 This room used to be the "office" and was the fabric "store" HQ. It's been empty since last summer when I closed the fabric shop. It was time to turn it into a bedroom. I promised Chris that I'd have it set up by the end of the month when he will have 3 friends visiting. The mattress came from Costco and the headboard is navy velvet from Overstock. I still need another night stand but this will do for now. This isn't the quilt intended for this room but it will suffice until I get a new one made. I'm doing the room in blue inspired by the painting that I bought a few months ago.  This is the quilt that I intend to make. It will be in different colors, of course, and based on the colors in the shorebird painting. I will work on getting it planned and cut out before we go to Maine. I'll have this as my Maine project. The back of the quilt will be a solid color to be a background for another beautiful quilt that a friend has given me on a long-tern loan.  The headboard for this bead was inexpensive so it's not particularly strong. If someone were reading in bed it would bend back against the wall. I decided to do something about that and it involved a pool noodle from WalMart.  I found some fabric that matches the headboard and I cut 3 lengths of the pool noodle. I used a glue gun and wrapped the pool noodles with fabric and stuffed the excess in the holes at each end so that the noodle was totally covered with fabric.  I glued one on each side and one in the middle and it works perfectly! I'm really pleased with this little fix. That headboard is very sturdy now.
Today and tomorrow are sewing days with my quilt club.
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 Yesterday was a day of driving around. Mom and I had dentist appointments. We don't mind the dentist because he's quite handsome and very nice. Then we visited my brother and ran a bunch of errands. But after dinner I had time to put together two moth blocks for the new quilt.I was going to use another repro fabric for the body and antennae but I think I like the solid better than a third print. This weekend I'll try to get everything cut out for this little lap quilt.  When I took the big road trip to Denver in January my favorite travel bag got damaged on the flight home. I should have been able to carry it on with me but I was forced to check it at the gate. By the time it got to Richmond one of the handles had been ripped off. In all fairness, they were pretty worn. I've had the bag for a long time but it's such a perfect size (and color) that I didn't want to throw it out. I found replacement handles on Amazon for less than $20 and my brother offered to replace them for me. He knows how to work with leather and has the right adhesives and stitching tools. I had opened the lining and removed the old handles for him and he then did the hard work.  When I got home I stitched the inside seams back together.  Yes, it's dirty. Yes, it's a little frayed. But it's perfect for me and I'm glad to keep using it a while longer. Some day maybe I'll take it apart and make a pattern for a new bag. But this should last another decade or so.
Today should be the last load of mulch to spread!  that I have been doing this week except for Tuesday when I spent 15 hours working the election. I really enjoy working the election and I feel like our county does an excellent job of coordinating and securing our votes. I think there were 2 precincts where ballot boxes went down for a bit but there's a procedure in place and everything kept moving along. Each precinct is staffed with a mix of Republican and Democrats so there's always 2-party representation if there's any issue. We also have poll watchers from the parties and they are always welcome in the precinct, as long as they were scheduled ahead of time. As long as I've been working, we've never had an issue in our precinct and we have had a consistent staff for a couple of years so it's nice to work together a few times a year. Turnout, as with everywhere, was excellent and we are always happy about that! I don't let the outcome affect my emotional state, I just want people to vote. This time, they did. But since Tuesday, I've just been blowing leaves. This long leaf hedge is just from three trees.  That's from 2 maple trees and half the oak. It's still yet to drop the rest of it's leaves. There's another oak on the other side of the driveway.  Plus 6 giant Sycamore trees down the driveway. They were only about 20 feet tall when we moved here. This is what I'll be doing all weekend. I might be able to get a pair of veterans quilt loaded and start quilting.
 I really don't have a ton to report for myself and I totally forgot to post anything Friday. I've been doing everything except sewing. The weather has been too nice to be inside so I've been doing more yard work but also spent all day Saturday with a friend who was here from England for work. We walked around the historic Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. I've actually never been there but it's a beautiful piece of property on the James River and you can walk for miles. It was established in 1837 so there are a lot of historical markers and it's still an active cemetery. It's the resting place of 2 presidents, 3 if you include the only president of the Confederacy. In the sewing room, I've gotten started on the next batch of drain bags. I have 70 left so put 35 in this batch.  One of the yard maintenance activities was to cut all of the lower limbs off this cedar tree. It looks so much better but it left a huce barren area underneath. Mom went with me to the nursery Friday to pick 2 Hydrangea and 4 lenten Roses. We're also going to add 3 Rhododendron. It will still be very barren but we'll start with this just to see if I can keep anything alive before investing any more money in this venture.  During football yesterday afternoon and evening, I worked on hats.
Today I'm working the early voting center all day so I probably won't have anything to post tomorrow. I'll be back Wednesday.  I have to admit, this weekend was about chores! I did lots of yard maintenance and did a much needed deep clean on the stove and also a lot of laundry. The weather is so nice now that it's hard to talk myself into being inside. I know the good days are going to end soon so I want to be outside as much as possible. But I did get the next 2 veterans quilts loaded and I WILL start quilting them today.  There was also a lot of football watching. On Saturday, I added a few rows to a shawl and on Sunday I worked on hats. Tonight it will be the pink blanket's turn.
I did spend some time thinking about Christmas card designs so I'm starting to get in the postcard making mood.  This past weekend I got to go to the river to hang out with my friend. We didn't do any sewing. It was somewhat of a work weekend to help her move things around.  I also got to play a lot with my bestest best friend, Ouiser. She has me trained pretty well for play times and treats. I had a little trouble yesterday getting myself motivated to do anything other than laundry. I had planned on lots of yard work but it rained all day.....because the one thing we need on the East Coast is more rain. I finally decided to start by getting the serger out to hem a t-shirt I bought in Maine. It must have been made for a giant bean-stalk of a man because I cut about 6" off of it. With that done I could at least get a start on the surgery drain bags.  They require the serger for 2 steps.  And the sewing machine for 3 steps. By the end of the day I had my work stations set up and am part way through the first group of 30 bags. I know I cut out well over 100 so this will take a while. But, at least, now I can sit and sew a few minutes at a time and get something done.
Next I need to start scouring the internet for Christmas card ideas. If I put some energy to it I could have cards done by the time I go to the beach at the end of the month.
This post is for those of you who get the blog via email. My current email service is shutting down at the end of August I am switching to a free service called follow.it since I no longer have business revenue to pay for a fee service. If you would like to continue receiving (or start receiving) the blog by email you will need to register below (or on the sidebar at the right).
I cannot transfer current subscribers to the new service, you must sign up again. You'll get the blog from both services until the end of the month but the old service will end August 31.  I spent a lot of time this weekend continuing my reorganization efforts. I discovered that I have lifetime supplies of paper (notebooks, notepads, etc) and gift wrapping materials. I should throw out about half of each but, for now I have them consolidated and organized. I did toss out a big black bag of actual garbage. Over the next couple of years I really need to go through my photos and cut that volume in half too. But, two closets, a desk and several drawers are organized and that was a huge step. I now know what we have and I know where it all is. In between organizing, I organized an ice dyeing day. 90 degree weather is perfect for ice dyeing. I got all of the fabrics ready Saturday and did the dyeing Sunday. This was the state of things yesterday evening. I'll have the results in a few days and will share some of the new techniquest that I tried out.  Somehow I got blue dye everywhere! These are my dyeing shorts anyway so this addition is OK. I'll be scrubbing blue stains off my hands and nails for days.  I sewed some potholders too and I have 15 done so far.
This week, I'll be sewing potholders and getting ready for Wednesday. That's when my young friend, Ella, arrives for "craft camp". It should be fun. We also have our friends here staying in the guest house. They have been working themselves to death finishing their move out and clean out before the sale closes tomorrow. Hopefully, after today we will have some time to visit and catch up.  I didn't get a lot of sewing done yesterday. We spent the morning moving out a 30 year old sofa bed, end tables and coffee table. They were old but still in perfect condition. We found a charity that was thrilled to receive it. I'm always glad when things can avoid the dump a little longer. We have one more piece of furniture to move downstairs and it's going to be the hardest to move. We may attempt it today. Later in the afternoon our friends arrived to move into the guest house.  I also got to deliver 42 veterans quilts to our VA contact. I love delivery days!  I did get a couple of hours in the sewing room and finished cutting out the fabric parts of the potholder kits. All I have left to cut are the pocket batting pieces and then I'll set down for some serious sewing.
 Honestly, the only thing I did yesterday was pack orders. Thank you to all of you for that! The night before I did have time to load and baste the next 2 veterans quilts. I hope I can start quilting these today but we do have an appointment this afternoon and I have a few more orders to pack. But good news! The electrician came yesterday and fixed the breaker for our AC and now the house is nice and cool again!  We also have more bluebirds!
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I'm Vicki Welsh and I've been making things as long as I can remember. I used to be a garment maker but transitioned to quilts about 20 years ago. Currently I'm into fabric dyeing, quilting, Zentangle, fabric postcards, fused glass and mosaic. I document my adventures here. Categories
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