Exhausted

 

 THIS MATERIAL IS DEPRESSING, 

SKIP IF YOU'RE IN A GOOD MOOD

Lets see...  this week I did the following:

• Monday - started my paint course.  
• Tuesday - Went out for my birthday with a girlfriend for brunch at White Rock.  While there, picked up stuff needed for house from the Dollar Store, the grocery store, the bulk store, and that killed the mood.  Got home and found out my aunt went back to the hospital, something was wrong, She wasn't responding to anyone talking to her until she was in the hospital for about 2 hours.  Low salt and low potassium.
• Wednesday - went to the dentist, came home, and tried to catch up with my painting lessons that were all week long.  Husband drove car over curb, but luckily no damage, only damage to my mouth, I bit my lip and because of freezing, didn't know it until my husband said something. Found out my aunt may has dementia.  Was on the phone with cousins and texting most of the night.
• Thursday - brought the car in for repairs because of an accident two weeks ago where someone rear ended us.  We then got a rental.  Then we went to pick up our wine case at a winery.  But we didn't stop for a drink there, we went instead to a cidery outside in the autumn colors (sorry no pictures).  We relaxed.  Got home cancelled flight to visit my aunt.  She was still in the hospital, cancelled hotel, car rental, and needed to deal with hockey tickets we bought for Winnipeg.  Had to cancel husband's flight as well.  All together we lost $600 but we would not be seeing my aunt or spending time with her because she's in the hospital, sometimes coherent and sometimes not.  They're talking Dementia now but they're not sure because she got dizzy, fell outside, hit her head on the cement drive, and cracked her skull, thus a concussion.  Or dementia?  Doctors don't know.
• Dementia is a general term for a decline in cognitive function that affects memory, thinking, and social abilities, significantly interfering with daily life. It is not a specific disease but a syndrome associated with various neurodegenerative diseases, with Alzheimer's disease being the most common type. Symptoms may include memory loss, difficulty in reasoning, changes in personality, and emotional control issues. Treatment options vary depending on the underlying cause and may include medications, therapy, and lifestyle changes. 
• Friday - On Thursday I got two calls from two different teachers to sub. I chose one and told the other I couldn't, sorry,  So I got up to substitute at 6:30 in the morning, found out that morning that MAYBE it was cancelled.  Went to school, it was cancelled but not my the teacher, by the office staff...  and no one bothered to email and tell me.  Went home, tried to catch up with paint classes.  Had Strata Zoom meeting at 5:00 pm, then typed up notes on it at 8:00 pm and gave to other strata members.  Joined the Strata Group Chat online as well, late at night.
• Saturday, I gave up....  Two loads of laundry, change the bed, wash the sheets, went for a walk to get my equilibrium back, and then had to talk to my cousins about setting their mother up in a retirement home because now she's wandering and trying to get out of hospital because she thinks it's the retirement home she use to work at, and she hated that place..... I felt so small, but both girls are ignoring what's coming up.  In Canada it takes 2 - 4 months to get into a retirement home, IF you're lucky....  In British Columbia it takes 6 - 12 months for a good home..... Boy it sucks to get old.  Back to work.....  transferred hockey tickets to my cousin's ex-husband, really lovely man who helps everyone in the family, set up when I'm working next as a sub, talked to my girlfriend to set up another meet day,  wrote a reference for a student that I had a year and a half ago.  Those references take an hour.  That's when I started to get depressed.

So there went my equilibrium, my trip to Winnipeg, my trip to see my aunt (I'll go in November), and talking to my cousins for a while.  Yes they're upset with me for suggesting it.

My husband said "PAINT!!!!  You love that." so I went back to my course, which I can honestly say, I do love to do.  Here's the 2nd picture from my paint class with Ali Kay and Fresh Paint.  It was so much fun.  Once a year she does the Paint week and donates all the money to help people out in Haiti with her aunt.

Yes, I agree, I look happy.  It's a new style for me, called loose painting, and I've never done it before but I love the style.  Next painting, flowers, Ali's specialty.  

OK<> on the positive side, 

• I really enjoyed paint week and trying out new things.
• the vote on what notes I took for the strata is Monday, and that is off the plate, and I'm ready.
• My husband and I made an excellent spinach lasagna yesterday, and we have left overs for Sunday.  It's a treat.
• The sun is shining this afternoon.  We went for a gorgeous walk at Marine Park by the Fraser River.
• We bought the makings for home made long island ice tea to help get the mojo going again (and its working)
• I'm quilting this evening and you'll see what I make. 
• I'm healthy, so I should be happy about that.
• I spent the day home and not driving.  That's something new.
• It's autumn and it's gorgeous with the colors.  My husband bought me the flowers below.  Gorgeous.
• And I love my husband and he loves me.

OK, feeling better.  Thanks for listening.  Here's a  positive for you.....  something I sewed up quickly today:

Made with thanksgiving material.

Here's something I found online for free.  Make yourself a pumpkin.  I will be.  :)

You have a great day and a great week.  I'm sure going to try.

October's wish list......

 OK, another month, another time of making a list of what I want to accomplish, but this month, it's a little harder.  My mother's estate is finalizing, and I'm going through the trauma and the memories of that.  My aunt (her sister) is in the hospital for the 2nd time for not responding properly when talked to because of a concussion three months ago (she couldn't even talk to her daughters when her daughter got there).  I'm still working part time and I'm getting tired of it, and all this with life as usual.  That's crazy!!!!

So what do I do?  continue on like everyone else.  

So here's my list of things to do:

Continue with my paper piece Christmas quilt. Looking at finishing the entire quilt.

• teddy bear quilt
• female elf
• snowman
• steam engine
• the sashing for the quilt
• finish the quilt

See some of the other ones I've completed here....

The cactus quilt.

• need to make 3 more blocks.  I'm behind but I find it so hard to make this one....

And now the final thing:

The quilt pattern that's a skeleton, from Sew Fresh. I've had it for a while and I've looked and couldn't find the pattern on her website nor on her Etsy account.  Here's a major hint of what it's suppose to look like, everything has been cut except for the white, and that's where I'm at.  It's queen size and it shouldn't take too long to do the rows.  It's for Christmas for a girl who is nuts about Halloween.  Yeah I know, I know, it doesn't make sense but that's my family.

I also signed up for something new and I'm very excited about.  It called Fresh Paint from Ali Kay's Studio.  She's a gorgeous painter with bright, very loose painting that I just adore and wanted to learn how she does it.  I took a $10 week of painting with her (5 days actually) where I learn her style and because I was enjoying it sooooooo much (it's acrylic) I signed up by the month to all her classes.  Here's an example of her style.  I love it!!!!

A true stunner, and I'm learning her style.  I'm painting a corn flower and a group of pumpkins in this style.  See another of her works below:

The corn flower is completed.  I love it, but my style is still tight, I still need to loosen up, so tomorrow's class and the next two days is the pumpkins, for me to learn.  Can't wait.....  Here's my corn flower.

I can still get more loose, so we'll see what happens.  My goal for this month is to do the pumpkins, a tulip one and then who knows.    At least two more.  

So I think that's enough for now, for this month, because I'm also traveling again for a week to see a sick aunt.  I'm hooking up to Stories from the Sewing Room for some major motivation.  Have a great month people, have fun.

What September gave to me.

Well, I've been working and here's what I got done, even with 4 different trips this month, but the trips were 3 - 4 days so that still gave me plenty of time.  I'm hooking up to Stories from the Sewing Room for my finish.  Check out the others at that site and see some really beautiful work from the host herself.  It's absolutely gorgeous.

Here's my stuff.  On the painting side I said I would do the following and see what's been done.

Painting:

• three cards that you can mail but you paint the images on them.  Ones a secret so here's the other two.

• seal mammal from the last post.  It showed the video that I will be following

• Acrylic painting of Zeon National Park. - almost done, except for some of the rocks.  Will have to finish it in the next two weeks.

Quilt

These are my finished goals that I am hooking up to Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal.  To see when I set my goals look at this blog posting link.

• applique girl with RB blocks all around it.  Still working on this one.  Worked on the extras mentioned below instead.  This is going on October's goal. 

• 4 more blocks from the Cozy Winter BOM from Apples and Beaver Cozy Holidays BOM.  Here's the ones I did:
• teddy bear - partly done.
• Reindeer - done.

• Female elf - not done
• male elf - done 

• bell with ribbon. - done 

• steam engine - still to go
• snowman. - partly done.

But I still have two more weeks to complete it.  So those were my goals for this month, those two things.  These are the extras that I wanted to do

• 
  
  
  3 more blocks of cactuses for a quilt I'm doing.  The pattern is "Oh My Cacti" by Pen and Paper Patterns  This is the link to the pattern if you're interested
• I never got it done.  I have a hard time to get these done.

•  The Giant Swoon called Patchwork Swoon from "Thimble Blossoms" by Camille Roskelley.  I love her work.  I started it in August, and now I want to finish it.  It was one of my kits that I always wanted to do.  It's an old pattern that I bought 10 years ago.  I'm using a Jelly Roll by Collage Bitterweet, something I purchased from Craftsy.com when they changed hands 10 years ago as well.  It's sweet, and just right.  As for the rest of the material, I used scraps that I purchased from a woman online that can no longer quilt because of her arthritis.  It's very common in BC with all the rain.  This one is not even in a container, it's in a paper sheet protector, so I really want it done.  And I love the pattern.  I'm doing it because I want to see if I can do it.  One of those challenges.

And here are the results:

It looks so excellent on my wall.  We have a loft condo so the living room ceiling is so high.

It may not look it for the blocks of all those squares were not the correct size.  They were suppose to be 16 1/2 and most were one direction and then 15 1/2 the other way.  So I started to do some math to try to fix it, it was difficult.

The quilting was fun, even some of the sections because of the wrong size blocks were a little wonky.  You can do some stretching but not a lot.  So I started to do just simple straight lines with a walking foot to get it secure.

The effect is evident above.  This is what I really worked hard at, with at least 6 hours of quilting and it is so worth it.  It's now my fall quilt for each year.  

And since I have a fall hanging quilt, I wanted something that was fall look for my bed.  I had a quilt that was 16 years old, and I only used it once.  It's too big for my barn door and for the wall, and too small for the queen bed.  It's definitely a twin bed size, and it's gorgeous with it's colors, but see for yourself.  I expanded it, giving it another layer all around except for the top.  I've been meaning to do this for ages, just too scared to wreak the quilt if it didn't turn out right, but after thinking about how I'm not using it, that was it, it was done.

Original quilt, large laptop, covered 6 inches off the bed.  NOW>>>>>

I added the fall trees you see here on both sides of the bed, and part of the bottom part, but ran out, so I added these leaves and forest floor, you see in the bottom picture.

This is a better picture of the fall trees fabric.  Wish I bought more (How many of us have said that in our quilting life time??!!!)

That's it, my happy job so far.  Maybe I'll get those cacti done after all, but I'm away for a while, so I'm doing what I can.

Crazy Quilter plans for September.

 That's not a new title or a new line for that matter.  It's funny, no matter how many quilts you have 1/2 started or in a box ready to go (yes I've grouped my fabric to make a kit so I can start it but never started it), you always want to start another one.

There was a time that I kept on buying fabric until it was all hidden in storage, so I couldn't even see it.  So that's when the idea came of making the kits and getting them in a container (most are in scrap booking cases - easy to see what's in them and easy to see the material).  But then I didn't have room for the cases, so those went into the storage area.  Making it stupid because now I couldn't even see anything.  It was funny, at one point I had two kits of the same pattern I wanted to do.

When my husband started to mention how many kits I had, I started to buy patterns only, they were digital and didn't take up much space, but then I would collect the fabric for the ones I really wanted to do, which was all the ones I bought.  So in the end, the same problem.

So I did a spreadsheet of all the kits I had and all the patterns I purchased, and low and behold, I realized I could live to 140 and still not get all of the patterns completed.  that's it, the end of buying patterns.  Oh, I got smart and started collecting free ones, but I try so hard to not do that (I think I'm failing ....) because then I start collecting material for a kit.  My husband jokes that when I go he's inviting all my quilting friends over to grab what they want.  My friends are waiting on the side, they can't wait to get started with the selection.

I did at one point start cleaning my room, and it is really going well with all the containers but they cover the extra door in the room (I have two exits - a barn door and a door to a small room that's listed as an extra bedroom), so that's not working.  What will work, to finish some of those quilts, and that's what I'm doing.

So here's my list of what I need to do this month.  The list contains two sections, painting and quilting because those are my two hobbies:

Painting:

• three cards that you can mail but you paint the images on them.
• seal mammal from the last post.  It shows the video that I will be following
• Acrylic painting of Zeon National Park.

Quilt

These are my goals that I am hooking up to Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal.

• applique girl with RB blocks all around it.  No quilt batting because we need a quilt that will not be too warm.  The majority of the blocks needed are done.  The Applique was a quilt cover that someone else did.  I found it in a second hand store and loved the colors, so I'm converting it into what I want

• 4 more blocks from the Cozy Winter BOM from Apples and Beaver Cozy Holidays BOM.
• teddy bear
• Reindeer
• Female elf
• male elf
• bell with ribbon.
• steam engine
• snowman.

these are the ones left to do.

Those are my goals for this month, those two things.  These are the extras that I want to do

• 
  
  
  3 more blocks of cactuses for a quilt I'm doing.  The pattern is "Oh My Cacti" by Pen and Paper Patterns.  The pattern is from Pen and Paper patterns.  This is the link to the pattern if you're interested but I got to tell you, the pattern is hard and complicated if you're doing scrap pieces of material for each cacti or for a couple, because you got to keep track of every piece and I'm finding it hard.  Have to label everything.
• 
  
  
  The Giant Swoon called Patchwork Swoon from "Thimble Blossoms" by Camille Roskelley.  I love her work.  I started it last month, and now I want to finish it.  It was one of my kits that I always wanted to do.  It's an old pattern that I bought 10 years ago.  I'm using a Jelly Roll by Collage Bitterweet, something I purchased from Craftsy.com when they changed hands 10 years ago as well.  It's sweet, and just right.  As for the rest of the material, I used scraps that I purchased from a woman online that can no longer quilt because of her arthritis.  It's very common in BC with all the rain.  This one is not even in a container, it's in a paper sheet protector, so I really want it done.  And I love the pattern.  Hopefully, it will become a barn door.  I'm doing it because I want to see if I can do it.  One of those challenges.

 I think that's enough for a month, with me going on a trip for 4 days and another weekend busy as well.  Wish me luck I'm going to need it.

Another Thing off my bucket list for this month....

Been catching up with the Cozy Holiday Sampler QAL by Apples and Beavers. I bought this last year and only had time to do 5 of them.  So I gave up.  Now I'm back on track, doing one a week with email prompts from Apples and Beaver.   Sometimes even 2nd one for the week. There are 20 paper piece blocks.  I had 7 of them done before this, so now I have 10.  I wanted to do 4 of the following this month and I marked which ones I have completed.:

• Teddy Bear
• Snowflake - done
• Ms. Santa Claus - done
• Female elf
• Male elf
• Sock wasn't on my list but I got it done.

Sock in blue.

Star with two colors white, one is shiny.

I had fun with this one and the eye glasses were so cute.

I also am in a challenge of the week for water coloring that I found online.  So I completed the following as a practice of a YouTube video I found online.  Below is mine and after is the YouTube video:

Then I purchased some acrylic tubes on Facebook (6 of them but one was bad so I threw it away) and she also gave me some huge canvases for free.  Right away I wanted to use the colors so I painted this:

You can see the sun set better with a light shining on it.  There's also birds in the top left corner.  It was about 30" wide and 46" length.  It really was gorgeous but I didn't have room for it, and my husband said no....   You have to understand I have tons of pictures all over the place, mine in acrylic, mine in watercolor, and my mom's in both watercolor and acrylic (she was a professional artist - she did portraits and landscapes of the prairies.) so I have no room.  I circulate my pictures (take some down and put up new ones).  It's funny how many I have.

So I offered it to three people and all said no.  It's the size.....  Finally I told my husband "Hey listen all I wanted to do is try this out, and I learned something about it, so it's OK, lets give it to a second hand store as a donation".  So off I go to do this and while in the elevator of our condo another person steps in, says she likes it and my husband says "you want it?  It's yours" and she says yes that its a beautiful painting, I say thank you and she's impressed that she knows the artist.  So that seals the deal, she takes it.  Funny hun???

But in the end when I offered the painting to one friend she said no it's too big but she really likes this other one in my place, and I end up giving her that one.  I have way too many pictures, so one less is enough.  But it wasn't enough apparently because I finished another item on my goals list.  This ended up on a wall that my husband said "No pictures are going up here, I want one wall clean, nothing on it".  Not any more:

This was the 2nd part of my challenge of the month to finish a quilt, but really I always wanted to make it, but was always scared to do so,  It had so many little details to add, and then to embroider.  But in the end it's done, and in my own style.  I didn't make it exactly like the pattern, but I still like it and so does my husband.

The 1st part of my challenge of the month to finish was the Cat in the Hat quilt, which I completed a week ago.  You can read about it here at this link but I've included a picture of the quilt below.  Really, it turned out great for a gift for a brand new mother.  She'll love it.  And I'm gifting it with a couple of Dr. Seuss books that I bought at a used book store.  It's perfect!!!  All flannel.

Those two things were what my goals were when I hooked up with  Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal for completing so much and also for starting a new one (that's the one that I mention below)  and finishing that new one in one month....  Can't believe I did that   Here's my goal stating blog post from the start of the month.  On to planning Septembers goals but I start subbing again and school starts, so I have to make it small.  

This month I joined the Summer Block Party 2025.  It was a free BOM with some really cool blocks that were 18" big.  The blocks were  so cute I could not resist (and I should of because I was going to add another UFO to the list!!!!).  But instead of a quilt I wanted to make a bed runner, and that's exactly what I did.

There were 9 blocks in total by a great group of people.  I was following A Bright Corner for her links and getting emails from all the girls who were putting this on.  It's over with but I did complete the quilt.  I quilted it, and did all the blocks in a month.  I AM SO PROUD of myself.

Love the bathing suit, but it turned out to be bigger than the other blocks so I had to cut it down a bit.  The hardest block to do was the umbrella with the chairs, something that I really wanted to complete but I made a mistake.  Can you see it?  I want to do that block again so next time I'll do it right, hopefully.

That's it for quilts.  I'm following Crystal Coast Quilting Guild for the numbers of the quilts to do for the American Quilting Society UFO challenge.  I'm sure I covered 2 of them, and the Summer BOM was an extra that I started this month and completed this month. 

Now the next month's challenges:

my watercolor challenge:  to paint sea life so this is what I want to attempt.  The video I'm looking at is below:

As for the next quilt, who knows but it will definitely be a new one and one that I started and need to  finish, like the girl with the red blocks all around it (the blocks are from RB and the applique was a piece I found in a 2nd hand store.  It's a quilt I want to make for our bed with no batting, so it's nice and light, especially after this heat wave in BC we're having.  We are in the north, and here the town of Lipton  was in the 40 degree mark, breaking another record.  What the heck.

Good luck to everyone finishing their UFOs.  Take care.  Have a great September.

Got her done!!! And a lot more

 Got that baby quilt all completed!!!  I don't even know where I got this but it was with Kaffe material that was made for Christmas at least 4 years before Covid and I picked it up in a sale section, that I do remember.  I didn't try it for years because the instructions was one page, and not very clear at all.  Truthfully, I looked at the picture and figured it out.  All the material including the backing was $48 American years ago, and look how big it is.  It's for a friend who announced that she was pregnant.  Her baby shower is in October and it's been so long since I've been to one that I thought I would go with this and a couple of books from Dr. Seuss.  It's so cute.

I even remember a couple of the books that are pictured here.  The picture below is a better one, you can see it clearer and what books are listed.  And of course there's the book "The Cat in the Hat".  I remember my mom reading these books to us and later us reading them ourselves.

I even had time to do last weeks challenge, a store front, but I did a bar front from London England.  It's up on the wall and giving us both memories, which are good.  The problem is I'm starting to run out of places to hang pictures...  lol 

Then I did something really bad.....  I've been collecting the Mystery Up on the Rooftop Fat Quarter Shop Exclusive, it's cute as the devil but you'll have to go there and see if for yourself, because I haven't even started this one.  But after seeing how to put the blocks together, I WANT IT!

It's been a really hot couple of days here in BC, and this place gets up to 32 degrees (89 on the gage today).  Last night it didn't even cool down and then heated up again.  We have a loft, with 28 ft. ceilings so it's impossible to cool down with an air conditioner, and truthfully who would of thought it 7 years ago when we bought this place that BC would get so hot.  But tomorrow it's suppose to cool down so I've been prepping....

I've cut out 3 Summer Block Party patterns (they were get them for a week and then after that pay).  Well it's been more than a week, and I've been seeing them on Facebook, they're soooooo cute that I just had to start mine.  So I have 3 of them cut out, not on my list of things to do, but what the heck...  So my table is a mess with the cuttings, but I should have those 3 sewn today and I'll show them.  They're a great way of getting rid of your scraps.

Speaking of scraps, that medallion quilt I made all out of scraps, guess who's loving it!!!  It's on our bed now, but someone loves to cuddle in it.

When the time is right I'm going to hook up to the finished section of the UFO challenge.  But I still have about 3 more things to do, so off I go.

One of them is the quilt of LA (where my husband is at right now) before he comes back tomorrow.  Wish me luck to get it done!!