Quilt Alongs & Grandkids

Good Monday morning!!!  Here we are, well into November already!  How did this  happen?  Even though we are in the second week of November, it has remained warm here.  Hot even, into the upper nineties all of last week.  But today has brought a bit of drizzle, and a break in the heat.  Hallelujah!  
Last week was an adventure!  It began last weekend really, with a power outage in our bedroom.  No light, no fan.  Our favorite electrician and best friend, Tom came to ferret out the problem.  He discovered a bad switch, and came last Sunday to fix it for us.  After he left, Greg and I went into a cleaning frenzy, and removed all dust bunnies behind furniture and in so doing, my canister vacuum blew up!   On Monday, in the bathroom most used, the toilet broke!  On Tuesday, my upright vacuum sparked and ignited while I was using it! On Thursday afternoon, I walked into the kitchen to discover water all over the floor.  The ice was melting, and the freezer was not freezing!!!  The fridge side was only cold on the lower shelf!!!!  I transferred and shoved all I could, into the freezer in the garage, and when Greg got home, he helped me get the fridge transferred.  I was cooling off yeast rolls, and garlic bread that had completely defrosted!  
That night, I was walking through the sitting room off the kitchen, and rammed my toe into the wooden bun foot of the ottoman.  I am not sure if I broke it, but it hurt like a son of a sea cook!!!  Black and blue, swollen, and ouchy!!!   In between all of the flurry of breaks and mishaps, I was in a frenzy of cleaning out, clearing away, tossing, donating, and organizing!  I took trip after trip to the Goodwill.   And it felt good!!
I have been sewing a fair bit too.  So loving my new sewing nest!  I have been making oodles of the Lori Holt travel bags!!

The two on the right, I modified to make taller.  For gifting a bottle of wine.  The one on the right has the wine bottle in the bag, with the top turned down to expose the lining fabric.
I made some pretty black print bags for my Mom.  She is taking a cruise to the Panama Canal in a couple of weeks.  I guess I didn't get a picture of hers made.  But this is the fabric I used.  It is inside out in the photo.  A pretty black print on cream background.  I did a black lining with black ties.  I gave them to her when she was here the other day.

I made them for my granddaughters, who both celebrated their birthdays recently.  Hannah turned 8, and her birthday was on Friday.  Claire will be 6 on the 17th.

Their new pajamas that we got them are packed into their bags.  Along with some socks and a few of the smaller gift items we got them.  Hannah's is on the right, and Claire's is the ladybug fabric.  The perfect size for Claire to bring her My Little Pony toys along when she goes somewhere.  Their uses are endless.
I am joining in on a Christmas quilt along too.  So far we have made 4 blocks.  This is a quiltalong series by Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet  If you want to join in, you can follow her on Insta Gram @ beelori1  She is posting the blocks on her IG feed.  But you do need to have her book for most of the blocks.  Quilty Fun can be purchased on her blog, or found at your local Joann's, if you are lucky, like I was.  Also Amazon has it.
Here are the first four blocks we have done.

I am really enjoying this series of Christmas Quilty fun!!!
In my frenzy of cleaning and clearing out, I have been trying to declutter my sewing room as best I can.  I want everything I need in the same room.  But it was just too crowded for me.  So I had to clear off my sewing table of all things unnecessary.  I removed the little Featherweight, and will keep it nearby for when I am doing a lot of piecing.  And always, I use that little gem for taking to classes!  I put my little collectibles and gifts over on the armoire, and set a shelf in the back to raise them up, and put my books in the front.

I put my antique Commander on the top, along with a few more hardback books, and my sweet little Teddy.

The little antique sewing machine on the left in front of the quilts, was Nana's as a girl.  She actually learned to sew on that.  I have the instruction booklet that came with it as well.  The tall mason jar  holds my vintage threads.  I don't sew with these, I just love the colors!
My sewing surface is much better now, and I feel like I have everything I need at my fingertips.

To the left of my Farm table, I have set up a small pressing station.  I can roll from my machine to press, and back with ease, with the office mats on the floor.  My cutting station is to the far left, and it all works out perfectly now.  If I am ironing larger pieces, I can just quickly set up my ironing board.  But keeping it folded up for the most part makes this room more functional.  I love my little apple lazy susan.  It is easy to spin around and get just what I need very quickly.

I keep a small dish next to me on both machines, to hold seam rippers, thread snips, and stiletto.

 These fluted, pale blue custard cups were a thrift store find.  I also keep a small screwdriver in the cup for quick foot changes on the machines.  And my little red binding clips come in handy for so many things.  I always keep a mug rug at the ready for my drink.  And my favorite stiletto is a tool found in a nut cracking set.  You can find these at the thrift stores all the time.  They have a wonderful curved foot that is perfect for not only holding the fabric in place, for for lifting it to move it easily as well.  Oh, and chapstick!  I am a chapstick lover, and have it EVERYWHERE in the house!!

Yesterday morning, when I was walking down the hallway, and into the sewing room, I saw my wedding dress on the wicker dress form, with the sunlight streaming through the lace back.  I was stopped in my tracks, to look at how beautiful that was.  At least, to me it was.  I love having my wedding dress to look at every day!!!   Oh, and as you can see in this photo, I did decide to hang my bunting in here.  I will have to make new curtains now, as these just don't work with the colors anymore.

I loved my wedding gown!

Ah the days when I had a waist!!!  I raised the wicker form up onto a small bench to prevent the fabric from puddling onto the floor, as my Dusty boy likes to lay in this room with me whenever I am in here.  He has many times, cozied up to the edge of my dress, and I don't want it covered in Chocolate Lab Hair!!   This makes the bustled train prettier from behind as well.

Yesterday, we had made arrangements to take the girls to lunch and the movies for their birthdays.  

Noah and Erika joined us for lunch first at BJ's.  And then Noah came along with us to see Big Hero Six at the movies.  We all had a great time.  Afterwards, Geeps took us all to Cold Stone for ice cream.  A big day was had by all!!!!  

Thanks for visiting, and following along with our busy life!  Happy November!!!!!!  Very thankful today for the much cooler temps!!!!  

XO  Kris