Ummm...Loretta...You There????

Quote for the Day:

"Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings."
~Jane Austen

Oh, Lordy....what to say?  I never intended to drop off the face of the earth like this.  I so admire people who blog everyday...or at least frequently.  Many times I feel I have nothing to add to the blogosphere.  But, also, many times life gets hectic and time gets away from me.  I spend so much time going from appointment to appointment that when I'm not traipsing about, I just want to "veg".  

Remember two weeks ago when I told you about the epidural injection that wasn't?  Well, this past Thursday I had another, different kind of injection.  This one was a medial nerve block of L2, L3, L4, and L5 right medial nerves and was actually FOUR different injections...one into each of the lumbar levels mentioned.  This is supposed to relieve my lower right back pain, but will not do anything for the nerve pain down my legs.  So far, the injections seem to have helped.  The injections were done yesterday and as of today I've had no pain in my right lower back.  Time will tell how successful the injections were, (they aren't meant to be permanent) but I'm hoping the pain stays away for a while!

Now on to funner things!  :)

The construction company has finished their parts of the new garage, workshop, and carport.  We are waiting for the gutter company to come apply gutters to the garage and workshop and for the garage door company to come install electric garage doors to the garage.  At some point, we will also be having an electrician come in and install electricity to the garage (so those wonderful automatic garage doors will work!)  

Here are the pictures as they look now, sans the gutters and garage doors...

 

 

This picture shows the garage, carport and house.  You can see how closely the garage and carport match the house colors!  :)

In my "spare" time, I've been looking for a pattern that I can use to make my 1930's repros/vintage embroidered linen quilt.  I LOVE star quilts, so have been looking to find a pattern that I like and that will work with what I want to do.  The center of the star needs to be big enough that a crazy-pieced block using the vintage linen can be used.  I don't want the stars to touch each other, either.  I think.  

I think I've decided on a pattern and layout, so I made a practice star.

Does the pink fabric look familiar to you, Kristin???  ;)

I don't like the usual way of making flying geese (for the star points) where you sew squares on the diagonal and cut and toss the corner.  So I made this block using a "new to me" method of making flying geese called the "No Waste" method.  Let me just say that this new way is Da Bomb!!!

This will be the method I will be using to make ALL of the star points for my upcoming quilt!!! There is NO wasted fabric!!!  I only had to "sliver-trim" the flying geese blocks...and when I say "sliver-trim" I mean SLIVER-TRIM!!! There were only very slight shavings to get them the correct size!!!

The block is 12.5" unfinished.  Can't wait to get started on the real thing!!!  :)

Loretta

SEX and Other Things...

Like Mrs. Bobbins in the cartoon, I decided to have SEX today (Stash Enhancing eXperience) for a WHIMM (Work Hidden In My Mind).  

I fell in serious love with this quilt at the quilt show because of the soft tones of the feed sacks...

I love love love the 1930's reproduction fabrics that are out these days, but have never bought more than a stray piece of them.  

As you may remember, I collect vintage linens with embroidery on them, but sometimes they have (or develop) holes or stains.   I've been putting those aside with plans to make them into a quilt, somehow.  

I saw this blog post from HenHouse where she made some quilt blocks using vintage embroidered linens and 30's repros together...

(source)  

I don't think that I have THAT many embroidered linens to make enough blocks for a whole quilt, so I decided to combine the idea of the two quilts somehow.  I haven't come to a definite conclusion, but I'm thinking of adding strips of 30's repros to the embroidered linen pieces to make them, say 8.5" or 9.5" unfinished.  Then take the 30's repros and making some pinwheel or other pattern block and alternating the two blocks.  

Which leads me to my SEX today.  After my hair appointment in Fairmont, I went to the LQS there and picked up some white Moda muslin and some 30's repros FQ's (fat quarters, for the non-quilters who read the blog!).

I will add them to the few 30's repros that I already have...

Hopefully, this project won't be a PIG (Project In Grocery sack) for long.  I'm looking forward to making this beautiful quilt, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to have a couple good, stiff drinks to be able to cut into the embroidered linens and to cut through the embroidery to get them small enough to put into these blocks.  Cutting into the vintage linens will be like cutting into a damaged quilt...I'm afraid I will hear it shriek like lobsters do going into the boiling water.  :(    You do know that quilts cry when you cut them, right?  They do.

This quilt will be for ME!  :)  I don't make many for myself...I usually give them away.  But this one will be specifically for me.  And Andy.  Maybe.  :)


Now, here's an update on the construction progress of our buildings....
Basically, nothing more has transpired with my garage, but Andy's workshop is pretty close to being done.  

It still needs a window installed in the back wall, and the trim and gutters installed, but other than that, it's pretty much DONE.

Of course, give a guy a toy and he can't WAIT to play with it...

Andy had to try the doors to see if everything worked and I caught this picture just as he was raising the roll-up door!  Yep...the door works!  :)

Loretta

Updates From the Homestead...

 Quote for the Day:

Thought I'd update you all on a couple things going on around here...

First off, construction was started on our garage and workshop on the new property this week.  They were only able to work on them for 2 days this week because of rain, but things are moving right along, anyway.

Garage, street-view:

Garage, inside, looking from right front corner to left side:

Yes, this thing is HUGE for a garage...24' deep by 32' long!  :)  

The beginings of Andy's workshop located behind the garage:

The workshop is slightly smaller at only 20' deep by 32' long.  Still, though, plenty of room for storage of Andy's "stuff".  


Several months ago, a new client found me through the local quilt store and asked me to repair the bindings on 3 vintage quilts she had that had been passed down through her family.  I posted about the first one here.   I finally got around to completing the second one this past week.

This is that horrible red fabric that I posted about that just kept bleeding, no matter how many times I washed it.  The last time I rinsed it in vinegar, but it was still bleeding.  At that point I just gave up and went ahead and applied it to the quilt.  I have warned the customer that it bleeds and recommended that if she washes the quilt that she should use several color catchers to keep the red from bleeding onto the white.   

She has one more quilt that she wants me to repair the binding on, and when she picks up this quilt, she'll drop off that one for me to work on.  

And, last but not least, here is the latest update on the Blue Ridge Beauty quilt that is currently in my quilt frame...

This is the center block, meaning...I'M HALFWAY DONE!  woohooo!

You can see that now my lines of stitching are going in the opposite direction...following the layout of the quilt.



Uh-oh!!  Points that don't quite match???  Say it ain't so, Loretta!!  

Yep.  Just keepin' it real...

Loretta

This Land is My Land....

Quote for the Day:

“Take pride in how far you've come. 

Have faith in how far you can go. 

But don't forget to enjoy the journey."

 ~Michael Josephson

After all my talking lately about our "new" property that we've been working on and cleaning up, I thought that maybe some of you...well, maybe at least ONE of you...might want to see what I'm talking about and see the progress!  (Okay...so maybe no one will find this interesting, but it *is* my blog, and I want to blog about it, so I'm going to...because I'm ornery like that.)

I've blogged about it a little here, but here is the main gist of the story:

Back in November of 2011, we bid on and won the property next to ours at a tax lien sale.  There was a contractor in town that bid against us and lost.  He was bitter about it and started dumping construction debris and trash on the property.  With a tax lien sale in our state, you can't touch the property for 18 months, thus giving the owners a chance to redeem it.   So for 18 months, we got to sit by and watch as this contractor systematically destroyed this property.   We couldn't get the code city code enforcement officers to do anything about it, because they are friends with the contractor.  :(

April 1, 2013, the property legally became ours and the contractor began pulling his equipment off of the property that he had parked there, and also he began removing any useable construction supplies.  He left all the trash, of course.  

We were advised by our lawyer to still not do anything until we actually had the deeds in our hands.  The deeds arrived in the mail on April 13!!

At that point, we put up "No Trespassing" signs and started making plans for cleaning up the property and making our plans for the use of it. 

Since April 13th, we've been working on the property to clean it up.  We've given away reclaimed/reusable wood and firewood.  We've burned brush and other debris on the property.  And most recently, we've concentrated on getting the cement pads cleaned up and ready so that we have a garage and workshop (2 different buildings) constructed on the site.

 First cement pad before...

Same cement pad now...cleaned off, old floor tiles removed...ready for a garage!

(Picture taken from right front corner... 

Same pad...taken from left front corner...

 

Second cement pad before...

Same cement pad now...just needs one more sweeping and then it will be ready for construction to begin on Andy's 20' X 32' workshop!

Third cement pad before...

Third cement pad now...okay...so it's not perfect, yet,

but it's a work in progress...

 Fourth cement pad before...

 ...now...

 Brush and debris before...

...same area now...

Firewood before...

...and now...

This is still what needs to be cleaned up and burned...

Now that we are in the heat of the summer here, these piles will probably wait until Fall, when it cools off.  We are happy with the progress we've made so far and are looking forward to getting the buildings constructed that we want:  a 2-stall garage, Andy's workshop, and a 2-car carport.  

It's been a long road as far as it's been, and there's still a ways to go.  But lots of progress has been made and we are happy that the property now adds to, rather than detracts from, the neighborhood and surrounding home values.   It is rewarding to look out and see the beautiful green trees and grass rather than the run-down equipment and debris that we've had to look at for 18 months!  

Thanks for taking this pictorial journey with me! 

Loretta

 

 

Overview of a Great Weekend...

Quote for the Day:

"Fun is good."

Dr. Seuss 

Wow!  What a mixture of events this weekend held!  

I started out Friday and Saturday by working on some quilt blocks.  First, I made about 30 scrappy log cabin blocks to add to my collection...trying to use up some of the 1.5" strips from the box that exploded.  Here's just a sample of what I made...

I now have a total of 93--6.5" scrappy log cabin blocks.  I don't know what size quilt I'll make with them, but I tend to do queen-sized bed quilts.  So a quilt that size will take approx. 200-225 of this size block.  

Now I can get the lid on the 1.5" strip box!  LOL

Much neater now!  :)

I also made 5 blocks to add to the Craftsy BOM quilt that I'm making in pastels.  These blocks are 12.5" unfinished.  I think I figured out one time that I will need 39 blocks to finish this quilt, so I now have 18 of them done.  :(  I need to working on more of them to get this finished up.

In the process of all of this piecing, I finished 5 of my Maverick Star blocks that I am doing as a "leader/ender" project.  The points and centers of all of these Maverick Star blocks are made from leftover pieces of fabric that I have cut off of other blocks I've made...what many people would just throw in the trash.  But, oh...not me!  LOL

On Saturday, our area had a "Tire Amnesty Day" where you could bring in old tires to be discarded for free.  There was a 10 tire limit unless you got special permission.  I had called, told them the circumstances, and that we had found 28 tires dumped on the property...and got permission to bring them all in.  So Andy loaded them up and took them in.  The pile of tires is now G-O-N-E!!!

Since we are currently in "Fire Season" here in West Virginia, you can't have any fires until after 5 PM.  So Saturday evening at 5 PM SHARP, we went out and started burning brush and construction debris again!  

Our neighbor who lives on the other side of our new property has come out and helped us both Saturdays now that we've been burning.  She is very nice, probably in her late 60's, and boy, can she work!  With 3 of us feeding the fire, it doesn't take long to get the piles cleaned up!  So far, we've burned or gotten rid of between 1/3-1/2 of the crap that was discarded on the property!!  I really need to get out and take new pictures to show how great it is looking now!

Andy doesn't even seem to mind that it is increasing his work by increasing the area he has to mow!  :)

Sunday was Mother's Day here in the US.  Happy Belated Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there reading this!  

We had some friends over for dinner.  Since I didn't take pictures of the dishes we served (bad blogger that I am...actually, we were all so hungry that we couldn't stop ourselves from digging right in!  LOL), so I'm going to give you the links to where I got the recipes.  They were DELISH and I highly recommend that you try them!!

The main dish was "The World's Best Chicken"...and I can vouch for that title!  I've made it three times now, it is that good!  :)   To go with the chicken, I thought I'd try a recipe that I saw on Facebook.  Now...we all know that that can be risky.  Somethings just don't turn out the way that they look/sound online, but this one turned out SUPER GREAT!  You MUST go try it!  It is called "Roasted Red Potatoes".  I can't find the link so I'll just give you the recipe.  :)

It calls for 10-12 baby red potatoes.  I had about 6-7 large russets, so I used those instead, peeled and slice thin.   Spray a baking dish and spread the potatoes out in the dish.  Sprinkle with one package of powdered ranch dressing mix.  Sprinkle with 6 slices of bacon, crumbled.  (I used one package of real bacon bits.)   Dot with about 5-6 pats of butter.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream!   OMG!!!  Heavenly!

Okay...so that's the recap of what's been going on around this ol' homestead, lately.  I hope all is well in your part of the world, too.  :)

Loretta

Where in the World is Loretta???

Quote for the Day:

"My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion. 

He said okay, you're ugly too."
Rodney Dangerfield  

Where have I been and why haven't I been posting lately, you ask?  Well, thanks for asking!  I'll try to share what has been going on in our lives the last couple of weeks.  And I'll try to keep it to the "Reader's Digest Condensed Version".  

Back in November of 2011, we bid on and won the property next to ours at a tax lien sale.  There was a contractor in town that bid against us and lost.  He was bitter about it and started dumping construction debris and trash on the property.  With a tax lien sale in our state, you can't touch the property for 18 months, thus giving the owners a chance to redeem it.   So for 18 months, we got to sit by and watch as this contractor systematically destroyed this property.   We couldn't get the code city code enforcement officers to do anything about it, because they are friends with the contractor.  :(

April 1, 2013, the property legally became ours and the contractor began pulling his equipment off of the property that he had parked there, and also he began removing any useable construction supplies.  He left all the trash, of course.  

We were advised by our lawyer to still not do anything until we actually had the deeds in our hands.  The deeds arrived in the mail on April 13!!

At that point, we put up "No Trespassing" signs and started making plans for cleaning up the property and making our plans for the use of it.

Here are some pictures that were taken on the 13th of the "presents" the contractor left for us...

 (This pile is completely cleaned up now and all but the tires are gone off the property now.)

(Fire wood that will be sold off in the fall.)

 (The cement slab in this picture is now completely cleared off.)

The first day, we picked up 4 plastic outside chairs, a small table, and a rubbermaid stepstool.  I put them out by the curb and by evening, someone had stopped and asked if they could have them.  We answered with a resounding YES!!!  We also found 5 plastic gas cans filled with what?  We don't know.  Possibly used oil.  Someone took those off our hands yesterday.  That same person, also took a pile of HUMONGOUS tree trunks and is planning on using it for firewood this winter.   We have stacked up the discarded tires and have a total of 28.  There is a "Tire Amnesty Day" coming up May 11, so we will be getting rid of those then.  There is a huge stack of firewood that we will be able to sell this fall as many people around here have wood burners.   We are also making a pile of all scrap metal we find on the property and know someone who will haul it off to be recycled.

As we go through the piles of construction debris, we are setting aside "reclaimed lumber" that is still useable and offering it for free on Craigslist and Freecycle.  

The stack of plywood was picked up last weekend and the stack of barn wood will be picked up today!  :)

The rest of the non-useable wood is getting burned...by us...slowly, but surely...

We started burning Thursday evening and burned for about 3 hours.  Then again for about 5 hours on Friday evening.  We only had one burn barrel, but Andy went and got 3 more yesterday, so now we can have 4 going at one time!  :)

Andy trying to read by the light of the fire!  :)

 

I'm finding the burning very cathartic after all we have been through the last 18 months with this contractor....the threats and intimidation he has spewed our way was very stressful.  And watching him systematically destroy this property while we couldn't do anything about it.  Well...let's just say that I'm considering the burning an "exorcism" of sorts and enjoying every minute of it.  For now.  I may not think that in a few weeks....or months... 

Our nerves are frayed, but we are glad to finally be putting the past 18 months behind us and are looking forward to moving on and improving the property.  We have plans to turn it into a useable and very functional part of our "yard".  :)

Loretta  (who has been renamed "Fire Bug" by Andy!!)