Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[koshergrl]

My next project is going to be courthouse steps for my sis.

Ok I moved my sewing machine out into the kitchen....I hope to start moving a bit on our log cabin tonight, as I'm canning chicken broth. I may or may not actually get to moving material around...my primary objective tonight is to load up bobbins, get some sewing machine oil (I haven't been able to find any in my town! It makes the little birds cry!) and maybe just sew a little..the first step of the blocks...strip piece the red centers to the first log.

I'm excited! But I always am in the morning. By 6 pm, when I have a chance to get started, I'll be dragging. But I'll be stuck in the kitchen anyway, so I'm hoping that works for me.

Going to have the girl do the strip piecing..at least some of it.

 

[koshergrl]

Or maybe the boy, that would be right up his alley, too. I just don't know if I can keep him from tinkering from the machine's guts!

 

[Sunshine]

OK, Ms. Sunshine, I know you're working on finding the right machine, getting the yard right, and getting the house in shape, but was wondering if you are still doing stitch or two now and then on the tablecloth...

As I told you it has 6 of the church motifs around the center. Last night I started number 5. I put it down for a few days. After not playing piano for years, I picked up a piece that was too technically difficult and my knuckles got really sore. Hands are better now, and I picked it back up last night. Two more church motifs to do then I'll start the border, which no doubt will be as thrilling as the borders on all those quilt blocks! LOL.

But great minds are alike, I was going to post the above and found you had asked.

(I'm waiting on the piano tuner to come do a little work on it, then it will be easier to play. I let it set for too long in between times.)

(I was determined to play that piece that Bryce Dallas Howard played in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond - Liebestraum or Dream of Love by Liszt. I have two versions and even the easy version is hard when you haven't kept your hands limbered up! Lizat did a book of technical exercises to help make playing his music easier. I'm thinking of getting it. After so long not playing my hands are very tense and my right pinky finger has gotten a mind of its own and is staying up in the air which makes it really hard to play. That is hand tension.)

I think that it's wonderful you're playing music again after a long career away from the fine arts. Hope your hands heal and strengthen!

And thanks for letting us know how the tablecloth is coming. I hadn't heard, and knew you were doing what everybody does after retiring--getting involved in too many things at first! It'll all settle down in a few weeks, and you can learn how to moderate time into parcels that will be conducive to good health and a broad range of activities--some for nutrition, others for large muscle exercise, some medium and others for fun. Walking your dog, stitching, playing music, reading, and doing the things you just have to do to live rotated for optimal joy in your life. I'm so grateful you share your sewing thoughts and other finer things of life here, Sunshine. And you know how I love red and white from last year's quilt show and my silly little tall ships quilts that I hope are going to children in need, or other community benefit.

You are right, I likely am trying to get too much done too fast. I know that my days of being able to do that stuff are quickly coming to an end. So, I'm trying to get the house where the kids don't have to do things to it when I croak. I want it to be in good condition to sell or if they want to keep as a vacation house. They may do that, cuz even though they spent a large part of their lives in Nashville, they both still have friends here.

Anyway, I'm doing the piano like the cross stitch. I'm stopping while I still want to be playing. The hands have relaxed now, no straight up pinky finger, no sore knuckles. I didn't stitch yesterday because I was just tired. But will be doing some stitching later today.

 

[koshergrl]

So are you enjoying your retirement? I never thought I'd even think seriously of retirement, and I'm at least 20 years away...

But it's like a beautiful glowing ball in front of me. I can't wait!

 

[koshergrl]

The kids' graduation and migration to college is in less than 10 years...that is a lot closer, and I get freaking CHILLS thinking about it! I do love the kids and am enjoying the time I have with them...but I'm going to enjoy having my life back, too. True, I will be 60 years old...it's not quite the same as getting your kids out of the house by the time you're 40...but I'll take it

 

[freedombecki]

As I told you it has 6 of the church motifs around the center. Last night I started number 5. I put it down for a few days. After not playing piano for years, I picked up a piece that was too technically difficult and my knuckles got really sore. Hands are better now, and I picked it back up last night. Two more church motifs to do then I'll start the border, which no doubt will be as thrilling as the borders on all those quilt blocks! LOL.

But great minds are alike, I was going to post the above and found you had asked.

(I'm waiting on the piano tuner to come do a little work on it, then it will be easier to play. I let it set for too long in between times.)

(I was determined to play that piece that Bryce Dallas Howard played in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond - Liebestraum or Dream of Love by Liszt. I have two versions and even the easy version is hard when you haven't kept your hands limbered up! Lizat did a book of technical exercises to help make playing his music easier. I'm thinking of getting it. After so long not playing my hands are very tense and my right pinky finger has gotten a mind of its own and is staying up in the air which makes it really hard to play. That is hand tension.)

I think that it's wonderful you're playing music again after a long career away from the fine arts. Hope your hands heal and strengthen!

And thanks for letting us know how the tablecloth is coming. I hadn't heard, and knew you were doing what everybody does after retiring--getting involved in too many things at first! It'll all settle down in a few weeks, and you can learn how to moderate time into parcels that will be conducive to good health and a broad range of activities--some for nutrition, others for large muscle exercise, some medium and others for fun. Walking your dog, stitching, playing music, reading, and doing the things you just have to do to live rotated for optimal joy in your life. I'm so grateful you share your sewing thoughts and other finer things of life here, Sunshine. And you know how I love red and white from last year's quilt show and my silly little tall ships quilts that I hope are going to children in need, or other community benefit.

You are right, I likely am trying to get too much done too fast. I know that my days of being able to do that stuff are quickly coming to an end. So, I'm trying to get the house where the kids don't have to do things to it when I croak. I want it to be in good condition to sell or if they want to keep as a vacation house. They may do that, cuz even though they spent a large part of their lives in Nashville, they both still have friends here.

Anyway, I'm doing the piano like the cross stitch. I'm stopping while I still want to be playing. The hands have relaxed now, no straight up pinky finger, no sore knuckles. I didn't stitch yesterday because I was just tired. But will be doing some stitching later today.

Your little pinky is acting just like my whole left leg acts when I get a full body cramp that starts there and goes up to my neck, except I'm such a baby I yell, as it's pretty shocking when it happens all of a sudden. Fortunately, I don't forget the muscle relaxant 3 days in a row more than a couple of times a year. I sound like the kid in Home Alone. I knew there was a reason we moved out to the country out of hearing range of the neighbors.

 

[Sunshine]

The kids' graduation and migration to college is in less than 10 years...that is a lot closer, and I get freaking CHILLS thinking about it! I do love the kids and am enjoying the time I have with them...but I'm going to enjoy having my life back, too. True, I will be 60 years old...it's not quite the same as getting your kids out of the house by the time you're 40...but I'll take it

I was the 'older' room mother when mine were in school. And my sister a lot older than I. We used to needle her and tell her and her husband they were the only ones in the PTA on Social Security.

But you can do a lot once you have the time. So much time is taken up with the children that you tend to forget how long the days really are. I realized when my daughter graduated in 1999 and went to Atlanta that they were never coming back to Nashville. Law school as my empty nest remedy. Now I just chill here at the lake. Decided not to follow them to Atlanta. I know to many parents who have done that only to get left high and dry.

I am prepping for the time when I can't do anything but sit around. With all the things I'm lining up it will about be my luck that I will keel over before I do any of it! LOL

 

[koshergrl]

I really do enjoy being alone and doing my own thing. I'm looking forward to it. I even like loong walks just by myself, just tooling around. My cousin lives close by...I could board a horse with hers and do the horse thing if I get REALLY bored.

 

[Sunshine]

I think that it's wonderful you're playing music again after a long career away from the fine arts. Hope your hands heal and strengthen!

And thanks for letting us know how the tablecloth is coming. I hadn't heard, and knew you were doing what everybody does after retiring--getting involved in too many things at first! It'll all settle down in a few weeks, and you can learn how to moderate time into parcels that will be conducive to good health and a broad range of activities--some for nutrition, others for large muscle exercise, some medium and others for fun. Walking your dog, stitching, playing music, reading, and doing the things you just have to do to live rotated for optimal joy in your life. I'm so grateful you share your sewing thoughts and other finer things of life here, Sunshine. And you know how I love red and white from last year's quilt show and my silly little tall ships quilts that I hope are going to children in need, or other community benefit.

You are right, I likely am trying to get too much done too fast. I know that my days of being able to do that stuff are quickly coming to an end. So, I'm trying to get the house where the kids don't have to do things to it when I croak. I want it to be in good condition to sell or if they want to keep as a vacation house. They may do that, cuz even though they spent a large part of their lives in Nashville, they both still have friends here.

Anyway, I'm doing the piano like the cross stitch. I'm stopping while I still want to be playing. The hands have relaxed now, no straight up pinky finger, no sore knuckles. I didn't stitch yesterday because I was just tired. But will be doing some stitching later today.

Your little pinky is acting just like my whole left leg acts when I get a full body cramp that starts there and goes up to my neck, except I'm such a baby I yell, as it's pretty shocking when it happens all of a sudden. Fortunately, I don't forget the muscle relaxant 3 days in a row more than a couple of times a year. I sound like the kid in Home Alone. I knew there was a reason we moved out to the country out of hearing range of the neighbors.

I have traumatic memories of my music teacher saying 'curve your fingers! arms quiet!' (And she had horrible breath.) At least she didn't take a stick and hit my knuckles the way my sister's piano teacher did! That pinky popping up there is a real no no and is really the result of tension in your hand. It makes you miss the key you are aiming for. And the tension in my right hand was most painful. I would hate to have that much in other, larger places!

Check out a Liberace performance on youtube. His hands are in the exactly perfect alignment and position. Now that I'm trying to get that pinky under control, I have a tendency to curl it under. Not optimal, but not as bad as it sticking straight up!

OK, today I bought paint and supplies. Tomorrow, I finish jobs around the house. The weekend I rest. Monday, I start prep work for painting LR, DR, Kit. Tuesday, I start painting. My girlfriends told me if it was difficult, to just do one wall a day. But my ceiling is the mastodon I have to deal with. The walls will be a walk in the park.

 

[Sunshine]

Thinking back to my piano teacher, oh my! She had a tiny little house. Her piano was in the DR and her organ in the LR. She had gone to college and studied music, something noteworthy in rural KY. She called her back yard her 'garden.' She had 4 HUGE ferns on her front porch. I complimented them one day, and for several years after, they were in my classroom at school during winters where I was charged with watering and caring for them. She lived in a tiny little house, but she had beautiful oriental rugs, beautiful light fixtures, and a lace table cloth. Over the piano was a lovely painting, I'm sure it was a print, of a beautiful young woman in a red dress playing the piano or harpsichord or something. It looked nothing like her. It think I owe a lot of my taste in home furnishing to her. I certainly learned little enough music! LOL She had busts of famous composers all over the place and she taught me the correct way to say their names, something most folks rarely do. I was a nail biter. She even cured me from that. One day she took my chewed fingers into her hand and said, 'Sunshine, people pick their noses, then they come here and play my piano. You come here, play my piano right behind them and then bite your nails.' She was a mighty healer of nervous habits, IMO! LOL I never bit my nails again after that day.

I think this was the painting:

She was so plain and homely and wore those horrible Wibur Khun shoes, I often wonder what that painting should have told me about who she really was.

OMG, and she would sing along with you when you played, but she couldn't carry a tune in a sponge~!

 

[Sunshine]

Oh Lord! The walk down Memory Lane. I may have night terrors tonight! LOL

 

[freedombecki]

My next project is going to be courthouse steps for my sis.

Ok I moved my sewing machine out into the kitchen....I hope to start moving a bit on our log cabin tonight, as I'm canning chicken broth. I may or may not actually get to moving material around...my primary objective tonight is to load up bobbins, get some sewing machine oil (I haven't been able to find any in my town! It makes the little birds cry!) and maybe just sew a little..the first step of the blocks...strip piece the red centers to the first log.

I'm excited! But I always am in the morning. By 6 pm, when I have a chance to get started, I'll be dragging. But I'll be stuck in the kitchen anyway, so I'm hoping that works for me.

Going to have the girl do the strip piecing..at least some of it.

I'm excited for you, koshergrl. I really love courthouse steps.
Book I liked: Courthouse Steps, Quilt in a Day (source: Amazon)

 

[freedombecki]

Oh Lord! The walk down Memory Lane. I may have night terrors tonight! LOL

A little prayer up for a good night's sleep, Sunshine.

I just hope I can get back to my quilt. I got the last part done on picking up the mess on the south side of the center fence that was built today.

What a chore! I slept all afternoon just to get back to normal.

 

[koshergrl]

Ugh..this is what I hate about working..I come home...I vacuum, wash dishes, get dinner ready, start my broth for canning...and I'm beat and it's 8 and I haven't done a thing with the sewing machine. My girl isn't here tonight, though, so I can't get her started anyway.

 

[Sunshine]

Oh Lord! The walk down Memory Lane. I may have night terrors tonight! LOL

A little prayer up for a good night's sleep, Sunshine.

I just hope I can get back to my quilt. I got the last part done on picking up the mess on the south side of the center fence that was built today.

What a chore! I slept all afternoon just to get back to normal.

Fatigue just goes with some things, I am learning. I sleep 10 hours a night, and usually have to lie down around 2 in the afternoon. Thank haven my daughter is planning 'nap time' for the grandbaby when we go on our trip. It will be nap time for me too!

 

[Sunshine]

Ugh..this is what I hate about working..I come home...I vacuum, wash dishes, get dinner ready, start my broth for canning...and I'm beat and it's 8 and I haven't done a thing with the sewing machine. My girl isn't here tonight, though, so I can't get her started anyway.

Working is hard. So far retirement is much better!

 

[Sunshine]

Now my left pinky is acting up. LOL! WTF?

 

[koshergrl]

My thumb and middle finger (different hands) are giving me fits.

Psoriasis...I've eaten complete garbage all week, and this is what it gets me.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPsbDUZvfFo]my fingers hurt - YouTube[/ame]

 

[freedombecki]

Now my left pinky is acting up. LOL! WTF?

If you make oatmeal for breakfast, add 1/4 t. cinnamon, 1/4 t. ginger, and if you have ANY cardamom, add half a pinch or grind one single cardamom seed. Add 2 Tbsp. raisins and 2 Tbsp molasses for a serving. You can get extra calcium if you make it with milk. If protein is needed at breakfast, eat a couple of tablespoons (about 10 raw almonds). That should settle the nerves in hands and feet down some. We know spices used to be medicines in Medieval times. They can still soothe and comfort. The only other thing I can think of is if you are using air conditioner and cooling to under 76 degrees, set the temperature a little higher than you've been setting it and sleep in 100% cotton sheets to remove cold sweat off if it's too cool. Oh, except for the milk, the above has zero cholesterol in it. I have to have it because I'm allergic to calcium supplements. Tailor it to your needs. If that doesn't suit your tastes, you can get cinnamon in pill form at discount stores pretty cheap. Cinnamon deals with a lot of hand and foot problems. Ginger is wonderful for aches, and cardamom, well, it just makes me happy to smell it, and I've grown attached to it as the flavoring for breads I made when the children were small. I sorta quit using it after they left home and there was too much bread around. I take it in with the other spices when I make oatmeal. Oatmeal is comfort food, but with the above spices, etc., it's an energy-maker without the caffeine.

 

[freedombecki]

My thumb and middle finger (different hands) are giving me fits.

Psoriasis...I've eaten complete garbage all week, and this is what it gets me.

my fingers hurt - YouTube

Are you using T-Gel shampoo in your hair? If you shampoo with it, and you rub it in with your hands, the psoriasis for some reason takes a hike. I couldn't tell you why, I just know I've never had a recurrence since using that type of shampoo for another type of breakout due to allergy to a medicine. My old country doctor told me about it for the rash, but I noticed my dry skin patched up too.