Monday, August 26, 2013

Monday's Design Wall

Here's what's on the design wall this week;






Once I have all the rows together I want to put a small (1" - 1 1/2") black border, and then I'd like to do another pieced border. I haven't decided what to do yet for a pieced border.

Linking up to Patchwork Times, so check out the other projects.

Til later,
Hugs & Stitches,
Mary

Sunday, August 25, 2013

End of Month Reports 8-30-13

I may have actually  finished a couple of things this month.
Let's start with Lovely Year of Finishes. Would you believe this BQ is finally done. Aren't you glad you won't see this posted AGAIN?




Next we'll see what I've accomplished with Patchwork Times Get It Done.
#1 BQ (as you see above) Done!
#2 Paws to Sew Sampler-Unfortunately not Done so it will be carried to next month.
#3 Barns is to the flimsy stage (which is where I wanted it).

Barns Flimsy

#4 Basket Case Quilt is a flimsy.

Basket Case


Now, here is September's List.
1. PTS Sampler BOM
2. Blocks won at Idaho Retreat 2012
3. Last borders on Easy Street
4. Batik sweatshirt

Next up---New FO Challenge
I have about 7 charm packs that sort of co-ordinate and I am going to use those and 1 other fabric (to tie them together) and do a D9P for a charity quilt.


 

Next is Nothing But UFO'S 2013.
#1. Frog Work-Unfortunately I didn't get to work on this this month.



#2 Basket Case is done (See Above).
#3 Paint Chip Challenge



 

New List for this month------

1. Idaho Blocks
2. Frog Work
3. Batik sweatshirt

That should do it for now.
Til later,
Hugs & Stitches,
Mary

(Note:  Not all links are active yet. I will link up as dates to link up are opened.)

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Weekly report of Progress 8-24-13

Well this week I already posted Monday and Tuesday's progress. Here's the rest of the week.
Wed.
  Did mile walk (DVD).
  Quilted & bound BQ quilt.
  Made the frames on the Idaho blocks.
  Sew 4 string blocks on treadle.
Thurs.
  Mile walk (DVD)
 Quilted & bound paint chip challenge quilt
  Made 3 do rags
  Started trimming some of the Idaho blocks.
Fri
  Mile walk (DVD)
  Went to APWQ Show
Sat.
  Trimmed and assembled 3 rows of Idaho blocks.
  Made 1 do rag.
  Made 1 knitting bag (bag to carry knitting project in. (Inventory)
  Cut up leftovers from paint chip challenge into strips and squares and strings.
Slowly but surely I'm getting to work on a few of my things.
Next week it's back to client quilts as I have them stacking up.



Til later,
Hugs & Stitches,
Mary

APWQ Show

Yesterday, a friend and I went to The APWQ Quilt Show. 
This is only my opinion, but I really didn't see anything to reach out and "grab" me. Don't get me wrong, the show was nice. They had a collection from the La Conner Quilt Museum. There was a collection of Cindy Needham quilts that really made me feel like an amateur. A collection of past winners of the show. A collection from Canadian quilters. A batik challenge from a group of quilters ( in other words---a collection). A collection of quilts that were made for a book (forgive me but I've forgotten the title). Do you see a theme here? The Best of Show was Marilyn Badger and of course, her work is always gorgeous. I just didn't feel it was up to some of the past shows for some reason.
But for an overall, it was enjoyable.

Now to the vendors. I think the number of vendors were down (I could be wrong). In a way I have to say thank goodness for that (LOL), or I would have spent more.
I did pick up a couple of shirts. One of the vendors there was Brie Kriebel, and I always find a shirt there that I have to have. They are so comfortable. Of course, I did buy fabric and here it is.


Some aboriginal prints.

A couple of black and whites for my collection.


Some hard to find light batiks.


More batiks.

All in all I had very nice day------after all-------I petted a lot of fabric.

Til later,
Hugs and Stitches,
Mary

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Day 2 of New Schedule

Well today I went downstairs to start my day. I did my 1 mile (DVD) walk.
Then I start working on the Barns Challenge. I had finished the top (minus borders) when a friend stopped by. Two and a half hours later I got back downstairs and back to work. I finished putting the borders on the Barns, started quilting on the BQ (it's only been loaded on the machine for a week). That's about all I got done today. As I said in my previous post, I will put pics up by the end of the month in my monthly reports.




That's it for now.
Til Later,
Hugs & Stitches,
Mary

Monday, August 19, 2013

Back on Track

Today is the first day-------yadda, yadda, yadda.
I'm going to try to keep up with posting my progress through out the week. Trying to get myself on my old schedule I had before DH retired :-).
Today I went downstairs and started the day by doing my mile walk DVD. (I survived LOL.)
After that---this is what I accomplished:
1. Cut rest of "Abacus" Pattern.
2. Finished the final 2 borders on the Basket Case Quilt.
3. Made the pillowcase to go with the QOV quilt that I finished piecing last week.
4. Made 6 earbud holders.
5. Work on Barn Quilt challenge (that should have been finished 4 months ago).
The only thing I didn't get to today was the last 3 do-rags I had to finish. Sew, I guess I'll start with those tomorrow.
I'll post pics later in the month when I give my progress reports for "Year of Lovely Finishes", Get It Done, etc., etc.

Til later
Hugs & Stitches,
Mary

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Memories

Boy just spent the day cleaning out a bedroom that sort of became a catch-all for inventory and anything else that didn't have a place to be put. The room was actually the room my mom stayed in when she was with us for awhile. When she moved back to AZ. she had left a few things here with me. While going through her stuff in the closet I came across the slippers that I had knitted for her in 3rd or 4th grade (the catholic school I attended had us make them for Christmas gifts). She had worn them, finally, maybe once or twice when she was older. I found pictures and momentos she had kept all these years. A patch that my brother had gotten for bowling an all spare game when we were in a junior bowling league. My First Communion veil. Second and third grade report cards. You get the drift. I spent the afternoon enjoying very dear memories of childhood. She even kept a lot of my sons things as until he was about 13, I was a single mom and she was very close to him, cause she helped raise him. Sometimes when I worked 2 jobs she would babysit him. So she felt he was hers also.
Thanks for the memories Mom. I miss you.

Hugs & Stitches,
Mary

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Update on Progress

A little report on progress that I've made this week. I haven't gotten as much done as I wanted to, but that was because I did goof off a couple of days.
Monday I was out at the LQS all day for BOM.
Tuesday I ran a couple of errands and worked on threadcatchers.
Wednesday I continued working on threadcatchers, load the BQ quilt on the machine, and worked on the paint chip challenge quilt.
Thursday, continued on threadcatchers, finished piecing the top on the  paint chip challenge (except for borders), sewed on do-rags. Also, did 4 more string bocks on treadle machine.
Friday was a play day.
Saturday worked on more do-rags and played.
Today I had to get the blocks ready for the Farmers Wife class tomorrow at LQS. Put border on paint chip challenge quilt and pieced back for it. Put first border on Basket Case quilt top.
I'm also linking this with Patchwork Times Design Wall Monday (cause Basket Case is still on Design Wall.)
Here's pics of the 2 top I worked on.

Paint chip challenge before border.



With final border

Basket Case w/1st border



And FINALLY!!!  BQ loaded and ready to quilt!

Maybe this month I'll really meet some of the goals I've set. Yay!!!!!

Til later,
Hugs & Stitches
Mary

P.S. The paint chip challenge works like this. We went to either Home Depot or Lowes and pulled some of the paint chip cards that had co-ordinating colors on a card. We (whomever in our group that started this) then passed out the cards (all different) to the participants and they have to make a project using these colors.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

New UFO List

Here's another UFO list that I am linking to. It is A Passion for Appliques Nothing But UFO's 2013
Here's my list:

1. Frog Work



I have all the blocks embroidered now I have to do the pieced blocks.

2. Basket Case


I have 3 borders to put on this one.

3.  Challenge for Sewing Group

This is a paint chip challenge from my little sewing group that meets once a month.

Let's see how well I do on this one.

Til Later,
Hugs & Stitches,
Mary

Sunday, August 4, 2013

How I Spent My Weekend

This weekend was a pretty busy one for me. I promised a friend that I would help her with a little project when the time came, and that was this weekend. I got to her house Saturday morning about 8:30 AM and didn't get home until a little after 9:00 PM.. I went back this morning around 8:30 and got home around 5:30 PM..  This is what we did.








We worked hard, but it was fun spending the weekend doing this with a very good friend.  I would do it again in a heartbeat if she asked. (But please Vickie, not for a least 5 or 6 years LOL).
The only problem is, you want to keep all of them cause they're just sooooooo colorful. We did this for a retreat and the theme is "Piece, Love & Quilting".
Now I have to go load the van with quilts being delivered tomorrow when I'm out at the LQS for BOM.

Til later,
Hugs & Stitches,
Mary

Friday, August 2, 2013

Another Finish

Well this is the last of the quilts that I was trying to get done by last week. I had a mental block on how to quilt this one. That's why it took so long to put on the frame and get it quilted.





Now that it's done-----I think I just might load one of mine on. Dare I. I know I won't be doing that tomorrow because I will be busy dying. Dying fabric that is. A friend and I have about 100 T-shirts to dye. Wish us luck. The weather the last 2-3 weeks has been beautiful, but guess what it did today. It rained of course, and it may rain tomorrow. We were going to do this outside, but we may have to make other plans.

Oh Well.
Til later,
Hugs & Stitches,
Mary