Just a quickie post

Well it was supposed to be a quickie, then I realized I had 21 photos.  Heh.  Anyway.....

This is why I take so much trouble with my african violets.  Eye candy!

I mentioned sorting out The Sandbox.  A table has been removed.  In it's place is the Ikea Alex drawer unit.  Moving the drawers out from under my cutting table meant I could shove the dog beds under there and not be tripping over them.  Win!  The 301 is in a better place too, as is the serger.

I can now walk all the way around the cutting table without bumping into, tripping on, or stepping over anything.  I can breathe!

Over there is the computer corner where I can print out the Inklingo pieces for my La Passacaglia quilt.

I've finished this round and started on the next. The spotted fabric in the center of the rosette is still bothering me, but I'm not going to rush to change it.  It may get nicely lost in the larger scheme of things.

The Viking is tracked out of school for one more week.  (He is so anxious to go back.)  In a bid to keep him busy last Friday I rummaged in the garage for some cardboard boxes and we made a dog house for the four stuffed dogs he arrived with in the morning.  My best efforts at "packing tape engineering."  Heh.  As luck would have it, the night before, at the quilt guild silent auction I had come away with a bag full of assorted laces and trims.  The Viking enjoyed taping the sequined ones to the house and we made curtains with some of the eyelet and ribbon. We were essentially making Snoopy's dog house which brought up questions about how it flew and how does Snoopy sleep on the pointy top of the house.  I wasn't much help with the answers.  :-)  He was however, very proud of the fact that his house has an attic and Snoopy's doesn't.

We also took advantage of the warmth for a trip to the dragon park.

There were even some very confused forsythia bushes trying to bloom!

So much for the warmth.  Today and yesterday have been freezing.

I enjoyed some indoor time making a storage unit for my color pencils.  Basically more packing tape engineering.  Ha.  Some magazine files from Walmart, foam core, shelf liner, Tacky Glue, and packing tape.  The prototype came out ok.

So I made a set of four.

My coloring corner is looking comfortable.  :-)

The other project for the weekend was obtaining this Ikea Kallax unit from Craigslist and making it into a useful place for The Tramp to put TV and stereo in his study, along with various the computer components that keep our network functioning.  Ideas were tossed around, furniture was moved,  cables mounted on the walls, equipment was shifted and reconnected, and much was left undone for another day, but what a great start.  And it looks nice too. :-)

Oh, and we also met with Patrick, who will be taking down the oak tree.  Now the decision has been made, I'm very anxious to see it happen.  Especially as I listened to the wind howl all last night.  Next Monday.  No more wind until after then please!

Equilibrium, or lack thereof

Both the Juki and Bernina have been in the shop for service.  I find it extremely unsettling to have any of my machines out of place.  The Juki came home first and I absolutely could not figure out where my straight stitch foot disappeared to.  The shop insisted they didn't have it and I had signed a paper when I dropped it off that said it had no presser feet with it.  Well dang!  I searched everywhere I could think of.  All my pockets, all the purses I've used lately, the cabinet I keep the Juki accessories in, the Tutto case I transported the machine in....no luck.  I went back to the shop and he searched again and generously offered to order one for me at no cost.  I kept on looking, for another week.  So frustrating!

Well guess what turned up this morning.  Yep.  There it is.  I was shifting between purses again.  I keep a packet of tissues in each purse for convenience.  This time I decided to shift the fuller pack to the current purse and guess where the presser foot was hiding!  I was going to tidy away the small purse to the bin in my closet and who knows when I would have taken it out again.....and when I might have needed a tissue!  I called the shop to apologize for being such a ditz and thank them again.  Yeesh.  You just never know.

Can you see the presser foot in there?

I've moved my coloring books and pencils upstairs to The Tramp's study.  Silly for me to be sitting downstairs by myself in the evening.

The Viking is still tracked out of school.  Though he is getting a little big for it, he was happy to spend a couple of hours in the play area at the mall.  "Look, Nini!  I've reached level 27!"  He is very much about video games these days and levels and portals and such punctuate his conversation.  :-)

While moving my coloring stuff I cleared out some of the lingering boxes around my desk left over from last year's house move.  I still have a collection of tape cassettes and sorted out a pile to throw away.  Well!  Guess who was fascinated with them.  He read all the labels, stacked and sorted them, wondered what they sound like, and insisted I should buy a cassette player.  lol  Not likely.  :-)

Last year I had made him an orange kitten.  Out of the blue he asked me to make a Mommy Cat for his kitten.

Quicky followed by a request for Daddy Cat.  Same pattern, but somehow Mommy and Daddy are smaller and skinnier than Kitten.  Not sure what I did differently.  They are a strange looking bunch, but he loves them.  The day wasn't complete without a family portrait.

I made a Catch All Caddy for Mom for Christmas, but didn't get any photos of it until this week.  I've had that pansy fabric forever.  About five yards of it.  It's pretty.  I should use it!

The boy showed up very out of sorts Wednesday. Bad in his stomach, sad in his heart, and mad in his head. So we made a feeling doll.  Of course he insisted it be a dolphin.  A sad dolphin.  He drew pictures of sad dolphins and I sewed.  He's given all his sad feelings to the dolphin and says he feels much better.  Amateur psychology at it's best.....or worst.  So far, so good.  

I also made a pillow sham to match Dad's train quilt.  I'm happy to say he likes the quilt very much.  :-)

Rollercoaster weather continues.  No rain (hallelujah) and warm enough this week to play outside in a t-shirt.  He was drawing quilts on the driveway (as well as trucks and creatures and portals).

The purple "quilts" have pictures of us in them and I've been told I need to make us matching quilts.  Hmmmm.

And then we get to today which was downright cold.  The sun is always warm, but the wind chill was just too much for the sun to overcome.  Of course the boy was very warm from running around.  There are steering wheels to his left on this play structure.  He was piloting a plane.  "Get on the plane, Nini!  We are going to Indiana!"  Indiana??  Then we flew to New Jersey.  That makes sense, he's been there.  In the car on the way home he abruptly informed me he'd never been to Indiana, but he has an Indiana Jones game.  Oh.

Brrrrrrr.

Also today, we retrieved my Bernina from the spa.  It's back in it's table and ready to go. Ahhhhhh....that's better.  Equilibrium has been restored.

2019!

Just a few photos to catch up with 2018 before moving on into 2019.  :-)

I finished a quilt called Happy Wanderer.  The pattern is by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  I made it for the 2018 Cary Quilting Company challenge.  It was a bit mind boggling to put together as there are no blocks, you make it in four columns.  Lots of partial seams to keep sorted.

I made an apron for my partner in our guild's apron exchange and received a very pretty one I should really take a picture of.

I made a couple of these cute pin keeps as gifts.  Isn't she a hoot!

I finished a weighted blanket for The Tramp.

I made one Rare Bear and sent it in.  I have what I need to make some more.

I made a new cover for my Quilter's Planner.

While hunkered down for a hurricane I did a bit of fun fusible applique.  It's still waiting for stitching around the shapes.  I used scraps for the border and those wonky polka dots are bothering me so I think I need to redo it.

Dog beds received new covers.

The Viking lost his first tooth and a monster tooth fairy pillow seemed appropriate.

Online I saw someone making a quilt out of this panel and I just had to make one for my dad for Christmas.  This is before quilting.  I need to take a final photo!

I started the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt at Thanksgiving, but put it aside to do my Christmas sewing.  The mystery reveal came this week and I may rethink my color scheme before I go any further.  Maybe....

Another pin keep.

A Make Me Up Before You Go-Go bag from Dog Under My Desk.

And the Bigger On The Inside backpack from the same designer.

And a Zip And Go for a friend, also from Dog Under My Desk.

I got together for a sew day with a friend to make these Aneela Hoey Box Pouches.  Mine is on the right.  Nice, but I think it needs a handle for practicality.  I have to figure out how to add one.

Two more Stand and Stow tote bags.  I love them!

And a Sammy Bag also from Dog Under My Desk.  Piglet just isn't sure about riding in a bag.  :-)

And one more project from, you guessed it, Dog Under My Desk.  I made six denim Outta Time Totes.  One for me and the others for my bee members.  It was a good opportunity to go crazy trying out quilting designs.

I made a small quilt for Precious using hand-dyed fabrics.  When I washed it after it was done I discovered the fabrics were running badly.  Yikes!  Three hours of soaking in water with Dawn liquid saved the quilt.  Yay!

Problem is, I used those fabrics in my Honey Pot Bee blocks.  It took a whole weekend to soak all of my hand-dyed and batik fabrics.  The color that came out of them was amazing!  I still have to soak some of the blocks I made before I realized I had a problem, about a dozen I think.  Then I can put this top of random blocks together.  I'm looking forward to the challenge.

On a day off from school, The Viking had fun in my scrap bins.  He spotted the off-cuts from the bat block and I sewed two of the strips together so he could wear them with his blue sequined fedora.  Too fun!!

He also begged me to make him a peep (this is what happens when you leave random patterns out on your sewing tables for people to find!) and he chose the fabric out of my fleece bin.

I used Molli Sparkles' Diva's Alphabet to make a sign for Stardust's room.  You won't mind if I don't share it here as it has her real name on it.  Sadly, I can't link you to the alphabet pattern as Craftsy has taken down so many designer's patterns.  Craftsy has a perfect right to do as they wish with their website, but my understanding is the designers were given only a few days notice and it was over the Christmas holiday as well.  Kind of thoughtless, towards both the pattern designers and the cutsomers.  Too bad.

The Viking wanted to be an M&M for Halloween.  "A blue one, Nini!"  The costume garnered lots of attention.  :-)

Precious turned one in December.  We did our best to make it special.  

ED made the "smash cake" and took lots of photos which I haven't seen yet.  I grabbed this one over her shoulder.  I have funny videos of everyone encouraging her to get messy, including The Sailor Son crawling around on the floor demonstrating the smashing technique.  Too funny.  Even funnier was how she picked up the pieces and tried to put the cake back together!

 Mom and Dad are not getting any younger, but are happy and healthy which is such a blessing.

And we got to see Five and Batman for the first time in quite a while.  What a treat it was, and how much they've grown!

Just had to throw in this photo because of the Christmas cheer and the cuteness factor.  One of those Kodak moments.

Now on to 2019.  This is the treasure we picked up on New Year's Eve.  It's a 1952 Singer 301, complete with a spinet cabinet and matching stool.  A fabulous find on Craigslist.  I'm not sure how I got to it first, but I'm soooo happy.  Both machine and cabinet need work, a challenge, but fun as well.

Tomorrow we put away all the Christmas stuff, then back to normalcy.  Whatever that is......