January 2013 Getting It Done

Judy L at Patchwork Times is changing the UFO Challenge to Getting It Done.  I failed miserable at the 2012 UFO Challenge so I'm hoping with small monthly goals I can mark things off my list.

Here is my January List.

1--Keep current with ongoing weekly/monthly projects.

(Grandmother's Choice, Rainbow Challenge, Carol Doak's BOM, Judy L's mystery, Midget Blocks)

2--Finish adding the border to Hawaiian Sunset.

3--Quilt and bind last year's Carol Doak Mystery.

4--Quilt and bind Ultimate Scrap Quilt Like Julie's.

Go to Patchwork Times and see what others hope to accomplish is January. 

Design Wall Monday

Can you believe this is the last Design Wall Monday for 2012???  This is what my bed looked like Sunday afternoon.  These are all the blocks from Barrister's Block Sow-A-Long.  This project started February 1, I started mine March 22.  I am pleased to say all these blocks are now in a quilt top.  I still need to add the top and side sashing and the inner and outer borders.  I truly believe that they would be on but my iron decided today was the day to stop working!  Ugh! I get so frustrated with cheap made products.  

I sat down early Sunday morning and sewed up the last 3 blocks.  Then I took them to my bed to lay them all out.

When I was happy with them, I stacked them up and pinned them into rows.  Ernie was all comfy watching his "man shows" so I hid in the sewing room and sewed my little heart out. I'm happy that this quilt is at this stage and the blocks are not going to be listed on the 2013 UFO list.

Check other great design walls at Patchwork Times.

Waiting To Sew On Saturday

I got a new to me sewing machine yesterday.  This is a Morse Fotomatic III Model 4300.  I love old sewing machines and have sworn never to buy another new one.  So in 1 day, I bought 2 old machines.  The second one will be here next week.  I think Ernie is as excited as I am with the old machines.

 Isn't she gorgeous! And heavy--40 pounds!!  When I took it out of the car, I had to bring it in and get the scales. After cleaning, oiling and capturing wild dust bunnies, she runs like a champ.  Quiet and steady.  It took me a while to figure some things out because there is no manual.  I have one headed my way.

There was a box full of accessories.  Some of them I have no clue how to use.  Like the zipper foot there in front.  I know it attaches to something and I'll figure it out.  I was shocked to see the felt pads and the seam guide in the original box.  I love that the big bobbins have multiple colors of thread on them.  That made me laugh since Bonnie was just talking about that on Quilt-Cam the other night.

Now she is all set up for the perfect quarter inch seam.  I'm ready to sew up part 6 of Easy Street.

But first, I had to open my box of fabric for Judy L and Vicki W's 2013 Back to Square One Mystery.  I ordered my fabrics from Thousands of Bolts. They never disappoint!  Now my fabrics are all labeled on the Swatch Sheet and everything is in the labeled container.

On The Needles

This week I sat down and finished my 12th pair of socks for the 12 in 2012 Challenge.  You can see my post with all the socks in a collage here. Now I am working on the Honey Cowl that I started last week.

Denise at Justquiltin has a new challenge. It's called Sticks 'n Strings - 2013.  I don't have 13 knitting UFOs-thank goodness for that!-but I have a few and I have a few projects I want start and finish in the new year so that is how my list is going to be made.  I think this is going to be fun.

I just realized I don't have a pair of socks on the needles.  The first time all year!  I need to fix that soon. See other great On The Needle projects at Patchwork Times.

Knitting in 2012

12 in 2012 Sock Challenge Complete!!

Thanks for this Challenge Denise.

I cannot wait to start Sticks 'n Strings 2013.

Along with 12 pair of socks, I completed these.

The burgundy scarf is crocheted but I'm counting it because it's finished.

Also finished but not photographed is the pair of fingerless mittens.

These were my first pair of fingerless mittens and now I want to make more.

When I put all of my accomplishments together in one place like this,

I am surprised at what I did. 

I successfully challenged myself to knit 12 pair of socks. 

I used new to me techniques and designs.

I completed the 2012 Opal Challenge!

I am still amazed that I made that shawl and those mittens.

I have 3 projects not quite complete, 2 scarves and a cowl.

I have an afghan that is over a year old that needs finished.

One of these may be done by the end of the year but I'm not going to stress over it.

What I am going to do is plan for 2013. 

A vest for hubby, a sweater for me, socks of course, fingerless mittens.....

I need to make a list!

It's A Tiny Tuesday Christmas

Merry Christmas

I hope however you spend your day, it is filled with love and joy.

We are having a very white Christmas morning. It's so peaceful and pretty outside right now.  All is calm........

My week was very easy.  This year only a few of my gifts were handmade so I took my sewing time and worked on some Midget Blocks.

Block 14 is called Gem Block.

I used EQ7 to recreated this simple paper pieced block.

Block 15 is a string block.

I used EQ7 for this too so all my strips would match up.

It was so much fun to use up some strips from the scrap bin.

Block 16 was a nightmare for me.

First I have the colors in the opposite places.

Then there are a couple of frinkles...those are staying.

Maybe they will quilt out. Maybe they won't.

I'm living with it the way it is.

I am not making another one of these, ever!

I love it just the way it is.

I am looking forward to block 17. 

It's the airplane block.

I have resisted making this block from the start as it may

be my favorite block in the whole quilt.

It's laying on the cutting mat patiently waiting it's turn.

I'm trying to do the blocks in order but now that I think about it,

I'm wondering why???

Have a wonderful day, however you celebrate it.

Design Wall Monday

My design wall is empty and it's time to finish something.  Three weeks ago I started sewing these 1" half square bonus triangles together. (Don't know about bonus triangles? Check this post at Quiltville.) The mini quilt top was then put aside.  Yesterday was time to work on it.  I already had the back and batting cut, it just needed layered and quilted. So I did.

If you enlarge the photo, you can see light lines in the border corners.  I marked that with a black Frixion and it left that faint white mark after ironing it to make it disappear.. I thought about putting buttons in the corners but instead, I just hung it up right here on the door of the computer cabinet and honestly, I cannot see the lines now.  But be careful, test your marking pens on scrap fabric.  Do not trust that the marks will disappear.

What's on your design wall?  Check Patchwork Times and see what others are working on.

Merry Christmas.

Sewing With Bonnie

Today was my day to finish up step 5 of Easy Street.  After breakfast, I settled in to another episode of McLeod's Daughters while I marked my squares. When that was over, I checked Facebook and saw that I was late for Quilt-Cam. Darn!

 So I grabbed my iced tea and sewed with Bonnie.  It is so fun to have like minded company while I sew. Almost like being at retreat.  Almost. That white basked is my little cut off triangles.  Those will work into the Pineapple Crazy very nice.

Pretty soon my units were finished but Bonnie was still sewing so I couldn't leave.  I grabbed a mini quilt that I needed to quilt so I got it all layered and pinned and started quilting it.  When Bonnie said good bye, I kept on quilting and now I have my Step 5 complete and I have a mini that needs the binding sewn down.

That's a darn good sewing day!  Thanks Bonnie for spending the afternoon in my sewing room.

Saturday Sewing

Saturday Sewing started with me pulling fabrics out of my scrap bin and the little half square triangle bin to make this set of Sow-A-Long blocks from Barrister's Blocks.  I'm quite excited for the last set to be posted and then the layout decisions can be make.  It will be a straight setting because I've already done one on point and it is patiently waiting for quilting.

I had to share my dork moment with you.  I was so careful to lay this block out before sewing the sides on to it.  I mean I was careful.  Then I picked it up to sew side one and dropped the piece.  I picked it up, put it where I wanted it and sewed it on.  Then I picked up the second side and sewed it on. When I layed it down to line up the half square triangle, this is what I saw.  How come I didn't see that before???  I just sat there and laughed, grabbed the camera and had to share.  Sometimes I scare myself with the things I do.  Please tell me I am not alone in things like this!

In the afternoon, I worked on Step 5 for Easy Street until I asked Ernie if he wanted fish and chips for dinner. He did, so off to town we go.  When we got home, we decided to watch a movie and chose Clint Eastwood's Trouble With the Curve.  We both really liked it.  This is what we call date night, dinner out and a movie at home, then sound asleep by 9.  Yes, we do live an exciting life.

On The Needles

The 12 in 2012 Sock Challenge is nearly over.  I decided to make a pair of short socks for my 12th pair and showed them here. That night, I sat down and finished the first sock.  Then I tried it on and it was a bit too small.  I promptly put it back in the bag and ignored it.

I ignored it until 2 days ago when Denise posted about her 20 pair in 2012!  You know that lit a fire under me so I went in and un-kitchenered the toe--oh yeah, that was fun!--and pulled out several rows and tied on more yarn.  Now I am working the toe decrease again and am anxious to start the second sock so I can say I completed the 12 in 2012 Challenge. (If you follow that link, you can see all of Denise's fabulous socks.) 

During my pouty time over the socks, I decided to start this Honey Cowl using this bulky Jiffy yarn that was in my stash.  This is an easy pattern to kit.  I'm using size 10 needles, the short version of the pattern and cast on a few more stitches.

The cowl will be set aside until the 12th pair of socks is finished.

Quilty Thoughts for 2013

I've spent a few nights not getting much sleep.  I've been thinking and sometimes I can't turn off my brain.  I've been thinking of long term projects that I have started, projects I want to start and my word for 2013.

Long term projects include my Pineapple Crazy quilt, 

Grandmother's Choice Sampler, 

Carol Doak's BOM

Then there are all the fabulous new projects that I won't be able to resist starting. Like Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I've already played in EQ7.

  I know I want to do either a row quilt like this.

Or maybe like this. 

I don't know.  I also think using Quiltville's Chunky Churndash (my personal favorite) set with black and white quarter square triangles would be fun.  I'll think about it some more.  Probably between the hours of 1 am and 4 am.  

As if I didn't have enough projects already, there is Mt. To Be Quilted that needs to be lowered. OhBoy! The choices I have to make.........that's it!  My word for 2013:  Choices!  Wow, that was easy! 

Tiny Tuesday-Blocks 12 & 13

After 2 weeks not making Midget Blocks from Sentimental Stitches, I dug into my scrap bag, found great fabrics and sat down to sew these 2 blocks while watching a couple episodes of McLeod's Daughters on Netflix.  

Block 12 is called Indiana Puzzle and 13 is called Sheep Field (which makes no sense to me). Both of these are blocks I had to copy from finished blocks because I had used the originals for scrap paper.  With the weather being uncertain today -snow mostly - I will hopefully keep my power and be able to make a couple more blocks today.

Design Wall Monday

I finished up making the doll clothes (will do a post about them later) and finished step 4 of the Easy Street Mystery. It was time to clean off the sewing table.  I have fabric stacked everywhere and I have other things I want to work on.

Like the last 3 blocks for Barrister's Block Sow-A-Long.  I read on her blog that there are only 6 more blocks to do.  I've really enjoyed the easy pace of this project.  She'll post the new blocks when she can, in the mean time we don't stress or fuss about them.  The majority of these fabrics came right out of a scrap bag, the rest from strip bins.  After looking at this picture, I want to go in and replace that bright block in the upper left block.  It isn't playing well with the others.

I even added to the spool box with the leaders/enders.  It worked out each block made 1 spool.  Really I could sit down and just sew spool blocks because they are so fun to make.

This is the notebook with all the 61 blocks complete.  I wish my other on going projects were up to date but they aren't.  And I'm not going to stress about it.

Hopefully you will be able to see other design walls at Patchwork Times today.  It looks like the linky box is acting up again.  Be careful linky box, your name can be moved to the naughty list!

Saturday Sewing

Saturday turned out to me a mixed weather day with rain and snow, 

perfect for hiding in the sewing room. 

Ernie was off doing some volunteer work for hunting club

 so I knew I had a few hours all to myself.

Perfect for sewing step 4 of Quiltville's Mystery, Easy Street.

64 purple and aqua flying geese.

Why must I sew at least 1 or 2 like this?

 

Squaring up and trimming is always a must at some point.

I decided this was a good time.

I like that there are only little slivers of waste when using the 

Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers.

I also love my small Brooklyn Revolver when trimming 

and the little Cotton Picker makes for easy cleanup.

After a few hours, Part 4 is complete.

On The Needles

I'm having one of those weeks where the knitting needles haven't been touched much.  I used the ball of leftover yarn from this hat to make a hat and scarf to add to the box of doll clothes for Clella's birthday gift.  If I have enough yarn left from the scarf, I'll add a tassel to the hat and fringe to the scarf.

I can hardly wait for her to meet her new doll and see all the clothes.  I think I'm more excited about her 5th birthday than she is. And she is REALLY, REALLY excited.

See what others have on their needles at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

I am a very visual person so I like to have pictures right in front of me when making a block.  I laugh about being easily confused but it's quite true.  I get lost going in circles. So I layed out each step for this part of the Easy Street Mystery found at Quiltville. I have step 1 almost complete.

This weekend was not very sewing friendly for me.  When I did sew, I worked on doll clothes.  I don't know when I'll have enough for her.  Maybe the day before the birthday party.  It's hard to know when to stop.

Today I'm linking up with DWM at Patchwork Times and Mystery Monday Link-Up at Quiltville.  Grab yourself a big cuppa and a snack and cruise around Blogland.  I love Monday.


Edit 10 am

Step 3 done!  

On the Needles

I am working with the leftover Wool-Ease from the socks I was working on while Ernie was having his first knee replacement 2 years ago!  It doesn't seem like it was that long ago.  I wanted a pair of short socks just to slip on when I have cold feet.  These will work nicely. And they are knitting up quick with 48 stitches on size 5 needles and will count as my 12th pair for the 12 in 2012 Challenge.  And will get one more bag a leftovers out of the bin.

The crocheted scarf is a super quick and easy project.  It's called Urban Shells.  I used Vanna's Choice and a size I hook.  I only made 3 ridges instead of 4.  I don't think I have any more of this yarn in the bin--I keep forgetting to look and it looks like I have to call this one almost finished or go look.  Right now it measures 54" and will work but if I have any more yarn, I'll make it longer.  If not, it will be a shorty.  I'm not buying another skein.  I don't even know how much yarn this is because it was in a ball.

Do these socks make my feet look short?  I have not idea. Before I started to decrease for the toes, I measured and I swear on a stack of Bibles that I saw 7" on that tape.  I was so excited......so I kept right on working after Ernie went to bed.  I explained that I was bound and determined to finish them Friday night so they would be done in November.  I had just finished closing the 2nd toe when he came out and I'm sitting there with tears streaming down my face.  I told him they were too short......I had re-measured and had messed them up.  The foot only measured 6".  He said to start over.  WHAT???  These are finished!  Crazy man!!!  I'm thinking of taking the toes out and making them the right size.  But until I make up my mind.  This is pair 11 finished this year.

Design Wall Monday

My design wall is not about quilting this week or last. It's about doll clothes.  One DGD will be 5 this month and after looking at the American Girl catalog, she decided she really, really, really, REALLY wanted an AG doll.  But this Gramma won't pay that kind of $$ for a doll.

But I will buy her a doll that looks like an AG doll and I will make her a fabulous wardrobe.  My friend gave me some great Minkie scraps including that lime green that will be a poncho and some other fury stuff that became an awesome hooded jacket.  I'm having such fun making clothes for this doll.

It is tough having your birthday so close to Christmas.  And then there is the DGD that will be 13 tomorrow, she's not getting a doll, she's getting ---can't tell you, she reads the blog.  LOL

Oh boy, time goes fast!

What's on your design wall?  Check other fabulous projects at Patchwork Times.

Saturday Sewing

Today I finished sewing the flying geese for the Easy Street mystery.

I sure hope there are purple half square triangles in Easy Street.

Because when cutting the strips for the flying geese, 

I always start the row by cutting the end off into 

a half square triangle unit with the easy angle ruler.  

Then I switch to the companion angle for the geese.

Then I started playing with some 1 1/2" half square triangles.

I need to start using some of these things that I have saved.

Or move them into a larger container.

I vote for using them.