Quilty Pleasures: Sometimes Boring Sewing is Good

I've been working on this new Lady of Guadalupe quilt and have moved to the center side panels where there will be trees. I've been "In the Woods" for a couple of weeks now and I am lost. I tried a tidily pieced forest, but don't like it and the going has been slow and my brain hurts. I've a couple ideas swirling around, but decided it was time to cleanse the palate, so to speak.

Almost seven years ago I saw a flannel split rail fence quilt in a book and bought all the yardage for it with the help of my master color helper, Pattie. We bought the fabric, both flannels and homespuns, at Rosie's Calico Cupboard in San Diego. It's a behemoth of a store, taking over the business spaces in a strip mall, one by one, year after year. Once you get in there, it just seems to laterally go and go and I'm glad all the rooms are in a row so I can't get too lost. If you are in the San Diego area, eat at D.Z. Akins deli, which is like the Jewish delis I remember as a kid, with humongous sandwiches and old people who never seem to change sitting in the booths.

The kid I wanted to make the flannel/homespun quilt for wasn't too interested, so I stashed the fabric away and moved on to other quilty projects. A couple of years ago I discovered the fabric in a gigantic tangle in a paper grocery bag, all the strips sewn, and moved them to a nifty work-in-progress plastic box. And it sat some more.

The plastic box has been stacked under the cutting table for a year, and it was time. The Lady quilt was making my head hurt and I wanted to do something that was simple and boring. I wanted to finish something.

I ironed and cut the strip sets into their segments and have been sewing them into rows. Here are some squares ready to chain piece.

This type of sewing calls for some easy television to watch. I recommend The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt now streaming on Netflix because it's more verbal than visual, so I can sew and listen and laugh. Tina Fey is one of the writer/creators, so now you know what kind of verbal it is: Witty, 30 Rock-style repartee with a sunny outlook. Don't try watching The Americans or something where you might miss seeing something that moves the plot while you're beavering away chain piecing. Go for light and verbal.

So the blocks are sewn into twos, which are stacked here, then into fours, then into eights and then add  six to make fourteen blocks per row.

The rows are draped everywhere, with little thought about color placement, which is the total opposite of The Lady quilt. If the same fabric pops up close to each other, who cares? This is just a quilt, a cuddly one that someone will love.

I will make fifteen rows, sew them together, and add a simple border.

In between, maybe I'll piece some trees for The Lady's forest. All this boring sewing is making me excited about The Lady quilt again.

So let's hear it for boring sewing!

Decorating The Nickel and Dime Ranch Headquarters Part 3

All these years I didn't realize we were on the cutting edge when it came to decorating, but a quick look through Country Living, Real Simple or any of the frugal living blogs on the internet solidifies the idea that Tom, the Resident Decorator, aka The Inferior Decorator, is a house decorating genius!

We have lived frugally for years, gathering old furniture from family and friends, frequenting second hand stores, and generally allowing our furnishings to drift into our lives with little planning. At first when Tom has a decorating idea I tend to freak out and not like it, but for many of his vignettes, their time has come and I grow to like what he has arranged. I never did like the nooks he made out of crates to accommodate all our books, though. It was too hard to clean and dust and a squirrel Miss Bonnie brought into the house got caught between two crates and it smelled to high heaven.

But I kind of like what Tom has done for our television area. We bought a big screen tv, but the ironic part is we have chosen not to get the satellite dish hooked up and of course there's no cable or signals through the air in our area. Too many traveling nights in trailer parks and motels with cable have proven there is little to watch on tv. It's easier to get dvd's and watch them when you want and the diggers are wending their way here and there with their fast internet fiberoptic stuff and will eventually get to our place. Then we will be able to hook up the computer to the tv and stream! Woo hoo! Stimulus money well spent, I must say.

Below is our setup. On the left are Swiss Army chests Tom ordered from Sportsmans' Guide, the Surplus Catalog, to hold dvd's and a tangle of wires and cords that we might need some day. That's the dvd player on top of the Swiss Army chests along with a pair of binoculars because you never know when you might need to look out the window and spot something. The telly is setting on Aunt Patricia's trunk from when she was in the military. Her name is stenciled on the top.

On the right is another trunk we bought at a second hand store for 30 dollars and gave to my mom for Christmas. She restored it inside and out. There's another set of binoculars there along with several pairs on the spinning bookcase right next to the trunk. You never know when you may need to grab some binoculars and have a little look-see.

The trunk with the books on it is our coffee table. We think this was Aunt Patricia's too, because there is a Duluth Trunk Company metal tag attached to the top. The rug is from overstock.com.

In between are some snow shoes that will decorate the walls someday.

Here's how these Swiss Army chests look inside. We used old milk crates to hold the dvd's and other stuff.

I think this stuff goes well with our cabin. We look like we might be ready for an expedition or something, don't we?

And unrelated to military surplus, but still important is the photo below of the amarylis I got for Christmas from Trudy and Pat. It's setting on the window sill above the kitchen sink, adding some winter color. After I took the photo I noticed the dome outside in the late afternoon gloaming.