Loose Threads Inspiration

I'm in a small group of quilters; we named our group Loose Threads. Here are some projects that were inspired by some of our activities in that group.

(1) One member printed pictures for us, and we each used them in quilts in various ways. One person put her picture on the back of a quilt; another made a story book starring her granddaughter. This is mine: a tribute to my love of travel. It is about 19" x 26".

top left: Iceland, top right: France
middle: Czech Republic
bottom: New Zealand, and the little orange circle is a kangaroo depicting Australia
The baubles on the bottom are general travel icons and icons from France.

Here's the back. I used a piece of fabric that I bought in Colorado, a map of Rocky Mountain National Park, and the other fabric is Australian.

(2) Another Loose Threads project was a challenge to work in a series. I had already made the one on the left. It was going to be a gift for someone in another state, but that idea faded away, so I kept it and wanted to do more tree quilts. The series idea was perfect. I made the one on the left in 2016. I made the one on the right in 2017 (finished it today). I have an idea for a third one in my brain, but it has not yet "materialized." (Like that pun?) If I follow the slow pattern, I have a whole year in which to make the third one.

These are both small, about 10" x 12".

And in other news, we got our first snow of the season overnight. This is our woodsy back yard. We didn't even notice that a tree had fallen over until it seems emphasized by the snow on it. We're oblivious home-owners, I guess. We both think the snow is very pretty!

Back in the Game

I enjoyed Friday. I slept late, spent some time catching up on emails, did some sewing (YES! - FINALLY!), and watched "The Fault in Our Stars" on Amazon Prime. I never even left the house. It was a great day.

These are some blocks I made for Sunshine.

I finally got this top quilted! It has been waiting for a long time. It'll go to Bundles of Love and is compliments of my local guild -- one of our community service quilts.

I had an event scheduled for Saturday, but it was cancelled. I couldn't be happier! I intend to spend most of Saturday at home, too. Home = Love.

Unmotivated - I'm Not Super-Woman After All

Did you entertain for a second the thought that I am Super-Woman? Probably not, but I'm here anyway to tell you that I'm NOT.

I have done some work organizing the loads of stuff I brought home from my quilting retreat and my mom's house. However, I must admit my house was a wreck to begin with and needs some major organizing, purging, and cleaning work. It was hard to work the new things into the places they belong. This is when I get depressed and my energy level goes way down. I hate this kind of work; it feels so overwhelming to me. My ADHD-self really struggles with big cleaning jobs.

Today I have spent most of my time sorting through fabrics in my sewing room. I received some scraps from a friend and some yardage "extras" in the mail from another. I really didn't need (or even want) these fabrics and pieces! At least I have done this much.. sorted through it, organized it, put some in a pile to share at my guild's "free table," and cleaned off the space in front of my sewing machine so that I could actually sew. But there is still so much to do, in every room of my house, that I am still unmotivated to do any sewing or to tackle the other jobs. Arrgghh!

I haven't even taken my inherited Featherweight out of its case to give it a test spin.

Our living room is full of garbage bags full of quilts that are donations from our guild. The person who can take them has been out of town, so there they sit. It looks like we stuffed our garbage into the living room and left it there! Except, it doesn't stink, and there are pretty pieces of fabric sticking out here and there. I'll be glad when they get delivered.

Whew. I gotta keep plugging away at my jobs. And soon I'll be going back to Mom's to haul home more "stuff." Uffda.

Here's a bright note in my days: I am reading a book I found at Mom's: How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn (copyright 1943). It takes place in Wales, and the language is just lovely. I'm enjoying the book a lot. And that reminds me: I recently updated my tabs up top: Quilts Completed in 2014 and Books I Love.

Below: 4th of July fireworks as seen from our driveway

So Good at Wasting Time

I have managed to kill lots of time today. I'm excellent at it. This is because I should be cleaning, and I hate cleaning. (News flash.) I'll do almost anything else when cleaning comes to the top of the list.



I started sewing together a quilt top.

Then I interrupted myself and took some food donations from church over to the food shelf. Mailed a package. Returned a library book.

Made a sandwich for lunch. Sat and ate it. Contemplated the meaning of life.

Spent a long time at the computer, working on my quilt guild's newsletter (I'm the new editor).

Watched the last half of Dr. Phil.

Read today's mail, even though it was very boring and all junk. Those coupon mailings have never been so fascinating before!

I've had various important e-mails that I suddenly had to write and send. I also had to make a couple of phone calls. (You know I'm desperate when I willingly make phone calls, as I hate using the phone.)

Oh, of course had to check Facebook every once in a while. Someone might have done or said something important since I checked last.

Now I must admit that the house is not cleaning itself, so I guess I should go do something productive. Oh, woe is me. Do you feel sorry for me yet? There's that quilt top that I would so much rather finish putting together.....

Puking Hurts!

For two days in a row this week at work, we had fabulous, free food spread out for our taking. There were some Big Shots having meetings, and after they ate, there was enough left for us peons. Both days the food was plentiful and delicious... from two area restaurants that I happen to know and love.

On both days I ate happily, and on the evening of the second day, at home, I became very sick. Yuck!! Everything I had eaten came back up, and I felt miserable. It was, I assume, some sort of food poisoning... I have had this before and know what it feels like. The puking is violent! Sorry for the grossology. I felt much better by the next day and am mostly over it. The one remaining after-effect is very sore ribs! Who knew puking could be that much of a work-out?? I am shocked. And quite sore.

one fabric shows how to make a newspaper hat, and another one shows used car classified ads

Yesterday I stopped at a fabric store and bought some beauties. Fabric is really changing these days, and one could be tempted to buy loads of it to "catch up" to the new trends. I'm resisting, except in little bits. I bought some pastels for the Block Lotto in April which calls for pastels.

Today, Saturday, I plan to let my ribs heal, do some non-boisterous activities such as reading and sewing, and just have a quiet, fun day at home. I am currently reading Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son by Anne Lamott. I love her! The book is charming and wise, and I'm laughing out loud...just not any belly laughs, because that would hurt too much.

Get That Junk Out of Here!

It’s “get rid of stuff” day at my house! This feels great!



Hubby is taking a bunch of old car oil to the oil recycling place. I won’t tell you how many years those old bottles of oil have been sitting around in our garage, waiting to be removed. Finally! He is also taking away old electronics.. burned out fluorescents, two old TVs, an old bread making machine, a computer monitor, a couple old DVD players, a toaster, and an old keyboard. Yay! I hate when that junk piles up and just sits there for months or years before we get around to disposing of them.

I got rid of some stuff, too, but in my case it was new stuff. The women’s group at my church collected paper products for a housing unit that helps nearly-homeless women get back on the right track, recover from addictions, find jobs, etc… I had a carload of paper towels, detergents, and various hygiene products to deliver and also gave them some kids' clothing that I had purchased super-cheap at end-of-season sales.

Also this week I mailed out about four packages and a bunch of letters that all had been waiting to fly out of here..

So we are feeling a little bit lighter weight around here. Unfortunately, it’s not from loss around our middles, but loss from our junk piles is almost as satisfying.

Oh, and this is the exciting prize I sent to Christine, who was the first person to guess that my recent blog title was from Fiddler on the Roof … a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a pot, a pan, a potholder, a hat.

It's Official: I'm Old!

Today is my birthday! I’m 59 years old. About 40 years ago this age was unimaginable. But now that I’m at this age, you couldn’t pay me to go back to what I was 40 years ago.

I’m having a laid back day. I slept late this morning (9:30). Then I spent some time sewing. I took myself out for lunch, and while I ate yellow curry chicken over fried rice (yum), I started reading a new book on my Kindle. It’s a very short book, so I’m already nearly half through the book. It’s a good one! I’ll talk about it on Friday.



Charles and Son are fixing our house. You know how a small repair always turns into a huge undertaking. We knew we had a rotted out spot and a problem hole near one of the basement windows through which mice felt invited to enter our warm house. I’ve been politely reminding (aka nagging) to get it fixed. Now I see why Charles was so reluctant to get started. He knew it wouldn’t be a two-hour job.

The siding all along this part of the house was attached in a goofy way at the bottom, so that it left a small space for water and mice to get in. The wood had begun to rot, and there were a few holes to fix. This has required cutting off siding, cutting out the rotted board, buying replacement parts, and who knows what else. Fun times!







Getting this fixed is a good birthday present for me. I completely hated having a mouse freeway that opened directly into our house. Yuucckk! Hopefully that problem will go away now.

Our cat has been consternated by the weird noises going on outside. He thinks he’s Lassie. He came into the computer room where I’m writing, stood up on hind paws and patted me with a front paw. Then started leaving the room, but turned to look at me, to make sure I was following. We just wandered over into the noise area and I had to comfort him. Cute and crazy!!

In case you were wondering... no, our cat is not a mouser at all. He's more afraid of the mice than they are of him!

We will do my official birthday celebration tomorrow night with some family members.

Doing the Right Thing, Finally

One of my goals during retirement has been to organize my house. I'll admit it... I have a problem with clutter. I don't like clutter, I don't want to have a problem with clutter. But I also don't like to be too anal about picking up every little thing the minute we put it in the wrong spot. I don't want cleaning my house to consume my every waking moment. So, I look around after a while and realize it has gone beyond "lived in" and has reached "cluttered and messy".

Cluttered and messy doesn't seem to bother my husband, so it's usually up to me to tackle it. And when it gets too bad, it's overwhelming and hard to rev myself up to get started. That's why I've been retired for six months, and I'm just now getting started on this job.

The good news is, I have fixed one room! That's progress. It is our guest room, at least for now. It used to be our son's bedroom. The real guest room is in the basement, but it's still unfinished, so it's not very pleasant. And it currently is lacking a bed. Not very comfortable for a guest.

So here's our cleaned up guest room. I'm liking it! Does it look guest worthy?



I'll bravely show you the before picture, too. Can you believe it? It started out being pretty neat. Then I kept putting my quilting stuff in there "just for now," until I found a permanent spot. Then I set up the table to help me with basting quilts, and later to wrap Christmas gifts. Then knitting grabbed hold of me, and I started putting knitting projects in there "just for now." That's how this happens.



I hope I can keep up the momentum and work the same magic in another room! Wish me luck!