Baby Chicks

I was minding my own business driving home from my sewing group today when I looked to my right and saw my daughter pass me. At the light, I tried to call her but she didn't answer her phone so I just followed her. She was going to the same place I was. I needed to get new shavings for the chicken house and they were after something else. This kind of stuff never happens to us!

Anyhow, the kids had asked it they could have a baby chicken and if it could live at my house. Well yes, of course they can. I was going to get a few more chicks anyhow. So we went chick shopping and these (hopefully) little girls came to live at Gramma's house because Momma doesn't like chickens. She only like the eggs.

"Baby chickens are very little and soft." Melts my heart.

Ready For Binding

I am so slow, I feel just like molasses. Roll, Roll Cotton Boll was started November 2010. The top was completed January 2011. The back was completed in February. The batting was cut, the binding was made. Everything was folded together and put on Mt. ToBeQuilted and promptly ignored.

Then I decided I wanted to be involved in the Patchwork Times 2012 UFO Challenge . I was a bit late getting my list made so I already knew that this quilt was going to be the project I worked on for January. 7 weeks go by and this quilt has been started and then ignored. The quilting mojo just wasn't there. It's finally back with a vengeance.

I love using 10 1/2" squares and 5 1/2" x 10 1/2" rectangles for the back. I also love using spare parts on the back. I know I learned about this from Bonnie at Quiltville but I can't find the page right now. I'll keep looking and link back to it when I find it.

This quilt was a mystery from Bonnie at Quiltville and will appear in her new book which is due out soon. Yeah! I can't call this a finish yet but it is near the sewing machine with the binding laying on top of it. I love binding because that makes it so close to being a finished quilt. Of course my favorite part is taking it out of the dryer for the first time and laying it on my bed.

Design Wall Monday...

..on Sunday night. Jo, over at Jo's Country Junction hosted a Crumb Along that started last September. I love crumb quilts so of course, I jumped right in with both feet. I keep a bin of completed crumb and string blocks so i had a bit of a head start. After a while, I got sidetracked-like I do do easily-and didn't complete my top.

Then she posts a Crumb Quilt Roundup where we can show off our completed quilts and enter for some great prizes. I like prizes. I like completed quilts. So...I spent Saturday joining my blocks. In my crumb block bin, I have border pieces that I've made on phone book pages. I grabbed a stack of them and joined them to make borders.

See those butterfly blocks throughout the quilt??? Those were gifted to me several years ago by a gal that tried to teach me to paper piece. I wasn't a very good student and never caught on to her way. I thought this would be a good place to use those blocks. I had to take the heavy interfacing that she used off the back and resew several of the seams. No offense to her, but I really like the Carol Doak method better.

Sunday morning, I sewed all the borders on and now have a completed top. Then I had to kick start myself and get the quilt done that has been hanging on on the quilting frame for way too long. It's taking longer than I thought it would because of the dense quilting so it will be done Monday morning.

Then this quilt will get loaded on and quilted. I need this done so I can try for one of the prizes. Yip, it's all about the prize.

My funny moment of the day...I had stopped quilting and was stretching and looked up on my shelf of bins. I spotted a big bin labeled crumb and string blocks.........I had 2 bins??? Yes, I did. The bin is now close to the sewing machine so when I take a quilting break I can sew a few blocks together. Soon I'll have another quilt top this size or larger.

My Heart Is Full

This is Estella Anndee.

She is my new granddaughter.

She was born February 28th.

Her dad is my son Doug.

Her mom is Lacey.

Her brother is Jonah.

She fills our hearts.

Pesky Word Verification

I finally found an excellent tutorial at Michele Made Me on how to disable that pesky 2 word verification thing. I've pretty much been afraid to try much on the blog because I don't want to lose any thing.

But this tutorial has excellent graphics and walked me right through it. I sure hope it sticks!!

Thanks for leaving me comments. They always make my day.

Thanks to Michele Made Me for the tutorial. I hope by passing the link along it will help you too.

Next I am going to learn how to put tabs on my page. That should be interesting. :)) And one day I might go in and redo my post labels......so much work, so little time. But first I am going to read a little bit of Michele Made Me.

Design Wall Monday

I'm delighted to say as soon as the outer section is sewn to the compass on the left, I will be caught up with BOM-QA.  Until Thursday when the next block is chosen.  Pretty big difference from last DWM post.  I need 1 more big compass and 5 small ones, plus there is a border of half square triangles that I have ready to sew.  I am using Triangulations to paper piece them.  The fabric is cut and the correct sized triangle pages are printed.  (Last week I was going to sew them at my Wednesday group and was showing the gals how great it is that the info is printed right onto the papers.  Well guess who printed off quarter square triangles instead of HSTs?  Yeah, that would be me.  At least I caught it before I had them sewn and cut.)

And just to show off a whole lot of cuteness.  This is Corbin with his Aviatrix hat that finally fits him.  Isn't he adorable?  If you are looking for a multisized, quick, fairly simple hat, this is a great one.  I did finish crocheting a little blanket and knitted a cute little hat for newest granddaughter that has yet to make her appearance.  I was excited to get it finished before she arrived.  OK little one, I'm ready for you to meet us.

It's Monday so that means I get some awesome time in Blogland.  Head over to Judy L's to see her awesome quilt and then visit others to see what's happening around town.

TaaaDaaa

The tears have dried.

The block is finished.

It needs a good pressing but that will happen 

when the blocks are all made and the assembly is about to begin.

This is going to be a fabulous quilt!

I have 1 more block to complete before the end of the month. 

It's another big one.

I can do it.

Then I will be caught up. 

Excuse Me While I Cry

I'd finished sewing all 8 sections of the star that I've been working on--see this post.

This block printed 2 sections per page.  1 section didn't fully print the top seam allowance.  I had drawn the cutting line on 3 sections but not the 4th.  Guess who should have done that!  I had trimmed 4 sections before I did this.....oh boy!

So now I will tape my paper back together, tape the seam lines, unsew several of those pieces, cut new pieces and resew this section.  After I cry..........

Speaking of tape---you know Carol Doak recommends the Soctch Removable Magic Tape to tape your papers with.  For some reason it is kind of hard to find around here and I was getting low.  So yesterday I ordered some from Staples. I also ordered a super cute pink high heel to hold the tape, I needed some ink pens and a few other things and if you order more than $45, you get free shipping.  So I did.  Thank goodness I did that.  Who knows how much tape I'm going to use to tape up this whoopsie!

Oh and Staples---you rock.  I ordered yesterday morning and this morning, the UPS man handed me my complete order.  WOW.

I'm done crying now.  Guess I'll have some lunch and get back to it.  I'd like to have the block finished today.

Design Wall Monday

 I actually have something up on my design wall.  I am embarrassed to say that these are the only blocks that I have made for our BOM-Quiltaddicts group.  The new project started last September.  As of Thursday, I only had the top right block finished.

Thursday morning, I got out my book and cd and printed off all the papers I needed for the blocks.  Then I set myself up at the cutting table and got to work!  I have all my blocks kitted up and 2 of the 5 sewn.

I'm not making the quilt on the cover, the one I'm doing is called Bahama Breeze--you can see it here.

I'm getting ready for Monday in Blogland.  Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times and Quiltville is showing off thimbles.

Waste Not Wednesday

Today at Jo's Country Junction, Jo talks about planning her time while she is the passenger on a road trip.  I do the same thing she does but probably for a different reason.  I am a horrible passenger!  So I always have a "To Go Project".  My current project is my granny square afghan which is also the project I have been working on off and on during my Binding Friends Wednesday group.

I have figured out that crochet is the best car project for me.  Better than knitting where I must pay attention or I have to rip out.  I am not good at picking up my stitches so that usually means I have to start over.  With crochet, I can just take out what I need to and go from there.

Since I took the time to get this project organized (and my ball winder is here so my yarn has been wound into manageable balls) I just make sure I have what I need in my 2 gallon zip bag (how much do I love these things!) so when we are going, I just grab my bag.

On our last trip to town and I dropped my scissors, I told Ernie I needed to rig up a little stuff holder.  Then I remembered this tutorial from Karen at Sew Many Ways.  So this morning on my way to BF, I am going to stop and pick up a cup holder.

Today is a good day to write your own Waste Not Wednesday post and link up here with Jo.

All We Need Is...

Love

I made this last year.

I hung it up on the wall of photos.

I have only taken it down once to show off at retreat.

I love it.

Design Wall Monday

Last week I put the Carol Doak Twisted Mystery on the Design Wall.  During the week I worked on it.  Yesterday I put the final border on and started taking off the paper.

Not my favorite job.

These are my tools for paper removal.  My recliner, my favorite green bin, an itty bitty crochet hook that will never be used by me for crochet, tweezers and making tape.

Masking tape? you ask.  Yes.  Before you stand up, take a length of tape, wrap it around your hand with the sticky side out and clean yourself of the tiny bits of paper.  You will still have to get out the vacuum cleaner.  Its a messy job but not as messy if you use the tape. 

Sometime today, I am going to park myself back in the recliner, turn on the tv and get the rest of the paper off this fabulous top so I can give it a good press and maybe, just maybe it will be finished this week.

Wish me luck!

Now I am going to refill my coffee cup and go visiting throughout Blogland.  I'm starting here, the road map to Design Wall Monday.

Inspiration From Blogland

Do you know Jo over at Jo's Country Junction?  She does a post on Wednesday called Waste Not Wednesday.  The other day I started knitting this head band for a friend.  I was using up some Lion Brand Wool-ease yarn left from a pair of socks.  This is a super easy pattern and goes really fast.  And it's really cute...

Then I wanted one for myself.  I went to look in my leftover yarn bin and found these 3 little balls leftover from my green and gray slippers.  I didn't think there would be enough to make the complete pattern so I weighed the balls, set the odd one aside.  The other 2 were very close in weight so they were labeled balls 1 and 3.  I knit ball 1 to the end, added ball 2, knit until it was almost half it's weight then started the decrease as this pattern is knit in short rows.

When it was finished, I decided to knit up the tiny bit of leftover yarn and turned it into this little ponytail band for Taylor.  Then I grabbed the little bit of the blue yarn and knitted it until it was gone.

So there you have it, a Waste Not Wednesday post on Friday.  I'll try to do better next week.  Thanks Jo for inspiring me.  Not only do I have 4 less little yarn balls in the stash, I have 2 pretty snazzy headbands.  I am going to link to last Wednesday's post.  Let's spread the word and support Jo's Wednesday link up.

Design Wall Monday

This is my Twisted Mystery from Carol Doak Quilting Group at Yahoo.  This was started in the fall of 2011.  I took the final steps to work on at one of my fall retreats and was so distracted that I put it away and forgot to get it out again.

Tuesday I wanted to sew something at my Binding Friends quilt group the next day so I pulled out this bin and paper pieced the last clue.  It was fun to make good progress on something while visiting with friends.  Sunday I decided to put it up on the wall to see how it would look.  It's a good thing I did.  I am missing 4 pieces.  They have to be somewhere close by.  I had to have sewn them because I have no fabric pieces left over.
*** Thank goodness I found them.  They weren't really lost, they were in the bin-right where they belonged--hiding under the border fabric.


Between laundry loads and bed remaking today, I hope to find my missing pieces and finish sewing this together.  I think this will be the perfect spring wall hanging.

Visit Patchwork Times to see what others are working on.   Also today is Orca Bay link up at Quiltville.  Isn't Monday in Blogland fun!!!

Pillow Fun

Yesterday at our sewing group, Marian gave me a 2 scrap pieces of polar fleece.  I'm not a fan of all the skull and cross bone fabrics that are out there.  They give me the heeby geebies.  But I know a 7 year old boy that would love them.  Instead of folding them up and putting them away this morning, I sewed them into this pillow cover.  I knew it needed a zipper so I found an old zipper and inserted it into the seam.

Anticipating a pretty good blog post, I had taken pictures of the fabric, the pillow form that I made and the finished pillow.  As I was looking to be sure the last photo was a good one, I see the message about no sd card..........therefore, no photos!  Dang.

I'm not going to take the form out of the pillow but I will tell you I took a piece of old fabric and some batting, sewed 2 24" square into pillow form that was stuffed with poly fiberfill-it takes a lot.  I didn't over stuff it because a fun pillow needs to be squishie.  Then I wrestled it to sew the top shut and stuffed it into the pillow covering.  Now it can be used and loved and when needed, washed.

Now I have no skull fabric in my stash, a nice hunk of batting scrap used up, a nice piece of old fabric out of the stash, one less old zipper and a fun gift for a cute boy.

Orca Bay Top Moves To The Mountain

Did you feel the earth rock and roll a little bit here in SW WA???  That was me, jumping up and down.  ;0)

Orca Bay is a finished quilt top.  All the little birds in the air blocks that were sewn wrong (as seen in today's DWM post) were taken apart and sewn right and reattached as the outer border.  After Dozer's photo shoot, OB was folded with the seams to the inside (channeling my sweet friend Pam B) to protect them and has been moved to the top of Mt. ToBeQuilted.

I have pulled the backing and binding fabric and it is laying on the ironing board.  Hopefully this week it will be sewn and put with the completed top.

If you don't know about the Orca Bay Mystery, you can find the instructions here.  Thank you Bonnie Hunter for another fabulous mystery.

Design Wall Monday

This was my design chair on Saturday.  Today it holds this very quilt top but the mistake section of the border has been take off and is ready for the correct section to be sewn back on it.

Hopefully that will happen today........unless I wimp out and hold the recliner in place like I did yesterday.  

See what others have going on by visiting Judy L.  Her project is fabulous.......I can't wait to see the others.  Happy Monday Everyone.  :-)

At Home Retreat Day 3

When I went to bed last night, I couldn't sleep thinking of sewing the last 2 pieced borders on Orca Bay.  Finally I was in dreamland, dreaming of quilting fabulous feathers all over Orca Bay on a yacht.  I have some pretty weird dreams.

When I woke up this morning, I felt like I had been run over by a big ole truck.  My head hurt, my throat hurt, I felt like crap!  So I did what I do best when I don't feel good, I went back to bed!  Then I tossed and turned until I couldn't stand it any more and got up and parked myself in the recliner with my blankie.  I did fix myself a piece of toast and a cup of tea, thinking it might make me feel a little better but it didn't.

So needless to say my third retreat day was a bust.  But not completely.  I worked on my granny squares and made pretty good progress.  Instead of going all willie-nillie, I sorted out my squares and made myself a plan.  I have 8 different squares and need 15 of each.  I marked how many of each I had and am now doing them in sets, like an organized person would do.........what's with that???  So I have 1 set complete, with a second set well on it's way with only 5 left to do before I start round 4 on this set.

Once in a while I would browse Blogland and while doing so I found a new to me blog called Bearpaw.  She sent me on a search of African Flower Hexagons, which lead me to this tutorial.   And then I have to pin all the goodies to my Pinterest and that led to looking here and there and everywhere.  I did make the day go pretty fast.  Well maybe the naps helped too.  I am ready to put on my pjs-it's only 6 pm here-and think about what I might do tomorrow.

Oh My!  Will I ever get all my want to makes made???

At Home Retreat Day 2

I finished my wallet/purse today.  I'm excited to use it.  I'm more excited that I finished something today.  I'd be even more excited if I opened it up and there was a bundle of money stashed in it.   If I make this again, I'll make a couple changes.  Where the card holders are, I would make that into another zippered pocket instead of it being sewed closed.  That part folds up to reveal a checkbook pocket.  I don't carry a checkbook so I'd make that into a deeper pocket that velcros shut.

I got the solid borders on Orca Bay and then put the side pieced borders on.  No problems at all.  I was pressing the top border and all of the sudden I spotted this!  Whoopsie!!  I bet the bottom border looks kind of like this one..........at least it isn't sewn on.  So I will sit with Ernie, find a movie worth watching and unsew.  Then I'm going to knit.

While Ernie was out getting a head start on next winter's firewood, I made a batch of elk jerky out of hamburger.  A friend had told me she makes her's using her dehydrator and this press.  So I picked up a press in town yesterday and made jerky today.  It's pretty darn good and quite easy!  I got out a couple more packages of burger to make more tomorrow because I know this package will disappear fast.

At Home Retreat Day 1

Retreat Day 1 started with a bang.  I finally got some sleep and it felt so good, I kept right on sleeping.  Then I woke with a jolt remember it was garbage day.  We don't take our cans down at night because of rotten neighbor dogs and rotten neighbor kids and the cans are supposed to be at the road at 6 but I know our guy doesn't get here until just after 8.  My clock said 7:55!!!  So I jumped out of my toasty bed, threw on some clothes and shoes, grabbed my coat and went outside to the freezing cold frosty morning without any coffee!  The truck showed up about 10 minutes later....

After breakfast and all that stuff, I finally went in to the sewing room only to find Mr. Turbo lounging on the quilt hammock that I was going to finish quilting this morning.  Naughty boy!  As you can see, he is not happy.  Just as I was warming the machine, Ernie tells me he is going to a meeting for work so why don't I go ahead and head to town for a Costco run..........ugh!  I haven't had an alone town day for quite a while so I went to JoAnn's to pick up a couple things, went to a different store to pick up some jerky making supplies then off to Costco.  2 stops later and several dollars poorer, I headed home.

The bad part about power shopping like this is I have to unload all that stuff.  And then it has to be put away.  And then someone wants me to fix dinner.  I didn't think to pick up something on the way home.

Finally I get to the sewing room and decided to work on this wallet.  It's going together really good but I'm missing a part and now I need to get out the extra fabric and cut that part.  This pattern is very well written and has little boxes by each step to check off your progress.  I'm finding that quite helpful.

I'm sure Day 2 will be more productive.  Ernie is meeting the buds for breakfast and then spending the day helping out a friend.  I am more than ready for a quiet sewing room day.