It was going so good

and then I started quilting.  Even then, it was going ok for a bit; Mo'e waited until I was two rows from finishing when he decided that he wasn't going to co-operate any longer.  Upon close inspection, I found some thread in the bobbin hook that was so fine that I wasn't sure it wasn't hair from our black cat, Chewy.  Think I got it out but now the hook seems frozen... guess I'll be calling for service first thing in the morning. 

On the sewing side, I did get another Beach Bovine block done... and the background cut and stitched together for another six making a total of 12 instead of 6 - which, hopefully, with sashing & borders will make it a smallish lap quilt.

Well, guess that's all that's happened since I blogged this morning.

TTYL

Almost forgot

Well, actually I DID forget to post last night.  I stayed up past midnight working on this

Itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini

 and was too tired to even think about posting.  Sorry about that.  Was chatting with my friend, Marnie, and showed her a pic of one of the first two cows I did  ( must have been the female) and she said that I had to do a yellow polka dot bikini one.  I told her that I'd have to check my scraps since these are being made only from scraps ( the background came from a little 'yardage' ... not even a yard was left).  I turned to my left and looky there - right in front of me was this yellow dotted fabric - close enough!  

Earlier in the day I was supposed to get that shot in my knee at the pain clinic - well, it didn't happen.  I got onto the table in the x ray room and chickened out.  No one had told me ( or I just didn't hear) that I could have anesthesia and basically be 'out' during the procedure; I'd just need someone to drive me home.  They told me about it yesterday - and it finally sunk in that it would be a better way to go... even the nurse, Charles, told me that it was a good/right decision to make.  I just couldn't get comfortable on the table and then they laid this velcro strap across me, 'pinning' one arm down - not a good thing to do to a conscious, claustrophobic & nervous person even if it was just lightly laying across me to remind me not to raise my arm.  So after calling my friend, Vicki, and talking with Susan at the scheduling desk, it's now rescheduled for March 22nd. 

After coming home and telling hubby the 'good' news, I went to my sewing room and while trying to decide what I was in the mood to work on, I spotted a book with mug rug patterns - aha!  that's what I want to do today.

Taa Daa!

I think I'll be sending this one to my friend, Krystal.  From her fb posts, I think she has a 'thing' for giraffes and I think she'll really like this.

So, what's on for today?  Who knows...  I'd like to get some one on one time with Mo'e if only to finish the first row of quilting.  And I'd like to get another cow block done.  The pattern calls for a total of six blocks, but that's not a very big quilt..more like a wall hanging and I'd like it a little bigger, so maybe if I can get twelve blocks it might be closer to being lap quilt size; we'll have to see as we go along... not sure if I have enough of the blue for six more blocks.

Oh,  before I went to the pain clinic yesterday, I made a label for the Chicken Buffet quilt - didn't take a pic of it yet, though.

My "Marie" ( Marie Osmond Janome 8000) is capable of stitching letters but I've never quite got the hang of spacing the words nicely.  I decided to 'go for it' and give it a try again - sometimes I'm successful -- and this was one of those times.  Got the name of the quilt, the designers, my name & location and the date finished ( so I guess I'd better get it quilted this month so as not to make myself a liar lol).  I just need to piece together backing fabrics.

And on that note, I think I'll head to the sewing room...

TTYL

Twas the night before...

no, not Christmas; it's the night before I get 'the' shot in my knee and I'm really hoping it works because my knee is really killing me right now.  I am bone on bone and this shot is supposed to put some cushioning back in between the bones from what I understand.  Actually, I'm at the point that I don't care what it does as long as it takes the pain away!  My back is still hurting on occasion and I think it's because of my knee.

I got the red borders sewn onto the Chicken Buffet quilt (no photo yet) and binding is cut and pressed and rolled around an empty t.p. tube; I did forget to make the label, though, and I still don't have backing worked out.

Instead, I pulled this HUGE yardage ( 9 1/2 yds) out of my stash where it's been 'aging' for several years.  I decided I could use it on both the Flight Plan Traffic Pattern quilt and this one that I can't remember the name of.

name unknown for now... will just call it 'other' for now

Flight Plan Traffic Pattern is on the frame.... Great news is that the backing fabric is 60" wide!! so what I had to cut for Flight Plan Traffic Pattern is barely noticeable so there will be plenty for the 'other' quilt.  There might even be enough for backing for a smaller quilt, too.  We'll see  :).  That fabric was a steal... $8.00 for 9.5 yards.  It appears to be a 'polished' cotton - I tested to be sure it was 100% cotton and then I was worried about whether Mo'e would like it;  I've done a bit of stitching and it seems just fine :).  Woo Hoo!!  I took one pic but it's on my phone and hasn't been transferred to my computer yet.

Our guild's quilt show is coming up later this month and I entered two small quilts ... mainly because I didn't want to wrestle with any of my larger ones to get their measurements.  I've heard a couple of times that the organizer barely has 50 entries - very low number for us - so I just sent her an email a few minutes ago telling her that IF she needs more, I'd enter a couple more - but only IF she needs them.  I'm not going to be pushy about it - if my quilts are in the show, fine, if not, that's fine, too,

I plan on being at the quilt show at least on Saturday - will have to find something to work on.  Maybe I can get one of my 'chenille' quilts ready to sew that day.  

Ok, almost bedtime...

ttyl

Slow Monday

I don't know if it was the weather or if I didn't sleep good last night or just what was going on, but today was a  very slow day.  I made ONE block... it's a block that took me a couple of hours to do from start to finish.

another silly cow  lol

After I finished the block, I went over to Walmart to pick up the rest of what I needed for tonight's dinner and three yards of red fabric for the Chicken Buffet quilt border.  I know I don't need that much - actually, there was only about 2 3/4 yds left on the bolt and I said "Close enough".  Even with using it for binding, I don't need that much... I'll probably have close to 2 yds left which I can use for backing along with something else -probably black unless I find another red in my stash.  There might be an ugly red print in there  lol.

That's what I'm going to work on tomorrow - getting the borders onto the Chicken Buffet quilt and binding made - then, if I find enough for the backing, I might just load it onto Mo'e so that it will be ready for me to start quilting on Thursday.  (Wednesday is the day I get the shot in my knee and I have a feeling I'm not going to feel like doing much after that happens).

Oh, and I got a call tonight from one of the guild members in charge of our annual Christmas tree for the Festival of Trees.  She asked if I would be willing to quilt the tree skirt she has a printed panel for.  I said that I would as long as it was still in one piece... I don't want to mess with trying to quilt something that's round.  She's going to get it to me the weekend of the guild's quilt show.  I didn't pay too much attention to it when she showed it at one of our meetings because she was talking about putting it all together THEN having someone quilt it... so I don't remember what it looks like, but the theme is angels - could be fun to do.  We'll see.

ok, bedtime...

TTYL

Ok, I'm a slacker

I'm a slacker... actually, I'm a procrastinator.  I HAVE been sewing - just not blogging about it; it's a habit I've yet to acquire, I guess.  Although, to be honest, even though I've gotten SOMETHING done each day, there were a couple of days where there wasn't much to show or talk about... like putting folded over strips onto all four sides of the blocks - I guess you could call them faux piping.  Somewhat boring to do, but they do make a difference. 
Oh yeah, and I got the names sewn onto each block, too... almost forgot about that until I was scrolling through my files trying to find recent pics.

 I ended up using scrap black fabric for the background of the names... I think it works :)

Last night, I got this far.... assembled and waiting for me to go buy red fabric for the outer border... Yes, I'm having to go buy fabric (today), but it's what it needs... I have an extra yard of yellow here but I think there's enough yellow with the chickens.  Anyway...

The day before yesterday, I apparently got bored doing chickens and started on ANOTHER quilt...

yeah, cows this time  lol.  It's another one that I've been wanting to do for at least a couple of years... and I have plenty of black & white scraps and other colors ... even the background was made from scraps, although, I'll have to break into yardage at some point.  These cows are so stinkin' cute -- not sure about the eyeglasses, though.  Maybe if I make them sunglasses, that MIGHT be better.  I keep thinking those two black spots on the head are the eyes, but they're not - they're just spots.

Anyway, I think I'm caught up... watched a couple of the free Craftsy shows yesterday... well, I watched parts of a couple classes - enough to figure out that I wanted to do at least one of the projects from each class.

And, yes, I bought more fabric the other day.  There's a quilt along over at https://weallsew.com/union-square-big-block-quilt-along-part-1/ and I decided that I wanted to join in - without having to dig through my stash to find enough of the 'right' colors when I was pretty darned sure I didn't have some of them let alone enough to make this top.

Ok, I'm off to see what kind of trouble I can get into today...  MAYBE I'll post again tonight, who knows lol

TTYL

Yay! It's a new month

which means a new BOM from fatcatpatterns.com ( Gnome for the Holidays) and a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by sewscrappy.blogspot.com.  I got the Gnome pattern first thing this morning, but kept waiting and waiting for the RSC color announcement.  Finally I gave up and went to work on the BOM...

 About three hours later... it was done... now, I have to wait THIRTY ONE days for the next block... plenty of time to do other projects.

I finally got the RSC notice that the color this month is green, but the lighter, paler shades ( save the dark greens for later in the year).  Here's the first two foxes...  two more to do and then maybe a dog and maybe some scrap blocks.

Guild meeting was tonight, but after having 60 degree weather the past two days, we have this today 

- and I decided that I wasn't going anywhere.  Just when I was starting to think we're going to have a short Winter and early Spring....  :( .  Oh well, welcome to Michigan.  At least I don't HAVE to go anywhere until next Wednesday and, hopefully, the snow will be gone again by then.

Ok, back to the sewing room... I have a couple more foxes calling my name ( along with chicken names for the last project I was working on).

TTYL

Chicken Buffet blocks Done

Well, almost done... I finished doing the applique'... now I just need to add the names to each block and trim each block down ( I cut them bigger than needed just incase).
Here are the last three...

and here's my first attempt at adding a block name...  

It's kind of hard to read, but this is the best that I came up with.  I had to figure this out because I didn't use the fabrics recommended in the pattern ( 4 batik blocks sewn together into a block) which were lighter colored and the letter stitching might have shown up better.  It would help, too, if I could get the machine to stitch bigger, but it doesn't and I just have to deal with it.  Also, I'm sure that at some point I had figured out how to do more than one word, but I can't remember how and I'm not finding it in the instruction book - so my words are running together with only a capital letter to distinguish when the second word starts.  And this might not work when I get to longer names... like Chicken Chow Mein or Chicken Cacciatore.  Tomorrow, I think I'll try using a bright green thread to see how that works... I only tried yellow and red knowing that most of my other threads just wouldn't stand out against the black background.

The next step will be to decide what to use for sashing... again, I won't be able to go by pattern directions.  I do have some black fabric that has like 'fireworks' of bright colors shooting all over it - I think I'll get that out and see how it looks with the chickens.  It doesn't 'sound' good, but it just might work.

Ok, and before I forget... I got my fabric postcard from the exchange  that was hosted by Elm Street Quilts.  I tried taking a photo of it earlier but it was too dark... 

 Well, the color didn't pick up very well .. they are actually bright beautiful blues and yellows

Ok, now I've never tried hashtagging before so I'm not sure this is going to work....

#krislovesfabric

and if it doesn't work, I'm going to try this, too.... http://krislovesfabric.blogspot.com

                                                Thank you, Kris... I LOVE it :)  btw do you know that we're almost neighbors??  only about two hours away :)

Now, I've got to get mine out in the mail... Oh, and tomorrow is a new month so new Rainbow Scrap Challenge color will be announced and the next block for the Gnomes for the Holidays will be released, too.  Time to get busy ... lol

TTYL