LaVieEnRosie

Upside down...

Everything - and everybody - here is fine.  And improving.  Mostly.  

Whew.  That's the good news.  And maybe the so-so news.  I think my point is that no matter which way we get turned, we're still hanging in - and on.

No matter what they're doing, pandas always manage to look cute.  I can't help it but that sort of annoys me.

My Mom is still in rehab and it looks like she'll be there at least another week.  We've had a lot of ups and downs the past couple of week, and while I won't bore you with details, let it suffice to say that she still has some issues that are very worrisome.  In short - getting old isn't for sissies.  My Mom is handling it all well and the thing that makes me the happiest is that she's maintained her sense of humor and she's still nice to people.  That might sound odd but oy vey, there are some really crabby old people.  Were they always that way, or did life make them that way?  I often wonder.

Uh... I like that pandas always manage to look cute.  Really.  (Not.)

My brother was here for a "short week" and that was a really nice visit.  When he heard that my Mom needed to gain some weight and could have "contraband" food, he introduced her to Five Guys hamburgers.  It's that sort of thing that really cements his status as the "favorite".  I've told you before that he's a really nice man.

I wish I could tell you that I've been getting a lot of sewing done but that's not the case.  This is about it...

I got them pieced almost two weeks ago and I still haven't had a chance to trim them up.  If I don't get a chance to sew this weekend, I'm going to be a crabby old person!

What else has been going on?  I cleaned out a storage unit - mine.  I sorted through boxes there and while I took a few carloads home, I'm now on a first-name basis with the nice young men who unload vehicles at Goodwill... except they also go running when they see my car.  Boxes of books are heavy.  So are boxes of old fabric.  Going through all that stuff has given me new perspective on those shows like Storage Wars... as in, huh?  I know there are folks with really good stuff in their storage units, but that's like... what, 1% of the storage-unit population?  From a set of encylopedias - don't ever doubt how much you love Google! - to old quilting fabric - hey, VIP and Cranston used to be really good stuff!  I had papers and projects from school - porquoi?  Clothes from the 70s, 80s and 90s... does anyone still wear legwarmers?  Great moments in fashion history - Flashdance and Jane Fonda workout videos.

Thankfully, with an assist from Two Men & A Truck (.com), I'm done.  I admit it, I was going to do the last bit myself but when I weighed all the costs, they were far and away the smartest choice.  Yes, it cost $300.00, but I probably saved at least $1000.00 - the minimum amount it would have cost me to be transported to the emergency room to have my foot/leg/hip fixed after dropping the 150 lb. butcher block while trying to move it.  Watching the two men wrestle that thing out of storage, onto the truck and then into the kitchen reminded me that every time that thing has been moved, two men were involved.

As for one of the things I brought home... two men were not involved when I "obtained" this:

I've had this for thirty-something years so I know the Statue of Limitations has expired.  My brother thinks I should send it back to the City of ***** with a letter of apology.  Yeah, right.   

I can't think of anything else... I mentioned a while ago that I was pulling out my Fig Tree creams for a "crumbler" quilt and this is what I've got.   The challenge is going to be making myself take them out of the basket to actually cut them up.  I rather like the way they look just like this... I know, I know... that means I'll really like it when it's a finished quilt.   

That's all the news that's fit to print here - and no, I don't have any news that isn't fit to print either.  

One last thing - Sinta and Sherri will be starting a new Schnibbles event on Monday.  The pattern - think "vintage" - will be in the store on Monday as a PDF file and there will be a little special offer listed there... if you're interested.

Happy Easter!

Mixmaster...

A couple of lifetimes ago, I lived in Dallas, Texas.  It was a big change for a girl who had grown up mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area, followed by a couple of years in Los Angeles.  If you've never been to Texas... it's different.  

Good.  Even great.  But different - at least, different from California.

One of the first things I learned in Texas was all about "the Mixmaster".  I thought it was a mixer - you know, like a Sunbeam.  That was all the rage then, it was before Kitchen Aids were so cool... before all the colors.  Anyway, this had nothing to do with baking.  This had to do with freeways, more specifically, with freeway intersections.  Especially the freeway intersections that connect the loops and the criss-crossing arteries of freeways that connect up all the big cities.  It's an engineering marvel... unless you're "here" and you need to get "over there" in the space of 1/4 mile and 12,000 other cars are trying to do the opposite.  And it's all happening at 80 mph... or maybe that was just me.  

The point is, it's like being thrown into a mixmaster.  Or it sure feels that way.

That's what life feels like these days.  It isn't a bad thing, it's just a little chaotic... and I'm a girl who likes my peace and quiet.  

My Mom is good - doing better - but she's not home yet.  Two days before she was ready to be sprung, her little cold turned into pneumonia and wham... parole denied.  If all goes well, we're looking at the end of next week.  

So while my days are divided between visits with my Mom, Rosie, that pesky work/business thing, and all the house/life/normal stuff, I am getting a little sewing done.  It's National Quilting Month and yes, I've managed to do at least a teeny bit of sewing every day - even if it's almost midnight.

I don't know if you remember these blocks...

I need 200 for my quilt and I have almost half of them done.  (No, this isn't all of them.)  I'll get started on the half-triangle squares for the next batch tonight.  

I'm also finishing a border on a new Schnibble...

Avalon by Joanna Figueroa  - Miss Fig Tree.  It's even better in person - I really love this collection.  Okay, so I like them all.  Does anybody do "cream" better than Joanna?  I don't think so.  The downside of it is that I got a little distracted and started going through drawers and shelves to pull out as many cream prints as I had.  Which then led me to a little midnight-online shopping for a few more because I think I need a Crumbler/tumbler quilt made entirely of Fig Tree cream prints.  And 37 different prints wasn't enough variety.  (Okay, it is... but more is better, right?)

Speaking of Crumblers... oy vey.  Here's proof of just how slow I've been lately.  I have a new one - a little one.  

It's Kathie's fault.  After I asked - some whining and pleading may have been involved - she sent me some small tumblers she'd cut for a little project.

How cute is this?  I added the extra rows of tumblers and the side borders, and I'll trim it all straight after I've quilted it - which I'll do when I decide how to finish it.  I'm thinking this would make a cute little pillow.  

And because she didn't want to hear any more whining, she sent me this for Halloween.

This is going to be a wall-hanging - after it's quilted.

I was having so much fun with the tiny tumblers that I wanted to make "more" little Crumbler/tumbler projects.  And since I already knew that I'd have a hard time finding "my perfect template", I pestered the ruler-folks until they made a little one for me - the Lil' Crumbler.

Of course the first thing I had to make with the prototype was something with tumblers even smaller the ones Kathie had sent...

These tumblers were cut from a 1 1/2" strip and they finish at 1" tall.  After I pieced it, I "aged" it a bit and then framed it in an 11" x 14" frame.  The funniest thing about this little quilt is that it took me longer to lay out all the little tumblers than it did to sew them together.   

What?  What about that little red and cream thing under the frame?

Uh... I'm sorry about the blurry picture.  I didn't realize it was blurry until this morning and I can't take another because the quilt is "elsewhere" right now.  But this is what I can tell you - it measures about 10" x 12" and it's made with 1 1/2" strips.  The tumblers are cut from two strips - one red and one cream - sewn together.  I think it looks a lot more complicated than it is.

Like "mixmasters".  

And me.  I do like to make things interesting getting from "here" to "there."