Packer Bliss Quilt and Halloween Ghost and...

I decided to make my sister and sister-in-law a ghost pillow.  These ones are in Halloween fabric and are super fun.  I posed them here with my pillow.  If I have time today I may try to whip up one more for my aunt since I am headed to visit mom (my sister and bf are coming to visit!) tonight.  

You can see my Spiderweb quilt in the background on the couch.  I change the couch quilt with the month or seasons, etc.  I also change the quilts hanging around the house and the ones on the end tables.  I should take pictures of those with the seasons and show them.  

I finally quilted my tiny Twister Harvest Quilt.  This tiny quilt top has been for more than three years, but I can not find pictures of it on my blog or my facebook.  I also tried quilting it a long time ago and did not like it so I ripped it all out and put it back in the pile!  This time I used a template and this awesome chalk pounce pad that Barb sent me.  I LOVE how it came out!  

I hand tacked the binding on the back of this one.  

                                        

My favorite iron died, I bought another on ebay a year or so ago and the button broke off and eventually it died.  The first one last a LONG time (thanks Ann!) so it was worth finding another.  They are antique irons, but they get very hot and are travel size.  I have a modern travel size, but the shape of it is different and I do not prefer it.  I could see from the picture online that it needed cleaning, but I have Dritz Iron-Off Hot Iron Cleaner, so I was not worried about that.  It came in the original box!  It is a Black and Decker Small Wonder iron in case you need a great iron.  Snap it up when you see it!

The iron cleaned up in a jiffy and works great!  Super happy to have it!
Lora finished quilting my Packer Bliss quilt!  I picked it up yesterday and got it bound so I can send it with my sister back to Arizona for my brother Sam and his wife Ashley.  They do not have a big Packer quilt and they are huge Packer fans, so I hope they love it!

This quilt has my grandpa DeLos' pajamas in it!  I am sure there is also the ticking fabric that was from Great Grandpa Tony and Great Grandma Myrt's quilting frame.  

It is a bit hard to see here, but the quilt says GREEN BAY PACKERS and GO PACK GO in big block letters! (it is sideways here).

You can see the quilting a bit better on the back.  Football helmets and footballs.

My cousin's daughter Maggie Lou had her baby boy.  Since my children and my goddaughter did not want Hannah and Jay's baptismal gown, I asked my cousin if they would like it for the baby. They want it, so happy to have found it a new home where it will hopefully get passed down.  My friend Cheri in Colorado Springs made this (I commissioned it, she also taught me to sew) and it has a matching bonnet and baby slippers.  It is so beautiful, but I have dragged it around the country long enough!  I also sent her the light brown open sweater that my Grandma Nan made for Coleman.  All my kids used it and the grands here, but now it is outgrown and needs a new home.  I know Grandma Nan is smiling down to know that more babies will use it!

Hazel is now 5 years old and Indie is 2!  The time flies!  We just had a party for Hazel and did dinner at Olive Garden last night with family.  Being their Lala is the best!  Hazel keeps asking if we can sew (we did make her a skirt and I do not think it made the blog) so I need to start teaching her!  Hopefully one or both of these two will get the quilting bug!

A few weekends ago we went to the apple orchard.  This was the third one I have gone to with them over the years.  The one we like had run out of apples for that weekend.  This was a bit too much walking for me, but thankfully they towed us back and forth on a tractor train.  We got a picture of the three us with everyone smiling!

 HAPPY FALL!

A Few Finishes, Finally!

My second Moth in the Window quilt is a flimsy.  I love it!

Winter Blues aka Packer Bliss is also finally a flimsy!  So happy to have that border done and added on.  

I started working on my second Princess Crown quilt last week since it is cut and waiting.  Got about a quarter of the blocks made.  

 

Chickie Art, Working on a Border and Quilty Gifts!

Hazel loves to do art so she painted a paper plate and got almost no paint anywhere else!  We are thinking she might be a leftie (or ambidextrous) as she seems to go back and forth some but has a preference for her left hand.  This runs in our family a bit--my great grandfather Clarence Rushman was able to write with both hands and my mom's generation does many things with their non dominant hands.  My youngest son Jay is also primarily left handed but he could not decide until he was about five with the help of OT at school since neither was more dominant for him. Here she is with her chickie (Gramala, or LaLa as she calls me helped put the stuff on in the right places since the paint was still wet).

I have been sick since about Feb. 20th.  Hazel brought me a cold (she goes to daycare three days a week now and is a walking petri dish) and it almost went away before I caught her new cold.  This one has lingered and so I went to urgent care Tuesday night and I have sinusitis so they gave me antibiotics and steroids.  I am sleeping in the recliner since the drainage wakes me up coughing all night long.  Looking forward to getting back to my usual sick self.  Speaking of which, I found out I medically passed the hoops for getting disability.  My claim is on the last step where they determine if I get back pay and how much I get per month if my income didn't exceed the limits while waiting (believe me, it didn't).  So relief is coming which is good since we have about run through savings in the past two years with me not working.  We decided to not move this year too since there was just nothing in the area we want that allows four pets.  We did not know for sure about disability at the time we had to give our notice and we did not want to increase our rent budget so...our current plan is to save money each month (one DA starts) so we can hopefully have a down payment and buy a house in the area we want near my daughter.   Then we can settle.  So crossing fingers that will work out or we are likely to struggle to find a place next year too--though we would have more of a budget at that point.

I have not done much sewing (and even my reading has slowed some) since I am so ugh!  This morning I am feeling pretty decent no doubt due to the steroids so may sew today!).  I made and attached the inner border on Packer Bliss and made and sliced up and joined into pairs the outer border.  I would love to get that completed and on today if I can.  

Barb (my sewing bestie) sent ma a FABULOUS box of sewing goodies!  I have not taken pictures yet, but it made my day yesterday.  She sent some red scraps in case I could use them for Ruby Jubilee, a few Eye Spy squares, An entire tablerunner kit and pattern of the type I want to make several of for Christmas gifts this year (I have two other patterns and may try to combine elements of them to use as one uses applique and one uses foundation piecing to do the bows).  She also sent her Grassy Creek parts that she had done up to the reveal.  She decided she did not care for it and did not want to finish it.  I love the colors and will be working on that soon!  She did not want to make the string pieced sashing so that was a huge factor for her.  I could buy the right kind of fabric to avoid doing that or change up the layout, but likely will just make a pieced one since I have plenty of strings.  She also sent me two pair of new hospital slipper socks--I love them and she hates them, lol.  There was also a Quiltmaker magazine which I never got and a few patterns.  Will share pics soon!
 

Sewing, Reading and Life Update

My UFO for March was my Packer Bliss (Quiltville's Winter Blues).  I grew it row by row slowly!

                                                  

I was planning to make this originally in green and then decided I would do a pair so I could do them with green and yellow.  The pieces are VERY SMALL and in the course of making one I decided I really did not want to make the pair--though the green sixteen patches are done and the sashings and cornerstones are cut. I thought maybe I could use those sixteen patches in the border, but them realized what I LOVED about the quilt was the braided border of Bonnie's pattern so I will eventually continue along and make that.

These are the 27 books I read in March.  Glad to have "War and Peace" off my TBR and enjoyed exploring many middle grades for middle grade March!

We got Hazel a little baby doll to celebrate being 18 months old!  She loves it.  She signs and talks really well now and can say her own name as well as all of ours.  She is the light of our lives!

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color is pink this month so I whipped my blocks up yesterday for that.  Here is Log Cabin Love.

And here is Butterfly Bush. I accidently made two sets of four again instead of two sets of two as I did in yellow.  Oops!
                                         

My cousin's husband had a serious accident the end of March. He fell off a forklift and landed on his head.  He is forty something and is a great husband and father.  He has a long recovery after a seven hour surgery and hopefully will walk again one day.  He is hard working physical guy and I am praying for his full recovery.  Life turns on a dime.  

In other news, we gave our sixty day notice here and plan to move to Waukesha before summer.  We are going to look at a place today.  Smaller than here (oy!) and not as nice but only five ish minutes from Hazel and her parents which is our goal.  We hope to be able to save money up and buy again in a year or two in that area.  Still waiting for my DA hearing results--and much depends on that.  

                                                                                                

Not Quite Spring Here but some Sunshine Yellow Sewing Going On!

Kathy's cat Singer used to stay out of my quilting studio since she does not care for my kitty Stash....but since we moved they are both ranging the whole house for the most part instead of keeping to their specific areas (that they imposed).  So she is loving laying in my scraps.

I am trying to do a Christmas Through the Year project each month, but did nothing in February so I made five pillowcases (they are folded) though four of them are going for birthday gifts--I am counting it.

I love the way I organized the log cabin blocks so that I can just go to the next piece without thinking too hard.  I still managed to get a few sewn on incorrectly this time.  My brain fog really makes everything seem more difficult.  I just need to remember that each new piece goes over two seams and they it all works out.

These above are Log Cabin Love from Quiltmaker--Bonnie Hunter's addicted to scraps article, and these below from the same but are called Butterfly Bush.  They will go into two doll quilts.  One for my adopted Granddaughter Lily and one to keep at my house.  I decided to give the second H is for Happy doll quilt (which I had wanted to keep at my house) to my best friend's granddaughter Harper who just became a big sister to Briggs.  He will be getting a Chunky Churn Dash baby quilt.

This month's UFO pull was number 3 which is my Packer Bliss.  I had all the parts sewn (but still need to cut sashing and cornerstones) to make a quilt in green but decided I should make all the parts in yellow and make two Packer Bliss quilts (pattern is Bonnie Hunter's Winter Bliss).  So goal is to get one done for the UFO and then down the line get the other one done.  Finally made a dent in the yellow scraps!

 My disability hearing is on Monday.  It has been close to two years since I applied and more than two years before that since I got sick.  Five years ago this month I hiked the Grand Canyon and was in such good health.  A year later reactivated Epstein Barr Virus which led to all of this.  My fatigue is barely livable.  People have this worse than me, but I am not sure how they go on.  It is the biggest challenge of my challenging life.  So hoping I get disability since I am really unable to work.  I can sew for a few hours at a time again and I can read a lot because I am laying down and/or listening at the same time I read or only listening.  I just finished OT and am still in PT where they are trying to get me stronger, but it is slow going because more activity means more sleep and more pain (lactic acid in legs from two minutes on my sitting elliptical type thing).  It is crazy!

Currently reading "War and Peace" and "Jefferson's Sons."

Much Sewing and Reading but Behind on the Blogging!

Kathy brought me some pretty flowers.  I got the blocks cut for Ruby Jubilee part two.

I spent much of February working on Wild and Goosey blocks so I could add another row to my top.  I love this add a quarter ruler for trimming up after each piece.

I added the row and deemed the top finished--finally.  I think I started this in 2013.  Each block takes an hour or so and it is 9x8 so many blocks, hours, scraps!  This was my American Patchwork and Quilting UFO for February.

I made a few more little trees while I had my scraps out.

I got my yellow Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks cut.  

I am loving my Stripology Squared ruler for cutting these.  The little star markings help to cut my one and a half inch strips so square!

I started my March of the Mammoths read for this month--"War and Peace" and am enjoying it.  Many characters and confusing names, but the plan is to read 44 pages a day to complete it by the end of the month.  I am on track so far!

 These are all of the books I read in February 2022.  I think I have a new record.  I did listen or listen/read to many of them.  This is the upside of so much time in bed or in the recliner.  

I am also working on my March American Patchwork and Quilting UFO which is Packer Bliss.  I had already made enough parts in green for a complete top last year when I decided I should do all the parts in yellow and make two Packer color quilts instead of a green one.  Always lots of people to gift them to.  I am about 70 blocks in on the yellow sixteen patches already so this may actually happen this month--or at least one of them.  I am one ahead on my UFO list, so if I do not finish the second one I will slot in when the finished one is pulled.