Reviving the Blog {& hopefully my quilting}

 It's just too drizzly rainy for my Monday morning walk with neighbors, so I'm looking at my rusty old blog reading list and getting inspired by the lovely eye candy and ideas.

Summer has been full of my Lovey's semi-retirement, travel, gardening, finishing projects, a small remodel, putting in new flooring in the upstairs, getting used to each other's ideas of what retirement should look like and we're starting to settle into a more regular routine...somewhat. 

Lately, the projects have been gardening and preserving garden produce...

...but evenings watching the Tigers play baseball has been conducive to learning the fun art of Inkle {band} weaving which I can do while the portable loom is propped up on a stool in front of my easy chair.

This strap went to replacing the shoulder straps on my daughter's sundress of the same colors.

This band went to replace fabric carry straps on my music bag with which I take choir/piano music to church.

I was so tickled when, without prompting, Lovey said it looked like piano keys. That was the intent.

I also got to take a two-day class {for free!} at a semi-local art foundation to make a glass mosaic and resined piece on a window frame.

With the four seasons theme, of course I had to quote from James Taylor's song...

The empty frames now serve as our scheduling boards.

As you can see in this last picture, I'm hosting "Housemoot" this week. The is a gathering {"moot"} of Christian artists as enabled and assisted by Andrew Peterson's Rabbit Room. We share a meal, watch a video made by the Rabbit Room folk, discuss it with a desire to affect our own community with good art of various genres for the glory of God. Then we do a little shared project. 

A friend and I hosted it last year, but did it over the course of a Friday and Saturday. This year we decided instead to spread it out throughout the autumn, meeting every two weeks in various homes till the available videos are done and then hopefully continue monthly after the holidays. We've had some good discussions and encouragement in the previous two "moots" and hope to again this Thursday.

As far as quilting, I haven't done much and I'm way behind on the RSC, but I did get some of my blocks done and turned into a baby quilt top.

Then I figured out how to basically make the same blocks, but not quite so scrappy thereby using bigger chunks of fabric stash and smaller chunks of time.

So that's how I intend to catch up on the RSC.

Week's Goals:

Since I'm going to be busy getting ready for Housemoot, I'll keep my crafting goals simple:

Quilting:  at least one RSC block, preferably two

Mosaic: finish baseboard piece for bathroom to cover old heat register area. Make china flowers, cottage, & path & maybe add something to the sky.

Th-th-that's all, folks! May your week be full of delightful productivity with no pressure. 😊

Progress and Dreams

 I made some good progress on my Everyday Embroidery last week and plan to continue that daily.

And I figured out how to put together the rescued Card Trick blocks to make a baby quilt flimsy which I will donate.

I didn't get to the My Cozy Kitchen wall hanging at all, so that will be a goal for this week. I want to lightly hand-quilt it and hang it in my cozy kitchen.

Another goal for this week is to go through my flannel fabrics and get back to making receiving blankets, bibs, and burp cloths for our local baby pantry. I enjoy crocheting a nice border around flannel receiving blankets. February is our church's month to "love your neighbor" through various donation drives, one of which is the community baby pantry. So I'll be buying some diapers, too, to donate.

I've also started a new project, of course. 😏 It's going to be a gift for my long-time friend's birthday in March - a cross-stitched piece. Being technology-challenged, I have to do my designing with graph paper, scissors, and washi tape. 😁 It works. Tricia and I have walked some very hard roads together {still are} and I so appreciate her friendship and encouragement and her letting me try to encourage her back. Though she lives about 2.5 hours away, we try to get together monthly, sometimes here, sometimes at her place, sometimes somewhere in the middle, sometimes quite out of the way for a big adventure.

I'll also work on my RSC blocks and will get at my month's UFO. The Chookshed Stitchers say that February's UFO number is 8, so I'll excitedly be working on my experimental strip quilt. I've been wanting to do it, but felt like I needed to finish other stuff first. But now I have permission from on high 😄 to go at it.

Of course I have to share some of our great amounts of snow. That blue thing in the middle of the picture is a regular-sized metal chair {as reference for how deep the snow is}. This is not an unusual amount for us over the course of the winter; it just seems to have all come early and within a short amount of time.

One of the perks of waking up at 4:00 a.m. {not intentionally, but trying to see the silver lining}, is getting to enjoy the super-bright moonlight on the snow.

Pastor has been encouraging us with the concept of Sabbath rest, or Shalom, of living in the presence and power of God. We can rest in the knowledge of Him - His person, power, and characteristics {attributes} such as love, goodness, justice, peace, and constant presence with those who have acknowledged Him as Savior and Master. Since we're just frail humans, that peace seems to come and go as we don't always sense His presence, but He's there and so ready to envelope us again with that peace. Look in faith to Him and His Word.

May your week be a blessing to you and to those around you.

Fun Finishes and New Goals

 I'm so tickled with my recent finishes! I'm super determined this year to get neglected projects finished and starting off with some smaller ones is encouraging and fueling my determination. So, here they are:

First up is the My Sewing Room sew-along from Jennifer Reynolds which just needed to be assembled and lightly hand-quilted.

I added a few quilting-related pins and hung it above my sewing machine. I'm loving it, even if my photography wasn't so great. 😐

This next project has been in the works for quite some time, is also based on free patterns from Jennifer, and really brings me a lot of joy. It's a fabric book, built on thrift store placemats with a table runner for a cover.

The peach teacup was part of a silk scarf that my daughter dyed in a community art class.

More of said scarf.

The pieced teacups were made by another daughter in a project with friends.

I really am pleased with this book and hope that someday it will become an heirloom for my oldest granddaughter {who is too young to truly appreciate it yet}.

I've also made good progress on my Everyday Embroidery.

And last, but not least for today, I got my blue blocks made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and hung them up to "purty up" my wall {and not lose them}.

So, despite having the winter blues {or more accurately, the grays & whites}, I'm happy to be getting these projects done and am eager to set new goals for this week.

At the machine:

* Figure out something creative to do with these recently found blocks in order to made a donation baby quilt

* Turn these six thrift-store-rescued blocks into a flimsy. There was a seventh block that was already machine-quilted that I turned into a little wall hanging for my sewing room.

In the Embroidery & Handquilting Chair:

* Finish at least five rectangles on the Everyday Embroidery

* Finalize plans for the next fabric book

* Begin handquilting the My Cozy Kitchen wall hanging that I finally got sewn together to my liking after several rearrangements

On the Homestead:

* Keep the newly hatched {and constantly in motion so not photogenic} quails alive 😊