Design Wall Monday

This past weekend was our annual Spring Retreat.

My projects were all UFOs.

I had 6 blocks for Reach for the Stars all kitted up and ready to sew.

I made 2 full blocks and for 2 more blocks, I just needed to add the last piece on 16 papers.

I couldn't do it, 

I was just too tired to focus so I came home.

Right after breakfast on Friday,

these 2 were finished.

They don't look like the same size but they are.

Here is a horrible picture of all 6 of my blocks.

Next I got busy building the last of my house blocks for Moda Be My Neighbor.

The bee hives (that's what I call them to honor of our bees) were already sewn.

I took all my rows apart and added sashing between them.

The owner of the quilt I had seen the blocks set that way was there.

She said she was flattered at how much I loved her quilt. 

I love the trees in this quilt.

They were so much fun!

The wonkyness of the purple plaid makes me giggle.

And it wouldn't be fun and games if there weren't some whoopsies. 

First those darn chevron!

They were mocking me in every way!

I told myself to be careful because 3 went one way and 3 the other.

Yacking and laughing and carrying on makes a person not pay attention.

I started on the last block and got to a point and darn! 

Where are my other pieces???

So I when I came home that night, 

I recut the 3 chevrons and the extra red pieces.

Before leaving yesterday,

I sewed my chevrons, and when I went to sew them to the house,

Well, you can see what I did!

Time to pack up and come home.

I had to lay finished On Ringo Lake over the fence for a quick photo shoot.

I love how it turned out!

Before leaving for retreat, I started quilting the baby quilt.

I can't wait to get in there and get back to work on it.

We play the greedy gift game.

I made this tote bag for my gift.

As I was making it, I pulled fabrics for 2 more.

One for myself and one for a gift.

The pattern is Fiji from Pink Sand Beach Designs.

They have such cute, cute patterns!!

Of course there was lots lots of new quilting ideas.

I had to rush to the computer one night and order a pattern pattern because I loved it so much!

It was a wild, wild, productive week

and I had a blast every single day!

I'm really glad I went.

I really missed being with my favorite retreat partner.

Can't wait until fall for the next one!

Check out all the fabulousness that is happening in Blogland at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Design Wall Monday.

Be sure to drool Judy's new adorable puppy!!! 

I Wasn't Going To Do It But...

...my friend Mel posted her center block on her blog and I had to follow the link.........Darn it Mel!!! *giggle giggle  You've inspired me to join in! 

Lori at Humble Quilts is having another Quilt ALong. You can find the beginning info in this blog post.  As soon as I saw Karen's block picture in the link up post, I decided I was going to jump in. I went directly to my go to basket block on the free pattern page on the Quiltville blog. I knew I wanted to add neutral strings for the corner triangles.

I am so glad I joined in this QAL. I'm excited about the next step. My first part will be to add a border to get this block into a usable for me measurement with a border that works for step 2. The wheels are spinning.  I love that there are no rules, only guidelines!

Thanks sew much Mel, I can't wait to see how we do step 2. Sewing with friends is the best!!! Who can I persuade to join in???  And Thank You Lori for hosting another QAL, they are always sew much fun!

I'm going to add my link to the others at Humble Quilts.

On The Needles

I've made pretty good progress on my Plain Jane socks that I work on while being a passenger.

A couple trips to the beach has accomplished an almost complete sock.

I also worked on them Wednesday at my sewing group until I got to the toe decrease.

I can't pay attention enough to remember to decrease on both sides while I'm chatting and laughing.

I'll finish this and start then next one so I'm ready for when I need them.

I've been knitting a few rows each night on my Blueberry Waffle Socks.  I am really excited to be back in knitting mode. I really do think it's because of all the inspiration I see each day on the Facebook group called Addicted to Sock Knitting. It's a large group-over 10,000 members-and I see so many fabulous, jaw dropping socks every day! They share links to lots of different patterns and I want to make them all!  I'll try to finish these first.

See what others have on their needles at Patchwork Times.

My Bonnie UFO for Jo's Challenge

Jo at Jo's Country Junction is hosting a Bonnie UFO Challenge. That's all the inspiration I need to pull out this UFO. I have my version of Bonnie's Scrappy Sisters Choice quilt.  When I started this quilt, I had a stack of center blocks already made. I used those instead of 9 patches.  Then I started putting it together. Then I changed my mind, wrote a note and put everything away. That means I haven't touched it in a very long time. 

Included in the bag of blocks and partial rows is a note to myself.  It says where I blogged about this top. It also includes what I planned to do with them.  I thought I needed to add sashing.  Several blocks need to be completed (There are several partial blocks with the parts pinned to them.) and that I wanted to take apart the blocks that are sewn into rows.

What's really going to happen in I am going to complete these blocks. I am not going to take the rows apart and I am going to finish this top. Will it be quilted before the new mystery starts? No. I've got other things happening but it will be nice to have this ready to quilt. I have border, backing and binding fabric so when it gets put away, it will be ready to baste and quilt.

I'm linking up at Jo's Country Junction.

A New Project Begins

You know when you see something and it just reaches out and grabs you?

That's what this post by Mickey Depre did to me.

Travel down her post to see what she is doing.

I LOVE her new project.

So I went to Paper Pieces and ordered myself some 1" hexi and jewel shapes.

I intended this to be my new project for my Wednesday Binding Friends group.

But you know how it is,

you have to try just one or more to see how it looks.

My jewels are going to be all alike since I have enough of this fabric in my stash.

(She says with fingers crossed.)

The flowers are being made from charm packs that I receive every quarter for Benartex.

I am a long time member of Mr. B's Preview Pack Club (shown on the right sidebar of their home page)

 and a new pack arrives quarterly and I need to use some of these that I have saved.

This pack is called Arabella.

I'm starting out combining fabrics just from the charm pack.

Each flower uses 4 different charms that have been cut into quarters, 3 squares from each.

The 4th square is put in a pile for centers and maybe complete scrappy flowers.

I haven't gotten far enough along to decide that yet.

They could just end up in the 2 1/2" square bin.

This is my travel bin with an extra charm pack, papers, needles, thread and threaders.

Along with my flower and jewel block fabrics ready to stitch and my Perfect Scissors for trimming.

I'm quite excited about this new project.

Thanks Mickey for the inspiration.

I'm linking to Kathy's Quilts: Slow Sunday Stitching.

One of these days I'm going to figure out how to make that rug that Kathy is working on! 

Reminder

I found this on Pinterest. I am going to print it and put it on my refrigerator for days like today. Sometimes I need an in my face reminder.

Taming the Scraps

Way back in January 2007, I bought a box of "tidy scraps"  I used lots and lots of those scraps but there will still lots and lots of them left, mostly batiks.  I crammed them all into a zippered bag and once in a while I would open that bag and use a few more.  Then it got "put away" not to be touched until the big sewing room clean out.

Inspiration comes from all over. The other day I was reading this blog post and knew that is what I was going to do with my batik scraps.  I had just bought myself a gift of the 1 1/2" strip die for my GO! cutter and knew I would use that to cut my strips.  I got that bag out and started pressing and sorting, pressing and sorting.  Batiks and not batiks. Pretty soon the bag was empty so I grabbed another scrap bag and continued pressing and sorting.  Will I ever get all my scraps sorted???  Maybe, but probably not.  It is fun to remember where these fabrics come from.  I have friends that save scraps for me and most of the time I remember who gave me what.

This morning my neighbor kids are here stacking firewood so I figured it was a good day to cut the batik pieces.  I can do this in the kitchen and check on the kids quite often.  I love my GO! cutter. In an hour, I had all my batik scraps cut.

There is a bit of waste here but if I used the ruler and rotary cutter, I would have had waste there too.  What am I going to do with the waste pieces???  I don't know.  My brain says to pitch them now, my heart says you could make a really cool art piece.  Sometimes I need to listen to my brain but today I think my heart is going to win.  I have a plan for an art piece.  Stay turned....

I do know that I am not going to start this project yet.  I think it will be a great retreat project.  I'll just keep pressing, sorting and cutting.  I love that I have 2 less bags of scraps in my room and some great pieces cut and ready to use.

Thank you I QUILT FOR FUN, you are now part of my village.

My Day At Sisters

We left Marian's house at 4 am to arrive early enough to watch the quilts being hung.

This volunteer group was so much fun to chat with.

This paper pieced beauty was one of my favorites of the day.

This display was the first one I looked at inside The Stitchin Post.

The yarn was all so yummy.

It was so much fun watching and listening to the excitement from 2 gals when they spotted Judy L's book.

When one of them told me I "must buy this book and read her blog, she is wonderful!", I had to tell them I already knew that and I'm proud to call her my friend.  I think they were a bit jealous!!

Speaking of friends, it is so fun to see a quilt from a distance that you know was made by your friend.

This wonderful 1600 jelly roll race quilt with the appliqued chickens was made my my friend Cheri.

There was some fun chatter about the quilt and the quilting.  It's pretty awesome Cheri.

My favorite of the mini quilts.  The thread painted tail is amazing!

Inspiration for the hunting club quilt for next year.

This one made my scrappy heart sing.

I think I must put this design at the top of my want to do list.

And this little guy is Willie, a 6 month old Shit Tzu.

We all laughed when the dad told us about his name.

Willie be a good dog or Willie piddle inside.

I have lots more pictures, these are a few of my favorites. 

It was a wonderful day spent with wonderful friends.

I am so full of inspiration, I need some 48 hour days.

Surprised, Amazed and Inspired

The other day while I was cruising around Blogland, I came across this post at I Like To Quilt Blog. She has some fabulous minis posted and I fell in love with her purple flying geese. So much so that I started playing in EQ7 and created my own mini.

My mini is already in a kit, ready to work on when I get to sit down and sew...which I hope is soon!

Imagine my surprise this morning when I click on to Quiltville and see this post. I love all the photos of the tile work. Then I scroll down and I see Bonnie has created the same block as I did and has started sewing her blocks. Amazing, isn't it!

Of course I had to leave a comment and after a few emails back and forth, Bonnie has given me a couple more sorting ideas for my crumbs and strings....I will be sorting them into neutrals and everything else. I'm not going to dive into the string bins and numerous crumb bins and bags right now but as I am working in a bag, I will pull out the neutrals to keep separate. I already do that with the scraps but not the strings and crumbs. We think that will make our lives a bit less chaotic.

Now I'm inspired to get in that sewing room and get working!!! Thanks Bonnie for making my day!

Monday Progress

Mr. Dozer has found himself a new favorite lounging spot. He likes to lay there and look at his adorable face in the mirror. I got up to get my camera and he sat up and posed. Such a goofy cat.

Well, I made lots of progress today. Several more bins were taken out of the sewing room. I had put a bunch of acrylic yarn into a bin like Dozer is sitting on but then I found another bin so it all went in to a big bin like the blue one. I labeled it Yarn, Lots and Lots of Yarn. The bin he is sitting on is all my sock yarn and the swifter and ball winder, also labeled with the contents.

Tonight my back is hurting so I am going to take it easy a bit tomorrow. I have a stack of magazines that I need to go through so I think that will be a good time to work on them. You know, take out the pages I want, recycle the rest. I want to have my patterns and papers organized like Teresa of Fabric Therapy shows in this guest post at Sew We Quilt. I have 3 big notebooks full of page protectors and like the way she uses magazine organizers instead of the notebooks. And her file system...green with envy but I only have a 2 drawer file cabinet so that's all I am using. And that idea book......want that too. Teresa is such an inspiration for me. I want to be like her when I grow up.

This undertaking has become so much more than just taking stuff out of the room and building a new sewing table/counter top. So much more! I'm even too tired to knit.........

Fall Retreat Report

Fall Retreat #2 was fantastic. My face and my stomach hurt from laughing. I had the best table mates. We all got so much done and had such a blast doing so.

I broke my iron handle and it kept flopping down and pinching my finger. If you click the picture to enlarge it, you can will see several things going on. See where I monkey rigged it to be able to continue to use it and it . I emptied a thread spool (and heaven forbid I would throw it away) and using a selvage strip, I tied it to the handle and kept on going. I will have Ernie look at it to see if he can figure out how to keep the handle up without the spool. If not, it's a good thing Jo told us about her new iron and I ordered myself one. I must have had a premonition.

I continued to work on My Ultimate Scrap Quilt like Julie's here. I have all my bird in the air blocks made with lots of leftovers to maybe make it a bit longer. I'll decide that when I need to.

The folded strips in front of the green basket are from our batik strip swap. We swapped batiks and background fabrics and I had 4 sets of each. I love strip swaps! And thanks to my friend Sue, I have 2 new strip books. One was a late birthday gift and the other I won in the Greedy Gift Game so lots of new projects to use them in.

My crumb basket is back there too. I made several more crumb blocks while showing a few of the gals how I make them. Then I set them aside and continued to work on my bird in the air blocks. My tablemate Pam worked on crumb blocks and was quite amazed at how her bin looked as if she had twice the amount of crumbs after using so many--she now knows the secret of multiplying crumbs and the fact that the quilters give you their scraps. Except the new to crumb quilters.......haha, I wonder how many came over to the crumby side.

I own a Sidewinder and seldom used it. A while back, I needed to wind a few bobbins for my Janome Gem machine before a class so I got it out and decided to just keep it in with my machine. It's my travel machine. I was too lazy to walk to where my bag was to get the thread stand out so I used my pinky as a thread holder. I thought I was pretty clever!

Thanks to everyone at retreat for another fabulous time. I miss you when I don't see you and I'm so happy we are able to spend time together. Now I am ready to stay home and work like a crazy woman. I have so many ideas that need to be written down before I forget and so much energy to do them all. Thanks for the inspirational weekend.

Quilting Challenge Plan

Inspired by Quilter Kathy, I have created my very own Quilting Challenge Plan.

My November 2011

Quilting Challenge Plan

1-Make a plan. Pick a project, write down the plan for the project.

2-Work up the courage by practicing and by saying kind words to myself.

3-Be brave and just start.

4-Have faith that it will go well and if it doesn’t,

have hope that I can figure it out with another plan.

5-Relax and have fun!

Here is the first part of my project. It is one of the projects on my 2011 UFO Challenge list. This is the project from April! For heaven's sake!! April. It has been on the quilting frame since September. I am so frustrated with myself sometimes. I am so close to being finished with it but just don't do it. To say I haven't been in the mood is an understatement. Granted I have had a few other things happening but my life is fairly calm now and it's time to focus.

I need to focus on that project so I can quilt Corbin's quilt. The top is finished, binding and backing are ready. The frame is not ready. I am working on that today.

So here is my plan of action.

1. Finish the quilting on the Butterfly Garden quilt.
2. Load Corbin's quilt.
3. Quilt Corbin's quilt using a large meander.
4. Bind Corbin's quilt.
5. Bind Butterfly Garden.

Such easy things that just need to be started.

I am done beating myself up over this stuff. Quilting is supposed to be fun. I am going to have fun!

Retreat Prep

It's hard work for me to prepare projects for a retreat. It's even harder if you have 2 retreats within 2 weeks. Am I complaining? Goodness no! (I love Pete the Cat!) It's hard because I have so many things I want to do that it's a bit overwhelming. So I made a list. Now I am kitting projects.

I will start with a project that I have wanted to do for a long time. I read this post from Julie at Quilter Behind The Barn Door. It got my blood pumping.

As you can see, I've collected a few inspiration pictures for this block. So easy but creates such drama...for me anyhow.

Today I will cut this pile of fabrics.

Using these fabulous dies.

I will add bits and pieces to my bin.

As you can see, I had to make a few (23) test blocks.

I am inspired by Julie's attitude, it matches mine.

See why I say it is the ultimate scrap quilt? And for pete's sake. If you are one of those people who try to keep the same fabric from touching when you make scrap quilts, don't attempt this one. You will go berserk. Just slap those squares together any old way. And don't worry about an occasional point getting cut off in the seams. Believe me when I say No one will ever notice.

Next (or if I get bored) I will work on this Spiral Log Cabin. I found the tutorial at

Love Laugh Quilt.

It's over on the right hand side bar under Tutorials.

This should keep my out of trouble. If I run out of something to do, I'll grab another project when I come home to let the dogs out. It's good to be so close to home and retreating at the same time.

Frustration

I had my day planned. I knew what was going to happen. Things were going to sail along smoothly. Then it happened! Here's the story.........

I was drinking coffee and reading blogs this morning. I found a new to me blog, The Way I Sew It. The first sentence I read includes the words 15 Minute Challenge. If you know me at all, you know it doesn't take much to send my off in a new direction......hence my new plan for today. I decided to go about my plan only I would use the timer set at 15 minutes and keep a list of accomplishments. I use the timer a lot and know that I can get so much done in just a few minutes. Then I would come here and tell you how great I did and how much I got done.

So I go into the sewing room to get the timer. I want to finish the quilt that is on the frame and decided to go ahead and put in a new needle (I quit yesterday when I broke the needle!) and get her warmed up. So I set the timer and got busy. After she was warmed up, I started doing some stitch in the ditch-not my favorite thing to do-and broke another needle (slow stitching on paper pieced blocks with thick seams)! Damn!!! I put a new one in and turned the needle down to pull up the bobbin thread and it hit the bobbin case. The darn thing is now out of time! I turned off the light, grabbed the timer and decided to sit down with a cup of coffee and vent.

Now I am going to vacuum, then sit on the couch and fold laundry as I watch the dvd (again) that shows how to time the machine. It should only take a few minutes. Thank you P. for inspiring me to do a day of 15 minute challenges. I think I will stay out of the sewing room for a while and do some domestic stuff and then see how many 15 minute blocks it will take me to time my machine.

2010 Memories

This is a photo taken at The Pomeroy Farm Quilt Festival this summer. I loved this display! It makes me smile thinking that my husband and my father would never, ever have worn that shirt or those pants. Now that pink dress, I love! I had several dresses that style but I was never brave enough to wear that pink!

I went back through my blog to see what I had accomplished this year. I was amazed at the number of quilt tops I made! 19! I made 19 quilt tops and turned 8 of those into quilts. That means I have 11 more on Mt. ToBeQuilted.

This is my list of finishes for 2010:
19 quilt tops, 8 quilted
5 UFOs
3 bags
4 wall hangings
1 rug
6 pair of socks knitted
4 hats knitted
2 scarves knitted

WOW! That surprised me. Of course there are some projects that have been started and are in the can't be counted yet category. Which leads me to my word for 2011. FINISH

My 2010 word was Simplify. My 2 goals were to learn to quilt feathers and learn to use my EQ5. Well, I did quilt feathers on one quilt....decided maybe I really don't want to do them, I do pantographs and meander much better. Maybe I'll try again, maybe not. I did learn to use EQ5 and then bought EQ7 and have been using it like crazy. And we did simplify our lives even more. We got rid of alot of crap that we never used. We aren't done yet but we are well on our way.

My goals for 2011 look pretty simple:

• Continue to simplify.
• Concentrate on finishing one project before starting another.
• Stay current with the BOMs, quilt alongs and challenges that I have committed to.
  

I think that's enough motivation for me for now. I can always add to my list if I want to.

I hope 2010 was a fabulous year for you and I hope 2011 will be even more fabulous!

Friday Focus

Remember way back to August 16, 2010? Neither did I, so I looked it up. I said I was hoping to make one of these paper pieced star blocks a day. Really, I thought it was do-able. I am a dreamer, I had big plans. I'm sure glad there is no real deadline for this quilt top.

The only deadline is the one I have self imposed. I'd really, really like to get this quilted before retreat in October. With only 4 more blocks to make, I am hoping to achieve this goal. I just need to make my focus list and pay attention to it.

Next topic--organizing my stash.........today at Stash Manicure is a very motivating post. Is it possible to create order from my chaos? Of course it is! I just need to set aside some time and get to it. Just like eating an elephant, take one small bite at a time. (When looking for a link for elephant eating, I came across this great post about goal setting.) I will be like the Little Engine That Could. I think I can, I think I can.

So now I will get off the computer, restart the washer, fold that load of laundry, make my list and get busy. On that list will be some sewing time! I only have 4 more blocks to make and they are already cut and ready to sew!!!

Design Wall Monday

In the elusive quest to be organized, I came upon a zip bag full of these block parts. I remember when I started them, maybe 2 years ago. The 2 1/2" strips are bundled into pairs, my hand written instructions are there but no date on the page.....I should start dating things just for historical value (snicker!).

I sat down last night and sewed the parts into blocks. In a few minutes, I had these blocks sewn. I think I'll set these 8" blocks 8 X 10. I have plenty more ready to sew together.

There is a really good post over at Stash Manicure called The Story of MIAGIA that has really inspired me to get busy with what I have and to use what I have for others.

This will be a good in between project--I have my paper pieced stars ready to finish and I have a couple quilts to get quilted this week. But today is a full day with a very busy 5 year old (shame on me, he's 6!). I can't wait to see what adventures will happen today.

For more inspiration, go to Judy L's and check out other design walls. I do love Monday mornings in Blogland.