This is going to be another lazy day for us. Well, maybe just for me. David's doing the work of healing fast even while he is sleeping so he's not being lazy. I however just have to be around in case he needs anything so this is the perfect time to work on my Tumbling Stars quilt. If I somehow hadn't gotten so much stuff piled on the machine. How does that happen? It's like seed, you leave one thing not put away and the next morning the area is piled high. We used to say that about dirty dishes, you leave one in the sink overnight and by morning the sink is full. It's a natural phenomena that I don't fully understand.

Soooo, I'll be clearing off Ernestine before I start sewing. I think it is mostly just folded clean clothes that I haven't put away.

It's really not as bad as it looks, right now with the space on David's side of the bed having to be wide enough to fit the walker I can't have the hamper where we usually put it, and there is not a lot of space for the walker in such a confined area, I know this too will pass.

David's not doing quite as well today as yesterday, but still very well. He skipped his middle of the night meds, and I think it was too early for that, I am going to put him back on them for tonight at least. Other than that I think he's fine. We went upstairs for a while, and now he's taking a nap, he will feel pretty good after it, that is usually all he needs. When he is sick he is very, very sick, but he gets over things very fast I am happy to say.

So now it's time for me to get busy, I want something to show for my day.

Slow days, not getting much done. David woke up pain free, this is not normal for most hip replacements that I have ever heard of, but I am glad he is. We went upstairs to sit for a while and then on up to the bathroom where he took a shower, by the time we got back down here he said he was weak and a little achy, not bad I say.

These are the last of the hexagons I have cut out, it is a double layer, I want to get them all prepped and then it will be a lot easier to put the top together. I have two planned, and I think that I will have enough prepped for both when these are done. David is talking about starting one that he has always wanted to make, and goodness knows I have enough fabric to share even though he wants to use bigger hexagons than I am using. I'm thinking that in a couple of days he will be ready to start using his sewing machine or the little inkle loom that he has made for himself, he does get bored more easily than I do, and I will need some things to get him interested in. The next couple of days should be interesting.

Today David was able to get up the stairs and he sat in the living room watching the boys for a while, so I was able to get a little machine time. I worked on the last five pairs of booties.

And on my postage stamp quilt. I didn't get a lot done, but it was enough to refresh me and set me up for the next day or so.

I still have to lift David in and out of bed, and I made the decision that I am not having my knee replaced until we get a bathroom down here, if I can make myself last that long.

David is sleeping right now, but when he wakes up I am going to go out and do some piecing on Ernestine or Vanessa, I don't want to wake him up they are so close to the bedroom door. I am going to try to get the Tumbling Stars top done while he is laid up between my nursing chores. I honestly think most of the things I have to do should be done in the hospital, and this rush to send people home is only because the insurance companies don't want to pay out to the hospital. I don't grudge nursing David at all, it's not that, but lifting him physically in and out of bed is beyond what I am able to do and I am starting to serious back problems as well as exacerbating my knee and hip problems. Not to mention what  it is doing to my fibromyalgia.

Well I shouldn't have gotten started on my gripe with hospitals and insurance companies. it doesn't do any good and just makes me more angry. I'll just think how nice it will be when David recovers and doesn't have any more hip pain to make him grouchy and unable to do the things he wants to do. In another week or less he will be able to manage getting in and out of bed himself and things will be easier.

My assistant does not understand why I am not at my machines upstairs. She didn't come around while I was sewing up there, but she's down here now looking at me as if I was being lazy instead of busy with David. She will just have to wait!

Just a short note to let everyone know that David is home from the hospital a day earlier than the doctor said, and less than 24 hours after his surgery. I think it's ridiculous to send him home so soon after such a major surgery, but that's the insurance for you. Tomorrow I am going to try to get back into my routine and hope that I have some pictures for you, but for today I get to run up and down the stairs taking care of his needs. I'm up for ice now.

David's surgery is over, I can breathe again. I didn't get any pictures, that isn't the sort of thing I take pictures of. Maybe tomorrow after they get him walking again I'll get some. He was dopey and sleepy when we left and feeling no pain, that will come later.

My assistant was really lonely all day with us at the hospital, so she is spending time with me as I sit and watch tv and work on hexagons, I am very glad to relax, David will be home day after tomorrow and I will be doing a lot of running up and down the stairs a lot I am sure. Meanwhile I will cuddle with my kitty and enjoy having my feet up!

I am on David's computer and I am not happy. I know that I shouldn't complain, and be happy to have a computer to use, but it is gross. Cookie or bread crumbs and dust and the keys don't work very well. neither does the space bar or the mouse, almost have to pound on them. My poor computer bit the dust. Something fried the motherboard. I've always had a lot of problems with it, but it was my own and I was used to it. I am trying to get my files backed up onto thumb drives, but it is really slow.

Tomorrow is David's surgery, and we are ready, he's got handles screwed on beside the bed to help him get up, I still have a box to get out of his way in the sitting room, but he is supposed to help me with that. I'll be glad when tomorrow night is here.

Is not my assistant funny? I had a terrible time getting anything done this morning, we went to the butterfly house and when we got home I tried to sew. I guess she thought that I had been ignoring her too long.

 The two yellow moths are Lunar moths the pictures don't show how big they actually are. David took the pictures and he doesn't know how to use the camera very well although I showed him a couple of things. They are about 6 inches  long, with beautiful feathery antannae. They aren't seen here very often neither is the black and yellow one. The lunar moth only lives 5 days.

The big one here I can't remember the name of although the attendant told me; it's close to 8 inches wide unbelievably big and beautiful. They don't have these all the time and they can't have both male and female at the same time because the larvae are huge and eat everything green. We love it there, it is one of the few things we get to do often, it doesn't take too much time or energy or money. There are plans to extend it in a few years, a lot of people come to Sioux Falls just to visit it.

I still have a couple of odds and ends to do, and I am trying to save my files from my defunct computer, don't know when I will be getting anew one, but I am trying to make myself be content with the loan from David, it is sweet of him to share.

Pin basting my 1st pineapple quilt. I hate basting, so I got it over quickly. My assistant tried to help me but she is not allowed on the table so got frustrated and tried to pull it off the table making it a little difficult to get it flat. She did have a momentary lapse and jumped up and started rolling on the quilt but I had forgotten to put the memory card in my camera so I didn't get a picture of her. She produced gales of laughter until I chased her down.

David's surgery is day after tomorrow, he has thought of a couple of things I need to do for him, which is pretty much what I expected, and I can cope. I still have a few more things to get out of the way in the sitting room, but it's pretty much done. I am hoping while he is down here I will be able to get at least one quilt top done down here, but he is not always a patient patient so I expect to be running up and down the stairs a lot; maybe I'll lose some weight. I have about 6 pair of booties I want to finish upstairs tomorrow and Wednesday morning, he doesn't have to be at the hospital until noon. I will be glad when it is over.

Last night Ambrosina had to go the E-room, she cut her finger while she was fixing dinner and had to have 5 stitches, she is in quite a bit of pain.

Tomorrow we are planning to go to the butterfly house one last time before his surgery, it is a lovely calm place to go, we enjoy it a lot and don't know when we will get a chance to go again. One last thing to get done before David's surgery!

Happy Trails, quilted and bound. The traditional name is Snail Trail, but I turned the snails into horses.

 This is the back, not quite as pink as the last one, I am eschewing pink on the next one, I will have to go back to pink for at least one more quilt, but maybe I will be finished with the pink in a quilt or two.

This is a close up of the horses and the binding. I like the way the rick rack looks with the binding and I think I will probably do it again. It wouldn't look right on every quilt, but there are some patterns that it would be effective with and I like it.

For now I am going to bask in the feeling of the a job well done. I have a couple of bobbins that I am going to have to use until they are empty, so I will be working on the postage stamp quilt for the next couple of days, although I will probably pin baste the pineapple top on Monday. Hopefully my assistant won't get too annoyed with me over the next couple of days until I get another one ready for her. I will continue to work on booties until I get some clothes cut out to work on, or Ambrosina gets the boys pjs cut out for me to work on. I'll be happy either way. I'll be useful an busy, with David's surgery coming up I will need to keep occupied or I will manage to stress myself out. I can be very good at that if I am not careful.

The relief is the new (used) tires are on the van, I won't have to worry about them while David is laid up, when the weather gets bad we will need good tires on the van, so we are prepared for winter in that way. I would rather not have a winter, but there isn't a lot of choice about that!

Today I sewed 160 buttons on Happy Trails for the horses eyes. It went pretty fast, I was surprised at how fast. Tomorrow the binding and then I will take a picture and list it on Etsy. I used a combination of vintage and new buttons, whatever came first to hand from the button jar I keep upstairs under the sewing machine.

It's her quilt, but on the wrong machine, she doesn't like this machine it is harder to stay on top of and she doesn't have enough room.

She decided to settle down in front of the machine, and didn't like it when I moved her so I could work. This is why I was surprised that I actually got all the buttons on today. Especially when i had to take time out to run to Walmart and get a couple of prescriptions filled; I also had to pick up a couple of things for David that he will need after his surgery. I didn't have anything to make binding for Happy Trails with either so I picked up a couple of yards of yellow stripe fabric to make the binding which I will do tomorrow.

Then Monday I will baste the next quilt, and so it will start all over again.

There is something seriously wrong with my computer. It is as if the resolution is all catawampus but it won't let me adjust it. Also the color is all off and I can hardly see to use it. I will have Leon look at it tonight, I really hope that I don't have to get another one. Finances won't really allow for it, and I will have to use David's if this one is dying. Hopefully Leon will be able to put it right. It's always something, and I suppose it could be worse. David could say I can't use his computer.

My assistant was calmer today and I actually got some work done. Here she is posing prettily on the Happy Trails quilt, which I completed the quilting on today. This was despite Ambrosina's annual fall cleaning. She pulls everything out of the corners and cleans twice a year; in the fall she puts plastic on the windows to help with the drafts. I packed everything up earlier in the week, so this morning I had to put everything away again. This gives me a chance to organize, discard and dust my sewing area. So that's all done for six months.

I have one more pair size medium booties to sew tomorrow, then I will start sewing on buttons for the horses eyes on the quilt, I expect that will take me a while even on the machine, but it will give me a chance to use some of the old buttons I have in my collection. Most of them don't have any that match and there is not much use for one button on anything so I am going to start incorporating them in some of my quilts.

Meanwhile most of the sitting room is done again, except I brought some stuff downstairs from my sewing area; I have a place to most of it though. Less than a week until David's surgery and he still hasn't done anything about the tires the van needs, he does like to wait until the last minute to do things and it drives me nuts. I keep telling myself he's been like that ever since we met, and there's not much chance he's ever going to change by now, so just put up with it. Patience with other's faults is something that I have always had to work on, I tend to be intolerant. It is always good to have something to work on, it keeps me from being complacent and taking the good things for granted.

My assistant was insane this morning.

She finally settled down on her quilt.

But hissed, spat and slapped me if my hand even got near her. Sammy is home sick from school and he came over and explained to me that she wouldn't do that if I let her sniff my hand before I touched her and demonstrated. Live and learn. She was still in an odd mood though so I left her alone.

I have one more row on Happy Trails to quilt, then it will be time to bind it. I am planning to sew on buttons for the horse's eyes; there will be 160 to sew on. Why do I make these kinds of plans? I hate sewing on buttons. I have these visions of what things must look like and can't be content until I get there. I will put it on Brunhilde and sew them on by machine, it takes less time that way, and I prefer machine sewing to hand sewing, buttons anyway.

We are on the count down now for David's surgery, almost everything is done, just a few more things in the sitting room to put away and a couple more tubs to get out of the for the walker in the entrance to the sitting room. I am well pleased and plan to keep our rooms this way, it takes less time to clean if I keep it this way, but I get distracted and forget and then realize I need to do the decluttering again. I like to think its the inspired artistic temperament, but suspect it's just a streak of laziness.

More knitted booties are on the agenda today, I wasn't feeling good yesterday so I slept most of the afternoon. I hate days where I don't accomplish much; I feel so useless. I really do thank God that I can work with my hands, some days when the pain in my knees and hips are so bad I can't walk, I still can use my hands. That really is a blessing!

Several months ago I shared this photo.

These pretty little appliqued birds. I never got the top finished because I was looking for my pattern. It was a single sheet in an envelope that I got in a box of quilt scraps from my Grandmother and I made the blocks so long ago I can't remember which of my children I was pregnant with. That is how I usually date things. Which child I was pregnant with or nursing or who started school that year. I decided it was the top I was going to finish next but I couldn't remember how I was going to set the blocks so I was looking for the pattern on which I had made my notes. Well I found it today, I am happy to say.
It is a vintage pattern originally from some old magazine such as Workbasket, Farmer's Wife or something like one of those. I am happy to have found it and when I finish this last batch of booties I will start to put the blocks together.

I was actually looking for this pattern.

I need some winter shirts and I really like this pattern, it goes together really easy and is comfortable to wear. It's ease of construction isn't that important, I can sew just about anything but the comfort part is essential. I have clothes in my closet that are practically new that I don't like to wear because they aren't comfortable. I am going to go through my closet soon and weed them out.
Last summer we went yard saleing and i got a huge box of cotton knit fabrics for clothes so I am all set for my winter sewing. That's comfortable too.

When I was sorting out the bootie fabric and patterns I ran across 5 baby buntings that I had cut out, evidently when the last couple of grandsons were born, so I am going to put them together for baby gifts. I did one this morning.

After that I quilted for a while, I should be able to finish the quilt I am working on by the end of the week.
I spent the rest of the day getting my bedroom ready for David to use a walker in. The unfortunate part of that is I got the bedroom looking really good, and ready to go, but now the sitting room has to be done all over again because I moved all the things I can't keep in here any longer out there. If it wasn't things I use all the time I would just haul it out to the garbage cans, but I use most of it every day. I decided the thing to do is sit down and have a cup of coffee and think about it. Having thought about it I decided to leave it until tomorrow. Now I know that is classic procrastination, and I recognize that. I will do it tomorrow though, I just ran out of steam today, also I smashed my finger. When I start hurting myself I have found that I am overtired and it is time to quit for the day and pursue something else.
So now I think I will knit a pair of booties and work on my hexagon top for a while. I find that it is so soothing to do a little hand work, and for me it doesn't really matter what it is, just so long as I am making something useful for someone.

This is the center of my latest hexagon quilt. They are three quarter inch. I am English paper piecing them and I enjoy it very much. I alternate between piecing them and doing other handwork. Right now I am making knitted baby booties. I am considering crocheting baby boy moccasins also, I don't usually crochet with yarn, I don't like working with the bigger hooks, but the booties I knit are little girl booties and I need to do something for little boys.

These are the newborn size booties, I still have to knit a little strap and sew it on, they go really fast so I am trying to get well ahead for the sales next year. I never do things at the last minute, I don't function well under stress. I have done plenty of times, but the results are never what I like.
The boys and I did clay this afternoon after lunch, for lunch Rose and Doug took us to Texas Roadhouse, it's not my favorite place but the food is good and the company better. After the clay I was tired, really tired, but I so enjoy doing things like that with the boys, and they are getting more imaginitive. I need to fire the kiln so I cleaned turtle bowls and birdhouse, but I have several more to do. But, since I enjoy it I'll not complain. I try not to ever complain, I grew up under a complaining parent, so I don't want to copy that. Sometimes being cheerful is very difficult, in my classes I've learned the value of cheerleading statements, but sometimes I still have a hard time of, but at least I see a need for it. Always strive for improvement!

I spent the morning cutting out booties.

About a dozen pairs. I am certainly not as fast as I used to be. I have enough quilted fabric for about 3 more pair which I will have to cut out Sunday morning as we will be gone to our assembly tomorrow. I will start sewing them next week, but I have also volunteered to work on the boys winter pjs. Ambrosina says she will cut them out next week. I also have to cut out and sew several winter tops for myself because I don't seem to have any that are in decent shape. Have I ever complained about being to busy?
My assistant was very unhappy, I didn't work at either one of the upstairs sewing machines, and she sat on the corner of the sewing table staring at me. She is not allowed on the table where I was cutting, and was she annoyed! I took a picture but forgot to put the memory card in and I can't find the cord to connect it to the computer and I didn't get one with the new camera. So now I will start a pair of knitted ones this afternoon, I am working on sizing for the newborn size. I have small and medium worked out. I won't do large, most babies are in shoes by the time they get that big.
In the tub with the bootie fabric, instead of fabric pieces I found five baby buntings cut out. I will put them together for baby gifts, no sense in wasting them. I must have cut them out when one of the grandbabies was on the way and decided that I had already made enough, then forgot about them. Oh well, plenty to do, plenty to do.

My weaving project is now ready to be fulled (basically laundered) and used. I am planning the next warp to go on, and then I will start winding it.

Here I am tying the fringe so the weaving doesn't come out.

The sitting room is all done and ready for David's walker, so I am on to the next area to be readied: the bedroom on his side of the bed. I'll start that tomorrow, I got a late start today. I did get another pair of booties done though and some quilting, so my day wasn't totally wasted.

This little doll is from a vintage pattern by Laura Wheeler. These patterns were sold by old magazines such as Workbasket, Farmer's Wife, and a lot of other ones that are no longer around. She is reverseable; one end is asleep in a nightgown the other awake in a dress. I've had her cut out for years and I finally got around to sewing her. It was fun and I haven't named her yet. One by one I am working my way through all the ufos that are kicking around here. I've made a good start on the booties, and I am well ahead for next summer's sales, if I can only keep it up!

The good news is I hit the three quarter of the way quilted mark this morning.

 I hemmed the overshot trial piece that is now call a table runner since Ambrosina wants it for the dining room. I even made a pair of booties. What a busy little girl I have been, and all before noon. Boy! am I tired. I have my BPD class this afternoon so I had to get everything done earlier.
I am pleased though, with how my first weaving project in many years turned out, and I learned so many things doing it.
I had warp trouble, my conclusions are:
More care is needed in winding the warp, I didn't always enter the cross at the end in the same order.
More care was needed in sorting the ends into the raddle, I didn't always put them in the correct order thinking it didn't matter because I was in a hurry; it does matter. It matters a lot.
I missed tying some ends of the warp on, just plain missed more care needs to be taken to make sure all ends are together.
Another problem with the actual weaving was that I didn't have enough light and so the dark colored threads weren't always even with the edge making loops along the selvedges. Get lamps.
I need a better bench; I was working on a sewing stool that had casters on it and sharp corners, that is David's department and I have strong views on how it should be made.
There were some threading problems that I missed, I will have to make a better check before I start the actual weaving.
Still and all, with the lapse of time since I did anything but rugs I did pretty well for the rank amateur that I am.

This is the bonus piece, a close up would show how bad it is, I won't give you a close up. Now I will launder it and see if the thread is good to make towels with, I want to make some towels that I will keep down here so I don't have to rely on the chance there will be towels in the bathroom when I want to take a shower.
So the rest of the week will be pretty good, with sewing and cleaning. I like the sewing part and need to do the cleaning part, so I have to think positive about that. And I do get a lot of satisfaction when I see a nice neat room that I've worked hard on. Be positive about the small things and the big things are easier to deal with.

 Cutting the web off the loom. I did some of the hand work this morning, but I think that I will do the hemming on the machine. After all the loom is a machine too right? So after I do the hems it is done and I will get a good picture of it.
The booties below are some that I made to sell next summer when Rose takes my stuff to her sales. She sold a lot of my baskets and all of the coasters, so I am well pleased and the extra money is really going to come in hand with the extra expenses from David's surgery coming up in two weeks. I think they are really cute, I made a ton of them for my grandbabies and I have a lot of the quilted fabrics leftover from that.

These are not the same booties I used to make by the hundreds before for a friend who had a company which sold them. Those were made of fleece and of a different design, I got really tired of them after a while, but they paid the bills. I also made hats and blankets. It's probably the reason I don't care much for working with fleece. There used to be layers of fleece fuzz over everything and I would breathe it in and cough and sneeze. Its never been that bad since because I have never sewn that much again, and I hope I never have to. Well we all do what we have to, and if I have to work with a lot of fleece again someday I will. I will cut out several pair of the booties and sew them assembly line and it won't take me as long to make them. I have several other projects in mind that I will go on to after that.

I got an email today saying my new camera is slated for delivery today. How is that it's a holiday Columbus day, but yesterday was Sunday and the case and memory card came so go figure. But come it did and I have used it already.

 And it did pretty good. I spent the morning piecing a back for the next top I am going to quilt, I'm not ready to start it yet, but I don't want any time between the one I am working on and the next one. I have a whole tub of  tops I want to get quilted this winter, besides the one I will be piecing so I am trying to get things done in advance, thus the back being pieced now.

This is the back of the loom, about 2 more inches and I will have to weave in the border so I can wind up the project. It will probably be tomorrow I want to get the rest of the sitting room done today; then all that will remain is the David's side of the bed so his walker will be able to get in here after his surgery. Then I can relax, we will be ready. I say we because he has his own things to get done, he's even done some, most, of what he needs to get done.
I can honestly say that I am pleased with what I have accomplished today. I will be happier when the sitting room is done then I won't have to feel guilty when I sit down at the machine to piece another quilt top!

It's coming along. Just odds and ends now before I sweep and mop. I need to organize the shoe boxes that I am using to hold the Drunkard's Path pieces in, but I have a little table I am going to set up to hold them and I will use them like bins. It's always the odds and ends that I have found take up the time. This little piece of fabric goes here and this one goes in that tub and this one......Well I am sure that everyone knows how it goes. In fact most people probably put them away as they get done with them and don't let them pile up the way that I do. All I can say is that when I am in the middle of creative genius (ha ha) I don't want to take the time.
I was going to baste all the hexagons that I have cut before I started putting the next top together, but all I can say is that it is getting tedious and I want to start the next top. I will make myself do a certain amount per day then I will work on the top. Oh well good intentions.
I'll soon be cutting the weaving project off the loom. It's getting down to the end of the warp. I will try to borrow a camera and get a picture for tomorrow, the phone I am using just won't take a good picture of it in the dark little corner of that part of the basement as you can see.

I am anxious now to see how it is going to look off the loom, although there is quite a bit of hand work to finish it, I am quite excited now that it is almost done. I will start weaving the 2nd border on the bonus piece tomorrow probably. I will be busy the rest of the day with meeting and the sitting room. I am determined to get the sitting room done without too much more time passing, there are things I need to do in the bedroom to get it ready for David's surgery and time is passing fast. For which I am thankful, less time to stress. Until tomorrow then.

What this corner of the sitting room was like yesterday!

                                                                        What it is like today:
Only the quilt I am working on is out, of course the rest of the sitting room is still a mess, but it is coming on too. I have a lot of things to put away but at least i can work on piecing the quilt I am naming Tumbling Stars. It is the same setting as Tumbling blocks but the diamonds are arranged in stars, and I have almost enough blocks done. I'll soon be assembling the blocks.

I still am using a phone for a camera and I'm afraid the pictures are awfully blurry. I'm trying my best to be positive about the little difficulties I have to deal with, things could be so much worse. I might not have anything to take pictures with. Worse, I might not have any sewing machines, something that doesn't bear thinking about. Oh my!! Count my blessings!

This is the next mess I am tackling this week. I did the other part of the basement so fast that I am ahead of schedule.

The pictures are not good I know, my camera quit today and I am using and old phone. They are clear enough though, to see how cluttered I have let our little sitting room become. I always say that I won't let it get that way again, but I get involved in projects and and don't get things put away like I am supposed to. But I have to get it walker ready for David, and this way I am getting our fall housecleaning done without making excuses. It always seems to me that the housecleaning will always wait for me after I have done the more interesting things in life. A person has to settle down to the grunt work sometime, and by not putting it off as I usually do, I get it out of the way and have a free conscience to do other things. It's win win all the way!