a mixed bag . . .

I did some VERY BADLY needed organizing and deep cleaning in the Nook two weekends or so ago, so I've been able to spend snatches of time as they come along, working on an assortment of projects.  One of those is actually two of the same piece, mostly, which I created as a gift and then did another for a swap.  It hasn't been gifted yet, so I'll just show a little intriguing bit . . .

Ha!  In another week or so I'll share it in its entirety and by then I may have made a third one!

I've worked on a couple of UFOs that were (literally) hanging around . . .

I don't know why I let things like this sit around for so long, unfinished. This fun little Halloween piece was a flimsy -- now it just needs some hand quilting.

And I'm not even going to begin to make excuses for this one. I've pulled out the second quarter panel and have been working the alphabet embroidery on it.  It's only been a year and a half. The first panel is pictured in this post.

And this only qualifies as a UFO in that I can't submit it for our quilt show until this label is properly secured to The Pineapple Quilt. Oh yeah, and a sleeve, too.  Ugh. That's my LEAST favorite part.

I started and finished this campy little wool piece . . .

It's a skinny-mini project; isn't it cute? Can you smell the fire? Taste the s'mores??!

And who would I be if I wasn't--in the middle of it all--creating something new (on paper) to add to my project list?!

I got to thinking that each of the grandkids needs a Christmas lap quilt. This one would be easy enough to construct in a day (the four blocks measure at 15" X 18") and could be done in a variety of mix 'n match Christmas fabrics. It's an enlarged version of a Kathy Tracy small quilt.

I'm still planning out my hexi-flower-waterfall quilt. If I get the paper pieces and the acrylic template for my birthday, then it's meant to be!

Finally, another little wool finish, running across the 'mantle' in the living room:

I don't know why I've become so banner-crazy in the last year, but there it is.  And I adore this simple, easy, leafy banner!

Y'all . . . it's October . . . hurrah!!

:)

design wall dilemma . . .

I'm not sure what to put on my design wall.  I've got a lot of finished tops that need to be turned into finished whole projects.  And I've got the mug rug that lacks just a few embellishments before it's ready to be finished . . . 

Haha!  Don't study the back too closely -- I *definitely* did not do a great job of making my back look as neat as my front.  I guess since I knew it would be covered with batting and backing, I didn't sweat it too much.  LOL!

I had a run of new things in February (it always pleasantly surprises me to see what new things I tried during the past month):

My little heart spool quilt for my stand.

The mug rug, of course.

My Celtic Garden Hexie piece (which should be finished this week).

And the wedding quilt scraps topper I whipped up over retreat.

So . . . design wall . . . maybe back to Grandmother's Choice blocks this week?  I also have a baby quilt (Olivia Mae's!!!) I need to be thinking about.  Whoa!  

Photo Credit:  Moda Bake Shop

Kim loved this heart quilt "Candy Hearts" by Gigi's Thimble, found over at Moda Bake Shop.  Isn't that a sweet one?  We were both intrigued by the ruffle around the edge. The hearts are made from a charm pack of Plume.  I adore it!  :)

All right then . . . maybe I just needed to write it out to determine where I needed to go from here.  A sounding board, so to speak!  What are y'all working on this week??!

Linking up with the Design Wall Monday on Patchwork Times and the NewFO challenge linky party at Cat Patches!

:)

fifteen-new-slow-stash . . .

Yup, that about sums it all up!

I got my fifteen minutes every day this past week except for Friday ... but since I spent Friday with Sawyer and Friday evening with the family (gender reveal party), I think I'll cut myself some slack on that one . . .

Most of this week's time was spent on the CQ Heart -- a lot of hand work in that.

It also ended up being my NewFO for the month of January.  It's crazy . . . I felt like January was a productive month, but I have so little to show for it (well, except for the heart and MOC).  At least they're both *finished*!

My stash report is looking good (for me, anyway) this week, too.  I put a little more than I took out of the second stash box, plus the CQ heart and another heart project (every little bit helps):

So, hanging onto the black!  It's going to have to slide the other way before the  month is over. In order to finish up the pineapple quilt, I'm going to have to purchase some yardage of black. Ugh. But then I'll hopefully have another finish in same said quilt by month's end, too.

I mentioned another heart project.  I'd planned on hanging the CQ Heart from my quilt stand, but it didn't fill enough space, so I opted out.  I really wanted something Valentine-y.  Then Kathy Tracy uploaded the "small quilt" of the month on the Yahoo! group SmallQuiltTalk, and I knew what I'd do.  I modified it to make it longer for the stand . . .

Isn't it darling? In retrospect I probably should have switched the red and the pink that I used for the heart and spool, but that could just be the muted colors in the picture. I'm doing some very simple hand quilting on it and then I've got the binding ready to go.  I imagine stitching on this will be the way I spend a "slow" Sunday afternoon!

Linking up today's post to the stash report at Patchwork Times, slow Sunday stitching at Kathy's Quilts, and the NewFO linky party at Cat Patches.

Oh, and before I go . . . 

It's a GIRL!!  Olivia Mae is due to arrive mid-June!

Happy Sunday (I'm certainly going to smile my way through mine)!!

:)

out with the ... hmmmm . . .

You know, as I move my marker from "50", I'm not so sure I like that saying any more!  Out with the old??!  But why?  It's still perfectly good!  New is *not* necessarily better ... is it?!  NO!  Ha!

Todd and I did venture out for a bit yesterday.  It wasn't encouraging that right off the bat, the car decided not to cooperate!

A jump start and she was fine.  We even stopped and had the battery checked to make sure it didn't need replacing, but it was fine, too.  I think she may have been a tad jealous that we used the golf cart for our 'first' outing.  Persnickety thing!

We needed real food, so the grocery store was on our circuit.  Actually, I went there while Todd took off to see about the car.  Call me crazy but I'd been craving red meat.  With gravy.  And homemade yeast rolls (what is this affair with bread making lately?) . . .

Dinner was good . . . and so will be today's lunch!

I finished whipping up all my little pieces for the GC block and started whipping them together.

I remember now why I skipped this block.  I've probably made it a lot more difficult than it needed to be, but it sure looks pretty!

Especially when it's attached to the background fabric!

When I got tired of whipping pieces together, I pulled out my snowflake block fabrics.  I decided that since I really did want the look of a snowflake, I'd try it in blues and whites and grey.  Here's what I came up with:

I had to do a little refresher course on paper-piecing, it had been so long.  But once I saw the first step, it all came back ... like riding a bicycle ...

Yes -- I'm very pleased with the overall on this one!!  (I photocopied my one finished one six times so I could see what the finished piece would look like.  It's how I roll.)  Now only five more triangles to do. Hmmm . . . where is that GC block?

If my recollecting is correct, in addition to the snowflake, I started (and even finished) a couple of other NewFO projects in the merry ol' month of December.

Pretty darn productive and definitely worth a link up to the December NewFO linky party over at Cat Patches!!

Finally, the view out of the RV window this morning . . .

I love living in a place where this is what greets me in the morning!  Enjoy this last day of 2013 and let me wish you a very happy, peaceful and blessing-filled 2014!

:)

how in the world . . .

. . . did it get to be September already?!?  Did we even have a July/August?  Hello!

I guess it's time to look at my stash and NewFOs from August then, huh?  All in all, my stash enhancement was pretty darn well balanced, for me:

Used/donated this month: 15.0 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 35.25 yards

Purchased/added this month: 12.5 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 83.75 yards

Net used/donated for 2013: -48.5 yards

Not too shabby ... finally some decent usage there, which also brought my net used numbers down.  Jolly good show!

As for NewFOs, I had several jolly good show starts as well, including my Christmas Twisted Hexies . . .

My strip quilt . . .

I had some darling help with that one last week.  They do say that two heads (and one full, furry body?!) are better than one!  Really it was rather appropriate ... it is, after all, fabric from the Dr. Seuss of Cat in the Hat infamy line!  ;)

The silhouettes project with pumpkins . . .

Fooling around with new dimensions for the spirograph (finished) . . .

And of course, my pretty little September block (finished) . . .

Todd and I sat outside yesterday evening, in our screened room we put up next to the sanctuary.  It was the perfect situation for a little handwork.  

I had forgotten about this little 'jewel'--somehow it got lost in the hustle and bustle of the summer--and decided it was time to whip all the pieces together.

I really love the look of it!  Perhaps this evening will be just as lovely and I can finish the hand-stitching part up while sitting outside.  And speaking of the sanctuary, please welcome our newest turtle guest . . . 

Merry! Which really does fit her (I'm pretty sure it's a 'her' because of her dark eyes) -- she's really rather spirited! 

I'm also working out some quilting ideas for Pixelated.

I have a general idea of what I'd like, but I'm still not sure.  It's nice to be able to print a copy from EQ and doodle things onto the printout.  For now though, what I'm busy repairing August's damage to the quilting bunk, so I can inflict September damage to it!  Seems a somewhat fitting way to spend Labor Day Monday!!

Linking up to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times (Design Wall Monday and Stash Report), Kathy's Quilts (Slow Stitching Sunday), Barbara Stanbro's Cat Patches (August NewFO Linky Party) and last, but FAR from least, Sarah Did It! (Feline Friday).  Whew!!

:)

hither, yon, and dale . . .

Because I'm all *over* the place in this post!!

My goodness . . . how did March arrive so quickly?!  True to form, it's 'marched' in like a lion -- we have *cold* temps and snow in our immediate forecast!  Which is quite funny when you consider my next few photos . . .

Todd and I took a golf cart ride earlier in the week and noticed a bit of Spring making a showing . . .

Those sweet little flowers sure weren't counting on snow falling on them. We spotted them as we traveled down to Hidden Creek -- I hadn't been down there in ages!  

When we got down there, I noticed that someone (probably Sam, one of the Camp's top committee members) had cleared a huge swath of land from the very invasive bamboo that grows down there.  

If you look at the above pic, you'll see a little jut of land sticking out in the center of the creek.

I've always wanted to walk up there -- and now I could!  It's such a sweet little spot, too.  And Todd and I noted that though the bank is a little steep, there are natural steps cut into the side here.  Add a rope and I imagine Sawyer and I will add this to our favorite "spots", come summer.  Especially since in the summer months, the creek is a little calmer and there's hardly any water flow on the bank side of the spot.  But not today -- listen to the creek roll here!

Gosh I do love that sound!!  From the big creek, we headed across the camp to the little creek -- Crawdad Creek.  As we headed out, I noticed how much water has overflowed out of the creek, into what's typically dry paths . . .

Usually that's all dry ground.  We've had a LOT of rain in the last two months, that's for sure.  By summer, it will be all gone.  Crawdad Creek, though small, never stops flowing . . . 

We figure that, like the ponds, it's spring-fed.  I wish there was a way to eliminate mosquitoes down there -- I'd spend a LOT more time there, if there was!

And I had to share this funny picture . . .

What makes it funny is that this is a picture of a purple finch surrounded by goldfinches.  Only the purple finch is decidedly red while the goldfinches are decidedly olive.  They make me laugh!

At Joc's on Wednesday, I decided to throw down a challenge to see if Leia would make a good quilter's cat.

It appears that she would, indeed, make a good quilter's cat.  I figured that was the case, but just wanted to make sure.  Leia's sitting on one of my NewFOs for February, by the way.  That was my February doll quilt swap piece.  I also had a cute little NewFO/finish in the mug rug I made for my pastor's wife:

And I consider my CQ block a NewFO, too!

I got my spider web on it and that ended Lesson 5.  Lesson 6 starts us on beading.  The first thing we do is pull out the matching pincushion and treat the seams on it.

Next up will be the actual beading!  

I've got my beads picked -- I'll work on that today.  From there, I'll go back to my block and add the beading to it!

Ellie's little broken leg isn't keeping her down.  In fact, though she was aware of it the weekend I stayed with her, by the next weekend she was walking on it again.  Evidently Leia wishes it had slowed her down a bit more . . .

She was hiding from Ellie.  Ummm, yeah.  Gotta love cats!

Ellie was quick to help Leia out, by showing her the error of her ways.  I can just hear her, "See Leia -- it's all open.  I can see *all* of you!"

I suppose, since it *is* March, I could come up with some goals for the month. Let's see . . . number one on the list is the March doll quilt swap. Number two? FINISH my crazy quilt course! Number three. Hmmmm. I really would like to finish up some of the UFOs I've got lying around. To that end, number three will be finishing off the center of the quilt-as-you-go pineapple quilt I resurrected last year.

I need to trim the red to the black center and make sure it'll fit inside the rows of blocks!  And number four--start quilting on Joc's quilt.  Wow.  That's pretty industrious for me!  Especially when you consider that in the first half of the month we'll celebrate Joc's, Kim's and Sawyer's birthdays, Kim and James's anniversary, and my folks will come down for a visit!  In addition to the fun family stuff, Todd and I will head to Shocco Springs next weekend for a missionary training weekend and the following Saturday is National Quilting Day (March 16) and our guild has BIG plans.  Whew!!

I guess I'm out of here for the weekend.  Linking up today's post to the February NewFO linky party over at Cat Patches, the March "Get 'Er Done" post at Patchwork Times, and the Feline Friday linky party over at Sarah Did It!!!

:)