I can't believe it. I honestly can't believe it. You know the trapunto quilt I just finished? That I didn't have enough blocks for? so I made some more? I found a whole bunch more in a different tub. Ones that were already finished. I am still struck dumb. It looks like I will be making another quilt. It's going to take me several more days to adjust my mind to it. It's not that we don't need another quilt for our bed, the ones we are using are just too small, but I don't know if I want to make another one. At least the blocks are completely done. I had just forgotten how many I had completed. Oh boy.
On a different note: I finished David's chair seat and it looks pretty good. Before:

And after:

When I was 8 years old we moved into a huge old Victorian house and this was a piece of furniture left behind. I loved it from the get go. It had an old black leather horsehair stuffed cushion. I have made new cushions for it several times, the boys were hard on it. Well David has always been hard on it too. He tends to be very careless of things and wear them out fast. I have resigned myself to making a new cushion every 5 years or so, but it is very comfortable and I do love it. Its been repaired and reglued several times. In their teens one of the older boys threw it at another. David has had to make new stretchers for it, but we love it.
I've also been working on zippered pillow cases for my bed. That is how I found the quilt blocks. I thought it was white fabric and that was what I was going to use for the pillowslips. I am highly allergic to dust mites and so I keep my bed pillows in the zippered pillowslips and every so often I make a half or dozen so that I can change them without having to wash them all in one day so I can get them back on the bed. Well, back to the drawing board.
David was helping Ambrosina paint the trim in the upper hall. It's both stories high and there is a large window. He was on the ladder and he dumped out the dark gray trim paint on the white walls. Oh well, there are always touch ups. A day in the life of a busy house. Sammy wanted lunch they were busy, so I said I would make him a sandwich. He seemed really surprised that I knew how to make a ham and cheese a ketchup sandwich. Go figure.

It has been a busy morning. I finished my dear DIL Etina's kitchen curtains I hope she likes them. Payday is Friday so I should be able to get them mailed off and out of the way this week. When I was looking for the next UFO to work on at the treadle in my bedroom I ran across a seat cover I had cut out for David's chair up in the living room. I had forgotten all about it and planned to do it in something else. No way am I starting it over so I worked on that after I had the curtains done and it is almost done too. Upholstery is always pretty fast. I do like doing it too so it doesn't seem tedious and the results are always worth it. I will finish it tomorrow and have pictures of it then.
David has made me an add on table to go around the Viking because the bed just isn't big enough. I  can't lay the project I am working on flat because it hangs over the edge. I know I could buy a table to put it into, but I can't afford it, and why be married to a carpenter if he can't make me the add on table. And of course, he is so meticulous it is like a nice piece of furniture. His biggest problem was figuring out how to make the pattern so it would fit closely enough since the base isn't the same shape as the bed of the machine. He's done just fine though, and it is nice a smooth for the fabric to slide on easily.

Of course it belongs over in the sewing corner, but the dining room table works for taking pictures. The fuzzy part is the top of Sammy's head. Anyway it's all ready and waiting for me to go up and start sewing.

I haven't got a lot to blog about today. I am working on Etina's curtains for her kitchen and they are just grunt work, but don't take long. I did a little on the Asian wall hanging. This is a close up of the flower that I am working on.

This is a learning piece for me, and I figure that I can add beads where I need to. I took Pearle Cotton and twisted it around the needle as i sewed so that I could add depth to the flower. The part where it has pulled away from the edge of the flower I didn't have the stitch length short enough. I am finding it fun though I just don't have enough thread!

We got another 4 or so inches of snow over the weekend. Happily it doesn't last too long this time of year, and it has already warmed up quite a bit today. The Juki came back from the shop this morning which is good because the Viking needs to go in I am having a terrible time with the tension.
Ambrosina and Leon are going away this weekend. Ambrosina has never left the boys overnight before except when she was having the next one so they are going to "practice" before this summer. Leon wants to take her on a cruise for their 15th anniversary this summer and she wants to see how she will do away from them. She'll be fine.
This is the newest project.

I can see that I am going to have to punch up the colors you can hardly tell where I have added the embroidery. I am thinking that after it is quilted I will add a line of beads to define the stitches and add depth, but it is fun and that is the main idea.
Yesterday I thoroughly cleaned and oiled the treadle and then sorted out the rows for the next scrap quilt that I am going to do on it. Sixty degree diamonds pieced in half and then put into rows. I have a few put together already, I will have a picture tomorrow. I got everything on the foot of the bed put away but I noticed David piled some more stuff there for me to put away. His idea of putting things away is to stick them on the first uncluttered spot he sees. Thus the foot of the bed. I am told that is normal for a male, and nothing I have ever seen has contradicted that.
I am going to go back upstairs and get Juki set up and hopefully finish Etina's kitchen curtains.

The Happy Trails quilt top is done. It's strictly a utility quilt so I didn't worry about points matching too much. Well...I didn't worry at all. I like the pattern, it is very striking, and as for the slightly (or more) unmatched points I just call it folk art.

It was too wet and nasty to take the pictures outside, so they are not of the best, but you can see the horses. It will go into the tub in  the attic until I can quilt it.


The reason I do so many solid color quilts is also strictly utilitarian. My son-in-law's mother Rose makes quilts to sell on the internet and she uses only solids. The quilts she makes are the lone star pattern and she calls it Indian star because she is Indian (American, no politically correct Native American for her). This was a traditional pattern that the missionary women taught them so that they would have a way to earn money for themselves and Rose's grandmother taught her. I thought this was very interesting and a bit of quilt history that I was unaware of until a few years ago. Well the diamonds are cut in strips, naturally, and since the strips are very wide the end pieces are fairly large and very usable to a scrap quilter, and since she doesn't use them I do. When I get tired of solids I go into my small stash and find something a little more colorful. But I do like the solids too so it's never a problem.
I started another project today too, a small one. I was looking in one of my fabric tubs for something to make a tote out of and I found a really pretty piece of fabric with birds and bugs and flowers and bamboo on it. I suspect it was a sample I picked up from somewhere. I decided to do some embroidery on it and quilt it to make a wall hanging, so I started that this morning. Something is weird with the internet right now, so I will post the picture of it tomorrow. I have no idea, just sometimes especially on Saturdays and Sundays it does this so I just go with the flow.

My first thought was Wow!! I had about 10 people look at my blog in the last couple of days. I wish that I had had something more interesting to read. I've been feeling really rotten the last couple of days, so I have spent most of them watching The Quilt show online and vegging out, working on my hexagon quilt if I felt like it. I did do a little on the treadle yesterday afternoon and now I have a pile of the Happy Trails blocks sewn into fours, turning the 80 blocks into 20. I thought that they would be more manageable that way.

This is not my best work by a long shot, and I am not sweating the details. It's a utility quilt and for fun. Can you see the horses? After it is quilted I will sew buttons on for eyes. I think it will be fun quilt for someone, maybe one of the grandchildren.
This morning I cut out an organizer bag to carry the hexagon quilt in so that it is easier to grab and go. I hope I will be able to work on it tomorrow, I don't think it will take me long, and it should fit right down in my purse.
I'm going to try to get a little more done on the Happy Trails quilt this afternoon, but I am still not feeling to good so I don't know how much. My sewer's friend Happy just wandered through trying to find something to get into. She is having one of her contrary days. David changed some furniture around in here and she's got to try to figure out what he did and explore it, although she knows it all. Her favorite trick is to knock everything I am working on to the floor, so she's working on that as I write. I am going to try needle felting some catnip into a ball I bet it will be hilarious!!!!!

I didn't get any sewing done today. I did get my sewing corner cleaned out ready to sew tomorrow. The between projects clean up. I am ready to get started bright and early tomorrow, but I am somewhat tired after yesterday.
We are having a winter storm today and it is cold, snow is already sticking and the car was covered after about 5 minutes. We are supposed to get between 3 and 5 inches. The nice thing about snow in early spring is that it doesn't usually stick around very long.
I have been trying my hand at needle felting little animals. It's fun easy and they go very fast.

I've always been fascinated by miniatures and so the 2 inch size is right up my alley. I squashed his nose a little bit, poor little guy and he doesn't have eyes yet, but that won't take long. It's a no brainer sort of thing and sometimes I need just that. I think I am going to try a cat next. Maybe Missy Happy the sewers friend.

It's done. The trapunto quilt I started in the winter of 1998 is finally done. I finished it at 1:10 pm this afternoon and hung it on the porch to get a picture. (David had to get into the act)

I'm sorry my skills as a photographer are so limited and you can't really see the quilting very well. I was one block short so I thought that I would put a contrasting color in the center, but it didn't go over very well, and the pink block looks larger, but it isn't really. And now I notice I have some big wads of thread hanging in some of the sashings. Live and learn. I think, however that the satisfaction of having a bed covering that covers the whole bed and doesn't leave gaps for cold air to creep in when one turns over more than compensates for the odds and ends used and deficiencies in workmanship and design. And it's done. What a lovely word. Here is the back.

And as you can see, it's definite odds and ends on the back, at least in the center, but it's what I had and I didn't pay too much attention to them. I wish the quilting showed better, it's the first time I have ever done feathering freehand. I usually draw everything on, but it was a lot of fun just sewing it without thinking. David says he is going to make a rack to hang them on so we can see the whole quilt when we take pictures. Now that he is getting in on the quilt making business I can see improvements in things like that in the future.
I had my thyroid ultrasound today. No results yet, but it is only preventative, as I have no symptoms any sort of problem besides the normal. I feel confident that there is no return of the cancer.
Tomorrow I will clean up the sewing corner upstairs and put things from the quilt away then get a start on some of the other projects waiting for me up there. I have the Happy Trails blocks all pressed and will start getting some of them put together too. The completion of one project encourages me to go on and finish some more!

I finished the quilting on the trapunto quilt today!! I am so glad that is done. Tomorrow I will bind it, but I am too tired as of now to manhandle it any more.
I had my appointment with my endocronologist  (there is a red wavy line under that to show it's misspelled but that is the closest that I can come to the spelling) today and all went well, but it took a good part of the morning.
I have all of the Happy Trails blocks done. In the 1988 Great American quilts I saw a Snail Trail quilt with prairie points on them so they would look like dinosaurs, so I thought, "that's cute I will do that for one of my babies" but I never got around to it. Then I was looking through my books for inspiration and saw it again a few years ago and thought I would make it for one of my grandbabies. I am finally getting around to it, but I liked the idea of using rick rack (I love it) for the spines, but I thought they looked more like horse, so I am calling it Happy Trails. Anyway this is an untrimmed block and I am getting ready to put them all together, at last! It's not trimmed yet so don't get excited.

Don't you think after I quilt it and add buttons for eyes it will look like horses? I see there is a seam I need to adjust. Woops

Here is a picture of David's 1st quilt. Only the top, I'm not going to quilt it I have enough waiting for me. He is getting ready to start another one, a true quilter.

He said he will take a better picture of  it for me. I think he has every reason to be proud of it. I like it very much.
I'm going to go upstairs and see if I can finish the last border on the traputo quilt, I am ready for it to be done, I have couple of ideas I want to work on and I can't with it taking up the whole corner of my sewing area. I know I said that I would finish all the quilts in the sewing corner before I started another one, but what harm can come of doing a little bitty one?

David finished his first quilt top last night, and is justly proud of himself. I am waiting for him to take a picture of it so I can post it, but he has been busy today doing some things for Ambrosina. She's got a shelf that needs to be cut to size for the boys closet and some other odds and ends to be done.
I finished the 3rd row on the trapunto quilt and I am really tired because my sewing corner is sort of Mickey Moused together and there isn't enough support for the quilt so I have to do it all. However not to complain I have only one more border to finish and then I can bind the edges. I will be glad to have it done we need another quilt on the bed, and then I can go on to something else. As soon as I can get pictures I will post them.
We had snow last night, not much and it didn't stick around, but it is a lot colder today, but not supposed to last. Spring is tomorrow, yippie skippie.

I am in the middle of a sewing machine crisis! The Juki went bottoms up day before yesterday right in the middle of quilting the first border on the trapunto quilt. It's not something I could fix, I think it's the timing as it's shattering needles. I didn't hit a pin because if I use them I pull them out before the needle comes to them, I checked all the usual reasons for jamming, nothing there. I keep it cleaned and oiled, it was nothing obvious. I do put hundreds of miles on in a week (only a slight exaggeration). So David took it in, and it will be at least a week. Arghh. I am pressing on with the Viking, but it doesn't do as nice a job on free motion quilting as the Juki, and I am having tension troubles. It is due for another servicing, it was to go in next, but I cannot go machineless, so it will have to wait until next month, poor baby, the best thing I can do for it is keep it clean. It still seems strange to me not to oil a machine, but they say not so I don't. I am, however, stubbornly determined to get that quilt done. It's my oldest ufo and I WILL get it done before I do anything else!!!!! It's a massive amount of quilting and my arms and shoulders are getting tired of manhandling it, but virtue will have it's own rewards.

Here is one of my little guys greatly interested in how my treadle machine can possibly work when it isn't even plugged in. He seemed to grasp the concept when I explained, but people powered anything is a foreign concept, at least to the electronic age.

It looks like a cluttered messy room, but there is a lot of living and working going on in that little 10 x 9 space!!

I really hate the time change every spring. I slept until "11:00" and took a nap this afternoon too. David has been sleeping all afternoon. This morning I pin basted the borders on the trapunto quilt and got started on a little of the quilting. I hope to do more tomorrow and I will take a picture also. Hopefully I won't have to sleep all day!!!!

It's been such a lovely morning. I haven't got the habit of taking pictures yet, but I need to work on it. We took a walk after lunch again and I got a whole block further on. I am still have a lot of knee and hip pain, but the swelling is starting to go down a little.
I've got all the blocks of the trapunto quilt joined and all the borders on to make it sized big enough for my bed. Tomorrow morning I will pin baste them so I can finish the quilting. Ambrosina opened the back porch door and I went out to see what needed to be done to get the first quilt on the frame. I think just cleaning up and then I will be good to go and I can get one of them quilted while David makes the new table and gets the other stuff ready to go. I will do one of the smaller ones while he does that. I am pretty sure that I will never get a long arm so I am going to make good with what I have, and be thankful.

I haven't posted in several day, I have been going flat out on several things and the weather has been wonderful! I took my Kumihimo out onto the front porch to sit in the sun and work, and found that Ambrosina was pressure washing the front porch before putting the porch furniture out for the season so I came back in and sat in the living room to do it.
I have most of the stuff in our little downstairs sitting room put away for the first time in I don't know how long. I was going to mop this morning, but I ran out of time. We went to Hancock's instead and patterns were on sale so I came home with a few more, not that I need them. Ambrosina got fabric for clothes for the boys especially Sam because he his built so different than most kids. Roughly the shape and size of a tank.
I have the blocks of the trupunto quilt mostly joined together. More and more I am convinced that quilt as I go just doesn't work for me. If the weather stays this warm I will have to get the quilting frame ready to go next week. It would be nice I have a lot of tops to get done this spring and summer. We took a little walk yesterday, to the corner and back, my knees not functioning well, but I hope to gain a little strength, and less pain as we do it more.
I am still working on the snail trail blocks down here in the bedroom, but haven't done a lot this week as I have been cleaning. Since deciding to sell the kiln I have been going through stuff and filling boxes for good will and, of course, the garbage. I will still have more stuff than I want or need, but at least it will be better for a while.
Here is a picture of my little sewing helper Happy:

Is she not adorable? She doesn't like my older vintage machines because they are not flat enough on the top to sit on while I sew and she is jealous. She does slow production down a little, but really if I can't take the time to enjoy her company what is the point of having her at all? Happy spring!!

Ambrosina and Leon took us to lunch at the Olive Garden. Yummy!! First time we've been out to eat since last October. It always seems so special if you only do it once in a while. It was a huge crowd. Doug and Rose and Abe and his kids plus Anthony. We were celebrating Leon's raise. That only happens once in a while too.
I'm coming along pretty good on the trupunto quilt. 3 more blocks this morning, leaving only 7 to do, then in order for it to be big enough for my bed I am going to have to put a lot of borders on it, it should be interesting at least.
I am stuffed from lunch and I feel like I could take a nap. David is making a pot of coffee, and maybe I will sleep after I have a cup. I want to work a little on the snail trail quilt though, and I need to pick up the sitting room again. Again with the constant refrain of where does all that junk come from?