Finish # 20 and Quilts For Kids

Back on July 15, I wrote a post called Inspiration. I talked about "meeting" Debby at Quilty Pleasures. She had challenged herself to finish 50 quilts this year. So I counted my quilts that I've finished this year. July 15th I was working on finish #12. Tonight I finished # 20.

Oh I've done a whole lot more, I just haven't finished-quilting and binding- them all. winka winka Hopefully I will have a bigger number before the new year gets here.

This bright cute quilt is from a kit from Quilts For Kids. I signed up for a kit, they sent it to me, it took a couple hours to sew the top and I finished it tonight and right now it is in the washer with the purple disappearing 9 patch so I can mail both quilts to Quilts For Kids. All they ask is that you make the one they send you and make another one from your fabrics. Quilt, bind, wash and send both--or more--quilts to them.

If you are as blessed with your family as I am with mine, please take the time to make a couple quilts for Quilts for Kids. Just go to this website and click on Volunteer.

Design Wall-Week 26

26 Weeks of Design Wall Monday! That's awesome!! Thanks to Judy L. at Patchwork Times for starting this. It has kept me really motivated for the most part. This week, my design wall has the very same things on it as last week. But I've been busy, just not design wall busy.

I am finally in the mood to quit and had a goal for Saturday to quilt 3 baby quilts and at least load 1 big quilt. You all know how plans and goals work......goals are good, plans need to be realistic. I quilted the disappearing 9 patch first. Then I had to sit down and sew on the binding. May as well machine stitch that binding down and be finished with it. That wasn't in the original plan but I'm glad I did it.

Then I loaded on the another baby quilt. It has a bright orange back and bright lime, orange and yellow top. I had some orange thread so I decided I would just use it. Oh dear, it did not quilt nice at all! So I unloaded it and started to unquilt. I should have just loaded on quilt 3 and saved the unquilting for later but there was a movie starting.......you know the rest of the story. I got it unquilted and then I was finished for the day!

Bring about Sunday morning, I loaded up quilt 3 and started quilting. All of the sudden it was finished. I sewed the binding on and machine finished it. Today I am going to reload quilt 2, get it finished and quilt a big quilt. Then I have another big quilt to do and then another and another and another...

I started knitting a hat for Ian. I'm still working on my sock. It should be finished this week. Maybe!!!

Hat Models Part 2

What more can I say???
I have some pretty cute granddaughters!!!

Hat Models

Shopping on Black Friday?? No, not for me, especially not the day after Thanksgiving. No way, no how!!! Not going anywhere! I hope, if you did venture out for the bargains, you got what you went for without stress or fuss.

We had a great Thanksgiving with most of the family here. Lots of chatting, catching up and kids laughing and playing. I wish it would work out so everyone could be here but sometimes it just doesn't.

I finished knitting 2 more hats and had to have my special hat model pose with them. The girl does love the hats! The pink one is for great granddaughter Jaelynn and the gray/pink is for Taylor. (The button really goes on the side.) I'm waiting for pictures of the other hats on their owners. I hate it when I forget to take pictures of my projects!

I'm still knitting up my 2nd sock-working on the foot-just 2 more pattern repeats then on to the toe! I have my yarn ready to start the next pair. I have the next hat on the needles to work on when I want to pay attention to what's on tv.

Today I am doing laundry and getting ready to quilt 2 quilts. But first, I must continue working on organizing my sewing room. 2 bins and then I can quilt!!! Good plan Mike!

Design Wall-Week 25 & Some Babbling

Another non sewing week...I am not in a sewing mood, I want to knit. So knitting is what I have been doing. And going, I went somewhere almost every day last week and that isn't like me. And organizing......what a job!

As you can see, the Maple Leaf table topper is right where I left it last week. I don't know if it will be ready for Thanksgiving or not. If not, it will be ready next year. The Christmas tree blocks were won last year at a retreat. I think there are 20 some in the bag. I'm not sure what to do with them. I found the bag while organizing and pulled out three of the blocks to hang on the wall for something new to look at. Maybe these will be my quilting room decorations for the holidays. Oh that's a good one--use it if you want. Really, I think they will make nice wall hangings. I just need to get something for sashing and borders.


Picture #2 is what I've been working on all week. I finished the pink hat for GGD Jaelynn and started the gray hat for Taylor. The knitting is finished, I just need to take it to the store to find a fabulous button for it. I am 3 rows from turning the heel on my 2nd Monkey Sock. Oh it's hard not to start on different socks....but this is a challenge for myself. I don't want a bunch of knitting UFOs like I have quilts.

And a couple more dish clothes. We had a huge storm last night and the power went out at 3 Sunday morning--I know this because hubby woke me up to tell me--bless his little heart! He got up at 4:30 to go hunting and I stayed in bed until about 7 because it was very dark in my house. I finally rolled out, poured the left over coffee into a pan, set it on the woodstove to heat up--desperate times-desperate measures!!-and opened all the curtains to let in the day light. I couldn't get on line--laptop battery was dead! so I got out my Sock Sack with my dishcloth crocheting in it--very handy in my purse for waiting rooms, lines & stop lights!--and sat down, drank my warmed up coffee and finished one. Then went to work the second. I like using up bits of cotton yarn for my own dishclothes. And pretty dishclothes make me smile when I'm using them. So this is now back in my purse for when I need it.

The quilt on the longarm belongs to my friend Sharlene. Yummy flannel. I was happily crosshatching along when the first needle broke, then the second and then the 3rd. I decided to take a break from it today and I'll finish it tomorrow.

Head over to Patchwork Times and see what everyone else is up to. Design Wall Monday--my favorite day on the web. Thanks Judy L for keeping this going. (I say this on Sunday night, hoping it to be true on Monday morning. ;-)

Design Wall-Week 24

Not much new on the design wall. I did sew the leaf blocks together and put it back up on the wall to admire and yesterday I made a cute little Sock Sack to keep my sock project in. The Sock Sack is a freebie from Terry Atkinson. Very easy, very fast and very cute. I am going to make more of them. I think it took longer to make the bobble for the zipper and put the split ring on the pull than it did to make the bag. I ended up having hubby put the ring on.

See right there in the lower left corner of the picture? That is a bunch of batik blocks that need to go on the design wall and be made into a top. Wonder when that will happen!!

Last night while holding the couch down, I finally finished my first Monkey Sock and immediately cast on for the second sock and started the ribbing. I'm quite proud of myself for following the pattern and making the design. I know I made some mistakes but I'm not going to search the sock to find them. The picture makes the foot part look ginormous but it fits my fat foot just fine. The quilt under the sock is one of my favorite cuddle on the couch quilts. It was a free pattern from P & B Textiles that isn't listed anymore. :-( But they have lots of other really cool ones!

I have my next sock project already set aside with the instructions. I'm going to try 2 socks on 2 circular needles again. I need to hurry and finish Monkey Sock #2!

And I finished this dishcloth. It is a fun and fast pattern called A Practically Hyperbolic Dishcloth. I bought the pattern from Neatly Tangled Designs. I love using hand made dishclothes, they make me smile as I'm doing the dishes. This is one of my favorite dishclothes and makes a nice little giftie.

A ball of cotton yarn, my crochet hook and the directions will fit perfectly in a little Sock Sack to keep in my purse! I need to go in and find some cute fabric........

No School Fun

With today being Veteran's Day and no school, Taylor wanted to spend last night with us. So after a morning of lounging around, she wanted to play with the beads. I set her up at the table and she created herself a very pretty new necklace.

I hope she gets to keep it. I think her mom might try to take it and wear it. Maybe she'll share with mom. "Maybe she won't."

Wonder what we should do next~~~

Design Wall-Week 23

Here it is, another What's On Your Design Wall Monday (or Sunday). Judy L. at Patchwork Times keeps me on my toes sometimes, other times I feel like I'm falling on my nose. I try to have something going on my design wall but sometimes other things get in my way. Like this week was our 10th Annual Quilter's Retreat at Royal Ridges. I am so tired, all I want to do is sleep for 3 days but I have so much renewed energy, I just want to sew, sew, sew! 2 retreats in 2 weeks is a bit overwhelming but I'll do my best to carry on.

This week on my design wall are my 2 star BOM blocks for a very new Yahoo group. 2 blocks per month with one being paper pieced and by the end of the year, enough for a very nice sized quilt. I am using my stash of brights and Kona black. So far, I'm liking it. I did another 9" BOM for another group but I messed it up so bad that I am going to take it apart and remake it. The leaves were the winnings from a drawing at last year's retreat. I was hoping to have them turned into a table topper before retreat was here but that didn't happen. I got hung up on hat knitting! I'm hoping to have it finished this week so I can use it for a couple weeks before Christmas decorating gets here. I'm excited about putting up my wall hanging that I finished in July. But first, we must have Thansgiving.

I also completed 4 more blocks for another BOM that didn't last as long as I thought it was going to. I wanted to make 30 blocks total and I am almost there with 25 done. After spending time visiting and getting ideas for even more projects, I worked on a scrap project using some of my shorter 2 1/2" strips.

So head on over to Judy L's and see what everyone else is working on. Monday's are one of my favorite blog hopping days.....and then Tuesday, Wednesday........you get the picture!!!

Design Wall-Week 22

This has been a pretty exciting week. Not one stitch has been sewn, nothing is on the design wall. But I don't care because I have a new grandson! I may not have been sewing but I have been knitting. Hats, my grands need new hats. It all started when I made oldest granddaughter Ashlee (Happy 15th Birthday Ash) a new beret. I can't show you yet because she hasn't seen it.

This little princess is Miss Clella, Leland's sister. She has a new job besides being big sister. She is Gramma's hat model. And hat models do not like it when you try to take their picture when they are having cereal and milk. They also do not want to take off big brother's hat while having cereal and milk.

After making Ashlee's beret, I wanted more hat yarn. We went yarn shopping at Craft Warehouse but I didn't find the kind of yarn I was looking for to use on a different pattern. But I did find some James C. Brett Marble Chunky acrylic yarn. (Link is just to show you a picture) This is a really nice, soft, smooshy yarn and makes a very nice hat, as you can see on the model. I used a free pattern from Red Heart called Gotcha Covered. I have enough yarn left to make a hat for Jonah when it's his turn.

This cute pink hat is called Robin's Egg Blue and is a free free pattern from Rachel Iufer . I used smaller needles and made fewer rows. The yarn is called Sensations Angel Hair, an acrylic, wool, nylon blend and the color is posy. It is very soft and I think she likes it. I have enough left for Jaelynn a little hat.

I have Amanda's hat on the needles now. It's called The Amanda Hat (How could I resist that one!) and I found it on Ravelry which lead me to Sleepy Eyes Knitting for the pattern. Taylor's will be the same yarn as Amanda's and the same pattern as Clella's unless I find a pattern I like better.

Before buying any more hat yarn, I need to check with Ian, Ashton, Orien and Big Taylor--what if they don't want Gramma to make them hats. Oh, that will make me sad!!! That's OK, I know my girls like them. I better get knitting! I don't want my babes to have cold ears.......

Lots of other quilters do have things on their design wall. Go on over to Judy L's at Patchwork Times and see what's happening.