busy, busy round here

I have kept fairly busy since I last posted---a little of this and that. One thing at the top of the list was this little wall hanging for my pal and fellow FAB Cher who had a birthday last week. The pattern, originally purchased as a kit from Keepsake Quilting, is "Don't Go Out of the Lines, Plant the Seeds" from Plain Brown Wrapper. Because it has a gardening theme, I thought it made a good choice for Cher.

The original pattern called for perle cotton stitching and raw edges with maybe the batting sticking out or some such thing. It had jute ties and a stick for a hanger. Now I would like that folk art-y vibe but it just didn't seem quite Cher-like. Nope, I ordered a little split bottom hanger from Ackfeld Wire and put hanging tabs on the back instead. The pigma pen writing and coloring were fun, fun, fun!

The plaid fabric that came with the kit was filched for my last two months Calendar quilt stitcheries. I substituted the little bit of fabric leftover from my Sisterhood of Quilters instead. There are little butterflies amongst the ivy, butterflies being a motif Cher enjoys. I did purchase the darker green dot to complete the project---also from designer Jodi Houghton. I hand quilted around most of the small motifs which wasn't easy with whatever batting I had stuck in there-- just some piece leftover from something and in the sewing room closet is all I know! So Happy Birthday, Cher-- a few days late.

I picked up a "new to me" sewing machine from my friend Lois on Friday. It had belonged to her mom who recently had to be admitted to a nursing home. It is a Singer Stylist 6548 circa 1978 (with cams) but let me tell you, it has a nice stitch. A lot better than my carry around Jem is doing right now----tension issues that I need to look into a little closer. My dad will cut me out a sewing machine table insert as I was able to trace off the table extension around the free-arm (it is missing some legs) but I did put the machine to work.

I whipped up a pile of triple rail blocks for a donation quilt I will be making. My friend Norma does strings as an ongoing sewing project when she doesn't feel like anything taxing, matchy-matchy----I do triple rails or bowties, LOL.

Since the triple rail project will go on point I prepped fabric and cut the side setting, alternate blocks stuff along with new HST's for those donation blocks we received last week. I pulled those blocks and rows apart essentially starting from scratch with most of the same fabric. You see, whoever had made the blocks had used QST's around a large triple rail for an Economy block type thing. You guessed it---big time bias problems on the outside edges of the blocks. Since I had it all apart, I scaled the rails down a bit and the blocks will finish at 10.50. With sashing it will make a nice quilt for the kids.

Other things on the home front that kept me hopping over the weekend:

• finally boxed up that stack of donation quilts so I could get in the closet behind it. Woohoo, two boxes on their way to WTIL as of this morning

• Because I could finally get in the closet easily, I switched out the seasonal clothing and purged two lawn and leaf bags of stuff out of both closets, plus the armoire and the blanket chest while I was at it. I subscribe to the theory that if you bring something into the house, you get rid some thing else. (My husband does not do that though, LOL) In this case it was a few new pair of jeans and a couple t-shirts for two big bags for the thrift store. Delivered that stuff this morning too.

• I put the bunny/Easter decoration stuff away. It's May so it was time. Well, all but the April calendar quilt piece was put up I don't have the May piece stitched yet but I did trace off both it and the May Freckles snowman block. I have just a little bit of calendar stitching done---not much.

• Walking program resumed. I laid off too long. Bad girl! Put some weight back on. My triglycerides are probably back up or still up, more like. I made a pact with the MD to let me get back on track with my walking and then see where the numbers are in 6 months. Still up after I have been exercising and making some dietary changes?? Fine, put me on meds if I have to but give me a chance to do better first. I started slow and am going just a hair over one mile 6 days a week which is an increase over the every other day I had started with. I had to wait till my knees and shins forgave me. Another week like this and I will add another lap every two weeks till I reach 10. My pace is pretty good though I am not out there long enough quite yet---.28 miles in about 6 minutes consistently.

• Went thru all my recipe clippings and printouts and kept only the stuff I have actually made or will make soon. I had enough paper removed to ditch one entire notebook and a pile of mixed paper to take to the recycle center in town. That was my late Friday--early Saturday foolishness, LOL.

I took this pic of Skyler a few days back. This little sunny spot in DJ's room is a new haunt lately as he tracks the sun thru the house. He has not been sunbathing the past three days though as it is has been very overcast, windy, humid as all get out. Rain and storms were in the forecast but nothing came of it most of the weekend. Finally we got some rain after we went to bed last night----just a tad under 3 inches according to our rain gauge.

We needed some rain but TN really got hit! My brother and his family, a dear long time friend and a former secret pal all live in the Nashville and surrounding area so I could not help but wonder how they all fared. 1-24 is the route we travel yearly on the way back up to IL. Hard to imagine a manufactured house floating down that interstate or the prospect of the Titans' football stadium being covered in 2 ft of water. My prayers go out the residents dealing with this massive flooding as well as the oil spill mess down in the Gulf that effects my state as well as LA, MS, FL and TX. What a mess!

Guess that's it for now---time to heat up our lunch. Where had the morning gone?