Quilt Room Views & Another Basket

My "ironing board" for blocks as they are constructed.   Scrapbook pages to-do are in the plastic "project" bags on the shelf below.   This ironing station was designed specifically for me so it fits my height.  

Behind it is my "project board" -- a 61"x36" bulletin board.  

  

On the opposite wall is the closet, which holds my fabric stash, a window and my quilt and scrapbooking books. 

The short chair is one my children had; it's basket holds CDs.  The taller chair, my Grandfather's highchair (he was a very small baby),  holds a basket of plastic templates.   



Buddies

Baskets, continued

This basket holds my 2010-11 quilt magazines.  After a year they are put in date order and placed in a storage drawer.  Several years ago I went through a decade of quilt magazines, clipped the articles / projects I wanted to keep and tossed the remains.   

This year I decided not to renew any magazines, quilting or scrapbooking.  There's so much now available on the Internet.  And if there's a special project or article I want,  that issue can be purchased at a local shop or on line.

There's no point in having a fabric or magazine stash if you can't find what you are looking for.  To be easily used, both need to be organized and managed -- which includes weeding out. 

Orphan Blocks

Orphan Blocks are quilt blocks left over from a project -- blocks that did not make it into a finished quilt for one or another reason.  Sometimes I do a "test" block using scraps in colors that won't be in the finished project. 

This is my basket of Orphan Blocks.  Some day they will make it into a scrappy baby quilt for the local Battered Women's Center.

I like baskets; another one holds 2010 quilt magazines while a 3rd one holds 2010 scrapbooking magazines.  With so much inspiration and information on the Internet, I am letting my magazine subscriptions expire.  If there's a special issue I want, I can pick it up at the local quilt shop. 

Dream quilts in Technicolor

If you dream about quilts, the dream has to be in color and this one was.  I was in the back seat of a station wagon, sitting between my Mom and a woman I did not know.  Another woman, also a stranger, was driving, but she was a quilter. 

In the front passenger seat was a pile of quilts & the cargo area was also full of quilts -- bright, colorful quilts in a simple square patch pattern. They were charity quilts. 

We were driving to a symphony at the Bushnell; haven't been there in decades and I'm a ballet fan, not a symphony person, so that was strange too.  

If I'm dreaming of quilts, guess It's time for the Coach-potato Lady of Blizzard 2011 to become Quilt Lady. 

Can a Senior Pout?



I know these are out there in the flower bed near the kitchen door --  but according to the forecast they will again be buried under that horrid 'S" word . 

Enough already Mother Nature! 

I want to put our the spring quilts and enjoy the spring flowers.  Maybe I'll live it  up and treat myself to a pot from the grocery store.  Sounds like a good plan to banish my weather pout. 

For today I'll rejoin the fur balls and curl up on the couch. 



Grumble and Sputter

Unlike my two "bossses' I didn't spend this morning having a post-breakfast nap.

I spent it working on the 2009 IRS return -- should be simple for a senior citizen who doesn't support Wall Street, right? Hah!  And I can't even claim those two snoozers as dependents.  Usually there's a quilt folded across the couch top that they can snooze on, but they seem to be "roughing it" ok.  After a mid-afternoon cup of coffee I'm joining them with my Kindle.  Enjoying a cozy mystery set in Glory, North Carolina. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Paddy O'Leary -- doll made by Cheryl Riello
http://users.rcn.com/criello/

Cheryl custom makes all her dolls, and frequently uses antique fabrics for their costumes.  Some hold mini quilts, made from early American reproduction fabric. These @23"x23" quilts are either hand-tied or hand-quilted.
 

A Delightful Kitty

Fictional, like Jim Quileram's Yum Yum and Koko in The Cat Who... series by Lilian Jackson Braun, but I really like Marmalade and her human, Biscuit, better.  Orange as Marmalade (by Fran Stewart) is the one I'm currently reading.  These continuously cold rainy days have created a certified couch potato here.  Must get up and about -- maybe sprinkle tacks on the couch? 

Everyones  back from Daytona Beach now -- looking fit and tan, good time had by all.  And they were lucky with only 1 day of rain for the week.  Waiting for the photos to be developed.   Maybe using http://www.blurb.com/  to create a scrapbook of the week would be the best approach for those photos.  you won't even need to develop the photos, just download from camera and upload to blurb. 

Sun and First Signs

  that Spring will actually arrive.  The sump-pump did its "thing" and water in the other area of the basement has been shop-vacumned up and
THE SUN IS OUT!   and temperature is actually above 40F.

I saw my first robin this noon -- actually two of them hunting worms in the back yard.  And the daffodils are poking up about 3 inches. 

Kitties have yet to spot the robins who want worms not sunflower seeds.

Winter from Hell Becomes Spring

from Hell as This

becomes this:

and this 

becomes this:

Do you really need 3 guesses about how I spent last night?  Gave up about 1:30am, had a comfort food snack of cocoa and crackers, tucked in with the kitties and read until I dozed off. 

Rain, Rain Go Away! is today's song -- And don't bother to come back.  There's still banks of snow from having the roof shoveled -- Aggggggggggggg...........



Lazy Rainy Sunday

Have shelved the "shoulds" for another day -- as in should be doing IRS returns -- and spending this rainy Sunday curled up with Kindle and cats.  Just finished a very enjoyable cozy mystery -- Dead as a Scone. 


Amazon.com

and plan to start reading another in this series after lunch.

Yesterday one of my granddaughters spent the morning quilting with me.  We finished putting together the top of her doll-size quilt (29x29; 3 rows of 6" blocks with 2" sashing).  Found some fabric good for a backing in the stash, but she needs to get batting and fabric for binding before our next session.