Getting over the Blahs.

I have had a bad case of the blahs for the past week or more. No sewing getting done, house a mess, and the Christmas money went to fix the car. Well not quite all of the money, but I don't know what to get for anyone with the limited amount I have left. We're determined to not use credit cards for Christmas. But things started to feel more like Christmas today. We cleaned and rearranged to make room for the Christmas tree...artificial and getting kind of old. Something had gotten into the box and built a nest, but moved out. One of the branch holders broke, but we figured we'd make it work. But while "fluffing" the branches I noticed a smell...leftover from the animal that nested there. Unacceptable!!! The tree is now in the trash trailer awaiting the next trip to the dump. But I knew Mom wasn't putting her tree up and called and borrowed it. It's older and more decrepit than ours was, but Katy has it fixed up pretty nice using her faithful duct tape and some green floral wire. Then she wrapped Jamie's "security blanket" around the base for fun. He demanded it back when he went to bed. LOL!! Jamie is 22 and engaged to be married and the blanket is a comforter Grandma made for him when he moved into a "big boy" bed at age 3.
I decided to sing in the choir at church for Christmas day Mass and went to rehearsal tonight. Singing Christmas music helps pick up the spirit. We came home and got lights on the tree....Tomorrow morning we'll decorate. I have fabric ready to make Johnny a vest for Christmas. I need to pick out a pattern and make a skirt for Katy. RoseE could use something new to wear too if I can decide what and have time. If Katy doesn't get something made for Ginger I will make her a jumper...I found a nice floral corduroy in the cupboard and very simple pattern of the right size.

Carolina Crossroads Step 3 started

I began cutting strips for step 3 of the mystery quilt, and also cutting other scraps into usable strips . I'm beginning to make a little headway in getting the scraps into an organized usable form. Thanks to Bonnie Hunter at quiltville.com for the inspiration!

Hot Tub Caution

I'd seen warning at the gym about not using the hot tub if you are on blood pressure medication...but didn't think it applied to just soaking in the bathtub. After using the chain saw for a while Wednesday, I woke up at 3am with terrible muscle pain and decided to soak in the tub. It helped greatly. However when I got out of the tub and stood up, I suddenly felt nauseous and dizzy, so I sat down on the toilet. Next thing I knew I was flat on my face on the cold floor. Got a fat lip, and sore chin and nose. Our PA friend called it Orthostatic Hypotension.

Oklahoma Ice Storm

Sunday we had an ice storm. Thunder, lightning, rain and freezing temperatures. trees were coated with ice. Not too badly at our place: lots of dead branches fell off, one tree split in two from the weight of the ice. But we were on the edge of it all. OKC area looks like a tornado went through ripping trees and left houses alone. News Monday had 500,000 homes in Oklahoma without power. We joined that number 8:30 Monday evening. Without power the well stops pumping, so we filled pitchers with water, lit candles, kept a fire going in the wood stove and waited. Power has never been down here for longer than 4 hours....but when I called in the outage I was given a 2-3 days estimate. The other power companies in the area were saying 7-10 days! Well, OEC came through in fairly good time. Power was restored this morning at 10:30. We borrowed a generator on Tuesday, so we had limited power (water, refrigeration, lights). But life was still so discombobulated. Laundry couldn't be done. that's a major issue in a house with 9 people living in it! Seem it took all my time to cook, do dishes, and keep the fire going. How did the pioneers do it? It's what they were used to, and they had the proper equipment. I could and would have done some sewing had I had a treadle machine and enough oil lamps to provide the light needed!

Carolina Crossroads Mystery Nine-patches done!

Here they are. 100 nine-patch blocks with the accent colors in the corner. My picture is a bit dark, but you get the idea. I can't wait to see what Bonnie has us do next. This is definitely going to be a scrappy quilt...The only other Mystery quilt I've ever done was a 3 fabric quilt...not my style at all, so I'm loving being able to do a scrappy mystery quilt!

Bedtime report 12-06-07

Time to head to bed, but I thought I'd post a report of the day first. I spent most of the morning on the computer, with the kids taking turns doing lessons at my side. This seems to be developing into a routine and works rather well except I need to get off my rear and walk around more often! This afternoon I had to balance Mom's checkbook, and then I cut some more 1.5" strips. Decided on pastel blues and greens for my lights and am hoping I have enough left for the next step. I managed to get a few sewn together, before going out for the evening and am set to sew tomorrow afternoon. Church tomorrow evening early, but maybe more sewing in the later evening hours. Saturday brings a trip to Texas with Mom to see Nieces Vicky and Emily's play at school...so no sewing. I really need to get a few plans for Christmas presents together, and get myself moving on making gifts...I didn't empty any scrap bins today....I may be a few days before I check in again and update with any progress.

Jamie and Annie's Wedding Quilt

My son Jamie will be marrying his sweetheart Annie on June 20. I asked them what colors they'd like for a quilt and they chose blue and brown. I designed this using 2 of Judy Martins patterns in her new Log Cabin Quilts book. It will be a queen sized quilt and contains over 6000 pieces. I'm using a single beige print and light blue mottled fabric for the rings and the rest will be as scrappy as i can make it...I've been collecting brown and blue scraps from friends to supplement my own. The largest piece is cut 1.5" x 7.5" (in the border) and there are lots of 1.5" squares- 1.5"x 3.5" rectangles in the blocks.

Quiltville Mystery

Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville.com is in the midst of getting ready to move in the middle of the busy holiday quilting time. So like any of us who are addicted to quilting her way to cope with stress is to start a new quilt project! Not only that, she decided to share it with all of her online quilting buddies and make it a long term (6-8 weeks or whatever it takes) mystery project. And now it has really taken off. She set up a Yahoo list to have chat about it and in just a few days there are close to 800 members...most of whom are crazy enough to join in on this project despite having a gazillion other things we "should" be doing.

I decided I would do this quilt. I was in a bit of a slump and needed a motivator project. I need to get my sewing room organized, sort my stash, cut scraps into usable strips and squares, and also get started on my DS's wedding quilt. I am combining all of these...using scraps for the quilt and organizing my bins as I cut and sort. I'm finding some fabrics for Jannie's (Jamie and Annie's) Quilt and setting them aside.

I finished step one yesterday evening...100 mini rail fence blocks...and also sewed a few blocks for a Sunshine Guild Challenge. Step two was posted this morning...100 mini 9-patch blocks and cutting a few 3.5 inch filler squares. So it's back to the fabric bins to cut some more strip and squares. I'm shooting for emptying, sorting and cutting 1 bin of scraps per day, then on to the shelves and drawers!

Finally! I'm Blogging!

Well, I finally decided to set up a blog. Mostly for quilting, but I imagine the kids and other stuff of life will slip in as well.