ALMOST NORMAL ....WHATEVER NORMAL IS!

I'm  beginning to get settled in at my son's house. Of course, we don't know how long I will be here...all depends on the sale of the house. It is finally ready to show after a few Property Brothers fixes! We had the whole interior painted, new carpeting in the back half of the house and a deep clean inside. We also had some landscaping down to clean up the look a bit and now it is listing time. Crossing my fingers for a quick sale!

I finished my QAYG coin quilt but guess what? It isn't going to be a gift for my friend's daughter anymore! Why you ask? We "chatted" on Facebook the other day and I now know the rest of her color scheme! She is using touches of orange with foxes so I decided the red binding might not be such a good idea. I ordered some orange fabric for the binding and I found the perfect gray for the sashing so I am starting all over again. I will find something else to do with the first quilt. I really like how it turned out and it is a really quick and easy pattern. Connecting Threads QAYG Coin quilt.

Still haven't gotten all of my camera stuff worked out but here it is!

The back is in Lotta' Dots Steel Gray excuse the wrinkles!

I then found a cute pouch pattern at Fat Quarter Shop called Single Scoop Pouch. I had just gotten some of Cotton and Steel fabric that I thought would be perfect! I fell in love with it when it first came out but waited til I could get it on sale...I'm counting pennies right now.

Monarch in Sunset by Cotton and Steel

Arrows in Sunset by Cotton and Steel

Then I found another quick and easy(and useful) project at Sew4Home! It is a scrap buster to boot, who could ask for anything more?  These went really quick and were so easy to make. My 6 year old grandson knew what they were used for right away! They are cord wraps His mother wasn't sure and took a guess and I love what she came up with...another perfect use for them! Napkin rings(to go with the napkins I am making for her!) Here is a collage of the ones I made this evening...actually there is one more I made but it is holding my sewing machine cords neatly!

One set of small cord wraps in black and brown Lotta Dots and 4 Medium cord wraps in my favorite blue and green!

I had so much fun sewing this week and actually accomplished quite a bit. Now I will start on the baby quilt plus a few little surprises I am going to add to it! Come back and check out what I have come up with!

I almost forgot! I have been watching my daughter-in-law's beautiful rose garden and had my eye on one particular pinkish rose. Tonight my granddaughter brought it to me for my sewing area. I love this since I have a "black" thumb and can't grow anything but dust bunnies! Isn't it gorgeous?

Isn't this a great way to end a blog post?

NEW SURROUNDINGS AND A NEW START !!!!!!!!

Boy has a lot happened in the last month. My son and family arrived in Sarasota on the 25th of July and then the fun began! For the last few months I had begun going through things and packing and throwing away....not fun after 18 years at this house! It was really hard getting rid of lots of my "stuff" but it had to be done. My son is relentless in the "throw away mode" but so organized and fast that things really went better after he started helping. We had yard sales for two weekends and got rid of lots of "stuff"...so much stuff that I made a bit over $500! It was interesting to see what people buy and what they don't! What didn't get sold or given to friends and neighbors went to Goodwill...many, many trips! We also got to know our garbage men quite well! They were amazing.  We turned the keys over to the Real Estate agents, and we pulled out of Sarasota around 12:30 PM on Monday the 8th. It was a long 16 hours to Starkville, MS through much rain and many accident slowdowns. Once my son gets going, he drives straight through....boy was I tired when we arrived at his house. I'm staying with them until the house sells so I have my own room where I have set up a sewing area. I really haven't had much time to do much sewing but I have done a bit.

First off I am making a baby quilt for a friend's daughter who is having a baby in December. I am working on it now since I don't know what my schedule will be like. It is a Quilt As You Go Coin quilt. I have finished all of the coin rows and they are neatly pressed and ready to start the QAYG process.

I am using Connecting Threads' Lotta' Dots with a Light Stone Lotta' Dots  backing to go with the gray walls the nursery has been painted.

Since I really like this quilt, I looked at the fabric that I have with me and found a layer cake that I won sometime ago! I cut the 10" blocks into 4 charms each and then cut them in half to make a huge pile of coins. I can work on the strips in free time and be ready to make a couple of quilts when I finally get settled.

Here are my coins before I divided them into separate colors.

One other project I have started is making cloth napkins. My daughter-in-law really likes be environmentally conscious so I hunted through my fabric that I have with me, and have made two practice napkins and have found some more to make a set of 6. This is really a easy thing and helpful keeping so much paper from landfills. I found a really fun pattern at Chocolate and Zucchini that has two sided napkins. Here are photos of the two sides.

Cute little owls

Coordinating floral fabric

Please forgive the photos but my camera is in the storage unit and I'm having to use my phone...not really too good but til I can get there to retrieve my camera these will have to do! I will try to post somewhat regularly but we will see how things go. It is great to be back!