Happy New Year's Eve!

Happy New Year's Eve! 

 Have you been thinking of goals for the new year?  I know I have.  Again, so many choices!  I have UFOs and so many new projects to start.  Plus some new projects that I never started last year that were on my UFO list.

I have decided I need to blog more often than I did this past year.  There have been a few things going on that have held me up, the most important, my sister was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in October.  I kind of went into a depression as a result of that.  She did tell me I could share this news with you and to remind you how important it is the get your annual mammogram.   She is handling it great!  She will start chemo in January so I will keep you up to date with her,

The other thing that is keeping me from sewing is the hot mess that is my sewing room.  Things have gotten thrown in there plus I have taken home UFOs from Quilt Day.  The most recent, string blocks.  One of the members had 30 foundation blocks started.  She used red as the center of each one.  The beginning of November she asked me to help her.  Told I would, but I couldn't work on it until after Thanksgiving.  So at the December meeting she gave 20 of the blocks to our leader.  I took them home and have been working on the last 10 blocks. I know this isn't enough for a quilt, so will have to make even more.

I finished four yesterday.  I had two others done, so just have 4 more to finish.  Hope to have this part of the project done today.  Part of making these blocks has been to cut a bag of scrap that had been donated to the group.  I've been cutting 2.5 inch squares and any string leftover are being used for the string blocks.

I think one goal I have is to get other peoples projects out of my sewing room, as in finish them up and say no to future projects until I get a few of my own done.  I don't even know how many UFO projects from Quilts From The Bluffs I have, I've just been storing them in a big tub.  They aren't going to help anyone sitting in the tub!  Time to get busy!

I hope you have a wonderful New Year's Eve!

Black Hole?

I know, did I fall into a black hole?  I haven't been getting much sewing done of late.  Or blogging for that matter, as you well know.  Lots of things going on, as happens to everyone.

Still working on Celtic Solstice, it's not done.  Still on my four patches.  My sewing Karma has been off and it's hard to get the mojo going again.  It doesn't help that my sewing/quilting room is a hot mess.  I keep putting projects in it and for some reason the elves don't come at night and finish them.  I'm hoping this month will be better...

Rollercoaster Ride

Since the last post, things have been like a roller coaster ride, kind of crazy.

This month at our Piecemakers Quilt Guild of Western Iowa meeting we had a speaker, Connie Sue Haidle who gave us some great tips.  One of the tips was to be sure that your quilt corners are square.  I had never thought about that.  And such an easy way to do it.  Check it out.

This was the Moon Dance pattern I had made and I just finished quilting it.  Using my 12.5 square ruler,  I could keep the corner square.  How great is that?

Inspiration

Inspiration comes from so many places.  One that I found at Quilt Retreat was this:

It is a little hard to tell from the picture, but the leaf is a burgundy red with lime green veins.  I never had thought of this combination, but now, I'm thinking I need to make something using it.

Where do you find inspiration?

More Retreat

I have a some more to tell on the Retreat.  As the theme was Quiltaholic Retreat, I made some table decorations following along that line.  I totally forgot to take pictures, but as I was starting to disassemble them, I took a picture to share. 

There were six jars in total.  I had a saying on each jar with like items in the jar.  The sayings on the jars were:

You may have a Quilt Addiction if you save salvages. ( example,: jar contained salvages.)

You may have a Quilt Addiction if you take little pieces of fabric scraps and make new fabric.

You may have a Quilt Addiction if you save the cut off triangles from making other blocks.

You may have a Quilt Addiction if you decorate you gift bags with scrap strings.

You may have a Quilt Addiction if you save narrow strings (3/4 to 1 1/4 to make string blocks.

You may have a Quilt Addiction if you put fabric in canning jars and call it a decoration.

  

This was the view from the Retreat window.  What a wonderful place to be.  When I look at this picture, it takes me back and I feel so relaxed!

Hello!

Hello!  I've made it back.  Last weekend I went on Retreat with Quilts From The Bluffs.  What a great time!

Our theme was Quiltaholic as you can see from the picture.  Our ice breaker for the first evening was to introduce ourselves and tell what part of quilting we are addicted to.  It was so interesting to hear and to know at one time you were addicted to that same part or that you are on your way to being addicted to something listed.  Such as precuts, scraps, batiks, lime green fabric..  The list goes on!

I made these little pouches.

Twenty one in all.

They are very easy and so much fun!  These pouches are for the Wings of Hope Survivor Dinner the end of October.  Every year my friend Patti and I make little gifts for the Survivors.

 I also finished 10 more blocks for "Hard Tack and Coffee" and finished 2 pillow cases.  It doesn't seem like much, but we had so much fun!

Retreat!

Wow, has it been busy!  Started back to work and the garden came on in abundance!  Been canning and freezing veggies and doing my 15 minutes of sewing, but not blogging.  Sorry!

I have a Retreat this weekend at Camp of the Good Shepard.  Looking forward to the fun and I will take pictures to share with you, I promise!

Four Patches

I've been working on four patches for Celtic Solstice.  For some reason I went back and read through the directions again for this step and discovered I needed to twirl my patches.  (Link explaining how to twirl.)

There are over 100 four patches I am having to go back and twirl.  BUT, progress is being made!

Back Burner

School started this week and I'm back to work so quilting is going to the back burner.  I had the wonderful big push last weekend to keep me inspired.

It was rainy every day this week and it made it hard to get out to garden.  Finally we were able to pick produce and oh my goodness!  Lots of beans, tomatoes and basil.  I was going to stop making pesto but, I guess not.  The garden has kind of put a crimp in my sewing time.  But I did do some.

I did decide it was time to head back to Celtic Solstice since Bonnie has been talking about how she is working on this year's Mystery Quilt.  I'm so excited.  Really would like to have this quilt top done before she announces this years.  I am on Step 4, making green and orange 4-patch blocks.  I have 10 done, only 290 left to go.

 
I've been trying to use greens and oranges that I have in my stash, plus the few that Jeanine gave me from Quilts From The Bluffs stash.  This quilt is going to QFTBs when it's completed.  Hope you had a wonderful weekend.  I'm still off work today for Labor Day.  Back to work tomorrow.

Another Finish

I have another UFO finish!  UFO # 9, my table topper, called "Summer Breeze".  It was a kit and I've had the top done for a while.

I did some curvy lines on this topper.  I love the look of them, it reminds me of a waterfall.  I'm ready to quilt the little quilt I made from the pattern "Moondance."  I'm thinking I'm going to use the same technique.

I did quilt 2 other quilts this weekend too.  First one is a "Charm For Charity" quilt that we do at the local quilt shop, Cut Up & Quilt.    This is part of the Quilts From The Bluffs outreach to the community.  We take 99 five inch charms and create a quilt.  We meet once a month in the evening and in the afternoon.  We cut squares, make kits, sew or finish quilts.  They go together very fast and make a nice quilt.  I just did a cross hatch corner to corner.

The last quilt I "quilted" I didn't really quilt, I tied it.  I'm not a big fan of tying quilts, but this one called for it.  I used the 6.5 inch ruler as my guide and at each corner, tied the quilt.    

A bonus, I had a decent size box labeled "Crochet Thread" in my closet.  Since I don't really like to tie quilts, I'm keeping one ball of white and one of beige.  The rest are going to Goodwill. (I've never really tried to crochet with that small of thread and since I really love quilting, I probably never will.  So it needs to go.)

Catch Up

I'm playing a little catch up today.  I've been working on Nicki's quilt and it is done!  I was taking picture for you as I went, just wasn't getting it posted as I should.

This is how I created the square spiral:

 I used a Clover chaco-liner roller to make the lines.  It fits right up to the ruler and lets you make a straight line.  

 The lines are a little hard to see. 

All done!!

Finally

Finally, I started quilting Nicki's quilt.  It took me a long time to decide what to do.  Then yesterday I had the idea to check and see what other people have done.  So I Googled "quilting on a BQ quilt".  Love all the images of these quilts.  You'll have to check it out.  But lots of them haven't been quilted yet.  Or they did what I did the first time and stitched in the ditch.  But I wanted to do something different with this one.  I did find one that inspired me.

First I stitched in the ditch a big grid to keep the quilt stable while doing the other quilting.  So using painter's tape that is one inch wide, I started taping my quilt.  The space between each strip is the width of a yardstick.

In the big blocks I'm going to do a square spiral.  I'll show that to you when I tape that part.

Ten More

I have ten more "Hard Tack and Coffee" blocks done!  Only 60 more to go!

I've been work on this as a leader and ender.

I am amazed at how much a quarter inch seam takes out of the piece.  Look at the difference!  The HST are one and a half inch square and finish 1 inch square.  This is one of the smallest things I've ever sewn.  And I've never really been into miniatures that much, but this has been fun.

Saturday Fun

My sister came over on Saturday and we had fun sewing together.  She cut out 5 pillowcases and got 3 of them sewn together.

A pretty floral

Where's Bart?

Raccoons!

 I worked hard to finish up 10 more blocks for "Hard Tack and Coffee".  They need squaring up, but came out the right size.  Woo Hoo!

It's always fun to sew with someone else.  And it inspires you so!  Now I need to dig through my stash and see if I can come up with some pillowcases.  Love the look that they add to the bed and the room.

P.S.  Did you notice how I happened not to mention that I didn't do any quilting on Nicki's quilt?  Guess what my goal is for this week.

Recipes

I know, what's up with that title?  I have to share a great idea my sister, Deb shared with me.   I love the magazine section of the paper as I always fine good recipes I want to try.  I save the little piece of paper with the recipe and when I decide it's time to make it, I can't find the paper.

Deb suggested I go to the web site and pin the recipe to my Pinterest board.  What. A. Great. Idea!  I love it.  So "Relish" magazine had a recipe for "Herbed Chicken Tray Bake"  Went to the site and pinned it to my Board.  No more bits of recipe papers hanging around  hiding  waiting for me.

Thanks Deb!

Moondance

I finished "Moondance" on Monday and here is a picture:

Can you see what I did wrong???  The fabric is a one way design and I put it on the pieces on the wrong sides.

Just to refresh your memory.

On Tuesday my husband and I did a day trip and I ripped out the stitching on the side pieces and redid them this morning.

It would have bothered me too much to just leave it.  I feel much better and I have enough of the stripe fabric to make binding and have a backing.  Woo Hoo!

Goals

On July 7th I set a goal of having "Everything But The Kitchen Sink" quilted and the binding on.  I did get that done but I didn't set a new goal last week.  So I need to set a new goal for this week.

This week I plan on quilting and getting the binding on Nicki's quilt.  I seem to get stuck and I really wanted to start a new project.  Which I did end up doing.

I bought a new pattern on our Shop Trip called "Moondance" by Villa Rosa Designs.  I had some fabric in my stash that has been drawing it to me for a couple of months now.  So I'm thinking I need to get something made up and donated to Quilts From The Bluffs.

The Pattern

The Fabric

It's going together very fast.  I need these fast projects to help me feel I am getting something done.

Road Trip!

This past Saturday quilt friends and I took a Road Trip to Hamilton, MO. to Missouri Star Quilt Company.  What a great day!  My Friend Rachel took these pictures.  I was so overwhelmed by fabric, I didn't even think about pictures.

The Main Store.

 There are different stores located in the town that house different kinds of fabrics.  There was a Seasonal Store,  a Solids and Blenders Store and a store full of Reproduction fabrics.  And they will soon be opening a Batik Store.

The Crew

We also found out that J. C. Penney's boyhood home is located here.  

(I did take this picture.)

If you ever get a chance to go to Hamilton, MO, do it!  You'll be glad you did.

As Promised

As promised, pictures of "Everything But The Kitchen Sink".  It's a free pattern from RJR Fabrics.  The only change I made was to frame my star blocks with more reproduction fabrics vs using the white called for in the pattern.

It was a little windy, but I did get a picture!

Close up of the quilting.  Jeanine of "Threads of Faith" longarm quilting services, quilted this for me. 

So glad to have this one done! 

Grandchildren

The grandchildren and their parents came to visit this past weekend and we had so much fun!

My grandson loves trains and Lauritzen Gardens was part of Railroad Day.  We saw model trains, real trains and small running trains that the children could ride.

My grandsons favorite train.

 We also had corn on the cob.  My granddaughter learned how to husk corn this weekend.  Very intent, but a big help.  It's one of her new favorite foods.

Best helper.

Even with family here, I finished "Everything But The Kitchen Sink" and I am planning on taking a picture today and will share more on that later.

Cutting And Sewing

I had a great time with Jean yesterday, cutting and sewing.  Also a little chit chatting.  I got my magazine autographed. :-)

Jean had a quilt she designed in "McCall's Quick Quilts" August/September 2014 issue.  It's her third time being published!  I'm so excited for her.  You can also find other patterns by her at Craftsy.

Jean did lots of sewing and I did lots of cutting.  I have all my half square triangles cut for "Hard Tack and Coffee"   Each bag has 40 HST and I have one package (on the left) of blocks that are ready to sew.  Today I want to finish getting the bags of blocks all cut and ready to sew.  Then I can just grab a bag of 10 blocks and start sewing!

Little Projects

I was checking for a fabric and I found this fabric.

Notice that the little hearts are off.  I think I bought this fabric to use for making a rug.  It's really a nice weight of fabric and cut up, it would have been fine in a rug.

But I ended up making a curtain for the basement.  My husband became a Master Gardener and was experimenting with starting his own seeds.  He needed a curtain to block out some of the light so I made this.  So another little project, done.

Goals

So I decided to have a quilting goal for this week.  My plan is to quilt and bind "Everything But The Kitchen Sink." I need to get a big project off the list.

I also plan on cutting out some of the green and orange strips I need to make 4-patch blocks for Celtic Solstice, strips for HST blocks for "Hard Tack And Coffee", and some 10 inch squares for playing with the HST technique shown in "Disappearing Hourglass" quilt.

I'll let you know at the end of the week if my goals were too lofty. I really do need to figure out my limits...

Done And Done

Step 2 and Step 3 are done and done!  

Going to be spending some time now cutting out blocks for "Hard Tack and Coffee" along with strips for making 4-patches for Celtic Solstice.

Closets

I've been trying to get some closets cleaned out this summer.  I get them part way done and than I seem to fill them up again.  I have been following a blog called "365 Less Things"  And taking one thing a day isn't moving it out as fast as I want.  So for the month of July I thought I would do 10 things a day.  And guess what?  One of the readers, Sanna, thought the same thing.  So I'm joining the challenge.  I'm keeping tick marks on my calendar to track.

Here are a few things removed from the closet and they are going off to find new homes:

This fabric is going back into the scrap bin as I only wore this outfit 2 or 3 times.

Had button covers of stars for the top white buttons.  Bet those are still around here someplace too!

I want to make a pillow out of this.  

Do You Ever Feel Like This?

Do you ever feel like this?  You are sewing along on your project and you really want to start something new?  I've been looking at this quilt on my calendar all of June.

Very simple, just half square triangles done with light and dark fabrics.  So I resisted all month.  Then Friday, Missouri Star Quilt Company comes out with this tutorial, The Disappearing Hourglass quilt, on video.  I'm watching it and she makes HST with 2 pieces of fabric from a 10 inch layer cake.  Oh. My. Goodness!  It all clicked.  I can make my HSTs using this method.  Now I know I have seen something like this before and I'm sure it's even pinned on my Pinterest boards.

But it felt so revolutionary to actually see this done.  The squares will be a little bigger, but that's OK, as I want to make a twin size charity quilt.  So now what?  Do I drop everything and start this?  Or keep working on my 2014 list?

So, does this ever happen to you?  And when it does, how do you handle it???


UPDATE:  And yes I do want to go buy the materials needed to make the Disappearing Hourglass quilt!!

Yay For Progress!

Yay for progress!  I have 19 Hardtack and Coffee blocks done! I have 200 chevron blocks and 20 pinwheels blocks for Celtic Solstice.

I now have to start cutting more half square triangles for Hardtack and Coffee blocks.  But I couldn't find my Easy Angle ruler!  Achhhhhh.  So a friend has let me borrow her ruler until mine shows up.  Thank You Jeanine!  

The weather has been beautiful and today was amazing.  Worked in the gardens this morning.  Picked lots of lettuce and basil.  Yum!  Also saw these two little guys resting in the shade of a bush this afternoon.  One is hidden by the other.   I love seeing the babies.

First UFO Off The List

I forgot to post about my first UFO off the list, my twist bag.  These bags are addictive and I can see me making more of them in the future.  They would make a great market bag.

I also love that we live on an acreage, the wildlife we get to witness is just amazing!  

I have to share this one with you!

Doe and her twins.