Love Buzzard's Crafts & Life

Finally fell asleep about five thirty this morning and then woke up a few minutes after seven.  I got up and took my blood pressure and pain pills and went back to bed.  Was sleeping oh so soundly when at ten thirty the phone gave one little ring, just enough to wake me up.  Checked and it said private number.  In just a couple of minutes it rang again and this time the person let it ring until I answered.  It was the gas guy needing to get inside to light all my gas appliances.  A new gas line has been put in the neighborhood and the meter changed and today was the day my gas was switched.  Within a few minutes he was finished and gone and back to bed I went.  I was fast asleep in a few minutes and the next time I woke up it was fifteen minutes after two in the afternoon.  At least I had finally gotten my eight hours of sleep.

I needed to return books to the Jonesboro library so on the way there I stopped at Wot a Burger to have a very late lunch.  A friend from church came in to also have a late lunch.  We chatted a bit and then I went back to reading my book and eating and he to eating.  After he left the lady behind the counter came over to me and handed me a five-dollar bill.  She said my friend had asked if I had already paid for my meal and when she said yes he told her to give me the money for my lunch was his treat.  That gave me a warm fuzzy feeling and made the cloudy, dreary day seem sunny.

Yesterday evening I was in Wal-mart and had to wait in line forever it seemed to check out.  I kept wondering why the store was so crowded and then as I was leaving it finally dawned on me that people were stocking up on goodies for the Super Bowl.  Personally I could not possibly care less about the football game or even who wins.  Just heard a yell from the living room and I assumed that the New Orleans Saints had made a touchdown and when I checked they had.  At the time there were three minutes left in the game.  Just checked and the Saints won 31 to 17.   Since this is the first time the Saints have ever played in the Super Bowl, I guess it is nice that they won.  I would not be surprised if New Orleans declared tomorrow a holiday for the city.  That is one crazy city and coming right on the heels of this Super Bowl win is Mardi Gras.  I will not even bother to comment on that event.

Today I was thinking about making quilts and I remembered that I still have not made the quilts for the church nursery.  So tomorrow I am going to try and get them made.  They are quite small so will not take too long to make.  And there are still two pillows to make also.  I saw Donna tonight and apologized for now having them made already.  She said it was fine and not to worry.  I am also to make a window valance and I told her if someone else who sewed wanted to make that that I would not care at all.  She laughed and said that no one was knocking down her door saying they wanted to make the valance.  So I will make that too but am waiting for the pattern.  I was just going to make a straight one but she has a pattern for a shaped one.  Oh well it will be quite easy to make and will not take long.

I bought the clips that are used on café curtains but they would not open wide enough to clip onto my small quilts so that I could hang them to photograph.  Retuned the clips and decided that for the time being I will just pin them to the design board as I have done in the past.  A friend has a board that has clothes pins glued to it and that is what she uses to hold her quilts to have them photographed.  So, today I bought a bag of wood clothespins and Monday I will go to the lumberyard and get a 1” x 2” board.  Will probably be better than the curtain rod and rings anyway.  It seems there is always something that upsets my plans.

I finished the second quilt last night and then decided to try something different with the third one.  It did not work out as I had hoped so it goes into the UFO pile until I can decide how to make it work.  Unfortunately I did not get any sewing done today.  I have another method that I am going to try and if it does not work either, then I will stick with my tried and true method even though it requires twice as much batting.  But it does make for a fluffier quilt, which is fine, and the kids just might like a quilt with more batting.  I still plan to make at least one quilt a day and hopefully this first week I have gotten the bugs worked out of my plan and next week can really get down to business.

Today when I was finished at Wal-Mart I drove across the street to Dollar Tree to buy items to help fill the twelve shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child that I am doing this year.  I decided around Christmas time that I am going to do twelve boxes this year and I can do it if I will buy several items each month which will cost around twenty to thirty dollars.    I am keeping my eyes open for tee shirts on sale for one or two dollars.  Last year I found Faded Glory brand for one dollar each.

In January at Dollar Tree I bought small notepads that come three to a package and rulers.  I almost bought twelve boxes at Dollar Tree for a dollar each but later I was at Wal-Mart and they had six boxes grouped together for five dollars so I bought two packages.  Hey that two dollars saved will buy at least two more items.  This month I bought coloring books, pencils, rubber balls, combs, glue sticks, and jigsaw puzzles.  I was able to buy more items this month for I bought things that were two, three, four, or twelve to the package.    I am really having fun doing this and it is the only shopping that I like to do these days.

I learned in early January that the four boxes I filled last year went to kids in the Ukraine.

In spite of my sewing machine I finished one quilt last night, well actually it was about two this morning.  I have another ready to be sewn together and then turned and top stitched.  Hopefully I will get another done before I go to bed.  When I started sewing this afternoon I quickly realized that all the sewing is making my shoulder hurt.  But I will just have to grin and bear the pain for I am going to get quilts made and all my stash used up.

Ashley and I went out for dinner tonight.  We decided to go to Fox’s Pizza and of course it was very enjoyable and the pizza was delicious.  Poor little Brody has an ear infection but you would never know it from his actions.  All during dinner he was all smiles and had a great time making a royal mess with crackers.  He is such an adorable little boy.  Bryce is growing so fast and it is hard to believe that he if five years old.  Before I know it, I will need to make him a quilt for college.

Everything was going along just fine and I would have finished the three quilts by bedtime tonight but the foot control for my sewing machine started acting up.  When I press down to sew fast it stops completely so I have to sew at a slow to medium speed.  And then sometimes when I stop at the end of a seam, the machine keeps sewing very slowly for a few stitches.  It has done this before so I am hoping that tomorrow when I get ready to sew that it will work correctly.  If it is still giving me a problem then I will take to the repairman to see what can be done.  However, if just checking the foot control will cost me the same as servicing the sewing machine, which is seventy five dollars, then I will just live with the problem.

The sun was shining brightly today but it was not a good day for me.  When the alarm went off this morning at eight thirty I got up to take my blood pressure medicine and I felt awful.  Not sick but just tired beyond belief.  I had gone to bed about eleven last night but was still awake at five thirty this morning.  I just could not function enough to get a shower, get dressed, and drive to Bible study so I crawled back in bed and slept until nearly noon.  I really did not want to miss Bible study but there comes a time when one just has to listen to one’s body and mine was telling me I had to sleep some more.

Unfortunately I have been tired the entire day and got very little done.  I did manage to move a number of large containers to get to my white fabric.  I have decided that I am going to put white or ecru backing on the quilts and that way I can get the white fabric used up and also have more quilts with colorful, printed fronts.  After all the moving, I managed to get three fronts, three backs, and batting cut and ready to quilt.  Will have to do the quilting tomorrow for I just don’t have the energy to do it this evening.

I am a hopeless case and I am about ready to give up on myself.  I did not get a quilt made today.  To start my day off on the wrong foot, I did not get up until about one this afternoon.  Then I had a couple of errands that I had to do and by the time I got back home it was after six.  Then I had to do laundry so the best I did today was to get out the fabric for five or six quilts.  That in itself was quite a job for had to move several large containers of fabric to get to the ones I wanted. Hopefully I will get it pressed before I go to bed but then I may not for it is now ten thirty and I am very tired and sleepy.  Weird since I have only been up about nine hours.  I think my body machinery is all fouled up.  I am very disappointed in myself but will not do any good to stew over the fact so will go to bed and do better tomorrow.  Tomorrow is Bible study so I will have to be up before nine and will have the whole afternoon free to quilt.

Today I made a promise to myself that I am going to make at least one quilt for missions each day, starting tomorrow which is February first.  I have decided to make as many as I can as whole cloth quilts to save time and thereby get more quilts made.    After I make the one tomorrow, I am going to spend the rest of the day getting fabric and batting cut to size so that each day I do not have to spend time pressing and cutting fabric but can start right in quilting. When I get some other things out of the way then I hope that I can make two and maybe three quilts a day.  With the fabric and batting ready to sew, then I really think that I can make at least two quilts a day.  Will just have to see how long it takes me to make one.   Sometimes I think that it takes longer to do all the pressing, measuring, and cutting than the actual quilting.  I have wasted the month of January and I hate that I have done that but I cannot undo it so I am going to shape up and start anew tomorrow.

We were having such nice, warm weather for January and then yesterday when I went outside it was COLD.  Still cold today and the forecast for the next few days is still chilly but at least in the mid fifties.