Feeling better

I am doing better each day which is a good thing but this cold has put me behind even more so than normal.  LOL.

I did finish today one of my Splendid Sampler blocks.  It wasn't much but at least it was forward progress.

I have one more block to do from one of my "UFO blocks" and then I can do a current one again.  I'm thinking that I might work on one of the butterfly blocks for my UFO blocks.  They are pretty easy to do and I know where those blocks are.

I need to sign off now.  It's still chilly at the computer so I'm going to look up the butterfly block and snuggle under something while I stitch it.

:)

I hope everybody had a great day.

Ugh - Part 2

It has been barely a week since I came down with the cold/flu but it seems like 4 weeks!  It is breaking up so I'm feeling a little better but still don't have a lot of energy.

I did manage to spend my income tax anticipation refund loan and got a new monitor for my desktop. and then got a new laptop since my old one is freaking out too much.  I'll take it in to work and let IT look it over and see if it is worth saving.  They do that for free for NIU employees and students.  THEN I realized that I was far behind on printing out things since I had been without a printer for about 2 years.  So while I was waiting for Office Max/Depot to print out some things I looked at their printers.

The funny, to me, thing about printers is that one can find some cheap printers ($40).  I saw around 3 in that price range but from past experience I knew to look at the prices for the ink.  It took two cartridges and the total of those two cartridges came to $60+.  Ummm.  No.  So while I was in
Walmart, I decided to check out their printers.  I found one for $40 and the ink for their two cartridges would come to $30.  So I bought the HP DeskJet 2132.  After taking over an hour to figure out how to operate it, I'm back printing up my patterns for my BOMs.  That caused me to be able to start Pat Sloan's Solstice challenge.

I have two (out of the current 6) blocks done.  It's a small start but it's a start.  I think I'm going to try to have my colors be in blues and whites.  I will have a third color sometime but I'm not sure yet.  Automatically I think red or yellow but I will have to see what the blocks look like and then figure it out from there.  This first picture shows the shade of blue a bit better than the second one.

This second picture shows both the first and second block.  The darker blue in the second block has fish in it.  These came from material that I had left over from a tote bag class that I took last year.

That's all my energy allowed me to do.  It's a start though.

I hope everybody has a great day.

Ugh!

That about explains it all.  It is my turn to catch the cold/crud that seems to be going around.  I stayed home today from work and I will stay home tomorrow also.

It's been a day taking meds and getting up for 5 minutes at a time and then go back to bed.  Tonight is the breaking out in a sweat and then get chilled combo.  Of course this is all in between sneezing.  Thank goodness I laid in some supplies just the other day.  I might have to go out again one day over the weekend to get more kleenex, etc.  I have sprayed Lysol around also so that should hopefully help a bit.

My five minutes are up now so I am headed back to bed.

I will work on something to share in my mind and sometime it will make it to the blog.  LOL.

I hope everybody has a great day and stays healthy.

Finished Project and On to the Next

I finally got the binding on the cross wall hanging and it is in the mail.  This is going to my friend Janine (maiden name Cross) who used to collect crosses since it was her maiden name.  It is part of the pay it forward that I did in 2016.  Yes, I know, it is now 2017 but better late than never, right?
I have 4 more pay it forwards to do but one of them is 90% done so that is good.  I still am not sure what I will do for the last three.  I am sure it will come to me...eventually.

http://media.fotki.com/1_p,rttdkkdfrqsbwrkxdtqtffdbwbqf,vi/bsbqfkqtdxbsfgbftkkxbrqsqrkst/0/951710/14216512/Resized_20170109_071533-vi.jpg

I made the Half Square Triangles using Rhonda Woodsmall's method.  Basically you sew two strips together and then take your template and cut what size you need.  It works great for scraps and very versatile.  She has a lot of different "cut down" methods to use with various blocks.

http://media.fotki.com/1_p,rttdkkdfstfwstbxdtqtffdbwbqf,vi/brstgdrkkxbrwrrbfqwxbrwbqgtbb/0/951710/14216512/Resized_20161229_122059-vi.jpg

Sorry for using the links vs putting up the actual pictures.  I am having computer problems today so this is the only way for me to do it.

Now that I have the cross wall hanging done, I will be working on a UFO from the past.  This is from the hexie BOM back in 2011 (?) and is the February one.

http://media.fotki.com/1_p,rttdkkdfwkbrrdbxdtqtffdbwbqf,vi/brwrrbfqwxbrstgdrkkxbrqggwgws/0/951710/14216512/Resized_20170109_071801-vi.jpg

I have also decided to clean up following a simple method.  I will pick one thing each night and decide if it is going to be thrown out, kept, or donated (or given to somebody else).  I know it doesn't sound like much but if I can do it each day then that is 365 items that have been cleared or gone through which is a lot more than I did in 2016.  I have 9 things for the trash so far.  It doesn't sound like much but it will add up over time.

Another decision I've made is to limit my BOMs this year.  Blocks of Month are so much fun to collect but to get time to do them.  My other New Years Resolution is before I can work on a current project or BOM, I have to do at least one block from a past one.  My goal is to get at least one if not two blocks done each week.  It will be hard but even if I don't get two blocks done it will be nagging me to finish up one and that means more projects will get finished.

Time for me to get back to work so I must end the post here.  I hope everybody has a great day.

December 30, 2016 - Storm at Sea

The new project for 2017 is Storm at Sea.  You can google it to see all the possibilities but today I managed to get my fabric for it.  I think on New Years Day I will start to cut out some of the pieces and see how it goes.

My fabric came from Hobby Lobby.  It is the only place in town that I can get fabric at, other than Walmart, but this is nice fabric.  It passed my feel and see through tests.  In other words, it feels good already and should feel better after it is washed and I can't see my hands through it when held up to the light.  The employee who was cutting it out, was nice enough to write down the numbers I would need to show them if I needed to order more although she did say that they usually carry it.

The background is a cross between a white on white and a cream on cream.  I like the pattern on the dark blue and the light blue  has similar to a mottled light blue.  The yellow will be at the center and is mottled too.  The yellow makes me smile which means I might have to go back and get more ven though I don't normally like yellows.

Did I mention that I also managed to finish my Noel redwork?  That's another finish, or close enough to call it a finish, for 2016.

Another thing that I can't remember if I mentioned was the little clips that I got.  I used them on the t-shirt when sewing the rows together and can't figure out how come I didn't try them earlier!  I am falling in love with them.

Another pattern that I am in the middle of is the cross patterns for 2017 from one of my Facebook groups.  There are 3 patterns available that Marsha Willetts Clark.  I am actually doing a variation on pattern 2 and 3.

I had done some HSTs but couldn't decide on what color I wanted for the background material.  So I switched to pattern 3 which was basic.  Instead of doing solid colors to form the cross and a separate color for the background, I am going to use my HST to make the cross.  There is a total of six squares going down for the long edge of the cross.  I see that I have the left corner HST positioned wrong since it is not forming a flying geese type unit.  With all the darker colors on the outside, I can use the white with gold that I used for the major portion of the HST as the background.

That's about it for this trip.  Time to get something to eat and drink and then back to stitching something.

I hope everybody is having a great day!

December 28, 2016 - Closing down 2016

We're getting close to the end of 2016 and I can't say that I'm sorry to say good bye to it.  I always like the end of the year because it means I can start a new year and planning on how to get more organized.  I had some finishes in 2016 which is always good to say but now that I only have a couple of days to finish projects.  What shall I finish?

One of the projects that I hope to finish is the t-shirt quilt so I can get it mailed off in early January.

Another project will be to get started on a new project for 2017.  It will be like a small BOM that I am doing with a friend.  8" finished squares.  It is a pattern that I found for the GO!  Not sure that I will use the GO! for all of it since I don't have all of the dies but it is simple enough to fill in by hand with what I don't have.

Remember the Santa wall hanging that I said Janine gave me for Christmas?  Here is a picture of it.

What kind of weather do you have in your neck of the woods?  Here is what it says for DeKalb.  Can you believe it?  It's almost 2017 and we are still doing ok.  Of course traditionally we won't get hit with bad weather until the night before I have to return to work or the day of.

I hope everybody has a great day.  It's time for me to get working on some things.

HOURLY 10 DAYS

TODAYCLOUDY

HIGH42°10%

TONIGHT

LOW28°10%

THU

HIGH32°20%

THU NIGHT

LOW22°20%

FRI

HIGH30°

Merry Christmas and afterwards

Merry Christmas (even if a little late) everybody!

It has been a good Christmas.  I exchanged presents with my friend Janine while she was here and she gave me a wall hanging which has a Santa with the moon in the background.  She said it reminded her of me.  She doesn't quilt but she does know I like that type of thing.  I'll take a picture of it in a day or two.  She also gave me a small dream catcher.    I gave her my NOEL Cross Stitch in a frame.  It's about time that she has something cross stitched from me.  Of course while she was here she spotted fabric that she would like to be made into something for her.  I rolled my eyes but didn't admit that I had bought that fabric with her in mind.  She also wanted me to do a wall hanging for her niece out of soccer t-shirts.  We argued a bit but finally settled on a layout.

Then I noticed that we have 4 blocks that were cut out but weren't soccer.  They were running.t-shirts so I put them together to quickly make something she could have now.  It's only 4 blocks but at least it is still her t-shirts.

Janine will be seeing her niece in early January so she said if I could get the other wall hanging done before that she could take it with her.  We'll see.

That means my storm at sea will be delayed a bit.  I am planning on it.  Today I cut up my pattern that I had colored in.  They are all taped into my book now so I know how many "units" I will have to make.  I still need to get the fabric but at least I feel it is a little more organized.  I also labeled and sorted out my new templates for it.

I hope everybody had a great holiday.

Merry Christmas....Eve

Merry Christmas to my friends who are far enough away to celebrate it now.  :)   I have company until Monday or Tuesday so this will have to be quick.

I hope everybody is having a safe holiday and enjoying it no matter what you end up doing.

I received a gingerbread man from my sister in law.  I haven't had one of her loaves since Mom first moved into the nursing home.

I thought you might like to see him BEFORE he loses his head which will probably be tomorrow morning for breakfast.  LOL.

Two times a day Janine and I are going to McDonald's (yes they are open 24/7 even on Christmas Day) so she can use their WiFi to do computer stuff on her iPAD.  I don't have WiFi at home (since it is only me).  It gives us something to get out for but tomorrow we are going to be cooking also so that will be fun.  Tonight she made her

She made it with 2 pounds of ground venison and 1 pound of lean ground beef.  Of course you can use any ground meat.  Janine can't process pork products or a lot of different ones so she brought what she could handle.  I now have some of them in my freezer.  :)

Tomorrow will be Turkey and dressing, coconut cream pie, Cranberry sauce, and green bean casserole.  Not sure if I will have time to make bread or bake some cookies.  We will exchange presents tonight and I will give her the NOEL that I cross stitched.  She has plenty of my quilty things but nothing cross stitched.

Everybody have a great holiday and I"ll talk to you later.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Winter is here!

I was going to post up a lot of pictures for you today of everything that I had accomplished.   Hmmm.  There is a problem with that.  I haven't gotten a lot done lately because it is so cold and my car isn't starting.  Excuses Bonni.  That is what it is.  :)   The other reason why you won't get a lot of pictures this time is because my monitor on my desktop computer went out.  Everything was on that hard drive but without the monitor I can't see it or figure out where it is.  LOL.  So I'm on my laptop which doesn't have everything recent.  I will post more tomorrow because I think I have some of the pictures on Facebook and the work computer.  In the meantime.....

This is how far I've gotten on my NOEL redwork.  It's getting down to the last scroll work.

Since it is Christmas soon let me just finish this post with some of my favorite winter pictures.

Niters everybody!

Tuesdays Treasures

Woo hoo!  I got a couple of packages in the mail today.  First of all my back order from Nancy's Notions came in.  I had ordered a mini screwdrive set - One flat head mini screwdriver and one Philips head mini screwdriver.  But what to my wondering eyes did appear?  Two of each!

Next to open up was the order from Connecting Threads.  That was a Redwork Festival Panel -$1, Mendocino Charm pack -  $1 (15 pieces), Mendocino Stack - $4.29 (part of a layer cake - 15 pieces), Essential Thread - Mauve - $1, Essential Thread - Iris - $1 and a six pack of Black Gold Needles (no. 9 quilting between).  The whole order only came to $9.29 so I was pretty excited to get it.

Has anybody used Essential thread before?  I haven't but I thought 1200 yards for $1 I would try it.

That's all for now.  I just wanted to share some good news.

Everybody have a great day.

Needle Minders and projects

Hello everybody!

I hope you have had a great day.  I am having fun still being on vacation even though I did go into the office to take care of a couple of emails that I didn't think could wait.  It was fun being able to leave when I wanted to.  :)

So when I got home I made a couple of Needle Minders and think these might become addictive.  Do you know what they are?  They are little things that hold your needles for you.  EASY to make.  You find something cute that you like.  It could be a button or a charm, etc. and then you glue (I used gorilla glue) a magnet to the back side.  Let it dry 24 hours and then it is ready to use.  You need two magnets (mine were round ones) because the pretty side goes on top of your fabric and the plain magnet goes on the back and it holds it in place.  THEN when you need to park a needle or pin someplace, it is right there.  In this picture I had a small dragon charm and I am using my needle minder on my redwork Noel that I am doing.  The needles are held in place because of the magnet on the back!

Here is another one that I quickly did.

That one is being used on some cross stitch that I am doing.  I didn't have a threaded needle handy so just stuck on a straight pin to show it off a bit.

I did get to finish a top on a UFO.  This was the Quilt Magazine's BOM a couple (?) of years ago?  I finally put the squares together.  Now I have to get it quilted.

That's it for this report.  Time to start to address some Christmas cards and put in a Christmas movie.  Have a great day!