I have knitted 3 more dishcloths and have a 4th one started.
I decided not to web all 19 rows together on this baby quilt. This is the top 10 rows sewn together. Now I need to sew the other 9 rows and then sew the 2 sections together. I need to cut 6 more little tumblers too to finish it.
I was looking for something fast and easy to sew last night and spied the box of 3" flannel tumblers that I cut from scraps last winter. Luckily I had put the note in there of how many I had. Also noted were the number of pieces across and the number of rows I could do. It will be a baby quilt.
I was just ready to sit down when I noticed all of the junk caught in the wheels of my sewing chair. Yuck!
All of this was caught in the 5 double wheels. I couldn't get it all out but at least it looks better now.
Then I sat down and started sewing rows. This will be some good sewing at night for a couple nights.
I went through the Australian fabrics looking for 4 more pairs to make Hunter Star blocks. I started the quilt with mostly red, black, and light neutral. I added several purples and now I'm adding a couple blues. I think the quilt will still read mostly red/rust/burgundy/black and light neutral. The pieces shown are ready to run through the die cutter.
I got the strips for my friend's quilt cut to the right lengths.
Late in the afternoon my granddaughter and her 2 little ones came over to vacuum up all of the little fuzzies and a little later the 3 guys got here to move furniture back into the living room on the new carpeting. There are still piles to go through on the 3 shelf units and on the fireplace mantel, little by little since I'm not supposed to lift anything heavy.
I didn't do any sewing yesterday but I did play with fabric. I have been cutting quilt kits for a friend this summer and this is the next one. Luckily all of these squares and strips were cut a long time ago and just needed to be co-ordinated to work together. Now I need to cut the strips to the right lengths. I cut this same kit for her last year and she enjoyed making it so much she wanted to do another. Here is the block instructions.
I got a wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday, a fabric postcard made of hand dyed fabrics from my friend Vicki W.
It was nestled between bills. I wonder if my mailman read it. I'm sure it is a novelty at my small town post office.
I sewed the last 8 blocks, 4 of each of the two shown, and 6 pinwheels. Looking back at my previous post of the other blocks it looks like I need to find 4 more fabric combinations. I'll work on that today.
I used 5 of the 6 new pinwheels to add 2 rows to this little piece. At 10" x 20" it is almost a table runner size. With 4 new combinations plus the 1 pinwheel left over I will be able to add 2 more rows.
I want to clarify the 6" distances that I mentioned yesterday. They are 6" from the pacemaker, not from the rest of me. If you hold a 6" ruler in front of the area below your collarbone on the left side of your body you can see I'm more than 12" from the sewing machine motor which where the interference with the pacemaker could occur. Being too close could cause dizziness or heart palpitations. Magnets are a danger too. Anonymous, you want me to go back and label all of my 16 patch block posts. I intend to do that someday but it will probably take about 4 hours to search for all of them. If you want to find the 16 patch posts go to the search box at the top left corner of my blog and enter 16 patch. It will bring up any post where I said "16 patch". If I had known I was going to make so many of them I would have created the label with the first post.
I cut the last 6 groups of fabric for blocks for the Hunter Star with my GO! die on my Studio die cutter. They are the last 6 I had prepared for cutting, I'm not sure if I need more or not. I sewed 16 blocks yesterday 4 of each that you see here. The last 2 have purple as the dark fabric.
Here are some more tidbits from the Pacemaker manual: Keep your heart device at least 6" from the following household and hobby items:
Handheld kitchen appliances such as electric mixers
Sewing machines and sergers
Radio controlled toys (antenna)
2 way walkie-talkies (less than 3 watts)
Stereo speakers (even if the power for the speakers is disconnected)
You can't use an electronic body fat scale because it passes electricity through the body.
24" away from Induction cook tops when it is turned on.
There is a lot more.......this is all news to me. I have never heard anyone talk about their restrictions with their pacemakers, but then I don't know very many people that have one.
My daughter-in-law stopped yesterday afternoon with an elephant ear from the fair for me. It was still warm! Yum!! Deep fried bread dough, butter, sugar and cinnamon, what could be better.
While she was here I asked if we could make a path to my sewing machine. She moved the dining room chairs out and rearranged the bookshelves on wheels.
Next I needed to clean off the top of the cabinet. Most of it was just shifted over to a shelf on the rolling cart.
Remember the little 2" pinwheels made of the Australian fabrics? The fabric I thought I was going to use as alternate squares didn't work so I used this yellow one. The squares are 2" finished so you can do the math to see how little it is. I will have more fabric to cut the little triangles from when I cut the rest of the Hunter Star blocks so I may add on to this later.
In the spring and summer I pull out all of the Goldenrod that I see but there are always a few plants that I miss. This one is out by the raised tomato plant bed.
Don't the couch and desk look lonely? It will be at least 3 days before the rest of the furniture is moved back in. I know it looks kind of gray in a photo but the carpeting is taupe, black and white tweed. Taupe is a grayed beige so I figured when the time comes for repainting either gray or beige will work on the walls.
Today I will be visiting my primary care doctor and next week I will be going to the device lab to have my pacemaker and my incision checked. Only 3 more weeks before I can raise my left arm above shoulder level. Reading the pacemaker manual is sobering. No cell phone or cordless phone within 6" of my pacemaker but using a microwave oven is safe. Lots to remember.
It was a crew of 2 that arrived at 9:45 a.m. yesterday and they had to tear out the old carpet first. At 5 p.m. they were exhausted and still had this wall on the left and around the fireplace to finish. I told them it was OK with me if they wanted to finish this morning and they were happy to leave.
I was surprised when I saw a piece of the carpet close up that it is black and white twisted, taupe and white twisted and plain white. I don't know what percentage of each but I'm really happy with it. I thought it might be darker than my old carpet but it looks to be close. It is made of 50% recycled bottles spun into fiber and very soft.
I sorted 1.5" strips all day. I was looking for the ones that I had 3 or more of. This is one container repacked with one of each of hundreds of batiks, 2 layers in there.
This is the bunch I will be working with. The roll to the left is 2 alike of many batiks, the other larger roll is anywhere from 3 to 8 strips of each fabric.
Today was the big day to take the bandage off my pacemaker surgery site. I was nervous. My daughter-in-law came over to do it for me. The good news: it looks OK, no infection or any of the other gross things they mentioned I might find. My son mowed my grass, DIL watered all of the pots of flowers, more than 20 of them. Then I finally was able to shower and wash my hair......after 5 days I needed that.
I went out to check on the Dahlias and the yellow one is finally blooming and has one more bud. I cut off the last of the burgundy color flowers too. See how tiny the burgundy one is. It is more like teacup size than dinner plate as the package said it was.
Today the big Sandwich Fair (DeKalb County, IL) opens and will run through Sunday, the largest and cleanest county fair in IL. It is usually really hot for the fair, almost unbearable in the center of the buildings on the grounds and this year it is in the high 60s and low 70s for the first time in many years.
Today also the carpet gets laid and I'm looking forward to that. I had my DIL bring up from the basement 2 boxes of 1.5" batik strips that I cut many years ago and I will play with them while they guys lay the carpet.
Thanks everyone for all of your comments and emails. I'm not up to answering them yet, but I really, really appreciate them.
