Six on Sunday - Week 18

This weekend, we turned our focus to our pantry, which had gotten terribly disorganized.  We neglected to take a "before" picture, but we did take a snap of the stuff we decided to throw away or empty out.

Pantry Items to remove (utensils not included) - weight not recorded

We are keeping the utensils in this picture, but all the boxes, cans, and contents must go! There are probably a month's worth of Six on Sunday items here, but we'll just count them as a day's worth.

We also neglected to capture a weight for these items, but it was heavy enough to split a lawn-and-leaf trash bag!  We had to quickly get a second bag around it to keep it from spilling everything onto the kitchen floor. And get out the vacuum cleaner to clean up what did.

After pulling out all the items on a shelf (keepers and trashers), we cleaned off the shelf, then took some thought as to how to restore the keepers in an organized fashion.

After Picture - a lot tidier

We still need to pull out the stuff on the floor of the pantry, sweep it out, and restore it after a thoughtful sorting.

Larry

Blanketeer Project Day

Yesterday the Bee Blanketeers had a project day with lots of fun, good food and yes, some work did get accomplished!  Here, Sheila can be seen holding up a recent group project.  She and Rachel and another Blanketeer exchanged scraps and made this festive quilt top.

Sheila's sister, Gerri (you can tell they are sisters by their similar taste in footwear lol) can be seen holding up this black and white border quilt.

I'm not sure why everyone was staring at Rachel for this picture, but at least they were all holding still for the picture.  lol

We had a terrific potluck.  As I recall, Gerri asked for Virginia's breakfast casserole recipe, which is already on the blog here.

Dear Jane - Patriot's Lantern Complete

It was wonderful to get back to Dear Jane.  I love these little blocks!  I prepared the applique for C-9, Jane's Tears, using the method described on Esther's Quilt Blog.  Instead of basting down the edges, she uses freezer paper and starch.  I sprayed a little starch into the cap of the spray bottle, then used a small brush to apply the starch to the edges before ironing.  This method works very well; with the edges staying crisply folded under after the freezer paper is removed.

Now I just have to stitch the applique to the ground.  I saved this hand-work for tomorrow's Blanketeer project day.  I also hope to make some serious progress on Grand Illusion tomorrow also.

I have already completed C-10, Patriot's Lantern.  This block has so much white in it that it was a mistake to use medium grey thread in the bobbin.  I think it made dark shadows along the seams, which make it seem slightly dirty.  That's one mistake I will not make again.

This paper piecing was so easy.  The outer edges do not have a single matching seam.  I just aligned the ends and sewed away. This block will not stay ironed.  The sides are not actually crooked, they are just curling upwards.

Must crochet faster!

Grandma finished a second baby jacket and I hadn't even finished the first one yet.  I finally got the lavender jacket edged Saturday night while visiting with Grandma.  Her ribbon supply was getting low after making so many jackets, so Larry and I hit Hobby Lobby on our way to Shreveport and picked up a selection of pastels. 

There is always lots of yarn left (from two skeins) after making this pattern.  At my suggestion, Grandma combined the pink and variegated yarns to make this darling little jacket.  I edged all around the top, arms and front with the variegated yarn, which was then almost completely used up.  I edged the bottom in the pink.  

I really like how mixing up the edgings unifies the design.  I had just enough yarn leftover to make a little variegated rosette to pull it all together.  I think this pink jacket might be my favorite one yet.  It was certainly the most fun to work on, and it definitely doesn't look like it was made to use up leftovers.

Larry and I are just a couple of enablers.  We made another trip to Hobby Lobby after we got home to buy more variegated yarn for Grandma.  Now she can use up more partial skeins.  I think there is more crocheting in my future - at least I have gotten much faster! 

Tatting Tuesday - Almost Ready to Fly

The second wing on the Snow Dragon is ready to be joined to the body and worked through the last row.

Snow Dragon - Second Wing ready to join

Of course, this work would go faster if I wouldn't make so many mistakes....

Larry

Six on Sunday - Week 17

Back up in the attic again, another box of old computer books for review.

7 really old textbooks, 4 old reference manuals, 1 stack of old organizer pages - 28 pounds

A lot of these books are computer textbooks from when I was in college (back in the Dark Ages). The rest are Apple Macintosh books, which would make them "only" 20 years old or so.

Also in the box was a bag of old personal organizer pages, again from 20 years ago.  Why I've kept them, I have no earthly idea; by this time, all of the information on them is very likely to be obsolete. Certainly I don't need my to-do lists from two decades ago! I guess it's a case of "out of sight, out of mind"; once it's tucked away in a box in the attic, don't give it another thought.

Larry

Singer Restoration Sunday - Stripping off the old paint

Here is the Model 66 I'm working on, with most of the rust and old paint removed.

I removed this much with an electric drill sander, using 60-80 grit sandpaper. Next week, I will use my sandblaster to get at the harder-to-reach parts (like the inside of the throat and the underside).

Larry

Harlequin-Johnny - Finally Finished

Finally finished piecing the arcs for the Harlequin-Johnny quilt.

Now I think I'll do a nice Dear Jane block or two.

Susan

Wordless Thursday - Harlequin-Johnny

Another step closer to the finish

Wordless Wednesday - Harlequin-Johnny

What do you mean there are 17 of them?!