Simple Solution

I'm a little bit height impaired.........short to most people.  I wanted that brown scrap bin off the top shelf and I couldn't reach it for some reason.  I didn't have any trouble shoving it up there...I guess I didn't think too far ahead on this one.  ;o)

Paint stick to the rescue!!!  I got these to use in the back of wall hanging but haven't used even one for that yet. This one will have a permanent home on the container shelf.  I'll do some moving of the bins though as I can see this won't work well for me as it is.  Things that are used less often will have to go up on that high shelf.

I'm using my timer today. I really want to sew, so instead of just sitting and sewing, I'm sewing for 20 minutes, organizing for 20 minutes.  Win, win.   Back to sewing, labeling, re-arranging and putting stuff away.

Design Wall Monday

Last year, Bonnie Hunter wrote about a Bow Tie Block Challenge.  We were supposed to use them for leader/enders only.  I wasn't going to do it, I had too many other things going on.  You all know where I'm going here, don't you!!!  Yes...I caved and started making blocks.  They are just so darn cute.  Then life happened and other things happened and the bow ties were put away to be worked on "later".

Guess what??? It's later.....I unearthed the basket-really I knew where it was but I needed to cut fabric and put that off.  This weekend I was sewing on a couple of my Sow-A-Long blocks and didn't have anything for a leader/ender.  I decided to get busy and cut a bunch of block parts to fill my little basket.  I don't know how many I cut but I know there are enough to keep me busy for a while.

It sure feels good to be sewing again.  My room isn't finished yet, I have shelves to put up still and things to put where they are handy.  I know what storage containers I need to buy.  Now I have to make a trip into town to get them.  It will get done.......soon.

The Sun is Shining...

...and that makes me happy!  I have been waiting for this day since late last fall.  I love to hang quilts, bedding, towels, clothes, everything! outside.  I love the fresh smell.  I sleep like a baby with fresh dried outside sheets.  When I heard we would finally have a nice warm weekend with no chance of rain, I planned this for early this morning.  Ernie took off early to cut another load of firewood.  I tended the washer and the clothesline.

I love it!  As you can see, I am greatly influenced by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.  Here is a list of her free patterns.  You can see Orange Crush on the left, behind that is Pioneer Braids, Scrappy Bargello and String X.  Ready to hang out now is Double Delight.  My clothesline will be full.  Isn't that great?

Supervising today is Miss Blue.  She is a year old Blue Andalusian and is gorgeous.  She is an excellent layer, giving us one nice big white egg almost daily.  She and Miss Whitey were attacked by a neighbor dog a couple months ago and stopped laying for 3 very long weeks.  They are now both fine and I was thrilled when I found a white egg and she hasn't stopped since.  (The neighbor or the dog have not made a return visit.....I don't know what they did with the dog and I don't care as long as I never see him or his owner again.) 

The new girls are finally in the pen with the big girls.  Today is their first day out as free range chickens.  Really they aren't true free range because they get locked up at night and I feed them chicken food along with veggie and fruit scraps and what they forage for themselves.  In return, all I ask is that they stay safe, grow big and strong and repay me with some eggs one day.

Ernie is home now with a pick up load of wood.  I think he would like some help unloading......  Today, life on the farm is good.

Sewing Room Update

 I've been working on the re-do of my sewing room for far too long.  It's an overwhelming task.  I had to dive in head first and just do it.  I didn't take before photos because I was too embarrassed and there is no way that I would have shown them to you, never, ever!!!  These are bad enough.

I started clearing out my room on March 16th.  I wrote about it first on March 18th.  Optimistically I thought I could do this in a little under a week......Oh how WRONG I  was!!!  I have a ton of excuses but I'll save them.

This morning, this corner looked like this, stuff stacked up with no home yet.  I had jicky joggyed the quilting frame over to the other side of the room.  Move it a little, move stuff over to this side, move the frame, move more stuff.  

I had a plan for the second shelving unit.  I was going to have that 2 drawer file cabinet there and then have shelves on top of it for my books.  When I planned it and measured, I had just enough room not to interfere with the air conditioner.  When I started setting up the 2nd unit, I was in front of the ac by about 1/2".  Just enough that I couldn't open the cover to get the filter out to clean it.  Of course.  So I came up with a new plan.  Move the file cabinet out and now I will make shelves all the way up to put those bins on.  And I will find a new home for the file cabinet.

This is how I left it tonight.  I moved a bunch of bins into their (maybe) new home.  Of course, I don't know if everything will stay on the shelves as they are now or not.  I have so much more work to do.

Then I had to clear out this corner.  This is where my new corner table is going.  I have the best son in law.  He kind of lit a fire under my hinny this morning by offering to do this today.  I couldn't say no.  

This is how we left it tonight.  I am exhausted, my back hurts, my brain hurts.  I hope I can sleep tonight and not think about what I want to do tomorrow.  I'm going to buy another shelving system for above the table.  I've decided not to have a design wall.  I'll think of something else.  My wall space is now too valuable as storage space.

If you haven't read the Fabric Therapy blog recently, you are missing out on some fabulous organizational posts.  Teresa has shared every inch of her quilt cave with us.  I have read her posts before and she has inspired me to organize my space in a more functional way.   Her timing for these posts could not have been better for me, they started right in the middle of my mess.  And the book she talks about, Organizing from the Inside Out...I got the DVD from my library and watched it for even more inspiration---the DVD is shown here at Amazon and I saw it available at Netflix.

The way I had my room was not working at all and I used it this way for years.  I think when I get finished, I'll be so stinkin' happy that I will never come out........well maybe for a minute or five...........but not much longer than that.

Design Wall Monday

 Not much sewing has been happening around here.  I did get this mini quilted and the binding put on.  Then I took the binding off.  My seam allowance was very, very wrong!  I decided to wait until the big machine was set back up again and promptly put the featherweight in it's case.

I need to focus on getting my sewing room back together.  I am so good at procrastinating.  If I could turn that into a full time job, I'd be rich!  I am really glad the recycle guy doesn't have to physically pick the bin up to empty is. Yesterday I purged papers and magazines.  It was painful but I did it.  I try to keep up with them but again, the procrastination set in.  It was amazing how few things I took out of the magazines.  I even pulled somethings out of my notebooks to make room for the new pages.

Bee report:  Yesterday was day 9.  It was time to fill the feeders and check to see if Her Royal Highness, the Queen Bee was laying eggs.  It appears she was doing her job but I cannot verify that as I stayed way back and used the zoom on the camera.  

It looks like another fabulous day to be touring around Blogland.  Start by visiting Judy L, so many great looking links already.

Design Wall Monday

Here are a few of my Sow-A-Long blocks.  I decided to add the sashing and cornerstones to 2 sides of each block as I went along.  I think I'll set it on point so the cornerstones go in the bottom right corner.  The 5 blocks on the right side of the wall are the scrappy blocks with black cornerstones.  See the basket?  I had to take the sashing off that one and put it on right.

I printed off Bonnie's paper piece page for the baskets and when I started putting the sashing on, my block was too small......So I added background to make it the right size.  I don't like it, it's off center and I'm going to make new blocks.  I had to save the pattern to my computer and then print it...just like her instructions say to.

Slow and steady goes the sewing room project.  A friend asked about it today.

How's the sewing room?  Is it done?  All done?

Slow!  And no and no!!  I keep getting stalled.  Knitting, sewing, outside, can't get a helper, don't want to.  

It has to be complete this week.  I need some serious sewing time!  

Check other design walls that have linked to Patchwork Times. 

Sunny Day On The Farm

DJ getting loves from Mae.

This past Wednesday, DJ had a terrible limp.
I took him to the vet and was told he has old man knees.
He is taking an anti inflammatory medication.
He is supposed to take it easy.
He will, after his little people go home.

Mike and Ernie doing some work with the queen so she can be released from her little box.

This is Ernie's first day doing bee work. 

He wasn't taking any chances, hence the gloves. 

I think they look cute in their bee suits.

Nothing's more fun for Elliot than a good wiggly tree branch.

Leland, Corbin and Mommy stayed home, I think the boys were napping. 

Smart boys.  

A bit of quiet time for Mommy.

I took several pictures of Miss Whitey but she kept moving. 

This must be her good side.

I drug the big chick pen/stock tank outside so the chicks could work 

on their tan and see what sunshine was all about.

I think it's time to make them an outside pen. 

They are still too little to go in with the big chickens.

They still need their heat light.  

It froze here again last night.

This is outside waiting for me to help unload.  

I guess I better get my gloves on.  

Really, I would rather sew!

Maybe later.

The Bees Are Here

Today was bee day at the farm.  Crystal and Mike picked up 2 boxes for us and 2 for themselves.  We went to the fair last August and Mike spent quite a bit of time talking to the bee man.  The next thing I know, we are both going to become bee farms.  Well that is if you can call 2 hives at each place bee farms.  We call it the beginning. 

 I was quite surprised at how the bees were packaged.  I don't know how I thought they would show up because this is really is Ernie and Mike's project and I am pretty much clueless.  I love that the kids are so excited but a bit scared at the same time.  Which is the way it should be.

See the storage container behind Mike's head?  To the right of that is where the hives are.  Crystal and Mike carried the bee boxes up to the hives.  I think by now we are on trip 4 up the hill.  Once everything was up there, I think it went pretty fast.  I don't know what Mike thought though.  LOL

He has read everything he can get his hands on about bees and beekeeping and has become quite knowledgeable about all of it.  He is our Bee Whisperer.  I guess I shouldn't call him City Boy anymore.

I was quite impressed with him as he reached into the bee box to take out the little box that held the queen.  Look, no gloves.  I realized I was holding my breath.  I didn't have a clue what would happen but I had some pretty vivid images of a swarm.  There is a method to getting her out and set up in the hive. I think she gets released in another couple days.  Then the bees were dumped into their new home.

TaDah! Hive 1 is done and he lived through it!  Within a few minutes, hive 2 was set.

Look at Crystal, she was videoing while he was working and I was hiding.  She kept moving closer and closer.  I posted some photos on Facebook and this is copied from there.

• Bert  The basic kit only comes with one protective outfit?

  6 hours ago · 
• 

  Mike  No Bert, I only bought one. She had to show how tough she is. But, she wasn't the one with alarm pheromone all over her, so they left her alone. As you can see, i'm covered in them! These 2 hives were super gentle. Not one sting. Came home to do my 2, and I got stung twice from the same hive.

Design Wall Monday

I've been a bit of a slacker in regards to my sewing room rearranging. I have a ton of excuses and I'm sure they are all good-not really. I sewed a bit, I knitted a lot. Yes, the mini blocks finish at 2". I love them!

The purple mini is ready to quilt. Kathy at Kathy's Quilts did a great post on how she prefers to quilt her minis. Thanks Kathy, I will follow your lead when I quilt mine.

And I decided I was not going to be left out of Barrister's Sow-A-Long at Barrister's Block and spent some time printing and cutting and organizing and sewing. I am making 2 of each block. One is pure scrappy with whatever makes me happy at the time, the other is pink, cream and brown scrappy. I should be caught up before the next set of blocks are posted.

There are lots and lots of great DWN posts today. I'm headed over to Patchwork Times to see what's happening around Blogland.

Design Wall Monday

I spent Saturday working outside and Sunday morning working in my sewing room. I'm making progress but it's taking so long...anyhow, I wanted to sew. I was whining to Ernie and he finally said to go in and sew. So I did.

I opened up my little bin and started on the flying geese blocks. I got those white triangles from a quilter's sale and started cutting them in half. Then I tried cutting them into quarters and they are perfect! I should have plenty of white to finish this mini.

If you don't know the story of the purple mini, I wrote about it here. It felt so good to just sit and sew for a while.

Surprised, Amazed and Inspired

The other day while I was cruising around Blogland, I came across this post at I Like To Quilt Blog. She has some fabulous minis posted and I fell in love with her purple flying geese. So much so that I started playing in EQ7 and created my own mini.

My mini is already in a kit, ready to work on when I get to sit down and sew...which I hope is soon!

Imagine my surprise this morning when I click on to Quiltville and see this post. I love all the photos of the tile work. Then I scroll down and I see Bonnie has created the same block as I did and has started sewing her blocks. Amazing, isn't it!

Of course I had to leave a comment and after a few emails back and forth, Bonnie has given me a couple more sorting ideas for my crumbs and strings....I will be sorting them into neutrals and everything else. I'm not going to dive into the string bins and numerous crumb bins and bags right now but as I am working in a bag, I will pull out the neutrals to keep separate. I already do that with the scraps but not the strings and crumbs. We think that will make our lives a bit less chaotic.

Now I'm inspired to get in that sewing room and get working!!! Thanks Bonnie for making my day!

My New Book

It's dangerous for me to buy a new book. Especially a cookbook or in this case the Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving.

It all started here at Chickens in the Road where Suzanne writes about strawberry lemonade concentrate. I followed the link to the book and in half a heartbeat that book was ordered. It came yesterday and I started looking at pictures.

This morning while being quiet so someone could sleep in, I started reading. I found the strawberry lemonade concentrate on page 192. I marked recipes for ketchups and relishes. I found a recipe for carrot cake jam.....oh my, I think I am going to be busy!

I just looked at the copyright date--2006.....How did I miss this??? No longer matters. I have lots of pages marked, a list made and have lots of ambition. The list for the garden just got longer.

Life is good here on the farm. Speaking of the good life on the farm, we are getting bees in a couple weeks. Ernie is out right now making a nice home for the hives. I better get out there with the camera and the gloves and be a helper bee. More on this later.

Now go order your own book and make your list. :0)

What Was I Thinking???

I am overwhelmed with my sewing room project. Just when I think I'm making progress, I make a bigger mess. But I am a seeing teeny, tiny light at the end of the long tunnel. Here are 3 projects that I have made into kits. I spent some of my rest time-maybe too much-playing with EQ7 deciding how to set my blocks, wondering what sashing I wanted to use.

The sampler is from a 2010 quilt along. I wasn't a fan of some of the blocks but I made them anyhow. I took them to the Wednesday group for opinions and came home ready to throw them in the garbage. But I didn't, I sorted likes and dislikes. Then I searched through the 12" blocks on Quilter's Cache and printed out instructions for 5 more blocks. Included in this bag is the fabrics for the blocks and the sashing and border fabrics.

The blue blocks have a bag of blue strips with them that will be used for scrappy borders around each block and then set together in a 3x4 setting and made into a charity quilt.

The third bag is my own design with fabrics cut with the basic die for the Go! cutter. Included in that bag are all the blocks with sashing and border fabric. These 3 projects will go with me to my May retreat if they aren't finished before then.

I did order some finishing fabrics from Thousands Of Bolts. That totally cracks me up that I need to order fabric when all week I have been putting fabric into bins. But in defense of myself, I don't have much yardage. I have lots of small pieces and lots of prints for backs.

It does feel really good to have a plan. I just wish the plan was working faster....too many interruptions with real life to get my big project done in my super imaginary timeline.

Monday Progress

Mr. Dozer has found himself a new favorite lounging spot. He likes to lay there and look at his adorable face in the mirror. I got up to get my camera and he sat up and posed. Such a goofy cat.

Well, I made lots of progress today. Several more bins were taken out of the sewing room. I had put a bunch of acrylic yarn into a bin like Dozer is sitting on but then I found another bin so it all went in to a big bin like the blue one. I labeled it Yarn, Lots and Lots of Yarn. The bin he is sitting on is all my sock yarn and the swifter and ball winder, also labeled with the contents.

Tonight my back is hurting so I am going to take it easy a bit tomorrow. I have a stack of magazines that I need to go through so I think that will be a good time to work on them. You know, take out the pages I want, recycle the rest. I want to have my patterns and papers organized like Teresa of Fabric Therapy shows in this guest post at Sew We Quilt. I have 3 big notebooks full of page protectors and like the way she uses magazine organizers instead of the notebooks. And her file system...green with envy but I only have a 2 drawer file cabinet so that's all I am using. And that idea book......want that too. Teresa is such an inspiration for me. I want to be like her when I grow up.

This undertaking has become so much more than just taking stuff out of the room and building a new sewing table/counter top. So much more! I'm even too tired to knit.........

Design Wall Monday

What's on my design wall? Nothing but threads. No fabric, no blocks, just threads, lot and lots of threads. The design wall will come down this week and a new one will take it's place soon.

I got the fabulous idea to rearrange my sewing room. I am taking almost everything out of the room. As I do, I am putting projects in to bins. I am labeling, I am doing inventory of sorts. The top left big bin is labeled bin 1. I made a list of everything that is in there, 8 projects ready to quilt. Tops, backs, bindings and battings. In the photo below, there are 2 more big blue bins. Bin 2 is all completed tops--some with backing and/or bindings, some without. Bin 3 is completed tops and several UFOs. There is a list for each bin. Mt. ToBeQuilted has been taken down and organized. I have A LOT of projects!

The top left bin is full of kits. Some I have bought, a few were given to me and several I have made up. The green and clear bins are projects in various stages. The shoe boxes have smaller projects in them. This is only one side of the room..........oh boy, what have I started!

At times I felt like I have taken on more than I can do. I thought I could do this in the 3 days Ernie was out of town. I always underestimate the time it takes for a big project. This reminds me of my son in law's favorite saying--"This will only take an hour, hour-ten at the most!" I figure I am about 1/3 of the way done. Hopefully by mid-week, we can start putting in the countertop/sewing table. Let's hope that will go faster than the taking things out. If it doesn't that's OK, I have nothing but time!

March Socks Are Finished

My March socks for the sock challenge are done! WooHoo!! These are called Dragonfly Socks. I started them back in January and finished them last night. This is the fabulous yarn I won from Judy L called Muscadine Sock from Springtree Road. I see there are new colors there...oh dear. I must be strong but gosh, that blue!!! I. Want. It. I must be strong......

I had such fun with the simple lace pattern of the Dragonfly Socks that I chose to use a different lace pattern called Into The Green Socks. I'm using Premier sock yarn from my stash for this pair. I had planned to try 2 socks at once, toe up but I'm having a devil of a time with the cast on. Maybe I will try that one next month with some thicker yarn. Maybe I just need to sit down a concentrate for a while and I will figure it out.

See the red rectangle in the photo. That is a Clover Knitting Counter Kacha-Kacha I had no clue it had the words Kacha-Kacha in the name and that kind of makes me giggle. So I will call it the Kacha-Kacha from now on instead of the clicker. Anyhow....I like to use a magnet board to hold my instructions and I need to use the counter because I usually knit for just a few minutes at a time doing just a few rows (unless I just park myself in the chair for a while) and I am notorious for losing my place.

So last night when I lost my clicker for the 4th time, I remembered I have a bunch of magnets. I got one and the bottle of Weldbond and in just a minute, I had my problem solved. Wonder why it took me so long to think of this...

Oh and my blue sock blockers, a gift to myself from KnitPicks--you know I needed to get that free shipping!! Now I feel just like a real sock knitter............

Winner, Winner...

Linda Franz made an awesome tutorial on How To Make Finger Pincushions and if you left a comment, you could be a winner. I left a comment and I was a winner!

It's always a wonderful to find a surprise package in the mail box. See my fabulous blue finger pincushion in that cute little box and that gorgeous fabric printed with Inklingo shapes??? I have not tried Inklingo yet but I am going to soon.

Thank you Linda Franz for making my day! And for giving me something new to try. I love a good mail day.

Design Wall Monday

First, let me say how much I dislike the first 5 days of daylight savings time. Thanks, now I feel better about that!

Not much sewing going on around here. With the busy Saturday and babysitting Sunday, the only thing I sewed on with another house block.

I did spend some time making up a few little block kits. There are 4 sections for each block so I pinned some sets together and have some with the fabrics with them for when I want to sew for a few minutes.

This will be another slow week at the sewing machine. I am getting ready to move a bunch of stuff out of that room to do some rearranging and redoing. This has been needed for quite some time and I'm very excited about it.

Go over to Patchwork Times and see Judy's fabulous blocks on her wall and then visit with other fantastic quilters to see what they are up to.

Saturday Night Date

Last night was the annual Friends of NRA banquet for the local area. This is our 3rd year attending. There is a huge silent auction and then the oral auction.

This basket was call The Bread Basket. I though that a rather odd name because of all the garden goodies inside. But there is a gift certificate for a free loaf of bread a month from a bakery in Portland so that's why they named it that. I change the name to Mine!!! We bid on it a couple times and won the bid. There are 3 packages of garden seeds, green beans, radishes and carrots. Those will pay for the basket with the amount of beans and carrots that will be preserved this year. Plus there are 3 garden books and lots of knick knacks.

The first year we went to this, I took my knitting. The second year there were a few other knitters and last night, I think I may have been the only one again. I just can't sit there, it makes me nuts. So before we left home, I cast on this scarf and knit a few rows before arriving at the dinner. Then with visiting, wandering around and dinner, I didn't get started until the oral auction began. So a little progress was made and this will go into my to go bag for car trips or other occasions I can work on it.

My Day So Far

I'm having one of those days. I don't like those kind of days. I didn't sleep well last night. We watched the Sons of Guns show and I kept having wacky dreams about them. Why would they contact me to make them quilt blocks to shoot at??? Told you it was wacky!

I was reading Pokey's blog yesterday and couldn't stop thinking about those cute little houses. So I played in EQ7 for a while and drafted my own paper piecing pattern. Right after Ernie left this morning I pulled out a bag of bright scraps and started playing. I can't wait to play more but I really need to get the crumb quilt finished today.

After checking on the baby chicks--it's always good luck when they make it through night one--then feeding the hens and changing out the water, I got busy in the kitchen.

I took spaghetti sauce out of the freezer and did a quick thaw in the microwave and put it in the crockpot--it's not as thick as I like it to be so it can cook down more until dinner time. Then I decided to cook some Italian sausage and add it to the sauce. Heck, I have 2 packages in the fridge so I cooked both of them. I put some in the sauce and now when it is cool enough, I will package the rest of it up and put it in the freezer for the next spaghetti day or to put on pizza or put in an egg/veggie casserole.

Do you do that??? I precook hamburger and sausage then flash freeze them before putting them into zip bags. I usually have taco seasoned burger in the freezer too. Then I can take out the amount I want for a quick lunch or dinner.

While the sausage was cooking, I changed out the washer/dryer, folded clothes and put them away. Then the dog groomer called saying the boys could go in at noon for a bath and pedi.

Looks like my day is off to a great start. I'm about to head into the sewing room again and dance with the longarm.