Like many of us, I like to play chicken with the heater at this time of year. Oregon has such variable weather that it can be cold and stormy and then pop right back up to mild. However, when Gizmo began taking up residence in my sweatshirt, I caved and turned the heat on.
Not a bad deal… happy kitty and the zip- front allowed me to be hands- free.
After all, I needed my jacket to return to single occupancy so I could work on my show and tell piece!
I started with one idea and then it changed and, truth be told, it’s still a work in progress. I made four of my own row and planned to alternate them with flowers. But then I saw the bird bath row over at Clever Chameleon … so very cute! I upsized it a bit just by increasing it from letter to 11×17. I also used a bit of that that rusty color I ordered by accident as the branch.
Next, I started making flowers from Stitchen’ at Home. I only got one done but you can see where I’m headed.
Speaking of where I’m headed, would you turn these bottom picket border to point up or down? There’s a wide difference of opinion over here!
I had hoped to
As you can see, this is just a start. I really did think I’d be farther along by now but there were so many great ones to choose from! However, we do keep it real over here so rather than backing out, I figured I’d show you my progress and ask for an opinion on if those bottom pickets go up or down!
Thanks to Marian at Seams to be Sew for being such a great leader and all- around lovely person!
Please hop over to the other “tellers” to see what delights they have for you!
Marian at Seams to be Sew has put in the hours putting together this row along! I’m sure it feels like herding cats but she does it with so much kindness and grace! I hope you’ve been following along… there have been so many lovely rows!
Themes are chosen waaaaay in advance and I had no idea how appropriate this would be to my life. Before Covid, I was working two jobs… one 40 hours a week and one 20. Add travel time and, well, you do what you must but, really, I was exhausted. Since my part- time gig was closed, I took the opportunity to try to bring our little veggie garden back. My husband built me the raised beds years ago. I started with a half- flat of heirloom tomatoes and a couple of cucumbers and a red pepper. And, I gave a zucchini a whole box to itself and it grew! Holy guacamole, I grew zucchini! Now, before you bust a gut laughing, I must tell you that we never had luck with zucchini. So this was pretty cool. It was also lovely that a single butterfly would visit almost every time I worked in the yard.
When it came to my row, I decided that every garden needs a picket fence. I like a pieced row and wanted to have some flowers peeking through.
Northcott generously allows the designers to pick fabrics from their collections and these were mine…
9000-100 white
23094-99 green
9040-38 Dublin Blue (funny story, that’s not the actual number…I mixed up the code and got a lovely orange which I’m working into the show and tell piece. I promptly sourced the Dublin Blue which may be my current go-to love for background!)
DP23285-52 Floral
Another funny, I was so excited to use my new Accuquilt Go Electric that I may have cut all my 2.5″ white pieces before I remembered that I needed 1.5″ pieces, too. Let’s just pretend those parts of the fence just need a touch up!
My row is 12×30 finished. If you need a longer fence, just leave off the end pieces and add a few more pickets! The pattern is here.
There are wonderful prizes but I’m having some trouble with the codes so hop over to Marian’s place to enter. (You can find more details at Seams to be Sew.)
Please be sure to visit all the designers and download your row patterns. There’s so much talent in this group that you wouldn’t want to miss one!
Oh my gosh….I lost a day! I was seriously convinced that today was Wednesday!
So, this is the bare bones post and I’ll add more info later. In keeping with my UFO reduction campaign, I chose a top in need of borders. I gave to say it took a while to choose and to locate the background fabric. There were a lot of photos back and forth to my niece with fabric auditions.
Fabric auditions!
But the clear winner was the bears. I’d hoped to get it quilted but the whole evac thing threw me off. I’m excited to move this UFO to top status!
Thanks to Carla for the incentive to get this done! Please check out all the other talented folks on today’s list!
I’ve been waiting to share these until after they were gifted. I was commissioned to make a pair of t-shirt quilts for a friend’s twins. These two graduated with my oldest so it was also fun to look back. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years! (My mom used to say, “I don’t know how I got all these old kids!”)
I’ve heard back that they loved them and that makes my heart happy!
So does this picture of my nephew dog, Odie.
Rockin’ that Cone of Shame!
And, I’m very excited to see this picture of the first two UFO post-its hanging on the “Done” display area!
Speaking of pictures… take a look at what we saw during the recent fires. It was really scary and I’m grateful it wasn’t worse. I’m so very devastated for all of those who lost homes and family members. Our air quality was so bad it hovered in the hazardous range for days. We evacuated to my brother’s house where it was also horrible but stayed about 50 points better than home.
I spent this last weekend getting loads of stuff from my brother’s home. And, now that I’m unloading, it’s time to give the closets a good cleaning! I was grateful for the chance to spend some time together. We’re going to try for a weekly movie night since we’re now in one another’s quarantine bubble. You have to love a guy who takes you, your family, six cats and a dog in on a moment’s notice without complaint!
Just one funny from the evac… just as Sarah and I were getting ready to leave, I turned to her and said, “Wait, we have to leave on the right note. ” I had her queue up the theme song from Indiana Jones as we headed off to battle traffic for hours!
I hope your day is full of quilty adventures… be sure to check out the Garden Party Row Along and the Hello Fall hops that are going on right now!
I love Fall! Cooler weather, crunchy leaves, apples and the prettiest skies. The prettiest sky I’ve seen was the post- rain clear skies this weekend. After a week of air quality in the hazardous range… this was one of the best views ever!
If you’re a fan of Fall, check out the Hello Fall blog hop hosted by Carla of Creatin’ in the Sticks.
My day is on Thursday so hop back by. In the meantime, check out these talented makers!
Today, it’s one year since my husband passed away. I thought I would just repost my Facebook post here. Tomorrow, I will focus back on fabrics and fun things but today is for remembering.
Sometimes, they get it wrong. Sometimes, the very worst happens and you have to say goodbye, too soon and too horribly. Sometimes, you have to walk to the edge of the river and hold tight to your love’s hand as they slip away to the other shore. And then you have to take the longest walk of your life, the one you didn’t want to take, the one that leads to a lifetime of missing them. And through it all, the pain and the sorrow, there is always the gratitude for all of those who walked to the shore with us. Who held us up when we couldn’t stand. Who continue to bless us with their love and their memories. I am so very, very grateful to all our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers…I could not walk this path without you. I love you all. Thank you for being in this with us, for loving Phil Strand and for loving us. Love you forever Phil.
Marian, at Seams to be Sew has pulled together a super fun Row Along once again. And, added bonus, no need to go anywhere… you can play along in your jammies and maintain social distancing!
My day is toward the end but there are great prizes up for grabs so check back often! I’ve added the whole list below.
I was looking back at photos and found this picture of Phil with the koala. I love the way the koala is looking at him and that little smile lurking at the corners of Phil’s mouth. It’s been 11 months today and the loss is like a constant ache… and that’s just how it is. I’d rather live with this ache than have missed out on this wonderful man. Not that we didn’t have struggles but we loved one another through it all. Sometimes you just have to accept and keep busy.
So, in the keeping busy category…I have to say that I’m learning new things and I’m so very thankful for the friends and neighbors and family that are helping.
Under the tutelage of a friend, I learned to change a sprinkler head and faced my fear of going into the standup crawl space to turn on the sprinklers. Another advised me on how to clean and seal my steps.
After cleaning…After strain and sealing.
I spent last Thursday filling the entire yard debris container with weeds but this weekend’s heat has me hanging out in the sewing room instead.
I’m hard at work here, too, and decided I must, must, must reduce the UFO list. So, since I like a good visual, I bought a pack of bright post-its and started this
The UFO list!
A post-it wall of UFO’S! Now, full disclosure, those are the ones I remembered off the top of my head. Trust me, there are more! I’m planning to move completed ones to my cork board. (I actually used all the pink ones in the pad up so add-ons will be in blue. ) With my UFO list in full sight, I felt comfortable boxing up some projects in progress because the wall will keep me from forgetting them!
Now, to the most fun part, fabric! I keep saying I’m going to stop, that I don’t need any more but look what my daughter got me…
That’s ALL the True Colors Line by Tula Pink!!! (I’m feeling very spoiled and very grateful!)
And, in addition, she contributed to the destash going on over at NW Quilted Cat as Jennifer raises money for a big surgery for her pup!
If you aren’t following NW Quilted Cat, you really should!
And a little bit of estate sale fabric wandered home with me… and a bunch of Helene Knott’s adorable cat block patterns.
And, biggest accomplishment of all is this one…
Yep, it’s a zucchini… you can laugh if you want but we’ve had terrible luck with zucchini. They’d get all silvery looking and never produce anything. But this is the first and the plant is full of blossoms and two more in progress! I even have a volunteer giant pumpkin. Yes, this lady grew a zucchini and I’m very proud of it! (It really is the little things in life. )
And, being that we’re talking about life at our house… here’s a picture of how my Saturday got derailed last week….but he’s so cute!
I ask you, could you disturb that adorable face? I certainly couldn’t! And, yes, he’s as big as he looks. Milo tips the scales around the 20-pound mark. 20 pounds of adorableness! He’s been a big guy since we got him as a 16 week-old kitten weighing 6.5 pounds.
Well, doggo is giving me the, “I’m sure it’s cooled down and we should walk” stare so I’m off to take him for a stroll. I hope this finds you well and you can point to a bright spot in your day.
So very much fun is going on in my sewing room! I’ve been sew excited to get into cutting up scraps of Christmas fabrics for this hop! One of my quilter life goals is to have a bed- sized Christmas quilt for every bed in the house. You see, we get the Christmas china out on the 1st of December and I’d love to give each bed in the house a holiday facelift at the same time!
So, of course I wanted to play along with Carol from Just let me quilt with the Christmas in July (then and now) blog hop. I adore Carol and love playing along!
I have lots of Christmas fabric and have to admit that cutting it all into little squares was daunting but….then…
Ever since I saw the Accuquilt electric demonstrated at a quilt show a couple years ago, I’ve been eyeing them up. But…the cost…sigh. Then Accuquilt had a sale… but the cost…sigh. I’ve been holding onto my birthday money from last August. But…the cost. Then, they had an even better sale and my oldest offered to pay the difference for this year’s birthday gift…..SOLD! And I have to tell you, it’s awesome! I cut hundreds of squares using the 2.5″ strip die and cut my flying geese units with the die included with the machine. Oh my goodness… what fun! All those odd bits and shapes left from other projects are now a box of bright and cheery 2.5″ squares. Or, a pile under the cat… depending on what I need at the moment. (And, ok, all my scraps is huge overstatement…I wonder how many hours it will take to tame the scrap pile?)
Gizmo bedding down on the squares.
I have a lot of “then” in my project! The red polar bear fabric is leftover from my daughter’s first trip to the nutcracker when she was four. The selvedge was marked 2003! The gingerbread men are at least a decade old! The “now” for me is my current favorite sashing option… lots of little scrappy squares. I only managed a quadrant of my piece but I love this idea of using squares as sashing. After using it with my Halloween quilt, I was excited to try it again!
I love how all those prints play together! And speaking of playing together, there’s a terrific lineup for this hop! To see what all the other bloggers are playing with, check out our line up! Thanks again, Carol!
Words & Stitches 