what you do on New Years..........

I had to laugh at a comment from my friend Gene yesterday

You know he is right, LOL!  I'm retired but I would love to sleep in but the "boys" usually manage to not let that happen.  Skyler wants to be fed while the husband can take care of himself for breakfast anyway.

As it turned out we had the neighborhood pyrotechnics going on to ring in the New Year---every 4th of July for several days before and after and New Years for several hours before and after.  This year though they managed to keep firing  intermittently till about 2 a.m.  Since I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep Tuesday night and had been awake for almost 24 hours at that point, I was NOT amused.  Thankfully, I slept about 7 hours straight last night in spite of Skyler's wake up call at 5:30 this morning.

But I stuck to my plan to sew something personal and something pro bono.  I even snuck in a little minor re-organizing and vacuumed most of the house (shudder---housework!).  Last night DJ pointed out that I had not done his floor.  Of course I didn't.   His doesn't get stringed up like mine or the rest of the house unless I drag a large top in to strike some measurements for borders.  I had not done that so I ignored it.  He is still on surgical restrictions or I would have told him to take care of it.  I do not live to clean, he knows that.

On the sewing front this is what how I spent my day doing "what you do on NYD, you do all year"

• Binding finished by machine.  Ongoing goal:  learn or perfect a new technique by practicing on Aline's pro bono quilt I had just quilted Sunday and Monday.

Conclusion?  Looks good on the front.  Looks better on the back than previous attempts.  Needs work as I overcompensated for the pull over factor. The corners don't look as good as they could.  Maybe next time apply it to the back and pull it to the front and try it that way?

• 2nd goal:  piece something pro bono.  I pulled out the 4 patch stacked posie from the fall sew-in and did up 13 blocks.  I think I counted 13 more to go?  I may finish that up today actually but I want these for the centers of another block  (inside a BQ 1 and maybe a Framed like Camille Roskelley)

• 3rd, 4th and 5th goals:  work on a UFO, handwork and a personal project.  Actually I meant embroidery but hand applique works too, LOL.

As background info,  I wanted just one hexagon rosette for my Farmer's Wife Sampler, untouched since Sept 2012.  At the time Brenda had completed her Grandmother's Flower Garden and I asked her what size the hexies were.  I thought that one motif might fit on a 6  inch finished base.  She handed me one of her leftover blocks with the plastic/mylar? pieces that you baste over still in with instructions not to remove them till I had it appliqued down.   Anyway, it stood in for all those goals yesterday.  I placed it on the base at this angle because FWIS is on point.   I am more likely to pull out my FWIS bins and at least remind myself where I left off now.  I KNOW that there is a block in there that needs to be re-done due to an iron stainage and wonky section.  That would not take long to complete.

It was about 9 p.m. when I finished this up and I was wiped out from the two nights of not enough sleep so my plan to knit a bit did not happen.  Whatever---I know I will work on some pro bono hats at some point this year.

Must get started on the guild newsletter at some point today even as I wait for something that needs to be included in it.  So do I be "good" and do that first or go straight to fun sewing???   The great debate rages, LOL.  I also want to do some sort of year end accounting or list of what I want/need to work on in coming months yet.  A reminder can 't hurt!

lists---do they help??

I am just about finished with the great clean and purge job here at home.  In some ways I might be the only one that really knows what I did but to me, I have the satisfaction of knowing that it is better than it was.  DJ has gotten in the act a bit and will be painting the last shelf/wall in the utility room some time today.  I already have cleaned up and/or thinned down the storage containers that go in that spot as we were working in there yesterday.   He painted the bottom two shelves and boy, did that freshen and brighten it up in there!

Today: I cleared out my area in the outside shed this morning, made the run to the recycle boxes and the donation bins----again.  I also straightened, cleaned, thinned out the pantry room off the car port.  That was one hot job as while the temps were not high, the humidity was.  Sweat in the eyes---ugh!I finished dealing with the kitchen food cupboards.  I am currently satisfied with the stuff and the amount of it in the kitchen.  I could move all the cookbooks and dust but I think that is one job that I could just plan on doing some morning.

That just leaves the sewing room closet which, to my mind, needs the most attention.  If I can work up enough energy to deal with it, LOL.  Right now, I am wearing down quickly and just want to take a shower, pop a couple Motrin and lay down.  I won't yet but I want to---there is a difference!

So, as this cleaning/purging deal winds down, I should be able to get back to sewing early next week as I planned but on what??  I had considered joining in the batik/60's themed blog hop coming up in late September/early October, thinking it might jump start a project I had cut out but not sewn.  I have some leftover from a kit that Lois had used to make a top, something from a quilter's garage sale, that may have worked in this too.  Ultimately though I expressed my regrets to Mdm. Samm this morning.  Making something 60's themed might mean it has to live at my house.  That is not necessarily a good thing, LOL---butterflies, big dots, chevrons, houndstooth.  Oh wait some of that stuff has made a resurgence!  Take a look at something that arrived in my email box just this morning------lava lamps and love beads from Lyn Brown.  Nice!  but I don't want it even for nostalgia's sake.

I had a Kit It and Hit 2013 list and it is right there on a tabbed page.  Have I done anything on it??  UH, not much.  I'll cross through what I have managed to get done on those lists.  The descriptors only really matter to me.

"Mostly donation items I want moved on from the tower container in the sewing room.  There are also a few personal items I want moved along too.  My goal is to at least get these to flimsy stage in 2013.  "Squirrels" are allowed.

• Adapted Oxmoor House Christmas quilt--personal

• Basket Button Up--personal

• Bloom Button Up--personal

• Harvest Button Up--persona

• Bears---Puss in the Corner or Patience Corne

• Cat panel medallion

• Anne's Fall Strings---maybe a RR Crossing.  Cher get the other half

• Nancy's Blue and Fuschia mystery quilt

• Twisted Sister--- need backgrounds cut

• Billie Lauder Pinwheel---one or two quilts in that bag???

• Chunky Churn Dash

• Mystery Blockaid or figure something else out with the components

• Naptime in pinks and teal

• Snuggle Up or Boardwalk with the fallish strips

• Twin Sisters---a few blocks already made

• Oriental Puss in the Corner on poin

• Finish up the Hexagon Stack and Whack

• Criss Cross---finish it--about 4 blocks are made

ON GOING ITEMS FOR THE YEAR

• Halloween Row x Row
• Friendship Quilters Row x Row
• Farmer's Wife Inspired Sampler--continue on from block 31 to 110
• Stitches from the Heart---Sunbonnet Sue from Mary Alice 

GIFTIES

• Allison tree skirt
• Blake and Julia tree skirt      
• And the recently I added in an other one!  that will go to Kristine and Andy

IF I HAVE TIME AND THE INCLINATION

• Judy's Country at Heart BOM---probably is two tops 
• Start Marti Michell BOM kits

Pretty ambitious, right??  And in past years all those donation quilts may have gotten done.  I'll cut myself a little bit of slack on the on-going stuff.  It is all stalled out though.  I have a few rows done on the Friendship Quilters row but that ended in May??  I am still stitching on the Halloween stitchery that goes in the middle of the Halloween row but not consistently.  The Sunbonnets?  Well, I had hoped maybe that would happen but I am still just collecting patterns.

So I'm thinking I should just scrap that whole list and work from the one I mentally established earlier in the month. A few things are actually done on this one!  Just stating that I have a list normally makes me follow through especially if there is a deadline involved.  At least 4 things on here do have a deadline.  Some can wait.

• Hexie Hop Items
• Bday present :items for Norma
• 2 pillow cases for the tree skirts
• Hand finish the binding on PopStix
• Pillow cases to match PopStix
• Kristine's Tree skirt and case
• Harvest Paint Chip Challenge
• BB Debbie Mumm Challenge
• Purse--either 4 fats or batik'ish one
• donation quilt for Gene's Quilt Angels
• quilt up the 4 donation qlts left in the stack
• serger cover---post haste!
• let this please be the year I replace those awful backwards Christmas stockings

Actually it might be more enlightening to me if I were to list just what I DID manage to get done this year!  

I have NOT been a total slug in the sewing department.  Hops happened.  I am glad that I participated and do not regret one minute that I spent working on my items for them.  It is fun, challenging and interacting with other quilters and crafters has been a blast.  I used to be totally focused on donation quilt work and was for 10 plus years.   It has been good to do some things for just me, and just for the heck of it.  I have the one required quilt done for Friendship Quilters and will be quilting up a few more as they are just waiting for me.  It just has not been my entire "bag of tricks".  

What will I do first?  Whip up those matching pillow cases for PopStix, work on the binding at quilt meetings and get some measurements so I can make the serger cover.  I've got fabric that matches the sewing machine cover that was my entry for "It's All About Me" (I'm a little biased) but I'll forego the applique this time, LOL.  

Well, DJ is done with the painting task.  We can re-load the shelf in about an hour.  Leftover vegetable beef soup is thawing in the fridge for supper so cooking tasks are minimal tonight. That closet is not going to straighten up by itself.  I want the holiday on Monday to be just that, a holiday!  No housework.