Happy New Year

Or at least Happy New Year's Eve.

My apartment is still a mess (isn't it always?) but I do have half the sewing area cleaned up.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll take a picture of it.  What do you plan on doing on New Years Day?  I don't have anything specific in mind except to set up a schedule for at least January so I can be more organized.  Or attempt to be more organized.

I do have one project that NEEDS to be done by the end of January.  The Herd of Turtles.  Perhaps tomorrow I will try to use some tea or coffee to test the material.  I have gotten a few new things over the holidays.  One is this little pair of snips.

They are fiskars ( yeah, the tell tale orange) and fit nicely into my hand.  Another things that I signed up for was a group which want to do 2013 Random Acts of Kindness.  My first one is to give this mini hanging to a friend of my Niece in Law Jessica.  Her friend is undergoing breast cancer treatment.

We'll see how far the groups gets to.  I think it will be possible to reach the goal.  Especially when they count each preemie quilt as one, etc.  I'll keep you informed.  In the meantime time to get back to cleaning.

Everybody have a safe holiday.

I'm tired!

Whew!  I'm tired.  I managed to get a lot of the fabric organized.  Still haven't seen my teapot blocks but they were easy to do so I can always redo them.  I need to go to Walmart again and pick up some more bins.  These smaller ones I'm liking better and I want them to be see through.

At the end of the day here is what I've accomplished.

This is my better or special quality fabric.  Might have to use some in order to make room in the bin.

This is my green and reds.

This has my background colors:  White, black, blue and beige.  The beige is in the green bag because I have a hard time telling it apart from some of the white on white.

Not sorted by any particular color but at least in a bin.

Another one where it's not sorted by colors.  I can do that another day.

My international fabric

I still have some fabric that needs to go into bins plus some projects.  Still overall a good start.  I can see this will lead to my sewing area being rearranged again.  Sigh.  It never ends (grins).

It's that time of the year again

With starting a new year, I decided that I would once again reorder my stash.  Part of that decision came because I can't find my finished blocks in order to finish up the teapot BOM.  That led me to realize that I had better get organized again.  This time I will give away what I don't want or think I will use.  I'm still keeping scraps because they go in a different storage area.

So this is what I'm starting with...

Keep in mind that I pulled these out of bins and drawers so it looks a little worse than what it was.  I also have noticed that some of my bins are broken so they will be thrown out.

I am going to put everything that I no longer want in one of the broken bins so that it won't go back into the stash.

I have managed to get my good fabric into one bin.

By good I mean my costly fabric.  That's the fabric that I bought from a quilt store or some lines like Stonehenge.  I am not putting the JoAnne's, Hobby Lobby, WalMart fabric in that bin.  I'll still buy from those three because it fits my budget and we don't have a local quilt shop anymore.  They have nice fabric also but you need to be more careful in your selection.

Next step is to put my normal background material (whites, blues, green, black, etc.) in containers.  Then I'll look and see what I have left.  It's a good thing to start the new year with it getting organized.  I know it won't stay that way but at least I'm attempting to start it off that way.  :)

Time to get back to the sorting.  Happy quilting.

New Block of the Month

Hi everybody!

I almost forgot to post this.  If you've followed my blog you probably have heard me talk about The Quilt Pattern Magazine.  It's an online magazine which is TOTALLY worth the cost of the subscription.  It comes out monthly and there is a lot of information in each issue.

The Quilt Pattern Magazine is going to do a free "Mini Block of the Month" which was designed by Nancy Richoux, owner of "Spring Creek NeedleArt".  Each month they will post the location for a new block in their newsletter.  Cindy from The Quilt Pattern Magazine posted in one of the yahoo groups I belong to the information for it and I have her permission to post it here also.  Go check it out.  I will probably be doing this one.

"For a photo of the BOM, go to
http://www.quiltpatternmagazine.com/SignUp.html

To participate in this BOM and access the patterns, just sign up for our
newsletter.

I hope you will join us.

cindy
http://www.quiltpatternmagazine.com"

You will need to subscribe to their newsletter which can be done here:

http://www.quiltpatternmagazine.com/SignUp.html

Who else might join me in doing this?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I hope everybody has a safe and merry holiday.

I finished most of my projects on time.  I still have the turtle to do but will roll that over into a Christmas/Happy Birthday present.  So I guess that is going to the top of my list of what to work on.  That is for another day though.  Today is time to rest up a bit.

I had a delightful Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  Christmas Eve I spent partly with mom and partly with my nephew Jason and his family.  Then today I took breakfast to mom and spent a couple of hours with her. All in all a good way to start the holiday.

If you'd like to see pictures of it all, including Jason's family going to see Santa, etc. then go to:

http://public.fotki.com/bonni56/christmas-2012/

They are a great bunch of kids and mom totally enjoyed the wall hangings that I made her.  The snowman one was hers but the flower one was given to another lady there.  Mom wanted to give her something since she always looked at mom's mini's all the time.  Mom said today that when she gave the woman the mini wall hanging she started to cry and say that she never got anything from anybody.

Jason and Jessica's family is very talented also.  They don't quilt (yet) but they do other things.  The kids got a kitchen toy (my word for it) that let them make cake pops (instead of lollipops, you use cake batter, etc.) so that is what Santa got on Christmas Eve.

The plate has the five cake pops (one for each child) and two chocolate bacon (tastes much better than it sounds) cookies to represent the parents on the plate all ready for Santa.

I was so honored also to get artwork from one of the girls.  :)

I think that she might turn out to be somewhat of an artist like her dad.  Jason got a calligraphy kit and some art supplies for Christmas so he did a family tree for his in-laws Christmas present.

What is nice to see is that they gave the kids some of the craft stuff also.  If it wasn't for cooking, they got some things for either Scrapbooking, drawing, or painting.  I liked those present much better than the toys that Liam got which looked like cockroaches running around.  At least the black one did.  The pink one was kinda cute.  It runs on a small battery so you just let them run around and try to catch them.  He got some ramps for them to run around on etc. but for some perverse reason he liked to let them run around on the kitchen linoleum floor.  :)  All in good fun though.

So with much amusement and silliness, I wish everybody as much fun as I had with my family gatherings this year.  

Happy Holidays.

4 days and counting - pressure is off

Four days til Christmas and the pressure is off.  I put Dan's penguins in the mail this morning.  Since it is mailed him at Dawn's I also put in a little something for her.  She won't get the Herd of Turtles wall hanging until later but her birthday is in January so perhaps I should strive for that?  I put in Chocolate Silk coffee for her.  :)  Oops.  I just realized that I didn't state which was for Dan and which was for her.  Oh well...I'll let them figure it out.

I didn't have my camera at home so had to take the pictures with the cell phone.  I am finding that I take more pictures with that than anything else it seems.  Must remember that when I go looking for a new phone.

A close up of the back

I outlined the penguins first and then did a meandering for the rest of it.

5 days and counting!

Whew!  I managed to get all the presents for my co-workers done and passed out.  I also sold a couple more of the wrist rests for the computer.  Overall not too bad.

Here is the picture of the little basket of wrist pads.  The longer one is for the neck but they were using it for a pad to put in front of the keyboard also.  LOL.  Didn't think of that.

You see that little Christmas tree?  It's approximately 35 years old.  I  inherited upon the death of my mothers best friend (she was like a second mother to me) a number of years ago.  The tree is all beaded and has individually wrapped presents and a little train, etc. under the doom.  I bring it out every year and keep it in my office so it doesn't get broken.  :)

Now that I have finished those, it's time to work on the next Christmas Present.  That is my penguin wall hanging for my friend Dan.  He will be visiting his Fiance on New Years Eve so will mail it to her.  She is the one that I am doing the Herd of Turtles for but I won't have it done in time.  After Christmas I'll have try and get it done for her birthday in January.  Her Christmas present (for what it's worth) will be some Chocolate Silk Coffee.  She LOVES chocolate and is also a coffee drinker.  I need to try and get it in the mail by the weekend.

The rain is starting to turn to snow now so that will help get me going (I think) on working on things.

Until next time....

Happy Stitching, Happy Holidays, and stay safe.

Christmas is coming.....

Yeah, I know, it's not news.  The calendar has been telling us this day is coming for over a year.  The retail shops have been telling us...well we won't talk about them.

I have been busy doing the wrist pads and started on a couple of neck socks.  A picture of them will be posted tomorrow.  Mom reminded me that I have to finish up a mini for one of the people in her nursing home.  I managed to figure out what the design would be (it's in EQ7) and have it fused onto one of the napkins from the Nursing Home.  Now I need to hand stitch it down and quilt it.  She wants a pale pink for the binding so that won't be too bad.

Here is the design.

I also received a Christmas present this week.  My friend Shelley Gardner, who does great Long Arm work, sent me an engagement calendar for 2013.  Here it is.

I'll probably take periodic pictures of the quilts shown in it.  Isn't it great?  This was on my wish list for Christmas so I am glad that she took the not so subtle hint.  :)  She did say it was part one of my Christmas present so now I am wondering what else she has up her sleeve.  I will share it with you when I find out.

May you all be safe this holiday season.

Happy Birthday Mom (Edith Bromeland)

Today (Monday, December 10, 2012) my mother turned 93.  Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!

I actually gave her birthday presents to her yesterday when my brother and I were there for biscuits and gravy Sunday breakfast.

I had three mini's ready for her and I let her pick which one she wanted.  She could pick one for her birthday and one for Christmas.  She didn't know that I was going to take the one for Christmas back with me (grins). She looked at them and looked at them and finally said she couldn't decide.  I just responded with "I guess you have to keep them both then."  She beemed and soon I had the two mini's put away in her dresser drawer.  They weren't Christmas or Autumn colors so they will come out when it is warmer weather.  Here are the pictures of her.  They were taken with my cell phone so they aren't the best ones of her.

I'll show you the Christmas one once it get here.  :)

Everybody have a great day!

Rainy Day

Got back from having breakfast with mom.  She's doing good.  Tomorrow she turns 93.  She is in the nursing home and I go have breakfast with her every Sunday.  Coming home afterwards, I was stopped for about 10 minutes for friends to cross the road.  :)

A Little Bit of Color

Hi Everybody!  Ready for some color?  Remember earlier when I said that Leah Day's FMQ stitch inspired me to do something?  Here it is.  Not much mind you but colorful.  LOL.

I put in my fabric and did some FMQ on it.  It was inspired by the hairball FMQ stitch but I didn't totally do it.  Instead I did what I felt like.  LOL.  it can't be wrong then can it?  I decided that my desk needed a new mug rug.  This ones measures around 7.5" x 6.5".  I did the circles overlapping a little bit so that small "e" were made.  After doing that I decided to add color.  I couldn't find my colored pencils to play with but I DID find my Sharpies so here is my colored mug rug.  Not fancy but functional but it will brighten up my desk.  The black marks are my little loops that I did.  Hmmm.  Perhaps I should have called this posting "a little loopy".  :)

This started out as a white on white dotted fabric.   That comes through as texture on the coloring I think.  It makes me smile and grin when I see it for it also reminds me how much fun it was to color it.  On a rainy day this will brighten me up.

How has your day been?

Another website to check out

Those of you who are quilters will probably know the name Leah Day.  She is the one who got me into thinking that I can do FMQ.  I also know that some of you are doing the FMQ challenge.  I think that I have finally found one of her designs that I can do.  Check it out.

http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2012/12/quilt-along-43-cough-up-cat-hairball.html

Look everybody!  We have "official" permission to cross those circles and lines!!!!!!!!!  How cool is that?  I think that I will have to try this out sometime.

Hey Kat! (I know you will be reading this) - Are you going to try this one out?  Go on....give it a try.

Quilted Placemats

Surfing through my emails and things and I eventually found this quite little project.  It would be great for first time quilters and so easy to do. 

http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2010/05/quilted-placemats-tutorial.html

I don't normally share the links to tutorials (but maybe I will in the future) but this caught my eye.  It was a little scrappy on the edges but plan in the middle. Check it out.  Some of you might baulk at the quilting?  Don't sweat it.  She shows you how to do it.  You mark your center fabric with something that will wash out.  Clover puts out pens that work, washable markers (Wal Mart has generic and name brand in the crayon section) or chalk but I don't like to use that.  I am loving using the washable markers (notice not crayons but markers) lately so might use those.  This design can be used for place mats for every occasion.  Instead of the scrappy look, you could just use a longer strip of seasonal fabric.  Pink ribbon fabric for breast cancer awareness...some cute St. Patty's day in March...Fall Harvest or Halloween or....well you get the idea.

If I make them I'll be sure to post some pictures.

 

Some more wrist pads

A friend saw my rice filled wrist pads and sometime in our conversation I remembered that I had some paw print flannel.  I work for Northern Illinois University and our mascot is the Huskie.  I have scaps of flannel that have paw prints on them.  The background is black and the paw prints are white.  Our school colors are Black and Red so it works quite nicely I think as a "themed" wrist pad.  So one of these will be going to Diane for a present for a special lady in her life.

Here is a picture of it stuffed.  I still have to sew the bottom shut which I would have done today at work but I forgot my needles.  How's that for planning?  I have the thread but no needle.  LOL.  I might go to the main office and raid their little sewing kit.

Have you seen the latest Missouri Quilt Co. video on youtube for the Christmas Tree Skirt?

If not here is the link.  Once again they make things look so easy to do.  Actually this one might not be too bad.  I'll think about it and "add it to the list". 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=FLNnKaU6_Is

Break time is over so I need to get back to work.  Everybody have a great day.

December? Already?

I looked at the calendar this morning and gasped.  It was the 6th of December already and I'm not nearly as ready for....anything...as I want to be.  Mom's 93rd birthday is in four days and guess what I CAN'T find?  Yep.  Those little wall hangings I was doing for her.

Luckily in my panic to find them this morning I managed to find some fabric that I had forgotten I had.  When that pile of fabric tilted over there were the mini wall hangings.  Perhaps the fabric conspired with the mini's.  That's my story and I'll stick to it.  :)

I will be taking three mini's to her on Sunday and letting her pick out which one she would like to have for her birthday present.  I'll post which one she chooses. 

I've been at work for an hour now.  I woke up early and just couldn't sleep.  At least I'll get something accomplished.  When I got to work, no I didn't start work THAT early, I went through some of my quilting magazines there and decided I could get rid of some more.  That will help clear up office clutter too.  One of my shelves holds half work stuff and half quilting stuff.  Right now I'm working on different mug rugs.

The two flower in the lower left hand corner have free motion quilting done on them and all I need to do is sew on the binding.  The others have been fused on but I need to stitch them.  I'm thinking that the two red poinsettia's  might end up as pot holders but I haven't made up my mind yet.

What do you think?