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Post by choney2 on Jun 8, 2023 14:39:43 GMT
CJ- hope you are staying inside and out of the crummy air.
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Post by choney2 on Jun 8, 2023 18:06:28 GMT
Did a quick check this am of everyone’s air quality, and my friend in Maryland had awful (even worse than mine!) conditions….that made me thing of our friend CJ. I hope the conditions are calming down, indeed it is starting to slowly improve in my area which, I am so thankful for. I did drive this am, and wore a mask- which just seemed to make sense. I did cough a tiny bit before putting the mask on. I seemed to help and I did not feel the need to cough after that.
I finally was able to get the basket block email to open. Last night it was frozen, refusing to load. CJ thanks for giving us this link. What a charming block.
Ruth, hope you were successful getting through to the doctor and getting your UTI taken care of.
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Post by Ruth on Jun 8, 2023 18:39:03 GMT
CJ, I just heard on a news broadcast that smoke will be bad in your area tomorrow. I hope you don't have to go out until it clears up.
Ginny, great idea to use the mask. I think we're all loaded now with plenty of masks and they're perfect for poor air quality as well as illness.
I just put blueberry muffins and walnut bars into the oven. Yesterday I made calzones
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Post by cj59 on Jun 8, 2023 22:41:05 GMT
Hello Ruth - I'm sorry it's so difficult for you to get medical help. I hope you are feeling better. Sounds like you've been enjoying some cooking and baking. Ginny - I'm glad the air is better up there, wearing a mask was a good idea. The air is very hazy here, not as bad as NYC though. Tomorrow is also supposed to be bad. I only had to go outside for a bit to get my mail and to put a bag of trash out for pickup tomorrow. Hopefully by the weekend things will be better. I did something I said I wasn't going to do I made the first block for Pat Sloan's weekly quilt along that started this week. I've had this combination of fabrics put aside for awhile just looking for something and I think this quilt will work well for them. Since the Fat Quarter Shop already had this quilt along earlier and the pattern is theirs, I'm going to work ahead a bit. I hope to work on the basket blocks soon and another monthly block came out today that I need to make. Take care
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Post by choney2 on Jun 9, 2023 15:16:15 GMT
Good morning! CJ- love your last statement….the one before the sweet and kind “take care”. You need to make another block? Ha ha ha. I smile with love in my heart - knowing you are a hard core quilter, so I guess you do need to make that block. That is great that Pat Sloan has the perfect quilt along for your fabric! Hope that working on it makes you smile, making something pretty and using up fabric that you want to use. Your weather (air quality) is better today, remember I sort of guess your weather is pretty close to my friend who lives in your general area. If your air quality follows mine, tomorrow should be a great day. (Air quality is actually “good” here). Glad to hear that you have been able to stay inside during this. That is the joy of quilting and crafting or crocheting….we are not weather dependent, as long as we have power to operate sewing machines and lights. Have fun working on the basket blocks…and the one you “need’ to make. Ruth-hold one of those walnut bars for me!!!! Yum….A former coworker of mine used to make calzones from anything. She would buy the pizza dough from the local store (used to be able to buy it for .99 cents on sale). She would put leftovers from the previous days dinner in a calzone…all the different foods. Cannot say I would do that all the time, but it sure sounded like a unique way to handle leftovers. Any luck getting into the doctor for you? Drove a student into a private school this am- to a town that I knew was there but its older (gated!) and has some seriously massive homes. Some are lake front but they have a lot of property around them so its not over crowded like a lot of lake communities. Very lovely. Doubt I will ever go back in there again. Again, good air quality today, thank you Lord. Got some errands to run later on and rehearsal for church tonight. I did get all the tshirts into blocks and now have to work on a layout. Think I will have one t shirt too many which I might make into a pillow. We shall see.
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Post by Ruth on Jun 9, 2023 16:05:18 GMT
CJ, I know the feeling of "need to make". Sometimes that's good and sometimes not. In this case I know it's because it is part of a QAL you're doing and that it's a good one. I'm glad that the QAL that will use the fabric you've found to be great for this has been repeated. I imagine you looked at it when Fat Quarter offered it and that you're happy that it's being repeated again by Pat Sloan so that you can use the fabric that will work so well for it.
Ginny, I'm glad your air has cleared up. Yes I've seen areas like you mentioned with the massive homes.I have no idea what people do with all that space and the upkeep and maintenance must be insanely expensive. I normally fill the calzones with Pizza sauce and topping. This time I did half that way and half with leftover chili at dh's request.I think they be great with other leftovers also. I never eat them but they're a good thing to have on hand for dh to grab when he's hungry.
My blanket is now at the stage where each round is very long so I wasn't happy when, last evening, I found a mistake that I couldn't avoid ripping out four long rows to fix. I hate to set things aside but I think I might with this one so that I can get the planned baby things made and cross those off my list.Maybe I'll just do a little each day on the blanket. Even though the youtuber said it would make a good baby blanket, I don't agree because it has too many holes.I actually have enough baby blankets made for now with one exception...I want to make one that has the words "love" and "hugs" and also has hearts. I think I'll make that one a car seat size but will decide on that later. My ddil loved the one that says "Jesus Loves Me"
Gotta go call to make some app't. See you all later.
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Post by choney2 on Jun 9, 2023 22:10:23 GMT
Continuing on the “need to make” comment. A pattern that has always been on the crafters list to make one the fabric that is too pretty not to use, well those absolutely fall into the “have to make” category. And why not? Sounds like CJ has been viewing patterns and collecting fabrics for quite a while- so perhaps it’s time to use them! Think it’s neat that the pattern has already been offered by fat quarter shop and is now offered by Pat Sloan. Looking forward to hearing that CJ has made the blocks and used up the fabric and that she is really happy with how it looks.
Ugh. Ruth, that is a shame that you had to rip out so much- 4 rows of a quilt that is increasing in size going around is a lot. Yes it does sound like a good thing to set that afghan aside for awhile, so that other more pressing projects are completed. Some people refer to afghans as good baby afghans because they are quick and easy to make, which is good for a person to make if they are in a hurry. I doubt that many pay attention to the size of the holes. It’s not something I get too concerned about, and I do suspect that you are far more strict with how small the holes are than I am. That being said the “ginny afghan” as you call it, does have small holes- so i guess that is my standard for what you consider small holes in an afghan. You did not mention it….how are you feeling?
Practice at church was cancelled this evening because the leader is runnng very late. fine by me I did get a tiny bit of embroidery done this afternoon- always a nice diversion from quilting,
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Post by Ruth on Jun 10, 2023 0:50:02 GMT
Ginny, it's great that you have an unexpected evening free to do as you like. I know you find embroidery relaxing so I'm glad you decided to do that. Actually I never was concerned about holes in a baby blanket until you brought the issue to my intention when you mentioned the Ginny blanket not having holes. I thought holes concerned you so I got to thinking about that issue. I thought that if holes in baby blankets worried you they must worry a lot of other people so I started to read more of the crochet groups where baby blankets was the subject and found many, many people expressing their fear of injury to little fingers and toes. I personally never had my children nor grandchildren have a problem with any blanket.Now I find that you and I actually feel the same.We respect the ideas of other but don't find reasonable size holes a big problem. This virus blanket has large holes though so, knowing now how some people feel, I won't use this one for a baby gift.So I'm glad you did mention holes way back when you made that blanket or I may have gifted a "holey" blanket to someone that felt they were a hazard. Thank you for asking. I do feel much better My own doctor was on vacation this week but for something that needs more immediate attention you usually are seen by someone else anyway.My doctor is always very busy.
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Post by Rurh on Jun 10, 2023 0:51:18 GMT
That should be attention not intention. My fingers don't play nicely with the keyboard
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Post by cj59 on Jun 10, 2023 0:56:06 GMT
Hello Ginny - I'm glad to hear you have all the TShirt blocks ready, hope you can figure out a layout. Hope you are enjoying your evening at home. When I was out this week, I drove past a sign for a new housing development and it said houses were "Starting at $600,000"!!!! I just can't imagine who can afford these homes and the upkeep of them. It's ridiculous what houses cost these days. Ruth - Sorry to hear you had to rip out some rows and I hope you can figure out how to finish that piece. Hope you enjoy working on another project more. I tend to approach most things in my life as a "job" or something that needs steps and deadlines to complete, so quilting is like that for me. Once I start a project I like to set some guidelines to myself of how I'm going to finish it. That just works well for my mind I did finish four star blocks today, these will go into the corners of this quilt for Pat Sloan's quilt along. My center block has floral fabric in the star and I made the four corner stars the same. The other colors I'm using in the quilt are purple, pink and red - which match the floral fabric. Hopefully it will all come out well. I'm also busy packing up boxes for my donation pick up next week. I went through my yarn and pulled out the yarn I know I'll never use but I'm going to donate the yarn to a knit and crochet group that meets at a local senior center. I did keep some of the yarn that I really like and might use and also the yarn that is needed to finish a few projects that I've started but haven't finished. I'm hoping just to store all this fabric in one tote instead of the 5 decorative boxes I have it in right now. Next will be going through my quilting things and pulling out those that I don't use and don't want to work on. My SIL says I can give them to her and she'll donate them to her quilt guild. Take care and have a good weekend.
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Post by Ruth on Jun 10, 2023 1:26:50 GMT
Oh and with all the talking about blanket holes I forgot to talk about actual crafting. I did do one row on the blanket then I put together the sleepy doll. I already had the pieces done but procrastinated in started to put them together which I hate doing. Oh and I also had to embroider the eyes which is not a big deal because it's a matter of making four short lines.I also started a bunny for a bunny lovey I'm making. I already had the lovey part done and now have the bunny head and ears done and now have to do the arms...then the dreaded putting together and embroidery of facial features.
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Post by cj59 on Jun 11, 2023 0:09:34 GMT
Hello Everyone - Hope you are all doing well today and having nice weather. It's a lot warmer here, in the 80s and sunny. Ruth - The bunny sounds so cute, hope you can get the embroidery done and it isn't too terrible. Ginny - Hope you are doing something fun today. I've spent the day getting the boxes filled and sealed up for the pick up in a few days, so that is done. I also did some decluttering in one room too. I was able to go through all my yarn, which was nothing compared to my fabric and I have a big bag ready to donate to the senior knit and crochet group. I did keep the yarn for a few projects that I have started and just a few other skeins that I'd like to work with. It was really difficult to put some of that yarn in the donate bag, because I sure did hope to use it one day, but realistically I know I probably wouldn't so it needs to go Hopefully it will be used for a project by one of the people in the group. Take care
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Post by gramma15 on Jun 11, 2023 2:12:46 GMT
Cj, good to see you. I missed your post last night. Apparently we were posting at the same time. The blocks you mentioned that you made for the corners of your quilt sound great and your idea of how to use the various colors sounds like a good plan too. I know what you mean about giving up yarn. I know I have plenty of yarns that I'm never, ever going to use but it's so hard to part with them "just in case" And when it comes to fabric I still have some that I brought here from NY when we moved here 33 years ago and there are some fabrics that I bought to make things for the oldest grandson and grandaughter who are now 32 and 30 years old.I don't even have time to get all the crochet things done I'd like to do so why do I think I'd ever use those fabrics? I know I can use some to line bags but I really need to donate a LOT of it. I thought maybe the two of us needed an intervention but here you are giving up things and I'm still holding on to them.So tomorrow I think I'll bag up some yarn. It's a start
I did do some crocheting today but it was dreaded yarn work day so I did a lot of edging and then pruning of bushes and trees. A lot of my Mugo pine's needles turned brown so I decided that I had to cut those branches off. It's sure a much smaller tree now. Also it and the lilac bush were growing branches that hung too low over the sidewalk so had to cut those off. I've noticed that one lilac bush is completely dread and some of the others have a lot of dead branches so more cutting. Good news is that there has been a "thing" growing in front of our storage shed that dh has been trying to get rid of for about 3 years. This year it has fllowers and It's turned out to be a wild rose bush and is very pretty. It's just too bad it's not i a better spot. Even if I could dig it up it probably would't survive
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Post by choney2 on Jun 11, 2023 10:45:43 GMT
Good morning! Gee, I thought I stopped in here yesterday, guess I did not.
Ruth- i successfully transplanted a rose bush 2 years ago. I watered the heck out of it and made sure it got water very frequently…..well it’s done pretty well and seems happy. Perhaps the wild bush can be moved, but then you might not want to go through the effort to do so. Your yarn work day is over with….so today you can return to making fun projects or those that are pretty.
CJ- glad you are making some sense out of the daunting task of decluttering! Yes, new homes are expensive- got the same issue here it is hard to envision anyone finding these homes affordable. That is great that your DSIL is willing to take some of your unwanted quilting items to her guild. A happy solution to that problem. Perhaps look forward to the goal of having a less cluttered or more organized look where you store your yarn and that will help you get over the dread of getting rid of a pretty yarn.
Started the assembly of the t shirt quilt- which means that I mastered the layout. Honestly I did not work too hard on the layout. Will be very glad when that project is done!!!!
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Post by choney2 on Jun 11, 2023 20:01:11 GMT
It’s heating up a bit today…but I am still able to keep the house comfortable and should not need the AC as it cools down later.
CJ and Ruth, hope that each of you has had a great day and is able to get some crafting in.
CJ- think I am going to take some inspiration from you and go through my fabric- in about 2 weeks.
Ruth-hope you get your gumption up to look at some yarns and fabric to donate. There are many different organizations that will take crafting supplies as donations, I figure that there has to be an agency or organization that will be happy to take them.
So I did finish assembling the rows with sashing and just cut the strips to put the rows together. I also want to get a walk in. Think I will put the rows together and then try to figure out the outer border. As I am winging it as I make this, I hope it’s going to turn out ok. I know I need the second baby quilt done for 2 weeks from today, and I want the tshirt quilt done before then. Guess I have my work cut out for me.
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