2017 Finish #2

Yeah! 

Tumalo Trail is finished and being used.

I took a nap under it this afternoon before it was finished.

Then I stitched and stitched on the binding.

I was determined it would be finished today.

Thanks to Judy L of Patchwork Times for a great Quiltathon over the weekend 

and to Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville for a fabulous design.

This quilt goes to my dear husband.

I have never made him his own cuddle quilt.

I think he likes it.  

UFO busting feels pretty darn good.

I'm hoping to get a good outside in the snow picture one day soon.

Design Wall Monday and...

...Mystery Monday Link Up

It was a fun Quiltathon weekend.

Thank you Judy L of Patchwork Times.

I sewed more this weekend that I have in a very long time.

It's always fun and I had plenty of encouragement to "stay in the hidie hole and work". 

Nothing better to do on a very windy, snowy, freezing rain weekend!

(And someone had complete control of the remote.)

I can't wait for the next one!

Check her side bar for the schedule.

I'm pretty excited to be this far with En Provence.

I hadn't plan to put any blocks together until Tumalo Trail was complete.

Plans changed after my whoopsie.

Instead of fretting and wasting precious sewing time,

I pulled out my En Provence basket and started piecing blocks.

I now have 4 complete blocks and 10 complete sashing units.

They all need to visit the ironing board.

That will happen soon.

First I will complete Tumalo Trail!

After some TV time (when did I start watching football!!) 

and quality seam ripper time,

quilting resumed on Tumalo Trail.

I have half of the last border to complete and

then I will go back to the blocks and quilt around the HSTs.

I'm pretty excited to have this quilt complete, on the bed and off the UFO list. 

The binding is all ready prepared and patiently waiting it's turn.

It's a fun link up day.

Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday

and

Quiltville's Mystery Monday Link-Up

It's going to be an awesome morning in Blogland.

Quiltathon Day 4

This Quiltathon with Patchwork Times has been a blast.

Until this morning!

It all started out innocent enough.

I was going to quilt while Ernie slept in.

So I started where I left off yesterday afternoon.

Piano key borders, free motion, add texture, practice straight lines.

What I didn't check when I put the quilt under the needle was my backing.

I flopped it under!

I have 21" of unpicking to do. 

I might cry while I do it.

I think I might put this aside until TV time later today.

New Plan!

I'm going to sew En Provence blocks together instead. 

I will shed no tears while doing that. 

Day 4 is going to be all about fun!

10:30 check in. 

2 blocks of En Provence have been layed out on the design boards.

One block is sewn, block 2 is partially sewn.

I'm also using the sashing for my leaders/enders.

I love how this is looking!

Maybe I can have 1/4 of my quilt top sewn together today.

3:15 check in.

4 blocks and 10 sashing units complete!

It was a good day sewing. 

I even have most of the whoopsie unpicked.  

Only about 5" to go. 

It was nice to snuggle under the quilt for a while. 

Thanks Judy L for a fun weekend.

I'm excited to be so close to finished on my Tumalo Trail quilt.

Maybe by the end of the week I can post about it's finish.

Quiltathon Day 3

It's Patchwork Times Quiltathon Day 3!!!  My mind is screaming day 3? Already! I'm kind of holding my breath this morning as the wind is howling and we are expecting snow and freezing rain today. Please powers that be, leave the electricity on. Does that sound selfish???  If the power goes out, I'll just move my chair to the window and stitch hexies....until then, I'm going in the sewing room and turn on the machine and the book and cuddle under Tumalo Trail as I'm quilting.

9 am...so far the power has stayed on. I have a couple loads of laundry going and Ernie went out to breakfast with his buddies so I quilted. I've made great progress.  One bobbin done. Time for my breakfast, another cuppa coffee, fill the crockpot with soup makings and fold that load of clothes before I go back to it.

3 pm...I'm done for the day. All of the cross hatching is finished down the center of the blocks, the 1"sashing has been quilted with a simple straight line down the middle. Now I am working on the piano key border.  A good start on side 2 but my shoulders and hands are achy and I by back is done. So ibuprofen has been taken, time to settle in on the couch and cuddle with my little dog before I have to fix dinner.

What a great day of quilting. The snow has started and the wind is still blowing and the power stayed on. Yes, it was a great day!

Quiltathon--Day 2

9:30 am  Quiltathon Day 2 with Patchwork Times has started off with a bang. Then reality set in.

Yesterday was such a successful day, my plan worked great. This morning I got out Tumalo Trail and the flannel backing that is ready to go. They both need a nice pressing before basting begins but that won't take long. I was so excited to use wool batting but sadly there is not enough. No problem, I have plenty of other batting to use. It just has to be pieced together. And that won't take long either.

I have a couple movies in my Netflix que that I'm excited to watch. I've already warned Ernie that it's my day for the tv but if he wants my time to go faster, he can help me pin baste. Think that will happen? I don't. 😕

I'll check in later....I'll continue down the page from here.

11:30 am  Batting is pieced, ready to set up the tables, turn on the first movie and get to pinning!  Maybe I'll have a little lunch before I begin.

5 pm

Pin basting is complete!  Yeehaw!! Sometimes that's a big job. I couldn't persuade anyone to help so I turned on my movie (The Fundamentals of Caring--great movie) and got busy.  Bobbins are wound, machine oiled, new needle, walking foot on and thread is through the needle.  I'm ready to start quilting bright and early in the morning or later tonight. I don't know. 

It's Quiltathon Day1

7:30 am
Yeah! It's Quiltathon Day 1 with Patchwork Times. I have to confess, I thought it started tomorrow. Somewhere my brain told me Friday. So I'll take care of a few things this morning and then It's Quiltathon Day!! Dinner is planned and needs a little prepping for the dinner cooker, a couple loads of laundry need to be taken care of and then.......watch out!

Judy L at Patchwork Times is hosting a monthly UFO Challenge and a monthly Quiltathon. You can check these out at her tabs and sidebar. So my grand plan is to work on the UFO of the month during my own marathon sewing times and for the Quiltathon work on one of my Bonnie Hunter designs that need quilted. I'm retreating with her in May and need my show and tell to be completed quilts. These Quiltathons work for me when I have a grand plan for my projects.

I had big plans for this Quiltathon before I got so sick. So my plans have changed a bit. I will be working on my Quiltville mystery today. I am close to completing part 6, just have a few blocks left to trim and then I will get busy on part 7. That's my plan for today, tomorrow my plans change my original plan.  Ohhh the plans we make and what really happens! Cross your fingers.

My original plan was to quilt Tumalo Trail. It's been aging since September 2015. I have flannel for the back, wool for the batting and the binding is ready. Simple quilting and this will be ready for Ernie to use as planned when I started it.  Maybe tonight will be a good movie watching/pin basting night.

Let's get this party started! I'll check in later with my progress.

.

Check in #1--8:30 part 6 is done and in the basket.






Check in #2--1130 Part 7 is all cut and ready to sew. After lunch I'm ready to sew. I have a good audio book playing-too bad I can't remember the name of it.  I feel like I am making good headway with my plan for the day. I even brainstormed about the thread color for my quilting and got it out of the thread box, LOL

Check in #3--6:15 I am done for the day. All of my parts for En Provence are complete. It was a good sewing day.  We went for a nice little walk through the snow this afternoon while the sun was shining bright and the wind was howling. It felt good to be outside. Came back in and went right to the sewing room. I had to lay out one block just to see how my fabrics work. I'm using one yellow for all the blocks as I didn't have enough variety. But that's ok, I like it!

Can't wait to start day 2. I don't think any pin basting will happen tonight.

National Sewing Month Recap

 National Sewing Month has come to an end. My plan was to sew every day. I have done this for several years. This year I missed only 1 day.  I thought it would be fun to recap what I did along with some random pictures that I haven't shared.

I added several Pineapple Crazy blocks to my bin. It might be time to count again.

I finished the Tumalo Trails quilt top and turned the left over border pieces into blocks for another project.

I finished rosette #2 for the Millefiore and started #3. So I have 3 finished rosettes since I jumped ahead and did #5 already. I love this project.

I made another Swoon Vivian bag and a Pearl wallet.

I made a snappy bag and added lots of tumblers to my leader/ender project.

I made oodles of string blocks--3 1/2" scrappy ones and 4 1/2" neutral blocks.

I started and completed the Country Roads mini quilt from Humble Quilts Quilt Along. 

Non sewing included finishing 2 pair of socks and starting 2 more. A new waterline was put in and I spent a couple days staying with my grandkiddos. We spent one day canning tuna with our niece and another day canning beans. One Saturday we spent the day with friends at a fish fry-that was fun and the food-OMGosh!!!

I think I might be glad September is over and I am welcoming October with open arms. I am looking forward to 2 quilt retreats coming up, one this month, one next.

NSM Days 7 - 13

Wow, I am a bit behind on my posting of my sew every day during National Sewing Month projects. I finished Tumalo Trails, not on Monday like I'd planned. It was finally finished on Thursday.

I sewed every day, just not much as I wanted to. Instead I canned beans and froze broccoli. I'm happy to have that finished.

Since finishing the quilt top, I've been Swooning. This is Vivian for daughter DeeDee. She wanted a cool bag to carry her work stuff in. She wants a cross body strap on it but I don't have the hardware for that. I'll give her the bag tomorrow and the strap when it's finished.

I love fun pockets. The pattern for Vivian calls for one inside pocket with a zipper. I put in a zipper pocket on each side. I used orange zippers and this fun fabric for the inside of the pockets. On Taylor's bag I used a fun print on one side and elk and deer on the other.  

In the evening I worked on Millefiore. Little by little It's getting there. Mostly this block spent time in my lap while I looked at it. ;)

I'm excited to see what this week brings. The next project is laying on the sewing table ready to start.

Design Wall Monday and NSM-Days 5 & 6

I am so close to adding borders that I am going to say that today Tumalo Trail will be a completed quilt top! How's that for confidence??? My original plan was to do a scrappy brown border but then I looked at the picture again in Scraps & Shirttails II. I knew that I had to go deep stash scrappy. It was so fun to use up a bunch of old strips and get into some new ones. If there was anything left of the strip it was cut into 1 1/2" squares.....this quilt used up every single little square. Time to refill that box.

Days 5 and 6 of National Sewing Month were spent sewing these borders. Day 7 will be spent sewing the borders on. We have no big plans for this Labor Day except to Labor. Me at the sewing machine, Hubby working on his woodshed.

Yesterday I spent some Slow Stitching time sewing on Millefiore. I've been ignoring her for several days now and she started making me feel a bit guilty so I what could I do but pay attention to her for a bit. This is rosette number 2. I have all the hexagons completed and I'm now anxious to complete this one. I'm already thinking about the next rosette colors even though I can't remember what the design looks like. I keep reminding myself--One at a time Judy!!! 

See what others have on their design wall at Patchwork Times-Design Wall Monday. I'm going to refill my cup and take a little stroll through Blogland.

NSM-Days 2, 3 & 4

I looked back on my blog and see this is my fourth year of celebrating National Sewing Month. Planning to sew every day and actually doing it is sometimes difficult.  To see so many of my projects that I worked on was fun but to see several that are now UFOs, not so fun.

On Wednesday I didn't sew but I helped my Binding Friends cutting fabric. They are taking a class and need to have all their pieces cut before hand. I think that counts. I depapered my Pineapple Crazy blocks and added them to my bin.

On Thursday I decided I need to work in my sewing room. Piles everywhere. Some things have been put away. Lost treasures were found. Fabric strips were cut in preparation for today's sewing. There are still piles for another day. Today I needed to sew.

Today I worked on Tumalo Trails. The rows and sashing are all sewn together to make a really nice looking center for my quilt. Now I'm working on the piano key border. Wowzers! I need 360 inches of piano keys. I sewed and sewed and sewed, first into pairs, then into 4s and now into 8s.  I counted them into groups of 10 8 piece sections. I have 23 sections. LOL I need 45 sections. It looks like I will be pulling more 1 1/2" strips and I need to be cutting some more. My scrap strips are dwindling fast. Time to replenish the bin! This is sure to add more variety to the border. It's so fun going into the deep stash for these strips.

Design Wall Monday

Just a few more seams to sew and the center of Tumalo Trails will be done. I need to decide on an inner border and I'm thinking red. The piano key border still will needs to be made.  Since I have been sewing one row at a time instead of webbing the top, the tumbler leader/ender project is  coming along fast. I'm just sewing rows together. Then after a few more, I'll lay them out to see what they look like.

I have become obsessed with Swoon Patterns for bags. This is Glenda. I have a notebook full of her patterns and can't wait to start the next one. 

Yesterday Ernie and his helpers built a ramp off the back deck. Our old dog has trouble maneuvering the step and sometime so do I. The kids got to nail down the roofing to prevent slipping. They miss their Poppy so it was a fun filled day for all of them with building, 4 wheeler rides, searching for eggs and ending the day with pizza. 

Check out all the fabulous design walls linked up to Patchwork Times. I love Monday in Blogland!

 PS to Mary: I hope to get that other blog post written this week. ;)

Design Wall Monday

I am finally working on Tumalo Trail (from Bonnie Hunter's book-Scraps & Shirttails II) again.  I haven't touched it since the retreat in May. I swear I had all the blocks made but when I recounted to group into 10s, I was 3 short! So I got busy and made the last 3--I'm sure I'll find those other 3 when this quilt is finished! I did have a few 9 patches left over (or not used yet-however you view it) so I only had to make 5 more. I love the rebel block in the center of the photo block. I didn't notice it until now. It stays! I am completely out of 1 1/2" squares so I now know where my scrap cutting needs a bit of attention. 

Then I got serious about the sashing. I took a bunch of short brown strips and cut them into cornerstones and then got out my box of 1 1/2" neutrals strips. I was so excited to be using a few of the strips from our newest retreat strip swap.  In the past we had only swapped 2 1/2" strips and decided it was time to change it up and start swapping different sizes.

I cannot wait to lay these blocks out with the sashing rows and start playing with which block goes where and in which direction and with what short sashing strips......you know how exciting that it, don't you!?!?! Since the blocks are very directional, I'll work on my tumbler leader/enders while I sew each row separately instead of webbing the top like I normally do. That will make excellent progress on my tumblers.

Check out all the fabulous design walls today at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

Weill things did not go as planned last week. After spending all day Monday full of frustration over my fabulous Brother sewing machine, I had to give up and switch out machines. I decided it was time to use my Morse while Brother goes to the spa. Which I hope will happen one day this week.  

Since there is no quilting in my week, I decided to work  on my current leader/ender project-Tumalo Trail which is found in Bonnie Hunter's book Scraps & Shirttails II. I've been making 9 patches for quite a while-you need lots of them and then the half square triangles, I did in groups of 4 so the set for each block was together. 

It's fun when the project turns from leader/ender to the project.  I love using my little design boards (Link is to Lori Holt's tutorial) to lay out 6 blocks at a time. (I must really like this lay out and stack method as you can see here and here.)  By the time they are sewn together, it's time to get up and move around. On the right you can see my new leader/ender project, Bonnie's cover quilt from Quiltmaker magazine called Garden Party.

As always, I have a bit of help from Miss Shirley while trying to get a good picture of my current UFO project.  Goals for the week? I don't have a clue...but I need to:

• finish planting the garden
• take machine to the shop
• get ready for retreat next week

I think that's enough pressure for me. :)  Maybe I'll work on some of last week's goals too. 

This morning I'll be spending some time touring Blogland as I read what others have on their design walls.  Check them out at Patchwork Times-Design Wall Monday.