Design Wall and ToDo's

I don't know why I am even making this post, because absolutely nothing has changed. Maybe that's why I need to write this post, because someday, months or years from now, I'll wonder what we did during the Covid 19 Shelter at Home. My blogs are a wonderful resource for my memory lapses. And I want to remember that this wasn't just a time when people lazed about at home. We kept an ear to the news, watching the spread of the virus across the states, and here at home trying to keep working and keep food on the table amid concerns of being exposed to the virus.

On a personal front, quilting has not been Number One on either my "Want to do" or my "Have to do" list. I've been making face masks and other personal items like cloth substitute for Kleenex, toilet paper, and paper towels, which are impossible to find at stores now. I've also been spending more time with the grandsons, and I have a post for my DIY blog in my mind that I need to get written. Plus, my mom has been in the hospital with her heart issues again, and I need to find an assisted living place for her down here. So many things going on right now, it's hard to sit still for quilting.

So if this design wall looks the same as last week, that's why. If my quilting mojo doesn't return soon, I may have to check it for cobwebs.

Last week's ToDo list:
X1. Finish sweater makeover
X2. Join three rows of Scottish Sun blocks
X3. Design borders for Scottish Sun
✔4. Make ten face masks
This week will be the same, except I will ask the local nursing home if there is something else they need. I've read so many things about what to do for people with the virus and a lot of them differ. But most say that keeping warm and covered, even with the fever is very important. I know when my mother-in-law was at this nursing home, that their blankets are very thin.

1. Finish sweater makeover
2. Join three rows of Scottish Sun blocks
3. Design borders for Scottish Sun
4. Make 25 face masks for the nursing home

I hope you are having a better week with your quilting than I am and that you and your loved ones are staying healthy. See you next week as we link to:

Sunday Sewing Reports Week 13

I have done some stitching this week, but no quilting. None. There were a couple of days I didn't even feel like going up to my sewing space. I just felt I needed to be preparing my home somehow, I'm not even sure how, but I feel so unprepared if we have to stay home for another month to stop this virus. My quilting mojo has disappeared, or maybe it has just been temporarily replaced by things that seem to be a little more necessary right now. I hope that's it and that all this will be behind us soon. So instead of sewing this week, I've been making clothing for little boys. Since the grands are living with us now, or next door as Hubby calls it, I see a lot more of the boys every day and I have noticed that neither one of them have clothes that fit. Both boys are small for their age and their jeans are about five inches too long. We had some exceptionally warm days this week, so instead of risking a trip to a store, I remade a pair of my shorts. I don't like the waist band, but there wasn't enough fabric in the shorts to make another band.

I also made some face masks, cloth toilet wipes. and cloth napkins even though paper napkins are the only paper products I've seen in stores in the last couple of weeks. I'd like to think I'll never need the toilet wipes, but the local Dollar General has to have police escorts for the toilet paper delivery. I don't know how other people know when the delivery is, but I need to find out before we are down to our last roll. We had heard that the Dallas stores are so depleted of groceries that people are coming here to shop, but I didn't really believe that rumor until Hubby went to the store a few days ago and saw some people who he said were obviously from North Dallas. If they thought there would be toilet paper, water, or yeast on the shelves, they made a long trip for nothing.

Speaking of yeast, I found a jar of yeast in my refrigerator that expired April 2019, but it seems to be good. I decided to try making a mother yeast starter with a little of it and had one failure I had to dump out. I started another and made one loaf Friday. The bread tasted a little different than that made with dried yeast and the texture was a little tough like sourdough, but it wasn't bad. Definitely not that tangy, sour taste like sourdough. I'll make a loaf today that will be the real test of the starter.

Okay, on to the sewing reports. I used some fabric making the cloths and masks. No fabric out of the stash for the shorts.

Like I said above, there were a couple of days I didn't even go into my sewing space, so my sewing time took a hit this week.

I hope all of you are staying safe, washing your hands a lot, and keeping your distance. Who knew that we would be saying "I wouldn't touch that with a ten six foot pole would ever been mandatory? Linking to:

To Do Tuesday Week 12

I guess this qualifies as a squirrel, and I bet I'm not the only one. When I heard there was a shortage of masks at hospitals, I thought I'd make a few. When I told Hubby, he dug out a box of oddly shaped filters for a half face respirator we no longer have and asked if I could make a mask for them. Since the original mask had a filter on each side of the face, I didn't think I could use them. But after playing around with some patterns I found online, and then stitching two of the filters together, I came up with a plan. Not ideal, but beats no filter at all. However, just like the N95 masks we use in woodworking, moisture from breathing goes up and fogs our glasses. So, back to the drawing board. Also, there is no small elastic to be found around here, so I am going to have to make some fabric ties for these.

I did not do well with last week's goals. With Hubby working from home more, he found more house building chores for me to do. Instead of quilting, I was staining doors and cabinets and building shelves. I'd like to say this week will be better, but there is another door on the sawhorses. Also, the grandsons are over quite a bit, and it is impossible to get anything done when they are around. Daughter has finally realized that the safe environment she created for them also made them think that homes were a big playcenter and that the world revolved around them. We are working on not jumping on furniture, not touching things that don't belong to them, and learning to play by themselves. There have been many tantrums and time outs.

Last week I only had three goals, and didn't complete a single one!

X1. Finish sweater makeover
X2. Join three rows of Scottish Sun blocks - I only got half of one row done.
X3. Design borders for Scottish Sun

This week, I have those goals again and one more because my 86 year old mother wants some face masks too, sans filters.

1. Finish sweater makeover
2. Join three rows of Scottish Sun blocks
3. Design borders for Scottish Sun
4. Make ten face masks

Linking to:

Design Wall Monday Week 12

Not much to show this week.  I only got a few blocks stitched together.  My time this week has been spent working on cabinets in the house.  And cooking.  So much more cooking now that I am stuck at home and have three extra mouths to feed.  That's why the design board looks almost exactly like it did last week.

Linking to:

Sunday Stitching Week 12

I didn't spend much time in the sewing room this week. I may be flattening the curve by not leaving the house, but it is doing the opposite with my waistline. Every meal has to be cooked at home and while we are eating better than we have in awhile, it is fairly time-consuming. With the kids in the house more, I've been working on the pantry and laundry room shelves so I can get some of this stuff put up. So my sewing time has been a bare 15 minutes most days and I don't have much to show for it. No fabric was bought or used, and not much progress joining quilt blocks.

Linking to:

Life in Pieces

Design Wall and To Do Week 11

Saturday evening, I worked on a design for the Scottish Sun blocks and on Sunday afternoon, I stitched three of the rows together. I didn't even remember that I had written that as one of my goals last week, so that is a happy coincidence.

I also started joining string blocks for my leaders and enders, but I don't have a firm plan for them yet.

Other than the three rows of the Scottish Sun, I wasn't very successful with last week's goals:

✔1. Join three rows of Scottish Sun blocks
X2. Design borders with remaining fabric
✔3. Make floor mats for gransons's chair
X4. Take down design wall and finish wall behind it
X5. Finish sweater makeover

I would like to drop the sweater from my ToDo list. I am not liking the alterations I've made, but I am determined to finish it and see if it looks any better. So once again, it will be on this week's list.

1. Finish sweater makeover
2. Join three rows of Scottish Sun blocks
3. Design borders for Scottish Sun

Linking to:

Sunday Sewing Week 11

Other than this floor pad, I haven't done much this week. I made the floor pad with duck cloth which I hope is a little tougher than quilting cotton. Instead of batting, I used old towels. Have your towels ever done this?

I hate when that happens to towels! I cut off those scrunched ends along with the edges, and stitched two towels together to make it big enough. Hopefully, it will absorb smaller spills before they get to my concrete floor. A word about polished concrete floors if anyone is considering them. Don't! They etch worse than marble.

Allrighty then, on to the reports. I used two yards of duck and a quarter yard of quilting cotton binding making the pad, so not a bad week for usage.

I didn't have such a great week with my daily sewing and I missed two days. After babysitting Thursday, I was too tired to even think about sewing, much less climb the stairs to do it and Friday was errands day. I hadn't been to the grocery store for more than a handful of items in a couple of months and was out of everything. I was going to go to Costco, but after hearing about the crowds on tv, I decided to go to Walmart in a small town nearby. Let me tell you, Friday was not the day to go to Walmart, even in a small town. Not only were they out of many normal grocery items, it was packed. By the time I got home and made dinner, I was wiped out. So no sewing Friday either.

Linking to:

Celebrate Freedom

Design Wall Monday and To Do Tuesday Week 11

On the design wall today is an oldie but goodie. It is a UFO from 2004. Yes, these blocks have been sitting in a box for sixteen years. It's about time it is finished, don't you think? The original mystery design didn't include any borders, but I want to add a border and continue the effect of stars around a sun. It's name is Scottish Sun.

Now a look at goals. Last week, my goals were:
X1. Take down my design wall and finish the wall behind it - and I didn't touch it.
✔2. Finish Barnyard Quilt
X3. Finish the sweater makeover. I worked on it, but didn't finish.
✔4. Think of a new design for the Celebrate Freedom Quilt and recut the blocks - and I finished it too.

I am going to be a little more ambitious this week with these goals:
1. Join three rows of Scottish Sun blocks
2. Design borders with remaining fabric
3. Make floor mats for gransons's chair
4. Take down design wall and finish wall behind it
5. Finish sweater makeover

Linking to:

Sewing Reports Week 10

Have you ever been sewing away, pedal to the metal, and all of a sudden your quilt won't move through the machine? That happened to me today when I was putting binding on a quilt. I checked my bobbin; I checked my big spool; and I checked to see if there was a pin stuck in the feed dogs. Nothing. I was beginning to think my feed dogs had broken when I happened to notice the cat was missing from his bed beside my sewing table. I looked on the other side, and there he was, cuddled on the quilt that had draped over the table onto the floor. After moving him back to his bed, all was well again. I thought about leaving him there because he doesn't move around much these days, but I had to get it done.

It was an interesting week in the sewing space. After the grandsons had been here all afternoon for a few days in a row, the attic sewing space became my therapy room, a calm place to de-stress. I never knew sewing could do that for me. On those high stress days, I logged in much more than 15 minutes, but the other week days were about average. Hubby spent Saturday afternoon on his radio, so I followed suit by spending the afternoon sewing. I am back to a 99% success rate in daily stitching.

The stash report is looking better too. I cut binding for two quilts this week and used a half yard for each. I have made an effort to use backing fabric from my stash even if I didn't really like it and that is helping. I may make my 15% reduction goal yet.

Linking to:

Barnyard QAYG

Goals, Goals, Goals, What to Do Next? To Do Week 10

I never thought it would be so hard to choose just one goal for my One Monthly Goal. I was going to choose to finish Barnyard Quilt, but that is so close to completion that it almost seems like cheating. So, even though I have no idea how I am going to salvage it, I will finish Celebrate Freedom. It may turn out to be a quilt, or it may be a cat bed, or it may turn into a table runner. Right now it's laying in a heap on the floor where I threw it in disgust and my only plan at this time is to get it off the floor.


Moving on to weekly goals seems to be a lot easier. Last week, my goals were:

✔1. Finish Ameliorate Sampler into a flimsy, which coincidentally was also my OMG for February.
X2. Have a quilting weekend Friday and Saturday - just didn't have time for that.
X3. Take down my design wall and finish the wall behind it - didn't have time for that either, but the grandkids came a day early and there is no turning your back on them, especially with an open bucket of paint.
✔4. Find a March UFO for One Monthly Goal.

Now for this week's goals:


1. Take down my design wall and finish the wall behind it. I just looked back on other goal posts and I have had this as a goal twice before, so I hope three is a charm.


2. Finish the Barnyard Quilt.


3. Finish the sweater makeover.


4. Think of a new design for the Celebrate Freedom Quilt and recut the blocks.

Linking to:

Sunday Sewing Reports

Another good week, but I think that's all about to change. My daughter and grandsons just moved in and boy are those boys a handful. But for now, I have a little peace and quiet so thought I'd get this post written while I could. Buddy has figured out that the boys are not allowed on the stairs, so guess where he goes when they come in? lol

I got in 15 minutes (or more) of sewing time every day this week and my success rate is coming back up. I hope I can continue that in the next few weeks, but I am the designated babysitter while Daughter looks for a job, so who knows. The stash report looks better as well. I need to step it up to achieve my goal of a 15% reduction though.

I've been trying to decide on a goal for March. There are a couple of non-quilt projects I'd really like to make and I hope I can finish a UFO AND do at least one of those projects.

Linking to:
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate