Early morning serenity, a "To Do List", and 52 Finishes

All is calm and quiet this morning. A quart of blueberries picked,

 a batch of laundry finished.  I love these cooler temperatures which energize me and make me want to sew and sew.

I am progressing on my 52 finishes.  Two more rows for the blooming 9 patch.  

Two more borders for the "Lazy Sunday", a Bonnie Hunter scrap pattern found in her book, and in Quiltmaker magazine last year.  

All of the blocks completed for the "Bricks and Stepping Stones" top, another Bonnie Hunter pattern found on her blog and website under the free patterns tab.  

Two rows were completed as "leaders and enders" between piecing the last rows of "Lazy Sunday". 

Oh, did I mention that I enlarged "Lazy Sunday"?  Those who know me are saying, of course she did.  The math challenge called to me when I was cutting the pieces last summer in the hotel room in Martinsville, Virginia.  I think I told you THAT story, didn't I?

Well on to other matters of the day.  Block of the Month patterns for NBQA to finish.  Invites to the January Quilters Retreat to send out ( did you see the tab for the retreat at the top of the page?).  And more blueberries to pick at mom's house.

Have a great day!

One Month Later... And My "New" Sewing Space

I have not posted for 32 days, a little over a month.  There are many family issues which have been and are continuing to be draining.  So much so that the moments to sew are few and far between.  I do have numerous opportunities to hand sew but rare opportunities for machine sewing.  I thought today with the few moments I have at home, that I would re-enter the blogging world and bring you up to date on the UFO progress!

In my "new sewing space", created to provide opportunity for found moments for sewing, there are the following...

2 more blocks for "Lazy Sunday" left to do.

Numerous blocks for "Easy Street #2" needing to be finished.

Many pieces of several steps to sew on "Celtic Solstice", but I am caught up with the cutting for each step 1 to 4.

 

Working on cutting Step 5 now.

 

Since this is predominantly where I have been able to sew in those found moments, I am pleased with the progress of each project.  Thank you to Bonnie Hunter for providing patterns that fit into this new "found moments for sewing" lifestyle I currently am experiencing!

Life will continue to be crazy in the weeks ahead.  But I can trust that I will continue to be handed short segments of time to spend in my new sewing space. Life can be trying sometimes, but it also can be good.

Happy New Year to All!

Sitting in the bookstore

On a Saturday night with my pile of romance novels, quilting magazines and an iced tea. 

Life doesn't get any better than this!

Sunday Morning Piecing on "Lazy Sunday"

The title of this post says it all!

Amidst the craziness that has been my life lately, I have found the best way to retain my sanity is to schedule in some sewing time each day.

Today, the need for sewing and the need for something not too mentally taxing resulted in my sewing the parallelograms for "Lazy Sunday".

I sewed until the bobbin ran out

.

Now on to other Sunday things.

What's on your Sunday agenda?

New blogger app???

Blogger just did an update to the app on the iPad. This is a test to see how it works. I am now able to use it in landscape mode. A nice feature.
Labels seem to be easier to apply to a post.
Now to check out adding pictures. That was always a bit annoying before. The four tops I completed at the retreat are attached. That went well.
Let's see what the preview looks like.
So far, so good. Maybe this update will be ok.

Snow

My mother had a friend who said that the date of the first snowfall indicated how many snowstorms a season would have. If you use her logic ( and her name was Nora), with today being the seventh of November and today bringing the first snow of the season, then Nora believed we should see seven snowstorms this winter.

Now I never really tracked Nora's logic and resulting predictions to see if it was true. I merely always remember her words each year on the day of the first snowfall.

Nothing is really sticking to the ground yet. But it is starting to accumulate a bit on the benches and the canoe on the deck. (The pictures were taken through the windows and the screens.)


I am sitting in the living room watching old reruns of Bonanza on TV and sewing the bindings on two quilts in between knitting and a bit of reading and staring out the window watching the snow.

It is peaceful and reminds me to treasure the days. I have a few more hours before life intrudes again. Plenty of time to watch the snow and enjoy the quiet.

Now that I have written on the first day of snow I will have a record of the date.

Let 's see if Nora's wisdom holds true.

Busy Weekend

Today I am off to the "Quilter's Gathering " in Manchester , New Hampshire with a bus load of quilters from my guild. You can check them out on their website at www.aquiltersgathering.com.

Tomorrow is my church's annual bazaar. I doubt if I will get much or any machine sewing done this weekend!

I am taking along my knitting on the bus trip. I need to finish the black "Ripple" scarf before we go away in December. I also am planning on taking a hand stitching project with me. I had thought about taking a binding to stitch but did not think that would go over too well with my seat mate on the bus.

I think the weekend will be fun in spite of no machine sewing. What's on tap for your weekend?

Enduring Sandy

Sandy is almost gone from here. Just a shower now and then and the winds have definitely decreased.

I sewed 16 blocks together tonight during quilt cam. It is surprising how fast the piecing goes when you have something interesting to watch or listen to.

This will get posted tomorrow after I take a picture of the blocks. They are coming out very nice. I am pleased.

Here are the blocks. Enjoy your day, post Sandy.

Waiting for Sandy

Finishing up the outside stuff in preparation for Sandy's arrival as well as pressing the newly washed fabrics.  I had planned on cutting and cutting, finishing two bindings and working on a needlepoint project when the power goes out.  We have plenty of flashlights and batteries.

But guess what I got delivered from a friend of a friend today? 

A 1939 Singer Handcrank! 

I am going to name her Sandy if I get to keep it.  Right now she is on loan for the week. (last year during Irene we lost power for 5 days so I expect at least 2 days without power this year).  Who cares about what spoils in the fridge - I can finally sew in a power outage!

 

Isn't she beautiful!

 

Closed up and ready to go..

 

I almost can't wait for the power to go out - how ridiculous is that!

Now to decide on the project....

The Latest Sunset

Or maybe an hour before. But with the remnants of hurricane Sandy coming (or whatever she will be called by then), I thought I would take some pictures of the view from the deck. Who knows when the next opportunity for sunny pictures will occur!

Hope you enjoy the view!

 

 

 

Words to live by...

Thanks to Arthur Ashe for this quote and thanks to my facebook friends for sharing.  This resonated with me today.

Hope your day is happy!

Monday, Monday

Can't trust that day...

I think that was how the old song went!

Well it is finally Monday and maybe now life can get back to "normal".  Not much sewing got done over the past few days.  Lots of family stuff had to be done and thus the sewing took a back seat.   The pieces to be pressed are still on the ironing board,

and the blocks to be pieced are still sitting ready at the side of the sewing machine.

The ONLY thing that got done was a little bit (and I do mean a LITTLE bit) of cutting from the scrap bins, bags and baskets. 

 

Sometimes you have to deal with things other than sewing.

Oh yes, I did just remember that I picked up this box of florals for a quilt that had been started a number of years ago.  I was able to cut some of the pieces while I was at mom's house the other day.








Today is cloudy but warm - probably another last hurrah for summer temperatures in the low seventies.  Here in the northeast, we count our blessings and treasure these warm days when they pop up in October.

Enjoy your day wherever you may be!

Autumn on the Deck

I was originally going to call this post "Fall on the Deck" but that sounded a bit ominous so now we have "Autumn on the Deck"
While taking a break from cutting some strips into blocks which will be sewn into blocks (that's another story ), I came out on the deck for a bit of fresh air. As I looked around it occurred to me that some of the leaves have seriously begun to change color and fall to the ground. I know I have not sat out here for a few days but the process seems to have happened overnight!
I have taken a few shots of the Magnolia trees.

Too bad they are not more colorful. But maybe that is how this fall will be.



I did try to get a shot of this tree across the cove.
One side is turning a bright red.
So maybe not all is lost for the color this season.

Time to return to the cutting.

OOPS !

DH just returned to ask when I would be ready to go with him.  Go with him? Where?  Oh yes, the bank!  Now everything will go on hold until we return from this very important errand.

Monday Morning?  Just do it? 

Not right now!  But I still like the pink!

Another Saturday Night

I have that song playing in my head - but I cannot remember who sang it. Elton John? Cat Stevens? Probably dating myself with that one. Anyway,... The black and white quilt pictures were going to be on this post, but the pictures are not coming out right. So instead I will show you a picture of my first tomato of 2012.

Of course showing its best side! Enjoy the rain!