Trying to get back into my routine.

We've been home for over a week now and I'm still having trouble getting back into my daily routine. Part of my problem is that I've got plantar fasciitis in my right foot which is making walking quite painful. I usually start my morning with a long fast walk, but the most I've been able to do is a slow short one and it's just not the same. Amazing how one little thing can throw me out of sync.

I did do a special order of fabrics and with the leftover dye stock I did some ice dying with the old ice in the ice maker. The fabrics came out very intense and bright.

I love doing these, but never use them and so I'm  creating a rather large collection that's taking up space.
I also put together some of my indigo fabrics that I did a couple of years ago. I just need to figure out what I will be doing stitch wise on them.

My Janome is still in the repair shop, this makes almost seven weeks. Last time I talked to him he was still waiting on parts. In the mean time I'm so fed up with the whole situation that I went to the Bernina dealer and bought a new machine. Unfortunately it's on backorder so I haven't gotten it yet.

My daily, weekly and monthly projects are about all that I've accomplished.
 Red circles #135 - #142

Indigo and Rust #63 - #70

Week #20

Month of May, notions

This post is now linked to Off the Wall Friday.

Road trip: week two

We spent a weekend in Phoenix, actually Mesa, AZ for our oldest granddaughter's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, held outdoors in the evening. You will have to take my word for it because as usual I'm pretty hopeless taking pictures of people. After leaving the Phoenix area we headed north east and our first stop was the giant meteor crater. This is my favorite view from this stop, the crater is actually behind me.

Next was the Petrified Forest. The skies were getting very interesting so I took several black and white photos.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument was up next, more wonderful curvy rocks.

Then Arches National Park where it rained most of the time we were there, but that didn't deter us. I took more pictures of curvy rocks!

Then we had to head to Reno, NV because Don was bowling in a tournament. We stayed with one of our sons and his family. To get there we drove over 500 miles on US 50,aka The loneliest road in America.

Long straight stretches of road interrupted with twisty roads going over the mountain passages, I lost track after seven summits. You may also notice there's no other traffic on the road. There is some but it's very easy to go several miles without seeing another vehicle. The view on the Garmin alternated between these two scenes.

While Don bowled I got to spend time with our youngest granddaughters, so it was fun for both of us. It was a great trip and there are several places I'd like to revisit in the future, even if it's just to see the curvy red rock formations again.

Road trip; week one.

I've been going over the hundreds of pictures I took on our road trip and will share a few. Our first stop was Bryce Canyon National Park, the sun was very bright that day and most of my pictures look pretty washed out. If having good images of where you've been is important to you I'd recommend the postcards that are in the gift shops. It's not that important to me so my pictures are not necessarily of the main attraction.

Zion National Park was the next stop.

These are two of the many photos of curving lines in the rock formations.
Next stop Grand Canyon.

Then the Desert Botanical Gardens.

I've  posted different photos on my daily photo blog during the trip, and I'll post more  tomorrow.

Did you miss me?

We arrived home last night after a 3330 mile road trip that was quite wonderful. In the past two weeks we have been to Bryce canyon NP, Zion NP, Glen canyon Dam and bridge, the east and south rims of the Grand Canyon, Sedona, the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, our granddaughters wedding in Phoenix (the reason we took the trip), the Giant Meteor Crater, the Petrified Forest, Canyon de Chelly, Arches NP, and Reno for my husbands bowling tournament and a visit with another set of granddaughters. I plan on posting some trip pictures later in the week.

The day before we left I got a surprise package in the mail from one of my sons, he recently traveled to India and bought me a few yards of silk. The colors are extremely vibrant, my photo doesn't do them justice.

The peacock and saffron colors are so much more intense than the photo shows. Right now I have no idea what I will do with these, just fondle and admire for awhile.

I kept up with my daily projects while on the trip, usually in the evenings after dinner.
365 red circles #120 - #134

Indigo and rust #48 - #62

Week #18

Week #19

5/17 This post is now linked to Off The Wall Fridays , go check out some other great blogs.

A worn out sewing machine and an art surprise in the mail

Shortly before my trip to Cleveland I started to have problems with my Janome 6500, then when I came home every time I tried to sew anything I'd break a needle. The repair person/ Janome dealer is in Boise, so it was a few days before I could get my machine in to the shop. I left it with an employee, explaining what was wrong. A week later I called and found out that he hadn't even looked at it because the slip didn't say what was wrong. After explaining what was wrong I waited another week and called again, left messages, called again and finally got a response - he still hadn't looked at it, but would and would call me back. When he finally called back late Friday afternoon to tell me that I had completely worn out the bushing that holds the needle bar in place and he would have to contact the factory. Here we are three weeks later and still no call back to tell me if he can fix it.  So my trusty old Bernina 1230 has been brought in from studio b and is doing an excellent job of filling in. It quilted my "365 days to 65" piece with out a problem, has made a vest, a skirt for my grand daughter, some donation quilts and a stuffed snake. I think it's happy to be used again.

A few weeks ago my friend Lisa Flowers Ross was celebrating her 1000'th post with a giveaway of one of her fabric collages she did as a daily project for the month of February. This is what came in the mail for me today.

I love it!! The white fabric with the dark "stitching" is actually a screen print that Lisa did with one of my screens.  The white stitching is actual stitching and it's about 6" sq.

Here's what I've been stitching;
365 red circles #109 - #114

Indigo and rust #37 - #42

Weekly stitching #17

Now linked to "Off the Wall Friday".

Daily and weekly projects and not much else

I'm having one of those times in my life where I have lots of ideas but I can't seem to focus on any of them. I know that all I really need to do is just get started, but I keep getting sidetracked and doing other things. I didn't take a before picture but my pile of unsorted scraps, etc was overflowing the basket on the right side of the photo below.

The pile moved to the top of my ironing table, a few of the larger pieces got put away, one piece got cut up and reassembled to become a top for a child's quilt that I will donate, unfortunately most of the rest went right back down into the pile. That's the way my creative life seems to be going. The ideas are piling up.

I was showing a non quilting friend my daily projects recently and I was questioned about the amount of time I spent on them daily and how do I know what to stitch on each one. So for the last five days I've actually been keeping track of how much time they take. I generally do both the red circle project and indigo and rust in the same time period. I spent between 26 min and 46 min for an average of 35 minutes per day to do both of the daily projects. My weekly ones I do in the evenings in front of the tv and spend between 2 - 4 hours on each one.

How do I know what to stitch on each one is not as easy to answer and sometimes the answer is I don't know, I just sit down and start. The red circles are relatively easy because I'm going to do a circle, I just need to decide how each time. On the indigo and rust pieces I generally respond to some markings on the fabric, but not always. I rarely have an idea of what I will stitch ahead of time, once I've got the fabric and threaded needle in hand I always just start stitching and something emerges. I'm sure that having done this for over a year has made it much easier for me and I did a lot of  embroidery kits when  I was much younger.

Red circles #100 - #105

Red circles #106- #108

Indigo and Rust #28 - #33

#34 - #36

Weekly Project wk #15 and #16

Now linked to "Off the wall Friday", go check out the other great blogs.

Happy Colors and new scissors

While walking the dog this morning I kept noticing the bright blue sky and the springy yellow green of the trees and I realized I was smiling - the colors just made me feel happy!

I received a gift from Havel's Sewing for doing the QATV taping and today I used my new scissors for the first time. I needed to cut out more circles for the applique pieces I'm doing in my 365 red circles daily project. Most of the fabric I cut today was silk and the serrated edge on the 7"fabric scissors handled the silk beautifully. Really nice scissors, thanks Havel's.

This is the pile I cut, I also cut the fusible lightweight woven interfacing that has been fused to the back of the silk for more stability. Some of the silks are very lightweight and the interfacing makes them much easier to work with.

Here are #93- #99 of the 365 red circles daily stitching.

Indigo and rust daily stitching # 21 - #27

Week #14

March and April's monthly notion project.

I have an idea bouncing around in my head that wants to be another daily project, I keep trying to convince myself that I really don't need another project, but the idea is pretty persistent. It may end up being an almost daily project and not a year in length. I'll keep you posted.


4/12 -Now linked to "Off the Wall Friday"