Bunko

I've played bunko with the same group of ladies for 17 years.  We started playing when we had young children.  Most of us were stay at home moms, and our one night out a month to play bunko was about the extent of our social lives.  As our kids grew, and some of the women went back to work, we kept playing bunko.

 There were divorces, remarriages, babies born, empty nests, some players moved and were replaced with young mothers. We've helped each other navigate our children's learning disabilities and house renovations. We've watched our kids graduate and sent them off to college. Now our kids are getting married and grandchildren are arriving.  These ladies are my safety net,  They were there for me though my cancer treatment and again when Andrew died.

They gave me a bench in his memory last month.

What has this got to do with sewing?  Our bunko Christmas party is tomorrow night, and I made a table runner and pot holder for the $15 gift exchange.  I found fabric with dice on it:  perfect for bunko!

December 1

Andrew would have turned 24 today.

BCQC, Sewing Myself Into a Corner

I've been working on my BCQC block, but I'm still not done. My problem is one of my own creation:  I beaded the upper pink section so heavily that I need to do more embroidery to balance the block.  So I'm still working on this:

I had no brown silk ribbon to use for the basket, so I used some old brown craft ribbon of unknown origin (polyester, maybe?).  It was stiff and could not be pierced by a needle, but I made it work for this basket.  Baskets are super fun!  I love the weaving.

Linking up:  Supermom No Cape

Thankful For My Sewing Room

In our house, company coming means the sewing room gets cleaned.  I don't want to have any traces of quilt gifts hanging around in case someone wanders in and sees what I'm working on.  We are having 25 people here for Thanksgiving.  This is a smallish crowd for us as it will be just my sisters and their families this year from my side.  My three brothers have other family obligations this year.  We'll see them all for Christmas and at Andrew's burial.  

Anyway, this is what my sewing room looks like when it is clean, which isn't very often.

In addition to the usual quilter's junk and scraps, I keep my unquilted tops, large pieces of backing, and shirts to repurpose hanging up in this closet.  It saves me from having to buy even more storage bins.  

I love the light I get during the day from this big window.  At night I could use more light.  Maybe Santa will bring me a new lamp for this room.

I keep my stash (mostly scraps) in the white tubs, sorted by color.

This year I am thankful for my  new sewing room!

Smart Phone Quilt Along

I finished the Facetime block this weekend.

Here are all my completed blocks.

I need quite a few more to have enough for a decent sized quilt, but this project is officially on hold now, so I can start Bonnie Hunter's new mystery this week.  I don't anticipate this mystery being completed as quickly as the others because I'm going to cut for my tumbler quilt as I go along, and I'm doing a lot more hand sewing in the evenings than I was.  

Linking up: Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday

BCQC Continued

I worked on my BCQC block this weekend.

Saturday night I wanted to work on it but hadn't been sent the next step.  My original plan was to save all the embellishing until the end, but I wanted to stitch, so I started beading.  

I  love the beading!  It is so much fun.  Kathy the teacher is a planner.  I am not.  I just started stitching, adding more and more beads and French knots,  It was so much fun!

My friends and family have asked what is it going to be, as if I need to turn this practice block into something else.  I tell them that this is a teaching piece.  I am learning how to crazy quilt, and if the block never gets finished or framed, that is ok.  This piece is for me to practice my stitching, and that is enough.

Linking up:
Super Mom No Cape

BCQC Update

I've completed all the seam stitching for my crazy quilt class.  Yesterday I started on the silk ribbon embroidery.  I've only done a little silk ribbon embroidery, and every time I do it, I have a hard time getting the tension right.  Silk ribbon needs to fluff a little, so you can't pull the ribbon taut and get beautiful flowers.  I am far from making beautiful flowers yet, but I'm satisfied with my irises.

 Wish I had made the flowers a little smaller to make room for some taller leaves.

 Have I interested you in crazy quilting yet?  Here's a link to the blog of Kathy Shaw, who teaches the free basic crazy quilting class.  BCQC