October (hoped for!) projects!!!

Events!!!!

1. October Quiltathon!!!!! (10-4,-5,-6,-7 - THIS weekend!!!!)
2. Sukkot - and it is DEFINITELY rainy and cold!
3. Karen's birthday! (and I'm NOT saying how old she is - because, unfortunately - I'm the OLDER!
(Nevertheless, I'm still good for rubbing in a pound of salt! hmmm - maybe send her a cane????)

House!!!!

ok - this is the NOT fun part - need to work on THESE items - and trying to pick ONLY 5 is going to be interesting!

1. My room - this project is to go through these drawers, sort patterns, etc. and get this OUT of this room and into my sewing room!!!!

 

2. Relatively quick project here - light for the room and paint these nasty walls!  (pale blue? for spaciousness and reflectivity?  white can be sooooooo boring) 

 

3. MAJOR project - to sort out all this paper mess and toss/file/re-allocate (give to Nathan!) and to respond as needed

4. Weekend project - to sort out this one set of shelves - refold all the red non-cottons so they are neat - PLUS decide whether or not to keep all of one color together or to put all cottons together and then on a separate shelve put all non-cotton together.  May try it that way - not sure!  Sure is messy!  PLUS some of this stuff needs to be re-homed!

5. Laundry room - needs shelving up high plus a grid to hang cleaning stuff on.

 



Garden!!!!
My Garden needs cleaning and clearing up - A LOT!  Will post pix of each section on the garden page!  4 sections -  with 5 x 10 wide (4 foot) beds 28 foot long!  and the rest broken in half (at least 6 beds - 4 wide by 14 foot long) 

My fruit trees need their fall mulching, and some stuff needs to be cleared for winter and transplanted to their permanent grounds.

And yes, I'm still harvesting!

My greenhouse - I would LOVE to keep it up - but have been told that it can't stay up because of the snow (I COULD knock the snow off!!!!)  Will see!

Sewing wardrobe!!!!

2 patterns - at least 2 pairs slacks, 1 dress, 1 skirt, 1 jacket plus 2 - 4 blouses or tops.

Quilting - machine

Walking foot -

All this needs is quilting - walking foot - then FMQ in the borders

Walking foot all the way

 

Walking foot sampler square

Walking foot placemats plus Stitch in the ditch!

 

Stitch in the Ditch time with some FMQ on the green

Picnic table - sampler????? Walking foot sampler

 

 

Free Motion Quilting

FMQ all the way.  Meandering - not sure about borders.

 

 

 

 



 



 

 

September slips by and now it's October!

Isn't it amazing how one month just sorta slips by before you know it - and then another one looms mercilessly overhead, telling you how you didn't finish LAST month's projects and now you've got a whole New Month of projects to contend with!

Just so you (and I) won't think I didn't do ANYTHING in the month of September - let me review (and add some DONE pix as well)

Eventwise.....

First there was a combination of a family wedding and family reunion at the same time

My daughter Wendy and son-in-law Vince

My sister Karen and brother in law Bill

I like this picture of Bill a lot better!

 

and then there's

THE BIG EVENT.....

 

The WEDDING!!!

Son Nathan

new daughter, Lynn

and this is the sweetest picture!!!!

Two hearts melded into one!!!!

(Lynn's mom officiated as minister)

 

Of course, this means a whole new family added together (I'm one for including whole families and thinking of us all joined together).  I haven't figured out all of who's who - but eventually I'll get there!

 

 

Lynn's mom, who officiated and married Nathan and Lynn

Some of the groomsmen - Mike Toth, Doug - both good friends (Donovan - where WERE you in this picture?), one of Lynn's cousins and Lynn's grampa who is one sweetheart for sure!

ummm - not going to mention which aunt had ouchy feet from her shoes!!!!

Just trust me that this picture WILL come back to haunt her! LOL

 

Groomsmen and Nathan

Doug from South (?) Carolina, Mike Donovan, of course the next person is Nathan, then Mike Toth and then Lynn's cousin whose name I STILL don't know

 

Housewise....

While I didn't get ALL of my projects done by any means - I DID prevail upon my son to complete 2 projects......

The set of bathroom shelves

Some of the shelving needed for laundry room (which immediately filled up - Need MORE!)

Sewing room project shelves and quilting bookshelf

(individual patterns and book binders are stored elsewhere)

 

 My room - picked up and (it WAS clean!) almost clean (note the iron!!!!)

 

I also cleared out most of the mess in my living room and in my dining room (room will henceforth be called the study/office and dining room is the new family room!)  And, no, I'm NOT posting before pix - and after pix are under duress (from me) because they are STILL needing more decluttering!)

 

Quiltwise......

 

Baby quilt - August UFO

Row by row - September UFO quilt

 



 

Stash Report No. 40 - or 39 - or whatever - for 09-30-12

ok - I'm SOoooooooooo loused up on my stash report numbers.....  I thought it was week number 40.  However Judy L. says it is week 39 - and since we KNOW how easily I get distracted and messed up - I guess she is probably more right than I am!

39  AGAIN!

Used This Week: 0
Used This Month: 10.135 yards for September
Used Year to Date: 98.015 yards
Added This Week: 0 yards
Added This Month: 0 yards for September
Added Year to Date: 44.43 yards
Net Used for 2012: 43.45 yards

Now this is NOT to say that I'm not busting my butt trying to get the quilt that was due today - Sunday  - completed - because I am.  I'm just not done.  Yet.  So - the yardage will have to be added in to next week's stash report.

UFO Challenge!

September UFO is done!  At least the flimsy part of it!!!!

....................................................................
And the NEW October Challenge is No. 6!  Which is a modified Child's choice for me!

This is a block that I started for a swap some years ago (when I first started quilting) - and it's a mess!  The swap never happened. 

BUT I really, really did NOT like that block as it stood!  Now however I am modifying it and playing with it.  Hopefully it will be a lot more fun now!  Amongst other things, I am probably going to make this into a much smaller quilt.  Maybe. 

First though I have to take out all the goofed up stitching!  And that is going to be a chore! (a TV time chore!)

Idea though is to put pix of things that _I_ love or did love as a kid in the box on alternate squares.   We'll see.  I suspect finding pix of things I love or did love in FABRICS is NOT going to be easy!

And the winner is..................

The black with the Mardi-gras theme!  Hmm - definitely am thinking applique - maybe over pieced work! 

Not a lot done today - did do a lot of slicing/dicing tonight.  Tomorrow will sew up a storm!

Tuesday's workings.....

Today I substitute taught - which in many (not all) respects I thoroughly enjoyed.  What was really neat was that TODAY I actually got to teach - not just babysit.  LOVED it!  LOL  - the only part I DIDN'T love was having to work within the confines of the system for behaviorally and emotionally challenged children.  By and large all the kids were great.

Now to sew!
---------------------
Tuesday summary - I did a LITTLE sewing - mostly I sliced and diced stuff that I shoulda sliced and diced in JULY!!!!  Good news is that once that is done (it wasn't) there is sewing but it's not really difficult - and then mostly assembling. 

I contacted SH quilt shop and asked re the selvedge edge question - lady there said she trimmed it - but definitely understood my frustration.

No pix today.

Monday's Progress Summary

I thought that in order to keep me moving along I need to report my progress - either on a daily basis - OR on a several times a week basis.....

After I did 15 minutes of clean up (definitely NOT long enough, by any means!), I grabbed the directions to the Scrap Bag quilt.  And promptly got lost in the directions!  I mean, it sounds so simple....  Cut x number of inches from the selvedge edge.  Well, does that mean with Selvedge ON or with selvedge cut off?  As in, I would cut the selvedge off and cut the strips lengthwise - which is what she wanted.  BUT she didn't say that!  The strips ARE to be cut lengthwise but why didn't she just simply say so????  Ugh!!!!

Anyway - I cut and prepared as much as I could (so far - I definitely have LOTS more to do!) Because I KNEW I wasn't going to finish in one day and ... uh, because I know me - at least well enough that I know I would have NO idea what on earth I was doing - I bagged each of the 3 print fabric groups (Binding strips, posts, and blocks and sashing).  HOPEFULLY I won't get things confused all over again!

This is one small group (66) of the granny square backgrounds (yes, that is muslin - I'm using stash and felt that with the fall scrappy look, the muslin blended so much better than a dead white!)

Then I got sidetracked!  Don't even know what I sidetracked on - but that was it for the evening!

Design Wall for Monday, 09-24-12

1. As usual, I have been procrastinating like crazy about working on my Grandma's Scrapbag Quilt.  As you can see!  This is the main focus for the week (class - last one for THIS project, is Sunday!)

Fortunately it's a fairly easy and hopefully QUICK quilt!  Not planning on doing the final quilting on this one yet!

2. For the color Palette challenge, I have a vote (on 1 of the 3 blacks for background in the CPChallenge). Mind you, I haven't selected the pattern yet - but it will be SMALL! (Table topper? Quiltlet?) This is so that hopefully I can get it done in time! The 3 backgrounds are (or should be) located in the post directly below this one!

3. Re Final Quilting, I have 2 practice pieces (hope to spend at least an hour a day practicing or working on each of the types.  One is for the Walking Foot while the other is for Free Motion Quilting.  I'm scared spitless of both - even though I've had a class on this as well as have had my dd show me.

(The sampler for the FMQ is the top one - and I may re-do the whole thing - goodness knows, I sure need to!)

3a. For the walking foot (1 hour daily): I want to work on:

3b. This next baby quilt I want to finish up my walking foot quilting and then do some FMQ around the edges.



4. As per usual - I have my Leaders/Enders project - only this time I added a trim 5 for every time I go to the cutting board!  (as in I'm getting CLOSER!)

5. Additionally my plans include a CLEANUP of my sewing room!  which is super full of blocks, scraps and what all!  Rather than an all at once free-for all - and since I use Bonnie Hunter's Scrap Saver System (which WORKS!) - I'm spending 15 minutes a day (for the next 50 years probably - but then I'll feel virtuous the entire time because I'm Cleaning Up!).

(Btw - the plastic box is FULL of blocks - all shapes, sizes, stages of finished and not!)

I Need a Vote Here.......

I WAS going to make a Burgoyne Surrounded quilt - HOWEVER I discovered that my colors were for August!!!!  This is September!  However living in a state of confusion and chaos and indeciveness, I now have TWO months of choosing to do.

For the month of September (this is for the Color Palette challenge):

Which do you like better?
 

a) Sort of a kids theme on the black

b) this one is NOT my favorite

 (although I love the fabric - just not my favorite for THIS pattern)

 

c) Sort of a Mardigras on the black

On Wednesday I plan to count any and all votes and choose the main black fabric at that time.

Please keep in mind, there is NO prize given for choosing!  Just a mention of which one!

Flimsy time!!!!! Yeeehaw!!!!

LOL - thought I would NEVER get to finish this!  But I did!

I showed a picture on my stash report - am going to show other pictures - same quilt flimsy.  These will eventually be shifted over to my Flimsyville page!

Stash Report for 09-23-12

FINALLY!!!!  I finally had a chance to finish the last border on my September UFO - Row by Row!  Yeehaw!!!  This Couch quilt was a swap - and was supposed to have 5 people in it but one person dropped out.  This quilt was ALSO supposed to have been swapped out over a year ago!  I know now that I am MISERABLE at swaps!  I LOVE to swap - and LOVE to get the blocks in the mail - but am absolutely horrible when it comes to time!  Be that as it may - all rows got finished, sent on their merry way (and hopefully were ok) and I recieved my rows in exchange - which are absolutely gorgeous!!!! (My part of the swap is the birds in the nest - the second vertical row in.  And yes, that is the red strip between the gold and the navy - looks almost like the navy - but in reality it really gives a punch to all the colors - hopefully when it is washed that it will keep its color to itself, however!)

When figuring this yardage - I am adding ALL the rows - since I also had to do swaps to get my rows back!  Am using the yardage the same as for Nicole's couch quilt - mostly because I have NO idea as to the rest of the yardage!  (128 inches of flimsy) and some of the pieces are small - others aren't.


Used This Week: 8.76
Used yards for September: 10.135 yards
Used Year to Date: 98.015 yards
Added This Week:.0 yards
Added This Month: 0
Added Year to Date: 44.43 yards
Net Used for 2012: 43.45 yards