12/31/24 Pre-New Year Organizing

This time of year is a time that I organize my sewing area at my desk.  I am so much more productive on projects when it is organized.  Aren't we all?  My sewing machine/desk area is currently a MESS.

Bags, bins, unfolded pre-washed fabric.  

Items stuffed on shelves, overflowing green tote of "things the Elf on the Shelf does", more bags on top of things that need to be sorted... Books and magazines others have gifted to me are thrown up on that shelf after I take them to school with me.  It's embarrassing, but honestly I know where the things are.  LOL.

When I read Kathys' Post at Kathy's Quilts Slow Sunday Stitching it gave me an idea on the 12 x 12 Event by Kea Bee on YouTube.  Basically you start at noon 12/31 and work one hour on twelve different projects.  Some will start a new project, some people work on WIPS.  My goal is to very nicely ORGANIZE projects and have them ready on the shelf in their own totes/bins so that I can easily work on them when I want.  

It's very rainy and yucky outside.  It's in the 50's here in Ohio.  That means winter mud.  There will be no cleaning the chicken coop in the rain as planned.  I need to make it to the longarm room and get the big table cleared of all the things two friends have donated to me over the past month.  I'm excited to continue on the Bonnie Hunter Mystery (Old Town).

Here's what's next to my sewing machine.  Basket handles sewn, but waiting for the bottom of the basket to be made.  A Halloween 2.5" square project is in the back.  Oh these little things could just fall off the edge and go down between the wall and the cabinet.  Hot mess...

I do have a nice shelf I could better utilize.  Wish me luck on my 12/30 organizing.   We have end-of-year doctor appointments to get to today, bowling practice, errands galore.  When things get organized and packed they will go to the longarm room in the other house.  It's a hot mess too.  Let's see what I can get done.  Wish me luck.

Happy New Year's Eve -- Clue 7 Complete -- Old Town Mystery by Bonnie Hunter

 I'm excited I finished clue #7 this morning after my 5:30am aqua fitness class.  Just in time for clue #8.

Clue #7 went quickly for me.  The neutrals were already cut because they are part of my scrap-saver system.  It's amazing to me how giddy I get when I realize that there is a teeny tiny piece of fabric only ONCE in the whole quilt.  That is the case in the majority of these blocks.  Thank you, Accuquilt!  So far all units cut were either cut with an Accuquilt die or the combo of cross cutting with two Accuquilt dies.

This mystery is called Old Town by Bonnie Hunter.  You may find all of the sizes of the pieces and quantities of the units on her blog while it is still live.  Check out Quiltville's Quips & Snips.

I will be working on clue #8 after I do my traditional New Year's Eve cleaning of the chicken coop -- LOL.  I know... I live a very exciting life.  It's supposed to rain here in about an hour.  Then snow later today.  Should be good sewing weather.  

I also plan to do some re-organizing of the sewing/desk area.  That should be interresting.  I'm not sure if I will be able to post the before/after pics or not.  I should be embarassed of the mess.  But I do know where most things are.  I just feel I would be more productive if it was better organized and I didn't live with the fear of books, Accuquilt dies, and other things following off the shelves above my head.

Happy New Year's Eve!  Almost time to get the pork and sauerkraut in the crockpot!

Old Town Mystery (by Bonnie Hunter) Part 2 is Complete

 I used Part 2 of the Bonnie Hunter Old Town Mystery as leader/enders for as long as I could this year.

I had to kick it into high gear yesterday to finish Clue 2.  Now Clues 1-6 are complete.  I'll be working on Clue 7 today between doctor appointments for my son and I and bowling practice and errands.

You can find all the info for the Old Town Mystery here as long as the Mystery is active.

Happy sewing!

Charm Basket Slow Sunday Stitching

More baskets completed this week:

 

It was also a great couple of days of hand stitching basket handles. 

The quilt pattern is called Charm Basket by Laundry Basket Quilts.  It is an Edyta Sitar design. 

I'm linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here.

Dots & Dashes -- A Great use of 1.5" Squares

I had to add another scrap quilt to the list for 2025.  It is called Dots & Dashes.  I already have all the little 1.5" squares cut.  Here they are after coming out of the dryer -- read on to see why.  The pattern calls for 2" squares, but if you followed my blog long enough, you mostly know I don't always follow the pattern--they are merely a suggestion and inspiration to me.

I am always in awe over Gretchen's talent over at Gretchen's Little Corner.  Her piecing, color choices, and hand quilting always catch my eye.  This is where I got the inspiration to add Dots & Dashes to my big 2025 list.

Today I went to the bin of 1.5" scraps and realized that a piece of cotton batting was pushed over and the lid of the fish tank on the quilting shelf was knocked off!  YIKES!  The batting absorbed about 2.5" of fish tank water and carried it over to a pile of blues for my basket quilt backgrounds and a bin of already cut squares!  They were all evenly damp.  I threw them in the dryer. (They didn't smell funny...)

I'm glad I read Gretchen's blog today or I would have never had the Dots & Dashes squirel run out in front of me, and the damp bin of squares would have gone unnoticed for a while.  I know it happened in the past two days because I just cleaned that shelf. And why do I have a fish tank on my quilting shelf?  I really don't know.  They are just a bunch of guppies.  They seem to be happy there.  They have all been living there since September.

You can find the Dots & Dashes quilt pattern here.

Most of the reds have been pulled out for another project.  I'm not sure which backround fabric I will use.  Gretchen's looks stunning in the neutral.  We shall see.  I have plenty of time by using these as leader/enders to decide that part.

My current leader/ender of the red/white 4-patches for the Bonnie Hunter mystery Old Town has been upped to chain piecing today.  It's time to finish that clue.  It's going to be time to put all our little pieces of fun together on that mystery soon and I want to get caught up to task.

I'm linking up to Oh Scrap at Quilting is more fun than Housework.

Ohio State Christmas Gift Set -- Go Bucks!

My sister-in-law LOVES the Ohio State Buckeyes.  Here's the gift set I made her for Christmas:

I made her a tea towel that hangs on her stove.  I purchased a pattern on Etsy here.  It was totally worth the $3.50 for the pattern so that I didn't have to figure out what size to cut the topper.  I like how it looks like a little apron (or dress).

This is the BACK of the towel... This is the first photo that I took before I realized that the back of the towel was showing.  The quality of the towel from Dollar General is to be desired.

She requested that I made a lanyard for her for Christmas.  She just wanted to hook her keys to it when she takes her dog to the park.  I found a good lanyard tutorial here.  The hook was upcycled from a small gym bag.  I love fun little patterns from Sew Can She.  There is a lot of affiliate ads in the posts.  Be careful where you click.

Next I made a wristlet.  Same pattern as above but shorter.

I made a zippy pouch.  The zipper did not come out that great, but it's done.  I used Elm Street Quilts tutorial.  I made the size just a little bigger and did not use the 2.5" scrappy squares.  I added a D ring.

I decided not to let the other part of the tea towel go to waste and made a chubby version of the other. 

Of course I couldn't let the collection be finished without a coffee cozy.  My sister-in-law's favorite hobby is to go to thrift shops.  She loves to buy a McDonald's or gas station coffee and carry it with her.  She LOVES these things.

The novelty OSU fabric worked great this time.

And yes, one of my favorite parts of this project is to cut 1.5" squares from the scraps to make sure they land in some of my quilts.

Mystery Part 6 Surprise!!! Bonnie Hunter -- Old Town

 I was joyfully surprised to go to my blog reading list and see that Bonnie Hunter put out mystery clue #6 yesterday.  You can find it here (while the mystery is still live.) 

I pulled out my pre-cut HST bin and was able to find more than half of the sets in neutrals.  I had a scrap bag of reds I grabbed from newly sorted scraps given to me recently.  I cranked them through the Accuquilt, paired them up, and now they are ready to chain piece.

I have a dessert and two sides that I am making today.  Looks like it should be fun chain piecing after I get home from my morning water fitness class.  My favorite water fitness class at the moment is at 5:30 am!!!  Yes, that's early.  When school is in session I can get up and go and get back home to get ready in time for work.  There are typically 12-16 other classmates in the pool.  The class is in the deep end.  It's a very fun and inviting group.  I try to attend every Tuesday and Thursday morning.  I'm a morning person anyways.

Speaking of healthy habits, I had bloodwork done yesterday.  It was an hour wait for the lab work.  I should have taken my sew-to-go stuff.  I didn't think the wait would have been that long.  I guess my "job" yesterday was to help direct sick people to the GIANT sign that said "SIGN IN HERE".  Some people just didn't know what to do.  They would come across the room and walk past tons of people to ask me what to do.  I'll just take that as a compliment that I am a warm and inviting person.  LOL.  It will be interresting when they start using the kiosk system again.  I get it.  I realized while subbing in different schools that kids are just so amazed about the things that people over 55 years of age didn't have.  It seems like third and fourth graders are entertained when I tell them about not having the internet, a cell phone, Google, and YouTube when I was their age.  

Anywho... I'm so excited to say that I got my bloodwork results online already.  ALL -- I MEAN EVERY SINGLE ONE of my numbers tested were in the GREEN this time!   ALL OF THEM!  I guess I'm doing something right with my healthy habits.  I recently gained some of the weight back that I lost two years ago.  I messed up my knee chasing my ducks and chickens in when I saw a coyote run across the yard in July of 2023.  I just finished a series of gel injection shots in the knee  this month to help cushion the torn meniscus.  I'm happy to say I think I feel an improvement.

I love being active in the pool.  Now that my knee is starting to feel better, I may be able to use some of the other equipment at the Y and start to walk outside again when the weather is fitting.  It's Ohio... some days we wear shorts in the winter, some days it's below zero.  I do like to get out and enjoy the light while I can.  

Have a great holiday season!

Old Town Mystery Clue 5 Complete (pattern by Bonnie Hunter)

 Clue 5 is finished.  

I did dig deep into my scraps and found pieces where I could only get ONE piece enough for some of the blocks.  That is one thing that I love with the Bonnie Hunter mysteries combined with Accuquilt dies.  It really lets me use the scraps and have tons of scrappy variety.

It doesn't look like a lot, but it kept me busy for several hours looking outside on the snow-dusted ground.  This is my favorite time of year to sew and look out the window.  It was about 25 degrees yesterday.  The window I sit next to didn't make my sewing area too cold.  

Hopefully next week I'll be able to get into the quilt room in the other house and quilt a few things.  I'm caught up on all the clues except for the red/white four patches that are still being used as leader/enders for the most part.

Join in on the fun.  You can find all the info for the Old Town Mystery on Bonnie Hunter's blog.  As long as the mystery is live, she has a tab call Old Town Mystery at the top of her blog so that you can get all the details.  This link should get you quickly for now.

Happy Scrappy Monday!  It's Christmas Break!!!

Charm Baskets -- Slow Sunday Stitching

This week I worked on a few more baskets:

Here's a basket handle being stitched in a 3rd grade classroom while the kids are at gym class.

I had time to stitch two more while our son was getting a few things at Dollar Tree.  The piece below came up a little short because I did not have enough fabric.  This handle will just be a little more narrow.  The red line came off when I hit it with the iron.  All good.  The baskets aren't perfect.  If we waited for perfection I'd never finish a quilt.  This project is all about relaxing, doing something productive, and enjoying things along the way.  I also love to use up scraps that others throw away.

The quilt pattern is called Charm Basket by Laundry Basket Quilts.  It is an Edyta Sitar design. 

LOTS of handles were stitched this week.  I posted about them and where they were made in previous posts.  I'll have to start a new finished basket count after the holidays.  It's getting exciting!

An update on the "outdoor" cat.  Bridget commented that the cat that "is not allowed" in the house will someday be sitting on my husband's lap.  HA!  I have been bringing it inside to watch TV with me too some evenings.  I asked my husband to "hold" the cat while I had to get up to fix his plate.  (Yes, sometimes I'm a good wife and fix a plate for him after a long work day and bring it to his chair--not always, but I do that...)

Here's a photo of my husband "holding my cat":

I wrap it like a "burrito" so that he can hold it.  Don't worry, it's used to being handled like this.  This is the original way that I taught our son to hold it when he didn't like to hold animals.  

This is the first time our son held it in late October.  It has taken me years for him to pick up an animal.  He will pet some of the other outside cats, but not pick them up.  Now he can go outside, pick up this one, and bring it to the house where it is not allowed.  LOL.

I'm linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here.

Oh, and an update on the 2004 Dodge Ram:

A transmission has been found for it (less than 254,325 miles on it) and should arrive at the shop on Monday.  I'll probably have my truck back by the end of the week.

Basket Handles -- Sew to Go -- The Last School Day of 2024

 Yesterday was the last day of the school year.  Woohoo for a well-deserved (in my opinion) Christmas break for both me and our son.

In the morning I subbed at the high school.  I quietly sewed here.

In the afternoon I was in the art room at an elementary school.  I had K - 2.  They were busy, busy.  I did have time to make another basket handle between classes.

Here's the harvest for Friday, 12/20/2024:

Now I'll have to make the bottoms of the baskets and stitch them together.  I do have them cut.

The quilt pattern is called Charm Basket by Laundry Basket Quilts.  It is an Edyta Sitar design. 

I'll be able to cut and prep more basket handles over the two+ week break.

Basket Handles -- Sew to Go

 I made progress on my slow stitching project on Thursday.  I subbed at a large area high school in the vocal music/strings departments.  Many students were out with their teachers for performances.  I did have several study halls.  I stitched and stitched and stitched basket handles.

Here are a stack of handles and supplies that I put together on Wednesday.  I knew I'd have stitching time on Thursday.  Below is my view for the day (before the students came to class.) (I don't take photos of students.  That's not a good practice.)

Below you can see the finished basket handles on the beautiful grand piano in the room.

The last two periods of the day I moved to the Strings class.  Oh the students are very talented!  I made two basket handles here.

It's FRIDAY!  It's the last day I'm scheduled to sub for the year.  Area schools are off from 12/21/24 through 1/6/25.  Hopefully the weather will be cooperative enough so that I can longarm a few quilts.  We shall see.  Stay tuned.

The Truck -- The Verdict Is In

 I love my 2004 Dodge Ram 2500.  Yes, it's 20+ years old.  

I purchased it 9/4/2010. When I bought it, it came with a FOREVER WARRANTY.  The stipulations on the warranty was that I had to have all the oil changes and major maintenance services done at specific locations.  I chose the dealership where I had bought it.

I have spent countless hours sewing in the waiting area while my truck has been serviced over the years.  One year during a four hour major maintenance required $ervice I even took my Accuquilt cutter and cut out a whole quilt.

I had never hear of WARRANTY FOREVER before the purchase of this truck.  I asked a lot of questions such as, "So when I need a new transmission, as long as I kept up with ALL of my required services, WARRANTY FOREVER will replace the transmission, parts, labor and all?"

We finally put this to the test.  My husband and I keep vehicles as long as possible.  I'm not the kind of person that needs new new new.  Heck... look at all the quilts I make from fabrics thrown away by others.

On 12/6/24 the transmission started slipping on the way to pick our son up at school.  I recognized it and quickly shifted from overdrive to 2.  I didn't want any more damage.  Yep, after shifting in other gears and reverse I knew the signs.  I have been through SEVERAL transmissions on my FORD.

This is the first Dodge my husband and I have owned.  He's a Chevy guy.  But that's just his preference.  I knew I wouldn't go back to a Ford when I had numerous problems with the ONLY NEW VEHICHLE I ever purchased back in 1985 (which was a Ford).  This truck is our "test bunny".  I really like how it handles and the fact that it gets me up our slippery driveway.  

If you've made it thus far and the suspense is building, YES, the failed transmission at 254,325 miles IS COVERED by my WARRANTY FOREVER!  I am a little dissappointed that is all the miles it has on it.  (At least two of our Chevy trucks still run with 600,000+ miles on them.). Typically our vehicles outlast their rusty bodies from the Ohio salt on the roads.

My truck has been at the dealership since 12/9.  I had to wait nine days until the WARRANTY FOREVER went through every dotted "i" and crossed "t" to make sure every single paper was signed, dated and mileage/service was checked more than once.

Patience, loyalty, and perseversance paid off this time.  Whew.  $$$

Now the wait is for the middle person parts getter to locate the most feasible transmission possible.  Part of the deal is that they are not allowed to give me a transmission with more miles than my failed transmission.  After (probably) a rebuild transmission is located, it will only be a two day job to swap it.

After the "new to me" transmission is installed, I will have a one year/12,000 mile warranty on those specific parts.  After that time expires I will continue with the FOREVER WARRANTY -- as long as I keep up with all the scheduled maintenances.

This post is basically for my records and for some of my friends that have followed me on my Dodge Ram service journey.  Some of them have dropped me off at the dealership, listened to me complain for sitting in the waiting room for extended periods of time, texted back and forth while I was in the waiting room...  But thank you for reading.  I have learned a lot through this experience.

WIP Wednesday 12.18.24

This happened this week:

I cut my smallest scraps that have been piling up on my desk and put them with their friends in my scrap user's system (Bonnie Hunter's plan).  Pile of random, multi-colored scraps:

Pile of Accuquilt cut 1.5" squares (in about 10 minutes time).

Small scraps to throw away.  Sometimes I can even cut 1.5" HST, but this time I did not.

I'm still using the Old Town Mystery (by Bonnie Hunter, 2024) as a leader/ender project.  I'm off today to run errands, so I will step that up a bit.

Our son loves Spirit Days at school (where they dress to a certain theme).  Here he is for "ugly" sweater day.  Photos are me. (the one with the slightly grumpy face, my sister-in-law (best aunt in the world), my husband (dad -- the bearded one), and of course Owen with glasses.  I ordered it on Amazon.  It was a huge it!

I really should have made a better choice on the photo I picked for myself and should have picked one with a bigger smile vs. a smirk.  I thought I was having a good hair day in the photo and didn't compensate that it would be covered up with a hat.  Lessons learned...  It's still okay.  It brings out our personalities.

I got a few basket handles stitched in class this week.  I only have one more prepped to hand stitch in my sew-to-go box.  I'll have to get serious about those today too because I sub in high school music tomorrow.  It's exam week.  Many students will be required to only go to school to take the exam and leave.  I don't think I will have a full load of students.  We shall see.

Here's a list of things that I am working on and updates of what happened this week.  I'm setting a huge goal to finish 25 in 2025.  Highlighted things were worked on this week.1.  Random Ohio Stars -- Started in November, 2022 (needs quilted)

2.  Vintage Flower Garden Blocks -- Top completed 11.23.24 (needs quilted)

3.  Crib Quilt BitCoin -- Top finished 11.4.24 (quilted 12.2.24)

4.  Blue Embroidery Quilt, top completed Summer 2024 (needs quilted)

5.  HST Quilt, Three Six Nine RSC22 -- (needs more HST made and rows completed)

6.  Bubble Gum Pink quilt (needs a back)

7.  Hunter Green Star Quilt (needs a back)

8.  Embroideried Acorn Quilt (needs pieced together)

9.  Card Trick (needs a huge back)

10.  Kite Girl (needs sashing & borders)

11.  Bonnie Hunter 2024 mystery Old Town Road (Clues 1, 3 & 4 complete)

12.  Dogs with Sweaters started November, 2024 (blocks need cut)

13.  Sail Away started November, 2024 (All cut and ready to piece 11.26.24)

14.  Legendary started November, 2024 (fabrics selected 11.24.24 ~ blocks need cut)

15.  Christmas Socks started November, 2024 (block need cut)

16.  Bonnie Hunter Unity Quilt, Started during Covid, 2020 (needs decision on another row)

17.  Miscelaneous Block Lotto quilt blocks (needs decisions on how to arrange)

18.  Charm Basket Quilt (purchased pattern 11.26.24 as a long term sew-to-go project)

19.  BitCoin (#2) Started cutting strips and putting them in a box while cutting leftovers of multi-colored fabrics for the Charm Basket Quilt 11.29.24. More scrap strips cut this week.