Middle of the night musings.

I'm laying here listening to my hubby snoring and wishing I was sleeping too. I had such a busy day and at 6 pm the thought ran across my mind, that if I went to bed right then I'd probably sleep all night just fine. Maybe I should have followed that thought. Lol 

  Last night was my paper piecing zoom meeting, I do love that time. I have to miss once in a while, but this year that time has been about the only sewing time I've had. My mind has been on mother, how she is, and could I be doing better for her. The nursing home she's in in rated pretty high in our area, but it seems like they don't have near enough staff to really give proper care to the residents. Anyway, those thoughts are for another time. I started a small piece back in Oct or Nov to give mother for Christmas. It was very close to finished when she had the thing they won't call a stroke that has left her with stroke symptoms. I just put it away, decided I'd work on it later. So last month I got it out and finished it. Turned out so cute too. Mother is Betty, and a friends little girl always called her Betty Boop. When I was in high school I found this cute mirror with Betty boop on it for mother's birthday. That started this boop collection that grew for years. She has the Franklin mint Betty boop plates you have on the wall, and so many more. When she got her new house she decided not to put them all back up. They had gotten too hard to keep dusted. But the mirror that started it all went right by the front door exactly where it had been in her old house. So now I'll take this small quilt and hang it on the wall in her room at the nursing home. I hope it helps that place feel just a little less like punishment and a little more like home. 

  I started a new project the first of the year I think.

A New Day

  Well I finally got the last post to publish, but it took me 3 weeks and I had to delete all the pictures. I got the app updated today so I'll see if it lets me publish with picture now. 

  I'm just writing a short post today as a test for adding pictures. Since my other post took so long to be published.

this is the latest in my UFO efforts. I have had it played out for a few weeks. I made some changes the other day and I like where it's at. I'll start sewing it next time I have a day or two to work.

  I had a cold over the weekend and today I'm starting to feel better. I read two books and started the third one. I probably should have just watched TV, my head hurt so bad, but you know how that is 240 stations and nothing I care to see. My kids pay for us to have Hulu and the cell provider gave us Netflix, I have Amazon Prime too but I didn't find a thing that was better than a book.

   Ok lets see if this works, if it does I'll try to be back more often. Y'all have a very quilty day. Tennye

Where does the time go?

  Hello to anyone still checking in on occasion. My life got very busy a few years ago and I just didn't have the where with all to write. Things are going at a some what slower pace right now and I am going to see how this all goes. I'm using the Android app today, but I'm not sure how to upload photos. When I opened the app it told me it might need updated, I have no idea how to do that either. Lol
  Let's talk about quilts though since that is really why I started this blog back in 2008. I have kind of been on a finishing spree the last couple of years. I decided I had too many It is in the totes. I have 3 tops ready to quilt right now, I quilted 5 a few months ago. I had an accident around Thanksgiving of 2018 and have had to use a cane to walk since then. I had knee surgery mid June and thought by now I would be able to stand and walk enough to use the long arm machine by now. I was wrong, so we had my daughter in loves quilt, quilted by the store locally. So I'm finishing quilt tops while I'm down. I have finished a few of the older UFOs, but I've started a couple of new ones as well. Last month my cousin and I did a shop hop and she bought me a couple of Christmas panels that were companion pieces. I later found some other fabrics that were also companions. I bought 2 yards of a border print fabric as well. I finished that top today. I have a BOM from 2018 I need to put a border on and it will be ready to quilt. I started and finished a Patch Pals giraffe for my new Great grand daughter as well. It just needs quilted, and it is small enough that I might do it on my home machine. My grand daughter, ( not the babies mom) is graduating from Texas A&M in Dec. I have a plan and part of the fabrics for her quilt. I will start that one this week. I also will pull out one of my older UFOs and start to put it together. That has kind of been my process, start a new one and finish an old one.
  On another thought I had such a love hate relationship with foundation paper piecing for a long time. 2 years ago I decided I really wanted to get past my fears of it and maybe really get good at it. I joined a club at the local store and I am in love with it now. I made 3 Grinch blocks to use on the back of a Grinchy quilt I made for one of my children. 2 were Grinch and 1 was Cindy louwho. They turned out fantastic, I think. Last month I finished up 2 mini quilts for the front door. A bunny for Easter and a Reindeer and Santa for Christmas. I'm starting a new summer one for my daughter in law and might make 2 so my hubby and use one on our door for summer. These are Turtles on the beach. I will post pictures of all of these once I figure out how to on my phone, or I'll get out the laptop and do it soon.
  Well guess I should go for now, I'm glad to be back.
Tennye

More 2016

   Well, a friend suggested yesterday that maybe she would like to just pretend this is her new year and reset. Because apparently her resolutions have not gotten going as she had planned and she just is ready to go now. I have to admit that even though I am working on things that I decided I would work on each month. I completed my Jan. UFO project. Did I tell you last month I was joining the All People Quilt UFO Challenge for 2016. I did and my list is some partial quilt tops that need to be completed and blocks from BOM's that I started years ago. We used 12 month list . On the first of every month they do a random number generator and pick a number. Jan. they used #2, and this month it is #5. The two BOM's I chose for I bought and started in 2006. They were partially pieced, well a few of them were, and two of them I had cut incorrectly and there was no way to fix them. The end of the month I just went out and found fabric that is similar and remade the blocks from start to finish. I discovered that most likely I made the same mistake with both of them and I didn't do a very good job matching the fabrics for it. LOL just going to let it go this time. I have finished all of them, I did find in the Civil War style I have one more block than in the Bluebonnet style. I remember the block and I made it, but it was not with the others and I can't find it. I'll keep looking.

  Feb. is a top I have made with friends from my quilt group, which no longer exist. For Christmas one year we made a block for each person in the group in the colors they choose. I already had a Christmas quilt started in the current then colors of pink and gold. So I asked for traditional red and greed. I laid it out earlier today to see where I was. Looks like I need two more blocks to finish it out, so I will try to find some Christmas fabric in my stash and make a couple of blocks and get it finished up. Maybe I will get it quilted this month too, we will see.
  Time is truly moving faster every year I live. I was told all my life that would be how it worked and I just had no idea how accelerated it would feel. I wish it was not the case, I always feel so behind because of it.
Well, I am off to take care of the laundry. Until next time yall have a very quilty week.
Tennye

Welcome to the End of 2015

  Hello friends and followers,

I have been so out of the flow of blogging for so long and to be honest I can't even say why. I guess I just haven't picked the computer up much since April. I have been busy with swaps, secret Pal, and Quilting bee blocks. I have done a good bit of traveling as well, with a trip to El Paso to see my daughter and grandchildren in July, and back to Chattanooga TN, in Sept to watch my grandsons for a weekend while my daughter was in a wedding, then in Nov. we went to New Orleans for a wedding, and then on to Chattanooga again for Thanksgiving.Hubby and I were not able to go, but our Son was married on the 17th of Nov. in Costa Rica.  Bam it was time for Christmas and so much to do getting ready for that. I am still working on a special gift for my last Secret Pal for the year. I am continuing with the Quilting Bee, but have decided to take some time off from Secret Pals and swaps. It is just time to do some finishes for my family and my own home. I have a tub of UFO/PIG's that would surprise my family if they found it. Many are gifts I started and never finished, and some are just block of the month kits that I have started and purchased the entire year, but only got part of them made. That brings me to a subject I have been thinking about as I plan my next year. I started doing swaps and Secret Pal, to make sure that I would not just sit and do nothing. I was kind of at a low point in my life and I needed to know that someone would appreciate the things I enjoy doing. I needed some positive fed back that would help me feel better about myself. So I wonder what this year will do to my self esteem. I guess it will just be on me, to make sure I feel good about myself and maybe I'll have to show off to you all as I complete my UFO/Pig's.
  On the end of 2015, lets look back on some of the things I completed,

Wedding fun in New Orleans with my wonderful hubby.

 These bags were made for sons Wedding, and I had to remake them when I found out I had spelled the Costa Rica saying Pura Veda incorrectly.

 Christmas Swap mini I sent out in Dec.

 Gift made for my daughter to give to a friend.

 Just one of my Bee blocks sent out this year, we had 24 options by the end of the year.

Secret Pal gifties.

 House Mini Swap

 Texas mini Swap

Cotton and Steele mini swap and extras

 Carrier for my Young Living essential oils.

 Gilmore Girls mini Swap extras.

Kitty Mini Swap and extra.


Well I lost the mini when I tried to move it so maybe I'll post it again some other time. Until next time yall have a very Quilty time,
Tennye

  

Birthday Post

  Hi, everyone I am not enjoying my birthday so much, but I will be making the best of it any way. I will head to the sewing room after I have posted this. It has been a very busy few weeks so far. Hubby and I took a trip and visited lots of family. I spent 2 weeks with my daughter and her family, and hubby spent one of those weeks with his father and family in another state. He was there for his sisters birthday, she turned 70. I was there to see my grandsons and their mother. Our youngest grandson will be 1 in a few weeks and while I have gotten to see him a few times since he was born, I have not gotten to spend as much time with him as I did his big brother his first year. So needless to say I have felt very much like I'm missing his childhood. It was  so good to get to spend time with them all. I was going to add a great photo of the boys here, but again I am having problems adding photos to my blog. I have too many , but they are on my other Google account and I can't seem to get them to this one. I will get this figured out one day, but I just want to spend more time sewing than I do playing on the computer. LOL
   I have had a few swaps that I finished up since I last posted, and I love the quilts I made for both. I find that sometimes I love the quilts I made so much it is hard to decide to send them off. These last two were especially that way. The kitten mini I had started for myself, and it turned out even better than I had envisioned it. , I loved it , and I sent it off as scheduled even though I wanted to keep it. LOL I hope that she loves it as much as I did.
  Then there was the rainbow mini, which I sent off this week  and it turned out even better than I had thought and I loved it. She should get it soon and I sure hope she likes it. It was a little late going out, since the host asked me not to ship when I was going to. That was before my vacation, and I just put it aside and finished up other things that were a go. The day after I left home I got the go ahead to send when ready. I contacted the host and made sure she knew I had left town and it would be late before I could send. I got high on it once I finished the mountain of laundry that was necessary to finish. I loved the extras I made as much as I did the actual mini I made. I will be making myself another one soon.
  Well, I guess I need to get my fun for the day going . So yall have a very quilty day.
Tennye

Busy Times

  Well, hello there everyone, I hope this cold winter has not gotten you down too badly. My sweet hubby has really had a hard time with this winter for some reason. I think it is because he is usually so busy and this year things have been very slow for him. I am looking forward to some sun that is for sure, but I'm not having as hard a time as he is. 
  Lunch time on Friday mother was here and she put her cane against the wall, while we ate. I went to the table to sit down and for no apparent reason the cane fell, and landed on my toes. It hurt a lot, but after about a half hour I had kind of forgotten how bad it hurt. Then on Mon. afternoon I looked at my feet for some reason and boom, there was a royal blue toe. I am serious it was blue, and maybe it was because it was cold I looked at it. Since Mon. I have not been able to keep my feet warm, and that toe is the worst, I don't think it's broken, but the bruising must have something to do with the coldness of it.
  I started my Rainbow min for the swap I am in this week and I am loving how it looks, I am still not terribly comfortable with paper piecing, but getting better. I have several items planned for extras on this one too. I need to bind the Kitty mini, and get some extras made for it. I have several things in mind for this as well. I have to get as much done every day as possible because I am going to see my grandchildren at the end of the month. Hubby is going to see his sister and dad for her birthday. He will drive me to Tennessee and my daughter will pick me up and take me the rest of the way to her home. He will go on to Pennsylvania. Then after he spends four or five days with them he will come to our daughters house for four or five days, then we will head home. I love these trips, but I seem to struggle with getting back into the swing of things after we get home. Like last year I started the year off great with working out and eating right. Then went to be with Brena when the new baby was born. By the time I got home all thought of being healthy and fit had just drifted to the back of my mind. My start to fitness has been much slower this year, but is going on never the less, so I have to be hyper vigilant to stay moving while I am gone as well as get back to normal as soon as possible after we get home. The weather is often a factor, we go see her in the spring and its cooler in TN than in Texas. So by time we get home its getting too hot to work out, outside like I do in the winter. This winter has been too cold for out doors, so maybe it won't be as hard this year. LOL
  Well, I should be in the sewing room, so I am off to make another block in the rainbow mini, and maybe cut out the next one. Gotta go pick mothers car up from the tire place as soon as hubby gets back. She got a screw in her tire and they had to replace it instead of repair it. Any way yall have a very quilty week and I'll try to get back soon.
Tennye