Two More Completed Projects

I recently finished these two projects. The first quilt is for the Pioneer Women's Club that I joined. I have worked with some log cabins in the past but I really enjoyed the way this one turned out. While sorting through my stash I have been cutting fabric for several quilts and I have a large plastic tote of strips cut for more Log Cabin quilts. I may use this same lay out as I really like it. The name of the orange quilt is Sweet Dreams and it was done as a mystery quilt with my Guild last year. I machine quilted this quilt using all over stippling. I am very happy with the way it turned out.

Tomorrow afternoon I am heading out to our Guild's spring camp. Three wonderful days of sewing and fellowship, bonding and laughter with fellow guild members and friends including 2 of my sisters and one of my nieces.

We Survived the Storm

We survived the late winter storm. As of this morning (April 20) at 7:30 we had 5 1/2 inches of snow on our back deck. We have received rain and light snow all day and right now it looks as though it is raining. All of the schools in the area were closed today and there were lots of reports of power outages in the area. I am thankful that we didn't lose our electricity. I had a great day here with Gavin and Grady. They were so good and are so cute. Papa Steve ended up coming home from work early so he got a chance to spend some time with them. And Gavin said Papa several times so that was very exciting, although I kept reminding Gavin that my name is Nana. I didn't get any sewing done yet but if I can gather up enough energy I will do some hand quilting tonight.

Taking Advantage of Mother Nature

For the past 24 hours or so we have been warned that we are under a winter weather advisory here in Hillman. Predictions are for rain, sleet, thunder storms and snow (and it has been snowing here for over 2 hours now and it is just beginning to stick to the ground). Predictions are that we could get up to 6 inches of snow. Today was an almost winter day with very cold temps and high winds. I decided to take advantage of Mother Nature and do some sewing. Of course my husband very lovingly tells me that I don't need a reason to sew. I recently purchased a sewing machine table from JoAnn Fabric and I really like it. I don't need it here at home as my sewing machine sets in a counter top but I have used the table at a couple of retreats. Today I set the table up in our family room along with another table. I did some meandering quilting on this quilt. The name of the quilt is Sweet Dreams and it was made last year as a mystery quilt at Guild. I also machine stitched the binding on this quilt and another one that I recently hand quilted. I like to attach the bindings by machine and then hand stitch the binding down on the back side of the quilt. While I was sewing I started thinking about the television programs about hoarders. I have never seen any of the programs but have heard about them and can only imagine. This made me think about the mess in my sewing room. I should mention that the reason I set up my sewing station in my family room today is because my sewing room isn't big enough for this type of set up and the counter for my sewing machine isn't big enough to quilt a large piece. So then I decided that before I quilt the second quilt tomorrow I was going to go into my sewing room and see what I could do to organize it a bit. I would much rather be creative with fabric than try to organize but I decided I would give it a try. Well, our son called and asked if I could watch our twin grandsons tomorrow. Hmmm, big decision - have fun with our 13 month old little guys or shuffle things around in my sewing room. No decision there - but maybe while they are napping I can work in my sewing room a little bit. I have always told the grandkids that that was Nana's No No room. So far the twins haven't discovered it yet as I keep the door closed when they are here. Oh, and when my husband came home from work he very lovingly (again) teased me about taking over a second room in the house!!

Retreat Projects

While at my retreat last weekend I made an Easter 10 minute table runner.

I also machine quilted and put the binding on another signature quilt from one of the retreats at Thunder Bay Resort. I think I still have a couple signature quilts to make yet.

I also did the machine button hole applique on seven blocks from a block of the month that is about 3 years old. The pieces in the blocks are quite small so it is a bit of a tedious job but still enjoyable. I am planning to go to another retreat in a few weeks so hopefully I can get a few more blocks appliqued. I am not sure but I think there are a total of 24 blocks in this quilt. Of course, while at the retreat I saw several projects that I wanted to make and of course I did have to buy a book that had a couple of beautiful quilts in it. But first.......I want to finish up a few more pieces before I start anything new.

Spring may have finally sprung here in northern Michigan and I was able to enjoy a beautiful day outside earlier this week. I cleaned out flower beds and raked up some sticks from under one of our willow trees. It has been quite windy for the last few days and the wind is quite cold. Yesterday I started sewing on some Easter gifts and hopefully I can get those finished today.

Quilter's Retreat in Gaylord

I just returned home from the Quilter's Retreat in Gaylord. My Mom has had some health issues for quite some time now. I convinced her that it would be great for her to go and visit with some fellow quilters and even do a little quilting. She took a scrappy quilt that she has been sewing by hand and I think she really enjoyed herself. I managed to sew two small tote bags (one for my Mom and one for me) from the kits we were given there, I machine quilted and bound a small signature quilt and I machine appliqued 7 intricate blocks from a block of the month from about 2007. I am very please with my accomplishments plus I got some quality time with my Mom. I have my suitcase unpacked but haven't touched the sewing bags yet. And I don't think they will get unpacked for a few days.

Busy time!!

We have been quite busy around here and I just haven't made the time for blogging. I apologize for that. As you can see in the picture we have a re-modeling project going on here. When we bought our house in 1978 we could see that the ceiling tiles in the living room were crooked. Then since it is an older house that was built before any codes the ceiling started to sag in spots and we had a leak in our roof that eventually got into the ceiling tiles and caused some staining. So since we have a new roof, this was the time to replace the ceiling tiles. Of course it ended up to be a bigger job than my husband had expected. We lived for several day with climbing over furniture and a mess in the house. The project isn't finished but at least we have a little bit of organization here in the house. All of the prep work is done and I think the plan is to begin installing new tiles this weekend. Once that is done we plan to replace carpet in a couple of rooms. A couple of weeks ago we made a trip to Indianapolis to attend a trade show for firefighters. We had a very good time. I attended the show for the first afternoon. Steve went back on the second day and I stayed in the hotel and did some hand embroidery, some hand quilting and some crocheting and also enjoyed a couple of walks. The weather wasn't real warm but at least there was no snow. Speaking of snow, we still have some here and received a couple of brief snow showers on Monday and Tuesday. I have had some great times with all seven of our grandchildren and their parents recently. I have been doing some sewing too. I am hand quilting on the 4th side of the border of a rather large quilt (a UFO) and am anxious to get it finished. I made the top for the Prairie Women's Circle Club and have it ready to begin hand quilting. Today's plans are to clean the bathroom, hopefully vacuum out my car and pack for a Quilter's Retreat this weekend. My Mom and I are planning to go and I am really looking forward to it. My Mom has had some health issues lately and I think it will be good for her to go. She has plans of just working on some hand work. I have some blocks of the month that are several year old now that have been yelling for some attention. They are fused applique and I plan to machine button hole them. My plan was to just take them but of course I have decided that I need more of a variety so I have a small piece ready to be machine quilted and I have some piecing that I plan to pack. Am I the only one that seems to hop around on projects and have way too many things going at one time?