April Quack-ery!

This is what greeted me on my dining table on the morning of Monday April 1. Made up of about 60 little ducks about 1/2″ big. Rob got a package of 200 from Amazon and spread them around the house. A single duck fits nicely on a dime. What a fun April Fool’s prank.

Its been a bit of a slow 3 months of sewing for me. I have completed a few projects that have been on my to-do list and a one or 2 that were added, but still so many on my to-do list. Between PT appointments and just general depression, I’ve actually, more than once, not sewn for over a week at a stretch. The duckies have helped.

In November or December (don’t know why I didn’t mention this in an earlier post), I was able to transform the cross-stitch I did for Estelle years ago into a proper door hanging. It had, for years, been held onto her door in a photo matte with gummy-bear Duck Tape. I had previously had found some gummy bear fabric and was able to get more as well as a coordinating fabric. In February, I was able to also make her some blackout curtains with this cute, but more mature, fabric than she has had for many years (her previous curtains were a pink/white check with butterflies – very little girl. The dark teal works very well in her room and gives it a bit of a more adult feel.

I have the fabric to make new curtains for the studio, but have yet to embark on making them. I have been slowly working on my first BOM (Block of the Month) – Summer Strolls from MSQC. This is a row by row BOM. Months 1 and 2 are done, but not joined. Month 3, blocks are made, but need to be trimmed and stitched into its own row, and I haven’t even started month 4 yet and its almost time for month 5 – oh well – there is no rush to this.

I did however complete 2 quilts: Animal Reflections – start to finish – for my cousin’s baby shower and finished A Riot of Twisting Color (the With A Twist pattern mentioned in an earlier post) for donation.

I also completed 2 tops using 3 Yard Quilt patterns from fabric cafe – so now I have 3 quilt tops ready to be quilted. I also made a table runner for our Easter table. This runner was based on a At Home With Misty tutorial and uses their Nesting Spring Templates. I had started to make coordinating coasters, but just haven’t finished them. It is still Easter for another Month – until Pentecost – so I still have time to get them done for this year.

Will try to update more than every few months.

32 Years

Good morning! Happy Leap Day!

32 years ago, 29 February 1992, was a day I will never forget.
In the morning I became a sister in the Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority, Phi Omicron chapter at WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute). My sorority big sister, Cheryl, myself and our dates would be going out to dinner to celebrate. The problem, I didn’t have a boyfriend at the time, but she did. It was Sadie Hawkins day and there was a young man I was interested in. We had be come friends hanging out in the Wedge (the interior space between the Daniels and Morgan dorms) and in E-7 (Ellsworth #7 – an on-campus apartment where he and 6 other guys lived) watching Disney Afternoon with his apartment mates and other friends. If I remember correctly, Disney Afternoon at that time included: DuckTales, Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers, TailSpin, and Darkwing Duck. So I asked this young man to be my date. We went to some ‘hole in the wall’ Chinese restaurant in downtown Worcester. 32 years later – we have now been married 27.5 years – so is today our 32nd anniversary of our first date, or is it only our 8th?

The only sewing project that I have completely finished since my last post is the Starlight Table Runner which was a project from the 2023 Jenny’s Countdown to Christmas Box. I have finished another quilt top (so now 3 completed waiting to be quilted) and started on one more – this one for my cousin’s baby due in May.

Have A Blessed Day!

Blessed 2024

Hello All!

It was a good and quiet Christmas here. My daughter had surgery to remove her gall bladder the week before Christmas so we kept things fairly simple and quiet. We were able to travel to see my in-laws the weekend after Christmas and we saw my Mom on New Year’s Day.

I’ve been working on several things over the last few months. One of the items I was able to finish (but have no pictures for) is another Baby Bargello quilt all in blue fabrics. One day this autumn while volunteering at St. Gianna’s Place, I was chatting about quilting with one of the residents, who requested if I might make her son a little quilt, and in blue. I didn’t know if I had enough blue in my stash to do so, so I didn’t promise. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I did have just enough to make a Baby Bargello quilt. I was able to get a good portion of the hand binding done while my daughter was in surgery and was able to suprise this resident with it just before Christmas.

I really enjoyed the MSQC “Jenny’s Countdown to Christmas Box” for the second year in a row. Out of the myriad of projects in this season’s box, I have only completed the little pin cushion. I have been slowly working on the hand embroidery of the red & white felt birds and have cut the fabric for the table runner project.

I have completed 2 more quilt tops – Boomerang, a 3-Yard Quilt pattern and With a Twist, a Strip Club Pattern from Cozy Quilt Designs (project pages with pictures to come once they are quilted and bound). I have made 5 pillow shams for my Aunt Libby and my cousin really liked the quilt I sent for her Christmas gift. I have received the kit for my first BOM (Block of the Month) – the MSQC Triple Play BOM Summer Stroll. Will work on the first month later this week. 

I have also created a new pattern – Microwavable Mason Jar Cosy – combining the 2 Fat Quarter Bucket from Me and My Sister Designs and the bowl cozy. I have even checked with Barb from Me and My Sister Designs and my Microwavable Mason Jar Cozy does not violate their copyright. Right now I only have it sized for the pint size mason jar. Will work on getting the sizing right for the quart size. Here are 2 pictures of one of the cozies I have made – first picture is it with a jar next to it, the second picture is with a jar inside it. Enjoy!

Other projects I hope to complete this year is the Sallie Tomato “Hudson” bag, more 3 Yard Quilt Patterns – I have multiple (7+) groupings of 3 1-yard cuts, but haven’t picked the patterns for them, other projects from the “Jenny’s Countdown to Christmas” box, and finding patterns using up my growing stash of Jelly Rolls (2 1/2″ strips) and Layer Cakes (10″ squares)

May 2024 be a great year for you and your family.

Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!

A good, but quiet day here.

Due to some very restrictive diets, we stayed home and did not have our traditional Thanksgiving feast – which is very high in carbs and fats – just our traditional chestnut dressing includes (at half batch) 2 sticks of butter, 2 pounds of sausage, and 2 loaves of bread; nevermind the turkey trimmed with bacon and breakfast sausage links, mashed potatoes, desserts galore. Instead we had steak, roasted Brussels sprouts, sautéed spinach and mushrooms, and mashed butternut squash. Had our dessert of apple crisp with low fat ice cream as our supper with a walk in the apple orchard behind our house in between.

Above is a picture of our table-scape – with handmade table runner, coasters, and napkins. Flowers and turkey courtesy of Lego.

I just realized that it has been over 3 years since I started this blog. And wow, do I have a lot to be thankful for! Including this Rainbow Spangles quilt that I was able to make earlier this year, quilted in August and donated to Holy Family Academy for their upcoming auction.

October musings and quilts

Good evening all. Its hard to believe that we are already 1/3 the way through October and over 3/4 though 2023. Yesterday, Columbus Day, Rob, Estelle, and I made our way through the Elwood Orchards Corn Maze. We successfully made it from the entrance to the proper exit. We popped out at a few of their emergency exits just to view the scenery and to get a better lay of the land.

Over the past two months I have been busy quilting. In August and September, as I detailed in my last post, I rented time on a long arm 4 different times to quilt up 4 different quilts – 3 as Project Linus donations and one as a donation for the Holy Family Academy auction coming up in early December (don’t have pictures/page for that one yet). Next week I will quilt up the other of the quilt tops completed in last year as a gift.

The 3 Project Linus Donations are: Sesame Street Pals, Friendly Frogs and Dragonflies, and Sensational Glowing Ghosts. Earlier this month I completed a smaller mini quilt and mug rug project. Short videos of the quilting of these are on my Instagram page. Along with the 3 quilts, I have also made 3 more Love Bugs (a free pattern by Creativity Shell in collaboration with Moda Fabrics and featured in a tutorial by Shabby Fabrics) to donate to Project Linus. These I stuffed with reclaimed Poly-Fil originally used in large pillows that Estelle hand stitched as stress sewing back in college. These pillows were falling apart. I will find a way to repurpose the fleece used in those pillows as well.

I have also been working on more of my coasters to be sold at the STA Stitchers table at the STA Fall Festival and Craft Fair coming up next weekend – October 21. I’ve been going through my stash and starting to organize by color and earlier I did pairs of all blues, all greens, all purples – 2 pairs each color. I am working on pairs of all yellows, all oranges, and all pinks/reds – also 2 pairs each color. These yellow, orange, pink/red coasters will have backings made from a pair of old jeans. Finding ways to repurpose and recycle fabrics.

Crafting Studio and Longarm Quilting

Happy Autumn all!

I haven’t had much time to update you all on what has been going on. The old office/study has now been fully transformed into our crafting studio – with a large (40″x60″) cutting table with storage underneath, my husband’s old sit/stand desk for my sewing table and my father’s old oak desk for Estelle’s paper crafting (calligraphy & rubber stamping) Pictures below. The cutting table top is made of 2 40″x60″x1″ plywood sheets with some uprights glued inbetween to give height and storage space. This top is supported by 4 book cases at the corners and running along the long sides

In August, I had 3 sessions at Bits ‘n Pieces to rent time on one of their longarm machines to quilt 3 different tops finished this year – 2 of them since I had my cutting table set up. This past week I had a 4th session and in October I have another session scheduled to finally quilt 2 quilt tops that I had finished in October 2022. Getting better at remembering all the intricate steps in using a longarm machine. I will have pictures of the completed quilts and the accompaning pages hopefully by the end of this month (which is only another week). 3 of these 5 quilts are for Project Linus, 1 for the Holy Family Academy Auction and 1 as a gift.

When we first had the cutting table in the room, I took my very large bin of scraps dumped it out on the table started to sort through them by size and some of the larger pieces I cut down into 10″ squares, 5″ squares and 2 1/2″ strips to be used at some later date. I could only do so much of that and put the rest back into the bin. I’ve been going through some of my smaller scraps and doing some more coasters for the upcoming St. Thomas Aquinas Friars’ Fall Festival and Craft Fair on October 21. The STA Stitchers’ group will be having their own table this year to sell our creations to support the parish. I also came up with a Mason Jar Cozy, combining the ideas of both the bowl cozy (materials) and Fabric Bucket (construction) to assist Estelle with lunches at work. Rob has made and canned soups, but when reheating them in the microwave, they get very hot and hard to remove from the microwave.

Enjoy the pictures! This light purple/lavender is so much better than the Crayola Granny Smith Apple Green that had been on these walls since 1998.

Babies and Genealogy

Been a bit busy these past 6 weeks or so. Finished up a quilt and smaller projects to send to my cousin in AZ for her new baby – the Toys and Trains quilt. I have also finished 2 more quilt tops to be donated to Project Linus. I have several scheduled time slots in August at Bits ‘n Pieces to get these quilted. I also started to go through my big bin of scraps and started to cut down the scraps into either 10″ squares, 5″ squares, or 2-1/2″ strips.

The sewing room/craft studio is almost complete – a few paint touch ups needed as well as a few more baseboards to be replaced and decorations/shelves to be hung up. It is quite usable now and both my daughter and I have our crafting stations. Over the almost 2 years that I’ve had my new sewing machine I have decorated it with a few stickers, and when I I got it back from being serviced I noticed that there was a sticky note with positve message attached to one of my stickers.

A couple of weeks ago one of my Brennan cousins emailed our cousin group and asked about the Brennan Family Cookbook that another cousin put together 15 years ago after our grandmother died and in which I had included the family genealogy that I had compiled to that time. There have been more births, marriages, and deaths in these past 15 years and more research has been done and more online resources are available, like Findagrave.com, that have helped expand the genealogy. The cousins are undertaking getting an upated cookbook and I will be contributing new recipes as well as updated family trees – trees as I now have more information on my grandmother’s great-grandparents and going further back from them. I am now working to get my Family Tree Maker file more accurate and expanded, so as to create the reports for the new cookbook.

Ears, Quilt Stars

I have finally gotten to put together the page for the quilt I made for my daughter – JOY-ous Steubie Stars. The idea for this quilt started before I ever made my first quilt. So glad I was able to surprise her with it.

My doctor appointment on Monday was successful. The nurse was able to flush my ear again and get all the impacted earwax out. No sign of ear infection. Yay! Now to get to an ENT appointment to get to the root issue with my sinus/ear issues.

Not much else right now. I think it will be a subdued Father’s Day as it is the first one since my Dad died and it also my Dad’s birthday – he would have turned 80 this year.

Brief Update

Its been a crazy couple of months between being sick the last several weeks, and binge-playing the new Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I haven’t had time to do any updates here. Below are some brief updates.

Family Update:
My daughter graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. English Education from Franciscan University of Steubenville on May 13. Lila Rose gave the commencement address. I made her a quilt in the school colors using the Ohio Star Block. This was a complete suprise since I have even kept quiet on here about it. I’ll post later once I am able to put together the page with pictures.

I started getting sick due travel exhaustion and stress, the heavy spring pollen and the smoke from the Canadian Wildfires. Nasal flushing and chirorpractic adjustments help, but not enough. I went to the doctor’s last Tuesday (May 30) thinking I might have a sinus and/or ear infection. Turns out my left ear has been clogged with hardened earwax. At the doctor’s they did a full treatment of flushing and trying to scrape it out, but to no avail. Been using Debrox with little to no discernible improvement for over a week now – glad I have a follow up appointment coming up on Monday (June 12). Maybe the Debrox has been working enough to have them get it out.

Sewing Update:
The only completed project has been my daughter’s graduation quilt. I did finish the Spangled quilt top with borders and I did complete a second quilt top based on the Windmill 3 Yard Quilt pattern – this will be a gift quilt so no spoilers. Will post once it has been given. Had my sewing machine serviced while we were traveling for graduation. I picked it up, but since I haven’t been well, I have yet to turn it on since it was serviced.

Sewing Room Update:
Room is mostly painted, just need to paint the baseboards, which have been removed, and get them reinstalled. The flooring is mostly done, waiting on 1 more box of tiles to finish the closet floor. Turns out that this type of flooring with tongue and groove snap together installation has more waste with partial/cut tiles and the installers were 2 tiles short in finishing the floor, and the closet was the best place to leave the gap. Now to get curtains back up so it is not so echo-y. Most of the furniture is back in. We are creating a large 40×60 cutting table, using short bookcases as the legs and a piece of 3/4″ pine hardwood as the base. We have a second piece of the 3/4″ pine hardwood as the top, but still figuring out how to put some uprights in between to raise the table height and give some more storage space (basing this off of the table Rob Appell has in his home studio – screenshot below taken from the beginning of this video). Pictures of completed room to come in a later post.

Blessings,
Julia

Easter, Chili, & Fidget blankets

Happy and Blessed Easter

We attended all the Triduum Liturgies at our parish and had a quiet Easter Sunday.

The Tuesday of Holy Week, I was able to drop off 7 Fidget Blankets to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Nashua. I made 2, and the other 5 were made by members of the St. Thomas Aquinas Stitcher’s Group. My 2 are pictured below

This past Saturday, the St. Thomas Aquinas High School Youth Group held a Chili Cook-Off Fundraiser to support their upcoming mission trip. There were 16 different chilis vying for 1st, 2nd, 3rd Place and People’s Choice. My husband’s version of a Texas Red (lots of bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, a few habanero peppers, stew beef, no beans) took home 3rd Place. What a yummy and fun evening.

Haven’t been doing a lot of sewing in these past 2 months. I did, however, complete one quilt top using the Cozy Quilt Designs Strip Club pattern Spangled. Picture to come later after I get it finished. My daughter was home for a week in mid-March and graduation is coming up fast on May 13.

What I have been doing is some prep work to completely redo my sewing room. Just about everything is off the walls (still got a few screw anchors to pull out), the old rug that was installed in 1999 is out, my husband has scraped the ‘popcorn’ off the ceiling and is finishing up painting it. I started to prime one wall, but stopped so the ceiling could be done. Need to clean all the walls, get the holes patched, prime the walls, then paint. Also to paint all the trim. Finally, need to get new flooring in once the painting is complete. In the process of picking out the new flooring – will not be carpet.

Blessing for a wonderful Easter Season.