c-section 34 yrs ago!  And that was it.  It was relatively easy and I'm recovering quickly!  I went for a walk today and have been taking my pain pills to avoid being uncomfortable.  I figure it could've been so much worse!  It's not life-threatening, right?

Anyway, that's my news for 2022.  More to follow, and hopefully more exciting!

Stay well!

xxx

Randy

Be careful of grandkids~

 Happy New Year to you all!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to a superb 2022.  I certainly am optimistic!

I mentioned last week that I am doing the Jessica Dayon mystery quilt, which has 6" blocks.  It initially started off with blocks every day but it's now slowing down.  I was able to make a few more blocks.  I'm doing them in aqua and purple, which is going to be a quilt for little Leia in Virginia.  Here are my blocks that I've made here in California (I left the others in Oregon)

I'm having fun with these blocks!

We had our grandkids stay over this weekend, and that was of course fabulous.  My 12 yr old grandson loves to sew and usually grabs scraps and just starts sewing.  This weekend, though, he decided it was time he tackled my Accuquilt and he found a die with rectangles.  I showed him how to do it and then left him.  This morning, I found the remnants of his playing with other fabrics and the die!

I think he ran out of time so didn't have a chance to sew them together but I thought it was so funny to see which fabrics he grabbed.  Mind you, they were no where near each other in my sewing room!  Asian fabric and batiks??

My 9 yr old granddaughter doesn't sew but she's very interested in art so she draws constantly.  This weekend we had a project we'd been planning--we made a ModPodge box using horse fabrics (she loves horses).  I need to figure out how to get the fabrics to be smooth (I tried sanding with wet sandpaper but that didn't work too well!)  Any experience with these things so you can help me perfect it??

Hope you're having a great first week of 2022.  Today is my mom's birthday and she's 94!!  Pretty amazing!  She's grateful to be alive, even living in a memory care facility!  

Take care!

The real December mini plus other blocks

 I finally finished the binding on my December mini, which you will recall was made using Janet O's scraps (with the condition that I only add one or two fabrics!).  I did only add a light and the binding.  Otherwise it was all Janet's scraps.

I think this is called a bar quilt.  I forgot to wash off the markings for the quilting patterns ...sorry.  This was a fun project, especially using someone else's scraps, which I always think are more attractive, right??!!  Thank you Janet for sharing your leftovers!

I have started a new project (note that I'm not working on something I already started or identified! That would be too easy).  I started doing this block a day being published by Jessica Dayon.  I'm going to do it in purple and aqua for my new granddaughter, Leia, who is living in Virginia now.  These are just the first two. You can join in at her blog:  jessicadayon.blogspot.com.  I think the blocks will slow down after New Years.

When I took the picture of the mini, I realized I had some fun things to share on my sewing table. It's kind of an international collection!

I love the clock.  I ordered it from Moda.  So cute.  But the strangest thing is that when I hung it on the wall, it didn't work.  Didn't keep time.  On my sewing table?  Worked great.  Hung on the wall?  Not so much!  STUMPED

The little star pin cushion was made from fabric I bought at the quilt show in Nantes (France) several years ago.  I love it.

And the Hawaiian "box' in the back is my "trash" holder which I found at a quilt store in Kauai.  I've bought them for all my friends!  It's perfect and even folds flat!

One closing picture of my Zeke, which gives you another idea of how large my dog is!  Here's he's "standing" at the window seat looking out the window where he thinks he sees some people snow-shoeing out back of our cabin.  He does this all the time at our kitchen counters, scanning for something to sneak!  The sweetest dog but oh so strong!! He's been loving the snow, too!  Buries his face or just plops down in the snow banks!!

Hope you are all healthy (this new variant is scary!!) and having a great holiday.  I am sending you lots of love and hugs for a wonderful new year 2022!!

Much love to you all!

Being productive, sort of

 This past month I've tried to work on my December mini, using the scraps that Janet O so generously gifted me, with the challenge to make something using only her scraps plus one or two other fabrics.

I've just about finished my mini (still sewing down the binding) and followed her instructions.  So you'll need to wait a day or two for that reveal.

But I had many more scraps leftover and decided to use them to make a little something:

Any ideas what it is?  I used a fabric I bought in Virginia that's Bernina fabric!  FUN!  So, what are you thoughts??

I have two machines in my sewing room and the second one needed a cover (have been using a pillow case~! YIKES) and thought it was the perfect project for the leftover gold/blue/light scraps plus I added a bunch more.  Of course now I have more scraps than I started with!

There's no pattern for this;  I just made it up as I went along.

We've had lots of snow in Central Oregon this past week and it's quite beautiful.  My poor birds (I've become a bird feeder!) So much snow that the top of the bird feeder had about 4" as did the water bowl (which is completely frozen)

I need to refill the feeder but I'll need to put on my heavy tall boots to have to climb over the snow to reach it!!

Here's the view out my back!

The snow is perfect for snow shoeing this week, although it's VERY cold.  Hasn't gotten above 22* and nights are in the teens (or lower).  BRRR

Hope you're having a great week and recovering from Christmas.  I'll be back in a day or two with the December mini all finished.

Big hugs,

Definitely due for a blog post - November mini, at last

 I cannot believe it's now December and I failed to post again in November.  Fall has definitely come and gone!  I will share one more fall picture I took in a local park:

Now fast forward to December in Central Oregon!!  SNOWY

So have I been getting much sewing done lately?  I wish I could say yes but not so much.  I did finish my November mini but had trouble posting the picture.  This started as Thanksgiving placemats but obviously got remade into thimbles!  VBG

And I'm happy to say that I've been working on my December mini, using Janet O's scrap bag of blues and golds.  I've used just about all the golds in several projects, which I'll share very soon.

We've been able to enjoy the snow and I've gone snowshoeing in the mountains nearby.  Even Zeke, now weighing in at 75 lbs, loves the snow.

When he goes out into the snow to play (he loves the snow), he winds up with these little ice balls up and down his legs (he has a coat which protects his tummy and back!) which are very tough to remove so I've moved my hair dryer into the laundry room where I dry off his body as best as I can, leaving a puddle on the floor! ;-)

Last winter we put lights on our trees (a first for me, nice Jewish girl that I am) and this year, we have even more.  Very pretty with the snow, I think.   These are all in our backyard.

Hope you're all having a wonderful, healthy holiday season!

Be safe, healthy and happy!

xxxx

Last fall colors

 I'm sharing my last fall photos (well, as of now, anyway) -- I continue to be awed by the colors!

I can't resist taking pictures of trees like this.  I have one more Japanese Maple tree that hasn't started turning yet... I will likely want to share that photo in a couple of weeks!

This is an entirely different tree;  the leaves will only turn yellow, and very slowly.  It's in my backyard.

Our puppy turned ONE year old on Friday and he thinks he's just a small guy.  NOT. Here he is sitting on my lap, sort of!

I may be optimistic to say that his puppy (bad) habits are going away but not entirely.  My husband brought me some fabric that had gone through Zeke's body and came out.  YIKES...  He still loves to grab my fabric and run away from me with it.

I'm going to do my monthly mini using Janet O's scraps and one of her instructions was to photograph them before being used.

I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with them.  I had thought about small thimbles but I can't find where I put my thimble template (one of the drawbacks of cleaning up is the inability to find what you put away!!).  UGH

Remember my small quilt group that makes quilts for kids?  We finally got to meet again in a new location!  It was great.  They had been working on an auction quilt for the guild's quilt show in February.  Here are the two tops before quilting.

Pretty nice, I think.

Hope you have a great week!

Happy Halloween

Halloween is such a fun kid holiday!  Our neighborhood always attracts loads of kids.  We usually run out of candy!  Don't you love Halloween?!

Being in California now, we are enjoying fall all over again.  It's not as cold obviously as Oregon so the fall colors are a little later.  Here is one of my favorite Japanese Maple trees outside our front door.

First picture was a week ago;  second one today!  Amazing changes, right?

I took our dog for a walk this week and passed a house with many trees and great Halloween decorations!

I finished my October mini this morning!  WOOHOO.  I decided to do the reverse of what I did last month!  I did circles on light backgrounds in September;  this month I used dark backgrounds!

I used one of my favorite fabrics for the backing!  BIRDS!  And the border fabric is another of my favorite fabrics with birds as well!

Here's my funny story of the week--I had my book group at my house last weekend for brunch and baked a coffee cake using a very elaborate bundt pan.  BIG mistake.  The entire cake stuck to the pan and I had to dig it out. UGH

It worked out fine because my friends started nibbling on the coffee cake as soon as they arrived since no one had to slice it!! VBG.  And, by the way, the book I chose was LOVED by everyone so I'll recommend that you read Tammy Duckworth's autobiography called "Every Day Is A Gift"!  Very inspiring!

Have a great week!