Part Two Of Busy Weekends

So...this past weekend my friend Patti and I had a mini retreat at her cabin like we did last year.  I don't have as many pictures as last year, but I do have a few.  First:

 Patti worked on a new quilt.  One block done.  It's a pattern she bought from Red Pepper Quilts.  The pattern is called Labyrinth and I love Patti's grey and yellow fabrics.

And this is what I got done.  One hundred wing blocks for the Orca Bay Mystery quilt.  I also trimmed my red string blocks and removed all of the paper. (Removing all the paper was a job.)

Most of our sewing was done on Sunday as on Saturday we did a Shop Hop of these five stores:
Adel Quilting & Dry Goods Co.
Creekside Quilting
The Quilt Block
Quilter's Cupboard
Quilt Connection

Patti had never been on a Shop Hop, so I had to go with her.  What a great weekend!  Thanks Patti!!

I'll Bring You Up-to-date

I have so much to tell you, it's been a little busy around here.  First, the weekend of March 17 & 18, the grandkids and their parents were here for a visit.  It was Sophie's 2nd birthday.  So much fun!

Singing Happy Birthday. (Yes, she had a taste of the frosting.)

On a tractor ride with Grandpa.

All in all, it was a great weekend.  We went to the train museum, took walks and played. What a joy these little ones are! 

Add It Up and Box Number Three

Here it is, Wednesday!  Time for add it up.  Loving the progress I'm making.


Step 1  228 quarter square triangles - DONE
Step 2   72 blue string blocks - DONE
Step 3  350 half square triangles - DONE
Step 4    64 red string blocks -DONE
Step 5  700 black triangles -600 are cut out
Step 6  112  2.5 inch black squares -DONE
            112  2.5 inch light squares - DONE
              52 2.5 inch red squares - DONE
              26 light Ohio Star blocks - DONE
              26 dark Ohio Star blocks - DONE
Step 7  sew the 700 black triangles to the 350 half square triangles (2 on each side) - zero
Step 8  127 red string triangles combined with the 254 half square winged triangles - zero
            100 half square winged triangles set with 100 light triangles - zero
Step 9  The big finish  put all of the blocks together in rows and sew rows together. -zero
Step 10  Make borders using 100 blocks made in Step 8. - zero

 Now for box number 3.

These are leftover from the Craft Fair days.  I have 7 half towels and the tops are made for all of them.  The paper pattern in the upper left belonged to my mother.  I made a plastic template to use when I made them. I'm going to finish these off and keep them.  They need to be sewn together, a button hole made and a button sewn on.  May take a while, as I'm going to squeeze it in while working on Orca Bay.

Box Number Two

Box number 2 has come off the shelf to reveal it's contents.  Here it is:

The date on the back of the pattern is 1989.  The 2 yards of beige cotton and the seed packet fabric is going into the stash and the pattern will be given away.  We moved into our house in 1997, so this was almost 10 years old at the time of the move.  Time for it to move off the shelf.  How bad is that????

I also spent time cutting out triangles for the Orca Bay Mystery quilt.  It's still moving forward, I haven't stalled out yet. :-)

Multitude

I have a multitude of projects, like any good quilter has.  I was looking for something in my quilt room closet and thought differently about this:

I have all these nice little white boxes of projects on the shelf.  The problem is they have become a "decoration" in my closet. (Read I haven't touch them since I placed them there when we moved into the house 13 years ago.)  I decided that I'm going to start taking one project box at a time and decide if I'm truly going to finish it or should I just put the fabric back in the stash.  If I'm going to finish it, I need to work on it NOW.  My goal is to clean those off so I can put fabric there. I want it to look like this.

The first box held this:

 Which were made into these pins.
I took them to Quilt Day for Quilts From The Bluffs and we will use them for extra name tags.  A silver sharpie works great for writing your name.  So I got a UFO done, 1st one for the year!!  WOO WHOO!  And I decluttered another item!

Add It Up Wednesday

I'm so excited for this weeks numbers.  (I guess it helps to skip a week. LOL)



Step 1  228 quarter square triangles - DONE
Step 2   72 blue string blocks - DONE
Step 3  350 half square triangles - DONE
Step 4    64 red string blocks -55 done
Step 5  700 black triangles -20 are cut out
Step 6  112  2.5 inch black squares -DONE
            112  2.5 inch light squares - DONE
              52 2.5 inch red squares - DONE
              26 light Ohio Star blocks - DONE
              26 dark Ohio Star blocks - DONE
Step 7  sew the 700 black triangles to the 350 half square triangles (2 on each side) - zero
Step 8  127 red string triangles combined with the 254 half square winged triangles - zero
            100 half square winged triangles set with 100 light triangles - zero
Step 9  The big finish  put all of the blocks together in rows and sew rows together. -zero
            Make borders using 100 blocks made in Step 8. - zero

Like I said, I'm so excited as I finished all the half square triangles.  Adding the black triangles to them is going to be another major task.  Just keep plugging a away!

A Hexie

(I started this post last night and after I added the picture, it wouldn't let me type.  SO there will be 2 posts today as it's Wednesday.)

I started another hexie on the way to Minnesota and I finally finished it tonight.  I love the way these come out.

I was looking over the colors I have and I think I'm going to need to add some more lavender to the garden.  Next time I'm out for fabric, I will know what to look for.

I did a few more red string blocks tonight, too.  

Focused

Yesterday I tried to be focused.  I focused on some household chores and on making red string blocks for the Orca Bay Mystery quilt.  I feel like I did fairly well.

I still have more blocks to make and I was running out of red strings so I raided my 3.5 inch strips of red.  I cut some of them 1.5 inch and 1 inch so I would use the whole strip.  Then I realized I could also cut them 1.25 and 1 inch.  Eureka!  (I like the variety of widths.  And it's the little things in life.)

Today has not been so focused.  Any time I leave the house it takes me a while to get back into the groove of the project.  And I left two times, so you can only guess how unfocused I am!  Not as much progress today.

It's no wonder I have so many UFO's.

A Week And Half

I can't believe it's been a week and half since my last post.  But I have reasons excuses why I was away for so long.
Last Friday we went to Minnesota to visit the grandkids and their parents.  Friday's travel was fine until we got close to Clear Lake, IA and then the snow squalls started.  It would snow like a blizzard, let up, and then start in again.  Very nerve racking to drive in.    But we made it through OK and had a great time with the family.

 Here is a picture of Sophie being Sophie.  She loves to climb up as high as she can.  The fact that she has to balance on the arm of the sofa, just makes it that much more fun for her.  She will be turning 2 years old soon.

This is my favorite picture from the weekend.  Grandpa reading a book to Seb before bed.

After we arrived home, I ended up sick.  Not sure where I picked up this bug, but it was NOT nice.  Fever, aches, runny nose. I was home from work for 2 days and it took a while to feel normal.  I'm hoping to get back into my routine and I am really ready to SEW!