WINTER SKIES and RED and GREEN APPLIQUE

Winter skies returned to my neck of the woods.

Gray skies that later opened up and snow flakes

floated down to earth

My kind of day---

sitting by the fire and sewing on my Red and Green Quilt.

I have been sewing on this quilt for more than 10 years I think.

Lets just say it has been a long time!

There was not a pattern for me to follow.

I traced the block from a magazine picture

and blew it up to 16"

{ I thought that seemed like a good size, nice and big, be done in no time }.

I actually lost the blocks in my sewing room for several years.

{Who looses these beautiful blocks}?

I found them on my last "clean out the sewing room"

and am I happy ! I love sewing on these blocks !

I love the slow process of appliquéing.

I can watch Downton Abby and sew on my blocks without making any mistakes.

Yup, I like snow days and applique !

NEVER ENOUGH RED

I have finally narrowed down my two favorite colors,

RED and BLUE.

These two colors I love to wear and they even look good on me....

or so I'm told.

And I love to work with them no matter the medium,

 quilting, knitting, crocheting or spinning.

I have been knitting up more dish clothes,

in RED of course.

 And I was at the store, our bran spanking new JO ANNES

{ thank goodness the old one was filthy dirty--gross }

And I just had to buy this red variegated yarn.

It was on sale---all the better !

The blue and pink variegated looked so sweat too,

into the cart it jumped.

I have been busy with my Granny Square blanket {as you can see with all the end tails that have collected in the candle dish ] and I do believe

{ at least hope }

I will have her completed by the end of next week.

I really need to get more projects off my LONG 

list of UFO's.

I have so many new projects running through my 3 cylinder cell brain.

Do you get over loaded with UFO's?

I know my quilt group { that I have not attended yet this year }

is trying to tackle one UFO a month.

Sounds like a wonderful and ambitious goal, one I need to be part of.

Soon , I hope soon !

FINISH UP FRIDAY

Ok so I really goofed and let Caitlin take this vintage quilt home with her before getting a photo of the whole quilt.

What was I thinking?

The above kinda gives you an idea of what the quilt looks like, just times it by 10 or so.

It is a BIG quilt and I do not mind saying very hard to handle the quilting with my Bernina machine.

I love the binding ! The fabric is from a dear friend of mine : Norma. I have always said  "someday I want to be like Norma"!
She is the kindest person I know!

When it came to the quilting:

 where their is a will their is a way! 

I also made these pajama bottoms last night, took about an hour.

I was so tired of wearing the pajamas I have worn for the last 2 years, I decided to get a little sassy

and make some bright colored pajamas

And oh my are they comfy :)-:).

Happy Friday to you all.

I'm hooking up with Crazy Mom Quilts today for Finish Up Friday.

VINTAGE DISH CLOTHES

Yup, I am in love with these knitted vintage kitchen towels.

{ I picked up the Wednesday Sewing kitchen towel at a flea market. I'm going back to get the rest of the week. }

I have made two more knitted kitchen towels.....I just can't seem to stop ! I also have to use maybe 2 brain cells to knit these and that is a really Good thing because that is about how many brain cells I am functioning on these days :D.

Here is the pattern for anyone who wants to get hooked on these wonderful towels.

PIES , SISTER'S and ME

The wind is howling outside, so it seems I will not be taking my walk today out doors :(

Unless of course I use my umbrella and pretend to be Mary Poppins.

Wouldn't that be fun to fly around the town?

Walking is the only thing right now that I can do that is comfortable.

As any good OR Nurse I have lived up to the rule of not being able to escape  recovery from surgery without some awful side affect.

Mine being unbearable right leg pain.

I am now on a course of a fairly high dose of a

drug that pretty much leaves me of little use to either man or beast.

So I sit on my couch and knit and sew watching Netflix movies and series.

I can even re-watch some because I either do not remember the show or I dosed during the show.

I am getting my monies worth from Netflix this month.

The really sad part is that my sister came in for a "Sisters' Week-end". 

I tried to keep my chin up [ ok both of my chins ] during the week-end .

But by Friday things were deteriorating fast, so we did a lot of watching movies and knitting.

We ate a lot and I mean a lot !

Caitlin

Mary Margaret

Caitlin, Erin, Ellen

 Caitlin on her new i-phone and Ellen , both looking up a recipe for French Silk pie. We never 

did find a recipe we liked, so no French Silk this time around.

MM

Mary makes the worlds best pie crust so that is her job on the Sisters' Week-end.

Ellen and I pealed all the apples for a delicious apple pie.

What a wonderful looking pie and the end product was superb. 

We also made a Lemon Meringue pie that was like eating in heaven.

[ I forgot to get a picture of the Lemon Meringue ].

So that is where I have been the past week.

Hope to have pictures of the knitting that I completed as well as some sewing for you all 

in a few days.

A GOOD READ

Since I have some time on my hands I thought I would give this book a read.

I know many of you are thinking " the art of keeping a home; really how boring of read can that be"?

Surprisingly it is very interesting.

But then again my favorite read is "The Social History of Knitting".

MOVIES

As you all know that when a body can do nothing but lay around it is best to keep the mind occupied.

I did this last week by watching some GREAT BBC films.

Land Girls was wonderful. Love the story line and looking at all the vintage fabrics, kitchen wears and china.

This is a 4 star show.

Island at War is a rather intense story about the Channel Islands off of England and France. These islands were occupied by the Nazi's during WWII, something I never knew. So of course I had to do some research on the subject matter. The islands were occupied for 5 years, the only English ground the German's were to get a foot hold on.

4 stars.

Bleak House is a story of an orphan who wins her love and lives well in the end. The usual Dickens story but done very well and worth the time to watch.

4 stars

And who can not love Downton Abby? 

I am all caught up with the show and anxiously awaiting the next episode. I must say it is getting rather intense.

Mary telling her husband to be her secret !

No good can come of that secret out of the bag !

Maggie Smith makes me laugh, she is sooo dry and to the point.

If you have not seen any of these shows they are well worth your time!

4 stars

WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON

Well this past week has been eventful for me.

I had back surgery last Friday for the second time in two years ! ouch!

And it is true what they say " the older one gets the harder the recovery".

But I think I am on the mend with a working back but a numb foot, nothing is ever perfect!

I have spent my week here

In front of the fireplace.

With these two watching over me.

On the couch crocheting and knitting when comfortable, [ so no I did not get a lot done ].

The puppies did get tired of watching me and would get into their bag for a nap.

Looks comfy----"not, why does he always have to put his big butt in my face", says Sadie.

I did get a picture of the moon one morning!

I started walking yesterday, a mile my first day and I felt it that evening.

I need to get to 4 miles a day over the the next several weeks. I love to walk so I know I can do this, if only their was no ice in our neighborhood.

So for now I will drive somewhere to walk like downtown or the mall to get my miles and build up the back muscles.

Join me if you like. You will know it is me, I am the lady pulling her numb foot along.

MOVIES and HEALING

I've got my line up for Instant play at Netflix.

The Land Girls is a 4 STAR series. I love looking at all the vintage dishes and clothes in this show. I even write me notes to look for----at the flea markets.

Other series will be THE KENNEDY"S
Great line up in this series.

The New Sherlock Holmes
very entertaining!

I have about 10 more BBC series that will help me heal over the next weeks.

I have casted on several projects and  I hope to plow through them all.

And last but not least, I have organized and gathered all needed materials for several hand applique.

I sure hope this time will be fruitful and just what this old body needs.

See you soon :-)