To-Do Tuesday

I tried doing this a few times last year, but often forgot and sometimes I just posted a couple of times each month. It was a busy year part of the time and I totally forgot to do anything for the summertime. No promises that I will remember each week, but let's give it a try. 

It is the first Tuesday of December and quilting goals may be a bit scarce. My brother who lives in Saskatchewan will be visiting here for a week. He is flying in for the Grey Cup Game being hosted in Hamilton this year. The Hamilton TiCats will be hosting the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Why anyone would want to sit outside on bleachers in winter and watch a football game is beyond me. It will be about 2 C. My Sweetie sits in the comfort of our living room and watches on the big screen TV.  Anyway, we will be having a family Christmas dinner on Sat. Come to think of it, our first date was to a football game in Hamilton. That was the night before my 18th birthday. I married him a year later. 

So my To-Do Tuesday this week will include:

• ALL the prep work for a turkey dinner for 15-20 people. 
• Shopping for some of that dinner.
• Not whining about the work it takes to do this.
• I have a cleaning lady coming in Thurs to do the cleaning so I do not have to do it. 
• Make sure the clean-up gets done after the party. 
• No stress here since the guests usually roll up their sleeves and clear away everything and wash up the dishes. 
• I could use paper plates like we did for the anniversary.
• Print off all the rest of the invoices in my inbox for the bookkeeper.  We are doing taxes after Christmas.
• Remember to do a blog post every day.
• I am scheduling posts so should have that under control.
• Virtual Writing Retreat Friday before the dinner. I could write up blog posts since I can write on whichever project I want. 
• Finish cutting out the rest of the fabrics for the Macaron Mystery.
• Do 15 minutes of stitching each day. You know that is not likely.

This should keep me out of trouble this week. 

Blessings,

Chris

Bright Jane

 Why oh why do I keep putting this on the back burner?

I think because 

1. the foundation piecing hurts my hands
2. tearing out the papers hurts my hands
3. the really bright colours hurt my eyes
4. I have no idea what to do with it when it is done
5. more interesting projects keep popping up 
6. totally forgot there should be a lot more appliques
7. I went off the grid a long time ago and am just making small blocks
8. 

Each month I eagerly look for the RSC colour and pull out my project box and bring those colours to the top. 

I have a check list of what is done and how many of each colour still need to be made.

  

Then I promptly forget all about it until the next month. Not going to have a flimsy anytime soon at this rate.

And then didn't I go and buy a wide back in the most interesting spectrum of colours just perfect for this quilt. 

Which grandchild's bed will it live on?  

Blessings,

Chris 

Linking with: smallquiltsanddollquilts.design-wall-monday

Sunday Slow Stitching

 I will be doing some needle-turned hand applique on this Ella Maria Deacon block. I started it around April. It is time to complete it. 

Linking up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching. 
Blessings,

Chris

Dreamer

 It is no secret that I am a dreamer. Often I do my dreaming out loud, or more recently, I do my dreaming here, on my blog. To write about my quilting was a safe place to begin. I started blogging in Sept 2013. I love the process and I love the journey. I love using words to express myself. Some people use music or art, or physical activity to express themselves. I use words. 

I have been reading Julia Cameron's book The Miracle of Morning Pages again. The Morning Pages fascinate me. I have been writing them since Feb 2021.

I am a dreamer. I have scathingly brilliant ideas that come to mind and I want to share them with others in anticipation of them catching the vision and moving forward in it. 

Maybe I am more of a visionary. So what is the difference? When I write, I just start writing and it is interesting to see where the words take me. 

I am a dreamer. I set goals. I write daily To-Do lists and do them not. But it gives me a place to write things down so as not to forget them. But, alas, I quite often forget, or more realistically, I ignore the list. Does this, then become disobedience? Interesting thought. 

I am a dreamer. I was wondering what my dreams and ambitions were when I was young. My only ambition was to get married and have kids. Well, I did get married at 19 and here I am 50 years later still married to the same man. Our children have grown and they now have children. That makes me a gramma. That was not in my early ambitions. It just came along as a bonus and a delightful one at that. 

I am a dreamer. I have always been fascinated with the written word. I love to read. I have been writing for years and years. One does not complete a doctorate without a lot of reading and writing. But I am done with writing academic papers that someone else evaluates. 

I am a dreamer. Somewhere along the way, I got the idea of writing and publishing a book. I think I was still in elementary school when I tried writing my first autobiography. I wrote a title and about one sentence then realized I did not have a story to tell. Yet. 

I wrote my first book longhand two days a week for four weeks at a local retreat center. I knew it would get published one day. That happened 29 years later. But I had a story to share. It is the story of my journey with a profoundly handicapped child. It is the story of a beginning faith in a God who loves me, who created me, who knew what was going on in my life, who had chosen me to be the mother of a very special child. A God who gave his life that I might live. 

I am a dreamer. I had been given the idea to write and publish a second book and a third book by my husband. I guess he saw the potential for something in the future. But I guess it was his dream not mine. Maybe this is one reason why those two books are only half-written. But then, six months ago, I had a new dream to write a book about how to stay married for 50 years. That is half-written also. 

So, the dreamer part is good. The follow-through is difficult. I want to be known as a finisher. I want to be known as one who inspires. I want to be known as one who dropped a small pebble in the water and started a movement. 

Ya. I am a dreamer. The little boys have come over for the weekend. 

Blessings,

Chris

Let the Declutter Begin

 The first thing I had done to begin the declutter was to clear off the card table at the end of the bed, bag up the leftover fabric and scraps from the  Biblical Blocks quilt, and donate them. 

Speaking of donating. Did I ever donate this past week! 

Where do I begin? Five big bags went to a local guild for comfort quilts.

All the rest of the fabric got brought down from the endless quilt cupboard upstairs and sorted and bagged. The girls that came to help each took home some. Another 15 totes and really big bins and bags got donated to a Mission Thrift Store that supports donating Bibles to needy areas in the world. It helps that my niece works there.

That left a lot of empty project boxes so those are being donated also. The cleaning lady took some home.

Blessings,

Chris

December OMG Goal

 Now I know how to really trash a space. It is not a skill that can be taught or learned. It is a natural talent - part of who I am. But I also realize that I do not function well in clutter. You think? That is one of the reasons for so many ufo's and lost gadgets.

 With a lot of clutter comes a lot of distraction. And yet, I need to see my stuff to know it is there. My storage containers are all see-through purposely so I can see at a glance what is in them without totally ransacking to find that one specific thing. Like I could not find the battery charger for my camera. I looked everywhere I thought it might be. It had been in my downstairs quilt room but we all know that I took a lot of stuff upstairs to the new quilt room and it usually lives right beside the printer where it is not in the way and close to an outlet to plug it in. 

We were in the middle of the cow auction of a lifetime, and we had a dead camera. It always dies in the middle of really important events. But the following day, I went to get some thread for something or other, and there it was. In the box on top of the box of the box of coloured threads. I looked in all the other boxes and must have missed that one. And, the backup battery was in it just as dead. So now both batteries are charged up and the charger is back in its resting place and I am taking pictures again. 

So about trashing a space. I was completing an old ufo for a wedding gift last month. I had four weeks' notice but I actually took just a week to finish it including going to the long arm quilter and a whole day to attach the binding. 

So that ufo was complete and it was time to clear away all the leftover bits so I could reclaim the project box since it was now empty. But what to put into it? 

I am sure I will find something. But in the meantime, I need access to that bed. What bed you might be thinking. 

I do not want to make elaborate plans and sewing commitments this month, but I do need to clear the space in case I impulsively decide to start a few new quilts in the new year. I have ideas. But I am also compiling a plan for completing ufos. I have donated several so the numbers are coming down. 

My OMG goal for December will be to organize this space and show pictures to prove it. And yes, I have a tea kettle and mug up there to make a nice hot drink. I also have hot chocolate for the little girls for when they come to hang out with me. 

blessings,

Chris

linking with midweek-makers

Blog-Post-a-Day Challenge

 It is December and time once again for the Blog-Post-A-Day Challenge. I thought about doing this last month, but there were other more important things like answering the phone, monitoring Facebook, and dealing with emails for the event of the century when we sold all of our cows. Oh, and making bank deposits. I have learned how to relax a bit and I know how to schedule posts so do not have the pressure of having to write every single day. 

So, sit back, grab a hot drink, and join me each day this month for some ramblings about whatever comes into my head to write about. It could get interesting. Most times it will be about my quilting journey, But you never know. Life here on the Farm is entering a new chapter with my husband retiring. Good thing I like him since he keeps hovering over what I am doing. 

There is still one lonely cow to milk twice a day and a few in the dry cow barn to feed. We have to rethink how the water will come into the house from the well since right now it is piped through the barn underground then to the house. With no cows in the barn, it will eventually freeze all the lines. I recall that happening one January and it was  May 16 when it started flowing again. We had a cistern for other use, but every day I took a bucket to the well and brought our drinking water to the house. I was making homemade butter at the time, so had to make sure I had lots. These days just walking that far is a challenge for me. 

See you tomorrow,

Chris