Sewing Room Friday, 10/27/23

 With Mark at home for the last week, I have been doing some sewing.

I made this super cute vinyl zipper pouch for my friend, Brianne. I'm getting more comfortable sewing with vinyl and plan on making a lot more of these pouches.

Now that I know how to crochet a granny square, I have become kind of obsessed with them.

I read about someone who makes compassion quilts and was looking for simple blocks in popsicle colors. I went through my stash and made these. They were quick and fun--I hope they will work in the quilts she is putting together.

The rest of the week has seen me working with this stack of fabrics, although I ended up making some changes with four of the fabrics. The top four burgundy/maroon fabrics needed to be more purple, which I didn't realize until I had made all the blocks!

So that's it for this last week in October.

Really Random Thursday, 10/26/23

What a couple of weeks it has been!

It started out great on Friday the 13th. Back in the beginning of  September I bought movie tickets for the premier of Taylor Swift's Eras Movie for Charlotte and me. A couple of reasons: she had been to the concert in Los Angeles, where the movie was filmed, I wanted to see what the hype was all about, and this would be the closest I would probably ever come to attending a Taylor Swift concert.

And then Charlotte decided to go to her high school homecoming game, which was fine, because even as a senior she had never attended one of her high school football games, and it was homecoming. But who would want to see the movie with me? I asked my dear friend, Lotti, who also has a Taylor-obsessed granddaughter, who also had been to the concert in L.A. 

First we had dinner, and then it was movie time. I even made friendship bracelets for us (if you know anything about the concerts, you know friendship bracelets is a thing. According to news reports, that's how Travis Kelce first contacted Taylor:) 

When we were posing for our photo, a young girl looked at us and said, "You two are Swifties??" Pretty funny.

Lotti bought drink cups as souvenirs for our granddaughters. I think we earned some brownie points for that.

My verdict on the movie? I loved it. I'm now a fan. The movie is long--three hours, but it's clean and classy, and the music and costuming are great.

The next day, Mark (who loves music too) decided he'd like to see it. So, something I would never have predicted in a million years, for the second time in less than 24 hours, I was back at Taylor's movie. 

What I didn't really know was that Mark was having pain in his back. What is it with men that they often downplay symptoms and don't say anything about them? He went to the bathroom twice, which I didn't think much about--it was a long movie, and hello, large theater soda. But with about 20 minutes left, he said, "we need to go home now." That night we ended up in the emergency department and he was diagnosed with a kidney stone and sent home with some pain meds. He had a rough couple of days but on Wednesday, he completely stopped urinating. How miserable he was. So it was back to the E.R. where tests showed that there was probably a blockage and some kidney damage. They admitted him for two nights to flush all the toxins out, and sent him home on Friday morning with an indwelling catheter. Ugh. It was removed yesterday and he feels nearly back to normal, and his renal function has returned to normal as well. That's a week we do not want to repeat!

Hmmm...

This card arrived in the mail from Aaron and Christa. SO appropriate, and funny.

Inside of the card:

Very true.

And with that, we are looking forward to a much better week...

Sewing Room Friday, 10/13/23

So many things to share today!

Do you remember the quilt I made for our friends who got married in January? They took it to Disneyland last weekend and sent these photos!

Jessie said the train conductor really liked the quilt and told people waiting in line to go take a look. :)

I've mentioned before that they like to do something called Disneybounding, where you wear something representative of a character or something in the park. Jessie made her skirt to mimic the bunting. Isn't it so cute?! And such a fun thing to do.

I have crocheted for years, but in all that time, I have never crocheted a granny square. This is a first. And I'm pretty happy with it. :)

This morning I received the latest newsletter from Oakshott Cottons, to find they were featuring my Lumos quilt top!

Michelle, the designer of the Double Ruby Ring blocks, posted this on her instagram feed, which was the cherry on top because all her designs are really amazing!

I'm making good progress on my Star Adventure quilt blocks, which I have named Starfall (because of the fall colors), so it's been a good week in the sewing room.  

Really Random Thursday, 10/12/23

 Sometimes the most interesting things during the week are those I run across while scrolling. This, for example, from Merriam-Webster.

I pass this bent and beat up sign on my walks by the local middle school. I hope things in this area are actually safer than the sign would imply.

I can handle this level of goumet  cooking.

And I have never mastered the art of using chopsticks.

This amazing kid had a birthday last week and we took him out to breakfast the other morning. He is the most interesting person, funny, intelligent, always up for a good joke. I would say to him "please stop growing up so quickly" but I'm highly curious to see what kind of things he does with his life. Happy birthday, Gabe!

Until next week...

Sewing Room Friday, 10/6/23

In the last week, these are the blocks I have been working on, from a great pattern called Squarevoiyant by @quiltcakes. I used a stack of wovens and linens that I had on hand, and never quite knew what to do with. I liked this version of no sashing.

But in the end, I decided I liked the secondary pattern made with the sashing added. I had starched the fabrics before cutting and sewing, but still, so much unraveling! I like the ombre effect and the overall softness.

My striped fabric arrived and I auditioned it next to the Meadowland blocks. 

The stripes are perfect next to the blocks. I decided a break from the blocks to the border would be a good idea, so I auditioned a skinny black border and I really like it. I will probably use black for the binding as well. 

And then I started on these sawtooth star blocks. I pulled a stack of fall fabrics loosely based on the felt garland. They are all Pure Solids by Art Gallery Fabrics which, again, I have had for quite awhile. 

I'm going to use this beautiful Liberty of London print as the sashing. 

Last Sunday, I borrowed my friend's yarn winder. I thought Gabe might enjoy using it. He wound about eight skeins into balls for me--a huge help!

And that's it for the first week of October. 

Really Random Thursday, 10/5/23

October in Fresno. It cools down and tricks you into thinking that fall is here. And then it heats up to mid 90s. *sigh*

Books I read in September: 

I listened to the audible version of Tom Lake, narrated by Meryl Streep. I found it so calming, and a nice change from the William Kent Krueger mystery series. Horse was actually more interesting than I initially thought, and I recommend it. 

I really enjoyed The Do Over, about a woman who think she has graduated from college only to find out ten years later that unbeknownst to her, she was a few credits short and needs to return to college. 

The book I really did not like was The Guest. I usually give a book 50 to 75 pages before I throw in the towel, as some books have a slow start and turn out to have a great ending. If I have made it to the halfway point, I will power through to the end even if I don't really like the book. However...I did not like the main character or anything about the plot. I did not care in the least what happened to her. So even though I had past the midway point, I decided there are too many books on my to-be-read list, and just moved on to another book.

These two were the last books I read in September. Garden Spells was very good--a little bit of fantasy thrown in. I highly recommend The School of Essential Ingredients, the audible version. Beautifully written. It even made me wish I wanted to do more cooking. In reality, I don't. But sometimes it might be nice to want to cook. I'm fortunate to have Mark around to take care of the cooking.

Chalk drawing at the local Starbucks. It is really beautiful.

Haha.

I feel like I need to order two of these...

Pretty fall flowers.

And that's it for the first week of October.