Outside Fun

Quite often Crystal and the kiddos come out on Sunday for some play time.

Today was a good day for outside fun.
First we need to empty the water out of the wagon so we can fill it with rocks.

Then we have to dump the rocks out of the wagon so we can pick them up again. Look Maemae, this is mud. Mud is fun.

Big Momma decided Maemae isn't so bad so she can now pet her. Especially if Maemae gives her some cracked corn. Look at those holes the chickens dug! I didn't know they did that.

Gramma finished my new hat today. I like it a lot. She should make one for my each of my brothers. But I will have to model them! Because I am the hat model. I love hats!!

Thank you to Andrea at String in Motion for this free Hurricane Hat pattern.

Stash Report 2.28.10

Wow, the last day of February, that came fast! Friday I went with Crystal to The Mill End Store where Our passion is FABRIC and I'm happy to report I bought no fabric, only 2 skeins of yarn. Nothing jumped out at me that day. That's a good thing.

I've sewn very little during the week. Instead I've spent my time knitting and watching the Olympics. Then yesterday I was putting some stings in my big string bin and remembered Patti's tutorial on Crumb Chaos so I sat down to make a few blocks. And a few more and a few more. By the end of the day, I made 47 crumb blocks and 18 string blocks.

I had to figure out how much fabric I used so I went to my EQ5 and with just the crumb blocks, it says I used 5 yards! So that's what I'm using for this weeks report. I can actually tell there is a bit more room in the string bin. But I wonder if I will ever see the bottom of the bin again.

Used this Week: 5 yards
Used Year to Date: 44.5 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 29 yards
Net Used for 2010: 15.5

Visit Judy L to see how everyone is doing with their stash.

Green Envy Socks

I finally picked up my knitting needles last night to finish these socks. I tried so hard to get my stripes to match but it didn't happen. I did pretty good until the heel flap and then the repeat kind of when south. Oh well, feet don't care. Next time I think I'll pull out the yarn from both skeins and put a starting mark on the second one instead of writing myself a note. Or not.

I think they turned out pretty darn cute! This is the first time I've used Red Heart Heart & Sole with Aloe (why is there aloe in the yarn???). The color is called green envy. This is the fastest pair of socks I've knitted--started on the 6th, finished on the 24th. Simple, easy pattern...........I don't need the fussiness of fancy! I'll take the happiness of simple any ole day.

If I would have worked on them at anytime at all during the last week, I'd probably have another sock half knitted! But I didn't so I don't! And because American Idol was on for 2 hours last night, I have a new hat on the needles. I'm trying real hard not to have a bunch of knitting projects started but then I see something and I go ooohhh......focus, focus Judy!

Design Wall Monday

I've been working on my leader & ender project and once in a while I have to put a few sections together and up on the wall to see what it looks like. One of life's little things that makes me happy.

What didn't make me happy was that huge border on the Cowboy Quilt. So while watching Nascar on Sunday, I took them off. Then I played around in my EQ5 program and created a pieced border (and dreamed of owning EQ6!). Pieced borders--another Judy L influence. So I made a few sample pieces, came up with a workable plan and now I am going to make a new border. I'm not sure about the corner blocks and I have time to think about them and change my mind 6 more times.

I have some huge quilting goals for the week and I sure hope I accomplish a few of them for a change. Oh, you know what I mean!!! Go check out Judy L's design wall post and then go blog hopping to see what others are working on. Monday mornings are so much fun!

Stash Report 2.21.10

This week is a wash....same in as out. That's a good thing. Buy it, use it. Only what I bought wasn't what I used. I used stash for the back of the boxy stars quilt and I bought backing and border for Leland's Cowboy Quilt. The boxy stars is on the frame and the Cowboy quilt is having some surgery. I'm taking the big cream border off and adding red to it. It just wasn't pleasing to my eye. I'm sure Leland wouldn't have minded but I would have.

So here are my numbers for this week. Check other stash reports at Judy L's Patchwork Times. Judy's numbers are amazing!

Used this Week: 5.5 yards
Used Year to Date: 39.5 yards
Added this Week: 5.5 yards
Added Year to Date: 29 yards
Net Used for 2010: 10.5

Busy Week

I have been in a sewing mood all week long. Every day I have made huge leaps on my projects. I finally finished quilting my Floral Freeze Frame and the binding is on patiently waiting for me to stitch it down.

I took the 9 patch and flower applique blocks off my design wall and put them bag in their bag. I needed to work on Leland's cowboy quilt before he's all grown up. I put up the blocks, made a few more and now it is ready for a final dark border. I am going to go to the quilt shop today and get what I want for the border and back, the binding strips are cut and ready to sew.

While I was putting Leland's quilt up on the wall, out of the corner of my eye, I spied a top that needed a repair. I posted this quilt on my design wall post in May 2009. While I was working on it, I put the top on my ironing board too close to the iron. All of the sudden I smell scorched fabric and this is what I found. So being the procrastinator that I am, I put the quilt away to work on later. All the while, the final border fabric has been on my sewing table right in front of me. So the guilt got to me this morning and I took that block out and replaced the center fabric and now the block is sewn back in and I have the border fabric ready to apply.

But I have to do errands today and have put off getting ready to go long enough. At least I have a couple of fun errands today, the quilt shop and a visit with the grandkiddos.

Design Wall Monday

Here it is Monday again. It sure comes around fast! My last week's boxy stars project has been folded up and is waiting for it's turn on the longarm. Next up is this UFO that is at least 5 years old. We did a 9 patch swap using florals and beige/cream fabrics. Something in my life happened and I didn't get mine sent in on time. I have a bag with 10 sets of 6" 9 patches. That bag got put away.

July 2006, we were on the bus headed to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. The hostess had prizes and I won the book Patches and Posies by Teri Christopherson. The cover photo of floral 9 patches and appilique flowers jumped out at me and I knew what to do with those 9 patches.

I also needed an easy project for my down time at work. I began to make blocks and pretty soon they were in the bag with the 9 patches to be written on the annual UFO list. Finally this year they were move up to the small group UFO list and their number was chosen for February. So out of the box they came and now parts of them are up on the design wall.

I'm not going to put the applique border on. This project needs to be finished. Stay tuned....hopefully next Monday will show some progress. Now it's time to head over to Judy L's and see her design wall and then see what others have on their wall. I do love Monday mornings.

Quiltathon Day 2

Not one stitch sewn!

Not one but I happy with what I got done yesterday. I spent the morning doing some things around the house, caught up on the laundry and then the kiddos started coming. Doesn't take long to get a house full. I love it when they come over for no reason! And the Daytona 500 was on. My driver, Greg Biffle did pretty good finishing 3rd and Jamie McMurray was a very excited and gracious winner so it was a happy ending.

Now we are settling down for the evening, there are some brownies in the oven thanks to Taylor and we are going to watch the Olympics for a while. I am hoping I have the energy to work on my sock. Thanks Judy L for hosting this Quiltathon. Hopefully next time I will get more done.

Stash Report 2.14.10

With all of my sewing this week, I have nothing to report as used for my stash report. That's fine with me because I have nothing to report as added either. I'm hoping to post big numbers next week. Not big numbers like Judy L does, but big numbers for Judy D.

I added to my small group BOM-the one on the top left. This BOM is from 2 consistent white background fabrics and the brights are from the scrap box only. No new fabric pulled from the shelf, no new fat quarters from the bin. It is fun to pull out the fabrics and see if they will play nice with the other colors. I'm glad Billie picked a bock that used more color than background color. It's helping the pink and green block out quite a bit. Thanks Billie.

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used Year to Date: 34 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 23.5 yards
Net Used for 2010: 10.5

Visit Judy L's Patchwork Times to see how awesome she is doing, then visit other blogs friends to see how their stash is shrinking or not shrinking. I'm doing the stash reports as a method for me to keep track of my own stash busting and building. I've always been curious as to how much fabric I use/buy in a year and have never kept up with tracking. Posting every week is helping me out a lot. And it's fun.

Quiltathon Weekend

Judy L is hosting another Quiltathon this weekend. I started yesterday but didn't get very far. I tried again today but the Olympics pulled me away. Oh, I have a tv in my sewing room but it isn't the ginormous one in front of my recliner. And this afternoon it called to me loud and clear!

These are the blocks for a BOM group. We have stars for this year's theme, one traditional pieced and one paper pieced. January and February's paper pieced blocks brought with them lots of frustration. I am used to working with Carol Doak designs that are perfectly sized. These 2 blocks may have been perfectly sized when posted to the internet but between cyber space and my printer, they shrunk. I had to draw a new center for the top right block and the bottom right one, I added a black border to make it the correct size. So they are now put away and are waiting for the next month's blocks. With 24 blocks, I am thinking of making 6 more to have a very nice sized quilt when it's finished. As I look at it on the design wall, I wonder how in the world I am going to quilt this. I still have 6 months to worry/think about it.

Tomorrow I am planning on finishing the quilt that has been on the long arm for too darn long. I need to finish it so I can get to my boxy stars quilt. Which I have decided to use the scrappy binding on.

Happy Valentine's Day. I hope you get to spend it with your someone or someones special. Thank you to my Valentine for the beautiful roses. This is our 38th Valentine's Day together.

Giant Leap

Well maybe not a leap but I am jumping up and down inside my head. I finally got the last border sewn on and now I'm trying to figure out how to quilt this top. I need to decide whether or not I want to use up the remaining strips and make the binding from them or cut them into pieces for the piece bins. I have enough from the final border fabric to use that too. I am going to leave it lay out on the bed for a while so I can glance at it and come up with an answer for myself. Do you ever do that?

The rest of the day I am going to work on my BOMs that I am behind on. I finally got them printed off so I have no more excuses. None that I can think of right now anyhow.

Design Wall Monday On Sunday Night

This week I have 2 design walls to share--the quilt wall and the ground outside.

I am making great progress on my Boxy Stars. I had planned to start attaching borders today/Sunday but it was a nice day and hubby was in the mood to continue the outside work.

Monday I will be home alone and have no errands to run so I am going to hide in my sewing room. I hope to have this top finished.

As I stood at my kitchen sink this afternoon, I started my planting plans. The dirt patch on the right is where we plant our pumpkins. This year we will have a temporary fence around it as soon as we plant the seeds. The patch where the 2 chickens are has some daffodils and bearded irises popping out of the ground. We trimmed up that scrubby bush so I will plant wildflowers there and again, a temporary fence will be put up. Down by the big rocks, he totally went crazy with the chain saw and almost cut down the shrubs. He does that every few years so we know they will grow back.

Be sure to check out Judy L's Monday post and see what everyone is working on.

Stash Report 2.7.10

I continue to work on my Boxy Stars quilt. I started piecing the scrappy border yesterday when the sunshine called us outside to start some winter cleanup. I felt a bit guilty working in the sunshine while I knew at least one of my blogger friends (Diane) was cleaning up from a nasty snow storm. I spent last evening parked in a chair with aches in the muscles I keep forgetting I have, working with a new skein of sock yarn, wondering if Diane's muscles were as loud as mine.

This week's stash report looks pretty good. I'm very happy with myself.

Used this Week: 7 yards
Used Year to Date: 34 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 23.5 yards
Net Used for 2010: 10.5

Check how every one is doing at their pown stashbusting by visiting Judy L at Patchwork Times.

Big Girl Steps

My baby steps of yesterday turned to big girl steps today.
Tomorrow I plan to put the borders on. Hubby is busy in the morning and then we have plans for the afternoon.

I'd like to turn this into a finished top in the morning. Wish me luck.

I have been racking my brain on how to quilt this. I don't have a clue but something will pop into my head, hopefully.

Right now I'm going to spend some time with my book and then with my pillow.

Baby Steps

No not a real baby, he's too little to start taking steps yet. I'm talking about quilting baby steps. I have decided I need to set myself up for progress and stop being water in a hot skillet. (I really want to call myself a fart in a skillet but that doesn't sound very ladylike!)

We were supposed to be with Crystal and Mike and the kiddos at the beach this week but with Ernie's work, our animals and a few other things, we needed to stay home. I decided I was going to spend the rest of the week on staycation. I'm spending mine in my sewing room and working on baby steps with one project.

Monday afternoon I cut all my pieces for the Boxy Stars Quilt blocks and haven't been back in the sewing room. Today my plan is to get all the blocks done and start the sashing. Already this morning I have done steps 1 and 2 and have myself set up for steps 3 and 4. I'm squeezing laundry in between steps--yeah, it's a staycation but somethings need to get done. Steps 5 and 6 should happen before lunch. I'm treating myself to tomato soup and grilled cheese. Steps 7 through 10 hopefully will be done before dinner. I have meatloaf and acorn squash on the menu for tonight.

Now I need to tie my shoes and get walking. One step at a time...

Design Wall Monday

I want to know who stole January away! Did that month go by fast or what!

I hadn't done much sewing last week but on Saturday afternoon I played for a while--ok, it was midnight when I turned off the sewing machine! I played in my string bin and my crumb box. Here are a few of my blocks. They just go in a pile until there is enough to do something with. Sometimes I get the bug and just sit down and sew away on those little blocks.

I got an email yesterday from my blog friend Diane saying she had been making crumb blocks. She is showing them on her design wall today. They are so fun to make. We thought it was rather spooky that we both were doing the same thing without knowing.

The scrappy block on the left is hopefully the last of the leftover bits from Quiltville's Orange Crush Mystery . That block will go into the 9" block bin. Next to that is the beginning of a 2 1/2" strip bin clean out using Quiltville's Boxy Stars. The lighter blue fabric is at least 10 years old and that is the last strip of it. There is a little left that will be made into 2 1/2" squares and bricks.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times and see what everyone has on their design wall. Judy has a quilt on her wall that is definitely on my to make list.