Goals for 2018

This is going to be a short post with no pictures.

I have a list of UFO's that I would like to complete in 2018

1. Reflections quilt - I need to find the partially finished flimsy Found - February - DONE

2. Fix the buzzsaw quilt.  Another flimsy I know I have and can't find. Found - DONE

3. Finish the flannel Rag Quilt - August - DONE
4. Finish the Christmas quilt - October - DONE
5. Finish the Pumpkin quilt - April - DONE
6. Repair Sarah's quilt - DONE -June Added Stars and Strips - Done
7. Repair tropical quilt  - DONE
8. Finish the Deer quilt  - March - DONE
9. Finish the Happy go Lucky quilt- Need to make a back - DONE
10. Finish the Cross Roads Block of the month - January- DONE
11. Finish the Be My Neighbor Block of the month -July - DONE
12. Finish the Patchwork Block of the month. - May - DONE

Those are the UFO's I can see from my computer.  Most are really quick finishes.  A couple only need the boarder sewn on.  Two I know are in the house somewhere but have been misplaced as we unpacked after our move.

The biggest item on my list is to finish organizing my sewing area and supplies.

Note to self - do not start any new block of the months.

Changing Season

Yes it is fall, but I am also referring to the fact that the old house is now sold.

We are still adjusting to the new location but the next big change will be when I retire.  I am hopeful that will happen soon.  The commute to work is a tough one.  I actually go into work really early in the morning so it is the commute home that is killer.  I have noticed that I grind my teeth when I am stuck in traffic.  I need to retire before I break my crowns.

Plus, I have a lot of fabric to sew.

Speaking of sewing, I have been doing a little of that lately.

At the end of August I was invited to a 1st birthday party for a co-workers daughter.  In their culture the 1st birthday party is very important.  They had a huge party.  The day I got the invitation I began a quilt.  The first time I presented a co-worker with a quilt they did not even know that it was.

It is from 'The Big Book of Strip Quilts' from that Patchwork Place.  The quilt is called Flowers for Nana Girl.  I choose that pattern because I had pink and yellow 2 1/2 strips from a strip exchange from many years ago.  More years than I can even remember.  I only used a small portion of the strips.


After I completed that quilt I wanted to immediately cut out a new quilt.  I resisted and instead picked up a UFO.  Several months ago I had started a flannel quilt to give to one of my daughters.  As I was sewing two of the rows together I had flipped several of the blocks.  When I discovered it instead of ripping them out and fixing it.  I stuck it on a shelf.  I took the time to rip the rows and fix them then get the quilt top sewn together.  I have not taken a picture of this yet.

Since my daughter had quilted a couple of my quilt tops I have been working on binding most recently.  Right now I have a stack of quilts that need the binding sewn on.  Winter is coming I have plenty of quilt to sit under and stitch.

I also need to work more on the house blocks.   It has also become a UFO for lack of me working on it.

When we moved I had a quilt top together except for the boarders. I am still looking for it.  I had another top together that my daughter was going to quilt but said I needed to move a block because she knew I had given it a turn and had to much of one color in one area.  Can't find that one either. I keep looking.  Much of my fabric is still in bins.  I am hoping that I put the tops in one of them.  Now that we are no longer spending time on the old house and I am about to retire I am hopeful that I can finish unpacking the fabric.   I have to admit that I need to purge fabric but it is really hard.

The old house

I feel like I need to show the old house.  It has been a part of out life for 44 years.  We raise all our children in this house.  Had 10 foster children and 10 foreign exchange students at different times.  We loved this house.  The only reason we moved is the stairs.

We had done many things over the years to it.  In recent years, we had changed to gas, re-piped the water, decommissioned the oil tank, put on a new roof and updated the kitchen.  Things that would have made it perfect for aging in place.  But the laundry was in the basement and one of my knees will likely need to be replaced.

After we moved out week looked at how old it looked.  We had a great kitchen but the whole house needed painted.  Plus the basement stairs had begun to list to one side.  I guess when I am a hundred and 5 I might list to one side also.  Anyway, the work began to spruce it up.

Then the rains came.  This year we had record rainfall.  And that is saying a lot for Oregon.  After the snow and ice melted and the rains continued we had a leak in the basement.  That added to the expense and the work.  We had to attempt to remediate the influx of water.  We think we were successful.  Anyway after the very expensive work was done we did not get anymore water during February and March, which had heavy rain.  Or April or May when it continued to rain.

The stairs got fixed and made to code.  All the electrical was checked and plugs and switches all changed out.  The inside was painted and we waited for the rain to stop to paint the outside.

My husband and I totally disagreed about what should be done with the front of the house.   I won some and lost some battles.   Here is what it looked like after we finished painting the front.

I felt we needed bigger plants he refused.  Ok they have grown a bit since this was taken but I still think we needed taller.  Of course the fact that we had a huge rhoddy on one side before influenced how I thought it should look. 

Front door, we painted the front porch.  I love how it looks.

The below picture was given to us by the young boy in the picture who is now in his seventies.  That rhodendron was small when he was a child.  It was over the roof this last year and the center stump was hollow and full of ants.  We know it had to go but I have to tell you the puny Azalea just did not cut it for me.  I wanted another rhodendron.   I have been looking for an old picture.  But they are all still packed and I could not find one on my phone.  Funny we took a picture of the kids every spring in front of that rhodendron.  But I know you can get an idea of it's size because most of my quilt pictures were taken on the front porch and you could see it next to them.

OK I found an old picture on Google street view.  This is from April of 2016.  Before we moved and started fixing up the outside.  Look at how big that Roddy was.  We had trimmed around the bottom for the walk way. 

We had updated our kitchen several years ago.  I miss it.

The color is all wrong in the picture.  Not sure what is up with that.  I need to go over with a real camera.

We did refinish all the wood floor both upstairs and down.

Two in the living room.  I am now finding that some of the pictures I took are not transferred from my phone I am going to have to take some more.

Dining Room

Entry Way From  the stairs looking toward the Fireplace.

This is getting kind of picture heavy so I will add more pictures of the other rooms in another post.

Starting over

I am finally beginning to pick up habits.  Some are not so good.  The move broke all my routines and habits and it has not been easy to establish new ones.  Part of that is the longer commute.  Part is that I kept to much stuff for the smaller house so I have been a bit over whelmed by what still needs to be put away.  Part is I am always looking for something and I can't remember if I got rid of it or moved it.  However, I am making progress on getting rid of more stuff.  I am also finding creative ways of storing items in a house with little storage.  I just keep telling myself I just need to make a little progress every week.

I have continued to unpack boxes and make hard decisions.  But sometimes you just have to ignore it all and sew.  Although instead of sewing I have been folding fabric and placing it on my racks.  Yes racks.  I have several racks of fabric.  I have discovered many pieces of fabric and projects I had totally forgotten about.  Some I am still loving and would love to start right now and some are a 'what was I thinking moment'.  My biggest frustration is I am still looking for my small rulers (2 1/2, 3 1/2, 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 squares) and my favorite scissors.  Also a USB stick.  I have unpacked the majority of the sewing room and have no idea where they are.  We also lost our BBQ set but they would have been in different boxes.  All things I would not have gotten rid of.

Earlier in the year I had joined a Block of the Month program in the hopes of kick starting my sewing.  Then I got busy trying to work on the old house to get it on the market and missed a couple of meetings.  Which meant I fell behind.  Last weekend I did work on a block.  It is funny I do like these blocks but I am finding the hardest part is picking the fabric.  I limited my choices to a couple of fat quarter bundles.  Because I have so many I need to use them.  But I will pick fabric and look at it awhile and then change something and have to look at it a while.

Anyway I am behind a couple of blocks but I refuse to let this become a UFO.  I already have too many of those, but lets not mention a number here.  I am just trying to make progress on something.

Here is last weeks block. 

I have made a few others also.

This one looks much darker here than it really is since this was taken late in the afternoon.  One of my other frustration is my lack of natural light in my new sewing area.  But the room I am using was never intended to be a sewing room.  On the blue prints it was called the Family Room.

On the list of things to do in the house is add more lighting.

I am hoping to get a chance this weekend to make another block.  I have the fabric selected for another one and if I get that one done I will only be three blocks behind.

I need to not look at it that way.  I have made progress getting the house in order I need to remember that - and keep looking for my scissors.

Finally a finish.

It has been a long time coming but I was finally able to sew a few weeks ago.

I am still sorting.  I still have boxes to unpack, but I made a baby present and have now presented it.  Really I just needed to sew.

I made a simple patch quilt in colors for a little girl, where mom was using gray on many of the rooms accents, so Pink and Gray it was.

I am still rearranging my sewing room as I change my mind about how to set things up.  I am sure I will be doing that for a while.

My husband still owns me a peg board for above my sewing area.  It was promised for Christmas and sits waiting for him to get around to it.  So frustrating.

I still have not found my favorite little scissors that I used at my machine.   I thought I had unpack almost everything but the other day I found a box in the garage.  They must be another out there somewhere.

We have had some unpleasant surprises in the new house.  Like water in the crawl space.  Lots and Lots of water.  We are having a drainage system put in.  Home inspector had said he saw evidence of previous water but the ex-home owner had come up with a big water bill and repair for a leak so we thought that was it.  Now we know better.

And this year we will break the all time record for rain in the month of February.

While digging the drainage on our property.  The workers discovered the neighbors drainage pipes in our yard.  That is certainly not helping our situation.  There was no easement on the Title.  We are not sure how to handle that but we have now damaged their drainage pipes.  So they will still empty on our property.  Sigh.

We are still working on the old house so it is not on the market yet.  Just one more thing to stress me out.

I NEED to sew.