The Viking Quilts are Finished! Moving on!

I just finished printing my labels for the Viking quilts! Yes, that's quilts, plural. I got so many stars that I ended up making 2. More money for the cause! I have also finished a quilt for someone special in CdA so I finally finished 3 bindings! Only 5 more bindings ready to tack down! The Viking quilts are lucky to be done so soon. There was a bad period in the middle. My gas was turned off from Mar 10 to April 22 thanks to a carbon monoxide leak and a landlord that didn't appear to care one bit if we were ok. Don't get me started! I ended up on a hotel for 26 days. Every day I entered my apartment (illegally, since we'd been red tagged and forced to evacuate. I'm such a rebel). I wore layers of clothes (temps in the 40's to 50's) and sewed for a bit on the scrappy backgrounds and extra bitty stars. I took them back to the hotel, pressed, squared up, and repeated every day. It was quite a month!

The big thing now is the Farmer's Market. I am making pouches and tote bags. I have so many made now that I'm good for the rest of the season! Once I get set up it's a lot of fun (unless a storm hits and pours rain). I had quite a haartbreaker in the storm. I stood there and watched the red on the quilt spread all over the top of my quilt. 3 loads with 3 color catchers each and it's back to normal!

As you can see, I'm still alive and quilting. So many ufo's, so little time!

Viking Blue!

 

This blog is for my Class of 72 Vikings! Class reunion is coming up and I thought it would be easiest for me to post the info for the Viking Raffle Quilt this way. I am hoping any and all quilters/sewers/adventurist spirits will contribute to this project.

The vision is quite simple. White stars on a blue background. The rules are pretty simple, actually.

1. The white should be white white (no cream, no print, but white on white is fine

2. Viking Blue. Also may be called cobalt (Kona). Think the blue on the crayon that says Blue. Values can go up or down a bit but needs to stay in the blue range. Get as many prints as you can find.

3. Please use many different blue prints in each block. (Do not make the whole block with just one fabric. It will stick out amongst the scrappy). Try for 4 or more per block.

4. ANY STAR is ok. ANY SIZE  is ok. The more variety the better. (I'd say 12" would be the absolute largest, and as many little ones as possible, to add sparkle. Little pinwheels are also nice in the background)

5. Please send any leftover scraps/squares/strips of the blues so I can create the scrappy background.

I am hoping to get all blocks by April so I have time to make the top (or tops if we get a lot). 
Please message me on Messenger  with questions and for address to send. (I know not everyone has Messenger-I hear you Debbie-so I guess you're on your own to figure out how to reach me. I think Ann has the reunion mailing list)

I can't wait to get packages in the mail with beautiful white stars and  scraps of blues.

🌟* * * * * * * * * * * * * *🌟
Oh,,one more thing. Prewashing is not necessary UNLESS the fabric has been in contact with cats. Very allergic.

RETIREMENT: EVERY DAY IS THE WEEKEND!

        I am now officially retired! Not really sure what I should do now that I don't go to work every day. I have decided to make at least one tangible goal for each day. I have what seems like an unlimited number of UFO's so for now I am trying to accomplish SOMETHING every day.  I know I will never use up all this fabric but I plan to finish up all the UFO blocks and make tops. I figure if those are left behind someone will finish them and donate to charity. But a ziploc full of pieces will just get tossed. Note to self---good luck with that.  So for now I am reaching into the UFO tote and pulling out a bag and off I go. I am determined not to start anything brand new until each bag is used up. At this point they all seem like new projects. Some of them are years old! Off I go! So far I have 2 tops & backs on the pressing pile. Pretty good for a week!

    Well, I am now officially 2 weeks in and have managed to finish 2 bindings! This week has been probably the best weather week ever and I have discovered my front porch! I have never used it before because it was so nasty and the sun shines on it all day long. But my porch was recently replaced and the sun angle is better so I have loved sitting out there in my comfy chair with my bindings or my knitting. Pretty nice! 

I Need the Binding Fairies!

          Help! I have a problem! I am finishing UFO's faster than I can actually FINISH them. I really don't enjoy binding...or, let me correct that, I really don't mind binding IF I have a comfortable place to sit with lots of light. I can do it if I sit in front of the window on a sunny day in the moderately comfortable chair. I can handle it for about a half hour then I'm done.  The combo of poor eyesight, bad light, and uncomfortable chair is a bit much!

          I have a dream of a binding fairy showing up and magically finishing them up. Isn't she pretty? And so handy? I'll call her Bindi. Ok, now I'm just plain losing it!

I would even trade chores with another quilter. I'd rather square up hundreds of blocks. I'd rather press a mountain of pieces (not in the summer). I'd rather cut hundreds of strips out of a pile of scraps. Really!

They're taunting me!

Why?

        2020 has been quite a year, hasn't it? When the world shut down and everyone stayed home I went to work and faced the public every day. Thank goodness for quilting to fill the leftover hours. I took on a lot of busywork projects and after months of sewing I didn't make much of a dent in the fabric. A couple weeks ago I needed a different project so I decided to make  a couple dog beds for my friend Nancy to donate. I had accumulated a big bag of scraps which were taking up space. I got the idea to dig out the big box of cotton duck that I had leftover from my flag making years (over 25 years ago!) After making and stuffing 2 beds I made 4 more that need stuffing and still had a LOT of fabric left over. 

      So what to do with this duck fabric? The only thing I could come up with was tote bags so I googled a couple patterns and jumped in. Good grief. I refuse to stop until the fabric is gone but what in the world will I do with all these bags? 

      Then a ziploc bag fell into my hands with unfinished pouches and lots of zippers. So I decided to use up all the zippers. Still a lot of big zippers left but I'm done with that craziness. What to do with all these pouches? 

     

 Not to mention the knitting. I started knitting and crocheting hats for cancer patients after my experience. Mom gave me all her leftover yarn and supplies and now I am making slippers too! All sizes and colors and can't stop. Every few months I pick up a skein of yarn on sale for variety and just keep knitting along. What to do with all these slippers?

      I don't know. Why?

"Bright Shiny Things"

       Obviously I am not much of a blogger am I? I hadn't done much quilting for a while and wasn't very inspired so I had nothing to write about. Then a couple weeks ago I decided I needed to finish some stuff up and that started my crazy journey chasing bright shiny things (as my daughter calls my amazing ability to be distracted by just about anything in front of me). 

      It started by me choosing a box at random with a project in it. It was the green chain quilt. I started making little 4 patches like crazy. As it grew I decided the 4 patches weren't killing me so I pulled the red box of the same block and went a bit nuts doing those. After they got to the laying out stage I needed to start something else.

      Next box I grabbed was leftover pastel pieces from another project. I didn't want to make that same quilt again so I started sewing the pieces together. There were small crazy quilt pieces in the box which I used in the first quilt. That gave me the idea to use some of my crazy quilt blocks with the strips for the next one. I pulled out my collection of crazy quilt blocks and used some in the main part and cut some in half for the borders. The pile was getting smaller and since making crazy quilt blocks is a favorite of mine I spent the next week making more blocks.   

     Well....as the crazy quilt blocks grew my collection of pastel scraps
got smaller and smaller and I needed some longer strips that were a busy fabric. That reminded me of my box of floral blocks so I looked to see if there might be some strips already cut in there. Well, guess what was on top of the box. A bag of half square triangles, which made me think of my friend Kate LePard who also likes to make stars so I made some star blocks with the triangles which I will put together with the crazy floral blocks in the box. At the moment that one is on the design wall to be organized and completed.

lots & lots of  blocks

       
 

      Now that is the sewing room projects. I also set up the big table in the living room to layer the pastels and since it was up I quilted 2 baby quilts and  sewed on 2 bindings and machine quilted a 3rd quilt, using a new ruler I wanted to try. I am getting the hang of the ruler thing but need more practice so that sent me to the internet to order another ruler for the border. 

      

 Lordy...chasing all these bright shiny things has left me with quite a collection of UFO's to assemble. Oh, and I also have 1 empty box... Progress...

Sandie's Specialties Part Deux

One of the first batches.
All silly &'no two alike

    This is a crazy, scary, different time. We are living through this pandemic
in a way that  we have never done before. My personal experience has been a little different. I am working more hours than usual, 6 days a week. I don't really know what it is like to stay home all day and my "family" is the people I work with in a close space every day. I never ever imagined myself in a job where I am considered "essential".
      When the governor said he was asking everyone to wear masks in public I realized that I could make myself and my co workers masks to wear. After all, I have hundreds of yards of fabric, lots of leftover bias tape, and some elastic. Well....thanks to the magic of Facebook it has turned out to be a huge thing. People are coming to the pharmacy for free masks all day long. I have completely used up dozens of packages of bias tape from a past life, all the elastic I can find, cutup t-shirts, and even ace bandages. Strangers have brought me elastic, given me money to buy more (which I will use as soon as I find a place to buy it!) I am completely out of cream, beige, and dark gray thread and am resorting to using pink thread! Can't even get more on Amazon! On the other side, I have not even made a dent in my fabric stash!
       As I am sitting at the machine for hours a day, I am having flashbacks to the old Sandie's Specialties days when I would sew as many free hours a day as I could then spend the rest of the time trying to sell the stuff. I would do a show and if something was selling well I would go home and sew until midnight. Now I am sewing before work, coming home, and sewing till I can't take it any more. I am proud of myself that I am able to still do it, 40 years later! I am very happy that I had that drawer full of bias tape from the 80's which has finally come to a good use. At the moment I am taking a night off because I have no elastic left and just needed a break. I feel like the women during the war rolling bandages for the troops, doing what I can for the cause. Who knew that sewing would become an essential skill in our times? People everywhere are digging out their machines and helping out. It is kind of exciting to see my favorite pastime getting its due and quilters and seamstresses are suddenly important.
      I am doing it because I CAN. It is something I can easily do and even though I am physically aching most of the time ( I ain't as young as I used to be!) I feel better than I have in months. I am busy all the time and have a purpose every day. It embarrasses me to be congratulated for doing something that I am getting so much out of. I was pretty depressed and wasn't doing much every day, so this is very good for me.  Yes, I still sneak in time for Pokemon Go and Animal Crossing every day, I have a TV right next to me and am constantly watching something. That Tiger King got me through an entire Sunday! Big Brother Canada is an every day go-to. My house is a mess and I don't care. No one but me will see it.
       We're all in this together and I hope others find something that gives meaning to this craziness. Keep on keeping on!