My Heart Is Full

This is Estella Anndee.

She is my new granddaughter.

She was born February 28th.

Her dad is my son Doug.

Her mom is Lacey.

Her brother is Jonah.

She fills our hearts.

Pesky Word Verification

I finally found an excellent tutorial at Michele Made Me on how to disable that pesky 2 word verification thing. I've pretty much been afraid to try much on the blog because I don't want to lose any thing.

But this tutorial has excellent graphics and walked me right through it. I sure hope it sticks!!

Thanks for leaving me comments. They always make my day.

Thanks to Michele Made Me for the tutorial. I hope by passing the link along it will help you too.

Next I am going to learn how to put tabs on my page. That should be interesting. :)) And one day I might go in and redo my post labels......so much work, so little time. But first I am going to read a little bit of Michele Made Me.

Design Wall Monday

I'm delighted to say as soon as the outer section is sewn to the compass on the left, I will be caught up with BOM-QA.  Until Thursday when the next block is chosen.  Pretty big difference from last DWM post.  I need 1 more big compass and 5 small ones, plus there is a border of half square triangles that I have ready to sew.  I am using Triangulations to paper piece them.  The fabric is cut and the correct sized triangle pages are printed.  (Last week I was going to sew them at my Wednesday group and was showing the gals how great it is that the info is printed right onto the papers.  Well guess who printed off quarter square triangles instead of HSTs?  Yeah, that would be me.  At least I caught it before I had them sewn and cut.)

And just to show off a whole lot of cuteness.  This is Corbin with his Aviatrix hat that finally fits him.  Isn't he adorable?  If you are looking for a multisized, quick, fairly simple hat, this is a great one.  I did finish crocheting a little blanket and knitted a cute little hat for newest granddaughter that has yet to make her appearance.  I was excited to get it finished before she arrived.  OK little one, I'm ready for you to meet us.

It's Monday so that means I get some awesome time in Blogland.  Head over to Judy L's to see her awesome quilt and then visit others to see what's happening around town.

TaaaDaaa

The tears have dried.

The block is finished.

It needs a good pressing but that will happen 

when the blocks are all made and the assembly is about to begin.

This is going to be a fabulous quilt!

I have 1 more block to complete before the end of the month. 

It's another big one.

I can do it.

Then I will be caught up. 

Excuse Me While I Cry

I'd finished sewing all 8 sections of the star that I've been working on--see this post.

This block printed 2 sections per page.  1 section didn't fully print the top seam allowance.  I had drawn the cutting line on 3 sections but not the 4th.  Guess who should have done that!  I had trimmed 4 sections before I did this.....oh boy!

So now I will tape my paper back together, tape the seam lines, unsew several of those pieces, cut new pieces and resew this section.  After I cry..........

Speaking of tape---you know Carol Doak recommends the Soctch Removable Magic Tape to tape your papers with.  For some reason it is kind of hard to find around here and I was getting low.  So yesterday I ordered some from Staples. I also ordered a super cute pink high heel to hold the tape, I needed some ink pens and a few other things and if you order more than $45, you get free shipping.  So I did.  Thank goodness I did that.  Who knows how much tape I'm going to use to tape up this whoopsie!

Oh and Staples---you rock.  I ordered yesterday morning and this morning, the UPS man handed me my complete order.  WOW.

I'm done crying now.  Guess I'll have some lunch and get back to it.  I'd like to have the block finished today.

Design Wall Monday

 I actually have something up on my design wall.  I am embarrassed to say that these are the only blocks that I have made for our BOM-Quiltaddicts group.  The new project started last September.  As of Thursday, I only had the top right block finished.

Thursday morning, I got out my book and cd and printed off all the papers I needed for the blocks.  Then I set myself up at the cutting table and got to work!  I have all my blocks kitted up and 2 of the 5 sewn.

I'm not making the quilt on the cover, the one I'm doing is called Bahama Breeze--you can see it here.

I'm getting ready for Monday in Blogland.  Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times and Quiltville is showing off thimbles.

Waste Not Wednesday

Today at Jo's Country Junction, Jo talks about planning her time while she is the passenger on a road trip.  I do the same thing she does but probably for a different reason.  I am a horrible passenger!  So I always have a "To Go Project".  My current project is my granny square afghan which is also the project I have been working on off and on during my Binding Friends Wednesday group.

I have figured out that crochet is the best car project for me.  Better than knitting where I must pay attention or I have to rip out.  I am not good at picking up my stitches so that usually means I have to start over.  With crochet, I can just take out what I need to and go from there.

Since I took the time to get this project organized (and my ball winder is here so my yarn has been wound into manageable balls) I just make sure I have what I need in my 2 gallon zip bag (how much do I love these things!) so when we are going, I just grab my bag.

On our last trip to town and I dropped my scissors, I told Ernie I needed to rig up a little stuff holder.  Then I remembered this tutorial from Karen at Sew Many Ways.  So this morning on my way to BF, I am going to stop and pick up a cup holder.

Today is a good day to write your own Waste Not Wednesday post and link up here with Jo.

All We Need Is...

Love

I made this last year.

I hung it up on the wall of photos.

I have only taken it down once to show off at retreat.

I love it.

Design Wall Monday

Last week I put the Carol Doak Twisted Mystery on the Design Wall.  During the week I worked on it.  Yesterday I put the final border on and started taking off the paper.

Not my favorite job.

These are my tools for paper removal.  My recliner, my favorite green bin, an itty bitty crochet hook that will never be used by me for crochet, tweezers and making tape.

Masking tape? you ask.  Yes.  Before you stand up, take a length of tape, wrap it around your hand with the sticky side out and clean yourself of the tiny bits of paper.  You will still have to get out the vacuum cleaner.  Its a messy job but not as messy if you use the tape. 

Sometime today, I am going to park myself back in the recliner, turn on the tv and get the rest of the paper off this fabulous top so I can give it a good press and maybe, just maybe it will be finished this week.

Wish me luck!

Now I am going to refill my coffee cup and go visiting throughout Blogland.  I'm starting here, the road map to Design Wall Monday.

Inspiration From Blogland

Do you know Jo over at Jo's Country Junction?  She does a post on Wednesday called Waste Not Wednesday.  The other day I started knitting this head band for a friend.  I was using up some Lion Brand Wool-ease yarn left from a pair of socks.  This is a super easy pattern and goes really fast.  And it's really cute...

Then I wanted one for myself.  I went to look in my leftover yarn bin and found these 3 little balls leftover from my green and gray slippers.  I didn't think there would be enough to make the complete pattern so I weighed the balls, set the odd one aside.  The other 2 were very close in weight so they were labeled balls 1 and 3.  I knit ball 1 to the end, added ball 2, knit until it was almost half it's weight then started the decrease as this pattern is knit in short rows.

When it was finished, I decided to knit up the tiny bit of leftover yarn and turned it into this little ponytail band for Taylor.  Then I grabbed the little bit of the blue yarn and knitted it until it was gone.

So there you have it, a Waste Not Wednesday post on Friday.  I'll try to do better next week.  Thanks Jo for inspiring me.  Not only do I have 4 less little yarn balls in the stash, I have 2 pretty snazzy headbands.  I am going to link to last Wednesday's post.  Let's spread the word and support Jo's Wednesday link up.

Design Wall Monday

This is my Twisted Mystery from Carol Doak Quilting Group at Yahoo.  This was started in the fall of 2011.  I took the final steps to work on at one of my fall retreats and was so distracted that I put it away and forgot to get it out again.

Tuesday I wanted to sew something at my Binding Friends quilt group the next day so I pulled out this bin and paper pieced the last clue.  It was fun to make good progress on something while visiting with friends.  Sunday I decided to put it up on the wall to see how it would look.  It's a good thing I did.  I am missing 4 pieces.  They have to be somewhere close by.  I had to have sewn them because I have no fabric pieces left over.
*** Thank goodness I found them.  They weren't really lost, they were in the bin-right where they belonged--hiding under the border fabric.


Between laundry loads and bed remaking today, I hope to find my missing pieces and finish sewing this together.  I think this will be the perfect spring wall hanging.

Visit Patchwork Times to see what others are working on.   Also today is Orca Bay link up at Quiltville.  Isn't Monday in Blogland fun!!!

Pillow Fun

Yesterday at our sewing group, Marian gave me a 2 scrap pieces of polar fleece.  I'm not a fan of all the skull and cross bone fabrics that are out there.  They give me the heeby geebies.  But I know a 7 year old boy that would love them.  Instead of folding them up and putting them away this morning, I sewed them into this pillow cover.  I knew it needed a zipper so I found an old zipper and inserted it into the seam.

Anticipating a pretty good blog post, I had taken pictures of the fabric, the pillow form that I made and the finished pillow.  As I was looking to be sure the last photo was a good one, I see the message about no sd card..........therefore, no photos!  Dang.

I'm not going to take the form out of the pillow but I will tell you I took a piece of old fabric and some batting, sewed 2 24" square into pillow form that was stuffed with poly fiberfill-it takes a lot.  I didn't over stuff it because a fun pillow needs to be squishie.  Then I wrestled it to sew the top shut and stuffed it into the pillow covering.  Now it can be used and loved and when needed, washed.

Now I have no skull fabric in my stash, a nice hunk of batting scrap used up, a nice piece of old fabric out of the stash, one less old zipper and a fun gift for a cute boy.