April 30th Weekly Goals

Once again it is time to set some goals for the coming week. Last week I successfully finished my list. Of course a few of my items were pretty vague on the amount of work that had to be done to check it off the list. I thought I would get more done of Rick Rack Nines than I did but 5 more rows added is no slouch. I have 38 of the 220 block units on Garden Party done so still have a ways to go. I did get four quilted so had a couple of bonus items there. One is pictured in yesterday's post and the other is Thank You Stars. This also means 4 quilts to bind.

I quilted it in a wheat color thread in a free motion loops and stars pattern, now to get it bound. It is on my weekly goal list.

1. Finish binding 2nd guild quilt
2. Bind Thank You Stars
3. Quilt Northwoods
4. Bind Northwoods
5. Bind Pink charm D9P
6. Pack supplies for May guild demo
7. Add rest of blocks to B & W D9P for Tyler

We are in for some stormy weather here this afternoon but hopefully will get some stitching time in m chair with feet propped up.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Friday wrap up

I don't know if you would call it a wasted day or not but I didn't get a whole lot done today. I worked on the demo of  Not A Wink that I will be doing a demo of at the May meetings of both the Quilt Lovers Guild and New Beginnings Quilt Guild. Trying to get it set up in stages so that I can keep the program short but hopefully informing.

Earlier in the week I quilted two quilts for New Beginnings charity. I have one completely done but still lack the hand work on the other. I plan to work on that tonight.

I also quilted one of mine that has been waiting a while. It was a disappearing 9-patch using charm squares. I know I bought these at Quilters Refuge before it closed and that was six years ago. Just need to finish the binding.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Rick Rack Nines

I spent a good part of the morning working on my Rick Rack Nines, a Bonnie Hunter pattern. I am doing mine in civil war reproduction fabrics. It is too big for the design wall so I am using the bed. When I piece something on the diagonal I usually end up working from  opposite corners and meet in the middle. I pieced 3 of the longer rows on the left and one shorter row on the right this morning. I hope to do a few more rows tonight.When it is finished it will be a king size. I am over half way with the piecing so hopefully will get it put together next week.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

DWM 4-24-17

My Garden Party is growing slowly. I have 11 of the 100 Garden Posey blocks done. I have several more sets cut out ready to be sewn together. I have 12 of the 81 Garden Chain blocks done with parts and pieces ready for at least that many more. I went ahead and made 2 of the setting triangles just to see how it was going to come together. The pattern is for a square quilt which is not my favorite, so I will probably drop a block from the width or add one to the length. I don't have a lot of going planned this week so hopefully I will find time to make a few more blocks.

I spent a lot of time yesterday evening in my chair binding and did get 2 items off my weekly list, so that is a good start. Going to piece the back for one of the guild charity quilts this morning and hope to get out to the quilt shack and get it quilted later today.

Happy stitching,

Teresa

Weekly Goals 4-23-17

First of all where does the time go so fast? These weekly goals post seem to be coming around pretty fast. I know part of the problem has been the beautiful weather we have had lately, it is so hard to work inside when it is so nice outside. We have spent a lot of time outside this past week. We have our tomato plants set out but nothing else. Johnny had to get a tire fixed on the garden mower/tractor and didn't get the rest of the garden plowed until Thursday and then Friday it decided to rain early, wasn't supposed to rain until Saturday. We got enough rain Saturday that it will be several days before we can get back in the garden. In addition to the time spent on gardening and flowers we managed to spend several hours just sitting on the porch watching the world go by. And I really can't promise I will do less of that this week either. Got to enjoy the time out there before it gets too hot.

Here is my list for this week.

1. work on Rick Rack Nines
2. finish binding Wink 2
3. quilt one of the guild quilts
4. bind guild quilt
5. bind at least one of Carol's quilts--- they are small, may can get porch sitting while binding these
6. make 2 more 100 patch blocks --- this will make 12 and may put them together now or see if I really need 20 blocks.
7. work on Garden Party

I got 5 of the 7 items done last week. Hopefully will do better this week and maybe squeeze in a little more time for organizing this sewing room. It is getting so close but not there yet.

Happy stitching.

Teresa  

How True

In today's paper the horoscope for an Aquarius (me) says --- You'll pinpoint the culprit keeping you from being organized. More than likely, it's a desire to get more things accomplished in a day than is reasonable to expect, thus causing the unfinished activities to pile up. First of all I didn't realize Hubby read my horoscope and second I think they hit the nail on the head today. This being said and trying to learn from it, maybe I won't make my list so unreasonable or so specific. Maybe more general like just to say work on a particular project rather than finish it. Oh well, it is kind of ironic coming after my last post about cleaning.

This is a picture of my first Not a Wink, I did get the second one quilted Thursday plus 2 smaller quilts quilted for Carol. I got the binding sewn on and started the hand work on it last night.

After I got my errands finished yesterday morning I worked on Garden party. I wish I had taken a picture of my cutting table while I had the whole drawer of 1.5 inch strips piled on top. I kept saying to my self  "I am looking for a quilt in here". It is pretty much a messy drawer and probably time for a lot of it to go away. I did find a lot more neutrals than I realized I had in there. I shouldn't have to cut any neutrals but will probably have to cut some dark strips.

Going to be helping Carol cut out a Turning Twenty quilt today. Looking forward to that and I am sure it will bring back lots of good memories from teaching it at Quilters Refuge, miss those days.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Wednesday clean up

I have spent most of the morning cleaning in the sewing room. Tomorrow Georgia is coming over to help me with my embroidery machine so I needed to get things in order so that there  would be room for two of us in here. Sometimes this room becomes just a path. I also needed more light at the cutting table and I had a floor lamp in the corner that I was no longer using with my machine. Johnny got me a little clip on LED light that gives me all the additional light I need at the machine.

You can barely see the lamp in the corner in this old picture, but it is easy to see I would have to move all that stuff out to get to it.

Got the top of my machine cabinet cleared off and pulled it out to vacuum behind, unreal amount of dust and lint back there.

The corner now looks like this. Still stacked up but neat and clean.

This is what is in 3 of the boxes in this corner, all new stuff. Brand new not cut, new projects, yet what has my interest captivated right now.

 Garden Party by Bonnie Hunter, using strips from my 1.5 inch drawer. This is old fabrics that have already showed up in several other projects. There is just something not right about scrounging all these scraps when I have perfectly good, new fabric.  When I get a little more caught up I will reward myself and open one of these new items, maybe.

One other thing  I did this morning was pull all the rest of my 12 for 12 projects and put them in this basket. This way I know what has to be finished by the end of the year. Hopefully at the end of the year I will be posting a picture of an empty basket and pictures of 12 finished projects .

Still have one more section of the room to work on so better get back to it.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

DWM 4-17-17

I really should call this disaster room Monday. These blocks on my design wall shouldn't be there. I am not supposed to start anything new, yea right. I did check off one and part of another item,  from my weekly goals list yesterday afternoon, but after supper I just had to see what it would look like if I used dark blue/navy for the garden chain block in Bonnie Hunter's Garden Party. I have yardage of a floral with a navy background that has been in my stash for years. I am thinking it would be a nice border for this pattern. I am pulling strips from my stash for the garden Posey block .

If I have at least a 16 inch strip I cut the corner section and on 10 inch strips I am cutting the matching sash pieces. I am pinning them in groups so when I go to the machine I can chain piece several blocks at a time. I am not matching sash to corner pieces at this time I will just randomly match them when I assemble the blocks.

I did cut some navy and dark blue and neutral strips to piece the chain blocks. As I come across blue in my strip drawer I will add them to this pile. I will have to find some container big enough to keep these blocks separate but together.

As much as I want to dive right into this project it will have to be squeezed into left over time this week. I have other things that have priority.

I'll try to post my progress on all things this week, but meanwhile Happy Stitching.

Teresa
 

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter to all, hope you have a blessed day. It has been kind of quiet here today but busy. We are enjoying the fresh fruit of the season so I made a fruit salad this morning and then made some banana nut muffins with the bananas that were getting too ripe. Along with the fresh fruit we are also enjoying all the spring flowers although poor Lucy must have allergies because her eyes keep matting up. Who would have thought a dog could have to take more medication than we do.

 A commercial for Post-It notes said that a person is 40% more likely to accomplish their goals if they right it down and I have to agree. So here is this coming weeks goals. I am really going to have to stay focused to get them done. We are going to try to put the garden in plus Georgia is coming Thursday to help me with my embroidery machine so there goes the better part of 2 days.

1. Finish binding of Winnie
2. Add borders on last two sides on Wink Two
3. Piece back and binding  and label for Wink Two
4. Quilt Wink Two
5. Bind Wink Two
6.  Piece at least 2 more rows on Rick Rack Nines
7. Piece two 100 piece blocks

I had thought I might catch up on some quilting this next week but doesn't look likely. Wink Two has to take priority since I am going to demo the block technique at the May guild meeting.


Happy Stitching,

Teresa
 

Don't Look Back

I shouldn't have done it but I was trying to remember when I started this blog so I went all the the way back to May 2012 when I started in the blog world. I started it as a way to share our trip with other quilting friends that were not making the trip. Six of us went on a major shop hop, 20 shops in 9 days. It was nice seeing the pictures from the trip and I kept paging forward seeing things I have completed and others that are still in progress. However I came across a disturbing list from Oct. 2015---
WIP

1. Lime Crystals
2. Jamestown Landing in green for Danielle and Thomas 
3. Black and White disappearing nine patch for Tyler and Roberta 
4. Tossed Greens and applique project 
5. Flip Flops for Kelly 
6. Blue Ridge Beauty 
7. Spider Web 
8. Alabama scrappy trip around the world 
9. Searching - RWB flying geese 
10. Blue and Yellow Irish Chain 
11. 2006 civil war BOM 
12. Double Wedding Ring 
13. Blue and Tan table runner 
14. As the Crow Flies, more applique 
15. Blue and White Carpenter Wheel 
16. Stepping Stones 

I had made a list of 16 works in progress, I thought I was doing so good in the finishing up goal. WRONG of this list only number 1 is finished. No 2 is on my 12 for 12 list this year and all the others are in the closed somewhere. I have got to look into these to check status. I know No. 12 the double wedding ring may turn into a table runner. 

Gone to sew, 

happy stitching, 

Teresa

Time Flies

I can't believe it is already Saturday. This has been a busy week. Two guild meetings this week plus other outside chores means I haven't finished my weekly goals. So far I have only gotten 4 of the 7 completed. I should finish binding on the Pooh quilt tonight so that will make 5. I spent a big portion of Wednesday trying to learn to use my Monogram Wizard software for the embroidery machine. So what should have taken a hour to do is taking days. In fact I have asked Georgia to come give me lessons so that I can put this machine to better use.

With Georgia's help I finally got this label done plus I was then able to make the one for the Winnie the Pooh gift.

This was Donna's quilt, I hope she doesn't mind me posting it here. It is a beautiful quilt.

Thursday night the New Beginnings Guild decided to cancel local meeting and instead attend the Cullman guild which was hosting Bonnie Hunter. I am glad I went, was able to get her newest book but of course that means I have started another project. Oh Well!!!!

A friend wanted my Not a Wink, so I have started another one. There is enough of the sashing and backing fabric to make it the same but I think I am going to use some of my 2 inch squares and make  patches for the corner stones on this one.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Books

We have the Nook readers and both enjoy a good mystery. Trying to keep expenses down  I have taken to strolling through the free books. We have found several good authors this way. This was the first in a series of mystery/adventure books set in Las Vegas. Of course that first free one gets you hooked and then you will buy the rest of the series. I guess that is kind of like drugs.(joke) The main character is the manger of customer relations in a large casino resort, but she usually ends up involved in the latest murder. They are very funny but with a good plot. Check them out if you are looking for a good read.

Teresa

DWM 4-10-17

The Somerville stitch group is doing a four patch swap, so when my Rick Rack Nines got to large for my design wall I put the first months blocks up for inspiration. There are 17 of us participating in the sway. I didn't make one for myself thinking I would wait to see what I wanted to do with them. Looks like a lot of folks were in a brown mood.

I thought about doing other blocks that measured the same 4.5 inches. I added a couple of quarter square triangles, then some pinwheels, even some paired flying geese. I'm not sure it this is how I will go, guess I'll wait to get more blocks.

Happy stitching,

Teresa

The Week Ahead

Each Sunday I make a list of things I need to either finish or at least work on in the coming week. This has helped me stay focused and gives me a sense of accomplishment. Last week I finished my list early in the week and instead of starting anything else I actually spent time cleaning, organizing and purging my sewing room. That was big, but like I said in my last post I still have a ways to go. Also last week a friend came over wanting to purchase one of my quilts at a college graduation gift. She ended up choosing two, one for the college graduate and one for a niece that was graduating high school. She wants me to put labels on them so that will make my list for this week. Also the second quilt that she choose was one that I have committed to demo the technique at the guild meeting in May. That was not going to be a problem since the high school graduation is not until the end of the month. However during the night I decided I would just make another quilt using this technique, so this will probably fill my week. It was the Not a Wink and is made from 2.5 inch scrap strips, and I still have a bunch of those. Here is a picture of it on the machine. Must not have taken one of the finished quilt, will have to correct that.

Here is my list for the week of April 9, 2017

1. Quilt Donna's  blue stars
2. Make 20 blocks for the 2nd Not a Wink
3. Make label and sew onto Won't Do That Again
4. Make label and sew onto Not a Wink
5. Make label, hanging sleeve and binding for Winnie
6. Bind Winnie the Pooh
7. Quilt another one from my 2B Quilted pile

I would like to find time to work a little more on the sewing room and if the weather stays nice we may put in a garden or at least get it ready to plant. Sounds like a busy week.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

Baby Steps

I have always said I don't have an OCD bone in my body. I constantly work in what I call organized chaos, which I think is an oxymoron. Its not that I don't like a clean clear work space, it just that my creative side of my brain gets ahead of that housekeeping side.  However enough in enough, and I spent most of yesterday working on this sewing room (that was after I did some actual housework).

I have been thinking about ways to organize in a way to give me more space. This 3 drawer unit sits at the end of my cutting table and puts it basically in the center of my sewing space. As you can see it is a catch all for everything. The drawers are where I keep my strips, top is 1.5 middle is 2 and bottom is 2.5 inches so there is some organization to that part.

This is a photo of underneath my cutting table and believe me it was a lot worse since this photo was taken in Oct of 2015. Yes I have been thinking about this for a while.

Here it is this morning. Moving the drawer unit under the table clears a lot of floor space. Feels much less crowded. I still have a long way to go but it is baby step for this non organized person.

I went through the drawers on the left side of my ironing station. Found some surprises there, new fat quarter bundles. One drawer was full of partial projects and most went into my donate pile. Now to tackle the right side drawers or baskets.

The Quilt Lovers Guild has a nickle auction in June and I have almost filled a tub full of items to donate. Projects started but not finished. Some I have all the blocks made but I am no longer interested in putting the projects together. Some things like applique' that I know I will never finish. I am discovering some projects that I had forgotten about that I still want to complete so this is moving them up on the list of UFO's. Truthfully it is giving me a better idea of what I do have started.


 Happy Stitching,

Teresa

12 for 12

2017 Project List

1. En Province-------March finish
2. Jamestown landing in green
3. Black and White disappearing nine patch
4. Split Rail ---------February finish
5. 100 patch
6. Three inch shoe fly
7. North woods - king
8. Black white and red rails ---------   January finish
9. Pink 1 x 4 x 16
10. Rick Rack Nines
11. Oversize Dreams   ----- April finish
12. Blue all around

I forgot to mention in yesterdays post that this quilt was my April finish on my 12 for 12 list. That is four down and eight to go. I have No. 7 ready to quilt, No. 3, 9 and 12 the blocks are done and some assembly done just need to lay them out and finish putting together. The other four require a good bit of work but I still think it is doable, that is if I don't start or pull our a bunch of other projects.

Happy Stitching

Teresa

Weekly Goal Update

 This week started out pretty good. I had my weekly goal list complete by Tuesday night. I have even worked a little on the bonus item.

Got this one quilted and bound. The finished size is 101 by 101 and it was a job binding it in one day but got it done Monday.

I kinda got carried away making these four patches for the stitch group challenge. I almost have enough for 4 months.

This is my 100 patch block. It is made with 2 inch squares. I have 8 made so far and had originally thought I would just do 12 but now I think 20 will be a better size.  My plan is to use a bright orange or turquoise sashing with a four patch as the corner stone.

I pulled this one from of the to be quilted stack and finished the quilting on it late yesterday afternoon. I sewed the binding on this morning thinking if the weather got bad I would work on the handwork then, but thankfully we never saw any bad weather and I did other things.

I have put about six rows together on the rick rack nines. Hopefully will take the time to sew up a few more rows this week. There is a total of 29 rows on diagonal and I have 12 done so far and of course these are the shorter rows.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa

DWM 4-3-17

My design wall hasn't changed much this week. I've spent more time in the quilt shack, which is a good thing because it was about to get out of hand. I quilted a few for other people but did get to quilt some of my own.

This is a really big and old project that is nearing completion. Hopefully I can get the binding sewn on today and will work on stitching it down watching TV at night this week.

I got Winnie the Pooh quilted. I still need to load the embroidery software on my new laptop so that I can make a label for it. I also plan to add a hanging sleeve as well and would like to sew both on at the same time as the binding. Not sure this will all happen this week but I have some time before the baby is due.

I already have three of my weekly goals complete and am working of a 4th one this morning. Hopefully I will have extra time to work on my Rick Rack Nines which is taking center stage of my design wall for now.

Happy Stitching,

Teresa 

Weekly Goals

On Sunday I like to make a list of 7 weekly goals. Things that I would like to get done and things that I have to get done. I usually add an eighth one just as a work on goal, not necessarily one I have enough time to finish, but if I keep it on the list it won't get put aside. Last week I got all items complete except for one. It was to quilt a little quilt for a friends grandson. Problem the back was too small. I got that corrected last night so it is back on this weeks list.

 This weeks list:
1. Finish quilting 2x Pokeymon Dreams ---- I got a little past half way on the quilting on this one on Friday but didn't get back to it on Saturday.
2. Bind 2x Pokeymon Dreams
3. Quilt Cindy's grandson's quilt
4. make 34 four patches for strip group
5. make another 100 patch block ---- this one is on my 12 for 12 list
6. quilt Winnie the Pooh--- baby due in June (will be here before I know it)
7. quilt another one for pile in quilt shack
8. work on Rick Rack Nines --- this is another king size project

This is the one I am calling 2x Pokeymon Dreams. It will be nice to mark this one off a long time list. It is also on my 12 for 12 list.

Time to get busy, happy stitching,

Teresa

April Fools Day

I'm kind of glad March is over. It was definitely a whirl wind month. Between the hassle of a crashing computer and Johnny's stay in the hospital I didn't feel like I had gotten anything accomplished, but looking back at my quilting log and some of the pictures I have taken, I did get quite a bit done. My quilting log shows I have quilted nine for other people. I have quilted eight items for myself. Now some of these items have been baby quilts, table runners and pillows, while others were large quilts, so I guess this accounts for a good hunk of my time for the month.

This is my latest quilted pillow. I got the idea for it from a book of charm square patterns. It is a 20 inch pillow. I like to do the envelope closing on the back so there is no hand closing. It takes a little more fabric this way but makes it easy to laundry if it gets dirty or if you get tired of it you can use the pillow form on something else.

I pulled out this little Halloween quilt from my to be quilted stash so that I could practice spider webs. I had a friend bring me a big Halloween quilt and I finished it this month as part of those 9 quilted for others.

I also quilted the baby 30 Something.

I have several tops that have been finished for a while. I am trying to put them together with backs and binding. I hope April will be a month to crank up the quilting of some of these older projects.
I'll post photos as I get the together.

Happy stitching,

Teresa