Okay, let's try this again. Life has settled down a little, for the next few months anyway.
Ten months to go until we move to Arkansas. I am enjoying this last summer in South Texas. Like the rest of the country, we have had some real scorching days, but we're used to that. Next summer I will be too busy unpacking to enjoy the weather very much. We have already sent two PODS full of stuff to Arkansas. One load went into our shop building there at the house; the other was split between the shop and a climate-controlled storage unit we have rented. All paper goods and fabric goods go there, things like my collection of mystery paperbacks, linens, photographs, etc. Much of that POD load came directly from the 10' x 10' storage unit we had here. It will be "fun" unpacking all that stuff next year. I anticipate a large garage sale next fall, although I did try to weed stuff out that I knew I didn't want anymore. Goodwill has been the beneficiary of most of that.
This past week I reorganized my sewing room, labeling everything clearly and making sure everything was put in its place. Not only will I be able to find everything easier, but it will help tremendously when I pack it all up and then unpack it again. The bins and boxes will just go in large cardboard boxes, labeled and sent up in the last POD which will go up about a month before the move.
The pillowcases on top of the shelves are encasing my finished quilts. I buy zippered white cotton pillowcases at BB&B, then add a clear vinyl pocket to one side. I take a photo of the quilt, print it out, and put the photo in the pocket. I can then tell what quilt it is without taking it out of the case.
Now to keep it looking this neat!
Oh, and I bought a new Baby Lock Quest Plus sewing machine since I last blogged much. I like it, except for how hard it is to find extra feet for it. It came with several, but I like to have a few specialty feet, you know? Pintuck foot, stitch-in-the-ditch foot, cording foot, etc. The shank ankle on this machine is wider than most, so the feet I have for my Husqvarna Viking Rose won't fit, and neither will most other Baby Lock feet. What's up with that? Otherwise it's a great machine, even if I did have to travel to San Antonio to get it.
I've been going through old videotapes and dubbing the good ones to DVDs. I had several years worth of sewing and quilting videos--Nancy Zieman, Eleanor Burns, Martha Pullen, Fons and Porter, Sue Scheewe, Donna Dewberry, etc, etc. Those have now been dubbed. Now I'm going through the tapes we don't want to keep, making sure there are no unlabeled "gems" on them before they hit the recycling bin. Right this minute I am watching the first day of "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Talk about a blast from the past! All the speculation about how many casualties there would be, the weapons of mass destruction they expected to find, the dangers of biological warfare, in hindsight sound a little alarmist but were very indicative of the fears after 9/11. We taped the CNN coverage because my husband was a Navy reservist at the time and our son was on the USS Enterprise.
To catch up with when I stopped blogging--our Bedlington Terrier, Copper, is doing well. My husband has put on some weight but is still in remission from his Goblet Cell Carcinoid. He has stopped his plant growing business in preparation for the move, and is only taking care of plants that we may be able to take with us. He has already sent a few boxes of bulbs to our renter, who has set them in the ground for us. We'll put them where we want them later.
I am in better health now and have a lot more energy. I had been having a lot of problems with high blood pressure, heel pain, and other problems related to obesity. This year I decided to get more active. I bought a treadmill and have been using it regularly, 5-6 days a week. I am also eating a high protein, low carb diet. My BP is back to normal. I am still using a CPAP machine, but the pressure has been reduced on it. I still have the heel spurs but they are not bothering me as much.
I am scheduled to have arthroscopic knee surgery in two weeks to repair a torn meniscus and generally clean out the joint. I have limped for over a year, and took a bad fall in February that probably caused the torn meniscus. I'm anxious to get this surgery done and get my knee back to normal.
I am no longer involved in Eastern Star, although I am a life member and still have friends there. I let my health get to the point where I could no longer enjoy that type of activity. Now that I feel better I am too busy getting ready to move. I do still attend the Red Hat events and the book club with some of the Red Hat members. I get so much from those friends--I will really miss them when I move! I hope some of them will keep in touch. I intend to.
I found this lovely tray at a thrift store last Saturday. I couldn't pass it up. Isn't it pretty? The bottom is made of ceramic tiles. It's in perfect shape--the white spots are glints from the shiny tiles.
I have been saving my sons' old T-shirts for several years now, intending to make quilts out of them. I finally got around to it because I didn't want to move the shirts to Arkansas. This one is made of a lot of school shirts, Boy Scout shirts, and various others that were favorites.
This one, on the other hand, is exclusively made of Eskimo Joe's tees. My sons both enjoyed these while they were growing up. At one time Eskimo Joe's tees were the second most highly desired tees after Hard Rock Cafe. The chain is based in Stillwater, OK where my DH grew up. My MIL used to get the shirts for the boys at every holiday, so they always had several.
These are still just tops. My sister in Arkansas will quilt them for me later. For those who don't know how to make quilt blocks out of t-shirts, I'll explain.
1. Launder the tees, no fabric softener. I use even the shirts with stains and small holes in them, as well as the ones that are faded as long as the design is clear enough to see.
2. Buy lots of middleweight fusible interfacing, non-stretchy. I mean lots--I had to go buy more twice for the two quilts above. One yard will do two 15" blocks. I had a 15" square ruler that I used for the template.
3. Cut off the sleeves and neck ribbing of the shirt and open at least one of the sides so you can lay it flat on your ironing board. The sleeves and plain backs make good cleaning rags. If the back or sleeves have designs on them, use them for the quilt too.
4. Lay the design area face down on the ironing board and press it to remove wrinkles and to square up the design if it's a little cattywampus. (yes, that's a real word!)
5. Cut a piece of interfacing the size you want the finished block to be. Mine were 15" squares.
6. Center it over the design area of the shirt. Most of the time the top edge of the interfacing will be at the neckline edge of the shirt. Press the interfacing in place using the manufacturer's directions. Don't be afraid to use the extra pieces of interfacing by piecing them onto a block. It won't make a difference.
7. Cut out the interfaced area from the shirt, using a template or ruler. Now you have a quilt block! If some of the designs are bigger or smaller, you can either cut into the design and only use part of it, make one row with larger blocks, or add pieces to the smaller blocks to make them all the same, etc. You can see what I mean in the pictures.
I used sashing on one quilt to tie it all together because I had to add some strips to a couple of smaller blocks to make them fit. Since a few of the shirts were tie-dyed, I interfaced the remaining tie-dyed pieces and cut them into strips to use for the sashing. I like the look. Don't try cutting out the pieces before interfacing them--trust me on this one.
I will say that these are rather heavy quilt tops. I've chosen regular cotton backings and will use very thin cotton batting. Polyester would be too bulky. These are going on the kid's guest room beds when we get to Arkansas and have the addition built on the house.
Boy, when I do get around to blogging I really talk a lot, don't I? I'd better save some for later.
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