Getting Ready...

In two week is our annual retreat. So I need to start thinking about getting ready for it. I haven't looked at anything! We have a challenge block and I don't even remember what the fabric looks like (or where it is for that matter) Time to gather things up, projects to work on, supplies for the class I am taking. Extra things for the challenges.

Saving Crazy Martha

I have been doing my best to save this quilt top. It is nearly done. I added the criss-crosses and some "sashing". I am losing hope that this top can be saved, but am so close to finishing it.



Timon enjoying one of his catnip bags that I make for him using scraps.

Timon Likes It!

He is the first to use my goofy little rag rug!

Greening up Things in My Life

Their site:


Since moving to Tennessee my environmental awareness has been quite challenged. While living in California it was so easy. Everyone was so eager to recycle, reuse. I even made my own grocery bags then! But, oh how I have slipped into such land-filling ways....

It is like starting over again, thirty years ago. I've begun again to try to become more green in the things that I do every day. Every little bit helps and here are some of things I do now:

*I've hung a clothes line in my attic and dry everything there except the towels (I just like them fluffy)

*I really think that all the stash busting that I've been doing is helping too, I am not buying new fabric.
*I will even dry my yardage on the clothes line too.
*I like to buy vintage and antiques, so I did not buy new furniture or dishes.
*And I am using my grandparent's mid-century modern furniture too.
*I don't use the dry function on the dish washer. Because it is just me I only have to run it once a week.
*I keep my AC on a timer so it only cools when I am here then I don't go below 72, usually I keep it around 76.
*I use my ceiling fans in the room I am in and portables elsewhere so I don't have to cool the whole house more.

*Winter; the same thing just the heater almost never goes above 72. Lots and Lots of sweaters and slippers.
*I will use a space heater in the room I am in so I don't have to heat the whole house.
*I have switched out just about every light bulb I have to a Compact Florescent Light-bulb (CFL)

*I don't use any pesticides in my yard and use fertilizers sparingly. Though I do treat for termites and fire ants, just can't have those little buggers.
*Most of the year I will use the mulching function on my lawn mower so that the cut grass will help to fertilize the living.
*My appliances are all new so they were constructed with the latest energy efficient technology.
*My car is new to for the same reason and for safety. I would have bought a hybrid, but it was more than I could afford at the time and they weren't quite available yet. Once this one is used up in 2016 I hope to get that hover craft.
*Half of my appliances use gas (I am not sure if that is better, but I really like to cook with gas, and I believe that my clothes get dryer with gas heat. Same thing with the house, I feel warmer with gas heat. The cost seems to be the same)
*The garbage company has begun collecting recyclables I have my bin full and ready for them most every week.

***Water, water, water... boy have I been conscious of it this summer.
*I've been collecting rain water for my plants in buckets, especially since we have been in the first stages of a drought.

*I don't run the water while brushing my teeth, until I rinse. I could switch to a glass to save more.
*I collect my shower water while I wait for it to get hot, that goes on my plants.
*Same thing in the sink in the kitchen.
*I would like to purchase a water barrel for the yard, but have been procrastinating.

and lastly
*The toilet is suppose to be low flow, yeah!
*I flush when it is essential, you know "if it is yellow, let it mellow, if it is brown, flush it down"

Okay so now you have that visual burned into your brain, go out and do something green...
Each bit will help the big picture no matter how small.

New Modern Quilt - Crazy Martha

I have been looking at this pinned on my wall for the last month and it just couldn't find excitement over it anymore, not the way the last quilt did. I realized it was just too regular and predictable. So, I put some of my crazy (and there has been a lot of it in me these days) into it and added something unexpected, and to bring some sanity to me. It, again, may not be my best work, but at least I like it better than I did a few days ago and it has gotten me to sew again.

I think I am a little more nuts when I am not sewing. I always feel a bit more stable when I am sewing, making a progression to some sort of completion. Finding some kind of sanity amongst the chaos, some small bit I can control and conduct.

I think I am calling it "Crazy Martha" because most of it made with Martha Negley Prints, and my part of crazy is making it.


My rag rug is finished too. I don't like it as much as I did several months ago and need to move it from UFO to something silly that I use as a bath mat.

Cutting Squares

Last night while watching TV I felt obligated to "create" something, but considering the dissaster that was the purse, I also wanted to keep it simple. So I cut some of my scraps up into square piles of 2", 3", 4", and 5". It went well!

BTW, I have no clue what I will make with them.

One quilt is finished

I made a second purse (it was suppose to be a smaller version of the one I made earlier) yesterday. Had cut out the pieces earlier. Well, everything that could go wrong, did. I forgot the batting, most of the pieces got sewn together backwards, which I ripped out and sewed correctly. The handles are too long, the closure is on the wrong side. Good grief! I hate projects that mess up that way... It wasn't even worthy of a picture of its sad self.

So, I floundered around looking for something that I could finish ... successfully!

I made three long overdue labels for a few of my quilts and sewed them on, correctly. And finshed the binding on a quilt I had started earlier. Pretty benign, but also hard to mess up. I think I'm going to sit down before I hurt myself and bask in the sunshine of what I did accomplish....