post script

the magazine has been taken!

guilt got me

first up, accidentally bought 2 copies of the jan/feb issue of QUILTMANIA....i really can't afford to give it away, but for $10 i'll send it to you via media mail....email me privately if interested at gracemth@yahoo.com.

the other day i think i mentioned the civil war diary quilt that was hiding in a UFO drawer.  well, today guilt was nagging at me again and i did take it out and took stock of the progress so far.  

i think there are about 15 blocks done so far.  years ago i went to a friend's and used her EQ to print out most of the blocks that i couldn't piece on my own.  the papers got stuffed in the drawer as well, so went thru those and eliminated the waste portions, attaching partial blocks to the main block.  there are quite a few, naturally, since the entire quilt is 121 blocks.  here they are waiting for me to make them up.  a lot of them are quite involved, and i think i had procrastinated due to the difficulty of many of them and limited time.  now with more free time, they don't intimidate me as much, so have great hopes of tackling them.  have chosen april to do just that......

aside from some house chores and exercising, today was a slow day.  did print out 30 more DWR arcs and since they work up pretty fast, expect i'll have all 240 done before march is gone.  few more house chores, but i'm spacing them out not to over-exert (ROFL).....anyway, that's my story!

trash tells the tale...

don't even have to write that i've been busting stash today as the trashcan tells all....even with the time change, it was a productive sewing day for me.  first thing, got the border on that little quilt and it's ready to baste now for a fast finish at some point in the future....i love the colors and got to use some of my favorite blues for this.

then at my small quilting group last week, jelly rolls and kits were passed out for nursing home lap robes.  got right to work pulling some pastel strips to go with my jelly roll and lickety split, sewed up 48 rail fence blocks for a generous size lap robe.  all i have to do is get the top done and somebody else will machine quilt....easy peasy....another friend couldn't make the meeting and she is taking the kit to make, so am nearly done with my part.

pretty pinks, greens, neutrals will be a nice addition to somebody's room!   then on my list for the past few days has been more scrappy arcs for the DWR or curves sew along the Stashbuster group is having.  a total of 240 arcs are needed and today broke the 200 mark, needing only 199 more and 3 weeks to go in march.  the corner blocks are usually solid colors but i'm going to continue with scraps to bust even more.  lastly, was feeling a bit down saturday as had hoped to register for classes at the mid-appalachian event later this summer, but budget is busted and just couldn't find the funds.  as i was in the market, was tempted to pick up some popcorn shrimp as a (not really) reward, but the little angel on my shoulder convinced me otherwise and opted for a turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato and red onion instead.  i used to snack a  lot on "bad" things out of sheer boredom and that has been a difficult habit to break.  i still occasionally snack, but have plenty of good choices on hand to stay out of trouble and in sync with my new status.  but really, can't someone ban those TV pizza ads?  those are always tempting!  EXTRA! EXTRA! my cousin's son is going to be on American Idol tonite....his name is Zachary and we are all so very excited about this, opting out of Masterpiece to see him perform.  My aunt would have been over the moon proud of her grandson....

$2 bargain

it's true there is sufficient stash on hand for the immediate future and good thing, as the budget is uber-tight, especially as today's quilt shop prices are mostly out of reach for me.  so when i spied a plastic bag of christmas fabrics for a pittance on the guild swap table, couldn't let it go by.  some really pretty fabrics that'll add variety to my trees quilt plus morph into stockings, runners and wall quilts too.  this was the haul after washing/drying.

might be as much as 7-8 yards here.  a really pretty bundle for sure.  my thanks to whoever brought them in!  at my other guild meeting, one member has a home-based shop and she occasionally brings in fabrics to sell at bargain prices.   plenty of choices but only this little piece came home with me,

a nice christmasy neutral with green triangles and little pale red dots.  ***  while putting away some fabric this morning, pleased to discover that although the bookcase is full, most everything is in one place meaning i HAVE been using it up even though it doesn't always show.  even managed to tuck in the new christmas stuff as well...

hope you have time to sew today....

as if...

i needed to take time away from UFOs to make something new, but i did....saw this in a friend's book and, well, it's blue and that decided it.  just a narrow border with some little 4-patches in the corners and it'll be ready to baste....

and was cruising the library card catalog again and found a few titles that interested me.  the tula pink is a great little book, 100 mod 6" blocks....it's the fabric that makes a lot of these but i like the way the book is set up and plenty of inspiration for anyone.   the other by lynn harris had some ideas for scraps with plenty of space for hand quilting for me.  i love a good scrappy and this book doesn't disappoint.  if you see them, give them a look; i think you'll like them too. 

during my recuperation, a friend brought by her tried-and-true family favorite casserole and it was delish.  she gave me the recipe and i tweaked it a bit leaving out salty things and cutting back on the pasta. now i have enough for the 4077th i'm pretty sure....it is delish and now that i can almost taste things again, it really satisfies.  i wish i had thought to freeze half the sauce before adding the pasta, but will see how long it lasts.  tonight i had half a cup with a piece of fish and will have some kiwi for dessert. 

yes it IS as good as it looks!  it almost has a pizza taste, which is good any day of the week!

new post....new me

finally made it to the hair salon today for a much-needed clip, nice and short which should do me until summer is well under way.  sporting that winter washed out look as it's not quite warm enough to sit out and catch some rays, but very soon i would imagine....thankfully neither of these prevents me from sewing like mad!

definitely spring...

well, spring-like anyway....temps near 50, sunny, grass greening up, trees budded...oh yes, i can't wait!   but first thing today had a bit of a chuckle....would you believe the management delivered THIS to my apartment to solve the smelly neighborhood problem?  me either...

to reiterate, the lease clearly states no smoking and no overpowering fumes/odors allowed...but for the entire weekend was nearly suffocated with same.  this has been going on since november with multiple reports of incidents but as yet no resolution....until today.  to be fair, some might be coming from the roof vent for the laundry, but not at 3 am certainly.  my clothes closet reeks of perfume and worse, my cardiac status has deteriorated over the weekend due to this heinous, obviously illiterate perp.  after all, if he/she could read, they would have read the lease, right?  unfortunately in this complex, low income is equal to a certain amount of riff raff.  i can tell you, this never happens in the homeless shelter; the staff actually enforces the rules.  sheesh....*** as if i needed a new project, been working on a small piece seen recently in a friend's book.  almost ready to show too!  that plus double wedding ring arcs have been keeping betty humming. 

the weekend's here...

and plenty of sewing plans on the to-do along with some (drat) cooking duties...the many pluses to a healthy diet do not include quick-to-fix processed foods, so more time is taken up with meal prep and cleanup, but doing all i can to streamline the process to maximize sewing machine time...did finish block #2 in the antebellum album sew along PLUS finished all the setting blocks. 

block #2 (right) is made with some gorgeous jo morton prints....ah, i just love her fabric designs and anxious for may when a new line of neutrals will be out.  for now will focus on the scrappy DWR, a new applique gardening angel block and quilting the donation quilt.  a march finish?  that would be good but it's a busy month so probably not.  *** with the sighting of a skunk today and the sound of early morning birds, spring is definitely almost here.  time does indeed fly!

head start

remember this?

with february's goal completed early (the scrap basket), moved on to sewing up some foursies from a stash of 2" squares, but for march it'll be this scrappy project....

i need to make 240 of these arc pieces, plus cut 120 melons plus the curved outer pieces for this flimsy.  have made a good start with these and with plenty of scraps, should meet this goal easily.  i have made 2 DWR quilts so far...but i am a scrappy girl at heart and have long admired them from afar.  ***  also in february made a start on this wallhanging....

all the color pieces are ready but more of the backgrounds are still needed before this can get started.  these projects plus quilting on the big quilt and doing an applique block for a guild member have kept my needle flying this month.  but also got a head start on this...

it's a loaf of irish soda bread!  this is my tried-and-true recipe (sans salt) from the boston globe cookbook published eons ago, quick to make and delish to eat.  i could have put the teaspoon of salt in it, of course, as that's my daily ration and spread out over 4-5 days would hardly have been noticed, but it's just something i do regularly and it didn't affect the taste one whit....there is nothing like St. Pat's Day in Boston, and a bit of trivia here, in Boston proper it's a holiday as it's also evacuation day, the day the British left town for good.   *** thankful that i've squeaked thru another month; without my little job the budget is back to serious penny pinching and juggling for the necessities of daily living...now it's time for your own head start!

a whole week?

has it really been a week since my last post?  i guess so but don't think i haven't been sewing....idle hands are the devil's workshop, as my grandmother often said.  been working on the hand quilting of my donation quilt, of course, plus an applique project that is about 3 hours from finished.  also spent some time on guild project and meetings.  another stack of scrappy brick blocks are done too.   finally yesterday got back to this stack of blocks...

these are setting blocks (left) for the brackman sew along "antebellum album."  another block will be out wednesday but thought i would get these done.  managed to use up a fair amount of muslin from the bag-o-scraps posted previously...here is what it looks like now...

makes me feel uber-frugal to find a use for the scraps and use them up.  have no plans for the remainders as of yet.  as february winds down and hints of spring are all around, hoping can finish the donation quilt in march and continue on using up more of the stash in my own little shop.