Design Wall Monday

Who ran away with April?  I was shocked when I looked at the date the other day and I only had a few days left of the month and hadn't touched my Back To Square One Mystery other than to print out the instructions and the paper pieces. Sunday was a nice calm, relaxing day so I spent a bit of time with my sewing machine.

I have 2 blocks finished and on the wall, a few with round 2 trimmed and several more that need trimmed.  I'm gong to finish this today so I can show it off when the next step comes out Wednesday.  

See great design walls at Patchwork Times. 

On The Needles

I've made great progress on my sock from last week.  I've decided I'm not a good pooling yarn picker.  I'm just going to knit socks and have fun with the way the colors end up.  I have to hurry and finish this one so I can cast on sock 2.

I'm so anxious to see how the ribbing will turn out.  I'm thinking there is no way I'm going to get this to be a matching pair of socks.  If it does, great, if not, I won't care.  After all, they sell unmatched socks in the store--my teen granddaughter loves them.

See other great On The Needle projects at Patchwork Times and see on Judy L's sock how yarn pooling is supposed to look.

Wednesday UFO Report

Have you ever worked on a project that no matter how hard you've tried, you just can't like it?  This one is mine.

This is my project that I showed last week in the UFO Parade.  From the beginning of the block of the week/month, whatever it was, I have not liked these blocks very much. But I soldiered on and kept making them until one day.... I put them away and ignored them.  Then when cleaning and organizing my room, I found them again, drew up a design for them in EQ7, added some more fabric, block patterns, sashing and border fabrics and put them in the UFO bin. Now I am doing them, I figured if I didn't pick these first, they would be shoved into the dark corner never to see light of day again.

I need to make one more block and then start work on the sashing and cornerstones.  I am going to finish this.  I swear.   I also bought the backing flannel for the Hanky Panky quilt.  I had 3 littles with me and we had 3 blue flannels to pick from.  It helped that 2 of them were the same fabrics.  I'm kind of sneaky that way. ;0)

See other UFO progress or not at Patchwork Times today.  Judy L is ready to bind a gorgeous pink quilt.

Design Wall Monday

It's not a real design wall, it's the design ironing pad. This is blocks 1 of 20 Crossroads block. I saw this block Saturday at asimplelife Quilts. I thought it would make the perfect scrappy quilt to sent to Judy L. for West, TX. Read about that here. So I followed Deb's link to Connie's tutorial page at Freemotion by the River and got busy.

I have a bin full of 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" bricks (my original plan was to cut a bunch of 5" squares down but I didn't need to) and found the cute beige print in my stash and got busy.

By late morning, all the sections were sewn together and block construction started. I had to sew together one block before I went too far.

This morning my only plan is to get this quilt top together. I'll get right to that after visiting with friends in Blogland. I'll start my visit at Patchwork Times. 

Morning sewing went along smooth until........the phone call from Hubby saying I needed to run to the pharmacy and get his medication he needs tonight.  UGH! We both forgot.   Maybe this isn't a bad thing,

I can think about how I want to set these blocks.  I like both of them and I guess I will have to make a decision while I'm gone.  Maybe a quick stop at the fabric store since I will be close.  I'll see if I can find something for the borders.

Would you choose this one?  A or

would you choose this one?  B

Greenies

This is the beginning of my green Dresden Plate block.

Patiently waiting to be turned and pressed.

I think an episode or 2 of Wild At Heart on Netfilx

will have this block finished.

The Monkey Wrench blocks are making

great leader/enders.

I'm being very aware of my pressing because 

I think my Row Quilt will not have sashing between the blocks,

only between the rows. 

I think......

See other great green scrappies at SoScrappy.

On The Needles

Sweet Georgia sock 1 just needs a bit of toe stitching and sock 2 can be cast on.  I want to hurry and finish this pair so I can wear them. I love the colors. No pooling or flashing for the Pooling Challenge.

I started over on the Opal Prince Henry sock.  I love that the short dark sections in the white are forming a diagonal.  I'd like to believe I planned that but you all know I didn't. I couldn't have  even if I thought of it. I'm curious what sock 2 is going to do.    

I would love to just knit today since it's a rainy day but I can't.  Too much to do, too little time.

Check out other great On The Needles projects at Patchwork Times.  I love Judy L's sock color!!!

I'm Claiming My Blog

I'm claiming my blog with Bloglovin.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

Today is a stay at home and get things done day.  I decided the first thing I wanted to do was work my UFO Plan and get this fabulous top finished.  Now I need to decide what to bind it with, either the brown polka dot or the lime green that forms the little 4 patches.  I'm leaning toward the brown.

Since I missed Quiltcam live from Quiltville last night, I clicked on and watched via YouTube.  How much fun to sew and listen to Bonnie chat.  It was quite funny and spooky when several times as she mentioned things that were happening to me at the exact same time she's talking about it.  Stray threads was mentioned as I was pulling threads off my top while pressing.  Wondering if we plan how to quilt a project as I was thinking about a really cool pantograph that I have and want to use on this top. She mentioned classic fabrics and how long these wild and modern prints would be in style-prints like the lime/pink I was using in this quilt ....made me laugh at how alike quilters really and truly are.

I am so happy Bonnie is now using YouTube for Quiltcam so we can watch whenever we want instead of missing out on the chatty fun because of other obligations. Good call Miss Bonnie!  It so much fun to sew with others, even if it's just through the computer screen.

This is the next UFO that has been pulled from the bin and a plan is beginning to form in my head.  For me, the plan needs to be broken down into steps and written on paper.  First the blocks need to go up on the wall to see which ones to keep and which ones to replace. I remember there are blocks in there that I do not like. See, the plan is formulating already.

Good News Thursday

With all of the sad and bad news that is happening in our world, I sometimes feel out of sorts when good things are happening to me. But today I want to think about good things.  You know I am all about simple pleasures.  It doesn't take much to make me smile---just like it doesn't take much to make me cry.

The best news this week--Yesterday I had my colonoscopy!!! All is good, I shouldn't have to do this again for ten years. I am so happy I didn't chicken out and cancel because I almost did.  I had the phone in my hand!  Ernie took the day off, played chauffeur and took me out to a nice lunch after.

I have a good plan for working my UFOs.  That means I have a good plan for spending time in my sewing room.

My turkeys are growing and trying to sneak out of their pen to get to the outside world.  They aren't ready for the outside world yet--kind of like me.  I threw a bunch of grass clippings in to them yesterday and they were so curious and excited.

Our bees are doing great, our chickens are laying lots of eggs. Fred the Rooster is still mooching off us instead of going home.  I love him!  He is beautiful and he is nice.  My girls like him too.  So far no one is sitting on any eggs though.  I am hoping someone goes broody soon before the neighbors decide they want their rooster back.  Earn your keep Mister!!!

Do you have good news?  We would love to hear about it. Link up at Patchwork Times.

UFO Plan

After parading a few of my UFOs all over Blogland and 

doing some serious thinking to come up with a workable plan for me, 

I think I may have something figured out.

I'm testing it out on this UFO.

This is the UFO I am working on and showed in this week's Design Wall Monday post.  

This is the design I had come up with using EQ7.

The blocks were sewn together.

Border 1 was cut and sewn on.

Border 2 was ready to be cut when reality set in.

I don't have enough lime/pink fabric for wide borders.

Back to EQ7.

Play with simple borders so I can still use my lime/pink fabric.

Use what I have.

TaDah!!!

My plan is to pick one project.

Stick with it.

Try to use what I have.

Since most projects are contained with their components,

I shouldn't have much trouble.

We'll see how far that gets me. :0)

I am NOT going to say I won't start any new projects.

What fun would that be?

And I would be a liar because I do plan to start several new projects.

What I am saying is that I am going to focus on those UFOs I showed in the parade.

When those are completed,

I'll have another parade.

I'm linking up with Judy L's UFO Plan.

There are some really good tips from other Planners.

I hope to incorporate some of them into my plan.

UFO Parade

Judy L is hosting a UFO Parade at Patchwork Times. Facing the cold hard truth is hard.  Acting on the cold hard truth is going to be fun.  I have a lot of UFOs.  I am not counting them. I want each of them to be finished.  I'm parading one bin at a time.

Last year when I cleared out my sewing room for the big move around, I put my UFOs into big blue bins. I have 4 of them, they are all full.  Each bin has a list of what is inside. I keep that list in my notebook. 

Today I picked the closest bin to me.  Bin number 4.  Here are the contents. As I pulled each project out of the bin to take a picture, I made notes on what is needed to finish. Most of them had that info already on it.

There are 2 that I want special backings for so that went on my shopping list.  OK, let's start the parade of Bin 4.

Go! Scrappy 1- started  October 2010

Blocks complete, red sashing with black cornerstones.

Batik Blocks - started November 2010

This kit contains fabric and instructions for more blocks.

Also sashing and border fabrics.

This top if FINISHED!!!

Hanky Panky - top finished October 2010

There is enough of the blue fabric to use for binding.

I want to use a soft blue flannel for the backing.

Oh, Orca Bay, how you haunt me!

This has been waiting to be quilted since January 2012.

Last week I made the backing, the fabric has aged for about 5 months now.

It should be good to go now. 

Binding is made.

9 Patches and Posies - top finished February 2010

I'l like an antique looking floral print for the back of this one.

Binding is made.

Ultimate Scrap Quilt Like Julie's - top completed December 2012

Backing is ready, binding will be very scrappy.

New York Beauty Scrappy Batiks Table Topper

October 2011

Why hasn't this been quilted???

Yellow back string blocks - February 2011

I need to make 4 more blocks.

These are quilt as you go blocks.

That's the end of today's parade.  We'll have another parade on another day. I still have 3 bins full and probably enough new UFOs to fill another bin.  But I'm not talking about that today. wink, wink

Design Wall Monday

Quite a while back, maybe 2 years, my friend Sharlene gave me 10 Irish Chain blocks that she won at Quilt Party.  She didn't really like them and knew that I would use them for something.  About a year after that, I played in EQ7 and came up with this quilt design. I know I wanted to use the bright green as the focal point.

I took the blocks to the LQS and headed to the 40% off room to find a treasure.  I did, I found all 3 of my fabrics in that room.  I bought them, brought them home and made a kit with my design, the blocks and the fabrics and put it away.  Fabric needs to age.

After more time, I took out the kit, showed it to Crystal and she curled up her nose. She didn't like my green and pink print. NOT AT ALL!  So that stalled me a bit but I really like it!  Finally, I decided to put it up on the design wall and let it talk to me for a while. I move colors around but kept coming back to my original placement. I'm glad I did.  Isn't it funny how one little nose curl can stall your project.

I now have all the side triangles up on the wall and the parts for the corner triangles are cut and partially sewn.  I can't wait to sew on the borders. This will become a new topper for my treadle sewing machine.

Visit other great design walls that have linked up at Patchwork Times.  I love Monday in Blogland.

On The Needles

My socks are not cooperating with the yarn pooling challenge.  I thought for sure once the gusset was finished and I had decreased the stitches a bit more, the Sweet Georgia yarn would pool.  No. But it is doing something a bit interesting. It is striping in long sections.  See the heel? On the other side is a different colorway of stripes.  It's doing the same thing now in the foot section.

The Prince Henry sock on the left is going to be unknitted and I'll start over. I think the needles are too big for this yarn.  I also think I am going to do a ribbed leg instead of plain jane. I'll concentrate on Sweet Georgia first and get those finished.

I've been working on my Greta vest.  I like how it is starting to take shape.  I am going to work the armholes on this pretty soon so I can take those stitch holder pins out before I snag something major with them.

One thing I discovered about working all 3 of these projects this week is that I rather enjoy working on more than one thing at a time. Maybe it's working on the challenge or the changing of needle sizes from vest to socks or maybe it's just my lack of concentration with one project. I don't know. Whatever it is, it's working for me as I've made a bit of progress on all 3.

What Are You Reading?

I love Judy L's new link up What Are You Reading?  I'm not a fast reader, mostly only read before going to sleep.  Not too long ago, I found Barbara Bretton's book, At Last as a Kindle freebie at Amazon.  (Always check the price  before hitting buy--yes, been there, done that.)   So far it's a sweet story and I like her style of writing.

Now I'm going to go see what others are reading at Patchwork Times and what I want to add to my Amazon wish list.

Farm Tales

The baby turkeys are almost 4 weeks old now.  Saturday we moved them into their big home.  They looked so big in the tub they were in and now they look so tiny!  They are quite adventurous and so fun to watch.

 The front of the chicken house needs wire across the bottom. I keep forgetting to do it.  The other day I happened to spot an egg.  Then I found 5 more.  Today I spotted 3.  I had the camera in my pocket so decided to set it on the ground and take a picture.  I see 3 more eggs I couldn't reach.  I'll have to get the tennis ball flinger and a kid to lay on their stomach to get the eggs out of there before they get nasty.

Saturday was bee day.  We lost both of our hives last year so we are giving it another shot.  Cross your fingers that we get some honey this year.

The littles were getting bored with watching bees fly around and decided the chickens needed a snack.  See the big rooster in the front?  That's Fred. He isn't mine, he lives next door but likes it here better.  He's a nice rooster so he's welcome.  The neighbor kids came and got him the other day and the next morning he was strutting down the road.  Makes me wonder if they gave up on him.

Design Wall Monday

I've become obsessed with my hexi wall hanging. The green section was from a long abandoned project that became an idea for a wall hanging back in September. That last row of blue is going to be added today. Then the borders have to be figured out.

I was so excited when I received my book,  Pieced Hexies by Mickey Depre. After flipping through just a few pages, I spotted the perfect hexi that would become my sun. Honestly, I cannot wait to get started on a project from this book. 

It's the embellishing that I am super excited about now and since I know myself so well, I know the borders have to go on first. Even though I do have a few of the flowers ready, they have to wait.

I spent some time this weekend making Taylor's little bag  from our quilt show purchases. This pattern had me wanting to pull out my hair. I like straight forward instructions. Tell me to cut this many this of piece A, then this many of piece B, don't make me read your mind. It's an easy bag to sew once you figure every thing out. These instructions have been Judyfied for next time. I'm sure there will be a next time!  

Check out other great design walls at Patchwork Times today.

We're Goin' Green

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month is green.

My Row Quilt Block for the month is Monkey Wrench.

I think this is my favorite quilt block.

10 Monkey Wrench blocks were kitted up for leaders/enders.

The Dresden Plate parts are all cut and ready.

For added green cuteness and

because I can't resist,

Cousins Corbin and Estella.

Check out other great greet goodies

at SoScrappy.

On The Needles

I'm not having much success with the pooling of my sock yarns.  Prince Henry-on the left-is showing just a teeny tiny bit of pooling, Sweet Georgia, not so much.  I wonder what kind of results I would have if I weren't wanting the yarn to pool.

There was a bit of a mishap with Sweet Georgia. Someone forgot to turn the heel before she started the gusset.  (Shakes head and sighs!) So that brought about some needle pulling and picking up of stitches.  Now someone needs to get her book out and read up on heel turning before she goes any farther.  She will probably do that today.v

What's on your needles?  See other fabulous needle projects at Patchwork Times.

And just for the fun of it, here is Mae modeling her sweater.

Good News Thursday

Today's good news is I got to spend a wonderful day with my granddaughter. I picked up Miss Taylor and we went to the local quilt show.  These gals put on a wonderful show.  I came away so inspired.  The venders got a nice little chunk of change.  We spotted this bag pattern and had to have it.  Then we saw the fabric. Tay picked the green and black and she loved the purple, I had to have the pink. We bought ourselves some new Goat's Milk lotion.

I was on a mission to find some sky fabric for my wall hanging.  I'm so excited to finally be at the sky section and have very little light blue. We found these 2 fat quarters to add to the mix.

Then we went out to lunch and did some zipper and inner facing shopping at JoAnn's.  Now I am going to sit and stitch some hexies while I watch some tv for a while.

Today was a much needed feel good day. See some other good news posts here at Judy L's.

Orange Scrappy Blocks

March is over and so is my love of orange. 

Not really, I'm just done sewing orange blocks.

Or maybe I'm not,

I could make a couple stars, 

a few 4 patches.

No pressure.

Check out fabulous orange projects at SoScrappy.  

Design Wall Monday

I haven't spent much time in the sewing room this week so nothing is on my wall. I was pretty busy finishing up this sweater so my sweet Mae could "wear it tomorrow". That's what she said whenever she saw it. How could I not hurry and get it ready for tomorrow.

I got this little wall hanging from the free box at a retreat a few years ago. I kept picking it up and thought about starting it. Then one day, I decided to work on the embroidery at my Wednesday group.  That was finished and then it was set aside again.  I found the bag while looking for something else and told myself to sit down and get busy.

One episode of Wild at Heart on Netflix, I had all the preprinted fabrics bonded with wonder under stuff and  the shapes cut out.  So why not start another episode and iron them on to the button fabric.  Everything was preprinted so that part went really fast.  Next thing I knew, I had started a 3rd episode and was playing with machine stitches.  All I have left to do is stitch around the outside and decide which of my shirt plaids I'll use to bind it with. I didn't care for the way they say to finish the edge.  I'll add some button establishments too. Soon it will hang on my wall.