Design Wall Monday

As I continue to work on my Crabapple top, I need to have a new leader/ender project. I want to make a couple more Quilts for Kids to send with my next quilt from their kit, so I decided to make a couple tumbler quilts. I had a bin full of homespun fat quarters and had cut them all into 6" tumblers using my GO! Cutter. This will make a great quilt for an older boy. After sewing several pair of these, I decided I better have some kind of plan. I put them up on the wall and now will sew them into rows.

Once you get into the habit of using the leader/enders, you have to have them beside you! As weird as it sounds, it's just strange not picking up those pieces and having to clip the long threads. Isn't that right Diane? I have a drawer stuffed full of 2 1/2" squares that will get reduced down for the next leader/ender quilt.

I am ready to sew the last pieced border on the Crabapple top and the final borders will be on it today. I do love this quilt and cannot wait to get it finished!

Then there is that pile of scraps from the Stash Builder's Sale. I got out my GO! Cutter and 3 bags of those scraps and I cut. And I cut. And I cut until all those pieces had a new home in their proper bin or drawer. I have 2 1/2" strips and squares. I have half square and quarter square triangle pieces and I have 5" charms. I have a few little string scraps and a few itty bitty pieces for the crumb bin. But mostly I have 3 empty bags that once held scraps.

Since we have a week of cold rain in the forecast, I think I will spend the week finishing up a few things before I turn into a toad!

Do Not Panic

I'm working on my Crabapple pieced border. I put my pieces up on the design wall. I count how many more I need to make. I need to cut more muslin strips. I'm using only muslin as my background. I go to the background fabric drawer. I can't find a piece of muslin. Not one little piece! Panic......... I look in my strip drawers......nothing! Serious Panic.....

Wait!!! I have all my background strings in a bin, maybe just maybe, there will be muslin in there! Eureka! I've struck muslin gold!

Now I need to add some colors. At least that part is easy peasy! So 40 minutes later (I have been using the timer set at 20 minutes and started it twice. That makes me a timer cheater. snicker!!), I think I have enough 3 patches to make the remaining 4 sections of 3 patches that I need.

But I need to fold that load of clothes from the dryer first! Darn me for starting that timer game I like to play. It's a great game though because I get lots done on timer game day........

Tuesday Knitting Report

I continue to work on my Abracadabra socks. Little progress is being made with only one or two rounds knit at night resulting in only one color block for the week. At this rate, it might be Christmas time before these are finished! I don't even have a good excuse except I'm tired at night and from what I don't know.

We have had a few nice sunny days here and I've been spending lots of time outside soaking up the Vitamin D before the sun hides behind the rain clouds again. That's it, that's my excuse. Playing outside is hard work!

Do You Coupon?

I do. I always have, sometimes I'm more focused on it than other times. When my children were young, they hated it! They would get so embarrassed but that didn't stop me. Heck, it's free money and if the manufacturer's didn't want me to use their coupon, they would not have made them available to me. Does this make me a tightwad or a cheapskate? Yes. Do I care? No. We have worked hard for our money. I will continue to work hard to spend it wisely. So now with this new zip in my step, my coupons are now organized in an old 3 ring binder. I have wanted to do this for 30 years! It took days of working on it and now it is fabulous and so easy to use.

With the new Extreme Couponing show on TLC, a new fire has been lit it me to be more focused on my grocery shopping. (The more I read about these people on the show, the more I understand that most of what was on the shows had been encouraged by the show producers and they don't shop that extreme in real life. Or at least they didn't. ) I do not shop that extreme. I do not need 60+ bottles of mustard, but if I have the coupons for 5 or 10 and the sale is good enough that I would get it for free or almost free, why wouldn't I get 5 or 10??? Do I need 1000 tubes of toothpaste? No, but if I could get that many for free (well maybe not 1000!) and give them away, yes I would.

I have always had a stocked pantry. It's just what I do. I also go through times when I only use what is in the pantry and freezer without going to the store. I often challenge myself to plan my weekly menu using what I have stocked in my kitchen freezer without taking anything out of the big freezer. I have gone weeks without going into a grocery store. I seldom pay full price for anything. I garden and I can and we eat well--maybe too well.

I sit down and clip my coupons, put them in my notebook and make my grocery list according to what is on sale. I am lucky to have 3 stores close together that have pretty good sales. I also have Winco and Costco that I keep shopping lists for. I do not make special trips to town (10 miles away) just to "go to the store", I plan my errand day to go everywhere I need to go, in the order I need to go to them. I do not enjoy shopping and want to go in, get what I need and get out!

Now I need to organize the rest of my life. But not today~~~

Design Wall Monday

Last Monday, I showed my 7 of my Crabapple blocks and after the return of the Mojo on Tuesday, I am now putting on the borders. I love how Design Wall Monday can wake up the Mojo and even with limited sewing time can result in so much progress.

I love putting my quilt center up on the wall and adding the borders pieces to see what the whole thing is going to look like. And how you can spot a mistake or something that needs your attention from a photo. I'm looking at the bottom setting triangle and wondering what the heck is going on with it. I'll find out soon. (Nothing serious, it just needed to be smoothed out. Thank goodness! I did not want to break in the new seam ripper!)

I thought I had more than enough sections made for the border but when I divided my pieces into 4s and counted, I need to make more. I haven't sewed them into long rows yet so I can mix up the colors I am adding.

I love that I am using so many of my short 1 1/2" strips and I can now close that drawer. My next leader/ender project is definitely going to use 2 1/2" strips and squares for the majority of it, I can't get either drawer closed.

Go over to Patchwork Times and see all the other fabulous design walls throughout Blogland. Be prepared to stay and visit for a while.

Stash Building

Today is the Stash Builder Bazaar put on by the local quilt guild. I wait for this day every year! We are at the church long before the doors open and usually inside a few minutes early--the ladies are so nice and are anxious to get started. There were fewer tables this year, makes me wonder if the ladies don't have any more stash to sell......I hope they have more for next year!

This is my $19 worth of goods. The rooster wallhanging kit was $5, 5 yards of fabric for $5, 2 scrap bags for $2 each and an assortment of scraps for $5. I also bought 36 new or almost new cones of serger thread in 2 nice cases for Crystal and if she doesn't want them, I'll keep them.

On the way home, I stopped at Subway to get lunch for us and then it's birthday party day for Jonah. Now I'm going to get out my GO Cutter and do something with the bag of background fabrics. I have a plan!!!

It's been a fun day so far, with more fun times to come.

It's Back...

...and I'm one happy quilter! My Mojo is back and here to stay for a while! I think all it took was posting to DWM and finally sitting down and making some major progress on something. And this quilt makes me happy.

It's the first one in Bonnie's Adventures with Leaders and Enders book that I wanted to make and I'm finally making it. The borders are all cut and the pieced border is sewn into sections waiting for the last few sections that are still being sewn as leaders and enders.

Thank goodness for the timer though or nothing else around here would get accomplished ~ like dinner or laundry or housework. That's where I'm headed now ~ the last load of laundry and then the kitchen. It's chicken enchiladas tonight and my first adventure at home made tortillas.

Tuesday Knitting Report

I've spent a little bit of time on my new socks since last week. But I'm only working on them in the evening while I watch/listen to tv and spend time with Ernie. I don't know why he calls it spending time with me when he's watching tv through his eye lids and making snoring noises but that's what he calls it. I call it quality knitting time.

Design Wall Monday

I finally have something quilty on my design wall. I've been using my Crabapples as my leader/ender for some time now. I have all the blossoms bits sewn together and now I'm making the tree parts. I'm to the point in the leader/ender project that I just want to sit down and sew the blocks together now. I have all the paper pieced tree parts in progress with several more ready for the blossoms. (I don't know if that's what they are really called but it seems like a perfect name for me.)

Now that spring break is over and all the kiddos are back to their regular program, I will get back to mine. I still don't have the longarm timed although I did work on it once in a while for a minute or two so that will be a good place to start as soon as I get to the sewing room.

Go over to Judy L's and really see what everyone else is doing. Don't you just love the new link feature she is using?

Tuesday Knitting Report

I missed blogging on Tuesday again. It's spring break so Taylor stayed for a couple days. Yesterday we had a power shopping day~coupon/sale shopping with lunch and Goodwill shopping thrown into the mix just for the fun of it and it was fun!

According to the news, we have another week or more rain and storms headed toward the Pacific Northwest. Perfect knitting weather if you are in the mood for a knitting and girlie movie marathon and I am in the mood. Sorry quilting! I'll give you some time but probably not all that much.

The green and orange socks are finished and fabulous! I love how they turned out. While watching this episode of Knitting Daily on our local PBS channel, Eunny Jang talked about how do minimize pooling of colors by alternating balls of yarn every couple rows. I won't be doing that, I rather enjoy the surprise of how the socks will turn out. I love watching that show! So much information in less than 30 minutes!

I went into my yarn stash to pick the next yarn for socks and picked Knit Picks Felici, Abracadabra. (It looks like Abracadabra may be discontinued but Moonlit appears to be a close match.) With our mostly gloomy/wet spring weather, I need to stick with something bright and happy. I think these will be bright and happy.

Design Wall Monday

There is nothing on my design wall. Poor sad looking thing! I decided to make this Lazy Girl Suzi Purse insert instead of starting my April UFO. Sometimes I like to work on a quick, easy project and this one is really needed. My purse is a mess! And how much fun is that chicken fabric!!

I love all things Lazy Girl and have made lots of their products. One of my next new projects is going to be a sampler quilt using the LG ruler and some of the great blocks from the book.

This week is spring break and I have a house guest. We are going to do a couple days of fun things and then relax on the other days. Today we will be errand day and out to lunch after Uncle Doug and Jonah visit this morning for a while......Uncle Doug has been fishing so we will be loading up the smoker. Thursday is a quilt show and after our last JoAnn's trip, Taylor has yarn to knit a new scarf and we will be needing good rainy day projects~yeah spring break.

Check here for other fantastic design walls.

April's UFO Challenge Project

Judy L has picked #4 for this month's 2011 UFO Challenge project. The blocks on the right side of the photo are hearts and flower blocks made for me by a group of fabulous quilting friends and had been laid out and pinned into rows. I need to find some sashing, border and backing fabric for this quilt.

The hearts and flowers blocks were sent to make into donation quilts. I use them as heart healing blocks. Sometimes I spiral into depression over the reason for these blocks (not going to go into that story) and I need to work my way out of it. This is a good month to remember our sweetheart with joy and make this quilt to heal someone else's heart.

The blocks on the left were won by my friend and given to me to do something with and for some reason I put them in the bag so I guess I should do something with them. I never say no to a stack of blocks. I'll need to think on this one for a while.

Goodbye March...

...I don't think I'll miss you much.

Judy L's 2011 UFO Challenge number for March was 1.
This is how my #1 looked at the beginning of March.

This is how my #1 looks at the end of March.
The top is finished, the binding is made and pressed,
the backing is 2 pieces of fabric waiting to be cut and sewn to the correct size.
Heck, even the batting is cut, the thread is chosen and in the project bag!
I even know how I am going to quilt it.
But....

Sometime back in February, my Mojo got lost.
It has now made a few return visits and I believe it may be here to stay.

After my frustrations of yesterday are resolved,
I will finish February's UFO project,
and then load this gem on the frame.