Wednesday, August 19, 2009

More Fun!

Good afternoon,

I am working right along on my goal for this month. I may not get everything done that I planned, but I am doing ok. (grin) The weather this month has helped me out. It rained again this morning, so we can't do anything outside. No outside work equals more quilting time. Right? LOL

I went through the box of pieces that I had cut out last year for Quilter's Garden. I even made sure that I had cut all the pieces needed for each block. I did find one piece missing. Not sure if I overlooked cutting it out, or if it is hiding from me. Anyway, I am so glad that I stuck all the leftover fabric for these blocks down in the bottom of the box. I needed a dark gold 4 1/2 inch square. Whew! I had a strip just over 4 3/4 inches wide leftover. I got that cut and each block's pieces put together and labled. I already had 4 blocks together and decided to make one block a day till I get it done. Today I am ready for block#8 and it is a doozy! If I counted right, it has 61 pieces in a 12 1/2 inch block. This is block #1 called Bachelor Buttons.
Number 2 is called Star Gazer.
I will show you a few more blocks next time. I think this quilt is going to turn out pretty. I haven't even picked the setting fabric yet. I may work on that this afternoon.

I wanted to share a few more pictures from our BBQ at Carolyn and Bob's. Isn't this chair fabulous? Bob's brother, Terry, made it for Carolyn. I sat in it and fell in love.(big grin) It is so comfy. I can see me sitting on the porch quilting away. Anyway, when Terry arrived, Kevin asked him if he would make one for me just like Carolyn's. He had to cut it down because Carolyn is like me and rather short. The one he made for Bob, just swamped her and me. LOL
Terry does wonderful work. I am so excited, I can hardly wait to get my new chair.
I thought you all might like to see some pictures of the deck that Carolyn and Bob just built. It is pretty big. They already had a 10X10 concrete deck on the front of the house, so they went out another 10 ft. then turned to the side with a 10X11. So it is shaped like an 'L', 10X20 ft with a 10X11 ft to the side.

Carolyn and Bob love watching birds and squirrels, so their back yard is full of birdfeeders, birdbaths, birdhouses, and squirrel feeders. Carolyn has two squirrels that visit every day. She calls them Freddie and Freddina. LOL I would call this the feeding station.Terry made this wooden feeder for them.
We saw so many different kinds of birds while we were there. It is like a sactuary. I hope you can see the red cardinal in this picture. He stayed there and ate for a long time. I really enjoyed watching all the birds. There were too many people present for Freddie and Freddina to come, though. LOL

As soon as I get Harbor Town washed, I will share a picture with you. I have been quilting away in the evenings on the Disappearing Nine Patch. I drew some motifs on it with the blue washout pencil. It has been so humid that some of the lines are starting to fade, so I really want to get it done. Haven't touched Birds and Blooms or Double Delight for a week or so, but I'll get back to them. I think I had better get my Quilter's Garden block done since they are calling for storms this afternoon. I unplug my machine when it storms. So I need to get with it. Everyone have a good day. Thanks for visiting.



Monday, August 17, 2009

A fun BBQ!

Good afternoon everyone,

It has been raining off and on since Saturday. So far, we have had 2 3/4 inches of rain. It is wet here. We had a very good time at Carolyn and Bob's BBQ. They did a fabulous job on their new deck. I will share some pictures of it tomorrow. Today, it is the grandbabies. LOL But first....Bob really liked his GPS case and it just fit. I got the stains off of my iron. I made a paste out of baking soda and vinegar. I used a scrubby and put it on the cold iron. It took some work, but I got most of the ickiness off of it. The iron glides over the fabric like new, now. (grin)

Like I said, we had a good time. Cathryn and Jeremy were the only ones in our family that could make it, but most of Bob's family were able to come. I think we had about 30 people. Cathryn and Jeremy went by and picked up Izabella and Noah, since Hazel had to work. Wasn't that sweet of them? So we got to see all 4 of our grandbabies. (Big grin!)

This is Carolyn and Bob with their furbaby, Emma between them.
This is Jeremy.
Cathryn holding Izabella. Ashton lost his first top tooth on the first day of first grade. He is quite proud of it. LOL Noah had such a good time playing with his cousins. Ava was hard to get a picture of for some reason. Most of my pictures are of the top of her head. LOL Here she is hamming it up.
Izzie spent most of her time sitting on Aunt Cath's lap. She wasn't very happy to be away from her mama and daddy. Ashton and Noah playing in the sandbox before the rain began. The kids had lots of fun in the sandbox.
Noah and Ava. She is posing for me again. I think she is going to be a model. LOL

We had a wonderful time. I will share more pictures tomorrow. All of this rain has made it possible for me to get lots of quilting done. I am working on the binding of the Harbor Town quilt. I have also been quilting on the Disappearing Nine-Patch. I am making a block a day of the Flower Garden Quilt. Today I am on block #6. Then I have 6 more. The Double Delight is still sitting there waiting on me. I still plan to get it done, but I kind of have to force myself to do it. LOL
Well, I need to get my chores done before the rain comes back. Thank you for visiting. I hope you all have a good evening.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Sidetracked....

Good evening,

It was a nice day, hot, but less humidity. I got all my work done up this morning so I could work on some goal quilts this afternoon. Then I got sidetracked. LOL We are going to Carolyn and Bob's for a BBQ tomorrow. I promised Bob last Christmas that I would make him a case for his GPS. He saw Kevin's little hand held GPS with the case I made for it and asked me to make him one. Well, 8 months later, I finally did it. (grin) I think he will like it. Kevin has a bigger GPS now, similar to Bob's, so I used it to make the pattern. I hope Bob likes blue.
Here's the back. I made it so he can wear it on his belt or put it in his shirt pocket. The flap closes with velcro. Well, I got this all done for Bob, then I happened to think that I needed a strap for my camera bag. I broke it last summer. I always carry my camera around my neck when we go somewhere. I haven't been able to do that for the past year. (Eye roll here) I know I could just buy another case for about $5, but there is nothing wrong with my case, just the strap. I tend to lay my camera down and forget where I put it when it isn't around my neck. LOL So I looked around and found some of the leftovers from Froggy Went a Courtin' that I haven't added to my scrap bins yet. Hmmm, I came up with an idea. Some scraps and some fusible fleece and I am in business. What do you think? It isn't perfect by no means, but works for what I want and I used up some scraps. Now I have a question for you. How do I get this black junk off of the bottom of my iron? I kind of screwed up a little bit with the fusible fleece and this is the results. When I work with any kind of fusibles I always use my old iron. It has been dropped so many times that it leaks water, but it still heats fine, so I use it as a dry iron. I am not sure why I used my good iron today. (Sigh) I hope someone has some ideas. It looks nasty. While cleaning last week, I came across my crochet thread stash. I haven't touched crochet thread since I started quilting. I still like to crochet with yarn, but not thread. Carolyn makes beautiful things with crochet thread. So I am taking my stash to her. No point in it taking up room here. She might as well get some good out of it. Well, I am off to watch the last of the Neil Diamond special. I have had my tv blaring so I could hear it. He still sings great! I won't have time to be on the computer much this weekend, so hopefully I will be back next week. Since this weekend marks the middle of August, I need to hustle next week! LOL Everyone have a great weekend. Thanks for visiting!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Green Star Quilt Along Now a Flimsy!

Good evening everyone,

I have been busy working towards my goal. Of course you know I finished "Froggy Went a Courtin'" to flimsy stage last week. I also have the backing made and the binding. I folded them all together so nothing is misplaced. I thought I had all of the double 9-patches done for the Double Delight, but I only had half of them done. So now, I have all the double 9-patches and 1/3 of the rolling star blocks done for the Double Delight. I will be glad to get this one done.

Yesterday, I got the borders put on my Green Star Quilt Along. It ended up being 86 inches square. I believe this is the biggest quilt I have pieced so far. I tried lots of ways to get a picture, but these are the best I could do. You will just have to piece the pictures together to visualize the quilt. LOL It is too windy outside to attempt to take a picture. Kevin is at work, so I did the best I could. Here is the right side.
The left side.
Here are a few closer up shots of some of the blocks.
I really like this block so you get to see it twice. LOL Maybe it is the polka-dots.
I am half way done with the third border on the Harbor Town quilt. I hope to get it finished tonight. Maybe I can get the binding on before the end of the weekend.
We are going to a BBQ at Carolyn and Bob's house on Saturday. We are really looking forward to it. We need a relaxing day with family and friends. So that is what is going on here. Everyone have a good day. Thanks for visiting.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Froggy Quilt Is a Flimsy!

Good afternoon,

After my post yesterday, I figured I'd better get in gear. So I cleaned and oiled my machine, wound a few bobbins, and put the pedal to the metal. LOL I like how it turned out. I was going to go with one of the greens in it for the outer border, but when Kevin saw it, he said it had to be the large frog fabric, so that is what I went with. He knows what he is talking about. (grin) Do any of you remember the song 'Froggy Went a Courtin'? Every time I look at this quilt top, I think of that song. Now I can't get it out of my head. LOL So maybe this should be called Froggy Went a Courtin'. Aeris approves. Everything quilt related must be inspected and approved by at least one, if not both, of our furbabies. LOL Callie was eating, so she missed out on the picture. Here is a closeup to show the little stars in the corners. I bought a new ruler and these were so much easier to make.
This ruler has been such a help with my HST's (half square triangle). It is made by June Tailor. I bought it in Wal Mart last month. I think I paid about$12 for it. Worth every penny! So if you are having trouble with those HST's get this ruler. It really will make them more fun. LOLOk, now I remember why I put the Double Delight on hold. It is all of that trimming. LOL The square in a square is a pretty block, but oh the trimming. This pile of trimmings is from about half of what I have to do for this quilt. This morning, I put a new blade in the rotary cutter and got with it. Do I like trimming any better? NO! It is just so time consuming and let's face it, boring! I am not putting this away, though, till it is a flimsy. I forget sometimes that not everyone talks "quilt". LOL A flimsy is the pieced top before it has been sandwiched or quilted. I have a couple of bins with flimsies in them, being very patient for me to get to them. I have 3 flimsies that are marked, sandwiched, and basted, just waiting on me. This isn't counting the two I am currently quilting. No, I am not adding any more projects to this month's goal. LOL
Today, my dad would have been 74 years old. He has been gone for 12 1/2 years. I miss him terribly, but I am not sad today. He is in a better place. My dad was a simple man who loved to work with his hands. He was a carpenter and I love to drive by the houses that I know he built. He built the house for one of our neighbors, about a mile away. I think of him every time I drive by her house. He almost always came home at nights with paint and sheetrock mud on him. When I smell these things, I think of him. He did brick work. He replastered our cistern not long after we got married. He worked on small engines and cars, until they became computerized. He hated computers. LOL He could do about anything. In later years he was pretty much a handyman, but his specialty was building cabinets. Oh my, he built some beautiful cabinets. I almost forgot about his passion. He loved to fish. He would go fishing every day if he could. He also loved hunting, but not like fishing. As kids, our summers were spent fishing with him on the Missouri River. He also was an excellent cook of those fish. He was the youngest of 7 children and the only boy. Grandpa finally got his boy. (grin) His parents lived with us. He took care of them till they passed on. Yep, my dad was a good man. He and mom have 4 kids, 16 grandkids, 6 great grandkids, and 4 on the way. I think he would be proud of all of us. I just felt I had to write this little tribute to dad. He was loved and is missed.
Well, I guess I need to go sit in my rocker and do some quilting. My ankles are swelling and I need to prop them up. Thank you for visiting. Have a good day.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

I have a goal!

Good afternoon,

I know it has been 2 weeks since I posted, but I have been busy and didn't really have much to blog about. Now I have come up with a plan. Several quilters in blogland are trying to finish up things in August. (Big sigh!) I have so many projects to finish. After reading Bren's blog about how she continued on with her Basket Case quilt even though she had lots of problems with it, I decided I needed to finish some of these tops. Bren's Basket Case is beautiful, by the way. You should go to her blog and check it out.

So my goal for August is to get the 4 quilts (5 if I count Birds and Blooms) done to flimsy stage. I also have 2 quilts that I am hand quilting at the moment. I want to get them complete, bindings and all. I might even try to throw in a couple of shirts for Kevin. Nope, still haven't made his shirts. LOL I know this sounds like a lot, but I don't plan to let myself start another project till I have these done. So to be accountable, I am posting about it here. I will try to keep you all updated on my progress, but if I spend time on the computer, I don't have time for quilting. LOL

First I want to finish to flimsy stage the Frog quilt. I have half the blocks done and the rest of it cut out, so hope to have it pieced by tomorrow. This is a baby quilt, so not real big. There are 12 blocks in it. The blocks measure 10 inches square finished.
Next up is my Green Star Quilt Along quilt. It was a quilt along on Amanda Jean's blog a long time ago. All that I need to do for this one is put the borders on it. It is large, queen size I think. I really love how this one looks. Just need to get those borders on it.
I have Double Delight cut out, but need to get it finished. It was a mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter. I love the way everyone elses turned out, but hate trimming. Half of the blocks have lots of trimming. I have all of the double 9-patch blocks done, but the square in a square blocks still need lots of work. These are the 2 basic blocks for this quilt. I didn't go scrappy as Bonnie did. I think it will be really pretty once it is finished. I just need to bite the bullet and get those square in a square blocks done.I started A Quilter's Garden over a year ago. It is a Thimbleberries' pattern. I have the flower blocks all cut out and 4 of them done. That is all, so this one will take the most time. Here is what it should look like, except with my fabric choices, of course.
Of course, I will continue to work on the Birds and Blooms quilt. I have the bottom applique done, so just 3 more sides of applique, then I can make and put on the border with all those HST's (half square triangles). LOL I have a new ruler for those, that is supposed to make it much easier. I hope so.
I am quite a bit over half done on the Disappearing Nine Patch. I had planned to have this one done in May. That didn't happen, so it got put on hold while I worked on other projects. It is wrinkled because it has been sort of folded beside my rocker, patiently waiting for me to get back to it. LOL Can you believe that I am having trouble figuring out which color thread I used to quilt it. Why didn't I put the thread I was using with the quilt? Hmmm, it is either white or off white. I am over half done on Harbor Town. This one has been lots of fun for me. It is basically just straight stitching. Well, there you have it. Do you think I can get all of these done in August? Maybe I am just spitting in the wind, but I thought I would be more apt to work on these if I posted about them. LOL We do have alot going on right now, but I still have lots of free time while Kevin is at work. If I don't meet my goal this month, I will just continue on in September. I definitely have plenty of handquilting to keep me busy this winter. (grin) As I said, I will try to keep you updated, but it will probably be smaller posts with less pictures. Uploading pictures on here takes a long time.
Thank you to everyone who wished us happy anniversary. We had a good time. Also thank you for visiting my blog. Please come again. Have a good day.

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