Back from the Long Armers and other news

 I have two tops back from the long armers and I am very pleased with how they turned out.

This first one is my Covid-ville quilt.  The quilted design is what I call air swirls.  It is the backing fabric that I am most pleased with.  It was one of the options and since these blocks are from friends in my Our Time To Quilt IO quilting group, I thought the friends saying was very appropriate.

The second top that came back was a Christmas Rail Fence top.  This time the quilt motif was a Christmas one and the backing fabric was a green scroll.

I only need to do is putting on the binding and then both of them will be finished.  They bot should be done in time for Christmas.  :)

Now on to other things...

This is the first four rows of my 9 patch rows sew along.  The fourth row was done with reds so I decided to do something that I seldom do,  i prewashed them.  I'm glad I did.

I put two color catchers in the washer and I'm glad that I did.  They came out  pretty shade of pink.

The non quilting events this time are also pretty great.  I bought myself a new desk chair.  It feels great but it will take a bit to get used to.  A pleasant task.

The other pleasant picture is, of course, one of Hayley.  This is Hayley with her grandpa (my nephew Jason).  It is so nice to see pictures of them together1

So that is my news this time.  Have a great day!

Ever have one of those months?

You know which kind of month I'm talking about.  The kind of month that pulls you in and then keeps you trapped in it until you realize that it is half gone, or totally gone, and you haven't done much at all!  That's March for me.  It started out great since I managed to send my sister in law her birthday card and she actually got it on her birthday!  I can't remember when that happened last.  Her birthday is March 1st and I forget lots of times until afterwards when I flip my calendar to March.

Then life happened and March sucked me into that black hole of not wanting to do anything.  It's a nice comfy black hole.  So dark that you don't see what you are missing or what needs to be worked on.  Nice and secure but just when you are adjusting to being uncreative or to being lethargic it spits you back out and look -- March is now half way over!

That's ok.  I'll catch up but even if I don't no sweat.  I create for myself and hopefully you like what I create.  I've learned not to give firm deadlines to myself because that is a good way to NOT work on something.  That's why I was cutting back on BOMs this year.  Did you notice that I said "was"?  It was a valiant try but so far hasn't worked out the best.  I've modified my thinking on that and instead have decided to collect the BOM patterns but will only work on a couple.  

I am proud of myself for keeping up, so far, with the 9 patch row by row offered by Pattern Pastiche.  I should be finished with the current row in a couple of days.  I am almost keeping up with the Civil War BOM which is based off of Louise May Alcott.  The Civil War Ladies Aid and New York Sampler will be starting in two weeks and that will be one that I will collect and hopefully keep up on.  The 3rd Saturday of each month I will be meeting up with quilting friends on Jitsi for a couple of hours of sewing on the Farmer's Wife blocks.  If I don't feel like working on that then I'll work on something else.  

With all of these plans I knew that I would need help.  That, of course, means that I spent money on some things.  Like THAT statement should surprise you...NOT!  Don't blame me.  I received my income tax return (and yesterday got my stimulus money) which has always been a "let's treat Bonni" moment. What did I get?  Ok.  Here is the Reader's Digest Condensed version (how many of you get that reference?) 

EQ8

Block Base+

Lesson book for EQ8

EQ8 Block Library - see below for what this is

a new computer chair

sent a couple of tops off to the Long Arm service

Stork Scissors (can never have enough)

and more....

This is EQ8 Block library.  Some of you might wonder why I got this since I have EQ8 and it just shows the pictures of the blocks in EQ8. 

These pictures can be helpful though.  Instead of going through all the libraries in EQ8 on the computer, I can pre plan which blocks I will want to use by looing through the EQ8 block library book.  It will save me time as well as eyestrain by cutting down on how much time I'll be staring at the computer.  Hopefully it will also cut down on my squirreling at the computer.  Yes I am part squirrel and get distracted easily when searching on the computer.

My BLOCK Magazine from Missouri Star Quilt Company arrived also so I got to squirrel through that.

                                      

Did I mention that one could NEVER have enough stork scissors...or unicorn scissors...or butterfly scissors...or scissors of any kind?  Here is my latest trio of scissors that I bought.

 Aren't those scissors so sparkly and pretty?  Speaking of sparkly and pretty, here are a couple new pictures of Hayley.

Don't you just want to gobble her up ... I mean grab her up ... and hug her?

Not as pretty but still pretty is Ghost.  Ghost is a white cat that appeared one day to dine on the cat food that was still in the bowls after my girls had eaten.  She hasn't, I don't think, showed up since but she wasn't sticking around.  Sorry for the bad picture.  It was taken through the door because I knew if I opened the door she would be gone quicker than I could press the shutter button on the phone.  

Throughout everything, I did manage to get a couple of blocks done.  This one is for the Farmer's Wife blocks.

This one, however, is the third block in the Civil War  BOM.

Oh yes, that reminds me, I also bought some of the Bloc Loc rulers/templates.  One of them was for the 3 1/2" HST and I was glad it came in so I could use it on all these HST!

That's it for now.  I'll try not to fall through any more black holes and post a picture of my 9 patch row by row soon.

Keep dry (we have had a lot of thunderstorms and rain) and keep crafting!

It's March?

 Another month has gone and fled by before I knew it.  It's March and that means it is the month that I work on UFOs.  Well work on one UFO anyway.  I'm not sure which one I will work on but I had better figure it out before long otherwise March will be gone too and I won't have worked on anything.  Been there done that before!

I have been working on some quilting.  I managed to get row 3 done of the 9 patch BOM that is offered through the Quilt Pattern Magazine.  I'm liking how it is turning out so far.  

I'm not sure what the next block color will be.  I might start with some pinks or light reds or something and work up to some more stronger colors.

I have stopped working on some of my other BOMS and projects because, well, ummm, I overestimated how much time I would have to work on things.  I am trying to get better at piecing but with my perception problem it is hard.  I ordered some bloc lock templates and will try them to see if that helps.  I also have now installed EQ8 on my computer.  I will be buying block base+ (BB+) when it comes out.  I could have gotten bloc base and then upgraded with BB+ comes out but since it should be out this month I am just waiting to get BB+ and not having to update.  One of the reasons I am getting BB+ is that it is supposed to have all the blocks in it from Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of quit blocks in it.  I hope that will help with my piecing and putting together the blocks for the Civil War BOMs.  We'll see.

I have picked up on my redwork again.  Here is the latest progress pix for my Easter  Bunny.

The weather has turned nice but usually only for a day or two and then it gets cold again (or colder).  One day it got up to the high 60s and the cats decided to take advantage of it.  I did too.  After feeding them I sat outside on the porch in the chair.  Tangerine decided to lounge in the sun but she was close enough she could go into the shade if she wanted to.  Big Claws (BC) sat on my lap and after taking the one picture

BC moved its head to make sure that Tangerine's head would not be in the next picture.

Is that a smirk on BC's face?  I think so!

There were other signs of Spring too.  

That is about it for now.  I will leave you with one more picture.  I found another Hayley picture so I will share it here.  It is nice to end the post with a smile and I am sure most of you will agree that Hayley makes you smile.

I hope you all have a great evening/day and I'll see you around next time.  :)

Happy Stitching!