Design Wall Monday

I had an awesome week in the sewing room!

A 6 year old UFO was unearthed and the last 6 blocks were cut and kitted,

ready for project #1 at retreat in less than 3 weeks.

Since I was already sidetracked with Garden Party,

I started sewing my blocks into 2s and 4s.

I'm setting this one straight so it goes together pretty fast with chain piecing. 

This was going to be retreat project #1 but now it will be a flimsy show and tell instead.

Now I need to kit up project #2 and #3

I know what I want to do so they won't take long.

I will continue quilting Jamestown Landing.

After my weekend Quiltathon, I'm anxious to get this one finished.

It won't be finished today but will be soon.

I'm so close to catching up with the 2018 UFO Challenge numbers!!!

 Then I notice today's date. LOL

Oh well, I'm close, no panic here.

Check out some great design walls at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday.

My Quiltathon Starts In 3-2-1

Friday morning 6:30...Ernie has a weekend Hunter's Education Instructor training and left earlier this morning. He'll be home sometime Sunday late afternoon.  I have been planning a weekend Quiltathon for weeks.
And boy oh boy do I have plans!

Jamestown Landing is first on the list. Backing is made, batting is cut, vacuuming will begin as soon as I finish my coffee, grab a bite to eat, feed the critters and throw on some comfie clothes. Then it's a 3 or 4 episodes of NCIS Los Angles (yeah, I know, I'm really late to this party) that I have recorded and the basting party begins.

I plan to update this post throughout the weekend with my progress.  How much fun can I have?!? Let the games begin......

11:25  There was some unpinning because someone layed the top on the wrong direction. Ugh~
Now we are ready to quilt.  3 episodes of NCIS LA and some chat time with a friend.  Not too bad. I'm going to get my chicken in the crockpot and then get started.

4:40  Calling it a day...maybe. I may go back in after I eat something. I'm about 1/3 of the way done. Not a bad few hours work. I never made it back into the sewing room.

Day 2
Starting out after breakfast for a couple of hours before 3 grandsons arrive. It's soccer day for sister and movie day with Gramma. I don't get to see these guys nearly enough! So I do not mind taking time out for them.

I keep this lint brush close at hand.  I don't know how I get so many stray threads. I know where the cat hair comes from though. 😉

My afternoon was filled with boys, dogs, legos, cars and trucks and food.  What Quiltathon???

After a short nap and some dinner, I was headed back in to sew when the phone rang. My niece Katie and her family had been out this way on an adventure and wanted to stop by to visit before heading back in to town. Of course quilting can be put on hold a little longer! We had a wonderful visit and then it was off to bed to read. Tomorrow is a new day!

Day 3
3 pm and I'm calling my Quiltathon over. I've quilted most of the day and I'm tired now. So it's time to turn off the machine and the lights and call it a day in the sewing room. I've had a couple of issues today. By the skin of my teeth, I got this corner quilted without having to add a sliver of batting.

This is where I am leaving off today. I'm about half finished. I thought I was so much farther. LOL  But this is a big quilt and I am quilting a lot more dense that I had planned to. It's looking fabulous.

What a fun weekend but I am ready for Ernie to be home. 

I Like Thursdays #2

I like the blooming cherry trees at the medical clinic.

I did not like having to be there!

I like the view from my deck.

Home is my happy place.

I like my special hand stitching box.

It is a simple pencil box that was decorated by my granddaughter with Frozen stickers.

I like that my girls think when you are headed to gather their eggs,

you might have something for them to eat.

Because "there is never anything in this house to eat". 

A quote made famous by my children. 😉

I like Steve the Rooster with his crazy comb.

And this guy here has my heart and

he does windows. 

Check out other I Like Thursday posts at

Not Afraid of Color. 

Design Wall Monday

I've been watching Anina of Twiddletails on Instagram as she's sharing her Garden Party progress.

Soon I was chasing an old squirrel. 😎😎😎

I got mine out to lay out a few blocks just to see.

(I'm laying this one out straight instead of on point like my red one.)

I had planned to take this to our retreat that's coming up in a few week but

once I pulled it out, I just had to make a few blocks.

Soon I had my remaining 9 patches complete and started framing them.

I love setting up the next Triangle Gathering block for my leader/ender.

When I sew on my framing strips, I work in groups of 10.

Sew until one side is finished on all 10, 

grab a l/e to make progress on that block too.

Win, win!

Of course I had to make a Diamond Tile block from Bonnie's Addicted to Scraps column.

Are you sewing along?

Read her details here. 

I have a few more cut and ready to sew.

You all know I'm not starting any new projects, right?!?

Bahahaha

I'm headed over to have my morning coffee with Blogland friends at 

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday.

Enjoy your day~

2018 UFO Challenge Update

I'm quite please with the progress I've made catching up with the UFO Challenge.

This was for January and it is now finished.

Then I immediately picked up February's UFO to keep my momentum going.

It is now finished.

The backing has been pieced for March's UFO, Jamestown Landing.

The batting is cut and after this weekend, it will be basted and quilting started.

We went to the beach last week for a couple days so I took April's Mischief Quilt project with me.

All the pieces that were cut are glue basted now.

I even got a couple more blocks sewn together.

I have no intention of finishing this in April,

there is too much yet to do but I do plan to make progress on it.

It is now my only hand stitching project.

If I were to grade myself on this project of catching up, I'd give myself a B+.

I am also excited to report that On Ringo Lake will not become a UFO,

it is at the quilters right now!

Here's a story for another time. 😉😉

I Like Thursdays #1

Leanna at Not Afraid of Color does fabulous I Like Thursdays blog posts full of things she likes. She invited me to do the same, so here I am with my first post for I Like Thursdays.

We are empty nester people parents but no animal parents.

This is Polly Cat and Jessie, the spoiled rotten little dog.

It's hard not to like them. 

In our bus (motorhome), dogs sleep on the couch.

It's Tony's turn.

Daisy takes up all the floor. 

(Pardon hubby's shoes.)

I like to can.

This week I canned turkey in broth.

I pressure cooked a whole frozen turkey, and the next day I canned it.

I like to have good food on my pantry shelves.

I like to eat off of the fun plates I buy for my Grandkiddos.

This morning it was scrambled eggs off the fish plate.

Makes my day start with a smile and warm fuzzies in my heart.

I like my coffee.

I like my coffee in special cups.

This was a gift from my grands recent vacation.

"We got you a coffee cup from Cracker Barrel cuz it has a chicken on it." 💗

I like sunsets at the beach.

Final like for this week is knitting socks.

Oh, I also like a challenge.

It's a challenge for me to knit from a chart and I've always thought of cables as scary.

So my challenge for this pair of Orzival Socks is to conquer the chart

and just do the cables.

Which really are only cross overs and not big awesome cables. 😏

Check out Leanna's post today. 

Be sure to watch her video at the end!

Design Wall Monday

Last week we went to the beach for a few days.

One afternoon we went for a drive along the ocean.

In Washington, you can drive on the beach.

It was super windy and rainy but that's fine with us.

Because we were only there for a couple of days,

I just took a cutting project to work on besides my knitting. 

I needed to cut more half square triangles for my newest leader/ender project.

Last year, Lisa Bongean shared Triangle Gatherings.

I printed off most of the patterns and I'm glad I did.

They are no longer available on line as she is publishing them in a soon to be released book. 

I love using my Marti Michell template for cutting my HSTs.

I just snip off that dog ear as I'm cutting them out.

I took pictures with my phone of a couple of my completed blocks 

but for some reason unknown to me, my phone and blog aren't syncing up. 

I'll have my tech guru work on that for me.

Why did I choose this for my new leader/ender? 

Because a few weeks after Jamestown Landing was finished,

I found a bin with oodles of blue and neutral HSTs that I had forgotten about.

And I am in Use It Up Mode!

Since each block uses 16 HSTs, 

and I have lots of blue and neutral strips from swaps,

this was the perfect project.

I already have my quilt designed, 

using these blocks with cool connector blocks.

Speaking of connector blocks,

 I decided to pull out my Garden Party #2 connector blocks.

These poor things have been shoved away since last September.

Since we are headed back to the beach this coming weekend,

I will take these and my new l/e with me to work on.

I love sewing at the beach in the evenings while we watch a movie or 2. 

Or all day long if the weather is nasty!

Check out all the quilty goodness today at 

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday.

WhooHoo, I figured it out all by myself!  

I lay the blocks out on my little design board.

Then sew them into quarters, 

then in half, then the whole block.

When it's finished,

it goes into the page protector in the notebook.

I think I have blocks 9, 10 and 11 layed out ready to stitch.

But I might hold off until I have more variety with the HSTs.

Design Wall Monday

After Saturday's quilt finish, 

I decided to finish this table runner.

I picked this top up when the quilt shop in Long Beach, WA was closing.

It was in the dresser that held all the scraps that I loaded up on.

I knew it would be a good piece to practice quilting.

I started at the end of February and became frustrated with thread breaks.

The blue and dark green quilted nice,

it's that green Sulky in the front that did not.

I powered through and just kept rethreading the needle.

After all I am in UFO Busting mode!

Thread, batting and backing scraps all being used up.

The quilting was finished, 

now to choose something for the binding.

I looked in my fat quarter bin and found this fun black and white batik.

I took almost a whole fat quarter to bind this table runnner.

The extra is added to the scrappy leftover binding roll that is waiting for it's next project. 

After some Sunday evening TV time, this one is marked off the long UFO list.

This is totally not my style but I'm going to use it

at the beach on the picnic table. 

I'm headed over to Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday 

to have my morning coffee with quilter friends.

February UFO Crossed Off The List

My quilting mojo is being good to me.

I finished my February UFO from Judy L's Challenge.

Well it's almost finished.

I still have to stitch down the binding and the label. 

That's for TV time.

I'm not the greatest at free motion quilting designs but I had fun with this.

I know I put a bit over 16 hours into the quilting because

that's how long it takes to listen to Come Sundown by Nora Roberts

on YouTube. 

I don't include the taking out of half a border of this.

I  didn't like my quilting with the black thread.

I told you I wasn't very good at the designs. 😉

So I went with a medium sized meander and 

I'm happy with it. 

Next up is Jamestown Landing which is the March UFO.

It feels good to be making progress. 

Design Wall Monday

January's 2018 UFO Challenge quilt,

Stars and Strings is basted.

I'm quilting!

Walking foot Ultra Wavy Line Quilting!

This is an excellent tutorial at Better Off Thread.

It's really fun to do. 

Not all lines are perfectly spaced,

there are some wiggle wobbles in there

but I think perfection is highly overrated.

After a few hours of listening to Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts on YouTube,

I am about 3/4ths finished with the quilting.

I took a couple of breaks and by the time Ernie had dinner ready,

I was ready to be done for the day.

I'm so excited to have my mojo back.

Check out the cute cute doll quilt and all the links today at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday.

2:30 Monday afternoon....hubs didn't feel good so it was a quiet day at our house. He parked in his chair with his book and the remote and a quilt.  I went into the sewing room and TaaDaaa, finished quilting this quilt and the binding and label are on. I will stitch the binding in the evenings. I'm calling this a finish!