To-Do Tuesday

 Last week was quite successful in accomplishing many of my weekly goals. Even in the midst of changes. We ended up staying over a second night and brought the boys back to the farm very early so they could log into online school. Some serious cleaning and more declutter got done. Well, much of the clutter, already boxed up, got relocated out of sight leaving my old quilt room a happy place for the retreat I was hosting and teaching. We are limited to 5 people. Three showed up and we did some inductive Bible Study skills training. It was good. I certainly needed the refresher. I have taught this many times in many places but the first time in my quilt room. 

This week's To-Do list:

1. Sew up the rest of the sashing strips I cut today for the Ella quilt.
   
2. Attach the cornerstones making sure I get the one-way design on the strips going the right way alternately. 
3. Get them all up on the design wall in the right direction. 
4. Continue making the 5 Ella blocks for OMG. 
   
   
5. Cut the rest of the fabric for the Macaron Mystery. Clue #8 comes out on Feb 4 and I am still back on Clue # 2 or 3. 
6. Press, trim, square up and sew together the blocks for the Summer QAL.
   
   
   
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7. File T4 Summaries for the last time ever because we sold the cows and no longer have employees and we are doing taxes next week. 
8. Breast screening Tuesday
9. Massage Wednesday
10. Booster shot Thursday
11. Zoom quilting Friday and again Saturday.  
12. Spend a bit of time with Lucy. 
    
    
    
     

And why can I suddenly plan to be so productive this week? Because I decluttered the Old Quilt Room aka the parlour and home office and have 2 very large empty tables together where I presently have no less than 4 projects on the go. My brain can function better in less clutter. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: texasquiltgal./to-do-tuesday   smallquiltsanddollquilts.design-wall-monday

To-Do Tuesday

  Last Week's List:

1. Better get that booster shot booked -  next Thurs
2. Put the 50th-anniversary Quilt up on the wall- -up and adding blocks
3. Cut more sashing strips and join them together -need to cut more yet
4. Keep working on that chocolate - almost ran out but more showed up
5. We are back in a fifth wave lockdown so spend more time in the hot tub - it is freezing cold outside but the tub is just 4 steps from the back door
6. Water pipes froze Sunday and we are waiting for the trencher to come to dig a trench for the underground water pipes to bypass the barn where the pipes froze because there are no cows in there to keep it warm. Interesting that Facebook told us that our water pipes froze on the same day 12 years ago - done and discovered foundation stones for something buried there years ago. 
7. Get the 5 blocks made for my OMG goal - nope but did work on a couple
8. Stitch with FNWF  - Saturday was a Q@F stitching party on Messenger and I hung out with sisters and friends for 7 1/2 hours. Going to do it again in 2 weeks. 

This week's List:

1. Help David celebrate his 6th birthday.
2. This means a sleepover.
3. I am supposed to pick up the cake and watermelon.
4. Make sure they print instead of write on the cake because David is in Senior Kindergarten and does not yet read cursive. 
5. Remember 15 Minutes of Stitching a Day. Taking Lucy along. 
6. Get some housework done before the retreat this weekend at my house. That is why I hire a cleaning lady. But she has been off sick 3 times in the past month. We are allowed 5 people and 4 coming plus me equals 5. My Sweetie will be sleeping over again with the boys. 
7. Finish prepping my lessons for the retreat. I will be teaching 3 lessons on how to study your Bible inductively. 
8. Hot tub some more. Oh My Goodness!! My Sweetie says what did we do to deserve this? It may be -10C outside but the water in the hot tub is +102F. You can do the conversion. 
9. Remember the Morning Pages. I am doing the Artist's Way course so have homework every day. More on that later. 
10. More on other things later also. I plan to take some pictures. 

Blessings,

Chris

To Do Tuesday

Last week's list:

1. Continue reviewing manuscripts - all the kids and grandkids have been here
2. Clear my quilting workspaces - done and filled up again
3. Eat all the rest of the holiday chocolate - tried but more showed up
4. Make more turkey soup - just made and froze broth
5. Make leek potato soup - oh yes made lots and froze lots
6. Buy leeks - yup
7. Hot tub again and again and again . . . until all the grandkids showed up and filled it to overflowing
8. Book that booster appointment - not yet
9. Zoom sewing - yes joined in twice during the day

This Week's List:

1. Better get that booster shot booked
2. Put the 50th-anniversary Quilt up on the wall
3. Cut more sashing strips and join them together
4. Keep working on that chocolate
5. We are back in lockdown again so spend more time in the hot tub
6. Water pipes froze Sunday and we are waiting for the trencher to come to dig a trench for the underground water pipes to bypass the barn where the pipes froze because there are no cows in there to keep it warm. Interesting that Facebook told that our water pipes froze on the same day 12 years ago
7. Get the 5 blocks made for my OMG goal. 
8. Stitch with FNWF 

 This should be enough for this week. 

Blessings

Chris

linking with: texasquiltgal to-do-tuesday.

January 2022 OMG Goal

 I love making goals. I love making plans. I love making lists. I love dreaming about the possibilities. But I need some accountability to follow through on those goals and plans. When we canceled our plans for a 50th wedding anniversary celebration last April, I pretty much stopped working on the 50th Anniversary Quilt aka Ella. This is what it looked like the last time I put it up on the big design wall.

 

I want to get it complete. For my Jan OMG goal, I am aiming for completing at least 5 more foundation pieced blocks this month. I could also sew on more of the sashing strips. That would make it easier to put on the wall. But there is a directional design and I am trying to get all the little designs going in the correct direction. Maybe I could even sew on some of the brown cornerstones. I have them all cut out. Sitting in a box. Somewhere.

Blessings,

Chris 

linking with: katiemaequilts/boms-away-

"RETARDED" GRANDPARENTS

The cows are sold. The $$$ is in the bank. Last cow was milked 3 weeks ago. So My Sweetie is officially retired. It is rather anti-climactic after doing this daily for 51 years. Transition is the word that was spoken to me today. You think? I found this on facebook the other day in the memories section. No idea the original source. 

RETARDED GRANDPARENTS - (this was actually reported by a teacher)

After Christmas, a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their holiday away from school.

One child wrote the following:

We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa.

They used to live in a big brick house but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Batemans Bay where everyone lives in nice little houses, and so they don't have to mow the grass anymore!

They ride around on their bicycles and scooters and wear name tags because they don't know who they are anymore.

They go to a building called a wreck centre, but they must have got it fixed because it is all okay now. They do exercises there, but they don't do them very well.

There is a swimming pool too, but they all jump up and down in it with hats on.

At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out, and go cruising in their golf carts!

Nobody there cooks, they just eat out.

And, they eat the same thing every night --- early birds.

Some of the people can't get out past the man in the doll house. The ones who do get out, bring food back to the wrecked centre for pot luck.

My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too.

When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out, so they can visit their grandchildren.

PRICELESS!

Happiest of New Years to Everyone

Blessings,

Chris

Spoiled

We are so spoiled these days. We have central heat and thermal windows and electricity.

My husbands' grandmother Bertha lived in this house for about 35 years without any of those things. She hand quilted many beautiful quilts. His mother has a few of those she has been keeping safe for the past 50 years. Well, maybe more like 73 years since she moved into this old farmhouse when she married her farmer in 1948. Electricity was installed in the barn first, then the house in 1946 after Bertha died. The house was still heated with woodstoves and cooking was done on an old Gurney cook stove. It sits in the back kitchen.

I wonder when they put in indoor plumbing? The bathroom was installed in the mid-1950s. We replaced some of those rusted old pipes 5 years ago. The kitchen was renovated in 1963 when they put in lots of cupboards and a counter. Those were made to fit between the door to the back kitchen, the door to the basement and the door to the upstairs. There are 3 other doors in the farm kitchen. One to the outside, one to the living room which used to be the dining room and the other to the hall that leads to the other stairs, the parlour/quilt room and the laundry room and bathroom. 

The old quilts are in storage still after the fire last February. The renovations are not yet complete. Several years ago, Ava and I went to visit Great Grandma and took pictures of those quilts. I will locate them one of these days on a jump drive somewhere in this old 180-year-old house that not only has electricity and central heat but wifi, thermal windows, and many indoor plants. 

Blessings,

Chris

Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses

Is it a project if it is in a project box? I was not planning to start a new quilt. Nor was I planning to start a new project. But on a zoom party with Chooky and friends the other night, I got coerced into cutting out a few Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses pieces. Several of the girls there were working on their blocks as we chattered from around the world for hours and hours. 

I located the book I bought at the last Shipshewana Retreat I attended nearly 3 years ago. It was in the first place I looked. Fancy that.

Then I found the EPP papers I had purchased back in 2015 

For now I have cut out many elongated hexagons using left over fabrics from the Betsy Chutian collections I have. I like the softer look of these reproduction colours. 

So, it is not a new project started in 2022. Nor is it a Block of the Month or Block of the Week. I will work on it when I work on it. Probably on zoom meetings with friends from around the world.

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: ninamariesayre on-off-wall.   wendysquiltsandmore.peacock party