Is it Spring yet?

When the weather man gives a 7-day forecast that shows 7 straight days of mostly cloudy days with "measurable snow" each of those days, you must be in Michigan.

I've long thought that I must suffer from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) from lack of sunshine in the winter. And here we are again - mid-January and I want it to be SPRING!

I have attempted many ways over the years to treat my Winter Cabin Fever. One year I bought soil, little peat pots and tomato plant SEEDS. I just needed to see something green growing! Within a few short weeks I certainly had green. Unfortunately, before the ground outside was warm enough to put out these 100 tomato plants, they were tomato trees and taking up every available window space in the whole house. All in all, it wasn't a good idea.

Other years I have headed south to get in a little sun. Last year, a month is sunny Florida in March with my Mom turned into a month in cloudy COLD Florida.

This year we are still dealing with fairly regular appointments with my orthopedic surgeon, so being a Snow Bird this year is not going to work.

Guess I need to dig out that full-spectrum Ott light in my sewing room and see if I can fool myself into thinking the sun is out.

Candy Kisses

I'm feeling a bit more like sewing and am able to tolerate having my ankle hanging down for longer periods of time. So, today I started working on my UFO list. My real boost to get some sewing done came from my 9 year-old granddaughter who has been sewing up a storm. She called me to find out if she could get "some of that fuzzy stuff that you put in the middle" of a quilt. A new generation of quilters has been born!

Now I know that a quilt is not a quilt until it's quilted, but I am not quite ready to be standing at my quilting machine and frame yet. Until I am, I will just keep sewing quilt tops! Today I finished a cute little throw from 10- Minute Blocks by Suzanne McNeill.

Suzanne even has a YouTube video that shows how to make these blocks. They truly do take only about 10 minutes to make!

The fact that I had a pretty pink and cream Layer Cake from Moda's Candy Kisses line made it even more fun! Fast and fun - a good way to work my way back to sewing on a fairly regular basis.

Tomorrow I hope to get started on a huge pile of pillowcases!

Recycled Sweater Mittens

I officially have the bug, the Mittens From Sweaters bug. Thanks to my quilting friends Judy and Brenda, I'm back in my sewing room and I have made my first pair of polar fleece lined mittens from an old sweater. I found the pattern and some vague directions on the web. Then, Judy and Brenda came by and gave me some hands on directions for putting the pieces together. It was fun, easy and the mittens are great! Now I just need to find a few more old wool sweaters!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I start off the year 2011 with my first pair of shoes since my ankle fusion in September. The Dr has given me permission to start taking some steps in my new rocker soled Sketchers.
Not only are they unbelievably ugly but, for someone with balance issues, really hard to walk in! Something new to learn on this adventure. Perhaps this is one stip closer to breaking free of the recliner chair that has been holding me hostage for months now!

Hoping 2011 is happy and healthy for everyone! I'm hoping to be wheelchair, walker and cane free by summer!

It's time....

It's time to get back to the sewing room. I spent much of September, October and November in a wheel chair with absolutely no desire to sew and not able to stand to quilt.

The first of December found me taking tentative steps with a walker - not really walking, just stepping. Even though my sewing machine was calling me, I still didn't have much enthusiasm to get down to my sewing room and get going on anything.

Now, it's time. I am still only "stepping" and still in a full leg air cast, but I need to get back to doing what I do. So, a quick ride down the new stair lift, and there I was - back in my sewing room. I spent a few minutes working on a "10-minute block" project from a Moda layer cake that had been sitting on the shelf for months and months.

After about an hour and a half of sewing, It became apparent that I do NOT have the stamina for the up and down sewing, pressing and cutting method that I have used for years and years. It's going to take me a bit of time to get back fully into the swing of things!

So, I decided to really take a look at things and see exactly what is waiting for me down there. Here is what I found (and the list may change as I find more projects hidden away in the cupboards and cabinets of my sewing room.

QUILTS THAT I HAVE PROMISED ( guess I should work on these first)

1. Emily and Paul's T-Shirt Quilts - graduation gifts.

I have a tried and true method of doing t-shirt quilts, so a I'm ready to go with those as soon as I can stand long enough to cut the shirts.

2. Elise's "big girl" quilt. Elise's quilt will be made from Moda's Butterfly Fling line and I have a gorgeous bundle of fat quarters ready for that project.

3. Donation block for the 2011 fair quilt

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UFOs (Unfinished objects - projects that have already been started)

1. Candy Kisses Lap quilt

2. Civil War Tribute BOM quilt (I should be getting the final three months blocks from my niece's quilt shop - Two Sisters Quilting in Bear Lake, Michigan any day now

3. Fiddlesticks Floral - this quilt is all cut and ready to be pieced

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PIGS (Projects in grocery sacks)

1. Moda's Legacy Pineapple quilt - kit

2. Wildflower Serenade - two kits but will probably combine into one queen size

3. Beep Beep toddler boys quilt. Will finish and put in my Etsy shop

4. Mary Rose - shabby chic throw

5. Oriental fabric throw

6. Gathering Leaves kit from Moda's Alspice collection

7. Oak Leaf and Reel - Moda applique quilt kit

8. Snow Crystals kit

9. Shimmer Stars quilt kit

10. About a dozen novelty print pillow cases for the grandkids

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I also have quite a collection of Moda Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls and fat quarter bundles that I have not decided yet on a pattern.

PLUS, a multitude of bins full of fabric scraps for making my favorite quilts. SCRAP QUILTS! I have dozens of scrap quilts planned out in my mind! Not to mention my favorite scrap quilts designed by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville Bonnie is currently running a quilt mystery called Roll, Roll Cotton Boll. I would love to be in the middle of this mystery quilt but I am afraid that I am not quite up to doing the fabric cutting that this quilt requires. I have however, printed out each and every clue that has been posted and I will do this quilt at some time in the future!

It appears that I could piece quilts for about 10 years without ever setting foot back in a fabric store.

It’s time…..

8 new screws - still healing

I'm still healing - and still not sewing. I've now spent 10 1/2 weeks non-weight bearing in a wheelchair. My initial incision did not heal well so I returned to surgery on October 25th for more surgery. I am getting pretty antsy to get downstairs to my sewing room. However, I wonder if the pain meds I am taking will allow me to concentrate enough to sew! Perhaps it is not yet time for sharp things like pins, needles and rotary cutters.

My surgeon has just given the okay for me to do some "partial weight bearing" while wearing my big ole boot and using a walker. With any luck, I will be graduating to a cane by the first of the year!

I have a whole list of things that I want to start working on. The top of the list is a "big girl" quilt for my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter who is moving from her crib to a big girl bed. The next thing on my list is the current Bonnie Hunter Quiltville Mystery Quilt - Roll, Roll Cotton Boll. I have printed out all of the clues and my mind is just swimming with all of the fabrics in my stash that would be appropriate for this quilt!

Where did you get all of that talent?

Because I love to do crafty things and because I do lots of different types of "crafty things" many people ask me where I got "all of that talent". I'm not sure that I do anything any better than the Average Joe, but the things that I love to do, I like to do well! And at this time of my life, I have time to devote to the things that I like to do.

I am sure that my talents are a gift from God. He also gave me Grandmas that were willing to teach!

Both of my Grandmas were farm wives and worked long, hard hours every day! The time that they had to sit was time that they took to do sewing, knitting, crochet, tatting, etc.

My Grandma McPhee was a top-notch seamstress who did sewing for "ladies in the city" until she was busy with family of her own. When I first started sewing as a young girl, she gently looked over every one of my sewing projects to show me things that were not quite right and ways that I might have done things differently. I learned a lot about sewing from her. I hope that she looks down on me from heaven and is pleased! She also knitted the most beautuful things. I loved to watch her and because I am left-handed, we found that if I sat across a narrow table from her that I could see what she was doing and copy it! Grandma also tatted lace for the edges of all of her fine linens, but I never learned to do that particular type of hand work.

My Grandma Erskine could make ANYTHING with a crochet hook and a ball of yarn or thread. I was fat as a young girl and I would rather read a book or sit with Grandma as she crocheted than go outside and "play". I remember sitting with her in her big green chair by the picture window as she crocheted edges on linens or skirts and shawls for my Barbie doll. She would let me put my hand over hers when she crocheted so that I could feel how her hand moved the hook and yarn. She also had a treadle sewing machine that she allowed me to sew on. I guess she figured that I couldn't get it going fast enough to really hurt myself. I wonder what ever happened to that treadle machine?

A lot of what my Grandmas made were things that we see today as crafty. These things were certainly not crafts to them. My mom tells me about the quilts that they would make, not for beauty or for show, but for winter warmth! The quilts were brought downstairs each spring, the ties cut so that the tops could be washed and then when dry, each of the quilts had to be put back on the frame and re-tied to get them ready for the next years use.

My Grandma McPhee knitted mittens for each of her 18 grandchildren every year! She also knitted the neatest hats and sweaters. While I am struggling through knitting a mitten, I keep thinking that I could buy the kids mittens - probably for about $2 a pair. Why am I doing this? I guess because MY Grandma knitted mittens, I think I should be able to. Thus far I have only been marginally successful at the mitten thing. I also have several books on knitting socks. Yep - socks. I have yet to turn out an actual sock, but I sure would like to learn. My grandmas both made that handful of knitting needles look easy. Trust me - holding 4 needles in the right position at the same time is NOT easy.

My dad told me that when he was young, his Grandma Maria Erskine knitted new thumbs for his mittens on a regular basis. Working on the farm in the winter wore out the thumbs, so Grandma knitted new ones!

My hobbies are supposed to be fun. When I find that I'm not having fun doing something, I'm done with it! I do tend to go "all out" over any new craft that I discover. And, over the years, this has been kind of a costly way of doing things.

For example, I invested a LOT of money in knitting machines and the special kind of yarn that they use. I worked at it until I got pretty good at it, but found that I didn't really LIKE machine knitting. So, I sold all of the knitting machines and still have a huge bin of top quality machine knitting cone yarn in the basement. I did keep the large gauge Bond knitting machine. It's fun for basic knitting and someday, I hope the kids will want to learn how it works.

So, I love sewing, (and sewing machines), quilting, knitting and crochet and I believe that I have my Grandmas to thank for that.