The bougainvillea are blooming in Cora’s garden. I thought I’d share some color with you.
Since Mom passed, life has been more challenging than I thought it would be. The quietness of the house is the hardest thing to deal with. I didn’t realize how much energy Mom brought to the house. I know Dad feels it, too.
Dad and I are trying our best to deal with it in our own way. Dad keeps at his word-find puzzles and exercises with his caregivers. Let’s see if he will be up to doing some holiday drawings.
I’ve been busy trying to finish off half-finished projects and work through my fabric and yarn stash (I have more than I can ever use in my lifetime).
Odd-shaped scrap potholders
scraps for potholdersthe odd shape piecesthe inspectorupcycling the binding scrapadding some hand-stitchingfinished
These are scraps from a donated quilt I made. I use as many scraps as possible to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Charity Knit Hats
wrong side of reverse stockinette view of the right sidefinished with pompom
It is one of four charity hats I’m making using the marling technique to use up my yarn stash. The pattern is It’s a Snap from Tin Can Knits.
Scrappy strips basket
building up the sidesthe pile of skinny scraps
I’m using skinny strips, white binding (from the donated quilt project), and embroidery thread on this scrappy project.
I’m also working on quilt #8. It is for a friend’s friend, who gave me scrap fabric from her mom’s stash and asked if I could make her a quilt. I’m shooting for the end of November to finish the quilt so I can hand it off when I see my friend.
#8
last squarewith battingthe backinggetting ready to quiltquiltinngstitches
That’s all for now. My sewing machine will be going out for service, so I will have more time for knitting and crocheting projects.
Note: I was trying to get this post done for a while, but life throws curve balls, and things are just a little delayed.
No. 7 started with wanting to make a quilt with a star pattern. I looked through my stash and found what I thought would be enough scraps for a throw. The scraps also gave me an idea of who the quilt was for.
Test star pattern on my tiny design board
Once I tested the star pattern, I realized I may not have enough print scraps for a star-only quilt. I worked up a few sketches and chose the simplest solution.
My solution
I decided on a square of four prints surrounded by pink. I had the pieces mostly cut, and sewing up the blocks was fast. The layout was easy, as I laid it out in my sketch.
On my temporary design wall
After a few mistakes, the blocks are done. One last check to see if I’m good with the placement. I did wonder if it needed a border.
Border or no border?
I decided against the border because it didn’t go well with the backing and binding I planned to use. I found a perfect piece for the backing in my stash. It was large enough that I didn’t need to be stitched together. The backing print had a reddish-purple background that went well with the quilt top. Then, I found an olive green swirl print that worked well with the backing print. Both prints had similar greens that worked well with the quilt top.
Quilt, binding, and backing
My Quilting Pattern, or as I call it, “because I can’t sew that straight.”
I didn’t know what I would do for the quilting. I hate seeing my wobbly stitch lines that should be straight on the quilt. And when I was testing out free motion quilting (which I didn’t do), I did some test quilting with random intersecting circles that I enjoyed. That was my plan.
We all should remember (well, I should say “I”) that my test quilting was done on small pieces of scrap versus a quilt the size of a throw. Thank goodness it wasn’t a bigger blanket.
testquilting #7randomNot as easy as I thought it would be
Tah Dah! Here it is. I thought I would have more control of the swirls, but the quilt’s size made a big difference from the test I did. A bit of ripping out and starting over again was involved. It’s been done for a while and has been with its new owner. I hope she likes it or finds someone who does.
The quilting on the backing looks even crazier than the front.
I need to work on my quilting skills, which means more quilting. Next in my queue is a throw for a friend of a friend who gave me some 70s prints from her mom. I just have to get my sewing room back up to working order. I moved my machines inside, but I still need to set them up to make my quilting more efficient.
I am sharing a project I started from the scraps of the donation quilts I’ve been working on. The fabric for the donation quilts comes from the adult bibs from the hospital’s acute care facility. The hospital’s volunteer crafter created them but didn’t need them anymore. I eventually got them to reuse as material for donation quilts to sell at the hospital’s thrift shop.
My pile of bibs in multiple stages of trimmings
For the donation quilts, I trimmed off the neck area and the finished edges to get a large area of fabric to cut my pieces. I had about 20+ bibs, which makes for much trimming waste of the bib’s neckties and finished edges. I thought I could make wrap cord bowls or trivets from the trimmings. It’s like a version of my denim seam trivet I made during the pandemic.
my pile of trimmingswrapping and stitchingturning the sides
This is definitely a form of slow stitching.
I used the neckties (bias tape) as a cord, then wrapped and twisted the strips of fabric from the finished edges around them. I stitched around the wrapped cord to secure and connect the rows. I laid the wrapped cord on top of the previous row to build up the sides. I ended it by folding it under itself and stitching it tight so it would come apart.
Where my embroidery floss livesplus a trivet
Two finished pieces
There is still a bunch of trimmings left and more to make. I hope I can use all of it. Reuse, Reduce, Recycle.
Who knew in a matter of two three months, my life would change so much. Here’s what is going on. I started this post on 10.20.2020 and have started on a few things.
me from the trail
Furlough officially turned into unemployed.
Decided only to work part-time
Staying put in my parent’s house.
I guess I need to look life from a different point of view
I mentioned in my post Moving Forward; I need to update my to-do list. I looked back at my list, and it seems going longer and longer. Hmmm. I thought I made more progress.
Well, I need to adjust the ever-growing list to make it attainable for me to feel like I’m getting things done. I’m putting out in the universe.
Do List
Clean out my storage unit by the end of the year; last week I cleared out 4 boxes; and I think I found a home for the dehydrator and my imac.
Get plans to rework the house: call someone to draw up the ideas.
Make a budget; made the budget sheet; need to make an appointment with myself to enter my month expenses
Work on projects with scrap materials and yarn
Draft a blouse pattern for me and make so clothes for me
Start stitching my aloha shirt patchwork quilt
Open my Etsy shop; scheduled myself for a photo shoot for my inventory this week
Make a sourdough starter and make more bread
Experiment with my pickle and jam flavors
This list is my wish list that things I want to do and over time hope to achieve.
On top of being quarantine, I’m now furloughed till July. No work, stuck inside with my folks, I need to do something to keep me busy.
I’m a little sad but I think I’m okay. Be handling big changes in my life for the past 3 years and I think this one is small by comparison. But this has been my biggest worry as I get older to get laid off. Especially now that I moved my home base and my connection are all on the east cost.
Disqualified
04.29.20
It’s 3 weeks into my furlough and just receive a disqualified claim. I’m feeling sick to my stomach at the moment as I’m on hold with UI.
I’m trying to be positive but this feels so hard. I’m trying to be creative and productive but some days all I want to do is lie on my bed and watch bad Youtube about dumpster diving. I’m sure there are thousands of people out there in the same position as I am and are being productive. And I wish that it will come my way.
In the meantime, I decided to take Thursday off to go food/necessities shopping. When to Costco and used my new senior status to for kupuna (senior) hours
The sea of silver
Progress?
05.01.20
I’m on hold again. When I got through last time, they told me I had to file in NJ. Then I email my HR person and she said no, HI and gave me an insurance number. So I wait 226 calls to the same number. Then a friend reached out to with 2 new numbers and I go in on the second number. I wanted to cry.
Now I sit and wait and test my patience being on hold.
Got through and spoke to Craig, a volunteer who was calm and reassuring. He took my information that I got from HR and said he thought this would help. He took my number just in case they needed to call back for more information. He said to check my status on Monday if everything is good then it will show a change. If not, UI will be calling me back.
They didn’t call me back. I emailed them the same information I gave Craig and I guess I’m stuck on the phone with UI tomorrow.
Projects to keep me sane
Patchwork quilt
So with this good news, I thought I’d stop whine about unemployment and shows what on my plate for a new project. I’m putting out there that I’d like to finish it by the end of my furlough (2 months and 9 days).
I think these are local Hawaiian fishestesting half triangle pattern
Arne and Carlos Quarantine Knit-a-long
I started this at the beginning of this project at the beginning of the quarantine. It’s the Arne and Carlos Quarantine Knit-a-long. Arne and Carlos are Norwegian knitwear designers that have a podcast. It’s a project color work project of different square designs.
I’m not that great at color work. But these have gotten me to have better tension and my floats (on the back side of the work) are looking much better, not a jumble of string.
Totes, Project Bags, Box Pouches . . .
Since my machine has come out of hibernation, I start putting together totes with the scraps I have and fabric I’ve been thrifting. Most of it’s prototypes to find a tote shape that I like, has items that I think it needs–pockets, and made up mostly with up cycled material. Here’s a few that I’ve started with.
Princess Hot Flash 