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. 
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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.
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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.
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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.
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They require the serger for 2 steps.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I also got to deliver 42 veterans quilts to our VA contact. I love delivery days!
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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.
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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!

Well, we mostly had a family vacation but not without a LOT of drama. This was our vacation craft project and provides a hint as to what happened. I'll let you think about it and will give you the story at the end. But as to this project, I am committed to the absolute fact that I need a Cricut machine. After doing my brother's screen printed shirts and this project, I have so many ideas of how I could use it.
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I don't have any beach photos as I only got out to the beach one day and I had one afternoon to do some crochet. This is how far I am on the baby blanket. I'm almost done with the first skein.
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Since I got home I've mostly done unpacking and laundry but I got the next set of veterans quilts loaded. We came home to a broken downstairs air conditioner so it was nice to be in the cooler basement for a couple of hours. The upstairs works so we aren't in any distress and can wait on the repair shop to open this week. No need to pay emergency prices.
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I'm doing a swirly pattern on this quilt.

Now, onto the vacation. We stay in Hatteras Village, NC. It's at the very tip end of the Outer Banks by the ferry to Ocracoke. It's far away from everything, including emergency services. This story, surprisingly, does not have an alcohol consumption element. 

Chris rarely, but occasionally, faints and he seems to do it more during the night. Well, the first night we were there it happened and he couldn't have fallen in a worse place. We aren't sure how he fell but we know his nose hit the end of the bed and he was knocked out. We were off to the ER at 5 am on Sunday. The ER is over an hour away and it was raining buckets. He had a broken nose, sore neck and damaged right kidney. We were back at the ouse around 3 pm but he was in too much pain and it was back to the ER at midnight. By 6am, he was being transported to the Norfolk General Trauma Center. Final talley: broken nose, pinched nerve in his neck, bruised rib, bruised lung and lacerated kidney. He has several follow up appointments with specialists and, I expect that there will be a nose surgery in his future. He's doing a lot better but is still moving a little stiffly and I won't let him drive yet. But every day he is getting better and better.

I didn't let him go to the beach but he got to relax by the pool a couple of days. I made it to the beach for one hour with my friend. I was so grateful for my brother and two friends for helping me out. Two of them drove me to Norfolk. One of our friends lives in Norfolk and spent 8 years in and out of that hospital with her Mom. She dropped everything to come over and sit with him Monday evening and Tuesday morning while I wasn't there. She kept him entertained and she knows all the things that the hospital was supposed to be doing for him but wasn't! She was a Godsend. I had not had much sleep so I couldn't drive myself. Our friend, Win, took us to the second ER visit and to Norfolk. My brother took me on the day he got out.

When we were kids it seemed that my Dad got sick on every vacation. He would spend most of vacation in bed with some sort of cold or something and Mom had no choice but to let us run feral on the beach. One year he had a major dental emergency. My brothers accused Chris of trying to take over the family tradition. Everyone,including Chris, kept their senses of humor. He even approved the design of our memento craft project!

Surprisingly, everyone is looking forward to next year! I'm going to pick a less remote place.

There's a weekly casual craft group at the local library now and I planned to go yesterday and wanted to take a new crochet project. This baby blanket seemed like a good idea. I got it started Wednesday night and worked on it for 2 hours. At the end of that session my eyes were burning and my sinuses were inflamed. 30 minutes after I stopped everything cleared up. Apparently I'm allergic to this yarn so I stopped this project and will donate this yarn.
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I still needed a project to work on at the library and I remembered this shawl. I remembered that it was easy and I had the same yarn in a different colorway and could follow the exact same instructions. It goes really fast and I got this much done in 2 hours at the library.
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In the sewing room I'm steadily working away on the surgery drain bags. It's possible that I get these done this weekend....but not likely. I'm sure I'll find some sort of other distraction!
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I don't have a lot to share today because yesterday was a busy dyeing day. I'm very grateful to my customers for keeping me so busy lately! Yesterday was a particularly long day but all the fabric is happily batching and waiting to be washed out this evening. I"m lucky to have my husband's abandoned sauna for batching so I get very consistent temperatures every week.

I'm slowly making progress on the quilt. I've finished 3 rows of 8 of the cross-hatching and border blocks. My left wrist has mostly healed itself but I'll continue to quilt with the ruler in my right hand for a while.
​After the Direct TV repair person comes today I'll be right back on this and, hopefully, get another row done.