45 Minute Focus

I had to water the garden this morning. I let the sprinkler run for 90 minutes. If I don't set my handy dandy little timer, I forget to turn it off. I clip it to my shirt or put it in my pocket so I will hear it. Then I did a few house chores and when I looked at the timer, I still had 45 minutes before going back outside. I headed to the sewing room.

I put 2 more rows of hexagons together. I pinned them, sewed them, pressed them. Then I had 7 minutes left so I pinned 2 more rows before the timer went off.


I also worked on the 4 blocks of my current leader/ender project that were laid out on my little design frame that stays close to the machine.

I went out and turned off the sprinkler, loaded the washer, then wrote this post. I think if I can keep up with my focus projects, I may be caught up before too long. Ding, ding, the timer went off, computer time is up! I'll set the timer for 45 minutes of more sewing time while the washer is working it's magic.

Design Wall Monday

Would you look at that wall! Not only did I not sew any hexagons this week, I am not caught up with Pat Sloan's Meadow Breeze BOM. I am on part 4, with 5 being posted. I'm hoping to be caught up this week because part 6 will be posted next week.

Why am I stalling on those darn hexagons! Maybe I should get my FOCUS sign back out. I really have no good excuses, I haven't had anything to can-I put the raspberries in the freezer instead of making jam, I haven't spent a bunch of time in the garden. I don't really know what I did, but the hexes have not moved! Therefore, my quest continues to get caught up in July.

Go on over to Judy L's, she doesn't have a design wall photo this week because she has been working her tail off in her kitchen but you can see what others have on their design wall.

Stash Report 7.11.10

I'm using July as my Get Caught Up Month. I have BOMs and Quilt Alongs that need to be brought up to date or finished. First up is the hexagon project from last Monday's design wall. I'm far enough along on it now to report the fabric used. A few seams here, a few there should have the top finished soon.

I sure hope no one posts another project any time soon that I have to participate in! I jump in with both feet, then.........you know what happens! Oh admit it, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

This week's report:
Used this Week: 5 yards
Used Year to Date: 157 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 133 yards
Net Used for 2010: 24

Go over to Patchwork Times, visit with Judy L and then visit other stash busters.

Garden Fun Update

I was reading Stephanie's blog-Scraps and see she has an update on her tipsy tower. Since I basically copied her tipsy tower, I thought I would show an update of mine too. I moved mine after telling hubby I needed his help to pound the rebar into the ground more. He told me if I pounded it in anymore, I would be going right into the sewer line. Whoopsie...... So I moved it to the front of the deck and pounded the rebar in the ground too far to put the fifth pot on.
This is a pot full of wave petunias that Taylor planted last week. They are doing great in their new home.
I love looking out the window and seeing all the colorful pots. They make me happy.
The wheelbarrow is looking full and fantastic. I think today would be a good day to give it a drink of Miracle Grow and see if that stuff really works. (I know it does!)

Mystery Quilt

I have been keeping a huge secret and it was killing me!!! I had the honor of being a pattern tester for Judy L's June Mystery. I've had my blocks put together for a couple weeks but only put on the borders last night~why do I stall at the borders! I knew today was the reveal so I spent my sewing time yesterday finishing my top.

I cannot wait to quilt it! But I need to get some backing. I want to use my favorite light blue flannel so will wait until I am in town. No sense making a special trip for it, I have other things that need quilted first. But it is first on my errand list!!!

In A Few Minutes

I LOVE this block! Moose on the Porch Quilts posted the newest block yesterday so I sat down and sewed it up this morning. Behind it are the hexagon blocks and they are not moving until it's time to sew them into rows! So the dark corner squares are a bit lost in the photo.

I'd really like to use up the strips that are left in the 2 bags to finish this quilt. Maybe a simple narrow sashing--I have a bag stuffed full of 1 1/2" strips and piano key border and my favorite scrappy binding. I'll have to do some serious math to get this one figured out. I wonder if EQ7 can figure it out for me. I think not, I have to do it my way--trial and error. Pull the strips out of the bag, sew them together and cut them apart.........

Design Wall Monday

This is what my design wall kind of looks like right now. I don't remember if I moved any more hexagons around after taking this photo. Arranging these so it was pleasing to me was hard work. I even used my phone a friend lifeline.

These are my hexagons that I did with Jaybird Quilts hexagon-quilt-along. I started the first week in May, didn't keep up very well but I'm on a roll now. The first 2 sections are sewn together. I'm not sure what is happening around here today but hubby isn't working so who knows what adventure we will have.

Grab yourself something good to drink and maybe a snack. Head over to Judy L's to check her wall and the great walls of others.

Stash Report 7.4.10

Happy Independence Day! I hope you are spending it the way you want to.

Not much sewing went on this week. I finished my mini and made more hexagons. You will see my project in my Design Wall Monday post. I love the mini quilts but the fabric usage doesn't add up very fast. Of course nothing adds up too fast when you don't put in much sewing time.

I am hoping the second half of the year sees the net number continue to increase as my UFO number continues to decrease.

This week's report:
Used this Week: 1 yards
Used Year to Date: 152 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 133 yards
Net Used for 2010: 19

Visit Judy L, see her amazing numbers and then visit with other stash reporters.

Garden Fun-Day 3 and A Mini Quilt

Day 3 has us a bit slow. I think we are both a little wore out. After time in the sewing room, I spent time in the vegetable garden and Taylor vegged in front of the computer for a while. Then it was time for some serious digging in the dirt and a new flower pot. The wave petunias were the same price as the others so we now have a bowl of super pink waves for the deck.

While Taylor slept this morning, I worked on my mini. After she got up, I told her to tell me when it was 9:00 and I would quit sewing. But at 9, I only needed a few more minutes to finish this up. I hung it up on my photo wall and I like it there. It needs company though so I will be making another real soon.

I didn't notice how off the top right and bottom left HSTs are--wow! How'd I miss those? Too late now, I'm just going to call it personality!

Garden Fun-Day 2

Taylor and I decided to get more flowers for Day 1's flower bed. So we jumped in the car and headed up to the local nursery. As we were driving in, I saw the sign....June 30th, last day, closing for the season. :~( We grabbed our big wagon and went into the flower shop. There were lots and lots of petunias and we had lots of space for them so we started to fill up our wagon. We found a few other things too. :~)

As we walked around, Taylor kept spotting different containers used for flower pots. Then she spotted the old wheelbarrow full of petunias....we have an old wheelbarrow--the plan was hatched!
We loaded up the car, came home, put on our new fancy garden gloves and got busy. Can you see the flat tire? Do you have any idea how hard it is to drag a wheelbarrow half full of compost dirt with a flat tire?? Trust me, it's hard! So Tay started to lay out the flowers, I grabbed the wagon and a couple buckets to get more dirt.

We planted and filled in until we thought it was perfect. See the big rock in the sunlight? It has a drill hole in it--hubby finds them at work and brings them home for me! Lucky me!!! I have lots of them around but this one is the only one with a flower planted in it! Please let me remember to water it.......

I think she did a fabulous job with her project. What do you think???

Garden Fun

After picking Taylor up, we headed to Home Depot to return a mower belt. We went to the garden section to get some more pots for another tipsy tower but they didn't have what we wanted so we bought a few flowers for a new flower bed. We stopped at the pepperoni store, then the library to enroll in the summer reading program and fill our book bag up, grabbed a couple Subway sandwiches and headed home to garden.

First we had to fix strawberries for the dehydrator, then we played in the dirt. Tomorrow we are going up to the local nursery to get some more plants and we have to put up a fence to keep the dogs and chickens out!

After dinner and dishes tonight, we climbed into the hot tub and now it's time to read for a while and sleep! Tomorrow is another full dirt day in the veggie garden and flower beds.

Design Wall Monday

Here's what's on my design wall today. These half square triangles were the bonus triangles from my red, cream, blue boxy stars. Inspired by this post by Julie in the Barn, I sat down one morning and started sewing them together. Now I need to decide on what size borders to make and get it finished.

Here is my new old sewing machine (and yes, I am jumping up and down!!). It's a Singer 401A Slant Needle and she is fancy! I have been searching for 2 years and thought I would never find one. After I got her home and cleaned and oiled, I tried to sew. Clank, eek! After being diligent, I figured out the wrong bobbin was in and I went into my mega bobbin stash and found the right one. She sews like she's brand new. I don't think she has many hours on her but I'll change that real soon.

Thanks Judy L for hosting Design Wall Monday. It's my favorite blog day of the week.

Stash Report 6.20.10

Wow. today is not the 20th, it's the 27th! Did I lose a week somewhere.....if I edit the title then I have to have Judy change the link so I'm just going to leave it be and embrace my dorkiness.

This week I focused on my crumb quilt. You would think after this quilt that my crumb bucket would be empty but it isn't. There is a whole lot of room in it but it is no where near empty. I really like the way this one turned out. It's fun to pick a fabric and know what I used it in or where/who I got it from. Too bad I can't say that about all the fabrics.

I managed to finish this top, made the binding and the backing is almost all put together. That makes the stash report look good to me.

This week's report:
Used this Week: 12 yards
Used Year to Date: 151 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 133 yards
Net Used for 2010: 18

If you go to Judy L's page, you can see her report and the report of others.

In A Few Minutes...

...I made the latest block from Moose on the Porch Quilt Along. I had to squeeze in a few minutes today because for the rest of the day, I plan to play outside. The sun is finally shining here and the weather dude said 7 days of sunshine! WaaHoo!

The lawn needs mowed, the garden has weeds in it but it also has tomatoes on the vines, beans running up their poles, carrots and beets coming up nicely.

I think sitting on the deck and overlooking the property sounds like a pretty good plan too but I better mow first.

Design Wall Monday

Look what's back up on the wall! I showed these blocks February 12, 2010. I moved them around, I thought about making more 9 patches for variety but in the end, I stacked them back up and put them away. These little 6" blocks have been haunting me-mostly because I keep seeing them in their bin and they look so lonely!

Again, another middle of the night idea hit me causing little sleep. I pulled these out and put them up on the wall in random fashion. I think I'll move a few around and then pull the first 2 rows down and sew them together. These blocks will not haunt me any more.

I thought for a minute about putting an applique border on like in the book but these blocks are crying to be done. So I will use some of the remaining 9 patches and 2 flower blocks and make a border. I guess I should play with EQ7 and figure something out. Nice excuse to play, isn't it???

Grab yourself a beverage and head over to Judy L's to check her wall and the walls of others. I love Design Wall Monday!

Stash Report 6.20.10

This week has been one of those weeks where it's hard for me to concentrate on much of anything for any length of time. I've worked on lots of projects from wallhangings to quilting to binding to small bits of time in front of the sewing machine. And I made jelly and fruit leather with a 10 year old. So i guess if I add it all up, I've done quite a bit.

I've been working on Judy L's June mystery-I'd show you a picture but then it wouldn't be a mystery any more, now would it!! I even started a new stash busting leader/ender project. This is the block Bonnie Hunter shows in the current issue of Quiltmaker magazine. I need to reduce the amount of bricks in my bin and this is the perfect project for that.

I made a quick trip to the fabric store with Taylor to pick up the remaining fabrics I needed for Pat Sloan's Meadow Breeze BOM. My used numbers include the wall hangings and Judy L's mystery fabric. Yeah!

I'm done dropping quilter's names now, so without further ado........here's this week's, in the black, stash report.


Used this Week: 13.5 yards
Used Year to Date: 139 yards
Added this Week: 2.5 yards
Added Year to Date: 133 yards
Net Used for 2010: 6

Head on over to Judy L's, check her report and then check the reports of others.

Strawberry Goodness and A Friend's Giveaway

Daughter Crystal got me a flat of strawberries yesterday and today we now have some fresh jam. Or is it jelly? I don't know, I can never remember which is which and really, I don't care! I do know it is delicious!

Granddaughter Taylor is spending the weekend so this morning she blended berries for 3 trays of roll ups and sliced 1 tray for the dehydrator. The girl doesn't like fresh berries but will eat the roll ups that only have a little apple juice for sweetener and the dried berries are like candy. Funny girl.

Kat at Kathy's Fancy Stitching News is having a giveaway to celebrate having 10,000 visitors. You should go visit her and increase her numbers. She is a very nice lady.

I think I need to make some toast and have a peanut butter and strawberry jelly foam sandwich for lunch! Yumm

Mood Lifters

The rain is back and I needed something to brighten my mood. I've had this free project from C & T Publishing Blog printed since the day they posted it. The project is called Bird on a Branch Table Runner. I didn't see this as a table runner, I saw it as a happy, make me smile wall hanging.

When I went to the Stash Builder's Bazaar in April, I found most of the fabrics for this project. So when the bug bit me Monday afternoon to sew something completely different, I grabbed this project. I get that way sometimes, I just need something quick, easy and fun.

I made mine quite a bit shorter than their design and used the cutout bits for the small wall hanging. I have a bunch of fusible and used some that wasn't labeled and I have no idea how long I've had it. It didn't stick real good but I have a fantastic washable glue stick and I used that where I needed to. My machine applique skills are a bit rusty but after a while, it started to look pretty good.

I like it! It makes me smile. Now I want to make another one! But first, I need to finish the quilt that is on the frame and quilt the other 3 that I have ready and finish piecing the quilt in progress...and, and, and!

Or I will make another wall hanging!

Design Wall Monday

My design wall has changed a little since last Monday. I rearranged a couple of the rows and they are now all sewn together. I made a couple more 3" blocks but not enough yet. I found some fabric for borders 1 and 3 and it is waiting to be cut.

The sun has found us and we have spent hours outdoors absorbing our Vitamin D. I spent lots of time last night massaging away the Charlie Horse that moved into my left calf. But the garden looks amazing and my flower bed makeover is looking pretty good. I hope today it will be complete!

Head over to Judy L's, look at her fabulous design wall and then check what everyone else is working on.

More Outside Fun

This morning we went visiting our friends Dick and Donna. Donna loves to garden and has numerous flower beds that she works very hard in.

Just walking around her yard gets me excited to come home and work in mine. I've been working on this corner since I saw this blog post at Stephanie's Scraps. I quickly commented and then followed her link to the tutorial. That led me to call my dad who has a very nice assortment of rebar and I was more than welcome to take some of it. He even cut it for me and since he knows me pretty good, he cut me 2 pieces. I went to town to buy flowerpots and plant and then it started to rain again! I'm pretty much a fair weather gardener so not much got done.

Now I have a grand plan for this section and I have Hubby willing to help with a couple projects. I also must use the other piece of rebar and I think I have the perfect spot for the second tower! My break is over and now I must go back out and plant more flowers and pull up more grass.