Bringing Home the Tree

Towards the end of my last blog post, I told about a quilt kit that had been patiently waiting in the corner of my sewing room.  I shared photos of the first two blocks... I don't remember what happened Monday that I didn't blog , other than our car was in the shop for more than half a day.  I sewed that day, so I couldn't have been stressed.  

Yesterday was the funeral for my last remaining aunt.  It was nice to see all of my cousins at the luncheon afterwards - just wish I could see them more often and that it didn't involve a funeral. 

Ok, on to something 'brighter'...  Monday morning, I managed to finish two more blocks.

Down below is a photo of the back of the snowflake block.  Not sure why I took a photo, but I'll show it anyway lol.  You can see that I have torn/cleared away the paper around two of the blocks .. with the third one waiting.  I used old phone book pages for the stabilizer... easy to tear away  most of the time and definitely cheaper than store bought products.

This one was done Monday afternoon/evening.

And, the final two were done today.  I got smart and fused them down at the same time and then went from one block to the other and back again whenever there was a change in thread colors.

After the blocks were applique'd, then came THIS set of directions.... 175 ARGHHH...

BUT the good part was that there were the half square triangle papers included in the pattern.

After messing up with fabrics on the first block, I figured out what that large piece of fabric in the last monthly bundle was for and matched it up with the other pieces intended for the sashing.
Either my math is off ( that wouldn't be a surprise) or they gave me extra papers because my math says that I have (can't remember exactly) about 190 and you can see in the sewing instructions that I need 175.

Here they are... all except for the first one which will get put aside just in case I need it.

Tomorrow, I'll trim and tear papers away and press & trim the blocks before sewing them into the required rows.  Then it will be time to trim up the applique'd blocks and start sewing everything together.  I should be able to have the top finished Friday. - just in time to get my new BOM's on Saturday and our new Project Quilting challenge on Sunday.

And on that note, I'm calling it a night here....

take care...
ttyl......

Bunny quilt

Now that my Project Quilting 11.2 is done and submitted, I've been able to get back to my bunny quilt...

This green one was from day before yesterday

and this lovely purple one was done yesterday, along with sewing the blocks into rows.

Here's Mr. Prissy bright and early this morning supervising me to make sure I stay on task.  He can get real bossy at times - doesn't even like to give me a potty break.

Ok... here's the top completed... it, along with binding and a label, have been taken to my 'waiting to be quilted' area.  I'm thinking that this will be the next one onto Mo'e.

While I was working on the bunny quilt yesterday, I spotted a copper basket over in one corner of my sewing room.  I knew what was in it, but kind of forgot details.

It's a BOM kit I bought from Shabby Fabrics 3 or 4? years ago.  Maybe not quite that long - then again, it could have been longer ago lol.  I guess I could see if I could figure it out - maybe tomorrow.

I have EVERYTHING except for batting and backing ... best part - laser cut pieces with fusible on the backs... all I have to do is peel, place, fuse and stitch down.

This is block one.... everything was stitched down before dinner tonight except for the word 'farm' .  I went back afterwards and stitched it down.

  Then, intending to only look at the next block, I pulled it out and laid out the pieces - then fused them and started stitching, which is why I'm still up at 8:45.

NOW, I'm calling it a night....

take care....

ttyl....

Project Quilting 11.2

I changed my mind as to what team colors I was going to use.  My first thought had been green and white for Michigan State Spartans (Go Green and White!), but once I knew what I wanted to make, I changed my mind re the colors... 

Since my younger daughter will be the recipient of this some day in the future, I decided to use her college colors - no way did I want to use black and orange, which were her high school ones.

Let me say now that I really did not like doing this project... I won't give info on the 'pattern/directions' because they were really bad.... and I'm just glad that this is done and I'll never have to make one again.

In the process of trying to glue down the zipper so that I could sew a little easier, I pulled out the straight pin that I was using in the applicator of my glue baste it bottle... the head came off the pin and so I tossed it in the trash not realizing that I tossed the applicator with it.... Oh man!  I looked around in the trash a little bit, but decided to heck with it - it wasn't worth it.  I'll just go buy a new bottle - this one was REALLY old.

Ok - here it is  all done... crooked and in all it's glory.

Here's the inside pocket.....

There's also a zipper at the bottom so that you can store/stash items in there as well.

As a last minute thought, I machine embroidered her first name and used heat n bond to fuse it to a background piece before again using heat n bond to fuse it to the fabric safe itself.

That's it!  Done until the next challenge... which I will think a little harder about before attempting.

take care....

ttyl......

Slow Progress

was made today.... it was just one of 'those days'.  I stopped at Walmart to try and find out why hubby's refill was cancelled ( case of right hand not necessarily knowing what the  left hand is doing - like prescribing his pill for 10 mg once a day when he's been taking 20 mg twice a day).  Then I bought the interfacing and green fabric I need for the Project Quilting Challenge 11.2... yes, the fabric is poly cotton but it's not going in a quilt so I'm not worried about it.

Then, I left Walmart with the intention of going to the post office to re-send a Christmas card to Scotland after some 'fool' returned it as incomplete address. 
As I'm turning off one road and onto the one that will take me downtown close to the post office, I hear the car making a 'rubbing' noise ... then lights started coming on on my dash and there's two messages taking turns blinking at me... one was telling me that the right tire pressure is low ( it does that whenever the weather gets cold(er) .. I usually just wait for the weather to warm back up a little and it goes away)... the second one is the one that was scaring me... it said something about check brake system and there was a symbol telling me it was the ABS (automatic brake system) and then another one showing a triangle with swerve lines on it). 
Since I was close to the shop where I take our car for repairs, I stopped there and went in and told them what was going on... Rod  ( the owner and a bit of a smart alec, said he had a hammer) but then had Chris ( my favorite mechanic and about the only one who works on my car) come look at it. 
.It's the ABS and nothing to get stressed about; it's either the line that goes from one wheel to the other or it's the sensor in the right wheel; either way, it's not that expensive and I still have my brakes.  He said to make an appointment and he'd get it taken care of.

Now that I knew it was safe to drive, I went on to the post office and talked to one of the clerks behind the counter and explained the situation.  I had sent my friend in Scotland a Christmas card which had come back last Friday marked as incomplete address.  I got a hold of my friend and showed her the address I had put on the envelope and asked if I had screwed it up... she said "no" it was correct and that probably some English(er) person who didn't know what they were doing was the one who marked it 'return to sender'.  I thought I'd probably have to buy an envelope and another international stamp to resend the card, but the clerk peeled off the sticker the English(er) put on and then took a sharpie and blacked out the upc code ( or whatever they call  it) and put it in the out box.  Hope it makes it this time.

After that, I really wasn't in the mood to sew.... but finally got myself in there about 4... and it was a struggle... I had an 'earworm' of the song from the 60's about Henry the 8th that wouldn't go away and then I made a couple of mistakes with today's bunny... one, I fixed.. another one I didn't. 

He/she's a cute bunny anyway; not their fault they are 'defective'... doesn't lessen their cuteness.
(that's my story and I'm stickin' to it lol)

And, on that note, I'm calling it a night... I was so focused on finishing this bunny that I ended up having to call for someone to deliver dinner for us because it was after 6 and I wanted to finish this darned (cute) bunny.

take care....
ttyl....

Day #2 for the UFO

Blue and Pink today... and then adding red glasses to the Blue bunny... 

I pulled out some more scraps to make more bunnies... I have 9 done of the 12 I had planned on making... now, I'm thinking that I'd like to make 4 rows of 4 bunnies... which would make it a little bit bigger ... something just the right size for a 3 or 4 year old to cuddle up in.  The mother of my future great grand-twins ( sex not known yet) has a daughter who is 3 right now and, since I plan on making quilts for the twins, it only seemed right that I make one for her, too. 

No progress so far on this week's Project Quilting challenge... I need interfacing and since it's colder than a mother in law's breath ( as I've heard a male friend say) outside today, I decided to wait til it's a little warmer tomorrow to make the trek out. 

And on that note, I'll say....

take care....
ttyl....

Working on a UFO

while waiting for the next challenge given by Project Quilting, I started opening small tubs around my sewing machine... and came across this pattern by Elizabeth Hartman... 

five blocks were already done as part of a RSC the same year I did the foxes ( my first year doing it),, this teal bunny is #6.

I'm doing the smaller quilt so only need 12 blocks...
with the addition of this second block made today ( pale mint green), I only need 5 more.  I picked out a blue for the next block, but was too tired to stand up long enough to cut pieces...

Then the announcement came for the second Project Quilting challenge.... team colors.  That's easy enough... Green and White for Michigan State University... I even have a yard of a MSU print fabric... and I THINK I came up with an idea... have to find the pattern to see if I can make it qualify. ... hopefully, I can find it either tonight or sometime tomorrow.

That's it for tonight... I'm tired, kinda cold -- and so ready for Spring/Summer... WARM weather!  I don't care what season they call it as long as it's warm and doesn't involve snow or ice.

take care....
ttyl...

DONE AND DONE

Last year's RSC is finally finished... well, the top is.  

Too large to hang on design wall so I had to lay it across my bed....which means you can't see EVERYTHING at once.

Here's a shot of the lower side and right foot of the bed... 

and here's the upper left side.......

Look Ma!  An EMPTY tub!  It probably won't be that way for long... but still nice to see.  In fact, while I was climbing up and down the ladder by my design wall, I noticed a notebook with some fabric sticking out of it on one of the shelves below the design wall.  I pulled it out and it's a project from a couple years ago.... appliqued flowers in a vase in the center and then several borders... 

And while I was on a 'high' from finally finishing the RSC2019 top, I grabbed those blocks that went AWOL earlier this week and I got them into a block  - 3 done, 6 to go ( and 11 months to do them).

Maybe I'd better explain about being on a high.... after I got the binding and label ( and extra block) into a ziplock bag and put them on a hanger along with the quilt top, I walked through the dining room where hubby was, singing "Another one bites the dust, oh yeah, another one bites the dust"... he must have thought I was a little nutz but I was just happy to have finished the top and got everything organized together ( I 'lost' the label for a few minutes).

That's it for tonight... I'm going to kick back and relax for half an hour - then it will be bedtime.

take care...
STAY WARM... yeah, we got the white 'stuff' with more to come :(

ttyl...

MIA/AWOL squares have been captured!

I spent part of the afternoon today sorting through and straightening out things in my sewing room... had already gone through all three of my 'trash' bags without any luck finding those pesky red squares for one of the blocks of Afternoon Delight that were mentioned in my previous post.

Part of my sorting and straightening involved me deciding that I probably should clean out my bobbin case area while I'm sitting here... got it done, then went to put the plate back on but couldn't find the screw... arghh!!  I KNOW I had put it on my extension table for my machine and I had it standing up so that it wouldn't roll.... but I COULDN'T SEE IT.  

Ok, time to get my phone and turn it's flashlight on to check out the floor beneath my sewing machine table..nope, no screw, .... but wait... what's that?!!?

Oh man, it couldn't be... less than two feet from my own feet with only that table leg blocking my view...   YEP, it was the AWOL squares!!

Ignore the 'mess' around  the blocks in the first pic... I'll get that taken care of soon enough.

Yesterday, I unpicked the stitching in the block that had 4 patches facing the 'wrong' direction and got them stitched back in the way I wanted them to be.  Then, I did something really stupid... I tried trimming one of the applique' blocks down from about 8" to 7 1/4"... and messed it up totally.... see how close to the edge the applique' is on the left and bottom?  sigh

 I had to make the block all over again - just didn't try to square it up.  This morning, I realized what I did wrong... I've had problems with squaring up blocks like forever; most times I can 'fudge' it - but I shouldn't have to any more since it dawned on me what I was doing wrong and how to do it right. ( I'd explain, but I'd probably confuse people more).  I just have to remember that for these blocks 3 5/8" is the magic number.










Tomorrow, I'm going to finally get the RSC2019 blocks sewn into a flimsy so that I can measure it to know what size borders I need.  Remember, this is going to be probably at least twice as big as the pattern calls for.  I don't want to screw up with my lousy math and try to figure it all out before sewing the blocks all together... I'd mess up on a sashing or something for sure.  Much better/safer for me to get it together and then measure.  Since I'm stitching the applique' pieces for the borders onto the borders before I attach the borders, I can't be having them too small... too big, I can probably deal with but not too small.  I plan on doing the border applique at the guild's sew in this weekend and MAYBE have the borders sewn on before the weekend is over; then the quilt can join the WTBQ line.

Next week I hope to be able to get back to working on the quilt that's been on Mo'e for more than a couple of weeks now.  I've been busy with other things (like hubby in the hospital, my having a mri and then ultrasound for my right leg, then his birthday...starting on new quilts...first trip of the new year to see our favorite .- The Booth Brothers, ... etc etc).  Since my legs are still bothering me, it's just been easier for me to work on making quilt blocks than to stand at Mo'e for more than five minutes at a time - but it's given me time to decide what I want to do in the borders.

I dont think I posted a pic of what I decided to do for this year's RSC... I  thought of one thimg, but wasn't excited about it.... then I thought about the BOM that I  joined over on fatcatpatterns fb group....yes, I  think  it will work..Here's  January...Block 1 in bright/light greens...

After I took the first photo, I went searching for ribbon and found enough to give this guy a bow(tie).  And instead of appliqueing down little black circles for the eyes, I went looking for my tiny black buttons... found green ones instead - works for me! :)

And on that note, I'm calling it a night... tomorrow may be a long day in my sewing room - I'd better get some sleep.

take care...
ttyl....
Almost forgot to show this....

I decided to add some more texture to this block by hand stitching with crewel thread to make a center vein in each of the leaves.  Something simple, but I like it and hope to be ablecto do something similar on a few more blocks in the future.

Afternoon Delight

Yesterday, I decided it was time to start working on the pieced blocks for TQS 2020 BOM - Afternoon Delight since I finished the applique' pieces for this month last week.

To look at the photo, you wouldn't know that these blocks finished at 2 3/4"... yeah, tiny - not teeny tiny, but still tiny.

I got the first block done and went to work on the second one which would/will have red pieces instead of the blue that's in the first block that I made.

I KNOW that I had all the red blocks ready because I had to go back and cut a solid (not pieced block) block of red print for it.  But when I went to assemble the block, I realized that I was two pieces short - apparently, those two pieces, which I KNOW I had, did not like the working conditions of my sewing room and they walked off the job.  I CANNOT FIND THEM!

Ok, so we'll just make a green block in the meantime - you know that as soon as I cut new pieces of the red print, the two MIA pieces will 'miraculously' re-appear, so I chose to just move on to another color.

oh man!  I just noticed the layout of the tiny blocks... I'm not sure I can 'live with' them that way... I'm going to have to go back and change two of them... sigh.  It's all the red print's fault - I was so stressed over their disappearance that I wasn't thinking clearly.  Because of the 'stress' ( major blonde moment, I'm sure), once the green block was done, so was I and I called it a day for sewing.

Hopefully, things will go a little better today....
Watch for news of the MIAs.. there will either be a report that they've been found - or a reward for information leading to their 'arrest' will be issued.... or I'll just give in and make the blocks again.

In the meantime,

take care....
ttyl

Time to catch up

I posted yesterday about my first Project Quilting challenge, but that's not all I've been doing this week.

Monday, I cut and added the border to the Flakey Friends BOM2019 .  I don't remember if I gave credit in earlier posts, but it's a Sindy Rodenmeyer of fatcatpatterns.com design.  She started a new one this month with cats that I'm signed up for but haven't started yet - having a little problem deciding on background fabrics... and having the same problem with my RSC 2020.  :(

On Tuesday morning, I started working on my RSC2019.  The blocks were done but I still needed to finish some circles and the bias strip vines.

As I was finishing up the vines and 'flowers', I got into the discussion about the Project Quilting challenge with my friend, Katie.  Soon after, I put the RSC2019 finished parts aside and made my entry for the PQ.

The same day that I finished the PQ challenge, I received a package in the mail. It was some lobster claw 'things' (I can't remember what they're called) to use in the making of wristlet key fobs per a pattern from sewcanshe.com.  I thought it would be a good way to use up some more of my scraps - ones that wouldn't really work in other things I'm working on... 

Here's the first two... only ones so far.

Next up was starting on the BOM from TheQuiltShow.  It's Afternoon Delight by the late Sue Garman and I wasn't sure I wanted to even try it until I saw Barbara Black https://bbquiltmaker.blogspot.com on The Quilt Show demonstrating the pieced blocks - yeah, I can do this... and use up, hopefully, a LOT of my scrap fabrics.

This month, we were to do four applique' blocks along with some pieced blocks.  I haven't done the pieced ones yet ( partly because I'm not seeing just how many I'm supposed to make - have to go back and re-read and maybe contact Barbara Black )...
Here are my four applique' blocks... done...The pattern was traced onto paper back fusible and then onto the back of my fabrics before cutting out and fusing them to 8 1/2" blocks. I used monopoly thread on top and a yellow goldish neutral in the bobbin.
I did the solid ones first and ran into a bit of trouble on the first one because I tried to lay it out with the 'hearts' at the North, South, East, and West points... the block is supposed to be trimmed down to 7 1/2" but there was no extra fabric to trim if I fused it on that way.  It took me a couple of minutes to wrap it around my head that the 'hearts' needed to go into the corners.
Then came the stitching... that was sooooo boring.... and it took an entire hour just for one block!

The two below are the ones I did today... I was only going to fuse them on for now and stitch later, but I went ahead and stitched them down after all.

 - 

Well, we've finally come to the end of my post for today.  Writing this blog has been almost as challenging as some of the quilting projects I have going on.  First, I have to take the photos from my phone and post them on a blank blog post page... then go to my computer to add the text and make sure that photos are in order.  Today, my computer decided to erase words, or put words three or four lines up from where I actually wanted them... I went to refresh my page to make sure that the last photo I added from my phone actually made it onto the post - and lost all my text... had to start it all over again ( this is after having to type the title SEVERAL times).  Anyway, I've saved it now - well, except for this final paragraph- and it's ready to publish as soon as I say......

take care....
ttyl........