June's UFO Complete! WaaHoo!!

The 2014 Hexi BOM turned out cute!

Again I ask myself why did I wait so long.

A cute back.

This is for my grandson Leland.

He doesn't ask for much and when he first saw it, he loved all the blocks.

Today I asked him if he wanted it.

You should have seen that precious face light up.

It was fun to try to write words.

 Hugs, hearts, kisses and love.

This was a pretty good book. 

Not greatly exciting but it held my interest and kept me quilting.

Now that I am caught up with this years UFO Challenge from Patchwork Times,

I need to hunt down July's UFO.

It's in there somewhere.

Edited to add cuteness.

He likes his new quilt.

May UFO Is Finally Finished!

I'm still behind on my 2018 UFO Challenge.

June's quilt is up next.

I'm so excited to have this finished the May UFO.

It took longer to quilt than I thought it would but

you really need to sit at the machine to get things done.

I'm a firm believer in finished is better than perfect and

this is far from perfect! 

I used flannel for the back and

quilted it with lots of curves and swirls.

It was pretty fun.

About mid way I wondered why I didn't just meander!

Really I wanted to practice free motion curves and there were a lot of them!

It's now in the washer and will live at the beach as a sit outside and cuddle quilt.

I've pulled out the June project.
I made the backing and the binding.
I'm ready to baste it and get started on it.

March UFO Progress & April UFO Plan

Well the March UFO Plan didn't exactly go as planned.

I didn't have enough leftover sashing fabric for piano keys.

I did have enough to make a fun pieced scrappy border though.

Some time early in the month, 

my quilting mojo went missing.

Pardon my folding creases as this had been folded (with seams to the inside)

and put back in her storage bin.

My mojo is back now so maybe the quilting will happen in April.

Or maybe not. 😉

Some UFO project is better than no progress. 

That's my story.

Judy L chose #1 for April.

My Millefiore!

I love this quilt so much.

I have great plans for her.

First is the border. 

This picture does not show the gray fill in pieces for the edges.

They are on there, I swear.

I can't believe I didn't take a picture of that!!

Here's my plan.

Press one edge at a time.

Remove those papers.

Applique it to the inner border of the same color.

After all four sides are finished,

attach the outer border.

The quilting plan and thread have been mapped out for months. 

That's going to be a big project

so prep work for quilting is all I plan to do this month.

I have to get other things ready for retreat in May.

See how others have done with their UFO projects at

Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

Not much happening around here that involves a design wall.

I have been playing with my new coverstitch machine.

You may have read about Judy L's and my antics over the past few days.

It started on Facebook and then went to her blog.

I haven't had this much fun on the computer in a long time.

Facebook posts, blog posts, emails,

the fun went on for days and I think will continue for several more days

as we share our passion for our new machines.

Here are my first test stitches. 

I hadn't even changed out the nails they call needles.

I was too excited.

I have yet to use it on any garments but hopefully that will change today. 

While waiting for my machine to arrive, 

I made some progress on my March UFO.

The final borders are on and the binding is ready to be made.

I need to piece some batting scraps together and get this basted.

That will not happen today.

I need to focus on my project for the March Quiltathon that is happening this weekend.

And that will only happen for me if Washington State does not open clamming at our beach.

If it does, we are out of here. 😀

See what others are working on at Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall Monday...

...Retreat Report

Retreats are always so much fun.

Retreats with your daughter and 10 other close friends are even more fun.

That's what I did this past weekend.

Day 1 started with making these pillow cases for a horse loving granddaughter.

It always fun to have a TaDah moment early on.

Then I went to work on Pineapple Crazy.

Thursday and Friday resulted in 10 more blocks.

I decided Saturday would be UFO day.

I took along the blocks from 2014 BOM at The HEXIE Blog.

At our May retreat, I finished appliqueing the motifs to the background.

We won't go into the details of the sashing cut too short and

 the blocks having to be trimmed down a bit.

Now the blocks are sashed and the top is sewn together.

I can't wait to quilt it and gift it.

After the BOM top was finished I pulled out the new project.

This is called Between Friends Junior from

The Happy Hour book by Atkinson Designs.

This was a kit I had bought several years ago.

I just had to have the right person in mind before starting.

Sometimes that takes a while.

The blocks are ready to be layed out.

I'll do this Wednesday at Binding Friends group.

Deciding a layout is more fun with friends.

Sunday morning I decided to make 2 more Pineapple blocks.

It was raining and gloomy,

perfect for sewing while we waited for the storm to blow over before loading the cars.

The storm didn't blow over.

We loaded our cars in the rain.

Retreat was a blast.

I love to bring my friends over with me to the super scrappy side of quilting.

Marian showed her fabulous black and batik Pineapple Crazy quilt.

I thought she needed a new scrappy project so I introduced her to Wild & Goosey.

I showed my few blocks and hope to be seeing several other friends

 with W & G quilts one of these days.

I didn't sew any more W & G blocks but I did take 5 sections out of 4 blocks and 

turn them the correct direction.

Better to catch that now than when the quilt is finished.

Thanks Marian. 

I predict very little sewing this week due to other things.

My mind will be working overtime planning for the next retreat.

I'm headed over to Patchwork Times to see what others have on their design walls.

Slow Stitching Sunday

It's been a while since I've done a Slow Stitching post.  Over 2 months! But I've been stitching. I chose last year's BOM from The Hexi Blog as my next UFO to work on.  I have these 4 designs machine to applique to the background squares. Only the green 4 leaf clover is pinned on and I see I need to adjust it before stitching. The others are just laying there.  It feels good to be over half way now with the designs. The next block is a basket and it's half finished already.  My goal is one block every 2 or 3 days.  I think I can, I think I can!!!

It's been fun digging in the scrap bins that were sorted by color for just the right fabrics. I think my biggest challenge is finding pieces large enough to cover my 3/4" hexies. I am wondering if I will ever be able to lay something out on my bed without help from Miss Shirley. If that happens, I'm sure Miss Polly will be right there to help me.  I've raised very helpful kitties!

I have worked on my Castle Wall project too. Lots of hand stitching happening in my living room. Ernie asked me if I have given up knitting.  No Silly Man! Stitching is my current obsession, knitting will crowd it's way in again one of these days, don't you worry.

After the 20th block, I had to put it up on the wall to see and share.  It's now back in it's protective bin. The next block is in my to go box for working on at Wednesday's Binding Friends group.  I can talk and stitch and laugh with the ladies while making good progress on my block.

Check out what others are doing with their Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts.

Thursday Fun

I played in the sewing room today. 

I finished my The HEXIE Blog February BOM .

I made the Wishes Quilt Along February BOM.

I'm all caught up on the 3 BOMs I'm doing this year.

While at the beach the a couple weeks ago, we visited Boardwalk Quilts.

Right away we spotted this cute little panel for a soft book.

Grandson Corbin is Monkey crazy so we had to get it.

I can't wait to give it to him.

It feels good to get these projects marked off the list.

It feels better to have my blocks caught up before the middle of the month.

You know what I mean, don't you.

Slow Stitching Sunday

I thought about titling this post The Dangers in Blogland because I have stumbled upon another BOM. This is 3 new projects for me this month! Julia at The HEXIE Blog has started a new BOM.

I'm straying a bit from the instructions and using 3/4" hexagon papers because that is the punch I have and since this is a scrap/stash quilt, I figured everything including the supplies should come from stash. You can find January's block here. It really didn't take too long to stitch the 30 hexies together. I machine blind stitched them to the background. Since my hexies are smaller, I cut my background square 14". It worked out perfect for the amount of fabric I had. I cut all 12 pieces and had 1" leftover for the Pineapple Crazy bin.

See where it's puckering a bit. I need to go back and fix that. That is going to drive me crazy!  I'll put some tissue paper behind for stabilizer.

Today Kathy talks about taking care of your hands. I noticed the other day that whenever I use olive oil or coconut oil, I spread it with my hands. Then I rub my hands together using the oil for hand lotion. I have nice soft hands. If you do this, be careful what you touch until it is all soaked in or you wash it off.

Today I'm linking up with other Slow Stitchers at Kathy's Quilts. Tomorrow I will show you great progress on my Grandmother's Flower Garden.