Teaching Again

Mini-Spiderweb block

As many of you know, my sister Brooke is manager of Ready Set Sew, a local quilt shop and sewing machine heaven. I have been doing a little teaching there and decided that this is really fun! We have discussed doing a small 2 hour demo/class, once a week and it will be for new quilters, or folks who just want to learn the tricks of making some great quilt blocks.
I've been watching Youtube tutes and looking at online patchwork tutorials and am excited about the fun shortcuts and clever ideas I have found there, and want to share them with folks.

And at the same time, I felt I needed a deadline of some sort to get motivated to finish some tops that I made months ago. Starting with my arty quilt pals, we are meeting this week to discuss having regular get-togethers to share finished works, of our own design. Knowing I will have a 'reason' to get something done, will help me focus.
The weather has been sooooo beautiful and my garden patio so enticing, that I find myself lounging in the warm Spring sun for hours! That's where I've been and why I have neglected checking in here. No gardening left to do, no knitting, no sewing, just relaxing.

Closet Cleanup

It took most of two days, but was so worth it. I took everything out of the storage room and washed the floor and then dumped everything out of the half-empty bins, then condensed and consolidated until I ended up with only one bin of scrap yarn balls. It was a total surprise that the orange drawers fit in the space between the big unit and the wall. Neato! Just about everything here is yarn, and one bin of fused fabrics. The motive was to just be able to walk in the room but the result also gave me a better knowledge of what yarn was where and an ease of access. 

 On the opposite side of the closet, I have a much less crowded shelf unit, for art supplies. Since I haven't been using them, I left everything as is, until such time as I feel the urge to paint or collage again. Now there is a great amount of empty space which makes me happy. The basket of bags is jammed with all varieties of satchels and plastic zip-locks, and other things that I will need now and then. I have a huge container of batting scraps which I have been plundering regularly, since I am doing quilt as you go. Under that bin is a full selection of painting canvases. Then the surprise of the day. My back up sewing machine was not working right but I forgot why, so I re-threaded it and sewed for a while until whatever was wrong showed itself. Nothing ever happened. It sews smooth, quiet and trouble free,  so I guess it doesn't need fixing after all. Duh!

 The smaller shelf unit is nearly half empty, but a good space to find the art work that soon will be hung in my studio and bedrooms. Two empty shelves...oooooh! Sometimes empty is just as good as full.

The inside corner of the closet, behind the door,  is full of larger framed artwork, some of it from college days. A few large canvases, paper pads, and drawing boards are stacked there too. I could put them in the attic, but the minute I do, I'll want them again. The little drawer cart is messy but full of fused scraps. Perhaps I will get back to fusing, as soon as my current quilting phase ends.

I felt so good having cleared that storage space that I gave myself a 20 minute nap in the sun on the patio. 

The Gardens are In...this time I mean it.

Today I added an outdoor (plastic) carpet and while it has rained and left a puddle, it is still dry in that shady corner.
To keep the dawgs inside the patio and prevent them from running after cars in the alley, I made a quickie fence from concrete blocks and landscape timbers. The flag string is the thing that really keeps them from the edge, as it is confusing to them, as well as noisy, flapping in the breeze.

 New coneflowers in red, yellow and orangey yellow have been planted today and in the veggies, two new peppers, Poblano and Mammoth Jalapeno.

The first little Big Bertha pepper has formed. It will probably drop off before long, but it is encouraging nonetheless.
Dave power-washed the mats on the floor of the screened porch, so we are 'party ready' but too tired to have one!

All of this began because of the hosta, which we dumped there last fall, and whoda thunk we'd have such a nice set of specimens this year? Dave is digging in a trench for those bricks to form an edge to fill with more plants outgrowing their pots this year.

Adding a Veggie Garden

  The front flower garden is pretty much planted, with trees, annuals, perennials and seeds just sprouting. I still have energy, so I decided I could add one more bed, out behind the house in the four feet alongside our patio.

 Twelve feet by four feet, and snugged up onto the edge of the patio, so as not to infringe on our neighbor. Today I covered that weedy grass with woodchips (yay!) which I got free, since they were dumped in the weeds. I'll be filling the brick cubbies with flowers to make the bed prettier, and have started with Lantana and have zinnias and marigolds to add.
I have seeds for green beans and zucchini, basil and nasturtiums, plants include Marconi Peppers, Big Bertha peppers,
 
Bush Goliath and Celebrity tomatoes, both determinate varieties, meaning not huge trailing plants.

So I am going out to plant now. Woowoo!

QAYG Progress

 Four of the six planned quadrants are quilted but unconnected at this time. Instead of keeping at this project until I finished it, I have been distracted by gardening, knitting and room rearranging. I am usually focused on completing one project, but not this time. And surprisingly, it is working for me. For example, the quilt gets the morning, the garden gets the afternoon and at night I knit, now that the furniture arrangement is set. Somewhere in there I shop for plants...but even that is almost finished, and it's only early April!

Girly Pink

 My new bed and the bedroom arrangement is finished. We got the mattresses last week and last night at 6:30pm the bed frames arrived (after happy hour was well underway). Undaunted, I set about assembling mine, and in 20 minutes, I had a bed! . . . I know, I know, where's the art? It's coming.

 All girly pink for me and in Dave's room, manly black and white. The dogs were with me all night, as per usual, and we were a Mel sandwich again.

 My ottoman, aka Doggie Launching Pad, got recovered and I made a new headboard cover and small decorative pillow. The chair cover is just an old table cloth, wrapped, since it needs washing often.

It's all very feng shui, facing the door and tv. 

 Tony loves his pillows and Chummy will get the bed when Tony leaves.

Ah Spring!

 

It's that time of year when my constant thoughts switch from yarn to garden. I am willing to drive all over town in search of just the right color plant, and then come home with gobs of flowers that weren't on the list. 

One can see I've been planting because the back of my neck and the tops of my feet have gotten tan.
Today it is raining, glorious rain! We've had a perfect amount of rain vs. sunny days and that means occasionally I can turn my attention indoors to sprucing up the decor.

 I've decided to switch from queen size beds to twins, giving both Dave and me more room in our rooms. The dogs make a Mel sandwich out of me, so the rest of my queen bed never got used. I have tons of twin sized quilts, already made, so we are set! We moved the old beds into the garage and they will go to my sister and niece.

Tony refused to move so I could make my bed.
There was more furniture rearranging/room switching  this past week and now we have a TV room in the front former bedroom and some more space has been added to my sewing room, HURRAY.
And now, the laundry...