Design Wall Monday.....

...On Sunday Afternoon

 Cathedral Stars is becoming a top. Well rows are being sewn together.  It's really hard when you don't have a big design wall or floor space or a big enough bed to lay out the whole quilt.

I layed it out as much as I could on my bed and then started pinning the blocks into rows. I should have stopped at 5 rows but I had to pin that 6th row together.  Only a couple blocks had to be unpinned and turned the right direction and the long center row....well it needs a couple more blocks added to it.  No big deal.

Now I need to go in and lay out the last 5 rows against the center row. I'll add those 2 missing blocks first so I can get it the way it's supposed to be.   One more thing I realized today.....when laying out a Bonnie Hunter design on top of a Bonnie Hunter design, it's easy to confuse me. Next time I'll turn the quilt over and use the back as my design wall bed.

Monday morning, I'll link up to the Design Wall Monday post at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

Still On The Hook

The Lacy Crochet Market Bag is not quite finished.  The yellow/white are 2 balls of an unknown cotton like Sugar'n Cream which is what the blue/green yarn is.  All 3 came from the bin of yarn from my friend's mother's stash.  Good news is the bin is almost empty so my color choices are limited. That's not a bad thing, right?!?

I have sat down to work on my project, there isn't much stitching time. Those cute little kitties take up a lot of quiet time. They are now 4 weeks old so I've started introducing some cat food which is more fun to play with than to eat. They do pretty good with the wet food but it might be too early for the dry food.

Visit Patchwork Times today to see what others have on their needles.

Design Wall Monday

Back up on the wall are some of the blocks for Cathedral Stars.

Here are blocks laid out on my little design boards ready to sew together.

This is a pile of 14 blocks that need to be taken apart and sewn the right way.

The diagonal center against the red is supposed to be the colors not the neutrals.

2 sewing sessions wasted!

No wasted was the time spent finishing Mae's quilt.

Granddaughter Taylor won the elk quilt at the hunting club picnic!

It was a great week for these 2 girls!

No time was wasted here either.

wink, wink

I've been hand feeding these cuties over a week now.

Hard to believe they are already 3 1/2 weeks old.

I'm happy to report they are all fat and sassy!

Good news is they are starting to nibble at the food.

Best news is they are starting to use the litter box.

Check out other fabulous design walls at Patchwork Times.

Hunting Club's Big Day

 Saturday was the annual picnic for the hunting club.

I think Ernie is most excited for this day than any other day of the year.

Good times with friends and family and food.

Ernie and Larry are always in charge of slicing up the meat.

Larry and his wife Jean are our gracious hosts.

They have the most fabulous shop for entertaining.

Prizes were displayed.

Entry buckets filled up with tickets from anxious prize winners.

Grandson Leland really wanted the quilt.

Gramma tried to win it for him.

Granddaughter Taylor entered her tickets and won.

We kept it in the family again this year.

(Last year her mom won.)

Gramma has to find another elk panel and make her boy a quilt.

Thanks Yacolt Burn Sportsman Club for another fun picnic.

It's Official!

Mae's Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt is finished and hopefully she is cuddled under it right now.  I started this last August , worked on it through my knee injury and finished less than a year later.

I think this may very well be my most favorite quilt I have ever made.

It helped knowing how much she wanted this and how bad she wanted it before she turned 7 which will happen this December.  It's funny how kiddos get something stuck in their little brains. I should have kept track of how often she asked if it was done yet. But my Sweet Little Mae is ever so patient with her Gramma and now she is thrilled with her new quilt.

On The Needles (Hook)

I am so easily influenced! I saw this Lacy Crochet Market Bag Challenge on one of my Facebook pages (there's a knit pattern too that I want to make) called The Crochet Crowd and I couldn't stop thinking about it. One day I decided to just try it to see if I could do the stitch. (Yes Judy L, you can teach an old dog a new trick.) Before I got to making the star, I read this about Market Bag Issues. There is a wonderful video tutorial that makes this stitch super easy.  So now I am breezing along and cannot wait to use my bag. And reduce the amount of cotton yarn in my bin.  This isn't the yarn called for in the instructions but it will make for a nice, strong bag.

I've been working on my In Love With Color Throw but now as much as I would like to.  I am on round 3 of the border. I think a couple good tv nights this week and it will be finished.

These 6 little cuties are keeping me from my evening yarn projects.  Momma Sally sneaked outside one morning and didn't come back. We are having a time with coyotes and are afraid one might have got her. So I have been feeding these cuties with a syringe. It takes about an hour to get them all happy and napping again. This is my first time ever hand rearing kittens! It's quite an experience. I'm hoping they will start to eat food soon and start using a litter box. They are 3 weeks old. Am I pushing it too fast?

Check out what others are working on at Patchwork Times On The Needles.

Design Wall Monday

Last week was a very busy Judy week! Monday was my class with Bonnie Hunter.

You can read about that here, if you want to.

Tuesday was spent cutting another quilt with a friend,

Wednesday was Binding Friends day,

Thursday was grocery shopping and general running around,

Friday was stay home day-finally!

I spent lots of time making 4 patches and half square triangles.

When I thought I had more than enough 4 patches, 

I clipped them into groups of 10 and counted.

I did this 3 times before I had enough.

This quilt takes lots of 4 patches.

Then onto the HSTs,

those went faster.

On to the block construction.

I used my little design boards

(learn about them here)

and layed out the blocks.

I had a stack of 7, sewed up those blocks,

layed out more.

I have 5 more Jacob's Ladder blocks to sew together.

I also worked on my star points.

These are ready to pick up and sew side two.

There is one more stack that needs both sides.

But these are on hold for a bit because....

Saturday morning I basted Mae's Grandmother's Flower Garden and

started quilting it.

I think I am about half done now.

I didn't work on it much Sunday because we had a house full.

Can you see the quilting in the flower?

I am  having a blast using my new machine.

I just have to remember to relax my shoulders

and take breaks.

This is why I didn't get much done Sunday.

Poppy brought home a new toy!

Littles were trying to convince the Teenager to play.

She wasn't having any part of that dirty thing!

See fabulous Design Walls today at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

The stitching process has begun on my In Love With Color Throw! I think I have made a whoopsie on every other block. It is not easy unstitching yarn. Patience and persistence. Those qualities are sometimes hard to come by.  But I keep calm (sort of) and carry on.

.

Last night I started stitching the center into the hexagon border. I have no idea how I go so far off but I did and now I have to fix this before I can go any farther. Hopefully next week we will be looking at a finished throw. I am not giving up, I am not putting this away. I like it too much and it is cozy to have in my lap in the evenings that are still a little bit cool here. 

I'm headed over to Patchwork Times to read what others are working on.  

My Day With Bonnie

 Monday Bonnie Hunter was in Portland, OR. A group of friends made the trip across the Columbia River (it wasn't that much of a trip!) to attend her Cathedral Stars Class.  Thank you Northwest Quilters for having openings in the class for our group of 8. I cannot even tell you what a fun day we had. There are no words. :)

I have "known" Bonnie forever. I started making her designs from the beginning of Quiltville. It was a real celebrity moment for me when I finally got to meet her. Big hugs and smiles from both of us.

(Imagine my surprise when I was this post!!!)

These are my completed blocks from class. I have lots of parts and pieces ready to get this all together. Bonnie was surprised I hadn't made it before. I've had it book marked forever but other things got in the way.

Bonnie is taking the walk of blocks. Such a great variety of color. Thank you Bonnie for making our day special.  If you ever get the chance to meet Bonnie and see her trunk show, run to it as fast as you can. You will not be sorry, you will be inspired and raring to dive into your scraps and create.

Design Wall Monday

OK so it's not a design wall, it's the trunk of my car.  The design wall will happen later in the day.

I'm headed out bright and early to spend the day with a bunch of my friends taking a class from Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame. I'm a little bit excited.  I have been making Bonnie quilts since 1997! She posted the other day that was when she started offering free patterns. I've made a bunch of them and cannot wait to start the next one Monday morning.

I do have a nice finish to show you, you can see it here. It's the quilt that I donate to hubby's hunting club as one of their annual picnic/fund raiser prizes.

Every Monday you can find Judy L's Design Wall Monday post over at her website.

Quilting Time Leads To A Finish

Here is my 60th birthday present to myself. 

My word of the year is Celebrate and boy have I been.

I absolutely love this machine! 

My chuckle--I was telling Denise about getting it 

and how disappointed I was that there was no light.

I think she thinks I'm nuts. 

She told me where the button is-on the side face above the needle.

Dorkie me!

I like to free motion quilt with gloves on.

These are plain ole garden gloves and

they work great because they have that rubber grippy stuff on them.

Those little red things on the end of the pins?

Those are called Pinmoor

and I wonder where they have been all my quilting life!

I'll be buying more of those.

No more puncture wounds on my arms when using straight pins.

Today's quilting time lead to the finish of the Elk quilt for the hunting club's annual picnic raffle.

I'm hoping there will be lots of arguing and bickering and ticket purchasing for this.

Next up is Mae's Flower Garden. 

I'm in the zone.

On The Needles

I'm cheating this week and using last week's photo of my In Love With Color Throw. Only a few more motifs have been added. Time has slipped away from me this week. That happens a lot. As I knew would happen, Teenage Granddaughter saw it and wanted to know if it was for her. I had to be selfish and tell her no, it is for me. She pouted, I smiled. It makes me feel good that they like what I do and want it to be theirs. I love my family!

Dishcloth #9 is finished with a bit of yarn leftover to combine with the other leftovers for some anything goes dishcloths.  Number 10 was started with a new ball and is about 1/2 finished. The dishcloth knitting didn't start out to be a marathon. I just wanted to use up some of that yarn. I don't know what to call it now. Maybe it's just a big project that I want to work until the end. Shrug, shrug!

See other fabulous needle projects at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

I got nuttin'!

Nothing is on my design wall.

Unless you count all the stray threads.

What I do have is a finish!

This blue sampler was my oldest UFO.

Now it is my newest cuddle quilt.

I finished it Saturday.

You can read about it here if you want to.

Yesterday I started basting the quilt for the hunting club.

I have to hurry,

I'm running out of time.

I work best under pressure. 

See fabulous projects at Patchwork Times.