Tuesday's Orts--September

Tuesday's Orts--random bits of thoughts and events that land here occasionally.

• National Sew a Jelly Roll Day found me needle deep in strip sets. 

 

I sewed and sewed and ironed and ironed.  Most of these prints are from the Civil War Homefront Jelly Roll.  Some 4 patches and also HSTs appeared but there is a lot of cutting, sewing, and trimming yet to be done before this pile of yummy prints turns into a bunch of Jewel Box blocks.

• My husband's birthday happened to coincide with that National Sew Day.  We went out to a favorite breakfast place, where he was gifted a huge cinnamon roll for his birthday.  I helped eat it. 

Who could resist those blue eyes?   The table behind us included four young boys in their party.  I was astonished to see them peeling back the foil of jelly packets and eating the jelly with a spoon.  Then they had chocolate milk and pancakes with syrup.  I predicted sugar comas for all. 

• Our grandsons both fell sick on Saturday, which meant their parents' plans to see a concert in LA were cancelled, but Mimi was recruited to watch the boys for a few hours so they could still have a night out locally--everybody wanted to watch some boxing match (not me!).  I got this photo prior to the request: 

Hunter (1 1/2) crashed out on the bean bag.  He's nearly 25 lbs and very busy.  He's suddenly saying short phrases and learning new words every day.  Mama gave him a haircut since that photo.  Big brother Cove was the sickest, hardly any color to his face and just miserable with a fever and cold symptoms.  They are better today but not completely well yet.

• One of the docs came in Monday morning and relayed a new phrase I'm going to have to steal: He reported that a relative of his was "On the top of his Fecal Roster".  lol
• Three years ago this happened: 

Lucy as a Sandwich Board advertiser.  I visit Lucy sometimes at DD Erica's house.   I miss Lucy greeting me every morning and demanding a cuddle before breakfast. 

• Traffic Rant:  Tailgaters who zoom up behind you and cling to your bumper despite speed limits and the lack of any alternate lane one can move to. 

Design Wall Monday--2/13/17

A few things on--and off--the design wall:

 

 Our Guild is 5 years old this month.  The challenge was to create a block with five things in it.  I chose Tri-Recs blocks.  I used my new V-Block ruler to trim them to perfect size. 

 DD Erica sent this pic of the Star-Crossed quilt in use. She wrote of her cat, "Lucy likes it" :)

Yesterday I finished the quilting on the Baby Flying Geese quilt.  I like it so far.  I've also prepared the binding so it will go on soon.

Another Guild project--gone wrong.  I sewed the smaller colored squares to the wrong size background.  I suppose this will give me "design opportunities" to finish the top!

A few minutes of stitching late Saturday afternoon produced another finish--Poinsettias and Pomegranates is finally done.  Only 6 years in the making!

See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times. 

It's Almost Christmas Already--Happy Holidays!

Here I am, catching up once again!  It has been a very busy month and I've meant a hundred times to get a post together.  Better late than never, I hope. 

Our quilt holiday meeting on December 8 was a lot of fun.  We had a potluck dinner, a drawing for gift cards, a Dirty Santa gift exchange game, the results of the crayon challenge, a fat quarter game, details of next month's ugly fabric challenge, show and share, and preview of a round robin that anyone could join.  My crayon challenge project turned out well, I thought.  My crayon colors were gold and yellow-green:

The colors are a bit off in this photo as the gold is much more gold in person.  The little trees were a bit frustrating to make at first, as I kept cutting them too wide at the base.  But I got the hang of it after about 6 of them :)  This runner is less than 24 inches wide so these are very small trees.  It's displayed on my coffee table for the season.

I won these great Gingher scissors in the gift bag exchange. We drew numbers and in turn picked a bag or wrapped gift at random from a table.  There was Dirty Santa stealing and my sister Kathy ended up with the most popular gift of the night, an Ott light, as only two steals were allowed.  These fat quarters came home with me in the game where we stood in a circle and passed the fat quarters to the next person every time the word "THE" was said in the "A visits from St. Nick" story being read.  Fun!  Next month's challenge is an ugly fabric one.  And boy, it is ugly.

Hideous shoes in hideous colors.  We are to make one 12.5" block--keeping the modern aesthetic in mind.  It's going to be tough!

Here's a nighttime shot of our tree this year.  I bought a new tree topper that is a reasonable facsimile of an expensive Capiz shell star.  Erica and I had quite a time with putting on the lights.  It took two store visits and two days to get all the lights we needed and then ON the tree.  We bought new LED ones this year and they look fine.  I can't seem to be able to stop buying new ornaments!  One day we may need that 9 foot tree Erica never stops asking for :)

Here's Lucy in her nest of tissue paper as we unwrapped the ornaments.  She loved it.

My early Christmas present to myself was swapped with my husband's early Christmas gift to himself, so we are both down one present to buy .  I bought him new pickups for his guitar :)  This tower of 40 fat quarters was jammed into a priority envelope, amazingly enough. Lots of yummy prints in this Minnick & Simpson collection.  With the great sale from Green Fairy Quilts, each fat quarter cost about $2.10.  Score!

Cove gets a handmade ornament from Mimi tomorrow.  I tried to make it more modern by doing a "negative space" version of the cross-stitch alphabet letters.  This stocking is about 6-7 inches long and I'm pretty pleased with it.   Here's the little devil standing alone for a number of seconds at 9.5 months (his mama helped him stand up).  He'll be 10 months at Christmas.
 

Still on the to-do list are the Holiday Newsletter with photo (which we haven't had taken yet), more shopping, wrapping, and all the celebrating!  I'll be working Monday and Tuesday but then won't have to work until the 29th.  Hope you are all enjoying the festive times and family gatherings.  Happy Holidays!

Mixed Bag Continues

The mixed bag of goings-on continues here at the Orts compound.  I couldn't stand the state of my sewing room anymore and spent last weekend wading through piles, bins, boxes, and more piles.  There was folding and sorting and shoving and tossing.

Many of the piles here, there, and everywhere were scraps that needed to be cut down.  I was ruthless in getting rid of scraps I never want to see again.  Do your scraps do that to you?  I was so sick of some of them! I shoved a bunch in a plastic bag and it will go to the charity shop; ones that were too thin, too stiff, or too small went into the trash.  I do not save strings, selvages, or anything smaller than 1.5" wide. The rest I cut to the sizes I had already set up: 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3.5".    They were sorted ROY G. BIV style and placed back in the drawers.  Larger scraps will be cut into 2.5 strips with my GO! cutter at a later date.  The eventual plan is to separate the precut squares from the strips for easier use.  There is also a drawer of neutral scraps that needs to be dealt with. 

To also cut down on visual clutter, I covered the cutting table with a king sized sheet to hide the bins/drawer stacker/tools, etc.  Lucy thought that was great fun (see her tail there on the left).  This blurry shot was me hurrying before she ran out, which she did, seconds later.  So, while I still have piles and unfinished projects, things are a bit neater.

Friday I worked an early shift and came home in time for DH and me to get out of the house for a sunset stroll on our city's pier, and dinner at a favorite restaurant.

The "marine layer" hanging offshore looked ready to roll in.  But there was no wind and it was warm out yet.

Orange-tinged selfie!

A few dozen surfers off the point, tiny specks.  There wasn't much wave action and most of them were just sitting on their boards, enjoying the sunset.  We had yummy fish tacos at Spencer Makenzie's and were home before eight.  We promised ourselves more of these types of workweek endings!

Mid September Report

This month is racing by even faster than last month, at least for me--tell me I'm not alone in feeling that way!  First, my sister in law Laura received her quilt in the mail and called me right away to thank me.  She had seen it person in flimsy stage, and only in pictures after, since I entered in the County Fair.   I love to have the new owners of my quilts smiling with their gift!  So pleased she loves it.

I'm still working on the 40 bags in 40 days idea and have gotten a few areas straightened away.  At least 12 bags went out the door to the charity shop one day, I've sorted a lot of mail, recycled magazines, folded and reorganized linens, and made lists of areas to tackle next with specific plans.  I've bought bins and slide out shelves and cleaned out the fridge.  If you like organizing, or need ideas, a fave blog of mine is IHeart Organizing.  Lots of DIY and simple wish-I'd-thought-of-that budget-easy ideas.  One of her ideas I lifted was bins for the fridge to hold like items.  I found some very inexpensive plastic bins with handles at Big Lots and have now corralled the yogurt/cottage cheese snacks into one, and put small leftovers in another--you know, those orts in plastic sandwich bags that get lost behind the eggs and go bad.  Isn't it great the ideas you can get from others? I'll share an idea my sister found novel, and one my mother introduced.

My sister said she had never thought of doing this, which I have done for years.  I cut through the packaged ground beef in the tray before browning for tacos, etc, just to help break it up more easily in the pan.

I often forget to, but my mom always does this to chip bags when the contents are low--cut the top the bag down.  A simple thing but one my brain had not thought of.  Another kitchen hint: I buy a stack or two of plain white, very cheap washcloths every year and keep them in my dishtowel drawer. When cleaning messes that are truly grimy and/or disgusting (cat gack, anyone?), I simply throw out the washcloth with the mess.  Having on hand a box of cheap disposable gloves for such messes is handy too.  And now, back to sewing.

This morning I finished up this set of placemats for my daughter's friend who is moving away for her senior year of college.  Simple wavy line quilting and machine binding.  I've had this poppy fabric for about 10 years but the green mottled fabric is from JoAnn's.

They are two-sided.  I used a green bottom thread when sewing down the binding.  Meanwhile, the Winding Ways project is continuing.  Some quilt MATH blew up in my face and I underestimated how much fabric I needed.  But it isn't a hardship for me to pick out more at the quilt shop :)

Lucy the cat has been keeping me company while I sew.  Her favorite spot is next to my floor lamp.  The addition of a plastic bag has made her heart go pitter pat.

She's been either in or on the sack for the past week!

Another Catchup--NQR*

*Not Quilt Related
So, I've been away from the blog again.  Seems to be an unfortunate pattern!   No sewing has been happening either, for a number of reasons.

Last week I left work midday on Wednesday to meet my husband at the ER where my 95 year old mother in law, Frances, had been taken.  She apparently had another episode of vertigo/dizziness/weakness walking in the hallway of her apartment at the retirement home, but did manage to make it to her bed, where she called out fruitlessly for help, then apparently passed out or fell asleep for a couple of hours. She telephoned for help when she awoke and an ambulance was called by the nursing staff.  No stroke, no abnormalities they could find at the ER, and after a couple of hours she was released home.  We were advised she probably needed more nutrition and more hydration.  While Grant went back to work, I spent the rest of the day taking her to get something to eat since she had missed both breakfast and lunch, and taking her home, where I found her missing hearing aid hidden.  Then I went to the store for snacks and water, Ensure, a prescription for Antivert, and back to her apartment.  Anyway, she seems recovered but is getting very forgetful these days.  She did not remember that we took her to the ER for this same problem several months ago, when they ruled out a stroke.  She sleeps a lot and eats less.  She often says, "I'm ready to go, the good Lord can take me any time". We're checking on her more often now. 

Frances on her 90th birthday, five years ago

And now I've gotten a summer cold, causing me to spend the weekend mostly on the couch or in bed.  Yesterday was the worst, but I didn't think a coughing, nose-blowing medical staff member is quite appreciated, so I stayed home today.  Maybe by tonight my ears will pop so I can hear again!

Meanwhile, I've been making lists of quilting projects and their needs, and also home organizing projects.  Have you heard of the 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge?  Well, I hadn't either until I stumbled across it while on Bloglovin.  The idea is related to Spring cleaning, but spread out over essentially the period of Lent.  That challenge period having passed months ago, it is still a good way to systematically go through your house/garage/attic/basement, etc., in a less overwhelming way.  I decided to start in our bedroom, since it has turned into a dumping ground.  Picture frames, magazines, books, linens, blankets, clothes, and things that didn't have a home.  My husband also liked the idea and together we purged a number of bags, for a good start on the 40 bags.  Today I called for the donation truck and hope to have a number of additional bags to add to the constant accumulation of donation items hiding behind a quilt thrown over the upstairs railing :)    Next room is our office (shudder) and then the music room closet (a true catchall). 

My hardest thing to get rid of is family heirloom-type items.  But we have TOO MUCH STUFF, unused and just taking up storage space.  Some tough decisions will have to be made regarding certain items...many of which came to us from my MIL when she sold her home 10 years ago and moved to the retirement home, like these:

Hand painted gold-rimmed bowl, made in Germany, treasured and displayed for many years by my MIL in her home. This may have belonged to her mother before her, as it is quite old.

Gold rimmed and decorated plate, another vintage piece from my MIL.  Lucy the cat is much newer, only two years old :)

Or, especially, several of these:

This mink stole was handed down to my MIL by HER MIL, who was my husband's paternal grandmother.
 

 

 Purchased no doubt at the fancy Downtown Los Angeles Bullocks Wilshire many decades ago.

Her name is embroidered in several of the furs we now have.  Grandma Rose was of French blood.  She passed away sometime in the early 1970's so I never met her, though Grant's grandfather lived to be in his mid 90's and met two of our three children.  What do we do with this and several other real furs?  Hard to decide, so there they hang, unused.  I'd appreciate some ideas, should anyone have some!  And now, back to blowing my nose :)

RWB Finish

I abandoned the alternate option of another colorway on the back of the RWB table scarf I started on the 4th, in favor of more of the same. 

Here's the original front. 

And alternate RWB back. Just a stitch and turn project, very quick. Glad I kept it simple :)

We did some shopping over the holiday, coming home with a new BBQ and some necessary grandparent furniture. 

Lucy liked the Pack n Play. I'm all set to babysit. That grandson of ours is already trying to crawl, at 4.5 months. On the move, Cove is!

Crafts with Cats

Or, Letter Fun with Felines, starring Amelie and Lucy. 

Full coverage. 

Hat. 

Tattoo. 

Interpretive dance. 

B-hold. 

Halloween Report

Weird year for our street--started late, ended early, long gaps between groups. We were left with two unopened bags of candy. Very dangerous thing. 

Lucy dressed up. 

Amelie didn't really want to.  

My sister said there were a couple of haunted houses a few streets over so that must have held the trick-or-treaters up. Erica was handing out handfuls of treats at the end. It was all over before 8:30.  Next year will be different, I'm sure!

One Word Wednesday

Helping. 

Desert Delivery

My quick trip to the Arizona desert was good!  DD Erica drove and even provided "Mom-friendly" music, as she put it, via her i-Pod.  We approached downtown Phoenix just as a terrific storm blew in. 

Erica thought at first that it might be a haboob, or massive dust storm, but with the wind came rain, thunder and lightning.  "Welcome to sunny Phoenix!", said Erica.

It was fast moving and lent a beautiful tinge to the sunset as we headed out to dinner at a favorite local Italian restaurant called Andreoli's, where we celebrated her best friend and roommate Christy's birthday.

I met Lucy, Erica's very friendly 8 month old kitten.  This is one of her favorite perches, among many, including the top of the refrigerator, and Erica's shoulder.   

Lucy found the plastic bag holding my handwork very interesting as well.

My brother Ted and sister in law Laura are in the middle of having a house remodeled and led me on a tour.  This is the great room, which is open to the kitchen.  French doors on the left and right walls will open to the front courtyard and the back patio, respectively.  The wood beams were stained very dark and give a Spanish feel to the two rooms.  Travertine floors keep it light and bright and I just love all the arches.  They added a partial second story with a balcony off their master suite with amazing views of the surrounding desert valley and mountains of Scottsdale.

The house's original living room got a beautiful coved ceiling and is such an inviting room with all of its windows and light.  It may become the formal dining room but that has yet to be decided.   While I was in town the outside of the house was painted, hence the plastic covering the many windows and doors.  Ted was impressed with how cool the house felt with the new double glazed windows and insulated walls.  Though it was about 95 degrees outside, the house was comfortable without any air conditioning.  They should be able to move in by July, and Ted said, "But no one will want to visit then because of the heat!" 

Palo verde tree and blooming ocotillo outside the restaurant we lunched at yesterday, where Laura was kind enough to invite me to join her and her friends Barb and Ellen.  They have regular crafting days together and will soon get to enjoy the views from the Lady Cave studio upstairs at the new house.

My brother Ted posing with his flannel-backed quilt in 99 degree weather. The coffee beans quilted into it were roasting!

And an Indian blanket style pose.  He loved the quilt and I'm glad I delivered it in person.  

Lucy liked it too!