FCE Craft Day

This is my bracelet created in a 4 hour class today.

Today we had an FCE craft day an Miriam taught us how to make bracelets!... we can also use the same technique to make a matching necklace.

Miriam demonstrating tying off and adding clasp

UFO Update... Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there.   It's been just a year since we lost my Dad... but we will celebrate with my husband... my children's Dad and I'm sure Pop will be with us in spirit.

POP

Yesterday I was up early and got all the cutting done for my swap blocks before my grandson was up and running.

I stayed busy all day with my grandson... who is a very busy, non-stop three year old. 

Putting some of that energy to good use!

We got out to the garden and picked blueberries and blackberries with a minimum number of dropped berries and stomped plants!  Then came in for some berry topped ice-cream YUMM!

Last evening while he watched Scooby-doo and settled down a bit before bed I drew the lines.  I still haven't figured a more efficient way to do this... If anyone has any ideas, please let me know as I have 144 squares to mark.

This morning... I was up at 5am and while everyone slept (especially and including the grandson) I spent two hours sewing....

chain piecing

Using Orca Bay string blocks as a leader/ender

Chain sewed the squares on each side of the rectangle

Chain sewed each one a second time to make Bonus Blocks... Bonnie would be proud!

Snipped off the Bonus Blocks

First section and Bonus Blocks all pressed neatly

Now to repeat with the second section

But first, since it is Father's Day... after church...   Since both daughter's work evenings we decided to celebrate with a family brunch rather than dinner... and my grandson just had to help with the cooking!

We made vegetable quiche and ham and egg pie... named as such because "real men don't each quiche!" but they do love pie! LOL

I forgot to take the after pictures, but we all enjoyed our short family time together before my youngest daughter headed off to work and the oldest took her son home.  Now I have some time for more sewing as Dad has requested pizza for dinner to be delivered by our youngest daughter later this evening! 

Hope you are all enjoying your Father's Day celebration!

UFO Weekend

This weekend Pat Sloan is hosting a UFO Busting Challenge.  You can read all about it here:

http://blog.patsloan.com/2012/06/pat-sloan-a-little-ufo-busting.html

I planned on making 9 blocks needed for the Quiltmaker Party block swap in Williamsburg, VA that I will be attending in August.   Here is my first block laid out....

Quiltmaker 100 Blocks Vol. 2  Block #174 Birthday Girl by Bonnie Hunter

I spent spare minutes all week long cutting fabric...

9 blocks... 52 pieces each... that's a lot of cutting!

But as life goes, I have my grandson for the weekend again, so there will not be as much sewing time as I had hoped.  So I got up early this morning (5am!) and managed to assemble two blocks before he needed my attention.

So now while we watch Scooby-doo and eat our cereal I am drawing lots of lines!

Let's see... thats 144 lines for the purple/yellow block.  Then more lines for the orange/yellow hsts!

I am sure there must be an easier/quicker way to streamline this, but I can't think how right now.

Hope you all enjoy your day.

Nana Duty

Nana is on duty again this weekend.  Picked him up from daycare yesterday and we had a great evening together.    Apple, 1/2 banana, cherries, strawberries for snack... He didn't want to walk Toby tonight... maybe tomorrow.  Chicken nuggets with ketchup! and coleslaw for dinner and a chocolate chip cookie with milk for dessert!    He helped me "cook"  putting the sliced cabbage into the dressing and stirring the coleslaw.  We watched Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King, had a nice bubble bath and he "read"  four stories to monkey and me... Llama Llama, Little Pony, Corduroy Bear and The Very Noisy Night!.... and the Llama Llama one more time for good measure.   He wouldn't sleep in his "pretty bed" last night... even with the night light it was too dark!??  Oh well, we hauled the crib mattress into my room and he slept on the floor next to me.  Unfortunately he did a lot of tossing and turning in his sleep so I didn't sleep well.... and then he was up at 5AM!!! UUGGHH!

He ate his cheerios and milk... with a few more cherries! while I ate my eggs.  Then big boy went to his room and got dressed by himself!  He chose well... denim shorts and a black t-shirt... and everything was on right-side out and facing front! LOL.  His mom says they are working on tying shoes.. you know... criss-cross apple sauce... make two bunny ears and tie them tight! .... but he wanted nothing to do with that this morning and left it for me to do... glad he's not too grown up yet!

We grabbed a "juice to go" (a capri sun packet) and his monkey and his car and off to "Miss Diana's House" (daycare) by 6:30am!  I stopped to do the grocery shopping on the way home, unloaded and put everything away, a load of laundry started, dinner in the crock-pot, kitchen dishes cleaned up, beds made and now I'm heading out for 3 miles with Toby....

I think I'll take a nap when I get home!

Quilt-A-Long

Ok, my lack of techno savvy is showing... I can't figure out how to add the logo so here is the big long link for a quilt-a-long by Pat Sloan over at the Quilting Gallery.  Let's hope you can just click on it to get there.  If not copy and paste and that should work...I think. (sigh)


 http://quiltinggallery.com/learning-center/beginners-quilt-along/


Each week directions for a new block will be posted and by mid September you should have a completed quilt.    Now I'm off in search of fabrics and start sewing!


Oh, and here is my half square triangle top all pieced and  waiting in line to be quilted.





One more UFO to finish this month and I'm back to working on Orca Bay designed by Bonnie Hunter.   I'll be starting three new quilts designed by her during classes in August at the QuiltMaker Party in Williamsburg!  Check it out here...
http://www.quiltmaker.com/events/quilt-along-with-quiltmaker.html

UFO listing

Here is an updated listing of my UFOs ... just as a reminder to myself of what I have accomplished so far this year and what I have left to do.  I completed one and moved four up to wait on quilting... now I must schedule some quilter time between customer work for me to get them done!

I should be able to move the first two almost done's up by month end and then I want to get farther along on Orca Bay before starting on the three new classes in August.


COMPLETED IN 2012
Improv Block Quilt (february)

WAITING TO BE QUILTED
Christmas Swap Blocks (moved up in march 2012)

Baltimore Album Quilt (moved up in april 2012)
Scotts Squares (moved up in may 2012)

Thangles Quilt (moved up in june 2012)

Rosewood Cottage - 1/2 hand quilted (waiting since 2006)
Lucky Charms (waiting since 2010)
Basket Sampler Quilt (waiting since 2011)
Birthday Star (waiting since 2008)
Monkey Wrench BOM (waiting since 2007)
Set of 4 placemats (waiting since 2011)


ALMOST DONE

Basic Class Wall Hanging - need to finish hand applique on 4th block then assemble
Pillow Cover - assemble parts
Sunbonnet Sue - needs 3 prairie point borders to be a flimsy

UPCOMING CLASSES
   Collecting and pre-cutting fabris for these three classes in August

Winston Ways
Turkey Tracks
Midnight Flight


STARTED AND STOPPED
2012 Orca Bay - some of steps 1 and 2 complete
2012 Cheddar Bowties - 81 blocks complete,  8 of 9 rows completed for first 1/4 of quilt
2010 Vicksburg BOM - 3 to hand applique..I may just assemble the completed blocks into a flimsy and quit
2011 Happiness Key - background prepared
2011 Dear Jane/Hot Momma Rose - 3 blocks complete
2010 Swartz Creek Quilt - unfinished class project
2009 1950s Santa - applique - working on block 2 of 12


2006 Barn Blocks - 5 more applique blocks, then log cabin blocks to assemble
Jamestown Landing BOM
Green/Pink BOM
Black White & Red
Orphan Fan Blocks
Heart Blocks
Pumpkin wall hanging
4th July Wall Hanging - paper pieced
Recycle Quilt Teddy Bears

KITS NOT YET STARTED
Pastel stars
Pink Baby Quilt
5-Star Tablerunner
Parisian 20
Cardinal Wall Hanging
Quilt Diva
Colonial Christmas
Golden Stars tablerunner
CJ's Care Bears
Iris Table Runner
2 Americana Dolls

I also have several boxes with quilt-of-the-month kits stored in the closet...but I'll leave them for another day to inventory and decide what to do.

Waiting to be Quilted

Recently I took a break from customer work and decided to spend some time moving another one of my UFOs  to join the other projects patiently waiting to be quilted.

Baltimore Album Quilt started in 2011

I just needed to make the time to assemble the rows and add the borders.  I really like the way it has turned out.

Snowball quilt made with Civil War Reproduction fabrics in 2011

There are two wall hangings designed by Pat Sloan....  I'm debating adding borders to each of them so that they better fit my wall space.

Sampler Basket started in a class with Pat in 2011

Lucky Charms started in 2010.  Pattern can now be found in her newest book "Focus on the Center"

I have made many new online friends thanks to Pat's Quilt Mashup forum.  You can join us here:

 http://quiltmashup.com

Last year we did an Improv Block Swap...  making and sending blocks to the swap leader (who happened to be me) who then repackaged and returned one block from each participant.  We all had lots of  fun and I completed this quilt in January with some blocks remaining for another project.

Improve Block Swap started 2011

We had so much fun we decided to do it again.  This time, because several of us did not own a Christmas quilt to decorate with (shocking to realize that I was one of them!) we chose a simple Ohio Star block pattern to be made with Kona White and red and green Christmas fabrics.  I found this lovely Christmas "doll" fabric to symbolize all my new friends and completed this flimsy back in February.

Christmas Ohio Star Block Swap started 2012

Here is "Scott's Squares", a design I came up with for my nephew using men's shirts. He'll get this for a Christmas present this year.

Scott's Squares started 2011

It won't be long and my half-square triangle (Thangles) project will be ready to quilt also.  I've started assembling the rows and cutting borders.  Here are some of the rows laid out ready to sew.

Half-Square triangle project started 2010

 

 

 

I have many more UFO's in various stages of completion that will all eventually end up on this list.  Hopefully this list will get smaller before I add too many more!

Daily Walks

I try to walk the neighborhood at least 4 days a week.... about 1.5 miles per lap... 2 laps per day.   This week is more challenging than most because not only do I have Toby (my Blue Lacey)  I am dog sitting Baby Girl... my daughter's dog,  while my she is off fishing with her brother and father in Canada this week.  She is  wary of me and tends to pull as far away as the leash will allow... and of course in the opposite direction from Toby .  I am really lucky that Toby is so well behaved.  Baby Girl and I are still getting used to each other and she is warming up to me as we spend time together each day.

It's a beautiful sunny morning and we're walking along, and a new challenge presented itself.... an escapee convention at the back of the neighborhood.  Two yapping poodles and a barking wolf hound escaped their confines and decided to play with another neighborhood escapee this morning...  then we came walking along.  I'm sure if someone had taken a picture it would have looked quite comical to see me trying to to stay upright as dogs ran circles around me barking and trying to sniff each other all the while trying to keep from tangling in the two leashes.  I was about to let go of the leashes or go down, when, thank goodness, the owner of the three came by and called them off.  The other loose one ran off with them and we went on our merry way.

A little farther down the road is a cat convention!  Five cats lined up at the end of the driveway just sitting there daring the dogs to mess with them!   I wish I had a camera to show you how they lined up... first a white one then a white/brown then a white/brown black,  then a solid brown and lastly a solid black.  I found it amazing that they would line up in color order like that. What was more amazing to me was that they didn't move a muscle as we went by with the dogs pulling and whimpering to go investigate.

Another obstacle was the neighborhood AARF volunteer (with four foster dogs and two of her own)  I don't know how she could stand her ground and hold on to 6 dogs who wanted to come investigate us.

We passed by two more neighborhood escapees walking through the empty lot area.  Toby and Baby Girl whimpered to go check them out but  I managed to keep them moving along.

The scariest encounter was when a neighbors doberman came sneaking up behind us.  He is so quiet and before you know it he is just a couple feet away.  Both dogs noticed him a millisecond after I did ... just enough time for me to plant my feet and keep from being pulled into a barking chase as he took off running as soon as my guys started barking.  I think he startled Toby and Baby Girl too.  I am told he is a very friendly dog, but I don't like the way he sneaks up close and it's just plain scary to suddenly see this mean-looking dog so close and staring at me. 

The morning's adventure is done and I'm ready to spend some quality quilting time before my grandson arrives this afternoon.  He will keep me busy over the next several days.   I can't wait to see what will happen on our walk tomorrow with him added to the mix.... NOT!

Give a boy a ball....

 .... and there is no stopping him... especially when he has just turned 3!

Give him three balls and the fun never stops!

Add a Scooby-doo singing, candle flickering card...

He is trying to blow out the candles!

and birthday cake with candles......

I have 1... 2... 3! candles... I'm 3!

Happy Birthday to my grandson!

Bell Buckle, TN

I recently went on a day trip with a group of ladies from church to Bell Buckle, TN.  It's an historic town that has organized itself and downtown into a tourist attraction of antique shops and crafts.
For more info go here:  http://www.bellbucklechamber.com


We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Bell Buckle Cafe. Then just enjoyed the antiques at the Bluebird Antiques & Miss Jeanne's Ice Cream Parlor.  The homemade waffle cones and hand dipped ice cream were tempting, but our meal was more than enough to eat today!

Here are some pictures of a fun day.   I've uploaded the remaining pictures (quilts and sewing machines I saw) on my Flickr page as I am having a difficult time working with blogger since they changed a week or two ago.
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/37794595@N06/sets/72157629571214950/

Flea Market and Cheddar Bowtie Update

I stopped by the flea market again this weekend and saw this.

It's a hand-pieced bowtie quilt top..it's actually has purple/deep rose color spacer blocks, not brown

These blocks are about 6inches 

It reminded me that I need to get working on mine again

I have the first quarter of the quilt blocks pieced...81 blocks (need 324! to complete the quilt)

I am in the process of stitching them into 9 rows of 9... I have 4.5 rows stitched to date.  

Now that I've seen this picture, I'm going to have to go back and redo some of those pink-ish bowties... I notes that the pattern lines are in a variety of directions... gotta fix that!

I still need to make 243 more blocks!

I need to schedule more handwork time if I'm ever going to complete this.

Then I need to decide how to quilt it!

Other interesting Flea Market Finds...

I thought this little sewing machine was cute!  But no one was available to find out details about it.

Matthew's favorite find..... Sasquatch!

Happy Birthday Uncle Tom

Happy Birthday to my favorite Uncle.

You are missed