Design Wall Monday

To see the work of others go Judy's blog here.

Here is what is on my wall.

My quilter's exchange group traded our bags for the last time on Saturday.
These blocks belong to one of the members.

I made this block.

We now have our own bags back with 15 blocks - 1 block made by a different person in the group.
I don't have a picture of my blocks to show yet. Soon.

Today I feel like Alexander. You know, the boy who had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
I start my day every day wondering how it will go.

My husband is up early. Here lately he has been up around 4:30, way too early for my liking. He heads out to do chores at our place, then goes to his parents to do chores there and check on his dad who is 91 and living alone for the past 2 years since my MIL went into the nursing home. We never know what kind of a mood he will be in. Often it isn't good. That tends to set the mood for the rest of the day. Hubby comes home for breakfast, usually upset about how his morning has gone.
Then, I go to work. Never know how that will go either. This week is Spirit Week at our school. Halloween is coming up. And, have you seen the moon? Funny how a full moon affects children's behavior. So, the students are a little wound up and I expect that to worsen as the week goes on. At the end of my school day I realized that my jar of sweet tea that was in my lunch bag that was inside my tote bag had tipped over and leaked out all over the floor soaking the tote and my purse and all of the contents. My checkbook, cash, day planner. Everything.
And, it just goes on. A few more things happened after I got home. Pizza has been delivered and eaten. And, now I am listening to my computer rev up like it is going to take flight. It does this occasionally but it is happening more and more frequently. And everything is moving in slow motion. I type an entire sentence before it appears on the screen. Just waiting for the computer to die. Yeah.

Design Wall Monday

Good morning! No school for me today since it is Columbus Day. I had Friday off, too! That was a Teacher's Institute day. I am an aide so I don't work. I visited my son's school for an IEP meeting. He attends Illinois School for the Visually Impaired in Jacksonville, Illinois. Then I spent Friday night with my parents who live near there. It was nice to visit with them. My dad is suffering with the early stages of dementia. He is very frustrated that he is unable to remember the names of places and people that he knows.



On my wall is part of the back for the Winter Blues quilt. I am using the leftovers of the Snowman Gatherings charm packs.

I decided to rearrange my sewing area. The way it was set up was not working very well. Lots of walking between the sewing machine and the ironing board. And, every time I need to iron I walked between my husband and the TV. This was my set-up.

This is at the ironing board facing the sewing machine. That big chair to the right is my husbands chair. You can't see the TV but it is on the left behind that partition.

 This picture is from the sewing machine looking towards the ironing board. See, lots of walking.

There is a (now) nonfunctional fireplace in the center of a wall in this room. There are 5 foot spaces on each side of that fireplace. The TV is on the right. I got a small table that I set up on the left to use for the sewing machine. I will take down the 6 foot table in front of the bay window and move a chair over there.
The Hoosier cabinet is going upstairs. I hate to do that because I love it, but there isn't room for it downstairs if I rearrange everything. I was able to move the bottom half upstairs by myself. The top is too heavy for me to do it alone so I am waiting for the husband to have a moment when he feels like helping. He is farming right now so I really don't want to push him for help. It can wait.

 Things are piled everywhere. Most of the things on the quilt frame and ironing board will go into that top half of the cabinet.
It is a mess, but it will be better soon.

Since I will be losing a big cutting surface that I would cut some fabric for more projects while the big table was still up - and cleared off! My machine had been sitting at one end. I was cutting the fabric for this kit - Charming Beauty. I saw that I was running short of one of the fabrics and then realized I had double cut some of the long pieces that are for borders. Rats! Those borders are narrower that what I need for some of the other pieces. I have been looking on-line and at stores between hear and Jacksonville with no luck.

 It is a beautiful pattern with beautiful fabric.

 This is the fabric that I cut wrong.

I am off today to go find something similar, I hope. I am also looking for fabrics for a T-shirt quilt I am starting for a former teacher. She taught my son during his high school days. She retired at the end of this past year and insisted she wanted me to make her quilt.

I will also be looking for a new phone and answering machine. We have been having trouble with awful static for the past few weeks. This often happens when we get a rain. The phone company has been out here twice and it isn't any better. The phone repair guy just left. He had to come in the house and test the phone. Our phone is bad. Oh, well. We have had it for a while. I am just glad he was here so early - 7:30 am. I wasn't even dressed yet! Now I have the rest of the day for shopping!

Check out Judy's blog to see what everyone else is up to.http://www.patchworktimes.com/

Design Wall Monday

Go visit Judy's blog here.

Here is what I am was working on.
Here is the top sewn together from the Snowmen Gatherings charm packs. I think I am going to name this one Winter Blues. I am starting work on the back.

I laid out the Friendship Rings blocks. Now they need to be sewn together. I have a quilt retreat coming up in 3 weeks so this will probably be one of my projects for that.

I have been wanting to rearrange my sewing space for a while so I dove into that while my husband was in the field this weekend. It is about half way put back together. I have a Hoosier cabinet that I store a lot of my sewing supplies in. I decided to move it back upstairs. I was able to move the bottom part by myself. I have filled it up. The top part is heavy so I need help with that. Those things are stacked ... on the quilt frame, on the ironing board, on the sewing table. So no sewing right now. I am also going through fabric and getting rid of pieces I no longer like. I decided to measure the bigger pieces so I know what I have to work with. Just what is pictured here is over 45 yards! Some are 1/2 yard cuts, some are 1 yard cuts, most are 2 - 4 yard cuts. And that isn't all of the bigger pieces.

I had never really thought about how much yardage I actually have. I know I have a lot of fabric, but actually seeing the numbers makes it real. This scares me a little. I have much more than this in my stash cabinet. I guess the good news is I shouldn't have to buy backings for a while!