One of the reason I decided to blog again was to fill up some time but it seems for some strange reason every since I have started this blog " I have been busy all the time. who knew?  have been busy with my bucket gardening. we bought a new above ground container. it looks like a trough for cattle to drink water from and I have always wanted one as I thought they would make an awsome planter. evidently someone else had the same thought. you would not beleive all the screws and washers that are needed to put one of those together. we finally got it all put together and it is out in the yard sitting on top of one of my old garden beds. we made a couple above garden spaces out of wood when we first moved here. they were doing fantastic untill the tree roots started growing up inside of them and stealing all the nutrients. so I am placing heavey plastic on top of the old bed and going to cut holes for drainage and then will set the planter on top of that and fill it with dirt. speaking of dirt we also ordered a composter. suggested by my sweet daughter which makes great sence. I use a freecycle anyway for all of our garbage so this will really cut back on all the kitchen garbage. I am really excited to try all of these things. 

the plants that I bought are huge now and we got our first cukecumber last week. i loved the convenience of bucket gardening but it was not the best thing for a wooden deck. with all the water from plants and the rain storms we get the wood really takes a beating. so I think this option will be much better in the long run. I may still grow herbs in the buckets on the deck . found a sweet basil plant a month or so ago and have watched for that spice in the grocery store forever and could never find it. we have a recipe for a dish called rigitoni that my hubby first made for us and it just is not the same without the sweet basil. well this plant is doing absolutely awsome! if I can get an her garden going and doing as well as this is" I should do well.

house plants are out of control. I have cactus plants started all over the place. when a limb falls off " I just can't bare throwing it away so I start another one. 

another thing we bought which was not quite as hard to put together was a flat grill. have not used it yet as it has been in the hundreds most of the time. Have also been sewing. love these scrappy stars by lori holt they are so cute and so much fun. would like to do a whole quilt out of them. will see how it goes. I have my daughter looking for a hand held quilting frame for me. I really miss quilting by hand and this house does not have the room to set up a normal quilting frame. I also need to become more proficient at machine quilting but that will be for another day. right now I have a stack of quilts that really need to be quilted. o.k. need to get some things done and hopefully it won;t take me so long to get back here again. take care Linda

 Today is monday and so far this morning I have managed to cut out and get a baby quilt and backing together for quilting. I am so far behind. thought I would start with the easiest one first. I have two more singles for grandkids and two twin quilts for our beds. these are the twins for our beds but have not put the borders on yet. 

not sure why these are appearing in the wrong section but the one above is a flower garden I am also working on. which also needs to be sewn togther and needs a border. seems to be the story of my life recently lots of quilts without  borders and not stitched together. below is an afghan I did finish and sent off. some things actually do get finished eventually. 

 well here it is saturday already . so far I do not have a lot to report. did you ever have one of those days when things just would not work out no matter what you did. well that was what happened with me sewing yestarday. so eventually I gave up and decided to try something else. I had been watching a vidio on creating rose plants from stems. so it called for two quart pop bottles or for you in the south soda bottles. anyway I didn't have any so I needed to go to the recycle anyway and took my grabber along. I knew that if anyone would have them they would. fortuanately there was a whole truckload of them so I grabbed two of them and headed home. I cut off a good hard stem from one of my main rose bushes and removed the thornes and most of the leaves and followed the rest of the directions. will let you know in a few months if they develop roots or not. kind of exciting just waiting. I know I have a green thumb with inside plants all you have to do is look at all the african violets and cactuses I have in the house. will see if it works the same with rose bushes. 

my girlfriend down the street in a maniac. she is 73 and has ripped up all the carpet and linolium in her bedroom and her bathroom and has replaced the bathroom with linolium already. I don't know where she gets the energy or the mobility for that matter. if I tried that my body would not move for the next six months. anyway she needs some molding so she asked me if I wanted to go with. since I have the truck it sounds like a good idea will make it more convenient. also we want to stop by the candy store. well thats just what we call it. the actual name is harbor freight. we have so much fun finding items that double for sewing items in there , I think we could spend all day long looking. well it sounds like my java is done so will go get that and and then get ready to pick her up. take care Linda p.s. will snap some pics of the rose transplants this morning. 

 wow it seems like I am going all the time. today I went to the cancer doctor and would you believe they called to remind me of my appointment and after I got there it was a mistake and my appointment wasen't untill next month. never a dull moment. 

yestarday my girlfriend and I went to harbor freight. we had a blast. we nicknamed it the candy store. came home with lots of goodies for the quilt room. trying to remember if I posted about this yestarday but couldn't remember if I posted or not. 

working on various quilt blocks. want to make another scrap quilt but have not yet decided on what I want to do. managed to get my plants in the ground so that made me feel good.

Grandson came over this evening and we had a nice visit.

Have been doing a lot of reading. when I actually do sleep at nite I wake up about five and can't go back to sleep so sit up and read. its so quiet and nice not to be interrupted. great time to read. 

O.k. this is going to be a short one as I always call my sis on sundays and didn't get it done last nite so need to do it now. take care Linda

 Well the week is almost gone. so far today all I have managed to do is fix a paper jam in my printer and get my newest flower bush planted. so excited to see it grow. I Have 3 more plants to get in the ground later today if it cools down enough. planting is tough around here its usually too hot this time of year or rains for a week straight so not the best weather to plant in. this morning I had an opening so I took it. 

Would like to get started on my heart quilt. but I have one kind of white with great in it. cannot believe with all the fabric I do not have any white. Had thought about going into goldsboro to hobby lobby but the fabric is not on sale untill next week. they usually have it fourty percent off every other week so then I will go in and pick up as many whites as I can find. hopefully I will get a few done today but not holding my breath. so far I started printing some patterns I would like to get started and the printer jammed with the paper and then when I tried to put it out it tore so used a tweezers to pull out the rest. then my stapler ran out of stapels. I think it is starting out to be one of those days. I went shopping yestarday and had planned to buy some tempora but after checking with two employees and trying to find it myself I had no luck. I think I have enough left to use it tonight. I hope so as the veggies I bought may not hold up much longer. fingers crossed. 

well I know this is a short post but if I don't get busy I will not get any blocks finished today. hopefully the next post will have a block or two finished. take care Linda

 Well I managed to order a new iron for my small pressing place next to my cutting board. I found a cordless panasonic iron and I think it will be great not to have a cord to deal with and best of all it has automatic shut off .

wanted to tell you all about a vidio I watched which I thought was an awsome idea. we all have unfinished projects sitting around or I should say the majority probably do" and this gal said she puts each unfinished project in plastic containers and labels them 1 through 12. once a month she draws a number from a bucket and works on that project so that by the end of the year she has them all finished. I thought that was a great idea as it is truely manageable. when  you only have one to deal with it does not seem so bad. think I will try that too. 

Guess I had better go and visit with hubby as I have been in my sewing room all day long. I know I am sooooooooo bad but cannot help myself I am marking it down as senility!😃take care untill next time. Linda

 Not sure where the month went but its gone too quickly. yestarday I spent most of the day in my sewing room. managed to get the latest quilt sewn together and ready to quilt. also took care of my vegetable plants. which are growing like crazzy was afraid with all the rain weve had that they might do too well but they seem to be doing fine. 

 
watched a vidio yestarday on a lady who went to harbor freight with her husband and was amazed by all the items she bought that could be used in her sewing room. everything from magnets bowls for her pins to tape and the tool to pick up pins from your floor. ect. very interesting on just how many things she came home with. think I will have to go and check it out. watched another vidio on creating scrappy backs to quilts. that is something I have always wanted to do but have always been in too much of a hurry to take the time to make them. however after watching the vidio there are a lot that are very quick and easy to do. may try that with the dissapearing nine patch that I just finished."

Do most of you just sew quilts or do you sew other things like I do." am really wanting to sew another bag but am torn between all the quilts I really need to start quilting or just taking time out and sewing a bag to take a break. 

oh I ordered a new iron . I have a new one on my ironing . board but the little tiny iron I have next to my cutting table does not have an automatic shut off and I actually forgot it for the first time in I don;t know how long and left it on all nite. that worried me so I decided to get a new one with automatic shut off. the one I bought is basically cordless it has a cord wrapped up inside the iron to charge it but other then that it is not exposed. I read lots of reviews and for the most part people really seemed to love it. some complained that it did not stay hot long enough before cooling off and they had put it back on the cradle to get it hot again. I think that when you are simply sewing blocks together it should not take that long and should remain hot for the amount of time you need. its due here on the seventh so will find out more then. hopefully it will do the job and I can sleep at nite not wondering if I turned off the iron. I thought about getting one of the plug ins that you could shut off automatically but I have so many plugs and things in my sewing room that are plugged in that I thougth it would be a pain trying to connect them all. this seemed easier by far then all the other alternatives. well guess I had better try and get something done. I am sluggish this morning for some reason. slept good last nite but woke up at two this morning and couldn't get back to sleep untill about four then I slep untill seven. story of my life lately. Linda

 This is wednsday and it looks like it will be another busy day. we have been getting a lot of rain this week which is unusual. there have been some storms out in the ocean so that is why. it gets so humid when we get all this rain and heat together. although I must say its good for my plants. I just recently planted some plants in buckets on the deck and they are doing nicely so far. will post pictures later. 

I have another quilt I am working on called the dissapearing nine patch its one of those that I have seen before and thought of doing and have never started one. well I finally did and the blocks are all done but they need to get sewn together. will try and get that done by next week and post a picture of it. so many quilts in progress that need to be quilted. found some adorable baby dinnasuar fabric for the newest great grandson comming up. would like to get that done soon. although the baby is not due untill this winter but it never hurts to get ahead when it comes to quilts. I am also going to make quilts for some of the other great grandkids in spokane for christmas. one of my great grandsons loves dinnasuares and trucks. did not find any truck material so got some dinnasaure fabric and really like it. also have some princess fabric for another great granddaughter (the one that is going to get the baby brother) she is not too excited to having to share her mom and dad with a new baby so thought it might help to give her a princess quilt durring the baby shower and take a little bit of the sting out of it. then I have another great granddaughter in spokane that I am making a barbi quilt for. and once I finish with all of those there is one left that I will have to find out what she likes so that I can find fabric for her. never a dull day. 

I named my blog the way I did because so much of my life is related to fiber type hobbies. between knitting , quilting, crosstitch, ect I am always staying busy. I think I have owned every sewing machine available throughout the past few years just recently invested in two jukis which I love. I have always been one to go full throttle on my sewing machines and these are the first machines I have owned that will acomodate my need for speed.  some other things I love to sew besides quilts are bags they are so much fun! my husband likes to call me the bag lady. when I am not sewing them it is usually gift related like pillow cases, aprons ect. whoever said retirement was boring did not have hobbies. there is just never enough time in the day to do everything that needs to be done. right now I need to let the dog out . rascal is our big baby. and fill hubbys pills. have a great day 

The threads of my life

Trying to get this font to cooperate but so far not having a lot of luck. this is the first time I have blogged in a number of years so it may take time to get back into the flow of things. 

The last time I posted I was still working since then I have retired. for some reason I thought things would slow down once I retired but I could not have been more wrong. I am busier now then I was when I was working. between hobbies taking care of my hubby and all that goes with taking care of the house I am busy all the time. recently I decided to remove the queen size bed in our bedroom and go to twin beds. it makes it much easier on my husband as I am a one to toss and turn all nite long. I think he sleeps much better this way. that was a major ordeal as we had to order new beds and matresses ect. and our grandson had to come and put everything together. then I got the great idea to tear my sewing room apart and this house is small so the only way I could do that was to order a shed to keep a lot of my things in that I am not doing right now. I managed to get myself worn out on knitting hats as I was knitting for a group that gives them to lots of different places in need. between that and the church I knitted thousands of hats in the past couple of years so all the yarn or most of it was moved to the shed. once I got all of that out I had more room to rearrange and am really happy with my room now. the other nite my girlfriend and I went to lowes to pick up some insulation board to create a display board for my quilt blocks. we thought they would cut it for us but they didn't so I bought a knife and tape and we cut it out in the parking lot. the wind was blowing so it was quite funny to all that were watching I am sure. it managed to take off a couple of times with us hanging on . we eventually got it cut and in the truck then taped it down with the clear tape that the post office uses. 

that evening I couldn't sleep so decided to trim some of it myself. I cleared the island in the kitchen and cut the height down. then the next morning I got up early and cut off what I thought would work but the fabric would not cover it so had to cut more off. finally finished it and set it in my room. it is the two inch type so very portable. so glad it is fioncnished. it was a lot of work. right now I have an orphan project on it that I ran into while changing my room around. 

Well I had planned to share pictures from my phone but so far I have not been able to figure out how to do it. wish me luck and hopefully I can come back and post them . well its getting late here and I have had a long day a friend of mine cleaned out her barn and wantedme to come over with my truck and load it all up and take it away. 

Thanks to my darling daughter she got this all set up. still need to get the page set up but that will have to wait. hopefully tomorrow will bring more. take care .managed to get the picture transfer figured out . this is the design board with a picture of one of my unfinished projects on it. will need to quilt it and it will be finished.