2024 Studio Post #17 - longarm quilting and misc small projects

It's ironic to me that I'm blogging about my studio, but I spent almost no time in there this week!

 

I went to my friend Rose's house for most of two days to longarm my FLW quilt. I'm not posting a picture here because I've already posted some and I still need to bind it. It feels so good to have the quilting done! I should have been better about planning the quilting, though. I started getting bored and doing whatever random thing occurred to me. Ah well, I get better at some things the more I do them. I hope to plan better next quilt and take the time to do it well. This is for our bed at home and it's already a wild quilt in terms of the colors and design - why not the quilting, too?

 

I also did some sewing yesterday during our MQ Committee Zoom meeting. I stitched up a little pillow I like to use in the car for my grandson's carseat (to fill in some of the car's contours). I also sewed Louie's green jacket lining that was a bit shredded. It's not the neatest, but it's much better! I had more meeting than repair projects, so I sewed on some of my hexies. (Note to self: prep more hand sewing before another Zoom meeting!)

 

No pictures this week. Oh! One picture of Rose's cat, Fearless. He's huge!

I have size 10 1/2 feet. Trust me, this guy is a very big cat!

Studio Post #14 - God Heals wall hanging done!

I'm so glad I was able to finish the hand stitching on this while visiting my son and daughter-in-law in Grand Marais last week! It feels really good to have it done and hanging on the wall. I think I may enter it in this year's "non-judged" category at the Minnesota Quilt Show, even though it's the 2023 Challenge fabric . . . 

 

I've actually gotten started on the 2024 Challenge. No photos until it's made, though! It's nice to get back into my studio. Yesterday was so beautiful outside that I sat on the deck and repaired two different coats! 

I realized when I took this photo that it should say 2023 MQ Challenge, not 2024. I've changed it on the quilt, but didn't take a new photo. (Yes, I'm too lazy.) I also realized that this little quilt has a LOT of dog and cat hair on it! It's quite fuzzy.

Blogging, Goals, and Plans

I have found that blogging about decluttering has been very helpful and motivating for me. I will continue that for the rest of 2023. However, I have a new plan for 2024. I keep wanting and intending to spend more time in my sewing room.  I have been using a monthly calendar white board to "help" me. I have tried rewarding myself with sewing time if I get other stuff done.

As you can see by these pics of my white board for the first nine months of 2023, I have not been very successful. It occurred to me that if I blog weekly about my studio projects,  that will probably motivate me to do them! Everyone has different ways of doing life.  Apparently, being accountable to a blog works for me! It's worth a try. 

I have worked on some projects in October,  but when I thought about erasing the September info and writing in October,  it felt a bit futile.  If nine months of this "system" wasn't helping, why continue? 

I may use the white boarddown in my office to focus on connecting with people - phone calls, snail mail, lunch dates, road trips . . . TBD.

Declutter #33 - One Step Back . . .

Sadly, not only did I NOT get rid of stuff this week, but I added unnecessary items to my household. 

I love sewing horse blankets and sheets at RaDon, Inc. I love that my boss is super generous with fabric scraps and no-longer-used bolts. I have used scrap fabric for many different things!

However, a co-worker (Kriss the amazing!) no longer wanted her bin of scraps that she had taken home over the years. She is clearing out a lot of her sewing room. Although I know that lots of fabric goes into the garbage . . . I just couldn't see these go! So I took them. All of them.

I now have burgundy, red, black, navy, forest green, kelly green, and gray/green scraps of "cordura" - at least that's what it sounds like. It's like a canvas but with a different texture. It's super handy for making sturdy things like grill covers, carry sacks, etc. 

What will I do with all of this?! I have no idea. Actually, I have some ideas, but it's not a priority right now. Ugh. Two steps forward, one step back.

My sister Ann and I just did some brainstorming. Perhaps I'll be able to use this stuff up!

If you want some, please let me know!

I also took a box with stall curtains that had a broken zipper. The customer wanted it replaced, but she ended up buying new curtains. These were going to be thrown away so I took them home! They measure 4' x 8'. I asked my sister-in-law who has horses if she wanted them, but she hadn't ever heard of stall curtains! I have a few other people I can ask, but they may just have to end up in the garbage.

My Mother-in-Law Rocked!

My mother-in-law, Betty LaMoore, loved her family so much! And she especially loved all her grandchildren. I didn't fully appreciate all she did for us, but I hope I expressed enough thankfulness so that she knew her efforts were noticed.

One cool thing she did was sew. She sewed sleeper PJs for the kiddos. She sewed a really amazing shirt that I *think* I have a photo of somewhere . . . I'll update this entry if/when I find it. She took a basic sweatshirt, sewed fabric on it to look like a road, and then stitched some cars onto it. Here are the cars:

Yep. Actual toy cars. So very cool for my boys!

I honestly don't remember which boy was the recipient of this super-excellent sweatshirt. Offhand, I'd guess Alex. He was my biggest motorhead as a pre-teen.

In any case, the care that went into making fun things like this was typical for Betty. She loved to bring joy to her family.

I hope I can do cool grandma things for the next generation!



I found it! I was sorting through photos and found this one:

This is the sweatshirt that Grandma Betty made. So incredibly cool for my boy! (Again, I *think* it was Alex . . . he was my biggest motor head.)

And now my grandson Joshua loves cars, trucks, wheels . . . I don't think I'm ready to make him a custom sweatshirt, though.

 

Oh! (Adding this on 3.26.23 . . . after the initial post of 5.2.19) She also made a lot of Zubaz-style pants. Alex loved wearing those as a little guy! They were like sweatpants but cooler. He had a pair that was like zebra (black and white zigzaggy stripes) that he wore out!

 

She made neck gaiters out of fleece for all of us. I recently made a pattern off mine and made one for my sister-in-law Viv. I love my family!

Applique

I'm not a huge fan of applique, but I've mostly done needle-turn (hand-stitching) so far. I'm ready to try machine applique, but have a few too many projects that are more pressing. I love this blog entry and want to return to it when I'm ready to tackle a heart project that's been brewing. Kudos to April Rosenthal for her fantastic blog!

Vestments

I'm not sure I'll ever tackle this, but I want to keep "track" of the info, since it took me a while to find it. My daughter-in-law is a Lutheran pastor. My sister, who has amazing skills, is going to make her a stole for the Lenten season. I located excellent instructions here and shared them with Ann. I've not sewed as much as I'd like lately, and still need to work on being more careful . .  .

Focus on the Positive #11

My goodness! It's harder than I expected to get back into helpful habits! I had this sign on my door for at least two months:
BOM stands for Block of the Month.

 I've been doing a terrible job of updating info in our binder at Minnesota Quilters. I haven't been spending much time in my studio since Titus came into our lives. (Yeah, blame the puppy!)

After looking at it for so long and just feeling bad, I decided to move on. Since I want to spend time in my studio and get some sewing done, I decided to make my focus be something I truly wanted to do instead of something I thought I ought to do.

What a difference that makes!

I put this on my board just over a week ago:

Although I only got into my studio on three out of seven days, I spent enough time to experience a sense of accomplishment. Hooray!

The 2017 Mystery Quilt was a huge deal for me last year, but I couldn't keep up when May hit with all its end-of-the-year busy-ness. I did some catching up in October when I spent a week at the lake, but I was stalled since then.

I finished the July clue! I cut out the August pieces. I sewed 36 half-square triangles. Woohoo! It feels good to focus on accomplishments and not be stalled on a "should" goal.