2020 Part 2-April

 Lots happened in April.

Some great, some not so great.

Elliot was finally gifted a new quilt.

He loves it. But he doesn't use it because it is special.

So I explained that I can make him more and go ahead and use it. 

Ugh, Pandemic forces the use of masks so I got busy and made lots and lots of masks.

I truly do hate making masks but Cousin Julie needed them for the nursing home she worked at.

Frolic became a finish and not a UFO,

which was quite exciting for me.

Because pandemic was not enough to deal with, our old house was rotting away in the corner.

The water heater was leaking and and almost fell through the floor, taking the chest freezer with it.

So my wonderful husband had a huge project.

Ordering lumber online for pickup was a new challenge.

Not only did we need a new water heater, we needed to replace our kitchen range and the washer!

Home Depot to the rescue! Order online, sight unseen, no touchy feely. And they delivered.

I tell you, that man is amazing. 

There is not much he can't figure out how to do. 

I offered to help but there was not much I could do,

 so I stayed out of the way and came running when needed.

I'll share the finished room next post.

Stitching often saved my sanity during this time.

I missed my family so darn much.

Didn't we all!

We are a huggy huggy bunch and not being able to do that was a bit rough.

We were all learning our new way of life. 

I'm going to keep this post short. 

I'll be back soon.

Until next time. 

2020 Part 1

2020 came in with all of the best intentions. My plan was to quilt 20 UFO tops in 2020. It was a great plan. I would squeeze in cross stitch as often as I could but I really wanted to finish quilts.

This is a cute Lizzie Kate design called 6 Snow Belles.

I planned to stitch all 6 on piece of fabric and it would be a Christmas present for one of my daughters.

(Spoiler alert--it did and it's so darn cute!!)

I love a good BOM.

This is from Kathleen Tracy.

I think this is both January and February.

I had a box of Thimbleberry scraps from a friend so used mostly those fabrics.

These were my choices for the Moda Blockheads 3 BOW.

I love the mix of the fabrics.

January was a baby shower for Granddaughter Taylor.

I had to make Dwight the Deer for her and her son.

I used recycled shirts on the back.

It is so snuggly soft.

March 10, 2020

Welcome to the family Bentley Waylon.

We adore you.

💓😍😍😍😍

I joined an ornament of the month club.

I picked this cutie from a magazine.

We didn't get much snow.

Just a day once in a while.

This sampler was my oldest UFO.

It was fun to just quilt the blocks and then join them.

Frolic was the 2019/20 Quiltville mystery.

I love that I used mostly stash  on this one. 

It was fun to just get it done before it turned into a UFO.

Smith Mountain Morning was gifted to Grandson Elliot.

Another Quiltville design.

This log cabin was gifted to daughter Crystal.

Moda Be My Neighbor was gifted to Daughter Dee.

I love knitting socks and I love using up all the scrap yarn.

Sadly these are still in the on the road knitting bag but are close to being finished.

There is still scrap yarn to be used up.

My friend Julie taught me about basting party.

Baste until you run out of pins.

So I get myself all set up and get busy.

Under the table fort are 3 dogs.

The roll of batting goes on the recliner and the table is pushed over to it.

See all those quilts over by the tv. I think they are all waiting their turn. 

I also think they are all finished quilts. 

I honestly don't know if these were before or at the beginning of Covid lockdown.

But that's a story for another post. 

Until then.....thanks for your sweet comments on my return.

Let's Finish Out 2019

It's been more than a minute since I've posted to the blog.

I don't know why. 

I want to keep my diary of projects so I'm going to attempt to remember by photos.

Thank goodness for the Google Photo Cloud or I would have nothing to jog my memory.

This was a kit from Walmart. Ilove how calming the colors are.

I do plan to take it to hang in the beach house (aka the bus/motorhome).

One of these days when I remember to take it off my wall and 

put it in the go to the beach bag. 

This is on the counter at Crystal's house.

Everyone loves it.

I embroidered these  bar towels for the girls Christmas gifts.

It's always fun to see them in use at their homes.

A fun ornament.

I displayed it in my tier tray.

This little cutie is called Chicken Joy.

It's from Pricilla and Chelsea of Stitching with the Housewives.

You can google it and find the freebie.

This was finished into a little flat fold.

Very little quilting happened at the end of 2019 other than to keep up with the Quiltville mystery.

I'll talk more about that in the next post. 

Until then...

 

November Update

Look, it's a new post! Wow, I don't even have an excuse. I have not been overly busy but I have become consumed with cross stitch. Did I need another craft? No but I have one.

I finished stitching Take Time.

I found this kit at Walmart.

I need to frame it and add the shells.

It will be displayed in the bus at the beach.

I learned to coffee/tea dye Aida.

I followed this video but paid close attention to time because my fabric was different from their's.

I really like how it turned out and can't wait to dye more.

Because bright white isn't necessary for everything. 

Then I started stitching this for the grands.

I bought the pdf chart from Aliton Embroidery Etsy shop.

I'm still thinking about pulling out the gold and restitching in a darker gold.

Next up is sewing news. 

I finally made my blocks for our quilting group Christmas party.

I'll show you those after the party.

I cut out and sewed a new knit shirt. 

I'd show you but it's sitting on the machine waiting for a hem.

I love mixing up the textures of knits.

This is a raglan top with the stripes for the sleeves.

I pulled fabrics finally for the new Quiltville Mystery Frolic.

It took me a while to decide on my fabric.

I'm using stash and I have almost no blues at all.

I have lots of purples so that's what I'm using.

I thought about using bright yellow since I have very few aquas.

Daughter Crystal and I went mystery fabric shopping and

I decided to buy 1 piece of aqua and use that.

I did add a few more purples and of course I had to add to my neutral stash.

These aquas were put back in the bin.

I'm happy with my fabrics. 

I have not quilted anything since Hawaiian Sunset 1845.

I've made backs and now need to have a basting party.

I pulled out some little Churn Dash blocks to use as leader/enders 

and decided to finish making up these blocks 

so I can get them turned into the top I have designed in my head..

Of course it's not fun until the seam ripper comes out. 

It seemed like everything I touched that day had to be taken out and redone. 

Farm News

Hubby decided he wanted to hatch out some chicks.

He put 22 eggs in the incubator and we now have 19 babies.

We had a raccoon problem and lost quite a few of our hens.

The kids have fun with the names.

In this group are Peanut Butter, Peanut, Peanuts 1-5, Banana Split, Turtle.

Honestly I only know Peanut Butter because she is the only red chick. 

Always fun on the farm.

Until next time........

August UFO Challenge Project

WaaHoo! August's UFO Challenge is finally marked off the list. 

This is Hawaiian Sunset 1845.

This pattern is still available as a down load from Quilters Newsletter.

It really was a fun quilt to make.

I was so afraid to quilt it so I put it away for 6 long years.

How sad.

When I pulled it out of the bin, I was stumped as to what to quilt.

And then it came time to choose thread.

I decided a nice gray was perfect. 

I can't wait to wash it and see if the gray hides a bit more 

but if not, I'm happy with it.

While pin basting, I decided it was so busy it only needs a meander.

I was shocked that it only took 1 day to get it quilted. 

I sure do love my Sweet Sixteen.

It is now trimmed and ready for binding which was in strips in the binding box. 

That will happen today. 

When Ernie asked who it was for I told him I had no clue and

 that I really wanted to keep it for myself.

You can read all the stories about it here.

Funny How Time Slips Away

I can't believe how fast the tie is going by,.

Almost a month since I last posted. 

Not because I had nothing to say,

I just didn't write it.

Here is another UFO marked off the list.

I sure love my new to me Sweet Sixteen! 

This is Friends and Companions Designers Sew Along by Marcus Fabrics. (2014)

Here is the link to Marcus Fabrics page about the quilt but I didn't go down the rabbit hole to see if the links to the designers leads to the blocks. 

I do remember it was a fun quilt to make. 

I was ready to quilt a smaller quilt so I jumped ahead on my Judy L Challenge.

I used flannel for the back. 

Daughter Crystal and I attended our retreat last weekend.

I decided to focus on this UFO designed by Judy L and the September project for her challenge. 

I did a quick search of her page and found it here.

I had the center complete and the framing pieced border was on and border 3 was pieced.

I cut fabric for all the other borders and made this my first project.

I took all the extra fabric thinking I could piece the back.

Wrong, so  I pulled out a new project that I can't share yet. 

When I came home at night, I went into the backing stash 

and found a 6 yard piece of flannel. 

That wasn't enough so I grabbed all my flannel that went with my flannel.

That was my project for because I wanted to pass it to my long arm quilter friend Jane.

I take a picture of this old snag at each retreat. 

I had a blast hanging out with my daughter and my friends. 

I love these gals!!

Today my dear sweat friend Pam (Hey Pam!) read me a text from a high school friend Ruth.

So here's a message for you Ruth.

Heeeyyyy.  I am so jealous of your planned trip. 

Thanks for reading my blog.
One of these days we have to get together! 

Cross Stitch Project(s)

Since I haven't cross stitched in 35+ years, why not start with a big project?

Janlynn Antique Sewing Room on 14 count Aida cloth.

It will finish at 12" x 12".

I found this kit on Amazon.

All the floss came on this card.

What a mess. 

I have a bunch of plastic bobbins so I sat in front of the computer watching floss tube videos

and wound the floss onto them. 

While I watched one video, she showed her floss on some card stock thingies she made.

Then showed how to pull one thread at a time with her needle.

I'll have to go way back through my history to find that video.

Sorry, I can't remember who it was.

The light bulb went off in my head,

I have card stock and these punches.

I got to work and punched out a bunch of rectangles 

and put the grands to work punching the circles. 

I'll use these on my next project.

So I decided to work on one quarter at a time but

had a full needle of black floss so I just kept stitching on the machine.

Then started on the thread cabinet.

I have learned I'd rather stitch without a hoop.

This is where I left off a couple nights ago.

I now have most of the spools back stitched.

It sure makes a difference when they are outlined.

I have a few more kits but I've not started another project yet.

I'm trying to stay focused on this one because I love it so much.

One other thing I learned all on my own,

with the not the best quality floss in this kit,

if I run my threads over beeswax, they stitch so much better.

Let's hope the chasing of squirrels has calmed down now.

I don't have time for anything else.

Dinner?  Go ahead and make us whatever you want.