Primer for H-12, Hannah Lou’s Hearts

Well, it’s been a few weeks and I have decided to give you a lesson on how to do a Dear Jane© block.  The pattern in the book for Hannah Lou’s Hearts is 4 hearts appliquéd down but if you examine the pictured block closely you can see it looks like 8 teardrop shapes, maybe appliquéd on her background.

The pattern I am using here, I drafted before the DJ CD came out  but there are two similar patterns on the CD which could be used exactly as I am using my redraft.  In my quilt, I used the block drawing in the book.  I wasn’t good enough yet to figure this block out, but after I had taught DJ a couple years, I came up with this technique for doing it and it looks just like it and is very easy.  I hope you will enjoy recreating a block that looks very similar to Jane’s.  Please note that I made the hearts below from 2 focal fabrics instead of one, but will write cutting directions for 1 focal fabric as Jane’s is one red fabric.

Step 1: Cut 4- 3 1/2” focal squares, cut each in half once on the diagonal to yield 8 half square triangles.  Sew back together to yield 4 focal squares and sew together again to yield  one big square.  PRESS ALL SEAMS OPEN!  And I do mean all seams;  it will help you when we do our first reverse appliqué.

It will look like this on the front and your center is not too big a deal but make sure it is not off more than a couple threads or you will have trouble lining up everything for all your reverse appliqué.

 

 

 

 

The back should look like this-all seams pressed open.  This is for a reason that I will tell you when we start the first step of reverse appliqué, as that is all that is left to finish this block now.

 

Step 2:  Trace (or print) the entire pattern onto freezer paper.  You should be able to trace it once and use it twice.   Notice my pattern is traced onto a 5” square  of freezer paper.  I need that extra 1/4” for basting since the curves are only about a 1/8” from the edge.  Once it is traced, put your scissors into the center 4-pointed star and cut it out and discard.  We want a window template, a star cut out in the middle of your paper.  Now cut a   4 1/2” square of background.  Layer and center it right side up beneath your pieced focal block of half square triangles, which should also be right side up.  Iron the freezer paper template to the right side of the pieced focal block, matching the seam lines with the lines on the block, the inner points of the star in the diagonal corners and towards the center they should match with the lines on the block the horizontal and vertical seam lines.  Baste together the 3 layers-freezer paper, focal pieced layer and background layer about 1/4” outside the 4-pointed star.  Now reverse appliqué the 4-pointed star in the center, leaving about a 3/16” or smaller turn under.  With the seams pressed open underneath, you turn under 2 layers in the inner corners and it very easy.  Just take out your machine stitching as far as you need to-to the freezer paper, and re-secure in each corner.  You will not have to worry about your fabric raveling or any stray threads.  It stays nice and clean.  

Step 3:  Once the center is reverse appliquéd, remove the basting and freezer paper and press well.  Trim out the background fabric from outside the star.  Take the freezer paper template and trim out (still from the center) the outer lobed shape or the 8- petaled flower.  We still want a window template.  Cut a 5 1/2” square of background and iron your freezer template to it.  Using a light box or pins, line up the narrow skinny parts on the seams lines until you are happy with placement.  All pattern lines should line up on seam lines.

You can’t see it too well here but it has been basted and it ready for me to do my reverse appliqué.  Start your appliqué;  the little narrow points on the 4 compass points are pretty difficult so don’t obsess over them.  Try to do one of the ‘off’ compass points first to boost your confidence.  Don’t forget to clip those inside curves.   Also remember the advantage of freezer paper is if it starts to let loose, you can hit it with the iron again.  When I do my reverse appliqué I do that a lot, I want that point exact.  I always tell my students your appliqué will be just as accurate as you cut out your line.

Above it is in progress and below it is finished but untrimmed.

 Step 4:  Once the the appliqué is complete, remove the freezer paper, press and trim to 5”.  You should also trim the focal fabric from underneath your background; trim out side the 4 hearts or 8 petals to your desired width.  My width is about 1/8”-3/16”.

I will also post a picture of a block made with 30’s where every petal is a different fabric.  It is one of 2 blocks I made.  I kept this one and sent the other to a friend after I came up this way of doing Hannah Lou’s Hearts.  I think it is just adorable done with each petal a different fabric;  plus before I did the center star appliqué, I just laid the freezer paper template on one of the half square triangle blocks I had made, since I was making 2, I had one freezer paper template of the 4-pointed stars and 1 of the flower and it made the cutest Dresden Plate block.  Can you imagine it from seeing my block?

Hopefully you have gotten my technique of making H-12 so it looks similar to Jane’s block.  Maybe next time I will talk about my Dear Jane©, “In Changing Times”.  But I think I said that for this post.  Only time will tell.

Sew Having Fun,

Sarah

What Else I Have Been Into

Since my last post was sew long, I cut it short, but I did want to show you what else I have been doing on my blog hiatus.  I have been washing and ironing fabric collected almost over a year.  I had not been able to wash it because it was so wet here last fall and winter and my washer drains outside here.  I only washed what we needed.  So here is a picture of all my fabric washed an ironed over the last 9-10 months.  Actually there has

been some already put away, probably close to a fourth of what you see here.  Now this has also found a home, but my new room is fast running out of space.  It already has on books.

And I have a new passion.  I stopped at a new to me quilt/needlework shop close to me.  And she had several temari balls in there.  Just so happens the town has a League of the Arts and they were giving a class in it for $5!  I have long been interested in this craft, (had 5 or 6 books on it for years), I guess because they are so pretty and they are geometric.  Anyway, I took the class and finished my ball which was Cranes and Bamboo.

It’s not perfect and the cranes look a little anemic, but it is my first try and I don’t think it looks too bad.  I also ran out of thread for the bamboo.  (They had kits made up.)  I have my threads for my next two- I think I am hooked!

Next time quilts, I promise, but first I have a DJ retreat this next week.  So it will be after that.  I will probably start with Dear Jane®, the quilt that literally changed my life.

Sew Having Fun,

Sarah

I’m Still Around…

I know, it’s been more than two months since I have updated my blog.  I have been a bad girl.  But as soon as the doctor released me for my finger on July 14, I was headed for Iowa the following Sunday to see my folks.  It had been almost two years since I had seen them and a lot had happened, both to them and me.  That’s why I hightailed it fast.  I stayed right at two weeks and enjoyed every minute.  I did not do a lick of stitchin’.   But I did not mean too.  I did not even read the two books I took with me.  I helped my Mom clean out some stuff of my Dad’s, who she put in a nursing home in January.  I think my parents are both pack rats and I think I have inherited the gene-at least so I have been told by my  husband.  And I did some genealogy research and I did a little fabric shopping.  More on that a little later.

First of all, I will show you my progress on my border robin.  I showed you my center block in my last post around July 4th, because it is red, white and blue.  Well, we are drawing for what each round has to contain in at retreats three times a year.  We will draw for the fifth round in about two weeks.  You will notice I only have two rounds on mine.  I am that far behind.  But between last retreat and this coming retreat, I finished the block and got two of my four rounds on it, with two surgeries in there somewhere.  I am proud of myself, needless to say.  Here it is:My next round is appliqué and it will be on the on-point border to tone it down.  And you notice I framed the triangles with my half square border, not my center.  I think that is a little unusual.  But I liked the way it looked better.   I will be using a red that has some yellow and blue in it and am debating on whether to make my circles yellow.  But that is something that can be decided after the main appliqué is done.  After that I have dimensional.  I think I am going to do dimensional flying geese units.  I want this piece to look very traditional and that’s all I can come up with that would be in vogue for the time period.

Also while I was home, I did a little quilt shop hopping.  I made it to two shops. One is called Adel Quilting & Dry Goods Co.  It is in a Craftsman style home.  They don’t have a lot, but what they have, I like.  I always manage to come away with something when I go there.  And for you Dear Jane® people I also managed to come away with a little pottery bowl from there with the dreaded block L-6, Maze of Madness.  That’s the only reason I bought it because I am a DJ fanatic.

I also managed to make it to Elk Horn and stopped at Prairie Star Quilts.  But not before I stopped in Atlantic at a dime store and picked up a few flat folds.  I picked up the backing for my border robin there and a few other pieces.  This was the first place I had ever noticed Paintbrush Studio Fabrics.  (Remember this, this is crucial to what is coming.)  I bought four pieces of it at the dime store.  Prairie Star Quilts is a Top 10 Shop by Quilt Sampler from a few years back and they have one room of reproductions, homespuns and flannels and then the other room is more contemporary and batiks.  Just as I thought I was finished, in the armoire by the cutting table, were several bolts of fabrics and then fat quarter packs of a line of fabric that the owner, Julie Larsen, had designed for Paintbrush Studio Fabrics.  The line is called Prairie Homefront and I ended up buying the fat quarter pack, I liked it so well.  She is working on her second line, I was told.  I thought you might like to see it too.

And then when I got home and started working on my border robin I noticed that the light fabric I used in the sawtooth border and to put on point is a Paintbrush Studio fabric.  Never notice it before I go home and then I go and run across it twice and come home and find I already own some.  I really pay a lot of attention, don’t I?  I really thought I did when it comes to fabric.

I will save the rest for later, this has gotten sew long.  My next post I will show you the stack of fabric I washed and my new passion.

Sew Having Fun,

Sarah

Patriotic Tribute

I actually drafted this post a couple days ago and called it something else.  But since July 4th is so close I decided to rewrite it-kind of.  I have been in such a funk for so long, (over a year), that I really have not felt like sewing much.  I have had a lot happen to me the past year that I won’t go into now.  And that is one reason I redid my sewing room to motivate me, and I think it has helped as I have been spending more time back here and I found things and I have definitely been re-inspired.

My Dear Jane® retreat group is working on a border robin.  Several newbies wanted to do a round robin but did not feel comfortable working on others’ projects so we came up with a way for them to be able to achieve the effect and gain the skills for another time-maybe.  We’ll see how this time goes.  It will be their fabric choices and their workmanship, but they have to draw for the element what their round has to contain. 

 I decided to participate in this after just finishing a round robin with 6 others.  (Why do I keep doing this to myself?)  This is my finished top from that round robin.  I would very much like to thank Paula, Mary Louise, Sarah, Sheila and Pat for making my center look so wonderful.  This will have a Civil War toile on the back.  My center was inspired from a Feathered Star quilt in the Virginia state book and I redrafted a block from Block Base to get exactly what I wanted.

For the individual border robin I decided I would try a miniature.  Well, I fell way behind on my center.  While redoing my room, I found an appliqué pattern I had prepared with freezer paper for machine appliqué.  I decided I would make this block for my center for my border robin and try to catch up, but I hand appliquéd it instead.  I have 4 rounds to do before I will be caught up.  There is a total of 6 rounds plus the center.

I chose a very unusual pattern that a friend and I had noticed in a catalog from the 1950’s.  Mrs. Scioto Danner had a home-based pattern business and I was lucky enough to track down a copy of her Prince’s Feather pattern before I found that her patterns were online.  Thanks Peggy!  You can find how to get it here.  I adapted the pattern a bit to make it fill a 24” block a little better.  You can contact me about my pattern if you are interested.  You will need the original for the border pattern.

The original quilt is in the Denver Art Museum.  It was made c. 1829 and traveled from Kentucky to California in 1853.  I have seen the full quilt in only one catalog or book of the Denver Art Museum: Quilts and Coverlets and there is also a side (border) of it showing towards the back of The Quilt that Walked to Golden by Sandra Dallas.

The original is red, green and yellow solids on white and had 12 blocks, with a border that sort of echoes the block.  I have plans to make 4 blocks of that color way.  I have 1/2 block appliquéd by back basting.  This particular is red, white and blue.  I seem to be stuck on both those 2 color combinations.  My DJ is red and green and my round robin, which I absolutely love, is too as you saw above.  I decided, if I should draw Words, Script or Theme for a round, my words or theme will be something like “Founding Fathers”.  So instead of calling this block Prince’s Feather, I would call it Princes’ Feather, a tribute to all the men who fought and founded our great nation.

Here is my block.  I hope you enjoy it’s beauty as much as I do.  I will be sure to post my finished project, as soon as I finish it.  Hopefully that will only be months for a change.

Everyone enjoy a safe and sparkling 4th!

Sew Having Fun,

Sarah 

Technorati Tags: quilts,quilt history

Do I Need Any More Tins?

Here I am, 4 weeks after separation surgery;  I still have one open spot on the skin graft on the top of the middle finger.  It’s a place where a knot was and the knot was basically embedded.  It’s definitely taking awhile to heal. Most of the rest is healed, except for little bumps where the stitches were, which I figure are inflamed nerves.  I have started physical therapy 3 times a week.  It seems slow going to me, but I have made some progress after almost 2 weeks.

I thought I would give you a preview of my room.  I am going to start with my tins.  I have so many they will make for a post all in their own.  I like old (and new) advertising tins.  Or tins that the product actually came in, as long as it’s not too cute, like M & M®’s.

First, before I redid my room I just had tins above the windows above the windows on south wall-over 19 feet.  Now I have double that and I still have tins that are not out, a lot that are older than what is out in my room.  Here are 2 views of the south wall.  

This one below is looking east.

This one is looking west.

 This is my east wall,  which is just over 11 feet long.

And then I have 3 specialty groupings.  One is really not considered tins, but there are tin signs on the wall as well as one of my JANIAC license plates.  You can still see that it reflects the light from the flash.  I did not need new plates         

  

 Above my yardage fabric and book shelves, about 8 feet  total, I have my sewing related tins.  I wanted to put them above my sewing area but I ran out of room fast!

  

And my last specialty wall is my Coke® wall.  I have always collected Coke things when I saw things I liked or could afford.  (And I don’t drink Coke®).    The trays I picked up when  I was in high school for $1.79 each at the local Super Valu grocery store.  They are over 30 years old, probably close to 40.  I bought them before I graduated and I have been out 34 years.

      

So there is most of the pictures I have taken so far.  You got a sneak peek at my renovated sewing room.  I still need to take pictures of my sewing and cutting area.  I am trying to decide if I want to take separate pictures or just one big one.

Or I may go into that unusual block I told you about last time, it is finished.  It actually feels good to finish something, it has been so long.  Anyone have a preference?

Sew Having Fun!

Sarah

5 Fingered Again…

Well, it has been better than a month since I posted.  My finger tissue did not take and I have had two surgeries in that time, the last one just a week ago.  What they did in my case is called a cross-finger flip.  It evidently is quite uncommon.  My doctor’s assistant who has been with him for 5 years now, said my surgery was the second time she had seen him do it.  His nurse who does his surgery scheduling has been with him a year and she had never seen it-until mine. 

This is what they did-if you can imagine it.  They cut out the skin on top of the middle joint of my middle finger on three sides, leaving the the side closest to the ring finger uncut or some of it uncut.  They then slice it down to the tendon and take it out and flip it so the top of the middle finger can now be used for the pad of the ring finger.  It is sewn to the finger on 3 sides and left attached at the “twist” for the blood flow.  I was in a splint for 15 days with the last three fingers immobilized.  Last Friday I went in and they cut the two apart and I now have 5 fingers instead of 4.  They are wrapped so I have no idea of what they look like.  There was a skin graft taken from my inner forearm to cover my middle finger joint, which I was told would fill in with whatever.  This is my understanding of the whole procedure, but I could have it wrong.

I have been finishing up my room, it just needs a few things found a place for and I have a shelf to paint, as well as two boards to strip, which will have to wait until much later.   It will never be a showplace-too much stuff and not enough room.  But it’s mine.

I have also been doing a little appliqué.  I think it is helping with the stiffness in my fingers.  I will post a picture when I get it done, which should be soon.  It’s an old block not many will recognize, done in red, white and blue, far different from the usual red, green and yellow.   And I will also post a few pictures of my room too.  Then maybe I will start talking quilts.

Sew Having Fun,

Sarah

Not Short, Definitely NOT Sweet

If you have been a regular reader as I am just sure you are, you might not be seeing much written here for awhile.  I took some time off yesterday from my room to load some music onto my great new iPod® (thanks to all my great TWISTED SISTERS) as my husband left for Oklahoma in the a.m.  Then yesterday evening I decided I had better mow as two days earlier he asked when I was going to mow again.  My answer to him was “I am not the only person who lives here.”  He’s retired for goodness sake’s and had just spent the previous day doing absolutely nothing.  The particular day he made that remark, he had cut down and sawn up a suppressed oak tree for firewood and then took the rest of the day off.  For the last two months I have been cooking, cleaning, (if that’s what you call it), mowing the yard when it needed it and I have even helped him cut wood this spring when he did that without him asking me; AND keeping busy with my room almost daily.

So I get in my rattiest jeans, a pair I was going to throw out after I get through with my room, painting mainly and I check the oil and gas in the mower.  Great, he had filled it with gas and the oil is fine.  I get started about 4:30 or so.  I had one small (dusty) area mowed and was working on cutting out a bigger one with more grass.  We have two crape myrtles growing close together, just wide enough for the riding mower to pass through.  I went through those two trunks once with no problem.  The north trunk is huge.  I normally go through these two trunks east to west but this time I was going west to east and both the deck lever and clutch pedal would be on the side towards that larger, more angled trunk.  The smaller one grows straighter.  On that second pass, the deck lever gets caught on the west fork.  I think “No problem, just back up, turn a bit, and I’ll be through them.”  So I raise the deck with my left hand, the rear wheels were spinning, pushed the clutch in and put it in reverse and I did not move like I thought I would so I put it in forward with my hand still on the deck lever and the clutch pedal is wedged in an east fork without me noticing it.  The mower is still trying to go forward with my hand on the deck lever and the back, the pad, down to the first joint of my left ring finger is torn off.  I quickly disengage the deck, turn off the mower, peel my finger pad off the bark and race to the house.  I throw the key and ear plugs in the back screen door.  Then I run around and go through to the kitchen so I don’t get blood on my new 6 month old carpet!  The new laminate will clean.  I grab several paper towels, the pad I just curl in my bleeding hand, my purse and keys, lock the doors (which I thought I had forgot) and I drive myself to the ER.  Remember, Stan had gone to OK.  I arrive in the ER, very dusty and dirty, about 20 minutes later and glory be, I only had to fill out one short form and they took me right back.  It probably took well over an hour before I actually saw a doctor, but he said my injury is a very serious injury.  He had to consult a hand specialist.  He was also attending to a heart attack victim.  I think the heart attack  and my mangled finger were the highlights of the evening for the ER staff.  I had many people come in just to see it.  Doc finely comes back in after getting hold of either a hand specialist or a plastic surgeon.  He says as long as the pad is there, tack it on, and send her over to see me the next available appointment next week.  The Doc says I have a high tolerance to pain, I am not taking anything for pain except naproxen sodium even though he gave me something.  The only pain I have is around the nail and I figure it is because it is so thin, nothing to hold it and I barely feel it.  The Doc, who had a habit of calling the female patient ‘darling’, made me feel very relaxed about my situation.

So now I have a splint on my wrapped finger, hoping the tissue will “take”.  There is a chance it won’t, even though he said it looked very good.  If it doesn’t, they will amputate part of the finger, assuming down to the first joint.  Thank goodness it’s not my quilting hand, though I do type with both hands.  This has taken awhile to type without the use of that finger.

The bad part of all this, is I have a Dear  Jane® retreat starting Thursday next week.  Since my room is not done, I probably wouldn’t have been working on anything anyway, but now I could not have sewn even had I wanted to sew.  I guess I will sit there and listen to my new music on my iPod®.  Thanks again, guys.  You have saved this retreat for me.

Pray my tissue ‘takes'’…

Sarah

“Such Junk, Such Junk”

Does anybody remember what movie that line is from?  I will give you a bit to think about it.  Literally, I have too much junk, or junque as I would rather think of it.  I would like to think my junque , the junque I need to quilt with is a little more high brow than just everyday junk.  But I am finding I have too much of it as I put my room back together.  I have almost found a home for most of it, mainly the stuff from around the computer and what projects are not in the closets have not found a home yet.  I still have to get my fabric in there, BUT the garage is empty and I can park my SUV back in there again-after 2 months.  I have to wait until I get the fabric back in there to see how much room I have for projects.  I may have to cull yet some more stuff-fabric and junque.

I had a shelf the length of the long wall up high that was lined with tins.  When I redid the room I added another shelf on a short wall, thinking that would be enough room for all my tins.  NOT!  I had planned to put my sewing tins above my machine and they would not fit.  So they are on top of my two sets of shelves.  Shelf area I was using for bolts of fabric before.  And I still have a box in the closet and the shed out back I would like to display.  I guess I am a tin junkie as well.

I hope I am done with my room by retreat.  It is going to be close.  Retreat starts in just over a week.  I have not prepared for it, because I have been obsessed with my room.  It’s a Dear Jane® retreat with some of my dearest friends who started out as my students.  If it’s not done, I have no idea what I will work on.

Back to “Such junk, such junk.”  The movie had Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey as the two main characters.  The old lady who was lifting wallets said the line at the other resort.  Dirty Dancing!

Until next time when I hope to show you gobs of pictures of my finished room,

Sarah

Slow but Sure, Progress

It has been over 6 weeks since I started renovating my sewing room.  I won’t call it a studio because it is not huge and spacious nor is the light that good.  But it is a good sized room though not a shape that I think works well for quilting, at least for me.  There are windows or a door on every wall in this room.  This really makes it hard to arrange things in a room.

This week I had my laminate flooring installed.  I got all my wood blinds installed except one, I bought the wrong size.  One out of nine isn’t bad, is it?  And it was for the door.  I also got two walls lined with shelves 11 down from the ceiling.  These shelves are for my tins.  I love my tins and really like the way they look.  I prefer old and new advertising tins.  I will post pictures when I get everything back in place, especially of the tins.

But I am now ready to start moving things back into the room, FINALLY!  My cutting table is in there and my two sets of shelves are attached to the wall.  I am about to set up my sewing table and get my computer back in place.  Then it will be time to start making trips back in from the garage and fabric from the closet.  I can hardly wait.

Speaking of the garage, I was looking for something in the garage to do the last of my painting this afternoon.  We leave the garage door up a lot when the weather is nice.  This morning I noticed a bird in there.  He spent the night in there.  I have a barrister bookcase out there that has two baskets of fabric on one shelf.  They stuck out so I could not close them.  While looking for whatever it was I was looking for, I found the start of that bird’s nest in one of those baskets.  It is not the first time we have had wren’s nests in the garage, but must they build one in my nicely folded, washed, ironed orange and rust fabric?  I will keep a better eye open until all my stuff is back where it belongs.

Until next time,

Sarah

Slow But Sure…Progress

It has been awhile since I posted.  That means I have been busy, I hope.  I did go to the quilt show, it was nice and there were a lot of really nice reproduction quilts this year.  Seems to me like more than normal.  I did not take any pictures.  Most were real simple.  Besides, for me it is basically the fabrics that make the quilt.

I did come home from the show to a sick dog.  My Bassett Hound, Zeke, somehow had gotten pancreatitis.  He will eat anything and had gotten into some cat treats.  And that was evidently too much fat for him and he spent the weekend at the vet.  He came home on Monday, after over $400 later.  Poor baby, but I will do just about anything for my animals.

My room is coming along slow but sure.  It is all primed, trim is basically painted and the walls will come next.  After painting the trim, I am afraid it will take two topcoats of paint.  Oh well.  I have had to go slow because of my shoulder and I have had to make several trips to town lately but I hope to be ready to have new laminate installed by the end of this week.  I finally have an itch to sew after all these months and I think I should take advantage of it.  I have never made a string quilt and I ran across a cute little little idea for miniature string quilt.  It would be quick and easy and be a good way to try out my new sewing arrangement when I get my room back together.  I know I can find tons of pieces to cut small strips from in my scrap tin.  I must remember to throw some cheddar in there.

Sarah

I Have Begun To Paint!

Sew what you may ask?  To me it is a big deal.  I have not sewn in months.  I have only done what I had to do and that was to sew borders on round robins and make blocks for a DJ for a fellow Janiac.  That’s all the sewing I have done in the last eighteen months.  And only because  I had too.  Last year I had some health problem like frozen shoulder and was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome that led me into depression where I felt like doing absolutely nothing.  Now I am starting to feel like doing something again and I feel like  if I totally redo my sewing room it might kick start me.  You would not believe me if I told you it was piled so high I could not use the cutting table, literally. I guess I will have to post a couple pictures to prove it to you.

My room is about 19’ x 11’.  This is the east half where I cut and sew.  You can see the cutting table is piled high and my sewing machine is still covered where I set it from retreat 2 weeks earlier.  Tipper, the cat is  on the table there on the right, bedding up on my Nearly Insane fabrics.  One of his two bedding places.

 

This picture is the other end.  The design wall has fallen, and is being used as a bulletin board.  These shelves are full of fabric and more is piled in front, more is in the closet.  To the left is my quilt frame, (I am a hand quilter), empty and also piled up.  My computer and book shelves are to the right in this picture.  My whole south wall is a long wall is full of windows.  I have windows or doors on every wall in this room so it’s hard to arrange things.  It took me 3 weeks to get everything out but I did it.  (You ought to see the garage!)  I am not getting any new furniture, just painting and new flooring.  In fact I got rid of the desk I sew on.  When I asked my husband about doing this he said what am I going to have to do?  I said just help me move the furniture out when it comes time.  I told him he should just be glad that I feel like doing this.  It is a ginormous undertaking. 

Now I am to the point of painting.  I am painting paneling.  I have painted the ceiling.  Next is a coat of primer and hopefully I can get by with one topcoat.  I hope after rearranging and getting most everything back in it’s place and probably culling more things I will get back to sewing.  If not, it needed it anyway.  I know I have never made good use of my time, my health the last year has just emphasized it that much more.

Tomorrow though I will take a break and go to my guild’s (Quilter’s Guild of East Texas) quilt show in Tyler, TX.  I don’t have anything entered, but I did quilt one that is entered.  I hope it wins a ribbon for the owner.  It will be good therapy and inspiration to see friends and quilts.  I can’t think of a better way to spend a Friday unless it’s at a retreat.

Until next time,

Sarah

Will This Last?

Well, I finally took the plunge and have a blog. But...will it last? My name is Sarah and I live in northeast Texas, right in that big curve in I-30 northeast of Dallas where it turns and goes east. I can always find our area on the radar when it's raining. That town is known as Greenville. We live in a rural area outside of Greenville. I am 52 years young, have a husband that just retired at the age of 50 (boy, how I wish he would go back to work-anywhere!) and I have an elderly cat named Tipper and 2 canines. Moose is a Bassett, Beagle, Lab mix that looks like a miniature black lab and is one nervous pooch. Zeke, on the other hand, is a foundling Bassett hound who followed me home one day from walking Moose. He is the most laid back dog we have ever had and is stubborn, independent and he loves to ride and climb as high as he can. They are about the same age.

My main hobby is quilting, especially reproduction quilts. I hope one day to start a pattern company. I have purged 98% of my other fabric from my stash and have only kept my repros, including 30's. I purged alot of fabric, and still need to do something with it. I have made several reproduction quilts, one Baby Jane, you know that great sampler made during the Civil War from Brenda Papadakis' book Dear Jane http://www.dearjane.com/ This is what got me onto reproductions quilts. I will tell you more about my DJ quilt in another post. It will take a post in itself; it's a journey you know.

My other hobbies are birding, walking and enjoying the outdoors. I also enjoy being on the computer, or at least I did until several months ago. But that too, is another story I will save for later.

My hope is to show you the view from my quilt room, in any shape or form at various times. I hope you will come back and see what I am all about from my view.

Sarah