The Farmer’s Wife-First 10 blocks-March 31, 2012

I am participating in two different blocks of the month clubs at my local quilt store, www.redwoodsewingcenter.com.  I am using Ruby by Moda for The Farmer’s Wife Group.  We met for the first time last month.  I am using a jelly roll to start so I am trying to use up the strips, thus the matchy, matchy look right now.  As I add more strips, it will begin to be a little more interesting.

 

 

We are using Perfect Patchwork Templates from Marti Michell, which enable me to use little scraps I normally would have tossed.

So far they are working great. 

The storms have been blowing this week in Humboldt County and today is no exception.  I’ll share my seedlings that are sprouting in Tuesday’s Garden party posting.

Quilting makes me happy!

I was unable to keep up with the other quilters at the mini-retreat (we went home to our own homes at night).  Lots of people stayed until 10:00 pm or more each night.  Me…I left about dinnertime, and in lots of pain with that.  So I am not close to having the quilt top done because I ran out of the fabric in the center of each square.  I love this pattern, but it does involve scraps…lots of scraps…enough that I am going through the scraps to see if I have little pieces that will fit #5 in the pattern from the square I used to sew it on in the first place. 

Wow that looks weird!  This is how the back looks:

 

 

But then you trim it off.

 

The trimmed back looks good, but the front is even better:

 

See! 

Put 4 blocks together with the red in the middle with 1-1/4 inch strips between each 1/4 block and you get these:

Love them, that is why I am obsessively keeping every little piece because of the possibilities running around in my head:

 

Or I will save them for Ally and friends to make wonderful art such as this:

 

Okay back to sorting fabric while running out to change the hoses watering my garden.

Who am I kidding???

First of all…. full disclosure….that’s not my bra, it’s my 23-year-old daughter’s; however, I did wear cute Victoria’s Secret Bras until I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and read an article about bras…and then I switched to sports bras…yes they are bright colors aren’t they.  Okay more disclosure..they were on the sale rack at Kohl’s, which goes with another one of my sayings….Never Pay Retail!

So dear hubby did leave for the weekend and I finished this:

However, Katie and Jimmy called while doing their taxes and asked if I had received a certain statement from their rental home.  I told them I would call them back since I had so many stacks of mail/paperwork to look through…here:

here:

and here:

Oh yeah and on the couch here:

Okay this is ridiculous.  No more quilting until I get this paperwork filed or shredded or entered into quicken!  Ooops I mean no more quilting after this weekend until I get the paperwork taken care of.

After having a shot or two of this:

I’m eating this:

Fresh sauteed asparagus with a chopped up precooked teryaki chicken breast.  May I just say the Fireball Whiskey tastes like red hots.  Yum! 

So let’s see that is quilt #7 for the year, 4 to go!

52 weeks-week 10 for me, but I didn’t actually organize this week.

 

Did i organize this week.  first of all, i had computer problems yesterday and need a new keyboard.  this may be hard to read, but here goes.

first of all may i just say that prednisone is a friggin miracle drug.  yesterday i woke up pain-free for the first time in about 1.5 years.  i had a completely normal day, well if you call chasing a 2.5 year old around, try to get her to take a nap, keep her from gouging or hitting, watching her actually share and giggle with her bff, our neighbor.  daughter and grdaughter arrived wednesday and i gave the bff’s their baby blankets;

i don’t have a real organizing project this week, just getting ready for the arrival of sweet granddaughter, who now talks up a storm at 2.5, was enough for me. 

however, inspired by aleandra, missing letter…over at http://www.talkingdollarsandcents.net/organizing-my-doggys-space , i figured i would show you our dogs routine. 

here is his treat cupboard;

it is the top shelf in our dining room credenza.  when opened it is filled with;

you may be asking yourself why so many treats for one dog…..have i told you the story of my 81-year-old mother who was at costco, got hungry, had a coupon for ‘jerky’, thought it looked good, bought it, got it out to the car and took a big bite before realizing it was for dogs….yes it’s a classic…..well she trotted over and gave them to me for landon.  he is feeling very needy now that granddaughter is here.  he is especially humiliated to have been kicked off his comfortable bed and reduced to sleeping on the man cave leather recliner;

we keep his new bags of food in;

Well I can’t sleep, might as well blog….

Okay this is ridiculous.  It’s 12:22 people….hey that’s my birthday!  

I saw a rheumatologist today at my internal medicine group doctor office.   Yes indeedee I have fibromyalgia, along with osteoarthritis, bursitis, and some questionable spots on my face.  And by the way, hows about a couple of injections in your hips….ummm…no thank you, really I’m not that bad….

So my new gung-ho doctor puts me on amitriptyline, which is supposed to help me sleep AND a prednisone taper.  Oh goody, I already cannot sleep.  I’m sure once I start the predisone I will be up for the next 10 days. Perfect, just in time to have a visit from my 2.5 year old granddaughter, for whom I made this very cute quilt.  Notice the backing, so soft polka dot minkey, notice the already tired looking me, and that was after a good night’s sleep:

I also made matching doll blankets for Ally and my little neighbor Paisley:

Here they are having a snack, notice the rice chip hanging out of Ally’s mouth, no doubt with hummus on it:

Anyway back to drugs…. I could take an ambien, but oh no I had to look up amitriptyline on drugs.com and there is an interaction with Ambien, it could make me tooooo sleepppyyyy… but I dunno at this point I am willing to chance it.  Maybe first I will go turn on the TV and see if there is anything so boring it will put me to sleep, like a good infomercial….

Oh no… is that a hunger pain I just felt?????

52 Weeks and Happy Birthday Em!

First, Happy Birthday to my middle daughter who turned 30 today!  Here she is with my granddaughter (her niece):

Well I was supposed to be working on DH’s man cave this week.  This is as far as I got:

Yes that is a basket that DH picked out at Michael’s this afternoon when I insisted he choose one!  He has all this crapola for cleaning his guns stuck on that bookshelf and I want it in a basket!!  I have learned something from the hours I spend surfing around finding bloggers who are WAY ahead of me in the organization department.  It was 40% off at Michael’s.  There were some good ones at Joann’s too, but no way was I going to get DH there since we were shopping at Winco a few stores over. 

My studio (I say that tongue in cheek) was looking like a hoarders room, so I jumped in and started working on it after finishing one quilt and getting another top done this week:

I made this one for our next door neighbor who turns 2 on Valentine’s day.  I have never seen the reaction she had to this quilt.  She spread it on the floor, rolled around and finally hid herself in it, smiling the entire time.  I loved it so much and the Bliss line from Bonnie and Camille for Moda, that I purchased a kit and finished this:

I added another row from my leftover Bliss fabric or I should say my new stash of it (need to get more before it is gone, baby, gone!).  It is going to look really cute with giant red rick rack:

Back to organizing, I found this wire basket at Target today on clearance for $2.48.  I think it is perfect for my jelly rolls:

So hopefully next week I will have a little more done!  But then I need to get ready for out tax appointment and DH brought home paperwork for me to do for the 401K at his business….. hopefully I can figure it out since he has been so busy.

So here are my answers to Laura’s questions:

1.  Name ONE reason you want to get organized. 

To make my life easier, to work smarter not harder, which is even more important now that I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and have chronic pain.

2.  What did you organize last week & were you happy with the way it turned out?

I worked on my sewing room, I am happy with what I have gotten done, but it is far from finished, but then will it ever be?

3.  Have you had any breakthroughs or a-ha moments yet? 

I have moments all the time when I thump my head, mostly when I see what other people have done and think “why didn’t I think of that”.  Luckily I can copy people!!  My biggest moment has been to accept that the home is now my “job” and having it clean and organized is honoring the hard work my DH puts in at his business. 
Thank goodness my sister, who has been a stay-at-home wife longer than me,  has clued me in on the racing around half an hour before DH gets home to make him think I have been slaving all day!  HAHA!

Procrastination at it’s worst

I love looking at blogs of women who actually accomplish things…. here is my new favorite:

http://terryatkinson.typepad.com/atkinsondesigns/how_to/

In thinking about Ally and Katie on a long plane ride, I thought her Airpline Art Binder would be perfect to send with Ally to keep her occupied (which is nearly impossible these days, she is so busy, busy, busy).

I knew I had some stiff interfacing because 31+ years ago I had the same sort of idea, but an entire book, the directions I found at some Humboldt County fabric store.  I had even started the little activity book, but never finished it for my firstborn, Aimee. 

I started digging this morning and found this:!

and this (poor Aimee never got her busy book):

and this:

Of course all the fabric is UGLY so I will have to recut everything out.  I even have a bunch of felt that will be perfect from Katie making Yo Gabba Gabba shirts.  Yes I have been a procrastinator for a long time.  Since this is one of my resolutions, to overcome my procrastination, I figure this is the first test.  Can I finish this in a week for my dear sweet granddaughter??

Well I am giving it a try