What I'm working on...

I have a day off from kid and kitten sitting today so thought I would show you what I'm working on... my Featherweight and also the Singer in a cabinet I found at the local thrift shop.

But first, my helper Jules, checking out the box that the Featherweight came in... to make sure I took everything out, I'm sure.












The Featherweight in all it's tiny glory.  It was born in October 1950.  It sews a beautiful stitch.  I joined a forum so I could ask questions about how to oil and lubricate it, to keep it in good running condition.

And this is the larger Singer machine in a cabinet.  I have a lot of research to do to find out what type of machine it is.  It may be an older machine than the FW is.  But it's in good condition except for the belt, which is replaceable, and sews a really nice stitchline.

So, I'll be on the internet doing research and asking lots of questions to nail down the year and model of this cabinet Singer.

It's going to be fun to sew an entire quilt on one or the other of these old machines.  I sewed my wedding dress on my mother's treadle machine... oh, how I wish I had that one now....

So that's my update about what I will be doing on this overcast morning.  :-))

Not quilting yet...

There's a reason that I haven't been able to post for the past weeks but where do I start?  I guess I should have said there are many reasons that I haven't posted lately.... first of all being that I have to do whatever I can to help my children when they need help.

Liza went to the SF area to help with her brother's household on June 1st and will return on August 5th, a little earlier than planned.  TYJ  She has had to deal with a lot while there.  Her big dog, Thor, was hit by a car and killed in front of the house.  She and her brother had spent the night calling and searching for him; he was found in the ditch by her brother as he was leaving for work the next morning.  Beautiful Thor was cremated and is coming home to rest with his master, Shawn, who died two years ago.  Liza had a hard time dealing with her guilt about not keeping Thor safe... so that's been one issue.

My other daughter, Laura, was left behind to watch over 2 cats, 2 fish tanks, and 8 chickens as well as one acre of lawn, plants and a garden.  She's had a tough time maintaining all of that in addition to holding down a fulltime job.  It didn't help that she adopted a kitten a few weeks ago who needs day care (which I'm doing) and a raccoon attack on the chickens (Mr. Pants, the white Silkie was taken) which required that she have a new and sturdier chicken house built.  Then there's the temperature.... in the 80's.  Whew!

My son and his wife have two boys, who aren't old enough to be alone all day so whenever one gets signed up for acting theatre classes and has to be taken on a 35 minute ferry ride, then a 30 minute bus ride every morning to arrive at 9am, I step in to keep the other kid company for the day.  Acting class lasts all this week so I have a small kitten (my big boys aren't too happy about the visitor) and a 9-year old boy to take care of for the week.  Next week they both go to swim camp but they stay over all week so no driving back and forth.  TYJ

Then, next week I fly down to SF to accompany my dd on her drive back north to come home.  At last!  Someone to take care of the chickens, the chicken house, the cats and the fish as well as the garden, lawn and plants.  Hurray!  I can hardly wait.

Managed to take a couple of days in the middle of the month and drive over to see the Pacific ocean which I really miss.  Even though I live on an island, it's in Puget Sound and is miles from the ocean.  The sights were wonderful along the seashore.  It was a fun trip with Laura; we checked out Forks (the vampire town from the movies) and had lunch there.

So that's my sad story.  Busy, busy, busy!  But I'll soon be back relaxing in my comfortable living room, watching my favorite shows (the Tudors starts this week) ...quilting and blogging to my heart's content.... with the help of my 'boys'.

I am still on the hunt for that yellow mustard color fabric to start on my next quilt though... no stopping me on that. 

A Month Later

As you can imagine, a lot has happened in my life to keep me away from my blogging life.  That's my excuse and I'm stickin' with it.  Let me explain.

On June 1st, I drove with my daughter to the San Francisco area where my son lives.  Liza had agreed to live with him (he's a single father) for the summer while his kids were out of school.  It was an uneventful drive for the most part.... well, except for coming across a covered bridge in Oregon after we had pulled off hwy 5 to get an antacid for my upset stomach.

Even a covered wagon close by.  The bridge takes one way traffic but we only walked across it.  Very interesting.




Liza brought both dogs and they handled the car ride well... we stopped every hour or so for their walks.  Chubaca loved the wind in his face.....

Even Margot, the hamster came along.  The kids love Margot.  She rolls around in her ball when she isn't in her cage.  She's cute.

I flew back north because I had left my kitties behind and my other daughter was coming in twice a day to feed them.  I tried to leave them with my son at his house but they couldn't adjust to being there... hiding under the sofa and under the blankets on the bed, refusing to eat... so I brought them back home after 3 days away.  They were happy to see me back.... even happier than my daughter was to have me back.  haha

I was on the right (literally) side of the plane to look down on Crater Lake, created by a meteor or something similar long, long ago.  I'm going to go camping there one day... I hope.

Unfortunately, after traveling from 9am until 4pm - getting to and from the airport took a few hours - I arrived at the ferry terminal to find that the "vessel departed" just minutes before I arrived.  Waited almost an hour for the next one.  Luckily I had a book - Anne of Green Gables - that I wanted to finish so it wasn't a total waste of time.  My cat-sitting daughter picked me up at the other end, on the island where I live, and I was finally home to my happy cats.

I did absolutely nothing for a few days.  I was tired out and just couldn't move but once I recovered, I started to sandwich the Polka Party quilt so I could quilt it.

Then I started to work on the purse I hadn't finished before my trip.  So far I've made three and will be working on a 4th.  I kept one, mailed two to California for my daughter and a g-daughter and am giving the final one to my teenaged g-daughter who lives close by and is flying to California to visit her mother in a few days.  She'll be 18 in a few days so that's her birthday gift from me.

Jaik is helping me choose the next fabric.  Sure he is!  These cats will do anything to help out.

Nice to be back.  I haven't decided on which quilt I want to start next... maybe Sylvia's Bridal Sampler from Elm Creek Quilts.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

For the Blogger's Quilt Festival, the quilt I made that I like the most is the Dear Jane quilt that took me a year and a half to do.  I first saw this quilt about 20 years ago when I was browsing the internet but didn't have the skills nor the available time to make it then. 

I knew I wanted to own 'that quilt' so after I began my quilting journey in 2001, I looked for the pattern. There were clubs devoted to the Dear Jane quilts so I joined one and read all the tips I could find about making it including buying the book written by Brenda Papadakis showing each block.  However, the book had only pictures; it was up to the reader to trace and figure out how to engineer each block.

I began the quilt top in 2007 and completed it mid-2009.   I enjoyed the challenge and I understand why so many of the Janiacs make more than one.  I made the traditional baby Jane using a different fabric for every block and triangle.  It was very challenging to find the correct colored fabric and to figure out what method would be best to make each block.  I'm hand quilting my baby Jane and that also is quite a challenge for me.

I guess I'm a scrappy quilt person.  My DJ has almost 5,000 pieces in it.

Jane Stickle was the woman who first made this quilt and dated it "In War Time 1963".  It has 169 4.5" square blocks surrounded by 52 8x5" triangles and 4 corner triangles.


I love working on my baby Jane; I have named it after my g-g-grandfather, who fought and was injured at Vicksburg during the Civil War... it's my Elnathan Jane.

Another block.. and some chickens

I hope everyone had as wonderful a Mother's Day as I did.  It was a beautiful sunny day so I picked up some champagne, fresh fruit and orange juice at the market... thanks to a generous gift certificate from my California son.... and drove over to my daughter's house.

We sat outside in the sunshine eating the crepes with fruit and drank mimosas of champagne and orange juice.  My daughter inlaw and my grandaughter joined us and we chatted until my younger daughter had to leave for work at noon and my DIL and my g-daughter went off to have a picnic at a little beach nearby.

I've never seen anything like this before so i'm calling it a sun halo.  My daughter noticed this ring around the sun while we were working on the chicken coop.  Strange, huh?  And very pretty!  

Since the six newly acquired chicks had no coop outside to live in, my older daughter and I got busy screwing together some plywood and chicken wire to make a small temporary shelter for them.  They looked happy on their perch and their screened in yard

so we took the two dogs and went off to Pritchard Park, which is really a quite nice chunk of sandy beach where dogs off-leash are welcome.  We brought a little picnic along - crackers and a good sour cream/water chestnut/spinach dip that Liza made.  The dogs had fun in the sun meeting and playing with the other dogs, big and small.  After a few hours, we departed to go to my son's where my son, DIL and g-daughter were waiting for us.  After chatting for a couple of hours with them and a drop-in neighbor,

I took Liza and Madeleine home and went home myself to see who would win the Amazing Race.  I was a little disappointed that the Oklahoma brothers, the McCoys, didn't win but it was an exciting race overall.

What a great day!

And, Twiddletails posted the 10th block for the quilt I'm making so I got that done a few days ago too.

Two more blocks to go, then I guess there'll be sashing to go around each block.













Today, I'm going to be a seamstress and cut out the pattern for a skirt and top that my older daughter wants to take to California with her next month.

I hope to finish it quickly.... like in a couple of days at most.  But life can take a twist and turn at any moment so guess I'll see.








Jules wants to help.  I'm sure that will make the project go much faster especially after he sees all that nice, crinkly tissue paper.

I'll be right back...

The merry month of May is when many birthdays happen, along with Mother's Day.  Five birthdays (oops, just realized that my brother's birthday is on the 11th of May also) that all require mailing of cards and gifts to various destinations - in Canada and the US.  I have been busy as a bee trying to find the right cards, the right gifts and get things in the mail on time.  As it is, I'm not sure I mailed the card to my friend, Danny, in enough time for his card to arrive but I hope so because his birthday is today!!  Happy birthday my friend of more than fifty years!

In addition to birthdays, I have been taxiing people from home to ferry and vice versa because of the weather.  Normally, folks around here are pretty hardy and don't mind a few drops of rain but yesterday it hailed - big, huge blobs of ice fell from the sky!  For a few minutes only, but still!  Five minutes earlier, it had been sunny which is why I didn't have a hat or coat on and had to borrow from my daughter so we could go shopping.  Check this sky out....

It's very overcast outside today too, but I have to go out so instead of walking, I'll be driving the minivan.  lol  So much for my exercise today.

So, this entry today is to say that "I'll be back ASAP."  Being that I'm not the most prolific blogger anyway, I'm sure that won't come as a complete surprise to anyone reading this.

Gettin' there

Twiddletails posted one more block.  So I did it right away so I wouldn't get behind in case 'life' happens.

I can see how nice it's going to look.  I love the colors.














I found a quilt top that I hadn't completed last year.  I don't know why I wouldn't have finished it because I don't like to have unfinished tops laying around but I'm glad it was there because it'll come in handy for one of my grandchildren.  I'm trying to accumulate four quilts before the first week of May.

The 'found' quilt is predominantly green so I'm going to sew a green border around it, then piece a backing out of various green fabrics I have on hand.  Then I can test my machine quilting skills.... yikes!!

I shouldn't be afraid; I'm sure I'll do okay... but it is kind of scary to quilt a quilt that I'm going to give away.

And here are my other greens....

Yes, they're pretty different one from the other but they seem to go together.  I'll probably make simple square blocks for the backing so it won't be too difficult to machine quilt through.

That bottom fabric has frogs on it.










My rosemary has been blooming for a few weeks now.  I've seen the birds grab the flowers and fly off with them in their beaks.  My son says they're building nests.  Scented nests!

And the sage is looking good too.  There's also red leaf lettuce and garlic growing there.  The tomato cage is awaiting a tomato plant... it's still a little early to plant a tomato yet.  The ground has to warm up more I'm told.

I may plant the tomatoes in the hanging planters again this year, although I've had little luck with growing them that way.  Guess that makes me an optimist.