Orca Bay Top Moves To The Mountain

Did you feel the earth rock and roll a little bit here in SW WA???  That was me, jumping up and down.  ;0)

Orca Bay is a finished quilt top.  All the little birds in the air blocks that were sewn wrong (as seen in today's DWM post) were taken apart and sewn right and reattached as the outer border.  After Dozer's photo shoot, OB was folded with the seams to the inside (channeling my sweet friend Pam B) to protect them and has been moved to the top of Mt. ToBeQuilted.

I have pulled the backing and binding fabric and it is laying on the ironing board.  Hopefully this week it will be sewn and put with the completed top.

If you don't know about the Orca Bay Mystery, you can find the instructions here.  Thank you Bonnie Hunter for another fabulous mystery.

Design Wall Monday

This was my design chair on Saturday.  Today it holds this very quilt top but the mistake section of the border has been take off and is ready for the correct section to be sewn back on it.

Hopefully that will happen today........unless I wimp out and hold the recliner in place like I did yesterday.  

See what others have going on by visiting Judy L.  Her project is fabulous.......I can't wait to see the others.  Happy Monday Everyone.  :-)

At Home Retreat Day 3

When I went to bed last night, I couldn't sleep thinking of sewing the last 2 pieced borders on Orca Bay.  Finally I was in dreamland, dreaming of quilting fabulous feathers all over Orca Bay on a yacht.  I have some pretty weird dreams.

When I woke up this morning, I felt like I had been run over by a big ole truck.  My head hurt, my throat hurt, I felt like crap!  So I did what I do best when I don't feel good, I went back to bed!  Then I tossed and turned until I couldn't stand it any more and got up and parked myself in the recliner with my blankie.  I did fix myself a piece of toast and a cup of tea, thinking it might make me feel a little better but it didn't.

So needless to say my third retreat day was a bust.  But not completely.  I worked on my granny squares and made pretty good progress.  Instead of going all willie-nillie, I sorted out my squares and made myself a plan.  I have 8 different squares and need 15 of each.  I marked how many of each I had and am now doing them in sets, like an organized person would do.........what's with that???  So I have 1 set complete, with a second set well on it's way with only 5 left to do before I start round 4 on this set.

Once in a while I would browse Blogland and while doing so I found a new to me blog called Bearpaw.  She sent me on a search of African Flower Hexagons, which lead me to this tutorial.   And then I have to pin all the goodies to my Pinterest and that led to looking here and there and everywhere.  I did make the day go pretty fast.  Well maybe the naps helped too.  I am ready to put on my pjs-it's only 6 pm here-and think about what I might do tomorrow.

Oh My!  Will I ever get all my want to makes made???

At Home Retreat Day 2

I finished my wallet/purse today.  I'm excited to use it.  I'm more excited that I finished something today.  I'd be even more excited if I opened it up and there was a bundle of money stashed in it.   If I make this again, I'll make a couple changes.  Where the card holders are, I would make that into another zippered pocket instead of it being sewed closed.  That part folds up to reveal a checkbook pocket.  I don't carry a checkbook so I'd make that into a deeper pocket that velcros shut.

I got the solid borders on Orca Bay and then put the side pieced borders on.  No problems at all.  I was pressing the top border and all of the sudden I spotted this!  Whoopsie!!  I bet the bottom border looks kind of like this one..........at least it isn't sewn on.  So I will sit with Ernie, find a movie worth watching and unsew.  Then I'm going to knit.

While Ernie was out getting a head start on next winter's firewood, I made a batch of elk jerky out of hamburger.  A friend had told me she makes her's using her dehydrator and this press.  So I picked up a press in town yesterday and made jerky today.  It's pretty darn good and quite easy!  I got out a couple more packages of burger to make more tomorrow because I know this package will disappear fast.

At Home Retreat Day 1

Retreat Day 1 started with a bang.  I finally got some sleep and it felt so good, I kept right on sleeping.  Then I woke with a jolt remember it was garbage day.  We don't take our cans down at night because of rotten neighbor dogs and rotten neighbor kids and the cans are supposed to be at the road at 6 but I know our guy doesn't get here until just after 8.  My clock said 7:55!!!  So I jumped out of my toasty bed, threw on some clothes and shoes, grabbed my coat and went outside to the freezing cold frosty morning without any coffee!  The truck showed up about 10 minutes later....

After breakfast and all that stuff, I finally went in to the sewing room only to find Mr. Turbo lounging on the quilt hammock that I was going to finish quilting this morning.  Naughty boy!  As you can see, he is not happy.  Just as I was warming the machine, Ernie tells me he is going to a meeting for work so why don't I go ahead and head to town for a Costco run..........ugh!  I haven't had an alone town day for quite a while so I went to JoAnn's to pick up a couple things, went to a different store to pick up some jerky making supplies then off to Costco.  2 stops later and several dollars poorer, I headed home.

The bad part about power shopping like this is I have to unload all that stuff.  And then it has to be put away.  And then someone wants me to fix dinner.  I didn't think to pick up something on the way home.

Finally I get to the sewing room and decided to work on this wallet.  It's going together really good but I'm missing a part and now I need to get out the extra fabric and cut that part.  This pattern is very well written and has little boxes by each step to check off your progress.  I'm finding that quite helpful.

I'm sure Day 2 will be more productive.  Ernie is meeting the buds for breakfast and then spending the day helping out a friend.  I am more than ready for a quiet sewing room day.

A Post Full of Babble

I've been feeling a little out of sorts here lately.  I feel like I've been gone a lot and I want to stay home and sew.  I told Ernie earlier today that I'm staying home this weekend and quilting.  He can go where ever he wants with the dogs.  Not with me.  I think he needs to go back to work.  LOL  But with all the going, I've made pretty good progress on my granny square project.  I have to have a car project and this is prefect.

I've been spending lots of home time knitting.  After finishing my February socks, I quickly rolled that fabulous yarn I won from Judy L into balls for my March socks for the sock challenge.  And what a nightmare that was.  I quickly jumped online and ordered a yarn swift and ball winder from Knit Picks.  Because this yarn is so yummy, I have a feeling I may be owning more of it.  So I am getting prepared.

I started a new to me pattern and wasn't liking it.  It felt very young and I'm not and these socks are mine.  Then my friend posted a picture of her new socks on Facebook and I knew that was to be my pattern.  She told me they are called Dragonfly Socks and I can find the pattern on Ravelry.  I did.  Right here.

I also spent most of Tuesday knitting Leland a new hat.  I gave it to him yesterday and promptly forgot to take a picture of him.  I'll do that next time I see him because he is just adorable and you need to see that.

So for my weekend at home retreat... I made a list at the beginning of the month of a few quilty goals I wanted to accomplish.  I've marked a few off but I'd like to mark off a couple more.  I still need to put the borders on Orca Bay and I need to finish quilting UFO #5, among other things.

Today I have a crockpot full of chili and the other crockpot full of beans--red, pinto and black.  Last Saturday on the Pioneer Woman's Food Network show, she was making chili and I've been thinking of that all week long.  I don't have any cooked beans left in the freezer so today was a good day to remedy that problem.  There is enough chili for several meals.  I love having the freezer stocked with quick and easy.

Design Wall Monday

Again the design wall is empty.  I've spent very little time in the sewing room this week.  With power outages or the threat of outages, I didn't want to turn on my machine or longarm.  What if there was a brown out or a huge power surge.....that would not be good.

So the time I did spend in the sewing room, I pulled out this project that has been cut out for a while.  I just needed to cut the inner facing and the clear vinyl pieces.  Now that has been done, the cover pieces are quilted and the inner facing has been applied.  Today I will start putting the pieces together.

I am on a mission to stop using my huge purse.  It is heavy and easy to load up with junk important things.  Yesterday at yet to be born granddaughter's baby shower there was a piggy bank game.  We were to clean out our purses of loose change and put it in baby's piggy bank.  I had well over $10 in my purse........so it is time to put less stress on my sore shoulder and other wore out body parts that have to huff that ole bag around.

This cute folding wallet is from BYANNIE.COM.  She has so many fabulous patterns.

If you've read my blog in the past, you know Monday is my day to visit other design walls throughout Blogland.  Go to Patchwork Times to see what everyone is up to.  Thanks for visiting me today.

I'm Done With Snow! And Socks

I am so done with the snow.  I want it to go away and I want spring now.

While Ernie was out playing on Snow Day 4, I worked on my February socks (and finished them last night).We lost power about 7:30 am and got it back on at 3:30 am.  I don't mind being without power for a while but about 5, I was starting to go a bit batty.
My yarn for the next pair of socks was rolled into balls last night.  :)

The battyness got to Ernie about 10.  He fired up ole red and went to work.  The man is obsessed with having a clear driveway.  The snow was very wet and very heavy!  We have a few broken branches and a couple trees that broke.

Our poor deck!  It's still standing but the outside chicken pen needs to be rebuilt.  The roof caved in.

The snow is also very beautiful.  I am done with the snow now.  I have seen enough.  I want green again and I'm so looking forward to spring.  We had very heavy rains the next day, most of the snow is gone.  Only the gianormous piles are left.  We are very lucky to live on a hill where we don't have the worries of flooding like so many others do.   

Snow~Day 3

I love snow days when I don't have to go anywhere.  Who am I kidding???  I do not go anywhere when it's snowing.  I stay home, stay inside as much as possible and do the things I love to do.

If I think there is any chance we will loose power, I fill my buckets with water for flushing.  I fill my water pitchers and bottles for drinking.  There is firewood stacked on the porch and a nice fire in the wood stove.  There are jars of soup that can be warmed up on the wood stove.  The Kindle and mp3 player are charged and I make sure the batteries are charged for the dvd player-just in case I need to watch a movie.  This is what I always do.  I don't want to be caught unprepared.  I always have something to do--be it quilting, knitting, crocheting or reading.  Some people nap....I don't.

This morning we lost power for about an hour and a half.  I knew we would but was quite surprised how fast the PUD guys got it restored.  Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy it wasn't off longer.

I did get to knit for a while.  It was quite dark so I pulled out my brand new Beam N Read and gave it the test. It passed with flying colors.  I read in Denise's post about it and when I looked it up, I knew I had to have one!  I love that little thing.  It is going to come in quite handy for several things.  Thanks Denise!!!

When the power came back on, I realized just how loud my house is....the radio was on quite loud, the fan on the wood stove, the fridge........noises I live with everyday but never realize how loud they really are until it is completely quiet.  Again, I'm not complaining!

Fun Sewing Day

I finished my cute little Kindle bag today.  Once I got started on it last night, all I could think about this morning was sewing on this bag.  After doing some domestic stuff this morning, I went in and played.  

This is the inside pocket that will hold the cord.  I need to put some fusible Velcro to keep it from gaping open.  I stitched this bird first.  It's been a long time since I've done any free motion embroidery and it shows.  But I had fun so I'm not going to loose sleep over it. 

I'd love to be as good as Carol at mamacjt.  She does amazing work!  

My Kindle is quite happy in it's new home. 

I'm happy to have January's Color Palette Challenge finished. 

Design Wall Monday

Last night I looked at my blank design wall and decided that I should pull out my Color Palette Challenge project and do a little bit on it so I could have something to post about today.  I've been quilting and knitting this week, trying not to start a new project.  But I had this one all planned out and ready to start.  (Click the button on the left for more info.)  And once I started, I didn't want to stop.  Understand why I didn't want to start anything new and shiny???

When I printed off this month's palette, I knew I wanted to make a bag for my Kindle with strips out of a bag of strips I had bought at a quilters sale and appliques from GO! dies that I hadn't used yet.   I love the little wall hanging on the bird package so I am kind of going with that.  I wondered if my color choices are a bit too far from what Vicki had chosen.  Then I look again and again and I decided that this is what I have, this is what I am going to use.  Sometimes I just have to make the tough decisions in the quilting room.  LOL

To see other fabulous projects, visit Judy L.  I love Monday mornings is Blogland.


****Monday PM, the bag is finished and shown off here.

Snow

It started snowing last night.

The chicken house screened in porch was covered.  

Ernie knocked the snow off it so it didn't cave in.

  

I love the way it sticks to the fencing around the garden.

No sitting out on the deck today.

Simply beautiful.

Do I want to sit and watch tv and knit?

No, hubs is watching hunting shows with the cats.

I think it's a good day to turn up the music and quilt.

I love a good stay home snow day.

January Socks-Done!

 Last month I signed on to take the 12 in 2012 Challenge with Denise at Justquiltin.  I had 2 single socks that were lonely for their mates.  Part of the challenge is to try new designs, along with using up the yarn stash.  I have a stash, not as extensive as others but I have one that I want to use.

Most evenings, I have spent working on sock 2 and I'm happy to say it is now finished.  I used Serenity Sock Weight-Deborah Norville Collection from Premier Yarns.  I can't wait to wear them.

February's project is the mate for this Paraphernalia sock.  I learned to do cables and read a chart but this sock has been finished since August and I'm afraid I may have forgotten what I was doing.  I had such good intentions to start sock 2.  But I didn't until last night.  After a false start and a restart, the ribbing is going smooth.  

I didn't buy this yarn, I won it from Judy L-so technically I didn't fall off the wagon like someone else did.  She wrote this funny post and I entered her drawing and won.  Lucky Me!!   So I went to Springtree Road and picked this fabulous Muscadine Sock yarn.  I had such a time picking which color I wanted and finally decided on Shiraz.  It is so gorgeous and so soft.  Thank you Judy for picking my name!!!  Maybe this will be my March project.

I'm going to try really hard to get ahead on the sock count for when summer and canning season hit.  Just think if I continue on, by the end of the year the lid to the yarn bin will close without a bulge.

Now It's Complete

Here he is.  Cute Corbin. 

3 months old already.  

sighhhhh

The Quilting Mojo Has Returned

Finally!  The Quilting Mojo is home.  Sometimes it takes off and forgets to return for months at a time.  Piecing Mojo had shoved it out the door.  I'm hoping the 2 will now play nice together and lots of happiness will come out of the quilting room.  The truth is my sewing room was a disorganized nightmare and the quilting table was piled high with stuff that needed to be put away.  I spent the morning doing just that and now all I want to do is quilt.  This will be marked off the January Quilting Challenge Plan. Next up is my UFO for January.  It is ready to load onto the frame.

This is the quilt I pieced for Corbin in October, right after he was born.  I meander quilted it with Bottom Line thread  and the binding is on.  I will stitch it down today while at my sewing group and come home to fluffify it and give it to him later when we go mooch dinner off them.  Then I will get a cute picture of his adorable little self on his new quilt.  

Directions for this quilt can be found here.  I want to make another of these quilts using my 2 1/2" strip pieces.  It makes a great scrappy, happy quilt.

Design Wall Monday

On my wall today is part of my Orca Bay Mystery.  I carefully~or so I thought~sewed all my blocks into rows, 5 row As, 4 rows each of B, C, and D.  As I'm sewing my rows together and carefully pressing, I see row 10 has one little blue string block going the wrong direction.

Up on the wall rows 1-10 go and the inspection began.  Thank goodness that was the only block out of whack. Now rows 11 and 12 are pinned together waiting for my return to the sewing room.  After rows 11-17 are sewn together, the whole top will be joined and then borders...........oh the excitement.

I haven't sewn since Friday.  My weekend was full of grand kiddos and organizing.  Saturday we had 3 kiddos here for part of the day and Sunday I tackled my bedroom.  Now I have an organized closet and organized dressers and lots less stuff.  The first stop on the next trip to town will be Goodwill.

I'm betting there will be a bunch of Orca Bay goodness in Blogland today........I'm going to spend some time finding out.  Go to Judy L's and see what she has going on and then check out other exciting design walls.  I love Mondays.

Design Wall Monday

 I have gone several weeks with a sad, empty, lonely design wall.  Then Bonnie posted the final clue for Orca Bay and I had to grab some of my parts and head to the wall.  I just put up a few because I have a more flying geese units to sew together and a stack of half square triangles.

It sure is nice to look over and see color on the wall again.  I love the outcome of this mystery.  If you think you want it and haven't started it, you should go print out the steps before it disappears.

Today I will be touring Blogland via DWM at Patchwork Times and Mystery Monday Link Up via Quiltville.  I love Mondays.  :-)

2012 UFO Challenge List

Judy L is hosting the 2012 UFO Challenge.  I have been a procrastinator and have not made my list.  I see this morning she has posted January's number......I went in and finished my list of 12 and did some rearranging.  I know, shame on me but I want to be successful this year and figured-knowing myself-I better get a big project crossed off the list first.  I just noticed that is my first finished top of 2011 so it makes even more sense to me.

Here's my list.

1. Split Decision Flannel quilt--needs quilted.  February's project---finished Jun 10, 2012  
2. Rectangle String top, add another border and quilt.   May's project--finished June 2, 2012
3. Judy Neimeyer's Golden Harvest---get brave and quilt it.
4. Bright and Black Stars--black batting and backing fabric are all together.
5. Roll Roll Cotton Boll...back and batting are in the bag, all I have to do is get it loaded and quilted with a feather panto.  January's project ---finished May 24, 2021  
6. Carol Doak's Twisting Mystery.....finish last step, quilt, finish
7. Trees Left Standing--ready to quilt
8. Bonnie Hunter's Crab Apple-ready to quilt.
9. This is another Bonnie Hunter design called Twin Sister from Quiltmaker magazine that is ready for quilting.  
10. Blue and white sampler top needs quilted
11. Yellow backing Quilt As You Go String quilt.....make more blocks and put it together.
12. Pick something from the 2011 UFO List that still isn't finished and finish it.  June's project--- finished 6/30/2012

As I discover the photos and posts from these quilt, I'll link up to them

Now I will pull out project #5 and put it on top of the priority list.