Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Going through the motions - Building Blocks Tuesday

Have you ever lost your quilting mojo?  I have been in denial for a while now, but I think I've lost mine.  It's happened before, but I can't remember what happened to snap me out of it.  I am just uninterested in quilting or sewing right now.  I've had a few hours strung together over the last week, that normally I would take full advantage of and sew the entire time.  But instead, I just went into my studio and stared at the possible projects to do and had this feeling of "blah".  It's not so much that the projects themselves were "blah", more that I just couldn't muster the momentum to do anything about them.

I tried to get started on a few things, but I kept finding other things that held my attention better.  I mean, I even chose HOUSEWORK over quilting!  Something is clearly wrong with me.

Alpine block for Janice

One of the things I did make was this Alpine block for Janice in my Bee Hive.  Once it was complete, I promptly left the room.  I have a bunch of other bee blocks to try to finish up for the month, but I am struggling to be motivated.

Have you ever been in a quilting or crafting slump?  What did you do to get over it?

What blocks have you working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.


Quilter in the Closet

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!


Thanks for reading,

Jen




Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Patience required - Building Blocks Tuesday

I am not the most patient of people.

I used to think I was pretty reasonable with regard to patience when I was younger, but now I recognize that it was more apathy than patience.  Then, I had children, which tests what little patience I actually have intensely.

Why do I bring up patience?  Well, it just so happens that gardening requires a bit of patience, which I am already in short supply.  It has only been a week, and I am lamenting on the fact that NONE of my plants are growing.  Not one single leaf has broken the soil that I have been meticulously watching, watering, etc.  "A watched pot never boils", you say?  Well, I have expectations!  I pre-sprouted several of my seeds before planting them in the garden, and I would have expected those seeds to show some signs of life by now.  Sigh.  No patience.

About the only exciting things that have happened in my garden this week, was this visitor.....

Untitled

And, something climbed into the garden bed (through the chicken wire) and stole one of my sweet potatoes right out of the dirt.  Luckily, I have a few more sprouting inside that I can plant in its place soon.

OK, so this is a quilting blog and has any quilting happened this week?  No.  Not really.  I did make two of these draft stoppers things.  For some reason, the contractors took off a bunch of our thresholds for our doors, and we've had some pretty strong (and cold) winds blowing in.

Untitled

I am not certain that they are actually stopping the draft completely, but they do at least stop small pebbles and other debris from being blown under the door and across the room, so I guess they are doing something.   I stuffed them with some batting trimmings that I had saved (I don't know why!, but hey they were handy for this) from trimming off the edges of my quilts in the past.  I stuffed them pretty good, so they have a nice weight to them.  I have several more doors that require these things, but I ran out of trimmings and haven't decided what to stuff them with instead.  The gap under the girl's bathroom door is so big that I'm a bit worried that I will open the door one morning to find a snake in the house.  Yes, these are the things that keep me awake a night.

I am hoping to get a day of sewing in tomorrow, but we will see what actually happens.

What blocks have you working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.


Quilter in the Closet

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!


Thanks for reading,

Jen




Wednesday, November 4, 2015

One is the loneliness number - Building Blocks Tuesday

Whoa! Another Tuesday disappeared.  Actually, I was hoping to have something to show you today, but fate had me working outside the last few days instead of in my sewing room.  I HAVE spent most of this morning working on Deb's NY Beauty Circle of Geese.  I had forgotten how fiddly the center circles could be.  After sewing most of them several times, I've decided to make a small redesign and hope it goes better.  I get so few sewing days at the moment, that I don't want to spend all my time sewing in frustration.

All that to say I have no new blocks to show you.  I would like to share a mini that I received this summer right in the middle of my move.

I got this beauty from @modernstitchinmama on Instagram as part of the Cotton and Steel mini swap.

Cotton and Steel mini received from @modernstitchinmama


Just look at this gorgeous stitching!

Cotton and Steel mini received from @modernstitchinmama


I have definitely had quite the run of good luck in swaps this year!  However, I sure am glad that I didn't sign up for any this half of the year.  I can't even seem to get poor Deb's quilt done very quickly.  I would have been black listed for sure.

I realize I always seem to be whining about not having anytime to quilt.  While that is true, you may be wondering what I have been spending my time doing.  Honestly for several weeks there it was mainly spent moving furniture around.  No lie.  The flooring guy wouldn't always tell me what the agenda was for the day until he showed up.  And most of the time, I would move all the furniture in a room to one side while he floated the floor, then I would have to move all the furniture over to the other side of the room so he could finish the room.  This back and forth was repeated again when it was time to actually put in the wood flooring.

At this stage in our remodel, I don't often have to move furniture around, but I do spend quite a bit of time directing new tradesmen around.  I feel like just when I get going on a project, I have to stop for an hour to show the counter guy where all the vanities are going, or the electricians which lights I need replaced, or just talking with my general about options for laying out the tile in the bathroom.  By the time I get back to my project, it is time to pick up the kids.

While it isn't true this week, I have also been spending quite a bit of time with Reagan, our newish puppy.  I try to take him on daily hikes.  No, they aren't just walks around here - we have hills!  He is a big boy, so I try to hike for about an hour each day to keep him happy and tired.  There may also be some play time and training each day too.  He has learned "sit" pretty well, and we've been working on "lay down"

I've also been building a garden.  Building, you ask?  Yes, building.  I brought home a pile of redwood (the west coast version of cedar) a few months ago.  I spent some time over at my sister in law's using her miter saw to cut everything to size, and was about to put a massive raised bed together when we had all that 100 degree plus weather.  Needless to say, all my seedlings died, and it was just too hot to be lugging a bunch of lumber around the yard.  Last week, things cooled down a bit and I was able to get the bed built.  Over the weekend, I hauled a whopping Sixty-six 50 lb bags of soil around and filled it.  My back was pretty sore.  This week, I finally got my rabbit fencing up around the bed, because to say we have a lot of bunnies around here would be an understatement!  Also, the dog kept digging in the planter and I needed to keep him out as well if I hoped anything would grow.  I started presprouting some of my seeds today, so I hope to plant them in the bed by the end of the week.

Now, some of you might be wondering....isn't it a little late for a garden.  Probably, yes.  I spent nearly all summer dreaming of the awesome vegetables that I would grow the moment we moved into a house with a yard.  Once that actual moving in occurred, reality set in.  Not only was I busy with all the stuff above, but it was so hot around here that I doubt much would have survived.  Plus, we are on significant water restrictions, so even if something didn't die from the heat, it was sure to die from lack of water.  So, I'm trying out a fall garden.  I planning a mix of regular summer vegetables like tomatoes and green beans, but have mostly cooler weather loving lettuces, winter squash, peas, and broccoli.  According to the internet, I should only expect one day of frost for the winter, which might be more because of the "El Nino" predicted, but I'm going to take my chances.  These frosty days are likely to happen more towards January or February anyway.  And thanks to a couple of pre-"El Nino" showers, the rain barrels I put under our eves are nearly full and will likely keep filling the more rain we get this season.  So yeah, I'm doing my garden now.

Why am I so chatty today?  I don't know.  I guess I'm lonely.  Talking to contractors and the dog all day doesn't really count as being sociable.  I also feel like I've been neglecting the blog a bit for a while because I haven't had much going on in the quilty realm, and haven't really shared anything personal in a while.   I hope you don't mind.

What blocks have you working on this week?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.


Quilter in the Closet

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!


Thanks for reading,

Jen