Me, Myself and Memories

Updates from January, 2016 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Noreen 4:59 am on January 6, 2016 Permalink  

  Puzzle Day 

  Today was a day for puzzles in my sewing studio. As I had mentioned in prior blogs: Dennis’ granddaughter from Silver Bay has asked me to make individual pieced quilt tops for each of her three girls using their baby to toddler clothing within the project. The catch is, doing a 1/3 of the top of what will be a full sized quilt.  Myself and two other grandmothers will be adding to it by each doing a third of the top, thus making a full sized quilt top in total.

  Dennis has ask me, “What are the other grandmas doing for their one third?” I have no idea. I was given a bag of clothing from each of the girls’ and that is what I have to work with.

  

  Sample of the blocks for Ava’s quilt top. They have all since been put together, and now I am on to Bella’s.

  Most of the clothing is knit and I have been going through stabilizer like crazy for it to conform to straight stitching right along with the cotton fabric that is also being used to put it all together.  Ava’s third is complete.  Her favorite color was given to me as blue and that is what I found for a blue print background color.  I had pulled out yellow print for Bella until a late Tex was received that her favorite color is purple.  Scratch the yellow.  I began pulling out scraps, but nothing of any great amount in yardage.  The blocks placed on purple will be pieced together with a beige printed fabric. Right on the spot I did ask about Josie’s quilt top.  Lordy, Lordy, I won out big on that one as it will be yellow.  I will add that I am not purchasing any new fabric.  It all has to come out of my stashes.

  I will say the new sewing machine has been a wonder.  It travels over the knit onto the cotton without a hic-up.  Some of the options have limits and adding a bit of sewn patches using my embroidery options has added a bit of whimsical additions.

  I just turned the lights off in the sewing studio and I am on to making Dennis’s favorite supper: chicken titties. aka: chicken breasts with a tossed salad to go with it.  I have had a great day.  Tomorrow we will be traveling to Mankato for Dennis to attend the Korean Veterans meeting and I will be hitting JoAnn Fabric for stabilizer as well as visiting Best Buy with my new computer to check on some anti-virus for it. Big day in the big town.

   
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  Noreen 4:27 am on January 5, 2016 Permalink  

  Quite The Day 

  

  Though the sun was not out immediately, I still thought the frost was beautiful. I did spend some time loading drivers onto the HP Notebook for my Canon camera. Finding the image resizer took a bit of head scratching to load. Publishing photos for the blog needs the resizer. Thus, I needed to take a photo this morning to prove to myself, I had all that was needed to store pictures on the new computer and get them in the right format for the blog. Windows 10 is quite a bit different than my laptop, which is Windows 7. Yup, I think this ole gal is going to figure out, step by step, all that this computer has to offer . . . in time — one challenge at a time.

   
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  Noreen 5:45 am on January 4, 2016 Permalink  

  This has been a very quiet day for me. Even a busy body such as me needs that once in awhile.

   
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  Noreen 3:05 am on January 2, 2016 Permalink  

  This will be my first post using my new HP Notebook. Getting everything set up is a bit daunting. Surprisingly the keyboard takes a bit of getting used to. I did need to allow “cookies” for WordPress to allow access. I do have them set to be deleted after I close each session. If that means that each time I need to tweak that setting, time will tell. I do find that I need to have the slanted base, just as my laptop, for my wrists to feel comfortable. With me, it is all about the comfort given to arthritic parts of my body.

  All the Christmas decorations are tucked away. I take great care as the tote is packed up. Each one is precious and as in the nativity that we enjoy under the tree, it can no longer be purchased. I was going to add to the flocked trees for the set, but the item I purchased on eBay was lost in the mail. By the way, I did get a full refund.

  Kind of a sad feeling as I enjoyed the lighted tree and decorations each and every day. I do continue to enjoy the framed stitched Santas on the living room wall. For me it is no different than having framed art prints that are enjoyed by some. This happens to be my art.

  This is the first day of 2016. The sun is out and Dennis is in the kitchen. I will take whatever fare will be dished up for supper. I do believe he enjoys trying his hand with recipes more so than trying his hand in the sewing studio. Gotta love that fellow.

   
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  Noreen 4:21 am on January 1, 2016 Permalink  

  This will be a quiet New Year’s Eve on Stauffer. Dennis used the snow rake and took off a huge amount of snow from the garage and porch roofs and the awnings. There is nothing as shocking as being the one that is on his way out of the house, banging the door behind them, shaking loose all the snow over the back door.

  Dennis is resting. I am about to make supper with the wonderful left over hotdish from yesterday. Dennis used some chunked pork roast from the freezer with Alfredo sauce, frozen peas and wide egg noodles. Good eating.

  I hope everyone will stay as safe as possible this evening. I doubt very much that Dennis and I will make it to the stroke of midnight, but we know we are going to have a great 2016.

   
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  Noreen 4:08 am on December 31, 2015 Permalink  

  Helping Hand Needed 

  

  It is no secret that I have a bit of arthritis. Sometimes using the rotary cutter is hard on the wrist. I can tell you that my helper, hubby Dennis, can cut through four layers of fabric in one swoop of the rotary cutter with no jagged edges. Needless to say this help is so appreciated. Dennis’ hands and arms are super strong. The individual blocks are getting tidied up, soon to be one portion of this quilt top for Dennis’ great granddaughter Ava.

   
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  Noreen 6:26 am on December 30, 2015 Permalink  

  Anyone for a snow fort? The snow was sticky, heavy and deep. Before we knew how we were going to go about working with the soft billowy white stuff, there rose such clatter, I jumped to the window to see what was the matter. Our neighbor, Randy, with his honking huge John Deere tractor and snowblower was coming down the home stretch of our driveway.

  Our driveway is ninety feet by twelve feet. The Simplicity snowblower that came to our home, after being gently used by Kevin, would need to make about six passes as the snow was a foot deep. A half swathe at a time with this heavy wet snow would have been about right. The length of the driveway is not the challenge. The county road that runs past our home is cleared multiple times when the snow begins to fall. Each pass of the county’s huge machine packs the snow into the end of our driveway, much like wet cement. Randy backed in from the street and his snowblower didn’t even snort. Two passes in five minutes and we were in high cotton.

  Dennis did get the Simplicity snowblower going to tidy up. The city crew never did clear Stauffer Avenue. In case of emergency, Dennis likes to remove the snow in front of the garages. After a bit of a break, Dennis went on to clear the patio of snow going on to clearing a path around the garage porch in total. No one ever wants an emergency to happen, but to play it safe, access to the parameter of the buildings is crucial.

  As Dennis was going around the patio doors of the porch, all five, and yes, I did say all five of the cats were watching from within the porch.  I think it finally sunk in that there really is no place like home.

  I was outside, but my intentions fall short, as well as they should. No way would I want to have either of my shoulders or knees in need of being replaced because I was thinking I was the same person I was in the 1970s. At that time, there was never a thought that any of my working parts would fail me in time to come. It is oh so humbling.

   
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  Noreen 4:36 am on December 29, 2015 Permalink  

  Looks as if I got the weather app for our zip code on my new computer just in time for the snow that started about 3:30 this afternoon. I would not have felt bad one bit if the snow had missed us.

  Four of the five cats are in the garage safe and sound. I did go to the backyard and call for Honey Bunny to come home, but so far no luck. I do realize she can and has taken care of herself very well when she has been gone from home for days on end.

  The day went well in my sewing studio. All the blocks have been decided and now I will need Dennis’ help to take down the tote that has the blue fabric stashes in it. I sure hope that I find some vibrant fabric in the blue tones to tie all these blocks into one cohesive look. It is always a crapshoot and I do not entertain purchasing any fabric at all. On that I am determined.

   
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  Noreen 6:19 am on December 28, 2015 Permalink  

  Today – A Glimmer 

  

  Using some of the trim on a dress of Ava’s with a bit of the dress fabric, a bit of this and a bit of that and I will be pulling all the blocks together with a fabric in between, much like a jigsaw puzzle.

  Today in my sewing studio there was a glimmer, perhaps tomorrow will be one of my miracles.  Dennis’ oldest granddaughter has asked me to make a memory quilt of her oldest daughter, Ava’s, childhood garments.  Yesterday, I did make the comment that sometimes there was little given to work with.  Today, after several cups of rich clarifying coffee, I know why.

  Ava is the oldest of three girls.  Ava is in second grade, Bella is in preschool and Josie just turned one.  All of Ava’s clothes get triple duty and mom, Erin, is not one to be frivolous.  Today, I decided to put a few extra touches in play for Ava.  I do have several more ideas on making use of what I have for Ava.  There are several items of t-shirt material that will need a bit of stabilizer before becoming a part of the project.

  Dennis was right on when it comes to knowing what I can contrive.

   
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  Noreen 6:03 am on December 27, 2015 Permalink  

  Lo and behold the snow did find us. The five or so inches of the heavy wet stuff laid just where it fell as we had no wind with it.

  I am in “pace” mode. Working with a new sewing machine, a new cell phone and a new computer, pacing myself, dedicating a bit of time to each new item until it is secondary to my gray matter is what is called for.

  Kersten helped me with the cell phone on Christmas Eve day. Me, myself and I are in charge of the computer. Today I worked with it until I had the items done to do the initialization of it with me, the user. I got it as far as the connection is up and running with the wireless router for access to the world wide web. At that point, I patted myself on the back and headed down into the sewing studio.

  It is a cross between disappointment and frustration when family members ask me to do projects with little to nothing to work with. Where were the mothers when they could have encouraged their daughters to pay attention in Home Economics while in high school, rather than doodling in their notebooks? Dennis counters with a comment regarding past projects where I have managed to work miracles. Bless that ole cowboy’s heart. He sure does know how to butter me up.