Sunday, April 30, 2017

This was not on the list...

 These are my Cheri Payne blocks, from her blog.  I just decided spontaneously to make these blocks, upon finding her blog!!

Please see her blog here:


http://quiltsbycheri.blogspot.com/

 The alternate blocks were fun to make too.  If you squint, you can see the diagonal pattern. Rosie is there, modeling for your viewing pleasure.  She is such a darling, and helps me with everything. 
This quilt was given away to a patient today.  This is one I made...rail fence, with 1x3 inch finished pieces.  The thing is, the patient?  Is one of my very best nursing friends.  She taught me how to English paper piece, and really got me going into quilting.  She has been retired, and is nearing 80 years old.  She was playing ping-pong at the senior center, and twisted, fell, and fractured her femur so badly that is required 5 hours of surgery, rods, plates, screws and cable to keep all the pieces in place.  Marilyn is a darling, and she is recovering...and she needed a quilt so that she can be snuggled up!!  Many months of rehab coming up for her...



Other events today...I was refolding some quilts in the sun room.  In there, I keep a very old ivy on a high shelf...I have had it twenty years, and it is huge, with long vines.  I tripped over a vine, pulled the whole thing down, shattered the pot on my head of all things, and ended up with the plant and vines trailing down over my head...my hair full of leaves, vines and wet soil.   I bet I looked like Medusa with those vines all over... SNORT!!!  I yelled for dear husband, but he cannot hear me...so...

I was fine, but it took about an hour to repot the plant and cutting about 8 feet of vines off of it...HUGE haircut for this plant, LOL!  Scrubbing up soil and mud and vacuuming and generally trying to get things back in shape...and some of it fell in a basket of scraps, so they were muddy and full of dirt. 

Heavens to BETSY!!!  Enough for this day, LOL!!!



Have a great day, everyone!!!

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Mimic!!

 Hey!!!  I saw a new way to use strings!!!  Please see Rose Marie's blog here. 

http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2017/04/four-chevrons.html



See what she is doing with her strings??  I was in instant love with this idea, and she kindly encouraged me to make my own quilt, using this idea!  Yahoo!  I was on it, today...and have been cutting out pieces to make my own string pieced chevrons.  I think her quilt is just beautiful!!  Thank you, Rose Marie.


I have love admired Rose Marie's precision piecing and joy she finds in displaying her quilts and quilt tops.  Love, love!!!
 The Cheri Payne blocks are going together like this.  Just need some more time...and this one will be in one piece!!
 This is what is for dessert, tonight...
 And the Zinnias are blooming!!  First tiny bloom, right here.
 Theses are the bees that I am trying to encourage to stay...they are gathering pollen from all over, and I hope that they stay for the flowers.  This is part of their back door, in the wood pile.
The tomatoes are growing.  There was a nice rain today, and that encouraged them, I hope.






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I am sorry I was griping on my last post about the mandatory nursing training that went on this week...but tomorrow?  I have to go to another 3 hours class!  This one is about diffusing difficult, dangerous situations, where you are attacked by a patient or family member.  I hear it is very physical and a lot of moves are practiced on each other.  Hope I never, ever have to take someone down or defend myself this way!!  Wish me luck...


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Have a great day!

Julie

Monday, April 24, 2017

Out of the quilt closet...

 Well I was straightening up the infamous closet, and I found this!  You can tell it is pretty dated, by the fabrics used...but I like it anyway, LOL! 
I guess the plan at the time was to have a 5x6 quilt, so thirty blocks.  It is rumpled and wrinkled, but I am working on it!  There is quite a bit of applique in the circles bits, so will take some time. 


Do you ever think, "Awwwwww, just make something out of what you have already done, and be done with the project, already!"  I do...but I think this will be cuter and more useful as an actual quilt if I continue on with it. 


Happy Monday, everyone!  This is my home blessing day...read:  CLEAN HOUSE DAY!!!

*********************Nurse's notes**********************


I had a three hour mandatory skills fair today, so it took a big chunk out of my day.  Grrrrr!!!!  Five mandatory classes this month, at the hospital.  Too much, I tell ya!!  The hospital is spending big bucks on this education stuff, but I can honestly say...everything I did this morning, I have done for years, and it was a not needed review for me.  I have been teaching this for years.  I would like to see some things I don't know so much about...like craniotomies or pressure readings inside the skull.  That is what I don't know, and what I would like to learn...

Do you have mandatory training where you work, too??


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Have a great day!


Julie

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Happy Saturday!!

 Good morning, everyone! This picture is for Elaine!!! Elaine is a whiz at quilt making, and she quilts her quilts on her domestic machine...working magic!   You just have to go and peek at her work and be inspired!!  Please notice her amazing quilting; you will love it.

Please see her blog below:

http://elaineadairpieces.blogspot.com/2017/04/kaleidoscopes-watch-those-values.html

She recently showed a kaleidoscope quilt that is just amazing...and I remembered this one I made.  I misplaced a lot of pieces, and did not notice the value placement errors until it was quilted.  I still love it!  LOL!  I remember hand quilting around every piece and how joyful it was.
 A closer view of the hand stitching.  I usually have it flung over the door to the office, and see it each time I go in, but as time passes, it has kind of faded into the woodwork, LOL!  It was fun to take it down and actually look at it again. 
An anonymous donor has sent an amazing quilt for a patient.  This person's generous heart and quilt will not only warm a sick body, but also warm a heart with love and caring.  Thank you so much...this will go to someone who needs extra, extra, extra love and healing powers!!!



Stressful day around here...I will be glad when it is over, and a sleep carries us into a new day!



Hugs to all,


Julie




Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Green strings---streak of lightning!!

 OK!  This is what the green string quilt decided to become.  TADA!!  It is done!  I have to tell you, I did not have enough green strings to complete this project, so I had to cut some strings from yardage and fat quarter pieces.  I used all the green up!!  Yahoo!!
Rosie is now posing for your viewing pleasure.  It just strikes me how many actual colors I called green, LOL!  I am grateful that my vision allows me to see and enjoy so many different colors...thank you dear God!  Emerald to almost yellow went into that bag, saved and treasured, to become this quilt.  I love strings!!!!!!!!!

This is the perfect size for a patient quilt...it will fit the hospital bed with some hangover, and be a good size to take to x-ray and other tests for some patient in the future, when I get it quilted.




Have a super day, everyone!!


Julie

Monday, April 17, 2017

Yes...a string quilt was definitely on the list!!

 I am bound and determined to use up all my strings, so I can get some more.  SNORT!!!  I really am in love with them...the simple little pieces that quilters often throw away are like candy to me. 
 I have been making string blocks, and now I am playing with them, and trying to decide how to arrange them.
This is super fun!!  I had one pink string that was in the green bin by mistake, so I used it too...that why there is a tiny bit of pink in this green quilt!


*************Home blessing******************

I did laundry, changed sheets and towel, vacuumed, swept and mopped, cleaned bathrooms and did dishes.  I love to be off on Mondays, because that is home blessing  day!!  Now I off to make rice pudding.

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Hope you are having a lovely Monday!!!


Julie

Monday, April 10, 2017

Rain Forest quilt progress

 I have all the blocks sewn that I am going to sew for this one, because this is all the fabric I have of these colors, of batiks.  Maybe the greens are forest leaves and fern fronds...maybe the earth tones are just that, earth! And maybe the blue is water in a rain forest!!!  I would love to see a rain forest someday and find out if these colors are true.
This is an old quilt.  I love it!  Scraps...scrap X, free on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville site.  I have so many plans to make more, more, more quilts using this pattern...it is super fun!!!




I vacuumed, swept and mopped, changed linens and towels, generally picked up, did laundry, and tried to get my car inspected.  It failed!  I looked under the engine compartment and a hose was loose on the air intake....darn.  I need to get the inspection done again...sigh....



Hope you are having a great day!!


Julie

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Samplers!! and quilt alongs.

 I have been sewing a few blocks I found on Cheri Payne's blog.  Here is where I am so far.  I find that I just love her outlook and thoughts on life, as well as her quilting!!!  Please see her blog here:

http://quiltsbycheri.blogspot.com/


  These are blocks for a quiltalong; the Blockheads.  What a fun name, don't you think??  You can find those patterns here:

http://blog.modafabrics.com/2017/03/blockheads-block-1/





I hope everyone is having a great day today!!!


Julie




Saturday, April 8, 2017

Something new that was not on my list!


 This quilt has been cut out for a year or so...and suddenly it too, demanded to be worked on!! 

Rosie is helping me, here...I had just given her a bath,  and she was quite put out about her bath for half a day...but now she is OK!! I am forgiven such treachery!!

Here is where I am, so far....we shall see how the blocks might be laid out. 


Happy Saturday to everyone!!

Julie

Monday, April 3, 2017

I am not sure where this one came from!!

 This was not on my list to get done right now...but somehow, it popped up and demanded to have some sewing done on it!!!  I made these blocks a while back (years) and placed them together last year, then came up with this applique border.
I had been quilting on it, on a road trip, and it was getting frazzled on the edges, so I quilted just enough to hold it together so I could get a scrappy binding on it.  I feel better now, that I can bind it and it will stop frizzling and frazzling!!!  Lots more quilting on it to come!


Happy Monday, everyone!!!



Julie

Hexies, rainbow quilts and plaids!

Good morning to all!!!  Above is a hexagon, for English paper piecing.  My kitten Lucky has discovered them, and decided that they are great...