I love staycations!

I have been off this week from work and loving every minute of it. I have watched a bunch of court tv (yes, I love watching those judges telling people to grow up and accept responsibility!!), hung with Patrick, yakked a bunch with Hannah, played video games with Joe and hung out in my most awful looking, yet wonderfully comfy, clothes! I planned on getting a lot more sewing done, but will gladly trade that for down time with the family! I have got the top done from those pale blue/white blocks done. First, I want to say to Cheryl...GET OUTTA MY HEAD! lolol The very first thought I had with what to do with these blocks was to applique something on them. Wasn't sure what, but I knew it had to be something childish as there weren't many blocks so this was going to be small. This is what I came up with:

Here is a closer up shot of the balloons:

Now to piece together some batting, get this sandwiched and quilted at some point today. This will make a nice little quilt for donating and it all came from stuff I had here. Lord knows I would never have thought to put these colors together any other time and I am still not sure what the world would think of it, but it'll do for me!

Never go in to your sewing room at 3 am

Yup..you read that right. Last night I couldn't sleep so wandered into the sewing room. Was too unsettled to work on anything, so I started reorganizing a big. My daughter had bought me the perfect size boxes for my projects for Christmas, so I thought I would move the projects from the ugly boxes to the pretty ones. (Notice how I did NOT just fill up the new boxes with new projects!! I was sooooo good!). Well, one of the boxes had leftover blocks and leftover units from other quilts. In the box, I found these that I had bought at Craft Bits and Pieces for $2:

The colors are so pale the blocks aren't very exciting looking. That's okay..it will work up quick and will make a nice little donation quilt. So, I didn't really pick a project box, but this will be today's project to work on. Will post updates later!

Another box emptied

I canNOt believe it has been 2 weeks since I posted last. Sure doesn't seem like it. Time flew by with the holiday preparations! I had a wonderful, blessed Christmas and hope you did, too! Even though I opened project box #2, I didn't get a chance to work on it at all until yesterday. There was a lot more to finish up than I thought! I did finally get it done today and not a moment too soon. I wanted to make this bigger, but there was just no way my poor elbows could wrestle this heavy quilt any longer. No quilt is worth antagonizing my joints into an RA flare up! I feel like I wrestled an anaconda and lost! lol This quilt finished up at 52"x60". Not sure where it is heading, but I have a feeling it will be to Mercy House. This is going to keep someone VERY warm with how heavy it is!!

And the back:

I really love the design on the back. Can you believe it took 3 of the LARGE spools of thread? I would love to make another one of these someday making more of a color design on the front rather than just the random way I have it now, but that is going to be a looooong time coming. At least until my elbows forget how much this hurt them! lol Tonight I will open project box #3. I hope it is something that will finish up fast. Maybe I can squeeze in one more finish for the year!

Box #2

Alrighty..sewing time! Here is the randomly selected project box I picked to work on next:

It's my denim quilt made out the old jeans. Yay! This one was about 3/4 finished when I stopped working on it. Best yet, there will be no sandwiching and quilting on this one to finish it!! Off to make some progress!

Meet Annie

Okay..I am going to have to stop hanging with my pals over on the HomesteadingToday site because they are fueling the start of a bad addiction. A couple of the ladies were sharing some "new" old machines that they purchased and that got me looking. Baaad idea! Well, it is Christmas time, so I bought myself a present. May I introduce Annie to you:

Look at that pretty wooden carrying case! Yes, I know it needs a good cleaning, but this way I will have before and after pics for you! Ready??? Here she is!

Pretty, isn't she??? The back:

Motor curls in for when you put the top on:

The little accessory area:

It even has the original accessory case and accessories:

All I know about her is she is New Home machine made in 1920. I called the Janome number and they were able to date her by the serial number, but that is all they had. I haven't seen any in the wooden carrying cases like this. You can see from the one shot of the back that there is another cord that plugs into the cord to the motor so I can plug her in. So, I don't know if she works or not. She does move freely when I do it by hand, though, so that is a good start. There is a little wear on the gold on the back of the bottom, but the rest looks good...just dirty. Now to head back to my gals at HomesteadingToday for help in cleaning her up without hurting her and maybe where I can find that cord. I am sooooo excited! What pretty eyecandy!! I haven't gotten much done on the sewing front. I made new valances for my kitchen and I got all the swap packages sent out for our Black and Bold swap on Marie Bostwick's site. The blocks are gorgeous! I can't show them all to you now as not all the ladies have received their packages yet, but here is a pic of mine:

I also have made some of the test blocks for 100 blocks magazine, but can't show you :/ Hopefully tonight will be a sewing night and I can finally pull out box #2 and get going on whatever project is in there!