Design Wall Monday

After finishing Grand Illusion,

(4th finish this year!!)

I decided to get to that pile of t shirt knits.

Shirt one is done and after another press it will be ready to wear.

I've discovered a new online fabric shop.

Knitpop, they sell knits.

Really nice knits.

I may have already ordered a couple of times.

With my design wall empty and my machine clear,

I'm going to spend time with my serger and my ball point twin needles 

and make myself a few more shirts this week.

See what others are doing at Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

Quiltathon-Day 3

I'm going in the sewing room. 

I'll check in later.

Lunchtime update:
The quilting is done!!!
The quilt is trimmed.
After lunch the binding goes on.

The question was asked:
"Who's that for?"
"Me, it's all mine!"
"Aren't they all?"
"Yes."

Thanks Judy L for an awesome quiltathon!
I cannot wait to stitch the binding down.

This picture makes me laugh.
Ernie has bum shoulders and it's hard for him to hold things up over his head.
But he kept it off the wet deck so he gets points for that!

When this is finished, it will be quilt number 4 for the year.

February Quiltathon-Day 1

It's Quiltathon Day!!!

Judy L at Patchwork Times is hosting another Quiltathon.

My plan for these quiltathons is to quilt.

For the first part of the year, 

I'm choosing Quiltville tops.

I need to get these quilted before I retreat with Bonnie in May.

Less than 100 days. 

Here is Grand Illusion with the thread I couldn't make up my mind about last night.

I have since chosen the verigated green.

The quilt is all basted and ready to go.

I have most of the day to myself so that will make it easy.

Lasagna was pulled from the freezer to put in the oven for dinner.

Let the quilting begin.

\
4:30 update

I have about 2/3rds of my quilt quilted.
I don't know if I'll do any more tonight or not.
I'm thinking a nap sounds like a good idea.

It's been a very productive day.
Plans for tomorrow are to finish the quilting, trim and sew on the binding.

Design Wall Monday

 You don't know how excited I was to see that Judy L pulled UFO  #9 for this month's challenge.

It just happened to be Jamestown Landing for me.

I had already been working on it.

After completing all the blocks and sashing pieces,

I set them aside to make the border string blocks.

Those are all done, de-papered and trimmed.

I'm pretty excited to have all the blocks sewn into rows.

The first picture shows rows 1 & 2 under the needle.

We headed to the beach on Friday.

I knew there wouldn't be much sewing time since we were with family.

What's more important than spending time with family!!!

Nothing.

I decided to take a bunch of strips and do some prep work.

I'm starting Oklahoma Backroads as my new leader/ender project.

This is a free pattern from Quiltville.

Big surprise that I'm using a Quiltville design??? Ha!

So all the neutrals are cut and the ones I needed to mark are marked.

Let me tell you, that Bonus Buddy Ruler Bonnie has is FAB.U.LOUS!!

Now that we are home, I'll pull some squares out and start the 4 patches. 

But first things first,

This week Judy L is hosting another Quiltathon.

See her side bar for the dates.

My project for this one is to quilt Grand Illusion.

That means I need to get it basted before Wednesday!

Check out great projects at Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall Monday on Sunday

 Monday morning is going to be busy so it's Sunday night Design Wall.w

My big plans from last Monday to quilt this week were put on hold. 

It seems everyday something came up.

That's ok, I have plenty of other things to work on.

 Garden Party

I started joining blocks into rows.

I'm working both corners to the center.

I have the 5 long rows left to sew together.

I took a break from Garden Party to work on Jamestown Landing.

The broken dishes blocks are all made.

I swear I had all the string blocks made but no,

I was 35 blocks short.

I made them this weekend.

So close to laying out the blocks....

I love just dumping a couple handfuls of strings and using what's on the table.

2 blocks at a time, a leader, an ender. 

In no time at all the blocks were finished.

I have to de-paper them tonight.

Exciting happenings from the sewing room this week.

I love major progress on projects.

I am linking up to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday 

and then it's out the door for a full day of errands.

Design Wall Monday

I'm so close to finishing En Provence! 

One more border close!!  

It will happen this morning.

I am planning my next piecing project and wanted covered wagon fabric.

I searched online and found a few but they are way out of my price range.

I asked daughter Crystal to please keep her eye out for some.

She said she had this piece in her stash!!!

How lucky am I.

First, I have something else to do.

The next big project!

I will baste the next UFO, Grand Illusion.

I have to make the back.

That will be easy as I bought a bolt of fabric just for that purpose.

Could this be my 4th quilting finish for the month???
That's my plan.

See great design walls at Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall Monday

There is nothing on the design wall.

No sad face here.

My version of Bonnie's Sister's Choice (#1 of 2) is done!

I quilted and quilted and finally I was able to bind and wash and dry.

My favorite part of quilting is taking the quilt warm from the dryer.

It gets a big hug before inspecting.

That means another UFO marked off the list.

The next one is already for basting.

That long UFO list is getting shorter and shorter!

I love a pieced back.

The light blue and green fabrics came from friends at a retreat.

If I remember right, someone's aunt had these fabrics.

I feel bad because I can't remember who brought them.

I thanked them then, I thank them now.

I needed 2 widths of fabric so I  added some of my own fabric, 

snipped and ripped and made a fun back.

Shirley tested it.

I swear trying to lay out a quilt with her around is more work that if there were 5 toddlers!

Fun story time.

Saturday afternoon I was on the phone with daughter Crystal about our sewing.

She was working on a wallet using a Swoon pattern.

They have the best patterns!!!

That lead me to look at their page again which lead me to buy 2 new patterns.

That lead me to post on Facebook how much I enjoy talking to my daughter about sewing

and that lead me to buying patterns.

That also lead to a conversation with someone else and that lead them to buying patterns.

*snicker, snicker*

I asked Ernie if he wanted to run into town so I could go to JA's so I could get some bag making supplies and we could go out to dinner.

I wanted a cheeseburger from Carl's Jr.

I picked out fabrics and supplies for 2 bags.

I had to go to the cotton fabric section to look for lining fabrics.

As I'm walking down the isle, this bicycle fabric jumped into my basket.

A brand new bolt!

Someone posted it to the Quiltville Open Studio Facebook page 

and bicycle fabric is all the rage for the back of Grand Illusion.

How could I not buy it!

For Christmas, I received gift cards for JoAnn's.

When I was using them, the gal asked if I wanted the $2.32 left on the card

or did I want the cash.

I took the cash.

I have never used a gift card that I didn't have to add money to.

After dinner, 

I told Ernie that this was the perfect date night.

He went to the Sportsman's store and I got the perfect fabric.

And we ate dinner at our favorite hamburger place.

Check out all the fabulous Design Wall Monday posts at

Patchwork Times. 

I love Monday in Blogland!!

Design Wall Monday

Miss Polly has inspected the blocks for Grand Illusion. She thinks they are all going the right way.

Now her mom needs to sew the border blocks together and get them attached. This is going to be an awesome quilt to snuggle under. I wish she would get to it.

Miss Polly is a little bossy. It felt good to sit down and sew but I didn't just sew....I'm organizing my disaster of a sewing room.  Work for 20 minutes, sew 2 rows together, work, sew, cut fabric scraps, sew...throw in some dinner time and sew again.

I'm excited with the progress on my quilt top. I think this is the slowest I have ever been getting a Bonnie mystery made into a completed top. Sometimes real life gets in the way of the sewing room.

See great design walls at Patchwork Times.  I am going to take a tour of Blogland while I enjoy a couple cups of coffee. Then real life starts up again. Have a great day.

Design Wall Monday

I'm having such fun with the Castle Wall blocks.

I'm going to take these off the design wall one of these days and 

put them in the bin so they don't get attacked by kittens.

The blocks are finally all made for Grand Illusion.

I've procrastinated long enough and now the webbing of the top has begun. 

My top will be completed in no time. 

Then I'll start sewing those border blocks together.

I have a plan......

Check out Patchwork Times for fabulous designs walls.

Design Wall Monday

What a week last week was. I spent so little time in my sewing room, that when I finally did go in, I had to think about where I was with Grand Illusion.  I am at block construction.

The block rows are ready to sew together.  Now all I need is some time to sit and sew these together.  I'm excited to get some of these blocks up on the design wall.

I spent time with my Binding Friends on Wednesday and started my new hand sew project, Castle Wall. You can find all the info for this quilt at Mickey Depre's website.

I'm ready to refill my cup and tour a bit through Blogland. It's Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.  I can't wait to see what's going on!!

Design Wall Monday and...

...Mystery Monday Link-Up

Quiltville's Mystery

Grand Illusion Part 5...

Easy Peasy

Super Quick

Super Fun

I love 4 patches.

I wonder what this will become.

I haven't even played with any layouts other than

the Part 5 4 patches to take a picture.

Oh do I need to buy a new camera.

One of these days!!

Linking up today at 

Patchwork Times 

and

Quiltville.

I love Monday in Blogland.

Design Wall Monday....

...and Mystery Monday Link Up

Grand Illusion Clue 4 is finished!

I love how my cute little clothespins fit in with the colors of the blocks.

(Except that red one. I guess it can be called deep pink.)

I'm now working on another Midget Block.

I'll show that on Tuesday.

I loved seeing all the clues together to show off all the colors.

I can't wait to see what happens next.

Monday morning I'll be linking up with Patchwork Times and Quiltville.

Merry Christmas

I hope yours will be merry and bright.

Leaving A Little Hint

I spent some time Sunday evening working on Grand Illusion. I had just a few more short strips to sew together when I ran out of bobbin thread.  I pulled out my trusty little bobbin saver for a new bobbin only to find all my gray ones are now empty. Since I was sewing with black fabric on the bottom, I just finished up with a black bobbin.

Now I'm ready to quit for the night. I have to remember to wind bobbins before I start sewing again. I left myself a little reminder.  It was time for a new needle and some oil and the dust bunnies need to find their selves a new home. I think this whole process took 5 minutes and I am set to sew for a few more hours.

I love that short stubby screwdriver but I forgot it's too fat to fit the screws of the throat plate. The little pink makeup brush is the best for holding on to those dust bunnies.  Of course I don't remember when I changed the needle last but I knew it was time for a new one.

A clean machine is a happy machine and that means I can sew, sew, sew!
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Design Wall Monday and ...

...Mystery Monday Link Up

This week, after finishing part 2 of Grand Illusion and a tis the season project, I spent my weekend working on part 3. I love checkerboard designs and can't wait to find out where this fits in to the grand plan.  I came across this piece and was thankful for the oh so subtle reminder.

Quilting is fun for me. I love each and every process about it. It makes me happy.  What else makes me happy is a fun pile of pieces waiting to be put under the pressure foot.  I stack mine up on my ruler to transport them from the cutting table to the machine.

Fresh off the ironing board are some of my blocks, counted and clipped into bunches of 10 of course.  I need 12 of these clipped stacks, I still have 8 clips to fill. Did you see Angela's tip about the clips?  You can read about it here.  I've been doing it that way for a long time.  Sure saves the brain.

It's Monday so that means I'm linking up to Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday and to Quiltville's Mystery Monday Link-Up

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Design Wall Monday and

Mystery Monday Link-Up

I need background noise while I sew. 

This weekend it was Netflix sweet and sappy movies.

I sit my little tablet and speakers right behind the machine.

After a while, these parts were finished for Grand Illusion.

Time to snip dog ears and get those wonky blocks in shape.

Most of mine turned out perfect but

there were a few that needed work.

I even had to use the ripper on some of them.

Now they are all pretty and ready for a partner.

Today I'm linking up at Patchwork Times and Quiltville.

Two of my most favorite people. 

Design Wall Monday and...

...Quiltville's Monday Mystery Link Up Party

It finally arrived! Clue 1 for Quiltville's Grand Illusion.  On my design wall are 20 blocks.

I had grand plans to sew all day Friday and Saturday.  You all know what happens when you make plans!  I did get all the parts cut. I finally have all my half square triangles sewn and 30 blocks are sewn together. I have 40 more yellows to sew to HSTs and 68 of the blacks.  I know I'll have a good sewing week because the work week begins again tomorrow, my house is clean and laundry is almost caught up. :)

I did some unsewing and resewing of squares to get all units of Cascadia to match.  With this many pieces, correct seam allowances are very important. Now I need to find a backing and binding for this. I'll do some simple quilting and have a cute mini quilt.

Today I'm linking up with Patchwork Times and Quiltville.