Getting It Done

Or should this read Not Getting It Done?  These were my September goals.

September Goals

•  Judy L's mystery for August and September
• Bind Orca Bay 
• Bind TUSQLJ
• Make Rainbow Scrap blocks for August and September
• Sew every day

The only thing I accomplished was to sew every day.  I did start on the August clue for the mystery but didn't touch anything else.  No excuses......other than I didn't want to do any of this list. 

So Octobers Goals are super easy.

•  Judy L's mystery for August and September and October
• Bind Orca Bay 
• Bind TUSQLJ
• Make Rainbow Scrap blocks for August and September and October

Design Wall Monday

This isn't up on the wall yet but it is on my sewing table. It's my Back To Square One Mystery. I am behind and hope to get caught up today with Clue 8 and 9. Cross your fingers.

You can see under my Clue 8 instructions is a layout guide for the Log Cabin quilt. Half of that is sewn together and the blocks for the second half are ready and waiting to be made into rows. But I want my forgotten mystery to jump to the front of the line today.

Still up on the design wall is Mae's Flower Garden. I wrote about this yesterday and you can read our cute conversation here. Last night I started putting the remaining green path on the flowers for the top row. She thought it looked funny without green. So what's a Gramma to do but sew green hexies. I'm sure with each visit she is going to want to see if I've made progress. This girl is going to keep me on track.

See other fabulous design walls at Patchwork Times.

Slow Stitching Sunday

Yesterday I had a house full of grandkiddos. We were quietly watching a movie and you know I cannot just sit, so I pulled out a flower to stitch on. Mae wasted no time checking things out and soon the movie was forgotten as all the finished flowers were being put up on the wall.  Each one was inspected and oohed and awed over. Each one is her favorite.
When she showed the wall to her Mom, I was almost in tears as she explains everything about her quilt. This is becoming a true treasure for both of us.

The other day we had a conversation about this quilt. She will be 6 in December.

Mae: Will I have my quilt when I am 5?
Gram: No baby, it takes a very long time to make this quilt.
Mae: What about when I am 6?
Gram: I certainly hope so, I'll try my best.
Mae: You need to sew faster cuz I don't want to wait until I'm 7!!! Cuz that is a VERY long time to wait. And I LOVE this quilt!!!

So I will continue to stitch on this every day when I can. How can I make this precious little thing wait all that time until she is 7 for something she LOVES so much.

It's a very rainy Sunday here so I will quietly sit and stitch and watch the rain.
See other great stitching projects at Kathy's Quilts.

Yarn Report

I decided to use this picture again just because I like it. I have it as my PC background picture and I am having to fight with myself not to go grab that pretty pink skein of the left and start another pair of socks. 

I used a little bit of yarn this week. Yeah.  I finished up the Christmas gift so that's a half skein gone out of the stash. And I added another skein onto the Rivel Cardigan this afternoon.  

We have a "major rainstorm" this weekend so I think there will be lots of knitting and TV time! I have a bunch of new shows recorded on my DVR so I'm not lacking anything to watch. 

• Used this week--1.5 skein
• Used since mid August--4.5 skein
• Added this week--0 skein
• Added since mid August--1 skein
• Total Net since mid August--3.5 skein

See how others are doing with their yarn report at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

Some weeks are sewing weeks, some are knitting weeks.  This week was sewing, I worked on this and this and not much knitting. I didn't pick up my Dreambird project once.

When I did knit, I worked on the Rivel Cardigan. I am now at the short rows for the shoulder and need it to be quiet so I can concentrate or I will be doing what I did one evening this week.

Unknitting is not fun!  I somehow messed up the cable section and didn't notice it until I was back at it to do the next right side row.

I am not confident enough to just pull the needles out on this one so it was unknit one stitch at a time. And total confusion on my part at the cables.  I sniveled and whined until I was ready to knit again.  Maybe I should have just wined...........but we are moving forward again. Stay tuned for more progress.

See other fabulous On The Needles projects at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

I got all 144 8" log cabin blocks finished Sunday morning.

I don't have a big enough design wall to lay out the whole quilt,

so I am doing it in quarters. 

First quarter is sewn together,

second quarter has 4 rows on the wall before I ran out of space.

I'll web these rows together then put it back up on the wall without the first quarter

and lay out the remaining 2 rows.

I'll just lay out the first horizontal row of the third quarter against the first quarter,

then remove it and move the blocks up to finish the layout.

Of course I had to lay out my finished split 9 patch blocks.

These are the current leader/ender project.

See other fabulous design walls at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

I am a Dreambird slacker!

Yesterday is the only time all week I have touched it.

I didn't touch it for long. 

Just a few rows and I had to put it away.

Because you cannot knit with this gorgeous little face around.

This is Estella, my youngest granddaughter.

She has a bit of a cold.

She has a yogurt covered face.

Gramma should have washed it before taking pictures.

I told her yogurt was good for her skin,

she laughed at me.

See other fabulous On The Needles projects at Patchwork Times. 

Not My Day In the Kitchen

I have had very few canning disasters in all my years but yesterday I had 2 big ones. Big ones for me. Not like my pressure canner blew up or anything like that! Thank Goodness.

The canner was full of 16 pints of beans, I vented it for 10 minutes, put the little wobbly thing on and waited for the pressure to start building. I waited and waited...nothing.  The darn thing wouldn't seal.  So I called Crystal to borrow hers and since Mike was just leaving, he dropped it by.  Back in business. By the time he got here, my canner was cool enough to take the lid off and I started to transfer jars and start over.

Pressure built like it was supposed to, everything went great.  Until I started to take the jars out of the bottom layer.  As soon as I took off rack, a jar started floating and then another. Dang.  The bottom popped out of jar one and when I went to dump out jar 2, the bottom popped out of it too. Never had I had such a bad canning day. I'm sure it was because of transferring those jars and the water wasn't hot enough when I put the jars in.

The new gasket has been ordered along with a new pressure gauge and a second rack for Crystal. I love Amazon Prime's 2 day delivery. Isn't it amazing what you can buy without leaving your house!!! (Like yarn!)

Thank goodness dinner was planned leftovers and was quick and easy. Today is a better day. I do have to go get groceries..so is it really better?!? I think I'll stop by my favorite produce market and see if they have any green beans since I didn't get many from the garden.

Design Wall Monday

Nabby's Dowry blocks are patiently waiting for the layout that will be posted on Friday.

I have no clue what that will look like so I layed it out simple.

Then I looked at Kathy's this morning and really like how her's are layed out.

Guess we will just wait and see.

I spent lots of time sewing logs and 

only have the final 108 logs left to sew.

Then the fun really begins, the layout.

Do I want a light center or a dark center?

I like it both ways.

I spent some time cutting white hexies.

I cut in batches.

This time I cut 12 strips-that's enough for 12 flowers.

I have 10 more to sew the white and green to-for a total of 20

and then I will start the last 19 flowers and the half flowers for the sides.

I haven't gotten bored with the white yet,

I think it's because I am so excited about how each one looks.

Have I said how much I love this project???

See other fabulous projects at Patchwork Times.

Slow Stitching Sunday

So far I am not bored with stitching the whites and greens.

I am still stitching on hexies daily.

After all it is National Sewing Month!!

This is how I the greens go on until I get them

all stitched and have a lay out,

then the remaining greens will be added.

These beauties are patiently waiting for their next steps.

My challenged to myself is to finished these before I start any more,

even though they are each kitted up and ready to baste.

I think sometimes they taunt me a little but so far I've ignored them.

Today I will cut the whites and greens for these and start glue basting.

Honestly I am a whole lot farther along than I thought I would be.

See other fabulous Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

Yarn Report

Every once in a while I get the urge to look at The Loopy Ewe and I put luscious sock yarns into my shopping cart. Before I press any payment buttons, I make myself go in and look at the pretty sock yarns I have waiting for me and I delete the order. Sorry Loopy Ewe, I don't mean to tease. So far this has worked twice this week.  Can I stay strong???

I didn't report last week as there were no changes in my numbers and I just didn't feel like posting much.

This week there is a little change as I work on a secret Christmas project.

• Used this week--1 skein
• Used since mid August--3 skein
• Added this week--0 skein
• Added since mid August--1 skein
• Total Net since mid August--2 skein

See how others are doing with their yarn stashes at Patchwork Times. 

On The Needles

Not much knitting has been happening around here.

I have been working on Dreambird a little-very little.

I am ready to start the next feather.

Dreambird has been put on hold while I work on Crystal's Rivel Cardigan.

I am now ready to shape the armholes. 

I knew I shouldn't be working on two big (for me) projects at the same time.

I have been able to sit and sew again for longer periods of time,

so that's where I have been and knitting time has been cut down. 

See other great On The Needles projects at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

 In the true spirit of National Sewing Month, I have sewn every day. Yesterday I finished the 9th block for Nabby's Dowry. Only 2 more installments to go. I am caught up and waiting. I'm wondering with all those half square triangles out of my bin why it doesn't look like I took any out.

 

Then I pulled out my log cabin blocks and sewed on those for a while. I had to cut more strips for this last bunch. I know I will need to pull out more background fabrics and lots more color fabric and cut more strips. 

 

Everyday I have worked on Mae's Flower Garden. Yesterday she saw it on the wall and asked if it was hers and will it be done tomorrow. Precious little thing!!! I was very honest and told her that I was working hard on it but it will be a long time before it is finished. But knowing my sweet little girl, when she sees it again, she will ask if it will be done tomorrow.

And the Baby Quilt from last week is a complete top. Today I will get the back for it and get it quilted this week.

See other fabulous design walls at Patchwork Times.

Slow Stitching Sunday

I've been working on stitching the white rings and the green paths to my flowers. I finally figured out how many and where the greens need to go for each flower. For some reason I couldn't wrap my brain around that. So while I catch up with myself on the greens, I had to put a few on the wall just to see.  I'm quite excited about this.

I'm hoping to find some minutes today to add a few more greens.  I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts today. Her post today is quite inspirational. I'm still sending healing hugs to my friend. I hope she feels them.

Dreambird Progress #5

One more feather added today.
Little progress is still progress.
Maybe I'll work on it more tonight.

Check out Judy L's gorgeous colors
and other Dreambirds Progress at Patchwork Times.

Dreambird Progress #4

Not a whole lot of progress this weekend. It's had to make headway with your eyes closed. Thank goodness for my row chart and clicker. There were a couple times I had myself very confused.

See more gorgeous Dreambirds at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday on Tuesday

My regular Design Wall Monday post was interrupted by another day of the flu. It snuck up on me and knocked me out! But I showed that nasty bug who's the boss, I feel better today!  A little, enough to eat something and maybe spend time at the sewing machine.

So the baby quilt for hubby's co-worker is still on the wall. I think today will have it all put together if I work on it a couple rows at a time.

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times and will spend some time seeing what everyone else is up to.

Goodbye August!

It's been a long month for me. I've spent a good share of my time in the recliner with an ice bag on my knee. I've had the pity party more than once. But now that I'm healing and following doctor's orders pretty much, I'm doing better and getting around.

Instead of writing up a bunch of posts for my linking ups, I'm following Teresa's lead and writing one long post and linking to where I want them to go.

 

This is a rerun photo of my hexies.

I am making serious progress on this quilt and love it more each day.

I'm linking to Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday

and I'm thinking of Kathy as she hurts from the loss of her brother.

 

I spent some precious sewing machine time making scrappy red blocks for my Row Quilt.

I didn't get the Dresden Block made but I will.

I'm linking this to SoScrappy's Scraphappy Saturday.

 

Of course I had to start a new project!

These are 4 of 7 blocks for Nabby's Dowry.

You can find all the info here at Heartspun Quilts.

I'm using 1 1/2" HSTs from my overfull little bin..

  

Hubby came home the other day and wondered if I had a baby boy quilt.

One of his work buddies has his first baby.

Ummm, if I had know before hand, I might have had this ready to go.

So new project number 2 was started.

I'm about halfway and hope to have it ready for gifting this week.

  

Not much progress on Crystal's Rivel Cardigan,

but I am a lot farther than I thought I would be.

 

Here is Dreambird.

I am into the next black section now.

This is a knit along with Judy L and Denise.

The Getting It Done Challenge was kind of a bust for me for August.

August Goals

• Judy L's mystery step for the month
• 5 more Pineapple Crazy blocks
• Bind Ocra Bay and TUSQLJ
• Quilt 1 UFO quilt
• Work on Reach For The Stars
• Work on Grandmother's Choice blocks

The only thing that was accomplished was I finished one Grandmother's Choice block. I didn't even take a picture of it. I did sort my fabrics for Pineapple Crazy into 2 larger bins...one for colors, one for backgrounds, hoping it will be easier to dig for the right piece of fabric and the mess will be a bit more contained.
Kind of a sad, sad month!! It make September's list pretty easy since I'm going to remove a couple of projects from the list.

September Goals

•  Judy L's mystery for August and September
• Bind Orca Bay 
• Bind TUSQLJ
• Make Rainbow Scrap blocks for August and September
• Sew every day

I'm linking this up to Judy L's Getting it Done-September post.

I think these are achievable for me. And since September is National Sewing Month, I am again going to try to sew every day.   Even if I can only sit and sew for a few minutes at a time.