Crafters June. 14 through June 20

Sue- you really did have a nice situation with J - willing to do so much for you. I wonder if you could find two people who could “share” the work, but I bet its challenging finding just one. My pastors mom got “lucky” (I choose to think it was the hand of God) and a couple who needed a place to live (and he is a medical student) moved into her home during the last year of my pastors dad’s life (he had Alzheimers). They were such a blessing to her during the last year of his life- and each fit a need in each other’s lives. I will pray that you can find help. I wonder if J has a friend who might do well in your situation? And will continue to keep your DGD in prayer too. I do not have Ruths nursing expertise and knowledge but feel for her and your family and wish you all the best.
Congrats on getting things set up so you can take care of all your insurance transactions online. SO much easier.

CJ- thanks for the links. I am anxious to see what you do to make the Blue Ridge Mountains or the Smokie mountains. WOnder if that Stonehenge fabric line would be useful. I know you will find just the right fabrics!!! Such a simple pattern and such a dramatic look. The video of the Baptist fan pattern is great- for me, I doubt I would make a whole large quilt with that, but would love to experiment on a smaller piece..I am interested to see what your final count is of quilts that you have fixed the binding on. I am sure even you will be shocked at how very much you have accomplished. Its impressive for sure. You are finding out so much about what kind of quilter you are and where your special talents are. Its frustrating when you want to quilt something and find that the method prescribed is not something that works well for you or your machine. Now you can quilt in a way that is comfortable for you and looks good.

Ruth as a retired nurse, i am sure you are well aware of the important part you played in some patients lives...I spoke with the nurse in labor and delivery- while she did not remember me, she is making a digital scrapbook of people like me who in the next generation are blessed by her nursing skills. So we took a picture of me, her, DD and DGS- and I sent it to her phone. She spent most of the night that Dd was just starting labor- sitting in the doorway to DD’s room (separated by a curtain to give Dd and DSIL their privacy) waiting for their call if they needed anything. Ok, I live in a bit of a sleepy town and its a small hospital (and obviously they were not overwhelmed with patients that evening) but that is still some dedication.

DD#1 went to see DD#2 and the baby this am....sounds like everyone is doing well. I won’t to the hospital today as there is very limited visiting and I hope to see them tomorrow when they are discharged. (Leaving time for DSIL’s family to visit). The summer heat is here, so I have closed down the windows and the air conditioner is on. This am I left the house early to go to Lowes and pick up a few items from the store. I was home by 8:30- before the heat. I did not want to be in the garden center at Lowes and have to deal with warmer temps and a crowded store.

BBL

Well I find it interesting that the crochet pattern designer of the shawl cardigan deleted my comments asking for help and clarification of some of the rows. I also had clarified an issue to another person on there that misunderstood some directions since I had figured that one out and she deleted that too. I guess I'll have to add her to my list of people who's patterns I won't bother with in the future. So far there's only two, no three
This young lady said that if anyone had problems with the pattern to ask in the comment section and that's what I did.

I think I'm going to revise my plan for Christmas. Instead of stressing myself trying to make all those  triangle scarves I think I'll go with tote bags. Shawls are rarely used but everyone can use a tote bag. I'll even make a market bag for the grandaughter in law that's an environmentalist so she can shop with a clear conscience  . Then if I have time I'll make them all mug rugs and cup cozies too.

I hope to get this shawl cardigan done this weekend. these two days should be enough time

Hello Everyone

Sue - I hope that you can find someone else to help you and your DH. I'm glad you can now do most things online.

Ruth - I've always thought people who post things on the internet, like the crochet patterns, should welcome comments and be able to take any criticism. I'd think she would have appreciated knowing her pattern wasn't working as written. I'm glad you have a plan for Christmas gifts now and that you can work on them when you are ready.

Ginny - I'm happy to hear the new baby and your DD are doing well. I'm old fashioned too and I don't think I ever went to see any of my nieces and nephews when they were just home from the hospital. If I'd had my own children, I'd probably have kept them in isolation for a month, or more  I was always shocked when I was working and women that had just had babies would bring them in to show everyone in the office!

Phyl - Hope you are well.

It was a warmer day here, but mostly cloudy. They said we might get some storms, but nothing so far. I think there will be a few more hot days. I have the air conditioner running so it's pretty comfortable in the house.

I finished stitching down the binding on all those pieces today, and I also put the binding on the last two quilts I had. The small one is the hand quilted one and I'm going to hand bind that one (but I did sew the binding on by machine).

The larger one is the Jelly Roll Race quilt and it's the largest one I did the binding for - it measures around 50x63 inches. I have the binding sewn on and just need to stitch it down. I think I'm going to do a stitch in the ditch with this one because otherwise I'm not sure I'll catch all the quilt in the binding. This quilt was one that I quilted on a longarm machine I rented at a quilt shop and the batting is a bit thicker than the batting I use at home. So it was harder to pull the binding from the front to the back to clip. I used all of my 50 wonder clips plus about 10 other large wonder clips to clip it all.

If any of you here have put the binding on a large quilt like this, I give you a lot of credit. It was hard work

But I'm happy to be caught up now and I counted and I finished the binding on 43 quilts this month!! A lot of them were small and table topper, table runner, wall hanging size. But I'm still really happy that I got that all done because I honestly thought I would never finish any of my quilts. I've been waking up thinking of binding and going to sleep thinking of binding, so hopefully that's over now

My next job is to sort out the leftover binding and then work on my monthly blocks for the challenges/quilt alongs. And it would be fun to just make a quilt for enjoyment instead of all the work with the binding.

Take care everyone

So long story so if you don't want to be bored pass this by. When I got out my Mandala cake yarn in Unicorn color I was disappointed in how drab the colors looked because this always looked so pretty. but I went ahead and used it and now that I have it all done but the sleeves  I went and got my second cake because first was almost gone. Well the second one, and I bought them all at the same time, has a completely different lot number and has the nice bright colors that I thought y all had. So looking back at the shawl cardigan I see that 3 of the 7 colors that are supposed to be in each cake are missing. Now I'm kicking my self for not checking that before I started because this has happened to me before! 

Hi CJ, wonder where Ginny is today.  Maybe helping her dd with the baby

CJ, again, congrats on getting all that binding on. that is a real feat. It sounds ilike you have some good plans now for future quilts.

I started on the new shawl cardigan and am on row 9.It seems to be going easier this time. Dgd will definitely like these new pinks better than the faded looking ONE in the old shawl.I may edge the other in white when I get around to it to give it some brightness.

It was a little cooler day today until 6pm when it got actually cold and a thunder storm. Not much of the needed rain but lightening and thunder which is bad because most of our wildland fire is caused by lightening strikes.