Monday, September 9, 2013

Big Batik Blocks on Design Wall Monday

I actually had time to turn on my sewing machine and was able to sew together a couple more rows on this quilt. The pattern is by Jaybird Quilts and is called Ballerina.


This is half of the rows and it is going together very well. I'm getting most of the points to come out close to perfect on the first try. Now this is a big big quilt - so big it won't fit on my design wall and it puddles on the floor.


I will be trimming these blocks at the top and bottom before I send it off to be quilted. And here is a close up of some to the center blocks - I'm really loving these batiks.


So off to organize and sort more stuff for the move. Hope you have a great week!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Some much needed slow stitching on Sunday

After all the craziness of the last two weeks (although it seems like it was a lot longer than that) I treated myself to some slow stitching time today. I have snuck in a few stitches here and there that I haven't shown so here is where I am today. I have the borders of every single section of BBD's Anniversaries of the Heart finished.


Oh it is looking so good. It measures 18" high by 26 3/4" wide and will probably cost a small fortune to have it framed but it will be worth every penny. I did see an 65% off coupon in my Joann's ad, so I might go up and pick out the molding and pay for it and Bev will hold it for me till I get the whole thing done.

I still need to go back and add the birth dates and other personalization, and it will take some time to do all of the over one thread stitching that it will require.

Here's a close up of December, entitled "Elizabeth Jane." I think in that bottom section I going to add "when this you see" as I don't have any December birthdays in my family tree.




And this is the last section - a double one called "For Those Recorded Here."


It was nice to find a little spot of quiet today. I'm not sure the next couple of weeks will have a lot of that, but we'll see. I am so chomping at the bit to get things moved into my new place. I was in the house yesterday and they floors had been stained and they looked gorgeous. I'm not sure how much polyurethaned had been put on, but I will say it was potent - made my eyes water. Glad I'm not trying to live there yet. And for more positive news - I got my car back from the repair shop in 3 days. They put a new hood on the car as the tree limb had dented it pretty hard and repainted the front fender. Good as new! And they cleaned the inside of my car - OMG!! it was quite messy and now it looks and smells like I just bought it. I had no idea they would do that. Needless to say I'll be recommending them to any of my friends who need body work for their cars.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Friday, September 6, 2013

Crazy socks....crazy life

So the last week hasn't provided much opportunity for fun pursuits but I did manage to knit up another pair of crazy socks. I think these socks are a metaphor for my life at the moment, because at every corner some other crazy crisis has reared its head.

Like the first pair of crazy socks this pair is an amalgamation of bits and bobs left over from other sock knitting projects.


I love this pair as much as the first pair I did, and that's saying a lot since I'm not normally big on purple. I do like the bits of olive and teal and orange and gold. I think they are nice accents. A couple of people asked how was was dealing with all the joins and I'm just tying the yarns together. I tie a knot when I add a new yarn but I don't tie it tightly. Then after I've knit a bit further I snug the knot up a bit and when I'm totally finished if it needs a bit more slack taken out I re-tie it and then weave in the ends. I found this video - you can see it here - which shows a sort of double slip knot that claims it won't come apart and you don't have any ends to weave in. Well, I'm a bit skeptical. I've tried tying it this way but it doesn't always work for me, and I'm leery of no ends, so I weave my in at the end. Yes it takes a while but I'm a sort of belts and suspenders kinda gal and I like knowing if something did come undone I'd have yarn to fix it. I do think that I will hand wash these socks instead of tossing them in the washer like I do with most of my socks, but I will still just dry them in the dryer.

And and update for those of you who are still following the saga of my house renovation - on the plus side the new front door was put on and I LOVE it, and the hardwood floors were sanded. And they should have been stained and polyurethaned by now but there was another setback. A faucet in the upstairs bathroom was left on slightly and the drain stopper was pulled shut and you know where this is going.... the sink overflowed onto the bathroom floor and out into the hallway of sanded yet unfinished hardwood, soaked through to the ceiling below and onto the new laminate in the basement causing a portion to buckle. All work on the hardwood stopped so it could dry out and we're hoping for the laminate to dry out and flatten or it will have to be replaced - about 1/3 of the room - arghh!!!

And in my current home the AC had something freeze up, which caused something else to back up and leak water all over the carpet in the finished basement. Waiting for AC repair guy as I type.

And my husband got released from the hospital with a sheaf of prescriptions, the most important of which was a channel blocker. Filling said prescription for the channel blocker involve paying out of pocket for 18 pills at $10 a pills - $180 - since at 9pm in the local pharmacy the insurance company refused to pay for the medication. Trying again the next day to get this out of pocket covered and obtain the additional 66 pills he needed without paying $10 a pill,involved dozens calls to the pharmacy (who were very helpful), his primary care doctor, his neurosurgeon and the insurance company who was exasperating!!!! I spent over 20 hours trying to get this resolved and get him more medication. His instructions when he was released were to avoid stress, I wish I had been given the same instructions. Oh the $10 a pill meds - never did get covered - ended up with a different prescription that cost a grand total of $16 -- I just about screamed!



Happy knitting-
carol fun

Monday, September 2, 2013

A Three Ring Circus in more ways than one

Well what have I been up to the last week or so? Probably not what you think. For all my friends who hoped my silence meant I was moving into my house, hold that thought. The renovation is very very close to being complete. The hardwood floors are scheduled to be refinished this week. The bathrooms are to be finished this week. And the kitchen counters are to be installed early the following week. The bump in the road I talked about before is getting resolved but it involves punching holes in walls that were finished and now will have to be redone - such are the problems of renovating old houses.

My youngest son started back to college classes. Always a stressful time, as changes in routines are unsettling for him. But on a positive note he does seem to really like his classes.

We had some stormy weather the other night and some big limbs on the trees in front of my son's house came crashing down...on his driveway and lamp post...and on the hood of my car. It looks like it will need some body work. I'll be calling our insurance agent tomorrow and let them sort it out as they carry both my son's homeowners insurance and my car insurance.

But the event that has consumed most of my time has to do with my husband...perhaps the luckiest guy alive with the ability to just miss a major medical event. Two years ago, he avoided a severe heart attack, having 2 stents in emergency surgery. Last week he avoided having a stroke, arriving at the hospital with a severe headache, vomiting, a blood pressure reading of 204/90 and a bleed in his brain that was caught on a CAT scan. He has been told that most patients who arrive at the hospital in this condition, don't often leave in good shape, or at all. They've done several MRIs and he does not have an aneurysm, nor any signs of a stroke. He does have a pool of blood in a ventricle area which luckily did not fill entirely and is now draining. They have gotten his blood pressure down to the lowest readings he's had in years. I don't want to go into all the details but this health crisis is made more complicated by our rocky relationship at this time. Thank you to all my dear friends who have left me vent about this hot mess I have found myself in.

And now for something HAPPY!! I finally got the binding on my Scrappy Trips quilt I call "Three Ring Circus" - a metaphor for this quilt and my life right now.


This quilt finished 72" square. If you'd like to see some close ups of the fabrics I used check them out here and here and here. Cass Plott quilted this one for me and she used a pantograph that has chickens and chicken wire. It was hard to get a good picture of this so use your imagination as you view the photo below.


I found this great fabric in my stash. Polka dots and bigger dots - a very happy finish.


So I'm thinking that the next month is going to be a very busy one for me. I'm hoping to start moving stuff late next week. My contractor's crew has already started assembling furniture for my studio - 5 big bookcases, a cutting table (which is a kitchen island piece from IKEA), a couple of tables and a little filing cabinet which I'm going to use for a work surface and storage. All those dear friends who've left me vent have also volunteered to help me move too -- I have the BEST friends!

Hope things in your life are going smoothly - I soooooo want less drama in my life!
Happy stitching-
carol fun