Dear Nancy,

Dear Nancy,

I wish I could express what you have meant to me over the years. As a wife and mother of 4, I have very little time to go to town to take any sewing related classes. I am basically self taught other than a wonderful Aunt that would help me over the phone, my sweet Mother In Law that left us too early, a little bit of help in my high school home ec classes and trial and error.  As much as my own mother tired to help me, she did not enjoy sewing at all.

One Saturday by chance, I turned on the TV and there you were.  We didn't often watch channel 10 except in the mornings for Sesame Street so I don't know why the tv was on that channel. It must have been fate. What I saw thrilled me to pieces. I have spent many hours with you, you have taught me so much. Little tips and tricks that have stayed with me all these years.  I have a collection of VHS tapes that are only your TV shows. I have a notebook of what is on each tape. One time I almost threw them away but I just couldn't do it.  I remember when I bought 10-20-30 Minutes to Sew. What a thrill it was for me to have a book written by "my TV friend Nancy".

One Saturday morning in the recent past, my adult son came into the house while you were on tv. He says "Is She still on tv???"  How sweet, he remembered!!!  I love that my children know who you are and I think they know how important it was that I spent some of my Saturday mornings with you.

I'm sending you well wishes and strength as you face your current medical issues.

Your Friend,
Judy

You can watch the video message from Nancy here.

Design Wall Monday

Weill things did not go as planned last week. After spending all day Monday full of frustration over my fabulous Brother sewing machine, I had to give up and switch out machines. I decided it was time to use my Morse while Brother goes to the spa. Which I hope will happen one day this week.  

Since there is no quilting in my week, I decided to work  on my current leader/ender project-Tumalo Trail which is found in Bonnie Hunter's book Scraps & Shirttails II. I've been making 9 patches for quite a while-you need lots of them and then the half square triangles, I did in groups of 4 so the set for each block was together. 

It's fun when the project turns from leader/ender to the project.  I love using my little design boards (Link is to Lori Holt's tutorial) to lay out 6 blocks at a time. (I must really like this lay out and stack method as you can see here and here.)  By the time they are sewn together, it's time to get up and move around. On the right you can see my new leader/ender project, Bonnie's cover quilt from Quiltmaker magazine called Garden Party.

As always, I have a bit of help from Miss Shirley while trying to get a good picture of my current UFO project.  Goals for the week? I don't have a clue...but I need to:

• finish planting the garden
• take machine to the shop
• get ready for retreat next week

I think that's enough pressure for me. :)  Maybe I'll work on some of last week's goals too. 

This morning I'll be spending some time touring Blogland as I read what others have on their design walls.  Check them out at Patchwork Times-Design Wall Monday.

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.

Life On The Farm

I walked down to the mailbox yesterday afternoon and on the way back up the hill I hear buzzing. I looked up in the tree and there is a big ole swarm of bees. So I put the walk into overdrive and called son in law Mike. He and Crystal have bees on their farm also.  They came over to capture the swarm and put them into a new hive.

Mike usually gets stung a few times while working with the bees but I don't think he did this time.  One trip up the ladder results in a bin full of bees.

He think he captured the queen because of how the bees are on the outside of the box.  He made another trip up the ladder to get more of the bees.. Unreal to me how many bees are there!

 Corbin and Leland got a little bored staying back and out of the way. Is there anything cuter than 2 little boys resting in the grass!!  We think all is good so the family heads home.

A few hours later Ernie comes home from work and I'm telling him of the great bee adventure. He goes to check on them and those darn bees are back in the tree. That means the queen wasn't captured and the drones are back protecting her. He's surprised the swarm is still in the tree.

So up the ladder he goes to get the bees again. He goes up twice but isn't convinced the queen is in the hive.  He comes to the house to get his little saw and up the ladder he goes again to cut off the branch with the remaining bees. They are also delivered to the hive.

After another hour or so, he goes back down and the bees are still in the hive. That's a good thing.  I'll check on them in a while to see if they are flying in and out. I will not open the lid. I'm not that brave!

Live on our farm is never dull.  Thanks Mike and Crystal, Leland and Corbin for helping me out. Cross your fingers for us.....this beekeeping is challenging work sometimes.

Design Wall Monday

 I finished the Framed 9 Patch top I showed last week . My original plan was to make it 4 x 5 and decided to go 5 x 5 instead. I added 2" and 5" borders.  54 inch square quilt is a nice sized cuddly quilt. Covers both mom and baby. Now it's time to piece the back, make the binding and get this quilted.

I decided to work on a UFO from last year. This is the 2014 BOM from The Hexi Blog.  When I opened the bin, only 2 blocks were completed. All the background fabric squares were cut and waiting for applique.  Including this sun, I now have 3 more blocks ready to applique.

My plans for the week were interrupted by the flu bug. 2 sick days and another to recoup put me way behind. Good thing I had the hexies ready to work.

I'm just going to copy the goal list from last week and keep working on it. It's nice to have at least one thing marked off the list.

This week I continue the list from last week: 

• Finish this baby quilt.  Done
• Make a second baby quilt.
• Pin baste both of the baby quilts.
• Finish cutting strips for retreat swap.
• Piece batting for the next big quilt. (My roll is gone so now I must use up what I have stored away in boxes.)
• Baste the 2 baby quilts and the next big quilt.

See what Blogland friends are working on this week at Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday.

April Quilt Finishes

My second Scrappy Sister's Choice.

Fun with Batiks.

The Elk Quilt for Hunting Club.

Being ready for the hunting club picnic early feels good.

Not near as good as crossing 2 more UFOs off my list.

Next!

Design Wall Monday

A while back, I participated in a bright and white 9 patch swap with an internet group. I swapped 6 sets of 10 blocks so I have a very nice variety of 9 patches.  I think I only got one of my own back. That's a lot of block swapping!!!

It's so nice to have something on my design wall......it's been a while. I love simple framed blocks. These will finish at 8 inches so I am thinking a 4 x 5 setting with 2 borders will make a nice size crib quilt.

I quilted 2 quilts this week. They are finished-complete with labels.  I kept thinking Sunday would have been a good day to take them outside for pictures but kept getting sidetracked.  Today will be another sunny day so I'll make sure to get photos before the rain returns to the Pacific Northwest.

My goals for last week were surpassed. I surprised myself. A good audio book helped keep me at the machine.

This week I would like to:

• Finish this baby quilt.
• Make a second baby quilt.
• Pin baste both of the baby quilts.
• Finish cutting strips for retreat swap.
• Piece batting for the next big quilt. (My roll is gone so now I must use up what I have stored away in boxes.)
• Baste the 2 baby quilts and the next big quilt.

This should keep me out of trouble.

See what others have on their design walls at Patchwork Times.

Pantry/Freezer Challenge-The Results

Oh my, the aroma in my house yesterday and overnight was amazing. It smelled like garden fresh tomatoes. Which is exactly what the tomatoes that I showed yesterday were when they went into my freezer.

My original plan was to make one crockpot full of tomato sauce and one of pizza sauce and to can them. I guess I didn't think my plan through enough because there is a ratio of tomatoes to lemon juice for canning tomato sauce and I didn't follow a recipe for that.  So, better to be safe than sorry, to the freezer these go! From the bulk food section of Winco, I had bought a pizza seasoning mix so I started dumping it in until it tasted good.

I ended up with 18 of these half pint Ball containers for the freezer. The perfect amount for one pizza on my home made crust. But first I'm going to go grab 1 of them out and make some pepperoni rolls and use it for dipping sauce. Mmmmm.

Pantry/Freezer Challenge

I am on a mission to empty out 1 old chest freezer.

It needs to be gone and replaced with a new upright.

I like having 2 freezers because you know I hate to shop.

I want my freezers and my pantry full.

Just in case.

Today's mission is to get all of the frozen whole tomatoes into the crockpot.

Did you know if you freeze them whole? 

They take up a lot of real estate.

When you thaw them, the skins come right off.

This will be really good tomato sauce.

Probably tomorrow.

It takes a long time in the crockpot.

Lesson learned...don't freeze any more tomatoes.

I figured what the heck and pulled out all the cut up tomatoes too.

The second crockpot will be full of those.

I think I will make this pizza sauce.

I'm not sure how much sauce I'll get out of all these.

I'd rather have it in jars than in the freezer.

I'll look up the pressure cooking time to see if it's the same as for canning dry beans.

Can't run the pressure cooker half full.

Too be continued.

Design Wall Monday

I have nothing on my design wall.

It will be a week full of quilting.

I had a very successful week of reaching my goals from last week's Design Wall Monday post.

So successful that I was able to start quilting this quilt Saturday afternoon 

after basting it and another in the morning. 

Why not baste 2, the tables were already set up 

and Jersey Boys was on tv.

The elk quilt for hunting club is finished!!! 

(I need to hang it up to take a full picture.)

Yeah-2 months ahead of time.

Monday afternoon I sewed the binding on and started to stitch it down that night.

Then a bit more on Tuesday.

Wednesday I took it go Binding Friends group

and left there with it finished!!!  

Great help from Marian and Granddaughter Taylor 

(who is now officially a Binding Friend since this was her first binding.)

Thank you so much ladies!

Next up I finished the Della Wallets from Swoon Patterns.

I delivered them to Taylor and Lacey.

They both loved them. 

Friday afternoon I made backs for the next 2 quilts.

Goals for this week are pretty simple:

• Finish the batik boxy quilt.
• Start quilting the 2nd Sister's Choice.

Finishes

Goal number 2 has been marked off my list. The top wallet was made for camo and Duck Dynasty loving Taylor.  The bright pink was made for Lacey.  I delivered them this morning and they both love them.

This afternoon I made the backs for the two quilts I want to baste tomorrow.  Everything is ready to start bright and early. I'm crossing my fingers that I can be quilting by afternoon.

Meeting Goals

I'm working hard to meet the weekly goals I set for myself.

First up is to finish the elk quilt.

Monday morning, bright and early, I set up my table and trimmed the quilt.

While the table was set up, 

 I cut out 2 Della Wallets.

Why not keep cutting, I have a retreat in a few weeks.

I took out a bin that said bright 2 1/2" strips to cut a new quilt.

When I opened the bin I found that I already had a plan for those strips.

I decided to go with that plan and cut and made kits for several blocks.

This will be a baby quilt when it is finished.

I even have the pretty pink flannel for the back.

May as well get the batting and binding ready too.

Where did that plan come from??? 

After dinner, I sewed the binding on and started stitching it down.

My goal was to stitch and watch The Voice.

I made it through the first hour before my eyes gave up.

This quilt will be finished soon.

I am going to start basting this quilt in a few minutes.

Yes, I am a bright and early person.

On a farm related note, 

I forgot to write about the new babies.

Friday, April 3rd, 12 baby chicks followed me home.

5 Buff Orpingtons

2 Black Australorps

and 5 Golden Sexlinks

Sadly one didn't make it but 11 are growing like baby chicks do. 

Today is going to be a busy day.

But first, I need another cup of coffee!

Design Wall Monday

I'm happy to say the elk quilt for the hunting club is quilted. Today I will trim it and sew on the binding.  I will be happy to mark this project off my list for another year. This quilt measures about 72 x 94. Whoever wins it will be quite cozy bundled up with the flannel backing. I did a medium meander for the quilting. I think Quilt Inspector Polly approves.

I didn't do very well with my goal list from last week.  I now need to make 2 Swoon Della Wallets.  I decided to have the gals pick their own fabrics. Once you've made one, they go really fast. I love using mine. I've bought several of the Swoon patterns and have been real happy with the ones I have made.

I did work on a couple Pineapple Crazy Blocks but I put them away again. I have the next quilt ready to pin baste and I hope I have enough pins to baste another one while I have the tables set up.  I think it takes longer for me to set up the tables and get started than it does to pin the quilt.

I'm quite excited about the next 2 quilts. I can't wait to start quilting them.  I like that I already know how I want to quilt each of them.

My goals for this week are short and sweet.

• Finish the elk quilt
• Sew 2 Della Wallets
• Pin baste 2 quilts

See what everyone is working on at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

Look at me recycling an old photo of my Pineapple Crazy blocks.  I'm too lazy to go take a picture of the newest blocks and I love how it looks with them layed out. It inspires me to sew like a mad woman.

Sadly these have been put on hold while I work on the elk quilt for the hunting club. Sort of on hold, I ran out of papers and coincidentally out of printer ink. So new ink has been bought and installed and as I write this post, blocks are being printed. I'm hoping to stay focused on the elk quilt and not call squirrel on itty bitty pieces of fabric.

After some household chores this morning, the tables will be set up and the basting of the elk quilt will begin.  Maybe the quilting will start today too.  What I really want to work on though are these Pineapple Crazy blocks.

I have a list of goals for my sewing this week.

• baste, quilt and bind the elk quilt 
• I think I need to buy some brown thread for the binding-I'd better check on that
• finish the wallet I'm working on
• make a few more Pineapple Crazy blocks

That's probably enough for this week.  First I am going to see what others are working on at Patchwork Times and drink another cup of coffee.

On The Needles

You know that sometimes I need to work on something new feeling?

I had that this week.

I was clearing out some stuff and came across a bag that had the Dreambird shawl in it.

I knew I would never, ever finish it.

I just isn't me. 

So I pulled it out, or I tired to.

Not an easy unknit.

I decided to make myself a Lillian scarf.

The yarn is Chroma Fingering Yarn from KnitPicks.

Don't you love the colors of the verigated?

Grays to pinks to lavender. 

The pattern doesn't call for fingering yarn or size 5 needles.

I cast on double the amount of stitches.

Cross your fingers that it works out for me.

I've made Lillian before.

This one was gifted to daughter Dee last year.

She loves it.

Again, not the yarn or needle size called for in the pattern.

Will I ever make this according to the pattern?
I just might.

See what others have on their needles at Patchwork Times.

PS: the Blueberry Waffle socks from last week have been fixed

and more progress was made on toe up socks-I'm almost at the gusset.

Design Wall Monday

I've spent my sewing time working on this quilt for the hunting club using the BQ4 design. I have most of the blocks put together. I think there are 6 left to finish sewing.  I'd sure like to have the top and back finished this week.

I decided this quilt needed a flannel back and I'll do a large meander for the quilting. Binding is a dark brown.

Granddaughter Taylor was here this weekend and fell in love with it and hopes to win it. She won last year's quilt, her mother won the year before.

Check out other  great design walls today at Patchwork Times.

On The Needles

The real title of this post should be

Sock Week

(Notice that play on Shark Week???)

Saturday we went to a banquet.

The drive was almost an hour so I made some good progress on my Plain Janes.

It was pouring rain so I just put my head down and the needles were flying.

I finished my Blueberry Waffle Socks.

They are too small.

I swear I measured 7" before I started to decrease the for the toe.

I need to stop swearing!

I am going to take this out and make the foot longer.

I want to wear these without regret!

The lesson learned here is to not use a tape measure but

use the 7" knitting needle I keep in my knitting bag instead.

Then the numbers won't confuse me!!!

Remember these funky socks I started back in January?

I pulled them out and started over.

One day I'll make this pattern but I'll do a stockinette sole

and probably start from the top.

I wasn't happy with having the pattern on the sole.

Even though it probably wouldn't be a problem.

Or I was more worried about the gusset and heel turn.

I wanted to make toe up so I found Glacier Lake Toe Up Socks.

Simple pattern, good instructions. 

She has very good row by row instructions for the gusset and heel turn.

I'll use one of my good fitting socks to measure against 

for when to start the gusset.

See what others are working on this week at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

I've been having a blast in the scrap bags this week. 

I finished the 5 blocks that were started last week and

finished 10 more!!!

And they have all been de-papered.

My totals now are 130 pineapple blocks and 25 border blocks.

They are now all put away because a new project must be started.

It's that time of year again when I make the hunting club a quilt as a raffle prize for our annual picnic.

These are the fabrics I am using this year.

I'm using the BQ4 pattern to show off this fabulous elk fabric.

My friends were at the Sew Expo in Puyallup and spotted the fabric for me at one of the vendors.

A quick phone call to me and an internet search and my focus fabric was secured!

I do have the best friends!!!

See what others are working on at Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday

With everything that has been happening around here,

sewing time has been at a minimum.

The weather has been awesome-sorry to anyone that is snow bound-

so lots of time has been spent outside.

I've been working on my Castle Wall blocks.

The bear block was the first one I cut out and

tried to sew, I wasn't happy with it so it didn't get finished.

Then I decided it belonged in the quilt as it is part of this story.

Now I'm happy with it.

These are blocks 13-17 of the 56 I need.

(Old photo alert!)

I also worked on Pineapple Crazy.

I finished the 5 blocks in this photo, 

finished 5 more and

started a new set of 5.

The bags of scraps don't seem to be getting any smaller!

See what others have on their design wall this week at Patchwork Times.

Time to grab a cuppa and spend time with my friends in Blogland.

Design Wall Monday

There is nothing on the design wall.

No sad face here.

My version of Bonnie's Sister's Choice (#1 of 2) is done!

I quilted and quilted and finally I was able to bind and wash and dry.

My favorite part of quilting is taking the quilt warm from the dryer.

It gets a big hug before inspecting.

That means another UFO marked off the list.

The next one is already for basting.

That long UFO list is getting shorter and shorter!

I love a pieced back.

The light blue and green fabrics came from friends at a retreat.

If I remember right, someone's aunt had these fabrics.

I feel bad because I can't remember who brought them.

I thanked them then, I thank them now.

I needed 2 widths of fabric so I  added some of my own fabric, 

snipped and ripped and made a fun back.

Shirley tested it.

I swear trying to lay out a quilt with her around is more work that if there were 5 toddlers!

Fun story time.

Saturday afternoon I was on the phone with daughter Crystal about our sewing.

She was working on a wallet using a Swoon pattern.

They have the best patterns!!!

That lead me to look at their page again which lead me to buy 2 new patterns.

That lead me to post on Facebook how much I enjoy talking to my daughter about sewing

and that lead me to buying patterns.

That also lead to a conversation with someone else and that lead them to buying patterns.

*snicker, snicker*

I asked Ernie if he wanted to run into town so I could go to JA's so I could get some bag making supplies and we could go out to dinner.

I wanted a cheeseburger from Carl's Jr.

I picked out fabrics and supplies for 2 bags.

I had to go to the cotton fabric section to look for lining fabrics.

As I'm walking down the isle, this bicycle fabric jumped into my basket.

A brand new bolt!

Someone posted it to the Quiltville Open Studio Facebook page 

and bicycle fabric is all the rage for the back of Grand Illusion.

How could I not buy it!

For Christmas, I received gift cards for JoAnn's.

When I was using them, the gal asked if I wanted the $2.32 left on the card

or did I want the cash.

I took the cash.

I have never used a gift card that I didn't have to add money to.

After dinner, 

I told Ernie that this was the perfect date night.

He went to the Sportsman's store and I got the perfect fabric.

And we ate dinner at our favorite hamburger place.

Check out all the fabulous Design Wall Monday posts at

Patchwork Times. 

I love Monday in Blogland!!