Whoo Hoo quilt back and an Apron

Today I have a  Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts and my December goal for One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts.

Firstly, Whoo Hoo train quilt is my Finished or not Friday.  Remember the puffs of steam shown on my goal setting post here that disappeared?  I didn't want to waste them so I have sewn them into stepping stones on the back which is now finished.  My dining room was the only place light enough for a photograph today so I may have just invented a quilted tablecloth with built in runner!

It is all sandwiched up (you can probably see the pins if you look closely) and my binding is pressed and ready so although I am not quite finished I hope to be by next Friday.

My One Monthly Goal for December requires a little back story.

I have recently embarked on a campaign to teach my 14 year old son some useful life skills.  He is very intelligent but has no common sense at all and although a good working knowledge of calculus and multiple programming languages may help get him into a good university it will not keep him well fed with clean clothes.  Honestly, I love him to bits but some day I'd like him to become an independent person and not live in my house anymore.  Here he is with my daughter on the night of his middle school graduation.

Since the summer I have taught him how to do his own laundry (which he does each week) and vacuum his own room (which he does when he can find the floor under all the unsorted laundry) and I have begun teaching him the rudiments of feeding himself.

We have started with learning how to read the instructions on a packet of instant food and so I have introduced him to 1 portion microwave mug cakes.  There are many varieties out there so every time he tries a new one he has to correctly interpret the instructions, this has worked really well because he enjoys eating them.  Here's what he has learnt so far:

• Microwaves come in different sizes and powers
• There is a difference between tablespoons and teaspoons
• It helps to read the instructions properly before you start
• Size matters when it comes to mug capacity
• Metal does not go in the microwave

Now he has got the hang of packet mixes we will progress to making mug cakes from real ingredients.  To celebrate his new skills and help keep him clean I am going to make him a nice new apron for Christmas, this Martha Stewart pattern is my goal for December.

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts and Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal December Linkup. at Elm Street Quilts.

Garage Miscellany

Last week I cleared out the garage.  I put all of my gardening equipment in a big plastic deck seat/box, relegated outdoor toys to tubs outside the backdoor and stowed away the fold-able deckchairs in the cold room.  There was an alarmingly large collection of never used cleaning products (mainly speciality stuff that had been left by the previous owners) that went to the dump and quite a lot of odds and ends of timber which was donated to the next door neighbours, I hope they find it more useful than I did.

All that left was bikes.  Gary has reclaimed Jacob's bike because he never uses it and today we donated mine and Rose's old one to Recycle Cycles, a community project in downtown Kitchener.

I now have a weirdly empty garage.

While I was clearing out I discovered that we had managed to collect a whole load of car window cleaning implements:

• 4 snow brushes (1 broken)
• 3 squeegees (that spelling looks really weird)
• 5 ice scrapers

We only have one car.

Again I ask ask how does all this stuff creep up on you, I know we used to have 2 cars but still that's an implement to clean each window on each car.

In order to put a picture into this post I am now going to share a quilting innovation...

Can you guess what these are for?  All will be revealed on Friday, or whenever I get my quilt sandwich finished.

Whoo Hoo

I really actually feel like I need a whoop whoop for this one.  At the beginning of this month I discovered the great One Monthly Goal linky party at Elm Street Quilts.  The timing was apt because I'd just got my dreaded box of UFOs out of the basement, sorted through them and decided to make myself accountable for actually finishing a few.

I chose to set the goal of finishing a scrap quilt top that I began making for my nephews around 4 years ago and despite having been super busy clearing out the basement and the garage and fitting sewing sessions in between child minding and trips to the thrift store and garbage dump I have done it.  Here it is, I am really pleased with how it's looking.

Anyone who saw the previous post will notice that the design has undergone a bit of a change, before there were puffs of smoke where now there are trees.  Basically I decided that the smoke was too hard (sad I know) but also I remembered another UFO lurking at the bottom of the box and decided to kill two birds with one stone.  I deconstructed this even older project

I made these trees around six years ago, I think they were inspired by this Anna Maria Horner 'Feather Bed' pattern.  I'm very happy with how they turned out as background, I like the feeling of the deep, dark woods that they give, maybe there's a Gruffalo in there.  Also the train has changed direction!  This is because when I looked at the pictures of the design my kids originally came up with it was this way around.

I used lots of fairly haphazard techniques for the different blocks.  The train is appliqued with blanket stitch, mostly by machine with a bit of handwork.  The sleepers are strips that were sewn together then sliced length ways and flipped with the background inserted to represent the tracks.

So what of the smoke puffs?  Never fear, I think I will use them on the back for a stepping stone type effect.  I'm thinking something like this.

I'm really hoping to get the back finished over the weekend and the whole thing quilted and bound by next Friday.  If I do I can get it in the mail and with a lot of luck it may reach England in time for Christmas.  Fingers and toes crossed for that one.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and One Monthly Goal (OMG) at Elm Street Quilts.

The Basement Part 2

Over the weekend I've been very busy in the basement as we now have less than 2 weeks until men arrive to frame it.  Arghh.  Will I get everything out in time?  Things are even tighter because I've set myself the 'goal of the month' with Elm Street Quilts of finishing a quilt top and that is due very soon.

Today's offering comes in the form of 3 lists.  First is the donate list, all packed up and delivered to the Salvation Army Thrift Store

• Set of green plastics in-trays
• 2 framed Dali prints
• Cranberry glass bonbon dish
• 2 small picture frames
• 1 pair curtains
• 6 pillow covers, not used since 2005
• dog lead, found in the garage when we moved in and doesn't fit the kids
• Ornamental toy car
• Plastic bag of clothes
• Shelf with coat hooks under it
• Brush and shovel set for hearth
• Assorted Christmas ornaments and lights
• Coffee machine
• Miscellaneous plastic toys from McDonalds

This list went out to the curb on garbage day.

• Broken iron
• Broken kettle
• Broken mason jar, broken since 2015
• Suit case with broken handle
• Half a pound of party balloons

And this lot has been packed into a big plastic box for a yard sale in the spring.

• 4 Christmas side plates
• 3 glass vases
• Set of 6 wine glasses
• 5 glass ramekins (kept 14 which is still pretty excessive)
• 4 matching mugs
• 2 cup and saucer sets
• 2 antique cups
• Assorted coasters with cats on
• 'Fashionable Coasters' 20 of them in a now very rusty tin

I also found these items and couldn't bring myself to bin them.

You just never know when a moustache might come in handy, especially an edible one.

Notions

This week I've been a bit under the weather so I decided to tackle an easy one and went through my collection of notions.  They live in a set of plastic drawers with labels on the front, for easy organisation and access (theoretically), and contain mostly useful items such as zippers, elastics, snap fasteners, pinking shears and grommets (the round fixings not the dog).

It would seem that my worst hoarding problem in this section is tiny pieces of pretty ribbon.  I had (notice the past tense there) loads and loads collected from all sorts of places but most notably:

1. Little tiny pieces from the cinched in bits of Christmas crackers
2. Long skinny bits that are sewn into the underarms of tops to stop them falling off coat hangers

They have not proved to be useful so they have now gone.

This is a list of items that I have kept and I think I will give myself a time frame (lets call it 6 months from now, 16 May 2019) in which to use them up or bin them.

1. Assorted bias tape
2. Spare snap fastenings from old clothes
3. Rick rack trimming
4. Pom pom trimming

I might use the bias tape to make some festive scrappy bunting but need ideas for the rest of the stuff please.

These are the best 2 Items I found.  The first I inherited, it made me laugh back then and I marvelled at why anyone would keep a collection of these.  Guess what? 6 years later I've still got them.

In case anyone's wondering they are free sewing kits from hotels, and you know what? I still can't bring myself to get rid of them.

Next are these name tags, they must be 40 years old, I've not had to sew a label into anything since I left high school and my name hasn't been Kirstin Miller for the past 14 years so I'm sorry labels, you're out!

Memory Boxes

Last week when my contractor suggested December 3rd as a start date for our reno's I panicked and spent a while flinging things at random into boxes in the basement.  After some deep breathing and a coffee it occurred to me that wasn't the best approach so I went through the kids memory boxes instead.  That took a while because some of the stuff was pretty cute, I particularly like the things they write about us on Mother's and Father's Days.  According to Rose I am a chef and a chauffeur, and my favourite thing to do is watch Downton Abbey.  Oh dear, so much for 2 degrees.

I threw quite a bit of stuff out because I couldn't remember why I'd kept it, but I also kept some pretty ridiculous things.  For instance I have all of their school reports from age 4 onward.  Maybe the time will come where you have to present a full education portfolio to get into University and my children will get into Oxbridge, Harvard or similar as a direct result of my hoarding.  Ha!  I'm sure I'm not alone in this kind of hoarding but it would be good to know that for sure.

I have kept a few of the kids tiny clothes, like Rose's teeny, sparkly dance shorts that she would still be wearing now if I'd let her, but I think these might be my favourites, Jacob's first pair of shoes.  How did he get so grown up?

Books

This week I have had some news which has put rather a rocket under the clearing out project.  We are having some home improvements done, did I mention this in any posts yet? I can't remember.  Anyway, it's been a bit of a trial but I finally found someone who can do the work and he can start rather sooner than I anticipated.  I need to completely clear the garage and basement by December 3rd.  Gulp.

On Wednesday I cleared out and bagged up 169 books.  I have found this a bit hard because I do like books, but if I'm being really objective there are a lot of them in the house that will never, ever be read again.  For instance, textbooks from my first degree, I graduated in 1995 and haven't opened them since so I think it's probably safe to let them go.

I've also had the kids go through some of theirs.  Jacob has been very good and decided to donate almost everything he owns, all he seems to have left is 'The Game Maker's Apprentice', which is so old and dog-eared he can barely read it and 'Calculus for Dummies'.  How did I create such a nerd?

Tom has also done his bit and thinks he can live without such riveting reads as 'Exploring Corporate Strategy' and 'Affiliate Program Management - an hour a day'.  I fear he went though hell to get his MBA.

Rose is going through a big reading phase at the moment and finds parting with her possessions difficult so we put the stuff she doesn't read in a box and I'll take it away when she's forgotten about it.

We still have quite a few books but I feel that a house isn't a home without at least a few.  I went through the house and estimate around 250 remain.  Some more can go if I can figure out e-readers and how to own or borrow e-books.  If anybody reads this and has any observations on that I would be very interested to hear from you.

Beginning the Basement

I was considering not putting pen to paper today, I've been slowly getting on with all the sorting and throwing out but none of it has been either monumental or exciting.  Still, I committed to posting on Tuesdays and Fridays so I shall note down briefly what has been done.

I finished sorting through my magazines and after much deliberation and typing out of vital recipes I have thrown 43 out.  All I have left are...

• 5 Christmas issues with lots of great recipes that I will definitely make, honest
• 1 Vogue knitting magazine
• 2 gardening magazines
• 1 Halloween edition with good pumpkin carvings
• 8 Vogue patterns magazines
• 1 quilting magazine with some really good scrappy patterns

I've not actually got rid of the rest yet, they are far too heavy to put out in the recycling all at once, also Rose and I have been using them as a step for her to practice kick overs off.

Yesterday I sorted out the non-sewing/knitting craft stuff in the basement.  I have rid the house of a large bag full of...

• Unfinished craft kits
• Multicoloured feathers
• Opened bags of sequins
• Dried up glue
• Hundred year old fabric paint
• Miniature pompoms
• Tiny bits of paper
• Pencils whose lead snaps when you sharpen them
• Dried up markers
• Tiny, grubby used erasers

And much more stuff too numerous to mention.  In order to quantify it and get it into Tally Ho! I decided to weigh it, 2.247 kg of rubbish plus some recycled paper and card and a box of wooden beads far to 'childish' (her word) for Rose now she has reached the grand old age of 10.

I found a couple of little gems while I was looking through stuff, here is a tiny piece of art that my sister sent me when I was at University.  It is about the size of my hand.

And here is a postcard my Dad sent me from Norway.  I wonder what happened to his favourite green cord cap?  I do hope it had a happy second life out there.

One Finished Top and a UFO Inventory

If you read any other posts on this blog you will notice that there isn't a whole lot of sewing going on.  This is because Mrs Parker's Blog is a motivational exercise for me as I try to clear out my house.  So far it's working quite well.  I post twice a week; on Tuesdays and Fridays and for each post I must have cleared out and organised something (be it big or small) in my house.

Today's organisational challenge is my big box of UFOs.  I have decided to get them all out, post them here and set myself a time limit for finishing them, so here goes.

Here is a top I finished around 5 years ago and this is my Finish it up Friday.  It's made from a batik jelly roll I bought because I loved the earthiness of the colour pallet and is supposed to be a sort of abstract representation of satellite images of Southern Ontario that you can see on Google Maps, the black lines are roads, small green blocks are wood lots and the strips are fields.

The reason I never got further than this (apart from laziness and lack of staying power) is that I couldn't decide whether to put a border round it or not.  I had the idea to use a mitred border to almost make it look like a framed map on a wall, I even made the fabric pieces for the frame.  If I do that it will look something like this...

So what do you think?  I am still really not sure what would look best and would be very grateful for any feedback.

My next UFO is actually leftovers from another quilt, you can see the original one in this post from The Parkers Abroad.  It is based on Elizabeth Hartman's Xylophone quilt pattern in her book A Modern Patchwork.  I totally over estimated the fabric I would need for my xylophones and ended up with all these strips to use up.  I'm pretty happy with them and I love the happy yellows but I've not found a background I like yet.

Third is this scrap quilt I started for my nephews, I'd better get on with it or they will receive it when they're teenagers and not be impressed.  The train blocks were designed all over the floor by Jacob and Rose one day when I left my scrap box out.  This quilt is my One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts, my goal is to finish the top by the end of November.

And finally, this is my most recently started quilt, I blogged about it here.  It is also inspired by an Elizabeth Hartman design, Bird Bath, from A Practical Guide to Patchwork.

So now I just have to get on with finishing them all up.  I am going to see if I can motivate myself to finish some aspect ready for Finish it up Friday each month.  My aim for November is to have the scrap quilt top done.  If my 'proper' sewing machine is back from its spa break I would like to have the whole thing completed so I can post it off to England in time for Christmas but that might be a little ambitious.

So now I'm all done I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts , Can I get a Whoop Whoop and One Monthly Goal then I'd better get sewing!