took a spill

Mother nature got a last laugh in at me. Running out the door Saturday morning I hit a patch of snow covered ice in the driveway. Next thing I knew I was on my back in serious pain. I landed right on my tailbone and apparently took some of the brunt on my left wrist.  Spent most of the weekend in bed - just rolling over left me exhausted. Nothing the doctor can do about the pain in my butt which I knew going in, but x-rayed my wrist no broken bones just pulled muscles. I have a molded splint for a week or two. I have to say this really sucks.

Weird things going on with my blog & Farmers Wife blocks 2- 5

Batik blocks 2-5

A few weeks ago  I posted about my farmers wife blocks 2&3. The post was full of pictures and plans on other projects.

It seems there is a conflict somewhere. My published post disappeared and I was left with an early draft. I have a sneaky suspicion that the blogger on my phone conflicted with the post on my laptop and won the phone won the Battle for boss.This isn't the first time I lost posts or had them revert to draft since installing blogger on my phone. It's a shame seeing it was convenient what I didn't like was the photo add section or the formatting so would start posts on my phone then finish them on the laptop. I un-installed it from my phone. This week I've seen the same two blog posts posting each day I wonder if they are having a similar problem.

My girls tend to use my laptop so my son gave me his old laptop. The battery is dead but I keep in my sewing area so it's not a big deal. It doesn't have a photo editor so I went looking for a free photo editor and found the Ribbet plugin. It's super simple to edit photos and make collages. Yes, those baskets (block 3) are still missing handles, I'll get to them one of these days I'm just not feeling it right now to change the foot so they are pinned to the block. I figure there will be more appliqued blocks and I'll get them done at that time.

Non Batiks blocks 2-5

Spring has been trying to make it's arrival but winter is still managing to hang on. As I said to Chris looking at the long range forecast, the above freezing temperature days are starting to outnumber the below freezing days. We're getting there.

Busy weeks and weekends lately, during the week I find myself itching to work on something fabric related mid day. By the end of my work day I'm just mentally done and just lose my motivation. I don't know which is worse - being mentally or physically spent. Hopefully with the nice weather coming I can start going for walks on my lunch to clear my head.

This weekend there's more spring cleaning on the agenda but I would like to get a quick trip to the LQS (they are closed on Sunday so it will have to be today) to pick up some fabric for a small quilt I have planned for my mother. Details on this was in the post I lost but will post about it again another day. I would like to get work done on at least on block 6 today. I'm thinking a Green theme seeing it's St. Patricks day tomorrow. I just realized I haven't had my yearly Shamrock Shake yet so I may have to add another stop while I'm out. I also have a work report due I haven't had time get done during the week that I was hoping to look at. Not sure how I'm going to fill all I want to get done this weekend. What I can't get done, will just have to wait for another day.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.

Farmers Wife Block #1 and more progress

Last Saturday morning after publishing my last post, I started looking through the Farmer's Wife. I decided to start at block one. I won't say choosing the fabric was an easy process, I really agonized over what worked toge. I ended up changing many of the pieces two to three times each until I got something I liked. Still not completely loving the combination for the batik block but a few of those fabrics are my absolute favorite. I love the anything goes block. I finished piecing the second block Sunday afternoon.

On a roll I picked up the final pieces of my 9 patch and got those last blocks done.  I previously called it Scrappy but after reading a blog post by another poster they set me straight on what is scrappy. So Scrappy is made of scraps - not jelly rolls, it is not planned, it's simply a mish mash of scraps. Got it. Another thing I learned this week from reading blogs, even though your foot has a quarter inch guide the placement of you needle may be working against you. I've adjusted my needle and its making a huge difference.

Still wanting to piece and sew, I grabbed some of the scraps I created while trying to decide on a combination for my Attic window blocks. I started some mug rugs. I only got one finished because I decided that I should do the binding properly with mitered corners. Well lets just say that 3rd times the charm, and my stitch ripper got a work out. I showed my husband and he was really impressed with how straight my quilting lines are on this. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

This weekend was pretty busy with shopping with the girls and my mom and a 1st birthday party for our youngest next door neighbour. Today was house cleaning and snowblowing and trying to squeeze in some sewing time.

I also made a quick trip to the LQS Saturday morning to pick up more applique needles. I saw more batic jellyrolls and a plan started to formulate. So my quick trip for needles ended up being two different types of needles (one pack of straw and the other black gold) , two batick Jellyrolls and a candy pack of Barcelona. I originally picked up the black and gold but speaking with the very helpful quilt shop lady she said the straw needles are her favorite so I'm looking forward to try them both and seeing the difference.

This week  my happy is baby snuggles. Chris and I babysat the birthday boy Thursday night while his parents went to a hockey game. He was such a good boy, I got this picture when he woke up for a bottle and fell asleep on Chris.

Cold, long week but the weekend is here!!

Look what arrived in the mail!

My fabric of the month clubs Batik and Kona Cotton Solids. I love these clubs!

This week has been a crate full of yuck that just keeps giving. Everyone has had their own agenda the past few weeks and I feel like I'm being pulled in a million different directions and never in the direction I want or feel I need to go. So what's a person to do? I decided a bit of retail therapy was in order & bought The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book for under $20 on Amazon.ca. I set the shipping to next day delivery so I'd have it in time for the weekend. It arrived yesterday afternoon.  I love it when a plan works out!

I know I said I didn't want to start anything new until I get some of my other projects done but now that I'm back in the swing of things I think this is a great way for me to build my skills and just have fun. I'm playing with the idea of doing 2 of each block, one in Batiks only and the other will be anything goes type of quilt - no real fabric theme more of whatever strikes my fancy that day.

I won't say I haven't had self doubts about this but I've come up with answers for all of them. Working from home the past 7 years has resulted in my having regular running dialogs or question & answer session with myself. At this point I'm pretty sure the dogs think I'm crazy and most days they'd be right.

Do I have enough Batiks to do this? I'm sure if I run out I'll have no problem buying more ...

What if I give up part way through then I'll have double the orphan blocks! No problem! Pillow cases, place mats and mug rugs for everyone!!

Will the blocks work together in the end color wise? Probably not but that's OK, it's a learning process not just in creating the blocks but also in color choices and seeing what works together and what doesn't. If worse comes to worse, I can put a really pretty back on it and pretend it's the front. ;)

What if I have a hard time with a block am I really going to have make 2?? Part of me thinks Suck it up Porkchop, but then the sensible side kicks in and remind myself to just try and see how it goes.

So here's the plan: I would like to complete a minimum of one block from the book per week but if I don't NO Pressure. This is going to be a planned long term WIP, some weeks will work out and some won't.

Looking through the book brings up something I didn't anticipate. Should I start with the first block in the book (who would've thought the first block in the book would be 26?)? Work my way through the blocks starting at 1 going in order of the Block Assembly (pg 128)? Or maybe I'll cruise through and pick random blocks. I need some more time to sit down and look through the book to decide which way to go.

I do know I will be doing this by machine. I have my hexies to keep my hands busy enough for now. A bit more retail therapy is in order, I'd like to stay organized so will need to pick up some containers for this project, containers for completed blocks, another to hold the templates and probably containers of the scraps for future projects.

In the evenings I was able to get some more work done on my Christmas hexie table runners but other than that I haven't much more to report.

My happy picture this week is Downy Unstoppable Scent Boosters. The Shimmer scent is my favorite & always makes me smile.


Last nights fortune cookie told me Failure makes you stronger. You can do anything.
So here goes anything :)

Progress on scrappy quilt

I finally figured out what I was going to work on last weekend. My long neglected scrappy patch quilt is slowly getting some love. Once I got started putting these rows together I began to wonder why did I put this aside?

It feels good to have my sewing machine humming again. See those piles, 3 - 16 blocks of 9 patch scrappy goodness. Just a few more to go on the fourth section. I think I need to double the amount of patches though to get a decent sized quilt.  (Right is my current progress, below is where I picked up from last weekend)

I'd been waffling about joining  the "grow your blog" hop but I chickened out. Despite all my intentions I'm not the most regular blogger, nor am I whipping out finishes to show at any great rate. I just keep reminding myself it's not speed of the journey, it's what you get out of it along the way. I'll just keep plucking along.

I'd also been seriously contemplating simplifying the look of my blog for awhile.  I really love the petal border but thinking a plain white background with simple black text would be easier on the eyes and just a cleaner look. Finding a few minutes to myself earlier today, I went and played around making the changes. I decided to go slightly off white, I found the white too bright and hurt my eyes on my laptop. I discovered I was a no reply blogger a few weeks ago and turned that off.

My Morris Apprentice hexies have also had some progress in picking some fabric for the middle ring thanks to the help from my oldest daughter. Those scrumptious candy packs I bought at then end of December have been calling my name. I'm not sure if I'm going to do hexies with them now that I'm back to enjoying my sewing machine (not to mention seeing all the great things others are blogging about). I think I'll put them with my Paris Flea Market packs where I can't see them until the perfect plan comes together.

I went searching online to try to figure out how to make light and flaky tea biscuits vs my usual hockey pucks.  The recipe is identical to the one I use - apparently the trick is to keep the lard cold. Simply freeze it then grate into the flour mixture. Not bad!

They went perfectly with the homemade stew Chris and I put together yesterday morning. Cooking is something we always enjoy doing together. He did the cutting while I browned the meat and added extra spices & flavour to the liquid. When we're in the kitchen is when we seem to really work as a well oiled team. Yapping and working and before we know it, we've a got a nice meal and a clean kitchen. I have to say this picture doesn't give it justice, it was really tasty.

My week 3 Happy picture: flannel pj's.

Tonight I'm going to a girls night Bachelor viewing party. It's the 4 of us neighbours, I live in the middle between 2 and the neighbour from across the street. Not much watching going on but lots of talking and laughing all in our flannel pj's. Can't wait!

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

Saturday Sewin

Look what I came in the mail this week ... all 12 of the Paris Flea Market candy packs I ordered. I took them out and flipped through then put them back in the plastic bag. While I want to jump right in I'm going to hold off until I get some of my works in progress finished.

Work is back to it's crazy pace. So today looking outside at the ice covered roads, I stayed put in my comfy pj's and hit the sewing room.  Looking around I didn't know where to start. So many decisions what to work on, Puppy Love (the name is starting to stick) needs the back fixed, scrappy 9 patch needs to be sewn together, the Christmas table runners finished (but I work on those in the evenings in front of the tv with my honey) so decided to update my blog. I am a master in the arts of procrastination and indecision.

I've seen quite a few people are making wall hangings based on their word of the year. This is being encouraged by 

15 minutes of play I really love my word and have received fabric in the Bargain Hunters fabric of the month club from this month (pictured) and previous months that would work. I'll be honest, I've lost the confidence I had when I started this experiment journey. It's funny I just did it without questioning that it would turn out perfectly, now I second guess everything.

Looking back I think it happened when I attempted to quilt the Puppy Love quilt. More than anything I became best friends with my stitch ripper than made any progress. I think the only way to get my confidence back is to jump back in, take chances and just do it.

Previous Months Bargain hunter fabric- Doesn't it make you feel happy?

 On a weather note: Chris is took advantage of the break in the deep freeze last week to take a look at our snowblower. He got it fixed in time for what the forecast said was going to be a major dumping. Since it's been up and running we've had less than a dusting of snow. Murphy's Law strikes again. At least we know it's ready if we need it.

My 365 days of Happy pictures is not going as planned. I can come up with the ideas I'm just not doing well getting around to taking the actual pictures.

Week 1 - candles in my last post
Week 2 - a nice hot cup of coffee in my love mug (this mug was given to me by my son on my birthday)

He is so sweet but he's not home a lot between college (full-time), work (part-time) and girlfriend (most of his free time). He gave me the mug telling me if I need a hug, just use the mug because it's full of all of his love.





Still haven't figured what I'm going to work on, guess I'll just sit surrounded by my fabric and let inspiration hit me.

New year, renewed focus.

Start of 2014 and a small finish!! Maybe this will be the year I will actually finish what I start! Wouldn't that be a fabulous thing!

I lined up the front and back with the thermal batting in between and pressed the folds as I went. It took longer and was a bit more fussy than when I sewed right sides together and flipped but the overall results made that extra time worth it. Again I tied the batting down and think this is the way to keep going to get the result I'm happy with. The thought of doing this with larger projects seem a bit daunting but I think if I'm meticulous with pinning I'll be ok.

I also decided this year I will take a picture a day of things that make me happy. Shouldn't be too hard ... right!?! LOL hopefully it won't be a year of taking pictures of the same few things repeated over and over again.

So my first picture is of a candle. Candles are very soothing to me. I tend to gravitate towards baking smells - vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin spices over strong perfume/flowery scents. Comfort food for the senses.