One row done

I managed to finished up the blocks for the top border row for Storm at Sea last night.  I have to join them together but it still makes me feel like I have been making progress.

It measures somewhere around 39".  I have to admit that I'm kind of proud of it.  They aren't sewn together but still it keeps me going on it.  I have gaming this weekend and need to work on the test pattern so I'm afraid that this will be the last picture you'll see of crafting until Sunday or Monday.

Work is starting in about 5 minutes so I have to get to that.  Everybody have a great day and Hugs.

SAS - Storm, at Sea

FINALLY!  I finally started my Storm at Sea pattern.  Of course I had it figured out what I was going to do but you know me...all that changed.

I am still doing the blues with a splash of yellow.  I had ordered the templates and books but it just isn't sitting right with my brain.  So I changed HOW I was going to do it.  Today I decided why not try two things at once.  I haven't done this pattern before so why not do a method I've SELDOM done before?  Seldom = once and I never finished it.  With all that being said, I gathered up my courage and headed to my video specialist -- YouTube.

There I found a video by Teresa DownUnder and a link to the paper templates.  Since I had recently bought another printer, I was all set to get started.   It only took me 10 minutes before I remembered why I didn't stick to paper piecing.  My mind was made up though and I would make it through part of what I needed.  I looked at my pattern to see what I wanted to start on.  I chose the border because I needed 16  of those blocks and they were all the same using only two blocks.  I did three blocks and will call it quits...for today.  It's my day off and I am going out tonight so I need to get ready.

Here are what my three blocks look like.  In between these blocks will be a square block of a yellow center and the cream outside.  I hope I have enough fabric!

On another note, this weekend I tried a cinnamon roll casserole.  I ate it but I doubt that I will make it again.  I like the cinnamon rolls made regularly just as well if not better.  If you like French Toast, you might like it.  I could taste the eggs a bit too much.  So think of making the cinnamon rolls in a pan (cutting up the rolls) and blending eggs, cinnamon, and maple syrup over it and baking it.  When it comes out put the icing on it as normal.

That's it for this report.  I'll let you know as I progress on my SAS (Storm at Sea).

Deadlines...Deadlines...Deadlines

Or....When it rains it pours.  :)

Work has been really busy with all of the Fellowship and tuition waiver deadlines occurring within a week of each other.  I also have a stitching deadline since I am doing a test pattern for The Quilt Pattern Magazine.  Can't show you that until a lot later (after it is published) but I am making progress.

I can show you, however, some of my other projects that I've been working on.  First of all is Pat Sloan's Solstice Challenge.  I am so proud of myself because...hold on to your seats...I'm up to date and all caught up with that.  That mostly is because my friend Connie is doing it to so we are keeping each other on track.  I posted earlier the first of the blocks that I have done.  Here are two more.

The border is actually a teal but teal doesn't work well in pictures.

Finally worked in some more red.

That wasn't the only thing that I finished this week.  I also finished a wall hanging for Janine's Niece Cheyenne.

The back and binding is fabric that has soccer balls in different colors all over it.

That's about it this time.  I have to get back to stitching so I'll leave you with these little bits.

I hope to post more soon.

Sunday Progress

I was semi productive today.  I fused on some applique for the Splendid Sampler blocks but didn't take any pictures of that today.  I also started to applique another one of my butterfly blocks. For some reason I only have 10 butterfly blocks so either stop at 9 or do 2 more.  Not sure which I'll do.

Today Pat Sloan put up two alternative layouts for the Splendid Sampler.  I will probably do the 5 x 5 layout.  It appeals to me more.

This layout just seems more chaotic to me and bugs me for some reason.  I will enjoy seeing others do this layout but know it would drive me bonkers to make it.

 Even though I didn't get a lot of stitching done, I did change up on where I put some of the patterns and such.

Since the blocks for the Splendid Sampler are only 6" finished, they fit into the empty envelope boxed that I can get from work.

I also ended up putting the Adrinka BOM from 2016 in one.  Now they are within reach to work in my rotation.

I originally had the Splendid Sampler blocks in this white clear container but I discovered that I needed more room for the Pat Sloan Solstice Challenge.  I like having it large enough to hold some more possible fabrics. 

That's all for now.  It's getting late and I have a busy week starting tomorrow.  I'll tell you more about that next week.  In the meantime, I hope you all stay safe and have a great day/night.

Pat Sloan's Solstice Challenge

One of my projects for 2017 is Pat Sloan's Solstice Challenge.  I am proud, and relieved, to say that today I caught up!  Wow.   I'm caught up!  That's hard to believe. Of course a new one comes out tomorrow or Monday but I still feel like I was productive.

Here is all seven of them.  I'm not sure which order I'll put them in yet and while predominantly done in shades of blue and white, I am starting to introduce red into it.  There will be 25 blocks.

  And now the individual blocks.  They have been trimmed to 12 1/2".  For the most part I am happy with them.  I will lose some of the points on the HST on a couple when I join them but that's ok.  It's a journey on learning new things.

I also managed to finish up a block from the Splendid Sampler.  I'm so far behind on that but I'm not giving up.

In between working on my Splendid Sampler and the Solstice blocks, I am finally getting to appliqueing down the butterfly blocks.  No pictures yet on those since I might use them for a present.  In the meantime, Have a great evening/day

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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°