yikes!

Hubbers was out working on the front bed area that got suspended due to his bilateral cataract surgeries.  We still need to get several more bags of the white rock but he has been driving around for months with this black trim stuff in the back seat of his car.  The weather warmed up enough and there was sufficient cloud cover for him to get out with his spade.

Look at what he unearthed out there!  Kept hitting it with the spade as he had rounded the bend near the down spout.  Yikes!  Big 2 x 6 length, half rotted out.

As I write this, he has gotten to the halfway point, looks like.  Glad it is him and not me.  I don't "do" outside, LOL if I can help it.

another donation flimsy

I stitched and stitched yesterday afternoon and evening till I had enough blocks made to complete half of this top.  This morning, I joined the two halves and corralled Quilt  Holder to "do the honors."  Think I might be on a 12 in 12 plan as far as tops go??   How about quilting up the ones from last year and keeping their 11 in 11 label??  HMMM

I have no plan for where my creative muse may take me today. Right now I need to clean up the mess of strings on the floor from the past days of sewing.

I'm guessing it is time to get serious about that my adapted Oxmoor Christmas quilt thing but that is a sampler type thing.   Sketch link HERE.  I am going to include that Quilter's Cache Christmas 2003 block that I recently stitched up for Friendship Quilters in it so will revise it slightly before printing up my road map of what goes where.

donation flimsy

Thanks to the Bama Belles' group sewing date in October----and a pile of leftover 2 inch strips this made for a fairly quick "finish to flimsy".  You never know when you are working on a group project as there can be a bit of variance in one's machines 1/4 inch seam allowance.

I made sure to square the blocks up which I don't normally do on my own, "all me" generated on the same machine blocks.  Also if the cornerstones did not fit the strip I verified and/or slivered trimmed the sashing strips.  If I knew the sashing was correctly length and width and found the block was a tad undersized, I could fudge it in a bit.

This should be a fun quilt for a youngster.  There are enough novelty bits in there to make it be a treasure hunt, or use it for a matching game.  I have one block leftover which happens to be one that I made.  I pulled them out of the bag just as I had picked them up and tried not to get too "matchy-matchy" with the sashing.  I also did NOT look at the row ahead of it to make sure two of the same colors were near each other.  IIWII, no fussing allowed.

It is early in the day---earlier than I usually find myself at the machine.  I've been awake since about 5 a.m. and up since 545, thanks to a little black and white kitty boy.  I only had one row to assemble this morning.  I had done one on New Year's Day and the middle 4 rows yesterday.  What's next??  It is Friday and I just met my week's sewing goals, after all.  

I  left off with this half finished 3-D bowtie quilt in mid November as the last of the Belles Scrappy Challenge.  My notes got cold, LOL.  Where was I headed with it?
I am guessing  I need 35 more bowties if I don't want to do borders on it.  It would finish up at 42 x 60 and right in WTIL range.  OR 6 x 9 with 3 inch borders would accomplish the same thing.   HMMMMM -- 19 more or 35 more blocks minus the two on the design wall.  Stay tuned for this momentous decision, LOL.  I may get lucky and find that I left a pile in the project tote that just need to be seamed in the middle. 

ED. NOTE:  no such luck on a pile of blocks but what I did find was a pile of 33 blocks worth of groups of three and a big stack of 3.5 inch muslin squares.  Yep,  7 x 10 set after all.   I must have been thinking of the pile I have started for a QOV quilt, with that "only need to be seamed" thing.  I do love 3-D bowties and often consider them an on-going project. 

2011 accounting

(Mostly I do not want to lose the lists I maintained last year and want to set up the same thing for 2012, LOL.  Ignore it if you want to)

BELLES SCRAPPY CHALLENGE 2011

• Hot Mess flimsy
• PIC flimsy
• 4 patch diagonal chain 8-21-11
• Triple Rail 8-22-11
• Diagonal Strings 8-31-11
• Beachy Prairie Window
• Faux Log Cabin 10-27
• WIP bowties

PIF CHALLENGE---this remains as I have more to make with the donation fabric

• Craftsman Sports World--to HQ as flimsy
• Right Angles Sports World--to HQ as flimsy
• RR Crossing top
• BQ 1 Picnic print 9-14-11

QOV’s---tops to the long arm quilter volunteer

• Line Art
• Disappearing 4 patch

2011 FINISHES

• JATH base 1-6
• January JATH 1-6
• In Seasons's Winter 1-6
• Christmas Log Cabin 1-21ish
• Kitty Leap Frog 3-5
• Pam's Bday Button Up 2-17ish
• Veronica's Bday Button Up 3-26
• Welcome Button Up 3-28
• FB Medallion 3-30
• Daisy Chain 4-1
• In Season Spring 4-1
• Cher Gordian Knot 6 late May
• Pat's bday Autumn Blessings 10-12
• In Seasons Summer--10-15
• Pumpkins 4 sale 10-18
• July Button Up--10-21
• Habitat BQ2--11-7
• In Seasons Autumn 11-25
• Merry Christmas BU #21 11-27
• Gordian Knot 1 11-28
• Norma Bday Button Up 12-15
• Pioneer Sampler Plus 12-17
• Give Thanks Button Up 12-13 pinned/completed 1-4-2012

the year's first flimsy and finish

Hot off the press 1-4 with binding completion.  Yeah mostly a Dec 2011 project with the piecing, button hole appliquing and machine quilting.  It still goes on the 2012 list.  Woohoo!  Scratch off one of the week's goals.

And, except for the button appliquing or some sort of edge finishing,  "February" Button Up is a flimsy.  By the 5th heart I prepped yesterday I knew that it was better to cut off small sections of the ric rac and overlap it then try to make it bend around the corners, especially on that pointy tip!   It looked like I might be running short on the ric rac as well but of two packages, I have about 6 inches of it left.

I ended up basting the ric rac down and then removing the freezer paper from the back that I had used to turn the raw edges.  Then I had to use a whole sheet of steam a seam 2 to stick the thing down.  I am not fond of the stiffness behind the hearts but it could not be helped on this one.   I am counting this as almost reaching the week's goal, LOL but that might be close enough!

After two days of hand stitching I am most definitely ready to give my fingers a break and do some sewing.   My plans are to prep the binding and hanging loops for February. Then I am moving back to the Pineapple Blossom WTIL top.    And sew it goes---------

What I have so far.........

After all that quilting lately, I was so ready for a reward project.  I had posted that this was my personal project of choice on New Year's Day.   It got moved along on Monday to this point when I "closed up shop".

I decided that it might be best to baste the ric rac to the heart and then secure down the whole deal.  It does soften the edges of that angular shaped heart.  Of course, stitching thru all those layers was not without peril, LOL.  Between the pins, the glue, sticking myself a couple times I was happy to put it away and start fresh this morning-------with a heavier, longer milliner's needle.

Here is a closeup of the one I have basted and secured.  The pattern suggests using bright yellow ric rac and then over-dying it with tan dye.  I could not find bright yellow jumbo ric rac here in town on my cursory look but I didn't want to order any either.   I have since found out that they do have a selection of ric rac at Wilson's up in Boaz and I will remember that should I need any again.   Anyway, I found plain old white so I dyed the green stripe and the red dot fabric along with it.  The texture is subtle but I think it will still work.

Now we see Skyler wanting to lend his hand to the preceedings.  I have to wonder which he wants more---the thread on the cone, the thread he sees flashing in and out on the needle or that weird looking snake stuff.  He wanted me to go to the kitchen to give him his "treat bite"but will be back.  Too nosy not to, LOL.

This being the start of the New Year I have been thinking about what projects I might like to work on, what my goals are.  I have done well setting short term goals for the day, or the week.  I mention them here and that keeps me accountable.  I have pictures for blog fodder too, LOL.    Mulling all that over--something from several categories?  Personal, Pro Bono, QOV, UFO?  I told Norma we can make plans but we reserve the right to change our minds and add something totally new to the mix----go where our heart is leading us.  Sometimes that is exactly what is needed to rev up the creative fires.

But for now some short term goals for this week are----------

• finish prepping February button up
• finish assembling Pineapple Blossom top
• finish the binding on Give Thanks button up

what you do on New Years Day.........

.............you will do throughout the year.  Ordinarily I make a special point to work on something pro bono.  Today was no exception but I also decided I was going to focus on a little bit of several aspects of quiltmaking.

First out was my green Bee Tree Designs basket block.  I haven't touched this since early November but I have been busy with other things!  Normally I drag this with me to the quilt guild meeting but that is going to be out since I am the incoming guild secretary, LOL.   I stitched for a little over an hour so get it moved forward a little bit.

Next, I turned to hand quilting.  Bird Brain  Designs "Here Comes Santa".  5th block of 12 in progress.  I stuck with it long enough to finish this particular block.  I would dearly love for this to be up on the wall NEXT holiday season.   Maybe if I set aside one day of the week to hand quilt I will get there.

I told Norma that I didn't want to do any housework, laundry or binding today, that being my least favorite part of quilting.  She asked if I was going to leave it off all my quilts this year.   NO!   I relented.  I had quilted up the Give Thanks Button Up on New Year's Eve.  If I had been willing to push the hand finishing, I could have counted it as my last finish for 2011.  I am no glutton for punishment, I was tired and it could wait.    I got to just past the corner and the label till I set it aside.   I DID do a tad of embroidery on this one too----the turkey's legs and sewed on a button for his eye.

Next I moved on to the pro bono quilt.  I have 24 blocks from the fall sew-in to assemble along with a pile of strips from Jane, Lois, Bev and others to use for the sashing.  Some is cut to size and some isn't.   One row is done.  5 more to go.   I will finish it up sometime this week so we can pin it at our first January meeting.

Lastly,  I chose a personal project sewing.  I was working BEHIND on these Button Up projects last year a  good bit of the time.  Well, perfect example was the "Give Thanks" piece---pieced in December and quilted on New Years Eve!  I thought maybe I would get a jump start on February's heart piece.  I had it all cut out last year but got stumped about how to add the jumbo rick rack when I have the hearts prepped over freezer paper.  Actually I am STILL stumped but figured I could at least prep the base unit.   If any one has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.  To see a picture of where I am headed try this Joined at the Hip---#BU2.

I hate working with strips 1 1/2 inch and smaller.  The red strip finishes at 1/2 inch.  Ugh, fumble fingers territory.  I had drawn the sashing sections up in EQ last year so I could  more accurately piece it to a foundation.   That's the point I was at when I took the picture.  Before I quit for the night I had the blocks sashed.  The vertical sections are joined and awaiting the band between the block area that says "February".  I'll get that part done tomorrow and the borders on the base----maybe the appliqued basted and/or fused.   I prepped all that last year.

All in all, a productive day---