These blocks are the next Drunkard's Path variation quilt. I think these little birds are as cute as the turtles. It will be a while before I actually work on them, I just did these to try out the block; I still have a lot of turtles to finish, then put the tops together. I will start pinning, though, it takes a lot of pinning for a quilt.

Then I was cleaning out the cubbyholes upstairs in my sewing corner and I ran across the blocks for this quilt.

It's a little hard to see, and they are old, I've had them longer than I can remember, but I decided that I would get them made. They are soiled and I am sure the age stains won't come all the way. I am sure they are a vintage kit, I have no idea who, where, or when. Fun though.

I didn't get a lot of sewing done today, we had pears that needed canned. It's been so long since I did any, I haven't forgotten how to peel pears though. Ambrosina did most of the work and made spiced pear jam, I can't wait to try it. Peeling the pears was enough of a contribution for her, she enjoys the process, well, I always did too. She doesn't have to do anywhere near the amount of it that I did. She doesn't have to do so much of it that it exhausts her the way it used to me. There was just enough of it today to make a change.

Tomorrow they start drilling holes in the dining room and I lose my sewing corner for a while. I will be glad when they are done with it. It's going to be a busy weekend.

And we have holes in the walls! David is making the holes to blow in the insulation, they decided to do it from the inside because the house is so tall and David can't do the ladder work anymore. What a lot of work it makes! The good/bad news is that there are no fire stops in the wall. Bad because there is nothing to stop a fire if one started. Good because it means they can blow in the insulation from the top all the way down. Personally I would prefer the fire stops. I think we all would. After the insulation is blown in then they have to patch the holes. Sigh, I don't know when I will get my sewing corner back after this weekend.

The white on Starring Pinwheels is about half completed. I had planned to spend about two weeks on the quilting, but it might be longer since I won't be able to use the upstairs sewing machines. I like the way it is turning out. It is so big though that it makes me tired wrestling it under the machine. Oh how I long for a long arm. Not going to happen, if we spend that much money on anything we have to get a car. Another sigh, what a waste of money. Sewing machines are much nicer. Oh well.

I have a plan to make Drunkard's Path birds, but I don't know if I have anything suitable for background, I may have to wait until after payday next week. It's the old start-a-new-project restlessness kicking in again. I suppose I could put sigh! in here again. But I must cheer myself up, I could be one of those non creative people who sit in front of the TV or video game console all day. I'd rather have too many ideas rather than none!

We had such a treat last night. Grandma and Grandpa came over to watch too. Malachi had been wanting to act out the story of Achan for family worship so Ambrosina organized it. A good time was had by all. Malachi did very well as Achan adorable in fact. Sammy lost his beard before the picture but otherwise costuming was good.

We even had a tent and it was left up until the weekend when it has to come down to do the insulating. Upstairs was Jericho, the kitchen was Ai with some very realistic battle sounds.

Of course, Waddles assumed the tent was for him and moved in.

I'm in a dangerous mood, this mood is the reason I have so many UFOs; I am feeling the urge to start a new project. It's probably that I am a little bored with solid color quilts right now and want to work with some prints. I am fighting this urge, but I don't know if I will win. Last night we were watching TV and one of the scenes had a beautiful Persian carpet hanging on the wall and it gave me ideas. So far I just started sketching them, I don't have the right fabrics for it anyway, but I don't want to lose the idea. I'll have to see how things go when I get my upstairs sewing area back.

I have all the turtle blocks that I need pinned, I think, it will take a while to get them sewn, by that time the upstairs should be back to normal and I can cut out the sashings, blue with green cornerstones for Wyatt, and green with blue cornerstones for Kael. That way they can have matching quilts for their bunk beds but they will be different so they can tell them apart. Kael's favorite color is green and Wyatt's is blue.

David is sick again, usually he is not down here in the afternoon, but he is asleep and not disturbing me. I worry a little about disturbing him, but nothing short of an explosion seems to disturb his sleep.

Well, it's time to get busy again, also, my coffee cup is empty, that's not good!

I don't blog every day, some days I just don't have much of anything to write about, much less to take pictures of.

Pinwheel Nine Patch, lattice and cornerstone version, which I like better than the previous version.

Anyway now both versions are in the finished top tub waiting to be quilted. So downstairs here I got another small tub out from under the bed and got started on the next one waiting to be finished.

I am going to get some extra sewing time down here over the next couple of weeks. Ambrosina is packing up the upstairs and they are going to be blowing in insulation. The trouble with a house built in 1905 is that they had never even heart of insulation in those days. I packed up my sewing corner this morning and every thing will be move out to the covered back porch under plastic tarps for extra protection. I will still have the quilting machine set up for a few days yet.

I haven't seen it this empty for ages. So when the machines all go out I will work down here, it will be too dusty for me anyway with my allergies; it could set me up with another bout of bronchitis.

I was trying to get a good picture of my quilting. It's hard to get the quilt to lie flat when the quilt is so big, it's coming along pretty good though. I'm doing the middle hard to get at row first; it will make the rest seem easy.

Ah, I hear our boys upstairs, time to go upstairs and see what their day was like.

I'm wondering if a lot of the quilts I have finished lately are starting to look a lot alike. I just finished this Pinwheel quilt and I am thinking I want to do something different. This is number 24 for the year.

And this is it's back. I wish I had had enough of the big piece of backing fabric for the whole thing, I love that fabric. That is the last of the that plaid too, I'm happy to say. I did this one in only 3 days, but it's not a very big one.

Starring Pinwheels is next, it will take considerably longer. It's 110" x 110". Huge, in fact. I think I am going to use different colors of thread in it too. I'm still mulling over the design in my head, but I think feathers in the sashing, maybe in the corners of the blocks also, although I am not sure. I don't have to decided right away, it's going to take a day or so to do the stitch in the ditch around the blocks I am planning with my walking foot to stabilize the blocks. They are so big I don't want them creeping around on me while I do the free motion work. If I still haven't decided I can do the feathers in the sashes first.

Anyway, it's been a good week with a lot accomplished. I'm still not threading heddles, I had to buy some. Tying a few heddles on isn't difficult, but I needed another 50 or so and that would have taken forever; they should be here early next week.

Meanwhile...do I really want to start another quilt, or not. Isn't variety the spice of life? Well, I don't really like my food too spicy. And I am still working on turtles down here. I need to talk myself out of this mood or I'll have another UFO floating around, and that I do not need!

A good start on the latest batch of quilting. I decided to do fans on this one. I haven't done fans in a while and they are fast, easy and fun. I got all the way around the outside edge this morning before I came down to these:

These are harnesses, or more commonly shafts that hold the individual heddles, of my loom. Mine are removable so it makes counting the heddles easier.

This is an individual heddle, one heddle per thread. I am using four shafts, so it will be 968 heddles in all, I might have to make some more out of cotton yarn to have enough. A lot of looms are made with a polyester cord now. Mine is an old loom and I am perfectly happy with it, but the cord heddles are quieter, not that I need worry down here. The hole in the center of the heddle is the eye and that is where the thread goes through. It's a bit tedious counting the heddles, but no more than counting the threads were. After I get the heddles placed on the shafts then it will be time to thread them. It's getting closer to weaving time, although all of this is part of the weaving process and I love it.

Ambrosina is baking cookies upstairs, the smell of them is making me hungry again!

So the week is off to a pretty good start, and it's only Tuesday!

It was quilt basting day today.

 Pinwheels Large and Small, second of the Pinwheel series to be quilted, first in line

 Starring Pinwheels, the third in the Pinwheel series, second in line.

 Hexagon Star, second in the hexagon series, third in line.

And two (yes two) of these Tumbler runners. I am making them for padded headboards for my bed. Two, so I can alternate them to wash them. Since I am so allergic to dust mites all my textiles have to be washed frequently; I'll have one up while the other is in the laundry.

While it was a long day pin basting these I feel very well satisfied with what I got done. True, none of them are UFOs, they won't turn into UFOs either which is always pleasing.

I finished this Pinwheel Nine Patch, another in the Pinwheel series, Saturday night. Last night I started putting together the rest of the blocks, with sashing. It will probably take me another week to get those put together, then after that I think I will give the rest of the Pinwheel blocks a rest while I do something else. I haven't decided what, that will come to me as I work.

Last week I forgot to post the back of the Little Birds quilt. There are a couple of leftover blocks and I used those. It's getting hard to find big enough scraps to make backs with, if I have to start buying pieces big enough to make backs I won't be able to afford to do as many quilts, although sheets are a pretty good alternative I still have to buy those too. No use being concerned about it yet though, I have about a months work quilting before I need anymore backs.

I made pink backs for the Tumblers. I keep thinking that pink is about used up. Each time I make a pink back I think, "Well about enough for one more." I think I have enough for about one more now. I wonder if it will be the same next time. I am also wondering if it doesn't procreate when I put the lid on the tub!

I can hear the boys home from school. Think I'll go up and say hello.

I finished the Little Birds last week during the time when I was computer-less, and I am finally getting around to showing it off. Somehow or another the full sized picture of it on the porch railing didn't get saved on the camera card, but, since I am keeping this one for myself it doesn't matter all that much.

Yes. I decided to keep this one for my bed. I love the pattern and I love the fabrics. My grandmother gave me a box of scraps shortly after I was married. I appliqued the blocks before Ambrosina was born in 1980 and the fabric scraps were already vintage then. Some are flower sacks. All were at least pre 1940's. Anyway it's done, my 23rd quilt of the year.

Today I made backs for 4 more quilts and Monday I baste. All of the quilts are pretty big so I am only going to plan on doing four. None are UFOs, I don't think I am going to get them all done this year, but quite honestly, I am running our of steam!

These are the sashings and cornerstones I have cut out for the Pinwheel Nine Patch blocks that I finished and ironed this week. I'll start getting that put together in a couple of days. I'm in no hurry, one tub of quilt tops to store is quite enough. I don't want to start filling up another one and it's getting hard to find pieces of fabric big enough to make backs with. Financially I will have to slow down if I don't sell one to buy materials with.

Friends of ours are battling cancer and I am going to take each of them a quilt, there is not much else I can do besides pray.

It's getting pretty late in the day, I sewed upstairs longer than usual. If I am to have some time to so hand work I had better get busy. Until later then.

What a week these last 7 days have been. I feel like I have been spinning my wheels for days now. I had to restart my computer for a "bios update" and it refused to accept my password when it restarted. Same password I've used all along. So, with monotonous regularity I have been typing my password in and been having it rejected. I talked to the resident computer geek and he said that since I only have one account on my computer I would probably have to reinstall windows again. Last night I thought I would give it one last try before I did that and it worked. Same password I'd been using. Go figure.

Anyway, I'm back online.

I finished the Pinwheel Nine Patch blocks last night and spent the morning ironing them, as well as 110 turtle blocks. I still have a lot of turtle blocks ready to sew and won't put any quilts together until they are done. Meanwhile I can iron them and get them ready to go.

The warp is all wound onto the warp beam and ready to start threading the heddles. I have to count the heddles on each shaft to see if there is enough and I hope to start working on that tomorrow.

The Little Birds quilt is done and I will have a picture of that tomorrow.

So, I actually have been working, it just doesn't seem like I have gotten anywhere. Tonight I start putting together the Nine Patch top. There are some of the blocks that really pop, I can't wait to see it done!

Quilting some more on my Little Birds today with the help of Waddles assistant number 2. Red and yellow seem to stand out the most on this quilt. I love this pattern! It's been so long since I made the blocks that it is a rediscovery every time I look at them. There are some really lovely vintage fabrics there.

I tried to make the quilting pattern like little puffs of breeze, sort of like one sees in cartoons. Not sure I made it, but I like the quilting pattern anyway. I was surprised at how long each block takes to quilt. The pattern is deceptively simple but it uses a lot of thread.

I got upstairs this morning to find the furnace had been turned on overnight.When Leon got up this morning the temperature was only about 40 degrees. I hope early fall doesn't mean early winter!

I had these scraps left over from when Ambrosina was making her aprons, and there wasn't enough to do much with, so I cut them into usable strips. Some of them I cut into turtle pieces.

When I first started making Drunkard's Path blocks I used plastic templates but David took them out into the shop and made these little hardwood ones and I've used these ever since. Isn't he sweet? When I find a pattern I want to make a lot of he does that for me to the satisfaction of both of us. So I'm going through my scraps and cutting out more turtles, I want to make each of the grandchildren a turtle quilt, and I love making the little turtle blocks. I have several more Drunkard's Path quilts in mind but they will have to wait until the turtles are done. The rest of the strips that I cut I will put into their respective bins for the the future; I know that I will use them I am just not sure for what and when it will be.

Mammogram tomorrow, I will treat myself to a coffee afterwards and do my shopping so I won't get much sewing done, but for now I am going to be working on some Pinwheel Nine Patch blocks the rest of the afternoon. They are so much fun and I am really pleased with the way they are turning out!

I'm slowly getting my little birds quilted. I'm not spending a lot of time quilting right now because I'm trying to get the warp on the loom.

Slowly for a couple of reasons. One is that I am getting entirely too much help! The other is because this warp tangles The Worst! I spend about and hour and a half to wind on one yard. The good news is I am about two-thirds of the way done. With just the winding on, after that I thread heddles and reed. I have done a twenty yard warp before, several times, but I never had this much trouble. With this thread a shorter warp would have been better, live and learn. I think that it is because the yarn is so soft that it pills and gets several threads wrapped in the pill, I'm learning that slow is necessary, as well as untangling each strand before it goes across the raddle

and through the lease sticks.

It looks so pretty spread and smoothed out, I am quite pleased. It will be worth all the extra care and attention when I start weaving.

It was the first day of school today. Last night at dinner I asked Sammy if he was excited about school, and he said "I'm ready for school". He's very good at subtle meanings, especially as he is only 6. They were excited to be home, and there was no mistaking when they got here. Ambrosina celebrated her first free day by baking bread, and was it ever good!

The kiln went out under the porch last weekend so that when I need to show it to people I don't have to bring them into the house. I hope it sells soon, I'm going to save the money for our trip to Washington next summer, it's the only way we will be able to afford it.

So, since it's pretty late in the day I think one last cup of coffee and some tatting. That's coming along pretty good too, I'll have another picture shortly.