Slowly but surely making progress ...

 This week I finished TWO UFOs!  Hip Hip Hooray!  Let me first give you my definition of a UFO.  

A project that has been started but is stalled because 

• It's in time out - bad quilt!
• All the thinking is done, supplies gathered but first stitch still coming
• I'm sewing but I have to think my way out of a problem
• Something else got my attention - better known as "Squirrel! syndrome" from  Up - the Disney classic!
• Life gets in the way.
• Waiting for supplies

The second advent calendar of The Season is done.  And may I say this calendar wasn't due until Next Christmas!!  Hip-Hip! Both the calendars made were from panels - both with pockets and both in my stash.  

I have a friend who has made an Advent calendar for each of five grandchildren and she fills them every year!!  YIKES!  And she admitted that sometimes she puts a $5 bill in day 5 and if the grandchild is old enough she puts a $20 in day 20!

Disclaimer:  I make the Advent calendar - YOU fill it!!

And the second finish ... drumroll, please ... is CherryWood Lane.

This lovely quilt is Edyta's Quilt-a-long from 2021.  I talked about this last year - best quilt-a-long ever!  The blocks did NOT get harder or increase in numbers.  

And isn't it just cute as bugs' ears?  I used Cherrywood hand dyed fabrics.  Two other friends joined in.  P and I sewed together each week.  She used Kaffe Fassett fabric.  So, we used the other's fabric for our doors.  I have KF and she has CW.  It's fun to trade and every time I look it over, see the KF doors, I think of all the fun we had sewing it.  I designed (or found) some trees to fit into the rows and added the Cottonwood fabric 'brick' border.

The fabulous quilting is by Lynette of Fernwood Quilting on Instagram.  A good friend who really thinks about the quilting.  She posted that she had 3 days of design work; 52 thread changes! used 5 Handy-quilter rulers; 6 super bobbins and 18 hours of quilting!!  And it shows!!

Part of the delay on this quilt is that L fit me into a slow period and I got it earlier than expected - in the Christmas rush of other things!  

And I've been racking my brain trying to find a way to hang quilts easily on the STAS Gallery Wall.  The little hook on the 'sliding hanging thingies' (official name) is too small for a dowel that will stay straight under the weight of a quilt.  I've tried safety pins (They open easily under pressure.)  A bulb shaped safety pin (really too wimpy)  And white drapery rings (either have to force dowel thru the ring, and then onto the hook at weird angle - or have to sew rings onto the back of the quilt at EXACTLY the same measurement down from the top.)  I thought that was the answer.  But there will be at least 10 collections of 3-5 quilts hung during a year!  That's a lot of white rings and a lot of time exact sewing.  (Not my strength!)

Eureka! Dollar Tree has these chip clamps that come in a pkg of 6(?) for $1; they are brightly colored but will clamp on the curtain rod and hang nicely within the hook of the 'sliding hanging thingie'!  Everything in the same orientation!! I'll try to find them in white ... but meanwhile I think I have a winner!

BUT  I had to put a new style of top sleeve on my bigger quilts.  The clamp needs to attach to the bare curtain rod so it doesn't distort the quilt.  Last night I sewed the 5 partial sleeves onto the quilt.  And - Lo and Behold -  it worked!!  Note to self:  try to have an epiphany earlier in the evening so you can get to sleep!

Some other highlights of the week:  Crab season!  Catalyst Restaurant has pretty good Crab Melt sandwiches.

The Good Guy by Dean Koontz was read.  And he was a really good guy - not often found in Koontz books?  But have no fear, there was a really bad guy in it too.  Reminded me of his Odd Thomas character.  5* rating!

 

Seasons Greetings Dearies!!

My Halloween mantel!  The three Jack O'Lanterns are the UFO I finished as queen.  Thank you, thank you very much!!  It's the equivalent of a pot holder, but a finish is a finish and I'm glad of it!

The three pumpkins are actual pumpkins!  My friend J gave them to me and I was so impressed by what came out of her greenhouse this year!  And the cat jumping over the jack was a treasure I found in Nebraska in August on my visit!  It was still marked down from last year and I grabbed it!

Halloween is like decorating for Christmas but no stress about presents!  That stress will come soon enough.

We had a heck of a storm this weekend here.  DH was off on a golf trip and that's a shame - he loves storms much more than I do!!

It woke me up at 2:15 am on Saturday.  That's hard to do!!  I usually sleep hard in the middle of the night, and we're the middle floor in our condo building - hardly ever hear anything.  AND we don't usually have thunder and lightning here!  I've probably only heard 10 thunder booms since we moved here!!  We've been here 6 1/2 years!!!!

The rain was pounding that hard!  When we looked at the weather station site in our little town on the coast - the storm gave us THIRTY inches of rain in just 2 days!!  Unbelievable!  DH was doubting my definition of a storm - but he's a believer now!!

Stashbusters Online has a reminder for the 25th of each month to work on something "Christmas-y" and I always ignore it!  And I'm always sorry I did.  Well, believe it or not!  This weekend I finished 8 dish towels!  I'd found them in the depths of my closet looking for UFOs during my reign!  Stuffed there after I'd finished some last winter.

They are very simple - meant to be used.  And they are D*O*N*E!  It's a new record for me!  A work session before November!!  Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Well, that's all for today!  I'm off to a Fun Day at Guild.  We're making baby quilts today for the annual baby shower our town has.  

My First UFO Finish!! Hooray!

I finished my first UFO for the year and I'm happy to be done with it.

This basket quilt was the New Year's Day Mystery at Planet Patchwork 2011. There were some problems with the directions and I ended up with twice as many basket feet as needed - an odd little unit standing by itself!!

I don't like mysteries - for me the mystery is "Why do I have so many UFOs and WIPs!!" I love to come to the sew-in day and work on one of my own projects. If I really like the mystery's end result - I can always do it on my own later. But, come to think about it - I don't!! I guess I just collect mysteries and BOMs!! Sorry Bonnie Hunter!! I love her mystery quilts - just never take the time to make them!

I'm bound and determined to learn FMQ this year. I've dabbled with 'loop de loop - star' on the LA machine. But that's pretty much all I do. And nothing even that organized on my DSM. So Leah Day's FMQ Wednesday is tempting me to follow thru. I've never stippled - so I followed her tutorial and stippled the center of this quilt.

There's so many variables - foot pedal speed; hand motion; keeping the pattern in your head ... let's just say I can't chew gum at the same time!! The stippling is too close on this little quilt - but it washed up well. Thank the Lord those stitches tighten up after washing - I needed some help.

My friend M, in Lincoln, quilted my Halloween Round Robin on her LA for me last April and quilted a really cute border design - she called it olives! So I attempted 'olives' in the sashings.

By now I was really tired of the whole process and rewarded myself by going back to walking foot quilting and did the outer borders with that fast and furiously!! Machine bound it and it's ready for the Brookings Baby Shower in March.



It's all from stash and I did a happy dance when this back fit!!! Isn't it cute? It's been in my stash forever. It was just the right size and now it's not languishing in my stash! LOL!

I'm on the tail end of finishing the pies and tarts blocks. Of course, I had to make new freezer paper templates - and they are so sticky the first few times! I have 9 pies pinned to the background blocks - ready for a few nights of TV.

I hope to sew the next 9 wheel sets today and then there's only 7 more sets left from wedges already cut. Then I have to decide if it's big enough or if I need to cut more Civil War fabrics for more blocks. That will be a mess - I'm not sure I've bought many more fabrics that are suitable? Oh, I probably have, but laying it out and discovering what's new/what's already in there is a big pain for me.

I also have to trim the blocks - first decide how big. I think I've cut 3 different sizes of background squares. I'll just take the littlest and see what size it is and go from there.

IF I was just starting this project again. I would make a no-shrink plastic round template for the pies and tarts. Then I could poke a hole in the center; pin the fabric pie to it and drawstring it up around the template and press. I think this would result in better circles.

My method now is to iron against the freezer paper to make the sewing line. They're pretty good - but there's little points and bumps on the pies and tarts. There are on the original too, they show up in close-up pictures. So I'm in good company, but I'm pretty insecure about my applique anyway and I think this method would have given me better lines to start with!!



DH and I were ornery last weekend! The neighbors here have a cast-iron pig bank in their entryway. They are Green Bay fans and the pig looked cold! They were gone and we brought the pig in, measured it and made it a GB kerchief on Saturday. DH looked thru my stash to find the perfect color fabrics and we found the logo online. It's so cute and the neighbors loved it when they came home ... if only it wasn't the 'kerchief of defeat'!! Oh well, there's always next year!!

Our new community college campus opened - it's basically across the highway from us and I'm taking a digital scrapbook class. Mainly to learn Photoshop - but I can see this could be as addictive as quilting!! Oh, no!!

If you 'digital scrapbook', I'd love any hints or tips and any free resources you like!! The first class was last night and I came home overwhelmed!!

I'm trying not to take our winter storm today personally!! I'm supposed to be on my way to Portland for a visit with Miss P and Mr M and then take a quilt class in Philomath Saturday. We're expecting 100 mph winds on the coast, snow up in Portland and I'm a big chicken!! So I'll stay home, sew today and hope tomorrow it all blows over!! [get it???] I'm telling you, if we lived on the East Coast - these storms would have names!!

I'll let you know how it goes!

First UFO done for the year!!! Hip hip hoorah!!

I was named Queen of the UFOs this morning and my reign is OVER!! My first UFO finish of the year ... the first of many, I hope. Here is '8 tiny reindeer'! My first ever table runner.

The pattern is from "The Night Before Christmas" by Art to Heart. I love this book. Not only are there other cool projects that I'd like to make ... there is an AWESOME embroidery alphabet to use on stockings. I make alot of stockings and it's HARD to fit long names on that six inch stretch!

This project, traced in 2009, resided in a World Atlas for over a year. I cut the
wonder-under and didn't want it to curl ... and forgot about it over our move!

I love the embroidery - don't you just love that casual alphabet?? And then there was all the finish work. 8 embroidered sets of antlers, 8 red noses, 8 harness buttons, 16 tiny reindeer eyes, 6 doorknobs and some button holly! Add blush to Santa's cheeks ... more work than a baby quilt!!

The pattern called for 1 blue for the sky. Well, I tend to buy a third of a yard and didn't have an acceptable blue big enough - it's ridiculous for me to buy any more blues [among other colors!] so I used 3 of my favorites! And I love it!

Why do I feel this is bigger than it is?? 26" x 37" - entirely from stash including the back - so I'll say 1.5 yards! Not too much, but a start for the 100 yard dash in 2011!

It's machine pieced, machine appliqued, there's both machine and hand quilting! And all that hand embellishment! Fun project!

My DH even commented on it - asking why 8 schnauzers were pulling the sleigh! I said - 'they're reindeer, silly'. and he said, 'they have too much tummy - they'll never get off the ground!'

On Pepper, on Lassie, on Tonka and Rocky. Go Trei, BJ, Scout and Buffy!! LOL!




This year for Christmas DH got me flowers from a local florist each month! What a sweetie. We got our first bouquet this week. Those lilies are 8" across! It's been fun and we used the vase we bought in Newport on our way home from Christmas.

He's a keeper!

UFO Finish - 9 years in the making!

Pumpkins Gone Bad: The Bleach Chronicles.

It is a pumpkin 'original combo' of many pumpkins from different books and different sizes-arranged in my own way.

In 2000, while high on M&Ms at a retreat [smile] I agreed to make a seasonal wall
quilt for the mini-raffle, next month?? No problem!! [Let that be a lesson to all of us - never promise anything while on retreat!] While I was cutting, might as well make 2 - and you know the story - finished the one - binding it on the way to the meeting, of course. Everyone loved it - including my mom who wanted me to win it for her - I didn't!!! No problem - I'll just make another one.

Okay - change the size, I want it alittle bigger - we were doing 'stack and slash' blocks for quilts - I'll make them smaller and use them as a border. Got it all together - oh, that's a little bright. No problem, I'll just tan dye it. Well, I must have been a little distracted when adding the liquid tan Rit dye ... turned out really, really dark! Can you say "pumpkins at midnight ... in smog?" I decided to fix it by bleaching it. ... You know, they tell you not to bleach dark fabrics. You
don't bleach darks because you have NO IDEA what colors are under those lovely dark oranges! In my case it was Fuchia pink!!! Most of those 'newly found' pinks were small pieces out in the border - I could live with them. BUT the center pumpkin??? ICK!

I took it to my support group - yep, at work, what am I going to do? V, a temp from Viet Nam saw it and thought I was avant guarde using pink for a pumpkin. I said, no it was a mistake. The next day she asked what was my artist statement ... the third day I gave up explaining and decided to slip-cover the darn thing!!! So I did and threw it all in a dark corner because it was past fall by now anyway!!!

It matured for 8 years! But it wasn't looking any better!!! I found it when packing to move here to Oregon ... decided to keep it mainly cuz I was too embarrassed to give it to anyone. Two weeks ago I took a machine quilting class and lo and behold it was just the correct size for a "practice piece". And boy do I need more practice! BUT it is done in time for a finish this quarter AND the July program at guild is a UFO and it's story!!! What do you think??? LOL!


Meanwhile - a funny Miss P story: Yesterday was a very bad day for Miss P - a day where we throw ourselves on the floor screaming when mommy leaves for work. I was told I could leave too - but I make it a point not to follow directions from a 2 3/4 year old! I try to follow Mommy's rules so after lunch we could not have a hot baba, nor could we read 3 books. I kissed her and tucked her in - I was going home before she woke up from nap - when Daddy got home. And she said, "You know, there ARE other Nanas!" Then she brought up her other nana as an example!!! Dissed by a 2 year old! Told Papa that he was coming to babysit with me from now on!!! LOL!

Hooray! - Finally finished!!

Here are a few pictures to share. The three projects that I finished - relief - this weekend, my view from the 'Fairlift' at the Oregon State Fair and a sunset last week from our deck.

Hooray! - today I mail back to Nebraska the denim quilt, the I Spy quilt [with poem] and the Christmas stocking for my great niece's dog!!! The hardest part of the stocking was to find a picture of a boxer! Dogs can't read - so I always put a picture on them!!! LOL! All worthy projects - but for some reason I had a hard time getting them done. Guess I'm still finding my way around the new sewing space. I haul my machine out to the dining room table to sew. Not much room in the 'sewing room' with the computer set up in there. AND I love the view from the dining room too!

This week I need to tie the replacement Sesame Street flannel quilt for Miss P - the big birthday bash is next weekend - so none too soon to get it done! And I may have found a pattern that excites me for the baby quilt I need to make for 'baby boy' who's due at Thanksgiving! Work, work, work!

Last visit L gave me her high school graduation quilt to repair - It was made in 1996 and has been well used - but I can't really figure out what the heck happened to it! It appears to be mostly the alternate block seams - but they aren't particularly shredded - so why did they separate? I have older well-used quilts that have held together well - I hate repair work - so hope the word doesn't get out that I'll do this! LOL! There are signatures on the back of this one - so she'd really like to keep it usable. DRAT!

Back from babysitting gig!

We drove into Newport last night and didn't know the place! It was sunny and warm! I couldn't believe it either! LOL! To say we've had a few cool, foggy days would be an understatement! But it was gorgeous last night. We walked the beach at 7:30 pm - without jackets! Today was supposed to be partly sunny - since when does that mean sunshine reflecting off the fog??

Last week was my birthday and we got to spend time with both our kids - who could ask for more? Cards and presents and emails from friends - oh, my!! Hence, starts the 5 weeks of bad jokes about being the older woman - yep, 5 weeks until DH turns the same age and things settle down for another 47 weeks!

Here is my latest finished UFO - a scrap green disappearing 9patch. I used 5" squares and the finished block size is 12". I love this pattern - you make a 9 patch - then you slice it down the middle "north and south" and "east and west". AND you make the number of blocks you need in the finished quilt - easy to figure out.

The quilt is a delayed graduation gift for J2 who got her masters in education in June. Just as she had a summer course to take - I had to take the blocks back and finish the quilt - but it's done now - woohoo!! A and J2 are holding it. They announced their engagement this week - what great news! A wants to finish school before the wedding so ---- wedding in a year or two.

The other picture is Miss P the dynamo listening to A read a story. She loves books - but you have to be quick!! Things to do - places to run!

Hoping to have another UFO finish this week - the last of the denim quilts needs to be bound. What are you sewing on during olympics? I love to watch the olympics, winter and summer - but like to have binding and handwork to do so I don't feel like such a couch potato!

Week TWO after knee surgery

Bleah! That is definitely the word of the week. Still not sleeping; no energy and brother - tired of it. Enuf!

I did manage to bind "Starry Starry Nights". Finishing just under the deadline of Jan 31st! Very glad I had that ready to go - because I still have not spent as much time in the sewing room as I'd hoped I'd have energy for.

Starry Starry Nights may be one of my oldest UFO! I found it listed on a "to do" list from 1997 and it had been transferred from an earlier list! I had the stars all lined up like little soldiers and a quilting friend MJ reached over and twisted one! Well, that was a new concept! It sure did make the stars twinkle! SSN is about 45 inches square. Machine pieced and handquilted.

During recovery, I have been going thru old Quilters Newsletter Magazines. I have them all since the 80s! Can definitely see cycles of quilt styles. Scrap has been promoted for years and rightfully so!

Some good friends from work and quilting groups have been sending me FQs for my recovery! Thanks everyone! Wow - do they know what I like! It's been great getting squishies in the mail and visits between PT appointments. I'm looking forward to working with all these fabrics! And meanwhile I find myself patting each one and resorting them in their stacks! Great therapy for me - thinking ahead!

Also pictured above is my winter wonderland post card. The fabric itself did all the work - isn't it cool? Not my usual style at all. I was afraid that people would be disappointed with just fabric so I actually beaded alittle on each card. I can see how this could become addictive ... but hopefully I'll be able to keep it in check!