What about some reading?

I am an avid reader. 

I always have been. 

 Truth be told I much prefer it to stitching.

That means I seem to "Collect" books! 

This is my To Be Read shelf.

Three feet long and stuffed-all non-fiction!

Fiction is on my Kindle where I have a hundred or so unread.  (Some I began and don't like, need to delete those.)

I am currently reading this! 

I received it for Book Flood at Christmas and 

 I have enjoyed it as I love reading about women's lives in the past.

 I have about 30 pages left which is a really good thing as both Dewithon22 (Welsh read along for more information see Book Jotter.)

AND

the Irish read along begin tomorrow!

I've never played along, mostly because I didn't know about either of them.  

So, I have a To Be Read List for both!

 For Dewithon22:

I love Folk and fairy tales-kid at heart-plus I need some new material to read to the littles.

I might read the rest of this trilogy if I like this one.

For the Irish, the pile is a bit larger.

The two books by Delaney were on the to be read shelf-score!

More folk tales and Legends, a Children's book, A Memoir, and the one with green on the cover- (They have prompts.  I didn't meet them all.)

I think this is going to be FUN!

I really hope I get them all read before the end of March!

I'm cold.

 So what do I do?

Move the stitching upstairs!

I can't do any machine work at the moment as Belle is in the shop and Jill is waiting for her to come home and go in herself.  Both have serious tension issues.  Probably due to the fact that the studio is cold.  I've tried everything I know to do to make it warm down there, short of a new furnace that is! Oh well, it is what it is and in a few months I will be grateful for that 10 degrees lower temperature! 

I'm currently enjoying work on the Sleigh,

But Trail Mix is sitting on the end of my table and I'll get to it soon.

When Belle comes home next week I will work on free motion quilting a little each day, ugh.  Still upstairs.

The reason I'm cold?  Besides the fact that the studio is in the basement that is.

We got 7inches of snow last Thursday!

Today, it looks like this.

It's melting fast but more is coming this week!

There was one final finish this week!

You can see it in the photos of the table but here's a close up.

You might remember that I completed it last year!  I just couldn't figure our what to do with it!

So, I added it to the top of a wooden box!  It now resides in my office where is holds my sticky note obsession.

Stay warm.  (or cool if you are down under!)

Happy Valentine's Day

May your day be filled with LOVE!

Actually, may all your days be filled with LOVE!

 

A finish-not quilting

The jacket is repaired!

I just needed to remember how one put in a zipper!

There were some repairs to be made on the inside as well and in places it's not pretty, 

but he's had it a good long while as he bought it on his honeymoon in Ireland back in 2009!

It's getting a bit threadbare in places but should hold up for another 10 years.

He called me his hero.

Makes zipper troubles all worth it!

I have finished the deep clean of the house.

Thank Goodness!

I swear I've scrubbed this house before!

I can't remember when though.

There are still three rooms that are simply too cold to work in at the moment so that will wait for Spring.

I also finished reading The Immortal Irishman by Timothy Egan.  I always enjoy Egan's books but this one took a REALLY long time to finish!

I just began Eat My Words:  Reading Women's Lives Through the Cookbooks They Wrote by Janet Theophano.   Hopefully that one will go a bit quicker!

I've been practicing the free motion stuff and not feeling the least bit happy with either the process or the results.

I decided I need help.  So I took myself off to Quilter's Station (LQS) yesterday. 

After chatting with the ladies we came to the conclusion that it was going to take me a long time to learn how to do it!  I'd really like to give this to Izzy before she turns 16 so. . .

I'm going to work at just being able to stitch around the dolls (and maybe some of the clothes, hair etc) and leave the rest open.  

Basically, she gave me permission to not do squiggly things!  

So, I'll be working on learning something much easier as soon as I get tension issues straightened out.  I think it might be the cold in the studio so I brought it up today and will see what happens.  If that doesn't work then it will have to go into the repair shop.  I am not terribly found of Belle the Bernina!

I have a collection of crystal prisms that hang in various windows and make rainbows!

I always smile when I see them.

This one is the first time I've seen the colors so true yet so mixed!

The color bands are usually more contained.

 I took the day off today, took a nap etc but tomorrow I need to find my MOJO and find something to focus on in place of cleaning!

FNwF

Time evaporates!  It's suddenly the first 

Friday of February and time for Friday Night With Friends!

I spent the day cleaning.  A good tidy up and then it was off to the studio to deep clean and do some "tweaking" to the room arrangement.

After all that work I didn't have much energy for stitching but the Winter Games opening ceremony was on the TV so I did a little while I watched.

From the "Mom can you fix this" category I worked at replacing a zipper in a jacket Scott especially loves.  I say worked at as I haven't done much of this for a REALLY long time and it's taking several tried to get it right.  Well, that still hasn't happened!  I tried to use heavy thread and even putting it in the bobbin has not worked well, so next up is regular cotton thread.  Maybe tonight.

I also practiced loop de loop quilting-got a ways to go there, although it looks better in the photo than I thought it did in person!  This is what I'm going to do to Paper Dolls.

Once I get better at it that is.

Thank you Cheryl for hosting this fun evening!

 

Quess What?

It SNOWED!

Not the 6-14 inches they predicted but 4-5 over two days.

Now it's quite cold~ 12F/-8C and it feels even colder.

It's even too cold for Quinn!

My grands in Missouri are all out of school-well the big boys are doing remote (NOT because of THE VIRUS for a change.)

PS: I tried to post a video of it snowing but something went wrong!

 

What to do with Paper Dolls

 This is the current state of Paper Dolls.  All laid out on the floor~the only place big enough to get it all in a photo.  Even then it's not completely unwrinkled. Cute right?

There has never been a quilt that started out as so much fun and became such a problem!

It has been quilted along the seams of the sashing with a curvy stitch which I quite like (and will be impossible to take out!

The problem now is that the blocks are wrinkled.  I think it needs more quilting as the blocks are fairly large 7.5 x 10 Inches I think.  I am concerned about what will happen once it's washed and all the "Glue" holding the pieces down washes out.

I am thinking of adding big stitch quilting around the "Dolls" in white.  I could add some more machine quilting but I don't want to quilt over the doll.

Any thoughts.

Suggestions.

At this rate I will never finish this one!