March.... March.... March

Sweetie and I had the grandsons over 
for sleepover a couple of weeks ago,
and at the ages of five and three,
it seems as though they can always teach me something.
For instance, did you know that 
March comes after Jan-bary? 
And that Moms and Grandmas use 
the wintertime (wintertime is after Christmas) 
to march around and clean up the house?  
And that's why it's called March - 
march, march, marching orders, you know!  Cracking me up!!

Guess I do normally, kind of use the time before 
Spring arrives to do some clean up. lol
My own 'marching orders' 
(after putting away all the Christmas decor)
is to get out the Winter stuff - snowmen and snowflakes,
wintery table toppers, etc.
And as of today, we are finally getting
some WINTER WEATHER!! SNOW HAS ARRIVED!! 
(Finally Winter! And I'll enjoy it as long as it lasts!) 
But soon, since Spring's arrival is just around the corner of the week,
all that snowy decor will come down and 
it will be time to put out the Spring-y table toppers 
and bouquets, bunnies and chicks.
Do you do a seasonal change over?

In the quilting department, I've also been taking time to continue piecing the
little one-inch stamps
of my 42-Cents Forever Stamp quilt.
Eighty stamp blocks made, and the alternate
piecing strips and blocks are ready to piece together, too.
It does look rather Spring-like,
so I guess I'm March, March, Marching ahead toward Spring!    

Hope you're enjoying your end of Winter, too!

smiling, quilting into February

January left Ohio Spring-like,
February came in like Spring-time,
and our Buckeye Chuck, the groundhog, got to see his shadow,
so maybe we'll still get some Winter weather around here
while it's supposed to be Winter time!
Not being snowed in and freezing is NOT
conducive (for me anyway) to getting much quilting done!!!

No excuses, really, but I'm missing my Winter, 
and cuddling under a quilt that I'm hand quilting or binding!!!
It's leaving me not stitching a whole lot with the nice, sunshiny weather. 😎

I've been playing in my Civil War repro fabric scraps a little,
and getting some small pieces sewn into blocks, but slow progress.

I have quilted a few more quilts for others...
here's a recent one, by a new quilter, Heather:

She made a T-shirt for a colleague's daughter's birthday, and it turned out GREAT!
I had fun quilting it, too! Here are a few pics of some of my fun...
Free-hand, long-arm fun:

 Funny story about this raspberry pink t-shirt block -

As I meandered over one corner, I smelled something, but I didn't really pay attention, just kept on meandering.  On the return pass of quilting, I came upon the smell again, and I stopped.  Looked around. Sniffed the air. Did a double-take, and then a double-sniff-in-the-air.  Yep, something smelled fruity!!  
So I leaned over the long-arm machine and sniffed the quilt.  Felt the t-shirt, sniffed again.  And burst out laughing!  It was a scratch and sniff t-shirt!!!  Rather raspberry-like in smell. That had me smiling the rest of that day.  

And I'm smiling again today, as I see the photo. I can just picture myself, sniffing around the long-arm, in the sunny quilting room, thinking about smelling fresh fruit, JUST like I was standing in the raspberry patch at grandma's long time ago.  

Hope your new week and February, too, are bringing you smiles!
Happy Stitching!!

mid January no-snow-blues

First, can you believe it's ALREADY mid January??
I've been busy, busy! A good kind of busy, though...
all the holiday decor is down and put away.
The weather is being weird here in central Ohio... 
lots of dreariness, but no snow.
Since there's no snow for real, 
I put up decorations that remind me that it is really Wintertime:

Snowy Days I made with wool on cotton, hand stitched & quilted 
(pattern by Heart to Hands)

And you know what that means when there's 
no snow predicted here for most of the month?
Means we'll probably have it later, into Spring.

German candy container snowman, backdrop of glass snowflakes ❆❅❄

Speaking of cleaning up and moving forward,
I have some finished quilt pictures to move out of my photo storage and share.
This is a quilt that I got to meander over for Colleen!

I quilted it mid-November, but she was out of town for a while. Then, multiple times the icy weather conspired against us meeting up.  Anyway, she has it now, so I can share it here!
Lovely Wm. Morris fabrics! 

There's more to share in the finished quilt department, 
but I'll just finish with this for today:
I've begun (again 🤣) organizing the sewing room space, 
and cutting scraps at the same time:

More on that, later!
Happy mid-January, 2017!!

What a beautiful storm

I may have mentioned before that I 
LOVE Winter...
I snapped this picture this past Wednesday morning:

Snowy and blustery... but clear, blue skies...
just love it all! 🙂
And I MAY have been told this before -
more than once:

Funny, I think.  But I do love the snow and cold.
Snow storms and bitter temps means a little more stitching time here, usually.  So maybe that's why I like the snow?

I've not been working on my own quilts much, but finishing up some customer meanderings.
Janet asked me to meander over these two quilts for her twin nephews:

 I didn't realize they were actually TWIN quilts until I put the photos here!!! lol  EXACT twins for twins!

and a couple of closeups:

Funny, that I didn't realize they were EXACTLY the same quilt made twice, until after I'd quilted and returned them to her, and put the pictures here.  I did load one with the green stars at the top, and the other with the green stars at the bottom, so they didn't seem the same when I meandered over them.

She's such a perfect piecer and presser - its always a pleasure to meander over her quilts!
(I also have another quilt of hers finished and ready to give her, so I'll share it next time, after I get it to her on Monday.)

And I'll finish with pictures of my Christmas tree - 
first the family trek over hill and dale to find the perfect tree:

family tree trek 2016 - that's our tree behind the group

And how it stands right now, with lights and berries and popcorn:

Ladder and ornament trunk at the ready!!!
Thanks for visiting, and I hope you all are staying safe, 
toasty warm and getting in some stitches!!

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday & naps

Another week -
the second week of the year is almost gone already!!
And, it's still 'Igloo cold' here in central Ohio.

I had a break from my quilting,
as I got to keep the grand-kiddos aka: the little guys
while Sonnyboy and his beautiful wife-y had the chance to go to 
the National College Football Championship Game in Texas.
Way to go Ohio State Buckeyes!!

It was a wonderful Sunday, Monday, Tuesday for me.
But now I know why the Good Lord has the young having babies!
Man-O-Man am I bushed!!!
They are good grand-kiddos -
a three year old and a molar-teething one year old that's walking
kept me on my toes (and out of sleep :)!
I am so blessed that they live close and love to come to GrandmaB's!
And Sweetie and I were able to watch the final playoff game from our easy-chairs after grand-kiddos went beddy-bye.

Anyway, what all that means is that my in-progress quilting project - Flags of the American Revolution, got stacked and piled onto the sewing table in my quilt studio (aka: spare room, aka: Sonnyboy's old bedroom).
Here's the layout of blocks before said stacking and piling:

I still don't have the quarter-square-triangles on my center eagle medallion...
I'm going with 'I'm still auditioning fabric colors'. :)
Note: the folded fabrics on top of some blocks?
That is the backing fabric for each block.
Yes, each block's backing, 
as I've decided to do this quilt in the hot-pad method,
with knife-edged sides 
(more on that later).

Now that the grand-kiddos are back home with their parents 
and I've had a nap,
I've unstacked the previously stacked and piled project
to work on the rest of this week.
But maybe with another nap scheduled in.

Happy Tuesday and Happy Stitching!

burning the midnight oil aka Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice is today.
A time of celebration -
welcoming in the season of Winter!
Since there is no snow outside, and I'm missing it,
I took a couple of pics of one of my favorite snowy wall hangings.

 (Snowy Days pattern by Heart to Hand)

I made it a few years ago (maybe 2011?) with wool on cotton, 
and hand appliqued it.
Then I hand-quilted, using not only cotton quilting thread, but wool yarn to add some big stitch quilting.  Isn't it just a great pattern?  Especially to show on the day of the Winter Solstice?

Here in the northern hemisphere,
Winter Solstice means it's the shortest day of the year.
Boo.
BUT, that also means it's the longest night of the year!
Yippee!!
So I'll be burning the midnight oil
(do people still know what that means?)
working on my commissioned quilt project.
My goal is to get this quilt to the point 
that I can put it on the long-arm machine today.
Maybe even start the quilting, 
so I can bind it tomorrow and deliver it Tuesday!
Yep, burning the midnight oil, for sure!
How are you doing on your holiday preparations?

Happy Winter Solstice everyone!

Merlot! Pinot! Moscato!

Merlot, Pinot, Moscato...
am I the only one who thinks that
the names of types of wines sound like cussin'?

Wine, wine, wine
(really, whine, whine, whine).
Yes, please, I'd like some cheese with that.

Two weeks ago

my tooth extraction went well -

 I guess, as well as any tooth pulling can go.

Backstory:

the molar in question, years ago, had had a crown,

then a root canal. 

Then the crown came off & took a part of the remaining tooth shell along with it.

Lately, just for fun, it became abscessed. 

And, to top that off, I have a sensitivity to the 'caine' family of drugs,

so I get to 'sleep' during major dental procedures. 

By the way - when you awaken from this 'sleep',
you KNOW exactly,

I mean EXACTLY
what was happening in that dental chair.
For days.

So, a little more
wine whine from me:
Shiraz! and Cabernet!

Yep, you guessed it:

now there is a whopper of an infection.

 Sauvignon!     Chardonnay!     Riesling!

And, finally,
the antibiotics are now causing 'issues'.
Zinfandel, anyone?

OK, that's enough  feeling sorry for myself
(and 'cussing' err, wine-ing whining).

I'll go back to talking about the weather.

  

There's another Winter storm hitting the U.S.-

another blast from the Polar Vortex.

 

Although there is another winter blast today,

this time I'm talking quilt blocks by the same name.

I've ended up making five Polar Vortex blocks,

all with different snowy fabrics, 

and they are almost a runner. 

I think another border and it will be time to layer and quilt.

(the block pattern was HERE: Nancy/Blogging, near Philadelphia
Thanks, again, Nancy!)

Not much to show for a week, but better than nothing. 
I'll sure be glad when I'm back up to speed. 
And off the wine/whine. :)

Hope everyone is safe and warm during the latest Winter storm.
I'm off to get some white cheddar! :)
Happy Stitching!

brrr, baby

So, the Polar Vortex
has come to town!

Polar Vortex...

sounds like a good movie, doesn't it?

Well, it is not.

Not by a long shot!

The weatherman just described central Ohio as 'artic tundra'
and I guess it probably does compare...
as the high yesterday was -8 degrees Fahrenheit.
With the wind chill it was minus 40 to 50 for most of the daylight hours.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Below Zero.
Brrrrrrrr.

Here's the nice thermal long-john shirt
that I got for Christmas:

This is what I'm wearing today.
With my silk long johns underneath it.

That pretty much explains it, I think.

I sure am thankful for
a home, & heat & running water & warm cozy fires.
I'm thankful for a slow-cooker filled with chili
and a cast-iron skillet of cornbread.
I'm thankful for my pink thermal long-john shirt.
I'm also thankful for a good mug of hot cocoa:

(: My homemade hot cocoa
with whipping cream and shaved, dark chocolate.
Oh, and my supply of Airbourne in the back :)

Hope you are all cozy and warm if you are also experiencing this cold snap.

chilly, chili, stew and stitch...

Yes, it is more than chilly outside -
it's way below freezing here in central Ohio.
Blowing snow and wind chill?
In my mind, that makes for a good weekend
to stay in and do some stitching!

I'm working on connecting my Lucy Boston Blocks!

YAY! 

All of those little, one inch squares,
all of the same color and not fussy-cut sure
are monotonous!
So while stitching mindlessly,
I'm thinking
that for this chilly day
I'd make up a big pot of chili.

I got some of my prepared ground beef out of the freezer...
dropped it into the slow cooker,
added three quarts of my canned tomatoes
and a cup of tomato paste...
stirred in a dash of this and a handful of that
along with another couple dashes of the really good stuff...
and put the lid on it.
Almost time for it to 'stew'.
Drop in the beans and cover and simmer for the day!
Yum! 

I went to back to the pantry for
the kidney beans and black beans.
Guess what?  Not a single bean to be found!
My pantry is bean-less!
All I found in the bean section were some dried beans -
a mixture of 7 different kinds of dried beans...
which would be great if I had a ham hock in the slow cooker.

Bummer!
And it's smelling so good in here already!
I had already grabbed the cornmeal, too,
looking forward to whipping up some cornbread 
so I could pull it out of the oven tonight
when the chili was ready to dish up.

I've never made bean-less chili before. 
Doesn't sound very appealing...

I did get hold of Sweetie though. 
And he agreed that
kidney beans and black beans should go into chili. 
So on his way home late this afternoon,
he will stop by the grocery and grab some beans.
So we can have chili on this chilly night.

Disaster averted :)
and I'm going back to stitching
while my so far, bean-less chili stews simmers, awaiting it's beans.

Here's hoping you can stitch a little, too,
on this chilly, chili day!

brrr... and taking stock of LUCY

Although the calendar

doesn't yet say it's Winter,

the weather outside says differently!

 

With the snow falling, I decided to take stock of my Lucy blocks:

Though the cable and internet was
almost non-existent this past week,
I sure am thankful that the electric has been on
the entire time!
Along with the abnormally below-freezing temps,
there has been plenty of accumulation of the white stuff.
Here's a picture of this week's snowfall:

So, with no internet or cable

to distract me this week,

I pulled out ALL of my

finished Lucy Boston

Patchwork of the Crosses blocks.

Key word there is FINISHED.

 

Guess what I found?

 

This entire stack of blocks...

THAT. HAVE. NO. BORDERS!!!

That doesn't look like many blocks without muslin borders, does it?

 

Oh, I knew that I had a 'few' blocks without

their borders.

I just didn't know that the number

of incomplete blocks was

twenty!!!

Here they are,

all spread out:

All spread out it looks like I still have a WHOLE bunch of bordering to do, doesn't it?

Though they sure are pretty, if I do say so myself,
they would be prettier if they all had their borders. :)

I hope your 'Winter' weather is good,
that your heat is on if you need it,
and your needle is flying.
After I throw some more wood into the stove,
that's where I'm heading -
to make my needle fly!

winter sunshine

Someone brought me some

Florida fresh tomatoes...

Toast with (room temp) tomato

and a couple of shavings of sharp white cheddar cheese on the side.

The breakfast of champions

here in cold, wintry, blizzardy Ohio.

:)  yum