Another mini finish

I've started on my Xmas presents.  I had to take stock in what I need to do and where it will fit into a schedule.  So far I have come up with for deadlines in November  and December is to finish up a test pattern for The Quilt Pattern Magazine.  After that I need to finish up things to put in a Christmas Exchange in my facebook group.  So far I have a mini wall hanging or a large mug rug.  I'm not sure which to call it.  What would you call it?  It's about 9"

Do you think that 9" is too big for a mug rug?  Not for me perhaps since I like larger mugs and let's not forget our cookies or whatever next to it.  LOL.  Does it qualify for a  mini wall hanging?  Let me know your opinion.

So after that I need to get done some table runners for mom (birthday and Christmas - both in December) and then I have to work on projects for work presents.  Mom and work presents are all due around December 10th since we exchange presents at work before the end of the semester or whenever I remember.  Whichever comes first.  :)

I probably will be by myself this Thanksgiving so I might spend it stitching.  Who knows, that's next month and there is still a week left in this month.  How is everybody else projects coming along?

Going Batty - Part 2

I've decided what to do with the bats that I got from Custom Quilt Kits.  Well I have decided on what to do with four of them.  I saw this pattern at:

http://debbykratovilquilts.blogspot.com/2012/10/wicked-cute-blog-hop-giveaways.html

After I saw it I remembered the bats that I got from Custom Quilt Kits and the rest is history.

This will be a mini wall hanging.  I figured it can be between 10 - 12" and it will fit quite nicely in that small space by my desk.  It will probably have a black binding but otherwise this is what it will look like.  I'm not sure how I will quilt it yet but this is the design.  I will start to work on stitching down the bats before they fly away.

FINALLY! Finished something

It's not a big something nor a finished project.  It's just a finished block but it is from a BOM which means that I'm caught up so far on THAT BOM.  Now to just get caught up on a couple of others.  I finished last night block 5 of the Civil War BOM that is offered by Custom Quilt Kits.

This is pieced and you know what that means.  It means there is a story behind it.  I'm sure this block has a "historical" story but my stories won't be historical until many years to come.  Instead my stories are usually "hysterical".  This one had me wanting to curse at it but I knew I could do it.  Oh, before I forget....I am enjoying learning to piece with these blocks so don't take what I say to mean I'm not enjoying it.  I just enjoy it more when it doesn't give me hassles.

See the green section?  That's in the upper right corner.  I like that corner.  You know why I like that corner?  It went together the first time I sewed it and I didn't have to rip it out.  All the other sections of it I had to rip out at least once.  The red section got ripped out 3 times.  The last time right before I sewed it to another section because it just didn't look right.  The blue section got ripped out, put back together, ripped out again and resewn again because I discovered I was right the first time around.  The yellow section  HST were sewn three times.  I kept dropping them and just didn't them lined up right and sewed the wrong sections together.  I persevered and block 5 is now finished.  There is one or two blocks that I would like to resew but I don't think I can because a) not having the fabric and b) what I do have is too thread bare now to take out one more time.

That's ok.  It's a learning process.  :)

Snow and cone thread

People have been talking about "It's snowing" outside like they have never seen it before.  :)    Of course we have seen it but there is something magical about that first snow.  Now, as most people remember from when they believed in magic, it can be good or bad.  Some people find beauty in the first snow comfortable in the thought that it will not stick around so why not enjoy it.  Other people think it is evil and it should never be around  (and therefore might enjoy warmer climates).  I believe that it is good.  Better than good...when I don't have to drive in it or shovel it.

Oh, how much snow did we get?  You can judge for yourself.

That is a picture of the top of my car this morning.  A sign that winter is approaching but we aren't going to get dumped on all at once either.

I was hoping to work on quilting last night but stuff came up that just didn't get me in the right mood to be able to quilt a straight line.  So instead I dug around and came up with something that I had bought but never tried.  It was a cone holder.  Not a nice heavy one but a plastic one that I had gotten on sale.  A couple of years ago my ex had gifted me with a wide variety of mini cones of thread.  I couldn't use that thread on my machine so I bought a thread stand.

I didn't want to try out to see if the thread would work on a new project until I tested it out first.  So out came scraps and I just sat down and plaid with some stitches to see if it would work.  I was holding my breath the whole time while I was stitching.

I was happy to say that my stitches came out like they were suppose to.  I used an pinkish/orange thread so that I could see it on the black fabric.  Now I know that I will be able to use all that thread.  It has a shine to it (almost metallic but not) and I do not know the weight or anything but if I can sew with it...I can use it.

I also laid out my latest block for the Civil War BOM from Custom Quilt Kits.  I might try to sew them tonight while the material for a test pattern is drying.  Here is what the block should look like.

The only question I have is whether that larger blue triangle piece is large enough.  It looks a little smaller than the rest although I know it probably isn't.  It's one of those perception things which always gets me in trouble with piecing.

I will iron...I mean press...the pieces before sewing it all together.  I'm sure it will be fine.  It's just my natural doubt that creeps into my brain whenever I piece. 

My break time is over.  Time to get to work.  Everybody have a good day.

What? I haven't posted for a week?

Forgive me for that.  It's been a hectic time with mother going into the hospital and then coming out to go back to the Nursing home.  She's still coughing from the pneumonia but she's not bad enough to keep in the hospital any longer.  Her oxygen is up in the 90s again and they have her on oxygen treatments for a little bit at the hospital.  She's well enough to enjoy her breakfast as well as those little solar window thingies that I get for her.  This time it was a scarecrow and a pumpkin head for Halloween.  When the sun hits their solar panel they start to "dance".  Their hips going back and forth.

So here it is another Sunday and it is time to think about work tomorrow as well as what to work on for Quilting this week.  I did manage to get to Walmart and get some cute fabric for the test pattern that I will be working on.  Of course you'll have to wait for the picture until it is published.

I auditioned some fabric last week for mom's table runner.  I think this is the winning combination.

I am thinking that I will do the green for the first border but make it small.  Perhaps 1"finished.  That should bring out the greens a bit more and then I will use the red for the backing as well as the binding.  I just have to figure out if I'm going to also do a small second border in the red or something.

Opinions?

I received in the mail this week two projects to work on.  The last block of the snowman as well as the sashings.  I don't like the color so might be substituting another color.  I'm sure that will be another lunch topic some time with Connie since she is doing that same wall hanging.  :)

I also received another block for the civil war BOM.  I haven't opened it up yet but I know I can make sure it gets done this time.

Other things that I want to  work on are for the Christmas swap.  I have a couple of small wall hangings (mini's actually) that I want to do and perhaps a mug rug or two.  The nice thing about mug rugs is that I already have the material on hand and they are small projects.

I have approximately one month to figure out what to do for xmas presents for the office this year.  I have a new graduate assistant and a new student helper so it will be harder to figure out what they might like.  Wish me luck.

I think it's time that I go and take a nap so everybody have a great afternoon.  I'll try to write in another day or two.

Opinions needed

Hi Everybody.  Hope your weekend is going well.  I am stuck.  Since mom is still in the hospital I thought I would work on her table runner that I will be doing for her December 10th birthday.  I got the three blocks put together and then started to audition fabric for the border.  She doesn't like blocks on point nor does she normally like  sashings so it is pretty plain.  I have three fabrics that I can use for the back and border.  So this is a two or three fold question.  I need to find out what color to use for the border and then what color for the back and what color for the binding.  Of course the backing and binding can be the same.  Ready to give advise?  Ok.  Here goes.  Oh...one more thing.  I don't want to buy more fabric so that is why I'm limiting it to these colors or a black.  I have plenty of that too.

The three blocks with the three fabric laid out next to it.  All three colors are used in the blocks.

This is a close up showing the red that I have enough of.

This is the lighter green that I have that I could use.

This is a darker green.  I'm not fond of this but am wondering if a narrow border of it or something might be good.

The blocks are made of different color creams and white.  There is one of the squares in the block which is off from the others.

So which do YOU think would look for for

a) the border
b) the back
c) the binding

Pumpkin and mom

Thanks everybody on the well wishes for mom.  She will be in the hospital until probably Sunday.  They still want to do some more tests on her but in addition to that, she has a bad urinary tract infection that they will get cleared up before returning her to the Nursing Home.  I'll be seeing her tomorrow after work.

So what does one do when their mind has limited concentration time?  I do some stitching on applique projects.  I can concentrate on the stitching or just zone out.  The good part is that it also finished up a block that I needed to get done.

This is my October mini block.  This was a fun little block to do and the great thing about doing pumpkin faces is that if it is a little crooked it still works.

four squares done one in the mail

It will soon be time to do another block for the Civil War BOM offered by Custom Quilt Kits.  I have four done and the fifth one I think is going to be similar to the one that I just did.  We'll have to see but to remind you, and to give me something to post about, here is a recap of what the blocks looked like.  :)

An overview of all the blocks so far.

hated to work on this one.

this one wasn't too bad once I had it laid out right

This went together quicker than I thought it would.

This block was my favorite to work on and how it came together.  It need blocking

Ups and Downs of Daily Life

Life is never constant and has both ups and downs.  Today was one of those days.  The down was that mother was taken to the emergency room after lunch.  It turns out that she suffered a TIA (mini stroke).  Her mother suffered from them and I remember Grandma quite well so I sort of know what is going to happen.  The doctors don't know yet how it has affected her.  She'll spend at least tonight in the hospital.  While I was waiting with her in the hospital, one of the nurses noticed I was working on my hexie mug rug that I posted the other day.  She has done EPP hexies before so we had a nice little chat about them.  The upside is that she is still with us but at 93 one never knows for how long.

Another upside is that two books that I had ordered came in.  The first one is a Celtic Quilting book but it has more than just that in it.  For instance it also has a section on Sashiko - The Japanese stitching as well as trapunto.

The other book is a mystery at a state fair where (from the jacket)

"a special showing of traditional African American quilts cosponsored by the folk art museum and the Ebony Sisters Quilt Guild" is stolen.  It's the main a attraction and a replica of a story quilt made by Harriet Powers.

It's the October selection for the online book club that I have joined.  Do you like to read and quilt?  Check it out more about the club at:

http://www.starwoodquilter.blogspot.com/2013/02/quilters-book-club-schedule.html

I got both of the books for under $6 each (including shipping and handling) from Amazon.  All the books can be gotten in an e-format (like for readers) which is nice also.  When I see that I can get a hard copy for so cheap though I get them that way.

Well that's my news for this trip.  We'll see what I work on this weekend.  I have signed up to test another pattern for The Quilt Pattern Magazine so I can't wait to show you and tell you what it is.  Of course it's not going to be for quit a bit yet so you'll just have to check out the Quilt Pattern Magazine to see what they ARE putting out.  You know you'll get good patterns especially with the holidays right around the corner.  Remember that they are a monthly online magazine.  It is very cheap since they are packed full of patterns and have a great support base if you ever have questions.

To check out a preview go to:

http://www.quiltpatternmagazine.com/

You will also see the subscribe button on the left hand side in case you feel so inclined.  It's a bargain at $14.99 for a full year of quilting goodness.

NOW that's all I have to report this time.  Have a great day.

I'm going Batty!

Yep, that's right.  I'm seeing bats before me.  Now my friends might tell you that they always knew that I had bats in my belfry but now they are coming out to visit.  Perhaps it is that time of year...who knows.  Anyway, these little guys came out to visit me this morning when I opened up my mail.

They are cute aren't they?  It's another package from Custom Quilt Kits.  It's always nice to give repeat business to people who work with you.  I talked to Rose and said even though I was in the Applique BOM I wasn't fond of the houses which were this months selection.  She said that she just got the bat die for the AccuQuilt and would I like 12 of them instead.  Who wouldn't want these guys?  Thanks Rose!

It was also nice to be able to say "no I'll pass on the BOM this month" for whatever reason.  I wasn't stuck with something that I didn't want and wasn't feeling that I would have wasted my money.  Now I just have to figure out where I'll use them.  I knew there was a catch!  :)

Monday Morning Design Wall

It feels good to get back to work because I can see things more clearly sometimes at work.  Guess it might be that my brain is geared to thinking when I'm there.  With that in mind, I brought in my quilt top that I've been periodically working on (the D9P) and hung it up to see it better.  This is the one I was talking about yesterday where I had thought my border strips were longer than I thought they were.  I didn't feel like cutting yesterday so used what I had on hand.  Yes folks!!!!  Bonni used some of her stash up!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Mark it on the calendar.

So after sewing what I had, I noticed that a) I had forgotten to trim off the ends of the strips.  Forgot what you call that area which doesn't have the design on it.  You know what I mean.

That is also when I noticed that it was a little short on one end.  Still not a problem.  I'll just not make my border as wide as I was originally going to.  By the time I trim that off it will be fine.  Should I do another border or just go on to finish this thing.  I have time to decide because I don't know what I'll do with it when I get it finished but this is what it looks like so far.  Just make that border about half the width it is and you'll get the accurate idea of what it would look like.

I was also reading this morning on the  whipup guest blogger series about half square triangles.  The guest blogger (Kath_Red) on March 17, 2011  talked about how Missouri Star Quilt Company did their HST and how easy it was to do.  She is right.  It is easy to do.  The thing that I liked about the article was that she gave measurements on how to figure out what size your original squares need to be.

For those of you who don't know how Missouri Star Quilt Company does their HST check them out.  It's is really easy.  Take two squares....sew your quarter inch seam all the way around the  squares (all four sides)...then cut an X.  You end up with four HST.  Check out Kath_Red article  at:

http://whipup.net/2011/03/17/guest-blogger-series-half-square-triangles/

If you haven't watch the Missouri Star Quilt Company's YouTube video on Fast and Easy Pinwheels, here is a link to it.  That is where they show how to do their method of making four HST at a time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekYpJzHoW6E

The math to figure out what size your starting squares should be is:

So your math would be this: 
Beginning Square Size x 0.64 = HST size.

If you knew the size you needed your HST to be, but wanted to find out how big to cut your beginning squares, you would use this equation instead:
HST / 0.64 = Beginning Square Size.

This was taken from Kath_Red guest blogger site.  If I need to delete this part off my blog let me know.  She did the math not me but do check out the article (see link above).

The quilting week starts

This is my week to pick up on little quilting projects again in the hopes to finish something.  The weekend is over so now I can plan on what to work on this weekend.  Yep, the weekend coming up is my quilting weekend.

Soooo, here is what has happened this week.  I broke two sets of glasses and almost broke my ignition key in the lock.  I am now using the spare because I'm afraid that the main (or would that be ex main) key will break off or bend so much that I won't be able to get it out again.  If that wasn't bad enough, I picked up a project to work on and found out my borders are a little short.  I have an idea on how to correct that though so that's not too bad.

I started to work again on my Inspired blocks and messed up one corner so will have to fix that before moving on.  Whew!  Now that I got it out of my system, perhaps this week will be better.

I'll take a picture of my border problem tomorrow after hanging it up at work.  I have more space there to hang up larger pieces.  Speaking of pictures, I snapped a couple at the Nursing Home today.  They keep their artificial Christmas tree up all the time and just change out how they decorate it.  This is their "autumn" tree.

I also took a picture of the table next to it since it was cute.  They do a lot of puzzles and keep them out so the residents can work on them throughout the days.

Isn't it cute that they also put up some decorations on the table?  hehehe


See you all here tomorrow.  Have a great day.

Ladder Stitch and Walmart

For those of you who don't know what a Ladder Stitch is, perhaps you know it by a different name...blind stitch.  Still don't know it?  Don't worry.  I didn't either before I started that Hexie.  But if you google ladder stitch you'll find a lot of information on it.  Here's one of the images that came up.

Now for the other news......

Fabric is coming back to our local Walmart.  Now I know a lot of people aren't fond of Walmart fabric but for those of us on a limited income  it is good news.  I will admit that you need to touch the fabric and look at it to see if it will be what you want.  Some I wouldn't buy if they gave it to me and yet others are some of my fabric fabric.

Now look carefully at the second row of fabric.  There is a yellowish fabric brown markings on it.  Can you guess what it is?  It's fabric that is similar to a tape measure.

Isn't that cute?  I bought a 1/4 yard and might do a mug rug or something else with it.

I'm meeting friends today so I had better get going.  Everyone have a great day.

Hexie Mug Rug progress

I started doing some Hexie's the other night out of scraps and came up with the idea to do it as a mug rug for a Xmas present.  I've started it but haven't gotten very far on it.

I'm not sure what color will be the background but this will be about the only thing on the mug rug.  The hexies are around 2 1/2" each so it will a good size mug rug.  I'm joining the hexies by doing the ladder stitch(?).  I hadn't heard of that before but I'm liking how it is coming together.  I have about three hexies sewn together and all are sewn onto the center.

This is my weekend I meet up with some gaming friends so I won't get much stitching done.  Still a little here and a little there will get things done.  Perhaps Sunday afternoon I can go and look to see what color I want the leaves to be for Lily Rose.

If you like interesting recipes, check out my other blog Getting Healthy.  Don't worry, it's so much about that because that's fallen down by the wayside but I do post recipes over there.  Lately there have been some Saudi Arabian recipes that were given to me in a pamphlet on Unity day at work.

If you want to see what else is over there the link is:

http://bonni-gettinghealthy.blogspot.com/ 

I'll catch up with all of you on Sunday.  Until then everybody be safe.

Williamsburg Quilters (+playlist)

Did you notice anything different?

Hmmm?  Did you?

I've added another page to my blog.  I'm going to be starting Lily Rose by Esther Aliu and I thought that project will take on a life of its own soon so it should have its own page.  Go check it out.

This week hasn't been too good of a quilting week for me so far but I have been diligent in going through my magazines and weeding out more and more.  Even my new magazines that came in went through and picked out the patterns I wanted and discarded the rest.  Of course that meant that I will have more projects to add to my wish list.  This is one of them.

That is for a small table top quilt which means if I don't want to keep it, it would probably fit in the space I need for work or mom might want it.

THEN I found out that Stonehenge is coming out with some new fabric.  Isn't that exciting?  I love that line of fabric.  Here it is.  Yes I was taking picture with my phone so that I'd remember what I wanted to share and show.  LOL.

That's about it until next time.  You'll probably see some more pictures of what I want to add to my "to do" list.  One of them is called "Simply Lovely Table Runner" by Quilt Trends Spring 2013.  I'm not really fond of the border on it but do like the center.  But I'd better shut up now before I run out of something to say and share next time.

See you next time.