Done and Started

I just got the last stitch put into my 4th of July small wall hanging. I cannot believe it has taken me this long to finish something so small. It is only 18"x 20" but years have passed since I created the design and pieced the top. This heart flag came about because I wanted something patriotic to hang on the wall. Now this year it will hang with pride being completely finished.

Now the new project is a BOM from a LQS and we call it Saturday Sampler. We pay for the first block and we have a month to get it done. Then we take the finished block back on the second saturday the next month and show that the block is done and we get the new block FREE. Now if we cannot go ourselves or our block did not get done we have to pay $ for the months block. This years colorways were flannel or black Amish. I had taken a couple years off to catch up on my saturday samplers. But decided this was the year to go back so guess which color way I choose.

With the temps at 19 degrees farenheit and the winds blowing 90 miles per hour (honestly, ok maybe 15 MPH) and right through the house the cats sure had the right idea. Loung right by the heat vent. Talk about lazy and loving it. The lowest perch is right above the vent. Of course there's not enough room here so the 3rd Maine coon found a sunnier spot. As you can tell I got quite the look when I disturbed Sadie for a picture. Its like "how dare you wake me, I was sleeping."

Post 92

I just did a recap of my posts and this one makes #92. Another thing I have been reviewing is whether I will be continuing on with blogging. If I do continuing blogging, I have come up with an ingenious idea for my 100 posting. But at this moment am unsure what I am doing. It seems that life has zapped me of thoughts and fun and thus I wonder if I have words to continue writing about boring me.

Questions and Decisions to be made and answered.

On another Note I found a neat stitchery I think on it was through Bren's site. The first block is called Quilter's Blessings designed by Bea. I decided to do mine on tan muslin using pink, yellow, purple and blue floss to do the embroidery work.


Here is a picture of the quilt I am starting at the LQS. We were going to get our first pattern on Friday but the fabric has not shown up yet. Not like I have anything else to do, that I will just be sitting here twiddling my thumbs from boredom.

I finished a quilt

I took May Britt’s challenge and here is the finished small wall hanging or pillow star quilt. This is probably the third quilted item I made and there is a second one somewhere. I made the first one for my grandma and never got around to finishing the match for myself. When my grandma passed away I gave the pillow to one of my aunts who spent a lot of time taking care of my grandma and really understood what the pillow meant to my grandma.

I decided to keep the quilting simple and just decided to stitch in the ditch around the stars. Until this challenge I had never tried to machine stitch in the ditch. I do not saw I have mastered it, nor will it be my favorite stitch, but it was interesting trying it.

I finished the first two blocks that Pat has given us for the Good Book Cafe.

Recent Project

Back in December Pat posted the quilt layout for Farmers Market. I decided to go ahead and put the whole top together that way when the blocks come out I just have to applique them onto thier respective locations. Hopefully this works out alright seeing as I don't know what is coming up and unsure if the background colors work.

What I've been up too

Not as much as I wanted. I did get my block created for the Round Robin. I think the new block fits the required autumn subject that Kathleen had picked for her quilt.


Yesterday I did manage to get the next block (strawberry's) done for Farmer's Market. I still do not know if I should have used the yellow butterfly fabric, but just thought it would fit nicely. I did also start to play with the setting that Pat gave us in December. I still am undecided on a few color choices so may wait to see what the other blocks will be before I sew everything together. I have been working to at getting everything organized so that I can take breaks from school work to do some sewing. Because I can not study all the time without some sort of escape/vacation from brain drain.

The year to finish up

Between Kim and May Britt it seems that this is the year to finish up all WIP (works in Progress) or WISP (works in SLOW progress). Which ever name you choose it still is getting the quilts done. I have started a list in my side bar of quilts I'd like to finish this year and there will be a list of completed WIP's. The fabric stash badge is from Hanne such great creative way to show our support for stash busting in '08.

Now for the before pictures for the January challenge at May Britt's. The first picture has a scrappy star pillow top that needs quilted and finished (I think I started it in 2001); along with the small 4th of July wall hanging I designed in 2002. The next picture was a kit for Tenderberry Stitches called "Christmas at Our House." The books publishing date is 2002 so it was either that year or 2003 that I started this quilt. Somewhere I have tea towels that I was making to go along with the quilt. I figure these three small projects are a great start for January. Everything is ready to quilt and finish.

I enjoy making the tops or blocks but the machine quilting takes a toll on my arm because of the bulging disc in my neck so I have tons of quilts in this stage. But if I slowly make progress it will not be so overwhelming the number of tops on the bookshelf that need quilted.
I hope this year is the year for finishing lots of quilts and getting all my quilting organized.

Happy New Year

I have been so busy taking care of things that I have had little time to even read my emails. So here is what I have been up to this holiday season. Christmas day was spent at home with the four of us. Sam loved her quilt but I was so stunned when she asked if it "was a store bought quilt" I guess she forgot about helping me with the block setting we did a year ago. Maybe I should work faster at finishing quilts.

I managed to get tickets to Mannheim Steamrollers Christmas concert in Omaha for the 26th. While we were there the record company and other ranking member's presented the group with their platinum records. Mannheim's new album went platinum within 9 days of release, so it was a memorable moment for hubby and I. Then on Friday the 28th I got the letter stating the judge granted me full legal and physical custody of my Son. So one more hurdle jumped over. So that brings me to the weekend. Hum grocery shopping on Saturday boy that teenager eats a lot ;-)

Sunday Sam had a gymnastics clinic. Then my husband surprised me and had the Son babysit so we could go out for our 12 year anniversary. It still seems unbelievable that it was 12 years ago yet some how it seems like forever. It was a really nice time to talk and make future plans for the family.

Yesterday what a busy day laying down what is expected like rules and responsibilities for the teenager, on top of that I cleaned 2 bathroom cupboards. Of course we decided that it was time to take down all the holiday decorations. The kids were rewarded with all nighters, son was allowed according to our rules to spend the night with a friend. Sam had been signed up for a sleepover at the gymnastics complex. What a extremely quit way to bring in the New year.

I did manage to sneak in some sewing. The snowman pillow I started in November and finished right before Christmas and had started the Santa pillow in hopes to have it done before Christmas. Both pillow patterns are from Bloomin Minds. I realized on Sunday when I was leaving for our anniversary dinner that my holiday bag needed replaced. So started a new charm bag and finished it today. I decided to use the last charm pack I had from the Victorian Decadent quilt. I revamped the design from the holiday bag to be a bit smaller with the pocket on front sewn down the middle so a cell phone would fit in either side snugly.