Sad News

It's been two weeks since I last posted, read a blog or even answered much email. For those who follow my blog routinely, you know that Drama Teen has been recovering from surgery to repair her ACL. That's been a rocky road for her, as function doesn't come back immediately.  It's hard to be young and unable to do such simple tasks such as getting on the bus after school.   

An even harder blow came on the 11th.  My slightly zany, much beloved mother-in-law passed away.  Her funeral was this last Thursday.  Though we all knew her diagnosis was terminal, none of us thought it would happen this quickly.  Everyone had anticipated at least one more holiday season with her. 

My MIL loved tulips, her spring beds always inspired a lot of photographs.  She loved photographs too, we spent a lot of time during our visits passing around everyone's photographs.  I'll miss those times the most.  

It will be awhile before we find a new balance, but we are all working on it.  I've missed seeing what everyone is up too.  I'm slowly catching up reading everyone's blogs, though I'm not commenting much on the older posts.  

Design Wall Monday - A Finish Finally

Weekends never seem to be long enough to fit in all that I'd like to get done.  Since the sewing room was deconstructed due to the storm damage last Monday: it seemed like an ideal time to give it a good cleaning and reorganize a bit as it got put back together.  I didn't get all of that done, but made good progress.  

Drama Teen is still recovering from ACL surgery.  She's getting more mobile everyday, but her knee still hurts quite a bit.  She spent a lot of the weekend catching up on homework and with her friends

That's Jigsaw she's covered up with.  I put the last few stitches into the binding and label late Saturday night.  You can't tell from her face, but she was thrilled that it was all finished.  She renamed the quilt Pieces of a Rainbow.  

Pieces of a Rainbow
Pattern is Jigsaw by Alyssa Clancy for Lehmann Quilting

It's an apt name.  I have a whole new perspective when I see a quilt that has a rainbow or color fade theme.  You have to demo a lot of fabrics to get something like that right.  It was a fun, though sometimes maddening, challenge to get the colors to flow like I thought they should.  

Trudy Lindemann did a gorgeous job on the quilting.  She matched the quilting thread to the colors in the quilt.  

 Which worked really well on the back.

This is only my second finish for the year.  I hope to finish up Scrappy Stars and maybe one other quilt before the end of the year, which is coming up faster than I'm ready for.  

That's it for what's finally off the design wall and finished.  Check out Patchwork Times for more design wall Monday posts.  

Stash Report - Week 36 of 2014

Life is slowly returning to normal after the chaos of last week.  Drama Teen continues to improve after knee surgery.  Hopefully she'll be able to shed the crutches by the end of this week.   Most of the week was spent trying to find a roofer to either replace the shingles that we lost during the thunderstorms last Monday or at the very least put up a tarp.  We did finally find someone local who was able to come out Friday morning and replace the shingles.  We had heavy rains Friday night, so it was a great relief to have the roof fixed.  

Not a lot of sewing got done this week because my sewing room looked like this. 

The leak was directly over the green trash can in the center of the photo.  We were able to get most of the water out of the carpet and My Guy was able to get into the attic and remove the wet insulation.  Since we were concerned that the drywall in the ceiling  might fall if it kept raining, the sewing machine got moved into the hallway. 

All the fabric storage that could be moved, was also relocated to the hallway.   

It stayed this way until yesterday.  I didn't want to move anything back until we had the roof repaired and knew that it wouldn't leak anymore.  It's not all put back, but I made a start yesterday.  

So the only fabric out this week is the binding for Jigsaw which was sewn on last Sunday.  

Used last week:  0.62 yards
Added last week:  0 yards


Used in 2014:  19.26 yards
Added in 2014:  332.68 yards

Net stashed in 2014:  313.41 yards

That's the state of my stash.  For more on stashes around the world, check out Patchwork Times.  

Tuesday Archives - Fussy Cuts

It's been an interesting 12 hours at our house.  We had massive thunderstorms roll through last night with 70 mile per hour straight line winds.  This storm did some major damage in our small community.  School is out because there is no power.  They just released everyone from work because there is no water pressure as the city water plant also lost power.  To top that off we lost a couple of rows of shingles off the roof and with the heavy rains this morning, there was a nice puddle of water in my sewing room.  Thankfully it was in the middle of the floor and not over my sewing machine, fabric, or books.  However, now we are scrambling to find a roofer and  are desperately hoping for a few days with no rain. 

So I'm writing a post as we wait for a roofer to call us back.  We've done all we can do till it stops raining.  I think the rest of my day may be spent dealing with wet insulation. 

Today's picks for the Tuesday Archives sponsored by Valerie over at Val's Quilting Studio are Flannel and Fussy Cuts.  I've yet to make a flannel quilt, but I do have a couple of quilts where I fussy cut my center squares.  One is Charming Christmas Cardinals which I blogged about back in May.  But there is another fussy cut quilt that I've never blogged about.  It was my second finished quilt, the first where I adapted a pattern to fit the fabric I was going to use. 

Back when Drama Teen was just a little Kiddo, she loved The Little Mermaid.  She was the only Disney Princess DT liked at all until Mulan came along a few years later.  I had just started quilting  when she asked me for a quilt for her bed.  When the Little Mermaid fabric appeared at one of the quilt shops near my sister, I knew just what to make for her.  

The Little Mermaid
Modified from the pattern Triple Rails
by Ursula Reikes published in the book
"Even More Quilts for Baby"

DT (aka Kiddo) asked for an all blue quilt, but Arial's red hair just begged for for the addition of that narrow red border.  She opened the quilt as one of her presents for her 6th birthday.  

As you can tell from the picture, she was very happy with the new quilt for her bed.  Her love affair with this quilt lasted till she was about 9.  At that point she decided she was ready for something a bit more sophisticated.  For now, The Little Mermaid is put up in the closet waiting for the time in the distant future when DT has her own little tomboy.  

I have about 12 inches of binding to stitch and then the label to add to the second quilt I've made for DT's bed.  Jigsaw should be done today, maybe.  I'll definitely need something soothing to do after wrestling with insulation.  

Design Wall Monday - Almost a Finish

Happy Labor Day.  If you are in the US, I hope you are enjoying your three day weekend.  Hard to believe it's the first of September, three quarters of the year is over, just 4 months left.  It will definitely go fast.  

Drama Teen is still working on recovering from ACL surgery on Friday.  It's been a challenge to balance medication doses to control the pain and minimize the associated stomach upset.  She gets a little better each day.  I was able to find some time yesterday evening to get up to the sewing room and the get the binding sewn to the front of Jigsaw and begin the hand stitching to the back. 

 

The backing is just as bright as the front.  Drama Teen is looking forward to me finishing this up.  It's been three years in the making.  I should be able to finish up the binding today.  

That's it for my design wall today.  I'm linking up with Patchwork Times as usual for Design Wall Monday.