Random Thoughts

The past several weeks have been busy but not very productive. Maybe the unpredictable weather was part of my problem. We had beautiful, warm days with sunshine and gentle breezes and cold days with high winds. This weekend saw the north and western parts of the state with record snowfall. We had severe thunderstorms, rain, sleet and snow...all in 24 hours...and today was warm and sunny again. I'm really ready for spring!!! I'm ready to buy vegetable plants and flowers and the sweet potato vines for the big flowerpots on the decks. Hurry springtime!!

Our local quilt guild's email newsletter is featuring a 3-part mystery quilt pattern. I've never done a mystery quilt but this sounded fun. I have the first part finished. I decided to use fabrics from my stash and here's what I ended up with.

I love the little chicks on the green fabric! I need to get another piece of red fabric for the next part of the mystery.

Years ago I bought some BOMs at JoAnn's that I had put away and only rediscovered recently. I remember that I loved the colors in this one and liked the idea of pre-cut pieces. I thought this would be fun to pull out and work on, especially since cutting is not one of my favorite parts of quilting.

I got all the pieces out for the January block (notice it's 1998!) and started to sew. It didn't take long to realize that something wasn't working. Some of the pieces were cut smaller than the dimensions shown on the templates. So parts of the bear paws didn't fit! I got frustrated but recovered and took it all apart. It took two more times sewing and taking apart plus some fabric from my stash, but the block is finished and I really like it. I'll just have to incorporate some of those stash fabrics in other blocks to make it work. I don't know what happened but I didn't get the finishing kit....just some of the fabric in yardages so I'll end up making my own sashings and borders.

The next two blocks are coming together well so I think that was just a one-time problem. I hope so since I have several years worth of these BOMs. I think they will be fun to work on whenever I want to sew but don't want to cut and think a lot. The instructions are all in pictures (as well as words) and that makes them very easy to follow. Some days I feel like sewing but not thinking very hard.

Well, I'm off to get ready to watch the OU Sooners women's basketball team play in the Sweet Sixteen. Our men's team lost to North Carolina in the Elite Eight game today and we were sad to see that. Our women are awesome so I hope they play well. BOOMER SOONER!!!

Hope your days are filled with sunshine and stitching. Wishing you blessings.

Happy Wednesday

The past week has been a busy one but I'm so pleased with the results of our work. The larger room - formerly known as the second guest room with a sleeper sofa and my sweetheart's desk and bookcases - is now sunshiney yellow with MOST of my sewing stuff in place. (The guest room and office is now in the smaller room and fits very well.) I still have a little more to do but it looks so nice with shelves around the walls and my sewing machine out in the middle of the room with a big table beside it to use for cutting and holding quilts as I sew. I'll take a picture when everything is in place. There's a small tv with vcr right at viewing level from the sewing machine and my collections of Christy, Anne of Green Gables and Sarah Plain and Tall are right there for peaceful watching and sewing. I can't wait to get started!

But sewing may be delayed a little. We've decided to go ahead and do some more painting...after two years of all white walls, we crave a little soft color in some rooms just to make them more warm and homey. Since painting requires moving furniture, etc., I'm getting my spring cleaning done as well! I love moving into the spring and summer with the house deep-cleaned and organized. Then I can spend time outside with a clear conscience.

Speaking of spring, thank you all for the kind comments and concern after the early Oklahoma tornadoes. Thankfully we were just fine.

My girls loved the Valentine purses I made for them. Amy is a Native American scholar and writer so I chose these fabrics for her.

Maggie loves the combination of pink and brown so I knew she would like these fabrics.

It's time to get back to putting fabrics and patterns away!

Hope to finish the sewing room today!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Hope your day is happy, productive and blessed!

Tornado Alley

The skies turn dark, the clouds start to boil and we know it's tornado season in Oklahoma! It just usually doesn't happen in February but yesterday was quite a day! Our meteorologist daughter emailed early in the day and warned us to be aware...conditions were right for a major storm outbreak. She was certainly correct. My sweetheart works in west OKC and, at his company, they took shelter three different times as the sirens sounded and tornadoes roared very close to them. One touchdown was just north of his location. The real damage in the afternoon was in Edmond, north of OKC. At our house, there was wind, rain and hail. In the early evening, a tornado did tremendous damage at Lone Grove, south of us near Ardmore, and lives were lost. We pray for that community.

We've lived in Oklahoma all our lives and every spring and fall we know to watch the western skies. I can tell by the feel of the weather and the smell when storms can develop. Yesterday was one of those days!

I've been stitching Valentine gifts and will show them when I know the package has been delivered. Until then, I'm moving everything out of my sewing room and will be trading for a larger room after it's painted a sunny yellow gold...a happy creative color :)

Have a blessed day!

Thawing and Stitching

We are in the low 40s now so there's some thawing going on and we do appreciate that sunshine. Our hearts go out to those north and east in the country who got this storm and lost power and had even more ice and snow than we did. It's hard to see the trees breaking with the ice and people suffering with the cold and difficult travel. I hope the sunshine and warmer temps will spread north and east as well.

I finished two of the BOMs I had planned. The Christmas Wish stitchery was fun to do and I'm pleased with it.

This is such a pretty pattern. You can find it by clicking on the button on the right.

The Country Calendar BOM was a little more difficult for me since I decided to do it by applique instead of embroidery. I have put off learning to applique for many years so I thought it was time to learn. This is my attempt...actually it's the third attempt since I redid the snowman part of the block three times!! The first two attempts were pretty wonky and I wanted to do it right. This one isn't perfect but I'm content with it. I did something different with the borders...it's a little busy but it makes me happy so I'll go with it. That's preprinted patchwork fabric on the borders.

Last summer I bought some quilt block kits on sale at Hancock's Fabrics and some of them are appliqued blocks with simple shapes. I think I'll be practicing my applique skills by making those...it's going to take some practice :)

Thanks for stopping by for a visit. Wishing you blessings today. Karen

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Dreams of spring and garden goodies were buried under several inches of ice and sleet the past few days here in the heart of Oklahoma. Sweetheart had big plans to finish his work this past weekend preparing the garden soil for spring planting but it was too cold for him to be outside...even bundled up. The wind was blowing and the temperature was just above freezing.

Then our winter storm hit mid-day Monday. Here's the view from my back door yesterday.

That's about 1/2 inch of ice topped by close to 6 inches of sleet...no snow...the sleet is that thick! The freezing rain started on Monday and then about 3 am Tuesday morning, we were awakened by thunder and what sounded like hail on our roof and windows. But, it wasn't hail...it was sleet!! It sleeted all day yesterday. Sweetheart went on to work but Monday night the drive home took 2 1/2 hours instead of the usual 45 minutes. Yesterday the drive was 2 hours each way and he called from one end of our country road to tell me he was almost home but was having a hard time making it up the hill. About 20 minutes later he drove in the driveway but couldn't open the garage because of the sleet piled high against the door. It took a little while to move the sleet pile and get the car inside.

We are fortunate this time since the December 2007 ice storm ruined trees and left us without power for a week. Our rural electric coop did a wonderful job cutting trees away from power lines during 2008 and this time our power didn't even flicker.

Today the sun is out but it's 19 degrees. Not much thawing will take place today but the sun is so cheerful. Here's what I saw this morning.

I've been working on my BOM blocks and the Valentine charm pack surprise. Pictures of my progress will be coming soon. For now, I'm enjoying the sunshine!

Wishing you a beautiful sunshine day!! Karen